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As you are all well aware,
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there are only really two religions
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on the face of this earth.
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(Aside) Don't you have a shirt that says
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Christianity is not a religion?
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Religion in years past was not
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the negative and derogatory term that it is today,
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so I almost hesitate to call Christianity [that].
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But you know what we're talking about,
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there are really only basically
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two basic religions that exist,
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that have ever really existed.
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One is divine accomplishment:
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God provides for everything man needs to be saved.
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Over against all the religions of human works
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that basically say I must do something to merit God's favor.
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And everything I just described,
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whether it's Catholicism, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses,
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Islam, and go down the line...
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Hinduism, Buddhism...
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they fall into this category of human works.
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Now I realize among those religions
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that fall into that category,
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some speak more highly of Christ than others.
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They don't honor Him,
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they just are not as derogatory towards Him as, say, Islam is.
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Catholicism will actually say some things
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that we would agree with, right?
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They would claim He's God.
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The problem is they make Mary out
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as the one who did what He did.
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So they really dishonor Him.
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They do great disservice to Him.
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But can a true Christian continue as a Mormon?
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I would say to James, here's his actual question:
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Pastor Tim, I'm a member
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of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon)
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who has recently come to know the Lord.
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I'm wondering if it's possible to
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still remain as an active member of this organization
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while having had the born again experience. Thank you.
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So help me out, guys. You answer it.
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Can he stay? (responses from the room)
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There's the question, right there.
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That's exactly where my mind went.
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Why would you want to?
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I don't know and he doesn't say.
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But I can tell you this, typically in Mormonism,
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in Catholicism, in Islam, there are strong families. Exactly.
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Typically, the reason you want to stay in a system
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that does not line up with true Christianity
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is because you're trying to please somebody.
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You're not wanting to suffer
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the consequences of having come to Christ.
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Listen: Revelation 18:2,
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"And he called out with a mighty voice,
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'fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great."
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Let me say something to you, in the book of Revelation,
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do you know who Babylon the Great is?
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Do you remember that picture of a whore;
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what was she riding on?
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A beast? And it was called something,
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but the term Babylon is used.
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Folks, let me tell you something.
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A very symbolic book;
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what is the church described as?
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A bride. The bride of Christ.
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False religion is a whore.
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False religion is an adulteress.
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False religion is described as Babylon.
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Basically, false religion has become
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a dwelling place for demons,
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a haunt for every unclean spirit,
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a haunt for every unclean bird,
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a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast,
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all the nations have drunk
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the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.
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False religion pervades every country
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on the face of this earth. Guaranteed.
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They have all drunk of the passion of her sexual immorality.
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How many governments in this world
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are Catholic governments? Muslim governments?
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And even the ones like in Turkey
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who claim to be secular,
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they're drunk with the passions of the sexual immorality of Islam.
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No question about it.
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The kings of the earth have committed immorality with her,
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and the merchants of the earth
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have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living,
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then I heard another voice from heaven saying this,
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'Come out of her, My people,
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lest you take part in her sins,
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lest you share in her plagues,
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for her sins are heaped high as heaven,
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and God has remembered her iniquities.'
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Mormonism is taking multitudes to hell!
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Come out from among her.
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Or 2 Corinthians 6:16, we are the temple of the living God,
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as God said, I will make my dwelling among them,
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and walk among them,
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and I will be their God and they shall be My people.
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Therefore, go out from their midst
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and be separate from them, says the Lord, and
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touch no unclean thing and I will welcome you,
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and I will be a Father to you,
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and you shall be the sons and daughters to me,
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says the Lord Almighty.
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Listen: we know well Paul's words, do we not?
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Even if we or an angel, Galatians 1:8,
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even an angel from heaven should preach to you
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a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you,
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let him be accursed.
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Do you realize Mormonism falls
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under the accursement of this inspired apostle?
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His curse on all who proclaim another gospel.
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You say, does Mormonism preach another gospel?
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Listen: the 3rd article of faith of the Church of Latter Day Saints,
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one of the 13 points of their basic church doctrine:
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Anybody involved in the Church of Latter Day Saints can look this up,
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it is their 3rd article of their 13 basic points.
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They're collectively known in Mormonism as the articles of faith.
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They're included in the standard Latter Day Saints scriptures,
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and members are encouraged to become familiar or memorize them,
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the third article of faith reads verbatim:
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We believe that through the atonement of Christ,
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all mankind may be saved by obedience
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to the laws and ordinances of the gospel."
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And you better hear that...
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they're not saying we're saved by the atonement of Christ,
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and everything He achieved there.
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You are only saved by the atonement of Christ
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and maybe saved by obedience to the laws.
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I'm going to quote to you from the teachings of Ezra Taft Benson,
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13th president of the LDS in his teachings, pages 353-354,
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he says this, "Grace consists of God's gift to His children
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wherein He gave His only begotten Son
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that whosoever would believe in Him,
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and comply with His laws and ordinances would have everlasting life.
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Or Bruce Redd McConckie, an apostle of the LDS,
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in his book "Mormon Doctrine," page 408
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"As with all other doctrines of salvation,
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justification is available because of the atoning sacrifice of Christ,
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but it becomes operative in the life of an individual
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only on conditions of personal righteousness."
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That is a blatant and manifest denial of the Gospel.
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Romans 3:20 "For by works of the law,
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no human being will be justified in His sight."
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No, Mr. McConckie, it is not
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'it becomes operative in the life of an individual
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on conditions of personal righteousness.'
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The justification that we have from Jesus Christ
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becomes operative by faith.
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By faith, Abraham was declared righteous.
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By faith.
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Yes, faith will produce works,
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but the works do not merit our salvation.
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By works of the law, no human being will be justified in His sight.
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Or Titus 3:5, He saved us,
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not because of works done by us in righteousness,
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but according to His own mercy,
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by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.
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What I would say to this man James, is this:
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Jesus Christ calls us to full,
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undiluted devotion to Him.
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Luke 14:26, "If anyone comes to me and
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does not hate his own father, and mother,
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and wife, and children, and brothers,
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and sisters, yes, and even his own life,
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he cannot be my disciple."
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I would say to this man James:
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if you're seeking to stay in Mormonism, in a false religion,
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in a religion that God tells you to come out of,
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in a religion that the Apostle Paul cursed,
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if you are determined to stay there
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and it has to do with a greater affection
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for any family relationship than what you have for Christ
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He says, Christ Himself says, you cannot be His disciple.
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Whoever does not bear his own cross
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and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
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Luke 14:33, "so therefore any one of you
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who does not renounce all that he has
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cannot be My disciple."
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So we would call James and anybody else in that situation...
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Catholicism has a cursed message,
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Islam is a damnable religion,
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Jehovah's Witnesses deny the deity of Christ,
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all these religions deny that Jesus Christ
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in a perfect life, in a perfect obedience,
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according to Philippians 2,
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He took that obedience all the way to becoming a man,
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perfectly, coming and submitting to His Father,
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taking that obedience all the way to death,
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even death on a cross,
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Jesus Christ, through tears, He learned obedience,
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He suffered before His Father,
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He earned a righteousness whereby
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the righteousness of God,
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the righteousness God demands of us was earned,
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it was merited by Christ Himself.
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To John the Baptist,
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He says, "John, baptize Me."
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John says, "Lord, I need to be baptized of You.
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You come here to be baptized by me?"
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And He said that all righteousness might be fulfilled,
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Jesus Christ had to walk through life and do what we do,
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be involved in what we're involved with,
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and do it in absolute perfection,
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and fulfill all righteousness
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so that the law might be satisfied perfectly,
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and in so doing, He takes all of that obedience,
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all the way to obeying His Father,
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and going to give His life
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as a ransom for many on Calvary's cross,
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so that He could come to that very point
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where He breathed His last,
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and just giving up the spirit,
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He says, "It is finished," and it's done.
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He has accomplished salvation.
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He was stricken, He was smitten, He was afflicted of God,
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He was crushed by almighty wrath on that cross,
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so that in the end of it, it is finished.
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And now, the most vile sinner, much like Luke 19,
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the tax collector beating on his breast,
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no works to offer God.
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Christ sets him off against the Pharisee,
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who was boasting - he fasts, he gives,
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he does, he works, he puts forth an effort;
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this man beat on his breast,
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wouldn't even raise his head, he simply said,
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"God, be merciful to me, a sinner."
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Jesus did not say He went out
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and did all these works
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to make justification possible.
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He specifically said this man
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had no works to offer God,
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totally contrary to the Pharisee,
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who is offering God all sorts of good works,
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and Jesus says, make no qualms about it,
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Jesus says, "This man went home justified, and not the other."
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Be certain of that.
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This Mormon is a liar.
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These Mormons I quoted, they are liars.
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You cannot be justified the way they say.
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They're liars.
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Paul was very specific in Romans 4,
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it was not works, it was not works...
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Abraham had no place to boast in works.
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And if anybody doubts that,
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you not only have Luke 19, you have Romans 4:5,
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and it is unmistakable.
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Who does God justify?
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He who justifies the ungodly.
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It doesn't say He justifies those who
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work and obey and keep laws.
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It says He justifies the ungodly.
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These Mormons are liars.
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It is a corrupt system.
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It is a damning system.
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And if you are a follower of Jesus Christ,
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God calls you, "Come out."
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So no, you do not want to stay.
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It is a haunt of demons.
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A man cannot be saved unless the most basic aspects
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of the Gospel are understood.
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You see, we're called to believe something.
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There are very concrete propositions, or truths,
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that are presented in the basic Christian message
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that must be adhered to, they must be believed,
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they must be laid hold on.
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You clearly see that in 1 Corinthians 15, do you not?
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Paul is laying down very basic tenets of the Gospel,
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and the thing is, false religions are not a little hazy
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in some obscure doctrine.
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False religions attack the foundations;
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they attack the very core message.
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That's what Paul's dealing with in Galatians 1:8,
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if somebody, even an angel from heaven,
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it doesn't matter who it is, if they come to you
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preaching another gospel than what we have preached,
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let them be accursed.
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And the thing is, the Gospel at its very root
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has to do to with Christ, His person,
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His character, who He is,
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and what He accomplished, in His life, on the cross,
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in His death.
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If a man does not have
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a basic understanding of that, he cannot be saved.
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There needs to be a basic comprehension of that.
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And the thing is these false religions attack on that level.
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Like I say it's not some obscure teaching
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about eschatology where they go wrong,
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they attack the very central message
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in a way that their message is damning.
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This is night and day,
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this is dark and light,
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this is the difference between life and death.
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This is truth and error.
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This is of God and of the devil.
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This is where the Spirit operates versus the haunt of demons.
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We're not talking some vague, small thing;
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we're talking about very foundational matters.
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Now look, I know there have been times in history
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where there have been certain individuals
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that stayed in the Catholic church
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or they stayed in the Anglican church,
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and they held to the truth.
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Typically people who did that, Savrinola, they burned him.
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I mean, typically, the people that tried to hold on
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in the midst of those kinds of situations
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suffered great persecution;
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they were put to death, they were ostracized, you name it.
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Even the evangelicals that stayed in the Anglican church,
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they tended to be a minority,
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rocks were thrown at them,
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probably literally and not so literally.
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I guess the point is what we find here is
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God is calling His people out of false religion,
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and I really believe that if you study Babylon,
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if you study that harlot...
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A lot of our forefathers have thought
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it spoke of Catholicism and the priests.
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I would say Catholicism is just one among many antichrists
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that are representative of false religion.
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There was a day when the Pope and Catholicism
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seemed to be the main enemy.
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Today we might look at it and say Islam may be,
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although if you talk to Ryan,
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he probably still sees Catholicism...
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I think what we basically see is this:
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If you're in Romania, it's Eastern Orthodox;
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if you're in Russia, it's Eastern Orthodox,
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if you're in Tibet, it's Buddhism,
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if you're in India, it's Hinduism,
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Basically what you have is a picture of false religion,
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and God is calling His people out.
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And the truth is,
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that if somebody is in one of those systems
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and they simply do not have the ability to see the difference
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between the true Gospel
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and that which is a corrupt perversion,
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then there is probably a very great likelihood they're not converted,
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because one of the things we find that happens
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is that the Spirit of God opens men's eyes.
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They're no longer blind. They now have the ability to see.
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The Scriptures come alive.
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We actually find various Scriptures
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scattered through the New Testament
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that show us that we're taught of God.
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The problem is that if it's difficult for people
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to give up their old beliefs,
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it's because they have not come to a new belief.
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Because that's exactly what faith is:
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Faith is beholding in Christ the answer to my sin
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that I never found in anything else,
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the answer to my eternal glory, to my joy,
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to what is seen in Christ as something precious
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that I never found in anything else.
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What you're saying is no different than saying
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a guy given to pornography for his whole life
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it's very difficult for him to give up
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what he loved so much for all those years.
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It's the same thing.
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When Jesus Christ comes along,
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what in the world do we think salvation is?
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Salvation is being saved from those things.
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It's being saved from the power of sin.
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It says it very clearly in Romans 6,
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sin shall not have dominion over you.
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Jesus Christ comes along to save people to the uttermost.
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Not to leave them lingering, hovering over these things
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and going on with their spiritual adultery and fornication,
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that's why He says come out from among them.
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Come out from among all that whoredom,
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and that adultery and fornication in a spiritual sense, come out.
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Do you realize what's happening when the church of LDS meets?
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It's a room full of whores committing spiritual idolatry.
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When a Catholic church gets together, it is whoredom.
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It is spiritual adultery.
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People committing lewd acts of spiritual abomination.
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That's what it is.
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When people put their affection and attention
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on writings other than the Scriptures,
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saviors other than Christ,
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gods who are not the God of the Bible,
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the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
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when they turn and lay their trust and lay their hope,
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you just read what God says about the Jews
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when they worshiped other gods,
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up under every green tree;
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He uses language that is graphic,
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because that's how it is to Him.
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It's like a married woman going out
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and finding another man not her husband
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and committing all sorts of lewd acts
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and indescribable sexual abominations and perversions
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selling herself cheap, giving herself,
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and I'm not even coming up to Biblical descriptions
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(response from the room - inaudible)
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Yes, there's idolatry of all sorts.
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But the fact is, false religion is the devil's playground,
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and God calls us to come out from among it.
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But the thing is, false religion can be like Islam,
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or it can be like Joel Osteen.
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It can be the faith movement,
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health, wealth and prosperity, or it can be the Amish.
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I mean, it's got every look under the sun.
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The Wilkenson's were just telling us Sunday
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about the people who dress in grey;
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it can look like that or it can look like Benny Hinn.
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It's everything in between.
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Anyway, that's it for tonight.