Despising God's Word

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Sunday school from April 30th, 2017

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We're going to be back in Jude and we're going to finish up our study today of Taking God's name in vain
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It's not an exhaustive study but we've been doing this over several weeks so we can understand what it is the scripture teaches in this regard and Who it is that we are warned against as far as those who take?
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God's name in vain and teach falsely about God. Let us pray before we get started
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Lord Jesus again, we thank you for your word We ask that you would send your spirit so that we may rightly understand it so that may we may know and believe what it is that you have done for us and what you would have us believe as Well as understand that how we are to walk in freedom now that we have been set free by Christ We ask this in Jesus name.
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Amen We're back in Jude and see who can do this without looking at their Bible Yeah, that's a it's a closed book quiz and if you don't pass
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We're gonna have to hold you back a grade. You'll guys I'll have to keep coming back to Sunday school again next year So I'm just saying.
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All right. So here's the question without looking at your Bibles What are the three prototypes if you would for the major false teachers as explained by Jude?
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Who or what are the three prototypes main types of false teachers as that were warned about by Jude?
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Balaam got Balaam Korah and Cain do you remember?
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What what is the primary issue with Cain? Doesn't have faith
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Right Profit for profit Korah is a rebellion against the offices that God has instituted
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So last week we talked in depth about Korah's rebellion and we gave some examples within the visible church today
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Korah's rebellion is alive and well where the where those Congregations that are hostile to the pastoral office do not recognize it as a
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God -given office or They put people into that office whom
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God's Word excludes as those who are qualified to be in that office so it's a visible manifestation of Korah's rebellion if you would and we noted the fact that Pastors as being called by the
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Holy Spirit to actually fill the office and to be pastors are not uppity about themselves and so the idea here is we recognize it that where two or more are gathered and there's a congregation that there is an office that needs to be filled and that the congregation through the working of the
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Holy Spirit calls a pastor the pastor fills that office and The idea then is is that he has duties that he is to be fulfilling as laid out by Scripture He doesn't get to invent his own duties
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Unfortunately, I know of quite a few pastors who are very busy In fact, if you were to look at their schedules from week to week
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They had just packed full just absolutely packed full But they're busy
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Doing other things than the things they're called to do which is a very scary thing, too
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So you can even say that in one sense knowing that the pastors also May be engaging in a form of Korah's rebellion by refusing to do the things that God's Word calls them to do to make disciples to baptize to teach to rebuke to correct to train all these things the pastoral office is
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It's a very crazy place the best way I can put it. So let's put this all together then So we've done the work on Cain Balaam Korah and now let's work back through we're gonna work back through Jude and then we're going to note a cross -reference here all of this is under the umbrella topic of what does it mean to take
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God's name in vain and We'll see what Scripture warns us in this regard
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You'll note then that the epistle of Jude and 2nd Peter. These two are kissing cousins
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They're pulling off the same themes But then let's back work back through Jude Jude verse 1
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Jude a servant of Jesus Christ brother of James to those who are called beloved in God the
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Father kept for Jesus Christ May mercy peace and love be multiplied to you beloved.
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Although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation. I Found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the
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Saints Now if you remember a few weeks back, we noted that Jude is written to whom Who said us?
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It's written to us. It's a Catholic epistle. It's a universal epistle. It is written to you to y 'all to me
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So it's written to all of us or as I say in the South all y 'all So it's written to all y 'all
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So that means all y 'all are to be contending for the faith Notice that contending for the faith is not limited to pastors
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It's written to all y 'all Yeah, all y 'all are to contend for the faith
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And here's the reason why for certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation
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They are ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ Now I want to remind you although you once fully knew it that Jesus who saved two people out of the land of Egypt See remember what we said today
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Who is the Bible about Jesus who said it was about Jesus Jesus Jesus said it's about Jesus So Jude here is a careful student of Jesus notes that it was
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Jesus who saved two people out of eat out of the land Of Egypt now and and all of our readings in the book of Exodus.
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Have we seen any Exodus text it says Jesus is the one who led the children of Israel out of Egypt No Well, how do you know this well, it's all about him
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He had to be the one who did it because you know, he's God See how this works. So Jude is a careful student of Scripture and he knows that the
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Bible is about Jesus Jesus saved two people out of the land of Egypt afterward he destroyed those who did not believe in The angels who did not stay within their own position of authority but left their proper dwelling
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He's kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day Justice Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities which likewise indulged in sexual immorality pursued a natural desire
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Serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire Yet in like manner these people the ones who've crept in right these people relying on their what?
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dreams hmm So if I were to come and say kanzinger, I had this dream last night that there was a burrito
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I usually have dreams about food. It's very important. Yeah. Yeah. See I I'm good on the eating thing not the fasting thing
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So anyway, but if I had this dream in the burrito dream means that God is telling us that we need to put some more carne asada into our burrito
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Yeah, so we need a burrito stand. Are you sitting there going? He's lost his mind.
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It's time to take pastor Roseboro and have him go Somewhere else but and you'll notice here now
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I what I'm saying kind of jokingly and tongue -in -cheek I can point you to congregation after congregation after congregation
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Where either the pastor the pastor's wife or somebody in authority or somebody within the congregation is given the microphone and they get up And they preach from an exegete their dreams
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With the belief that God the Holy Spirit is speaking a fresh word in their dreams
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You know, no So one of the things we learn about these false teachers is they rely on their dreams.
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They defile the flesh they reject authority Reject authority.
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I wonder if that has something to do with Cora's rebellion. So now you can kind of see it they reject Authority, they reject
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The authority that God has given to those in particular offices
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They blaspheme the glorious ones But when the Archangel Michael contending with the devil was disputing about the body of Moses He did not presume to pronounce a blast of misjudgment, but said the
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Lord rebuke you but these people Blaspheme all that they do not understand.
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They are destroyed by all that they like unreasoning animals understand instinctively
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Isn't it interesting that? Scripture in describing these false teachers describes them as well
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Irrational describes them in terms that these People are kind of crazy
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They're doing stuff that well Doesn't make any sense. So they're following their own inner instincts and they are like unreasoning animals
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Woe to them and when the Bible says woe That's that's a phrase of judgment woe to them they walked in the way of Cain now we see it
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They abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error perished in Cora's rebellion
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These are hidden reefs at your love feasts as they feast with you without fear
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They are shepherds feeding them Selves Isn't that fascinating?
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Describing pastors who are of this ilk They feed them selves
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It's all about what I get is the way they think So they feed themselves they are waterless clouds
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What a great description waterless clouds swept along by winds
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If you imagine how awful that would be here, I mean the farmers here rely on good weather in order to grow their crops and they're just weeks away from putting those crops into the field and praying for the good weather and The grace of God so that those crops grow and that they are able to yield a good harvest
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But could you imagine if the entire summer here was spent? Where every time we saw a dark cloud coming over the horizon that dark cloud never dropped any rain
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The land here would become parched in the same way false teachers are like that They stand in the pulpit or you have to say it nowadays they stand up on stages they stand up in the pulpit or on a stage and Words and words and words and words and words and words come flowing from their mouth and Not a one of them feeds
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Christ's sheep or drops any of the refreshing rain of the gospel on those who were hearing
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Yeah Good analogy It's a biblical one.
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They are waterless Rain clouds so their job is to get up and be a rainmaker if you would now
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I have a story that's kind of silly along these lines years and years and years ago when
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I worked in the corporate world my boss wanted to do some trendy technology project and you know, so I was doing
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R &D for our company and he wanted to Get venture capital to support this
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Project that we were working on Which didn't actually make sense to me, but we traveled to Silicon Valley and attended several
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Conferences to help you to help explain how you go about getting venture capital for technology projects and things like this and and that was the day that was back in the day when they the business world kind of Went crazy with these bizarre
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Titles, I mean you ever seen the the title for like the guys who run
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Ben and Jerry's, you know I mean if you look this up like that the people who work for Ben and Jerry's ice cream
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They have crazy titles for themselves So I was having a conversation with this one lady about our project and our need for venture capital and she looks at me says
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So what you're really telling me is that you need a rainmaker Yeah, we we need someone to bring the rain
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I Was clearly out to sea in a dinghy without paddles. I mean that was that kind of conversation
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I'm doing everything I can to just be polite but not look stupid, but I ended up looking stupid anyway But that's because what
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I do I'm gifted at that but So the idea then here is that you don't think of it this way a
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Pastor who is doing his job is a rainmaker
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Does that make sense and in this sense and the the rain that is being brought is the Word of God the rain of the gospel that comes and refreshes us and Causes the word to grow in our hearts and yield a crop and so the idea that so right way of looking at it is a
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Good pastor you can think of him as one who is a rainmaker Which always then begs the question, you know for those who are listening at home on the internet
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You know is your pastor bringing the rain or is he a waterless rain cloud?
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They are fruitless trees in late autumn twice dead Now in my yard, we have a crabapple tree and it starts off with these beautiful blooms in the spring and then that settles down into the green leaves, but then
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Started again the late summer in the early part of the fall that the lead the branches start to kind of bow down and it's heavily laden with food for my squirrels apparently, but You know, it's it's actually quite amazing to see and then could you just imagine an entire orchard of like real apple trees?
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When is the harvest it's in the fall so the false teacher is like a fruitless tree in the autumn
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You're supposed to be producing apples, where's the fruit here buddy? So a fruitless tree in autumn is good for what?
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Firewood Yeah Right. You got to get rid of that thing. So notice how how scripture describes these false teachers they feed themselves
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They're waterless rain clouds. They're fruitless trees in late autumn. They're twice that not just dead.
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They're twice dead they are Uprooted wild waves of the sea
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Casting up the foam of their own shame. They are Wandering stars.
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Now. What what is the significance of a wandering star? I mean think of it this way.
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How did the people in the ancient world navigate when they were in ships? stars
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Get that thing out. And what do you point that thing to whatever it's called? You point it to the
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North Star Because the North Star don't move it's anchored up there in the horizon.
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And so that's the idea anchored star is when you can navigate by a
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Wandering star if you were to literally Be on a sea voyage without any modern navigation equipment and you were to try to navigate from here to You know
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Europe across the Atlantic and you used Jupiter as Your way of figuring out which way to go.
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How well would you do? Yeah, you might be shocked that you don't end up in Perry, you know
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So the idea here is is that a wandering star or even a planet is one that you cannot navigate by You have to navigate by something that is fixed
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Now that's an important metaphor then and the reason why is because sound doctrine remember what
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Jude said the faith once delivered to the Saints does Christian doctrine move no
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Sound biblical doctrine is fixed You can navigate by it.
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You know what it is. You pass it off from generation to generation Somebody who is a wandering star as a pastor is teaching you stuff that has never been heard before or You can find its origin and its origin is in human history and in human hearts not the written
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Word of God Does that make sense? so a fixed point then is
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The point the faith once delivered to the Saints and the pastors to preach that so that he is not a wandering star
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His preaching is akin to What you get to be able to navigate by the
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North Star So these folks they are wandering stars for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever
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Notice their fate is the same fate as the demons Stephen.
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Yeah That's another way of putting it. Yeah Yeah Whatever happened to that fellow.
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Yeah, he burst onto the scene quickly disappeared What I always find fascinating Any of you ever spend any time in used bookstores, or is that just me?
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Okay, have you ever looked at the religion section or Christian section of a used bookstore?
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You buy him for a nickel right and if you look back through I mean look at the covers number one bestseller 1956 and nobody talks about this fellow anymore and the stuff that was in that book.
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Nobody's teaching that anymore I mean who is out there doing the late great planet Earth Bible study right now?
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Hal Lindsey, nobody is you can buy the Hal Lindsey's book for ten cents Dianetics, that's not
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Christian. That's a different thing altogether. I think that's the Christian. What is the name of that group Scientology, right?
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Yeah but the idea here is is that you go back through the used bookstore and you see that the used bookstore is literally like The graveyard of theological shipwrecks
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Because these guys come onto the scene and they've got the latest the greatest the most relevant the coolest the hippest the church of what's happening now theology and doctrine and Everyone pays attention to them for just that brief amount of time.
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They are the darling of Christianity Everything they say is like the current fad think about this
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I'll I'm gonna mention a book and I've seen lots of them in the used bookstores. You ready? You'll remember it prayer of Jabez 90s here not that that's not that old right?
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Who's doing the prayer of Jabez Bible study today? Do you know anybody? Oh, we got to do that prayer of Jabez thing
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And what a completely self -centered Bible study by the way, the whole prayer is
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Lord increase my territory. I Want my territory increased my territory needs to be slimmed anyway
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See you get the idea. All right, so talking then about these fellows Or in actually this also includes ladies for they these are people for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever
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It was also about these that Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied saying now
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This is a fascinating thing because this isn't this is a piece of extra biblical Literature that has been put into the
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Bible because this piece is actually correct And if you want to know there are two books in particular
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That are extra biblical that have parts of them put into the scriptures that are correct
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But we do not recognize them as scripture. Those two books are the book of Enoch and the book of Jasher If you ever heard of them, they're fascinating reads, but they're not scripture they're errant that clearly there's errors in them and that some of the errors are quite obvious, but they basically the book of Enoch in the book of Jasher reflect kind of an oral history that got written down at some time and Parts of it are accurate parts of it are accurate and for that reason the book of Enoch in the book of Jasher are
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Kind of informative but that you can't rely on them You know because we don't know which parts are real and not or not.
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Yeah No, those are not those are not those are not apocryphal books
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So that's not going to be in the body of work that we call the apocrypha That would be like first and second
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Maccabees, you know, the the long version of Daniel and things like that Enoch and Jasher there.
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These are these are Extra biblical books coming out of Judaism. So they're informative.
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And so here we have one of these books being actually quoted from It was about these that Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied saying behold, the
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Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way so notice
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The Holy Spirit now has picked up a piece of this old book put it into scripture and said that Enoch was the one who prophesied these words and he was prophesying about these false teachers and Notice kind of the triple ungodly
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To execute judgment on all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way
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Isn't it fascinating because these are people who if you were to look at them or listen to their followers people would say oh That's the most godliest got man of God that I know
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Enoch prophesied about them and said they're utterly ungodly. They're like triple ungodly They've committed all these things in an ungodly way and of the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him
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These are grumblers They're malcontents Following their own sinful desires
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They are loud -mouthed boasters Showing favoritism to gain an advantage
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This doesn't sound anything like the people who are qualified to be pastors right
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Loud -mouthed boasters showing phrase of favoritism to gain an advantage And he continues but you must remember beloved the prediction
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Predictions of the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you in the last time there will be scoffers
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Following their own ungodly passions it is these who cause divisions they are worldly people devoid of the spirit
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Scoffers Rebellious, I think of the emergent church movement which thankfully shipwrecked quickly
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But the word scoffer is one of the ways in which I would describe the major leaders of the emergent church movement
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You say to them God's Word says homosexual relations and Attraction are sinful ha they would say
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When I had a conversation with Brian McLaren face to face, this is a fellow who denies that Christ Died as our substitute on the cross.
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He hates that doctrine asked him straight up Brian What do you do with the passage in Isaiah that says he was pierced for our transgressions?
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He was bruised for our iniquities the punishment that brought us peace was upon him Brian McLaren said
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It all depends on what the word for means. Yeah Yeah, that's it's
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Bill Clinton's response. It all depends on what is is Still can't believe he was here just a few days ago
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Missed it darn. Um Yeah Yes, here's the difference, okay, so you you go back to the 1800s the 19th century
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What happens in American society? Kind of it's not just American society, but global society
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Right about the time of the Civil War what really comes into prominence kind of two things transcendentalism and the theory of evolution
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I Kind of think about this so it was it was during the period like immediately before the
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Civil War and following the Transcendentalism was like the in vogue thing here in the
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United States and think of the impact this has on the culture as a whole
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Transcendentalism is very emotive emotional feelings based and it's a shoe it's a rejecting of the cold
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Calculating enlightenment deism and So it flips, you know from America flips from being kind of a rationalistic logical
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Society to now we're touchy -feely lovey Feeling emotive whatever and so what happens at that time is that the churches?
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many of them are holding the line, but some of them are starting to flip and With this movement away and rejecting of the authority of God's Word through the undermining of Scripture because of the evolution and other things like that Christians kind of became a little bit wobbly in the last part of the 19th century going into the 20th and This is in part then the explains where the fundamentalist movement came from It was a reaction against the liberalizing tendencies
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So in the broader culture then there weren't a lot of fellows who in the churches had the freedom
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To just preach and teach whatever they wanted to you know for instance in pretty much all of the mainline denominations if somebody got up and started teaching what
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Charles Taze Russell taught or Joseph Smith or yeah, you know who's the
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Ellen White and people like right people like that if they were to get up and do that within a particular
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Denomination they would have been thrown out. There was still there were still doctrinal You know accountability in place that somebody could be brought up in false doctrine charters but what ended up happening with people kind of losing the things starting to get shaky is that people like Russell and Ellen White and others they were able to kind of step outside of those institutions and draw a group after them to follow them and They were the exception not the rule
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But in the decades and really more than a century since we've seen a progressive decline in sound doctrine and a growing and steady increase in false teachers to the point where You know as somebody who's like kept an eye on evangelicalism
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It you know for a long time now, and I'm my Breda program has been around for almost 10 years It is way different The evangelicalism is way different and way worse than it was 10 years ago when
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I started my program it is becoming very hard to find evangelical churches that are being taught any kind of exegetical
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Bible teaching at all and Among all of the most popular megachurches the guys are complete hacks
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And Yep, yep, and you have to understand that purpose -driven preaching is a is a form of prosperity preaching
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It's just kind of a less crass version of it And so like next week we're gonna we're gonna make a transition into the second table and we're gonna start talking about the
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Fourth Commandment to honor your father and mother but as part of the foundation for next week's lesson
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That's gonna actually require us to kind of hit head -on This idea that's very prevalent in Christianity today that God has a very unique and specific purpose for which he's created you
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That's actually not what scripture says and that particular doctrine is causing a lot of problems and it's a form of a very self -centered
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Teaching regarding sanctification, but it's it's in the same ballpark, it's in the same spectrum as Prosperity preaching and the reason why is because it's rather than teaching you that God is going to give you a
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Mercedes -Benz and a mansion and all that kind of stuff like we have any of those here in Grand Forks anyway
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You know, not really but that that rather than saying God's gonna give you that instead
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God's going to give you power and influence a purpose. You're gonna change the world and stuff like that and That's not what scripture sees just so we're gonna we're gonna tackle that next week
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With those four different Christian sides Mormonism, Muslim, what's the other one?
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There's four of them They all popped up in the 1840s All within a rather tight region of the
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Catskill Mountains And it was kind of, the explanation I heard is it was a spin -off or a reaction to the
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Great Awakening Revivalism Of Wesleyism And so these kind of color, culture, sex grew up as a reaction to the
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Revivalism We were in that part of New York over Christmas And the diverse spirituality stuff continues to this day
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Now Revivalism has its own consequences and Revivalism does play into this as well
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And so in Revivalism you have, you've got Finney's New Measures And Finney was one of these fellows who believed that, you know, just given the right theatrics
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And the right methods, he can bring anybody into Christianity And his
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Revivalism spread throughout the country at the same time as Transcendentalism and all this kind of stuff It's kind of concurrent streams that collide and we're still reeling from the effects of this
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We really still are, it has not washed out of Christianity at all, it's still embedded sharply in it
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But it's fascinating that you mention that area because that was part of the area that has come to be known as the burned -over district
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The long -term effect of Revivalism is it's like an herbicide
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It destroys all of the plants in such a way that gospel can't even take root and grow And so that area is a pretty dark region, tough to find
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If you drive one of the roads today, that combination I'm surprised that some of the car companies haven't figured out how to put like a psychic reading in our dashboard
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You're going 60 miles an hour and if you're a Sagittarius, today it's going to be, you know Never mind
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Yeah, it is pretty horrible, the springs, there were no good church
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We didn't even church for six months because there was no good
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LCMS They were all like what, pastored brewery services, just no good preaching
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This is where Woodstock took place, too I saw photos on the internet
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Whoa, that's all I can say, whoa I was a little, I missed Woodstock, I was a little young I don't remember it and I wasn't there
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Don remembers it and he wasn't there I drove by He drove by All right, so let's come back now to our text so we can kind of see these themes
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So you must remember the prediction is of the apostles They said in the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions
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It is these who cause divisions, worldly people devoid of the Spirit Now here's another important thing
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No joke, if I had a dollar for every time I was rebuked And told
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I was causing division in the body of Christ I would be so wealthy, it's not even funny
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And why is it that people rebuke me and say that I'm causing division in the body of Christ?
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Why? Because I'm rebuking those who are teaching false doctrine You see, within visible
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Christianity right now, people have it backwards They think the person who stands on Scripture and says this is sound doctrine
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This is false teaching, that that fellow is the one causing divisions in the body of Christ What does
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Scripture say? Who are the ones causing division? It's the false teacher who's causing division
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So always keep that in mind It is not the sound teacher who is rebuking those who teach false doctrine who is causing division
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It's the false teacher who is causing it So they are the ones who cause division, they are worldly people
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Oh yes they are And notice what it says, they are devoid of the Spirit That is a polite way of saying they're not even
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Christians If you don't have the Spirit, you're not a Christian But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith
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Keep yourselves in the love of God Waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life
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Have mercy on those who doubt Save others by snatching them out of the fire
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To others, show mercy with fear Hating even the garments stained by the flesh
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So notice, our posture towards those who are being deceived by these people
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Is to be one of love and mercy And desiring and finding every way possible to snatch them out of the fire
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And do so in a loving, merciful, kind way Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling
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And we thank you Lord that you keep us from stumbling And we pray that you would continue to do so To present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy
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To the only God, our Savior Through Jesus Christ our Lord Be glory, majesty, dominion and authority before all time
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And now and forever, Amen Now this is a great little epistle Quick read
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You got the theme You think false doctrine is a danger? Yes it is And that's what it means to take
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God's name in vain Now some may argue Well wait a second That Jude fellow
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We don't know much about him Which of Jesus' real apostles You know the guys who hung out with him
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Talk this way I would say that Peter would fit that bill
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Would he not? Let's take a look at 2 Peter And watch the theme of this epistle
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We can read it in 25 minutes Which is what we got Yeah we can do that Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ To those who obtained a faith of equal standing with ours
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By the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ What a great sentence Have you ever been tempted to say
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Well I'm not like Peter I'm not as amazing as he is You'll note here that Peter says that your faith
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Is on the same standing, same level as his own Because you are trusting in the exact same
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Savior he trusts in So to those who obtained a faith of equal standing with ours By the righteousness of our
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God and Savior Jesus Christ What did Peter just call Jesus? God Yeah, there you go
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May grace and peace be multiplied to you In the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our
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Lord His divine power has granted to us All things that pertain to life and godliness
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Through the knowledge of him who called us To his own glory and excellence By which he has granted to us
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His precious and very great promises So that through them you may become Partakers of the divine nature
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Real quick, if you want to understand What it means to be a partaker of the divine nature It's real simple, it happens every time
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We have the Lord's Supper here We partake of the divine nature When we feast on the body and blood of Christ In, with and under the bread and the wine
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So that through them you may become Partakers of the divine nature Having escaped from the corruption that is in the world
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Because of sinful desire For this very reason make every effort To supplement your faith with virtue
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Virtue with knowledge Knowledge with self -control And steadfastness with godliness
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And godliness with brotherly affection Brotherly affection with love For if these qualities are yours and are increasing
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They keep you from being ineffective Or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ So you'll notice here that These virtues do not make you a
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Christian They are the supplements of your faith And help you to not be unfruitful as Christians If you are the opposite of these things
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You have no knowledge, you're ignorant You have no self -control
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Rather than being steadfast, you're flighty And you're not godly, you're ungodly
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You have no brotherly affection, you're ornery and hateful And you don't treat anybody with love or brotherly affection
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But quite the opposite I would say that that would have a tendency To undermine your ability to effectively
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Proclaim Jesus as Lord and Savior And that's his point So whoever lacks these qualities is nearsighted
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That he is so nearsighted that he's blind Having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins
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Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent To confirm your calling and election For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall
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For in this way, there will be richly provided for you An entrance into the eternal kingdom
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Of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these qualities
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Though you know them and are established in the truth that you have I think it right, as long as I am in this body
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To stir you up by way of reminder Since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon
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As our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me And I will make every effort so that after my departure
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You may be able at any time to recall these things Peter knows he's about to die
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It's coming He knows he's about to die
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And he's going to make sure that the Christians After his death
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Are able to recall all of the important doctrines That he was teaching And he says
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For we did not follow cleverly devised myths When we made known to you The power and the coming of our
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Lord Jesus Christ But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty For when he received honor and glory from the
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Father And the voice was born to him by the majestic glory This is my beloved son with whom
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I am well pleased We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven
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For we were with him on the holy mountain Does this sound familiar?
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This is the transfiguration of our Lord I know people in the charismatic movement Who would sell their mothers into slavery
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If they could have an experience If they could just have an experience like that So we have And notice what he says here now
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We ourselves heard this very voice We were with him on the holy mountain And or but We have the prophetic word more fully confirmed
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To which you will do well to pay attention As a lamp shining in a dark place
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Until the day dawns and the morning star arises Knowing this first of all
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No prophecy of scripture Comes from someone's own interpretation For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man
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But men spoke from God As they were carried along by the Holy Spirit So this is what we know for sure
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All of scripture That which is truly the word of God The one doing all the heavy lifting
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Is the Holy Spirit So we can talk about the human authors For sure they were human authors
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And you can even see they each have their own unique writing style Ways in which they spoke
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And yet it was the Holy Spirit who carried them along To write these things down And Peter is saying
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I'm going to die I had that amazing experience
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But we have something even more sure than that And the thing that we have is the Bible That's even more sure
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So pay attention to it As a bright and shining light in the darkness
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It continues Now comes the theme that we've been working on But False prophets also arose among the people
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Just as there will be false teachers among you Who will secretly bring in destructive heresies
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Did you know the word heresy is a biblical word? There are people who literally think that it's not
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I remember years ago Somebody in the emergent church said Yeah, that pirate
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Christian fellow He's a heresy hunter And who gets to determine what a heresy is?
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He kind of said that kind of scoffingly I don't know Call me a simpleton if you like But The word heresy is being used here
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In my Bible This is a biblical category We're warned against those who are bringing in Destructive heresies
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And by the way Do you know what the Greek word for heresy is? Are you ready?
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It's heresy Yeah, it's actually
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That's just the transliteration of the Greek word Heresies is actually how you pronounce it
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Heresies But it means heresy Yeah, heresies So secretly bringing in destructive heresies
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And listen to these people They even deny the master who bought them Bringing upon themselves swift destruction
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Many will follow their Listen to the word there Sensuality And I want to kind of key in on this particular word
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Asalageia I don't do a lot of biblical teaching in the Greek Because it's oftentimes confusing
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But this particular one we need to pay attention So notice here Peter is talking about these false teachers
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Who are bringing in destructive heresies And because of them Many will follow their sensuality
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Now sensuality is what it says in the ESV But I want to pull this up in the Greek Asalageia Listen to what this word means
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Lack of self -constraint Which involves one in conduct
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That violates all bounds Of what is socially acceptable
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It is self -abandonment Now kind of plug that meaning in To what he's saying
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Many will follow their asalageia Their sensuality
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Their self -abandonment And you can think of it as going Now it's going in several directions
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Self -abandonment in sexual immorality Self -abandonment in pursuing of wealth
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Self -abandonment in no control at all
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Over their sinful nature But really giving in to the desires Of their sinful nature And because of them
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Because of these false teachers The way of truth will be blasphemed Do we see this happening today?
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I remember that YouTube video Maybe a year or so ago That just went viral
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And it was this fellow Who basically took the
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TBN teachers And just raked them over the coals
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And gave them a stronger rebuke Than any that I've ever heard Coming from anybody in a pulpit
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And it went viral And the guy's not a Christian But you think of this
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In the prosperity circles The ones who teach That you need to name it and claim it
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And that you need to decree and declare And that you're going to have wealth You know what they always do? They say that when we as Christians Have all this wealth
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Then what's going to happen is That that's going to be the impetus By which people say
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Well I want to be a Christian too And they're going to be jealous of us But does it play out that way?
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This past week the IRS raided Benny Hinn's Ministries headquarters
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In Texas Do you think people are sitting there going
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Man that Benny Hinn I mean he flies around the globe In his own private jet
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He drives this outrageous car And they showed literally Some drone flying over his home
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Overlooking the Pacific In Southern California Quite the spread by the way
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When people see that Do they say Oh man I've got to be a
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Christian too What do people say when they see that?
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He's a con artist Or worse All pastors are the same Christians are total hypocrites
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And their pastors are just in it for the money And so what happens is
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You've got somebody who's They're seeing this stuff going on The scandals that break Over and over and over again
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I mean how many different pastors Do we have to hear about having
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Basically bilking millions out of people And the news covers it over again
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They're investigative reporters We're doing an investigative report on Stephen Furtick We're doing an investigative report on Ed Young We're doing an investigative report on Benny Hinn We're doing an investigative report on Ken Copeland On Joyce Meyer And they show the opulence that they live in And as the world's sitting there going
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I've got to become a Christian What are they saying? The whole thing's a sham
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So when people who are pagans come to church And the plate is being passed around Even here at Kongsvinger They're sitting there going
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Oh we better see those tax returns on Pastor Roseborough It's like don't worry We'll show you the budget And show you how much
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I don't make But see that's what they think And so this is exactly what Peter says
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That these people will fall That people will fall into their self -abandonment Their sensuality, their asligeia
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And because of them the way of truth will be what? Blasphemed In their greed they will exploit you
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With false words If we had cable out here
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I would flip to a particular station And just sit back and watch for ten minutes
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And fill this room with all kinds of false words Clearly designed to ingratiate the wallets of the people
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Spreading those false words over the airwaves And here's the thing It's not rare It's so common we yawn at it
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Their condemnation from long ago is not idle Their destruction is not asleep
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See this is the sentence that if Benny Hinn were to read it If Ken Copeland were to read it If Joyce Meyer were to read it
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If all of these prosperity preachers were to read it This is the one that should keep them up at night
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Because at some point It's like what happened on the
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Titanic At some point
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Their money will not be able to save them There's no attorney who's going to be able to get them off the hook
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For whatever price This is all going to catch up to Their condemnation from long ago is not idle
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Their destruction is not asleep And here's the reason why If God did not spare angels when they sinned
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But cast them into hell And committed them to chains of gloomy darkness
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Sounds like Jude right? To be kept until the judgment If he did not spare the ancient world
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But preserved Noah who was a herald A preacher of righteousness With seven others when he brought a flood
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Upon the world of the ungodly If by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes He condemned them to extinction
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Making them an example of what's going to happen to the ungodly That whole hellfire and brimstone account
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In the book of Genesis Of what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah That was
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God saying You want to see what's coming? It's going to be that without end
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That's what he's saying And if he rescued righteous Lot Who was greatly distressed
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By the sensual conduct of the wicked And there's that word again
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Asalagea Sensual conduct Remember what we said
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Self abandonment What was the big presenting self abandonment sin
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In Sodom and Gomorrah? Homosexuality If he rescued righteous
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Lot Who was greatly distressed By the sensual conduct of the wicked For as that righteous man lived among them
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Day after day he was tormenting his righteous soul Over their lawless deeds That he saw and heard
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Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials To keep the unrighteous under punishment
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Until the day of judgment And especially of those who indulge In the lust of defiling passion
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And despise authority Man, this sounds like it was written about the
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United States Today Does it not?
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So you'll notice the common theme here The false teachers Literally give in to self abandonment
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Self abandonment Sexually immoral Self abandonment Greedy And scripture is saying of them
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That they are under judgment And that, oh, here's the other part of it
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They despise authority I mean, that makes perfect sense
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But the person who has abandoned themselves To their own sensual passions They don't submit themselves to any authority
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There's no one holding them accountable Because if somebody were holding them accountable
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Do you think they'd be able to do the things they're doing? No So the reason why they despise authority
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Is because authority would stop them From chasing after their defiling passions
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They are bold And willful They do not tremble
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As they blaspheme the glorious ones Whereas angels, though greater in might and power
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Do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord But these, like irrational animals
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Same words that Jude used These false teachers, they're like irrational animals
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They are creatures of instinct Born to be caught and destroyed Blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant
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Will also be destroyed in their destruction Suffering wrong is the wage for their wrongdoing They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime
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They are blots and blemishes Reveling in their deceptions
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While they feast with you So not only are they wandering stars
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Waterless rain clouds They are pimples on your behind Blots and blemishes
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And they revel in their deceptions While they feast with you They have eyes full of adultery
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They are insatiable for sin They entice unsteady souls
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They have hearts trained in greed Accursed children
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Forsaking the right way They have gone astray They have followed the way of Balaam The son of Beor Remember Balaam, the prophet for prophet
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Who loved gain from wrongdoing But was rebuked for his own transgression
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A speechless donkey spoke with human voice And restrained the prophet's madness These are waterless springs
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Mists driven by a storm For them the gloom of utter darkness Has been reserved
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For speaking loud boasts of folly They entice by sensual passions of the flesh
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Those who are barely escaping From those who live in error They promise them freedom
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But they themselves are slaves of corruption For whatever overcomes a person
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To that he is enslaved For if after they have escaped The defilements of the world Through the knowledge of our
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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ They are again entangled in them and overcome The last state has become worse for them than the first For it would have been better for them
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Never to have known the way of righteousness Than after knowing it To turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them
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What is the true proverb? What it says has happened to them The dog returns to its own vomit
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And the sow after washing herself Returns to wallow in the mire It's quite the picture, is it not?
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Do you think breaking the second commandment Is a big deal or not? It's a big deal for those doing it
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And for those who follow after them It's a big deal Peter says, now this is the second letter
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That I'm writing to you beloved In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind By way of reminder
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That you should remember the prediction Of the holy prophets And the commandment of the
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Lord and Savior Through your apostles Knowing first of all That scoffers will come in the last days
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With scoffing Following their own sinful desires
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And this is what happened in the ELCA All these people who scoffed At the authority of the word of God And its inerrancy
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And what it reveals is sin regarding sexuality They're rejecting of the authority of God And scoffing at it
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They followed their own sinful desires And now what do they have? Lesbian pastors
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They will say Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep All things are continuing as they were
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From the beginning of creation For they deliberately overlook this fact That the heavens existed long ago
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The earth was formed out of water And through water by the word of God And that by means of these
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The world that then existed Was deluged with water and perished By the same word
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The heavens and the earth that now exist Are stored up for fire Being kept until the day of judgment
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And the destruction of the ungodly But we do not overlook this one fact That with the
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Lord One day is as a thousand years And a thousand years as a day The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise
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As some count slowness But he is patient towards you Not wishing that any should perish
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But that all should reach repentance So you'll notice Sit there and go
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Why is God allowing all of this nonsense to go on? Answer Because it's not his will that any should perish
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He's being patient Because those who are being saved Are still being saved
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But the day of the Lord Will come like a thief Then the heavens
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Will pass away with a roar The heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved And the earth
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And the works that are done in it Will be exposed Almost like the earth will be laid bare
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Made naked Since all of these things are thus to be dissolved What sort of people ought you to be
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In lives of holiness and godliness Waiting for and hastening the day of God Because of which the heavens will be set on fire
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And dissolved And the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn But according to his promise
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We are waiting for new heavens And a new earth In which righteousness dwells
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And so you'll notice the common theme here then On the false teachers Where is their focus? Here and now
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How do I have wealth now? How do I fulfill my sexual desires now
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As perverse as they are? Everything is focused in on the here and the now Where is
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Peter focusing us? Way farther
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Everything you see here Is going to burn up Nothing you can touch, see, smell will last
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The stars, the heavens, the planets, the galaxies
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Gone New heavens, new earth Focus on what's coming
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So in other words, I've said it before, I'll say it again It's time for us to become so heavenly minded
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That we can finally be of some earthly good That's what he's saying So waiting for the hastening and the coming of the day of God Because of which the heavens will be set on fire
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But according to his promise We are waiting for new heavens, new earth In which righteousness dwells Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these
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Be diligent to be found in him Without spot or blemish And at peace
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Count the patience of our Lord as salvation Just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you
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According to the wisdom given to him As he does in all of his letters When he speaks in them of these matters
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There are some things in them that are hard to understand Which the ignorant and the unstable twist to their own destruction
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As they do the other scriptures A little bit of a note here Did Peter consider
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Paul's writings to be scripture? Yep It says so right there
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It's always fascinating to me
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That those who want to ordain impenitent homosexuals and women
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They go after the Apostle Paul And make his words less than scripture I always point them to this passage and say
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Well Peter said that Paul's writing was scripture How are your credentials better than his?
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I don't care what seminary you went to You didn't graduate from Galilee and you Peter did
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So you therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand Take care that you are not carried away
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With the error of lawless people And lose your own stability And there it is
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He's warning us so that we would not be carried away By these lawless people and their errors But grow in the grace and knowledge of our
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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity Is anyone here not convinced
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That breaking the second commandment is a huge sin?
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It's ginormous And scripture warns us in very clear and explicit passages
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And so we have all, all of us, not just pastor All of us have been tasked with the job of contending for the faith
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Once delivered to the saints Doing everything we can to snatch some from the fire And help free them from the error of lawless people
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Who have abandoned themselves to earthly passions and sensuality
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And greed and lust and sexual immorality All in the name of God, of course
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But the picture that is painted in scripture Is vivid, it is sharp, it is unambiguous, and it is clear
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Yes Unless there are these people who don't be scared because...
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Oh I know, I know, and I have yet to see A TBN prosperity preacher die well
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And that's the saddest part of it That's the saddest part Alright, we'll pick this up next week