Sunday, June 5, 2022 AM

To worship this morning. It's good to have you here at Sunnyside this morning. We'll start out with a few announcements today. Come back for our evening service tonight that's at 530 and looking ahead to Wednesday we'll have our regular meal at 545.

Prayer time for the adults and then this is the the first children's choir practice for children's choir on Wednesday night so kids be ready to sing. Looking ahead to the end of June the Dodgers game that's going to be on Saturday June 25th and I'll have a little bit more to say about that in just a second and then the next day Sunday June 26 we'll have the Lord's Supper in the morning and then truth group for the young adults after the evening service that evening.

Looking ahead to Sunday July 3rd Sunnyside is going to be celebrating its 70th year as a church there in the evening service so I know right the Queen of England might be having her 70th year but Sunnyside's I think deserves a little bit more recognition than that.

I did mention about the the baseball game. Please pay whatever you owe if you signed up for tickets if you can pay that today to the church office Patty would greatly appreciate that find her after the service.

It's five dollars per ticket if you haven't paid that and you also will need to provide mobile cell phone number in order to receive those tickets. Also there's a note in the bulletin if you're not getting the weekly email preparing for Sunday that's going to have preparations for our Sunday morning service like links to songs that we might sing so you can learn those ahead of time or sermon notes or links to live stream check that link that's in the bulletin and you can sign up for that email weekly.

Also you probably saw it as you're coming in on the tables out front things that have come out of the mission house those are free for you to take. We're trying to prep for the demolition of that and hopefully use that property better in the future.

Also wanted to also mention at the very back you'll see some small manila envelopes back there for directory updates so look for those find your name on those and put those in your little binder at home for any new address updates or phone number updates as well all right any other announcements that I've missed all right this week's fighter verse that we can memorize together comes from the book of Philippians chapter 4 verses 11 through 13 not that I am speaking of being in need for I've learned in whatever situation I am to be content.

I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound in any and every circumstance. I've learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

We're gonna prepare our hearts for worship together in a time of prayer and then at the conclusion of that Randy will come up and open us.

Father we're just thankful that we could come today and together and to hear your word and to sing praises to you. I pray that you didn't encourage our hearts as we meet together this morning and I pray that all that we do will bring glory to you.

Father pray that you would just speak through your Holy Spirit through your word through a message that Michael is is ready to share with us today and father pray that as we go out through this week that we will be ever mindful of who we are in Christ.

And I pray that we will share the hope that we have because of Jesus. And I pray that you would encourage us strengthen us and unify our hearts today in Jesus name.

Would you stand with me for our call to worship reading the book of Psalms. We're continuing in our passage chapter 78 we'll be reading verses 26 to 29. Read with me together. He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens and by his power he led out the south wind.

He rained meat on them like dust winged birds like the sands of the sea. He's let them fall in the midst of their camp all around their dwellings and he ate and were filled. For he gave them what they.

Craved.

And we're going to sing this very song in our Psalms for worship hymnals page 78E.

Sing verses 11 and 12 page 228. Rejoice the Lord is King book of Isaiah chapter.

26 verses 1 through 11. Please turn with me there. In that day this song will be sung. In the land of Judah we have a strong city. He sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks open the gates that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in you.

Keep him in the perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever. For the Lord God is an everlasting rock for he has humbled the inhabitants of the height.

The lofty city. He lays it low lays it low to the ground cast it to the dust. The foot tramples it the feet of the poor the steps of the needy. The path of the righteous is level. You make level the way of the righteous and the path of your judgments.

Oh Lord we wait for you. Your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul. My soul yearns for you in the night. My spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

If favor is shown to the wicked he does not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness he deals corruptly and does not see the majesty of the Lord. Oh Lord your hand is lifted up but they do not see it.

Please pray with me. We're thankful for the mercy that you have shown us. You have bestowed upon us. You have rained down upon us. When your righteousness is shown it's shown in judgment. And we learn.

Let us learn today father prepare our hearts. Continue to show us mercy and by your spirit. Encourage us and lift us up to learn your righteous ways to learn who you are and your great majestic and worthy character.

Please bless the rest of our praise and the preaching of your.

Word this morning in Christ's name amen if you would turn in your hymnals to.

Page 455. Come all Christians be committed for you today and we give you.

Thanks for the the love that you have poured out in our hearts by your Holy Spirit whom you have given to us in the mercy and the grace that you have worked out through your son and his life and death and resurrection.

Our Savior who even at your right hand mediates for us whose righteousness is to us our acceptance with you. We give you praise for the hope that you give us in Christ the clarity with which you speak to us in your word.

And we ask today that she would bless our time staring at the truths of your word. That you would warm our hearts to the text conform our lives to your son Jesus Christ that we would truly live as the amen on earth of your will which is declared from heaven.

We pray these things in the name of Christ. Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 1. We're going to be reading verses 1 through 11 again this morning. Acts chapter 1.

Reading verses 1 through 11 last week we considered the introduction to this introduction. Acts chapter 1 verses 1 through 11 is a splendid very useful introduction to the entirety of the second volume of Luke's work.

And we recognize that the first three verses do a good job of introducing that introduction by putting our attention upon the king in his kingdom the king in his kingdom. We considered the purpose of the book of Acts that it is in entire agreement with the purpose of the gospel of Luke as Luke addresses his same audience namely the patron Theophilus whom he addresses in his writing.

And we looked back at the beginning of the gospel of Luke and saw there the purpose that this man born along by the Holy Spirit had in writing having as Luke says a perfect understanding of all that had taken place given the first-hand account of the eyewitnesses he set forth to put down an orderly account of all that had occurred in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

And he continues that orderly historical account here in the book we call Acts the title that is handed down to us from church history the Acts of the Apostles. And we recognize as the Apostles recognized even in this same work that it was not really about them that as Paul would later write in a different part of the New Testament I am what I am by the grace of God and that's all that I am that truly what we see here in the book of Acts are the acts of the risen reigning Lord Jesus Christ by the power of his Holy Spirit in the lives of his servants.

And we witnessed time and again the sovereignty of King Jesus as he works his will in the world and the impact that that has on the people who live there now. Luke's purpose in writing both volumes is stated there at the beginning of the gospel of Luke was so that Theophilus and indeed any reader in the in the grace of God would be firmly established in the things that we have been taught that we would be all the more grounded in the truth of the gospel the namely the good news the good news of the kingdom.

And that's what we're going to be looking at as we go through the book of Acts by the Lord's permission and by the Lord's grace. So I invite you to stand with me as I read Acts chapter 1 verses 1 through 11 these are the words of our Lord by his spirit through his servant Luke the former account I made O Theophilus of all that Jesus began both to do and teach until the day in which he was taken up after he through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the Apostles whom he had chosen to whom he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many infallible proofs being seen by them during 40 days.

And speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God and being assembled together with him he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father which he said you have heard from me.

For John truly baptized with water but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Therefore when they had come together they asked him saying Lord will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel.

And he said to them it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

Now when he had spoken these things while they watched he was taken up and the cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up behold two men stood by them in white apparel who also said men of Galilee.

Why do you stand gazing up into heaven. This same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven. This is the word of the Lord thanks be to God you may be seated.

One of my most favorite tropes in humor is when there is a well-developed conversation going on and the two people involved in the conversation are talking about entirely different things. All the same words are involved but they don't realize that they're talking about two different things.

All the fun we can have with with pronouns without antecedents with with homonyms that have the same sound but different meanings and the absurdity of it all leads to great laughter. Now of course when it comes to believers in Christ when it comes to our expectations of how to follow Jesus the absurdity is not so funny if we are using familiar terms but different definitions about what it means to follow Christ and what the good news is and what the kingdom is all about.

So here at the beginning of the book of Acts we have good opportunity to pay attention to this introduction so providentially arranged for us and to consider the definition of these key terms that are going to make such an impact in the way that we read the book of Acts and in the way that we understand how it is we follow after Christ and how it is that we are involved in the advance of his kingdom.

So we have words in our passage such as the kingdom such as a king. We have words such as the Holy Spirit. And we have key ideas that are introduced here that we would do well to understand before we make it too far in the book of Acts and the story of Acts.

Someone once said about the book of Acts that it's very fast-paced and as you begin to read through and you see one important event after another I'm sure you've experienced that reading through the book of Acts in your in your yearly Bible reading.

How exciting it is to read through this book not unlike reading through first and second Samuel and first and second Kings. It's a lot of excitement going on but we need to slow down just a little bit here at the beginning and do our best to define the key terms before we move too far lest the absurdity cloud our understanding.

When I was reflecting upon this language of the kingdom of God we see that in verse 3 that the 40 days that Jesus had between his resurrection and his ascension this this last leg of his discipling of his Apostles what is it that he emphasizes.

He's only got these last few weeks before he is taken up into heaven to glory. What will he spend his time on. What will he prioritize in their lives. Very much what he did in all the rest of his ministry he taught about the kingdom of God.

He instructed them about the kingdom of heaven. This is what he prioritized in their lives. As we think about the kingdom we recognize there is the potential for misunderstanding many times when people think about the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven as these are thoroughly synonymous and granted to us from the language in the book of Daniel.

As we think about the kingdom there are temptations to think of it as entirely contained to the church. The kingdom is only regarding those who gather together in Christ who are saved and who are born again.

This is the only ramification of what the kingdom means. The only impact that it has really regards the way in which Christians gather together and work together is also the thought about the kingdom in terms of it having a global impact of the kingdom of Christ the authority of Jesus has an impact that is far grander than the gathering of the saints together in local expressions of his body the church that indeed the kingdom has an impact that reaches to the entirety of humanity the entire human globe.

And then there's the thought about the kingdom that is it it's entirely some other time for another people that has nothing to do with the way that we live now and it's only that which is yet to come is for another time another place and another people.

And although it's good news it has nothing to do with the way we live now. And I think that these emphases often pitted against each other are trying to make sense of the stories that Jesus tells his parables the instructions that he gives the expression of the kingdom both in prophetic parlance in the Old Testament and in its expression by the Apostles and the epistles of the New Testament and so on.

And what's important for us to recognize is that although the church is central it is not exhaustive to the authority of Christ. And although the kingdom of God has an impact that is global and impacts everybody everywhere because all must reckon with the authority of Christ it is not restricted to the cultural impetus of the now and the kingdom is not to be restricted only to the future although there is a bright wonderful blessing filled future ahead of us because of the reign of Christ.

What we must do is listen to the emphases of the kingdom in the scripture and do our best to give it an amen whether talking about Christ's authority among his believers Christ's authority throughout all of the world Christ's authority in glorious future.

Now regarding these three emphases of the kingdom there are often errors which arise. When I was in seminary I was taught many schemes about how to grow the kingdom of Christ. It all had to do with how to make sure that your church had a lot of people coming to it and and and staying there and increasing your numbers and that's your budget and thus you were advancing the kingdom of Christ by doing so it was kind of a you know how did the how does the pastor become the CEO you know of a religious organization.

I remember reading one book was all about growing your church through a really nifty Sunday school program and at the end of every single chapter full of mechanisms and statistics and so on there was a little paragraph assuring you all of this is only possible through the Holy Spirit.

Of course you could have removed that final paragraph out of every chapter and been able to build a really nifty organization all the same. There is also of course the the error that comes with thinking about the kingdom that is is only about cultural engagement.

In other words you know the real way to spread the kingdom is to make sure that Christianity comes in every desired flavor of human thought and life so that you know you need to market Christianity is basically you know the fast-food religious option for everybody everywhere and no matter where you go in any kind of phase of culture whether you are somewhere in the Overton window way on the left or way on the right or whatever.

You have a flavor of Christianity that meets people where they're at and that's really how you spread the kingdom. And of course there's the error with thinking that the kingdom has nothing to do with the way we live now.

The authority in the reign of Christ is something that is you know far beyond the scope of our present day. And so all we need to do right now is hunker in our bunker and and and prep for the worst because the worst is yet to come now.

None of these approaches concerning the kingdom and none of these errors can be sustained long in the in the humble study of the scripture. And indeed all of these types of approaches and schemes circumvent the authority of Christ as he has been given a name which is above every name and he is sitting at the right hand of the father and reigning in all authority.

And it also these schemes substitute the Spirit's power for some other type of approach. When we look at the book of Acts we're going to encounter the authority of Christ at work for the power of his Holy Spirit in the lives of his believers.

And we're going to see the church being sanctified and growing. And we're going to see the world changed around the church. And we're going to see many promises of blessing laid before the Saints that they would live in hope.

And it's all about the king. The kingdom is all about the king. And that is the basic thought that I see here in verses 1 through 11 of Acts chapter 1 is that the kingdom is all about the king. And in particular in verses 4 through 8 the progress of the kingdom.

The progress of the kingdom is all about the provision of the king. How does the kingdom advance. How does it. How does it grow stronger. How does the good news of the kingdom spread. And more people enter into the kingdom by repentance and faith in the grace of God.

How is it that the kingdom progresses. Well it's only by the provision of the king. The nature of the kingdom demands that the king provide for its advance. But even in more particular as we look at verses 4 and 5 at the promise of the Holy Spirit we should be reminded that the hope of the progress of the kingdom is only according to the promised provision of the king.

There is a focus upon promise here in verses 4 and 5 let's read those two verses again. And being assembled together with them he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father which he said you have heard from me for John truly baptized with water but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

The promise of the Holy Spirit. When you read through the Bible so often you come in anticipation of the new covenant. The anticipation of the fulfillment of the promises of God in Christ and the outpouring of the blessings that were long foretold.

And whether we're reading in Jeremiah 31 or Ezekiel 36 or John chapters 14 through 16 and my goodness many many different places in the book of Isaiah we keep on coming across these promises about the Holy Spirit.

If there's something ahead of these old covenant sayings there's there's something ahead for these believers who are trusting in the coming of Messiah that there is going to be a promised gift a promise to blessing upon the people of God.

And and he is named the Spirit the Holy Spirit and Jesus in connection to these 40 days at the culmination of these 40 days the Zenith of these 40 days of speaking to his disciples of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God makes a special emphasis upon the Holy Spirit.

And we're not going to understand the nature of the kingdom our participation in it it's progress and success unless we understand the vital importance of the Holy Spirit. And so Jesus commands them to not depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father.

Now I want to put this into its context. At the end of the Gospel of Luke we have a parallel account to the beginning of the book of Acts. The end of the Gospel of Luke is a parallel to the beginning of the book of Acts.

And there Jesus says to them in after he opens their minds and their eyes to understand the scriptures. He says in verse 46 of Luke 24 that he said to them thus it is written and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and rise from the dead.

The third day it was written and thus it was necessary. The Word of God said it would happen and thus it is necessary that it should come to pass but not just the life death and resurrection of Jesus.

But there's more it was also written and thus it's also necessary that repentance and remission meaning forgiveness by the redemption of Christ that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name in the name of Jesus Christ to all nations to all the ethnoi to all the tribes and tongues and peoples with all their different languages.

And this was written and thus it was necessary that it would begin at Jerusalem. And Jesus says and you are witnesses of these things meaning you are going to be participating in the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies that the gospel of the kingdom in the name of Christ would go forth to all the nations and you are going to be actively participating in this.

It was written and thus it was necessary you are going to go. So I can you know Matthew 28 go therefore all the authorities been given to me in heaven and on earth. Jesus Christ says go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.

This word go in the Great Commission is such a vital word. It is such an interesting word. It's such a rich word it captures our attention. But along with this word go is also another word that is very arresting.

And it is the word wait. Wait verse 49 behold I send the promise of my father upon you. But Terry in other words wait in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high power from on high.

A direct quote from Isaiah 32 15 talking about the Holy Spirit in context of a restored kingdom in the new covenant. This is undoubtedly what sparks the Apostles question about is it at this time that you're going to restore the kingdom to Israel.

And we'll look more at that in a future opportunity. But Jesus says wait first. He says go. Look at this this global task of the preaching of the gospel in the name of Christ to all the ethnoid to all the nations and tribes and tongues.

Look at the grandness of this scope. And then Jesus says but you're gonna wait first. In other words there's no point in going forth and trying to do this great task without doing so in the power that God provides the provision that is given to the believers to do this job.

So we see the centrality importance of this promise of the Holy Spirit. Now I want us to see how the Holy Spirit is described in this passage. So we have the commandment to go. We also have the commandment to not to to to wait to not to depart.

But notice he says wait for the promise of the Father wait for the promise of the Father. Now in verse 4 we are immediately confronted with the glories and the mystery of the Trinity. For Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ the Son of the Living God.

He is the second person of the Godhead who humbled himself in his full divinity by taking upon himself a full humanity so that in the form of a bondservant he would live and obey and suffer and even endure the death which is upon a cross so that for this reason God would highly exalt him so that as the captain of our salvation he would bring many sons to glory.

But here is Jesus of Nazareth the Christ God incarnate. And he speaks of the promise of the Father the promise meaning the Holy Spirit. And he speaks of the Father. And it's all in one verse. Do you see the necessity of understanding the Trinity in the scriptures.

Someone may want it may say something to the effect. Well the word Trinity is not in the Bible over the Trinity is in the Bible. The word may be not in the Bible. But do we ever see the triune God in his mysterious glory operating in the text the Son speaking of the Father and the Spirit.

All of them coequal in glory and divinity unified not only in their nature but also in their purpose. But there's even more to this than simply reflecting upon the fact that the Son relates to the Spirit and to the Father in the glorious mystery of the Trinity.

For he is speaking to his disciples he speaking to his apostles. And he's not emphasizing necessarily exclusively the Father in terms of my father. Jesus is not necessarily exclusively referring to God as my father but he is saying the Father.

And this is to remind us of how Jesus has been teaching his disciples and his followers about the Holy Spirit in the first place. When we go back to Luke chapter 11 and verse 13 as Jesus is beginning to disciple and teach his teach the people who are listening to him about how it works.

I mean how does worship of God work. He's been preaching the good news of the kingdom. He's talking about how everything is going to be changing up because of his arrival. And he starts teaching them about prayer.

He gives them a model prayer. Here's how you approach God in prayer. These are the principles of prayer. And then he wants to assure his listeners about the goodness of God how they should come confidently praying to God because of who God is his his nature.

And not only that but recognizing that Jesus himself is the one mediating this nature of God to them. He's the one showing them who God is and how they are to relate to God that by faith in Christ they are to know God as father and to come to their heavenly father with their needs.

And they should not come to God as heavenly father with their needs thinking of him in erroneous ways. So Jesus tells a little illustration. He uses a familiar teaching technique of the lesser to the greater.

And the lesser of course is earthly fathers in all of our failings and that but then consider the greater the perfect heavenly father. And he says in Luke 11 verse 13 he says if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children that even though you're depraved in your very nature you still know how to give good gifts to your children.

When your child comes to you and asks for an egg you don't give him a scorpion. When he comes to you for bread you don't give him a stone. What do you do. You give them bread. You know how to give good gifts to your children.

And look at you. I mean you're corrupt. You have you have sinful desires that that work everything within you. That's the lesser. So what about the greater. He says how much more will your heavenly father watch this give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him now.

This is somewhat surprising because the context of Jesus is followers and listeners is that they need another set of clothes for next year. And they need bread to make it through the day and the week.

And you know that there is a there's an occupying Roman force and pagans upon the thrones of power in our land. And they're trying to hellenize us. And they're trying to to occupy and corrupt everything around us.

And and what we really need is deliverance from our oppressors. And what we really need is more bread. And what we really need is to get out of this this fix that we're in. And Jesus of course says not to worry about those things.

And he says you know God is compassionate and merciful and you need to pray to the Lord about those things. But but here in his illustration he says what you would need to be praying for from your good heavenly father is the Holy Spirit the gift of the Holy Spirit.

So what is he talking about. Jesus is drawing on all of the of the prophecies of the Old Testament which which declare unanimously that the that this the most important signal that the new covenant will have arrived is going to be the arrival of the Holy Spirit at every member of the new covenant will be blessed by the Holy Spirit.

That this is what they should be praying for the arrival of the new covenant. They don't necessarily need deliverance from the Romans. They don't necessarily need a surplus of of of food. They don't necessarily need a little bit of a an easier time in life.

What they need is the Holy Spirit. What they need is the new covenant. That's what they need. And that's what Jesus was teaching them in this moment of prayer. But notice he says how much more will your heavenly father as we relate to God through the Son.

How much more will our heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. Similarly in the book of Romans in the context of prayer and the ministry of the Holy Spirit God has freely given us his son.

He has given us his son. How will he not also with him freely give us all things. And how preeminent in that list is the Holy Spirit. So as we see Jesus's instructions in Acts 1 he says that they are to wait for the promise of the father.

Their mind should immediately begin to reflect that they have a heavenly father a good father who's going to provide for them in this great task that lie ahead of them. Do we remember that not so long ago less than a couple of months before this event that the disciples were confronted with the opportunity to be the witnesses of Christ before a hostile audience.

And this was no foreign audience. This was their hometown crowd their fellow Jews. And how did they do. The shepherd was struck and the sheep scattered. They fled from him. They abandoned him. Peter denied him three times.

It didn't go very well. Did it. After all that instruction after all of that discipleship after all of that love and after seeing all those miracles and everything that Jesus had invested in his disciples when the critical moment came when it really counted when it really mattered.

They fled. They shut their mouths and fled. They forgot his promises. They didn't think of his power. They went and barricaded themselves in the upper room. They hunkered in their bunker. It's over. Do we see how much need there is in the lives of these apostles for the Holy Spirit for the Holy Spirit to to come upon them and empower them and in engage them and direct them and to aid them and to give them everything they need to do the thing that Christ has called them to do.

Jesus says wait for the promise of the father. And this promise is well rooted as I've been saying in the scriptures Isaiah chapter 44 in the servant songs of Isaiah which span from chapter 44 through chapter 54 and following Isaiah 44 verses 1 through 5.

Yet here now Oh Jacob my servants and Israel whom I have chosen. Thus says the Lord who made you informed you from the womb who will help you. Fear not. Oh Jacob my servant and you gesture in whom I have chosen for I will.

Here's a promise. I will pour water on him who is thirsty. Imagine that being thirsty parched desirous of water and then having it poured out upon you the very water from God and floods upon the dry ground.

Water in a dry and thirsty land. Thirsty is one thing. Thirsty in a dry land is another thing. Here's the promise of God. Water water and even floods. This is the metaphor that is explained immediately.

He says I will pour my spirit on your descendants and my blessing on your offspring word. In the Hebrew Zara. In the singular it is seed in my blessing upon your seed. They will spring up among the grass like willows by the water courses.

One will say I am the Lord's. Another will call himself by the name of Jacob. Another will write with his hand the Lord's and name himself by the name of Israel. What is going on here in this promise.

And a dry and thirsty land where there is no water water will come. God will God promises to to pour out his Holy Spirit like water because he's keeping his promises to the seed singular. And that then those who are receiving the blessing of the Holy Spirit those who drink of this divine water of everlasting life the same water that Jesus offered the Samaritan woman that they will begin to identify themselves in the spirit in this blessing as I belong to God I belong to God.

It is not going to be an element of circumcision. It's not going to be a matter of geography. It's going to be a matter of whether or not you're blessed drinking deeply from having been affected by this blessing that is upon the seed and from the seed to us.

Do you belong to the Lord. Are you the people of God. That's being defined by who has the Holy Spirit. Confirming this is of course Galatians chapter 3. And this is in the context of knowing God as father.

How do we know God as father by the blessing of the Holy Spirit in Galatians chapter 3 and verse 14. We can begin with verse 13. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us.

For it is written cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles the nations the ethnoi in Christ Jesus that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith the blessing in the cursing of Genesis 12.