For when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the head of God. Every part of this takes salvation out of the sinner's hands. When we were yet without strength, verse seven, We hear about people that will give up their lives in order to help save somebody else that they consider worthy. But here, compared with Christ, there was none worthy. Yet peradventure for a good man, some would even dare die, but God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. and it was that by his death they might be justified. As verse nine says, clearly, much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies, you see how it goes from without strength to sinners to enemies, every description is against us as sinners. But when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. Much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. There again is proof that this justification did not occur until Christ died. It teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. In other words, separation. We're going to live our lives in this world being called out, being separated out. from the general tenor of the way things go. But positively stated, you see, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Living soberly, not just temperately, as in not drinking, that's not the sense, but wisely. Be wise as serpents, Christ said, and gentle as doves. That's what it is to be sober. It does require wisdom. You're surrounded by people picking and poking at you, and everybody's got something to say, and they're hee-hawing. You swing in your emotions. Do I say something here? And you're angry. And then the next thing, well, I won't say anything now. And then you think, well, I'm being quiet now. What are they thinking? It requires wisdom to know how to speak, to know how to respond. Like it says in Ecclesiastes 3, a time to speak and a time to be quiet. A time to plant, a time to uproot. That requires wisdom as children of the light. But again, where's our resource? Where's our help? The gospel, Christ, what's been revealed. You know what it means to be regenerated by the spirit of God and what it means to be spiritually dead. There again, you're either alive or you're dead spiritually. You're either elect of God or you're not elect. Those are some other ways, either sheep or goats. But the question that we face when dealing with the unconverted is that we never know whether they may be one of God's elect or not. I think we tend to think, well, elect or not, but just remember, we were all born into this world in darkness. in spiritual deadness. And in our early years before the Lord taught us, if someone who knew anything of the truth would have looked on us in that state, they would most certainly have said, here's a reprobate, you see. And yet, we were the Lord's. And in his time, it pleased him to reveal Christ in us. So I say that because we can't just divide people into these groups by our own wisdom, and nor should we, nor should we try. We're not called upon to do that. Either way, whether a person is elect or not, we are to manifest the grace and mercy of God to all in our attitudes, in our comportment and in our deeds. We're not to withhold mercy because we can't figure out whether someone's the Lord's or not. We're not to withhold good, however that may be described, to any simply because we're uncertain as to whether they're elect or not. you