(Spiritual Preparedness #2) the Spirit's Warning to His Church — Ed Miller

Once again, we come to look at God's precious Word, and I remind you of a principle of Bible study, and as I remind you, I remind my own heart of that principle of Bible study that is absolutely indispensable, a principle we cannot take for granted, a principle we cannot live without, and that is total reliance upon God's Holy Spirit.

Every time we come to this book, we must remember that only God can reveal God. He delights to do it. He longs to show Himself far more than we desire to see Him, but only the Lord can reveal Himself.

Any study of that book apart from the Holy Spirit's revelation of the Lord will just make us prouder and prouder because knowledge puffs up how we need both sides. We need the human side. We're not glorifying ignorance.

We need to study, but having said that, we need the divine side, and after all the donkey work is done, we need to come as little babies before the Lord and just ask the Lord to dawn Christ on our hearts.

He promised He would. I want to share a verse before we pray together, and then we'll look together where we left off yesterday afternoon. I think all of us, maybe through Job or some other truth or some other passage in Scripture, have rejoiced in the fact that Satan can't do anything apart from God's permission.

Has that blessed your heart through the years? It's the truth that Satan needs permission to do anything. Well, it struck me when I was reading Isaiah that so do I. I need God's permission before I can do anything, and you need God's permission before you can do anything.

God's Permission to Seek and Find Him

In that connection, listen to two phrases from Isaiah 65 verse 1. I permitted myself to be sought. I permitted myself to be found. Isn't that a tremendous thing? God gives you permission to seek Him. You can't do anything without His permission.

I can't do anything apart from His permission, and He's given His permission to seek Him, and He's given His permission to find Him. 2 Chronicles 15 verse 2 says, If you seek Him, He will let you find Him.

We have His permission, and so by His permission, I'll ask you to bow with me, please. Now, you don't come into God's presence when you bow your head. You're already in the presence of the Lord before you bow your head, but in a special way, you acknowledge that presence when you bow your head.

So let's bow in His presence and ask for His guidance. Our Heavenly Father, we're so thankful again for your indwelling life, the Holy Spirit who lives in our hearts, whoever searches the depths of God, who takes the things of our Lord Jesus and mercifully reveals them unto us.

Thank you for the permission to seek you and to find you. Draw us, and we'll run after you. Minister the Lord Jesus this afternoon to our hearts. You know who we are. You know where we are. You know every need in our heart, every desire, every hunger, every capacity.

Lead us where we are, and take us where you would have us. We ask in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen. Well, this afternoon, I'd like to continue our little look at spiritual readiness and spiritual perfection.

Revelation's Warning to the Churches

And this afternoon, I'd like to look at chapters 2 and 3 of the book of Revelation, God's address to those who had taken their eyes off the Lord Jesus in some way, and he was inviting them back. Now, the only review that I'll really give is to place before you again the great burden that's on my heart this weekend, and that is the reminder that the coming Lord is already here, and the one who's coming someday spiritually is here right now.

And if I'm going to be prepared to meet him when he comes physically, I need to be meeting him as he unveils himself spiritually as the Holy Spirit progressively reveals the Lord Jesus in this book. If in reality, I am open to that present revelation of the Lord, he will be changing me, and I will be being prepared for that day when he comes as we've heard so wonderfully through our brothers in great glory.

Now, the illustration of that message that I'm using is found in Revelation chapters 1 to 3, and I suggested that Revelation chapter 1, pictured by John the Apostle, the servant of the Lord, he sets before our hearts the right attitude as he fell before a full revelation of the risen and exalted Christ, and as God unlocked for him and disclosed the great mystery of union with Jesus.

He's in us, in the lampstands, in the churches. We're in him like the stars in his right hand. Corporately, he's in the churches individually holding every Christian in his right hand. I think he pictures the remnant church.

He pictures the church ready, the church prepared, the people of God ready for the immediate or the distant future because they have fallen before a full revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. In contrast to that, we have Revelation chapters 2 and 3, the illustration of these seven churches of Asia, and under these seven churches, these representative churches, I believe the Lord is showing us at least seven possibilities on how we might fall away from chapter 1 and how he invites us back again.

God, I believe, has given us these seven churches in order to illustrate the seven ways, the seven possibilities of taking our eyes off the Lord Jesus. And so the question is, and I pray that God will answer it this afternoon, are we in chapter 1?

Or are we somewhere in chapters 2 or 3? I like what Brother Heil reminded us of last evening, and that is the importance of warning in our lives. Don't despise it when the Lord allows you to be warned.

When we read the scriptures and see some of the saints that have fallen away, we're surprised that some of them fell away in their maturity, not in their youth. And I believe the more you go on in the Lord, the more warning you will need.

And the more I go on in the Lord, the more warning I'm going to need. I know that we're about to look at sort of a large portion of scripture and we can't do justice to looking at seven churches in one shot.

I know that. Nothing I say this afternoon, I believe, is going to be new to you. I think you've already heard everything that I'm going to share with you. I think, I don't know, I think these truths that I'm going to share are illustrated in Revelation 2 and 3.

I know these truths are Bible truths. I think they're illustrated in this chapter. I won't be 100 dogmatic on that, just 99 dogmatic on that. But I know they're Bible truths. Now, if you have a struggle with my illustration and you say, I'm misapplying some of these words to these seven churches, don't let that hang you up.

An illustration is not the point. The point is the point. And an illustration is given to illustrate the point. I know the points are the truth in the balance of scripture. So what I'll give you is the balance of scripture.

I think they're wonderfully illustrated in this section. So we'll look at it that way. Again, if you don't accept fully my illustration, then throw the illustration out, but don't throw the point, the truth of God out.

All Seven Churches Hear All Seven Letters

Now, before we actually begin, and so on, let me mention two things by way of introduction to these seven churches. The first is this, that all seven churches received all seven letters, because all of the letters are in the book of Revelation.

In other words, those seven letters never existed apart from the book that we call Revelation. That's where they are. That's where they existed. You say, didn't every church get its own letter? Well, glance at these verses.

Chapter 2 .1, to the angel of the church in Ephesus, write. 2 .8, to the angel of the church in Smyrna, write. 2 .12, to the angel of the church in Pergamum, write. 2 .18, to the angel of the church at Thyatira, write.

Chapter 3, verse 3, to the angel of the church in Sardis, write. Verse 7, to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, write. Verse 14, to the angel of the church at Laodicea, write. They each got their own letter, but Ephesus didn't go to the mailbox one day and find the letter Revelation 2 .1 -7.

That's it. And Smyrna didn't go to the mailbox and find chapter 2, verses 8 -11. They all went to the mailbox and found a book called Revelation. And in Revelation, they had all seven letters. So, each one got the letter addressed to them, but they also got the letter addressed to the other six.

That's why that refrain that is found in 2 .7 is used over and over and over again. He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, plural, churches, not just the church. All seven churches got all seven letters.

You see, as a believer in the Lord Jesus, I need the warnings that were given to every church, and so do you. And Ephesus needed to see what God had to say to Ephesus, but they also needed the warning God gave to Smyrna.

And Ephesus needed the warning God gave to Pergamum, and so on. So, that's the first observation. They all got all seven letters. Second observation has to do with the spiritual message connected with each of these epistles.

The Seven Ways Believers Lose Sight of Christ

I suggested that there are seven ways illustrated here, seven ways we can take our eyes off the Lord Jesus. I personally believe there are only seven ways we can take our eyes off the Lord Jesus. I believe the Holy Spirit, that God sovereignly overruled history so that these seven possibilities might appear at one time on the earth, so that God could collect them together, and for the instruction of His body through every age until Jesus comes, we would have His final word to the churches.

I want you to look to Christ. Be careful of this that might take your eyes off Christ. Be careful of this, and this, and this, and seven ways that we might take our eyes off Christ and find ourselves unprepared.

May God help us as we look at that. I believe as you go through these seven churches, you'll see a spiritual order. And by that, I mean, I think it starts off in the most common way that we might take our eyes off the Lord Jesus.

And as you go through the churches, each one becomes more and more subtle than the one before it. You know, every Christian has two sets of eyes. You have these eyes we call the natural eye, and you also have these eyes, the eyes of your heart, the eyes of your spirit, by which you discern spiritual things.

And as you go from Ephesus to Laodicea with these eyes on the outside, according to what it looks like, it's not true, but it looks like, the outward appearance is that each church is more spiritual than the church that went before it.

In other words, if you look at the church of Smyrna, Smyrna will appear with these eyes more spiritual than Ephesus, and Pergamum will appear more spiritual than Smyrna and Ephesus, and so on all the way through.

And therefore, as you go through the churches, you'll find the warnings become more and more intense as you go through the churches, because the error is more and more subtle, and therefore more and more insidious.

The average Christian will be most apt to fall as Ephesus did. If you grow in the Lord, you might be tempted to fall as Smyrna did, and as you keep on growing increasingly all the way through the churches.

Of course, the all-inclusive safeguard from all seven errors is to stay in chapter one. See, then you don't have to worry about anything. Just stay on your face before a full revelation of our Lord Jesus.

Let Him continually discover to your heart the wonder of your union with Him. He's in you, and you're in Him, and you'll never get to the bottom of that. I'll never get to the bottom of that. All right, let's begin.

Ephesus: Leaving the First Love

Now, you know, we can only look at the heart. Got to jump over so many treasures here. Let's look at the heart of each one. What caused the church of Ephesus to be unprepared? How'd they fall into the hole?

How did they take their eyes off the Lord Jesus? Well, let's go straight to the heart of it. Chapter two, verse four, I have this against you, that you've left your first love. Dear friends in Christ Jesus, the chief, the most obvious way that Christians stumble and get their eyes off the Lord is that they lose their first love.

Now, when you read the record, Ephesus was one of the strongest, most vibrant, active assemblies in all of Asia Minor. You know, when you read it at first glance, it looks like they're being commended by the Lord.

They're being praised by the Lord. Verse two, I know your deeds. I know your toils. I know your perseverance. I know you cannot tolerate evil men. You put those to the test. And then in verse six, I know you hate the work of the Nicolaitans.

I hate it too. Sounds like Jesus is commending them. He's praising them. I'm not sure he is. Just because he knows it doesn't mean he approves of it. For years, I thought that they were about 80 or 90 percent on the right track, but they needed a slight adjustment.

They just had a little problem, a fly in the ointment. And all they needed, I thought, is to get that right because God knows all about their labor and their witness and their testimony, their Christian ministry, their service, their perseverance.

I'll tell you, brothers and sisters in Christ, may God help us when we get warnings like this. The Church of Ephesus did not need a slight adjustment. They needed to repent or God was about to remove them from their place as a candlestick.

That's not a slight adjustment. Their labor, their ministry, their clear doctrine, their discriminating zeal, their loyalty, their perseverance. God says, I know it all. And then he says, now repent from where you've fallen.

They were doing all of that in a fallen condition. He said, go back to the first works. You see, everything was aborted because they'd left their first love. What's first love? Most Christians, I think, believe that it's some kind of an emotion, some kind of a feeling.

You know, when you first meet the Lord Jesus, it feels like God has tipped the jug of honey over in your heart and you get goosebumps and it's thrilling. And I know in my case, I wept for three hours, one, when I came to the Lord, very emotional.

And they say, well, that's first love, that first exuberance of emotional joy, that peace that you felt when God first lifted the burden. Well, that might be part of it, but that's not first love. I believe a clear statement of what first love is, is in the prophet Jeremiah.

Listen, as I read several verses from Jeremiah chapter two, what is first love? Listen to Jeremiah two and verse two, go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem saying, thus says the Lord, I remember concerning you the devotion of your youth, the love of your betrothal, your following after me in the wilderness through a land not sown.

And then in verse five, thus says the Lord, what injustice did your fathers find in me that they went far from me and walked after emptiness and became empty. And then in verse 13, my people have committed two evils.

They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and they've hewn out for themselves, cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. What's first love? First love is a person and his name is Jesus.

They departed from the Lord first love first as in preeminent. Jesus was a one and only, you know, there's a difference between prominent and preeminent. Jesus does not want to be prominent in your life.

You can have many prominent things in your life. I hear so much about these lists, these priority lists in Christians. First is the Lord, and then is my family. That's second. And then third is the assembly and the fellowship of God's people.

And then my job, that's number four. And then my social life and on and on. Jesus doesn't want to be on that list. He's the alpha and the omega. He's the first and the last. He's the beginning and the end.

He's the whole list. You say first, that implies the second, and there is no second to Jesus. And there's no third to Jesus. Preeminent is one and only, and he wants to be your one and only. And that was the problem at Ephesus.

They had left the Lord Jesus as their one and only, and I'm not condemning their heart. They got so involved in the work. They got so involved in the ministry. They got so involved in the service that that intimacy they once had as they walked in love with the lover of their heart, the bridegroom of their soul.

They got so busy serving the Lord that they left their first love, and they got all wrapped up in the ministry. He said, I know your labor. I know your ministry. I know your service. I know your perseverance, but it's all in a falling condition because you forgot me.

Come back. Repent. Get back into that intimate union with the Lord Jesus. Make him your one and only. Now I say I know that's a Bible truth. Ephesus loved Jesus. Have you heard that before? Is that some strange teaching?

You want to be prepared? Love Jesus. I'd hold that. Smyrna. They also left a vision in chapter one. What was their error? Now you're probably familiar with the approach that says there are two churches among the seven.

Smyrna, the suffering church, and Philadelphia. And they had it right. There's nothing mentioned about any departure with these two churches. Some would suggest, oh, Ed's up there picking on the churches.

I'm not picking on the churches. I'm not blasting by making observations. I'm serious about this conference. I prayed a lot about it, as I know you have. And I want to be ready. And I know you want to be ready.

And if there's some suggestion here that perhaps in some way they took their eyes off the Lord, I want to see it. And I think if we look carefully, we'll see how subtle it was for them to look away from the Lord.

I've already been tempted in my life as Smyrna was tempted. And I have no doubt as I go on with the Lord, I'll be tempted again as Smyrna was tempted to take my eyes off the Lord Jesus. Now, clearly the commentators are right.

This is a suffering church. Verse nine, the Lord refers to their tribulation and their poverty and the blasphemy by those who claim to be Jews. In verse 10, the Lord Jesus warned them about that, what they were about to suffer, prison, tribulation, death.

You know, in that little letter, they must have been excited. A letter from Jesus to a suffering church. I can't wait to read it. Maybe there'll be some hope of a deliverance, of a release. But the opposite's true.

There was no promise of an end to their persecution. It's like Ezekiel's scroll in Ezekiel chapter two, eight and three, one to three. This arm came out of heaven with a scroll on it. And on the scroll was written lamentations, mourning, woe on both sides.

You ever get an arm handed out of heaven, give you a scroll with nothing but bad news on it. And then God said, eat it. It's hard to swallow. It's hard to eat something that's bad news on all sides. But he submitted to the Lord and the Lord fed it to him.

That thing became as sweet as honey because he accepted the will of God. Well, Smyrna had troubles, but their troubles were not their troubles. You know, your trouble's never your trouble. It's how you respond to your trouble that can be your trouble.

And their trouble was they took their eyes off the Lord. How so? Did they do what the church of Ephesus did and, and get out of that intimate walk with the Lord Jesus and that love union with him? Look to ministry and look to orthodoxy and their own loyalty and faithfulness?

I don't think so. I think verse 10 gives the key. Fear not the things which thou art about to suffer. Our Lord Jesus told them to fear not. The Greek word is very strong. Stop being afraid. Why does the Lord say stop being afraid?

What's implied in that? You see, they were afraid and he said, stop being afraid. I'm amazed that some of the same commentators that let Smyrna off the hook because they were afraid are pretty hard on the disciples on the stormy sea.

When our Lord Jesus in Matthew 14, 27 said the same thing, stop being afraid. It's I. Verse nine, look at that wonderful expression. I know thy tribulation and thy poverty. And then in parentheses, do you see it?

But you are rich, but you are rich. What an amazing statement. I know your tribulation. I know you're being blaspheming. I know Satan's against you. I know you're suffering. I know you're going to be cast into prison.

I know you're poverty stricken and I know you're going to die, but you're rich. You're rich. Smyrna didn't feel too rich. They were full of anxiety and fear. They had lost their peace. They were living poor.

What makes a person lose his peace and live poor? And may I suggest what they did, this suffering church and how easy it is, brothers, sisters, may God help us. They took their eyes off the Lord Jesus and they looked at their circumstances.

They looked at their suffering. They looked at their persecution. And when you do that, you're going to lose your peace and you're going to think you're poor. Those circumstances were the very things designed by God to make the lamp shine brighter.

They had kept their eyes on the Lord. Notice in this letter how in control the Lord is of everything. In verse nine, he claimed to know the origin of their suffering. He said, I know Satan's behind this.

I've allowed him to do that. And in verse nine and 10, he says, I know the form it's going to take. It's going to take the form of tribulation and blasphemy and suffering and prison. Verse 10, he says, it's going to be for 10 days.

Now the commentators have a heyday with that. Is that 10 periods? Is that 10 years? Is that what's 10 days? Is it 10 literal days? Forget the principle. It's a fixed time. I know that. He knows when it's going to end, whatever that 10 days mean.

It's a fixed time. And the Lord Jesus said, I know the origin of your suffering. I know the forms that it's going to take. I know the duration of your suffering. And in verse 10, he said, I know the end.

It's going to end in death. Verse 10, he says, I also know the purpose that you might be tested. What he says to Smyrna is this. Stop being afraid. Rest in me. I know the origin of what you're going through.

I know the form it's going to take. I know the duration of it. I know the end of it. I know the purpose of it. You don't have to live poor. Look to me, come back to me. Now, is this also some kind of a strange teaching?

Ephesus, love Jesus. Smyrna, rest in Jesus. No matter what you're going through, don't look to your ministry. Don't look to your circumstances. You see, he's calling them back. Chapter 2, 12 to 17, the church of Pergamum, they also took their eyes off Jesus.

Pergamum: The Word Without the Spirit

Now watch, it's going to get more and more subtle. Ephesus looked away from the Lord Jesus toward ministry and service. Smyrna looked away from the Lord Jesus toward circumstances. What did Pergamum look to?

I'll state it for you and then encourage you to study and see if it's so. Notice the many references to the Word of God in this particular epistle. Revelation 2, 12, the one who has the sharp two-edged sword says this.

You see, that's a reference to the Word of God. Verse 16, repent or I'm coming quickly and I'll make war with you with the sword of my mouth. That's a reference to the Word of God. And in verse 14, you have the expression teaching of Valem.

Something had gotten into the church, a teaching. That's the Word of God. And in verse 15, the teaching of the Nicolaitans. That's a reference to the Word of God. And in verse 17, to him who overcomes I will give the hidden manna.

And I think that's also a reference to the Word of God. And I believe the error of Pergamum is more subtle than the error of Ephesus or Smyrna. It's easy to get so involved because you love Jesus to get so involved in working for Jesus that you forget him.

It's easy when all the circumstances come in on you to look away from the Lord and look to circumstances. I believe Pergamum was looking to the Bible, the Word of God, apart from the revelation of the Lord, the letter of the Word of God, just the shell, not the Lord in the Bible.

And I'll tell you, if you're not seeing Jesus, that Bible can become a deadly thing. We don't have to develop everything that Balaam did. That's just the illustration. But if you ever studied Balaam, you see he had the right words.

It's amazing to read. So did the Nicolaitans. They had the right words, but it was just the cold letter. They neglected the spirit of it. They were out to gratify their own flesh. And you see in verse 14 what it led to, idolatry and immorality.

Why does God often bring those two together? I'll tell you why, because idolatry is a wrong relationship with God and immorality is a wrong relationship with man. And he's just showing that everything's wrong.

If you give the Word without giving the Lord, you know, you couldn't bring Balaam to court and catch him on his words. I once wrote down every word that he said, and I tried to find something wrong. You know, it's amazing if you don't have the spirit of God, I would have put Balaam in heaven and Lot in hell.

Just from reading the surface of it, if God didn't give us some light on that, everything he said was true. He said, I can't curse God. I can only do what he tells me. You can give me silver to fill my house and it's not going to change a thing.

When God says it, I can't change it. There's no way I can curse God's people. See, he was trying to get some money if he could curse God's people. You know the story. But then listen to the suggestion he made.

I can't curse God's people. Only God can curse God's people. And then he whispered in Balak's ear, I can't curse him. Only God can curse him. And God will curse him. Say, for example, they intermarried.

Then that would get God angry and he'd curse him. And he whispered that suggestion in his ear. And you know what happened? And that's what they did. And he said, well, what did he say wrong? He only told the truth.

He didn't say anything wrong. Except that his heart was very wrong. Like the Pharisees in John 5, they searched the scriptures in them. They think they have eternal life, but they will not come to me that they might have life.

How do you know, brothers and sisters, if you're taught of God? How do you know if it's the Holy Spirit showing you the word? I love in that connection, John 6, 45. John 6, 45 says they'll all be taught of God.

Everyone who's heard and learned from the father comes to me. If it leads to Jesus, it's from the Lord. That's how you know. If they'd been seeing Christ in the word, it would have produced a man like Antipas in verse 13.

But because it was just the word, the cold word, no spirit, no life, no blessing, no anointing, no revelation, no fruit. What's he saying? Is this strange? What am I saying? Listen to what I'm saying.

Love Jesus. Rest in Jesus. Don't come just to the letter of this book. Study the book to know the Lord. If you study Genesis to know Genesis, you're off-center. God gave us Genesis to know Jesus, and Exodus to know Jesus, and Revelation to know Jesus.

And that's the revelation that he gives. And look at what he promises in verse 17. If you'll repent, if you'll come back, I'll give you hidden manna, a white stone, a name written on it which no one knows but you.

I don't get technical there and miss God's heart. What's manna? You know, manna's food. That's provision. That's God's food. What's hidden manna? Well, that's secret food. That's private food. And what's a white stone?

It's just a precious stone. And what's a name written on it that only you know? That's your name. That's private. And what God says, they've been teaching in my church this word of God, but they haven't been giving you Christ.

Repent and come back to chapter one, and I'll feed you with hidden manna, a precious, precious revelation with your name on it, tailor-made just for you that nobody else has. That's what he's promising.

We need to come back to the Lord. The Bible without the Spirit of God encourages pride and covetousness, leads to unholy living, and it divides the people of God. We see that in Pergamum. Well, to save time, I'll just give you the heart of each of these remaining four churches.

Thyatira: Seeking Deeper Truths Beyond Christ

Ephesus looked away from Christ to ministry, and Smyrna looked away from Christ to circumstances, and Pergamum looked in an unhealthy way to the word of God itself. Thyatira, chapter 2, 18 to 29. This is the longest of all the epistles.

Now, it's not long because it's confusing or puzzling. It's long because the illustration of the point is long. He develops this whole Jezebel thing, and that took some time to do, but the key to their error is in verse 24, chapter 2, 24.

I say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira, who do not hold his teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call him, I place no other burden on you. That expression, the deep things of Satan.

Now, remember, this is the church of God. They're not saying, oh, come to our church. Our teaching comes from the pit of hell. That's not what they were advertising. They're not saying, come on here, we'll teach you about Satan.

Or they might have been saying, we'll expose Satan. We know his wiles and his schemes and his strategies and his tricks. They might've been saying that, but I think it's God's evaluation that said of Satan.

I think they were just teaching deep things. And God said, yeah, of Satan. See, they claim to have the deeper truth and deeper life, secrets of God, esoteric information. If you were visiting Asia Minor in that first century and you were looking for a place to worship and to fellowship, someone would ask you, what kind of an assembly do you want?

What are you looking for? If you were to say, I really want to get involved in ministry. And they'd say, well, go to Ephesus. That's where you go. Ephesus is involved in ministry. And if they said, not me, I want to go down right where Satan is and fight the good fight.

They'd say, well, then we say you go down to Smyrna because those Christians are on the front lines. If you say, I just want to learn the word of God. I want to know the Bible. They'd say, go to Pergamum.

That's all they do. They got Bible studies Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, every day. They got a different Bible study. You want to learn the Bible? Go to Pergamum. If you said, I don't really want to get involved in the ministry or go on the front lines or learn the Bible, but I want to know the deeper thing.

I want some deep truth, some insights. Then they'd send you to Thyatira. According to Revelation 2 and verse 20, this is the error that even led the bondservants of the Lord astray. I've been burned by every one of these churches.

I've been badly burned by Thyatira. I'll tell you, there was a season in my life. I didn't think Jesus was enough. And I went after deeper things. I needed something greater, something more, something higher.

Praise God for the Lord Jesus. But I wanted to know about fruit and victory and rest and entering into His light and how to have victory over sin and all of that kind of thing. And I ran after spiritual gifts and the fruit of the Spirit.

I ran after all of that. And I found others that did it with me. And we became rather elite, you know, and exclusive. And, oh, you ought to go over there because Ed has deeper truth. As if there were something that every Christian didn't have.

You know, when you got saved, you received God's Son. In that moment, you got everything. You've got everything. Oh, except one thing. Except the eyes to see it. And the only thing you're going to get from now till the time you go to heaven is eyes to see what you already have.

You have Him. I have Him. And there is no deeper truth. And there is no higher truth. I'll tell you, our Lord Jesus is everlastingly enough. Let's come back to chapter one. Is that so hard? Love Jesus.

Is that so hard? Rest in Jesus. Is that so hard? Seek Jesus. Is that so hard? Appropriate Jesus. Sardis, chapter three, one to six. To the angel of the church in Sardis write, he who has the seven spirits of God and seven stars says this, I know your deeds.

Sardis: A Reputation Without Spiritual Life

You have a name that you're alive, but you're dead. It's the church with a name, with a reputation. They would boast, we have no Nicolaitans here. Come to our church. There's no Jezebel here. They had a reputation that they were alive.

You ever hear someone say, I'm looking for an assembly that's alive. I don't want one that's formal and studied and stiff and stuffy and mechanical and cold and barren and ritualistic and dead. Give me some life.

I want to go to a place where there's life. Well, then that's where you'd go. See to Sardis, except that God said you're dead. Now, Sardis was differently dead. What do I mean by differently dead? See, the Pharisees were also dead.