Transcript for:
Revelation 3:14-22 to the church in Laodicea

Found the transcript but need the audio? View Episode

Hi. From Bremerton, it's Monday night, and we are studying the book of Revelation tonight, the church of Laodicea, Revelation chapter three beginning with verse 14 and to 22 if you'd like to get ready. But before that, we're going to pray and and worship the Lord. So Father, we thank you Lord for this night. Thank you for this time that we can gather together in these home churches, and we thank you as the early church started out this way. And as pastor Chuck and others have said, the church is gonna finish this way. Lord, we just count it a real privilege to meet here like Priscilla and Aquila and others of in the book of acts that meant in homes, And we ask that you just bless this time. We thank you that we can celebrate the birth of your dear son this month, you know, the Christmas season. And we just pray that you bless mightily. We pray that you would bring healing, Lord, to Sally and to Joe and to Linda, that Mike Goodson, Lord, and to Shannon, her her teeth that were pulled, that you helped the pain go away and heal her up. And, God, we just pray that you pour out your holy spirit and keep your hedge of protection around our families and our loved ones, and Lord we pray that we'd be able to reconcile with those that are estranged, that we'd have just a wonderful Christmas time of reconciliation and just the blessedness of being family, of being children of God, children of light, and so just we just commit this time into your hands Lord in Jesus name, amen. Amen. Amen. Praise the lord. Change my heart, oh god. Make it Alright. Thank you. Merry Christmas. Alright. The church of Laodicea. Let's pray. Father, please bless this time as we study your word. Be our teacher and we're so excited, Lord, that we're saved. We're excited, Lord, that we know where we're going. We know you're coming again soon. And Lord we know also that your word says in these last days that it'd be Looney Tunes out there that things would get really off center. They'd call evil good and good evil and men aren't men, women aren't women, and up isn't up, down isn't down, the earth's flat, and so many just crazy transhumanist crazy stuff going on. And, Lord, we thank you that your word is light into our path, that as we spend time in your word, Lord, there's just this peace that overcomes us, Lord, that you're sovereign. You're on the throne. You're in control, and your word is has absolute authority. It doesn't matter what somebody else says or what somebody else feels, Lord. We can walk that narrow path with you. And, Lord, we we don't need to fall into the ditch. The blind leading the blind, they fall in the ditch. So, Lord, we ask once again that you would lead and guide us tonight into all truth and help us to be equipped and ready and strengthened to be able to help others, Lord, who maybe have fallen off the path. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Alright, Church of Laodicea, the city of Laodicea, notice it it says, says, and unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, whereas before the church of Ephesus. So this church is a false church. This is an apostate church, and it's a picture of the last days in which we're living where people profess to know God but in works they deny him. There's a whole lot of people, Hollywood, politicians, everybody's professing to be Christians right now and there'll be a day where you'll see a departure as they profess they come in and then there'll be something that takes place to cause them to fall away. So apostasy is a falling away. So it's a church of the apostasy in the last days. And so falling away from the truth, it's a falling away from the profession that they once had. They went out from us because they weren't of us. If they'd been of us, they would have continued with us. And as, you know, it's happening according to the proverb, the dog goes back to its vomit and the sow that's wallowing goes back to its mire. So an unchanged nature, no change inside, but they profess with the outward, they're religious and that they know God but in works they deny him. And so this city is about 40 miles from Ephesus. It's in a place called the Lycus River Valley. It was established in February by Antiochis II. Remember we studied about him and Daniel. And he named the city after one of his wives named Laodice, and so it's Laodiceans. Leo means people, decease speaks of order or law or ruler. So it's a people in symbolism of it, it's people rule. The people are ruling. It's not God ruling. It's not Jesus ruling. Jesus is kicked out of the church. In verse 20 he's knocking on the door, right, so he's not even allowed in to this church. It's people rule and the people decide what's going to be taught in these kind of churches, the people decide whatever they feel like. If you want a woman pastor, we feel like that's okay. You want a lesbian or a transvestite as your pastor, that guy that came out a couple weeks ago, okay, we think it's okay. So they make up their own rules. They're not in submission under the Lord, and and he has a rebuke for them. This occasion of the letter, the Lycus Valley is in present day Turkey, Asia Minor, And a guy named Epaphras, who was working with the Apostle Paul, helped establish the church in Colossae, which is nearby here. And many feel that Epaphras was also the one that began to establish this church of the Laodiceans. It's a city that is flourishing economically. It's a very strong banking financial center. It has a lot of textile production. They make sandals. Let's see what else. They make eye salve, a medicinal kind of an eye salve. Very commercial city. Some medical aspects of it and and so Jesus has nothing good to say to them, nothing good to say. And so let's start here, and under the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, so remember people rule wrote these things, write these things say at the Amen, the faithful, the true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. And so back in chapter one verse eight, the description of Jesus here and, the origin, beginning, everything. He's the alpha. He is omega. He's the beginning and the end, and, so it comes from him. So I know your works. I know what you guys are doing, that thou are neither cold nor hot. I would that thou were cold or hot. So then because thou are lukewarm neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. So I'm gonna I'm gonna vomit you. So he's given an evaluation of this church and he's saying to the church, you make me sick. You're neither cold nor hot. Now one of the features of this church is they were receiving their water from a mile away from the Lycus River, the South Shore of the Lycus River, and they built an aqueduct. By the time that water traveled through the aqueduct a mile, by the time it got to the city, the water was lukewarm. Whereas the water in Hierapolis was a hot therapeutic kind of a water that would attract people for medicinal purposes. And then the water in Colossae was a really cold, nice refreshing kind of a water. So the church of Laodicea, they have a distinction, a feature within their city of a lukewarm water. I don't know if you've ever it doesn't matter to me if it's lukewarm. When we grew up, we'd grab the hose, you turn the hose on, and that's where you drank. And a lot of times, the first part that came out was really hot because it's laying in the sun, you know, and then you let it run a little while to try and get it cold, and and that's how we rolled, you know, but sometimes you would go into the house and somebody left the milk out, And you'd go to pour a a glass of milk or have some milk and, you know, it's almost curdling. You know? And it's always lukewarm. There's nothing like a a lukewarm glass of a milk when you're expecting it to be freezing cold, you know, and almost make you and I've drank milk where it is curdling, where it's there's solids in it. Yeah. And it's been it probably went bad past the shelf life date, but poured into your cereal or poured into something that's it's all thick, you know, almost making yogurt out of it, but sour tasting. And so I'm trying to describe what Jesus said, you know, you spew it out. Right? You don't wanna swallow that. Spit it out. Spit it out. So these guys, he says, I know your works and you neither cold nor hot and you and I want to be hot. We want to be fervent for the Lord. We don't want to be cold. We want to be hot. We want to be on fire for the Lord. We want to be those who pray fervently and that word fervent speaks of hot. You know that you're passionate. You don't want to have a lukewarm condition. If you leave your first love like the church of Ephesus, you know, your love, your passion could cool down. It could cool down and become lukewarm. Your marriage can become lukewarm. You're not inspired anymore. And and so that's their their spiritual condition is that of being lukewarm and so it makes the Lord sick. He says because thou sayest, so here's why you guys you can't even self evaluate. Now Paul said let a man examine himself to see whether he's in the faith or not lest thou be a reprobate. So Jesus has given a progress report on these other churches and mostly bad. Church of Philadelphia, good. Ephesus is doing good. I got one thing against you. You left your first love. Well, without love, we're nothing. You know? You could do a whole lot of good, but not do it in love and it's all canceled out. Know, you gotta come back to square one of love and the love of Christ constrains me. But the church of Laodicea, there's nothing good, but they say they like to boast and the Antichrist can be a boaster. You ever heard any people that boast? Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. You are spiritually bankrupt. But your perception is because you have so much money in the bank, it must be God's favor upon us. And so you misconstrue that materialism, material things are, you know, god's blessing in your life, blessing upon your church. How much money does the Catholic church have? You know? How much money does the Billy Graham Association have? How much money does Christian television, these televangelists, how much money? Aren't aren't several of them, you know, on their way to being billionaires after twenty, thirty years of being on on TV? They've got all the jets and the the goods and the stuff and the houses and and just they they look. Health, wealth, and prosperity they promote to people. Look how look how wealthy we we are. You know? And so you say I've increased with goods and have need of nothing. Now this was illustrated their pride, their incredible pride. In sixty AD there was a huge earthquake that took place here by this church. And the Romans, they were under the Roman rule, the Romans offered to help finance the rebuilding of their city after it was devastated by an earthquake in sixty AD. The people of this town again were bankers, financiers, they had an enormous amount of money in this city. They said oh no we'll get it ourselves we'll do it ourselves so they're very prideful and very self sufficient they didn't need help from anybody and it lends itself toward pride and god resists the proud and he gives grace under the humble. So increase with goods and have need of nothing and know us not so you're you're ignorant you're very very spiritually ignorant we talked Sunday about wisdom and prudence and how part of the riches, the plutos that are ours, you know, these guys think they're rich, but they're bankrupt. You and I are rich. We have spiritual riches that nobody's going to take away. And so what's it to profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul, or what would a man give in exchange for his life? And so, you and I have the unsearchable riches of Christ, and though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that we, through his poverty, that we might become rich. So our riches, again, are the spiritual riches that money can't buy. And if the Lord blesses you and he blesses you and I, if riches increase in your life, don't set your heart on him. The evil is not having a nice house and car and having riches. The evil is setting your heart on it where it it begins to control you. So what happens is you fall more in love with the blessings rather than the blesser, the one that blessed you. And then you misconstrue that, hey, we've got all this material wealth. And so when Jesus was talking about the four types of soil, there was the soil that was the weedy soil, and it was the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches that chokes off the Christian life and it doesn't bear the fruit that it could. Lukewarmness, the cure for it, number one is salvation. You need to get saved. But along the way, the phenomena can take place even in a Christian's life or a church's life where the church is a mixture of saved people and unsaved people in the church, let's say. One of the cures for it is persecution. A good dose of persecution will sift out the pretenders. They'll leave because they were there for only for the Bennies, only to get richer, only to take, only to take that whatever whatever feel good thing they could take from that church, that's what they're there for. But if it costs them something like persecution would, then, all they live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. They're out of there. But then what's good is it takes the ones that are left, the ones that remain, and that persecution will fan the flame. It'll fan the Jesus said, a bruised reed he will not break and smoking flax he will not quench. So your life can become bruised and broken. And as you're walking along near a river, there's be these shoots that come up, right? What do they call them? And there's hollow on the inside, these reeds, a bruised reed. And these reeds, if you dry them out, they might be useful to make a flute out of or something, and I could play that flute. And like Jethroth Tola. But if they're bruised, there may not be any viable usage for them. But Jesus said, a bruised reed, I will not break. If your life's bruised and broken, he'll he'll he'll make your life useful. And then he said, smoking flax, I will not quench. So what's happening here is Jesus said, I'm gonna take the light out. I'm gonna take the lampstand away from you church. You're not representing me. You're not pleasing me. You're not living for me. But smoking flax, I won't quench. So if our lives become like the oil is getting really low and we need a good dose of the Holy Ghost, right? So every time we come together, we always pray, Lord, fill us to overflowing. Lord, pour out your Holy Spirit upon us and, you know, afresh because yesterday's manna, the the teaching yesterday, the word of God that we got, you know, it can get old and stale real quick. Right? So, we hide it in our heart and we feast on it. We enjoy god's word but every single day, we need to be eating, nourishing ourselves with the word of god but we we also need to spend time in worship and being filled overflowing with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit teaches us and fills us. The best way to be filled with the Holy Spirit is read God's word and here's begin to be filled, feeding your spirit, your spirits come into overflowing, right? So a bruised reed, he will not break and smoking flaxseed won't quench. So the picture is you've got an oil lamp and at the end of that oil lamp's dissipation of oil, it's at a point where it's kind of that flittering black little smoke going up and the flame, the flame is almost gone. It's almost out and so, typically, you'll see these guys go like, and then they'll snuff it out, right? Jesus says, no, I'm not gonna do that. Smoking flax, I won't I won't quench it. I'm gonna fill you with oil, then I'm gonna fan you. I'm gonna fan you into a flame. And so in many cases, that comes through persecution as we're forced to get away from all the material things, all the stuff, the phones, and all the stuff that took our time as we dried up and the world's not satisfying and he says, alright, I'm gonna bring a good dose of persecution against you. Maybe you're gonna lose your job because you shared the gospel with somebody at the lunch break and it seems unfair but now you're unemployed, now you got plenty of time to read the word, you got plenty of time to spend with the Lord and all. And he begins to refill you again. Right? And so there's a picture. I've told you guys this before. There's a picture of this where when you get fat and happy, when you get just like just like you've got good teaching coming in and worship and and the church is is just extremely blessed. We would call Southern California, a lot of the churches there, a Christian Disneyland. And that Christian Disneyland, there is no persecution. It's all fun and games. It's all I mean, Greg Laurie just had a Christmas tree lighting celebration. When have you ever been to a church that has a Christmas tree lighting presentation? I I can't think of it, but this was a huge tree out in front of the church, you know, and everybody comes to sing songs and have candles, you know, maybe and some hot cocoa and eggnog and all that stuff. And then we're gonna light the Christmas tree, the Rockefeller Center, you know, And I don't know how they keep coming up with all these ideas, know, different ideas of things to do, you know, at church. I don't see any of that in the Bible, but boy, it sure is fun. And it's a great place to take your family and to go. And the harvest crusades are a great opportunity to invite friends and see them saved and all. But one thing about it all it's fun capital F U N it's extremely exciting and fun to see God moving and working in all the amenities, all the rides, all the attractions, all the everything, and one thing missing is persecution. There's no persecution. And so you you know, you have to wonder what's gonna happen when persecution comes. Is is this a church that's left its first love? Is this a church that's you know, what evaluation would Jesus give to a church like that? He's the one that can see. Now would look from the outside, that's a very, very prosperous churches in Southern Cal. These huge mega churches in our community, the largest churches in our community. God must be pleased. Look at the money in the bank. Look at the buildings. They're in another building project. They're going to go to a third service. You know, it must be god, you know? And that's how we in the world look at it and we can't we can't see beyond the material side of it. We don't we don't see the spiritual side because like he said, you're blind. When he gives his evaluation he says you're naked, poor, blind, and miserable. You think you're rich but really you're bankrupt. You're spiritually bankrupt. There's nothing going on there. So we would say well all right I attended this church. Man, it had great worship. It had 20 people on stage. It had smoke and it had lights and it was so exciting. And then they got up there to teach and they went about ten minutes. There was one verse the bible used and I think he went fifteen minutes. And then he spent thirty minutes asking for money. And when I left there, I was humming some songs but my spirit didn't get fed. So now I'm not doing very well in my marriage. Now I'm not doing very well as a Christian. I'm having a hard time staying away from pornography and alcohol and drugs and all the the devices of the flesh that because we learned in Galatians, you know, you you got the flesh and the spirit warned against each other. If you sow to the spirit, you don't fulfill the lust of the flesh, but that flesh is is fighting against you. So when you get fed spiritually and filled up now you have the the strength, the power of the Holy Spirit to help you say no to sin, say no to lust, say no to the things that would would tear you down. It is an automatic thing. So in a lukewarm church, in apostate church, when people get sick, where do they go? How do they get healed? How do they get made better? I know. Let's hire counselors. Let's hire Christian counselors and charge people $75 an hour to talk about what losers they are. And they'll just talk it out. Let them talk it out. And then we'll prescribe medication and we'll talk it out. That's not the Christianity you and I want to live. If we had a crisis, something real grave, something hard, well, if there's anybody that can help me get through that, that's great, but the less of the world, the better. I want to rely upon the Lord. If my arm's broke, want the doctor to set it and fix it, But the brain, the nervous system, the heart, the mind, the soul, that's a place where God operates. That's a place where the word of God is sharper than any two edged sword dividing us in a soul and spirit, joint marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Maybe my problem is a spiritual problem and I need to first seek the Lord. But in lukewarm apostate churches you don't have that medicine. You don't have that work of the Holy Spirit, the great physician, the balm of Gilead, to help you through these things. So you become more and more worldly and more and more dependent upon the world and the world ideas to try and call yourself a Christian. But you lack the power of the Holy Spirit like we've been talking about, the riches that are ours in Christ Jesus. So this church of Laodicea, from the outside, they could get the best medical there is. They don't care if it's a $100 an hour for someone to counsel them. They don't care. They got the best insurance. They got the best of everything. From the outside, the best shiniest cars, everything. It all looks good from the outside. But Jesus' evaluation is what counts. And so he says, because thou sayest I'm rich and boy, I'm creased with goods. Like I said, can you fathom that these evangelists on TV can be worth close to a billion dollars off of religion? Can you even fathom that? Can you fathom even a good ministry like the Billy Graham Association be worth a billion dollars? That's just mind boggling. And then the larger churches, millions and millions and millions of dollars, a lot of financial assets and buildings and just enormous businesses. And and that's what's happened in America. In America, like I talked about on Sunday, I talked about last last Monday, what we're watching right now in our country is we're watching the end of the dollar. And with the end of the dollar, it's greatly going to affect our standard of living. It's greatly, greatly going to affect how we live. When the ruble went down in Russia years ago in their crisis, the pensioners, people that were receiving their retirements and social security type stuff, their ruble was reduced by 50%. So your standard of living reduced by 50%. That's why in Europe, I'm told, I haven't been there, especially Eastern Bloc, everybody's got a garden, even if it's in your front yard. You got a vegetable garden because food is so expensive. So any way you can circumvent and try and alleviate your output by growing your own food or chickens and eggs and things like that. That's what you do in impoverished areas. Sometimes you hear people say that they're preparing for the they don't need to prepare for the tribulation period because they're gonna go through it. You know? I don't need to prepare because I'll just go to McDonald's, you know, and that kind of a mindset. But McDonald's may not have real food there either. That's another topic. But anyway, the Bretton Woods Agreement. After World War II, the Bretton Woods Agreement made it where the bankers made the dollar the de facto global currency. So the British sterling or the British pound or today we see China with the yuan, the African dinar, different currencies around the world, Canada, the duck or whatever. When Kathy and I go to Canada, our dollar's powerful. I can go get a steak for $20, a big good steak. And we can go out to dinner for $40 up in Canada, stay in Victoria off season, and and, man, we're just like, woah, this dollar's really got some buying power. Now I don't know now, but that's years ago. And and that's the way the dollar's been. All countries want dollars. They wanna hold on to dollars because in other countries, if you have a euro, periodically they will call them in. They'll say periodically they'll say, we're no longer going to honor pennies. We're no longer going to honor Benjamins. We're no longer going to honor $20 bills. So now you have this many days to take your $20 euro, your this or that to the bank to get credit for it before it's worthless. So when they go to digital, anybody and they're going to say it's because of drug addicts, because of drug users, fentanyl. All the drug people out there have money in their walls. They've got dollars in the walls, you know? And so we're going to stop this underground economy and we're going to call them and then everybody that has them is going to have to pay taxes on them and then you're going to have digital currencies and stuff. But anyway, our standard of living in America just outdistance everybody, the whole world. Our military, we can spend on our military more than all the other countries combined. And in this agreement that the bankers carved out, part of what we would do as America is we would be the muscle for the bankers. So any country that wasn't a part of the Rothschild Bank of International Settlements, the Central Bank, every country, China, Russia, all of them have a central bank that's tied with the World Bank, which is the Bank of International Settlements. So if Omar Qaddafi and Asaddam Hussein decide that they're going to produce the African dinar, they're going to be invaded. There's gonna be regime change. Any rogue nations will be will go to war. And The US will go in there and they'll build it up and they'll they'll do a regime change and then change the banking. The banking will be tied with the Rothschilds in a minute, and that's the way it worked. And then the 73, they tied the dollar to the oil. Every barrel of oil, the petrodollar, that's, again, another advantage for us. Every barrel of oil all over the world, even in the Mideast, to sell that oil, to bring it on the market, to have energy, you could have a euro, but that euro needs to be converted to a dollar. So we had a huge advantage. Everybody needed dollars. And then we can make our debt go way, way, way up. And the reason our dollar's coming down, the reason they're crashing the dollar, is not because of our debt. It's because they have a better system now. They have a tyrannical digital currency that can track and trace and the real objective is a greater control. And so that's what we're going to see coming. But since World War II, we are the most prosperous culture in the history of the world. We can buy stuff at Costco that's made in China so inexpensive. We have the greater standard of living than anybody. You can be poor here and still live better than people all over the world. Right? And so that's part of where the laziness comes in, where the complacency comes in, where the I don't need to trust in God, I can trust in government. And so the church has become fat and happy, they become complacent, and they get a five zero one(three) tax exempt status if they don't say anything about the government, if they keep quiet when things are waxing worse and worse, and over a course of time, it's like the frog in the kettle. And that frog is should have jumped out a long time ago and done something about it, but by now it's so lukewarm. It's so so weak and nothing going on that you just let it all happen. You're passive toward the evil. You don't ever say anything. So years ago, they had some fish on the East Coast, some codfish, and codfish would come out of the water into the restaurants and would just be the best tasting fish you ever tasted. Just supple. Good. I've had shrimp out of the Puget Sound that day on a Wednesday, and I ate it that Wednesday, and oh my gosh, it was so good. I've caught salmon and ate it on the day that it comes out of the water, and it's incredible. It's not mushy. It's not from a fish farm. Know, it's it's just really, really good natural good food. Well, on the East Coast, these codfish were in that way, and so fish and chips and people just love it. They rave about it, the texture, taste and all that. So they say, you know what, they don't have this kind of codfish on the West Coast, let's send it over to the West Coast and sell it. Well, by the time it would get to the West Coast by trying to freeze it and all, it just didn't have the same texture, didn't have the same flavor, didn't taste right. And so they couldn't get people hooked on it. And so they had an idea, well, we'll put them in water trucks and we'll put them in alive and we'll drive the water trucks to the West Coast and the fish will swim, they'll be alive, and that'll be good. They got them to the West Coast and it was like fishing at a fish farm. Have you ever caught a trout at a fish farm and you cut them open, they're mushy. They're just mushy. Their meat is just so soft. And so that was happened to these fish in the tanks. They lost their texture. They lost the flavor. They taste like the barrel they were in. And so that didn't work. So they came up with a third idea. They'll put in a catfish in there. And apparently the catfish was an arch enemy of these codfish. So they put a couple catfish in the tank with the good fish, and the catfish is swimming around trying to catch and eat these fish. And because of that persecution, these fish, when they got to market, were like wild fish. And that's what persecution does for us in the church. When we are persecuted, we're forced, if you will, to depend upon the Lord. We can't say we're rich and increased with goods in need of nothing. When Jesus is knocking on the door of our hearts, we open the door. We don't we don't leave our first love. We are he's got our full undivided attention. We're praying fervently on fire. It isn't a casual prayer, you know. You got cancer, you're a prayer warrior, you know. And and so sometimes the Lord allows these things individually in our lives and that which the enemy means for evil, God turns around for good. And this church, they're just a very, very materialistic, prosperous church, but they've lost their savior. They don't have the salt. They're not the light. They don't resist evil. They don't fight against evil. They don't call out sin anymore. A lot of them don't teach prophecy. And it's it's tragic to to watch what's happening presently to the church as a whole. Not teaching the Bible anymore, not teaching prophecy, not taking people expositionally through the bible. The Laodicean church are a people rule church, so they tell the pastor. They tell the pastor, not Jesus tell the pastor, they tell the pastor what they want. They want shorter sermons, more music, and and they don't want a whole lot of bible content because they don't know the bible. He's using too much bible, don't know what he's talking about. Well, read your bible, that's the solution. The pastor's never read the book of Revelation, he's never taught the book of Revelation. Do you ever think that some pastors have never been taught the book of Revelation? Well, answer your own question. It's time to study. Study to show yourself approved unto God, a work when they need not to be ashamed. Wrathly dividing the word of truth, Timothy. The solution is to study. Start studying. Right? And so we're gonna the people are gonna say, no. We don't want you to teach that book. That book's scary. It's scary. It talks about the end of the world. It talks about the end of times. We want smooth things. We want things that make us more successful to get more stuff. We want you to fix our marriages, to fix our kids, our prodigals and all. Tell us stories how to fix them. We want our dogs to live longer, our cats to live longer. We want to know how to be successful, healthy, wealthy and wise. And it appeals to the flesh, it appeals we're man centered rather than Christ centered. And don't tell us about sin or hell or death or any of those things. And they begin to dominate and the pastors, the hirelings, give into that and it may not even be a church and they may not even mean Christians. They may be like the Laodiceans. They may be making Jesus sick. So you're rich, you're increased with goods, you have need of nothing, and you know it's not that thou art wretched, miserable, poor, and blind, and naked. Now I've I've encountered people like this and they think I'm the one that's not the Christian. I've had pastors' wives come up to Kathy and I say, why do these bad things keep happening to you? And Kathy looked at her like, you of all people should know. You know? It's because we're a threat to the kingdom of darkness, because we refuse to and here's the main word, this is the main word, we refuse to compromise with the world. If you refuse to compromise with the world, get ready, your life's going to be tough. Your ministry is going to be small. It's going be a hard road to toe. But if you compromise, if you make your church progressive, then you're going to have a lot more people. Now let me tell you about progressive Christianity. You could type it in if you wanted, but I did it for you. Presently we're looking at what's called progressive Christianity. It's basically you're merging the world into the church and the church becomes culturally like the world. We're asking the world, what do you want world in a church? And the world says, we want the church to be like us, to be like this. Rather than you influencing the culture to be more like Christ, it's the culture influencing the church to be more like the culture. Today they call progressive Christianity, like you're making progress, but really it's a liberalization. So progressive Christianity is a modern movement reinterpreting faith through a lens of social justice, inclusivity. Now what does inclusivity mean? It means you've got to include everybody, right? Anything goes. So what was that IDF thing they did or I something? Exclusivity? DEI. What is it? Diversity. Equity. Equity. And inclusion. And And it kind of went away for now for a little while, right? They're trying to enforce it on everybody. That's part of the progressive church. They made it a moral issue. So interpreting faith through a lens of social justice, what's social justice? Not real judges. Isn't it like some people have too much money and brown guys, black guys, ethnic groups need more of the pie and black lives matters and all these different issues of trying We need reparations because our great, great, great, great, great, great grandparents were slaves. That's a social justice trying to correct wrongs in a human way. Inclusivity. So we're gonna include everybody. We're gonna just include the gays, the lesbians, every kind of ethnic group, every kind of everything, and an evolving understanding. So your understanding is evolving. It's always changing. It's not based upon the word of God. So emphasizing Jesus' call to love and compassion over strict dogma, welcoming LGBTQ plus individuals, prioritizing earthly well-being, we talk about that the spotted owls and all that, and environmental care, viewing the Bible as an inspiring text not inerrant, And embracing questions and diverse spiritual paths often contrasting with traditional views on sin salvation and scripture scriptural authority. The core beliefs and practices inclusivity, welcoming all people regardless of race, gender, identity, sexual orientation or ability. Now I would agree with that. I would welcome anybody, whosoever will let them come, but not into the pulpit, Not as pastors. You see what I mean? Any sinner is welcome because we wanna get him saved. Right? But not on their terms. They're not gonna be the Laodiceans in our church telling us what to do. Probably I'm gonna offend them and they won't come back a second time, right? Because the word of God's offensive, the cross is offensive. So we're not trying to compromise or appease them or not mention sin because they might leave, you know? I read I read this morning where 25, zero churches are going to cease to exist this year simply because the people are getting old, the churches are small, and they can't afford to pay a pastor. They don't have a pastor But the megachurches are growing, they're growing more and more and more. All right, so regardless of race, gender identity, sexual orientation or ability. So I say gays and lesbians are welcome at Calvary Birmingham. We're gonna call them to repentance just as much as an adulterer, just as much as the thief. I don't expect people to live a holy life until they're saved and even then it's a struggle, you know what I mean? We need the help of the Holy Spirit every day. My mom, she wasn't saved. I didn't impose upon my mom a standard behavior that only by the grace of God with the help of the Holy Spirit a Christian can live. Social justice, centering faith on actions of for peace, justice and caring for the vulnerable. Biblical interpretation viewing scripture as a guide to God's evolving revelation. So it's not fixed. It's not the canon of scripture. It's not the inerrant word of God authoritative word of God. It's evolving. It's what I think. Oh I think and a lot of the home Bible studies and stuff today home groups they go around the room they say what do you think it says? What do you think it says? Well it has meaning. It means what it says. Do do we have study helps? Do we know how to interpret what thou shall not steal means? Can can any of us understand what that means? Thou shall not commit adultery, you know? It's it's pretty explicit, pretty pretty clear. Prioritizing Jesus' teachings and questioning traditional doctrines. Science and earth, embracing scientific insights and act actively caring for the environment. So forbidding of eating of meat, we'll see. In Timothy, you care more for the environment. The cows are giving off flatulence. We can't have cows anymore. Can't have meat anymore. Methane gas, you know, gonna have to eat bugs. Bill Gates wants us to eat his bugs. He wants us to have meat made in the factory, you know? Good luck with that, Bill. Maybe after the rapture. So viewing scripture as a guide, God's evolving revelation, prioritizing Jesus' teachings and questions traditional doctrines science and earth questioning and experiencing questioning and experience valuing lifelong learning questioning absolutes and finding meaning in personal experience alongside scripture so now what's happening is and it's happened for us my experience determines truth not the word of God. So if I experience something or had a dream or vision or did something and I can't like let's say you're barking or roaring all of a sudden you got this desire at church start barking to howl at the moon or you got this desire at a worship service to get on the ground start rolling rolling around in the the thing and the churches began to have these rooms they called them drunk tanks and you were so overwhelmed with the Holy Spirit that you were drunk in the spirit and you weren't allowed to drive your car home because you were too drunk to get home. They actually did this. The Toronto blessing and all of them, you know, and it's morphed into Bethel. Bethel has some things like this with tunnels and labyrinths and ways that they go to try and get the holy spirit. You don't find that in the scriptures, but these can be real experiences where people are deceived demonically. So we say no we're not going to go down that road because we don't see it practiced in any of the Gospels or in the book of Acts. We don't see Jesus authenticating or anything. So it's not taught we we have no doubt that you're experiencing something we just want you to know it could be demonic it's not biblical you know I mean so we don't want to invite witchcraft into the church all right and the occult and so finding meaning and personal experience alongside scripture. Universalism, believing other faiths offer valid past to the divine, not necessarily leading to hell. So now we want a Charlie Kirk funeral memorial where we want all the religions to be there represented. Somehow we're gonna have a one world religious system or the board of peace in Gaza, Step two for president Trump is the board of peace where 10 technocrats, 10 leaders around the world are gonna help govern in Gaza. Imagine that the board of peace. Oh, that sounds that sounds like Daniel two and Daniel seven and Revelation thirteen and seventeen. 10 toes, 10 horns, 10 kings, 10 crowns, board of peace. Wow. And key theological thought: sin. Sin is moving from original sin to original blessing, seeing humanity as inherently connected to God. Atonement often viewing Jesus' death as an example of love or martyrdom, not solely as substitutionary sacrifice for sins. Interpreting the resurrection metaphorically as Christians' continued presence rather than a literal historical event. And you heard the last few weeks about Kurt Cameron doesn't believe in hell anymore, a literal place. Contrast with traditional Christianity where he does a literal place but annihilation, not the continuing torment for someone for all eternity. Action versus belief. Focus on a lifestyle of love and justice over adherence to specific creedal beliefs. God seen God as eminent and relational, sometimes described as the sacred or what exists between people rather than solely a transcendent supernatural being. Salvation, emphasizing salvation as wholeness and unity in this life, not just an afterlife promise. So that's progressive Christianity and part of what we see there is as a result of the purpose driven books of Rick Warren where he said it's deeds not creeds. So you have people progressing trying to formulate the social justice and all. And then another thing Warren said is we don't need any more fundamentalists. The fundamentals. We gotta get rid of the fundamentalists. They're things back. Well, let me tell you what happened in '19 let's see here. It happened around 1891. We had what was called the modernists. The modernists came in and they were influenced by German rationalism, the thinkers and books and stuff. And with the German rationalism, the Nietzschees and these kind of guys that were writing, it affected Adolf Hitler, affected the way people think, it affected and led to evolution and a super race and all those kind of things, the ideas that came out of this German rationalism, and it affected the church. And so they had a time where they called modernism. So they began to fall away, liberalization of doctrines and teaching that were solid for Lutheran churches and Methodist churches and Presbyterian churches, Baptist churches. The hierarchy began to change and become more like for instance with evolution, they began to think of theistic evolution and they begin to think, well, God got it started, then it evolved. The church compromised on these things to try and compromise with the world. And then in around 1910, the Presbyterians got together and they wanted to fight against the liberalism. So they came up with what they call non negotiables which we would call Christian fundamentalism or the fundamentals of the faith non negotiable. One and Rick Warren said we don't need this anymore. So the number one was the inspiration of the scripture. We need to know that this word is God breathed, that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God would be equipped thoroughly furnished for every good work. So that pastor, that guy that said he's never been able to teach the book of revelation because he's never studied it, well, study to show yourself approved. All scriptures given by answer is God is profitable doctrine for reproof. Time to study it. Hide hide the word in your heart. And then secondly, the virgin birth. The incarnation. The virgin birth of Jesus that he was born of a virgin. And the virgin Mary was just the vessel. She's she's not the co redemptions, you know, with Jesus, all the false doctrine that tells that. So he the the fulfillment of Genesis three five, the seed of the woman or three fifteen. And, you know, Isaiah nine six and unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and government shall be upon his shoulder. And the increase of his government peace there should be no end, and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, the everlasting father, the prince of peace, and of the increase of his government peace there shall be no end, the latter part there. So virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son in Isaiah seven:two. Shall call his name Emmanuel, God who's with us. So the virgin birth, we're celebrating the virgin birth, Christmas this month, ten more days. Substitutionary atonement, non negotiable. Jesus died in our place. He's a substitute for us, the propitiation. The fourth one is the resurrection, non negotiable. Jesus said destroy this temple in three days I'll raise it up. What makes Jesus different than everybody else? He did it. He proved it. He's God. He's crucified, buried, raised himself from the dead and so we know him to be true, the true God. And then fifthly, miracles. The miracles of Jesus we believe in. Now the false teaching of the apostasy will center in and the Apostle Paul's dealing with this false teaching and trying to and John and Peter they're trying to help the early church not succumb to the false teachers, apostate falling away, the departure from the truth that was taking place to the early church. So one of the areas of attack is the deity of Christ. First Peter two:one-twenty two, an attack against the deity of Christ, denying Jesus. We like to teach that in John one, we see the deity of Christ. In the beginning was with the word, the word was with God, the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. Without him was not anything that made and and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we behold his glory as the only begotten the father full of grace and truth. And so in the beginning was the word. The word was with God. The word was God. The same was said in the beginning with God. All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. Right? He's the creator. He's God. And then the incarnation, verse 14, and the word became flesh, the logos, the word of God, Jesus became flesh, human, and dwelt among us. And we we beheld his glory as the only begotten son of God. Right? And then we go to Colossians one to prove the deity of Christ. We go to Hebrews one. We go to Revelation one to prove the deity of Christ. So when Jesus says who do men say that I am? Some are gonna say he's just a good prophet. Right? The Muslims will say he's just a prophet. Mormons who do they say is? Jehovah's Witnesses who do they say? Everybody's got a different idea of who Jesus is and then Jesus says to you, who do you say that I am? Thou art the Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah. You're Yeshua, right? And so we recognize his deity that he's god And then also the Trinity, they'll attack the Trinity. They'll say no there's just one God, God the Father. No, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, one God in three persons, the trinity. They'll say, rapture, the word rapture isn't even in the Bible. The word trinity is not in the Bible either. The word Bible is not in the Bible. Is the truth of the trinity in the Bible? Yes. One God in three persons father son holy spirit. Is the truth of the rapture in the Bible? Yes. The Greek is harpazo. The Latin is rapturus. Pretty lame argument, right? So so we've got the deity, the trinity, the incarnation, the inspiration of God's word, and the second coming. These five areas will be the attacks of the devil to attack against truth, the absolute word of God, the authority of God's word. And the modernists came and began to attack these things. The progressive Christians and liberals are attacking them today. And first timothy one nineteen Paul said he was worried that they would be shipwrecked in their faith, They'd crash and sink in their faith. And and so Jesus is giving this this evaluation here. And where we at? Okay. So then because thou sayest because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. So your pride, your pride has blinded you. God resists the proud and he gives grace to the humble. He says, I counsel thee. So now Jesus, let's see what Jesus has to say. And remember, are people rule. They've kicked Jesus out. He's he's not in that church. He's outside that church. And the doorknobs on the inside, they need to open the door. They need to invite Christ in their heart and life. As many as received him in John one to them gave he the power to become the sons of God. Right? Whosoever will let him come. So this is a group of people gathered together calling themselves a church, but Jesus said upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell not prevail against it. Right? So what is this? If it's not a church, what is it? A club. So I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich. So you're bankrupt spiritually. And Jesus is saying, I'm the gold that's been tried in the fire. I counsel you to get more of Jesus, the unsearchable riches of Christ, then you'll be rich. You're lacking the Messiah. You're lacking the Christ. You're lacking the holy one and you've got a pretender there's something something that you're running after that's waiting you down rather than building you up. Gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich. So you and I are learning about being plutocrats, being the richest people on the planet, the riches that are ours in Christ Jesus in Ephesians chapter one. Predestined by the father, purchased by the son, preserved by the holy spirit, and the tremendous riches, the unsearchable riches of Christ. And that's what Jesus counseled them. You need to get saved. What he's telling you need to get saved. You need Christ. You need me in your heart and life and then you'll be rich that thou mayest be rich. And you need white raiment. You need white raiment that thou mayest be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness does not appear. So white raiment signifies salvation. White raiment signifies saints, signifies Christians. So let's look at some verses that speak of this white raiment in the book of Revelation. How about Revelation three verse eight? Somebody wants that or excuse me Revelation three four and five and you're gonna be clothed with a white robe clean and white, right? Revelation six eleven, Revelation seven, nine, and 13, and 14. You guys ready? Resurrection, we should be able to see three, four, and five. There's a few names even as I see, three, three, four, and five. Those a few names even in Sardis and have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy. Meaning they're going to be saved, they're going to have white robes. And he that overcomes the same shall be clothed in a white raiment and I will not blood his name out of the book of life but I will confess his name before my father and before the angels. White garment signifies a saint, signifies one holy, signifies one that's saved. And they have garments, but Jesus says you're naked. So Adam and Eve, when they're leaving the garden, they know the nakedness, they know their sin, and they want to cover their nakedness with religion, with man's effort to cover their nakedness. And without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin, right? There's no cleansing of sin. And it's impossible that the blood of bulls, the bullocks of animals could take away sin. So we talked Sunday about the great day of atonement of the goat of sprinkling the blood, the sprinkling the holy of holies and would cover the sin for a year and then the illustration of forgiveness of separating the sin from the sinner so the scapegoat that went out into the wilderness. And then we see Adam and Eve wearing coats of skins as they leave the garden. But we didn't talk about on Sunday is Cain and Abel. We see that Cain and Abel, the children of Adam and Eve, that this lesson was passed on to them. This lesson that you can't work your way to heaven. You can only get to heaven through Jesus, God's only begotten son whose blood is gonna wash away your sin. And as a means of worship and expressing your faith and trust in the Lord, you need to bring a blood sacrifice. So Abel brought that was was pleasing unto the lord, and Cain brought the work of his hands. Right? And god rejected Cain's work of his hands, his religious effort, but god received Abel's act of faith looking future that one day Jesus would die for him. Right? That's salvation. And Cain was angry and slew his brother. Right? Alright. Vicky's So ready to read. I can tell she's right there on the edge of her chair. Revelation six eleven, there's some there's some tribulation saints and white garments, aren't there? The greatest revival that we're gonna see moving forward, I believe, I could be wrong besides Iran right now. I just love so much that there's a revival in Iran. I love so much the fastest growing church in the world is in a Muslim nation. Everybody's silent about it. And we're we're demonizing Muslims right now. We're trying to get a war going. We're trying to get we're trying to create chaos in all the western nations and get people to hate Muslims. And I love the other day, a Muslim in Australia went and tackled another Muslim that was shooting. I believe Muslims, Jews, Christians, unbelievers, a lot of us are just common folk and have common values in that murder is wrong. Know? Fanatical, fanatical people, not everybody's fanatical like that, you know? Alright. Go ahead. Revelation six eleven. Okay. Then each of them was given a white robe and they were told to wait a little longer until the full number of their fellow servants, brothers and sisters were killed just as they had been. Revelation 20 verse four they're losing their heads, they're saying no to the 666 ID, they're saying no and because of saying no to the devil they're executed to prove their faith, they're tribulation saints. Then Vicky's got another reference to it, Revelation seven:nine, thirteen and fourteen. Innumerable multitude sitting beneath the throne. How long, oh Lord? After this, I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne and before the lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands, and they cried out in a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. All the angels were standing around the throne, around the elders, and the four living creatures, and they fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God saying, amen. Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength. Strength be to our God forever and ever. And ever. Amen. Praise the Lord. Ain't that exciting? That's a revival right there. Amen. Now the next one is ISAV. This city laid to see was a manufacturer of ISAV that went all over the the region, sent out. So they're a financial center. They're a a manufacturing center of sandals and such, but they also had some medicinal items that they were known for, and one of which was isav. And so Jesus does a play on words with them because he's letting them know that they're blind. So this ISAV would potentially help people who are going blind. I remember there was a time in in Africa where relief agencies were going in and there was some sort of a disease, something that was causing the children and people to go blind, and it was pennies, just pennies of this certain kind of medicine that would cure them so they wouldn't spend the rest of their lives blind. And so it could very well be that sort of a situation where this eye salve corrects this problem before they come blind. But they think in their pride that they already see. They think they see. They think they already know. And Jesus said, you're not only poor, you think you're rich, in need of nothing. You think you're clothed, you think you're but you're naked, You're wretched. You're miserable. And you're blind. You're spiritually blind. You can't see. Now one of the most frustrating things in the world is to try and minister to people in the church who think they see, but they're blind. You can't get them to see what you see so clearly. It's a spiritual problem. And so many times we're looking at them and treating them like they're a fellow believer. Why can't you see this? And then I'll be driving home with my wife and she'll say, Rick, they're not saved. Oh, come on. They're saved? They gotta be saved. Rick, they're not saved. And so you think about it when you got saved in your conversion experience remember how your eyes opened up. Know, I mean you can even be babe in Christ and you could spot a wolf, could spot things that were wrong. You could look at Christian television and you're a brand new babe and you're looking at going, that's not of God. That's just not of God. And you know in your heart it's not of God. That's not a work of the Holy Spirit. That's just entertainment. And a lot of times, that have been in the occult, that have been involved in with demons and things like that before they become Christians, they can spot it in Christian circles. They see it real quick because they know the contrast. They've seen it. And so a lot of the Christians, what's happening is it's the devil operating as a Christian on television. It's the demons working through with these lizard eyes these lizard guy did you know? And but you as a Christian, you see it. It just red flag you. And your spirit is pricked. Your spirit there's a red flag going up. There's with Kathy, there's like alarms going off. There's alarm going off in her discernment. And it's saying, hey, danger. Danger, Will Robinson. Danger. You know? And that'll date you. That's a long time ago. Right? Lost in space right there, man. So I don't know what six seven is and you don't know what lost in space is, so don't worry about it. Okay. Do you know 67? No. I'm just kidding. I'm 66 now. You can add one more six just for a joke. But Alright. So they're naked, I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see. So the gospel as Paul was given it by the Lord Jesus, turn them from darkness to light, you know, that their eyes would be open and turn them from darkness to light from the power of Satan unto God that they'd be sanctified and receive salvation, inheritance by faith that is in me. And so part of part of being a non believer is you're in bondage to the wicked one. You need to be set free and only someone stronger than the devil can set you free. The other aspect is of it is is you're blind and so all I know is I was blind and now I see the guy guy in John nine. Now you have a testimony of the day that you began to see spiritually. We don't walk by we walk by faith, not by sight, not natural sight, but we walk by faith. The eyes of faith, we see things that other people don't see. The two witnesses that went in and spied out the land, they saw a great opportunity. They saw that we could take the land right now, but there were 10 other guys who were filled with unbelief. They saw different things. They saw walled villages and giants. And sure, those guys were there. That was true. But they were looking at the natural. They didn't look at it through the spiritual eyes of God being for them. A God that departed the Red Sea, do you think he can handle some giants out there? You know? And and we saw the movie yesterday with David slaying Goliath and just a shepherd boy because the battle belongs to the lord. So clothe ashamed of thy nakedness and appear anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see. Now here's something else. I love this here. I love this passage here because it's so pertinent, so important for the times in which we're living because you're not allowed to bring correction. So let me go back to what Paul told Timothy. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. So it's God breathed, right? So somebody wanna look there? First, we look at first Timothy two fifteen. Somebody wanna read that? Then we're gonna look at first Timothy or maybe it's second Timothy. Let me see here. Second Timothy Anyway, second Timothy three fifteen through 17. I think it's second Timothy, isn't it? So Paul's talking to a young pastor, second Timothy, and he's timid. Timothy is fearful. And Paul's letting them know that God hasn't given us the spirit of fear but a power of love and a sound mind, Timothy. And that's in verse seven of chapter one of second Timothy. Now this is Paul's last letter. This is the letter when we get to chapter four where Paul says the time of my departure is at hand. The word departure speaks of a breaking camp, breaking the tent that he's living in. This temporary body is no longer useful because Nero's gonna cut my head off. Right? I'm gonna be a martyr. So first of all, in verse 15, he's telling a young Christian, all of us as Christians, study to show yourself approved under God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. And then but shun profane and vain babblings for they will increase to more ungodliness and their word will eat as does a gangrene like a cancer of whom are Hymenaeus and Philetus. So he actually names the guys who are bringing in heresy into the church. So picture heresy as poison, as leaven, something if you allow it into the church long enough it's going to poison the whole church. And so as a pastor you're gonna have to cut that out, you're gonna have to rebuke it, call it out, make sure people know that it's evil, make sure people know that the earth is round not flat, no matter how angry they get. So who concerning the truth have erred saying that the resurrection has passed already and overthrow the faith of some? So some people's faith can be overthrown and shipwrecked because something that's a central doctrine, the resurrection, they're saying it's already happened, the general resurrection. So now you go to chapter three and he says he reminds him from verse 15. Now Timothy, his father was a Gentile. His mother was a Jew. So he had his mother and his grandmother, mother and grandmother who were Jewesses teaching him the scriptures from a young age. Putting the word of god into him. Okay. He says, and that from a child, thou hast known the holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise. You feel like you need wisdom? If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who freely gives. Wisdom and prudence, like we talked about the other day. One of the ways that helps us to not be deceived is we check every thought. We bring every thought captive to the word of God. The word of God's the filter. We bring every idea, every doctorate, every every pastor, everything they ever say, we bring it back to the word of God. We're Bereans. We check the scriptures to see whether these things are so. God's word is the authority. And so yesterday, I was talking to Brittany and bless her heart there. They're studying about giants and stuff and and the Nephilim and how there's some around. And we we watched a movie where Goliath got, you know, killed. And we were all looking. My glasses were on, but I couldn't see. And I was looking, is he six fingered? Does he have six toes? Is this movie accurate? You know, because the Nephilim, these giants, the angels that left their first estate, you know, cohabitated with women and the Nephilim, the offspring were giants. Right? And God used the flood to get rid of them and all. And Satan was trying to corrupt the DNA of humanity because God had told the devil, part of the curse, that the seed of the woman, the virgin born son of God, would his heel would be bruised but that he'd crush the serpent's head. And so God was letting the devil know that the savior of the world would be a human being, the seed the virgin born son of God. So Jesus is the last Adam. The first Adam failed and that DNA, that fallen nature was such that the only the only way to fix this mess that we got him in was for God to bring his son and to cause him to be born of a virgin that had a perfect DNA and no sin in the DNA. But along the way, the devil was trying to stop human beings from having a pure DNA. So when you ask yourselves, does mRNA, and they're always wanting our DNA right now, are they trying to bring forth the seed of the serpent DNA to everybody? Is that a part of what they're after right now? So anyway, Britney said something to the effect of I asked the question about in Afghanistan, this red haired giant that the soldiers, the marines, killed in a helicopter lifted away like 13 feet tall years ago. We talked about that. Wayne confirmed the story and all, and then Brittany said, And you know, some are saying that Noah's wife was fifteen foot tall. They found her bones, found her whatever. And I said, Well, honey and she says, Because of the vapor, the vapor canopy and all, and Chuck Mistler believed that too. I said, well, I'm not sure about that vapor canopy and all. I know, like, the Garden of Eden, things grew and and all that. They lived to be 900 Methuselah, you know, all that. I says, but here's the verse, and I based everything on a verse in my head. And Noah was perfect in his generations. And I said, Britney, after the flood, Noah was naked and drunk. He wasn't perfect morally. What that's speaking of is he was perfect in his DNA. His DNA had not been corrupted. So him and missus Noah, you know, they got Shemham and Japheth, their wives. So eight of them are going to repopulate the planet. I said, so I'm not sure about her being a giant because the giants were the Nephilim. Right? So Nimrod, some say, in chapter 10 was a giant, you know, after the flood. And then you know the story, he had Simaramis and Simaramis had Tammuz, and so the Babylonian false religious system springing from them, but that's a different story. So anyway, just one little verse in my head that said that Noah was perfect in his generations, that I know that word perfect speaks of he was not polluted. He was not condemned with the generation where God said it repented and they made man because every thought and intention man was only evil continually and the devil was, and there were giants in the land, you know, in Genesis six. So here in chapter three verse 15, and from a child thou hast known the holy scripture which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration which means it's God breathed, God breathed it. And first Peter one twenty and twenty one, first Thessalonians two thirteen, it's the word of God and holy men of God as they're inspired are writing these things down. They're writing them down exactly as the Lord's given it to them. The transmission, there's inspiration and then transmission, writing it down. Inspiration to God and is profitable for doctrine. That's what we're doing right now. Doctrine is teaching. So go and make disciples. So we have biblical doctrine. We think biblically and we don't make it up as we go. This profitable for doctrine. So if somebody's off base doctrinally, we bring them back into what the Bible says doctrinally. What's the doctrine of the resurrection? What's the doctrine of hell? What's the doctrine of and you can go through various themes and the Bible teaches on these themes. So it's for reproof and Jesus, many as I love I what? And you do it in love faithful are the wounds of a friend kissing enemy or deceitful but we're not allowed allowed to tell the truth we're not allowed to expose wrong we're not allowed to try and point and let people know that guy's a wolf. That's a wolf right there. I don't see it. I'm blind. That's not a wolf. He's gonna make America great. I'm gonna have more stuff. We're going into a golden age. No, that's a wolf right there. In sheep's clothing. And then they'll write you back and they'll say, you're the only pastor that thinks that. Well, Jesus said through false Christ, there'd be false prophets. It's saying right here Matthew 24, he's the one saying it in the plural. There'd be lots of them. Just go to YouTube you can get a whole slew of them. Right? We're living in a time of great, great deception And you've been equipped with the truth. It's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction. We're not gonna beat you down. If any man be overtaken in a fault, you are spiritual, restores us who want a spirit of meekness. Lest you also be tempted. You're you're lovingly trying to bring correction. And then he says, for instruction. In what? In righteousness. This is the way we're supposed to live. This is what Jesus said. This is what, you know, first Timothy says. Second Timothy, this is what the word of God this is what Isaiah says. This is what God says in Genesis. So so you use the scripture to provide instruction in righteousness. This is right living. That the man of God may be perfect, which means mature. So I talked Sunday about we're not of the crowd that do Sesame Street or eat crayons or forget to put the seat down and flush the toilet. We're grown ups. We got big boy pants and big boy clothes on, right? So we want to be mature. We want to grow. We don't want to be 40 year old Christians who are still babes in Christ, tossed about with every wind of doctrine that's coming through, very unstable, that the man of God, the woman of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. You need to be equipped. You need to be thoroughly furnished and the Lord wants to furnish you in the word with the teaching of the word that you can go and recognize evil, recognize false doctrine, sift through it and somebody tells you you're already in the millennium, you know the doctrine of the millennium. You understand it doesn't happen till after the second coming of Christ. Somebody tells you Matthew 24 already happened in seventy AD they're preterist. They're looking at historically that's already happened. Somebody tells you that the church replaced Israel you you can prove to them he hasn't replaced Israel. That the church has not replaced Israel, that the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance. You can take them so many places through the scripture. Right? Because you know the Bible. And you can prove to him in in Romans 11, you know, that blindness in part has happened unto Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles become in. That Israel's in the land according to Ezekiel thirty six and thirty seven, a miracle reborn in the land, but reborn in unbelief. And then Jeremiah thirty one thirty one they're gonna receive the unconditional covenant. You can go all the way through the scriptures that they don't know because they haven't been taught them. But you know them because you're a student of the Bible. Right? So as many as I love and it's out of love, faithful are the wounds of a friend, the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. If your pastor loves you, he's gonna tell you the truth. As many as I love I rebuke. So there's reproof, there's correction, there's instruction in righteousness and then there's rebuke. One of the of the most and you know you're dealing with people today that you're not allowed to judge their sin. Judge not lest you be judged. I feel this is okay. I feel like it's okay to live with this person out of marriage or I feel like it's okay to smoke the hooter, you know. I it's just an herb or, you know, and everybody's got their got their, I feel, I feel, I feel today. Well, what's the bible say? So we want the person to enter in what's best for them. We don't want them to grow spiritually, we don't want the sin to stand in the way, you know, habitual sin. So as many as I love our rebuke and chasten now, I see Peter and Peter Jesus asked Peter, know, who do men say that I am thou with the Christ son of living God blessed art thou Simon by Jonah flesh and blessed not the realest of you but my father's name and I say that thou art Peter pet little stone and upon this rock this massive stone I'm gonna build my church and the gates of hell not prevail so Peter just got a great revelation he got a great attaboy from Jesus he's doing really well and then Jesus says preempts it lets the guys know I gotta go to Jerusalem and they're gonna grab hold of me and they're gonna crucify me. And Peter rebukes Jesus. He just came off the top man. Now he's rebuking Jesus saying be that far from you there's no way we're gonna let that happen. And what Jesus say get thee behind me Satan. That's a pretty strong rebuke. The words get thee behind me Satan you savor not the things that be of God but the things that be of man. Oh, that hurts. And though all men betray you, this night Peter you're gonna betray me before the cock crows, before it's over three times. Oh no way, that is never gonna happen. You know? And and the rebuke of Peter's pride, the lord then meeting him at the seashore later after already having appeared to him. And Peter's so dejected. He's ready to go back to his old trade of fishing. And seven of the guys go with them. They were fishermen. Remember? And then Jesus there to restore Peter. Peter, do you love me more than these, more than these fish and all that? Feed my sheep. Tend my lambs. Feed my sheep. Right? I'm making you a pastor, Peter. You're gonna be a shepherd, you're gonna oversee this flock and so whom the Lord loves, he chastens and he scourges every son, every daughter in Hebrews 12. If you don't receive chastening, if you don't restriction or spanking, then you're not one of his kids, Right? For we all receive chastening. So as many as I love or rebuke and chasten, be zealous therefore and repent. Can you say the word repent in the progressive church today? That would mean that you've been doing something wrong. The Laodicean church, the people rule church, we determine what's right and wrong. We don't need the word of God to tell us what's right and wrong. We're evolving. We're getting better. We're gonna get help with the technocrats. We're gonna get a chip in our head. We're going to have technocratic AI church pretty soon. We won't need you pastors anymore. We'll preprogram the AI to tell what we want to hear. Can you see that day coming? So he says, behold, in case somebody doesn't know what repent means, you guys know. Behold, I stand at the door knock. And this is a great evangelistic verse. Right? We can use this for evangelism. We can use this as an appeal to people to receive Christ. Right? Now it's also a rebuke to people, to so called Christians in the church who think they're rich and increased with goods in need of nothing. So even even in a church setting, it could be used to bring to repentance somebody that doesn't know God, that's blind, that can't hear, that's in sin. So, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice, so he that has an ear, let him hear. Can you hear? You have natural faculties to hear. Do you have the spiritual faculties to see and to hear? Not until conversion, but at that point of the gospel going, the Lord's going to give you help. He's going to use the Holy Spirit to bring conviction, to bear witness that this is true. So behold I stand at the door and knock and if any man hear my voice, do you hear the voice of the Lord? Who's calling you? Who's knocking? Who is it? And open the door so the door, the doorknob's on the inside and he's not going to kick the door in, so he's respecting your free moral agency, your power of choice. But he's knocking and he's knocking and he's knocking and he's calling. Can you hear his voice? And open the door, I will come into him. So in John one, he was in the world, the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. And it says this, and the world received him not, but as many as received him, so some rejected him, the world rejected him, he's the creator of the world, his own nation rejected him, the Jews, but as many as received him, to them gave heed the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in his name. So when we talk about sometimes you'll hear these YouTube guys and people say, oh the person raised their hand and said the sinner's prayer, that isn't real conversion. Oh, sinner's prayer. And where does it say you're supposed to accept Jesus? But you're going to accept him? Yeah, you're going to accept him on his terms. You've made a decision to receive him. So let's use that word. As many as received him, exercise my free will to open the door to receive Christ into my heart and life. He didn't kick the door in. He didn't force himself. He's a gentleman. Right? In order for love, the relationship to be love, there needs to be a mutual respect, a mutual longing. And so no man can come unto me except the father has sent me draw him. The holy spirit's wooing you, drawing you, and I'll raise him up in the last day. And whosoever comes unto me, Jesus said, I'll know why he's cast out. So he's given an invitation. This is an invitation to receive Christ. He's speaking to a church, an apostate church. He's speaking to Judas. Judas, pants, betrayest thou the son of man with a kiss? You you betrayed me with a kiss, Judas. Are you kidding me? And as Jesus saying that, Judas at that moment has a chance to repent. Jesus is trying to wake him up. Do you see what you're doing boy? See what you're doing? Satan had entered into him and even Jesus at that hour is in and say there's a godly sorrow and a worldly sorrow. Judas exercised a worldly sorrow when he realized what he had done was wrong and he went and hung himself. He went and gave the 30 pieces of silver back. They said what is that to us? This innocent man. But Jesus in his love and even on the cross he said Father forgive them for they know not what they do. He's given those people chance to repent before judgment. He's long suffering, not willing that any would perish but that all would come to repentance. I will come to him, so open the door, I will come to him, I will come into him. So your body and soul, Nicodemus, you must be born again. How can a man that is old be born a second time? Nick, you got to be born of the water and the spirit. You got to have the natural birth where the water breaks and you're going to have the spiritual birth born from above where the Holy Spirit comes into your heart and life. The work of the Holy Spirit is within and upon. The epi preposition upon. So with alongside you, the Pericleanus alongside you to convict you of sin, not in dwelling yet. In when you receive Christ, when you receive Jesus. Now he's dwelling within you. You're the temple, the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit in the singular and in the plural as the church, the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. And then the Epi experience, you shall receive power when the Holy Ghost comes upon you and you're gonna be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the outermost parts of the world. So the empowerment of the Holy Spirit for a life of service, the empowering of the spirit to be a witness, the word witness, a martyr, no longer us living but Christ living through us. So he says, so I'll open the door and I will come into him and I will what's up with him and he with me. So as you repent and as Jesus comes into your heart and life, now you have what's called fellowship. And his desire in John 17 is that you'd be one with him even as he and his father are one. So it speaks of communion, oneness. Adam and Eve were separated from God. Death is separation. The day you eat of it, you shall surely die. They died spiritually. A spiritual separation from God illustrated by a physical death where your soul is separate from your body. Your family members can't talk to you anymore because your soul is not there anymore. You've got the dead body there. So you'll come into him. So that's being born again. That's a trichotomy, body, soul, and spirit now restored to fellowship with God because of the blood of Jesus. Now you have access. The veil of the temple illustrated, rent in two, fifteen inches thick, like 15 feet high, and it's just ripped apart. And before, you couldn't even have a priest go into the holy of holies except once a year on the great day of atonement. And now you're invited to come boldly before his throne of grace. Right? And though you love that, the access. The access that you have, the door is open, it's an open door policy. And Ruthie came in today and she said, Papa, can I sit on your lap? Yeah, you can sit on my lap, honey. And we watched cartoons. I had no clue what they were about. I didn't understand a thing. All these lizards and sensei and all this stuff, and I just kept opening the candy. I I just opened the candy. Papa, I had some more Debbie, will you open this for me? You open this for me? But, man, they had me by and Kathy says, it's so funny. Kathy says, you know, they just got up and left, Rick. They didn't say goodbye. There was candy stuff everywhere. Everything was everywhere. That's how it is when you have access. It's grandma's house. It's grandma's house. You don't need to fear. Right? You don't need to fear your It's it's not that relationship anymore. So come and he will sup with him and he with me and you know, you you look at meals, you look at fellowship and the breaking of bread and you think of the marriage supper of the lamb. Jesus was always eating with people. He liked to eat. He wasn't an aesthetic. You know, in the dark ages, there were many holy men that thought holiness was aestheticism. Some of them would put themselves on a pole up above the ground and stay up there for thirty years. That's how crazy these guys were. And Jesus wasn't like that. He he liked to be around people. He liked to be at the feast, a time of celebration. He liked to be at church. He liked to be at the synagogue, the temple, if you will. There was times where he'd get alone and pray all night with his father and all. There's times where he'd be with the three, Peter, James, and John. There's times where he'd be with the 12 and then there's times where he'd be with the crowds and the work was so arduous, so difficult that the disciples were saying, Lord, we're tired. Send her away. Send her away, you know. And they need some sleep. They worked hard. They worked laboring to the point of exhaustion but it was because he loved being around the people. You know? And ministering to the people. And and they love to be around him too. Until until they did. And so what's up with him and he with me? To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne even as I also have overcome and sat down with my father at his throne. So the way to overcome is to believe, to believe in Jesus. The overcomer is first John five:five, who is he that overcomes even he that believes when you believe in Jesus. Now you're no longer a lukewarm apostate church, now you're an overcomer and you're a winner. So you're gonna have fellowship, you're gonna have a position in the millennium, you're gonna be serving the Lord. So he that has an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches. And the question is, do we hear? And when we pray, when we read the word of God, we say, Lord, give me ears to hear. Lord, open my eyes that I might see. Lord, give me wisdom. I need wisdom to live in a day where there's so much deception. And I'm constantly examining my heart and examining this church and turn to first Timothy chapter four. And I'm constantly evaluating this church because it just is so small and people will people will gleefully many of our enemies will gleefully say, you know, that church is it's almost gone. It's it's hardly any people there, you know. And then we grow a little bit and then we get small again, we grow a little bit and get small again. It's been that way forever. But one thing I know as I evaluate what we're doing, if you're gonna teach the word of God uncompromisingly, you're going to have a small church. If you teach the Word of God compromising with the culture, you'll have a much larger church if you give the people what they want. But what's the end result with the people? You have a lot of unbelievers who are headed to hell. So I'd rather be the pastor of a small church of people being refined, being challenged, being tested, and growing. They're growing in the Lord. They're real ones, you know? Verse chapter four verse one, now the spirit speaks expressly that in the latter time some shall depart, there's your apostasy, they're gonna depart from the faith. They're gonna give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons. Well when I evaluate what we're doing, people hate me, they can't hate me for this. Never done this. This isn't what we're doing. But the other churches, a lot of them, this is what they're doing. They're bringing in false doctrine and the people love it so. Giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from foods, from meat, which God has created and to be saved with thanksgiving to them who believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused received with thanksgiving for it is sanctified by the word of God and a prayer. And so boy, we really pray over food nowadays. Turn to second Timothy chapter three now. So that's a picture of the apostasy, part of what's gonna happen. Chapter three verse one, I know this also that in the last days perilous time shall come. Last days, we're living in the last of the last days. Perilous means no way out. Perplexity, fierce, dangerous days. For many shall be lovers of their own selves. So this ties in with the Laodicean church. The rich increase with goods need of nothing. They're fat and happy. They're very prosperous. For men shall be lovers of their own selves and this whole self esteem thing that crept through the church for twenty thirty years. My problem is my therapist is I just don't love myself enough, you know. I got low self esteem. No, your problem is you're too obsessed with yourself. You need to get your eyes off yourself. That's your problem. Paul says no man ever ever yet hated his body but nourishes and cherishes it. If I stub my toe on something, man everything stops. Everybody's gotta know that I stubbed my toe and then I'm going to nourish and put ice on it. I'm going get somebody to care and help me calm that pain down because I'm really concerned about my body, right? For men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous. So, again you never have enough. It's always more and more and more. Do you know what worship is? Contentment. What's worship? What's worship look like? When you see a person content, godliness with contentment is great gain. Wanna see the illustrated? Satan, go take all this stuff. He still won't curse me. He still won't curse me. He won't his responsibility be worship. And Satan went and took all of his stuff. Right? And it says that Job began to express his worship toward God. Naked came my end of the world. Naked I go. The lord giveth, the lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the lord. That's contentment. Right? God, you're more than enough. You're more than enough. Well, Satan, god, let me let me take away his health. Skin for skin, all that a man has will he give for his life. I'll take away his health and he'll curse you to your face. Alright, but save his body. Save his save. Don't kill him. So he takes away his health. Job's got boils from the crown of his head to the bottom of his feet. He's scraping himself with potsherd, little piece of pottery, scraping the boil sitting in the ground, the dust and all of it. And he still won't charge God foolishly. He still loves God. His wife comes to him and says, you still maintain your integrity? Why don't you curse God and die? Get it over with, man. You're in pain. Hard to look at you right now. You're not the God that you're not the guy that I married. We've lost everything including some of our children. How do you do this? How do you maintain your integrity? Curse god and die and he says, oh, you speak as the foolish women speak. Shall we not receive good at the hand of the Lord and shall we not receive evil? In all this Job sinned not with his lips. Worship is seen in contentment. Godliness with contentment is great gain. So their own selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy without natural affection truce breakers false accusers incontinent fears despisers of those that are good traitors heady high minded lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God having a form of godliness but denying the power of it from such turn away for of this sort are they who creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins led away with various lusts, ever learning, never able to come the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannies and Jambres, these are the magicians that Moses was challenging. Now as Jannies and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was. But thou so Timothy but you Timothy you Timothy you're not like those guys but thou hast fully known my doctrine manner of life purpose faith long suffering love and patience The persecutions I went through, the afflictions which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium and Lystra, Lystra, he was stoned to death. What persecutions I endured. So next time you think why is the church so small? Why is it why is it so hard? Why these bad things always happen to you? Because you're a threat to the devil? Because you won't compromise? You know the game. You know how to play the game. You know how to be popular. All you got to do is ride the Trump train and you can be popular with Christian conservatives. All you got to do to be popular with the liberals is just let anything goes. Anything's okay. There's two sides of that. You got the liberal church, the conservative side of the church. You can do either or you can be hated by both because you don't compromise. You refuse to compromise. What persecutions I endured but out of them all the Lord delivered me in all all means all and all that will live your desire to live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers So this is a promise for your promise jar if you're living if you want to live uncompromisingly, be not conformed to this world, you don't want to be progressive Christian, the progressive Christianity. You don't want the conformity to the world in the church. Be not conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that it may prove as a good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So you're going to be different. You may be strange like John the Baptist. So yea all that will live a desire to live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution but evil men and seducers shall become worse and worse deceiving and being deceived but continue thou in the things which thou hast learned stand upon you're grounded in the faith you're grounded in god's word stand let the word of god be a foundation for you Continue thou in the things which you have learned and has been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures. Isn't that great? I want my grandkids to know the scriptures from childhood forward, right? The holy scriptures. It's not man's word. It's god's word. Amen. Why would I want to mix man's word in with god's word? Why would I want to mix in German relativism that Nietzsche and Freud and Roy and all these guys brought from Germany, this thinking that led to the Holocaust and to abortion and all these other ungodly things that came into in America and all. Why would I want to listen and try and incorporate that to make people think I'm smart? That I know how the human brain works and I can change somebody's behavior and I can reform a sinner and make them a nicer sinner? But if I stay with the word of god, if I stay with the gospel, god transforms them. By the renewing of their mind. Only god can do that work. And from a child that has known the holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scriptures given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect thoroughly furnished under every good work. Alright. Let's pray. Father, thank you for tonight that I got to go overtime because it's my birthday and I got to do what I love to do tonight. And I thank you for the birthday cake and the friends and the family. And as we're leading up to Christmas, Lord, I just thank you so much for this holy day and all the opportunities we have to share the hope that's ours of not just looking back to the nativity and to your life and your death upon the cross and your resurrection ascension but to remind people that you're coming again that you're coming for your bride you're coming for the church and Lord it would behoove them to receive you into their heart and life. Lord whatever these seven churches may represent in our lives individually or whatever characteristics of it may be a part of Calvary Birminton, those that are good characteristics, Lord, we ask that you continue to form within us. Those things that are bad that are rebuke, Lord, we pray that we have ears to hear, that we could see in this evaluation the things that need to change, and that we would repent, Lord. On a daily basis, we would repent. We continually turn toward you, Lord, and ask you, Lord, that you would build your church in spite of our weaknesses, in spite of, Lord, our frame being fashioned from the dust, we pray by the power of your Holy Spirit that you would use our lives that you continue to build your church for your kingdom and for your glory. In Jesus name we pray, amen.

---

About This Podcast

Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Home Bible Study

Listen to Rick Beaudry, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton, lead our home Bible Study session in worship and teaching the Word of God. Be edified and built up in your faith with solid Bible teaching. New episodes released on Tuesdays in the Pacific Standard Timezone.

Listen Anywhere

Listen On
Spotify

Listen On
Apple Podcasts

Listen On
Amazon Music

Listen On
Pocket Casts

Listen On
Podcast Addict

Listen On
Deezer

Podcast Homepage

Search Episodes