Who Is Free To Marry?

Introduction

Good morning. It is good to see you this morning. It is a blessing to be together this morning to worship God. It is always a blessing when God’s people can come together on the first day of the week to worship the Lord. It is also a blessing to have guests here in our crowd. We have some several guests here with us. Some folks that I know from Tennessee, dear friends of mine are here. And I’m just so glad for all the guests that we have here. You’re in a good place. You’re among friends. Thank you for being here. It is a blessing to have you here today. It’s a blessing to be able to spend this time of the year with family. I realize that many of our folks may be out of town, and maybe you’re going to be traveling during this holiday season.

I pray that you’ll be safe and blessed and that you’ll be able to spend some time with your family. That is a wonderful, wonderful thing to be with family, to be with a spiritual family, to worship God, and to be able to study from God’s Word. In fact, as we get ready to study from the Word of God this morning, I’m going to ask you to buckle up because this ride may be a little bumpy today. And as we do that, I need to begin this lesson by telling you about three people.

Like Jack, she had never been married before, and they started liking each other. They started dating and eventually fell in love, and about six or seven months later, they got married. They tied the knot. They said, I do before God and witnesses, but unfortunately, as time went by, like a lot of couples’ experience, it started having, it started having some problems. They started having some trials and some conflicts. In fact, during their trials and conflicts, they decided to get a divorce. They decided to get lawyers to go to the courthouse. They’re not getting along with each other anymore. And they said they’re going to sever, several of this relationship. And after doing that, well, a couple of years went by, and Jill, well, she met John.

John moved into our neighborhood. And John had never been married before. Now remember, Jill has been married before. She’d married Jack before, but John’s never been married, and they start dating, and after a few months, they get, they fall in love and they get married. That’s the situation that took place between Jack and Jill and John. And here’s the question. The question is what do you think about that? What do you think about this situation these people are in? More importantly, what does God think about this? Is God pleased with this? Was God pleased with Jack and Jill’s marriage? Was he pleased with their divorce? Was he pleased with Jill and John’s marriage that followed Jill’s divorce from Jack? How does God feel about this?

1. People Who Have Never Been Married and Bound

Well, as we try to find an answer to that question by sorting through this convoluted mess, I think it’s important that we begin by first considering another question, and that’s this question right here. It’s a very important question. Who’s free to marry? Who’s free to marry? Who’s free to enter into this sacred relationship that was created by God? Well, there’s several groups of people who are free to marry according to the scriptures. And the first group is obvious. The first group of the people who never been married before. The people who have never been married and bound to someone else under God’s law. That’s a word you’re going to hear me use a lot today, the word bound. People who’ve never been married and bound are able to get married according to the Bible.

And I know that because Jesus said so. Jesus said so in Matthew chapter 19. Go in your Bible, please to Matthew chapter 19. Matthew chapter 19. And Matthew chapter 19, beginning in verse number 3. We’re towards the end of Jesus’ life. He’s soon about to go to the cross and be crucified for the sins of the world. And the temperature, the temperature is heating up in Jerusalem. And the Pharisees are really after him at this time, and they’re trying to trap him and embarrass him and turn people against him. So they come to him with a question. They come to him in Matthew 19, verse 3, and it says the Pharisees came to Jesus, verse 3, and they came testing him. Their intentions are not good here.

And they’re asking, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all? Notice the question they come to Jesus with. It’s a very controversial question. It was controversial in the time of the Jews, 2,000 years ago, and it’s controversial in our time today. Can people get a divorce for any reason and still please God? That’s the question. And the Jews had a lot of different ideas about this. The rabbis had a lot of different ideas about this in the time of Jesus. But look at what Jesus says in verse number four. And verse number four, he answered and said, Have you not read? You men who are supposed to know the word of God, have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said, For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

So they’re no longer two, but one flesh, but therefore God is joined together, let no man separate. Notice how on addressing this very controversial question about divorce and who God allows to get a divorce.

He explains to them God’s original intent and God’s original purpose for marriage. He explains to them that when God first created marriage all the way back in the beginning, he created it to be the closest relationship that two people can share in life. He created it to be a relationship where two people, a man and a woman, a husband and a wife, they become one. They become one flesh. They are joined. The idea there is glued by God together in this sacred relationship, and it is to last a lifetime. No one but God has a right to destroy it. No one but God has a right to sever this relationship. That is exactly what Jesus means in verse number six. When he says, What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.

What Jesus means there is God’s will for marriage from the beginning was for it to last a lifetime. It was to be a relationship that’s to only be severed at death. And for those who may want to suggest that what the Lord here only applies to Christians or members of the church, let me just say that that kind of thinking doesn’t line up at all with what Jesus is talking about here in the context. Notice how Jesus doesn’t say here that when it comes to marriage, well, marriage was created when the church was established in Acts chapter 2. Our marriage wasn’t established until the new covenant or the new testament came in force. No, Jesus says that marriage was created by God not long after he made the first man and the first woman.

You know what that means? That means that marriage is literally almost as old as dirt. That implies that it was created to benefit all mankind, not just not just believers or Christians. And the Bible makes this clear in Hebrews 13 and verse 4. In Hebrews 13 and verse 4, the Hebrew writer says that marriage is to be held in honor among all. The idea of all there means all people, believers and non-believers. Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and the adulterous. The apostle Paul puts it this way to the Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse number 9, we’re talking to the Corinthians, these Christians in Corinth.

Paul says, Do you not know? That the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived. Don’t fool yourself. Neither the sexually immoral or the idolaters or the adulterers or the homosexuals. He goes on to say in verse 11, such were some of you. Some of you people did this, but now you’re Christians. You’ve been washed, you’ve been sanctified, you’ve been justified in the name of Jesus Christ. Question. Question. If marriage and God’s law for marriage is just to benefit Christians and for Christians, then how in the world could these people be guilty of adultery before they became Christians? How in the world is that possible? If God’s law for marriage is only for Christians, then how can these people be guilty of adultery before they became Christians?

2. The Person Whose Spouse Has Died

Clearly, Paul is saying here that God doesn’t just require Christians to submit to his standard for marriage, but instead he requires all people to submit to it. God made marriage to benefit all mankind. And so if you’ve never been married before, God says you’ve got a right to marry. You’re free to marry, but you’re not just free to marry anybody you want. We’ll talk about that later, but you are free to marry. The unmarried people have never been married before, are free to marry, and so are those who’ve had a spouse that has died. The person whose spouses died is also free to marry. And I know for a fact that there are many people in this room that I love so much who fall into this category, right?

This applies to them. And so listen to what the Bible has to say to folks like that. In 1 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse number 39, the apostle Paul says that a woman is bound. Paul likes that word a lot. A woman is bound as long as her husband lives, but if he dies, she is free to marry someone who is scripturally able to marry. That’s what Paul’s teaching there. And then he puts it this way, going back to what Shawn Michael just read in Romans 7 and verse 2, when he says, For the married woman is bound by law to the husband as long as he’s alive, but if he dies, she’s released from the law concerning her husband. The Bible’s clear. This is not hard to understand.

3. Put Their Spouse Away for Sexual Immorality

In fact, what Paul is teaching here is the same thing Jesus taught in Matthew chapter 19 and verse 9. Like Jesus taught here, Paul is saying that God wants marriage to be a lifelong commitment. He wants it to be something, a relationship that only separates, that is only separated by death. When death separates individuals, they’re no longer bound, Paul says, and the survivor is free to marry again. And so the unmarried and the person whose spouses died. These people are free to marry according to the scriptures, but also the person who’s put their spouse away for sexual immorality. They’re free to marry again. Now they don’t have to. They don’t have to. They don’t have to put their spouse away if their spouse cheats on them and marry again.

They could forgive and stay in the relationship, but the Bible says that if they find that out, they can’t put their spouse away and marry again. Jesus makes that point in Matthew 19 9. And Matthew 19 and verse number 9, listen closely to what Jesus says. He goes on to talk to the Pharisees. He says, and I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except, that’s the key word, that means if and only for this reason, right here, this is it. Except for immorality, and marries another woman, commits adultery. Notice how here Jesus is authorizing another marriage after a divorce. He is authorizing another marriage after a divorce. He actually implies it here. He implies that while it is clearly wrong for a person to divorce their spouse for a reason, a reason other than adultery and marry another, it is not wrong for a person to divorce their spouse for adultery or sexual immorality and marry another.

4. People Who Are Reconciled

Jesus says you can do that. According to Jesus, when an innocent person puts a guilty person away for sexual morality, the innocent person is free to go and marry someone who’s scripturally able to marry and not be in sin. That’s what the Lord is teaching there by implication. And so the person’s put their spouse away for sexual morality. They’re free to go and marry someone who’s able to marry scripturally, but not just these folks, also people who are reconciled. They have a right to marry.

While God certainly hates divorce, and we know that God hates divorce, unfortunately, some people, even some Christians, don’t care what God feels about concerning that. They disregard God’s desire. They get involved in unlawful divorces, and when that happens, the Holy Spirit’s got something to say about that. And so go in your Bible, please to 1 Corinthians chapter 7. In 1 Corinthians chapter 7, the apostle Paul had a lot to say to the Corinthians about marriage and divorce. And he says here in 1 Corinthians 7 and verse 10. Look at the verses very carefully. In 1 Corinthians 7 and verse 10, the apostle Paul says, But to the married I give instructions, not I above the Lord. That the wife should not leave her husband. Let’s just stop right there for just a second.

What Paul means when he says, To the married I give instruction, the instructions are I above the Lord, he’s saying that the Lord already addressed this. This is not new stuff here. The Lord already addressed this in Matthew 19 and verse 6, where therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. That’s what Paul’s making reference to when he says, the wife shouldn’t leave her husband. Jesus already preached on this. But sometimes people disobey Jesus, even Christians. Verse 11, but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be what? Reconciled to her husband. And that the husband should not divorce his wife. It goes both ways. It applies to the man and the woman. Notice how when a divorce takes place that it’s not in accordance to what we saw in Matthew chapter 19.

The unlawfully divorced couple is not free to go and marry other people.

But they are allowed to reconcile.

And there’s a reason for that.

5. The Difference Between Married and Bound

You see, the prohibition of Matthew 19 and verse number 9 is for the guilty person to marry another if the innocent person decides not to go and enter into another lawful marriage, they’re not prohibited from reconciling with their mate. God doesn’t prohibit reconciliation of the original couple. The original couple can reconcile as long as the innocent person doesn’t go and marry someone who is free to marry scripturally. And the Bible’s clear on this. The Bible is clear about who is free to marry, but if we’re still going to figure out this mess that took that took place between Jack and Jill and John, in addition to answering, in addition to answering this question, we got to also understand something else. We got to understand the difference between being married and bound.

And Mike, this is the title of the lesson right here Married and Bound. We got to know the difference. And did you know there’s a difference? Did you know the Bible makes a difference between these two ideas? A lot of folks don’t know this. A lot of Christians don’t know this. In fact, sometimes you can hear it in the language that some Christians will use. Take, for example, how there are times when a couple gets a divorce that the Lord does not approve of, and people will say, Well, you know what? They’re still married in the eyes of God. You ever heard someone say that before? That is wrong. That’s wrong. That’s not scriptural. That’s biblically not right. It’s not correct. What is correct is to say is those two people are still bound.

They’re not married, but they’re bound. They’re bound in the eyes of God. Someone says, where are you coming from with that, preacher? Well, look at the Bible with me. Look at Mark chapter 10. Listen to what Jesus says here in Mark chapter 10. And a parallel text to Matthew 19. Jesus says this in Mark chapter 10 and verse number 11. In Mark chapter 10 and in verse number 11, Jesus says this. He said to the Pharisees, whoever divorces wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she herself divorced her husband and marries, Jesus used the word married here, and marries another man, she’s committing adultery. So notice how Jesus says that you can be married to somebody but be an adultery. You’d be married to somebody being adultery.

How is that possible? What in the world? Well, Paul here will give more explanation of that. Here he’s talking primarily in the context about how we’re not under the old law, but he uses marriage as an example to make his point. And we can learn something from the point Paul is making here. Going back to Romans 7, verses 2 through 3. He says, For the married woman is bound. Look at that word bound. She’s bound by law, God’s law, to her husband while he’s alive. But if her husband dies, she’s released from the law concerning her husband. So then if all her husband is living, she is joined. Some translations use the word married there, same word. She’s joined to another man. She should be called an adulteress, but if her husband dies, she is free from the law so that she’s not an adulteress, even though she’s joined or married to another man.

You see what Paul is doing there? It is masterclass teaching. Masterclass. Here, Paul’s telling us about a woman. He’s telling us about a woman who is bound by God’s law concerning her first husband, even though she is married to another man. Paul says that while this woman is married, she is married to the second man. She’s not bound to the second man. She’s not bound by God’s law to the second man. They are married, but their marriage is not lawful. It’s not approved in the eyes of God. That is exactly why she’s called an adulteress. She’s called an adulteress because she’s married to one man while still bound by God’s law to her first husband. Paul here’s making a clear distinction between being married and bound.

There’s a difference. And so let’s go back and visit this mess right here. We got Jack. We got Jill. They get married, right? They’re married. As a result of getting married, since neither has never been married before, they’re bound now. Neither’s never been, neither’s never been married before. So they get married, and now God binds them together. They are bound by God’s law. Married and bound. But they start having problems. Start having some problems. And so, like a lot of people, they say, we’re gonna give up. We don’t want to be in this anymore. They get a divorce. They get a divorce. They move on. Jill gets her place. Jack gets his place. A guy named John moves into Jill’s neighborhood. She marries him. That’s the situation.

That’s the situation.

Now, the question was how does God feel about this? Remember, John’s never been married before. He just married Jill. So how does God feel about this? Well, based on what the scriptures say, God’s not pleased with any of this mess. None of this mess is lawful. None of it is lawful in the eyes of God. Someone says, why is it not lawful in the eyes of God? Well, first, it’s not lawful in the eyes of God because it violates Matthew 19 9. Jack and Jill violated that verse. Matthew 19 and verse 9 is a commandment. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate. Jack and Jill did exactly the opposite of what Jesus said not to do. God joined Jack and Jill together in marriage.

He bound them together. They didn’t have a right to tear that apart. They didn’t have a right to sever that relationship since adultery was not involved. Both persons took place, took part in an unlawful divorce. This divorce was unlawful. And that means that the marriage between Jill and John was also unlawful. It’s unlawful based on what Paul told us in Romans 7. Remember there? There in Romans 7, there is a woman married to another man while still bound by God’s law to another man. That’s Jill. Even though she’s married to John, you know, she joined to John. She’s not bound to John. She’s actually bound to Jack. John’s not bound to anybody since he’s never been married before. But Jack and Jill are still bound. They’re still bound to one another.

6. Four Different Situations: Married and Bound

So Jill is now married to one man while bound by God’s law to another man. You see that? Bible’s clear. And to make this even plainer, let’s do this. Let’s point out how in the Bible there’s four different situations you could be in when it comes to being married and bound. Four different situations. First, you could be the person who’s both bound and scripturally married to the same person. And that’s Romans 7 and verse 2. Remember Romans 7 and verse 2? The Apostle Paul talks about how a woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he is alive. That’s what God wants. That is what he wants. This is the ideal situation. This is God’s original intent for marriage. It’s what Jesus preached, it’s what Paul preached.

It hopefully describes every married couple in this room right now. That’s what God wants. He wants you to be married and bound to the person you’re married to. That could be you. But you could also be somebody who’s bound and unmarried. And that’s what Paul talked about in 1 Corinthians 7. We read that. Remember, we learned that if unlawful divorce takes place, even between Christians, the two people can remain unmarried. Paul says that. Now they have no authority to go and marry somebody else because Romans 7 taught us that they’re still bound to each other, but they can remain unmarried or else be reconciled. So a person could be bound and unmarried. Or a person could be bound and unmarried while the former is free to remarry.

And that’s what Jesus taught in Matthew chapter 19 and verse 9. The prohibition of Matthew 19 and verse 9 is for a divorce to take place for another reason other than adultery. Well, if a person’s spouse cheats on them, if adultery is involved, the innocent person can put the guilty person away, can put the cheater away for sexual immorality. They can put the person away who became one sexually with someone else, and if they choose to, they can go and marry someone who’s not bound by God’s law to somebody else. Now the cheater can’t do that. The cheater has no permission to do that from Jesus. He’s still bound to the innocent person. And he cannot marry another person. This is permissive for the innocent, not for the guilty.

And then you could also be bound to the first mate while unlawfully married to somebody else. And that’s going to take us to Mark chapter 6. Go into your Bible, please to Mark 6. We read this already about this woman in Romans 7. But go to Mark chapter 6, because what I’m preaching to you is nothing new. This has been preached for thousands of years. It was preached by John the Baptizer. John the Baptizer went preached this to some people in authority, to Herod, King Herod. And John got his head cut off as a result. So if I can leave out of here today with at least my head, I’ve done okay. You make and shoot me out in the lobby and say you disagree with everything.

As long as I get in my car, my head’s intact, I’m not John. I’m good. But look at what John preached. In Mark chapter 6 and verse 17. Mark 6 and verse 17 says, So for John himself had sent and had, for Herod himself, I’m sorry, has sent and had John arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, because he had married her. He married her. They’re married. For John had been saying, though, he had been saying to Herod, it’s not lawful. You’re married, but it’s not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife. John understood what Paul understood. Preachers of truth, they get this. How here, like the woman in Romans 7, you got Herodias. She’s married to one man while still bound to another man.

She was married to Philip for a time, but she divorced him, and she married his brother Herod. Herodias is just like this woman in Romans 7. You know who else she’s like? She just like Jill.

Like Jill Herodias divorces a man and marries another man. She divorced Philip. And she went and married Herod. And John the Baptist came along and he preached the same sermon I’m preaching right now. He preached this. He preached it to Herod. He told Herod, you’re in sin because you’re unlawfully married to your brother’s wife. He says, You don’t have a right to be married to your brother’s wife because she’s still bound to a man she never had a right to divorce. She was unlawfully married to Herod. But she was still bound to Philip. And because she was unlawfully married to Herod, you know what that meant? That meant both her and Herod were in adultery. That’s why John went and preached it to them. That’s why he got his head cut off.

Conclusion

John preached this. John knew the difference between being married and bound. But here’s the real question. I gave you all of this, but I gotta give you stuff to take home. My job is not just to give information, it’s to tell us how to live it and what to do with it. So, what do we need to do with this? Well, here’s a few things we need to do with this. I want you to take these things home with you, okay? First, take home this. None of this is really hard to understand. It’s really not. And someone’s thinking right now, wait a minute, wait a minute, preacher. Where have you been for the last 35 minutes? What are you talking about, preacher? Stuff way hard to understand.

I mean, think about what you’ve been doing this lesson. This person married that person, and then they married that person. They got a divorce. Jack and Jill did this, and Jill did this with John. This makes my head want to turn in circles. Maybe somebody’s thinking that right now. Maybe somebody’s thinking, oh, this is just confusing. In fact, it is very likely, and I’ve been doing this for a little bit. It’s very likely that after this lesson, there’s going to be somebody or a group of people who are going to pull me aside in the lobby, and they’re going to ask me about another scenario, a scenario I hadn’t even thought of before. They’re going to ask me, well, what’s a person do if they’re in this situation?

What do they do if they’re in that situation? Some people might even call me this week and say, Well, what about this situation? So often, after these kind of lessons, a lot of folks like to play stomp the preacher, but no matter how many games we play and hypothetical situations we come up with, it’s not going to change the Bible. It’s not gonna change God’s word and God’s standard. The teaching of God on marriage, divorce, and remarriage is clear and it’s easy to understand. The problem, though, is unfortunately, a lot of people get themselves in complicated situations. The problem is, unfortunately, either people don’t know God’s will for marriage, or they do know it and they still rebel, or they try to bend God’s will to fit their situation.

That’s the problem. But God’s not the problem. God’s word’s not the problem. God says what he wants in the Bible. God says that from the beginning, he designed marriage to be between one man and one woman, and that relationship is to last for a lifetime. Once one of the two people dies, the living person is then free to marry someone who’s not bound to someone else. It’s that simple. This ain’t like Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation. This is easy. The problem is people get in complicated situations. But even though people get themselves in complicated situations, brothers and sisters, and I say this with all sincerity, we gotta keep teaching the truth on this. We can’t ever compromise. We gotta teach the truth. We gotta be like John the Baptizer.

John the baptizer did not shy away from telling the Herod the truth about marriage, divorce, and remarriage, and we shouldn’t either. Let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. There are 30 or 40 other subjects. I’d rather preach to you this morning. Contrary to what you might be thinking right now, I didn’t get up this morning at 4 30 in the morning and say, Woohoo! I get to preach about marriage, divorce, or remarriage right before Christmas.

I didn’t do that. I much rather preach about God’s love and the need to have faith and humility and even about the birth of Jesus and what we can learn from that from the Bible. I would prefer to preach about that stuff. And you probably would rather hear about that stuff. But as a minister of the gospel and as a man who serves under four wonderful shepherds, I can’t just preach to you about that stuff. I can’t just preach to you about stuff that’s gonna make you feel all nice and warm and fuzzy inside. I gotta do like Paul did in Acts 20 and verse 20. I gotta preach the whole counsel of God. I gotta do what Paul told Timothy to do in 2 Timothy 4.

And that’s be ready in season and eye season and use the word of God to reprove and rebuke and exhort with great patience and instructions. I know this is not pleasant to listen to. It’s not easy to preach. But we gotta preach it from time to time. We got to preach it from this pulpit from time to time. You see, one of the reasons why so many people, even in my own family, one of the reasons why so many people are finding themselves in unlawful marriages is because they’re not being taught what God’s word has to say about this. They’re not being taught what Jesus preached and what the apostle Paul preached. It is being assumed in so many churches that everybody knows the truth about this already, and that’s a mistake.

That’s a horrible mistake. It is a horrible mistake for any of us to assume that our young people and our new converts and even the people in this community that we’re trying to win with the gospel already understand the truth about this issue. If we assume that, we’re going to contribute to a problem. We’re going to contribute to raising up a generation of people who are going to find themselves in unlawful marriages, and we may even find ourselves getting upset with our shepherds where they refuse to accept people into our fellowship who are in unlawful marriages. We got to teach the truth. No compromise. I know I’m never going to compromise. In fact, beyond teaching the truth, we’ve got to make sure we apply this.

Remember what James said in James 1 and verse 22 be doers of the word, not hearers only. Deceiving yourselves. We got to apply it. And so for those of us who are married, if we’re just faithful to our spouse and keep our vows. And if we live by the Bible and really surrender ourselves to Jesus, we won’t have to worry about getting ourselves in complicated situations later on in life. We won’t have to worry about finding ourselves in a situation like Jack and Jill and John. We won’t have to worry about being in unscriptural marriages like so many people, unfortunately, are in today. God’s word is clear on this matter. And no matter what situation people find themselves in, that’s not going to change. That’s not going to transform.

That’s not going to bend to what people want to do in our culture. In fact, Jesus said in John 12 and verse 48, we’re going to be judged by this. In John 12 and verse 48, Jesus taught very clearly that on the judgment day, we’re not going to be judged by the standard of culture. We’re not going to be judged by our U.S. Constitution or by what’s going on in our culture and society. No, we’re going to be judged by the Bible. We’re going to be judged by the standard of Jesus. That’s true when it comes to how we worship. That’s true when it comes to what we do to be right with God. That’s true when it comes to marriage, divorce, and remarriage. And so, I know there are people here this morning who are not married.

And I want you to know something. That doesn’t mean you’re a second class kingdom citizen. You don’t have to get married to go to heaven. There’s a lot of people in the Bible who serve God, they were never married. You can do that. God bless you. But you do have to obey the gospel to go to heaven. Got to be part of the bride of Christ. And so we offer that invitation at this time. If you need to be part of the bride of Christ and obey the gospel, believe in Jesus, repent of sin. And your repentance may involve getting out of unscriptural marriage. Just like a bank robber can’t keep the money that he steals after he robs a bank and expect to get baptized and make it all good.

He’s got to get that money back. Well, you got to get out of that relationship. You got to repent. That’s repentance. And you confess Jesus as a son of God and be baptized for the remission of sins. That’s how you become part of the bride of Christ. Or if there are Christians here who need to get right with God, you need prayers and encouragement. We’ll help you. At this time, we’re going to sing a song. We invite you to come to the front. Let’s stand. Let’s sing.