F4F | Daniel Zelli Denies We are Sinners Saved by Grace

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith here on YouTube. If you've ever been taught that, well, as Christians we no longer sin, that we are not sinners saved by grace, we are saints now, so we never ever sin, go ahead and hit the subscribe button.

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You've been taught false doctrine. Not only false doctrine, but like dangerously delusional false doctrine, where clear texts obviously say the opposite of that.

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But case in point, we're going to be heading over to a church named Heritage of Faith Church on the

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Gold Coast of Australia, and we're going to be listening to Daniel Zellie.

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Daniel Zellie is the right -hand man. He's one of the apostolic leaders of Glory City Church in Brisbane in Australia, right -hand man of Catherine Rinala, and we're going to listen as he tries to make the argument that we are not sinners saved by grace, and apparently it's this belief that is keeping people from operating in the same miracles that Jesus operated in.

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Yeah, I wish I was making that up. So let's get to it. Here's Daniel Zellie. Do we have things that we believe that cause us to act in a certain way?

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Well, what I'm going to share with you tonight is what I believe is the single biggest lie that Christians believe that stopped them from moving and acting as Jesus did on this earth.

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Yeah, and moving and acting as Jesus did on this earth is, you know, operating in like miracles and stuff.

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Raising the dead, you know, giving sight to the blind and stuff. That's the way Jesus operated.

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And you know what's keeping you from doing that? According to Daniel Zellie, it's the belief that you're a sinner saved by grace.

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I'm not making that up. That's literally his argument. Are you interested?

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No. Are you sure? Yes. You're very inquisitive, aren't you?

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I can see you're just hanging on the seat there. It's all good. What you believe determines what you do.

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What you believe determines what you do? Uh -huh. I've got an

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Italian background. I understand Catholic sort of thinking very well.

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And Catholic sort of thinking says this. I believe Catholics can believe in Jesus Christ and go to heaven.

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I believe it. I'm not bagging the Catholics out. I'm just trying to point out inconsistencies or lies that Christians might believe that causes a certain action.

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And there's people in Pentecostal churches, I'm afraid to say, even believe lies that change the way that they live.

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So there's Catholic beliefs. They believe that you've got to earn your salvation. There's five means of grace in order to get salvation.

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And so you've got to do all these things like take Eucharist. You've got to have confession. You've got to do all these things in order to become saved or become

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Christian. You've got to do this and you got to do that. You got to do that. Now real quick, I just want to make a point.

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And that is, he's describing not a proper understanding of the means of grace, but the

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Roman Catholic belief in what's called ex opera operato. That is, is that they believe the means of grace work because they work by doing the work.

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Yeah. And it's this weird thing that they believe it's called ex opera operato. And yes,

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Rome is a legalistic system, but belief in the means of grace.

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You know, for instance, Lutherans believe in the means of grace. Presbyterians and certain Calvinists believe in a proper, at least in some sense, in the means of grace.

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And believing that God works through means doesn't automatically throw you into a legalistic camp.

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So what Zelie is saying here is based upon his misunderstanding of the means of grace.

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The issue is the Roman Catholic dogma of ex opera operato as it relates to the sacraments.

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In fact, that's why they rush people to, when they're dying, to have communion, because they want to make sure that they're saved.

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That's why they, immediately when a baby gets born, they want to get them baptized because they want to make sure that they're saved, because baptism is a means of grace, communion is a means of grace, and you can do all these acts.

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This act, and that act, and that act, and if you do all these means of grace, the axis of grace, then you can be saved.

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And out of that comes a thinking that we've got to earn our salvation. That we've got to do this, and we've got to do that in order to gain our salvation, to gain a means of grace.

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And so this is a thinking... Gaining salvation is basically turning the means of grace into a work, which they are not, and that's one of the problems with Rome.

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That what you believe is still prevalent today. People think in order to move in the miraculous, in order to move according to, as Jesus did, by the power of the

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Holy Spirit, that they've got... I'm going to point this out. He can sit there and talk and say that, you know, we as Christians are supposed to operate in the miraculous the same way

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Jesus did. Daniel Zelli can't walk on water, and Daniel Zelli has not raised anybody from the dead.

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Daniel Zelli and Glory City Church do a fine job of declaring people healed of invisible ailments, but they have yet to actually have somebody who's a quadriplegic, on camera, with evidence, get out of their wheelchair and walk.

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So remember, Jesus, in Mark chapter 2, they lowered a guy through his roof, you know, and brought him, you know,

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Jesus lowered him through his roof, and Jesus literally, literally, you know, gave that guy the...healed

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him so that he got up and walked, took up his mat and walked. And so he could sit there and say, you know, the big hindrance here to keeping you from doing

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Jesus' quality works, and they're not doing them, and that's the idea.

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These people are delusional if they think that they're actually performing apostolic and Jesus quality miracles, and the thing that's keeping them from doing that, or keeping people from doing that, is because they believe they're sinners saved by grace.

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Again, delusional here at this point. Do something, they've got to be a certain way, they've got to earn it in some way in order to have means of grace in order to act in the supernatural.

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So if I want to be, you know, see healing happen in a life, I've got to fast for so many days in order to get

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God's, you know, favor, and in order to twist God's arm, I've got to earn that favor in order to operate in the supernatural.

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Or I've got to do things like give extra offering. If I want to see, you know, things happen in my life, well,

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I've got to go to church more, I've got to pray more, and if you come to a Pentecostal church, you've got to give more, and then you can be saved.

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You can see things happening. This is all lies, by the way. I'm not preaching this. I'm just getting excited about what people should not believe, right?

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Yeah, and I agree. People shouldn't believe that somehow they can earn God's favor, earn miracles, or healings, or answers to prayer by tithing, or doing so, you know, so many works.

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That's explicitly taught against it, you know, in Scripture, in Galatians chapter 3.

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But the solution he's going to offer is not the gospel. In fact, it's a twisting of Scripture that is demonically deadly.

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And so we have these lies happening in our day and age, and so we want to squash those lies.

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And we do that by looking at the person of Jesus. It says this about Jesus.

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In John 1 29, it says that John saw Jesus coming and he said, Behold, the

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Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

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Now, a little bit of a note here. That would have been understood in like the Old Testament sense.

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A sacrificial lamb that takes away sin, that sacrificial lamb is a substitute, it's an offering, you know, and so sins are put on to sacrificial animals, and they take away the people's sins because that lamb, or that bull, or that goat is a substitute for the person.

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So what he's doing is he's taking this, you know, what John the Baptist said,

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Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And he's not properly understanding in which sense

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Christ takes away our sin. Jesus takes away sin.

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Indeed. So anybody who comes to Jesus has sin removed from their life.

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What do you mean by that? Jesus saves us from sin and doesn't leave us in it, is a saying that says we're sinners saved by grace.

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Here it comes. I challenge that tonight. I actually believe that's old thinking. That's exactly what

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Scripture teaches, by the way. Are you a sinner saved by grace? Yes. Or are you a saint?

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The answer is yes, I am also a saint. You used to be a sinner, but is no longer a sinner, and you're a saint who lives under grace.

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Yeah, there's somebody saying amen. Now let's do a little biblical work here, and we'll note that Scripture doesn't teach these things.

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We'll start with Jesus, by the way. So Luke chapter 11, Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him,

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Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples. And so Jesus said to them, when you pray, say,

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Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, give us each day our daily bread.

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You'll note here, by teaching us to pray for daily bread, how often are we to pray this prayer?

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Daily, at least. Give us each day our daily bread, and then watch this, and forgive us our sins, as we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us, and lead us not into temptation.

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So Jesus taught us to pray daily, forgive us our sins.

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Hmm, well that's a weird thing to teach Jesus' disciples to pray, and then they taught us to pray that, and to pray it daily, forgive us our sins.

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It's as if Jesus is expecting that we are in need of being forgiven of our sins on a daily basis, and the reason for that is actually quite simple.

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We are. In fact, 1st John makes this case very clearly. 1st

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John, written to Christians, written to Christians, says this in 1st

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John chapter 1, verse 8, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

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But if we confess our sins, he, that's God, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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If we say we have not sinned, we make God to be a liar, and his word is not in us.

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In other words, Daniel Zeli, delusionally right now, is literally making

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God to be a liar. And by the way, this is also in the Old Testament, Ecclesiastes 7 verse 20 says, surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

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Mm -hmm. Not a single person on planet earth is that way. And then of course the great

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Apostle Paul, in Romans chapter 7, describing the normal Christian life, says this, starting at verse 7, so what then shall we say?

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That the law is sin? Well, by no means. Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin.

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For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, you shall not covet. But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness.

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For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.

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And the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.

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So the law is holy, the commandment is holy, and righteous and good. So did that which is good then bring death to me?

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By no means. It was sin producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.

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For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions.

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For I do not do what I want, but I do the very things I hate. Now if I do the things

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I do not want, I agree with the law that it's good. So it is now, so it is no longer

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I who do it, but it is sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh.

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For I have the desire to do what's right but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good

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I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do not do what

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I want, it is no longer I who do it, but it's sin that dwells in me. So I find it to be a law, that when

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I don't want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inner being, but I see in my members another law, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

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O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?

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But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so that I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh

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I serve the law of sin. And then chapter 8 of Romans actually gives us the wonderful resolve.

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Chapter 8 says this, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the

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Spirit of life has set you free in Christ from the law of sin and death. In other words, Christianity, the

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Bible teaches that Christians are sinners and saints at the same time.

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That they have a regenerate nature, they also have their sinful nature that they must deal with on a daily basis, and mortify and put to death along with its passions, and that in the resurrection we will no longer sin, but in the here and the now we wrestle against our sinful nature.

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We are sinners and saints at the same time, and the Apostle Paul in Romans 7 does a fantastic job of explaining that, which is the reason why then

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John himself, writing to Christians, says if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.

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So you'll note that Daniel Zeli is self -deceived, and he's making

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God out to be a liar with this doctrine that he is teaching, which is not biblical. Come on Abbey, you and me, we believe in the same thing.

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Amen. Hallelujah. Amen? No. But I would challenge you, we're in a nice meeting now, we all see the prophetic move, we've seen healings happening, we're all excited, we had great music, such good music, worship team, wherever you are, very good, and we're all excited at the moment, so it's easy in this environment to say amen brother.

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But I challenge you, do you really believe that you've been completely set free from sin? This one point, have

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I really been set free from sin, is the one point that holds most people back.

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Because although they confess with their mouth, yes Jesus set me free, hallelujah, praise Lord, they say if you only really knew who

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I really am. Yeah, that person is describing real sins that they really are committing, and they're feeling real guilt for that, and they need to be pointed to like 1st

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John, you know, 8 through 10. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, but if we confess our sins,

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God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. You see, there's still mercy and grace in Christ, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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That was written to Christians. And what I struggle with, I'm not really set free, but I'll put on a good show, because I'm in an environment which says that I need to say that, but deep down in my heart

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I have an earning, and I have something going on inside that says, I know my life, and because of that...

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And rather than pointing them to Christ, pointing to them to the forgiveness of sins that is offered to all of us, you are going to instead, and watch what he's going to do here, teach these people to deny that they are sinners.

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This cuts them off from the gospel, by the way, completely cuts them off from the mercy and grace of Christ, and it tells them to embrace a delusion.

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Oh, I'm not a sinner. Nope, I'm not a sinner. Nope, nope, nope. That's not the solution, folks.

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That Scripture explicitly says that person is self -deceived. Unconfessed, but very real self -talk inside.

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When people go to pray for people to be healed, they say, Jesus was without sin, but I know my life.

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Maybe God won't bless me. Maybe I don't deserve to pray for this person.

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Maybe I'm not worthy to pray for this person and see their healing. It was just me, or was everybody really quiet?

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Why are we so quiet? Because you're teaching heresy. That's the reason why.

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Rank heresy. Rather than pointing them to Christ, having them confess their sins and be forgiven, you are instead going to teach them to deny that they are sinners, which is cutting them off from Christ.

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Manja, manja, manja. Be happy. I'm being very real with you.

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I thought this way. I had a heart for God. I had a heart of God since I was age 14.

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I wanted to enter the ministry. My dad wouldn't let me for two reasons. Number one, Bible College wouldn't take people under the age of 17.

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Second reason, he thought I was too young. But I had a heart for God all my life. I wanted to serve

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God, but strived upon inner battles and struggles, feeling that I need to push harder.

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I need to do more. I need to give more. I need to sacrifice more. I need to die to self more in order to do...

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Sounds like you were taught legalism and self -righteous legalism, but the solution to self -righteous legalism is not to deny that you're a sinner.

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No. It's to hear both law and gospel. You were cut off from the gospel under legalism, and you're cutting people off from the real gospel now.

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More for God. I need to do this. I need to do that. And it was under a works -based performance mentality that I entered in Christianity, and I didn't believe.

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I used to look at the superstars and say, wow, look at them. They must be so holy. But I'm not holy, so therefore

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I can't really pray for people. I would pray, God, help us out.

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Do something. Just heal that person. Don't look at me. Look at them. Mercy, God.

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Mercy. And that's the way I approached healing. Sounds very victorious, doesn't it?

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It's sarcastic. It's supposed to be a sarcastic joke. It's supposed to laugh. It's a sarcastic joke. It's not victorious at all.

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Yet because of this inner struggle that people have, and the lie that they believe, it's one of the major reasons that people are limited in being set free from sin, and secondly, from operating as Jesus did in this world.

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Do you really believe as Jesus is, so are you in this world? Yeah, taking that passage from 1

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John out of context. As Jesus is, so are you in the world. So Jesus was sinless, so you gotta be sinless too.

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Yet the clear passages I just quoted, in fact the one where Jesus teaches us to pray daily to forgive us our sins, uh -huh.

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Yeah, yeah. What you're doing here is known as sophistry. This is demonic sophistry.

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And what you're teaching these people is cutting them off from the grace and mercy that is in Christ. So while ever we believe that we haven't been completely set free from sin, we expect to sin.

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No, Paul makes it clear that the reason why we sin is because we still have sin dwelling in our flesh, in our members.

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That's what Romans 7 says. But if we believe, it's all in what you believe.

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If you believe a lie, you're gonna live a lie. But if you believe the truth, then you'll live the truth. Amen? And the truth is this.

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So the reason why the Apostle Paul struggled with sin in Romans 7 is because he believed a lie.

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And yet God the Holy Spirit had him pen Romans 7 under the inspiration of the

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Holy Spirit. That makes no sense. In Romans 6 verse 19 it says so clearly,

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I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh for just as you have presented your members as slaves of uncleanliness, that's what you used to do, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness.

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So now in your new life, present your members as slaves to righteousness.

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There is no reason for you to sin because living under lawlessness was your... Can I just point out the obvious?

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The Apostle Paul is writing that to Christians as well. If they weren't sinners, why would he need to tell them that?

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Just saying. But you've been set free from that life. There's no longer sin in you, and so there's no reason for you to present your members to unrighteousness.

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Paul never says in Romans 6 there's no longer sin in you. In fact Romans 7 makes it clear that sin still dwells in our members, in our flesh.

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Uh -huh. What you just said, you inserted something into Romans 6 that isn't there, which

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Romans 7 by the way explicitly takes away from you, Mr. Zelly. You can now present your members to righteousness and become slaves of righteousness.

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Hallelujah? No. And Jesus is our example. It says in 1 Peter 2 verse 21, it says this, for this you were called because Christ who suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow in his footsteps.

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Did Jesus sin? No, because he's the sinless spotless

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Lamb of God. He's God in human flesh. Well I'll just read that scripture again.

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Maybe you're not convinced. 1 Peter 2 verse 21, it says this, for just... Yeah, since you're rereading scripture again, let me reread 1

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John chapter 1. 1 John chapter 1. Now where did

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I put it? I better pull it up over here then. 1 John chapter 1.

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If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Quoting 1

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Peter out of context doesn't negate what John says. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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If we say we have not sinned, we make God out to be a liar and his word is not in us. Yeah, Mr.

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Zelly, you're showing yourself to be one who does not have God's word in you and you're self -deceived.

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Because you were called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow in his footsteps.

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Did Jesus sin? Should we sin? No one's saying we should sin.

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By the way, 1 John chapter 2 kind of makes the next part of the point. 1

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John chapter 2, John writes to the Christians, my little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

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But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He's the propitiation for our sins and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

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I think you get the point that, yeah, Scripture is making it very clear that we Christians still struggle with sin and against sin and fight against it because our sinful nature still exists.

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1 John 4 verse 17, it says this, love has been perfected amongst us. We may have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is so are we in this world.

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Yeah, you'll notice 1 John 4 verse 17, John is not going to undo what he said in chapter 1 verses 8 through 10.

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If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves. Just read the rest of the book,

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Daniel. In 1 John verse 2 verse 6, and I'm throwing out some scriptures here.

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Out of context, ignoring their meaning, and ignoring that the very books you're quoting, when you read the whole thing out, they say the exact opposite of what you're saying.

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Dealing with what I believe is the fundamental biggest lie of Christianity. And so I'm confronting it with the

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Word of God. Amen? No, you're not. You're confronting it with God's Word out of context, which is what the devil does.

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And 1 John 1 makes it clear you are self -deceived. So 1 John 2 verse 6 says this, he who says he abides in him ought himself also to walk just as he walked.

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Hallelujah. So what do you believe? Faith is the substance of things hopeful, the evidence of things unseen.

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If you underneath believe that you haven't been totally set free from sin, and you live in that lie, then it will be impossible for you to overcome sin.

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And it will also be impossible for you to operate with a free conscious in the world of the miraculous and the supernatural, because you believe somehow that you need to earn the favor to do so.

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But let me tell you, you are a saint saved by grace. Sin has been dealt with. It's no longer in you.

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And you have full access and full right as a child of God to live as God commanded you to live.

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Amen? Yeah. Like I said, 1 John 1, 8 through 10, says this guy is self -deceived.

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And God's Word does not dwell in him. Literally. And you'll note then that the solution for our sin problem, according to, you know,

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Daniel Zelle, is to deny that we even have one, rather than confess our sin and to be forgiven.

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Different gospel altogether. And this touches on not something that's a secondary issue in Christian doctrine.

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This is primary. This is a different gospel. This is a different solution to sin. And Daniel Zelle, according to the

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Apostle John, is self -deceived, and God's Word does not dwell in him. Very sad indeed.

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