Please turn your Bibles to Romans chapter nine. Find ourselves moving into a new chapter. Romans chapter nine, verses one through three. I say the truth in Christ. I lie not. My conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost. that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. Our dear Heavenly Father, our God who is one, through all history and before and after, God in this wondrous way, though he exists in three persons, is one. Unity is what God is known for, not division, not conflict. but perfect harmony. God has dwelled in perfect peace forever, and those who will spend forever in the future with him will dwell in perfect peace with him. Our God is a great God, greatly to be praised. He is magnificent and beyond in all his features. To what shall we liken God? To whom shall we compare him? God is high and far above and deeper and more wondrous than the greatest capable mind can begin to comprehend. What an immeasurable privilege that we can even address Thee or contemplate thoughts of the One who has made us all. And any good thing is a gift from God. all as a matter of unmerited favor, that we should be given the Son of God to die in our place, to assume upon Himself our curse and become a curse for us. Provide us a means by which we can be redeemed from the curse. Yea, and be given the very righteousness of Christ, to be given the means of entering into the family of God, to be forgiven of all of our sins, to have hope in this life and forever, and to be given the Holy Spirit of God whereby we could have the truths of God revealed to us, yea, even the deep things of God. We gather here today, having walked through the earth this week, sojourners, strangers, Grieved in some ways, encouraged in some ways, confused in some ways, enlightened in some ways. We ask that by Thy grace we would provoke one another today into love and good works. Stir up each other. that we would find our affection for the things of this world to fall away, and all the fetters that would bind us to worldliness, that it would be broken, that we might be wholesale, completely, and forever given over to loving God. With all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, with all our strength. In these scriptures which we have read and which now we hope to divide accurately, we ask, Lord, that Thy Holy Spirit would lead us so that all the men here and all the women here and all the boys and all the girls will hear a message from God accurately presented through the scriptures to them to apply to real life, to deal with sin, to lead to cleansing, repentance, and cleansing, to lead to a glorious life now served for our Master. God bless our guests. Give them a heart for the things of God even more than wherever they are now. God bless those who could not come today. We pray that you would be with our sick. God's grace to our governmental leaders. Bless our military, those serving there. Give grace to our missionaries. And now bless us as we proceed for Thy name's sake. In Christ's name, Amen. The title of today's message is The Pain of Separation. The Pain of Separation, taken from Romans 9, verses 1 through 3. We're going to look at three topics, the point, the pain, and the passion. So we'll start right in there with the first issue, which is the point. What's the message that Paul is communicating now that he's completed Romans 8 and we go on to Romans 9? Here is the point. Joining to Christ can lead to the severest disjoining from those who have been closest to us. Joining to Christ can lead to the severest division from those closest to us. See, Paul has been speaking of the most wonderful, powerful, divine bond Look at the previous verses, end of Romans chapter 8. It says, those who have come to God through Christ, nothing can separate them from Christ. I am persuaded that neither death, but death separates a person from a lot. Death is a separation. Death can't break this bond, nor life, nor angels or principalities or powers, spiritual beings can't break this bond. nor things present, nor things past, nor things in the future, anything time-related, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." So Paul has given in the most wondrous and high language this emotional burst of passion concerning the bond we have, the bond we have with God. Now such talk will lead to sad thoughts of those who have missed this bond with God. He loves his people, the Jews. Paul does. And he's been speaking of this wondrous, wondrous phenomenon, and he reflects on now my own people not knowing this bond. He thinks of those who miss having this bond, and he thinks of those from whom he is estranged because of the bond. Isn't this ironic? The very thing that brings us to this tight bond breaks me from the people whom I love the most, my own fellow Jews, Paul says. If you would turn with me to Acts chapter five. We'll read in verses 12 and 13. The fact that the gospel does bring division. We read in Acts 5.12, and by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people. They were all with one accord. See the bond there. All the believers, like one heart in Solomon's porch. And of the rest, durst or dared, no man joined himself to them. So see the separation. those all together like one person, then all these over here who dare not join up with them. There's the watershed issue, the gospel. We would go to Acts chapter 22. Again, we're looking at the heart of Paul here, who has just spoken of a wonderful bond, but then it causes him to reflect on his relationship with his fellow Jews. We look in Acts chapter 22, Paul's giving a testimony, and he comes to the climax in verse 21 of chapter 22. He says, Jesus said to me, I send you to the Gentiles. Whoa, that's it. The Jews gave him audience until this word, Gentiles. They hated the Gentiles. Defiling dogs, the Gentiles. They heard that word, they lifted up their voices and said, now think how painful this is to Paul, a Jew, a Hebrew among Hebrews. Away with such a fellow from the earth, for it is not fit that he should live. Oh, Paul says, I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. On one side, the wonders of this bond I've told you of. On the other side, Division. My own people don't want me on the face of the earth. They say I'm not fit to live. It's a painful thing. Enmity. Fear brings this division. Now that's always been the case ever since the fall of man. There's been divisions. We go to the first two boys born, the first couple, Cain and Abel, divided. Divided in their occupation, divided in their spirituality, divided in their fates. You go back to Genesis chapter 4 and you look at the Punishment that's placed on Cain by God verse 12 God says On on Cain he says you shall be a fugitive and a vagabond That means an exile. You're going to be an outcast from the human race. You're going to be a loner People are going to separate from you. You're an exile stranger and notice Cain's response Oh Lord That's a greater punishment than I'm able to bear Man is a gregarious person. He wants to be joined with others, and now he's told you must separate. There'll be a division from you and others. Tower of Babel, God scattered the people abroad, Genesis chapter 11. And then you look through the history of mankind, what do you have? A division, wars, rumors of wars, all through recorded history. I expect many of you have heard the data as far as in the whole stretch of human history, how many years of peace have we had? I think that's pretty hard to calculate, but I did look up one article on it this week that said that maybe 268 years. So well over 90% of all the years of history of humanity, there have been wars. Even for those of us born in the 20th century, the 20th century has seen over a hundred million people killed in wars. We are pained by the division. We don't like the division. It's not right. It's not in keeping with who God is. It's not in keeping with right design, all this fighting, all this division, all this separation. And it's a breaking of Paul's heart. It gives him great heaviness and continual sorrow, the pain of separation. We're pained in our own culture by phrases such as, he's a Benedict Arnold. He's an Uncle Tom. He's a union scab. They're religious fanatics. And friends' divisions only appear to be increasing now. Ethnic groups or money behind them are fanning the flames of racial tension in America today. Emotion-driven mobs are lashing out against law enforcement. Desperate wannabe minorities with newly concocted ways of identifying themselves are demanding favor. You need to think on that one. How in your life experience have you seen people seek identity? Who are you? People will usually answer in terms of their family, their heritage, their education, their profession, their accomplishments. Now here is a group who want to identify themselves according to some fantasy, some delusion away from reality. Fantasy today, nothing based in facts, is given more and more credibility by leadership as viable as though it were truth, as if there were no real truth to be discovered. Divisions only appear to be increasing in our culture. ethnic groups, mobs against law enforcement, wannabe minorities, religious radicals who are waging jihad on citizens in airports, plazas, restaurants, and events. We look at the political separations in our own cultures now. Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, communists, socialists, We see a chasm between sides on abortion rights, gay rights, gun rights, free speech rights. On the larger scale we see immense global tensions with war ready to burst out all over. It puts a lot of pressure on the church. We're supposed to be unifiers, not dividers. And I expect that's going to be one of the major ways that we are going to be chastised and imprisoned in the last days, because the world's going toward unity. Accept the various religions. Accept the various moral lifestyles. It may not be yours, but what's your business? It's theirs. Who are you to declare division? Join us in unity. Would you turn with me to the book of Galatians, please? I read an article this week about a talk show host by the name of Montel Williams. who represents himself as being a conservative Republican. And he said in part, in the party of Lincoln, Republican Party, there is no room for intolerance and bigotry of any kind. He then cited Galatians 3, 26 through 28 to support the gay and transgender agenda, saying we're all equal in the eyes of the Lord. He doesn't see man or woman. Well, let's read that text. Galatians 3, 26. For ye all are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Does that say embrace everybody, whatever their moral proclivity is? What a perversion of the scriptures, Montel Williams-Reed is. It says, for as many as you have been baptized into Christ, all who have faith in Christ, they have a standing before God not based on gender. But you had to have come to Christ. You had to have repented of your sin. What confusion in these days. This idea that in Jesus everybody's accepted, whether or not you repent of your sin, whether or not you come and are born again. But Jesus' words are words of separation. Matthew chapter 10 and verse 34. You would turn there, please. Sure, our souls want unity, but there will not be unity until there is universal submission to the Lord Jesus Christ. He says in Matthew 1034, think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. Dividing issue is what you do with Christ. So it shall be in the future, Matthew 24, starting in verse 7. Concerning the tribulation, nations shall rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, Matthew 24, 7. And there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you. And ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another." Division. That's Paul's burden. It's our burden too. Wish it weren't so. Wish it weren't so. But it is a reality. Who is on the Lord's side? Who is not? That's the point of this text. Joining to Christ can lead to divisions with others. Pain's our heart, but it's a reality. Let's go on to that second issue. First issue is the point, now the pain. We have to feel the pathos here. Paul says, I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. It means great grief, unceasing anguish. Reminds me of what we read concerning Samuel in relationship to Saul. 1 Samuel 15.35. Samuel, on the side of God, came no more to see Saul until the day of his death. There came a dividing point, and they never were joined back again together. 1 Samuel 15.35, Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul. We read in the book of Jeremiah 9.1, Oh, that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people. Oh, Jeremiah was hated, but he loved the people who hated him, and he was greatly burdened for them. In Philippians chapter three, starting in verse 17, Paul writes, Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which will walk so as ye have us, for an example. For many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping. that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is their shame, who mine earthly things. I tell you, weeping, Paul says. Sorrow in the heart, continually, because of division. Why, Paul, why such sadness? I think we can find at least two answers. Why the grief, Paul, concerning your people? I think the first answer would be because of what could have been. Don't you find yourself grieving over what could have been if it had not been for sin? What could have been? Jerusalem could have stood, not been destroyed Paul is writing near that time, 70 A.D., where it's calculated a million deaths occurred in Jerusalem. There was a siege. Those who tried to escape were crucified. Sometimes there were thousands of crosses on the road leading to Jerusalem at one time. Tens of thousands died of starvation. Corpses were piled up. Those who fought were killed. Pestilence set in. The walls were torn down. The city was burned. The temple was ravaged. All the holy stuff carried away. Temple was flattened. Never been rebuilt. What could have been? What could have been? Luke chapter 19, would you turn there please? That was Jesus's burden and why he wept over the Jew in Jerusalem. Luke 19.41. Triumphal entry. Now, Jesus comes near, beholds the city, and weeps over it. Picture Jesus weeping over Jerusalem, saying, If thou had known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the day shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, encompass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, even, and thy children within thee. And they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. Friends, it grieves the heart of God when people don't know the time of their visitation. Is Jesus visiting you? See, the day comes, as we read in Jeremiah 8-20, the day comes when we hear, the harvest has passed, the summer's ended, and we are not saved. Oh, what could have been! Paul's looking at his Jewish people in the city of Jerusalem, and oh, what could have been! Jerusalem could have stood, not been destroyed. Brethren could have dwelled in unity, not strife. Folks, the same is true today. America is not New Testament Israel, neither is the church, but there are universal principles that apply here. We could say, who knows, but that America could stand, America could have stood, might be said one day. if we would have known the time of our visitation. God is long-suffering, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. But He will not bear our impotence forever. The day comes when we hear the harvest has passed, the summer has ended, and we are not saved. Who knows what American brethren could have dwelled in unity. What a great construction. What a great constitution. What a great design for a nation. What a great start. We read in James chapter 4, starting in verse 7, Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh unto you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners. Purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted, and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up. Speak not evil one of another, brethren." See, the question to Paul is, Why such sadness? Why such great heaviness and continual sorrow in your heart, Paul? You were just at this great high talking about the unity, the bond with God Himself. The first answer is, because of what could have been for my own people. Don't you see that even in our own cities, on our own streets, in our own homes? What could be? Now the second answer to why such sadness. The first answer is because what could have been. The second one is because of what is instead. What is when you have a Jewish nation as a nation, rejecting Paul, the theologian, who brings the gospel of salvation and say, he is not fit to walk on this planet. That is a bad statement on God. See, disharmony, rejection of truth, misunderstanding, presumption, alienation, all speak negatively about Israel's God. One of the pleasures of this last week when we had a little respite was I reading out loud to Carol, we're going to the book of Jeremiah to start in the morning, on the evening, read chapter after chapter. And a major theme in the book of Jeremiah can be found in chapter two, verse 15, where God says, what iniquity have your fathers found in me that they are gone far from me? What do they find is wrong in me, that they're going and doing what they're doing? In other words, don't you see that all sin is a statement on God? God is this, God says do this, we're going to do this. What does that say about your attitude towards God? What iniquity have they found in me? Where have I failed them? What's their charge against me? Deuteronomy to Numbers and chapter 14. This is often the message of God's prophets and leaders. Don't you understand any sin you commit is a statement against God? When David sinned, he said, it's against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Through Jeremiah, God says, what iniquity have you found in me that you do this? Moses repeated argument. One place we find it is in Roman Numbers chapter 14, starting in verse 13. God says, I have had enough of these people. I'm going to smite them with a pestilence and disinherit them. Moses makes the following appeal in verse 13. Lord, then the Egyptians shall hear it, for Thou broughtest up this people in Thy might from among them. And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land, for they have heard that Thou Lord, art among this people, that thou, Lord, art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them by daytime in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. And now I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken." And so on. When sinners sin, it's a poor reflection on their God. Why should we pray for us here as a church? Why should we pray for our nation that is named God as their God, and God we trust? Because sinning is a poor reflection on our God. Why should you want to live a holy life because you have aligned yourself with the name of God and it is to His shame. It's as though He didn't have the power to give you strength to live a holy life that you sin. Would you turn with me to Psalm chapter 42? I'm saying, Paul, Though he rejoices in the goodness of God and bringing union, there is this, oh yeah, other side, this shadow next to this truth. My people, my people, oh how I grieve. Why? For what could have been, but now it's too late. And secondly, for what is instead. You're reflecting evil on my God and your God. Psalm 42, David says in verse three, By the way, this psalm was thought to have been written at the time that Absalom rebelled against David. when there's chaos in the kingdom and David's own son is inciting civil war. And David says, here's my real grief. Oh, it hurts to have my son do this to me. It hurts when I think about what is happening to our nation. It hurts when it means the people are going to die in conflict and trouble and sorrow. But here's the real burden I have. My tears have been my meat day and night while they continually say to me, where's thy God? Where is thy God? What kind of a weak, limp-wristed God do you have? He can't win this fight? Or is He no God at all but your delusion? Where is your God? That's the burden to David. Verse 10 of Psalm 42, As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me, while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God? Oh, I must hope in my God. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance and my God." What it is instead is a bad statement on God. And I'll tell you what else it is instead. It's a bad statement on Israel. God's special people have become God's enemy, and that's not a good place to be. This will not work out well for the Jews. Look what's happened for the 2,000 or so years since that time. Trouble for the Jews wherever they've gone. Another striking feature in the book of Jeremiah, you find it several times. One place is Jeremiah 50 and verse 31, where God says, behold, I'm against you. You know what? That's not what you want to have God say to you. Jeremiah 15.31, Do you see this? He says, I am against you. I'm against thee, O thou most proud, said the Lord God of hosts, for thy day has come, the time that I will visit thee. Ezekiel 5.8, we read, Behold, I, even I, am against thee, and will execute judgment in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations. Israel is likened unto a tree that God planted, God fertilized, God hoed, God protected, God tended to year after year, and then he looks at it and look, no fruit! Cut it down! Throw it in the fire! Oh, Paul grieves for his people, for what could have been, for what is. Folks, I believe the same truths apply to our nation as well. Our iniquity in the United States of America is a statement on our God. When we entertain ourselves with sensuality, when we bathe ourselves in luxuries, when we establish our own moral values, When we erect our own gods, imbibe the lust of our flesh, and walk in the vanity of our own imaginations, who indeed are we saying our God is? And our sin is a bad statement on us as a nation. If we do not remain a friend of Israel, it curses upon us. We see this going back to the Abrahamic covenant. God said to Abraham, I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. Perhaps we as a country have stayed solvent as long as we have due to the blessing of God for being a friend of Israel. If we do not remain a friend of Israel, we are under the curse of God. And if we do not gather, we scatter. And if we do not build, we tear down. If we do not teach whatsoever things Christ has taught us, then we deepen the darkness. If we do not serve as salt, then we are good for nothing but to be trampled underfoot. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. So we have observed the point Paul says it's a grief. This is not God's design. This is not God's will that there be a division, there be a chasm, there be a separation. That's the point. What a sad thing. It's a sad thing to hear Jesus say, I bring a sword. And I want mothers and fathers and children all to be one tight unit. But here comes the sword, those who believe in Christ and those who reject him. And that is a dividing issue. And what is true for the family is true for the nations of the world, he says. In the tribulation, those who bring the sword of division to the gospel of Christ will be hunted all around the world and put to death, and the people think they're doing God a favor when they do it. The point is this division is a painful reality. And the second issue is it is painful. It's a grief, because it need not be. And it means the judgment of God is coming for Israel, for our nation. That leads us to the third and final issue, what we call the passion. See, the passion of Paul. He says in chapter 9 verse 3 of Romans, I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. Now the theologian Hodge says we need to understand this as a language rather of strong and indistinct emotions rather than of definite ideas. He does say, I could wish, meaning he can't do it because he's been united to Christ. But he's saying, I could be willing to be destroyed. I could be devoted to death for the sake of my countrymen. They hate me, I love them. They reject me, I seek for restoration through the blood of Christ. Friends, I could wish myself a curse from Christ for my brethren. Such passion. Similar to what we read with Moses. Exodus chapter 32 and verse 31. Moses says, oh, this people have sinned a great sin and have made them gods of gold. Moses is saying this when he's receiving the Ten Commandments on the Mount. Yet now, Moses says to God, if thou will forgive their sin, And if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written." I could be cursed for their sake. Blot my name out. Such passion. So we note the irony. We may suffer the most at the hands of those for whom we care and do the most. It's a reality of this dispensation. But again, there is a great burden here. There's a great love. There's a great passion that Paul has for his people and for his people's God. It reminds me of something I read this week. In fact, I'd like to read two poems about love. The first one is by Horatius Bonar. He's written some of our great hymns. He says, O love of God, how strong and true, eternal and yet ever new, uncomprehended and unbought, beyond all knowledge and all thought. Oh, heavenly love, how precious still in days of weariness and ill, in nights of pain and helplessness to hear, to comfort and to bless. Oh, wide-embracing, wondrous love, we read Thee in the sky above, we read Thee in the earth below, in seas that swell and streams that flow. We read Thee best in Him who came to bear for us the cross of shame. sent by the Father from Him on high, our life to live, our death to die. O love of God, our shield and stay through all the perils of our way. Eternal love in Thee we rest, forever safe, forever blessed. O love of God. which leads to have a second poem, it's a short one, the author's unknown, but see the relevance to what we've just said. Paul said, I could wish myself a curse. Moses says, blot me out. It's in keeping with the spirit of Christ who did become a curse, willing to give all so deep as your affection and love for people, for what they could be, for what is coming, what is. What this reflects on God, This poem is entitled, His Love. The love of Christ doth constrain me to seek the wandering souls of men with cries, entreaties, tears to save, to snatch them from the gaping grave. For this, let men revile my name No cross I shun, I fear no shame. All hail, reproach, and welcome pain. Only thy terrors, Lord, restrain. My life, my blood, I here present. If for thy truth they may be spent, thy faithful witness will I be. Tis fixed, I can do all through thee. So a good question for us to conclude on today is, does that describe our passion? Do we feel the burden that we find there with Paul? This division, this horrible division. Now we're not gonna fix the division by compromise. We're not gonna fix the division by denying the cross. But we'll pray for union which comes only through the blood of Christ. Until then we labor on, whatever the cost. So a good question is, do we have the sort of passion that Paul expresses today? Does it grieve us that young couples live together without the benefit of marriage? Does it grieve us that curse words are used so lightly, commonly, publicly? Does it grieve us that the Lord's day is profaned so thoughtlessly? that private and personal behavior is displayed so publicly for profit. It doesn't grieve us that an ignorance of the Scriptures prevails, that church denominations have bishops with prurient interests, that church buildings become rock and roll concert halls, that absolute standards of right and wrong are rejected. Do such things make you sigh and cry? And if so, why? Is it because of how things could be and how they are? Is there a mark on your forehead? Turn with me please to Ezekiel chapter 9 and verse 4, and with this verse we will conclude today. What does that mean? Is there a mark on your forehead? In Ezekiel, the Lord is enumerating the failures of Judah and why God is judging them. For the very crimes that we're seeing around about us today, And we read in Ezekiel 9.4, the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. Mark them. Mark that mind. There is a mind that's still set on the things of God. Mark them. Mark them to deliver them. That's what I'm looking for, he says. People who have not gotten desensitized or distracted, but sigh and cry for all the abominations that are done in the midst of us. Let us pray. My Father, if we were to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, we understand that the primary message we bring, first of all, is this. There's a separation between you and your God. Sin separates, and death separates forever. We cry out for union, but the only way to union is by looking to the cross. May we be a people, Lord, by Thy grace, who declare the separation, who do all that we can to be at peace with all men, but will not compromise the cross which separates. And Lord, maybe there are souls here today, souls who are hearing the sound of my voice, whose sins are still separating them from God. They are not what they could be. And what they are is a fearful thing. God is against them till they come to God through Christ. Move in the hearts of all of the people here, all of us who in any way are resisting the work of the Holy Spirit. Move in the hearts of us here that we would grieve, that would be a constant source of pain and agony, that there's a people who will not bow the knee and confess the tongue concerning Jesus Christ as Lord. We see what is. We see what could be. And we cry, O Lord God, have mercy upon us. May Thy love constrain us. May we serve Thee. May the heart of God be our hearts. May our and more and more people know the bond, the love of God. So we pray, Lord, if there are souls here willing to come to God today and have a separation in, bring them to salvation today. Bring them to confess Christ today. Bring them to repentance today. And even as we sing our last hymn, have them come forward and declare what they intend to do. And if there are those of us who have been lulled into some sort of lethargy, give us the passion of Paul. Yea, give us the passion of Moses. Yea, give us the passion of Christ for the lost. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.