WHY DOES THE CHURCH NEED QUALIFIED ELDERS?

It's a song that we're just trying to introduce so if you didn't couldn't catch all the words, that's okay.

It's the Matt. It's a matter of what we're singing the truth of God's Word that he is King forevermore. He is worthy of our praise. Amen. Amen, we'll welcome. Welcome to our service today. I want to welcome as I do every week all of our covenant members.

You know who you are. Thank you. Thank you for bringing your gifts to the body. We've had we've had many of you out there serving in the parking lot and welcoming and serving back in the kitchen already this morning.

For the benefit of the whole and we are so grateful and I want you to know that you are loved. I always want to remind you first thing when we come in here before we begin to worship. You are loved you are loved by us.

And the reason you're loved by us is because you're loved by God the Father Who has set his love on you before the foundation of the world? He chose to to bring you to to glory. You're loved by Christ the Son that God the Son Jesus, right?

The one that came and purchased you. Purchased you by blood ransom and you are loved by God the Holy Spirit. Who now and dwells in you and dwells in all of us if we are in Christ, so we are unified in the Spirit.

And so I want to thank you for that. I also want to thank all of our guests for being here. Thank you so much for joining us. We pray that all of us would grow in the knowledge and fear of the Lord. And I just want to share with you if you're a guest and you've not filled out one of these connect cards.

We can get one to you if you got one in the in the first-time guest bag. There's one in there with a pin. There's an area on here where you can find out more about The ministry here at 12 five, but then more importantly for us.

There's a section at the bottom says how can we pray for you? And if you just fill that out all of us need prayer, right. I need prayer. We all need prayer and there's a group of us that meet every Tuesday morning in here.

And if you put that in the offering plate when it comes by we can be praying. Specifically for you gives us a chance to get to know you a little bit. So thank you for being here and being a part of this.

Well, typically we pray for another local church this morning. But we're actually gonna do that during our time of fellowship later on in the service. And so now what I would like for us to do is I would like for us to jump in to worship.

It's time to start with a call to worship. We always go to scripture for this. There's a read and a response, but this is simply just all of us as corporately reading through a Portion of scripture and this one happens to be Psalm chapter 98 where the psalmist says make a joyful noise to the Lord.

It's a psalm. Says Oh sing to the Lord and new song. His right hand and his holy arm. The Lord has made known his salvation. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness all the ends of the earth have seen.

Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Sing praises to the Lord with lyre with trumpets and the sound of the horn the sea roar and all that fills it. Let the rivers clap their hands at the hill sing for joy together before the Lord.

He will judge the world with righteousness. Let's pray a prayer of adoration to our great God this morning. Oh dear heavenly father. We come to you. We bow before you when we we acknowledge that you are the creator.

You are the sustainer. You are the giver of all things.

Now we.

We know that That the rocks cry out and worship to you the creator. We know that the stars are are declaring the glory of God. How much more should we this morning image bears those that are created in your image?

Worship you to to point to your glorious grace and mercy in our lives and Your sovereign hand over all things. Oh God we ask that you would be honored in our worship. We ask that we would not bring a sinful false fire before you God but that we would be able to to sing and to preach and to pray and to read your word and to Declare these truths in spirit and in truth Holy Spirit.

I pray that you were honored in our lives and our actions and our worship together Lord. I pray that that as we sing as as we as we open your word and all that it is Involved in what you've called us to on this Lord's Day gathering.

I pray that it would be used to edify and encourage each other the Saints. Well, that's the way you've designed it. You've designed it for us children to be able to just glean from you to set in and Learn from you and to honor you with our lives and in doing so Driving each other to to continually live as unto the Lord Father.

I pray that you would be honored Jesus. I pray that you would be honored Holy Spirit. I pray that you would be honored three and one the Almighty God this morning and all that we do Lord we thank you.

We thank you for bringing us together Christ.

Amen.

13 Starting in verse 7. He says remember your leaders those who spoke to you the Word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Do not be led away by Diverse and strange teachings for for it is for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace. Not by foods, which which have no have not benefited those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.

For the bodies of those animals Whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.

Therefore.

Let us go into him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city. We seek the city that is to come Through him. Then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God.

That is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name Jesus Messiah. Amen. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. Obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.

Let them do this with joy and not with groaning for that would be of no advantage to you. Let's pray a prayer of confession and assurance this morning because We know.

We all sin.

Every one of us have sinned this morning, right? But there is therefore no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. So we come boldly. We confess we acknowledge our sin before him and we even do so publicly as we're getting ready to do.

Oh, but we rest right? There's an assurance of the righteousness Imputed to us from Christ himself. So let us pray. Lord we come to you now and we acknowledge our frailty and sin and brokenness. God we acknowledge that we do not worship you as we should.

God we acknowledge that we do not live as we ought. God we acknowledge that that even our greatest day of Pursuing holiness is still falling so short. God we acknowledge our sin. We acknowledge our our gossip of one another.

We acknowledge our slander of one another. We acknowledge our disunity. We acknowledge the the fact that our flesh enters into to your very church. And we just want to lay that down at the foot of the cross knowing that that our our glorious Savior is paid for all of it and We stand now righteous.

We stand before you with no condemnation. You are not less or more happy with us your children at any given moment. You are perfectly content in your children because you are perfectly content in Christ and he is our righteousness.

So we pray that you would be honored in our worship even though it falls so short. You're worthy of all. We thank you in Christ's name.

First record Lord and raise you up for this morning Lord as we continue this service. I pray that you would just.

Your word would be preached boldly. You would clear out any distraction open all of our hearts open our ears. What I pray is we take up this offering this morning Lord. I pray that you would bless it.

We can never get out give you. I love you. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for saving me in Jesus name.

And all of God's people said because he lives we get to stand in boldness and we get to open his word and because he lives.

And we now have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit we can now comprehend and understand that the great truths from his word with clarity and We we are so grateful to the Lord for that. Well this morning We're gonna actually take a bit of a break from our study through the book of Ephesians.

For the next few weeks. The reason that we're going to do that is that we've come to a section in Ephesians 5 where Paul is laying out as we see the the design for the family how God has designed the family and as we as elders have been Thinking and praying through that text and and and what we want to present.

We believe that this is an area that that we would like to slow down a bit. Spend a little bit of time and really examine ourselves really examine the families of the church in light of what scripture teaches and so we're going to be doing a bit of a Mini series within the bigger series and this is gonna actually start in April right after Easter.

We're gonna get through Easter and then we're gonna jump back into Ephesians with that God's design for the family. So if you have anyone that is interested in understanding What does God say about the family and the structure?

What is his prescription? This would be a great time to be able to come and be a part of that and I'm looking forward to that series. So in the meantime, we're gonna we're gonna take the next few weeks and look at other text and scripture.

And as we believe that the Holy Spirit leads and and most of you already know many of you were here last night. It was a great celebration last night we had the Installation service of Pastor Keith Hennick as he became one of the elders of this congregation.

One of the pastors of this congregation. It's an exciting time. And so in light of that I thought I would preach from one of the pastoral epistles Titus. So if you got a copy of God's Word with you go ahead and and open up to Titus chapter 1.

This is a this is a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to one of his protégées Titus. Titus's has been sent to the island of Crete essentially as a church planter. Paul has left him in this position to put together the church and to establish churches there on this island.

And as you and as you look there in Titus chapter 1 I'd like to start reading in verse 5 Where Paul says Right to Titus. This is why I left you in Crete. So that you might put what remained into order and appoint elders in Every town as I directed you.

Well, he goes on then to list the qualifications of these men. They're they're very similar. They're essentially the same qualifications that Pastor Jeremiah preached last night from 1st Timothy 3. But there in verse 6 he lists him.

He says if anyone is above reproach. Establish elders and these are the things you're looking for to establish elders if anyone is above reproach. The husband of one wife and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.

For an overseer as God's steward must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain. But hospitable a lover of good self-controlled upright holy and disciplined.

Let's stop there for a moment. Our sermon today is not about these Qualifications. Pastor Jeremiah did an excellent job covering those last night. I I simply wanted us to see them again to remind us of the high standard of this calling in this office and If you're like me you see this list and you think Who amongst us.

Who could possibly live up to all of that? After all Jesus himself is the only one that has truly lived up to that type of scrutiny. We can see though a pattern a Pattern of the pursuit of these things in some of our lives.

So why such lofty standards. For this office. Why is it so important for these? Qualifications to be met and to be the pattern of a man's life in order to carry this office of overseer a Pastor Bishop, these are all interchangeable words.

It's because of the requirements of this office. The requirements of this office the pastorate you got to see you got to understand tends to draw lazy men. It does it draws lazy men men who don't want to do manual labor.

I've known many of these men and in my life or they don't want to have to work a regular job. They get to they get to go be a pastor. They see somebody standing up here and they think well, man. They they've got some respect people like them and they can just put together a sermon every week.

I get to read. I can go visit people in the hospital. I can throw together a bit of a sermonette every Sunday. Tickle everyone's ears maybe share a few stories after all maybe I'm good at sharing stories.

All the while essentially playing church. This is many pastors in the pulpits in America today. Because it draws these men. However, this office doesn't have office hours. Right. This is not like a normal job this the job description from Scripture is the care of Christ very bride think about that for a second the oversight and care of The very bride and body of Christ himself.

This is a high-calling. That we are under the Good Shepherd. We like to say around here. We do have a senior pastor. It's not me. It's not Jeremiah. It's not Keith. It's Christ. Christ is the senior pastor.

He's the shepherd. We are just under shepherds. But in the senior pastor Jesus Christ calls these men and he says feed my sheep. This is a high-calling. So why are these qualifications so rigid because of the task set before us?

The very reason that elders are needed within Christ's body the church. Because of what Christ himself has called now before you begin to check out and say well I guess pastor Nathan is just preaching to pastor Jeremiah and pastor Keith this morning.

No the this is for you. I want you to understand This calling because this affects you greatly. So please don't check out. As a matter of fact today I want us to see three reasons why qualified elders are needed and this is for you to be able to watch.

The overseers watch the elders in your life watch pastors and evaluate why are these? Qualifications so strict because of these three reasons. These we see in the following few verses right after Paul lists these qualifications look back at the text with me.

But look at verse 10. This is the text. I want us to address today. For there are many who are insubordinate Empty talkers and deceivers especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced.

Since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what ought not what they ought not to teach. One of the Cretans a prophet of their own said Cretans are always liars evil beasts and lazy gluttons.

This testimony is true therefore. Rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. Not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. To the pure all things are pure but to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure.

But both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable disobedient unfit for any good work.

Whoo.

These are fighting words, aren't they? The Apostle Paul pulls no punches when he addresses this if you ever notice that Paul has a zero tolerance policy for false teaching. In all of his letters and everything that he addresses he will not give it an inch.

He doesn't he doesn't move and budge when it comes to false teaching. And as soon as he tells Titus to establish men, he leaves him there as a church planter, right? He says establish overseers establish elders in all the churches and he's and then he gives them these these high Qualifications he tells them that they must do the same.

Have a zero tolerance policy for false teaching and not budge. They must fight for purity of doctrine and unity within the body. This requires Them to meet those qualifications doesn't it as we're going to see.

So here we see our first point. Qualified elders are needed in order to silence false teachers. Qualified elders are needed to silence false teachers. Look there at verse 11. We're at the beginning. What does he say?

He says they must be silenced. You know, there's false teachers everywhere in there. There they were present in Jesus's day they infested the early church and Unfortunately, they they essentially run amok in the modern church.

They have total free reign and it's probably because of all the lazy pastors the lazy Overseers who refused to do their job and don't meet those qualifications. Yet they must be given free reign. To must not be given free reign to spew their poison.

They must be silenced as Paul says. So, how do we silence them? That's the question at hand that we have to deal with. How do we silence false teachers? It's not as simple as just asking someone to Be quiet, is it?

It doesn't work like that. We can confront people all that we want and usually it just turns them into a martyr and then they have the ear of more people. So, how do we silence them? How do we shut them out?

Do we shun them? Well, you can't control the whole of the church this is difficult and so I think Paul gives us an answer to that as a matter of fact look back at what Paul tells Titus at the End of the list of qualifications in between what we just read in verse 9.

So he lists the qualifications and he says he this overseer who meets these qualifications must is Demanded he has to hold.

Firm.

He this word is just mean it means to support or to cling tightly to or to protect. As a matter of fact this same word is used elsewhere in the New Testament in Reference to holding up and holding firm the poor and the broken the needy.

And so this word he must hold firm He must support cling to and it cling to what that to the trustworthy word as.

Taught.

You must hold to tightly cling to the trustworthy word the words of God That are taught as taught by who who gets to set the standard who sets the rules? There's so many different interpretations every false teaching that you've ever seen has tried to derive it from words in Scripture.

Yet, it's a wrong interpretation. So who gets to set the standard? How are these men to hold firm to something there to hold firm to what the Apostles and the prophets handed down. It's been handed down through the church hasn't it.

It's been handed down through the Saints. We've we mentioned it in Ephesians where Paul talks about the Apostles and the prophets being the foundation. With Jesus Christ as the cornerstone and then every every decade every century every bit of the church is being built upon.

The teaching as long as it's in line with that foundation. Now people try and build off of that foundation. That's when we get false teaching. But as long as it stays on that foundation, it's being built up so this trustworthy word as taught is as taught by the Apostles that has been written by the prophets in the Old Testament and interpreted by the Apostles.

After all Jesus said over Jesus. Paul said over Galatians chapter 1 as he deals with false teaching. He says but even if an angel from heaven it even already said before even if I or Barnabas teach you this teach you something or an angel from heaven comes down and should Preach to you should declare to you a gospel contrary to the one that we.

Who's Paul talking about the Apostles right that we preach to you? He says let him be accursed. Let him be an anathema. Damned to hell is the translation. Paul takes this very seriously. No one including pastors has the Authority to redefine the scriptures.

The truth has been passed down from the Apostles. So a pastor's job an overseer's job is to hold fast to be a student of to know the scriptures. He must know the word. Look at the text again verse 9. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught.

Why? So that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine. So you don't know sound doctrine. That's taught by the Apostles. You can't instruct in you. You can't fulfill that calling that Paul has said these overseers must fulfill.

You don't know how to put work into it. You don't want to put the effort into it then then do anything else. This isn't for you. This isn't the calling for you. You can't teach what you don't know. You must be a student.

You must hold firm to it so that you may be able to teach it. Because here's the problem. We have a lot of men that fill the pulpits today that like to give you their opinion. They like to give you their wisdom.

They like to give you their insight and that is thoroughly and completely worthless. I have nothing to offer you. I do not have any wisdom. I do not have any any ability to give you any guidance that is of any worth.

Only the word does as taught by the Apostles. Sound doctrine the truth of God's Word. It's the only thing with any power of true instruction. Look at the text again, right? So we must hold firm to the trust where the word is taught so that we may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine but then there's a second part to it and Also.

To rebuke those who contradict it. Well, that's definitely a concept that we don't like today is it. That's why I think most churches like that lazy pastor. Because he doesn't have the the sound Understanding and knowledge to rebuke them in their sin.

But rebuking people seems unloving doesn't it? That's the way our culture runs. You don't rebuke people. You don't tell people that they're doing wrong. Yet. This is what Paul calls elders to do. You may ask well, isn't an elder supposed to be gentle?

Isn't an elder supposed to be soft-spoken and loving and peaceable, but he's a peacemaker, isn't he? And rebuke seems so confrontational. This just seems to contradict these qualifications. But when it comes to the truth being distorted the truth of God and the minds of God's people.

Rebuke is the most peaceable gentle loving thing that can be done. It's the only loving thing that can be done. You know think about it for a second. Yeah the the Word of God refers to the the churches or sheep right or sheep and we have to be near the Good Shepherd and.

And we have to be together and their safety and all of that. And that's the analogy that it gives us when a wolf enters into the herd. Grabs one of the weak sheep and drags them away. What's the most loving thing to do.

How do you address it? Do you let the wolf devour the sheep and then come back for more? Is that the loving thing to do? Or do you kill the wolf you cut it out of the herd? You guard the herd from that that wolf coming in and devouring the sheep.

You see our way of thinking is not very loving because we're just allowing false teaching to wreak havoc in the lives of the.

Saints.

Pulling them away from the Good Shepherd sometimes. It's not even a wolf that needs to rebuke. We're gonna see that here in a moment in the text, but sometimes it's another sheep. Sometimes it's one of us.

Sometimes I need rebuke. But we have to be rebuked leading other sheep Away from the shepherd because of false teaching that doesn't align with what the Apostles taught. That needs to be rebuked. Rebuke those who contradict it.

But in order to do this this takes great discernment. We must be able to distinguish how we're going to approach a.

Wolf.

Or a deceived sheep. We must be careful. So how is a false teacher a wolf? Identified because we must approach them very differently than we do a sheep. That is misunderstanding truth. These can be very difficult to identify.

Jesus himself said that these wolves are in sheep's clothing. They disguise themselves. They disguise themselves and they look like one of us. Is he a dangerous false teacher is one that is the closest to the truth, isn't it?

I'm actually gonna share an analogy that I grew up hearing from my family. My mother's here today from Florida. I'm glad to have her here with us. But this is an analogy that I've grown up hearing about my mother back when dad was going through seminary.

You worked at a bank right as a bank teller. And she shares how back then the way that that they were taught to deal with counterfeit money. Wasn't to hand be handed counterfeit money and said examine this counterfeit money and when you see this you deal with it.

Didn't work like that what she what she says is they would tell you what during slow times is to open one of the drawers and pull out bills. And just flip through them discount. Just be counting them day after day week after week and year after year the reason they did that is because Counterfeiters they they go through great late to great lengths to Create a counterfeit that is that is nearly indistinguishable from the real thing.

It's so close to the real thing That your eye can't see it. And so showing you the counterfeit and selling you look for these doesn't help. But when you flip through day after day year after year through the real thing, you begin to know what it feels like.

And so when that counterfeit comes across the counter and hits your thumb and your index finger something's wrong. Something doesn't feel right something's off and this is how they were taught to deal with counterfeit money in the bank and I think this is precisely why an elder should hold fast to the trustworthy word.

He should know the word so well. Is it his day should be so consumed with flipping through the pages of that word and knowing it and consuming it. What when the counterfeit comes along? He knows something's not right.

He knows what that counterfeit is. He knows it's not the real thing and to how to address it now. Begins to be given to him through the renewal of his mind of that word. This is why it's so important that he'd be a great student of that word so that when someone has meticulously curated a Doctrinal counterfeit that that is deceiving the Saints the elders can expose it.

Paul goes on here and actually gives us some identifying marks of a false teacher. So this helps us distinguish now. We know what the counterfeit is. It hits our ears. We know it we can address it. So now Paul gives us the identifying markers of one.

That is a false teacher as opposed to a deceived sheep look at verse 10. He says for there are many Who are insubordinate? This just means rebellious. These are rebellious men and women the false teachers that the wolves are rebellious.

But just like the counterfeit doctrine this rebellion isn't always in your face and obvious it doesn't always come through those doors like a Like a biker with his leather on and tattoos up up his neck and across his face.

It doesn't work like that smoking a cigarette, you know, it doesn't function like that. That's not how they enter. So, how can we tell if they are insubordinate? How can we tell if they're rebellious?

There are a few ways. You see rebellious men do not submit themselves to God's ordained authority. They do not submit themselves to God's ordained authority. After all teaching and holding to false doctrine means that they are not submitted to God himself.

If they're not submitted to God himself, they're sure not going to submit to his representatives and his structure. These are men who are rebellious women who are rebellious in heart. They they don't want to become a part of a local congregation and put themselves under the oversight of Elders and overseers.

They don't want to be held accountable to the rest of the body and when they are they buck against it. They fight against it. But a sheep on the other hand, they might get deceived. We do all the time.

We may have misunderstandings and and misinterpretations, but when addressed by the God-given authority. We adjust we don't buck against but a rebellious one shows that this is a this is a false teacher.

Look at look at verse 14 actually Jesus says or Paul says they are devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. They don't submit themselves to God. They don't they don't want what God has to say.

They want their own way. They want their own interpretation they want their old traditions. They want anything else except for what God says is true, which is what has been handed down by the Apostles.

They are rebellious. These particular false teachers that Paul is talking about and dealing with there in the island of Crete is are the same ones that he's been Dealing with all throughout the the early church and they're known as the circumcision party.

Also known as the Judaizers. We've talked about them before these this is a group of Jewish people who have grown up in the customs and the cultures of That the old ceremonial laws and the circumcision and now they've they've somehow made their way into the church and they've said yes Jesus.

Jesus is the way the truth in the life. No one comes the father except through him and then they get baptized and they become part of the church visually and externally. Horizontally, but then in the meantime they say but if you want God to really be happy with you.

You have to do all of these old ceremonies. You still have to be circumcised. You still have to you have to do all of these practices adding to the grace the finished work of the cross. Essentially, they're saying that what the Apostles are teaching is not sufficient.

They can't submit themselves to it. So these are rebellious men. Paul goes on to call them empty talkers and deceivers. False teachers are they can usually talk a good game. Can't they let's be honest.

People like Joel Osteen or TD Jake's Steven Furtick Beth Moore. These are people that can talk circles around me. They can communicate their their Auditory skills are far surpassing anything. You're ever gonna hear from this pulpit.

I'll acknowledge that they're good at talking. They they're far more poised in their communication yet. Their words are venomous. They're empty talkers. There are those who have come into our midst we've had people come in over the past few years whose speech and pseudo-knowledge they're enticing.

And they draw sheep to them because they're able to communicate well they're empty talkers though, and they must be silenced and it's because they are empty talkers and deceivers.

Hmm.

You know, sometimes we see these empty talkers people like maybe some of the ones that I just named. We don't want to judge their intent. We don't want to look at Steven Furtick and judge his intent. Maybe he misspeaks.

Maybe his intent isn't bad. We may know what they're saying is wrong, but but man, they're just confused after all we don't know their heart, right. You see the problem with that is is the Paul says that they are also deceivers.

They may not think that they are deceiving. But they're of their father the father of lies the deceiver. Who is controlling them? Who is. Who is guiding what they're saying in order to divide the body and to draw away from the Apostles teaching?

You see I don't care what someone's intent is. I Know I couldn't care less what someone's intent is. I only care about the truth. And an overseer should. Does it mean I don't care about their souls? Well, absolutely not it but it means that I care about the souls tasked to my care and I must guard the souls that God has guided and directed under the care of the elder seer and so I must.

I must care more about the truth and If we expose that untruth and their response isn't repentance then make no mistake. Their intent is to deceive they are a wolf is why we must have As King Jesus prescribed qualified elders that can silence these false teachers.

Because just like in that day as they dealt with those in the circumcision party who are denying the finished work of the cross they're denying the work of Christ that Christ died once for all and Then it is done that he did it all that we must add something to it that he purchased us by his blood.

Is that something we did? No, he did everything. There's nothing more to give. And when we try and add anything to our righteousness Baptism good works church attendance anything we try and add that to our Justification our standing in God then we're adding to the gospel.

Hence. We're taking away the gospel. It is of no value.

We're.

We're to hold fast to the trustworthy word as taught. Well, the second thing I want us to see in this text is that qualified elders are needed in order to remind Believers that even though they are in the world they are not to be of the world.

Look at verse 12 with me. Says one of the Cretans, right? He's speaking to Titus there in the island of Crete because one of the Cretans a prophet of their own Said Cretans are always liars evil beasts lazy gluttons and This testimony is true.

Therefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. You know Titus is dealing with there on the island an extraordinarily corrupt culture. These people are known throughout the whole of the region As being a very vile and wicked people all for some of the things that Paul just listed here.