The Voice of the Seven Churches | Bill Moseley | 3.22.26

Revelation 2 & 3

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Please continue in prayer as as we go through this time together. This morning I want to return back to the book of Revelation. And I want to talk a little bit about the church, the churches that the Lord writes to, and look at them as a group and in some ways some individual parts. The Seven Churches of Asia were in Iconia, just on the edge of the Aegean Sea. They're called the Seven Churches of Asia, but they're really in an area that would be more around the Turkey, what we have at Turkey today. And to give you some perspective of what that would be like, that they would fit kind of in a circle. If you go look at some of the maps of the seven churches, you'll see them, they're in kind of a circle. There's, I believe there's four of the of the seven that are on the coastal area. And then there are three that are eastward inlet into the country. They all are somewhere around 50 miles apart, some more or less. They began to uh migrate off of that, and uh they became sister churches that were in these different locations. Um to give you some perspective of that, you if you look at the churches right now in the central Texas area, from let's say Stratton up through uh here. Uh let's let's just say up Stratton to here, and there's there's several. So there's the San Antonio, there's Littlevine, Stratton, and there's there's Bethel, there's Doss, there's here, over to Lampasas, back down, I guess, maybe to where Florence would have been. Uh that's that's about the size of the area of these churches. They were they were probably a good day or two ride on horse or in a carriage. It's 30-something miles over to Doss, so that's that's a good perspective of just how far apart and how close they were. They were in different environments that they existed. For example, Ephesus, which was the first and probably the biggest of these churches, was in a metropolitan area that had a lot of cultural influences. And one of the big ones at Ephesus was the worship of Diana. That was a pagan god, a pagan idol that men were pushing out and using that, and a lot of them were gleaning a lot of merchandise off of it and activities, uh, making their living off of this. And so it had a lot of influence and a lot of probably a lot of power, a lot of a lot of uh using people's minds to give them superstitious ideas, which would influence them as they then would begin to hear this new doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ, his death, burial, and resurrection. On the other side of the Aegean Sea, you've got the Mesopotamian area, and you have Athens, and then down here you have Greece, where Corinth was. A lot of that area over there across that strait of that Aegean Sea area, that was the intellectual center of the world. That was the seat of the Socrates of the world and all of those intellectualism, humanism, all kinds of isms that they were pushing. It shows up to Paul in the area of Mars Heel, and Paul would go through and he would preach the doctrine there. But back to these seven churches of Asia, they and I've kind of gleaned some of the things that that I find about these. I know when I worked in my job, and many of you have too, because I don't think it's very different in a lot of a lot of different companies or activities. Companies would do a annual review. If you've ever had an annual review, you had your boss that sat you down after he did his analysis of your work, he would glean a lot of facts and a lot of things that you've done good, and he would glean a lot of the things that you need some help on, to say the least, and maybe even some reprimand for having failed certain projects or whatever. You'd go through a review process, and you would be found meeting or exceeding expectations or failing expectations. And when we take a look at these seven churches, what I find is that there are two that are failing. More about them in a moment. Two that are failing. And they're failing pretty bad. They're failing pretty bad. There are three that are in the caution area. There's some good that you're doing, but there's some things you need to remedy. You need to take care of in your in your church. We're not now we're not talking about people. Now we're talking about a church group, a body, a local body. A body that is answerable only to the one doing the review. And I'm just telling you about the review, I'm not making the review, I'm just telling you how the review looks to me that it would have come out. Two failing, three in the yellow caution area, and then there are two that are exceeding expectations. Now, the overview of these things, I would I would say that these are not a cyclical thing that you fail, you get cautioned, you become good. It's not a thing that you've got to go through all of these. My perspective is that these churches, after the length of time that they've been operating, from the time that they were planted to the time that John is given the review of the seven churches on the Isle of Patmos by the Lord Himself. He didn't send John over there to take a look at them and to get the metrics together. The Lord had all the details. And the Lord delivers the details to John and He tells you go and write these things to the angel of the church that I'm sending it to. The minister of the church is to deliver my review. The minister is not to review them himself, and I'm not here today, friends, as a pastor of this church. I'm not here to review you. The Lord reviews us constantly. But I'm here to tell you how what the Lord looks at and what the Lord sees and how the Lord responds to his church. Now, certainly we want to be in that exceeding expectations. Or, you know, that's that is a misnomer with the Lord. Because the Lord, we I cannot tell you, Brother Jim, I misspoke. I cannot tell you how we can exceed the expectation of Jesus. That's not right. That doesn't fit here. I'm telling you that we can meet we can meet his expectations as he expects us to follow him. And if we're seen following him, then we are meeting that and we are in favor with him. And that's who I want to, that's who I want to please. There are so many people going about with their operating within the church, and they think we got to look good to all the other churches. We got to look good to this one. We got to show up well with these ministers or with that group or with this person. Maybe one person needs to be satisfied. No, friend, there's well, there is one that has to be satisfied, and that's the one who owns the church, who is the head of the church. So, first thing I want us to understand is these churches, though there be seven of them, they're all independent of one another. That's not to say that they shouldn't be concerned with fellowship in one another. But my friends, when it comes down to answering the review, it's answerable to one, and that's the one who speaks to them. The one speaking is the one that is to be concerned about. That's not the minister. The one speaking is writing it to one to write to the minister to tell it to the church. That's the hierarchy of the church. It goes from the Lord to his servants to the church, and that returns back to the Lord with this answer of praise. With this answer of, we need thee every hour. So we have two failing, three cautions, and two that are in favor or in the favorable look. Let me give you the ones that are failing. It's a place called Sardis. It's in the third chapter. Oh, by the way, there's there's four of the churches listed in the second chapter of Revelation. Four of them. And they're basically the ones on the coast. And then there are three that are in the third chapter, and that's where the whole thing is recorded, is in the second and the third chapter of the book of Revelation. Remember, this is the revelation of Jesus Christ to the church. In each one of them, he makes common statements. One is, I know thy work. I know thy work. He tells every one of them, I know thy works. I have reviewed you. I have seen what's going on. I've seen your activities. I've taken note of it. I know your works. I'm not here to glean information from you. I'm here to report on what I know of thy works. That's pretty sobering as we live in a time when we think that the Lord is far off from the church. I'm going to tell you, friends, he dwells with the church. He dwells with us because he dwells within his people of the church. Matter of fact, the church is not the brick and mortar, as we we often understand, try to understand. We call this going to the church. Well, man, friends, we're going to the meeting house, but what is coming to the meeting house is the church, and that is the people of the living God, the believers that assemble in a meeting place, and we call that the assembly or the church. So these are seven assemblies, and they all report directly to the Lord as individual churches. So there are two failing. One is Sordas, and the other is Laodicea. We'll look at just a moment of how they fail the Lord. Well, let's just look at them right now. In the Sordas Church, they what we find is the, well, and the lack of discipline, of moral character, and we have to think about what period of time this was. This was in a very rough time. It was in a in a time when morals were loose and activities were going on that should not be when we're talking about the church. The church has to live within its environment, but it does not, it is not to assimilate to that moral looseness, or the moral, that is, adultery and fornication, loose morals, and included in that would be the idolatry of the pagans that were all around. So we live in a world, but we're not to be of the world. These two were were first, they were apathetic. They weren't paying attention to the things of the church. Kind of the fact of the Sordist Church, it was kind of uh it was kind of dead. It had become dead to the things of the church. It was a, as it were, a dying church because they had lost sight of the one that's that holds the key to the church. And that is the Lord Himself. The Laodiceans, on the other hand, uh, oh, and by the way, the Sardis was they were small, uh, as far as we know. Uh and so they they begin to let down to think that we can't go any further. So that's a that's a that's a bad thing to let our minds go there, to think that the Lord uh has clean left us. And then to espouse ourselves to the things of the world, that's even that's even worse, and takes us into that unfavorable category. The other one is Laodicea, which is, in my mind, it's one of the most scary of conditions that we find ourselves in, and that is they consider themselves rich and have need of nothing. It is the one that the Lord uh says something very uh unique to them. He says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. He that will open unto me. That, my friends, tells me he is imminently visiting that church. He is imminently visiting that mindset. Brother Cooter, to think we're rich and have need of nothing. How frightful is that for the child of God to think I'm rich and I don't need anybody else. I am self-reliant, I can do for myself, I can make for myself, I don't need anybody's help. That is a that is a death knell to the church if we ever get into that condition. So my friends, this apathy and uh and and bad discipline of both uh body and of mind are bad for the church. The the ones that were on the conditional side, the the the caution side, Ephesus, uh Pergamus, and Thyratyra, they're all right up there uh on that sea coast, and I'm I think they were some of the ones that were most influenced by the metropolitan area. And I what I have noticed is I pastored the church in a metropolitan area and I pastored a church here in the country. And I do find that though we are the same as a church and equal as a church, the challenges of both are different. The influences that have to be fought off by the metropolitan area are one thing, and the challenges of being out here in the country is a lot different. One of the most striking differences in Houston, rain is a nuisance. Rain is hard to deal with, and you hate it. I can't believe it's raining again today. And out here you say, Lord, please let it rain today. I'll go stand in the middle of it. Just letting, because the environment is different, the influences are different. The very way of life is different, yet the needs are the same. Whether you be in that metropolitan area where lots of money, lots of influence takes on all of its ways, the the way of life is different there than the way of life within others. But the need is to the very same one. The two that were sound, the two that were sound was Smyrna and Philadelphia. Smyrna was small and over here on the seacoast, so being on the seacoast is not the death nail. It's not. Did have one thing that they had to deal with. They were sound, but they were under tribulation. They were under lots of tribulation. They were closest over there to what it says, the seat of Satan was located. And I kind of take that as a seat of authorities. And I'll tell you, friends, I feel for the old Carol Church. They're sitting right up there, just outside of Washington, D.C. And I tell you, if they can stay sound in that area, it's got to be by the Lord's help. Because they're under the influence of a lot of bad characters. This Smyrna, I believe, was in about that same area. But they were under lots of tribulation. Lots of tribulation. But yet they were sound in the faith. They were sound in the faith. There was one more Philadelphia which has a Smyrna. The Lord does not mention anything negative about that church. He doesn't mention anything they've done wrong. You know what they just need to do is continue to look to the Lord and to beg him to continue to be with them. Philadelphia, there is nothing that they are mentioned that they have done wrong and that they hold true to the things of the doctrine. Now, for the remainder, I want us to think about that was kind of the overview of the review of the of the Lord of those churches. But this morning I want to want to kind of focus down, and I do beg the Lord's help on this. The other is kind of a history thing, it's kind of a matter of the first century church. They were all hot when they started. For them to start with the church in that day and time, it took great faith to hold to the truth of this new doctrine in a Gentile land. This was not Jerusalem. This is in the Roman Empire. This was in a place that this all comes newly flowing into that area. And for them to start up a church and to begin to go. And that didn't have, this is not an over-the-night plant, and now we're in a bad situation. This is this plant, you live, you get influenced, maybe the next generation. A generation is about 20 years. So if these churches have been going 40 years, this is probably at least a second generation of believers that have come into the church with their influences, and now we've got to we've got to look at them. What I want to look at is the voice to the church. And I say vo the voice singular because it's one voice, but he is characterized seven different ways. Seven different this saith he, and that's common to all of them. This saith he. Well, what did he, what was that description of him that said that? That's important enough that he would introduce it in the first chapter, and then he would distribute those descriptions to each of the churches separately, individually. And I hadn't got this far in my study to an analysis as to how that voice ties to the condition of that church. That's a study that you can do at home. You can go take note of, okay, now what did he say about he that saith? And we'll look at all seven of them in a moment, as we see these descriptions of the voice that speaks to the church. And I I have got as far along to think about what is what do I see in that description of the one who saith these things to the church. They say a lot about the character of that one that's speaking to the church. And there's a lot, dear friends, that if you single out that name, that you can think long and hearty on the person of Jesus Christ. You can think about just what that description means, what it talks about, what it describes. And why is this important? Because that's the very same voice that speaks to you at Valley Spring Church today. He is still head of the church. He hasn't changed. The only thing that has changed is there's been some ticks off the clock. That's all. You are sitting in the church of the first century that the Lord established and had planted and they grown, and now He tells us about conditions we can find ourselves in. I believe a church can find themselves in any one of these seven conditions from time to time. We could be in a hot moment. We could be in a hot moment where the Lord is manifesting himself where faithfully and truthfully worshiping God in spirit and in truth has nothing to do with the count of the people in the bench. That's not the important thing here. We're not given any indication by these letters how big those churches were. We kind of have an idea of the scope of the area that they were in, but the Lord only tells us that where two or three are gathered together in my name, they're all being the midst of you. That's the only thing that's important is if the Lord is in the midst of the church, he's still speaking to the church. And he fits all seven descriptions of it. Let's see who the voice of the one that speaks to the church in Ephesus. He that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand and walketh in the midst of the candlesticks. He that holdeth the stars. You go back to the first chapter, you'll kind of get an idea of what that means, is that holding the stars in his right hand, he holds the ministry in his hand. He holds them. They're in his hand, not him in their hand. He doesn't hand me himself to give to you. I'm held by him, and he speaks to you. That's the only way the gospel comes to the church. He that holdeth, or I might say, he that has the authority over the seven stars. The holy the description of the stars is something that God made. He made the stars also. Oh, and by the way, he gave them their name. That's the greatness of this authority of him that holdeth the stars in his right hand. The hand of dominance, the one that holds the authority. That right hand is the uh the authority hand. He holds his ministry in his right hand. Oh, and by the way, it says in one place that he holds the heart of the king in his hand, and he turns it whithersoever he will turn it. My people in this world, friends, that think they have authority, they better understand, friends, there is no greater authority than our Lord who ordained powers that be. The only reason there are powers that are is because the Lord ordained that there should be authority distributed in this world. And he has not given up the control. He does not turn over the gospel to the ministry and say, go distribute it as you will. No, you go and you distribute it as I will move you. I hold the seven stars in my right hand. And I walk in the midst of the candlestick. The candlesticks are the churches. Go back and look at the first chapter. He tells us how to read these things. He says, and he that walketh among the golden candlesticks is the candlesticks are the seven churches. So he walks in the midst of them. He doesn't do this from outside, he does it from within. He does it in the church, he does it for the church and to his glory. I walk among the golden candlestick. Oh, and the candlestick is used to hold the light. The candlestick is not what gives the light. The candlestick holds the light. But I'll tell you, there's a there is a there's an issue of the authority of the candlestick itself. It is the place where God has determined that he would meet with his people. That's emblemed here. It's given as an emblem of a candlestick that you bring the candles and you put them on the candlestick. You put them in the place of the authority. The authority is the church. He gave the church. He said, Upon this rock, I will build my church. Let me just say that upon this rock I'll put my candlestick. I'll give you a place to put your candle that you can let your light so shine. Not just inside of a building, but as you go from the building, you're still on the candlestick. And you're letting your light so shine. This one that that holds the seven stars and walks in the midst of the candlesticks. I'm glad he's still walking among the candlesticks. If we get to the point where there are no new gifts given in the ministry, beware. Beware. But when you see new gifts coming into the ministry, and when you see the new gifts coming into the church, that is an indication that the candlestick is still there and that the Lord is still walking in the midst of the candlesticks. When you're singing, it says, In the midst I'll sing those praises among the church. He sits with us in the church to sing those old songs. And he endows it with power and authority to be used to his glory and honor. The next one's Smyrna. Smyrna, we're still in the second chapter. This is a sound church under tribulation. This church is in good shape, except they're suffering. We can understand that. We still have to go through this dark land, but under the light to our feet, and a light, a lamp to our feet, and a light to our path in a dark world. We still will go under tribulation. But here's the one that speaks to them, the voice. This is a voice you can contemplate. The first and the last, which was dead and is alive. That's really a good description of your Lord, even in your even in a in a good shape. These are not told that they have to go repent. These people are in good shape. It's good then to remember that he that was dead and is alive, holds the stars and he walks in the midst of the candlesticks. He was dead, but he's alive. And that's that's the point. Is that he if he was just dead and he was a martyr, there wouldn't be much, there wouldn't be much to hold on to. But he is he was dead, and be assured, he was buried, and in three days he rose again as he promised, as he said he would. They'll kill me and they'll bury me, and I'll be buried, and I will rise again the third day, and he did. He that was alive and and remained uh and is alive now speaks to his church with his voice of authority over life and death. He that hath the power over life and death still speaks to his church. What a great voice to listen to. What a great authority that he has with his church that we can trust. Pergamos, here's another. They are sound, but their problem is they're lacking doctrine. They've taken in bad, bad doctrine. They have listened to and been influenced by bad doctrine. And when I say doctrine, I say the doctrines of that time. Not necessarily what we might be influenced with bad doctrine today, but bad doctrine is bad doctrine. If it's even of a Jezebel, if it's even of a of a worship of Diana, if it's that kind of dogma that that would detract from the he that was dead and is alive, that friends is in need of doctrinal repentance to come back. Repent is come back to. They were committing the immoral things that will have its effect upon the church and its worship. Here's the voice that speaks to them. He that hath a sharp sword with two edges. He that hath a sword with two edges. He had a sharp sword. That, my friends, is his doctrine will divide. That we make sure things are in the right place. But he that hath a sharp sword with two edges speaks to a church pergamus that is in need of doctrine and order. Notice two sides. They had two problems, doctrine and order. Doctrine and practice, you might say. Pergamos, listen to the one that has this tongue like a sword with two edges. Thyra Tirah, the fourth church. The fourth church. Lacking order. They're sound, but they're lacking order. There's some good things that it says about them, but then they were giving up to things that would be detrimental to the church. The Lord identifies that to them. Go and read these these accounts of these churches, and you will see, my friends, that their order needed discipline. The order needed to be corrected to be brought back to where he was. Here's the voice. The Son of God first. The Son of God. We stop right there. And we talk a lot of time about this is not just some man talking to him. This is the Son of God. The Son of God that built the church upon himself, upon his the very reputation of who he was and what he was, and he has the right to speak to them. The Son of God that came down from heaven and walked among his people and showed his father's light and did his father's work and built his father's church and saved his father's people from their sins and his people from their sins. The Son of God who hath his eyes like a flame of fire. It's eyes, my friends, that sees the things that were going on. We might think that things that are happening go undetected to God. People say, well, if all that stuff happened, where is God and why doesn't he do something about it? I tell you, my friends, he's got eyes as flaming fire. He can see those things. And I'm going to tell you, dear friends, at his own time, in his own way, when he it's his will, he'll visit things, and he will shed his light upon it and bring judgment when judgment needs to be brought. And I'll tell you, he has all authority to do it, and he's all got all power to do it. He's got eyes as a flaming fire. It describes him, my friends, uh uh, and his feet are like fine brass. He can wield his authority because he lived with feet like fine brass. He lived in this world. And he walked among those that would detract from the things of the church that would be detrimental to the things. He walked among them and he faced it down and he defeated it in his victory. He has the authority to judge not only with eyes of flame and fire, but feet like brass, and he can move in this world among his church. He's got these these this authority of his walk. People say, Well, who are you to judge? Jesus, who are you to judge? I'll tell you, my friends, he is the victorious. King of kings and Lord of Lords. He walked it, he talked it, he did it, and he was victorious over the things of sin. When they sought to kill him, my friends, he passed from their presence. When they did hang him on a cross, when they did whip him with the scourge, when they did judge him with their mouths, he conquered it in his righteousness. Who is he to judge? He's a judge of the quick and the dead. Alive and the dead. He's a judge of it. There's Sardis. Sardis, which is one of the failing. Says, he that, here's the here's the one. He that saith, who is he? He that saith, he that is true, or he that is holy, first thing off, he is holy. He is true. He hath the key of David. I take that, friends, as being he is the key of the king. He is the super David. He is He is all that David would have liked to have been, but never could be, because he is God, the King of King and Lord of Lord. He hath the key of keys of David. He has the right as the king to judge his his church. You know what I skipped down. The sort of church is he that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. So he holds that authority even over this church that is in such bad shape. But Philadelphia, Philadelphia, I'm sorry. Philadelphia is the one that he has judged. There's nothing that he speaks of negative. And there's nothing there's altogether positive about Philadelphia. They truly were living up to their name. Brothers of brotherly love. They really were living up to that. But here's the voice that spake to them. He that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and no man shutteth, and he that shutteth and no man openeth. That's the description of that voice. That description, my friends, that altogether shows the spirit of fellowship, the fellowship in that holy, that fellowship in the true, that fellowship of the judgment under the king, that he that openeth, I'll tell you, my friends, when the Lord opens, when the Lord opens, it's great. I love to hear it whenever he opens the gospel message to the church when they hear the church, when they hear the message of the gospel in the liberty. It says, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. When he opens that door of the gospel message and pours out a blessing, and one place it is now pouring out of a blessing that you cannot contain. You don't have a bowl big enough to hold this blessing. I'll open the windows of heaven. They come flowing from the windows of heaven to this church in brotherly love. And he opens that up, and no man can shut it. No man can shut the gospel when it's sent. As I spoke last weekend about Paul and Silas in the prison cell, they thought they had the door that no man could get them out of. The Lord opened, and no man shutteth. But then he says, He shutteth and no man can open it. When he shuts out things, when he shuts, you know, there's a there's a there's a way that you look at he that shutteth and no man can, well, he restricts me from getting to it. Well, what about him shutting out the things of this world? Shutting out the things that would harm you, shutting out the things that would distract your mind from the liberty which is in the gospel, shutting out those things which would bring fear and torment, shutting out the oppression that holds you down and keeps you in bondage, my friend, it shuts up, and that's what the gospel is meant for. It opens up the windows of heaven, and it shuts out the things from the world, and we find we find the pleasure that's in the house of God, we find the pleasure that comes from this voice that still speaks to the church and makes us makes us to feel the closeness of a Savior that died for us 2,000 years ago and has not left us and continues to walk in the midst of the candlestick with his stones in his hand and he sends them whithersoever they'll go. We're not meant to be the senders of the gospel, we're meant to be the spirit of the gospel, to come as the Lord would stand, and he opens that door of utterance to the ministry, he opens that door of understanding to you, so that when it comes to you, it hits that heart, and that heart feels that message, and that heart retains that message, and you take it with you that when you are faced with the tribulation, like sort of a spirit of when they're faced with that tribulation, you say, The Lord's got this. The Lord's got this. This is not greater than my Lord. He opened that door of understanding that you can't get to me, that you can't take me away from him, and that I will be with him. When he opens that door of heaven, and we go through, and we enter into that place, and we see him high-lifted up on his throne. My friend, that's our sweet hope that we'll be with him in hope of eternal life, which God that can of life promised before the world began. He opens that door for us to see that. Or by the way, he opens it for you to see it today, Brother Curtis. You don't have to wait till you die to see heaven. We just see it through glass darkly. We see a little glimpses of it. But let me tell you, my friends, it far exceeds our expectation. It's greater than we can even think or ask. Because he is there. So here, my friends, that one, that voice of fellowship that comes to his church. These names describe that one, that one, the Lord Jesus Christ, who sent these messages to his church. The last one, Laodicea. Laodicea. Oh, friends, with all the with all the things. I don't know. Maybe they had just gotten so prosperous, and I think maybe that was the case. This is this is a group, and uh if I remember, I did some look at this a long time ago, but this is not far from Colossae. Colossae, which we have the letter of the epistle of Paul to the Colossian brethren. This place of Laodicea is not far from Colossae, which Paul would write a letter to from prison to the Colossian brethren. And I think one of the things that Paul mentions is the preeminence of the Lord. I looked at what it says about Laodicea now. It's it's a barren nothing. It's a barren nothing place. Gill says that if there's anything there, it's gotta be the wolves or the foxes or some other some other wild animal because it's a it is a nowhere man's land now. A place that would have this testimony that says we're rich and we have need of nothing. Let's just go look at in the third chapter. Boy, real quick here. Third chapter, the last church. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodicea write, the thing saith the amen. The amen. That's that means let it be that this is truth. Let it be. This saith the amen. The faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of the of God. That's three things. That's three things that he mentions there of that voice. The amen. The faithful and true witness, and the beginning of the creation of God. Those three men, I believe, my friends, that that is the authority of the three and one God. The three persons, the Father, the Word, the Holy Ghost, you find them in those that three descriptor description or phrase description. The triune God is the one speaking. He says, I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. You're neither cold nor hot. I would that thou wert cold or hot. We know that's if I feel something cold, I can detect something cold. If I feel something hot, it don't take me long to find out that's hot. And we learn from feeling hot. But something that is lukewarm, and I've I've used this explanation before that when when you feed a baby, I always wonder why mothers sprinkle that milk on their arm and what they're feeling for, they're feeling for no feeling. Because if they they drop that milk on there and they can't feel anything, they know it's good to give to the baby. It is lukewarm. It is neither not hot nor cold, it is not feeling. My friends, that's where these people had come to is a is a spirit of not feeling. My friends, we need to feel things. Feelings of the nerves tell me there's something going on. If I get a pain in my foot, I can pretty well tell you there's something going on in my foot. There's a feeling there. And we need feelings to detect bad or good things. But these people were neither hot nor cold. So then, because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. These people were in imminent danger. And he tells them about it. Now, what I do find here is about this church is there is no church that ever gets to the point that it can't repent. It can't repent. You can come back from this. They could come back from this. He said, Because thou sayest I am rich, and increaseth with goods, and have need of nothing, and knoweth not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. I counsel thee, I counsel thee. Here's that, here's that review that carries with it a warning, a warning. This is this is your last strike, so to speak, as a church. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, and that thou mayest be rich in white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and ain't and anoint thine eyes with Isaf that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. That's a that is a common that is a common scripture that people will use as an altar call to get you to come and become a child of God. This is not an altar call. This is a this is the third strike to be fired. This is a this you're at the imminent point of losing that candlestick, losing that authority of the church. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with me. That's good news, at least they're not dead yet, but they're gasping for air. To him that overcometh, I will grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I have also overcame, and am sat down with my father in his throne. He that hath an ear, this is common to all seven churches, that he says, I know your works, and here it comes. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the church. Unto the churches. That's his ending salutation to the church, is he that hath an ear, let him hear. He's not talking to people that don't have an ear. He's talking to his church that is tasted the goodness of the Lord, that has been his church, but has fallen away into the things of this world. And with the specific problem of thinking I'm rich and have need of nothing. If we feel like we have no need for the Lord, we have lost sight of him. We have turned our back on him. My friends, I know that we still look to him and know that we are wretched and we are we are of sinful nature. We are that is our very being, but yet he is rich, and he is our richness, and he is our liberator, and he is our strength. We call upon him as the head of our church. Let us continue to try to come up to his expectation if we can, as close to his standard, of his standing. I thank you for your attention this morning. Hope something go to look at each one of those descriptions and see it. Because the importance of it is that he still is the voice, the voice of the church. The voice that speaks as the head of the church to the church. And I'm glad that he still owns the ministry, and I'm glad that he still walks in the midst of the candlestick. And I pray that the candlestick will continue here in Valley Spring. And any places that the Lord has allowed his church to be planted and that he'll walk among it. We're not in competition with each other as churches. We're in prayer for fellowship to those other churches that they also prosper and that the Lord will do the work within it. It doesn't have to be one or none. It doesn't have to be holy house or not.