Revelation chapter 2, and we will begin reading in verse 1, and we'll go on down to verse 7. Revelation chapter 2, beginning verse 1, it says, 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. I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil. Thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them liars, and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my namesake 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 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. Praise the Lord for the service that we had last weekend and for the opportunity that we had and privilege to be able to organize another one of the Lord's churches. I'm thankful for Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. I'm thankful for Unity Baptist Church. And I'm thankful for the Word of God, for the heritage that we have and the truth that has been stood for through the years. As I sat down on Saturday and Sunday and began to think about what it is that I'm going to preach the Sunday after such a great service, the Lord led me to the end of the book, to these letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor. While I reflected on this and I thought about the church and this church and Unity Baptist Church, my mind also went back to my previous pastor. And that church is disbanded. I pray that I never see another church disbanded. But I pray I see many more churches born, you see. But as I thought on these things, I want to bring a message on the destruction of a church. I preached a few weeks ago on the subject of church organization. But when we consider churches, and especially the state that we're in in this country, we know the reality is that there's probably going to be some more churches disband in our lifetime, unless the Lord comes back before too much longer. I believe that's a very big possibility as well. If we're here much longer, I believe we'll hear or see some other church disband. And so if I were to put a title on this, I would say How to Destroy a Church. How to Destroy a Church. Far from being a how-to manual, the Bible gives us a lot of examples so that we can prevent these things. Now understand, God is sovereign. Right, Isaiah? He's studying the sovereignty of God. And praise God for God's sovereignty. And while God is sovereign, we must understand we have responsibilities. Just like the things that are going on in this country. It looks pretty bad for this country. But you and I, we have responsibility. I believe it might have been Cromwell who said, Put your trust in God, but keep your powder dry. That's kind of where I'm at with this country. And am I going to keep voting? Absolutely, I'll keep voting even if I think the election's rigged. I got responsibilities, right? But until God reveals to us that this country is dead, there's still some hope. God is sovereign over the birth of a country. He's also sovereign over the death of a country. God is sovereign over your birth date. He's sovereign over your death. So it is with churches. God is sovereign over the birth and God is sovereign over the death. But far be it from one of us that we be involved in the death of a church. Understand what I'm saying here. And so, I believe there's some things, some things that we watch for that we can prevent and we can see and we can do. The first example we have, and we're not gonna go through all seven of the churches, However, we will go through a few of them here today, Lord willing. And the first one I want to look at, of course, is Ephesus. But forget about the name for a minute, which church it is. This could be applicable to any church. I believe that's the reason why that they're here, why that they're listed. What was their problem? What was it? The Lord threatened that church with the removal of the candlestick. Why? Because they had left their first love. They had left their first love. They had some good things going for them. I mean, if you look there at verses two and three, I know thy works, and I labor, and I patience. How thou canst not bear them which are evil? How thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them liars? Hast borne and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored and hast not fainted? Praise the Lord. Listen to me now. Regardless of what church we're talking about, whether it's Ephesus or Sovereign Grace Baptist Church or Unity Baptist Church or some other church, No one else may be paying attention to the things that that church is doing, the things that you're doing, the things that I'm doing, but the Lord knows. He knows, and He's paying attention to it. He knows what you're doing. And we ought to be encouraged by that as we read these letters from the Lord. But He says, I have somewhat against thee. Why? You've left your first love you've left your first love. What does that mean? Well, God's people are supposed to be a loving people. In Matthew chapter 22, Matthew chapter 22, Verses 36 through 40, it says, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. The second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. The great commandments, what are they dealing with? Love, love to who? Love to God and love to our neighbor. Over in 1 John chapter four, in 1 John chapter four, verses 19 through 21, it says, we love him because he first loved us. If a man say I love God and hateth his brother, he is a liar, for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? In this commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his brother also. They'll know us if not by anything else but by our love, you see. That's one of the things that differentiates us from all the other religions of the world. Love for the Lord, love for God first and foremost. We love Him because He first loved us, and then love for others. As we see here in 1 John, these cannot be separated. The church at Ephesus had left their first love It's possible. As you sit there and you read that, sometimes it's hard to understand what in the world Jesus is talking about. I mean, they had all these things that they were going through, these things they were doing, these works, these labors. Good things that they were to be commended for. but they had left their first love. It's possible to get to the point of just going through the motions of doing things for the Lord just because that's what you should be doing without the love of the Lord in it. It's possible for folks to fall in love with serving the Lord, to fall in love with the church building, to fall in love with the ministry, but not really love the Lord like we should, you see. It's also possible, beloved, to get so bitter and upset at the things that are going on in the world that we lose the love that we should have. I mean, in Matthew chapter 24, in Matthew chapter 24, in verse 12, And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. They left their first love. And because of that, Jesus threatened them that he would remove their candlestick, that they would cease to be a church. Now it is possible, understand, that it is possible for a church to still exist in name, but to lose that candlestick. And some folks get, trying to figure out whether a church has their candlestick or not, that's God's business, okay? I was asked this not too long ago about another church. Candlesticks is God's business. I mean, obviously there's some telltale signs. If a church was never started right, it's not a church, right? But if a church was started right, organized right, believed right, and then all of a sudden they quit believing right, practicing right, have they lost their candlestick? That's not my business, that's God's business. Our business is fellowship, okay? So there's some churches we may not fellowship with. Whether or not they're a church, that's God's business. Think of the church at Corinth. They did some pretty rotten things. They were doing some pretty rotten things. They were abusing the Lord's Supper. They were letting people remain members, at least one who was a fornicator, and it was well known. They weren't practicing church discipline properly. The church was a mess. There was divisions among them and all that sort of thing. As I read through Corinth, I say, man, that church is a mess. But it was a church. So there's some things that we can do as people that can mess up a church even though the name might still exist. Understand that. So we've gotta be careful to make sure that we don't leave our first love. Ephesus was threatened with this because they left their first love. We'll circle back around there here in a few moments. But secondly, if we skip on down to Revelation chapter two, we're not gonna exhaust any of these letters, but I just wanna get some, pull some examples out of here of things to watch out for, things to be careful of, things that we need to guard our own hearts, our own church. Revelation chapter two, verse 12, it says, and to the church, 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 where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is. 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. The Church of Pergamos. Which by the way, I don't believe that, I know some good brethren believe this, and I'm not saying that they were, that I'm better than them or anything, but I just don't believe that these are church ages. I believe that these are real churches that existed, and I believe there's examples in all of them that we can glean from in our current time. The church here, Pergamos, again, some good things were said about them. Jesus said, I know thy works. Where you dwell, where Satan's seat is. That's pretty intriguing. Satan doesn't dwell everywhere. He has somewhere to sit. Apparently at that time and place, he was sitting down at Pergamos. He said there was all kinds of trouble going on. Antipas was my faithful martyr. Who was Antipas? Well, he may have been their former pastor, I'm not sure. But he was somebody that that church knew. But what happened? Well, there were some people within them. some members of that church who held on to some false doctrine. And I think that a church, you want to see a church destroyed, overlook false doctrine that's being taught or held on to. What is this false doctrine specifically? And he talks about it, saying that they held to the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed on idols, and to commit fornication. Kind of interesting. You know, some of these New Age kind of preachers, they say the Old Testament isn't relevant. If you don't have the Old Testament, you wouldn't know what he's talking about. But we do, and so let's go back to Numbers chapter 31. Numbers 31, verse 16. Behold, these caused the children of Israel through the council of Balaam to commit trespass against the Lord in a matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord. Actually, if we go back a little bit to chapter 25, verses one, two, and three. And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their god and the people did eat and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself unto Baal Peor, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel." And what were they doing? They were joining themselves to false religion. They were joining themselves to false doctrine. There were, of course, in the ancient world, Asia Minor, these places, there were those in the community who held on to some false gods. And just like Israel of old was told to keep themselves pure, so it is with the church. The churches of the Lord are to keep themselves pure as well. And although not everyone, not everyone held to these things, The entire church was, the letter was written to the entire church. He says, but I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam. In other words, you know that they're there, they're spreading these things, and you've not done anything about it. There's no preaching against it. There's no discipline against it. There's nothing happening. You've turned a blind eye to this sort of thing. I was just reading in my private reading in Joshua. If you go by there for a little bit, Joshua chapter Chapter seven. Verse one, it says, but the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing. For Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel. If you go on down to verse 13, he says, up, sanctify the people and say, sanctify yourselves against tomorrow. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, there is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel. Thou canst not stand before thine enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you. What happened? Well, they were told to take Jericho, and they did. God blessed them mightily. How many times have we sung the song when we were a kid, Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, Jericho, and the walls came tumbling down? Well, the reality is God fought that battle. And the walls did come down. And they took the city, that great fortified city, but they were told, They were told, keep yourselves from the accursed thing lest you make yourselves accursed. When you take the accursed thing and make the camp of Israel accursed and troubled it. Well, what happened? Somebody within the camp decided to go and as he was going through, he found the accursed thing. Look at it there in verse 21 of verse seven. When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, 200 shekels of silver and a wedge of gold of 50 shekels weight, then I coveted them and took them, and behold, they are hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent and the silver under it. the things of the pagans. He grabbed them when he wasn't supposed to and he brought them into the camp. And doesn't that happen sometimes within the churches? People bring in false doctrine. And so it's just a small thing. It's just a little thing. Just a minority, just a small group. That's not what the Lord said to Israel. It's not what the Lord is saying to the churches. I'm not saying that we have to agree on everything. However, there are some false doctrines which ought to be kept outside in the world. And that's what he's talking about here. He says, you've brought in the doctrine that's 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 thou hast also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate." These false doctrines were abominations to God and things that ought not to be. Folks, there are things that are happening in churches that you wouldn't believe. I mean, false doctrines being brought in from Mormons, and Jehovah's Witnesses, and Catholics, and being brought into Baptist churches, and that sort of thing. And what happens is, sometimes these things start out as a small thing, and then they grow, and they grow, and they grow. And the Lord says, get them out, get them out. And much of that gets weeded out through the proper preaching and teaching of the Word of God. But what happens whenever you get a weak-kneed preacherette in the pulpit who preaches sermonettes because he's afraid that he'll run away some people in the pew? Then the Word of God's being watered down Sunday after Sunday. And then those doctrines, those false doctrines, are getting carried away. Thirdly, verse 18, he says, unto the angel of the church, by the way, my brain is not catching up to what I'm seeing on the paper here, but the angel, I believe these are messengers, that's what the word angel means, the pastors of the churches he was writing to. Nonetheless, 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 like fine brass. I know thy works, charity, service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works. 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 Thytyra, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, and as they speak, I will put upon you none other burden, but they would But that which ye have already, hold fast till I come. And he that overcometh and keepeth my words to the end, to him will I give power over the nations. He shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter. They shall be broken to shivers, even as I received them 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. Jezebel, another woman that is found in the Old Testament, apparently used here as an example. And what we find here is something that'll destroy a church real quick, and that is false teachers, false teachers. Now, of course, Jezebel that was going on here at Thyatira This woman was out of place. Very, very clearly, women have a place in the church, not supposed to be out teaching and seducing the church, at least not in a public kind of a forum, which seems what's happening here, but that's what was going on. And false teachers, whether man or woman, can cause much harm to the destruction of a church. If you go back to 1 Kings chapter 16, we find here, in 1 Kings chapter 16, look what it says in verses 31 and 32, and it came to pass as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. He reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a grove. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him." There are some things that we do to provoke the Lord to anger. I know Ahab knew something about that, but I believe that the churches of the Lord can do that as well. And so, well, we like this preacher, we like this teacher, he's a really nice guy, he just needs some more time. If he's a false preacher, or if she's teaching false things, he ought not to have a microphone. He ought not to have a place to be able to teach and to preach. That's just the fact of it. Over in chapter 21 of 1 Kings, 1 Kings chapter 21, verses 25 and 26, it says this. But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. And he did very abominably in following idols, according to all things, as did the Amorites, whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel." Oh, do not we have that going on now? I mean, we're coming up to Thanksgiving holiday, which is a day set aside for Thanksgiving, but what happens in much of today's world? Well, we go straight from Halloween over to Christmas, and that's the way the world does. But watch, watch what happens. In some churches, that's the way it's going to be. And it used to be you wouldn't know what was going on in other pulpits because they kept it all to themselves. But now because of YouTube and sermon audio and all that, you can see it. And Facebook, they'll brag about it. And I mean, they'll come into the pulpit with the Santa Claus hat and put the Christmas trees up and all that. Where's that stuff come from, folks? We've got to be honest with ourselves. Is it biblical? Does it belong in the church? And of course, the answer is no. It is Babylonian, much like some of these things that are coming from the Old Testament, which is, I believe, part of the reason why that Jesus, when he wrote these letters to the churches, he uses these Old Testament examples because guess what? The same false religions that are out there in America today, are the exact same false religions that were out in the land of Israel with the other nations. They may have different names, but if you trace them back, they all go back to the same place. They come from the same source. They're from the devil. And of course, you can clean them up, try to make them look real nice, repackage them and put the name of Christ on them. That's what the Catholics tried to do, but that's not what they are, and we're told to watch out for these things. When he talks about committing fornication, I believe that's spiritual adultery there. That's what he's talking about. We've got to watch out for false ideas and false teachings. we can go and look at some of these things. And of course, like I said, I'm not gonna exhaust all of this, but we can't allow for false teachers. We just can't. And that's one surefire way to destroy a church is to get a false teacher into the pulpit. In Revelation chapter three, Revelation chapter three, we have this church, the church at Sardis. He says, and unto the angel of the church in Sardis write, these things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know thy works that thou hast in name that thou livest and art dead. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Thou hast a few names, even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments. They shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment. 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. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Notice there in verse four, there were some in the church who had defiled their garments. Think of having a white garment. My daughter got her chef's uniform and it's all white. And you wear something all white, it doesn't take long before you get something dirty on it. you know, either walking out there in the mud or eating barbecue back here in the fellowship hall, or even just brushing up against something, inevitably, you'll get it dirty. But it's deeper than that. Much deeper. Hear me now, the Lord Jesus Christ will have a virgin bride. He will have a pure bride. And I believe that that is what he's talking about here, one that is unspotted from the world. In fact, if you notice, there's some within this church, there's some, he says, that have not defiled their garments. They shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment. I believe that that's talking about, I believe that's talking about the garments of the bride. Now we won't go into that at this time. However, we have garments of salvation, understand that. You can't mess up your garments of salvation. But you and I for sure can goof up, mess up, really defile our garments or bride garments, if you will. In fact, that's why, that's why when our, we looked at it earlier in there, 2 Corinthians chapter 11, Paul wrote it this way, 2 Corinthians chapter 11, He says in verse two, for I am jealous over you with godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. The Lord's bride is a Baptist bride, but just because your name is on the roll of a Baptist church doesn't necessarily mean that you'll be in the bride. And one of the ways that a church can really mess herself up is to get along with the world, to become spotted, if you will. He tells the church there in Sardis, he says, I've not found your works perfect before God. God is not looking for just our Sunday morning, although he does want that. But He wants all of us. He wants our week. It's not just about our 10%. It's about what are we doing with our life, with our money, with our schedule, with who we are. You see, worldliness is a problem in many of today's churches. And I believe one of the reasons why we see so many churches dying in our day and age is because of worldliness. It used to be, if you go into the New Testament, the accusation was you've turned the world upside down. But what's happened is the world has flipped the churches upside down. And now there's so much, there's so little of a difference that it's hard to tell the difference between the world and the church. We sometimes sing, just as I am, in a Sovereign Grace Landmark Missionary Baptist Church, only to go home to be just as we were. In years gone by, so many of the older brethren, so many of the older preachers used to stand up against worldliness, but now the pulpits have gone silent on sin. The modern day preacher has abandoned these things in order to gain popularity with the people. Afraid to lose a dollar or a person. Leaving out areas that might offend somebody. Oh, examine your own life. If you are more concerned about what's going on out there than you are about what the Bible says, If you know more about Marvel superheroes than you do about the Scriptures, these things ought not to be. Nothing wrong with a comic or a movie and that sort of thing, but we've got to understand some things. We can't let these things overwhelm us. In the book of James chapter 1, in James 1 and verse 27, Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. Oh, how we miss this so often. Pure religion and undefiled before God. Understand, beloved, That's these things, visit the fatherless, the widows in their affliction, to keep yourself unspotted from the world. Those aren't the exciting things, I guess. Maybe that's why it gets missed sometimes, but this is what we're supposed to be doing. Over in James chapter 4 and verse 4, Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." We need to be sure that we aren't just trying to get along with the world. And then in Revelation chapter three, Revelation 3, verses 14 through 22. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would that thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing. Knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked? I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayst be rich, and white raiment, thou mayst be clothed, and the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayst see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any men hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Imagine if you were to go down to the coffee shop and you walk into the coffee shop and you request a lukewarm coffee. You're not gonna get it. I mean, maybe you'll get it, but you'll get a weird look because I guarantee you they've got hot coffee or they've got iced coffee on the menu. They don't have lukewarm coffee and that's by design. Lukewarm coffee's gross. It's not anything that anybody wants. Jesus said that about the church at Laodicea. They were neither hot nor cold. They were fence straddlers. They would not take a stand for anything. They were like the modernists or the postmodernists of our day, who do not want to offend anybody. Or like the religionists, having a form of religion, but denying the power thereof. But they weren't Christians. They weren't Christians. It would have been better if they were hot or cold. There are signs of lukewarmness all over this country. Apathy or a lack of concern or interest to the things of God and of church matters is running rampant. Kind of like the preacher that I heard about He was preaching about this sort of trouble, and the congregation was just there halfway asleep and not really paying attention, and so he's trying to get them involved. So he said, hey, can somebody define apathy? Nobody said a word. He said, someone in here must know what apathy means. Nobody said anything. She finally said, doesn't anybody know what apathy means? And someone in the crowd said, look, pastor, we don't know and we don't care. That's what apathy is. Unfortunately, unfortunately, we do care about things. There are some things in this world get our blood pumped. How about them dogs or braves? That's pretty good stuff. That gets us going. How about that politics? That gets the blood moving. The gossip coming from Hollywood? That'll do it. We'll get all fired up about that. But what about the things of God? Oh, apathy will destroy a church real quick. I mentioned one of the things that happened in Mansfield, we were running dry. I mean, it's so dry, sometimes, let me tell you, this is how it worked for my check. You know, because they wanted to pay, they wanted to give me some money for being their pastor and bless them for it. But look, sometimes the treasurer would bring a check, a blank check, because he wasn't sure how much money would be in the box. And so they would give me $250 a week, but sometimes he couldn't afford that. And so he'd have to wait and see how much was in the box before he could write a check. But nobody knew, because we didn't have a monthly business meeting. Nobody cared, because they didn't ask. And that's the way it is with churches sometimes. But know well, in each of these examples, I said this is how to destroy a church, note well that none of these churches had disbanded. They were still churches in existence. The Lord wrote to them these letters through John. Some of them were on their way. I mean, you may have missed it, but he says to the church of Sardis in Revelation 3.1, thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead. In other words, to put it in language that we would use today, you may be still meeting, but you've done disbanded. You've disbanded in your mind and your heart, you're gone. You're dead, you're a dead church. Now, it's one thing to hear that from a brother in Christ. You say, well, you're just being judgmental, but that's what the Lord said about them. That's what the Lord said about them in verse 17 of Revelation 3. Look what he says here. Thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. And knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. The church of Laodicea, they said, man, we've got everything. And isn't that how we are in America a lot of times? Well, we got everything. We got padded pews, we got air conditioner, we got heater, we got a roof, pavement, stained glass windows. I mean, the list goes on and on of what American churches have. We don't need nothing, right? We got it all. Jesus says, you don't know it, but you're wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. When we think of these things that We ought to be moved to examine our own selves, to consider it, but also to understand that, praise the Lord, he wrote to them, not after they were already totally gone, right? There was still a pulse. There was still enough opportunity to write. In other words, someone was still there that could get the letter. Even when we think about the Laodicean church, he said, I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in a fire, that thou mayest be rich. and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with thyself, that thou mayest see. He gave these churches space to repent. In Revelation 2 in verse 5, look at it there. Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. That's what he said to the church at Ephesus. To the church at Pergamos, he said similarly, in verse 16, repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. Time and time again, he gives them opportunity, space to repent. Look at it this way, you and I, I love this church, I believe we're doing well, but when we think about this, we read these things and we see other churches disbanding. We ought to read them, examine them, and learn from them. Think about this. We live in the days of COVID-19. We've all had friends, family, loved ones that have had it. Some have had it very severe. Some have even died. Now, if you've never had COVID-19, you could say, well, that doesn't concern me. And you could go on through life and not think about it. You could say, well, I'm not going to think about it. I'm not going to consider it. I'm not going to worry about it. You could go through life and live your life as if it doesn't exist. But one day you may get sick with it. Then what? Then what? You'll wish that you would have listened to people who had stories to tell of how that they survived. Stories to tell of how they got better. Stories to tell of what helped them out or what didn't help them. Same thing goes with any other disease. So it is with churches. These things are written for our example. so that we can learn, we can grow, we can avoid those things which cause them trouble. We can avoid it. In Revelation chapter three, we won't read the ending of all these letters, but look at verse 13. He says it almost identical in all of them. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Each one of these letters was written to an individual church. But then at the end of it, he says, let he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. Understand what he says. Examine your own life. Examine this church. do as I have and think about what a letter might look like if Jesus were to write directly from heaven to us as Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. What would it look like? And then be encouraged to carry on and move on. Because even with those churches and the problems that they had, he gives them space. to repent, to make things right, to do. And may God help us if we ever encounter some lukewarmness, false teaching, worldliness, the leaving of our first love, that we may identify it early on and get straightened out with our Lord very, very quickly. May our Lord be pleased that we carry on for many, many more years until that time comes that he calls us on to be with him. Let's stand and be dismissed.