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Refuting False Teachers & Teachings, A Closer Look 1 john 1:1-4 #falseteaching #heresy
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Feb 19, 2025
Refuting false teachers and teachings is one of the main functions of a healthy church. John is known as the disciple of love, he had a very unique relationship with Jesus that the others didn’t experience. When he was writing to the first letter of John, he was probably the only remaining alive apostle, the others had already been martyred. He wrote this letter to reassure Christians in their faith and counter false teachers and their wrong views of Christ. At this point in his life, many churches had been established and as a result false doctrines were infiltrating many congregations. So John was not going to let that slide by. Today we’re going to exploring 1 John 1:1-4
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hello good morning this is tahiba
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taiwans.com
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and today we are going to look at first
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john 1 verse 1-4
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and i put the title as refuting false
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teachers
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so we're going to get into the
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background and then we
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we're just going to look at those four
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verses i kind of want to look at first
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john
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the entire book but i want to do it in
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small chunks
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because i believe this is an important
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passage and it's always good to
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understand
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on the signs of the time so i believe
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first john is a good good one to read
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in this in our current situation as a
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nation
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you know it's good to to go back to
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understand um
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what uh the scripture teaches about what
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it means to be a believer
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and so this is why i want to do this so
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let's go into the background
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and then we're going to talk um about
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first john
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1 verse 1 4. now if you know john
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the apostle john and he was a disciple
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of jesus he was known as the disciple of
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love
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and he had a very unique relationship
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with jesus
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unlike the other ones and john
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scripture tells us at some point that he
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actually was resting on jesus's breast
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which is interesting because in our day
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and age people
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see that something suspicious but that's
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not what what was taking place
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john just had like a really really um
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intimate relationship with jesus in the
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sense that he loved
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jesus with his true genuine
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uh uncorrupted love okay
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and and he shows in the way john writes
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so when john was writing the first
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letter of john
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he was probably the only remaining alive
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apostle because
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all the other ones had been probably
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murdered and killed
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so and he wrote this letter to reassure
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christians in their faith
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and to counter false teachings about
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christ
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so at this point in his life uh many
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churches had been
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established and as a result uh false
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doctrines
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were infiltrating many congregations so
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john was not going to let that slide by
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so he wrote first john for that reason
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so we are going to explore this morning
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verse one to four
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or first john one so let's jump into
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that
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and then we're gonna get into it um
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by bits and pieces so
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this is what first john 1 wanted to say
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that which was from the beginning which
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we have heard
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which we have seen with our eyes which
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we've looked upon and have touched with
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our hands
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concerning the word of life the life was
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made
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manifest and we have seen it and
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testified to it and proclaimed to you
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the eternal life which was the father
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was made
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manifest to us so we need to understand
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what
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john is saying here he's basically
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saying that the person
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that already existed before anything had
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been made
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we've seen him we've heard him
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and we've heard him with our own ears
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we've seen him with our own eyes
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and we intently put our gaze on him
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we've touched him
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we've handled them we've touched them so
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he's talking about
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an empirical experience he he and the
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other disciples
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have had with the person of christ he
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calls him the word of life
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now he says in verse 2 that the word of
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life
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became a reality a real man a person
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and they've seen him and they bear
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witness to the person they've
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experienced
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the eternal life now john is also saying
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that he existed
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with the father and he was made visible
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to them
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as a man so everything that john is
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saying here
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is pretty similar to what he says in
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john 1 verse 1 to 3
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and john 1 verse 14 to 15 which we will
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see in a minute
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so basically he says in the beginning
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was the word and the word was with god
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and the word was god he was in the
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beginning with god
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all things were made through him and
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without him
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was not anything made that was made so
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basically
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john is establishing that jesus is god
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because he says in the beginning he was
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was the word he only he already existed
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and the word was with god in an intimate
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relationship
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and the word was god so he's
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establishing at the outset that jesus
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is god he was in the beginning with god
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he was
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one with the father and all things
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were made through him through through
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the word of god through jesus
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and without him was not anything made
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that was made so
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the creation owes its existence
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to jesus so john is establishing that
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and that's kind of why he was also
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saying in first john 1 verse 1-2
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and he says there and the word became
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flesh
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and dwelt among us and we've seen his
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glory
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glory as of the only son from the father
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full of grace and truth
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so he's saying here and the word became
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flesh which he said in first john 1
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that which was from the beginning which
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we have seen
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which we have looked at with which we've
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talked with our end
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okay this will proclaim to you
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concerning the word of life and we can
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go back and look at it again
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let's go back and look at that again i
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want us to look at that again
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see the life was made manifest which is
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the same thing as saying
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that the word became flesh
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and dwelt among us we've seen his glory
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gloria's the only son
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from the father full of grace and truth
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so basically
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john is saying and he's reiterating what
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he said in his
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very first epistle and the other 11
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disciples
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as well as john they spent three years
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with jesus
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so if there's anyone qualified to
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testify about jesus
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then john will be the primary candidate
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because he was the disciple of love
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and john wrote this because there were
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false teachers
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who were claiming that jesus was not
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really a man this is why he wrote this
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epistle like portions of it
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they were promoting gnosticism and
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basically i'm going to read the
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definition
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uh and what narcissism is like it denies
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the true humanity of the redeemer christ
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and makes christ and his work in mere
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like phantom
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like this the sadistic illusion
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basically they're saying that jesus was
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just like a floating
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uh it wasn't really jesus he wasn't
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really a man
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kind of like something floating out
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there so basically
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they claimed that christ suffering was
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only apparent that he didn't really
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suffer
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he wasn't really real so do you see the
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danger in that
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kind of like uh thinking okay
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and they also promoted like licensures
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living in the sense that they claimed
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that the physical body
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or or matter did not matter so therefore
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they encourage
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believers to throw off all moral
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restraints so basically they're saying
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that
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everything that's ma that matters is
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just your your knowledge is this
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spiritual
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portion of your life and therefore
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whatever you do with your body that
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doesn't matter at all
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so you can understand that people
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probably indulge in sin and do all kind
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of crazy stuff
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and at the end of the day they say to
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you where all that matters
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is not my physical body but my spirit so
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therefore my body
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and my spirit they are not there is no
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unison there is no
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oneness in that so i can do what i want
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with my body as long as i believe in
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jesus and as long as
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i pray and i'll do all these things and
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i'm okay and this guy
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these guys they also promoted a lot of
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mysticism
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and you see that in our day and age
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there's a lot of narcissism going on
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right now you see in some churches
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people go there they don't bear the
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fruit of the spirit
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but then they have experiences which a
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lot of the
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narcissistics that's what they want
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to do they promote a lot of this
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mystical stuff
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you go in there and people bodies start
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to move people fall over all the places
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there's just chaos and because they've
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had that experience
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they believed it's some kind of
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spiritual experience and and the rest of
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the day and the rest of their lives they
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live without the fruit of the spirit but
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um
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paul says the fruit of the spirit is
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what love joy self-control
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these people don't have the self-control
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some of them don't have the self-control
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but they think they are they're
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christians and this is
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what um john is attacking this form of
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gnosticism in this day and age the
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people claimed
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that there was christ was not really a
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human it was just a phantom
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and as a result they also promoted
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licentiousness
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just living how you want as long as you
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believe and you have these spiritual
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experiences you're okay
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and you can see how attractive that is
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and that's what john was talking about
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he was saying something
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to the people that were listening to him
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and we're gonna go to um
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um and also before i jump into the next
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thing
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by saying that jesus is not really a man
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these people are essentially saying that
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he cannot be mediated do you understand
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that if jesus was not a man that he
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can't be a mediator
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and i want us to go to hebrews 2 verse
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10 to 18 to understand
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how important it is for us to understand
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the incarnation of jesus that he was
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truly man
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and truly god so we need to go to
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hebrews 2 verse 10 to 18
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and we're going to read that now listen
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to what the word of god says about jesus
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but it was fitting that he for whom and
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by whom
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all things exist which basically goes
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back to what john says
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all things were made through him and
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bringing many sons to glory should make
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the founder
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of their salvation perfect through
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suffering
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for he will sanctifies and those who are
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sanctified
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all have one source that is why he's not
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ashamed
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to call them brothers saying i would
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tell of your name to my brothers in the
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midst of the congregation i will sing
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your praise
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and again i will put my trust in him and
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again
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behold i and the children god has given
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me
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since therefore the children sharing
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flesh and blood
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human he himself
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partook of the same things he became a
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human
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one it wasn't a floating body that
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through death
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he might destroy the one who has the
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power of death that is the devil
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and deliver all those who through fear
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of death were subject to lifelong
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slavery
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for surely is no angel that he helps but
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he helps
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the offspring of abraham therefore
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he had to be made like his brothers in
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every respect you see that he had to be
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made like his brothers in every respect
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so that he might become a merciful and
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faithful high priest in the service of
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god to make propitiation for the sins of
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the people
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for because he himself has suffered when
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tempted
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he is able to help those who are being
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tempted so jesus had to be made like
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us in every way so that he can be a
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merciful high priest
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so without the humanity of christ we
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don't have a redeemer
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and john was basically saying to these
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people you guys need to watch what
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you're saying
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and for two believers watch your
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doctrines closely
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because it's important then let's go
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back
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so now we're going to look at verse 3 to
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4.
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the scripture says that which we've seen
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and heard we
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proclaim we proclaim also to you so that
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you two may have fellowship with us and
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indeed our fellowship is with the father
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and with the son jesus christ with his
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son jesus christ
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and we are writing these things so that
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our joy may be complete
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basically john is saying that not only
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not only do we testify about the person
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we saw
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we saw christ we testified about that we
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touched him
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we looked upon him and heard we also
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testified about the things
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we've seen him do and heard him say john
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is saying not only are we talking about
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a person we saw touched and felt
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but we also are testifying about the
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things that we've heard from him
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and the things that we saw him do okay
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and john's main reason for doing this is
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that so that we
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can enter a fellowship with the
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disciples in the sense that
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their fellowship is with god and god the
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father and god the son so
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john want us to be part of that
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fellowship he want us to
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enter that fellowship he wanted to
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experience what they've what they've
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experienced
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remember he says in john 20 verse 31
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but these are written so that you may
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believe that jesus is the christ
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the son of god and that by believing you
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may have life in his name
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john wants us and wants his readers to
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experience what he has experienced
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because this is truth
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and this is reality and then this is
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something else i want to say here
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see john wants us to understand
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and experience what they came to believe
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because he was consistent with the
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prophets
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the words of the prophet he wasn't just
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telling us about an empirical evidence
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that he had with christ
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or experience he's also saying that this
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christ fulfilled
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the word of the prophet so we are not
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just telling you what we've experienced
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but we are also saying to you that
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everything that jesus did
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is consistent with the old testament
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scripture
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okay he never contradicted the the words
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of the prophet
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but he actually confirmed confirmed the
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words of the prophet
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so john had both the witness of the
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physical presence of christ
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but also the backing of the words of the
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prophet
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the scripture and the law so he isn't
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telling us
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only about his empirical evidence but we
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also have the words of the prophet to
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confirm that jesus is indeed
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the christ so john is saying the person
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that we
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experienced that is the true christ
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because he is the only one that
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fulfilled
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the words of the prophet we've seen him
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we've touched him
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we've heard him we've seen what he did
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we've heard what he did
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and guess what everything that he did
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matched
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the words of the prophet so he is the
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christ
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and then our job as believers you know
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to to investigate those claims
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in the sense that john is saying it we
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have the scriptures
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so if you don't believe it go and read
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the old testament prophet
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and you're going to see that christ
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fulfilled
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every prophecy of the old
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scriptures or the old testament in the
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sense that people say
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the the new is in the old concealed and
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the old is in the new revealed in
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christ so john is telling us
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that which we've seen we've touched
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we've heard we've looked upon
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we proclaimed to you we've also seen him
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do stuff and we proclaimed that also to
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you and guess
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what what we are saying is consistent
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with scripture
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when you better believe so we have to be
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careful
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doctrine is important we need to truly
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understand doctrines
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because those uh things that are
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undergird are
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our faith and john was not going to let
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that slide by
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and today there's a lot of gnosticism
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going on there's a lot of weird
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things going on in churches that are not
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scriptural so it's important that you
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stay within the scripture
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go back to the word of god if you don't
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feel comfortable somewhere because of
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some practices
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then go to the word of god and see what
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the word of god says about it
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we have the word of god we have the
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whole council in the scriptures
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so there's no reason why we shouldn't
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study so if you find yourself
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navigating through life and and you're
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struggling because you don't believe
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certain things just go back to the word
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of god and we have that here
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this is the truth okay and john is
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telling
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us do that there's a lot of narcissism
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going on right now so we have to be
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careful who we believe and who we listen
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to
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there's a lot of false teachers now in
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the times of john they were false
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teachers but imagine
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this would be like 2 000 years of
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history so
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the the false teachers have actually
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amplified there's a lot more and and
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all of them find their roots back into
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those of
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old so basically they think what
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somebody has said and they twist it
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so we have to be careful and i will
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encourage you to to do that
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so we're gonna continue first john in in
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in the days to come have a wonderful day
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and i'll see you next time thank you