Good morning. We are in the book of Revelation, and we are now in chapter two, the letters to the seven churches. And it's interesting to look into how people understand these letters and who they are written about. Of course, they were written to seven literal churches. But beyond that, there is a view that the seven churches, each picture chronologically different ages, or if different kind of seasons or times during the church age. And I found a description of that view. I don't personally hold to it, but I found a description of it in what's called the Recovery Version of the New Testament. I want to read it because it's interesting. And I think just reading it, you'll see how it seems like it's reaching for something that doesn't quite match up. But I think it's worth I think it's worth reading it anyway, just to know about this view. So it says the seven epistles in chapter two and three are the record of the actual situation existing in the seven churches at the time these epistles were written. However, since the book is a book of signs with a prophetic nature, the situations of the seven churches are also signs signifying prophetically the progress of the church in seven stages. The first epistle to the church in Ephesus provides a picture of the end of the initial church, the church in the first stage during the latter part of the first century. The second epistle to the church of Smyrna prefigures the suffering Church under the persecution of the Roman Empire from the latter part of the 1st century to the early part of the 4th century, when Constantine the Great, the Caesar of the Roman Empire, brought the Church into imperial favor. The 3rd epistle to the Church of Pergamos pre-symbolizes the worldly Church, the Church married to the world from the day Constantine accepted Christianity to the time the papal system was established in the latter part of the 6th century. The 4th epistle to the Church in Thyatira depicts prophetically the apostate church from the ordaining of the papal system in the latter part of the 6th century to the end of this age when Christ comes back. The 5th epistle to the church in Sardis prefigures the Protestant church from the Reformation in the early part of the 16th century to Christ coming back. The sixth epistle to the church in Philadelphia predicts the church of brotherly love, the recovery of the proper church life from the early part of the 19th century, when the brothers were raised up in England to practice the church outside all denominational and divisive systems, to the second appearing of the Lord. The seventh epistle to the church in Laodicea foreshadows the degraded church life of the brothers in the 19th century from the latter part of the 19th century until the Lord's return. And I imagine different commentators or different Bible teachers have different ways of figuring that out, but it seems like it's reaching for something that it can't quite attain to because, like, for instance, you get to it gets to the church that symbolizes the apostate Rome, which goes all the way to the end of the age, and then it zooms in on the church in Europe that returns to faithfulness, but you still have the apostate church. So how can it be seven consecutive stages if there's so much overlap? It's just there's always been the faithful church. There's always been the lukewarm church. There's always been the apostate church all the way from the beginning till now. It doesn't seem to me that as hard as they try to do this and make it look like the church has had these consecutive times, these seasons, it doesn't seem like, to me, that it works at all. Now, I remember talking about Revelation 119, which a lot of people think is the way the book should be partitioned into past, present, and future tense. Remember what he says there in chapter 1, verse 19. He says, write the things which thou hast seen and the things which are and the things which shall be hereafter. And some people think, trying to apply that past, present, future tense, trying to apply that to the book, they think that chapter one describes what John has seen already. That's the vision of Christ. And then the things that are now, present tense, they think that is talking about the letters to the seven churches found in Revelation 2 and 3. and that what is going to take place later is the rest of the book, chapters 4 to 21. So that's a pretty common view there. Now, however you divide up the book, it's very clear when you read these letters that they have universal application for all time, for all churches everywhere, and there are certainly churches today that match any one of those seven churches. All right, so let's get into this. Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. All right, the seven stars are seven angels, the angels of the churches, which you saw in Revelation 1.20, right there, actually, the previous verse in chapter one. He says, the mystery of the seven stars, which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven gold of six, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. And we said that word angels, can mean messengers, the messengers of the seven churches, meaning the pastors or the elders. And the seven candlesticks are the seven churches. So he says, this is the one speaking, he says, that holdeth the seven stars. So the messengers of the churches in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the churches, the seven golden candlesticks. He says, verse two, I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil, and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars. All right, so Ephesus was a great city. It was one of the largest cities. in the Roman Empire, and it was a major commercial center. A lot of buying and selling. A lot of politics happened at Ephesus. It was a center for religion. You remember they had the Temple of Artemis there. You learn from the Book of Acts that it was also a center for witchcraft and the occult. Remember how the people, when they repented, burned all their books of witchcraft? But notice the commendation the Lord gives these Ephesian Christians. I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience. And actually those same words show up if we go to 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 3. Same three words. But it's interesting because in 1 Thessalonians 1, 3, those words are connected with faith, hope, and love. So I'll read from verse 2. 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 2. We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father, knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God." So here you had work, you had labor, and you had patience. The same thing as we see in Ephesus, I know thy works, thy labor, and thy patience, but It doesn't connect them like First Thessalonians 1.3 does with faith, hope, and love. In First Thessalonians 1.3, it's the work of faith and the labor of love and patience of hope. And that's very interesting how it connects it with faith, hope and love, whereas it doesn't in Ephesus. And it's curious because he's going to go on to say that they have left their first love. Now, could that be? Could that be that that they're working, but it's not really the work of faith or they're laboring, but it's not really a labor of love anymore? I don't know. But he says they've left their first love and he's going to threaten to take their church away, take their candlestick away. It's a pretty serious warning here. With that said, there's a wonderful truth here, too, because if you go back to verse 1, it says, And the word there means to hold fast. So he holds fast the messengers of the churches, the pastors in his hand. And it almost reminds us of what Jesus says in John 10. If we go back to John 10 in verse 28 he says and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand My father which gave them me is greater than all no man is able to pluck them out of my hand And even beyond that he's the one who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks He walks among the churches which shows us that it shows us that Jesus is is actively present among his churches. Even churches that have left their first love, in this case, he's warning them he's going to take their candlestick away if they don't repent. as we go on here. But He's active. He's among us. And that should be a comforting thought for us here. We should remember always while we're reading Revelation that it's primarily a revelation of Jesus Christ. That's how the book begins, the revelation of Jesus Christ. And not only as from Christ, a revelation of Christ in terms of Him giving it, but also a revelation about Christ. And here we see that it's a revelation about Christ. Just look at this first statement He says to Ephesus. He says, I know thy works. That speaks of His omniscience. It speaks of His omniscience. He knows our works, He knows everything, and He knows us inside and out better than we know ourselves. And when He says, I know thy works, the word works and labor there are different, obviously. The word labor actually means labor unto weariness. And so He knows our work. He knows that a lot of times we feel weary. We're worn out with our work for the kingdom. We feel like there's such a lack of visible fruit. But we have to remember, the Lord knows. He knows all of our works. There's a good verse in Hebrews about this. In Hebrews 6 verse 10, For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you have showed toward His name, and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. So it would be an unrighteous thing, it says, for God to forget all that hard work and labor which you've done for his name, and he's not going to be unrighteous and forget it. And then the word patience there, he knows our patience, that is perseverance or endurance. He knows how we have endured through all of these trials and tests in this life. So now he says something very interesting. He says, I know also how thou canst not bear them which are evil, and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars. And so here we have a commendation of testing men who are evil and who are false. That word, bear, when he says, thou canst not bear them which are evil, that word means to bear a burden. It's the same word that's over in Galatians 6, verse 2. We're told to bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. But we're not to bear with false teachers. We're not to bear with false doctrine. And how did they discern this false doctrine? It says right here that thou hast tried them. Thou hast tried them. Now, that's not the same word that's over in 1 John 4, verse 1, where it tells us to test the spirits. But it means to basically try by experiment, is the idea there. And you'll remember that Jesus said we would be able to know them by their fruits. We'll be able to know false teachers by their fruits, if not their doctrines tested against Scripture by their lives, by the fruit of their walk. Do they have the fruit of the Spirit? In a way, this is actually fulfillment of prophecy, too, because The Apostle Paul in Acts 20 warned the Ephesian elders that these false brethren were going to come in. He says in verse Acts chapter 20 verse 28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God which he had purchased with his own blood. For I know this that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears." And so it says these ones are going to come in, and some are even going to arise from the elders themselves after his departing. From your own self shall men arise. But it says they'll be speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. Reminds us of the second chapter of 2 Peter where he warns about that there will be false teachers in the church. and how they're going to bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring swift destruction on themselves. So this was warned about all the way back when Paul met with those Ephesian elders, and now it's come to pass, and they have, to their credit, tested these who are claiming to be apostles who are not, and they've found them to be liars. It seems that pretty early on, even during Paul's ministry, there were these false apostles going around claiming to be able to do the miraculous and so forth, and deceiving the Christians of the early church, or trying to. If you read in Corinthians chapter 11, starting at verse 2, Paul says, For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear less by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. for if he that cometh preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit which you have not received, or another gospel which you have not accepted, you might bear well with him." And then he says, if you go down to verse 13, after he talks about those who are making false accusations against him and trying to find occasion to find fault with him, it says in verse 13, for such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ, and no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness whose end shall be according to their works. And so here you see just as Satan transforms himself as an angel of light, he masquerades as an angel of light, so also his ministers masquerade as if they're true servants of the Lord in order to deceive and bring in these pernicious errors. It was an important practice in the early church taught by Paul that there should be the careful testing of teachers. If you look at 1 Corinthians 14, 29, Paul says, let the prophet speak two or three and let the other judge. In 1 Thessalonians 5.21, he says, And of course, in 1 John 4.1, it says, And we have the same thing today. If you're not aware of the New Apostolic Reformation, we have plenty of people out there claiming to be apostles who are not apostles. They're claiming to do miracles. And yet they can't do the miracles that Jesus did. In fact, sometimes when they'll lay hands on somebody who's in a wheelchair, remember Jesus, he touched people and they were healed. They jumped up instantly leaping for joy. When these false apostles today will lay hands on somebody, they'll say, you just got to receive it by faith. And so if the person doesn't get healed, then they say, well, that's just your lack of faith. And whereas Jesus raised people from the dead, I'm pretty sure the people that were dead didn't have faith to receive their healing. In many cases, yeah, Jesus would not heal people because of their unbelief, but there's other cases where he would heal them in spite of whether they believed or not. In fact, he would heal people because of the faith of others. You remember the four men that brought the paralytic to Jesus, and it says Jesus saw their faith. He saw their faith, and he healed the man. The Syrophoenician woman who had a demon-possessed child, Because of her faith, her child was set free from that demonic possession. But anyway, Jesus showed through his ministry that he could just heal someone by a touch or by a word. And even if there was unbelief, he would still sometimes just heal just because of how good and gracious he is. the man who says of his son, his son is demon-possessed after Jesus comes down from the mountain of transfiguration, he says, I believe, help thou my unbelief. And Jesus healed the boy anyway. And the many cases where Jesus just healed even in spite of people's lack of faith and Today, these apostles, they touch people to heal them and they'll say, it's just your unbelief. And we don't see them touching people and them being risen up out of wheelchairs and so on and so forth. And so we have false apostles today. We have false apostles today. All right, let's go on here to the next section. He says, and has born and has patience and for my namesake has labored and has not fainted. So they're commended for their endurance. They have not fainted. We're told many times in the Bible not to faint. Of course, we faint when we get discouraged. We get discouraged and we start looking at our circumstances more than the sure promises of God. Remember, we know from 1 Corinthians 15 that we should always be abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our labor is not in vain. But when we start to look on the circumstances, just like Peter, when he started looking at the waves, he started to sink. We start looking at our circumstances and we become discouraged. And we begin to faint. And the Bible says we should never grow weary in well-doing. And so the only way we can do that, keep from fainting, keep from burning out, is by looking to Christ and saying, the Lord is our portion. It's not the Lord plus the way we think things should work out according to what we see with our eyes and what we experience. But it's simply the Lord. Jesus is enough. Whether I have a kind of visible success in this world that I would like or not, if I'm obedient to the Lord, that's the success I want because I know that my labor is not in vain if I do it in faith, and I faint not. And we're told that we will be rewarded in due time if we wait, if we're patient, if we endure. James 5, 7, Be patient therefore, brethren, under the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman, or the farmer, waited for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it until he received the early and the latter reign. And so the Ephesian Christians were commended for this. This was 30 some years, probably right around 30 years since the church had been founded by the Apostle Paul, and they have been patiently laboring for all these decades, and they still are holding on to sound doctrine, they're still laboring, but there's a problem. Even though they have sound doctrine, even though they have good works, verse four, nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent." And so this is, it was going well, seemingly, until now. Because if you would look at this church, just by verses 1 to 3, you would say, most of us would say, that's a healthy church. Jesus can see right to their hearts and he can see that in their heart they have left their first love. And this is what happens over time. Something of the world gets into our hearts and steals away our love for Christ by degrees, usually by just by slow, imperceptible degrees, inch by inch, we get colder and we drift away. But we still go on going through the motions, the religious external motions. We're doing the good works, going to church and so forth. But we've really lost the heart. We've lost the fire in our heart. You remember John the Baptist is a good example of a Christian who's on fire for the Lord. It says he was a burning and shining lamp. And we can't really shine as a lamp, as light to this world, unless we're burning inwardly with love for God. And that is something that sometimes the fire goes out, right? And we still go on trying to be a light, but we can't really be a shining lamp. We can't really let our light shine. We're just manufacturing it. We're doing it by constraint. We're not doing it with joy and gladness that we once had because our love has waxed cold. And that's what happens. In Matthew 24, Jesus said in the end times, the love of many will wax cold. And it says the reason why is because iniquity shall abound. Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. Something gets a hold of our heart, some kind of covetousness or greed, or we would call it harmless mirth or harmless worldly enjoyments, but when really it's lasciviousness, it's worldliness in our hearts. We call it prudence, but really it's greed. after money, after the things of the world, something's gotten into our heart. Those are the things, they steal away our love for Christ. You remember in Song of Solomon, it's the little foxes that spoil the vine. That's a great picture of the little sins that can spoil our love for Christ and make us to grow cold. And there's a great passage to help explain what's going on here, too, in 1 Timothy 5, where it talks about the young widows. It says in verse 11, they begin to wax wanton, so they begin to lust after the world, desire after the world. It says against Christ, see? There's always competition between the world and Christ. If you love the world or the things in the world, the Bible says the love of the Father is not in you. the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. Those things are not of the Father, they're of the world. But it says here in 1 Timothy 5.11, they wax wanton, or they have these worldly desires against Christ. And it says they will marry having damnation or judgment because they have cast off their first faith. So casting off their first faith is the same thing as forsaking your first love. Remember that faith works by love. Faith is how we look to Christ. Faith is looking. It's looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, trusting in Him, relying on Him, loving Him, being preoccupied with Him. They've cast that off. They've turned away to the world. They've now become preoccupied with the world, looking to the things of the world. looking to find the satisfaction, the fulfillment, the joy that they would only find in Christ, they're looking for in a man. And so they've cast off their first faith, which is to cast off your first love. So that gives you a little more insight about what had happened over in Ephesus. The world was getting into the church. And I'm sure this wasn't a special temptation for a church that was located in such an opulent city. Lots of things to try to dazzle them and seduce them back into worldliness. So he says in verse 5, See, Hopefully we can remember back to a time when we were on our knees with the Lord seeking his face more. Our faith was set toward Christ. We were looking to him. and we loved Him. We were sincerely trying to get all the sin out of our lives, not being comfortable with it. We just wanted to know it so we could cast it out. Hopefully we can remember that time. Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent. He says repent. Repent means to turn. It means to do a run at 180. In fact, we need to repent all the time. Jesus, first thing He preached during His ministry, according to Matthew 4, I believe it's verse 17, right around there, was repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And that's what we need to do. We need to repent and do the first works. What are the first works? The first works are going back to our first love, which means seeking the Lord with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, being in His word and prayer. We need to go to the root so that we can have the right kind of fruit. Instead of just having the, according to verse two, the work, the labor, and the patience, we need the work of faith, the labor, and love, and the patience of hope. Instead of just an external formalistic religion that we're just maintaining because it's what we do. And then we have a warning here. He says, or else. Look at those words, or else. Uh-oh. I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. So he's saying, I'll remove your witness. I'll shut down your church. That's what the candlestick symbolizes, the church, the local congregation. I'll remove that candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. That's a serious warning. That's a serious warning. The light will go out. But then in verse 6, there's a little bit of comfort here in verse 6. which I also hate. Now there's a couple different theories regarding the Nicolaitans. One is based on the literal kind of breakdown of the word there, or the name, and the second one is based on looking at the context surrounding. The word Nicolaitan really means, if you look at the first part of the word, Niko, and I believe that Nike comes from that, but it just basically means to conquer. And the second part, laitins, you hear the word laity, laity, there's clergy, pastors, and then there's laity, the general congregation. So the idea, if you break down the word, is like power over the common people. And he says, the deeds of them I hate. And so some people think that just by the name there, it means, of course, names are significant in scripture, it means that This is the error of kind of making a hierarchy of the clergy and bringing all the people into subjection under man, conquering the people, conquering the laity. And some have taken that route with this and pointed to the over-exaltation of the clergy, priests, and the Roman Catholic Church, the whole hierarchical system, and the Pope, and others have pointed to even Protestantism and how pastor-led churches can dominate over the people. And they say that's not supposed to be how it works. And of course, yeah, the pastors are not supposed to be dominating. They're not supposed to be lording it over God's heritage, says 1 Peter 5. But they're supposed to be overseers. And so you need to have the authority structure in the church. It's very clear there's pastors and deacons, overseers. People in the church are commanded to submit to their leadership and to honor them. But yeah, you're not supposed to have pastors that are lording it over the heritage, the Lord's heritage. Now, another way you can go with this, very interestingly, if you look at that word, Nicolaiton, Nico can mean not just conquering, but victory. And then leitan can mean people, the common people. So you can look at it as the victory people. And so maybe they were promoting themselves as super spiritual victorious ones. And this idea connects it with some of the errors that were going around in this little circle of churches. These churches were all close to each other within 30, 50 miles of each other. But if, so if you look at verse 14, you see the doctrine of Balaam, verse 20, the Jezebel, the doctrine of Jezebel calls herself a prophetess and so forth. And so basically the idea is they were promoting false teaching, possibly super spiritual, victorious living kind of teaching, which led into idolatry and immorality. So that's another way of looking at it. That's another possible interpretation. is based more on the internal evidence of the text rather than just the name there, speculating off that name. That one may be a little bit better, maybe a little bit weightier of a view than the first. Another interesting thing worth mentioning is in Acts 6, 5, there was a man named Nicolaeus in the Greek. And some church tradition has it that the Nicolaitans grew from him, one of the seven serving men in Acts 6, the prototypical deacons. However, there's really no evidence for this at all, especially not from Scripture to connect these. It's just weak, but it's worth mentioning that the name is similar. All right, verse 7. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Now, of course, everyone pretty much has ears and physical hearing, but not everyone has spiritual hearing. Not everyone has ears to hear. And that's what it's talking about here. Just like Jesus would often say, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Galatians talks about the hearing of faith. Galatians 3, I believe it is, talks about the hearing of faith. Not everybody has the hearing of faith, and not everybody can hear with discernment and understanding. That is something that we gain by the Spirit through the Word of God, through exercising ourselves in godliness, as Hebrews will tell us. It says in Hebrews 5 verse 11, And then he goes on to say, "...for everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are full of age, even to those who by reason of use..." There it is. "...reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." They have ears to hear. And it says, "...to him that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." The tree of life is just simply a picture of Christ. It always spoke of Christ. He is life itself. There's no source of eternal life outside of partaking of Jesus Christ. You remember back in Genesis, after Adam and Eve had sinned by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God was concerned that they would then eat from the tree of life and live forever. And so he barred them out of the garden. The tree of life which the leaves of it are for the healing of the nations, it'll say later on in the book, is none other than Jesus Christ, is a symbol of him. And it says in Revelation 22, 14, blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city. So there it's The overcomers are those who are obeying, those who are doing the commandments of Christ. They are the ones who overcome. And then it says in verse 8, And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write, These things saith the first and last, which was dead and is alive. 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. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death." Smyrna is about 30 miles away from Ephesus, not too far. This was where Polycarp was, called an early church father, Polycarp. martyred in, let's see, 168 AD, and he was over the church at Smyrna. And so he very well could have been the angel or the messenger of the churches of Smyrna that is meant in this very passage. Apparently Smyrna, while it was a beautiful city, it's modern Izmir is what it's called today. But it was closely aligned with Rome and the emperor worship that Rome had. And so this brought a lot of persecution against the Christians. And that is what we see in this passage. So in verse 9, he says, I know thy works, just like he said with Ephesus, 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. So here he says, I know thy works and thy tribulation and poverty. And they were probably in poverty because of the persecution, probably because their goods had been taken away by their persecutors. It reminds us of Hebrews 10, the passage in Hebrews 10, it says, in verse 32, but called to remembrance the former days in which, after you were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions, partly whilst ye were made a gazing-stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly whilst ye became companions of them which were so used. For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. It reminds us of that verse we just read about the promise of being able to eat of the tree of life and the paradise of God. We have something better than anything in this world, any riches and honors and privileges in this world. We have the paradise of God, and God himself is our exceeding great reward. And Jesus says this is going to happen. He says in John 15, 18, if the world hate you, you know that it hated me. before it hated you. If you were of the world, would love his own. But because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." And so he says, remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. And so it's interesting what Jesus says here. He says he knows of their poverty, but he says thou art rich. Now they're not materially wealthy, but they're spiritually wealthy. And this really just destroys, again, like so many other verses, destroys the prosperity gospel that says that it's always God's will for us to be materially wealthy. And remember, they'll quote that verse in 3 John. Let's go over to 3 John. 3 John and verse, what is it? Verse 2, Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. And so they say, see, you should prosper as your soul prospers. So they, I think this was Agee. not Hagee, Kenneth Hagen. Kenneth Hagen was the one who originally used this verse this way. So he said there's a correlation between soul prosperity and outward wealth or material wealth. He says you should prosper as your soul prospers. And here, remember, as we learned when we went through 1 John, that's just a greeting. That's just a greeting. That's just expression of goodwill. It's not some kind of a doctrine of a correlation between spiritual wealth and material wealth. And here we see the opposite in Revelation 2, verse 9. And this does give us doctrine, which shows that there is no correlation necessarily between one's prosperity of one's soul and one's outward material prosperity. He says, he knows that they're poverty, but thou art rich. They're spiritually rich, even though they're broke in the material sense. And he says, I know the blasphemy or the evil speaking of them which say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. No doubt these were probably Jewish in terms of their blood. They were Jewish, but they weren't the kind of Jews that were the true Jews that Romans 2 talks about. If you go down to Romans 2, after he deals with hypocrisy among the Jews, he says this. Verse 28 and 29, he says, For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart and the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. And so a true Jew is one who seeks only the glory of God and seeks their reward in heaven from God and doesn't desire the praise of men or to be renowned or to be of great reputation in this world. They're not seeking after those worldly things. But those who are seeking the applause of men, reputation among men, praise from men, then they are basically devils. They're basically serving the devil because that's what the devil was all about. He was all about pride and lifting himself up above God, if you read Isaiah chapter 14. And so those who follow him are of the same spirit. They're of that babble builder spirit that says, let us make a name for ourselves. And rather than just being faithful and letting God deal with our reputation. And so here he says, they're the synagogue of Satan. This is really the only time in the whole New Testament where the word synagogue is used of the church, the ecclesia, the gathering together of saints. But they're a synagogue of Satan. They're not true Jews in the sense that they're worshipers of the true God, but they are false Jews, and therefore they are a false synagogue of Satan or a false church, a church of Satan. And a lot of times, that's what we have. We have, as we can have false believers who are false converts, we can also have false churches that look like churches. that claim to be churches that have people that claim to be leaders but they're false churches and we can know them by their fruits we just had this video come out on the internet recently about these churches they seeker friendly churches and they were having a Super Bowl party one of them and they dressed up in football jerseys on the church platform on. I suppose it was the Sunday morning service, and they take a Bible and they kick it like it's a football kickoff. So the lady kicks the Bible into the stands. And that just shows, that is a clear display of their regard for the Word of God, for the sanctity of the Word of God. That same church, I believe it was that same church or another church of the same denomination, They were singing songs in church about alcohol, singing these country songs in church about alcohol, and I was just blown away. But there are churches out there that are clearly churches of Satan. They're not true churches at all. And the indication here seems to be that these false brethren, these who are not true Jews, but are a synagogue of Satan, it seems that they were may be taking a lead in bringing persecution upon this church at Smyrna. He says in verse 10, And so here we have another great promise for those who overcome, the crown of life. Remember, those who overcome in Revelation are those who love not their own lives unto the death, it'll say later on as we go into the book. He says, don't fear those things which thou shalt suffer. Don't fear. In fact, Jesus says something very similar in Matthew chapter 10. Matthew 10 verse 28, fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. And of course, we're going to see a good a good number of descriptions of hell in this book, especially that description we get into Revelation chapter 14, 10, and 11, fearful descriptions of the lake of fire, much more fearful than any person and what they can do to us. But notice how he says, the devil shall cast some of you into prison. Now, do you think that the devil physically is going to grab them and throw them into prison himself? No. He's going to use people as his instruments. He works through people. And it's interesting how it says the devil, because the devil reigns over people and uses their lust to reign over them. We learn that from Ephesians chapter 2, verses about 1 through 2 there. And so those who follow the course of this world, who follow the fulfilling the lust of the flesh and of the mind, they are following the prince of the power of the air, we learn there. They're following Satan. And he is essentially giving them orders and often uses them to persecute the church of Jesus Christ. We see him using the Chaldeans and the Sabians to come against Job in the book of Job, chapter 1. So he exercises that kind of power over them as they follow their lusts and their pride. He uses that to control them. But notice also that God is sovereign here. It says that you may be tried. It's just like when Jesus, it says he was led out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. But it says he was led out by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. So God led him out in the wilderness to allow the devil to test him. So the devil can do no more than God allows, and it's for a test. And we learn, even though the devil was able to do all those terrible things to Job, we learn from Job 23 that Job was being tested as if he was in a refiner's fire, and he says, I'll come forth as gold. He knew he was being tested. And so God will allow Satan, He'll permit Satan to bring troubles and trials and tribulations and persecutions upon believers to test them. And it is for our refinement and it is to bless us because God sanctifies our trials to us to bless us and to grow us. And He says, And of course we learn that the second death is to be cast into the everlasting, eternal lake of fire. All right, let's go on to Pergamos. Verse 12, and to the angel of the church in Pergamos, these things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges, I know thy works and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is, and thou holdest fast my name and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth. 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. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He that hath 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 it. All right, so Pergamum, or Pergamos, is a great city, a magnificent city. It's about 70 miles north of Smyrna, and 16 miles inland. And it had a library of 200,000 books. So it's kind of a center of Academics it was Asia's leading religious center, and it was also the leading center for emperor worship And it had a 40-foot high altar to Zeus who is supposed to be the king of the pantheon king of the pantheon gods the Greek gods and that is that is probably why it says that this was the place where Satan's seat was and It's interesting here that Jesus refers to himself as the one who had the sharp sword with two edges. You remember in chapter 1, he's seen symbolically as having a sword coming out of his mouth, which is picked up later in, I believe it's Revelation 19, he comes with a sword coming out of his mouth. And here it's a sword that has two edges, a sword with two edges. And some have said, of course, the sword of the Spirit speaks of the truth of God's Word. Some have said that two edges could point to the fact that on one hand, the Word of God can save and on the other it can condemn. If you look at 2 Corinthians 2 verse 14, Paul says, maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet saver of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish." See, there's those that are saved by the Word and those that perish. To the one we are the saver of death unto death, so we just are judgment and warning to the one side that doesn't repent. And to the other, the saver of life unto life. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation, Romans 1.16 says. You have the double-edged sword, either salvation or condemnation, depending on the response. And then he says in verse 13, just like the previous two, letters to Ephesus and Smyrna, I know thy works. And then he says, And where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is, and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth. So they've held on, they've held fast to the word of God, they've held fast to the faith, even in the face of severe persecution in the very place from which Satan is ruling this kind of false religion of emperor worship. And it talks about Antipas, the faithful martyr. And the word Antipas actually means against all. And it could mean, symbolically, he stood against all the world, all the wickedness of the world, all the devil's lies. He was faithful even unto the end. So Antipas was my faithful martyr. The word martyr means witness. So he was a witness in the face of all the onslaught of Satan and his false religion. And he says, he was slain among you where Satan dwelleth. And this just shows you, a lot of times, even those who were faithful, especially those who are faithful, are going to be the ones who are martyred. And the Bible talks about being counted worthy to suffer, being counted worthy to suffer for the Lord. We're going to read in Revelation 6 about the martyrs at the opening of the fifth seal. John says, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God. I'm guessing Antipas was there. And for the testimony which they held, and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto them, unto every one of them. And it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren that should be killed, as they were, should be fulfilled." There you have it, the faithful martyrs of Jesus Christ. But even with this church that held fast, look what he says in verse 14, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate." So here, unlike Ephesus tested, they tried these who came in, and they found them to be liars, and they hated the Nicolaitans. Pergamos, that wasn't the case. There, they suffered them. They allowed them to operate among them with their false teachings. So there, here we have false teachers, bringing false doctrine into the church, subverting the people of God. Thou hast them there that hold the doctrine of Balaam. The doctrine of Balaam is basically a couple different things. One is the misuse of spiritual gifts. Balaam had a gift of the Lord. He was a prophet. He was able to communicate with God. That's very clear. But he was willing to sell his gift for hire. He was willing to be a hireling and to use the things of God for furtherance in the world. And so that is the underlying doctrine there of using the things of God for advantage in this world, which is just plain carnality and prostituting yourself to the world. And look what sin it led Balaam into. Because of his desire for earthly gain, he taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel. He couldn't, if you remember back to the whole account of Balaam, Balak, the king of the Midianites, wanted Balaam to curse Israel because he saw Israel was coming in. He was afraid they were going to take over. And Balaam could not curse Israel because God told him not to curse Israel because God had blessed Israel. And so Balaam came up with a clever workaround. He taught Balak to send these Midianite women into the Israelite camp to seduce them, and not only to seduce them to sexual immorality, but to seduce them into the worship of false gods. And so he taught him to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things, sacrifice unto idols, and to commit fornication. And so that's what we have today, and that's what they were dealing with at the Church of Pergamos, is people who come into the Church, and for their own worldly gain, they teach, they seduce the people of God into worldliness. And then in verse 16, he says, repent or else I will come unto thee quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He that hath an ear to hear, 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 him that receiveth it." And I'm going to read a cool section about the hidden manna here, promised to those who repent and who overcome. He says, to him that overcometh I will give to eat of the hidden manna. I love this quote. The heavenly food of Israel, in contrast to the idol meats, of verse 14, a pot of manna was laid up in the holy place before the testimony. The allusion is here to this, probably also to the Lord's discourse, John 6, 31-35. translate the manna which is hidden. As the manna hidden in the sanctuary was by divine power preserved from corruption, so Christ in his incorruptible body has passed into the heavens and is hidden there until the time of his appearing. Christ himself is the manna hidden from the world, but revealed to the believer so that he has already a foretaste of his preciousness." And I'm not going to comment much on the white stone, but they're given on the stone a new name which no man knoweth, saving him that receiveth it. So a new name is promised to us in heaven. Now on to verse 18, and unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write, These things sayeth the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, we saw that back in chapter one, and his feet are like fine brass, I know thy works, and charity, or love, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works, and the last to be more than the first. Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth 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, and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and 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 none other burden, but that which ye have already hold fast till I come. And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as I received him my father, and I will give him the morning star, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. So again, to Thyatira, he says, I know thy works. He knows their works, their love, their service, their faith, all good things, patience, which means endurance, we learned, and the last more than the first. So there's growth, there's growth and persevering in the faith. But he says, notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee. And again, it's because they're letting these false teachers in, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols. That was the same as chapter 2, verse 14, the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So basically, she's coming in and teaching the church worldliness, compromise with the world, intermixing with the world, the things of the world, and not maintaining holiness in the church. The thing here is she calls herself a prophetess. She claims that she has special access, special revelation from God in order to teach. And she uses that claim to seduce the people of God to become worldly, to commit fornication. I don't take this to be her literally teaching people to commit literal fornication in the church. I take it as spiritual fornication with the world. and to eat those things sacrificed unto idols, that could have been literally eating things sacrificed to idols. But you got to remember that a lot of what is being said here is going to use symbolism. And food sacrifice to idols is really anything that is worldly. It's contaminated by the world. And it's defiling. It's interesting, in Acts 15 at the Jerusalem Council, James said that the Gentiles should be told not to abstain, to abstain from food offered to idols. But later, if you read chapter 20, I believe it's chapter 20 or 21, James rehearses what was decided. And in that place, he says that they should abstain from pollutions. And so that's what the things of this world are. They're pollutions. They're contaminated by lust and pride. And he says in verse 21, I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not. Look at God's mercy there, that even with false teachers who claim to be prophets but aren't, he gives them time to repent. And then it says, verse 22, behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. Again, not a literal bed here, but great tribulation, great suffering, as if you're in a bed of sickness. and accept they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death." What an interesting phrase. I will kill her children with death and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts and will give unto every one of you according to your works. People have kind of an innate intuitive sense of when God is judging or purging his church and judging false teachers in his church. People begin to understand that God is doing a work and exposing sin in the church. And I think there's a lot of that going on right now. Verse 24, But unto you I say and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, so those that have kept themselves pure from this wickedness and which have not known the depths of Satan as they speak, I will put upon you none other burden but that which you have already. Hold fast till I come. I love this interesting promise on this one. It's a little longer. He that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations. and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. As the vessels of a potter shall they be broken and shivers, so they're going to be shattered, even as I received my father." That's actually almost a verbatim quote from Psalm 2 when it talks about the Anointed One, God's Son, who God has set on this holy hill as the King of Zion, and it says he's going to rule with a rod of iron over all the nations, and he's going to break them as pottery. He's going to shatter them with his rod of iron. And that's almost a verbatim quote, and it goes along with a lot of places or a few other places in Revelation that talk about how we're going to reign with Christ. And even in Revelation 19, when Jesus comes back, the Word of God riding on a white horse, his people are with him, conquering with him. Very interesting how it connects. It brings us into that Psalm 2 promise, because we're one with Christ in his reign and in his conquering. And it says, I will give unto him the Morning Star, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And basically he's saying, I will give unto him the Morning Star means I will give myself unto him because Jesus is called the Morning Star in Revelation 22, 16. And so he's going to give himself unto his people, those who overcome, and he's the morning star. That emphasizes how he's the perfect brightness, as Hebrews says. He's the outshining. He's the glory of God that we see in Jesus Christ. And they're going to shine like him, with his own brightness, because his glory is going to be in his people eternally. Alright, we are going to finish up with that's Revelation chapter 2. A lot there, a lot more we could have gone into, but don't have the time to go into that much depth. But God bless you. I hope that was a blessing. We can make some application for our own lives and our own local churches. God bless.