011 m1-644 Revelation 2-3:6 05-01-2013

all right let's get to it revelation chapter two we have some loose ends to tie up and maybe even get into the Church of Sardis in Chapter three but we'll see this is a lot of stuff we could really camp out here much longer but I got a pace-it according what the Lord would have us do here so just quick review we found in the book of Revelation chapter one we've been given a fine divine outline from the Lord about the book of Revelation if you want to understand the book of Revelation all you have to do is follow the outline given to us in verse 19 of chapter one it's so simple and yet people that jumble up the order of the book of Revelation or sort of swap things around that's when it starts becoming really hard to understand I really believe the book of Revelation can be taken at face value if you were stranded on a desert island and you just read it as it as it sits it will be easier to understand just taking it that way then trying to come up with other ideas of the order and structure of the book of Revelation I believe it's laid out in perfect order chronologically because John was told by the Lord Himself john write this is verse 19 of chapter when he says write the things which thou has seen and the things which are and the things that shall be Hereafter and he did just that so he says write the things which thou has seen he already had seen by verse 19 of chapter 1 he'd seen the the vision of Jesus the glorified Jesus and what Jesus has done for us and what he's going to do in that in that image that he saw of Jesus Christ and that's the things which thou has seen so he wrote that chapter 1 then he said and write the things which are presently and then he does just that he writes about the ADEs that john was seeing assured into being that is the church age John the Apostle was the one apostle who lived long enough to see the church well on its way as it traveled around the world Christianity would grow in John's lifetime John some say lived to be close to 100 years old which is interesting he got to see the spread of the Christian Church pretty radically but then after that you see John riding the church and and then he sees it says the third thing right the things which thou has seen or will see the things that are Hereafter or meted out to in the Greek in chapter 4 starts out with the word metadata in fact chapter 4 verse 1 says metadata after these things and it says it twice in that verse to give us sort of red flags and okay these are the things that are going to be after the church age and so you immediately see the sky opened up the trumpet sounds and John is being up into heaven which is I think a beautiful picture of the rapture of the church and then you see the church in heaven in chapters 4 and 5 and this glorious scene in heaven when we get there in a few weeks to chapter 4 we're gonna see a drama unfold in heaven in that heavenly scene that's a real key and it helps us understand what's going on even today in the world when you see what the problem is that's mentioned in that heavenly scene there's a scroll and it seems that no one's worthy to open up a scroll that is an important scroll too open and we're gonna see that all that come down in chapters 4 & 5 the heavenly scene and then after the you go to that heavenly scene you see what's going on meanwhile I believe back here on earth while the rapture the church has happened there in heaven safely with the Lord then you see Revelation chapter 6 through 19 which is a description of the Tribulation Period a seven-year period that Daniel talked talked about Jesus talked about that time in in John chapter part of Matthew chapter 24 he talks about the the tribulation period and the abomination of desolation there's an event that's going to happen in the middle of that tribulation period and so in chapter 19 you see the coming of Christ that is the second coming where he comes with ten thousands of his Saints which I believe that's us so you got this beautiful scene Jesus returning where he's gonna rule and reign he's gonna take all the wrongs and make them right and we get to come and rule and reign with him forever that's gonna be a great thing and that's what the Bible says that's what the book of Revelation tells us then after you see a new heaven and a new earth after the Millennial Kingdom and we all live happily ever after after that so it's the book of Revelation as it's unfolded in the fine divine outline that were given by Jesus to John to us to tell us here's how you read the book so if you really take that it makes perfect sense so right now we're in that time period studying that which is now present day the things which are the church age and that's where we've been studying now for several weeks we saw Ephesus the first church and Jesus had many commendations for Ephesus that was the good things that they were doing the works and the labor that they had done and all that for the sake and the cause of Christ but he says I have this against you that you've left your first love and we saw how that was applied to the church at Ephesus and their very first Christians there in that first century really even though many of them had seen Jesus or even knew Jesus personally it didn't take long for the church to lose their first love or leave literally their first love so we saw that and then we saw the Church of Smyrna and we saw the local application as they were a persecuted Church nothing negative or corrective from Jesus to the Church of Smyrna only commendation only good things and said hang in there man you're going through persecution but it's gonna be okay and as we've seen each of these churches not only have a local application enough church application for us but also a historical application as it's through the church unfolding through out history consecutively represented by these seven churches the first church Ephesian Church the leaving of the first love 33 AD all the way to 100 AD we saw that early church leaving their first love jesus said don't do that or you're your candlestick will be removed from the group of churches and we saw how Ephesus the candlestick was in fact removed if you go there now there's nothing there really to show for the church that was once there the church at Smyrna represented the persecuted Church not just locally but also in church history 10 waves of persecution from 100 ad all the way to around 312 ish ad where there were the ten Roman emperors that came and ten waves of persecution in church history through that age then we saw something radical change and that brings us to the next church Pergamos and we looked at that Pergamus means an objectionable marriage per gammy Pergamos and it was an objectionable marriage between the world and the church this marriage that was wrong and twisted and thus the church became distorted and we saw that that happened in history in the panoramic view of church history when Constantine source suddenly made Christianity not only legalized but eventually mandated that everybody be Christians and it brought all kinds of weirdness into the church because of pagan practices that were adopted by people and sort of mixing it into the church and the church became sort of this weird distorted view of what was originally seen in the book of Acts in the epistles of Paul and the others it's a it was almost unrecognizable in some ways the church became so distorted and tweaked which led to the next church the fourth church that we looked at on Sunday was Thyatira and they were indicted by the Lord for having that woman Jezebel who they tolerated as the NIV puts it they tolerated that woman Jezebel who taught in the church that this certain sexual fornication adultery that was allowed in the church that had to do with the worshipping of idols and that's something that they did in Thyatira and it would had to do with the Guild's the trade guilds and if you wanted to be successful you have to join a guild worship the pagan deity that was associated with that guild and if you didn't do that you'd be on the outside and you'd be ostracized and nobody buy your products or pay you money for anything so the church was in a horrible situation where they were saying oh yeah Jezebel was preaching you could you can go ahead and be a Christian but you can also worship these pagan deities and you can you can do both and so Jesus said do you have this woman Jezebel in your church who is teaching such thing and these things ought not to be so what we really didn't get to as much was the the historical application of that church at Thyatira on Sunday we ran out of time Saturday night I weakly attempted it if you were Saturday night you got like a really weak attempt at that the Sunday mornings I didn't even try so now if I do repeat a few things for you Saturday night errs forgive me but I failed just right out of the gate so let's back up a little bit before we go to chapter three because there's some sections that we missed and then we'll cover the history a little bit that does bring us to that that fifth church the Church of Sardis so some of the things that we missed by the way I ran out of time also on Pergamos in in in Pergamos you know we covered all that except for right there in verse 17 this is where we ended last Wednesday night he that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches to him that overcometh I will give to eat of the hidden manna and will give him a white stone and and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it so here we have this little interesting discussion that we never really got into last week because we ran out of time but we've got the hidden manna the white stone and the new name those are those are the things that the the the Spirit will say to the churches and and he will give these three things to the overcomer so what are those things well first of all the hidden manna what is that well man that brings your mind back to the old testament where they have that food from heaven the psalmist called it angels food and they would cook it and beat it into cakes and make all kinds of different foods out of the manna but it was bread from heaven later Jesus would refer to himself as the bread from heaven in fact jot this down in your notes John chapter 6 let's know what Jesus said in verse 48 he says I am that Bread of Life your father's did eat manna in the wilderness and our debt this is the bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die I am The Living bread which came down from heaven If any man eat of this bread he shall live forever and the bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world so Jesus kind of solves that Ministry of the hidden manna the the life-giving bread Jesus is that when you take communion and you eat the bread that's one of the things you can kind of liken it to the manna from the Old Testament that came freely to the people even though they didn't deserve it and as they ate of it they were fed now those people died jesus said but the person who eats of this bread that is jesus who says i am the bread of life will not die but have everlasting life so when you eat the bread at communion one of the things you can do is celebrate say lord thank you for being the hidden manna that brings life eternal that's that's what Jesus is so the overcomer gets the hidden manna but also the Whitestone now there's more debate on that what is the Whitestone and some scholars refer back to the Ihram and the Thummim you say well what's that well we'll get into that when we get into the Old Testament just in a few weeks when we finish up the book of Revelation but it is uh it is an interesting article of the priests clothing or apparatus if you would that helped make decisions and what and what have you had to do with stones and colored stones so some people put a link to this white stone as part of that however most conservative scholarship agrees that historically there was a white stone and a black stone that was used during even this time period of the church there at Pergamos where people made sort of decisions in sort of a random way by shaking a black stone with a white stone and then throwing him out and whichever one landed in a certain way they would make decisions black stone would be no white stone would mean yes so some believe because of tradition this time period of the church at Pergamos it could be referring to that black stone or the white stone which is a yes stone by the way never heard of the phrase where somebody's been blackballed that came from this ancient practice of the black stone and the white stone if you got the black stone you're out it's a no it's a negative and that's where that term came from so some say nope this is Jesus saying you're getting the yes stone and not only that you get your name on it it's like a ticket and if you have the white stone now white in the Bible speaks of what purity or righteousness that is imputed by the Lord we can't clean ourselves up though our sins be as scarlet themed they may be as white as snow as white as wall Isaiah the prophet talked about so the white stone speaks of the purity that we have in Christ and then he puts your name on it and it's a new name that's the third part of this little description a new name what's with the new name not 100% sure but does anybody like the idea of having a new name I do cuz my old name is pretty messed up and I don't want my old name to be the only thing that I bring with me into history or into eternity I should say the Lord's gonna give us a new name and that's gonna be our marker or identifier in in eternity people say well Brett if we have new names and new bodies and all the stuff will we recognize people in heaven why no my husband or my wife I like to remind you will not be Dumber in heaven than we are now so that's gonna be good news for for many of us so you'll have a white stone with your new name written on it and that's to the overcomer now then the church at Thyatira we we saw historically that the church at Pergamos was when Constantine we went over that history joined that mystery pagan Babylonian religion with the church and the priests that were celibate and the priests that were points pointy hats and had purple robes and all these different practices the Yule Log in the Christmas tree and worshiping a start day which later would become what we call Easter and then sort of making an amalgamation of Christianity with this sort of paganism that's where some of this tradition was picked up and so Constantine did that and then shortly after that they made it all law that you kind of had to become a Christian now the question is were they real Christians even was even Constantine a real Christian you know when I say real what I mean is the person says I believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross was buried and three days later rose from the grave and the only way to be saved is through the cross of Christ salvation through Jesus if that's what they believed with all their heart and confess with their mouth then we can think oh maybe constant really was a Christian but we don't know and it's hard to tell because it was expedient for Constantine to become a Christian because Christianity had grown so much by 313 ad that there were more Christians really than there were pagan Romans and they were having a hard time puffing air into the paganism of Rome when Christianity was was spread like wildfire so they adopted Christianity and then the paganism from Rome they said what do we do the priests of the paganism ro what do we do it cause there's no problem you guys become priests of Christianity and we'll just kind of do what you guys did but do it all in the name of Christ and so that's kind of what happened and you can make your arguments about some of the practices of Christmas and Easter and we've talked a little bit about that but that my question is was it ever really turned around and I'd argue that there are certain things that really did turn around in history which is kind of cool so when I do a Christmas tree nobody in my house is thinking Simar amis or Tammuz or nimrod I'm not thinking that I'm thinking this is a great time of year where we can smell some pine tree here in our house and and all that stuff that's good now if you are worshipping some ramus dimers you should not have a Christmas tree if that's your objective now there's other ones that never turned around and they're you know like for example I would say Halloween was a pagan holiday really made any transition whatsoever it's still kind of that thing and so that's why you know they think Greek we really don't even like to celebrate Halloween we we just say let's come together on that night instead of sitting in our houses bunkering down for the entourage of children we say bring all the children to the church and let's let's give the kids a great time just being thankful to the Lord for all the great things he has done and let's let's turn that around and so that's what we've been doing there's no hint of Halloween here at the harvest fest another one that's interesting is Valentine's Day did that one really turn the corner well you know Venus and Cupid are pretty still pretty strong I know it seems like it's a little naked baby with a bow and arrow what's wrong with that man what could be bad about a naked baby with bow and arrow well it's Venus and Cupid speaks of the same thing of Aphrodite and bale Diana and all the different gods and goddesses they're the same you know it gets all back to summer Anna's Tammuz and that whole story but they just give different names in Egypt it's Isis and Horus and they're just different names under this but it's the same story so you know it's just kind of interesting to see all these holidays that we celebrate and see if they've really turned the corner now if you celebrate Valentine's Day because you love your honey then great but just know where that little naked baby came from and just thought you should know that so all that to say that took place and Pergamos is that church that is a symbol of 313 to 600 ad where there was an objectionable marriage between the church and the world does that all make sense are you guys with me on the history of that so so then before we get to to this this whole thing there's one other thing that we didn't talk much about let's finish up this chapter two real quick he says in verse 24 we kind of blitz through that verse 24 of chapter 2 but unto you I say unto the rest of Thyatira as many as have not this doctrine and which have not known the depths of Satan which is probably a reference to Mystery Babylon that religion we're talking about that paganism I will put upon you none other burden in other words just chill out there's no no thing for you if you're being faithful to the Lord but verse 25 hold that which you have already hold fast till I come so if Pergamus goes from 3:13 to 600 what we have to do historically with Thyatira is to realize that that starts all the way at 600 AD to the present day now we're starting to talk about a larger section of church history seen in the Church of Thyatira as it relates to the panoramic view of church history from 600 AD to the present day why do we believe that because he talks to this church and says something that maybe you'll notice he hasn't said really to the other churches in verse 25 but that what you have already hold fast until I come that's the second coming of Christ so I believe that the historical version of this goes from 600 to the present day as we'll see some of the other churches do as well and we're gonna call this historically the age of well there's there's different names you'll hear people or commentaries call this age in the church some call it the age of fornication because that's what Jezebel was pushing some people call it the the age of the medieval church which would be an accurate description you can call it whatever you want either the age of fornication or the medieval church but it was a time where the Pergamos mixture turned into some real ugliness of fornication now in the Bible fornication talks about sexual immorality the word fornication is pornea in the Greek where we get our word pornography so it's definitely a sexual connotation but in the Bible when people fornicate themselves against the Lord they go to other gods it's like it's a double reference there's definite sexual sin but also an unfaithfulness to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ so we see both of those alive and well in the medieval church from 600 all the way to the present day we see the fallout from that kind of fornication that Jezebel was pushing and teaching that they allowed in the church and so what was going on well because of the the Pergamos objectionable marriage there was some fruit I call it fruit but we'll look at that but before we do that let's finish this chapter he says you've gone to the depths of Satan as they speak I will put no other burden on you hold fast to you till I come and he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end to him will I give power over the nation's now by the way that is something that I believe we will have when we come with Christ and rule and reign with them you'll have power over the nations to rule and reign I don't know how that's gonna look I don't know where you're gonna rule or reign or what nations you'll have power over but it seems that the Lord is gonna do that in some way he will give those that overcome power and verse 27 he shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessels of a Potter they shall be broken to shivers even as I received of my father when Christ comes again there's going to be kind of a war going on the Battle of Armageddon we'll get into that as we get into later chapters but when he returns he's gonna he's gonna come not as a humble carpenter from Galilee but he's going to come as a conqueror from heaven the King of Kings the Lord of lords and he's going to come ruling and reigning and those those nations that are against his people and against Israel Israel will be hanging by a thread according to the scriptures that when the all the world turns its guns toward Israel and Christ will come again put his foot down in in Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives and they'll come and there's some pretty radical imagery about Jesus coming to rule and reign and smashing those with great wrath and judgment who have rejected Christ and rejected his people so it's a this is where people don't like to see that side of Jesus for some reason they're a little afraid of that and should be if you're on the wrong side of that you don't want to be in trouble with Jesus people get get this whole the wrath of the Lamb and they say Oh Lambo really afraid of that you know but but we should be aware that the world has rejected Christ so much when he comes again he's going to come with a rod of iron smashing those pots that will be broken into shivers that's what it says and it's going to be even more powerful as we get into this and I will give him the one that's overcoming the morning star the morning star now the morning star is a term that has caused some confusion in the Bible but when we talk about the morning star or the bright and morning star we're talking about Jesus Christ there's an unfortunate translation in some of the newer translations of isaiah 14 by the way 12 through 14 isaiah chapter 14 verses 12 to 14 that is translated different ways but it should be accurately translated how are you fallen from heaven o day star son of the morning see some of your translations called the the morning star and so there's confusion is the morning star Satan or is the morning star Jesus and you have to understand the the the the title of the Sun of the morning is exclusively given to Satan son of the morning interesting but but the bright and morning star is Jesus well Brett I don't know if I like how close those descriptions are Sun of the morning or the bright and morning star I don't know if I like that but you gotta remember Satan is a duplicator and an imitator it shouldn't surprise us that Satan would try to have things that sort of look like Jesus or try to be like Jesus that's that shouldn't be new for you if you're a Christian been a Christian for a long time I understand Satan likes to imitate and he's actually pretty good at it he's even called an angel of light and so we've got these images of this dark red little creature with a goatee and horns but he's actually probably a very attractive maybe even a beautiful being even in his fallen state and he dupes a lot of people according to the scriptures so um the idea is this Morningstar is Jesus Christ and we know that not just because of what it says right here but in revelation 22:16 we're gonna see this is very clear he says let me read to you revelation 22:16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify to you these things in the churches I am the root of the offspring of David and the bright and Morning Star so that's the end of the discussion right Jesus as I am the bright and Morning Star so that's a delineation given to Jesus from revelation 22:16 and so you have the the that's that's what he says he the oven here let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches so there's there's Thyatira now in the history you have to understand this fornication in church history it really happened right around 600 and they're after and maybe even a little bit before with the objectionable marriage and you should you definitely take a look at this and I I hate to cover so much history but this is something I think all churches should know if there's one thing we've learned from histories we've learned nothing from history right and so we need to learn our history so that we can not make the same mistakes over and over again and by the way Sardis goes down as the church that kept making the same mistake over and over so when we get to this you know this was part of the deal we need to learn from history so that we don't make that repeat the the mistakes that were made by believers Christians in times past so with that that crazy marriage that took place at Pergamos with the paganism and Christianity it really came to a church that was growing but but in the wrong ways it was growing in power in prominence and even in prestige and wealth but they were not necessarily growing in in truth or in love for Jesus Christ now let me say this we're about to hit the the Protestants here in just a little bit but the Catholic Church understand I believe that there are Catholics through the history that I that I saw appreciate and had a real love for Jesus Christ don't don't get this wrong you have to understand that even though this the history is true and a little bit brutal I do believe there's some faithful Catholic saints of the past and even today so if your grandma is a Catholic and you go to a nubret like my grandma's part of this craziness - chill out just make sure that your grandma believes that Jesus Christ is God who came in the flesh died on the cross was buried three days later rose up from the grave and has a personal relationship not with the Catholic Church as much as Jesus that's that's what we're looking for but that's where the church went really bad in history it became less about a relationship and a love for Christ and a love for His Word and it became all about the Catholic Church and it kind of came to this whole thing of the papacy frankly everybody it's all excited about the new pope and even crazy you know non Catholics it's funny how they're all we got a new pope yay but but you have to understand the the papacy is something I don't generally get overly excited about and I'll show you why Pope means Papa okay you have to understand that means Papa or father it means father and initially it applied to all Western bishops but about 500 AD it B it began not to be restricted to the Bishop of Rome for 500 years the bishops of Rome were not Pope's you have to understand that but but when they started calling him father or just your local Catholic priest became father again I refer you to matthew 23:9 and this is what this says in red letters Jesus said this and call no man your father upon earth for one is your father which is in heaven so that's something that that the Catholic Church says very clearly against what Jesus said don't call any man your father but but they've got this Pope that they call father that's what it means when you say Pope you're saying father you have to understand that the Roman Catholic tradition puts Peter as the first pope and I believe that's fiction nobody called him hope but Peter called himself I'm your brother over and over again we just went through first and second Peter and we saw how Peter just called himself a fellow servant he was very humble and he didn't want any special titles or anything like that the idea that Peter was the first pope comes from the Gospel of Matthew when Peter declared Jesus to be the Messiah and Jesus changed his name from you know Simon to Peter which means little rock and he said upon this rock will I build my church but the word rock was Petra not Petros Petros is Little Rock that's Peters new name but Petra says upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it what what was the Petra it was the declaration that Peter made that Jesus was the Messiah and his upon that declaration would the church be established and the gates of hell would not stand against it it's a it's an interpretation of that scripture that I believe is fictitious and you have to look at the context of that little story but that's where it all comes from the idea that Peter was the first pope but what's interesting if you go through history Sylvester the first 3:14 to 335 was the Bishop of Rome when Constantine virtually made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire so Constantine regarded himself as the head of the church you have to understand that Constantine not not the Pope Constantine said I'm the head of the church and he he also was presiding over the Council of Nicaea and AD 325 and Constantinople and Rome began with Constantine's whole thing and and Sylvester the first was kind of the first Bishop of Rome but he was under the authority of Constantine years later sireesha s-- 395 to 398 Bishop of Rome that's when the Pope's or the bishops of Rome's began to be very questionable at best but very sinful it just squarely put sirisha s-- Bishop of Rome his lust for worldly power claimed universal jurisdiction over the church that's when the Bishop of Rome said I have universal jurisdiction over the church he declared that but unfortunately for him that's when the Roman Empire was divided in 395 ad the East and the West it became divided did you know that the division of the Roman Empire is something that you still see divisions of that today did you know that does anybody kind of wonder what the whole bosnian-serb Croatia thing was all about if you don't know it really gets back to the East and West Rome division back in 395 ad two separate empires really and so the whole breakup of Yugoslavia it was three ethnic traditions three religions and three different sources of support the Roman Catholics the Eastern Orthodox and the Muslims and all that division caused all kinds of bloodshed and warfare that's what that whole Bosnia Serb Croatia breakup of Yugoslavia that was a that was a really what it all gets down to so you have to understand that that happened back then but then the struggle through religion it became a religious struggle between the Muslims the Eastern Orthodox and the the Roman Catholics and and here's the sad thing there's no high ground on any one of those groups they all have accumulated atrocities for the past fifteen hundred years all groups Eastern Orthodox Catholics Muslims have done horrible things in the name of their religion and that's where by the way your secular professors will say religion is the worst thing that's ever happened to humanity has anybody heard that that it's all religions fault all death and some people will even say even Christianity is the cause of all death in the world which is a pretty ignorant thing to say but sadly there is a bit of truth to some of the horrible things that have happened it's all in the name of God that a lot of slaying took place well that brings us to Leo the first 440 to 461 some historians really regard the first real Pope in the 400s their emperor Valentinian the third imperial recognition for his claim as primate of all bishops and he's the one in 452 persuaded Attila the Hun to spare the city of Rome just a little bit of history there but he also declared himself Lord of the whole church can you imagine I know the whole church can you imagine somebody doing that all right what would you do if I said that suddenly hopefully you just get up and walk out and say man we're never going back to that wacko Church but but sadly with Leo the 1st he pretty much gets away with it he declared himself Lord of all Church advocated exclusive universal papacy resistance to his authority was a sure path to hell he declared and he advocated the death penalty for heresy he's the one said if you're if you're a heretic can you teach anything against the Roman Catholic Church you shall die for that and man that's where bad things really started to happen in the Roman Catholic Church and really throughout history the rule of the harlots has anybody heard of that the rule of the harlots 904 to 963 two hundred years between Nicholas the first and Gregory the seventh it was called the midnight of the Dark Ages bit because bribery corruption in the church immorality bloodshed it's really the blackest chapter in all the church history I have to tell you from 870 to 1050 it was horrifyingly ugly the church was it was almost hard to even wonder if there were any real Christians during that time to speak of it was mostly ruled by this horrible thing now I'll get into the rule of the harlots and what it was in fact Sergius the third again these are the popes that were throughout the history 904 to 911 had a mistress I thought the Pope was supposed to be celibate but he had a mistress whose name was Marusya her mother was Theodora and her sisters filled the papal chair with paramours and bastard sons turned the papal den into a den of robbers this is called history of the rule of harlots and then John Pope John the tenth 914 to 928 was brought from revena to Rome and made poked by Theodora this mother of Moreau Zia and she made him Pope for her own convenient gratification he was smothered to death by Marazzi I guess she didn't like him so then was there was a succession raised by several of her sons and grandsons including Leo the sixth Stephen the seventh John the eleventh and her own illegitimate son John the the seventh the grandson of Moreau Zia was guilty of almost every crime you could think of frankly and he was the Pope by the way there was a practice called Simon II which was where you'd buy your way into papal power and if people had enough money you could purchase your sons into a position and some of the Pope's were actually young boys that they paid money to become the Pope this is just history I'm not making this up just check it out read your history books it's just the facts of what happened but he lived with his father's mistress this guy John the 12th did all kinds of horrible sexual things but made the papal palace a literal brothel and was killed while in the act of adultery by the woman's enraged husband how'd like to have a leader of the church like that but that's that was the deal but then the descent of the church continued to spiral into more order in 10:12 Benedict the 13th and John the 20 the 19th pardon me bought the office of pope through open bribery or simony and the Pope Benedict to the ninth was a 12 year old boy when he became Pope and powerful families began to rule the Roman Catholic Church he committed murders adulteries in broad daylight in front of people robbed pilgrims and and hideous criminal really the people finally got so mad at him they drove him out of Rome some call him Benedict the eighth the worst pardon me Benedict the ninth they call him the worst of all popes and then that could be true clemente ii was appointed by pope emperor henry the third for germany because no roman clergy me could be found who is free of the pollution of simony and fornication so emperor henry said man we got to get somebody else in there and so he put clemente ii in there Pope Innocent the third not so innocent he was the most powerful of all the Pope's in all time of all history he claimed to be the Vicar of Christ that was the first time that term had come up with Pope Innocent Vicar of Christ Vicar of God supreme sovereign over all the church and the world so I was like that I said what if what if I came to church that I am in charge of the whole church and the world that's what this guy did mmm craziness all things on earth and in heaven are subject to the Vicar of Christ that's a pretty bold statement now what's crazy about Pope Innocent the third is everybody fell for it in fact all the kings of Germany France England and practically all the Monarchs of Europe during the 1,100 and 1,200 obeyed his will this Pope's including the Byzantine Ian Empire so it's pretty radical this guy was maybe the most powerful guy ever maybe in in modern and I should say uh you know in the ad period maybe he was one of those powerful guys ever never in history at any one man extended or exerted more power he ordered two Crusades and by the way you know transubstantiation you guys know what that is it's when you know the Catholic Church when they take communion they say it the bread as you're putting it in your mouth it becomes the body of Christ literally and when you drink the wine it literally becomes the blood of Christ it's a miracle it was innocent the third who declared transubstantiation as being real should that should bring a question mark now by the way I'm gonna tell you the Protestants we have dead and downed communion to have no power at all it just becomes a ritual in a routine and that's a mistake as well the Eucharist the communion cup of Christ and the bread should be that which is powerful there's forgiveness of sin and power over sin it is a miraculous thing but I don't agree with transubstantiation and especially when you realize it came from Pope not so innocent the third he confirmed our ocular confession declared papal infallibility I've ever heard that the Pope is infallible that came from mr. innocence who condemned the Magna Carta forbade the reading of the Bible in the vernacular which is huge did you hear what I said yeah you couldn't read your Bible in your language that was a law by Pope Innocent why do you think he did that so nobody'd know that all the things he was saying we're just totally wacko right transubstantiation worship mother the mother of God Mary and you know all these different in fallibilities of the Pope which you don't even see the Pope in the Bible let alone infallibility so man we got to get the Bible's out of the hands of the average people we'll keep it in the Latin and so that nobody knows how to read and it'll all be good we'll tell them what the Bible says and they'll believe us and they'll follow us like sheep so bad did it get not long after this they would literally chained the Bible to the pulpits of the Roman Catholic Church so that if you took it you'd be stealing it but you weren't allowed to have one of your own there was even a time in Roman Catholic history where if anybody was found reading a Bible they could be put to death that's our radical - Scott this is just the history I'm not making this up he by the way innocent the third was one instituted the Inquisition did anybody study that in school yeah not a good time in history well we'll probably get into that he ordered the extermination of heretics more blood was shed under Pope Innocent the Third's direction than any of his immediate successors or any other period maybe even of all history that's how bad not so innocent was well you say Brett that's that's pretty dark pretty bad history yes it is and that's when the light started to shine again during a time that we know is the Reformation or the Protestant Reformation of the church and that's where we start to get into the next Church of the book of Revelation it's a new period but you have to understand that as much as we embrace the Reformation the thing that I hope you see tonight is that we didn't go far enough let's take a look and see what kind of Reformation and what maybe the church at Sardis and we'll get back into history in a minute I'm not done sorry but it's just the truth so chapter 3 verse 1 and unto the Angel of the church in Sardis write these things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God and the Seven Stars I know thy works that thou hast a name that thou livest and our dead be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die for I have not found thy works perfect before God remember therefore how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent if therefore thou shalt not watch I will come on thee as a thief and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee thou hast a few names even in sardis which have not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy he that overcometh the same shall be clothed in white raiment and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels he that of an ear let him hear what the spirit saith to the churches Sardis interesting little city where this church was it was historically known as being somewhat of a fortress which is interesting by the way this Church of Sardis you know many many people were lulled in sort of a I guess a false sense of security and that's the idea here's Jesus saying he has her dead and what do you need to do you need to watch and be vigilant wake up is the idea they were a dead church and so apparently they were going through the motions of everything they had movement but no real life and it's just like the history of this little place called Sardis you see Sardis was first mentioned in historical writings right around 500 BC but eventually the Persians would come and and they would attack or I should say besiege the city of Sardis led by Cyrus the Great do you guys remember Cyrus Cyrus of course was from what we know today is Iran but the Medes and the Persians when they sort of took over the known world basically Sardis was taken by the way the word if you those of you that are in college and had to read The Iliad David after in the Iliad the the the the the the name hide seems to be the same city and it was an ancient name before it was artists it was called hide and it's the same city that's talked about in the oh yeah just just for you guys I'd have to read that stuff I didn't enjoy that in college by the way that was not fun for me just a freebie for you but anyway later it became this this place that was known for being kind of a citadel it was up on the peak of a high cliff in fact on three directions Sardis had a a 1500 foot sheer drop on three sides the the one other side was sort of a steep incline but you'd get into starts by going there but the sardines they would build a big wall on that third side that was huge a giant wall of defense on that one side that was part of a cliff so by the three sides of 1500 feet down and then the big giant wall that they build on that fourth side it was thought to have been an impenetrable City and that they could sustain life and because of water that was flowing into there and just all kinds of you know it's just kind of the perfect scenario for safety but the problem was even though it was known to be impenetrable or perfectly safe it's amazing how many times it fell in history that's the funny thing if we've learned something in history we've learned nothing from history and that's true for Sardis how so well when Cyrus came they besieged the city that is they got around it all they're soldiers they're like scratching their heads saying man how are we gonna get in the city how are we gonna conquer the city Cyrus was asking but the story is told there and that the men of Cyrus were there at nighttime and they they were looking way up and they saw one of the guards way up on the wall and the guard from the top of the wall and Sardis looked down and his helmet fell off dink dink dink dink dink dink dink dink dink all the way down to the bottom and and the this the the Persians they all saw his helmet down at the base like man that guy just lost his helmet but then they looked away for a little bit and then they looked back and the helmets gone and they looked back up on the top of the wall and they thought wait a minute that guy has his helmet back on a little dented and scratched but that's the same element and and they were kind of confused by that but they realized that for that to have been possible there must have been something a passageway of some kind to get from that point down quickly to the bottom and back up fast and so they went to where the helmet was and they found in the crevices of the rocks that climbed up they found a kind of a hidden passageway cut with stairs and everything that went into caves and holes and up through the whole thing and eventually made it to the top where they could just walk into the city and that's how Cyrus tooks artists by that that that secret way and the people of this town of Sardis who thought they were perfectly safe they were taken what's interesting about that is many many years later another ruler would come besieged the city and the exact same thing happens they were standing around the city thinking how are we gonna take the city it was a guy by the name of Antiochus the third the great you remember him not a happy dude not somebody we liked very much he was a horrible guy in history but he besieged the city of Sardis and they found the same passageway in the exact same way the Persians did Antiochus took the city in the same exact way so the sardines didn't learn a thing they kept thinking they were safe when they really were not safe they thought they were alive but really they were dead because they let their guard down and they weren't watchful see there's a lesson here at Sardis that's not only part of that physical history but really spiritually it's the same thing that was going on Jesus says to this church you guys are dead but you have the name that you're alive now there's something you need to know about this because the word name is interesting in the Greek did you see that in verse 1 he says I know thy works and before you think oh good at least they have works like the other church but notice how quickly Jesus cut he says I know thy works that thou hast a name that thou livest and are dead so even their works Jesus isn't really condemned ending he's actually got nothing nice to say about the church at Sardis do you realize that there's only one thing I guess you can really think that he says nice and that is that there are a few names a few names in verse 4 even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments he's only there's only a couple people that are there still walk with me but really the rest of you are lost and you're dead of all the churches that we read here you're gonna find that this one in Sardis is probably the most severe and the most well hopeless of situations the most hopeless and this is Jesus talking so what does he say well mark the word name there where says I know that thou hast a name that thou livest ado with the name of a group of people and it's where we get our name our the word denomination denomination anima people say Bret why aren't you guys a from a certain denomination you're a non-denominational Church now I got to say we were nondenominational before nondenominational we came hip I'm just telling you that because it's funny how a lot of churches who were you know various denominations just started saying you know what we're not going to call ourselves this or that or the other anymore we're gonna give us a new name we're gonna call us you know the Catholic or you know there's a you know harvest or fields of rainbows and petunias or whatever there's it's funny how we churches we think by putting a new name is something really big I don't know we call ourselves a secret just because that's the school we were going to and there was a creek bus and it's called so what's in a name but people say but Brett shouldn't you be linked to like the Assemblies of God or the Baptist or the pen you know the you know Jove is witness not know Brett knows the same thing no no but it's funny how the names they all have such meaning don't thing to us but Jesus says you have a reputation that you have a name that you're living but you're actually deader than a doornail you're just dead see this is where it starts to get painful because this was a literal church that was dead they had the motion and movement as if they were alive in fact they even had a reputation as being alive but they were in fact dead according to Jesus man so he says you got to repent he's telling the church to repent now you say okay Brett got it so what does that mean to us well let's talk about the church history what happened so we saw that Thyatira spoke of that age of medieval church or the Church of fornication it got sick I just went through all those horrible descriptions of of the Pope's and that and where the church really really went but but here's the deal it picks up in our story with the little Dew that showed up in 1330 ad because the church had become full of sin and fornication if you would on every level but in 1330 he was a Catholic priest but he was also a scholar from Oxford University in England his name was John Wickliffe he he argued even at the face of great opposition with the Pope himself he argued that everybody should have Bibles in their own hands that was one of the things he said that everybody should have their own copies of the Bible but like I told you the previous Pope's had declared it was a capital offense for the common people to read the Bible so Wickliffe was putting his neck on the line by suggesting something the Pope said was a punishable by death offense Bibles were chained to the pulpits like I said so John Wycliffe he or Wickliffe he translated the Bible from the Vulgate the Latin Vulgate into the vernacular English in the year 1382 this was known by the way as Wickliffe Bible and and he was he was gonna be in big trouble by the Pope's there's actually one thing that sort of saved him and that was this kind of interesting the people loved him the people thought Wickliffe was awesome because he was arguing that they should have Bibles in their own hands and they were hungry for the word because for centuries the Bible was untouchable to them so Michael is saying I'm gonna write me English translation of the Bible and he did that and it eventually got him into some trouble but but because well he was almost untouchable because the people loved him so much there were a few guys that were raised up after Wycliffe and that is Hugh Latimer and lude Nicholas Ridley and they were taking up Wickliffe scause as well get Bibles in the hands of the people they were burned at the stake for doing such a thing and you can go to this place by the way there's that you can actually go to the very place where they were burned at the stake but Hugh Latimer said they were burning at the stake he said to Nicholas Ridley he said be of good comfort master Ridley and play the man we shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England that I trust it shall never be put out there the fire that was burning they're saying it's kind of because they're being martyred for the Bible's sake and and what's interesting is that is in fact what happened those two guys you hear a lot about Martin Luther which is true but I think these guys Hugh Latimer Nicholas Ridley John Wycliffe those guys should get massive credit for the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation so then then you know after that quite a few years go by but in in 1483 which is five hundred and thirty years ago interesting when you think about time and stuff but five hundred thirty years ago November 10th in 1483 and eyes'll been Germany a baby boy was born to a poor coal miner and his mother was a homemaker but they named him Martin he wanted to be better off than his parents so he went to study to be a lawyer that was his goal but in 1504 this lawyer walking outside of the campus it started to lightning and thunder and it was so radical bolts of lightning were striking all around him and it really freaked him out has anybody been in that kind of lightning or a thunderstorm we don't get them here in Oregon but I've been to some places where it's quite an amazing thing but it freaked Martin Luther out radically this this lightning and thunder storm so he calls out to Saint Anne you say well what's that all about well Saint Anne was the patron saint of coal miners again Catholic tradition has nothing to do with the Bible praying to Saints is not a biblical theme and he promised that he'd become a monk if she saved him so keeping his promise he became a monk because he survived the lightning storm dedicate his life to studying theology and becoming a doctor of theology at the University of Wittenberg all that sounds familiar right but but you have to understand although he's an expert in theology he was lacking peace with God that's what he was looking for he felt like man I know all this stuff about theology but man I have no real relationship and he struggled he wrote in his journals constantly in fact I quote what can a man do to really have peace with God and he was plagued with his own sinfulness with his own depravity he devoted himself to a life of piety and denial even where he would whip his own body whipping himself trying to beat his body into submission to believe God he'd fast for 10-15 days at a time he'd lay on the frozen ground all night without a blanket trying to make himself feel pain he would beat and whip his body till his black and blue and bloody he'd sit and confess every little sin that he ever could think of to the Father superior in fact it's written in history that father superior said Martin either go out and commit a sin that is worthy of confession or stop coming here so often he was so much trying to be perfect and right with God and trying to impress God and all that so finally in 1509 he made a pilgrimage to rome in hope of finding peace with God he set out on foot across the Alps on his descent he almost died of high fever he got very very sick in the in the mountains there and so he stopped at a monastery on the way at the foot of the mountains where the monks nurse nursed him back to health while he was there something radical happened one of the little wise old monks that was there who loved the Lord told him you need to read your Bible that's what he told him read your Bible and he said I want you to read this verse and he read there in the scriptures the just shall live by faith and that caught his attention because he's trying to for how do I live for God how do I live for God and then he said the just shall live by faith and it's it really struck him but he kind of absorbed that thought but just kind of went on back to Rome and he went to the Church of st. John and he saw all the holy relics and artifacts that the Roman Catholic Church has collected pieces of wood and skulls and things that are supposed to be holy and magical and all this stuff which I'm not into relics I believe we talked about that last week day who stand remember that the whole thing it's just a relic it's something people get too much into but one Chapel in Rome like I told you before it claims to have the skull of John the Baptist but there's also a building in Jerusalem that says they have the skull of John the Baptist so which one's the one who knows maybe none but it's the Church of st. John there's a magical stairway there was where these stairs were believed to have been transported from Jerusalem to Rome and they were the very steps that Jesus went up when he was going to be tried before Pontius Pilate and so there were drops of blood on those steps that were sort of enshrined in glass or some kind of a way to preserve these so-called blot drops of blood of Jesus preserved there in Rome it's funny that the Roman Catholics they get into this stuff you know and so the pilgrims would come and they they'd go up these stairs on their knees and every step they would repent and light a candle and and do all this stuff and and Martin's day and I've got to get closer to God so he's crawling up these stairs and he's lighting his candle and doing all this stuff he's halfway up the stairs when the scripture hit him again the just shall live by faith and then it sort of got him he put down his whip who was beating himself as he's going up these stairs and he stood up and walked down the stairs back to the University of Wittenberg where he began a movement known what we as we know today is the Reformation perhaps maybe one of the single most important events in in modern history Luther went on to explore the revolutionary idea of justification by faith which was really in the Bible the reason the Catholics didn't believe that as much they didn't have Bibles to read it but when you read the book of Romans you can't get away from the the just shall live by faith and and so he he wrote profusely about the just shall live by faith in 1517 key time he nailed his famous 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church the leadership of Wittenberg wasn't real happy to say the least about his 95 thesis but he wrote about the idea that people shouldn't have to pay indulgences to the church in order to find absolution for their sins that was an idea that one of the Pope's had to say if you pass money we'll make sure your sins are not going to be held against you and by the way do you want ever wonder how did the Catholic Church afford all the glorious cathedrals you see sprinkled all over Europe it was by indulgences people paying money hoping to have their sins forgiven and the church got crazy level wealthy even to this day the Catholic Church is more wealthy than most countries in the world because of indulgences and other things that we could talk about but then came the diet of worms what well the word diet it just means counsel and worms was the city it was held in enough so it's called the diet of worms April 17 1521 they discussed Martin Luther's theories and eventually excommunicated him as a heretic but then came the Gutenberg press this is all part of history hopefully we've heard bits and pieces of this but I'm trying to give you a picture of the Reformation and what happened the populace caught vision of Martin Luther's words that he was trying to show and teach and say and people began to rejoice and the freedom they had in Christ the just shall live by faith and it became more and more relevant to all the people not by beating yourselves not by praying not by fasting not by going to church all the time you know the the just was justified by the work of Jesus on the cross he saw it the world caught it and that's what that's what happened so he wrote all kinds of works of theology he even wrote some great hymns a mighty fortress is our God that came from Martin Luther and what have you now here's the problem Martin Luther I gotta say it wasn't a perfect dude even though I'm thankful for the Reformation you have to understand the Reformation also had all kinds of problems one of the things I'm most embarrassed for Martin Luther was that he was an anti-semite he really believed the Jews were fodder for hell and wrote horrible things about the Jews and it had to do with the worldview of end times at that time but that's a whole nother subject there's a lot of things that Martin was a little bit off on but he really did do a great work in the Reformation all that to say so the Prophet Reformation took place and the Protestant Church much of it really started to go back and say what did the Bible say what does the Bible say and and what does the church really supposed to be and what's with the Pope and what's with praying to the Saints and and and Mary being some kind of a mediator between God and man even though the Bible says no what's with that and so the Reverend the Protestant Reformation took place and caused all kinds of stir in the Catholic Church and there were some good things that came of it and but as modern times it started to roll along even those Protestant churches got very prideful and saying we are the Church of England or we are the Church of this or that or the other thing and they started making the same exact mistake maybe perhaps even worse than the Catholics when you look at the way that it unfolded throughout history and we don't have time to go into the intermediary stages of the Protestant church because there's some evil history there but I would say just look at the Protestant church today and I'd say a lot of it's an abomination what do you mean Brett well there's so many people that call themselves the church but they don't even believe in Jesus Christ we see many Methodists and Lutheran's and West Flynn's and Presbyterians all with their little names but what are they doing do they believe the Bible anymore some of them some of these denominations are fallen off the wagon pretty badly have you followed the Presbyterians there's giant splits going on in the the Presbyterian Church because you know some Presbyterians are saying we believe in homosexuality even though the Bible 6-time is very clearly tells us man this is just not of the Lord at all and then the doctor said well we know more now so that they're splitting on that they're splitting on endtime stuff which is kind of interesting and sad gay priests in the Episcopal Church and that you know I remember when that all came in and the 90s and all that stuff and and all kinds of stuff that that's just totally against the Bible whenever you get back to the Bible you see a revival but whenever you see people moving away from the Bible and making up their own rules as they go it becomes a church that is no longer effective and so one of the reasons we've chosen say man we're not gonna be in denominations because I'm not sure I really see that what I see in the early church is people who love Jesus believed that he was God and came in the flesh dot on the cross rose from the grave ascended into heaven and ever lives to make intercession for us and as I believed in Jesus and everything the Bible says then I'm a Christian I'm part of the body of Christ and why should we have artificial divisions with names so that we can be disagreeing with one another shouldn't we rather say it's all in the Bible it's all right here in the scriptures and if you believe the Bible and if you believe that Jesus is we claim to be then we're brothers and sisters in Christ why have an artificial name that divides us now here's the thing even nondenominational has become sort of a hoity-toity well we're nondenominational and it's become a sort of a weird deal in and of itself so when people ask ins they are you know no I don't even want to say yes because even that comes with a crazy sort of stigma these days but man god forbid that the church becomes this church in sardis the dead church you know you've got a name and you have a reputation that you're alive but jesus says you're actually dead and that's where we land this is that personal application because the the largely the Protestant church you look at the Protestant Church throughout Europe that was sprung into action during the Reformation if you look largely in Europe it's deader than a doornail today and what's really even more sad is the American church is following suit ever so rapidly just following the Church of Europe just like they did only were a few hundred years behind at the times but you see the behavior today very much the same where we are becoming a nation that's sort of like who needs the Jesus and why to be so radical and what's the big deal why is everybody so upset did you see the news today they're trying to make it illegal for Christians to talk about their faith in the military the Pentagon has released a statement confirming that soldiers could be prosecuted for promoting their faith religious proselytization can't say it proselytizing of non-believers is not permitted within the Department of Defense court martials and non judicial punishments are decided on a case-by-case basis Breitbart news reported on Obama administration's Pentagon appointees meeting with anti Christians extremists Mikey Weinstein to develop a court martial procedure to punish Christians in the military who express or share their faith from our earlier report that Breitbart says Weinstein is the head of the military Religious Freedom Foundation and says that Christians including chaplains sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in the military are guilty of quote treason and of committing an act of spiritual rape as serious as a crime as sexual assault he says these are the advisers that our president is listening to he calls these guys treasonous because they are telling people of Jesus he also asserted that Christians sharing their faith in the military are enemies of the Constitution and that interesting that that's news today you know we talked about persecution in the church these are the kind of things that are going to be moving us closer into that direction but we become a nation that is more and more starting to reject a true faith in Jesus and someone expresses their faith in Jesus if you're a mamby pamby wishy-washy spiritual person then everybody knows we celebrate that we think that's awesome if you kind of have your your kind of weird religion but the one group that people are really starting to hate are people who are real believers in the Bible and it's becoming more profound really to me but what we're doing is really just going the way of Europe and and dead Protestantism that's what it is it's the age of dead Protestantism that we're seeing in Sardis that we're seeing happen as the church history unfolds right here today the question then goes to that personal application if the if the local application was church in sardis span they were just dead they thought they were cool but they weren't Jesus and you guys are dead and and if the historical view shows how processes started strong with with Martin Luther and and Latimer and what you know Wickliffe then then we think oh that's awesome but the sad thing is those those guys and and the effect of that happened fairly short-lived as it relates fall of history because we're seeing Protestant Protestantism today just going the way of the dinosaur true Christianity so then when it comes to a personal application my question for you is how lively is your faith is it alive and well or is there a deadness that sets in see I'm concerned because it's real easy here in America and say oh yeah I'm a Christian I go to church in fact I was born in the church one of the things that causes me concerned and and I hope I don't make anybody feel bad because some of you have told me this but and I understand I understand what you mean and what you're saying but it makes me a little uncomfortable when I say hey at what point in your life did you become a Christian and people say I've always been a Christian I've been a Christian because I was born into the church and a Christian family and see that makes me a little nervous and then I like to kind of press a little further to say so so was there ever a time in your life where you just really felt like your relationship lore just really just became very personal and if they still can't tell me that there was ever anything like that but more I go to church every Sunday man there's like a language that people talk oh yeah I got all kinds of Bibles and go to church and you know I give my tithe why do you do that and you can even sort of talk the talk but if it's not this real passion for Jesus if you just do what you do because that's what your family's always done then there's a chance you are into dead process Protestantism if you're if you're if you've never had really a zeal toward Christ if you've if you've never had a love for Jesus you can you can act like you have loved by singing the songs and people become good at playing the part of liveliness because that was this church you have the reputation it says here that you are alive but you really are dead that's the scary part of it it looks why living but it's dead how can that be Brett something that's dead is really dead don't be so sure I grew up on a farm I remember when my next-door neighbor neighbor Mike Daley he'd go out and do his duty which he seemed to enjoy a little too much where he would chop the heads off of chickens and that have you ever seen a chicken with the heads cut off you know you hear that term it's real they run around crazy for a long time after the head is long gone and and I kind of liken that to dead Protestantism where there's a running man who lets do more for the kingdom we're gonna run around huh we're run around but but there no there's no connection to the head we see that all the time in Protestantism today where churches are busy busy busy doing doing doing but they're not in love with the one who did it all who died on the cross for their sins there's not a real personal relationship that's powerful and important and it makes me nervous for so many who sort of just become the god Bless America Christian so whether you're a Protestant or a Catholic my question is do you have that real lively relationship with Christ is being a Christian mostly a get to or is it mostly it got to oh I gotta go to church kind of like you have to show up to traffic court or is it or is it man we get to go to church and we see that I love I love so many here at Athey Creek I get that from from so many of you like man we just love it we love going to church and it's always interesting I have a lot of people come say Brett I know you apologize for going long on Wednesday nights and all that stuff but a lot of people come to say Brett we just love getting in the word we're just glad to be here and you know if we understand our kids are kind of go to school tomorrow morning but it's it's a sacrifice we're willing to make and I get that from a lot of people but then there's the person you've gone past your time of 8:30 I never said it was 8:30 that's something you just made up oh I don't know about this and I understand I mean you know it's it's a long study but but here's the thing there's there's a point in your life where you just say you know what this really is a get tube to be able to be with God's people to worship to study the Word of God and if you love Jesus really love him it's gonna be the best part of your week because you're getting in the scriptures or your morning devotions do you do you set your alarm clock I'm gonna get up ten minutes earlier because I gotta get up early to read the Bible or is it man I can't wait to get up in the morning to spend time with Jesus Jesus is there he he'll he'll meet you every morning if you set your alarm just lower earlier I don't know I need my beauty sleep no it's too late don't worry no no you're not gonna get anything from there just just but but spiritually you'll be more beautiful if you spend time with Jesus in the morning you know it's a it's an interesting thing that really only you and the Lord see I'm almost done but do you see what it says here there's there certain things we need to do if if we want to answer the dead thing first of all we got to wake up that's what it says verse 2 be watchful that means to wake up by the way we watch one strengthen the things which remain so the part of your faith is still good strengthen that do what you already know is working good as your relationship with Jesus so do that but wake up in fact Ephesians 5:14 gives us that same notion wherefore he saith awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ will give the light so if you're feeling like your walk with the Lord is dead now to wake up strengthen the things that are good we see there in verse verse two and remember what you've received the idea is verse verse 3 remember therefore how thou has received and heard how did you hear and receive if you're truly saved you receive the grace of God you've been saved by the grace of God and that's what you've received so that's what you stay in remember what you've already received the grace of God and recover the hope of the Lord's return as we look forward to him coming for his church and that we won't be caught unaware when he comes otherwise verse 5 he that overcometh I shall be clothed in white raiment if we overcome this dead protestantism where the church has become dead if we overcome that guess guess what we get the white robe that is that purity in that righteousness and I will not verse 5 blot out his name out of the book of life that's an interesting phrase isn't it Calvinists Arminius get all freaked out over that one and I don't I just what it says is that the name was in the book to begin with and he says I will not blot his name out which means that there will be some people love their names blotted out that's the implication hmm what does that mean all I know is this we could talk about all the ins and outs of that but all I know is I don't want any part of that does anybody want any part of having your name blotted out of the book of life I don't think so so wake up wake up Church don't be a dead Christian you know make sure you have a real living vibrant relationship with God so that when Christ comes he says I know you and have a relationship with you otherwise he'll blot your name out and if you have that relation if it will confess your name before the father and before his angel let him or he that hath ears hear what the Spirit says to the church in Amen let's pray together Lord we see this church here in Sardis as the church that was very much like its history where they had a false sense of security with their little wall and their Citadel city that was so seemingly impenetrable and yet over and over they were defeated and conquered by all the waves of people who came through and we see people who have a false sense of Christianity and they think they're doing great the Lord I pray that you'd protect each one who listens to this study and just light a fire under us Lord that our light would shine brightly help us not to settle for just a mediocre Christian life but the Lord I pray that we would have passion and that we would live lively for you lord I pray that the things that we've allowed to go dull in our Christianity Lord that there just be a reigniting and that Lord we would put all of our energy into you you tell us whatsoever you do do heartily as unto the Lord and not unto men in Colossians 3:23 so I pray that our faith that our Christian walk would be done heartily protect us Lord from just dull dead Christianity fill us Lord afresh with your Holy Spirit that there might be life in this congregation so give us ears to hear we pray in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Lean-into-God

Views: 190

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: Yi-sLYEAjJo

Length: 83min 44sec (5024 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 27 2020