Sermon
Living Waters of Grace 09.04.25
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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OK, I don't know why they try to make it seem like, you know, at
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the end times there's going to be this big fight between God
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and Satan. You know, Satan hits, God hits
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him. Satan hits him.
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God hit. No, no, he's going to speak a
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word and Satan's done. You need to understand the power
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of God. His equal was not God.
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Satan's equal would be Michael the Archangel.
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And if God gives Michael the Archangel the authority and
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their command to go and destroy Satan, Satan's gone.
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Have you ever watched one of those intense wrestling matches
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on social media where two fighters give it their all?
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Many people mistakenly believe that God's confrontation with
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Satan will resemble such a match too close to call.
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However, that couldn't be further from the truth.
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Today, Pastor Lewis wants you to understand that the God of the
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Bible, the Creator of the universe, has no rival.
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There is no one who can even come close to him, not even
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Satan. And that day when God erases all
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evil is coming sooner than you think.
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Now here's Pastor Lewis in the Book of Jude, chapter one with
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today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
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Oftentimes that's what makes them the Antichrist because they
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want to be in authority instead of Christ.
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So it makes them an Antichrist. And then of course, the third
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thing that they mentioned is the fact that they speak evil of
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dignitaries. That's speaking evil with angels
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or the glorious ones speaking evil of them.
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And it go a little further. We can go down a little further.
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And once we get to verse 9, he's going to give an example of what
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he means by that. But you know, angels really
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played a a very prominent role with the Lord, even though we
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know angels are lower than Jesus Christ.
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But yet it was angels, It was angels who was here during the
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time that the Lord had it even brought in the law.
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I'm going to go back to Deuteronomy.
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Go Old Testament here for a second and I'm going to try to
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show this to you how important it is to God about how important
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angels were in the prominent place that they had with Him
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because they were there for a number of very important events.
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And over here in Deuteronomy chapter 33, it's going to read
Deuteronomy 33 chapter mention
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this small verse here 33 and verse 2.
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I'm going to read 1 and 2. It says now this is a blessing
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with which Moses the man of God, blessed the children of Israel
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before his death. And he said the Lord came from
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Sinai and dawned on them from Sire and he shone forth from
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Mount Paran and he came with 10 thousands of Saints, in other
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words, 10,000 of angels from his right hand came, came a fiery
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law for them. And then verse 3 say yes, he
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loves the people and all his Saints are in his hand.
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They sit down at your feet. Everyone receives your words.
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So angels were there during the time that when he came down and
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he appeared and even over here and this is and this is one that
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I I thought was very interesting as well over here in Acts.
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Let's go to the book of Acts real quick concerning the angels
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in the book of Acts Chapter 7, and most of you probably already
Acts 7 chapter mention
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know that we're talking about Stephen.
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So now we're looking at what happened when Stephen was being
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persecuted. And Chapter 7, verse 53, and I'm
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going to start at verse 52, he says, which of the angels did
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your father's not persecute? He's talking to the Pharisees
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and those religious elites who wanted to kill him and they and
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they killed those who foretold the coming of the just one of
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whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers.
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And verse 53 is the one I want you to pay attention to.
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He says who have received the law.
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How did they receive the law? By the direction of angels and
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have not kept it. Direction of angels and have not
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kept it. And then just one more Galatians
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in the book of Galatians. Just trying to draw a picture
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here of the significance of these angels and why he's
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talking about how they basically speak evil of dignitaries of
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these angels. Galatians chapter 3 and look at
Galatians 3 chapter mention
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with me at verse 14. I'm going to start at verse 2.
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It says this only. I want to learn from you.
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Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the
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hearing of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun
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in the Spirit that you are now being when I'm now being made
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perfect in the flesh? And then I want you to go over
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to verse chapter 4 and in chapter 4 go to chapter 3, verse
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19. There we go.
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OK, chapter 3, verse 19. This is what it says.
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What purpose then does the law serve?
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It was added because of transgressions till the seed
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should come. To whom the promise was made to.
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The seed obviously was Jesus Christ, and it was appointed
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through angels by the hand of a mediator.
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Now a meteor does not mediate for only one, but God is 1.
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So he talks about the importance of angels and how important it
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was at the time of the law and the presenting of the law, how
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the angels even came with him. Over in Exodus talks about how
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the angels, the Lord came with him at the time when he came to
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to Mount Sier, which is where he came to present the law.
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So when you talk about all these things and all these things, how
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they combine and these men who did not have a problem was
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speaking evil of these dignitaries.
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And so he gave an example. He said in the women, you being
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mere men don't have a problem speaking evil of dignitaries.
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Yet Michael the Archangel who is more powerful than most men, he
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wouldn't even speak evil to an Angel.
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So look at what he says in verse 9, back in Jude verse 9, he
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says, yet Michael the Archangel and contending with the devil,
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what he disputed about the body of Moses dared not bring against
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him a reviling accusation, but said the Lord rebuke you.
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So he's making a point here. And what he's saying is that
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these dreamers, these false teachers, they don't mind
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speaking evil about angels or dignitaries or these spiritual
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authority, spiritual authorities, they don't mind
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speaking evil of them and they don't know anything about them,
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but yet they speak evil of them. But yet Michael the Archangel
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who was constantly before the throne of God, who was basically
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the battle Angel. I mean, he would come to me back
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in the book of Dan and talked about Michael the Archangel
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doing battle with the devil when he wanted to come to Daniel,
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when Daniel had requested a word and he was coming, but he was
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being delayed because he was in battle.
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What a devil, what a demon. So Michael the Archangel was not
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a wimp. He was powerful Angel and had a
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lot of authority. But yet he would not bring a
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railing accusation against Satan.
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He said the Lord rebuked you. And it was an example of his
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understanding of authority to understand that even though he
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may be as powerful as Satan to see, Satan's equal is not God.
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Michael the Archangel will be Satan's equal God is not Satan's
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equal God. Speak with a word and Satan's
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gone. OK?
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I don't know why they try to make it seem like, you know, at
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the end times, there's going to be this big fight between God
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and Satan. You know, Satan hits, God hits
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him. Satan hits him.
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God hit. No, no, he's going to speak a
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word and Satan's done. You need to understand the power
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of God. His equal was not God.
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Satan's equal would be Michael the Archangel.
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And if God gives Michael the Archangel the authority and
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their command to go and destroy Satan, Satan's gone.
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Satan's gone. So we need to understand that.
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So, but Michael would not do that on his own.
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That's the whole point. He would not come against Satan
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on his own and just say, well, I curse you and, and I'm I'm going
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to cast you out. He don't do that on his own.
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He submits to the will of God, to the will of the Father
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because he understands order, he understands authority.
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And that's the point that Jude is making here.
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That's really an impressive point.
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It's an important point because you hear these false teachers,
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they always want to talk about they casting out the devil.
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They're casting them out. They're sending him out of here.
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They're doing this. No, no.
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Anybody remember the story about the sons of Skiva, seven sons of
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Skiva over in the book of Acts when they thought that they had
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the power to just go and cast Satan out on their own, that
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devil jumped on them. He jumped on them and they end
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up running out naked and whooped.
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He said, look, we know, we know Jesus and we even know Paul, but
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we don't know nothing about you. And they jumped on him.
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So, you know, so he, he's making the point here that we just
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like, just like Michael the Archangel, we have to submit to
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the authority of God. And it's God who cast him out.
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It's it's God who rebukes Satan. It's God who does that.
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So then in the verse 9. Now, now where the story comes
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from, I don't know this whole story about how when they were
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arguing over the body of Moses, it's a book and it's not a
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scriptural book. It's called the apocryphal.
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It's an apocryphal book. And the name of the book is
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actually called Assumption of Moses.
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I've never read it. Not saying that it's scripture
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because it's not, but this was the example that he used that
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apparently there was some story in this book about Michael
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battling with the with Satan over the body of Moses.
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Now, I don't know why they were battling over the body of Moses.
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He may have wanted to Satan might have wanted to get the
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body of Moses to desecrate it, or he might have wanted to get
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it to try to make an idol out of it and have people worshipping
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it. That which would be obviously in
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contrast with what God wants. God doesn't want him to be
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worshipped. God is to be worshipped.
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You know, as we say often times, you know, it's not great men
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that do great things through God is God who does great things
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through mere men. So we don't know why he wanted
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the body of Moses and you know, but he used that example as a
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way to try to illustrate that even the Michael the Archangel
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who was powerful, a holy Angel, would not even bring a railing
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accusation against Satan, but he submitted to the authority of
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God and says God rebuke you. So we go on down to verse 10 and
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he says, would these speak evil of whatever they do not know?
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They speak evil about things that they don't even know.
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They don't know anything about these spiritual things that they
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speak of. So they speak evil of it, and
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whatever they know. Naturally, like Butte beasts, in
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these things they corrupt themselves.
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Woe to them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, have run
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greedily in the air of Balaam for profit, and perished in the
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rebellion of Korra. A few things here.
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First of all, let's back up and talk about what he means by they
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speak evil or whatever they do not know.
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These are men who don't have the spirit.
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So because these are men who don't have the spirit, they
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don't understand spiritual things, they don't understand
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spiritual things. It doesn't make sense to them.
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Their spirit is not alive to receive spiritual things.
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Which is why two people can come into church and sit down and one
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person, the spirit, will reveal truth to that person.
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The next person sitting right beside them heard the exact same
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thing. They don't get it at all because
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one is dealing with it from the natural and the other one is
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dealing with it from the spiritual talks a lot about that
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in Scripture. You know, we can be blind to the
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things of the truth and have no understanding of those things if
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we don't have the spirit. I mean, think about yourselves
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when we when you know, when you tried to read the word of God
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before you had the Holy Spirit, you couldn't understand what you
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were reading. You couldn't couldn't even keep
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your interest. You probably put it down.
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But once you receive the Spirit and the Spirit opens your eyes
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and you pray, when you open that Bible woman, I'm not saying
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anything happens right away. It takes time.
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You know you got to diligently seek Him.
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And when you diligently seek Him, he rewards that by
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revealing more and more truth to you.
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The more you're seeking, the more you get into His word, the
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more you come before him, the more you ask Him to reveal the
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truth to you. But in your natural, there's no
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way you can do it. We none of us could.
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We couldn't understand the word of God, couldn't understand it.
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I like what it says over in second.
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Over in first Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 14, it says
1 Corinthians 2 chapter mention
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this. It says the natural man does not
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receive the things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness to
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him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually
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deserved. So nor can so he can't even
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receive them, which means he can't even hear it coming into
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his heart. He can't even hear it, you know,
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comes into him and, and just basically bounce out.
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It's like the it's like the seed that was just tossed and it went
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wayward. You know, the seed that was just
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tossing and went by the side just didn't even get it.
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Just didn't even get it because they can't receive it and nor
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can they know it because it's foolishness to them.
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The Word of God, the gospel is foolishness to people who are
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not saved, just like it was to us.
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How many times do people try to share the word of God with you
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before the Spirit opened your eyes and you said, man, what are
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you talking about? What are you saying?
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Where's the next party? I don't want to hear what you
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talking about. I mean, it's being real.
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That's the way it was because we couldn't receive it.
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I was home one Saturday morning recently and I heard the
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knocking on the door, kind of had an idea who it was.
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So that's why you didn't rush down to answer, right?
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So we come down, we answer the door.
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I think my wife actually answered the door 1st and then I
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was upstairs. I was trying to hide and and she
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eventually answered the door and started talking with them.
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And she said, wait a minute, let me ask my husband.
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Oh man. So so I came downstairs and
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this, you know, woman was there at the door.
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There was two other people on the sidewalk looking, watching.
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So we knew exactly what this was about.
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Total witnesses. So this woman is trying to share
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her Watchtower information with me and share her scriptures and
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try to make me convince me, you know, that Jesus was not God in
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the flesh, right? Yeah.
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She's just, you know, I believe in Jesus, too, just like you do.
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I said, oh, do you? Yeah, I believe that Jesus, you
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know, is the Son of God. Do you?
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Yeah, I believe Jesus is the Son of God.
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Yeah, well, I believe that Jesus is God in the flesh.
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Oh, no, no. So she begins to explain to me
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why Jesus is not God in the flesh.
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And because she said it's just not logical.
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There's a number of things that she mentioned.
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It's just not logical. And that's one of the things
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I've noticed that they will say when you start talking about the
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things of God, you know, these things are not logical.
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For example, they think the Trinity is not logical.
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So they don't, you know, talk about the Trinity or come, what
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are you talking about? You know, God in three persons.
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What are you talking about? It's not logical, doesn't even
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make sense. So I listened to her talk about
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that. And then she, you know, we, you
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know, we even talked about the the incarnation.
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Of course, you know, she totally got rid of that.
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No, Jesus, you know, he, no, no, he's not he, he's the son of
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God. He was created being, you know,
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but he's not God in the flesh. Talk a little bit about that.
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And and then she went to the resurrection, talked a little
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bit about about that. Well, he resurrected, but Aiden
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resurrect in fully, you know, body he'd resurrect.
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He was just a spirit. Well, we just got finished
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reading last week, right, that when he resurrected, he
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resurrected in the in the body, right?
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Because Mary Magdalene grabbed his feet, right?
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You can't grab the feet of a spirit, right?
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So anyway I made this one statement to her and this woman
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turned into an angry demon and all I said to her well would you
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know these things are only discerned in the spirit Only the
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Spirit can recognize these things.
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Are you saying I don't have the Spirit of God in me?
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Yes, yes and she went on a rant that I never thought a woman and
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now I was I'm about 6-1 Well I was probably 6-1 then this woman
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you know probably came to about here.
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But I mean, she just rant and raved and looked up and just, I
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mean, I she wow, she was angry. She was really, really angry.
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We never had another person come back after that.
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Never had another person. Have we had anybody come back
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after that? Yeah, we never had another
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person come back after that. So she obviously went and told
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her homies just bypassed that house, OK, because they hang
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with it. But yeah, I couldn't believe how
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angry she got. But it's the Spirit of God that
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discerns these things. That's why Paul prayed to the
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Colossians. When he prayed for the
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Colossians Church, he prayed that they would be filled with
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the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual
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understanding, spiritual understanding, because that's
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how these things are understood. But these false teachers don't
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have that. They don't have the Spirit, so
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they can't talk about the Scriptures or the things of God
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from a spiritual standpoint. They can only look at it through
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the natural. They can only look at it through
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the natural and that's why they get into so many problems,
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because they can't see it through the Spirit.
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First Corinthians chapter 2 and 11 says for what man knows the
1 Corinthians 2 chapter mention
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things of man except the spirit of man, which is in him.
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Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
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Now we have received not the spirit from the world.
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If you have the spirit of the world, you understand the things
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of the world. People who are in the world,
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they can have a conversation with each other and say things
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that to us now those things may sound absurd to us or just like
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things. There's no way we're doing that.
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You know, there's no way I'm, I'm going to be in agreement
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with this, but you can see in the times how people are fine
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with some of the way that society is changing.
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The people of the world are fine with it.
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They're totally fine with it. But us, we're grieved by it.
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And it's because the world takes on its own.
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The world loves its own. The world deals with its own.
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They understand those things because they have the spirit of
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the world. But we have received not the
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spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we
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might know the things that have been freely given to us of God.
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We get those things freely through the Spirit of God, but
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they, they have no understanding of, but yet they speak
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negatively about the Spirit when you know someone that could be
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even someone who goes to church all the time.
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And because you may be, you know, walking in obedience,
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because the Holy Spirit, you're developing this relationship
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with the Lord and you're walking in the Spirit and you're
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walking, you're trying to, you're walking in obedience to
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the Lord as much as you possibly can.
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And you know, because and we, we're all still sin and we're
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honest about that with each other, but yet you get someone
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who's not into walking in obedience and they begin to
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start speaking evil of you. Oh, you think she's too good for
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us? He thinks he can't do this
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anymore. He can't do that anymore.
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You know, they start speaking evil of you.
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And that's exactly what happened.
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When they start speaking evil of the teachers who were teaching
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the truth. They're speaking evil.
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Those teachers demeaning them to other people.
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So then we go on down here to verse 11, like he said, he says,
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whoa. He said they're like, you know,
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before he said they're like group beasts and they corrupt,
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you know, they corrupt themselves with the things that
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they do know. And then in verse 11, he says
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woe to them for they have gone the way of Cain and in the era
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of Balaam for prophet and in rebellion of Korah.
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Well, first of all, they're brute beast.
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And that means that they're only living in a way that satisfies
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the flesh, their primal instincts, brute beasts.
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You're living like a brute beast and that means you're just
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living to satisfy your urges. That's why animals are able when
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he says, you know, they corrupt themselves and in, in those
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things that they that they do know, because the only thing
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they do know is their urges, their lusts, their desire for
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natural things. And that's why animals can get
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trapped. We have some people here who are
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hunters. They trap animals or they lure
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animals. How do they trap them?
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They lure them. How do they lure them?
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They lure them by things that they're driven to eat, things
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that they're driven to do. If you got an animal who loves
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meat, you put a piece of meat in a box.
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He's coming for it. This has been Living Waters of
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Grace, a ministry of Calvary Chapel Westmoreland in
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Greensburg, PA Pastor Lewis Harrell has been teaching
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through the book of Jude. This is a book of warning as the
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audience that Jude was writing to was coming under attack from
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false teachers. Even in the early days of the
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church, there were teachers who claimed to have a unique
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revelation from God that superseded Scripture.
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Pastor Lewis wants you to be sure to be on your guard against
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those teachers today as they will try to distract you from
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following the way of Jesus. By focusing on what God's Word
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says, you can call out false teachers for what they are and
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stay on the good path. Do you want to hear more
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teaching from Living Waters of Grace?
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You can do so by visiting our website at
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calvarychapelonline.com. There you will find an archive
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of past teachings from Pastor Lewis and Pastor Clark.
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Find a link to our mobile app or even give to support the
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ministry of Living Waters of Grace.
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Your gifts can help support the work of Grace FM, spreading the
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gospel to people in our community who are in need of the
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presence of God in their lives. If you're in Westmoreland
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County, we'd love to invite you to one of our Sunday services.
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We meet at 10:30 AM at 207 Hudson St. in Greensburg.
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It'd be a privilege to get to meet you in person and learn how
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we can be praying for you and helping you grow in your walk
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with Jesus. And if you're in Greensburg, be
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sure to listen to us on the news station for Grace FM at 91.7.
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Spread the word to others so they can benefit from these
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solid Bible teachings as well. You've been listening to Living
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Waters of Grace.