Let's get to it. Let's read it right from the get
go, verse 12 and to the Angel of the church in Pergamos.
Angel can be either be messenger.
Many believe it's to the pastor, to the leader of the church and
Pergamos right, Jesus telling John what to write these things
says he Jesus in every letter introduces himself with a
certain title. It gives the the flavour of what
he's about to say these things says he who has the sharp 2
edged sword. So he's going to be speaking
about the word of God and the necessity of it.
I know your works. Again, God knows the churches.
He knows what we do. He knows exactly what's going on
here today. He knows our hearts, the hearts
of all of us, and He knows what's happening here.
He is in the midst. Remember, of the lampstands of
every church where you dwell. And notice this where Satan's
throne is. So Satan is not omnipresent.
He can only be in one place at one time.
And so here we're reading that Satan had set up his
headquarters literally in Pergamos in modern day Turkey,
and you hold fast to my name and did not deny my faith even in
the days when Antipas will get to him.
He's how how would you be that you mentioned it that you get
your name in the Bible as being one who who died for Christ.
That's amazing. Can't wait to meet Antipas.
He has his name because he stood up for the Lord.
He died for his fight for Antipas, my faithful martyr, who
was killed among you where Satan dwells.
He repeats it. So Antipas was a churchgoer, so
many believe he was a pastor in Pokemos then he says, But I have
a few things against you because you have there those some in the
church, some were faithful, but some in the church who hold the
doctrine. The teaching of Balaam, who
taught Balak. Balak was the king of the
Moabites to put a stumbling block before the children of
Israel to eat things sacrificed to idols.
And here's what really was the outcome to commit sexual and
morality. Thus you also have those who
hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans.
We covered those basically they thought the same as the doctrine
of Balaam, which things I hate. We looked at that back at
Ephesus. Here's what the cure is.
You know Christians are to repent.
You know, we only, we don't repent once.
Repentance isn't just for someone who to get saved.
Repentance is something that believers do too.
Read 1 John 19 and 10. Repent or else Jesus says, I'll
come to you quickly and we'll fight against them.
And here's the mention again with the sword of my mouth.
What is it? It's the word of God in
Revelation 19. When Jesus returns the second
coming out of his mouth will go the sharp 2 edged sword.
He will speak and God's judgement will fall, he who has
an ear. So here's the part as I read
this, the Book of Revelation says you are being blessed by
God. He who hears and reads this
shall receive the blessing and also he who obeys it.
So as I read this, God is blessing you.
That's amazing. The Spirit says to the churches,
to him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manner
to eat, I will give him a whitestone and on the stone a
new name written, which no one knows except him who receives
it. So the Church of Ephesus, first
church, it left its first love of Christ.
Remember it was going to church, it was doing all the stuff.
You and I, we can go to church, we can grab our Bible, head off,
grab the kids, head there, go about serving Sunday school,
serve the coffee, be part of the worship team and our hearts not
in it. You've left God, you're going to
church, but you haven't got God with you.
That was the church at Ephesus. You haven't lost it, you left
it. The Church of Smyrna we looked
at Wednesday night, my favourite church, it's suffered.
It's suffered because of its great love for God.
Jesus said there are people you're going to die.
People have died in the Church of Smyrna.
More of you are going to die. He never got them out.
And he said don't worry, I'll, I won't make sure.
I'll make sure he won't die. Never said that they were going
to die for their faith, But the Church of Smyrna was strong and
powerful. It's the only church that has no
harsh things said to it, no admonition from God.
It's interesting. Church of Smyrna, shortest
letter. It suffered greatly because of
its great love for Christ. And now today, the Church of
Pergamos. Sometimes I'll say Pergamon
Pergamos, basically that's the same name.
Now this church was a whole different matter, which we'll
see. It played church and it acted
before when Satan launched his vow, persecution against the
Church of Jesus Christ, which we studied particularly in the
dispersion of the early church from Jerusalem.
They didn't leave. So God allowed persecution on
the church at Jerusalem because they ought to go to where Judea,
Samaria, and the outermost parts of the world.
And they stayed. They huddled in one thing
persecution came off they went when Satan was allowed by God to
do that instead of the church crumpling saying well, I'll just
persecute them that'll that'll just Chuck it in.
No, like the Church of Smyrna, the love of Christ by these who
suffered persecution grew even stronger.
In one of our visits to Israel, our group went to a location,
the location where Pilot had Jesus stand next to him after
Jesus had been crucified. We were there at this location
and at this location it was a tragic reminder because Jesus
was so brutalised by the whip that he just was red.
Raw bones, sinews could be seen blood everywhere from him
because such was the, the thrashing and the pulling of
the, the, the iron and, and the bits of glass and stone that
were in the, in the, or the whipping that just literally
tore shreds off him as he stood. We're at that location where
this occurred. As we we gathered at that spot,
we came across a group of Chinese believers visiting
Israel from the persecuted church in China.
And we joined with them in worship.
They sang a song, they sang it in Chinese.
We we couldn't know what they were singing of their love for
Christ, but their love for Christ and our love for Christ.
Join us together at this this this sacred site I call.
But as they sang, and they sang with absolute gusto from every
individual, every one of them, not one of them sang without
tears streaming down their eyes, singing loud, loud, loud.
And after they had finished their singing, through an
interpreter, I asked what were the words of the song that they
were singing? And he said to me, We've sung
about our cruel treatment, our beatings and sufferings we've
received constantly in China because we just love Jesus
Christ. But the chorus of the song we
sang over and over is filled with these words.
And Jesus held our hand all through this time, and he never
let go. He never let go.
When persecution hit the early church, the Christians, as I
said, were scattered to all parts of the world, and with
them they took the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ and
the gospel spread across the world like wildfire.
The devil knew his plan of attack by a full frontal
persecution on the church was failing because the church was
growing more and more as it did in China.
The underground church just blossomed powerfully, grew, and
it grew in power. And so the devil decided he'd go
to Plan B. He decided to join the church.
Jesus captured this action with a parable back in Matthew 13.
Jesus says. Here's another story Jesus told
the Kingdom of heaven is like a farmer who planted a good seed
in the field. But that night, as the worker
slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat.
They slipped away. When the crop began to grow and
produce grain, the weeds also grew.
The farmers workers went to him and said, Sir, the field where
you planted that good seed, it's full of weeds.
Where do they come from? An enemy has done this, the
farmer exclaimed. Or shall we pull out the weeds?
They asked. No, he replied.
You'll uproot the wheat if you do because they look the same.
Let both grow together until the harvest.
Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them
into bundles and burn them, and to put the wheat into the barn.
The Church of Pergamos covers the period.
So too the churches that have become compromised.
What happened is the church began to fold in its doctrine,
the word compromise in the dictionary, it means this.
It means a settlement of dispute by concession on each side.
It's something midway between different things.
In other words, you, you change your stance, you put oneself or
another person in a dishonourable position.
Pergamus represents the church that existed from 313 AD.
Denzel, where are you? You're around.
There were a whole heap of slides.
You can pop them up at any time. Pergamos represented the church
that existed from 313 AD to 600 AD.
It was when Christianity became the Church of Rome, a time in
which Constantine, the emperor of Rome, marched all his armies
into the ocean. Everyone's getting baptised,
marching, they went, they will March there.
You're all baptised. And the church became the legal
religion of the land. It was when Christianity
suffered the most. But during also the period
leading up to that, the church, that church, the compromise
Church, 6,000,000 Christians died during that period for
their fight. As I said, it was the time of
Constantine and he amalgamated priests from false Pagan
religions into being part of the church.
In other words, if everyone, OK, no, no Pagan rules and none of
that stuff, we're all going to be Christian.
But what we can do is you guys or priests, you've been priests
in this, you come over and, and, and you're all part of the, the,
the, the Christian religion now. So when they moved over, they
brought with them and a lot of stuff that you see in churches,
in the high churches, the, the garb and the hats and the carry
on is brought over from that period.
During that time such things as the baptising for the dead, the
Mother of God, worship came into being, praying to Saints came
into being, praying to statues came into being and A and a
hierarchy. The priesthood got this
hierarchy was established, all these different ranks and
levels. The end of this period of
history is known as the Dark Ages.
Jesus said of the church like that of Pergamos that there are
many attending there that appeared to be like Christians
but they are in fact false teachers, false believers and
our warning this morning is for us not to be one of them.
Jesus self titled to this church verse 12 and to the Angel of the
church and Pergamos write these things says he who has the sharp
2 edged sword. Now we know that refers to what
the Bible, God's word, the word of God always cuts two ways.
I know people come to this church and then they leave and I
know many come and go because we teach the Bible.
They go, oh man, you're a bit harsh.
You're a bit strong. No, just reading the Bible.
And So what happens is the word of God cuts two ways.
When I sit every time under the word of God, whenever I read the
word of God, I see things that are great, God's grace, God's
mercy, God's, God's kindness to me.
But also I read, Keith, you're sinful in this theory.
You're lacking this, you're selfish, you're this, you're
that. You're not, you're not doing
that or you're not being a good father, you're not being a good
husband. And I get convicted by it
because the Bible cuts two ways. One side of the word is what
people don't want to hear, which makes them uncomfortable.
You know, the church has gone into this compromise way where
where every time we preach, church gathers.
It's always got to be a positive message.
Look at the children in the world that have grown up under
Always be positive with them. Ask the police, ask school
teachers what it's like having children where their parents
have always been positive with them.
Which is why Calvary chapels do not teach what we call topical
messages as a practise, for such preaching allows pastors and
teachers to talk on things about the Bible they think are
important. But teaching the Bible book by
book, Genesis through the Revelation, chapter by chapter
and verse by verse, forces us to hear what God thinks is
important. And that's the most important
thing. No sidestepping hard issues.
We deal with divorce. We deal with marriage.
We deal with sin. We deal with pornography.
We deal with sexual immorality. We deal with adultery, we deal
with rebellion, we deal with occult, witchcraft, drugs,
drunkenness. Paul calls this teaching the
full counsel of God. Now the curse of compromise is
this. The Church of Pergamos was on a
collision course. Who with Jesus Christ?
Some of its members were suffering from living lives of
compromise in their walk with God.
There are times in our lives when we suffer as Christians,
Peter says. If you suffer as a Christian for
your faith, praise the Lord God, you can, then you can identify
with Christ. It's a blessing, it's a
privilege. But if you're suffering because
you're a Christian idiot, then you deserve a good boot in the
behind. Did he say yes because so many
people in church. Well, you know, you know, and I
was doing this and I was and I I was reading my Bible.
Well, were you reading your Bible when you should have been
doing your job? Yeah, but I was no, do your job.
Well, I was doing and and and and you've acted like a fool.
We need to be wise and what other Christians do.
What was happening at Pergamos is that people were fitting into
the world. So you're one thing here on a
Sunday and then when you go to church or when you go to school,
you go to university, when you go to your mother's group or to
your golf group or to surf, hang out with other surfers, you just
fit in. You speak the way they speak.
You think the way they speak. You don't, you know, no one
knows you're a Christian. They're the Secret Service.
You just want to fit in, and the problem with fitting in is that
Christians don't fit in to a fallen world Compromise.
Living for a Christian is dangerous and can end up being
lethal. There were some there at
Pergamos who were out on a mission to appease everyone by
tolerating certain things within it.
You heard the word tolerance, haven't you man?
Aren't we to be a tolerant society today?
Aren't we to tolerate it? Isn't it interesting how we're
to tolerate everything else? The schools that will tolerate
this sculpture but no school and no systems tolerate what?
Jesus Christ, the AFL, they have a thing for everything, but they
don't have anything for Christianity.
The tolerance is always a way and to weaken and to compromise
the word of God. Tolerance dominates today's
media discussions. And we, the church, the world is
forcing us, trying to force, well, you need to be more
tolerant. I mean, come on, get up with the
ages. Yeah, sure.
And the church was having problems with the correct
doctrine of Jesus Christ. And as a result this had led to
many in the church being involved in lewd behaviour,
specifically sexual immorality. Sexual immorality in the Church
of Jesus Christ today is tragic. And So what was happening in
Pergamos, the people would go and worship at the the temple of
diocese or or Bacchus or the one of the the Apollos.
Or, or they'd say Caesar is Lord, which is what got Antipus
killed because Antipus, he wouldn't sprinkle the, the
insects and say Caesar Lord because he said I only have one
Lord Jesus, my will, you'll die. Just just say Caesar is Lord
just going to do that compromise.
Come on and you can go, go about your business.
He said, I can't do that. So they killed him.
And So what happened? They would go to the temple,
then they'd come to church. You know, Al Capone went to
church every Sunday. You know, he was the biggest
giver of the church that he attended.
Al Capone, you see, do we go and worship at Pagan temples or
what? I don't go to a police or well,
hang on a minute. What are you doing between
Sunday to the next Sunday? What are you worshipping in your
life between that period of time?
What are you giving yourself to, giving your your passions to,
even giving your finances to, giving your children to?
And then you come on a Sunday. We come on a Sunday and our
lifestyle begins to be just like the world can't pick them, like
the seeds sown in that field. Jesus says as they grow, they
look exactly like the wheat. Can't tell the difference.
You see, false teaching can destroy a church and can destroy
a person. So Jesus addresses this church
wielding the sword of the Spirit.
The sword of the Spirit, Hebrews 412 for the word of God is
living. In other words, you read it and
you go, man, I, I never saw that before.
And then you read and you know, I never saw that.
I just because it's living, it's speaking to you, However, it's
changed. And when you, when you're
changing, you go back, you're maybe you, you, you change the
way that you're living as a man, as a, as a husband or as a, as a
wife or a mother. And you're, you're slipping,
you're compromising. And as you read the Word, God's
Word, then all of a sudden it digs where God is living.
And it's powerful. It's sharper than any 2 edged
sword, piercing even to the division of the soul and the
spirit and of joints and marrow. And as a discerner of the
thoughts, it knows what you're thinking and intense of the
heart. It knows what's in your heart,
Hebrews 413 goes on to say, and there is no creature hidden from
his sight, the Lord, but all things are naked and open to the
eyes of him to whom we must give account.
So Pergamos was a tough place to be as a Christian.
Jesus said, I know where you live, and I know Satan's Thrones
there. Imagine living in the Yeah,
yeah. Who lives up there?
Oh, Satan, he's just down the road.
His kids go to state schools. My kids go to.
Can you imagine? It was a tough place to be a
Christian. There were temples of false gods
everywhere. Dionysies, the God of wine,
Asclepius, God of medicine. It's the sign that we use we see
today on medicine. So, you know, with the snake
going around, what they would do with that temple.
And you'd go there and you would lie on the floor.
And if the snake crawled over you, it was a sign of, oh,
you're going to be blessed. Your healing was going to come.
Indiana Jones wouldn't have liked going to that.
They had a major problem, and it all started with wrong belief.
Your problems all start with what you think.
What you believe will always determine how you behave.
False doctrine was rampant in this church.
The word doctrine is mentioned 37 times in the New Testament in
the book of Acts when the church began.
Acts 242 says of the church. And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of
bread and in prayers. Paul wrote to Timothy when he
was in Ephesus one Timothy 413 Till I come Timothy, give
attention to reading. This is why we read the book of
Psalms this morning to exhortation to doctrine.
Paul then wrote to Titus, another young pastor.
He says, But As for you speak the things which are proper for
sound doctrine. There are many today so resolved
to make paramount. The issue is love.
Love is the paramount that they forget the sacredness of
revealed truth. In other words, let's drown out
doctrinal differences. Oh, it doesn't matter what you
believe. Have you come across people like
that? No, it doesn't matter what you
we just as long as we all you know, Allah, Buddha, as long as
we all just love. Jesus says well then why did I
bother that? Because Jesus said I am the way
I am, the truth and the life. Only.
The truth is through Jesus on the cross.
Only salvation is through Jesus on the cross.
Only eternal life is through Jesus on the cross.
No one, Jesus is, no one comes to the Father.
When you die, the only way you get to heaven, Jesus said, is by
me. That's why you're going to have
the truth. There are others so dogged in
their zeal, however, for God's Word that they become harsh,
bitter, and unloving. They're right.
They're dead right, man. They carry Bibles around.
They just use it and they smack you with all the time.
Well, shall not you're wearing, I see you're wearing pants.
You shouldn't be wearing pants. Christians shouldn't be dancing.
And Bible says you can't dance. I don't know Christians.
Some Christians can dance, some can't dance.
I know. And I use the Bible and I bash
you, bash you with it. The Bible teaches us to hold
truth and love, to love others in truth, and to grow not only
in love, but in discernment. Don't be an idiot.
Jesus says I know your works verse 13 and where you dwell
with Satan's Thrones. God is not ignorant of us living
in a non Christian world. Pergamos was a tough place to be
a Christian and to live there. It was full on Pagan town to
which Satan dwelt there. Jesus knows your workplace.
You might work in a workplace that is really just like man.
It is so wrong. You might go to a school where
the kids are just raging and gown berserker.
You might be the only Christian in your family.
Jesus says to you, I know, I know we are.
I know what you're putting up with.
I know about it. He expects you to stay faithful
in that situation. He says hold fast to my name.
Begin of Antipas didn't deny my faith, even in the days which
Antipast was my faithful martyr who was killed among you.
The Church of Pergamos had welcomed the doctrine of Balaam
and the doctrine of the Nicolaitans.
The word welcome means allowed. Tolerator.
What do you, what should we tolerate in this church?
Oh, it doesn't really matter. You know, we could have this
person speak, you know, You know, I'm always getting emails
from people who want to come speak here.
Always want. First of all, they want money.
Always get those emails. Can we?
Well, this church, you know, we'd like to you to be involved
in pass the key. You're on my mind.
I don't even know you. Would you consider both of these
false doctrines? The Balaam and the Nicolaitans
taught the same thing. They taught this.
You can live in sin as much as you please and still be a
Christian. God will understand.
Isn't that what the Australian vernacular is?
I'm a Christian, I know God, God knows me, I worship God in my
way. Isn't that the Christian
religion? But Romans chapter 6, Paul says,
what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? Certainly not.
How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
After all, if God loves sinners, then why worry about sin?
Just he'll forgive us. God gives grace to sinners, then
why not sin more and receive more grace?
Some people think that their job is to sin.
Well, I know. Yeah, I'm sin.
But you know, I'll be back in church.
God, I mean, I'm me and the Lord, well, like this.
And I'll just repent. He'll forgive me.
God will do his job. I'll do my job.
Paul establishes an important principle when we are born again
in Romans 6, when we have believed on Jesus for our
salvation, our relationship with sin is permanently What's that
word permanently changed? You've become a new creature in
Christ. All things are passed away.
All things have become new to Corinthians 517, that we should
now no longer live in sin. It simply isn't fitting to live
any longer in something you've died to.
But like people today, people can say, Keith, God knows my
heart. Exactly.
That's the problem. God does know your heart.
Jeremiah 17/9. The heart is deceitful above all
things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it?
Your heart, my heart is sinful, God knows it.
This is the compromise, Christian.
Such people think well, a little bit of sin won't hurt.
We should call a white lie. Remember a white lie.
Some of you old enough or a fib. Kids wouldn't know what a fib
is. White lie being flirtatious.
I was just being flirtatious. We heard the women dealt with as
a subject brutally. Friday night pornography.
Well, yeah, but just a bit here, a bit there.
Fudging your work timesheet. Yeah, I know.
Well, I'll just round out the hours.
What's the harm? The harm is we cannot handle a
little bit of sin. It always leads to more.
No one suddenly falls away from the faith.
Samson. You know the story could have
should have but didn't Samson the greatest judge just and he
did everything he had just this and he met a lady who's TomTom
Jones's girlfriend Delilah started going out with Delilah.
She's Welsh. Samson is.
He was fell under Tom Jones's girlfriend's Delilah's.
Where'd you get the strength from?
You know, you hold steel. And in the end, the devil
couldn't defeat Samson on the battlefield.
So what did the devil do? I think I can get him in the
bedroom. How many evangelists do we
continue to see fall? Where do they fall?
Same place that Samson fell. It's the same teaching of
Balaam. Go to church, do your thing, but
it's just a little thing. What is the doctrine of Balaam?
Verse 14? We find his story in the book of
Numbers 22 to 24, where the king of Moab, his name is Balaac.
He hated the Jews and he wanted them completely annihilated.
Sounds a lot like Iran, doesn't it?
Bilek hired Balaam, who's this weird prophet to get God to
curse his own children. And he offered him great, great
riches. Balance it.
No probs. I'll money.
Whoa, I'll do that. He's a profit for hire.
He accepts the job, tries to put a curse each time he God speaks.
You can't curse my people. And he has to bless them.
Anyway. Finally he loads his donkey and
he heads out to carry out the task.
And as he's growing along and he's faithful old donkey and his
donkey slams on the brakes crushes his masters leg up
against the wall causing Balin to hey what are you doing?
Stop beating him. Beats him three times He does
this and then finally the donkey shouts out.
He said hey what are you beating me for?
Funny thing is Balin starts talking back to the donkey and
the donkey says hey and read it. Haven't I been your faithful
donkey man? I've never let you down before,
I've never done this. And Balaam's eyes, it says we're
opened to see standing before him in the way of the poor
donkey, a mighty Angel with the sword drawn.
That's what the donkey saw. Balaam learnt that God was with
his people, Israel, and he was their king.
Balaam was unable to curse Israel, but he knew how to
defile them. And so he told King Balak, just
get the most beautiful Noah white women, get them to just
sort it down to the Israeli men, all good.
And what? And it happened.
They went down there. Israeli men follow, fell for
them. And then it says that Israel for
the first time began to worship Baal.
It's mentioned all because of sexual immorality.
The sin of pergamos, like the sin of Balaam, was the
toleration of evil. Sexual immorality was the
outcome. It's when you say you're
Christian, but you live like everybody else.
You're not any different. You want to go to heaven, but
you live like hell in the meantime.
That's called compromise. It's the process of gradually
waking, weakening your spiritual life until you wake up one day
and find yourself doing things you once conceited and hated.
Thought conceited and hated the prodigal.
What happened to him? He found himself living in a pig
pen. Think about that.
Is there a way out? Yes.
Verse 16. Repent, or else I'll come to you
quickly and we'll fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the
churches. To him who overcomes, I'll give
some of the hidden manner to eat, and I'll give him a
whitestone and the stone, a new name written with no one knows
except him, and receives it. Jesus has commanded those in
Pergamos who had held their faith.
He's done that even under the threat of the death.
But he reveals the problem. Jesus said you better change
your heart and change your wives.
Repent, because your tolerance of false doctrine and the
associated living will eventually destroy you unless
you repent. That's how house files.
But Keith, even committed Christians slip up now and then,
don't they? No one's perfect, surely?
It's not a question of being perfect, because no one is.
Nonetheless, you can live as a dedicated follower of Christ,
and with God's help you can honour the Lord with your life.
The choice. Or you can follow the path of
compromise, living outwardly as a Christian but indulging in sin
whenever you feel like it, telling yourself it'll be OK,
I'll go to church, God will forgive me.
That's a Pharisee looking all white on the outside and then
inside you're full of dead men's bones.
My role as a pastor in these last days of Calvary Chapel,
Secret Harbour, is to be a watchman.
Ezekiel 33, seven says so. You son of man, I've made you a
watchman for the House of Israel.
Therefore you shall hear a word from my mouth and warn them for
me. Ancient cities had a watchman
stationed on the walls. Their responsibility was to
sound a warning if an enemy was approaching.
Paul was a watchman, he said to the Ephesian elders, I testify
to you this day in Acts 20. I am innocent of the blood of
all men. Why?
For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel
of God. Yes, God will forgive you, but
that doesn't remove the consequences of your sinful
actions or words. Ask King David what happened.
The death of his young son. Remember that the baby, then the
rebellion of Absalom, then Absalom's death, then the House
of David just fell in a crumble. All because one night when he
should have been where his men were in battle, because we are
in a battle. We're soldiers of the Lord.
He was home doing what he shouldn't have been doing when
he should have been out in fellowship.
And there he saw, because the devil said, I can get David in
the bedroom too. And he did.
David became an adulterer and a murderer.
One night, you see, you can be a person who gets into the car
inebriated, You can get arrested for driving over the limit.
You can repent, you can ask God to forgive you and He will, but
you'll still pay a fine or spend time in the lock up for breaking
the law. Just because you confess a sin
and receive God's cleansing does not mean that we will skip the
repercussions of our actions. People forget that.
Galatians 6-7, don't be misled. You cannot mock the justice of
God. You'll always harvest what you
plan. You'll sow what you reap.
So yes, God will forgive you. But that does not mean you'll
dodge all the consequences. You will still face the natural
consequences of your sin. If you're not a godly father, if
you're not a godly husband, your family will suffer.
Yes, God can forgive you. Oh God, I failed in this area.
But the consequences will fall upon your children and upon your
marriage and upon your wife. Men, listen up.
It's you. God comes to you.
You're responsible. You're the head of the home.
You're the spiritual head. I got blame on your wife about
all the kids are rebellious. Well, why are you disciplining
them? Are you are you doing your job
or? Yeah.
Well, can't see your mother. You know Australia.
Listen, I grew up going to a church.
There were no men were. It was such a sad thing.
And our nation has fallen because we don't have enough
godly men. Being godly at home, not just
rolling up the church while I can't.
I'm too busy. I don't read the Bible.
I don't have time. You have time for every other
hobby that you have. You have time for every other
passion that you like. But God holds you responsible
and me responsible for my marriage, for my family.
God's not going to come after my wife.
God's not going to come after my kids.
And how will I stand on that day?
Am I compromising my family? Am I one thing here and another
thing away? Because as your kids see you,
they too will follow your path of compromise.
It just happens. So as we wrap this up, we're
going to because of time manner and the stone manner is the
reward is Jesus says I am the bread of life.
You can have Jesus. He says I'll give you me and the
stone. He says I will make you not
guilty. I will say that you're mine, I
own you. The choice is yours.
As we wrap this up, I want to ask you 4 things.
Are we remaining faithful and courageous in times of
persecution because it's not going to get any easier?
Are we tolerating some sin or some unbiblical practise in our
lives? What are you doing?
Could Jesus come to you and you not be embarrassed?
What is the Lord speaking to us today in this message?
He who has ears, let him hear what the Spirit is saying,
because my job is to warn you. And I see families falling, I
see husbands bumbling, and I see the women having to carry the
load that men aren't carrying. And it's wrong.
It's not right. The church should be full of
powerful godly men. The women shouldn't have to
carry the the the task as did Deborah and JL when the man said
I'm not going into battle unless you go so God had to raise a
woman. We're living in the times where
the devil he's out to get every one of us.
His time is short and he don't play.
He'll kill mine, butcher destroy, He'll lie, he'll cheat.
But we have Jesus Christ, and he'll never leave us nor forsake
us.