Sermon - Mind Games

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Great to see you all. Can you hear me?

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Yes. Great to see you all. Bring you greetings from King's Church, way over on the other side of the universe, west side of the valley,

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Peoria. We send our love and pray for you. And our church is especially praying for you knowing that you're listening to me today.

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And pray the Lord will answer the prayers. So good to see you. If you have a

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Bible, I invite you to open to the New Testament, to the book of 2 Corinthians and chapter 10.

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Genesis, Exodus, 2 Corinthians. There it is. And I begin reading in verse 3 through verse 6.

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And ladies and gentlemen, this is the word of God. For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.

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For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

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We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey

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Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete.

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Let's pray together. Gracious God, we bow before you. We pray that you would write the truth of these words on our hearts, that we would live in the good of them and that you will accomplish much because of it, and be glorified.

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Pray in Christ's name. Amen. I have something of a military heritage.

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I come from a military family. My father was a sergeant and then a chaplain in the British Army.

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My uncle was a major. My grandfather, my mother's father, was a colonel.

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And today I have a son serving in the U .S. Army. As I say, I have something of a military heritage.

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Sincerely and wholeheartedly, I thank God for all those who serve to defend our freedoms.

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War is a sad reality in this world. Jesus said there would be wars and rumors of wars.

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Even a cursory glance and read through the Holy Bible reveals the reality of war, a war beyond the realm of the senses.

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Twenty -four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, the war rages and there's been no ceasefire.

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You and I were born in a time of war. We're born in the midst of an ongoing war.

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The war has not simply lasted for days, weeks, months, or years, or even decades, but millennia, thousands upon thousands of years.

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This war goes all the way back to the book of Genesis in chapter 3, back to the

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Garden of Eden. It's a spiritual war rather than a physical war, but we need to grasp the reality of it.

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This, ladies and gentlemen, that you and I are engaged in is a spiritual war. Every bit is real.

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Every bit is brutal as natural war. And we read of this in 2

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Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 3. Let's read the familiar words of verse 3.

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For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.

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For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

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There is a God. There is a God. There is a devil. The devil, ladies and gentlemen, is finite.

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God is infinite. There's such a chasm between finite and infinite that we don't even know how to span the distance mentally.

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The devil is no threat to God. Martin Luther said of the devil, even the devil is

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God's devil. He can handle him. It's not like the yin and the yang.

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It's not like there's this force of good and the force of evil and they have equal power.

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God has all power. The devil is God's devil.

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The word devil, the name devil, is a Greek word I'm sure you're familiar with it, diabolos.

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And it's really coming from two Greek words, dia, which means through or to penetrate, and balos or balo, which means to throw.

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And if you can picture that in your mind, it's a very good understanding of what the devil's mode of operation is.

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Oftentimes the word devil is translated.

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Other times it's just left as it is. And it means slanderer. It means accuser.

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And taking the concept of through and to throw, it's the idea of someone throwing something over and over and over and over until through, until he penetrates.

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That's his mode of operation. It's like throwing a rock, throwing a brick over and over and over and over and over again until dia, diabolos, dia, he throws until he penetrates.

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The name devil reveals his methodology, his tactics, his wiles as the

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King James Version renders it in Ephesians 6, 11. And we're called to stand against the wiles, methodos, the wiles of the devil.

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Have you noticed the devil's constantly throwing out lies? It's like rock upon rock, throwing them out, seeing whom he could devour by his deception.

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The devil is constantly throwing out lies. Lies about God, lies about ultimate issues, lies about you.

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Lies. There is no God. There is no God. There is no God. He throws that at your mind.

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Hath God said, by the way that's the first question of the universe. Did God really say?

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Hath God said? You can't trust the word of God. He throws that lie at your mind over and over and over again until he can penetrate with that lie so that you now are not merely in doubt but in unbelief over the word of God.

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You can't trust the Bible. You can't trust the Bible. You can't trust the Bible. You're not really saved.

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You're not really saved. You're not really saved. You've committed the unpardonable sin. You've committed the unpardonable sin.

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Rock after rock after rock he throws. Diabolos. You don't need the church.

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You don't need the church. You can be a good Christian by yourself. Lie after lie after lie he throws those lies against humanity and against you as a

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Christian. We should know this. We should know his operation. We should realize the war and his strategies against us.

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Knowing this, knowing that the church, the local church though despised by the world is center stage in God's earthly operations.

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That's true of this local church. That's true of any true gospel preaching church.

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It's center stage in God's earthly operations and that's why the devil throws lies after lies, lie after lie after lie about you and your relationship with the church.

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Do you have one? A lot of people have a disconnect. They say they love Jesus but have no relationship with the local church and there's this big disconnect for many, millions of Christians.

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It should not be that way. It's like someone loving the head and not the body. Christ is the head of the church.

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The body is the body of Christ and Jesus still loves the church and he is doing all in the earth through the local church.

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Every man needs Christ. Every Christian needs the local church. If you have a problem with that, somehow the devil has penetrated your mind.

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That's what's happened. Here's our calling as the local church. Keep your place in 2

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Corinthians if you will, unless you're on a phone, and go to 1 Timothy chapter 3.

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Look with me in verse 14. 1 Timothy 3 verse 14, reading from the

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English Standard Version. I hope to come to you soon,

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Paul writes, but I'm writing these things to you so that if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God.

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Now notice the description. Which is the church, the ecclesia, the called out ones, which is the church of the living

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God, and then notice this, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

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A pillar and a buttress of the truth. One version has it this way, pillar and foundation.

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Another, pillar and support. I'm sure you know this, but a pillar holds something other than itself up.

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The pillar is not the main thing. The pillar is there to have a function of holding something other than itself up.

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The church is not the truth. The church holds the truth up.

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There are many ramifications for that statement. Just look at church history. The church is not the truth.

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The church holds something other than itself up. Jesus told us what the truth is.

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Thy word is truth in his prayer to the father in John chapter 17, verse 17.

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Thy word is truth and the church's task is to hold the truth up.

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In the midst of a war of lies, hold the truth up. That's our task.

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Imagine truth as the roof on the building. The church is the foundation and pillar and support of the truth.

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Our job is to continually propagate truth just as the devil continues to propagate his lies.

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Truth upon truth upon truth. That's what we do on every kind of issue.

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We do not compromise the truth. We proclaim it. We are, as Christians, truth dispensers.

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That's our task. And that's the church's task, to be the truth dispenser in the neighborhood, in the city, in the country, for our world.

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In a world manipulated by the propaganda of the lies. Lie upon lie upon lie.

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There is no God. You don't need Jesus. The Bible's not true. You don't need the church. Look at verse 3 again of 2

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Corinthians, chapter 10. For though we walk in the flesh, in other words, though we walk around in our physical bodies,

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Paul goes on, we are not waging war according to the flesh. In other words, our warfare is not physical.

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I would submit to you that if it's not physical, then it is spiritual.

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And that's exactly what we see in the next verse. Look at verse 4. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh.

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God has not given us and supplied us with physical weapons, but spiritual.

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Spiritual weapons. God doesn't arm the Christians with physical weapons.

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You become a Christian, God hands you a gun. No. Nor does he supply us with ammo.

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That's not our fight as Christians. That doesn't mean we shouldn't own guns, you understand.

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But that's not the warfare we're called upon and that which we see in this passage. Our fight is a spiritual fight rather than a physical fight.

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Your problem is not your mother -in -law. It's what's behind your mother -in -law. Our fight is not with people, with bodies as one translation, actually a paraphrase of Ephesians 6.

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Our wrestling match is not against people with bodies, but against principalities and powers.

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Spiritual personalities. We wrestle not against flesh and blood.

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Not against people with bodies. The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh. You're in a war.

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The Apostle Paul doesn't say, lie down, play dead, the devil won't bother you.

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Have you noticed he's after you? Whether you're in the fight or not. Whether you're doing right or not.

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He's after you. His intention is to harm you. He seeks whom he may devour.

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And what he seeks to do is bring people into deception. That's his mode of operation.

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How does he do that? By repeating lies upon lies upon lies to your mind.

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And I would submit to you that the warfare, the spiritual warfare in this world happens right between people's ears.

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That's where the warfare is. That's where it is. The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh.

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They're not carnal as the King James puts it. But have, reading on in verse four, have divine power to destroy strongholds.

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Strongholds. The Greek word here is okaroma and it describes a prison.

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You realize a prison has the opposite function of a fortress. In a fortress, what happens there in a fortress is it keeps people from breaking in.

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A prison has the opposite function. A prison keeps people from breaking out. And that's the word used here.

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Here's a truth we need to grasp. The devil, the diabolos, plays his mind games with us, with all people.

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He throws out lie upon lie upon lie, constantly throwing out his propaganda over and over, day after day, hoping we'll consider them and then believe them.

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And once that happens, he has penetrated our minds.

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He seeks to penetrate the mind with his lies. And if he can do that, once we believe them, he has penetrated and he then locks our mind in that deception.

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His intention is to throw away the keys so that we never get out. He'll put you in his prison house, his stronghold of deception.

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And his tactic is often a winning tactic. It goes all the way back to the book of Genesis, chapter three, with the first question of the universe, did

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God really say? If you remember that passage, first the serpent there questioned

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God's word. Did God really say? Are you sure he said that? Such is the attack on the

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Bible in our day. Then, after he's questioned the word of God, he flatly denies it.

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You will not surely die. You'll be like gods. In fact,

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God's holding out on you. Come with me, believe what I say, and I'll take you much higher, independent of the

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God who lied to you. He's lying to you. Follow me. There is no truth.

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God is true, and God is the truth, and his word is the truth, and the

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Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth. Jesus said, I am the truth. But the devil wants you to believe otherwise, so he can capture you.

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Keep your place in 2 Corinthians 10, and go to 2 Timothy, chapter two.

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2 Timothy, chapter two. You and I were born at a time of war.

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That will take place in this present evil age, as long as it is that. And there is a war going on.

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And 2 Timothy two, verse 24, describes the

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Lord's servant, the man of God, the one whom God uses. 2

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Timothy two, verse 24, and the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.

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God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of, what?

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The truth. And they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the diabolos, the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

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I love the consistency of Scripture. The devil's lies will cause someone to be ensnared, captured, as in a prison, as in a stronghold.

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And what is the instruction for the Lord's servant? Well, he's not to do some things, and he is to do other things.

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He is not to be quarrelsome. He's not just to go into arguments to win an argument, but kind to everyone.

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Isn't that amazing? It's the exact opposite of what you see in normal warfare. You don't train soldiers to be kind to the enemy.

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But that's because we've already established people are not the enemy. It's what's behind people.

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We wrestle not against flesh and blood. So we can be kind to people, and we should be.

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And that is a means by which God can bring people out of the deception of the devil.

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So teach. Look what it says. The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach.

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Really? That's it? Yep. That's the task of the local church, and it's the task of the

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Lord's servant. Teach. Teach what? Teach the truth. What is the truth?

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Thy word is truth. And so local churches, wherever they are, whether they're high up in the mountains of South America or in Phoenix, Arizona, and the surrounding area, wherever we might find ourselves on planet

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Earth, we are to be truth dispensers and be kind to everyone, gently correcting, not quarrelsome, patiently enduring evil, and able to teach.

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Inherent in that command and that instruction is learning.

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The local church should be a place where we learn things about God and about His word, so that not only we can be built up in our most holy faith, but be able to teach others.

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Teach others what? What the Bible says. Teach, but do so not merely to win a quarrel, but be kind, and then teach.

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What do I do after that? What do I do after I've taught? Teach some more. Then teach some more.

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Patiently, which describes the fact that it's not going to be a one -time event. Patiently enduring evil.

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Enduring hostility. Enduring the hostility of a world that is regulated by demonic power.

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Correcting, verse 25, His opponents with gentleness. And then the sovereignty of God shows up as it does in so many places.

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Here it does again. God may perhaps grant them repentance. That's something

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God does. God will do what He will do, perhaps. It's not a certainty.

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It's not like you teach and all will come to repentance. No, you teach and perhaps

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God may use your teaching if it is teaching that is not quarrelsome, but kind, and you have the ability to teach and you're patient, enduring evil, correcting people with gentleness.

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These are the means whereby God may perhaps grant people repentance.

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That's God's business. You do your business. You establish and do what

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He's commanded you to do, but recognize the results are all in His hands. Leave the results with God.

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But you focus on what you're called to do. Point out error, but do so not with arrogance, but be kind when you do it.

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Point out error. Why? Because there's a war on for the truth. And those in deception, ladies and gentlemen, are casualties of war.

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I hope you see people around you like that, that they're not the enemy. They may look aggressive. They may look like they're the enemy, but they're not the enemy.

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So be kind. And be kind. And love them. And tell them the truth.

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Ephesians puts it this way, speaking the truth in love. You and I know this.

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God uses means to achieve His ends. The ends in this passage are people breaking free from the prison house of deception and the means.

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That's loving, gentle, and kind teaching. God, who is sovereign, may well use the loving, kind, gentle teaching of the

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Lord's servant to bring people out of deception, to bring them into the truth. God may perhaps, look at the text,

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God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, that they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will.

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Do you see that? Captured, ensnared, doing the devil's will.

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And yet, let's remind ourselves, people are not the enemy. They're deceived and in a prison, though they don't know it.

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Ladies and gentlemen, your mind, our minds, that's the strategic, the strategic the central, strategic control center for your life.

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What you think really matters. Truth matters. Doctrine matters.

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I can say it at apology here. Theology matters. There's a difference between what the church might say and what the

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Word of God says. Always go with the Word. But the local church, if it is a true and good local church like this one, will hold up the truth of God's Word and say, this is the truth.

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Believe it. One of those gratifying things I hear as a pastor, are testimonies that are formed like this.

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I've learned more about God and His Word around your ministry than in decades elsewhere.

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That's by intention. That's what is in view here at this church, too, by intention.

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You just hear the announcements and you hear, there's a Bible study here, there's a leadership training here.

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That's by intention. I've been told those words and it's really gratifying when

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I hear it. All of that is by intention because we, the local church, are called to be the pillar and ground and support of the truth.

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That's our strategy in this warfare. That's why we do what we do.

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That's our calling as a local church. It's a call given to every local church.

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Every local church. It's not because that's our emphasis. You know, for some people, their emphasis is on the wrong syllable.

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That's not just our preference. We like teaching, so we show up with people who like teaching. No, that's our mandate.

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Teach, teach, teach. What do we do now? Preach, preach, preach.

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What do we do now? Preach and teach, preach and teach. Is there anything else we're called to do?

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Well, I'm sure there are other things we have to do, but the main thing we do is the preaching and the teaching of God's Word.

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2 Corinthians 4, no need to turn there, you know it. Paul instructed Timothy, preach the

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Word, herald the Word, in season and out of season. Kairos and a

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Kairos, good times and hard times. Preach the Word when people like it, when they're flocking and preach the

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Word when everyone's abandoning you. Preach the Word, stay at your post. That's in the context of 2

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Timothy where Paul has instructed that times of stress will come, and what he doesn't do is say, now get hold of the latest thing, find out what the latest fad is, find out what others are doing, and follow them.

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No, you know what to do. You've been assured of the Holy Scriptures from childhood. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.

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It's theionoustos, it's breathed out by God, and that's what you should be teaching and preaching.

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And before God, the gaze of God is on you, Timothy, stay at your post, herald the

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Word, fulfill your ministry task. Over and over we could go to Scripture after Scripture, that's our main task.

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This is why Apologia does what it does, this is why King's Church does what it does, that's why we are what we are.

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That's why you're here. You know what you're going to get when you get to Apologia.

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I'm sure you have this testimony. I've listened, I've watched 38 videos before I ever showed up at the first service.

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You kind of know what you're going to get. The Word of God explained, the Word of God proclaimed, the

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Word of God exegeted, and you're coming to hear God's Word taught in its context, and that, may

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I suggest to you, is the most vital thing in your life. Your church, where you choose to go to church, is the most vital thing in your life, because what you believe matters, what you hear matters, and it better be truth, because outside of the walls of the gathering of God's assembly,

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His people, there is lies, there are lies upon lies, so you are, by definition, desperate to hear the truth when you come to church.

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Where you go to church matters, because the truth matters. Dr. John MacArthur once said this, much of the visible church nowadays seems to think

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Christians are supposed to be at play rather than at war. The idea of actually fighting for doctrinal truth is the furthest thing from most churchgoers' thoughts.

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End of quote. In contrast to that, Jeremiah chapter three verse fifteen reads this, and I will give you shepherds after my own heart who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

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This, this is the means of preserving you for himself, the teaching, the shepherding ministry of the local church.

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May I say this, Christian, run to the truth. Run to the truth.

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Proverbs twenty -three, twenty -three, buy the truth, B -U -Y, buy the truth and sell it not.

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Perhaps you've been involved in finances, perhaps you've been involved in real estate, perhaps you've been involved in the business world and you know that there are times when it's good to sell.

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There's a time when something that you own has reached a very good value and it would be wise to sell because it may not always remain at that high price.

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That's not what is in view in Proverbs twenty -three, twenty -three. Buy the truth and never sell it.

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Don't sell it. Buy the truth, I would say this, buy the truth no matter what it costs.

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It might mean that you drive a couple of hours to a good local church, some people have to do that.

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Do that, rather than not have the Word of God on a regular basis.

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It's that important. Well, I checked it out online, it's a forty -five minute drive.

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Rather that than week after week after week after week under the lies of the enemy, not having

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God's Word between your ears. That's God's means of preserving you for himself by the truth and the teaching, the shepherding ministry of the local church.

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Christian, run to the truth. Buy the truth and never sell it, whatever it's asking price.

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But it costs so much. Lies cost far more.

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Run to the truth. Christian, run to the truth. Back to 2 Corinthians chapter ten, verse three again, for though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.

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For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

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I love that. Not affect strongholds or disable strongholds, but destroy them.

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That's what it's all about. I love the fact that truth is the antidote for lies.

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You think of a building. It's been left alone for decades. It is dark in that room, no light has been turned on.

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And you imagine yourself going into that room that has been dark for decades and suddenly just turning the light on.

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The great good news of that is when the light comes on, darkness leaves.

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You don't have to vacuum it out. You don't have to get 800 people in that big room and say, let's spend a week vacuuming out the darkness.

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No, just turn the light on. Darkness flees. And the scripture tells us the entrance of His word brings light.

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Gives understanding to the simple. Turn the light on in your own life. Expose yourself to the word of God.

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Expose yourself to right teaching. Your very life depends on it in this warfare.

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And we have power, divine power to destroy strongholds.

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I don't believe fill in the blank. If it's a lie, expose that person to the truth.

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I don't believe I need the local church. That's a lie. Be informed by Holy Scripture.

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Hebrews chapter 10. Well, Jesus didn't say that. Oh yes He did. He did it through the writer to the

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Hebrews. But that's God's word. I love Bibles but I've got a little bit of a problem with red letter edition

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Bibles for the simple reason, not that I don't like seeing what Jesus' words were in red, but it leaves the false impression that what

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Jesus said in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and perhaps in Revelation, that is more inspired than the book of Galatians, the book of Romans, the book of Hebrews.

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No, all of it is written by apostles or those who were given by apostles and endorsed by apostles, and this is

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God's word from cover to cover. Do you agree with that? All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.

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All Scripture is God -breathed and equally authoritative strongholds.

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Look at verse 5. Questions often asked, where's this warfare taking place?

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As you and I walk through the next couple of verses, I think it becomes very apparent what the answer is.

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Here Paul writes, we destroy arguments. I would submit to you that arguments take place in the mind.

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The King James Version renders it casting down imaginations. The Greek word is logismos.

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It means the logical thinking of the mind. And here it's referring in context to a deceived mind.

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I was once helped by a preacher, as I have been many, many times, when he said this,

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John, deceived people deceive people. For a time

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I actually worked at TBN as one of the hosts locally here in Phoenix.

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The Lord can deliver anyone out of anything. And people have asked me, when you met some of these big guns, you know,

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Brother Big Shot and Sister Satellite, when you met them, do you think they're real?

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I think some of them are absolute phonies and they know it now looking back. Even at the time I had severe questions.

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But you know some of them actually believed the deception. You might creep up at them and jump them in the alleyway and say do you really believe in the hundredfold return?

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It's lingo for strange things that happens in the Word of Faith prosperity movement. Do you really believe that whatever you give you'll get back a hundred times?

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And you know what? You can jump them in the alleyway and they'll say yes I believe it as you take their wallet.

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No you wouldn't do that. But they actually believe the falsehood.

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Deceived people deceive people. Can we say that out loud? Deceived people deceive people.

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And the entrance of God's Word brings light, it brings truth. In contrast to that is deception, and deception cannot handle the truth.

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That's why the deceiver, the devil, fights your commitment to the local church, because the local church is the truth dispenser in the neighborhood.

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He does not want you being exposed to truth, because that will free you from his prison cell.

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Instead we destroy arguments. Arguments are in the mind.

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Next we come to a phrase that says, and every lofty opinion. It's a high thing, it's a lofty thing.

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I would submit to you arguments are of the mind, opinions certainly are of the mind, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God.

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That's the King James Version. Every lofty opinion. Have you noticed people have opinions?

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Lofty opinions. Lofty because they are not humble opinions, because they're raised against what

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God has revealed. And again, that's what we see in the next phrase. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God.

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I'm sure you've had this said to you as a Christian. You're so full of pride, you're so full of arrogance, you're right and we're not.

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No, actually we're humble. We don't even really get interested too much in our own opinions.

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I'm not interested in hearing my opinion today. I hope you're not. I want to know what God says and then submit to it.

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I'm under the Word of God and I'm humble rather than lofty. To be lofty is to bring

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God's Word down and say, what I think matters more than what God says. It's actually humble to say,

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I submit to what God says. My opinions mean very little to me.

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Let God be true and every man a liar. Every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God.

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I would submit to you, the word arguments are of the mind, opinion is of the mind, and knowledge is of the mind.

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That's where the warfare is. Knowledge in the mind. Let me ask you this, what do you know?

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How well do you know it? How much do you know? For many, they have not started on the road to knowledge, though they might have letters after their name, though they might have a couple of degrees.

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That's often the temperature of the church, very freezing cold spiritually, but knowledge starts with an acknowledgement of reverence for God.

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Proverbs chapter 1 verse 7, the fear of the Lord is the what? Beginning of knowledge.

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A lot of people have never started. Truth, how much do you love it?

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What will you spend to get it? For us it might mean more gas money than we would have liked, but it's worth it.

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Buy the truth, don't sell it. And truth sets us free. But let me explain something.

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Truth by itself doesn't set you free. Known truth sets you free.

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Jesus said in John chapter 8 verse 31, to the Jews who had believed him, if you abide, if you continue in my word, you are my true disciples, you're truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.

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The truth will set you free. The truth, that's God's word, on your coffee table doesn't help you.

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It's getting the truth of God between your ears. That's where the freedom takes place. That's where the help comes.

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In a world where there's constant lies from the enemy, it requires constant truth as its remedy.

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Are you a learner? Are you a student? I've noticed that the best teachers are still students.

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They're still learning. It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.

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Some people you think, well, they might as well have the funeral now. They're 25 and they think they know it all. Or they're 17 and they think it's the case also.

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There is so much to know. God is infinite in knowledge, so we don't even know how to classify that and define that.

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We don't even know how big God's infinite knowledge is, so we don't even know how ignorant we are.

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We have no idea. We can't even calculate our level of ignorance.

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I'm not going to ask you to do this, but you could turn to the person next to you and say, your ignorance is of real concern to me.

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So the Bible sitting on our shelf on our coffee table doesn't set you free.

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Carrying it around in your car doesn't help you. It needs to get in your head.

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It needs to get between your ears. Let's continue reading.

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We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God.

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All of those three references refer to things of the mind, and then it's confirmed in the next phrase, the fourth phrase, and take every thought captive to obey

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Christ. Thought, of course, is in the mind. Being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete.

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There's a quote often attributed to Martin Luther. While he said many similar things to this, scholars are not entirely sure that he said these exact words, but here they are.

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If I profess, this is quoting Luther, with the loudest voice, if I profess with the loudest voice and the clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God, except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking,

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I'm not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christianity.

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Where the battle rages, the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides is mere flight and disgrace to him if he flinches at that one point.

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End of quote. There are many lies out there, many falsehoods.

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I believe the greatest lie of our generation, a lie that has deceived billions in our time, is the lie of evolution.

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The lie of evolution is the devil's favorite lie, I believe, because he's imprisoned billions of people by it.

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It's actually a theory in crisis, many scientists recognize this, although they often don't want to make the great, great, huge leap to believing in a personal

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God, because they don't want God, we know that by nature. But evolution is a theory in crisis, it's a lie.

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So knowing this, what can we do? Well, one of the things we're doing is going verse by verse through the book of Genesis, chapters 1 through 11.

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That is exposing lie after lie after lie by the truth, and the entrance of his word brings truth.

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And I've been gratified, we're now in chapter 9, so we've done quite a few sermons on that.

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People come in to me and say, as I've been submitting to God's Word and seeing what it says, so many lies have fallen off me.

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Where is the devil attacking you? Is it assurance of salvation? May I suggest to you, going through some teaching on passages that deal with salvation, chapter 10 of John's Gospel, chapter 8 of the book of Romans, and not leaving and bouncing around to other things, just focusing your mind, if that's where the attack is, on the truth of God's Word.

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Those whom he foreknew, he predestined, those he predestined, he called, those he called, he justified, those he justified, he glorified.

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What shall we say to all these things, if God be for us, who can be against us? Walk through that passage, verse 28 through to 39, and in a matter of days and weeks and months, you will be armed for the battle.

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The devil will not be able to tell you, you're not really saved, you're not really saved, if in fact you are a true believer.

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It sounds like you believe this, absolutely. I believe this, and I believe we as the church are called upon to find out, where is the attack of the enemy on your mind?

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Where is it? What is it about God's Word you're finding hard to believe? What do you not accept?

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What are you not embracing? And we go there by intention, to find out what God says, and then we submit to it.

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And as you do, the lies and the deception fall off.

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If you're discouraged in your Christian life, read the Bible. Whoa, I thought we're gonna get something profound.

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It is profound, the Bible is so profound, it's gonna take never to fully unveil all that's in that Bible.

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Though we were to live a thousand lifetimes, we could never plummet its depths. The knowledge of it, the treasure of it.

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But as you and I go to God's Word, we do so by intention. What is the lie against my mind?

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And we go to the truth of God's Word, and when we find it, we buy it and sell it not.

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That's what I believe. I'm not moving away from this, this is what God says, this is what he says.

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And let the lies fall away. It doesn't matter if the lie has been Mormonism, or the

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Watchtower organization, or some other cult. The entrance of his Word brings light.

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Study the truth of the Trinity. You have an elder who's written a book on it.

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Read it. Well, if I just get James White to sign it, is that enough?

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Not if the truth of it isn't between your ears, it's not helpful. It's great if he can sign it for you, but that's not gonna set you free.

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It's the truth of God's Word. Where is the enemy's lies? The truth confronts it.

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And like that room that has been full of darkness, light changes everything.

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Praise the Lord. Can you say amen? Be strategic, because there's a strategic devil against you.

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Yes, this is war strategy. Strategy in the warfare. What lies do you believe?

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For men in church history like John Wycliffe and William Tyndale, getting the truth of God's Word to people was a life -and -death thing.

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They didn't mind if they died to get the truth of God's Word into the hands of the people. They're prominent names in church history, and because of their efforts for the

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English -speaking world at least, we have the Word of God in the English language, study their lives, and it's inspiring to say the least.

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Tyndale once had dinner with a Roman Catholic priest who uttered these words, we were better be without God's law than the

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Pope's. End of quote. Tyndale responded with these famous words,

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I defy the Pope and all his laws. If God spare my life, e 'er many years,

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I will cause a boy that driveth the plow shall know more of the

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Scripture than thou dost. And off he went, and the rest is history. For the

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German -speaking world, the name is Martin Luther, he translated the Bible into German.

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And you know this, when the people could read God's Word, that's when

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Reformation ensued. Reformation is not revolution.

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Revolution says away with everything, only our will. The Reformation said no, no, no, this is not revolution, this is

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Reformation. Away with all falsehood, away with all idolatry, and let's return back to the

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Word of God. When someone says that they're becoming more

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Reformed, I interpret that as they're becoming more Biblical. That's what it means.

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The Reformation was a back to the Bible movement. I didn't get into this because I wanted to be capital

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R, Reformed. I want to be capital B, Biblical. And when

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I become Biblical, guess what? I find myself being Reformed in my thinking, because the

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Reformed faith is what we find in our Bibles. God is sovereign over everything, end of statement.

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Let's begin to wrap this up, which means I've thought about quitting. It's crossed my mind at least.

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I am a little worried because I don't have a clock. I may need a calendar, but I hope to get you out by Tuesday.

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Let's go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. We're not gonna spend a lot of time exegeting this passage.

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I simply want to read it and highlight a few words here. 2

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Thessalonians chapter 2, look with me in verse 7. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.

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Only he who now restrains it will do so until he's taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the

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Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth. I often think to myself as I read this, this wouldn't go well on WWE pay -per -view.

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I mean, you spend a hundred bucks to watch the fight, and here it is, seconds out, round one, and it's over.

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Whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth. You'd want your money back if you paid anything to watch this.

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And bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders.

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Satan uses false signs and wonders to deceive people. And with all wicked deception for those who are perishing.

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Look at this next phrase. Because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved.

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Ladies and gentlemen, doctrine matters. What is taking place between your ears matters. And look at this.

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Do you believe in a God like this? I do because that's the God of the Bible. Verse 11, therefore

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God sends them. Notice the therefore. You've been taught well. Whenever you see a therefore, always ask what it's there for.

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On the basis of the fact that they refuse to love the truth and so be saved, therefore, because of this,

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God sends them a strong delusion. And again, I would submit to you, if God sends delusion, people are going to be deluded.

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For what purpose? So that they may believe what is false. In order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

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As I close, let me ask you this. What's your relationship with truth? You ever thought about that?

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We have all kinds of different relationships. Your relationship with truth, is it a casual relationship?

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Or does the relationship define who you are? That's a challenge, isn't it?

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How much is truth worth in your life?

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That's something to think about. Again, to quote John MacArthur, a biblical perspective of truth necessarily entails the recognition that ultimate truth is an objective reality.

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Truth exists outside of us and remains the same, regardless of how we may perceive it.

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Truth by definition is as fixed and constant as God is immutable.

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End of quote. That means God not only does not change, but will not change.

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Cannot change. Malachi 3 .6, I am the Lord, I change not.

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Truth. What's your relationship with truth? You got to know it, you got to believe it, and you've got to submit to it, and you've got to love it.

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Because there's a war for truth. A war against lies, a war against falsehood, a war against deception.

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Let me tell you, truth wins. In this war against lies,

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Christ has already won a decisive victory at the cross. In God's purposes,

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He has allowed the devil to continue to function in our present world, but that's a day that is going to come to an end.

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There is a day coming when that will cease. In the meantime, light dispels darkness.

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The theme of the Reformation in Latin was post tenebras lux, after darkness, light.

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Darkness had ruled not only the world out there, but the church, the professing church, for centuries because the truth of God's Word was not revealed to the people and declared to the people.

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The most important truth you ever hear is that there is a God and that He has good news for you.

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That good news is coming to us on the back of bad news. The bad news is

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God is holy. How is that bad news? Because we're not holy and we've defied a holy

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God, a thrice holy God, by our thoughts, by our words, by our actions.

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Something called sin. Sin is cosmic treason and the truth is God has every right to banish all of us from His presence forever, but God is not only a

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God of truth, He's a God of love and in His love He sent His Son into the world, the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Now hear this. This second person of the Godhead, the one we now know as the

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Lord Jesus Christ, was born of a virgin and lived a perfect, flawless, beautiful life before the

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Father, fully keeping all the demands of God's law. Never at any time did

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He have to say sorry to anyone or even to His Father. He always pleased the

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Father. This righteous life the Lord Jesus had lived, this

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Lord Jesus went to the cross of Calvary and there on the cross

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He hung there in our place as our substitute. Should have been us, should have been me.

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I'm the sinner. He was flawless. He's the perfect Lamb of God. There on the cross according to the book of Isaiah, our sins were laid on Him.

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All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to our own way and the Lord has imputation.

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The Lord has laid on Him, on the back of Jesus, the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

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All the sins of all those who would ever believe, all the sins of God's elect were laid on Him at the cross and He suffered in our place.

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The punishment due to us was upon Him and by His wounds we are healed. That's at the very heart of the gospel truth, the message we're to thunder out and propagate.

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Three days later, this Lord Jesus, though He had died, rose again bodily from the dead and is now at the place of all authority in this universe.

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All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. That covers it folks. So the message of this

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King is repent, change your mind, change your thinking, about face, turn around and believe on the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Put your trust in Him and you'll be saved forever by what

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He did, not what you do. That's the truth. Truth wins and this whole universe will serve our

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King forever. That ladies and gentlemen is the most important thing you ever hear.

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Never get bored by the gospel. You and I will be celebrating it if you're a true believer for now and for eternity.

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Let me close with this. Some people have the idea that the gospel is like the foundation in the house.

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You lay it and then you build up from there. You build up from there by adding new thoughts and new teachings and you grow in your faith with the gospel as the foundation.

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Then the house builds and finally you put the roof on and I would submit to you that's not how the

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New Testament speaks and presents the gospel to us.

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I've come into this building a number of times, a number of times the thought has never occurred to me, can we ask someone, can we take a look at the foundation?

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I don't think about the foundation. Have you thought about the foundation since other than the last eight seconds? Have you thought about the foundation of this building?

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No, you lay it, it's laid. I'm sure we have one. I'm sure there is one, but we just don't think about it.

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That's not how to think about the gospel. The gospel, let me submit to you, is more like the hub of a wheel.

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You never stop seeing the hub of the wheel when you're seeing a bicycle and all the spokes are all of the ramifications of that hub.

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How the gospel might apply to my relationships, to my marriage, to my family, to me in the business world.

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I see the spokes but the hub is right at the center and I would submit to you that in Paul's writings and others, the gospel is always center stage.

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Never get bored with it, always affirm it and go to a place like this one, like this church and make sure you get the gospel.

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They make sure you get the gospel. Keep it the main thing and the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing, that's the main thing.

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Paul writes to those in Ephesus and by extension to us, chapter 6, finally be strong in the

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Lord and in the strength of His might, put on the whole armor of God that may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

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For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

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Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all this, stand firm, stand firm.

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Therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, item number one, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, be established in the righteous gift of God, the righteousness of Christ and as shoes for your feet having put on readiness given by the gospel of peace and so it goes on.

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And take the helmet of salvation. Salvation is likened to a helmet.

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With that beautiful helmet, if you've ever seen Roman soldiers helmet, they are dazzling.

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So is the helmet of salvation. It's firm, it's secure, it's not flimsy, it's not fragile.

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Hebrews talks about a great salvation, not a fragile salvation. Oh, I had it here,

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I lost it. I had it but it got bent, I no longer can use it.

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No, this helmet on your head guards your mind against the assaults and flaming missiles of the enemy.

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And take the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. Martin Luther, I quoted him earlier,

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I think, I'm not sure it was him that made the quote, but he composed a hymn that became the battle hymn of the

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Reformation. Many times in the streets of certain cities in Europe, Christians, Christian husbands,

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Christian fathers, Christian mothers, and sometimes even children, were taken from their homes and escorted in the streets to a place that had been prepared for them.

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A place of wood and a straw, and you know what it is I'm talking about. They were on their way marching to be burnt at the stake for their

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Protestant faith, for belief in the truths of the Reformation, that were saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, because of the sure foundation of the

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Word of God alone, all to the glory of God alone. Townspeople, city people often lined the streets as the authorities marched them to certain death, and sympathizers in the crowd would shout out encouraging words, keep the faith brother, keep the faith.

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Others might sing that, say this, sing the 46th, sing the 46th.

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What was that? It's a reference to Martin Luther's hymn, which was based on Psalm 46.

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God is our refuge and strength, the very present help in the time of trouble.

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Let me quote the hymn, translated into English for us, the words of Martin Luther, and with this

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I'll close. A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing, a helper he amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing, for still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe.

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His craft and power, a great and armed with cruel hate, on earth is not his equal.

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Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing.

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We're not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing.

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Just ask who that may be. Christ Jesus, it is he, the

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Lord of hosts, his name, from age to age the same, and he must win the battle.

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And though this world with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us.

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The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him, his rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure.

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One little word shall fell him, that word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them abideth, the

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Spirit and the gifts are ours through him who with us sideth.

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Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also, the body they may kill,

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God's truth abideth still, his kingdom is forever.