Revelation of Jesus Christ by the Apostle John while he was on the Isle of Patmos. Title of the message is Christ Message for the Church. I'm going to read verses 1 through 7. I'll ask Brother Gerald a few blessings on the reading of the Word and on the offering for today when I finish. Revelation 2 and 1 through 7. To the angel of the church in Ephesus write, let me read this out of the King James, I have it printed here in ESV. Since there's just one baby here, we'll read to King James. I think you can understand this. "...until 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. I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou hast not 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 hast mourned, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted, 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 his place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans which I also hate. 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 tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." Our Father in Heaven, Lord, we thank Thee, Lord, that we're able to be here to get ourselves together, Lord, to worship and praise Thee this morning, Lord. We're just glad to be with the brothers and sisters here this morning, Lord. We ask Thee, Lord, that You would accept the tithes and offerings, Lord, that have been offered here today, Lord, and use them in Thy service, Lord. Lord, we just pray, Lord, that You would touch us, Lord, with the Holy Spirit here this morning, Lord, and let us receive a grand blessing law from having come this way this morning or touches for the best period or without uh... goodness for the uh... patients or with all this law uh... changes more than we shall be changed or uh... you have all the power or power is with you or and uh... you are a kind of a loving god and you have uh... that on the cross of cattle or didn't have been resurrected to life Lord and you make intercession to your father before us Lord and we just thank thee Lord for this and we pray we are glad Lord that we have a intercession for our prayers for we know not how to pray as we ought Lord, we thank Thee, Lord, that You've touched us, Lord, and given us faith, Lord, to believe in Thee, Lord. And sometimes, Lord, it seems so far away and distant, Lord, and we just feel alone and lost in this old world, Lord. And we lose our directions, Lord. But when You touch us, Lord, with that Holy Spirit, we're right back in line, Lord. And we just pray, Lord, that You touch us always, Lord, with Your Spirit, Lord, Until we come to our final dwelling place, Lord, in Heaven, Lord. Thank Thee, Lord, for who You are and what You are. And just saying, Lord, that we love You, Lord. And so many things we don't know, Lord, but this we know. We need to save You, Lord. Lord, it's hard for people to give up this old world, Lord. They want to cling to it, Father. And we just pray, Lord, that You would touch them, Lord, and give them a chance, Lord, and be merciful to everybody, Lord. And we just pray and thank Thee, Lord, for all the attributes, Lord, for all Your love and care. Help us, Lord, we do pray. Lord, we pray, Lord, for this sermon, Lord, that the preacher's about to deliver to us, Lord. It's an undertaking, Lord, for a human, Lord. For God, all things are possible, but for a human, Lord, sometimes it's hard for them to do things, Lord. Our knowledge is limited, Lord, but we try. And as we try, Lord, we pray, Lord, that you would be with us and help us, Lord, in our endeavors. And we ask and we pray in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen. Amen. This letter that the Apostle John wrote, this letter would have gone to, I'm looking for something here. Yeah. I don't know why they did that in this Bible. In mine, it's got the revelation of S. John the Divine. The same way on the Gospel, it's got S. John. But this letter that he wrote, this epistle, the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Apostle John, the youngest of all the apostles, on the Isle of Patmos when he wrote this letter, and he wrote it to the churches of Asia, these seven churches, There may have been more, not sure, but this letter was to be passed around from church to church and read before the whole church. All the churches. And according to the old divines, they say that what happened was when John wrote the letter and sent it off that It went to every church, but it didn't leave the first church it got to until they copied it. They wrote it down. They copied every word he said, and then they sent it on to the next one, and they did the same thing. They read it to the whole church, and then they sent it on to the next place after they copied it, and so forth and so on. So, it was for all of the churches, all seven of the churches in Asia, And it was just passed around and copied as they did all the letters of the Apostle Paul. They went from church to church, copied them and sent them on. And it was to be read to the entire church while they had it. And I'm sure it was. And some things here are hard to understand, but The message that the Lord had for the church is all of these to the seven churches. It's not just for Ephesus, that part. The other one's not just for Thyatira, Sardis, Laodicea, Philadelphia, all of the churches. It was not just that part, but the whole letter was for all of the churches. Because if you had to choose one of these, If you had to choose one of these, the message to Ephesus, to Pergamos, Smyrna, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea, if you had to pick one of these, which one would you pick that would be closest to what you think your church is? Or where you attend, or where you're a member, which one would it be? Well, at different times, we'll fall under all of them. As a church grows in spiritual spirituality, increase, grace, growing grace, and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, it'll be like another one. And then when you go through the battles and the hard times, you go through, you'll be like another one of these churches. So at some point, sometime, you'll be like all of them. So it's for the whole seven churches, and it's for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, wherever it may be today. Now, I'm going to read some of this from the English version to the angel of the church in Ephesus. You know who the angel is. It's the pastor. of the church at Ephesus, or whichever church, to the angel. You can go read this in the first chapter and it tells you all about it. The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands, and the King James says candlesticks. That's the church. And Jesus had a way of announcing himself or identifying himself in a different way to each church. And in here, he says to the pastor or the angel of the church in Ephesus write, he's telling John, you write this stuff, the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand." That's how he identified himself. The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. So this is the Lord Jesus says that He is the one that's holding these churches in His right hand and that He is walking among the churches, holding the seven stars in His right hand, the ministers of the gospel. He's holding them in His right hand. and he's walking among the churches, amongst the people, not the building that they erected to have church in or for the church to assemble in. Words and the meaning of words make a big difference in how we understand the truth. It's important that you learn the meanings of the words so that you know what the truth is and the message that's being delivered. So to the preachers of these churches, the pastors of these churches, He's holding them in His right hand and He's walking among the church at Ephesus and all of the churches, but He's walking amongst them. Isn't that some way to identify yourself? The King of kings and the Lord of lords. If you realize and knew that the Lord Jesus is with you at all times, He sees everything you do, He hears everything that you say, He knows every thought that you have, would they be different? Would your words be different? Would your tone be different? Would what you think about be different? What you say different? What you do different? If you realize in you at all times that He is watching you, He's got you in His hands and He's walking amongst you. And this is the message that He has for emphasis at this time. I know your works, your tall and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be liars. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my namesake, and you have not grown weary." So he had some good things to say about Ephesus. You remember Ephesus in Acts chapter 19? You remember Ephesus? You remember how much Paul loved the church at Ephesus? But I have this against you. that you have abandoned the love you had at the first. The book of Revelation, I guess, is best understood as a continuation of what Jesus said in Matthew 16 and 18 And that's where, if you remember, Jesus said, And I say unto thee, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. And the gates of Hades, the gates of hell, will not come against it, will not prevail against it. I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." And Matthew 16.18 is best understood as a completion or a perfection of Genesis 3.15. Genesis 3.15 is where the Lord is telling about the curse on Satan and is telling about, and I will put enmity between thee, Satan, and the serpent, and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Now you think about this for just a little bit. This is the first gospel message given by God Himself that His Son was coming. And Satan was going to bruise His heel. But He was going to crush Satan's head. And he would not prevail against the church that Jesus was going to build. And was building at that time. It had started. Jesus was going to build His church. And the whole theme of the whole Scripture, from Genesis till the last word in Revelation, the theme of the whole thing is Jesus Christ. the Son of God, who paid the debt that we could not pay. How He suffered and died for His people, for the people that the Father had given Him. The whole theme of it all, even all the Old Testament prophets, all of the priests of the Old Testament that followed Aaron, the whole thing is about the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything that's done and all the sacrifices and all the worship that they did was about Jesus Christ. He was the altar. He was the tabernacle. He was the altar where they burnt the sacrifice. He was the sacrifice. He was the lamb that they sent outside once a year to bear the sins of the people and go into the wilderness, the darkness. It's all about Jesus. And this revelation that John had by the Lord Himself, you have to see in that light, that theme of this whole book, the whole Bible from the beginning to the end. Jesus was going to build His church and the seed of the serpent, the devil, was going to do everything he could to try and destroy it, was going to bruise the heel of the seed of the woman, and in doing so, he was going to have his head ultimately crushed. The seven churches, as well as the Church of Jesus Christ, were supposed to be in the battle for the Kingdom of God. That's what we're supposed to be doing. We're in a battle for the Kingdom of God. Everything we do, we are bondservants. We're slaves to Jesus Christ because He purchased us with His own blood. He bought us. He paid the ransom with His own blood. And therefore, all believers Our bondservants, slaves to the Lord Jesus Christ. We bow to Him. We obey His commandments. We do what His will is. We serve Him above all others and above everything else. That's what we're supposed to do. That's what He requires us to do. Just read the book. He wasn't being mean and ugly to Ephesus or any of the other churches. I think Philadelphia is the only one he didn't have something against. He wasn't being ugly here. He wasn't damning them to hell. This is a discipline. This is like you would Cornbeck, he would Harper. They would discipline her because they love her and they don't want to see her going down the wrong road. Therefore, they put the leather or the board or the steel rod on her backside so that she will comply and come back into the right way that leads unto life. Because the other road leads unto death. and damnation of their souls." So, we're in this battle for the Kingdom of God and not only to be in the battle, but to suffer the conflict in the battle, we are to suffer. And you can remember the Apostle asking them, telling them, Don't you worry about my sufferings. I'm in the battle for the Kingdom of God. I'm supposed to be suffering. But a lot of people turned from Him and wouldn't follow Him anymore. Because they thought, where's this God? Where's this Jesus at now? He's about to be hung on a cross Himself, just like His Master was, and He's going to die. Where is he at now?" So they would not follow him. They would not continue to follow Christ. They would turn back because of his sufferings. And he was quick in every letter to let them know, don't you worry about my sufferings. I have my way to go. I'm in this battle for the Kingdom of God also. So It says in 1 Peter 4 and 16, Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf, or in that name, as a Christian, in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord. If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God." And then the King James says, "...for the time has come that..." No, this is verse 17. "...for the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God." And if it first began at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?" In other words, we are to be disciplined when we're not doing what we're supposed to do. And that's what Christ was doing here with emphasis. He says, I know your labors. I know how you, I know how patient you've been in forbearing one another, putting up with one another. You got to remember Ephesus was a humongous place. Ephesus was one of the seven wonders of the world. It was a magnificent place. They had many gods there. You remember Diana? the idol, Diana, that they had the little idols of everywhere, the silversmith people, and how they treated Paul, how they wanted to kill him. The time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God, and if it first began at us, see, We're to judge ourselves. Are we doing what Christ has instructed us to do? Are we doing what we're supposed to be doing? Are we laboring, fighting the battle for the Kingdom of God? Are we praying like we ought to be praying? Because the Bible says, pray without ceasing. The Bible says that men ought to pray and faint not. Don't quit. Don't grow weary of praying. I wonder how much praying we really do. And I wonder how much praying we really do for lost souls. How much praying we do for people who have gone astray. And while they are astray, they know not If they're not walking with God, they know not if they're in the Kingdom of God or not. The only way that we know that we're in the Kingdom of God is because we walk with Him. We keep His commandments. We do what He says. That's how you know. Make sure you're calling, the Bible says. Make sure that you're still in the faith. How do you do that? You know, because your profession of faith, you're getting ducked in the water, did not save you. Jesus Christ saves His people from their sins. Did you hear what He said? Jesus Christ saves His people from their sins. Judgment is to begin at the house of God We are to judge ourselves according to the Holy Scriptures being led by the Holy Spirit. We judge ourselves. Where are we at? Where do we stand with God? Are we keeping His commandments? Are we doing His will? Are we doing what He said? Are we such servants of His? You cannot judge yourself correctly if you do not know what the Holy Word of God says, and it's not just knowing it, but judging ourselves according to it as individuals and as the Church of God. He says, He who has an ear, in verse 7, of Revelation 2 there, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God. You get the wording of that? Now the King James, the seventh verse says, "...he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." I'm preaching to me more than I am to you. You people should have run me off a long time ago and found yourself a real preacher. a good one, that knew the Scriptures, that knew the Holy Word of God from front to back and could teach you and expound upon the Scriptures, which I've not been able to do. I'm ashamed of myself. So I'm preaching to myself more than I am you, but I'm also preaching to you because every now and then God turns the lights on a little bit for dumb people. and lets him see the things that the church needs to hear. And thereby we grow and we can repent. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh English Standard Version uses conquer. He that overcometh, or he that conquers. I like the word conquers better. It could be either one. Both means the same thing, but we understand conquer a little better in the modern English language, because if you conquer something, that means you're in battle for it. And we're supposed to be in battle for the Kingdom of God. So he that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God." That's the King James. If you overcome, if you conquer, if you conquer your sin, if you conquer your High-mindedness. If you conquer your doing your own will instead of the will of God. If you conquer your laziness, slothfulness, the King James calls it, and you read the scriptures and you pray. Do you know that Paul... Well, I don't want to get ahead of myself here. Let's look at a few things. Jesus holds the stars in His right hand and He walks among the seven golden candlestick lampstands. It's easy for us to judge the world, isn't it? We can look out there and see how bad they are and we can judge them being real easy. But we need to be judging ourselves. What does Christ Jesus want us to do? Are we worshiping Him God the way that we should be. Has our love for God truly changed our lives? I'll ask it again in case you missed it. Has our love for God truly changed our lives? Have we really forsaken the world and follow Jesus? I can't answer that for you. I can answer it for me and I'm ashamed. Has our love for God really changed our lives? Love not the world. I beseech you therefore brethren, it says in Romans chapter 12 verse 1, I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. We're in a battle for the kingdom of God. I told you this last week, I think. Week before, maybe. We ought to be living in such a way that people will be asking us questions. If we really loved God, I remember when I was 13 years old, got saved in that old colored house, abandoned, just me and the Lord and the electric storm coming. I remember how hungry I was. And when He saved me, how much I loved Him and appreciated Him for that. I started toting my Bible everywhere I went. I even took it to school with me at 13 years old. You know how I was received? A nut. He's a nut. And I read it. I read it every day, I read it every night. I read it all I could. I loved him. And now he's telling me, you've lost your first love. You have abandoned, you have abandoned your first love. You may be knowing some doctrine, You may be learning some truths, but you don't love me like you did at the first. You don't love me like you did when I first saved you. You've lost your first love. Repent therefore, he says, before I come. And there won't be no church at Ephesus no more. He's a jealous God. Do you know? Well, I'll get there in a second. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed unto this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." That's what we're supposed to be doing. That's what we're supposed to be doing. Be not conformed to this world. We are conformed to this world. And we don't even realize it. That's the bad part. We don't realize how much we are conformed to this world and the ways of this world, the things of this world. They loved the Word of God, Acts chapter 19. If you hadn't read it in a while, read it. Church history says that the Apostle Paul preached, taught five hours a day, seven days a week for three years at Ephesus. He loved those people. You remember when they come out to meet Him. He sent for them. He said, I don't have time to come by Ephesus. I'm headed to Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit has told me something awaits me there. I know not what, but I'm headed to Jerusalem where they were going to imprison Him, put Him in chains, and take Him to Rome to die. He said, and the Holy Spirit has told me that that's what's awaiting me is death. He said, I know that, but you make me. And they prayed together. He taught them some more. And they hugged on him. The children hugged on him, the men, because he was going to die. He loved Ephesus. The church at Ephesus preached to him for three years, five hours a day, seven days a week. They loved God. They loved the expounding of the Word of God. But they lost their first love. They abandoned their first love. They didn't love doing it anymore. They didn't love Jesus like they did when He was first introduced to them. And they realized that He had ransomed them from their lost state. He had paid the ransom for them. What do we do the most? What do we spend most of our time doing? You have to answer that for yourself. Do we really love the Lord Jesus the way we did when we were first born again from above? Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. You can't keep them if you don't know them, how we're supposed to worship Him, how we're supposed to pray. Pray without ceasing. men are always to pray and faint not for lost souls. Pray that the Holy Ghost would come down and fill us and fill this community in such a way that people would start asking us questions, that we live such a life where we're so committed to God, so committed to His Word, that ask questions. What is it about you? What makes you different than other people? But they don't. We look like the world. We talk like the world. We act like the world. We dress like the world. Nothing different about us. We have a profession of faith. Well, so does the people of every church everywhere you go. It's not going to save you. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." John made it very clear in 1 John 2 verse 15, didn't he? Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. What did he say? I have somewhat against thee. Because thou hast left thy first love. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, is not of the Father, but it is of the world. And the world passeth away. and the lusts thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." Now you can say, once saved, always saved, all you want to. You can believe like them Armenians do down at local Baptist churches. You can even call yourself a reformed Baptist. That we hold to the doctrines that Martin Luther taught, Calvin taught, and all them old divines, John Bunyan, and Spurgeon, and all the others. So you hold to that all you want. It's not going to save you. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. He that doeth the will of God abideth forever." Those are the ones that's going to be saved. Those that do His will. Jesus made it very clear in Matthew chapter 7. Many shall say to me that day, but Lord, Lord, didn't we do all these wonderful works in your name? Cast out devils and heal the sick. He'll say, depart from me ye workers of iniquity. I never knew you. He that doeth the will of God abideth forever. And that's the ones that's going to heaven. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is intimacy with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." We are to forsake the world. You remember in the 17th chapter, we read it last week, of John, the prayer that Jesus gave before, right before he was carried to the cross We are to abandon the world. We're a new creation. We're different than the world. We serve God. We're in the battle for the Kingdom of God. We study the Word. We read the Word. We pray and we pray and we pray without ceasing. We pray for lost souls. We pray for the Spirit to come down and fill us and move us and change us! That we live holy lives! Lord, help us. Lord, help us. Father, I pray this morning the Spirit of God would come down and move your people. We have left our first love. We have abandoned our first love. We may do some things and try to do some things, maybe half-heartedly, maybe even hating to have to go or pray or whatever, but We have abandoned our first love. O Spirit of the Living God, move in our hearts, move in our minds. Cause us to hunger and thirst after righteousness like a deer panteth after the water. Have mercy. Grow us in Your grace in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that we may love Him so much that we will refuse to sin against Him in our mind, in our thoughts, in our words, in our deeds. Have mercy and forgive us, Holy Father. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. You're dismissed. The Lord bless you and keep you. Hope you have a good week. If you need me, call me.