I think one thing that any preacher finds is a great difficulty in any particular place where he goes for the first time is to know what to preach about. It would be so easy to go back to some old sermon that he has had maybe thirty, forty years ago and repeat it in a place where he has never been before. That would be a very strong temptation. But I think that any servant of God that knows anything at all about being in touch with God and realizing the tremendous need that we find everywhere today, not only for the gospel, but among believing people, I think that he should be exercised before God to have a message that would suit any particular audience that he has the privilege of addressing. I have been very much in prayer what we should speak about during this week. And after a good deal of consideration and prayer, I feel that I would like to speak about the first two chapters of the book of Revelation, and more particularly, the seven churches that we find in Revelation two and three. Now, this is a subject that has been expounded again and again, but I do feel that what we find here is something that's topical, something that could be in help. And what I want to do is to take these seven churches and I want to use them as an outline of church history. I want to speak of the early days of Christianity in apostolic days. And I want to trace the history of the church right down through to the present day. I want to take these seven churches particularly as a prophetic outline, a chronological outline of the church. I want to point out some of the difficulties and problems that were in the church in the early days, and also right down through church history in the Dark Middle Ages. And I want to particularly to speak of three great revivals that took place in the church, and then I want to bring it to a climax by trying to show the condition in the church today and the remedy that God has for difficulties and problems that we find everywhere. Now this morning I would just by way of introduction like to read a passage in the first chapter of the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter one on verse four. Revelation one verse four. John to the seven churches which are in Asia. grace be unto you in peace from him which is and which was and which is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first-forgotten of the day, and the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and have made us kings and priests unto God and his father, To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he cometh with blood, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierce him, and all kindreds of the earth shall rail because of him. Even so. Amen. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, which was, and which is to come. the Almighty. I, John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation, and on the kingdom and stations of Jesus Christ, was on the island of the strong pastness for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice as if a trumpet saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, and hope thou see his pride in the book, and sent it onto the seven churches which were in Asia, onto Ephesus, onto Smyrna, and onto Pergamon, and onto Psyra, and onto Sardis, and onto Philadelphia, and onto Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice that speak with me, and being turned I saw seven golden candlesticks, and in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the Son of Man, those with a garment down to the foot, girked about the patch with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were quite like wool, as white as snow. On his eyes were as a flame of fire. On his feet like all the fine brass as if they burned in the furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and as constant was as the sun shined within 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 of the keys of hell and of dead. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter. The mystery of the seven stars. which I saw us in my right hand. On the seven golden candlesticks, the seven stars of the angels of the seven churches. On the seven candlesticks, which I saw us, are the seven churches. I suppose most of us realize this morning as the book of Revelation, it is the final book in the Bible. Everything that we find in the rest of the Bible we find brought to us by man. and the culmination in this final book. It's a book that some far I often read today. It's full of illustrations and symbols and things that are difficult to understand. And I don't at all profess to have the answer to some of the problems and difficulties in the book of Revelation. But the thing that I want to emphasize this morning is the word Revelation. That means an apocalypse. and unveiling. And that's the unveiling of the Lord Jesus himself. Now, anyone who wants the interpretation of the book, I think, should currently study that little word, the revelation, the unveiling of Jesus Christ. Now, in looking at the book, you'll find seven perfect visions of the Lord Jesus. Seven beautiful pictures of the Savior. And when we take these seven pictures, these seven visions of Christ, and put them together, we get a complete unveiling of the Lord Jesus. Now along with these seven pictures of Christ, we get seven songs, or doxology. And I want you to notice that the first vision of Christ that we get on the book is in the first chapter, and the first doxology that we get on the book we find in the first chapter. I would like for a little while this morning, by way of introduction to what we want to speak about during this week, is to speak, first of all, of this first great vision of the Lord Jesus. It's possibly the most beautiful, the most exalted one in the book. And I also, for a little while, I would like to speak about the doxology that we find attached to it. You remember that John at this time was an old man. He probably was around a hundred years of age. It was the last decade of the first century. And John is an old man. He's on the little island in the Mediterranean, on his airs in exile. The Roman emperor that was upon the throne was a man who was a persecutor. You remember in the days of the Apostle Paul, the first great persecution of the church was under a Roman emperor called Nero. Nero was a human monster. I wouldn't dare to stand up here this morning and describe the type of a man that he was. He killed his wife with a kick. It was just a short time before the birth of her child. And he kicked her and he killed her. That was the type of a man that he was. And he was a man who first of all persecuted the church. The Apostle Paul called him a lion. He describes him in that way in the second epistle to Timothy. on the last chapter. And it was under Nero that the Apostle Paul was executed. He was beheaded with the sword. But twenty-five years later, there was another Roman emperor arose. And it was under him that the Apostle John, a dear old man, at the end of his life, was exiled. He's on a little island called Patna. It was only ten miles long and five miles broad. There was practically nothing there at all, as far as comfort was concerned. And John, as an old man, is on the Isle of Patmos for the word of God on the testimony of Jesus Christ. It was rather a pathetic thing to see anybody being persecuted. But especially a man nearly a hundred years of age in exile on a place like that, as certain was a very pathetic situation. Now the Lord, to encourage his dear servant, gives them a vision. And the vision is described here in Chapter One. And it's a vision of the exalted, glorifying Christ. One of the most beautiful pictures in the whole of the Bible. The most beautiful picture of Christ we get it right here. The last time that John had seen the Lord Jesus was upon a cross. And as he hung there upon the cross, John was a young man, possibly around about thirty years of age. Maybe not as old as that, but standing underneath the cross, he said, I thought I was a witness. He was the only apostolic witness that stood underneath the cross and saw the sufferings of the Lord. As he hung upon that cross, he was stripped. That's something again that we don't like to talk about. But the depth of infamy that men spoke to, they actively stripped the Son of God. He resented it. They parted my garments among them, and for my vesture did they cast lots. And John stood there as a witness underneath the cross. He was actually present when he saw the soldier pierce his side. He was present when the two thieves' legs were broken and when they expired. But John was a witness of the sufferings of Christ upon the cross. I hear as many years later It must be nearly seventy years later, and he sees the same person, no longer stripped in humiliation, suffering upon a cross, but he sees him in exalted dignity and glory and majesty, and he sees him on this island. He hears a voice, and when he turns wrong to hear the voice that spoke, he gets this vision of Christ. Now he's no longer in humiliation. But there are ten items of glory and majesty that I would like to take time to speak about this morning, so once we find this is it. But instead of being stripped of his garments taken from him, he is clothed in the long priestly garment. The two passages of Scripture from which the tenfold description is taken is, first of all, Exodus twenty-eight. On the garments of the high priest, we find the Lord Jesus dressed here in the long priestly garment. And then the description of glory and majesty as the written Christ are taken from Daniel chapter seven. There we read about the ancient of days, and some of the lovely things connected with hymns we have here repeated and duplicated in Revelation one. The ancient of days in Daniel chapter seven is the son of man here in Revelation chapter one. But when he turns around to see him, to hear the voice of faith, He sees Christ in the midst, and he's walking in the midst of seven golden lampstands. And he seeks through him, and he gives them the messages that we find in Revelation two and three. Now, just for a little while this morning, before we look at the doxology and the description of Christ that we get at the commencement of the chapter, which I want to apply in the Gospel, we get here four great principles of church testimony today. Now, they're infinitely important, and I want to address myself particularly to those that are believers, those that are members of the Church of Christ, those that know and love the Lord Jesus. There are four great principles here in Revelation one, and I believe we should thoroughly understand them today as we want to understand what the Bible has to say about the Church and about the Lord Jesus. Now, the first one is the centrality of Christ. Read that he's in the midst and he walks in the midst of the seven golden left stands. Now in our church testimony today, this is where we must place in. The first thing that I want to emphasize here is the centrality on the preeminence, the predominance of the Lord Jesus. He walks in the midst of the seven golden left stands. You know, it's quite common today to put the Lord Jesus on the outside place. I don't know what you find in this part of the country. I'm practically a stranger here. I spend the most of my life in the middle of Africa. And when we come home, after spending years and years on the mission field overseas, we see certain things that are creeping in. And one thing that I have noticed since I've come home this last time is the fact that very, very often, the one who's called Lord and Christ. These are titles that are being dropped today. For some people who profess to have a superior brand of spirituality and to talk about Jesus and dear Jesus and loving Jesus and precious Jesus on terms of that kind. Now you will never in the New Testament ever find these exaggerated adjectives attached to his name. He's never called precious Jesus or loving Jesus or terms of that kind. He's always called the Lord Jesus. And I want to emphasize that this morning. Give him his title. Not only that, but the language of Christians on today is Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ. commentaries that were written within the last two years. One was a commentary on the epistle to the Corinthians. The other was a commentary on the epistle to the Hebrews. And the writers of these two commentaries were outstanding leaders in the evangelical world. And I'm reading the commentaries through, never once, never once in those two commentaries do we get the term Lord. It's always Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ all the time, and he's never called it the Lord Jesus. Beloved friends, this morning, I do want to appeal to each one of us in either speaking to him in prayer or in speaking about him, either in the proclamation of the gospel or in the ministry of the word, always given his title, he is Lord. He is the midboat Lord in Christ. These are titles that are emphasized particularly in resurrection. The resurrection, glory of Christ, he is Lord. And he's central. And that's where we should put him. You know, I want to point out that we go along that in this last church here in Laodicea that represents the present day, we find him standing outside a closed door. He's no longer central there. But right at the commencement, the vision that John gets of him, he's central and he walks. in the midst of the golden lampstand, and is able to look into each individual church, is able to review, to diagnose the conditions in that church, and he passes sentence upon it. He's not only here as the Son of Man, he's not only here as priest, and as priest he carries a golden plate. He carries the golden snuffer. Those golden scissors were by the lampstand was trimmed. And here he's trimming the golden lampstand. And not only that, but he's pouring in the refreshing oil. The restoring oil he's pouring in. But in the beginning here, he is central among his people, among the seven golden lampstands. And then at the end, in Laodicea, we find him standing outside a closed door. Oh, beloved friend, this morning, let me emphasize this. Always put him in the midst. always put them in the central place. I would like to ask in our hearts and lives, and in our assemblies today, is this the place that he occupies? Do we gather in his name unto his name, and do we refuse any other name? As far as I'm concerned, I wouldn't like to take any name at all except the name that's given in Holy Scripture. I wouldn't want to take any denominational name. The only name that I would like to take is that I'm a Christian. I belong to him. This is the only name that's given to believers in the New Testament. And Christ here is central. He's large. He's predominant. He's preeminent. And he is president. And so this is the position where we find him in chapter one. He walks in the midst of the seven golden laps past. Now our second principle we get here is the principle of testimony. Here are seven lamps, and they're burning brightly in the night. Every local church has a responsibility to bear a testimony. I think that that testimony is truthful. First of all, it must be a testimony in the Gospel. I want you to notice that it's a night scene here. We read about stars, and we also read about lamps. And these lamps are burning, they're burning brightly. It is a night scene. And oh, the world in which we live today is a dark place. Peter in the second epistle, he calls it a murky place, a squalid place. And as we look at the world today, darkness is settling down and drop darkness on the people. You know, I think we have to admit this. If we're realistic today, Practically everything that has been maintained for years, even for centuries, even here in the United States, these things are dropping down, down, down today. There has been a deterioration of morals. There has been a deterioration in fundamental doctrine, on teaching. A man would actually say today that God is dead. He's not dead. He's gloriously alive. But the condition of the world in which we live today, it's a dark, it's a swallowed place. But thank God, in spite of the darkness, and in spite of the night, there are seven golden lampstands, and they're burning brightly in the middle of the night. Now, right here at North Gate, in the city of Durham, we have a golden lampstand. And I do want to emphasize the fact here this morning that we have our responsibility to keep that light burning. Brightly burning. First of all, Christ in the midst, central predominance, and then, secondly, our responsibility to bear a testimony to keep a light burning in the middle of the darkness. Now, the third thing you would notice immediately in looking at the passage is that each lampstand is standing by itself on its own bed. You know, if we look at the lampstand over in the Old Testament in the book of Exodus, you remember it was one lampstand. standing on one bed. And there were seven branches on that lampstand. But here is something entirely different. There are seven individual lampstands standing upon their own bed. And they're standing in a circle. And Christ is walking in the center. But what we get here is the autonomy of each local church. And this is very, very important. You know, what we see today everywhere in Christendom is a centralized control. on the denominational circle. Wherever you get a centralized control on the denominational circle, immediately you form a sect. That is what it is. If you find a centralized control on a federation, on an alliance, a confederation of churches, immediately you get a sect. You get a denomination. But the teaching of the New Testament is that each local church is upon its own day. directly responsible to the one who walks in the midst. Fellowship? Yes. Federation? No. Wherever you find a centralized control, and wherever you find a circle that's dominated and controlled by that center, that human center, immediately you get a denomination, you get a saint. But the truth of the New Testament is that each individual man is standing upon its own base, It's completely indigenous. It's completely autonomous. And it's responsible. The one, and that one is the one who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. The third great truth here is the autonomy of each local church. Now, the final thing is the Lord Jesus is standing, and in his right hand, he holds seven stars. Now, someone might say, what are these stars? Now, the passage tells us what they are. We're told that these stars are the angels of the seven churches. Now, they're having all kinds of ideas who these angels are. And just what is represented by the seven stars on the right hand of the ascended Christ. I'd like you to notice that in chapters two and three, that the message to the church is always directed to the angel or the messenger. You probably know that the word that's used here, it could mean angel or it could mean messenger. And I would like to suggest that the primary meaning of the word here is the messenger of the church. And the diagnosis, the message of the risen Christ to that church is given to the messenger. And he has the responsibility of conveying it to that local church. Now, what do you think that means? Well, personally, I'm quite convinced that what we get here is Holy Ghost ministry. It's the man who has his ear up to the throne. The man who is in the hand of the risen Christ, controlled by him, and who receives a message from him, and who has the responsibility of conveying it to that local church. I think that he is the angel of the church. He's the messenger of the church. He is the star in the right hand of the risen Christ. I believe with all my heart that there is such a thing as Holy Ghost ministry today. And I believe that the man, who is in touch with the written Lord, with the written Christ, and who is this ear up to the throne, and who is sent to the true message of Christ, here is the man who receives it and confesses to that local church. Did you ever see someone come along who is a complete stranger, and who knows nothing whatever about the conditions of any local group of believers, and he gets up to minister? And as soon as he opens a book, And as soon as he opens the Word of God and starts the minutes of the Word of God, people begin to look at each other and say, Who has been telling him? Where did he get his information from? Has somebody been telling him stories? I like to say this. That there's no honored servant of Christ. There's no man who is any... feeling at all of responsibility to Christ would ever go among a local group of believers and listen to rumors and reports, and then allow his ministry to be influenced by it. Now, I can say this honestly and sincerely this morning. I know nothing whatever about the internal condition of the believers here that meet in this chapel, or in the gospel center, or in the treatment area. I'm a complete stranger here as far as local conditions are concerned. What I would like to do is have my ear to the throne, have my ear to the Lord Jesus himself, and to get my message from him and then to try, without fear or favor, to try to convey that message to the local church. Many years ago, in my native land, I suppose most of you can recognize, maybe by my tongue that I'm not an American, at least I wasn't born here. I love this country. I've been in the United States for more than forty years. I'm not an American citizen. I was born in Ireland, and I still carry a passport, a foreign passport. But many years ago, on the land where I was born, so the young woman, she and I were baptized the same night. On the night that she was baptized, her father thanked for her, and he said, He said, I want to tell you, if you follow this way, you'll have to get out of my home. He said, I will never have two paths from my door. The father was a Unitarian. Lizzie had heard the gospel, the simple gospel of God's grace and God has saved her. And then she was baptized. She and I were baptized the same night, forty-eight years ago, forty-nine years ago this year. And her father told her, now I said, if you want to follow that way, you'll have to get out of my home. And that dear girl, she said, Dad, God knows I love you. I love my home. I love my mother. But if that is your decision, she said, I have no other option. And the next morning she thanked her little bye. And she had to get out of her home. She came to a place where I happened to be at the time. And one Lordly morning, we sat down at the Lord's table, a very small little company. There couldn't have been any more than twenty-five people there. and we sat under the Lord's table. And after remembering the Lord and his sufferings and death upon the cross, there was an old preacher who knew nothing whatever was the circumstances he was sitting at the table that morning. And after the breaking of bread, he got up and he read that passage in the psalm. When my father and my mother first ate thee, then the Lord will take thee up. And he spoke in such a beautiful way that morning. I looked across the little circle and lived with the city. and I could see a little pool of tears between her feet on the floor. She sat there weeping. It was the message of God to hurt her. Now the preacher didn't know anything about it at all. He knew nothing whatever the circumstances, but the Holy Spirit had put it in his heart to read that verse. When my father and my mother were saved me, then the Lord will take me up. That is prophetic ministry. That is Holy Ghost ministry. And that is what we find here. the star, the messenger to the church, is in the right hand of the risen Christ. He receives a message from the throne, and he conveys it to the local assembly, and I think that this is what we get in this lovely passage. So I notice the four things again. Our time has just about gone, and I just want to summarize before I stop. The first thing we get here is the importance of the centrality of Christ. The risen Lord, walking, patrolling, investigating, diagnosing in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. He is central. He is Lord. It's in his name and to his name that we gather on the Lord's day. We take no other name but his. We recognize that he is absolute Lord among his gathered people and we want to put him there and keep him there as the one who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstand. Here is the centrality of Christ. The second great truth here is Testamani. The mouth stands burning brightly in the middle of the night. And the Lord a priest, he trims the wits and he pours in the golden oil. Here we get the truth of Testamani in the darkness. And then thirdly, the autonomy of each local church, each one standing upon its own gaze, no outside influence coming in and controlling. He is the controller. He is the one who walks in the midst of the seven golden mass. And we are responsible to him. And again, I want to emphasize the point. In church testimony, we do have fellowship. Fellowship is a lovely, lovely thing among local churches. But federations know. Fellowship, yes. But federations know. The autonomy of each local church. And then finally, Holy Ghost ministry. We find in the stars. that are in the right hand of the risen Christ. He conveys the message through the messenger, and the messenger has the responsibility of conveying it in holy ghost ministry to each local church. So these are the four great principles that we find in Revelation chapter one. Now, just a word in closing. There are three lovely titles of Christ to the beginning. And again, we get a lovely doxology, and there are three items in it. We want the time to look at this morning, but I just want to call it just before I said on. At the commencement here, he's called the faithful witness. And then he's the first forgotten of the dead. And then he's the prince of the kings of the earth. Now here are three titles of Christ that cover the whole picture in the New Testament scriptures. He is the faithful witness. Now that's the four gospels. Thirty times in the Gospel according to John we get the word witness. He is the faithful witness. That is the Gospel. He is the first begotten of the day. And here we find the epistles, the fourteen epistles of the Apostles Paul. The main body of the New Testament is the exavision of the resurrected Christ. He is the first begotten from the day. And then he is the prince of the kings of the earth. That is the book of Revelation. The three lovely titles here of Christ at the beginning that come to the whole first of the New Testament scriptures. The faithful witness, the gospel. The first forgotten from the dead, the epistles. The prince of the kings of the earth, the book of Revelation. And then the doxology. On to him that loved us. I want to make a little alteration here. What we get here is a present continuous pen. On to him that loveth us. That is the real meaning of the word. So the man called it Peter Gelley, who was an outstanding Bible expositor a hundred years ago. He spent his whole life in the investigation of the text of the New Testament, and he said this, It was worth my life a study of the New Testament to find the change of ten years. On to him that loveth us. that love with us, and that looses from our sin in his own precious blood. Oh, does anyone here this morning that's held in the proud of sin and Satan? Let me tell you, beloved friend, this morning that here is one that can break the bounds of sin and set the prisoner free. I don't care what it is. It can be drugs. It can be drink. It can be LSD. It can be anything at all unto the Son, unto him that loveth us, and loosed it from our sins in his own precious blood. And then the third thing is, he made his kings and priests unto God and his Father, that him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. So first of all, we get the three titles, and then the threefold doxology, and it's ended up with an intimation here of his coming. Behold, he cometh with lies. Every eye shall see him. They also which pierce him. Under all tenders of the earth shall reel because of him. Even so. Amen. Oh, beloved friend, if you don't know him as Savior this morning, I'd like to appeal to you. Sit down and do a little bit of sober thinking. He's able to save. He's able to keep. He certainly has me for nearly fifty years, forty-nine years now, and if I live the next year, it will be half a century since I trusted him, and he has kept me all these years, and he can do exactly the same with you. May God bless his word for his name, please. A little word of prayer. Our God and Father, we draw unto thee now in the name of the Lord Jesus. We do thank thee for thy word. We thank you for its beauty, its simplicity, and our Father, we pray that he give us a obedient heart. We ask of thee that thy word may not only be directed through our intelligence, through our mind, but it may be directed through our hearts and conscience, and we ask of thee that whatever thou dost reveal to us in thy word, that we may have grace to obey. We pray that have left thy word distinct in sinless mourning. We thank you for the opportunity of being here and opening thy door. And we pray these as I will add thy blessing. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.