Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the dangers of the sins of pride and the pursuit of self-glory, likening them to the seduction of too much honey. He warns that indulging in self-satisfaction can overshadow our satisfaction in Christ, leading to spiritual ruin. The sermon draws parallels between the spirit of Jezebel and the seductive nature of these sins, urging believers to seek humility and a deeper relationship with God. Beach encourages the congregation to recognize these tendencies in their lives and to rely on God's grace for transformation.

Thank you, Father, for your faithfulness. Thank you, Lord, for thank you, Lord, for the Holy Spirit and the presence. Of his life, his encouragement, and thank you, Lord, that the Holy Spirit is so faithful to reveal the heart of God to us, and we praise you, Lord, for being able to get to the root of our heart, to the root of all the things that are troubling us and to minister life to us. Lord, we're so thankful to you, Lord, and we look to you to continue, Lord, to speak to us and to minister to us, Lord, and most importantly. That you will strengthen us, Lord, to be firm in all that we're going through individually and as a body. So that you might secure the full intention of your heart and purify us so thoroughly that the scripture might come to pass. That our whole entire spirit, soul and body might be preserved blameless. Without fault, Lord, help us not to be deceived by the wicked one. And turn aside. We ask for your special grace this morning to be multiplied as we look into the word and as we experience continual searchings by your word. That you would minister the healing balm of Gilead and just minister Christ to us, Lord, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. And amen. Thank God for his faithfulness this morning. It's so marvelous to know that Christ is the faithful one. That we are connected to, there are three more sins that we must yet look at in order to complete this particular series of messages. And by the help of God's grace, we want to try and do that this morning. So I want to encourage you to continue to be diligent in your note taking and also be very much before the Lord so that you might experience him speaking to your heart over these issues. The last three sins that we want to look at before we look at them, I want to read a scripture in Revelation chapter two, beginning in verse number 18. While all these particular sins that we dealt with can be traced to in some form or shape, the scriptures that we're about to read, I sensed I wanted to wait until the last three in order to mention this scripture, because I feel that these last three in particular are most indicative of the influence of this particular topic that we're going to read in Revelation chapter two, beginning in verse number 18. And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write, These things saith the son of God who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire and his feet are like fine brass. The description of the Lord Jesus to the church in Thyatira is a very vivid description showing us, first of all, his eyes like a flame of fire, indicating that his eyes are able to look into the very depths of our being and know the truth. His eyes are able to look into the very depths of our being and know the truth. That ought not to frighten us if we truly know him and truly know his love for us. Secondly, Jesus reveals himself as the one whose feet are like fine brass. Brass in the scripture oftentimes is associated with judgment. And so the picture here that the Lord Jesus is showing us is that in this particular church, Christ is revealing a particular aspect of himself that functions through the ability to look into the depths of our being and bring judgment. Now, the kind of judgment that he wants to bring into the depths of our being is conformity. He wants to conform our lives into the image and likeness of himself. We see the beautiful testimonies this morning. And how very ordinary things like laundry and water on the floor and other things like that can, in a remarkable way, reveal things in us that aren't like him. And so Jesus sits during these moments of shaking and trial and difficulty as the one whose eyes are as a flame of fire and whose feet are as brass. And he sits and he ministers judgment in our life. But the judgment that he brings is not a judgment to perdition. It's not a judgment to ruin. It is not a judgment to torment, but is a judgment, a chastening, a scourging that produces in us a greater likeness of himself. That's what he's doing in our lives through these various different difficulties that we go through. Now, you'll notice that in verse 19, Jesus said, I know thy works and charity and service and faith and thy patience and thy works and the last to be more than the first. So Jesus here demonstrates his ability to see into the depths of our lives and to know exactly what we're doing, what he's doing through us. He can assess the situation with a perfect ability to know the truth. But now verse number 20 is in particular what we want to look at. And then verse number 23, notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calls herself a prophetess to teach and to seduce my servants. To commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death. Now notice the effects. And all the churches shall know that I am he which searches the reins and the hearts. And I will give unto every one of you according to your works. But unto you, I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak, I will put upon you no other burden, but that which ye have already, hold fast till I come. Now these are some very, very harsh words that the Lord Jesus spoke to the church in Thyatira. But what we want to do is simply look for a very brief moment into the woman Jezebel. It is not my intention at this time to go into a detailed explanation of who this woman is, whether it was a literal woman, whether it was a word that Jesus spoke indicating a particular influence that was in the church, and anything like that. But what we want to look at is simply the woman Jezebel and the effects that she had on the church. In particular, she called herself a prophetess, and she was teaching and seducing the servants of God. So, the spirit of Jezebel in Thyatira was teaching and seducing the church in Thyatira. And what we want to do is capture that statement, teaching and seducing. And want to use that phrase in order to help us look at the next three particular sins. Because the three particular sins that we're about to look at are, in particular, sins that have a strong seducing effect upon us. And therefore, when these sins are laying hold of us and are finding significant influence in our life, it is likely that we are in some fashion, in some way, under the influence of the spirit of Jezebel. Though we might not literally be under the influence of a woman whose name is Jezebel, but the spirit of Jezebel. The spirit of Jezebel is a spirit that undermines the very nature and character and authority of Christ, and seeks to seduce us into a posture where we are being deceived. And this deception can affect others. Jezebel, as you know, in the Old Testament, was the wife of Ahab. And her pernicious influence upon Israel at the time can be seen in a most horrendous way. Jezebel stood against everything the Lord stood for. Jezebel stood against Elijah and the influence that Elijah had on the nation of Israel. Jezebel stood against Ahab and sought to seduce him and sought to manipulate him in order that she might fulfill her desires through him. And so if you do a study on Jezebel and see the kind of person she was, you can capture the spirit of Jezebel and the principle of the spirit of Jezebel, and see the way that it attacks the servants of God. We're going to look at number five now. The fifth sin that we need to be aware of this morning. And again, as usual, we pray that God will give us grace to hear His Word, grace to be humble and teachable, grace that will enable us not to be on the defensive. Don't be on the defensive, beloved. You don't have to defend yourself. You don't have to be afraid of the Lord's searchings. The issue of His acceptance of you through Christ is settled. He loves you with an everlasting love. He is perfectly able to love you even after you begin to see some of these things working in your life, because He loved you before you saw them. And now that you see them, doesn't change His love for you. And that's so important to capture that truth. You are lavished and loved with an everlasting love. If Christ died for you while you were yet His enemy, how much more does He love you now that you are one of His children? Is it possible for Him to, now that you are one of His children, reject you when as an enemy He didn't reject you? Of course not. He's for you, not against you. But He is committed, as Michael said, not to what we perceive to be our success, or what we perceive to be a good, happy life. He's not committed to establishing our plans for our life. But He is committed as the faithful high priest to present to His God and Father and to Himself a bride that is perfectly like Him. That is compatible. That is, He wants to see a people to the point where when He looks at those people, He sees all of the eternal perfections that are in Himself in her. And that is what attracts Him. The prospect of inheriting a bride who will be exactly like Him on the inside. And so don't be discouraged over the dealings of God in your life. Don't be discouraged over the trials that you're going through. God is speaking into your spirit now, and He's saying, be encouraged. Even though you've gone through dark times, and you've gone through distressing times, and there's been times when you've said, where is God? He sticketh closer than a brother. He is there upgirding you and upholding you. Standing there with you, committed to the process of transforming you into the image of His own Son. He'll never leave you nor forsake you. He will never do any harm to you. Polycarp said, I've served the Lord for so many years, and He has never hurt me or done any harm to me right before He was burned at the stake. He is committed to you 100%. Turn your Bibles, if you would please, to Proverbs 25. Proverbs 25. This particular sin has a most seductive way of getting ahold of us. Verse 16. The name of this particular sin is the sin of too much honey. Too much honey. Now, some of you might be thinking, oh my, I wonder if He noticed that I put three teaspoons of honey in my tea. No, that's not the honey we're referring to this morning. That's not the honey we're referring to. Verse 16. Hast thou found honey? Let's stop right there for a moment. Hast thou found honey? Everybody here has found some honey. And I do not believe, as we develop this thought, that a little bit of honey is wrong. I believe it's part of God's providence to give us a lawful pleasure in tasting the sweetness of honey. There is a lawful pleasure in tasting the sweetness of honey. Now, we'll explain that statement as we go on. Hast thou found honey? Eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith and vomited. So the sin of too much honey is what we need to look at today. Now, verse 27 of the same chapter will interpret the spiritual meaning to honey. I'm reading from the King James Version, so I'm going to be applying this as it is read in the King James Version. I know some of the versions are a little bit different. Verse 27. It is not good to eat much honey, so for men to search their own glory is not glory. The great snare of seeking one's own glory, being enamored with one's own name, one's own beauty, one's own life, being absorbed in one's self-importance. There is a great danger that lurks within the heart of sinful man and that is being magnified today in the day that we live in, and that danger is in fact the snare of tasting the sweetness of one's own glory and indulging in it to the point where we make that sweetness the pursuit of our life. Now, if you'll remember in Daniel 4, there is a very sobering story about a king whose name was Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was a man that God enabled to prosper greatly. He became the king and ruler over Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar was loved of God, believe it or not, and he was used of God and raised up by God. But the problem with Nebuchadnezzar we see is that he became deceived. The nature of his deception is found in Daniel 4. Verse 29, At the end of twelve months, he, Nebuchadnezzar, walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. The king spoke and said, Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty? While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee. And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee until thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever He will. Nebuchadnezzar failed to recognize the wisdom of the proverb that said, If thou hast found a little honey, only eat what is sufficient for thee. Because too much honey means that you are committed to pursuing your own glory. Too much honey means you are committed in pursuing that sweetness of being something. That sweetness that comes when everything goes well. Being too preoccupied with one's own gifts, one's own value, or perceived value, one's own perceived importance, indicates that you have tasted the sweetness of honey and you're going after it too much. 2 Timothy 3 Verse 2a For men shall be lovers of their own selves. For be lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. Whenever the center of our world becomes me and not Christ, you will become distorted in your perceptions. Only seeing as they relate to you, your desire, your end, and your glory. The danger of eating too much honey is you become distorted and everything begins to revolve around you. The sweetness of self-satisfaction and accomplishment begins then to overshadow the sweetness of satisfaction in Christ. I'll say that again. The sweetness of self-satisfaction and there is a sense of self-satisfaction that we get when we taste a little bit of honey. But too much of that self-satisfaction turns into a perversion. And it results in overshadowing the sweetness of satisfaction in Christ. And before we know it, we are addicted to the sweetness of self-satisfaction, of self-glory. We're addicted to the feeling that we get when we're on the top of the world, when things are going well for us, when everything feels good, and that sweetness overshadows the sweetness of being satisfied in God. So the sweetness of self-satisfaction and accomplishment begins to overshadow the sweetness of satisfaction in Christ, and the glory of His accomplishment fades in the glory of our accomplishment. You see, we ought to be so satisfied with the sweetness of Christ and so glorying in the glory of Christ that the temporary sweetness that we experience when God allows us to succeed in some area of our life, no matter how small or large it is, ought not to be registered in us. It ought not to affect us in a significant way. It is ordained of God to create in us a sense of peace and joy when God enables us to accomplish something. It is not wrong. It is against our humanity to deny the sense of peace and the feeling of joy we get when we're able to accomplish something. But that little honey must be sufficient for us. Because if we get addicted to that feeling, we're going to go after more of it, and then that becomes bigger than the Lord Himself, and the ultimate sense of satisfaction ought to be in the Lord. Not in how it relates to what we've done, but how it relates to what the Lord has done. When we touch something or someone else touches something of our own standing or our own accomplishment or our own position, and we get addicted to the sweetness of how we feel, we get addicted to the sweetness of how that makes us feel, we must be warned that that sweetness is not an everlasting one and that we must be careful not to indulge in it lest we vomit. As the Scripture says, this too much honey is a very serious dilemma that each one of us must pray God will keep us free from. It is the root cause many times to problems in the family and problems in our relationships with one another because we are set on that sweetness. We are set on pursuing after the things that make us look good, that make us glorious, that make us appear to be something. We get addicted. We have a sweet tooth for that. And being committed to such sweetness will ultimately become our spiritual ruin. Let us ask ourselves these questions before we move on. Do we find an inward pleasure in too much honey? Have we found that we've been tempted to hurt people and run over people in pursuit of this honey? Number three. Do we fully understand that this honey will ultimately make us vomit? Many times a fight in your marriage is springing out of you're addicted to honey. You want to look good. And you don't want to admit your failure because your failure does not enhance your glory. It simply confirms that you have no glory. That you're wrong and God is right. And that apart from Him, you can't make it. Addiction to honey will drive us to do things that later we will mournfully regret. Hast thou found a little honey? Only eat what is sufficient, lest thou indulge and vomit. Be before the Lord. Let Him sort out the pleasure that you experience in your life from eating honey. And let Him be the one to say sufficient is the pleasure. Don't go anymore. Let Him interpret this in your life. It will save you from a lot of trouble. Number six. Now, remember the spirit of Jezebel. Seduce, seduction. Indeed, there is a seducing power in honey. Number six. This dovetails with number five. But it's a different aspect. A different facet. The deadly sin of pride. The deadly sin of pride. James 4, verse number six. 4-6 But He giveth more grace, wherefore He saith, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. The Greek word there for proud literally means to show oneself above the place of a lost, hopeless sinner. To show oneself above the place of a sinner. One who shows himself above his fellow man. That includes your wife, your husband, your parents, your children, fellow brothers, sisters in Christ, and sinners. To show oneself above, to exalt oneself above another human being is the root of pride. In Isaiah chapter 14, we want to look at five aspects, characteristics, that show us the movement of pride in our hearts. One sure evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives is a continual, continual, continual ministry to us to keep us low and humble and broken and meek. The Lord cannot work with pride in our heart. The Holy Spirit is offended at pride. The Holy Spirit's work cannot prosper in a proud heart. Isaiah chapter 14, beginning in verse number 12, How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground which did weaken the nations? For thou hast said in thine heart... Notice the place that this activity is going on. It's in the heart. May God help us to realize that the most important thing to the Lord, it's not what's happening outwardly. We've mentioned this hundreds of times. It's not the singing ministry, the music ministry, how well we look outwardly, the table, how well it looks. It's not how well externally we look or don't look like a church. But it's the inner sanctuary. It's the place where God dwells. The inside of the heart. That is where the Lord dwells and that's what He wants to be beautiful. Pride mars the beauty of God's sanctuary. So this is going on in the heart. Notice what he says. I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High. The root of pride is the I. I will. The five I wills. Beloved, please listen carefully. Please. The source of trouble that you and I will experience or rather all the trouble that we experience that can be traced back to something we've done can always be traced back to the root of I. I. The ego. The center of our being wanting to exalt itself in some form or fashion above the knowledge of Christ. Above the knowledge of God. That's the problem right there. And the Lord is committed to bring that I down into a posture of broken submission to the will of God. Now, these five I wills can speak to us in this way. Listen carefully. This is not inclusive. This is not all comprehensive. But it gives us windows through which the Holy Spirit can then work and perhaps shed light and help us a little further along the way of getting the victory through Christ from this I that lurks. And at any moment, and you all know how easy I can suddenly become irritated and bring trouble and havoc into a household, into a family, into a relationship. How quickly the I can do something and just bring great grief to the heart of God. The I will ascend speaks of the movement of pride aspiring after that which does not belong to it. I will ascend into heaven. Beware of the movement within your heart, within your mind that is after something that doesn't belong to you. Not just monetarily. Beware of that I will ascend. Number two, I will exalt My throne. This is the movement of pride to exert after an authority that does not belong to you. Notice, I will exalt My throne. The throne is indicative of authority. It's indicative of rulership. And pride is always wanting to exert itself in an unlawful way into a position of rulership and authority. This manifests itself when people try and control other people. Try to manipulate people. That is the movement of pride wanting to exalt its throne, wanting to exalt its authority, wanting to exalt its rule. Families do not work when there is rivalry and desire to control and manipulate one another. There is an insatiable movement in the world today to exalt one's throne, one's authority. Number three, I will set, I will set ourself with a measure of importance that doesn't belong to us. You remember the words of Jesus in Luke chapter 14. He spoke about a wedding banquet. Verse number eight, when thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down. I will set. And Jesus said, sit not down in the highest room. I will set is the movement of wanting to be in the highest place. Wanting to take the place of preeminence as opposed to the lowly place, the place of a servant. Sit not down in the highest room, lest there come a more honorable man than thou. And he bid thee and him come and say to thee, give this man place. And thou begin with shame to take the lower room. This speaks of the poison of pride and its movement to tempt us to exalt ourselves. To get too high, too lofty. To want to appear that we're more important than we really are. The next I will is, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high. Romans 12 chapter 3. For I say through the grace given unto you, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, soundly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. Pride tempts us to think of ourself more highly than we ought to. And pride tempts us to think of ourself in an unsound way. Not truly assessing ourselves in a right way. Know how we need the Lord and His grace and His mercy to give us a sound, healthy assessment of ourselves. Not one that smells and reeks with false humility. Nor one that is inflated with visions of grandeur about ourself. But one that is simply sound. Based on the truth. Based on the facts. And the facts alone. I am what I am by the grace of God. I'm not going to deny what I am, but neither am I going to become so inflated with what I am that I forget that what I am is because of the grace of God. It is a lovely balance between the sweetness of knowing I am what I am by the grace of God and the humility and lowliness to keep me from thinking myself to be more highly than I ought to. Proverbs 21. No, it's 27. Excuse me. Proverbs 27.2. We have a quick time check? Very good. Thank you. Proverbs 27.2. Let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth. A stranger. And not thine own lips. Isn't that a good scripture? Let another man praise thee. Let a stranger praise thee. Not thine own lips. I'll tell you a good way to test whether or not the amount of honey that you're enjoying is lawful or not. How much do you talk about it? If you find yourself talking about the sweetness of the honey. You know, Jackie Gleason. The Honeymooners. How many remember watching that sometime? Maybe the younger ones don't. The older ones might. He used to say at the end of every program on a stage with the lights beaming down upon him, how sweet it is. What? He was a star. Tremendously successful. All the money that a man could imagine, Jackie Gleason had it. How sweet it is. He tasted of sweetness. But he came addicted. Let another man praise you and not your own mouth. A stranger. And not your own lips. I have one more sin that I'm going to wait until another time. I feel that we can't do justice to it because it's lengthy. It's called the sin of sexual impurity. Which is the last of the seven deadly sins. It's a subject that needs to be dealt with. It's one that the Lord is concerned about and wants us to understand. But we'll give a whole session to that particular one next time. But now, as we close and bring this to an end, I want to remind you that the sin of too much honey and the sin of pride are sins that we need to really ask the Lord to help us overcome through His grace. Only the Lord Jesus can empower us and strengthen us and change us. He's the only man that I know that is not addicted to too much honey and does not fall prey to pride. And as we hang around with Him and let His Word go deeply into our heart and pray God continue to give us meek and humble attitudes, I believe the Lord can do a great transformation in our lives that will affect every area of our life. And He can really be glorified in our midst. Have you seen the tendency to too much honey? And have you seen the tendencies of pride in your life? Pray about it. Pray with the ones that are close to you too. Confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed and be encouraged. Because He who has begun this good work in you shall perform it. Amen. Father, we thank You and praise You for Your Word. We thank You Lord for the Holy Spirit again and for His faithfulness. Lord, we admit that these are hard things to speak because they seem to expose so deeply so much of the sin that yet finds expression through us. But we're encouraged Lord because we know that You ever live to make intercession for us. And that as we acknowledge our guilt of these things as You show us, You are able to deliver us. You forgive us and You continuously work with us. Teaching us the secret of abiding in Christ and through Christ escaping the dreadful movements and motions of sin that lurk in this body of death. So we praise You Lord for the victory that's ours in Jesus Christ. We pray You'll take all of these words and make them good in our life. Perform them in our life for the praise and honor and glory of Your own name Lord we pray. Hallelujah to God. Hallelujah to God. Thank You Lord. Hallelujah. I want to encourage everyone. I just had a few thoughts while we were worshiping the Lord. Remember, everyone should pray here that you become, listen carefully now, that you become involved in a few people's lives. Listen carefully, this is very, very important. Especially as our numbers increase. It is essential that we realize that it is a blessing to come together corporately where we worship the Lord, where we're instructed and taught, where we hear a word from the Lord. And that's a vital part of God's thought for the body's spiritual welfare. But we must remember that that alone is not sufficient to fulfill God's ultimate intention. God's ultimate intention will not be realized unless we not only gather together in settings like this, but that during the week we are walking together with other believers. Knit together. This is something God can do. You can't orchestrate this. Someone can't get up and say, okay now, I want everyone's names who start from A to C to meet over here. D to F over here. G to A over here. Okay, now you are care couples. And now I as the pastor want you guys to hang out together. You can't touch the work of God like that. You can't do it. So, what the Lord wants to do is He wants every member to be vitally connected with a handful of other brothers and sisters. But it's gotta be His ordering. He's gotta do it. And so that in a sense, you guys, whatever group God does, you have church together all week. Then we come together as a corporate body and we worship God and we praise God. We love one another. But listen, you can't be intimately involved with a hundred people. The whole corporate body of Christ has to by God's hand, by God's providence, has to be broken down into relationships. So that all throughout the week, God's people are under the headship of Christ and through the work of God, not the work of a committee or the work of a pastor, but the work of God, you are engaging in ministry throughout the week, one with another. That is a vital part of the spiritual maturity of God's people. So I want to encourage you to pray, God, bring someone or a few people into my life that I can learn to love, that I can learn to grow together with because that is so important for the work of God to continue in our lives so that that dynamic along with coming together can be working hand in hand to produce the spiritual maturity that God is so desirous to see in our lives. But remember that can't happen. It can't be orchestrated by men. It can only be done through the Holy Spirit working in our lives and knitting us to other believers. You see, it ought not to be a pastor that becomes the cohesion that keeps a local body together, nor should it be the plans that a central ministry create. And that our sense of unity then becomes we're all working off the same page of church programs. Okay, here's what we want to do. If everyone's in agreement with this, then we have unity. No, that is not the way the Lord wants it. Biblically, the unity that God wants, it's not a body revolving around plans that a committee or a pastor is promoting, but it's believers united to the headship of Christ in fellowship one with another. That's what the Lord wants in a local body. And so that ministry can be something organic, something that's happening in your lives through the relationships that you have connected with under the headship of Christ. And so that it's not a professional ministry serving the body of Christ, pastoring, but it's everybody, all the joints, all the members serving one another, growing together. And it's all under the headship of Christ. This is the way it is when you go to your third world countries in Romania and different places. They don't have Western religion. Christianity is the life of Christ flowing in people and through people, through relationships. So that's what we're believing the Lord for. So I encourage you to pray that God brings people, a few people into your life and grow together with them. Grow together with them. I hope everyone can see that because it's such an important part of what the Lord is wanting to do. Anybody else have anything they want to share? 1230, 1235, 1240. Anybody else?