Revelation 2 Do You Remember?

The title of my sermon today is Revelation 2. Do you remember? Do you remember? Do you remember what Revelation 2 is about? Anybody? The churches? How many churches? No, it's not. Very good. It covers four churches in chapter 2, and chapter 2 and 3 covers seven churches. So the key word to the messages in... Boy, I don't know why I'm having that. The key word to each of the churches, if you've read that, is one word, overcome.

Overcome. It's in each of the letters to the churches there. Now, you have heard over the years all the messages about the churches of Revelation. Gary Petty did an incredible series a few years ago on that. You've heard it covered. I'm going to do it quite different, differently than anyone else, because I have given sermons. I have files of sermons that I've done over the 25 years I've been giving sermons.

I didn't want to do any of those, because there's too much like everyone else's. So if you're watching this next week on the webcast, it's intended to be different. So don't send me all these emails saying, why, I don't know what you were doing with that. Because overcome, the word overcome in the Bible means to conquer, not just to get something completed, not just to finish a task, but it means to literally conquer a task.

And that's what he's telling the churches here. I want to give you, though, three applications to the message, to the letters that are written here. Three applications, because you'll hear this, or you've already heard this down through the years. You can even find it written up in scholarly books. But the first application that we should be looking at is in real time, in real time, number one real time.

There were seven churches in Asia Minor at the time that John was writing this from the island of Patmos. These churches existed back then in 70 AD or ACE, and even in 90 when he came out of his imprisonment. And it's interesting because these seven churches in Asia Minor at that time, they were not in the Holy Land. They were all Gentile churches, not written to Jerusalem, not written to any of them, but seven distinct churches. And basically, as someone said, they were once on a mail route, so these letters would go from place to place.

But you've heard all that before. My purpose today is to look at it in a different way. What did I say? Revelation 2, to remember. Because I would like you to remember not only the churches, because don't we all know the last three? The Sardis, the dead church. And then you had Philadelphia. Oh, they are good guys. Oh, everybody wants to be the Philadelphia church. Everybody wants to have that spirit. And then there's the lay of the scenes. Shame on you people.

But what about the first four churches? Most people don't remember or even think about them. And that's my purpose today. My purpose isn't to cover everything. It's to cover those and make us look at ourselves and remember what the main thrust God had to write to that church. The second application is the eras. Ears of the churches down through the time. You might have had that. I haven't even written in my book that you had all these seven errors of time through this and this and the last. Last error would be the Laodicea church and so forth.

Okay, that has merit. But that's not my purpose today. You've heard that many times. Does that say that in the Bible? No. But it follows a path that you could realistically see. And then finally, the third one, the qualities, the attitudes, the personalities of the brethren now, today, in today's church. And not only does it talk about the attitudes and the personalities of the church, if you go back in time, I've been coming to God's church for 50 years.

I see, have seen these qualities and lack of qualities and issues for the last 50 years. So I think it's very probable, but down through the ages, from when this was written in 90-something A.D., that these issues have been around all that time. The type of people, the attitude, has been around a long time. And we have, I dare say, each of the seven attitudes in every church today. Now don't be offended and don't be, oh, he's talking about me!

No, it's stuff for us to all examine. And also, don't go around and go on. Which one you think is daily? No, that's Diane, because it's easy to do. And as we heard earlier this afternoon, don't compare yourselves among yourselves. Compare yourself to Christ. That is what Christ wants us to do. And if you see someone needs some help, you help them. Help them.

So let's address the end time church, if this is the end time. Let's address it. So I want to look at seven traps to be aware of, to remember, to learn from, as we study these seven churches for, which will be done today. And I've found over the years, and I'm not the only one, one of the best ways to get people to remember stuff is with music. We sing from our hymnal, and most of the songs that we sing come directly from Scripture. Don't they? And it's one way to remember, blessed and happy is the man, Psalm 1. Oh, Psalm 1-1. And it's a way for us to remember. God also laid that out for people, because it's easier to remember songs or words put to music. How many of us can still remember songs from when we were children? When we were teenagers? My favorite song! Oh, here it's on the radio again. You've already heard it ten times, and then pretty soon you can just sing every word.

Think this by chance? I don't, and I hope I make that point today. It works with little kids, especially. I don't know whether you have kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, but there's certain songs that get in their head, and they can repeat the music, and then also what the song was about.

Big old pink thing. Purple. Sorry, I've been so long. It's purple. You're right. See, I have you guys correct me. I don't mind. Purple thing. Purple. What was he? An animal? A dinosaur? It was a dinosaur. Oh, okay. But it works. Kids can remember things. Remember the Psalms, Song of Ascent? God put the Song of Ascent in that the children of Israel would, as they made their journey to the Holy Days, the three pilgrimages they made, they had songs. They would sing in his actual scripture called Songs of Ascent, and they would do it every year, and they began to know then some of the scriptures. We read about in Exodus, we read of a song of Miriam. We read a song of Moses, and I find that interesting. If you will, go with me to Deuteronomy 31. Deuteronomy 31. Let me read it to you. I'll go up to verse 19 first. Now therefore, God is telling Moses, now therefore write down this song for yourselves and teach it to the children of Israel. Put it in their mouths that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel. And then what do we have? We have verse 22. Go down to verse 22. Therefore, Moses wrote this song the same day and taught it to the children of Israel. Isn't that interesting? And then you have the song. They would have taught them to help them remember. They didn't have a Bible. They didn't have scrolls. They didn't have cuneiform tablets. They didn't have papyrus yet. They didn't... No. They had to learn and put it into their minds. So one of the best ways to do that was to get them to sing a song. And you can read that song. I won't go through that in Deuteronomy 32 that we'll all be reading in a few, since there's really only 30-something, 34 chapters. So if you read a chapter a day for the next 34 days, you will have read the whole book of Deuteronomy and get the picture. Because just like the children of Israel were going into the Promised Land, the children of the children of Israel going into the Promised Land, we will, by the feast of Tabernacles, come out of this world and come into a little bit of picture of the Kingdom of God as we go to keep this Fall Holy Days and keep the Feast of Tabernacles as kind of our Promised Land that lies ahead of us, the Kingdom of God. But I want you to think about the learning tools that God laid out for them. He's not done. There's a pattern here. And I'd like you to go with me. We will cover this a little bit later, but I want to cover it now because hopefully we will all learn a new song. Revelation 14. Revelation 14. Go with me, New King James Version. Revelation 14, verse 1. It says, Then I looked, and behold, a lamb standing on Mount Zion. Where's Mount Zion?

There's a couple of references to Mount Zion. One's there in the Middle East, and one's up there. Where are we? Here. Mount Zion. And with him, 144,000, having his father's name written on their foreheads. Mine up here? Not yet. Don't have that name yet. It should be up here, though, shouldn't it? His name? Verse 2. And I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder. And I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps. Hmm. And they sang, as it were, a new song before the throne of God. Where's the throne of God?

Up there? It's up. Mount Zion's also up. There's one Mount Zion there. There's going to be another one here. There's been one where David set up. So here you have 144,000 people up there doing what? Singing a new song. As it were, a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures, because we know where they are. We don't have creatures like that running around. We may have creatures running around, but they ain't like this one. And the elders, and no one could learn that song except the 144,000 who were redeemed from the earth. Do you have any doubt who those are? Sorry, I don't have any doubt. That's what he's been wanting. They are the saints.

With that said, do you remember your song? Do you ever have a song? Ampe, you and Santos dated right? A little while. Did you have a song, your favorite song that you would play, you and him? Do you remember what it is? No. Maybe he might. I'll have to check and see if he remembers. Anybody remember your song? What Johnny does, but you don't? You don't remember.

Oh, yes, I remember that one by Styx. Yes. Yeah. Do what? When a man... Oh, yeah, Percy Sledge. Yes. We're love songs. Donna, you remember? Longer Than. Okay. Only You by who? Oh, he's a sledge man, too. Well, we know why you didn't get into music. But no, you remember those, because that's tight with Marion. Myself, when we were dating, it was Lionel Richie. He had two or three songs we were just like. I'm not dancing on. That was after I got married. That was on my honeymoon. That wasn't before he was on my honeymoon. So, yes.

But it works. It has worked for God in the past. It worked for God in the future. It works for us. So what is my purpose today? Today is to cover the first four churches, the first four attitudes. And unlike chapter one that we covered verse by verse, I won't be doing that today in chapter two. I'm going to go around because my point is not to be all comprehensive. It's to make a point, get you to remember the four churches. So hopefully by the time I'm done, the four churches and the key message to those churches and to the attitudes that exist in the church of God today gives us a chance to examine ourselves, our churches, and human nature. And it might surprise you. So with that, I also have a song for each church. Songs that you will probably know, as it describes, sort of that. So let's jump in there. What time do I have? We start at 2.30. Okay. I have 35 minutes, 40 minutes to get through this. Let's see if I can put on my Indiana voice instead of my Tennessee voice. And let's go very quickly here to Revelation. Let's go back to Revelation 2.

Revelation 2, verse 1. To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, These things say, He who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. We read that last time. You can read it in chapter 1, the last few verses of chapter 1. Tells you who the lampstands, tell you who the church, tell me who the stars, tell you those various things. He says in verse 2, I know you works. This is to the church at Ephesus. I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. You have tested those who say they are apostles and they're not, and found them liars, liars, liars. Isn't it amazing today you can find people that, I am the apostle. No, I am the apostle. No, I am the apostle guy. I always thought it'd be funny to tell the truth if you had three guys sitting there. No, I'm the apostle. And then the real ones stand up and they all try to stand up. So you see a description of an apostle, but what does the Bible say an apostle is? Who were the apostles?

The apostles were the disciples who became the twelve, right? They were taught by Christ. Another Scripture references Paul being an apostle. So Paul was what? Taught by Christ. Also, another one that's mentioned is Barnabas. Was Barnabas taught by Christ? I don't know. We don't know, do we? We do not know. But I look what they all have in common in us while I kind of look and say, hmm, Bible's definition, here are those taught by Christ. Does it make sense here that here at Ephesus Church, men were coming in? See, John was on the island. All the other disciples, apostles, were dead. And so here you had people coming into the church saying, I'm an apostle. And he said this church looks at them and they find, you know, you're liars. Because they could compare it to Scripture, ain't you? Mary, didn't we do a funeral and the woman had on the front of her thing in the building an apostle? I think she did. Yeah, I did this, and this woman had this big sign and she's the apostle when I did a funeral.

A lot of you can call yourself an apostle. I was one sent with a message, as you can find in Marian dictionary. But when you look at the Bible, who were they? But the church, the people in the church at that time, picked them out. And you should be able to pick them out, too. If somebody's teaching something, doesn't line up with Scripture, if some don't live by Christ's words, I think we could have that. Let's go down to verse 3. And you have persevered and have patience and have labored in my name for my name's sake, and have not become weary. Weary and well-doing, as they say. Verse 4, Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Some say you have lost your first love. Remember those years when you first came into the truth and man, you couldn't get enough of the Bible and you read and it was just all so new and it was this everything. Ephesus lost your first love. Isn't that easy to remember?

Baby, you've lost that loving feeling. We all remember that from the righteous brothers. That's why I played that, because have we? You're going to have to ask yourself, have you lost that first love that you once had? Mary and I do date night, usually every Wednesday night, because we don't want to lose that loving feeling. We still need to date, because life can get you so busy that you forget, you take things for granted. In God's church, this pictures his church. He wants you to still, he has that same love. He's never lost it, have we? Because this church did. Is that attitude in the church today? Oh, absolutely. Those personalities? Oh, yeah, I remember when I first went through all that. Oh, yeah, I studied that a long ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah, same.

This is a warning. Don't lose your first love. And sometimes you have to do something about it, because God can only take you so far, can only take you so far down that road. Is that something? Yes, because this is a love letter. Realize that? I don't know if any of you have ever gotten Dear John letters. I got a few. Okay, and you know what that is. Well, it's not you, it's me. That's you. But it's a love letter, and he's saying, I can see you're beginning to lose that loving feeling.

You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your lips. There's no tenderness in your fingertips. This is what God's saying to us. We have to make sure we don't lose that loving feeling. Next church. Next church.

Oh, wait a minute. I still need to read verse 5. Excuse me. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen. You've fallen out of love. Repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place. Unless you do what? Repent. Repent. Turn around. Let's have some of that passion back. Let's go back into the Word of God. Let's try a little more prayer. Your first love is important to God. Now, let's go down to the second one. Chapter 2 and verse 8. And to the angel of the church in Smyrna. Diane used to live in Smyrna, didn't you? But not this Smyrna, Smyrna, Tennessee. I was actually at her house in Smyrna, Tennessee before, but this is one of the churches on the mail route in Asia Minor, the church of Smyrna. These things, says the first and the last, who was the dead and came to life. Other words, the Alpha, the Omega. And verse 9, it says, I know your works, your tribulation and poverty, but you are rich spiritually, is what He's referring to here. But they're having tough times. There are people in the church of God who have tough times. They've had tough times for years, for decades. They've gone through tribulation, trials. I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not. What does that mean? People who claim they're the chosen. The Jews have always said, oh, yeah, but we're God's chosen people. You were at one time till you rejected Him. Now He has a church. But you have many people who came in at that time and said, oh, well, we're the right church. We're really God's favorite people. Ever heard that? I've heard it in many churches of various denominations. I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. This is serious to say you're a church of God, to say you're God's chosen people.

And you're not. He calls them a synagogue of Satan. But do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, and he very well might. Are you prepared for it? That you may be tested. God's going to allow it. And He allowed it in the past to be tested, to see how you do. And you have tribulation 10 days. What does that mean? It means a definite period of time. Does it mean just 10 days? Oh, I'm going to prison. I get out in 10 days. No, it means there's a distinct time. So it's not going to be forever. But the church Smyrna is going to have to go through things. We have people attitude who's had to go through things because they're not rich. I think of the third world countries that I deal with. They have tough times. They don't have faucets you can go over and turn on and have water. They don't have a switch you can flip to have electricity. For many of us, we had to do that. We would consider it. I'm going through tribulation. Yeah, just let your electricity go off for three days. See how your attitude goes. But guys, we have people like that down through the year, and we also have people in the church today. Be faithful unto death. Does that mean they're going to die? No. Be faithful until you die. He who endures to the end, the same shall be saved. Endure through the hard times and don't give up. This is just too hard.

That's what he tells us. And I will give you what? The crown of life. You'll have eternal life. We see some people going through things. We see third world countries. We see people even in the church in America that have hard times. Difficulties.

God is allowing them to be tested because guess what? They pass the test. They're in the Kingdom of God. They have the crown of life. They have eternal life. Except these people sometimes go through things that for years, and yet some of us may have to go through them for a short few months or even a year, and boy would we ever complain. That's just too hard.

Yes, we have people like that. Down times.

I'd like you to listen to this song. It's by James Roberson. Do you remember Moses having to go down to Israel to free them, to go down to Egypt to free them? That was not going to be pleasant. He even knew it. He didn't want to go. He did not want to go because it's tough. Hey, brethren, there may be some tough times ahead. You may not want to go, but you may need to go.

But think about that. Let my people go. Were they under stress and pressure at the time? Yes. Was that part of Smyrna? Yes. Does it exist today? Yes. Do we need to pray for those people? Abso-lutely. It is a very powerful, powerful thing. Let's go to the next one. Next we have the angel of verse 12 to the angel of the church of Pergamos.

Isn't that something? These things, he says, he who has the sharp two-edged sword. Who has a two-edged sword? Yes. Very good. Yes, he does. I know your works, saying to that church or to the attitude. Do we have that in church today? Well, let's read on. I know your works and where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, and you hold fast to my name, and did not deny my faith, even in the days in which Antipas was my faithful martyr who was killed among you where Satan dwells. In Pergamos at the time, it was a pagan, very pagan city the church was in. Do we have churches in pagan cities today? Yes, we do. The city was a center for the Babylonian mystery, mysticism and mysteries, as they would call it. You had the temple of Zeus right in the center of town, and people would come and worship there, all types of worship, and he had a church in there. We have churches, we have God's people in different places around the world today who are right in the center of so much paganism. They're having to hold on, but there's something else. Verse 14, But I have a few things against you. Because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. Balaam is about money. What is he saying? We have people with one foot in and one foot out of the church. It's a compromising church. We have people in the church that compromise. Well, yeah, it's not that bad of a people. Oh, that's not too bad. Yes, I have good friends, and yeah, they do this, but what's he saying here? You can't do that. Pergums. You can't have me and some other woman, because the church is a woman, pictured by a woman all through Scripture. And it's His love. And He says, I don't want you to divide my love. I want it all. And yeah, we have people that, oh, well, that's not that bad. Oh, I don't think that. Yeah, I know what the Bible says, but I'm not that far off. I'm still grounded. I still go to church every Saturday. I still keep the holy days.

Verse 15, Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. Nicol means to conquer, and laity means the people who like to rule over people. They look to a spiritual leader, a vicar of Christ, one who speaks for Christ, one who is all about Himself. So you see, you had so many different thoughts, so many different religions, and just a little bit of both. It's not really that bad. Oh, I see the good things they do. God says, no, I want it all. I want all of your feelings. Do we have people that way? I don't know about you, but I know some. I get calls. Well, should I do this? Well, wait a minute. Should I do this? What's the Bible say? That's what I usually end up asking. What do the Scriptures say about it? But see, they're looking, they want a man to make all their decisions. They want a person. They want a religious leader. Christ is the religious leader of this church. I am not, neither is Rick Shabey. We serve it. Christ's pleasure.

Read His Word. Don't be pulled away by every little thing.

A combo religion. A little bit of everything. Why can't we have this and that? Can you play us some music to help us remember this Pergamos church?

Can you see the correlation? Can you see how God wants anything but that? He doesn't want a compromising church. He wants us on fire for His truth, for who He is, for His words. Let's go down. Read now verse 16. He says, Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. And then He talks about overcoming. You can overcome it. He just wants us to repent of these attitudes that exist, that have existed, and make sure that our church does not become Pergamos, Smyrna, Ephesus. And now we'll go to the last one. You will join me. Revelation 2 and verse 18. To the angel of the church in Thyatira. Remember that one? These things, says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire and His feet like fine brass. Didn't we see that when we read about chapter 1? All these churches, He's describing what we went through in 1, because this was a letter. That was the prelude. This is the letter. These saying, this is the same guy. This is who He is. In verse 19, I know your works.

Love, service, faith, and your patience. As for your works, the last was more than the first. So, what kind of church is this? The church at Thyatira. I know your works. The last are more than the first. So you weren't too good at the first. The last is a little better. But it ain't much. It's not much. As a matter of fact, the heading over in my Bible says, the corrupt church. The other one was a compromising church. Now we have a corrupt one. Do we have people in the church of God that's corrupt? Let's go read. Nevertheless, I have a few things against you. Because you allow that woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess to teach and beguile my servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols.

What worldly people! That's what we're getting at. He's picturing this kind of church. What is the woman like? What is a church like? Was Jezebel somebody? Oh, well, how many people know somebody named their child Jezebel? Not many. Not many. I think I'll name my child Jezebel.

Why? Why not? Because she was corrupt, evil. She was an evil woman. So we're talking about a church that God has called. He wants the church to be, as he said, virgin. A virgin. It means you don't go off into other religions. You don't go, well, I kind of like this over there. Well, I think they did a pretty good job over here. I think I do this. He wants a virgin. And he's saying this church, the Hittara, she's the opposite of a virgin. She's a Jezebel. She's a Jezebel.

She's going to do whatever she wants.

Worldly? Are we? Are we as a church? Are you? You sometimes dip your toe into worldliness. Guilty. See, I'm the only one who raised my hand. No, here's one other.

Because sometimes we stick our toe in and realize we've got to pull it out. It's hot. Too hot. As hot as the lake of fire if we continue to go down that road. Is it important? Let us have a song or two. Help us remind us next time you hear this song or you decide to dip your toes.

Ooh, which you, woman? But I do that so we know about Thyatira. Thyatira. So we know that we can't go down that road because it's evil. It's wicked. Because as you notice here, there's a pattern of Ephesus losing your first love and he wants you to get it back. And then there can be some tough times like Smarna. But you have to hold tight, go through those tough times. And then you find a church with Pergamos that's kind of compromising. They got one foot in the world and one foot in God's church. And then if it goes on, what are you going to have? Completely worldly people, worldly church. Because as the people are worldly, the church is going to be worldly. I don't know how many of you have been different churches, but I've seen some worldly churches in this church. It's kind of like it is. But the beauty about this is let's go down and read from 21 to 26 now. It said, I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality and she did not repent. I gave her time to stop playing in the world. Stop being worldly. Come back. Indeed, I will cast her into a sickbed and those who commit adultery with her into the great tribulation unless they repent of their deeds. And that's what he's saying. If you're going to be worldly when the tribulation comes, guess what? That's where you're going to be with the rest of the world going through it. Because you wanted the world, I'll give you the world. You want the curses that's coming, the plagues that's going to come on the world, I'll give it to you.

Because that's what you're going to get.

Unless they repent of their deeds. Unless they repent? Ha! Verse 23, and I will kill her children with death. Now, kids got grandkids, great grandkids. They're in the world. Tribulation's coming and it's wicked.

And all the churches shall know that I am he who searches the minds and the hearts. And I will give to each one of you, according to your works, you get what you deserve. God's fair about that. You're going to get what you deserve. So you want to live with the world? I'll give you what the world's going to get. Verse 24, But to you I say, and to the rest of Thyatira, As many as do not have this doctrine, and who have not known the depths of Satan, as they call them, I will put on you no other burden. You don't away from it? Because 25, but hold fast what you have till I come. And he who overcomes and keeps my works until the end, to him I will give power over all the nations.

It couldn't be any clearer. What kind of church do you want this one to be? Because you will be the kind of church that you are.

You see what God wants in these four churches. Next time I'm here in two weeks, which will go into the chapter 3 and cover the final three churches. But here it gives us such a clear view exactly what God wants and what's been going on through the years. He uses this to teach us. So Ephesus lost their first love, Smyrna, having to go through the tribulation, but they're going to endure to the end, even when it's tough. And Pergamos, he wants you to stop compromising and get one foot out of the world.

And Thyatira, he wants you to get both feet out of the world and into his love, his work, and eventually into his kingdom. Revelation 2, do you remember now?

Will you remember now?

Till next time.