Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #10 of Revelation 2, and we are going to begin by reading Revelation 2:9:

I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.

We were looking at the first part of this verse in our last study, and tonight we will look at the second part of the verse in Revelation 2:9:

… and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.

The first thing we want to do is to look at this word “blasphemy.”  This is a word that the Bible uses fairly often, and it is a word that is very misunderstood.  Many of us have heard of “blaspheming the Holy Spirit,” but very few people understand what that means.  We are not going to get into a discussion of that, but we will look at the word “blasphemy,”  and it is the same word that is used in Matthew 12 where it speaks of “blaspheming the Holy Spirit.”  What we learn here about this word would apply to that passage and wherever else this word is found.

The original Greek word sounds like our English word “blasphemy,” so it is close transliteration of the word, and it is Strong’s #988.  There are three words that are closely related to one another.  It is also translated as “railings” in 1Timothy 6:3-4:

If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,

The word “railings” is the same word translated as “blasphemy” in our verse in Revelation 2.

Let us go to one other place where it is translated in a different way.  It is translated as two English words, and it will help us a great deal understanding what this word means.  This verse in Ephesians 4 will basically define “blaspheming” for us.  What does “blasphemy” mean?  It tells us in Ephesians 4:31:

Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

“Evil speaking” is something that we all get involved in, so this sin of “blasphemy” takes on more meaning to us personally.  If we are involved in “evil speaking,” it could pertain to others, or to God, but it is “blasphemy.”  That is what blasphemy means – it is to speak evil of someone.  Individuals in the nation of Israel were speaking evil of the Lord Jesus Christ.  They were criticizing Him when He declared Himself to be the Son of God, so they were blaspheming Him.  They were speaking evil of the Lord.

To update this to our present day, when those in the churches and congregations heard the information about the end of the church age, and when they spoke evil of that doctrine and of the true believers that carried that message from God, they were blaspheming.  The definition of blasphemy is to “speak evil.” 

Again, we are not going to get into “blaspheming the Holy Spirit” because that will take us off course, and it would be necessary to go into depth regarding that, and it would take us away from our verse, so we do not want to go that direction.

But let us look at a few verses in Matthew 15 where the sin of blasphemy will come into view again.  It says in Matthew 15:18-20:

But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.

So now the sin of blasphemy is hitting home even more with mankind because God says it is a sin that proceeds forth from the heart.  It proceeds from the unsaved heart of man.  He tends to blaspheme, or to “speak evil,” and of course we can all testify to the truthfulness of that statement.  It is man’s nature to speak evil of others, and to speak evil of God, as well as the things of God, or the true teachings of the Gospel.

Let us go back to Revelation 2:9:

…and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.

As we think about this statement, we wonder why God is speaking of the Jews blaspheming in reference to their saying they are Jews when, in truth, they were Jews.  It is at this point in history at the close of the first century on the island of Patmos close to sixty years after the veil of the temple was rent (several decades into the New Testament church age), so why is the Lord speaking at all about the Jews?  After all, the nation of Israel had already been destroyed.  The secular history witnesses that they were destroyed about 70 A. D. and the Jews were scattered into the various nations of the world. 

More importantly, God’s focus had shifted from the Jewish people to the Christians.  In the Old Testament, for centuries the Jews were the people of God, and they were His representatives to the inhabitants of the earth.  But in 33 A. D. when the Lord went to the cross and the veil of the temple was rent in twain, they ceased to be the “holy people.”  They ceased to be God’s representatives, so God was no longer concerned with Jews, and that was not His focus.  He was not interested in what the synagogues were teaching because they were all “the synagogues of Satan” because God’s Spirit had left them in 33 A. D., and right up to our present time.  That would be like God expressing concern about the Jews today – there would be no point to that. 

We understand that the answer to this statement about those that “say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogues of Satan,” is because this is parabolic language.  We have to keep in mind that in just a couple of verses down from here, the Lord will once again say: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches,” and that is a warning statement to remind us to look for the spiritual meaning, or the parabolic teaching.  When we do, we realize, “This is just like what God did in the Old Testament, and God is using the Jews as a figure of speech to represent the New Testament church.”  In other words, the Lord was hiding information from the church that He was addressing, for example, when He said, “And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write,” but then He would add, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches,” plural.  God was addressing those in the churches.  He was addressing Christians.  He was not addressing the Jews in Revelation 2:9, unless the Jew was a Christian, and He was not addressing synagogues, but churches.  He wants us to understand that the Jews are a type and figure of Christians, or of professed Christians, and the synagogues are being used as a type and figure of the New Testament churches.

This is actually a helpful verse to help us prove that when the Lord speaks of Jerusalem or Judea in Matthew 24, He actually has in mind the New Testament churches.  He is not concerned about the nation of Israel and their spiritual condition because their spiritual condition was settled forever once the veil of the temple was rent in twain after they determined that Jesus was not the Messiah and they determined not to listen to God.  And for those that remained in that religion, they remained in a dead religion with no blessing of salvation.  It is very much like what happened at the end of the church age when God finished using the churches and congregations, and He departed from them.  He was done with them, and they are no longer His representatives.

So in this verse in Revelation 2:9, the Lord is referring to Christians, so let us read it that way: “…and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Christians, and are not…”  That is, they profess to be children of God.  Remember that we live in a world today where about two billion people say they are Christians, and yet the fact is that God tested them with the news of the end of the church age and the news of Judgment Day, but they did not hearken.  They failed the test, and they did not come out of their congregations, thereby demonstrating that there are hundreds upon hundreds of millions of people who say they are Christians, and are not, but they are of the synagogue of Satan.

Of course we know that the church age ended, and the Great Tribulation began, and the Holy Spirit came out of the midst of the congregations, and Satan entered in, and one hundred percent of the churches, without exception, are without Christ.  They all became unfaithful when Christ left, and God was no longer blessing them.  It pertains to all the churches and congregations in all the world – in every town, village, and city in the world.  Every church in the world came under the wrath of God as judgment began at the house of God, and Satan was God’s instrument to bring about the spiritual destruction of the New Testament churches and congregations, and the whole church world became the synagogues of Satan.

But in this verse God was warning those in the churches during the time of the church age when the wheat and tares were growing together.  In the first part of the verse, He was referring to the wheat: “I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich).”  And then He was referring to the tares: “…and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.” 

It is hard for some people to understand what God is saying here.  They just do not get it.  “If you say you are a Christian, you are a Christian – that is all there is to it.”  Yes, that may be sufficient for the government when they do their census: “Are you a Jew?  Are you Christian?  Are you Muslim?”  And if you respond, “I am a Christian,” then they take that at face value.  To them, you are a Christian.  To your neighbor, you are a Christian, and to the others in your congregation, you are a Christian.  But God does not accept a simple profession.  He requires more than words because God looks on the heart.

Let us go to James 2, and the Lord will show us exactly what He means when He says, “which say they are Jews, but are not.”  It says in James 2:14:

What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?

Notice that the point here regards someone who says he has “faith.”  He is making a profession of faith, just like someone who “accepts Christ.”  And if you ask him, he will say, “Yes, I am a Christian.  I believe in God.  I believe the Bible is true.”  And that response is sufficient for the churches, and he is considered a child of God and a Christian, and they will assure him that all is well.  But that is not sufficient for God, and God is pointing that out: “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?”  Some read this, and they get a mistaken idea.  They think, “Oh, you just cannot say you are a Christian, but you have to back it up.  So if I say I am a Christian, and I give financially to the church, or I hand out tracts or go on a mission trip, then I have works to back it up.”  If people do not think this, they are acting it out as they try to perform good works to support their claim of salvation, and that is mistaken.  It is completely wrong.  God is not looking to the works of men, and men like Martin Luther knew that.  But there was a mistake that Martin Luther made, if it is to be believed, regarding his response and his being stunned to read this chapter in the book of James because God stresses works, and Luther thought that the book of James, therefore, did not belong in the Bible.  That may, or may not be, true, and we cannot trust church history all that much, but I am sure that there have been individuals who have been troubled by this chapter in James because it stresses faith plus works.  And yet it is due to misreading what God is saying.  God goes on to say in James 2:15-16:

If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?

Again, the point is they are just words out of their mouths.  And there was no work provided, but only words.  Then it says in James 2:17:

Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

Again, I cannot stress this enough.  It is a gigantic error to think, “I must do good works to accompany my profession of faith.”  That is not what He is saying, and in the next verse He will explain, in James 2:18:

Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

Once we understand that the “man” that says, “Thou has faith, and I have works,” is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ, and everything begins to fall into place.  It is Jesus speaking to those professed Christians: “You have faith, and you say you believe, but I have works.  I am the one who took upon myself the sins of the elect and died for their sins.  That was my work on their behalf, and it is the work that I performed that you lack, and which you must have in order for your profession of faith to be of substance.” 

Then notice what God says in James 2:19:

Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

Again, that applies to about two billion Christians, and there is something to be commended in that, but notice what God says next: “…the devils also believe, and tremble.”  Why would God bring up the devils in this context?  The answer is that the devils have an intellectual understanding of God, but one thing they do not have is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on behalf of any one of them.  Jesus did not die for the sins of any of the fallen angels, so it does not matter what they believe, or what they profess.  If they were so inclined (which they are not), and they went about to try to do good works, that would not matter either because Christ did no work for them.  So God is underscoring that point.  Then it says in James 2:20:

But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

That is why we can say that the New Testament churches as a whole are dead churches.  It does not matter what they say.  It does not matter what good deeds or good works they may do because God is not looking to them for accompanying works, but He is looking for the accompanying work of Christ performed for certain ones before the foundation of the world, the elect, or those whose names were recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life.  And He does not see any work on their behalf.  So He says, “O, vain man, you are devoid of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, so faith without works is dead.”  Then He gives the example of Abraham in James 2:21-22:

Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?

This is one of the supreme examples of how God wrote the Bible in such a way as to ensnare people.  This is one of the biggest traps that the Lord has laid, and all kinds of people wax eloquent, and the theologians just gush over “faithful Abraham,” and they go on and on about his tremendous faithfulness in obedience to God by offering up his only son Isaac on mount Moriah. 

Now I do not want to take away anything from Abraham’s faithfulness, as he was certainly a faithful man who demonstrated great trust in the Lord.  However, theologians have gotten carried away with this idea the Lord is putting forth in the Epistle of James: “Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?”  The theologians realized that to be justified means to be made righteous, or to be saved.  It means you have entered into the kingdom of God, and for anyone who is looking to do just a little bit of their own work, here it is!  Yes, there is faith, and the Bible says we are justified by faith, but here is Abraham who is justified by works.  “So if we can attain to the degree of trust reached by Abraham, we can also be justified.”  And that is why so many of them speak so lovingly of Abraham because they are enamored with the idea of doing a little bit of work in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

And yet what they fail to realize is that God is laying a trap and setting a snare as He presents Abraham and his great act of obedience.  And, yes, it was a great act of obedience for Abraham to do this, but God could have chosen any act of obedience, and He could have made the same statement.  He could have taken any act of Abraham in his life, or in the life of any child of God, and He could have made the same statement.  And He does do that with Rahab in James 2:25:

Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?

Yes, Rahab did a great work, but what many do not understand is that the work that justified Abraham was not his work of offering up Isaac, and the great work of Rahab was not her work in hiding the spies.  But it was the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.  At the point in time when Abraham offered up his son Isaac, he was a true believer, a true child of God.  The work of Christ had been applied to him, and he had been redeemed by the glorious work of faith of the Lord Jesus Christ on his behalf (at the foundation of the world).  So God simply takes a “snapshot” of Abraham at this point in his life, and He asks the question, “Was not Abraham our father justified by the works (of Christ) when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?”  And the answer is, “Absolutely!  He was justified by the works of the Lord.” 

But if Abraham or Rabab were doing anything else, God could have asked the same question: “Was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she was doing the dishes?”  Yes, because she was a saved individual.  “Was not Abraham justified by works, when he saddled his ass to go on the road?”  Yes, being saved, he was justified by the works of Christ at that point in time.