(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

There are people around the world who wish that they could have a service like this, but because of the oppression of men and rulers, dear God, it's not allowed. But thanks be to God, here we are tonight, Father, and you're here in the midst of us. I just pray that you would use this service for your honor and glory. And in Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Now a couple of weeks ago I preached a sermon, two weeks ago to be exact, on the Book of Revelation, where I gave just an overview of the entire Book of Revelation, and we went through and saw the whole thing unfold. And last Sunday night, of course, was a totally different sermon, but tonight is going to fill in a little bit of the gaps, maybe, where we left off, and namely chapters two and three is where I wanted to spend a lot of time this evening, and preach through these chapters and go a little further in the Book of Revelation, almost more like a Bible study than a typical Sunday night sermon, but a little bit of a sermon, nonetheless. If you would, I want to show you a few things in chapter one, and then we'll get right into this. Look at chapter one, verse number three. The Bible says, Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy keep those things which are written therein, for the time is at hand. See, this book is a book about things that are at hand, things that are coming soon. This is not about something that's far off. If you read in the Book of Daniel, chapter 12, at the end of the Book of Daniel, Daniel has just finished relaying a prophecy about Jesus Christ coming and things of that nature, but then he goes into some of the last days and some of the things that are covered in Revelation. At the end of the book, it says, Seal up the words of this prophecy, because he says, for the time is not yet. It's going to be a long ways off, but you see the contrast here in Revelation, chapter one, he says, the time is at hand. We need to hear what's said in this Book of Revelation. Look if you would to verse number nine. It's just a little foundation before we get into chapter two. The Bible reads here, I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ was in the isle that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. So here we see a theme of the book, John enduring tribulation. John, in verse nine, is being persecuted. He's suffering tribulation for his faith in Jesus Christ, for the words of his mouth preaching the gospel. Then he's being punished by being exiled to this isle of Patmos, and this is where he sees the vision of the Book of Revelation. And then if you would, look at verse number 19, and this is just a little bit of ground work before we get into the sermon. Verse number 19, the Bible reads, write the things which thou hast seen, this is Jesus Christ speaking to John, we went through all this last week, but write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter. The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches. Now in chapters two and three, Jesus Christ has a message for these seven churches. Now this book, Revelation, is about the last days, it's about the end times, it's about the things that are about to happen that are going to fulfill all the prophecies of the Bible, the word of God, the end of the world, and so forth. And here he gives a message to these seven churches. Now I find this interesting because throughout the New Testament we'll see many letters to churches of much longer length. You know, you'll see the book of Romans is written to Christians at Rome, the book of Corinthians, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, written to the church at Corinth. There's even a book of Ephesians written to the church at Ephesus, one of the churches addressed here, Ephesians has six chapters of information that Jesus is telling this church. But the interesting thing about these particular seven messages is because they're placed in this context of the book of Revelation, because they're placed in the context of what we need to hear because these things are at hand, I think that these seven messages are very much applicable to what we see going on today. I think Jesus Christ's analysis of these seven churches could very well be applied to churches today all across America, and it could be applied to Christianity as we know it right now, because this is a message that's sent to those of us that are in the last days, to these seven churches. Now look in verse number 20, you'll notice the Bible says here, he's going to explain to us a little bit what some of the symbolism means here, he says, the son of man standing among some candlesticks, those candlesticks, he wants to tell you, those are churches. Those are local New Testament, independent Baptist churches, and so Jesus Christ is standing among these local churches, then you'll see the stars are mentioned, or the angels of the seven churches, now the word angel in the Bible is meaning a messenger, it's probably talking about the pastor of the church is what I would venture to guess here because some of the things that he mentions to this angel of the church, it sounds like it's being directed to the pastor, it's the man who preaches the message to these people that preaches the word of God to them. Now look if you would at the first church here, Ephesus, verse number 1 of chapter 2, the Bible reads here, unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, these things sayeth thee that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil, and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them liars, and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Eaten hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Now here's a church that you'll notice is very straight down the line doctrinally. He says, you know what you believe, he says, you've stayed firm on the things of God. He said, people lied to you that come in apostles that are so called claiming to be apostles. The people have come in and lied and brought in false doctrine. The Nicolaitans have come in and brought in their heresy, and he says, boy, you know how to call a spade a spade. You know how to tell these people that they're wrong, you know how to straighten them out. He says, I see how hard you work. It says in verse number, let's see, verse number three, he says, you've labored, you've not fainted. He said, you've exposed those that were wrong. You have fought for right doctrine, you are straight down the line. But he says, there's one thing that you've left out, he says, you've lost your first love. You say, what does that mean? Of course, every preacher that I've ever heard has their own opinion of what that is, but I'll tell you what it is. If you go down, look at the remedy for the first love. It says in verse number five, remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works. You see, the problem was not necessarily just a love problem. The problem was a work problem because he said, you've lost your first love. Here's how you solve the love problem. Here's how you get the love back. You need to do the first works. Well, what are the first works? Well, I seem to remember Jesus Christ raising from the dead, showing himself to his disciples and giving one great command, go ye therefore into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. See, that's the first works. Look at Andrew in John chapter one. In John chapter one, and I'll just relay this to you, but Jesus calls Andrew, and what does Andrew do? Once Andrew gets saved, once Andrew looks and says, this is the Messiah, this is Christ, he findeth first his brother Simon. The first thing he does after he gets saved is he goes and gets somebody else saved. Look at the woman at the well in John chapter four. The first thing that she does after she gets saved, she goes into the city and gets all her old buddies together and tells them about Jesus Christ. You see, the first work, the first love is the love that compels us to bring the gospel to a dying, lost world. You see, it doesn't matter if all our doctrine's straight. It doesn't matter whether we have the King James Bible and we know everything that we believe. Yeah, that's very important, but how much is it going to matter if we're not bringing the gospel to the lost world? How much is it going to matter if we sit around and stare at our Bible and we could just be so thrilled that we have all our doctrine right, and I'm glad that we have our doctrine right, and we're so thrilled that we have the King James Bible. Praise the Lord, we have the King James Bible. But let me tell you something. If we don't take this book and go out and be a soul winner and win people to Christ and bring in the converts and get them baptized and teach them to observe all things whatsoever Jesus Christ has commanded us, then we have lost our first love. And you say, well, what should we do? How are we going to get our love back? But you see, a church that doesn't go soul winning, a church that doesn't win people to Christ, doesn't have any love. That's why they let the world go to hell. That's why they sit back and let lost loved ones go to hell, friends go to hell, and they sit there and go to church and they have their fun little social club, but they don't have the love that's compelling them to take that gospel to somebody else and get somebody else saved, get somebody else born again, get somebody else in the things of God. How are we going to get the love back? Well, the way for someone who's not a soul winner to get that love is by doing the work. You see, I remember when I first started going soul winning, when I first started knocking doors and just talking to men, and even before I started knocking doors, just talking to people that I knew and trying to win them to Christ, it wasn't something that I wanted to do. It was something that I had to force myself to do for a long time, it was a chore. But once you do the first works, that's when the love is kindled. And if you're waiting for some feeling of love to come over you before you will care about your fellow man, it's not going to happen until you begin to serve your fellow man, until you begin to preach the gospel, then God will give you that burden for soul winning, where you love souls. You say, boy, I just don't have a burden, I just don't really seem to care whether people are saved or unsaved. Well, get out of soul winning and you'll start to care. Go out there and start preaching the gospel and you'll begin to care whether people go to heaven or hell when they die. You don't care. When you do the first works, you'll get the first love. And so the first church here that we see in Ephesus is a non-soul winning church. A church that is right doctrinally, but they're not doing the first works. They're busy with everything else, they're busy with all their little leagues and cookouts and everything like that, but they've forgotten the first love is the love that drew salvation's plan. Oh, the grace that brought it down the man at Calvary is a song we just sang and the love is the love that Jesus Christ had when he said, the shepherd loveth the sheep and he gave his life for them. You see, the love of Jesus Christ was evidence in the fact that he died on the cross so that they could go to heaven. And how we're going to share the love of Christ is when we give that message to the unsaved world and they receive Christ as savior and they go to heaven and they experience God's love by accepting Christ as savior and being saved. See, that's the love. The love is what compelled Jesus for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. And so it's our job to take that love to them and get them saved, those that are not saved, the lost. And so the first church that we see, and boy, isn't this evidenced in these last days that we're living in, churches that have nothing to do with soul winning, churches that they say, we believe the King James Bible is the word of God, we're against the tongues movement, we're against the rock music, we're against the Charismatics, we're against worldliness, but then you say, you look at their little service times and everything and there's no soul winning, no kind of bus ministry or no kind of outreach or preaching the gospel. Their ministries is the music ministry, the youth ministry, the sports ministry, nothing to win the loss. And you'll see this, it's a dime a dozen. In this city right here, find it everywhere. Go down the list in the phone book, Independent Baptist, because I did, because I was here on business before I moved here, and I went down the list and there were some great churches around here, don't get me wrong, several great churches. But most of the ones in the Independent Baptist column I went down, no soul winning. I said, you guys go door to door soul winning? They said no. They said, no, we don't do that. Do you guys, what do you guys, nothing. But they have, they got all their doctrine right, they got all their T's crossed and their I's dotted. Well, let me show you something about this non-soul winning church. Remember in verse number 20 of the previous chapter, we saw that the candlestick represented these churches. He said he walks among these seven candlesticks, which represents seven churches. Well, look if you would at verse number four of chapter two, nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love. Therefore, from whence thou art fallen, then repent and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, watch what he's going to do, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. He says, look, this candlestick represents your light, I mean a candlestick puts out light. It's just like we learned about a couple weeks ago in Matthew chapter five where he said, you know, no man lighted a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. It lets your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. The candlestick represents the light of the glorious gospel, the lighthouse of this church that's reaching the people of the gospel that Jesus Christ recognizes. And he says, I'm holding the star, the angel, the pastor in my hand. He said, I'm walking up and down in the midst of it, he says, I'm there. I recognize these seven churches, he said, in Asia, and it's not the modern continent of Asia. If you study your Bible, it's talking about Asia Minor, it's talking about the peninsula of Turkey, modern day. He says, I recognize in this area, I'm sure there are a lot of churches, but he said, I recognize these seven churches. These are the seven churches that I recognize as scriptural right churches. These are the seven. And he says, look, if you don't straighten this out, he says, if you don't get this soul winning thing right, if you don't get back to the first works, he said, I'm going to remove your candlestick out of this place. He says, you're not even going to be, I'm not even going to consider you a church. He said, I don't know if he means that their church is going to be gone, or if just, he's not going to recognize it as a real church, it's just a social club, it's a gathering place. Reminded me of a story that I heard, and I love this story. Everybody knows Kentucky Fried Chicken, do they have Kentucky Fried Chicken where you're from? Oh yes. That's probably where it was invented, right? About 100 miles away. Yeah, about 100 miles away. So, Kentucky Fried Chicken. Well, there was a Kentucky Fried Chicken in California, and this Kentucky Fried Chicken had a big giant sign with the Colonel, you know, the actual cut out of the Colonel. And he was up on this big Kentucky Fried Chicken sign. And one day there was a crane, okay, and the crane was lifting the Colonel's head off of this sign. And my pastor back there in Sacramento, he asked the people, he said, what's going on? Why are they removing the Colonel from this restaurant? And they said, well, here's what happened. This franchise, this particular franchise, began to offer some things that were not on the menu of the normal Kentucky Fried Chicken menu, and they started taking a little bit of liberties with the Colonel's special recipe, or whatever the case may be, and they said, they've changed, they're not what Colonel Sanders intended, or they're not what every other, you know, you expect to drive down the road, and I do a lot of traveling, I'm gone from Sunday night after Sunday night until right before Wednesday night, I'm gone. I'm all over California, Nevada, Arizona for business, gone. And so, boy, if I pull into Kentucky Fried Chicken, I expect to know what I'm getting, right? Because if I see, like, Ma Pa's Chicken Shack, you know, it might be good, I don't know. But if I see Colonel Sanders, Kentucky Fried Chicken, I at least know what I'm getting into. And so, they said, look, these all have to be what's on the menu. And he said, because they violated that, the Colonel is coming down, they've lost the franchise. Well, I submit to you today, this is what he's talking about, he says, I'm going to remove, not the Colonel, I'm going to remove the candlestick from your church, because, you see, you've lost the franchise. You say, wait a minute, we believe the Bible? No! Jesus said, I didn't start a social club, I didn't die on the cross, so you could get together and have your little Bible study. He said, I died on the cross, so you could win the world to Christ! And he said, if you're not going to offer that on your menu, then he said, the Colonel's coming down, Ephesus. Listen, Ephesus, your candlestick is gone, because you're not offering my special recipe, which is go ye therefore into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. You're not offering my extra crispy daily in the temple and in every house they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. You're not offering my boneless, skinless house to house publicly preaching the gospel. He says, the Colonel's coming down. And you see, this is a serious problem that this church at Ephesus had. And, boy, so indicative of many churches in this day that we're living in. It's one of the reasons why we know we're in the last days, because we see this. Well, number two, that was the first church, Ephesus. Number two, we see a church in Smyrna. Let's begin reading in verse number eight. The Bible says, and unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write, These things saith the first and the last, which was dead and is alive. I know thy works and tribulation. See, that's the second time the word is used in the book of Revelation. And poverty, but thou art rich. And I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison that you may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. He that overcometh shall not be heard of the second death. Here we see a church. God doesn't have anything negative to say about this church. He says this is a church that's being greatly persecuted, that's enduring great persecution and tribulation for the things of God. He says this church is a church where the devil is attacking them, and some of them are even being cast into prison. He says the devil shall cast some of you into prison. He says he's trying you. God is allowing this to happen so that you can be tested and tried for ten days in this case, and he says be thou faithful. Let me make sure I'm in the right one here. He says be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. And then a little earlier he said fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. You see, this is a church that is being persecuted. Now this again is indicative of the day that we're living in and of the last days. Now we're not maybe seeing this as much right now, but we're going to be seeing this more and more because as soon as you get rid of the Bible, as we preached on this morning about the Bible, but as soon as you get rid of the Bible, as soon as you get rid of the things of God like we're doing in this country, the Bible says where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. And as soon as the Spirit of the Lord is kicked out of the schools, it's kicked out of our country, it's kicked out of our halls of justice in this country, well the Spirit of the Lord is departed. And what's going to happen? Liberty is going to depart. And we're already seeing it around us. I mentioned this morning about in Canada, our liberal neighbor to the north, in Canada it's already against the law to read the Bible about homosexuality, just to read the portions of scripture that deal with the homos. You cannot read that in the pulpit or else it's considered hate speech. And two men that I know of have gone to jail, I mean independent Baptist preachers, because they preached against the Sodomites, they preached against the queers in their pulpit, and I think one of them was on the radio was one of the reasons why, and he preached against it, and they put him in jail because they were taking away his right to exercise his religion, and they were taking away his right to preach the Gospel, and to preach the Bible, and to preach the whole counsel of God. You see, that could happen in America sometime soon, and not just on the front of homosexuality, but just in many levels. We may face, and we will face eventually, a time when persecution comes upon us as God's people. The Bible says, Yea, and all, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. You see, if you want to be some namby-pamby, middle of the road, liberal, soft kind of a Christian that doesn't really stand for anything, doesn't really believe anything, well, maybe you're not going to endure any persecution, but the Bible says, Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Jesus said, Look, they called the master of the house Beelzebub. What are they going to call you? He says, They hated me. He says, Are you better than me? He says, Is a servant greater than his Lord? He said, If they hated me, they're going to hate you. And so, yes, persecution comes to God's people. Let's face it. And we need to be ready for this, and we need to take the admonishment here, fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. You see, we're not to live a life that's characterized by fear. The Bible says, There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. You see, fear is not from God. One thing that I've studied in the Bible, and looked through every time the word fear was mentioned, it's always negative, unless you're fearing God. You can go through the whole thing. Every time fear is mentioned, it's not of God, it's wrong, and then you get to where it talks about fearing God. That's always a positive thing. The Bible says, God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. And you see, we are not to fear the things that we suffer. You say, Well, what if they make it against the law to spank your kids? Can you stop spanking your kids? No. Because I'm not going to fear the things that I might have to suffer. I'm not going to fear what the people in this world will persecute me for obeying this book. I'm going to obey this book. I'm going to be faithful unto death, and God will give me a crown of life. I will not stop spanking my kids until doomsday, because my kids are more important to me than my well-being. And I love my kids, and so I will spank and discipline my kids. I don't care that they're going to have to send over that short-haired woman from the CPS. She's going to have to come over to my house, and we'll see what happens. And hey, if they take away my kids, I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen, but I don't care what's going to happen, because it's not my job to worry about the end result. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Just do what God said to do, and God says, I'll reward you for it. I'll take care of you. The Bible says the Lord knows how to deliver the righteous out of persecution or what have you. And so God's admonishment here to this persecuted church, and this is what we're going to see in the near future, even in the United States of America. God forbid, but it's going to happen. And he says, don't worry about it. He says, don't be afraid of what's going to happen. He says, just be faithful. Just hang in there. And he says, I'm trying you and testing you, and this is going to be a testimony to the world, the things that you suffer. And so don't shy away from suffering. Don't shy away from being persecuted. God doesn't criticize these people at all. He doesn't say, hey, look, tone it down a little, okay? They're going to start putting you in prison. Can you just preach on the love of God for a while? Hey, preach the Bible, but can you just tone it down? He says, no, no. Don't fear any of it. Don't worry about it. He says, just hold fast. Just keep doing what you're doing. Keep preaching. Don't let them intimidate you. Don't let them scare you. Don't let the devil, the fear monger who's always trying to scare you, and he's like this roaring lion trying to intimidate you, don't let that scare you. Just get up and preach. Come on, angel of the church of Smyrna. Get up and let it rip, and preach on the queers, and preach on sin, and preach on what's right, because he said, don't be afraid at all. He said, just keep on preaching straight. Preach it right. Well, that's the second church that we saw. Smyrna, a persecuted church. Then we see number three, Pergamos. Look, if you would, at verse number 12. The Bible says, and to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, These things saith he which hath a sharp sword with two edges, I know thy works where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is, and thou holdest fast my name, and it's not denied my faith, even in those days where an Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you where Satan dwelt. But I have a few things against thee. So this is a church that's enduring a little bit of persecution also, but look, it says, but I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed unto idols and to commit fornication. Now, let me give you a word of explanation, because this is referring us to a story in the Old Testament about a man named Balaam in Numbers 20, 21, 22 there, and you don't have to turn there, but let me just tell you the story, and you can read about this a little more in the book of Psalms, in the book of Jude, in the book of 2 Peter. This man Balaam is referred to in detail. What he was was a man who got the children of Israel to intermingle with the heathen. That's what he did. He got them to fornicate with them. He got them to act like them, to dress like them, to talk like them, to mix in with them, and so Balaam in the Bible is a sign of worldliness. Balaam represents worldliness where the people of God are taught by the world how to act and how to be and so they can mix and fit right in, and Balaam caused this stumbling block where the people of God were intermingled with the heathen, and this is what the Bible says in Psalm 106, I believe it is, 106.5, it says, they were mingled among the heathen and learned their works and served their idols. That was the step. At first, they started hanging around with them. Second thing, they learned their works. Next thing you know, they're worshiping the same idols that the heathen were worshiping. So this third church, the first one we saw was the non-soul-willing church. Boy, they're everywhere, everywhere. Number two, we saw, and by the way, I don't think that I'm talking about some Presbyterian church or some Catholic church or some Methodist. Obviously, we're talking about churches that even had a candlestick in the first place. We're talking about churches that preached the Gospel, just so that you understand that these seven churches are all legitimate churches. We're not talking about the charismatics or something like that. And so we saw the non-soul-willing church. Number two, we saw the very persecuted church, the church that was just under the gun, just being attacked. And this isn't really persecution, but we got kicked out of one of our nursing home ministries last weekend. And not kicked out on the spot or anything, but what happened is I preach in two nursing homes in the afternoons. And boy, I have a very faithful crowd that comes at these nursing homes, especially at this first one. And people who just love the preaching, they love the music, and they're old-time Baptists. One of them, her father was a preacher, and boy, they come, they sing out the songs, and so we have a real faithful crowd of about, I'd say about ten of just the diehards, but we always have at least about twenty-some in the service. But ten of them are just always there, and they say, please don't stop coming. We love this service. They said, if it wasn't for you guys, we would not have church. Because there's some other non-denominational Pentecostal service that comes in an hour later, and they don't want anything to do with that, the rock music and the false gospel and everything like that. And they say, please don't stop coming. We get a lot out of this. This is important to us. You're going to be back next week, right? Well, I don't go in there and tiptoe through the two looks. I preach, and I'll be honest with you, I don't preach as hard as I preach here. But I go there and I preach. I preach a real sermon. I don't preach some little candy-coated little message. And I go there and I preach the gospel, and I preach all kinds of preaching. And what happened? The activities director's wife came one day, and she didn't like what I was preaching. She didn't like that I preached against the homosexuals. And then one of the staff members didn't like some of the things that I said, because I was just so preaching that just Jesus is the only way to heaven, and it's just by grace through faith. It's not work, salvation. And so they said, you can't come back anymore. They kicked me out. They called me up. They don't have the guts to tell you this kind of stuff in person. But they called me up and said, you can't come back. They said, we don't want you here anymore. They said, thanks for being here, but you cannot come here because your preaching is too controversial. Well, I'm thinking to myself, you've got some Catholic in a dress showing up three hours before me, cross-dressed in my mind. He's showing up in a dress. He's telling people to eat flesh and drink blood. He's a weirdo. And that guy's okay. Now, let me ask you, do you think everybody in that nursing home agrees with him? No. There are people there that I'm sure are very against the Catholic Church. And you think everybody agrees with the charismatics that come in after me? Probably not. But there's just something where they can put up with the guy in the dress and they can put up with the strumming the guitars, kumbaya crowd, but they just cannot put up with an old-fashioned Baptist kind of preacher. And so they say, no, we can't have you here. Well, I don't think it's right because there are people who are faithfully coming to my service and that's what kind of church they want. And they pay 4,000 bucks a month to be in that place and they want this kind of church. They want a Baptist preacher. And so I'm going to pray about that because I'm going to talk to the people that are there, the faithful members, and I'm going to talk to the people that are higher than they and get something done and get us back in there. You say, why do you want to be back in there? Well, because if I was an old man somewhere right now, if I was 80 years old, some nursing home, well, I would love to have somebody bring church to me and come and love me and preach to me and sing the songs that I want to sing with me. And so I just feel bad for those people and I'm not going to just let them waver. But you know what? If that's the way it is, then that's the way it is because we're not going to change what we are. But, man, I hope to God that we can get back in there just because we want to love these people and minister to them. So pray about that. But not persecution, but just an example of the world hating us, the world hating a preacher who preaches the Bible and preaches what's right. And the vast majority loved it, but it's just a few people who just will do anything they can to stop this book from being preached openly, publicly, in a nursing home and so forth. But look if you would, I love this verse. So this is a worldly church. But look if you would at verse number 17. I have just a few verses throughout the Bible that are very dear to me. I don't know, some people say they have a life verse. I've heard preachers say they have a life verse and sometimes they'll always, when they sign a letter, they'll always put that life verse at the bottom of the letter. And it's just kind of a verse they like. Well, you know, I have a few verses like that. I have several verses like that that are just very dear to me, verses that I meditate on often. And this is one of them. This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. And I love this part where it says, To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna. That's the main part that I want to show you about this verse, Revelation 2.17. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna. You say, what's that talking about? Well, look at the subject we're dealing with. We're dealing with worldliness. We're dealing with a church that's worldly. It's not separated from the world. They're probably starting to bring in the rock music. They probably started, you know, the boys probably started growing their hair kind of long and shaggy like the style is right now. I've noticed just recently the shaggy hair is just really coming back on men and boys, especially teenagers. And they were probably starting to grow their hair kind of shaggy and they probably started putting on the jewelry and they probably started just going the way of the world, the way of getting up and seeing the contemporary music and my pastor back home in California called it the bedroom voice where these people get up and sing special music and they just get real personal with their voice. And they just sing Jesus You know that real breathy, kind of breathing, sensual voice, just like the world has, just like we could get in the car right now and go to Las Vegas, be there in about five and a half hours and we could get out of the car and go into one of these casinos and we could hear the breathy, sensual, kind of worldly, lounge singer kind of voice. I want to go to church and hear that. It's worldly garbage. And so we're sitting here, a worldly church, a church that everybody, it's got a television in the church and they go home and they watch all the world's garbage and they let the world spoon feed them what to believe and they get to watch all the primetime shows with all the fornication and lasciviousness and ungodliness and just fill their mind, not filled with the Spirit, not the Word of Christ abiding in you richly with all wisdom, but Jerry Seinfeld abiding in you and Friends abiding in you and other shows that are more recent that I don't know. These shows have probably been canceled a long time ago. I don't know. But anyway, the point is, this is a worldly church. And boy, do we see that in today's day. See how applicable? And you say, well, yeah, the whole New Testament is very applicable, but it's all about these seven. These seven just are really right where we live in these last days in the book of Revelation here. Well, back to the verse that I was telling you about, verse number 17. It says, To him that overcometh, overcometh what? Well, he's talking about worldliness. He's talking about people that are just not separated from the world. He says, To him that overcometh, will I give to eat of the hidden manna? You say, what's that mean? What's the hidden manna? Well, if you study your Bible, you'll find out that manna is a picture of the Bible. The Bible says in Deuteronomy chapter 8 that God, he said, I suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with manna, that thou mightest know that man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God doth man live. And he said that manna was a picture of you reading the Bible, of you living on God's Word. You say, why in the world would they have to, remember how they could not gather it up for several days? Remember they had to go out every morning? And you could learn a lot from this. They go out in the morning, and while it's still, before the heat of the day was on, they had to go gather that manna and eat it. And guess what? If they didn't get it, it's gone. If they didn't pick up the manna, whatever they didn't get, when the sun came up, it all melted and it was gone. And sometimes they would try to gather up extra so that they didn't have to get it the next day. And it's spoiled. It got worms. And he said, no, you must go out every day, in the morning, no less. He said, you must go out every day and get this manna. Great picture for us. We need to be getting the manna first thing in the morning every day. I mean, before we go out and get into everything else, before we do everything else, we need to go out and gather the manna daily. Because if we don't, we're going to miss what God had for us. It's going to be gone, never to return. And so we have to get what God has for us every morning. You say, but what's the hidden manna? Well, the hidden manna is maybe the thing that's just not right there on the surface that everybody sees. You know, I mean, there's so much in the Bible tonight. The Bible's such a deep book. The Bible's as infinite as God is. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. And so the Bible is so infinite. It's as infinite as the mind of God. And so, yes, there's so much great truth on the surface and you can read it and read it and read it. But do you want to go a little deeper and see the deep things of the Bible? I mean, do you want to have an understanding of the things of God, a deeper understanding of the more hidden manna? I mean, do you want to know God? Because to know this book is to know God. To know this book is to know the mind of Christ. To know this book, you say, oh, I just go out in the woods and I get to know God. Well, there's some truth in that, but the best way you're going to get to know God is in this book. Reading this book is how you commune with God. This is how you fellowship with God right here. And so you go out and you get the manna, yes. But God says, not until you're separated from the world, not until you overcome this doctrine of Balaam, not until you overcome your constant mingling in with the heathen, where the heathen entertains you, where the heathen is your rock music that you listen to, where the heathen is a television show that you watch, where the heathen is the theater that you go down and watch all the Hollywood garbage. He says, not until you overcome that are you going to get the hidden manna. You say, wait a minute. I thought the hidden manna was for that professor somewhere, in some university. And he sits in his office all day and he never goes soul winning and he just studies the Bible all day. And boy, he studies the commentaries and the history and he's so deep. That guy doesn't know the Bible his way out of a paper bag because he doesn't even know the first works. He doesn't even know the first thing. He's the guy that talks about in Hebrews chapter 5 when it says, when some of you ought to be teachers, you have need to one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and it becomes such as have need of milk and not of strong meat. He says, listen, Dr. Theologian, you don't need strong meat. You need the milk. You need the most simple command in the Bible. Go ye therefore into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That's what you need. You need to get back to Jesus on the cross. You need to get back to the death and burial and resurrection that Jesus said I came to seek and save. Now it's not, don't worry Mr. Theologian about the showbread and the table and the candlestick and the golden censer and the bales. You don't know anything about that. You don't even know how to go soul winning. You never even want anybody to cry. You're wasting your life. But I will say this, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that winneth souls is wise. You see, when somebody overcomes the worldliness and when somebody says, I'm going to be a soul winner, I'm going to win people to Christ, God giveth wisdom under the wise, the Bible says, and he says, he that winneth souls is wise. You see, the person who, back to Hebrews chapter 5, we're talking about, the day that you're become such sad meat of milk and not of strong meat, he says, for everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe, but strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use. You see that? He says, even who gets the strong meat, God? God, I want the strong meat. I want the hidden manna. He says, here's who it's for, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. He says, use the Bible, and that's how you're going to get the hidden manna. Separate from the world and use the Bible, and then you'll learn the Bible. Don't sit around and study the Bible. Now listen, I'm very much for studying the Bible, but not just studying the Bible. You got to understand what I'm saying. You got to study it and use it. Otherwise you'll become spiritually obese. If you just eat, man, this manna's good. Every day I'm just feasting on the manna. I'm feasting on the manna. He's like that song when I was a kid. But feasting on the manna until you're just this giant, overweight, welfare Christianity, you know, baby mama in the ghetto, who's just so full of the word of God that you're like drawing welfare from your church that you're going to who's actually doing something. And so yes, eat as much as you can and then just go out and work off as much as you can and then you're going to just be maximum efficiency for God. You got to burn the calories that you take in in this book or else you're not going to digest it properly. You need all these fat deposits all over you because of things that you learned that you don't even know what to do with them because you didn't use them. You see, if you overcome worldliness, God's going to give you the hidden manna. God's going to show you things from the Bible and then the Bible reading is going to be exciting because you're going to read it and it's going to make sense to you. I remember, there's so much I want to go into in this sermon because there's always time as the limiting factor but in Psalm 119, okay, one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, love it, all about the word of God, longest chapter in the Bible, 176 verses and every verse is just talking about God's word. And all the way through down there, and I love that verse where he says, that's slipping my mind, but he says, he says, I've, let me look it up, let me see here. Turn in the Bible. I don't want to misquote this because it's such a great verse. Let me just take the time to turn there real quick. It says right here, and this is the special portion that I love here about memorizing the Bible. It's the section called Mem, where it talks about meditating on God's word and remembering the Bible and understanding the Bible and it's all about memorizing the Bible if you say that and meditating on it. And it says, from every evil way that I might keep thy word. And we taught on this, we were going through the book of Hebrews about memorizing, but see what he's saying here is, he says, I got rid of the sin in my life. He says, I refrained my feet from the evil way to enable me to keep God's word. You see, you read that, you read that manna in the morning, you read that Bible and you got the world in your life. You know what happens? It goes in one ear and it goes out the other. You come to church and hear the preaching, it goes in one ear and out the other. But for some reason, when you separate from the world and clean up some of the filth in your life and refrain from some of the evil ways that our world is so notorious for, somehow you're just able to keep God's word. I mean, it comes in and it just stays there. And you hear it and it sticks with you and you learn in church, you learn something and you know it. I mean, you don't just forget it, it doesn't just go out of your mind. Because when you go home and you're on the idiot box, a lot of it just goes out the window. But see, if you can refrain from the evil way, if you can refrain from the world, you'll get the hidden manna and you'll be able to keep what you've got inside you. See, I don't want to be filled with the world. You can't be filled with the Holy Spirit and be filled with the world. And you remember, being filled with the Holy Spirit was equated, if you compare Ephesians 5.18 and Colossians 3.16 where the exact same statement is made. Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in songs and hymns and spiritual songs, and then let the word of Christ abide in you richly with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in songs and hymns and spiritual songs. You see, you've got to either be filled with this book or you're going to be filled with Jay Leno and you're going to be filled with The Late Show and you're going to be filled with Dan Rather or you're going to be filled with God's Word. You see, memorizing and filling yourself with the Word of God, you're going to be able to do that and you're going to be able to understand it and it's going to give you the hidden manna. You're going to see insights that you've never seen, only when you can clean out and make some room for that. You've got to make some room to fill your mind with the things of God. But anyway, I've got to move on from that quickly. Thyatira, the fourth church mentioned here. And boy, this is very indicative of the day that we're living in also. Let me turn back to Revelation. Thyatira, the Bible reads here in verse number... Let me find it here. Verse number 18. So this is a church that's working. It's a church that's getting the job done. Notice this is interesting. I just want to point this out. In verse 19 he mentions works and then at the end he mentions works and he says, and the last to be more than the first. It's almost like their works are just increasing. I mean they're constantly, they're pressing on the upward way, new heights they're gaining every day. And they're just increasing in their works. And it says here, let me find it here. Not withstanding, but here's the problem. Not withstanding, I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess. This is verse number 20. To teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication and she repented not. Behold I will cast her into a bed and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation except they repent of their deeds and I will kill her children with death. And all the churches shall know that I am he which searches the reigns and hearts and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. Here's a church where man they were getting it done. They were working hard. Things were happening. It was exciting. It was growing. But what was the problem? Perversion. Wicked sin in the church. Wicked fornication. Ungodliness in the church. Boy, how much do we see this in the day we're living? It's so sad to hear about different pasts. I heard about a pastor in California several months ago. Pastor of an independent Baptist church and he was indicted in California for some kind of a lewd behavior with a minor. And he admitted to the whole thing of child molestation. And you say, What in the world? And you hear about this stuff all the time now. It's commonplace. And it's not just the Catholics. You know, you'll hear about Baptists. And you'll hear about good churches. And I've seen it growing up in churches where it wasn't the pastor but where people in the church were perverts. Were weirdos. Were involved in sexual sin and so forth. And God is saying here, I can't bless this church because of the perverted, wicked sin that's going on here. It's a perverted church. Now, something else about these chapters and obviously I can't teach these whole chapters in one service. A lot of this, you know, I'm laying something out and then you go back and you can read it and see more clearly on your own Bible reading. But if you'll notice, Jesus addresses each of these seven churches. He identifies himself in a different way. He introduces himself in a different way. Notice if you would, verse number... Let me find it here. Verse number... I had it written down but it's on the wrong page or something. Here we go. Oh, it's at the beginning. That's why I had it written down. Okay. And under the angel of the church and Thy Tyra write, this is verse 18, these things saith the Son of God who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire and his feet are like fine breast. So when he's dealing with this church that has this immorality, fornication, perversion, wicked sin going on, and he identifies himself as having eyes with a flame of fire because he's mad. He's angry. And he says his feet are like fine brass because he says, you know what, this is enraging me that in the guise of Christianity among God's people that there would be this kind of filth and immorality that's not even so much as named among the Gentiles and the world. It isn't even this filthy and sinful. I've seen this growing up in Christian school and in churches, just this wicked kind of immorality that sometimes is hiding and God calls it here a little later, the depths of Satan is what these people are into in verse number 24. He says, you know what, I'm going to take my big brass boot and I'm going to look you in the eye with my fiery eyes. I'm so mad, I'm going to take my brass boot and just take you because I'm so sick and tired of this kind of wicked immorality going on. You see, if you're not separated in your personal life and when a church is preaching hard on sin, you say, why are you preaching so hard on sin, Pastor Anderson? Because you know what, somehow preaching hard on sin somehow just kind of keeps the perverts away, just kind of keeps the weirdos away. You're not going to believe this, the first Sunday that we had this church, December 25th in the evening service, there was a homosexual in the service. Okay, I mean the first Sunday night, because I'm preaching along, right? And I hit on the queers and he went like this. And so what did I do? And I just repeated the exact same statement again. And the whole rest of the service, he says. Like that. He didn't come back. I'm glad he didn't come back. I don't want him around my kids. Because I don't want that kind of a pervert around. Because I know that they're not reproducers, they're recruiters. And they recruit children. That's a fact. It's in the Bible, it's in the light, deal with it, it's the truth. And so God says here, I don't mess around with this stuff, I'm going to put my brass Buddha on, I'm going to come down with my fiery eyes, I'm going to take care of it. But if you go through all of these, notice how he identifies himself. You know, for example, we're going to get to this in a little bit, but actually we're not going to get to it, because we're out of time. In Laodicea, the final church, which is just a lukewarm church, a dead church, they're half in, half out. What was the remedy for them? Be zealous. Therefore, in repenting, you have no zeal, you have no fire, you have no excitement, you're not doing anything, you're liberal, you're lame, you're half in, half out. But what does he say to them? He says, Thus saith the Amen. That's what he calls himself. He says, when he identifies himself to Laodicea, in chapter 3 there, whatever it is, he says, Thus saith the Amen. He says, you know, you need some shouting, you need the Amen. You need the glory to God in your church, your church is so dead. And also, Amen is a term that's used where somebody will say something, like, for example, in the book of Deuteronomy, when they would proclaim these different curses on Mount Gerizim, and they would say, Curses be he that do his substance, and they're given God's laws, and all the people shall say, Amen. Amen means, Yes, I agree with that. I am with you. I stand there. I'm right on with you. That's why you'd be in church sometimes, and you're preaching, and a man will say, Amen. That's right. Well, he says, Look, you don't even know where you stand. He says, I'm the Amen. I say, Yes, that's right. Amen, brother. I'm with the preacher. I'm with the things of God. I know what I believe, and that's what I believe. See, that's the Amen. That's the excitement. That's the, Yes, I know what I believe. I'm excited about it. I stand there. I'm willing to say what I believe. Amen. It's just interesting to go through and look at these and see how he identifies himself to these various churches because the way he identifies himself is kind of applicable to what they're going through and so forth. I thought that was interesting, but I'm just going to blow through these last couple. Sardis is the next church. It's a has-been, a dead church. He said, Do you have a name that you live and you're dead? He says, You're riding on your past reputation. There's nothing going on now, and pretty soon it's going to catch up with you. You're dead. You've seen better days. And then, number six was Philadelphia. This was a church that had a great future, a great opportunity, a great open door that no man could shut. And again, Jesus identifies himself to that church as he that opened it and no man shut it. And he says, You've got a great door opened for you. And he says, There's no limit to what you're going to be able to accomplish to this Philadelphia church. He says, Don't let anybody get you down. There's no limit. Just take that door wide open and just do something big for God. The sky's the limit. And then, number seven, of course, Laodicea, a lukewarm, compromising church. And I'm going to close with this. Look, if you would, at verse number 19 and 20. I'm going to close with this thought. It's the final thought. Revelation 3, 19 and 20. It says, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Remember, this is the lukewarm church, the dead church, the church that can't figure out whether they're fundamental or liberal. Can't figure out whether they're trying to please the world or whether they're trying to please the people of God. They can't figure out whether they stand on anything and they don't have any zeal, they don't have any fire, they don't have any excitement. He says, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him, and he with me. And what I want to point out about this verse, and I'll close with this thought, another verse that I love, but he says, Look, there's just some kind of a special communion that I enjoy with people that are zealous. That's what Jesus is saying here. He's saying, Look, be zealous, therefore, and repent. He says, Get excited, he says, Don't be lukewarm, be hot, be all the way on, be just on fire for God, and he says, I'm knocking, he says, I want to be your buddy, I want to communion with you, I want to sup with you, I want to sit down and enjoy fellowship with you, and I just have so much better fellowship with people that are just zealous, people that are excited about things, because he says, That's how I am. He says, I'm just kind of an on or off kind of a God. I'm just kind of heaven, hell, right, wrong, black, white. He says, That's how I am. And he says, That's how I get along with it. And you say, I want to have that closeness with God. You say, I want to have that sweet relationship with God where I feel like I know Jesus Christ, not just some kind of a shallow little, now I lay me down to sleep prayer and a little bit of a show up for church, Christianity, but I want to just know God personally and a closeness with God. Well, he says, Get the lead out and start moving for God and start getting excited. Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. Go soul winning. Win people to Christ. Read the Bible. Bring the Bible to work with you. Just go crazy. Because he says, Just get on fire for God. He says, I'm knocking. I want to spend time with you, but it says, I just can't seem to get through to you that I'm moving a little faster than you are. And he says, I want you to be zealous. I want you to be excited. I want you to be all the way on, all the way fundamental, righteous, holy. He says, I want you to come my way and boy, we'll get along great. We're going to sit down and we're going to eat a great meal together and you and I are going to get along great. That's what he's saying here. I love that. I love how God wants to spend time with us. I love how God wants to fellowship with us. He wants to be our friend and he just wants us to get moving for him and he wants us to get zealous and he says, we're going to be great friends if you do that, but let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, I thank you so much for this great book of Revelation and I don't know if there's going to be another sermon along the lines of Revelation or not, but I just thank you so much for what we've received in the last couple of weeks.