Smith, Dan (Vancouver): Christ As Head Of The Body ~ Col 1:9-18

Now, I thought tonight we would, uh, we would read a few verses from Colossians, the Epistle to the Colossians, and, uh, chapter one. The Epistle to the Colossians and chapter one And reading from verse nine. For this cause, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long suffering with joyfulness, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sin, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. I just want you to look at that figure in verse eighteen. He is the head of the body, the church. Now, the apostle was writing to these saints that were in Colossae. He himself probably had never visited Colossae, and these believers had been converted largely through the ministry of Epaphras, but they were in danger of being spiritually seduced, uh, by cult teachers who were teaching the worshiping of angels, the Gnostic heresy, flavored with, uh, a bit of Judaism, uh, or observance of the Mosaic ritual, and abstinence from meat. And the apostle is burdened to write to the believers in Colossae and to point out that all these things are works of the flesh and that we are not saved through, uh, such activities. It is not in the salvation of God, it is not that we do our best and maybe attain twenty five or seventy percent of our salvation, and God makes up the rest. We are saved by grace and by grace alone. And, uh, as believers, we are not under law. That is, we are not under the law of external commandments, uh, not under any law of external commandments. That is to say, uh, believers, for instance, we do not steal, but we do not steal not because we are trying our best to keep a law, an external law, outside ourselves. It is because we are so united to Christ, and we have such a life in Christ that we don't want to. And, uh, so God's people are not a lawless people. When we say that we are, uh, that we are not under law, we do not say that we are a lawless people, but we are under law to Christ, and we are so united to Christ that as the body is to the head, that we are governed by him and receive our direction from him, moment by moment, so that, uh, we are under law to a living head. Now, we look first of all then tonight, look, we might look at the church as the Lord's body, and there are certain, come in sisters, there are certain, oh, brother. My eyes are not too good. Um, there are certain features of, uh, there are certain individual features of identification concerning the Lord's body. Uh, the church is the Lord's body, and I say there are individual features of identification which mark out that body. Uh, there are many, many features, of course, but I'll give you perhaps two negatives and two positives. These are individual features, that first of all, God's people are a separated people. We are a people separated from the world in which we live. Um, when Adam first sinned against God, he not only yielded his own life to Satan, but he also yielded the ground of earth over which he was an overseer. And consequently, yielding the ground to Satan, Satan has been able to build on the earth a great system, a godless system, a great system without reference to God. There are many parts to that system. There's a political part, there's a commercial part, grab what you can. There's a, uh, an educational, uh, uh, part. It's a strange thing in our universities, you can get, in some universities, you can get a course on Satanism, and you can get a course on the occult, but you can't get a course on the word of God, because it's, uh, a system without reference to God. And so the recreational system too is a system without God. So Satan has been able to build up a tremendous world system, which in the end time, in Revelation, is called Babylon, confusion. But it is a great worldwide system with many parts, many s- many smaller systems which are parts of it, and therefore we are told to come out from the world and be not conformed to the world. That is, we don't, we have to live in the world, but we are not to follow its principles and practices. We are a separated people. We are separated unto the Lord, and, uh, we are to come out from the world as Abraham came out from, was sent out from Ur of the Chaldees. Ur of the Chaldees was a highly civilized and a great educational center in times past, in those days. And we are to come out as Israel came out of Egypt. We are to be a separated people. Now, God's people are different to all the peoples that are in the world. It isn't that we are different physically. We are no different physically. We have the same troubles, we have the same cancers, the same housemaid needs, or whatever you've got, as the people in the world. Uh, we are the same, uh, temperamentally as people in the world. Some of the Lord's people just as queer as the people in the world. But, um, the difference is that we have received, uh, a new life in Christ, and it's this new life in Christ which has made us different. And it's not because we are wiser than the people of the world, although not all the Lord's people are dumbbells, of course. It's not because we are wiser or better than the people of the world. It's because of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, the sense redeemer, and that from him we have received a new life, a divine life, heavenly life, spiritual life, and it's that new life in Christ that has made us different to all the peoples of the world. I remember going to, uh, the first time I went to China, when we got to Singapore, which is ninety percent Chinese. I hadn't seen Chinese people in my life before, but I think I could have walked down with it. When you first see a foreign people, they all appear same. You can't distinguish them very well, but I think I could have walked down the main street at Sing- in Singapore, and, and uh, uh, I could have chosen out God's people. There was such a difference, you could see it, and maybe it's plainly seen on the Orientals. They seem to have a real change of, of uh, look when they believe. And this was so real to me that, uh, with my friend with me, we were, the ship was in dock and we were walking down the street in port, in Singapore, and I saw two young fellas at the corner, standing at the corner, and I said to my friend, I said, aren't, don't they look like Christians? I'm going to ask them. I went over and I said, excuse me, uh, fellas, but I said, may I ask you, are you Christians? And their faces lit up, their eyes shone, and they said, yes, oh yes. We are just two of two thousand that were converted last week under John Fong, the great Chinese evangelist. There it was, just converted a week, but you could see it, and there was a difference. And so God's people are a different people, they're a distinguished people. They're a different people to all the people in the world. We are separated from all, just as Israel was separated from all the nations. So God's people are a separated people. Secondly, we are a persecuted people. We live in a hostile world, and the people of God are subject to, uh, persecution. You remember that it says of Saul of Tarsus in his pre-conversion days that he made havoc of the church, and breathing out threatens and slaughter, he went up to Damascus to, uh, take believers and put them in prison, but met the Lord on the way. But he was breathing out like a wild bull, snorting, just breathing out his hatred for God's people. And this has been true from the beginning of time. From the beginning, when man sinned against God, this has been true. We live in a hostile world, and if we believe, we are not to expect the world to pat us on the back or to rub us down. Uh, go back in the Old Testament, for instance, go back right to the first family, and Abel was killed by his brother Cain in the first family because he was righteous. Noah was tossed on the waters of the great flood. Abraham had to leave his country and his kindred, and uh, Joseph was flung into a pit and sold down to Egypt. Moses was affronted. Samson had his eyes put out. Uh, Isaiah was thrown asunder. Jeremiah was put into prison. So all the way through the Old Testament. When you come to the New Testament, uh, uh, you have the, uh, the apostles, and every one of the apostles, except perhaps John, came to a violent end. I myself have been, uh, to the grave of Thomas in India. Uh, uh, the burial place is Madras in India, but every one of the apostles except John came to a violent end. And, um, in the post-apostolic age, then you have the ten great persecutions by ten great, uh, by ten Caesars of Rome, a persecution that lasted for three hundred years, and during which probably ten millions of believers were slain during those three hundred years. The church lived by its own blood in those days. And rascals such as Nero and Julian and Diocletian were preeminent for their cruelty. But some, like Polycarp, the friend of John, wa- was burned at the stake, as an old man of eighty seven. And Ignatius was roasted on griddite. And uh, forty saints of Cappadocia were frozen in a lake, and so on. Many, many hundreds were flung to the lions in the arena, men, women, and children, flung to the lions just to make sport for the crowd. And so you have in those post-apostolic age, uh, age, you have the, all of which you can re- read in Foxe's Book of Martyrs. And uh, then when you come to the Middle Ages, the world has not lost its character. Same old world, persecuted world, and believers during a Spanish Inquisition were stretched on la- racks, inch by inch, day by day, terrible torment. And today, the world is just the same. They may not feel the brunt of it here, although some of our children going to school feel it and feel the, uh, they're not wanted at the school, and uh, and uh, they feel the sh- the the reproach of being the Lord if they stand on their feet for the Lord. And uh, those of us that have lived through China days, we know how much uh, believers have suffered in China, and uh, many of them in Russia too, and under these great persecutive uh, regimes that they have found the world to be a hostile world. So God's people are a persecuted people. These are marks of identification. They are a separated people, they are a persecuted people, but now two positives. They are a praying people. God's people are a praying people, and I think this is probably one of the best marks of identification, that God's people pray. Now, you remember that, um, you remember when Saul of Tarsus was converted, the Lord spoke to an unknown disciple, we never heard of him, in Damascus. Evidently, there was a little meeting in Damascus, and the Lord spoke to one believer there by name of Ananias, and he said, Ananias, and he said, here am I. Uh, he was right on the job. I think if the Lord had to call some of his people by name, they wouldn't be able to find them. They get into such queer places. But Ananias was right on the job. He said, here am I, Lord. The Lord wanted, uh, the Lord sent him, wanted him to go to speak to Saul of Tarsus. And he said, Saul of Tarsus. He said, we, why, that man's a ravening wolf, he said. Uh, you know, he's coming up to Damascus to persecute. And the Lord summed up the conversion of Saul of Tarsus in that pregnant little verse, uh, pregnant little word, behold, he prayer. As though he had never prayed in his life before, and certainly he had never prayed in the spirit. He probably said his prayers like a Buddhist with a prayer wheel or something, been through the ritual because he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, but now he was really praying, really praying. And this is one of the marks of God's people, that they are a praying people. I didn't go to seminary myself, and I didn't have too much formal education, but I did go to Bible school for nine months under the scholarly and evangelical, uh, Samuel Chadwick. And, uh, I remember Mr. Chadwick, before he died, giving us a word of testimony one night, and he told us how he was converted as a boy of eight. He was brought up in a mining village, and his mother sent him one day on a message to a Mrs. Davenport up the street. It was just a mining village, very poor home, pressed the smack on the door and opened the door, and he said when he opened the door, he saw Mrs. Davenport on her knees, and he knew that she was a woman of God. And he came under deep conviction that as a boy of eight, from that moment, he himself began to seek the Lord. So you see, it is a mark of God's people. You see a, a person on their knees praying in communion with God, especially in private, you know that they are the Lord's people. God's people are a praying people, and prayer is, I think there are these four parts to prayer. I think, first of all, it is communion, communion, uh, with the Lord, that we commune with him because we have been born again, we have been given his life, we are part of his family, we can talk to him, we can dress him as our father in heaven. So there is communion, and it is something to be preserved, is this communion with the Lord. And then it's cooperation with him in his purposes and in his ways, and it is intercession on behalf of others, and it's warfare. This is where you fight your greatest battle on your knees in prayer. God's people are a praying people. Then another mark of identification is that they are a holy people. It's, uh, in the letter to the Hebrews, chapter three. it talks about, uh, it addresses believers as holy brethren, not Baptist brethren or Presbyterian brethren or Darby brethren or Kelly brethren or whatever you have, but holy brethren, holy brethren. And that means that it does not mean, it does not mean that we have attained, uh, to perfect holiness or to a sinless state. It means negatively, as it says in Corinthians, that we cleanse ourselves from all the filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, and positively that we seek conformity, to be conformable to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. That the general trend of our life is to put off the works of the flesh and to seek to be conformed to the image of the Lord. So these are individual marks of i- individual features of identification. The Lord's people are a separated people and the praying people, uh, uh, separated people and the persecuted people and the praying people and the holy people. And then there are corporate marks of identification. There are corporate marks of identification, as we see in First Corinthians chapter twelve. And first of all, God's people are a united people. They are a united people. It says in, uh, verse twenty four of chapter twelve, the first Corinthians, God has tempered the body together, verse twenty five, that there should be no schism in the body. This was why Paul was writing to the Corinthians, because they were using the ministries that God was sending them, using these ministries to turn these ministries into sects, into division. So some became followers of Paul, and some of Apollos, and some of Peter. Some liked the logic of Paul, and some liked the rhetoric and the eloquence of Apollos, and some liked Peter because I suppose he was a regular kind of Joe. We could all identify with him. But, uh, they were divisions, making divisions, and these were only ministering servants that God was sending to them, but they were exalting them and becoming followers of men and follow- instead of followers of the Lord, and consequently creating divisions. Now, God's people are a united people, and, uh, I think this is one of the things that brought me into assembly life, is that I saw that, uh, the sects are mutually exclusive. We shut each other out. Uh, you have to, uh, subscribe to our creed and, uh, so on. And if you don't, for instance, if I went over to my own country, England, and, um, I wanted to have communion, uh, at the Church of England's place, I wouldn't be allowed to go to the table because I haven't been confirmed, and, uh, so I'm excluded. Uh, sects are mutually excluded, but God's people are uni- united people. You know what a terrible thing it is to be, to have a body that's chopped up? I was reading an awful story in, in Judges, Judges chapter nineteen. you remember, Judges nineteen where, uh, uh, one of the, the, the, one of the Levites, what is it, with a concubine, he took her home, chopped her up into twelve pieces, and sent a piece to each tribe of Israel. Said such a thing had never been seen nor heard of before, nor since. Terrible thing to see a chopped up body. And yet we do this thing with the, with the, with the, with believers. We, we, we create division, we chop it up, so to speak. But from God's point of view, uh, God's people are a united people. They're just one people. There's one family, one temple, one body, one everything. It's always one, one fold, one sheepfold. It's always one. From God's point of view, we are a united people. God has tempted the body together. The moment we have believed, we believe we are baptized into that body. We are part of that body, but we are united people. We need each other. Uh, I need you, you need me, we need the other one. We need each other, and we are to be together as a united people if we are to, uh, follow the Lord. Then we're not only a united people, but, uh, we are a variety of members, just like the body is. There's a variety of members. Um, uh, each one does something for the body that no other member does. The eye sees for the whole body, the ear he hears for the the whole body, the foot walks for the whole body, the hand toils for the whole body, and so on. That is, we, each one of us do something for the body that no other person can do. We are a member of the body, and therefore it says in verse 15, if the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? If the ear shall say, because I am not of the eye, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? If you say, for instance, I can't preach, I can't get up, well, you say, I can't preach, I'm not of the body. Oh yes, you are. If you're a true believer, you are a member of the body. You are a member of the body. And the body has a variety of members, and not all the members are, uh, not all the members are published. Uh, a lot of, we've got a lot of members inside of us. Uh, um, we, there are a lot of members that are unpublished. You can't see them, and uh, they're secret, and there are a lot of believers like this that are secret believers. You don't know them. You don't know. They're not public. They don't get up and preach and things like that. They- they're just secret believers. They just, uh, do their work quietly unto the Lord, but they're part of the body, and they're, uh, there's an infinite variety. Now, this means that if there's a variety of member, it means, first of all, that there is, um, there is a sense of responsibility, that we are, uh, that we have a place to, we have a place in the body, and therefore we are to function. We are to function in the place that the Lord has given us, and function as whatever member we may be in that body. We have a responsibility to function. We are to function. We are not to be idle. We're to function. And therefore, you're not to say because you can't do this and you can't do that, you're not of the body. You are of the body, if you are a true believer. And this gives also not only a sense of responsibility, it also gives a sense of limitation. We're not the whole body. We're just a member of the body. Uh, there are some who, in these days, emphasize tongues as though the body was one big tongue, and there are some who, uh, emphasize go, go, go, must be a missionary, so that the body is one big foot. Well, there's a variety of members in the body, variety of members, and this gives us a sense of limitation. We're not everything, we're just a member of the body, just a member of the body, and therefore it says, uh, we are dependent upon each other, interdependent and interrelated. Uh, verse twenty one, uh, and the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. You can't say, because you can't say to any true believer, I can get on without you. No, you can't. No, you can't. And, uh, uh, we are not to say that to any believer because we need each other. Uh, I need you, you need me, we need the other self. We all need each other. We're interrelated and interdependent. So this is a corporate mark that Lord God's people are a united people, and also there's a variety of members among us. And there's one spirit, there's only one spirit. In our mortal body, we as as as as human beings, we have one spirit, so the body of Christ. Eh, there there's only the Holy Spirit indwells the real body of Christ, and the Holy Spirit is present in each of us, and it's remarkable, uh, that we have this same spirit. I remember when we came out of China along the Burma Road, and we came to Laxio in the northern parts of Burma, and about believers from about ten different tribes came to welcome us. We couldn't talk their language, but they held our hands, they were so glad we came out of China and held our hands, loved us up, and the same spirit, same spirit. Didn't understand their languages, but you could end with the Holy Spirit within us. We know that the Holy Spirit is within because he gives consciousness. We do wrong, for for instance, if we do something wrong, the Holy Spirit will soon let us know about it. And if we do something that's pleasing to God, he let us know about it too, that he has pleasure in doing it, in our doing it. So these, I think, are corporate features of identification, uh, that we are a united people, we are a united body, that there are, there is a variety of member, uh, members, and we're, we're indwelt by one spirit. Now, that's the body. Now it tells us that Christ is the head of the body. Christ is the head of the body, and this is very important that we remember the headship of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no Pope of Rome that is the head of the church, and there's no Protestant council that's head of the church. It's Christ who is head of the church, and that's clearly written here, that he is head of the body, and um, he, he is the head, and it's just as well to look at your own body and to find out lessons from the head. Uh, the head, for instance, is the seat of dignity. It's, uh, the uppermost part of the body, the most beautiful part of the body, most lovely part of the body. It's the highest part of the body. So in all things, Christ has the preeminence, and, uh, he is in the seat of dignity. He, the trouble with the, uh, Corinthian church was that they were exalting Paul and Apollos and, uh, Peter and looking up to them. Well, they were only members of the body. You see, if you saw a man going down the street and, uh, you saw a man walking on his head down the street, you'd think he was crazy. Probably would be. Uh, simply because i- his head is in the wrong place if he's walking on his head. His head is in the wrong place. If you saw a man walking with his head between his knees, same thing. He'd think he's crazy. He would be. His head is in the wrong place. The head is the preeminent part, and therefore we are to hold the head. And the apostle warns us against this. He, he exhorts us to this, holding the head, hold to the headship of Christ in the church. He is head of the church. These are the heads. No one else is head of the church. Christ is the head of the church, and we are to hold this, whatever we suffer for, uh, whatever, uh, no matter how we suffer. You know, if you're in a car accident, uh, for instance, you know how instinctively and intuitively your, the members of your body, you, you, you guard your head. Doesn't matter what the member suffers, but you guard the head. And so we have to guard the headship of Christ. Guard the headship of Christ. He is preeminent in all things. He is preeminent. The most beautiful part of the body is Christ. Also the head is a seat of government. It's the head that teaches, uh, the body. It's the head that governs the body. It's the head that tells my arm when to rise and when to fall. It's the head that teaches my foot when to go and when to stop. It's the head that teaches my mouth when to open and when to shut. It's my mu- the head that teaches my lips when to speak and when not to speak. Everything is governed by the head. He is the seat, the head is the seat of government. And so, and so with Christ, he is the head of the church in that respect. He is the head of the church, and um, the governor of the body, and where you have that, then you have a harmonious body. Unless the head governs the body, you have a spastic condition, and the, the, the members are wobbling all over the place, which is sad to see. But where there is a normal, where there is a proper government of the head of the body, then you have a very harmonious body. You don't have members fighting against each other. You don't have the hand, uh, hitting the foot and the the foot, uh, hitting somewhere else. You don't have that. You have a harmonious body when it's under the government of the head. Then too, the head is a seat of wisdom. There's no wisdom in your foot, for instance, and there's no wisdom in your hand. The wisdom is in the head, and the, uh, uh, the, uh, uh, all the wisdom is in the head, and Christ is, is the wisdom of God, and he is made unto us wisdom. Now listen, what a privileged people we are to have a living head who is the wisdom of God. What a privileged people, so that he can teach us anything. I myself came out, I- I didn't come from a Christian family, and I'm not a seminarian, and I'm not, uh, but through the years, the, I- I- the Lord has taught me certain things, and I don't know very much now, but the Lord has taught me through the years, and because I'm joined to him, and he's a living head, and he's the wisdom of God, and he can impart that wisdom to us. And this is what is wrong with the world, that it has no head. That's why the world is in confusion. It has no head. Adam was appointed the federal head of the human race, but Adam died. It has no head, no living head. I remember, for instance, when I was a boy at home, I remember my grandfather was a a very crude old man, a bit of a pirus on the high seas, I think, and uh, uh, he used to come down the Caribbean, I think, and do a bit of pirating, and uh, he was a crude old man, anyhow. When he came home, I remember coming from sea one day, and mother wanted a mother, my mother wanted a chicken killed for the evening meal. We had some chickens in the back garden, and she wanted the chicken killed. She asked granddad to go and, uh, if he would go and kill the chicken for the evening meal. That old man just caught a chicken, and he put it in the, the, the door jam and took the door and smacked the door. And I remember the head falling and the chicken rising, and the, the chicken without a head flying around the kitchen without a head, and, uh, uh, flying on its nose until finally it fell. Uh, that's a, a funny kind of thing, but it's what is wrong with the world. It has not a living head going on its nerves. It has not a living head, and therefore is, is not wise, and uh, it's filled with confusion. And uh, but toward the end time, we are told that the world is going to choose a head and try to stick one on to our total humanity, and what it sticks on will be the Antichrist. And uh, uh, then we shall have a false head. But what a privilege it is to have, uh, be believers and to be joined to Christ in such a way that he is our wisdom, and we are governed by a very wise head. Also, the head is a seat of sympathy. The seat of sympathy. The sympathy is in the head. You know, I remember when I was a little boy, uh, we had a clipped mat at home, and I was walking over this mat, and I stood on a needle, and it broke off and went into my foot, and it took three operations to find that. And, um, but you know, that was probably, that's about the farthest away member from the head. But as soon as a, a hurt comes into the farthest away member, immediately the head knows. And there's a better telephone system, a telegraphic system in your body than ATC or any of them, bell system or anybody, anything. There's a perfect telegraphic system in your body. As soon as any member is hurt, the head knows, and the head dispatches, uh, the comfort. The head might, for instance, where if you get something in your toe like that, the head might say to the, the hand, for instance, grab that toe. And, uh, or the head might, uh, uh, send, uh, uh, several thousand blood corpuscles around there to surround that invasion and to see that infection doesn't spread or something like that. It's the head that comforts. It's the head that sends help. See, a lot of people fall into error here, uh, in this very thing. If they're in trouble and they, they go around telling their sad story to different people, you know, until they come across somebody who's a bit hard-boiled, and they say, oh, get away, you're just full of self-pity. Then they're hurt. But if you leave it to the Lord, the Lord will appoint who has to visit, and the Lord will appoint who has to comfort you. And if he sends somebody, it's going to be real comfort. And so the, the head is the seat of sympathy, and don't you look for it, and don't you, the Lord will comfort you, and the Lord will appoint who has to come and comfort you. Also, the head is the seat of honor. You honor the head. For instance, those of us that have been in India, and we spent, uh, several years in India after coming from China and after Sri Lanka, uh, and I remember returning once to India for some special meeting, and they wanted to express their thanks. This is how the Indians do it, the East Indians do it. They garland you, they garland you. It's a bit embarrassing to us. I remember that day they, they put three garlands around my neck, uh, around my head. You know, that's the way of expressing their thanks, is to garland you. Now, when they garland you, they don't say, hold your foot out, brother. They don't garland your foot, and they don't garland your arm. They garland the head. That is honor. They garland the head. And so with the Lord Jesus Christ. We say, not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name be glory. I am what I am by the grace of God, and all the honor and all the glory is given to him. And so he is the one that we honor, and he's the one that we love. And so there is a wonderful, uh, if you just look at your body, you'll find a wonderful description of the union. There are other figures, such as bridegroom and bride, but this is, this is a special figure, and I think we see in the union of the head and the body a wonderful figure of the union between believers and their Lord. You know, it's a strange thing, but this is a true, uh, I've seen this. I've been in a typhoon down around about Hong Kong, and in a big typhoon or a, uh, uh, a great hurricane or, uh, you see sometimes roofs taken away, you see houses blown away, but you never see even the wildest typhoon, you never see them, you never see it blow anybody's head off. Because there's a, there's a tremendous union. There is, I, I don't know, but I've heard that there are seven great veins, seven very strong veins that hold the head to the body, and not even the wildest, uh, hurricane can blow your head off. Uh, there's a strong union there, and this is just, uh, uh, emblematic of the union that is between believers and their Lord Jesus Christ, that we are joined to him and joined to him in such a way that we cannot be separated. We are his and his forever, and what a blessed union it is. Shall we pray? Our gracious God and Father, we give thee thanks for this hour together, and we bless thee for the figure which thou hast, uh, presented to us tonight. We thank thee for this blessed union between Christ and this church. We thank thee, our Father, thou hast joined us to thy beloved Son, and joined us in such a way that we can never be separated from him. And so we thank thee, uh, for this, uh, figure, and we thank thee for our union with him, and we pray that more and more as the days go by, we may appreciate this union, and we may remember always that nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Receive our grateful thanks, we pray, for thy name's sake. Amen.