Sons Of the Living God

A sermon for today I would like to take from actually my Bible study this week. A lot of times I have a personal Bible study that I'm walking through during the week, and kind of parallel to that I'm preparing a sermon, and those two paths don't necessarily cross each and every time. But this is one of those weeks where my personal study has actually brought me to the point of the sermon today. And so I'd just like to share with you some of what I've been walking through this week. My study began with a look into the Greek root word zau. Zau. And it's a little different to pronounce it in the English because it's a Greek word, but it's spelled Z-A-O, and it's pronounced a little more like zau.

And it's Strong's number 2198. And you might want to write that down for future research if you'd like to chase after it. Strong's 2198, zau. And zau's translated from the Greek into the English, which we have on our lap, the English New Testament from the Greek. And in its original form, that word, zau, means life. It's translated into life in a number of places in the New Testament. It means alive. It means living, lively, quick. Additionally, zau has many other Greek forms and transliterations among the New Testament Scriptures.

If you see living or alive, or alive, and you look at its Greek form, it won't always be zau, but it will be from that root word. So, you know, it could be other literary forms in which it would appear, but again, they all tie back in directly to that root word of Strong's 2198.

Again, meaning life, alive, living, lively, quick, and such things. The Help's Word Studies defines zau as to live and to experience God's gift of life. And so what's interesting, as you walk through a study of that word and a number of its literary forms, as I did this past week, what you're going to find is that that Greek word often connects to life and living and being alive as a result of the life that is and that proceeds from God.

Again, many of these words connecting to life, living, and being alive, they tie back into the result of the life that is and that proceeds from God. In fact, God's description as the Living God comes from a form of this root word, zau. Again, Strong's 2198, if you look up the Living God, it will, in the Concordance, say Strong's 2198. It springs from this Greek root word. And in my personal study this week, it took me down the road of zau and its various forms. And again, as I said, it brought me to the place where now I want to present to you today at least a glimpse of what we can learn through this Greek word in its various forms.

A title for the message today is the Sons of the Living God. Sons of the Living God. And for me, the understanding of who and what God is, as well as the understanding of who and what we shall become according to His purpose, ties in, again, very directly with this Greek word. So today's sermon might be a little bit more of a Bible study format, a few more scriptures tucked in here. But again, it's how I actually walked through this this week. And I literally had pages of scriptures, but I've pulled the sliver out for us to examine and to go through today as it pertains to this word.

In multiple places in the Bible, God is called the Living God. And it's a very specific term and a specific title to Him. And so I'd like to begin by first asking and answering the question, why? Why that reference? And why is God referred to as the Living God? What sets Him apart in that way? Now, the Living God is a description used both in the Old Testament Hebrew. I'm not going to go into the Hebrew today.

My studies pertain solely to the Greek. But in the Hebrew, you do find the term the Living God, as well as in the New Testament Greek. And that term is used to distinguish the true God. The one who is real, who is alive, who is active. Again, we tie back into that Greek word, phronx 2198, alive and living and lively. It's used to describe and distinguish the true God from the false gods of human imagination and creation. Things made with man's hands, as well as demonic deceptions. Because there are gods as well, Paul says those that sacrifice to the idol sacrifice to demons.

So there is a spiritual backing, honestly, to a number of the gods you would find, both in and outside of Scripture. But they are not the true God and the Living God. The Living God is called such because He is alive. Because He has life within Himself. The Living God is an eternal, uncreated, self-existent, I AM BEING. And life generates and is generated from Him. He is a source from which all life springs forth. So I want to start by asking why God is called the Living God.

Let's look at a few Scriptures that show the comparison between the Living God and idols, gods of man's hands and man's devisings. I want to start today in Acts 14, verse 13. Acts 14, verse 13. Here the background to this is Paul and Barnabas out traveling about. They come in and perform a miracle and suddenly now the people are calling them Zeus and Hermes. This is a Gentile area. And they are wanting to sacrifice in their honor as if they themselves are gods. Acts 14, verse 13. It says, Then the priests of Zeus, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, intending to sacrifice with the multitudes.

They are going to sacrifice to their gods in honor of these men. But when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard this, they tore their clothes and ran in among the multitudes, crying out and saying, Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you, and we preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all things that are in them. And so the living God is the creator God who made all things.

And Paul says, by comparison, these gods that you worship and sacrifice to are useless. They're nothing. They are not living as the true God is. It's interesting the term living in verse 15. I'm referring again to the living God. It's a Zonta, and it stems from Strongs 21-98. Acts 17, verse 16. Acts 17, verse 16, again, following the travels of the apostle Paul. Acts 17 and verse 16, it says, Now when Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him.

When he saw the city was given over to idols. Get a Gentile region, much pagan worship, and he's looking around. There's idols of gold, of silver, of stone, of wood, of clay. And, you know, I would say probably, I don't know for sure, this is my speculation, but probably a golden idol had more power than a wooden idol.

Because, you know, obviously that would bring more money to its maker, right? You want the gold idol if you want the premium blessing from these gods. And, I don't know, to me it seems like it falls in line with certain other tactics that I've seen in the religious world around us. But the point is, the blessing does not come from gold, silver, stone, whatever it is.

But Paul says, your city is immersed in these things. Verse 22, still in Acts 17, he says, Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus, and he said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious. For as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription, To the unknown God. Therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing Him I proclaim to you.

Verse 24, he says, God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is the Lord of heavens and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. You know, you think in your false worship you're going to build something that would contain the living God of creation? He says, For nor is He worshipped with men's hands, as though He needed anything since He gives to all life and breath and all things. So what we see is that life proceeds from the living God.

He is the source. It's not idolatry or anything of man's hands or of man's devising. They are not living. You know, you can make a God out of wood and bow down to it. There is no power there. There is no life there. And in fact, that wood that you're bowing down to was actually created by the living God, who has all power and might. Verse 28, continuing on, it says, For in Him, in God, we live. And the theme you're going to notice through the whole thing is, Life Springs from the Living God.

For in Him we live and we move and we have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, for we are also His offspring. Interesting. It's where we're going to be heading throughout the message today, as sons of the Living God, if you follow it to its full fulfillment. Verse 29, Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and men's devising. Truly, these things of ignorance and these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.

God says there may have been a time of ignorance, but His name has been declared, His Son has been sent, and the Word has gone out. And the command is for all men everywhere to repent, to repent of the works and the worship, frankly, of their own hands, and turn to the Living God. So, brethren, there is a God who lives. It's not shaped out of stone or clay or marble, or even, if you say, we're going to take the finest material gold that doesn't somehow raise up the elevation of what it is you've created with your hands, that it's still not living or a God.

The fact is, the Living God is the one who made all things, and our God lives. Let's drop back now to Psalms, chapter 135, verse 15. I just want to see how King David here, a man close in relationship with God, how he described the idols of man's devising, in truly the comparison that, frankly, you can't even make to the true and the Living God. Psalm 135, verse 15. Here, King David, he says, The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of man's hands.

He says, they have mouths, but they do not speak. You know? Set them up there, and who was it? Pulling off the top of my head, but I think it was Dagon, in the Ark of the Covenant was in there, and they come in in the morning, and he's falling over on his face, and like, oh, we've got to stand them back up. Well, can't your own God even stand himself on his own feet? They have mouths, but they do not speak. Eyes, they have, but they do not see.

They have ears, but they do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make them are like them. You know, you're dead. If you think bowing down to a dead and worthless idol is going to bring life and vitality to you. Those who make them are just like them, so is everyone who trusts in them. But he goes on in verse 19, saying, Bless the Lord, O house of Israel! Bless the Lord, O house of Aaron!

Bless the Lord, O house of Levi! You who fear the Lord, bless the Lord! This is the true and the living God. Bless the Lord out of Zion, who dwells in Jerusalem! Praise the Lord! So again, by David's own words, idols are nothing. They can do nothing. They produce nothing. That which man thinks maybe they gain in satisfaction by worshipping them, it is nothing. And that is why God is called the living God.

Living God. It's the designation, once again, that separates him from all other so-called gods made by human hands or demonic deceptions. The living God is the true God. He is the source of all life. And the Bible shows us that apart from the living God, there is no God. There is no God. Now, sometimes in all of this, the question comes up as to who?

Who is the living God? Who does the Bible describe as the living God? How is he designated? Well, in the Old Testament, the living God is a reference to the God called by the name Yahweh. If you look through there in the English, you have the capital L-O-R-D in your Scripture. It's translation from YHWH or YHVH. Yahweh. And Yahweh is described as the living God. The living God is the God of Israel. The living God is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

The living God is the God that was alive and active and, frankly, directly interactive with his people all throughout the record and throughout the Old Testament. Now, in the New Testament, the living God is a reference to the one who became known as God the Father. Within Jesus Christ coming in the flesh and assuming the role of the Son of the living God for the purpose of salvation.

So I'll say that again so we make sure we have it. In the Old Testament, the living God is a reference to the God called by the name of Yahweh. He's the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Israel. The living God is the God that was alive and active and directly interactive with the people of God throughout the Old Testament. And when we come to the New Testament, the living God is clearly reference to the one who became known as God the Father within Jesus Christ coming in the flesh and assuming the role of the Son of the living God, again, for the purpose of our salvation.

John 1, 1 John 1, and Philippians 2, among other passages, clearly revealed to us that the one who was God with God in the beginning made himself of no reputation, whatever reputation he may have had in that form of God with God, it was set aside, it was laid down, he took on the form of a servant, and he came in the likeness of men. And as such, he took on the role of the only begotten Son of the living God.

Go to the New Testament, Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of the living God, and that is a reference to him. But he's not the only in terms of what God has planned, all right? Jesus Christ is not the last. Romans 8, 29 says he is the firstborn among many brethren. And so God, the living God, is bringing many more sons and daughters to glory through this process of begettle and birth into the family of God.

Jesus Christ was the first. He came from the throne in heaven with his Father to the earth, fulfilled this role as the Son of the living God, and he points us to his Father. So what we find from a study of this Greek word meaning living and alive and life and to live is that the living God is building his eternal family. And the process by which he is doing so is through a living process. Those are my terms, or not the Bible's terms, but I think you'll see that it is so. The process by which the living God is bringing sons and daughters into his family is through a living process that he's bringing the past in our lives today.

In other words, we too are being transformed into the sons of the living God, just as Jesus Christ was the first begotten of the Father. Right? And when we talk about begettle, it starts in its infancy here with us receiving God's Spirit. But the full measure of completeness is at the resurrection and the change. And so Christ is the only begotten of the Father, but we are in that process in embryo today. And the process by which the living God is bringing us into his family is a living process.

And indeed, the study into these words bear that out. So I'd like to shift gears a bit and take a glance at the living process that the Bible shows us is being implemented by the living God.

Point number one, and there's three points to my message today. Three points of this process. You could go out there and define more of them as well for yourselves, but we'll look at three today. Point number one in this living process by which God is bringing many sons to glory is that the living God sent us a living sacrifice.

The living God sent us a living sacrifice. Let's go to John 6, verse 47 in this regard. John 6, verse 47. Remember, as the living God, all life springs forth from him. And I would personally feel it is safe to say that the plan of God is a living plan and a living purpose. And the things that he does brings life. John 6, verse 47. It says, Not that anyone has... I'm in the right place. Yes, John 6, verse 47. Most assuredly I say to you, He who believes in me has everlasting life. This is Jesus Christ speaking. He says, I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread, which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. So what we find here is that Jesus Christ is the living bread that has come down from heaven. It's not just he had physical life and he was alive. No, this is a living sacrifice. This is the living bread for life that proceeded from the Father. The term living in the Greek is zon, Z-O-N. It's a form of the Strongs 2198, again, zon. And it's translated living. Again, Jesus Christ, the living bread. And so what we find as we go through this is that the living God, who's the source of life, sent the living bread from heaven so that we might have life and ultimately eternal life as sons in the family of God. Again, verse 51, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever, and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said to them, Most assuredly I say to you, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. And as the living Father, notice verse 57, As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, So he who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever. He says, You know that bread that was in the wilderness, the manna, they ate it, right? It sustained them for a time, but they're dead. But the living bread which the Father sent is bread unto life. Not physical life, but spiritual life, and those that would eat it would live. But I want you to notice the term here in verse 57, the living Father. As the living Father sent me, I live because of the Father. The term living Father is the Greek word in the form from 2198. It's again, zon. Z-O-N, as the living Father sent me, and it's the exact same word form that was used to describe Jesus Christ as the living bread who was sent. The living Father, the source of all life, sent the living bread, brethren, so that those who would partake of that sacrifice, of the bread and the blood, would live.

This indeed is a living sacrifice.

Now what we see right alongside that is that Jesus Christ continues to live today. He lives as our high priest, as our intercessor, as the mediator of the covenant. He is living.

Hebrews 7, verse 23.

Hebrews 7, verse 23. Hebrews 8, verse 23.

It says also, there are many priests because they were prevented by death from continuing. We're breaking into the middle of a context, but there was a priestly line of Aaron, which was physical being who lived and served for a time and died. And then the next came along and served and died, so it was a continual turnover of life and death of these physical beings in that position. But it says here, again, there were many priests, verse 23, because they were prevented by death from continuing. But he, speaking of Christ, because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Hebrews mentions in other places, he's a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. Again, an everlasting, continuing, and unchangeable priesthood. Verse 25, therefore, he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. For such a high priest was fitting for us, who was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens. And so, as our high priest, Jesus Christ ever lives to make intercession for us. He was the living bread that came. He was resurrected by the Father. The Father did not leave him in the grave. And he ever lives to make intercession for us. And that's a blessing. And we can never undersell that blessing, because we come to the Father through and by the sacrifice, and under the authority of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He's our living advocate. He sits at the right hand of the Father, who is there serving for our good. Hebrews 10 and verse 19.

Hebrews 10 and verse 19 says, Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way. Again, this whole process that God is bringing us through to bring many sons to glory is a living process. And through the sacrifice, the veil that separated the holy place from the holy of holies was torn in two. We have direct access to the throne of God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and it is a new and living way. Again, verse 20. By a new and living way, which He consecrated for us through the veil, that is His flesh. And having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. And so again, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, He has opened up a new and living way to the throne of the Father. You and I, brethren, do not worship under the Old Covenant at a tabernacle in the wilderness or at a temple in Jerusalem. All right? The Bible describes that as a copy, as a type of the true that was symbolic of what God indeed would do through His Son by opening the living way where we could come before the throne of grace directly to the feet of the living God. Don't let anybody tell you that you don't know who God is. The living God has opened the way through the sacrifice of His Son, and as New Covenant Christians, brethren, we are reconciled to Him. Now, I want us to notice that this is not a dead-end street. We don't pray to a brick wall. Right? It is a living way. We go on our knees before the living God, and the way is open. And living because of the sacrifice which was offered for us. The living sacrifice, the living bread of Jesus Christ, if you partake of it, you have life. And if you drink the blood of that covenant, you have reconciliation to the Father by the blood of Christ.

Jesus Christ was the living bread sent to us, and He continues in His glorified state as living today. The Father restored to Him the glory that He had with Him before the world was, and He lives, and He lives today to make intercession for us. He's the living High Priest. He is the living Head of the Church. Revelation 1 and verse 15.

Revelation chapter 1 and verse 15. Again, the one the Father sent was a living sacrifice, and He lives today. Revelation chapter 1 and verse 15. This is John's vision of the glorified. It would appear the glorified Jesus Christ. It is Jesus Christ, and it appears He is in His glory. Revelation chapter 1 and verse 15. It says, Verse 17.

If you hold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of death.

Verse 18 here in at least the New King James, which I just read to you, actually has a bit of a different translation, I would say, than the actual Greek itself. And there's actually something that, in my opinion, is lost here in the translations. A number of the translations which point to the actual Greek on this point, says that... And the point where it says, I am He who lives, a number of the Bible translations translate this as the living one.

I am the living one. Not that He is the Father or that the Father isn't living. But the point is, in the Greek, Jesus Christ here is saying, I am living. I went on the Bible Hub, they have multiple translations stacked up side by side. There's 29 of them that I counted. And, in fact, 18 out of 29 Bible translations listed there on Bible Hub translate this phrase as the living one because of the Greek in the context of the Greek. The Brerean literal Bible, which follows the Greek very, very closely in its translation of verse 18, puts it this way...

I'm actually going to back up to the end of verse 17 just a little bit because it reads like a continuous thread. Jesus says, do not be afraid. I am the first and the last and the living one. Now, one is in italics because one has been inserted. It's not actually in the Greek. In the Greek it says, I am living. I am the first and the last and the living. And I was dead, and behold, I am living to the ages of the ages, and I have the keys of death and Hades.

And so, in his physical state upon the earth, Jesus Christ was the living bread. The living Father sent the sacrifice, and he was that living sacrifice given on our behalf. But following his resurrection and restoration to the glory that he had with the Father before the world was, Jesus Christ is now living, as it says, and is living forever and ever. To the ages of the ages.

So the first point was God, the living God, sent for us a living sacrifice. Point number two in this living process, that which God is bringing many sons to glory, is that the living God has given us his living Word, the Bible.

Living God has given us his living Word, which is the Bible. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. That's what 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16 tells us. Again, in the Greek, by inspiration of God is actually theonustos. Theos means God. Neustos means breathe. It's literally the God-breathed Word, or the inspiration of God. It was recorded by men and prophets and those through time, but it was by the inspiration and the Spirit of God. So the words that we have before us are literally the words of the living God. And because of such, and they come forth from him, these words, brethren, are living.

God's words instruct us in daily life. And actually, if they're lived and obeyed, they lead to eternal life. And as such, they're living. And frankly, it's just how the scripture describes it. Hebrews 4, verse 12.

Hebrews 4, verse 12.

Familiar passage to us, but maybe consider it in a little more depth than we have before. Hebrews 4, verse 12 says, And powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of the soul and the spirit, and of joints and marrow, and it is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart.

So the word of God is living. Well, of course it's living. It proceeds from the living God. They're the words which come from him and they're words for life. And in that sense, these words always apply. They're active, they're dynamic. It doesn't matter what age you are, what point of your life you engage with the word of God. It speaks to you and it applies to you. And it's living.

Acts 7, verse 38. Acts 7, verse 38. This is Stephen's address to the council in Jerusalem before his stoning. Acts 7, verse 38 says, Starting in verse 37, This is he, speaking of Moses. This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai. The term angel in the Greek is angelos and just like Malek in Hebrew, it can mean messenger. And we understand this is referring to the divine messenger, the Malek Yahweh of the Old Testament, the word who became Jesus Christ. Again, this is he, Moses, who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the messenger who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us. And so the Ten Commandments are the word of God. They're the commandments of God. And all that accompanies them with the instruction of God. It's called the living oracles. It's the living word by which God's people are to live by and it's alive. It says those words, those instructions, which Moses received on Mount Sinai are indeed living.

The point is, brethren, God's words are life. They proceed from him. Obedience to them lead to life, not just physically, but ultimately eternal life. We won't turn there, but in Isaiah 55, verse 11, God says, God says, The living word that we have in our lap today, God says, The Apostle Paul, when he was writing his last epistle, as it would appear to be during his last imprisonment, just before his execution, 2 Timothy 2, verse 9, he stated that he had suffered for the gospel's sake as an evildoer. He said, even to the point of chains. But then he goes on to say, But the word of God is not chained. Well, why would that be? You can chain the man who is preaching the word. Why is the word not chained? Because it is the living word of God, and it will accomplish the purpose for which it went forth. God's word is not hindered, it is not bound or encumbered in any way, and then God will accomplish the purpose for which it has gone out, because it is the living word which proceeds from the living God. And for you and I, this word leads to life. Matthew 4, verse 3 and 4.

Here again, the words of Jesus Christ. He is following his baptism, he is out, he is in the wilderness, he is being, now, after fasting 40 days, tempted by the adversary. Matthew 4, verse 3 and 4. He says, Now when the tempter came to him, He said, If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone. Notice, life doesn't just come from the physical food, right? It comes from every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Again, the source of the living word that leads to life, the living God, and that word sustains us, it nourishes us unto life. Every time we read these words, brethren, they apply to us. They are never stale, they are never stagnant. It doesn't matter if you are young or if you are old, if you are rich, if you are poor, if you are sick or if you are healthy, you are going to find what it is that God would have you find in these words if you are indeed yielding to Him, seeking to live His way. These words apply. Even if you have read the Bible 40 times in your life, read it again.

It's amazing to me, I've been on this program of going through the Bible in a year. I went through the Bible in a year in 2019. I'm going through the Bible again in a year in 2020. I just completed Exodus. The fact is, it's only been a year, roughly, since I went through it in this progression. Every time I listen to it or I read it, I don't read it at all. Sometimes, my many miles in the car, I'm listening. But the point is, every time there's something that just jumps out at me that is relevant to the moment, to this point in my life, to what it is that I'm walking through. God's Word speaks to us in that way. You could read it when you were 20, and you can read it when you're 60, and you're going to see it from a different perspective, and it's going to speak to that point in your life, because it is the living Word.

Darla and I made a run down here to Kennewick on Wednesday. We had some personal business we were taking care of. While we were here, we stopped over at the assisted living home and saw Shirley. We walked in the door unannounced. She didn't know we were coming. We were about four o'clock in the afternoon, and we walked over, and what do you think she was doing? While she was sitting up in a chair in her room, she had the table in front of her, and her Bible was open, and she was leaning over, reading the Bible.

Shirley just turned 80. I'm not giving out a secret. It was all over Facebook, so don't stone me. Shirley recently turned 80. She's there, and she has hope and ambition to stand physically on her own two feet again. She's working through that process, and you know what? She's buried in God's Word, and He gives her hope, and it speaks to her today. Again, the Word of God is living and powerful.

You must never set aside. 1 Peter 1, verse 23.

1 Peter 1, verse 23. Breaking into the context, it says, "...having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives..." Notice. "...through the word of God which lives and abides forever." Because all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. Mr. Oliver was talking about that. It's just a temporary state. "...the grass withers, the flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever." Now, this is the word by which the gospel was preached to you. Most of us sitting here today are probably here because of hearing the word, the gospel that was preached to you. And, brethren, the word of God and the living word of God and the gospel of the word of God is alive and well. And it was being taught in the day of Paul and the day of Peter, and it is alive and well and being taught in the church of God today.

It is the living word of God. Study it. Learn it. Don't put it on the shelf. Take it. And then live it. It is the word of life. Point number three. Final point in this process that I'll cover today. Point three, by which God is bringing many sons to glory. The living God has given us His living spirit.

The living God has given us His living spirit. And I'm not talking a separate person, all right? I understand what the Holy Spirit is, but it is living. The Holy Spirit is the essence of the living God. It's His divine presence by which He literally dwells in the minds and the hearts of those who have come into a covenant relationship with Him through baptism. And the Bible describes God's Holy Spirit as living.

John 7, verse 37.

John 7, verse 37. The words of Jesus Christ.

John 7, verse 37. On that last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. And he who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Well, what could that be? Rivers of living water. We're not talking a dead stagnant pool, cloudy murky and full of bugs floating on the top.

Rivers of living water. Verse 39. But this he spoke concerning the Spirit, which those believing in Him would receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. The term living water. Living, Zontos, Zaun. Zaun was the living Father.

Zaun was the living bread. Zontos. Here is the living water. Again, all goes back to Strongs 21.98. It is the Spirit of the living God that dwells in us, making us the children of God and adding unto us life. And does it not only make sense that that life and the things that would proceed from God to make us His children are indeed living?

John 4, verse 9. John chapter 4 and verse 9 says, Then the woman of Samaria said to him, speaking to Christ, How is it that you, being a Jew, as a drink from me, a Samaritan woman, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans? And Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God, and if you knew who it was who says to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.

And the woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our Father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock? And Jesus answered and he said to her, Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. You know, it's kind of like the manna in the wilderness. You needed to eat, and God provided that manna, and they ate it, and they were sustained physically for a moment, but you're going to hunger again.

If you take of the living bread, you will not hunger, right, unto life. And he answers her and says, Whoever drinks of this water, meaning the well, will thirst again. Verse 14, But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst, but the water I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water, springing up into everlasting life.

Again, it's the living water. It's representative of God's Holy Spirit. Acts 2 and verse 33 shows that the Holy Spirit comes from God through Jesus Christ. And, you know, it had not been given because Christ had not yet been glorified, which is what John said earlier. But in Acts 2, upon the resurrection, Peter says, This is what was promised, the promise that God has given to Christ and has been poured out on you. So apart from the Spirit of God and this Holy Spirit, we will not receive eternal life.

And in addition to that, the Bible describes those with God's Holy Spirit today as living as well. Consider this. 1 Peter 2 and verse 1. What could possibly make physical flesh and blood beings living? Well, it would be the indwelling of the living Spirit of the living God. 1 Peter 2 and verse 1. Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word that ye may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. 2 Coming to him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, Jesus Christ here is described as a living stone.

He lives, he is living, and he is the chief cornerstone, the foundation upon which the church is built. Verse 5. You also as living stones, he is talking to those with God's Spirit, you also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And so, as stones that are being mortared together side by side, brethren, with other living stones, together we form the collective house of God. And it's an incredible concept to consider.

Consider the fact that the living God has given you his living Spirit by being mortared together with others who have the living Spirit of the living God, you become the temple of the living God. The Bible says you are living stones that God is building up together.

Do you not think that bond of fellowship and unity by the Spirit of God is important? Indeed, it truly is. Additionally, for those of us who receive God's Holy Spirit through baptism, through the process and the laying on of hands, we've entered into a very special relationship with him. Romans 8, verse 13, this is where we come back now to identifying as the sons of the living God.

Romans 8 and verse 13. Romans 8, verse 13, Paul says, For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. If you just want to eat the physical manna in the wilderness, if you just want to drink the water out of the physical well, you know, you do need those things as physical beings. And if you want to chase after the desires of the flesh, he says, you will die. 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, these are the sons of God. For you do not receive the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you receive the Spirit of adoption or sonship, by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time aren't worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Brethren, receiving God's Holy Spirit as an indwelling presence and then yielding to it and allowing ourselves to be led by it qualifies us as sons of God.

As sons of the living God. For those of us called by God today, that begettle process is not yet complete, because, as I said, it's like we're sons of God and embryo. We've been engendered by His Holy Spirit, and we're growing, and we're developing. And, frankly, we're growing in the womb, which is the Church, the Mother of us all, by God's implanted Spirit.

And the day is coming, if we develop His character and we endure to the end that full begettle process unto birth in the family of God at the return of Jesus Christ will be complete. But at the moment, we're still in this development stage, and God is working with us. But He has given us His Spirit. What's the litmus test to whether or not you know God? I'll give you my opinion on the answer, because at times I've heard it said, You know what?

If you don't agree that this Scripture says this, or you don't see what I'm telling you here, you don't know God. You're denying God. Let me just ask you, what is the litmus test as to whether or not you know God? How about the indwelling of God's Holy Spirit? How about the Spirit that God gives to those whom He calls sons, whom He is developing to be in His eternal living family? Again, it's the living Spirit combined with the living Word, combined with those who have come under the living sacrifice, under the New Covenant, which is a living covenant unto life, who worship behind the veil, through the New and the Living Way, at the throne of the living God.

If you have God's Spirit, don't let anyone tell you you don't know God. But we should be growing constantly in our study, in our understanding of who He is and who it is He's called us to be. Indeed, it is important to our development. 1 John chapter 3 will conclude here today. 1 John chapter 3 and verse 1.

1 John 3 verse 1, Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God. Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we will see Him as He is.

And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies Himself just as He is pure. And so we will see Him just as He is, because we will be as He is. In the same form of the same likeness when our change comes, in the same nature and character as God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, the exciting truth of the Bible is that the living God is beginning sons and daughters for His family by His Spirit.

And indeed, we will see Him as He is, because we will be as He is. Kind begets kind. Go back to the very first book of Genesis. Kind begets kind. An elephant doesn't have a donkey, and people don't produce cats. All right? Kind begets kind. The living God is beginning a family according to His kind and according to His likeness. It is a spiritual process.

Brethren, yield to the Spirit which God has given you. Yield to the living Word of God. Yield to His living Spirit. Yield to His living Son and sacrifice Jesus Christ. Yield to all the living benefits that God has to offer us as His children. And in doing so, we will indeed become the children of the living God made in His image and according to His likeness. And we will live forever. The day is coming when we will see Him as He is. Again, because we will be as He is.

Brethren, God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Let you and I remain steadfast to the end. Let us continue in what it is He has given us to do in this life. And let us live for the day that we will be called in the fullest and most complete and true sense. The sons of the living God.