The following sermon is by John MacArthur, pastor, author, and Bible teacher with Grace

to You.

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And now unleashing God's truth one verse at a time.

Here's Grace to You, Bible teacher John MacArthur.

I don't like battles particularly, especially battles with other Christians, but they seem

to be necessary for the protection of the truth.

The Apostle Paul warned the Ephesian elders that of their own selves men would rise up

to lead people astray.

The church has suffered through the centuries attacks from the outside, from unbelievers,

but the most devastating attacks have always come from the inside.

And in all the years of my life, now many, many years in ministry, it seems as though there

has never been a time when we aren't engaged in some battle for protecting the truth,

clarifying the truth, a battle waged as a kind of civil war even inside the church.

In fact, not just in my lifetime, but there's really never been an era in all of church

history when the gospel was not under assault, under attack, usually from within the church.

The truth is that we would expect that because the gospel is the only way of salvation.

It is the gospel that delivers men out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of

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