Sermon
Living Waters of Grace 01.23.2026
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Lewis
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Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland
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County in Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Lewis as he
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continues teaching through God's Word.
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This is what the end times are going to look like.
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It's going to have these deceptive people who appear to
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be godly, but there's no relationship whatsoever.
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And he says, Paul says now from these people, turn away, turn
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away from these people, have no fellowship.
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Have no fellowship with these people.
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You got to turn away from them because they can be seductive,
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they can be deceiving, they can be luring, so you need to turn
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away from them. There's a lot of talk about
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staying away from toxic people, but then the generally accepted
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definition of toxic seems to be people who disagree with you.
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But what if there were people out there who make you feel
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good, but really they're drawing you away from God?
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As Pastor Lewis points out in today's message, those are the
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type of people you need to stay away from.
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The Bible says not to have any kind of fellowship with those
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who say they're of God, but their fruit tells another story.
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Now here's Pastor Lewis in Second Timothy Chapter 3 with
2 Timothy 3 chapter mention
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today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
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They have a form of godliness, and this form of godliness
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actually means that it's a they have a shape of godliness or
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semblance of godliness. They have an appearance of
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godliness, but there's no fruit, there's no substance, there's
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nothing, there's no life on the inside.
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It's just a shell of an appearance of godliness.
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It's an imitator of godly people without the power.
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So it's like profession without practice, without no
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relationship whatsoever. And this is what Paul is saying.
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Paul is saying these people are going to look righteous, they're
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going to look holy, they're going to look religious, but
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they won't have the Redeemer. They will not have that
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relationship with the Lord. None.
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These are people who Jesus is talking about over in Matthew 7
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when he says that they're going to be many that are going to
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come to me and say Lord, Lord. But everybody who comes to me
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saying Lord, Lord will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.
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Oh, but they're going to put up the argument.
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Lord, didn't you know? You know, didn't we Prophecy in
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your name did not cast out demons in your name did not do
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many wonders in your name. And he's going to say depart
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from me. I never knew you, depart from
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me. You who work lawlessness, Yes,
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you had an outward shell. You had a appearance of
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godliness, but there was never relationship.
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I never knew you. There was never relationship and
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that's exactly what we're going to see in the last days.
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These teachers, these false teachers that are going to have
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this appearance of godliness. They're going to sound godly,
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but their lives have no fruit. They're going to be just like
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Jesus talked about over in Matthew chapter 23 when he
Matthew 23 chapter mention
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talked about the woes over in Matthew 23.
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And there's two woes in particular that just gives me
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the chills that he talks about. And he basically saying chapter
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25, verse 23, what are you scribes and Pharisees,
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hypocrites for? You cleanse the outside of the
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cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self
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indulgence. And that's exactly what these
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false teachers will be. They'll be full of self
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indulgence. Everything that they're
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teaching, everything that they're doing is for selfish
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gain. The Bible says they're feeding
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their own bellies. And then in verse 27 in the same
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chapter, he says, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
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hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed
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appear beautifully beautiful outwardly.
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And I remember Clark telling us that he was in Israel and he
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stood up on the hill and he saw these whitewashed tombs and how
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they glittered in the sunlight and how beautiful they looked in
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the sunlight. He said that's exactly what
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these false teachers are going to be like.
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Like these whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful
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outwardly, but inside are full of dead man's bones and awe,
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uncleanness, awe, uncleanness. This is what the end times are
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going to look like. It's going to have these
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deceptive people who appear to be godly, but there's no
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relationship whatsoever. And he says, Paul says now from
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these people, turn away, turn away from these people, have no
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fellowship. Have no fellowship with these
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people. You got to turn away from them
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because they can be seductive, they can be deceiving, they can
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be luring. So you need to turn away from
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them. You need to break fellowship
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with these people and have no further fellowship with them,
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neither inside the church or outside the church.
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He, you know, they actually mean to shun the people or to avoid
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these people, but we treat them like unbelievers.
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So we pray for them. We pray for them, we minister to
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them. We don't just throw them away.
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We don't just, we don't put, we don't talk about them and, and
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put them down. We pray for them.
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We pray that God would touch their hearts and that they would
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and that they would turn from these things.
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We intercede on their behalf, understanding that they are
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taken captive by Satan. They're being used by Satan.
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So we pray for them. And then he goes further.
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And he said for of this sort are those who creep into households,
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they creep into households that mean.
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And, and what that probably means is that because they were
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told to not have fellowship with these people, these false
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teachers and these unbelievers who you know, who, who, who show
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these kind of characteristics, these people are probably
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they're not invited into the fellowship of the believers.
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So they don't have access to the believers.
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You know, they don't stand in the Congregation of the
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Righteous. So these people creep into homes
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and make their way or get access into homes of vulnerable people
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who will listen to what it is that they have to say.
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And, and, and what it says here is that they go into households
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and make captives because in a spiritual war, just like in a
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regular war, there's always captives.
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In a regular war, there's captives, people who get
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captive. But also that way for the, the,
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the, in a spiritual war, they're captives.
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People are taken captive. And he's saying that these they
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take captives of these gullible women.
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And just because it says, when I want to clarify this, just
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because it says gullible women, that doesn't necessarily mean
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he's talking about all women. He's not saying that all women
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are gullible. We know that that's not true.
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All women are not gullible. But what he is saying that these
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are prompt is a section of people or a group of women that
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was obviously identified that these false prophets had gone
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into. These are women who were weak.
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They were his a weak self will. They had no self will.
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They're women who were not grounded and they went in
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because they were gullible. Now there's, there's four things
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that Paul mentions here that makes these women a target for
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these false teachers. The one thing he mentioned, he
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said they're gullible. They're gullible women.
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That means they listened. They're open to everything.
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They're open to everything. They're willing to believe
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anything that sounds good. I remember when I was young, I
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heard a pastor once say, it's amazing what you remember when
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you're young sitting in a congregation.
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But the the pastor once said, he said if you don't stand for
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something, you will fall for anything.
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And I never forgot that. I never forgot that.
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And that's exactly what's going on here.
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These women didn't stand for Christ.
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They didn't stand for truth, they didn't stand for true
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doctrine. So they were willing to fall for
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anything. And that's exactly what happened
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with these particular women. So the first things that they
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were gullible women. The second thing is that they
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were loaded down with sins. So these are women who were
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given to their own passions. They were given to their sinful
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ways. They would rather those sins
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were sexual sins, or rather it was, you know, sins of being
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busy bodies or gossipers, sins of just being involved in
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things, self sync, satisfying sins.
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But they were loaded down with sin.
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Not just sinful, they were loaded down with sins.
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Sin is a burden. Sin is a burden by the way, it
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does weigh you down. It weighs you down.
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It causes you to feel like you're carrying something extra
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on you like in your life, and you are.
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You're carrying these burdens with you.
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And that's why when we get saved, we feel so light.
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When we give our lives to Christ, we feel so light because
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we relieve those burdens. Did we drop those burdens?
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We give them all to him. The sin, you know, the burden
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bearer, we give them to the burden bear instead of us
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bearing them, the burden bear takes them.
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And that's why we feel so light when we get saved.
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Do you remember that when you first got saved, how you just
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felt so light? Everything outside looks so much
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brighter. You look in the grass and look
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greener. Flowers look more beautiful.
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The sky look bluer. You know you're smiling at
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everybody and talking to everybody because you were just
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so free. You were.
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You were, you were. You were free from those burdens
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that once used to bound you. And these women are loaded down
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with these sins also #3 they're LED away by various lusts.
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So not just sexual lusts, but it could also be other lusts, like
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the lust for things, lust for money, lust for jewelry, or
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whatever it may be. But they're LED away by those
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things. And those are the things that
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control their passions. And then #4 is that they're
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always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of
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truth. In other words, these women are
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always running somewhere looking for a fresh word.
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And I've seen that, you know, people will go from church to
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church, following speakers to go from church to church looking
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for a fresh word, looking for a word that satisfies their flesh,
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something that will tickle their ears, something that will
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justify the lifestyle that they're living.
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So they go from place to place searching, but they never come
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to the knowledge of the truth. They never come to the knowledge
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of the gospel. They never receive or experience
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the power of the gospel. Regardless of how many services
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you sit in, regardless of how many speakers you listen to, if
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you don't accept the truth of the gospel, you will never come
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to the knowledge of truth. And that's exactly what these
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women were doing, just searching for the knowledge and never,
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ever finding any. Just learning.
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That's the danger of being ignorant of the faith, you know?
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And that's why Paul, I believe This is why Paul said over in
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First Timothy 211 that the women should learn, but they just need
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to learn in silence. But they should learn.
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They should learn. They should learn the word of
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God. They should learn the doctrine,
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but they need to learn in silence.
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I think Paul was trying to avoid women being vulnerable.
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And these false teachers take advantage of these women and
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they fleece them of their money. They fleece them of their
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loyalty, of their services. Titus, one in 10, says that
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these these false teachers are teaching things that they ought
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not for the sake of dishonest gain, for the sake of dishonest
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gain. And not only do these teachers
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come from without people who come outside of the church and
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try to work their way in, but it's also people who were coming
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from inside the church that raise up, that are raised up to
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becoming a teacher. And they began to speak things
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that are outside of the truth and they begin to deceive other
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people. In fact, Paul warned about that.
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He warned about that over in the book of Acts, over in the book
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of Acts. He made it very clear over in
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chapter 20 of the book of Acts, starting here verse 29.
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He said, For I know this, that after many that after my
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departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing
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the flock also from among yourselves men will rise up
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speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after
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themselves. Therefore, watch and remember
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that for three years I did not cease to warn every night and
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day with tears. So these are these are the, the
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people, these false teachers that are teaching perverse
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things and getting people to follow them, getting people to
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follow them. And it's going to get even worse
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as it gets closer to the end time.
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The Bible says even the very elect may be deceived.
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And then in verse 8, as we get ready to come closer to a close
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here in verse 8, he now describes how these false
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teachers are resistant to truth and how they resist the gospel,
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how they resist the authority of the Bible.
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And he gives an example that I think is pretty interesting.
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He says now verse 8, now as Janice and John Breeze resisted
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Moses, now you might say, well, what did these names come from?
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Because if you go back in the book of Exodus, you won't see
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Jenny's and John Breeze back in the book of Exodus.
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But Paul, through study, actually through the traditional
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writings, he was able to discover who these two men were.
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And he's talking about the two magicians, the two magicians,
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the Egyptian magicians who stood in front of Moses and resisted
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him. You know, Moses came to Pharaoh,
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said, let my people go. They said, no, we're not going
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to let your people go. Moses stood down or Aaron threw
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down the rod and, and and it turned into a serpent.
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And the because they are imitators, because that's what
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Satan is. He's an imitator.
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He threw down there did the magician stood down their rod
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and it turned into a serpent. So of course Pharaoh said, well,
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there's no need of letting you go because my God can do what
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your God can do. So then the next thing he said,
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well, you let my people go. He said, no, I'm not going to
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let your people go. He turned the Nile River into
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blood. If you remember that story, he
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turned the Nile River into blood.
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And of course, his magicians came right behind him and he
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turned the Nile River into blood.
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I'm not going to let you go. Why should I let you go?
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My God can do what your God can do.
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Came to the frogs, mostly let my people go.
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I'm not going to let your people go.
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I'm going to have frogs going to come and cover the land.
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Now notice these magicians didn't do anything on their own.
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They had to imitate after Moses, they couldn't come up and do
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anything on their own. And that's what Satan does.
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He doesn't do anything on his own.
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He's an imitator. He's an imitator.
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So they brought up frogs. And that's exactly what these
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false teachers did. They brought up frogs too.
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I'm not going to let you people go.
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My gods can do what yours can do.
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Then it came to the lice. Then it came to the other six
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plagues that Moses was able, that the Lord did through Moses,
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and they couldn't duplicate it. They could not duplicate it.
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They were exposed. In fact, they even said over in
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Exodus 8 and 19, they said this is the finger of God.
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They finally realized it after all that time of resisting him
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by not wanting to believe him, by trying to imitate him.
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Finally they said this is the finger of God.
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They realized that. And that's exactly what's going
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to happen here with Paula saying, Paula saying just as
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these do as these do, as so do these who resist the truth.
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And that's exactly what they do. People who always want to
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challenge the Bible, always want to deny the truths of the Bible.
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They are resisting the authority of God's word and they're trying
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to get other people to question it as well.
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That goes all the way back to the garden.
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It's exactly what Satan did in the garden, got Eve and Adam
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tried to get them to, got try to get Eve to question God's word.
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And that's what happens with these false teachers.
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They, they, they get out a little bit of truth and the rest
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of them is a lie and they try to get you to question God's word.
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Did it really mean this? If that's what the word says it
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meant, that's what it meant. That's what it means.
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But they are going to resist. But they're because they're men
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of corrupt or depraved minds. They're disapproved concerning
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the faith. In other words, they have false
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faith, counterfeit faith. It's not real.
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It's not real, but verse 9 he says, but they will progress no
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further for their folly will be manifest to all.
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Yes, going to come to a point where they're going to be
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exposed. They're not teaching the word of
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God. They're teaching psychology,
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they're teaching humanism, they're teaching philosophy.
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We're hearing so much of that on TV and it's nothing but an
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imitate. They look like preachers, they
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look like preachers, they look like they're men of God.
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They throw a word or two in every now and then to make it
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sound like they're followers of God, that they're men of God,
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that they, that they love Jesus Christ.
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But the truth of the matter is they do not.
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They're imitators. And, and it's, and they may have
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7 steps to this or seven steps to that, You know, teach you, I
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can improve your marriage, how to live happy and all those
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things. But they don't teach about sin.
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They don't teach about, you know, coming to salvation
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through Jesus Christ and him being the only way to salvation.
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They don't teach that. They don't teach that.
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But we have to understand that faith doesn't come by teaching
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psychology. It doesn't come by teaching
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philosophy. Faith comes by hearing and
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hearing by the word of God according to Romans 10 and 17.
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Now I have to say, I have to say I've been coming to this church
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now going on 13 years. We went on 13 years.
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I've been coming to this church. I have never once seen any man
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coming to this sacred desk and teach out of anything other than
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the Bible, men or women that teach.
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The women over there, they don't teach out of books.
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They teach out of the word of God because this is the truth.
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This is the power. This is what changes lives.
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So here at Calvary Chapel, this is what we do.
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That's what Ezra did. Ezra just simply, he read the
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scripture and he explained it. That's what Jesus did.
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That's what the the, the apostles did.
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They read the scriptures and they expound on the scriptures.
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That's the way it's been done and that's the way we do it
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here. If you're looking for something
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other than true doctrine, if you don't want to hear about sin, if
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you don't want to hear about the grace of God, if you don't want
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to hear about Jesus Christ being the only way, then this is
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probably not going to be the church for you.
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If you want to hear something that's going to tickle your
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ears. If you want to hear something
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that's going to cause you to feel you know good about
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yourself. And you never have to look at
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what the Holy Spirit is doing in your spirit to get you to to
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obey Him or to get you to walk in a way that will allow you to
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live a life that is separated unto Him.
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If that's not what you want, then this is not going to be the
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place. But as long as we're here, I've
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always heard the Word of God line by line, chapter by
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chapter, book by book. And that's the way we'll
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continue to do it. But those who are not about
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that, it's going to be exposed. They're going to be exposed.
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Give it an opportunity to repent, but they're going to be
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exposed. So This is why it's so important
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to come and have fellowship. Hebrews tell us that we should
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not be forsaking and forsaking, not the assembling of ourselves
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together as is the matter of some, as some are doing, but we
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need to encourage each other, exhort each other.
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It's so much more as we see the day approaching, as it gets
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closer to God, we need to be exhorting each other even more,
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coming together, encouraging each other.
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Jews says that we got to contend for the faith, which was once
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for all one time it was given. There's no new revelation on the
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faith. One time it was given for all,
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delivered to the Saints. So even as in these perilous
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times, we still have hope in these last and evil days, we
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still have hope. And the hope that we have is in
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Jesus Christ. He is where we are.
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We we can hide in Jesus Christ. I have a Psalm that I just want
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to end with, and it's Psalm 3. It kind of truly talks about how
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we have to deal with perilous times.
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This was David dealing with his perilous times.
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He says, Lord, how they have increased.
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Who trouble me? Many are they who rise up
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against me. Many are they who say of me,
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there is no help for him in God. Now, if it ended there, that
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would be a sad story. If that was the end of the
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story, that would be a sad story.
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But it doesn't, he says. But you, O Lord, are a shield
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for me. You're my glory.
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You're the one who lifts up my head.
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I cried to the Lord with my voice.
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He heard me from his holy heel. In fact, even in the midst of
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all the perilous times that David was going through, even in
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the midst of all the people who were seeking to take his life as
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he was running for his very life, he was able to say, I laid
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down and went to sleep. That's the piece that brother
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had. He laid down and went to sleep.
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And even in our perilous times, when we have the peace of God
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with us, in US and for us, we will be able to lie down and
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sleep, he says. I woke up, for I didn't sustain
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myself. It wasn't the people around me
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that sustained me, but the Lord sustained me.
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I will not be afraid of 10 thousands of people who set
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themselves against me all around.
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And then he says, arise, O Lord, save me, Oh my God, for you have
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struck all my enemies on the cheekbone.
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You have broken the teeth of the ungodly savage beast.
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Men who are people who are untamed animals that are
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untamed, their strength is in their teeth.
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That's what we fear. We fear the teeth of wild
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animals. And yet the Lord broke their
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teeth, cause them to be harmless, defenseless.
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He broke their teeth. Salvation belongs to the Lord.
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Your blessing is upon the people.
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We have a hope, and thank God we do.
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And that hope that we have is in Jesus Christ and Him alone.
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He came so that we would have hope.
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He came to bless us. He came to take for us and to do
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for us what we couldn't do for ourselves.
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You've been listening to Pastor Louis Harrell here on Living
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Waters of Grace. We're digging into all that Paul
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shared with Timothy in the books of First and Second Timothy.
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Timothy was commissioned to do the following fight the good
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fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were
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also called, and have confessed the good confession in the
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presence of many witnesses. Timothy would be carrying on
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what Paul had taught him and continuing on in ministry, even
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though Paul knew that more hardships would come for
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Timothy. This is the Christian life.
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It's not glamorous. It's not some celebrity status.
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It's hard fought. It's gritty, it's unpopular, but
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it's worth it. Do you believe that today?
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Are you willing to fight the good fight even at the cost of
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earthly pleasures? Living the life of a follower of
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Jesus will have its heavenly rewards.
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To be a part of a community that's looking forward to that
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heavenly reward, we invite you to join us at Calvary Chapel
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Westmoreland. If you're in the Greensburg, PA
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area, come be with us this Sunday at 10:30 AM at 400 E
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Pittsburgh St. Ste. 6B.
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Check out Calvary Chapel online.com For more information
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on directions and any other details you might want to know,
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and you can also download our mobile app from our website
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thatscalvarychapelonline.com. If you have friends or family
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members who want to tune in, encourage them to listen on
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Grace FM 91.7. One last thing, this radio
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ministry relies on your support to keep things going.
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If you're willing to donate financially, send gifts to Grace
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FMPO Box 716, Greensburg, PA 15601.
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Thanks for prayerfully considering this, and thank you
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for listening to Living Waters of Grace.