Skip to content The Compelling Call of Christ to Stay Faithful | Revelation Part 7 | Rev Paul Jeyachandran Apr 10 · 48 min ...more
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Rev. Paul Jeyachandran leads the Intentional Disciple Making Church (IDMC) Movement, which is all about calling churches back to its disciplemaking roots. Visit us at idmcmovement.com
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The Compelling Call to Faithfulness 0:00 Shall we give the Lord a clap offering church? Hallelujah. It is always a joy and a privilege to bring God's word into your homes. Today we're gonna continue in our sermon series on the0:12 book of Revelation. We've been studying the 7 churches in Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3 and we have covered 2 churches so far, so today will be the third church, the0:23 letter that Jesus wrote to the church in Pergamum. Now this is a compromised church and what does the Lord wanna say to a compromised church? I want you to read with0:35 me Revelation chapter 2 and verses 12 to verses 17. It's a short passage, it's a short letter, but I pray that we will glean much out of it. The0:47 compelling call of Christ to stay faithful, that's the title of today's sermon, the compelling call of Christ to stay faithful. Revelation0:58 chapter 2 and verse 12 to verse 17. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly father, we thank you so much for the privilege of being able to open the scriptures. We pray that the holy spirit will be our teacher this1:10 morning. Open our eyes and give us listening ears, and give us the grace to respond rightly. So today we commit everything in your loving hands in Jesus name, and people of God said,1:22 amen and amen. Revelation chapter 2 and verse 12 to verse 17, the compelling call of Christ to stay faithful. Story was told of a hunter,1:34 the winter was approaching and he needed a furry coat. So this cold hunter went into the woods in search of a bear, and this There was a1:46 bear in the woods that he encountered, and this bear was very hungry, and the bear looked at him and said, before you kill me, why don't we just sit down and negotiate, you know, because you need a furry coat and I1:58 need some food, why don't we negotiate? By the time they finished the negotiation, the bear left the table and the bear was fully satisfied because the negotiations were successful.2:09 The hunter got his furry court and the hungry bear got its stomach full. You know what I mean. In other words, sometimes when we sit down to negotiate2:21 and we negotiate wrongly and we make compromises, we get killed. That's the moral of the story. Here Jesus is addressing his church in Pergamum, and2:33 he's calling his church to stay faithful. Why? Because this is a church that is going through unfaithfulness. They are being compromised2:45 because of pressure from outside and from deception from within, and I want you to pay attention to this because the whole 7 letters that Jesus is speaking to the churches in2:57 Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3, we already looked at a couple of them, and you'll notice this pattern that Jesus is addressing that they come back to him, that they come back to him, right?3:09 So in this case, he's also addressing 1 important thing that they had forgotten, and he wants to bring it back. What is it? It is the lost virtue of faithfulness.3:21 You know, you and I, when we look at the world today, do you know faithfulness is not a term that many people use? You know, the baby boomer generation, they were3:33 known as people who are faithful, faithful to the work, faithful in their marriage, faithful to the church and the community they belong to, faithful to the Lord in3:45 many aspects, but in the in the modern generations, as the new generations arise, faithfulness is not something that we see as a common trait, as a common3:56 virtue. In other words, there's no faithfulness to the job. People choose to leave a job. They they change jobs so frequently. Not only that, people change partners, people change4:09 jump from 1 marriage to another. Not only that, people change churches, people change community that they belong to. At the same time, people are not faithful to the lord. In the last4:20 days, the faith is what will be missing, the bible says. When the son of man returns, will he find faith? And the word for faith and the word for faithfulness is the same word. I want you4:32 to listen to me carefully that this is what Jesus is calling his church in Pergamum too, and today that's what we're gonna glean, the compelling call of Jesus as we fight4:44 compromise. He's saying stay faithful. Now you and I, we need to understand this call that Jesus gives, which is found in verses 124:56 to verses 17. There are 2 critical parts to this call, and I want you to listen to these 2 critical parts and then we will unpack. Number 1, stay faithful in5:08 spite of distress from without. And secondly, stay faithful in spite of deception from within. Let me repeat that. Stay faithful in spite of5:20 distress from without. In other words, don't give up because you face pressure and persecution. Not only that, stay faithful in spite of deception from within.5:32 That means don't give in to seduction, don't give in under deception. In other words, these are the things that the children of God were facing in the city of Pergamum.5:44 Now if Jesus wrote a letter today to the churches in Castle Hill or the churches in Sydney, and today we are reading 1 of the letters that he wrote,5:56 next hour we will be reading a letter that Jesus wrote to another church, Wouldn't you be curious what he wrote about that church? That's exactly what we are doing. We are reading what Jesus saw6:08 in the city of Pergamum, what his people were doing, and many times when you look at a letter, when you look at a city, you look at the city and say these are the circumstances in which the people of6:20 God live in that city, and God takes all of that into account and then he calls them to say, stay faithful in spite of distress from without6:32 and in spite of deception from within. Now let's unpack it 1 by 1. Firstly, it's stay faithful in spite of distress from without. Let's read verse6:43 12 and verse 13 together. And to the angel of church in Pergamum write, the words of him who has sharp 2 edged sword. Hallelujah.6:55 I know where you dwell, circle that, where Satan's throne is, yet you hold fast my name and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas, my7:07 faithful witness who was skilled among you where Satan dwells. Couple of things that are repeated here, where Satan throne is and where Satan7:18 dwells, and Jesus says, I know where you dwell. Now pause for a moment and let's talk about the first things first. Jesus is writing in verse 12 to7:30 the leader or the pastor, either it's a spiritual being or a human being, we already established that, he's talking to the messenger, the pastor in the church of Pergamum, and he's saying to the7:42 church leader the words of him who has sharp 2 edged sword. Now when you hear the word 2 sharp edged sword, this is a description7:54 of Jesus. John already gave us a description of how he saw Jesus, what Jesus looked like to him, what Jesus is like to him. That was in Revelation chapter8:05 1, he gave a whole description and 1 of the description is used here. Jesus uses 1 of that description to say here, and look at verse 16 of chapter 1, he says, in his right hand he held8:17 7 stars, and from his mouth came a sharp 2 edged sword, and his face was like a sun shining in full strength. A sharp 2 edged sword8:29 came from his mouth. What comes out of his mouth is the word of God, and the bible says here the word of God is like a sharp 2 edged sword,8:41 and Jesus is giving this description to the church. Now when you think of the sword, it speaks of authority, it speaks of power.8:53 See, I want you to listen to me carefully, these are Roman colonies, correct? The city of Pergamum is a Roman colony and the city of Pergamum is almost like the capital of that9:04 region. It's like if you are living in US, say you're living in New York, New York is closer is a prominent city like9:16 Ephesus, but yet Washington DC is the powerhouse for the entire nation. So if you're living in Australia, Sydney is a financial center, Sydney is a prosperous city, but9:29 Canberra is the power center. It's the same thing. Pergamum was the place of power, was a place of judicial authority. It was a place where the governance was done. It was a place where they9:40 built the temple for emperor, and they had built temple for Zeus, the god that they worshiped, and they built the god of medicine, the temple for the god of medicine,9:52 Asclepus, you know the 1 that, the symbol with snake on it. It's that's a god of that It's a symbol of that god, and all these things you find in this place called Pergamum, and here10:04 in this Pergamum, the city of Pergamum, Jesus is saying, I have the sword, the double edged sword, the words of him who has the double edged sword. Where does he have it? It's in his words.10:16 In other words, Jesus' words are authoritative, and they are finality. They cut the heart, the bible says. Look at the verse in acts chapter 2 and verse 37, when the word of10:27 God was preached, the bible says, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. That's what happens when people hear God's word. It's a 2 edged sword. It cuts.10:40 Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 17, the bible says, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Word of God is that sword, and Jesus says, out of his lips comes the word, and the10:52 word is a 2 edged sword. In other words, he uses his word to judge and to exercise his authority. In fact, in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 12, we know this verse, for11:04 the word of God is living and active, sharper than any 2 edged sword piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and11:15 intentions of the heart. The 2 edged sword is so powerful enough, it's powerful enough to deal with the sin within and the Satan without. In other words, he's able to11:27 deal with what goes on in the city as well as he's able to deal with what goes on in the church. But when you read this letter, understand that Jesus11:39 is sitting at the judgment seat, he's almost speaking with a judicial authority to the church, not to the city. He's addressing the church. See, many times we see that God is a judge, we know God is a11:51 judge, but you know what? The judgment of God does not begin at the world, it begins in the house of God. The cleaning up happens here in the house of God first, among the people of God.12:03 The pruning, the discipline, it happens in the house of God. That's why here he uses the language, I'm a judicial authority, and he uses in the context of addressing the church and calling the church back12:15 to himself. But here, there's a good reminder for us that Jesus is not dealing with the political corruption of the city, but he is dealing with12:26 the spiritual hypocrisy in the church. See many times people within the church, we are always saying, oh, the politicians need the truth, or we need to wave the flag of truth12:38 to proclaim to the world the truth. We sometimes say that Christians need to take a stand and we need to go address this political issue, that political issue, we need to be do this with the policies12:50 and all that. Can I humbly say this? Jesus, when he deals with truth, he deals with it inside the church. In this letter he's not addressing the13:02 corruption in the city, he was addressing the corruption within the church. That's why it was the spiritual hypocrisy that he wanted to address. So you and I, we need to13:14 pay attention to what Jesus pays attention to in the last days. Verse 13, he goes on to say, I know. I love this fact that Jesus says I know. I know in the last couple of sermons13:26 I've already established that when you read these letters, you read the letter with the with the commendation that Jesus gives, the charge that he brings, and then there is a challenge that he brings to them13:38 and a counsel that he gives. Correct? I already gave you that framework, but today I want you to pay attention to this word I know. See, what does he know in specifically here? He knows13:49 everything, he's omniscient, and yet he says something specific to them, I know where you dwell. Do you know that Jesus knows your address, your home address? You may have14:01 blocked it and made it private, but he knows where you dwell. Is that what this verse means? Of course he knows everything. He knows the address, but the14:13 reality is this, that it's not speaking about the address where you dwell, it's speaking about the city where you dwell, the circumstances of life where you find yourself in, the stage of life, the season of life, the14:25 circumstances of life, and Jesus says, I know where you dwell, and where you dwell, that's where Satan's throne is. What a bummer.14:37 Where was this city? This city, as I mentioned to you, was not only a metropolis, was not only a power center, it was a place of culture. Cultural things were happening there. They were shaping14:49 the culture of the region, and not only that, it was a religious center as well. That's why they had temples for zoos, they had temples for different idols that they worshiped, and idolatry and15:01 sexual immorality was prevalent in that place. Not only that, it was a place where their knowledge, it was the epicenter of knowledge in those days. See, there was only 2, world class libraries15:13 back then. 1 was in Alexandria in Egypt, and the other 1 was in Pergamum. Now in Alexandria, they had they had written everything in scrolls, in papyrus, and they15:25 written everything in scrolls, but in Pergamum they had to import papyrus from Egypt, and Egyptians did not want to give them the15:37 papyrus, so what happened is they had to develop a new way of writing stuff, that's why they put it into animals, they wrote in animal skins and they put it together into a parchment, that's where you get15:48 the word parchment. It's the word from Pergamum. This is where books came from, so they had more than 200000 works, literary16:00 works. They were almost competing with Alexandra. So listen, this was an epicenter for power, for culture, and for religiosity, as well as for learning, for knowledge.16:12 And in this place, Jesus says, I know where you dwell, and that's where Satan's throne is. And later on, he goes on to say in that same verse, where Satan dwells.16:24 What I want you to capture, why he begins by saying where Satan's throne is and why he ends by saying where Satan dwells, it's not that Satan only lives in that city. I want you to listen to me.16:37 Satan can be only in 1 place, by the way. He could be working in Ephesus. He could be trying to do things in somewhere else, but this is where his throne was, and this is where he dwells. In other words, what was Jesus16:48 trying to communicate? Jesus was saying that this place, there was a spiritual warfare going on in the city. He says, I know where you dwell, and in the city where you dwell, you're experiencing a lot of17:00 spiritual warfare. Why? Because the powerhouse of Satan is there, and his presence is there. The power and presence of Satan is tangible. You can feel it in that city.17:12 Now this is what many times believers forget. We forget that there is a spiritual reality around us. We only see a three-dimensional world where we see the physical,17:24 but what we fail to see is the spiritual. There is a spiritual reality that is opposing. The Bible says the kingdom of God advances, but then the devil and his demons tried to resist it. The17:36 powers of darkness tried to resist it. That's why you and I need to resist the devil. You and I need to know how to wage the warfare, spiritual warfare, the warfare in faith and in prayer.17:48 The bible says this in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 10 to verse 12. Read this. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. He didn't say,17:59 finally, be strong in your finances. Finally, be strong in your health. Finally, be strong in how you fortify your your properties or your portfolios. He said, be18:11 finally be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Why? Because you're not dealing with material stuff. You're dealing with demonic stuff. You're dealing with18:23 spiritual stuff. Listen. This is important. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand against the schemes of the devil. See,18:34 sometimes the devil attacks you head on. Sometimes he's nudging you subtly. Sometimes we can see the persecution that comes because of18:46 the opposition of the enemy, but sometimes we fail to see the seduction that he brings, the subtlety, the compromises, the little things in which we take for granted, and he pushes us and18:58 nudges us out of the will of God. Listen carefully. This is why he says, don't underestimate the power of darkness. Don't underestimate. I know where you dwell. Where you dwell is a place where19:10 the powerhouse of Satan is. His throne is established. Not only that, his presence is there, it's tangible, he's working actively in that city, and in the midst of it, he's calling his19:22 people. So he's saying to them, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, verse 12. See, sometimes you think your problem is the president that you have, sometimes you think the problem is19:34 the politician you have, the prime minister you have, or the people that are elected in office, so you work them in or you work them out. You think the problem will be solved if I work somebody else in. Not really.19:45 Why? Because it's not a problem, it's not a political problem, it's a spiritual problem. Why? We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over19:57 this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Many times, we forget that we are living in a spiritual reality, and20:09 all you can see is your financial portfolio and your property value and you look at all these net worth that you carry and as a result you fail to understand there is a bigger dimension that you need to prepare20:21 yourself for in the spirit, just as you do workout for your physical body, what are you doing to protect your spiritual aspect of life? Why? Because the bible20:33 says you and I are called to live faithfully in a pagan world, and the reason why Jesus says this is because he says there will be a lot of temptation, pressure for you20:45 to give up, deception and seduction for you to give in. Compromise can easily happen, but Jesus says, I'm standing with a 2 edged sword20:57 in my hand. In other words, he has the 2 edged sword in his word, he has the authority to judge, and judgment will happen, so therefore pay attention. He says, stay faithful in spite of21:08 the stress from without. In other words, he's saying to them, I know your difficult circumstances, I know how challenging it is for you to work in that environment, I know how difficult it21:20 is for you to navigate through your faith and your beliefs and your values in a world that doesn't respect it, but he says, I want to ask you for a21:32 steadfast devotion. And you know what? The church in Pergamum was steadfast in their devotion despite their circumstances, and that is what we see here. This21:43 persecution increased manyfold, but yet they remained steadfast. Look at what the verse says in verse 13. It says, yet you hold21:55 fast my name. Yet you hold fast for my name. I want you to catch that picture. They clung. They they they were they were holding on to God. They did not let go. They22:07 were like relentless. They pursued God and they held on to the Lord, and they said they hold fast to my name. They didn't deny the Lord, and they did not deny my faith, the bible says.22:19 He says, you did not deny my faith, the faith I've given you. Hallelujah. And then he gives them an example, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness was killed among you where22:31 Satan dwells. He uses 1 of the members, the church members. We don't know whether he was a pastor or a leader or a church member, just an ordinary church member, maybe a civilian working in 1 of these22:42 powerhouses, and this is what happened to him because of his faithful witness, he was killed. He died as a martyr.22:54 Maybe he was a brilliant athlete. Maybe he was a brilliant athlete and he refused to take drugs, he refused to bow down to idols, he refused to go and worship the emperor, he refused to23:06 do all this, and as a result they had him killed. Maybe he was a brilliant scientist. Maybe he was a brilliant scientist, he was working in all the in scientific23:17 research, and he wouldn't compromise on his values. Maybe he didn't wanna partake of what they were doing, and he stood firm in his beliefs, and because he now knows too much of what they are doing, they killed23:29 him. It could be any scenario, isn't it? We don't know what who Antipas was or what was he killed for, but all we know is he was killed because23:41 he wanted to be a witness to the name of Jesus, to the faith in Christ, and as a result, the Bible calls him, Jesus calls him, my faithful witness. Do23:53 you know the word faithful witness is only given as a title to Jesus in the book of Revelation? Look at this, in Revelation chapter 1 and verse 5, the Bible says, from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness. Chapter24:05 3 and verse 14, the bible says, and to the angel of the church in Laodicea write the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness. Jesus is the true witness. Jesus is the24:16 faithful witness, and Jesus now identifies himself with Antipas because Antipas was killed for his faith and he did not deny the24:28 name of Jesus, he did not let go of the faith in Christ, but he was killed for his belief and that, Jesus says, he I identify myself with him, he is my faithful24:40 witness. You always hear me say this, it's better to live for the approval of God rather than for the applause of men. What can you get by24:52 having the applause of men? Today they celebrate you, tomorrow they forget you, but the God in heaven who is faithful for you, God in heaven who died on the cross for you, who25:04 shed his precious blood to redeem your life, he says to you, remain faithful. Why? Because you will be my faithful witness, and if you are25:16 faithful witness, he is the judge. He's he's a double 2 edged sword. He's able to discipline us, he's able to destroy the enemy,25:27 he will judge, and he says, I want you to be faithful. But let me highlight and say this church, no matter what you go through in life always remember this, this25:39 persecution in this world is a limited persecution and that limited persecution is a temporal 1. They can only destroy your body, they cannot destroy your25:51 soul. So Jesus says remain faithful. You know in the year 2007, there was an article in Sydney Morning Herald that really26:02 broke my heart because it was an article about a pastor, 42 year old pastor, on the day of his birthday, 42 year old who was celebrating26:14 his birthday, he was killed by Taliban in Afghanistan. This is a South Korean pastor who led a team of 22 young people to26:26 Afghanistan to do missionary work, to to provide relief and support to people who are going through pain and suffering in the hands of Taliban, but the Taliban26:37 captured them, all the 22 of them, they kept them as hostage, and 1 of them was killed and it was this pastor. Maybe they wanted to show26:49 how serious they were, maybe they were choosing 1 person from that team, and I imagine this, that the pastor volunteered himself and said, no no no no, on behalf of my team I'll die27:01 first, and he his body was filled with gun wounds, bullet wounds. 42 year old passed away just like that. What27:13 would Jesus say to that? Jesus would say, my faithful witness. See, when you and I think of life in this western world that we live in,27:25 you may not face persecution like that, but can I humbly say this, whatever you face, Jesus knows? Maybe you're being snubbed in your workplace because you're a Christian. Maybe27:37 they bypass you for that promotion. Maybe they never acknowledge your service. Maybe they don't celebrate you because you are a Christian, you hold certain values, maybe they don't include you in their27:49 private circle, maybe they don't give you the privileges that other people enjoy because you don't hang out with them in the bar late at night, or maybe when you go to a business deal and they say, oh, for us, I want you28:00 to take us to a geisha, I want you to give us these kind of privileges, maybe you take me to this kind of bar, and you don't. As a result, you lose out on certain things. These are28:11 limited persecution, and these are nothing in comparison to the world that we are gonna enjoy 1 day in Christ. So what Christ calls us to is forget about this material world, think about the28:23 spiritual dimension. There is a Satan who wants to oppose you, who wants to stop you in your progress. Even if he can't put pressure and persecution, he'll come alongside and will seduce you. So28:35 stand strong, remain faithful, stay faithful in spite of distress from without.28:47 In fact, in second Timothy chapter 3 and verse 12, the bible says, indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, isn't it? So you shouldn't be surprised. The second thing is28:59 he says, stay faithful in spite of deception from within. Now verse 14 to verse 17, I want you to read this because this speaks about deception within.29:12 So many times we can see the pressure that comes from outside, external pressure we can identify, but the internal deception, the internal seduction, the subtlety of how Satan's schemes29:24 work, we sometimes don't realize. Read it. But I have a few things against you. Pause there. The previous church, he said, I have 1 thing in the city of for the church in the29:36 city of Ephesus, he said, I have 1 thing against you. Here he says, I have a few things against you, and he says, you have you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam. Now, in29:47 the previous verses, he said, you hold fast to my name, you hold fast to my faith. Now he says, you're holding fast to the teaching of Balaam, some of you, not all, but some, who taught Balak how to29:59 put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. 2 things, food sacrificed to idols, sexual immorality,30:11 and he says this was how Balaam put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel. And then in verse 15, so also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolatans.30:23 In the same context, he says you hold fast to the teaching of Balaam. I think both he's talking about the root issue. The root issue of Balaam and the root issue of what the Nicolatans were teaching were the same.30:36 Now let's look back in history and find out what Balaam actually did. You know in Numbers chapter 22 to 25, you actually read about Balaam, and especially in Numbers chapter30:47 25 and verse 1 and verse 3, up to verse 3, this is what it reads, while Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. These invited the people to the sacrifices of their30:59 gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. Now, let me give you a background.31:12 Balak was the king of Moab. He couldn't fight and overcome Israel because the god of Israel was very powerful, so he hired a pagan31:24 priest, a pagan prophet by the name of Balaam, and this Balaam can hear the voice of God, and he gifted a lot to Balaam and31:36 said, come and curse the children of God, because if you curse them and they are cursed, then I can overcome them. 3 times Balaam tried to curse,31:48 but in the last minute God changed all the curse into a blessing because he can only speak what the Lord commanded. Now the story is this, the principle is this, that no 1 can just curse you willy31:59 nilly. No matter what they try, the bible says, no weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that is raised against you, you shall condemn them in judgment, for this is your32:11 inheritance as people of God, and your righteousness is from him. Can you say amen? Same thing happened here. Balaam tried to curse, but he couldn't curse. 3 times he failed. Finally, Balak gave up and he said,32:23 I would rather you not bless them. Don't even curse, don't even bless, just don't say anything. Well, the bible says Balaam was paid highly for what he did.32:35 So Balaam, with a grateful heart for the high payment he got, second Peter actually says that he got, he he loved the gain that he got from wrongdoing. He loved the gain. He loved the profit that he got32:47 from wrongdoing. As a result, he gave them a very clever plan. He says, you want the people of Israel to be cursed? You don't have to curse them, the Lord will curse them if you just do this to them. What is32:59 it? Make your pretty girls from Moab go and seduce the sons of Israel, and when they whore themselves, when they33:10 do sexual immorality, make them eat food that is served to idols, the Lord will curse them automatically. The Bible says in Numbers33:22 chapter 31 and verse 16, read this, behold these on Balaam's advice caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the incident of Peor, and so33:34 the plague came among the congregation of the Lord. How sad is that? The children of Israel had all that they need in God, and yet a seduction that came33:46 from within, a wrong teaching, a wrong compromise, a subtlety of the enemy to push them away. This is why I want you to understand this. If the devil cannot kill the church, you will join the church. If33:58 he cannot put external pressure for you to stop, he will try internal corruption. That is why you and I, we need to pay attention to the teachings we hold onto, the preachers we listen34:09 to, and what we give ear to. Listen, the last days, you and I, we need discernment and the bible says here they had 2 things, food sacrificed to34:21 idols and sexual immorality, and I think the teaching of Nicolatans was similar because Nicolatans are the followers of Nicholas. I shared this with you34:33 earlier, and he would have taught them, it's okay, the idols have no power, you can bow down to them, you can eat the food sacrificed to them, it should be fine. Not only that, you can participate in the sexual34:44 immorality in the temples. Why? Because if you don't do it, you won't get the business deals. You can't upgrade your property, you can't upgrade your value of the house, you can't do a lot of things. You've got to do34:54 these things. What? Do what the what the world does. Participate in this, and it's only a material thing. The body is the 1 that is involved. Your spirit is saved. You're fine. That's the wrong35:06 teaching. Now if I go around talking about the wrong teachings in so many denominations, you would know that there are so many denominations that still teach things that are contrary to the word of God. That's why in the35:17 last days, pay attention to. You know, in my travels I've encountered this countries like Papua New Guinea and places where I had to deal with people who came from certain35:29 continent, I won't mention the name, but there are certain continents where people live immoral lives because they come from certain tribes where polygamy is okay, and so I35:41 encountered a man who had married 7 times and he had 7 wives, and he says, I love all of them. How do you how do you navigate these things? So these are real35:53 issues, and Jesus was saying, don't live in cultural practice. Just because that's the culture that's admitted in the culture, that's not your practice. In the culture here, they can shack up before they get married,36:05 before they stand in the presence of God and say, I do, they already do everything because they go into a They they go they go and live together. I wanna tell all my young people,36:17 listen carefully, just because it's a cultural practice, because you see that in Sex and the City series, or you watch it in Friends, or you watch it in I'm I'm listing all the ones that came in the nineties, see? That's36:28 how far outdated I am. Or if you look at what happens to the Desperate Housewives, again, that's another show that was way back. I don't know what's going on these days, maybe it's the Netflix. I don't know what goes36:40 on in Netflix, maybe you know, but you watch all these things and you say, wow, this is how the world lives, But you're not called to imitate the world. You cannot adopt their cultural practices.36:53 You cannot say, can make this 1 compromise. Can I humbly say this to the couple that lives together without getting married? You need to get married, otherwise you're living in adultery and fornication.37:05 That's sin. This is important for you and I to learn. Why? Because in the last days, the bible says judgment begins in the house of God, he will come with his37:17 judicial authority. He's the sword, he's the double edged sword, he's the sharp 2 edged sword, and when he cuts, it's final. I want you to listen37:29 to me carefully. This is why Jesus is calling his church back. The enemy recognizes this. If he cannot curse the church, he will cut up the church. If he cannot kill the church, he37:40 will join the church. If he cannot make them, if he cannot make them discouraged and withdrawn and give up because of persecution, he will just pervert them. He will try37:52 perversion. That's why you and I, we are called to stay alert. What is the call of Jesus to the church? Look at verse 16, he says, therefore repent. If not, I will come to38:04 you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. How serious that is. Repent. That's a call. He's saying, I'm not coming yet. I haven't I haven't started38:16 yet. I haven't started the work of discipline yet, but I'm calling you to repent. Repentance is because he's saying to you, I'm a loving God, I'm a loving father, I'm a loving savior, I want to give you an38:28 opportunity to return back to me. What is repentance? Repentance is letting go of that action that you're doing. 1 80 degree turn. Right? You turn around,38:39 You're no longer doing the same thing. You make changes to your lifestyle. You come out of that evil that you're doing, and you repent you walk in repentance, meaning you say, Lord, I don't want to rebel38:51 against you. I don't want to rebel against your word. I wanna follow you. I wanna acknowledge you as the Lord of my life. That is repentance, and I want to live to please you. That is repentance, and that's what he's39:01 calling them. Therefore, repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. You want to be in war with God, you don't want to39:13 be. And that is what he's threatening, and he says in the last days he will deal with it, therefore come back. I want you to see the faithfulness of God.Show more In this video 0:00 The Compelling Call to Faithfulness
Paul Jeyachandran
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