Father in heaven, we do thank you and praise you for the great privilege you've given to us, the gift of being able to gather on this, your day, the Lord's day, that we might be reminded again of the promises of your word in the gospel and the grace that we have in Christ. We confess, Father, that our hearts are often thrown into despair and doubt and struggle. Our consciences are often flayed. We are struggling often. in our guilt and in our struggles, and you bring us here this morning that we might receive again the promises of Christ. I ask for your help this morning. I ask that you will continue to gather men and women and boys and girls here this morning. And as we have this time of Sunday school, and as we turn to the time of worship, would you come and meet with us? and that we might be your people, a people that are gripped by your word and are encouraged by your gospel, and a people that live in a way that honors your name, for you are indeed worthy of all glory and praise. We ask these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen. Amen. All right, again, this black book here, if you're in that, we're on page 30. That's chapter 21 of our confession. As we think through the Confession, there's 32 chapters in the Confession, and that gets overwhelming sometimes in way of thinking through it. And so it's helpful for us to see the 32 chapters in categories. And if you want to think of it this way, this may be a good way to think about it. Chapters 1 through 6 Chapters 1 through 6 are the preliminaries or the first things. This is where we talk about the Holy Scripture, the Trinity, decrees, creation, providence, and then the fall of man. Those six chapters lay out some of the foundational principles and truths that everything else in the Confession builds upon. Chapter 7 of our confession is of God's covenant, and chapters 7 through 20 is actually all of the issues that are related to, or if you will, a subcategory of this idea of covenant. And so if you want to, you can understand chapters 7 through 20 as being all dealing with the covenant and how that covenant plays itself out in redemptive history. So under this heading of covenant, chapter 7 through 20, we have Christ the mediator, effectual calling, justification, adoption, sanctification, saving faith, repentance, good works, perseverance of the saints. All of this is God working out his covenant, all right? And the reason I mention this is because that's chapter 7 through 20. This morning, we start in chapter 21. Chapter 21 is the third major section in our confession. And in chapter 21, we're going to be dealing with, of Christian liberty, and the liberty of conscience, okay? And my point in saying that is that this is considered by most as we think about the confession, this is considered unit three or category three, and the heading here has to do with or relates with this idea of Christian liberty. And the name of this heading or the title of this heading often is this, I get this from Renahan's commentary, God-centered living. So unit three, This is chapters 21, almost to the end. It's not all the way to the end. The last two chapters are on last things, or end times. But chapters 21 through 30 are concerning this Christian liberty, and it's concerning God-centered living. And in that God-centered living, beside that is freedom and boundaries. All right? Now, I want to make the case this morning that this chapter... Is the microphone really, really hot to you guys? Is it okay? Or am I just hearing it really, really hot? Okay, very good. It's ringing for me, but I didn't know if it was for you guys. So, this chapter, Christian Liberty and Liberty of Conscience, is a transition in our confession, and it is absolutely vital in our confession. Sometimes if we talk to someone or if you talk to someone or if you think through it and you say, what are the main pieces? What are the main chapters of our confession? It may be the chapter on the scriptures. It may be the chapter on Christ. It may be the chapter on the church, right? Because those are some of the bigger chapters. But if you were talking to those who were during the time of the confession that were writing it, Most would say, and the reason I say this is because we have it in writing, most have said during that time that it's actually this chapter, chapter 21, on Christian liberty and liberty of conscience. And the reason is because all of the reformers looking back at the Reformation would say that this was one of the primary doctrines of the Reformation. This is one of the primary reasons why the church had the Reformation. John Calvin himself in the Institutes says that we cannot understand justification by faith unless we understand Christian liberty. Now, that sounds odd, maybe, to us, but we need to understand that justification by faith was the lightning rod for the Reformation. That's what the Reformers were insisting on. And Calvin says in his Institutes, you will not understand justification by faith unless you understand Christian liberty and liberty of conscience. And so the very essence of our understanding of the Reformation, justification by faith, cannot be understood apart from this idea of Christian liberty. That's John Calvin. I can give you the exact reference if you like, but actually, he finishes the sections in the Christian Institutes, which is his theology, he finishes the sections on justification, and then the next section right after that, Book 3, Chapter 19, Paragraph 1, he basically turns then and says, now we must discuss Christian liberty, of which justification rises and falls, which is quite fantastic, isn't it? I mean, that sounds pretty amazing. John Owen, another Puritan, Calvin was not a Puritan, but John Owen, a Puritan, writes in his work the second principle of the Reformation, the first being justification by faith. But John Owen writes later, he says, the second principle of the Reformation, whereupon the Reformers justified their separation from the Church of Rome, was this, that Christian people were not tied up unto blind obedience unto the church, the church guides, but were not only at liberty, but also obligated to judge for themselves as unto all things that they were to believe and practice in religion and in worship of God. And so John Owen says that this Christian liberty is actually the second principle. of the Reformation, as he looks back on the Reformation and sees that. Finally, this is my last quote, and then we'll jump into the actual chapter itself. Samuel Bolton writes a little paperback, and it's Banner of Truth does the Puritan paperbacks. Samuel Bolton is one of those Puritan paperbacks. It's called The True Bounds of Christian Freedom. And in that book, he writes this. And I want to actually read him on this issue. Two great things Christ has entrusted into the hands of his church. Think about that. Two great things Christ has entrusted into the hands of his church. What would they be? What would those two things be? Christian faith and Christian liberty is what Samuel Bolton says. That's pretty astounding. Two things the Lord has given His church, Christian faith and Christian liberty. Just as we are to contend earnestly for the maintenance of the faith, according to Jude 3, so also for the maintenance of Christian liberty. In other words, Bolton is saying this is what we're to be defending, Christian faith as well as Christian liberty. And that against all who would oppose and undermine it. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, Galatians 5.1. Very like this is the exhortation of the same apostle. You are bought with a price. Be not ye servants of men, 1 Corinthians 7.23. So I mention all of that to basically show you that this is a transition in our confession. It's a major unit, Unit 3 of our confession, and it begins with Christian liberty, and really everything else past this is also talking about Christian liberty. Religious worship, which is Chapter 22, if you see that, the next chapter, religious worship in the Sabbath day, that's about Christian liberty. And the reason is because the Catholic Church was binding God's people and saying, in order for you to worship, you've got to do it our way. And they were imagining different things that had to be done in Christian worship in order for it to be adequate and sufficient. And the Reformers were saying, no. a person is not allowed to create for themselves all kinds of things that have to happen in Christian worship and bind people to do those things or to participate in those things in Christian worship that are not explicitly given to us in Scripture. And so the regulative principle is being set out in chapter 22, and it's on the basis of this idea of Christian liberty and liberty of conscience. In the same way, this morning, there are churches all over Jacksonville that are doing all kinds of things during the time of worship. And that's actually not liberty. That's actually binding the conscience of people. Because when they show up for church this morning, they have no idea what's going to happen. Because what's going to happen is only given by the imagination of the pastor or the people that are leading the worship in some way. And they're doing all kinds of fantastic things, many of which have nothing to do with Scripture or isn't given in Scripture. And in so doing, they're binding the consciences of those who are worshiping. They're just like the Roman Catholic Church was. Does that make sense? Even though we don't think of a very vibrant, contemporary, big, non-denominational church as being Catholic, but that's exactly what they're doing. They're doing the same things, and they're violating this idea of conscience. It's important then that we understand that things like religious worship, things like, these are the chapters that proceed in our confession, civil magistrate, things like marriage, church, baptism, Lord's Supper, all of these have to be dictated by Christian conscience and liberty, and not by the wills or whims of men. All right? So, look with me, if you will. There's three paragraphs in chapter 21, and I want to read these and give you the headings for each one. All right? I want to read these and give you the headings for each one. First paragraph is the definition of Christian liberty. I'm gonna give you these headings and then we'll go back and look at them. The first paragraph is the definition of Christian liberty. The second paragraph is the boundaries of Christian liberty. And then the third paragraph is the distortion of Christian liberty. The definition is paragraph one. The boundaries is paragraph two. And paragraph three, the distortion. So let me read. Notice it says in paragraph one, the liberty which Christ hath purchased for believers under the gospel consists in the freedom from the guilt of sin, the condemning wrath of God, the rigor and curse of the law, and in their being delivered from this present evil world, bondage to Satan, and dominion of sin from the evil of afflictions, the fear and sting of death, the victory of the grave, everlasting damnation. and everlasting damnation, as also in their free access to God and their yielding obedience unto Him, not out of slavish fear, but a childlike love and willing mind." All right, I'm going to stop there because there's a period there. Notice first that this liberty which Christ has for us is one that was purchased. It wasn't simply granted. It's something that Christ purchased with His blood. It came at a price, and it's something that we are not... It's not a preference or something we can take or leave. This Christian liberty is something that we are to insist on and stand for. All right? So this is very important. It's not something that we can have or not have. It's something we must insist on and be a good steward of as a church. According to this, it was something that Christ purchased for believers. And notice that it consists then in, first, freedom. Freedom from three things. Notice what it says. The guilt of sin, the condemning wrath of God, the rigor and curse of the law. You see, it's freedom from these three things. And then, it's deliverance from seven more things. Okay? We'll see the list of seven things. So, all in all, there's ten things that this Christian liberty either frees us from or delivers us from. It says, and in their being delivered from, here are seven things. present evil world, bondage to Satan, the dominion of sin, from the evil of afflictions, the fear and sting of death, The victory of the grave and everlasting damnation. Those are seven sections, seven things that Christian liberty frees us from and that Christ purchased so that we can be free from these things. Now, think through those. Understand that our hearts are so apt to cling to these things as if they're still ours. And yet we no longer are under the dominion of sin. We are no longer under the present evil world, the bondage of Satan. We no longer have the condemning wrath of God pressed upon us. Why? Because of Christ purchasing this freedom for us, this deliverance for us. All right? And then it goes on and it says we have two things that are, all of those were negative things, things that the Lord delivered us from or freed us from because of this liberty. But then we have this positive declaration where it says, as also in their free access to God, this is something that we possess. We have the free access to God. because of what Christ purchased for us on the cross. And you're thinking to yourself, you obviously don't know what my morning was like or my week was like. You don't realize, Shane, how much I struggle in sin and how just overwhelmed I am in my own heart for all the things that are just contrary to the things of the Lord. The Lord has freed us from those things. The Lord has delivered us from those things. And because of His purchased blood on the cross, we have access to the Father like anyone else that may be sitting in here that seems to be doing a lot better than you are this morning. We have access to the Father. And we have this yielding obedience unto Him. not a slavish fear, but instead like a child that loves his father or her father and mother, that desires to please them. That's what the Lord has given to us. We're freed from the bondage and penalty of sin, the guilt that's there, the wrath that is on those, the curse of the law, the wrath that is on those who oppose the Lord and seek to thwart Him. And instead, we have a love, a desire, to this yielding obedience unto Him, not out of slavish fear, but a childlike love and a willing mind. All right? The second half of paragraph one speaks of, actually, it asks a question. The question is this. Since these blessings that we have flow from the person and work of Christ, How did Old Testament believers, especially those who lived under the Mosaic law, how did they experience liberty? Was their liberty during the Old Testament something that was different than ours? The answer is yes and no. Notice there in the second half of paragraph one, it says, all which were common also to believers under the law, this is speaking to Old Testament saints, for the substance of them, but under the New Testament, the liberty of Christians is further enlarged. And so there's more access to this liberty, more expression of this liberty for New Testament Christians. In their freedom from the yoke of ceremonial law, this is how the Old Testament saints, the New Testament saints are free from the ceremonial law, where the Old Testament saints were not, to which the Jewish to which the Jewish church was subjected, and in greater boldness of access to the throne of grace, and in fuller communications of the Spirit of God than believers under the law did ordinarily partake of." And so, there was freedom, but there's this uniqueness of freedom for New Testament Christians that the Old Testament Christians or saints did not have access to, all right? and yet the freedom did in fact exist. All right. So there we have the definition of Christian liberty. All right. Paragraph two. Yes, sir. Mr. Drew. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. That's right. I think it could be. Yes, sir. And afflictions for those who are unregenerate, they're only, they do no good. So that's right. That's right. Is that helpful, Drew? Yeah. Sure thing. But this is quite a paragraph to think through and to meditate on. but even more significant. There's only about five paragraphs in the entire confession that I would say, if you're going to memorize, which is an effort, right? Memorizing scripture, memorize scripture first. But if you're gonna memorize something in the confession, there's only about five that I would say you need to memorize. Paragraph two of chapter 21 is one of those. It is that significant. This paragraph is the most significant paragraph on Christian liberty that is given to the Christian church. That sounds pretty outlandish, but Renahan as well as Waldron, both of the guys who write on the Confession, say that, of course, this paragraph also is in the Westminster Confession. Anybody that talks about Christian liberty in the history of the church since the time of the confessions, they do not refer to Christian liberty apart from this paragraph. It is that significant as a clarifying statement of exactly what Christian liberty is and is not, what it should be and what it should not be. All right. So listen carefully. This is pretty significant. And I want you to notice that in this paragraph, The word conscience occurs four times. You may want to underline it or mark it if you mark in your confession. The word conscience occurs four times, and it's significant because the heading for this paragraph, this whole chapter here, is of Christian liberty and liberty of conscience, okay? William Perkins, who is considered the father of all the Puritans, he's written hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pages on the Christian's conscience and how we're to address that and deal with that. Are we in a day and age where our conscience is flayed and there are people all over constantly... I mean, the The primary medicine coming out of our drug stores is for pain. The second medicine coming out of our drug stores in America is because of emotional or feelings and consciences and difficulties and struggles of people's hearts and souls. And so we live in a day and age where we've abandoned this. And so it's important for us to understand As a church, how careful we need to be concerning this very important doctrine. Again, four times it occurs. Mark it as I read through this. One of the most important statements on Christian liberty in the Christian church. Listen, if you will. God alone is Lord of the conscience. and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in anything contrary to his word, or not contained in it, so that to believe such doctrines or obey such commandments out of conscience is to betray true liberty of conscience, and the requiring of an implicit faith, an absolute blind obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience and reason also. All right? So, this is where I told you to turn to Colossians 2. You thought I'd forgotten about that, didn't you? Nope. I got it. Colossians 2. Notice, if you will, in verse 16. Colossians 2.16. In the book of Colossians, Paul here is trying to insists that the Christians root their lives in Christ. And there were those, obviously, trying to push them beyond Christ, which are the false teachers of their day, of their time, that were there in the city of Colossae. And they were trying to push them beyond and actually try to insist on all kinds of regulations and other things. Notice in chapter 2, verse 16, it says this, Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ." Drop down with me to verse 20. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations? Do not handle. do not taste, do not touch, referring to things that all perish as they are used. According to human precepts and teachings, these have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgences of the flesh. The point here is this. As we look at our confession and consider paragraph two, we need to understand that God alone is the Lord of our conscience. and he hath left it free from the doctrines of," notice this, the doctrines and commandments of men. The doctrines speak of specifically the teachings that are being set forward as biblical teachings, and then also the commandments of men, which are different actions and activities. This is not speaking of anything outside of the church. This is specifically and uniquely talking about the responsibility that a church has to declare faithful, true doctrines that are in the Scriptures, and also to set forward the commandments that are given to us in God's Word and none other. All right? This is very important for us today. Let me continue and read. "...which are in any way contrary to His Word. or are not contained in it. So not only is it contrary, but also things that are not contained in His Word. So that to believe such doctrines or to obey such commandments, in other words, to pursue these things that are not in God's Word, and for a church to insist on those and say, these are important for you to do, even though we can't find it in Scripture, and to obey these out of conscience. In other words, you need to do this because the leader in my church is pressing me to do this. is to portray true liberty of conscience and the requiring of an implicit faith, an absolute and blind obedience, that's what it's describing, this implicit faith is an absolute and blind obedience, is to destroy the liberty of conscience and reason also. I'm reminded of the Luther movie. where Luther's standing before the synod, and he's saying, if I cannot see what you're saying and all of these things you've espoused as the Roman Catholic Church, if I cannot see these in Scripture, then you do not have the right to bind my conscience to do these things that the Roman Catholic Church was insisting on them. Now, let's not be so hard on the Roman Catholic Church. It is important to note that there are a lot of churches all over America that insist on things that may be good practices. or even helpful things to do or not do, and yet they are only implications. They are not explicit commands from Scripture, or are they doctrines that have been given to us by the Scriptures and by God's people throughout the centuries as we've looked at Scriptures, right? So it's important for us to be careful that when we encourage, not talking about me and us as elders, when we encourage people to do things or not do things, there are times you'll hear me say, this is a sin or this is not a sin. And then there's times when I'll say, this is an issue of wisdom. and you need to make a choice. Here are some biblical principles that you can consider, but then as you move forward, this is an issue of wisdom, all right? It's important for us to make sure that we do not flay the consciences of God's people and of each other by insisting that something is this biblically a sin when in fact it isn't. This is probably one of the most common ways this happens. If somebody's really, really mad at you, And they've been around church very long. One of the things that will likely come up is that if I'm really, really mad at you, then obviously you've sinned against me. And sometimes that is not true. Sometimes people can be really, really mad at you because you're trying to be faithful and obedient, and they don't like the faithfulness that you're trying to live out. and you're trying to do what God's called you to do, and they're angry at you, and you're sinning against me. Why? Because you may be mad, and you shouldn't make me mad, and therefore it's sin. Well, it's sin when God is mad at it, not when that person is mad at it. Does it make sense? And so we need to be careful, one, that we're faithfully following God's law, and two, that when we are doing that, that when others declare that you are sinning, that you actually root that into scriptures. And I would say even specifically, probably one of the best ways to do that is to root that into Ten Commandments and to make sure that you are living out those Ten Commandments, right? And so it's important then for us to be careful as we consider the boundaries of Christian liberty, this is paragraph two, that we are not insisting that people have an implicit faith, that is, an absolute and blind obedience to these things that we give as rules or regulations. And in so doing, they will destroy the liberty of conscience and the reason also. All right. This is absolutely necessary. for us to be careful is that when we say something is sin, that we name it sin. I would love, let me give you another, this is my last example. I would love, in the last couple of months, this has only been affirmed in my life for certain experiences. I would love to insist that nobody that attends or is a member of Sovereign Grace Baptist Church can drink alcohol, because I hate it. I despise it. And this past week, this past couple of months, it was an affirmation just to the damage and the pain that comes with those who casually use alcohol and then it becomes something that's horrific or horrible. I would love to say that that's how it is. We know churches that are that way. I sat in the Florida Babs Convention in Daytona, thousands of pastors down there, and they voted on if alcohol touches your lips, then you are not allowed to be an officer for the Florida Babs Convention. And raise your hand if you agree with this. Everybody there, raise their hand. Raise your hand if you don't agree with this. Me and about five other guys raised their hand, and I didn't know if we'd make it out of that building alive, because I was... Now, I hate alcohol. But to bind your conscience and say that it is something that is forbidden by God, always, is to bind your conscience in a way that I should not do. because Scripture doesn't do that. Does that make sense? Hopefully that's helpful. Finally, let me finish up. Finally, the distortion of Christian liberty is paragraph 3. We should not use Christian liberty as an excuse for sinning. And that's what this speaks of in paragraph 3. Notice what it says. They who, upon pretense of Christian liberty, in other words, they're pointing to Christian liberty and say, I have the liberty to do this. They who, upon pretense of Christian liberty, do practice any sin or cherish any sinful lust, as they do thereby pervert the main design of the grace of the gospel to their own destruction. So they wholly destroy the end of Christian liberty, which is, that being delivered out of the hands of all our enemies, we might serve the Lord without fear in holiness, and righteousness before Him all the days of our lives. And so we also are aware of the fact, and I've had to deal with it, not only as a dad, but also as a pastor, to say you can't use Christian liberty as an excuse to sin. And where do I get sin from? I define sin very carefully as it relates to the Ten Commandments, right? I want to be careful with that. And so, being very careful to articulate that though we have Christian liberty, it should not give us leeway to live out our lives in a sinful way. All right? That's the distortion of Christian liberty. Now, James 4.12 says, there is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? That's James 4.12. I want to give you two resources, actually three resources, that if you want to read this a little more, that I would encourage you to do so, and they will be very good resources. The first one I mentioned earlier in the time, and that is Samuel Bolton's Puritan paperback. It's a very small Puritan paperback. It's excellent. It's called True Bounds of Christian Freedom, and I would encourage you to read that. That'll be an excellent read. The second book I would encourage you to get is a free one. If you go to Christian Heritage... books, what's it called? Is that what it's called? Christian heritage books. This is free. And they'll even mail it, like the, even the shipping's free and you can order as many as you, well, I think 10, you can only order 10 at a time. So, um, you can order this and this is an excellent volume. Not only do they have this, but they also have a website now where Beaky and Smalley went on and for each chapter, they give like a, a, a, 10-minute lecture on what the chapter is about, and it's kind of like a study guide. So there's a website that goes along with this, and if you get this book, if you order it for free, they give you this little bookmark, and you can get the website by looking on the back of this. Anyway, this is an excellent volume for that, and it's called The Law and the Gospel, and it's by John, say it loudly, Colloquy. That's his last name, which is not how I would say it. Yes, ma'am. I will spell the last name. C-O-L-Q-U-H-O-U-N. And you can get this book for free. Or you can talk to Alex, because I think he ordered 10 of them. He has 10. I don't know how many more you've got. I'm giving away your books now. I love giving away other people's books. All right? So those two are excellent volumes. Let me tell you another thing. Christian heritage books, Christian heritage books, I picked this up and I was getting ready to set these out on the literature table. I have three of them. This is, and if you've never seen these before, this is worthy of having, this is Table Talk by Ligonier Ministries. The month of March, this is a devotional. You can read like each day, it gives you like a page to read and some scripture and a devotional. But at the beginning of the Table Talk each month, it has a theme or category. This month, the month of March, it's on Christian Liberty. And I looked at it and I was like, huh, that's weird. And so I looked at it. The first article in here is on, um, um, it's on gospel. Oh, hold on. I was looking at the liberty, the liberty Christ hath purchased. This is about Fesco, which Fesco is a very, I enjoy Fesco. And then the second one is on liberty of conscience, which is paragraph two of our confession. And then the next article in here is the misuse of Christian liberty, which is actually the third paragraph that we talked about today. And then the last article in here, and the article is only a few pages long, so it's very short. The last article in here is on the church and how the church is supposed to be stewarding Christian liberty. I have three of these, um, and I'll, I'll give them to whoever wants to come up and get them. Um, but then you can go online. Tabletalk.org is online and you can actually go on there and get and get the articles as well. If you want to look at it online, but I've got these three volumes. I'll be glad to give this somebody. All right. My phone is not dinged yet. So that means I've got opportunity for questions. Anybody feels this a question. Oh, okay. I thought it was a question. It's a statement. Phil texts me while I'm talking. He likes to befuddle me. You didn't? Three minutes ago? It says it came through three minutes ago. All right. All right. Any questions? Any comments? pivotal place in our confession. Chapter 21, there's the alarm. Chapter 21 now turns to the rest of the chapters are going to be talking about Christian liberty and how we're to handle Christian liberty. Folks, let me give you a real quick example. Marriage Marriage, we cannot think of marriage as more than it should be, meaning the Roman Catholic Church thought it was a sacrament and that marriage is required for any and everybody in order to be faithful. That's not true, and our confession talks about that. Nor should marriage be belittled and minimized as if it's not important. Right. And so, again, our chapter on marriage later in our confession is an issue of conscience, and it says marriage needs to be understood as it is set forth in the scriptures. All right. Yes, sir, Drew. Yes. Yeah. better. Absolutely. How many of us grew up in or know of, and all of us do because we're here in the South, churches that are very legalistic and they've got a list of things that you're supposed to do and you're not supposed to do. And then you show up at the restaurant and you find out that one of the members there is actually having a beer with their meal and they're trying to hide it because they're scared to death that you actually showed up there. My point is, is that that legalism, that strictness doesn't stop the sinning. Right? Only the gospel can do that. And only us encouraging people to be faithful in the gospel can do that. And so you're right. This is actually the way that we're supposed to live together and do so faithfully. Let me pray, and then we'll let everybody start heading this way. Thank you all. Father in heaven, we do thank you and praise you for the opportunity to not only receive and understand this Christian liberty, but also to live it out. We ask for your help that we'll be faithful to call one another to faith and good works, but also to be careful not to flay the consciences of our brothers and sisters, that we may encourage them to be faithful to your word and be faithful to walk in a way that's worthy of your calling. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.