{"id":18954,"date":"2018-07-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-08T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/revelation-006-the-death-of-discernment\/"},"modified":"2018-07-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-07-08T05:00:00","slug":"revelation-006-the-death-of-discernment","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/revelation-006-the-death-of-discernment\/","title":{"rendered":"Revelation 006 – The Death of Discernment"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[111],"series_event":[490],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18954","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-revelation","series_event-revelation","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Revelation 006 - The Death of Discernment","sermon_date":"20180708","sermon_month":"7","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":5906,"sermon_slides":5905,"sermon_mp3":5908,"sermon_id":"78181019131","series_or_event":490,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":111,"chapter_and_verse":"2:1-3","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nThe Death of Discernment\n\n7-8-18\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Revelation 2:1-3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 6\n\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0 If we could take our Bibles and open them to the second chapter of the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is The Death of Discernment.\u00a0 If you have been tracking with us as we have been moving through the book of Revelation we sort of started the series by kind of orienting ourselves to the background of the book.\u00a0 From there we moved through what\u2019s called the prologue, or the introduction, the first eight verses in the book.\u00a0 And along the way we\u2019ve noted that the Book of Revelation has three parts to it.\u00a0 John is told to write down the things he has seen, the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things.\u00a0 [Revelation 1:19, \u201cTherefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things.\u201d]\n\nThe things that, part 1, that\u2019s the information in chapter 1.\u00a0 John receives a guest appearance, (if you will) of Jesus Christ at the close of the first century on the Island of Patmos.\u00a0 He sees Christ in His glorified state.\u00a0 And we have a description of what John had seen in chapter 1.\u00a0 But you\u2019ll notice that the instruction manual continues and John is told to write down, number two, \u201cthe things which are.\u201d\u00a0 The \u201cthings which are\u201d would be part two of the book and that would include seven letters to seven churches in Asia Minor.\u00a0 Jesus, through John, is going to dictate seven letters, seven epistles if you will, to the seven churches in Asia Minor.\u00a0 Ephesus, the church we\u2019re going to look at today is the first one addressed.\u00a0 And then the geographical pattern sort of moves upward all the way up to Pergamum; and then the geographical pattern sort of sweeps southeast all the way to a church called Laodicea at the end of chapter three.\n\nI have sometimes referred to this section of the Scripture that we\u2019re entering into as the forgotten section of the Bible.\u00a0 Most people, most Christians aren\u2019t even aware that these letters are here because when we think of letters we think of Paul and we think of the general letters that we call the epistles.\u00a0 And we don\u2019t normally think of the fact that the Book of Revelation has seven more epistles in it, this time not written by Paul or John or Peter or anybody else, but directly from Jesus Christ.\u00a0 So most people when they think about epistles they don\u2019t think about Revelation 2 and 3.\u00a0 And most people when they think about the Book of Revelation they think about all the cool end times stuff, the mark of the beast, the one-world system, Babylon, all that interesting information.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve been in churches where pastors teach through the Book of Revelation and they will just skip right over chapters 2 and 3, because we want to get to the good stuff, right?\n\nThe problem is even though this is a neglected part of the Bible you will miss out on so much if you ignore these letters, if we ignore them.\u00a0 It\u2019s stunning, it\u2019s staggering the things that are revealed here as Christ is giving His final word to His church.\u00a0 I mean, what if Jesus wrote a personal letter to your home church?\u00a0 How would that letter read?\u00a0 And that\u2019s what you have here in the Book of Revelation, chapters 2 and 3, seven letters total.\n\nHere\u2019s sort of the breakdown and the description of this section.\u00a0 We have first of all the letter to Ephesus, Revelation 2:1-7, the loveless church.\u00a0 Secondly we have Smyrna, Revelation 28-11, the persecuted church.\u00a0 Third\u00a0 you have Pergamum, and then Thyatira, to sort of wrap up Revelation 2 and this would be the church in compromise, the compromised church, one Pergamum, the compromised church two, Thyatira.\u00a0 Then\u00a0 you get into Revelation 3:1-6 and you have the dead church.\u00a0 And then finally you get to a note of optimism, the church at Philadelphia, I\u2019m not talking there about Pennsylvania, and it\u2019s Revelation 3:7-13 where we have some information about the missionary church.\u00a0 And finally the letters conclude with the church at Laodicea, the end of Revelation 3, the man-centered church.\n\nIt\u2019s interesting that the Lord only chose to address seven churches.\u00a0 We know that there were many more functioning and thriving and planted by this time.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have any information here about the church at Rome; even in this general Asia Minor area we don\u2019t have any reference to the church at Colossae<\/em>,<\/strong> the church at Philippi.\u00a0 I mean, why these seven exactly.\u00a0 I believe that these seven churches were specifically selected by Jesus Christ because they represent unique problems that would characterize all churches of all time.\n\nThere\u2019s a slice of Ephesus in every church. Sadly there\u2019s also a slice of Laodicea in many churches.\u00a0 I could even take this a step further and I would say this: each letter would not just represent a different kind of church but they may even represent a different kind of Christian.\u00a0 I mean, what kind of Christian are\u00a0 you?\u00a0 Are you a Pergamum Christian, a Sardis Christian, a Philadelphia Christian, a Laodicea Christian.\u00a0 And I believe because of the universality of the principles that are revealed here this is why the Lord targeted these seven churches for a final word from Him at the conclusion of the first century.\n\nSo we\u2019re moving into a section of the Bible that is not prophetic as much as it is epistles, letters.\u00a0 And what you\u2019ll discover is each of these letters follows a pattern.\u00a0 In fact, with a few exceptions that I\u2019ll mention in a minute you\u2019re going to find these eight elements in each letter.\u00a0 So with each letter we study I will be putting this outline back up and we\u2019ll be working through the eight elements.\n\nFirst there is a destination.\u00a0\u00a0 What church is it we\u2019re talking about?\u00a0 And there you\u2019re going to have a place of geography, Ephesus, Smyrna, Sardis, Pergamum, etc.\u00a0 And I\u2019ll share with you a little bit of background about that geographical locale because what you\u2019ll discover is that the Lord uses analogies from their own time period that they would understand as illustrations for spiritual truth.\n\nSecondly, each letter is going to have within it a description of Jesus Christ. \u00a0Christ will describe Himself.\u00a0 And the information that He uses to describe Himself is not just random information but He specifically selects things that we\u2019ve already studied in chapter 1 where we got that great description of what John had seen, the glorified Christ.\u00a0 And Christ, at the beginning of each letter will go back into that imagery and highlight something and bring it to that church\u2019s attention.\u00a0 Again the data is not just random and accidental. When Christ surfaces information about Himself He surfaces information that directly applies to that church, their situation and their need.\u00a0 For example, to the dead church, Sardis, He will describe Himself as the One holding the seven spirits, the fullness of the Spirit.\u00a0 Why would He describe Himself that way to Sardis?\u00a0 Because these people need a wakeup call in Sardis.\u00a0 They need the fullness of the Holy Spirit.\n\nAnd then as the letters progress Christ will give each church a word of commendation.\u00a0 He will tell them generally what they\u2019re doing right.\u00a0 And then that word of commendation is followed by a sharp rebuke telling them what they\u2019re doing wrong.\u00a0 And then He doesn\u2019t just leave them on the cutting room floor bleeding, He exhorts each church to change.\u00a0 And that\u2019s where He will use a word that\u2019s hardly ever spoken of in evangelicalism today, a word called repentance, which as we will be explaining means a change of mind.\u00a0 And then he will explain that if you do not change, number 6, there is a consequence.\u00a0 The consequence isn\u2019t related to salvation; the consequence isn\u2019t related to heaven or hell, the consequence is not related to\u00a0 your arrival into heaven one day.\u00a0 It relates to something temporal or temporary that you give up, a benefit, a privilege if the Lord\u2019s exhortation to change is not followed.\n\nYou see, as a Christian, if you go back into sin you may not lose your salvation but there\u2019s an awful lot of things of value that you forfeit, and each church is told of a consequence that will follow if they don\u2019t change.\u00a0 And by the way, when you look at steps 3, 4, 5 and 6 that\u2019s a pretty good leader\u00adship pattern when you think about it.\u00a0 Some of you are in positions of leadership where you are overseeing the work of other people.\u00a0 Some of you are leaders in your home or your family.\u00a0 You\u2019re a leader in\u00a0 your church, you\u2019re a leader in your place of education, you\u2019re a leader in your place of business.\u00a0 How do you handle people?\u00a0 How do you manage people?\n\nYou\u2019ll notice that Christ gives a pretty good formula here.\u00a0 First you commend people on what they\u2019re doing right.\u00a0 Sometimes we lead to criticism of people without acknowledging what they\u2019re doing correctly and that kind of has a way of desensitizing them a little bit.\u00a0 But then you point out what they\u2019re doing wrong, a rebuke.\u00a0 And most people, if they just hear rebuke, rebuke, rebuke, rebukes all the time they\u2019re just going to tune you out because your average person is designed to hear at least five positives before they hear one negative.\n\nYou say where are you getting that from?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know, some psychologist somewhere said that, it must be true\u2026 right?\u00a0 \u00a0But it makes common sense that\u00a0 you would commend what they\u2019re doing right and then you would tell them what you\u2019re doing wrong and then you don\u2019t just leave them bleeding,\u00a0 you tell them how they can change their performance.\u00a0 And then you tell them if they don\u2019t change here are the reper\u00adcussions of that.\u00a0 And think how much tension would be alleviated in the home, in the business world if these basic steps were followed.\n\nThe second towards the last one is an exhortation to listen; each letter will say, \u201cTo him who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches,\u201d and how today we need to be listening to the Spirit and the voice of God.\u00a0 Our lives and minds are so crowded with things and distractions that there\u2019s almost no time for listening to God, reading His Word, listening to the proclamation of His Word.\u00a0 And then in the final part of the communication process, the elements, there\u2019s a promise to the overcomers within the church.\u00a0 And Jesus will tap into glorious promises that are yet to come in the eternal state all the way there to the far right of the screen, which is the final two chapters of the Bible, which is our future in God.\u00a0 It\u2019s a glorious, glorious future and Jesus will reach into that section of the Bible and encourage each church with a reminder of their destiny in God because if you know the destiny that you are headed for problems in this life are much easier to endure.\u00a0 Amen!\u00a0 So you\u2019ll notice in step two he\u2019s reaching back into chapter 1; you\u2019ll notice in step 8 he\u2019s reaching into the end of the Book of Revelation.\n\nNow there is sort of a discussion or a debate in our circles about who the overcomers are.\u00a0 \u201cTo him who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.\u201d\u00a0 Every letter will say \u201cTo him who overcomes,\u201d and there\u2019s a lot of discussion about who these overcomers are.\u00a0 A very popular view today is the overcomers are the winner Christians, the sanctified Christians, the Christians that are really making great progress in the\u00a0 middle tense of their salvation, progressive sanctification, and that\u2019s who the overcomers are.\u00a0 And a lot of my friends believe that.\n\nI personally do not believe that that is what is being addressed here in Revelation 2 and 3.\u00a0 I think if you are a Christian, even a struggling Christian, even a\u00a0 young Christian, you\u2019re already an over\u00adcomer.\u00a0 You may not understand it, you may not know it, but you are an overcomer, not because of yourself but because of who you are related to by way of faith.\u00a0 Didn\u2019t Jesus say in John 16:33, \u201cI have overcome the world?\u201d\u00a0 [John 16:33, \u201cThese things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.\u201d]\n\nQuestion: where does Jesus live right now?\u00a0 He lives inside of us, doesn\u2019t He?\u00a0 This is why John in his other book, 1 John 4:4, says \u201cgreater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.\u201d\u00a0 You may not think like it, you may not feel like it but if you are related to Christ by way of faith, if Christ through the residence of the Holy Spirit is living on the inside of you, you are already an overcomer.\u00a0 Your destiny is secure, you have all of the resources in Christ necessary for victory in daily living, whether we access them or not.\n\nFor example, to the church at Ephesus He tells the overcomers that they\u2019re going to eat from the tree of life, Revelation 2:7.\u00a0 [Revelation 2:7, \u201c'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.'\u201d]\u00a0 Is that just some Christians that are going to eat from the tree of life in the eternal state or will all Christians eat from the tree of life?\u00a0 The answer would be ALL.\u00a0 Revelation 22:2; Revelation 22:14.\u00a0 [Revelation 22:2, \u201cin the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Revelation 22:14, \u201cBlessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city.\u201d]\n\nTo Sardis, Revelation 2:11, He says if you\u2019re an overcome, \u201cHe who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 2:11, \u201c'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.'\u201d]\u00a0 What is the second death?\u00a0 It\u2019s the lake of fire.\u00a0 You see if you\u2019re born once you\u2019ll die twice; if you\u2019re born twice you\u2019ll die once.\u00a0 Think about that.\n\nIs it just winner Christians that are going to be exempted from the lake of fire?\u00a0 No, all Christians are exempted from the lake of fire, Revelation 20:6, Revelation 20:14, Revelation 21:8.\u00a0\u00a0 [Revelation 20:6, \u201cBlessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.\u201d\u00a0 Revelation 20:14, Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.\u201d\u00a0 Revelation 21:8, \u201cBut for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.\u201d]\n\nTo the church at Philadelphia he says if you\u2019re an overcomer your name is in the Book of life and nothing can erase it.\u00a0 Is it just some Christians whose names are inscribed in the Book of life or are all Christians inscribed in the Book of Life?\u00a0 The latter would be true, Revelation 20:12, 15. [Revelation 20:12, \u201cAnd I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.\u201d\u00a0 [15] \u201cAnd if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.\u201d]\u00a0 So the overcomers is a reference, I believe, to all Christians.\u00a0 I\u2019m not going to exclude overcomers to some, although that is a very popular interpretation today.\n\nBut you\u2019ll notice that each letter has eight elements to it: destination, description of Christ, commendations, rebuke, exhortation to change, consequence if there is no repentance, exhortation to listen, and a promise to overcomers who would be all Christians.\u00a0 And although this is the general pattern that the Lord follows you\u2019ll notice that there are times He will make creative deviations.\u00a0 For example, when we get to two churches, Smyrna and Philadelphia He will skep step four; He won\u2019t rebuke those churches.\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t that be great if you had a boss that never rebuked you?\u00a0 And that\u2019s what Jesus does to those two churches.\u00a0 And you say well, why?\u00a0 It\u2019s very interesting to observe that those are the two churches that are being persecuted.\u00a0 They\u2019re being persecuted by a group of people called the \u201csynagogue of Satan.\u201d\n\nAnd isn\u2019t it interesting how a persecuted church is a pure church. I know that in my personal life the times that I am closest to God are times of adversity, not times of prosperity because when you\u2019re walking through difficulty, persecution, isn\u2019t it interesting how we have a tendency to rely upon the Lord more thoroughly and not wander off the path of righteousness.\u00a0 And so although this is a general pattern when Jesus comes to two persecuted churches He will skep step 4.\n\nAnd then eventually we\u2019ll come to Laodicea, the man-centered church.\u00a0 In fact, the very word \u201cLaodicea\u201d means this in Greek: the people ruling!\u00a0 It comes from two words, laos<\/em>, meaning people, and dikeo<\/em> meaning to rule; Laodicea means the people ruling.\u00a0 They\u2019re having church without Jesus.\u00a0 They\u2019re having Christianity without Christ.\u00a0 Money is rolling in, the budget looks good, the numbers are up, the problem is Jesus is outside the door, knocking, wanting to get in, the people ruling!\u00a0 And when we get to that church Jesus will completely omit step three. With these other churches He struggles to find something good going on.\u00a0 Not so in Laodicea.\u00a0 So although this is general blueprint what you\u2019ll notice is there are some deviations to the blueprint.\n\nThere is a view that is very popular in our circles and it\u2019s called the historical prophetic view.\u00a0 In fact, when I was in seminary my mentor, J. Dwight Pentecost, we called him Dr. Pentecost because he was so old we thought he was actually there on the day of Pentecost\u2026\u00a0 And he\u2019s with the Lord now and he probably had more influence over the way I think than any other human teacher or theologian.\u00a0 One day it shocked us, he went over and turned on an overhead projector.\u00a0 This is a man that would come into class and it was such a privilege to sit under his teaching, no notes, no power points, no fancy degree from Europe, just teaching out of the abundance of the life he spent in God\u2019s Word.\u00a0 And one day, we didn\u2019t even think he owned any slides or power points or overhead projector, it shocked us, he turned one on and he put up this slide right here, and what this is, is the historical prophetic view which is the view that each church does not just represent a church but it represents a section of the last 2,000 of church history.\u00a0 Ephesus would represent the church of the apostles; Smyrna would represent the persecuted church after the apostles left the scene, right up until the time of Emperor Constantine who legalized Christianity.\u00a0 And then you have the church at Pergamum which is a time period of compromise when the church was basically viewed as a symbol of honor within Rome.\n\n[Genesis 2:10-14, \u201cA river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. [11] \u00a0<\/sup>The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. [12] \u00a0<\/sup>(The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin[<\/sup>d<\/a><\/sup>]<\/sup> and onyx are also there.) [13] \u00a0<\/sup>The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush.[<\/sup>e<\/a><\/sup>]<\/sup> [14]\u00a0<\/sup>The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.\u201d]\n\nWho wants to hear a boring sermon about that?\u00a0 It\u2019s much more exciting to hear the spiritual view.\u00a0 The problem is the spiritual view is only clear in the mind of the person espousing the spiritual view.\u00a0 And there\u2019s no way to test if the allegorist is accurate.\u00a0 So Philo said those four rivers, do you know what they really represent?\u00a0 They represent four parts of the soul, and I would say well why not four parts of the compass, why not four angels?\u00a0 You could make it sound any way you wanted.\n\nAnd so one of the things that the Protestant Reformers rejected, and if you\u2019re interested in this study I would encourage you to listen to our Protestant Reformation study which we did in Sunday School some time back. They rejected allegorization.\u00a0 And it\u2019s very interesting to me the very people that promote literal interpretation and are anti-allegorization are the first people to allegorize the text.\u00a0 I mean, how would you know just from a surface reading of this that Ephesus is the church of the apostles?\u00a0 How would you know that Smyrna is the church of the persecuted; it borders on allegory using the plain language of the text to bring in some kind of mystical or higher meaning.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the fourth reason why I don\u2019t believe that this view is true.\u00a0 I do respect people that hold it, if you want to hold it that\u2019s fine, we will get along just fine, we can still be friends at the end of the day.\u00a0 I\u2019m just trying to explain to you why I\u2019m not going to make references to this as we move through this section.\n\nIn fact, I was called here at the office by a Lutheran pastor; he was doing a study on dispensation\u00adalists, which is what we are.\u00a0 I\u2019m a Dispensationalist, with a capital D by the way.\u00a0 And he had apparently read something I wrote on the internet and he had never actually talked to a dispensationalist before; he wanted to talk a real live dispensationalist, like I\u2019m something out of the endangered species list.\u00a0\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 And he was a very nice individual, very smart, and he kept referring to the fact that there can\u2019t be a kingdom coming because we know that the prophecies about the kingdom are non-literal.\u00a0 And every once in a while in the conversation he would say well, you believe they\u2019re literal right?\u00a0 And I would say yes sir, I do.\u00a0 And the conversation would kind of roll around and a few minutes would pass and he would say you really take that literally, don\u2019t you.\u00a0 Yes sir, I do!\u00a0 This happened two, three, four times, and then he pulled out his atomic gun seeking to defeat me and he said but don\u2019t you realize us dispensationalists, don\u2019t you allegorize Revelation 2 and 3.\u00a0 And I had to be honest with him, although we condemn allegorization there are times that we as dispensationalists are sometimes its greatest practitioners, and I had to explain to him that yes, there are those of us that do allegorize this section of Scripture but I don\u2019t. \u00a0And you say well Andy, then what\u2019s the meaning of the seven letters to the seven churches.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the meaning\u2014you ready?\u00a0 Jesus wrote seven letters to seven churches.\u00a0 That\u2019s about as high and as far as I\u2019m willing to go in this particular study.\n\nSo with that background in mind let\u2019s move into the very first of our letters.\u00a0 Look at what Jesus says to the first of the seven churches, the church at Ephesus.\u00a0 Here is our outline.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice first of all the destination, chapter 2 and verse 1, it says, \u201cTo the angel of the church in Ephesus write:\u201d now in prior sermons I have sought to explain that I think the angel mentioned here is not a literal angel.\u00a0 The Greek is angelos<\/em>, or a messenger.\u00a0 You\u2019ll find him an instruments being used with the Greek word angelos<\/em> in Matthew 11:10 of John the Baptist; of Jesus sending out His human messengers, Luke 9:52.\u00a0 And of the spies that entered Canaan, James 2:5.\n\n[Matthew 11:10, This is the one about whom it is written, \u2018BEHOLD, I SEND MY MESSENGER AHEAD OF YOU, WHO WILL PREPARE YOUR WAY BEFORE YOU.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Luke 9:52, \u201cand He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him.\u201d\u00a0 James 2:5, \u201cListen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?\u201d]\u00a0 So it\u2019s very clear that yes, an angel literally means a normal angel; an angle, or an angelos<\/em> can be a messenger and I believe that the messenger here is the preacher or the pastor over the church at Ephesus.\u00a0 Just like there is an angelos<\/em> over the church at Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, etc. etc.\n\nOne of the things that we have noted in our study is that in the chain of communication, from the Father to the churches, which is the chain of communication, divine communication that this revelation went through there is increasing hierarchy, the Father being the most important, the highest.\u00a0 And the message was passed off to the Son who is equal with Father in terms of deity but subordinate to the Father in terms of role.\u00a0 And then to an angel who was obviously under the Trinity, and then to John (since humans are created a little under the angels), then ultimately to a book.\u00a0 And then it\u2019s handed off to a preacher who would be under the apostles.\u00a0 And then ultimately to the preachers of the various churches there in Asia Minor.\u00a0 So you\u2019ll notice that it goes from greater to lesser and if you make the angelos<\/em> a literal angel over Ephesus then the order starts to descend and then it bounces right back up, which seems to be kind of odd because there\u2019s an obvious downward progression here.\n\nSo when Jesus says to the angel of the church at Ephesus He is speaking to the one who is given the authority over that particular church to herald, to teach, to proclaim, biblical and divine truth.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice that this letter was written to the church at Ephesus.\u00a0 Now we know a lot about Ephesus, don\u2019t we, in the Bible?\u00a0 When did the church at Ephesus come into existence?\u00a0 It came into existence in Paul\u2019s third missionary journey in Acts 19 where he set up shop in a school called the school of Tyrannus and lectured there for I believe two years, and what it says is \u201call in Asia,\u201d Acts 19:10\u2026 you think my series go on a long time, think of Paul\u2019s. \u00a0[Acts 19:10, \u201cThis took place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.\u201d]\n\nThis took place for two years so that all who lived in Asia heard the Word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.\u00a0 He did all of that, by the way without a Wi-Fi connection.\u00a0 And masses and masses and masses of people came to Christ, many churches most of which that we\u2019re reading about here came into existence through Paul\u2019s tremendous ministry in Ephesus.\u00a0 That\u2019s how the church at Ephesus was born.\u00a0 Ephesus was the key church of the first century.\u00a0 Things were transitioning to Rome but before Rome became prominent Ephesus was the key church.\u00a0 That\u2019s why it\u2019s shocking to discover what Jesus will say to that church.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t change I\u2019m going to remove your lampstand.\u00a0 That would be like taking the biggest church in America, in the world, and Jesus noticing something in that church that was not right and promising to shut the whole thing down.\u00a0 That\u2019s what He\u2019s saying here to the church at Ephesus.\n\nBy the way, Ephesus, being the most prominent, is addressed first.\u00a0 They had some pretty good pastors, people like Paul, Timothy, John himself.\u00a0 In fact, Ephesus in the Bible has a paper trail; they were the recipients of many, many letters.\u00a0 One letter is obvious, the book of Ephesians.\u00a0 You throw into the mix 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy because Timothy was at that time pastoring at Ephesus.\u00a0 And then finally Jesus will speak directly to this church in Revelation 2:1-7.\u00a0 And\u00a0 yet the story of Ephesus, as I\u2019ll be sharing ends on a sad note.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter how great you are in God.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter how effective you are.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t even matter how successful you are, God reserves the right to shut down, to remove the plug from any church.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what happened to Ephesus.\u00a0 In fact you can visit Ephesus today in Asia Minor, assuming you can get in, most of these churches are what we call modern day Turkey.\u00a0 You\u2019re not going to find a thriving church in Ephesus.\u00a0 What you\u2019re going to find is a pile of rocks where greatness once existed.\n\nYou know, the fastest growing religion in that part of the world isn\u2019t even Christianity.\u00a0 It\u2019s what? Islam.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why we need to listen very carefully to what the Lord is saying to His churches because if it can happen there in can happen here in the\u00a0 United States, can\u2019t it.\u00a0 In fact, I would argue this, to some extent it already is happening.\u00a0 You go today to Europe and what you see in virtually every European city, you see Cathedrals with beautiful architecture, beautiful stained glass windows, worship centers that once housed hundreds if not thousands of worshippers, the cradle of the Protestant Reformation, go into one of those churches today on a Sunday morning and what are you going to see?\u00a0 You\u2019re going to see the guy that opens the door to the church, the janitor, maybe the pastor and his family, the rest is empty.\u00a0 Christianity is dead in Europe, 1% roughly of the population where the very Protestant Reformation happened is Christian today as we know it. \u00a0Islam is on the march in Europe, it is on the march in Asia Minor, it is on the march in Turkey, and beloved, as God is my witness if we don\u2019t pay attention to what the Word says the same exact pattern can and will replicate itself, even here in the late great United States of America.\u00a0 My God help us to understand the severity of what is being communicated in these letters.\n\nPart 1 is the destination.\u00a0 Part 2 is the description of Christ.\u00a0 Look, if you will, at the second part of verse1, Jesus describes Himself as \u201cThe One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this:\u201d\u00a0 You say well, who are these \u201cstars in His right Hand?\u201d\u00a0 We were already told that, weren\u2019t we, at the end of chapter 1, which says, verse 20, \u201cThe seven stars are the seven angels of the seven churches\u201d\u00a0 Dr. John Walvoord, in his very excellent commentary on the Book of Revelation explains that you do not have to rely on your sanctified imagination so interpret the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 If you spent any time on\u00a0 You Tube, which I don\u2019t recommend you do too much, and you are going to see some of the strangest things you\u2019ve ever heard, people coming up with wild ideas about what the Book of Revelation is talking about.\u00a0 They\u2019ve never been taught basic Bible study interpretation; they\u2019ve never been taught that the Book of Revelation in the same context will interpret itself at least 26 times.\u00a0 There\u2019s no debate on who these seven stars are; they are the seven angels of the churches.\n\nAs I explained earlier these are the seven pastors of these seven churches and\u00a0 you\u2019ll notice that it has repeated something that are brought up twice in chapter one, that these pastors are being held by Jesus Christ, not in His left hand but in His right hand.\u00a0 Why is Jesus holding these preachers in His right hand, the hand of honor?\u00a0 Because the pastor\u2019s job is to equip the saints for the work of ministry.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have an equipping process taking place through the perpetual teaching of the Word of God you have a flock of people that don\u2019t know how to minister.\u00a0 They don\u2019t know anything about ministry and yet Ephesians 4:11-12 talks about the gift of pastor-teacher, for what purpose?\u00a0 For the equipping of the saints for the work of service for the building up of the body of Christ.\u00a0 [Ephesians 4:11-12, \u201cAnd He gave some as<\/em> apostles, and some as<\/em> prophets, and some as<\/em> evangelists, and some as<\/em> pastors and teachers, [12] for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;\u201d]\n\nIn the natural world there are obstetricians that help with the birthing process and a completely different discipline called pediatrics, pediatricians to help the newborn child grow.\u00a0 I am not an evangelist and I wish I were; an evangelist works amongst the unsaved.\u00a0 That\u2019s a completely different spiritual gift than the gift of pastor-teacher which helps people that are saved to mature correctly.\u00a0 And that\u2019s where we are at here at Sugar Land Bible Church.\u00a0 We\u2019re not here to give people a bunch of human opinions.\u00a0 What we\u2019re here to do is to teach the Word of God in a way they understand it and can apply it, which is going to equip them on how to be the right marriage partner, how to be the right parent, how to be the right boss, how to be the right employee, how to handle your finances and how to pursue ministry within the context of the local church.\n\nWe\u2019ve got far too many CEO\u2019s today in the pulpit. We\u2019ve got way too many marketers and we certainly have our surplus of psychologists in the pulpit.\u00a0 That is not what Christianity needs.\u00a0 Christianity needs Bible teachers, Bible preachers who will equip the saints.\u00a0 That\u2019s the ministry God\u2019s behind; that\u2019s the ministry God blesses.\u00a0 And if you want to pray something for America you ought to pray this: all over this country do you know what\u2019s happening in pulpits?\u00a0 They\u2019re empty.\u00a0 Why are they empty?\u00a0 Because the pastor that\u2019s been holding the line is at retirement age and there\u2019s no one to fill his place.\n\nThat\u2019s one of our purposes in Chafer Theological Seminary.\u00a0 You wouldn\u2019t believe the calls that we get in our office asking for a Bible teacher, asking for a pastor, asking for a preacher and teacher.\u00a0 We got more calls coming in, we\u2019ve got such a demand coming in, we only have students to meet the demand.\u00a0 Pray that the Lord would touch the hearts of those that He wants to be pastors and teachers, that are given that spiritual gift.\u00a0 Pray that God will raise up people like that because this country is lost if that need isn\u2019t filled.\u00a0 I don\u2019t care who wins the next election, if you don\u2019t have preachers and teachers, you don\u2019t have pastors that are biblical you are lost as a church, you are lost as a country, you are lost as a culture.\u00a0 The plumb line of truth has been severed.\n\nSo Christ is holding these stars, or angels, or pastors in His right hand and you\u2019ll notice what He\u2019s doing?\u00a0 He\u2019s walking among the seven golden lampstands.\u00a0 What are the seven golden lampstands?\u00a0 Don\u2019t rely on\u00a0 your sanctified imagination, just back up to the end of chapter 1.\u00a0 The seven lamp\u00adstands are the seven churches.\u00a0 Which churches?\u00a0 The seven that are being selected here in Asia Minor.\n\nNotice that Jesus, how aware He is of what is happening in His church.\u00a0 He\u2019s walking in the midst of them as He\u2019s portrayed here.\u00a0 And why wouldn\u2019t He, He\u2019s the head of the church!\u00a0 He\u2019s the groom of the church.\u00a0 He\u2019s the builder of the church.\u00a0 And He is the One who has purchased the church with His own blood.\u00a0\u00a0 Your elders never did that for you.\u00a0 Neither did your pastor.\u00a0 Neither did your favorite Christian celebrity.\u00a0 It\u2019s Christ and His blood that made the church the body of Christ, the work of the church even possible.\n\nAnd you\u2019ll notice that He moves on from the description of Himself to words of commendation, what they\u2019re doing right, verses 2-3, and then also in verse 6.\u00a0 And He says to the church at Ephesus there are four things that are happening in your midst that are great. Thumbs up, keep up the good work, a pat on the back.\u00a0\u00a0 The first is their deeds, notice, if you will, verse 2, \u201cI know,\u201d we could camp on that, couldn\u2019t we?\u00a0 Jesus as He walks amongst the seven churches and holds these pastors in His right hand, knows exactly what\u2019s going on in every church and in every life.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s called the omniscience of God.\u00a0 He sees right through the veneer.\u00a0 It reminds me of John 2:23-25 when many people were coming to believe in Jesus but it says there, [23] \u201cNow when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing.] But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, [25] and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.\u201d\n\nAll those that were trusting in Christ, Christ wouldn\u2019t entrust Himself back necessarily to everybody.\u00a0 He only poured treasure into those that He could trust to handle that treasure correctly.\u00a0 How can He do that?\u00a0 Because He knew what\u2019s in people\u2019s hearts.\u00a0 He knows what\u2019s in man.\u00a0\u00a0 You know, this business where we think that somehow we\u2019re pulling the wool over God\u2019s eyes,\u00a0 fooling God, playing church, playing Christianity.\u00a0 What kind of insanity is this?\u00a0 What incomprehensible stupidity to think that, given an omniscient God whose eyes are like a fire, He can see directly into people\u2019s hearts, directly into Sugar Land Bible Church, directly into the leadership here, I know.\n\nBut there are some things that are very commendable, number one, your deeds,\u00a0 \u201cI know your deeds and your toil and your perseverance.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 2:2, \u201cI know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be<\/em> false;\u201d]\u00a0 He commends them for their deeds.\u00a0 Why wouldn\u2019t He do that?\u00a0 We\u2019re saved, not by works,\u00a0 Ephesians 2:8-9.\u00a0 [Ephesians 2:8-9, \u201cFor by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is<\/em> the gift of God; [9] not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.\u201d]\n\nBut have you read verse 10?\u00a0 We\u2019re not saved by good works but we\u2019re saved unto good works.\u00a0 [Ephesians 2:10, \u201cFor we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.\u201d]\u00a0 The design of God when a person trusts in Christ for salvation is that God Himself might express Himself through that person to reach a lost and dying world.\u00a0 You know, we\u2019re so clear on salvation by faith alone that we give the people the impression that good works are somehow bad.\u00a0 Good works on the front side of salvation won\u2019t get you anywhere with God, but how the Lord desires to create good works through His people.\n\nThe Book of James, chapter 2 and verse 26 says, \u201cFor just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.\u201d\u00a0 And I don\u2019t believe that means here your faith doesn\u2019t exist and you\u2019re not going to heaven; I think what it means here is faith without works is dead, faith without works is worthless in terms of God using you strategically to reach others.\u00a0 Oh, you might have your fire insurance paid up and you\u2019re going to heaven and praise the Lord for that but there\u2019s so much more that God has for our lives.\u00a0 And so He commends them for their deeds.\n\nNow look at what it says here in verse 2, \u201cyour toil and your perseverance,\u201d more on perseverance later but notice this word \u201ctoil.\u201d\u00a0 Over in Luke 5:5 the same root of that word is used as a very where it says, \u201cSimon answered and said Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing.\u201d\u00a0 Think of these people toiling away for the cause of Christ, being compared to working all night, going without sleep, going with deprivation, and so the Lord\u00a0 commends them for their work.\n\nHe also commends them for their discernment and that\u2019s why we titled this message The Death of Discernment.\u00a0 Notice what he says: I know your deeds, I know your toil, I know you perseverance, look at this, end of verse 2, \u201cand that you cannot tolerate evil men, you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be<\/em> false\u201d or you have found them to be liars.\u00a0 These people were not just workers for the cause of Christ; these folks at Ephesus were discerners.\u00a0 And how we need today discernment within the body of Christ.\n\nToday we\u2019re living in aa climate called post modernism where you have to be open to everything and certain of nothing.\u00a0\u00a0 In fact, if you want to be certain of something the only thing you can be certain of is your own uncertainty.\u00a0 And boy, let me tell you, I came out of the academic world.\u00a0 Let me tell you the kind of treatment you get within evangelical scholarship for standing on certainty.\u00a0 I mean, you\u2019re called every name in the book, narrow minded, closed minded, arrogant, prideful, you name it.\u00a0 And yet Jesus never criticized the folks at Ephesus for being discerners. He said look what you\u2019re doing right, that\u2019s what you\u2019re doing well.\u00a0 I wish I had time to read all the verses I have down here on discernment.\n\nBut jot down Deuteronomy 13:1-5, just this one possible verse where the nation was entering the promised land and Moses says when you come into the Promised Land there\u2019s going to be people in the Promised Land that are going to function as prophets and they\u2019re going to announce signs and wonders and those signs and wonders will even come to pass.\u00a0 But you are to NOT follow them.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because the Lord is testing you to see if you\u2019re going to test them, because this same crowd is going to say let\u2019s follow other gods.\n\n[Deuteronomy 13:1-5, \u201cIf a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, [2] and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, \u2018Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,\u2019 [3] you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. [4] You shall follow the LORD your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him. [5] But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has counseled rebellion against the LORD your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to seduce you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from among you.\u201d]\n\nAnd the moment they say that is the moment you know that they\u2019re not of God regardless of the miracle that just happened, because the devil can perform miracles.\u00a0 Our culture in our churches today are being conditioned to believe something is true if it\u2019s miraculous, if its experiential.\u00a0 Let me tell you something, the devil can give you all those experiences.\u00a0 Ask Mohammed about that someday\u2026 of course you won\u2019t be able to ask him about it because I would think he\u2019s in hell, but he had a manifestation from the angel Jibreel which he thought was Gabriel of the Bible that gave him the doctrines of Islam.\u00a0 Joseph Smith, same thing, had a visitation from the angel Moroni.\u00a0 You have experiences, I have experiences, I would scare you to death if I told\u00a0 you some of my experiences but they have no weight or authority if they\u2019re not in accord with the Word of God because God can\u2019t say something on Monday and contradict Himself on Tuesday, because God cannot lie.\u00a0 That\u2019s contrary to His nature.\n\nAnd this crowd in Ephesus could not tolerate certain teaching; there were people coming in with the title \u201capostle,\u201d wow!\u00a0 That\u2019s a pretty high title; I mean, not everybody who claims to speak for God is actually speaking for God.\u00a0 You put them to the test; you have examined them in light of what God has already revealed, and\u00a0 you found them to be liars; you pushed them out of your church and what does Jesus say to the church at Ephesus?\u00a0 Well, you all are so closeminded, you\u2019re so unloving1\u00a0 NO, thumbs up Ephesus!\u00a0 Thumbs up with deeds, thumbs up with discernment.\n\nMaybe I could sneak in one more; the third thing is their perseverance.\u00a0 You see that there at the end of verse 3, \u201cand\u00a0 you have perseverance and have endured for My name\u2019s sake and you have not grown weary.\u201d\u00a0 Perseverance, the word is hupomen\u0113<\/em>, it\u2019s the same word used back in verse 2.\u00a0 It\u2019s the same word that John himself mentions concerning his own trials on the Island of Patmos during the reign of Domitian.\u00a0 He calls himself a fellow partaker with these churches in perseverance.\u00a0 John was persevering, the folks at Ephesus were persevering. What does it mean to persevere?\u00a0 Hupomen\u0113<\/em>, it\u2019s a capacity to bear up under difficult circumstances.\n\nAnybody can whistle the Christian tune when everything is working out well in their life, but what about when you get the layoff notice, the negative doctor\u2019s report, a relational conflict?\u00a0 The work of the Spirit in our lives is such that God desires through the Spirit to create in us hupomen\u0113<\/em>, perseverance in the midst of difficulty.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll notice that their motive was right.\u00a0 A lot of people out there are doing the right thing but with the wrong motive.\u00a0 Not these folks.\u00a0 They weren\u2019t doing it to win a popularity contest; they weren\u2019t doing it to get a pat on the back; they were doing these things \u201cfor My name\u2019s sake.\u201d\n\nAnd guess what?\u00a0 They hadn\u2019t grown weary.\u00a0 What does the Book of Galatians say, chapter 6 and verse 9?\u00a0 \u201cLet us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.\u201d\u00a0 You know why some of us never really enter the blessing of God?\u00a0 Because we gave up too soon.\u00a0 We quit in our ministry, we quit in our marriage, we quit on our business idea, and we\u2019re so close to entering the Promised Land and yet the fatigue kicks in and we just don\u2019t follow through on what God has called us to do.\u00a0 And we\u2019re just like the Israelites eleven days from Canaan and yet we miss the blessings of Canaan because we just gave up on God.\n\nThese folks at Ephesus hadn\u2019t done that; they had not let the fatigue, I think it was the famous football coach, \u201cfatigue makes cowards of us all.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 [attributed to Vince Lombardi]\u00a0\u00a0 And they had not let fatigue short-circuit their work in God.\u00a0 Is that my life?\u00a0 Is that your life?\u00a0 And so they\u2019re commended for it.\n\nThe fourth thing that they\u2019re commended for, which we\u2019ll get to next week is their holy hatred.\u00a0 You mean God gives Christians permission to hate certain things?\u00a0 That\u2019s a strong word, hate!\u00a0 Yes, you as a Christian have permission, not to hate people but certain things which are destructive to people called sins.\u00a0 And this church had so much going for it.\u00a0\u00a0 You say well, what went wrong?\u00a0 Where did it get derailed?\u00a0 And you\u2019re going to find your answer there in verses 4 and 5.\n\nI think in our success syndrome we\u2019ve misanalysed everything. I think man would look at the church at Ephesus and see success all over it.\u00a0 And there were some great things happening but something went wrong and the Lord wasn\u2019t looking at things as man does.\u00a0 Man, Samuel 16:7, looks at the outer appearance. [1 Samuel 16:7, \u201cBut the LORD said to Samuel, \"Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.\u201d] \u00a0\u00a0The Lord looks where?\u00a0 At the heart.\u00a0 There was a heart problem here in Ephesus.\u00a0 And what does it relate to?\u00a0 Activity for God had replaced intimacy with God; doing had replaced being.\u00a0 And that situation in the Lord\u2019s eyes was serious enough where He shut the whole church down.\u00a0 So let\u2019s be very careful about what we mean by success.\u00a0 We think about success completely in external terms; the Lord, who knows everything, as the proper doctor and physician and surgeon gets right to the heart of the matter.\u00a0\u00a0 So we\u2019ll continue studying the church at Ephesus next week.\n\nYou could be here today and you may not know Christ personally; these teachings may be somewhat strange to you and the reason they\u2019re strange is you don\u2019t have the Holy Spirit inside of you who is your ultimate interpreter of God\u2019s Word.\u00a0 Before I became a Christian I tried reading the Bible; it was like reading an Encyclopedia Britannica, it made no sense to me, it was dry.\u00a0 But isn\u2019t it interesting that when the Spirit of God quickens you\u00a0 because He\u2019s inside of you suddenly the pages of God\u2019s Word start making sense and that\u2019s because someone greater than yourself has taken residence inside of\u00a0 you.\u00a0 That\u2019s what we need.\u00a0 We don\u2019t need another religious self-help course, we don\u2019t need to be told to try harder.\u00a0 What we need is the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 What we need is the new birth.\u00a0 And you can receive that new birth right now by trusting in Christ and Christ alone for salvation.\n\nYou say well, there\u2019s got to be more to it than that.\u00a0 That\u2019s all there is!\u00a0 Sola fide, faith by itself, you come\u00a0 under the conviction of the Spirit,\u00a0 you hear the gospel and you trust in what Christ did for you and in a nanosecond you\u2019re born spiritually.\u00a0 Now the Holy Spirit is inside of you.\u00a0 I can\u2019t think of a more important decision to make than that one because that one is heaven or hell.\u00a0 That one is a relationship with God or no relationship with God.\u00a0 And so if the Spirit is at work and you\u2019re listening even online or by computer you can trust in Christ and Christ alone for salvation here at Sugar Land Bible Church, you can do that right where you\u2019re seated, you don\u2019t have to raise a hand, join the church, give money, sign a card.\u00a0 It\u2019s a matter of privacy between you and the Lord where you understand the gospel and you trust in it and you receive that new life in Christ.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something that you need more explanation on I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\n\nShall we pray.\u00a0 Father, we are grateful for what You have disclosed here in terms of these seven letters to these seven churches, particularly as we\u2019re beginning to look at the first letter to Ephesus.\u00a0 I pray, Father, that we would not just be going through the Book of Revelation here at Sugar Land Bible Church but the Book of Revelation will be going through us.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026\u00a0 Amen!","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t