 Okay, welcome back everyone to our second lecture on BC 308. I'm sorry if in the previous hour my audio was not clear enough. My settings was not correct. I just corrected it. So maybe the audio is a little better this time. Not sure. Okay, thank you John. Thank you. All right, so let's continue from where we paused. We are looking at the church at Pergamos and the Lord has a problem with this church because of the doctrine that they have embraced. So we are talking about our application to us today. So as pastors, as leaders, we have to be very careful. What kinds of teachings we subscribe to. And I can tell, I can speak for myself. As a pastor, I try to be very careful because there are so many things outside. So many kinds of teachings that go on. And I don't want to kind of name all these things, but there's so many things going on. So many. In the Christian world, the real test is when you think about some kind of a teaching that suddenly you hear somebody say, some group of people start preaching. The test is, what is the fruit of this kind of teaching? Is it leading people closer to Jesus? Is it leading people to be more committed to God's Word? Is it leading people into a more communion, fellowship with the Lord? And is it leading people to a place of strength and unity? Or is a result of this doctrine or this kind of teaching, taking people away from God to other things? Is it taking people away from the commitment to the Word of God, the written scriptures, the Word of God and to fellowship with the Holy Spirit, taking away from them, taking that away from that. Or is it taking people away from a place of walking Christ-like, making them proud, arrogant, disrespectful, disunity, division, hate. So we have to evaluate all these teachings that are going on. Be to be careful. Don't just subscribe to every teaching you hear that, oh yeah, this is nice, it is taught by so and so, it is taught by so and so. I read it in that book or heard it here. You have to evaluate. And especially as a leader or as a pastor, you're overseeing the church because if we embrace it, we tolerate that kind of doctrine and it is actually leading people away from their commitment to the Lord, it's dangerous. It's so dangerous that the Lord says, I will fight against you with the Word of my mouth, with the sword of my mouth. In other words, he's going to bring something in to correct that. He's not going to tolerate it. There's going to be that correction coming. And thank God for the correction, but it's not going to be easy. It's like a sword cutting through, you know, because the Lord is saying, I need to correct that in the church, I cannot tolerate that. So it's better to just prevent those kinds of things from coming in. How do we do that practically? Then as a leader or as a pastor or somebody caring for God's people, it's so important that you watch over yourself. You stay committed to God's Word. You stay committed to the Holy Spirit. And, you know, just keep a check on your own life. You know, don't get caught up with things here and they always come back to the Scriptures. Come back to it. For example, the prophetic is good. There's a place for the prophetic Word. A lot of God guides us and God gives us direction through the prophetic Word. It's good. There's a place for it in the church, but we cannot live just by the prophetic Word. We have to live by the written Word of God too. And the written Word of God is superior to the prophetic Word because every prophetic Word has to be tested by the written Word. But what happens in some places is the only thing they do is listen to the prophetic Word. Oh, so and so gave me a prophecy. I'm living by that. Somebody else gave me a prophecy. I said, do you read your Bible? Do you read the Scriptures? Do you study the Scriptures? Do you find out what is there, what the Lord has given so much to guide us in all aspects of our life? Are you basing your faith on the Word of God? No. You're just living by one prophecy after another, one prophetic Word after another. Now that's a dangerous place. Is prophecy good? Yes. Is prophetic Word good? Yes. God, there's a place for it in the church, but it cannot take the place of the Word of God, the written Scriptures. So I'm just giving one example where as a leader, yes, you can listen to prophecies and prophetic words, but you must come back to the written Word of God, build your life on the Word and make sure that the people you are leading also build their life on God's holy words. Prophecy has a place. We welcome it, we test it, and then we follow through on it, but we don't let prophecy guide and dictate everything in our lives. No, we don't do that. Just an example. So like this, you think about various teachings, there are going on, and protect yourself, protect the people, because that's the problem here with the church in Pergamos. They tolerated doctrine which actually led the people of God into a lifestyle that was so against Jesus Christ, immorality and idolatry. Now, in today's world, it may not necessarily be idolatry, the sense of going and worshiping idols, or it may not even be immorality, the sense of sexual immorality. But remember, in spiritual terms, anything that takes the place of God is an idol. Anything that takes the place of God in our lives is an idol. Or for me to set my affection on anyone or anything else, other than God himself, that is spiritual adultery. James writes in James 4 and verse 4, he writes to the believers, he says, you adulterers and adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? So here he's not talking about literal adultery, he's talking about spiritual. That their friendship with the world, their affection that was set on the things of the world, he says that spiritual adultery, adulterers and adulteresses, don't you know friendship with the world is enmity with God. So that's also something to be careful about. The teaching may not be causing people to go and worship a physical idol, but the teaching may take the place of Jesus Christ with something else. That's idolatry. Or the teaching may cause the affections of people to be placed on someone or someone else other than the Lord. That's idolatry, that's adultery, spiritual adultery. So keep that in mind that we have to discern things carefully and protect the people of God, protect ourselves and protect the people of God. Alright, one more. Let's read now. Any comments, anybody wants to say anything? Any thoughts on the church in Purgamos? Alright, let's move forward. Revelation chapter 2 verses 18 to 29. This is the church in Thyatira. Somebody could read that passage for us please. Revelation 2, 18 to 29. And to the angel of the church in Thyatira, right. These things says the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and His feet like fine brass. I know your works, love, service, faith and your patience. And as for your works, the last are more than the first. Nevertheless, I have a few things against you because you allow that woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess to teach and seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality and she did not repent. Indeed, I will cast her into sick bed and those who commit adultery with her into great revelation. Unless they repent of their deeds, I will kill her children with death and all the churches shall know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts and I will give to each one of you according to your works. Now to you I say and to the rest of Taithira as many as do not have this doctrine who have not known the depths of Satan as they say I will put on you no other burden. But hold fast what you have till I come and he who overcomes and keeps my works until the end. To him I will give power over the nations. He shall rule them with a rod of iron and they shall be dashed into pieces like the potter's vessels. I also have received from my father and I will give him the morning star. He who has a near let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. Thank you. So the church in Taithira, interesting. See how the Lord again introduces himself to the church. He says look I am the Lord. I've got eyes like a flame of fire and feet like fine brass. Eyes like fire. I'm testing everything. Brass represents judgment. That means I'm going to judge. Feet trample over. I'm going to judge. Flame of fire. Eyes like flame of fire. I'm testing everything. Evaluating everything. Feet of brass I will judge. He introduces because of what is going on in that church. Now this church is seemingly doing well because they have works. They have love. They have service. They have faith. They have patience. And they are increasing in their works. So if you look at it, seems like a very good church, very dynamic church. They have works. They have love, faith and service. All the good, right qualities that you would look for in a local church. But once again in this church, similar to the church in Pergamot, they have a similar problem. But this problem is very specifically propagated by one person, one individual. In this case, there is a woman and we're not saying there's something wrong with women or we don't want to... This could have been a man. A man also could have done this. But in this particular case, there is a woman. Her name is Jezebel. And she claims to be a prophetess. So this is a self-proclaimed prophetess. That means she's showing forth prophetic manifestations which could have included prophecies and other such things. But the real, the problem is what she's teaching and what she's practicing. So the church has embraced her. The church has embraced a prophetess. So obviously for her prophetic expressions, prophetic ministry, the church has accepted her. But what is she leading people into? She is leading people into committing immorality and idolatry. Now, you and I will stop and think about this and say, hey, if I saw a prophet or a prophetess leading people to commit immorality and idolatry, we would tell them to leave. We wouldn't tolerate it. Because obviously those things are wrong. So, and I'm just using my imagination here. We can't say, you know, it's a thing. You know, how could a church that is so good in the sense they have works, love, service, faith, patience, they're growing in all these things. How could they put up with someone like this? I'm just using my imagination. My imagination is maybe in public, this woman was so good as a prophetess. Now we know there are other prophetesses in the Bible. So God is not against a prophetess. He raises our prophets and prophetesses or men and women in prophetic ministry. He raises them up. But in this particular case, in this particular case, this woman, she seemed to have a, you know, a visible, good prophetic message. People all embraced her, but it's likely that to those who followed her or who embraced her to her, the result in their lives was idolatry and immorality. Maybe this thing was happening in secret. Maybe this thing was happening in a way where publicly it's not known. And so publicly people are seeing this so-called prophetic expression in ministry. But privately, those who are coming close to her are being led into immorality and idolatry. Possible. I'm just using my imagination here. Because it's not happening in public. Privately this is going on. But the Lord is seeing. Eyes like a flame of fire. He's seeing these things. And the Lord is saying, I gave her time to repent of her, verse 21, of her immorality, but she did not repent. Meaning the Lord is waiting for her to repent. So that also asks us the question, was this person genuine or was she false? Was she a false prophetess or was she a true prophetess who had some problems going on? It seems like, and I'm not saying for sure, but because the Lord is giving her time to repent, which means that this woman knew the truth. She knew that what I'm doing is wrong. I need to get back to the Lord. So it's possible that maybe she was genuine on one side, but she had this whole sinful life behind the scenes going on. And God is saying, hey, I'm being patient. You get your life together. Don't do these things. But she didn't repent. She didn't renounce those wickedness. So what's going to happen? This judgment going to come in the feet of brass. The judgment in verse 22 and 23. What's going to happen? There's going to be sickness. There's going to be great tribulation. There's going to be death. And the churches will know that I searched the hearts and minds. So something is going to happen that's going to expose all of this. There's going to be sickness, death, tribulation. Those who are participating in all of these things. And churches, God's people will know that our God searches the hearts and minds. And He judges our works. And He continues in verse 24. And what I want to see is this, that participating in this kind of doctrine is actually going into the depths of Satan. Verse 24. So that means this woman who claimed to be a prophetess, participating in this kind of teaching, under this kind of ministry that actually led people into immorality and idolatry is actually taking people into the depths of Satan. It's not taking them into God. It's taking them deeper into the devil. And that's a very serious thing. And he says, he's telling the church to hold fast to what they have to overcome. So how would this kind of play out in today's world? And what should we be careful of? So there seems to be two sides to this person. There seems to be this prophetic expression. Like I said, this man or woman may have wonderful prophetic ministry that people seem to receive. But the fruit of that, the result of whatever they're teaching, preaching in the ministry is people are being drawn into the depths of Satan. They've been taken deeper into the devil. They're not being taken into God. Now we don't know for sure whether this person has started right and ended wrong or is completely wrong. We don't know exactly where they started. But the Lord has given this person time to get things right with God. They didn't get it. They didn't repent. And so God is going to deal with them. There's going to be exposure. There's going to be judgment. There's going to be sickness and death. They're going to face the outcome. But the problem with this church is this. They allowed verse 20. They allowed that woman to minister among them. So as leaders, you have to be careful whom we give access to into the local church. What is the effect and the impact of their teaching and ministry on the lives of people? Is it taking them deeper into the devil or is it moving them to God? Is it leading them into adultery and immorality? Is it displacing the place of God and the affection for the Lord? What is the effect? What is the outcome of the ministry? So we have to be careful whom we allow to teach and minister among the people. So it's kind of similar to Pergamot. But in this case, there was an actual person who was being entertained in this church. Being entertained in this local church in Thyatira. In the previous case, it was more of an embracing of doctrine. In this case, there was a person who was being tolerated or embraced and welcomed and given a platform and allowed to do things even though the result was people are being taken away from the Lord. This is where discernment is needed. As pastors, as leaders, we have to be discerning. You don't just look at the ministry per se because people can come with wonderful ministry. You look at the fruit. Where is this leading people to? What is the outcome? What is the practice, not just the preaching, but what is the practice that is taking place? Sometimes this happens behind the scenes. So we have to be even more careful. It may not be very apparent. It may not be very obvious. What is seen is maybe a very nice ministry. But what is happening afterwards? Where are people being led? How are their lives being affected? We have to understand themself. So be very careful. As shepherds, we have to watch over the sheep, God's people, and protect them. And then you look at the reward that the Lord gives promises to these people. He says, you overcome. You will have power over the nations. You will rule over them. Each of these rewards to the overcomer is something that all believers will enjoy in time to come. It's for all of us as believers, as overcomers, that we will receive from the Lord and we will enjoy in time to come. Any thoughts or any questions before we move forward? I'm going to pick up speed a little bit. Any thoughts or any questions? I'm happy with this pastor. So when it says in verse 19, I know your words learn, solicit and be patient. On the last phase, I swear once the last are more than the first. I just want to know the meaning of the phrase. What does it mean by the last are more than the first? And I also want to know about verse 28 where it says, I'll give him the morning star. What does morning star actually means? And verse 27, I'm thinking it's about the believers who believe. I just believe that. So just want to know about these thoughts. Sure. Yeah. So verse 19, the last are more than the first. That means your recent works are more than what you started with. That means your works are increasing. It's a good church. They're growing and all that they're doing, they're increasing, expanding. The recent works are more than the beginning. Verse 28, I'll give him the morning star. So the morning star, because Christ himself is referred to as the morning star. That's in 1 Peter 1, I think it is. Yeah. The morning star will arise in your hearts. Or maybe it's in 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter, let me just give you the correct reference. 2 Peter, verse 19, until the day dawn, the morning star rises in your hearts. 2 Peter 1, 19. So it's referring to Jesus, right? 2 Peter 1, 19. I will give him the morning star. It's almost like Jesus saying, I am your reward. Right? So Jesus is the bright and morning star. And I will give him the morning star. I will give I am the reward. And verse 27, yes, that's about the believers ruling over the nations during the millennium. Right? Yeah. And also one more question about Jesus. So people say there is a spirit of Jezebel and they cast out demons like that. When they say that, I cast out the spirit of Jezebel in you. Is that, just ask me, I like Jezebel first. I think somewhere in first king also, someone named Jezebel was there. So when, like when, especially people who cast out demons, they say, they say these things. Yes, Jezebel was there. I just want to know, is there really a spirit of Jezebel? All right. So when you look at what happened in the church, I mean, I'm talking about the Christian church, current Christian church, I think back in the 90s, in the 90s, there was this big teaching on the Jezebel spirit. And you know, I started somewhere in America and somebody wrote a book, I think on it. People say everybody started talking, Jezebel spirit, Jezebel spirit, Jezebel spirit. And it spread everywhere. There's also the 90s. And the background to that, you know, they used this passage from Revelation 2, the same church, because there was this woman named Jezebel. And they connected this with Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab, who this is first Kings, I think chapter 19, 20, somewhere there, who she, I mean, she did a lot of bad things. She brought an idolatry into the land of Israel and she threatened Elijah, the prophet and Elijah, the prophet became scared and ran away for his life. So they put all this together and they said, you know, Jezebel spirit is a controlling spirit is an intimidating spirit. It is a, you know, manipulative spirit, seducing spirit, all kinds of things. And so this whole Jezebel spirit teaching spread through the Christian church, you know, in the 1990s and sometimes even today some people preach and teach those things. But the thing is this, look, we know there are evil spirits, and we know that evil spirits instigate all kinds of evil things. And generally, we call spirits by the name of what they do. So if it's an unclean spirit, we call it unclean spirit. It's a spirit of fear. We call it a spirit of fear. If it's a spirit of depression, we call it a spirit of depression. So we associate, we call it by the name of what it is doing. So we call, but it's an evil spirit. Right. And so are there controlling spirits? Are there seducing spirits? Are there dissaving spirits? Are there spirits that cause manipulation? Yeah, they're all. But then to take the name of a woman, Jezebel, and then give that name Jezebel to a Jezebel spirit. Every time you see somebody, you know, being controlling, be manipulative, I don't think it's the right thing to do. You know, why can't you call it Mary's spirit or Susan's spirit? I don't know what it is. I mean, why take the name of this? I mean, yeah, I understand. Jezebel was King Ahab's wife. She promoted idolatry and she controlled Ahab and manipulated Ahab. And she threatened Elijah and so I mean, we understand that. But we don't need to make a doctrine out of those things, right? Just call the spirit by the name and if you see something happening, there's manipulation. Yeah, call it. Yeah, there's some there's a manipulative spirit here. Don't just say it's a Jezebel spirit because it could be a man who's doing the manipulation. It could be a man who's doing an interpretation. Oh, this man has a Jezebel spirit. No, he's just manipulating. He's controlling. So this controlling manipulation could be done by men or women and they, you know, we just have to be discerning. So, you know, when I heard that teaching of the Jezebel spirit back in the 1990s, people preaching, writing books on it. So I mean, yeah, there is some element of truth in it in the sense there are evil spirits that are causing these things. But to take the name Jezebel and put it to every situation, I think it's not a right thing to do. Deal with the spirit. Deal with the spirit by its name because there could be a man or a woman doing this. And yeah, so yeah, things have now died out. You don't hear about it too much, but every now and then somebody says Jezebel spirit. But that's the background to it. It started in the 1990s and and it's sometimes still continues. People use those terms today. Yeah. All right, let's move forward. Let's go to chapter three revelation chapter three. We've got three more churches to finish and let's see if we can do them now. The church in Sardis will read verses one to six, please. Somebody could read that for us. Verses one to six, the dead church and to the angel of the church in Sardis. Right. These things says he who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works that you have a name that you are alive. But you are dead. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die. For I have not found your works perfect before God. Remember, therefore, how you have received and heard hold fast and repent. Therefore, if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief and you will not know what are I will come upon you. You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments and I will not plot out his name from the book of life. But I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. He who has in your let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. Thank you. So the church in Sardis, see how the Lord introduces himself to the church in Sardis. He says he that's the Lord Jesus is the one with the seven spirits and seven stars. That means seven spirits offering to the perfect complete anointing of the spirit. I remember we said that we mentioned this earlier from chapter one, seven spirits doesn't mean there are seven Holy Spirits. There's only one Holy Spirit, but seven represents perfection completion. So Jesus is the perfectly anointed one, the one who has complete perfect spirit anointing. And he has the seven stars. Who are the seven stars? Because explain to us in chapter one and also early part of chapter two. The seven stars are the messengers of the seven churches is holding the messengers, the stars. Each star representing one of those messengers is holding them inside. So who's Jesus? He's the perfectly anointed one who's holding the messengers of each of these churches in his hands. Calling them accountable to the church in Sardis. He says I know your works. You have a name that you're alive, but you are dead. Think about that. You have a name that you're alive. It means you have a reputation. People are saying, whoa, this church is alive. You have a name that you're alive. This is vibrant. This is really exciting. But the Lord Jesus is telling them you are dead. So two things. What people say and what the Lord says. People are saying you're alive. Wow, very vibrant, very active, very wonderful church. But the Lord is saying you've got no life. You're dead. So this is a very serious, serious situation. That means I shouldn't be paying. I shouldn't be going by what people are saying. I shouldn't be going by reputation. Because people could be saying, wow, you're alive. You're very nice. You're like this. You're like that. But I should be saying, Lord Jesus, what are you saying about us? What are you saying about the church? Are we really alive? Are we really where we should be? I shouldn't be going by what people are saying. Because what people could be saying, even though it may be very nice, it could be totally wrong. So something to think about. That's what was happening with the church in Sardis. What was the reason? What was the reason? You can find the reasons in verse 2 and 3. He says in verse 2, be watchful. I mean, look at what's going on. Look at what's going on. Strengthen what remains that are ready to die. Because I've not found your works perfect before God. So that's the first problem. Your works have not been perfect before God. Second problem, verse 3. Remember how you receive and heard hold fast and repent. Second problem. So two problems. One, this church has works. That's why they have a name. They're alive. He says, I know your works. But the problem is their works are not perfect before God. It's like, you know, if you want to summarize it or put it in different simple words, it's like they're doing a lot of things, but they're not doing the things God wants them to do. They're doing a lot of things which people are saying, wow, this church is alive. Look at all the things they're doing. But the things they're doing are not the things God wants them to do. In fact, the things that God wants them to do are about to almost die. He says, there are a few things which remain. There are a few things that I want you to do, which I'd like so few. They're almost ready to die. You've got to hold on to that thing, those things. Second problem, remember how you've received and heard. That means he's saying, hey, remember, that means that something happened in the past, what they have received, what they've heard. That means they have gone away from the founding or foundational truths that they were given. Remember what you have heard, what you have received, because they've gone away. Hold on to it and repent when you get back to it. So two problems with the church in Sardis. They've got works which people say they are very alive, but those are not the works God, the Lord wants them to be doing. The works are not perfect before God. Second, the very core, the very foundational, the very essential truths, what they have received and heard, they've gone away from it. They've not held, they've not held fast to it, which means they have replaced those truths, the things that they've heard and received with some other things. But they have a reputation. People are saying they are alive. Wow, what a very nice church. They are alive, but the Lord is saying a problem with their works and a problem with what they are holding on to. They are not holding on to the truth which they received and heard. That's been replaced with something else. Maybe some compromising message or compromising teaching or something else has replaced what they once heard and received, which was the truth. And so he's saying, look, I'm going to come, the one who's perfectly anointed, the one who holds each leader responsible, accountable. I'm going to come suddenly when you don't even expect and I'm going to deal with these things. So what does this tell us for us today as a church? It tells us, like I said, I cannot go by the reputation. And for us as pastors and leaders, this is something very, very careful, where to be very careful, because yeah, lots of people will come and tell us, oh, nice church, nice community, nice fellowship, nice worship, this, that, you know, as a pastor, you might feel good about those things. And I'm not saying, you know, we don't listen to it. Of course, we hear all those things. But when we hear all those things, we just have to go before God and say, God, people are saying these things. But I want to know what you say. What do you say about us, God? Are we in the right place? Are we doing the right things? Are we doing the things you want us to do? Or are we just doing a lot of good works which are not perfect in your eyes? So as a leader, that's how cautiously we have to walk and pray before God. Lord, I want to be doing the things you want, we want to be doing the things that you want us to be doing. We want our works to be perfect for you. Otherwise, there's no point. The second is, we must hold fast to the things that we have heard and received, which is, like I said earlier, the Word of God. Hold on to this. Stay true to the Word of God. Don't let go of the very foundational, fundamental, elementary but very core teachings of the Bible, the preaching of the cross, the preaching of Jesus Christ, who He is, the work of the Holy Spirit in the church. I mean, don't let go of these things. These are the things we have received, which we have heard. They may be very basic, may be very core, very fundamental. We've got to hold on to that. So two very important lessons. Stay, stay with the Word. Just the teaching, the basic, pure teaching of God's Word. And make sure that the works we engage in are the works God wants us to do. And then there is the promise. He says, look, if you overcome, you know, your name will be in the book of life and I will profess your name, your father and his angels and so on. So that's the blessing of the Overcomer. Okay. I know we've got two more churches to do. I think we'll have to leave it for next week. And then we're going to get into the things that are going to unfold in the studying of the rapture of the church and so on. Yeah. So let's leave that for next week. Any thoughts, any comments or questions about the church in Sardis before we close in prayer? Okay. All right. Could somebody please lead us in prayer? Then we close. We'll continue this next week. Could somebody lead us please? Heavenly Father, we want to thank you for this opportunity. Lord, we humble ourselves once again for your presence as you spoke to us today, God, even with everything that we do in ministry, Lord, we pray that yes, your people help us to do your works, help us to come back to you every time, help us to get affirmation from you. And we pray, oh God, as we continue to do and focus on your works, we will build your kingdom with you, oh God, and wherever places that you have appointed us. And we pray that your kingdom be established in this world of God. And we thank you for this opportunity to listen. We thank you in Jesus' name. We pray. Amen. Thank you, everyone. Have a good rest of the day. We'll connect again next week. Thank you. Bye now.