Eschatology part 2 Revelation 2 1 7

We're going to be in verses 1 through 7. Verses 1 through 7. Now here's what's really cool, as I explained to you earlier. We have a time stamp. Is that Donnie? Is that Anna? Is the baby here? Baby's here, y 'all.

How are you feeling, Banna? Yeah? Yeah? Donnie? Good. How's little baby Jeff doing? Oh, oh yeah, Donnie Jr. All right, well anyways, I'm glad y 'all are here. That just made my day. Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, do this more.

John on Patmos and the Message to the Seven Churches

Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, wrote to John. Now let me tell you a little bit about John. Number one, John was the last apostle alive. We have the historical records of what happened to the apostles post-Pentecost.

And John was the last one. He had been sent to the island of Patmos, where he was banished. And after a while, he was released. And he made his way back to Ephesus with Jesus' mother Mary. And we think he died there about 104 to 106 AD.

He lasted that long. He was the youngest of the apostles. And as he was there, God in Patmos, as he was there, God told him, I want you to write a message from me to the seven churches of what is now, it was called the Galatia area, but basically it was what's now Turkey, modern day Turkey.

And there were seven very powerful churches there. The church here at Ephesus, now you have to get out of 20th century America, okay? They didn't have buildings. In fact, the first church buildings didn't exist for about another 300 years.

Nobody believed that Mary was, it wasn't until 431 that Mary was considered the mother of God. All of that Catholic and all that churchy religious garbage didn't come in for another 300 -400 years. But this young church was on fire, man.

When Paul established it about 53 -54 AD, they were flat lit. They were going after it like nobody's business. And Ephesus was a cosmopolitan city. It was the capital of that region for the Roman Empire.

And they had a lot of trade. They had a lot of money. And they also had a lot of idolatry. Well, when Paul got there and he preached, he stayed there two years training pastors, why the Southern Baptist Convention has to take four, but Paul stayed there for two years training up pastors.

Now, the pastors were a group of men, six, seven, eight men who led the church. And the church was simply the believing Christians in that area. Fast forward from 54 all the way up to about the late 90s when John wrote this, the book of Revelation, they had been just wearing it out for Jesus.

And Jesus speaks to them and He says this. Read along with me in Revelation 2, verses 1 -7. To the angel of the church of Ephesus. Now, real quick, you're going to see two illusions here. You're going to see the star.

He's addressing us to the angel and the star. Don't get lost in that. The word anglias is simply the Greek word for messenger. So, basically, Jesus is saying, hey, take down a memo, John, and send it to that pastor over in Ephesus.

So, yes, I am an angel and a star. Anyways, so to the angel of the church in Ephesus write, the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who walks around the seven golden lampstands, speaking to the seven churches of this area, I know your works.

I know your toil, your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who have called themselves apostles and are not and found them to be false. I know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my namesake and have not grown weary.

Verse 4, but I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen and repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent.

You, yet this you have. You hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

What the Church Was Doing Right

Let's look at three things today. First of all, what the church was doing right, what the church was doing wrong, and what will restore the church. The first thing is this. Let's talk about what the church is doing right.

And I would ask that you look at this through the paradigm of your own life and also judge Witten Baptist Church. Judge your own life and judge Witten Baptist Church. The first thing is they worked. And I want you to note here it says physical and spiritual work.

It says I know your works and then it says I know your toil. The Greek word here for toil is to work to the point of exhaustion. How many of you, your Christian life, can be labeled a work of the kingdom of God?

Second of all, how can it be labeled or do you label it as you're doing it to the point of exhaustion? How many of you all exhausted in the work? I'm not talking about your normal exhaustion. Why is it in America today, especially in the church, every time you ask how somebody is doing, you know what the number one answer I get?

I'm tired. I'm tired. Twenty-three-year-old kids. Dude, you're tired because you stayed up until three o 'clock playing Xbox, Nintendo, or whatever it's called. Why are you tired? I'll tell you why you're tired.

Because you have the facade of religion, but the point of contact to where you will be refreshed by God is through the Holy Spirit. And you and God, you believe in Him. You are a born-again Christian, but you have left out that connecting power of the Holy Spirit of God.

Why is it that the church today will not address the issues of the connection of the Holy Spirit? Now you say to me, pastor, how do I get that connection? It's one word. You ready? Obey. Obey. You're going to be in a right relationship with God.

Obedience gets you stronger. It gets you to a place where you feel your chest stuck out a little bit, kind of like yesterday around 5 .30. But I digress. It also says this. You have patience. How much patience do you have with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ?

Justin, more. How much patience do you got? Man, you know what will wear a Christian out? Other Christians. I mean, I expect the world to act like godless heathens. I do. I expect them to rip the Ten Commandments out.

I don't get fired up about that. I don't expect a heathen to act like any more than a heathen. But man, the thing that chaps my backside, the thing that will just wear me out is other Christians acting like heathens.

Or other Christians whining and complaining. We just got back from a mission trip. This church did. We took 50 of our people down there. And they work like Hebrew slaves. I mean to tell you, like little princesses.

Where's Jordan? Jordan, I call her the princess of Fayette County. Oh my gosh. That woman swung a machete and worked. No, she worked with me. She swung a sledgehammer. I actually had Jordan at one point making big rocks into little rocks.

I mean, that's how hard they worked. Nobody complained. Everybody worked. We had trench foot cuts, blood, sweat, tears. And we accomplished in one week what those churches couldn't do in a year. You know what's really weird though, Christians?

We're sprinters. We really are. How many of you have walked down the aisle and repented of a sin that God's committed or confronted or convicted you with and you were truly sorry? You prayed that prayer with that fat bald preacher.

I'll never do this again. And you did great for about 48 hours. Drunks? You hear what I'm saying to you? Pornography, young men? Why are we sprinters? Because we don't know how to endure. And the reason we don't know how to endure is because we even can't endure each other.

Guys, Christians will wear you out. How many of you in this room today, somebody in here has gotten on your nerves besides me? Man, God, I can't stand it. How many of you husbands and wives drove to worship this morning?

You were arguing the whole way up, but you hit that parking lot of glory and you're like, oh, hi, good to see you. God bless you. Oh, it's so good day to be alive in Jesus. You old haint, you know? The church in Ephesus here, they knew how to work.

Work. And Christian, here's something else. Let me just say this a little bit about work. If you have not sweated for the ministry of God, that's not the standard God said. You know what God said? The standard for work in the ministry was?

Blood. Blood. You need to work until you bleed. Now, some TV preachers will start talking about that's a relation to your finances. Give now until it hurts, till it bleeds. That's not what it's talking about harmonetically.

It literally means you work. The church is not made to have fancy drum sets, smoke machines, and sit in an air conditioning building on our butts, not doing anything. We have been called to go ye therefore, and do it till we bleed, yes, even if we die.

That's what the church of Ephesus was doing. The emperor of Rome at this time said, if you don't burn incense to me and reject Jesus, I'll kill you. Ephesus said, bring it. We are not gonna do that. And so Jesus is sitting there saying, good job.

It says this, they cannot bear false teachers. Now, what's really cool is if you go back just a little bit in time. Remember, this in Revelation is written in the late 90s. If you go back 50 years before, and I wrote it down for you in Acts chapter 20, Paul calls the overseers, and that's just another name for pastor.

He calls the overseers to him in Meletus. Now, that was about 50 miles south. Paul was getting ready to board a boat, and he knew that he would never see them again. In fact, the Holy Spirit said, you ain't gonna see these people again on this side of glory.

And so Paul called them, and he said, come down and meet with me, because this is the last time I'm gonna be able to see you. And so the pastors made that journey, and he got down there, and you can read the whole passage.

Maybe this will be a good devotion for you tonight. Paul sits there and says this. He says, boys, I got some things I need to tell you before I leave. And one of the things he said was, teach doctrine.

Why is it in church today that pastors want to get a emotional response instead of a spiritual one? In other words, if you're not crying, or going, whoo, the Holy Spirit hadn't moved, you know how you know the Holy Spirit moves?

When your life changes. It's not your emotions, it is your commitment and your level of commitment to the obedience of God. Don't tell everybody you're a Christian if you're the one sitting at the water cool telling obscene jokes about the blonde in the office.

Don't sit there and call yourself a believer if you are living one way like the world and living another way on Sunday morning. You just make the job harder for everybody else. But also know this, you are not connected in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, repent, and we'll get to that in a second. Second thing, it's not just what they were doing right. Jesus also said, hey, this is what you need to change. And notice what He says, it's really cool.

He sits there and says, you have left your first love. Well, that's kind of ambiguous, you know? I mean, you know what I mean? I wish sometimes in my infantile spiritual state that God would say, Jeff, don't touch that piano.

Oh, yeah. Jeff, Jeff, Jeff, don't do this. No, no, don't do that. It'd make it a little bit more clear. You know what I'm saying? But then He did. The entire Old Testament is there. The law is there. There are 600 commandments in the Old Testament.

And they won't save you because you can't keep them. You're not gonna keep them. You're going to screw up. That's why God invented Jesus. Oh, that was kind of theologically wrong. But that's why God sent Jesus, okay?

No Molinism, no Molinism. The idea here is this. That when you come to a place where Jesus is saying, I love what you're doing, but you've left your first love. That, my friends, is where most Christians in America are today.

In fact, I will say that's where most Christians in this church are today. This church is highly educated. You know justifications and doctrines of soteriology. For 19 years we have been studying systematic theology.

Whether you realized it or not. Do you realize that some of you in this room, who have gone through our MIT program, are better educated than most pastors that I mentor? For real. But here's the problem with knowledge.

Knowledge is great. Word of God tells us to study to show ourselves approved. But knowledge is absolutely useless without love. You see, some of us in this room, you know you're a believer. But your love has grown cold.

You hear what I'm saying to you? Everybody's looking at me like a deer in headlights. It's okay, we all know. Because every one of us struggles with it. We all struggle with it. We've lost our love. And notice what it says.

It doesn't say that we are lost. It doesn't say that. It says we've lost our first love. I still am a child of God regardless of how I feel because of the positional sanctification or that I am saved.

That's what salvation is in holiness. Holiness needs to be set apart. Not perfect. The word hagios means set apart. I have been positionally taken from my sin and the world and put as a child of God. I'm not lost.

God knows exactly where I am, okay? I haven't lost my salvation or anything like that. What I've lost is that intimate connection with God at times. And people, if you think that doesn't happen to pastors, stop smoking crack.

Because I'm telling you, it does. It will wear you out too, man. Especially when you have to get up here and preach and you feel like a big fat hypocrite the whole time you're preaching. Oh, man, it will wear you out.

How about people that are singing in the... What is this thing? Not a choir. What's it called? Praise team. I love Jesus. I can't sing good. You're singing it, but you ain't living it. How about you sitting out there today?

How many of you in this room know you're a Christian, but the intimacy of you and God is broken? That's what He's talking to the church at Ephesus about. You're doing good. Man, you're kicking butt in ministry, but you've lost your first love.

Now, what does that mean? Well, it means this. What is the command that Jesus said encapsulates all commands? If you understand this one thing, you're doing good. In fact, James says this, if you love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and you love your neighbor as yourself, you're doing good.

That's it. That's the standard, man. That's the standard. Now, not in obedience, but in that intimate relationship with God. Do you love Him? And do you love each other? Well, yeah, Pastor, I do. Let me tell you what I tell young women and young girls who come into my office who say, Oh, He loves me.

Oh, He loves me so much. Are you all sleeping together? Yes. Well, stop. He'll break up with me. Well, dummy, then He doesn't love you. You see, what's the definition of love? Sacrifice. Sacrifice. Men, you're to be the first one up and the last one down.

Dude, you should have all the scars. Your woman and children should not. That's the way it should be. That's what leadership is. It ain't being the one sitting in the chair that mom was bringing the plate of food to.

That's redneck. Leadership is you're the one serving. You're the one serving. Guys, I am the sovereign Lord and Master of my home. Now, my home used to have a lot of people in it. Now, it's just three.

Thank you, Jesus. But I am still sovereign Master and Lord. You know, every Thursday I do the laundry. I scrub the toilets. I love me a clean Clorox floor, kids. I love going to sleep every night smelling bleach.

If it ain't bleached, it ain't clean. Okay? Ain't nothing wrong with that. That's not me doing woman's work. That's me taking the leadership to get the job done. Ain't nothing wrong with that. Boys, if something ain't right in your home, listen to me.

It's your fault. Let me say that again. No, I changed my mind. It's not your fault. It's your responsibility to fix it. Now, there are some things you can't fix. I remember walking in my bedroom one time and my wife is sitting on that...

What's it called? That little bench in front of... Gwen, where are you? Chase. Yeah, that thing. That little... I call it a bench. She calls it a chase. But whatever. The little chase bench thing sitting there.

And she was like... And I'm like, baby, what's wrong? You know, I'm going to get the shotgun and draw my sword. I'm fitting to kill somebody. Made my wife cry. I'll jack you up. What's wrong, baby? Nothing.

I just felt like I needed to cry. All right, baby. I left. I ain't going to mess with that, all right? It ain't my fault, but it's still my responsibility. By the way, quick little marriage time. Do the three T's, men.

Touch, time, talk. Do them three T's. But that's another thing for another time. Guys, listen to me. They have not let their love be their priority. Last thing. How do you get restored? How do you get restored?

In other words, if you've lost your first love, as an individual or even as a church, if we've lost our first love, how do we do it? This is how you do it. We get the wonderful and talented Miss Carla to come up here and in a soft, melodic way.

And why is she doing that? Y 'all didn't know I was a Mozart person, huh? Why is she doing that? Someone's up here softly going, Just us. And the lights dim down, you know, and the pastor speaks in a small voice, Come, take me by the hand right now.

And you know how long that's going to last? You know how long that's going to last? It's going to last until you walk out that door. That's what's going to happen. Because you're trying to equate emotions with repentance.

Repentance as Obedience, Not Emotion

Let me tell you just a couple of things about repentance. Repentance is a prerequisite of an obedient lifestyle. Understand theologically, doctrinally, repentance is this. I'm going to give you a definition.

It is turning away from sin and then by default, turning to something else. Here's how we want to see repentance. I'm going to walk with God and walk with my sin at the same time. That does not work. It doesn't work, guys.

From personal experience. You ain't got to read the Bible. From personal experience, you know that. And you could be one of those Christians that have been in church long enough that you can fake it until you think you're going to make it.

Trust me on this, you ain't going to make it without repentance. Repentance is this. I'm walking this way and I stop and I change my mind which then changes my body and I walk back towards God. Let me show you what a healthy Christian looks like.

It is a spirit submitted to God and a mind submitted to the spirit and a body submitted to the mind. What am I doing wrong? Am I okay? I'm too close to what? Oh. Oh well. Spirit, mind, and body. Now most Christians live a carnal lifestyle in which their spirit is over here and they pay attention to it when they feel bad or on Sunday mornings and they live by their mind and their body.

That's why you're weak. That's why you're weak. And I'm not making fun of you. I had to fight this and still do have to fight this. But guys, that's not how God wants us to work. If repentance is a changing of your mind, it's based in the power of the Holy Spirit of God to change your heart.

When your heart changes, your mind will change. And when your mind will change, your body will change. That's how it works. Repentance, listen to me, is not emotion. In fact, I will tell you that when I obey God, I don't sit there and go, oh, thank you, Holy Spirit's come down on me.

Oh, and you know, someone hits me in the head and I fall out on the ground. That's showmanship. That's garbage. Repentance is an action. There's no Rocky Balboa music playing. How many of you guys, when you were growing up, you had daydreams in class?

Okay, the rest of you guys are lying. Because Darla sat about two rows over. This was in the first grade, 1976. She sat two rows over and about three chairs back. And Darla had blonde hair. And Darla was so pretty.

And I, in my mind, would sit there with my Richard Scarry, the little yellow bug. You remember those books? You younger kids don't know. It's paper folded and sewn together. It's called a book. But anyways, it was a little Richard Scarry golden bug book.

And I loved this book. And I would picture us sitting there with Mrs. Gable teaching at Holy Cross School. I would sit there and picture pirates coming through the window. And running over and picking up Darla and her going, No!

Right? And then I would take out my Richard Scarry book and go over there and beat them up. And Darla would go, No! Did anybody else have these kind of? Okay. Back to psychiatry I go. But anyways, I'm gonna be honest.

And I know all you boys have. You have. Maybe not with Darla or your Richard Scarry book. But you have. See? And those feelings of grandeur, they don't exist in repentance. Sorry. There's no movie. There's no songs being played.

It's just gut-wrenching, inch-by-inch obedience. And it stinks sometimes. And men, if you're one of those people that blame your wife or your kids or your church or your pastor because no one's encouraging you, you need to grow up some.

Okay? Reach behind with your hand like this and feel them lumps. That's called a spine. You might want to straighten yours out a little bit. Because it doesn't matter that no one encourages you. It don't matter that you don't get a gold bucky beaver badge for your efforts.

If you are a man of God, stand up and move forward and you will find out what's happening. If you lead, people will follow you eventually. And if they don't, it doesn't matter. Because you're doing what God's called you to do.

Be a man. Second thing, it's not just that repentance isn't feelings. Listen to me. It's not a prayer to God. Oh my Lord, I'm so sick of this. Have you repented? Yes, I prayed. Show me that in Scripture.

What does it say? Repentance is prayer. It's not. Repentance is obedience. Repentance. Repentance is obedience. It's you every day doing the right same old thing. It's not a prayer. Repentance is not conversion.

Oh my Lord. I love it. When's the last time you walked down an aisle? When's the last time you came to the altar and sought accountability in prayer? Well, I was saved back in 1977. Dude. You know how many times you should repent?

For me, it's pretty much, well, that's an exaggeration, but at least three or four times a day. I was about to say every hour, but that's not true. But at least three or four times a day. I'm going to be honest with you.

Now, I don't have the same temptations at 50, whatever, 54. Yeah, 54 that I had at 24. And temptations are very different. It used to be, you know. Now it's pork chops and candy bars, you know. I think the women were easier.

Guys, you guys have got to repent. When's the last time you were down here praying for repentance and accountability? You know what I'm saying? What's wrong, woman? Huh? Well, yeah, in my neighborhood they were, but anyways.

Repentance, listen, I'm almost done. Repentance is not faith in Jesus. Okay, listen to me. Faith in Jesus is before repentance. Let me say that again. Faith in Jesus is before repentance. Regeneration, I won't go, this is not an order to salute us, but regeneration by the power of the Holy Spirit, you receive that faith initially from God, then it is built upon.

Repentance is part of the sanctification process that has to happen every day. Come on, just a couple more. Repentance is not good works. Listen to me. Well, Pastor, you just said obedience, right? Obedience starts in the heart first, and is manifested in works, okay?

Just like I hear people all the time say, I got faith. Show me your faith. Let me quote James here. Show me your faith. Well, I believe. That ain't faith. That's you saying something. You know how you see faith?

You see it played out in the works of your life. You can't say you have faith if you're being disobedient to God. You're not trusting Him, or trusting in the obedience to His Word. And the last thing is this.

Return, Accountability, and the Call to Respond

What do you do? You return. Now, I'm going to ask the little music peoples to come up here. Now listen to me. Listen to verse 7 once again. It says this, Anyone who has an ear, let him hear what Jesus says to the seven churches.

Guys, you know what time it's fitting to be. This is game time. My sermon is the halftime show. I ain't nothing. I'm a loser. I'm a big fat stupid loser just like all of you. Okay? Here's the game right here.

This is where the rubber hits the road. People say, Brother Jeff, I can repent right here in this, you know, just that. Holding on to the back of the chair, you get that little feeling, you give that little quick prayer, and nothing changes.

You know why? Because you don't have accountability. That's what happens. You see, if I am a Christian, now I am a licensed ordained senior pastor, credited and credentialed. I can speak Greek. I teach people all over the world.

I ain't jack. If I didn't have brothers and sisters in Christ telling me, Hey dude, you have an exhaust fan in your bathroom too, I would be in left field. Okay? I've got to have accountability. You've got to have accountability.

Romans 10, 9 and 10 says, Believe in your heart and confess with your mouth. If you are not up here, if you are not out there, getting someone to pray with you and then to call you every day going, Dude, did you look up www .dontlookatthis .com?

You know? Hey dude, if you had a beer today, hey crackhead, if you busted that pipe, if you twisted a fatty, whatever it is, if you don't have that, you are going to fail. I'm not trying to be mean to you, I'm just telling you how this really works and how God knew it would work, so He gave us the church for us to confess our faults one to another so that we could be healed.

If you try to go through life as a Christian on your own, it is going to be a miserable experience for you. Hey Katrina, guys, this altar is open for you. Let me ask you this, do you know for a fact that you are a Christian forgiven of your sins by the blood of Jesus Christ?

If you have a question about that, now is the time of your salvation. Number two, if you are a Christian but you're struggling, let someone pray with you. Let someone build you up. Let someone get on your shoulders and sit there and go, Dude, hold the left up, man.

You're a sucker for the counterpoint. Let someone help you. If you're in this place and you don't have a church home, this is not the place to come and play. Okay? If you're here, you're going to be expected to work like a Hebrew slave.

You're going to be making your own straw and brick. Okay? But if you're ready for something more than just sitting in a stupid pew, come and join us. We need to help. And last thing, if you've never followed the Lord in obedience by baptism, you haven't done step one, man.

Oh, I'm a Christian. I've just never been baptized. Or here's what someone would say. Like me, I grew up Catholic, so I was christened, and then 20-something years later, I became a Christian. I had to get baptized again because that was nothing but a bath or a sprinkle.

That was nothing but a sprinkle. If you have never been baptized after you've been converted, you need to come up here and let's get that fixed. If you're in this room and you are a Christian, you are in a good stead, please don't sit there and sing the stupid song.

Go find someone who needs some ministry. Walk up and say, how can I pray for you? Walk up and say, hey, let me get all up in your life. I know that's going to freak. I don't have the same boundaries a lot of people do.

Okay? I don't. Because I think boundaries are stupid. Okay? Go ye therefore within these boundaries. There ain't no boundary. Get up in people's world, man. There are people in this room hurting right now.

There are people in this room confused. There are people in this room who the world is telling them so many lies they just believe it. Please, be the tool in the hand of God to change someone's life today.

I'm going to ask you to stand with me. And if God has spoken to you today, be obedient. Don't be afraid. You come this morning as God leads.