Hello, Facebook, and if you're watching this later, hello, YouTube. If you're, well, I'll explain that in a second. If this is your first time stumbling upon us, well, hello, welcome. We are the Household of Faith in Christ. Tonight, we're gonna have a message and discussion centered around Revelation chapter three, verses one through six. So if you wanna get your Bibles read, I'll be reading that shortly. And then you can participate in the discussion virtually by chiming in on the comment section. We'll try to incorporate anything, any questions or thoughts you might have during our discussion time. Tonight's message is titled, Wake Up, You Can't Hide Behind Being Woke Up. So for Southern Baptists who might be watching this, this might be feel particularly poignant to you this week. In recent weeks, we've been reading extended passages from the Old Testament because the Apostle John who wrote Revelation, he draws so many illusions from the Old Testament. I want us to begin to try to get better immersed in that. However, tonight the message is probably going to be about five minutes longer than I typically would have the message be, so we're not going to do the scripture reading, so we have more time for our discussion. And for those who don't like when the messages go five minutes long, in a few weeks I'll make it up to you, we'll have a message that goes about five minutes short. How about that? Give you your time back. So anyway, so get your Bibles ready. We're gonna read from that during the sermon. We're gonna have Angela, if she's comfortable, opening us with a word of prayer, and then we'll dive right in to the message. Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you, Father, for another opportunity to gather together again, Lord, to learn from your word, to be, changed by your word, to have our minds renewed by your word. Your word is life to us. You say in your word that we live not by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from your mouth. So Father, as the word comes forth, let it be bread to us, fresh manna from heaven. Let it shape us, correct us, and let it change us, Father. We give you all the praise and the glory. May your will be done in and through this message in Jesus mighty name. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Amen. That's right. three first first six verses yep and um if you're trying to follow along with us in the you know the rest of the week in the you know the virtual world the easiest way to connect with us on social media because we've got stuff on gab and miwi and facebook and even you know linkedin i guess or you know, parlor, those sorts of things, YouTube channel. The easiest way to find all that stuff, just go to our website, HouseholdOfFaithInChrist.com, and there you can connect with all of our social media, it's all there, and you can see other, we're gonna start to have regular blog postings there, that hasn't been happening yet, that's gonna start soon, and other things that we'll be connected to there might be an interesting hub for you to connect with us there. Let me put this down over here. So our journey through Asia Minor in Revelation chapters two and three, it continues today. So far we have visited Ephesus, where Christ reminds his people to remember their first love. We've been to Smyrna. where Christ says, fear not. We've traveled through Pergamum, where Christ's message to his church is repent. Last week, we were in Thyatira, where Christ encourages his bride to hold fast. And now we've arrived in Sardis, where the body of Christ is told to wake up. For the first four letters, we saw clearly that as many as God loves, he rebukes and chastens. and that judgment begins with the house of God, and our position as believers, it may not be one of ease, but we can be faithful. Our Lord, at the conclusion of the lives that we now lead, he is not gonna say to us, well done, my rich and successful servant. He is going to say, well done, my good and faithful servant. Our maker, he knows our tribulations. We see from the letter to Smyrna that this is true. He knows our works. We see from the letter to Pergamum that this is true. Now some, they might try to hide inside of a big church, might try to hide inside of some sort of service to a church program somewhere, but there's no hiding from Christ. He sees all. The first four letters to the churches in Revelation help us to know all of these things. We know also that we can't stand upon our past laurels as compensation for our current or future failings. We know that the Lord does not bear the sword in vain. We know that the person who is born twice will die but once, but the one who is born only once will die twice. And having studied chapters one and two of Revelation, we understand that our great shepherd, he tends to his flock, that's his church, by his word, his sword, his scepter, his staff, these symbols of his rule that are highlighted actually in the letter to Thyatira we covered last week. They're used by our king to care for us, to feed us, and when necessary, to break us. And through these things we have union with Him. We are in Christ and with Him we are crucified, dead, buried, risen, living, sitting with God, ultimately to be glorified together. We are one with the Messiah in heart, in life, in suffering. and also in triumphant glory, if we're truly His and faithful. So we've learned so much so far. We've been reminded of so much in these first couple of chapters of the book of Revelation. Today we begin to see what chapter three holds in store for us, and we're going to find that many of these themes are recurring. So if you would, grab your Bibles if they're not already open, and we're going to read the first six verses of the third chapter of Revelation, which says, To the angel of the church in Sardis write, he who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says this, I know your deeds, that you have a name, that you are alive, but you are dead. Wake up and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die, for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of my God. So remember what you have received and heard and keep it and repent. Therefore, if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief and you will not know at what hour I will come to you. But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments and they will walk with me in white for they are worthy. He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments. And I will not erase his name from the Book of Life. And I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Indeed, he who has an ear, let him hear." This is the inspired Word of God. It is inerrant. It is infallible. It is the perfect rule and guide for faith and life practice. Revelation 3, verse 1, it begins to the angel of the church in Sardis, right? Now, we've talked about the angel of the church already in recent weeks, but I want to add a little more background for you here, an interesting little tidbit. There's some evidence, some, from ancient days that there might have been a person who was called the angel of the church. who acted as a sort of worship leader, if you will, in the Jewish synagogue. And this person would assist with the teaching or the prayer, the reading, the reading of letters like this, for instance. Now, this was not an officer of the church. It wasn't even a permanent position, necessarily. It might have even involved a rotation of people who handled these responsibilities temporarily. So in my mind, I kind of have this image of a person I've seen in some of our current churches. Maybe you've seen this too, the people that handle the announcements. Some of those steps forward, they're not the pastor, they're not even technically in leadership, but they'll get up and they'll talk about the stuff that's happening in the congregation, and they might sometimes also pray, they might read scripture, they might even perhaps take on an additional role and lead a Sunday school class or something like that. Well, this is what some people think that the angel of the church means here in Revelation, and it could be. I still tend to believe it's a reference to the pastor. Those who disagree with me, most of them say it's an angelic, heavenly being. And that could be, too. It could have a variety of applications, perhaps. So we're not going to fist fight over it. But I just wanted to share that little tidbit as a possibility as you use your imagination of how to understand what Revelation is telling us. Now, verse 1 of chapter 3 ends with Christ saying to Sardis, I know your deeds, that you have a name, that you are alive, but you are dead. Now we know that so far there has been one church, the one in Smyrna, who gets a letter and receives no rebuke. And spoiler alert, there's going to be one more unrebuked church, the one in Philadelphia. But Sardis, they're among the five churches to receive a rebuke from their bridegroom. And it is one of the very worst. This is a church with a good worldly name. Those outside the church heap praises upon them. In today's context, it might be things like, you are so accepting and affirming. You are so very woke, and we like that. Well, yeah, the world likes when we do things that the humanist social agencies, the secular not-for-profits do. And we like the positive vibes that the worldly people send our way. We relish in the ever-growing social credit score that we attain, imagining that this somehow, it's helping us to stockpile political and social capital that we will one day use in a way to help us preserve the enemy's favorable view of us. This is an attempt to serve two masters. It is sin. This was the teaching of Balaam, which we have talked about in recent weeks. Should we serve God, or should we serve the human honors and material wealth that comes with pleasing the world? That material wealth, those human honors, this is what the Bible calls mammon. We saw this in other churches, such as Pergamum, and we see it here in Sardis. Do we see it in our own lives? Balaam, Jezebel, the Nicolaitans, they're not mentioned in this letter, just as they're rarely mentioned in describing our churches today. But this church, Sardis, still dead in their faith. In the first century, the followers of Christ, they lived in a pagan society, both overtly and covertly pagan. And in our post-Christian world now, so do we. Our brothers and sisters from 19 and a half centuries ago, they were tempted to compromise their faith and their witness for earthly security. They wanted freedom to engage in illicit relationships. They might have wanted, at some level, to also worship the God of the Bible, but also while worshiping idolatrous gods that promised what the pagans claimed to have, things like pleasure and fame and financial gain. Well, this is called syncretism. It's the attempt to have it both ways. Do you know that Balaam represents the sin of syncretism? How much Balaam is in you? Hopefully not much. As a faithful follower of Christ who continues in your sanctification and in your march toward glorification, there will, in the end, be none. There will be no compromise. And then, you will be counted among the few. that are referenced in verse four of today's passage. But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments and they will walk with me in white for they are worthy. Those in white, they will walk in life and liberty. They have Christ as their constant companion. They will exist forever in unsullied glory. As it said in verse 5, they will not have their names blotted out of the book of life. And that phrase, not being blotted out, it is said in the firmest of terms in the Greek. Not gonna happen. No way. My fellow co-heirs in Christ, you will never lose your heavenly citizenship. Not gonna happen. No way. And you will be recognized as a citizen of heaven by the judge himself. Your name confessed by Jesus before his father, before the surrounding angels, because in Christ, you are worthy. You'll be like the few in Sardis who did not soil or defile their garments because they were not touched by the death that infected the city around them. Now, readers of the Old Testament law will recall that to touch death, that was to become unclean, to be defiled. Well, here we see that there are a few who maintain the whiteness of their wedding garb in anticipation of their great wedding day. There are very few. It's kind of reminiscent of Sodom and Gomorrah. In Genesis, remember in Sodom, there were just very few. In Sardis, just very few. In America, where recent Barna research reports that only 6% of your neighbors hold a biblical worldview, there are very few. Are you among the very few? In a society of poison and pollution, are your Christian garments undefiled? Like our handful of ancient brothers and sisters in Sardis, are you awake in a community that is overcome by unconscious slumbering? These people of thousands of years ago, they should have known better. City of Sardis that was surrounded on three sides by sheer cliffs. And it was believed therefore to be impossible for them to be captured. Until they were captured. Twice. Once by King Cyrus of Persia. Because the Sardinians, they became lax in their vigilance. They dropped their defenses. They failed to be on the lookout. They became neglectful of watching. Are you a watcher? Now, if you're wobbly in your answer to that question, let me ask this question. Will you become a watcher? When the passage says, wake up, what it's literally saying, the wooden translation there would be, become watching. It is a phrase with military overtones when it's used in the New Testament. Be on watch. Stand guard. This is a spiritual war. And brother, sister, you are a soldier. In a sense, we can look at this passage as a message that centers on three things. We've got the general character of the many, the exceptional character of the few, and then the absolute judge of all. So are you one of the many or one of the few? As we have pointed out in the exposition of the earlier letters in Revelation, he who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars He knows us and our situation. He knows our story. He knows the history of what it is that surrounds us in our world. Now, we don't always know these things, nor the interesting background and the context that could help add so much texture and insight into understanding these letters. Like in Pergamum, for instance, in that letter, Pergamum still exists today. It's the Turkish city of Bergama. It's believed that Pergamum was the birthplace of Homer, Homer, who was called the oldest of the world's poets, which is, it's a bit nutty given that King David lived hundreds of years before Homer. And Pergamum also was the native land of Herodotus, often called the father of history. Again, bit nutty since the Old Testament histories had already been written before Herodotus was born. And theologically, it's better to think of God as the father of history anyway, don't you think? Probably about three days' journey from Pergamum to the southeast. That was the city of Thyatira. It was founded by Alexander the Great. And there they worshipped the sun god Apollo, but under a different name. They preferred the name Tyrumnus. And this sun god aspect might help us have even more thrust to the image. Last week we talked about Jesus and his eyes of flame. Remember that from the letter to Thyatira? The sun god, the eyes of flame. See the connection? I talked last week about how this city reminds me of kind of like Pittsburgh. Well, it also kind of reminds me of being like an ancient Chicago. It was a city that works. And so works, deeds, they're a major theme from last week's letter. And that theme, we see it again pop up in this week's letter. Verse one, I know your deeds. I know your works, depending on your translation. It's the exact same word in Greek, simply having translational variety in our English Bibles. And in verse 2, I have not found your deeds, your works, completed. So in these cities, with strong work ethic, we see commendable character. It's good to have good deeds, but they have reprehensible doctrine. These churches saw duty as indispensable. at the expense of their blessed destiny. We can see here letters about the moral character of mankind, and it is a moral character that is very much wanting. So we must turn to God. We must repent. We must cast off our sinful attitudes and ambitions, and while dying to self, throwing ourselves upon the mercy that's found at the foot of the cross. That's what we need to do. But our tendency, as in Sardis, is too often to trust in ourselves, our work, rather than trusting in Christ, His work. Sardis, it still exists today, too. known as the city of Sart. And it has been all but destroyed over the years by plunder and earthquake. And one commentator describes a 20th century condition of Sart in a rather colorful way. He writes, nothing is now to be seen but a few mud huts inhabited by ignorant, stupid, filthy Turks. And the only men who bear the Christian name are at work all day in their mill. It's all about their work, their deeds. Sardis was once a great capital city. It was celebrated for its wealth due to lots of trade, especially in the industry of harvesting wool and dyeing it and making garments. And one wonders how many of these garments were white, like the white garments that are mentioned in this passage. and the importance of the wool industry to Sardis, and the fact that Jesus Christ says that he will visit the unrepentant like a thief, with surprise. Recall from verse 3, it speaks of a sneaky thief, not a bold and boisterous and loud robber or bandit, but a thief. With these ideas in mind, we might have called to our mind an ancient Greek proverb that some of us perhaps have heard. The proverb that says, the feet of the avenging gods are shod with wool. They have shoes made of wool so they can be stealth, ninja-like in their destructive approach. You can't hide under cover of kind words from God's enemies. Wherever you go to hide, Christ is there. And the people of Sardis, they were used to hearing these kind words from God's enemies. And oftentimes, today's church is guilty of this too. Well, one generation earlier from when this letter was written, the city had been destroyed by an earthquake, and they rebounded strongly, they rebuilt, they recovered, and that's cool. And Sardis, they were said to have had gold that extended all the way back to the time of King Midas, he of the golden touch. Well, that's pretty cool. Their history is filled with great leaders of legendary wealth. I mean, it's all very cool. Aesop, you know Aesop's fables? Aesop apparently was from Sardis. How cool is that? So the people of Sardis, they received a lot of honor for these things. They took great pride in their storied past. Well, as Americans, I think we have a point of connection here. We can relate, can't we? We're proud of our storied past. We receive great honor for the things that have happened in the past. Our reputation from the past. Some say that Sardis was the very first city to be converted by John's preaching, the author of Revelation. Well, if that's true, that's pretty darn cool. But the same people that tell us that also tell us that Sardis was the first congregation of so-called converts to revolt and fall away from the faith. Now this church, as do all churches, needed the Holy Spirit, the seven spirits mentioned in verse one. But they try to hide from this need. in their deeds, their reputation, just as so many churches do in our day. How many churches today have words in their names like grace or faith or community? Grace church, faith church, community church, but they possess none of these things. There's no community, no grace, no faith. That's what their big illuminated sign out front says. But they're hiding behind those big illuminated signs. But again, wherever you go to hide, Christ is there holding his traveler's walking stick or his kingly scepter, his shepherd's staff that he uses also as a measuring rod that he puts to use for guiding his people and also for punishing his adversary. Now, who is his adversary? Well, according to God's word, it is the kings of the earth who rise up and the rulers who band together against the Lord and against his anointed. That's Psalm 2, verse 9. Those who rise up against the morning star are his adversary. This isn't you, is it? Do you rise up against Christ? Against what he teaches? Against who he claims to be? His adversary rejects the true Morning Star for a fraudulent Morning Star. Lucifer is a fallen Morning Star. If you're not looking to the true Morning Star, then you are looking to this fallen Morning Star. At the end of chapter two, you might recall from last week, Jesus is the true morning star. He is the light in the darkness, and his light sees all. Again, you can't hide. In the previous letter, we were reminded that he searches hearts and minds. Now, the Greek there literally is, he searches the kidneys and the hearts. In Semitic usage, the kidneys represent the center of emotion, the innermost being. I feel it in the kidneys. In the heart, it represents the seat of our thoughts, our wisdom, our volition, our will, and also our emotion in certain contexts. And so Christ sees all of this. He knows your thoughts, your feelings, your intentions, You're everything. You're innermost and outermost being. You can't hide from Him. Not even behind your good works as you sleep under the covers. Your positive deeds, they might throw the world off the scent of your sin, but Christ, He sniffs right through. Sniffs right through those deeds to the very heart of the matter. Are you his adversary? Like Jezebel was. Jezebel, we talked about her last week, commonly referred to as the most evil woman who ever lived. She was the inspiration, I believe, for Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth. She was instrumental in accelerating the demise of Israel about 900 years before Christ's first advent. And her name has been used ever since as a pejorative for ungodly evilness. Much like in America today, the name Benedict Arnold is still used as a pejorative for traitors. Now, many of today's most vilified politicians, you might hear this on occasion, they're sometimes referred to as Jezebels. Spirit of oppressive darkness is often called a spirit of Jezebel. Now in the letter we examined last week, the letter to Thyatira, Jezebel is thrown under the bus by the word of God. Clearly this is a very bad woman. And to follow in her footsteps would be a disaster. You don't want to follow in her steps, do you? You're not already doing so, are you? Would you know if you were? What was the crux of the issue for Jezebel? All of her ill will, all of her anti-God actions, all of the infamy that is tied to her name even still to this day. What was at the foundation of it all? Where did she go astray? Or more poignantly, if you're tripping down the path that she marked out, where is it that you're going astray? Well, a big part of it, syncretism. Compromise with the world. Wanting to still have your cake after having already eaten it. Wanting to be pragmatic and practical rather than obedient and perseverant. Adopting what some call the social gospel. which is what the Apostle Paul would call another gospel. Making an idol of being winsome and therefore neglecting to announce the full counsel of God. Now we do want to meet people where they are, of course. And we want to bring the message of hope to our lost and broken and frightened neighbors, of course. And we want to be ambassadors for grace and mercy and love, of course. But we must also remember that Christ does all of this while maintaining his tone of authority. His word is a sharp, two-edged sword. It is a battle instrument. And with it, Jesus wields a terrible force. Morally, it cuts to the quick. It advances the truth with one edge and it defends the truth with the other edge. Thus saith the Lord. It's not thus saith the world. The word of God his double-edged sword, it destroys all wrong thoughts, all wicked passions, all corrupt ideologies. It destroys them. It does not give them a pass. It does not compromise with them. It does not say, well, you know, those worldly things that at their root actually undercut the gospel that we find in scripture, well, you know, they're actually quite good in a sense, and so we should add them to our toolkit. The world has nothing to teach the word. What the world offers is the teaching of death. And most professing Christians and Sardis, they were dead man walking. And again, they tried to hide behind the good stuff that they did and the good reputations that they had with the devil's helpers. But these were dead works that were done by dead people. Each one of them, a corpse. Like so many today. Masking their stone cold condition with pancake makeup. pancake of makeup that maybe is called social justice, perhaps? It's like going to an open casket funeral. You ever been to one of those? You know, your loved ones laying there, wearing their best Sunday clothes, their hairs washed clean, makeup supplied to make it appear they have color in their complexion, and what does the world say? They say, oh, she looks so good. So good. She's dead. How good could she look? And yet, honestly, sometimes the corpse does look pretty good. Oftentimes, better than the last time you saw that person alive. But no matter how good they look, their heart isn't beating. Their lungs aren't pumping. Their brain isn't waving. They are dead. And for them, their eternal destiny is determined. And this could be you at any moment. None of us know the hour that God will come to us. But if you're one of his followers, If you're watchful so as to keep your wedding garments clean as you await the second coming of your bridegroom Jesus, well then hear this, what the redeemed have by faith on earth, they will have in full at the end. Amen to that. Now as we head down the homestretch here, I want to point out in verse 5, we notice the word overcomes. It appears again, as it does so often throughout the book of Revelation. Now some translations, they use the word conquers, or another similar word to conquer or overcome. This word, it is a favorite word for the Apostle John. It's a sort of pet word of his. Out of all the synoptic Gospels, That's what sometimes people call the first three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the synoptics. Out of all three of these books combined, the word conquer, again, also translated overcome, is used just once. If you want to look that up later, it's in Luke chapter 11, verse 22. And it's used only once by the Apostle Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament. And that loan uses by Paul, you find that in Romans chapter 12, verse 21, if you want to look that one up later. And that's it. Compare that to John. In his gospel account, in his three epistles, John uses the word about a half a dozen times, and it's used in each of the seven letters here in Revelation. He wants you to agree with Mandesa. One of the songs by this pretty famous Christian singer, Mandisa belts out, you're an overcomer. Stay in the fight till the final round. You're not going under because God is holding you right now. You might be down for a moment, feeling like it's hopeless. That's when he reminds you, you're an overcomer. You are an overcomer. If you're one of his elect, then, oh yes, you are. So be who you are. Wake up. Be watchful. Be an overcomer. We end with chapter three, verse six, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your call to account here. Not that we shouldn't pursue good and righteous deeds in your name, that we wouldn't trust and rest on those, that we wouldn't try to hide behind those, that we would Trust only in the full sufficiency of Jesus Christ and his blood, that we live our lives, not empowered by our own will, our own desires, our own ambitions, but by the power of your spirit, the guidance, the wisdom that we receive from you. We ask that you would help us to be watchful, to recognize theological error for what it is, and to call it out in defense of the truth. and that your church would be a bride that is ready for the arrival of her bridegroom. We ask your blessing upon our discussion that's about to follow here forthwith. We ask everything that we do and say would be to your honor, to your glory, and to the edification of your people. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. All right. Excuse me. So, are you an overcomer? Yeah, I think the point there is you don't always feel like you're an overcomer. I feel like you're going under, quote Mandisa here. might be going down for a moment, feeling like it's hopeless. And I think it's interesting. I started working on this particular message a number of weeks ago, and I feel like if I had only begun to work on this message in the last few days, I might have ended up saying almost precisely the exact same thing I said in the context of the largest Protestant denomination in this country. going down the wrong path, the path of wokeness. And those who are Bible-believing Christians might be feeling hopeless, might feel like, what's going on with the leadership in our church? They've gone woke, they've gone theologically left. Like, what are we gonna do? And so I just wanna say this, we don't have to turn this into a discussion about the SBC necessarily, but I do wanna say this. The SBC is not the church. Christ's church is victorious. Christ's people do overcome. Those that don't overcome, those that chase after being winsomely beloved by the devilish world, instead of being obedient to God and his word, they were never among us to begin with. They're not part of Christ's church. Christ's church wins. And if the SBC isn't participating in that victory, well, that's evidence that they're not part of Christ's church. So those are kind of hard words, maybe. But what's played out the last few days and what's really played out over the last few years is something to think about. It's not just the Baptists. It's true with a lot of the Presbyterians. Methodists, Episcopalians, all of them. All the churches are having a problem right now. So, but don't give up hope, because the true church does win. So, is anybody here feeling a challenge with that? Feeling a little hopeless, a little deflated? Yeah. I actually thought the result from the Southern Baptist Convention was good because it meant that God was going to wreck that church because odds of saving that institution were very low and they just went to zero. So I think that's pretty good because now we can reassess and act on that. So I actually thought that was probably the second best outcome was that they got resoundingly crushed. Yeah, as opposed to a lukewarm, well, there's some better stuff. Yeah, exactly. For context really quick, does anyone want to take a stab at explaining really quickly what happened this week? Because not everybody watching online is here. The context is that there was an attempt to revive the conservative resurgent 2.0, and they got resoundingly crushed. Yeah, they had their annual convention. Well, annual, they didn't have it last year because of COVID. But two years ago, they had their Southern Baptist Convention and it didn't go well for those that count themselves as biblical Christians. And so they were gonna storm the gates of liberalism and take it over this year. And they gave it their best shot and they lost. And some are trying to say, well, it was close. We didn't lose that bad. I agree with Ray. I think they got their teeth kicked in. And this was their last best shot at saving the SBC from total wokeism. And so, yeah, to your point, it's like, okay, turn them over. Let's shake the dust off our shoes and let's move on. So if you're in a Southern Baptist congregation, if you're in leadership and you happen to see this, you need to leave the convention. You don't need to be sowing into that, because to stay in the convention, you have to give them money. Don't keep giving money to that. Are you kidding me? Don't do that. And if you're a member, merely a member in a Southern Baptist Convention Church, and your leadership isn't beginning the discussions of pulling out at this point, you need to persuade them to maybe have those discussions, and if they're gonna continue to sow into something that has you unequally yoked, you've gotta seriously think about with fellowshipping somewhere else, with actual believers, with leadership that's actually committed to biblical teaching. Again, that sounds like stark, strong, almost mean-spirited language, but that's where we are right now. There is a civil war taking place across the globe in general society. There's generally a political civil war too that's going on, but it's in the church as well. And you've got to recognize these aren't merely opponents. These are enemies. An opponent is someone, well, you've got a particular view that I disagree with, and so we're gonna duke that out. We're gonna try to wrestle the truth to the ground on that one. Oh, you think it's okay to baptize infants, and I think we should only baptize adults? Let's wrestle that. We're gonna have a debate, and we're gonna be theological opponents, but we're not enemies in that context. But this is not that. This is a device of the devil versus the truth of God's word. So I'm using kind of strong language, maybe, that people are unused to hearing in recent years. It's long past time. So if you're a Baptist churchgoer and your church isn't leaving the convention, you need to ask your leadership, why are we staying? Why are we sending money to an anti-gospel organization, which is what they've become now? Why? And if they don't have good answers, like they don't have some strategy that makes sense to you, you've got to move on. That's my advice to you, not even being your pastor. So take it for what it's worth. What you're saying is no stronger than what scripture itself is saying. 1 Timothy 4 says, But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times, some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron. Second Thessalonians 2 3 I'm going to read it out of the amplified says Let no one deceive or beguile you in any way for that day referring to the day of the Lord Will not come except the apostasy comes first Unless the predicted great falling away of those who have professed to be Christians has come so Scripture is being played out before our very eyes right now. And there, there really is only one correct answer. You can't have fellowship with those. I mean, you can't be right with, you can't have both. We can either be right with the Lord and have fellowship with him or we can have fellowship with the world. And these denominations have chosen, uh, the SBC has chosen to have fellowship with the world. And so, That's your answer right there. You got to make a choice. And the amplified using the words beguiled and deceptive. Those are good words because that's what's going on. You know, those weren't paying super close attention. That's kind of what I feel like I've been charged with of late is like, you know, the wake up aspect of this. The wake ups are paying attention to what's going on. These smooth talkers. They're tricking you, either accidentally because they're just, they don't understand the truth, they're not really believers. and they never really did understand the truth, or they're confused momentarily and, you know, maybe I'd give them that, although it's hard to understand how they can be in leadership, they'd be confused momentarily, or they're actively being deceptive on purpose, but their game is one of being winsome and nice, and we have to guard our witness. We want the world to think nicely of us or we'll damage our witness. We can't come across too hardcore or it'll damage our witness. Our witness about what? Our witness about the truth or our witness about our lives? I mean, our lives in Christ, the church's life in the truth. What are we worried about? Are we worried about our witness of, well, they don't think we're nice people? If Jesus Christ was worried about appeasing the enemies in the lost world, he would have never been crucified. Paul would have never been martyred. Right? Stephen would have never been stoned to death. These things would not have happened. And not to pick on the Southern Baptist Convention, I mean, you alluded to the PCA, the Presbyterian Church in America. I mean, I think they're next. They're next. And right now, it looks like they're next to fall. The momentum's going in the wrong direction. Theirs is a slightly different issue. Luckily, my church is going to be seceding if something does happen. Yeah, I think that the Southern Baptist Convention churches, they can stay loosely aligned with other like-minded churches, but they have to leave the Southern Baptist Convention and create their own convention of churches, maybe. Maybe the American Baptist Convention or something. They don't have to, like, shutter their doors. I'm not advocating for that at all. But they can't be unequally yoked with non-believers. It's a voluntary association. Yeah, so they should voluntarily step out. Right? What are you doing? What are you doing? They champion that. Now the PCA, it's a little tougher with the PCA. I think that the connections financially and organizationally are a little bit more deeply rooted. It's going to be harder for the Presbyterian Church in America to navigate this. And their issue is more along the question of the homosexuality issue. That's really a big part. That's a part of what's a problem for the SBC, but that's a smaller piece. Yeah, I think in my understanding, obviously we're not a Presbyterian Church and we're not a Southern Baptist Convention Church, but my understanding as an outsider looking in is that they're inverted. So like for the Southern Baptist Convention, the biggest issue is the critical race theory nonsense, and then all the stuff that comes underneath that, including the homosexual issue. And then for the PCA, I think it's the reverse, where the homosexual questions are kind of at the top, but underneath that you've got the critical race theory stuff, too. But it's the same garbage. It's the same anti-biblical stuff. Well, if you fall on one, you're going to fall on the other. Because you have no standard by which to not fall on the other. You can't just tear out a page of scripture you don't like and then resoundingly resolve to follow the rest of the Bible. You're just going to tear out the next page you don't like. It's like, oh, if we can tear out this page, we can surely tear out this page too. You have no standard by which not to. And I only kind of hinted at it a little bit. I did more than hint, but I didn't spend a lot of time on it, but it's amazing. Each one of these letters, I'm able to see a pretty strong correlation to what's going right now in the Western church, or in our particular context, the American church. I mean, here you've got Sardis, and they are, what's he doing? Anyway, I got distracted by my son over there. You know, Sardis is, hey, we're good people doing good things. Look at our long, glorious history. I mean, an earthquake couldn't keep us out of commission for long. We rebuilt and came back and we've got all this great legacy and folklore and legend about who we are as a people. And we're proud of that. And they're almost like living in the past as far as their accomplishments and in the presence as far as who they think they still might be. That's America. Trying to rest on our laurels. Oh, we're still great. We're still good because of this. Whatever we once were, we're not that anymore. Whatever we think we might've once been, we're not that. Southern Baptist Convention learned that. They're not what they used to be. They tried to take it back and they lost. And so I think we're trying to take it back in America, take back the culture. Hopefully we won't lose on the grander scale, but that's not looking so good either. We're also at a point really where There's got to be a defense. And not just a defense, but a good offense. Because if we don't have a good offense, they're going to eat us up, and we're just going to fall under it, just like everybody else. And if we don't fall under it, then they'll have their way with us. Well, liberal evangelicalism is sardis. Whereas I think conservative evangelicalism was more thyracia. So, but we're headed towards Sardis. So we're kind of like heading in that direction because, you know, we are tolerating the Jezebels. And eventually, you know, the Jezebels will have a majority and then we'll be that remnant in that church that's faithful. I think that, but that in the midst of all of this apostasy, that is being played out. There's also the remnant in the sense of the people that are seriously praying for this country in a concentrated, dedicated way. And I do think we will see a reprieve. But in the meantime, scripture is proving to be true. I mean, we are seeing the great apostasy. We are seeing the great falling away. Now that doesn't leave us helpless to do anything about it. I think there are a few people who genuinely are deceived that because of the efforts of the praying remnant, we'll be drawn out of that deception and we'll be gathered to Christ's true body. But those who, you know, choose to use their free will to choose the way of Laodicea, the way of Sardis, they're going to do that and they're going to answer for it. But I do see hope. I believe that as long as God is on the throne, there's hope. There's hope. There's hope for America. America has slid badly. And I'm not in denial about that, but there is hope. I do believe that. Yeah, for the Christian, there's always hope, and then we're charged with being prepared to always give a reason for the hope that lies within. So we need to stay focused on that, not lose our hope in all of this, because we have every reason to have hope, because we know how the game ends. We know who the winner is. And to Ray's point earlier, he said it's the second best outcome that happened at the Southern Baptist Convention this week, because the best outcome is they would, correct their ways and be on the path to righteousness and biblical correctness again. But the way it played out, it's a little easier to figure out who are the wolves in sheep's clothing. They've dropped their disguise, so many of them. And so now, for those who have become watching, those who are paying attention and watching and waking up, we can see who the enemies are if we're willing to look. And so it does make it a little easier sometimes to tell the players, and for years I've been talking about how there's a remnant. And I used to tell people when I would preach before larger groups than this, I'd be in a room full of 150 people. And I would always say, look, I assumed that a healthy percentage, if not a majority of people hearing my message were not believers, even if they're regular churchgoers. I just, I don't know who all of them are necessarily, but I just assumed that the true church is a minority, even within the churchgoers. That's statistic, you know, 6% of Americans hold a biblical worldview, 6%. Yeah, so yeah, yeah, they don't have ears to hear, they just they don't hear. And so now we're seeing it's true even among the leadership. That's where it's, it's become clearer that we have a remnant percentage, even among the highest levels of leadership. I just want to add that God has a purpose for allowing false teachers to infiltrate the church. There's a purpose in that. And the purpose is to test the discernment of the church. God does put tests before us. Yeah, and there's a windowing that takes place, and even if it... And sometimes it's a judgment. Yeah, could be a judgment, and even if it is a device of the devil, intended for evil, God's gonna use even that for good. So it might be something directly from God, and if it's not, it's gonna be something that God will directly use to his own good purposes, according to his will. So, he's not surprised by any of this. He's not surprised by any of it, and I believe that we're in a season of such revelation, so that The remnant, I mean, if you have a plant and most of it is dead, but you cut away all of those dead leaves, what you have left is much, much stronger. Even though it's smaller, it's going to survive now because you've cut away all that deadness. And I believe that the revelation of who's really a part of him and who is not is so that who's really a part of him can be made much, much stronger. You know, all this time the Church has been called to making disciples, growing people in their sanctification, growing in wisdom, growing in their knowledge of God's Word. And you do that by consuming healthy calories, right? By putting a healthy meal before people to feed the sheep. You know, feed my sheep, feed my people, feed them healthy food. And for too long now, particularly in the Western Church and in America, there's been this what's called the seeker-sensitive model. And it's about growing the church with a bunch of empty calories. It's not actual healthy muscle mass that's been built. And so the church has gotten bigger. Yeah, the church has gotten bigger. It's gained a lot of weight and it's flab. It's like, it's an obese, out of shape church now that's, you know, that's practically on a sick bed, death bed because of, you know, out of control diabetes or whatever. We've got this flabby, obese, horribly out of shape, enormous church. Well, what good is that? We're supposed to be helping to be iron sharpening iron and develop people to be soldiers in the spiritual war. And we've got this big, huge body and it's not real. It's sick. It's not the actual body. One of the things that David Silvernail said when I was at the the church retreat for faith, he said that there's a lot of people who walk up to him when he's done preaching and say, oh hey, worship was great and the sermon was good too. Separating the singing and everything else from the actual worship. So there's people that go, And they'll sing praises to God, but that sermon is just there, and it's just a part of it. It's just going through the motions. Yeah, it's become part of our vernacular to think of the music part as the worship. First of all, all of life is supposed to be worship. And then when we come together and gather as a particular body of believers for a particular expression of focused worship, and everything that happens during that time is an element of worship. So singing the songs is worship. Praying to God is worship. If you're doing the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, that's an act of worship. A lot of churches, they will take up a gathering, you know, a tithe offering and things. That's an act of worship. And then sitting under the preached word of God is an act of worship. All of it is worship. So yeah, you're absolutely right. By the way, shout out to David Silvernail. He's a good pastor. I think his church is in Virginia, if I'm not mistaken. And he's one of the adjunct professors, or was. I think he might still be, at Reformed Theological Seminary. Yeah, and he's... Pennsylvania? Did he change his church? I don't... Okay. Oh, well that's news to me. Anyway, as far as I know, he's one of the good ones. So shout out to David Silvernail. Alright, anybody else have any other words they want to share? No? All right. All right, well, then we'll close with a word of prayer. I think we've gone just a hair over an hour, which is kind of our norm now. I always aim for an hour. We end up going about 65 minutes. Just the way it is, I guess. Landon or Ray, either one of you feel like you want to close us in prayer? Lord, thank you for our time together. Thank you for the opportunity to be together and hear your word preached. Thank you for Pastor Troy and for his sermon. And thank you for giving him the words to preach. And Lord, we pray that we would go and be able to get home safe, everybody get home safe. And the people who are home, well, keep them safe too. and we thank you for this day, and we pray that you would be with us in everything we do this week, and that everything we do this week would be glorifying to you. We pray all these things in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. So next week, we're gonna pick up with Revelation chapter three, verse seven, and so if you haven't already read all the way through Revelation recently, I would encourage you to, oh my goodness, somebody gave a zillion heart, smiley face emojis in the comment section I'm seeing here. I'm not sure what specifically that was in reaction to. It's got like, I don't know, like 25 faces, you see that? Anyway, well, right back at ya. Mwah! Till next week, God bless.