Concerning the spirit of immorality and partying, Jesus did not say, " Not to worry Honey, good ol' Jesus will cover you with His robe of righteousness. Go ahead. Have fun in the Son. Have a good time on Me!"

What did our gentle Lord say?

"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."

Wow! Kind of harsh words for the gentle Jesus! Maybe Jesus is not as gentle as we thought! If American preachers talked like Jesus we would have the greatest backdoor revival in history.

Then Jesus said something else that blows apart the contemporary preaching.

"All the churches will know I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds."

Since we know the Lord will never repay a believer according to his deeds, we must go to the Greek to discover what Jesus actually said.

If you will look at the pluperfect, past redundant, by golly participle of the word "repay" you will discover Jesus actually was saying He will overlook everything bad we have done. The use of this Greek term by the Babylonians proves beyond doubt that all believers stand in grace and Jesus has waved away their immorality, slander, covetousness, and dishonesty. Now they will govern all nations with a rod of iron while lying in bed in their mansion.

Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. (Revelation 3:3-5—NIV)

To whom is Jesus speaking? To the angel of the church in Sardis, not to the unsaved in Sardis. The reason I repeat such obvious facts is that Christian teachers insist that the warnings of Jesus and His Apostles do not apply to Christians. Believe it or not, this is how they get around the Bible so they can prove their "stand in grace" error.

What is Jesus saying? He is saying only a minority of the believers in Sardis will walk with Him in the white robes of the royal priesthood. This means the majority of believers in Sardis will not be raised in the first resurrection, the resurrection of the priesthood, but must wait until the thousand-year Kingdom Age has been concluded.

So much for the unscriptural "four steps of salvation and you're in the rapture."

The implication of the Lord's statements is that those who do not gain victory over worldliness, lust, and self-will are in danger of having their name blotted from the Book of Life. Now we are referring to the Lake of Fire.

To be continued.