Published: September 13, 2026 | Speaker: Tim Freitag | Series: The Law of Liberty 3 - Part 2 | Scripture: Titus 1:14-16
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All right, going to pick back up in Titus here. So, I throw some tea on the floor.
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I am trying to take this biblically, walking our way through these passages and identifying things. And I know that perhaps in certain lessons, it hasn't always been obvious where this comes in. I'm going to go
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ahead and state up front that I think this is one of those places where it's distinctly obvious, perhaps even uh central to the whole argument I'm trying to make here as we walk through
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these books. But I want to pick up where we left off at the end of last week. Um I'm going to read just the last couple of verses of Titus chapter 1. Um I am going to read the first verse of Titus
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chapter 2, which I do agree. I think Hughes actually ties in with the end of chapter 1 rather than the beginning of chapter 2.
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I want to pick up in verse um 10 just to give us the context and read down through here. through here. For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision who must be silenced
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because they are upsetting whole families teaching things they should not for the sake of sorted gain. One of themselves a prophet of their own said cretins are always liars, evil beasts,
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lazy glutton, and this testimony is true. For this reason, reprove them severely that they may be sound in the faith, not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn
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away from the truth. To the clean, all things are clean. But to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is clean, but both their minds and their conscience are defiled. They profess to
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know God, but by their deeds they deny him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed. But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine.
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All right. Commandments of men. Now, I want to hold on to this um idea. We're going to try to move forward because we spent a while talking about this, but in
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you would think by now I'd learned not try to do this talking right at the same time. In the thought that Paul is flowing through here, these things are closely tied together.
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Yeah. Commandments of men. Um it's literally in the Greek it's um the word there is anthropon men generally um but meaning very much human commandments um
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some of your translations may have human in there um that's perfectly fine. So commandments of men as opposed to the law of liberty. And we talked about this. This this is where I'm getting at is these commandments of men who turn
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away from the truth are opposed to the law of liberty. The vary opposite of it. And in fact we said it was the very definition of using the law unlawfully. That's why in particular he seems to be
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tying them back to the circumcision party here. Um, and we will remember, of course, as we think about these things, all scripture ties together, that Jesus's eye was usually hottest against
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the Pharisees who were using their commandments, the commandments of men, to bind up heavy burdens and lay them on men's backs, if I can borrow the phrase. Okay, so I think Paul had some of that
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in mind for sure. Um, we we read a couple of references. Um, first and second Timothy both have references. There are references other places in scripture to what these specifically
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are. It seems to frequently be some form of aseticism. Uh forbidding certain foods, forbidding marriage, forbidding things, it's not lawful for you to do this or that thing in no small part
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because they claim doing that defiles you. This is what Paul has in mind in the context here. Um, and in case you thought that aseticism or those kind of things have gone out of the world, I
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occasionally get this really obnoxious ad that says, "Eat like the disciples. Don't eat for pleasure." And I'm like, "What? Come on." Anyhow, I hate advertising in case that wasn't clear.
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Um, so aestheticism is alive and well in quote unquote spiritual circles. Forbidding certain foods is still a thing. Okay. Those who command those
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things, this is the whole point that I'm trying to tie together from Paul's thought here. Those who command these things are the same who turn away from the truth. He puts the phrases together
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in that way. Those who turn away from the truth, commandments of men, those are hand in glove,
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namely this truth, but I think it's not exclusively this truth, but he follows goes on from there who turn away from the truth that okay to the pure or to the clean and we talked about this just in passing last week it's where I want
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to focus this morning to the clean all things are clean to the defiled nothing is clean all right so this word here specifically is this word um out of the
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okay catharsis comes from the same root cleansing okay cathar just means pure or clean and various conjugations of it show up in various ways. So if you wanted to form the word cleansing or
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cleaning, we would use that root in the Greek. Have I spelled it wrong?
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all right. So to the clean all things are clean. Um and to the defiled nothing is clean. And if you'll permit me to borrow another biblical phrase, I would say that on these two hang all the law of liberty.
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Okay? the idea of being clean and the idea of being defiled. That is the central division that Paul is highlighting here.
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Ritual purity is the context. We've just touched on that. The idea that the circumcision party was imposing certain things uh and improperly commanding certain kinds of aseticism or certain
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ritual functions that had to be done. Whether that was specifically circumcision or ritual washings that seems to have been part of it by the context and the context is important but
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what flows beyond the context the ramifications of these things I think are key. Um it was in Meyer's New Testament Greek he was highlighting this phrase and talking about the context and
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the way various people use the context to try to shield it. Um and he said frankly the statement is simply issued flatly without qualifications as far as the Greek conjugation of it goes. Um
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that he just says that straight up to the pure all things are pure. Now, this has opened it to certain kinds of abuses, right? And you can imagine for yourselves, I hope none of you have been
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subject to it, but perhaps you have. Um, you can certainly find this kind of nonsense in the quote unquote Christian bookstores, that to the pure all things are pure means, I'm a Christian. Whatever I do is therefore sanctified
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and fine. That's clearly not what Paul means because he's clearly drawing a distinction between the pure and the ungodly here. And we will get shortly in Titus. We looked at some of them in both
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1 and 2 Timothy. You can find places where he clearly highlights behaviors that are not acceptable. Okay? So that does not mean that everything I do just because I'm God's most favorite child.
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Please don't get struck by the lightning. Means that I am pure in all of those things. That's obviously not what he's saying. He is however I think giving the
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statement as a fundamental principle not to be so tightly bound to its context as to miss the underlying principle is what I am saying. Okay. What is it for the
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New Testament people of God to be clean? And that's why I'm using this word this way. Pure is not an incorrect translation in your Bible. You don't need to cross it out per se. But the
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word means exactly the same thing here that it means in other places. It means exactly what it means here in Acts chapter 10 uh where the the sheet descends in front of Peter and he says I've never eaten any unclean thing and
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he says what God has cleansed do not call defiled. Same word. Okay, exact same word in those positions. So, this doesn't mean that um pure is is unhelpful, but I do want
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us to think about it because I think for Paul and I think for us, it ties back to the understanding of being clean before God and being defiled. He's using those terms. What does it mean for the people
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of God to be clean? Well, first, and we did touch very briefly last week on Chit Titus chapter 2 here that God gives his people a cleansing. He says here um near
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the end of Titus chapter 2 um and this was cited twice last week actually in my class and in the the sermon um for the grace of God has appeared in verse 11.
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The grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men instructing us to deny ungodliness. Okay, so again not everything is acceptable. deny
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ungodliness uh and worldly desires to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus, who gave
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himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify or cleanse, again, same word there, cleanse for himself a people for his own possession,
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zealous for good deeds. these things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority and let no one disregard you. Chuck, I think that between the two words clean
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is better than mainly because when we hear pure
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And that's why I've been using that word. So, if you are the sort of person to make a note in your Bible, probably doesn't hurt to make the note here. I would also, if you're going to do that, make the note here that that word um near the middle end of verse 14 of
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chapter 2 where it says purify for himself. Exact same root cleanse for himself. Okay. Um and that is the point at which I'm trying to drive here is the idea that it is God who is cleansing his
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people. Um first Aaron and then
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Yeah declaring them every
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Yes. Yes. Exactly. So that he tells he tells Peter you have no need of me to wash the whole thing because you have been made clean. being made clean is is fundamental to the way we're understanding these things. Abe, did you have a comment or a question?
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Yeah. No, I appreciate that. And um without getting too lost in the weeds on on um like trying to define sanctification and versus some of these other things, I am going to borrow a little bit from something that that Chuck said in the Leviticus study about
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exactly that. Um Dad, you have your hand John, but also what
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John talked about the pruning of the Does not bear fruit. He takes away every branch that bears fruit. And literally
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the next phrase is he cleanses it that it may bear more fruit. And then he says, "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you." So
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again, he makes us clean, but he cleanses us. cleanses us. Yeah. Yes. And and this therein central thing that we wrestle with, okay, is the
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idea that we are declared clean. That God has given a cleansing to his people. He declares his people clean. And yet we recognize in ourselves things that are unclean. We still wrestle with
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individual sins. still fight. And what I'm trying to bring to the forefront here is the fundamental principle I think that Paul has in mind that flows out of the things we looked at in Leviticus, which is this is about the
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people, God's possession versus sin rather than the people one by one versus sins. You had your hand up. This also provides the hing.
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Yes. Because every form of what he's
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throughout the age to be cleaned. Yeah. They had that problem then and we have that problem now.
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Jesus Christ. Right. Beyond that that quickly eararks as false teaching. false teaching. Yeah. You're right. And I agree with you. The real central difficulty with
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that is frequently people begin that process by deploying actual scriptural enjoiners of good behavior as the start
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of that process and then begin to wrap up in commandments of men. Even Jesus says to those who were in his hearing regarding the Pharisees that they sit in the seat of Moses, do what they ask of
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you, but do not follow their behavior. Okay. So, he's there is a I agree 100% with what you said that when people start to say this is what you have to do to be clean, God has
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declared his people clean. We are called to walk again as a people in cleanliness. in cleanliness. I have lost track of whose hand was up
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first. I'm gonna go with Abigail and then come back over here to
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Yeah. Absolutely. It is. God God has made his people clean. Abe, you had your hand up.
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Yes. And they had to maintain their clean by always doing things.
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Yeah. So, we'll we'll come back to that thought, but you've got you're you're headed in exactly the same direction I am. Ariel, I think I've missed you. I was asking
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words that Jewish readers would have understood immediately
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Yeah. I mean I opining about the specific uh interaction of a first century gentile with this I would find a little bit difficult but I would say it's also probably not unsymptomatic of what we still observe today. How many
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people go towards Catholicism because somebody will just tell me what I have to do to be clean. Somebody will just tell me what to do. I don't want to live in liberty. I don't
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want to have to swim in freedom. That's scary. Just tell me what to do to be clean. We are so susceptible to that. On the other hand, you have people who say, "Nobody
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can tell me what to do. I am clean. I'll do what I want." You had your hand. Yes. Rules of approach.
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Yes. the ideal
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there were codes of conduct yeah also had to prepare themselves right elaborate perhaps elaborate perhaps but to also to answer your question I want to I want to read two passages I
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want to read this one. It would have been better if I'd thrown it in earlier, but I'm going to read it first and then jump over to Hebrews. In Luke uh 11, we have the famous sort of interaction. Um
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I think everybody's been right in in picking up the the communication between uh Jesus and his disciples about the washing, but we also have on the other side his condemnation of the Pharisees
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here um in verse 37 of uh Luke 11. Um
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we read it says when he had spoken a Pharisee asked him to dine with him and he went in and reclined. When the Pharisees saw this he was surprised that he had not first ceremonially ceremonially washed before the meal. And
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the Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but inside you're full of robbery and wickedness. You foolish ones, did you not know he who made the
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outside made the inside also? But give that which is within as charity and then all things are clean to you. Um
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well, I'll keep I'll finish this thought here. He says, "Wo to you Pharisees for you pay tithes of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb and disregard justice and the love of God. But these are the things that you should have done without neglecting the others. Woe to
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you Pharisees, for you love the chief seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplace. Woe to you for you are like whitewashed or concealed tombs. The people who walk over them are unaware of it. Um it goes
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to the thought that that Chuck had highlighted in the Leviticus study, which is the um the idea of piety being really insidious to this. The idea of
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I've got my code of conduct. I'm checking off all the tick boxes of being a good little boy and therefore God's very proud of me and now I'm very proud of myself. of myself. That's often the spiral these things
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lead into is a and he's highlighting here. You love to be seen ticking off the boxes of holiness, ticking off the boxes of following these commandments of
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men. Look at how holy I am. You are full of bones. You are a concealed tomb causing others to fall into defilement. I want to jump over to
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Hebrews. Uh Hebrews is one of those books where there's never a good place to start or stop. Um I wish you could always just read the whole thing, but you can't. We don't have that much time. I'm sorry. I'm
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going to read um I'm going to read most of ch Oh my Where am I going to pick up here? What time is it? I'm going to read a good portion of chapter nine because I
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think the thought flows through here. I'm highlighting specifically, if you want to keep your eye out for it, highlighting specifically at verse 23, but I think it relates to these things. Um, forgive me if I ellipize a little
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bit here, but I'm going to start in verse one. verse one. He says, "Even the first co covenant had regulations of divine worship and earthly sanctuary." Relating exactly to
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what we're talking about here. Okay. The first covenant, there was a tabernacle prepared, the outer one, in which were the lampstand, the table, the sacred bread. This was called the holy place. And beyond this second, there was a
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tabernacle called the holy of holies, having the golden altar of incense, and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was the golden jar holding the mana and Aaron's rod which budded, the tables of the
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covenant, and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. But of these things we cannot now speak in detail. in detail. Now when these things have been prep
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been so prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle performing the divine worship. But into the second only, the high priest enters once a year and not without taking blood. You're in the
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point which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. And the Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed,
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while the outer tabernacle is still standing, which is a symbol of this present time. Accordingly, both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot make the worshipper perfect in
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conscience. Since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation. But when Christ appeared as high priest of the good
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things to come, he entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own
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blood he entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and ashes of a hepher sprinkling those who have been defiled,
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find our marker words here, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from the dead works to
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serve the living God. For this reason, he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that since death has already taken place for the redemption of transgressions that were committed under the first
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covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of an eternal inheritance. For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of
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the one who made it. For a covenant is valid only when men are dead. For it was never enforced while the one who made it lives. Therefore, even the first covenant was not inaugurated without
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blood. For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats and water and scarlet wool and hissup and sprinkled
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both the book itself and all the people, saying, "This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you." And in the same way, he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of ministry with the blood. And according
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to the law, one may almost say, "All things are cleansed with blood." And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. Therefore, it was necessary for the copies of the things
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in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of
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the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor was it that he would offer himself again and again as the high priest who enters the holy place year by
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year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise, he would not have needed to suffer often. Sorry, he would have needed to suffer frequently since the foundation of the world. But now, once
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at the consummation of the ages, he has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And in as much as it is appointed for men to die once, and after comes the judgment, so Christ,
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having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin for those who eagerly await him. Did we notice there it was necessary for the
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copies to be cleansed with better sacrifices? This is the point. Okay, there's a bunch of thoughts here that I'm going to try to connect for you in
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our time that we have, but we talked a little bit um actually Chuck talked quite a bit about it in the Leviticus study. And if you haven't listened to it, I highly recommend it.
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Um, but we also talked a little bit, I don't know how long ago when I was up here when we went through Exodus that we read in there that Moses is told specifically, he's shown a model of the
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heavenlies and told to build them when he builds the tabernacle. And the writer of Hebrews is picking up on this saying, okay, all of that stuff that you think about with the clean and the unclean and
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all those interactions were the copies of the true perfect version in the heavenlies into which Christ entered by this sacrifice. Okay? So now we the
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royal priesthood are now the interaction of that in the perfect not the copies. Therefore, it had to be cleansed where everything in the copies had to be cleansed with the blood of animals.
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Everything in the heavenlies including all sacrifice, all preparation, all cleansing is done by the blood of Christ. That's what that paragraph or that chapter is describing to us. Okay?
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That Christ has done all of that cleansing, all of that preparation. Everything is made right to enter into the worship of God. Okay? That's where
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we're headed with this. Now, in the Leviticus study, specifically the uh the section that got called a holy nation, uh was the one I was referencing for this, but again, I would would highly
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recommend that you listen to the whole series. We talked about the idea of the whole people made clean. And this is what Abe was picking up on that he described in there the idea that when God took those people out of Egypt and
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nominated them, set them aside as his people, he said, "This is my people and they are clean." Did individual people in there then become unclean and have to do rituals to become clean again? Yes.
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But the purpose was that the people were clean, set apart holy and cleansed for his purposes, for his worship, for his obedience to God's will and to his ways
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for ourselves. We understood this as a direction. Um, and he he spent a long time in the study and I'm not going to have time to set it all up this morning, but the idea of the holiness zones, even
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the writer of Hebrews seems to indicate it a little bit here. The idea that the outer tabernacle where you could come in and offer sacrifices, but the inner tabernacle being more holy, we couldn't go in there. Jesus went in there. Moving
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between those zones according to whether or not you are clean or unclean and to the the level of holiness engendered there is this idea. So the direction of
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moving towards unclean or moving towards clean. Okay. And so um Michael Morales in his commentary um describes this idea in connection with the idea of holiness
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which I've already described here as the attitude towards God. The direction of our thinking, the direction of our hearts, the direction of our mind, the direction in which we are moving.
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Are we moving in the direction of the things that God has described? Are we moving in the direction of his purposes, his revealed will, his character as we read it in scripture, or are we moving in the direction of things that are
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pleasing to us? Okay. What did he say about the Sabbath? If you would set aside doing your own will on the Sabbath and keep it holy as the people of God,
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frankly, the idea of Sabbath living is that idea of setting apart our will, the things that make us happy, finding our joy, our happiness, our
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purpose in being clean and moving in the direction of holiness. Okay, does everybody follow where I'm drawing these parts out of? Okay, so that the people are to pursue him. It
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was true of Israel. It's also true of us. They were to pursue in the Exodus quite literally. They had to pursue God or you would be left behind in the wilderness. But that's metaphorical to
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us that we pursue God. We pursue his will, his ways, his wisdom. The heart, the pure, the clean heart pursues the heart of God. Now, will we stumble? Will
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we wrestle with individual sins? Yes. Okay. Has sin been conquered once for all? Yes. Emphatically, yes. Okay. So, this is where I'm trying to to help us
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formulate our thinking because I will attest for myself. It is very easy to get very guilty in conscience, wrestling with individual sins and the ways that I fall down and the things that I do or
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the things I don't do. We are trying and walking and exerting ourselves in the spirit to move in the direction that we read of God and his will and his ways as
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revealed in scripture. Falling does not eject us. We have been made clean. Okay? As opposed to, we are free. We are
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at liberty to pursue holiness. As opposed and and don't lose what Paul said here. These I firmly believe these are thoroughly connected.
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The difference between that truth, pursuing that truth, walking in the direction of holiness and pursuing the wisdom of God is diametrically opposed to those who turn away from the truth,
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claiming to know God and by their actions denying him. That's the bifurcation that he's holding up here. Okay? Those who turn away from the
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truth. We live in that truth having been made clean. We live in it. We swim in it. We breathe it. Hopefully those who turn away are defiled and useless for any good deed. He says here, we have read
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and referred to a couple of these before. First Corinthians 5 11 where he talks about those who have committed grievous sins. Don't even eat with such a one. Okay.
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Why? He says so that they might be put to shame that it might be made clear to them that they are turning. Okay. We read in uh 2 Thessalonians
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chapter 3 near the end verse 14 he says if anyone does not obey the commands that I've given in this letter see rebellious men as he's finding here in Titus take heed of them he says make special
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note of them and do not associate with such a one but rebuke him as a brother okay so the idea of the holiness of the people of God if I could get us to a
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place in this study I want us to understand that these things this whole principle that Paul is laying out here
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as the people of God. Okay? That we think of ourselves in that collective format as the body, as the people, as those who are upholding his name, as a community. That's the entire context
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again and again and again that Paul is highlighting these things in. It's extremely rare actually in his letters and in his writing other than his greetings and his closings that he highlights individuals. It happens
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occasionally but 95% of the time he is highlighting the body the group the whole those who are walking according to these things and those who are not
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inside the camp outside the camp. Okay. And I'll be clear here also this doesn't mean that we don't go out and do things in the world. It doesn't mean that we
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don't work in secular jobs or go to a school that's not a Christian school. It means those things don't defile us because we have been made pure. It's the
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permitting of impurity within that is the thing that is the issue. Okay. It is the permitting of consistent patterns that are in the opposite
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direction of God's will and his way. We looked at this uh we talked about this in Thessalonians. We've talked about it a little bit here in Titus. And it makes people a little bit nervous, I think, because we end up coming back to this
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question of like, well, are we are we a gestapo? Are we snitches? Are we going around coming up with tabulations of people's behavior? I hope you have not understood me to say that this morning.
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What we are looking for is the pattern of sound living, walking according to the wisdom of God, walking to what we read in scripture. And again, please don't be put off by me using the word wisdom. It is not that you have to be a
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certain kind of smarts or intelligence or wise or whatever. It's that you have been made clean. You have been given the
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spirit who will give you that energy, that action, that purpose to swim in the truth, to walk according to it, to pursue it, and to walk in this way. If
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you are doing that, then you are partaking of the wisdom of God. Okay, I've said a lot of words. Are there questions, comments, concerns?
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Abe, I guess.
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Yeah. So, yes. Now, I'm going to clarify a little bit because, you know, the writer of Hebrews said there cleansing in conscience. think that's partly what we're talking about is the idea of conscience. But what is it that the Holy
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Spirit draws upon to communicate those things to you? He's drawing upon the written revealed word of God. And it is for that purpose that we enjoin on people. Again, I'm not telling anybody
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that you have to read through the Bible every year in a year or that you have to have a certain number of words read. I've made the point a number of times that it is the purpose of the elders to do the ministry of the word to
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communicate the word and make sure that the body is engaging with it. That is no small part of it. But we have an enormous blessing in having Bibles in our house that we can read. It is those
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words, those thoughts, those truths of God that I find at least for myself and I would hazard that most of you by the action of the spirit when you have that phrase called to mind that pricks your
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conscience and says that's the wrong step. That's the wrong way. It's because you're thinking of things in scripture. You're hearing those words come back to you. I would
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also in also in encourage you to think about this and it's where the next study we'll pick up starting in January. The things that Aaron's been doing in Deuteronomy looking at what to us feel like those
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ritual laws and things that have just been described as being obsolete and yet they are part of scripture that are given to us for wisdom and for understanding. In those things we can
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understand and I'm I've been incredibly blessed by Aaron's unpacking of those things as I have with Leviticus. This is part of why I highlight that again and again. That study was amazing in highlighting how to interact and
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understand with those things because on the one hand you have people saying um well okay but you probably shouldn't eat pork and you probably shouldn't wear mixed fabric and you probably shouldn't do this or that thing because we don't
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actually know how to separate those out and deal with them. And on the other hand you have people say you just eject the whole thing like you can just start reading in the prophets. Uh no and also
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the heart of God is immutable. He has not changed not changed fundamentally his attitude, his purpose, his wisdom from the giving of those laws
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to what we have just read in Hebrews that has surpassed it. A better a more perfect version. Okay. So are there good and right behaviors? Is
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there a moral standard? Are there patterns of uprightness that we can read? Absolutely. read? Absolutely. But is it ultimately the pursuing of God and his wisdom? Yes. The spirit, I
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think, draws on the word to guide us in those things. those things. Sorry, that's go ahead.
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Yeah. Sure. We cannot get it unless
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Yeah. Yeah. No, I would say those are hand in hand. I mean, that's that's what I'm trying to say. It's not that I'm trying to diminish the Holy Spirit by any means, but I would say our I'm getting myself in trouble here.
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Anytime that I have a suggestion here that we have to exert ourselves, people get a little bit nervous. And I understand. I do understand. And yet we are called and the writer of Hebrews is foremost among not letting us stop
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sweating. Not because we're fearing damnation, but because we desire to be those, as Paul says, who run with endurance, who distinguish ourselves as we cross that line in our obedience. Okay. So that's
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all I'm trying to say is absolutely we understand it by the work of the spirit and absolutely the spirit unfolds these things to us. Without them it is the
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saver of death unto death, not life unto life. And yet we have such a blessing to read and to see these. I've got three hands up. I'm gonna go Abigail and Chuck
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and then come back to
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highlighted the ministry from the elders.
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Yeah, that's what it is. Yeah. No, I thank you. Th that helps. Um and though that's I always love to hear your thoughts on those things in the comments are are helpful to tie in those
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other pieces of scripture because it does all tie together. And I guess perhaps if you're wrestling with it, that's my defense is uh I think you see this over and over again. That's why
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I've done this whole thing as the law of liberty. This is perhaps the hinge point between the two halves of my study of where these things show up, but I I think this is this is it. Um, Dad, you
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had your hand up with a
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he combining spiritual spiritual thoughts. Yeah. Yeah. Um Chuck, did you have your hand?
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Okay. Well, happy. Thank you. All right. Yeah. Erin,
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So, it's the law of liberty. That's what sets us free from that. Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly right. Thank you. Yeah. And and we're going to this place. Um Jude's going to do a certain amount of lifting for us here, but
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and this is what I mean when I say this is not um to the pure all things are pure. Doesn't mean you get to do what whatever you want. You will consistently find Paul and Jude and other writers
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using this term lawlessness clearly as a bad thing. Okay. The law of liberty is not the same as lawlessness. But you're exactly right. It is that freedom that
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we no longer have to make provision because we have the spirit. We have the word. We have the the community of faith. We have been given so many tools that God has put in place in order that
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we would be his people and be clean and holy before him. And with that thought, let's close and um prepare ourselves to go upstairs for worship.
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Our father, we do thank you so much for all that you have done. It is difficult for me to summarize in a few words the glory that it is to serve the most high God.
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To recognize that you please continue that work. We thank you for the the reminder from scripture that he who has begun this work will be faithful to complete it. And who alone but God could
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truly accomplish these things? To purify a people made from dust, from the the substance of the earth, you have formed us and shaped us. And now you form us
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and shape us into that holy edifice into the the bride of Christ. Lord, we ask that you would be among us this morning that we might truly shine forth the the
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wisdom of God as meed out through song and prayer and the preaching of the word that we would rejoice in these things and that you
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would be glorified in our joy in it. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.