Revelation 2:1 Missionary Conf. — J.M. Davies

The Letter to the Church at Ephesus

And so we turn please to the book of the revelations chapter two. And from the evening we read together the first letter the the letters in the church of ephesus. We will read that today tonight unto the angel of the church of ephesus christ.

These things said. He beholdeth the seven stars in his right hand who walketh in the midst of the seven golden lamps i know thy work. Translation. Thou shalt not dare them which are evil. Try them which say they are apostles and are not and have found them liars.

For my name says that labored and not hated. Which translates that even to the extent of favor because thou hast trust thou thou didst need remember. Therefore since thou art fallen thence and do thee first work will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy lamp.

For it is reduced to the nickel age in which i also sit be the caponier. Let him hear what the spirit says unto the churches. In the overcomer shall i say to each of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of god.

Prophetic Patterns in the History of God’s People

Give attention to the fact that these letters are prophetic of the cause of the church to the of more years. Plus i said too that human history is divided into three periods lasting about three thousand years.

The book of genesis we have the first witness for god during those years were born by individuals. The family was the unit. The family unit was superseded by nations. God raised up israel to be a witness among the nations of the world.

When israel was the church to be a witness. When we compare the witness as we have it in genesis in israel one would be a deeply shape of the other as the cause of each of the other. It begins as we know with the temptation of each falls off the function.

So that we check in for instance chapter 11. It is from that simplicity and purity of heart that is to what fact president of the women's list early on their own. In this we have the the conclusion of each of these periods.

We have the overcomer king joseph and overcoming of the throes. His history nationally is found with my father in his throes. And the overcomer in the letter to the church that will be clear. It's promised that he too will be granted the because of his throes and the endings.

These three periods are similar have been signed together for each of these in the hour on sunday evening i want to show you something of the development of this in israel. In the book of churches and the book of ruth these letters are strikingly that it's nothing like than anywhere else in an international.

Ministry, Edification, and the Angel of the Church

There are pattern of all human begins with the resolution of time of the assembly. It is in the minister of the word of god the cultivate the ministry of science. In such a way this is in the ministry we will be a ministry to edification.

The minister of the letters come engage by the law or condemnation ministry of exaltation these into first one. This is to edification the exaltation of the compass. It engages with us. He's the minister of the word of god the minister to edification the exaltation and the compass each of these letters.

The letter from the source of all the source of all gives the gift. And he is the one who gave the spirit minister of the word. It doesn't come from the head. Sometimes it will not come in the power of the spirit.

This ministry comes through the one address of angel to the angel of the church of heaven to the angel of the church of murder interpretations of who the angel represents them to be an actual spirit being because the angel in the letters of the church of heaven is charged with having fallen.

Remember friends now are the demon looking after it is to have present recognized failures. It'd be a terrible thing to have a demon looking after the affairs of an affair. One of them has a name to live when he's a spirit being that is objection to him.

Seeking to interpret the word is based upon that word in first in verse 20 of chapter one the stars are the angels of the church perfect and interpretation the symbol. The angel is the interpretation of the symbol and interpretation in the book of malachite a spoken of us messengers of the lord of hosts knowledge that the lips of the people messenger of the lord of hosts messenger before my face prophecy of john the best and the word malachi two words in the lord's name.

So the term angel is a fact for those who are the best leaders in israel the priest and the prophet spiritual leaders leaders of his prayer. He represents those who are in leadership among god's people.

The channels of communication between the head and the assembler on sunday evening responsibility depend upon such mistakes and errors is what we have here. So that works in a collated reduce. Again in the letter to the church at pergamon the issue of debate.

So what that means. Now the book of revelation is a book of symbols and words are symbolic. The word nicolaitans just like the word antifa. In the letter to the church at pergamon we have a man named antifa and church historians have never been able to find any master by that name.

In the symbolic it was a very simple jeremiah. Jeremiah stood alone everybody. And again this suggested that he may represent athanasia arianism. You'll send me alone. God's grace outstanding against doubted me.

According to the letters of the church at pergamon centrist living. Something similar to what galen encouraged gale accounted for the block before the children of israel and of the the church of pergamon controlled was similar to the doctrine of galen.

There were those who turned the case of talking to lasciviousness. But along with that we turn back for a moment to second corinthians chapter 11 before we go back to dual justice. Second corinthians says to those who came to the apostles to an alternative degree of this epistle.

The apostle contrasts himself with these false apostles. Now look at them down in verse 13. For such a false apostle into the apostles of truth and no marvel. For satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

Therefore it is no great thing that his ministers be transformed as the ministers of righteousness. Now here are the wolves in sheep's clothing. There are the grievous wolves that paul spoke about to the church and to the elders of ethics.

Grievous wolves are called the wolves in cajun. Slavery was to capture the pussies. They capture the minister the ministers of satan the false apostles. You have the synagogues of satan judaism jews divided by the apostles of of satan.

In the letter to pergamon we have the throne of satan. In idolatry. We've got the deep pains of the counterfeit of the deep pains of god. The counterfeit of the true church. The true church is spoken of by paul as the deep pains of god pains of cases.

The counterfeit of the deep pains of god. It began with the false apostles. Look at the verse. Look at them down in us. In verse 22 are those hebrews. Of course they were again dialed into the upper. This is his apostolate the fossil for hebrews.

His apostles teaching those hebrews too. But look back into verse 20. You suffer if a man bring you into bondage. Paraphrase that you suffer if a man of your liberty. You suffer if a man rules over you.

You suffer the nicolaitans robbing you of your liberty robbing you of your privilege. That's what these false apostles are doing. You suffer if a man devours you. This is the very meaning of the word trailer here.

Then the nicolette a false minister they will come again. The church that heard of us they will come. And in the church of science control that's the development of evil from the growth and the development of the personhood.

And see the disgrace the emergence of the days of the reformation. But now time will not allow us on that. So we turn back to this piece of the book of justice book of judges in the second chapter. The book of joshua is often compared to the official to the effusion.

That's true doctrinal. But historically the book of joshua may be compared to the book of the act. For in both of them we have the history in joshua of the first 25 or 30 years of history of the kingdom in the land.

In the act we have the conquest of the gospel in the establishment of the kingdom of god the spiritual kingdom of god through the teaching of the apostles. Joshua book of conquest the book of the act the book of conquest book of judges we have in history of the next generation.

The Book of Judges and Generational Decline

The first generation died out in the wilderness. There will be that look into general judges chapter two please and verse 10. And also all that generations were fathers under their father. And there arose another generation.

After that there is a third generation. And the book of judges is a history of relapses and revival. It's a history of departures and deliverance. It's a history of apostasy and awakening into idolatry.

Seven departures seven times god raises up deliverance. Now let's look at this third generation for a moment neither nor yet the works which he had done for his race. A muslim master will say that here is a generation only the third generation they have no knowledge of the lord.

It is more remarkable still if they have no knowledge of what god has done for his race whose fault was it. Because this generation. And i'm confident today that this is happening throughout this country.

The priests the growing generations the truth that brought assemblies in the view the truth that was that resulted in the formation of a family whose with regard was only testimony that is not been taught sufficiently.

Teaching the Next Generation in the Assembly

Failure of the second responsible for a failure must be taken out of responsibility. We'll take note of this of any young people here. But let me charge you brothers years or no. Now teachers if you are going to see this assembly function and continue to function there must be teaching given in regards to assembly testimony as we see it in the new.

One day as i thought as my family seven of them sat around the table some of them in the scene. And i realized one day they would never learn anything. I could never seclude them any knowledge. They never learned anything was for me to teach the occasion quite well.

When i've learned i could only one way i could pass it on to them. Responsibility. I trust god will give you grace to see to it that the assembly getting structured with regard to assembly life and death intelligence and its ministry its ordinance baptism of the lord's supper these things are not taught.

A growing generation will never learn. They can only learn as they have taught the word of god. As you read my book the lord of the churches the copy of which is available at the bank told me that he bought with these copies to give out and wish that there was a copy in the hand of every elder in every assembly in the country just yet teaching with regard to assembly life and justice as well as teaching a little lower down to the end of verse 70 out of the way which their fathers walked in obeying the commandment of the law as they did not throw this third generation they knew not the law they knew not the works of the law and they failed to obey the law.

Israel’s Heritage, Conflict, and Repeated Deliverance

Now the last of them you have in chapter three and verse one that these are the generations these are the nations which the lord blessed to prove israel's blindness even as many of israel has had not known all the wars of cadence.

There was a generation that had never known battle. They had never known any conflict. They had never had to fight for anything others had fought and they were living in the enjoyment conquest. They had accomplished labors of others to quote the words of our lord others have labored and he had entered into their labor.

Here tonight younger need to remember this. You've got a marvelous heritage tremendous heritage pieces of believers. Marvelous heritage. The same chapter for a moment when the children of israel did evil in the sight of the lord and they served the daily verse 14 and the anger of the lord was hot against this hill and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them and he pulled them into the hands of their enemies round about so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.

It is as however they went out the hand of the lord was against them for evil as the lord had said. And as the lord was poured unto them there was great distress. Nevertheless the lord gave some judges which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.

Now that's a brief history of the book of judges on their passing of deliverers to deliver them. You see in the early part gildol and went to poking. Gildol was the center in the book of joshua. But in the book in the book of judges the center is smoking on gildol the face as it were for seven.

And they came down to judges is smoking the time of meeting all the faith on he came to pass on the angel of the lord. Say these words unto all the children of israel that the people lifted up their voice and breath.

And they called the name that day spoken they called it griefers. That name gives character to the book of judges. It's a book of griefing of pride pride unto the lord. We return when it is now to. From chapter two right on to the end of chapter 16 national failure of the irish republic draw much attention to that except in the matter of something chapter 16 the dog race national failure count of being attacked by the enemies on our on every on every hand.

The ammonite the libyanite the philistine for over a hundred years in the aggregate became subject to gentile nation. And that period is not reckoned in the years of israel. Some of you may have wondered mr solomon in the fourth year of solomon's reign was 480 years.

When you when you reckon up there's more than that. A hundred years more than that mistake in the bible somebody made a mistake. Duration the years that israel was subject to gentile nation. Then you get it correct the time is lost time for 40 years under the philistine in the beginning from nation they cried to the lord to begin with you take them say at this level to begin with they come up.

But they never come up to this level. They only come up to this level. They fall lower still. And when there's a recovery they never recover even to the second place. And go down and down and down and down.

And never do they get recovered to the original position. Recovery to what they were at the beginning is not the partial recovery but never a full recovery never a complete recovery. To the days of samson they never even cried for deliverance.

God raised up samson in sovereign grace. The people never cried even once for deliverance. And when god raised him up they were almost they were prepared to hand him over to the philistine. And actually did on one occasion find him and hand him over.

They failed to recognize in samson a deliverer that god had raised up for they've become blind sad spiritual states and blind to the hand of god in sending a deliverer. And at last samson the sad character in many ways one of the saddest in the bible in many ways he began to deliver israel from the man could do a tremendous amount on his own.

And that was his weakness. And that was his downfall. He didn't see the need of defending upon others. He was so powerful he could have so much on his own. In his eyes god is the force of the philistine.

That's the picture of laodicea the end of evangelicalism the force of the world. Samson was once the dread of the philistine world so terribly afraid of samson at one time. But they've lost their fear of evangelical christianity was at one time a nazirite from his mother's womb but not a nazirite to the end.

And a movement like that which is with which we are associated was tremendous was a movement of tremendous nazirite character in his early days man of godliness man of devotion. It was undoubtedly a spiritual movement with a true nazirite character to the extent is that two of us today.

Idolatry and the Failure of Spiritual Leadership

Chapter 17. And there was a man and he said unto his mother the 1100 shekels of silver that were taken from thee but which shall curse it and speaketh of also in mine ears behold the silver is with me.

High tribute. His mother said blessed be thou of the lord my son. What a wonderful mother. Here's the failure of the whole man. She says oh blessed be thou of the lord. And then she was on to say i had intended it to make a graven in a an idolatrous woman.

And so the money is used to make some seraphim to make some house idols. Then a little later in verse six in those days there was no king in israel. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

There was a young man of bethlehem judah of the family of judah who was a levi. And he sojourned there. And the man departed out of that city from bethlehem judah to sojourn where he could find a place.

And he came to mounty fritz to the house of mica as he journeyed. And mica said unto him when promised out said unto him i am a levi of bethlehem judah and i go to sojourn where i may find a place. Mica said unto him dwell with me be unto me a father of the priest and i will give shekels of silver by the year and a suit of apparel that is excellent of course and thy bittles.

So the levi said this is not the failure now of the people. This is the failure of the levi. One who should be a teacher of the word of god. Failure of one who should be a teacher of the law hired by mica.

He wasn't hired to teach the word of god. If mica said well i have a large family here. I would like somebody to teach the word of god to them. If you stay with us a while there will be something for god in that.

But mica had a graven in it. There is those two words the father and the priest. Very modern isn't it. Then a little later a tribe of jan passed by there. A number from the tribe of jan passed by. They were looking for a place to live.

And then they were going up to the north. And when they came along in verse 13 and they passed it they passed them from the mountain and came to the house of mica. Then answered the five men that went to spy out the country of leish and said unto their brethren we know that there is in this house.

And he put a seraphim and a graven image and a molten image. And they turned to there and came to the house of the young man. The levi oh what happened. The chapter tells us what happened. Verse 19. Verse 18.

So they went into michael's house at the the carved image. He put on the seraphim and the molten image and said the priest unto them what are you doing. Said unto him hold thy feet lay thy hands upon thy mouth and go with us and be towards us.

Michael loses his seraphim and his image and everything this man goes and becomes levi. He introduces idolatry. Just look on into chapter the end of the chapter 31. And they said set them up michael's graven image which he made all the time that the house of house of god was in china.

So who was it. Verse 30. And the children of jan set up the graven image. Jonathan the son of gershon the son not of manasseh but the son of moses. He and his sons were priests to the tribe of land until the day of the captivity of the land.

The grandson of moses. The third generation idolatry. Third generation nationalist leviticalist. First one. And he came virgin levi no journeying on the side of mount ephraim who took to him a concubine of bethlehem judah and his concubine praised the whore.

Moral Collapse and Collective Failure

The chapter 19 and 20 of had chapters. You think you're reading about sodom and gomorrah of judea of benjamin that we read there at the end of the chapter. And they turned aside to go in and love in gibeah with their ascension three or four times there.

The moral conditions of gibeah were terrible saying the woman is dead. This is idolatry immorality. Here's the trail of the connection with the nicolases at the foot of mount sinai. They worship the golden calf.

And they rose up to pray their idolatry and their adultery together. They haven't here. You come into the epistle. You have the same thing same two things. There there is a levi. It's the failure of the levi.

That's what i want to emphasize. National failure. National failure. Collective failure. Collective failure was due to the failure of the levi. The levi's failed to do what they should people to do what they ought to fear of those who speak the word of god.

The failure of those who stand to minister the word of god. It's a failure in the ministry. That's what we have here. Archer of gold. These are not. These are not false men like the men that jereboam made peace out of each other the common people.

But that's not what these men. These are genuine levi's. They were levi's by birth. They belong to the levitical family. It's the biblical failure. That's why not when they came to the book of ruth the little book of ruth of judges.

Individual Responsibility and the Book of Ruth

In those days there was no king in israel. Every man did that is just right in his own eyes. Now he came to part in the days when the judges ruled a famine in the land and a certain man of death. And judah went to sojourn in the country of moab.

He and his wife and his two sons in the name of the man was eliminated. In the name of his wife naomi the name of his two sons the name likes of bethlehem judah. They came into the country of moab and continued their attention to on sunday night.

And the levi's here we have individual responsibility. Now because judges 16 and the record of the levi's follow the record of samson. People may quickly conclude that those events after the days of samson.

But they're not third generation. The second matricidal war women was nearly wiped out. The priest that's officiated at that time. Phinehas is the third generation. He is a page of the third generation.

So it's not consecutive pictures. We've got here pictures that go along at the same time. Concurrent pictures. Pictures of concurrent events. Chistering covers a long period by the levi's covers a short period.

And the period in ruth covers a short period. But ruth covers as a third generation too. His age or when he lived in the book was a son of rehan of salman prince of judah who married rehan possibly a man of 50 years of age by this time old enough to speak of ruth of my daughter.

He was also of the third generation. There was another man in chapter four. He was a close kinsman the nearer kinsman given the first opportunity to redeem to act a part of a kinsman and restore naomi to her inheritance.

Quite prepared to do that ruth he said oh no no that'll mar my inheritance. I can't do that. It is plotted out. I can just imagine him. Why did he want to. Why did a limerick leave here. We saved him.

Look at all the trouble he's brought upon. It's not a limerick was wrong. But here was an opportunity for this man to live according to his responsibilities as a kinsman redeemer. But his age arises and his name is plotted out.

The Cost of Following the Lord

Plenty of opportunities to date. Then. She liked ruth. Widows. I believe they are a picture. Undoubtedly a picture. If you want a comparison. If you want to read and enjoy cycles on the way to a mare.

Two women husbands have been ferried way back in moab of widowhood. And if you want a very interesting comparison a widow a widow she weepeth so a tear shone down her cheek. The grave of the future. No hope.

That hope had gone. He hoped that he'd been. He would have redeemed israel. But he was crucified instead and buried. They say he's alive. But they've never seen him yet. Him they saw not hallucinations.

Him they saw not individual faithfulness on the part of boah. A limerick. A failure. There's no king in israel. Ah. But he said eliminate. God is my king. That's the meaning of his word. Of his name. By his name.

He's saying god to be his king. Believe god was his king. He was concerned. Why didn't he live up to his name. Oh it's so easy isn't it to make a profession. It's so easy to claim that we recognize the worship of christ.

It's so easy to make trade for money. To live up for cotton. And then when the test came down he goes jordan back to three thousand of his grandfathers grants of their grandparents died under the hand of god.

It was dark and difficult in israel. But it was darker in moab. It's darker there. Conditions among the families may not be all that they should be. But it's darker in the world brother. It's darker. I'll sink down into our heart.

But there's a much bigger price to pay if we don't follow. To follow the lord is costly. But not to follow the lord is much more costly. We'll pay something. If we don't follow the lord we'll pay far more.

Grace, Responsibility, and Final Exhortation

Because of one little scripture told them that a stranger was to be allowed to glean after the reapers. Who's to glean. And to glean among the reapers. His mother harlot you know it's a his background is very poor.

Nothing to be. Nothing to be proud of. When he wanted to name a pillar in the house of god. In the temple he called it. He was called one of them. Boa. He wasn't a caterpillar. National failing. Why should i bother.

Measure up to his privileges in his grace. Give us grace to follow an individual responsive on our hearts together tonight. Nice to have been together for a week over the prayer for the days that lie ahead.