Do you know that Adam was a son of God? Luke calls him so. But he,
like Esau after him, sold his birthright, lost the divine image in
which God had created him, and fell from his sonship. But now we read:
"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how
shall he not, with him also, freely give us all things?" The phrase,
"all things," as here used, includes a restoration to our former
sonship with God. We, as the children of God, are exhorted to follow
in the steps of our blessed Lord. This not only means that we are to
shun evils and bear reproach, but it also means that we are not to
live unto ourselves and for ourselves alone, but unto him and his
people; for "He went about doing good."

John says: "We love him because he first loved us." We, who are here
assembled in his name, can truthfully repeat this language. But how do
we prove to ourselves and the world that we DO love him? It is by
letting our light shine. Men do not light a candle and put it under a
bushel. A city on a hill cannot be hid. Brethren, I hope we have all
made clean "the INSIDE of the cup and the platter;" for this is the
only way in which the outside can be kept clean. A pure life flows out
of a _clean_ heart, and it can come from no other source. We show our
love to the Lord by observing his ordinances: by baptism, by washing
one another's feet, by partaking with each other of the Lord's Supper,
by communing with him in his broken body and shed blood, symbolized by
the bread and wine: next, in "denying ourselves of all ungodliness and
worldly lusts, and living soberly, righteously, and godly in this
present world."

Think on this last text a little bit. "Soberly" means _calmly sincere_;
not moved by fits of excitement. "Righteously" means _doing right_;