Introduction; Christ's Commendation (Rev. 2:1-3)

Introduction: The Vitality of Attachment to Christ and the Significance of Revelation 2

0:01 Revelation chapter 2. Will you follow as I read, please, the first seven verses? To the angel of the church in Ephesus write, These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, he that walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. I know thy works, and thy toil and patience, and that thou canst not bear evil men, and didst try them that call themselves apostles, and they are not, and didst find them false, and thou hast patience,

0:42 and didst bear for my name's sake, and hast not grown weary. But I have this against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love. Remember therefore whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else I come to thee and will move thy heart. And I candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

1:09 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh, to him will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. In introducing our study, last week we discussed the study of the tree of life, last Lord's Day evening from the 21st chapter of John, I made the statement that nothing is more vital in the life of the child of God than his attachment to the person of Jesus Christ in faith and in love.

1:55 Nothing is more vital. There are other vital issues, but certainly none is more vital to the child of God in his Christian life than his attachment to the person of Jesus Christ in faith and in love. than his attachment to the person of Jesus Christ in faith and in love. And it was in the light of that that we considered together our Lord's dealings with Peter in that well-known dialogue in which he asks him three times, Do you love me?

2:24 And Peter responds, and then our Lord sets before him the implications and the demands of that relationship of love. This passage, which I have read to you from the second chapter of the book of the Revelation, is another passage which underscores that same principle that nothing is more vital to the child of God than his relationship to the person of Christ in faith and in love. And this principle becomes increasingly significant if we are indeed, I am not saying that we are, I wish I could have the conviction that some do when studying prophetic utterances, that they have really been,

3:08 really located where we are, but if we are in that period when the powers of evil and darkness are going to be let loose in a way unprecedented in human history, such as they will be prior to the return of our Lord in power and in great glory,

3:31 then these words become all the more significant because speaking of those days, the scripture says in Matthew 24, 12 and 13, and because iniquity shall abound, the love of the many shall wax cold, but he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved. And if we are in or on the threshold of that period when the pressures of iniquity will be such that the love of the many shall wax cold, all the more reason for us to fortify ourselves with every necessary facet of knowledge and experience, that we might be of the number who endure to the end

4:15 and thereby are saved, which is just another way of saying what our Lord Himself says in verse 7, to him that overcometh, overcometh what? Overcomes this tendency to declension in love to the person of his dear Son. To him will I give to eat of the tree of life. And so our thinking through this passage, is not a matter of simply filling up a few services with some sermons, but dear one, it's a matter of going to the very core of the whole life of the believer.

Who is Addressed: The Angel/Messenger of the Church at Ephesus and All Churches

4:53 It's a matter of our own salvation. Now in the first place, consider with me who is addressed in this particular passage. To the angel of the church at Ephesus, write. This particular facet of our Lord's Word, or this particular segment of our Lord's Words, is addressed to the angel or to the messenger of the church at Ephesus.

5:21 Now the commentators have had a field day on trying to identify who are the messengers addressed at the beginning of each of these seven letters to these distinct churches. And I would throw in my lot with those who hold the position that the messenger, the angel, or messenger, is the leader or leaders of these particular churches, those whom we would call the pastors, the bishops, the elders, the overseers. It is this group whom the Lord holds in his right hand in the preceding vision who are looked upon as the seven stars.

6:05 Notice verse 16 of chapter 1. And he had in his right hand seven stars and seven angels. And he had in his right hand seven stars and seven angels. And he had in his right hand seven stars and seven angels.

6:12 And those seven stars are interpreted for us in verse 20, the seven stars are the angels or the messengers of the seven churches. So in a very direct and exclusive sense, the message comes to those in places of peculiar responsibility and authority, but it's obvious that it does not come to them with exclusive application, for in the very message itself, our Lord generalizes and says in verse 7, whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying, not only to the church at Ephesus, but to all the churches,

6:52 indicating that the pattern which is followed in the rest of Scripture is also present here, namely, that no matter who may be the particular recipient of a particular letter or document, admonition of Scripture, whatever is said to that individual directly has reference to the entire body of God's people, for all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable in that manifold way described in 2 Timothy 3 and verse 16. So it's proper to say then that in a very special way, the church at Ephesus is being addressed

7:34 and all the churches in all ages, are being addressed as well. Now as we think of the assembly at Ephesus, it will help us, I trust, to feel something of the weight of our Lord's teaching in this particular portion. This assembly was an unusual assembly. It was an unusual church in terms of the privileges which it had enjoyed.

8:01 It was the only church that had in Paul's missionary endeavors three years of ministry, from that apostle, over three years of ministry. It had the privilege of the ministry of that great preacher Apollos. It had the privilege of Timothy there as an overseer and helper in the establishment of those churches. It's a city which experienced such a visitation of God's grace and power that the whole city was turned into a furor because the worship of Diana, which had been one of the cohesive, cohesive elements of their society life, was being undermined by the mighty visitation of God's grace and power.

8:46 Most of the believers in that church were called out of raw paganism with all of its idolatry and immorality. For in Paul's letter to the Ephesians, he says, You Gentiles were those whose minds were darkened. You were those who were walking according to the course of this world, according to the principle of God's Word. You were those who were walking according to the course of this world, according to the principle of God's Word.

9:08 of the power of the air and in that situation acts 1920 tells us the word of the lord grew mightily and prevailed there was the public burning of these books of magical arts and then they became the privileged recipients of that wonderful letter which perhaps ascends to higher heights of concepts of christ and his relationship to the church than any other epistle in the new testament now about 40 years have passed since the church was founded when this letter is sent to the messenger of the church at ephesus the church is about 40 years old

9:52 enough time has passed to establish people in the truth a church is not established in the truth overnight it takes a long period of time for the concepts of the word of god to be established in the truth and to be established in the truth to work down into the warp and woof and into the very fiber of any given church. Sufficient time has passed at Ephesus for that work of establishment in the truth to be realized. But also, enough time has passed for decay and declension to set in, and you have a problem of the beginnings of spiritual dry rot,

Who Addresses Them: The Glorious and Omnipresent Christ

10:33 the kind of rot that is so difficult to discern, but is just as deadly in the undermining of the foundation of a structure as any other kind of rot. And so, this is the church to which this message comes. Now, having considered who is addressed, consider in the next place who addresses them. To the angel of the church in Ephesus write, These things saith he that holdeth.

11:04 He that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand. He that walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. In all of these letters to the seven churches, the introduction comes by a flashback to some aspect of the vision of chapter 1. John was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and he heard a voice, and when he turned to look in the direction of that voice, he had this vision of Christ in his exalted glory, a vision which so overwhelmed him and shattered him, that he fell at his feet as a dead man.

11:42 And then the Lord stretched forth his hand and touched him and spoke to him. In each of the messages, there is this flashback to some aspect of the vision, and in many of the messages, it is possible to discern why certain aspects of that vision are particularly mentioned with reference to that particular church. Now, why does the Lord do this? Why does he say, These things saith he, and then flashback to this vision of his glory and of his majesty?

12:17 Well, the simple reason is this, that the one who speaks these words does not want men to divorce his words from the glory and the authority of his person. This fusion of the person and words of Christ is a big deal. It is a big deal. It is a big deal.

12:35 It is a big deal. It is a big deal. It is a big deal. It is a big deal.

12:35 It is a big deal. It is a big deal. It is a big deal. It is a basic one that comes to us again and again in Holy Scripture.

12:41 In John 12, in verse 48, we have a specimen passage which shows this fusion of Christ's person with his words. John 12 and verse 48. He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my sayings hath one that judgeth him. And the word that I spake the same shall judge him.

13:06 In that day. You notice what is paralleled? Rejecting Christ is the same as refusal to receive his sayings. Here there is this inseparable fusion of the person and words of Christ.

13:22 Jesus says essentially the same thing in Mark 8, 38. He that is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him shall the Son of God enumerate. of man be ashamed when he comes in his glory in other words christ says shame of my words unwillingness to confess my words unwillingness to be so identified with my words at any cost even life itself is a refusal to be identified with me any confession of being identified with me that is not joined to an unembarrassed confession of my words is something that's

14:02 impossible whosoever is ashamed of me and of my words now you and i operate on this basis of the fusion of the person with his words constantly have you ever said when someone has said something well i could have taken it from anyone else but not from him what you're saying is i couldn't separate the words spoken from the person who spoke them conversely i've heard people saying boy coming from anyone else that would have just gotten me so mad but i can take it from him have you ever said that you see you operate on this basis all the time that your response to a

14:41 person's words will be in direct proportion to your estimation of the person who speaks them you say yeah that's obvious yes but have we carried it over into this area our lord wants us to so that before he even unfolds his message he says to this messenger and to the church where he presides as an underdog he says to this body of god's people don't divorce anything that i say in the way of commendation or condemnation counsel or direction don't wrench it loose from my glorious person

15:24 the moment my words simply become words separated from who i am they will not have their proper weight and authority with you oh dear ones somehow we could capture this i believe it would revolutionize our whole habits of listening to sermons do you really believe that your response to involvement with obedience to the words of god is found in scripture when they are rightly expounded and applied is indeed your response

16:03 to the lord himself if you find your heart sluggish to respond to his word then you need a fresh revelation of the glory of his person for it's as i remember who speaks the word that the word comes with its grace and power to my heart and so in this particular passage he begins by reminding them that the one who addresses them is none other than this majestic awesome christ notice in particular the ask because that or understood in this portion this means that he even at

16:47 with the seven stars in his right hand emperor that will love you it in the mixed of the seventh-worlden candles what two things does our lord what just черtz to particularly remember..in energy speaks it won't exactly see it in the one hand Chinese management main product 32 this hyoda If he holds the stars in his right hand, if the stars are the messengers, if the stars are the leaders and Christ holds them in his hand, then he is the great head of the church. They are not.

17:25 If he holds them, spanning great geographical distances, spanning all time as the head of the church, then this particular reference speaks of his transcendent majesty and power as the co-equal, co-eternal Son of the living God. But then he is not only the Christ of transcendent majesty and glory, of omnipotence and power, but he says, I am the one who...

17:55 Who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. I am the Christ of imminence. I am in the midst of my people. And I walk in the midst.

18:08 I am active. And it's interesting that this little note is added. You don't find that in the original vision. John says, I turned and I saw one in the midst of the candlesticks.

18:21 He doesn't say that he saw him walking. But our Lord says, that I walk in the midst of the candlesticks. I am active in the midst of my church. I am imminent.

18:34 I am near. I am among you, even as I promised when two or three gather in my name. There am I in the midst. He's in the midst of his church as its great prophet to teach.

18:48 Its great priest clothed with the garment down to the foot as John saw him in the vision. Its priest to serve. To succor and forgive and intercede. And he's in the midst as its king.

19:03 To rule. To command. To direct. To govern.

19:06 To guide all the activities of his people. And the only weapon he uses in the carrying out of his purpose is that sword that proceeds from his mouth. The word of authority. The voice, John says, which was as the sound of many waters.

19:27 And as we come to consider this passage this morning and in subsequent times together, may God help us to remember the one who addresses us in this passage. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And everything that John saw him to be in this vision, the Christ of awesome power, of perfect knowledge, of infinite love, and of holy wrath, he is the same Christ today. He is that.

19:57 He is that in the midst of his people walking in the candlesticks. And though men have written off the church visible, and though many so-called churchmen have said the church as an organization is passe and done, Jesus Christ still walks in the midst of his church with all its failures, with all of its shortcomings, even as here. And some of these churches had terrible problems. Situations so grave that the Lord says, I'm about to spew you out of my mouth.

20:29 And yet he says, I still walk in the midst. I still walk in the midst. He's in the midst of his church. Having then considered who is addressed, the one who addresses them, now we come to the heart of his message.

The Basis of Commendation and Complaint: Christ's Omniscience

20:45 We could look at it in terms of the health of the church, the sickness of the church, Christ's remedy for the church. But I would rather consider it under this particular pattern, his commendations,

21:00 then we'll look at his complaints, and then we'll look at his commands, his warnings, his entreaties, and his promises.

21:11 First of all, then, we shall consider, if time permits this morning, his commendation and his complaint. The basis of both is found in this word. Notice verse 2. I know thy works.

21:29 Whatever the Lord Jesus says in a way of commendation or in a way of complaint, he says out of perfect knowledge of the people involved. I know thy works. A knowledge that was as extensive as the burning eye of omniscience. For in the Bible sense, a work is not just what is done externally, like a puppet's hands are moved by the strings, but a work, in the biblical sense, takes in not only what is done, but the motive that prompts the act, the end in view in the doing of the act.

22:12 When the scripture says, God shall judge men according to their works, he speaks of that totality of the work. That's why scripture says, in that day God will judge men according to their thoughts and according to the secrets of the heart. So the Lord Jesus, in the midst of the lampstand, says, I know. I know thy works.

22:33 Whatever I say, I say out of a perfect knowledge, not only of what you do, but the motive which prompts you to the deed, the end which you seek in the deed. I do not speak commendation out of hearsay. I do not complain on the basis of gossip and on the basis of false reports that have been brought to me. Oh, my people at Ephesus, what I say to you I say as the one whose eyes are as a flame of fire, the one before whom all things are naked and opened and before whom there is no creature that is not fully manifest.

23:15 As one writer has said, only think there is not one beating heart in this assembly upon which the eye of Christ is not distinctly riveted as if that heart were the only one in the universe of God.

23:35 Have you got that? There is not one heart in this assembly upon which the eye of Christ is not riveted as though your heart were the only heart in the universe of God. I know thy works. Whatever I say in commendation, whatever I say in complaint, in condemnation, I say out of perfect knowledge of what you are.

24:02 And this truth of the omniscience of Christ is at the same time both the most comforting and convicting truth to the child of God. It's a comforting truth. Comforting to know that he knows my works. Comforting to know that when I sigh in secret over my sin and my corruption, he sees the sigh.

24:28 He sees and knows the groan, the agony. When there is no truth, that yearning to do that in Christ's name for which I have neither the ability nor the time nor the means, he accepts even the yearning as pledge of what I would do had he endowed me with sufficiency, inability, time or means. He knows us. He knows us.

24:53 One of the most comforting truths for the man who is seeking to walk before the piercing eye of an omniscient Christ whose greatest ambition in life, as Paul says, whether we live, live or die, we make it our aim to be what? Well-pleasing unto him. How blessedly comforting is this truth when with motives that have been hammered out upon the anvil of God's word and forged by the operations of his grace, you move in a given direction and that deed done with a proper motive in Christ's name to Christ's glory and for the good of men is completely misunderstood and twisted. And thrown back into your teeth.

25:39 How blessed to know that he says, I know thy works. Isn't that comforting?

25:45 Ah, dear child of God, it's the most convicting truth in all the world because those things that are done which have the smile of men, those words that are spoken that seem to persuade or convince men that what we have done and sought and the things for which we give ourselves, we've convinced men that it's right and well and all the rest. But down in our heart of hearts, there's duplicity, double-mindedness. He knows. He knows.

26:19 And that's the most convicting thing in all the world. Suppose I fool all my peers. Suppose I pull the wool over the eyes of mom and dad and pastor and other of God's people. What does it matter if the one before whom I must stand says, I know thy works.

26:38 And so it is in the same time, the most comforting and the most convicting of all thoughts. One writer has said so beautifully, and I toyed with whether or not I ought to read it to you, but it so blessed me that I felt I just had to. Concerning this principle, let us ever recollect this solemn truth that Christ eyes upon each one of us. There's no such thing as a divine absenteeism.

27:03 There's no such thing as a suspension even for a moment of the penetrating and piercing omniscience of God. There's no such thing as a suspension even for a moment of the penetrating and piercing omniscience of God. There's no such thing as a suspension even for a moment of the penetrating and piercing omniscience of God. The deed that you did in secret sounds like seven thunders in God's ear.

27:17 That thought which flashed through your soul with the speed of the lightning's wing left its shadow before God. And in his records it is written what it was and what its character is. Isn't that a tremendous thought? The thought that flashed through the mind left its shadow upon the book of God.

27:37 But blessed be his name, his omniscience does not occupy itself with looking only at our sins. But it delights also to take cognizance of our virtues which he himself has created. That prayer that is scarcely expressed by the lips but that leaps secretly from the heart, Christ hears. That sympathy within for which you have no expression without, Christ sees.

28:01 The pity which you felt for a poor one whom you could not help, Christ has noted as true charity. That might which you cast into the treasury with your left hand, your right hand scarcely knowing what your left hand did, Christ has seen. There's not a silent tear that is shed over sin and sorrow nor a secret thought or prayer that is breathed for its extinction that does not rise with greater speed than an angel's wing and soar higher than an archangel's flight and reach the bosom and lie recorded by the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be he.

28:40 Blessed be his name. What he sees that is sin in his people, he notes it, waiting to forgive it when they confess it. When he detects what is excellent, he notices it to record, to canonize, and to remember it. Blessed comfort, searching conviction.

Commendation 1: Intense Labor for the Extension of Christ's Kingdom

29:03 Well, so much then for the basis of his commendation and his complaint. Now let's come, first of all, to his commendation. He says, I know thy works, and then he begins to commend them. Thy toil and patience.

29:20 Thou canst not bear evil men, and it's try them that call themselves apostles and are not, and it's find them false and hast patience, and it's bear for my name's sake and hast not grown weary.

29:35 To assure his people that he's being rationally objective, our Lord begins with his commendation. And there is only one church of the seven addressed here in the book of the Revelation in which he does not find something to commend. That's the last, the church of the Laodiceans. But in all the others where there was great wickedness and great defection from the truth, nonetheless, whatever he sees of the fruits of his own presence and power, that he commends and he begins with the commendation.

30:11 Oh, how unlike us is our Lord. When we human beings in our relationship with others have something that offends us, we allow the one offense to cloud out all the virtues and we ride herd on that issue until we rupture friendships and relationships. How unlike our Lord we are. Let someone do us ill and we must have dealings with that person.

30:40 Do we begin by saying, look, my dear friend, I'm grateful for this and this and this and this and this and this and this to assure them of our love and our compassion and our appreciation and then in that context say with tenderness, but in spite of this, I have ought against you. No, we're not like that, are we? What are we like? Let someone do something to us that is a grief to our hearts and immediately that becomes the issue that fills the whole horizon of our thought and whenever we think of that person and look at that person, all we see

31:23 is the one evil done to us and it utterly blots out all the virtues. Our Lord isn't that way, is He? And how we should pray that by His grace we be like Him. He begins with His commendation.

31:42 Even where sin is present, He can see and commend, and first of all, the virtues of His people. Now, let's look at what our Lord commends. And if you want to know what causes the Lord Jesus to rejoice when He looks at His church, wherever you find Him commending something, you say, Lord, by Your grace, we must know and experience that thing in our midst for this is what pleases You. All right?

32:12 Look at the first place at what our Lord commends. He says, I know Your works, and Your toil, and Your patience. What was this? It's what I'm calling intense labor for the extension of the kingdom of Christ.

32:29 He said, I know Your toil. And that's a strong word. It's labor that is costly. And Your steadfastness, Your continuance in such a course.

32:41 So He is commending intense labor for the extension of His own kingdom. You see, the work of God does not bypass the work of His people. Jesus said, My Father worketh hitherto. And because the Father is working, He says, I work also.

33:04 The Apostle Paul brought these two concepts together beautifully in many places. I just take a specimen passage, Colossians 1.29. He says, I strive according to His work, which worketh in me mightily.

33:24 Now, if I were in the average evangelical church today, I would seek to underscore this aspect of the truth that any work that is done, which is done for eternity, God must do it. As we've read again and again in the book of the Acts, the whole climate of the Apostles' reports is God opened the door. God opened the heart. God did this.

33:46 God did that. Now, they weren't just trying to sound spiritual. They believed that. They believed that unless there was the divine initiative and the divine accomplishment, human efforts would come to naught.

34:00 And we need to recognize that, and I think most of us are fairly well settled in that truth. But then the devil come along, you see, and causes us to say, well, since God works and nothing happens unless He exerts divine energy, that means that somehow the expenditure of human energy is either not necessary or is not significant. Ah, that's not a biblically warranted conclusion. Not at all.

34:26 No, no. The saints of God are described as those who are going to rest from their labors when they get to heaven.

34:36 No, God's mighty working does not bypass our diligent labors. His mighty working comes to light through our diligent labors. And so our Lord says to this church, to the extent that you have some calloused hands, and some circled eyes for the sake of my kingdom, I commend you.

35:01 If just a cup of cold water extended in the name of Christ will not lose its reward, how much more sweat poured out and energy expended. And so our Lord commends this church for its intense labors to extend the kingdom of Christ. And I only ask one question by way of application. Does He see any calloused hands and circled eyes?

Commendation 2: Intense Zeal for the Purity of Christ's Church

35:25 Does He see any calloused hands and circled eyes in our midst evidencing intense labor for the extension of His kingdom? The second thing He commends is this. You cannot bear evil men. The word bear there is the same word used in Luke 14, 27 when Jesus said a man must bear his cross.

35:46 It's the word used in Galatians 6, 2 that we're to bear one another's burdens. It means to carry. So He says to this church, I commend you that you cannot carry along with you evil men. What is that?

35:59 It's what I'm calling intense zeal for the purity of Christ's church. Not only was there intense labor to extend the kingdom of Christ, but there was intense zeal for the maintenance of the purity of the church of Christ. They obviously held to fixed moral standards by which they could identify evil, and they had fixed standards of expectation of the members of their church, which if they did not comply with, He said, you don't bear them along with you. You are exercising the power of discipline in your midst, in the area of the lives of your members.

36:39 They had not yet joined this terrible, terrible cult of toleration.

36:46 Our Lord commends them for the fact that they hadn't learned this kind of philosophy that says, well, if we love them long enough and bear with them long enough, maybe the Lord will deal with them. No, no. He says, I commend you when men have shown themselves that they are walking contrary to the standards of true biblical holiness. You don't carry them along with you as dead wood.

37:10 You cannot carry them. You cannot bear them. You cut them off from your midst.

37:16 Oh, how our thinking is influenced by the world in this area. Let a church begin to enforce biblical discipline upon its members, and immediately they will be accused of being heartless, lacking in compassion, lacking in patience, lacking in sensitivity. Well, that would be true if every effort was not made scripturally to restore the erring brother or sister, those which are spiritual coming to the one in error and admonishing, but where admonition has not worked and where entreaty has not prevailed, then the directions of our Lord in Matthew 18 and 1 Thessalonians 5, 2 Thessalonians 3, 1 Thessalonians,

38:00 1 Corinthians 5, and these other portions are very clear. Our Lord frowns when the church bears evil men in its midst. He smiles when for His sake, for the sake of the purity of His church, dear ones, it's His church, not ours, His church, in which His standards must be maintained at any cost. He says, I commend you for the kind of zeal that maintains the purity of my church.

38:34 So I say by way of application to the extent that we cling to fixed moral standards and enforce them in the community of the saints, our Lord smiles. To the extent that we are willing to bear the heartache, the reproach, and the misunderstanding and slander that will come by refusing to bear evil men in our midst,

Commendation 3: Intense Zeal for the Preservation of Christ's Truth

38:58 our Lord smiles. Then the third area He commends is this, and thou hast tried them which call themselves apostles and they are not and it's fine them false. What is this? It's what I'm calling intense zeal for the preservation of the truth of Christ.

39:20 Not only labor to extend His kingdom, zeal to maintain the purity of the church, but zeal for the preservation of the truth of Christ. Here were men who came into the midst and said, look, we're sent ones. We come with divine authority to proclaim divine truth. This is what apostles had as a unique position in the church.

39:43 And He says, you tried them. You put their pronouncements and their persons to the test and when you found them false, you exposed them as such. He said, I love this in my people. I commend this in my people.

39:57 Intense zeal for the preservation of the truth of Christ. Now it's obvious that you can't you can never try men for heresy unless you have some fixed canons of truth by which to try them. And as Mr. Starrett has been reminding us, this is why you don't hear of any such thing as heresy trials in the church today.

40:17 If the church is a community of free-thinking religious people who can concoct anything they want to about God and life and morals, how in the world can you have a heresy trial? And as I've said to some of my brethren who remain in the pale of these mixed denominations where the leadership and the schools and for the most part the entire denomination has gone liberal, they say, well, we're evangelicals and we're able to preach. I said, yes, but the unwritten law is this. In all your dealings with your fellow churchmen, you must never use the word heretic.

40:53 You must never use the word error. Anti-Christian thought. And they've admitted to me that that's true. So you have one group called the conservative wing and the liberal wing, but the conservatives must call them my liberal brethren.

41:07 And the liberals say, not perhaps quite so sweetly, our conservative brethren.

41:18 But that's the unwritten rule. They must be called brethren. Ah, the Lord says to this church, I'm so glad you hadn't learned such unscriptural ways. You have put to the test those that say they're apostles and you found them false.

41:39 And you let it be known that that's what they were. Anti-Christian. False apostles. And that test is always a doctrinal test.

41:49 1 John 4, 1. Try the spirits, John says. Don't believe every spirit, but try the spirits. And how do you try them?

41:55 He says every spirit that confesses. The test is a doctrinal one. Now granted, it's possible to have correct doctrine and be dead spiritually. That's going to be some of the thrust of this passage.

42:08 But it is not possible to be alive spiritually without correct doctrine. And the test is a doctrinal test in the area of the preserving of the truth of Christ.

42:21 Try the spirits. Every spirit that confesses. So I would say again by way of application to the extent that we as a church are willing to wear, as it were, on the end of our nose, a confessional badge and say this is the truth of God as we understand it. We personally as a church are committed to the London, London Confession of 1689, which is the Westminster Confession of the old Westminster Divines, word for word, except in several areas, mainly the area of baptism and church government.

42:58 Now why do we make that confession? Because the Bible gives us fixed canons of truth. And it's not enough to say, oh well, we believe the Bible. That's what everybody claims.

43:09 Jehovah's Witness claims that. Seventh-day Adventists, Rosicrucians, and everybody under the sun, we believe the Bible. Yes, but what does the Bible teach? And a creed, a confession, is an honest attempt to collate the teaching of the Bible at basic salient points and say this is what we understand the Bible to teach about God.

43:30 God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. That's what we mean when we say we believe in God. We believe in God. We believe in God.

43:42 We believe in God. We believe in Christ. What do we mean by that? And we speak of Christ in His two natures.

43:47 And the two natures joined in one person forever. Equal with God as touching His deity. Less than the Father touching His humanity. We are defining what we believe Scripture teaches.

43:59 This is necessary. If we are to try men by doctrinal standards, there must be some fixed canons of truth. And so in an age of flabbiness and doctrine, doctrinal latitudinarianism, that's just a big word for saying doctrinal nothingness, it's hard to be a confessional church. It's hard to say we believe this is what the Word teaches.

44:26 And what doesn't fall under that framework we don't believe is what the Word teaches. And the whole mood, even in our evangelical circles, is a mood which says, look, there are so few of us, and there are so many of the bad guys out there, and so few of us good guys, we've got to get together. And us good guys, we can't be having too much concern about doctrinal precision. Let's just agree on the essentials.

44:50 Ah, but who says what is essential?

44:54 Oh, we do. Oh, so then we sit up over the Word of God and we start saying, well, God, this part that you've put here, we could really get along without that. And this part that you put up, well, Lord, we could get along without that. And this part, but now we couldn't get along without this part here.

45:13 Oh, so the next fellow comes along and he says, well, wait a minute, you see this part you said you couldn't get away? Yeah, well, I agree with you. But see this part here you said you felt we couldn't get along without? I don't see where that's necessary either.

45:24 And on your principles, you've got no basis to meet him.

45:29 Whenever man sets himself above the Word as a judge over the Word to pronounce what is essential and non-essential, you've created a mentality which is the grandmother of an absolute sellout of all the truth of God. And the church of Christ was far more vigorous and far more effective when you had segments of the church committed to a doctrinal position with every fiber of their being and they said, so help us God, this is how we understand the truth. And they went out to propagate it and over here other segments of the church committed to their understanding of the truth in areas where they differed violently and clashed with these others saying, so help us God,

46:13 this is how we understand it. And there was a vigorous full-blooded spirit-endowed breath of God in the midst of His people. Even though there may have been lack of understanding in certain areas, there wasn't this climate of doctrinal indifference that has enveloped us in our day. And far better for those of Presbyterian persuasion who are convinced that the Bible does teach a form of government which involves not only a rule by elder on the local level, but the coming together of office bearers in a higher structure called a Presbytery, a Synod, and a General Assembly.

46:50 Far better for them to say, we believe this is true. And those of us who hold a differing position to say, we love you and we honor your conviction, but we believe the Bible teaches there is no higher authority above the local church than Christ Himself. And work in our spheres and express where we can our love and our recognition that we are one in Christ Jesus on levels where it is possible. Pray that the Spirit of God will give us light and will yet bring us to oneness of mind but not say what the Bible teaches about church government is non-essential, what the Bible teaches about baptism is non-essential.

47:24 Who are we to tell God that? It's an insult to God.

47:31 This is why I have great fellowship with many of my Presbyterian friends. They have great fellowship with me. And we pray for the day when God will bring us to one mind. And we don't say that with tongue in cheek.

47:45 Lord, one mind if they all become Baptists. Or one mind if all those Baptists become Presbyterians. But Lord, give us light. Give us light.

47:55 Our Lord commends this kind of an attitude. And may I say where it isn't there He condemns it. As you see in some of the other churches He said, you know what the problem is with you people? You've adopted this spirit.

Commendation 4: Persevering Stability in Christ's Work and Sufferings

48:05 You suffer that prophetess Jezebel to teach things to the open. You allow her to go on. You've become very big and gracious and kind. And you're allowing that to be taught which is contrary to my word.

48:21 Well, the last thing our Lord commends is this.

48:29 He says, you have fainted. You have not fainted. You have born for my name's sake. And what is that?

48:35 It's what I'm calling persevering stability in the work and sufferings of Christ. Thou hast born and for my name's sake. He says, you've not fainted. They were no flash in the pan rocket like Christians.

48:51 Fair weather Christians are just little robots going on faithfully week after week. He said, for my sake you've born to the extent that opposition and reproach have not moved them. The Lord commends them and to the extent that they were able to embrace with thanksgiving the gift of suffering as well as the gift of faith. The Lord commends them.

49:13 I suggest that if the Lord sees these things in any measure in us individually and corporately, he stands this morning to commend what is the fruit of his own work in us.

Anticipating Christ's Complaint

49:25 But will you come tonight if at all possible? And I was not aware of the time that slipped by so quickly as we consider together his complaint. You say, boy, if a church had those four things, what else would it need? What else would it need?

49:41 If it had those four things, intense labor to extend his kingdom, intense zeal to maintain the purity of the church, intense zeal to maintain doctrinal correctness and persevering stability in the work and sufferings of Christ, you say, boy, I'd give anything to be a part of that. That church is for three weeks. What could be wrong with a church that has all that? And yet the Lord says, nevertheless.

50:07 And God willing, tonight we'll look at his complaint. Let us pray.