Church of Laodicea Pt2

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We've got the best thing for eyeballs that money can buy. And we finished and cut off just right as I said, naked.
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And we didn't really get to talk about that. What is the idea of being naked?
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If we go all the way back to Genesis, when Adam and Eve were created, there was something that was said after they were created and they were in the garden.
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It says that they were together in complete communion with their creator and creation, and they were naked and unashamed.
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Imagine that perfect communion with everything. And not being ashamed.
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But as soon as they were, Eve was beguiled by the serpent and her husband being right there with her, did nothing to to protect her from the serpent or from an intruder into the garden.
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What did he do? He reached for the same thing she did. They throw us all into corruption.
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And why did they have to go and make coverings for themselves? Is now it was shameful.
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It was shameful. Yeah. Now, nakedness has an idea of being ashamed.
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Who told you you were naked? Who told you you needed clothing?
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It wasn't I. This is God speaking, not me. I'm making my translation of it. And who told you you needed clothes?
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Who said you were ashamed? What have you done? And then that set the trajectory all the way through scripture of something being naked and ashamed.
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Think of Noah when his son came and he saw him in his nakedness after he got lit on some wine.
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What was his son's responsibility to do? Cover him up. But what did he go do?
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He went and told his brothers and made fun of his dad, which was disrespectful. He's got a curse to his whole family for the rest of generations to come.
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But what he should have done was covered his dad and his nakedness so he would not be made fun of and be ashamed.
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And we go all the way through the prophets. You get to some of the prophets which are very graphic in how they portray the the nation of Israel as being a whore, as being one set up to be bought as a prostitute on the block.
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And it said they were going to throw up her skirt and let all of the world see the shame of her nakedness.
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That's an Ezekiel. And so we see the idea of being naked as being ashamed, as being vulnerable and as honestly as being cast aside.
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Nobody. Hey, you go walking through the market naked. People aren't flocking to you. You're going to be ostracized and removed.
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So here it is. He says, you had all these things you thought you had and you've got the finest of clothes, but I'm telling you, you're naked.
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He says in verse 18, And I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich.
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Wait a minute. He just they just said how rich they were. And then he just said, meaning
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Christ said how poor they were. Also, as we were reading this, it says, I advise you to come buy from me gold refined by silver.
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And he goes on and talks about buying white garments. Now, they remember last week when we were reading through Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 55.
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This is a this is one of those 80 plus allusions back to the
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Old Testament, just in Isaiah long last week when we were reading that, it says, come to me and buy clothing, buy milk, buy water with money without money.
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What is he saying here? Come to me and buy these things. Why would he want them to buy gold refined by fire?
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Because it needs to be purified. It needs to be purified. And who has the best of all riches?
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Who has the purest of gold? None other than Christ himself. And this is in somewhat metaphorically speaking.
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And he also says here, I do think this is a kind of a play on words when you go, hey, they had the best of black garments, the blessed, the best of it, as Stephen said, they had the black wool.
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But he says, come to me and I want you to buy white garments. Why do they need white garments?
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What did the white garment represent? What's that? Purity. Yeah. And he says this in one of the other churches, he says, then
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I will give to him white clothing. Hey, and this is going to come up again and again and again.
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And Lord willing, we'll get to have the next week and chapters four and five, and we're going to see these elders, these 12 elders or actually total of 24, but 12 and 12, they put them together.
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We have 24 elders. You're going to see them with things that Jesus has already said he was going to give to these other churches if they overcame.
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One was white garments to crowns. That ain't crowns of being kingly or priestly or anything like that.
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It's the crown that show that you were an overcomer. Remember, he who overcomes, I will give him a crown.
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It was the stuff on us. It was basically the wreath of the winner of the games. He says here,
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I want you to buy this gold so you may have fire and that you may become rich.
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You will have these white garments so that you may clothe yourself. And he gives a reason why they needed to be clothed.
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Why do you need these white garments? Because you don't want the shame of your nakedness to be revealed.
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Why would you not want your nakedness and your shame to be revealed? So it's actually vulnerable.
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It's very vulnerable. And you pay and anybody that says when someone's preaching and I felt
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I felt guilty when someone preaches, you shouldn't feel guilty. You should feel guilty if you're guilty. All right.
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And you should be ashamed if you've done something shameful. The problem with the world today is nobody wants to admit guilt.
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Nobody wants to have anything that's shameful. That's why we do things out in the open square that should cause people to be ashamed.
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And there is no shame. Shame is good if you've done something wrong.
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Guilt is good if you've done something wrong. God has built that within the human conscience as a as a guide to point you to him.
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Even the unbeliever. We've done this a little bit on the in the academy on Sunday night is
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God has inherently put within the heart of man to know what is right or wrong. When you lie to someone, does that person know that you have lied to them?
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Not. Yeah, they don't. But you knew when you told that person a lie, something inside of you said,
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I just told them something that was not true. Then when you're caught doing that, what's the response?
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Shame. Yeah. Oh, that son of a gun caught me. And yeah, like this.
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Yeah, you're you're right. Defense, defense, go defense, anger or anger, defense, then shame, then shame.
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And he says here and I have to anoint your eyes so that you may see. You remember in one of the
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Gospels. I think it's actually in three of them that's talked about when Jesus anointed the blind man with his eyes, with clay.
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You remember how he did that? He spit on the ground, scooped up some clay or dirt, spit in it and he rubbed it together and he put it on that man's eyes and he could see that the best sad that money could have bought, probably.
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Man, imagine that Jesus spit in my eye. That had been awesome. And he says, hey, you can't see, but I will anoint your anoint your eyes so that you may see.
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He's telling these people more telling these people they've got the best I said that money can buy.
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Then you're talking to the people that have the best clothes that money can buy. You're talking to people who are very, very wealthy.
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And he's telling them, you're really not as good as you think you are. And we talked about this very briefly last week.
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What's what's the major problem with the church at Laodicea? They're self -deceived.
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Oh, yes, the water was bad. But the major problem is that they're they're saying they're rich.
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They're saying they're all these things. And Jesus telling them, that's not what you are. So therefore, they're self -deceived.
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And the biggest thing with being self -deceived is you don't know it. You don't know it.
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And Jesus is telling them, look, you're self -deceived. I'm the one that has eyes like flame of fire.
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I'm the one that has the ability to peer into the hearts and motives. And I can see every thought, action and intent.
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Do you think these people thought that they were naked? Poor, deserving of the judgment of God.
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I had to say something about that. And then you just ask that question.
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The question you just asked. Everything in verse 18 in here, he's telling them to come and purchase from me.
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All things that they are the top providers. Correct. Yeah. All of these things. They're they're they've got it.
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Yeah, it's like all of that that they have is worthless. That's why they're poor, you know. Because they think that because they're self -sufficient and they and by every external means, just from a human perspective,
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Laodicea was it. Not only was it it is the city, it was the place to go to in in in Asia Minor.
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But imagine the size, magnitude and wealth of this church. There was no broke people in that church.
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I will even go so far as to say if that you raise your hand. No, you're just OK. Get filled with the spirit.
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Yeah, they they were if there was anybody in need in that city,
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I would imagine this church would have been very open to helping and doing good.
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One, I don't think they want riffraff hanging outside their church. They're going to help it. OK. And hey, man, the we're well established.
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We're a well acquainted with wealth and we don't want unwealthy people here.
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So we're going to help those people. Now, is it is this a picture of a potentially apostating church?
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Yeah. What's the first thing you do to leads to apostasy? You then doubt the word of God by then doubting the word of God.
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They have turned from, OK, Christ is my need. And now I'm going to trust in all of these things.
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Money. Don't trust in the bad word. Trust in money and these fancy clothes.
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All these things that they could have trusted in. They're turning from that. Now, is everybody in this church an apostate?
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No, because he actually says here in verse 19, those whom
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I love, I reprove in discipline. If we want to go to other places in Scripture, we could go not too far.
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Just a few books back, we could look at what happens in Hebrews in chapter 12. And what does he say?
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He says, just as a father chastens a son and he does it, and it's hurting for a time is to produce something because that that that father loves that child.
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He says, just as that child does that, I'm disciplining you in this. That's how
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God's going to discipline you. And if you want to read it in a more colorful, read it to King James and see what he calls those children.
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Bastards, you're illegitimate. So if you're not being if you're not being chastened, when you're walking in willful disobedience, holding your fist in the air to God and he's not going to chastise you, he says you're an illegitimate child, meaning you're not a child of God.
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Now, is God patient, long suffering and kind? Yes. But God's patience at some point will reach to a point.
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He says, OK, it's time to bring out the whacker. And then he goes to whack him. And I don't know about you all, but when
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God uses the whacker, you go, I don't want to do that again. I want to do that again.
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God knows just how hard to swing the whacker. I was one of those kids that you had to grab in the bottom arm and whoop them in a circle, trying to beat the tar out of them because I was hard headed.
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Still am, ain't I? Maybe. Yeah. Well, God's not going to grab you by your arm and whoop you in a circle.
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He knows just how to hold you and whack you just in the right. Dude, his whacker has got precision and he knows right where to put it.
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And it'll produce what his desire is for you. Now, he says he does this because he loves them.
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He's going to reprove them and he's going to discipline. Look, reproof and discipline's not bad. It's not bad.
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It's an act of love. What does it say in the Old Testament? He who disciplines his child loves him.
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He who does not. What does it say? He hates him. And just as foolishness is bound up in the heart of the child, the rod of correction will drive it far from him.
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Foolishness can still be bound up in the heart of an adult and the rod of God's correction can drive it far from you.
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Then he says in verse 20. I would say this is probably one of the top three most misrepresented texts in all of Scripture.
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Behold, I stand at the door and knock. And if anyone hears my voice and opens it,
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I will come in to him and dine with him and eat with me. I would say this verse,
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Revelation 3 20, John 3 16, probably the most misused verse.
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And Matthew 18, I think it's verse 20, 19, 20. The one that says for two or more gathered in my name,
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I'm there in the midst. That's not church. That's not church. That's about putting someone out of the assembly because they willfully refused to obey
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God. Therefore, the church now has an ecclesiastical authority to say, hey, this person's a danger not only to the church because it can be infectious.
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We're going to put that person out for the purpose of them. God then bringing them back when they see that they're no longer under the covering and protection of the church.
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In this case, three twenty of Revelation. How many of you all have heard this?
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Hey, God stands at your heart and he's knocking and you know, there's only a doorknob and it's on the inside.
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And, you know, Jesus, so meek and mild, he wants to come in and.
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I wish it was like Bode Barkin says, do you want that door open? Did he kick mine in? He kicked a hot my he gave he did a heart invasion.
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Yeah. When he wanted to come in, he came in. Look, Jesus is not some sissy five rainbow toga limp wristed guy.
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Look, all you got to do is read earlier in the book. He's got eyes like the flame of fire. He's got feet like burnished bronze.
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He's got a sword that comes out of his mouth. I can rest assure you he's not softly and tenderly.
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Jesus is calling. That's not it says he is at the door and he is knocking.
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What's the idea? This is the idea of he's at the church. Y 'all have pushed
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Jesus out. You have pushed Jesus out of the church. And he's saying, look, I'm right outside the door.
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I'm outside the door. If you let me in, I will come back in and I will dine with you.
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What does what that eating have to do in the ancient culture? We don't see it quite like that.
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We go, hey, I'll take you to dinner. And we take somebody to dinner. We chow down. We make gluttons of ourselves like we did at the at the
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Brazilian steakhouse. And then we go home and go to sleep because our bellies are full. That's not how it was in them days.
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These people had a hoedown. They partied.
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It was getting together and having a good time. And they would be cutting up. And this was not an hour long.
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Our reservations only over for an hour. And then we have to go because I got a new group of people coming in. That's not how it was in the ancient days.
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Ancient days, man, they it would be an all day. Think about the wedding feast. They would last for a week.
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And in this case, he's saying, look, if you'll do it, you'll let me in. I will come in and dine with you.
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I will be with you. And that person that lets me in, he with me.
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So if he's saying I'm at the door. And if someone will let me in, I will come in and down with that means there are believers in there that can hear him knocking that can hear the knock.
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Pardon me. Yes, sir. There's still that letting in that keeps getting repeated, though, right? Yeah, there is.
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You're saying kicking down doors, but he says, well, we're aware of the in the kicking down the door we were talking about in salvation.
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This is not in salvation. This is actually in sanctification. So you have an idea in salvation.
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Salvation. God's going to kick it in. It takes out that heart of stone, pulls it out, replaces it with the heart of flesh.
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But in your sanctification, some of you may not like this.
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There is a cooperation part. All right. Let me talk about this briefly. Salvation is monergistic.
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Anybody know what I mean when I say monergistic? One working mono, meaning single, singular, justice, spirit, one spirit working.
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How did you come to faith in Christ? Because God came to you when you were dead, your trespasses and sins.
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He quickened you. That's what it says in Ephesians. It quickened you. It gave you life. Therefore, you saw for the first time in your life that Jesus Christ was appealing.
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You saw your need for sin. You repented. How did you repent? Because God gave you not the gift to live, but the gift of repentance.
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Therefore, he implanted with you in his Holy Spirit, the sign and seal to the day of our redemption. That's what happened at that moment.
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Now, our sanctification. Is has to deal with synergistic in nature, not synergistic in salvation,
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I want to make that very clear. Synergistic, meaning there's two working. God's the one who gives you the command.
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You now have the ability to obey. Before you were saying, could you obey the law of God?
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Roman says no. Yeah, when I talk to the free willers and they get a bunch of them out on the job sites,
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OK, it is. Well, you can just believe in God whenever you want. Well, that's not what the scripture says.
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The scripture says that the carnal man is at enmity with God. He can't obey the law of God.
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He can't. And he wouldn't even if he could. That's what it says. Romans eight, seven.
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You don't like it. Take it up with Paul. He wrote the letter. Yes, I got to testify. So if so, if if we're a slave to sin before salvation.
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Yes, sir. And then and then upon salvation, we're no longer a slave to sin because I mean, we're still you saw this in nature.
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OK, hang on. Are you finished? And I'll address that, because I think I think what you're saying. Do we do we do we really upon salvation?
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Is that when we actually truly have free will no longer? Because you're you're you're you.
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Because if I look at the bottom, it says sanctification has to operation. And you're making a case for for free will on the bottom half.
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No, no. What I'm saying is this. You're nobody in the world has free will. OK, there that is an absolute misnomer.
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And if anybody ever has that conversation with somebody ever again, I will give you the theological definition of free will.
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Free will is making decisions based on no internal or external coercion.
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There is nobody on this planet that does that. I got up this morning and I put on black socks.
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I was coerced in my mind to put on black socks. Why? Because if I stand up and wear white socks, I'm going to look stupid.
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Let's just be honest. Be honest. That's why.
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If I was to take you, what's your name again? Will take will say, hey, man, we're going to go get something to eat.
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You want broccoli and cheese or ice cream? Which one you want?
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Ice cream. OK, why? Because you're inclined to the ice cream more than the broccoli and cheese, therefore, there was something inside of you that said, you know what?
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Hey, ice cream is more appealing. OK, therefore, no one can make those decisions based on, quote, some type of free will.
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So the idea would be better. Let me say this and I'll answer your question. Is freedom of inclination.
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Go ahead. I said that and I'll address that. No, I didn't. I didn't really so much have a question, but the the dividing point between self sanctification, you know, doesn't happen till the spirit works in you that want cooperation.
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Yes, that goes, OK, now I can see the law of God. Now I have the ability to obey.
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Therefore, I am to obey. And I know cooperation and synergistic. We often think of them in terms of salvation.
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That's why you have to say salvation is monergistic in nature. The easiest way is our sanctification is synergistic.
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Twice in the New Testament, it says, grieve not the Holy Spirit. If you grieve the
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Holy Spirit, what you're having to do. You're having to disobey the command of God, right?
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Therefore, you have the ability to obey. Excuse me. And you have willfully made that choice to not.
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Therefore, you have grieved the Holy Spirit and you should have obeyed what God had commanded.
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Therefore, you have to coming to. God was loud. Yes. So in grieving the
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Holy Spirit, is that part of that? That would be in this area. Yeah, it would be in this area. Yeah. This here is resisting it.
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Yeah, I think the spirit's always at work. Is it always at work in the same way? No. I mean, think of how many times
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I heard the gospel as a kid. How many times I had heard just as I am softly and tenderly.
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All those things that are all those years. And then 28 years old, never heard.
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Well, wasn't listening to that when I got converted. But then all of a sudden I felt the weight of God's guilt in my life.
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And I was like, oh, my goodness. I've done a lot of things wrong. I'm going to stand before God and I'm going to give an account.
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And it just whatever you want me to do, I don't care what you do with me. Just whatever you want to do. 28 years old, whatever you do,
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I'm fine with. Just make me right with you. That's when I was waking from my dead and trespasses and sins.
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Now the rest of my life is obeying. Maybe this would be because you can obey and disobey.
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You should obey. You should obey. Why do you think your sanctification model is all is like this?
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It's not. Hey, you get saved here. Here's heaven. It's not a trajectory like this.
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It's because we don't always do what we're supposed to do. Therefore, our sanctification model starts like this and sometimes it's like this.
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We leap to that and then we fall down here again and then it's like this. And there's sometimes it's like this. And then you say, you know, then we're up here again.
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That's what's called progressive. But it's all but it's moving towards a point. And that point is the day in which our faith becomes sight and we stand before God and we are just like him, meaning
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Christ. Now, what was that? You said something.
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I want to go back and address that. You don't remember how about over one? OK. All right. So it's about free will.
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Go ahead. I want to keep going. I'm sorry. No, you're fine. If you take the entire all the verses as a whole last week and this week.
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Yes, sir. Started out with Jesus threatening to spit them out because of their lukewarmness. Correct. And the spitting them out is about salvation.
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Nope. That's also saying. Nope. Because here's when it's rejecting the church as a whole. Each one of these churches has an issue.
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Each one. Well, let me back it up. Five of them have an issue.
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OK, the two. No, no review. Persevere. Hold fast. But the others that had issues, one says, hey, if you don't get it straightened out,
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I'm coming. I'm going to make I'm like war with you. I'm bringing a sword. OK. All right. The other one said, hey, if you don't repent, you know what
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I'm going to come do? I'm going to knock your lights out. That's what he said. So I'm going to take I'm going to take your your lamp stand from you, which is the lamp stand was the lamp stand.
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The light. I come in here and I turn the lights off and you can't see. OK, so he's talking to the church as a whole.
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Are there people within these churches? I'll even the one that was dead,
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Sardis. Are there people within that church that were faithful would say yes. But he's talking to the church as a whole church as a whole.
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Keith gets up and he gets up. When I get up and preach week in, week out, we address the local assembly as everybody being believers.
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Why? Because we're we're assuming people are here because they love the
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Lord and they want to hear his word. But we know in our mind that not everybody out there is a believer.
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And if you look through the epistles, Paul does that, too. He does that a lot. I'm sorry that the writer of Hebrews is addressing that whole assembly as being
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Hebrews that that supposedly have placed faith in Christ. And he he addresses them in a pastoral way, saying, look,
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I know that this is how things have been. People have taken your stuff. They have imprisoned you. Don't go back, because if you go back, then there's nothing that remains for you.
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But a fire in the nation of a wrathful God that consumed his adversary. But if we know what he's saying, if he says you go back.
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And you go, you apostatize, what is that revealing? Is it revealing that person's salvation was lost?
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Or is it proving that that person's salvation was never real? It was never real.
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Why? Because whom God holds, he sees them to the end. Whom he holds, he sees to the end.
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That's part of our sanctification. We will hold fast as everybody's hold fast look the same. No, not at all.
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I don't know about y 'all, but man, Polycarp, he held fast. I don't you read through the Book of Martyrs, Fox's Book of Martyrs, and you read what some of those men said at the point where they were getting burned to death.
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Girls, the two Margaret's sorry, the two Megs that were drowned.
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OK, one of the older ones, 70 years old, was taken further out into the ocean. She was staked out there on a stake.
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The younger one who was 18 was put up further. That's the as the waves rolled in.
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She watched that older Meg drown to death. They pulled the boat as it gets closer to the younger
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Meg. And that boat comes up and I said, we'll give you one more time. One more time to recant.
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Say that the king is the head of the church. And she said, I will not do that. That guy said,
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Do you see what happened to her? She said, You know what I saw out there? I saw
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Jesus Christ fighting in the waves. And then Margaret, the 18 year old
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Margaret, then drowned to death. I don't know if I'd have done that.
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Polycarp fixed to be burned to death. Eighty six years. I've known the
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Lord and he's done nothing bad to me. You think I'm going to turn away now? I don't know if I would say that.
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I if somebody was to come in here and they were in a hall civil away, take my son. Look, I ain't got no extra kids after Luke.
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I don't have any extra kids. It'll get an extra wife. I hope that I would stand here by the power of the spirit and like an oak.
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Whatever the Lord does to me would be right, but I don't know. And neither do any of you, because we've not been put in that position.
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And I know this, that no word. It says this. When you are put in that position, he says,
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I'll give you the grace to say the right thing. Or what would be like Thomas Cranmer?
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Who saw? Hugh Latimer and Oliver and Nicholas Ridley being civil were in that very place, looking through the window in Oxford, watched where he saw his two friends burned to death.
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I sat on that little chair where I had him in prison. What? Look, and there was there was a there's a plaque on the ground in Oxford where he was burned, where they watched both of his friends burned to death.
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And you know what Thomas Cranmer did? He recanted. He recanted. And then they took him to the church and all this bishop clothing was going to let him read his recantation to the church.
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And he said, I recant of my recantation. And he says, and I'm ready to be put to death.
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And he said, which hand was it that I offended my lord? And they said, your right hand.
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And he stuck his hand in the fire and burned it off. I don't know if I can do that.
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But God gave him. The power of the spirit in that moment to endure that very thing.
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And then he says here, he who overcomes, I will grant. To sit down with me on my throne, as I also have overcome and sat down with my father on his throne.
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And in that same statement, we hear he who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.
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He says that person that will overcome. I'm going to grant him to sit down with me on my throne.
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We don't don't take that as look at me, look at me. You know, don't look, don't take it like that.
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This is the accomplishments of Christ in that person's life. If they overcome, there is an aspect of you must overcome.
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You must persevere. You you have to see it to the end. Had Noah not finished the ark and got on it.
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And he said, you know, I've been doing this 67 years. No more pitch. Forget it. Is that the non -drowning, unsealed kind of thing?
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No, he died because what was the what was his responsibility? You see it and you complete it to the end.
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What is our responsibility? To remain faithful, complete it. And when so, we will sit down with God, with Christ next to the father in on his throne.
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Now, that's not mean we're going to be a bunch of there's not going to be billions and billions of thrones. We are set in the heavenly places with Christ.
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We are seated with him and the very rights and privileges. And I say this very use those words clearly and specifically the rights and privileges that Jesus Christ was granted because of his overcoming death.
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Hell in the grave has been given to you and I. Jesus is not loved any you're not loved any less than Christ.
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We are loved the same way that should make your jaw drop. Therefore, the very things that the ancient of days gave to Jesus when he completed his task,
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Jesus now is going to take that kingdom and he's going to give it to you. And I it's right there. Matter of fact, if you go to I often read through the
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Gospels and when you get to the and I think it's in Luke 22, 21 or 22.
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He tells his disciples, he says, you're going to sit down with me and you're going to rule over the
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Jewish, you're going to rule over them. You're going to sit and you're going to judge them. I often wonder because they were obviously being persecuted.
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They wanted to kill all of them in their mind at that particular time. Did they actually think they were going to be able to dispense judgment on those
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Jews? Often when we don't know. But when we take what he told his disciples there and what is being said here to John, who was one of those disciples,
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John now has a clear idea of, hey, it's not actually ruling over my
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Jewish people. It's actually sitting with Christ in the heavenlies, being a partaker in his kingdom, not a desire to lay waste to those who have tried to kill
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Jesus and want to kill me. And he says, he who has near, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.
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So who's talking to the churches again? The spirit. Yeah, this through through Christ now.
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And we don't have five minutes. I got to make it quick. Is there anything wrong with rich churches? No, not at all.
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Matter of fact, I think churches that are wealthy are great. They can do things that other churches can't.
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They have our big churches that. No, they have that.
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I'll tell you what, they never had lack of people wanting to help because they had a larger pool to pull from.
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But if that large church, wealthy church becomes an institution to grow like a like.
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A organization instead of an organism, which is the bride of Christ, we have a huge problem.
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Look, I think big churches are great. Do I think they function in the capacity for ministry like a small church?
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Without doubt? No. Look, I think it's great that you have men that stand behind the pulpit.
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They preach to thousands of people a week. OK. I think that's great. I think there's been preached to preach the real gospel.
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But I can promise you when somebody's family member has died. When somebody's sick, when somebody's in the hospital, that dude up on the
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TV ain't coming to sit with them. Therefore, preachers are much different than pastors.
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I think it's great. America's pastor, who was that? That's Billy Graham, wasn't it?
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Billy Graham wasn't coming to sit with you. OK, Billy Graham was an evangelist.
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He was a preacher, and I think he was used mightily by God. We would have some major theological differences, but he preached the law.
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He preached the gospel and he preached there was only one way to salvation. That was through Jesus Christ.
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And I think that was awesome. But hey, he wasn't your pastor. He wasn't shepherding your soul.
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There's no way one man can shepherd 10 ,000 people. You know, I looked at Barna a few weeks ago.
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I was looking up another church statistic, and if you ever want to look up Barna Institute, they do all kinds of Christian polling.
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And you know, the average Baptist church, whether Southern Baptist or Reformed Baptist, you know how many average member in all the
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United States is? Eighty nine people. Eighty nine people.
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Average church. Then average church over all Protestantism. There's like 121.
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There's a reason why the majority of churches are small. Because it's a community. You're not a community with 10 ,000 people.
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And people can say what they want to about to do with incredibly large teeth and greased up hair and his fake church in Texas.
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OK, Joel Osteen is no pastor. John Hagee is no pastor. OK. All right.
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Hey, we did it. We finished chapter three. This is a milestone. Bert, will you close us out?
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Once again, we're grateful and thankful to come together here. And when a friend and brother teach us, he's prepared for the week to study.
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We're prepared to do that. Thank you for the admonitions he's given us through these churches.
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And now we ask you to prepare our hearts, prepare our minds and spirit. We'll worship together in peace.