Isaiah 53, verse 6, the sixth
verse. Now, this verse opens with a
common confession, a common confession. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have all fallen. We have all
broken God's we're all the sons of Adam. From the first one who
ever came into this world by God's power and creation to the
last one who shall ever live upon this earth, it is a common
confession, it is a common plea, it is a common course. All we
like sheep have gone astray. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. But the second thing I see in
this confession, not only is it a common confession, but there
is here a special confession. Now, everybody can enter into
this common confession. We be all miserable sinners,
the old timers used to say. Well, everybody can say that.
But real repentance and a real confession of sin contains more
than that. A real confession of sin is more
than just a common confession. It goes further than the general
confession. It goes deeper than we are all
miserable sinners. I hope that's not the way that
you feel. We have every right to be a little bit concerned
about ourselves if we only have a general knowledge of sin, and
if we only confess sin in a general way. If this is the way we confess
sin, we're in trouble. All we like sheep have gone astray.
But this is a special confession. Look at the next line. We have
turned every one. We started out with all. That's
a general confession. all we like sheep have gone astray,
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But here
is a special confession. We have turned everyone to, watch
it, his own way. Now it is true that we've all
gone astray, but it is true also that each of us And this is something
the average person will not admit. Each of us has a particular and
peculiar and special aggravation of the law of God and of the
holiness of God. And it is the mark of true repentance
and true confession that we not only take our places, all of
us, with all the guilty sinners of all ages and of all nations
and of all but that we see our own personal offense and our
own personal guilt. And that's where the average
person cannot involve himself in this mystery of the gospel.
He sees sin in a general sense, he sees the death of Christ in
a general sense, he sees this work of salvation in a general
sense, but worship throughout the Bible is always personal. A confession of sin is always
personal. Listen to Paul, O wretched man
that I am. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I am chief. And if we only see sin,
O God, David said, be merciful to me. Be merciful to me, for
I acknowledge my transgressions against thee, and thee only have
I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight. For I was shapen
in iniquity, I was conceived in sin. Purge me with hyssop,
wash me, and I shall be whiter than the snow." So just about
all the religious people in the world today and all the religious
people in this congregation can come in at this first door. All
we like sheep have gone astray. All have seen and come short
of the glory of God. But how many of us can come to
this second place, this special confession, this particular confession,
and say, we have turned everyone to his own special aggravation
of the law and of the holiness of God? I am a sinner. I have sinned. I have transgressed
the law of God in my own personal and peculiar way. So real confession
is not only general, including all of mankind and all of Adam's
race, but in order for it to be real, it's got to be personal. And then thirdly, this confession
is without excuse. It's without excuse. There's
not one word of excuse given. All we like sheep have gone astray,
we've turned everyone to his own way. That's it. That's the
end of the confession. There's not one word of self-justification
to distract from the force of the confession. When Adam fell,
and God asked him, Where art thou? And he said, I was afraid,
I was naked. So I went and hid myself. Who
told thee that thou was naked? And then Adam said, Lord, the
woman that you gave me, she caused me to sin. I wouldn't have done
this if it hadn't have been for the woman. And I wouldn't have
done this if you hadn't created the woman and put her in the
garden. And the woman said, Lord, I wouldn't have done this if
it hadn't been for the serpent which you created. If you'd never
created that serpent and that serpent had never crossed my
path, I never would have sinned. There's no confession there.
This confession here is without justification and without excuse.
We have turned everyone his own way. It's my way that I've turned
to, not your way, not somebody else's way. I turned to my way. my special, particular, sinful
way. I turn to my way. Every one of
us, all we like sheep, have gone astray. There is a general confession
and a common confession of sin that every son of Adam is marked
with iniquity. But I have turned to my own way,
and I did it willfully, and I did it knowingly, and I did it deliberately,
and I did it rebelliously. I turn to my way. I turned to my way. Years ago I read a story about
two men who had been found guilty of some crime against their government,
against their country. They were living under a monarch,
and so they were to be brought before the king for trial and
for sentencing. And these two men knew that they
were guilty, and knew that the king knew they were guilty, and
so when they came before the king, both of them had taken
a rope, and they had formed that rope into a hangman's
noose. I don't know how to tie one,
maybe some of you do, but anyway, there's a certain way that you
tie a hangman's noose. And then both of them had a short
piece of rope, and they had them fixed into a hangman's noose
and put them around their necks, and the rope was dangling down
here, and the hangman's noose was about their neck, and they
stood before the king and said, We're guilty. And we cast ourselves
on your mercy." Can you come before God in that way? Guilty? Guilty? A common confession? All are guilty. But in my own special, particular
way, I'm guilty. It's my fault, my fault entirely. I don't lay the blame on anybody
else. I've turned to my own way, not
only a special confession, but a confession without any justification. I am persuaded that as long as,
like Adam, we blame someone else for our falls and for our stumblings
and for our sins, God will not hear us. I think as long as we
cloud up our confessions and take the force out of them and
the sharpness away from them by dulling them with blaming
someone else, we can forget, absolutely forget, any pardon
coming from God at all. We have turned to our own way. Then the fourth thing I see about
this confession is this. It's a very thoughtful confession.
And we'd better give some thought to it, for the scripture says,
if we confess our sin, and there's a way to confess sin, if we confess
our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us, and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. Now if we want forgiveness, and
if we want cleansing, we're going to have to confess in a way that's
acceptable to God. And not only must it be a common
confession, taking our place in identification with the fall. We are sons of Adam. We're not
angels, we're not by nature sons of God. We're children of wrath,
even as others, and we have a particular and peculiar and special guilt,
an aggravation of God's law that's common to us, that's peculiar
to us, our own guilty nature, sinful nature, as if we were
the only sinner in the world. And then it's without excuse,
totally without any self-justification, totally without any alibi whatsoever. Guilty. And I don't reach out
for company. Guilty. Me. By myself. Before God. This thing of dealing
with God is a lonely profession. It's a personal profession. It's
a solitary profession. I must face God. Every one of
us shall give an account of himself unto God. I want that account
to be given right now. If we judge ourselves, we'll
not be judged. Now, what I'm talking about here
is as vital as the breath you're breathing right now, spiritually
speaking. If we judge ourselves, we'll
not be judged. We're not judging the race. We're
not judging the nation, we're not judging the state, we're
not judging the city, we're not judging the community, we're
not judging the church, we're not judging our families, ourselves. Single out yourself for special
attention, and single out yourself for special judgment, as if everybody
in the world already knew God but you. And now we're getting
to the place where our confession is worth something. All we like
sheep have gone astray, but we have turned every one individually,
singularly, every one to his own special peculiar brand of
offense, his own special peculiar way of sinning, his own special
peculiar way of offending God. his own special peculiar way
of drawing God's anger and God's wrath. And we all have our own
special peculiar way of making God angry. And then this confession
is very thoughtful. Are we like what? Sheep. Now I don't know anything about
sheep, except what I've read. But this author knew something
about sheep. He lived in sheep country. He
lived around sheep keeping people, and people who owned sheep. Possibly
Isaiah had himself been a shepherd boy, and he chose this particular
metaphor. All we like sheep have gone astray. This is a thoughtful confession.
Now, he didn't say all we like cows have gone astray. The ox
knows his owner, and that old cow may wander out yonder 40,
50, 60, 80, 70, 90, 100 acres away. But he'll come home
at night. That ox will come home at night,
because that ox knows his owner. The cow will come home at night.
The ash knows his master's crib. That horse may stray away far,
far, far away. Are we like horses that have
gone astray? No, sir. This is a thoughtful confession.
The horse knows his master's crib, and he'll be home. Even
the dog. He doesn't say, Oh, we like dogs
who have gone astray. You can take a dog and put that
dog in your car and drive to Grace, and that dog will find
his way home. And a cat will find her way home. But not a
sheep. They tell me, and as I said,
I don't know a great deal about sheep, but I'm told that while
a sheep can find a hole in the fence to get out, to escape and
to wander, it can never find that hole to come back. It'll
just keep going. They tell me that the sheep is
habitually, foolishly, willfully roams. It just will not come
back. It's without the power or the
thought to return. It can find the way out, and
it looks for a way out, continually looks for a way out, but once
finding that way out, it can never find its way back. It must
be sought, and it must be found. They tell me that a sheep is
very nearsighted, that it does not have the sense of smell that
dogs have and other animals. It's just foolish. It is a foolish,
wandering animal. And to say that we, like sheep,
have gone astray is to confess that we constantly look for a
way out and look for a way to wander, but we're not by nature
looking for the way back home and back to God. There is none
that seek God, not by nature. So this is a good confession.
All are guilty. We know that. We're members of
a race of rebels. But, O God, we are personally
guilty, and personally we are offensive, and we have in our
own peculiar and special way transgressed Thy holy law. And
if the whole race had not fallen, we would have. And if the whole
race was not under the wrath of God, we would be. And if the
whole race was right with God, we wouldn't be, because we have
a very special sense of our own personal guilt. And then we have
no justification. We have no one for which to blame
our sins, and upon whom to lay our sins. We are at fault. Can
you take your place that way? And like a sheep, I'm not seeking
my way back. I can't find the way back. There's
nothing absolutely once wandering, once lost, once astray from the
fold of God, I cannot find my way. Can man by searching find
God?" It was higher than the heavens and deeper than hell,
what can we know? But I'm not going to stop at
the wailing wall and stay there, because the next line is the
main part of the message. And the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all. There are three things that stand
out in this one phrase that I want to especially emphasize. First of all, the meeting of
sin. The Lord hath laid on him. If you can come with me in this
first part, I'm a part of Adam's race, I'm a part of a guilty,
fallen people. But I personally, as if standing
out from the whole crowd like a sore thumb, I personally have
aggravated God's law. I personally have violated God's
holiness. I am the chief of sinners, and
I offer no excuse and no justification for my foolishness and for my
failures and for my sins. And like a sheep, I'm out here
and I don't know the way back. All right, if you can talk that
way, then let's look at the next line. The Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all. Now, the best translations here
read this way, and I'm not finding fault with the King James. I
say the best translations read this way. The Lord hath made
to light on him, or to meet on him, the iniquity of us all. Now when I was a small boy, and
I guess I'd enjoy doing it today, but we used to get a magnifying
glass. You probably, all of you have
done this, but we used to get a magnifying glass and we'd,
it'd be a bright sunny day, and we'd sit around, you know, and
we'd get a piece of paper. And we'd put that piece of paper
here, then we'd take that magnifying glass and put it between the
sun and that piece of paper. and we get it focused just right.
Now the sun rays were scattered all about, and you could leave
that paper there all day, and the sun rays wouldn't harm that
paper, wouldn't do a thing to the paper, just leave it laying
there. But take that magnifying glass and put it up here between
the sun and the paper and concentrate somehow, or bring together, the
rays of the sun in such a way that they came down in one one
spot, in one dot on that piece of paper, and it didn't take
just a few seconds, just soon as you got that magnifying glass
so fixed and so in position that the rays, the scattered rays
of that sun were concentrated and made to meet in one spot
and made to light in one particular area, it'd catch that paper on
fire and it would begin to burn up. Now here are all the sins
of all believers, of all nations, of all tribes, and of all kindred,
and of all tongues. And the sin, so many of them,
are scattered abroad everywhere. And this Scripture says, the
Father in heaven, through the magnifying glass of His grace
and His mercy, made to concentrate on Christ, made to focus on Christ,
made to light on Christ, made to focus and come together in
one spot at one given time. The Lord hath laid on him all
of our iniquity. The Lord hath made to meet on
Christ and to light on Christ all of the powerful rays of our
guilt, and it consumed him. and it destroyed him. All sins, past, present, and
future, all sins of the young and the old, all sins original
and actual, all sins of all people, of all generations, of all believers,
were concentrated into one burning piercing hellish ray, and it
was caused, God caused it to meet on Christ. That's the meeting
of sin. What am I saying? I'm saying
this, Jesus Christ, who was a man, bone of our bone and flesh of
our flesh, who nevertheless was God of very God, having no sin
of his own, took the and therefore the punishment of all his people."
Now, the theologians use the word imputation. There was imputed
to Christ all of our guilt. But I wonder, and you think just
a moment about this, I wonder, is the word imputation sufficient
to describe what happened at Calvary? Is it sufficient? Does
it really cover the subject, imputation? It seems to me to
be more than that. I don't know how to explain it,
but I believe the Bible teaches that Christ was more than just
a representative, that Christ took our sins in a deeper, more
personal, more literal way than just by imputation. It says in
2 Corinthians 5.21, listen to it, "...for he hath made him
to be seen." He who knew no sin, God made
him actually, literally, to be seen for us. I believe it was
more than just a figurative thing. I believe it was far more than
just a representative thing. I believe the Bible teaches that
Christ actually bore our sins in his body on the tree. That he bore our sins. He was
made to be sin for us. He bore our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was actually laid on Him, and the Lord laid on Him, caused
to light on Him, caused to meet on Him, the iniquity of us all. God was there, and we were there,
and Christ was there, not just figuratively, but He was there,
and the sins were there too. the sins were there, and they
were laid on him. They were actually laid on him. Now that does away with the general
atonement. That makes the atonement, the
death of Christ, particular. That makes the death of Christ
personal. That makes the death of Christ
effectual. That makes the death of Christ
more than an offer. It makes it an act, it makes
it a deed, it makes it a work, it makes it a task accomplished,
if that's what it is. And you have to decide now what
you believe about that. I know what the Bible teaches
about it, that the sins of all of his people were actually laid
on him. Now you say, was it right, was
that right for Christ to bear, Christ the innocent to bear the
guilt and the sins of the guilty? Was that right? For him actually
to bear our sins for our, he had no sin. Was it right to put
my sins on him? I'll give you four reasons why
I think it was right. Number one, it was right because
of who did it. It says here, the Lord laid all
of our iniquity upon him. The Lord did it. The Lord hath
laid, but the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Now, God the Father must do right.
He can't do wrong. And I care not what men say,
and I care not what men may argue. It says the Lord did it, so it's
right. It's got to be right. It was right because Christ took
our sins voluntarily. They weren't forced upon him.
He said, nobody takes my life from me. I think he meant the
Father, too. No man taketh my life from me. I lay it down. I have the power
to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up. Nobody takes
my life from me. Paul was sitting down there in
prison, in a Roman prison. when he wrote the book to Philemon,
and he said, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Now, Paul, wouldn't
it have been more accurate for you to say, Paul, a prisoner
of Nero, or Paul, for didn't Nero put you in prison? And wouldn't
it have been better if you had said, Paul, a prisoner of the
Roman government, for did not the Roman government put you
in prison? Wouldn't it have been better if you had said, Paul,
a prisoner of Philippi, for you're sitting down here in the jail
in Philippi? No, see, he didn't. He said,
I'm a prisoner of Jesus Christ. These Nero and the Roman government
and the Philippian dungeon are second causes. I'm here because
the Lord Jesus Christ put me here. That's why I'm here. So I'm a prisoner of Jesus Christ.
I just skip over all these little chamberlings in between and say,
Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ. And so it says here that the
Lord laid on him our iniquity, the Heavenly Father laid on him
our iniquity, and he said, nobody takes my life from me, I lay
it down. The Roman soldiers crucified
Jesus Christ. No, they didn't. They were just
the human instruments that drove the nails. Our sins crucified
Jesus Christ. And the Heavenly Father's will
and purpose crucified Jesus Christ. If he had wanted to, he could
have walked right through those Roman soldiers and the Roman
army. What hailed Christ to the cross?
Why, those big rusty spikes hailed him to the cross. No, they didn't.
If Christ had wanted to, he could have stepped down from that cross.
Our sins hailed him to that cross. and his submission to the Father's
will held him to that cross, and his love for us held him
to that cross, and his own will held him to that cross. He said,
I lay down my life. Now, you can have that little
peanut. This is being preached today. I want nothing to do with
it. That little forlorn, helpless, defeated, frustrated, effeminate
character that they call Jesus is not the God of the Bible.
Jesus Christ came into this world and gave his life a ransom for
many. They didn't take it away from
him. They didn't back him up in the corner where he couldn't
do anything about it. He laid down his life. And then
not only was it right because he took our sins voluntarily,
but now get this, For Jesus Christ to bear my sins and your sins
actually in his body on the tree is right because of the relationship
he has to me. Now then, Darcy and I will be
married tomorrow, twenty-six years. She is my wife. We've been married twenty-six
years tomorrow. If she gets in Is it not right
for me to pay her debt? Come on now, legally, legally.
I am responsible for her debts. I am legally responsible for
any debt she has because she's my wife. And that's true of all you other
married folks because of the relationship. Now then, Christ's relationship to me is
a lot closer than the relationship between a husband and wife. I
am the body, he's the head, and he's responsible for my debts.
That's right. Jesus Christ is responsible for
my debts, every single one of them. And it's perfectly right
for me to go down here and pay Doris' bills. Perfectly right. That's the way
it ought to be. In fact, those fellows down at
Starr's and Parsons don't even send the bills to her, they send
them to me. Does your wife get the bills? Mine don't, I get
them, and I pay them. I don't mind, they're my bills,
because she made them, but they're my bills. And when Jesus Christ
came down here to this earth, he came down here as my husband,
my Savior, my Father, my head, and I am so vitally, personally
united to him in an everlasting covenant of grace that he had
a right to take my place and pay my bills." Now that's scriptural. It's right
for the husband to pay his wife's bills. Husband, love your wives
as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. And then
the fourth It's right for Christ to bear my sins, because this
way of salvation is based on the same principle as the way
of condemnation and the way of guilt and the way of sin. As
in Adam we die, so in Christ are we made alive. Now then, I want to go to the
next thing here, and I want you really to help me, to think with
me. Scripture teaches this, all have
sinned. You have sinned. You don't have
any justification. You don't have any alibi. All
right, Christ came down here to this earth, and the Scripture
says the Heavenly Father laid our sins on Christ. Isn't that what it says? He bore
our sins in His body on the tree. The scattered sins of all believers
were concentrated and made to light on Christ, made to meet
on Christ, and he bore our sins. He was wounded for our transgression
because he had them on himself. All right? If sin meets on Christ,
and if sin is made to light on Christ, And if God laid all our
iniquity on Christ, and if sin is punished in Christ, all my
debt is paid by his blood, then what consequence or what conclusion
do you draw from that? What conclusion do you draw?
Well, here's a conclusion Paul drew in Romans chapter 8. Let's
see what he said in Romans chapter 8. In Romans, chapter 8, verse
1, Paul says, There is therefore now no condemnation to them who
are in Christ. There is therefore now no condemnation. All right, look at Romans 8,
verse 33. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with Christ
freely give us all things? Who, here's my conclusion, can
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies,
who is He that condemns? It is Christ that Now that's
the conclusion Paul drew. Now the doctrine of the atonement,
the doctrine of the death of Christ, the doctrine of the suffering
of Christ, it is a doctrine. Don't be afraid of the word doctrine.
I hear preachers say, oh, let's have spirit, we don't need any
doctrine. That's the reason they're going
to hell, they don't know any doctrine. That's right. You've got to know
which spirit you're speaking to. You can have the spirit and
not have the spirit of God. We worship God in spirit and
truth. Now the doctrine of the atonement
or the doctrine of the death of Christ or the preaching of
the death of Christ as preached in this day is hazy. It's cloudy. They preach it this way, God
has put forth an effort by sending his son to die on a cross to
draw men to religion. Well that doesn't yield me any
joy, that doesn't yield me any hope. If people in hell for whom
Christ died, they tell me, what hope could I have in his
death? I may go there, too. But Christ died for you. I know
he died for Judas, and Judas went to hell. He died for Hitler, and Hitler
went to hell. He died for Joe Stalin, and Joseph
Stalin went to hell. God tried to save them and couldn't
do it. What makes you think he can save
you? That's what I'm told. I'm told that Christ, when he
went to the cross, he didn't really die for anybody. Nobody's
actual sins were laid on him. That's what they tell me, just
sort of a hazed. Sin wasn't made to meet on Christ
or to light on Christ. He just went there and died as
kind of a representative. He went there and just kind of
died, you know, as a figure. And now if we'll look to him
and believe on him, God gets busy and puts away our sins.
Maybe I won't believe strong enough. Maybe I won't believe
long enough. Maybe I just think I believe.
Maybe really I don't believe. Maybe I just, I could be deceived. I could be fooled. Maybe I really
don't believe enough for my sins to be put away. That's no good. There's no good news there. But
listen, when I know that Christ was literally and actually, not
in figure, not in type, but Christ was positively in the covenant
of God, in the purpose of God, in the plan of God, the substitute
of his people. And that our sins actually and
originally and personally Our sins inwardly and outwardly,
our sins in the past, in the present, in the future, all our
sins and the sins of all of God's people, all of them were laid
or made to meet on Christ, and He died under the wrath and curse
and condemnation of those sins. Brother, let me live. I'm clean
through the blood of Christ. And now let me die. For I can
boldly stand before the judgment of God, and I can say with the
Apostle Paul, Who is he that condemneth?" Christ died. Christ died. Why did He die? For my sins. How many of them? All of them.
Did He die for your sins, or was it just an offer? Did the Savior you believe in
and the Savior you worship, was his death on the cross just an
effort, just an offer, just a martyr's death, just an example? Is that
to say, I feel sorry for you, because your Savior can't save
anybody. He's proven that most people are going to hell, and
he's tried to save them. And I just doubt seriously whether
he can save you, because I don't think you're any more secure
than they are. I don't think you've got any
more hope than they have. I don't believe there's any possibility
of your ever escaping hell unless your sins were actually laid
on Christ. And if they were actually laid
on Christ, my conclusion is that they don't any longer belong
to me. You husbands, do you pay the
debts of all the ladies of Ashman, or just one? No, you pay the debt of one woman,
your wife, because you are responsible for her obligations. And Jesus Christ paid the debt
of his people, and he actually paid it, and he literally paid
it, and he positively paid it, and he effectually paid it, and
he eternally paid it, and it doesn't exist anymore. God says,
There's sin? Well, I remember no more! I've
separated their sins from them as far as the east is from the
west. I cast them behind my back. How can he? Because they're paid,
paid. Now, I got a bill last week for
the church from the city of Ashland, $9.00 and some odd cents for
something they did for this hearing we're having tomorrow night,
and I gave it to Brother He took out the checkbook, wrote a check,
and mailed it in. I opened the letter on my desk
just before church this morning. There was a bill laying there.
I looked at it, and it was from the city of Asheville. And I
thought, now that thing's been paid. And it kind of upset me
for a minute. I thought, well, I gave it to
Edgeland. I know he always faithfully pays his bills, but I tore it
open and I unfolded it, and I unfolded it just halfway, and there it
was, 13th Street Baptist Church. for a services window, $9.56. Well, they can't send me that
bill again. And I opened that bottom page
down there that had stamped on it, paid, paid. You know what I did? I dropped
it in the waste can. I'm not worried about it anymore. Jesus paid it all, all the debt
I owe. Sin left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. You believe that? Dropped it
in a waste can. That's what the Father did when
Christ came and took all our sins. He marked pain, and he
dropped it in a waste can. And he said, there's sin. Well,
I remember no more. That bill, I'll never think of
that bill again. It'll never enter my mind. Not
going to be concerned about it anymore. Not going to worry about
it anymore. It's paid. And that's what Christ did. He
paid it all. You see that? Sure, we sinned,
but God had laid on him, actually, literally, positively, our sins,
and he paid them! And that's the reason Paul says,
City of Ishmael, don't you send me another bill! Who is he that
condemns it? Who can lay anything to my charge? Who can send me a bill? I don't
owe anybody. I don't owe God, I don't owe
the law, I don't owe the demons, I don't owe anybody anything.
Christ died. Now, brother, that's the gospel,
and that's the only kind of gospel I want anything to do with. And
if you don't like that gospel, you go somewhere else, because
that's the only gospel I'm going to preach, a sure, certain gospel,
a saving gospel, a gospel that honors God's justice and honors
God's righteousness and enlarges and exalts God's grace. The gospel
is not part God and part man, it's all God. Not part grace
and part works, it's all grace. all grace. He's the author and
finisher of our faith. Oh, amazing grace! How sweet
the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but
now I am found. I was blind, but now I see. Now, brethren, that matchless
security Paul says in Romans 8.35, he talks about who can
lay anything to my charge and who can condemn me. Verse 34,
Christ died, and then he said in verse 35, who can separate
me from the love of God? Tribulation, distress, persecution,
famine, nakedness, peril of soul. In verse 37, all these things We're famine and sword and pestilence,
persecution and these things, we're more than conquerors through
him that loved us. I am persuaded that neither death
nor life nor you