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[0:00] There you go. Nice and easy. 1, 2, 3, 4. I think we can manage that. So page 1, 2, 3, 4. Revelation 2, verse 18.

[0:15] It's God's words through the Apostle John to the church in Tyre Tyre. To the angel of the church in Tyre Tyre write, these are the words of the Son of God whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. Nevertheless, I have this against you. You tolerate the woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching, she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I've given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children dead then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. Now I say to the rest of you in Tyre Tyre, to you who do not hold to her teaching and who have not learned Satan's so-called deep secrets, I will not impose any other burden on you except to hold on to what you have until I come. To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end,

[1:54] I will give authority over the nations. That one will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery. Just as I have received authority from my father, I will also give that one the morning star.

[2:11] Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Let's pray. Father, we thank you again for your word to us. It pierces down to our very soul. It exposes our hearts and Lord, it is also the balm that can bind them up. And so we pray for our brother Tyre as he comes this morning, as he preaches your word, that we would hear what Tyre says, but most importantly, that we would hear what you say through him and from your word. Give us ears that would hear your words this morning to us as a church. Amen.

[2:51] Amen. Thanks, Tyre. Do you want some water? Will I get you some water? No, I'm good, thanks. Good morning. Every time I hear that passage to read out, I'm like, what am I have to get myself into?

[3:18] But it's a fantastic passage. It's a great passage. So, by the end of this, hopefully, we'll have three points. First point is Jesus sees everything.

[3:33] In verses 18 to 19, we have compromise brings consequences. Verses 20 to 23.

[3:43] And keep your eyes on Christ's return. 24 to 29. And I asked Ralph to read it out, right? Because the Cork accent, we can't say it.

[4:00] Tyre Thera. So I'm glad he said Tyre Thera because that's the right pronunciation as well. So I was just making sure I had it right before I start. So this is a letter from Tyre Thera. It's a letter in one of the cities, in the seven cities that the letters are written in.

[4:16] But Tyre Thera wasn't as special as the rest of them. There's nothing big about Tyre Thera. It was a wealthy city. A very wealthy city. And if you remember in Luke, Luke chapter 16, 14, there was a lady that they came across.

[4:35] Lydia. Do you remember Lydia and Luke? Well, she was also from the city of Tyre Thera. So in Acts 16, there's a one who heard was a woman named Lydia from the city of Tyre Thera, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God.

[4:56] The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. She was a seller of purple cloth. And there's a hint in her selling in purple cloth is on about Tyre Thera.

[5:10] See, Tyre Thera was famous for their trade. They were famous for their marksmanship. They were also famous for guilds. So if you wanted to earn a living in Tyre Thera, say if you were a carpenter, and you had to join a guild, that would be a wood caper, a wood guild.

[5:31] So in the guild, you'd have to sell your stuff through the guild. It was a way of livelihood. It was a way that that's the way that they made our money. But the problem was with guilds, is when they met up, they often participated in pagan worshipping.

[5:49] They participated in pagan feasts. And they worshipped idols. And they practiced sexual immorality.

[6:05] And that is the problem with the city of Tyre Thera. This is why the letter of Tyre Thera exists. Let's look at verses 18.

[6:18] Verse 18. I'm actually preaching from the ESV. Just in case of your wording is different than I have. I made this up in the ESV. So verse 18.

[6:29] Straight away, in the start of this letter, we just found out that this letter wasn't from John.

[6:52] This message is from the Lord Jesus Christ himself. If you can see, Jesus introduces himself as a son of God.

[7:05] Now the son of God was only used once in the whole book of Revelations, and it's used here. That's significant. Jesus is saying, I am Jesus who is writing this message.

[7:22] Because at the time, there was a Roman Empire called Caesar. He was known as the son of God. So Jesus is reminding his church that there is only one son of God, and it's not Caesar.

[7:41] That would have got their attention. Can you imagine if I came up here this morning and I said, my name is Tyg, I'm from Ballyvahan, and you can call me the son of God. He'd be like, what is this for laughter?

[7:53] That after being picked in a barrel, after calling himself the son of God. So that straight away was after hitting the attention of the church of Tythera. Jesus wanted the believers in Tythera to know exactly who was speaking.

[8:13] Then he says, His eyes are like a flame of fire. He's saying this because Jesus sees beyond our appearances.

[8:29] He can see beyond what front we put up here on a church on a Sunday. This is something the church needed to know. Jesus sees everything.

[8:39] This is something that we need to know every time we go outside these doors and go into the world. We need to be reminded that Jesus sees everything.

[8:53] You see, with me, I don't know about you, but sometimes I have this sin. Now I believe that Jesus sees everything, but I still have this thing in my head that I can create this magic little dome around this specific sin that Jesus can't see.

[9:08] Jesus sees everything. We believe that God is sovereign. We believe that he's all-powerful.

[9:22] We believe he knows everything, but when it comes to this specific sin, we try to fool ourselves into it, but he can't see in this moment of our sin.

[9:35] That is not the truth. Jesus sees it all. The message to Thyatira is also a message for us.

[9:48] Our hearts have not changed since the times of Thyatira. We are still tempted to hide our own sin when it comes to God. God. His eyes sees through our reputations that we put up in front of people.

[10:12] His eyes sees right into our hearts. His eyes penetrates straight into our hearts. God. This also reminds us in Daniel.

[10:26] Do you remember Daniel's vision that he had in Daniel 10, 16? His body like a barrel. His face like a brilliance of lightning. His eyes the flame and torches.

[10:38] His arms and feet like the gleam of polished bronze. polished bronze. This would have made sense in the city because of the craftsmanship.

[10:50] They were bronze makers. Some translations in the NAV says fine bronze. Bronze here represents God's strength.

[11:04] His stability. and his judgment. That's what they would have known about the bronze. Throughout the Old Testament bronze was used in the tabernacles.

[11:17] Strength. And later in the temples it often symbolizes God's righteousness and judgment. That's what they would have heard when they heard the word bronze.

[11:30] Jesus is reminding the church that he's righteous as pure his standards never change and his character is unchanging.

[11:42] Jesus' character is the same as it was then as it is now. The world changes. Culture changes. Opinion changes.

[11:55] Jesus does not change. Let's have a look at verse 19. I know your works your love, your faith, your service, your patience, endurance, and that your later work succeeds the first.

[12:16] Jesus begins verse 19. Encouragement, don't he? can you imagine being the church and you're listening to this for the first time being read out? Can you imagine hearing I know your works, your love, your faithfulness, your service, your endurance?

[12:39] The church must have been thinking yes, we got this. We got it. He's acknowledging us. We're doing well. We're not that bad.

[12:51] We're not worse than the church down the road. We must be doing better than them. We're serving. Look at us. We serve. We're loving.

[13:01] The new guy comes in. Hi, how's it going? We love each other. We're doing great. And we're even growing. In fact, Jesus even says your layer of works is better than the first.

[13:13] does growth in the church. They must have been thinking you got this. But it also raises an important question for us.

[13:31] Do we sometimes only focus on what the good we do? Are we ignoring the sin we tolerate? We can just kind of balance the scale a bit.

[13:43] You know, we're living in a culture we balance the scales. Growing up in a culture we balance the scales. We're not too bad. You know, I know I struggle with sin but look how much I serve.

[13:59] I know I'm living in disobedience but I attend church every week. We balance the scale all the time in our life even if we don't realize it. I know this relationship that I'm in isn't right.

[14:13] But I'm generous. I'm not as bad as I was. That's why I listen to all the time with the guys in addiction.

[14:24] You know, I work with fellas in addiction and they'll be telling me I'm not as bad as I was. You know, I still drink a lot but I don't black out anymore. I don't get arrested. It doesn't matter.

[14:35] We can't cancel out our sin. We can't. We cannot cancel out our sin what works. It's impossible.

[14:46] So we still create this imaginary kind of scales in our head and we justify our behavior to it. You know, I know I'm doing this but look what I'm doing here. It doesn't work like that.

[14:58] It doesn't. Only fooling yourself if you think that it works like that. Let's have a look at verse 20. But I have this against you.

[15:11] Oh. That you tolerate the woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to participate in sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

[15:32] mic drop. Can you imagine hearing that? Just after hearing so encouraging bang. Everything changes with these words but I have this against you.

[15:50] Guaranteed this. Okay, got your attention. Despite all the love service faithfulness and endurance Jesus still had something to say.

[16:02] Hence the letter. They were tolerating false teachings. They didn't see the problem in what they were doing when they were worshipping falsely.

[16:16] Falsely. They compromised. using the word Jezebel here. Jesus is not about a literal person that was in the city.

[16:32] Jesus is reminding us about Jezebel in the Old Testament. The verse would suggest that there was a woman in the city in one of the guilds.

[16:43] there was a woman who was practicing teachings that Jezebel would have practiced in the Old Testament. And they were leading Christians into sexual morality false teaching and she taught herself to be like a prophetess.

[17:06] There's the contrast. So Jesus is saying to him and the Christians in the city were falling into our trap. Go back a small about the guilds.

[17:22] You see in the guilds because of the trading and the guilds that you have to be associated with when it comes to the trading Christians were under enormous pressure.

[17:35] Because if they didn't participate in these guilds they wouldn't have made a livelihood. They wouldn't have survived. But every guild had a patriot god. That was the problem.

[17:48] In Taitara there were temples dedicated to these gods such as Ateta and Apollo. Guild members may have been encouraged to participate in all kinds of ungodly behaviour.

[18:02] They participated in all sexual immorality to honour these gods. to whoever the god was devoted to in the guild. And there was people in the church who saw what was going on and thought nothing wrong with it.

[18:27] They saw Christians participating in such activities and they saw nothing wrong with it. wrong with it. And the feasts that they're talking about here the meat that was served at these feasts first had to be offered up to idols.

[18:47] And if you attended these meals you weren't just eating the food you were participating in this feast in this worship.

[18:57] and if you were participating in the worship you were involved in sexual immorality. But some Christians in the church were saying it's not a big deal what else are they supposed to do?

[19:16] They went along with it. The church went along with it. What are they going to do? They're not going to stand out. They won't be able to have their livelihood if they don't part of these skills.

[19:29] Their families aren't going to get the money. They're not going to get fed. So what else are they supposed to do? Some say compromising aren't they? They were compromising.

[19:40] They were compromising with their faith. Christians compromised their faith. But you know what was worse? The church tolerated it.

[19:52] who always noticed about Jesus, right? Especially in this letter, right up here.

[20:04] Look, Jesus didn't rebuke the Christians, did he? He rebuked the church. He rebukes the church for tolerating Christians who are participating in such rituals.

[20:19] that should speak loudly to us as a church today. If we see something in our churches that's sinful, we should call it out.

[20:34] We shouldn't compromise it. We should call it out. We are called to love sinners. We are called to show grace, but we were never taught to tolerate sin.

[20:49] We were never taught to tolerate false teaching, false worship, and we were never especially to tolerate an excuse for sin.

[21:02] We're not. And I'm not coming here to talk about your church, I'm looking at my own church when I'm talking about this, because our church is the same as your church, I'm the same as you, our hearts are exactly the same.

[21:13] Every church that you walk in the door to might be different people or different chair or different seating, but we have all the same heart. So don't think I'm talking in here talking about your church, you're talking about you as the church.

[21:29] Because it's hard to spend all your time in an unbelieving world, isn't it? Especially in work. You're walking around in work and you're walking around with friends and none of them believes in God and none of them believes in Jesus.

[21:42] And you're staying there long enough and do you know what happens? You start compromising with your faith. You start engaging in conversations you shouldn't be in. You start trying to fit in. You feel lonely because everybody's walking away from you because you're a bit strange.

[21:57] You're not engaging with them but then you just feel like one day I want to be a part of this. So what happens? I compromise with my faith. it's not about appearance.

[22:14] It's not about comfort. This world is, Christian faith is not about success. It's not. That's what the world offers you. And do you know what? It'll never satisfy you.

[22:25] It doesn't matter how much this world gives you in success, acceptance, or comfort, you're never going to be satisfied. Never. Never. Do you want to know why?

[22:36] Because you are not created for this world. We are not created for this world. We are created for the world to spend eternity with our King Jesus. We're created for the world that we will be glorified, body, no sin, just like it was in the Garden of Eden.

[22:56] That's what we're created for. So whatever this world offers us, it ain't going to fix us. And it might give you a temporary release, but it's not going to give you a 100% release of satisfaction. It's just a lie.

[23:08] But remember how Jezebel's story ended? Grossome. What a death she got. Kings chapter 9, verse 30 to 37.

[23:22] All Jezebel done in the Old Testament. She was thrown out a window, trampled on in horses, and the dogs mangled her.

[23:36] What a way to go. She thought she was untouchable. She thought God himself couldn't touch me. What?

[23:49] Jesus is reminding the church that she thought Jezebel was untouchable. He's reminding the church that Jezebel thought she was a prophetess. God himself hasn't got power over me.

[24:03] And God ended her life just as it was prophesied. God's judgment came to Jezebel and God's judgment will come to us one day.

[24:16] Her life ended in disgrace. And one day our lives will end and the question is how will our lives end? Will we end our lives in disgrace rejecting God? Rejecting Jesus?

[24:28] Will we end our life accepting Christ and spending eternity with him? That's the question. That's why Jesus is calling his church to remain faithful.

[24:45] We must remain faithful. Doesn't matter what this world throws at us. We must remain faithful. even if the faithfulness is costly.

[24:57] We are called to stand firm in the armor of God and not to kneel and worship false gods and especially worship false idols of the heart.

[25:11] Let's have a look at verse 21. I gave her time to repent but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. what an incredible statement here and there.

[25:30] God could have judged her there and then. God can judge us. We deserve death. He could have come down and just judge every single one of us.

[25:41] He's right to do so. He could have done a hair with Jezebel. He could have gone a hair in entire era but he didn't. instead he gave her time to repent.

[26:00] Jesus gives us time to repent. That is the mercy of God. Throughout scripture we see that God is patient didn't he?

[26:13] He delays his judgment because he delights in showing mercy and giving people the opportunity to turn away from sin and come to him.

[26:27] Can you look back in your own life and just think of a certain moment in your life and see God's patience in your sin? I can look back and see many of them. How many opportunities had you given you to repent?

[26:45] I can't even. If you're here today and you think that you're so bad and you're so sinful you can't repent anymore because you reckon Christ said or God said God will never be sick of your repentance.

[26:57] Never. Repent, repent, repent. Turn from your sin and come to him. He will have the patience but his patience has a limit in this world.

[27:16] Did you ever hear of a talking to a non-believer sick of hearing this nearly two or three times a week? How could a loving God send anybody to hell?

[27:28] Common question isn't it? I never heard anybody ask the question how could a holy God continue to show mercy to people who constantly reject him?

[27:41] That's a better question isn't it? And I include myself in that question. How can a holy God continue to show mercy to me who continuously rejects him in certain parts of my life?

[27:58] Because he is merciful. That's so. notice here that Jesus is saying she did not want to repent.

[28:11] Right there is a heart problem. Jesus says she will not repent. She wouldn't repent. This is not ability.

[28:25] This is not a question about ability. She was able to repent. it's not about ability. It's about desire. She loved her sin. She loved it.

[28:37] How many people loved their sin? I love my sin. I hate it, but I love it. Double mindedness. We choose created things over the relationship of a creator.

[28:52] That's what we do. That's what our hearts do. Our hearts go for something that is created in this world than going to the creator. That's the idols of the heart. C.S.

[29:03] Lewis, our hearts are like a conveyor belt for idols. It just keeps coming out. What can I worship today? I had a coffee this morning. Behold the God that took me out of bed.

[29:19] Worshiping idols, it's an insult. It's an insult to God. We worship pleasure instead of his holiness.

[29:37] We worship success, money, relationships, approval, or addictions instead of God. They are just some idols of the heart.

[29:49] So let me ask you a question this morning. what are you unwilling to repent of? Is there an area in your life where you know God is calling you to change but you simply just don't want to let it go?

[30:06] I know how that feels. For years and years I kept on to my addiction. I didn't want to let it go. I wanted something that gratified me instead of relationship with God.

[30:19] I knew it was killing me. I just wanted it. I loved it so much I even more than loved it in obedience to God.

[30:34] And repentance only began when I stopped making excuses of why I was drinking and surrendered that idol to Christ. It was only then it was taken away.

[30:47] You see I was a young fella! And my mother brought me to be psychiatrist when I was 14 because she said there was a want in me. I was told I was a product of my upbringing.

[31:03] Loved it. It's not my fault. I'm a product of my upbringing. 20 years later he shouted at my dad's face. I'm a product of my upbringing.

[31:14] He said you're mad. Victim. I was a victim. Not my fault. I sin because of this. The scale. I drink because of my family.

[31:26] I drink because of my livelihood. I drink victim victim victim victim. And if God didn't smash that victim mentality I'd still be a victim today.

[31:37] I am not a victim in life. I am not a product of my upbringing. I'm a sinner. a sinner with a heart that loves to idle something that gratifies me.

[31:49] Loves it. The senses. I love to hold it. I love to control it. I love to be its God. I love the pleasure it gives me. I love the temporary release it gives me. When you start looking at them things you can see why you do what you do.

[32:05] We do what we do because we love we love our sin. Verses 22 to 23 Behold I will throw her into the sick bed and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into a great tribulation unless they repent of their works and I will strike her children dead and all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart and I will give to each of you according to your works yeah but you said it wasn't about works it's not it's not what this verse is saying and we hear the children you're like slaughtering our children it's a bit gruesome isn't it the children here is commonly understood and it was referring to our spiritual followers you followed the teaching of

[33:10] Isabel you're one of our spiritual we follow our teachings we follow these things we become children children of wrath there were people who embraced our teachings rather than literally offspring that's what it was not talking about our children people who fell down to her and worshipped her they were our children but just remember in these verses I will throw her into the sick bed I will throw into great tribulation I am who searches minds and I will give to each who's in control this shows that Jesus is in control look at all the eyes I I I I I not I I he's in control the same

[34:15] Jesus who patiently offers repentance also offers judgment for those who refuse to repent there's a twist he offers repentance still if you don't show repentance he will show judgment his patience has a purpose but in our sin if we didn't live in our sin it's only in our sin the darkness of sin is only then we can really understand what grace is when it comes to repentance if we didn't live in sin when we were showing grace we would never understand it would we but his patience does not last forever because one day we will die and time's up we can't respond anymore one day our lights will be clocked out it's all over those who continually reject him his mercy will eventually experience his judgment you reject his mercy up to the time of your death and you will experience his judgment but notice again how

[35:35] Jesus describes himself I am the one who examines minds and hearts nothing escapes his notice nothing he just said it again he is the one that examines the mind and the heart he sees it all nothing can escape he sees every thought can you imagine getting a projector and sticking at the top of my head and just projecting on the screen what I thought about coming down here this morning horrendous thank God for God's mercy he sees every motive even if we think that it's the right motive he knows our motives and he sees every single hidden sin he sees it all Jeremiah 17 10 I am the Lord who examines the mind I test the heart to give to each according to what actions deserves

[36:38] God's judgment is always righteous he never judges unfairly he never makes mistakes and one day every single person here and who has ever lived will stand before him everyone believer unbeliever rich poor young old everyone will experience a resurrection everyone everyone will stand before his judgment and for those who trusted Christ there is no condemnation because Jesus had already paid the price of God's wrath there is the encouragement he took the price of our sin to the cross yet believers will still have to give an account of how they live their life in service to God believers if you're here and you're thinking

[37:43] I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior happy days you will still have to give an account to God in the resurrection and how you serve them while you were on this world and I'm not on about a work system here I'm not on about you have to work your way into heaven no if you have the grace from God then you should have a heart to serve you work because of the grace you do not work to get grace it's upside down we live in a culture that tells you you can work for grace you can't we work because of grace and if you're here this morning and you think that you can work your way out of heaven or you're in a system that tells you you can work your way out of heaven that is not the truth and it doesn't matter if you tell yourself but I'm okay I don't even believe all this you're up there talking nonsense for the last 20 minutes

[38:44] I don't even believe I'm just here because my dad's bringing me along my mom's bringing me along I'm just here to fit in I'm just here to show I like the coffee I like the tea that does not change the reality of the resurrection the reality is you're still going to be raised when you die so you can keep fooling yourself to think that it's okay because you don't believe in it that's not reality let's have a look at verse 24 but to the rest of you of Thyatira who do not hold this teaching who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan to you I say I do not lay on any other burdens that's good news isn't it not everybody in the church had fallen into the false teaching there was faithful Christians in the church and Jesus encourages them he speaks and he also speaks about the deep things of Satan the NFV uses the so-called secrets of Satan exactly what this refers to is debatable it's debatable it may be talking about false teachers who claim that believers needed to experience depths of paganism and false worshiping to understand the full spiritual truths isn't it a lie it might be that there was a teaching of works the more you work the more righteous you are and you can work your way into heaven right there is a doctrine straight out of Satan's mouth if you could walk if we could walk away into heaven we wouldn't need a savior would we we wouldn't need a crucified Christ would we and if we didn't need a crucified Christ guess what we're still dead in our sins because we didn't have a risen Christ and guess what if we didn't have a risen Christ we are still under the penalty of death if you take the crucifixion and if you take the resurrection out of Christianity you're left with nothing nothing no hope no payment and still in death whatever this verse is on about one thing is for sure

[41:28] Satan is a liar a liar he disguises lies with truth so what's the problem there's only one nobody will know it'll be different next time you know the last time he done this do this it'll be different all lies he tempts us through footholds we allow him to have over our lives we give it to him voluntary give him all our desires we give him the ammunition he uses it against us and we respond to it his lies wants us to draw us as far away as to God as he can there's his plan he doesn't care how or what he says he don't want you coming near the cross and he doesn't want you coming near God he'll throw every single negative thought you have in your head everything but notice something else

[42:29] Jesus doesn't promise his faithful people an easy life does he he doesn't say follow me and all your burdens be gone happy days instead he says I am not putting any other burdens on you the Christian life is hard life in general in general is hard it's tough Jesus never promised his followers that life will be easy never but there's something that he did promise us when we go through our life he promised us that he will always be there when we go through our burdens that life gives us he will always be in the midst of our darkness he will always be in that mind that's dark and he's always there to come to our trials are real in life our burdens are real in life but his grace is greater than any burden we can face in this world his grace and his mercy is better and greater and more powerful than anything our minds are going through or our hearts are going through or something that's going through and we don't want to tell anybody we don't want to bring attention to ourselves and we're half ashamed of saying to somebody talk to somebody he's there the worst thing you can do is say nothing again

[44:14] I came over past life that I had there's about 11 or 12 of my friends dead from suicide taken through our lives drug overdoses and they didn't say nothing said nothing they just picked up their addiction and they went on the board on the life and they went on the board on the trails and they just said nothing to nobody let's have a look at verse 25 only hold fast what you have until I come question what do we have what do we have today we have Jesus Christ that is more precious than anything that this world can give us life is hard life is tiring it's hard sometimes more than others sometimes it's a battle just to get up out of bed but this verse tells the church it is also telling us to hold on hold on persevere keep going just a bit longer when you feel like turning the toll in your faith turning the toll in your life

[45:47] Jesus is saying hold on just wait stand because when he comes the reward he brings will be better than anything this world can offer just wait just a bit longer hold on look verses 26 and 28 the one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end to him I will give authority over the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron as when earthen pots are broken in pieces even as I myself have received authority from my father and I will give him the morning star to conquer the world conquer when we conquer this world what it means is that we remain faithful to

[46:58] Christ we conquer we win we stayed faithful to Christ until the end the one who perseveres is the one who doesn't conform or compromise to this world he who keeps going even when he doesn't think he can anymore Christians who keep my works again is not saying about the works Christ is saying his works is he's crucified he's sacrificed he's atonement and he's resurrection the rod of iron is like a judge's mallet slamming on a table after his judgment 2 Timothy 212 if we endure we will also reign with him if we disown him he will also disown us when that curtain is closed and his mallet is down his judgment is there it's final not turning back it's gone finished

[48:19] Matthew 7 21 23 not anyone who says to me this verse frightens the life out of me Matthew 7 21 23 not anyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven on that day Emmanuel will say to me Lord Lord they will not prophesize in your name and cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name and then I will declare to them I never knew you depart from me you workers of lawless who always thought of I knew Jesus unbelievers I know Jesus atheists I know Jesus agnostics know Jesus the world knows Jesus but what is Jesus saying here it's not about us knowing

[49:22] Jesus the question is does Jesus know you does he know you how does he know you do you serve does he see you does he see you serving in the church does he see you serving in your life does he see you meeting a Christian who's struggling do you see you walking along somebody who's struggling does he see you picking somebody up when you're down does he see you talking to somebody when you're!

[49:48] does he see you singing here on a Sunday does he see him make sure he sees you scream out to him because it's not about do you know him does he see you thank God for this verse and I will give him the morning star what a verse to come to the end of this chapter or this chapter the greatest reward is not about authority or prestige it's about Christ himself that's it we will be given Jesus Christ at the end he is the morning star the morning star today the one in the sky is the first brightest point of light visible to the naked eye before the dawn breaks the night the first breaking of the dawn and the sun comes up the first thing the naked eye sees is the morning star we will one day see the morning star

[51:05]  Jesus! book of revelation the book of offers us a future hope for the faithful not to see God's physical face but one day we will be totally immersed in his divine presence and light one day we will stand and look at God face to face one day we will be in heaven in his presence singing the most beautiful songs glorifying him so what happens first twenty thing he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches this verse suggests that only true believers have an ear to hear the spirit so believers listen to the spirit let's pray heavenly father we thank you lord for everything that you give us lord we do not deserve anything lord but death we thank you for your crucified body that was put there for our sin we thank you for the blood you shed on the cross thank you for your resurrection you are alive lord we pray when times are hard and unsure that instead of going to the idols of our heart we will return to your cross lord and we embrace you lord and we persevere to the end in jesus name amen