Equipping Eve: Reformation Reversal (Part 1)
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A recent Pew survey reveals that many professing protestants do not actually know or understand what they believe. 2017 marks the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, but but is it possible that there has been a steady reversal of the reformation over the years?
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- Is the church today doing everything it can to provide women a firm foundation of truth in Christ Jesus?
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- Well, it's true, there's no shortage of candy -coated Bible studies, potluck fellowships available to ladies.
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- But beyond Sunday morning, are Christian women being properly equipped to stand against the same deceptions that even enticed
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- Eve in the garden? In an attempt to address the need for trustworthy, biblical resources for women,
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- No Compromise Radio is happy to introduce Equipping Eve, a ladies -only radio show that seeks to equip women with fruits of truth in an age that's ripe with deception.
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- My name is Mike Ebendroth, and I'm pleased to introduce your host, Erin Benzinger, a friend of No Compromise Radio and a woman who wants to see other women equipped with a love for and a knowledge of the truth of God's Word.
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- Well, hello ladies, and welcome to Equipping Eve, the show that seeks to equip you with fruits of truth from God's Word so that we can stand strong and firm on that Word in an age of deception.
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- Deception not just in the world, not just from so -called atheists and liberals, but deception from within the church, within and among those who profess faith in Christ.
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- That's really what we're fighting against, isn't it? We're fighting against fighting to uphold the truth in an age where people are twisting the truth and seeking to distort the truth so that a false gospel is propagated, and then by Satan's design, when that false gospel is propagated, people believe in that false gospel and they are not truly saved.
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- Ladies, we must be so zealous and so eager to proclaim and see the truth of God proclaimed.
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- See and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, because it's being distorted.
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- It's being lost in a world that does not want to hear the truth, and we are quick sometimes in our circles to speak very boldly about the truth of sin and God's wrath, and we have to, we have to, we have to do that in order to have the gospel even make sense, right?
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- If we don't tell someone the bad news, then the good news isn't really good.
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- It's just news, but we can't stop at the declaration of the sin.
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- We have to give the good news as well, else people will not know how they can be saved.
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- They will not know that good news, and so we must find a balance between proclaiming the truth of God's law and God's wrath and proclaiming the gospel that saves from that, and I think that's been lost sometimes and different aspects of that gospel have been lost, and that's what we're going to talk a little bit about today.
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- But before we jump into that, hey, let's look at something crazy and bad.
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- Why wouldn't we? That's what we do here at Equipping Eve. We pull up some nonsense so that the truth is even better and even more refreshing when you see and hear some of this nonsense.
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- Let's see. So I have this book by T .D. Jakes. It's called God Longs to Heal You, Free Your Body, Mind, and Spirit.
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- Your time for wholeness has come. God can heal what we reveal. This is what the first page says.
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- Powerfully anointed, Bishop T .D. Jakes calls you to courageously confess every layer of superficiality, religious reasonings, and pious pretending to your
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- Lord. His gracious love and forgiveness will free you and heal you. God Longs to Heal You provides inspiration from a man who shares his personal struggles to help those desperate for the
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- Lord's loving touch. You too can find peace in today's troubled world by understanding
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- God's desire to heal your body, mind, and spirit. Now it's funny because I believe the scripture says, come to me, that would be
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- Jesus, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. But you know,
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- T .D. Jakes, you know, you can go to him too. And, um, I mean, his, his face is on the cover of this book.
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- So, um, it must be legit. So I just randomly turned to a page in here.
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- It's kind of like that, um, awful practice of Bible study that says, I would just flip to any page in the
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- Bible and that's what God has to say to you that day. Yeah. Anyway. So when you do that in a
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- T .D. Jakes book, it's terrifying. Let's see. So the subheading is a common bond.
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- Since there is no blood to form the basis of relativity between friends, the bond must exist through some other mode of reality.
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- It seems I had to read that like three times to understand what he was actually trying to say. And then I got it. It's not difficult.
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- It's just, it's a weird way to say it. But anyway. Oh, let's see. Many people are surrounded by crowds of business people, coworkers, and even family members, yet they are alone.
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- This is so profound. Let's see. Next subheading is part of your destiny. You know, I love,
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- I love when teachers use the word destiny and it's usually the false teachers because they think that we want to hear this, like,
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- I don't it seems to me when you say the word destiny, that there should be just little sparkles and glitter all around the word.
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- It's, you know, like one of those bad old clip art pictures of the word destiny pops up in my head.
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- I don't know. That's probably just me, but anyway, there's something about this word destiny that the false teachers, they use it because they think it must feed into something in our brain that needs to be rooted out and mortified.
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- But anyway, it's part of your destiny, says TD Jakes. I know that betrayal can be painful. It's hard to receive disloyalty from hands and hearts you trusted.
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- The fear of a Judas has caused many preachers, leaders, as well as the general masses to avoid the attack.
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- Now, if you understand anything about God, then you know that God can give direction out of rejection.
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- That's the tweetable because it's in italics. So that's what you tweet out. God can give direction out of rejection.
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- It was Judas ministry that brought Christ to the cross. Really? I thought it was God. Okay. Anyway, um, so he goes on and, you know, you belong to God.
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- He watches over you every day. He monitors your affairs and acts as your protection. That's funny. I thought
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- God directed all of our affairs because, you know, he's sovereign over all things, but that's, that's fine.
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- We can put it that way too and be wrong. So that's TD Jakes.
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- So let's also take a look here. Remember Holly Gerth, uh, who wrote the book,
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- You're Already Amazing. And I have the little flip calendar that gives me a little saying every day about how amazing
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- I am. Well, I don't know where that is right now or else I'd read one to you. Um, but yeah, obviously you're already amazing.
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- So you go girl. You're already amazing. It's fine. You don't have to worry about, you know, striving for holiness or anything.
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- You're fine just the way you are. Now let's be clear. And we're going to talk a little bit about law and gospel here today.
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- Um, so as I say that about striving for holiness and desiring righteousness and growing and sanctification to be like Christ, and let me be clear that that is part of what happens after we have been saved.
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- We are regenerated. We're given a new heart or our minds are conformed to the mind of Christ and we desire the things of God.
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- And so we do those things and strive for holiness and desire those things out of the desires of a new heart and the new creature that God has created within us.
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- We do not do those things, strive for holiness, desire to be like Christ in an effort to get saved.
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- And so that's the difference. That's the difference. So when I mock the idea that you're already amazing and because you are a sinner, you're not amazing, guess what?
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- I am not amazing. I know it's hard to believe, but I'm not. And neither are you.
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- None of us are. We're sinners. We're sinners. And even our best works are as filthy rags before the
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- Lord. Because anything that we do as sinners is just tainted by our sin.
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- And that's the beauty of Christ. And that's the beauty of the gospel, right? And we'll get there. And I'm jumping all over the place today.
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- So stick with me. Anyway, back to Holly Gerth. So she has a new book coming out.
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- It's called Fierce Hearted. And don't worry, there's a little note on the cover of the book that says she is the bestselling author of You're Already Amazing, because who doesn't know about that book?
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- Everybody does. So anyway, there's this new, it's not a
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- Bible study. I guess it would be a book study of this book coming out when this book releases. And so you can join, it's free to join the study online.
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- Of course you have to buy the book. But you know, if you pre -order, you get the, if you pre -order the book, you get these exclusive items.
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- If you pre -order the book Fierce Hearted from any retailer and receive exclusive bonus items, the earlier you pre -order, the more bonuses you'll receive.
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- So I don't know when this is going to air, but you might want to get on this because if you order five or more copies of this book, you're going to get another fabulous bonus.
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- And it's a necklace. It's a necklace that has Joshua 1 9 be, just part of the verse, on the back.
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- Be strong and courageous, it says. So, you know, one of the things we like to do here is look at scripture in context.
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- So let's go to Joshua 1 verse 9, verse 9, you know what, let's actually go to verse 1.
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- Let's look at the context here. Joshua 1 verse 1, Now it came about after the death of Moses, the servant of the
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- Lord, that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' servant, saying, Moses, my servant is dead.
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- Now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel.
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- Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses.
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- From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the
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- Hittites, and as far as the great sea, toward the setting of the sun will be your territory. So God is speaking this to Joshua.
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- Let's just reiterate that. Verse 5, No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life.
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- Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you. I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous.
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- Verse 6, For you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
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- Verse 7, Only be strong and very courageous. He's saying this to Joshua as he is going to go in to take the land.
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- Let's just remember that. Be careful to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you.
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- Do not turn from it to the right or to the left so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.
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- For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have success. Verse 9, Have I not commanded you?
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- Be strong and courageous. Do not tremble or be dismayed. For the Lord, your God, is with you wherever you go.
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- That's weird because in all nine of those verses, God was talking to Joshua. But we're going to wear a necklace that says be strong and courageous, which is what the
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- Lord charged to Joshua. Okay. Do we see the problem there?
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- Do we see the problem when we just pick out a verse that we like? God's talking to Joshua. Joshua is supposed to go in and take possession of the land that is rightfully
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- Israel's because God gave it to them. Be strong and courageous, Joshua. Go in. You have to come up against a lot of scary people.
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- But be strong and courageous for I am with you. Now, is the
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- Lord with us as believers? Yes. Who do we have to fear? If the Lord is for us, who can be against us, right?
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- Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's true, but we don't need to take a verse that was spoken specifically to Joshua as we're learning about the history of Israel there in the book of Joshua.
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- We don't need to take that verse and pluck it out to use it for ourselves so that we can be fierce hearted and strong and courageous.
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- So anyway, yeah, it's as I record this, it's already too late for some of these bonuses, which is a chance to win coffee with Holly via live video or phone call.
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- That makes me want to laugh, but I won't. Let's see, there's still a chance to receive some bonus chapters, an audio book, printable quotes, and wallpaper for your computer.
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- And yeah, so anyway, what's this book about here? It says, every day we struggle to find more freedom, joy, and purpose.
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- What if the solution isn't trying harder or being better, but embracing the fierce hearted woman already inside us?
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- Really? I mean, why does it always come back to us? Could it please?
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- Annoying teachers who don't know how to handle scripture. Could it please come back to Christ just once?
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- Could you please take your focus off of Christ or off of yourself and put it on Christ? The description goes on.
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- A fierce hearted woman looks life in the face and says, you can't beat me. She lives fully and loves bravely.
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- She never gives in, never gives up, and never lets go. I feel like that's like a, you know, one of those
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- Rick Roll moments. Anyway, never going to give you up, never going to let you down. She dares to be who she is, imperfect and beloved.
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- In her most powerful and personal book yet, bestselling author, counselor, and life coach,
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- Holly Gerth empowers and encourages women, not simply through how to, but by life -changing, heart -freeing me too.
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- Join Holly on this journey to become a fierce hearted woman and discover what she did, the freedom and courage to embrace life, love, and faith to the fullest because your struggles can no longer hold you back.
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- I feel like I should just end the show now so that we can all go read our Bibles and deprogram from that nonsense.
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- What? It's fine. It's fine because stuff like this is, it's out there, you know, and, um, we get frustrated by it and we talk about it and we can make jokes about it, but it's out there and that's okay.
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- It's not our job to bring these people down. It's our job to proclaim the truth.
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- And so we're going to roll into what I actually wanted to talk about today. And, um, that is this idea of truth, the truth of the gospel and the truth of the law, what is going on in the evangelical church today?
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- Do we even understand the difference between law and gospel, law and grace?
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- Now we are coming up here in 2017 on the 500th anniversary of the
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- Protestant Reformation, right? That's coming up here in October. We typically recognize
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- Reformation Day on October 31st when Martin Luther in 1517 nailed the, his 95 theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg.
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- And so, you know, 500 years, 500 years ago is what started this
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- Reformation where the Catholic church had been instituting false teaching and propagating this false gospel.
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- And Martin Luther and others stood up against it. And of course, you know, realistically the Reformation started before Martin Luther and, um, continued on long after him.
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- And, um, this is just kind of a, a marker, a turning point in the movement.
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- But what is happening with the Reformation today and what is happening with it? I remember a few years ago, there were some false teachers who gathered with the
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- Pope and, um, said, you know, the Reformation's over, uh, you know,
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- Catholics, Protestants, we're all, we all believe the same thing and we need to stop having this division.
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- We need to have unity. And this is one of the misuse of the term, misuses of the term unity.
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- No, we can't have unity with Catholics. The evangelicals and Catholics together document is wrong.
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- Um, the, uh, what was that? The Manhattan declaration? Yeah, no, no. Things like that don't work because we cannot unite with Catholics because we do not share the same gospel because their gospel is contrary to the gospel of the
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- Bible. And they actually declare in their own documents that those who believe the gospel of the
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- Bible, those who believe that you're saved by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone are anathema.
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- You know, which is hilarious to me that they would say such a thing because in, um,
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- Galatians one, Paul says, verse six, the apostle
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- Paul writes, I'm amazed that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which is really not another, only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ, but even if we, or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed as we've said before.
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- So I say again, now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed.
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- And that gospel that Paul was fighting against in Galatians was the gospel of works, and that is precisely what the
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- Roman Catholic church teaches and propagates. And that is why there is a division and there is a right division because they are wrong and they are damning people to hell with their false gospel.
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- So that is why the reformation happened. That is why it needed to happen.
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- And that is why it is important. And that is why this article that I found is terrifying.
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- So I was listening to a recent sermon preached by Dr. MacArthur and he's teaching through Galatians.
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- And so he mentioned this recent survey that was conducted by the
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- Pew research group, and so I looked it up and the article says it's titled
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- US Protestants are not defined by Reformation era controversies 500 years later.
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- You ready? 500 years after the start of the Protestant Reformation, a new
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- Pew research center survey finds that US Protestants are not united about, and in some cases are not even aware of, some of the controversies that were central to the historical schism between Protestantism and Catholicism.
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- Okay, let's skip ahead here. For example, nearly half of US Protestants today, 46%, say faith alone is needed to attain salvation.
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- Let me just stop there. Only 46 % of Protestants who were surveyed said that faith alone is needed for salvation.
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- That number should terrify you. As should this next number, 52 % say both good deeds and faith are needed to get into heaven.
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- 52 % of Protestants believe in faith plus works.
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- Now what's interesting, as it said, US Catholics mostly align with the teachings of the
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- Catholic church. Fully eight in 10 US Catholics say both good deeds and faith are needed to get into heaven. And three quarters say that in addition to the
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- Bible, Christians need guidance from church teachings and tradition. So the
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- Catholics surveyed, at least know what the Catholic church believes and teaches, and apparently believe it.
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- The Protestants, or, you know, professing Protestants, evangelicals, don't know what the
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- Bible teaches and are believing a false gospel. Half, over half of them are believing a false gospel that you have to have faith, but you also have to be good to get into heaven.
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- Now, the fruit of a believer, as we said before, the fruit of a believer will be manifested.
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- You know, a person's salvation will be manifested in the fruit of good deeds, good works, things that align with the heart, mind desires of God.
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- Okay. We affirm that, but those things are not required to get you into heaven.
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- What is wrong with everybody? Okay. The survey finds that belief in Sola Fide and Sola Scriptura is much more prevalent among white evangelical
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- Protestants than among white mainline Protestants or black Protestants. Indeed, fully two thirds of white evangelicals say they believe faith alone is the key to eternal salvation.
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- And nearly six in 10 say the Bible is the only source to which Christians should look for religious guidance. Well, that's good, but I don't know why we broke it down into the color demographics.
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- Many Protestants in the survey correctly identified the Reformation, 70%, identified the
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- Reformation as the term commonly used to refer to the historical period in which Protestants broke away from the Catholic church.
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- You know, I think the only reason for that is that so many quote unquote evangelical
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- Christian pastors are saying that we need to undo the Reformation. I think that's the only reason that 70 % of professing
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- Protestants would understand what that word is. And it says 71 % picked
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- Martin Luther when asked to identify the name of the person whose writings and actions inspired the Protestant Reformation.
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- Well, that was mildly encouraging to me because I remember a time several years ago when
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- I was teaching a junior high Bible study and one of the kids, we were learning, we were talking about A Mighty Fortress, the hymn
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- A Mighty Fortress, and I said, well, you know, that was written by Martin Luther. And one of the kids looked at me and said,
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- Martin Luther King wrote that? And I said, no, no, Martin Luther, the
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- Reformer, you know, 15, 17. And he looked at me with a blank face and I thought, you know, our kids, we hear an awful lot about Martin Luther King, but you know, guess what?
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- Not quite the same impact here eternally as Martin Luther and what he did in church history, but anyway, so 71 % got that right,
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- I guess that's a good thing. Let's see. The new survey also shows that majorities of both
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- Protestants and Catholics in America say the two traditions are religiously, quote, more similar than they are different.
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- That's wrong. So there you go. Okay. The article continues, one issue that split
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- Protestants and Catholics during the Reformation was disagreement over whether Christians attained salvation in heaven through faith in God alone or through a combination of faith and good works, generally speaking,
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- Martin Luther and other Protestant Reformers in the 16th century espoused the belief that salvation is attained only through faith in Jesus and his atoning sacrifice on the cross, while Catholicism taught that salvation comes through a combination of faith plus good works.
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- Today, most Christians in the US, 62 % say that both faith in God and good deeds are necessary to get into heaven.
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- Eight in 10 Catholics hold this view, but so do majorities of white mainline Protestants, black Protestants, and other minority
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- Protestants, so I think they're splitting up Christians and Protestants. I'm not sure what the definitions are here.
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- I'd have to look at it a little more closely, but the bottom line is those who do not identify as Catholic, the majority of them are believing the same thing as the
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- Catholic church teaches. Well, we've got a problem here. We've got a problem, or to use better grammar, we have a problem.
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- And, you know, let's go back to this idea that most of the people interviewed said that the two traditions are more similar than they are different.
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- And, you know, again, that goes back to this, you know, we don't need to, we need to reverse the
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- Reformation. We need to undo it. There shouldn't be this division. We're all the same. God loves all of us.
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- We're all, we all believe in Jesus, so it's fine. No, it's not fine because you believe in Jesus and you believe, but you believe that his work wasn't enough.
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- That you, you and your sinfulness can actually help complete what
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- Jesus did. I'm sorry, that's called heresy and blasphemy and it's wrong and you're damning people to hell by teaching it.
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- But here we have Protestants thinking that Catholicism and Christianity are the same thing.
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- So here's an example, a local Catholic church I was driving by on my way home from work the other day, and I saw that there was going to be a
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- Catholic Lutheran dialogue or something. I'm not quite sure what the sign said. So I looked it up,
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- I went to the Catholic church's website and that's what it is. Catholic Lutheran dialogue. And so three different parishes in the area will be joining in study, prayer, and service with one of the
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- Lutheran churches nearby, Tuesday evenings for about a month, there will be dialogue, study locations, alternating sites.
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- Dialogue and study. So I don't know what study, prayer, and service and dialogue. So really,
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- I'm actually kind of tempted to go, but anyway, you know, obviously this is a
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- Lutheran church that's very liberal in its beliefs, I think, I'm not certain, but I think it's the same Lutheran church that has a quote unquote
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- Christian yoga class. So there's that, but nevertheless, you know, that explains what this
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- Pew research survey is saying about the mainline Protestants are believing things that the Catholic church teaches.
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- So we have a problem. We have a problem in that the Bible is not being taught, or if it is being taught, it's not being taught properly.
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- That's a problem. That's a problem because when the Bible is not taught properly, then the gospel is distorted.
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- And then when people distort the gospel, says Paul, they are accursed because it is a false gospel.
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- So this sermon from MacArthur that I was listening to, he taught extensively on the idea of cursing and then went back to this verse in Galatians and said, you know, really there's a triple curse on these people because you have the universal curse of sin.
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- And now they are believing a false gospel that their works must be added to their faith for salvation.
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- So it's a double curse. And now you have a triple curse when they are propagating that false gospel, and I thought that was such an interesting way of looking at it and a terrifying way of looking at it, especially if you listen and look and study and see what the
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- Bible teaches on curses, and he went back to the blessings and curses for Israel.
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- But again, this is serious stuff here. When you tamper with the gospel and the word of God, it's serious stuff that's not to be trifled with.
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- Do we want to stand before the Lord and answer for why we did not proclaim salvation in Jesus Christ alone?
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- I don't. Do we want to stand before the
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- Lord with our filthy rags of works and say, yeah, but, yeah, but I gave a lot of money to charity and, um,
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- I, uh, I adopted an orphan and, um,
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- I served at a soup kitchen, so, you know,
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- I was always really nice to everybody and I never murdered anyone, so I'm fine.
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- I'm good. Is that, that's not gonna hold up. In fact,
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- I don't think God's even going to let you stand there long enough to try and get all that out. It's not going to work.
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- The churches are not teaching the Bible. They're not.
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- They're teaching feel good, how to nonsense fluff, and they end up then resorting to what our sinful selves, our fallen flesh wants, and that is we want in our sinfulness, don't we?
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- We want to contribute to our salvation because the gospel goes against our fallen nature.
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- Our fallen nature wants to say, no, I can be good enough. And the gospel says, no, you can't and you aren't, and you never will be.
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- But Christ was, Christ is. But it's so interesting that this distortion of the gospel of adding works to your faith was, was happening back in the first century.
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- I mean, that was happening very early on. It was happening in the time of Jesus, because you had the
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- Pharisees. That is the ultimate distortion of the gospel. That is every other religious system out there besides Christianity.
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- That is ultimately the distortion that we fight against. It all comes back to that.
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- It all boils down to that heresy. And there are so many then little offshoots of that, like the doctrine, the
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- Catholic doctrine of purgatory. And this Pew survey says that three in 10
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- US Protestants believe in purgatory. In the US today, seven in 10
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- Catholics say they believe in purgatory. Most Protestants and evangelicals say they do not, but there are some that do.
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- Well, what is purgatory? Oh, after you die, you get to keep working. You keep working. Eventually you'll work your way to heaven.
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- What? Where is that in the Bible? Have you ever read
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- Dante's, not Dante's Inferno, but that's part of it, but Dante's Divine Comedy? I don't know if many people have actually read that.
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- I had to read it in college. And so whenever I hear teachings on purgatory or, you know, hear discussions about purgatory, that's what
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- I think of. And I just think of this picture of people working their way through the different levels of purgatory.
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- And it's such a hopeless picture. I mean, yes, you know, the way
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- Dante describes it, eventually you can get out and then you, then you go into paradise and there's levels of paradise. No, there's nothing in scripture.
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- Nothing. You cannot point to one verse, not one verse in all of scripture that even remotely hints at the existence of a purgatory.
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- It's not there. It's just not there. And the fact that someone who does not identify as Catholic, but identifies as Protestant would believe that it's true.
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- What hopelessness? That even after you die, you are still going to have to work.
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- What kind of a Christ do you serve? Here's an interesting little point of this article.
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- It says, while some Christian respondents in the survey were asked a multiple choice question about what is needed to get into heaven and given faith in God is the only thing and both good deeds and faith in God as response options, others were asked to answer in their own words.
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- This approach elicited a variety of responses, providing a different way of looking at Christian's views on this topic.
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- Well, just to be clear, there shouldn't be different ways. If you're a Christian, you have one way of looking at it and that's the biblical way.
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- But anyway, on the fourth choice question, U .S. Christians lean toward both good deeds and faith in God as the key to getting into heaven.
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- That's 62%. But when presented with the open -ended question, Christians are more evenly divided, 46 % gave responses that fit into the broad category of actions.
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- While a similar share, 43 % mentioned beliefs as the key to eternal life. Generally being a good person and asking forgiveness for sins were among the most common actions mentioned as key to getting into heaven.
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- Other Christians in this category said following the golden rule or God's will is how one gains eternal life.
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- It's so sad. When it comes to belief, Christians most commonly cited belief in Jesus or belief in God.
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- Catholics, meanwhile, were especially likely to suggest that good actions are what lead to eternal life, 60%.
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- Three in 10, for example, said being a good person will lead to eternal life and 14 % mentioned treating others nicely.
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- In the words of one Catholic respondent, quote, treating people with respect and how you would want to be treated and praying to the
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- Lord for forgiveness of for your sins determines who will go to heaven. That is so sad.
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- It's sad on the Protestant side. It's sad on the Catholic side. This is why the
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- Reformation is not over. It's not this point in history that happened.
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- Yes, there was an influx of, of breaking away from the Catholic church, but it's not over, it's not over because there has been a reversal, there has been a reverting among evangelicals,
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- Protestants, whatever you want to call them, those who do not identify as Catholic, and they are now identifying with Catholic beliefs.
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- It's terrifying and it's sad and it's why we must be proclaiming the gospel.
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- The gospel of grace, the gospel that says you are a sinner, you deserve death and condemnation and God's wrath, and that is what you will get, but the gospel that says that Jesus Christ lived the life that you're supposed to live, but can't.
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- Died the death that you deserve. And if you trust in him alone for salvation, repent of your sin, you will be covered and clothed in his righteousness and be reckoned as righteous before God, not based on your works, because your works are useless and worthless, but based on his work alone.
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- That's the gospel and that is the amazing gospel of grace.
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- That is grace. That is love. That is a loving God that does not require our works because our works can't do it.
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- That is a loving God who provided a way of salvation, provided his son as the only way to salvation.
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- I am the way and the truth and the life said Jesus. No one comes to the father except through me.
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- Not no one comes to the father except through me and your good works. How much money you dropped in the bucket. No, no, no, no.
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- No one comes to the father except through me. Period. Anybody who teaches otherwise is to be accursed in the words of the apostle
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- Paul. Well, ladies, I intended to get through a lot more today, but we are at the end of our time, so I think we'll continue and pick this up on the next episode.
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- So until then, get in your Bibles, get on your knees and get equipped.
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- Thanks for listening. You've been listening to Equipping Eve, a no compromise radio production.
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- If you'd like to get ahold of Erin, you can reach her at equippingeve at gmail .com, or you can check out one of our two websites.
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- Do not be surprised .com or equippingeve .org. Thanks for listening.