The Bible shows we can have confidence in being saved by God's grace when we love God by keeping His commandments and repenting of sins, and when we love our brethren by sacrificing and serving them as Christ did. Several passages from 1 John illustrate that Christians sin but should not continue in willful sin, and that loving one another proves our love for God.

Transcript

In 2016 I sent this bible, the bible that I normally preach out of, I sent it off to be rebound.

When I bought it, it was bonded leather and it was already old when I bought it, but so it was starting to fall apart just a little bit and I sent it off to a company for them to put a new cover on it. And within a, a couple of months maybe six weeks. I got this back. I explained to them that, you know, I'm a preacher and this is the Bible I preach out of.

They said, oh, yes, we'll get it back to you as quickly as we can. Little longer than what I wanted. But they did send it back to me within about six weeks or so, and I was able to keep preaching at the same time. I sent them another Bible that was this Bible right here. And this was not as much of a rush because I had quit preaching out of this Bible, but this Bible was given to me.

In December of 1992 given to me for Chris Christmas by my parents. And this Bible was really falling apart. Pages were coming out everywhere. There was a big gash in the cover. And it's special to me because this was the Bible that I was using and reading and studying out of when I became a Christian.

Through high school into college, as I continued to grow in my faith and my first few years of, of preaching the gospel before I came here, I used this Bible and so I sent that Bible off at the same time, at the beginning of 2016, and this one came back to me on Monday of this last week. and over the last several years, almost eight years, I've called every few months and begged saying, can you please just send me my Bible back?

I, I don't even care if you've done anything to it. Just send it back to me. And they had promised several times, sure, we'll send it back, we'll send it back, and I'd kind of given up hope. But I kept calling and kept calling, and wouldn't you know it, I opened a package on Monday and this Bible was in it.

I, I couldn't help. But, but open it up and, and look at it. And it's almost like a time capsule looking back at my life and my faith at a, at a different time, at a different level of maturity. And there were some pages like this one that were so worn. You can see that they actually had to photocopy it.

And insert a new page because I had taped the edges and it was just so worn from me looking and reading this passage over and over and over again. And this was the most worn page in this bible. From this time as my faith was really developing first John chapters one and two, and as I was looking at it I couldn't help but notice what was written at the top of the page in Bright Red Ink.

No. You are saved know you are saved.

Do you know you are saved? Do you know that you have eternal life? Are you gonna go to heaven when you die? How do you answer when someone asks you? Those sorts of things. I want to. I hope so. Or do you say, I know I am. By a show of hands, who wants to go to Heaven here this morning? All right. Everybody's still awake.

That's good. Everybody wants to go to heaven. Who here hopes that they're going to heaven? I do. I hope. Hope that I'm going to heaven. Who here? Thanks. You know what? I'm probably gonna go to heaven.

Who here knows you're going to heaven. Now, maybe you're not a hand raiser. Lots of good hands on that, and hopefully part of that is your study and my preaching. But here's what we see in first. John, if you open up your Bible, turn to First John chapter two to begin with First John chapter two in verse 24, verse John chapter two and verse 24.

Therefore let that abide in you, which you heard from the beginning let's that truth that he was talking about earlier in the chapter. He says, I've written these things to you, not because you don't know the truth, but because you do know the truth. And let that truth what you heard from the beginning, abide in you.

If what you heard from the beginning abides in you. You also will abide in the Son and in the father, and this is the promise that he has promised us. Eternal life. That's a promise from the father. If we are abiding in the truth, drop down to verse 28, and now little children abide in him that when he appears we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

I think I've told you before about my great-grandmother who lived through the Great Depression and, and during the Dust Bowl, one of those giant dust storms came through for the first time in, in the history of West Texas. At least as long as people have been living there, we see that this giant storm comes through and they thought Jesus was coming again.

And we can imagine Jesus coming with the angels and, and, and the trumpet sound. . And when he comes like that, will we have confidence and not be ashamed before him. John says, I write you these things so you have confidence when Jesus comes and you stand before him. Unashamed, go to chapter four and verse 17, chapter four and verse 17.

John first John, chapter four in verse 17. Love has been perfected among us in this that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. Because as he is, so are we in this world now, even if we've done nothing wrong, it's kind of difficult to have a lot of boldness in in these sort of situations, a day of judgment.

I mean, when I'm pulled over on the side of the road, I've gotten myself in trouble a few times by having too much boldness with the police officer, even if I feel I've done nothing wrong. He says we're supposed to have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is, as Jesus is, so are we in this world.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment, but he who fears has not been made perfect in love because of God's love. We have no fear on the day of judgment. We have boldness on the day of judgment. One more passage, one. John chapter five. First John, chapter five, and drop down to verse 13 at the end of the letter.

This is what John the apostle. The beloved apostle of Jesus says these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. So he's writing to Christians. We'll talk about that more in just a second. That you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

The Apostle John in writing to those who are already Christians says, I write these things to you who believe that you may know you have eternal life. And may we all reach the point in our spiritual maturity that we know we are saved. But that has to be more than a feeling that has to be more than just something we think to ourselves by what objective?

Truth-based basis, can we have that kind of confidence to say, I know I'm saved. Well, first of all it, it isn't a matter of deserving to be saved, and there are some prideful people out there, no doubt, who wear the name of Christ, who think they deserve it, that they're God's gift to God, I think might be the way we would say that.

They do so many things for God in their own mind. At least they say, I've done all of these things, so I deserve to go to heaven, and that is dangerous, ungrateful foolishness. But there are others who know they don't deserve it, and so their response is to give up. They do nothing or next to nothing in God's service.

And that too is the road to perdition. But there are many more people, good-hearted people who know they don't deserve to go to heaven, but are still working, thinking in their own minds and hearts that they have to earn it somehow. That they have to do enough where they do deserve it. And in some places, somewhere along the way, some Christians got the wrong impression.

And, and how discouraging is this that we're gonna have to be perfect or almost perfect? In order to go to heaven, that it's all on you. It's all on your works, all on your obedience. And so we read passages like this and we look at our own lives and we say, wait a second, how can I know that with all of the sins that I've committed, if I am as just said, one of those imperfect people, how am I supposed to have confidence before a perfect God?

How am I supposed to have boldness? How am I supposed to know that I have eternal life like John describes here? And there are lots of fateful Christians who fear that they haven't done enough, that they won't be good enough to go to heaven. Do you worry about that?

And if you worry about not being good enough, I have, I have news for you. You are not good enough. So you're never gonna feel good enough based on a, an accumulation of your own works, of your own merit, short of perfection, we cannot earn our way into heaven. And, and God doesn't expect us to be perfect.

The only way anyone who is accountable for their sins is going to be saved is by God's grace. And, and at the very beginning of the book, he talks about this in one John chapter two and verse two. In describing how our salvation is going to come in, speaking of Jesus Christ, the righteous, verse two, and he himself, Jesus is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.

In the sacrifice of Jesus, there is. Propitiation. What does that mean? It's, it's appeasement, it's ransom, it's atonement. The price has been paid for salvation. And by that gift, we can not just have forgiveness now, we can have forgiveness in the future after we come to Christ if we are repentant of our sins.

And this is how powerful this propitiation, this price that was paid by God's grace is, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. We know the scriptures tell us that there are few who are going to be be saved. But imagine for just a moment that every single person who has ever sinned says, I wanna be made right with God.

I'm gonna do it God's way and comes to him. Jesus's sacrifice would be powerful enough to save all of them. The whole world could be saved if they chose to come to Jesus. It is. By this grace, we can know that we are saved. And what I'm gonna say next isn't new to most of you here, but there are some things that God requires of us in regard to this grace.

Just three reminders that I think are helpful to us as we speak about the rest of this lesson. Number one, God's grace is unmerited. But that does not mean that it is unconditional. It is unmerited, meaning that we don't earn it, that we don't deserve it, but that does not mean that it is unconditional, that there aren't things that God can't ask of us in order to be saved.

On the contrary, just the opposite. God's unmerited favor the gifts that he gives by his grace. Merits a response from us that is, The grateful thing to do that is the right thing to do because God has done this for me that I did not deserve, that I have not earned. My response should be what is merited from that is to be grateful enough to do what it is God would have us to do.

Not because we're earning it, but because we're grateful for what he has done. And that is inherent both in our Bible and in just the meaning of this word, charas or grace that we find in the Greek language. However, we should not confuse equal necessity with equal magnitude in regard to God's work and our work, or we might say God's grace and our faith.

Both of those things, God's work and our work, God's grace and our faith, both of those things are required. Both of those things are necessary, but it doesn't mean that they're equal in magnitude somehow saying, well, I've done just as much as God to bring about my salvation. No, God has done much more. But what he asked me to do is still necessary if I'm gonna be saved in the way that he says he's going to save me.

So what does this look like practically? Well, I, I believe that First John is the perfect place to go and see this idea of being confident of our, in our salvation, even though there are things that are required of us. And I wanna start this lesson with an apology. To all of you who do worry about your salvation, I, I think for a long time I didn't even know you existed, and then I knew you existed, but I didn't think there are very many of you and, and yet over the last few years I've had so many people come and express this same feeling, whether young or old, whether

Working hard for Christ or struggling in their faith, whether on their deathbed or hopefully with many more years of life remaining. This idea of, I, I just don't know. I, I just don't know if I've done enough. I, I just don't know if I'm really going to be saved.

I think I can help.

I think I can help from God's word. If you feel that way or have felt that way.

and, and maybe this is counterintuitive, but I think I can help because I've never felt that way. I've never felt uncertain about my salvation. There are things that I'm unsure about, uncertain in, in terms of what God's teaches and my understanding of those things and, and all those sorts of things. But, but once I came to Christ, I've always.

I've always been certain that I'm saved and that I'm gonna go to heaven, which brings me back to this Bible at some point after I became a Christian. I don't know when. I don't know why. I don't remember what, what led me to this. I just don't remember. But at some point after I became a Christian, I started reading First John with great regularity.

and underlining that word no every time that it's found and saying, do I know these same things over and over and over through my Christian walk? I've done that and, and getting this Bible back in the mail reminded me of doing that a long time ago, writing this in my Bible a long time ago, not just as a theme for First John, but a theme for who I am in Jesus Christ that I'm supposed to know.

That I'm saved. And if you struggle with this feeling, there's something that is gonna help you much more than my sermon and, and I said, I think I can help. It's really the word of God that is going to help something that is gonna help you much more than even. The things that we're gonna talk about for the rest of this morning is going into First John and you doing the same thing.

Reading through this book, underlining every time it says, no know this, we know, you know. And that word no. There is not just an intellectual knowledge. This is a knowledge by experience So often that I, I know these things and I'm confident in these things. It's not a hypothesis. It's not something that I think, it's something that I'm confident about.

And if we know the same things that, that the Apostle John knew, then we can have the same confidence that the Apostle John had. Right. And so if you tune out the rest of the lesson, I would far prefer you do that and go and read First John, and underline those things over and over and over. But you know, preferably may I just suggest a couple of things as you do that that might be helpful to you.

Just two main points this morning, John writes that we can know based on, well, several things in this book, and that's the joy of discovery that, that you're gonna be on or you're already on. You say, yeah, this lesson in for me, I've already done that, Reagan, but there are two big main things that I wanna point out from one John that I want to suggest that we, who are those who have faith in Christ Jesus who have become Christians already?

It. If you haven't yet become a Christian as God demands by obeying the gospel, then this lesson isn't really for you because you don't know that you're saved yet, because you've not been saved in the way Jesus demands. But for those of us who are Christians, we can know we have eternal life when we do two things found in one John.

Number one, when we love God and keep his commandments. Instead of to use John's terminology, practicing sin. And number two, when we love the brethren as Christ loved us, not in word or in tongue, but in de and in truth, and there's a lot of background with Gnostics and so forth. We could get into this book of one John, but I, I'm gonna skip all of that this morning and just focus on these two concepts.

Of what we can look at in our own lives and compare ourselves to the word of God and say, I'm doing these two things and so I can have confidence in my salvation as I have been saved by the grace of God. And that should look familiar because those two things are what the two greatest commands as we just sung about, right?

That we love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. What does that look like? We keep his commandments instead of practicing sin. And we love our neighbor as ourself, specifically Jesus expands on that in regard to the love that we should have for our brethren. So let's, let's look at these two things for just a few minutes this morning, this quarter we were talking, we have been talking about being rooted and grounded in love.

Our confidence in our salvation is rooted and grounded in love in regard to these two things. We know we have eternal life when we love in these two ways, as God has loved us. When we love God, number one, and keep his commandments instead of practicing sin, how do we love God? That's active. You know how, how do we show him that we love him?

How do we know we love him? With all that we are with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, I would suggest we know that we love God when we keep his commandments. And we do not practice sin. This is how God says He wants us to love him. Do you hear that? This is how God says He wants us to love him.

Jesus himself said in John chapter 14 and verse 15, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. That's just the reality, not if you love me, you'll consider my suggestions, or if you love me, you'll keep most of my commandments. God says, this is the way that it is. If you really love me, you will keep my commandments.

And that's not me saying that it's God saying that this concept is true because God says it, he expresses his desire. And who are we to contradict what God says is the way he wants us to love him. And that same concept is found several times in one. John. Go to one John chapter two. Begin reading in verse three.

So verse two we just read was about his propitiation. He paid the price so that we might be saved by grace. Then in verse three, notice what he says, one John chapter two and verse three. Now, by this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments, he who says, I know him and does not keep his commandments.

Is a liar. And the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, truly the love of God is perfected, completed in him. By this, we know that we are in him. He who says he abides in him, ought himself also to walk just as he has walked. So we imitate him. We keep his commandments, and by this we know him. Notice another passage, chapter five and verse two.

First John chapter five and verse two.

By this, we know that we love the children of God. When we love God and keep his commandments for this is the love of God that we keep. His commandments and his commandments are not burdensome now doing God's commandments fulfilling what it is God has told us to do. doesn't necessarily mean that we love him.

We know that there were many among the Pharisees, for example, who, who clearly did not have the right heart for God, but they were doing so many of these commandments. But, but may I say this on the opposite side, not doing what God has commanded definitely does mean that we do not love him, nor do we have faith in him.

How do we know? Because he told us we follow God's commandments because we love him and we trust him, not because we're gonna earn our salvation or anything else. The Bible says to love God. You must keep his commandments. And at this point, some of you who struggle with this idea of knowing I'm safe, say, well great, that doesn't help at all.

That's the problem. I know I need to keep God's commandments and, and I hadn't always done that. I've sinned. I've sinned again. I've sinned again. I've sinned again. I'm trying to keep God's commandments, but I keep on sinning. That's the problem. Well, may I suggest that one John addresses what God means by all of this.

What do we do when we don't keep God's commandments? What about when we do sin? Well, that, that takes us back to one John chapter one, first John chapter one. Let's start reading in verse five. First John, chapter one, beginning in verse five. This is the message which we have heard from him, and declare to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. Okay? I'm not feeling a whole lot better, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses us from all sin, all sin can be cleansed.

But notice what he says in verse eight. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We say, we have not sinned. We make him a liar. And his word is not in us.

My little children, these things I write to you that you may not sin, but if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And so by grace, we are saved when we come to Christ initially. . But even when we sin after that point, what we're supposed to do is confess and repent.

And if we do, the blood of Jesus is sufficient to cleanse us of all unrighteousness, all sins. No matter how big, no matter how bad, no matter what the consequences, we can be cleansed of those things. And you know, to the best of my knowledge, This is what I've done. Every time I've known of a sin since I became a Christian, I, I'm able to move on from these things because I read this chapter over and over and over again and, and I said to myself, this is what I'm supposed to do.

I, I know this is wrong. I've sinned and I've, I've, I've turned my back on God in doing that in so many ways, but God is faithful that if I'll come and confess and repent of those things. He will cleanse me of, of all that sin I confess and repent to make righteousness. My practice, because that is the standard.

The standard in Jesus Christ is not perfect righteousness like it was under the law of Moses. You gotta keep this perfectly to deserve it, but in Jesus Christ, the standard is practicing righteousness. And that's exactly what we see later in the book. This is First John chapter three verses four through 10 from the New American Standard Bible.

I, I like the New American standard because it shows the process that's involved in this, that this is not a, a one-time event. This is something that is ongoing in our lives, but you can read it in your Bible as well. First John chapter three, beginning in verse four. Everyone who makes. A practice of sinning also practices lawlessness.

Sin is lawlessness that we've gone against what God would have us to do. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins and in him, there is no sin in Jesus. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children let no one deceive you.

Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil, has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning.

Because he has been born of God by this, it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice, righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. And we'll get to that here in just a second. You see that? There's a distinction that is made between the one who willfully, intentionally, habitually makes it their practice to sin.

I know this is wrong. I don't care that it's wrong. This is what I'm going to do and I'm gonna do it. That is walking in darkness, that is practicing sin as opposed to the person who my practice, what I'm doing, what I'm striving for is to be righteous, to be holy as God is holy to live my life in accordance to his commands.

But there are times when I sin, when I fall short. And what I do is I follow what's found there in one John chapter one and two, and I confess and I repent and I come back and I keep practicing righteousness. Us. I am not gonna remain down in the muck and mire of this willful, intentional sin.

Sometimes I do sin, and this doesn't mean that we won't ever commit a sin after we become a Christian. Chapter one and verse eight says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us, but we won't keep on thinning willfully. Notice those phrases, practices, and keeps on. We won't make a practice of sinning where we know something is wrong.

We know we shouldn't do it, but we do it anyway over and over again without really caring that much because that's what we want to do, and that is the kind of behavior that should cause us to lose our confidence and our relationship with God. But we can be confident as those who are Christians of our salvation, even though we aren't perfect, even though sometimes we fall into temptation and commit a sin, we can still have confidence that God will save us if we are striving to practice righteousness, and we confess and repent of those sins that we know of.

One more verse from, or one more passage from one John to to show this. Turn to the end of the book. One John chapter five and verse 16.

If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin, which does not lead to death, he will ask and he will give him life. For those who commit a sin not leading to death, there is a sin leading to death. I, I do not say that he should pray about that all unrighteousness is sin and there is sin not leading to death.

Now, there's been some debate, of course in religious circles. What is this? What is this sin that leads to death that you don't pray for, and all those sorts of things, and people run all over their bibles trying to find what that sin is. May I humbly suggest, you know where we should look to figure out what those sins are first, John, you know the sin that you're not, that leads to your spiritual death.

in one John. It's the sin that you don't repent of. You don't confess and repent and say, I, I don't care. I'm gonna keep doing this because this is what I want to do. And he says, don't pray that somehow God is gonna change his character and forgive that when somebody doesn't want to confess and repent and find forgiveness.

But there is a sin not leading to death. What sin is that in the book of one John? When we say, I'm sorry, that is not what I wanted to do. And I confess that before God and myself and whoever else may be I've sinned against and I ask for forgiveness. I repent of those things and I'm gonna try to do better the next time.

And that's the kind of sin that we all should be praying for, that we might be forgiven of the sin that does not lead to death. We confess and we repent of it. Don't be discouraged brothers and sisters or disheartened by falling prey to sin as though you have lost eternal life. But take confidence in the fact that repentance sin does not lead to death,

but it doesn't stop there. At the very least, it includes the next thing that we love, the brethren as Christ loved us. Not in word or in tongue, but indeed and in truth, just a few passages. I, I know we're almost outta time, so just a couple of passages from one John. The, the whole lesson basically has been from one John.

This is no different one. John, chapter four, one John chapter four in verse seven.

Beloved loved ones, let us love one another. For love is of God. And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love, does not know God. For God is love. In this, the love of God was manifested toward us, that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through Him in.

This is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation. There's that word again, paid the price for our sins, beloved. If God so loved us, we also ought, we must. Love one another. Love is from God. God is love. He is the source of love and he is the definer of love, and he gives us the exalt, the ultimate example of what real love is for us to imitate and our love as brothers and sisters in Christ as Christians should look different than the love that we see so often than the world because we know what love is.

And we get our love from the source of love God himself. But that is not some abstract sort of thing that is real, and it is practical and it is tangible. Notice just a little later in this same chapter, chapter four and verse 20, if someone says, I love God, well that's abstract, right? I love God. and hates his brother.

He's a liar. For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, it's tangible. It's right in front of me. I can show it and prove it. How can he love God whom he has not seen? And this is the commandment we have from him that he who loves God, must love his brother also. How do we love in that way? Well, Jesus has given us the example first, John chapter two and verse seven.

Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment, which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word, which you heard from the beginning. What is the word that they had heard from the beginning? Well, we don't have to guess. He, he tells us in chapter three and verse 11 for this is the message you heard from the beginning that you should love one another.

That's God's commandment from, from the very beginning. love one another, verse eight of chapter two. First John, chapter two and verse eight. Again, at the same time, we might say, it is a new commandment I'm writing to you, which is true in him and in you. You see this in Jesus, and you should see it in yourself as well because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining and, and what is the love that we see in Jesus that should also be revealed in us?

How is it that we should walk just as he walked, as we, as we see back there in verse six? Well notice in chapter three in verse 16, we know John three 16, first John three 16 is very similar. By this we know love because he laid down his life for us, and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

That's that's the degree to which we love. God came to earth, gave up all of his status and exalted position to be born of a woman, placed in a manger, raised by a carpenter, and die on a cross to be a propitiation for our sins. And we need to try and imitate that kind of selfless, sacrificial love to prove our love indeed and in truth.

One more passage along these lines, chapter three in verses 17 and 18,

but whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him By little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but indeed and in truth, we prove our love. Not in Word, not in talk, but indeed and in truth and like Jesus, we are to sacrifice and serve and esteem others better than ourself to obey God and, and do what is best for others instead of just what is easy to, to care for everyone, including the lowly, not just those in power or those who are popular to love people even who do not love us back.

And how will God and the world for that matter, identify us as the disciples of Jesus? Jesus says, if you love one another, as I have loved you, and that is powerful, powerful stuff. And if we love like this, if we love God and if we love our brethren, we can know that we have eternal life and be confident in it both now and in the judgment day.

Can you say that these two things describe you? You love God, but you're trying to keep his commandments, so you're not going out seeking to practice sin. And when you do sin, you repent and you confess those things and you love the brethren to the best of your ability. Not in word or in tongue, but indeed and in truth, then trust in God's faithfulness.

Continue to believe that God will do as he promises and will save you eternally. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. Know you're saved. But if you're not yet a Christian, you aren't included in those that he says there who believe.

And what is required of you is to come to Christ. Are you in Christ? So that you might have this confidence. And if we can help you this morning, if we can help you to put on Christ to to know the love that is in Christ, to be buried in a watery grave, to rise, to walk in newness of life imitating Christ.

We we're here to help you with that as best we can. If you're already a Christian and, and you're not sure and you desire prayers from your brothers and sisters in Christ so that the sins that you have sinned will not be sins leading to death, we're here to help you in whatever way we can. If you'll come now altogether, we stand and while we sing,

I.