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The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal - 2 Peter 2:12-17 - Don't Trust a Well Without Water · LifeAudio

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Life Audio. You are listening to The Bible Explained with
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Jen Koukl, a P40 Ministries podcast. Hello there, faithful listeners,
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  Speaker 1: and welcome to The Bible Explained on this lovely, beautiful morning.
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  Speaker 1: I've got my delicious cup of coffee right here to
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  Speaker 1: share with all of you guys and definitely been enjoying
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  Speaker 1: the weather these past few weeks actually. It's just been so,
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  Speaker 1: so beautiful and the leaves look amazing. So I have
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  Speaker 1: an email coming out this Saturday where I'm going to
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: share just what's up with all of you guys. And
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  Speaker 1: recently I've been actually doing my emails for a change.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: If you don't subscribe to the emails, make sure you
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: do because I'm going to be doing just a weekly
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: newsletter from now on. So I'll be showing up in
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: your inbox a little bit more often than I used to.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: So that is definitely something to look forward to if
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: you have not subscribed to the emails yet, or even
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: if you have subscribed, you can look forward to that. Now,
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  Speaker 1: before we get to today's episode, you guys know the drill.
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to play an advertisement for you, and I
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  Speaker 1: will be back right after that. Thank you guys for
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  Speaker 1: listening to that advertisement. And now let's get into the
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  Speaker 1: meat of the episode. You may recall what we talked
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  Speaker 1: about on Tuesday, but if you don't recall, I will
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  Speaker 1: refresh all of you guys right now very briefly. We
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  Speaker 1: have been talking about the false teachers. and how Peter
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  Speaker 1: warns that these false teachers are going to pop up
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  Speaker 1: kind of like crazy, and there's going to be a
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  Speaker 1: lot of people that fall for their lies and for
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  Speaker 1: their deception, because these people are master manipulators. They are
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  Speaker 1: crafty at what they do. And today we are going
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  Speaker 1: to dive in to some of the things that we
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  Speaker 1: can look for with the teachers that we enjoy following.
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  Speaker 1: Let's get into this. I'll be reading 2 Peter 2,
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  Speaker 1: 12 through 17 today. As usual, grab your Bible out
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  Speaker 1: of the version that you prefer, but I'll be reading
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  Speaker 1: from the WEB. But these as unreasoning creatures, born natural
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  Speaker 1: animals to be taken and destroyed, speaking evil in matters
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  Speaker 1: about which they are ignorant, will in their destroying surely
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  Speaker 1: be destroyed. Receiving the wages of unrighteousness, people who count
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  Speaker 1: it pleasure to revel in the daytime, Spots and defects,
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  Speaker 1: reveling in their deceit while they feast with you. Having
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  Speaker 1: eyes full of adultery, and who can't cease from sin.
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  Speaker 1: Enticing unsettled souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children.
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  Speaker 1: Forsaking the right way, they went astray, having followed the
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  Speaker 1: way of Balaam the son of Baor, who loved the
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  Speaker 1: wages of wrongdoing. But he was rebuked for his own disobedience.
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  Speaker 1: A speechless donkey spoke with a man's voice and stopped
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  Speaker 1: the madness of the prophet. These are wells without water,
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  Speaker 1: driven by a storm, for whom the blackness of darkness
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  Speaker 1: has been reserved forever. In 2 Peter 2, Peter is
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  Speaker 1: really hitting false prophets and false teachers hard because they
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  Speaker 1: are such a problem. They were a problem in Peter's day,
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  Speaker 1: in Paul's day, in the apostles day, in Jesus's day
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  Speaker 1: and beyond until right now and in the Old Testament
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  Speaker 1: days as well. False teachers and false prophets have always
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  Speaker 1: been a huge problem. And the worst part is not
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  Speaker 1: that these false teachers are popping up, but that people
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  Speaker 1: actually follow these false teachers. That's what it says in
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  Speaker 1: verse two. If you go all the way up to
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  Speaker 1: the top of the chapter, many will follow in their
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  Speaker 1: immoral ways. And as a result, the way of the
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  Speaker 1: truth will be maligned. This happens all the time. You
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  Speaker 1: can see that even now today, there are false teachers everywhere.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes they only have a few followers. Sometimes they have
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  Speaker 1: a lot of followers. But regardless, they're all over the place.
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  Speaker 1: So we got to be really diligent about these people.
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  Speaker 1: So we talked about the first portion of how you
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  Speaker 1: can know if someone is a false teacher. We went
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  Speaker 1: over the first three red flags that Peter gives in
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  Speaker 1: regards to a false teacher. Now, the first three red
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  Speaker 1: flags we went over was they hate authority. So they
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  Speaker 1: don't want anybody to be over top of them. They
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  Speaker 1: want to be the authority of everything, of scripture, how
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  Speaker 1: churches run, of their own system. They want to be
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  Speaker 1: the cult leader. That's the first problem. The second is
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  Speaker 1: that they walk after the flesh in lust of defilement.
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  Speaker 1: And I talked about how this could be money, but
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  Speaker 1: really this could be talking about any kind of lust
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  Speaker 1: of the flesh. This person walks in it. And thirdly,
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  Speaker 1: this person speaks evil of the dignitaries. And we talked
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  Speaker 1: about what the dignitaries are. Most likely they are evil
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  Speaker 1: spirits because they That's kind of the example that Peter
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  Speaker 1: gives right here. And if you go over to Jude,
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  Speaker 1: the same kind of example is given. So most likely
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  Speaker 1: Jude and Peter were talking about evil spirits. And I
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  Speaker 1: mentioned how this in the modern day could be somebody
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  Speaker 1: who claims they can control these evil spirits or somebody
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  Speaker 1: who harshly condemns these evil spirits instead of leaving that
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  Speaker 1: up to God, essentially. So if you're interested in what
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  Speaker 1: I said about that, I recommend going back Tuesday's episode
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  Speaker 1: and taking a listen to that because I'm not going
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  Speaker 1: to go back over it again today. But let's go
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  Speaker 1: into these last red flags that Peter gives. In verse 12,
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  Speaker 1: he says, So Peter considers these false teachers to be
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  Speaker 1: similar to a very violent animal. And this animal's only
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  Speaker 1: goal is to go around and kill and destroy everything. Eventually,
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  Speaker 1: what's going to happen to that animal? If there was
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  Speaker 1: a bear in your town that was just killing people
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  Speaker 1: left and right, going into people's houses, destroying things, eventually
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  Speaker 1: the government would come in and take care of that bear.
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  Speaker 1: They would kill the bear, right? Because you can't have
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  Speaker 1: a ravenous, wild animal coming in and causing destruction and
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  Speaker 1: killing people. That is how Peter is considering these false teachers.
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  Speaker 1: They are like wild animals that only know how to
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  Speaker 1: destroy people. But in their destroying, they eventually themselves will
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  Speaker 1: be destroyed. It might take a while. They might do
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  Speaker 1: a lot of destruction before their day comes, but their
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  Speaker 1: day will eventually come. And here is what these wild
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  Speaker 1: animal false teachers do. In verse 13, they receive the
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  Speaker 1: wages of unrighteousness. I think Peter is speaking both physically
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  Speaker 1: and spiritually with that one because, you know, you can
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  Speaker 1: physically receive wages of unrighteousness by doing unrighteous things and
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  Speaker 1: getting wealth from it. But spiritually, God says that the
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  Speaker 1: wages of sin is death. So if somebody is going
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  Speaker 1: to continue to live in sin, unfortunately, death is the
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  Speaker 1: wage that they are going to receive for that. But
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  Speaker 1: if you see a pastor right now in today's day
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  Speaker 1: and age benefiting from something unrighteous that they are doing,
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  Speaker 1: and they continue to do that unrighteous thing to get
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  Speaker 1: more wealth or whatever it might be, you can probably
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  Speaker 1: surmise that that person is receiving the wages of unrighteousness.
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  Speaker 1: These people count it pleasure to revel in the daytime,
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  Speaker 1: and they have spots and defects reveling in their deceit
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  Speaker 1: while they feast with you. Now, the Greek word for
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  Speaker 1: revel can also be translated as luxury. So this is
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  Speaker 1: the idea of a false teacher kind of living in
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  Speaker 1: brazen hedonism. I think of the megachurch preachers, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the televangelists, I guess, that have jet airplanes and, you know,
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  Speaker 1: just really expensive cars and Rolls Royces and just all
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  Speaker 1: sorts of other things. They enjoy the luxury that comes
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  Speaker 1: with being a false teacher. They revel in the daytime.
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  Speaker 1: They don't hide these things. They are proud of these things.
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  Speaker 1: That is a big, giant red flag. Now, don't get
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  Speaker 1: me wrong. You guys know, if you've been listening to
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  Speaker 1: my podcast for any length of time, that I am
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  Speaker 1: not opposed to having nice things. And I am certainly
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  Speaker 1: not a proponent of the Christian poverty movement. It's basically
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  Speaker 1: the opposite of the prosperity gospel, where it says that
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  Speaker 1: like Christians can't own anything nice. Like if you are
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  Speaker 1: not living in squalor, then you're doing something incorrect. You
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  Speaker 1: have to be living like in a hut with like
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  Speaker 1: one teacup and one pair of clothes. And if you
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  Speaker 1: have anything more than that, then you're essentially a hedonist. No,
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  Speaker 1: that's not biblical either, because it does say in scripture
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  Speaker 1: that God is the one who gives us the blessings
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  Speaker 1: that we have. So it does come from God. But
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  Speaker 1: if you become greedy for those things, if it's never enough,
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  Speaker 1: if you're always acquiring more and nicer things while not
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  Speaker 1: caring about the people in your community, that is a huge,
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  Speaker 1: huge problem that you have to fix in your heart.
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  Speaker 1: And unfortunately, these false teachers really exhibit that kind of problem.
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  Speaker 1: I remember years ago, um, when that hurricane hit Texas,
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  Speaker 1: Joel Osteen would not open up his gigantic megachurch for
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  Speaker 1: any of the people who couldn't go to their homes
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  Speaker 1: because of that hurricane that hit. Man, you know, that
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  Speaker 1: church would have been a perfect place for these refugees
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  Speaker 1: of Texas to go to. And unfortunately, Joel Osteen didn't
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  Speaker 1: want to open up his church to his local community.
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  Speaker 1: And that is what a shepherd is supposed to do, right?
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  Speaker 1: The entire point of a shepherd is to take care
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  Speaker 1: of the sheep, not just to gain wealth for himself,
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  Speaker 1: but to actually take care of the people in the community.
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  Speaker 1: So if you see a pastor exhibiting signs of that,
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  Speaker 1: that is a form of hedonism. You know, where he's
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  Speaker 1: only looking out for himself. He's only acquiring wealth for
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  Speaker 1: himself and not giving anything in return to the people
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  Speaker 1: of his town that really need help. And I would
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  Speaker 1: say if that pastor can't give to his local community
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  Speaker 1: when there is an actual need, that is a very
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  Speaker 1: bad sign. But, you know, hedonism doesn't just look like
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  Speaker 1: gaining wealth. and luxury for yourself. When I looked up
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  Speaker 1: the definition of hedonism, here's what the Google AI overview says.
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  Speaker 1: Hedonism is a family of philosophical views that treats pleasure
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  Speaker 1: and the absence of pain as the highest good and
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  Speaker 1: the primary or sole measure of value and motivation. And
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  Speaker 1: you know, when you really think about it, that is
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  Speaker 1: essentially what the prosperity gospel comes down to. God always
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  Speaker 1: wants us to be healed, always wants us to be
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  Speaker 1: well and in love and rich and just whatever else.
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  Speaker 1: All the good things in life, God wants us to
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  Speaker 1: have these things. And if you don't have these things,
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  Speaker 1: then that means you are not really a child of God.
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  Speaker 1: It means that you don't have enough faith or you're
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  Speaker 1: not enlightened or you're not faithful enough. But unfortunately, the
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  Speaker 1: prosperity gospel is just the definition of hedonism. Because these
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  Speaker 1: pastors who promote it say that lack of pain is
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  Speaker 1: the highest good and the primary and sole measure of
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  Speaker 1: value and motivation. So not only are these pastors going
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  Speaker 1: to fall into hedonism themselves, but they're also going to
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  Speaker 1: preach hedonistic principles to other people. And you can see
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  Speaker 1: now why these false teachers... Peter says that so many
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  Speaker 1: people will follow them because this kind of stuff really
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  Speaker 1: is appealing. Who doesn't want to be rich? Who doesn't
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  Speaker 1: want to be healthy? Who doesn't want to be happy
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  Speaker 1: and in love and just, you know, skipping through life?
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  Speaker 1: Everybody wants those things. You can see how it's appealing. So,
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  Speaker 1: of course, if a false teacher comes in saying, I
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  Speaker 1: know how you can live a pain-free life. I know
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  Speaker 1: how you can make tons of money. I know how
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  Speaker 1: you can find the true love of your life. These
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  Speaker 1: kinds of things are so appealing to our nature. And
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  Speaker 1: sometimes it's not even sinful nature that wants these things.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes it's just the God-given nature. You know, there are
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  Speaker 1: a lot of people who are not sinning who really
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  Speaker 1: do want to get married, who really do want to
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  Speaker 1: be happy and healthy and well, you know, these things
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  Speaker 1: aren't necessarily sinful. But when you make that your religion
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  Speaker 1: and your faith, that is when it becomes sinful because
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  Speaker 1: now you have an idol in your heart that is
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  Speaker 1: not God. And as we're going through Job's life on
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  Speaker 1: the Old Testament side of stuff, you can see how
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  Speaker 1: God is not the God of the prosperity gospel. So
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  Speaker 1: any teacher that promotes the prosperity gospel, is not worshiping
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  Speaker 1: the one true God. So we got to be careful
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  Speaker 1: of that because all of this comes down to hedonism.
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  Speaker 1: Now here's what else these false teachers do. They revel
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  Speaker 1: in their deceit while they feast with you. That's in
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  Speaker 1: verse 13 right here. And this is something you got
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  Speaker 1: to be really careful about because sometimes the best false
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  Speaker 1: teachers are the nicest people on the planet. They come
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  Speaker 1: to your house, they invite you over, they feast with you,
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  Speaker 1: they give you good food and, you know, good company
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  Speaker 1: and all of that kind of stuff. But they're actually,
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  Speaker 1: during this time, reveling in their own deceit. They're sitting
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  Speaker 1: there with you, you know, pretending to be your friend,
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  Speaker 1: but telling you lies about the gospel. And that's the thing,
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  Speaker 1: you know, people always think that a false teacher is
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  Speaker 1: going to look like Satan incarnate. You know, this guy
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  Speaker 1: that comes in is like, hey, you better hide your
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  Speaker 1: children and your wives because I'm going to take them. No,
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  Speaker 1: that is not what these false teachers do. They are
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  Speaker 1: great at lying. They are excellent at lying. They practice
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  Speaker 1: their lies and enjoy their lies. And they know how
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  Speaker 1: to flatter people. And they claim, they claim while doing
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  Speaker 1: all of this, that they love Jesus, that they are
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  Speaker 1: following the gospel, that they're real disciples of Christ. They
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  Speaker 1: just love Jesus so, so much. And they invite you over.
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  Speaker 1: They love bomb you. They pretend to have an interest
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  Speaker 1: in you. And they're doing all of it just so
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  Speaker 1: that you will become their follower. And a lot of
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  Speaker 1: people fall for this stuff. So you have to be so,
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  Speaker 1: so on guard and so careful with every teacher that
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  Speaker 1: you come across. Every teacher. That includes me. That includes
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  Speaker 1: literally anybody that you are consuming. Be on guard against
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  Speaker 1: all of them and make sure that their actions, their lifestyle,
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  Speaker 1: and what they are saying lines up with scripture. But
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  Speaker 1: Peter was dealing with the exact same issues in his
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  Speaker 1: day that we deal with nowadays. So it's not being
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: critical to analyze what somebody is doing with scripture. That
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  Speaker 1: is being wise, right? Scripture is to be our final
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  Speaker 1: authority with every single thing that we do. Just be
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  Speaker 1: careful with everybody that you come across that you don't
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  Speaker 1: accidentally fall into some sort of false teaching, false gospel
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  Speaker 1: that you will regret in the future that could potentially
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  Speaker 1: destroy not just your life, but maybe even the lives
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  Speaker 1: of your family members. Protect yourself. Protect your family. And
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  Speaker 1: more importantly, make sure that you have a healthy relationship
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  Speaker 1: with with your highest authority, which is Jesus himself. Keep
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  Speaker 1: your heart centered on Jesus and ask the Holy Spirit
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  Speaker 1: to guide you, to keep you safe, to protect you
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  Speaker 1: and to protect your family. This is important. Otherwise, Peter
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't be talking about it right here. Now, I do
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  Speaker 1: want to throw a caveat in there. There is no
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  Speaker 1: sinless person. We do want to be gracious toward people
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  Speaker 1: and their shortcomings and their preferences and We don't want
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  Speaker 1: to be overly critical where we're like, oh, you know,
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  Speaker 1: pastor so-and-so likes hymns and I don't like hymns. So
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  Speaker 1: I'm not going to listen to anything he says. No,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, there are certain things that come down to preference.
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  Speaker 1: As long as it is not anti-biblical with what the
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  Speaker 1: pastor or a teacher is saying or doing, there are
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  Speaker 1: things you just let go, you know, things that really
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: don't matter. For example, my husband and I just attended
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  Speaker 1: a church. who the worship leader, who was a very
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  Speaker 1: good worship leader, actually took his shoes off for worship leading.
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  Speaker 1: And my husband and I noted it and we were like,
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  Speaker 1: that's interesting. And we found out later on that he considered,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the idea of leading worship as holy ground,
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  Speaker 1: you know, kind of like Moses when he was near
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  Speaker 1: the burning bush. Now, me being a worship leader at
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  Speaker 1: one point, would I ever take my shoes off to
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  Speaker 1: lead worship because I considered it holy ground? No. But
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  Speaker 1: I'm not going to condemn that individual for doing something
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  Speaker 1: like that, even though that is not in my preference
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  Speaker 1: or something that I think is important. You let people
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  Speaker 1: be who they are and you let them have their convictions.
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  Speaker 1: So this is not what Peter is talking about, like
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  Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. He's talking about sins, like serious
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  Speaker 1: sins that people are very good at hiding, or sometimes
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  Speaker 1: they're just out in the open. You know, there are
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: certain pastors that just blatantly are sinning and people still
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  Speaker 1: follow them because their sins seem good. For example, you
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  Speaker 1: may or may not have seen recently a church where
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: the pastor went up on stage and introduced his second wife.
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  Speaker 1: And people in the comments were like, where the heck
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: is this? Like in the not good stuff. And people
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: were clapping when he brings his second wife up on
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: the stage. And by the way, polygamy or polygyny, however
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: you want to pronounce it now, is not legal in Ohio.
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  Speaker 1: He's got a church full of people who are clapping
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  Speaker 1: when he brings his second wife, if you can call
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  Speaker 1: her that, up on the stage. It's anti-biblical. It is
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  Speaker 1: against scripture to have more than one wife, especially If
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  Speaker 1: you are a pastor of that church, he should be
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  Speaker 1: disqualified immediately from being a pastor and talked to about
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  Speaker 1: having this kind of sexual sin in his life. And
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  Speaker 1: his wives should be talked to as well, because it
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  Speaker 1: is against scripture. You don't do stuff like that. But
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  Speaker 1: the followers who are following this guy and following other
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  Speaker 1: false teachers, they're not reading the Bible for themselves. And
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  Speaker 1: that's the most important point with all of this. Read scripture.
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  Speaker 1: That is your authority. Always. Speaking of having more than
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  Speaker 1: one wife, Peter says right here, they have eyes full
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  Speaker 1: of adultery who can't cease from sin, enticing unsettled souls
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  Speaker 1: and having a heart trained in greed, accursed children. They
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  Speaker 1: are accursed is what Peter calls them. And if you
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: look at the Greek phrasing for when Peter says right here,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: having eyes full of adultery, you can actually translate it
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: as having eyes full of adulterous women. Which means these teachers,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: when they look at a woman, they see her as
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  Speaker 1: nothing but an object to lie with. They see her
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  Speaker 1: as an adulterous woman or somebody that they can make adulterous.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: They are lustful. Their eyes are full of adultery. So
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: that's all they see are women as objects, women who
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: can be potentially adulterous women. That's disgusting. And that is
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: who these people are. And they can't cease from sin.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: And they entice unsettled souls. So people who don't quite
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: know the truth, who are looking for the truth, but
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: aren't being pointed at the correct source of truth. That
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: is who these false teachers target. Men and women like that.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: And they have a heart trained in greed. They are
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: cursed children. For the right way, verse 15, they went astray.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: Having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Baor,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: who loved the wages of wrongdoing, but he was rebuked
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: for his own disobedience. A speechless donkey spoke with a
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: man's voice and stopped the madness of the prophet. That's
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: all talked about in Numbers, I think, 22 through 24.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: I didn't look up the passage specifically, but that's the
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: story of Balaam. He was a prophet. And guess what?
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: He was a legitimate prophet. He spoke with God and
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: communed God's words accurately. He never said any false prophecy,
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: but he was still a false prophet. And here's why,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: because there's two things that make somebody a false prophet. Firstly,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: if their prophecies don't come true, because that just proves
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: they're lying because they didn't get anything from God, because
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: God is always truthful. So if somebody goes up and
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: says that there is a prophecy from God and it
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: never comes true or that they commune with God, they
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: are a false prophet and you should never pay attention
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: to anything they have to say ever again. But the
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: second thing that makes somebody a false prophet is is
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: when they entice people to go against God. Even if
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: they are saying the correct prophecies, like Balaam, the son
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: of Baor. He said the right stuff. He accurately prophesied
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: and talked with God because he encouraged, I believe it
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: was the Moabite king, Balak at the time, to destroy
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: the Israelites by making them morally corrupt. And Balak took
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Balaam's advice. and sent in all of these Baal worshipers
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: into the camp, these beautiful women who are worshiping Baal, prostitutes, essentially.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: And they enticed the men. And the men were cheating
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: with these prostitutes. They were even going into the camp
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: of God and having sex with these prostitutes, essentially out
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: in the open. And it wasn't until Phineas... who was
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: the priest at the time, it wasn't until he went
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: in and killed both the man and the woman who
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: are doing this detestable act near the tabernacle that God's
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: anger against the people was quelled. They had fallen into
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: this disgusting sin because Balaam purposely tried to lead the
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: Israelites astray and gave great advice of how to do it.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: And he was paid for that advice. He was greedy.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: And that is who Peter here talks about. People like Balaam,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: the son of Baor, who wanted to destroy people's relationships
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: with God for his own pocketbook. Peter actually makes fun
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: of Balaam right here. He says,' A speechless donkey spoke
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: with a man's voice and stopped the madness of the prophet.'
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: He's basically saying that the donkey was smarter than Balaam.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: And you guys might remember me talking about Balaam back
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: in the day when we covered numbers. But yeah, the
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: story goes that the donkey that Balaam was riding on
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: started speaking to him in a human voice. And Balaam
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: didn't even notice. He's like talking to the donkey as
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: if it's a human standing next to him. But the
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: donkey saved Balaam's life. because the donkey saw this angel
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: ahead of Balaam that was going to kill Balaam for
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: what he was doing. And the donkey kept making sure
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: that Balaam was out of reach of the angel's sword.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: But even after the miracle of that donkey speaking to him,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Balaam still went down the wrong path because that is
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: how greedy he was for money. Peter says, these people
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: are wells without water, clouds driven by a storm, for
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever. In
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: other words, these people act as if they are something good,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: just like a deep well. But that well is a
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: bottomless pit. You will not find any life-giving water in
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: that well. Or like clouds driven by a storm. You know,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: clouds are really great for farmers if they rain. But
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: if you need the rain and the clouds just like
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: pass you right by, well, that's no good. That's who
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: these people are. And Peter says that the blackness of
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: darkness is reserved for them. And that ties back to
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: verse 12, where it says in their destroying, they will
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: surely be destroyed. God sees what these false teachers are doing.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: He sees how they're corrupting people, how they're leading people
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: astray who are looking for the truth. how they are
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: doing just terrible, manipulative things to people. God is watching
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: all of this. So these people will be destroyed. And
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: they're going to be in the outer darkness, it says, forever.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: This place is reserved for them. So they have an
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: eternal punishment coming to them. And if that is the
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: reward that they are getting, why would we want to
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: follow these people? Alrighty, faithful listeners, if you think that
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: a pastor in your church might be exhibiting some of
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: these signs that Peter talks about, then by all means,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: you got to pray about it and see what God
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: wants you to do next. He might want you to
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: confront this person. He might want you to expose it.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: He might want you to leave the church. He might
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: want you to stay and fight against it. So definitely
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: pray about it because this is very important, not just
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: for you, but for your entire church as well. Faithful listeners,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: before I let you all go with a happy listening
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: and God bless, please listen to one final ad. Well,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: faithful listeners, that's it. It's the end of the podcast.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: I know, I know you're not going to be able
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: to listen to a new Bible Explained podcast episode until Monday,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: unless you become a member because Fridays are for the members.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: And right now we are going through the book of
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: the Psalms. So if you'd like to become a member,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: check out the link in the description that says Kofi.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: and you can become a member and gain access to
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: the Bible Explained on Fridays. But if you don't become
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: a faithful member, that is okay as well, because I'll
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: see all of you wonderful, faithful listeners on Monday. Until then,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: happy weekend, and God bless you all. I just want
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: to take a second to thank the team at Life
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: Audio for their partnership with me on the Bible Explained podcast.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: In fact, if you go to lifeaudio.com, You'll find dozens
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: of other faith-centered podcasts in their network. They've got shows
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.