Good morning, church family. So good to be here in the house of the Lord today. Thank you so much for our worship and song this morning from the choir and from Scott and our praise team and from Anne Marie. What a joy it is to sing praises to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I want to invite you to turn in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 2. Revelation chapter 2. We're going to continue in our study of the book of Revelation. And we are going to skim through the first six letters that Jesus wrote to seven churches in Asia Minor, and then we're going to read the church to Laodicea and speak more extensively about it. But just to recap us from last week, we were in Revelation 1 and we learned a couple of truths. First of all, Jesus is the person who is being revealed in this book written by John the Apostle. It was written about 95 AD while John was exiled on the Isle of Patmos. And John wanted to make sure that the churches understood who Jesus was and what the events were going to be leading up to and including his second coming. Now, I didn't say this last week, but I will tell you there are over 1,800 references or allusions to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ in the Bible. In fact, there are 300 specific references to the Second Coming in the New Testament alone. All but four of the New Testament books specifically mentioned the second coming of Jesus Christ. And it's interesting, too, that the early church fully expected Jesus to come in the first century. But of course, we read in the scripture that with God, a day is like 1,000 years, and 1,000 years is like a day. And so here we are, fully 2,000 years later, and we are still waiting for the second coming of Jesus Christ. Of course, over and over again, in the letters to individuals and to churches, Paul would say that scoffers will come and say, what is this coming that he is saying, that he has demanded that he will come again? When is he coming? And of course, we know that even today, people are doubting the second coming of Jesus Christ. But based on what I had just said, that with the Lord, a day is like 1,000 years. It's interesting, if you use that math, Jesus has only been gone for two days in the timeline of God. And so here we are sitting in 2023, and we're waiting for him to come again. And so I invite you to stand with me as we read from chapter 3 of Revelation, verses 14 to the end of the chapter. And this is the seventh church letter that John would write and he would record the words of Jesus. In my Bible, they're all red letter, meaning that Jesus is speaking. And I want you to hear what he has to say to the church at Laodicea. Verse 14 reads this way. To the angel of the church in Laodicea write, these are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other. So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say I am rich. I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire so that you can become rich, and white clothes to wear so that you can cover your shameful nakedness, and salve to put on your eyes so you can see. Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am. I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. Father, this is your word. written by the Apostle John, but really the words of Jesus to this church in Laodicea. It could very easily be applied to Ashley River Baptist Church. That Lord, you desire for us not to be lukewarm, but for us to be on fire for the Lord Jesus Christ. For us to not rest in the comforts of temporal blessing here, in modern day America with all of our wealth, all of our riches, all of our medical breakthroughs and technologies, but for us to rest instead in the everlasting arms of Jesus Christ. Lord, I personally am coming here this morning heavy burdened. And Lord, I know that you know my heart. You know the burdens that we are facing. I pray, Lord, your intervention. I pray your love. I pray your mercy during this time. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. I want to Mentioned to you that we're looking at Revelation 2 and 3. And obviously, there's a lot here that I've given you homework. And the homework was really for you to identify, number one, each and every one of the seven churches goes through the same type of format. It begins with describing Jesus Christ. It gives his attributes or characteristics about him for each church. And then Jesus, of course, identifies those things that are commendable about that church, if applicable. Not all churches, the one we just read, did not receive any commendation from Jesus Christ, but all of the others did. Two of the churches are actually good churches and didn't receive any critique from the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the third aspect of each letter. So he commends them, and then he calls them out or critiques them on things that they need to do. And then, of course, he talks to them about how they are to overcome. He gives them counsel on how to overcome the sin or the sin condition within those churches. And then finally, he gives them hope. He gives them a reward that they will receive if they overcome and if they stay true to him. And so every single one of the seven letters follows that same exact pattern. And then concludes with the words that we read earlier, he who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit is saying to the churches. Let the spirit of God that lives inside of you, wake you up to the truth of Jesus Christ. And so this morning, I want us to just review where we are timeline-wise, like we did last week. We are currently in the church age. That's where we are. The cross in the early first century, 30 AD, and then we are in the church age. At some point, there's going to be this event where God will take all of his believing children to heaven, and that is called the rapture. We'll address that. in two weeks. Number three, then there will be a seven-year period of time. It's known as Daniel's 70th week. Next Sunday, we're going to be talking about Daniel's prophecy, Daniel chapter 9. And so in your sermon notes, you have pre-work. The pre-work says to read Daniel 2, 7, 8, and 9. And then to answer the questions there, to identify the four kingdoms of Daniel 2 and 7, the two kingdoms of Daniel 8, and then how many years total are determined for Israel as a nation, and then how many of those years have transpired, and therefore, how many are left. I will give you the final answer. Seven years are left. And that's what's up here on our timeline. See, I'm helping you with your homework. Isn't that great? Okay? And then, of course, this seven-year period of time, still future, is broken up into two three-and-a-half-year periods of time. I will talk next week about how some of the time in the Bible it says three-and-a-half years, some of the time it says 1,260 days, and some of the time it says 42 months. They all equate to three and a half years. During that time of tribulation, there will be three series of judgments upon the earth. the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls, after which Jesus will come again. This is his second coming. He will come to the earth and put all enemies under his feet. And then the 1,000-year millennial kingdom will occur, and that will be for 1,000 years, after which the judgment, the great white throne judgment described in Revelation 20, And then, of course, Revelation 21 and 22 is, of course, eternity. Final age in which we will dwell with God in his house forever. Praise God and hallelujah. Well, if we look at the seven churches then, We're in the church age, and so Revelation chapter 2 and 3 refer to the church age. We know that the seven churches do represent seven literal churches in John's day. John wrote to these specific churches. I showed the map last week about those seven churches. They are in modern day Turkey. And they are in the western section of modern day Turkey. And so John sent these letters and the entire book of Revelation to these seven churches. But the seven churches represent something else. Many scholars believe that they represent seven specific periods in the church age. And we'll walk through each one of the churches here and identify that. And then thirdly, they represent seven types of churches. that exist in every generation. In fact, you will find the church in Ephesus in modern day America. You will find the church of Sardis, the church of Thyatira, the church of Pergamum, the church of Smyrna, the church of Philadelphia, the church of Laodicea in our world today. The question is, Ashley River, what specific elements identified in these seven letters can we take to heart and do self-inspection, and say, Lord, remove anything that is not right with you from us. And so that's what the seven churches represent. So let's briefly walk through them. In Ephesus, chapter 2, beginning in verse 1, the angel of the church then would write these words to Ephesus. And I'm not going to read all of it to you. You did that for your pre-work. But Ephesus is the church age is the apostolic age. It is from 30 A.D., the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, until about 100 A.D., when John is writing this final book of the Bible. Their key critique from Jesus is that they have forsaken their first love. Now, the first love is, of course, Jesus Christ himself. Let me just say this. Any church that places anyone in priority above worship and exaltation of Jesus Christ has forsaken their first love. If you ever go to a church and they don't exalt the name of Jesus Christ, preeminent above all, the chief shepherd, the king of kings and lord of lords, is not worth worshiping. You must be a part, and I pray that Ashley River will continue to worship and love Jesus Christ, our first love. Number three, Jesus tells them to repent and to return, to turn from their forsakeness and turn back to Jesus Christ, and he promises them the ability to eat from the tree of life. The second church there in chapter two, if you continue on, is Smyrna. Smyrna is a good church, and it is the church that is known as the persecuted church. Between 100 AD and 313 AD, the church was mercilessly persecuted throughout the Roman Empire. and they are rich in their faith. And Jesus tells them to be faithful, even to the point of death, because they weren't just persecuted, they were executed for their faith in Jesus Christ. Of course, this is the time when Polycarp was burned at the stake, at which point as he is, the flames are surging up his body. He says, I will never renounce my savior, Jesus Christ. He has been faithful to me these 86 years, and he has never let me down. That Polycarp was part of this church age. And then, of course, those who overcome. Even to the point of death, they will receive the crown of life. The third church is Pergamum. Pergamum is the church that is the state church. If anybody knows your history in 313 AD, the Roman emperor Constantine actually had a vision in that he was going into battle. And that night before that battle, he had this vision that he should put crosses on the shields of his army. And so he does and he has them paint crosses on the shields and they have a victorious battle. They win the battle and Constantine comes back and gives all the glory to God and says, now the state of Rome is going to be a Christian... It's going to have Christianity as its primary religion. And so Constantine ushers in Christianity as the state religion. That's why this is called the state church. However, during the time they succumbed to idolatry and immorality. And so Jesus's words to them are to repent, to repent and turn and come back to me. And he tells them, if you do, I will give you the hidden manna and a white stone, a white stone that will be for you with a new name written on it. And then there's Thyatira. Thyatira is the papal church from 590 A.D. all the way to 1517 A.D. As all of us know, the Catholic Church was the primary church across the world. And so Thyatira takes up this period of time. However, idolatry and immorality crept into the church during this age as well. We call it the Dark Ages for a reason. And of course, he tells them to hold fast, to hold fast to the truths that you know about the Bible and about Jesus Christ. And if they do, they will have authority given to them over the nations. and they will receive the great morning star. And then, of course, we have the fifth church, which is Sardis. Sardis is the church, the Reformed church, really. It is what happened at the Reformation. If anybody knows any of your Reformation history, on October 31 of 1517, Martin Luther would nail his 95 theses on the door of Wittenberg Church. And during those 95 theses is Martin Luther's troubles or difficulties or challenges to the Catholic Church and how they happen to believe. You know, the infallibility of the Pope, for example, and the sale of indulgences, for example, in order to spring people from their sin, condition, and judgment. And yet, that was not biblical, and so Martin Luther rightly called them out. But what happened? It divided the church. This is where all of the denominations took root. And they left the Catholic Church, and they started Presbyterian Church, and Episcopal Church, and the Anglican Church, and the Baptist Church, and the Lutheran Church, and on and on and on. All of these churches and denominations popped up. And so Jesus says, you have a reputation for being alive, but you're dead. You're dead. You're looking inward and not outward. You're not sharing the gospel. And so he said to wake up, remember, obey, and repent. And then, of course, the reward is that their names will not be blotted out of the book of life. It's interesting. He says they will not be blotted out of the book of life. It implies that they are in there to begin with. And then, of course, we go to Philadelphia. Philadelphia is another good church, just like Smyrna. No critique of Philadelphia. And it is the missionary church. If you know anything about church history, you'll know that the great awakenings in America happened during this period of time from 1730 all the way up to 1900 AD. And it's the missionary church, and he says that they have kept their commands, the commands of Jesus Christ, and that they should endure patiently through the trials that they experience. And if they do, then they will be a pillar of God, and that they will be given a new name. Philadelphia, the Church of Brotherly Love. And then in about 1900 AD, the next age, of course, is Laodicea. But before we go there, I want us to identify a couple of key persons that are listed in the first six churches. Because I know as you read through, you're going to ask the question, who are the Nicolaitans? Who is the synagogue of Satan, et cetera? And so I want to answer those for us this morning. First of all, the Nicolaitans are false teachers who promoted idol worship and sexual immorality. Some early church fathers, Irenaeus, the prominent one one, actually refers this to Nicolaitans as the ones who came from Nicholas, one of the first deacons in the church, in Acts chapter 6. However, most scholars disagree with that. They believe that it's just a group that came up, probably under the name of Nicolaitus, because Nicolaitans literally means oversee the worship of the people to influence the worship of the people. And so Nicolaitans are false teachers. Peter would talk about false teachers coming into the church, even at the end of the age. Number two, there's the synagogue of Satan that is mentioned in the first six churches. And again, these are unbelieving Jewish people who believe that Receiving Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord is not enough, that you have to keep all of the Jewish customs. And so he would call them the synagogue of Satan, that they are trying to distract from the simplicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The third person mentioned here is Antipas. And Antipas is a first century pastor or bishop who himself was persecuted by the Roman emperor Nero. And so he mentions Antipas there. And then, of course, you hear about Balak and Balaam. Balak is, if you go back into your Old Testament and you study the Book of Numbers, you'll know that Balak is, in fact, a Moabite king. The Israelite people, after wandering in the desert for 40 years, do come to the plains of Moab. And Balak is concerned because they've already gone through and they have arrived on the edge of his property And so he tries to get Balaam, a diviner, to actually ask God to curse the Israelite people. Of course, Balaam does not do it, but what does Balaam do? We learn in Numbers 24 that he actually teaches Balak how to lure the men of Israel to sexual relations with the Moabite women. And so God, Jesus here, calls out Balak and Balaam in these letters. And then lastly, there's, of course, Jezebel. Now, many of us know who Jezebel is. She was the wife of Ahab, one of the kings of the northern kingdom Israel. but she was from a family that worshipped Baal. And Baal is an idolatrous god. He is a pagan god. And she, of course, was merciless in her treatment of the godly prophets of her time. And so the spirit of Jezebel is really what's referred to here is that any church that will not stand for good prophetic men speaking the truth of God. And so those names are important for us to understand as you walk through those first six churches. And so now we come to Laodicea. This is a picture of the ruins at Laodicea. It's currently, again, in modern-day Turkey. But I want us to walk through this letter that I read to us this morning Because it helps us to understand a little bit about how we should respond as a church family Laodicea of course is the apostate church and it's from 1900 on many of you may know that the In the late 1800s, there rose up a lot of speculation and skepticism about the authenticity of the Word of God. Science became prevalent as the authority of teaching in colleges and universities. And so we saw a slow degradation of the authority of the Word of God in the eyes of intellectual people. And so we see that all of the Ivy League schools, you just think about it, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, et cetera, Brown, all of them were started, they began as seminaries. They began as producing pastors and preachers who would preach from the Word of God and they held to the veracity and the inerrancy of the Word of God. And then, of course, they got too smart for their own good, and they turned away from the Word of God and toward humanism. And they believed in themselves rather than the Word of God. And so the church at Laodicea is known as the apostate church. And we see it in our world today. How many of you know somebody who says, well, I think the Bible is a good book for some things. It's helpful when I'm going through a difficult time, but it's not really inerrant. There are errors in it. Or, I believe that Jesus is a great moral teacher, but He's not the only way to heaven. Or, I believe that the Bible can be helpful for history, but really it's not the book that it claims to be. And so here we sit at Ashley River Baptist Church, and if you're visiting with us this morning, I'm going to say it very clearly. We stand under the authority, the authenticity, and the veracity of this Word of God. It is 100% inspired by God the Father, and therefore it is perfect. because God is perfect. We may sit here and think there may be errors in it, but that's our own problem, not His. He will bring to us understanding if we continue to study it over and over and over. I promise you, I have read books, novels all my life. And I get to the end of them, but I've been reading and studying this word since 17 years of age, and I have not gotten to the bottom of it. I am convinced that I have literally only scratched the surface of the iceberg that is the truth of this word. And I can't wait to get to heaven when all of a sudden Jesus, like he did those two disciples on the road to Emmaus, begins to open up the Word of God to us more clearly and we get to see all of the different nuggets of wisdom that are contained in these pages. I can't wait. And so when we sit here and we say that the church has turned apostate, what we're literally saying is, if any church wants to say what they want to say and then use the Bible to support what they want to say, that's not the kind of church you want to be a part of. Instead, you want to be a part of the church that reads the Word of God and lets the Word of God say what it has to say, and then we submit to it. That's how it should be. And so that's what we call exegetical preaching. And so here's his biggest beef with the church at Laodicea. It says here, these are the words of the Amen. Amen means I agree. The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. Don't miss that. Jesus is the ruler of God's creation. He then goes on in verse 15 and he says, I know your deeds. that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were one or the other. So because you are lukewarm, now I don't know about you, but I love a good cup of hot coffee. I love a good cup of hot coffee. And sometimes in the afternoons, in the summer here in Charleston, I'll get me an iced coffee. And I love an iced coffee, but don't give me a cup of coffee that's lukewarm. It really does not satisfy." And that's what Jesus is saying here. He is saying, you're a lukewarm church. You're neither hot nor cold. You see, what God did with the Apostle Paul is phenomenal. Paul was cold to the mission of God. Paul was cold to his church. Paul was cold to anything about Jesus Christ. And what did Jesus do? I can use that coldness for my glory. And so what did he do? He knocked Paul off his horse. And then what did Paul become? On fire for Jesus Christ. That's what God wants to do. He'll take a cold person and turn him into a great evangelist for his kingdom's work. But if you're just lukewarm, meh, you know, like, okay, somebody's talking about Jesus in a derogatory way. Are you going to stand up for Jesus? Are you going to stand up? You know, I don't know about you, but when we sang, my Jesus, I love Thee, when that verse, when it says, the thorns upon His brow, if ever I love Thee, my Jesus, tis now, I get tears in my eyes because of what He has done for me. Are we willing to stand up for Jesus? This church at Laodicea was not. And then it's interesting, if we know anything about Laodicea, we know this, it was a very wealthy city. It was so wealthy that they had an earthquake in AD 60 and they refused government help. They refused money from the government because they had enough. Why? Because they were blessed with sheep in their community that produced very expensive black wool. And it was so expensive and they would sell it and they became wealthy as a result. In addition to that, they had an amazing medical school where they came up with eye salve to help people to be able to see. And they sold that all around the Roman Empire. And so Laodicea was a very wealthy city. Laodicea was also a very technologically advanced city. Laodicea was a city that clothed its people with the finest of clothing. And you see what Jesus is doing here is He is using all of that worldly wealth, worldly prestige, and telling them that in my eyes, you're not wealthy. In my eyes, you are not well clothed. my eyes you are not able to see instead he calls them wretched look at what he says there he calls them wretched when we sing the hymn amazing grace The author of that wonderful hymn says, God saved a wretch like me. You see, Laodicea was wretched in the eyes of God. He also told them that they're pitiful. It's pitiful to have so much confidence in your own worldly wealth. It's pitiful. in the eyes of God. I don't know about you this morning, but sometimes we will sometimes rest in our own security, in our own safety, in our own wealth or affluency, and we'll say, we've got it all together. We don't need God. We'll use God when we need Him. When something comes into our lives that we can't fix, then we'll pray to Him. But that's not the heart of God. God wants you to realize that none of this affluency that you have is yours. It all comes from Him. So why not trust in Him for all things? Why not be humble in it? And so that's why He calls them poor, blind, and naked. And then He goes on to say this, I counsel you, in verse 18, I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire. You want to be refined? That's the best way to be refined, is to do it through fire, the fire of my judgment, the fire of my refining you. so that you can become rich. And I'll give you white clothes to wear, white symbolizing purity and the righteousness of the saints, so that you can cover your shameful nakedness and salve to put on your eyes. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. And then he says this in verse 19, those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. God is going to bring discipline into our lives. He's brought discipline into my life, and it's never fun, I promise you. Discipline by the Lord is never fun, but it's for our own good. God loves those whom he chastens, you see. And so that's what he is saying to this church. He's not done with this church. He's saying, you're going to go through discipline. But he says, be earnest and repent. Be earnest and repent. Even Laodicea, the lukewarm church, the apostate church, is not far from the saving hand of God. Because he says in verse 20, and this is our memory verse, here I am. I stand at the door and knock. Here I am. I stand at the door and knock. You know, I don't know about you. Maybe you are not yet in Jesus Christ. You've never really trusted Jesus Christ with your life. He is knocking at your heart. and he will continue to knock. Jesus will not barge in. There's no such thing as irresistible grace. God's grace is available to all, but we can reject the offer of salvation. by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We can harden our hearts so much that the knock becomes fainter and fainter and fainter and fainter until we cannot hear it anymore. And our own decisions lead to judgment, you see. And so we have the right to sit on the throne of Jesus Christ But he tells him, I'm standing here, and I'm at the door, and I'm knocking. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me. Who has to open the door? We do. We have to open the door. There's a famous painting from the mid-1900s. It's called Christ at Heart's Door. And it's up here on the screen. And it's Jesus knocking on the door. And if you look closely at this door, you'll notice that there is no doorknob on the outside. The only doorknob is on the inside. Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart, and your job is to open that door and invite Jesus into your life. This is the beautiful message to the Laodicean church. It's a message to Ashley River Baptist Church. It is a message to every single person born on this planet. To him who overcomes, verse 21 says, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for your word, the letters to the seven churches. Lord, my prayer is that we as a church family as we have read through these letters in our pre-work, and as we studied the church at Laodicea this morning, I pray that you will prick our hearts to be sensitive to your Holy Spirit, that we might come into fellowship with you each and every day, recognizing that your mercies are new every morning. We serve a great good God. And we know that your son Jesus Christ is on his throne and he is waiting for the day for you to tell him, son, I want you to go back to earth and take your own with you back here. Lord, I can't wait for that day. And Lord, as we celebrate that day, In anticipation, may we relive faithful lives here on this earth, sharing the greatest news of all, that Jesus saves. We pray all of this in his name, and for his sake. Amen. Amen.