I'd like for us this morning to turn
to the book of Revelation, chapter 1.
Revelation, chapter 1.
How many in the room this morning were
around on December the 7th, 1941?
How many were here in the world?
Well, just about everybody.
You know all about it.
You know what happened.
I'm thankful that we got that good news
about Dick.
There were a lot of those things that
went out.
Friends of mine that were, had parents that
were all upset because they'd be notified, missing
in action.
And it would turn out that he'd just
gone to town and things like that.
So we have a lot to be thankful
for.
The Lord has been very good to us
as a people.
The book of Revelation is one of those
books that so often somebody gets saved and
the first thing he says, I want to
read the book of Revelation.
The Revelation.
Well, it is the Jesus Christ, the Son
of God.
And it is an important book.
And it is a book that carries with
it a promise.
I don't know of any other book that
carries with it this promise.
If you look at the third verse of
the first chapter, it says, Blessed is he
who reads and those who hear the words
of the prophecy and heed the things which
are written in it, for the time is
near.
Want a blessing from God?
Read the book of Revelation.
You'll have something there that will send some
notes of joy into your heart.
It'll inform you about things not only that
have already happened.
And we'll look at that in just a
moment.
But the man that penned these words was
John.
And he says this in the 10th verse,
I was in the Spirit on the Lord's
day and I heard behind me a loud
voice like the sound of a trumpet.
Now, that person that is in the Spirit,
that person that speaks empowered by the Spirit
of God, that person that has enlightenment by
the Spirit of God, is indeed a privileged
person.
You've got to know the Lord before that
can happen.
Because the moment we were born again, the
very moment that we receive spiritual life, we
receive the Spirit of God.
He dwells in every believer.
And if you do not have the Spirit
of God indwelling you at this moment, you
don't know the Lord.
This man was in the Spirit.
This man was a man that had received
a divine call to go out and to
be a witness for Jesus Christ in the
world.
And the Spirit of God spoke to him.
And we have upon the pages of Scripture
the things that were revealed to him.
And the Word says, if you want a
blessing, read this book.
It's the last book in our Bible.
One of the things that we discover about
this is that this book tells us exactly
what to look for in this book.
I say all of this as a prelude
to what I'm about to say about the
seven churches, but it's so necessary that sometimes
we know these things.
I would encourage you to read the book
of Revelation.
It does bring to you a renewed confidence
that indeed God knows exactly what he's doing.
Everything in the past that was under divine
control, and I do believe sovereignly that God
controls all things.
And then this 19th verse of the first
chapter, he says, I write therefore the things
which you have seen.
This is what John's mission was, and this
is what he was to write.
The things which you have seen.
We'll discover in just a moment that there
were some things that he was witness to.
And the things which are.
Some of the things that at that very
moment they were present with him.
And the things which shall take place after
these things.
You've got an outline of the book right
there before you.
And beginning in that fourth chapter, the fourth
chapter opens up.
I'm telling you, it's exciting if you know
what the first verse means in that fourth
chapter, because it tells us that John experienced
something that every believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ at this moment anticipates happening even today.
He received a message, a divine message.
And it says, after these things I looked
and behold a door standing open in heaven
and the first voice which I heard like
the sound of a trumpet speaking with me
and said, come up here.
Wouldn't it be nice if the Lord said
this morning, the church has been upon the
face of the earth long enough.
You fulfilled your mission.
You have faithfully got the word out.
You spread the good news.
Time to come home.
Come up here and I will show you
what must take place after these things.
After what John had witnessed in the course
of his life, the present conditions as they
were at that time in the world, he
gets a call and says, I'm going to
call you home one day.
John's been long gone.
He's been with the Lord for 2,000
years.
We're still waiting, aren't we?
We're waiting for that call.
It could happen at any time.
That's a rapture, the calling away of God's
people by the Son of God.
And the prospect of that happening today is
greater than it's ever been before in the
history of mankind.
We're closer to heaven today than we've ever
been before.
Today.
Could happen today.
Eminent return of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is why we encourage people, if you're
not saved, get saved today.
I know out of experience that most of
us say, well, I'll wait until some more
convenient time.
There'll be a better time for me to
make that decision about receiving Christ.
I'm not quite ready yet.
That's a dangerous decision on your part, because
if he comes, if he comes, you're left
behind.
If he comes, you won't go to be
with him.
You'll be left here upon the face of
the earth.
And that'd be very sad.
Some people seem to just revel in the
thought that what's happening in the world today
is all that they want and all that
they desire in their lives.
And that's sad.
We've been in our Saturday morning men's Bible
study, been looking at Romans chapter 12, and
one of the verses there, the second verse
says, do not be conformed to the ways
of the world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind.
The world that we live in today, and
I think it stems from conviction, that the
world just does not like the idea of
people making such bold claims that they know
God and that they know that they're saved.
They know that all of their sins are
forgiven and they're on their way to heaven.
The world doesn't like for Christians to say
that.
It sounds as if we're being very presumptuous.
How do you know all of that?
We know it because the Word of God
says that.
That's exactly what the Word of God says.
You want to be a possessor of eternal
life and have all of your sins forgiven?
Trust the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of
sinners, and you'll have eternal life.
The world doesn't like that.
It's too bold.
It's condemning to those that haven't trusted him.
So they don't like for us to say
that, but the world wants to press us
into a mold.
And incidentally, it's been very successful.
I have to hasten to say that.
The world we live in, this world system
that we live in, has been very, very
successful in taking Christians and putting them in
a mold so that when the world gets
through with them, you can't tell the difference
today between Christians and non-Christians.
So often they look just alike.
They act just the same as those that
are in the world.
Did you notice at the beginning of what
we read, the blessing that can come from
reading this book?
Hear the words of this prophet.
Heed the things which are written in it,
for the time is near.
There's a blessing for that.
But if you would just look in one
verse, and I'll read it for you, you
don't have to turn to it.
It's found in Luke 11.
Our Lord says, Blessed are those who hear
the word of God and observe it.
Observe it.
It becomes all-important to obey.
Obedience is better than sacrifice in the mind
and eyes of God.
You want blessing from God?
Do what he tells you to do.
He likes obedience from his children.
He doesn't like for his children to disobey
his orders.
He likes to maintain control by the Spirit
of God.
And you know the thing that sometimes mystifies
you?
That one with so much power, omnipotent power,
allows any one of us just a little
speck of dust to transgress and go contrary
to his will.
Isn't that amazing?
One with sovereign power that can do all
things allows the very thing that he has
created to go contrary to what his will
is for that person.
God is not willing that any should perish.
God doesn't want to send people to hell.
God wants to save souls.
God wants his family complete, those that will
trust the Lord Jesus Christ.
He wants us to spend eternity with him.
Beginning in the second chapter as a fulfillment
of what John has just shared with us
in this writing in the book of Revelation,
we are introduced to the subject of things
that were present at that time.
There were seven churches.
Probably the Apostle Paul had something to do
with the establishment of those churches.
I know men that are characterized as being
church planters.
They have a way.
They have discernment.
They go out and they win souls for
the Lord Jesus Christ.
And they get established a testimony and a
witness for God in many places upon the
earth.
Missionaries do this.
Home missions.
The whole world is a mission field.
And that's a wonderful calling.
These seven churches that we have for us
in chapter 2 and 3 were established by
someone that had some vision, had a desire
to see people saved by the grace of
God, brought into fellowship with God.
You can't seek anything any higher.
You can't experience anything in your soul like
having that wonderful communion and fellowship with God,
the very one that created you and me.
To commune with him, to speak with him
face to face.
He invites us to come into his presence.
That should excite us.
It should excite us.
But you know, it doesn't seem like so
often that we count that as something that
is precious and dear, something that we should
value above anything else in this life.
Someone that we love dearly, someone that we
care for oh so much, we enjoy communion
and fellowship with them.
Where does God come into the picture?
How much true delight do we find in
him?
Psalm 37, you know, says, delight thyself in
the Lord.
He'll give you the desires of your heart.
Go to be just filled with sheer delight
in your soul that you can go to
the Word of God and hear God's voice
speak to you.
And then you can open your heart and
you can speak to him.
Trust you've already done that today.
This is the Lord's day.
We're in a gathering of people that obviously
put some value upon the Word of God
and coming together and assembling for the purpose
of worship and praise to our God.
It's a wonderful, wonderful privilege.
May we put a greater value upon that
privilege than just waiting.
This is not the only place that you
can come and worship God.
Thank God for that.
We don't need a building to come and
to worship God.
May that worship God must worship him in
spirit and according to truth.
And I can do that anywhere, anytime, during
a day or a night.
I can worship my God.
I can bow in his presence and I
can tell him that I thank him for
loving me.
I thank him for saving my soul.
These are things that become precious and dear
to the hearts of those that trust the
Savior.
John observed that there were seven churches.
Evidently, he had knowledge of every one of
those churches, seven in number.
Every one of them is presented in what
we have in chapter 2 and 3 as
being a church that is distinctively identified by
something that God hated or something God disapproved
of.
He also offers commendation and approval to all
the things that they did that was right.
Be sure of this.
We always get perfect justice when we deal
with God.
He will rebuke us.
He will chasten you if you're a child
of God.
He will chasten you.
But you know the reason he chastens us
is because he loves us.
He loves us so much that he wants
to see us develop spiritually into something that
would be for the glory of God.
That's his purpose.
He doesn't delight in chastening one of us,
just as he doesn't will that anyone would
perish in their sins.
He delights to see one of us born
again into his family.
He delights to see us grow in grace
and knowledge of the person of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
In each one of these churches, fellowships of
believers, all of these churches were in the
area of Asia Minor, as we would describe
it today if you looked on a map.
You could still find some of these places
that are mentioned.
They still exist today.
The churches themselves, you may only be able
to find where it was located.
Little more, gone.
It starts out the first one in the
first verse of chapter 2.
It says, The angel of the church of
Ephesus write to the angel of the church.
It means the guardian.
Someone that was in charge.
Someone that had a loving care in their
heart for God's people.
This is what he had to say about
this church and approval.
Here they were.
They had an opportunity to let their light
shine.
We have no doubt that the gospel of
Jesus Christ had been proclaimed in all of
that area surrounding the church at Ephesus.
But with the approval, there's something that is
said that has followed this church down through
the ages.
God tells the whole story.
God does not tell part of the story.
And I can tell you this morning that
God doesn't just look at a little bit
of our life.
He looks at all of our life.
The good and the bad.
And God is honest in dealing with us.
So often we're dishonest in dealing with each
other.
We won't tell each other exactly how we
feel.
Sometimes we withhold even truth because that person
may be offended by what I say.
That's a sad picture.
For this church at Ephesus, something that had
happened in their group with all of the
things that he says that commends them, he
says this.
I have something against you.
You have left your first love.
What does that mean?
You've left your first love.
I've heard people say this in talking about
this, and what they had to say was
not very accurate.
They said, you know, it says that they
lost their first love.
Usually if you lose something, you lose track
of it and you have no knowledge of
having lost it.
They didn't lose their first love.
They left it.
I'm telling you, brothers and sisters in Christ,
it's serious business to forget that God loves
you.
It all started out with God loving us
and giving his Son for us.
That's where it started, wasn't it?
It captivated your soul to think that someone
that created all things had all power, was
omniscient and omnipresent.
He loved you and he gave himself for
you in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
You like that.
How long were you enamored by the thought
that God loves me?
Did it take a deep root in your
heart and soul?
I'm thinking that perhaps at the very outset
that the church at Ephesus certainly, they were
excited about being saved.
They loved the whole concept of being saved.
But something happened.
We didn't lose it.
You could say it was certainly a misfortune
that something happened, no fault of theirs, and
it just got lost.
But they just left it.
They departed from that.
Something else must have come up that they
thought was more important than focusing their attention
upon the love of God.
Love is the greatest of all gifts.
The fruit of the Spirit is love.
This Bible, this book, Christianity, is all about
L-O-V-E, the love of God.
And that should permeate our souls.
And only the Spirit of God can generate
in you the pure love of God for
God and for your fellow man.
You can like somebody.
You can have, indeed, a strong attachment for
somebody.
Peter fell into that trap in talking to
the Lord.
He kind of avoided that question when the
Lord said, Do you love me, Peter?
Do you really love me?
You know, the best he could come up
with, because he was embarrassed.
He was the man that, you know, had
even said he didn't know the Lord.
He was squirming.
He was thinking about, Man, do you really
love me?
The best he could come up with is,
Lord, I really do have a strong attachment
for you.
I really like you.
I admire you.
I appreciate you.
Peter, do you really love me?
And I think we, each one of us,
could ask ourselves this question.
Do you really love the Lord?
Do you really love God?
He loves you.
We don't have, none of us in this
room would question that for a moment.
God loves me.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, loved me
so much He died for me.
Do we love God?
Well, I'll tell you something that will be
an embarrassment to every one of us.
He says, If you love me, you keep
my commandments.
If you love me, you do what I
tell you to do.
It's the solid proof that we really love
God when we obey God.
You know, God sets a standard for a
child, a disobedient child, an unruly child, someone
that just can't be brought under control.
Do you love your mom and daddy?
You love them?
You don't obey what they ask you to
do?
If you really respected them, if you really
respected that authority and recognized that they have
discernment in what they do that you may
not like, they do it for your best
interest.
If you understood those things as a child,
you would never disobey your parents.
And I'm telling us this morning, me and
everyone sitting in this room, if you really
love God and you respect His authority, you
respect His word, and you respect His discernment
in what He asked you to do, you'll
do it.
You'll do it.
And thereby, you will prove that you really
love God.
I love you, Lord.
I know that you will never lead me
astray when the Word of God says, don't
let this old world press you into that
mold.
I was promising myself I wouldn't say anything
about this, but right at this season of
the year, and my wife just went out
and bought another Christmas tree.
And she knows I don't care much for
that kind of thing, but I do it
for her.
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the
Christmas tree.
Now, don't get me wrong, but when I
pick up my morning paper and just page
after page, nothing but merchants advertising, advertising, advertising,
more and more and more stuff.
Can't afford all that stuff.
People try to.
It tempts people.
It lures them into a trap.
Credit cards.
Get it now and pay later.
Oh, Lord have mercy.
Boy, you talk about something that will excite
the soul.
You wait until you read some of those
bills that start coming in after the holidays
are over.
The world does want us to succumb to
satisfying our desires for what's in the world
right now.
Brethren, you'd better wean yourself away from that,
because it will have some impact upon how
much you love God.
God should be first.
God knows the Apostle Paul wrote and wrote
so much about putting Jesus Christ first in
your life.
Let him have the preeminent place.
I can see right now I'm not going
to be able to go through what God
liked and disliked about all of these churches,
but let me say this.
This one about the church at Ephesus.
You didn't lose your first love, brother.
You just left it.
You know, I have to sadly say this
because I've known it and I've seen it
happen.
And so often we have to sadly confess
that sometimes it's happened in our own lives.
We were cold and heart and for some
reason we were no longer enamored by the
thought that God loves me.
And that wasn't the most exciting thing in
your life.
Something else had taken the place of it.
That's the saddest day in any one of
our lives.
When something else in this world takes the
preeminence over the fact that God loves you,
we're in trouble.
We're in trouble.
To go back and reflect upon any time
that's ever happened to any one of us
causes me to bow my head and say,
I'm ashamed.
That should have never happened.
He should be first.
First in everything that we think or do.
Because what you think is what you really
are.
What you have in your mind and in
your heart, that's what you really are.
And God knows about it, brother and sister.
He knows all about us.
These are lives of ours that are an
open book to him.
If you ever lied to God, I mean
talking to him and you told him a
lie.
Brother told me one time, he said, I
was guilty of that until one day I
got such a shock.
Because I always told God I loved him.
I always told God I loved him.
But I wasn't an obedient child and I
didn't do all he told me to do.
And he said, I got on my knees
and I purposed to straighten my life out.
Praise God, I think he did.
I'm not going to touch on all of
these churches, seven of them in number.
But these are the things that the Apostle
John had observed in seven churches that are
found in the book of Revelation.
The last of these churches is the church
at Laodicea.
I want to read for you what he
says about the church at Laodicea.
You see, each one of these churches represents
a period in time.
What happened in those churches is represented historically
in some period of time between that day
that John wrote and this present day.
I ask you to read it for yourself.
I ask you to study it for yourself.
You will discover everything that has already happened
in a church is happening today.
Everything that is characteristic of these churches that
God disapproved of is happening in the church
today.
Don't say the church lost its first love.
Left it, brother.
Left it.
Something else was more important.
If you get to the church at Laodicea,
listen to what he says about the church
at Laodicea.
In the third chapter beginning at the fourteenth
verse, and unto the angel of the church
of the Laodiceans write, These things sayeth the
army and the faithful and the true witness,
the beginning of the creation of God.
I know thy works, that thou art neither
cold nor hot.
I would that thou were cold or hot.
So then because thou art lukewarm, neither cold
nor hot, I will spew thee out of
my mouth.
Some people tell me that really like certain
things cold or hot.
If you want to nauseate me, give me
a glass of tepid water when I'm thirsty.
I don't like it.
Nauseous.
I don't like it.
Some people can drink coffee out of the
pot.
I want my coffee hot.
I don't want it lukewarm.
You know, this is a consideration of conditions
as they existed at Laodicea that I don't
think we'd have any trouble for a moment
asking ourselves this morning, am I really cold?
And when I say cold, I've just lost
all contact with God.
I don't have any time for God.
There was a time when I felt very
comfortable in focusing my attention upon spiritual things,
but right now I'm just cold.
I'm not moved in any way by any
thoughts about God.
On the other hand, you've heard this expression,
that man, that woman is on fire for
God.
That means that they're very enthused about the
things of God.
Wide awake, alert, ready to praise and thank
God at any moment.
You see the two extremes.
The church at Ephesus was said to be
lukewarm.
Well, we're not cold, but then we're not
hot.
You may not like the idea where you
say, at least they are not at any
one of the extremes, but they're just riding
right down the middle of the road.
One foot in the road on the left
side, one foot over on the other side.
Walking the line.
They call it the gray area.
God doesn't like that.
Seems to disapprove of that completely.
You know, it may stem from the fact
that they have convinced themselves, I will take
care of my own business.
They are so conceited and believe that they
can handle the destiny of their own little
lives.
And I'll do what I want to, and
I'll do it the way I want to
do it.
Now, they're talking to God when they say
that.
Don't tell me what to do.
I'm not going to become fanatical about being
a Christian.
I'm not going around talking about Jesus all
the time.
I know a fellow that tells me every
time I hear somebody mention the name of
Jesus in a public place, he said, I
feel very uncomfortable.
And he professes to be a Christian.
I feel very uncomfortable when people are talking
about Jesus.
Listen, if this world doesn't get the message
about Jesus, they're lost and they're going to
hell.
Would to God that the fires of enthusiasm
for obeying and doing the will of God
would light up every one of our souls.
And we'd be a witness for him wherever
we go.
You want God to spew you out of
his mouth?
Can't do anything with you.
You're not cold, you're not hot.
It's like you just parked over to the
side of the road and said, leave me
alone.
Nothing else is going to happen.
This is what the church had to say,
according to John.
You say I'm rich and increased with goods
and have need of nothing.
And no, it's not, that thou art wretched
and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
I counsel thee to buy of me gold
tried in the fire, that thou mayest be
rich, and white raiment, that thou mayest be
clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness
do not appear.
And anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that
thou mayest see.
As many as I love, I rebuke and
chasten.
Be zealous, therefore, and repent.
That's good counsel.
Man would be a fool not to obey
a message like that, wouldn't he?
But you know, those messages are delivered regularly
to a lot of God's people, and they
don't pay attention to it.
I'm still going to do it the way
I want to do it.
And that's a sad response to what God
has in store for every one of us.
Behold, and this is a verse that I
think will just knock us all for a
loop.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
Verse 20.
Any man hear my voice and open the
door, I will come into him and will
sup with him, and he with me.
Do you know that person that saved your
soul, died upon a cross for your sin?
He wants fellowship with you.
He wants to talk with you and me.
And he wants us to listen to what
he has to say to us.
And so often we won't let him do
it.
I want to come in and have a
little fellowship with you, my child.
I'm busy, Lord.
I'm busy.
Don't you know I'm busy?
Don't you know life today is stressful?
Don't you know that I have all of
these things that I've got to do?
All these things that are binding upon me,
the responsibility that I've taken for my family
and for all the other things that are
a part of my life.
I haven't got time, Lord.
Do you know that's the picture we've got
here?
It may be on the level, there may
be whole congregations of people of God today
that are gathered, thousands of them, and they
ain't got no time for fellowship with Jesus
Christ, the Son of God.
They're busy.
It may be with church activities.
It may be all those things that they've
become responsible for.
But I'm busy.
Don't bother me.
He wants to fellowship with you and me.
He wants to commune with you and me.
I'll tell you one thing we do here
at Northgate Chapel that I love.
I commune with my God every Sunday morning
around the table.
And I remember that He died upon a
cross for my sins.
His body was broken and His precious blood
was shed.
And I don't know about you.
I ain't got no excuse for not being
here.
I don't know what your excuse is.
Has He knocked on your door?
That I'd like to have a little fellowship
and communion with you.
I'm busy, Lord.
I'm busy.
This church at Laodicea, it's a pitiful picture,
isn't it?
I think it's so typical of conditions as
they exist in the world today.
That's the reason I wanted to get to
it.
He's knocking.
I want to come in and fellowship with
you.
Lord, we know you, but we're too busy.
Will you just go park it somewhere and
let us get on with the business at
hand?
I ask you, is there anything in your
life more important than fellowship and communion with
God?
With the Son of God who loves you
and died for you?
Is there anything in your life that you
value more than that and thinks more important
than that?
If it is, you're wrong, brother, sister, and
you need to get it straightened out.
And may that happen to us.
I know this is the year when stressful
things are happening, and there's so many things
that are binding upon us.
But listen, cut loose from it and let
the Lord Jesus Christ enjoy some communion and
fellowship with you, regardless of what this world
does.
This world doesn't give a whip about Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, and what he
did upon the cross.
But we should.
We should.
It should be first.
From the time you get up in the
morning until you put your head up on
the pillow at night, communion and fellowship with
our God.
Our Heavenly Father, I thank thee again this
morning that we could look at the Word
of God.
We're promised a blessing from reading the Scriptures.
This one book, the book of Revelation.
Grant, we pray thee, that every one of
us in this room will take very seriously
what the Spirit of God has said to
us, reminding us that you were first place
in our lives.
And Lord Jesus, oh Lord Jesus, I thank
you for wanting to fellowship in communion with
us.
I'm so thankful that you are knocking upon
each of our hearts door today.
Some of us may have gotten so cold
that we don't even hear you knocking.
But Lord, I'm so thankful that you keep
knocking.
May we respond and open the door and
say, Lord, come in.
Fellowship and communion with thee is more important
than anything in this life.
We ask this in the name of the
Lord Jesus.
Amen.
John has a closing word.
Number 239.
This is a familiar hymn that I was
thinking as Robert was speaking in his introductory
thoughts.
I once had a coworker who hit me
with the line, how do I know that
what you say is true?
Or how do and why is it my
thoughts just as good as what your thoughts
are as far as, you know, what's going
to happen and salvation and that kind of
thing.
I have my opinion, you have yours.
And whether or not you have your own
thoughts, it doesn't change anything.
Jesus is coming again.
And when you say, well, I don't care
whether he's coming or not, you will at
that time.
So for the Christian, this song is something
that's an assurance.
We're looking forward to that time for someone
who doesn't know Christ.
They're thinking, well, I hope it's not true,
because then I've been living a lie.
Let's stand and sing just the first verse.
Jesus is coming again.