If she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Death dissolves legal obligations. Verse four, wherefore, my brethren, ye are, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another man. even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. Now verse one of chapter eight. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be, that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, The body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. but if ye through the Spirit who mortify the deeds of the body ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. I never think of this chapter without recalling an incident that truly happened. Many years ago, I think I was on stage at the time when this took place, and the story was legally dead. In other words, a man was walking along the street and he heard a shot and he thought it was ahead of him, and so sure enough when he got up to the next block, he looked over a hedge and he saw a man lying on the ground. So he leaped over the hedge and got down beside the man and found out the man was dead. Well, only a couple of feet away from the man there was a revolver. And he picked up the revolver, and he was looking at the revolver, and looking at the dead man. And just then three or four others came. And they looked at the man, and they looked at the dead man on the ground, too, and they saw him holding the revolver, and of course a court case ensued. And he was judged guilty on circumstantial evidence. And he was sentenced to be hung. Well, there were a number who didn't sympathize with the case, especially a very brilliant doctor who knew this man very well. And at that time they hung people, and after the person was hung or he dropped, then he was examined by the prison official who represented the law in this case and pronounced dead. And when he was pronounced dead, the document was signed, and those who wished could claim the body, relatives or friends. And so it was on this occasion that when the man dropped through the trap and the physician, the doctor at the penitentiary, pronounced him dead, immediately this doctor, the friend of this man, claimed the body with three or four other friends, and they immediately began to work on. And finally they were able, as they were taking him to the doctor's office, finally after a considerable time, with the help of instruments and so on, they noticed a little activity in the heart. And it should, after a long struggle and battle, that man came back to light. Now, evidently, he didn't really die. But the story was legally dead. That man, in the eyes of the law, paid the penalty, and the doctor had signed it, legally dead. And yet he lived. And I've often thought of that when I have been reading in Romans chapter six and seven. Because of the law, we are legally dead in the sight of God. Now the law didn't die. We are the ones who die. And we'll see that in a few minutes as we take up the subject of the husband and wife. What does it mean to die? I've noticed several times when we've mentioned that during these studies. especially in chapters six and seven, about we being dead, the Christian dying with Christ. What does it mean to be dead? What do we mean by that? Well, I think tonight there are some people who are at home looking at the TV right at this moment. And the reason they are there is because they looked out and the weather was kind of bad. And nature would say, well, I'll just spend a quiet evening at home. And look at the TV, you've got to go to work tomorrow, and you need some rest. Remember, you were out at the church this morning once. And so nature wins the argument, and they stay home. Now, if they'd have really wanted to die to nature, and nature dies hard, If they had wanted to please God and really experience dying to that which nature desires and has an appetite for, they'd be here, regardless of circumstance. Some people, they'll go to a ball game with a high temperature and shout their heads off, but if they sneeze Sunday morning, no church. In other words, they don't know what it is to die to what nature wants. and do what the Spirit of God desires. In other words, nature just doesn't like to die or take the place of death. You have to know something of dying to certain things, especially in the day in which we live when you've got TV. And there are likely programs coming on that are just not for a Christian. And you know it. They are suggested that anything but... food for your soul, and a Christian should be so disciplined. He's going to die or say no to that which feeds the flesh. And upon the principle, I died with Christ. Certainly meaning, with Christ, look at that. I want to live the life of Christ. I crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, you doubt I, but Christ living in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Paul says for me to live is Christ. Now there was a man who knew something of dying with Jesus. He knew what it was, as he thought of his life. Only a young man, a brilliant young man, he said, I am ready to die. In fact, he says, I have a desire to die to be with Christ, which is far better than nevertheless for your sakes. I am going to remain. He said, I'm in a trick, which is true. I don't know which I want. Whether to go to heaven right now or stay here. And if I stay, I'm going to spend the rest of my life pleasing God by serving you. For me to live is Christ. To die is gain. Same thing comes to literature. A Christian today has got to make the choice in what he reads. And especially as it's true with young people, you see enough of it on the covers of magazines on the stands that immediately as you see it, if you're a Christian in fellowship with God, you're going to say, that's not for me. No, I'm not going to feed the old nature. I'm not going to feed the flesh without him. That's what it means to die to natural desires and appetites. And the Lord will give you the ability to do it. For instance, a carousing party. No, that's not the place for me as a Christian. Drinking. No, that's not for me. I'm a Christian. Would Jesus Christ do that? And to rob a bank is just about as bad. Would I rob a bank No. I'm dead to things of that kind, suggestions of that nature. That's not becoming a child of God. Or to curse. I couldn't conceive of Jesus Christ cursing. I can't conceive of a child of God's cursing. That belongs to the old man. The old nature, not the new life in Christ. And I'll say you can go on and think of stealing. A Christian would say immediately at the suggestion of stealing something, no. In other words, I am dead as far as that's concerned. I've died to those kind of things, or adultery, of course. And so is a case of death, dying to these things. And that's exactly what the Scripture means in these various chapters. the attitude of a dead person. I've died in Christ. You don't drink and smoke. I remember when I got saved, why people came up to me. They knew my life prior. I want to say this, however. I had my moral standards. I never got drunk or things of that nature. But I was rough. I will admit that to my shame. One sports writer said I was the roughest hockey player in OHA competition and ought to be barred. OHA competition, the Ontario Hockey Association. And really, it wasn't intentional. It was just a case of playing hard, and when you play any game hard, there are going to be collisions and there are going to be fatalities. But as far as that's concerned, when I gave all this up, why some of my old friends used to come to me, well, you're not going to play anymore, no. Are you not going to smoke? Nope. You're not going to go to any more of those dances we used to go to? The dance into the morning? The sun was coming up? Nope. Well, you might as well be dead. That was what they said, and that was true. Was I dead? I was dead for those things that I used to do. But I had a new life. I had another life to live. with other appetites, spiritual appetites, appetites that come from the Holy Spirit that's within, or an appetite, if you will, that comes from the Holy Spirit within, and desires, the desires of the new life in Christ. That's the point, and that's what he's talking about. For instance, take missionaries. Missionaries have to make a choice. And time and time again have I heard of certain missionaries. I like to read about missionaries. I do remember many years ago reading about two sisters over in England. Came from a wealthy family. They were well educated. But they had a burden for a certain continent, a very dark continent. Light was going to be rock. And these two sisters, they made up their mind. They were going as missionaries. And because of the nature of the field that God was laying upon their heart, they decided they were going to go single. They were going to put marriage out of their life, the two of them. They gave away their fortune, and they left and went to that mission field, and both of them lived to be quite old, before the Lord took them home to heaven. They went through hardships, trying times, In hell, they passed through painful experience, heartaches, disappointments, but they were doing it, looking after these poor heathens, both physically and spiritually, doing the meanest of tasks when they could have been over in England, enjoying that fortune in a lovely palace with servants to wait upon them. What did they do? They said no to the pleasures and luxuries of life that nature crave, that nature wants. They died to the things of this life that they might live unto God and live for the next life, and do things that will have a reward then when the things you do down here will die when you die, the things you do in the flesh. There's the case of these missionaries. It meant something for them to say goodbye to their loved ones, and they loved their brothers and sisters and parents just as much as you love yours. Yet they heard the call, and for Christ's sake they went. Well, that's not easy. That's what it means, as we have in these chapters, dying to natural desire. and passion and appetite. And in many cases they are not sinful. They are perfectly legitimate. That's perfectly natural for a young person, a young man, or a young woman to want to be married. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it, except that Paul says such shall have trouble in the flesh. You'll have your souls. You'll have your troubles. But there's absolutely nothing wrong with marriage. But I admire a young man or a young woman who will give up. I would say that strongest of human passion and human treasures, a love companion, and go to a foreign field, that's dying to self. That's being crucified with Jesus Christ that you might live his life and serve him and live in the light of eternity. Take the astronauts, if you will. I read quite an article a few years ago when these astronauts were preparing for space travel, and it was startling what those astronauts did. They had to deprive themselves of home life. They were away from their family, and the exercising they had to do day after day and week after week and certain diets, and what those boys went through. I was amazed at what they were going through that was just absolutely contrary to nature. What they were doing is that they might go out into space and reach the moon, which they eventually did, whether it was the glory of it or whether it was in order to give prestige to our government or what, but something motivated those men that made them do things that nature didn't want to do. Yet they did it. They did it. That's discipline. That's discipline. And I'm afraid we're living in a day when discipline is very seldom practiced. This dying to self, and you can bring this right down to diet, remembering that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. I could eat things that would make me sick as a dog in a few hours. But I won't eat. I know they taste good. Everybody has a sweet tooth. But this body doesn't belong to me. This my body belongs to the law. Am I willing to say no? Well, some people say it takes a strong will to do that. I'm going to put it this way. It doesn't take a strong will as much as it takes love for Christ. Love for Christ. Do you love him more than you love yourself? Do you realize that he has purchased your body? Do you realize he wants you to live for him? Because after all, this is the life that's going to really count in eternity. The boss will make it very plain that that which is tangible, that which is seen is temporal, but that which is not seen, that which is invisible, is eternal. And so it's just a case of what are we living for, this life or the next life. This withering life with its withering rewards or the unwithered life of eternity and the rewards and the crowns that will never fade nor die. These are decisions that people have to make if they're going to live for Christ, to die to something against nature, just for Christ's sake. That's it. And yet after all, is it hard? I can say personally that I have been far happier, and the older I get, the more joyful I am, that I made the decisions that I did in my early life. And don't you think it wasn't easy when I came to the Carolinas in my early twenties and knowing hardly anyone? There are my parents and four sisters and two brothers up in Canada. By that time my oldest sister Jessie had died, so there were just three sisters and two brothers, and all my friends and other relatives, and then to come down to a place, and of all times to come during the Depression, In nineteen thirty-one, thirteen million people in America out of work. And I had only a miracle I got through the customs, but I came, as I look back upon it now, I wonder how in the world I did it. Why did I do it? All I can say is that when God saved me, I had a desire to preach the gospel and to live for him. and to try and serve him as well as I had served the devil before. And I looked back on those occasions, many a night I walked the streets of Winston-Salem, just as lonely as a man could be. But I'd go home, and I might say this, that many a time I dropped on my knees, and I went out of sheer loneliness. And had it not been for the presence of God time after time, and the peace and the joy, I got out of reading my Bible and seeing people sing, these were the things that sustained me. Spiritual children became more precious to me than physical children. And I don't regret it. At that time it was hard. very hard to make some of those decisions. But, if you're going to do anything worthwhile, you're going to pay a price for it. You get what you go in for. And so this is the light. And I know young people think, well, that's pretty rough. I don't think I could do that. Yes, you can. The Lord will give you the strength, the strength to make decisions for His sake. I have no regrets. The only regret I would say I do have is that I didn't live more for Christ than I did. I can think of days I wasted. I can think of all things I did that have had my life to do over again I wouldn't do. Certainly. Nevertheless, there's that satisfaction in knowing that, in the measure of God's health, you did seek to live. that life that pleases him instead of pleasing yourself. Many a time I've had to do things that I didn't want to do. It wasn't my pleasing. It wasn't my choosing. But I knew the Lord wanted me to do it, and I did it to the best of my ability. As I reflect back upon those days, I praised God continually that I made the choice and the decisions that I did. And that's the happiest life. When you get older, you're able to reflect back upon the life that you lived and get a whole lot of consolation out of it. When I think of a lot of the colors that I was brought up with in Canada, I go home, I see them, they look ten, fifteen years old than they really are, and they've got nothing to look back on. Not a thing. Unsafe. Their life is wasted. Their life's gone. Nothing to look forward to but the Christians. The one who's born again and lives for Christ, the best is yet to be. The best is yet to be. His best comes in eternity when God will reward him for what he did for Christ down here after he was saved. Now for this chapter, we've been speaking about chapter six and seven. We didn't read very much of chapter seven, save for the first four verses. But I suppose you have read the whole chapter. If you're a young Christian, and if you're not a young Christian, I can see you reading through, you might say, the last twelve or fourteen verses of chapter seven. It seems like a riddle. And you're confused. The first time I read it, I was absolutely confused. I'm not going to say the first time. I'd say the first dozen times. The Apostle Paul here is in a situation... He's trying to battle against something. He seems confused at times, and he ends up by saying in verse twenty-four, O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this debt? Paul being a lawyer, he certainly did have a lawyer's mind. And when you read these chapters, these verses, like some documents today drawn up by lawyers for wills and mistakes and so on, you almost have to have a lawyer to read it and explain it to you, and for you to understand a lot of it, especially the fine print. And that's true with some of these things. You can see the legal mind of the Apostle Paul as he's fleshing out these technical points. But once you see the truth of them, they have a delivering power to them. And so they seem somewhat as a riddle and confusion to the average reader, unless we learn the secret, and the secret is found in chapter eight. And the light begins to break in verse twenty-five, after Paul says in verse twenty-four of chapter seven, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so then, with the mind I myself, serve the law of God, with the flesh, the law of sin. In other words, there is a law, the law of sin. And I am going to have that for the day of my death. And there are times I have got to recognize the authority of that. but my purpose in life is to serve the law of God and that and that alone. You know, chapter seven, I believe, is placed in here, just more or less, to be a warning that every Christian might realize this, that you cannot live the Christian life in your own strength. One of our brethren asks us tonight about a little boy who professes to be saved at the age of six. What do you think about that? Do you think he's really saved? Well, my comment is this. With children, you have to wait to see. It takes time. But there's also this point that if you don't have a series of a conviction or a period of conviction of sin, before you're saved, you're going to have it sometime after. Even as a Christian. The Apostle Paul was stricken down and saved under Damascus rule. There's no evidence that he went through weeks of deep conviction of sin. We have one little inkling when Stephen was stoned. Paul, Stephen's clothes were laid down at the feet of Saul. He eventually became Paul. And God said it is hard for thee to kick against the tricks. There are those little goadings of conviction. But there's no evidence the Apostle Paul passed through any deep season. or period of conviction of sin prior to his conversion, because he was so zealous for the God of his father that he persecuted Christians, he was actually putting him to death, thinking he was doing God's service. But I'll tell you one thing, after he got saved, he didn't have much conviction of sin prior to it, but after he got saved, he went through it, and that's why you have chapter seven. He had to learn a few things. why he became astonished when he discovered that the law that he was so zealous to keep, instead of being a minister of life, he found it to be a minister of death. He tells you that, I think it's in verse nine of chapter seven. For I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. In other words, the very thing he was trusting him to take him to heaven, he found out he was going to hell condemned by it. And that's true even today. A lot of people, they're trusting in the Ten Commandments to take them to heaven. And if they really saw the truth of the Ten Commandments and analyzed them, instead of putting any confidence in the Ten Commandments to take them to heaven, they find themselves condemned by the Ten Commandments. under the sense of death, cursed by the law. They flee from Sinai to Mount Calvary, where Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes. And there are people today who are trusting in their good works to take them to heaven, when their good works are only condemning and are but filthy rags in the sight of God. The Apostle Paul had a lot of confidence in the law and the Jewish economy until He learned, and likely he learned this in the three years in Arabia, he passed through the experience of what you've got here in chapter seven. And what a conflict is going on in chapter seven. He had to learn a lot of things, that the law wouldn't save him, that the law condemned him. And there was no need of him, a man in the flesh, trying to keep the demands of the law. his only deliverance from the clutches of the law, where through the Holy Spirit that indwelled him. And I certainly believe that Paul is a saved man. When he passed through this experience, some say they believe he was unsaved. I don't, because no unsaved person could use the language of verse twenty five. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. No unsaved person could say that. Here is Paul's conflict, learning himself, learning he had a sinful nature, learning that he was so helpless he couldn't meet the requirements of the law. Death is the only force that can liberate from the claims of sin in chapter six and the claims of the law in chapter seven. You have death as a king in chapter five. You have sinned as a master in chapter six. You have the law as a husband in chapter seven. And death is the only force that can deliver you from all three of these things. Association with Christ and his death and resurrection liberates from all three. Now let us notice just briefly what he's saying about the husband. And this chapter, chapter seven, deals with the Christian's relation to the law, the Ten Commandments. Nothing wrong with the law, but there's something wrong with me trying to keep the law. Notice in the first verses of chapter seven, Know ye not, brethren, for I speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion over the man as long as he lived. For the woman which hath an husband is bound by that law to her husband, so long as he lived. But if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband, so that if while her husband liveth she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. In other words, to be married to another man while her first husband is living, is adultery. You can't be married, and Paul is bringing this out, you can't be married to the law, united to the law, and be married to Jesus Christ at the same time. Because the law and Christ are in direct opposition to each other when it comes to salvation. And you can't keep them alone and claiming Christ as your Savior at the same time. You can't do it. The Galatians tried it. Well, what are you going to do? Does the law die? No, the law doesn't die. The strange argument in this case, it's the wife who dies, not the husband. The law doesn't die. The law is still alive, very much alive. But it's the wife that dies. And when she realizes that she has done with Christ, now she's free to be married to another, and that is to Christ. And that gives you that in verse four. Notice what it says in verse four of chapter seven or five. No, that verse. Yeah, it is verse four. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law of how? By the body of Christ or by the death of Christ. That ye should be married to another. Who? Him. who is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God. In other words, the death of Jesus Christ, when I realized that Jesus died for me, it simply meant this. The law had no more rule over me. The law is no longer my husband, and I don't have to obey the law. I'm free from the law legally then. Now that man, we referred to a while ago, if he were a married man, I don't remember the full details of the incident. He could have married another woman, and the law couldn't have touched him, because he was legally dead. And the marriage ceremony in this sense is a legal transaction. And in Christ, I died to the demands, the authority, or the law. See, being set free from the death or the penalty of the law, being free from the power of the law, being free from the authority of the law, I can now be remarried or united to another because I have been raised from the dead. I live anew, and now I can be joined to Jesus Christ, married to him, And that's the story of the husband and the wife, and how he's using the husband, the first husband, as a picture of the law, and the second husband is Christ. The death of Christ meets all the requirements of the first husband, the law, and delivers you from his authority and his power that you might be married to him, joined to him, who died for you, Jesus Christ. And Christ will never become your husband. You'll never be united to Jesus Christ if you're still trying to trust the law, the Ten Commandments, to take you to heaven. You can't be united to the two at the same time. It would be spiritual adultery. That's what the Apostle Paul is pointing out here. It's a technical point. It's a legal point. But it's a forceful point. I am free from the law, oh happy condition. Jesus has bled and dared his remission. I am united to Jesus Christ, because when he died on the cross, I died with him, and I died to all the claims of the law which had condemned me. And now I am married to Jesus Christ, and the Son shall make you free. He shall be free indeed. And so Jesus Christ is the one our new husband, and in him we have life. Death dissolves legal obligations. So the one, that is, the law. But when we have Christ, it's a new law. It's love and loyalty to our new husband. I think we pointed that out last week in verse two of chapter eight. For the law, the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and of death. Union with the law brings bondage. In verse five, as you notice in chapter eight, the day that are after the flesh, do mine the things of the flesh. The day that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit. But union with Christ means freedom. That's in chapter seven. Chapter seven. Verse five is bondage. Verse five, chapter seven. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin, where which were by the Lord, it worked. in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But verse four, the verse we mentioned, it's a different story. Verse seven, verse four. Wherefore, chapter seven, verse four. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law, for the body of Christ that he should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. You see, the close of verse five, fruit unto death? Close of verse four, fruit unto God. It's the one or it's the other. If you're trying to get or become a Christian, a spiritual Christian, especially, and you're trying to do it through the law, it just means bondage. But if you're occupied with Christ and you're united to Him, He's giving you the strength. It means His fruit unto God. In Christ we share His triumphs, His present life, His future glory. and there's no separation nor divorce to this union. Remember that. When you're married to Jesus Christ, that conversion, the Apostle Paul, he brings this language in. He said, I'm jealous over you with a godly jealousy that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Imagine him using that language of the church. Speaking of the church's purity, And we're spoken of as the bride of Christ. The bride of Christ. I wonder if we really are maintaining that purity. And that's what we have in chapter eight of Romans. Is the purity of the Christian as the bride, the spouse of Jesus Christ. So in Christ we share his past triumphs, his present life, his future glory. And there's no separation associated with. Or connect with this. No divorce, and I'm glad for that. This brings in the eternal security of the believer. There can be no divorce in this state between Christ and the church. For one thing, Jesus Christ wouldn't permit divorce proceedings. We cost them too much. He loves us too much, and I've yet to see the Christian who wants to be divorced from Jesus Christ because he's a disappointment. Why do human beings seek divorce? They just can't get along together. They're disappointed. But you can't say that Jesus Christ is a disappointment. And he's the easiest one to get along with. And if you can't get along with Jesus Christ, you can't get along with his people either. It's the brethren and the sisters who are getting along well with Jesus Christ that can get along well with one another. So there are no divorces or separations in this case, because the bride of Christ can find no fault in the lover of their souls, the Lord Jesus Christ. This union is eternal. We have His name. We have His nature. We have His life. We have His power. But when a lady gets married, young girl gets married, she takes the name of their husband. When we get married to Christ, through our conversion, we took His name. We're Christians. Not only did we take His name, we took His nature, the nature of Christ. Not only so, His life became my life. There was a suitability. You know, in connection with some marriages today, there is such a thing as an unequal yoke. The Bible speaks about it. An unequal yoke. Take a person who is very brilliant and intelligent, marrying a person whom you would call a donbail, that's an unequal yoke. You take a strong, healthy person, who marries someone who's a weakling, sickly, doesn't have any evidence of long life, that to me is a physical unequal yoke. And also socially, a millionaire marrying a pauper, it's just an unequal yoke. Nationalities, in many cases it's an unequal yoke. like an American marrying a Japanese and religiously unequal youth, a Catholic marrying a Protestant. And how well I know it, but my brother was coming down this coming Sunday. He did marry a Catholic girl, and yet he knew better. He doesn't even go to any place of meeting. To this day hasn't been, I suppose, the last time he went was when I was home twenty-some years ago. And he went to hear his preach, and he brought Bertie with him, and Bertie told me, she said, I would have gone with George wherever George wanted to go. But she said, when David became of age, instead of him wanting to go, should I have gone to the chapel if he had gone? But he wouldn't go. and there have been some arguments ensued ever since. We've got an unequal yoke. That's why the Apostle Paul speaks of Christians being unequally yoked together with unbelievers. There are these unequal yokes, but I'll tell you when the Lord Jesus tried to save you, although one could say this is an unequal yoke, the Son of God choosing me, A poor, guilty sinner, could you think of anything more than equal than that? The one who owns the universe could think on me a pauper or don't own a penny? One who knows everything should think on me and save me and I know nothing? Could you find anything more than equal than that? And yet that's exactly what happened. He saved me. And we are heirs of God than joint heirs with Jesus Christ. All equality, all unequality is removed, and he puts us on the same plane as himself. He's satisfied with me and why I don't know. I know I'm satisfied with him. And in the measure that we're satisfied with Jesus Christ, there'll be no divorces, there'll be no separation. There couldn't be because we're his forever. He's purchased us. We're members of his body. We belong to him. United by the Holy Spirit. And so it's absolutely impossible for that union between a sinner and Christ to be broken or severed. And if there's not any enjoyment of that communion, that's not his fault. It's our fault. Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we come into thy presence. We ask thy blessing upon thy word. We thank thee for our Lord Jesus Christ. And we remember his complaint to the church at Ephesus, the complaint of wounded love, when he could say that that church had left its first love, its first affection, its first devotion, to her, his husband. We thank thee, Father, that he never changes. The wife, the bride changes, but not Christ, the bridegroom, having loved his own which were in the world he loved them unto the end. We thank thee for the patience, the tenderness, the care, the compassion, the consideration of our Lord Jesus Christ. one whom were united, and that forever, severed from the law, severed from all the works of the flesh, united to him eternally. For this we give thanks in his worthy and precious name. Amen.