One of the Times Square Church pulpit series.
It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge,
Post Office Box 260, Lyndale, Texas 75771, or
by calling 903-963-8626.
None of these messages are copyrighted and you
are welcome to make copies for free distribution
to friends.
Know that your banner over us in this
house is love.
There is no other banner.
It's love.
You cherish this church.
You cherish this bride tonight.
You cherish every soul that's in this house.
And oh Jesus, you want to speak to
us tonight.
Give us open hearts.
Give us open ears.
Give us open lives, oh God, that you
can speak to us.
And if there be anything within us, Lord,
that's dishonoring to you, help us to lay
it down.
Father, I thank you for this.
I thank you for strength, Lord, tonight.
Thank you for the unction of your Holy
Spirit.
I thank you, Lord, that you are faithful,
oh God, you are faithful to those vessels
you call to speak your word.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Revelation 212, And to the angel of the
church in Pergamos write, These things saith he
which hath the sharp sword with two edges,
I know thy works, even where thou dwellest,
even where Satan's seat is.
And thou holdest fast my name, and hast
not denied my faith.
So here's a church that is right where
the working of the devil is.
And they're a church that's holding fast to
the name of Jesus, and they have not
denied the faith.
Even in those days where an antipast was
my faithful martyr, who was slain among you
where Satan dwelleth.
So they have known suffering, they have known
death.
I think this is a church that has
known the cost of following the Lord.
They have seen somebody that was held in
esteem among them slain for the cause of
Christ.
He says in verse 14, But I have
a few things against thee, because thou hast
there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam,
who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block
before the children of Israel, to eat things
sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.
Now the doctrine of Balaam is basically the
success and prosperity gospel.
If I can boil it down to anything
in this generation, that's what the doctrine of
Balaam is, prophesying for reward.
In verse 15 he says, So hast thou
also them that hold the doctrine of the
Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.
God says I hate this thing, and there
are a few in your midst that are
holding to this doctrine.
Repent, or else I will come to thee
quickly, and will fight against them with the
sword of my mouth.
He that has an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
To him that overcometh will I give to
eat of the hidden manna, and will give
him a white stone, and in the stone
a new name written, which no man knoweth,
saving he that receiveth.
The title of this message is called The
Vow of the Nicolaitan Bride.
Now the Nicolaitans, essentially speaking, there is a
divergence of opinion throughout Bible commentaries as to
who they were, but it is suggested that
they were the followers of a man called
Nicholas, who was a heretic.
They're supposed to have been a sect of
Gnostics, who practiced and taught impure and immoral
doctrines, such as the community of wives, or
in other words it was acceptable to have
more than one wife, that committing adultery and
fornication was not sinful, and that eating meats
offered unto idols was lawful.
Isn't it interesting that when you look all
throughout the churches in Revelation, you find a
very similar thread in all of these churches.
They have different names, but they bring the
same doctrines in.
We see the same doctrines referred to in
Pergamos, Revelation 2.14, the doctrines of Balaam,
and also Jezebel and Thyatira in Revelation chapter
2 and verse 20.
There's a remnant of the Nicolaitans in every
church age.
They're sent of the devil with the express
purpose of defiling the relationship of Christ to
His church.
They're sent to turn the hearts of God's
people away from wholehearted love, consecration, and dedication
to Jesus Christ, and to His call, and
to His claim upon His church.
They preach and teach impure and immoral doctrines.
The first one is the community of wives.
Let me just read the scripture to you
in Exodus 34 verses 12 to 14.
Moses said, Take heed to thyself, lest thou
make a covenant with the inhabitants of the
land, whither thou goest, lest it be for
a snare in the midst of thee.
But you shall destroy their altars, and break
down their images, and cut down their groves.
And you will worship no other God.
For the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is
a jealous God.
And that's one thing that we need to
understand about the Lord tonight.
He is a jealous God.
He's jealous for His bride.
He's not willing to let her heart be
enraptured by other lovers.
He's not willing to let her go without
a fight.
He's going to come and fight for her
with the word of His mouth.
And that's what the Lord is doing in
this generation.
For those who have the ears to hear,
Jesus Christ is reaching out beyond just the
walls of this church.
He's reaching out throughout the nation now.
And reaching out and fighting for a bride
who has been divided in heart for so
long.
There are those that have come in and
have taught the community of wives in the
church that it's alright to love Jesus and
love something else.
You can love the world.
You can love your job.
You can love your career.
You can love this.
You can love that.
You can love money.
They also say that the committing of adultery
and fornication is not sinful.
Now, the Apostle Paul said in Hebrews 13
floor, marriage is honorable in all, and the
bed is undefiled.
But whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge.
And James, in James 4.4, I shared
it last time I spoke on Jezebel.
He says, you adulterers and adulteresses, do you
not know that friendship with the world is
enmity with God?
Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the
world is the enemy of God.
Now, friendship with the world is spoken to,
in the word of God, as spiritual adultery.
And yet, these teachers come into the body
and they proclaim a gospel that says the
committing of adultery and fornication is not sinful.
That you can have other lovers.
You can have other lives.
You can love the things of this world.
You can go after and lust after the
things of this world, and somehow it's going
to be acceptable with God.
Beware of these things.
They're sent to defile your relationship with Christ.
Christ calls us to wholehearted, single-minded, a
single of the eye separation unto Him.
The light of the body is the eye.
If therefore thine eye be single, the scripture
says, your whole body will be full of
light.
A single focus to live for Him, to
love Him, to glorify Him in everything that
we are and ever will be.
They also shared a teaching that the eating
of meats offered to idols was lawful.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 7,
the apostle Paul says, neither be ye idolaters
as some of them were.
As it is written, the people sat down
to eat and drink and rose up to
play.
You see, their pleasure becomes their God.
And there are gospels out in the land,
there's no shortage of them, that teach the
people that it's all right to seek and
pursue pleasure.
If God prospers you, don't think about giving
it to missions, or don't think about sharing
it with the poor.
Go and buy yourself some kind of a
pleasure thing, a play toy, and just have
a wonderful time.
You see, and they teach these things.
And what it does is it takes the
people's heart away from the purposes of God.
And it's so sad.
Here's Christ at the right hand of the
Father.
He's interceding and weeping for the loss of
this world, while so many of His bride
are enamored with their playthings here in this
world, and not sharing His heart, not sharing
the burden of the one who is supposedly
their husband, the one that they're betrothed to.
The key word of the Nicolaitans is compromise.
They say that consecration and holiness is legalistic
and old-fashioned.
Oh my brothers and sisters, I've heard this
over and over again throughout the years.
Beware of this.
Legalistic and old-fashioned holiness and consecration.
They preach doctrines of eat, drink, and be
merry.
There's little touch on, little preaching about sin,
and very, very little, if anything, about the
cross, which is the justifiable claim of Jesus
Christ upon your life and upon my life.
He laid a claim to our lives.
We are bought with a price.
We're not our own.
We're to glorify God.
We're to enter into a love relationship with
the Son of God, and love Him with
all our heart, our soul, our mind, and
our strength.
And out of that love relationship comes a
natural burden for the children of God, for
His children, both saved and lost, the ones
that He died for.
That's where that burden comes out of.
I love weddings.
Every wedding I go to, very often I
start to cry at weddings.
I don't know why that is.
I hope it never stops.
No, I do know why that is.
I've officiated at several weddings over the years,
and at one wedding in particular, I remember
I started crying so hard, I couldn't carry
on with the vows.
I couldn't even see the book.
It was just such a beautiful wedding.
He loved her so much.
She loved him.
They were standing right in front of me.
They were saying their own vows to each
other.
It was so beautiful.
I just started crying.
I couldn't stop crying.
Hallelujah.
I kept wiping my eyes, and I couldn't
see the paper.
I didn't know what to do next.
What a beautiful wedding it was, though.
Oh, it was just awesome.
It was the closest thing on this earth
to Christ and His church that I've ever
seen.
What an expression of love.
The Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 5, he
said, verse 31 and 32, he said, For
this cause a man shall leave his father
and mother, and shall be joined unto his
wife, and the two shall become one flesh.
This is a great mystery, but I speak
concerning Christ and the church.
There's something so beautiful about a wedding, isn't
there?
When the groom is standing here, and the
bride comes in, and there's such a focus
on the bride, and the bride walks down
the aisle, and everybody stands, and they look,
and even the hardest of the hard.
Have you noticed that?
These crusty old guys that work on construction
sites and places like that, and they, you
know, I'm a man's man, and I'll never
shed, and there's, you glance around, you watch,
and they fight hard to contain it, but
there's a little tear comes out the corner
of their eye, and they just very quickly
wipe it away, so nobody can see that
really they're being touched inside, and they don't
know why they're being touched, but they're being
touched because they're seeing a type and shadow.
They're seeing a foreshadow of a day that's
coming, when Jesus Christ is going to stand
up at the right hand of the Father.
The angel of the Lord is going to
sound a trumpet.
The bride of Christ is going to rise.
Both those that have died in the Lord,
and those who are still alive and remain,
they're going to be gathered together into one
glorious procession down an aisle in heaven.
Hallelujah to the throne of God.
Oh, and what a day that's going to
be.
Hallelujah.
Oh, in a marriage, in a marriage that's
ordained and sanctioned by God, the scripture says
the two become one.
You see, there's no longer a distinction.
Two people come into a wedding ceremony, they
come from different families, they come from different
backgrounds, they come with different names, and they
come into that house, and a miracle is
about to take place.
I've often shared that at weddings.
If you're looking for a miracle, keep your
eyes on what's about to happen.
Two people have come in, and one person
is going to walk out.
Hallelujah.
They're going to be one flesh in God.
That's what the scripture says.
The two shall become one.
Her desires, or his desires, now become her
desires, and her desires now become his desires.
She is consumed with love for him.
And the vows, I especially love vows at
weddings where people make up their own right
out of their heart, as long as they're
scriptural, that is, if they make them up
out of their heart.
I always tell people, go to Ephesians 5,
and just read that, and come out of
that with a vow that comes out of
your heart.
And as he begins to speak to her,
and says, I promise to provide for you,
and to love you, and to cherish you,
and to protect you, and to stand with
you, and all of these things that he
says, and she turns to him and says,
I promise to love you, I promise to
cherish you, and obey you, and raise your
children, and all of these other things.
I've heard some beautiful, beautiful vows over the
years, and it's so glorious when you hear
this, because it's a type and shadow of
a day that's coming.
Oh, what a day that's going to be.
Hallelujah.
I can see in heaven, Jesus standing, and
the bride beginning to come in, and what
a glorious wedding that's going to be.
But you know, the difference is that we,
we state our vow to him here on
this earth.
When we come into that, that place, it's,
we're in, we're coming into the banquet hall
now, when we get into heaven.
You see, the wedding happens here on this
earth.
Did you know that?
The wedding is here.
We're stating our vows to him right now,
where he's speaking to us, and we speak
back to him, and the wedding relationship is
being formed.
The two are becoming one right here on
this earth.
When the trumpet of the Lord sounds, it's
not a bride-to-be, but it's a
bride that's caught up into heaven.
Hallelujah.
Glory to God.
We walk into the presence of the Lord,
and it's not two, it's not a separate
identity coming in.
It's not somebody with a different name.
It's somebody who knows him.
It's somebody who's walked with him.
It's somebody who's loved him.
It's somebody who's cherished him.
It's somebody who's had him as the very
first and foremost thing in her heart all
the days of her life.
It's someone who has yearned for him and
longed for him, and he's longed for her.
Hallelujah.
Like he says in the song of Solomon,
Oh my dove, my beloved, my lovely, rise
up, let me see, hear your voice, let
me see your countenance from beyond the stairs.
Hallelujah.
What a day that's going to be when
the bride of Jesus is captured away from
this earth and carried into the very presence
of God.
Oh, the vow of Jesus.
I want you to listen to the vow
of Jesus to his bride.
Jesus is here tonight, and every day, every
time you open your heart and your ear,
he speaks his vows once again.
He's a lover like no other lover that
this world has ever known.
There are a lot of men that stake
their vows at the altar, but you rarely
ever hear anything about it again after the
wedding day.
But Jesus is not such.
He states his vows over and over and
over and over again, because he's a man
of truth and he cannot lie.
Hallelujah.
He says, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I
drawn thee.
Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse 3.
John 15 13.
Greater love has no man than this, that
a man lay down his life for his
friends.
And Jesus speaks to us tonight about the
fact that he laid down his life for
us so that the enemy could not have
power over our lives anymore.
He laid down his life for us to
cleanse us from our sins.
He gave everything he had for us on
this earth and continues to give of himself
for us this day.
He looks at us right in the eye
and he says, I will never leave thee
nor forsake thee.
Hebrews chapter 13 verse 5.
Think about that right now.
I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
Your struggles will be my struggles.
Your enemies will be my enemies.
Hallelujah.
Your weaknesses will be my weaknesses.
Your concerns will be my concerns.
I'll be there whenever you call.
There's a song we sing.
He's as close as the mention of his
name.
I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
Matthew 10 32.
Jesus looks at his bride and says, I
will confess you before my father, which is
in heaven.
Hallelujah.
I will confess you.
Isn't that nice to know tonight that Jesus
is confessing your name before the father right
this very moment.
Did you know that he's looking down at
times for church and he's going row by
row, aisle upon aisle, line upon line, precept
upon precept, person upon person, soul upon soul,
and he's confessing your name before the father.
He'll point down and say, there's another beloved
one.
There's another beloved one.
There's another beloved one that I love and
I'm betrothed to.
Hallelujah.
Jesus is not ashamed of you in heaven.
Matthew 16 19.
You know, very often a man will, part
of the condition of espousing, uh, the parents,
uh, allowing their daughter to be espoused to
a man is that he has to prove
that he will provide for her.
And, uh, Matthew 16 19, at least that's
the way it used to be years ago.
Matthew 16 19.
Jesus says in his vow to us, I
will give to you the keys of the
kingdom of heaven.
Hallelujah.
And whatsoever you bind on earth shall be
bound in heaven and whatsoever you loose on
earth shall be loosed in heaven.
In other words, I will never leave you
powerless or comfortless.
Hallelujah.
And lastly, look at John chapter 14 with
me, please.
John chapter 14, the promise of Jesus, the
vow of Jesus to his true bride.
I want to show you what's going on
in heaven right now.
You probably already know it.
John chapter 14 verse one, let not your
heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me.
In my father's house are many mansions.
If it were not so, I would have
told you, I go to prepare a place
for you.
And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive
you unto myself that where I am there
ye may be also.
Hallelujah.
What a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful scene this is.
Jesus continuously restating his vow to you and
I.
There's a true bride in the church, a
bride that loves him, that yearns for him.
And as our brother shared at three o
'clock, a bride that considers it reasonable to
go anywhere that God sends her.
She will do anything that God speaks to
her because she loves him.
She's not moving under condemnation.
She moves under compassion because she knows his
heart and whatever's in his heart becomes in
her heart, part of her heart.
And she moves in unison with him.
That's why the scripture says, how can two
walk together except they be agreed?
How can a bride walk with the bride
groove unless the two of them have one
heart and one mind?
Have you ever noticed over the years, people
that have a loving marriage relationship, the longer
they're together, they start even looking like each
other.
They talk like each other.
It's like one person speaks and they've both
spoken.
That's what the bride is all about.
The longer we're with Jesus, the more we
look like him.
We talk like him because his heart is
in us.
He's captivated us.
There's a true bride in the church, but
there's also a bride that has gotten snared
by this doctrine of the Nicolaitans.
There's a bride in this generation that we're
living in, in as much as in John's
generation, that is going to the altar with
a vow that grieves the heart of Jesus.
I call it the vow of the Nicolaitan
bride.
And Jesus just finishes speaking his promises, and
he tells her how much he loves her,
and he tells her how much he cares.
And then she looks back at him and
looks him in the eye and begins to
state, I've got six vows of the Nicolaitan
bride, and I want to share them with
you because God put them on my heart.
And she looks at him, and all heaven
is assembled, and the crowd is there, and
God the Father is witnessed, and the Holy
Ghost is there, the angels are there, and
this Nicolaitan bride comes up before the throne,
and she begins to state her vow to
him.
She believes it's a reasonable vow.
She believes it's all that is required of
her, and that's the sad thing.
She's fallen under some kind of a sway,
the doctrine of the Nicolaitans.
She looks him in the eye, all of
heaven is standing up.
It's a beautiful moment, and all of a
sudden there's a shock wave that goes through
heaven at what comes out of her mouth,
because it's not the vow of a bride
that's truly enraptured with love for her husband.
There's something different about this bride.
She says firstly, I promise to love you
as long as you don't put any demands
on me.
John chapter 21.
Turn there please with me.
There are many people that say, Jesus, in
this generation, I will love you, and I'll
be part of your church, and I'll be
your bride as long as you don't put
any demands on me.
Now in John chapter 21, verse 15, the
scripture says, So when they had dined, Jesus
said to Simon Peter, now Simon Peter had
had gone through a very rough experience, and
maybe it would have been justifiable for Peter
to say, Lord, it's been pretty rough on
me.
I've been weeping for days.
I've denied your name.
It's been hard.
I'm confused.
I don't fully understand everything that's been going
on.
I need some breathing space.
I will love you, but don't put any
demands on me.
Verse 15 says, So when they had dined,
Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of
Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?
He said unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest
I love thee.
He said unto him, Feed my lambs.
Peter, I'm putting a demand on your life.
I'm going to put my word within you.
I'm going to put my heart within you,
but I want you to do something with
it.
He said to him again the second time,
Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me?
He said unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest
I love thee.
He said unto him, Feed my sheep.
Peter, I'm putting a demand on your life.
He said unto him the third time, Simon
son of Jonas, lovest thou me?
Peter was grieved because he said to him
the third time, Lovest thou me?
And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest
all things.
Thou knowest that I love thee.
Jesus said unto him, Feed my sheep.
If you love me, Peter, I have children
out there.
If you love me, true bride of Christ,
I have sons and daughters that are not
yet saved, that don't yet have understanding.
I have ones that are weak.
I have ones that are prey to the
tactics and lies of the devil.
If you love me, you'll love my children.
If you love me, you'll consider it reasonable
to pour your life out as a living
sacrifice for the call that I have upon
you.
The Nicolaitan bride, leaving the whole of heaven
in horror at the very first thing she
says, turns to him again and says, I
promise to communicate with you periodically and when
it is convenient.
Now can you imagine a bride like this,
a wedding like this happening at Times Square
Church where the bride came with such a
vow?
Can you imagine the shock?
Can you imagine how it would take away
from the ceremony, the beauty of everything that's
going on to start hearing these things come
out of her mouth?
I promise to communicate with you periodically and
when it's convenient.
Do you know how many people are supposedly
the bride of Christ and their prayer life
is just periodic communication and under the banner
of convenience?
But listen to what David said and listen
to what made David a man after God's
heart.
In Psalm 5, he said, Give ear to
my words, O Lord.
Consider my meditation.
Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my
King and my God.
For unto thee will I pray.
My voice shalt thou hear in the morning,
O Lord.
In the morning will I direct my prayer
and unto thee will look up.
It's an awful marriage that you would be
in where you got up in the morning
out of bed and your wife or husband
doesn't want to talk to you until that
evening.
That'd be a terrible situation to be in.
I know that some might be in situations
like that and if you'll turn to Christ,
God can get you over that.
But that'd be a horrible situation.
If you really love Jesus, who do you
want to talk to first thing in the
morning if you really love somebody?
You know, it's sad to say some people
spend more time talking to their dog than
they do to God in their home when
they get up in the morning.
Hi boy, how are you boy?
Do you have a good night boy?
And their prayer life is a shambles, you
know?
And imagine how it must feel.
Imagine how a husband feels if his wife
spent more time talking to the dog in
the morning than she does to him.
How is it that people think that we
can get away with this kind of a
shabby vow to the King of Kings and
the Lord of Lords?
Our Savior Jesus Christ.
We're not to get into some kind of
a bondage.
We're not to come downstairs.
Could you imagine a husband or wife that
said, okay, I'll get in my head.
I've got to talk to my wife.
I've got to be faithful to the vow
to communicate.
And so I come downstairs and, good morning,
how are you?
How was the toast?
How's the dog?
How's the kids?
And just start to wrap off all, and
some people pray like that.
Communication is heart to heart.
It's because we love Him with all of
our heart.
We want to spend time with Him.
Lord, I love you this morning.
God, it's wonderful to be in your presence.
It's wonderful to be starting out a new
day knowing that I'm not walking alone, that
you're with me, oh God.
You can see into the future.
You already know what I'm going to face
before I even get there.
Thank you, Lord, for your promise to never
leave me nor forsake me.
The Lord, all he's ever looked for from
his bride is heart-to-heart communication, a
heart-to-heart thing.
Then the Nicolaitan bride looks at him, and
as if the two first weren't bad enough,
she looks and says, I promise to try
to keep my other lovers to a minimum.
Can you imagine that kind of a wedding?
Can you imagine that kind of a bride?
It just, it staggers our imagination.
The whole church at this point would be
in an uproar.
Yet, as I read earlier, James says, do
you not know that friendship with the world
is enmity with God?
Whosoever therefore be a friend of the world
is the enemy of God.
We're not to have other lovers.
The Nicolaitans taught that it was all right
to have other wives and other lovers, but
it isn't.
We're to love Him with all of our
heart and our soul and our mind and
our strength.
Then she looks again and she says, I
promise to obey you as long as it
doesn't put any hardship on me.
I promise to obey you as long as
it doesn't put any hardship on me.
Look at the book of Acts, please, chapter
9.
I'm going to show you something from the
life of the apostle Paul.
It's at a time when a man called
Ananias was sent to pray for Paul immediately
after his conversion experience on the Damascus Road.
There's no guarantee in serving God that it
won't put hardship on your life.
It is conceivable that you could die serving
God.
Acts chapter 9, verse 15, Ananias came into
Paul and he says, but the Lord said
unto him, go thy way.
Here's the instruction for Ananias to bring to
Paul.
For he's a chosen vessel unto me to
bear my name before the Gentiles and kings
and the children of Israel.
For I will show him how great things
he must suffer for my name's sake.
And Paul loved the Lord, loved Jesus.
He didn't consider hardship.
What did he call?
He was stoned.
He was shipwrecked.
He was left for dead.
He was in perils continually.
And he says, but my momentary light affliction
is I consider that the sufferings of this
present time not worthy to be compared with
the glory that shall be revealed in us.
Present light affliction, my momentary affliction, I don't
consider it hardship because I know him and
I love him and he knows me and
he loves me.
The Nicolaitan bride now looks again at the
bridegroom and says, I promise to give to
your children as long as it doesn't put
me in a position of want.
I want you to think about this for
a moment.
There are so many people in the body
of Christ who only give to a point
of convenience.
They don't give anywhere beyond anything that would
cause them pain or want in their own
life.
That's not really the heart of a bride,
is it now?
We have, God has children all over the
world that he wants to touch, places that
he needs to go and have his bride
go and speak on his behalf.
What an awful thing to, if we had
a wedding in Times Square Church and a
bride stood here and said, I promise to
give to your children as long as it
doesn't put me in a position of want,
or put me in a position of hardship,
or put me in a place where I'm
not comfortable.
Isn't that what we heard this afternoon at
three o'clock?
That God wants to kick us out of
our comfort zone and into the place where
we can become of use to him and
useful servants to him?
This is the end of side one.
So many people never accomplish the plans of
God in and for their lives because they're
not willing to give beyond the standard of
personal convenience.
But I bring to your mind once again
that scripture, time and again, as often as
God puts it on my lips, I shall
speak it.
Where Paul said, I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that you present
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable
unto God, which is your reasonable service.
A living sacrifice, that's a reasonable service.
Lastly, she looks at him and she says
something that would, if the others weren't bad
enough, this last one would, if I were
the man in that place, if the others
weren't bad enough, this last one would crush
me.
It would finish me off.
She looks at him and says, I promise
to tell others about you, but only in
situations where I know that speaking your name
won't make me feel ashamed.
I promise to tell others about you, but
only in situations where I know that speaking
your name won't make me feel ashamed.
How would you feel as a wife?
How would you feel tonight as a husband?
If you went to a social gathering or
you went to somebody's house or you went
just anywhere in society and the people said,
who's that with you?
We noticed that you're not alone.
Somebody is with you.
Oh, that's, oh, that's nobody.
Oh, it's just a friend.
Oh, it's just somebody that I, I talked
to occasionally.
And if that was your wife speaking and
you knew or your husband and you knew
they were ashamed of you in public, ashamed
of you, how would you feel?
And yet the Nicolaitan bride is ashamed of
Jesus.
Ashamed.
Going into public places or going into people's
homes or in the neighborhood, the community, the
office.
People will, will, an opportunity will arise to
speak about her husband and she won't speak
because she's ashamed of him.
And Jesus said in Luke chapter nine, he
said, and he said to them, if any
man will come after me, let him deny
himself and take up his cross daily and
follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose
it.
But whosoever will lose his life for my
sake, the same shall save it.
For what is a man advantaged if he
gains the whole world and loses his own
soul?
For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and
of my words, of him shall the son
of man be ashamed when he shall come
in his own glory and in his father's
and of the holy angels.
If, if there was such a bride making
such a series of vows to a, to
a righteous man, if you were at the
wedding, if there was a wedding at this
church and, and the bridegroom was standing here
and the bride came and you had just
witnessed these vows.
I would venture against that the bulk of
those that are here tonight would stand to
your feet and say, don't marry that woman.
You're a fool.
If the preacher said, is there anybody here
has a, a lawful reason why this man
can't be married to this woman, the objector
may now so state.
If, if I'd be on my feet, I
don't know about you.
I'd say, don't marry.
You're an absolute fool to marry this woman.
She has a heart full of adultery.
She doesn't, she won't.
She will be ashamed of you.
You won't be able to put any demands
on her.
She won't communicate with you.
She'll have other lovers in her life.
She won't obey you.
If it puts hardship on her, she won't
give to your children, your children will be
in rags.
She won't care for them.
She won't love them and cherish them.
She'll be ashamed of you in public.
Only a fool, you'd say would want such
a bride.
And in the natural sense that would possibly
be true.
Jesus said to Pergamos in Revelation 2.16,
he says, repent, or else I will come
to thee quickly and will fight against them
with the sword of my mouth.
Most bride grooms would walk out on such
a bride in an absolute indignant rage.
If it were me, or if it were
you, a lot of the men that are
here in this church tonight, if you were
standing here and that vow was said to
you, you would walk out of this place
in an absolute rage saying, how could I
have been such a fool?
How could I have been, how could I
have been deceived by such an unrighteous woman?
How could I have ever thought of giving
her my heart and letting her heart come
into mine?
How could I have ever thought of becoming
one with such a woman?
And most men in the natural would walk
out and everybody would stand up and clap
and say, justifiably so, cast this harlot woman
out of your life.
But that's not what Jesus does.
That's not the heart of Jesus.
He's merciful and kind.
He is an ever loving God.
He reaches out to even those that are
ashamed of his name.
Oh, the absolute love of Jesus that so
far surpasses anything that you and I could
ever know.
The humility of Jesus that all over the
world, the Nicolaitan bride is stating her vows
to him and yet he stands firm.
He doesn't move.
He stands unshakable and he reaches out and
woos her and says, come back and rethink
your position.
I'll not move and every word I've ever
said to you will be true.
Turn to the book of Hosea, please.
The Old Testament.
Hallelujah.
Hosea chapter 2.
Hosea was a man with a difficult commission.
He had been commissioned of the Lord to
betroth a prostitute unto himself who was unfaithful
to him.
And God did it to Hosea, caused him
to do that so that he would come
to an understanding how the Lord felt about
an unfaithful and an unrighteous people that were
called by his name.
And in Hosea chapter 2, we begin to
see the heart of God.
It is quite possible tonight that you have
seen at least one of those vows in
your heart.
But now I have a word from the
Lord for you tonight and I want you
to hear this clearly.
God speaks to us for healing and not
hurt.
He speaks to us for life and not
death.
He speaks love.
When you understand the heart of Jesus tonight,
it should cause you to get up.
Even if you have embraced a portion of
the Nicolaitan doctrine in your heart, it should
cause you to get up and run to
him and fall upon his feet and say,
forgive me for being an unrighteous bride, but
thank you, Jesus, for being such a loving
husband.
You've never moved.
You've never shaken.
You deserve.
I deserve to be cast off.
I deserve to be thrown away from you.
That's what David, when David said, oh Lord,
if you dealt with me according as I
deserve, who could stand before you?
Cast me not away from thy presence, O
God.
Take not thy Holy Spirit from me.
In chapter 2, the Lord says, say ye
unto your brethren, Ammi and to your sisters,
Ruma, plead with your mother, plead, for she
is not my wife and neither am I
her husband.
Let her therefore put away her whoredoms out
of her sight and her adulteries from between
her breasts, lest I strip her naked and
set her as in the day that she
was born and make her as a wilderness
and set her like a dry land and
slay her with thirst.
You see, that's where the Nicolaitan bride always
ends up.
Dry, just like the Laodicean church, just dry
and naked and dying of thirst.
And I will not have mercy upon her
children, for they be the children of whoredoms.
For their mother hath played the harlot she
has conceived them, hath done shamefully.
For she said, I will go after my
lovers that give me my bread and my
water and my wool and my flax, my
oil and my drink.
And isn't that what so much of what
has called itself the bride of Christ in
this generation has done?
Oh folks, it so grieves the heart of
God.
All of these people stuck in this success
and prosperity doctrine.
They're out there, they're running after bread and
water and wool and flax and oil and
drink and they've forsaken Him and they don't
even know it.
Therefore behold, I will hedge up thy way
with thorns and make a wall and she
shall not find her paths.
And she shall follow after her lovers, but
she shall not overtake them.
She shall seek them and she shall not
find them.
You see, God says, I'm going to obscure
the way and I'm going to make it
a barren path so that she will turn
back to me.
That's how much the Lord yearns for His
bride.
Even though she has done these things, even
though she has gone after other lovers, I'm
going to hedge your way and build a
wall around her so she can't find satisfaction
in these things so that she will turn
back to me again.
Then she shall say, I will go and
return to my first husband.
For then was it better with me than
now.
For she did not know that I gave
her corn and wine and oil and multiplied
her silver and gold, which they prepared for
bail.
Therefore will I return and take away my
corn in the time thereof and my wine
in the season thereof and will recover my
wool and my flax given to cover her
nakedness.
And now will I discover her lewdness in
the sight of her lovers and none shall
deliver her out of my hand.
The Lord says, I'm going to expose it.
I'm going to come and fight against it
with the word of my mouth.
Isn't that what God said he was going
to do to this church in Pergamos?
I will fight against it, this doctrine of
the Nicolaitans with the word of my mouth
and will expose and discover the lewdness of
this Nicolaitan bride in the sight of all
her lovers.
And she'll be put in a place where
nobody, not one of her lovers will ever
deliver her out of my hand.
You see, because God wants her back.
It's an incredible thing when we realize what's
in the heart of Christ, the absolute humility
in the heart of Christ.
He wants her back.
He wants his bride back.
He's a jealous God.
He's not willing to let her go with
any other lover.
I will also cause her mirth to cease,
her feast days, her moons, her new moons,
her Sabbaths and all her solemn feasts.
In other words, she won't find pleasure in
anything out there.
I will destroy her vines and her fig
trees, whereupon she has said, these are my
rewards that my lovers has given me.
And I will make them a forest and
the beast of the field shall eat them.
I will visit upon her the days of
Balaam, wherein she burned incense to them and
she decked herself with earrings and her jewels.
And she went after her lovers and forgot
me, saith the Lord.
Therefore, behold, verse 14, I will allure her.
In other words, I will draw her once
again.
I will speak kindly to her and I
will bring her into the wilderness and speak
comfortably to her.
I will give her her vineyards from thence
and the valley of Acre for a door
of hope.
And she shall sing there as in the
days of her youth and as in the
day when she came up out of the
land of Egypt.
In other words, the Lord said, I'm going
to reach out to this bride.
I'm going to reach out to this Nicolaitan
bride and I'm going to bring her back
because I remember how much she did love
me in the beginning before she was ensnared
by these other things.
And I'm going to reach out to her
and I'm going to bring her home.
This is what God's doing in this generation.
He's reaching out even through my voice tonight.
He's reaching out to other places all throughout
the land in the world.
He's reaching out for his bride, even those
that have gone away from him and have
not been faithful to him.
He's reaching out and saying, I love you
with an everlasting love.
A woman might forget her nursing child, but
I cannot forget thee.
I have engraved thee on the palms of
my hands.
And it shall be at that day, saith
the Lord, verse 16, that thou shalt call
me Ishi and shalt call me no more
Bailey.
In other words, you're going to call me
husband.
You're going to call me lover.
You're going to call me the closest one
to your entire being.
You're going to know me in that day.
You're going to understand who I am.
For I will take away the names of
Balaam out of her mouth.
They shall no more be remembered by their
name.
And in that day will I make a
covenant for them with the beasts of the
field, with the fowls of heaven and with
the creeping things of the ground.
And I will break the bow and the
sword and the battle out of the earth
and I will make them to lie down
safely.
And I will betroth thee unto me forever.
Hallelujah.
Yea, I will betroth thee unto me in
righteousness and in judgment and in loving kindness
and in mercies.
Hallelujah.
Jesus is saying, I'm not letting you go.
I'm not letting my bride go.
I'm not letting other lovers captivate her heart.
I bought her with a price.
She's mine.
Hallelujah.
And I'm going to fight for her with
the word of my mouth.
I'm going to deliver her out of her
captivities and bring her home unto me.
And I'm going to betroth her unto me
again.
This time in righteousness.
Hallelujah.
This time she will make a clear and
a clean vow to me.
This time in judgment.
This time she will allow the Holy Spirit
to come in power and examine every motive,
every intent of her heart.
Hallelujah.
This time in loving kindness.
She will know me.
She will love me.
She will understand how much I care for
her.
Hallelujah.
And in mercy, she will know my mercy.
She will know that I love her.
She will know that I'm ready to cleanse.
She will know that I'm not a husband
like any other in the universe, says the
Lord.
He is different than any other man is.
Hallelujah.
His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting.
His kindness from generation to generation.
He sends rain on the just and on
the unjust.
Hallelujah.
I will even betroth thee unto me in
faithfulness and thou shalt know the Lord.
You will know me.
Scripture says you will know the truth and
the truth shall set you free.
You will know me.
I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulness.
You will come to me and you will
be a faithful bride in this last hour
of time.
The Lord says I come for a bride
without spot and without wrinkle.
I come for a cleansed and purified bride.
I come for a bride that's one in
spirit with me.
I come for a bride that knows my
heart and walks according to my word and
my ways.
Hallelujah.
And it shall come to pass in that
day I will hear, saith the Lord, I
will hear the heavens and they shall hear
the earth and the earth shall hear the
corn, the wine and the oil and they
shall hear Jezreel.
And I will sow her unto me in
the earth and I will have mercy upon
her that had not obtained mercy and I
will say to them which were not my
people thou art my people and they shall
say thou art my God.
Hallelujah.
Thou art my God.
The Lord is speaking this hour to this
church in North America.
He's about to pull out the carpets of
all the other lovers, all the things that
have captivated the hearts of God's people.
In a moment, in a day, the success
and prosperity preachers will be wiped right out
of the house of God because their doctrine
is a lie and God will move in
power and save those that can still hear
his word and still want to love him.
Hallelujah.
Now go back to Isaiah.
One last scripture, Isaiah chapter 54.
I hope tonight that you can sense the
love of God for you in this house
tonight.
How much he loves you.
Even if you have embraced some of these
things in your heart, it's not so much
a doctrine, it's an embracing of the heart.
If you're one of those that's ashamed of
him or one that is so hesitant to
give of yourself, if it hurts, every time
it starts to hurt when you give, you
pull back again.
But that's not the heart of Christ.
Isaiah chapter 54 verse 4.
I found it interesting that Pastor David preached
from verse 11 to 17 and I'm going
from verse 4 to 8 this night.
He says, Fear not, for thou shalt not
be ashamed.
Neither be thou confounded, for thou shalt not
be put to shame, for thou shalt forget
the shame of thy youth and not remember
the reproach of thy widowhood anymore.
For thy maker is thine husband, the Lord
of hosts is his name, and thy Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel, the God of
the whole earth shall he be called.
For the Lord hath called thee as a
woman forsaken and grieved in spirit and a
wife of youth when thou was refused, saith
the Lord thy God.
For a small moment have I forsaken thee,
but with great mercies will I gather thee.
In a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment, but with everlasting
kindness I will have mercy on thee, saith
the Lord, thy Redeemer.
Would you stand please.
Jesus is here tonight and he is at
this altar at a meeting place with you
and with me.
He has come, he has shared his word
with us tonight.
His word is constant, it will never change.
He's declared his vows unto you and unto
me.
He's declared his faithfulness to us and he
has declared his mercy even to those that
have departed from a wholehearted loving and saving
relationship with him.
But yet he doesn't walk out, he remains.
And he says if you'll come to me
I will betroth you unto me in faithfulness.
I'll reveal myself unto you, you'll no longer
call me Bailey, you'll call me Ishi, you'll
know who I am as your husband, you'll
call me your husband.
There'll be a difference in you, there'll be
a change.
He's already stated his vow tonight and now
he's looking for his bride to state her
vow.
I want to open this altar tonight.
If God has spoken to your heart and
somewhere down the line you have embraced something
of the Nicolaitans in your heart.
Maybe you're one of those who can say
Lord I'm ashamed of you, I am ashamed
of myself.
How could I be ashamed of the one
that I love?
How could I do this thing?
Lord I hold back when it comes to
giving to your children, when it comes just
giving till it hurts, I hold back.
God I don't communicate with you the way
I should.
There's something wrong in our relationship.
There seems to be a communication breakdown.
I know it's on my part Lord, not
on yours.
I come tonight Father and there's some that
would say I've got other lovers in my
life and Lord forgive me tonight for this.
Others would just say Lord I've loved you
and I've asked you not to put demands
on my life but now I come and
I come as a faithful bride and if
you put demands on my life Lord I
will accept them and I will accept them
as of a good husband that knows what
he's doing.
I've entrusted my life unto you.
I'm going to ask you if God the
Holy Spirit has spoken to you tonight through
his word.
Would you slip out of your seat up
in the balcony go to the sides down
the main sanctuary and come forward and you're
going to state your vows unto the Lord
tonight.
As a bride, remember the wedding takes place
here.
It takes place on this side of eternity,
not in heaven.
It takes place here.
Up there is the wedding banquet.
Here is the wedding and some of you
have fallen short in your marriage vows and
you need to come.
Your marriage vows to the Lord and you
need to come and make it right.
I want to tell you something.
If you'll make your vows with God right,
some people here that are having trouble in
their home, you'll find that that trouble in
your home will make itself right too as
well.
Your vows to God have got to be
in place first and then your vows to
one another can be fulfilled.
Hallelujah!
This is the conclusion of the tape.