I did a lesson on faith, and the end of that lesson on faith, I never got to. Everything's around belief or unbelief. God's testing you and me to see if we believe what he says. And the ultimate test of belief is whether you practice what you say you believe. God's not looking for lip service. He's not looking for people to say, I believe, and then go out and do what they wanna do. He's looking for you to say, I believe that it changes your life, that changes your attitude, changes your value system. He's looking for a belief that changes you. That's why we believe in this old independent fundamental Bible, believing in Baptists. We believe in a changed life, being born again, for we are? Born again. Oh, you're good, you're getting that. You're getting that. We've got a bunch of people coming down in January. We'll give them a little lesson on that. We've practiced up. By the way, Todd and Eileen Whiff say hi, and they're in Australia, Australia right now. And I don't know quite what's down under, but there's some probably stuff to look at down there. And they'll be back here, I believe he's supposed to be scheduled to be back here December 15th. So be praying they have a good exit. flight back and be able to get back for us. He'll be teaching Sunday school in here for the months of January, February, and March. And I don't think Paul Chilson's back yet. I think Paul will be back next week. But I believe I'm gonna have Chris Barrows teach Sunday school next week. I want you guys to be exposed to him, be exposed to his teaching. Be praying for Chris Barrows as he keeps following on to serve the Lord. We appreciate he and his family. He's been with us now for 10 years. This year I believe he's gonna be 33 years old. That's a big time, amen. That's the age Jesus died. The pinnacle. So I wanna talk about seven overcomers of the church. These are things that I've spoken through the years off and on, because I can't get away from them. I love them. I love hope. I think hope that is seen as not hope. That's what the Bible says in Romans chapter eight about hope. If you see hope, it's not hope. Once you see it, you don't have hope, you have sight. And so God has us living a lot of our life as Christians on hope. We're hoping in what he says to be so, and we believe it. Eventually it'll become sight. What a thrill that'll be when it becomes sight. Let's have a word of prayer this morning. Father, we just pray that your hand would overcome All resistances, as your spirit and your word may go forth in power. Help us to see these things that would help us to live better, help us to live through trouble, live through contradictions by the hope that we have within us. In Jesus' name, amen. Jesus wrote to the seven churches that were in Asia. Now, the seven churches which are in Asia in Revelation chapter two and three are real churches. They were real local churches. I don't believe they were grandiose. I believe churches in the first century were much more humble than what we are. I don't think they had the buildings yet. They hadn't accumulated the buildings and the properties and special places to worship. Probably had not. Still working out of houses. Maybe it was something a little bit better than a house. But they were not grandiose like what we have been or what we look at as church. They were humble. But they were the really beginning root cause, people that believed. And there were seven of them. And in those seven churches, there were five of them, nothing, let me say it this way, there were two of them that nothing good was said about. I sure hope I'm not in that kind of a church, how about you? I don't wanna be in that kind of a church, nothing good. He didn't have anything good to say about it. He had two, he had nothing bad to say about out of the seven. Now, that's where I wanna be. I wanna be in the church that he looks at you and he says, I know that works, and never says anything that we need to correct. But the other five, we had something to correct in each one of them. They were still his people. He never denied that they were his people. He just said some of them had infiltration of heretics that he said to get them out. And there were that, you know, the churches compared, similar to wheat and tares, they grow up together, and eventually the angels of God will be sent to take them apart. So in any church, there are probably people sitting in your midst that are unbelievers. That's the crazy part about it, but it's true, according to the word of God. Most people, of course, being believers. And you have the parable of the wheat and tares explains that. So of these seven churches, at the end of each one of the churches, he gives this to him that overcometh statement, and called the seven overcomers of the seven churches. Ephesus being the first church, a lot of people think this is the fundamental, they call it the fundamental church. I don't know, I don't know. I think, you know, best guess, I suppose. So he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit said to the churches, to him that overcometh, I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. You know, we've been held off from the tree of life. When Adam and Eve sinned, an angel was put on the tree of life, who had what they called a flaming sword, which went in four directions, so that they had no access to the tree of life. Why? Had they eaten of the tree of life, they would live forever in this condition. I know that we like to live, Would you really want to live forever in this condition? I mean, do you really want to live forever having to brush your teeth every morning? Having bad breath? Having cavities and going to the dentist? How many here have had cavities drilled? Raise your hand. You want to live forever like that? You know, like if this group was 30 and under, this shows you how things have happened in dentistry. If this group was 30 and under, almost nobody would raise their hand if they ever had a tooth drilled on. Had never had a cavity. My son didn't have his first cavity, it was in his late 40s. Because their enamel, what we did as parents is we had their enamel treated with fluoride. And that fluoride hardened their enamel. It may have given them cancer, but it hardened their enamel. I mean. I always say better to die with good teeth than bad teeth, but you are gonna die. Unless a rapture happens. I'd like to rapture, I am for the rapture. I have heads up. I'll be preaching about that in a few minutes here in big service there. So he says, to him that overcometh, I get to eat of the tree of life. What a day that'll be, visualize yourself. coming before the judgment seat of Christ. Now, you're not gonna be before the white, if you're born again, you're never going before the great white throne. Everybody, as far as we can tell in Revelation 20, goes before the great white throne, they're cast in a lake of fire, which is the second death. So, but we don't see anybody saved in that judgment. That seems to be a judgment of the unsaved. But we have a judgment of the Christian, and the judgment of the Christian is called the behemoth seat of Christ, the judgment seat of Christ. So all of us are gonna be judged for the works, the things done in our body, whether they be good or bad. Is this working? I'm so bad off, I forgot to put in my... We'll see how this works. Speaker, how's that? Testing, testing. I don't wanna use this. Are we okay? Can you hear me? Put me up a little bit. Or turn your hearing aid out. Yes, by the way, I got my hearing aids, and yes, they're in, and they... You clap. Hearing aids are awful, but better than not hearing. Not much, but better. I have to tell my wife, don't talk so loud. She said, I've been yelling at you for five years. I said, yeah, but not anymore. Anyway, I got them, we'll see how they work. It's gonna take me a while to get used to them, but I had some before this. George Angoni, thank God, his old hearing aids, that kind of got me in the root, or in the rut of it and using them. So anyways, I can hear most of you most of the time, that may not be good. Imagine yourself going before the judgment seat of Christ. Oh, this is gonna happen. This isn't pie in the sky. This is gonna happen. Just like you're sitting here. Just like you're self-conscious. You're gonna die and be ushered into the, or raptured and be ushered into the presence of God and be put in for the judgment seat of Christ. Your works will be put together and judged by the fire of God's understanding and that which is eternal that you did for the Lord Jesus will remain, that which you did which was temporal for yourself will be burned up. Your works will be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, for it shall be revealed as by fire. The fire shall try every man's work of what quality or sort it is. That's a scary thing. I think there'll be suffering on all our parts. I don't think anybody can stand under the judgment of God without some suffering. Sometimes I'll regret that I wasted for myself, stupid times, sinful times. You're not gonna be judged for your sins, but you're gonna be judged for your work. Why aren't you gonna be judged for your sins? Because if you got judged for your sins, Jesus would have, that would be what we call double jeopardy. In the law system, there's a thing called double jeopardy. You can't be judged for the same crime twice, right? You can't be judged for the same crime. It's called double jeopardy. And if that's true among men, how much more true it is among God. Christ himself took our sins upon him. All the sins that were ever committed went upon the Lord Jesus Christ, really. Well, If you're born from above, you are forgiven and washed and cleansed. And God hits the clear history button on your life. He clears all that evil away from your life and doesn't see it anymore, it's gone. Far as the east is from the west, the Bible says, behind his back to be remembered no more. That's kind of the way the Bible verbalizes that. So you're gonna, your sins, not your works. Your works are what you did with the light you had. What are you doing with the light you've been given? With the understanding of eternal things that you have been given, what are you doing with it? That's what you're gonna be judged for. So when the preacher's up here saying you oughta go door to door and try to witness your neighbor's past, that's what God wants you to do. We're not up here just flapping our lips and trying to keep you busy. We're trying to have you to do the things that pleases God. And if you do the things that please God, you'll be happy someday when you face Him at that judgment seat of Christ and the works that you did, the deeds you've done in your body. And this is an interesting phrase, whether it be good or bad. Bad meaning not sinful, but not profitable. Something that God will erase, it'll be burned up. Haywood and stubble. and the other stuff will be gold, silver, and precious stones. So there'll be two comparisons. Here's the crazy part about that judgment is you won't be able to do a thing about it. In other words, you're not gonna be able to change a thing. You may have regret. The Bible says in that judgment that some folks will suffer loss. Suffer loss, and that word suffer, you can look it up in the Greeks, a strong word. Of course it is. We stand before the judgment seat of Christ and we realize how much more we could have done for the cause of Christ and how much more faithful we could have been. And we're gonna be smitten that we didn't have enough sense to believe, because it's all about belief. Everything centers around faith. Without faith it's impossible to please God. You know, everything's about faith. If you believe, you'll do. If you don't believe, you won't do. It's just that simple. Six-year-old can understand that. So he says to this church at Ephesus, which had left their first love, to him that overcometh will I give the eat of the tree life. We're still gonna, all that judgment will be passed, and it'll be over, and the crying will be stopped, and we'll wipe all the tears from our eyes. And I believe in doing that, he's gonna wipe the memory of those, things that we regret away. The Bible says the former things will not come into mind nor be remembered. That's in Isaiah. And I don't believe that you'll have, I don't think in heaven you can have memory of where you failed or it couldn't be heaven. We're gonna be able to walk up there and grab the fruit legally. Grab whatever that fruit is of the tree life and you're gonna be able to eat that and then of course, seals your eternality in the condition that you're in, which will be a wonderful thing, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Whoa, I think I live in the midst of the paradise. Where I live at my house, I have planted for 25 years, flowering trees, flowering bushes, specific things that bloom at different times of the year. So in my entire year, I constantly have flowers at my house. Constantly. Right now we have the Japanese orchid, otherwise called sometimes the Chinese orchid. It's a tree. Gorgeous purple tree bloom. And of course I got about seven of those trees and they're just gorgeous. I have other, what's that bush, what's that vining bush on the corner that has purple flowers? It starts with an A. Put you on the spot, didn't I? Alamanda, now it only blooms in the summertime. It only blooms when it's hot. So you got certain flowers that bloom when it's hot, certain flowers that bloom when it's cold. Certain flowers that bloom in between those two seasons, both the spring and the fall as they transition. And we've got all those. We don't have everything there is, but we got a lot of them. And so I feel like sometimes I live in a foretaste of the paradise of God. First of all, I live in Florida. This is as close to paradise as you're gonna get this side of heaven. Are you people from up north sad? Come on now. I just, Ernie Leonard somehow got conned in, threatened to stay up there this year through the end of about the middle of December. And don't try to defend him. Okay, don't do it. And when he gets there, he can defend himself. But his wife wanted to stay because she wanted to see the snow again. It had been many years since they'd been out there for the winter and the snow, and there was a wedding the 22nd of November, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. On your phone, go up there and look at the weather for Bismarck, North Dakota right now. Eight below, seven below, six below, 45 mile an hour wind. I mean, they are so cold. Last time, in December of last year or so, it got 40 below, with a wind. And that's not paradise. Adam and Eve were in paradise. They had no clothes on and were comfortable. All right. Is that enough proof of point? The temperature was what I call ambient temperature to where they were comfortable. By the way, it's the first time, when you go to heaven, you're not gonna be naked. You're gonna be clothed upon, the Bible talks about that. You're not gonna be like Adam and Eve. But you will be comfortable, and for some of you girls, that'll be the first time you've been comfortable in 30 years. It's either too hot or too cold for you girls. I don't know what it is. And no man said a word because they're scared. Church Smyrna, number two. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit sayeth to the churches. He that overcometh shall not be heard of the second death. This is just getting better. I get to have, I get to go into the paradise of God as a born again believer. Because of what Jesus did for me, by grace you're saved through faith, that I've worked, and I've worked this, and he mentioned both. It's gonna all go to him. There's no flesh or glory in his presence. When you walk into paradise of God, you'll be praising God, thanking Lord Jesus, being happy, being able to take of that fruit, live forever in that condition. And he says the second church of Smyrna, which by the way, the word Smyrna means crushed. This was one of those churches nothing bad was said about. They were under persecution for their faith. He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. I sometimes in my imagination try to picture myself as a great white throne judgment. It helps me as a Christian, it helps me. Try to really get into what it would be like to walk as an unbeliever and realize that all of what was said about the Lord Jesus and about the Bible was true, but too late. The harvest is ended, the summer is over, it says in the Bible, but we are not saved. What a day of hardship, just like the born again Christian's gonna have rejoicing and glory and glee, so the unsaved person's gonna be hurt by the second death. Angel of God's gonna grab ahold of their arm and gonna haul them over to a place called the Lake of Fire and cast them, and the word cast does not mean gently. It means harshly cast in the Lake of Fire. You do not want to be one of them. Hell is a great motivating idea, motivating purpose for being saved. How many were saved in some degree because you believe there was a hell? I was saved because of the doctrine of hell. I just figured it'd be insane to go there. when Jesus had made a provision to miss it. You say, well, what if you died and none of the Christianity was true? I'm still glad I lived as a Christian. I stuck with my wife for 54 years, it's been wonderful. I've tried not to hurt people and I've kind of gained the philosophy of the Bible, which is others, Lord, yes, others. And that's been a happy way to live. So, but I believe it is true. and you're not gonna be hurt by the second. That's the third thing I gotta keep moving here. Church of Pergamos. He then hath heard what the Spirit said to the churches to him that overcometh. There's that same statement. I will give thee to the hidden manna. People like things that are special. The word hidden manna means special manna, especially for you. And we'll give him a white stone. If you wanna understand the Greek on that, that's a diamond. The girls will love that. And in the stone, in this diamond, there's a new name. I call it a pet name, which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it. What is the specialty about that? Did your dad have a special name for you other than the name you were given? Did you ever get a nickname they call it? No, you never got a nickname. You ever get a nickname? You had one. Do you have a nickname? Oftentimes they're endearment names, names of endearment. Maybe I call my wife Sweetie Pie. That's an endearment name. You know, her name's Kathy, but I'm not going on Kathy Lytle, how you doing? I go around Sweetie, Honey Bunches, My dad had a nickname for me. Duke. Mud boy was another, that was not an endearment name. His name was Duke, D-U-K-E. That was when John Wayne was called Duke, I guess, that's where he got it. But he called me Duke, and he called me Duke so much that he never referred to me almost as Bill or William. Hey Duke, I'd like to hear him say it one more time. There was an endearment to it. Jesus is gonna give you an endearment name that nobody else has but you. How special is that? Does God care about you? It's good that he cares about groups of people, but I want him to care about me. How can he do that? Because he's God. How can God be so, how many people have come and gone? Billions of people, yet he can have an individual relationship with you. That's a miracle. And the fabulousness and the fathomlessness of God, that he can do that. You're gonna be able to eat a special food, maybe it's something you like, and we'll give you a diamond with a name on it that's just yours, between you and him. There's a love bond there between God and who he created. Number four, Thyatira, and he that overcometh keepeth my works unto the end. To him will I give power over the nations. He's going to give us the ability to rule. We'll rule with him for a thousand years in the millennial period, but I believe it's even going to go beyond that. I'm not quite sure what happens in eternity. He wasn't so I know one thing his Bible says in eternity, according to Revelation chapter, I think it is 21, maybe 22, his servants shall serve him. I know we're gonna get to serve him, and that's beautiful. We have Church of Sardis, number five, he that overcometh sins shall be clothed in white ramnet. That's gonna be some beautiful clothing, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father, and before his angels. What an honor. I was thinking about this the other day. What an honor it'll be to be in the midst of the audience of heaven, that great cloud of witnesses, and have your name, and it'll be specific to you, spoken by God the Father, by Lord Jesus. He's gonna confess you before everyone. He'll not be ashamed of you. His blood have cleansed you of your sins. God means what he says. I'm gonna explain what overcoming is in a minute. Church of Philadelphia, number six. Philadelphia means city of brotherly love. Boy, that ain't today, I'll tell ya. Phileo Adelphi. He that overcometh will make a pillar in the temple of my God. He shall go no more out. I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which come down out of heaven from my God, and I will write upon him my new name. In heaven, the father will end up being back in the position he originally was, according to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and everything submissive to him. Even the son is submissive to the father. And what a time that's gonna be, we're gonna be able to be in the presence of God, no more going out, no more disappointment, no more depression, no more anxiety, no more penalty. It'll just be joy forevermore by the grace of God. With, by the way, work was before the fall. There's gonna be work in heaven, we're gonna work. Work's beautiful, work's fun, work's a gift from God. Then lastly here, Laodicea, the last church of the seven. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne even as I also overcame and I'm sitting down with my father in his throne. We're gonna be able to, I just try to put my head around that, try to put my mind around that. There's a little hillbilly song. One of these mornings and it won't be long, gonna look for me and I'll be gone. Gonna walk right up on the throne and shout, howdy, howdy, howdy, howdy, howdy, howdy. Gonna move to the left. Gonna move to the right. Gonna move up a little higher, cause I'm gonna go there. Go there when he calls my number. I'm gonna go there. Go there when he calls my name. Oh Lord, I prayed, I prayed and I shouted and I sang God's praises. And I know he'll welcome me there. Why do I remember that stuff? I try to remember the Bible. Those old hillbilly songs stick with me, boy, I'll tell you what. Want to hear another one? Here it goes. Don't leave, it wasn't that bad. That last part may have been a little bit rough. Tim will overcome what I grant to sit with me. And look in 21.7, the last part of the book of Revelation, he's overcoming, shall inherit all things. I'll work as God and he shall be my son, Abba, Abba Father. May it be so. Some believers who I've mentioned will suffer loss, and I mentioned if any man's work abides, he shall be held there upon him, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work be burned, he shall suffer loss. Talking about Christians. He himself should be saved, yes, so as will fire. If you've been around very long as a born again Christian, you've met some people that are gonna be saved as will fire. Job would say, the phrase by the skin of your teeth comes from the book of Job. We'll be saved as by the skin of our teeth. Some people are just gonna be saved by the skin of their teeth. That's why I have hope for some people who really had a salvation experience, but then they don't live it. They go out and they just don't seem like they live it at all. I just hope that they're saved. I hope they get saved even as a fire, as opposed to being cast in a lake of fire. But there'll be people like that. I mean, it says it right there. In 1 Corinthians chapter five, that old boy committing an immorality so evil that the Gentiles didn't even do it. He said he was saved. How are you going to inherit? What? You're gonna inherit by belief? glorious things, unspeakable things, or you're gonna miss it by unbelief. Where are you this morning? Belief or unbelief? I was trying to look if there was a slide number on there and there's not. Where are you this morning? Belief or unbelief? It's your choice. Choose wisely. Father, thank you for the Spirit of God. Thank you for the Word. If you would like to know more about the Lord Jesus Christ, you may contact us at the church website, gospelbaptistchurch.com, or you can go to Facebook and type in Gospel Baptist Church, Bonita Springs, Florida. Also, you could call the church office at 239-947-1285. Thank you, and God bless.