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If You’re a Christian in Your 60s or 70s, Watch This · Off The Kirb Ministries

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OK, tragic news in the Christian world.
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It has just been revealed that a very famous Christian author and
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preacher has fallen into sin for a long period of time.
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Now. I don't see any prophet in
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gossiping about this going into all of the details.
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But there is a warning if you are in your 60s, if you are in
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your 70s, fifties, if you're later on in life, I have a
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warning for you that I think every single one of you would be
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wise to pay attention to. And any age that you are, we all
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need to take heed to this advice.
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Now, let me be totally transparent with you.
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This video is going to be very serious.
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So let's just have a little bit of lightness before we go into,
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you know, some of these strong warnings.
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So if this is your first time on the channel, this is my Cup of
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Joe podcast. And it's basically where we
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study the Bible, we think about a biblical topic, and we have
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coffee. Now this is the part I just sort
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of want to draw your attention to.
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You can see you'll see some faces up here.
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These are people who've bought one of my mugs.
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This I don't make any money from these mugs.
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It's literally just the, the cost to cover the, the printing
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and the making of the mug that that's if you want to get one of
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them. Now, I say if you want to get
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one of these mugs, I'll put your face up here on the screen.
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And a lot of people when you look at the pictures, the, the,
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the mug, the, the organization I work with is called 4th wall and
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they give three options. I think 11 oz, I think 16 ounce
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and 22 ounce mugs, don't quote me on that.
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What I've noticed is a lot of the folk who've been buying the
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mugs, they're getting the really, really big ones, which
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are by the way more expensive. The big 22 ounce mugs.
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I think they are, they're like buckets.
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I mean, you could have a bath in them.
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They're so big. And I just want to say, if you
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wanted to save money and get the cheapest option, go for the 11
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oz one. Now, I don't know if you've
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chosen the 22 ounce one for a reason, because here's something
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else everyone keeps saying to me, because I've got this
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channel called the Cup of Joe Podcast.
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The like, you're British, aren't you supposed to drink tea all
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day? Longwell, just to clarify,
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that's a stereotype. That's British folk.
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Probably most of my friends prefer coffee to tea.
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You know, we're not all just drinking tea all day long, but
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we do like a good cup of tea. But a stereotype we have over
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here in Britain of American folk.
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When I've got friends and they've gone over to America,
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they're like even their grocery stores, their supermarkets,
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they're like triple the size of ours.
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And, and I've got this picture in my mind, when you go to
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McDonald's, you could get like a Coca-Cola, all of this big.
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So tell me if that's a true stereotype, whether you do have
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things like massive, everything's bigger in America,
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or whether it's just a stereotype that as British folk
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have got wrong about you. Anyway, either way, we're all
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brothers and sisters in Christ. And I just, I love sharing
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fellowship with all of you, tune in from wherever you are in the
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world. I just consider it to be a huge,
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a huge privilege. OK, So what is this warning I
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have for those of you who are in your 60s, seventies, 50s, you're
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a bit later on in life. What's the warning for you guys?
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Well, I was 24, so this is a while ago.
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And I remember another preacher I really look up to.
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I remember we were on a Zoom call and we're all chatting.
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It was a fellowship. And he said another one of our
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friends, same age as us has gone and had an affair.
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They're in their 60s. And he said, it seems the older
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I get, the more I seem to notice more and more people in their
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60s and 70s, they're having affairs that the children are
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all grown up. They've lived their life living
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for for the Lord Jesus, it would appear.
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And yet then they are here they are.
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They're having these affairs in the 60s.
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And as a 24 year old, I heard that and I thought, oh, come on,
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that, that can't be right. You know, you'd think affairs
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would happen in in your 20s, more in your 30s when, you know,
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the hormones are rushing. You'd think that's when these
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things had happened. But as I said, it was a while
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ago. And as the years have rolled on,
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I've noticed a very, very similar trend.
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It does seem that people later on in life, for one reason or
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another, whether they've let their guard down, they seem to
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be leaving their spouse for another.
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And I want to give you 3 examples of three very, very
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famous preachers. Again, I don't see any prophet
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in naming names. I just think it draws more
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attention. And these people have already
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been, they've left their ministries, they've already,
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their content has been taken off the Internet.
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So it's not a case of Mark and Avoid.
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These guys have already removed themselves from the ministry.
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So I don't see the prophet in naming names.
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But I do want you to think about these people because they were
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all later on in life. So I'm going to give you a few
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details that we can perhaps learn from.
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OK, our first case study is the one that recently has been all
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over social media and has recently really rocked the
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Christian world. From my understanding, this man
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started this sin, this affair in his mid 60s.
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He let it last for 8-9 years, nearly a decade he was with this
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person. And then it transpired that he
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wasn't very well at all. And I don't know when he told
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his wife, but at some point he told his wife what had happened
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because he had this terrible illness that he needed, you
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know, round the clock care. And his wife decided in love and
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Christine love to stay with him even though he'd done all of
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that. Now I just want to pause for a
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minute and just let's, you don't need to know the name of the
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wife, but let's all remember to pray for this lady because what
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tremendous grace, what tremendous Christine love when
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her husband has gone and done that.
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And yet she's willing to say, I will stand and I will be
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counted. I will.
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I've got my eye on the judge. I've got my eye on the Saviour
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and I will have a reward in heaven for this.
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She's building her treasures in heaven, not on earth.
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When everyone else would say leave him at the home, stitch
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him, clean your hands of him. You've got every right to.
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Why would you do that after he's been so deceitful, unfaithful,
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so wicked to you and yet she's decided to stay.
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But let me draw your attention to a verse because what was the
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root of this man? When we look at his story, we
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can't. We don't know for sure.
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Only God knows what's in the heart.
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But it does seem there are clues of each of these preachers.
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So just turn to Jude and verse 4 right at the end of the Bible.
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We're in the the book of Jude and verse 4.
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For certain men have crept in unnoticed who long ago were
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marked out for this condemnation.
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Ungodly men who turned the grace of our God into lewdness and
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deny the only God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
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So what this preacher was very well known for is he was known
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to have a very, very strong emphasis on grace.
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You could argue an overemphasis on grace, grace, grace, grace,
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grace. And I've talked about this
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before where we talk about the Earl of Oxford who believed the
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greatest gift a man could ever receive was something called
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cubicle thinking. Now, what is cubicle thinking?
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Well, just like a cube has many different sides to it.
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Well, so a truth, so a doctrine, so life, if you like it, should
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have many different sides to it. And if you're only looking at
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one side of the truth, if you're just thinking grace, grace,
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grace, suddenly you're going to miss the other sides of the
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cube. And there are other sides to the
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Lord. There are other sides to, to the
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Bible. There are other attributes of
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God like the wrath of God, like holiness, like fighting against
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sin, all of these different sides.
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And I think there's an issue when it's all we do is just
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pray, preach love of God, grace of God.
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You know, even some people, I don't know where you are on the
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Reform spectrum on Calvinism, but you know, sometimes this,
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this idea of once saved, always saved.
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And, and then if you go in the other direction, you can lose
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your salvation. Both if you take either of those
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and you go too far with it, it can, it can mess you up.
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If you go into the, you can lose your salvation, suddenly you're
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getting into workspace salvation where you're trying to keep
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yourself saved. And if I do this, I might be in
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danger of losing my salvation. I need to be the one who's
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holding on to God. Otherwise, you know, I'm, I'm
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going to, you know, lose my salvation.
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But on the other side, if you go to the other extreme, we've once
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saved, always saved. And there's literally a full
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entire movement all over YouTube.
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If you tell someone, if I as a preacher, say repent, turn of
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your sins, they will say you're a false teacher, you're a works
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based teacher. So suddenly we're just getting
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this idea that you can just do whatever you like.
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God has forgiven us. We've got a license for sin.
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Now this preacher, I don't believe he did take that
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extreme. But what I'm saying is if, if we
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constantly just feed it into our minds, you know, I can do
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whatever I want. I'm I'm, you know, if you, if
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people, I'm not a Calvinist, but if the Calvinists who are
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watching, you know, I'm elect by God, I'm chosen by him.
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I'll persevere with the Saints. There's nothing.
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We've got to be so careful because these things can, can
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just make us comfortable in sin. That's why, you know, there's
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many, many pastors who it would appear on the surface, they've
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got great doctrine. But there was a study that came
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out that 65% of pastors are watching that filth on the
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Internet. And we just got to be so
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careful, haven't we? Because there are verses and I'm
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going to come to me in a minute that show us when we're living
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in wilful sin, we should be terrified.
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Guys, I said this was a serious message.
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And please, if you've got any comeback, leave it in the
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comments section. But I do believe this with all
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my heart. As I've looked at things, I've
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looked at my own life, it is so important to to stay in the word
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and to get to hold that tension there.
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There's the grace of God. He loves me.
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There's nothing I can do to earn my salvation.
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He holds on to me. He cares about me.
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But the same time there's that other side.
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He is a fearful God. He's the God that the angels
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that they cover their faces, they're crying outs, holy, holy,
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holy. He is so holy that he cannot
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stand any unclean thing. And yet we have a righteousness
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of Christ that is not our own. And even when we mess up, he
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still loves us. And yet at the same time,
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there's this, if any of you like, like, like he saw my mind
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have gone blank there he, he, he, he sold his birthright and
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he tried to, to win it back and he, he tried with tears, but he
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still couldn't get it. He could find no place for
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repentance. You see that there's a tension
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inscription. It's there for a reason to make
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us balanced as Christians, to make us be salt and light.
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I mean, what good is salt if it loses its flavour?
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What good is a Christian if he's just living like the rest of the
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world? Let our light shine and let the
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world see that we are ones who stand up for truth and
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righteousness. There is something else that I
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think can happen to a lot of preachers and a lot of us as
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Christians and sometimes it can be a very positive thing and
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it's we can mellow with age. Now this is a a nicer note.
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My dad's who just say this. I'm not saying this in a
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boastful way, but my dad is one of those godly men.
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I know I'm very, very privileged to to have him.
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He's brought me up in one of the best ways, and I'm very grateful
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for that. But my dad, when he was younger,
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he was very, very strict with me.
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Very strict. You know, the Lord's Day was the
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Lord's Day. I couldn't do certain things.
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He was my Sunday school teacher. And, and there was a kind of,
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you know, not a pressure, but to know the Bible, those kind of
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things. And it was, it was very strict
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with me. But now he's got a grandson, my
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little boy Samuel. And when I tell Samuel off the
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things that if, if I, as Billy Graham said, if I told, if I did
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it when I was younger, my dad would have wailed the tar out of
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me, you know, he literally was, you know, he's very strict with
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me. But when I I tell my son off,
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he's like Joe, No, no, no, you no, don't do that.
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Oh, he's OK. Oh, let him off.
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He'll be OK. And I'm like, Dad, Dad, do you
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remember? Do you remember my childhood?
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You know, but it is a good thing, isn't it?
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As we age, it can be a good thing that we mellow a bit.
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And sometimes there can be legalism that's in US and that
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needs to be, it needs to Peter off.
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But the same time it can be a bad thing for some preachers and
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some people when they mellow with age.
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It's, it's a, it's a dangerous thing.
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Again, the same preacher who pointed out that a lot of, you
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know, men in the 60s or women in the 60s, they, they're having
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affairs. He also said this and, and I've
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been struck by, he said you'll also find men and women in the
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later years. And suddenly they just changed
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their theology. For years and years they've
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believed a certain doctrine and they've still, they've stayed
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firm on it. And then all of a sudden they
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just change. There was an example in some of
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the circles I'm involved with, with a very well known open air
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preacher, very gifted man. And all of a sudden he said that
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he didn't believe hell was eternal anymore.
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And very sadly, it caused quite a stir and even some division in
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the circles that that he moved in.
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So let's just be careful that as we age, we, we, we remember the
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stuff that we really spent time, you know, wrestling with when we
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were younger. And we hold firm to them
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doctrines. I'm not saying you shouldn't be
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open minded because sometimes truth is truth and you might be
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living in a lie, but it is something that we should all be
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aware of. Just turn in your Bibles,
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please, to Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 13, Hebrews 3 and verse
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13. We'll go for verse 12.
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Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of
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unbelief in departing from the living God, but exhort one
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another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be
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hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
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Now in that verse 13, there's a word used at the hardening and
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it's the word scoliosis and cirrhosis.
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Sorry. And if you've got multiple
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cirrhosis, someone in my family is very dear to me, has multiple
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cirrhosis. Do you know what it actually is
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in medical terms? It's a hardening of, of the
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brain. And suddenly as the brain gets
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hard and gets, the tissue gets destroyed, it means that there's
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certain functions that don't work anymore.
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You know, you, you lose sensation and there's all kinds
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of things. And it's, it's a very, very
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difficult illness to have. But what the Bible is saying
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here is this cirrhosis that happens to you and I as
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Christians, it's slow. It just slowly hardens.
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We, we slowly harden and suddenly the sensitivity we once
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had to the things of God, they're not the same anymore.
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Suddenly the times where we were, we were so in love with
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the Lord God, we're cold now. And the Bible's warning against
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that, that sin, it has a hardening effect on us.
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And over time, it'll dull your conscience where you don't feel
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these things anymore. You don't have that same love
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for the Lord. There's a song by Is it Casting
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Crowns is the name. And it goes, it's a slow fade.
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You know, people don't fall in a day.
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It's a slow fade. It takes time.
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People give themselves to one bit of sin and a little bit of
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sin and a little bit more until eventually they're doing things
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that are darker than they could ever imagine.
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And if their younger self saw them, they would be totally
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embarrassed. So let's never use doctrine.
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Let's never use grace as a license for sin.
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And I do believe, as I said, I wanted to give you some verses.
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So I know some of you write down notes.
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If you have got somewhere to jot these down, maybe just have a
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little study of these just to remind yourself if you do have
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an overemphasis on grace, these are verses that are very
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helpful. So there's a verse in Hebrews
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10, verse 29 where it talks about not trampling the blood of
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the Lord Jesus Christ into the floor.
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In other words, Christ's blood is precious.
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It's the most precious thing. It's the thing that can redeem a
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Sinner, take them from death to life.
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And yet some people, they use it as a a license for sin.
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They trample into the ground. They see it as worthless and the
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Bible warns against that. Don't you ever do that.
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That is a wicked evil thing to be living in, in wilful sin.
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Just because you're saying I'm forgiven, I'm saved, I'm
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righteous, I'm redeemed, I can. Do you know, we might not say it
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out loud, but does our our actions speak like we believe
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that? And then there's the verse in
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Philippians 2 verse 12 that says work out your salvation with
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fear and trembling. Now I'm preaching to myself
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here. When was the last time I sat
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down and worked out my salvation with fear and trembling?
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Really thought about what path would I have gone down?
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Where would I be now? Christ died for me.
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He's brought me from from the fires of hell for all of
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eternity. I'm safe in his work it out with
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fear and trembling. See see your salvation as
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precious and and have a fear in you, a holy fear of this holy
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righteous God. He's got his eyes on me and yet
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he loves me. Incredible.
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Then there's Romans one verse 28 where God gave them over to a
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reprobate mind where it's basically saying there is an
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invisible line you can cross without knowing it, where you
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just can keep going on saying I don't want to listen to your
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voice. God, you keep stiffening your
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neck, you keep hardening your heart.
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God keeps warning you constantly like that verse says he was is
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reproved many times. He's warned many times and yet
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hardens his neck. He will be broken without
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remedy. There comes a point where God
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says I've given you so much grace.
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I've I've been patient for so I'm so long-suffering and he is
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long-suffering, but you continue to disobey me, right?
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I give you over to that sin. So maybe write that verse down.
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And then there's also Ephesians 5 that says, let no one deceive
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you with empty words. In Ephesians 5, you'll see a
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great list of people who will not make it into the Kingdom of
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God, people who are having affairs, people who are laughing
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at rude things, people who are are idolatrous, who are greedy,
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all these all these different sins.
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Read it for yourself and it says, it then says let no one
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deceive you of empty words and you'll get that.
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People will say it's OK you you've forgiven, or they'll use
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examples and they'll say it's fine.
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You can continue in that sin, you're fine.
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Don't worry, there are people who will do that.
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And the Bible saying don't let anyone deceive you of empty
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words. Because of these things, the
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wrath of God falls upon the unrighteous.
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So guys, these are these are warnings that should wake us up,
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that should stir in us. Now at the same time, if we have
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committed these things, there's also another list in Corinthians
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that lists all of these people and it says, and so were some of
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you, but now you've been washed, you've been cleansed, you've
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been forgiven. And some of us, we've lived in
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these sins, we've done these things.
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But if you've repented, if you've turned from that, if
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you've sought God with forgiveness, don't anyone
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misunderstand me right now. There is forgiveness, There is
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total peace, a new beginning, a new start for anyone who'll turn
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from this. But this is a warning for anyone
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who is dwelling in these things, who is taking the grace of God
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as a license for sin, who's trampling the blood of Christ
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and seeing it not as precious. They're seeing it as worthless.
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Even though they'd never say this, their actions speak louder
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than words. Hey #2 and #3 aren't as long as
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#1 but this guy was in his 70s. And I actually met this
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preacher, and I'll say this, I've said it before, I'm not
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going to name names, but this preacher was hands down the
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greatest preacher I've ever listened to.
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He had power in his voice. It really felt like the Holy
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Spirit was there. And I believe he did have an
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anointing on his life. He was tremendously convicting,
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tremendously effective in his preaching.
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But there are two things I remember about this preacher and
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these two things actually, when I've dwelt on them after
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everything's come out, after he actually had an affair.
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He was in a very long marriage. As I said, he was in his 70s
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when he did this, and he went for a younger lady who was in
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her 20s. And some things have kind of, as
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I've dwelt on it, as I've sort of mulled these things over in
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my mind, I thought, oh, it is interesting.
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It is interesting. I never thought about that at
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the time. The first thing I noticed about
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him is he loved to talk about preachers and preaching.
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Now there's nothing wrong with being fascinated with the
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technique of preaching and and as preachers, we should be
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working all the time. So it's a better our craft.
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But it almost seemed like an idol.
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He'd name this preacher and say, this man always incredible,
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always a machine. And, and this preacher here,
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he's always, he's so you know, the way he just sees it and he
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dots it all out. And he just kept naming all the
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names, like all these big names. And and this man, this preacher
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came up to me who's a very well known preacher, more famous than
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than him, and said he ran up to me, up to me at the end of a
21:38
service after he heard me preach and said, I can't preach like
21:42
you. You need to show me how to
21:43
preach like you. How do I do it?
21:45
And, you know, he was almost rattled, the preacher said, but
21:48
when he saw how I was preaching really was, you know, making
21:52
almost an idol, idol of it. Then the other thing he said he
21:56
compared himself to one of his friends who was a very well
21:59
known preacher. And he said, I'm not as big as
22:03
that preacher. So I need to travel around.
22:06
I need to, you know, go around the country, but I'm just not as
22:09
well known as him. And I just thought it was a bit
22:12
of a strange thing to be comparing yourself.
22:15
I don't know, maybe I'm maybe I'm overthinking it, but I
22:17
thought it was a bit of a strange thing to be comparing
22:19
yourself to one of your close friends who was also a preacher.
22:23
And almost as if it was a competition of who was who was
22:26
bigger in in in the ministry. Turning your Bibles to John
22:30
chapter 12 and verse 43. For they loved the praise of men
22:42
more than the praise of God. Guys, whether you're a preacher
22:47
or whether you're not, do you care about the opinions of men?
22:52
Do you care about the things of this world, about the praise of
22:55
men more than the praise of God? Because eventually this will
23:00
come to light when there comes a decision where God can see what
23:04
you're doing behind closed doors, but men can't.
23:07
Who's the God then? Is it the praise of men do do
23:10
you only like to to be showing that you're super spiritual,
23:13
super Christian in front of people, whether it's stacking
23:15
the chairs at church, doing the dishes at church?
23:17
Do you love the praise of men there?
23:19
But when it's you alone with your husband or your wife, how
23:23
do you treat them then when the eyes of God are on you?
23:26
But the men at men don't see it. Do you live a double life?
23:30
I guess that's what I'm saying. What foundation is your life
23:33
built on? You see, when the applause fades
23:36
and this is what I think happens to many of these preachers, I
23:39
think they do love the praise of men.
23:40
I think they've they've become accustomed to it, dare I say,
23:43
groomed by the praise of men. And they sort of live their life
23:47
enjoying this. And then suddenly what happens
23:49
as they get older into life, Suddenly the younger model comes
23:53
in, the younger preacher happens to every, every preacher comes
23:57
forward. You know, you get a young
23:58
preacher and he's really gifted. And suddenly the audience, like
24:02
we do with a car, like we do in, in all kinds of things.
24:05
We want a newer house as human beings, which is so fickle.
24:08
They all leave that the the older man who they've listened
24:11
to for years and they start listening to the younger guy.
24:14
And as the limelight fades away, suddenly the novelty, the
24:20
novelty of being a preacher, it all seemed like, what was it
24:23
built on? What was the foundation it was
24:24
built on? Was it all about you and your
24:26
name? Or would you be preaching if no
24:29
one was listening? I mean, another thing I asked
24:31
this preacher, I said to him, would you ever preach at a
24:35
Church of just 30 people or so? And I was asking him for this
24:40
reason. I wanted to know because he was
24:42
such a passionate preacher. And my audience still to this
24:45
day, I preach in churches with just 30 or so.
24:47
And that's where I actually believe it or not feel most
24:49
comfortable. I get nervous with too many
24:51
people. People never believe me when I
24:53
say that. But honestly, when it gets to
24:55
more than 50 or so, I'm, I'm, I'm sweating buckets.
24:58
Anyway, I was asking him this because I wanted to know when
25:01
I'm preaching in front of 20-30 people, should I just go for it?
25:04
You know, should I really amp it up and be really passionate
25:08
because I thought, you know, with 30 people, should it be
25:10
more calm? And then as it's bigger, when
25:12
you get into hundreds, you think that's when you have the, the
25:14
higher energy. And he misunderstood me and he
25:17
said he went, I wouldn't, I don't preach to people of just
25:22
30 or so. And he said because I'm at the
25:24
very end of my life and my time is so precious that, you know, I
25:29
can't afford to do it. I need to be in front of
25:31
hundreds of people because I need to make sure my message
25:34
goes out to as many people as possible.
25:38
And again as as well on that. I'm not sure what I make of
25:41
that. Maybe you can let me know what
25:43
you think. But obviously, Jesus Christ, he
25:45
had even he knew his time was up.
25:47
He knew his hours late and he still made time for, for the
25:50
ones and twos. So again, as you get older, if
25:55
you're not a preacher, I think a danger can be this.
25:59
You might want to feel desired again and a younger person comes
26:03
up, someone who's younger than you and they make you feel young
26:05
again. Perhaps in your marriage things
26:08
have got stale and it's difficult and maybe your spouse
26:12
just it might feel like they they don't desire you anymore.
26:15
And when a younger person comes up and they make you feel young
26:19
again and it's exciting and there's a new novelty, there's a
26:22
new. Just beware of that.
26:23
Guys, men and women alike, let's all be be aware of that and be
26:29
aware of not wanting this sense of importance thinking were very
26:32
important. And as if some, for some reason,
26:34
the rules are different for us. And that leads us to our third
26:37
preacher of someone who it almost felt like the rules felt
26:41
different for him. He was different.
26:46
All right, so #3 our last and final preacher, in my opinion,
26:51
when I look at the preachers that we've had in the last 100
26:54
years or so, I would say this preacher out of all of them was
26:58
probably the most famous after Billy Graham.
27:01
Now, Billy Graham, as you know, I'm a big fan of, and praise
27:04
God, he finished well. But this preacher was, you know,
27:07
nearly as famous as Billy Graham.
27:09
And yet very sadly, he didn't finish well.
27:12
And again, I don't know the full details, but it seems certainly
27:16
in his 60s, in his 70s a little bit, I think, and in his 50s,
27:21
and perhaps we don't know what's gone on for years.
27:23
He was doing some things that as the Bible says, it's shameful
27:27
even to speak of what the the wicked do in, in, in the
27:30
private. Sorry, I've not said that well,
27:32
but it's shameful to to bring to light what these wicked people,
27:36
these disobedient are doing in the dark.
27:39
So I'm not going to go into details, but let's just say it
27:42
was edging on being criminal. And he was very, very smart, so
27:48
smart, so manipulative, too smart.
27:51
And he he really did wrap people around his finger and and there
27:55
was multiple people involved, multiple over a long period of
27:59
time. So if you've got a Bible there,
28:03
this really is a verse that describes this gentleman.
28:07
And it's Second Timothy 3 verses six to seven.
28:12
For of this sort are those who creep into households and make
28:16
captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, LED away
28:22
by various lusts, always learning and never able to come
28:27
to the knowledge of the truth. You see, this preacher, he very
28:33
much he took advantage of women who I don't know what the word
28:39
is. You could say vulnerable women,
28:42
women who he he he, he use the Bible at points if you read the
28:46
article and it's not pleasant and I wouldn't, I wouldn't
28:49
recommend it to be honest, but you can see use the Bible and he
28:52
twisted the Bible as if to say what we're doing is permissible.
28:56
You know, he even prayed to God over the sin as if like God was
29:00
going to anoint the sin, as if God was going to bless the sin.
29:04
He was so crafty. And yet his whole message, his
29:08
whole, and if you like, his whole ministry was based on, you
29:13
know, making the Bible more applicable, more easy for for
29:17
atheists to be able to swallow the pill, you know, you know,
29:20
taking the rough edges off it. He, he was so good at
29:23
communicating. He was so good at speaking and
29:27
he spent his whole life, you know, kind of making it
29:30
acceptable. Something else he did that
29:32
really wasn't helpful is he was he unified people who hold, who
29:38
held completely on biblical doctrines, who held views that
29:41
were completely alien to the Bible, and he praised them and
29:45
didn't make it clear that there was a big difference.
29:47
Now, I'm not saying if you go to a church that's unbiblical or to
29:51
a place that's unbiblical, you could go there, but when you go,
29:55
you better give them a message that shows them the truth and
29:57
shows them that we are very different.
29:59
But he didn't do that. He praised them.
30:01
He he was like the verse says, always learning.
30:04
There was always that idea of always learning, but never
30:07
getting knowledge of the truth, never getting that that that
30:11
mature meat that we need as believers.
30:13
It was always just milk all the time, making it all so easy and
30:17
everyone could just listen to me and it was all about him.
30:20
If you've been in Christianity for a few years, you'll know
30:22
that there are three things that that preachers fall from fame,
30:27
females or finance, or I think the other one is gold, glory and
30:33
girls. There's different ways of people
30:35
putting it. And this preacher, he had all of
30:37
them. As I said, he had lots of fame.
30:39
He was unifying people on biblical groups and he was he
30:44
wasn't standing for truth. He was always trying to appease
30:46
people and make everyone happy. And his fame just grew, grew so
30:51
much. And then females, one of his
30:55
biggest issues was he was not accountable.
30:58
Again, you can read about what he did.
31:01
He he, he literally went to Thailand for months upon end
31:05
away from his family and said, I'm going to write.
31:08
I'm going to write some books Now I'm going, I need some time
31:11
away. I need some space away.
31:12
I'm just going to write and, and be away from America and just
31:15
write all of all of my books in peace.
31:19
And of course, what was he doing in Thailand on his own?
31:22
And it shows us that we need accountability.
31:25
It shows us that our family members are nearest and dearest.
31:29
You can manipulate them if you want to, if it's inside of you,
31:33
if you've got that evilness. Now you need to put places.
31:36
You need people who are not going to be yes man, who are
31:38
going to say, what are you doing in Thailand now?
31:40
I'm coming to Thailand with you for a couple of weeks.
31:42
I'm going to stay with you or I don't think you should even go
31:45
to Thailand in the 1st place. That's probably what I'd be
31:47
saying. Why can't you just, you know,
31:49
actually what we've got a little cottage down the road, one of
31:51
our Christian brothers in America, everyone, you know,
31:54
everyone knows someone who's got, you know, a little bit of
31:56
land and a bit of, you know, a little area that they could go
31:59
in, a little outbuilding, go and work there away from everything,
32:02
you know. And he had an issue with with
32:05
females. And again, was it because he got
32:07
lots of praise and, you know, young ladies coming up to him
32:11
and telling him, you're a wonderful preacher.
32:13
Be careful. The Bible says guard your
32:15
hearts, guard it. You need to put guard rails
32:19
around it and be so careful because from it flow all the
32:22
issues of life. And then the last one was
32:26
finance. He was very, very wealthy, multi
32:29
millionaire. And this is the, the sad thing.
32:32
He used money. He used money the, the, the
32:36
givers, the people who'd worked very hard the whole life.
32:40
His his his prayer partners that laboured in their jobs.
32:44
They'd worked so hard. And he used that money as a way
32:47
to fund his operations. Just just wickedness.
32:53
So all of us, whether we're preachers or not, we need to be
32:57
wary of all of these things, whether it's fame or just
32:59
wanting the praise of men to be liked, We need to be careful of
33:02
that. We need to be careful of the
33:05
opposite sex. Whether you're female or male,
33:07
you need to be careful. You need to have careful.
33:10
Your heart doesn't, you know, flirting, you know, is, is not
33:13
innocent. We need to be careful like we
33:16
always need to put these guard rails in place and just be
33:19
careful that our heart doesn't get LED down these things.
33:21
And then money as well. The love of money is the root of
33:24
all evil. It's not wrong to be wealthy,
33:26
but if you love it and you know your heart is being LED away and
33:29
you know it's changing, you guys give some of that money away.
33:33
You need to be careful. So what do I really want to say
33:36
as I round all this up? I know this is quite a, it's a,
33:41
it's a heavy message and it's difficult to talk about this,
33:45
but I want to say whether you're in your 60s, whether you're in
33:48
your 70s, whether you're in your 20s, thirties, 40s, whatever age
33:51
you are, please, please be faithful to your spouse.
33:56
Please, please, whether you're single or not, make sure you
33:59
finish well. Fix your eyes on the Lord Jesus
34:02
Christ. Because the truth is this.
34:04
When you do read the accounts of these, apart from one of them
34:08
who all came out after his death, you do realize, I don't
34:11
think, I think they would give anything to turn back the clock.
34:15
They would buy 1000 clocks, a million clocks, in hopes that
34:19
just one of them had the power to turn back the time so the
34:23
grass might look greener on the other side.
34:25
At first, there might be a novelty, there might be an
34:27
excitement. But once that honeymoon periods
34:29
over, you'll look that you threw away your entire life, your
34:34
entire ministry, your entire history, all that you've worked
34:37
for, whether you're a preacher or not, you threw it all away.
34:40
Your family, your reputation, your children, you they're going
34:44
to really, they're going to always bear a grudge against
34:47
you. Again, it says in the book of
34:48
Proverbs that that the person who commits this kind of sin,
34:52
their their approach will never be wiped away.
34:54
In other words, people always look at him and say him.
34:57
He's the guy who years ago he left his wife her.
35:00
She's the one who who wasn't faithful.
35:03
It never gets wiped away. And you would swap all that
35:07
you've worked for for a few minutes of pleasure.
35:12
It's just, it's just not a fair deal.
35:15
But the devil will make you think that this is all you want.
35:17
This is all the answers. And you'll be the one person who
35:20
gets away with it. You'll be the one person who
35:22
makes it work. But it's a lie from the pits of
35:25
hell. Again, I just apologise if this
35:28
was a bit too heavy. I do think sometimes these
35:31
things need to be said. But hey now, if you are a young
35:34
person and you're watching this, as I said, this is applicable to
35:38
all ages. But there is a message that I
35:40
think is very applicable on Psalm 73.
35:44
If you're a Christian and you're tempted to look back and think
35:47
that all of your younger, unbelieving friends are having
35:50
way more fun than you and you feel like you're missing out,
35:53
watch this video. I think it'll wake you up.
35:56
It certainly helped me as a young man.
35:58
God bless you all and thank you for watching.