Rooted In Holiness, Part 2

Growing up, many people called this the revelations of John.

The revelations of John.

And there's two errors in that statement.

They are not revelations, it is the revelation.

The word is apocalypsis, apocalypse, the revealing of the end times.

And what John is going to reveal is the state of what had been, the state of what currently was.

He's writing this about AD 95 from the Isle of Patmos.

He gives us a firsthand account of the local church in the first century.

And then it tells us about the things that shall be hereafter.

And the glory world and of course Christ's kingdom upon the earth.

The revelation.

The second error, it's not the revelation of John.

We already had that.

We know John, but we needed to see Jesus.

So it's an unveiling of Christ.

And Jesus is, of course, the Lord of the lampstands.

He walks in the midst of the church.

And he's identified in a particular way in each of these letters.

For example, in the church of Ephesus chapter 2, verse 1, he's revealed as he that have the seven stars in his hands.

To the Church of Smyrna, verse 8, he's known as the first and the last, which was dead and is alive.

To Pergamos, he was known as the Lord of truth.

He has a sharp sword with two edges that proceeds from his mouth.

And here, of course, as we learned this morning, Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

He is the Lord of Lords.

He's the King of Kings.

As I was saying this morning, we hold at all times the humanity and the deity of Christ in our hands, and we have to do that at the same time.

Jesus Christ is 100% God, 100% man, without a sin nature.

He took on flesh, he became a man without ceasing to be God.

When he came to Bethlehem, he didn't lay aside his deity, he laid aside the expression of his glory.

He came into earth, he took on flesh, he lived a sinless life, he died, was buried, and he rose again.

Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

God did not look down upon the planet and say, that man is special.

He did not adopt him.

He is the Son of God.

He's co-equal, coexistent, eternally existent with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.

He is the immortal, immutable God.

He was, he is, he is to come.

Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And as he's revealed to the church of Thyatira, he is to us today, the Son of God.

We have here a bit of an issue with this church.

He commends them, verse 19, for their works and charity and service and faith and patience.

And the last to be more than the first.

There's a lot of good things going on, of course, in this church.

But all was not well.

We talked about that briefly, ever so briefly this morning.

We just took a razor blade to the top of Mount Everest in this passage.

Notwithstanding, verse 20, I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

This is a big deal in the first century church.

A matter of conscience, some would say.

Paul writes, of course, to the Corinthian church, and he says, an idol is nothing in the world.

But that which is worshipped through the medium of an idol is a demon spirit.

And I would not, he says, that you should have fellowship with demons.

We've got to be very careful what we meddle with, what we trifle with.

Sometimes kids get a hold of things of witchcraft and think it's a game.

It's not a game.

It's not a game.

We live in a natural world of beauty and order and structure, but we also live in a spiritual world where there's good and there's evil.

And Paul, John even speaks in verse 24 here of the depths of Satan.

The depths of Satan.

Now, let me just say we ought not to become preoccupied with the devil, but we ought to be conscious of his presence.

Be sober, be vigilant.

Your adversary, the devil, is a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.

I've known some Christians sometimes that were so cognizant of the devil that they stopped looking to the great shepherd who can take care of that old devil.

And that's what he says here.

And he says this warning was given to Jezebel, verse 20, as she taught his servants and brought them into the worship of idols.

Verse 21, I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not.

The word repent is metanoia.

It has the idea of something in the mind, a change of mind that leads to a change of action.

Not just worldly sorrow.

I'm sorry I got caught, or I feel badly about that.

It's a turn.

It's turning from something to something.

Paul even says to the Church of Thessalonica, how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.

Listen, you can't turn to Jesus with your sin in your hands.

You turn to Jesus and you look away from your sin.

And that's what he says.

He's given warning of this doctrine of devils, this adulterous religion, this doctrine that was damning their souls.

He says, I gave an opportunity to repent, verse 22, and behold, I will cast her into a bed.

This has the idea of a sick bed, them that commit adultery with her into a great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

We think he's talking symbolically here, of course, Jezebel, not a person, though she was a person in the Old Testament, as last week was Balaam.

Balaam was an Old Testament prophet.

He's not talking exactly about Balaam in the New Testament.

He's not talking exactly about Jezebel.

He's using that spirit, the way of Balaam, the way of Jezebel, and her children of faith, he says in verse 22.

He'll cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

Verse 23, I will kill her children with death, and all that the churches and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and the hearts.

Neither the things that are in the world.

If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world.

And the world passes away.

Do you believe that?

The world passes away and the lust thereof.

Solomon, who says in the Proverbs that the memory of the unjust shall rot.

I think that's what John is saying here.

He will put an eternal end to this doctrine.

They will become lent between the pages of history.

What endures, not a lie.

Lies don't endure just for a moment.

The devil's having his day.

Lies don't endure forever.

Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.

The only thing that endures is the truth of God's word.

We ought to have place an emphasis where God places an emphasis, and he places an emphasis on the truth.

He says, notice verse 23, notice to remember these searching eyes.

I am he which searcheth the reins.

The reins is a term for the inner part, the kidneys, the seat of emotion.

He says, He'll search the emotion.

He'll search the heart, the seat of reasoning and the seat of feeling, the steering eyes of Christ.

I will give unto every one of you, verse 23, according to your works.

Then, of course, he's talking about what they were tolerating.

They were tolerating untruth.

They were tolerating a lie.

They were sitting at Jezebel's table.

And I know what you're thinking.

Everybody is belly up at Jezebel's table.

But that's not true.

Notice in verse 24, but I unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak, I will put upon you none other burden, but that which ye have already hold fast till I come.

And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with the rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as I received of my father, and I will give him the morning star.

Now we're talking number three of this thought.

Christ commends us for our stand.

He commends us for our stand.

We live in a day of apostasy.

The word means to fall away from.

We live in that society today.

This know also that in the last days, perilous times shall come, men shall be lovers of their own selves, proud, boastful, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truth breakers, incontinent, despisers of those that are good, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turnaway.

And they shall heap to themselves teachers, having inching ears.

Saying, We don't want the truth anymore.

Tell us what we want to hear.

Tickle our ears.

Tell us how good we are, tell us how valuable we are, tell us how we're the center of our world, the center of our universe.

We live in that society today.

There's a day coming, and I say it already is here, that evil is called good and good is called evil.

But I have news for us tonight.

Not everyone has bowed the knee to Baal.

Christ commends us for our stand.

Just want to prove just one truth here.

Well, you notice, first of all, God always has a remnant.

And I want you to go to the Old Testament.

I want us to go to that story of Jezebel and Ahab and Elijah in the book of 1 Kings, if you take your Bible and turn there with me.

1 Kings and chapter 18.

God always has a remnant.

God has never been left without a people.

Sometimes we don't see the remnant, we don't hear from the remnant.

We think we're standing alone.

I want you to know no one ever truly stands alone.

Someone used the term earlier today.

Lonely.

Lonely.

Did you know loneliness is a feeling and an emotion, not a fact.

You can be lonely, but we are never alone.

He hath said, I will never leave thee or forsake thee.

He said unto them, Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.

And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

We are never alone.

Elijah becomes a Billy Graham of prophetic status.

He's known by everyone.

Has access to the king.

It was even Elijah that had prayed a prayer that it may not rain upon the earth for three years and six months, and it did not rain.

God was going to use a natural disaster to get the attention of the Jewish people.

Well, he suffered the consequences of his own prayer because it didn't rain, and because it didn't rain, there was no food.

And not only were the people left without three full courses a day, the prophet was left alone as well.

But God was with him.

Chapter 17, God took him to the brook Cherith and sustained him by ravens.

And then when the brook dried up, he took him to the widow's house, and she was making one last meal, and she had two sticks and a little bit of barley.

Heard a Kentucky preacher preach years ago for the bread on when there's barely enough barley in the bottom of the barrel.

What do you do when there's barely enough barley in the bottom of the barrel?

Well, I've been I've been young and now I'm old, and David said, I've never seen the righteous forsaken, nor is seed begging bread.

Just keep stirring it up.

God will keep bringing it out.

And God takes care of him at the widow's house.

When we come to chapter 18, now Elijah's going to go stand before the king of Israel.

We read this morning that Jezebel had a number of prophets who were fed at her table.

And Obadiah, servant of Ahab, had secured a hundred prophets, hiding them in a cave with a provision of bread and water.

But it appears as I read the story that Elijah did not know of their existence.

When he stood alone on the top of Mount Carmel in chapter 18, he took Ahab to task.

You say that Baal is God, I say Jehovah's God.

Let's have a fire from heaven calling contest.

And I'll let you go first.

So the prophets of Baal, prophets of the groves, built an altar.

And they began at noontime and began to pray.

And then they became desperate.

They began to cut themselves.

They began to dance and they began to corrupt the altar.

And no fire came.

And Elijah spoke two languages.

He spoke Hebrew and sarcasm.

Maybe he's on a journey.

Maybe he's asleep.

But Ba wasn't answering because he was stuck in customs.

Ba wasn't answering because he was asleep.

He didn't answer because he's not the one true God.

And then Elijah came and he did an interesting thing.

He repaired the altar.

He did not ask God to send fire on a pagan altar.

He repaired the altar.

And not only did he repair the altar, he poured water on the altar.

He gave the very thing to God that he'd so desperately needed.

I wonder sometimes if God doesn't ask us to give more of the thing that we're asking him for.

He soaks it with water and he prays.

In my English Bible here, I count Elijah prayed 63 words.

63 words.

And something happened.

God sent fire from heaven.

And it consumed the altar, it consumed the water, it consumed the stones, and the people were amazed.

And they cried out, The Lord! He is the God, the Lord, He is the God.

Well, this didn't make Jezebel very happy.

She'd been feeding all those prophets at her table for all of those years.

The Bible says in chapter 19, verse 2, Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow, about this time.

She says, I'm going to kill you.

My first time in Israel, the second place we go on our tour, we go to Caesarea Meritima.

That's where Paul set sail for Rome.

And then we go to Mount Carmel on the way to the Sea of Galilee.

First time I was there, I took a picture of a statue of Elijah, and there he stands.

He's got a dagger in his hands.

He's victorious.

I mean, he's a man's man, Elijah.

The second time I was there, I didn't look at his head.

I looked at his feet.

I liked it even better.

I saw Elijah with a dagger in his hand and looking like a man's man, and his foot was on the decapitated head of a pagan prophet.

I said to myself, Lord, do it again.

Lord, do it again.

Jezebel said, I'm going to kill you.

And he ran.

What are you scared of?

He wasn't afraid of the prophets.

He wasn't afraid of the king.

He wasn't afraid of the famine.

He wasn't afraid of a drying brook.

And Jezebel said, I'm going to kill you.

And he ran.

And he makes a statement in verse 10.

And he said, I've been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant and thrown down thine altars and slain thy prophets with the sword.

And I, can you read it with me?

And I, even I only am left, and they seek my life to take it away.

Let me tell you how bad it was in Israel.

It was so bad in Israel.

It was so bad in Israel.

That if Elijah had died, the great God of heaven who holds the world in his hands, the creator of the ends of the earth, he that filled the oceans with life and the mountains with wonder and the skies with glory, if Elijah would have died, God would have been so hard up, not having a single prophet left.

Wrong answer.

Elijah had a syndrome of what I call spiritual only-ism.

Only-ism.

I, even I only am left.

And they seek my life to take it away.

Have you ever felt like you're the only one doing right?

The only one standing for God.

The only one who cares.

I heard a guy say one time, I'm the only one who cares.

And somebody said, Do you know what that is?

That's the smallest violin in the world playing a swan song.

Yeah.

You're not the only one standing.

There were a hundred prophets holed up in a cave, eating bread and water.

And God says to Elijah, actually, I have 7,000 prophets who have not bowed the knee to Baal.

What's the point of that story?

The point of the story is that God always has a remnant, a faithful people.

Though Elijah did not know them, it didn't mean they didn't exist.

It just meant this.

Elijah had a part to play, and they had a part to play.

Very few preachers, very few preachers rise to the status of Elijah.

I hear people say, you know what this country needs?

This country needs another Billy Graham.

Hey, God is sovereign and he can do what he wants to do.

I'm not praying for another Billy Graham.

But you know what I'd love to see?

I'd love to see 7,000 who serve in the small places out of the spotlight, standing for truth and righteousness.

God always has a remnant.

I told you recently I was at the high school preaching, and you know what I discovered?

I discovered there's a remnant.

At the high school.

But I discovered a second thing.

I discovered sometimes it's hard to stand all by yourself.

But if you see others standing for God, you find it easier to stand for God.

And when one light joins with two lights and two lights becomes four lights and four become eight, we can illuminate a city, a school, a church for the glory of God.

God always has a remnant.

Well, there's a second thing I want you to notice in our story tonight in Revelation, and that is God always.

He always provides a reward.

He always provides a reward.

He says to these in verse 26 that overcome and keep his works, he'll bless them.

Peter and the other disciples had a bit of a question about what they might get out of serving Christ.

Rich young ruler came to Jesus and asked a question.

Master, what good thing shall I do to inherit eternal life?

Jesus began to describe a number of commandments from the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments.

And the man said, All of these have I kept from my youth up.

Jesus says to him, one thing, one thing you lack.

He says, I want you to list all of your riches on Facebook Marketplace.

I want you to sell everything you have.

And I want you to give the money to the poor.

And then you'll have treasure in heaven.

Well, that doesn't make a lot of sense to me because how can you do something to inherit eternal life?

Jesus is not asking him to do something to inherit eternal life.

Jesus is showing him that he's a sinner in need of forgiveness to inherit that eternal life.

Did you know you can't get saved until you get lost?

And there may be someone here tonight, you're not saved.

You know why you're not saved?

You don't recognize how lost you are.

But when you come to the place you realize you have no escape and no hope, and that you have no assurance of salvation in Christ outside of his finished work, you come to that place where you say to Christ, Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.

He proves him a sinner.

The Bible says that that young man went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

And as he was walking away, the foot-shaped mouthed disciple took his dirty foot and put it in his mouth by saying, Lord, what shall we have therefore?

Can I put that in 2026 language?

Hey, Lord, what's in this for me?

What do I get out of this?

If I serve you, if I love you, if I sacrifice for you, what do I get out of this?

And Jesus said, there's no man who doesn't leave houses and lands and silver and gold and mother and father and houses and lands that shall not receive a hundredfold now and in the world to come, eternal life.

How do you quantify these riches for serving Christ?

Where would you find them?

Where would you look for them?

I was exposing what we call the prosperity gospel this morning.

Name it and claim it.

Jesus died to make you rich.

He died to take all your diseases away.

Plead the blood of Jesus on your finances, plead the blood of Jesus on your car, plead the blood of Jesus on your career and all of this nonsense.

Foxes had holes and birds had nests, and the Son of Man didn't have anywhere to lay his head.

Jesus didn't preach a prosperity gospel.

He preached a gospel born out of extreme poverty to give us riches that money cannot buy.

So what's the reward?

What do I get out of this?

Suppose I never ate at Jezebel's table.

Suppose I stayed true.

What do I get out of this?

Verse 28.

And I will give him the morning star.

Now the greatest commentary on the Bible is what?

The Bible itself.

Go with me to Revelation 22 and verse 16.

I'll give him the morning star.

Revelation 22 verse 16.

Revelation 22:16

The Bible says, I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches.

I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright and morning star.

He said, I am the morning star.

What's the reward for faithfulness?

Very simple.

It's Jesus.

God has created the Christian life to be just this way.

If you can be content in Jesus, you truly have everything that you need.

But he's also designed it that if you're not content in Jesus, you'll always be in need.

So many people fill their lives with what could be called idols.

Things that take Christ's place.

And they never satisfy.

They never satisfy.

Vices are different in every age.

Vices are different in every age.

The Bible doesn't speak about 21st century vices, it speaks about first century vices.

But we have our own vices in the world today.

Sports gambling.

It's become a huge problem in our world today.

You know something?

Can I tell you something about gambling?

It never satisfies.

People think that a relationship will make them happy.

They think sexual things will make them happy.

They don't make them happy.

They never fully satisfy.

Only Jesus fully satisfies.

The reward for faithfulness is not all the stuff that Peter was looking for.

The reward of faithfulness is to go to heaven someday, and Jesus saying to you, Well done.

Thou good and faithful servant.

God always has a remnant.

God always has a reward.

And he'll come to us with his own person and give us what we need.

But my God shall supply all your careful need.

Sing it again.

How many of you have never sung that before?

Raise your hand.

Okay, let's do it one more time.

There's a second verse, but let's not do the second verse.

Let's do the first verse again.

Ready?

Christ is all I need.

Christ is all need.

Oh, I have to teach you the second verse.

I don't want you to go through this week without knowing the second verse.

How many of you want to know the second verse?

Okay.

He was crucified for me.

This is why I know.

This is what I know.

He loves me so Christ is all.

Christ is all.

Amen.

Can all God's people say amen?

Well, let's stand together.

We'll pray.

And in about five minutes, we'll uh begin in our quarterly meeting together.

And um, we uh encourage all of our members to stay, and uh have some ushers who get some paperwork to you if you did not receive that yet.

And uh that's wonderful.

Miss Choi, thank you again for being here this uh this weekend.

And uh right before service, Marina had the pleasure of interviewing her for the uh the podcast, and uh we talked about grief, and it was so helpful.

I learned a lot, and I know it's gonna be an encouragement to you.

We're also recording uh again tomorrow, uh, and we're looking forward to uh Pastor Joel Tillis coming down and talking to us about something ripped from the headlines.

How many of you have heard something in the news lately about UFOs?

Will you raise your hand?

Yeah, unidentified flying objects.

Now we call them UAPs, unidentified aerial phenomenon.

And the Pentagon's talked about this, and the government's talked about this, and disclosure is coming.

What in the world is that?

And what do we make of that?

Well, we're gonna talk about it.

And uh I was in California, I was in California, and I had painters working at my house, and they were they were rough.

I mean, really, I mean, rough guys.

And uh they said uh most common question you're asked in California, why in the world did you move here?

That's the first question.

And I told them, I said, I'm a teacher at West Coast Baptist College.

And oh, so you're a Christian?

Yes, I'm a pastor and preacher.

Really?

So he's cutting in the trim.

Can I ask you a question, preacher?

I said, sure.

He goes, Do you believe in aliens?

And I said, I do.

And he stopped painting.

He stopped painting.

He said, like little green men?

I said, no.

No, the Bible calls Satan the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that works in the children of disobedience.

I said, I believe in demonic forces that work in the world today.

I had his attention at that point.

Guess what?

Within 30 seconds seconds, I got him from a question about aliens to do you know for certain if you died today, you'd go to heaven.

And these are the things people talk about.

And so I'm really looking forward to that.

And so, Ms.

Choi, we'll put something in the middle of your show and Joel's show, okay?

And but that'll be great.

We're looking forward to it.

So uh let's just uh go into a week and rejoicing in the Lord.

And so we'll just at 6.53 right now, let's say it's 656.

We'll come back in and we'll be ready.

Father, we thank you again for your loving care in our lives.

Bless and guide us and help us as we leave this place tonight to honor you.

Help us, Lord, to be content with Christ.

Help our church avoid this censure that comes from the Holy Spirit to this church.

Help us to be the church you've saved us and called us to be.

We pray you in Jesus' name.

Amen.