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Bro. Bill Nichols
I believe it's live. Mine is too, so we're good to go.
Better than most mornings, huh? Yeah. Yeah, it's 10 -12.
Okay, I guess we'll go ahead and get started. We're running just a touch late because Brother David forgot his clock.
And so that means that I can go long and he can go even longer.
I thought that was last time. Oh, you're just in a different palm tree.
There are palm trees in Florida. I've seen them. Okay. I haven't seen the
Hawaii ones. I have seen them. I have seen the California ones and the Florida ones, and they are all beautiful.
And one of them over there is a California one. That's right. That's the major thing that's wrong with them. What if you stand on the other side?
We've had to take two weeks off because Mark has been gone for a while. By the way,
Brother, well, let's go ahead and get started.
Before we begin, let's pray. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, and thank you for all our many blessings.
Thank you for giving us this place to come to worship, and thank you for giving us your Holy Spirit and your Bible to give us your
Word, the Bible to provide it, and the
Holy Spirit to help interpret it. Bless us and keep us and go through the services today. In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen. Over the last couple of weeks we've been dealing with the
Book of Revelation, and we finally got into the churches. And last week we did a good bit on the church at Ephesus, but we didn't get to some of the historical things about Ephesus that led it to be what it was.
I'm not going to go back and redo Ephesus, but I will tell you this. In many ways the
Lord was happy with what was going on at Ephesus. He had several commendations and only one complaint.
But it's like going to the doctor and having him say, well, you don't have measles, and you don't have chicken pox, and you don't have a cold, and you don't have diphtheria, but you have cancer, and it's an advanced stage.
So we got all these good things set up, and then one bad one. And the one bad one was, you've left your first love.
Well, you've abandoned your first love. You need to go back to your first love.
And it's the love for him. And that's what we did last week. But before we go on,
I'd like for you to go to Acts. The book of Acts, chapter 20, verse 17.
And you'll see Paul's last contact with the church at Ephesus, and the instruction he gave them, and what it is that they were to watch about, to be careful about.
Acts 20, verse 17. A little closer?
All right. How about that? Is that better? And a little higher too. Okay. Now how about that?
Okay. And he, the he talking about here is
Paul. And he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church. And when they were come to him, he said unto them,
Ye know that from the first day I came into Asia, after what manner
I have been with you in all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears and temptations, which befell me by the lying and weight of the
Jews, and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but showed you and have taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the
Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our
Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto
Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there, save that the
Holy Ghost witnesses in every city, saying that bonds and affliction abide me.
But none of these things move me, neither count my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy in the ministry which
I have received of the Lord Jesus Christ, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
And now, behold, ye know that ye all, among whom
I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. Wherefore, I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men.
Now, I want to stop there a second and ask you what he means when he says, I am pure from the blood of all men.
What's he saying? He has been forgiven.
Well, that would mean he would be pure from the vengeance of God or free from the vengeance of God.
I am pure from the blood of all men. The blood of all men. None of the blood of the men of this church is on me.
And why would that be? Because he told them how it was.
He's not required to tell them what it was and for them to accept what it was. He's only required to tell them.
He says, I've done my duty by you, and my duty is to teach the word, to teach the gospel.
And that's what he said he did. I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
Now for his warning. This is the reason I read this passage. Take heed therefore unto yourself and to all the flock, over the which the
Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
Who did the purchasing? Who are the overseers? They're the overseers.
Now who is the ultimate overseer? God, Jesus is the ultimate overseer. But he put the elders in positions to oversee the church.
And his warning is, take heed therefore unto yourself and to all the flock, over which the
For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter among you, not sparing the flock.
Also of yourselves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
What he's saying is, false teachers from without and false teachers from within.
Beware of the grievous wolves. They will come out of your own midst and they will come from the outside.
Therefore, watch and remember that by the space of three years I cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears.
And now brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace. Now what's the word of his grace?
It's going to be the Bible when the Bible is complete. Right now it's the parts of the
Bible that they have. The Old Testament and there are, and by this time there would be,
I guess, some letters and things circulating around. But not many. Most of Paul's letters were written while he was in prison.
And this is after that. And now brethren,
I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all which will be sanctified.
What Paul is telling them is, I will no longer be here to guide you. But God and his word will be.
And that is sufficient. I didn't think
I could leave Ephesus until I had laid that out, the warning that Ephesus was given by Paul.
Well, did Ephesus heed that warning? Oh, they did.
Oh, yes. All of the things that he warned them about, they did. They paid attention to the warning given by Paul.
The church was a discerning church. It held fast to that which was good.
It abstained even from the appearance of evil. It recognized false teachers and gave them no access to the church.
It kicked them out. It was in many ways a good church. And yet the
Lord was not pleased with it. Now, the Lord was not unpleased with them.
If I can do a double negative. The Lord was not unpleased with them because they failed to do the things that Paul had told them by the
Holy Spirit to do. He was unpleased with them because of what they failed to do.
What they failed to do was remember, therefore. This is
Revelation 2 .5. Remember, therefore, from whence there are fallen, and repent, and do the first works.
Or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent.
Now, from whence had they fallen? They had fallen from loving
God and loving each other. In striving for the purity of their doctrine, the members had forgotten the purpose of the church.
To love God and to love one another. That was the first works. That was the works from which they had fallen.
That was why the Lord was not pleased with them. That was why He said, If you don't remember, repent, and do the first works,
I'll remove your candlestick. I'll remember the light. I will remember. I will remove the light from this church.
Well, I'm sorry? That is exactly right.
It is good to know the Bible. It is good to go to seminary. It is good to study the Bible. You can study the
Bible every day, and there's nothing bad about that. But that's not what saves you.
What saves you is Jesus Christ. And what you respond in kind with is your love for Him like His love for you.
Not the knowledge. So all of these books that we read, they're all good, but they're not sufficient.
I'm sorry? That's right. That's right.
And they didn't even see that. They could read and read and read, and they couldn't see that the whole book was about Jesus.
Why couldn't they see that? They were blind and they were deaf.
They couldn't hear and they couldn't see. And why couldn't they? Because they weren't
His. Oh, that is a scary thing. Okay, that's the church at Ephesus.
We're getting ready to go to another church. Another letter, the one to Smyrna.
Smyrna is described as the suffering church. And to the angel of the church of Smyrna write,
These things saith the first and the last, which was dead and is alive.
Now last week we listed, I think it was seven things common to most of the letters written to the churches by Paul.
And the first thing we looked at was the meaning of the name. Does anyone know what the name
Smyrna means? The root to the name
Smyrna is myrrh. M -Y -R -R -H.
And it is associated with death. And the ultimate victory over death, resurrection.
It is a sweet -smelling perfume used in embalming dead bodies. The first time we encounter the word myrrh in the
New Testament. I'm sorry? At Jesus' birth in Matthew 2.
Well, it's actually in Matthew 2 .11, but I want to read Matthew 2 starting at 1 so we know what it is that we're talking about.
I started not to do this and I said, Well, I'm not going to get through anyhow, so I'll just draw a line in a different place.
We'll just read the whole thing. This is the birth of Jesus. And there's something that's going to be, there's something that's going to be, to me, instructive in these gifts.
And I want to, these gifts. The story is of the wise men. Well, let's just read it.
Now, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying,
Where is he that is born king of the Jews? Now, it was not too long ago that we,
I believe, went through the book of Matthew. Didn't we do Matthew? I don't remember.
I've lost track of all that I've done. How did they know? How did these wise men know that this king, there was this king born king of the
Jews. How did they know? Okay, I'll take that, but how did they know what that star meant?
I mean, they saw a star. They'd been given a vision.
They could have been given a vision. They were followers of the sect established by Daniel of the wise men, the
Magi. That's why we call them the Magi. And why do we say there were three of them?
There were three gifts. Not that there were three Magi. There were probably hundreds of Magi. There were a delegation of king makers from the enemy of Rome, Parthia.
Would you have been nervous had you been Herod, a vassal of Rome, and all of these guys from Parthia came and said, we're looking for a man to establish his king?
Well, he was nervous. For we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him.
When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled. And all Jerusalem with him.
Well, Herod for sure, because he's the king to be displaced, and all the people with him because they don't want another war on their territory between the
Romans and the Parthenians. They've had enough of that. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.
See, he has a clue. He has an idea of what it is they're looking for. And they said, in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet,
And thou, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah, for out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people
Israel. Then Herod, when he had privately called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.
Why do you think he wanted to know that? What he's going to do in the follow -up is he's going to kill all the newborn babies that he can find that were born from the time this star appeared until now.
And that would have included Jesus had he been able to find it. Why didn't he find Jesus? He was in Egypt.
They were looking in the wrong place. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said,
Go and search diligently for the young child. And when you have found him, bring me word again that I may come and worship him also.
Right. And when they had heard the king, they departed.
And lo, the angel which they saw in the east went before them. Now, all of a sudden, the angel has taken them to Bethlehem.
Why didn't he take them to Bethlehem to start with? Why didn't the star just go to Bethlehem and park over the manger?
Because the king had to know. It took him to the king. The king had to do what he had to do. Then it picked up and took him to the place where the young child was.
Yeah, there was a prophecy that said that the women of Israel would weep because of the number of children that were killed.
I don't remember which prophecy that was, but that was one of the prophecies. And all the prophecies had to be fulfilled.
And when they had come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother and fell down and worshipped Mary. Did I get that wrong?
Who did they worship? They worshipped him. They worshipped the baby. They didn't worship
Joseph. They didn't worship Mary. They didn't even recognize Joseph or Mary.
They worshipped the baby. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented him with gifts.
Now, if I were going to bring a gift to a baby, I would bring something to eat, something to drink, a cuddly toy to play with, maybe something shiny.
And we got one of those. Bringing him gifts of gold.
Okay, why gifts of gold? Okay, that's the practical reason, but that's not the real reason.
What's the real reason? Have you thought about this before? Kingship.
It is prophesying. It's relating to his coming role as king.
Now, the next thing. Frankincense. What do you think?
The coming role as priest. As the chief priest.
As the priest after the order of Melchizedek. As the real priest. As the only priest. Coming role as king.
Coming role as frankincense. And now look. The word we're looking for.
Meyer. What's the purpose? Okay.
I said for his coming role as suffering redeemer. As a substitute for the sins of the elect.
So, when he was born, the Magi came and they did a kind of a prophecy.
What was the prophecy? Here lies the king. Here lies the head priest. The chief priest. The only priest.
And here is the redeemer for all the sins of the elect. Isn't that interesting?
The next time we strike Meyer in the New Testament. Oh, let me finish the verse.
Verse 12. And being warned of God in a dream, they fulfilled their purpose, that they should not return to Herod.
They departed into their own country another way. So, they didn't go back and tell.
Even though he asked them to come back and tell so we could worship them. The Holy Spirit said, Well, no, he doesn't want to worship. He wants to kill them.
You go back a different way. Let him find them himself. Which they couldn't do. The next place we run into Meyer is in Mark 15, 23.
So, go there. I'm going to start at 22.
And they bring him. They're talking about Jesus. And they bring him to the place
Golgotha, which is being interpreted the place of the skull. And they gave him to drink wine mixed with myrrh, but he received it not.
Okay, so what's happening here? Pardon me. A painkiller given by a group of sympathetic people.
Now, you say, how do you get that? Because it would be sympathetic to give myrrh to someone before you put him on the cross.
It would ease the pain, wouldn't it? That would be a sympathetic thing to do. That's kind of out of character with the
Romans. They put him on the cross because they wanted him to be in agony. The first thing
I want to look at is the myrrh being there. What is that? That is the indication of Christ, the suffering redeemer.
I've got a sermon for you. And I'm not going to read it all. I'm going to read a good bit of it, though.
This is Spurgeon's Sermon 2443. If you want to look that up later,
I'll give you the number. The determination of Christ to suffer for his people. And I highlighted the phrase that I had never seen before.
Or I had seen it before, I guess, but it never occurred to me. After they gave him to drink the wine mixed with myrrh, what did
Jesus do? He refused it.
Why did he refuse it? It would have cut down on his suffering.
And he had to suffer. How much did he have to suffer? All of it. Here's what
Spurgeon said. I thought this was such a great sermon that I had to read a piece of it. Was it out of any love to suffering that he thus refused the wine cup?
Ah, no. Christ had no love for suffering. He had a love of souls. But like we, he turned away from suffering.
He never loved suffering. We see did not, for even in the garden.
He said, Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. That's the cup of suffering.
It was human nature struggling against suffering as human nature rightfully does.
God has made us so that we do not naturally love suffering. And it is not wrong for us to feel some repugnance to it.
For God has implanted that repugnant, repugnance? How do you say that?
Not repugnant. It's A -N -C -E. Repugnance. Repugnance.
For God has implanted that repugnance in us.
Christ did not suffer because he loved suffering. Why then did he suffer?
For two reasons. Now, one of you guys have already given Spurgeon's first reason.
Because this suffering to the utmost was necessary to the completion of the atonement.
Which saves to the utmost. And because this suffering to the utmost was necessary to perfect his character as the merciful high priest.
Who has to care for the souls that have gone to the utmost miseries themselves.
His suffering had to be greater than any suffering by anyone else. Otherwise that other person could say,
I had to suffer more than you. You can't understand how I feel. There is never anyone in the whole universe that has ever suffered more than Jesus had to suffer.
I think that is where he suffered most. I don't think his suffering was mostly physical suffering.
I think his suffering was physical suffering. What was mostly suffering in being separate and having to bear the sins of everyone else.
So I think you are exactly right. Being separated from his
Father was his greatest suffering. His character as merciful high priest who has to care for the souls that have gone to the utmost of miseries himself.
That he might know how to succor them that are tempted. First I say it was necessary to make the atonement complete.
I think that if our Savior had drunk this myrrh cup the atonement would not have been valid.
It strikes me that if he had drunk this wine mingled with myrrh. He could not have suffered to the extent that was absolutely necessary.
We believe Christ did on the cross suffer just enough and not one particle more than was necessary.
He suffered exactly as much suffering as God had set out for him to suffer. He suffered all the suffering that was necessary and not one particle more for the redemption of his people.
And if you want the rest of that sermon you can look it up.
I'll give you the number. It's on the internet. You can find all of Spurgeon's sermons free just to read.
Spurgeon's sermon number, I forget what I said, 2446 I think.
2443 and you'll get this particular sermon. And it's a lot longer than an excerpt.
The next time we find myrrh in the New Testament is in John 19, verse 39.
So let's go there. Now when we found it?
We found it at his birth signifying what was ahead of him. Kingship, high priestness, and suffering as Redeemer.
John 19, verse 39. Then in Mark we saw it at the crucifixion or just prior to the crucifixion to ease the pain.
But he refused it. And now, one more time, I'm going to start at verse 38.
And after this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus but secretly for fear of the
Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave him leave.
And he came therefore and took the body of Jesus. And there came also
Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pound weight.
Now it's interesting to me two things. Number one, now we know for sure that Nicodemus actually did see the light and was born again.
Because this is way later. This is at a time when it had been easy for Nicodemus to hide out again like he did the first time.
But he didn't. He came to Pilate and they brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pound weight.
And they took the body of Jesus and wound it in linen cloths with spices as the manner of the
Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden. And in the garden a new sepulcher which never man had yet laid.
And they go ahead and bury Jesus in that new sepulcher again to complete the gospel.
Now, if you do a word study on myrrh, m -y -r -r, you'll find myrrh listed exactly three times in the
New Testament. In just three. And we just read them all. One had to do with his birth.
One had to do with his crucifixion. And one had to do with his burial. Yes, sir.
I think I can, I think that's the way, I think I'd say it that way. Yes. When he said it is finished on the cross, there was one last thing left to do.
But that was not done by him. That was done by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea to bury the body.
You will find myrrh a lot of times in the Old Testament. But only those three times in the
New Testament. But there is something else that I thought was worth reading to tie all of this together.
And it's one that does not mention the word myrrh at all. And when I get through,
I'm going to ask you why it is that myrrh was not mentioned here. Go ahead and go to Isaiah 60 verse 1.
And when somebody recognizes what we're talking about, let me know. Already, huh?
What are we talking about, Mark? Okay, at verse 6, tell me what we're talking about.
And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and the kings to the brightness of thy rising.
Lift up thine eyes about, and see. And they shall gather themselves together, and they shall come to thee.
Thy son shall come from far, and thy daughter shall be nursed at thy side. And then they shall see and flow together, and thine heart shall fear and be enlarged, because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee.
The forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee. The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Media and Ephah.
All they from Sheba shall come, and they shall bring gold and incense, and they shall show forth the praises of the
Lord. Now, I want to ask you a different question than I said I was going to ask. What's missing?
Myrrh. What's present? Gold and frankincense. Now, they call it incense, but it's frankincense.
Gold and frankincense, and what's missing is myrrh. Why? Okay, no more death for him.
There is some more death. This is a passage of the millennial kingdom.
Jesus is dead. He has been buried. He has been born.
He's been crucified. He's been buried. He's been resurrected. He's been installed as the king of this new kingdom.
Now, in this new kingdom, there still is death. In fact, it says if a man died at 100 years old, he would be considered a baby.
I can't remember exactly the numbers, but there will be people that start the millennial kingdom and live all the way to the end.
And if somebody dies early, well, he must have been accursed because he didn't live through the millennial kingdom.
Then at the end of the millennial kingdom, there's going to be a widespread rapid death. There's going to be
Armageddon, and there's going to be a lot of death. So there's still death, but there's no more death for the
Messiah. His death, birth, crucifixion has all been done.
Birth, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Crucifixion, no more gold, just myrrh.
Mixture of myrrh and aloes, just myrrh. Resurrected.
Now, I want to do a verse that's kind of out of context, but we're going to read it anyhow.
Brother David can chat with me about this later if he wishes. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 55.
I'm going to apply this verse to Jesus. Now, it's not intended to be applied to Jesus.
It's intended to be applied to someone else, and we can discover or determine who that is as we go along.
I won't be here long. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, what does this passage refer to? It's referring to us after death has no more hold on us.
And when is that? Okay, I'm going to...
But you still have in front of you death, don't you? But death doesn't have a sting anymore, does it?
Why? Because you've got victory over death. How do you have victory over death?
Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus has the victory over death, and only through Jesus we have our victory.
I'm going to go ahead. I'm going to go back and finish reading that passage in Isaiah. You don't need to go back there.
60, starting at 7. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee. The rams shall minister unto thee, and thou shalt come with acceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify my house with glory.
Who are these that fly as clouds and as doves to the window? Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish, first to bring thy sons from afar, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the
Lord thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because He has glorified thee. He's talking about Israel.
Israel will now be the center of His work.
And the sons of the strangers shall build up thy walls, and the kings shall minister unto thee for my wrath.
I smote thee, but in my favor have I had mercy on thee. Therefore thy gates shall be continually opened, and they shall not be shut day nor night, that men may bring unto thee the forces of the
Gentiles, that their kings may be brought. For the nation and the kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish.
Yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. The glory of Lebanon shall come to thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together to beautify the place of my sanctuary, and I will make the place of my feet glorious.
The sons of them that afflict thee shall come bending unto thee, and all that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet, and they shall call thee the city of the
Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel. So that's
Israel's position in the Millennial Kingdom. They will be the city.
Jerusalem will be the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel. Okay. I didn't really get to Smyrna.
So I want to go back and just do it just a little bit, and then we'll pick it up next time. And unto the angel of the church of Smyrna write,
Now, these things saith the first and the last, which was dead and alive.
All right. That's verse 8. That's the first verse in the letter to the church of Smyrna.
And unto the angel at the church in Smyrna, that's the name, write these things, saith the first and the last, which was dead and is alive.
Now, the second of the seven things that are common to all letters is this item, the title of the church, and the title of Jesus.
I misspoke. The title of Jesus. And what's the title of Jesus here? The first and the last, which is dead and is now alive.
Smyrna prided itself as the first city in Asia. They thought they were the cock of the walk.
They thought they were like the shining star, a city with a crown. They thought they were just the finest city in Asia Minor.
It was a city that had been destroyed and had recovered to become great again.
They prided themselves as a city that rose from the dead. They thought they were the first and the last.
They thought they were that which was dead and had become alive.
And Jesus is telling them, wait a minute, it's not you that's the first and the last.
It's not you that was dead and rose from the dead. It was me. Remember what
Jesus said? I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold,
I am alive forevermore. That's the living and dead.
What about the first and the last? I have the key to hell and to death.
Jesus has control over everything. It is Jesus that's first and last.
It is Jesus that was alive and dead. He said that to remind the Christians in Smyrna.
Remember, the Christians in Smyrna were suffering great tribulation. Not the great tribulation, but a very great tribulation.
He said that to remind the Christians in Smyrna that they serve a risen Lord, victorious over death.
Death could not hold Jesus, and death cannot hold his people. Okay, that is where I'm going to have to stop.
I am going to... No, I'm not going to do that. I will do that next time. We'll just go ahead and stop here.
Yes, sir. The name
Ephesus means the beloved. The beloved. The one who is loved.
And that kind of fits with what their problem was.
Their problem was they've lost their love. What's this church's problem,
Mark? Trick question. They didn't have one.
Okay. Any other questions? Because we are running... I think it's interesting that every letter that's written, the title of Jesus changes according to the issue he addresses in the church.
Exactly right. And he tells them what the church...
The name of the church tells them how they are viewed by him.
His title tells them the problem that he is going to address. And in this case, he's going to address their suffering, but he's not going to criticize them for their suffering because that's nothing to be criticized about.