The Role of Christian Husbands - Part 2

I think about what we were singing just then. It's a hymn that you probably know. This is my story. This is my song. I want you to think about something before we get into the message. We all have a story. We do. Especially us men. We have a story. If I were to sit down with you and ask you about your life, you would tell me about your vocation, your hobbies, your family. You know, we all have a story. Of course, the center of that song is about having a Jesus story. Being born-again Christians, loving the Lord, serving God, being what we would call true believers. But I want to add to that.

We're about studying Christian marriages in these verses. Part of our story, men, is that we should have Christian marriages. Our sons and our daughters must grow up looking back knowing that they grew up in a Christian home with a Christian father, Christian husband, Christian wife, Christian mother. And so as we're studying these things, I pray that this teaching will find its way in our hearts and in our homes so that this will be our story. I like that song. I appreciate it. Well, let's take our Bible. Let's turn back to Ephesians chapter 5. We did read a great portion of scripture earlier, but we are going to be dividing verses 25 to 33.

Last week we got started in this message, and I call this message the role of Christian husbands. So this is a part one and a part two, part two being this morning. But we study these things not just from verses 25 to 33. The role and the responsibilities of the Christian husband must be seen in light of all of these scriptures, verses 18 on down to verse 21 and then also verses 22 to verse 24. Now, let me show you what I mean. As Christian husbands, if we're going to man up and step into our role and our responsibilities as we should, then we must do a few things that can be missed. Certain things can be overlooked, even ignored.

All of these things are related and connected. First of all, we must be living the spirit-filled life. We cannot in any way love our wives as Christ loved his church unless we are living the spirit-controlled life just like we see in verse 18 to 21. So as husbands, we must be living the spirit-filled, spirit-controlled life. I cannot emphasize that enough. Now, I will say this. If you did not get that teaching, you need to go back and get that because if you don't have that teaching, you're ill-equipped. Second, the husband must see and accept the role and responsibilities of his wife as seen in verses 22 to 24.

We cannot love our wives as Christ loves his church unless we accept our wives' role and her responsibilities from the scriptures. If we do not, we'll be trying to shove a square peg in a round hole. You know what that phrase means? These things just will not add up. These things will not work. So, of course, the wife must accept these roles, but we must all accept these roles. So as husbands, we must accept and expect our wives to live out their roles and their responsibilities. Now, let me summarize these things by giving you three words. This is easy for you to grasp. First, the word ability. The word ability.

As Christian husbands, we have the ability to do these things only if we are spirit-filled. If we're in Christ as born-again Christians and spirit-filled, we have the ability to do what we can't do. And then the word responsibility. The word responsibility. As Christian husbands, we have the responsibility to accept the God-given role and responsibilities here. If not, then we're going to go the way of the world and sin in our flesh, and that destroys the home and the marriage. And then this word expectancy. The word expectancy.

As Christian husbands, we should believe with great expectancy that these things will truly take place in our marriages. Now, think about that. If we do not view these things with expectancy, well, then how are we viewing them? I hope so. Maybe so. Well, it's just going to fall on us like a meteor. No, that's not the case. We should expect to see these things truly take place in our lives. And look, wives, we've been studying husbands, but this all goes together, so I'm not letting you off the hook. Now, last week we started what I call the role of the Christian husband. We see this here in verses 25 to 33.

Really, we got about halfway through that teaching. So I want to quickly zoom over what we did study. I've kind of changed a few things around to help you. I've also added a few things that did not make the cut last week. And then I want to finish up what we did not get to last week. So number one, we saw what I call the standard of love. We looked at and studied what I call the standard of love. Look at verse 25. Paul says, "Husbands, love your wives," here's the standard, "as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her," her being the church. Now, last week I know I played a little trick on this here.

I did that to point out man's natural and sinful tendencies here. And I did that also to kind of get us thinking. I said last week that in verse 22, Paul sets the standard of submission for Christian wives, and he does. And then I said in verse 25, Paul sets the standard of authority for Christian husbands. And I said those things because as men, we are tempted greatly to lord over our wives with a sinful authority. Naturally and sinfully, we will want to lord over our wives with a king's scepter. But where do those temptations, where does that type of behavior come from?

Men have a natural tendency to lord over their wives because sin is entered into the human race and into the marriage relationship. Yes, lording over a wife with a king's scepter comes from sin. Starting in Genesis 3, 14, we see that God explains that many things happen as a result of sin. One is that sin has turned the God-designed roles in the marriage relationship into a selfish battle for self and self-will. Sin has turned what should be a pleasant, loving, and harmonious relationship into a fight for self and self-will. But here in verses 25 to 31, Paul is re-establishing God's standard.

Look, church, Paul is not introducing a new standard. He's not introducing a new role. He is re-establishing that which God established from the beginning. He is re-establishing that which Satan attacked and he tried to destroy in the garden. He is re-establishing that which Satan is still attacking and Satan is still destroying. So here we see God's standard, and that standard is love, not authority. God calls the Christian husband to the highest, most noble, most holy love there is. God calls the Christian husband to imitate Christ and His love for His church within the marriage relationship and home. He calls us to strive.

He calls us to work, to love our wives, just as Christ loved and loves His church. Of course, this is impossible. It's impossible. But it is possible when a husband is born again, he can truly strive for things if he knows God and he is spirit-filled. Then he can step into this role and assume these responsibilities. You know, in all of my reading, the last few weeks here, I heard the story of a Christian man who was deeply troubled that he loved his wife too much. He had loved her ever since the first day that he met her, and he had loved her for all of the 20-plus years they had been married.

You see, they had a Christian marriage and he was a Christian husband. And so he took loving his wife like Christ loved the church, very, very serious. And he was concerned, deeply concerned that he loved his wife too much. So he did what every good Christian should do in a situation like this. He went and met with his pastor. And he told his pastor that he was afraid that he was in sin because he felt like he loved his wife too much.

Well, that pastor leaned back and he said to this man, "If you get to the place that you do love your wife more than Christ loved the church, then you are loving your wife too much." He said, "And if you ever get to that place, you are in sin. And if you ever get to that place, you come see me." And then he said, "You'll never come see me." And my point in telling you this little tale is this. We need to see that none of us are loving our wives enough. Men, none of us are loving our wives enough. None of us are loving our wives adequately as we should.

So we have the standard that is before us, a standard that we can never attain, but yet in Christ and with the Spirit of God filling us and controlling us, we can strive for this standard and we can get better at this standard every day and every year that we are married. So the standard of love. And then number two, last week we started what I call what this love looks like. We see this at verse 25 on down to verse 31. This is what this particular love looks like. Now we've seen how the Christian husband is to love his wife. Starting in verse 25, Paul shows us what that looks like.

If you're like me, you're glad because I want to see what it looks like when somebody tells me what to do. Now look men, when we look at the directions for loving our wives, Paul gives us an example, a picture. I call it exhibit A, Christ and His church. And Paul shows us Christ and His love for His church and he shows us that it is seen in four ways. First, we saw that Christ's love is sacrificial.

Listen to Philippians 2 verses 6 to 8, "Though he Christ was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself and becoming obedient to the point of death, even death, on the cross." So we see that Christ and His love is sacrificial in that He went to the cross and He died on the cross for His people, the church. And look, you can't get any more sacrificial than laying down your life.

Question for us men here, if the Titanic was going down and there was only one more seat on the lifeboat, would we give it up for our wife? Would we? If it was a life or death circumstance, would we give our life for our wife? But we come to a place where we examine also the essence of the nature of Christ's sacrificial love as it is compared to the essence and the nature of man's love. Now this was really good for us and it's good for us this morning. Last week we saw that man's love is conditional. MacArthur says that man's love is object oriented. I kind of blended those two together.

Man's love is conditional in that it can change and it does change. Man's love is object oriented in that it is based on a man's need, his attraction, or his wants. By its very nature, man's love is conditional. By its very nature, man's love is object oriented. His love can and often does change and that is because it is based on need, want, and attraction. And that is because man's love is based on self and selfishness, which is at the heart of sin. And sin is at the very heart of the man's nature. Man has inherited that sin nature from his father, his father being Adam. But we also saw that God's love is not like a man's love at all.

God's love is not conditional and object oriented like a man's love is object oriented. Of course, God's love can be directed at certain people, but not in a sinful way like a man. By nature, God's love cannot change because God does not change. By nature, God's love cannot be sinful because God is not sinful. Now, remember how I summed all this up. Man's love is conditional and object oriented and his love comes out of sin because in his very nature, man is sinful at best. A love that is God-like that comes out of a man is imperfect because man by his very nature is sinful. I'll give you an example.

One of the greatest Christians that ever lived would be the Apostle Paul. He lived with a God like Christ, like love for the church, but yet Paul the Apostle was sinful. But God's love is nothing like a man's love. By its very nature, God's love is perfect and that is because God, by his very nature, is perfect. He is not sinful. So because God's love is perfect, God's love is also gracious and he loves graciously and that loving grace is not tainted by sin in any way. His love and his grace are perfect because he is perfect. So by his very nature, God is gracious and loving. So he loves and he loves graciously and he cannot do otherwise.

Why? Because of his very nature. Within his nature, he is loving and he is gracious. Listen for God's love and grace in Romans 5.8. Romans 5.8 says God shows, God demonstrates his love for us and that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. You see grace, you see love. Listen for Christ's love and Christ's grace in Philippians 2.7-8. We read those earlier. He, Christ, emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. So we see Christ's grace in his love.

And right now, all of us as husbands should be saying, I cannot love my wife like this. There's no way. And here's the truth of it all. You can't and I can't, but we can. We can if we are born again and the love of God has been deposited within us and if we are living the spirit controlled life, God filling us and God equipping us will enable us to live with this love. Now let me give you a little help here to see how you're doing. Let me give you a little test to show you if you're failing or succeeding. I think every single one of you knows what a dipstick is. If you check the oil in your truck, you see if you got any oil in there.

You check the oil in your car, your lawnmower, you check the oil in there. This week, I checked the oil in my tractor this week, just a little bit low. I got to find out why. My tractor oil is a little bit low. But let me give you a dipstick to see if you're loving your wife sacrificially, out of love and out of grace. God's love and God's grace within you. When your wife has trials, when your wife has sickness, when your wife has difficulties, when the shortcomings of your wife come on full display, when there are trials and difficulties within your life and truthfully they come from your wife, how do you react?

You see how you react is what's on the dipstick. When she has trials, sickness, difficulties, when she has needs, do you react in grace and love or do you react demanding your rights saying no, she should do better? See, God's love is loving and gracious. And when your wife has difficulties and sickness and trial, that's when she needs more of your love and more of your grace. So Christ's love is sacrificial. And then we saw that Christ's love is sanctifying. Let's look at verses 26 to 27. Christ and His love is sanctifying.

That He might sanctify her, that's the church, having cleansed her of the church by the washing of the water with the word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish. Here I said that Paul takes things one step further. He says that the Christian husband is the love of his wife with a sanctifying love along with the sacrificial love. Now last week we only covered about half of what is taught here. And this morning I'll revisit some of this and then we'll get into some new material.

But before we can understand what Paul is calling husbands to do here, we must understand three things that are in the verses. This word sanctification. Here Paul is speaking of practical sanctification, not positional sanctification. When we come to faith in Christ, we are set apart in Christ. And being set apart can be called properly sanctification. We are sanctified. Positionally we are in Christ. Paul says therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. So being in Christ speaks of positional sanctification. But practical sanctification is different.

Simply all throughout the life of the believer, the believer engages in the process and the work and the responsibility of their sanctification. They assume their responsibility to live the life filled by the Spirit walking in obedience to Christ. And along with the working of the Spirit in the life, they are sanctified. They are made more like Christ on a daily basis. And we must see that practical sanctification is what Paul is talking about here. And that has a large bearing on the husband and his responsibility. And then this word word. The word here in verse 26 is the word of God.

And this speaks of something that is declared, it's spoken. The Bible scholar Thayer says this means that which is or has been uttered by the living voice. So this spoken, declared, uttered word is not just what a man would say, no. This is the word of God, the scriptures, and it is implied that they are spoken. In this phrase, washing of the water, there's some debate and confusion here. Some teach that this relates to baptism, but I do not think that's the case. To me, that position on baptism really convolutes what Paul is saying here. This simply means that believers are sanctified, they're cleansed by the washing of the word.

They are cleansed by the word of God when they hear the word of God. Now, before we continue, look at how important these three things are. Jesus is saying that this process of practical sanctification for the believer is connected to is dependent on the washing of the word of God in the life. He is saying that the spirit of God takes the spoken word of God, and He uses that work and the word to sanctify the individual believer and the church. He's basically saying the same thing in John 17 in the great high priestly prayer. Jesus prays for His disciples to be sanctified by the word of truth.

He prays to His Father, sanctify them, His disciples in the truth. Your word is truth. Now, with the sanctification of the church and the believers in our minds, we need to see that Paul is making two points of application in what he's saying here. First, there's an application of these things to the church. The church being the collective group of individual believers. We, the church, they are sanctified by the washing of the word as the word is spoken, as the word is taught, as the word is declared, as the word is preached. Believers are sanctified individually, and the entire church is sanctified as a whole.

And not only is the church sanctified, ultimately and finally, Christ sanctifies His church so as to present the church to Himself. Look back at verse 27. So that He might present the church to Himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Of course, this is speaking of future events, end time events. And what Paul is saying here is that on that day, Christ will present His church to Himself without sin, without defect. She will be perfect on that day. And He certainly will do these things. This is not a hope so.

The He here is in the emphatic, which tells us that Christ certainly will present His church to Himself with no spot or wrinkle, no sin or shortcoming. So this is not a maybe or a hope so. And look at what Paul does at this point. He carries this truth in reality concerning the church over to the husband, over to the husband and wife relationship. He uses this truth concerning the church as an analogy and as an example for the husband and the wife. So second, there is an application of these things to husbands and their responsibility to their wives. And what Paul is saying here is this.

The Christian husband should love his wife with the same purpose that Christ loves His bride, the church. And what Christ does for His church in love, the husband is to do as well. The husband is to love his wife so as to set her apart positionally, so as to sanctify or set her apart practically, so as to purify and cleanse her, so as to promote godliness and spiritual growth in her. And he is to do all of these things with the love of God working in him and through him. Now let me briefly zoom over what Paul is saying here. Christ is saving for Himself with people, a church. He saves them and He sets them apart positionally in Himself.

And He practically sanctifies them day by day by the Word of God with the work and the power of the Spirit of God. Of course, the church as individual believers and a collective body have a responsibility in this sanctification. And He is calling the Christian husband to do the same. He, the Christian husband, is to set his wife apart as uniquely His. With and in His love, He is to promote purity and holiness and godly growth in His life. And He does these things with a God love that is working in Him and through Him so as to present to Himself a bride without spot or blemish. Of course, the wife has a great responsibility in these things.

And husbands, we've got to ask a question here. Maybe a question you've never pondered. How are we doing at loving our wives so as to bring about a sanctifying work in her? Now notice something that I pointed out with certainty. Christ is sanctifying His church. Now when we look around, we see churches that are sick. We see churches that are dying. And there are churches that close. But ultimately, Christ is sanctifying His church. The problem is much of what is called a church today is not a church. But the point is, Christ is sanctifying His church. He said He would do so. But a question.

Are we loving and working in the love of Christ to sanctify our wives? Like Christ is in the church. Is this something new to you? Is this shocking to you? Is this something so new that you step back and think, "Pastor, I'm not so sure about that." What does the text say? And as a matter of fact, something like this that you've probably never heard of or been taught, you need more teaching here. You know, sometimes I will come back and give some practical lessons on some of what we've taught. And I've got some lessons that the Lord has been oppressing up on me to come back to here.

And we might need to look at a few lessons that relate to what our responsibility as husbands to work in our wives' lives so as to sanctify her. So Christ's love is a sanctifying love. And then third, we see that Christ's love is a nourishing love. Now here Paul takes one more step forward. He says the husband is to love his wife with a sacrificial love and with a sanctifying love and now a nourishing love. Look at verse 28. Look at verse 28. On down to verse 30. "In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

No one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ does to church because we are members of his body." Notice how Paul gets very practical and very easy to understand here. Now before in all of this other teaching, Paul was on the unscalable mountaintops of Christ's love for his church. Can any of us scale that mountain? Look at the impossibility there. Christ says we are to love our wives as Christ loved the church. We can never get to that mountaintop. But now Paul is in the valley of the husband's love for his own body. Now this is how I want to look at what Paul is saying here.

First he gives what I call the expectation. The expectation. Look at the beginning of verse 28. "In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies." What God is stating here is his expectation for the husband. God is calling the Christian husband to love his wife just like he loves his own physical body. And think about the common sense here. Everyone in their right mind loves and cares for their own body. We would say yes, that's just what we do. Now a question or two here for us to reflect on. If someone does not care for their own body, what do we think of that?

If they don't eat well, if they don't bathe, if they don't care for their own body, what do we think of that? If someone injures themselves or mutilates their own body, what do we think of that? One step further, a great awful step further, if someone even takes their own life, what do we think of that? The scholar Leon Morris says, and I'm quoting, "Except for a few abnormal souls." See those are abnormal souls who do those things. We would agree with that. Morris says, "Except for a few abnormal souls, we all try to secure the best we can for ourselves, for our bodies.

Christian men," Paul is saying, "are to extend that attitude to their wives." And the second, he gives what I call the obvious. The end of verse 28, or that second sentence in the English Standard. Let me read the whole verse. "In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies." Notice, "He who loves his wife loves himself." Here God is saying what should be obvious in the Christian marriage. He turns it around. "He who loves his own wife loves himself." One scholar said, "So intimate is the relationship between man and wife that they are fused into a single entity. She is not to be treated as a piece of property.

She is to be regarded as an extension of a man's own personality and so a part of himself." Sir, do you see your wife as a part of your own physical body? Do you see her as property? Do you see her as an extension of who you are relating to you in a supernatural way, even physically? And then third, he gives what I call the argument. Look at verse 29 and 30. Paul says, "For no one ever hated his own flesh." That would be his body. That's abnormal.

"But he nourishes it and cherishes it just as Christ does for the church." Verse 30, "Because we are members of his body." Now here Paul makes what I see as an argument in support of what he's been saying all along. He says that a man is hardwired to love his own body, not to hate it, not to despise it. He is saying that it is instinctive for a man to love his own body, to nourish his body, and to care for his body. And what does a man do for his body? Think about it. He performs the basics. He feeds himself to take care of his body. He clothes himself to cover up his body. He washes himself to present his body in a clean way.

He protects, and he defends, and even fights for himself. He does anything and everything to avoid physical pain, harm, discomfort. He even spends a lot of time and a lot of money doing these things. Isn't that right? But notice what Paul, notice that Paul goes back to Christ in his relationship to his church. He says Christ nourishes and cherishes his church, his body. Why? Because individual believers are the actual members of his body. Isn't that what the verse says? Think on that. As true believers, as individual believers, we are actually members of his body.

And he is saying just as Christ Jesus nourishes and cherishes his body, so should the husband nourish and cherish his wife. And the question, if Christ nourished and cherished this church, like you do your wife, what would our church be like? That's one to ponder over. If Christ nourished and cherished this church, Grace Life Church, or Brookhaven, like you do your wife, what would our church be like? You might need to pray over that one. So we see that Christ's love is nourishing. And then fourth, we see that Christ's love is permanent. Look at verse 31.

"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother in whole fast, or cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." Here Paul is going back all the way to Genesis 2 verse 24. Let me read the verse. "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother in whole fast." The King James says, "cleave to his wife, and they the two shall become one flesh." So we see that Paul is going back, and he goes back to Genesis 2 to highlight and to emphasize certain things. First, that a man and the woman, they are to leave. This simply means they are to leave behind. They are to forsake. They are to depart.

This means that a man and a woman are to leave. They are to depart from their own mothers and fathers. There's a little lesson here you need to hear, especially if you're a rather young married couple. In all of my marital counseling, I usually deal with one or two of three things. Sometimes they're related. Usually couples will come to me because they're having intimacy problems, or they're having financial problems, or they're having leave and cleave problems. Look, you are to leave your mother and your father. You are to leave, sir. You are to leave, ma'am, and I'm going to come back to that here in a minute.

But then second, he says they are to cleave. I like the King James here. We're familiar with it. "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife." The English standard says, "Hold fast." This word "cleave" literally means to be welded together. It means to be glued together. This means that a man and a woman are to be joined. They are to be glued together in marriage. And look, you can't be glued together. You can't cleave to one another if you haven't done the leaving part.

One of the problems you have in your marriage is that every time there's a little problem, you'll run to your mother, you'll run to your father. I'm sorry, moms and dads. This is just what Scripture says. One of the greatest things you can do as a mother and a father is when your son or your daughter get married and they come to you and say, "Nope, that's not on my fair. You're to leave and cleave." I don't do many weddings, but one of the weddings I did a few years back, I counseled the couple and I counseled him. I said, "You leave and you cleave." And in the first few years of his marriage, he would call me mad.

They'd been in a little bit of a fight and he would say, "You told me I can't go to my mom and my dad, so I'm coming to you." And I said, "There you go, old baby, the Scripture." So first, the man and the woman are to leave. Second, the man and the woman are to cleave. And then third, the two become one. Here we see that God would fail math. Think about it. This is because God takes one plus one and he makes one. This means that man and the woman are to become one. Husband and wife, one, they are glued together. They are welded together. Look, notice, you need to be reminded of this fact. Husband, you are glued to your wife.

God has done that work. So we've seen a lot here. Again, I'm going back to all that we've been studying, verses 25 to 31, what Christ's love looks like and how we are to love our wives. This love, God's love in us, is to be sacrificial, sanctifying, nourishing, and permanent. And then the third major truth, which this will be rather short, especially compared to all that we've studied, this is what I call the motive of this love. We see this in verse 32 to 33. Now Paul finally reaches the conclusion of this teaching on Christian marriage by doing two things. First, he relates these things back to the Old Testament saints of God.

This might surprise you. And then second, he gives one last admonition or teaching. But first, what is this mystery that he's talking about here? Look at verse 32. No explanation. He says, "This mystery is profound, and I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the church. Simply these things concerning Christ and his church, they were unknown to all of the Old Testament saints of God." Think about it. "But now these things have been made known before they were a mystery. Now they have been made known. They've been made known to us today. And we live in this day. We live in the time of the church." I like how William McDonald says it.

He says, "The mystery is the wonderful purpose which was hidden in God in previous ages, but which now has been revealed. That purpose is to call out the nations of people to become the body and the bride of his glorious son." And he goes on to say, "The marriage relationship thus finds its perfect anti-type in that relation between Christ and his church." And then second, this last admonition or teaching. And notice that this instruction is both to the husband and the wife.

Verse 33, "However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband." Here Paul simply says to husbands, "Let every one of you love your wives just as you love yourself." And he simply says to the wives, "See that you respect your husbands, therefore submitting to him in these things." So the motive, these things were all planned out by God all along. The church was planned out by God all along. Christian marriage was planned out by God all along. Now one more point of application here in dealing with this motive. What is your ultimate and primary motive in your marriage? What is it?

Do you want physical needs met? Do you want emotional needs met? Are you in your marriage for financial reasons? Do you just want a marriage to raise children? What are your motives in your marriage? Now some motives can be good, but even those good motives are bad if you miss the ultimate motive. Listen, here's the ultimate motive. This is God's plan, not yours. This is God's plan, not a man's. God's plan for marriage is that your marriage and our marriage would be used for the glory of God.

Ultimately, you should desire all these things so that God would get glory in your marriage of physical relationship, children, anything within the marriage that is good and godly. Ultimately, it's not about you, it's not about me, it's about God's will in the marriage. Now I want to close by doing what I did last week. We've been studying the role of the Christian husband and we have two tests before us all along the way. First the Abraham test. This teaching is proving us for who and what we are. You might not have known what you were all along. You might not have known who you are all along until you've gotten into the verses.

We are determining also who we will be and what we will be. If you reject this teaching, you are determining to be rebellious. And then second the trust and obey test. We all say that we believe in the sufficiency and the authority of scripture but this teaching is forcing us either to submit to the authority of God's word here or to reject it. So as always, let's pray and commit these things to the Lord and look forward to what he's going to do in us and through us in our own sanctification in all of these things. So let's pray.