and the Lord's work, and appreciate your pastor, and appreciate the wonderful hospitality that we have enjoyed, and it's been very encouraging to me and my family, and I thank you, preacher, thank you so very much, and your sweet wife and your family, and your good church you got here, amen! And the steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord. We appreciate that. So it doesn't hurt to say thank you once in a while. Amen. And appreciate you folks that are here this evening. So I just want to put a good word in for the Jew tonight. And I really hope you can be here every night. I feel like it's like a puzzle. And if you miss one night, you're going You're gonna have the pieces of the puzzle not there, all right? So do everything you can, come on, and invite somebody, all right? Invite somebody, invite your friends, and invite your family, and invite your employees, your fellow employees. Invite your enemies, amen. We'll love them to Christ. Yes, right. So try to get people to come, and call people, let them know that It's not every day you get to hear a Jew preach. Amen. And at any rate, we appreciate the Lord. But I want to put a good word in for the Jew this evening. You know, has anybody been to the airport lately? Anybody been to the airport? I don't know if they still do that. They still have those body scanning machines? Do they? I don't know about you, but I hate those things. I hate those things with a passion. Frankly, it's none of their business what I look like, right? Can I get an amen? That's right. But, you know, the Israelis have been developing a booth to solve this problem. They've been working on it. And what it is, it's you walk into this booth and it detonates any explosive device that you might have on you. It's a win-win for everybody. And it saves a lot of taxpaying money, amen? And judgment is swift. That's Bible right there, buddy. Hallelujah. All right, so we appreciate the Jew, and we appreciate all that they have contributed to the well-being of of the world, actually. And so, anyway, you don't want to miss. All right, let's all stand, if you would, please. And I'd like you to turn in your Holy Ghost-authorized Bible, commonly known as the King James Bible, say amen there. And I'd like you to turn to Revelation, the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 2. Revelation chapter 2. Begin reading there in verse 1. Revelation chapter 2 and verse 1. Alright, in verse 1 the Bible says, unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, these things saith he unto 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 canst not bear them which are evil. So those are good things, those are commendations. And thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not. and has found them liars, and has borne and has patience, and for my name's sake has labored and has not fainted. Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Heavenly Father, we thank you now for the precious word of God that's quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. We know it has the power to be the discern of the thoughts and intents of our very hearts. Lord, we need you in a special way. God, may you work through thy servant here tonight. And I pray, God, that you'll be glorified in all that we hear tonight. And truly, I want to be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. Dear God, I pray now that You'd bless Thy people. And Father, if there be an unsaved person here that doesn't know the blessing of eternal life, doesn't know for sure their names are in the Lamb's Book of Life, I pray that today, tonight, will be the greatest day of their eternity when they receive Christ as their Lord and Savior. Father, I pray God, show them, dear wicked, show them they deserve to go to hell. but give them the good news and help them to embrace it, that Jesus paid for it, they don't have to go. And they don't have to spend eternity in the lake of fire. No, they can receive eternal life by faith. And I pray that you work godly sorrow, for godly sorrow worketh repentance, and repentance to salvation, not to be repented of. And I pray now, God, that you would help us as believers us to live for You like never before. And help us to fall in love with our Savior more now than we ever did before. And we will give You the praise and we will give You the honor You are deserving of it all for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen. All right please be seated. All right now I have a lot of information to give you out tonight. If you want to give a title of the message everybody always asks me for titles which is all right. And sometimes I have three titles to a message. Sometimes I give you three message for one title. But nevertheless. pray that you will get a blessing here tonight. I want to preach on the eight churches. Mark that now, eight, E-I-G-H-T. I want to preach on the eight churches of the book of Revelation. We are going to first look at Chapter 2 there of the Church of Ephesus. Now there is no way I can give you a full exposition of all of this. I don't intend to do it. and the pastor I'm sure has covered the book of Revelation and if he hasn't he probably will after this message, amen. So, but the fact is you'll understand why I am mentioning eight churches. Let's look at the first one quickly now. This is the church of Ephesus. It was a good church. It wasn't a bad church. It was a typical church. This church was likened to a lot of churches we have today. It's a church that was commended by the Lord, which I've already read. were hard workers. They labored the Bible says. They were very patient. And they couldn't put up with the nonsense out there, false teachers. And this is all good. And they were not fainting. They kept on being faithful and that's all good. But the thing that they had a problem with was they, the Bible says, Thou hast left Thy first love." Now, I'm really appreciative of that word, left. And the reason why I appreciate the word, left, is because it didn't say lost. So, they left it, which means they could come back to it. If they lost it, that means they're never going to get it back. And I'm here to tell you, Yes, we do believe we're a Baptist for a reason. One of the reasons I'm an old-fashioned Bible-believing Baptist is because I don't believe you can lose your salvation once you got it. Come on now! And so, you know, that's what Paul said, that he suffered these things nevertheless. He said, I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. believed in the eternal security of the believer. He believed that once saved is always saved. And people say, oh, well that just gives you a license to sin. No it doesn't. I don't know about you but I never felt I had a license to sin because the minute I start thinking I can get away with it God gives me a good whipping. Give me an amen. So if you're saved, if you start doing something that doesn't please the Lord and you think you can get away with it, you will be chastised by the Lord. You will. This church right here had pretty much everything made. It seemed like they had the doctrines right. They had the T's crossed and the I's were dotted. I mean it's a pretty good church. Pretty good church. But their big problem was They left their first love. You remember what it was like, husbands, when you first laid eyes on that woman? Amen! I tell you what, I don't know about you, but when I first laid my eyes on my sweetheart, Rebecca, I was fixated on her. I couldn't do anything but think about her. Come on now, husbands. And you know what? If you don't have that, you don't deserve her, and she shouldn't want you. Give me an amen. That's right. And so I was fixated on my wife. I mean, yes, I was infatuated with her, no question about it. I mean, I'm not going to, I mean, I don't expect our children or your children to marry somebody they're not attracted to, all right? Come on now. Now, they may be ugly, but if they attracted each other, then two uglies attract each other. Amen. Who cares? But the fact is that When I was in the military, all I could think about, even though I was working on helicopters, it would be kind of dangerous working on helicopters and thinking about your wife-to-be, isn't it? And I was infatuated. I was thinking about her 24-7. I thought about her when I was sleeping. I was in love. Woo! And I'm still in love. I love my wife more today than I did 40-something years ago. How long we been married, huh? 41 years ago. Glory to God. My wife's more beautiful than she was 41 years ago. Come on now, you better say that about your wife. Have you noticed that my wife has no gray hair? At least you can't see any. You said, how's that possible? Well, I'll give you a hint. I'll give you two recipes for your wives don't have gray hair. I know they'll hate me for this. Number one, she eats a lot of tomatoes. Give me an amen. Yeah, there's something in the tomato that helps you not age. Okay. And number two, I buy her flowers all the time. Or I get her flowers somehow or another. Now, since I travel on the highway a lot, I'm very economic about this. I see some nice flowers, I go get them. Amen. Now, what do you do when your wife gets mad at you? I'm going to give you, yeah, right. I'll give you some advice. If you're if your wife gets mad at you, don't get mad back. You always lose. The best thing to do. The best thing to do is get in your car, go 75 miles an hour to Walmart, buy $100 gift certificate and get 36 roses, glory to God, and rush back and give it to her. You'll have a happy marriage. you ladies ought to be shouting off the rooftops. So what I'm trying to say is that our need here especially in the last days is we need to fall in love with our Savior again, like it was when you first got saved. And if you're not more in love with your Savior today as you was when you first laid eyes, this is what I believe from the Scriptures, I don't believe you'll ever love Jesus Christ more than you did when you first laid eyes on Him. I don't believe that, because the thing is, I didn't know anything about the Lord. I didn't know anything about the truth. And I really, I sense that I appreciate the Lord more now. But I will tell you this, I don't think you'll ever love the Lord Jesus more than you did when you first got saved. And I appreciate my wife, and I feel like I love her more. But the reality is, that when I first met my wife, she was everything to me. And I believe she's everything to me now. But I wonder, can you look at your relationship with Christ and say that you love Jesus as much as you loved him when you first met him whenever you did come to know the Lord? Are you? Are you fixated on the Lord? Are you infatuated with the things of God? And I would say right there is the secret, one of the secrets of having revival. The church of Ephesus, we call it a backslidden church. It was a backslidden church. We get that from the idea of what Ephesus actually means. It means that which is relaxed. It's permissive. They were permissive. They were relaxed, you know? And they started sliding back. You ever been in a boat when the water is still? And then I remember I was doing a little, I don't do a whole lot of fishing, but once in a while we'd get in the boat and I remember how the water seemed like it was still. The wind wasn't there. And it wasn't but 20 or 30 minutes. I didn't realize it, but I didn't put the anchor down, and I had drifted away from my original place. And that's the relationship, that if you're not careful, you're going to drift away from where you started. So ladies and gentlemen, what kind of church do you want to have here? What kind of church do you want Gospel Light Baptist Church to be? You want to be like the Church of Ephesus, where they were hard workers, were soul winners, and they didn't put up with heresies and all of that, but they had left their first love. Do you want to have a church like that? Or do you want to have all these things that they were commended about, but they are in love with the Lord Jesus Christ? Now, I don't know about you, but I don't like coming to a church where I don't feel the love. Amen? Now, it's not like this church. I'm not rebuking you or anything like that. When I come in here I feel the love. Amen? I feel it. I sense it. I believe that you love each other. I believe you love your pastor. I believe your pastor loves you. But the fact of the matter is when you're looking at these churches you have to look at it in three ways. Number one you have to look at it from a personal, from the personal viewpoint. Your relationship with Christ. Then you have to look at it from the perspective that this was a real church. It really was a church of Ephesus. And they really were known to be a backslidden church. And then you have to look at it as a period of time in a a period of time where we call it kind of like a sub-dispensational church age. And you would fit this sub-dispensational church age from 96 to about 200 A.D. The churches were known as backslidden churches. So we go now to the next church, and I'm going to move along quickly here, the Church of Smyrna. We look at this church age period which is commonly understood to be 200 A.D. to 300 A.D. and we get a glimpse of what this church was like. It says in verse 8, And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write, These things saith the first and the 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." This church, we call this the suffering church. It is based on the word Smyrna. This is where we get the word myrrh. Now myrrh to the taste buds is like gall to the taste buds. And it is bitter. And so this church, this was a real local church that went through severe tribulation and severe suffering. Though it was bitter in the nostrils of God Almighty, it was sweet and pleased the Lord. And so of all the churches that we're talking about here tonight, this is only one of the very few that where the Lord going to give them a crown, a special crown for their suffering. It's the persecuted church. And I don't think you and I know anything about persecution. You know the Bible says we haven't yet resisted unto blood striving against sin. We're only now tasting what it might have a little persecution in America. But still, I get reports every single day, and probably some of you do, and some who may be listening on the airwaves and on the internet, some of our brothers and our sisters who have suffered greatly. And yet, you might say, I've been suffering for the Lord. May I say, it's not in vain. It might be bitter to you, but it's sweet to the Lord Jesus Christ. Some of you may have cancer. Some of you may have lost a loved one. Some of you are suffering. It may be bitter to you, but it's sweet in the nostrils of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the church of Smyrna. So are you going through some hard times? Are you being persecuted at work? I would say don't complain about it. Just be thankful that you understand a little bit of what it means to have and be participant of the fellowship of Christ's sufferings. And so now we look at Pergamos. We call Pergamos the compromising church. In verse 12, Bible says, And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, 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 I hate, And the Lord says, repent or else I will come unto thee quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. period of time is understood as between 300 A.D. to 606 A.D. This is a Church period of time where the Churches were compromising the Word of God. We notice that in the Church of Ephesus they were tolerating the deeds of the Nicoladians. the word Nicoladians basically means the ruler of the people. This is why this gave forth the doctrine of the Nicoladians mentioned in verse 15. This was the birth of what is commonly known in history as the Roman Catholic Church. I wonder how many have been saved out of the potpourri of the Roman Catholic Church? Anybody here been saved out of Roman Catholicism? Alright, so I think you know what I'm talking about. And aren't you thankful you got a pastor that doesn't pontificate? Amen. So I don't even know what that word means. Well, you would know what it means if he was a pontificator. But aren't you glad he's just a nice guy? Aren't you glad he loves you? Aren't you glad he knows how to smile? Aren't you glad he knows how to be lighthearted? Aren't you glad he's not a dictator? Aren't you glad? I said, aren't you glad? I would say don't ever take it for granted. A lot of churches have dictators as pastors. aren't you glad he's not trying to be the priest of your home? Amen? But he is a pastor, and he's a good pastor. I'm sure my brother back there is a good pastor. But the Church of Pergamos they started to compromise the Word of God. And they started to displease the Word of God. And they started to rule over the people with an iron fist, so to speak. Now let's go to the Church of Thyatira. That would be around the period of time of 606 to 1500 A.D. So this is quite a long period of time, 1100 years. And as you read here with me, and unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write, These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass. I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works, and the last to be more than the first." Now so far every church has gotten some commendation from the Lord, which is nice and is a good thing to hear. But there's always something wrong with each one of these churches. notice here in verse 20 where the Bible says, 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 that they repent of their deeds." Now ladies and gentlemen, I don't mean to be mean and all of that, I think you already know that. But I will tell you this, that in every church, in every local church, it seems that a lot of times, not all the time, and I'm not trying to be hard on the women, because I will tell you that God uses women in a great way to help the work of God. So I'm not gonna undermine that at all. And thank God my wife's a woman, give me an amen. And thank God my daughter's a woman, give me an amen. And thank God my mother was a woman, give me amen. So we understand it was just the women there Just the women at the end, before Christ was crucified, we know that. So don't start complaining about me being down on women, all right? I'm not down on women. But the fact of the matter is that if you look at the story of Adam and Eve, we know what happened there, right? We know that Adam was a wimp. Give me an amen. Oh, Mr. Wimp didn't say nothing. He was right there with her. He should have stopped her, but he didn't. He let her eat of the forbidden tree, right? Did he not? Do you realize that most of the problems we have in our churches today are a result of women? Again, I'm not trying to be down on women. But if you look at the charismatic movement today, they are dominated by women. Women that cannot keep their mouths shut. I'm being nice about it. The Bible says women are to be silent in the church. Now that doesn't mean they can't sing and show a little excitement, okay? But the fact of the matter is whenever you give a woman the place of a man, you're in big trouble. And women that love God don't want to be in that place. So the fact of the matter is that most churches that wind up in a big schism are a result of women that are rising up whether they are gossipers or whether they like to dominate or like they tell their husbands what to do and how high the jump, give me amen. I didn't hear too many amens there. So you say, well that's pretty bold. Well you proved me wrong, come on now. You proved me wrong. But when you're in a church where the women, where the wives are submissive to their husbands, Right? And if they don't have husbands, they're submissive. They have a submissive attitude. You'll find a church, usually, that doesn't have the problems that others have. Now, I will tell you this, that doesn't let the men off the hook, because they've got their problems, too. All right? But as you see, I didn't make this up. And I believe Jesus mentioned this for a reason, that the church here in Thyatira had a woman problem. Her name was Jezebel. And I'll tell you what, I've been in churches where I know Jezebel, you can smell her, you can see her, you can see she's the one that always has the dominance. Jezebel. Jezebel, who bossed her husband around. Of course, he let her do that, huh? You love me, don't you? If we let Jezebels in our churches, they will destroy our churches. And that's why we call the church of Thyatira the leavened church. The Bible says a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. I'm just preaching the Bible here. I didn't make this up. Some of you look like you're in a state of shock, about ready to have a cardiac arrest. I'm preaching the Bible here. This is the Bible. I don't think it could be nice about what I just said. I'm preaching the Bible. All right. It gets awfully quiet when I bring this up. I hope there's no Jezebels in the church here. I hope there's not. Okay, but that caused the Church of Thyatira to leaven the church. All right, now quickly must go to chapter three, Church of Sardis. All right, notice what it says here. Bible says, unto the angel of the church in Sardis, write, these things that saith he that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars, I know thy works. that thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead. Be watchful and strengthen things which remain that are ready to die. I have not found thy works perfect before God." History would show that this, might you say, sub-church age was from the 1600s to the 1700s. And this was interesting time. as we know in history as the Reformation. Now let me just say this, again I'm not trying to be unreasonable here, I'm not trying to be unkind, but I will tell you that I am a Baptist, not by preference, not by selection, not by birth, but I am a Baptist by conviction. Amen? And we did not have anything to do with the Reformation. The Reformation is the result of those who tried to come out of the heart of the Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and hence gave rise to the Protestant denominations today. Be it the Methodists, the Presbyterians, and so on. We are Baptists. history can be traced all the way to John the Apostle and beyond him. And ladies and gentlemen one time I had a debate with another preacher and he was trying to tell me when the First Baptists were and he said, John was the First Baptist. So you know you could get into an endless genealogy there. So I looked at him and I said, well brother John was not the First Baptist because according to the Bible Moses, Aaron the High Priest and his sons were were actually the first Baptists. And he looks at me and said, what are you talking about? How could it be the first Baptists? They're Jews. I said, where do you think they came up with the baptismal ways? Where did they come up with baptism? And you go to any synagogue, you'll see they have baptismal pools there. That's where we learned it from, right? The baptismal pools of Solomon. and Aaron the high priest and his sons, they had to be fully wet. They had to be baptized in the initiation of the tabernacle. After that, they didn't have to get baptized again. No, they had to have their hands washed and their feet washed. See that? So, I'm just trying to say is that there have always been, the Bible says that the gates of hell should not prevail against His Church. There have always been Bible believing Baptists. They may have not been called that outright, a lot of them were in hiding over the years, but they were Baptists by conviction. It's what they believed. They believed that baptism didn't save you, amen? in the preserved Word of God. Of course today in the English language it's the King James Bible. They believed in the fundamentals of the faith. They gave their life's blood for that. So they've always been Baptist throughout history. And so they Today, we have a lot of churches out there, they're spending millions and millions of dollars in nice fancy buildings and stained glasses. Again, ladies and gentlemen, I'm not against nice things, but if I walk into a church that they just spent a million dollars on a nice church building and everything, and they only support the 50 missionaries at $50 a piece, I got a problem with that. If a church can afford to raise a million dollars for a church building they can afford to do a lot more for missions, amen? So I mean it is nice if you want to have a nice church. This is a nice church. What is wrong with this church? This church has been around for a long time since the 1800's. Did you not know that? Say, how did you know that Brother Fried? I'm a historian I looked at the sign out there. This church has a testimony of God. And you and the pastor are continuing the testimony. We want the old fashioned way. So, you know, they have a great name there, you know, but the Bible says they're dead. So if I, if I was going to be biblical about this, I could, I could take you to a lot of churches in the world don't even have a building, but they got They got something that we're missing in America. I could take you to the Philippines, as I mentioned earlier. And a lot of them are meeting in the villages and don't even have a tent to meet in. But they're having a great time. So you make your choice. What kind of church you want to be? You want to be the Church of Ephesus, the backsliding church? Say no. Come on. No. church of Smyrna? Well if God calls you to be like the church of Smyrna where you must suffer for Christ then yes indeed and so by the grace of God. Do you want to be the church of like Pergamos the compromising church? No. What kind of church do you want to be? Do you want to be like the church of Sardis? You have a big name everybody knows about you you are world famous but you are spiritually dead. You've got a great church. I don't think you believe that. I said you got a great church. You really have a great church. You got something that a lot of big churches don't even know anything about. I was talking to the preacher back there. You know that song, little is much when God is in it. Despise not the day of small things. Who said being small is wrong? And by the way, we're supposed to be alive in the days of Noah. No way, what's that? Well, that's in the Bible. No way, that's nowhere. You know that, right? And he only had eight. You got more than eight here today. You ought to be thankful, right? So don't you start thinking about going somewhere else when you got everything you need here. Come on now. It ain't green there on the other side. So don't be the church of Sardis. And then, of course, we have the Church of Philadelphia mentioned here in verse 7. and to the angel of the Church of Philadelphia write, These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth. I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. For thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Whoo! Hey, listen now, we're gonna see more of that in the latter days. You know what Philadelphia means. It means the brotherly love, right? We understand this historically as being around the beginning of the 1800s. This is when the great revivals were in the 1800s. And I will tell you right now, That what's so interesting is in every church period of time, we still have a remnant of every church represented. We have that are like the Church of Ephesus. We have churches that are like the Church of Smyrna. We have churches that are like the Church of Pergamos, and Tyre Tyre, and Sardis, and Philadelphia. Now, Gospel Life Baptist Church, what kind of church do you want to be here tonight? Huh? Do you want to be like the Church of Philadelphia? A brotherly love? Amen? And so, So now we find ourselves here, it's church number seven, the Laodicean Church. And that's from the 1900s to, well, right now. There's no question in my mind that we're in this Laodicean period. And the word Laodicea means the rule, the people rule. Instead of the pastor ruling, But it's the people, it's the people that are ruling. In other words, congregational rule. In an old-fashioned Bible-believing Baptist church, you have a pastor, praise God, but he's an under-shepherd, right? He's not a dictator. He's not a pope. He's an under-shepherd. But today we're having the congregations are ruling. They're telling the pastor what to say. Do you know the average Independent Baptist Church pastor is only there in his church at the very most two and a half years? Do you know that? do you know that in a lot of places in America the deacons are the ones that cause the pastors to have to leave because the deacons don't want to submit to the pastoral authority? I don't know how many deacons you have. How many deacons do you have preacher? Yeah, one deacon. That's probably all you need. Glory to God. Amen. It's hard to find good deacons. But you know make a monstrosity. Right? And by the way who is the head of this church anyhow? Amen! He is the head of the body of the church who is the beginning and the firstborn from the dead. That and all things He might have the preeminence. Amen! The minute somebody else becomes the head you are in trouble. You are just like the church of Laodicea. So that is seven churches. I'm going to show you number eight. You've been waiting for that, haven't you? He said, I don't read that in here. Oh, it's in there, buddy. Here it is. Revelation chapter four. This is the eighth church. And this is what it says. Verse one. After this, I looked and behold, a door was opened in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me. Can you imagine trumpet talking? Well, that trumpet was talking to me here tonight, sure was. It was speaking to my heart, which said, come up hither! Amen! Ladies and gentlemen, that's the church I'm a member of, amen! I'm a member of the come up hither church! Don't insult me and say I'm a lot out of seeing. Don't insult me. Don't insult me and say I'm a Pergamos or fire tire. Don't insult me and say I'm an Ephesus. No! Ladies and gentlemen, I'm of the come up hither church. This is the raptured church. Yes sir. And he says here, come up hither. I will show thee things which must be hereafter. Let's all stand please. How do I become a member of the come up hither church? By being born again. Are you born again? Do you know for sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that you're saved. Your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. 100% sure. Nobody looking around now. We're all standing. She's going to play quietly. I want to ask you a question. Nobody looking around. Nobody looking around, please. I want to ask you a question tonight. I'm turning it over to the preacher. So I wonder, do you know 100% for sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that your name is written in the last book of life? Do you know for sure? I wonder how many would raise their hands and say, I know for sure! I know for sure! I know for sure! Well, if you know for sure, you're a member of the come-up-hither church. But if you, you can put your hands out, but if you don't know for sure, When that trumpet sounds, you'll be left behind. I'm going to give you an opportunity because as I mentioned this morning, we could hear the trumpet call. The last Trump, we could hear it and you'll be left behind if you're not saved. I wanted nobody looking around now, please. Nobody, we're not trying to embarrass anybody here, but I wonder, Would you take that first step? The first step is you have to acknowledge that you need to be saved. If you don't start there, you'll never get help. You might be struggling with salvation assurance. So I'm asking you, are you 100% for sure? Is there anybody here, nobody looking around, is there anybody here would say by lift up hands, say, Brother Fried, Would you please pray for me, because I'm not 100% sure. I'm just not 100% sure. Anybody at all, just raise your hand. Let me pray for you. Anybody? Just raise your hand. Anybody at all? I wonder now, as you have your heads bowed or eyes closed, are you ready to meet your Savior? You claim to know the Lord? Are you living for Christ like you need to? What kind of person are you? Are you the Smyrna type, willing to suffer for Jesus? Are you the Philadelphia type? You have that brotherly love just oozing out of you? You have that brotherly charity? Are you ready to meet the Lord face to face? The prayer was that we wouldn't be ashamed at his coming. Is there anything at all that you would be embarrassed when you see Him face to face? Heavenly Father, we thank You now for the good Word of God.