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The Destruction of False Teachers · Bible stories

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Speaker 1: Have you ever heard that if a plane is just
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Speaker 1: one degree off course, it can still take off smooth,
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Speaker 1: look right, and feel like everything is on track but
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Speaker 1: the farther it flies, the farther it drifts, until it
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Speaker 1: ends up miles away from where it was supposed to be?
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Speaker 1: At the beginning, you cannot even tell the difference. It
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Speaker 1: is only a small shift, barely noticeable. But over time,
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Speaker 1: that small error becomes a major problem. What started as
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Speaker 1: just one degree off ends up in a completely different destination.
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Speaker 1: And that is how deception works. It is usually not loud, obvious,
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Speaker 1: or completely wrong. It is just slightly off. It sounds close,
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Speaker 1: looks right, and feels good. But over time, it pulls
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Speaker 1: you further and further away from the truth. That is
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Speaker 1: exactly what Peter is warning us about. False teachers do
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Speaker 1: not come in with something totally different. They come in
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Speaker 1: just a little off. And if you are not grounded,
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Speaker 1: you will not even notice the drift until you are
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Speaker 1: way off course. So the question is not just what
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Speaker 1: you are hearing. The question is where it is taking you.
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Speaker 1: And in 2 Peter chapter 2, God pulls back the
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Speaker 1: curtain and shows us exactly how this drift happens so
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Speaker 1: we can recognize it, resist it, and stay anchored in
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Speaker 1: the truth. Hello everyone, welcome to our lesson summary, The
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Speaker 1: Destruction of False Teachers, 2 Peter 2 verses 1 through 10.
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Speaker 1: 2 Peter 2 verses 1 through 10. through 10. And
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Speaker 1: so the big idea that we are going to be
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Speaker 1: focused on is good, always good. If you notice, I
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Speaker 1: always try to give you the big, big idea of
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Speaker 1: the passage, which is very important.
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Speaker 2: The purpose. Why did the author write this?
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Speaker 1: In other words, not everyone who sounds spiritual speaks for God.
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Speaker 1: We must know the truth and remain vigilant to avoid
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Speaker 1: deception and becoming an easy target for Wrong voices becoming
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Speaker 1: an easy target for wrong voices. So Peter wrote this
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Speaker 1: letter to help believers grow so that they would not
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Speaker 1: be led astray because the truth is simple here. You
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Speaker 1: are either growing in your faith or you are drifting
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Speaker 1: in your faith. And when you start drifting, you become,
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Speaker 1: as the big idea says right here, you become a
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Speaker 1: very easy prey. In other words, for the enemy. And
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Speaker 1: this is exactly what's happening in the text. Now, to
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Speaker 1: break this down, to make it even more simple, I
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Speaker 1: always like to just bring it to where you are,
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Speaker 1: bring it to where we all are, to keep it simple.
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Speaker 1: When you look back at the context, first of all, context,
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Speaker 1: you know, I always say this, is king. Context is king.
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Speaker 1: Chapter 1, don't ignore it. That's really the most important
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Speaker 1: piece here. in chapter 1 because if you don't have
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Speaker 1: chapter 1 we're in trouble in chapter 2 without a
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Speaker 1: doubt so chapter 1 Peter tells them you got to
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Speaker 1: grow you got to know the truth and grow in
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Speaker 1: the truth know the truth and grow in the truth
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Speaker 1: And then chapter two, which is what we're looking at here,
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Speaker 1: verses one through 10, you need to watch.
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Speaker 2: There's a warning here. Watch out for false teachers.
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Speaker 1: Now that you are growing in your faith, there are
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Speaker 1: some false teachers in the church and they are distorting
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Speaker 1: the word of God. And it's very important that you
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Speaker 1: know the truth and you are growing in the truth
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Speaker 1: so that you can recognize false. False are lies. So
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Speaker 1: here in chapter two, false teachers, that is. In chapter two,
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Speaker 1: he tells them to watch. And then in chapter three,
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Speaker 1: he says, expect the Lord to return. Now, let me
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Speaker 1: put this even just in a nutshell. Something that's really
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Speaker 1: easy to remember is just look at these three chapters
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Speaker 1: this way. Chapter one, it deals with holiness. Chapter two
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Speaker 1: deals with heresy. And then chapter three deals with hope.
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Speaker 1: Praise the Lord. So in the middle of this sandwich
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Speaker 1: of holiness and hope. We got a problem. It's called heresy.
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Speaker 1: And that's what we're going to look at today. And
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Speaker 1: that's where we are today. Y'all ain't nothing new under
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Speaker 1: the sun. Ain't nothing changed. Same problem that Peter had
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Speaker 1: with his audience is the same exact problem today. The
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Speaker 1: word of God is relevant. So hopefully that's easy to remember.
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Speaker 2: Remember.
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Speaker 1: Holiness chapter one you gotta you gotta keep growing looking
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Speaker 1: more like Jesus walking more like Jesus talking more like
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Speaker 1: Jesus so that when you see error of heresy in
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Speaker 1: the chapter two of your life you can recognize it
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Speaker 1: you can dispel it because and keep your eyes on
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Speaker 1: the hope to come because christ is coming back all
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Speaker 1: this mess you're seeing right now this heresy you're seeing
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Speaker 1: right now here in america and wherever you are in
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Speaker 1: the world it ain't gonna trouble won't last always there
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Speaker 1: it is all right so so holiness heresy And hope.
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Speaker 1: But we're going to look at heresy. Now let's look
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Speaker 1: at this first point. The presence of false teachers. Verses 1, 2,
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Speaker 1: and 3. Verses 1, 2, and 3. Now, before we
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Speaker 1: dig into that, let's ask a question. And this is
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Speaker 1: a great question to ask if you're just studying the
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Speaker 1: Word of God or if you are teaching the Word
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Speaker 1: of God or if you are a student of the
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Speaker 1: Word of God. Okay, so I'm talking to everybody, not
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Speaker 1: just teachers. I'm talking to everybody who is serious about
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Speaker 1: studying the Word of God because that is extremely important.
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Speaker 1: especially dealing with false teachers and acknowledging and recognizing false teaching, period.
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Speaker 1: So here's the question. How can you tell the difference
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Speaker 1: between what sounds like God and what actually comes from God?
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Speaker 1: How can you tell the difference between what sounds like
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Speaker 1: God and what actually comes from God? And I'll answer
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Speaker 1: that question. I'm sure you have an answer for that
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Speaker 1: as well. It has nothing to do with my opinion,
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Speaker 1: your opinion, because if we just talk opinions, it'll just be.
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Speaker 2: A ping pong match all day long.
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Speaker 1: It's a whole bunch of opinions on social media about
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Speaker 1: a whole bunch of them. on their opinions about God,
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Speaker 1: obviously they haven't read the word of God. Or for
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Speaker 1: that matter, let me back up, they don't know God.
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Speaker 1: So the presence of false teachers, verses one, two, and three.
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Speaker 1: So the theme here is history will repeat itself. Just
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Speaker 1: like I said, ain't nothing new. History is going to
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Speaker 1: repeat itself. And that's what we're seeing right now today.
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Speaker 1: That's what Peter was seeing. But Peter actually takes them
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Speaker 1: back to the past. He warns these saints who should be,
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Speaker 1: let me say it that way, they should be stabilized
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Speaker 1: by the truth in chapter 1. In other words, you
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Speaker 1: should know the truth and you should grow in the truth.
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Speaker 1: That's holiness. You should be walking like Christ. But in
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Speaker 1: the event you're not doing that, if you're being lazy,
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Speaker 1: guess what's going to happen?
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Speaker 2: You are prey.
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Speaker 1: And so the first problem that that Peter addresses there
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Speaker 1: in the church and he's trying to help those believers
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Speaker 1: understand what these false teachers look like, what to look for.
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Speaker 1: They smuggle destruction. They appear legitimate. They introduce error. in
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Speaker 1: a subtle way from within the church they ain't just
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Speaker 1: coming from without they already in the church because notice
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Speaker 1: what he says i'm gonna let you read the read
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Speaker 1: all these verses in your quiet time but notice what
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Speaker 1: he says in verse one but there were he's referring
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Speaker 1: to the past false prophets also among the people then
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Speaker 1: even as there shall be False teachers among you right now.
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Speaker 2: That's present. Right. And so he's he's trying to get
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Speaker 2: them to understand. Look here.
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Speaker 1: This I want to show you what to look for.
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Speaker 1: False teachers are present when they smuggle destruction. They come
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Speaker 1: in the church quietly. First, let me deal with something
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Speaker 1: that came to mind. When you look at that picture,
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Speaker 1: I mean, what do you see? You see a young man.
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Speaker 1: He looks like a preacher. There's a Bible that's open.
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Speaker 1: And I mean, it looks legitimate, right? But there are
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Speaker 1: some elements there that ought to raise some red flags.
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Speaker 1: Nothing wrong with the word blessing. I don't see anything
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Speaker 1: wrong with that. I don't see anything wrong with success.
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Speaker 1: But he's emphasizing financial abundance. And there are some other
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Speaker 1: key words that I could have thrown up. A lot
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Speaker 1: of the words that they tend to use, I'm talking
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Speaker 1: about false teachers, that actually gets away from the word
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Speaker 1: of God.
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Speaker 2: But let's continue to deal with this. Yeah, here it is.
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Speaker 2: Here it is.
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Speaker 1: Here's what I wanted to say about that. The question is,
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Speaker 1: the late A. Lewis Patterson asked this question years ago.
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Speaker 1: What does Satan look like?
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Speaker 2: There it is. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: Thank you, Holy Spirit. What does Satan look like? You know,
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Speaker 1: a lot of people had this distorted idea of Satan.
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Speaker 1: You know, he's a he's a guy with in a
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Speaker 1: red suit with a pitchfork. in his hand and some
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Speaker 1: horns coming out of his head. Now, I mean, what
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Speaker 1: does a thief look like? You have no idea.
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Speaker 2: I don't know.
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Speaker 1: I have no idea. What does a murderer look like?
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Speaker 1: I mean, goodness. So you can't tell whether or not
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Speaker 1: they're false teachers, in other words, on the outside. This
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Speaker 1: may not be a bad thing right here as far
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Speaker 1: as this picture. I actually created this picture, by the way,
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Speaker 1: with AI.
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Speaker 2: It may not be a bad thing.
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Speaker 1: It could be, I don't know, maybe he's teaching the
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Speaker 1: church how to be better stewards of their money.
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Speaker 2: Who knows? I'm just making stuff up.
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Speaker 1: But there are some things to look for when it
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Speaker 1: comes to error as it relates to false teaching so
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Speaker 1: peter says they sound convincing here it is here's something
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Speaker 1: to look for they sound convincing but their lives don't
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Speaker 1: match the word of god their lives don't align to
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Speaker 1: the word of god and they lead people away from
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Speaker 1: god as it relates to the church rob salvedo says
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Speaker 1: some leaders In churches today, they feed their flocks with
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Speaker 1: spiritual ice cream cake and candy. In other words, sugar-coated preaching, right?
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Speaker 1: They don't talk about sin. They don't make nobody feel uncomfortable.
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Speaker 1: Nobody's ever convicted. Nobody's ever confronted. Nobody's ever challenged. You know,
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Speaker 1: it's just that feel-good church. And he never raises his
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Speaker 1: voice because I don't want to raise my voice. And
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Speaker 1: I will never mention the word sin. Yeah, those are
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Speaker 1: red flags. They preach a counterfeit gospel, as Paul talks
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Speaker 1: a lot about another gospel. And it makes people feel, again,
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Speaker 1: comfortable in their sin. They are masters of deception. But
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Speaker 1: one of the first characteristics of a false teacher is
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Speaker 1: that he or she tells men that. What they want
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Speaker 1: to hear. That's what Peter talks about in the next chapter.
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Speaker 2: It's in ears, right?
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Speaker 1: He tells men and women what they want to hear
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Speaker 1: and not the truth they need to hear. So just
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Speaker 1: because it looks right or sounds right, it doesn't mean
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Speaker 1: that it's right. And so he says they smuggled destruction.
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Speaker 1: Then they scandalized the gospel. They twist the word of God.
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Speaker 1: They twist the word of God, scandalize the gospel, use
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Speaker 1: the word heresy there. What does heresy mean? Heresy means
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Speaker 1: a false teaching that denies the one found one of
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Speaker 1: many of the foundational beliefs of the church. One in
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Speaker 1: particular is they deny the deity of Christ. In other words,
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Speaker 1: they deny the fact that Christ, that Jesus is God.
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Speaker 1: False teachers are guilty of twisting the truth. There is
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Speaker 1: some false teaching floating around today by Christians right here
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Speaker 1: in America. Those of you outside of America, maybe you
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Speaker 1: haven't heard this.
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Speaker 2: Maybe you have.
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Speaker 1: But there is some false teaching that's floating around right now.
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Speaker 1: I ain't calling no names, but he might be your cousin.
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Speaker 2: I don't know. But here it is.
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Speaker 1: When a man places a leader, when men place a
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Speaker 1: leader of a nation equal with Jesus Christ, that is heresy.
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Speaker 2: That's heresy. What's the name of that group? The Mormons,
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Speaker 2: John Smith.
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Speaker 1: John Smith said he was equal with Jesus Christ. That
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Speaker 1: was a code. That's heresy or is a code. It
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Speaker 1: still exists today. And so somebody said it well.
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Speaker 2: All right.
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Speaker 1: So if if if we believe this man or y'all,
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Speaker 1: they believe this man is equal with Jesus Christ, which
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Speaker 1: is heresy. If this is true, let's prove it. Nail
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Speaker 1: him to a cross. I love this place, a crowd
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Speaker 1: of thorns on his head, pierce him in the side
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Speaker 1: and he let him die.
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Speaker 2: And then put him in a put him in a
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Speaker 2: borrowed tomb. And let's wait three days to see if
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Speaker 2: he gonna get up. It's heresy.
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Speaker 1: So whenever here's the thing about Satan, all of this
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Speaker 1: is deceptive. The thing about Satan is whenever God erects
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Speaker 1: a house of prayer.
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Speaker 2: Let me say it another way.
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Speaker 1: Whenever you're getting ready to do God's will, whenever you're
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Speaker 1: getting ready to get involved in a ministry, whenever you're
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Speaker 1: getting ready to start a ministry, the devil always builds
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Speaker 1: a chapel somewhere close. If you don't believe me, all
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Speaker 1: you got to do is go to Genesis 3 and
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Speaker 1: look and see. The Garden of Eden was beautiful.
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Speaker 2: It was perfect.
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Speaker 1: Adam and Eve, God made Adam and Eve. He created them.
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Speaker 1: They were perfect. Everything was perfect. Everything was fine until
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Speaker 1: Satan moved in the neighborhood. Another scholar says, where God's
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Speaker 1: truth is present, the counterfeit is not too far behind.
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Speaker 1: So therefore, any teachers instruction must be tested by the
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Speaker 1: words of Jesus Christ by the word of God and
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Speaker 1: we need to heed to what Jesus said in Matthew
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Speaker 1: 7 15 through 20 I won't read all of them
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Speaker 1: watch out for false prophets they come to you in
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Speaker 1: sheep's clothing and But inwardly, they are ferocious wolves. By
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Speaker 1: their fruit, there it is, you will recognize them.
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Speaker 2: We need to become fruit inspectors. That's what it boils
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Speaker 2: down to.
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Speaker 1: We need to become fruit inspectors so that we can
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Speaker 1: recognize any teaching that changes God's truth as heresy. Secondly,
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Speaker 1: or thirdly, I'm sorry, they swindle believers. Seeking personal gain, attention, keyword, attention, attention,
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Speaker 1: I got to have attention, or control rather than fostering
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Speaker 1: spiritual growth. Notice the contrast Peter makes between wicked ways
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Speaker 1: and the way of the truth. Did you catch that?
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Speaker 1: Wicked ways and the way of the truth. Wicked ways.
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Speaker 2: Let me see.
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Speaker 1: Where is it? There it is in verse 2. And
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Speaker 1: many shall follow, referring to believers, their pernicious, that means wicked,
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Speaker 1: wicked ways, by reason of whom the way of truth
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Speaker 1: shall be evil spoken of. To say it another way,
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Speaker 1: they make God's word look bad. because they twist the
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Speaker 1: truth and so peter says they give truth a bad
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Speaker 1: name because they are they are not trying to grow
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Speaker 1: you they're trying to gain from you anyone who always
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Speaker 1: needs something from you but never pours into you you
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Speaker 1: need to watch out i'm talking about a leader as
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Speaker 1: far as a teacher if if If it's always about money,
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Speaker 1: if it's always about attention, if it's always about control,
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Speaker 1: that's a red flag. The problem is they deceive believers
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Speaker 1: who can't tell right from wrong. Let me tell you something.
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Speaker 1: That is exactly what. I studied Jehovah's Witnesses. I studied,
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Speaker 1: you know, their beliefs years ago because many of them
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Speaker 1: kept coming to my house. And so I wanted to
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Speaker 1: not only, as Peter said in chapter one, you got
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Speaker 1: to know the truth.
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Speaker 2: You got to know the word of God. In other words,
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Speaker 2: you need to know the real thing.
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Speaker 1: For example, how do you how do you recognize a counterfeit,
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Speaker 1: you know, counterfeit money?
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Speaker 2: Well, study the real thing.
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Speaker 1: So that when the fake comes along, you can clearly
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Speaker 1: call it out. And so what cults do, by the way,
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Speaker 1: is they tend to pounce on people who are weak
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Speaker 1: or even believers who are weak in their faith. And
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Speaker 1: in some cases have been successful in leading them astray.
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Speaker 1: So Jehovah's Witnesses, they are actually taught, and I'm not
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Speaker 1: sure if it's still true today, I remember this was
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Speaker 1: from years ago, that whenever they encountered someone who was weak,
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Speaker 1: obviously they didn't know scripture, it's time to pounce. But
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Speaker 1: whenever they would encounter, and I think this is definitely
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Speaker 1: still true, whenever they would encounter somebody like you or
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Speaker 1: me who knows the Word of God, Guess what?
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Speaker 2: They're going to turn. They're going to shift from trying
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Speaker 2: to recruit you to attacking you. And then they're going
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Speaker 2: to walk away.
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Speaker 1: That's what they do every time when you when they
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Speaker 1: deem that, you know, too much. And that's a good
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Speaker 1: thing when they recognize, oh, this person, they know too
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Speaker 1: much about the word of God. We can't we can't
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Speaker 1: get them because they're looking for weak people, much like
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Speaker 1: Peter said. And that's why he's trying to keep the
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Speaker 1: people alive. from falling prey to. So biblical illiteracy, unfortunately,
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Speaker 1: is costly. When you don't have a moral compass, you
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Speaker 1: will drift. You know, you've heard the old saying, if
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Speaker 1: you don't stand for something, you're going to fall for anything.
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Speaker 1: When you don't have a solid foundation of truth, you
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Speaker 1: will follow heresy. So what do you do? Slow down
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Speaker 1: and check what you are listening to. whether it's on
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Speaker 1: the radio, whether it's on TV, or whether it's on
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Speaker 1: social media or anywhere else, do not accept a message
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Speaker 1: from God because even what i'm saying now because it
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Speaker 1: sounds spiritual you need to be like the bereans did
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Speaker 1: in in acts chapter 17 verse 11 be like the
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Speaker 1: bereans After they heard the apostles preach, they themselves went
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Speaker 1: and searched the scriptures to validate whether or not it
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Speaker 1: was true. And there's nothing wrong with it. Always measure
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Speaker 1: what you hear against scripture. If it never challenges you,
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Speaker 1: if it never corrects you, if it never causes you
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Speaker 1: to grow, you may be feeding on something that feels good,
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Speaker 1: but it's not good for you. So false prophets look
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Speaker 1: like they were getting away with it. And when you
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Speaker 1: look around today, it looks like the heresy is getting away.
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Speaker 2: Falsehood is getting away.
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Speaker 1: It seems like it's winning, but God is not ignoring
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Speaker 1: it because when you look at the second point here,
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Speaker 1: in my second point, as I can get to it,
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Speaker 1: the pattern of God's judgment clearly shows us God is....
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Speaker 2: He knows what's going on and he can handle it.
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Speaker 1: The theme here is God's judgment has a track record,
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Speaker 1: first of all, in the past. Because when you look
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Speaker 1: at how he dealt with the angels, when he talks
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Speaker 1: about that, when Peter talks about that in verse 4,
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Speaker 1: he's going back in the past.
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Speaker 2: He says the angels were condemned.
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Speaker 1: When you look at Genesis chapter 6, verses 1 through 4,
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Speaker 1: Revelation 12, verses 3 through 4, God did not spare
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Speaker 1: the angels. The angels who sinned who Satan caused to sin,
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Speaker 1: guess what?
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Speaker 2: God judged them.
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Speaker 1: This is when, you know, when Satan and, what is it,
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Speaker 1: one third or one fourth of the angels that were
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Speaker 1: cast out. So if the heavenly beings were judged, what
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Speaker 1: makes us think anybody can escape God's judgment?
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Speaker 2: Now think about that.
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Speaker 1: Beings who were in heaven, in God's presence, still faced judgment.
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Speaker 2: So this tells us.
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Speaker 1: It's not about your status. It's not about the fact
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Speaker 1: that you got billions of dollars.
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Speaker 2: That's not going to save you. No, no, no.
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Speaker 1: It's not about your position. It's not about how long
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Speaker 1: you've been in the church. God does not grade on
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Speaker 1: a curve. He does not say, well, you know, you
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Speaker 1: meant well. Nobody gets a pass on sin, right? Sin
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Speaker 1: is still sin, no matter who commits it. And there
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Speaker 1: are consequences. So nobody on the face of this earth
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Speaker 1: is above God's authority. Some people think I've been in
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Speaker 1: church all my life. You know, I know. I know scripture.
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Speaker 1: I serve in this area. I served in that area.
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Speaker 1: I've done this for years. But none of that puts
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Speaker 1: you above. And the key word here is accountability, which
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Speaker 1: is the problem. Biggest one of the biggest problems here, again,
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Speaker 1: that I see in society. There's a lack of accountability.
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Speaker 1: There's this big elephant in the room of sin here.
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Speaker 1: of individuals, leaders committing sin left and right, and nobody
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Speaker 1: saying anything about it. But the moment you try to
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Speaker 1: address that sin, you are quickly attacked.
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Speaker 2: It's like a coat. Well, it is.
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Speaker 1: That's what's going on. So God holds all of us accountable.
23:29
Speaker 1: All this simply means is God is fair in his judgment.
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Speaker 1: He sees everything and he will deal with it the
23:36
Speaker 1: right way and at the right time. So the angels
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Speaker 1: were condemned. The ancient world was condemned. That's verse 5,
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Speaker 1: Genesis 6-9. You know, the flood. God judged the whole
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Speaker 1: world with the flood. But in the middle of all
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Speaker 1: of that, he preserved Noah. Now he's giving examples of
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Speaker 1: God's judgment at this point. He's giving examples of God's judgment,
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Speaker 1: not only of the wicked in the past, but But
24:05
Speaker 1: he's also giving an example. He's getting ready to give
24:08
Speaker 1: two examples of how he can deliver saints, even at
24:12
Speaker 1: the same time, by the way. So watch this. So
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Speaker 1: God judged the whole world, right? But he preserved Noah.
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Speaker 1: Don't miss that. That's actually the tension in the text
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Speaker 1: that Peter is talking about. He's talking about judgment and
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Speaker 1: mercy happen at the same time. Everybody around Noah was
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Speaker 1: living wrong and it had become normal, normalized. Again, like today,
24:37
Speaker 1: right is wrong, wrong is right. That's what people think.
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Speaker 1: But just because something becomes normal does not make it
24:43
Speaker 1: right in the sight of God. The flood shows God
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Speaker 1: judges widespread sin. It also demonstrates God's deliverance of Noah
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Speaker 1: and his family by showing mercy. So just because everybody's
24:56
Speaker 1: doing it, as we always used to say when we
24:58
Speaker 1: was growing up. I remember when I first told my
25:00
Speaker 1: mama that I regretted it. You know, if everybody jumping
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Speaker 1: off a cliff, you're going to do that, too.
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Speaker 2: No, no, no.
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Speaker 1: You ain't had to go there, mama. But mama was right.
25:09
Speaker 1: She was right. She was right. Everybody laughing at something.
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Speaker 1: Does that make it right? Does God approve of it?
25:15
Speaker 1: If Noah could speak to us today.
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Speaker 2: Here it is.
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Speaker 1: He'd probably say, you can be surrounded by sin and
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Speaker 1: still live right. That's his life, literally. He was surrounded
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Speaker 1: by sin, but he still lived right. And then here's
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Speaker 1: another example. Verses 6 through 8. The cities of Sodom
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Speaker 1: and Gomorrah were condemned. God condemned sinful people, but spares what?
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Speaker 2: Lots.
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Speaker 1: So even though Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed, God rescued Lot.
25:50
Speaker 1: Lot wasn't perfect, but he was still called a righteous
25:54
Speaker 1: man because he was grieved by what he saw. The
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Speaker 1: key is he did not become comfortable in sin, even
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Speaker 1: though he was surrounded by it. So remember our citizenship. Listen, saints,
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Speaker 1: our citizenship is in heaven. You can live in a
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Speaker 1: messed up environment without becoming a messed up person. God
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Speaker 1: can judge sin and still rescue his people at the
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Speaker 1: same time. And if he made a way for Noah
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Speaker 1: in the flood pool lot out of a burning city,
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Speaker 1: he can bring you and I out of any storm
26:29
Speaker 1: that we encounter.
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Speaker 2: Last point and I am done. So here it is.
26:35
Speaker 2: Last point is the precision of God's deliverance. That's verse nine. Man,
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Speaker 2: I love this. So, so watch this.
26:45
Speaker 1: The precision of God's deliverance. The theme here is God
26:49
Speaker 1: knows exactly what he's doing.
26:52
Speaker 2: I know, I know, I know. Sometimes, and I have
26:54
Speaker 2: to admit, sometimes I'm like, Lord, how long?
26:59
Speaker 1: Based on what we're seeing just here again, just here
27:02
Speaker 1: in America and how it is, by the way. And
27:04
Speaker 1: I know those of you outside of America, this is
27:07
Speaker 1: impacting you as well. I keep asking, Lord, how long?
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Speaker 1: But God, listen, here's the answer right here in the text.
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Speaker 1: In verse nine, there's actually an if then if you
27:17
Speaker 1: read this text too fast, you'll miss it. So Peter,
27:21
Speaker 1: he concludes this by actually answering his if question, which
27:25
Speaker 1: is way back there. He started in verse four. He
27:28
Speaker 1: answers it right here in verse nine. If it was
27:31
Speaker 1: an if then. So let me make sense out of that.
27:34
Speaker 1: If God did not spare sin and angels and the
27:36
Speaker 1: ancient world, but preserve Noah and rescue Lot, then here
27:41
Speaker 1: it is in verse nine.
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Speaker 2: The same just God.
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Speaker 1: Who punished the wicked and preserved the righteous in the
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Speaker 1: past is the same just God who can be trusted
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Speaker 1: to do the same in the present.
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Speaker 2: He rescues the faithful. Verse 9a.
27:59
Speaker 1: God consistently delivers believers even when situations change. seem impossible
28:07
Speaker 1: even when things seem like they are out of our
28:09
Speaker 1: hands there's nothing we can do god knows i love
28:14
Speaker 1: that phrase that peter uses there god knows how to
28:19
Speaker 1: deliver the godly So he did it in the past. Again,
28:23
Speaker 1: he can still do it today. So remember, we say
28:26
Speaker 1: it all the time. Don't just say it. You got
28:28
Speaker 1: to believe it. God, he specializes in things that seem impossible.
28:38
Speaker 1: So God not only has a track record of delivering
28:40
Speaker 1: saints in the past, but he also has a track
28:43
Speaker 1: record of delivering you and I as well. All you
28:45
Speaker 1: got to do is look back. Don't forget that part.
28:49
Speaker 1: Look back and see all the times that God has
28:53
Speaker 1: delivered you from all the dilemmas, all the storms, all
28:57
Speaker 1: the tragedy, all the stuff that you've gone through in
29:00
Speaker 1: your life. And right now you may be faced with
29:03
Speaker 1: something right now, something you think is just too big
29:06
Speaker 1: for you. Yes, it's out of your hands. It's a
29:09
Speaker 1: God sized task that only God can handle. And it
29:13
Speaker 1: boils down to one thing. You got to trust him.
29:17
Speaker 1: Because he's rescued you rather in the past. Surely he's
29:23
Speaker 1: not going to haul off and leave you right now.
29:25
Speaker 1: He can rescue you in your present. So also he
29:28
Speaker 1: remains in control. Here's the last thing and I'm done.
29:31
Speaker 1: He remains in control. So when Peter says the Lord knows,
29:35
Speaker 1: he is not talking about the awareness only. He's talking
29:39
Speaker 1: about God's trust. record of ability of his ability his
29:43
Speaker 1: authority and his control God is never confused he never
29:48
Speaker 1: caught off guard by anything you can trust that God
29:51
Speaker 1: can handle what you and I cannot so You ever
29:58
Speaker 1: see somebody panic because they know what to do, but
30:04
Speaker 1: God already knows the end before the situation even starts.
30:08
Speaker 1: You know, you can rest in the fact that he
30:12
Speaker 1: knows how he knows how you got to trust God
30:15
Speaker 1: to handle what you cannot see, fix what you cannot
30:20
Speaker 1: or control what is out of your hands. So, If
30:24
Speaker 1: God knows how to judge the wicked and deliver the saints,
30:29
Speaker 1: which side of that are you on right now? And
30:33
Speaker 1: as I close, you remember what happened to Joseph, right?
30:39
Speaker 1: Joseph in Genesis 30 chapters 37 through 50. He was
30:43
Speaker 1: a man who did right. Everything did everything right. But
30:48
Speaker 1: everything still went wrong. His own brothers lied on him,
30:51
Speaker 1: sold him. He was taken far from home. Then in
30:55
Speaker 1: Potiphar's house, he did the right thing and still got
30:58
Speaker 1: falsely accused. Thrown into prison, forgotten, left there. Now, if
31:04
Speaker 1: you look at Joseph's life in that moment, you might think,
31:08
Speaker 1: you know what? Wrong is winning. Lies are working and
31:13
Speaker 1: truth is losing. It looked like the people who did
31:16
Speaker 1: him wrong got away with it.
31:18
Speaker 2: It looked like it.
31:20
Speaker 1: But what Joseph did not see in the moment was
31:23
Speaker 1: was that God was still working behind the scenes. Because
31:27
Speaker 1: one day, God turned the tables. The prisoner became the
31:31
Speaker 1: prime minister. The one who was lied on was lifted up.
31:35
Speaker 1: The same brothers who betrayed him had to stand before him.
31:40
Speaker 1: And Joseph said it best. You meant it for evil.
31:44
Speaker 1: But God meant it for good. Genesis 50, 20. This
31:49
Speaker 1: is exactly what Peter is saying to you and I
31:51
Speaker 1: just because it looks like wrong is winning right now.
31:56
Speaker 1: It does not mean God is not working because God
32:00
Speaker 1: knows how to deal with the wicked. He knows how
32:04
Speaker 1: to deliver his people at the right time. So some
32:09
Speaker 1: of you may be in your Joseph season right now.
32:13
Speaker 1: Things don't look right. People did you wrong. Situations feel unfair.
32:19
Speaker 1: Country out of control. But don't get it twisted. God
32:24
Speaker 1: has not lost control. What looks like a setback right
32:27
Speaker 1: now is just God setting you up for something greater.
32:32
Speaker 1: And in the end, he's going to get all the
32:35
Speaker 1: glory and all the praise that he deserves.
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Speaker 2: To God be the glory.
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Speaker 1: Thank you.