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Speaker 1: Howdy and good morning, friends and faithful listeners. Thank you

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Speaker 1: so much for being here this morning and for giving

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Speaker 1: me a wonderful week off. We're gonna be reading First

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Speaker 1: Timothy chapter four one through five today, so I hope

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Speaker 1: all of you guys grab your Bibles and your cup

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Speaker 1: of coffee. We're going to be talking about the doctrine

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Speaker 1: of demons today and what that means. Now, faith listeners,

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Speaker 1: before I begin this podcast episode, go ahead and help

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Speaker 1: me out by listening to this word from one of

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Speaker 1: our sponsors. So, I had a lovely time off. My

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Speaker 1: husband and I. We were able to spend some time together.

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Speaker 1: It was so nice, and we actually went to Vegas

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Speaker 1: and went to see battle Bots. So that was a blast.

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Speaker 1: We love BattleBots. You know, we're huge nerds and so

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Speaker 1: of course we love BattleBots, and oh my gosh, it

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Speaker 1: was so fun. I highly recommend everybody go see BattleBots.

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Speaker 1: Such a fun experience. And we did some other things

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Speaker 1: around Vegas as well, but that was kind of the

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Speaker 1: highlight of our time in Vegas was the battle Bots. Well,

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Speaker 1: Faith of listeners, let's go ahead and read First Timothy

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Speaker 1: chapter four today, one through five, and we're going to

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Speaker 1: be talking about these seducing spirits and doctrines of demons.

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Speaker 1: We'll also be discussing the topic of can you lose

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Speaker 1: your salvation today as well, So it's gonna be a

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Speaker 1: really great episode. Grab your cup of coffee or your

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Speaker 1: cup of tea. Let's go ahead and jump right in

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Speaker 1: Fir Timothy four one through five. But the Spirit says

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Speaker 1: expressly that in later times some will fall away from

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Speaker 1: the faith paying attention to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons,

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Speaker 1: through the hypocrisy of men who speak lies branded in

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Speaker 1: their own conscience, as with a hot iron forbidding marriage

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Speaker 1: and commanding to abstain from foods which God created, to

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Speaker 1: be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know

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Speaker 1: the truth. For every creature of God is good, and

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Speaker 1: nothing is to be reject did if it is received

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Speaker 1: with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified through the Word of

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Speaker 1: God and prayer. In this chapter, Paul is continuing on

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Speaker 1: his discussion of how Timothy should be running the Church

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Speaker 1: of Macedonia. Don't forget Timothy was a very young man,

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Speaker 1: probably feeling somewhat insecure, maybe didn't want to stay in Macedonia,

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Speaker 1: want it to be with Paul, and this may have

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Speaker 1: been his first solo mission that we know of, and

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Speaker 1: it's very likely he was feeling a little bit discouraged.

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Speaker 1: So having this letter from Paul would have been very helpful.

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Speaker 1: And so this entire letter was Paul both encouraging Timothy

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Speaker 1: to stay on in Macedonia and also specific instructions of

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Speaker 1: what Timothy should be teaching this church to do. So.

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Speaker 1: In our chapter four today, Paul says in verse one,

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Speaker 1: the Spirit says expressly that in later times some will

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Speaker 1: fall away from the faith. This means that Paul got

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Speaker 1: a direct revelation or prophecy straight from the Holy Spirit.

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Speaker 1: We do know that the Spirit does speak. You know,

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Speaker 1: a lot of people believe that the Holy Spirit is

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Speaker 1: just kind of like some of God the Father's power,

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Speaker 1: being like zapped down. But the Holy Spirit is a

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Speaker 1: separate entity, as scripture does say on multiple occasions. In fact,

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Speaker 1: I believe it's Hebrews chapter two or three. I cannot remember.

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Speaker 1: The Spirit himself spoke and said that he was irritated

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Speaker 1: with the people in the wilderness. So the Spirit does

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Speaker 1: in fact speak. He's got a voice of his own,

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Speaker 1: and he was revealing something to Paul specifically that in

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Speaker 1: later times some will fall away from the faith. Now,

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Speaker 1: these later times that Paul talks about is today, and

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Speaker 1: it also would have been in the days of Paul

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Speaker 1: as well. Essentially the latter times. Whenever we see that

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Speaker 1: phrase used in scripture, it means from the time that

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Speaker 1: Jesus ascended up into heaven until he comes again, these

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Speaker 1: are the later times. And first John chapter two talks

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Speaker 1: about that a little bit more in depth. One John

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Speaker 1: two eighteen. Here's what this says, little children, these are

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Speaker 1: the end times. And as you heard the Antichrist coming,

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Speaker 1: even now many Antichrists have arisen. By this, we know

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Speaker 1: that it is the final hour. So yes, the latter

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Speaker 1: times or the later times, or the end times are

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Speaker 1: right now. And going back to our passage for today,

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Speaker 1: it says that in the later times some will fall

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Speaker 1: away from the faith, paying attention to seducing spirits and

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Speaker 1: doctrines of demons, through the hypocrisy of men who speak

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Speaker 1: lies branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron.

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Speaker 1: In the later times, there are going to be these

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Speaker 1: people who fall away from the faith. Now, a lot

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Speaker 1: of people reading this might be like, oh, this verse

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Speaker 1: shows that you can lose your salvation. That's what this

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Speaker 1: is proving. But this is not what Paul's talking about,

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Speaker 1: because he doesn't say some will fall away from faith.

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Speaker 1: He says some will fall away from from the faith.

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Speaker 1: So faith and the faith are two totally different things.

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Speaker 1: Faith is like your own personal faith that you have

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Speaker 1: with Jesus. The faith that Paul's talking about would just

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Speaker 1: be the message of Christianity essentially. In fact, we see

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Speaker 1: this used like this quite frequently. Specifically, Acts six, verse

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Speaker 1: seven says, then the word of God spread and a

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Speaker 1: number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a

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Speaker 1: great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.

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Speaker 1: So the faith is talking about Christianity as a whole.

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Speaker 1: Before it was called Christianity, it was called the faith,

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Speaker 1: or it was called the Way in certain circumstances. So

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Speaker 1: that is what Paul's talking about here, not that people

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Speaker 1: lose their own personal faith in God, but they're abandoning

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Speaker 1: the truths of Christianity itself. In fact, if we go

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Speaker 1: back to first John, chapter two and read verses eighteen

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Speaker 1: and nineteen, and again, here's what this says, little children,

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Speaker 1: these are the end times. As you heard that the

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Speaker 1: Antichrist is coming, and now many Antichrists have arisen. By this,

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Speaker 1: we know that it is the final hour. They went

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Speaker 1: out from us, but they didn't belong to us, for

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Speaker 1: if they had belonged to us, they would have continued

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Speaker 1: with us, but they left that they might be revealed

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Speaker 1: that none of them belonged to us. So that verse

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Speaker 1: is pretty clear that people who abandon the Christian faith

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Speaker 1: were never a part of the Christian faith to begin with,

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Speaker 1: so they aren't losing their salvation. They're essentially walking away

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Speaker 1: from something they never believed in the first place. So

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Speaker 1: when Paul talks about people falling away from the faith,

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Speaker 1: he is not talking about people losing their salvation. He

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Speaker 1: is talking about the multitude of Antichrists that are going

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Speaker 1: to arise in the latter days. And these Antichrists were

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Speaker 1: never part of the faith to begin with. They may

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Speaker 1: have initially started believing in Christianity and started even in

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Speaker 1: some cases teaching Christianity to other people, you know, saying

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Speaker 1: that they believed it, but they never truly believed it.

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Speaker 1: They never had a genuine faith, because if you have

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Speaker 1: a genuine faith, you're not going to walk away from that.

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Speaker 1: Even if you're questioning God or doubting God or angry

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Speaker 1: with God. If you have a genuine faith in God,

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Speaker 1: you're not going to depart from that faith no matter

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Speaker 1: what doubts begin to arise, because God will speak to you.

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Speaker 1: You know, I can't even tell you how many times,

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Speaker 1: you know, even this year, that I have just sat

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Speaker 1: down and been like, God, where are you and what

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Speaker 1: are you doing in my life? Like it doesn't seem

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Speaker 1: like you're here with me, and these doubts kind of

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Speaker 1: flood in, and I feel super guilty after I have

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Speaker 1: these thoughts in these conversations with God. But then you know,

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Speaker 1: God always talks to me somehow and always reveals something

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Speaker 1: to me, and then those doubts just sort of disappear.

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Speaker 1: You know. Well, it says in Hebrews that nobody can

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Speaker 1: pluck you out of God's hand, Like once you are saved,

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Speaker 1: you are saved. Once you have that faith in God,

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Speaker 1: God is going to allow you to stand. And this

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Speaker 1: might be really angering for some people to hear, because

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Speaker 1: you think, oh, you know, Jen, You're just saying that

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Speaker 1: you can do whatever you want in life, and God

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Speaker 1: is going to just bless you and let you go

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Speaker 1: up to Heaven. And I am not saying that at all,

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Speaker 1: because if you listen to any of my other podcast episodes,

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Speaker 1: how much do I talk about how we need to

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Speaker 1: turn away from sin and how sin ruins our relationship

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Speaker 1: with God. Because it does, we should not be sinning.

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Speaker 1: I mean, Paul himself said this in the Book of Romans.

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Speaker 1: He said God's grace is great, but should we sin more?

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Speaker 1: Because grace abounds Absolutely not. We should not be sinning

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Speaker 1: as Christians. And if we are true Christians, if we

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Speaker 1: have true faith, we really are going to want to

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Speaker 1: from those sins. But we were always going to have

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Speaker 1: us in nature, We're always going to fight against God

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Speaker 1: in our own ways. And yet God is so merciful

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Speaker 1: to us in spite of the fact that we have

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Speaker 1: doubts and we have struggles and even anger towards Him

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Speaker 1: at times. I was just thinking yesterday about the story

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Speaker 1: of Jacob. You know, way back in the Old Testament,

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Speaker 1: one of the patriarchs. What did he famously do? He

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Speaker 1: was wrestling with God. And this was right before Jacob

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Speaker 1: was going to go through one of the biggest struggles

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Speaker 1: of his life, which was going and meeting his brother Esau,

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Speaker 1: who wanted to kill him. And so Jacob, probably being

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Speaker 1: extremely discouraged and worried and anxious and afraid, starts wrestling

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Speaker 1: with God. And he told God, I am not going

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Speaker 1: to stop wrestling with you until you bless me. And

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Speaker 1: so God, it actually said, when God saw he wasn't

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Speaker 1: going to win, he dislocated Jacob's hip and then he

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Speaker 1: blessed Jacob. So God was merciful towards Jacob during the

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Speaker 1: middle of that wrestling that Jacob was having, and God

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Speaker 1: did punish Jacob for that by dislocating his hip. You know,

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Speaker 1: that's not fun. And yet God still blessed him after that.

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Speaker 1: And I think that story is there to show us

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Speaker 1: that even Christians wrestle with God. You know, Jacob was

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Speaker 1: already blessed by God when he was wrestling with God.

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Speaker 1: All of us Christians are going to wrestle with God.

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Speaker 1: And yet God gives us so much mercy in spite

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Speaker 1: of that. He loves us in spite of that, in

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Speaker 1: spite of our doubts and our questions. So to get

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Speaker 1: to my point, if you are a Christian and you

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Speaker 1: are struggling with doubts or you're wrestling with God right now,

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Speaker 1: just know that God loves you and He is merciful

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Speaker 1: towards you in spite of all of that, just like

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Speaker 1: He was merciful towards Jacob. That doesn't mean that God

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Speaker 1: isn't going to punish you for the wrestling that you're

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Speaker 1: doing with him. But He is merciful and kind and loving.

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Speaker 1: And once God has you in his hand, nothing can

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Speaker 1: take you out of his hand. So this passage in

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Speaker 1: One Timothy four is not talking about people who are saved.

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Speaker 1: It is talking about people who never were saved but

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Speaker 1: looked like they were pretended to be of the faith.

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Speaker 1: But then they fall away because they start paying attention

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Speaker 1: to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons through the hypocrisy

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Speaker 1: of men who speak lies. In other words, these people

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Speaker 1: are swayed with the wind. They're just going with whatever

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Speaker 1: their heart desires. Once Christianity doesn't seem to be working

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Speaker 1: for them anymore, they start going towards something that sounds

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Speaker 1: a little bit better, that sounds more up their alley.

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Speaker 1: They turn away from the faith because they were never

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Speaker 1: part of the faith to begin with. They start paying

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Speaker 1: attention to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons which are

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Speaker 1: being spread by these hypocritical men who speak lies, branded

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Speaker 1: in their own conscience as with a hot iron. Now

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Speaker 1: we do know that Satan loves to target the church,

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Speaker 1: specifically with people who seem like shepherds but inwardly are

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Speaker 1: actually wolves. And these wolves are going to go into

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Speaker 1: the church, pretend to be shepherds, pretend to be caring

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Speaker 1: leaders for the flock, and yet they're going to rip

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Speaker 1: the flock apart. And that's who Paul's talking about right here,

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Speaker 1: These hypocritical men who speak lies, who are branded in

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Speaker 1: their own conscience as with a hot iron. Their consciences

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Speaker 1: are like seared. They have become so evil that they

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Speaker 1: don't even care that they're doing something wrong or leading

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Speaker 1: people astray. They have somehow fooled themselves into thinking that

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Speaker 1: they are good people. And that's what actually makes them

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Speaker 1: really good liars is because they feel no guilt. Their

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Speaker 1: consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. And

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Speaker 1: here's some of the things that they start teaching, specifically

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Speaker 1: foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by

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Speaker 1: those who know and believe the truth. So there's just

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Speaker 1: two examples of what a doctrine of demons looks like

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Speaker 1: or what a seducing spirit looks like forbidding marriage. So

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Speaker 1: this would be somebody who says you can be holy

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Speaker 1: if you completely abstain sexually for the rest of your life,

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Speaker 1: never becoming married, even though you really want to be.

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Speaker 1: Somehow it is holier to remain abstinate. And when I

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Speaker 1: first heard this, I know I have a lot of

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Speaker 1: Catholic listeners on my podcast, but I'm not gonna lie.

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Speaker 1: The first thing I thought of was the papacy and

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Speaker 1: the priesthood, that these priests have to abstain from marriage

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Speaker 1: for their entire lives in order to somehow become more

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Speaker 1: successful priests. But yet Paul says right here that this

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Speaker 1: is actually a doctrine of demons. Now, don't get me wrong,

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Speaker 1: I am not saying that it's wrong for somebody to

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Speaker 1: not be married, like to choose to not be married.

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Speaker 1: That is not what I'm saying. What I am saying

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Speaker 1: is that it is wrong to teach that somebody can

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Speaker 1: be closer to God or more holy if they abstain

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Speaker 1: from marriage. That is not true. That is not biblical

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Speaker 1: there is nothing in scripture that says that Paul did

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Speaker 1: say it's easier to remain unmarried because then you can

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Speaker 1: focus on ministry a little bit more effectively when you

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Speaker 1: don't have a partner in the mix. But then right

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Speaker 1: in the same breath, Paul said, there's nothing sinful about

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Speaker 1: being married, and in fact, in some cases it can

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Speaker 1: be sinful to not be married, especially if you are

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Speaker 1: somebody that is prone to lust. It is much better

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Speaker 1: to be married in that situation. And unfortunately, throughout history

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Speaker 1: there have been people claiming that somebody who is unmarried

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Speaker 1: is far more holy than a person who is. But

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Speaker 1: there is nothing in the Bible that says that. In fact,

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Speaker 1: all of the priests of the Old Testament, well not

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Speaker 1: all of them that we know of, but many of

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Speaker 1: them were actually married. We know this. God did not

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Speaker 1: tell anybody to abstain from sex. God instituted marriage. It

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Speaker 1: was one of the first things God ever instituted. He

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Speaker 1: performed the first wedding ceremony between Adam and Eve. Eve

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Speaker 1: is called Adam's wife. Marriage is a holy union, and

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Speaker 1: a lot of times it actually helps two people get

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Speaker 1: closer to God if they have a healthy marriage relationship.

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Speaker 1: So forbidding marriage, it says, is a doctrine of demons,

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Speaker 1: specifically if you are doing it in a legalistic kind

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Speaker 1: of way where you are telling people it is better

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Speaker 1: and more holy to remain unmarried, that is not true.

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Speaker 1: And also abstaining from certain foods which God created to

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Speaker 1: be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know

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Speaker 1: the truth. Now, this would have been a big problem

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Speaker 1: in Paul's day with the Judaizers who would go in

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Speaker 1: and tell people, oh, if you're not eating across the

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Speaker 1: board kosher, then you are certainly not truly saved. Paul

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Speaker 1: was dealing with that quite a bit of his time period,

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Speaker 1: and he says that that's a doctrine of demons. And

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Speaker 1: you know why, because once again, what you eat is

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Speaker 1: not going to get you closer to God. You are

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Speaker 1: not more holy for eating one diet over another diet.

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Speaker 1: Diets don't make you holy. The food you consume is

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Speaker 1: not going to get you any closer to God. If

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Speaker 1: somebody is coming into your church teaching these legalistic things

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Speaker 1: like abstaining from marriage and abstaining from certain foods, those

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Speaker 1: are doctrines of demons, and beware these people for every

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Speaker 1: creature of God is good, and nothing is to be

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Speaker 1: rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is

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Speaker 1: sanctified through the Word of God and prayer. There are

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Speaker 1: several verses like this actually, where it says that you know,

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Speaker 1: God created food to be received with thanksgiving, and it's

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Speaker 1: sanctified through the word of God in prayer. Because the

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Speaker 1: Old Testament laws at this point in time, you know,

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Speaker 1: Jesus fulfilled them, and that included all of the kosher

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Speaker 1: eating laws. Now that being said, you know, if somebody

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Speaker 1: wanted to go back into the Old Testament and read

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Speaker 1: about kosher eating, that would be very beneficial for them,

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Speaker 1: quite honestly. But the food laws are not going to

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Speaker 1: make you any closer to God. And that's the entire point,

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Speaker 1: you know. The law was to show us how far

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Speaker 1: away we were from God, like in every area of

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Speaker 1: our life. That was the point of the law. The

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Speaker 1: law could not save us, only Jesus could save us.

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Speaker 1: And so when Jesus came to earth, he fulfilled the laws,

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Speaker 1: and so many of them now are no longer necessary

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Speaker 1: in this era of grace. For example, the sacrifices, we

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Speaker 1: don't have to do those anymore because Jesus was the sacrifice.

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Speaker 1: But before Jesus came to earth, the sacrifices were very

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Speaker 1: necessary because that was how people gained forgiveness, was through

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Speaker 1: the blood of an innocent animal in place of the

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Speaker 1: human being. But Jesus fulfilled that when he became the

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Speaker 1: perfect sacrifice for everybody, and so the imperfect sacrifices of

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Speaker 1: animal blood was no longer necessary. Now, of course, the

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Speaker 1: Old Testament law are still there. We can go back

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Speaker 1: and read them and study them and see where God's

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Speaker 1: heart was and how far we fell from God. That's

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Speaker 1: the point of them. But doing them does not save us.

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Speaker 1: And so anybody coming into a church spreading legalism of

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Speaker 1: any kind, which would just be the Bible plus you know, yes,

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Speaker 1: you need Jesus, but you also need this to truly

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Speaker 1: have salvation with Jesus, that person should be ignored because

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Speaker 1: they are spreading a doctrine of demons. And you'll notice

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Speaker 1: a lot of times with these very legalistic churches, the

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Speaker 1: pastor is the most hypocritical person on the planet. So

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Speaker 1: I was raised ifb as you know, and one of

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Speaker 1: the things that if be pastors really struggled with. I

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Speaker 1: don't know if my pastor did. But ifb pastors specifically

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Speaker 1: really struggled with pornography while claiming to be very whole

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Speaker 1: and very pure. You know, how many times do we

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Speaker 1: see these pastors that are preaching against sexual immorality you

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Speaker 1: find out later on that they molested a young girl

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Speaker 1: or mistreated their secretary or something along those lines. We

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Speaker 1: see that all the time, because these people are hypocritical men,

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Speaker 1: speaking lies branded in their own conscience, and then spreading

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Speaker 1: all of this legalism while doing the complete opposite themselves.

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Speaker 1: These are the type of people you got to watch

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Speaker 1: out for, because, as Paul says, they're spreading the doctrine

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Speaker 1: of demons. All right, guys, before I end the podcast,

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Speaker 1: here's a quick word from our sponsor. Now I should say,

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Speaker 1: you know, just because a pastor may be hypocritical does

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Speaker 1: not necessarily mean that he is spreading a doctrine of demons.

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Speaker 1: Because you know, every single person on earth is a sinner,

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Speaker 1: and probably everybody struggles with hypocrisy in our own way.

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Speaker 1: I know I do. So even though your pastor is

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Speaker 1: a sinner does not necessarily mean he's spreading the doctrine

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Speaker 1: of demons. It's specifically when he's coming in being legalistic,

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Speaker 1: not following the truth of the Bible, spreading lies. That's

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Speaker 1: when you got to watch out for him. So it's

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Speaker 1: very important for you personally to read the scriptures because

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Speaker 1: this is the truth, and that will make you beware

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Speaker 1: of pastors and leaders in your church that are claiming

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Speaker 1: to be Christian, claiming to follow the Bible, but aren't

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Speaker 1: actually teaching any of the truth from the Bible, or

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Speaker 1: are skewing the truth with other unnecessary garbage. So that's

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Speaker 1: very important for us to all know. Well, faithful listeners,

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Speaker 1: I hope that you enjoyed this episode. Thank you so

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Speaker 1: much for being here and being faithful listeners. I hope

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Speaker 1: to see you guys tomorrow over on the Bible Explained

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Speaker 1: on Fridays. But you have to become a member in

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Speaker 1: order to tune into the Bible Explained on Fridays. It

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Speaker 1: is a separate podcast that I do specifically for members,

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Speaker 1: and right now we are going through the Book of

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Speaker 1: the Psalms. You can find out how to become a

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Speaker 1: member by clicking the link in the description that says Koffee,

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Speaker 1: and then you will gain access to the Friday podcast.

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Speaker 1: Faithful listeners have a fantastic and wonderful. Rest of your day,

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Speaker 1: happy listening, and God bless