I'd like to look this morning into the book of the Revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ and look at chapter one. Chapter one of the book of Revelation and verse eleven. Verse ten says, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. But thou seest write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia. onto Ephesus, onto Smyrna, onto Pergamos, onto Thyatira, onto Sardius, under Philadelphia, and Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice that spake with me, and turning I saw seven golden candlesticks or lampstands. And in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the Son of Man, closed with a garment down to the foot and gird about the paths with a golden girdle. His head and his hair were white like wool as white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire. His feet like undefined brass, as if they burned in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters. He had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead, And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not, I am the first and the last. I am he that liveth and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell and of death. The book of the Revelation is a book of the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ. And through this precious book you see so many times a view of him. Certainly to read or study the book without having Christ in view. would to be missed the whole point of it. It's a revelation of the Lord Jesus. It's a revelation of Christ that men need today. Because we're ending the period of God's grace, known as the church period. It's soon that he's going to catch the church away. He's going to take the church, that is every believer, home to be with himself. And then following that period, there's going to be this period of judgment that's going to be on the face of the earth. And the Lord Jesus is the one who stands as the judge. He says in John's Gospel chapter five, and I believe at verse twenty two, that all judgment is committed unto the Son. He is going to stand as the judge. He will be the one who stands as the judge here during this period. But he stands as judge today. You know he walks. in amongst the churches and that's what we have them in this scene. We're having the one have the one who we got to look at who's clothed with a garment down to the foot and his breast is girded about with a golden girdle. We see the Lord Jesus in a priestly character here in the garment that's clothed to the foot. The judges sometimes wore a light garment. Here we see him as well as the one who has his paps or his breast gird about with a golden girdle. A girdle around the waist would speak of service. But here he's bound in his righteousness and in his right to walk in that righteousness in judgment and in faithfulness. So before we look at the churches, I just wanted you to see for a moment the one who has the right to judge amongst the churches. Peter says judgment must begin at the house of God. And certainly the Lord Jesus died for the church. He purchased it. And so it's his right to walk in the midst of them. And we'll look at his character in a moment. But can you view this one in the light that John saw him? As John spoke, John sees him and he sees him as the one who holds the seven stars, the messengers to the churches, in his right hand. And so he walks amongst them as lampstands. Now the King James says a candlestick. Well, a candlestick will burn out. But there's no chance of the church burning out because it has the life of Christ. And so a better translation certainly is without going into that, the lampstands. And so that's what the church is. It's the light here. And again, I want to emphasize when I speak of the church, it's in the light of every believer being brought into one body. I am not speaking of this building as a church. The church here is made up of every believer that gathered in this place. The church universal is every believer worldwide who's brought into the body of Christ. Now John is sending, through the Spirit of God, a message to seven distinct local churches. And they were Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. They were seven of them, and we could look at it in this light. When John wrote his letter, he was on the Isle of Patmos, and Patmos is off in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Turkey. And so John is out here on this aisle, and it's just as though he looks over the country in front of him, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, seven distinct local churches, and the Lord has a message to go to every one of them. Now when we were over there a few years ago, we stood in the place of some of them. We were at Pergamoth, and we were at Smyrna, and we were at Ephesus. The only thing that has something left today... would be Smyrna. The town is still there. As far as Ephesus, there's been several towns, and they've all been taken away and wiped out. There isn't anything left there. Pergamos, there's a town in a different location than what it was in the Lord's Day. And so there were local churches, though, lighthouses that God wanted light to go from. Now he sends a message to Ephesus. And instead of taking each one in detail, we're going to cover it a little in detail, but I want a broad look so you can see the progression of the church from that day when it began in the Apostolic Day, on the day of Pentecost, when the Lord sent His Spirit from heaven to indwell those believers unto what it has come to today in the pictures that are given to us here. And some of the sins in the church... that brought it to what it is today. I think if you can see this, then you can have a glimpse at what's wrong in your own life and what would bring wrong as it's constituted or brought together in the church as a whole. So first of all we see Ephesus. That was the first one. Each name has a meaning and Ephesus meant desirable. And the Lord said to Ephesus he had somewhat against them. because they had turned from their first love. You know, I see a group of adults before me this morning, mostly married, and so you remember what your first love was when you first got married. And you fell in love with a girl, and you remember the strength of that love. Many times, fellas have waited a good long time to marry that girl or that girl, that fellow. I remember the... from the time I asked my wife if she would marry me until the time we got married was three years. And those three years I was overseas mostly in Australia, New Guinea, and the Philippines, and it had been three years. Now all the time I was gone she'd write letters to me. She numbered her letters because the mail was so rotten in those years I might have got letter number thirty before I got number three. And that's the way the mail went. Sometimes it came by a slow boat via China, and sometimes it flew direct. And so she numbered her letters, but she was writing to me continually, and I wrote back to her. I wrote, ever looking forward to that day when we could be together. It took three years, but I looked forward to that day. And she was my love. Well, I'm looking at other people. I was looking at her, even though I couldn't see her. She was in my mind's eye and in my heart. And, you know, when it comes to being espoused to Christ, and as a believer, that's what we should be espoused to. That's what we are espoused to, to Christ. And He ought to be our love, our first love, the fervency of our heart. You know, so many times people have been brought to Christ, because of the fervency of love that they could see in someone else. And they've looked at him and said, wow, if he has a love like that, there must be some reality to it. I'd like to find out what it is. Many times boys and girls have changed the lives of their parents because they saw such a change in their child that the parent wanted to look to see what it was. As I directed the Lake Geneva Youth Camp for a number of years, we often had boys and girls go home from camp. I remember one particular fellow in the city of Chicago, he called me up one day. He said, Ray, you remember this kid? And I said, yeah, he got saved at camp. He said, yeah, that's right. He said, he went home and his parents saw such a change in that boy that he came knocking on my door last Saturday, and he said, Johnny, I don't know what you did to my boy at that camp, but whatever it was I wanted. You see, there's the power of a changed life. That's the power of what Christ will do in a life when we're willing to receive Christ by simple faith and commit that life to Him. Just to sit down and rest in the work that he's accomplished at Calvary's Cross with the simple faith of a child that is willing to say, God said it, Christ did it, I believe it, it settled. Can you do that? Have you done that? If you have, then you're a spouse to Christ. He's your first love. He's your first love. And you know the fervency of that love needs to be kept. You see, the reason that our marriage or our divorce rate has gone so wild in our country today is because there really isn't that keeping to that first love. There's a turning aside from it and a looking at other love. That was never God's intent in marriage and it's certainly no intent in the church because Christ bought the church when He gave Himself forth. And so now as believers, we need to be bound to that first love. You see, Ephesus had grown cold in turning from it. I said, they did. They left it. They turned from it. And you know in that the coldness of heart then came. And so the Lord said, I've somewhat against you. And he said, because of this, There were some of them in that day who were bringing in the deeds of the Nicolaitans. He said they hated them. The true believer hated it. There are several viewpoints of what the Nicolaitan is, but I got a translation of Tertullian that was made in the third century, written in the third century. And he says that the Nicolaitans were a group of people who brought idolatry and fornication into Christianity. And you know it was that early in the second and third century that already some were going out into the world and bringing it in and mixing it together. Now there's also the opinion that the Nicolaitans were those who wanted to govern the people in the sense of dividing the clergy and the laity. But at any rate, that would be taking the word Nicolaitan and dividing it according to what it would mean in the language. But here in the first church, there was a definite growing cold and turning away. The first church would have been that apostolic church, the church at Ephesus. Can you see as you've read the book of First Corinthians, how in the book of First Corinthians, there were so many of them who were saying, I am a Paul, I have Cephas, I have Apollos, I have Christ. He said, is Christ divided? In that early church, they were turning already toward men. You see? And they left their first love. And so then the second message went to the second church, and that church was Smyrna. Smyrna means bruised murr. It was a city named Smyrna, but the meaning of Smyrna is bruised murr. And that's the church in the first three centuries under persecution. And it suffered a severe persecution, and the Lord said that if they were faithful unto death, he would give them a crown of life. What a blessed promise He made to them. And you know certainly when it comes to the church, persecution strengthens it. It doesn't weaken. It strengthens it. It doesn't weaken. Someone has often said that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. It's what has made the church grow through the years when persecution came. There were ten rulers in those days, and the Lord said they would have tribulation ten days. Perhaps it has reference to those ten rulers. And the worst of all was Diocletian, and he ended his rule in a year of about three hundred and thirteen. It was really a period of severe persecution where they did everything to the Christian that was imaginable. But you know, Satan was going to do his best to rub out the church. And he caused the coldness to come, perhaps, and then a turning away. Now he brings persecution. And the Lord turns the people in a cry to them for faithfulness. He said, I know your works and tribulation and poverty, but thou art rich. You know, there's a contrast here between the church of Smyrna and the church of Laodicea. Laodicea is the church in apostasy. That says the church has its grown lukewarm. They say we're rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. This church, they said we're poor. And the Lord says, I know your poverty, but thou art rich. Wonder how you stand this morning as an individual in riches. You know, you can be poor toward the world and rich toward God. Or you can be rich in this world and poor toward God. And I've met some men who are rich in this world and rich toward God. See, it depends upon you. It depends upon you. It depends upon what you're willing to give in the sense of a committed life to him. It depends on your yieldedness to the Word of God. It depends upon what you're willing to take from God as truth and walk in it and walk in the light of it. I remember a dear lady that I've often used perhaps as an example of one who certainly was rich toward God. She was poor in this world. I don't know as I've met too many any poor. When I used to be a pilot and I flew around the country, I often would... seek out a assembly in the town and visit it and see if I could be of some help there. And I remember being in Atlantic City, New Jersey. And there was a Spanish brother in that town and he said, Ray, would you like to do a little visitation? And I said, yeah, I sure would. So he said, well, there's a dear sister out here. She's not been saved too long, but she's very poor. And he said, her husband's a drunk, he spends all her money. And he said, I'm sure she'd really appreciate a visit. So we had to visit her. And when we drove out, it was just at dusk. It was in a month of November. And it was very cool outside. It was crisp. And got out there in the woods and there was a tar paper check. When you went inside, there was just a little oil lamp for some lights. They had turned off the electricity because the bill hadn't been paid. The telephone was shut off because the bill hadn't been paid. She just had a little stove in there, just a little cook stove to try to heat the place. And I noticed her little girls had three dresses on or more. They just had one garment on top of another to keep them warm. And the lady invited me to come and sit down at the table. And as I sat at the table or went over to the table, there were chairs there that had seats on them. They were these chrome back chairs and there were no backs, just the chrome sticks sticking up, you know. And when she asked me to sit down and she put her Bible out on that table, you know, that lady never gave me one word of complaint of all what she had or didn't have. She never ran her husband to the ground as for what a drunk he was. She opened that Bible on the table and she said, I haven't been saved very long. And she opened it to the Gospel of John chapter one. And she said, I'm having a little job understanding this. Can you help me in the Word? And as we sat there for over an hour with the Word open, that lady's face shone like the sun. And I was amazed at the brightness and the joy she had. She was rich toward God. So many times we bemoan our lot because of persecution and other things that come. Are you rich toward God? The Lord could say to Smyrna, I know thy poverty, but thou art rich. Oh, the Christian has the riches of the grace of God. He has the riches of the glory of his inheritance. He has the riches of all the spiritual blessings that are heavenly. So many times we look for those earthly things. Earthly promises were given to Israel. They weren't given to the church. The church's blessings are spiritual and they're in the heavenly. That's what he's given to us. And we need to lift our hearts and our minds there. Smyrna was the church under persecution. Pergamos was the third one. And Pergamos means marriage. It was bringing the church and the world together. It was bringing the world into the church, really. And it was done at the beginning of the reign of Constantine. When Diocletian finished his reign, it finished a severe persecution to the Christians. And Constantine, as he went out to battle, saw a cross in the sky. And he asked what that was, and they told him that was the sign of the Christians. He said, well, if I win this, and it was a dispute against dividing between the East and the West of the Roman Empire, he said, then I'll set up the cross. I'll set up the cross, and he said, we'll make it as the state religion. And Constantine did win, and that's what he did. He set up a cross, a literal cross, a gold one. And he decked it with jewels, and men worshipped it, and they worship it to this day. They worship it to this day. And he took all the things, he set himself up as the head of it, and then he brought all the world and the church together. History says Constantine paid people to be baptized to become Christians, just in order that he might have a big organization. And that lasted till about the seventh century. And you know, there's where we have the marriage. And you know, the Lord says in his word, there were so many things in that that he hated. He hated in Pergamos. And he hated it because that's where Satan seeded. Have you ever thought about that verse, Satan's seed on this earth? Have you ever thought about Satan having a dwelling place on this earth? God said that's where Satan's throne was in that day. Have you ever seen the medical sign and the sign of a serpent that's wrapped around it in the medical insignia? Well, you know, when we were over there, I see in Pergamoth, that's where that symbol came from, the basic core of it. And I see that that's where they had that sign. And then when we got down to Ephesus, we saw it there and we saw it other places as well, engraved in the stone. And they had a medical college there in Pergamoth. But they said they had never lost an individual. The story goes that they would take in people and they would examine them before they took them in. And they would see if their difficulty that they had was purely psychological. And when they would take them in, if that's what they felt, then they'd keep them there for a while. And after they kept them there and told the individual they were cured, they would tell them, now you go out and you walk around the ground. And you walk around the ground, if any time you walk around it three times and you see a serpent, and any one of those three times you're healed. Well, you can see what they would do. If the illness was only psychological, they'd let the person go once or twice and release the serpent, and the individual thought he was healed because he saw the serpent. His mind convinced him he was healed, and he would go away. Well, can you see, God says this is where Satan's seat was. And I've often thought about that as Satan's seat being different places on the earth. You remember it was in the King of Persia in the Book of Daniel. As the King of Persia hindered that messenger from the Lord going to Daniel. You remember in the Book of Ezekiel we see Satan there in the King of Tyre. And so we saw a place there. And I've often wondered if he had a throne today in this earth, where would it be? Where would it be? And I've seen so many things coming out of California lately. And the last decade, all the movement of Satanism and all the cults and everything else have moved out from Hollywood and from Berkeley, all toward us. And years ago, when we first heard of Satanism out there, well, we thought it wouldn't last too long, but it's in our state, isn't it? It's in the city that I live in. They have different groups, the cult groups that meet in every way. They have Spiritist churches and all the rest. And so it's a thing that's growing today. But it started in when the church and the world were brought together and the church began a digression. In those three, they were three areas that definitely passed away. But in the three that remain in Thyatira, or the four that remain in Thyatira and in Sardius and in Philadelphia and in Laodicea. Three of those four are going on to the Tribulation Day. And one of those four is going to be caught away into glory. That will be Philadelphia, which is the true church. but the other three all are going to bear the marks of some of the first three, but they are going into that period, and they're all going to be taken up under that one name of Babylon. Until you come to chapter seventeen and eighteen, when Babylon is brought down, and the Lord makes a call, and he said, Come out of her, my people, and he gives that invitation to come. Now, when it comes to Thyatira, that means continual sacrifice. And that was the church taking up the presentation of bread and wine to God and saying it actually becomes the body and the blood of Christ in transubstantiation. And they call it a continual sacrifice and it is presenting to God Jesus Christ in the Mass. But my Bible says that Christ entered in once in the end of the age. with a sacrifice of himself and he did it to put away sin. It has only been recently that I picked up one of the more modern day catechisms of the Roman Catholic Church to see what the modern church would say about the Mass. And the modern Roman Church still says that the Mass is the continual sacrifice. It is a continual bloodless sacrifice. In as much as in days gone by, the cup was given to the priest and not to the people. They only took the wafer. Today the church is changing and they are giving in some of the churches, both of them to the individual. And they take it that the Lord said that we should eat his flesh and drink his blood. Well, I believe when the Lord said that in the Gospel of John chapter six, he said it at least Close to, if I have to understand, the two Passover's correct. Two years before the time when he was crucified and he gave what we would call the last supper or the breaking of bread or as it's called generally communion. And when the Lord said that we were to eat his flesh and drink his blood, he did it in the sense of faith. Because he said the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. The flesh profiteth nothing, he said. The words I speak, they are spirit and they are life. He said in that same chapter, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. When you come to Christ, it must be by a believing that he is totally able to satisfy. Totally able. When we look at a loaf of bread, that's simple enough to understand. Bread is the staff of life for today, isn't it? We eat bread. We consider it the staff of life. And when we view the Lord Jesus, we view him, who's the one of the staff of eternal life. I'm the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. You see, you must in that sense Eat his flesh and drink his blood. But when it comes to what we will do here in a short while, that is a remembrance of the Lord Jesus. That is not a work for salvation or anything to do with that. We're simply remembering the one who went to Calvary's cross and he died for us. And we're going to do it till he comes. We remember it in view of his coming. And when it comes to Thyatira, every time they present in the Mass Jesus Christ, they're offering them afresh to God. But, beloved, he died once. And that was sufficient. And when he rose again and he ascended to heaven, he sat down by reason of a finished work. By reason of a finished work. You see, if that window was open over there, and I went over and closed the window, the work would be finished, I could come back and sit down. I wouldn't go again. The window's closed. Now, when Christ went to the cross, he went there to do a work and to finish that work. And after the work was finished, he laid down his wife. He died so that men could have the penalty for their sin removed. The work was finished and he sat down. There's no more need for anyone to carry it out. No more need to present them as a fresh sacrifice to God in heaven. It's an abomination to God. It's an abomination to God. Now I suppose if you're a Roman Catholic here this morning, you're mad at me already. But you know the second church or the next church here we're to talk about is Sardius. And Sardius meant remnant. And here the Lord said of them, Thou hast a name that thou livest in our death. Sardius represents Protestantism in the Reformation, because there's what you had when the Reformers turned from Roman Catholicism and turned away from it. They were rebelling against Romanism. And sad to say, many of them took a lot of the things of Romanism right with them. They never left it behind. You see, the true church was in existence all that day. There were believers. But here, when it comes to Roman Catholicism, they had established themselves pretty far in the inroads of the church. And when Protestant came, there was a great protesting against Roman Catholicism, not against sin. And when people say to me, What are you? I do not tell them I am a Protestant. I tell them I am a Christian. As far as Protestantism is, it is death. And that's what God said. It is death. And if you take any comfort in saying you're a Protestant, you're in a dangerous position because as a general rule, Protestantism is dead. Oh, there are believers in Protestantism, just the same as today I'm finding some believers in Roman Catholicism. They leave after a while because one can't put up with the other. But you see, when it comes to our salvation, And what we really claim we're Christ ones. And that title was given at Antioch. That's where they were first called Christians. And so the Church of Sardius is there as it began in the Reformation and carried on perhaps until we see the Church of Philadelphia. And that's the church that means brotherly love. That's the church that's the true church. And the Lord said of them, thou hast a little strength. and has kept my word and not denied my name. That was what he said of the Church of Philadelphia. He said, I set before you an open door. And so the thing that marked the Church of Philadelphia was evangelism. And I think in the eighteen hundreds was when we saw a strong movement toward evangelism, a movement of leaving the organized church. and turning out to reach individuals, whether it was on the street or where it might be. And so we saw men like Moody and Feeney and others, men who went forth in a great evangelistic movement. A great movement. We see men who began to preach and teach the resurrection, such as Mr. Darby and many others with him in those days, not only in England but in Germany. And it began to be a great movement. And God said, I set before you an open door, and no man's going to shut it. That door is open today. It's open today. He said, when I open it, no man will shut it. And when I shut it, no man opens it. And today somewhere in the mission fields, we're seeing doors that are shut. And he's shutting some. He's shutting. And he says, no man's going to open. But you know, no man's going to shut either until he permits it. Until he permits it. Now, the Church of Philadelphia is the Church of Brotherly Love. The character of it ought to be marked in love, and yet they were little. He says, they had little strength. And yet he said, they've kept my word and not denied my name. Now, I suppose many of you have various reasons for meeting in the way you do here. Many different things might have brought you here, but that verse right there, Revelation three-eight is the verse that caused me to meet in the way that I do. When I got home from the service, I had been raised in a Sunday school just like yours here, although I never entered into a fellowship with them. It was a rather conservative meeting, and there wasn't a great deal of evangelistic push to it. And I think perhaps many of them question young people being saved at all. But at any rate, we grew up in that. And when I went away into the service when I was eighteen, and I came back after six years, When I first came back home from the service, I just felt I wanted to stay alone and everybody let me alone. I wanted to live alone in a house by the side of the road. I'd been with men for six years in a jungle, four and a half, and I had had enough. I just wanted to be alone. But you know, while I was alone, I picked up my Bible and was reading it. And I was much convicted about going back to that assembly. I think a dear brother who's now home with the Lord stopped by to visit me one day. And he sent me to thinking. And I was reading one day here and I came across this verse and I read, thou hast the little strength. And I looked at these people and I said, well, that's true. They seem to be small in number. They don't seem to be very strong. They don't have to seem to have great might. And then I came across, they've kept my word. And I said, oh, boy, Lord, that's true. They keep your word. They sure endeavor to keep it, man. They'll fight to the letter of it sometimes. He said, they've kept my word. And then he said, they not denied my name. And I said, amen, Lord, they haven't denied your name. And so, you know, I was convicted in my own heart to go and to... Fellowship with those people, and I do today. Now, I know you're saying, Ray, you mean to tell me that's the Church of Philadelphia? I'll say to you, they constitute part of the Church of Philadelphia. The Church of Philadelphia is the true church. Every believer in Christ is in that. And so they partly make it up, and there's a good sense to a group of them here who has seemingly outwardly little strength. And yet, have kept his word and not denied my name. But the last church is Laodicea. It means the rule of the people, people governed, people speak. It is the people saying to God we're going to have it our way. It was a woman psychologist came to a meeting in Davenport and she shook her fist up towards heaven and she said, nobody up there is going to tell us down here what to do. And that's a good idea of what the people are saying to God today within the organized church. And it's the church in apostasy. We'll have our way. They can stand on their platforms and preach God is dead. And they can have a little social circle inside of a group where they might pick up the Bible and read a Bible verse and then leave it from every direction but to speak of anything concerning God. You'll look out on their bulletin board and they got some of the wildest messages for sermon texts you ever heard in your life. And you wonder what he's going to do with that. The Lord says to that church, Thou art lukewarm, and because thou art lukewarm, I'll spew you out of my mouth. He says, you say you're rich, and you say you're increased with goods. He said, don't you know you're miserable and poor and blind, naked, wretched? He said, I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire. And white ravens, anoint your eyes with ice sand. I want to say to you this morning, you have the riches of his grace. That's God's riches at Christ's expense. That's what grace is. Do you have that? Have you received Jesus Christ as a Savior? Oh, then you have gold tried in the fire. You have faith that's pure in him. The white raiment, he promises he'll give. He says you'll give a garment of salvation and a robe of righteousness. He'll give you ISAV that will cause you to see in a spiritual sense, which church do you belong to? Which church do you belong to? I trust I'm speaking to a group of people who belong to the Church of Philadelphia. seemingly outwardly weak, but strong in Christ, keeping His word and not denying His name. So we pray. Blessed God, we thank you for our time together this morning. Pray you'll use it for your own glory. Bless our hearts, Lord. Cause us to take those words and those thoughts that you want us to have for Jesus' sake. Amen.