Okay, we are in chapter 8 and verse 14. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. One little sentence. And yet again, Martin Lloyd-Jones has four chapters in his commentary on this one little sentence. Four chapters. So at least I'm getting a lot of reading in. This verse begins a new subsection in the chapter that goes from verse 14 to verse 17. And so as we begin, we need to be clear as to its context There's a lot that take this one verse and develop all sorts of weird ideas from it. It begins with the word for, which means that it is directly connected to the section prior and how it relates to the main argument that Paul has been positing. Now, once again, we need to remind ourselves that the message of this chapter is assurance of salvation, the absolute certainty of the final perseverance or preservation, as I prefer to call it, of all those that are truly justified in Jesus Christ by faith. The absolute certainty of the final, complete, and entire salvation of the believer, even including, as we have seen, this mortal body that we are still bound to. This has been the theme, as we have stated multiple times, going all the way back to chapter 5 and verse 1, where he says, Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. That was his opening statement of assurance and he has been focused on that one thing for the most part ever since that. Opening this eighth chapter with the statement that there is now therefore no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. So that's assurance. Chapter 5 and chapter 8 combine to teach us this doctrine of assurance. with chapter 6 and 7 lending a hand, but more focused on some other doctrinal issues. And so on last week, we finished up with an exhortation from Paul to, as Dave so aptly put it after the lesson last week, a summation of my 45-minute oratory. Just be who you are, all right? I'm going to get a lot of mileage out of those five words this morning, a lot more than I thought when I started, but it just kept coming back. you know, when you're not the sharpest knife in the drawer, when somebody smart says something, it kind of sticks with you. Just be who you are. Put to death the deeds of the body through the spirit. Because you are now dead to sin, because you are now alive to God in Jesus Christ, because you are no longer indebted to the flesh, because you are a Christian, act like it. Just be who you are. and put to death the deeds of the body through the spirit that lives in you. Four chapters, summed up in five words. Just be who you are. However, it does maybe take those four chapters to help show us who we are and why we are who we are. So, we continue. We finish with verse 13. He says, 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." In other words, if we are putting to death the deeds of the body in that way, it is obvious that we are being led by the Spirit to do so. And if we are thus being led by the Spirit, that is in and of itself one absolute proof that we are the sons of God. So that's what he just said, for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. He told us to put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit. No one but a Christian puts to death the deeds of the body. No one else submits to the leading of the Spirit. Therefore, the fact that you are doing so is proof positive that you are not only led by the Spirit, but you are of necessity sons of God. It would be hard-pressed to find a more wonderful truth than that, that you and I are sons of God. the ultimate guarantee and assurance of our coming glorification. Now, many relegate this chapter to sanctification, and it is here for a bit, but only as a means to prepare us for what God has ultimately planned for us. Paul is ultimately interested in our glorification, and he shows us how one of the guarantees of that is the fact that we are sons of God. Now, negatively in this statement, we see that every man is not a son of God, reminding us that only Christians are sons of God. Thirdly, he explains what this sonship means. Next, how we can be sure of our sonship. And lastly, he points to some of the consequences and results of our sonship. So firstly, not all are sons of God. Only they that are led by the Spirit of God, and they alone are sons of God, which is a direct denial of the current belief of universalism, or that all men will eventually be saved. Because after all, we are all children of God, are we not? That's the most popular phrase. We are not all children of God, okay? Jesus said the Jews were of their father who? The devil, okay? They are not the Jews, were of their father the devil. John says in his gospel that only those who receive him and believe on his name become sons of God. The Bible divides all of mankind into one of two groups. We are either God's people or we are not God's people. We are either saved or lost. We are either alive or perishing. John 3.16 tells us that God gave His only begotten Son, so that all who believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. But apparently nobody ever reads verse 17. Because, he says, everyone who does not believe is condemned already. Okay? Simply because of his own belief. So we are either children of God or children of the devil. One of those two. There are no other options available. A Christian is not merely one who has been forgiven. We are forgiven, but we are so much more than just forgiven. We are sons of God. A master can forgive his slave, but he does not change the slave's status in doing so. The slave is still a slave. By contrast, we who were once slaves to sin are now sons of God. Third point is the meaning of that sonship. None of us by nature is a child of God or a son of God. We are a child of Adam. That is our parentage and where we belong by nature, making us children of wrath. All of us are born with a fallen nature, as far removed from being sons of God as one can be. Only Christ is the only begotten Son of the Father. So how then does one become a son of God? There is a term used in the next verse that gives us some understanding of the matter. It is the term adoption. It's called the spirit of adoption. Another important biblical doctrine that we need to understand. Most are familiar with adoption. A husband and wife may decide to adopt a child. And we know that it has to be done in a fully legal manner. It is an act wherein a person who is not related by nature to the married pair, but is taken into the family and is now regarded as their own child, given the privilege and position of a son, and behaves as a son. That is adoption. And it is a picture of this great doctrine that we find in the Bible. Adoption is an act of God in which he takes us into his family. Adoption is a legal action, not identical to justification, but very closely associated with it. When God legally declares that he now regards a man as justified in Christ, he also adopts that person into his family. It is primarily a great legal action on the part of God. So why the emphasis? So remember our theme is assurance, and what could be more certain than that God himself has adopted us in this legal manner, and therefore that action is irreversible. Ephesians chapter 1 verses 3 to 6. He says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption. to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved." So adoption is the work of our immutable, eternal God, and his legally binding act of our adoption can never be annulled. Just be who you are. Not just forgiven, but a son of God. belonging to the family of God. So as we look at the world around us, we should look at the world around us as it is, as a child of God. Why would we ever despair or panic or be alarmed at what's going on in the world around us? Because we are alive in the only victory that overcomes that world. We need nothing else. We need nobody else. So Paul reminds us that although we are still left on this earth in spite of our weaknesses and failures and many things, we are nevertheless the sons of God. We have been adopted. We have been born again, given a new life and a new nature. But adoption and rebirth really only tell us how we become sons. We must see the implications of sonship as well. The first thing that we see is that sonship involves similarities and likenesses. A son and his father have similarities, not only on a physical level, but also in nature. What this means is that one of the aspects of our relationship to God as His sons is that we have a similarity of mind and an outlook. As sons of God, we now look at everything from God's viewpoint. That is, from the aspect of eternity. We now have the mind of Christ, as Paul told the Corinthians. This mind of Christ, this outlook of Christ, His mind becomes our mind. There is also a similarity in behavior. Matthew chapter 5, verses 44 through 48. If this one don't step on your toes, then you ain't me. Because it gets me on a daily basis. He says, but I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good, and he sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You, therefore, must be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. No one, no one, no one can do this except they be led by the Spirit. So that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven, you must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. That's not a suggestion, folks, that's a command. That is our goal. We may never reach it, but that is what we are commanded to be working toward. Sons of God behave like their Father. The same way that God has dealt with us and with others is how we should deal with them as well. Sonship involves a likeness, a similarity in outlook and conduct and behavior. Now, this could be worked out endlessly. This is the grand motive for sanctified living. Sanctified living is not that we should be happier or that we should have victory over some certain sin. Although desirable, those are very low motives indeed. We are to behave as children of our Father. Let our light so shine before men, so that they might see our good works and be led to do what? Glorify our Father in heaven. Our walk, our daily life, our style of life is to be one that is reminiscent of God Himself. Now, that being said, there is something further as well. Yes, it is our business and our duty to be kind and helpful toward everyone, but it is also true that there should be something special and additional in the case of those who belong to us, who are our own family. Galatians 6.10, he says, so then as we have opportunity, unless we forget there is never a lack of opportunity, Let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith." So here we are reminded that no parent treats all children the same as he treats his own children. Yes, be kind and good to all. God is kind and good to all. But because of the relationship, there is something special and peculiar in his attitude towards his own. As God's children, His love for us is something special and peculiar to us alone. So how does His love show itself? It means He takes a special interest in us. He has a special concern about us. He, as our Father, is concerned about our well-being, our welfare, and our good. The very hairs of your head are all numbered. a greater number for some than others, but it is a measure of just how involved God is in our lives. He plans out our lives for us. He orders our steps, as it were. He knows that, like all children, we would prefer to spend all of our time playing, right? Wouldn't we all rather spend our time playing and recreating and, you know? Rather do that, but the father knows better. So he plans out our work and our instruction and our discipline so that we can become mature and fit for his kingdom. The whole of our salvation is the result of God's great and glorious plan. His plan is ultimately to bring us to glory. God's plan is to bring his sons to that ultimate glory of which Paul has told us again and again and will again. So how does God bring us to that goal? He does so by leading us and directing us. Those that are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. But He also, in order to fulfill His plan and purpose, He also chastises us. We are not allowed to misbehave ourselves with impunity. He rebukes us. He punishes us. At times we have to suffer, but it is for our profit and for our benefit It is for our sanctification that we may be holy, that we may be made holy. So what does that look like? Well, here's a good question to ask ourselves when we find ourselves in some sort of trouble, any sort of trouble. This one always gets me as well. How many of our troubles are the result of being too involved in the world that we have been called to come out of? Holiness at its root means to cut and to separate, to take us who were once attached to the world like a Siamese twin and to cut us loose and to separate us to himself. That's holiness. When we return to that world and pour our love into the things of that world, There are times when God will just let us suffer the consequences of those choices and they are always painful. But hopefully we learn from that suffering and we avoid the traps the next time. He chastises us. He allows us to suffer because he loves us. Praise God for his chastisement because it is proof that you are his sons. In addition, God provides for us, cares for us, and protects us. We are surrounded by the grace of God. He protects us in so many ways which sometimes we don't realize until later in life. Looking back on my life in light of all the insanity going on in the world around us and in the lives of others, the only thing that I can honestly say, and maybe you as well, is, there but for the grace of God go I. Were it not for the restraining hand of God upon my life, upon your life, where might we have gone? If left to ourselves from day one, where might we be today? How valuable it is to realize our position as sons when we're in distress or even when we pray. We should go into the presence of God as a child goes to his father, always with reverence and godly fear, of course, realizing who and what God really is. But we should go with childlike confidence and simplicity. When we use words in our prayers that we use no other time, attempting to be eloquent or seen as hyper-spiritual, we're doing something that God never asked us to do. We are sons of God and we should approach God as a son approaches his father in innocence and truth and honesty, confident that he will accept us and that he will hear us. Formal cold prayers are not a sign of great spirituality or understanding in the same way that approaching God superficially or over familiarly is also wrong. We do not call God Daddy. Or the big guy upstairs? Or do we need to pray in the King James English? God is our Father. We are His sons. Just be who you are. Approach the throne of grace boldly. Not only emphasize the throne, but also emphasize the grace. We are not there to face judgment. We are there to talk to our Father. Next question. Remember we said that there are five main headings in this section. First, not everyone is a son. Second, all true Christians are sons. Third, there are certain characteristics of sonship. Now we come to number four. How can we be sure of our sonship? Most practical question. First thing he tells us is that we can be quite sure that we are sons of God if we are led by the Spirit of God. Holy Spirit of God Himself leading us. Paul's statement is that to be led by the Spirit is not just true of some Christians only, but true of all Christians. There is an analogy in the Old Testament. The children of Israel, the children of God, were His own peculiar people, and they were led from the captivity of Egypt into the land of Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey. Well, how were they led? Bible says that they were led by a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day. And there were detailed instructions about this. When the cloud settled on the tabernacle, they did not move. When the cloud was raised and moved, they followed, similarly with the fire by night. In this way, they were led and guided during their journeyings in the wilderness. Their entire life was governed by the movement of the cloud and of the pillar of fire. Paul tells us that we are in a lack position. The leading is more spiritual now, but we as the children of God are being led by the Holy Spirit from this Egypt of sin, of this evil, of this evil world to our heavenly promised land, the Jerusalem that is above. To the Christian, this is our life. The Christian realizes that he is on a pilgrimage, that he is being led There were enemies all around the children of Israel. They had problems. They had no food, no water, many other problems. But without ceasing, God was leading them by the rock and the fiery pillar. Paul says that our Lord was there as well. He was the rock that followed them. This is the leading of God. There is nothing more assuring than to think of our lives as Christians in this way. To us, this world is a wilderness. becoming more and more wildernessy every day. I made up that word just in case you were wondering. Wildernessy. Remember that. You can use it if you want to. The violence, the divisions, the quarreling, the godlessness. This world is a howling wilderness. Guess what? It always has been. And it will continue to be so. and it is passing away along with all those who love it but we are being led through it all to our promised land and we are being led by the Holy Spirit of God so how does this take place well this is where it gets good he says all who are led this is a continuous endeavor all who are led is a continuous endeavor So a better translation might be, all who are being led. Don't need to get ridiculous about this. This is not saying that we are put into a surrey and carried around like some Asian princess, okay? The term he uses is led. Led. While we are using our own two feet and our own limbs. The directing and ordering of our steps is done by the Spirit of God. but in Christianity there is no lying on a bed of roses. Any teaching which says that Christianity is easy is always wrong and is always unscriptural. If it's easy, you ain't doing it right. You're not a child carried in your mama's arms. You are a warrior and you are being led by the King. You need the guidance and the direction but it is you who does the walking. As many as are being led by the Spirit of God, those can be quite certain that they are the sons of God. Now, led in no way hints at being forced or driven. We are led, we are persuaded. The Holy Spirit persuades our will to follow His leading. He enlightens us to the correct choice and then persuades us to make that choice. There is still in us the ability to quench the spirit and choose wrongly. Psalm 32, 8 and 9 says, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you. So do you notice the contrast there? Those who walk according to the Spirit do so following instruction and teaching and the counsel of God. They willingly follow where God leads. Those who have to be forced prove that they are not in the Spirit. Isaiah 30 and 21, And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way, walk in it, when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. This is how God guides his children, by word and by persuasion, not by force. To be led by the Spirit means that our life is guided and determined and directed by the Holy Spirit. That is what makes a Christian behave as a Christian. We are just being who we are. So here's our test. Can you say that your life taken as a whole, your thoughts, your actions, your feelings, your will, Your everything is under the direction of the Spirit of God. This is not about are you perfect. None of us are. But can you say, even with all of my faults and failures, I can say that the controlling principle and force in my life is the Spirit of God? Is the main direction of your life being determined by the Holy Spirit of God? Is it your greatest desire that it should be? If it is, whatever else might be true of you, regardless of your faults or failures, God says that you are a son of God. Let's consider now the more practical matter of how the Spirit leads us. There are two schools of thought on this subject of leading, and they are the exact opposites of one another. One thinks that this is a reference only to guidance, or how am I to know what to do? Am I called to ministry or to a foreign mission field or something of that nature? The other school excludes such guidance altogether. They are so against the excesses to which people who claim direct guidance by the Spirit tend to go that they say that the idea of guidance is not found in this verse at all and so it must be rigidly excluded. I think both are right and both are wrong. We have to consider both here. But we can also see the obvious, that the primary reference is not to guidance, but to the way we live in general. In context, we see that verse 14 follows verse 13, where we read, But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God. It's one continuous sentence, okay? So clearly, the primary reference is to killing the deeds of the body, which has not so much to do with guidance, but everything to do with practical daily living. So the first meaning is that the Spirit leads us in general. How so? Well, He is the Spirit of truth. When the Spirit of truth shall come, says Jesus, who is also the Holy Spirit, that is our key to understanding this matter. This is not a theoretical question only. We're trying to discover for certain whether we are sons of God or not. And the way to be sure of that, first of all, is to know whether we are being led by the Spirit. Since He is the Spirit of truth, it follows, therefore, that His leading of us is always in connection with the truth. We have to have a firm hold on this. It is ultimately important because there are other spirits, evil spirits, false spirits. The New Testament itself exhorts us to test the spirits, to prove the spirits, to try the spirits. In other words, we have to realize that besides the Holy Spirit, there are all these other spirits vying for the position of leadership in our lives. So how do we tell which is true and which is false? The answer is that the Holy Spirit always leads in terms of truth, not by feelings or not by emotions. We can assert then that the Holy Spirit normally leads us by means of the written word, that is the scriptures. They are His word. It is He who moved certain holy men of old. It was He who gave them the message and guided them in the writing of that message. The same is true of the writers of the New Testament. The truth that the Spirit leads us into is the truth found in the Bible and only in the Bible. And so generally speaking, the Spirit leads us in sanctification and in our Christian life as a whole, in and through the Bible. There are no new revelations. Anything not found in the Bible is to be rejected as a false teaching. Bible is truth, and the Spirit leads us always in connection with the truth. How does He do this? He does so by acting on our minds. The Bible, we are told, is foolishness to those who are perishing. So then, why do you believe it? How do you know that you are a Christian? It is because the Spirit has come and He has done something to you. 1 Corinthians 2, verses 10 and 12 These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God. that we might understand the things freely given us by God. So how do we apply this in practice? Never forget that the Holy Spirit leads us to knowledge and to an understanding of the truth. Not visions and emotions and babblings, but the enlightening of our minds. About what? About God Himself. It is the business of the Spirit to teach us, to lead us into the truth concerning God the Father. as He has been revealed in and through the Son. This is the theme of the entire Bible, the whole thing. And the Spirit enlightens us concerning it. It is also the Spirit that convicts us of sin. It is His special work that brings us to conviction so that we realize our sinfulness, our alienation from God and our lost estate. and to bring us to see what it is that we truly deserve apart from Christ, nothing but damnation and punishment. The carnal man does not like such ideas. He hates them because he hates God. Not so the man whose mind has been enlightened by the Spirit. He has seen what he is. He does not complain of condemnation. The Spirit-led man condemns himself most often. He knows that he is utterly unworthy It is the Spirit that leads us to that knowledge. In the same way, the Spirit leads us to a knowledge of Jesus Christ, His person and His work. Having this knowledge, the knowledge of Jesus Christ, His person and His work, is proof that we are Christians. The princes of this world do not know Him. They crucified Him. And the princes of this world would do so again today. Only the sons of God know Jesus Christ. The Spirit leads us to the knowledge of Christ concerning the way of salvation and He leads us on and on into the truth more and more deeply as we progress in our Christian life. I hope you know more today than you did five years ago. That's the point. The Spirit leads us by working in our hearts and on our desires It says, blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness. This hunger and thirst is a blessing that is poured out on the sons of God. It is the spirit that causes us to hunger and thirst after righteousness. He governs and controls us by his work of persuasion on our desires. He gives us new desires, not like the old ones. He does it by pouring the love of God into our hearts, as Paul already told us in chapter 5. And lastly, the Spirit acts upon our will, which needs to be persuaded. The Spirit strengthens our wills and our determination in our inner man to live the Christian life. In all of these ways, those who are in Christ are being led by the Spirit of God. Being led by the Spirit of God is proof that we are the sons of God. And so we come to application. How can we know in practice whether we are a child of God? There are some practical tests, the greatest of which is found in verse 15, wherein we cry, Ah, the Father. But we first look at some general practical tests. First being that if we are led by the Spirit, then He determines our general entire outlook on life, our entire outlook on life is determined by the Holy Spirit. We have a spiritual outlook on life. We have a taste for spiritual things. We enjoy meetings where Christian people meet together to study the Scriptures. The worldly man finds such things to be dull and boring and a waste of time. It is akin to asking a blind man to admire a rose garden. He doesn't have the capacity to do so. Asking a lost man to enjoy a Bible study He doesn't have the capacity to do so. Any person who is not interested in the exposition of the Scriptures, who has no desire to understand the Scriptures, is certainly not being led by the Spirit. Secondly is love of the brethren. Delighting in the company of spiritually minded people. Delight in the fellowship of Christian people. Delight in talking to them about spiritual things. not politics, though that is what Christianity has been downgraded to for many in this country, realizing that the most important things in this life are not the things that we can see, but the things that we cannot see, the eternal things. In our new life, we are concerned for the inner man that is being renewed day by day, no longer the outward man that is perishing day by day. We are to gather together to remind one another that this life is nothing more than a pilgrimage through a temporary world. Why would we get so caught up in it? Remind one another that we belong to another realm. We belong to the real realm, the only one that matters. To gather together to assist one another in becoming increasingly detached from this world and increasingly more attached to the realm towards which we are headed. Did you know that that was one of your purposes? To help each other become detached from this world and more attached to the realm towards which we are headed. Third test. Those led by the Spirit are those who by definition desire to live to God's glory. God made man for himself. And our chief end. Our chief end. Everybody knows what our chief end is, right? Okay. So that's the end. What's the means? Our lives are the means. Okay? God made man for himself. Our lives are the means by which we glorify God. The glory of God is the end. That is the goal of our lives. That's what that means. Any person that can say honestly that their supreme concern is to live to the glory of God can be quite certain that they are a son of God. Fourthest, whoever is led by the Spirit of God has an increasing awareness of sin within. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of light and He leads us and directs us always in the direction of that light. he does this he does this in our conversion of course but he never stops there it only becomes more intense the closer you get to the light the more you are made aware of the darkness the more holy and pure we become the more every smallest defect stands out the more the spirit leads us the more our awareness of the sin that is within us, and an increasing mourning over the relics and remnants of that which belongs to the old life. Fifth, reaction of those led by the Spirit to the committing of sin. When a Christian falls into sin, he is aware of grief. Grieved because he knows that he has offended not so much against the law of God, but offended against the love of God. not so much afraid of the punishment, but that he has hurt and grieved and offended against God's love. Nothing can bring greater misery to a child of God. That is proof of a man led by the Spirit. That is also our greatest catalyst in putting to death the deeds of the body. Our sin is no longer just something that we should not do or something that we fail to do. It is a direct affront to our Father who loves us beyond measure. It is an adding to the pain and the suffering of our brother, Jesus Christ, as he hung there on that cross, forsaken by God, because you and I loved ourselves more than our Creator. So we do everything in our power to purge that sin from our bodies. We make no provision for our flesh. We guard our hearts and our minds, lest the wiles of the enemy creep in and overwhelm us. We do everything we can to put an end to every influence of this world that would have a tarnishing or a polluting effect on us. We train ourselves to despise this world, because friendship with the world is enmity with God. And we are no longer enemies of God. We have been made at peace with God. We are His own dear children. This is the reaction to sin of the new man. So are we testing ourselves as we ought? That is what being led by the Spirit means. Are we testing ourselves as we ought? As He leads us, He will always be leading us in the direction of the Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ. so that we might know them and love them and long to spend eternity with them, looking for that great day when Christ shall come and destroy all evil in the world and all his enemies and establish his glorious kingdom. This is not about perfection because this Christian life is not easy. The gate is narrow. The way is hard. We are in a war at all times. Those not at war with the world and the flesh and the devil are not Christians. Okay? That's what that means. We're in a war. If you're not at war, you're not a Christian. Christian life is hard. But it's a lot harder if we're stupid, as John Wayne says. It's a lot harder. Christian life is a lot harder if we fraternize with the enemy, who only exists to steal and to kill and to destroy. It just becomes a whole lot harder. It's a lot easier if we focus on whose army we're in. It's a lot easier if we remember who we are. All the crime movies, it seems like, there's always a scene. I don't watch TV anymore, but I used to, and all these movies had the same thing. There's always a scene in it where some rich spoiled kid or some judge or some lawyer or some police chief gets pulled over by the cops. He's going to possibly be ticketed or arrested, and what is their response every time? Do you know who I am? Well, in the eyes of God, they're nobody. But for us, it's a different story. When we are on our journey on this narrow and difficult road, the enemy is constantly trying to pull us over. He's constantly trying to distract us, to throw some lawed us that we might have broken. What should our response be when confronted by the enemy? Confronted by the lust of the flesh? Confronted by the lust of the eye? Confronted by the boastful pride of life? Confronted by any of Satan's millions of children that would like nothing better than to take us down? What is our response when the world and the flesh and the devil seem to be all around us and their fiery darts of temptation or doubt or despair fill the very air that we breathe? What is our response? Do you know who I am? I am a child of God. Get thee behind me, Satan. Go ahead and be who you are. You can't touch me. because I'm going to be who I am. Let's pray. God, we love you so much. Lord, we pray that you'd grant us grace to see that we as your children have already won the victory. Help us to live lives in the Spirit that truly bring glory to you and to your son. It's in His name we pray. Amen.