First of all, who wrote the book of Revelation? Who is the human writer? Pastor John. And who is the author? Who gave John the words? The Lord Jesus Christ. That's right then, the first word, the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show his servants. Now, the outline of the book is in chapter 1, and especially Verse 19, what is the outline of Revelation generally? The overall picture. Number 119, if you have this sheet here, you can use that or whatever. You see it's more or less headed up there. And 119, what is the outline of Revelation generally? That's the wrong one. These days like that. Yeah. OK. Did you bring it? Maybe. OK. Maybe. OK. Maybe it's in your notebook. Maybe in the notebook, you know, something sticking out of it. OK. You know my system. You see Revelation 119. What's the general outline of the book of Revelation? What was John told to write? Well, the seven stars, that's in verse 20, but what about verse 19? Past, present and future. Things which are? As you've seen, things which are, and things which shall be after. So John saw the glory of the Lord in his person as he was clothed with the countenance of such a man, the things which shall be thereafter. So the things which are, and probably those are the seven churches. Now, in verse number 11, what are those seven churches of Revelation? Ephesus is the first. Pergamos, Tyre, Sardis, Philadelphia, there to see it. All seven of them right there. Now in verse number 20, there is the position of the churches and the Lord Jesus Christ. What is the relationship there, verse 20, in these churches? In fact, who are the stars, these seven stars? The churches are the candlesticks, the stars, the angels, the seven churches. So the churches are like candlesticks. Now, I notice it says in verse number 20, it says that in verse number 16, what does the Lord Jesus have in his right hand? the seven stars, and the seven stars are what? The angels, the salt is in my right hand, the seven golden candles, the seven stars are the angels, the seven churches, so in other words, he's connected, he's got the pastors, we believe these angels are messengers, angeles means messengers, probably the pastors, and in his right hand, And so he wants to be in control of the pastors and the ministries and so on. Now, some people take the seven churches prophetically. What did we say about that? Do you think that's possible? Do you think that's helpful? Some people don't take it prophetically. In fact, some people take revelation as all past and nothing future. I am a futuristic believer in revelation. I look at the future, past, things that you've seen, present, things that I like, these churches, and then the things that will be thereafter. So I have Revelation 4, 1 and following. chapter 4 verse 1 would be the rapture of the church, taking away the believers, but 2 and 3 would be the churches that were there at the time. But if the seven churches are prophetic, what do some believe the church of Ephesus would represent? Okay, first century church, as we see in page number 3, apostolic age, they have left their first love, that's one of the things against them. And what do some people feel the Smyrna period would be of the church? On page 3 there. The Old School for Reference Bible uses some of these things and others. So what do they think of the Smyrna period if this is indeed prophetic of a church age? Persecution, right? Great persecutions. Ten of them we saw last night. What about Pergamos? What does Pergamos mean? Everybody talked about that. Just a brief thing. Per is Greek for thorough. Gamma is from Gamal, which means what? Remember? To marry. To marry. After you, you are going to get married. Means to marry. Thoroughly married. Thoroughly married with the world. It's an inner wound. So in other words, it's a compromise type of a church. We see that all together, even up to today we see that. So put on imperial favor. Settle in the world. What about Thyatira? What's that possibly prophetically speak of? Thyatira. Okay, Dominus of the Priesthood and Catholic Balaamism. What is Balaamism? Who is Balaam? Balaam was hired by Balak, the king of Amalek, or Moab rather, and so he went and did what the king told him to do. First he didn't go, but then he went and so on and so forth. So Balaamism, religion for hire, and whatever a Christian tells him to say, he will say it and do it. Nicolaitanism, what did we say that meant? Niko and Laos. Ecatholicism. And niko is the Greek word for what? Nike, niko, concrete. Concrete. And Laos is the word for what? the people, so the conquering of the people, so somebody over the people pressing them down and conquering them like the priests and the popes and even if they're dictatorial pastors or whatever, or dictatorial government, anything like that, but in the religious sphere it would be those that would abandon it. What did we say about the priesthood of believers, what does that mean? All right, everyone is saved? In other words, the Old Testament priest, what could he do that others could not do? Remember the Old Testament? He could over-sacrifice. Once a year, a high priest could do what? Go in the very presence of God, take the blood first for his own sacrifice of the bullock, and the blood into the Holy of Holies, then the goat, the blood of the goat for the sins of the people, and the Holy of Holies. But see, the other people couldn't do it, even Levites couldn't do it. Levites could do some things in the Tabernacle, but they could not go into the very presence of God, just the priests. And now, as believer priests, what does that mean that we can do, if we're saved? access, complete access to the Holy of Holies and Heaven itself. So that's why I believe a priest. And that's why I guess, that's why I guess I'm a Baptist which is an independent, sovereign, local, congregational government which nobody is over us. A Bible type of churches, call them Baptist, call them what you will, whatever your church may be, but the churches with no hierarchy. Nobody oversees. That's the problem with the Methodist Church. They got the bishops. And you see, and the church owns the property, don't they? Every local church. That church is a... And so when a pastor is an unsaved pan, he comes in there, he's got that church. He's a Bible-willing man, he can't take the... And he can't pull the church and the denomination out of the denomination because the building stays with the denomination. Same way with the Presbyterian USA. Same way with now the Northern Baptist Convention. They've got the churches, they've got the title. Because when you get the loan, the real loans, whenever you want to build a building, you got a loan from the, what is in that cross, it will always be their property if you ever leave us, we got the building. That's the sad thing, isn't it? So the independent sovereignty of local churches is a very critical thing. That was what the New Testament had. Church of Ephesus didn't boss the church of Smyrna, or Laodicea, or Barashun. They were independent, sovereign, only up to the Lord. And he's the shepherd of the sheep, all the sheep. And we have under-shepherds, pastoral under-shepherds, but he's the shepherd. So Tharathyra, Nicolaitanism, there's a bleeding remnant. What about Sardis? What would that, pathetically, some believe it would be? Reformation. All right. What do we know about the Reformation period? OK. Who led that, among others? We didn't talk about that last night, but just sort of history. John Luther, I've tried him, and Zwingli, and Hustler, different forerunners of that, but Luther, and then later Calvin, different ones as a result of it. And they broke from Rome, of course we don't believe that the Lutherans broke too far from Rome, they should have broken farther. But now, we, Elizabeths or Baptists, do we ever say we came out of the Reformation? So we did not come out, see. Baptist, idol-believing Christians were always in the churches. The Bergamels, the Cathari, different groups, you know, always independent sovereign churches that were always from the New Testament to the present. And they did not go into Luther, they didn't go into Rome, they didn't go into any of that. They were always, historically, churches that were independent sovereign. So we don't believe we ever came out of any Reformation. We didn't have a Reformation. We were always there, New Testament churches. So that's a different thing. That's right. Yes, sure. Absolutely. Any questions? Absolutely. Yes, that's absolutely right. Because you see, the reformers didn't break far enough from Rome in the Lord's Supper, for example. Well, the Catholics say that it becomes the body and flesh of Christ, the body and blood of Christ. It becomes. See, that's transubstantiation. And when the priest says hocus pocus, whatever he says, that becomes. So this is blasphemy. But then the Lutherans didn't break proof of that. It wasn't transubstantiation. It was consubstantiation, which means that in the Eucharist, they call it the Lord's Supper or whatever, the body and blood of Christ are right there, con, with. The substance is worth it, see. And we don't hold to that either, see, because that would mean they believe in... in the ubiquity of the body of Christ. Ubiquity meaning the universal presence of the body of Christ. You don't believe that. He has a body as to his spirit, as to his deity. He is everywhere present. He is omnipresent. But as to his body, he is at the right hand of the Father. One day his body will come down to this earth and touch the mount. One of hours of his spirit will begin the primordial reign of Christ. But see, the concept actually means that he is with the bread and the grape juice, or wine, whatever it is, we don't bring that, it's not transformed in his body, his body is not with it, and then the Presbyterians come along, and they say that there is, in the elements, there can be impart certain grace. In other words, when you take the community service as grace imparted to you, some sort of special work of grace, we don't believe that either. We believe in remembrance. It's simply a memorial feast to remember his death, burial and resurrection until he comes. Biblical, Baptist, Bible type of understanding. So we have lots of things we want to break from. For instance, the trappings of Rome and the Lutheran Church today, they have their garments, they have their collars and they have their robes and everything else along with it. See, we don't, the Baptists never had, now some of these modernistic Baptists, they go back to the robes, they got their robes and they got their collars, double collars. But there's many things that we just don't want to have anything to do with that. And that's why we've broken with the Reformation, those little Bible churches. Let's get our names. I don't remember. Steve and Jeanette like my daughter-in-law and Phil. Steve, Jeanette, Phil and Laura. I'll probably forget your names before long. Probably in the early 200s, 300s, when there was a breakage, when the bridges along broke off from the other other bodies. And that's when the priesthoods and the early church fathers took off and had that transfiguration. I don't know what the year is exactly, I'm not up to that, but 200, 300 AD, something like that. At the early churches it was different, but then they, you see they had the bishops. First of all, they had to have one bishop, and that's why the Roman bishop, the highest bishop, was the Pope. That's when all this thing came up. We have some tracts in our Bible today, I should have brought some along, giving the history of when the things came in. See, of all the Roman Catholic teachings. When purgatory came in, when prayer for the saints came in, when the Mass came in. You know, it's interesting to see that. I don't have it in my brain, but it's on paper. And so I don't know what part, but to 300 AD, it's all of a sudden the body and blood of Christ came to be transubstantiated into that cycle. It's possible so. So even the Greek Orthodox, you see, have got a lot of trappings in Rome. They got their idols. They don't call them idols, but I call them idols. And then the church history group called the iconoclastic. period was breaking the icons of their images and clads up to break smashing they came and knocked those down so you see all that thing and if we put ourselves as Baptist or Bible Church or whatever your church I don't know what your church is I'm Baptist but if we put ourselves underneath the Reformation and don't break from that from the very beginning then we're going to be involved in all this business and he believed that, see we didn't even have that, see never, early churches never had icons, never had images, never prayed to Mary, never had transubstantiation, transubstantiation never believed that there were special sacraments or the Lord Father gave a special unction or imparted some grace, see all these things are formed We were baptized by immersion because of believers. I mean different things. Churches were just as open and fine. They were persecuted though. These churches were not of the bigger varieties. These common ordinary people were persecuted in the early churches. And Baptists. They were called Anabaptists. Different names for them. Bougainvilles and Cathari. There's all different names of the early churches. But the things that held them in common was There were usually two ordinances, baptism, the Lord's Supper. They had pastors and deacons usually, and the acquired elders and bishops. But Bishop, Pastor Bishop Elder was just the pastor of the local church. That's three names for the same office, Pastor, Bishop, Elder, as it says in Ephesians. And either a church that's the same local book of Acts, Chapter 20. And they had these things that the universal preacher, the believers, all these different, the one Bible, the scripture was God's word and never buried and that was the end of it. And the various doctrines like that great Christ was the God perfect, God perfect man, all those doctrines. And all those doctrines that are in the Bible were always held and we didn't have to come to a big church group. And then the Reformation and Ruth was split off from there. That's the problem with all these churches today. They got a lot of these. My grandfather, my wife's grandfather used to call some of those things the rags of Rome. so many things have the rise of this the heart back to Roman Catholicism because now as you know that everything is moving back to Rome. The ecumenical movement is back to Rome. Rome, the Royal Council of Churches, they want Rome in there, they want the apostate Protestants in there, they want everybody in there. They want even the New Evangelicals, they want Bible-believing Christians, anybody. Swallow us all up. Of course that's what Revelation 17 is all about, the great whore that will will override everything. All denominations, all groups, they want the Hindus in there, the Muslims in there, they want all the world religions in there, and the Islam. So that's a sad thing. Any other comments on that area of the Reformation? Alright, and then what does Philadelphia sometimes hold to? What is that belief looking toward? Philadelphia Church. The Church and Professing Church, right? The True Church. Philos is love and Adelphos is the brother, love of the brethren, Philadelphia. That's what that is and that's what the picture of the True Church in the Professing Church. And then finally, Odyssey, what's the prophetic picture, how do you feel about it? on the state of apostasy. So these are some of the things prophetically that people have seen in there and could be, could not be, but I think it's helpful to look at that as a possibility. Now let's go to Ephesus and let's go to chapter 2 verse 1 and 2 and 3 along in there. Where did we find Ephesus began? Did Paul ever go to Ephesus? Did he found that church or was it found by someone else? number of Acts 18 and 19. How long was he there? Do you remember? How long Paul was preaching in Ephesus? Well, he was there three years. He continued two years. And then even when he, in Acts 20, 17, when he sent to the elders at Ephesus, called the elders of the church and said, I've, for the space of three years, I've been with you. So he was there for three years, founding a church. And what's interesting is warning there in Acts 20. Take heed to yourselves. By the way, we talked about the pastor-bishop elder. If you take a look at that Acts 20, you can see that they're one in the same office. Acts chapter 20, it shows that picture as well as 1 Peter. But Acts 20, let's take a look at that. Because Paul really told these passivists that there's going to be problems. He warned them in Chapter 20. And Bruce, she called. He's called the algorithm is here. Yes, verse 17, 20. For Meletus, he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church. You see that? 17, 20, 17. So they're called elders. Presbyterus, those are the elders. And then, notice we go down here to verse number 20. take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers." The word overseer is episkopoi, that's bishops. So here he called the elders, the Lord has made them overseers, bishops. And then notice the next thing in verse that same verse 28, to feed the church of God, that's poimenos, that's the shepherd, the pastor of the church of God, which is purchased. So we have the elders, oversight the bishops, and the pastor of the shepherds. So one in the same office, with three different titles. He's an elder, he's a bishop, he's a pastor. So the Christian churches have always held these three options to be one. And that's one of the proofs of it. Hold your place in Acts 20, because I may go back to that. But go to 1 Peter chapter 5, and that's another place about this, 1 Peter chapter 5. And the same thing is true. That's why we hold very tenaciously that they're one and the same. First Peter chapter five and the first couple of verses there. So if I can find my five. Let's put these pages together. OK, we've got one to read. I find my own. I exhort. So here's this Peter calling himself an undergrad. also a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God. That are the feeds. There's the primal, shepherd, be the pastor, to the exalted, the elders, the presbyter, us the presbyters, Presbyterians, forget that word, feed the primal, that's our breath, the flock of God. Which are among you taking the oversight? The oversight. Here's Episcopal. Here's the bishop. See, Episcopal. Oversight. Oh, it's oversight. That's right. See, so here's your elders. Here's your pastor. Feed the church. But you take the oversight. Go ahead. There I'm not by constraint, but willingly. So these are the two places in scripture that are very clear. Acts 20 and 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 1 and 2 where the elders are called the overseers or bishops and also the shepherds, the feeding the pastors. The local churches in the New Testament, you might want to go back to chapter 20 now, have acts. But that's why the only independent churches, Baptists or Biblical churches, whatever they are, sovereign churches, don't have anyone over them as far as the denominational ties. They just are independent. Now a lot of independent churches, like the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches, which I used to be part of for many years until they drifted so far away, they don't want anything more to do with it. The General Association of Baptist Churches was an association of churches. And they said, now we're independent churches, Baptist churches, which is fine. You don't have to pay any money. But you sort of go along with that group. And so you get their literature, you go to their camps, you go to their annual meetings. And if you don't follow them too much, then you sort of shun them. So there's sort of a pressure. I'm not against association of church, I guess. When the churches of G.R.B., regular Baptist churches started to go astray, started to get into problems. For instance, the general chairman of the council of 18 years, a couple of years ago, took a whole busload of his church people to the promise keepers, which has the Mormons and the unbelievers and they're all mixed up together, Catholics and Christians and non-Christians. So here is a head of the Council of the General Association about churches thinking the quams keepers are fine. So in other words, it's drifted so bad. Now, what does the church do if it's in the association of the G.I.B. regular Baptist, a local church? Well, if it goes bad, how does that church come out of this mess? See, they would vote out of it. But then you got some people that remember when it used to be good and they don't want to leave it. And so there's a big fight and a big battle how to get that local church out of that fellowship, that general association or that church. So you have a church fight. I put my first church into the G.I.B., Regular Baptist, but how do you get it out of this? Who fought a battle? So, my conviction now is, our church, our Bible Flag Baptist Church, is independent and sovereign. You know, we have fellowship with other churches, but we're not in an association or anything above. Otherwise, when they go bad, how are we going to get our people going to have a big fight in the church? Some want to stay in, some want to stay out, and then you have a church spread over it, see? So, there's a lot of reasons. But anyway, sovereignty, independence. But in chapter 20, notice what he tells these people in Ephesus. And this is very important. In chapter 20, in verse 28, take heed to the flock. And I know in verse 29, what did Paul predict would happen in that local church of Ephesus? What was going to come in? Grievous loss. Now those would be people from outside, unbelievers, lost people, right? Grievous loss. What would they do after the party? Not stir the fire, in other words, they would chew him up to pieces. Now see this first verse is this first church was guilty and was going to be the recipient of this very thing that Paul predicted would happen. Outside forces, that's what happens to churches as I said last night. But what else does he say is going to be coming after that in verse 30? It's going to help to destroy those people. In verse 30. But at verse 30, what type of thing would it be? What type of people? Would it be grievous woes as in verse 29? Or is it a different situation in verse 30? Internal, of their own selves. So these would be Christian people. Are there Christian people that are false teachers? Are there some false teachers that are still saved, born again Christians? I think there can be. So, of their own selves. Now, they may be saved, but they are off base on things. When are they going to be speaking? Verse 30. And two, for disciples and so on. So how did Paul warn about these things in verse 31? And for how long did he warn? Do you want to know how long did he warn? three years, day and night and with tears. He was not happy about it. So he commends this church to what? In verse 32. The most important thing to commend any church to. What does he recommend to them? The word of His grace. To have the word of His grace able to build you up. If they had stayed with that and been built up, they never would have left, as it says in this verse, left their first love in these places. So, these things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand and walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. So, should the Lord Jesus Christ be in the midst of our churches today? He should be. But is he in the midst of all the churches? Not if they are lost and unsaved, preachers that are ungodly. But he wants to, and he wanted to walk in the midst of these seven churches of Egypt. That's for sure. Now in verse 2, what five things did the Lord say about the church here at Ephesus? What do you know about them? What quality or attribute of God is that when he knows different things, the Lord Jesus knows? What's that big word called, remember? Omniscience, that's right, omniscience, that's right. All-knowing, see. So he knew all about this thing, even though he was in heaven at this time, where Jesus was. But he writes through John, he knows. What five things does he know here in verse 2? First of all, what? That's commendable isn't it? We can't have anything to do with evil If we get too close to evil, what happens? It becomes a lot of times. If you don't want to buy my wares, as Satan may say, don't enter into my shop. Just where you go and you see things and you might want to take action and buy whatever is there. That's what the Spurgeon was saying. And then evil communications corrupt good manners. That's another thing in 1 Corinthians 15, 33. Evil associations corrupt good manners. You know, there's many different things that evil has. First of all, you might be against it. And then if it's set too close to you, you accommodate to it. You sort of can sort of make allowances for it. Pretty soon, You're accepting it. See there's certain gradations as evil comes closer and closer in your life. I've seen many people for instance in the churches that I know of and Christian people who are born again Christians that have a sort of a neutral attitude towards sin and evil. Do you know of people like that? Neutral attitude towards sin? For instance the sin of homosexuality. See, people say, oh, you can't be against homosexuality, because homosexuals are gentle. But homosexuality is sin no matter what it is. And you see they're trying to, because they want to placate the homosexuals, do something to them, they say we can't speak out against homosexuality. In fact, the government says in some states, in some countries, if you do, you're going to be put in jail. And they have been put in jail. Sweden and other places, I think it was. And of course some states in the union are making that. But the homosexuals would love to make that a general thing for all states of the union. So you can't preach the Bible. Nothing about sodomy, nothing about sodomy no more. So evil has a way of getting close to us and then pretty soon we don't speak out against it. You know, what used to be sin to some Christians years ago in my generation and the generation before me, now is alright. We used to, in our generation, took a strong position against Hollywood movies as all the filth and the rottenness of the world. kids from Bible reading churches, they don't think anything about sending books to the movies. But has it changed? In fact, even television, you can't even say that's always right. You look at the stuff on the television sets and there's wickedness abounding, swearing, and now they're all different filthy words that they're not permitting on the television set, even the regular ABC and NBC and CBS. But the whole idea of Sin is still sin. The world has become more into the church. The church more into the world. It's a terrible mixture, isn't it? It's a terrible thing. And so, not bearing in that are evil, we've got to be sure of our grounds and then condemn evil and not placate it. You know, we like to be politically correct, as some people call it. But politically correct is not being against evil, because evil men It says in the scriptures, evil men and seducers are like a force in a horse, deceiving and being deceived. So there's not going to be any more less evil, it's going to be greater evil as things move along. And we're seeing that all the time. So these couldn't bear evil, and then also what's the fifth thing about them in verse 2? What are they against? The very last part of verse 2. They are liars, they are against them, they say they are apostles and they are not. Do we have people saying they are apostles today? We have the whole Mormon religion. They have got the twelve apostles. They are apostles. There are no apostles. The early apostolic authority stopped when the apostles that the Lord appointed died. That's it. There are no more apostles. And so people are false apostles. In fact, it says in the book of 2 Corinthians there are going to be false apostles and false teachers, angels of light, you know, ministers of Satan. And then the liars, is that a good thing to say about people? Is it a bad thing to say about people? If it's true, should we say it? Should we not say it? Did the Lord Jesus ever call anybody liars? Who did he call liars? The Pharisees, that's right, in John 8, verse 44. Talk right to them, you are of your father, the devil, and the deeds of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, a bird not in the truth, when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. John 8.34. That's one of the verses we memorize every afternoon Bible study at 1.30 and 2.30. We have a list of about 33 verses of Scripture, remember verses, that's one of them we have memorized. And we have a list of them and so on and we go through them each time before we begin our Bible study. Just to try to fix them into our minds. That's one of the things. Now my mother-in-law, I always told my wife, don't call people liars. Which is true, but sometimes people are liars. That's a horrible thing to say about people. What would you call Bill Clinton when he talked about this girl that he had no sex with and no problem? What do you call that scene? And if you took an oath, it's a lying on oath, it's called perjury, isn't it? There's no question about it. So we have political liars and I'm afraid to say we have the truth liars as well as a terrible thing to have lying. But those that say they are one thing and they are not and found them to be liars. So the evidence is there. Yes. Yes. Yes. One is. Yeah, the one that sent forth and I believe that the first twelve were, so he took the disciples, the learners, and from them he chose twelve and called them apostles. Apostle, apo from, sent forth. And one was no good, Judas. So then they had an election, and they accepted two. And they said, well, should we have this one or this one? They chose Matthias, which I don't believe was the Lord's choice. I think they, because the Lord told them to wait until he received power from on high. They waited before the Holy Spirit had descended upon them and they had his election. So I believe that Paul was the one that Christ chose personally on the road to Damascus. He says I am the Apostle chosen by the Lord. So Apostles were those in the early church that were sent forth chosen by the Lord that had seen the Lord and Paul did see him in the heavens even though he wasn't here on earth. and special people to set forth the rules of the Lord Jesus Christ. And from that time, when they died, there was no apostolic succession. So that's where the Roman Catholics have the apostolic succession. So they believe Peter was the first Apostle and the first Pope, and therefore apostolic succession, Pope by Pope by Pope. So if we once predicate that Apostles can mutate and continue, then we have no answer to The Roman Catholic system or other systems that say there's a succession. But you had another comment on whether there could be a type of an apostle, you know, some of the black churches or that would be, I think. Yes, I think in a loose, a loose sense of that word, someone sent forth would certainly be our missionaries or an evangelist or whatever. There'd be a bit of a match finding churches. and sent forth by the Lord and sent forth by local churches within that sense. But the title Apostle, see in the book of Ephesians we have chapter 4, if you look at Ephesians I think that we see some of these offices were in the New Testament and then they ceased, others continued. Ephesians chapter 4 All right. It says in the. I'm in Chapter six. That's my problem. Chapter four. He says. Talks about the gifts. Yes, in verse 10, verse 9, verse 8, wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, the Lord Jesus, he let captive the captive, the Egyptian, the men, and he ascended, they first descended first from the lower parts of the earth, he descended the same way as I ascended, the five of the principalities, and then he gave some apostles, verse 11, But as your gifts of the New Testament have ceased, some prophets, again I believe the prophets as such are ceased also. Some people say the prophet is the preacher today. Well, I think strictly speaking, the prophets that had direct revelation from God are gone. The apostles that had direct revelation are gone. But then it says in some evangelists, now there would be missionaries, evangelistic preachers, and pastors and teachers. Those would be gifts that are still with us. So I think these other two are the foundational gifts of apostles and prophets to begin the churches and started the churches in the New Testament. Then the others to continue evangelists and pastors and teachers would continue. So I don't feel that that's a division there. Some New Testament and then at sea, strictly speaking, these others will continue actually. But the missionaries certainly I like to look at missionaries as evangelists, but if you don't look at them as a type of apostle, the apostle means one sent forth. And certainly missionaries are sent forth to minister of the gospel and start churches and so on. Do you have any other comments or questions on that? So those are some of the things that it's important that we have these apostles that are not found alive. See, they're false apostles. That's what it says in 2 Corinthians. Remember, the false apostles, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. See, that's, I think, the reference there. And these people knew the difference. And that's why a lot of these people don't know the difference. I think in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, chapter 11, right apart there, it has to do with I'm used to a different Bible version. False Apostles. What verse are we on? Chapter 11. OK, it's second Corinthians. Second Corinthians 11. That's where we are. OK. Second Corinthians 11. Yes, in verse 13, verse 12, but what I do, this is what I do, that may cut off occasion and immature, desire occasion, wherein they may glory, they may be found even as we are. For such are false apostles, see verse 13, deceitful workers, transforming themselves as the apostles of Christ. Now these are phonies. And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed as an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers, Satan's got ministers, also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works. So, in other words, Satan's army has apostles that are false apostles. I think that this is probably in the Church of Ephesus, they show these to be false apostles. And I think in this sense, every modernistic preacher is a false apostle, transforming himself as an angel of light, he's a minister of Satan, he's of the devil, he's darkness, but he pretends to be light, and he's reverent, so and so. He's satanic in his fatherhood, he's Satan, not the Lord. So these, in verse 2, have a good accounting of themselves as far as labor and work and all the other things. And in verse 3, again they are born and have patience and namesake and labor and haven't fainted. What does it mean to faint in the Lord's work? To quit? Probably quit. That's right. Just sit down and you're unconscious. You don't do any work anymore. You just sit down and relax and say, I'm too tired. And as I said last night, Proverbs 24, 10, if I faint in the day of adversity, my strength is small. That's when you need to be strong, is in adversity, persecution. So they've borne the patience, the namesake, haven't fainted. That's a commendable thing. Verse 4, what did the Lord have against them? That's the first love. What would that mean do you think? What makes the love? Leave. Forgetting, all right. Forgetting what you're saved out of, maybe. Why the Lord saved you. What else might be a part of having a first love? Leave. Take it for granted, all right. Should any of us leave our first love as the Ephesus Church did? That may be easier said than done, but is there any excuse for leaving the first law? There's no excuse. We can make one, but it's really in the Lord's books. This will be just as fervent as ever. For sometimes older people drift from their beliefs, the older they get. Yes. Should they drift from their beliefs? Very, very good. And just because you're 30, should you drift because of what you used to believe when you were 20? Because you're 40, do you stop believing what you believed at 30? When you're 50, at 40, at 60, at 50, 70, do you just quit because you're 70? What time should you stop believing what you believed when you first were saved? If it's biblical. What is the time that you should kill or die? See now, old soldiers never die, they just fade away as McCarthy said. But kill or you die. Now, one of the things when we went on the mission, my wife and I went three times to the continent of Africa, Liberia twice and Sierra Leone once. Our African brethren made us serve there for Bible conferences. One of the things that the wife of the pastor said about me That was way back 15, 20 years ago and I referenced to him just recently. One thing she said about me is that I have not changed my beliefs from what I believed when I taught them in the scriptures back 15, 20 years ago, which is true. Now if I've done anything that's wrong, I want to change that. But if it's scriptural, I don't want to modify that in any way. Why do older people sometimes get soft in their faith? Or do they get soft in their faith? And that is firm and fiery. Surely all the people get soft and non-fiery? Surely. So there's something as far as mellowing, as far as being kind and so on. But I mean as far as their faith, the deferments of their faith. be less fervent just because they get older and older and older. You don't have to be a fuddy-duddy in your faith. Fuddy-duddy as they say. You have to maintain strength. And I don't want to ever be quiet in my faith, what I believe, standing for what I believe to be true, the deity of Christ, His bodily resurrection, His blood atonement. are Hebrew and Greek words that underlie the King James Bible, for the King James Bible itself. There are certain things that you sound the alarm concerning and you are known for that thing, see, and so you just keep going on it. You have enemies, but you keep going. John MacArthur, for example, is an instance of a person that has left a lot of things that he used to believe. For instance, in the area of the blood of Christ. I have a book called the John MacArthur's heresy on the blood of Christ. He says blood doesn't mean blood, it just means death. It's a metonym, a figure of speech for death. And so the Bible when it says blood cleanses us, it doesn't mean blood, it means just the death. It is switching and changing. There's a lot of things that if somebody speaks out against John MacArthur why he was just knocked apart and you say well how dare you speak about he's got to be perfect and so on. Certain things have to be spoken of and we cannot leave our first love. The love should be for the Lord Jesus Christ and for his words and scriptures and if we stand for those things then we'll never be shy, we'll never be disappointed and he will never be disappointed and that's very important. But he was disappointed in the church of Ephesus as they left their first love. And that's a terrible thing to do. It's a disgrace. Verse 5, what's that first word mean? Is that a good word or a bad word? Good word. What do we tend to remember? Good things or bad things? Okay. Do we sometimes remember bad things? If your wife picks a fight with you or your husband picks a fight with you, what is the first thing he or she remembers? Nothing. Alright. You try to tell her or try to tell him, now honey, it's best to stick on the good things. But you know, it's hard to erase things of the past. When I was first married, I didn't know how to be a husband. And I'm sure my wife didn't know how to be a wife. We had to learn that thing. And we've come a long way. This month is our 57th year, 57 years together. And we're still fighting back and forth. Listen, we're two people, individuals. We have our own ideas and so on. But we still love each other and we go ahead and we compliment each other. What she does and what I need, she helps me with. But you know, looking back on things, I was telling her just the other day, I hear a clap, in fact, they're saying, it would be wonderful if we just would erase all the bad things that we had when we were, you know, going through our marriage and everything. Just remember the good things. It would be great, see. But you know, it's hard to do that. Remember, but you have to remember, from whence thou art fallen. What would that mean? Remember from whence thou art fallen. What is he speaking of, fallen? Going back to verse 4, what was he speaking of? Fallen from where? Where had they fallen from? So this is the... Remember from whence has fallen? The point, that's right. The point of departure. There's always a point of departure. Is there not? Anytime we have a departure from what's right, there's always a point, a time, a place where we leave. Remember from whence, from where, and then get back. And then what do you do after that? What does He urge them to do as a people of Israel? After they remember, repent. What does that mean? Turn from it, right? Think about it again, see that the Roman Catholics have every time they put penance, so they have a sacrament of penance. You do so much, you pay so much, and then you forget penance. Two words in Greek, metanoia, that's the Greek word, metanoia. Meta is a change, and noia from nous, the mind, the change of the mind, in regard to sin, in regard to the Savior, the change of our mind and our actions to do, to change what you're doing. And what does he say after you repent? First you remember where you fell. Then, do what? Do the first verse. That's it. Go right back to where you left the first life. Or else, what's he going to do? He'll hook you in. Do what else? Take the council. In other words, remove the church. Take you right out of there. And, you know, any organization, if it grows sour after you die or after you leave it, better that it drop off and just die while it was still fervent and true rather than to afterwards grow sour. That's what I believe. That's what I said last night about the churches. Better to just close the doors rather than for modernists and liberals to come and take them over. And I'd rather come quickly and remove you out of your place. Now what in verse 6 did the Lord say is favorable to them? What did they have on their corner here? What did they agree with the Lord on? A.E. and Nicolaitans. What did we say Nicolaitans meant again? Nicao? Conquer? Laos? People. Conquer other people. And so they hate the point of view. People that grind down people. See like dictators, communists, whatever, Hitler, you know, different Nazis. Any group that just grinds down the people makes them nothing and nothing, nothing. Well certainly we're all sinners, no question about that. But to have a hierarchy that's over them, see. He was against it. And the Lord Jesus, I'm sure, would be against the Roman Catholic Church, would be against the hierarchy of the United Methodist Church. Any of these churches that have hierarchies that grind down the people People can't even own their own property that they pay money for. That's a strange thing, isn't it? They buy money, they buy the church, so that I also hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans. And then verse 7, what does the Lord urge the church concerning? How can that be fulfilled? Okay, and how can we hear what the Holy Spirit says to the church of today? Stop and listen? Why do we listen? The scriptures are the only place the Holy Spirit has given us a program. Are there some charismatics that think they have special visions, special revelations, and they add to the scriptures of the Word of God? We don't believe that scripture. But we believe the Bible has spoken. If you have an ear, let him hear what the Spirit... Now, just because you have an ear, does that mean you hear? What are the different senses of hearing that we have? Can you hear and that you not hear? The Lord said, there will be somebody seeing and will not see, hearing and will not hear. Their heart will be gross and dull of hearing. What does that mean? What senses of hearing are there? Is merely hearing a sound generally hearing? Receive, interpret, understand, and being willing to follow and so on. In other words, you can hear somebody say, stand up. But to really understand it, then you stand up. In other words, you follow what you hear. There's an understanding and there's a willingness to receive. Telling is not teaching. Listening is not learning. See, there are certain things that are required. So, there's somebody that hears something and somebody that don't really understand it can take it in. See, that's what it says. Let him hear what the Spirit says to the church. He that overcometh, I give to taste and eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the garden. And that will be the heavenly tree of life, overcoming sin and other parts of the things of the earth. Then, chapter 6, or verse 6 rather, the second church, Smyrna, How does the Lord identify himself here? What is his title here in verse 8? What is the title of the Lord Jesus here? First and the last. What would that mean? Did he have a beginning? Did he ever have a beginning? What is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ involved? Who is he? Currently passed? Was he God and is he God? He's in the beginning, God the Son, the Son of God, God the Son. Now as the Lord Jesus Christ, as to his humanity, the incarnation, he came onto this earth, was incarnate by special miracle of virgin birth, and took upon himself the form of a servant. But from all eternity past, he was always in the beginning, never had a beginning, never had an end. But the liberals say that he had a beginning, the modernists, They say he never was in the beginning. He was just a person that came on the scene. The liberals say he was the son of Mary and a German soldier. Some of these modernist apostates say he wasn't even virgin born. He was born of incest or fornication. But he's the first and the last. Had no beginning and will have no end. And also what else does he refer to himself in verse 8 for this church at Smyrna? Dead and alive. So it's very important to know that he's... Now what type of alive is this? Is it only in spirit? Only in spirit? Resurrected body. There's a bodily resurrection. We have to have that. Therefore there's a Savior that's seated bodily at the right hand of the Father. It says in 1 John 3, We know not what we shall be when no one he shall appear. We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. and if he's just a spirit just nowhere we're going to be spirits no more we're going to have a body just like his like his glorious body so it's important that he's alive with a body bodily resurrected then in verse 9 the Lord is acquainted with what things about this church of Smyrna and we think that the Smyrna church is the time of the persecutions what does he think about this church what does he mention concerning them OK. They I know that works, for instance. So you've got some works and tribulation and trouble and problems and and poverty. And yet thou art rich. How can it be poverty and rich at the same time? If your syllabus says you're impoverished as far as the Lord is concerned, that's true. What else? Rich in grace, rich in God's love, rich in God's treasures of heaven. And so, our poverty, but thou art rich. And we use that 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, which I love very much. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, that for our sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. through his poverty, coming to this earth, dying on the cross of Galilee, might be rich in grace, rich in heaven. Such an important thing. So they were rich. And then they, you know, they know the blasphemy of them, which say that they're Jews and they're not, but they're the synagogue of Satan. So here's false Jews that are parading to be one thing or another. And he says it's a blasphemous situation. You either be the Jews or not Jews. Well, apparently they're saying something that they're not. Now, we have right now in the country and all over the world what's known as British Israelism. British Israelism. And they believe that the Jews that are Jews are not Jews. That the real Jews are the Anglo-Saxon white people. They say Brit, Ish. Brit is the covenant and Ish is man, the man of the covenant, British. So the British, the Swedes, the Norwegians, the Americans, the white people, they say we're the ten lost tribes. Therefore we're the Jews. And the Jews that are not Jews are pagans and sorcerers. So this could be similar to this. Say they are Jews and they are not as possible. There is a number of people that are pushing this. See Adolf Hitler was this type. He felt that he was an Aryan. He was white. Maybe he was the Anglo-Saxon people. Kill off the Jews. Kill off the Negroes. Hate everybody else. Kill off the homosexuals. Kill everybody. But so this racial superiority, this in causing them to be Jews, this is changing things. In fact, the man that writes that paper, I can't think of his name offhand. I think we began last night at verse 11. Is it not 2.11? He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the church. How are you going to hear what the Spirit saith today? Do we have direct revelation from God today, aside from the Bible? Do we have direct revelation from God? Do some churches teach that they do? Yes, they do. What churches teach is they have direct revelation from God. Charismatics, that's what I've come across, charismatics. And so, in fact, my wife and I were there at the big conference several years back in Arrowhead Stadium. Is it Colorado, wherever that is, Colorado? I don't know where, but a huge charismatic conference. We were on the press there, just as Press Credentials was taking it and reporting it. and Catholics and Protestants and unsaved and saved and everything else and every night before they began they had a special group, a revelation group. They got up there and the Lord said this and the Lord told me this and just spilled out a whole bunch of stuff. It wasn't in scripture, just everything. So it's amazing. But we have now just what the Bible has written to us. So he that hath an ear, hear what the Spirit say. Does the Lord want us to hear what God's Holy Spirit tells us? Where do we find that? The scriptures and what scriptures closest to the original in the English language. So now does everybody agree with that? What do they do? What do they say? What are they? What do other people sometimes use? International American standard. And there's a battle, isn't there? Message revised standards and modernists came out of the right side of 1950s in that area. And vice versa, then they have a new revised and everybody's got to be a new. So they got the new international. They got the today's international. So they got the new American style and they got the up-to-date. I don't know what they're going to do next. The new, new, new century. That's a new century. That's right. And they got today's English version to be. Revised Standard Version, then the English Standard Version, they have all these different versions, but the he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Should we have Bible reading? Individually? How much of the Bible should we read? The whole thing, from Genesis to Revelation. Do most people read Genesis to Revelation? See, now we have, in our Defined Things in the Bible, we have a section in the first part that is Bible reading scheduled, a list out there and years ago when a man led me to Christ, Uncle Charlie Allen, my high school janitor when I was just a senior in high school he gave me a Bible and that Bible had all the different number of verses in scripture and all the number of chapters and words and so on and so forth and so I made up a list from that, 31,101 verses or whatever and on Roman numeral number 8 in our Defined Things in the Bible we have the yearly Bible reading schedule 85 verses per day Roman numeral 8 and goes through January to July and then July to 31st of December but it's 85 verses a day will take you through the scripture Genesis to Revelation now why do people not want to read the Bible through you wonder do you think? is the Holy Spirit how was the Bible made? Who was the source? Who gave the Holy Spirit the words? Remember we discussed a little bit on that. New Testament is clear, Old Testament by analogy we know. Remember in John 16, 12, I have yet many things to say unto you, disciples, but ye cannot bear them now, albeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth, for ye shall not speak of or from himself as to the source whatsoever. He shall hear, that shall he speak, and he shall show you things to come. He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. Who's the mine? He shall receive of mine. Well, but who's speaking to the disciples? Lord Jesus so he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you so the Lord Jesus is the source of all the words the Holy Spirit the conduit and the human writers and so Old Testament we take by example if he's called the Logos the revelator the one who gave revelation the Old Testament Hebrew words as well we would say and so that's how God gave us the Bible and So we have the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek words in the Old Testament. We believe that God has promised to preserve those words, and we believe He has preserved them in the words that underlie our King James Bible. And then the King James translators translated accurately those words. That book we have back there, Defending the King James Bible, shows four different superiorities of the King James Bible. Some of you have that book that I wrote years ago. It's in the 9th printing right now, hardback edition. But it shows the superior text of the King James Hebrew and Greek words. These other versions use a different Hebrew. He's a different Greek. And King James has, we believe, the proper Hebrew and Greek and Aramaic and superior translators. These fellows now are just child's play compared to the giants that gave us the King James Bible. They knew and studied all the different cognate sister languages of Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic and so on and Greek and Latin and superior translators and then superior technique of translation that King James had. So the new versions don't take the verbal equivalence and formal equivalence. The King James translators did their very best to take the Hebrew and Greek words and bring them over into English as words. What does the meaning of those words mean? Word for word. That's the type of thing. She's not thought for thoughts, verbal equivalence and the other formal equivalent, the forms of the words. If it's a noun in the Hebrew, Greek, wherever possible, bring it over in English as a noun, as a pronoun, as a pronoun, verb as a verb. But the new translation people do not have that technique of translation. They believe in, as you say, thought for thought. They can switch a word. They can change a verb into an adverb. They change a noun into a pronoun. They don't care. It's not verbal, it's dynamic equivalence, which adds to the words you've got, subtracts or changes the words you've got. Then of course the theology is superior because when you have a different New Testament Greek text that is 2,886 Greek words shorter than ours, 2,886 Greek words shorter in their new version, basic Greek text than our Greek text. You are going to have doctrinal differences, and you do. 356 doctrines that are wrong in their version because they have the wrong Greek text made up by Gnostics. So the Spirit of God, we have to hear what the Spirit says in the churches. Then it talks in verse 11 about the second death. What is that? Hell, that's right. How long is hell? Eternal. How long is eternal life? And what is the definition? What do we say the definition of death is? It's like what? Well, there's how many different kinds of death? Three. And death is basically what begins with S a separate separate. What are the three kinds of death? There's a bodily death or physical death. What does that mean? What's separated there? Well, the spirit and soul from the body. Right. And what's the second of the death? Spiritually, what's that mean? Who? What's up? What price? Suppose they're now they're in God's creation. So the body still takes the sum of God's blessing. But the spirit and soul absolutely cut off. They don't have any communication between them and the Lord. Body's still here. What is the third day? First two together, which would be definition separation of what? Spirits will abide from God completely in hell. So the second death. Will Christians have a second death? Will Christians definitely always necessarily have a first death? Yes? Necessarily? Will the rapture take place? Will we face death? Normally we're looking for that. As a part of the men wants to die and after this the judgment. So normally that's the status. Were there any people in the Old Testament that didn't die? Yes. Okay, who were they? Enoch. Enoch, okay. And Elijah? Those two, Elijah and Elijah were taken up to heaven. But normally, now, do people prepare for death or not prepare for death? And who does and who doesn't? Why do they, why don't they? Should they, should they not? How do you prepare for death? Do you know when death will come to you? You don't know. It could be at any minute, see. So is it wise to prepare? Remember in Amos 4.12, prepare to meet thy God. That's what the scriptures are, prepare to meet thy God. Does the world around us prepare? Do they prepare for it? Do they believe there is a God they meet? Some of them? And if they don't, even if they do believe, do they believe that they're going to be in hell to face judgment? So, we've got to prepare and believers should prepare. Those that are saved should prepare also. There's an advertisement on the television, we see a woman talking about insurance. And she says, I just hope my she puts her her nickel into their whatever quarter into the parking meter. So I wish that life were just like the parking. You just put it in there and everything's taken care of. He said, I want to know that my my final expenses will not be the burden on my children. My final expense. Talk about that. So let's have insurance. And then they talk about the cost of burials and so on. Six thousand dollars for your preparation. But we've got to prepare and the second death and those people that are lost definitely should prepare. They're going to be in serious trouble if they don't get ready to meet the Lord. And we should be ready. It says in 1 John that we should not be ashamed before him at his coming. Not be ashamed before him at his coming. So we've got to be sure that we're ready to go. So the second death. verse 11 and then verse 12 we went over to that in chapter 2 and that was the new church, church of Pergamos, is that right? Okay, and what do we say Pergamos meant? Thoroughly married, that's right, and it's a mixture of the world and the church all mixed up and together. Has the world infiltrated the church? Is it going to stop? What type of infiltration do we have in the churches today from the world? False doctrines, that's for sure. Anything else? Has the world's dress invaded the churches? The dress is something to be questioned. Has the world's music invaded the churches? You got the contemporary, you got the rock, you got all this. And the whole methodology of the world, the idea of fast foods, and so some have fast services, quick in and out, they have these drive-in churches, different things, so all different things. Should the church invade the world, and they should tell the gospel, but has its mission been accomplished? The Lord Jesus said, go ye into what? All the world into what? preach the gospel, make disciples, and whosoever believes shall be saved, and whosoever doesn't shall be damned. So we haven't made the impact, but we should. That's what the Lord wants us to do, the Great Commission as it's said. So chapter 2 and verse 12, Church of Pilgrims, Thoreau and Mary write the things with a sharp sword, two edges. What effect would a sharp sword with two edges have? Versus one edge. Sometimes if you did it on a dull edge, it wouldn't hurt so much. You may get knocked out, but it wouldn't cut your head off. Sharp swords. The Lord Jesus, when He's out for judgment, He's thorough, He's clean cut, and He will not miss. So that's His nature. He that protects the sharp sword with two edges. Then in verse 13, He says that He knows their works. Where were these people dwelling? What does that mean? Satan's seat is. It's Satan. Who is Satan anyway? Is he just imaginative character? The precise opposite arch enemy of the Lord. Real person. Some teaches an influence. What's the difference? Is there some piece of moderates that believe he's a person or influence only? What is the difference between a person and influence? Is there any difference? All right. Strategize, meaning plan and figure out things and what to do. Is Satan omnipotent? No. Is Satan omnipresent? Is Satan omniscient? Is he, however, more powerful than we? Is he more knowledgeable than we? And can he be in more places than we? He is able to be in more places. Does he have any helpers? I don't mind the King James Bible's translation of devils. So they say, well, devils, you got just one devil, but wait a minute, you have Santa Claus, you have Santa Claus as helper, so I think devils, I thought Santa Claus was real, but you have devil and you have the devils. You know, some people say demons and so on, but little devils, infant devils, the people, and where are they, by the way, the devils? Where are the little devils? They're all over, aren't they? What is another name for Satan? In Ephesians 2, what is he called? The Prince? The power of the air? What does that indicate? It's in this world, different places, different times. And so, here this church was in where Satan's seat is. And it talks about a martyr. What was his name in verse 13? And what is a martyr? Antichrist, right? And what is a martyr? Were any other people martyred in the early church? Yes, Stephen was martyred. And there's a whole book written. What is the name of that book? Remember? About martyrs. Acts of the Book of Martyrs. I have a copy. It's been a long time since I looked at it. But terrible, terrible, painful deaths that Christians underwent. What about the Catholic Inquisition? What is that? What took place then? The Catholic Inquisition. What was the purpose? Who performed it? What is a crusade? The Crusaders. That would be the similar. Capture that right. And what did they do with all those that were not Romanists? Conversion by the sword. Conversion by the sword. That's similar to what the Muslims do in Islam, isn't it? When they fight, if you don't worship Allah, off with your head, you're dead. So the anti-Muslim martyrs, and will there be more martyrs? Are there martyrs even today in different countries? Yes. There's lots of crackdowns on Christians all over the different world. And more so in some places than others. And the Roman Catholic Church is still killing off Christians. I had a statistic, I didn't bring it with me, but some 50,000 people martyred by the Roman Catholic Church in bygone years. There are statistics that are brought out that are named killings. We don't go along with that. I remember yesterday we talked about Calvinism. I said one thing about Calvinism, I don't know whether it was in our discussion or afterwards, private, but one thing I mentioned was John Calvin, he had a church state. Do we have in our country a church state, the United States of America? No, we have a separation. We have independent churches, but we don't have a state church. But they did have in Calvin's Geneva, Switzerland, a state church, whereby if you were part of that church, you weren't part of the state. And so those that rebelled against that church, he killed. He burned service to the state for instance. You see, there's some things about Calvin and Tantiago that we do not agree with at all. We don't agree with the state church principle. That's why we have the First Amendment, where the Congress will make no law respecting establishment of religion. See, the establishment clause. Or perhaps there could have been a free exercise there. That's what we trust that will not be wiped out in our country. If they have this Patriot Act and other things, they could wipe out all provisions of our Constitution, including free exercise of religion. They could just close down things. Well, that's another subject, but Margaret M might come to this country if the wrong people take charge at the right time. And you know, you've read a lot of different things perhaps about these different nations that are here training in our land. Southwest, different places, whether Chinese or all different nationalities from United Nations and training things. You know, just because we have the United Nations troops taking over or invading a country like Liberia, trying to be peacekeepers so-called and in the peacekeeping, they rape women, they kill children and so on. Horrible situation. Who's to prevent them coming over to this country? See? United Nations is still a bad evil. If they have such a big turmoil, they may vote to bring all this Chinese and they don't even understand our language. They can kill and slaughter or whoever, Russians or what they may be. But we have, we must be prepared to really understand what martyrdom is. And this Antipas was a faithful martyr. What's the difference between a faithful martyr and an unfaithful martyr, do you think? All right. There were some that did. Some people have used an illustration years ago. I used to use it also. If the communists won Castro and other communist nations would come and supposedly invaded the church building here. Suppose they were filled with this. I have to feel like the best. They're not filled. And suppose they said that all you Christians that are saved, born again, and so on, line up on this side, and all the ones that are not Christians line up on that side. And if they told you ahead of time that the ones that are Christians line up on this side, they're going to take out and slaughter, how many would be on that side, how many on this side? There's the question. You have to choose to be faithful unto death as the martyrs did. Did Stephen renounce his faith? No, he just kept it. He saw Jesus standing at the right hand. The Lord received my spirit. And he faithfully went home to be with the Lord. And so, other martyrs. Did Peter, according to tradition, renounce the Savior? What does tradition say about Peter? Remember? He had to push that upside down. He didn't want to be with the Lord. So there's all different ones. John, the Apostle John, was probably the only one that didn't meet martyrdom in that terrible way. He was exiled to the Isle of Patmos. He was a martyr. He was a witness. He couldn't go or see anybody in the mainland until his death. That's where the Lord revealed to him the Book of Revelation. It was on the Isle of Patmos. For the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. That's why he was there. Because he stood for the word of God and he stood for the testimony. He was a faithful witness. Martyr means witness. Now notice this other thing in verse 13. That's not denied my faith. Hold us fast in my name. What would that imply? Holding fast. Strong, alright. Do some people not hold fast to things of the Lord today? And even some that are named in the name of Christ. There's drift, isn't there? There's drift. Need there be drift in the next generation? Is that a positive? You have to have drift. You know, they always talk about second-generation drifting, the gap, generation gap. There need not be. Do my children have to be less of a Christian than I? That's the question. My four sons, my daughter, and my grandchildren. It's sad to say sometimes that happens, and many times it happens, doesn't it? But we still, all of us, have to hold fast. the name of the Lord Jesus Christ no matter what our age, what our generation and this is what this church is now hold as fast as my name not denied my faith and so this is an important thing so Satan is he was originally in heaven wasn't he remember in the book of Job whence comest thou from going back and forth on the earth as thou consider my servant Job remember the Lord asked Satan how he loves me and so on Well, you go ahead and judge him and he'll deny you, see. Alright Satan, you go ahead and do that. So he went from heaven and the council, but now he's thrown down from heaven, no longer has that access. As it says in the book of Revelation, he's cast down. But he did have access because he was one of the angels of God. And that's what it says in the Lucifer. He's one of the light bearer. Lux is light and ferus the bearer. Light bearer, the Lux of Lucifer. That's why the wrong translations in the NIV which says that he's the what? a special name for the Lord Jesus Christ, not Light Bearer, not Lucifer, but Morning Star. Yeah, which is a wrong translation. Lucifer, Cheleel is the Hebrew word. Cheleel means a bright and shining one. See, that's what Luxferas, Light Bearer, means. So it's a perfect translation. So he was an angel of light, and then he fell because he was rebellious and took a bunch of holy angels, became unholy angels, and that's why he's got these devils. and all of his minions to do his will and so where Satan dwelleth and now was Peter involved with Satan at any point in his life? Apostle Peter? All right, the Lord predicted in three days I'm going to go to Jerusalem, I'm going to be crucified and the third day I rise again. Now that shouldn't be to you, good Lord. What did the Lord tell him? Satan was used to the devil. Can the devil dwell and save people? No, he did not believe that. Some are teaching that, some even the Bible-worshipping people. One of the teachers at Moody Bible Institute was teaching that. Dr. Unger, that you have a book by him, originally said, no, you can't indwell, Satan can't indwell the Christian, but now he's changed his mind in another book. Of course, he's with the Lord now and knows better. But he was my teacher in Hebrew and Old Testament of Dallas. Dr. Unger, Dr. Merle Frederick Unger. and a nice man, a nice fellow, very scholarly and so on but he married late in life and finally found a very good wife and woman and so but we don't believe that the Holy Spirit of God can have any presence with the devil now what do we know about Judas however? what do we know about Judas? as far as Satan is concerned? he is in love It says, Satan entered into him. Now remember, Satan can only be in one place at one time. But apparently, Satan's main goal at that time was to foil and to stop and to upset the plan of God. So he had to use Judas to do it. And so, he was there, wasn't he? And Satan, is that right in Scripture? Satan entered into him. In fact, the Lord Jesus told us in the Bible, having I chosen for every one of you as a devil, He knew, who was with no other disciple at that time, knew it was Judas. Remember when they said one of you should betray him, they all said, Lord is it I? Lord is it I? All around the table at the last supper. But Satan can influence believers and that's why we've got to be very, very careful. Prince of the power of the air and the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Remember he is called the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. And that's the Satan's spirit. He's a trinity. He's got this evil spirit. He's himself. And so with the trinity in the final days, he's got the man of sin, he's got the antichrist, he's got the false prophet. I mean he's a trinity like the holy The Lord is the Trinity, but he's not denied that faith in verse 13. Now let's go to verse 14. Now the few things the Lord has against them, what are some of the things against them? In verse 14. What's this doctrine of Balaam? Who is Balaam? Is he a good guy or a bad guy? Well, I guess so. Basically, how did he put himself out for hire? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He says he loved the wages of fundraisers, wages, different terms. The council may counsel people to commit trespassing. He was not to be in that place. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He did prophesy good to Israel instead of bad. Balak was angry with him, but still he was out of place. and he wasn't even a misfit and they loved the wages of unrighteousness in 2 Peter 2.15 and he ran and the error what's because he ran greedily in Jude 11 the way of Cain they ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward so greediness and reward was part of Balaam so they have in this church people that were out for reward and now do some pastors pastor because of reward our pastor salaries in big churches sometimes quite adequate More than adequate. Sometimes I have one service a week. That's it. Sunday morning, sometimes I speak 15 or 20 minutes in that service. And that's the end. They take off all the rest of it. Whatever they do, see, read books, go out on the town, drink themselves drunk, whatever they may do. But it's a soft job. And so there's some that are that are now should man pick who is to be a pastor and who is not? How should pastors become pastors? Yes. Does the Lord have anything to do with the calling of a man of God? It should be called to the Lord. Otherwise, you know, if you're called a man, if you're just a pastor because your mother wants you, your father, your friend, your wife, you see. But a lot of these pastors, I don't think they're, I think they're called to the devil. Those are unsaved people. You want to be good people, good works and smiles. We've got all kinds of things. We're Roman Catholic ministers, priests and so on. Of course, you've got homosexuality just rampant among effect. One whole seminary is completely homosexual, I'm told, of the Roman Catholic Church. You've got the lesbians in the nunnery. You've got the priests having sex with the nuns. You've got all different possible horrible things. I do not believe that they are called to God and they are certainly not scriptural. So we have a doctrine of Baal for hire. Tell Baal to cast a stone right before the children of Israel to eat things up, sacrifice to idols and commit fornication. Now that was both spiritual fornication, worshipping Baal, but also physical, literal fornication also, which was the practice of Baal. It was to worship Balaam and the sexual favors and the price of that particular act was given to Balaam as a gift and that was part of the tie as it were. It's all involved and so Balaam was involved with that. What is the stumbling block? What does that mean? All right. So anything that would cause somebody to trip in the feet and Balaam was enough. Balaam never left the area of Midian. When the Lord judged that whole area, Balaam was killed as it says. Balaam, who loved the wages of righteousness, was killed when the people came through. There is a plague among the congregation of the Lord for that. Numbers 31.8. Five Kings of Midian. Balaam also, the son of Esau, they slew with the sword when the Kings of Midian were there. So, he got his comeuppance as it were, he was slain, but he was with the wrong camp. What does separation mean? What does separation mean? No contact, alright. Does God want us to be separatists or separations? No and yes, so we got two different answers. Alright, give me the reasons why, why not. Separate from evil, alright. Alright, we won't be separated from the world, that's for sure. What about separation from the world? Alright, what about separation from sin? What about separation from compromise? See, we have a separation and Balaam was out of place because he was with the Lord's enemies in the wrong camp. And that's what we've got to be very careful. We've got to be on the right side of our people that are on the right side of the Lord. And so that's the doctrine there in verse 14, Balaam. And then in verse 15, what else was true in Pergamos that the Lord was upset about? All right. The priest and other officials supervising over people. And what do the Baptist and the scriptures teach about believers? Are they to be completely dominated by others? The economy of the local church and the universal what? Priesthood of believers. Every saved, born again Christian has access to the Lord. We don't have to go through a priest like the confessional. We don't have any intermediary. We go straight to our great high priest in the Lord's presence itself. And that's why he said we have access into the Holy of Holies by the Lord Jesus Christ, our high priest. And so the Nicolaitans, he says he hates it. Should we love what God hates? Should we hate what God loves? Should we hate what God loves? Should we love what God hates? Should we love what God loves? Should we hate what God hates? That would make it stressful. Hate, hate, love, love. So what things do I hate? So the Lord has got some hateful things. But sin and wickedness and so on. And verse number 16. What did the Lord Jesus tell this church of Pergamos to do with its Balaamism and Nicolaitanism? Repentance. Quickly change. And what does repentance mean? Change of mind. Metta moia. Metta is change, not noose the mind, change of mind. If it's for salvation, change of mind regarding sin. You used to think that you're not a sinner, but repentance says yes I am a sinner. You used to think that you love to sin, now repentance means I don't love to sin, I don't want to sin. I have a different attitude towards sin, and also before you're saved you have a different attitude towards the Lord Jesus Christ. He's nobody. He's nothing. Repentance, change of mind, means I have a change of mind to the Savior. He's the Savior of mine. Now He saved me. Now He can forgive my sins. See, that's repentance. And you've got to change your mind to repent, or I'll come quickly. And what's He going to do when He comes in verse 16? What's He going to do when He comes to this church? Fight. Fight against them. Now, is that a good thing to have the Lord fighting against you? Who's going to win? OK, I'll tell you, wouldn't you rather have a lot on your side than against you? God before us, who will be against us? Romans 8. So, the Lord Jesus said, you repent, you church, and we've got to repent. If there's sin among us in our churches, we've got to repent, change our mind, or he's going to come and judge us and fight against us. Then again in verse 17, this recurrent theme. What does it mean? He that hath an ear to hear. Alright? But the Spirit says, out of the churches, again, it's the Holy Spirit of God in the Scriptures, in the Bible, that's why it's so important. Some have said this book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book, that's well put. And we've got to be in the book. The Holy Spirit, now, the Old Testament, though it may not be written to us, it's written for us and for our learning. It is, isn't it? Romans 15, 4, whichever thing is written before time, written for our learning. that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. That's important. And so even the Old Testament, the hearing of the Spirit of God. And then it says to him that overcometh. Yet the overcoming would be equal to what do you think? Overcoming. Who are overcomers? Faithful to death is certainly part of it. What about those that are saved and born again? Are they also overcomers? They've overcome the devil, they've overcome death, hell, and the grave, and the lake of fire, and so there's a sense in which God promises the hidden manna. What was manna? Where did that come into the Bible? The desert? Wilderness? How long was that provided? Who provided it? Did the men make it up? From there? Down from heaven. How long was that provided? Who provided it? The Lord himself did. How long? Forty years. Forty years in the wilderness there was this man who came down. Morning and evening. How many days of the week did he come down? Six. Six, alright. And what is always the Sabbath in the Old Testament and the New Testament? What is always the Sabbath? One, two, three, four, five, six, or seven? Seven. It's always the Sabbath. It's always Saturday. Some people are confused. They say the Christian Sabbath is Sunday. No, the Sabbath is still Saturday. It's the Sabbath, the Sabbath. It's the day of rest for the Jews. Are we under the law of Moses? Those who were crusaded? We're not under the law of Moses. How many commandments were there? And how many are repeated in the New Testament? How many are not? Therefore, how many are for us and how many are not? Remember? Is any of them not repeated in the New Testament? If it's repeated in the new, then we follow because it's repeated in the new. See, we're not under the law of Moses, therefore we're not under any part of the law. How many parts did the law have? Three parts. Remember what they were? The first part we just talked about. The commandments. Don't you remember? That's another part of the law of Moses. Ceremonial law, it's all the sacrifices. What else is part of it? Civil law. Civil law, which is all how to go about things. Now, what parts of the law, Moses, are we under today? Any of them? Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. It's all over. My son is a preacher, Richard Wade, and he asked me this the other day at a baptism of my granddaughter. I baptized my granddaughter last Sunday, and my sons were there, several sons were there, and he asked, what about the law? So I said, I said, Dick, I said, we're not under any part of the law. What about this? I said Christ is the end of the law. He fulfilled the law. Moses has no part of the people under grace today. But the thing that is not contained in the New Testament of the Ten Commandments Of course, none of the civil laws is part of it. None of the ceremonial. We don't have sacrifices. Hebrews, the book of Hebrews, Paul is very clear in that. Christ is one sacrifice forever sat down at the right hand of God. None of those Old Testament sacrifices are for us. And even the commandments, there's only one that is not put up in the New Testament. That is, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. I'll tell you what it was, and the other nine are all repeated. So we keep them. Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not covet, Thou shalt not commit adultery, because it's New Testament teaching. It's not because we're on the Law of Moses, you see. So that's very clear, but the Sabbath day, keep it holy. We don't have to do that. We have the Lord's day, the first day of the week on which He rose from the dead, turned up from the dead, death, hell and the grave. And that's where we worship the Lord. That's where we meet and fellowship with other saints of God. But it's different from the Sabbath. On the Sabbath day, it only goes so far, the Sabbath day's journey. They couldn't do any work. Some of the old folks were picking up sticks on the Sabbath. They were killed. But we have some people that are under the law of the Sabbath. They say, this is the Christian Sabbath. It's not right. We're free. We don't have this. Now that doesn't mean we're going to work our heads off on the Lord's Day. I always say we keep ourselves clean as we can in order to worship. That's morning service, afternoon for young peoples, if you're children, and evening meeting, whatever. And you keep yourself available, see. As a Navy captain, one of the rules of naval regulations was that no cruise could begin on Sunday. No crews of any kind could be done on Sunday. Now they violate that right and left and so on, but that's in naval regulations, naval regs as we call them. When I was with the military in Okinawa, with the Marines. I was there for 12 months without my family. But they would have practice and gunnery practice and so on on Sunday. There was a chaplain trying to preach the word of God and half my men were out in rifle practice or shooting. It's a sad thing. There is reasons why the Lord's Day should be separate because we got to have people to come. That's why we're not Sabbatarians, but in a lot of these early days we closed places on Sunday because that's just the way it was. You remember that's the way it used to be. Penney's used to be Christian Monastery and he never had his stores open on Sunday. Now, not that we're Sabbatarians, but we want to have a time for the employees to go to worship the Lord. See, that's the idea. Sunday, everything's open. No problem. So anyway, but we but what I say is the law of Moses, the Old Testament is for us, but not to us. And we're overcoming all of that. So we the let's go then to Thyatira. What is that a picture of according to the fourth church of Revelation? What is that a picture of according to some? All right. Triumph, Balaamism, Nicolaitanism, but there is still a remnant, still some that have survived in that. So, what is the picture of the Lord Jesus in verse 18 here as he writes for the church of Thyatira? Remember the other church, he has a sword that is a two-edged sword. What is he like here? Firm upon his eyes. What would that indicate? Think those eyes would penetrate and see right in. Does radar penetrate sonar? There's all kinds. We've got that for his eyes. Remember Hebrews 413. All things are open and naked in the eyes of him with whom we have to do Hebrews 413. There's nothing hid. Remember Psalm 139? Even the thought of far off, thou understandest and so on. And also with omniscience and omnipresence. So in a treat like fine brass, speaking of judgment, usually brass and judgment, and he's coming into that church, the Thyatira. Why in verse 19, what does he know about that church? Okay, what they do? Charity, service, faith, patience, and thy works also, and the last be more than the first. So he looks at all the things that they're doing. Now what does charity mean? Love in action, I think that's a good word for it, love in action, charity. And all things should be done. Charity is the bond of perfection. The bond of perfectness. That says love or charity covers the multitude of sins. Right? It covers. That doesn't mean that we justify sin. But what does it mean then? Love covereth the multitude of sins. What would that mean? In other words, is everybody on this earth perfect? Is anybody on this earth perfect? No. Who is the only one on this earth who is perfect? The Lord Jesus Christ himself, absolutely perfect. So because none of us are perfect, not a single one of us, and we have sin here and there, we trust that first John 1.9 comes into play when we do sin, what does first John 1.9 say? If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now the word confess, it's interesting. It's two Greek words, homo logeo. Homo is the same, like homogenized milk. Homosexual, same. Homo logeo means to speak or to say. Homo logeo means to speak or say the same thing about our sin that God says, that God thinks. We must agree with God that it's sin. That's what confession is. It's just not saying, I did this, Lord, I did that. It's Lord, confession means I agree with you, Lord. What I've said, thought, or done is sin. That's confession. That's homo ergo. Agreeing with God. Say the same thing about it that God said. And if we confess our sins, He is what? Faithful to forgive us and He's just. Faithful means what? If He's faithful to forgive, what does that mean? Reliable, consistent. Reliable, consistent. He will forgive. What does it mean to be just and forgive? How can He be just and forgiving us that sin that we've done? Where's the justice? Alright, but is there justice? Where is the justice now? Who paid for those sins? The Lord Jesus Christ himself. So the justice is, the Lord Jesus Christ died for all sins, past, present or future sins. So when we confess and agree with God's sin, he's faithfully forgiven and he's just. Because his son paid the penalty for that sin that we committed, thought, word or deed. faithfulness to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all our wretches. So how often should that confession first time one night take place with Christian believers? Once a year? Once a lifetime? Daily? Only daily? Once an hour? Whenever sin is committed. People have said we ought to keep short accounts with God. What does that mean? Short accounts. If you borrow something, you buy something, and you put it on the credit, how long does it take you to pay? So you pay it fast. So if you've got some sin against your name, your thought is sin, your word is sin, your actions, get it right, short it, immediately. Cleanse yourself, you'll be used to the Lord. Does God want dirty people? He wants clean people. He wants clean, cleansed vessels to be used in Him, to glorify Him. And that's why we have to keep short accounts. And so this is a service in the faith and all these things that they have. And it's important that they have this love covering the multitudes. And the love it covers in the sense that it makes it possible to put up with each other. You can put up with me, I can put up with you. If there's Christian love, if there's a mutual love, it doesn't mean we always agree on everything, but we work together. See, that's what love covering. And service and faith. Patience. Now what is patience? Is that good or bad? Are you patient? Am I patient? How do you get patience? Do doctors have patience? They have patients, but do they have patients? We hope they're both. I hope my doctor, when he cuts into my left hip on next Tuesday, will have patients and persistence. So it'll take about an hour, an hour and a half. a long round hole and put a new ceramic hip in there. But it says in scripture tribulation worketh patience. How can that be? How can that be? How do you understand it? What does tribulation mean? Trouble? Suffering? Does suffering work patience or else doesn't work patience? Should it work patience? Can it work patience? Sometimes it works in patience. More suffering? More yelling and screaming and telling on? But, as it says in the Hebrews chapter 12 about God's chastening, It finally, eventually, worketh well to those that are exercised thereby. Remember? No chastening at the present seems joyous but grievous. But it works well to those that are exercised thereby. Works to that effect. And so with trouble and tribulation. When you say, Lord, I've given up. Let me get through this all right. Thank me. Help me see. You know what Paul said when he asked the Lord three times to remove the thorn in the flesh? Did the Lord answer him? Did he remove it? No. And therefore Paul said what? The Lord Jesus said, My grace is sufficient for thee. So Paul therefore said, Therefore I will glorify, I will be glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. So when I am weak, then I am strong. So you see there is patience. Tribulation should work and can work patience in us. People have a lot of trouble. They realize they're able to put up with. Now there are two words, patience and long suffering. The Greek background of both those words is a little different. Patience has to do with things, putting up with things, circumstances. And long suffering has to do with people, putting up with people. Which is easier, putting up with people or putting up with things? Are they both equal? Is one more than the other? How would you answer that? Things are inanimate, they don't bark back and fight back and yell and scream at you. But people, see that's why a pastor has got to be very very long suffering. And every pastor, every husband or wife has to do something with the meat. Because people are funny. They're strange. All of us are strange people. And you've got to just be able to put up with those things. Strange, I tell you. And of course, the more people you have in your church, the more strange things, the more possibilities. And of course the pastor may be sometimes a little strange himself. At least the people think so. But anyway, the patience is important and so is long-suffering. And these people had patience and the Lord recognized that. Then notice though he gets into verse 20 and the Lord goes to meddling with these people. How does he meddle with them? What does he say about them, against them in verse 20? All right. Plus the cause of her profit is not to teach. Now, who is Jezebel? That's of course, this probably was the same woman, but it's like a sort of figure speeches. Who is that woman? Was she successful or unsuccessful? She died and was thrown out. The dogs licked her blood and she was no more just bones. As far as her motivation and her goals, did she reach them? I didn't say it was a right goal. She ruled her husband. She just slept around watching him, but he was cowering in her presence. He was crying and whining like a little baby. Why was he crying? Why was Ahab crying? Remember? What did he want that he couldn't get? The vineyard, Mabot's vineyard. He wanted to buy it. I said, please, I want this vineyard right next to mine. And Mabot, did he want to sell it? He wouldn't sell it. So he comes home and cries and whines. And there's his wife, the old boss of the house, the one that wore the pants, as they say. The one that wore the pants. What was her solution? First of all, she said, aren't you the king? What was her solution? What did she say to do? Finally get killed. Put him up on high on the feast day and have some false witnesses and say he blasphemed the Lord. And so get him stoned. And that's exactly what happened. They both were slain. Then she said, take over his vineyard. It's yours. So in that sense, was she successful or unsuccessful? She succeeded in doing the evil work. And Ahab was just as bad because he let her do it. He had no compunction. He was a worshipper of Baal. She was a worshipper of Baal. She killed the Lord's prophets. She was a wicked woman. So this is Jezebel here, but also called herself a prophetess. Now, should women in Thyatira or any other church be prophetesses or preachers or teaching men? So this is what we talked about last evening. This is a serious situation. Do we have very many in the Christian churches that do preach, women preachers and teachers? And that's what we looked about this other page number 5. I just listed them all out there. Isn't that amazing to see all the different people in different churches? How many Assemblies of God women are licensed and ordained? 4,000. How many Southern Baptists? 1226. How many United Methodists? 4743. How many United Christian USA? 419. What about United Church of Christ? 1803. What about Evangelical Lutheran? 1358. What about Episcopal Church? 1000. What about Church of Scotland? They just started in 1968, they've got at least 100. Now, what about the full-time women preachers as of 1986? What used to be in 1997? 10,470. Now what is it? Is it in 1986? That's a few years back. How many percentage of women are preaching all over the world? 7.9% in U.S. churches. That's a study by the National Council of Churches. What kind of, what is that council? What is the National Council of Churches? Remember? Are they composed of sound, sane, biblical churches? Ecumenical, that's right, ecumenical, unsaved. Most of the leadership is unsaved and godless. And that's what they are. So we have the Jezebels in our churches today. Not in Arcturus, but I mean these scriptures that are listed here, different denominations. There seems to be no compunction about it. If you take a stand on the scriptures against women in authority, preaching and ministering and being deacons or elders or whatever to people like you. Now, in the scriptures, is the Lord against women? No, not against women. Is the Lord against women in leadership over the man? Yes, He is. In the home, is He against leadership of women over the man? What does it say in Scripture in Ephesians 5 about leadership in the home? What are husbands to do? What are wives to do? Submission, projection of the husband. What are the husbands to do? Pardon me? Husbands are what? To do what, Boris? To love his wife as Christ loved the Church. Which is easier? Which is more easy to do? His objection as a wife? To love your wife as Christ loved the Church. That's easier, isn't it? That's simple. Wives don't agree with that. It's easier. But how can a man love his wife as Christ loved the Church? Tremendous responsibility. But how did the Lord Jesus love the church? Unto death. Remember it says in John's gospel, greater loveth no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. So we preach hard on the husbands and wives and so on and so forth, but I always tell my church people, when we're preaching on Ephesians chapter 5 especially, that it's more difficult, next to impossible. See, for a wife to be in subjection to her husband, fine, let him do it. He's got the responsibility. He goes ahead and does this and that and the other and she just sits down with him and it's subjective. No, she's a passive partner. See, but the husband loves the wife as Christ loved the church. That's action. That's not passivity. That's action. And if more husbands would do that and have that action to their wives, it would be a lot easier for the wives to be in subjection to the husband. There's no question about that. The Jezebel ism is riding high, white and handsome, as we said. Do you think it's going to stop? Think of increase. But if in 1977 there were for 1986, rather, there were 20,000 plus or minus. What do you think there are in 2005? This was 1986. How many years ago? If it were 1996, it would be 20 years. 20 years. 20 years. What do you think would happen if it rose from 77,000 to 20,000? It doubled in a few years. Let's see, it would be 11 years. It doubled 11 years. What would it do? I don't know. It could be four times. It could be 30,000, 40,000. And there's, as Solomon said in the book of Song of Solomon, as far as death, there's no discharge in that war. It keeps going death, death. There's no discharge in that war of increasing women's liberation. Jezebel. Would they like to be called Jezebels? What? They're up in arms. Now let's take a look at, think of the Old Testament, were there any Old Testament Levites that were women Levites? No. What about women priests? Were there Old Testament women priests? No. Now what about the apostles? Were there women apostles? Remember in Acts 20 beginning of verse 17 remember Paul went from Miletus and called the elders at the church of Ephesus elders and then he said in verse 28 of chapter 20 take heed therefore yourselves of the flack over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers Now, what gender in the Greek language is elders? It's masculine. And what gender is overseers? Episcopal. Masculine. And then to feed the church, again, it's a verb, so it has no gender, but again, if you apply that, it would be masculine. And so, and then in 1 Corinthians 14, 34, where it says, let your women keep silence in the churches, would that indicate preaching? Women preachers? I know there's a big controversy in that regard. I think and I've always thought in Bible studies and where we're talking in discussions and so on, there's nothing wrong with women to part of the discussion. I think the silence in the churches would be as to authoritative preaching from the pulpit and laying down the doctrines and so on as these women preachers do on the television. You see them. Let me ask you this. Sometimes are women preachers better than men preachers as far as their ability. Sometimes it perhaps is true. I'm sorry to say that, but that's true. Does that mean that they should be preaching? Just because they're better than men, they can do a better job? That doesn't mean that. So the silence in the church, I believe, from the standpoint of preaching, is not permitted for them to speak. They're commanded to be obedient and self-sacrificing. I don't mind the woman that doesn't talk, but on the other hand, when we are having a Bible discussion, it's good to have women to take part, and so I'll take part. Of course, it's up to their own, whatever their own feelings are about. But I think the silence in the church has specifically to do with the preaching and the speaking out and taking charge. And then in 1 Corinthians 14.35, if they will learn anything, like to ask their husbands at home, it's a shame for them to speak in the church. That again would be in a church meeting where they're meeting for like a Sunday morning service or some preaching service.