1 00:00:04,780 --> 00:00:10,439 Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a 2 00:00:10,439 --> 00:00:15,640 moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And 3 00:00:15,640 --> 00:00:23,539 today I want to challenge you with asking, what does the letter to the church in Thyatira in the 4 00:00:23,539 --> 00:00:29,320 book of Revelation tell us about what the mark of the beast might be? We are going to encounter the 5 00:00:29,320 --> 00:00:35,880 mark of the beast much later in subsequent chapters of Revelation, and that's usually the 6 00:00:35,880 --> 00:00:42,200 chapters that most people run right to. But we have answers to many of the questions concerning 7 00:00:42,200 --> 00:00:49,579 issues like who is the beast and what is the seven-year tribulation and these kinds of things. 8 00:00:49,579 --> 00:00:56,439 These are answered oftentimes for us very much earlier in the book if we will just sit down and 9 00:00:56,439 --> 00:01:02,939 patiently read the apocalypse for what it is. And so I want to challenge you with this. 10 00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:10,219 And first of all, let's know what we're talking about here with the actual letter. Let's go ahead 11 00:01:10,219 --> 00:01:17,120 and read from chapter 2 of Revelation, beginning at verse 18, if you wanted to follow along. 12 00:01:17,120 --> 00:01:25,180 We are reading from the apocalypse, the book of Revelation, chapter 2, beginning at verse 18, 13 00:01:25,180 --> 00:01:31,219 the letter to the church in Thyatira. To the angel of the church in Thyatira, write, 14 00:01:31,900 --> 00:01:37,980 these are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like 15 00:01:37,980 --> 00:01:44,760 burnished bronze. I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, 16 00:01:45,299 --> 00:01:51,780 and that you are now doing more than you did at first. Nevertheless, I have this against you. 17 00:01:51,780 --> 00:01:58,260 You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching, 18 00:01:58,500 --> 00:02:08,500 the misdeeds, by her teaching, excuse me, she misleads my servants into sexual immorality 19 00:02:08,500 --> 00:02:15,439 and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, 20 00:02:15,439 --> 00:02:21,860 but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit 21 00:02:21,860 --> 00:02:28,340 adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children 22 00:02:28,340 --> 00:02:35,360 dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay 23 00:02:35,360 --> 00:02:43,219 each of you according to your deeds. Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to 24 00:02:43,219 --> 00:02:50,280 her teaching and have not learned Satan's so-called deep secrets, and I will not impose any other 25 00:02:50,280 --> 00:02:58,699 burden on you. Only hold on to what you have until I come. To him who overcomes and does my will to the 26 00:02:58,699 --> 00:03:04,699 end, I will give authority over the nations. He will rule them with an iron scepter. He will dash them 27 00:03:04,699 --> 00:03:11,599 to pieces like pottery. Just as I have received authority from my father, I will also give him 28 00:03:11,599 --> 00:03:18,539 the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Ah, there is 29 00:03:18,539 --> 00:03:30,919 the letter to the church in Thyatira. And we are picking up then at about verse 20, which has 30 00:03:30,919 --> 00:03:38,439 some condemnations. We have seen that most of the letters to these seven churches of Asia have both 31 00:03:38,439 --> 00:03:47,159 commendation and condemnation. We saw last week the commendation that the church in Thyatira received 32 00:03:47,159 --> 00:03:55,180 from our Lord, because in this ancient city in Asia, we saw, and this is important for understanding 33 00:03:55,180 --> 00:04:01,620 the Mark of the Beast, that the trade and craft guilds of the ancient world, they were very strong, 34 00:04:01,740 --> 00:04:10,080 stronger than any union town in the United States. Oh, unions generally govern how you work and perhaps 35 00:04:10,080 --> 00:04:17,720 how you vote, but those craft and trade guilds of the ancient world also controlled what you worshipped, 36 00:04:17,839 --> 00:04:24,279 who you worshipped, what you worshipped, and how you lived your social life. Usually when you walk out of 37 00:04:24,279 --> 00:04:30,560 the Union Hall in America, your social life picks up with whatever you want to do. But in the ancient 38 00:04:30,560 --> 00:04:39,540 world, the social life, if you belong to a trade guild, whether you were a craftsman in metals or in 39 00:04:39,540 --> 00:04:49,720 baking or in purple dye, as Lydia was in the book of Acts, all of these crafts and trades of the ancient 40 00:04:49,720 --> 00:04:57,420 world, owed their fealty, owed their allegiance to a particular pagan god oftentimes, most of the time, 41 00:04:57,519 --> 00:05:03,779 all the time we can say, and that you had particular rites and ceremonies depending on the god that you 42 00:05:03,779 --> 00:05:11,600 worshipped. And oftentimes you ate food that was dedicated to them on their altars, and they were not 43 00:05:11,600 --> 00:05:17,819 particularly morally refined in any way, shape, or form. So oftentimes there were sexual practices in 44 00:05:17,819 --> 00:05:25,480 these guilds as well, and to these things then the Christians in Thyatira were subject because 45 00:05:25,480 --> 00:05:33,540 Thyatira was famous for its trade guilds and craft guilds and the pagan practices. And as well, we saw 46 00:05:33,540 --> 00:05:42,220 last week that pagan temples were strewn all over Thyatira. They were proud of the particular one 47 00:05:42,220 --> 00:05:51,540 dedicated to the emperor. We saw this unfold, didn't we? The ancient city of Thyatira in Asia, the trade 48 00:05:51,540 --> 00:05:57,939 and craft guilds were strong. They worshipped pagan gods, and they practiced sexual immorality as part 49 00:05:57,939 --> 00:06:06,120 of their culture, which of course was verboten, was forbidden to recently converted Christians. And we saw 50 00:06:06,120 --> 00:06:12,360 indeed how the church in Thyatira was commended by our Lord for its resistance to these things. 51 00:06:13,300 --> 00:06:21,779 We saw in verses 18 and 19 that although you live in a pagan union town, you embody six sterling 52 00:06:21,779 --> 00:06:30,980 qualities that shine out in the utter moral darkness of Thyatira, right? We saw this. Indeed, our Lord 53 00:06:30,980 --> 00:06:38,079 commended them for their works, for their love, for their faith, for their service, for their patient 54 00:06:38,079 --> 00:06:46,000 endurance, and for their growth and maturation. That's the idea of your latter works exceed the first. 55 00:06:46,680 --> 00:06:55,420 So we saw this then, did we not? In the life of the church of Thyatira, it's a commendation, but there 56 00:06:55,420 --> 00:07:02,579 was also condemnation under which they came. In verses 20 to 25, we see the threat to them. 57 00:07:04,100 --> 00:07:11,420 And we saw in verses 20 to 25, the point being made that because you live in a pagan union town, 58 00:07:11,420 --> 00:07:18,899 you are liable to the pressures of compromise, which undermine everything good that you do, right? 59 00:07:18,899 --> 00:07:26,579 God is telling them that although they have all of these sterling attributes, the thing that I have 60 00:07:26,579 --> 00:07:31,259 against you militates so strongly against you that it threatens all the rest of what you do and are. 61 00:07:31,480 --> 00:07:39,639 Oh, my, my, my. And that, of course, was religious tolerance. That phrase encapsulates everything we 62 00:07:39,639 --> 00:07:47,920 mean negative by it, right? And literally, he says, you treat those in a loose fashion. That is, 63 00:07:47,920 --> 00:07:55,660 that loose woman, Jezebel, right? This they have against you. You tolerate that woman, Jezebel. 64 00:07:56,500 --> 00:08:01,459 And Jezebel, of course, at that time was a metaphor. If you know your Bible at all, 65 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:08,420 Jezebel is a metaphor for all that was corrupt in Israel before the conquest. In lamenting the fate 66 00:08:08,420 --> 00:08:13,319 of the righteous, Isaiah alludes to her in this way. He says, the children of Jezebel indeed, 67 00:08:13,319 --> 00:08:21,459 but you draw near sons of the sorceress, offspring of the adulterer and the loose woman. Indeed, John is 68 00:08:21,459 --> 00:08:26,800 employing that very language from Isaiah. Jezebel was the queen of Israel over her husband Ahab, that 69 00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:36,639 weak, willed son of David who married a Sidonian woman, right? And she is the one who burns with lust 70 00:08:36,639 --> 00:08:41,960 among the oaks under every green tree who slaughter your children in the valleys under the clefts of 71 00:08:41,960 --> 00:08:49,460 the rocks. That is, the worship of Baal into which she led Israel. Immorality and idolatry would 72 00:08:49,460 --> 00:08:55,659 characterize Israel and Judah ever after. And ever since, Jezebel has become synonymous with deceit 73 00:08:55,659 --> 00:09:02,419 and debauchery and decadence. It is heavy artillery, if you will, that our Lord breaks out to get the 74 00:09:02,419 --> 00:09:10,100 attention of his saints in Thyatira. And apparently, Jezebel is a nickname for an actual woman in the 75 00:09:10,100 --> 00:09:17,539 congregation who is teaching and seducing in the same manner as Jezebel taught Israel to practice 76 00:09:17,539 --> 00:09:24,200 sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols, unquote, from our letter to Thyatira. 77 00:09:24,700 --> 00:09:31,360 Now, sometimes we forget that these kinds of corruptions have to be taught as well as beguiled. 78 00:09:31,360 --> 00:09:37,820 The sense is that there is a prophetess within the congregation, as there are in many congregations 79 00:09:37,820 --> 00:09:45,820 all across the world, women who are claiming to be prophetesses within the congregation who is acting 80 00:09:45,820 --> 00:09:53,080 the Jezebel, beguiling and instructing in a systematic fashion, some at least, in the congregation 81 00:09:53,080 --> 00:10:00,460 to compromise themselves. Be wary of any woman in your congregation, O Church of Christ, who claims to be 82 00:10:00,460 --> 00:10:08,639 a prophetess, a modern-day prophetess. Be wary of such people. And once more, we see now a third 83 00:10:08,639 --> 00:10:14,179 circumstance in the churches where precisely the same thing is occurring. We've seen it previously in 84 00:10:14,179 --> 00:10:20,059 two previous churches. That is, that food is sacrificed to idols and that sexual immorality 85 00:10:20,059 --> 00:10:27,019 is being practiced. But under a variety of faces and authorities, too. We saw in Ephesus, for example, 86 00:10:27,019 --> 00:10:34,379 the doctrine of one Nicholas. And we saw this from the church father of Victorinus, who saw this 87 00:10:34,379 --> 00:10:41,039 firsthand right in the day it was being committed. The doctrine of one Nicholas was being brought in 88 00:10:41,039 --> 00:10:48,379 from the outside. The same thing, idol worship and sexual immorality, but being brought in from the 89 00:10:48,379 --> 00:10:55,139 outside in the church at Ephesus. And then we saw in the church at Pergamum, a cluster of believers within 90 00:10:55,139 --> 00:11:02,200 the church who are corrupting you in the same manner that Balaam corrupted Israel at Peor, that is to 91 00:11:02,200 --> 00:11:08,039 worship idols and practice sexual immorality. But it was bubbling up from within the congregation. 92 00:11:08,539 --> 00:11:16,600 And now we see in Thyatira, a woman prophetess, so-called, that is a Jezebel, who is leading you 93 00:11:16,600 --> 00:11:23,299 astray in the same manner as Jezebel led Israel astray, that is to worship idols, eat food sacrificed 94 00:11:23,299 --> 00:11:30,419 to idols, and practice sexual immorality. These things recurring in all three of these congregations 95 00:11:30,419 --> 00:11:38,259 under different headings. The face of the beast, we see here, the face of the beast may be different 96 00:11:38,259 --> 00:11:44,740 in each case, but it is still the beast. You want the beast, dear listener? You don't have to wait till 97 00:11:44,740 --> 00:11:52,059 chapter 13. Learn this. You are meant to absorb this before going, running off to later chapters 98 00:11:52,059 --> 00:11:57,759 in the apocalypse to find out where, whether 666 is Henry Kissinger or Barack Obama or Donald Trump. 99 00:11:58,200 --> 00:12:05,379 You have intimations of Antichrist right in front of your face here in these opening letters of the 100 00:12:05,379 --> 00:12:14,179 apocalypse. And we see the consistent threat to the church, and that is tolerance. In order to survive 101 00:12:14,179 --> 00:12:20,299 in this pagan environment, and we live in a pagan environment ourselves, the modern day church does, 102 00:12:21,299 --> 00:12:28,059 in order to survive in this pagan environment, we have to make some, well, we have to make some 103 00:12:28,059 --> 00:12:35,460 adjustments. We have to make some compromises. Well, if you lived in ancient Thyatira, you lived in 104 00:12:35,460 --> 00:12:44,860 ancient Ephesus, we saw that as well there, almost any ancient city across the land of Asia or across 105 00:12:44,860 --> 00:12:54,279 the Roman Empire for that matter. This is empire-wide. I encourage you to consult Robin Lane Fox's book, 106 00:12:54,279 --> 00:13:02,440 Pagans and Christians, where he accounts for, across the opening centuries of the early church, 107 00:13:02,440 --> 00:13:08,240 the transition from a pagan world to a Christian world, and the Christians battled mightily 108 00:13:08,240 --> 00:13:14,519 against pagan culture, and pagan culture was rife throughout the ancient cities of the world. 109 00:13:14,720 --> 00:13:20,980 You couldn't throw a stone in Thyatira without hitting a pagan temple of some kind or a pagan guild or 110 00:13:20,980 --> 00:13:28,840 craft center, where indeed, if you were a shoemaker for existence, for example, excuse me, if you were 111 00:13:28,840 --> 00:13:38,620 a shoemaker, then you had your culture set, you had your society, your fellowship already established 112 00:13:38,620 --> 00:13:44,019 with other cobblers, and you would then have to worship the god of the cobblers, you would have to 113 00:13:44,019 --> 00:13:49,460 eat their food dedicated to that god, and then you would have to participate in the societal and 114 00:13:49,460 --> 00:13:56,220 cultural practices, which were oftentimes immoral. And if you didn't, you are a marked man, you are a 115 00:13:56,220 --> 00:14:03,360 marked person. You had to bear the mark of the beast, that is, everything your hands did or your head 116 00:14:03,360 --> 00:14:08,840 thought. And that's the idea of the mark of the beast on the forehead, the mark of the beast on the 117 00:14:08,840 --> 00:14:15,200 hand, is that everything you did, said, and thought had to be committed to the god of your guild, the god of 118 00:14:15,200 --> 00:14:21,980 your craft. And if not, you did not bear this mark of the beast, then you were excluded from society, 119 00:14:21,980 --> 00:14:28,600 you were excluded from a means of employment, you were excluded from your trade or craft, and you 120 00:14:28,600 --> 00:14:35,740 could not practice it, and you went hungry, in other words, you could not buy or sell. This is the sense of 121 00:14:35,740 --> 00:14:44,139 the mark of the beast appearing here very early in these churches, whether it's Ephesus or Pergamum or 122 00:14:44,139 --> 00:14:55,340 Thyatira, which was a craft and guild center. Oh, and these, then Jezebels, if you will, those 123 00:14:55,340 --> 00:15:03,779 Balaams who were leading the church to commit adultery and to practice the practices of the guilds 124 00:15:03,779 --> 00:15:08,879 and the craft guilds and so forth, they were saying, you know, we got to make some adjustments. If we're 125 00:15:08,879 --> 00:15:13,879 going to make a living, if we're going to eat, if we're going to provide for our families, put a roof 126 00:15:13,879 --> 00:15:19,759 over our head, clothes on our back, we have to make some adjustments. We have to make some compromises 127 00:15:19,759 --> 00:15:27,879 because if we're thrown out of the guild, if we're thrown out of our craft union, then we aren't going 128 00:15:27,879 --> 00:15:34,220 to be able to eat. We aren't going to be able to make a living. No gold, no grub or goodies either, 129 00:15:34,419 --> 00:15:42,299 right? We can offer that pinch of incense to Caesar on his altar and then recite Caesar as Lord when we 130 00:15:42,299 --> 00:15:47,460 go to church and confess Christ as Lord. We go out into their six-day work week and we say, Caesar is 131 00:15:47,460 --> 00:15:53,080 Lord. And we can do all of this in good conscience because it's only pro forma. We don't really mean 132 00:15:53,080 --> 00:15:59,279 it. It's a political statement and that doesn't affect our faith. We can coexist, right? You remember 133 00:15:59,279 --> 00:16:05,919 that bumper sticker, coexist with all those religious symbols on it? Well, in every chariot in Thyatira, 134 00:16:05,919 --> 00:16:12,860 even the Christians bore these stickers, if you will, coexist. I'm speaking metaphorically, 135 00:16:12,860 --> 00:16:20,840 of course. But the problem with the Jezebels, the problem with the Balaams, the problem with those 136 00:16:20,840 --> 00:16:30,659 who compromise with culture is that they get along to go along. They coexist with the Caesar cult. 137 00:16:30,659 --> 00:16:37,759 They coexist. They go up to the temple to Zeus, which was at the pinnacle of the conical shape of 138 00:16:37,759 --> 00:16:44,279 the city of Thyatira. They would go up to the temple to Zeus and they would make sacrifices to him. But at 139 00:16:44,279 --> 00:16:52,639 least they would make the annual trek to the temple to the emperor and they would do the required 140 00:16:52,639 --> 00:17:01,200 a pinch of incense and offering of food or money than to the cult of Caesar. And they would get their 141 00:17:01,200 --> 00:17:09,180 prescript. They would get their tablet of clay stating that they indeed made that sacrifice and that they were 142 00:17:09,180 --> 00:17:15,259 citizens in good standing and that they had declared Caesar is Lord. Perhaps they do it even before they went to 143 00:17:15,259 --> 00:17:21,720 church then on Sunday where they would then sing and proclaim Christ is Lord. What a conflict. And our Lord says 144 00:17:21,720 --> 00:17:29,339 he sees these things. He sees and you bear the mark of the beast and he sees it. The saints in Thyatira 145 00:17:29,339 --> 00:17:38,059 bore the mark of the beast because they indeed did capitulate. They caved to the demands of the pagan 146 00:17:38,059 --> 00:17:46,519 cultures around them. They folded to the demands of their craft guilds and their union guilds, which had a 147 00:17:46,519 --> 00:17:53,779 stranglehold on their societal life, their cultural life, their religious life, and their work a day life as well. 148 00:17:54,279 --> 00:18:04,460 So this is what the Christians faced. And it was the Jezebels of the congregations, the so-called prophetesses of the 149 00:18:04,460 --> 00:18:14,299 congregations, the one particularly then in Thyatira, who was seducing the church there with compromise and 150 00:18:14,299 --> 00:18:20,240 encouraging them. Go ahead, bear the mark of the beast. You want to be able to buy and sell. You want 151 00:18:20,240 --> 00:18:28,740 to be able to trade. Why? No guild? Then you have no gold, do you? You have no food. You have no means 152 00:18:28,740 --> 00:18:35,339 of supporting yourself. No gold grubber goodies if there's no guild. Well, go ahead, offer that pinch of 153 00:18:35,339 --> 00:18:40,839 incense to Caesar on his altar and recite Caesar as Lord. Can you hear the hiss of the snake in all of this? 154 00:18:40,839 --> 00:18:48,759 This indeed is precisely the nature of the mark of the beast. It's not some coming Henry Kissinger or 155 00:18:48,759 --> 00:18:56,980 Donald Trump or Putin or some other figure in the future. This was happening to the churches on the 156 00:18:56,980 --> 00:19:03,099 ground in Revelation. This is why the letter is addressed to them first and foremost. All these 157 00:19:03,099 --> 00:19:09,400 things can happen to us as well. We can make application to ourselves today, but not in the 158 00:19:09,400 --> 00:19:15,240 way that futurists do it. The mark of the beast is not a thing coming in the future. The mark of the 159 00:19:15,240 --> 00:19:22,480 beast existed in John's day. In fact, it is an issue that every generation has had to deal with 160 00:19:22,480 --> 00:19:29,019 as they practice their Christian faith. Are you going to compromise it with the culture around you? 161 00:19:29,019 --> 00:19:38,180 This is the sense of the mark of the beast, dear listener. It's not going to be microchips under your 162 00:19:38,180 --> 00:19:44,000 skin, under your forehead or in your hand. No, it's not going to be barcodes on your forehead or on 163 00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:50,720 your hand. No, this was all faced by the church in the first century. And we have to understand this 164 00:19:50,720 --> 00:19:58,500 before we ever come to applying it to our own day. Understand what it meant in John's day. Well, 165 00:19:58,880 --> 00:20:07,059 this was the council of Jezebel in the congregation. This was the council of Balaam then in Thyatira 166 00:20:07,059 --> 00:20:15,200 and Jezebel in Thyatira, Pergamum as well, Ephesus as well. These 167 00:20:15,200 --> 00:20:26,180 guilds, these craft unions were very strong and had a stranglehold on the lives of Christians as well 168 00:20:26,180 --> 00:20:35,660 as pagans. They were encouraged to practice tolerance, tolerance. We can also eat at the table 169 00:20:35,660 --> 00:20:44,500 of our respective guilds. We can honor the God of our profession and we can fellowship with our 170 00:20:44,500 --> 00:20:55,599 brothers. Remember what that little saying of the church father was? He said, you pagans, 171 00:20:56,240 --> 00:21:05,079 you share everything but, you share only your wives but nothing else. We, the church, share 172 00:21:05,079 --> 00:21:12,279 everything but our wives, right? Well, what they were, Jezebel and what Balaam were encouraging, 173 00:21:12,279 --> 00:21:18,240 metaphorically speaking, the church to do was to honor the God of the profession and fellowship 174 00:21:18,240 --> 00:21:23,640 with their brothers, even sharing their wives. So we can coexist. After all, how are we going to buy 175 00:21:23,640 --> 00:21:30,460 or sell or make a living if we don't? Whence Lydia then in our New Testament reading, we have a New 176 00:21:30,460 --> 00:21:38,519 Testament reading where Lydia indeed would belong to the guild of purple as a merchant of purple in a 177 00:21:38,519 --> 00:21:47,880 strong union town like Thyatira. Of what guild would she have been? Well, Mercury was the patron god of 178 00:21:47,880 --> 00:21:55,200 trade and merchants, Mercury. So she would have been worshiping Mercury, the Roman patron god, and 179 00:21:55,200 --> 00:22:02,200 practicing all of the debauched social and cultural practices of that guild. And she, no doubt, 180 00:22:02,200 --> 00:22:11,359 as a strong Christian, would step away then from that guild and not practice any further the practices of 181 00:22:11,359 --> 00:22:19,099 that ancient guild. But to this prophetess and her children, however, our Lord threatens judgment. 182 00:22:19,900 --> 00:22:25,720 He says, after having warned them before to repent, he says, you want to climb in bed with this 183 00:22:25,720 --> 00:22:30,799 adulterous, actual, as well as metaphorically speaking? Well, fine. I'll make it a bed of sickness for 184 00:22:30,799 --> 00:22:37,680 you. In fact, some of you will die, our Lord says and threatens them. When this comes upon them, then 185 00:22:37,680 --> 00:22:43,680 all the churches will know what I mean when I say I have eyes like a flame of fire. That is, I search 186 00:22:43,680 --> 00:22:49,619 the mind and heart. And I have feet like burnished bronze. That is, I give according to your works. 187 00:22:49,740 --> 00:22:55,480 And this too is providence, dear listener. But fortunately, not everyone indulges this prophetess. 188 00:22:55,480 --> 00:23:02,299 To them who have not learned the deep things of Satan, as he says, no other burden is required. 189 00:23:02,420 --> 00:23:09,539 Hold fast until you come. He says this in verses 26 to 29, where the point is made, as you conquer in 190 00:23:09,539 --> 00:23:17,000 a pagan union town, you will find yourselves co-heirs with me with authority over the nations. Verses 26 to 191 00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:24,839 29. Now, here we have a conjunction of conquest, which meets the rule over the nations. Conquest and 192 00:23:24,839 --> 00:23:29,980 rule over the nations. Certainly, pastor, we're free to employ Chairman Mao's dictum now that political 193 00:23:29,980 --> 00:23:35,059 power comes from the barrel of a gun. Surely, here we can say we conquer the nations with political 194 00:23:35,059 --> 00:23:39,880 will through electing conservative Christians, forming political action groups, and sending in 195 00:23:39,880 --> 00:23:46,460 the Marines when we need to apply a little muscle. Is that what John is saying? No. 196 00:23:48,420 --> 00:23:52,759 Lord hasn't made that transition. No, the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, are they? But 197 00:23:52,759 --> 00:23:58,200 spiritual to the pulling down of strongholds. Political power comes out of the barrel of a gun, 198 00:23:58,299 --> 00:24:03,960 but spiritual power comes out of the blood of the cross, dear listener. Political power comes out of 199 00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:09,400 the barrel of a gun, but spiritual power comes out of the blood of the cross. And John portrays our 200 00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:15,500 weapons as the word of our testimony, the blood of the lamb. But still, it must be said, we conquer. 201 00:24:16,339 --> 00:24:23,400 Behold, a major motif of revelation. Dominion is our destiny, dear listener. And the promise of our 202 00:24:23,400 --> 00:24:31,059 sharing authority over the nations, right, with our king is not for some far-off literal thousand-year 203 00:24:31,059 --> 00:24:38,160 millennia. No. As we will see throughout Revelation, these promises to conquer and to rule transpire not 204 00:24:38,160 --> 00:24:46,279 only in eternity, but in time. Today, we are to rule currently, dear listener. But, oh, pastor, 205 00:24:46,519 --> 00:24:52,279 we must not soil the garments of the gospel with politics and culture. How often I hear that. 206 00:24:52,940 --> 00:24:59,740 Fall to roll. Fortunately, the early church did not fall prey to this form of the gospel. 207 00:24:59,740 --> 00:25:07,359 Gospel crippling illusion, that is. Don't soil the garments of the gospel with politics and culture. 208 00:25:07,460 --> 00:25:12,420 We must just go out and save souls and wait for the rapture. Is that your theology? It's so wrong. 209 00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:18,819 Can you see, for example, from the apocalypse, how the gospel has so transformed our culture and 210 00:25:18,819 --> 00:25:24,980 politics in our own day that we do not have to cope with the pagan snares and tribulation that our 211 00:25:24,980 --> 00:25:32,519 first century counterparts wrestled with? Have a little historical perspective, dear listener, 212 00:25:33,140 --> 00:25:39,119 because to us belongs the morning star. That is a symbol for rule and for power, dear listener. 213 00:25:39,980 --> 00:25:45,880 This has been Pastor David Bass. I urge you to go out and conquer this week. The blood of the lamb 214 00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:53,000 empowers you. Indeed, we conquer by the word. We conquer by our worship. We do not use the weapons 215 00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:59,220 of the warfare of the world. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. 216 00:25:59,779 --> 00:26:05,819 We worship. We take dominion. Dominion is our destiny. We take dominion in our worship on Sunday 217 00:26:05,819 --> 00:26:13,000 morning at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street at the corner of 4th and Boulevard. I urge you to join us across our 218 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:20,480 threshold. I'm preaching through Revelation right now, and it's been a real thrill. It's been a real 219 00:26:20,480 --> 00:26:27,880 period of edification for our church as we've done so. So I urge you to join us. New Geneva Orthodox 220 00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:35,019 Presbyterian Church worships at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard on Sunday 221 00:26:35,019 --> 00:26:44,599 morning, and you can give us some feedback, get some more information perhaps at area code 208-523-0196. 222 00:26:44,599 --> 00:26:49,759 That's area code 208-523-0196.