Revelation Chapter 2, the Bible reads, "Under the angel of the church of Ephesus write,
These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the
midst of the seven golden candlesticks.
I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are
evil; and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found
them liars, and hast borne, and hast patience.
And for my name's sake, hast labored, and hast not fainted.
Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else
I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou
repent.
But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
To him that overcometh will I give to Ede of the tree of life, which is in the midst
of the paradise of God.
And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write, These things saith, the first and the
last, which was dead and is alive.
I know thy works in tribulation and poverty, but thou art rich.
And I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue
of Satan.
Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer.
Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that they may be tried.
And ye shall have tribulation ten days.
Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, These things saith he which had the
sharp sword with two edges.
I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seed is.
And thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein
Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.
But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine
of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat
things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.
So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.
Repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword
of my mouth.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and I will give him a
white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth
it.
And unto the angel of the church, and thy attire, 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.
I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works;
and the last of me more than the first.
Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel,
which calleth her a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication,
and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not.
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 reigns and hearts.
And I will give unto every one of you according to your works.
But unto you I say, and unto the rest of Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which
have not known the depths of Satan as they speak, I will put upon you none other burden.
But that which ye have already hold fast till I come, and he that overcometh and keepeth
my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations.
And he shall rule them with a 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; he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit
saith unto the churches.
Brother Eli, will ye pray for us?
In relation to chapter 2 again, and this is actually my third sermon out of here, and
you're like, "Well, I thought we were doing this on Sunday night."
I'm playing catch-up here, so I just wanted to get the seven churches completely finished.
So tonight will also be in Revelation, chapter 3, and I'm going to finish that off, and
we'll head into chapter number 4 next Sunday.
But I've already covered the church of Ephesus, and I've covered the church of Pergamos.
And then, so I kind of went out of order, and then I preached kind of a standalone sermon
about the synagogue of Satan last Sunday night, where I ripped on the Jews and their lies,
and basically just exposed the fact that Jesus actually calls the so-called Jews the synagogue
of Satan.
There's no other religion in the world that has synagogues besides the Jews.
And actually, when I was in Indianapolis, I preached out of that passage, too.
So it could be actually, well, I actually preached out of chapter 3 over there, but
I ran into some black Hebrew Israelite over there, and he ticked me off.
So I preached against them out of that passage because they say that they're Jews and do
lie also.
So anyway, he was trying to give me to believe that Jesus was black because he had hair like
wool or whatever.
So I don't think he knows what that means.
It was white like wool, though.
So anyway, so we're going to cover the church in Smyrna right away here.
Verse number 8, I actually did get to verse number 10 in our last study where we left
off here, but I'm going to just start it off in verse number 8 here.
It says, "And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write, 'These things saith the
first and the last, which was dead and is alive.'"
Of course, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, He is the first, the last, and was dead and
is alive.
So did Jesus die?
Of course He did.
Is Jesus God?
Of course He was.
A lot of people say, "God can't die," I think Emily Perry was famous for saying that
at one point, but Jesus is God, and yeah, He did die.
So God did die for us, you know, He died for our sins.
So Jesus of course was a man also, but He was the God-man.
You can't separate the two of them, they are both, He was both God and man at the same
time.
100% God, 100% man.
So you can't separate those two things.
So it's not like He was playing the God part and the man part at different times.
So He was both at the same time.
Verse 9 it says, "I know thy works and tribulation and poverty, but thou art rich.
And I know the blasphemy of them that say they're Jews and are not, but are the synagogue
of Satan."
So Jesus knows our works and this specific church in Smyrna, He knows the tribulation
that they go through.
The tribulation is trouble that is given to them because of their belief, because of their
faith that they practice, and so this church is persecuted, just like the church in Pergamos
is persecuted.
And in fact, they had a martyr that was killed as someone that died for their faith.
There was antipas and the Bible says that that was where Satan's seat was.
He actually, that was where he ruled in power in that area.
He basically reigned in that specific area, you know, there's, the Bible kind of teaches
this concept.
There's, you know, high, high level devils that rule over certain areas, certain cities.
Daniel was trying to get his prayers to God and he was being hindered.
And so it's kind of, I don't have time to really delve into that today, but it is true.
And so I'm sure that there's some demon over Portland that is a homo or something.
I don't know.
But I'm not really sure what the deal is there, but and obviously a communist and a liberal.
So yeah, I mean, I mean, it's weird how oppressed all these, you know, cities are.
And there's a reason why because there's devils of oppression and principalities and
powers in high places.
But I'll get to that later.
Maybe I'm not sure if it's in this sermon or the one to follow.
But anyway, so tribulation, the Bible kind of defines it for us, what it is.
But we'll get there in a little bit, too.
But let's turn over.
Keep your finger here in Revelation and let's look at Matthew chapter 5.
So it's interesting what Jesus says to this church here.
He says, "I know that it works in tribulation and poverty," but it says in parentheses,
"but thou art rich."
So how can you be in poverty but actually rich at the same time?
Well, because if you are being persecuted for your faith and you're also poor, like
literally poor, and maybe even poor in spirit, you know, blessed are the poor in spirit,
the Bible says.
But look at Matthew 5.
It says, "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven.
After ye, when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against
you falsely for my sake, rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven,
for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you."
So Jesus says you're blessed when you're persecuted for righteousness' sake.
Not for the things that you do wrong.
That's not persecution, you're getting in trouble because you do something wrong.
And not when God's chasing at you because you're doing something wrong.
It's talking about when someone's persecuting because you're doing something right.
Because you're standing up for the Lord Jesus or you're just practicing your faith.
You're going to get persecuted for those things and when you are, He says you're blessed.
When people hate your guts, and sometimes people will just hate your guts if you even just say you're a Christian.
And then when you start talking doctrine to them, they'll hate you even more.
And then when you start trying to preach the gospel to them, they'll hate you even more.
I mean, you think about the times that our church has been persecuted for preaching against
the sodomites and things like that.
And we'll kind of look back and think those are the hardest times of persecution that
we've had, but I would say that's probably not true.
Because those are very few and far in between.
But how often do we get persecuted when we're out knocking doors?
I mean, we've been persecuted way more out knocking doors than we ever have by the sodomites.
The sodomites has been what, three total services where they've actually shown up at our church?
And protested? Three total. I mean, they were pretty bad, but like nowhere, I mean, they
didn't do anything to us. You know, they just made it more people come to church and it
was actually kind of fun in some ways. I mean, not having to look at them. I mean, if I could
just, you know, bleach my eyeballs afterwards, that was good. But, you know, I mean, we get
persecuted almost every time we go out sowing. Someone's saying something to us or, you know,
to get the apartment manager from hell or whatever that's running around trying to fight
us or trying to take our invites off the doors and things like that. That's persecution.
You know, it's obviously not the type of persecution where they're actually hitting us or hurting
us but, you know, those things can happen. So, but Jesus said, "Rejoice and be exceeding
glad for great is your reward in heaven." So how are we in poverty and yet rich? Well,
I mean, if you're suffering for righteousness' sake, then that's what Jesus says. You're
rich. And so some of you are rich, you're loaded right now, you just don't even realize
it. You're like, "Well, I don't have anything in my pockets." But it's stored up there.
We're thieves and robbers. They can't break in and steal that stuff. So let's go back
to our text where you're holding your finger or bookmark or whatever, verse number 10.
It says, "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall
cast some of you into prison, that you may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten
days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." Some people read
that and they're like, "I don't know if I can do that. I don't know if I can be faithful
unto death." But you'd be surprised about some of the things that you can do when you
have faith. And in that situation, some people would be so terrified that they would not
want to do that. I mean, Peter was terrified over a young maid that was just saying things
to him. But when someone was trying to arrest Jesus, he was just swinging his sword and
chopping his ear off. So, I mean, he's like, "I'll cut your other ear off." You know,
I don't know. He was, Jesus was like, "We're not fighting with the sword. Put that sword
away." Because it wasn't, that's not what our fighting is. But, you know, the violent
take away our lives and they'll try to kill us at some point. Obviously in America right
now, that's not really a thing. But believe me, if there were not laws to restrain these
people, if there were not protections by God for us, they would kill us if they could.
I mean, there's times when the sodomites have had us surrounded. I mean, I remember
me and brother CJ and other people that were probably in this room, I can't think of who
else was here besides my wife and maybe Josh. We're in Sacramento and all those sodomites
were, you know, we had to leave through the back door in Sacramento and the sodomites
were just on both sides. It was like going through the Red Sea of sodomites on each side,
but the waves were sodomites, you know. It was just like a surreal feeling of like, they're
just like, ah, you know, it was like Mad Max or something. They're all wearing these crazy
outfits and stuff and you know, they had all these signs and it was just kind of a weird
feeling and I just was thinking if the police weren't here and they could, they would kill
us and they would for sure. I mean, they hate our guts and that's the only thing that was
really stopping them and I think that the police hated us too and if that wasn't their
job to stop them, you know, or you know, because I mean, it would be pretty bad look for the
police to just let a bunch of sodomites kill us so they're probably only just stopping
them just because they had to not because they wanted to because there was queers in
the police force that were there too, a bunch of lesbians hanging around looking like dudes.
So but it is a weird feeling to walk through the Red Sea of sodomites. It was a trip. But
anyway, so but you know, when it comes to our current Christian life, you know, this
is written to a church 2000 years ago that was an actual real church. And he's saying
to them to the you know, the devil will cast some of you into prison, they may be tried.
And he says, be thou faithful in the death. You know, some of these people are being put
to death for what they believed. And that's just not something that we see in our current
life. You know, it's we get to come to church, we don't have to sneak, we don't have to
hide, we can put a sign up. But you know, that's, that's not always been the case throughout
history. And it might not always be the case in the future. So we have to understand that
we kind of live in a time where we're, we have it really easy as Christians, you know,
and we should do our, we should live out our Christianity when it's easy, because when
it's hard, you know, people won't do it when it's hard if they won't do it when it's easy.
That's just the truth of the matter. Turn to Hebrews chapter 12, Hebrews chapter 12.
And the thing is, if you did get martyred, and look, I don't want to get martyred, not
necessarily. And especially like, I think about the worst case scenarios, and the last
thing I would want to do is fall into the hands of the sodomites. That'd be the worst
case scenario for me. It's like, shoot me, put me in the guillotine, do any of that stuff.
But like, fall into the hands of the sodomites? Uh-uh. I'd pull a king saw in a second. Like,
just give me a sword so I can fall on top of it, you know. I don't want to fall into
their swords. So, but Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1, the Bible says, "Wherefore, seeing we
are encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight
and the sin which thus so easily beset us, let us run with patience the race that is
set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the
right hand of the throne of God." I mean, who are we supposed to look to? We're supposed
to look to Jesus, for example. And what did He do? He went all the way to the cross. He
allowed people to make fun of Him. Did He like it? No, He didn't like it. He didn't
like being made fun of. He despised that shame, but the Bible says He endured the cross. He
knew what He had to do, and He did it. He knew He was going to His death. There was
never any way that He was talking His way out of it, and He didn't even try. He actually
didn't even open His mouth. He just kept His mouth shut for the whole time. And who
can do that, really? Well, a lot of people are going to grovel and find a way to get
out of it, you know, begging for their lives, but Jesus didn't do that. He just allowed
Himself to be killed. And there's a lot of martyrs in the Bible. You don't see them
begging for their lives. I'm sure it's happened. But Paul doesn't beg. You don't see Paul
go, "Please don't do this to me." You know, I mean, one time he's just like, "Is it lawful
for you to beat a Roman that's uncondemned?" And he did that so that they'd be like, "Nope."
I mean, he got out of it, but nobody wants to get beaten like that for no reason. I mean,
there's nothing wrong with using what you have to get out of it. But like, as far as
grovel, I don't think he was groveling. I don't think he was like crying about it. But
he was just smart. He was wise as a dove. But it says in verse 3, "For consider him that
endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your
minds. You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin." So we have not been
put in that position where we're striving, or we're resisting unto blood. None of us
have had to do this, striving against sin. And we don't want to be in a position where
we're worried and faint in our minds. And that's why we have to look to Jesus when
we get put into situations where we might have to, you know, make the ultimate sacrifice
and be martyred. And it's something that we have to think about that could be a possibility
in the future. We just don't know. Things can happen really fast. Things can escalate
really fast. I mean, I always kind of look to the example of what happened with COVID.
I mean, next thing you know, we can't go anywhere. We can't do anything. Can't go
into a store without a mask on, all this other stuff. And it's just a preparation.
Obviously, people are like, "It's the mark of the beast." It's like, "No, dude,
it's not the mark of the beast." Just because someone takes your temperature doesn't
mean it's the mark of the beast. But is it a precursor to the mark of the beast?
Well, you know, you can't have, you can't buy or sell unless you have a mark on
your forehead or in your hand. And then it's like, beep. I mean, how are they
going to do that? Obviously, they have RFID technology right now. I remember when I
worked at Walmart a long time ago, and the RFID technology first came to be,
people were protesting against that. People were fighting still against the
real ID where, you know, you have to go into the airport and they take your
picture and then, you know, you have to have a certain ID to fly on an airplane
now. They've been fighting that since George Bush put that into place after
9/11. Did you know that? That's why, you know, because people don't want to take
the mark of the beast. That's why. So we fight against that because we're
American, amen, and then because we love freedom, we love liberty, and so where
the Spirit of God is, there's liberty. We don't want to be confined by some big
brother nanny state system, but yet they've slowly boiled the frog and
slowly just made us kind of accept these things. Did you guys say, "Hey,
it's okay for you to put a chip on my debit card," or did it just come in the
mail and you're just like, "I guess so. Pete, put your card right there." And so
instead of, you know, writing checks or giving cash or whatever, now we pull out
our card with our right hand and place it over the reader card, don't we? And
they kind of encourage us to tap. Tap. Just tap that card. And if you're
left-handed, of course you're gonna do it with your left hand, but most people are
right-handed, aren't they? But the Bible just says, "In your hand." Does it say
"in your right hand"? Because most people are right-handed, that's why. But in your
forehead. That's why I'm just saying it's a precursor. They're just
conditioning us to do these things. They're conditioning us to get rid of
cash to stop, you know, having real money. And they've given us the fiat currency.
Those paper dollars that you might have. Who actually, in this room right now, has
real paper dollars? It's not real money, by the way. It was fiat money. But who has
paper dollars in your wallet right now or your purse? See, there's some in the
resistance still. I think I have like ten bucks in my wallet or something, maybe
twenty. I carry a little bit of cash on me, just enough to get me in trouble, no.
Just enough to get me out of trouble, a little bit. But yeah, I mean, most
people don't carry a lot of cash on them. But that was the way we did business for
many, many years. I mean, a lot of places won't even take a hundred dollar bill. We
don't take hundred dollar bills. Oh, we just can't. Why? Why can't you? Is it not
real money? I guess not. Well, there's too many fakes out there. Well, you can't
just hold up to the light like everybody else does. You can't see the watermarks
on it. I mean that's why they made the watermarks on the $100 bills. That's why
they made all that stuff so you could check, so you could tell, you know. So
anyway, I'm off on a tangent here, but I mean it's true. If you think about it, and
things can escalate really quickly, and things can change really quickly. Just
like that we can be in war. Just like that. I mean Trump's like, oh yeah, I'm
not gonna give, I haven't gotten us into any wars. And then it's just like, all the
fleets are going here, all the fleets are going there. That happened, that escalated
quickly, didn't it? We're gonna go to war with China. We're gonna go to war with Iran.
We're telling other countries what to do. Because what? Women want to stop wearing the
hijabs over there or whatever? Is that what it is? I don't know. And I don't blame them.
I wouldn't want women to have to wear those either. It's stupid, but it's not our business
either. You know, those people are enslaved because of their religion. And so it's not
like just because they take off the hijab that they just all of a sudden are gonna become
Christians or something. They just want to show their face. Like the other, what, the
Sunnis or whatever. I don't know. I can't, I don't remember which ones are which, but
they still hate, you know, don't like Jesus. They're still not gonna be Christians. So
verse 32 in the passage were in Hebrews, it says, "And what shall I say more? For the
time would fail me to tell of Gideon, of Barak, of Samson, of Jephthah, of David also and
Samuel and of the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained
promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of
the sword, out of weakness, were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the
armies of the aliens.
No, this is not the Mexican aliens.
This is talking about the other aliens, the strangers that were coming and trying to fight
them.
Anyway, different sermon, different time.
These aren't the ones that Trump's trying to get rid of.
All right, women received their dead, raised to life again, and others were tortured, not
accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
So what does that mean?
Well, if you are martyred, you obtain a better resurrection.
Well, what does that mean?
Sounds like things are going to be better for you.
I mean, everybody gets resurrected, that's saved.
Everybody has eternal life, that's saved.
That's the baseline reward that we get.
But better resurrection, well, it says they were not accepting deliverance.
They could have got out of it, but they didn't, so that they could, they're just like, I want
something, I'm holding out for something better.
Go ahead and torture me.
Go ahead and saw me in half.
Go ahead and keep beating me, which, you know, a lot of people won't do that.
You know, a lot of people would be willing to do that.
I'm going to pull all your fingernails out with a pair of pliers.
Go ahead.
It's just more, better resurrection for me.
I don't know if I'm going that far.
That sounds painful.
I'm going to put bamboo shoots up your, up your fingernails.
No, I'm good.
I'm good with this part.
You just punched me in the face a few times.
I'll take a little bit better of a resurrection.
We're sending in the sodomites.
Kill me.
So as in the others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and
imprisonment.
They were stoned.
They were sawn asunder.
They were tempted.
Were slain with the sword.
They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of
whom the world was not worthy.
They wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth.
So I mean, this is the hall of faith.
These people that aren't even named necessarily, you know, just kind of names this last group
of people and doesn't really give a lot of information, but there's people that have
had great faith that did not accept anything but a better resurrection and allow themselves
to be tortured to death so they could get a better one.
And so let's go ahead and go back to our text here.
I'm just going to read a couple of verses real quick before we get there or before I
start.
Actually, go to Exodus 12, but I'm going to read Matthew or Mark 4.16.
It says, "And these are they likewise that are sown on stony ground, who when they have
heard the word immediately receive it with gladness, and have no root in themselves,
and so endure but for a time.
Afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they
are offended."
And so when it gives that, when affliction or persecution ariseth, it's telling us what
persecution is.
Persecution is affliction.
And so when the Bible talks about being afflicted, it's talking about being tortured.
It's talking about being persecuted.
So that is what persecution is.
So now when it says that these 10 days of tribulation, the devil's going to put some
of you in prison and you'll be afflicted for 10 days.
Let's see what exactly it says.
You shall have tribulation 10 days, he that is faithful unto death I will give to the
crown of life.
This is foreshadowing of the great tribulation.
And so obviously, and the Bible has a lot of this when it comes to end times Bible prophecy
where there'll be something that's shadow fulfilled and then there'll be a total fulfillment
of it later on.
And that's what that verse in Revelation chapter 2 10 is talking about.
So you shall have tribulation 10 days, but be thou faithful unto death and I will give
thee a crown of life.
So there's a bunch of key verses in the King James that mention the 10th day.
And Exodus 12 3 is one of those verses and it says, "Speak ye unto the congregation
of Israel, saying, In the 10th day of this month they shall take to them every man a
lamb according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house."
So how does that really apply to end times Bible prophecy?
Well, what happened 2,000 years ago?
Well, Jesus gave his life as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world.
And did he go through tribulation?
Yes, he did, didn't he?
Did he go through persecution?
Yes, he did.
So we didn't have to go through that persecution with him.
The saints didn't really necessarily have to go through that persecution with him.
But what was happening during that time in Exodus chapter 12?
What happened right before that?
Well, you had Moses going in and telling the Pharaoh, who pictures what?
The Antichrist, right?
He's a reprobate.
He said Moses keeps going to him saying, "Let my people go that they may serve me."
And he says, "Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice?"
And so then God plagues Egypt with the ten plagues.
And what are those ten plagues like?
They're kind of like the plagues that you see in the book of Revelation, aren't they?
They're kind of a lot like them.
Maybe not in the same order that they happen, but they're almost exactly like the ones that
you see in the book of Exodus.
And then you have the death angel or whatever that comes and kills all the first born, right?
Unless you have the blood applied on the doorpost, right?
And so that picture is what?
Unless you have the blood of Christ applied to you, then you are going to be destroyed,
you're going to die and go to hell.
And so Jesus kind of fulfills, not kind of, he fulfills the need of a savior, and so unless
we want to die with the rest of the world, then we need to be saved.
So then what happens after that angel kills all the firstborn of the land, well, all the
children of Israel get to leave with a high hand and they go into the wilderness, right?
And so then what happens?
Well, Pharaoh chases them into the wilderness with his whole army, and then they're backed
up against the wall, so to speak, the wall of the ocean, or the red sea, and they all
think they're going to die.
And then Moses says, "See the salvation of the Lord," and then the red sea parts open,
and they go over on dry ground.
And then Pharaoh and his army go into the red sea on the dry ground, and what happens?
They all die, right?
Kind of seems like how what happens with Jesus at the very end, when the beast and his army
come against him in Jerusalem, and what happens?
Sudden destruction happens to them all, and Jesus kills the beast and all of his army.
So I mean there's a lot of foreshadowing in the book of Exodus when it comes to end times
Bible prophecy.
I'm not saying it fits perfectly, but it does picture and foreshadow what's going to happen
in the end times.
And so on the 10th day of the month, the Passover had to be killed.
But they also had to what?
Not afflict themselves, but they had to get all the leaven out, they had to eat the bitter
herbs and all that kind of stuff, and then they had to slay the lamb.
So now turn to Leviticus 23, verse 23, Leviticus 23, verse 23, Leviticus 23, 23, and this
kind of explains the feast of the Lord, Leviticus 23, 23, it says, "And the Lord spoke unto
Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the
first day of the month, shall you have a Sabbath memorial of blowing of trumpets and holy convocation.
You shall do no servile work therein, but you shall offer an offering made by fire unto
the Lord.
And, let's see, I've got to get over there, because I didn't copy and paste that last
verse there.
Leviticus 23.
Anyway, yeah, it has the Sabbath, the Passover, the feast of the firstfruits, the feast of
the weeks.
It's all in order as it appears in the, as it happens in the Bible.
Let's see, so we're, and then we're in the day of atonement is the, is the last thing
before the feast of booths.
So verse 27 says, Also on the tenth day of this seventh month, there shall be a day of
atonement, there shall be an holy convocation unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls
an offering made by fire unto the Lord, and ye shall do no work in that same day.
For it is the day of atonement to make an atonement for you before the Lord.
And whatsoever soul in it that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut
off from among his people.
And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy
from among his people.
And you shall do no manner of work, it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations
and all the dwellings.
It shall be unto you a Sabbath of rest.
You shall afflict your souls in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto
even, shall you celebrate your Sabbath.
So you're like, well what does this have to do with Revelation chapter two, verse ten?
Well it says ten days, right?
Ten days that you'll be thrown into prison and that you will be killed, right?
You know, be faithful unto death basically is what it's saying.
So when Jesus died on the cross, and I know that this is disputed by some idiots, but
it's a fact, because Jesus had to place his blood on the mercy seat in heaven, but because
he didn't, because once he died, anything, you know, the temple on earth meant nothing.
And the temple on earth was a picture of the things that are already in heaven.
And so, when he didn't allow Mary to touch him, because Mary was the first one that saw
him after the resurrection, and she tries to go up and give him a hug, and he's like,
"Don't touch me not.
I have not yet ascended unto my father and your father."
Or, you know, he tells them to go tell the disciples that she saw him, and that he's
going to ascend to his father.
And then like a few minutes later, he meets up, and then they all grab him by the feet.
So they're all allowed to touch him, you know, just a few minutes later.
So why is she not allowed to touch him, you know, a few minutes before, and then they're
all allowed to touch him a few minutes later?
Is that a contradiction, or did he actually go and place his blood on the mercy seat then?
That's what I think happened.
But because if he doesn't place his blood on the mercy seat, if he does not appear before
heaven and do the wave offering, which is also required if you look at the feast in
order in Leviticus chapter 23, the wave offering comes next and then on the day after the Sabbath
is when the wave offering is, which I could actually prove that to you.
But anyway, I don't have time to get into that.
But I've preached about it before and I could point you to those sermons.
But the point is that you're like, well, that's not the day of atonement when Jesus died.
But is that the day that he atoned for everybody's sins?
Yes, it is.
And so the day of atonement is partially fulfilled because Jesus died for everybody's sins.
The day of atonement has already been done.
He entered into the holiest place.
He places blood on the mercy seat.
So what is the part that hasn't been fulfilled yet?
Part that hasn't been fulfilled yet is that we have not gotten our resurrected bodies.
The Antichrist has not yet come.
That's the next thing that happens on the prophetic timeline is that the Antichrist
is revealed.
And so how is that pictured?
Well, it's pictured in the blowing of trumpets on the first day of that month.
And then on the 10th day of the month, during the days of the Day of Atonement, is when
the trumpet blows again.
And that is when, you know, it's declared, that's when the affliction, and then that's
when, and after that is when the Year of Jubilee, during the Year of Jubilee, that's when freedom
is declared, everybody gets all their property, and so on and so forth.
And so that holiday, that feast day, pictures the Antichrist coming, and the alarm bells
being sent, because they have to blow the trumpet, and then once they do that, then
there's a 10-day period.
They're like, "Well, how does that match up with the book of Revelation?"
Well, because you're working with a seven-year calendar versus a one-month calendar.
And so when you do the math, when you crunch the numbers, it's going to turn a 10-day period
into a 75-day period from the midpoint.
And if you look down at your chart, you can see that clearly in the middle portion there,
the Great Tribulation is 75 days.
And when does the first part of it start?
At the midpoint, when the vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression
or, yeah, desolation.
So that 75-day period begins, which is actually represented by the 10 days that it's talking
about in the passage that we're in this morning.
You're like, I'm confused.
Okay, well, let me help un-confuse you here.
But let's look at a couple of verses.
Well, I'll just mention these verses, Ezekiel 24, 1 through 2.
It notes the 10th day and the 10th month as the date when the king of Babylon sets himself
against Jerusalem.
And who does Nebuchadnezzar represent?
The Antichrist.
Joshua 4.9 marks the day that the Israelites crossed the Jordan River into Gilgal on the
10th day.
Now, what did they have to do before they crossed the Jordan?
They had to cross it, didn't they?
And the river was at high tide, remember, it was at the swelling of Jordan.
So it was a tumultuous and mighty rushing river at that time.
And so they had to cross it at a time when people wouldn't normally cross the river,
and it was probably really scary, but then God just divided the water so they could cross.
And so again, on the one-month timeline, 10 days past the halfway mark is the equivalent
of 75 days past the three-and-a-half years on a seven-year timeline.
So when you scale down the math, that's what makes it the 75 days.
And then if you do the math from Daniel's 1335 days, let's see, yeah, from the beginning
of the seven years, because it's not seven years of tribulation, it is until the end
of the 75 days, which would make it 1335 days from the beginning of the chart.
So the beginning of the chart and then the end of the 75 days is 1335 days.
For some reason, I cannot see that on the chart.
Okay, there it is.
If you go down from the top of the chart and go to the second line down and then scroll
over, you can see that it's blessed to see that waiteth and cometh to the 1335 days.
That's the day that Jesus comes back.
So it's approximately 75 days.
But you're like, well, then you can guess the date when he comes back, not necessarily
because we don't necessarily know the date that he comes or that the seven-year period
starts.
So, you know, obviously when we get closer to the time, we're going to get pretty close
as to when he's going to come.
But right now we don't know because the seven-year period has not started yet.
And there'll be people who are like, "Oh, you're date setting.
What date did I set?
Did I set a date?"
No, I know a lot of people that set dates though, like Robert Breaker, who set multiple
dates.
Him, Alvin, and the Chipmunks.
I think Kent Hoeven has set dates.
I think there's other people that set dates.
The Jehovah's Witnesses set lots of dates.
The Seventh-day Adventists have set lots of dates, but I haven't set a date.
I'm just telling you what the Bible says.
And that 10 days does represent, you know, the tribulation period, the great tribulation
period.
And that's why it's mentioned here in this passage.
And so, you know, to scale, it is 75 days.
Look at Numbers Chapter 10, Numbers Chapter 10, what is the purpose of the blowing of
the trumpets?
Well, I don't have time to get to the whole passage, but it explains the reason why they
blow the trumpets, and when they're supposed to blow the trumpets, and for what purpose.
But in verse number 8, it says, "And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow with
the trumpets, and they shall be to you for an ordinance forever throughout your generations.
And if you go to war in the land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow
an alarm with the trumpets, and ye shall be remembered before the Lord your God, and ye
shall be saved from your enemies.
Also in the day of your gladness and in the solemn days and in the beginning of your months,
you shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of
your peace offerings, and they may be with you for a memorial before your God, "I am
the Lord your God."
But when there's an enemy that's oppressing you, it says that you're supposed to blow
an alarm with the trumpets.
And what are they supposed to do on the first day of the Day of Atonement?
They're supposed to blow the trumpets.
That is representing when the Antichrist comes that we're supposed to blow an alarm.
We're supposed to do what?
Run for the hills the moment that he's revealed.
Look at Daniel chapter 9 verse 27, Daniel chapter 9 verse 27, Daniel chapter 9 verse
27.
You're like, "Well, how do you know the final seven years that it's seven years?"
Or, "How do you know this?"
Well, I mean, the Bible explains it to us in Daniel chapter 9 verse 27.
It says, "And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week."
And one week in the Bible is representative of seven years as it's explained to us in
Genesis.
And Jacob works, he says, "Fulfill your week," when he's working seven years for Rachel.
And so it says, "For one week, and in the midst of the week," so in the very middle
of the week, "he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease, and for the overspreading
of abominations he shall make it desolate even unto the consummation, and determined
shall be poured upon the desolate."
So this is the prophecy of Daniel of that seven year period.
And in the midst of the week he'll cause that sacrifice to cease.
So there will be another temple that will be built, and in the middle of that time period
there's going to be this abomination of desolation.
So this is what Daniel is talking about.
Now I'll turn to Matthew chapter 24, Matthew chapter 24, and we'll see that Jesus talks
about this specific event, and he calls it great tribulation.
And people will criticize this term, "the great tribulation."
They say the Bible never says "the great tribulation."
And it's like, okay, well, let me explain this to you.
If it's the greatest time of trouble that ever is or ever shall be, then wouldn't saying
"the great tribulation" be correct, even though the Bible doesn't say "the great tribulation"?
I mean, it's really a dumb argument.
But look at verse 15, Matthew 24, it says, "When ye therefore shall see the abomination
of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place," which we just read
that, "whoso readeth, let him understand; then let them, which be in Judea, flee into
the mountains.
Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house, neither
let him which is in the field turn back to take his clothes."
Sounds like you've got to get out of there quick, right?
Don't even have a go-bag.
Don't grab the go-bag.
Just go.
"And woe unto them that are with child, unto them that give suck in those days, but pray
that your flight be not in winter, neither on the Sabbath day, for then shall be great
tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no nor ever shall
be.
And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved, but for the
elect's sake those days shall be shortened."
Well, how short are they, Pastor Thompson?
Well, 10 days on a month calendar and 3.5 years plus 75 days of great tribulation on
a seven year calendar.
So there's already tribulation before that halfway point, there's already tribulation,
but great tribulation is 75 days.
That's when people are being, Christians are being killed, and you know, these preterists,
they're like, "Oh, this already all happened.
Oh, when did Jesus come back then?
Please explain that to me.
When did the resurrection happen?
How come people are still dying?
How come people are still dying and not, there's a bunch of people here on this earth right
now that are still dying.
Where's all the resurrected saints at?
I mean, if you take the Bible at face value for what it says, it's not adding up.
There's no way.
When did Jesus come back?
So what, 2,000 years ago this happened?
It doesn't make sense.
This is something yet in the future, and you're like, "Well, where does the Bible say we're
in a holding pattern for that last week?"
Well, I'll tell you, it doesn't necessarily say that, but we know that we're in the holding
pattern because He hasn't come back yet, because the temple hasn't been rebuilt again.
And once all that stuff starts to happen, then we'll know.
He gives us the warning signs.
He says, "We know when summer starts to become near, because we see the leaves and all that
stuff, we see that summer is getting close, but when we see all the things of the signs
in Matthew chapter 24, we'll know that it's getting closer."
When you start seeing the temple getting built over there, we're going to know it's getting
closer, right?
I mean, that'll be a pretty good sign for us to know.
How about the fact that Israel becoming a nation after 2,000 years, again, that things
are starting to move in motion?
Because they weren't a nation for 2,000 years.
They were scattered throughout the whole Earth.
So anyway, yeah, that 10 days on a one-month calendar is the equivalent to that 75 days
in a seven-year calendar.
So anyway, so number three this morning, let's look at verse 11 back in our text.
So I know that was a long, drawn-out rabbit trail, but keep your chart.
If you don't, I'll just make you another one, but it's good to just kind of look at these
things and study.
As we go through the book of Revelation, I agree with this chart, and I think that the
chart is well thought out and done well.
So I think that, I don't know if I'm going to disagree with anything on it, but at this
point, I like it.
So I don't think there's anything wrong with it.
I've studied a lot of the things that are said in it.
I'm not saying that this is my locked-in grail or whatever.
The Bible is my guide, but I think this is a great chart.
That's all I'm saying.
So, anyway, verse 11 says, "He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit
saith unto the churches.
He that overcometh shall not be heard of the second death."
So verse 11 proves eternal security.
I mean, there's so many verses that prove it, but the Bible teaches eternal security,
and here's a good one, because the Bible says, "He that overcometh shall not be heard
of the second death."
What's the second death?
Being cast into the lake of fire.
So there's people out there in this world, and you can show them verses till the cows
come home, the very clearest verses in the Bible, and when you're out soulening, like,
I mean, just giving them everything and the kitchen sink, and they'll be like, "No, but
I still think you can lose it."
It's like, "What?"
If it says, "He that overcometh shall not be heard of the second death," that means
you're not going to go to the lake of fire.
I mean, what part of that do you not understand?
They're like, "Well, what does overcoming mean, though?"
Like, you have to just keep repenting of all your sins every time or something.
That's what people, some people think that.
Well, you know, if I repent, though, okay, reconfort.
Look at 1 John chapter 5, 1 John chapter 5, because what does he that overcometh mean?
I've already explained this before many times, but when the Bible says overcome, a lot of
people will think that that works for something.
But how does John explain this?
Well, John's the one that wrote Revelation.
John wrote the book of John.
John wrote 1 John, 2 John, 3 John.
He's the disciple whom Jesus loved.
He loved all his disciples, but this is how John explains it in the book of John.
But anyway, 1 John 5, 4 says, "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world."
And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
How do you overcome the world?
Believing that Jesus is the Son of God.
That's how you overcome.
It's not by repenting all your sins and doing a whole bunch of good works.
That's not what it says.
It says that you have to overcome the world by believing that Jesus is the Son of God.
That's called faith.
That is how you get saved, by faith.
That is overcoming.
And it says, "You shall not be hurt of the second death."
So this verse that we're in, verse 11 says, "He that overcometh should not be hurt of
the second death."
So what does that mean?
If you have faith in Jesus, you've overcome the world and you cannot go to hell.
That's what it means.
It means you can't go to the second death.
The second death is hell.
The first death is the death of our body.
We have spirits and souls inside of our body, and if you're saved, you will not see death.
You will actually see life.
If you die and you're saved, your spirit and soul go straight to heaven for the God
that gave it to you.
And if you die unsaved, you go straight to hell, you lift up your eyes in torments.
And then you'll be in that holding tank until the great white throne judgment.
Turn to John 5.24, John 5.24, John 5.24 says, these are rock solid verses about eternal
security.
They're the best ones in the whole Bible in my opinion.
John 5.24, "Verily I say unto you," that means truly, truly, "I say unto you, he that
heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life."
That means you have it.
Death means have everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed
from death unto life.
This is a present tense.
It's not something that you're waiting for necessarily.
Yeah, we're waiting for our glorified bodies, but you're still in a state of being saved
right now if you believe in Jesus.
Isn't that what it says?
If you believe in Him, you have everlasting life, you shall not come into condemnation.
What does "shall not come into condemnation" mean?
You can't be judged and sent to hell, period.
Turn to John 10, I'm going to read John 6, 47.
John 6, 47 says, "Verily, verily," here's Jesus saying again, "Truly, truly, I say unto
you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life."
I mean, that's a real simple verse, isn't it?
Real straightforward and to the point, if you believe in Him, you have everlasting life,
period.
It doesn't say, there's nothing that added to that verse.
"Oh, and walk an old lady across the street with her groceries," "Oh, and repent of all
your sins," "Oh, and go to church," "Oh, and put money in the offering plate," "Oh,
and do this and that."
No, it's not what it says, "Oh, and you have to do good works," "Oh, and you have," there's
no "and" anything.
It's just you believe in Him, you have everlasting life, period.
And then here's the coup de grace to the stupid, you-can-lose-your-salvation doctrine, this
passage here, John 10.27.
This is the closer.
If people don't get this, then they're not going to get it.
John 10.27, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give
unto them eternal life."
Give is a gift, isn't it?
I give unto them eternal life.
It's not something you earn, it's not something that you keep on your own, it's not something
you maintain, it's something that He gives to you, and they shall never perish.
What does never perish mean?
It means you can't die and go to hell.
That's what it means.
"Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."
Can someone else make you lose your salvation?
No.
Can someone else take you out of God's hand?
No.
Are you a man or a woman?
Yes.
Can you take yourself out of God's hand?
It doesn't sound like it because it says, "Neither shall any man pluck him out of my
hand."
Isn't that what it says?
"My Father which gave to me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out
of my Father's hand."
That includes you.
That includes anybody else.
God is more powerful than anybody, and you can't take someone that's saved out of his
hand.
That's what the Bible says.
Like it or lump it.
1 John 5-10.
The Bible says, "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.
He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God
gave of his Son."
So this is the, it says, "And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life
and this life is in his Son."
So what's the record?
That God's given us eternal life and this life is in his Son.
That's the record.
Okay.
So if you don't believe that record, what are you saying?
God's a liar.
That's what you're saying.
"He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.
He that believeth not God hath made him a liar."
So anybody that says that you can lose your salvation or that salvation is not eternal,
you're calling God a liar.
So go ahead and just keep calling God a liar and believe in your stupid work salvation.
"I keep my own salvation by my good works and all this other garbage."
Just repenting your sins, stuff is going to take you straight to hell.
Well, I just think that I don't care what you think.
I don't care what your pastor says.
I don't care what your church teaches.
That's all man-made doctrine.
You know what's not man-made?
The Bible is not man-made doctrine.
The Bible is the word of the ever-living God.
And He ever-liveth to make an intercession for us.
And nobody can take that away because the Bible says so.
I've turned to multiple verses that say that and there's nothing more that makes me more
mad than work salvation peddling heretics and the people that are duped by it.
It says, "He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not
life."
It's real simple.
You either are saved or you're not.
Real simple.
And if you have the Son of God, you have life.
"These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that
you may know you have eternal life."
Does God want you to know you have eternal life?
It sounds like He does.
He doesn't want you to guess, He doesn't want you to weigh the scales and say, "Oh, I almost
have salvation.
I've got to do some more good works.
Oh, I'm going to hell.
Going to hell.
No.
Give somebody an offering plate.
Ah, ah, ah, ah."
No.
That's not how it works.
But that's what every other religion in the world teaches, and even stupid quasi-Christian
religion teaches.
And it's not true.
It's not true.
"He that believeth," it says, "that you may know that you have eternal life and that you
may believe on the name of the Son of God."
If you do that, you're going to heaven.
So turn back to Revelation 20, and here's an answer that we get a lot at the door.
Hey, when we say, "Hey, are you 100% sure you're going to heaven?"
And they're like, "And this is, I'm serious, this has been answered to me more times than
I can count.
Nobody can know that."
Who's heard that?
Nobody can know that.
That's repeated so many times that I just wonder, where does that brainwashing come
from?
Who's telling people that?
Because it's a bizarre phenomenon that that many people say that.
Nobody can know that.
Well, I mean, why does he say, "These things have I written unto you that believe in the
name of the Son of God, that you may know you have eternal life."
Someone's wrong here.
And guess who it is?
It's not God.
It's you.
Revelation 20 verse 11, "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from
whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them."
This is the great white throne judgment, "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before
God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life,
and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according
to their works."
So yeah, you want to keep working your way to heaven?
Well guess what?
You're going to be judged by those works.
And if you have any works that are not good, those are the ones that are going to be judged
by.
If you want to go by the balancing of the scales, you have one lie on your record.
You're doomed.
If you steal one time, you're doomed.
You're going to hell.
If you want to be judged by your works, "Oh, I think that I'm a pretty good person," no,
you're not.
If you're judged by what you do, you're doomed.
Unless you have the blood of Christ upon you, you're doomed because God's going to look
down or He's going to look at you and He's going to say, "Hey, the blood of Christ is
upon Him.
I pass over Him.
I'm not going to count His sins against Him."
But if you don't, you're going into the lake, which, look what it says, "And the sea gave
up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them,
and they were judged, every man according to their works.
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second death.
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."
Hey, the second death shall not hurt those that overcome.
That's what the Bible says, okay?
And so you're like, "Well, I don't know if I believe the Bible."
Well, then why do you even try to say you're a Christian?
I just don't understand that.
Well, the book of Enoch should have been in it.
Why don't you worry about the books that are in the Bible instead of worrying about the
books that aren't in it?
Have you even read the book of Enoch?
It's stupid.
There's no such thing as 450 foot tall giants.
It's not in the Bible for a reason because it doesn't belong in there because God doesn't
want it in there because it's not scripture.
That's why.
Just because they threw a couple bones in there of things that might be true, it doesn't
mean that Enoch wrote that book.
Enoch did not write that book because it's filled with stupid fact toys that aren't true.
It's just something to have people chase something, because people want a conspiracy even when
it comes to the Bible.
Oh, the Bible's neveled.
There's missing stuff out of it, brother.
Oh, there's not.
If you believe that, you're believing heresy.
It doesn't belong in there.
Go back to our chapter here, finish up.
The church at Thyatira.
It says unto the angel of the church in Thyatira, verse 18, "These things saith the Son of
God, who hath his eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass."
That does not mean he's black, by the way.
I'm not saying if he was black, I wouldn't care.
But that's not what it means.
"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.
Nonwithstanding, I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel,
which calleth herself a prophetess," notice he doesn't call her one, she called herself
one, "to teach and to seduce my servants, to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed
unto idols."
So first of all, the Bible says that women are not supposed to usurp the man or teach,
usurp the man or have any authority in the church, they're not supposed to preach behind
the pulpit.
So the minute that Joyce Myers gets up with her short hair and tells anybody anything,
she's wrong.
I mean, just the fact that she opens her mouth in a setting that she's teaching men or anybody
things, she's wrong.
And her husband, who's sitting there listening to it, is wrong for letting her do it.
But I have a feeling that he doesn't wear the pants in the family that she does.
Oh wait, she does wear pants, doesn't she?
So she wears pants.
She has short hair.
I mean, two things that, you know, she's preaching.
She looks like the Joker.
She got the Joker gas and it never wore off.
You're like, "That's mean, Pastor Johnson."
Well, she shouldn't be up there.
And you know, Jesus is chastising this church because they're allowing this woman to preach.
She calls herself a prophetess, Jezebel.
I don't know if her real name is Jezebel or if he's just saying that she is a Jezebel.
Does that Jezebel spirit or whatever, you know, people will say that.
I've seen that to be true in people that are a little promiscuous for being the Baptist
or whatever.
Anyway, I'm not going to dwell on that.
But the fact is that Jesus is saying, "I have a few things against you because you're suffering
that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess to teach and seduce my servants
to commit fornication."
I don't even know if she's saved, kind of seems like she's not, but it says that she's
seducing his servants.
So my servants, she called herself a prophetess, she's not one, and to eat things sacrificed
into idols.
So are we supposed to eat things sacrificed into idols?
Sounds like you're not supposed to because he's saying that she's telling them to do
that.
So why is he, you know, because I know that this is kind of a controversy among Christians,
but yeah, it's okay to eat them.
I don't think it is because this verse kind of flies in the face of that.
I think that you're not supposed to ask questions about what's put in front of you.
Don't ask, no questions.
If you don't know, just eat.
Shut up.
Don't say, is this halal?
Don't ask.
Sure tastes good.
It's not like that, like there's some magic potion put over it or something that's going
to affect you.
It's just like the witches in our, in the neighborhoods that put the wards over them
or whatever.
It's like, how are you here?
Like, because I'm a Christian, your witch powers have no power over me.
Gandalf, like it doesn't work.
Redo your wards all you want.
Any real Christian is going to walk right through them, it doesn't matter.
And you know, they're, when they bless their, their goat meat to Allah, that means nothing
to us.
If it's kosher pickles, I'm not going to choke to death on a kosher pickle because
some rabbi blessed it or something, but I don't go out of my way to try to get stuff
like that.
But anyway, moving on.
It says, "I gave her space to repent of her fornication and she repented not."
I mean, how wicked is it to say that it's okay to fornicate in church?
I mean, and it kind of just goes to show that you can be pretty far down the pipe here.
You can have some pretty bad things going on in a church and still be considered a real
church because he's writing a letter to them.
And I don't think we've had anything this bad go on in our church.
I mean, it's not happening.
No woman's getting up to preach behind our pulpit, and especially not these things.
So it can get pretty far gone.
I mean, there's good things about this church too.
They have charity, they're of service, they have faith, they have patience, they have
works, and the last to be more than the first.
But then they have this glaring beam in their eye of Jezebel.
And I just can't imagine, I mean, but Baptist churches, I see in Baptist churches they let
women get up and read verses and come up behind the pulpit and give their testimony, which
ends up being a preaching session anyway, which is really annoying.
Like, just get that broad off the stage.
Shut up.
Because, I mean, they use it for, they take an opportunity to preach what it really is.
Oh, she just gave a testimony of the mission trip she went on.
Well, I mean, I don't really necessarily have a problem with that if it's not during
the preaching service, obviously, but anyway, I'm moving on.
I got to go.
I got to get done.
I just, whatever.
It's just not happening here.
So, but it says, "Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery
with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am he which
searches the reigns and hearts, and I will give unto every one of you according to your
works."
Notice in verse 22, it says, "Except they repent of their deeds, I will cast them into
great tribulation, and then I will kill her children with death."
Do you think this is being literal?
Yeah.
And then he wants the churches to know that he searches the reigns and hearts, and he
will give to everyone according to their works.
So, but does that mean that they're not going to heaven?
No.
But God does chase in his people.
That's what it's teaching.
And this lunatic idea that the Christians don't get punished for their sins is crazy.
Why does he say in verse 21, "I gave her space to repent of her fornication and she
repented not."
And then he says, "This is the punishment she's going to get."
Because if she is saved, which she very well might be if he's punishing her, then, you
know, but he's saying he's going to punish them too.
So it's not just her that's going to get punished.
He's going to kill her children.
So, I mean, does our sin affect other people?
It absolutely does.
And why?
He wants the churches to know that he searches the reins in the hearts.
He will give everyone according to their works.
But unto you I say, and unto the rest of Thyatira, as many have not this doctrine, which have
not known the depths of Satan as they speak, I will put upon you no further burden.
But that which you have already, which you have already, hold fast till I come.
And what's he saying? Hey, the ones that are right on this, that are doing good, hey,
just hang on. Hold fast till I come. And you're like, well, doesn't that kind of indicate
that he's coming soon? No. It doesn't necessarily mean that. Because did he come? No. I mean,
I think he's just giving people that we should always just kind of be in the mindset that
he could come. But not that he is necessarily, that he could come at any moment. I don't
think that's what this is teaching at all. He's just saying, let's hold it down. Don't
quit. Don't give up. Buckle up. It's going to be a bumpy ride, but just stick with it.
I don't have time to get into this because I've got to be done, but we're supposed to
put on the whole armor of God that we may stand against the wiles of the devil. And
if we don't have the whole armor of God on, we got principalities, powers, spiritual wickedness
in high places. This is what we fight against. Our church in Indianapolis has gone through
a wringer. They had the sodomites at their church a lot more than we did. I mean, you'd think it's
funny in these conservative places how the sodomites attack them way worse. And in the
liberal places like where we live, they just come for one day and leave. It's kind of a bizarre
anomaly. I mean, Steadfast got protested for years, like years. And then Indy, they got protested
many, many times. And they even had like, Justin was like being, he's super type A. And I was like,
hey, call the police, file a report. Call the FBI, file a report. Because when Trump took over and
that people were doing stuff to churches, like he said, we will prosecute people that do stuff to
churches. And you know what the FBI did with our church? The agent that was dealing with Brother
Zhong told him, someone from higher up told them to drop the case. How do you explain that?
Principalities, powers, rulers of wickedness, those that are in high places, they make the decisions.
Do you think that that agent didn't want to do something? He probably was thinking like,
what's going on? Who ever watched the X-Files before? Older people, right? They have this
character on there called the Cigarette Smoking Man, and nobody knew who he was. He would just
kind of appear to Agent Mulder every once in a while, and he would tell him some cryptic stuff,
and then, you know, kind of reveal more of the mystery or whatever. And it was a really popular
show like in the 90s or whatever, but you know, the Cigarette Smoking Man appears to the FBI agent
and tells them drop the case with Indianapolis or whatever. Who knows who makes these decisions?
But we had the FBI show up here and do an interview, and they said they're going to
prosecute these people that came and messed with us. Did anything happen? They were just, yeah,
they were probably trying to bust us, trying to find something they could get us on, not them.
You know, did the police come and help us when they came with AR-15s and stood in front of our
building and threatened us and, you know, we're molesting our children's eyeballs? No. But I
guarantee if we would have went to their place, their little fag bar downtown where they dress up
like queers and parade themselves all over the neighborhood, I guarantee you if we showed up
and stood across and stood in their parking lot with AR-15s and masks on that we would have got
shot by the police. So that's kind of how it works though. I mean that's why I don't do stuff like
that because that's not what we're called to do anyway. So and one time we had these coalition
of churches or whatever that are defending you know it was kind of like supposed to be a network
where if your church is getting persecuted or whatever that we all they all show up with these
billy clubs or whatever and then they helped you know each church stands with us and that like
they were training us to like hit back the rioters with the it was weird man but anyway it was down
at like no heights or new heights or whatever that church is over there and it was like the first
really cold day of the fall who was there okay brother Eli I don't lie were you there oh I
thought you were there oh it was Sean yeah we all showed up and I just it was so cold and then
they were just like they were like treating it like it was a military camp it was so weird
I just went and sat in my car I was like I'm done this is dumb and then afterwards I got together
with them and I just kind of like threw a wet blanket on it I was like this is not what we're
called to do and you know that because they had heard about the protest and they invited us to
it or whatever I was just like this is this is not going to go well if you guys all start hitting
protesters with billy clubs in front of the church building it's just not going to happen
mission expedition well I'm glad that uh I said something
anyway so yeah weird okay I got these last verses we're done okay uh verse 26 and he that and he
that overcometh and keepeth my works under the end to him will I give power over the nations
and he that rules with a rod of iron and he and he shall rule them with a rod of iron as the as a
vessel of a potter shall be broken to shivers even as I received of my father and I will give him the
morning star he that hath an ear to hear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches
and know that is not a medieval weapon that we hit people with okay the morning star but um but the
point is is that so what is he telling this church in the end he's telling them he that
overcometh and keepeth my works unto him or onto the end to him will I give to have power over the
nations he said he wants us to hold fast so what is he saying don't quit keep doing the works he
wants us to obey his word he wants us to keep doing the works and hold fast till he comes
and what's what's the reward well it's to rule with a rod of iron and eventually there will be
someday where you know law and order is going to be reestablished and it's going to be a correct
law and order it's going to be the millennial reign of christ where we rule and reign with him
but here on this earth we have to keep the rules that he's put into place for us in the new
testament so we can't we can't go out of bounds of what he's already told us to do during this time
in the old testament they did go to war they did kill people they were told to white people out
and stuff like that that were wicked but that's not what we're called to do here we're called to
slay people with the sword of the spirit we're supposed to fight our battles the way the lord
has told us to and it's not a flesh and blood fight but we do have to still stay strong there's
many enemies we have a great open door but we have many adversaries so we need to hold fast
until he comes all right let's pray lord we thank you so much for the book revelation and the great
things that it can teach us lord help us as we go through this book to understand the mysteries and
the wisdom that you put forth in here and lord it's it's there's a lot of uh symbology and
things that can be hard to understand i pray that you just help us uh and guide us through the
the Scriptures with your Holy Spirit.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.