Anti-Law False Teachers

Text—these are the very words of God

Jude 8–16 ESV

Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion. These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.

Introduction

Imagine two months from now, you are shopping for a last minute Christmas gift and you spend 10 minutes driving around the Target parking lot, trying to find a half-decent parking space.

And then imagine that as you get out of your car, you see a big SUV zoom past you.

They pull up to the front of the store, park in the fire lane, get out, lock their car and just walk into the store.

I would guess that you would be somewhat outraged in the quiet of your heart.

You would think:

This is a person who doesn’t just bend the rules, they act like the rules don’t apply to them.

This is a person who thinks they are so special that they are justified to do whatever they feel like doing.

This is a person with zero apologies given. They feel no guilt for their behavior.

And lastly, you would think that this is a person who is willing to inconvenience everyone else so that they can have what they want.

If you are as disgusted as I am with this fictional person’s behavior, then you rightly despise antinomianism.

Now you might be like, “Anti-what?”

And that is fair.

Antinomianism is a theological term for a certain type of false teaching.

It comes from two Greek words:

Anti=Against

Nomos=Law

So Antinomianism means “against God’s law.”

The opposite would be Legalism.

The Legalist says, “Salvation comes through law-keeping” in some form or fashion.

This would be the Pharisees.

The Antinomian says, “In light of salvation, we have no need to care about God’s commands.”

This would be the false teachers that Jude is dealing with in his letter to the church.

Much like the person in our imaginary illustration, the Antinomian false teacher would say:

The rules don’t apply to us...

...Because we are so justified by God...

...therefore, we feel no guilt for the wrong things we do...

...even if it is to the detriment of the people around us and grieves the Spirit of God.

This morning, we get a profile of Antinomianism and those who teach it.

And we get strong words from Jude to help us avoid falling into antinomian error ourselves.

For as those who love the Lord, we cannot make the mistake of despising His Commands.

Those who love Jesus, will obey Jesus.

Outline

As we look at v. 8-16, their argument flows right out of what we saw last week in Jude’s warnings about the destruction that will come from following the false teachers who had crept into the church.

Jude wants to make absolutely sure in his short letter that he properly sketches out the empty evil that these false teachers promote, represent and live out.

He is fully confrontational with the antinomian falsehood in these verses.

They are strongly worded.

No quarter is given.

Jude goes right at them:

“these people” v. 8

“These people” v. 10

“These are...” v. 12

“Also about these...” v. 14

“These are...” v. 16

This is smashmouth writing from Jude. Confrontational.

And like last week’s warnings—these are words we cannot ignore about false teaching that is antinomian—against God’s law.

1. Three descriptions of Antinomian character (v. 8-10).

2. Three cautions about Antinomian corruption (v. 11-13).

3. Three verses regarding Antinomian condemnation (v. 14-16).

Three Descriptors

1. Three descriptors of Antinomian character (v. 8-10).

The three descriptors of the character of the Antinomian false teachers can be found in v. 8.

They defile the flesh

They reject authority

They blaspheme the glorious ones

A) Defile the flesh

The defiling of the flesh seems to be referencing the same sexual immorality that Jude was addressing in v. 7.

They make themselves unclean before the Lord because of how they indulge their ungodly desires and passions.

B) Reject authority

They reject authority because they are rebellious.

This is a hallmark of antinomian falsehood.

There is a contradictory attitude where anytime a line is drawn in the sand, there is a determination to cross it.

This could be a line drawn by God.

This could be a line drawn by a pastor.

This could be a line drawn by civil authorities.

In the case of these false teachers, they reject God’s authority directly.

Much like the angels who stepped out of line in v. 6, they step out of line and reject God’s rule to claim their own.

This is the antinomian spirit.

Rather than submit to any external law, the antinomian rebel says, “I am lawless in the name of my own autonomy.

I get to be who I say I get to be.

I get to do what I say I want to do.

2 Pac said, “Only God can judge me.”

These false teachers won’t even agree with that.

C) Blaspheme the glorious ones

This is referring to the way that the false teachers slander angels.

Now strangely enough, when Jude says “glorious ones,” I actually think he is referring to evil angels—demonic angels—not good angels.

I think that v. 9 clarifies this in the example of Michael and Satan.

But I also think 2 Peter—which remember is a parallel book to Jude—helps us see this:

2 Peter 2:10–11 ESV

Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord.

Notice the two sets of angels.

The glorious ones and then the angels who do not pronounce blasphemous judgment.

You may think it is strange that the demonic are called the glorious ones, but I don’t think it is.

Remember Paul said that even Satan comes as an angel of light.

Even the demonic can appear radiant in their attempt to disguise.

Now here is what I think Jude and Peter are talking about:

The false teachers they are dealing with are so arrogant and feel so elite, that they will dismiss the demonic in their own authority.

This is how powerful they think they are in their own strength.

This is how autonomous and independent they claim to be.

And yet—not even God’s angels would dare to dismiss or contend with Satan and his demons in their own authority.

Support in v. 9 for the Blasphemy of the Glorious Ones/Extra-biblical Sources

Why use extrabiblical sources?

Jude supports this final descriptor with an example from Jewish tradition in v. 9.

I say tradition because he is not pulling the example from Scripture, but from a 1st century writing called The Assumption of Moses.

Now before I go forward, you might wonder—Why is Jude quoting from some other 1st century writing?

1. This is not unique to Jude.

In Numbers 21:14, Moses quotes from a book of victory songs called, “The Book of the Wars of the Lord.”

In Acts 17, Paul quotes Greek poets as he seeks to reach the pagans in Athens.

2. Jude is quoting a well-known work.

He is not quoting from obscure literature, but from a text that everyone in Jewish culture would have been familiar with.

He does the same thing in v. 14-15 with the Book of Enoch, which we will get to in a moment.

He is pulling from popular Jewish culture in order to make a point.

And it should be said that these books did not seem to be evil in nature.

Though they were not Scriptural, they did generally promote righteousness.

3. Jude’s opponents likely heavily relied upon these documents.

If you are still asking why, I think this explains it.

Jude’s opponents probably spoke from these texts all the time.

If that is the case, in using these sources for his purposes, Jude is going at the false teachers with their own weapons in a sense.

The Assumption of Moses in v. 9-10

Now when it comes to The Assumption of Moses, the work was supposedly a history of the succession of Israel’s leadership from Moses to Joshua.

And in this text, there is this battle between God and Satan about Moses’ body.

From the Scriptures, it was known that the burial place of Moses was a bit of a mystery.

Deuteronomy 34:6 ESV

and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day.

In The Assumption of Moses, the devil wants to get Moses’ body and put it somewhere well known so that Israel will come and sinfully venerate Moses and worship his grave.

So Michael the Archangel comes and contends with Moses.

But the big point for Jude is that as Michael contends with the devil, he does not rebuke Satan in his own authority, but in God’s.

“The Lord rebuke you.”

And yet, these false teachers are so ludicrously self-important that they would dare to do something only God can do.

Once again, the antinomian spirit is on display as God’s authority is discarded for their own.

But in the end, they are proven to be fools.

They blaspheme what they don’t understand, and in the process are destroyed by what they understand by instinct.

They are unreasoning animals.

They are like a hyena that breaks from the pack to attack a lion in an instinctive rage, only for that lion to consume them.

They blaspheme the things of God, while being consumed by the things of the world, which they love and understand naturally as depraved men.

Relying on Their Dreams (v. 8)

You may rightfully wonder, “What makes these people think they have the right do act like this?”

Well they would answer you and say, “We had dreams!”

Back at the beginning of verse 8, Jude says they do all of this “relying on their dreams.”

They act like Sodom and they say its okay because they claim to have some sort of direct revelation from God saying it is okay.

But here is the danger is such thinking.

If you say you got direct revelation from God and what God is supposedly calling you to doesn’t line up with what He has spoken in His Word, then your revelation isn’t from God.

You may have someone talking to you through a dream, but it isn’t the God of heaven and earth.

Revelation that encourages rebelliousness from God is revelation from the fanciful imagination of your own flesh or from the whispers of Hell’s demons.

And that is exactly who these false teachers are aligning themselves with in their lawless teaching and living.

Application: God Knows My Heart

Now, it is easy for us to stand 2000 years away from Jude’s situation and cheer from the sidelines— “Get those false teachers!”

But we have to be careful that the antinomian mindset that plagued Jude’s audience is not beginning to plague us.

We have to make sure that we are not starting to take on the character of Jude’s opponents.

Here is a litmus test:

Are there things that you are living in and participating in that you know are dreadfully wrong?

Are there things that you are engaging in habitually that you know grieve the Spirit of God?

But do you blow past your conscience and continue to do these things and then justify it to yourself by saying, “Well, God knows my heart.”

Isn’t that the very antinomian mindset that Jude is combatting here?

To sin and cast off God’s commands, and then to whisper to yourself, “God knows my heart,” is nothing more than saying, “I know I am out of step with the Law but its fine because I have an elite level of intimacy with God that causes Him to overlook my anti-law behavior.”

We have to recognize this sinful mindset for what it is.

It is the antinomian worm burrowing a hole in our hearts and beginning to eat away at us.

We must root it out and crucify this mindset.

We must be dead to it.

And instead, we must be alive to what Jesus taught in his parable of the house on the rock and the sand.

Matthew 7:26–27 ESV

And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

Jude’s opponents were false teachers building houses of sand and encouraging others to grab their buckets and shovels and join in.

And Jesus has warned us that houses like that will not withstand the storm of His judgment which is coming.

Do not let the fall of your house be great.

Hear the words of Jesus and DO them.

This is what people who have truly been saved by grace will do.

And you will be the house on the sand:

Matthew 7:24–25 ESV

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.

Three Cautions (v. 11-13)

2. Three cautions about Antinomian corruption (v. 11-13).

The three cautions in v. 11 are very reminiscent of the warnings from v. 5-7.

As I said last week—Jude loves to write in threes!

Here Jude issues cautions by referring to three well-known figures from the Old Testament:

Cain

Balaam

Korah

In v. 5-7, the warnings were more about what happened to the examples that were given.

In each case, their erring from God ended in destruction.

In v. 11, the cautions are more about the type of people the false teachers are.

Jude is arguing they are like Cain, Balaam and Korah.

Let’s recall each of these men.

The Way of Cain

Cain: Cain is one Adam’s sons and he famously murdered his brother.

Genesis 4:3–8 ESV

In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.

Why was Abel’s offering accepted and Cain’s was not?

Hebrews 11:4 ESV

By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

Abel’s offering was given with a sincere, “from the heart,” faith, while Cain’s was not.

And this led Cain to murder his brother in anger and then ask God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

This proved that Cain did not just lack faith, but lacked love.

1 John 3:11–12 ESV

For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.

This, then, is the way of Cain.

To perform religious duties, but to lack faith and love as it is done.

God hates this sort of false religion.

When the people Judah practiced religion of this sort, it led God to say through Isaiah, “Who has required of you this trampling of my courts?”

And by referencing him here, Jude is saying these false teachers are like Cain.

They lack faith and love.

Balaam’s Error

Next we have Balaam: A man who seemed to have some sort of spiritual power, but loved money.

We meet Balaam in Numbers 22-24.

When God delivered Israel from Egypt, He delivered them in order to return them to the Promised Land given to Abraham and his descendants.

In order to accomplish this, God was giving any and every enemy into their hand.

Balak of Moab saw this and he was terrified, so he looked for someone who could curse Israel for him.

He said this to Balaam:

Numbers 22:6 ESV

Come now, curse this people for me, since they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them from the land, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.”

Balaam accepts the offer.

In other words, he is willing to compromise himself for money.

Ultimately, the Lord hinders Balaam from cursing Israel and instead, the curses are turned into blessings.

But nonetheless, Balaam’s willingness to perform spiritual duties, even evil duties, in exchange for profit is also found in Jude’s opponents.

They commit the same error of Balaam—they will turn their back God’s people in order to profit themselves.

They sacrifice righteousness for the sake of gain.

In doing this, they abandon their own integrity to feed their own flesh.

Korah’s Rebellion

And finally, there is Korah: A Levite who led a rebellion against Moses and Aaron in Numbers 16.

As a Levite, Korah was one of those who was charged with serving God in the Tabernacle.

This should have been a humbling privilege.

But instead, Korah rose up with 250 other men and essentially made a power grab.

They questioned by Moses and Aaron get to do all the leading.

But ultimately, their complaining and grumbling was against the Lord and it brought condemnation.

The ground swallowed up Korah’s household and all their goods and fire consumed the 250 leaders who had gone along with them.

And then, thousands of the congregation of Israel complained about Moses and Aaron and the Lord’s judgment.

So the Lord sent a plague among the people and 14,700 perished.

So then, when we speak of Korah’s rebellion, it is not just that Korah grumbled and tried to wrestle leadership from Moses...

..It was that he led thousands away to destruction in the process.

The same is true of Jude’s opponents.

Not only do they rebel against God.

As they pervert grace, they lead others to do the same and it results in physical and spiritual disaster.

Woe to Them!

For these teachers being like Cain, Balaam and Korah, Jude says, “Woe to them!”

This is like saying, “Trouble upon them!”

Jude is following in his Master’s footsteps here.

We see Jesus crying out woes to the Scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23.

He issues 7 of them.

The Pharisees were the opposite of the Antinomian teachers pestering Jude’s listeners.

They Pharisees were not anti-Law.

Instead, they were legalists, encouraging people that they could earn their way to God through obedience to the Law.

But they receive the same WOE as the false teachers in Jude.

Why?

Because both are absolutely forms of rejecting God’s way.

They are both forms of WRONG BELIEF that will result in WRONG BEHAVIOR.

Legalism and antinomianism will both leave the soul separated from God.

The Rapid-Fire Titles of v. 12-13

And then, in v. 12-13, we have rapid-fire illustrations of the false teachers to undergird the cautions that Jude has issued.

There are six of them.

Hidden reefs at your love feasts, who feast with you without fear:

The false teachers are likely a sharp, ship-destroying reef that lies unseen under the water.

As those in the church are sailing along, they run up on these reefs and take damage before they even know what hit them.

How sneaky are these false teachers?

They are attending community fellowship meals, which would have ended with the Lord’s Supper, and they are fearlessly eating with the believers.

They are right under their nose at one of the most intimate gatherings of the local church.

Shepherds Feeding Themselves:

A true shepherd will watch out for the flock and sacrifice himself for it.

These people claim to be leaders, but really, like Balaam, they are only concerned with feeding themselves and indulging the whining of their flesh.

Waterless clouds, swept along by winds:

In Israel, rain was crucial.

Think about it this way—Newport News gets around 112 days of rain per year.

In Judea, they got about 50-60.

So if a farmer woke up and they saw clouds, they would get excited about the prospect of rain.

But if the winds of Palestine carried those clouds off without any rain falling, the people were disappointed.

Waterless clouds didn’t grow crops and bring about fruit.

In the same way, the false teachers may have carried themselves like they spoke truth authoritatively, but in reality, they were clouds who brought no rain.

They themselves were swept along by the winds of their evil lusts and passions.

And their teaching did not water the fields of the hearts of church.

Which flows nicely into the fourth illustration, Fruitless Trees, uprooted, twice dead:

Jesus told us how to test a false prophet:

Matthew 7:15–17 ESV

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.

In the case of the false teachers, they produced no fruit at all, showing they were not real teachers of God to begin with.

And not only that, but they were double dead.

They were barren AND they were uprooted.

Just imagine seeing an apple tree ripped from the ground, lying on its side, with no fruit on the vine.

You would expect nothing of it.

Wild waves casting up foam:

In this illustration, think of big waves crashing down on the shore of the beach in full force, but all they bring in is debris and trash with their foam.

These false teachers may have sounded impressive, but everything that came out of them was seaweed and garbage.

They were not to be listened to, no matter how much bluster they had.

Wandering Stars:

And finally, we have the illustration of wandering stars.

In the ancient world, before a bunch of technology entered the scene, sailors would navigate by the stars.

They did this because the stars were fixed in the heavens and they could trust them as an objective point of reference.

Well Jude says the church’s intruders are wandering stars.

They are moving all over the place, therefore, they are not an objective point of reference.

They have no truth in them, and they will not help anyone get home to God.

In Philippians 2, Paul described true believers in this way:

Philippians 2:14–15 ESV

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,

The false believers will not shine like stars.

The gloom of utter darkness is reserved for them forever.

Application: What We Are Seduced By

Much like in v. 5-7, Jude issues these cautions and these supporting illustrations so that the readers of his letter will not be seduced by the false teachers.

He provides all of this vivid information so that they would be seen for what they are.

They make act like Abel, but truthfully they are loveless and faithless like Cain.

They may act like a real prophet, but truthfully they are selfish and lacking in integrity like Balaam.

They may act like leaders, but they are Moses—they are Korah.

They will shipwreck you.

They won’t care as long as they are able to gorge themselves on pleasure.

They are clouds who bring no rain and trees who produce no fruit.

They will leave you dry and barren and doubly dead like themselves.

They are garbage-spitting, blustering waves.

They are wandering stars that will only navigate you into confusion.

Like Jude’s hearers, we cannot allow ourselves to fall into the trap of people like this either.

Just because someone has a large church...

Just because someone has written books...

Just because someone in part of the President’s spiritual advisory team...

Just because someone agrees with you politically...

… It doesn’t mean that what they say and what they promote is good for your soul.

Today, when we see people who only preach and teach that which will draw a crowd, avoiding the morality of the commands of Christ and turning the Bible into a self-help book to help you become a better you—steer clear.

Today, when we see people who have adopted the world’s sexual ethics and they have draped their churches in the colors of the rainbow for the sake of pride and not recalling God’s mercy—steer clear.

Today, when we teachers who have been caught in scandals and disqualified, coming back to pulpits because they say, “God told me it was okay...”—steer clear.

These are all examples of the same anti-law, antinomian spirit.

These are not things we can coddle and condone in our own hearts or in the church.

We must hear Jude’s cautions and mark and avoid the antinomian spirit of Cain and Balaam and Korah.

Three Verses

And then we wrap up this morning with the three final verses:

3. Three verses regarding Antinomian condemnation (v. 14-16).

Judgment in Enoch (v. 14-15)

In verses 14-15, we have our second quotation from a source outside the Bible.

In this case, it is a prediction from the Book of Enoch.

The Book of Enoch was written a couple hundred years before Christ was born in Bethlehem.

It is not a part of the Jewish canon or the Roman Catholic Canon or the Eastern Orthodox canon or the Protestant canon of Scripture.

It is written about Enoch from Genesis 5—a man who walked closely with God, and then instead of dying, was assumed into heaven.

He was just taken up.

The Book of Enoch focuses on his journey through the spiritual realm.

The author of the book is obsessed with the spiritual realm.

Jude quotes Enoch 1:9 here.

Once again, Jude is likely quoting here in order to engage with the false teachers’ own material.

But as he does, he is also using it to predict what will ultimately happen to these false teachers.

One difference between Jude’s quotation here and his quotation from The Assumption of Moses in v. 9, is that Enoch 1:9 actually closely resembles three OT passage.

For the sake of time, I won’t read them, but they are:

Deuteronomy 33:2-4

Isaiah 66:15-16

Malachi 3:13

So though Jude quotes from the Book of Enoch, he is communicating truths that can be found in Scripture.

Not only that, but the quotation resembles that which is promised in the NT about Christ’s return and judgment.

Compare Jude 14-15 to 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10

2 Thessalonians 1:7–10 ESV

...when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

The false teachers may be enjoying the success of their lies and the pleasures of the flesh right now, but their destination is already outlined.

They have been designated for condemnation (v. 4)

The gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever (v. 13)

And Jude quotes from Enoch communicate the consistent testimony of the Bible— judgment will be executed on falsehood and those who teach it.

Without repentance, their ungodliness and harsh words spoken against God will come back to them in wrath.

Final Descriptors (v. 16)

Their turning their mouths against God with grumbling...

...Their malcontent attitude, finding fault in others while steeped in immorality...

...Their boasting about themselves...

Their manipulation of men by showing favoritism and flattery to get what they want...

It will all have its hearing at God’s bar.

Those who say that holiness doesn’t matter will find out they were wrong when they meet with the holiness of God in His judgment.

The New Testament makes holiness the most reasonable and common sense thing imaginable and its whole case with respect to those who are not concerned about holiness is that they are utterly unreasonable and self contradictory. Expository Sermons on 2 Peter, 42

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Welsh Preacher and Writer)

This will fully be revealed on the day of God’s judgment and wrath.

Application: A Final Warning

In closing, take this warning to the anti-Law false teacher as a warning for yourself.

Divorce yourself from antinomian teaching.

Divorce yourself from antinomian beliefs.

Divorce yourself from antinomian behavior.

Jude has shown us the danger that “these men” and “these people are in.”

Do not cast your lot with them.

Instead, ask for the heart and mind of the author of Psalm 119.

English Standard Version Psalm 119

25  My soul clings to the dust;

give me life according to your word!

26  When I told of my ways, you answered me;

teach me your statutes!

27  Make me understand the way of your precepts,

and I will meditate on your wondrous works.

28  My soul melts away for sorrow;

strengthen me according to your word!

29  Put false ways far from me

and graciously teach me your law!

30  I have chosen the way of faithfulness;

I set your rules before me.

31  I cling to your testimonies, O LORD;

let me not be put to shame!

32  I will run in the way of your commandments

when you enlarge my heart!

May the Lord give us life according to His Word.

And may we set His rules before us, clinging to them and choosing faithfulness.