In 'The Delight of God,' Peter Allison explores the fundamental prerequisites for acceptable worship, emphasizing that worship pleasing to God must come from a heart that is clean and approved by God. The sermon highlights the distinction between the worship of the wicked and the righteous, noting that while the former is an abomination to God, the latter is His delight. Using biblical examples like Cain and Abel, Allison argues that faith is the key differentiator that makes worship acceptable to God. The sermon also underscores the importance of the Holy Spirit's indwelling presence in believers, which enables them to offer true worship. Furthermore, it cautions against self-sufficient and hypocritical worship, urging believers to approach God with sincerity and dependence on Christ. The sermon concludes with a reminder of God's delight in the prayers of the righteous and His willingness to hear and respond to them.

Please turn with me in your Bibles, Proverbs 15. Let us read God's Word beginning at verse 8. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight. The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but He loves Him who follows righteousness. Thus far the reading of God's Word.

May He be praised and at its hearing and reading. Heavenly Father, Your Word is pure, it is true, it is altogether righteous. We ask that You would prepare our hearts to receive this word as it is brought to us. We ask that you would speak to us this morning by your Spirit, that the truth of your word may be opened to us, that we may see with spiritual eyes, hear with an understanding heart. We ask that you would do this through a vessel of clay That the glory might belong to you In Jesus' name we ask, Amen.

A few years ago, probably maybe even to some extent today, the term worship wars was a phrase to refer to the conflict in churches about how the service ought to be conducted. What style of music? What type of liturgy? An informal, Haphazard, say what you want, when you want, or a formal. Say the same thing each time, each week in a rigidly choreographed program.

Because every church has a liturgy. What is the right way to worship is a very important question it's not a trivial matter One of the Ten Commandments is dedicated to that question. But there is an even more fundamentally important question that we want to look at this morning. It's what we might call the prerequisite to acceptable worship. The question of What constitutes acceptable worship, worship that's pleasing to the Lord, is an important question but before we can answer, even begin to answer that question, we need to know what is the prerequisite to acceptable worship.

Solomon said that the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is his delight. Sacrifice, prayer. This is an unmistakable reference to worship. When the Scriptures are referring to our worship, they speak about sacrifices, they speak about our prayers. And so what Solomon is saying here is that the worship of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord.

Notice it doesn't say that wicked worship is an abomination to the Lord. It says something subtly different. The worship of the wicked is what Solomon is saying is an abomination to the Lord. The worship of the wicked doesn't directly say anything about their worship, whether it is outwardly acceptable, outwardly proper, or not. It's talking about the worship that the wicked offer.

This is consistent with the very first testimony of the Scriptures to the worship of God's people. All the way back in Genesis, chapter 4, After Adam knew his wife Eve and she conceived and gave birth to sons, Cain and Abel. Oldest Cain, the youngest was Abel. And Moses writes there, Abel. And Moses writes there, and in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord.

Cain was a farmer and he brought the produce of his farm. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and their fat. Abel was a shepherd. And so he brought of the fruit of his labor just as Cain had brought the fruit of his labor. And the Lord respected Abel.

The Lord respected Abel and his offering. Notice the order there. It was Abel that God respected. God respected his person. Because Abel was a righteous person.

But The Lord respected Abel and his offering, but he did not respect Cain and his offering. And of course Cain, we know, became angry and his countenance fell and he began to hate his brother and as a result of that murdered his own brother. The very first murder in the world, was over worship. Because God had respect to Abel but not unto Cain. God does not regard any work with favor except the works of those who are previously accepted and approved by Him.

God does not accept the work of anyone. God does not accept and look with favor on anyone's work unless it's the work of those who he previously has accepted and approved. Psalm 24 says, Who will ascend, it asks this question, who will ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who can go into His presence and worship Him? Who shall stand in His holy place?

Before Christ came, God's presence was in his temple in that holy place in Jerusalem. Today as Jesus told the Samaritan woman, God's presence is where His people are, where He puts His name. The answer that comes back in Psalm 24 is He that has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully, He shall receive the blessing of the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation." The person that can come into God's presence and worship acceptably is the person that God has accepted, the person who is approved. Psalm 15 says the same thing. Who shall abide in your holy tabernacle?

Who may dwell in your holy hill? He that walks uprightly and works righteousness and speaks the truth in his heart. Speaks the truth in his heart. To God is never delighted by worship that is simply external and in our body, carnal. God is never pleased or satisfied with that.

God looks at the heart. Even words that are good words, right words, even worship that we would say is proper worship, if it doesn't come out of the heart of the righteous. If it is simply words that is not acceptable to God, as God told Samuel when he was anointing David, God said, men look at the outward things. We look at, that's all we can see. We can look at the words, we can look at the body.

We can look at what is visible in front of us. But God told Samuel that he looks at the heart, the inner being. It doesn't say here that he simply rejects the sacrifice of the wicked. He abhors it. He abominates it.

Regardless of how splendid it may appear to us. The worship of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. The ceremonial law taught a very important point in regard to worship in this matter. See, if someone was unclean ceremonially, And unclean ceremonially didn't necessarily mean a moral uncleanness, but it typified a moral uncleanness. It taught us that we were not acceptable to God apart from Christ.

So the ceremonial law taught that if anyone who was unclean, who was ceremonially unclean, and there are a lot of things that could make one ceremonially unclean, Burying your parents made you ceremonially unclean. It was the right thing to do, but it made you unclean because you've handled a dead body. A body that has suffered the consequences of sin. It's a reminder of our sinfulness. So handling a dead body made someone unclean.

And someone who was unclean made everything that they touched unclean. Anything that they sat on became unclean and had to be purified. A mother was unclean as a result of giving birth. Children are a blessing of the Lord, and yet this was something that made a woman unclean. For thirty-three days in the case of a son, and for sixty-six days in the case of a daughter.

And the mother's uncleanness made the child unclean, with the exception that once the child had been baptized. For the son, they were baptized on the seventh day, and for the daughter, they were baptized on the fourteenth day. You can read about this in Leviticus 12. There was a special exception granted there that the mother no longer, after the baptism of the baby, no longer made the baby unclean. But the ceremonial law taught universally that someone who was unclean, whatever they touched became unclean as well.

And so if the mere touch of an unclean person contaminates things that are otherwise pure and clean, how can anything then clean, pure and undefiled proceed from Him whose soul is polluted? You can't. Even things that are good, like prayers and sacrifices, even worship that is proper in the sight of God, when it proceeds from the heart of a wicked, when it proceeds from a polluted heart, the mere fact that that has been touched by an unclean person makes that worship unacceptable, unclean in the sight of God. When Isaiah was sent to Israel, he was sent, God's prophet, to Israel before they were carried away into captivity. God sent him to the wicked Israel to bring a word of warning.

To call them to repentance. That's the first part of the book. But the very first sermon that Isaiah preached in chapter 1. Isaiah was sent to a people to preach to them and God said, they're not going to hear you but I want you to go anyway. And Isaiah went anyway.

But that very first message that He brought to Israel in chapter 1, He says, Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom. Give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah. Now, He is not talking to the inhabitants of those cities. Those cities were destroyed by fire and brimstone over a thousand years earlier. Well over a thousand years earlier.

He's talking to Israel here, but he calls them, you people of Sodom and Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me, says the Lord. I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of cattle. I don't delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or goats." Now, God had commanded the Israelites to bring the blood of bulls and goats and the sacrifices of cattle. What they were doing was outwardly acceptable.

They weren't bringing the blood of pigs and donkeys and dogs. They were bringing the blood of bulls and goats, just like they were commanded. But God says, I've had enough of them. I'm fed up with it. When you come to appear before me, who is required this from your hand?

To trample my courts? Bring no more futile sacrifices. Incense is an abomination to me. But the incense was what He commanded them to bring. He's saying here, it's an abomination to me.

The new moon, the Sabbath, the calling of the assemblies, I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your new moon and your appointed feast, my soul hates. They are a trouble to me. I am weary of bearing them. They're a burden and I'm tired of carrying it.

When you spread out your hands, That's a posture of prayer. That's saying, when you pray, I'm going to hide my eyes from you because I loathe you. Even though you make many prayers, I won't hear Because your hands are full of blood This was worship that was coming from wicked people they were bringing outwardly Proper worship, but God is not happy with it. He loves it. He's saying your prayers.

I'm not even gonna hear The wicked have blood on their hands. They Do not keep the law of God. That's the definition of somebody who is wicked, somebody who breaks the law of God. Transgression, breaking the law of God is sin. And God is not pleased with sin.

That God is angry with the wicked every day. Jesus told Nicodemus, He that does not believe on The Son shall not see life. But the wrath of God abides upon Him. God is angry with the wicked because they don't walk in His ways. They are at enmity against God.

And when Saul did not do what God had commanded him to do, he sinned against God. He broke the Word of God, the law of God. And then he tried to make amends by offering sacrifices. And Samuel said, those famous words, Has the Lord a great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams." Proverbs 28 and 29 says, He that turns away his ear from hearing the law.

Even his prayer shall be an abomination. The wicked, those who turn away from walking in the way of the Lord, from walking according to his precepts, from walking in fellowship with him. God does not hear their prayer. Even their prayer is an abomination. I think that puts a very interesting context on God's exhortation to husbands to dwell with their wives in an understanding way lest their prayers be hindered.

God is saying if you are a husband and have a wife, you don't dwell with her in an understanding way as her head leading her, teaching her. If you don't do that in an understanding way, your prayers are hindered. Your worship is not acceptable to God. That's a very strong statement When we see what it means for God not to accept worship, it's basically saying someone is wicked. Someone God abominates.

So the prerequisite then, the prerequisite for acceptable worship is that it comes from a heart that is clean. It comes from soul that God has approved, that God has accepted. Now what then is the character of this worship that is unacceptable? Because we will know the character of acceptable worship by the opposite. See this sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination.

Their worship is an abomination. Well, not only do the wicked lack the necessary prerequisite of acceptable worship, that being as we've said, one who God accepts, But their very character, the very character of their worship is unacceptable. And it's not merely unacceptable, it's not merely not wanted, It's an abomination. Proverbs 21 says, the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination. How much more when he brings it with a wicked mind?

It's an abomination, but how much more when it is done wickedly. Now what is an abomination? We hear that word a lot, but I don't think it's one that we, we know it's bad, But I want to make it graphic. An abomination is something that is disgusting. It's something that is detestable.

It's something you abhor and you want to push it away. It's something you instinctively turn away from. You don't want to even look at it because it's that revolting. It's that disgusting. It's something that brings a frown to your face to even think about.

It's something that makes you involuntarily gag when it's presented in front of you. What makes you involuntarily gag when you see it? That's something that is an abomination. I won't get explicit. You fill it in.

That's an abomination. It's something that's repulsive, revolting, disgusting, that you just don't want in your presence. You turn away from it. That's what an abomination is. And that's what the sacrifice of the wicked is in God's sight.

Now what is it that, what characteristics of worship are an abomination to God. Well first, it is worship without the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit doesn't dwell in a person, then they aren't able to please God. It's that simple. Romans 8 says, the carnal mind is at enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be.

It's not possible for the carnal mind that doesn't have the Holy Spirit to be subject to the law of God. It's not possible. They that are in the flesh, Paul says, so then, They that are in the flesh, Paul says, so then, they that are in the flesh, those who do not have the Holy Spirit, those who are walking only in their flesh, apart from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, cannot please God. They are unable, without the Holy Spirit, to please God. But He tells His people, the Spirit of God dwells in you.

You are not in the flesh. The Spirit of God dwells in you. Second characteristic of unacceptable worship that is an abomination that is revulsive to God is sacrifice that is hypocritically offered. That where there are words that we say and the things that we do do not match or not consistent with what is in our heart. The hypocrite professes to love God, professes to serve God, says nice things, prays outwardly nice prayers with their lips.

But that is not the desire of their heart. Their heart isn't seeking after God. They're not longing for Him. Their soul isn't thirsty for the living God. David writes in Psalm 63, it's a song that we often sing when he was in the wilderness, David writes, Oh God, you are my God, and early will I seek for you.

My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. My soul longs to see your power and your glory, So I have seen you in the sanctuary." You see true worship is worship that is in the Spirit, it's in Spirit, and it is in truth. And that which is an abomination to the Lord is that which is spiritless and hypocritical. God desires our heart.

The words are good, but God desires our heart. It is a broken and a contrite heart that God will not despise. It is truth in the inward parts, as David says in Psalm 51, that God desires. He prays, creating me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within. These are the requisites of acceptable worship.

Not saying things that we don't mean. Not saying things from a heart that is insincere. The insincere prayer is asking to be cleansed of our sin, but then showing by our practice that we don't really want to be cleansed of our sin. Insincere prayer is asking God to bless America, and then doing all in our power to ensure that the shedding of innocent blood continues. Or doing all in our power to stop and to pervert those who are seeking to end it.

That's an abomination. When you hear somebody like that say, God bless America, is that repulsive to you? Is that repulsive to you? It's singing Amazing Grace at a funeral, And then going out to fornicate or teach others and lead others in fornication. That kind of worship is repulsive to God.

You shouldn't be glad when you hear somebody say, God bless America, when you know that that's an insincere prayer. That is something that's obnoxious, repulsive to the Father. That is a prayer. Maybe have wrong things in it. It's a right idea.

We should want God to bless our nation. But when we're asking Him to bless our nation while, like Isaiah told Israel, our hands have blood on them, that's an abomination. So you see, not only is the blood in our ground an abomination to the Lord, but then even the prayer of all those who maintain that blood, who pray, God bless America, is another abomination on top of the innocent blood. Whoa to America. Whoa, to America.

Another characteristic of unacceptable worship is self-sufficient worship. Self-sufficient worship. In worship, we acknowledge that, in true worship, we acknowledge that we didn't make ourselves, that we don't own ourselves, that we're not the Lord over our body and our lips, but that we belong to the Lord, that we are the Lord's body and soul in life and in death. So unacceptable worship is self-sufficient worship that doesn't pray with a sense of dependence upon Christ. It doesn't see ourselves as having nothing to offer apart from Christ's work in us.

It doesn't see ourselves as debtors to His grace. It's worship that trusts in ourselves. Just remember the Pharisee and the public that went up to the temple to pray. Those are both outwardly good things. They both went to God's house of prayer.

But one prayed in utter dependence upon Jesus Christ from the heart, with a broken and contrite heart, God be merciful to me, a sinner. The other prayed with a self-sufficient prayer. God, I thank you that I am self-sufficient, that I don't really need you. I do everything that you tell me to do. I tithe, I fast quite often.

I'm righteous. That was a self-sufficient prayer. And Jesus said, Who do you suppose went home justified? Self-sufficient worship is not praying with faith in the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. That one is probably a little closer to home for us.

Probably steps on some of our toes a little bit more. Do we really believe that God can do as we have asked? Do we believe that He is sufficient to do as He has promised? When we pray, do we believe God's promises, all of the promises, that they are all true, that none of them are not true, None of them God is insufficient to bring to pass. If we pray with faith in sufficiency of Christ and our own insufficiency, then we will really believe that God can and will do what He has said.

So then what is the difference between the worship of the wicked and the worship of the righteous? It says that not only is the sacrifice of the wicked an abomination to the Lord, but the way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. What is the way of the wicked? The way, somebody's way, somebody's path is the course of their life. The way of the wicked then is the course of life that is outside of God's law.

It's to be an outlaw. What is the way of an outlaw? Somebody who is outside the law, somebody who operates contrary to the law. So the way of the wicked is the way outside God's law. God's law is a reflection of His character.

And so to walk outside of God's law or contrary to the law of God is to walk contrary to what God is. God is light. The wicked are those who don't walk in the light. God is truth. The way the wicked is to walk is to not know the truth and not to walk in it God is slow to anger The way of the wicked is to not be that Proverbs 21 gives a very interesting assessment.

It says that a high look and a proud heart and the plowing of the wicked is sin. Now we might expect the proud heart and a high look, but the plowing of the wicked is sin. It is outside the law of God. It's a transgression of the law of God. Now why is the plowing of the wicked sin?

Aren't we commanded to exercise dominion over the earth? Aren't we commanded, wasn't Adam commanded to tend to the soil? And in the curse, he would tend, That labor would be with toil and sorrow Isn't that what we're to do and yet God is saying the plowing of the wicked something that in itself is is it good is? Sin it's sin See the way of the wicked is also the sacrifice of the wicked, just like the way of the righteous is the sacrifice of the righteous. Those two are tied together.

Romans 12 ties those two things together. It says, Brother and I beseech you by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God. Holy and acceptable to God. A living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God. Holy and acceptable to God.

A living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God. There's an act of worship. This is your reasonable service. And then what does Paul go on to talk about? He talks about all the gifts that we've been given in the different areas, leading, governing, showing mercy, and so on.

And he says we're to do those. Those are our sacrifice, a living sacrifice, the living sacrifice that we give with our bodies, and that they are holy, that sacrifice is holy and it is acceptable to God. Because the one offering it is holy and accepted by God. But the wicked is not holy and not acceptable by God. God is angry with him.

He's far from God in their prayer. The wicked present their bodies too. It present their bodies too. It's just that their sacrifice, their way is unholy and unacceptable. And that really is the only difference between worship that is a sweet smelling aroma and worship that is a stinking abomination.

Faith. The difference between Abel's worship and Cain's worship is that Cain believed God. Hebrews tells us that it was by faith That Cain offered the sacrifice that he offered By faith Hebrews 11 Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain through which he obtained witness that he was righteous. What was the witness that he was righteous? God had respect unto Abel.

Was it because Abel was so good? No, because Abel by faith believed God. The righteousness of Christ was imputed to Abel. His sins were placed upon Jesus Christ, and God regarded Abel as righteous in His sight. Because Abel believed God, by faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.

See without faith, it is impossible to please God. Without faith, It is impossible to please God. It is impossible to please God in our worship. It is impossible to please God in anything that we do, even in our plowing. Even in our eating, we're to eat and drink to the glory of God.

The way of the wicked cannot do that. He cannot, He does not have faith. He's not eating of faith. He's not plowing in faith. He's not planting in hope.

And so he can't please God. The way of the wicked is an abomination. No matter how hard he tries, never be good enough, because what we can do, our works apart from Christ, are his filthy rags, the best of them. This is the only difference between anybody. Remember all those people in the story Jesus told at the day of judgment, the time when He's going to separate people into the sheep and the goats.

When the Son of Man comes in His glory with all His holy angels, Then He will sit on the throne of His glory and all the nations will be gathered before Him and He will separate one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. He will set the sheep on His right hand and say to them, Come, you blessed of the Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you took me in, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. The other, the goats are going to say, we did many things in your name. Lord, Lord.

And Jesus is going to say depart from me. I never knew you The difference is faith. That's the difference. Who are the upright? Who are those in whom God delights in?

They are those who are righteous because of the righteousness of Christ received by faith alone. There are only two categories of people. This should be an encouragement to us that the prayer of the upright is God's delight. And He loves those who follow righteousness. What does it mean to follow righteousness?

That word follow is the same word as persecute. What do you do when you persecute somebody? You taunt them mercilessly. You do not give up. You pursue after them, don't you?

Wherever they are, you go find them so you can torment them. That's the sense of persecute. It's to pursue relentlessly. And that's the word here. And that's the word here.

He loves him who pursues, who follows, who relentlessly pursues righteousness. God delights in the prayer of the upright because the righteous are His people. They're the one in whom His Spirit dwells. Their graces are His work. Their righteousness is the righteousness of His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased.

They are His friends, Jesus said. You are my friends. I talk to you as one friend talks to another I tell you what's on my mind His people are his bride Yes, we are Christ's bride and he delights in us Our petitions are for His glory because they come from hearts that have been sanctified by His Spirit. They are petitions that have been formed by His Holy Spirit within us. They are petitions for His glory to be advanced, for His will to be done here on earth, for His kingdom to come.

Those are the petitions that come from hearts where the spirit dwells. Remember Samson? He had a lot of faults. He had trouble with prostitutes. It cost him everything.

And yet he's mentioned in Hebrews 11. And God heard Samson's prayer to give him strength one more time against the Philistines. There is Samson with all his sins and failings standing as a prisoner without sight. Being mocked he was a toy a plaything for three thousand Philistines just on the roof of their temple and who knows how many more around. Being made fun of, taunted, blind, Samson in that condition prayed to God, Lord one more time grant me strength.

And God heard his prayer. It was because it came, it was a prayer of faith. It came from one in whom his spirit dwelt. And God gave Samson strength one more time to pull down the pillars on which that roof was held up. The Bible says that there were more wicked destroyed in that one act, in Samson's death, than in all the Philistines that he killed in his life.

God heard his prayer, God delighted in His prayer, God answered His prayer. That's a beautiful thing. What a beautiful thing that the Lord delights in our worship. He delights in our prayers. What a beautiful thing that he hears our prayers, let alone that he delights in them.

That he is entreated by those prayers, and that he does great things because of those prayers. Not from any need that He has to hear our prayers. There isn't anything in us that inclines, in us by nature, that inclines God to hear our prayers. He delights in our prayers because we are His people in whom His Spirit dwells, who are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus. That ought to be a wonderful encouragement to prayer, to worship, to serve the Lord.

Christ died so that our prayers could be heard. He has merited that our prayers be heard. Said if you ask the Father anything in my name, He will give it to you. Christ will have that for which He has died. Christ also pleads the prayers of His people by His intercession at the right hand of God the Father.

He is sitting at the right hand of God the Father and ever living to make intercession for us. Our prayers are reinforced, are repleaded by Christ to the Father. Little later in this chapter, God Solomon says, the Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayers of the righteous. Not only hears them, He delights in them. Do you see the Father delighting in your prayers when you come to Him?

Is that what's on your mind? Is that what's in your heart? It should be because God does delight in the prayer of his people and that ought to be a great encouragement and a great motivation for us to come to the Father. Do you see a father who is angry? Then confess your sin and you will see a father who delights in your prayer, who delights in your sacrifice, who delights in you and in the offering of your life.

Two applications. We can't earn God's favor or blessing, right? We know that. It's not on our own merits or works. So if the prayer of the wicked is an abomination to God, and He is far from the wicked, but one has to first pray to God and ask God to save them in order to become saved, how could anyone ever become saved?

Do you think about that? If the prayer of the wicked is an abomination to God. And if somebody has to first pray to God in order for God to save them, how could anyone ever be saved? That's why the Bible says we are dead in our trespasses and sins. Dead people can't pray.

No, for us to be able to pray out and cry out to the Lord, the Lord has to first change our hearts. The Lord in His sovereign mercy reaches down and changes us and gives to us a new nature, regenerates us, makes us alive. And that's what Jesus spoke about to Nicodemus that he said the wind blows where it will you can't see it coming and going But you see its effect and that's the way the work of the Spirit is you can't see it But you see the effect and the effect when the Spirit has brought regeneration and life to a dead soul is that they cry out to the Lord. It's not the other way around. God doesn't save us because we cry out.

We cry out because God has saved us. God has regenerated us and we turn in faith and repentance to Him. Now one more question. What about our children? If the prayer of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, repulsive, repugnant, that from which He turns His face away, then should we ever teach our children who are born in sin, little heathens, Should we ever teach them to pray?

Wouldn't we just be bringing God's wrath and disfavor upon them? See, if it's true that they are unclean, Then we would. The prayer of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. If the children of believers were unclean and unholy, then their prayer would be an abomination to the Lord. But Jesus says just the opposite.

Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Peter in preaching to the Jews in the day of Pentecost said, Repent and believe for the promises to you and to your children and to all that are far off, even those the Lord our God shall call." Paul told the Corinthians that your children are holy. That's Why it's consistent that we baptize the children of believers because they are holy and God hears their prayers Their prayer the prayer of our little children is not an abomination to the Lord. The Lord delights the prayers of His people. The Lord delights in our sacrifice, in our worship, delights in our praise.

Do you love and delight in communion with the Lord As much as he delights and loves communion with you Almighty Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have loved us with an everlasting love. That you have loved us when we were yet unlovable, yet in our sins. Repulsive, abominable. You loved us. You gave us a new heart.

You put a right spirit within us. And you dwell with us. Father, we are grieved at our sin that grieves your spirit. That ruins our fellowship. Father, we thank you that you are faithful even when we are not, that You do not let go of us, and that there is indeed nothing that can separate us from Your love.

And we thank You for it. We ask that you might set us apart, that our worship and our praise, indeed all of the sacrifice of our life, our living sacrifice, might be acceptable and pleasing in your sight, even our eating and drinking. We ask all these things in Jesus' name, Amen.