Y'all like this reminder that
the best clothing in the world is long johns? This is my favorite. Okay, if you would, let's go
ahead and bow our heads in prayer this morning. Dear Lord, we're
so grateful and so thankful to be here today. I so look forward to hearing
your message preached by Bill once again this morning. Open our eyes, open our hearts.
Give us more love to you. Give us more love to your wonderful
son, the Savior. We've got to have him, dear Lord. There's no hope without him.
It's my prayer. That he is made. The one and
only to all of us. Amen. Now at 625 this morning
I had the remembrance of some pleasant days gone by. I remembered
our Sunday night services that we had. So often, Rupert would
take the morning's message and just continue it, but make it
better. He'd expound on those passages
even more, and you'd learn even more about the grace and the
love and the mercy of God and how wonderful our Savior is.
Not that this message is anything at all like that. This is a mess. But Craig, this might be the
hint for you this week. About 6.30 this morning, I was
reviewing what I'd done and what I had written down, and I'd realized
I'm not even gonna get to what I really wanted to talk about
today. So today is just part one of two. And it's really no
more than just a long introduction to what I really want to speak
about. So since I've got Sunday School, I mean, the 11 o'clock
hour next week, as of right now, I'm planning on just continuing
this message. Keep that in mind as we go along.
I may reference some things that I hope to speak about next week.
But of course, and I always tell you this, since I'm a wood, I
always had the right to change my mind. If you don't believe
it, ask us. But even with this change this
morning, I still don't have enough time. I was reviewing this on
the way over here. I just don't know how I'm going
to get done, so I'm going to start throwing things out. But
just to make a quick introduction to Romans for us, I want to just
use a quote that Mr. Hawker said. Now, our passage
today is going to be Romans chapter six, even though I asked you
to start here in chapter three. But in talking about those first
five chapters, he said that the great subject that Paul had been
upon, and having proved with the clearest and fullest evidence
that justification before God is holy in and by Christ, period. That was it. You want to know
what the first five books of Romans is about? Justification
by faith, but it is in and by Christ. As a scripture reference,
which is why I ask you to turn to Romans 3, look at verses 21
through 25 with me. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe, for there is no difference. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That a man can stand justified
before a holy God is not for anything that he has done. How
can he? He's dead in trespasses and sins.
A dead man can't do anything. But that a man can be justified
before God is entirely and completely the work of the crucified lamb,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Do we merit this work? Do we earn this privilege? Do
we deserve this sacrifice? Most definitely no. The fact
that any son of Adam is saved can be solely attributed to what
it says here in verse 24, by His grace. By His grace. To use another scripture to further
drive home this point, Ephesians 2.8, for by grace are you saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of
God. So with these verses in mind,
I want to move our attention to our passage for the morning,
Romans chapter six. So go ahead and turn over there
right quick. Now Paul begins this chapter
with a question. And he doesn't state it, but
I'm sure he'd been asked this many times before during his
ministry. And this question that's asked
of him, He says, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in
sin that grace may abound? In this first verse of the sixth
chapter, Paul states the objection that has always been made against
salvation by grace. And if you speak to many folks
on this subject, you too will face this question. And honestly, truthfully, if
you think about it, If a person has no personal experience of
salvation by grace, it's a valid question. You may have even had
it yourself in days gone by. I know I have. Paul himself may
have asked that question as he went around trying to squash
out the will of God when God was spreading the gospel in the
early church. But to elaborate on this question
and to restate it just a little bit in my own language, I put
it down this way, that if salvation is by grace alone, and it matters
not on anything that you do, you say that it's completely
the work of Jesus Christ, and then with that it's by application
of the Holy Spirit. If that's the case, then your
sin, it doesn't matter, because God's going to save you anyway.
So if that's the case, why don't you just keep on sinning more? In fact, the more you sin, the
better God looks. And like I say, that is just
my elaboration of what Paul said here in verse 6. In some way,
that's the charge that's always been brought against grace. If it's all grace, just keep
on sinning. Look at it as man do. Look at
it as man view it. and how we speak about things.
Paul speaks about man's language later on in this. Which looks
better on God's resume? The fact that he saves the little
old lady down the street that never even hurt even so much
as a flea? Or the fact that he saves the meanest, vilest resident
of the local prison house? Which should bring him more glory
as men view it? He saved both. He saved both. Now, of course, there's always
a category of people who give no thought to spiritual matters
whatsoever, so I'm not talking about them. But as I've thought
about this and the way I figure it, for folks who might bother
to give it some thought and ask this question or bring this charge
against free grace, I figure they fall in one of two categories.
One category are those who enjoy and revel in their sin. And they look at it as an excuse
to continue in their sin, just like the charge they lay out.
They say to themselves that if I'm going to be saved, well,
I might as well keep on having my fun, or what they consider
fun anyway. And if not, if God's not going
to save me, might as well have my fun. Really, most of the time, folks
like this, they're really free-wheelers to start with. And what they're
really planning on is a deathbed confession. They figure other folks think
just like they do. And so they charge their proponents
of free grace with the same thoughts and desires that they possess.
They want to continue in their sin and not be charged with it.
But then there's another category, and the second category is the
religionist or the moralist, the ones who have really brought
about this charge and this question. They've brought it to an art
form. They're those who are striving to work themselves into heaven.
They just can't let go of the belief that they must, they believe
that they must do something in order to be saved. Even if it's
just a little old thing as letting Jesus in the hearts, they've
got to have something to grasp on to and to do. They don't like
the idea of free grace. They don't like what it says
about them. And they look for anything that they might consider
a flaw in the doctrines of grace. They've asked this question,
or better stated, they've laid this charge against free grace
forever. Paul just didn't bring this out of the air. It was there
at the very beginnings of the church. Now Romans 6 is Paul's
somewhat rebuttal to those who lay this charge against salvation
by grace. And I intentionally use this
word somewhat, and I'll address this in a few moments, what I
mean by that. Let's begin by picking up at
verse 2, and I'm going to read the passage, read a little bit,
speak a little bit, and that way I can try to get through
it this morning. Verse 2, God forbid, how shall we that are
dead to sin live any longer therein? Now, as all believers know by
experience, this being dead to sin unfortunately does not mean
that they sin no more. Wish it was the case, but it
is not so. But those who are justified by
faith, they are dead to sin. They're dead to the guilt of
sin. Jesus has paid their sin debt. As it's written in 2nd
Colossians 2 verses 13 and 14, and you and those who are saved
by grace, and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision
of your flesh, hath he, hath Jesus quickened together with
him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the
handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary
to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. And these same ones, they're
also dead, dead to the dominion of sin. A passage I found, I
read another writer and he brought this passage out and I just thought
it was beautiful. Ezekiel chapter 36, 25 through
27, speaking about being dead to the dominion of sin. This
is God speaking, speaking to his people. Then will I sprinkle
clean water upon you and you shall be clean from all your
filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new
heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within
you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh
and I will give you in heart of flesh and I will put my spirit
within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall
keep my judgments and do them. That's free grace. Paul continues
to explain how and why believers are dead to sin here in verse
three. Know you not that so many of
us were baptized into Jesus, were baptized into his death.
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death. That
like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of
the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Now
Mr. Hawker stresses the point here
that this is not baptism by water. There's no salvation in that.
Like so many things, baptism too has been made of work, especially
sprinkling. Baptism by water, it is a public
declaration or a sign of spiritual grace. For Mr. Hawker, this baptism
that Paul is speaking about here is the baptisms of the Holy Spirit. This application I was talking
about earlier. Also, just to put it in your
consciousness, this walking in the newness of life, that very
well may be my jumping off point next week when I hope to bring
us back to this passage. It's going to start this second
part that, like I say, I really, honestly, I'm excited to bring
that message to you, if I can get it together in the way I'm
thinking about it. Verse 5, For if we have been
together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the
likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead
is freed from sin. As the Apostle Peter stated in
1 Peter, who his own self, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ,
bear our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead
to sins should live unto righteousness. Just to give you another preview
of what I hope to bring to you, Paul's answer to this charge
is that one reason that Christ died is so that the body of sin
might be destroyed. While living on this earth, sin
is ever present, even in God's children. However, there is a
difference between His children and all others. Their desire and their want to
sin, it is destroyed by Christ. Verse 8, Now if we be dead with
Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. Knowing that
Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more, death hath
no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died
unto sin once. But in that he liveth, he liveth
unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Christ died once and for all
for sin, not his sin, he had none, but for the sins of his
people. And these sins, and since these
sins have been paid for once, they're paid forever. Christ
will die no more. Once was more than sufficient,
sufficient to satisfy God's justice. Death hath no more dominion over
him. Now he lives at the right hand
of God, and he lives for the glory of God, and in him we see
the greatness of God. And I'll try to make this, I'll
make this point again today, and I'm probably going to make
it stronger next week, but Christ's pride is made just like him in
his death and resurrection. And now they carry His name,
the Lord our righteousness. And they too are alive unto God
through Him." Her desire is to be even more like her Savior,
her husband. Her desire is no sin, not more
sin, as His charge is laid against Him. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body, that you should obey it and the lust thereof.
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness
unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive
from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness
unto God. For sin shall not have dominion
over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace. What
then, shall we sin because we are not under the law but under
grace? God forbid. Know you not that
to whom you yield yourself servants to obey, his servants you are
to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience
unto righteousness. Now I'll use this section of
verses to elaborate on what I referred to earlier as Paul's somewhat
rebuttal to those who make this charge as he stated in verse
1. This charge that grace leads
to, well it's a fancy word for it, licentiousness. I can't even
say it, that's why I didn't want to use it. But for my own definition
of that word, a license to sin. That's the charge laid against
us. Always remember, especially here, that Paul is writing this
epistle to believers. Even though he's rebutting this
charge that non-believers make, it's still written to believers.
It's written to believers to understand. The non-believer really can have
no understanding of what Paul is saying here because they have
no experience about these blessings that he's writing about. It's
never happened to them. Just for example, the moralist
or the self-righteous, they're going to look at these verses,
especially the first two, and they're going to say, see, see,
I told you, Paul's telling you to do something. He's telling you you have to
live right, not sin. You've got to do something. Or
more exactly, not do something in order to be saved. Those who promote doing are always
looking for something to do. Always looking for something
to do. But to me, as I read this, it's almost that Paul is actually
being a cheerleader to those he's writing to, and now that
we're reading them, reading these verses to us. He says, Let not
sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it
in the lust thereof. Neither yield ye your members
as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. Let's face it, we all
need a little encouragement every once in a while. Because the
old man, he's always too anxious to rear his ugly head up, jump
on you one more time. We all need a little encouragement.
Paul is giving it to us here. I think the key to these five
verses is this middle verse, verse 14. For sin shall not have
dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under
grace. This is a promise that's given
to believers. Because they are under grace,
sin no longer has dominion over them. When believers sin, they
abhor themselves. They're so busy brow-beating
themselves, they don't need anyone else jumping on them. We read of that in the next chapter,
chapter 7. Paul works on himself pretty
hard there. It's not so with non-believers. They yield to
their sin. They revel in their sin. They
might not even realize it because they don't realize they're sinners.
They might feel some guilt if they tell a little lie or they
might steal something. But really, the biggest sins
most people are guilty of, they're oblivious to. I got two big ones
I want to speak about in just a few minutes. So keep that in
your mind. I want to come back to that.
I didn't really outline this part, but just trying to bring
home this point that Paul was really writing to believers here. The unconverted, the unbelievers
are not going to read this passage and understand it. Think about
those of you who have felt the love of God in your heart and
been given this grace. Remember those days, most especially
when the gospel first was revealed to you? You just couldn't wait
to go out and tell everybody. And everybody you talked to looked
at you like you were cross-eyed. They had no understanding of
what you're talking about. All you can do when you're speaking
about Christ, use the scriptures, pray that God opens them to people's
understanding. and tell them the wonderful things
He's done for you. It's all you can do. It was God that made a difference
in you. It has to be a God that makes a difference in them. So
don't get discouraged. Don't stop. Maybe one day, through your words,
God will be pleased to make a difference. Verse 17, but God bethink that
you were the servants of sin, that you have obeyed from the
heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Now here's
a verse where it behooves you to take your time and to contemplate
what you read. Look at how it starts, but God
bethink that you were the servants of sin. If you read that real
fast, you know, God's to be thanked
because you sinned? No. No, of course not. All men fall into the category
of sinners. The word, when I read this, that
has the flashing lights on it is this little word here, were.
Were. God is to be thanked and praised
that you once were the servants of sin, but that is past. You once were, but no longer
are. And that's described here in
the next verse, verse 18. Being then made free from sin,
you became the servants of righteousness. This is what grace does. This
is grace. Verse 19, I speak after the matter
of man. Because of the infirmity of your
flesh, for as you have yielded your members, servants, to uncleanness
and to iniquity and to iniquity, Even so, now yield your members,
servants, to righteousness unto holiness. For when you were the
servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. What fruit
had you then in those things whereof you are now ashamed?
For the end of those things is death. For those of you who once stood
guilty in your sins, But you've had a work of grace done by the
Spirit in your heart. Do you remember the days when
these verses described you? What benefit was found in your
sin? I hazard to guess and to speak
for you, I'm sure your experience is just like mine. None. no fruit in sin, none whatsoever. Verse 22, but now being made
free from sin and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto
holiness and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is
death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Now to bring back to mind the
question of which Paul begins all of this, I take your eyes
back to verse 1 where he writes, What shall we say then? Shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound? Now as I was contemplating
this passage the thought crossed my mind that One reason that
men make this accusation is that they have a lack of understanding
of just what true salvation is. I have a feeling that most people's
idea of salvation is that it results in only one thing. That
one thing is that the saved one goes to heaven instead of going
to hell. And yes, that is a very definite
result of salvation. That's what I'm going to end
up this morning's talk on. My time's already down to about
10-12 minutes. That's why I ended up having
to make this part one. But I am going to talk about
this result of grace. Because Paul mentions it right
here in several places. But that's not the only one.
And it's that second part that I'm really anxious to bring to
you next week. But just to work on this, to
finish up our time this morning, look back at verse 5 for me.
I just want to look at a couple of verses and speak about them
a few minutes. And it's not all that's mentioned
here, but I did pick out these two for us this morning. So looking
at this result of grace, which is, to put it in my terms, end
up in heaven and not hell. Verse 5, for if we have been
planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also
in the likeness of his resurrection. Now one of the writers I studied
in preparation for this morning said that the original for planted
together said that when it refers to trees or like plants, it designates
planting them in the same place or the same bed. How closely
this associates Christ and His children. If this chapter has a key, it's
this. It's that we are just so closely
bound and tied up with Christ. Everything we are, everything
we have, everything we do by Him, through Him, in Him. It's why a believer's desire
is not sin as the charge is made against us. No, a believer's
desire is to be more like Him. So we see that this tie that
believers have with Christ is shown again here in His death. When He died, they died. Now how was that? He carried
their sins to the grave. He paid the penalty for their
sins. And they're put away permanently
once for all. And now that this has been accomplished,
we're given several promises in the scriptures similar to
the one stated here in verse 5 by Paul. The Lord Himself told
us, He said, And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will
come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there
you may be also. Heaven, not hell. And the Apostle John wrote to
us in 1 John, he said, Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and
it doth not appear what we shall be. But we know that when He
shall appear, we shall be like Him. The same desire we have
now is a promise that is before us. We shall be like Him, for
we shall see Him as He is. We shall be in the likeness of
His resurrection. That is, we shall be sinless
and perfect, and we shall be with Him. Heaven, not hell, will be the
residence of all His pride, each and every one of them, all of
them. Now this last verse, it also
speaks to this result of grace. It says, For the wages of sin
is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Now you often hear us men who
stand up here, we make the statement that the best we can do is preach
a little bit and talk a little bit, but unless God opens the
ears of your heart, unless He gives you understanding and knowledge,
we're only making noise. I've already referenced that
earlier as you speak to non-believers. We can only expound on the scriptures
as best as God gives us ability. And as you can tell this morning,
He's not giving me much. But we can apply them to your
heart. Wish we could, don't even attempt it. The reason for this
is sin. All men are born sinners and
all men are spiritually dead. We have no ability to understand
the things of God unless He chooses to reveal them unto us. There
may be no better example of that than this verse we have before
us. It has grace written all over
it, but man refused to believe it. Oftentimes without even realizing
it. They just read right by it. What I mean by this is, it comes
down to the two words wages and gift. But before I get to that,
I do want to take a couple minutes to work on sin and death. Now as far as sin, I don't think
most people really believe that they are deep down sinners. They
really don't even know what sin is. In order just to get finished
this morning, I just don't have much time on this verse of course,
but I'll just use myself as an example, but I think some of
you might have some relation to it. Until God opened my eyes,
I really had no idea of just how much He abhorred the breaking
of His holy law and had no idea what really breaking it was.
My idea of sin was the Ten Commandments in some respect, but that really
wasn't quite true. There was only a few I thought
I really had to worry about not breaking. I had to keep the Sabbath. That just meant I had to go to
church on Sunday. Well, I didn't have no choice there, so I had
that one covered. If mama didn't let me go, grandma stopped and
she made sure I got in the car, whether I wanted to or not. Don't
kill nobody. Well, I had that one covered,
at least so far. Getting old and ornery, you know. Not steal. Not lie. Didn't lie too bad. Only when I got caught doing
something. But the tough one for me was not covet. grew up
awful poor. But as I reflect on days go by
and how I thought about things as I was growing up, that was
about all I was worried about. That was the sins that really
bothered me. My idea of sin was if it got
me in trouble with mama, daddy, or grandma, well then that was
bad and I better not do it. Really God didn't weigh in on
the equation very much at all. especially as law. And you think about that, and
if a lot of people were in my category, maybe you are, maybe
you aren't, but a lot of people are doing a good job of not breaking
those commandments. At least not bad. You might tell
a little white lie here every once in a while. So if that's the case, heaven
should be very heavily populated. Because if you don't believe
people are good, just ask them. They'll be glad to tell you just
how good they are. I told you earlier I was going
to speak about a couple of sins, and here they are. Most people, they just don't
realize that they commit these sins. There's one commandment
that people break And I know for me, I was completely ignorant
of it. And the way I read the scriptures,
the commandment that gets broken the most out of all those ten,
and I had no concept of it as I was growing up, is the first
commandment. Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. The most common sin mentioned
in the Old Testament is idolatry. The history of Israel is a history
of the punishment and the reprimand of idolatry, continually, page
after page after page. They sinned. God got on them
for it. They wouldn't quit. God punished them for it. We
all understand that. But unfortunately, Most people
think that they're not idolaters because they don't have little
statues sitting around the house. That is, unless of course you
have some candles or merry, but that's okay because the Pope
says it is. You know, they're not idols. Any time that you either take
away or add to the things that God reveals about Himself in
the Scriptures, You're making a false God. You're worshiping
an idol. You're practicing idolatry. You're breaking this first commandment.
Just one little simple example I thought of. Have you ever told
someone, smile, God loves you? What a cute little saying. And
maybe your God does love everybody. But we're not told that about
this God in the Bible. You say that you believe it,
you're an idolater. To move to the New Testament,
the most common sin addressed is self-righteousness. And as
far as I can tell, it's the most practiced sin in our generation.
Self-righteousness is just a shortcut to saying that someone has made
a god of themself. I'm afraid there are a lot of
folks who are busy here trying to make them some crowns to wear
up in heaven, but they're going to find out that this baggage
they're carrying around with them is going to be made chains
they're going to wear in hell. Why is self-righteousness such
an abhorrent crime to God and worthy of eternal damnation?
It robs God of His glory. And it says of the work and sacrifice
that his son did, that it wasn't needed. I can do it myself. I don't need
Christ. Most people don't realize it. They're just filled with self-righteousness. They made themselves an idol.
They're sinners. All men are sinners. whether
they want to admit it or not. And that results in death, as
Paul tells us here in verse 23. And time's gone, so just to put
the quick version on it, death, there's three types of death
that sin leads to. Physical death, we've got graveyards
galore that speak to this truth. There's eternal death, or hell.
It's where everybody's afraid to go. But there's also spiritual
death. And this is the hardest to explain
to people, most especially religious folks. It's something that can't
truly be understood of yourself until and unless God shows you
mercy. Then you realize just how much
you hated him, how much you shook your fist at him. It's why a
person can read this verse, for the wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
It's why they can read it and have no understanding of it.
There will not be a person in hell that has not earned the
right to be there. Like the laborer that goes up
to his boss at the end of the week to receive his paycheck,
Hades will be populated with men and women who receive full
compensation. for the sin they've committed
on this earth, both good works and bad. Folks have no problem
understanding this on bad deeds, but not the good. Not the good
works, not their helping little lady across the street saying
a prayer because they heard someone sick. Not tithing. To those people, I give them
a warning, and I bring it straight from the scriptures. Matthew
7, and this is our Lord speaking. Not everyone that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will
say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils? and in thy name
done many wonderful works. And then will I profess unto
them, I never knew you, depart from me, you that work iniquity."
I'm afraid that those will be some very often repeated words
on Judgment Day. But the good news in this verse
is that there are some who will enjoy eternal life, and how do
they receive it? It's a gift. It's a gift. And what's true about a gift?
Well, a gift does cost something. It costs the giver something.
And in this case, it costs the most precious thing of all. It
costs God the Father the life of His Son when He died on the
cross and spent three days in the tomb. We always hear about records.
Fastest car, fastest this and that and the other. That was
the most precious and most expensive gift ever. That's a record that
won't be broken. But for the recipient, what does
a gift cost? Nothing. It's free. Free. This free gift, it sounds a whole
lot like free grace to me. It costs God's children nothing.
They've done nothing to merit it or earn it. They've earned
the wages of sin, but not this gift of life. It all comes by
grace and mercy of God the Father. And it's given to those free,
free, free. But as a reminder, never forget
that though it's free to you, It came at a tremendous price.
It was paid for with the blood of our dear Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. So how a man can read this and
yet want to add something to this work and to this free gift,
I don't understand. How we can add accepting them
into our hearts or straightening up our life or tithing a little
bit or a million other things people come up as works. I don't
understand. But at one time I did. I believe
that kind of stuff too. What a blasphemer I was and what
an idolator I was. My prayer is that God forgives
me for that. But He has given this free gift,
this precious blood of Christ, to so many, as Paul writes this
promise to us today. Time's gone, so I'll just stop
here and just give you your homework assignment. If you get time and
the opportunity, read this chapter again. I won't read the whole
thing next week, I doubt. Look at that one key that I told
you was here, and it's how Christ and His people are linked together.
Over and over through this chapter, it's through Christ, it's by
Christ, it's in Christ, it's as Christ. With such a close
connection with the perfect One, the Lord Jesus Christ, we have
an unbreakable bond with Him. How can anyone want to continue
in their sin? This charge that Paul lays out,
it's rubbish. And I'll speak more to that next
week. Thank you.