REVELATION SERIES - Week 6 - September 23, 2026

Welcome, welcome.

So we're we're in uh we're in lesson four.

It's lesson three, but it's our fourth meeting together.

Um so we're gonna wrap wrap this up.

We're gonna wrap this church these churches up tonight.

Okay?

So let me open in a word of prayer and we'll jump right in.

Father, thanks again uh for this time.

And uh we know that you're the one who works in our hearts.

It's not me, it's not David, it's not any human effort.

It's your spirit convicting us and teaching us uh uh the truth that we need to know from your word.

And we need to be faithful to it, and we just thank you for Stephen and his ministry, and that he's faithful uh to your word and and uh expounding it and teaching it, and we're so thankful for it.

So we just ask that you work in our hearts, uh, teach us tonight about these last three churches, and we thank you so much for it.

In Christ's name, amen.

Let me remind you of a couple of things.

If you uh if you're absent and you don't get a uh a class summary sheet, like we've had some people that didn't get the summary sheets, I keep them over on this table.

So at the end we always have a lot left, so we pick them all up and we put them on that table over there.

Okay?

So uh I'm not a I'm not a big numbers guy, you know.

I don't keep track of numbers, which is really bad.

And uh so David's out there counting everybody, every every so if you know yeah, I'm not a whatever it is, it is, right?

And but we're glad you're here.

So uh let's uh let's jump into it.

I hope you enjoyed the lesson.

Uh it's pretty convicting, uh pretty challenging, uh, but I I think uh it should be encouraging.

You ought to be encouraged.

You should you should really, if you as a believer and as a Christian, you should be encouraged and excited and stimulated to do what we're supposed to be doing, especially after listening to this lesson.

Um let me let me just go back through this once once again.

Remember that there's three ways to interpret these letters.

Uh there's the literal, where these are specific churches, not uh seven literal churches that existed in Turkey back, you know, a couple thousand years ago.

And there were people in them, they're historical real places.

And so you're reading about God writing to those specific people and for things that were going on in those churches at that particular time.

But there's also that they they're general, they they they're timeless.

For example, there are all seven of these types of churches in the world today.

I mean, you can go to a Laodicean church today.

You can go sit in the pew and listen to a I don't know what you'd listen to, but you can listen to a message, right?

Uh or you could go to a Smyrna church.

I bet if you went to Iran today, you could find a Smyrna church.

Remember what Smyrna was?

Persecution.

Persecution.

They hunt them out and they kill them.

That's a Smyrna church.

You can they're all over the place.

China, not so much in America.

Okay, you can find these.

So they're universal and and they're timeless.

Okay?

But then there's this third layer, which is this prophetic layer.

That these uh are prophetic throughout the history throughout the church age.

And each church represents a period of time.

And that's usually a layer that's not discussed much.

Let's look at, let's jump into this uh next one.

So we're looking at the Sardis Church.

And by the way, remember, remember this, the things you saw.

Okay, that was chapter one, the things that uh are.

That's two and three, that's right now.

We are in the things that are.

Because we haven't we haven't gotten to the thing after these things.

We haven't gotten to that yet.

We're gonna start that next next time.

And so we're in this period of the things that are, which is these seven churches.

All right.

Now, if you remember, we've we've covered these ones so far.

Remember, Ephesus was the apostolic church, and uh then we had Smyrna, which is a persecuted church.

Pergamon, remember, is the it was the married, the fortress.

David talked about this last week.

The fortress, the state was married to the church.

Okay, and then uh remember the last one, the Roman Catholic Church, where the state was destroyed, basically Rome disintegrated, and all you got left with was what?

You got the church.

You had the Roman Catholic Church, they were all that's that was left, and they were the government in that particular time.

Okay?

And that ended, uh we'll actually talk about that.

Now we move into this next one, which was Sardis.

Okay?

Now if you remember, what's important is this Thyatira was known for what were they mainly known for?

They they were God commended them and said, This is what you are doing well.

Works.

That's really important.

Their works increased, and they did a lot of good works.

They took over the schools, they took over the hospitals, they probably built the roads, they probably, you know, whatever, because the Roman government had disintegrated, and so they were left to do all this stuff.

So they picked it up, and they were their deeds were increasing.

What they were not doing was what?

Teaching the word of God.

You know, it was like that didn't matter.

Remember, the whole point of being in the church is to spread the gospel, to share Christ, to bring people into the kingdom.

And they were doing all these great things, but that you got to step into that next thing where you you actually share Christ with them.

Okay?

So now we go on and to Sardis, and let's look, let's read about Sardis.

Uh and then we'll break it down in your sheet there.

So to the angel of the church in Sardis, right, he who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars, say this.

I know your deeds.

This is important.

Remember what was the last church?

They had lots of deeds.

They had deeds, they had lots and lots of them.

Look at this one.

I know your deeds, that you have a name, that you are alive, but you're dead.

A dead church.

Wake up, strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die, for I have not found your deeds, talking about deeds again, completed in the sight of my God.

So remember that you have received and heard and kept it, and repent.

Therefore, if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.

But you have a few people inside us who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.

He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments, and I will not erase his name from the book of life.

And I will confess his name before my father and before his angels.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Okay.

I hope you got a lot out of this lesson.

But remember, let me let me go back and we always follow the same pattern.

Uh let's talk about Sardis.

What did what did Stephen say about Sardis?

Just about the name and the place.

Anybody remember?

There's an angel in the church.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He has a remnant?

Yeah, he's a remnant.

Now, this the the name Sardis just means escaping or remnant.

Now, I uh he talks about this later about that name, what it actually means.

But they were they were famous for dying wool.

Uh they were f it had fertile soil, it was a volcanic area, so they grew, they had a lot of wealth.

Um and do you remember the story he taught?

It was a very strong fortified city.

Many people many armies had come and tried to attack the city and take it, and they couldn't do it.

It was one of these cities that had a wall around it that had like three walls, you know, and it was just impenetrable.

And do you remember the story that Stephen told?

Secret passage.

There was a secret passage.

Yeah, there was a guy up there, and uh, and a slave was out in the field or something, and he was looking, and he saw this guy up there, and his helmet fell off and rolled down the ravine.

And the next minute he sees the guy coming out, and he's out there picking up his helmet, and he disappears back, and he's back up on top of the thing.

Now you remember what he said later?

Hold on.

He that that slave later on, when uh when the the final army that came in and took it, they got that slave and they talked to him.

He told him, he said, I think there's a slave, I think there's a little sneaky thing.

And they and they got in and they they got in like a thief in the night.

Now, isn't that interesting?

Now, here we're talking about this historical, eschalogical, prophetic time.

They snuck in there while they were sleeping.

Now we don't see any, we don't see any.

I'm touching this now.

We don't see any sleeping in here, do we?

Yes, we do.

It talks about it.

You're asleep, you're not awake, you know.

So that that's that's an interesting fact that we'll look at later.

So Christ holds the spirits of God and the seven stars.

Remember what does seven represent?

Complete control.

He's in control of his churches.

Seven means 100%.

Now 100% just means seven.

It's it's all of it.

He says, he says, you have a name that you're alive, but you are dead.

Now what what's going on here?

What do you think?

Do you remember what Stephen was saying about all this?

They're alive, but they are dead.

They had creeds but no deeds.

Yeah.

Stephen mentioned they had creeds but no deeds.

They're lazy.

This church was the church that came out of the Catholic Church.

That's why they escaped.

They escaped from the Catholic Church.

And it's they kind of they kind of went from this extreme and then they swung all the way over to the other extreme.

Now that you're gonna see later that this was the reformers.

This is the reformed church.

Who was in the reformed church?

Martin Luther?

Calvin?

I mean, all these guys.

And they rediscovered.

The good thing they did is they rediscovered what?

Do you remember?

Anyone know?

What did they discover that the Catholic Church had lost?

Scripture.

Taking scripture literal.

You've heard of the five solaces, Christ alone, you know, scripture alone.

They recovered that.

They got that back.

Take the scripture literally, not works, it's by grace, it's by faith.

Oh, that is great.

That's the Reformation, the Protestant church.

We wouldn't be sitting here today if it weren't for them.

It's a great thing that they did.

But what did they not do?

No fruit.

No fruit.

Creeds, not deeds.

Now these the the the reformers have sectors.

Yes.

Because that that's that's describing non-believers.

Basically, because there's there's only a few with white garments.

Oh, yeah, yeah, we'll get to that.

We'll get to that.

No, that's not the reformers' rights.

Well, we we know the reformers.

Where did what who was Luther?

A thousand years later.

Where did Luther come?

Where did he come out of?

Catholic Church! He went back to the church, and what did he bang, bang, bang, bang?

You know, he nailed the thesis.

Yeah, the thesis on there.

And I have to remember this exists during the top line of John.

Yeah.

According to the So they were they were very Orthodox.

They had become comfortable, they had become comfortable with faith alone and creeds and no deeds.

It's the opposite of Thyatira.

Thyatira, they couldn't care less about the word of God.

In fact, it was all corrupt and you know, but they did a lot of good deeds.

This church is, they got the scriptures right, they're going back to the scriptures, but they're just keeping it in-house.

They're just staying within the walls.

They're not taking it out.

Their deeds, they're not telling anybody, they're not sharing.

Do you know what Martha and Luther?

This is one of the reasons, and and uh uh David mentioned this last week.

Uh Luther came out of this, and if you if you've ever read the book of James, what's the book of James all about?

Works.

That you, that we should be doing as Christians.

He didn't like that.

In fact, I think David mentioned last week, he he wanted to take it out of the scripture and put it as an appendix at the end.

Because it it was it's but you see what he had come from?

He'd come from a Catholic and he'd reacted the whole other way.

Okay.

The other one, and I and Stephen never mentioned this, but Calvin developed the tulip, okay, and the and the you and the I is irresistible grace, and basically that's one of those things that it says that no matter that God's chosen whoever he wants to be his children, and there's nothing you can do about it.

You can share, you can go out there and share and talk to people, and if they're not chosen, they're not gonna be in the they're not gonna be there.

Well, what what does that do to evangelism?

Yeah.

If if they're chosen, and no matter what you do, they're gonna get they're gonna become believers.

Then you go, well, it doesn't really matter, you know, if I talk to them or not, and it's no big deal.

Well, I think that's a reflection of what we're seeing here.

There was no evangelism, nothing.

That's that's just another aside.

And you can we can delve into that and go into that later.

But uh, okay.

All right, wake up, strengthen what remains.

Or I will come like a thief.

What's he saying?

He's telling them this is what he's this now.

What he's asking them to do.

Wake up.

Why is he saying you wake up?

What does that mean?

You're what?

You're asleep.

Now remember the guys were asleep when those soldiers came in?

Next minute they wake up and the soldiers are in.

You see this?

See this whole thing?

Wake up and strengthen the things that remain.

You've got some good things, it's not over yet.

You still got a chance.

He's trying to encourage them to keep on keeping on.

Remember, look what he says, remember what you first received.

How do you how what how is he telling them to wake up?

What do you think he does anybody remember?

So remember what you have received and heard.

What was it these guys heard and received?

Gospel God.

Gospel.

Somebody, some apostle or somebody came and talked to them and shared Christ, and they came to Christ.

You know, somebody did it.

Somebody did a what?

What do we call that when you go talk to somebody and you share?

It's work, it's a work, it's a deed.

Somebody's got to do it.

Remember, he's telling them, remember.

How did you get to be where you're at?

Remember, go back.

Which were about to die.

For I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of God.

In other words, you're not doing this.

If you don't change, guess what's gonna happen?

You're gonna die.

Churches die.

I think Stephen talked about you go back to Europe today, and all these reformed churches, they're just big museums now.

They're dead.

They're gone.

You even see church, we see churches around in the United States.

Great evangelistic churches.

They don't preach the gospel anymore, they're just museums.

They're gonna die.

God's gonna, he'll just let it go.

Alan and I were in Boston, and we went to Boston First Baptist Church, and the door was locked, we had to stand there and wait, and finally they opened the door, and it was a huge, gorgeous church, and it had flags hanging all the way around, and I guess there was about 34 people there, and they had a copy after.

So we went back to film that we had attended, and I asked them about the flags, and they said, This is the church that sent missionaries out to all these places, and we ended up starting the Southern Baptist in the southern part of the United States, and yet that church is dead.

Nobody was there, the door was locked.

And that's what happens.

Once you have no deeds, you forget, you forget.

Remember, he says, remember.

You forget what you're here for.

A lot of those uh empty churches in Europe are being bought by locals.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

They need a building.

So that's that's kind of discouraging.

So wake up, strengthen, remember what you first received and heard, and act on it before it's too late.

You gotta act on it.

It's gonna be too late, otherwise it's gonna be taken, you know.

Four and five uh talks about here, uh, but you have a few.

What does that mean?

Yeah.

God always has a few.

And we've seen this all through these other churches.

No matter what's going on, he always has a few, a remnant who are faithful and are doing the right thing.

Okay?

And this is what he's talking about.

But we you have a few inside us who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.

Okay?

Now what do you think?

Do you remember what Stephen said about they've not soiled their garments?

Your testimony.

Okay, now it talks about here that uh they will walk with me in white.

That's salvation.

That's salvation.

We are clothed.

It talks about when you come to Christ, you're gonna be clothed with Christ.

And it's white.

Okay, but what does it what does it mean to to have being white, but it for it to be soiled?

There are some that have soiled their garments.

What does that mean?

They have a white robe, which means they are saved.

They're believers, but it's soiled.

Yeah, they're they're they're just not doing what they're supposed to be doing.

They're hang around.

Still believers, just not doing what you're supposed to be doing.

We have those in the church.

Okay.

He he but but he wants us to.

This is this is uh a thing he wants us to change.

Uh what do you think it means where he said he and I And I will not erase his name from the book of life.

What do we know about that book of life in the first place?

Yeah.

It says the scriptures that talk about that God's written our name in the book of life before the foundation of the world.

Well, what does he mean?

Does that mean it can be erased?

What he talks about, your name will not be erased.

It means your name is Lady?

Yeah.

Your name cannot be erased, that means it's a powerful point.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Do you remember what Stephen?

This is so important because you could use this as a you can be erased.

But we know from other scripture you cannot be erased.

But do you remember what he said?

This was a literary.

This was a literary Hebrew thing.

It was kind of like a double negative.

I don't I I'm not going into the details of it.

It's kind of like a double negative thing that says it's literally you can't, you know, once you're in, you're in.

And it's you kind of read it.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, that's true.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

I thought that was pretty good.

All right.

Let's look at the last thing here.

What's the prophetic implication here?

Sardis.

This is the Reformation Church, like we mentioned, 1517 to 1648.

They had sound doctrine, the solaces, the five solaces, and they restored them, but evangelism was non-existent.

Works of charity were neglected, and it was basically a reaction to the Catholic Church.

It was an over-reaction, okay?

So also, did you remember what he said about people in back in this time about the state churches?

If you were in the Lutheran church, do you remember what he said?

Everybody remember the church.

If you were born, you know.

Yeah, this is this goes back to the uh the infant baptism and things like that, rituals.

You know, we sprinkle our babies and they're in the Catholic Church.

I mean, they're in the Anglican church or they're in the Lutheran church or whatever.

And so basically, you once again, who are you going to evangelize if everybody's already born into it?

Who are you going to evangelize?

You don't need to evangelize everybody.

By the way, if you were in the in the Lutheran, do you remember what he said about taxes?

Yeah, the government would actually tax you and give it to the church.

They just do that for you.

You're in the acting, okay, we'll take it out.

That's pretty amazing.

Yeah, you still like it.

You still do it today.

Huh?

We can if you wanted, you'd have a rebellion on your hands, I think.

But uh yeah.

Okay, so remember what what what remember what Stephen said changed it?

It was what was called the Peace of Westphalia.

And the Peace of Westphalia was a a piece that was agreed on where they kind of freed people up and they could do whatever they wanted.

You didn't tax people, and they could go, you know, if they had this thing they wanted to do, they could do that.

And out of that flowed the Anabaptists and the Wesleans and all sorts of things, and they traveled all around the whole world, they went to China, they went to Australia, they went to all different places and evangelized.

And it was that piece of Westphalia that freed them up.

Alright, and then we move into the next one.

And this is the look at this one.

And by the way, this is the model church.

You want to know?

This is along with Smyrna, this one has no condemnation.

There is no condemnation for this church or Smyrna.

And the interesting thing is both of those were persecuted.

So there's something about persecution that purifies and makes things better.

Let's read it.

And to the angel of the church of Philadelphia, right, he who is holy, who is true, who is has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this.

I know your deeds.

Once again, deeds.

Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, and because you have a little power and have kept my word and have not denied my name.

Behold, I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan.

They're the Jews that came, and that they were also in the Smyrna Church, the synagogue of Satan, the Jews who persecuted the believers, Christians.

See, that's what that means.

Who say that they are Jews and are not but lie.

I will make them come and bow down at your feet and make them know that I am have loved you.

Because you have kept the word of my perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, the hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to this to test those who dwell on the earth.

I am coming quickly, hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown.

He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will not go out from it anymore, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God and from my new name.

Okay?

He as an ELETM hear.

Okay, so what is this one?

Philadelphia, if you remember, it was a king and he named his uh he he he named this after his brother whom he loved.

And we know Philadelphia just means brotherly love.

Okay.

Uh it was a small church, and what did they also have a lot of?

This city, this town.

Earthquakes.

And do you remember what Stephen said?

What that caused the people to do?

They go outside the church and move outside.

They didn't live in the city.

And because of you got all these earthquakes and the buildings are falling on you all the time.

It's kind of like you know, living down by the river.

You know, you get flooded all the time.

So you eventually you move away from the river because you don't want to get flooded anymore.

Okay?

So that's he th they say this is why this town didn't grow.

Because people were afraid.

But they're a small group, they're a faithful group, they're a hard-working group, and he commends them for this.

Okay?

They have notice it says in eight and nine.

Well, what does it say?

Christ is holy, true, and has the key of David.

Do you remember what he said about that?

The key of David.

Right.

The kingdom, salvation.

Yeah.

But they will work to gave it to the city.

Yeah.

If you've uh I have I'm if you ever study Ezekiel, it talks about David, and we talk it talks about the millennial kingdom.

You know, when we get to this place, this kingdom place, which is the millennium, the thousand years on earth.

Well, King David, David is resurrected, and he he's he works in the temple.

And he has a key.

And he opens it for things.

And allowing people to come into the temple in the millennial kingdom.

This is what he's talking about.

But he's talking about it's it's Christ that has the keys that open people's hearts.

Salvation.

It's not up to you.

We talked about this a little bit last week.

We think it's all us, you know.

Well, I didn't say that right.

You know, I gotta say it this way, I gotta do it this way.

If I don't, I'm gonna mess up, and I that person's not gonna get saved because I, you know, it's it's the the Lord does it.

And you know what he does it with?

The noise in your ear telling you that's the Holy Spirit, remember?

He's the one who convicts, he's the one who saves, but he uses us, and he's just telling them, You you did that.

You're a small group and you're faithful to it, and you God's opening doors and he's closing doors, and you're gonna see results.

And they saw lots of results.

This particular church.

He does say about the uh the synagogue of Satan, but what does he say that the synagogue of Satan's gonna do?

What does it say?

They're actually, I will make them come and bow down at your feet.

Do you know what that's talking about?

Do you remember what Stephen said?

Yeah, they're actually gonna get saved because you're witnessing to them.

They're gonna persecute you, but they're actually gonna come to Christ.

How is that not exciting?

I mean, we think of persecution, we just want to be rescued, you know.

Just get us out of here, you know.

But really, what a neat thing.

It's gonna pay off.

He's telling us that it's gonna pay off.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Exactly.

Very good.

Okay.

This is the model church.

This is what we should be modeling.

And they they went crazy.

All the re all all the missionary work that was done through this church, the Great Awakening.

Did you ever go see The Great Awakening when it came?

It was a great movie.

Came to American crowds of people, you know.

That was the that was what we're talking about here, the sodist church.

They were set free.

They had great deeds, they did what they were supposed to be doing.

Do you think that the modern-day church is going to ever experience another great awakening?

Me?

I don't think so.

I'll tell you why, because we're going to see the next one.

That's where we're at.

We're going to see the next one here in a minute.

Okay, let me go on here.

Um notice where it says, I've kept you from the hour of testing.

This was an important thing in here.

Uh, I will also keep you from the hour of testing.

Okay?

Now he uh Stephen brought out that that particular church, it was a small church, it was kind of negligible, that when Domitian came along to persecute the churches, he kind of dismissed this.

He didn't care about this one because they were so small.

So they they were literally kept from the persecution of Domitian.

But he what did Stephen also say about this?

Because it says, which is about to come upon the whole world.

Nowhere before have we had anything that's going to affect the whole world.

Okay?

Everybody.

This is, and he said, this is where a lot of prophet, this prophetic side of these churches came to be known.

They said, man, this is tough.

What's this talking about?

You know?

And we know that this is that seven-year tribulation period.

It comes upon the whole world, and you can't escape it.

And he says, you're gonna be kept, you are gonna be kept from that.

And that's the rapture.

The church is gonna be removed, and that whole world, that testing is gonna come upon the whole world.

And it's got nothing to do with the church, it's all got to do with Israel.

God's gonna bring the nation of Israel back and save them.

Because remember, he came the first time with a proposal and they rejected it.

Well, he's gonna come a second time and they're gonna accept him.

But they got to go through the seven years to, he's gonna use the seven years of testing to wake them up.

Not us.

Pretty exciting.

He says, hold fast so that uh uh so no one takes your crown.

Basically, no nobody can the only way you get your town crown taken is if you don't finish.

Like you can run a I can, you know, I'm a swimmer, and I can swim a race and a four-lap race, and I can quit after the third lap and get out.

I don't want to do this.

Well, I'm not gonna get a crown because I didn't finish.

You gotta finish.

That's that's what he wants us to do.

Keep on keeping on.

There's crowns and rewards that we're gonna get.

This is not talked a lot about in church.

Crowns and rewards.

We're too busy on this place getting our rewards.

Okay.

So who is this?

Oh, by the way, he says uh overcomers uh will become a pillar in the in the God's temple.

Isn't that interesting?

Now be when when we get when they when this church gets to heaven, and the will become a pillar.

Now remember, what was the city known for?

Earthquakes.

They'll never be shaken.

You get that?

That's the encouragement.

Prophetic Philadelphia, the missionary awakening church.

This is what it is.

It's the missionary awakening church, A.D.

to the late 1800s, the Great Awakening, uh, moving from rituals, sprinkling, and all this kind of stuff.

You're born a Lutheran.

Why evangelize if you're born a Lutheran?

Worldwide missions, China, you know, all these places.

And early Jewish evangelism.

I think Stephen mentioned this was the first time that Jews were evangelized, started being evangelized.

They were just forgotten and neglected before.

Okay.

You want to go to the last one?

This is the last one.

And by the way, this is the one we're in.

Now think about it.

You know, is there gonna be another great awakening?

Could there be?

There could be.

But we're gonna look at some scriptures that kind of point in an opposite direction in this.

So Laodicea, let's look at it.

To the angel of the church at Laodicea, right?

The Amen, the faithful, and the true witness, the beginning of creation of God says this.

I know your deeds.

Once again, we're talking about deeds.

Shouldn't be afraid of deeds.

You gotta do stuff, guys.

You gotta do stuff.

I know your deeds, that you are neither hot nor cold.

I wish that you were cold or hot.

Have you ever had you ever had this?

You you invite somebody, uh, you want to go to a uh you want to go to the grocery store with me?

Or maybe.

Well, what is maybe?

Do you or don't you?

Well, that's that's kind of like this.

You want to go or not?

Your deeds are either hot or cold.

I don't want any in between, I don't want this milky in-between stuff.

Well, this is this church.

Hot or cold.

So because you are lukewarm, okay, and neither hot nor cold, I'll spit you.

That word spit is actually a violent vomit.

It's not sp, it's not that, it's a way more violent.

Okay?

Because you say I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing, and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

Okay, now do you remember you remember this particular town?

Remember the the particular town which means ruling the people, the people ruling, the people in control.

You remember what Stephen said about Laodicea, this town, what it was like?

A lot of banks.

A lot of banks, medical schools, doesn't it?

A lot of banks, a medical school, and they had uh they had a wall, black wool.

You know, a business.

Okay.

Remember, they there was an earthquake that occurred there.

Remember what he said about that?

Destroyed everything?

They built back, they had enough money to build that.

Yeah, they didn't call FEMA.

They didn't call State of Arkansas, they just did it themselves, they just fixed it all themselves.

This this is this uh I am rich and I have become wealthy, and I need nothing.

Do you think they need the gospel?

Do you think they need a savior?

No, they don't.

Because that's what wealth does.

It becomes it becomes your, I don't need that, you know.

Wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.

What do they all represent?

Like like we we just talked about earlier, clothed in white garments.

What does naked mean?

You're an unbeliever, you're not clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

Blind.

You can't see.

You know, you're in darkness.

What's that a metaphor for?

Non-believer.

Poor.

Yeah, you're poor.

You may be rich on earth, which they were.

You may be rich on earth, but you're poor, you're spiritually, you're poor.

You have no inheritance.

Do you realize if you're in Christ?

Do you do you do you?

I don't I don't I really I don't think we get it.

But when you die, you're gonna get an inheritance.

And it's we are co-heirs.

It is, it's way yeah.

I mean, we think we got these neat inheritances from our parents when they died.

You know, oh man, I got the house and I got this, I got the RV, and I got this and that, you know, but I mean I'm telling you, but you gotta open door two.

We don't know what's behind door two, but if we could open it, we wouldn't want any of this stuff here.

So there's an inheritance, and this is uh poor, miserable, wretched.

These are all things.

I advise you.

Look at this.

What do you think he means here?

I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire.

What do you think that means when he says buy from me?

Is he is that works?

No, best in your words.

Can you now think about this?

Can you buy your salvation?

No.

No.

So that's not what he's talking about.

What is he saying?

What's he trying to get across here?

Because this is what he's telling them to do.

You can't buy your salvation.

Well, what does he mean when he says, I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may become rich?

His knowledge.

That's exactly it.

He's using that as a metaphor.

He's not saying you actually physically buy it, he's saying you exchange all this stuff that you're buying on earth, thinking that you're gonna get to heaven, and it's and instead, come to me.

Take me, buy from me, get it from me.

Don't get it from here, get it from here.

That's what he's saying.

Okay, gold refined with fire, that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself.

There's that white garment.

And that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed.

And look at this and the I salve to anoint your eyes.

Now, where does that come from?

What do you think?

The medical school.

This was what they were known for.

They had this product that they made to heal people's eyes.

Can you see the link here?

You see it?

Just in the name.

In the city.

Okay, where am I?

So that you may see.

Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline.

Therefore be zealous and repent.

It's actually a good thing if we go through trials and tribulations.

You know why?

Because he's gonna reprove us.

He's gonna discipline us.

Don't you isn't there a scripture that says that?

That you're supposed to do that to your children?

And if you don't, you do you what?

You don't love them.

You do this to your children because you love them.

Well, if if you're being disciplined by God, he loves you.

He wants you to come out of this lukewarm stuff.

Okay?

Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and will dine with him and he with me.

Of course, we use this verse a lot in evangelism.

You know, invite Christ into your life, invite him.

You know, there's some truth to that.

He who overcomes, I will grant him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my father's friend.

That's the encouragement.

This is the age we're in.

The Laodicean church.

I want to show you a couple of verses because this this how do we yeah, go ahead.

So our deeds.

Uh I know your deeds, and he knows what we do.

So explain to me deeds and I mean, and it's kind of simple, deeds and work, because I mean our works it's it's from him, right?

I mean I I I ask for his guidance daily, you know, and I have to do the footwork when he produces where I need to go and what I need to.

So today he brought somebody into my life, and I'm trying to share God with him.

And and after the half an hour talk with this gentleman, when I turned around and I left, that's when I was questioning myself.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But the works and the deeds, I I'm having a little trip-up on this.

So you're asking what are the deeds we should be doing?

Is that what you're asking?

Is there a difference?

The deed.

That's why if you read the book of James, remember it says that we are to be a uh what good is it if you put a lampstand?

Put a cover of your lamp.

And put a put it under your bed.

You know, what what good is your faith?

How are you gonna show your faith?

What what is it that shows your faith?

What is it that shows people that you have faith in Christ?

What you do?

You how you use your time, how you use your talent, how you use your money, are you kind?

I mean, you know all the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control.

Your walk.

Your walk.

You are a walking billboard.

Now you might have an opportunity to talk to people.

Well, how come you do that?

How come you do that?

How come you're not like that?

Why don't you cuss?

That's just one example.

You know, I mean, I you getting it?

Those are your deeds.

You're where to reflect Christ.

We're supposed to be like Christ, clothed with Christ.

We're supposed to when people see us, they should see Jesus behaving.

That's your deeds.

What did they have?

Oh, it went away again.

What kind of deeds did they have?

What kind of message were they sending?

I'm rich, I don't need anything.

Yeah.

But remember, they're not hot and they're not cold.

They're just lukewarm.

People are looking at them going, oh man, what a wet, what are you?

What am I they they can't tell.

They can't figure it out.

That's why that's why he says, if you're like that, oh come on.

He doesn't want to let your yes be yes, let your no be no, be hot, be cold, but don't be in the middle.

So what you're not doing is you're not using your spiritual gifts.

Yeah, that that's one part of it.

And that's a whole nother layer, you know.

I mean the fruit they don't have.

Yeah.

Because they're not obedient.

Right.

They don't have fruit, but they also using your spiritual fruit.

Right, yes.

Right, that's exactly right.

Where's those?

I I got these verses.

Let me read this verse since it's it's not gonna come up here.

Listen to this, because this goes back to your point about are we gonna have a revival, another awakening.

And Stephen also mentions these words.

This is in 1 Timothy.

But the Spirit, now remember, we are in Laodicea.

This is the age we live in.

This is our church, this is the last one.

It's gonna end after this.

But the spirit explicitly says that in the in the letter time, some will fall away from the faith, what you're seeing here, apostate church, from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons by means of hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience consciences, as with a branding iron.

Now think about this.

Look at this, and Stephen uses these examples.

Men who forbid marriage.

We don't have that today, do we?

The churches that forbid marriage, and advocate abstaining from certain foods.

You can't eat that, you shouldn't eat that, you need to eat this, don't eat that, don't eat that.

Which God has created to be kept gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.

You remember what Stephen said about food picky eaters.

Picky eaters.

For the majority of history, I mean, you just ate what you could find.

Be glad of it.

Be glad of it, you know, yeah.

Well, we live in an A.

This is a sign that we're in the latter times.

What is it like today?

What's it like now?

Well, I don't like that.

That crust is a little burned.

Yeah, I'm that.

I don't want that.

Uh I don't want those baked beans, I want these baked beans.

I want, you know, I mean, I I mean, it just goes on and on and on and on.

Food, food, you know, picky.

It's just a society that we're in.

I'll have to give y'all a laugh when I first moved up here at the East Cake pool.

I was picking up a pear to eat it.

And this kid goes, You're really not gonna eat that, are you?

Really, you're you're not gonna eat that, are you?

They thought I had to buy it at the grocery store.

Oh my here's the last one.

Now think about this.

This is a list.

He talks about the list.

But realize this in the last days, difficult times will come.

As you're going through this, think about this.

Are we here?

For men will be lovers of self.

Lovers of money.

I just saw a thing the other day, a gambling, fan dull is the is the it's huge now.

People with addiction to fan dull, or gambling on everything.

Why?

Why are they doing it?

Because they're money.

Lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable.

You can't you can't reconcile, but it's not.

Um malicious gossips without self-control, brutal.

I can turn my YouTube book, I you know, I like watching YouTube videos and things, and they'll come across and and I there's things that come across of people just fighting.

Beating each other.

Just to have it be on brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless.

Now, this was uh I listened to this uh once when I did uh Second Timothy with Stephen.

Reckless.

And reckless is this, uh he bought it out.

It's you know, you know, people now do things that are man.

Stupid, jumping.

I mean, I saw I saw I saw a thing of uh on uh once again on the Facebook of somebody going down Rogers, it was just right here, on a motorcycle, and they were standing on the handlebars.

Just standing.

I mean that's an example.

But we but we now what is it and what does that imply?

When people are reckless, they're doing things, life is not a it's not precious.

They just don't think anything's gonna happen.

Where's that?

Where's that coming from?

That's coming from a mindset that it there is no God, you know.

I'm just if I die, I'll die, you know.

Who knows what reckless, conceited lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they haven't denied its power, avoid such as these.

Now that's a list, and that's the last days, and that's it tells us that as we get closer, that's what's gonna happen.

We shouldn't be shocked.

What is a reviler?

I I guess it's somebody who yells back at somebody else, you know.

I always think of somebody who you know, you tell somebody and they yell back and say, Oh, yeah, you're stupid.

Yeah, I I I don't know.

Yeah.

Could be, yeah.

Okay.

Remember the last two things he mentions here, and then I'm gonna close.

What's happened, what has happened that we're like this in the Laodicean church, and he says this happened back in Europe, and it was biblical criticism, okay?

Where now it came out of academia where it's it's criticizing scripture.

You can't take it literal, it wasn't the seven days.

You know, there probably was no real that flood that really didn't happen, you know, and it starts criticizing the Bible, its myth, its story, its fable, and before you know it, you have thousands and thousands of people, and everything's taught in colleges and universities and seminaries that you don't take this literal.

That's biblical criticism.

Well, what has that done?

That's what that's what it produces.

And then the second thing was evolution, a fable, a story.

It's a man-made-up thing.

And you put those two things together, you're gonna have a disaster.

And it's all an attack on God, and that's where we are.

That's where we are.

So, this this kind of thing is producing a wealthy, self-satisfied, doctrinally hollow church in the last days.

This is the church of Laodicea.

This is now remember, he's talking about this is the general church of the day.

It's not the specific.

You're gonna have specific churches that aren't like this.

You're gonna have a Philadelphia here, you may have a Smyrna here, but generally, in this period of time, you're gonna have this kind of church.

And that's the one we're in.

Do you think that with a the 15 years thing where in the time of the theologian church age where a church seems to be more focused on entertainment or or um just um, I've got a transbyterian pastor?

I've got a transbyterian pastor, and I don't have to stand it in Houston.

And he is able, he is a wolf and she's got it, and he's perfectly laid out right and he uh says God is non-binary, and there's like twelve textures, and he's he's he's repeating what all of these people think is delayed female.

And our notion is his election, if he's elected, our notion is in big trouble because Texas really holds a key to this election that's coming out.

And when I see all that stuff and it talks about the way that charge this church is and how far away it is from what's right and truth, I can't help but think about this uh Calorico that's running for Senate in Texas.

Yeah.

He is a liar and claims to be a Presbyterian minister.

Yeah.

So what she's describing there is this Laodicean church.

If this guy's a pastor, uh you know, it's not hot nor cold, but they're they're in the church, and the majority of people in the Laodicean church are non-believers.

That that age that we're in now, I said we haven't been there that long.

No, no.

It happened back.

Yeah, yeah.

It happened within the last decade or two.

Yeah.

And so it really stands.

It's rapid.

It's a it's a rapid deterioration.

What I was trying to say there about the uh itching years is we seem to have the church has a an effort to accommodate the world rather than be set apart from so we're okay with this, we're okay with that.

Yeah.

The whole idea is remember, this is a it's uh, remember it's it's uh run by the people.

Remember the name Layodice here?

People ruling.

It's not Christ ruling, it's people ruling.

And now you fill the church up with unbelievers because they, you know, and they're gonna they're gonna get to themselves if they get in positions of leadership, they're gonna hire people who are gonna tickle their ears.

They're gonna hire people that tell them what they want to hear.

So the the encouragement is we we are to we we are we're in the midst of it.

And we are to be like, we're to have good deeds, we're to be like the uh Philadelphia church.

Because it this it this is why this prophetic part is so neat.

God already spelled this out.

This is gonna happen.

It's here, we're in it, you know, and uh we gotta do the best we can.

We gotta finish.

Finish the race.

Let me pray.

Father, thanks again.

And uh we know we're in those that lost church, but it doesn't need to we we don't need to be like them.

And you encourage us to stand firm, to overcome, and to be who we need to be in Christ.

And we just we thank you for the opportunity, really.

It's we have a great opportunity.

So we just ask you to go before us, move these things into our lives, and we thank you for it in Christ's name.

Amen.

Now let me tell let me mention this.

Next week, we're not actually doing a lesson.

It's what we're gonna do next week.

I'm gonna send something out in it, and we're gonna meet next week because we didn't really have much time to interact and ask questions, and you know, really last week or this week.

We didn't really so think this week.

We're gonna, I want to kind of summarize all this and answer questions, answer concerns, or anything about what we've done, not not what's coming, just what we've already talked about.

And I've got something to guide us, but so you so you will get something in the mail, but it won't be an actual lesson.

This is a this is a long haul, guys.

And and we need a break.

And we need a time just to come together and talk and share and you know, ask questions or clarify some things or whatever.

See y'all.

Thank you.