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Living Waters of Grace 09.08.25 · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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  This is living. Waters of Grace, the teaching
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  ministry of Lewis Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary
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  Chapel of Westmoreland County in Greensburg, PA.
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  Now here's Pastor Lewis as he continues teaching through God's
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  Word. They're not making up stories.
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  They're not trying to figure out what they're going to teach.
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  It's here. They teach what's here, and they
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  expound on the scriptures. And this is what we need in this
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  day. We need truth, not stories, not
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  fables, not entertainment. I don't need to come up here and
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  make you laugh and entertain you.
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  We need the word of God. That is what changes us.
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  That's what transforms us. Have you ever attended a church
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  service where the pastor's message didn't come from a
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  biblical passage? Today, many Internet preachers
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  focus on few good sermons offering seven steps to success
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  or reminding you that you are the victor, not the victim.
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  But today Pastor Lewis emphasizes that genuine time
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  with God should be rooted in His Word.
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  True guidance and strength are not found in 2 minutes sermon
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  clips and prosperity teachings, but by reading and spending time
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  with God in His Word, the Bible. Now here's Pastor Lewis in the
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  book of Jude chapter 1 as he begins his message apostates
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  described. Please turn in your Bibles with
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  me, please, to the book of Jude. We're going to plug through this
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  and we're going to finish it eventually.
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  I promise you, eventually we will finish Jude.
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  We'll go to the 12th verse. I'm going to go ahead and read,
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  first of all, the verses that I plan to cover.
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  And I have to admit, because of the content of the verses, it's
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  not like it's going to be a whole lot of verses, but I
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  believe that the Lord has some things to say to us in these
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  verses that will be beneficial to all of us in our Christian
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  walk. But starting at verse 12, he
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  says this. These are spots in your love
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  feasts while they feast with you without fear, serving only
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  themselves. They are clouds without water,
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  carried about by the winds. They're late autumn trees
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  without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots, raging
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  waves of the sea foaming up their own shame, wandering
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  stars, for whom has reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
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  Now Enoch the 7th from Adam prophesied about these men also
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  saying, Behold, the Lord comes with 10 thousands of his Saints
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  to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly
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  among them, all their ungodly deeds which they have committed
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  in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly
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  sinners have spoken against him. So once again we see here that
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  this book of Jude, which he gives us small book, but he
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  gives us right before the book of Revelations and he, he gives
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  us his book because of what's going on in his culture at that
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  particular time. People were walking away from
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  the faith, people were absconding from the faith,
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  people were defecting from the faith, people were turning from
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  the faith. And some of these were teachers
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  who were teaching ungodly things to the Christians.
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  And you found it necessary, He found it necessary to put this,
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  this letter out as a warning to the people to let them know.
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  Be careful, watch out, make sure you are alert, make sure your
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  eyes are open, you're sober. Make sure that you understand
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  truth and that you're not deceived.
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  And this morning, my heart is echoing what it is that Jude is
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  saying. And the reason why is because
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  I'm seeing as I'm reading some things and I'm watching and I'm
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  looking, I'm seeing that people are walking away from the
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  church. People are walking away from the
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  church. People are leaving the church.
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  People are, are, are defecting from the Word of God.
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  Pastors are leaving their pulpits and leaving the faith.
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  Not just leaving their pulpits, they're leaving the faith.
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  But it brings to light the things that Paul said back in
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  the book of first Timothy. And I'm going to read it because
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  it's I think it's important that we hear this before we go into
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  talking about the description of these false teachers.
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  But there's two things I want to read before I get into the text.
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  First, first, first Timothy, chapter 4.
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  You've read it before, but I think it's appropriate here.
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  First Timothy chapter 4, verse one, it says this.
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  Now the spirit expressly says that in the latter times some
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  will depart from the faith. Why?
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  Because they're giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines
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  of demons. Verse 2 says speaking lies in
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  hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot
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  iron. Now I want you to go to Second
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  Timothy, and in Second Timothy, there's a couple things I'm
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  going to read. First, we're going to start with
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  start at chapter 4, First chapter 4, looking at verse 3,
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  it says for the time will come when they will not endure sound
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  doctrine, but according to their own desires.
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  That's so important. Listen to that.
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  But according to their own desires, because they have
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  itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers and
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  verse 4 says, and they will turn their ears away from the truth,
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  away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.
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  And then I'm going to read one more back over in Second Timothy
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  again here in Second Timothy, but chapter 3, starting at verse
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  one, it says, but know this, that in the later that in the
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  last days perilous times will come.
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  And then it describes how it will impact certain men.
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  It says for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money,
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  boasters, proud blasphemers, disobedient to parents,
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  unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers without
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  self-control, brutal, despisers of good traitors, headstrong,
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  haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God having
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  a form of godliness but denying its power.
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  And from such people turn away. So we have Paul giving this
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  advice to Timothy, his young son in the faith who was a young
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  pastor and he's saying, listen, understand something.
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  And the latter times these things are going to happen.
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  And it's also appropriate for us today.
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  Back in I read something recently, I read that said back
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  in 19, I think it was 1972, like 90% of the United States were
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  Christian. Now it's less than 64% people
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  walking away from the faith and a lot of the reasons why people
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  are giving from walking away from the faith is is because
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  they have differences with the Word of God.
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  Now times have changed, the culture has changed, and the
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  Word of God needs to change. No, it doesn't.
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  Cultural differences. I want to live this way and the
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  Word of God says I got to live that way.
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  I'm not in agreement with it, so I'm walking away from it.
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  These people I spoke to because they have been in some
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  legalistic situations or in some legalistic church, religious
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  kind of churches where you know, it was works based, was put
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  condemnation on people instead of teaching both truth and
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  grace. These people left because they
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  feel like they just can't stand up to the standard of what their
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  authority was trying to make them live up to.
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  They can't stand up to it, so they want to walk away from it.
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  It's easier for me not to be under any authority if I got to
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  be under authority that I can't stand up to.
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  So I'll just become an atheist and won't believe anything.
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  Therefore, I don't have to worry about feeling condemned or
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  feeling convicted about anything.
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  I don't have to worry about it because I don't believe it.
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  It doesn't matter whether we believe it or not.
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  It doesn't make it not true. Truth is truth.
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  Truth is truth, and just because I don't believe it doesn't make
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  it so. I used to say, look, God said
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  it, I believe it, and that settles it.
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  No, God settled. God said it, that settles it.
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  It doesn't matter whether I believe it or not.
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  It's not settled because I believe it.
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  It's not settled because you believe it.
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  It's settled because God said it.
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  The word of God is. It's to us.
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  It is an aroma of life to those of us who believe.
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  To those who don't believe is the aroma of death leading to
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  death. But unfortunately, people are
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  losing faith in the Word of God. They're losing faith in the word
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  of God. They're losing, they're losing
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  faith in the promises of God. And the reason why is because
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  they don't know God. So they think that this God
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  that's in the body, they think this God should be this way or
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  he should be that way. God shouldn't 'cause people to
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  suffer or let people suffer. They don't know God, that some
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  of the best work he does in us is in our suffering.
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  God is supposed to love everybody.
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  He's supposed to love everybody, and everybody's supposed to love
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  everybody. Yes, He does love, but there is
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  some things that we are not to love, in some ways that we are
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  not to love. They don't know God.
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  And I've learned recently that you can know the Word of God and
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  not know the God of the Word. We can quote Scripture, we can
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  remember Scripture, We can do all those things.
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  But if we don't know the God of the Scripture, those Scriptures
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  doesn't mean anything. We got people sitting in
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  seminaries who know the word of God.
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  They know it, they've studied it, they get degrees in it, but
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  they don't know the God of the Bible.
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  And because of that, there's no change in their lives.
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  And unfortunately, a lot of the lot of these men and are walking
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  away from the faith at certain points.
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  No Holy Spirit, no relationship, just a head knowledge of what's
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  in here. Our hearts for you as pastors
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  and anyone who comes up here and teach, Pastor Clark and myself,
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  when we teach, we want to have the Word living in your hearts
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  and in your lives and in our hearts and in our lives.
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  We pray for the Word to live in us that we have a relationship
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  with the God of the Word. We pray for your spiritual
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  growth, that the knowledge of his will, that you would have
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  the knowledge of his will inside of you.
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  You understand it and spiritual understanding and and
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  discernment, the knowledge of His will.
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  We have teachers that come in, out and I'm going to say it
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  again on Wednesday night. We have 5 teachers that come in
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  here and they teach and they're teaching Old Testament.
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  They're teaching Old Testament right now.
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  We're going through the book of Psalms, but on Wednesday night
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  we have Tom Brubaker, we got Will Thomas, we got Steve
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  Eichelberger, Dave Trout, John Morris, and these guys are
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  really bringing forth the scriptures, the truth.
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  They're not making up stories. They're not trying to figure out
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  what they're going to teach. It's here.
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  They teach what's here, and they expound on the scriptures.
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  And this is what we need in this day.
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  We need truth, not stories, not fables, not entertainment.
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  I don't need to come up here and make you laugh and entertain
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  you. We need the Word of God.
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  That is what changes us. That's what transforms us.
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  That's what makes us look more and more like Jesus is the word
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  of God. And we can't lose faith in the
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  Word of God because the Bible says he's faithful even when
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  we're not. It's the same word that brought
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  forth the earth. It's the same word that said,
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  let there be light in this bed. Light.
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  Ever since no one's been able to put the light out.
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  It's the same word that created you and me.
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  It's the same word that we that we live by.
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  We it says that certain things are going to happen and it has
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  happened. It's the same word that says
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  that we would need a savior and we did.
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  It's the same word that says I'm going to give you a savior, and
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  he did. Same word that says that every
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  He would suffer on the cross and die, and he did.
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  It's the same word that says that he would get up out of that
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  grave, and he did. It's the same word that says
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  He's coming back and He is. It's the same word, same word
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  that saved our souls. It's the same word that brought
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  us from darkness into light. The same word that brought us
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  out of death and into his, the Kingdom of his dear Son.
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  The same word, the same word that redeemed you and me, the
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  same word by which we have forgiveness of sins.
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  It's the same word. The same word.
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  Let's not lose faith in this. This Bible and the one that you
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  hold. This doesn't contain the word of
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  God. It is the word of God and we
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  have to believe that and trust it.
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  Why am I saying that? Because what Jude is talking
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  about here are people who walked away from the truth, who turned
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  away from the truth, and they announced teaching things and
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  saying things to try to get people to come after them.
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  They're Antichrist, which means that they want people to follow
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  them instead of Christ. They want to teach their own
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  truth instead of the truth that is truth.
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  The Bible says that. In fact if you look on your the
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  title of this it probably say my says apostates deprived and
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  doomed for a second. I just want to give a difference
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  between apostates and the word backsliders We see both in the
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  Bible. Well, one of the things that we
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  know is that a backslider is a temporary condition.
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  It's a lapse of of faith. It's a drifting away at some
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  point where Christians will have a lapse in faith.
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  And it may be because of something that happened, you
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  know, maybe someone died that when you were very close to.
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  So you get angry with God and for a while you stop going to
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  church or stop praying or stop reading your Bible.
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  These things happens. Sometimes temptation gets a hold
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  of you and you start going back and reverting back, you know, to
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  your old lifestyle. Sometimes those things happen,
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  but at some point or another, because of the Holy Spirit
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  that's in you and because God, the God that that saved you
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  won't let you go but so far. And then the Spirit that's in
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  you will bring you back. You won't walk away totally.
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  But then there's a apostasy. Apostasy is more of a deliberate
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  rejection of the Christian faith.
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  It's a, it's a deliberate defection and, and, and, and,
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  and, and you reject the truth. Truth is, in fact, you never
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  really believed it in the first place.
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  You professed it. I'm going to give you a
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  definition of an apostate. An apostate is not, and this is
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  from where this one warns where it's being.
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  I kind of like this definition. It says an apostate is not a
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  true believer who has abandoned his salvation.
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  You know, people try to say, hey, look, if you're an
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  apostate, then isn't that proof that, you know, salvation is not
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  necessarily eternal? You know, I mean that you can
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  lose your salvation. No, no.
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  When words you say that an apostate is not a true believer
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  who has abandoned his salvation. He is a person who has professed
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  to accept the truth and trust the Savior, then turns from the
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  faith. Bible says, how are we saved?
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  Yeah, we are saved when we confess with our mouths the Lord
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  Jesus Christ, but also believe in our hearts that God has
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  raised him from the dead. That's got to be there as well.
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  So an apostate is more of a deliberate and it's more of a
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  final situation because these, you know, the apostate never
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  really believed, never truly believed.
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  And this is who Jude is talking about here, these men who came
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  into the church crepin to the church.
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  I mean, looks like just like like any meios that's sitting
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  here could be a person sitting beside you.
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  We have no idea. Look like us, talk like us, act
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  like us. You know us.
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  If we hear somebody say hey, blessed and all be favored, you
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  know, maybe that means that they truly believe.
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  If they can hold those conversations and say those
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  slang words, may that means that they you know, the gospel slang
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  words may that means that they truly believe, but not
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  necessarily. But only God can see the heart.
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  We can't. Only God can see the heart.
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  God knows the heart. So this is who he's talking
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  about. Those who have walked away from
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  the faith and decided that they want to try to bring people to
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  themselves because they don't want to be under the authority
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  of Jesus Christ. So he says here that these are
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  spots in your love feasts while they feast with you without
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  fear, serving only themselves. Spots in your love feast now at
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  first mention, you know, you can almost imagine like you know, a
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  shirt, for example, white shirt. You know what I mean?
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  If I came up here with a white shirt on and and the whole shirt
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  is clean except for one spot And if you catch me after eating,
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  sometimes you might catch me with a spot on my shirt.
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  You know, I tend to get something on me all the time.
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  I don't know why how that happens.
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  No comments there. My poor wife has to always try
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  to get these spots out after I get finished.
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  But anyway, you would think it's like a a white shirt or
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  something though. And then also you see a spot on
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  it. Your eye goes directly to the
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  spot. So it's like a spot in your love
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  fees. But that's not what Jude is
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  talking about here. What Jude is talking about here
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  when he says is there spots in your love fees, he means that
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  these are in the Greek. It means hidden reefs.
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  Whole different meaning. Spots, hidden reefs.
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  It's a nautical term, hidden reefs or hidden rocks.
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  These are things that lie under the surface of the water that
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  you can't see, and you won't even know that they're there
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  until they've already done damage to the bottom of your
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  ship. Captains try to be aware of
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  these. They try to watch out for these
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  with their ships when they're going into certain waters, but
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  you can't see them because they're below the surface and
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  they cause damage. And before you even realize that
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  they're there is too late. They've already caused damage.
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  They're already put a hole with the bottom of your ship and you
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  starting to sink. But the same thing happens in
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  the church with false teachers. Sometimes before people even
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  realize that this is a false teacher, that this is someone
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  who doesn't believe what we believe is sometimes too late.
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  They've already done damage. They've always.
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  They've already caused some people to stumble.
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  They've already rebelled against leadership.
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  They've already started to divide the church.
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  They've already caused damage. We have to remember what brought
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  down the Titanic. It wasn't the iceberg that they
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  saw on top. It was a damage that they
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  couldn't see underneath the jagged edges of the iceberg that
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  was underneath that did the damage that brought that ship
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  down. And that's what Jude is saying
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  here. We got to be aware because these
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  false teachers can sometimes be just like hidden reefs, hidden
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  rocks, and we don't know that they're there until they've
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  already done damage. It's a sad thing when you have
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  that kind of situation arise where you just don't know.
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  We don't know. We don't know until we see the
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  effects of it. Then we realize that something
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  has happened. We've already been the, the,
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  we've been the victims of something that was trying to
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  divide and, and tear up the church.
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  I pray, I pray that here in Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland,
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  that we have so much love here and that we have so much an
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  awareness of the Word of God. It's going to be really hard for
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  someone to come in and try to deceive you guys because there's
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  so many of you who study the word of God.
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  You don't just study the Word of God when you come here.
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  It's not when you just hear me, Clark or any of the teachers on
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  Wednesday night that you guys are hearing the word of God.
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  You guys are always reading and studying the Word of God.
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  That's why we had a conversations that we have with
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  one another because you're always in the Word.
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  It's going to be very difficult for someone to come in here and
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  to try to teach something that is ungodly in here.
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  The ears would hear it. I would pray that our ears would
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  hear it immediately and we'd be able to stop it before we cause
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  any damage underneath the surface spots in our love
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  feasts. And and then the Bible says, and
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  they do it without fear. And just to go ahead and, and
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  follow up on the word love feast.
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  We have agape feast. And that's exactly what these
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  love feasts are. We have agape feast that we have
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  every now and then potlucks or whatever you want to call them,
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  where people come and bring their food.
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  Everybody loves those, Everybody loves those.
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  But what Jude is saying is that these false teachers will go in
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  to these love feasts and they would socialize with everybody
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  like everything is fine and talk like we all believe the same
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  thing. Meanwhile, they have motives
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  that are ungodly. This has been Living Waters of
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  Grace, a ministry of Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland in
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  Greensburg, PA Pastor Lewis Harrell has been teaching
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  through the book of Jude. This is a book of warning as the
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  audience that Jude was writing to was coming under attack from
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  false teachers. Even in the early days of the
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  church, there were teachers who claimed to have a unique
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  revelation from God that superseded Scripture.
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  Pastor Lewis wants you to be sure to be on your guard against
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  those teachers today as they will try to distract you from
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  following the way of Jesus. By focusing on what God's Word
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  says, you can call out false teachers for what they are and
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  stay on the good path. Do you want to hear more
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  teaching from Living Waters of Grace?
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  You can do so by visiting our website at
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  calvarychapelonline.com. There you will find an archive
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  of past teachings from Pastor Lewis and Pastor Clark.
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  Find a link to our mobile app or even give to support the
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  ministry of Living Waters of Grace.
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  Your gifts can help support the work of Grace FM, spreading the
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  gospel to people in our community who are in need of the
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  presence of God in their lives. If you're in Westmoreland
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  County, we'd love to invite you to one of our Sunday services.
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  We meet at 10:30 AM at 207 Hudson St. in Greensburg.
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  It'd be a privilege to get to meet you in person and learn how
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  we can be praying for you and helping you grow in your walk
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  with Jesus. And if you're in Greensburg, be
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  sure to listen to us on the news station for Grace FM at 91.7.
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  Spread the word to others so they can benefit from these
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  solid Bible teachings as well. You've been listening to Living
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  Waters of Grace.