Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: This is Eyes to See Ministries International. We are being recorded in New Oxford, Pennsylvania.
My name's Pastor Peter Yanada and this is my wife Sherry.
We are continuing, I think this is either episode 13 or 14.
We're talking about episode 15.
Wow. Episode 15.
We have been in the book of Revelation speaking about the Jesus Christ's letters to the seven churches. We talked about Bible prophecy, where we are on the biblical timeline.
And we're continuing along this line because it's important and there's more and more people that are getting a sense of urgency and a burden for the time that we're in. Not just to speak on it, but I can assure you right now everybody in the body of Christ needs to evaluate where they are right now and what you are doing because time is short and the time that we have right now is going to be what are your talents and what are you using them for?
The church needs to be active right now and if you don't have that sense of urgency, I would encourage you to pray for it. And when you do, you're going to get it right away because those kind of prayers God answers immediately.
If you don't have a burden or a heart, if you don't think that you have a heart for the lost souls in the world like God does, ask him for that and you will be amazed at how quickly that prayer gets answered.
I got that revelation several years ago when I was in prayer and I said, lord, I don't believe I have that burden for the lost.
And I'm telling you what it came like a 40 foot long tractor trailer running down a one way street. When it hit me last week I had a burden to speak about denominationalism, sectarianism, non denomination.
And I'm glad that happened because my eyes were open to what Denomina a denominational church is by definition.
So I had to, as I was going through the message last week and I saw that that's why I kind of if you go back and listen to it, you'll hear me not retract what I said, but qualify some of the things because I was seeing something that I hadn't seen before and that's what the Holy Spirit's for.
So I'm going to open in prayer. Father, we just thank you for your, your promise through Jesus Christ of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth.
We thank you for the truth in the word of God and that God cannot lie and that all your scriptures are given by inspiration of God. So as I speak The Scriptures today and the message that you have me continuing to.
To speak to the church and the world.
I thank you now that your words will not return empty. They will accomplish that which you send them forth to accomplish for your purposes.
The church is the church of Jesus Christ, bought by his blood for. For his purposes, for the glory of God the Father. You see that in the Scripture. So we thank you for that revelation, that reality.
And Lord, we, we thank you for Community Media of South Central Pennsylvania. We ask you to open heaven and bless them exceeding and abundantly above all that they've ever asked you for. You know what their needs are and more importantly, you know what the purpose is that you have purposed for them to be.
And we ask you to provide everything they need for your purposes to be accomplished through this organization.
We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
We're going to get back to the church in Smyrna and in Laodicea, these two churches, there's a contrast. Here you have the spiritually rich church versus the. And these are Jesus own words. Remember, these letters are his words.
The book of Revelation. It's the revelation of Jesus Christ. So he's speaking to John. Apostle John John's going to write this.
The Bible says Jesus said write this in a book, and then he gave them the whole book of Revelation.
So the words of Jesus for the church in Laodicea, which I say is the foolish church, is the spiritually wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked church.
And you're going to hear these scriptures shortly.
Before we do that, I just want to put something out there in the book of Proverbs. And we had these scriptures last week before Proverbs, 21 verses, 1 through 31. It's 31 verses is the whole proverb.
The sectional heading in the study Bible that I use says the Lord considers the heart.
So my own notes, I, I put but in parentheses, but the Lord considers and then in parentheses weighs the heart or the hearts.
So in that scripture we have three verses that we keyed on last week, beginning with verse one, the King's heart.
And I'm going to give you the Hebrew definition for that word in a minute. The King's heart is in the hand of the Lord.
Like the rivers or channels of water.
He turns it wherever he wishes. This is a very important concept to understand.
The King's heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water.
Like the rivers of water, he or God turns it wherever he wishes.
Verse 2. Every way of a man is right in his own Eyes. But the Lord weighs the hearts.
And then verse three, to do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. Jesus would tell his disciples later. Or he went and told the Pharisees, go learn what this means.
I required mercy, not sacrifice.
So if you're doing a word study, the word heart is the Hebrew word lab. It's L, E, B.
And what the definition of that word is, it's not your physical heart in your body.
It's the heart very widely used for the feelings, the will, and even the intellect of a person. So that's what God's weighing your feelings, your will, and your intellect.
The Bible says meditate on the word of God day and night.
The book of Proverbs says, the beginning of knowledge is the fear of the Lord, or the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
So what I have to do every day is evaluate how much more knowledge of God have I learned today than I did yesterday.
Because that's what God requires of us. You cannot be in a personal relationship with somebody that you don't know intimately.
And that's what God is looking at.
Now, the word righteousness, it means rightness, moral, righteous, morally, or virtue, justice. Remember to do righteousness and justice.
And actually in Hebrew, those two words are synonyms.
Justice is the same word, rightness.
So the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord.
This verse does not mean that everything a national leader desires or does comes directly from the Lord.
God is certainly not the author of the evil perpetuated by rulers.
You can see that in James 1:13, 15. Rather, God has ultimate authority over the rulers, the rulers of the world, and at times chooses to influence their decisions so as to further his redemptive purpose in history.
And you can see that in Exodus 10:1, 2, Ezra 7:21, Isaiah 10:5 7, and Isaiah 45, 1 6, just four sets of scriptures.
So the New Testament, and this is the point I'm trying to get to, the New Testament teaches the prayers of God's people can influence the Lord to direct the decisions of rulers more fully in accordance with God's will.
So if you're listening to this, it's being recorded, write that down. Because if you want to know how to pray for the rulers in the nation that you live in, that's the sentence. To do what? To ask God to move on behalf of his will, God's will, so that those rulers, as they are governing that country or that state, whatever the jurisdiction is, comes in alignment with God's will.
Now, myself Personally, I believe I'm part of the remnant of God.
And regardless of whether how God I believe America right now is under God's judgment, God's weighing the heart of this country.
And I choose in this time to make sure that I'm examining my heart and my spirit every day because I know that I can personally be a Goshen.
If I can be a church individually like we talked about, then no matter what happens, you can be in God's protection. So you don't want to discount that from your prayer.
Now I'm going to tell you this because at some point, again, there's a lot to teach in a short period of time.
We're going to have a session or two on praying how to effectively pray.
So write this down.
These are Apostle Paul's prayers in Colossians 1:9 12, Ephesians 1, 16, 19 and chapter 3, 14, 19 and Philippians 1:9, 11.
Paul is praying in these four sets of scriptures. God's perfect will for the church of Jesus Christ, bought by his purpose, for his will, for the glory of God. You'll see that when you read Paul's scriptures, he will reference that sometimes in his prayers for the glory of God through Christ.
So if all scripture is given by inspiration of God and God can't lie, and God recorded through Paul, his servant, his apostle, called to be an apostle by God, our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, if that's recorded in the Bible, those prayers are how you can effectively pray for yourself, for your family, for your loved ones, for co workers, for the church individually and God will move on faith.
So my faith says if I pray these prayers daily over myself and everybody else, God's going to answer that because I'm just praying his own will for what he wants for the church. So if you read the Bible, you study the Bible, you'll begin to learn what God's will is for yourself, for other people, for the church.
These are good prayers to pray not only for the church, the assembly that you attend, but also over your own pastor.
That was my purpose for looking at this.
Because when we get shortly into what Jesus tells the church in Smyrna and in Laodicea, those conditions are existing today.
They exist if you go travel around and you have eyes to see and ears to hear what you hear coming from behind the pulpit.
And we're not the judge of the world, but and that word means something different than what most people assume it means we are to judge one another in the church through word of God. We should have the Discernment and the knowledge of the Bible to know when we hear something, whether we're hearing the truth or not, or by their fruits, you'll know them. How do the people that I'm associated with behaving look up the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians, chapter five. That's my report card for myself when I get squeezed. And I have been. There have been days in the last few months where there's not one of those nine that I can't say, oh, God, forgive me.
There's not one of your fruit that I've exhibited today.
And that's what we have to be. We have to be transparent with God, because he already knows this.
He sees everything, he hears everything, and he's weighing our spirit and heart.
So how. How can I deal with that day when I'm in bed, I confess it.
I acknowledge my shortcoming.
I tell God I repent.
I changed my mind. I'm admitting your way is right and I've been wrong. And now I'm going to ask the Holy Spirit for the grace, for his grace, which is freely given.
We have to understand what it means, what God's grace is, and how to access that. And the quickest way to that is through a contrite and humble Spirit.
So we are going to listen to Sherry and Nada read in chapter two of Revelation,
[00:17:27] Speaker A: okay?
That is Revelation. This is the church of Smyrna.
[00:17:33] Speaker B: This is the church in Smyrna, the persecuted church, or this, but the spiritually rich church. It's four verses.
You're going to hear those. And then you're going to hear what Jesus says to the church in Laodicea, which is the.
The wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked church. And then we're going to talk about them.
[00:18:00] Speaker A: Okay? This begins at Revelation 2. 8.
It's labeled as the persecuted church.
And Lord said, and to the angel of the church in Smyrna, Right?
These things says the first and the last, who is dead and came to life.
I know your works, tribulation and poverty.
But you are rich.
And I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer.
Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested. And you will have tribulation 10 days.
Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.
[00:19:09] Speaker B: Now, before we look at Laodicea, I want to just make a couple comments here. In that very first verse, verse eight, and to the angel or messenger of the church, these things. Now, notice Jesus specifically gives the name of the church.
These things says the first and the last, or the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, who was dead and came to life.
So I want you to think about something. During this week.
We have Peter called them like precious promises in the Bible.
We need to know what they are and we need to know how to apprehend them.
And we cannot, and I repeat, we cannot discredit or disregard the warnings of God that are there.
So I'm not going to mention a phrase that the church is being ripped apart at, but I can assure you this, when I go to Africa in two weeks, they're going to hear the whole counsel of God.
You cannot deny the scriptures that are going to speak on both parts of these.
And I'm telling you right now, there are promises in the Bible and there are warnings. And you cannot give the promises and discount the warnings, nor give the warnings and not be able to give the saints the promises. If you're doing one without the other, you're not preaching or teaching the whole counsel of God. And in so doing, you are out of the will of God.
Period.
Now, the first and the last who was dead and came to life.
Just to add another bullet to what I just said, Jesus Christ is the risen Lord. He's the resurrection and the life.
He's given these words to John after the resurrection, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever.
So if you want to discount the warnings and try to figure out on your own, without the Scriptures and just what somebody's telling you, remember Jesus is saying this.
He's still here.
It's the last book in the Bible and the resurrected Lord is saying, this is it. So this book, these letters are warnings.
And then when we get done with Laodicea, we're also going to take a look at he who has an ear. Let him hear.
Not everybody can hear this.
And there's going to come a time where God turns people over because they have already decided to not follow God.
If you want to do a deep study on and you can start in Peter's letters where he's talking about scoffers. We are already in that age. And the definition of that word means they've heard the truth, they've chosen not to do it. So you have archeological evidence all over the world today confirming the Bible. And just like in the Indiana Jones movie, the Raiders of the Lost Ark, at the end of that movie, when Indiana Jones turns the ark over to the government, it's put in a crate and wheeled into a warehouse. And it's numbered. And there's. There's artifacts in there, multitudes of them, stacked from floor to ceiling in this big building that is actually happening today.
As fast as archeologists are uncovering artifacts that prove things, the scoffers are trying to bury that just as quick or quicker than that information can go out. So you need to have discernment and you need to hear the truth.
Laodicea, the wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked church.
[00:23:51] Speaker A: Okay, this is in Revelation 3:14, and it is labeled the lukewarm church.
And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, right?
These things say the Amen. The faithful and true witness the beginning of the creation of God.
I know your works, that you are neither hot, cold nor hot.
I could wish you were cold or hot.
So then, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth.
Because you say I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich, and white garments that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed.
And anoint your eyes with eyesav that you may see as many as I love. I rebuke and chasten.
Therefore be zealous and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door, knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with me.
To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
[00:25:35] Speaker B: Now, these two churches are Laodicea is later in the book. But the reason I wanted to speak on these, I felt to do that, is there's a direct contrast between these two churches spiritually and that exists today.
So one of the things, and we don't have time to get into what actually is the synagogue of Satan, but I want to just throw a couple things out there real quick. First of all, the crown of life.
If you look through the Bible, there are five heavenly crowns that believers can receive in heaven.
Five of them. They're mentioned in the New Testament that will be awarded to believers.
So this is just one of them.
There's the imperishable crown, the crown of rejoicing. That's in 1st Thessalonians 2, 19, 1st Corinthians, chapter 9 is where you'll see the imperishable or an imperishable crown, the crown of righteousness, 2 Timothy 4, 8, the crown of glory, 1st Peter 5:4, and the crown of life, which you just heard in verse 10 of Revelation chapter 2.
So be faithful until death. This is important.
He who has an ear, let him hear. We're going to talk and spend some time on who is it that overcomes.
Because this verse right here specifically says the word of God, he who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.
That's where everybody's going to go to hell, the multitudes in hell.
So think about that. If they overcome, if you overcome, if you overcome, you will not be hurt by the second death. That's not my philosophy. That's not my opinion.
That's not a revelation that I got outside of the Bible. This is the word of Jesus Christ, the way, the truth and the life, the resurrection and the life.
So I challenge you, whatever your doctrinal belief system is, make sure that you take the Bible and you confirm what you're hearing against the word of God.
So we'll get back to who he who overcomes in a minute.
Now, the one thing, that other thing I want to say is this church, these people in Smyrna, they're, they're in, they're, they're a poverty stricken area.
I mean, this is one of the worst places in the world for having a lack of things, material things, sustenance.
And Jesus is saying, he's acknowledging that.
Now the contrast is this.
Normally Jesus tells the church, he gives them an exhortation first. He tells them what they're doing good first, and then he tells them what they're doing bad. There's nothing bad that he has against this church. So he's going to tell them to stand.
He's giving them a warning. He's warning them that persecution is coming. But there's nothing bad that he says they need to do. He's just telling them, you got to stand fast and overcome. And I'll give you this, the contrast is there's nothing good, he says to Laodicean church, nothing.
And I know Sherry's looked at what that really means when he says lukewarm. So I'll let her expound a little bit on that right now, on being Lukewarm? Yes.
[00:30:04] Speaker A: Being neither hot nor cold, you know, I really preferred to say exactly what he said and I have it all written down.
I don't want to misrepresent what he said to me in any way, shape or form. So if we could pass on that until. Next.
[00:30:23] Speaker B: All right, next.
[00:30:24] Speaker A: Yes, I, you know, I, when I try to recreate God's words of the things that he's spoken to me because I write everything down, I, I tend to not be able to relay the richness and the depth of what he has said.
And so I'm afraid I'll miss the mark.
[00:30:48] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:30:48] Speaker A: Okay, so we'll get back to you on that one. Yeah, if I had known you were going to ask about that, I'd have brought it.
[00:30:56] Speaker B: Well, you talked a little bit the other day or last week about the aqueducts and the water coming and. Yes, it, it's a, it's that, it's a metaphor, I believe.
[00:31:06] Speaker A: Yes. And, and you know, it's not something that can, you know, he's talked to me about that, you know, that lukewarm church, but he, you know, the research I had been reading, I don't know if it, if it's provable or not. You have two different places.
One that has the springs that are warm and one that has cold.
And so like when he says, I wish you were either hot or cold, that you were one or the other, because warm water is not refreshing right.
[00:31:46] Speaker B: In the winter tonight.
[00:31:48] Speaker A: Yes. So he said, it's just not palatable.
So that lukewarm, you know, it does not refresh him, it doesn't impress him.
But that's not what was spoken to me. That was something that I came across, you know, in just, you know, researching. But I, I haven't had time to really look into the names of those springs and, you know, the veracity of possibly what was said.
[00:32:21] Speaker B: Well, I'll give you another thing
[00:32:26] Speaker A: while I'm at it. Okay, let me.
[00:32:27] Speaker B: The reason Jesus says to get eye solved so they solve so they can see is because this area had a lot of, I don't want to say medical research, but they were proclaiming to have an eyesal almost.
And if you could picture the, the, the wagon in the, in our west where the guy and the woman come around and they have this elixir that'll cure everything.
It turns out through some archaeological evidence and early church fathers statements that they didn't really have, that, that could be, could have been a lie that they said, which is why Jesus is telling them to Go get it. Cause they're saying they have it and they need it. They need their eyes open.
But let's. Let's look at this church that is spiritually wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked, and they don't know it.
That's the condition and the problem that you're going to see.
So there is a difference.
When, when I worship God, I will focus on him and I begin to open my heart up. Remember what the definition of the heart is.
I begin to focus on him.
And as soon as I do that, there's a manifestation that begins to happen in me.
My, my.
There's a sensation that I begin to physically feel.
But prior to that there is a.
Tears like an aqueduct start to flow out of me.
And as I press into God, that happens more and more.
So I've learned that that is the fulfillment of God's promise. Draw near to me, Peter, and I'll draw near to you.
So when that starts to happen, I don't want that interrupted.
And to me, I find it.
I'm not going to go out on a limb and say things tonight that are going to really bother some people.
I find it offensive when I am in that place and all of a sudden we stop worshiping God because we have to hurry up and go do something. You know, we've predetermined.
Every way of a person is right in their own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts.
We've predetermined that we're only going to sing so many songs to God.
We predetermined that we don't need to raise our hands up when the Bible says raise your hands, raise holy hands to the Lord, dance to the Lord, sing a new song to the Lord. These are personal things. And I can tell you that if you do this in your private time, it's amazing when Paul prays in those four scriptures I gave you, you'll see him pray that the church experiences the nearness of Jesus Christ.
The church has the ability to do this. It's just many times denying God to work.
So when we do that, to me, he's outside knocking and we're not. We decided to not let him in.
[00:36:39] Speaker A: Like the Solomon's temple.
[00:36:41] Speaker B: Yes, we've complicated things and unfortunately I'm going to give you my own definition of a stronghold because this is what this really is.
If I'm called to meditate on the word of God and I'm supposed to say, memorize a scripture, believe it, I have to overcome a spirit of unbelief. If I Don't believe that right now. That's what. That's what the Bible says. That is. You're operating in a spirit of unbelief.
So you're. You're on the.
You're on the. The opposite end of a spectrum of being contrite and humble, where you're just going to say, no matter what you say, God, I'm going to believe it and do it.
So if that's the case, then what have I done? Because if you don't know what meditation is, I would ask you, ask yourself, do I ever worry or do I have anxiety? Because what you're doing is you're meditating on a negative thing. And if you stay in that place, the more that you do what you've done is you in your own mind have accepted something outside of the word of God. And the enemy can come in now. And the more that you do that, that now has become more than a thought. It's become a stronghold that needs to be broken.
And those things are the ones that take more time to get rid of than something else. I'll just say that. Something else.
So why am I saying that? Because that experience, that nearness of Christ, that fulfillment of.
Draw near to me and I'll draw near to you.
You have to believe that God said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you, but you can go deeper than that and you can experience the presence, the physical presence of Christ.
I've actually. And people look at me like I'm crazy. There's only a few people that really understand this when I say this, but I have actually had an entire night where I've just been up all night walking in my room.
And Jesus says to me, tomorrow, watch what I do and listen to what I say. Now, when he says, will you do that? He actually. Now I know his spirit is in me, but when I said yes, that night, he actually climbed into my body and I could feel him like I was some kind of a science fiction exosuit where he was moving me. And that's what he meant. I mean, it was an incredible spiritual experience.
And I can tell you right now that people listening to this are going to go to a camp and say, oh, he must be Pentecostal. He must be charismatic.
That's not of God.
And you better be careful because blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is denying.
When Christ and his spirit is moving in somebody and you're saying he's of Beelzebub,
[00:40:27] Speaker A: there's plenty of other people that have had that experience.
Yeah.
[00:40:35] Speaker B: And I believe that in my circle where I'm at, I get more deer in a headlight look.
And there's reasons for that.
But the reason I want to say this is because if you are.
If you have the opportunity, if you've been given the opportunity to either stand behind the pulpit during a service, we'll just say a meeting, or it could be where you're seated and you're looking out and this is happening.
And not everybody's feeling that. That's because the Holy Spirit is pricking these people in their hearts through that teaching. That's different than the glory of God coming down in whatever form it is. And everybody is down on their face on the floor.
That presence of God that Solomon saw with the Temple.
So do not mistake that, where people are weeping over the word as a move of God that, oh, we got it, we got a revival happening here. It could be the beginning of it, but you have to have discernment and you have to press into that and you have to understand what's happening here.
[00:42:03] Speaker A: So I've got Salman's thing open if you want me to read it.
[00:42:07] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:42:08] Speaker A: Okay. So, like, when Solomon was dedicating the temple, the Levites had carried the ark into the holy place. And as they were coming out of the holy place, the cloud of the Lord filled the house of the lord. This is first kings, 8, 10, 11, and 12.
And it filled the house of the Lord so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord so that. That is the presence of God that. That brings you.
Sometimes it's like. It's like a weight. It can put you down on the ground and you can't get up.
And it. The only way I can describe it, because I wasn't on the floor, I was in a chair.
And it just felt like a.
Like a thousand pound man sat in my lap and melted right into me. I couldn't move. Not.
Not a thing, not a pinky. I was.
It's like I was glued and. And I. I don't even know how long I was like that. All I could say is, oh, God, what is this?
But. Yes, this is a long time ago, but.
[00:43:31] Speaker B: And I. I was in a church service once where somebody. That was a church service, we had a guest speaker and they were praying over me and. And I was on my knees weeping, and Sherry was there, and I wound up. I. I laid on the floor and. And I. I just wept hysterically.
And then laughter would come. Now, that's not what people will say, you know, okay, we shouldn't be laughing.
What was happening to me. And I'm just going to say what was happening to me is God was revealing some things in me and he was removing them. And as they were being removed, he was filling that void with other things. And this happened for a while.
And the weight was so heavy because it was coming to the close of the service.
I tried to stand up and I couldn't. So I crawled over to the chair where Sherry was and I pulled myself up on the chair. And then I just found myself back on my knees. Because God's presence was so powerful in me right then. That holiness that you're going to you, you're recognizing that you're on holy ground there. Now, that doesn't mean that building was it. It was right happening to me.
So as I'm laying there, they're turning the lights out.
And I said to Sherry, you should just go home.
And the pastor came up and he said, sherry, you should just go home. And I know it's cold in here. We'll just get some blankets and cover him up because he's going to be here for a while.
I think it was two in the morning when I got up and actually went home. Because when you're in that presence of God, you don't want to come out of it. And that's the sad thing. When we're worshiping the Lord and the glory starts to come and then man shuts it down.
Because when that happens, I can tell you that those people, they don't care if it's the middle of the week, Monday, if they have to go to work in an hour, they're not going to want to leave that. So that that's a lie of the devil for you to think, well, I got to do this because they're going to want to go home. No, if it's real, they're not going
[00:46:07] Speaker A: to want to go anywhere.
[00:46:08] Speaker B: Now, I know we're getting close to the end, but I want you to remember the contrast, the spiritually rich church and the destitute one.
And notice Jesus gives a warning, a prophecy about what's going to happen to the one where he doesn't have anything bad to say and he's our intercessor.
So if there's a church out there that fits into this outline model for this church, that's what you want to pray for. You can intercede that they stand strong.
Now, I'm going to read from my notes really quickly. I'm just going to read these because I'm running out of time.
And I'm going to give you scriptures as I go along through this so that when you hear this, and I would recommend you hear it to the end, because if you don't, you're not going to have ears to hear.
And I can tell you this, if you're going to discount this, then you're dealing with a stronghold. And that stronghold probably has come from what somebody told you and you've accepted or a tradition that that's where you're at. Because the traditions are going to become.
They already are strongholds, like the Pharisees.
Yes. If I would recommend somebody does something different and I'm experiencing something in a church or wherever it is, and the response is, well, that this is how we've always done it.
This is our. That's a tradition. And it's a tradition that's now a stronghold. It's got to be ripped down and torn down. And that's a hard thing. It's going to be difficult because that's a spiritual thing, negative spiritual thing in that church. And they don't know right now that they're spiritually wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.
They can't see it. They're blinded to it.
So verse 7 in chapter 2, to him who overcomes an overcomer, which is the Greek word, Nikon N I K O n is one who by the grace of God, received through faith in Christ, has experienced the new birth. You're born again and remains constant in victory over sin, over the world system, and remains constant in victory over Satan. So that's the goal to overcome.
You can't do that.
Some of this happens supernaturally by God's sovereignty.
But you need to understand God's grace and you need to understand the wiles of the enemy.
You came out of the world. Hopefully you came out of the world and you're reborn. Because if you're not, this isn't what I'm telling you is not going to work.
But you have the ability to ask God for the grace when you're being tempted rather than have him. If you want to grow spiritually, start to think this way.
I don't want to ask you to pull this away from me right now. I want you to give me the grace to walk through it. Because when I come out the other end, I'm going to be spiritually more mature. And now I have another testimony of what Jesus did to help other people get free.
Unless you really think at the cross when Jesus said it is finished, what that really means, that you don't have to do anything else. He already did it. And don't misunderstand what I'm saying, because that doesn't give you sloppy grace. I can go do whatever I want. Jesus did it. You have to participate in this.
That's what sanctification is. That's what your spiritual growth should be.
Now, three things. Number one, you're going to be surrounded by great opposition and rebellion that comes against you. So overcomers refuse to conform to the world and to any ungodliness.
Listen to any ungodliness within the visible church.
You as an overcomer have purposed in your mind that I am not going to be overcome by any ungodliness that I see in the visible house of God.
And if there's a lot of that and it's become traditions and they're strongholds in that house of God, you need to ask God, Lord, is it your will for me to stay here or not?
And if he says stay there, you're going to need grace and you're going to need to ask him daily, what is it that I need to do?
What specifically do you want me to do?
Now? They hear. These people, the overcomers, they hear. Listen to me. They hear and respond to what the Spirit says to the church. Churches.
They remain faithful to Christ to the very end.
And they accept only God's standard as revealed in his holy word.
That's the first thing that an overcomer has got to realize. This is what you need to do. This is what this means.
Number two, the promise to overcomers in God's churches and only to the overcomers is that. And I'm going to give you seven things. This is what the promise is. Remember we talked about the promises and the warnings.
So there's seven things. The promise to overcomers in God's churches and only to the overcomers is that A, they will eat from the tree of life, they will not be hurt by the second death. That was in verse 11.
If you're not hurt by the second death, you're going to be eating from the the tree of life.
B, or the second thing, they, the overcomers will receive hidden manna and be given a new name in heaven.
Verse 17. Some of these promises we haven't gone over.
So again, number two, the promise to overcomers in God's churches and only to the overcomers are these seven promises. The first one, they will eat. Only they will eat from the tree of life and they will not be hurt by the second death. Only the overcomers get this promise.
B, the overcomers, they will receive hidden manna and be given a new name in heaven. You'll see that in verse 17c or the third thing they. And only the overcomers will be given authority over the nations.
Verse 26d, or the fourth thing they, the overcomers will have their names will not, will not have their names removed from the book of life, but will be honored by Christ before his Father and the angels. So whatever you've read in the past, whatever somebody told you this is the word of God, They will not have their names removed from the book of life.
Now I'm just reminded because I forgot to say it last week.
George Whitfield or Whitefield, I'm not sure right now how to pronounce his name.
I had to look this up because I saw this in a reel a week ago.
It was from the movie the Great Awakening.
[00:55:13] Speaker A: Gotta see that.
[00:55:14] Speaker B: And it's when Whitfield is in the church behind the pulpit in England. He's not been given a church yet, and he makes this outstanding, amazing statement to the congregation with the pastors of the church sitting there and he says, I will not be a velvety mouth preacher. And he takes his powdered wig off, throws it on the ground, and he's talking to the congregation. And these people are responding to the word of God because he has an understanding right now of what reborn means.
They're beginning to understand this. But I want you to think about this because he said this and I touched on it at the end of the message last week. George Whitfield said when he was preaching by the Spirit of God, why do I need my name written in a church registry when it's already written in the Lamb's book of life?
I have said that without knowing that he did to several people in the last couple years.
And their response is, well, yeah, that, that's true, but that but is every way of man is right in his own eyes. But the Lord weighs the Spirit and he weighs the heart.
E or the fifth thing, Overcomers will remain with God in God's temple and will bear the name of God, the name of Christ and the name of New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem that's written in the bible in chapter three, verse 12. It's a promise to those who overcome.
Let those with ears hear what the Spirit is saying, because these are the scriptures.
F or the sixth promise, they, the overcomers will sit with Christ upon his throne. Chapter 3 verse 21 and the last thing or letter G or the seventh one, they the overcomers will be forever the children of God.
Chapter 21 In Revelation, verse 7, the overcomers will be forever the children of God.
Now, I'm going to tell you this. At some point, I am going to put a compilation together of all the scriptures on the left side of a piece of paper. And it'll be more than one page of one doctrine that people have accepted within the body of Christ that's prevalent today. And I'm going to list all the scriptures on the right side of the page and I'm going to challenge you to look at those because it's the word of God and you will see, or you should see if you have eyes to see. And I would recommend you read these out loud because they're going to be scriptures in context.
And I'm going to prove to you that God has promises just like we saw, but there's also consequences.
There's the wrath of God, and you cannot turn your eyes away from the warnings.
We are given warnings all throughout the epistles of Paul and Peter that are going to be biblical truth.
And you can try to split hairs all you want. You can use the parable of the seed sower and try to say, well, this person is unsaved and these people did this, but they weren't sincere. You can do all you want. All I'm going to do is give you the word of God and you're not going to be able to deny that. That's scripture.
All right? The third thing, the secret of victory for overcomers is Christ's sacrificial atoning death.
There, the overcomers own faithful testimony about Jesus, we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimonies.
And before I close, I just want to say something. I was in a church one time that began to drift away. They fell away from the faith and they didn't know it. They became spiritually wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. They couldn't see it.
And I asked, is it your will for me to stay here? And the answer for a while was yes. But then the time came where God said, you did what I asked you to do and now go so that your testimony does not get weakened or diminished by staying there. So if you're somewhere and you have a testimony of what Christ did to you, and you've been giving that as a witness to Christ, and. And now you're somewhere where a church, an assembly of people is falling away from the Faith, that's what the Bible says. I'm quoting the Bible, say, this is the Bible.
If you're in that place, your testimony is going to not have the impact that it could out in the world. Because the world is going to look at where you're at and they're going to say, I wonder why that person's there. And you better be able to answer that. I have to do that with my own daughter right now, who's unsaved and she's seeking and she was seeing something and raising questions which were true, what she brought up. And I had to deal with that.
[01:01:37] Speaker A: It was probably first time in the church.
[01:01:40] Speaker B: So the secret of victory for overcomers is Christ's sacrificial atoning death, their own testimony, faithful testimony about Jesus and their perseverance in love for Christ, even to death.
You got to persevere because the trials, the tribulations, the testing is coming, the persecution's coming. And I'm going to tell you this. The persecution's been coming within the body of Christ before the world began to persecute us.
The more that you get closer to God, the more attached, the more persecution is going to come from within those people that you gather with. It could be envy, strife, division, it could be a whole lot of things. But when you start to see that, you're going to have to start asking God, is it your will for me to still be here? And you're only going to be able to deal with that if you have the mindset.
And this is a prayer I do every morning. Lord, I'm pressing into you right now. I've already confessed where I fell yesterday. It's a new day. And now by faith, I'm coming after you. I want to grab the hem of your garment and you start praying that out of your heart. And you're going to be down on your knees and before you know it, you're going to be on your face on the floor weeping, because you just rent your heart.
And now, God, you gave, you opened the door to your heart. Remember the feelings, your attitudes, all that stuff you confessed where you fell short. And you don't have to list everyone individually, but when you start to do that, you're going to be able to, to experience the nearness of Christ. And the more that you experience the nearness of Christ, the more you're going to allow him to begin to fill you with his presence, which is his glory, which is one of these things. Paul prays for the Church, which I pray every day for the Church.
So again, note that we either,
[01:04:06] Speaker A: we,
[01:04:07] Speaker B: the church, the ecclesia, we either overcome sin, the world and the devil, or we are overcome by them. And if you don't understand that concept, you will be lost.
You need to understand that you are either going to overcome them and purpose in yourself and in your very being that you want to do that. And you have to recognize, and this is a daily confession, God, this is what I'm going after today.
However, I cannot do this on my own.
I can only do this because of what Christ's sacrificial atoning death, my acknowledgement and understanding of that, that he's already done it. And now I need his grace to go do that.
Now, there's a ministry that uses the term the message of the cross, and they teach deep teachings on this. And if we understand this even a little bit, we are able to overcome sin.
So, Pastor Peter, are you saying that I can overcome those strongholds, those addictions? Yes, but only by the grace of God.
It has to be through Christ's atoning death.
And as more that you understand that, the easier it's going to be. And I say easy not to diminish those things because there's strongholds that I still have to deal with. And that's the battle. That's the battle that I have every day.
They didn't go away right away.
I had God. God miraculously delivered me from some of them, but not all of them. And I have to, I have to fight. That's my fight.
And I have to acknowledge it.
And I have to be transparent with God because He already knows that he knows my heart and he knows my spirit.
So I'm. Before I close the last couple things I said, look up in First John, chapter 5, verse 4, and Revelation 20 and 15 and 21 and 8, and you'll see that third part, the Scriptural truth behind what I just said.
Now, before I close, I'm going to ask my wife because I would imagine she has something to say now or she's going to wait until next week because she's now putting together her, her information, all this. Yeah, she's got notes to bring in next week, which is good.
So we're not done yet.
These messages to these seven churches are not only applicable today, but there's, there's going to be a crossover between some of them. So you're going to see within yourself or churches, if you, if you visit or if you're, if you're a regular attendee of a certain house of God, you'll see certain characteristics within these churches that exist once you know what they are within the assembly that you're in and, and other.
Other crossover characteristics.
So these characteristics, we need to know what they are, we need to see them, have eyes to see, and we need to have ears to hear what the Spirit's saying to the churches. Because if you pray for that every day, God's going to reveal these things because now you have the word of God and the Holy Spirit's going to start reminding you. So at that point you need to start asking yourself, okay, this exists where I'm at, what do I need to do? God, am I the, am I to be the person that brings this to the attention of the leadership? Or how do you need me to do this? Because you're going to need to be led by the Holy Spirit at that point.
And I'm going to tell you right now, if God tells you that you're the one to do this, don't be surprised at the immediate pushback that you're going to get from people that you love and that love you because they have strongholds and they may not be aware of it and they're certainly, most people are unwilling to admit, oh, no, that's not in me.
I'm not going to. I don't have that issue.
So. So make sure the timing is God's timing.
Now, do you want to close in prayer or would you like me to close in prayer?
[01:09:18] Speaker A: That's good.
I'll close.
[01:09:21] Speaker B: Okay.
[01:09:22] Speaker A: Father, I thank you so much for your word that gives us guidance and gives us truth and gives us promises and hope, the things that we can stand upon. I thank you for this time that we've had to be able to spend in ministry with others. I thank you for the ability to be able to come to a place like Community Media and be able to sit and have these conversations with your people.
I bless this ministry here, the community media, and I thank you once again for your leading and your guiding in all that we do. In Jesus name I pray.
[01:10:13] Speaker B: Amen.
[01:10:15] Speaker A: Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty.
