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"Can you address an explosive movement
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called the 'New Apostolic Reformation'?
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Not many people in reformed
circles know about it,
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but it's claiming many young people.
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What does the church need to know
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about this fast-growing movement?
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And how should we respond
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when genuine believers adopt
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'new apostolic' teachings and practices?
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There's a lot of confusion
surrounding this.
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Is it just slightly off
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or is it heading in a dangerous direction?
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Many dear friends are involved,
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so this hits close to home
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as it does for many being confronted
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with this new teaching."
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Now, I would just say
several things about this.
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Probably it's not a new teaching.
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Probably it's old teachings
under new names.
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That's typical with almost everything.
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I don't know a whole lot
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about the "New Apostolic Reformation."
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And quite honestly, I don't really
care to know a whole lot.
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But I would say this,
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we don't need to study every new movement.
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We don't need to read every new book
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that comes along attacking some doctrine
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or is heretical or is an aberration
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or overemphasizes or
exaggerates something.
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They're always around.
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And you can get all the books today
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on the latest thing
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and it will be something else tomorrow.
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But oftentimes like I say,
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it's under a new name.
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It's old errors.
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We need to be people who know our Bibles.
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And I'll just tell you this,
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false religion is typically
demonic, Satanic.
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What text speaks about demon doctrines?
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Anybody know?
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James: 1 Timothy 4?
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Tim: 1 Timothy 4.
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What are some of the demon doctrines
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spoken about there?
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James: Abstaining from marriage,
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certain types of foods.
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Tim: Exactly.
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Demon doctrines.
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We know this:
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You've got these messengers of Satan.
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They come as angels of light.
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False religion is very Satanic.
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It's very demonic.
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Satan is after two things primarily:
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he hates Scripture.
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He will attack the
sufficiency of Scripture.
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(incomplete thought)
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Now look, sometimes new
movements are good.
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Sometimes the new movement is the truth.
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If it is, it's only new in name.
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It's not new in teaching.
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But sometimes, new breaks forth
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from the old in a good way.
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Like for instance, I remember reading
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about the first Great Awakening.
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Sam Waldron has written a book
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on the history of Baptists in America.
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And one of the points he makes is this:
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after the first Great Awakening,
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every major denomination
in this country split.
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And what he said was
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almost every denomination
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produced a new movement
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because the living -
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those that were born
again during this revival -
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couldn't stay with the old, dead religion.
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And so the new thing
was actually the old thing.
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I mean, it was the faith
once for all delivered.
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They were embracing. They were alive.
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And they were breaking
forth from the dead.
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But, sometimes the new
movement is false.
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But here's what you
always want to look at.
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What do they say about Scripture?
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And what is their actual practice
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with regards to Scripture?
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You could say one thing
and do another thing.
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But listen to what they say
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and watch what they do with Scripture.
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That's the first thing.
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And here's the thing,
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you can say:
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Oh yeah, we highly esteem the Bible.
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You can say it.
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Like Catholics will say it today.
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But look at their history.
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They killed people who printed Scriptures.
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And believe me, the only reason
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that they've changed now
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is because it's not politically correct
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to kill people who have Bibles.
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And they know it.
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But you watch what they do.
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And just because they say:
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we uphold the Scriptures -
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if you come along and say,
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but what the Pope says trumps that,
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then what you're really saying is
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there's a higher authority
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and you're not really saying
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that Scripture is sufficient.
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And then the next thing is this:
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Listen to what they say
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about what Christ did on the cross.
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Watch what they say about Him, His person,
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and watch what they do with the cross.
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And again, it's not just theologically
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if you sit down with one of their leaders
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and ask them to tell you.
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It's the thrust of what they preach.
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Listen to them.
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You can say sometimes:
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Well, yes, we believe that
Jesus died on the cross.
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And we believe He died for sinners.
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But it's not in their message.
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You listen to their message
and you're not hearing it.
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They're not preaching justification.
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Listen, there's a lot
of circles out there,
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I listened to one on
the radio the other day,
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and the guy seemed to me -
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now I wasn't carefully listening
to his whole message -
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it seemed to me that he
was very strongly emphasizing
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that you needed to live right
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in order to be saved.
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We want to listen for the doctrine
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of justification by faith
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in these merits of Jesus
Christ on the cross.
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So look for those two things.
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You don't need to know,
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you don't need to go out and study
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about the New Apostolic Reformation
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or any of the other new movements.
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Sometimes, you know you get lots of guys,
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they like to go through college,
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and they're in college and studying up:
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"What's your position on this?"
"What's your position on that?"
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You know what?
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What they really need to be doing
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is reading their Bibles.
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They need to read their Bibles
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over and over and over and over again.
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Because what we need to be
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is really we need to be like the FBI
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when it comes to their training
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of their agents that are all
involved in counterfeit money.
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I mean, many of you have heard before,
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they don't train them in
all the counterfeit types.
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They train them in the true currency.
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They have them so acquainted and familiar
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with the true currency
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that when they come
across something false,
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deceptive, altered, counterfeit,
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they're able to recognize it.
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I can't emphasize this enough.
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We need to be people of this Book.
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We need to know this Book.
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We need to read this Book.
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We need to read this Book a lot.
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We need to read it from cover to cover.
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Even through the parts that you may think
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at first are difficult.
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Leviticus - read it.
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You need to know Scripture
from end to end.
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That's our safety.
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It's Scripture.
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Remember, Jesus Christ,
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when He came face to face with the devil -
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and the devil's behind
these false religions -
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and what was Jesus able to do?
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He was able to quote
Scripture three times.
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Now He was out there
being tempted for 40 days.
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Very likely, He did that for 40 days.
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You just have three of them.
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But He likely was out there
answering the devil
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every single time.
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Look, we know that he's the tempter.
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If we're going to be tempted,
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then we're going to
have to answer him
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just like the Lord did,
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and you'll have no answer for him
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if you don't know your Bibles.
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You've got to know your Bibles.
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You've got to know how
to apply your Bibles.
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You've got to be Berean.
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You've got to know how to search
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what people say.
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(incomplete thought).
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You should really be striving
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to be studying all the time.
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Study some books very meticulously.
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Read books over and over and over.
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Read your whole Bible end to end.
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There's lots of different ways to do it,
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but just be in it. Be in it daily.
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There's no excuse not to be in it daily.
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We don't live by bread alone,
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we live by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of God.
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You've got to be in the Word.
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If our minds are going to dwell
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on the things above,
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well, where do you see that?
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Where do you find that?
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It's in that Book.
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If your mind is going to be renewed -
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which that's what it's supposed to be -
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and how?
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Right there in Romans 12
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where it's talking about
the renewal of the mind,
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it's got to do with
knowing the will of God.
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Where do you find the will of God?
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It's not just in your conscience.
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It's not in your opinions.
It's not in your whims.
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The conscience is good,
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but the conscience has
to be enlightened.
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Your conscience needs to operate
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based on Scripture.
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It's needs to be enlightened by Scripture.
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Listen, this is so important
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because what happens is if you're
reading the Scriptures every day,
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what you're doing is you're putting
that Word in your thoughts.
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When the Scripture says: "set your mind,"
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you need to put your
mind where Scripture is.
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We read in Scripture about setting
the mind on things above.
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We read in Scripture
about setting the mind
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on the things of the Spirit.
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How are you going to do it?
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Those are the things of the Spirit.
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That Book is inspired by the Spirit.
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This is critical.
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You don't need to read
about every new thing.
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You don't need to grab every new book.
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You don't need to be up on them.
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Because here's the thing,
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as soon as you read what somebody says -
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we were dealing in the theology class
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about some of the errors
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that John Piper was confronting
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concerning justification,
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and it was interesting.
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One of the books that I was
quoting to the guys from,
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it actually was footnoted
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that the guy holding to the error
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changed his position
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just from the time Piper talked to him
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to the time that the book went
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to the first printing.
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That's the thing.
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These guys are changing.
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And guys in these movements -
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you can talk to that guy over
there, he believes one thing;
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talk to that guy over there,
he believes another thing.
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Oftentimes, you can't even
pin these guys down.
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People are scratching their head about
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the "new perspectives,"
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because all the guys holding to
the new perspectives on Paul,
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they were all believing different things.
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You could never peg them.
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You couldn't pin them down.
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And then everybody's
changing their positions.
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You'll just pull your hair out
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and run in circles forever and always
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if you're trying to study every
false thing that's out there.
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Don't do that.
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Just you live in Scripture.
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Be like Bunyan where when they poke you,
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you bleed Scripture.
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I mean, you ought to be
able to think Scripture.
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You know what was said of David.
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He would lay on his bed at night
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and what would he be doing?
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Who is the blessed man?
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Who is that man in Psalm 1?
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Blessed is the man who walks
not in the counsel of the wicked,
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nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
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but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
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Tim: That's it.
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Meditating upon it day and night.
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That's the righteous people of Scripture.
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And I know I'm talking to a number
of people here that are in it.
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Don't ever sacrifice your
time in the Word.
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In all of the things that
you give yourself to
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and prioritize in your life,
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make that number one.
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What time do we have?