Preparing messages for you, I
want earnestly to declare the truth of Scripture. I want to
declare what the Scripture says. I want to do so for the glory
of Christ, and I want to do so for the benefit of your souls.
I seek a message from God for you. But merely declaring the
truth of Scripture will not be of much benefit to your souls. I seek to find a message from
God that will meet the needs of your heart in this day, in
the place where you live, in your present circumstances. And
as I have prepared this message this evening on Christ's letter
to the church at Thyatira, I have sought to do just that. This
letter was written by our Lord Jesus to the angel of the church
at Thyatira, but it was written to you and me. Let's read these
letters this way. Revelation chapter 2 and verse
18. Revelation, the second chapter,
the 18th verse. And unto the angel of the church
in Thyatira write, These things saith the Son of God, who hath
his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine
brass. 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. Notwithstanding, I have
a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel,
which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants
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 reins and the hearts, and I will give
unto every one of you according to your works. But unto you I
say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, that is to you I presume he's
saying, to you the pastor, the angel of the church, and to you
others in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine which
have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak, I will
put upon you none other burden, but that which you 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 have received of my Father, and I will give
him the morning star. Now he that hath an ear, let
him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." Thyatira
was a city of great commerce, of great influence and power.
a wealthy, strong city during those days of her prime existence. She was a city where many, many
people passed through her streets because of the commerce and the
trade in that large city. But every time I think of Thyatira,
I think immediately of a lady whose heart the Lord opened.
Lydia was from Thyatira. She was a seller of purple. She
came from Thyatira, where she went about selling her goods
in the day in which she lived, and the Lord one day met her
by his grace. And I pray that he may this day
meet some of you by his grace and open your hearts. Sometimes
people think that They must wait for some kind of a ecstatic,
some kind of a tremendous upheaval, some kind of a tremendous sign
from the Lord that God's given them faith. And sometimes God
does things that way. Now and then he unhorses an apostle,
he unhorses a persecutor like the Apostle Paul, like Saul of
Tarsus, and makes him an apostle. But more often than not, I suspect
God's elect are saved, just sitting like you are, listening to a
man open the scriptures and reason with you out of the scriptures,
and as you look at the scriptures, and God speaks to your heart,
he opens your heart and says, that's so, that's so. The Lord just opened her heart. Oh, Spirit of God, come tonight
and open hearts. Open the hearts of chosen sinners,
redeemed by the blood of Christ, that they may see wondrous things
written in your words. Now this city, Thyatira, was
in a strange, strange situation by our standards as we look at
things in the scriptures here. There were strong trade unions
in this city. They called them guilds in those
days. Every organized, powerful group of men with any kind of
skills or trades were involved in some kind of a trade union.
Tailors or craftsmen, tanners, whatever their trade happened
to be, they would belong to a particular guild, a particular union, and
the unions were strong. Those guilds were all associated
in one way or another with pagan idolatry, because each guild
had its guardian god. Each guild had its had its own
sort of mascot god. And the situation was this. If
you wanted to get ahead in business, you had to belong to one of the
unions. You had to belong to one of the guilds. And if you
belonged to the guild, your membership implied that you worshipped the
god of that particular guild. And when you came together at
various festivities, you were expected to eat the meat that
was offered to the idols to that particular god, and you were
expected to do so, not as having gone to the common marketplace
and purchased it and said, well, the idols are nothing, I'm taking
this home and eating it. Paul said that's perfectly alright.
But this was eating meat that was offered to idols in a festival
service so that you were acknowledging by participating that you had
received the food from your particular God. And that was the implication
of the festivities. You would be expected to eat
the meat and make the implication that this God is the one who
provides for you. And then when the festivities
were over, when the feasting was done in these pagan religious
Gentile customs, in these immoral religions of the Gentile world,
generally orgies would take place. And you simply dare not insult
your peers by walking out on their vile festivities. Now if
you study a little bit of history, it won't take you long, to find
out that our society has now degenerated into the level of
pagan Roman culture to such a degree that even in our churches, like
these pagan Gentile religions, such practices have become commonplace
and acceptable. So that fornication and adultery
and drunkenness and lasciviousness are things that just somehow
they've become acceptable in religious circles. But what could
a believer do in such cases as in Thyatira? If he quit his union,
he'd lose business. If he remained in the union,
attended the immoral festivities, and joined in the idolatrous
fornications of pagan worship, then he would be denying the
Lord and sinning against his own conscience. And God's saints
had to face these kinds of circumstances Every day. Every time they went
to work, this is what they had to deal with. Every time they
were engaged in any kind of social activity, they were faced with
these things. Much like some of you are every
day. And there was a prophetess in
the church at Thyatira. An old gal called Jezebel. I'm
sure that was not her name, but our Lord calls her Jezebel. He
calls her Jezebel after Ahab's wicked wife who led the children
of Israel in the worship of idols in her day. This gal, Jezebel,
claimed to have a solution to the problem. And she reasoned
very, very, very well. She was a person with great skill
at figuring out a way to justify what she wanted. And she reasoned
like this. If you would conquer Satan, you've
got to get to know him. You've got to know him a little
better. You will never be able to influence the idolaters if
you condemn them and refuse to go along with their religion.
You don't have to deny Christ. Now that's not necessary. You
don't have to say that there is no God. You don't have to
say that Jesus Christ is not the Son of God. You don't have
to do that. All you have to do is accept the world's religion. At least accept the world's religion
as a possibility. At least accept the world's religion
as one of many ways by which men approach God. At least accept
it as one form of religion by which men sincerely worship God. After all, who are we to condemn
another man's religion? Who are you to say that someone's
religion is false? Sound familiar? very same kind
of reasoning that goes in our day, against the gospel of God's
grace. By her cunning craftiness, this
prophetess Jezebel seduced many in the church and persuaded them
to commit fornication. Now as it's written here, This
implication of fornication is not just that she seduced them
to commit spiritual fornication, though that is certainly true.
But in the practice of spiritual fornication, she seduced these
folks to engage in the actual practice of fornication In the
celebration of pagan, idolatrous religion, it was a common practice
in their services that men and women should engage in orgies
and fornication, and she seduced them to do it in the name of
religious unity. She seduced them to do it in
the name of promoting the cause of Christ and the glory of God.
That was the condition in Thyatira. Now, almost all the old commentators
suggest that this letter has reference to the rise of papacy
and the heretical, immoral doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic
Church. Now, if you listen to me very
much, you know that I have no sympathy at all for Rome. I have
no tolerance for papacy. And I am ready at any time to
denounce papacy as anti-Christ, for that's what it is. I am ready
at any time to declare that Romanism is idolatry, for that's what
it is. I am ready at any time to declare that Romanism promotes
immorality by her base doctrines, which are nothing but superstitions.
Nothing else, just idolatrous superstitions. But it is a grave,
grave mistake. to limit this letter of Christ
to the Church Thyatira to describing just the rise of papacy and of
Romanism within the realm of what's called Christianity. This
letter, like all the other seven letters to the Church, or like
all the other six letters, there are seven altogether, written
by our Savior to the Church, was written by Christ to you
and to me, and it was addressed to us in our particular situation
as it is to all other local churches throughout this gospel age. In
this letter, our Lord warns every local church, every pastor, and
everyone who professes faith in his name of the subtle, damning
influence of false religion. Now listen to me. I've chosen
my words deliberately. The subtle, damning influence
of false And it does so by giving us these five things. First,
the Lord Jesus here gives us an assuring revelation of himself. Unto the angel of the church
in Thyatira, write these things, saith the Son of God, who hath
eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet like fine brass. Notice again, the Lord addresses
himself to the angel of the church in Thyatira. We've seen this
throughout the book of Revelation. The pastor of the church is referred
to as the angel or the messenger of the church. And it should
be noticed that in each of these churches there was but one angel. There was but one pastor. There was but one messenger.
There was but one man who was given the responsibility and
the gifts under God for the instruction and direction and protection
of God's church. The means by which the pastor
was to guide, direct, and protect the church of God is through
the preaching of the gospel. This is God's ordained means
of ministering to men's souls. Hold your hands here and turn
to Ephesians chapter 4 and look at this one more time. Ephesians
the fourth chapter. If there's anything that I could
say to churches around the country and around the world With regard
to this business of their relationship and attitude toward the preaching
of the gospel and God's servants, it would be this. Understand
that the greatest gift God can bestow upon any people is a faithful
gospel preacher. That's just fact. That's just
fact. I thank God for the relationship we've had here these many, many
years. how I bless God for it. I thank
you for your attitude toward the ministry, toward your pastor,
toward others who preach the gospel. But this needs to be
heard around the world. The Lord Jesus, when he ascended
up on high and led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men,
gave to his church these gifts. Look in verse 11. And he gave
some apostles and some prophets and some evangelist in some pastors
pictures, pastors slash pictures. He gave some to be his messengers
to his people. And this is why he did it, for
the protecting of the saints, to build them up, to nourish
them, to establish them in the faith. For the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ. Till we all come in
the unity of the faith. That's the object. Not just unity,
but unity of the faith. Not just unity in religious experience. Not just unity in religious effort. Not just unity in name. But unity
of the faith. Unity of the faith of Jesus Christ. And the knowledge of the Son
of God unto a perfect man. under the measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children
tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine
by the slight of man and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in
wait to deceive." Lord Jesus gave his church then pastors
an angel, a messenger, one who would come and minister to them
the word of God to protect them, to guide them, to lead them,
to feed them in the way of righteousness and truth. Turn to Acts chapter
20. This is what the Apostle Paul says in Acts chapter 20
to the elders in Ephesus. Verse 28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves
and to all the flock. over which the Holy Ghost hath
made you overseers, only the Holy Spirit can do it, to feed
the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves
enter in among you, not sparing the flock, also of your own selves,
that is, from within the ranks of professed believers. Men shall
arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after
them." And so he says, feed the church, feed the church, feed
the church with knowledge, with understanding in the doctrines
of the gospel. Now here in this passage in Revelation,
our Lord Jesus identifies himself as the Son of God. And in doing
so, he is calling for us both to trust him and to obey him. He who is the head of the church
is not some silly old man dressed up in a specified costume, but
rather he's the Son of God. The head of the church is not
in Nashville. The head of the church is not
in Rome. The head of the church is seated upon the throne of
glory. He's the Son of God. The Son
of God. And his eyes, his eyes are the
flame of God. The flame of God. What on earth
does that mean? Well, obviously it's symbolical
language. It means that he has Penetrating, piercing eyes. It means, Father, He sees everything.
He sees you, and He sees through you, and He sees in you. He sees
everything. He sees not only what you do,
He sees why you do it. He beholds everything. All things
are naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
So that He judges men not on the basis of outward appearance,
but on the basis of reality and truth. Not only are his eyes
as a flame of fire, but his feet are like fine brass. That simply
implies strength. So that he who is our Lord, he
who is our God, is one of absolute omniscient knowledge. That is,
he knows everything. And omnipotent strength. That
is to say, he has all kind of power. Now that ought to comfort
and sustain us. That ought to make us clean to
Him and be tenacious in faithfulness to Him. Of whom should we be
afraid? Of whom should we have any fear?
Of whom should we have any concern? Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
with omniscience and omnipotence, He's our Lord. He walks in the
midst of His churches and holds His messengers in His right hand
and upholds us by His strength. Secondly, there is an acknowledged
regard given by our Lord for the faithfulness of his people.
Look at what he says in verse 19. You'll remember our Lord
said, them that honor me, I will honor. And here in verse 19,
he honors some folks. The Savior writes to these saints
at Thyatira, and he says, I know thy works. Take your pen and
underscore, five things. Charity, service, faith, patience,
And works again. And the last to be more than
the first. Now this commendation was not
given by a stranger. It was not given by a casual
observer. It was not given by the pastor
of the church who can be easily impressed by anything either
for good or for bad. All of these words of commendation
were given by Christ, the head of the church, whose eyes are
as a flame of fire. He said, I know your works. I
know your works. Writing to the faithful at fire
time. Now, he gives us here an example that ought to be followed
by us. While we must do nothing to honor
the flesh and promote pride, we loathe properly the tendency
of religion in our day to pamper flesh. We loathe properly. dependency
of religion in our day to do everything to cause me to swell
with pride for anything they say or do. That's absolutely
out of place in the kingdom of God. And yet at the same time,
it is altogether proper for us to commend and show appreciation
for good things done by people for Christ, his gospel, or even
for us as individuals. Ingratitude is always inexcusable. It is absolutely inexcusable,
even when it hides behind the mask of spirituality. I occasionally get letters from
fellas, or in conversation, I'll be chatting with someone, and
they'll say, I don't want to, I don't want to puff you up,
or I don't want to puff the pastor up, I don't want to puff the
preacher up, because, you know, I realize how easy it is for
them to get puffed up, And my response is, go ahead and do
what you can. He's already puffed up, but show
a little gratitude. Show a little gratitude. You
and me and your wives fix you a meal. Man, show a little gratitude. Take care of you. You children,
people are nice to you. Where on earth is the generation
that learned to say please and thank you? Where's the generation? It's just pupper. It's just pupper. But where are the adults? who
show any gratitude for anything. We ought never, ought never to
take one another for granted. We ought never to take for granted
the labors of people on our behalf. We ought never to take for granted
the labors of others on behalf of the kingdom of God. I urge
you, and one reason I put the names of our missionaries in
the bulletin and encourage you to write to them, let them know
you appreciate what they're doing. And I appreciate what Walter
Gruber's doing down in Mexico, what Cody's doing down there,
don't you? They're down there While we live here in all the
luxury of life here, they're down there ministering the gospel
of Christ. They've taken their families
there. Make certain that you're going to know you appreciate
it. Brother Bill Clark spends his life traveling in areas of
the world most of us wouldn't even want to think about stopping
in. He spends his life doing it. Why? For the gospel sake.
And we ought to commend it and let him know and his family know
how much we appreciate it. Now here our Lord gives five
specific works which he commends in these saints in Thyatira.
First he tells them they were obviously men and women of charity. I know thy works, thy charity. Oh, what a commendation for him
who is love to say, I know your love. You see, love, charity,
is a sure mark and clear evidence of real grace. Those who are
born of God love Christ and they love one another. Faith, if it
is genuine, worketh by love. That's what the apostles said.
By this shall all men know, our Savior said, that you're my disciples
if you have love one for another. And if we have not love, then
we're soundly rashed and tinkling said, but we're nothing. Our
pretense of faith is just a mockery of God, a deception of our souls. Love now is more than a phony,
candy-coated smile saying, I love you. That's not it. Love is the
self-sacrificing devotion of a person's heart for the welfare
of another. Love is thoughtful regard and
active pursuit of another person's happiness and well-being. And
then these saints at Thyatira are commended for their service
to the gospel. That word service implies, it
could mean many, many things, but as it's used in the context
here, it certainly implies service to the ministry of the gospel.
These folks at Thyatira were mission-minded people. They were
a missionary church. From then the word of the gospel
was spread in their town, in their generation, and spread
wherever they had opportunity to spread it. From then, like
the Thessalonians, the word of God sounded out into all the
world. Now these things our Savior commends
in the Saints at Thyatira, and I commend in you. I thank God
for the unity of love and fellowship and peace he's given us in this
place. I thank God for the blessed privilege we have and the exercise
of responsibility you give in sending forth the gospel. The
Lord has given us opportunity after opportunity for whatever
reason known only to him. God's given this assembly right
here in Danville, Kentucky, a ministry literally around the world, opening
doors that only he can open, supplying needs that only he
can supply. And I admonish you to continue it, I commend you
for giving yourselves to it. And then these people at Thyatira
were folks of great faithfulness. Our Lord says, I commend your
faith. Your faith. They believed God,
and believing God, they were faithful. And the word faith
here is talking more about the faithfulness than the faith.
about pursuing the things of God than simply believing God.
But those who believe God are faithful. They're faithful. These
folks at Thyatira were not lukewarm, half-hearted religious professors,
but faithful followers of Christ. Just faithful. Oh, how I admire
them. How I admire them. Many of you
are such faithful, faithful people. Just count on you. Yes, God will. And I admire it. I admire it.
I commend you for it. I thank God for it. It's his
gift of grace. You fellows who work with me
and you got men working for you, you wouldn't have them working
for you alone if they didn't show up tomorrow morning, would
you? Or if they showed up tomorrow morning, didn't show up Tuesday.
Or showed up Tuesday, didn't show up next Tuesday. Just have
a beer. No, I just didn't feel like coming in today. No, I just,
I had something else to do today. Well, you can have something
else to do all the time. You can have something else to do
every day. I'll give you plenty of time. And God's people, God's people,
are to be commended for faithfulness. That's the one thing Bob Pontchart,
God Almighty, requires of you and me. Faithfulness. He doesn't
require you to be a preacher. He doesn't require me to be a
carpenter. He doesn't require you to be a missionary. He doesn't
require me to be a missionary on foreign soil. He requires
us to be faithful where we are with what he's given us. Faithful.
And I'm going to tell you something else. That's the one thing every
child of God gives him. They're faithful. Believers are
faithful. They're faithful. Now, they have
ups and downs. Yes, sir, they fall in and they
fall out, but they're faithful. They're doggedly faithful in
the pursuit of Christ. You can just count on it. They'll
be there. They'll be right here twenty years from now. God Almighty
preserves and makes them faithful in everything. And then they
were patient. Our Lord said, and I commend
your patience. I know your patience. Those who
are most charitable, most diligent in the cause of Christ, and most
faithful in the things of God, are likely to be the most tried.
in their faith. God, in his goodness and mercy,
graciously tries the faith of his children with wise discipline,
but he nurtures our faith. He nurtures it. If where he is,
whatever it takes to make us faithful, he does it. That means trial. That means
trouble. That means things have come along that God sends in
wisdom. You may not see how he sends
it, but he sends in wisdom to keep you clinging to him, seeking
him, worshiping him, and following him. Those who are most charitable,
most faithful, most diligent, are usually the most tried. But
there are many trials display their patience for tribulation, It can't be learned any other
way. You say, well, Pastor, what is this patience? It is simply the peaceful, peaceful
resignation of my heart to his will. That's all. It's patience. I've learned,
Paul said, whatever state I am, therewith to be content. And
our Lord commends it. And then added to all these things,
our Lord commended the Thyatira saints for the fact they steadily
grew in devotion to Him. I love this last clause of verse
19. And thy works, and the last to be more than the first. Their
last works were better and more numerous than their first works.
Others had left their first love. Others had lost their first zeal.
Not these people. As they grew old, they grew wise. As they matured in years, they
matured in grace. As they declined in physical
strength, they increased in spiritual strength. Oh, I pray God will
graciously give me this kind of grace that I may continually
grow in love for my brethren, to serve the cause of Christ,
to be faithful to my God. and he will give me grace to
walk in patience before him, and to grow in the grace and
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ." Now, having given those words
of encouragement, this blessed acknowledgment of things that
the Lord recognized good in these people, he sounds an alarming
word of reproof in verses And notice just because she calls
herself one doesn't mean she is. She calls herself a prophetess. And you suffer her to teach and
to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things
sacrificed unto idols. Now I gave her space to repent
of her fornications and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her
into a bed, and then that commit adultery with her into great
tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill
her children with death, and all the churches shall know that
I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts, and I will give to
every one of you according to your works." Now, this reproof
is addressed primarily to the seducer Jezebel and those who
followed her. But it's also a reproof to the
church. A reproof to the church itself because the church was
at fault for having tolerated Jezebel. This woman Jezebel did
what she did in the name of God, pretending all the while that
she was promoting the worship of Christ and people followed
her. People believed her. It's absolutely
uncanny what men and women can do in perversion, and folks will
follow them. They just flock after them, just
keep going after them, one after the other after the other. They
just follow them no matter what they do, and they think they're
doing God's service. The church at Thyatira was to
be blamed, because this woman was tolerated in her wickedness,
and they afforded her opportunity to preach her damning doctrines.
No one dared stand up and stand away. It's not right for a woman
to preach. It's not right. Oh, you can't
do that. She believes she's called of
God. Who are you to say she's not? I'm not anybody, but God
is. And God says she's not called
of him. They didn't need my stand up and say, wait a minute, we
can't follow this woman's perverse teachings. It's not according
to scripture. It's contrary to the gospel,
but they just kind of sat back and said, now let's, things are
going good. Let's not, let's not rock the boat. Let's not,
let's not cause any trouble. Let's learn to get along. And
so they allowed a woman not only to teach, but to preach and to
do so in direct opposition to the word of God. I recognize
we're living in this silly day when men and women everywhere,
even in churches and in religion, ignore everything written in
the book of God. They do whatever they want to. But I'm telling
you, if you're interested in worshiping God, you can't tolerate
female preachers. Can't tolerate them. I got a
letter from somebody, I forgot even who it was now, it's not
important. Some lady, she imagined herself to be a theologian and
sent me a stack of sermons she'd written out. She didn't call
them sermons, but they were expositions of Scripture, and after what
I thought of them, I said, I think you ought not write them, you ought to
be a housewife. You've got no business attempting to teach
men the scriptures. Women have no business assuming
the responsibilities of expounding the scriptures. God did not call
any woman to do that. The scriptures are abundantly
clear. Our Lord speaks in the book of 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy
chapter 2. Now look at it. This is not my
opinion. This is my opinion. You don't
have to pay any attention to it. But this is God's opinion. And God
doesn't have opinions. He just takes facts. Here in
1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 11. Let the women learn in silence
with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach,
nor to usurp authority over a man but to be in silence. What do
you reckon that means? I reckon it means exactly what
you think it does. It means a woman's not to use
self-authority over a man. It means a woman's not to teach
a man. It means a woman's not to put herself in the position
of directing and instructing a man in the house of God. That's
what it means. Look in 1 Corinthians chapter 14. 1 Corinthians chapter
14. Verse 34. Back up to verse 33, it's applicable.
God is not the author of confusion but of peace. If you want confusion,
turn this business of instructing folks in the scriptures over
to a woman, you got confusion. Read history. Read history. Most every wild sect in religion
was started by some crazy woman. Folks down here in Shaker Town,
a couple of crazy old women, no other nut in the world would
think about having a celibate religion. They just get a notion
in their head, oh, this is what we do to serve God. Just confusion. Verse 34, let your women keep
silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them
to speak. But they are commanded to be
under subjection, as also saith the law. And if they will learn
anything, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is a
shame for a woman to speak in the church. Now, language can't
be any plainer than that. But these folks at Thyatira,
like most in religion today, said, well now, that's a little
outdated. That's talking about another
time. That's talking about another circumstance. That's talking
about another subject. No, it's talking about women preachers.
And then by allowing her to spread her doctrine and embracing her
as a believer, this church became partaker with her in her evil
deeds. That's what John said in 2 John
chapter, 2 John verses 10 and 11. If you support somebody in
doing what you know to be contrary to scripture, you're partaker
with them in their deeds. We call it in law, aiding and
abetting. Don't rob banks because you just
drive a getaway car. You're just as guilty as the
fellow inside. You're just as guilty. You're helping him out.
And I'm telling you, if you give your support mentally, prayerfully,
emotionally, financially, or by your presence, if you give
your support to false religion, you're as guilty as the man you're
supporting and preaching false religion. Just don't do it. Now,
if we are to be faithful to the souls of men and faithful to
the glory of God, false religion and false prophets must be pointedly,
plainly, and clearly exposed by us. We preach a positive message,
and I try to avoid being negative, but we must never allow any room
for the acceptance of any doctrines contrary to the gospel of God's
free grace. not to appease family or friend,
not to appease folks in the church or folks out of the church. I've
told you, I think before a few, oh, it's been a couple of years
ago, I guess, maybe more, a Campbellite preacher came out here one day.
He wanted to debate with me about something I'd written in the
paper. And he sat down, he said, now, I guess we can agree on
this. You believing what you've written
in this article, me believing what I do is, he called himself
Church of Christ. He said, I guess we can agree
we can't both be saved. I said, I guess we can agree
on that. We can sure enough agree on that. You believe salvation
by the works of your hands, and I believe salvation by God's
free grace. One of us is lost. One of us doesn't know God. Now,
there is absolutely no in-between ground. The fact is, in this
age in which we live, the popular, accepted, mainstream religion
of this day is a religion of works. The vast majority of religious
denominations, of respected religious leaders and churches in this
day, local, national, and international, the vast majority of them have
one thing in common in the essence of their doctrine. They believe
last salvation depends on you. That's the essence of their doctrine.
Some of them wear robes and crosses, and some of them don't. Some
of them dress up in nice suits, and some of them are kind of
strange looking. Some of them are well educated,
some of them are backwards folks. Some of them baptize three times
forward, some of them three times backwards, some of them sprinkle
water on your face. But all of them, in their essence,
believe salvation depends on you. And that's damning religion.
That's damning religion. We have no point of agreement
with them. If I preach to you the gospel
of God's free grace, and declare to you the salvations of the
Lord. And another man stands over here and he said no salvation
by grace plus works. Or he said no salvation by what
you do or salvation by your baptism or salvation by church membership
or salvation by your free will. Then both of us can't be right.
One of us has got to be wrong. Somebody doesn't know God. They
deny, they deny, all of them, the whole religious world around
us denies God's absolute sovereignty in salvation. This book insists
on it. The whole religious world around
us denies the efficacy of Christ's blood. That is, they all universally
declare that some folks go to hell for whom Christ died. This
book says, oh no, Christ didn't die in vain. All of them declare
that the effectual power of God, the Holy Spirit and regeneration
cannot be believed. That makes man a robot. This
book declares thy people shall be willing in the day of thy
power. Therefore, they must not be received. They must not be
embraced. They must not be heard. They
must not be supported by us. Now turn to the scriptures and
let me show you. Galatians chapter 5. I'll just give you One or
two passages here. Galatians chapter 5. I know this sounds so hard to
you. I know it sounds hard to you because it sounds hard to
me. It cuts against the flesh. I want so much to be accepted,
don't you? I want to get along. I want folks
to like me. And I don't want to stand out
on my own like a sore thumb and everybody points and says, look
at that Dutch. I'm not interested in that. But I can't compromise
the gospel. And this is not in any way, anything
other than what the scriptures declare. This was Paul's attitude
toward the Judaizers at Galatians. He says to the Judaizers, he
says to the Galatians, I would, they were even cut off, which
trouble you. These fellows were practicing
circumcision. They were calling for men and
women to calling these men and women at Galatians to return
to the law and to return to the right in the Old Testament circumcision.
Paul said, I would they were cut off. I would they were cut
off. And he speaks with utter contempt,
utter contempt. Look in chapter one of Galatians. Verse six, I marvel that you'd
be so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of
Christ unto another gospel. which is not another, but there
be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we are an angel from
heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have
preached unto you, let him be accursed. Let him be damned. Now, pastor, you don't mean that.
Oh, yes, I do mean that. Oh, yes, I do. Yes, I do. I have absolute contempt for
Arminian freewill works religion. young man I went to school with.
I haven't seen him in 25 years. While we were in school, he claimed
to believe the gospel of God's grace. He kind of contended for
it a little bit, sort of a mild-mannered fellow. I read just earlier this
year that he has joined up in the faculty down there where
they insisted that men signed a statement of faith saying they
believe in universal atonement, believe Christ died for folks
who actually wind up going to hell. And I wrote to him. I wrote to him with great concern.
I said, Jeff, how on this earth, having learned the gospel of
God's free grace, how on this earth can you go back now and
join yourself with Antichrist in the citadel of Antichrist
and oppose the gospel? Got to deal with you for this.
Got to deal with you for this. And my friend, I hoped it would
shake him and cause him to hear what I was saying. I'm telling
you, there's absolutely no common ground between free will and
free grace. And our Lord condemns the behavior
of these folks at Thyatira because they tolerated this wicked woman
Jezebel to teach her doctrine and seduce his servants to get
along with the idolaters. And he declares that he will
destroy them. He will destroy every false prophet, every teacher
of free will, works, religion, and he will destroy those who
follow them. He'll destroy them. They're butchers of men's souls.
Butchers of men's souls. Well, they're so sweet. You call
that sweet? You call that sweet? So nice. You call that nice? Telling men
that this is the way to life for they're leading to hell.
Oh no. Our Lord says I'll destroy them.
Look what it says here. Verse 23. I will kill her children with
death. I will kill her children with death. I will kill her children
with death. You follow her, you're going
to die. You follow this way, you're going
to perish. I've got to hurry. But look at
verses 24 and 25, and here our Lord gives us an assigned responsibility. He says, unto you, to you, Don
Fortner, the messenger of the church in Danville. And to the
rest of you, very thankful. To you. To you, Bob Ponce. To you, Oscar Baker. To you,
Merle Barton. To you. I say, as many as have not this
doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan. Do you see his language? I think they were deep things,
deep things. They talk about the mysteries
of prophecy, and they talk about the mysteries of Israel, and
they talk about the works of demons, and they talk about angels,
and I think they were deep things. Anything to turn you away from
Christ crucified, anything to turn you away from Christ crucified,
our Lord calls it the depths of Satan, Satan's delusion. Paul wrote to the Corinthians,
he said, I fear that you'll be turned and beguiled from the
simplicity of Christ by Satan's subtlety. He says, all right, as they speak
from the depths of Satan, as they speak, I will put upon you
no other burden but this, that which you have already, hold
fast till I come. hold fast till I come. We have this responsibility in
our day. We must hold fast the gospel
of Jesus Christ to Him crucified. Don't let anyone turn you away
from the simplicity that's in Christ. I try to instruct preachers as
I have opportunity, younger preachers. I'm not a man to instruct others,
but I try to instruct younger preachers as God gives me opportunity.
Preach Christ. Just preach Christ. Preach the
glory of Christ, the riches of Christ, the beauty of Christ,
the sacrifice of Christ, the righteousness of Christ, the
ascension of Christ, the glory of Christ. You'll never run out
of something to preach. And you'll always preach what
men need. Always. Let us preach Jesus Christ and
him crucified wherever God gives opportunity as the object of
our faith, the theme of our preaching, the center of our worship, and
the motive of our lives. And it is our responsibility
in these days of darkness to hold fast the doctrine of Christ
till he comes again. God has given us in this place
the gospel of his free grace, Mark, for whatever reason, I
don't know why, but God's chosen us and dropped in our laps the
glorious gospel of Christ. Now, first and foremost, above
everything else, if need be, to the exclusion of everything
else, this is the responsibility of this church. Hold it fast. so that those whom God flees
to call in the next generation, the next man who stands in this
pulpit, holds forth the word. And the next generation of believers,
setting where you're sitting, worship the Lord Jesus in the
glory of his grace. Now that word which we are commanded
to hold fast, the gospel of God's grace, may be summed up and set
forth in these six brief statements. I'll give them to you. I hope
that you've grasped them. They're not anything new. God
Almighty is absolutely sovereign in creation, in providence, and
grace. Anything that denies that denies
God. Anything that denies God's total
sovereignty is idolatry, damning idolatry. The Lord God Almighty
has chosen a people whom he has determined to save by his free
grace, and he will save them." That's right. That simply declares
salvations of the Lord. Thirdly, all men and women by
nature, since the fall of our father Adam, are dead in trespasses
and sins, utterly depraved, without the knowledge of God, without
life, helpless. Now that's simply declaring In
honesty, unless God does something for you, unless God invades your
heart, unless God Almighty snatches you from the very jaws of destruction,
you're going to perish. Salvation is not up to you. Salvation
is not by your free will. Salvation is not by something
you do. Salvation is by something that God does for you and in
you by his free grace. Fourthly, the Lord Jesus Christ
when he died for his people, effectually redeemed his people
by satisfying divine justice for his people. And he'll see
his people with him in glory. I know folks, they say, well,
that's such a strong issue, this matter of limited atonement,
particular redemption. We can tone that one down. Let
me tell you what toning it down means. To say that Christ died
for folks who were in hell, that he paid the debt for folks who
were in hell, that he attempted to redeem and save folks who
were in hell, is to deny that Jesus Christ is God. Do you think
that's insignificant? Oh no, this is a crucial issue
of the gospel. Either the Son of God did what he came to do,
or he is a phony, and we're yet in our sins. The Holy Spirit regenerates. He calls to life. He gives faith
to all those sinners chosen of God in eternity, redeemed by
Christ at Calvary and giving them life. He keeps them in his
grace. And that's the last thing. All
who believe on the Son of God will continue to believe. They
persevere steadfast unto the end. And our Savior gives this
assured reward. in the last verses of our text.
He that overcometh, every believer will. We will overcome all things. And keepeth my words, how long?
How long? To the end. To the end. To him will I give power over
the And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as vessels of
a potter shall they be broken into shivers, even as I received
of my father. And I'll give him the morning
star." You know who the morning star is? The morning star who
shall light up the eternal day and introduce us into eternal
glory is Jesus Christ himself. He says, I'll give you myself. All that I am and all that I
have. Hold to me. Hold to me. Amen.