REVELATION 2 - part 2

Liberia: Although Liberia was the first independent republic in Africa (1847) it has experienced much turmoil over the last 50 years, leading to a coup in 1980, military rule and two civil wars, causing the displacement of 1/2 million people and devastation to the economy. A peace agreement in 2003 led to democratic elections in 2005 in which Ellen Sirleaf became the first elected president of Liberia and Africa's first female elected leader.

The Devil has many effective strategies for destroying individuals and the church of Christ. One of those strategies is immorality, stirring up natural desires into lust and promoting the fulfillment of that lust in disobedience and rebellion against God. We see the Devil's strategy at work in the churches of Ephesus, Pergamum and Thyatira in Revelation 2. The teachings behind the lies of lust vary in each church but the end goal of destroying the holy church of God with immorality is the same.
The followers of the teaching of Nicolaus. Nicolaitans (v6, 15) were followers of Nicolaus who Irenaeus writes was one of the deacons in Acts 6 who led the people into immorality. Clement of Alexander says, "They abandoned themselves to pleasure like goats, leading a life of self-indulgence".
The followers of the teaching of Balaam (v14). Balaam (Numbers 22-25) encouraged Moabite women to seduce Israelite men into intermarriage and to participate in their idolatrous and sexual feasts with the intent of destroying the people of God.
The followers of Jezebel (v20-22). A woman who was a false teacher who encouraged immorality and idolatry. God was going to judge her and anyone who followed her teaching and example.

 Notice in all three of these examples the leadership of a false teacher who promotes the lie of immorality as acceptable behavior in the church. Satan disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11.13-15) and works in the church. The church is a mixture of born-again believers who strive for holiness before God and those who adopt christian words and behaviors but do not fully submit to God's authority and do not accept the things of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2.14-16). When a pragmatic, worldly, sensual teacher comes along these undiscerning church attenders willingly and willfully turn from the authority of God's Word.
The Devil's latest attack of immorality in the church is with the lie that same-sex marriage and other sexual sins are no longer sin because the Bible no longer has authoritative truth for our advanced and sophisticated culture. The strong attractions and deep affections of monogamous same-sex relationships and other sexual experiences cannot substitute for the truth that all sexual activity, even in the mind, outside of marriage is immorality and sin before a Holy God, whose truth has not changed. Immorality is destructive to the individual and to the church of God. God said, "Be holy as I am holy".