Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:08] Good afternoon.
[00:00:10] We are at Community Media of South Central Pennsylvania. I am Pastor Peter from Ice to Sea Ministries International. We are a non profit international ministry that teaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the whole counsel of God.
[00:00:27] We do a lot of training, leadership training for pastors and ministers and we equip the saints for the work of the ministry as is recorded in the Bible in Ephesians chapter 4.
[00:00:40] We have been this is just an ongoing teaching week after week, continuing from the revelation of Jesus Christ.
[00:00:52] And I'm going to give you a brief review and then I will give you an overview of Christ's seven letters to the churches found in the last book of the Holy Bible. So last words of Christ, which is very important.
[00:01:10] We are in the last days.
[00:01:12] We are in the last of the last days of perilous times.
[00:01:17] That doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out if you turn the news on.
[00:01:23] Every day we are becoming more and more lawless as humankind progresses along God's timeline.
[00:01:31] And I noticed lawlessness for me several years ago when I realized people were ignoring the use of a blinker.
[00:01:45] And then as you came to stop signs or traffic lights, the traffic stopped because it no longer knew what the person in front of them was going to do, whether they were going to turn left, right or continue straight.
[00:02:00] Now today, in addition to that, I see everywhere I go, people just blatantly run stop signs. They don't even slow down, they just run right through them. The same with traffic lights. And once, once one car goes through a red light, there seems to be three or four that follow.
[00:02:22] So these are all the church is to obey the law of the land, unless the law of the land dictates that the church should do something above and beyond or in violation of God's holy writ as his instructions in the Bible.
[00:02:46] So the revelation of Jesus Christ found in chapter one in the book of Revelation, I'll review that quickly and then hopefully we'll get to the book of Ephesus, at least read the seven scriptures there. And then we're going to get into a lengthy study of that book because as we go through that letter, I don't know that I could get through it in more than three weeks. And it's only seven verses. But you really have to understand what God's saying in that letter because it's a church in violation of the first and great commandment.
[00:03:28] It's a busy church, but it's in violation and it's important that we understand this.
[00:03:36] So the revelation of Jesus Christ in Chapter one in the Book of Revelation, it's important that you understand this very first sentence starts the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ. And it's important that we understand these are the words of God. He is the Word, and this revelation is from Jesus Christ.
[00:04:04] Now, this is extremely important because we are going to get a revelation as Christ reveals his evaluation of the condition of his churches bought by his blood for his purposes only, 60 to 65 years after his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension.
[00:04:31] So we are literally looking at about three generations after Christ's ascension.
[00:04:40] And also in verse three, it's recorded, blessed is he that reads and keeps.
[00:04:51] So this is an important chapter. Every chapter, every word in the book. The Holy Bible is important, but the entire book, the entire word of God is about Christ. And now we're getting a revelation from Him Himself, given to him by the Father, and now to Him Christ, to his servant John, for all of his servants. So this letter is for the churches today.
[00:05:22] I know if you start to do research, you'll hear all kinds of theological and explanations, arguments for and against.
[00:05:31] But the Word of God clearly says Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever. And as long as we look at the Word of God, rightly divided Scripture will confirm Scripture within the context that's given that word is applied to today.
[00:05:55] So blessed are they that read.
[00:05:58] Now, I'll just say, for curiosity's sake, while we're talking about the revelation of Jesus Christ, it's given by him about himself, but what is the revelation? It's of Christ.
[00:06:16] So just a little side note, if you go to the Book of Hebrews and you look in chapter one, verses one through three, you'll see three verses that you could summarize as the Son, the Son of God or Jesus Christ is God's revelation.
[00:06:41] So in the Book of Hebrews, we already have a forerunner of what Jesus is going to speak on Himself again in this book of Revelation.
[00:06:53] So God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, which when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
[00:07:30] So Jesus Christ is the express image of the Father, he is the Son, is God's revelation.
[00:07:42] Jesus said, if you see me, you've seen The Father.
[00:07:51] Now, last week we looked at what the word revelation means.
[00:07:57] It actually in Greek, in the Greek language, the translation is apocalypse.
[00:08:06] That's what revelation means. It means disclosure, appearing, coming, lightening, manifestation, or be revealed. So things are being revealed. If you've been in the church for any length of time, you would have heard people say things like, God's word was revealed. To me, revelation from God is not going to be anything new.
[00:08:42] It's an opening up of the Scriptures. So if you hear anybody say, I have this book I wrote, God took me to heaven and gave me a special revelation that no one else has. And here it is. Because there's a lot of them out there. One in particular, I think they're on their seventh or eighth version of this and the church as a whole.
[00:09:10] Somebody comes on the scene with a new revelation.
[00:09:14] And the revelation lately in the church is there's a new prophet in town and everybody wants to have him on their TV show. They interview them and in very short order you're going to find out that these people literally have egg on their face because they couldn't discern what this person was saying was from God or not.
[00:09:39] So my recommendation as a pastor, as a teacher in the body of Christ, as a pastor, I'm to shepherd the flock. As a teacher, I'm to give you the understanding of what the word of God says. And more and more as we progress into the future. What you're going to find in most churches is the gift given by Christ to the church of the teacher is being silenced. It'll be silenced by false prophets and false pastors that are in charge of the flock that have now embraced false doctrine. And as the teacher gets up to make the correction to the true word of God, they will be silenced. So if you're in a church right now where you're not being taught, I would become a Joseph and flee.
[00:10:35] Because whatever you hear, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Whatever you are hearing, whatever is going in, is going to come out of you. So if you're spending more time on the Internet than you are meditating on God's Word, I would clearly say God's word says, meditate on the word of God day and night.
[00:11:01] What does that mean?
[00:11:03] It means you need to be spending. Your mind needs to be focused on Christ.
[00:11:10] I can go to the grocery store and I can run into a person.
[00:11:16] And if I'm observant and I pray for God to open my spiritual eyes and my spiritual ears, if I'm led by the Holy Spirit to that person. I will hear something come out of their mouth or see something that would give me the opportunity to witness for Christ. And they could be a believer. Maybe they just need to be discipled or edified, lifted up in the faith that would be meditating on God's Word. I'm following in obedience to God, his commandments.
[00:11:54] So before I get into Christ's messages to the seven churches, because these are going to be.
[00:12:00] They're going to be heavy messages. The Holy Spirit's going to bring conviction. And we need to pray before we enter into this. So, Father, we thank you for the truth. We thank you that you gave us the Holy Scriptures, that the Word of God, which is the way, the truth and the life that we would live a spiritual life and not a carnal life. Not one of the flesh and not one of the Word, the world. You've called us to separate ourselves from the world. You said, be holy, for I, your God, am holy. And your name is holy. It's written in Isaiah 57:7 that your name is holy.
[00:12:47] So we thank you, God, that as our Father, the Father of Lights, the Father of Light, that the light will always chase out the darkness and that we're to follow the light, that the Word of God is to be a light unto our footsteps. So we thank you as we speak the Scriptures today.
[00:13:08] And that an understanding of what your word means as it goes out, that your word will not return empty, it will accomplish that which you sends it forth, send it forth to accomplish on this night for your will to be accomplished. And Father, I pray that as people have an understanding that the Word of God is the will of God, that as they get this understanding today, I ask that their eyes be enlightened, the eyes of their heart be opened, that they may see you, that they may see you through Christ Jesus, who is the image of you.
[00:13:50] So I pray for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God, God the Father, God the Word, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. That we are enlightened and that the eyes of our heart are opened into what your will is in these last hours for your church, your people, the very small remnant that's left, that they will be kept, your church. So I pray what you gave to your servant Moses to tell your priest Aaron to pray over your people every day. The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and. And give us Peace. Give us peace tonight. The peace of Christ that passes all understanding which comes through an understanding of the word of God. And keep us in your hand, under your feathers as it is written in the book of Psalms. We thank you for the truth. We thank you for already answering this prayer since this prayer was no more than the will of God in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:15:05] So in chapter one of the book of Revelation, Jesus starts to give John, Apostle John, revelation of he shows him visions and he tells him to write the things which you see, write the things which are, and write the things which are to come. The that's that sentence right there in the Bible is an outline of the whole book of Revelation. It's what is John being shown, what are the things today and what are the things to come that's important in understanding that you cannot separate, you can't separate and pigeonhole the word of God into the first century and say that that only applied to those people because the word of God is eternal. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words are eternal. Jesus said so Christ is going to tell John to write a letter to seven different churches.
[00:16:23] These are first century local churches in western Asia Minor. Now I'm not going to get into a history lesson tonight, but if you do just a Google search on each one of these seven churches, you're going to find out that they're in the most hedonistic, carnal places in the world.
[00:16:47] There are travel routes, there's people from all over the world coming in.
[00:16:52] They're paganistic cities. And it is only by the power of God and the power of the gospel that churches could even exist in these places.
[00:17:04] And yet I would challenge you by saying this.
[00:17:09] It was the gospel that pushed the devil out of these areas and let the church thrive.
[00:17:17] So I want you to think about something tonight.
[00:17:21] Where the gospel is the true gospel of Jesus Christ, light is shining into those dark areas.
[00:17:31] And where it is not, it gives Satan a right to move in.
[00:17:36] The devil, the enemy, our enemy is always going to move into a void where the light doesn't exist.
[00:17:46] And I can tell you this back in 1960 when the church, the church began to walk away from God and it decided, when America decided that we would legalize the murdering of babies that came from worship of Balaam, which is you're going to see as we go through these seven churches, Jesus is going to reference that, he's going to reference the Nicolaitans. And I'll go through that briefly tonight, but we'll look at it in more Detail in one of the other letters who these people are.
[00:18:29] Just remember, the word of God is the truth and your discernment, what you need to discern what is good and evil, what is wickedness and what is righteousness is going to come through the Word of God.
[00:18:44] So you, above all things, today the church should be prioritizing its study in the Word of God. The Bible says we're to gather more frequently now.
[00:18:58] We should be gathering when I preach.
[00:19:05] That should prick people's hearts and bring conviction by the Holy Spirit. It's only going to do that if it's the word of God that I'm preaching.
[00:19:16] That's what the Holy Spirit's job is.
[00:19:22] So as we go through these letters, keep in mind that they are applicable to today.
[00:19:28] And if you travel in the last three years like I have and visit church after church after church, if you stay there long enough, you're going to see that there is no church that's immune to any of these things Jesus talked about.
[00:19:44] In fact, it's rapidly becoming worse because we're a lot farther away than the 60 to 65 years of Christ walking on this earth.
[00:19:55] So these letters to these churches were given by Christ to the church as exhortation, as warnings, and as identification for believers and, and churches throughout this age.
[00:20:14] So what do you mean this age, Pastor Peter? I mean the church age.
[00:20:19] The church age was from the Book of Acts until the church gets raptured. We've talked about that in detail. That was one of the reasons why before I could start into these letters, you had to be given an understanding of what that really meant.
[00:20:38] Because after chapter three, when we get done with these letters, the church is not mentioned in the book of Revelation anymore because it's not here on earth anymore.
[00:20:51] The value of these messages for the churches, for Christ's churches are four general things.
[00:21:03] Number one, it's a revelation or a revealing of what Jesus Christ himself loves and values in his churches as well as what he hates and what he's going to condemn.
[00:21:21] Remember, this is his evaluation of the churches.
[00:21:25] Now I've heard so many people because they have gotten what I will just generally say has been a watered down message of the gospel.
[00:21:37] And I can tell you this now, and I'm going to rely on, on Sean, Brother Sean to remind me when I get done with this, we are going to look at Jesus.
[00:21:50] Parable of the woman caught in adultery.
[00:21:54] That's a powerful evangelistic message. So when I get done showing you what Jesus is going to show us, he loves and what he hates and condemns in the church.
[00:22:08] You're going to get an evangelistic message because by then your heart should be so pricked as mine is, because I get pricked as I study this.
[00:22:21] So it's going to be a revealing of what Christ loves and hates.
[00:22:27] Now, God is love. But I can tell you right now, I'm going to give you one scripture. In John chapter 15, Jesus says in verse 10, if you keep my commandments and stay in my word, you will stay in my love.
[00:22:48] So it would be a wrong statement for me to tell you that God's love is unconditional.
[00:22:55] God is love, but it is conditioned on your obedience. You must abide in the word of God. Who is Jesus Christ?
[00:23:06] Does God hate?
[00:23:08] Yes. It goes right back to the book of Genesis. When the devil, the serpent, deceived Eve, she was deceived. He put enmity between the seed of God and, and the seed of the enemy. And we see that it's a seed war.
[00:23:26] All throughout history, the devil has tried to corrupt the seed, the genetic line of Christ.
[00:23:35] And it got to the point where God created, caused the flood, where every, every seed was corrupt at that point, except for Noah. It said Noah was a righteous man.
[00:23:50] What did that mean? It meant that he was attempting to be right with God. He was right with God, but his seed was not corrupted. And it would continue on and over and over. If you follow and study the genetic line of Christ, you will see many times where the devil almost wiped out that seed because he knew, he knew that if the Christ was born, that would be the end of him.
[00:24:21] So the devil has known since his before he was cast out of heaven, that there would be a Christ and he would come and who that is, that's why he attacked Jesus himself in the wilderness.
[00:24:41] So most of humanity has been deceived at this point.
[00:24:45] And they don't believe Christ, nor do they believe in the church that he's even coming back. And why is that?
[00:24:53] Why would they not care about that? Because the church itself, by surveys, cannot even define what repentance is.
[00:25:02] And I will tell you this. If you believe that salvation is God's free gift, you should have an understanding and believe that, that not only salvation is a gift from God, but forgiveness is a gift from God and so is repentance. Because contrary to what half of the church believes, repentance, that gift would keep you out of the torment That I hear pastors say that if I have to worry about the sin that I created or I got involved in today, I would be the most tormented person in the world. And I would say that person doesn't understand the word of God, of God, because it's an understanding of the word of God that brings the peace of Christ. And if you understand what true repentance is and that the Holy Spirit reveals to you each day where you slip, even if it's not a damnable sin, you will find yourself going to God and repenting true repentance. And you won't be tormented. You'll be at peace.
[00:26:15] You'll be at peace with the understanding that you don't have to rely on a deceptive lie from the devil to keep you at peace, but you can rely on the truth and the word of God. So, number two, what is the value of these messages to the Church?
[00:26:35] It gives a clear statement. Statement from Christ regarding the consequences of disobedience and spiritual neglect and the rewards for spiritual vigilance and faithfulness to Christ. You're either going to obey the word of God or you're going to be in disobedience. And the Bible says if you're in disobedience, your Father is the Father of lies, the Father of the devil. Which is exactly why repentance is important to understand.
[00:27:11] I'll be very transparent. There's been times in my walk where I backslid.
[00:27:20] And it's a sin in the book of Galatians that says if you're in this lifestyle, you will not enter the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven.
[00:27:29] But the minute, the very second that I acknowledged that and confessed it to God and repented, the anointing that he's placed on me came immediately back. And if you've ever preached or taught by the Spirit of God, if the gifts of the Holy Spirit have ever flowed through you and that dried up and you don't see that anymore, that should be a red flag to you, that you're out of the will of God in some way and he's pulled that off, the Holy Spirit still there. But it's as the Spirit wills. And he wills at that point not to have you. Those gifts flow out of you.
[00:28:16] Number three for a value. What value is this to the Church? A standard. It's a standard. God's standard, by which any church or individual may judge their true spiritual state, the true condition, spiritual condition of your heart before God Almighty, whose name is holy, who said, be holy, for I am holy.
[00:28:44] And the last thing, Number four, It's an example of Satan's methods for attacking the Church or The individual Christian.
[00:28:59] So we're going to take a look at six things here and then hopefully we'll have time to get into the church of Ephesus. But this is generally a general overview of the importance of these seven letters. Number one, what does Christ praise?
[00:29:20] So I'll do this as question and answer. What, Remember we looked at what does Christ value?
[00:29:27] So what does he praise.
[00:29:33] Now? I'm going to give you seven things that Christ praises that we can find from these letters.
[00:29:40] He praises a church number one or a not tolerating wicked people.
[00:29:48] Revelation 2. 2.
[00:29:52] We'll get into that in the book of Ephesus.
[00:29:56] B, Christ praises a church for testing the life, the doctrine and claims of Christian leaders.
[00:30:11] He's going to talk about that with false apostles.
[00:30:16] We are called as the church and it doesn't have to be the pastor, but as a believer. If you learn and study, if you study and learn and learn and study, etcetera, Etc, etcetera. You will hear whether you're being spoken to the truth or a lie.
[00:30:41] And it's the word of God that is the standard for testing the life of Christian leaders.
[00:30:49] The doctrine that Christian leaders are speaking of and claims of Christian leaders is that person. I knew a person and I left the church several years ago that every week when they came up had the most miraculous stories of what Christ was doing. And I never had a witness from the Holy Spirit that this person was teaching or telling me the truth. The reason I believe that he was doing that with was out of envy and jealousy.
[00:31:21] That's why the Pharisees murdered Christ.
[00:31:28] He had testimonies. He was giving testimonies of signs, wonders and miracles that really happened.
[00:31:36] So as the Holy Spirit chose to use myself and another elder there, this person was a prayer person in that ministry.
[00:31:47] And when I say prayer person, they were standing up there and they shouldn't have been up there praying over people.
[00:31:55] Jealousy and envy set in. And that was how the initial attacks from the enemy came.
[00:32:01] And there was by their fruits you will know them because there are people in the church right now that have been put there by the devil.
[00:32:14] Look up the parable of the tares and wheat. And Christ said to his disciples, not to pull the tares out yet, or you might pull some of the wheat out.
[00:32:26] This is very. I cannot emphasize the importance of where we are on a biblical timeline through the prophetic words given to us from Christ. And in this last book that you'll see the testing of the life, doctrine and claims of Christian leaders is also in Revelation 2, 2, number 3, or letter C, what does Christ praise? He praises his churches for persevering in faith, for persevering in love, for persevering in witness, for persevering in service to him, and for persevering and suffering for Christ.
[00:33:13] You'll see that in Revelation, chapter 2, verse 3, verse 10, verse 13, verse 19, and verse 26.
[00:33:25] Now, I will challenge you. If you spend more time scrolling through the Internet and looking at what I hear, people say I have to look up every day what they call is the backstory. And this is what is probably going to happen at some point in the future. But that is what's in this person, and that's what's in his heart, and that's what's coming out.
[00:33:54] So he's not witnessing for Christ as much as he's witnessing worldly things.
[00:34:02] The world's going to end. This is going to happen. That's going to happen. Those things will all happen one day.
[00:34:09] And if I would stand up here and tell you I was a prophet and start giving you the news, you need to run and turn this channel off right now. And then you need to yell at community media for letting me get behind the microphone.
[00:34:30] The fourth thing, or letter D.
[00:34:33] What is Christ praise? He praises his church for hating what God hates. Revelation, chapter 2, verse 6. Those are going to be his very words out of the King James Version, which is a direct translation of the Word of God. The Original Manuscripts Number 5, or Letter E. What does Christ praise? He praises his churches for overcoming sin, Satan, and an ungodly world.
[00:35:07] You'll find that in Revelation 2, 7, 11, 17, verse 26, chapter 3, verse 5, verse 12, and verse 21.
[00:35:25] Scripture confirms Scripture. We have to look at the word of God, rightly divided.
[00:35:34] There is a scripture where God said, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
[00:35:44] And if you go back into that book and look at the context, the lack of knowledge is the lack of knowledge of God, which is exactly what's happening in the. In Ephesus. But the reason I say that is there is someone called a prophet, he calls himself a prophet in America who has a national television platform and uses this Scripture to defend what he thinks the church should be doing in these hours.
[00:36:29] And that is taking this scripture out of context. I think when enough rebuttal came back from, from those that have discernment, the qualifying statement was, well, this is a general statement from God for all things, and it's not in that context. So we spoke about that last week that if you're hearing a scripture out of context, being used for somebody's opinion, you need to run, because that's a false teacher. You're listening to.
[00:37:09] The sixth thing or letter F that Christ praises a church for is for refusing to conform to immorality in the world and worldliness in the church.
[00:37:26] The church needs discernment. It needs to discern what Solomon asked for when he asked God for wisdom. When God said, I'll give you whatever you wish, Solomon, and he said, I want a dessert. Give me a discerning heart, an understanding heart, so that I can discern wickedness from evil, because these are your people that I'm to govern. And who can govern your people without God's wisdom.
[00:37:59] That pleased God and He gave it to Solomon. Revelation 2:24,3,4. Now, there's many other scriptures throughout the whole Bible, the Old Testament and the New Testament, that if you have a study Bible with reference scriptures, you're going to go back a lot of times. You can go back to the book of Genesis and all the way through the Word of God with scriptures that are going to confirm what I'm giving you. I'm just giving you these in these chapters because that's where we're at.
[00:38:35] And the seventh thing, or G, letter G, God praises the churches for keeping his word.
[00:38:45] Abide in me and I in you.
[00:38:48] Revelation chapter 3, verse 8 and 10. Now that's a lot. So I would encourage you to go back in the archives and write these notes down.
[00:38:59] And if you want to email me, I'll be happy to send you my notes.
[00:39:04] Number two.
[00:39:12] How does Christ reward churches that persevere and remain loyal to him and His Word, his instructions?
[00:39:25] Christ rewards such churches three ways. A, by delivering them from the time of trial that will come upon the whole world.
[00:39:39] What does that mean in one word? It means the rapture.
[00:39:44] God's going to deliver us from his wrath. We were not appointed to wrath. And that is what the catching up of the Church is for the remnant at that time.
[00:39:57] That's why we needed to talk about that.
[00:40:00] That is not the second coming of Christ.
[00:40:06] Revelation chapter 3, verse 10, letter B. By giving them his love, his presence and intimate fellowship with him.
[00:40:21] Read John 15, 1, 11. And those 11 chapters alone are the most powerful chapters that will confirm what I just gave you. In addition to Revelation 3. 20. Again, that's because we're studying Revelation chapter 2 and 3.
[00:40:44] And the third thing, or letter C. How does Christ reward the churches that persevere? By blessing them with Eternal life with God.
[00:40:54] Revelation 2, 11, 17, 26, chapter 3, verse 5, verse 12 and chapter 21, verse 7. That's the chapter where you're going to see the church come back into Revelation, the book of Revelation.
[00:41:18] There's a scripture where God said that he originally, remember Jesus said he came for the lost sheep of Israel, the Jews. But then the scripture says that he was going to bring the Gentiles into the kingdom to make the Jews jealous.
[00:41:39] We are in the church age. There are some Jews, Messianic Jews, that have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Those people are our brothers. There's also people, Jewish people today.
[00:41:56] And I'm going to really, really irritate some people that want to have and believe that the church is replacing the Jews as God's people because God didn't give them that promise to take it away.
[00:42:14] When the church is raptured, when it's caught up and it's not here anymore, the Holy Spirit is going to depart from the earth.
[00:42:28] He's called the Restrainer.
[00:42:31] And God's going to pour his wrath out. In those first three and a half years, the Jewish people are going to build the third temple. The Antichrist is going to come in, he's going to sign a peace agreement with Israel and they're going to believe he's the Messiah.
[00:42:52] And then in the second three and a half years or Daniel's 70 weeks when he turns on them and betrays them, they are going to realize at that point that they crucified Christ and there is going to be a harvest field among the Jews. So that seven year tribulation is a period in biblical history where the church is gone and now it's for the Jews.
[00:43:25] God will bring them in. There'll be 144 witnesses for Christ, virgins and the two witnesses which at some point in the future we'll study and I'm going to give you scriptures that will back up what I believe is going to be Isaiah and Moses coming back.
[00:43:53] Number three, what does Christ condemn?
[00:43:58] So what does Christ praise?
[00:44:01] How does Christ reward churches that remain loyal to him? And now number three, what does Christ condemn? I'm going to give you five things.
[00:44:12] He condemns a church for diminishing an intimate personal devotion to himself and to God the Father.
[00:44:23] Revelation 2, 4. We're going to see that in Ephesus.
[00:44:29] The second thing or letter B. He condemns them for departing from biblical faith. You were saved by faith through grace. And, and throughout the book of Hebrews, one book alone, Christ talks about a falling away from the faith.
[00:44:50] So I would encourage you, if you hear phrases other than that, look at that book and see how this can happen. Who can be an apostate as somebody falling away from the faith?
[00:45:05] Now there are scriptures that say where Paul said that a person departed and they let him go because he was never of us. And that scripture is one that people are going to argue against what the Bible is teaching.
[00:45:22] The third thing, or letter C. What does Christ condemn for tolerating immorality among church leaders and persons of influence? That's why it says in the Bible that you need to the word in the world would be vet, but you should not put a person in leadership in the church that's an immature believer, no matter how on fire they seem for God. And this has happened recently in the last few decades where these people fell, they have fallen away from the faith into carnality and carnal living.
[00:46:09] And when they were brought back and reinstituted, which the church used as an example or an excuse for the substitution for the Word, we reformed them. They've been reformed. They weren't. They were just reinstituted into a position and they fell again over and over.
[00:46:31] Those sins are strongholds in that person and they're not going to go away quickly.
[00:46:38] When I sin, I open a door for the devil to come in. And if I stay in that sin, he's going to come in like the Bible says, like a flood.
[00:46:49] When the enemy comes in like a flood, God will raise up a standard. The standard is the word of God. I need to take my mind that was renewed into that lifestyle of sin and use the word of God to renew my word back into Christ. I have to get back into right standing with God.
[00:47:16] Number four. And that would be Revelation, chapter two, verses 14 and 15 and verse 20, the fourth thing, letter D.
[00:47:26] What does Christ condemn the churches for becoming spiritually dead?
[00:47:33] Revelation 3:1.
[00:47:38] And I would be so much to say is if the Spirit of God is not moving where you're assembling, it's a spiritually dead church.
[00:47:49] Christ is on the outside knocking to come in. Let me in, let me in. Because the Holy Spirit is not in operation. That is why I believe. I'm just going to say I believe that if the lead pastor is not letting the gifts of the Spirit operate in the church, the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit wills what is happening in that church.
[00:48:17] Those gifts are for the church to be edified and lifted up and for us to have be a powerful witness for Christ.
[00:48:30] When I go to Africa, or India.
[00:48:34] And the Holy Spirit says, go put your thumbs in that blind person's eyes and I'll open them up. I have to believe, number one, I have to believe that that was the Holy Spirit, that was the spirit of Christ.
[00:48:50] My sheep hear my voice and I know my sheep, I know them.
[00:48:55] And then I have to step out in faith.
[00:48:58] Once I say, okay, Peter, that was the Holy Spirit, I have to go do it.
[00:49:04] And in faith I'm going to tell that person, God, Jesus is going to open your eyes and give you sight right now.
[00:49:15] And then it happens.
[00:49:18] And then a whole church just saw a witness, a powerful witness for Christ.
[00:49:25] And what they're going to do is they're going to want to know.
[00:49:30] They're going to want to know the word of God and they're going to want to be followers, disciples of Christ, not just a believer.
[00:49:39] That's why we had to look at the difference between a believer and a disciple E and that we're going to see in Revelation 3:1. Christ is going to tell us what a spiritually dead church is or a lukewarm church from Revelation 3, 15, 16.
[00:50:05] And the fifth thing, what does Christ condemn the churches? He condemns them for substituting outward success and affluence for real spirituality.
[00:50:19] In other words, purity, righteousness and spiritual wisdom. And we'll see that in Revelation 3:17 for real spirituality.
[00:50:31] And in verse 18, a substitute for outward success, for purity and righteousness.
[00:50:40] The enemy, the devil right now has sheeps in wolves clothing, not just behind the pulpit, but also you could have a lead pastor who is being attacked every day because the furnace room in that church, there's no intercessory prayer ministry in that church to keep people that are in the church that are wolves in sheep's clothing, the tares that are witnessing what the lead pastor is trying to accomplish in there and they're coming against that spiritually as minions of the enemy.
[00:51:24] Number five. What does Christ's message reveal about the natural trend of churches towards spiritual stagnation, decline and apostasy?
[00:51:38] These seven letters suggest two things. It is the inherent tendency of churches to err, to accept false teaching and to adapt to the evil anti God elements of the world.
[00:51:55] And I would encourage you to see Galatians chapter five, where you're going to see the works of the flesh. And these are the works of the flesh. So Jesus is showing us over 2,000 years ago.
[00:52:11] His evaluation 60 to 65 years later is that it is a natural tendency of the church because it's a natural tendency of humankind to drift away. And if you don't know how to keep yourself in the spirit, walking in the Spirit and not in the flesh, you will become an instrument of carnality and you will begin to drift further and further away from your faith.
[00:52:43] When we get into the book of Ephesus, you're going to see a busy church who left its first love.
[00:52:51] That's not an accident that that's the first church Jesus is evaluating.
[00:52:58] The second thing that we are being revealed is in addition to that, we see that churches are often affected by false teaching, by wicked teaching, and by unfaithful people.
[00:53:13] Revelation 2, 2, 14, 15 and verse 20.
[00:53:20] For this reason, for this reason, a church's present spiritual state can never be taken as a valid test of God's will or as an ultimate justification for determining truth and sound Gospel, sound doctrine, the gospel, the original message of Christ and the apostles, is the ultimate authority of, by which to measure truth and falsehood.
[00:53:52] And the word of God is eternal.
[00:53:58] So any revelation that you hear somebody say they've gone to heaven and they've seen this, or God told them that, and it doesn't line up with the word of God. It's contrary to the word of God. You need to be a berean saint and, and you need to do what Christ is going to reward you for. You need to go back and check what you just heard against the word of God. And if it doesn't line up, if it can't be confirmed through the word of God, that revelation is not from God.
[00:54:36] It either came from you, your own mind, or it came from the devil. And the more that you listen to that and follow it and the more books you start hearing come out or the more today social media, the more likes likes on social media has replaced people studying the word of God for truth. They hear it, they look at how many likes there are and they're assuming that that's true because of the number of people. And yet before I close, and I'm not going to get into Ephesus today before I close a herd of sheep.
[00:55:20] Sheep are literally the dumbest animals on the face of the earth.
[00:55:27] And there's no accident that we are equated to sheep because we need to learn from our shepherd.
[00:55:35] And if a sheep sees, if there's a valley and a sheep on solid ground sees solid ground across that rift and it runs off and falls down that cliff, that whole herd is actually been historically recorded. The whole herd will run with that one sheep right off and There is a such thing as a goat. Sheep.
[00:56:07] Look that up, you'll find out it's a, it's a sheep that actually is a goat.
[00:56:16] Now real quick, I'm going to go into the sixth thing.
[00:56:20] How can churches avoid spiritual decline and the accompanying judgment of Christ?
[00:56:28] I'm going to repeat that your spiritual decline is, is going to accompany judgment brought against you by Christ.
[00:56:37] And the church is the universal church of Christ, not the Catholic Church. It's all of the churches bought by Christ's blood for himself. It's the local assembly where you gather at and it's yourself as an individual. That is the definition of the church of Christ.
[00:56:57] So you are not immune as an individual for being a part of an apostate church. Because your very presence in that church is going to confirm to the people that you are witnessing to and trying to get them to come to that assembly.
[00:57:15] You are going to be held accountable for those people coming in there because they're looking at you as the so called disciple of Christ for knowing what you're doing. And they're now being led into a church where they shouldn't be because they're going to hear false doctrine.
[00:57:34] And I'm going to qualify that real quick.
[00:57:38] If you hear somebody behind the pulpit preach something that's false doctrine, that makes them a false teacher right then. But if they come back and they address the congregation the next day and say, I went back and listened to the message and I spoke incorrectly and they confessed that and they asked the congregation, can you forgive me as your pastor or minister?
[00:58:08] That person just repented and it's up to the church now the church has to decide should we forgive them or not.
[00:58:18] And the Bible talks about, if you can't forgive, you will not be forgiven that person.
[00:58:25] The Holy Spirit worked on that person and they had the courage and the boldness to face the people that they face week in and week out, confess their sin.
[00:58:36] More than likely they did that before God or they're doing it right then. And the word of God says he's faithful to forgive them.
[00:58:48] These letters reveal several things. Number, Number A or letter A. First and foremost, all churches, all churches, all assemblies and all individual people must be willing to hear what the Spirit says unto the churches.
[00:59:09] Revelation 2, 5, 7, 16, 17, 21. That's why each one of these letters says, let those with ears hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
[00:59:25] The word of Jesus Christ must always be the church's guide.
[00:59:32] Revelation 1, 1:5. His word, Christ's words, Christ's Instructions as revealed to the New Testament apostles through the Holy Spirit is the guide by which churches must examine their beliefs and activities and renew their spiritual lives.
[00:59:56] Revelation 2, 7, 11, 17 and 29.
[01:00:02] Second thing or letter B. Churches must continually examine their spiritual condition before God and if necessary, correct their degree of toleration, their degree of toleration of worldliness and immorality among their members.
[01:00:23] Revelation 2, 4, 14, 15, 23, 1 2, 14, 17 and the last thing I'll close with letter C. Spiritual decline in the church or in you can be halted in any church or group or person only, only only if there is true, sincere repentance and a diligent return to the original love, to the original truth in the word of God, to the original purity and to the original power of Jesus Christ's biblical revelation.
[01:01:13] Chapter 2, verses 5 through 7, 16, 17, chapter 3, verses 1 through 3, 15, 22 and then chapter 3 will close out these seven letters.
[01:01:28] If you were taking notes, you probably because I'm speaking quickly, but I would encourage you to go back. You'll see many of these things within the first seven verses that we see in chapter two, which is Christ's letter to the church. And I want you to go read those before next week because Jesus's condemnation to this church, he tells them what they did good.
[01:01:56] And then he says, you have left your first love. You left it. You didn't lose it. You didn't accidentally depart from it. You left your first love and you better repent.
[01:02:16] So Father, I thank you for the truth. I thank you for all those souls, living souls, both professing disciples in Jesus Christ and those out of curiosity that tuned in to hear this message that got pricked in their hearts. And Lord, I ask you by your spirit, because you can lead the unsaved as much as you can lead the saved. In fact, there's many people that are unsaved in some churches out there today and they don't even know it because they never heard the whole counsel of God. They never heard the true gospel, which the Bible says is the power unto salvation and salvation unto righteousness, right standing with you onto holiness which you command of all of us.
[01:03:12] So I thank you for the opportunity given by Comedian Community Media of South Central Pennsylvania to put this word forth that you put on my heart to speak by the Holy Spirit. I ask you to bless them, Lord, for their faithfulness to the Word of God.
[01:03:40] And Father, I just pray that those people that responded to this message that you will be faithful to your word. And I thank you. Now that you are faithful to your word, that you will confirm this message with signs, wonders and miracles following as your word says, and a changed heart, a moved heart is the greatest miracle.
[01:04:11] So we thank you, Father, and we bless you as well. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
[01:04:20] Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty early in the morning Our song shall rise to the holy, holy, holy.
