Hot, Cold, Or Spewed Out? Choose Wisely

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Housekeeping
• 0:58 Study Purpose And Listener Questions
• 3:02 Why The Seven Letters Matter
• 4:01 Pergamos: Church And State Entwined
• 8:34 Seduction And Control: Balaam And Nicolaitans
• 12:39 Sardis: Reformation And Its Limits
• 17:18 Dead Works And Incomplete Doctrine
• 20:46 Five Admonitions To Sardis
• 24:10 Philadelphia: Small, Faithful, Unrebuked
• 28:27 Open Doors And Escape From Tribulation

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:22

Hello everybody, welcome to today's episode of Walk With Me. I am your host, JJ. It's good to have each and one of you, each and every one of you here. I'm so glad to uh be with you today, and I'm glad you're here with us today. Big shout out to our sponsors, Drew Bars the Lyrices and Exquisite Creations. Drew Bars does the intro and the outro, uh, the bump music, and Exquisite Creations does the swag. Yes, she is getting back into the swag. So uh keep in mind pretty soon I'll be able to start posting links to uh some merch. I don't think they call it swag anymore, they call it merch now. But thank you all, each and every one of you for joining us, uh being with us as we walk through this end-time prophecy Bible study. Uh, if you have any questions or comments, you can leave them if you're on a YouTube page, you can use leave them down in the comment section. Um, I do go through and I check. Uh, if you are on iHeartRadio and or anything like that, and you have questions or comments, send those to walk with me bible study at gmail. Walk with me by walk with me bible study at gmail. As a matter of fact, this entire study is based on a one particular question, but then a series of questions and events that occurred. So, um, and if you want your name to be acknowledged on the show, you don't have to pay any money, anything like that. Just put your name in the subject line if you send an email, all right. Or you can if you're on the YouTube page, then I'll because they're gonna see your name anyway. But if you still want your name mentioned, uh just put your name or your nickname in quotation marks, and I'll make sure to mention it so that you know I'm directly speaking to you. It's no big deal. I love each and every one of you, and thank you for liking and sharing and commenting on these uh studies. Now we're gonna get into it because I want to wrap this up because we're gonna go into the next. Um, and there's a reason why I'm taking a lot of time on these letters. Um, when I get through with these letters, we're gonna go into what happens next. Okay, things are gonna start being in a more chronological order, all right? But these letters are very important. The the letters in the book of Revelation are very important, um, and they are not dedicated to denomination, they are not to a denominational church. They are the these letters are in re in regards to oh, what happened there? In regards to a uh a spiritual condition, seven different spiritual conditions, and it pretty much covers all of the spiritual conditions based on these particular churches that it was at this time. And Jesus saw fit to say each one of these letters to John, and he wanted them, he wanted John to write them down for a reason for us today. These are not denominational churches, these are spiritual conditions of these individual congregations that you and I today need to be aware of. So um, we're gonna start with the church of Pergamos, okay? And the only thing, and this is very important because the book, I'm sorry, the church of Pergamous had a problem. The word Pergamous means marry, all right. And so when Persians conquered Babylon, the first thing they did um was they married the church to their government, all right. And this is where we talk about Constantine. We kind of touched on them last week, but Constantine professed that he was converted to the Christian faith, and he did that, he united the church and state, and in this church, there were two false doctrines: the doctrine of Balaam, and that came from back when uh Israel and and had reached the land of Moab, Balak the king, sent Balaam to curse Israel, and when the Lord did not allow Balaam to curse Israel, he taught Balak how to seduce Israel to commit sin by committing fornication with the daughters of Moab and then bringing the judgment of God upon them. So when you ever hear the doctrine of Balaam, the doctrine of Balaam is a doctrine of seduction, and this is not necessarily mean in a sexual way. In other words, you can seduce someone with a with a false doctrine, you can seduce someone with into backsliding, you can seduce someone into um even stealing or lying, or basically the seduction part is the slow kind of um convincing of someone to do a thing, whether as the R-word, you just kind of force it on. This is not when you're seducing someone, you're kind of getting them to agree to do a thing, and you just keep at it and keep at it until they just finally give in and and choose to do the thing. Okay, now the other false doctrine is the doctrine of the Galatians. I always get I always mispronounce that. So I'm sorry if that offends your ears. I'm sorry. But this was the teaching that um the priest the priesthood rules over the laity. Now, this is not to say that the pastor and the the church elders and stuff don't really don't describe, don't dictate, well not dictate, don't really control what goes on in the church. The the the elders and and things like that should be using the word of God to determine what goes on in the church. Not so much that they are pretty much rulers over the church, like you, you know. I if I say you should wear blue shoes on Tuesday, then you know you wear blue shoes on Tuesday. Because the problem is that it puts us, I mean, I say us, but it puts us in a position to where the prophet or the the pastor or the elder is allows himself the the sort of vulnerability to be seduced again back into the adoption of Balaam. So and and basically this also occurred with that council of Nicaea that we talked about last week in AD 325, and the layman kind of outnumbered the bishop, but bishops had complete control of the church, and they did so in a more in a very corrupt way, and God said he hated that doctrine, and is the reason why he hated that doctrine because this is how the Trinitarian doctrine got introduced into the quote-unquote church. So when people who didn't understand anything started trying to rule the thing that they didn't understand using a the Bible that they also didn't understand, it also led the church astray into a false doctrine. I hope that makes sense. I'm trying to cover it quickly. Now, there was a commendation to the church of Pergamus, the Lord did command Pergamus for holding fast to the name of Jesus and for not denying faith in God. Now, these are the two of the biggest qualities that any church could have, and they held to it, and they they even though they had the influence of the Babylonian religion, they held fast to it. Now, I I just wanted to cover that because I feel like I missed something last week, but I just wanted to make sure we covered it. Now, let's moving on to the church of Sardis. Now, the Church of Sardis, the name Sardis means escaping ones or people who have come out, and this was um this was sort of a reformation spirit of churches, and believe it or not, we didn't really see this become an official thing until Martin Luther um nailed this 95 theses on the church at Wittenberg, Germany in 8 and uh AD 1570. And I want to I wanted to make sure we are aware of this. We didn't see like a more of a Protestant Reformation because remember, the Protestant Reformation, Protestant means they were protesting the Catholic doctrine, so that church that started was the spirit of the Protestant Reformation that was to come. Right now, although, um, and I want to I think it's important to mention although that uh Luther sort of revived the doctrine uh doctor uh doctrine of justification by faith, he still sought the approval of political leaders, and the result ended up being a state-run church. And this this kind of reformation state-run church still continued a lot of the ritualism and and didn't examine a lot of the false teachings of the Roman church, and by Roman church, I mean the Roman Catholic Church, including that whole Trinitarian thing that we saw instituted back in Nicaea. That's why I wanted to make sure I covered that Nicaea again, because that whole Nicaea Council worked its way into what we call the Protestant church, so God had already knew that this was gonna happen, so he told John to write about it. Now there was a commendation for that church too, and God commended them for their work, even though they were imperfect. Now, that right there can preach, because even though the church of Sardis was imperfect and still was had carried forward the doctrine of the Catholic Church, and I don't want to mention any denominations today, but a lot of denominations would really fit into the Sardis Church, but it's not so much the denomination, it's the spirit of it. Even though they're doing a good work, they carried forth this bad doctrine. So this it was the pretty much the shortest commendation that was ever in these letters was given to the Sardis Church, and it actually became a condemnation. The commendation became the condemnation. Now it would seem on the surface that God was pleased with the early stages of this revival, um, but he was displeased about what happened next. So it just goes to show you that it's it's okay to start well, but it's um we have to carry on the thing that we're starting well. It's just not enough to just start well. So here's the condemnation: the condemnation is that they were living, but they were spiritually dead, they had works, they were doing, they were doing the right thing because they knew they that they had to do these things, but they were incomplete because their the doctrine was incomplete, and this is where we have a lot of problems today. There's there's a lot of spiritually dead churches because they have they are carrying in an incomplete doctrine, all right. They had ritual, they had ceremony, some people had Bible study, but they had no true life, no true spiritual life. They weren't baptizing in Jesus' name, they weren't speaking in tongues as the spirit gave the Holy Ghost, but they could quote scripture and they can live as good people, but they were just they just didn't have the life that lifeblood of Jesus in them, the spiritual life of Jesus in them. But so here's the admonition the church of Sardis was was uh told to do five things one keep watching because that's in that's important. Jesus said to be watch, uh be watchful, and this return uh kind of refers to the Lord's return. But the church of this reformation, the church of this revival didn't actually teach the second coming of Christ, so God is still telling them you need to figure out how to watch, strengthen the things that remain. So this is kind of an exhortation that's saying, Hey man, you got some things you are doing good, keep that up. But you know, like salvation by faith and authority of the word of God, keep that up and remember what you've received, remember the knowledge of the word of God you've received, keep that part, hold fast to it. Um, you know, like just hold fast to it, especially when in nowadays when when you have a lot of outside influence, hold fast to what you were taught and then repent. These are the five admonitions. And if you'd been willing to repent, God would have led that entire spiritual um situation into the truth. So that was the problem, the main problem that they had, they weren't repenting, so they was just kind of spiritually dead. So in verse 5, we have that statement that our names would not be blotted out if we overcome. So this actually, now that I think about it, I want to mention this this actually proves the fallacy of teaching that there's some sort of unconditional security of the believer, like once saved, always saved. Uh, no, there is no such thing as one saved, always saved, and this kind of is kind of indirectly pointed out right here. Now we're gonna move on to the church of Philadelphia. Now, scriptural reference for this is Revelation 3:7 through 13. Now, we all know that the word Philadelphia means brotherly love, and this is a more of a revival church of the last days, and it is undoubtedly a church that will be a church that will be raptured when Jesus returned. There was no criticism of this church, and it has a promised escape from the great tribulation. Let's just get into it. Now, the commendation for this is that um the God commended Philadelphia for having a little strength, and that referred to their numerical numbers, they were relatively few in number, uh, but they were not feeble, they had a lot of spiritual strength, even though there were not many of them, and this is very true of the actual church today. They kept the word of God. Not only did this church, you know, really believe God's word, but they lived it, they obeyed it, they taught it, they did whatever they could to make sure that this church did what they were supposed to do. Now, a church that is waiting for the Lord's return will always be obeying the word of God. They didn't deny Jesus' name, they referred to salvation in the name of Jesus. The Philadelphia Church will be baptized in Jesus' name, will have remission of sins. Um, and there will be a pressure on this church to deny the name of Jesus, but this church will be true to that name. And the last thing that um the Lord said was that it kept the word of patience. The Philadelphia Church was faithful and true, there was no compromise to the world, and they were steadfast living a life of holiness. Now, because of all of this, because of all of this, there's not one word of rebuke to the Philadelphia Church. You don't believe me, go read it. There's not one word of rebuke, uh rebuke there. There are some admonitions, but there's no word of rebuke. So the exhortation in that letter is to not let go of what they'd already received because Jesus is coming, he's gonna have a church when he returns. And if the Philadelphia church doesn't hold fast what they have, in other words, if if you have all of the above and you don't hold fast, he's gonna raise up others to take your place. That's just how that is, and I know that sounds kind of cold, but it is what it is. That church is going to exist on the day of the rapture, and that church will be taken out. Now, there's two promises. There's two promises that are given to the the church of Philadelphia. One, an open door is going to be shut, open uh, that no man can shut. Now, this really refers to like the open door of preaching the gospel to a lost world. No man on this planet can stop the gospel from being preached. I know they're trying to do it now, they're really coming after the church now, but they really can't stop it. And this door could also refer to with a door opened in heaven, and no man can stop that either. Now read Revelation 4 and 1 for that. No man can hinder the true church from being raptured when Jesus comes. I don't care how many chains you put on my ankles. If I'm in the church of Philadelphia, I'm going up. Oh, but JJ, there's no this the word rapture don't exist in the Bible. We covered that already. We'll cover it again, I'm sure. Verse 10 There is a definite promise of escaping the great tribulation. The church will be raptured at the beginning of the tribulation period. Now, the reason why I say that is because there are some arguments about whether the church will go through the first half of the tribulation and then not the second half, uh, or will the church go be raptured before the tribulation even starts? To me, I believe that, and we'll talk about why soon, as soon as we get through these letters, why I believe that the church will be raptured before the tribulation even starts. As a matter of fact, I think the rapture of the church will quote unquote trigger the great tribulation. Now, let's get to the last church uh spiritual condition, which is called the Laodicean Church. A lot of us should be really studying the Laodicean church because they have some really big problems. Now, that scriptural reference is going to be chapter three, Revelation chapter three, verse 14 to 22. Always, always, always don't take my word for it. Go get your Bible and read it. Read the entire chapter three, please. I'm begging, don't take my word for it. Now, the Laodicea, uh word Laodicea means kind of the judging of the people. Now it's very opposite from the Nicolatian um kind of uh theology, where uh the rule of the priest is now substituted by the rule of the congregation. Either way, what happens is instead of the priests or the elders being able to set rules, um they were the where the Nicolatians were setting rules based on what the Nicolaitians wanted and not what Jesus wanted, the Laodicean church set rules based on what the lay people want, what the congregation wanted. In history, this kind of leads to what we call apostasy because everybody wants everybody, everything, and everybody wants the easy way of living for God. Now, I'm gonna tell you something about this Laodicean letter church. When you read that letter, there is not one thing that God commended in that church. There's not one thing God said, Hey, this is this is a good job. First thing he did was he went into condemning that church. There was so much about having the lay people kind of dictate what how the direction of the church went, that God went straight into that. And the laodicean church claimed to be wealthy, they said they didn't need anything, but the Lord said they were poor and wretched, blind, and naked, miserable. The church was lukewarm, they were self-satisfied, they were complacent, they were indifferent to the presence of God. And this church had a lot of profession, like they went around talking about they were Christians, but they had no possession. They had profession, but no possession. They didn't possess any spirit of God. And the church was so disgusting and sickening to God, he said, I will spew you out. He spit that church out. Verse 19. God told that church to go buy gold tried in the fire to buy white raiment that she might be clothed and anoint eyes with eyes that she would no longer be blind. Now, what that generally means is go get something that's worth something, go get a doctrine that's worth the worth doctrine that's worth being talked about, that's actually been tried and uh true and proven. Get your eyes open, and so that you won't be blind to what Jesus is looking for in the church. Make sure that when you are clothed, you are clothed in a holy way. So all of that is right there in that verse, verse 19. And then one of the things that's in there, and this is a very sad part of these letters, and I wanted to spend a little time on it. Revelation 3 and 8, verse 20, and then 4 and 1. A lot of times you will hear things like I stand at the door and knock. This is a very sad kind of uh uh visual visualization, the picture, like the Lord is standing at the door and he's knocking, he wants to come in. It's used a lot of time to illustrate God standing at the door of the sinner's heart, not at the church, but here in Revelation, he's talking about at the church. Jesus does knock at the door of every unsaved man, however, these messages are addressed to the Laodicean church because the apostate church has already closed Jesus out and locked him out, and as tragic as this is, and as tragic as this sounds, there's a lot of church world today that has the Lord locked out. They they look they say they're Christians, they they want to look like Christians, they even want to sing songs like Christians, but they have Jesus completely locked out. Now, there are other doors of opportunity where you can preach the gospel and the doors are open in heaven for the interest of the church. One important fact to be noted before I before we wrap this up today is that when the Lord opens the door, no man can close it. At the same time, the Lord will not break a door down when we have locked him out of it. He's not gonna kick you, um, sorry, kick in the door and grab you by the front of your suit jacket or by the front of that brand new um lame Brian or Torrid dress and drag you kicking and screaming to the altar to get right. That's just not gonna happen. Once you have decided that you are okay, um, that your spirituality is okay, that there is no growth and there is no improvement that you need to make, you've already become layered to seal. And this is why these churches are considered not denominational churches, but spiritual conditional churches. And so Jesus made sure that he wanted to address all of us, all of us that are sitting in a church somewhere professing to be a Christian. So that being said, don't be Laodicea, don't be lukewarm, either be cold or hot. And that's that's and by the way, let me talk about that too before we wrap up. So this whole before um, I would rather you be cold or hot. See, if a person is lost, you know, they they know they're not saved, they know that they're that you know they have sin in their lives, they have um things that are that that they need to change, they know they're not going to heaven, right? At this particular moment. God can work with that, God will work with that. God will send the preachers, God will, you know, send them words, God will move things around. And then if a person is on fire living for God, man, God is moving all kinds of obstacles out of their way. You know, they were gonna get fired, but God moved the uh God moved the supervisors and the HR to do something miraculous. You know, they were on their way to court and and being falsely accused, and and God took that out of the way and solved all of that. See, God would do all that, but if you're in between that, I mean right now I'm working on a message right now about being lukewarm and how dangerous that is, how poisonous that is to your spirit, because you think you think that you are doing just enough to get by, but there's no growth, and you're dying inside. And Jesus said, I will spit you out, I will make you be a sinner, so at least you know that you need to get right, rather than being in this weird sort of in-between place where you think you're right, you are right with God and you're not. All right. I am not preaching today, but I do love each and every one of you. Um, I love every one of you. Thank you all for taking a few moments to listen to this podcast. Thank you for liking and commenting and sharing. Thank you all so much. I love each and every one of you. See y'all in the next one because next week we're gonna start talking about seals and stuff. I know that's the part y'all want to get to. So uh, we're gonna start that next week. I just wanted to make sure we got these letters out of the way, and especially the layer to see in church. God bless you. See y'all next week. Love each and one, every one of you. Bye bye.