SPEAKER_00: You come to the red letters of Revelation chapters two and three as Christ is speaking.
SPEAKER_00: He speaks to his church.
SPEAKER_00: God at many different ways and at many different times in the Old Testament spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: The writer of Hebrews said, In these last days, has spoken unto us by his son.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is God's final word.
SPEAKER_00: Let's see what God says to the church today.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 18, and unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write, These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass.
SPEAKER_00: I know thy works and charity and service and faith and thy patience, and thy works, and the last to be more than the first.
SPEAKER_00: Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants, and to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
SPEAKER_00: And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds, and I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts, give unto every one of you according to your works.
SPEAKER_00: But I say unto you, uh but but unto you I say, and unto the rest and 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.
SPEAKER_00: But that which ye have already hold fast till I come, and he that overcometh and keepeth my words unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them over 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.
SPEAKER_00: He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
SPEAKER_00: And I speak on the subject of rooted in holiness.
SPEAKER_00: May we pray?
SPEAKER_00: Our Father, we thank you for the privilege of reading the Word today.
SPEAKER_00: We're even reminded in chapter one that we are blessed just to read the prophecy of this book.
SPEAKER_00: We know that a blessing from heaven will come upon the Calvary Baptist Church in these days as we study this particular portion of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: But I do pray, Lord, specifically that a special blessing might come upon us today.
SPEAKER_00: That you might speak personally and very specifically to each of us here today.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I'm very aware of our own human weakness.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray that in our weakness you would be strong to us, through us, and in us.
SPEAKER_00: We know what men can do.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen that many times.
SPEAKER_00: But we ask that you would do what only God can do.
SPEAKER_00: So speak and move and work in a powerful way today is my prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray it in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for standing, and please be seated all around together.
SPEAKER_00: God does not call his church merely to survive in a sinful culture.
SPEAKER_00: He calls us to remain holy in the midst of it.
SPEAKER_00: We're noticing that in the midst of all the church ages, God's people have a choice.
SPEAKER_00: Though evil surrounds them, they may still live victoriously in the strife.
SPEAKER_00: Jezebel, mentioned for us here in verse 20, may have a table spread, but you don't have to feast at it.
SPEAKER_00: There's never a time in our Christian lives that we have to sin.
SPEAKER_00: Never a time our church has to compromise.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says, there hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to men, but God is faithful.
SPEAKER_00: God is faithful, he will not suffer you to be tempted above your capability, but he with the temptation makes a way to escape.
SPEAKER_00: For the church of Ephesus, their escape was loving Christ, returning to their first love.
SPEAKER_00: For the church of Smyrna, their way of escape was patient endurance in the trials of life.
SPEAKER_00: For the church at Pergamus, as we read last week, their way of escape was the truth of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And now we come to this church at Thyatira and we see their escape is to be holy.
SPEAKER_00: The danger in using a word holy is that you have, unbeknownst to you, maybe already defined a definition to it.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you think you know what I mean by that term, or maybe you have a means in your mind of which you think you would know holiness if you saw it.
SPEAKER_00: Some might be caused to think of a matter of dress or a list of do's or don'ts, or places we go and places we don't frequent and things we don't involve ourselves in.
SPEAKER_00: Someone said, I don't drink and I don't chew and I don't run with those that do.
SPEAKER_00: And that's their definition of holiness.
SPEAKER_00: But when I say holiness, I want you to think about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Holiness is not the way to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is the way to holiness.
SPEAKER_00: This church is in the midst of a spiritual, full frontal attack.
SPEAKER_00: As we will notice in these passages.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about the church of Smyrna, and those in Smyrna were dealing with intense persecution by the devil.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Satan will cast many of you into prison.
SPEAKER_00: Be faithful unto death, I'll give you a crown of life.
SPEAKER_00: And then we went to Pergamos last week and discovered that these Christians were living in a city known as the seat of Satan, is there.
SPEAKER_00: The dominion of Satan at that moment was in their town.
SPEAKER_00: But we've gone from Christians being persecuted for their faith, Christians being encouraged to withstand the fiery trials of the onslaught of error, to now a church who has become so comfortable with the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse number 24, some of them have come to know the depths of Satan.
SPEAKER_00: Now I want us to look at Jesus in this passage and discover some truths about holiness.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, will you notice in this passage Christ sees where we are?
SPEAKER_00: The beautiful young lady who sang a moment ago is my oldest daughter.
SPEAKER_00: I do not have permission to share this story, but I think it's safe enough.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just let me ask her really quick.
SPEAKER_00: Can I share that story you have no idea I'm about to share?
SPEAKER_00: Perfect.
SPEAKER_00: She gave me permission to do so.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when she was a little girl, she would do things maybe that she wasn't supposed to do.
SPEAKER_00: As some children do.
SPEAKER_00: And we would say, Phoebe.
SPEAKER_00: And Phoebe had a habit of putting her hands over her eyes.
SPEAKER_00: In her young mind, she thought that if she couldn't see me, we couldn't see her.
SPEAKER_00: Christ sees where we are today.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says in verse 18, unto the angel of the church in Thyatira, write, These things saith the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: He has eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass.
SPEAKER_00: The Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're in the habit of marking things in your Bible, I want you to mark in verse number 18, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see that there?
SPEAKER_00: His eyes, his feet.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we've seen that already in this prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: Go back to the first chapter with me in verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: This is the second coming of Christ, what we call the second advent of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus came the first time, he came as a baby, meek and lowly, lying in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes, came and born to die.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, but when he comes again, he doesn't come to die, he comes to reign.
SPEAKER_00: When he came the first time, he came in obscurity.
SPEAKER_00: Where is Jesus born King of the Jews?
SPEAKER_00: But when he comes the second time, every eye shall see him.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think anyone looks up in the clouds and says, Hmm, I wonder who that is.
SPEAKER_00: That's Jesus, is who that is.
SPEAKER_00: He comes distinctively.
SPEAKER_00: In the midst of the candlesticks, verse 13, chapter 1, one like unto one like unto the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_00: Do you have that there?
SPEAKER_00: Circle that.
SPEAKER_00: One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to his foot and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.
SPEAKER_00: His head and his hairs were white like snow.
SPEAKER_00: As white as snow, his eyes were as a flame of fire, his feet like a like unto fine brass.
SPEAKER_00: But here in chapter 2, the angel of the church of Smyrna is to see the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now in that society they worshiped a God by the name of Apollo.
SPEAKER_00: Apollo was the son of Zeus.
SPEAKER_00: He was believed to have the power of light and healing.
SPEAKER_00: John says, You think you worship a man responsible for the light of the sun?
SPEAKER_00: I want to tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: We don't worship the S-U-N, we worship the S-O-N.
SPEAKER_00: We worship the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: He's in the midst of the candlestick.
SPEAKER_00: In chapter 1, verse 13, he's known as the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_00: This identifies Jesus with his humanity, identifies him in his role as mediator and high priest.
SPEAKER_00: And aren't you glad today, church, that there's one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: And the man Christ Jesus is our faithful high priest, tempted in all points, like as we are, and he can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad that the Son of Man knows how we feel and he cares?
SPEAKER_00: The Son of Man.
SPEAKER_00: He is sympathetic when he walks among the churches.
SPEAKER_00: And this speaks of his relationship to his people.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, but in chapter 2, John doesn't see one like the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_00: He sees the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: I say to us this morning, we have all become too familiar with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Too familiar.
SPEAKER_00: Our familiarity is bred, if not contempt and indifference.
SPEAKER_00: Paul said to Timothy, that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, they're able to make thee wise unto salvation.
SPEAKER_00: But beloved, if we're not careful, that which we are so familiar with we take for granted.
SPEAKER_00: We become too familiar with who Jesus Christ is.
SPEAKER_00: He's the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: Van Savner told of the missionary story of a missionary somewhere in the heart of Africa watching a young boy playing on a street corner with sparkly marbles.
SPEAKER_00: And as he got closer to that young boy playing marbles, he discovered he wasn't just playing marbles.
SPEAKER_00: He was playing marbles with diamonds.
SPEAKER_00: Not just the Son of Man, as revealed in his relationship to us.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: His deity, his absolute authority, his right to judge and purify is being spoken of here.
SPEAKER_00: His holiness is being pointed at here in that he cannot tolerate sin.
SPEAKER_00: This speaks of the fact that Christ is in authority over the church.
SPEAKER_00: As I've said a few times the last couple weeks, this is not your church, and this is not my church.
SPEAKER_00: This is Christ's church.
SPEAKER_00: He loved the church and he gave himself for it.
SPEAKER_00: This church at Thyatira's will discover this morning was tolerating sin.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus does not approach them primarily as a sympathetic priest.
SPEAKER_00: He approaches them as a holy judge who sets things in order.
SPEAKER_00: Peter says, because the end of the age is coming, judgment must begin at the house of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now I know what you're thinking, and I think it too.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like the Lord Jesus Christ to walk in the midst of Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C., and I'd like to see him straighten that mess out.
SPEAKER_00: I think they have an 8% approval rating in Congress these days.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot he could straighten out.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not where he's going to start.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we could take him to Sin City or downtown Orlando, and that's where he could set it straight.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, he might, but that's not where he starts.
SPEAKER_00: One like the Son of God comes and he walks up and down in the midst of the pews of the candlestick.
SPEAKER_00: And he speaks to us today.
SPEAKER_00: Notice his eyes as a flame of fire.
SPEAKER_00: That's verse number 18.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what does he mean here?
SPEAKER_00: His eyes as a flame of fire.
SPEAKER_00: Well, first of all, it means that this is a picture of his omniscience and his perception.
SPEAKER_00: His perception.
SPEAKER_00: The writer said that he has bright, sharp, penetrating eyes, as if everything was light before him, or they would penetrate into the thoughts of men.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God is quick and powerful, it's sharper than any two-edged sword.
SPEAKER_00: It pierces even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, we we ought not lie to God.
SPEAKER_00: He knows the thoughts and intents of our heart.
SPEAKER_00: It speaks of his omnipresence.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 4 12 continues, neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
SPEAKER_00: May I return to the figure.
SPEAKER_00: We may not see God in our lives right now, and we might be lying to God and lying to ourselves and lying to others.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to tell you this morning, we cannot lie to the staring, searching eyes of God.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, he sees.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, this is an analogy used often of Jesus in Revelation chapter 19.
SPEAKER_00: I saw heaven opened, behold a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
SPEAKER_00: His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns.
SPEAKER_00: The psalmist wrote this, Psalm 94, verse 7, yet they say, The Lord shall not see.
SPEAKER_00: Neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.
SPEAKER_00: Understand, ye brutish among the people.
SPEAKER_00: Hear this.
SPEAKER_00: And ye fools, when will ye be wise?
SPEAKER_00: He that planted the ear shall he not hear?
SPEAKER_00: He that formed the eye shall he not see.
SPEAKER_00: We are talking about the Son of God that has penetrating eyes.
SPEAKER_00: He knows the true nature of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: So not only that, he has feet like brass.
SPEAKER_00: Thyatira was known as a place of the working of metal, the invention of a copper zinc alloy.
SPEAKER_00: It was good in the making of weapons and currency.
SPEAKER_00: John here uses the term brass to speak of something of which they were familiar.
SPEAKER_00: It spoke of endurance, of stability, of unyielding strength.
SPEAKER_00: His feet, he's standing with feet of brass.
SPEAKER_00: His feet are not weak, they're not shifting, they are firm, they are unmovable.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, the church might move, but our God has never moved.
SPEAKER_00: And though this though the waves of life might knock us off of our equilibrium, our God stays constant and he stands firm.
SPEAKER_00: The God who sees clearly stands firmly.
SPEAKER_00: He acts decisively.
SPEAKER_00: He's not passive.
SPEAKER_00: He is able to handle whatever the churches face.
SPEAKER_00: Now I want to make another distinction for you.
SPEAKER_00: Go back to chapter 2, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the Church of Ephesus.
SPEAKER_00: I've heard people say, well, Pastor, if a church compromises, and they'll list a few things they think churches do when they compromise.
SPEAKER_00: They'll say, well, he'll come after the music or he'll come after the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: That might be true.
SPEAKER_00: Hear this.
SPEAKER_00: Satan has a million ways to compromise the church.
SPEAKER_00: The church of Ephesus, we learned, was great in truth and low in love.
SPEAKER_00: They had great orthodoxy.
SPEAKER_00: They lost their doxology.
SPEAKER_00: They left their first love.
SPEAKER_00: And we live in a society today that would tell us that the most important thing is love.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, it's a self-defining term in our world today.
SPEAKER_00: Love is love.
SPEAKER_00: Love is not love.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you are parents in the room?
SPEAKER_00: Will you raise your hand?
SPEAKER_00: Would you agree that love always has restrictions?
SPEAKER_00: I love cotton candy.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you like cotton candy?
SPEAKER_00: How many of you think you ought to eat it three times a day?
SPEAKER_00: Only a dentist would agree with that, right?
SPEAKER_00: Love has restriction.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we just ought to be loving.
SPEAKER_00: We ought to be tolerant.
SPEAKER_00: And so this church at Thyatira said, we'll just love everybody.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll love everyone at the expense of the truth.
SPEAKER_00: If I hold in my hands love and tolerance, love and truth, which one should we choose today?
SPEAKER_00: I have love.
SPEAKER_00: By this shall all men know you're my disciples if you have love one for the other.
SPEAKER_00: Should I choose that one?
SPEAKER_00: Or should I choose the truth?
SPEAKER_00: Sanctify them through thy truth.
SPEAKER_00: Thy word is truth.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: Anytime someone tells you to make a choice between love and truth has an agenda under their argument.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says we're to speak the truth in love.
SPEAKER_00: We must not be so loving that we don't speak the truth.
SPEAKER_00: We ought not be so harsh in speaking the truth.
SPEAKER_00: People think we don't love them.
SPEAKER_00: That's the church of Thyatira.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, Christ not only sees where we are, he confronts what we tolerate.
SPEAKER_00: He confronts what we tolerate.
SPEAKER_00: That's verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: He says to them in verse 19, by way of commendation, I know your faith, your charity, your love, your patience.
SPEAKER_00: Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth her.
SPEAKER_00: A prophetess to teach and to seduce my servants, to commit fornication, to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
SPEAKER_00: Only one dear friend in our entire life, I mentioned her name, but I won't do that.
SPEAKER_00: Thought, she thought she didn't do it.
SPEAKER_00: Her husband told her, no, you can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: But she she wanted to name her her daughter Jezebel.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you don't see that a lot.
SPEAKER_00: Jezebel, of course, is an old testament figure.
SPEAKER_00: Who speaks of everything that we ought to stand against.
SPEAKER_00: She hated the preaching of God's word, she hated the prophets of God, she hated the exclusive worship of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so John's using an allegory, an illustration here, the spirit of Jezebel, the prophetess, who taught seduced servants to commit fornication.
SPEAKER_00: And the idea here is not a physical act of sexual immorality, but a spiritual act of adultery, and that that is sinning against the love of our bridegroom.
SPEAKER_00: Walking away from our worship of Jehovah to worship and serve other gods.
SPEAKER_00: And it gets to this level.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that we leave Jehovah, it's that we incorporate other beliefs into our worship of Jehovah, and we take worldliness and we take Christ and we try to worship them both at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: That's Jezebel.
SPEAKER_00: He speaks of the corruption of holiness.
SPEAKER_00: The corruption of holiness.
SPEAKER_00: And the corruption here, for sake of time, is to cloud the line, to murky the line between idolatry and the Christian faith.
SPEAKER_00: To cloud the line between Christianity and secularism.
SPEAKER_00: To cloud the line between Jesus and the things of this world.
SPEAKER_00: There's no doubt we ought to agree today.
SPEAKER_00: That the culture is having more impact on the church than the church is having on the culture.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go home.
SPEAKER_00: There's no doubt.
SPEAKER_00: The culture is having a higher impact on our homes than our homes are having on the culture.
SPEAKER_00: May God help us.
SPEAKER_00: When the church looks no different than the world, the church has no gospel to preach to the world.
SPEAKER_00: That's the sin of Jezebel.
SPEAKER_00: To corrupt the clear truth of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: It said of her in 1 Kings chapter 18, verse 19.
SPEAKER_00: Now therefore send and gather to me all Israel into Mount Carmel.
SPEAKER_00: Elijah speaking.
SPEAKER_00: And the prophets of Baal 450, and the prophets of the groves 400.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the lion, which eat at Jezebel's table.
SPEAKER_00: Ahab called Obadiah, which was the governor of his house.
SPEAKER_00: Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly, for it was so when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah took an hundred prophets and hid them by fifty in a cave and fed them with bread and water.
SPEAKER_00: Can I just say this morning, we ought not to ever eat and feast at Jezebel's table?
SPEAKER_00: To line our pockets, to find some station in life of comfort, and compromising our convictions, eating at Jezebel's table.
SPEAKER_00: William Booth said years ago, founder of the Salvation Army, the chief danger of the 20th century will be religion without the Holy Spirit, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.
SPEAKER_00: I ask you today, have you moved, have you compromised in your convictions of God's word?
SPEAKER_00: My dear friend, his son bought an old square body Chevy truck with the bench seat in the front.
SPEAKER_00: And he said he wanted to take his wife out on a date on a Friday night, and he borrowed his son's old Chevy truck with the bench seat.
SPEAKER_00: And they liked it.
SPEAKER_00: His wife would sit right there in the middle.
SPEAKER_00: He'd put his arm around her.
SPEAKER_00: They'd go down the road together.
SPEAKER_00: Well, they did that repeatedly.
SPEAKER_00: Till one day he was driving down the road, and she was sitting as far away as she could on the other side of the bench seat.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Oh, don't you remember those date nights we used to have?
SPEAKER_00: When I used to sit up close to you and you'd put your arm around me in the bench seat, and he said, Who moved?
SPEAKER_00: Have you moved?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't move.
SPEAKER_00: If there were ever a time in our Christian life we loved him more.
SPEAKER_00: If there were ever a time we loved his word more, if there was ever a time we were more willing to identify with Christ than we are willing to identify with Christ this morning, the question remains, who moved?
SPEAKER_00: I think we have a picture of Jonathan Isaac.
SPEAKER_00: You remember 2020?
SPEAKER_00: During the NBA's restart in the bubble, BLM protest had expanded all across the country.
SPEAKER_00: BLM was a Marxist organization.
SPEAKER_00: Every athlete was wearing a shirt that said something about equity.
SPEAKER_00: Quality and equity.
SPEAKER_00: They were asking for sameness of outcome.
SPEAKER_00: Big difference.
SPEAKER_00: Jonathan Isaac is a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: And when the national anthem was played, he didn't kneel.
SPEAKER_00: He was the only one that stood.
SPEAKER_00: In a culture that constantly pressures believers to redefine themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Jonathan Isaac made a simple but powerful statement.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Quote, my faith in Jesus Christ is what defines me.
SPEAKER_00: That cuts directly against the compromise of this age.
SPEAKER_00: Jezebel may not ask you to abandon your faith outright, no.
SPEAKER_00: Just relabel yourself according to the moment.
SPEAKER_00: She says, let culture define you, let the crowd assign your identity.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to change your convictions, just be quiet about them.
SPEAKER_00: But Isaac refused that.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what he said.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm not anti-black, I'm not anti-police, I'm pro-gospel.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he refused to let the world force him into a category that blurred or replaced his allegiance to the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We need more in our society like that today.
SPEAKER_00: That's why compromise is so painful and dangerous.
SPEAKER_00: Isaac said, I didn't feel like putting that shirt on and kneeling went hand in hand with supporting black lives.
SPEAKER_00: Whether people agreed or disagreed, the point was this: he would not symbolically align himself with something he did not fully believe in his conscience before God.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, who moved?
SPEAKER_00: The battleground of Fiatira is that Jezebel invites believers to participate outwardly while quietly justifying it inwardly.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a small thing.
SPEAKER_00: Just a gesture.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think you have to agree with it.
SPEAKER_00: Nebuchadnezzar said, we want to play the music, boys.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not asking you to believe it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not asking you to uh I'm not asking you to give your whole life to it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just asking you that when the instruments play, just bow.
SPEAKER_00: But faithfulness says, if it violates my conviction and it goes against Scripture, I cannot join it.
SPEAKER_00: The moment in our lives we start acting against conviction to gain acceptance by this world, we're already on the path of compromise.
SPEAKER_00: Have one more point, I'll finish the message tonight.
SPEAKER_00: That would have been a good place to say amen.
SPEAKER_00: If you guys are thank you, George, I think I will.
SPEAKER_00: The erosion of holiness.
SPEAKER_00: Someone said that there are three generations of faith.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to get this.
SPEAKER_00: First generation Christians experience conversion.
SPEAKER_00: Those who come to Christ out of unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: Their life is marked by clear change, a zeal and gratitude for God, and a strong testimony for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: First generation Christians have a faith that is newly received.
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't able to hear all of Joy's lesson yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: But I think she talked about being the daughter of a first generation Christian.
SPEAKER_00: There used to be things in her family's life that were very normal that became very abnormal after your dad met Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you would consider yourself a first generation Christian?
SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Someone said that first generation Christians pay a price.
SPEAKER_00: They pay a price.
SPEAKER_00: Then there are second generation Christians.
SPEAKER_00: They're raised around the truth and they have to make it personal.
SPEAKER_00: They're familiar with Scripture, they inherit exposure to the truth.
SPEAKER_00: But although their parents had a radical transformation, they must personally come to faith in Christ and the truth of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Their faith must be personally avowed.
SPEAKER_00: Then there are third generation Christians.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've been keeping up with the series, the slide the churches are on.
SPEAKER_00: There is a dissension.
SPEAKER_00: There's a slippery slope that they've hit.
SPEAKER_00: They used to do everything right.
SPEAKER_00: They just got so busy making sure everything was right, they forgot about whom they were answering to.
SPEAKER_00: And they suffered persecution.
SPEAKER_00: And then the next generation was adopted by Constantine and the Catholic Church, became one with biblical Christianity, and they enjoyed comfort to second generation Christians.
SPEAKER_00: And now we're in that third generation now.
SPEAKER_00: And in the third generation, their faith can become cultural if not renewed personally.
SPEAKER_00: I say this as a son of the South.
SPEAKER_00: I was born on the buckle of the Bible belt.
SPEAKER_00: When I was a kid, there were 800 Baptist churches in my hometown.
SPEAKER_00: 800.
SPEAKER_00: There were 450 Southern Baptist churches.
SPEAKER_00: There were 350 independent Baptist churches.
SPEAKER_00: You'd go down the road, you'd see Hope Baptist Church, you'd see Old Baptist Church, you'd see New Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: You'd see Hope Baptist Church, Old Hope Baptist Church, New Hope Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: Because they couldn't get along.
SPEAKER_00: They fought about unnecessary things.
SPEAKER_00: I heard of a church one time that got riled up about the purchase of a chandelier.
SPEAKER_00: And somebody said in a business meeting, we don't need a new chandelier.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, we don't even have anyone here who can play the stupid thing.
SPEAKER_00: Third generation Christians! What do they do?
SPEAKER_00: Their faith becomes routine and cultural.
SPEAKER_00: Why are you a Christian?
SPEAKER_00: Well, my granddaddy's a preacher.
SPEAKER_00: My uncle's a preacher.
SPEAKER_00: May I say to you today, there are no grandchildren in the family of God?
SPEAKER_00: Every son of God comes to Christ by personal faith in the finished work of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I'll say to my children, none of my children will ride my coattails into the city of God.
SPEAKER_00: We must personally come to Christ by faith.
SPEAKER_00: There's a loss of spiritual passion, adrift without intentional renewal.
SPEAKER_00: And their faith will become obsolete if not continually renewed.
SPEAKER_00: Now I want to ask, we got second generation Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Or first, where are my second generation Christians?
SPEAKER_00: Your parents started a line of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Where are my third generation Christians?
SPEAKER_00: We're not careful.
SPEAKER_00: Belly up to Jezebel's table and compromise our convictions.
SPEAKER_00: Take a lot of things for granted.
SPEAKER_00: I'll close with a story.
SPEAKER_00: I was at uh the ladies' tea yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: I was listening to everything finish up.
SPEAKER_00: Joy had gotten done speaking.
SPEAKER_00: She'd finished speaking, and Marie came up and tried to put the big bow on the top and let the cleanup begin.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, fellas, I'm going to be calling on you to help more of us next year.
SPEAKER_00: There were three of us yesterday, and they did a great job.
SPEAKER_00: My wife's from a broken home.
SPEAKER_00: Her biological father left her family when she was a young girl.
SPEAKER_00: Stepdad enters into the picture.
SPEAKER_00: Not always good.
SPEAKER_00: But I heard her say something yesterday that that really moved my heart.
SPEAKER_00: My wife.
SPEAKER_00: She said, I have a goodly heritage.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but what about no?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is real to me.
SPEAKER_00: He's real to me.
SPEAKER_00: And I ask you today, is Jesus Christ, is he real to you?
SPEAKER_00: Because if he's not real to you, you'll never be the Christian he really saved you to be.
SPEAKER_00: We'll finish up tonight and we'll look at the reward that Christ gives.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll just say this to you, and I hope you'll come back and hear it.
SPEAKER_00: But the reward of faithfulness is Jesus Himself.
SPEAKER_00: Why do we do what we do?
SPEAKER_00: Why do we do what we ought to do?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we want a brand new Cadillac.
SPEAKER_00: I heard a lady say one time she was a prosperity gospel preacher.
SPEAKER_00: She she was a prosperity gospel preacher.
SPEAKER_00: She said she wanted a diamond ring.
SPEAKER_00: And God gave it to her.
SPEAKER_00: And then she she said to God, I want a one-carat diamond ring.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, He gave it to me.
SPEAKER_00: And then she named it and claimed it and blabbed it and grabbed it, and she said, I want a two-carat diamond ring.
SPEAKER_00: Wait a minute.
SPEAKER_00: The reward of Christianity is not a diamond ring.
SPEAKER_00: The reward of Christianity is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And when you have Jesus, brother, you have it all.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what I want you to have today.
SPEAKER_00: And you can have it by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray, may we?
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening so well.