Principle and Principles of Grace
Courtney Hemenway · Nov 18, 2007
Principles of Grace, No. 21
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492604526614

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We got through four and I just barely touched on that on lesson sheet 13. Is there a difference between Christian liberty and freedom? And basically it showed that the same word in the Galatians 5.1, which was in the question before, liberty and freedom are the same Greek word. So I looked at Webster's definition for freedom, or definition for liberty, which was freedom. synonymous. We'll kind of look as we go on these questions what Christian freedom and liberty are and we'll kind of explore what that is. Ingrid, actually, this morning we were coming in talking about this, and it's good, the thought that, why are we talking about liberty, freedom, as you'll see in the questions, authorities, spheres of authority and all this?

We're talking about grace. Why are we talking about all these other things? Well, how do you live under grace? We went to great lengths to describe what grace is. And what is grace? Grace is the unmerited and unlimited blessings of God, based on a totally adequate proof of Jesus Christ on the cross. Perfect. The unmerited and unlimited blessings from God based on the totally adequate work of Christ. So, we went through that, the unmerited part. There's nothing you can do. All you bring to the table is sin and weakness, and it's unlimited. That means you can't outspend grace. But what does that mean?

How do you live? What is the process, or how do you really kind of grasp a hold of grace? And when you do that with identification, we are new creatures in Christ, and we live under grace. Does that mean we have total freedom and liberty? Does that mean we can do whatever we want? No. No. Even though we have great things under grace, there are some things that God established for us to live under grace. And that's what we're talking about, these freedoms and liberties and then the spheres of authority.

We're going to go over a lot of those things. So we talked about There are specific commands. You can't go and rob a 7-Eleven and think that God said that. It goes against His commands. There are specific commands for lots of things in the New Testament. I think you said, Mike, there are like 612 commandments or something in the New Testament. So there are lots of things that God prescribes and says. If you're a new creature in Christ, you're not going to go rob a 7-Eleven.

There are specific commands. But there's a whole lot of things that don't fall under that category, or categories that are in Scripture. So, what are we left to do? We're left under principles. God lays out principles. And so, for that vast area of unknown things, as I said, God doesn't have to come up with a new list every week for, you know, can you use a computer today? Can you drink coffee this morning? Each week we get a revised list of do's and don'ts, of commandments. God doesn't do it that way.

He leaves us with principles. Which also goes to the point of, you really need to know the word. Because if you don't know the principles, how do you live by them? It's kind of this male thing, I think. We get a new toy for the kids. It has 4,000 parts and an instruction manual. What do guys do? What's an instruction manual? Absolutely. We don't look at it. We just put it together. So we don't look at the instruction manual. Well, in living under grace, we have to understand the manual, which is the principles that God lays out in Scripture.

Because if we don't, We really don't know how to live under grace and these principles. If you understand the principles in the spheres of authority, a lot of problems will go away. What we find a lot of times is that these principles, we either don't understand them and don't apply them correctly or the spheres of authority that are there are exceeded. That's where we get into these rubs between families, between individuals, all these different things because we're not applying those principles correctly or we're going outside that sphere of authority.

Let's go to lesson sheet 13, number 5. Read 1 Peter 2.11. This one's a long one. I'll hit the highlights so you can get that. So if you want to follow along just a little bit, I'll read a couple of the main passages, beginnings, some of the sections in there.

1 Peter 2.11 through 3.12. Okay, and the question is, what is the key verb in this section? Okay, and this is the middle section of the book of 1 Peter, and beginning at 2, I'll start at 2.13.

Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority or to the governor as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God, Such is the will of God, that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond slaves of God. Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable, for this finds favor. If for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.

Okay, we'll skip down now to verse 1, 3-1. In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands, so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they observe your chase and respectful behavior. Your adornment must not be merely external, braiding the hair and wearing gold jewelry or putting on dresses, but let it be the hidden person of the heart. with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. For in this way, in former times, the holy woman also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands, just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord. And you would become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear."

OK. Those are just some of the highlights. So, what is the key verb in all these? You guys are good. Did I emphasize that too much when I was reading? Yeah, the verb is submit or be in subjection. Actually, it's kind of interesting. If you look at verse 13, 1 Peter 2.13, Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution. Now, look at verse 16. What does it say? Somebody read that to me. The very first part of verse 16. First Peter 2, 16. He is free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as a bond servant of God.

Okay, now does that kind of sound weird? What does the first one say? Submit yourselves, and then it says act as free men. What does that say? But submit and the act is free. Does that sound right? Is submission slavery or freedom? I think it's what Paul says, pray for me to be bold in my presentation. He has confidence in himself because he doesn't answer to any man. He only answers to Christ.

We'll get into some of this. That's kind of an interesting view. We'll get into that later on 14. When you say submission, is that slavery or freedom? What would you say? If you're put into submission, would you say that's slavery or freedom? Slavery. Slavery? No. Okay, we've got two sides here. Okay, I'm going to do the mic. Who thinks submission means slavery? One back there. We have one here. Here. Who says it's freedom? There you go. It's freedom. What does he say? He says submit and then he said act is free.

It's totally Non-logical, if you say, I'm putting you in submission, is that a double negative? Illogical, is that illogical? There's one like, there's an ear that I always get wrong. There's one that's an ear that I always do. Is that the right, that's not? There's one that Ingrid always gives me, it's like I say it and it's the wrong, it's not an irreverb. So I always get nervous when I, illogical or whatever. Illogical, it's illogical.

Put into submission and act is free. So we're going to start looking at that. It appears that submission is freedom. This is important because we cannot function under grace if we do not understand liberty and freedom. Jeremy. He's God, but he chose to place himself in subjection. He has the freedom, but he chose.

And that's similar to what we're supposed to do. We have freedom, but as free men, only as free men can we choose to submit ourselves. Exactly. And we'll get into what that means. It is very logical according to scripture that submission and freedom are the same. George. It's important to keep in mind that the freedom that we're talking about doesn't mean freedom from any sort of authority or anything else.

In Galatians 5.1, when he talks about freedom, it's directly related to the law. He's saying that we're free from having to measure up to some standard. We're now free to obey, free to We'll get down to that in question seven, actually, on this one.

So, six, what are the three areas of subjection described in the verses that I read in 1 Peter? The first one, and it's 1 Peter 2, 13 through 17. You're in subjection to what? Human government. State of government authorities. Second one, 1 Peter 2, 18 through 25. It's kind of a little outdated or outmoded as far as it's slaves. But what does that mean? It's basically relating to what? Inside. It's more directly at the household. Basically, it's saying within the household how slaves obey their masters. And it's really kind of at the household order and authority. And then the last one, 1 Peter 3, 1 through 12. What is that? The subjection. What area is that? Husbands, wives, children. These are all covered under these three areas. Now let's get to question seven. Describe at least three things that freedom is not. This gets to somewhat of your point. What is freedom? What freedom is not?

It's not absolute. It's not autonomy. It doesn't mean that we're free to answer only to ourselves. Perfect. That was the very first one I had. It's not autonomy. It is not. Going back to what Inger said this morning, we're going over this under grace. Under grace, we have freedom and liberty. What does that mean? It doesn't mean that we can do whatever we want. We're not autonomous.

Autonomous is a Greek word, auto. I've got my Greek. I won't pronounce these words. Auto, which is self, and namos, which is law. So it's self-law. We don't have self-law. I'm worried. I said it's okay, you're under grace. Oh, thank you. This means I make up my own rules, I do what I want, what I want. Is that what it means?

Under autonomy. Basically under autonomous self-law. But under grace we are not autonomous. We are not under self-law. As we'll see later in the New Testament, this is not freedom or liberty, but slavery is, I do as I please. That's what slavery really is. I do as I please. Self-law. That's what slavery and bondage is. We'll get into that as we get into some more of these verses.

No one is autonomous except God, who can make up rules in harmony with his character. So he is autonomous. He's the one who makes up the rules, so to speak, but it's based on his character. Nobody else is autonomous. Another one, what is freedom not?

Somebody look up, Bruce, you got Romans 6.18. It's a little not as clear, but freedom is not here. 6.18.

So we have become free from the bondage of slavery to sin, but then what does the verse say? We have become slaves of righteousness. What does that mean? This basically means we are now free to serve. We are free to serve. So freedom is not Freedom from service. This is some of the things we get into when we get into the grace and what this means. Where people just say, OK, I'm under grace now, unmerited, unlimited. That means unmerited. I just sit here as an amorphous blob and do nothing. I just sit and I'll just receive your grace. I don't have to do anything. I'm just going to sit here and suck up all this grace.

No. It means we are now free to serve him. It's who we are in Christ. We're now able to be slaves of righteousness. So it doesn't mean under grace that we just sit in a closet doing nothing waiting for grace to be poured out upon us. On Ephesians it says we were transferred. from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. So in other words, we're operating in a new kingdom under a new master. And we'll get to that exactly.

Forms of tyranny. And what we do under grace now, we haven't gone from no master to, I mean, a master, sin, bondage. We've gone from one master to another. It's sort of like a person who just shows up at the church to see what you can take out of the service rather than what you can put into the service. Are we here to sing or are we here just to spew a burn or are we here to partake in the universe?

It's the hard attitude in these things. You've got to look at it. If it's for meritorious acts, nope. But if it's truly of getting to know... I had this this weekend. I had a board meeting with... I'm on the board of directors of this camp and we got to talk about this a little bit. Just the non-meritorious things that we try. What is your heart's attitude? And once you are a new creature in Christ, if you act as who you are, it's not a meritorious act.

You just go to the Mike deal. Mike didn't have to tell his dog how to bark. He's a dog. He barks. Well, if you're a new creature in Christ, As you live that out, you just do it. It's not because I'm coming here to learn 15 verses today and memorize 5 things and I'm going to sing like the angels. Nobody will accuse me of that. Or do that.

It's really, you're doing it because you love Him. You're drawn to Him. He woos you to Him. That's why you come and listen and learn more about Him. And that's one of the key things, as I was also saying this weekend with these guys, Mike really helped me a long time ago by going to the scripture, not to learn facts, but to get a relationship. You go for a relationship when you read the scripture. Look at it that way rather than I'm going to learn 15 things today.

You're going to know a person. As you know that person, that's who you're conforming to. That's who we're to conform to. As you know him more, you will be naturally conformed to him. Okay? All right. So, freedom is not autonomy. It's not freedom from service. And then the last one, which we'll get into, freedom is not from authority. We don't have freedom from authority. That seems a little weird. You know, that we are free, we have freedom, we have liberty, but we're not free from authority. It doesn't mean I can do as I please, I can do what I want, I have no authority.

And it goes back, I think to, was it George or Stan? One of them. You know, I only have one Lord. Okay? And we're going to address that. A lot of people use that, and that's true. But God also, as I think last week said, God shaves off a lot of little authority, some of His authority, and designates it to humans. And so when we say, you know, well, we'll get into it actually in Lesson 14. I'm getting ahead of myself.

Yeah. And also, you cannot have order without authority. Yeah. And God is a God of order. So without authority, you get chaos. Exactly. And it goes to the autonomy, self-law. You don't want that. That's slavery. That is absolute slavery. We'll get into a little bit more of these authorities when we get into Lesson 14.

Eight. Give a definition of what liberty is. What is liberty? I think we did freedom up above, somewhere up there. Three, yeah. Which Webster's definition was the quality or state of being free, independence. And then we looked at Galatians 5.1, which is, stand therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free. And that's the King James and the New American Standard. It was for freedom that Christ set us free. So we looked at the Greek word, and Craig will tell us the right pronunciation of that.

Eleuthera was the word, which is freedom or liberty. What is the definition of liberty versus freedom? You know, I find this, Ed, when I'm saying Ingrid went through the things. It makes perfect sense to me what I want to talk about. She's going, what did you mean by that?

Liberty is freedom from every form of tyranny. Liberty is freedom from every form of tyranny. But we have to put a qualification on that. As specified by the Word. Liberty is freedom from every form of tyranny as specified by the word and it is submission to the Lordship of Christ what as specified in scripture.

And that's what we're getting into some of these things about. I have one Lord and that's the only one I'm going to listen to or be under the authority. And we'll touch on that. So, remember what we said, that freedom or liberty is a change of masters. This definition notes the change from tyranny under other masters and now under submission, we are under the Lordship of Christ, the new master.

Okay? So, liberty is basically freedom from every form of tyranny as specified by the Word, and it is submission to the Lordship of Christ as specified in the Scripture. Everybody okay with that? Okay, liberty is freedom from every form of tyranny as specified by the Word, and it is submission to the Lordship of Christ as specified in Scripture. Okay?

Everybody copacetic with that one? A lot of questioning faces out there. We'll get into this now. Let's go to Lesson 14. And this gets to Stan. somewhat of your statement there. Number one, is Jesus my only authority? No. No? Yes? Any yeses out there? Any brave souls who will say yes? Well, not necessarily. No, I wouldn't say no to that. Because we'll do it. And that's where, from what Stan said, Lordship, we get into trouble.

Because God has shaved off some of the authority. So when I say, I'm not listening to you, Jesus is my Lord, that's my master, my only master. What are you telling God? All these authorities I've set up, you didn't really mean that. We'll remove those scriptures from the Bible. You didn't mean that. We'll go through lots of these things. That's really where the trouble comes is when people get away from the established authorities that God has put here with humans. I'm not listening to this authority. You're my only one. That's where some of the rub and some of the problems come.

So, yeah, do we take orders from none other than the Lord Jesus? Is that correct? No. Can we say that the Lord is our only master? Was he talking parenthetically by saying, brethren of the Caesars? Well, yeah, we'll get into that. That is an authority. That's an authority separate from Christ's authority, but we were told through Christ to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's. Right. We're going to go through several authorities that he set up. And that's one of them, two governments. And we'll get into that. Remember when this was, when he said render what is under Caesar and be in subjection to the government. Who was the old king at that time? Nero. Nero. He just enjoyed burning flesh. He just enjoyed raking the Christians under the carpet.

If Jesus was my only authority, does that mean I'd be a Presbyterian or Baptist? No comment. You have to live under the law of government. You have to stop at red lights. Well, see, that's just it. I mean, if we're free, totally free, mine is only... Lord, he didn't say 55. I can do 105. He didn't say it, so I'm not doing it. No, of course, you have to. Actually, what I said at the end was, are there any biblical problems that come from the thought that Lord is only our master and there's none other than the Lord. There are problems that arise if we don't realize that.

And again, this all relates under grace and freedoms and liberty, what we have. There are things that the Lord has established. He's given us this grace. It's unmerited. There's nothing we can do. And we have freedom and liberty. But as we learned, submission is freedom. Submission to Him. Number two. Does Christ ever give some of his authority to humans? We should know that answer by now. Yes.

Stan, you got a Bible with you? Look at Ephesians 5, 22 through 24. Steve, you got Colossians 3, 18. And George, you got 1 Peter 3, 1 and 2. So, we'll look at those three verses, Ephesians 5.22, Colossians 3.18, and 1 Peter 3.1. Who do I have up first? Mine from the New American Standard.

Wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church. He himself being the savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Wives, submit to your own husbands as is fitting in the Lord.

Okay, Colossians 3, 18. 1 Peter 3, 1 and 2. Okay, in all three passages, the Greek word for subject is hupotasso, which means to subordinate, reflexively to obey. Different translations of it under the King James. Be under obedience, obedient, put under, subdue under, be make or subject to or unto, be or put into subjections, to or unto, and submit self unto. Therefore, should we omit these verses and say that we have only one authority, that is Jesus? What did He just say in all of those verses?

So, I'm a wife. I know that conjures up a really bad picture, but I'm a wife. That husband of mine, he comes home from work, demands dinner, sits down, watches TV all night, and he wants me to whatever. The Lord is my only authority. That bum? What do you think? Is that right? The Lord is my master. I do only what he says. So if we do, the Lord is my only. That bum. What are we telling God? He's wrong. He's wrong. Okay, that's a good question. What does it say? You know, beating would be a different thing, I think. But if he's just a jerk. A jerk. You said a nutcase. He's a nut job. What does it say? Submit. Did it say, if he's a nut job, don't submit? Is there a corollary on this?

Does it say he's got to be the perfect husband? I didn't read all the things about a husband, which is, women get this much, men... I look at that and it's like, the thing I realized, I cannot be a husband without Christ. There's no way I can do what He requires of me as a husband without the leading of the Lord, Holy Spirit. Otherwise, I can't do it. What He says for husbands, like I said, this is relatively easy for women. Wives submit. I haven't put all the requirements for what the husband does. So, if you think I'm unfairly putting women out right now, I'm not touching on all the requirements that He says what a husband is supposed to do. But, so, he doesn't do that.

What are you supposed to do? Close your eyes and hide. And along with that, it says in scripture that you aren't supposed to be unequally doped. So if you follow the scripture and if this is your guide, then there's a lot of other passages that come into this and it's the same thing. and we're supposed to provide grace.

And I'm talking about a Christian family. Both are believers. Because there are things about unequally yoked, and there are very interesting things what you're supposed to do with a husband that's unequally yoked and a wife that's unequally yoked, and you can get into that. But I'm talking about in a relationship, two believers, husband and wife. And it says, be submissive. Your husband isn't doing everything that he's required under scripture to be a husband, loving as Christ loved the church, yada, yada, yada, yada, all the requirements. What are you supposed to do? Pray for him. Pray for him and?

Submit. Submit. It's tough, but God shaved off this authority. I go back, and we'll get a little bit into this. Remember? We just talked about it. Be in submission to the authority. Who was the authority at this time? When this command was put out? It was Nero. Was he a loving, wonderful, I love you Christians, you are the best? No. So, think you're a believer in the early testament church. And you get this commandment, be in subjection to authority, to the king. Nero's killing us. Did it say?

Well, if the king's a jerk, throw this one out. He was a major nutcase. He was a nutcase. He was a certifiable nutcase. that 90% of the world's out there, they're trying to stay married, whatever they're doing, outside of this union with Christ. So it's a whole different ball game out there.

If you're not a new creature in Christ, I really, and I say this, I don't know how you could stay married. You don't have an authority, you don't have any of this stuff, you don't have I think that's why divorce is rampant. Because you don't have an authority, you don't have anything. If I'm a non-Christian, why would I stay married? I'm making up my own rules, autonomous. I can do whatever I want, there's no authority out there, other than what I make.

So this is the believers, and it's specific to believers. If you're a non-believer, one, it's foolishness, it doesn't make sense, these don't apply. But see, and this is what we're going to get into. This is where I think, under grace, these authorities that were established by God, if he's a nutcase, there isn't a corollary here that says, if he's a nutcase, don't look at these scriptures. Well, and there are a lot of things. Yeah, I mean, but some people go nutcase later, you know. It's not.

I was just going to say that this is just like God's other laws. They're always for the benefit of the person. He knew that if the Christians rose up against Nero that they were going to be under severe punishment. They were anyway. But it would be even worse. So it's actually for their benefit.

So anytime you submit to an authority and you have order, it's good for you. It is, and that's why, even if he's not, you know, go back to the 1 Peter verses, 1 Peter 3, 1 and 2. In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands, so that if any of them are disobedient to the word, nutcase, whatever, you know, not following, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior. It's amazing how husbands are talking about wives. It's immediate back to what the husband is doing.

So I know this one. I've been through this drill. What Crystal brings out is that the reason why she is disobedient to me is not because I am all that. It's because God says so. You're ahead of my game. That's exactly it. That's exactly it. After I go through some of this, that's exactly what the point is. You're not doing it because he's a wonderful guy. God said so. So when you don't do it, what are you saying? God, you're wrong. God, you don't know my husband. You do not know my husband. He's a nutcase crazy. No, he knows me.

Why do you do it? Because God said so. I know this is tough. If we do that, we're telling God we made a mistake. And then I also said, can a wife say, I will not be submissive to a husband because I only have one Lord, who is Jesus Christ. You as a wife, in the nutcase, I'm going to follow the Lord only. No. Well, in essence, any submission is done as to the Lord.

And in essence, that's what you're doing. You're doing it as to the Lord. Look at those verses. What do they say? As fitting to the Lord, as to the Lord. That's who you're doing it for. And like I said, a lot of the Christian divorces and different things, they aren't following what God said.

He's a nutcase. Okay? If you're unequally yoked, that's a whole different matter. If he's not a believer, they're very specific on unequally yoked. But if you're two believers, even if he's a nutcase, yours is to do it as unto the Lord, and your chase and respectful behavior may win him over. He's a nutcase.

But you don't lash out, tell him, I'm only going to look at the Lord, which only further irritates him because you're not going through the established authority. It's real tough. I mean, this is, I think, easy for me to say, King Wasabi, everything's hunky-dory, but you don't know my husband. You don't know my wife. When God wrote this, he knew your wife. He knew your husband.

So now let's move on. Jeremy, you got Ephesians 6.1.

Alan, can you do Colossians 3.20? Whenever you're ready, Jeremy.

Okay, and Colossians 3.20.

Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Okay, another one. Now all the kids are getting nervous up here. You thought it was really fun talking about husbands and wives. Yeah, yeah. What goes around comes around now. The Greek word for obey in these passages, hupakeio, right? to hear under as a subordinate, i.e. to listen attentively by implication to heed or conform to a command or authority.

Therefore, children, therefore should we omit these verses and say that we only have one authority. You know, my parents, you don't know my parents. My parents are the most hideous, controlling freaks around. I'm going to follow the Lord. Here's my scriptures. I'm going to follow the Lord. Can you guys do that? Does it say that? Does it say, you don't know my parents? Lord, you don't know my parents. Guess what? He does. He knew it when he wrote these. So another authority. Parents. Children.

So is there a distinction in those three words between wives submitting and children obey? Yeah, there's a difference, but it's still submission to an authority. It's a different word, and probably Craig can do it better. My definitions, it is two different words, but it's really to heed or conform to a command or an authority. So it's heeding or submitting to an authority. Similar, you're basically under an authority. So again, we have another authority, and there aren't qualifiers on it. You don't have nutcase parents. Well, you may have nutcase parents. But children obey. But you don't know my parents.

Oh yes, the Lord does. He knew it. OK, let's go down and look at another one. We'll go back to the old. Nero, at this time. Somebody... Craig, can you do 1 Timothy 5... 17? Oh, actually, I missed it. Let me go back up here. Yeah, now let's go to Romans 13, 1 and 2. Can you do that, Craig? Bruce, can you go to 1 Peter 2, 13 and 14? So whenever you're ready, go on.

Okay, and 1 Peter 2, 13 and 14 actually. or to governors is to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of those who do good. That's kind of a cool verse, I'll get into that one. That one's kind of a fun one as far as governments and stuff. So, subjection to governments. Okay? I like the first one in Romans. Who is it established by? God.

You know, I give my political persuasion away. I tend to be more on the conservative side of the equation. So when I get a very liberal president like we had a few years back, am I supposed to submit to him? Yes. Ouch. Ouch. Yes. I don't like it, but who established that? God did. So, you know, I'd love the perfect conservative Republican president every time.

Well, we haven't had one. We don't get into politics here. But, again, Nero. First of the early church, Nero was not the greatest of kings. But you still had to render under Caesar. You had to be under his authority. It didn't say, except for the really bad ones.

Let's go on. Jeremy, can you get 1 Timothy 5.17? And Alan, can you get Hebrews 13, 17? Any comments? But the elders that rule well and can be worthy of double honor, especially they believe in the word of the doctor. Okay. Hebrews 13, 17? Obey them.

Them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls as they must give an account that they May do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you. Okay, so who is this under? elders So God shaved off another portion of authority elders submit to them okay elders who rule and Obey your leaders and submit to them. This would say, a guy who's kind of irritating. He's kind of a really irritating, very demanding elder.

That one too? And the qualifier in all this is, when can you go against the authority as if it's contrary to scripture? So if there's an elder who is completely not teaching scripture from the You know, if the elder says, you know, we need more finances, you guys go off and knock off all the 7-Elevens in this area and bring it back. Do you follow him on that one? No. So you have a choice?

Well, we'll get to what the authorities and the limitations of these authorities are, these spheres of authority and what it means. There are spheres of authority that we'll get to, and there are, within these authorities, they are not unlimited. You know, and we'll get into that.

Yeah. Interesting that you just use this example that's countered to another authority, which is governmental authority. And if you don't, I've got several levels. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That was a double. So there's one counter to another. Right. And you'll get into it. And that's like, you know, you don't rob, you don't. So are they on different levels? Yeah, there are several. Well, and if we're going to get into that, we're two authorities. Counter. Well, not counter, but when you try and overlap authorities, and when they're in conflict, we'll get into those.

Remember this is all in freedom and liberty, that we still have these freedom and liberties. We have the commandments, you know, don't rob, steal, shoot, kill. Commandments. But these are under the principles. Now under the principles, we still have authorities. And remember, even submitting is freedom. Because God established this. We have freedom even though we are under an authority. We have tremendous freedom under these submissions.

Final questions before we get in more of this. We could run an experiment. Instead of giving in to the authority of that bell, See, I'm in submission to my elders who say get done at this time. So I will get that. We'll get into it next week. I may have it since we got through two. I'll try and get through this one and maybe if we have extra time, I got a couple extra things I'll tack on. And then Jared and me will be two weeks from now. Anyway, good, let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you for this time.

We thank you just for getting into your Word. We just realized, Father, that you haven't left us alone. You left us with your Word and the Holy Spirit. We just pray that we accurately divine your Word. Father, we pray that we are glorifying you. That is your purpose for us, that we glorify you. And as we know who we are in Christ, the freedoms we have under grace, that we will conform to your image, that the new creature in Christ that we are will become more and more evident in our life, manifested in our life. So Father, we thank you just for who you are. We thank you for grace, the unmerited, unlimited blessings.

From you and again, it's nothing that we did. It's totally based on your son the Lord Jesus Christ So father we just commit this time and we also look forward to burn and his message to speak clearly Your word through him and prepare our hearts. So father we commit this day to you in Jesus name. Amen