BUC Stony Hill - Virtual Bible Class "The Book of Revelation - Part 2" - Sept 8, 2021 - Mins Andr...

let me extend welcome greetings uh tonight this evening this morning perhaps you are somewhere where it's on the morning we want to welcome you and greet you in the precious name of our lord and savior jesus christ i read you in the saving name i'd reach you in the sustained name i preach in the all conquering name the name of jesus his name is exalted and we honor and bless his name on tonight please pause as we praise god inviting us with us in prayer lord be thank you lord we adore you lord we magnify your gracious you're wonderful lord god you're a powerful name thank you lord god for your many blessings and our lives great god we're not the keeper of ourselves we're totally dependent on you oh god to sustain us to preserve us so we thank you for another opportunity oh god to come together oh lord god for another wednesday night study lord we're but we are the transformer of homes in the sanctuaries oh god so we thank you for your goodness oh god of our lives so we want to submit ourselves you know and ask your god to keep your hands up on us where god strengthens us empowers us for the times of lord jesus christ all that coming our needs tonight touch those rest those very courage lord light in us father we want to thank you for those who've joined us overseas journalism across jamaica oh god we ask you not to glorify yourself edify us now god speak to us bless oh god the speaker our teacher the actual god to undercurrent strength anointing tonight with power oh god so he will teach in accordance with what god awaits for his life left a year and tomorrow and be with us as we continue in jesus name and for jesus sake praise the lord again welcome and greetings everyone welcome to bethlehem church in the fruitlands of stoney hill yes tony hill saint angel i'm your brother in christ devon brown with my wife mr brown and our social pastors and their wives and officers and their families all our members i welcome you tonight to bethel for another wednesday night baby study crazy love that has been good to us and we're just so thankful may have surrendered us to a new year mike center shout out hallelujah hallelujah let's glorify our lord and save jesus christ so god bless and we thank you for his goodness and his mercies we thank him for all his benefits his love to us and greet all our members here from bethesda and hill across the bethel churches across jamaica and reach you welcome again to aleppo said mary welcome to heart in portland 10th law saint angio praise god to all the churches in saint elizabeth and saint thomas praise god and christmas evangel i welcome you in the wonderful name of jesus to all the other members of black people have joined us we are members of the kingdom of god we are members of the kingdom of god and we are brothers and sisters and serve the lord at this time so god bless you welcome we let me also welcome those who joined us on youtube the praise god yes i welcome you because i know you have choices you have options but you have chosen to join us amen for bible study which means it tells me that you have been edified you have been fed and you come back amen and raise the night for more and god bless you take not your coming for granted i appreciate you and may god bless and strengthen you praise god let me make some welcome to uh the bbc vietnam church in antigua eastern caribbean we welcome our brother to say tonight god bless you welcome and greetings we are delighted to have you again to those who have joined us from trinidad yesterday that and also the cayman islands god bless you in the caribbean we acknowledge you and we thank god for you those are with us praise god from the uk yes the uk praise god that must be past midnight but you're up in london in birmingham and we thank god for you praise god to those of you who are with us from the u.s you bless that for yours and we welcome you heartily to bethel and stonehill and of course those across canada again we just want to welcome and greet you in the wonderful name of jesus let me welcome my friend and brother i think we have tonight uh from the brother from hillary los angeles california even our brother minister robert farr from far away in california we are so happy to have with us tonight god bless you my brother welcome again to our platform even in the room for another certain word god bless you and your family over there in haley in los angeles california we give our thanks for you praise the lord amen so we are back tonight as we continue our series we started last week we're on to the last of the bible in the book of revelation it's gonna be started last week and we were so blessed we're so back to the informed the book is broken under three sections we are at the first section first section the things that which that were seen the things which are seen they moved to the things which are i think we shall be here after so we are in for a trip amen alone praise god this wonderful book the bible says we will read and write and understand the book we are blessed already so don't be afraid they may just read the book i can understand him there's a blessing store for you praise god so god bless you right after the main teaching will be going into the segment of question enhancers and also for you to share your take away so please be attentive please be diligent even let nothing slip back to it we want to hear from you before we close praise god again we want to thank god for you all may god bless you it's my delight to present to you another time rabbi a scribe a man of god who is committed praise god to the word of god that's happy to have with us in the minister andrea martin from faith chapels of faith ministries is passed to my friend bishop garfield daily has kindly consented for him to share with us to be with us through the entire series now the series will take us through september and we made it into october by god because we want to ensure we we just get everything from this book of revelation just past is so kind even to allow him to be with us and it's a big sacrifice because they have their back story on a wednesday night he meant so it's a hard call but my friend my friends are for and we thank god he has allowed his minister the shared values of an inspiring class on tonight so maybe god bless bishop taylor and the saints of faith chapter of faith ministries for allowing mr martin to be with us for this series so god bless you my friend good to see you looking very good amen god bless you sir good to see you my delight to present to you a teacher of the word tonight receive minister andrew martin of the holy ghost in jesus name god bless us are over to you god bless you bishop god bless everybody in the mighty name of jesus amen i want to greet i mean you all in the great god and our savior jesus christ amen um you know i am humbled to be here another night and i pray god that at the end of the session that we would have i mean benefited from what we have tonight you know last night i was on bishop last night i was on the bible story for antigua you mean i i while i was preparing you know i just slipped in trying to go under the radar but i guess pastor picked me but i want to greet the faint there in the mighty name of of jesus i mean it was a powerful session they had amen the work of god is being done all over the world irrespective of where we are god is doing our work amen tonight we are going to continue on what we started last week praise god and i pray god that as i said earlier that we will be blessed amen praise god let me just share my screen amen greeting from antigua oh boy that is a good god praise god so tonight we start the uh the second section of the book you know last week we went through chapter one amen and our objective tonight is to look at the second section we start in the second section of the book and how it falls in the structure of the book of revelation amen we're going to examine um the main views on the seven churches in revelation chapter two and three remember we did say from the first session that in chapter one we look at the things which thou has seen even in chapter two we look at the things which are uh chapter and 23 and in chapter four to chapter 22 we look at the things we shall be here after amen uh so tonight our aim is to examine um the main views on the seven churches um there is we will not be doing all seven churches tonight because i can tell you there's a lot of information for for the churches amen but we will cover about three of them tonight praise god and we will see how that goes we're going to determine the present day significance of the message to the seven churches and what we're going to realize is that even though uh john was writing to these churches in asia minor i would say well we said asia minor we're talking about the roman province it's not asia the continent but the roman province and i said that in the first session of asia minor when paul when john wrote praise god he even though he addressed it to seven churches amen amen realize praise god that there's a message in there for each and every one of us amen so let's start with uh a verse from the first chapter in revelation chapter one just to bring us back to show us where john was coming from in his address before he actually started to address the churches so in revelation chapter 1 from verse 4 and verse 11 it says john to the seven churches which are in asia grace be unto you and peace from him which is and which was and which is to come and from the seven spirits which are before his throne and in verse 11 says what those seers write in a book amen and send it on to the seven churches which are in asia onto ephesus and starting in the churches now under ephesus and on to smyrna and on to pergamos and on to tayatera and enter sardis at the end of philadelphia and until i odysseus amen so we realized from the first chapter john's address was two seven churches and we did say that there are other churches that were in the region but there was something that was specific to these seven churches and as we go through the letters we can realize what god was doing and how it applies to each and every one of us in our lives today praise god so here is a uh picture of what the seven churches look like in their how they would be set up in order um normally when you are coming from any other region another roman region amen one of the first places you would uh fall as you come into this area was the era of ephesus and then um they would meet they said they were around you know ephesus then to smyrna and programmers then to fire fire and then to start this then to philadelphia then to layer this year amen realize i said before there were other churches where i colossey there were other churches like and her police um other churches exist in the region but i mean this was the practically the million route that was used for the churches um in this region so normally when they come in um any letter that comes from anywhere else in the roman area would start with ephesus and they would go around to the other name cities so last week in revision we we did say that the book of revelation is the revelation of jesus christ amen and we say that if we read through the book of revelation and we miss that then we need to go back and read the book of revelation again because the book of revelation is really about him it is revealing who he is amen praise god and we say it reveals what he is doing or his plans what his plans are for the future uh he reveals all of these things and also it reveals the object he is the object that is being revealed so it reveals what he's about to do and he reveals himself which is jesus christ amen so as we read the book of revelation in revision we say that the book of revelation comes from the greek word apocalypse amen and actually speaks to the fact that it is revealing it has been made known um and we did say that a lot of people when they read the book of revelation um they tend to be lost i mean because they think it's a hidden book you know like a prakapha which is the opposite but revelation is not a hidden book it's apocalypse which asks me actually means to unveil to make known so god wants us to know him god wants to reveal himself to us and therefore he gives us this particular book we say that the key of the book is found in revelation chapter 1 and verse 19 is import very important are we when we study any book and when we do any book study which is practically what we are doing in a sense amen it's important that we find what the key of that particular book is and when we look in scriptures we realize from revelation chapter 1 verse 19 is the key to the book and this is how we have decided to study the book so revelation chapter 1 and verse 19 and jesus said to john that he was right amen write the things that he has seen the things which are and the things we shall be here after amen and we did say that um as we examined last week the things that john saw we realized that he got a vision of the glorified christ and it's interesting as i said glorified because john walked with the lord jesus christ for three and a half years he was with the closest one of the closest disciples to the lord he was one of the inner circle um disciples but yet still when he saw him you saw him now in a realm that he has never seen before to the point where the bible said he fell at his feet as dead so what did john saw uh first of all we see in revelation chapter one that he got a description and i was giving a revision a description of jesus return amen and um he did say that when he comes back our eyes shall see him we see an introduction from jesus himself so just produce himself and introduce himself to them as that the the first and the last the alpha and the omega i mean the beginning and the end the almighty so on and so forth amen we saw john's vision of jesus christ when he saw jesus christ he saw a man that had uh uh wool here like wool white amen he saw a man that had eyes that were like flame in fire praise god he saw a man practically that had his feet like brush and his his garment went all the way down to his feet face that he had enough golden sash amen and he looked like uh the the priests of the old testament praise god i would saw that he was in the midst amen of the golden candle stands and we saw that the stars were in his hands and when john saw this john's reaction is that he fell at his feet like dead like a dead man amen because at the end of the day irrespective of who you are amen when you come in the presence of the king of kings and the lord of lords you have to get to your knees amen it brings you to a place where you have to come to some subjection amen because he is god and he's god over everything amen can i tell you something god is so magnificent that the bible actually says when the bible says in uh timothy that we don't contract with the great is the mystery of godless god was manifest in the flesh justified in the spirit scene of angels there's a reason why the writer said scene of angels not because angels have never seen god as a matter of fact there's several films in amen when they come into his prison they cover their faces because of his magnificent they only serve god in the face of jesus christ was the first time they would be holding an actual image of who god is amen but in terms of god's omniscience and god's omnipotence and god's presence amen even the very angels who are mighty beings are magnificent beings and men are not able to view the great god and savior so the bible said they are seen as angels it means that it's the first time you actually get to see this man amen another thing that we realized too is that john realized that it was a miracle uh for jesus to walk around with so much glory in our body and it was maintained hidden amen in other words how can so much glory be held in in clay amen be held in mud amen but at the end of the day it shows the magnificence of our god who is able to to conceal his glory but when he reveal himself to john and john c is the same man jesus that i've worked with his voice was like many waters john fell at his feet like dead water god and the bible said god jesus laid his hands at him and and assured him that look here man don't be afraid i love god i love god i love god we serve a god who is alpha an omega we serve a god who is magnificent and that is what john saw john saw the glorified christ and from here we realized that god gave john a message and god gave him a message for seven churches that were in the region of ishmael amen praise god so god was commanded to write to the seven churches in the seven cities and we mentioned them a while ago there was ephesus uh smyrna i was talking in the order ephesus smyrna pergamum i might see pergamos same place um fire thyroid sardis philadelphia and elaboration now that's a side note it's interesting though that if you look at the writings of the apostle paul this is just for our general knowledge paul also wrote to several churches it's interesting um as i did the story i realized that paul was wrote to rome he wrote to curry if he went to galatia he went to ephesus he watched the colossae it was a philippi and thessalonika and these were the seven churches that john that paul wrote to but john was commanded to write to seven churches in the region of asia minor amen and i guess the bible has as a unique thing about the number seven praise god but this is where we are praise god i will say seven churches seven churches that we know of there are several letters that are in the new testament canon uh that where paul wrote and a similar way john wrote to the seven churches in the region of asia now there are two uh main reasons given why um these specific seven churches were chosen amen and we're gonna realize that one of the reasons is for this because obviously before the seven churches were what were called postal districts in the roman province of asia so what would have normally happened as i said earlier the the letter when it comes into the region it would start with ephesus amen and one of the things was realized now even though a letter was addressed to a particular church what would have happened it was right in all the churches so the the letter that was a smyrna was also written in pergamos was also very entire terror all the letters were written it's just that there were specific messages that were given to specific churches so what would have happened whoever is bringing the message remember like the house of chloe when they got messages with paul um paul would have given him a letter and i would have brought it back and it would bring it back and forth it's in a similar way when john wrote day they met the letter amen and it's interesting i i still wonder how is it that john was able to get this across i mean being a prisoner on the isle of patmos but we serve a god who is able amen and he was able to get the message across to these churches using the same postal region that they're using in that time starting from ephesus going all the way around to ladies amen another reason given though why the seven churches were chosen because in the bible as i said earlier number seven often represents completeness and therefore these letters along with all the book of revelation was written to the complete church so god used seven churches as a means to show that even though he was writing to ephesus even though he was writing to smyrna even though he is writing to triathlon and so on there is a message in there that can be applied to you amen i always tell my students the proper way of looking at scriptures because all scripture the bible says given by inspiration of god amen is profitable for doctrine for instruction for correction you know in righteousness we know that scripture amen so at the end of the day irrespective of what scripture we read amen it is for all of us amen and one of the things i tell the students is that when you look at scriptures you have to first get into the historical uh background behind that particular scripture amen go to what is called a grammatical historical method of interpreting the scriptures and then when you get that then we can move to the second level which is application amen so we we we get what the scripture is saying in this grammatical historical sense amen and then we when we understand that and understand the background and understand what was happening and why this word was used and why the apostles used this word and we we try to go as close as possible based on the history based on what was taking place then from that we can extract how does this apply to me amen how does this apply to my life and that and that's the the way i want to present even these seven churches to us tonight in a way where we will see what is happening amen and then we will try to see how it applies to me now normally when people study revelation chapter 2 and 3 there are three different uh major views of studying um chapter two and three amen there is what is called the historical view and um secondly this what is called a representative view and thirdly what is called a prophetic view and these are the three views that people use aim and when they try to go through revelations chapter two and three so i'm giving you a background behind amen what how we look at the seven churches from chapter two and chapter three now when we talk about the historical view what we're going to do we're going to find that the seven jew the seven churches actually represented several literal churches that exist during that time i mean they were not made up paul um john didn't write to some fictitious people and call it ephesus on these are actual historical places actual historical churches with people's lives amen and therefore it's important for us to get a background amen behind what was taking place during that time so the historical view really is to go into the history behind these seven churches and and this is one of the views we're going to try to to take on tonight we're going to look at some of the history of what was taking place in those in those time the history behind the city um what was what what how how things look during this those times the second view is what is called a representative view and this is the view where we try to um look at the seven churches no i'm looking their history but no how does it really come back to me amen how does it affect my work with christ how does it affect my work with jesus so i therefore i'm looking for example at the church of ephesus how does what jesus said to the church of ephesus cannot be applied to me today amen because i will say before all scripture must be come back to me no scriptures have any private interpretation scriptures must speak to my life amen um it was it was it was david who says um well david what says die whatever hitting my heart that i might not sin against thee and the scripture go on to say in saint john 17 17 sanctify them through thy truth thy word is truth and they're talking about the word in his entirety the word of god is truth amen and therefore if it's truth amen um we shall know the truth and the truth and set us free so we need to understand that there is a word there's a representative word for me in my personal life in the church collectively and in my personal life amen and most theologians agree um on the first two views they have agreed that these churches did exist in history and they agree also that there is a point where we can pull extract things from what jesus was saying to these seven churches and know them even though they it was john who penned literally penned it it was jesus who dictated what he wanted to say it was jesus's letter to the seven churches amen and and and and therefore if jesus is let up to the complete church and i will tell you why i said that as we go along it must have something in your lives uh something in that letter that can be applied to me amen there's a third view which i'm going to leave for last and that is what is called the prophetic view and this is how we normally teach even when we teach it in our bible school how we teach it is that we look at the historical and representative view first and then we move to what is called the prophetic view the prophetic view is that the seventh church is represented each of the church represents a period in church history from the time of the first century going all the way down until the church is about to be raptured amen and what we're going to do and i'll leave that for last but we're going to look at how each of these churches fall in church history i mean from episodes which is the newborn church so we reached la this year and and philadelphia which we consider to be the churches to be um that will be the end time amen before the the lord takes us out praise god so the prophetic view we find the view that the seven churches represent the spiritual history of the church from john's day until the second coming of jesus christ praise god and as before after we have examined the historical view and the representative view amen for the few weeks the last week of looking at chapter two and three we're going to look at the prophetic view we should be able to cover that in uh one session praise god no the sanitation and the address praise god what would they realize that the salutation to the angel of each church contains a reference to some characteristics of the glorified christ what you're going to realize is that as we go to each of the letters we're going to realize that what we saw in chapter one amen we're gonna see all of these things being played out in different parts in chapter 2 and 3. so for example you might see where it says that here's the one that has the sword in his mouth the two edges sword in his mouth or here's one that has the they they walk between the mids of the golden candlestick or here's one that has the eyes like fire you know each of the characteristics that were already mentioned in chapter one have been repeated in chapter two and three but there is a specific one it's been um used to a specific church amen and this is based on the fact that god is presenting himself based on what is happening in the church god is saying that for every issue that happened in the church i am the solution to this issue amen and therefore there is a characteristic that i have that can address that particular issue so we're going to see that as we go along also we're going to realize that the age of the church are the local pastors and the leaders of the church i mean and i did mention this in passing last week you know the word angel come from a greek word angelio and it actually means messenger but one of the reasons why we are maybe most theologian would say that the angels there are really local pastors endless in the church is because of what god even said to one of the churches i think he was smyrna he told him to be faithful unto death here so here jesus rises to the angels of the church and telling the angel to be faithful unto death now if we interpreted angel there to me an angel in the sense of an angelic being would have a problem because angels do not die men die praise god so we realize that even from the the fact that they use the term angel um the word messenger is a good fitting so the messenger who is the elder of the church amen these are the angels of the church and and whatever we also you realize that he constantly say to the angel church of this right to the age of the church of that right to the age of it and there's a reason because god deals with order you know a lot of people will say um me may not listen to pastor i'm gonna be physical bishop make her hear from god for myself why it is to realize that god is a god of order and god when god wants to send short messages to his church he will send it through the messenger of the past or the elder of the church amen in order to bring that message across i'm reminded of a scripture in the old testament where two persons decided that look here they come here to from god for themselves to amen and they said that god god god moses acting like him alone can hear from god and we realize what god did with these people but some of them got opened the earth and swallowed them up amen and god said weren't you not afraid to another person to talk against the man of god in other words if you are not in agreement with your pastor amen the best way to do it is not to cut him off and bring him down praise god you might cause problems god has order in how he does his thing amen and therefore the message goes to the angel of the church the message goes to the leader of the church but not that the message is for the pastor of the church per se the message is for everybody else but again i'm saying before it's a matter of order and jesus is a god of principle guys i've got a he's a disciplined man he's a he's a gentleman and he knows how to to do things the proper way amen he does not sidestep him and he knows how to send the message right as he deals with his church so to the age of the church of this right to the angel of the church of this right he's sending his message to this particular pastor and the pastor brings the message to the church and i hope that makes some sense for us now the letter you can realize also that the letter has all let us hear a similar structure amen you know in the sense that how god deals with it i mean um some letters might have uh some some of these things and and not all of it but this is the main structure that goes with most of the letters are all letters amen the letters have an address amen the letter then have a description of jesus christ let's have a word of commendation then you have a rebuke amen then you have a command from jesus to the church they have a general exhortation and they have a promise of word and this is how jesus did it for all the churches and go along as i said before you might have in few other churches one or two of these things missing or one are so missing and that for a specific reason amen but at the end of the day this is the general um structure with which god used to address the seven churches that exist in asia minor praise god at the time so with that being said if i have anything else to say in relation to this i guess i'll fill it in next week as we do or go again because i'm telling the introduction can go for the whole lesson but we will feel points as we go along so we make sure that we we we teach it and so forth i will teach it again i will teach it again i will build the point as we go along now let's start with the church of ephesus revelation chapter 2 from verse 1 to 7 and i hope that we are willing to read through the letter and then we are going to analyze what the letter is about from first a historical perspective then a representative perspective so revelation chapter two from verse one to seven and it reads like this unto the angel of the church of ephesus right these things said he that hold the seven stars in his right hand who walk it in the midst of the golden of the seven golden candlestick that sounds familiar amen i know thy works and thy labor and thy patience and although can't not bear them which are evil and thou has tried them would say they are apostles and are not and i've found them liars praise god and as born and as patients and for my name's sake has labored and has not fainted what a good address my god then he went on to say nevertheless i have somewhat against thee because thou has left thy first love praise god remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else i will come unto thee quickly and remove thy candlestick out of his place except or repent but this though has that don't hate us the deeds of the nico laetitians anniculations amen nicolaitans praise god i've heard um other person pronounce that like alations i've heard nicoleton's alice use the latter which i also hate he that have an ear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches to him that overcometh will i give to eat of the tree of life praise god which is in the midst of the paradise of god so we read through the letter that jesus gave to the church praise god at ephesus now let us try to analyze what was taking place here praise god i was said earlier the letter is addressed to the church in ephesus now one of the things about ephesus is that ephesus was a crossword across world of civilization praise god and a city of great political importance praise god it was also a commercial and a religious center amen when you when you do a study on an ephesus you didn't realize how how how powerful that particular city was it just said that ephesus praise god was so uh influential and and was so political i mean that you know that if you can remember rome uh was the superpower of the day and when you studied the book of daniel and daniel saw the image and tied the head of gold and the silver chest of silver and in the check that the waves of brass on the foot of of iron and defeat iron mixed with clay you're going to realize that you talk about the superpowers that exist so for example the head of gold represented babylon the breast of silva represented the media persian army at the middle persian side then the the waste of brass represented the grecian people like alexander the great and so on and then you have the feet of iron i have is two feet kind of room at one point was split in two amen but here it is that rome was the superpower and this was a part of the roman province but yet still because of so of our political and whole important episodes was as a city you said that they were given their own autonomy to do a lot of things on their own amen it was a powerful city and it was a strong source of income um um for the city and that was came from the fact that there was a temple there remember the temple of artemis are what we call the temple of diana and she was the fertility god and they had a big temple here to the point where that that temple is considered to be one of the seven wonders of the world to this very day we have people who would leave and they would go to this particular region in turkey to to look at this this temple that was that was a temple of diana praise god so when we look at it praise god this is a picture of the ruins that practically left back and some people have seen but people still look at it as one of the seven wonders of the world it was a magnificent thing in those time praise god and and uh people worshipped uh diana the fertility god amen and and they played a lot of homage to her praise god another thing important thing that we must note about the city of ephesus that is interesting to note is that the church of ephesus was planted by the apostle paul if you can remember in romans chapter 19 uh when the bible said paul um apologize i've gone to the uh when they talk about paul walking up the the the disciples of john and i asked him have you received the holy ghost since you believe and i said we'll not hear any holy ghost and so how are you baptized i say unto john's baptism amen i remember the story well how uh at the end of the day he was able to convert them amen he went into the synagogue amen and he was he was he was doing a magnificent work and he was getting some some some fight from the jews to the point where he joined in one of the school of a guy named tyronos amen and he was able to to start his school that he was there for about two years praise god so he realized that paul was the one who established the church of ephesus but at the same time what was happening is that people in ephesus they were getting upset with him amen and and and they were getting upset with him because i mean while he was doing this thing he was converting people he was converting jews he was converting gentiles no look at this one of the main source of income in ephesus at the time was the selling of these fertile small gods that they had amen the fertility gods and so on and people would buy no when paul came no amen i can remember at one point in time the people were shouting and screaming out the name of their god for about two hours i mean enchanting to their god it confessed about acts chapter 19 praise god and and and they turned against paul and he caused a great issue in the city and paul had to leave so by acts chapter 20 we find paul leaving ephesus and he gave them and he left with them a very powerful word amen but not all that paul was there in acts 17 we had people like aquila and priscilla amen we had people like aquila and priscilla who was there and if you can remember it was aquila and priscilla who actually are one apollos to christ amen remember paulus was one of those preachers that was what was known from antioch one of those eloquent speaker but uh aquila priscilla brought him aside and and and teaching the thing a little better amen and he came to to the truth of what the word of god is and then only that we can find that people like timothy amen when paul uh left uh ephesus he said back a couple years later it was timothy who became one of the the pastors of of of of ephesus so we're talking about a church that had great teachers great men amen so you're talking about apollos they're talking about paul you're talking about aquila priscilla he's talking about timothy and john himself he just said that john was in ephesus when he was actually sent to the isles of patmos amen because of how influential prefecture he was at the time he was sent to the isles of partners i mean from the city ephesus and he said that at the end of his his time there on a donation he was sent back when the the emperor after the mission came and he died in ephesus amen so we realized that i was before this was a powerful place this was a this was a place that was full of of of of great teachers they had great teachers over their history paul established a church a palestine and an and and was there a quill and prisoner was there timothy you're talking about some seers hey these are people we read bought in scripture i mean these were paul was the one who wrote most of the new testament and he was one of the one who established the church in episodes and spent a good time there amen so they carry out the letter from john would have landed at the port of ephesus to show how important that it was a poor city and normally when you have poor cities you know these are they did it was like a big city was like manhattan it was a big city in the time when you said going to ephesus you're going to it was the port city and it just said that they would get their letter and they would go to ephesus hey man and that would be the start where the million route would start and from ephesus will the letter get first it would hit the other churches so we have a good description of what was taking place there and how ephesus looked diana was the fertility god uh that they worshipped and they adored praise god but look at the snow the bible says in revelation chapter one and verse revelation chapter two and verse one unto the angel of the church of ephesus right and this is how jesus described himself that should be revelation chapter one verse one it says unto the angel of the church of ephesus right praise god these things said he that hold the seven stars in his right hand praise god i who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks so jesus described himself as two things here you describe himself as he will hold the seven stars in his right hand and we did say last week that the seven stars really are the ministers the president of the bible told you that in the last verse of revelation chapter one but i i guess god wanted to emphasize to the church of ephesus that even though they had big names amen at the end of the day they are in his right hand amen he is the true the true light all the stars feared in comparison the paul and the apollos and the aquila and the timothy all of these people fear in comparison to him and he is the one that is in the midst of the church amen he is the one that is in the center of the church and he wanted ephesus to realize that he was still in charge of what was taking place in the church of episodes and they need to know this so he described himself as the one that holds seven stars in his hands and the one that is in the midst of the golden lampstand ephesus must realize that jesus is the one who actually holds you know the word for holy company the greek word are cracked in and it means that he has complete control he holds them securely so god is the one who holds the minister securely and therefore the churches belong to jesus not the leaders praise god of the church or the people of the church he is the one who actually calls them and he was emphasizing to the church of ephesus that he is the one that is in charge he is the one that has all authority i want us to understand that irrespective of what is happening amen irrespective of what is taking place we must realize that jesus is in total control of the church he has the church he has the ministers in his right hand he is in the midst of the the seventh goal and candlestick um it emphasizes the authority of jesus christ he holds the stars he is the one in the golden lampstand and and i can't stress that enough jesus is the central person in the church and we need to keep that in the back of our minds irrespective of who we are jesus be the center of it all amen if jesus is not the center then something is wrong we need to have a crystal-centric mind the scriptures is about him revelation is about him if we read john it's about him if we read the book of uh songs of solomon it's about him amen irrespective of where we read it's about him the old testament was prophesying about him amen it pointed to him amen the new testament in matthew mark he revealed him the old testament everything is about him it's a crystal century he is the one that is in the midst of the church and i like what jesus said to them the first thing jesus said to the church of ephesus and i want to emphasize this is the first in jesus name is that i know your works before i even go any further to bring with anything else i want us to understand that jesus looked at ephesus and he knew its condition amen you see there may be sin or corruption hidden in your life or in the congregation but guess what while it can be hidden from the stars in his hands well it can be hidden amen from people on the outside and your neighbor amen it cannot be hidden from the lord jesus christ he knows your condition amen your condition is no mystery to him praise god i'm saying there may be sinner corruption hid in the congregation but this isn't hidden from the lord jesus christ he would say that the same he would say the same thing to us that he would to both as individuals and under congregation guess what i know your works god knows your works and this is why we have to be careful as children of god we think that we can do things under the quiet amen and we can probably come on a sunday morning and you might get away with it amen you might come on a sunday morning i might do something praise god and it brings down the anointing but don't use it as a measurement that everything is okay amen because while bishop didn't see it amen while the ministers didn't see why you acquired the leader didn't see it jesus is saying to somebody tonight that i know your works amen and there are few scriptures that came to mind as i thought about it the scriptures in hebrews chapter 4 amen and verse 13 he says neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sights amen but all all everything all is all everything are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do praise god the bible says in proverbs 15 verse 13 the eyes of the lord are in every place the praise god that's why he is the omnipotent god the omniscient god amen he he you cannot hide from him he could go in a corner and think that you're getting away amen but the eyes of the lord and we must bear these things in mind whenever we do our thing in secret the eyes of the lord are in every place that's what he's doing he's beholding the evil and the good praise god so god was saying the first thing that god said to the church in ephesus is that i know your works i want if you know if i want you to call this in your heart tonight praise god that god knows your work god knows about you no let us know make it in relation to the church of ephesus what does god knows and he gives him a word of commendation he says firstly he knows their work and their labor and your patience in other words jesus uh knew praise god what this church did right in other words what the church did right they worked hard for the lord and they had godly endurance amen they knew how their patience there was from a from a greek word actually i mean they had head fast endurance and they said that the church of ephesus was a solid church and guess what jesus was saying to them i know this i am fully aware of this amen he knows it is said that the word labor there means that they worked today to the place of to the state of of of up to the point they were super tired practically they they worked so well they were doing the things of god so powerfully amen to the point where they became tired they worked and they labored work and labor would have been the same about labor they had to add it there because they knows only the works but they were absolutely laboring in the kingdom they knew how to do their thing and they had patience not only that the bible said they cannot bear those who do evil so they they they the church in ephesus practically pursued doctrinal purity amen and and and this is interesting because they were able to pick up right away if somebody was he came in the church and was doing something that was evil they were they couldn't hold it they couldn't bear it and he can understand why because he was a church praise god that grew up under leadership of men like paul and pete i said before people like timothy who actually warned them and told them what they are supposed to do and they tried them would say their apostles and are not and has found them liars and we can find that ourselves before when power was about to leave the church of of ephesus even in acts chapter 20. he gave him a warning he gave him a warning that i believe that they they ideal to the hell is in the back of the mind so even though paul died in 80 60 something and this was about 1895 amen they still held fast to the words of the apostle now what it passes to them pass it to them in acts chapter 20 from verse 28 to 29 he said take for unto yourselves and to all the flocks over the witch the holy ghost that made you overseers to feed the church of god which he had purchased with his own blood i'm saying guess what for i know this that after my departing praise god shall grievous wolves enter in among you this is what paul said to the church at ephesus wolves are going to come among you not spearing the flock and i strongly believe that ah the paul said something like this to them i mean they held it in their minds amen so any person who came and said that they're an apostle they would have tried them that they they they were doctrinally sound they were a church that that held to the world and they held its high esteem they ensured amen that they labored and a labor induction and they labored in teaching and they labored and ensuring that the church was on power amen nobody could come in and bring anything false to them praise god but there's a contrast that i've noticed today it was persian who said it like this and said this was the grand of them talking about the church of ephesus it showed a backbone of truth in other words the people had choose i wish some of the churches of this age had a little of this holy decision about them for nowadays and this is so true if a man be clever he may preach the violence lie that was ever vomited from the mouth of hell and it will be go down with some in other words we have nowadays a lot of people holding on to people because they have the eloquence because they are able to bring it across in a way that sounds good amen but i like the church of ephesus they were able to realize any person that came and said they were apostles amen they knew the work of their person they knew what the person's supposed to teach and they know that if they divide it they verity from the truth amen they would have not received them paul said to the church in galatia if we are an angel from heaven preach any other doctrine unto you than that which we have thought let them be a curse and i strongly believe the church in ephesus held to this dearly they ensure that irrespective of where you come from if you are going contradicting amen to what we teach we are going to consider you to be a coach to be a curse he also said to them that look here praise god that they have preserved and have patients have a labor for my name's sake i have not become weary amen so we look at the fact that ephesus church continued doing these things without becoming weary they continue to be steadfast induction they continue to be steadfast in their teaching they showed a godly pers um preservers that we should imitate amen uh they they ensured that the church was solid in their outward mission they ensured that the child was solid in doing what they had to do praise god they had great outreach and they protected the integrity of the gospel they ensured that the gospel message that we preached and what their pastors prayed from from they knew it from the church was established under paul they ensured that it was kept amen and they held it with high esteem god also said that and i added this even though he placed a little further down i added here as a part of the commendation you say this us that you hate these of the nucleations which i also hate praise god so jesus was saying that uh that that one of the things i like about the church is that they hated the deeds or deductions of the nicolasians praise god now there's some speculations about who the nicolasians are praise god and refining some of the writings for example of arenas amen who wrote in the third uh century and we find in the writings of person like well earlier he wrote in the late second century praise god um he described um what who the nicolasians were now if you can remember when when the the apostles chose sev when when when ups seven deacons amen whatever the name of the deacon was a guy named nicolas praise god and it is believed that it is said according to history that he started out well but after a while he went down to a place called antioch and he became one of the the main preachers in that region i just said that uh he started to teach some indifference to the teachings he started to teach the teacher okay whatever you do in your body is okay as long as your spirit is not corrupting in other words it looks closely to narcissism and that type of teaching where what was done in the spirit is okay so they started to practice idolatry and adultery and things that were sacrificed to others and and this was based on the writings that we find of iranians i mean um in the second and third century these are the guys who wrote that this was what's happening and god was saying here they the church in ephesus hated the deeds of the nicolasians in other words they did not accept the deeds of the nicolas they were not willing to say we are going to conform to any of this teaching no matter how influential you are if you come contradicting to do what the scripture is teaching amen because you can't have i can tell you this in these last days you're gonna have a lot of nice pretty preaching praise god we have a lot of nice teachers who have become uh influential in the kingdom but that's what we have to be careful if they divert from what the scriptures teach don't receive them if it's even me who goes contradicting to the word of god don't receive me because at the end of the day you can't accept this and the bible said they hated the deeds of the nicolas and because one god also hated himself which i also hate which speaks volume amen through fact that even though they were practicing these things god created it now when i examine all of these things one would have said that the church of ephesus is the ideal church on the outset the church of ephesus is the place where you ought to be here's a church amen that that that that that labored and stood up for apostolic doctrine and stood up for teaching and worked to the point of exertion a church that was doing the word and he hated the needs of any collections and if we i was the one looking on the church amen i would have given them probably a hundred percent because they were doing everything right but as i said before jesus says i know your works so guess what jesus said jesus said nevertheless nevertheless praise god i have this against you and guess what you have that you have left your first love no nevertheless jesus used a sobering word nevertheless which actually means despite all that you have done jesus took everything into account you know and all the good thing that ephesus had done jesus took it into account and jesus said despite all of this that you have done he has something against you nevertheless means that all the good at ephesus church did cancel out the bad that jesus was about to describe can you imagine that so all the good that they were doing were canceled by the nevertheless if you look at it in the greek i was saying all right you know you're a good person it's like somebody say you're a good person and you know yo yo yo yo yo you're interviewing i said boy you have this and this and this but i wanna say bought everything that's there that was on the table that's your thought that's what i've used to get the job the boat can't let out like but we can't get in trouble because you don't have this and this and this so here it is that jesus says nevertheless and guess what you said to them you said despite all of this you have left your first love no the bible did not say that they lost their first love the bible said they have left their first love left and lost is two different things if you lost something you don't know where to find it left means that at the end of the day praise god you know where it was and can i tell you something there is something about love amen that jesus holds in very high esteem you know i remember teaching uh a lesson on the power of love here even here at bethel and i looked at the fact that when uh the apostle paul was writing to the church at coins and he looked in chapter 11 and he described all the gifts of the spirit in chapter 11 and 12 and he was describing all the gifts of the spirit and he was showing that have the gifts of tongues on the people of interpretation i give up this then he went on to say but i show you a more excellent way in other words if you have love if you don't but if you're doing everything in the kingdom of god perfectly and you don't have love then god it cancels out everything you are like a sunny brass tinkling symbol it profits god nothing in the eyes of god love is the most excellent way in the eyes of god and i cannot tell you something when god said you have left your first love it means that at the end of the day they were doing all the right thing they were working it reminds me of the mirror and the master story amen where one was come up with all of the work you know jesus came and they were working working working work keep working one sit at his feet you know i there must become a time brethren we can't become so busy in the kingdom of god praise god where we lose it where we lose it to the point where uh we are so busy that we don't spend enough time in the presence of god it means that you have left your first love you can work from now till next year and still not be in love with god and report in the word love that is used in that scripture is from the greek word amen and it speaks to a love that is unconditional it speaks for love that you should have both for god and the brethren and god is saying that look here you have left that so while they were doing everything that was right in the eyes of god amen right from a from a standpoint of what a church should look like amen god is saying that look here you need to go back and and get this part right they once had a love according to a person that they don't have anymore this can be described as a definite and a sad departure in other words they had this love for god but they have departed from it praise god and therefore guess what jesus said to them jesus says to them he gave them this is what jesus wanted the church of ephesus to do praise god in relation to that jesus told him um three things he says remember therefore from when though at fallen praise god and i remember when i as i thought about that i am i'm reminded of the story of the prodigal son in luke chapter 15 amen when he left his father's house amen the first thing that he had to do and the first thing that happened to him was that he remembered amen that he came to himself and he remembered that okay why am i here eating with pigs when my father has all of these things in his house he better go home and be a servant for god amen don't even call me a son it is better i was in the house of god than to be here all the time so the first thing you have to remember from when you have fallen you have to come to a sense that look here you are not at the place we are supposed to be the second thing you have to do is that you're supposed to repent and this is a command to feel sorry amen is this not a command sorry to feel sorry or if you feel anything it means to change your direction it means at the end of the day when you repent you realize that look here you're not showing love to the brethren like you're supposed to amen you're not you're more so caught up with the doctrine are this ah the letter that you forget the spirit of the letter you know that we can become so cold and careless that we deal with breathing now we amen just because we are so caught up in doctrine to the point we become legalistic you know doctrine is good and we have to worry about doctrine without love is not good labor without love is not good let everything be done in love and let me tell you something about love too love does not mean that i i will hug up everything that you do wrong because there must be a line where i'm telling you that what you're doing is wrong but it must be done in love amen praise god so he said that we must repent uh who a different real uh praise god that is going to say do the first works this means that you must go back to the basics to the first things you know those days where you used to spend time in the presence of god those times where where when you know where they just got the holy ghost i know when i just got the holy ghost in the my god my god you're in your bed and there's this thing that's not wash you you're just in love you're in love you're committed amen and love will push you to do early you probably were doing so much good work but you can imagine if you were truly in love with god way above the measure of what they are doing even at that time amen but they had left their first love they removed them from that place no one of the things i realized too is that when you do not show love no matter how doptionally sound you are no matter how great you are in doing ministry when you do god is not pleased with you so god says if you do not repent of this if you do not go back to your first life when you will have god as your love your priority your god is your everything it's like in the old testament where this could just say come away with me amen i will lock away with god it's like you must have your time you have a time where you're doing the work of ministry but you must have a time breakdown where you spend time with him amen i have been with jesus all day long i've been with him you must have that period of time where you are locked away with the king of kings if you don't do that i will come quickly and remove your lampstand from its place now that was interesting because the lampstand represented the church so what was god saying if there's a church without love and while the church in itself will prevail and and the church there is going to be a church a local assembly can be removed because guess what that local assembly don't have love so god will remove that that lamb stand because there is no love there man i'm brethren we can learn a lot from the church of ephesus jesus told them that if they overcome in other words if they go back to their first works if they repent and they realize where they were you're going to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of god god is promising them amen that they become overcomers amen that that at the end of the day just like the garden of eden amen there will be risk that that that you know in the god of eden where they lost it amen god said you've got to restore something like that for them eternal life this means that the sense of making it into heaven amen which is practically uh to get eternal life is threatened if we lose our first love the the fact that you want to go to heaven amen if you remove yourself from love if you stop showing love to the brethren praise god you're going to realize that you're going to remove yourself from the paradise of god and the tree of life because you do not have love a lot of us do a lot of things right now but we have missed out on this first thing that god was saying to ephesus you must have love i wonder if somebody can get that you must have love and if you don't have love and we realize that you you find it hard to forgive our brethren when they're around you i find it hard to show love to somebody who has treated you about are you feeling hard amen to to get to a place where you can show love go to the brethren unto god because the truth is that you cannot say you love god i hate your brother amen i see a lot of these things nowadays you know creeping in where people say boy i'll come to church and i'll lift them aside and i worship that but yet still they know that they're not talking to sister sue and i have issues with that brother and that sister and there's a big malice happening in the house of god and they think that this is okay no no no no no god is saying to you get back to your first love because i'm sure when you got the holy ghost think about it amen if our brethren did do something wrong you are the one republican evil says sorry because you are so much in love amen these things never moved you at all you are so much in love amen both with god and with the brethren that very few things would have moved you and then god gave a general exaltation to the church it says he who had an ear let him hear what his spirit says to the church in other words what is saying tonight is not john saying it but the spirit of god speaking it amen this qualifies everyone or at least everyone who will listen in other words if you are willing to listen and god is willing to speak amen the spirit is saying a word to somebody tonight if you even hear letting hear what the spirit says to the church we must hear what the spirit says to the church not just to ephesus these letters each of them were meant to speak to you they were mean to speak to me so we must have on here to hear in other words if you are willing to listen god is willing to speak and god has spoken and you're saying brethren if you have lost your first love it doesn't matter how effective you are no matter how much committees you are in church no matter if you're unacquired no matter how often you preach amen after you teach hallelujah it doesn't matter at the end of the day praise god if you have lost your first love god is saying that it's going to remove your candlestick that is going to remove your lampstand in other words god can remove you amen because you don't have love and brethren that would be a sad say for us tonight but guess what i love jesus he gives us a word of warning he said look a man remember from whence you have fallen repent and do the first works he that had on here to hear let him hear what the spirit says to the church church number two smyrna it says praise god it says unto the angel of the church of smyrna wright these things say the first and the last which was dead and is alive it says i know thy works and tribulation and poverty but thou art rich and i know the blasphemy of them would say they are jews and are not but are the synagogue of satan fear none of these things which thou shalt suffer behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison that he may be tried and he shall have tribulation ten days amen be thou faithful unto death and i will give thee a crown of life he that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit says unto the churches he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death praise god now smyrna brethren was amen was one of those cities also that he had a lot of pagan worship in 199 in 196 bc it is that temple was built to worship the goddess of rome in other words there came appointed time in way before jesus came on the scene they built a temple uh that worshiped the goddess of rome there was a goddess of rome so that the people usually worship rome as uh as the goddess and the gods that exist no they moved it a little further in a 2380 amen the first temple was built to worship the emperor tiberius caesar so what i realized is that smyrna was the first place for them to actually build a temple to worship the actual emperor himself because when they while they worship the goddess of rome it's moved from one level to the other where eventually they start worshipping the dead emperors and then eventually by 2380 emperor or caesar changed it and they started to worship the living emperor no but one of the things about this thing is that it was not mandatory during that time so they were worshiping the emperors but it was not mandatory no in about 1881 there came another emperor named domitian now the mission not only demanded that they worship the emperor amen but one he made it mandatory and he demanded worship on the title lord and guess what everybody had to do this so that's what happened now this was the thing once a year every roman citizen had to do this what they would do in smyrna they would burn a pinch of insects on an altar in the temple of the godhead of caesar so they built the temple now they started to worship the emperor and now it becomes mandatory for every year you had to do this and guess what you do when they pinch that incense on the altar the word cry out caesar is lord now after you do one and two praise god then they would give you a certificate the guarantee that you had performed your religious duty in other words every person who did this i mean they never had a problem with you worshiping jesus or worshiping jehovah are worshiping any other god they just want to understand that you have an allegiance to the roman god so once a year are to the emperor so once a year what you have to do go to the temple to get your certification go to the temple pinch that incense praise god says caesar is lord and they will say okay you have performed your religious duty and i would give you a certificate and therefore you are free from persecution but guess what happening we know that there is only one lord one lord and his name is jesus no true christian is going to pinch no incense and no altar to know caesar and declare that you are lord so understand where the tribulation started for the church of smyrna no jesus described himself as something to them he said look here he said look i am the first and i am the lost in other words jesus chose something that described his eternal character he wanted them first to understand look here i am the eternal being and the first and last but not only that he brought something that was close to home he says i am he who was dead and is now alive you know jesus shows his title as his initial uh appearance to john and here he is reminding the church of swerner that they are serving somebody who is eternal first but he was willing to come and die so they are serving not just an eternal lord and god but he is they're serving a risen lord and discuss what this risen lord is victorious over death ah in other words he was saying to the church of smyrna that death could not hold him down and because death can't hold him down praise god you in smyrna death can't go you don't either praise god so you know the word smarter it comes from a word where we get the word mer and it was it was one of this perfume that was used to embalm the bodies and it was also used as a part of to make some of the oils that they use uh fragrance oils that they use but guess what in order for you to get the free grams out of the mirror amen guess what they had to do they had to crush it amen and god was saying to smyrna yeah i am he was first and last and i was dead and he's now alive smelled up you're going to experience some things you're going to be crushed amen you're going to you're going to be going through some hard things but at the end of the day amen what is coming from you in my nostrils amen is a sweet smelling perfume amen you know this goes contrary to some of the teachings that we have nowadays where people are teaching you know this type of teaching where they're saying that you know all the time every situation you go through god is going to deliver you god is going to bring you and god is going to deliver you know don't get me wrong but guess what the deliverance might not be in this life because when you realize all jesus had just himself would smell enough god blew my mind but at the end of this he described him in a way that look here i died too but guess what i'm victorious over there i mean tell us about this and guess what you can be victorious over this you're gonna have you're gonna have some tribulations it will have some things but guess what you can be you can be victorious over it also now look at the words of commendation and when jesus said to smyrna and say i know your works are your tribulation and your poverty my god in other words jesus is saying that look here at the end of the day smyrna is it is it's a smyrna smyrna what's a what you call a uh a prosperous city it was a city that had a lot of rich people but in the midst of the richness of these people there were some people in there who were poor i know who were poor the christians the christians were the poor people in ephesus in smyrna and what would have said boy boy how it is that god is saying this about them but god said i know this i know your works and your tribulation and your poverty amen in other words god understood what they were going through amen the christians burned a new poverty because they were robbed and and they were fired from their jobs and in persecution why because they decided at the end of the day that you're not going to pinch anything uh to caesar and declare that he is lord they're not going to perform their religious duty because their religious duty is only to one person and that person is jesus christ so jesus says to them look here in the midst of this kind of affliction it is easy thing god has forgotten but jesus i know in the means of going through all that trouble and that situation and that that that hurt and that pain and people dying i remember uh when i when i read the unseen hands the first time when i heard about what was taking place in ethiopia and i realized would tickle me and how he used to go in there and used to kill all the people for preaching the gospel i said boy look at me see and we in jamaica here have it so nice and easy and and good amen and it is that we have people like in in this situation dying for the gospel are we here all over the world people in china they have underground they have apostolic churches that are undergoing people as close as cuba couple years back i remember one time a pastor reached out to us from cuba and we went there underground underground thing to ensure that people get the gospel but jesus jesus is saying that he has not forgotten you and he knows but guess what jesus said to smyrna praise god smarter that you are rich not the following the conscious i know this and this and your poverty but i'm going to say but you are rich that's that's strange jesus is saying that he know them poverty but yet still he knows that they are rich the christians in smyrna were poor destitute but jesus saw them through the circumstances that at the end of the day they were truly rich because guess what these people stood up for god these people said that look at especially what we are going through that means that true richness then uh really comes from the fact not the fact that you have riches in this life but riches come for the fact that you are rich in god and can i tell you something this is one of the reasons sometimes i strongly believe why god do not give certain people certain things because the moment we get certain things you know we we we we get a car amen we ask god for the car bless us with a car or use the current driver right out of church amen no longer coming to the house of god praise that i ever i've known a story about of a gentleman and you know my good friend pastor king told us this story when we're in africa about a friendly hab who went to church and the person was serving god well and he had a little business and doing well in the house of god and operated and rich amen in the eyes of god praise god but guess what happened at the end of the day god blessed him and he got a business and he got more business things that expand i guess what happened the political wife him have at home he left her a man in liver leave the wife at home and he started have girls put his side and get listen this understand this and get a lot of things that he was getting prosperous i know what god did he lost everything and guess what the man come back to church no you might say boy what a tiggy but i strongly believe god understood and god look here he's better you're poor i serve god that rich i'm not serving god but you're rich i'll go you can't go hell with your richness praise god i i remember also amen i've heard a story of of of a bishop who when he when he looked at the the the church himself he said look here we no longer have to say like peter in the temple sylvan goal have i known because we have become rich and a young man said to him say why you cannot say silvan gold have i known you can also not say take up rise upon war because you have also lost that power so while you can save uncle because you have become rich amen you have also lost the power to say rise up and walk in other words you had the power to stay rise up and walk when they were when they never had a silver and gold praise god at the end of the day we must we must all focus should not be on our ritual but god said look here you are poor and i know your poverty which is a contradicting statement i know your poverty but guess what you are rich so they were rich based on the fact that they serve god irrespective of what they are going through and they were rich because they had a good leadership and one of their leaders or one of the pastors that was at the church was that guy by the name of polycarp and he was one of the the disciples of the apostle john amen he became a leader in the church and he served in smyrna until about 80 155 and he died at that time they went to the whole of polycarp died now it was the same thing they were saying that you need to pinch the thing and say caesar is lord and persecution came and and and polycarp was leader he fled and he went to a particular place i think it was episode one of the other places and i couldn't find him for a good period of time till he became old i think he was about 86 years old and they were searching for him until they finally found him because he said that when the two um officers are the two military persons who phoned him they felt sorry for the man because the man was old it was an old man by now amen and they were looking for him for a very long time amen when they phoned him they fell sir for him and they said to himself polycarp all you need for do you know the caesar is lord and i will let you go down you know i forgot to bring him back to persecute him that i know that they had amphitheaters where they had would have settled lions and land would have eaten the body of people and so on and so forth to set up even one guy when he saw what was happening and he was a christian he decided that looking never threw that and he and he said that he would have said that caesar is lord amen and he got away but there were a lot of people who died by the lions that the amen and he brought polycarp and police absolutely i will not deny my god i will not deny jesus christ and he said that they kicked him off the card and he had to walk his way all the way up to smyrna amen i just said that when he reached there the crowd was chanting you know he was polycarb he was polycarb and the people were begging i said boy a couple of you were bigger i said no you are all man just said caesar is lord a spiritual thing you never take not out of you you don't take a long time you can go back and worship jesus and i said there's a powerful statement that was said by polycarp in for eight and six years have i served my god he has never done me any wrong i will never deny him amen i said that polycarp irrespective of what was happening he decided that he would never deny god and when he looked by that time he was even when he was shouting he was pulling up and then put up the lines already when they brought me so they decided to kill him another way amen and they put him on the stick and they light a fire and he said that the fire hunts you when they realize that the man was not burning so to speak amen so they pour his heart and blood came amen blood came from the man and the spirit left him but at the end of the day he said that polycarp died at death amen so they had great leaders who were willing to sacrifice for the kingdom of god amen and jesus wanted them to know something about this jesus said look here man do not fear in other words what they were going through god was saying don't fear litter it is better to stop being afraid you know a lot of times we think that things are going to happen but jesus said don't be afraid and if i thought that jesus said don't be afraid you would have gone on to say i'm going to deliver you tomorrow but now that's what jesus said just don't be afraid and add more things that will come to them you said the devil is about to throw you some of you into prison but don't be afraid my god you say we have tribulation ten days praise god and there's a there's a there's a lot of uh speculation about what these 10 days actually mean some people say it means 10 years of persecution sometimes that means that you're going to be persecuted under 10 roman emperors amen and and should be told they were persecuted under 10 roman emperors you had for example from nero 80 54 they have emotion you have trajan you have asian septimus you have maximum they have declared they have valerian you have earlier all of these 10 million people from 1854 to 82 284 10 roman emperors that came and persecuted the people so god is saying what god is saying to them don't be afraid you're going to be tempted i'm going to be troubled i'm going to be chewing you will have tribulation for 10 days i'm going to be tested for this what don't be afraid what a god you know what i noticed though there is something that happens and i heard the teacher last night when talking about the book of acts and talking about persecution there is one thing when persecution comes from the outside it seems as is persecution coming from outside it's like it's like seed for the church amen when the persecution came with the church at jerusalem the church spread and the devil realizes so under these ten emperors church was just prospering same way people were dying but the church was growing you know what you know what's emperor came after this constantine remember what constantine did all right constantine did something different in other words while the church was growing when there was persecution when constantine came cancer and claimed himself to be a christian and being a christian he was able to merge christianity and paganism sometimes persecution is not bad but jesus said don't be afraid the devil is able to throw you to prison you're going to have tribulation 10 days they're going to be tested and one would have thought that jesus said okay i'm going to deliver you what just told him this do you sell here be faithful unto in other words the persecution is going to come you're not going to go through it i'll leave you're going to die but guess what when you die he says i will give you the crown of life so guess what the word clone dear comes from the greek word stephanos and there are two types of crown in the greek you have what is called the stephanos and what's called a diadem amen and the diadem is what the kings wear the kingly crown but the stephanos is the crown of a winning athlete jesus look at smyrna and he says to him you are going to be a winner and because of what you're going through you're going to get a trophy crone can i tell somebody something this goes against green of most of the teaching that's happening today a lot of preachers don't preach that with the church where you suffer persecution unless our preachers don't preach that look at you behind you somebody got nothing delivered from in this life paul when he started the lord amen about his situation god never delivered him i wouldn't even realize that god never delivered him said look here your grace is soft that's where grace is officially he was willing to suffer the persecution himself at the end of the day all that i may know him and talk about the fellowship of his of his suffering amen nowadays the preaching is more along the line that look at everything is prosperity and good and this and this but i can tell you something persecution is a part of what will happen to us and as we go closer and closer to the coming of the lord if we're examined basic things coming a lot of us gonna be surprised by what we see happening in the end time a lot of women be surprised when certain things start reach look at what is happening in afghanistan amen right now amen the taliban took over and a lot of people who professed jesus christ necks are ruling right now amen because and guess what happened is the same thing and we might not reach this side of the world yet but trust me we're not far from it i will see how easy it is for one thing to affect the entire world you know let me say everybody must be vaccinated i guess everybody will get vaccinated amen and as we move on and they realize that's what is happening what god is saying to us like he did to the church of smyrna be feared fully unto death you know i said i got i'll deliver you and everything you're gonna be delivered from some things you're gonna have to be fearful unto death and when you're faithful unto even death god says i'm going to give you the crown stiffness of life there's some points i want to note this was a persecuted church and there was no rebuke can you imagine that the church was going through so much i guess they had ever noticed some sometimes there are some situations that when you start going through some stuff is it bring it to your knee god knows sometimes when god knows how to bring on certain things in our lives amen not because it's for our detriment but our light affliction which is what for a moment working for us so far exceeding the weight of glory in other words god knows what he needs to do to ensure that you get saved and that i get saved there are some things that if our lives are smooth all the way amen we miss it but god put our liquor pressure amen because liquor pressure crushes the mirror and brings out the fragrance and brings us into the presence of god and brings us on our knees and keep us there and like the church of like jesus also gave a general exhortation in a letter to smyrna to all people who are willing to hear listen to me i'm here to tell somebody tonight that if you are willing to hear then god is willing to work with you amen i don't know if i can't manage one more church for the night sir praise god pergamos churches and that should be sufficient for the night amen so chapter 2 from verse 12 to 17 it says unto the age of the church of purgate these things said he which had a sharp sword with two edges i know that works and where though dwelleth even where satan's seat is and the hole is fast my name and has not denied my faith even in those days where antipas was my faithful matter was slain among you where satan dwelleth amen he said but i have a few things against thee because though has their them that whole deduction of bellam in other words they have in your congregation then that holy doctrine of balaam who taught balak to cause a stumbling block before the trigger of israel to eat things sacrificed unto animals and to commit fornication so has though also them that whole deduction of the nicolasians with things i hate repent or else i will come unto you quickly and i will fight against thee fight against them with the sword of my mouth here that i come here to hear let him hear what the spirit said on the church to him that overcome it will i eat to give to eat of the hidden manner and will give him a white stone and in the white stone a new name written whose normal knows said he who received it now pergamos uh was believed by many to be the roman province of asia the capital the political capital of the roman province of asia the less you call it asia amen and when when when john wrote to burger moss i mean the capital city it was a capitalist city of the region for more than about 300 years so here it is that unlike ephesus who was not the capital but very influential and political amen now smyrna was very rich and i kind of think someone was smarter just said that once murder got destroyed at some point in history and because the church was so rich amen the people in the city uh were able by themselves to rebuild the city amen it's like something happened to jamaica earthquake and we don't get outside help i mean there's so much money in jamaica for example that we could have built back our economy internally that was how smart i was pergamos was was a capital city it was a city that was it was kept for about three years it was a city that was full of culture and education amen you see that it had great libraries that had thousands of volumes of uh uh in that particular place i mean this was especially known as a center for the worship of the the known god um and this god was known as the god of healing was like a serpent god um it was like a it it looked like a snake it was a snake it was a serpent looking um um object so that this god was a god of healing and knowledge and that is why you see the symbol in most of if you look at the nurses or whatever you might see a symbol of a snake these things are coming away from the roman empire amen and paragon was known especially for that particular god they worshipped that snake god amen and they said it was a medical school and a temple in pergamos and because of that most of the people from all of the roman empire would have come to pergamos if they were sick they would have come to progress because they wanted healing and they would go to these particular temples that worship this snake looking god amen and they would and they would uh look for healing in that sense now jesus described himself as something he described himself as he was the two-edged sword and i want you to understand something sword in scriptures uh you have different type of sword but he described himself as a two-edged sword you know where jesus was he was going to use the two-edged sword to make a separation among the christians uh in pergamos and those who are not christian notice he used the term two edged sword in other words he was willing to cut two ways and that's what the sword does in other words the word of god does two things is add up it cuts you to the point where you become saved and it cuts you to the point where you're down the word of god saves you or it can damn you save you if you accept it damn you guys it's the same word that's going to judge you whenever i say the book of revelation are we going to go there let's talk about the book opening another book is the word that is judging you from the word of god so you add away take the word of god and we'll find a duality a lot of time in scripture for example god refers to himself as the lamb but a different poison refer to himself as the lion amen so he's both lion and the lamb is a two-edged sword because the sword is what is going to divide between what is of god and what is not of god amen he's going to divide his eyes they're going to save you you're going to use the word and adhere to it i'll make it save you i'll go against it and your condemn so what does jesus know about the church of pergamos he says he know their works praise god in other words he's fully aware of what they are doing he knows their works he doesn't that to each church it is um he said to each other church and this is a statement he says to them it is true of each of us he knows your works even if there's not much to know he knows everything about you he says i know that you dwell where satan's throne is and i said before one of the things one of the descriptions that was used is the whole thing of the serpent amen i know the devil is normally described as a serpent praise god so it is believed that this place of of of pergamos had great satanic influence um but guess what in the midst of the great satanic influence there was a church you know in other words god nothing no satanic influence can can move against the church of god no matter if you see it and see it that is there praise god no matter how great the influence is where the church of god is you're going to be triumphant over it i remember when we went to uh kenya a couple years i was stopped at a place called boy and i think i've told this story but i'll say it again and i remember when we went to void which was midway between nairobi and and mumbasa and this was a strong strong muslim type of thing i remember when we went there to bring the gospel amen and that night because of what was happening each of us were in our different rooms and none of us slept that night because there was a strong satanic influence in the air i remember in the morning could i hear the horns and the sun and the muslim thing and all of us heard these things that were blowing their thing for their time of worship they said that the muslim praying was five times a day but it was strong in his influence all of us felt it and all of us did asleep and it's not the case we planned it it's the next morning when we got up and the next one we met for breakfast we were talking about and we realized that myself never sleep elder wrote in the sea but a king didn't sleep bishop dealing didn't sleep most of us steered up the night amen and we realized what was taking place because when we went into that church to minister amen the power of god came down so strong that we had grief right now there's a pastor in mumbasa who got saved from that conference a lot of people got seen from the conference but we had to we're coming against the sea the throne of satan but guess what the church of god don't have to worry people say like here i don't have to i can't get saved in a certain environment and because it's strong with satan no we serve god no satanic power amen is as strong as our god as a matter of fact the devil gets his power from god and god's just sitting here for sinners don't touch him cannot touch if god said movement move when he came to god about job praise god he was god was the one who gave him permission and that matter of fact what the devil was trying to do he was trying to touch you by different side once i didn't go here i said can't touch the man and go the other side because you have placed a hedge above him in other words no matter how strong the devil's influence is amen when god sets an edge around you the devil can't touch you and if the devil touches you it's because god removes the edge and if god removed the edge it's for a purpose amen but they dwell where satan throne was the bible said and they call fast his name in other words they were willing despite the fact that they lived in such a difficult city in such a place where the satanic influence was so strong they were willing to hold on to the name of jesus christ amen are you willing to hold unto the name of jesus christ in a time where people are saying a foolish sweater in a time where people are saying man you're two you're too strict are you two this are you two that amen but guess what i encourage the sins of god today amen that just like of god gave a word of commendation to the church in programmers amen let that be your commendation that you're falling fast to the name of jesus christ in a time where people we have people accepting everything in a time where you have a new age type of religion where people are saying why you need to love yourself more than you love your neighbor where the scripture does people teach these things rescue just teaching all kinds of things praise god we are going to hold fast in the name of jesus christ and the bible said they did not deny his faith jesus praised the christians of programmers because they did not deny the faith amen was always important to make sure that the faith we hold unto belongs to jesus christ they held on to this with all their hearts and he wanted an anti-past his faithful mother was still among them so in other words end up in the mids amen of of of this great satanic influence amen you talk about antipas and antipasto called my faithful matter because they had people who were willing to give up because of the influence that was taking place and this is the problem with programmers they realized they influenced amen but there was a guy named antipas who was willing to you said that he was boiled in a brass in a brass thing amen they put him in a blast up and they boil him and i call him a faithful martyr you can imagine that he was killed right among them he was a disciple of john amen and they boiled him and he was willing and he died amen but guess what happened jesus said my antibodies his fearful martyr was killed among them so we see all the world of commendation the church that know their work they're dwelling in a place where satanic influence is strong but in spite of that the whole fast name of jesus christ they do not deny the fear amen and evil if you're going to die for it you're willing to do that but god said something about them he said nevertheless i have something against you you say you have those in the congregation who hold the doctrine of balaam now bella was a prototype of all pro teachers you see we are living in a seasonal brethren where we cannot allow people to come in and to put certain teaching in this body that is causing people to leave the house of god you see one of the things that's happening though is that unless i leave the house of god because you can't be in the host and not in the house i mean you're in the house as in you go to our assembly but you are not a part of the body if you can't remember what happened would be balaam be like praise god was the one who who got balaam to to to to to to practically speak against the the the children of israel i think he was up a gentile prophet amen and he was supposed to prophesy wrongly foreign the people cursed him and he could not curse them there's nothing that he could do to curse the people and um and he realized this and he went back and said look here we can't curse him because god every time i tried to courage them i opened my mouth to curse them and what comes out to that blessing amen he said okay but guess what because he loved molly so much he figured out a way amen to get the people amen to still curse them amen we are getting people to be at ease with infiltrator we can curse them but they can get the people to curse themselves in other words and and this is the principle too the devil can do you know you know but any idea you can allow your life to be such a place where you give the stronghold to him so guess what i'm saying all you have to do bring the people for more about the daughters from over and get them from mingle get them from england and and go together man and then they feel like they will have to be tolerant to these people and where it's at intermarry and even though god told me not to do this i mean because the women were beautiful and familiar and he brought them down and they intermarry and they started to commit fornication and indulge and all of these things were happening amen and that's what happened already because of what they did they became a curse to the point what was so cruel and wicked and i pray god that somebody would have a finnish spirit because they were practically um doing their thing right before the temple you can remember right before the time blind phineas was so upset i mean that he got a job and he rammed amen but this is what we need to do we need to use a spiritual juggling and rummage through any doctrine of being lamb that comes into the host of god amen but god said okay he had that problem with the church of pergamos they were hauling corrupt teachers people who come there and they talk something nice but they mix it with something bad they said okay nothing wrong with this and we see that in the end time where there is no longer a distinction in the body between who is a child of god and who is not a child of god amen and people preachers who are so influential know instead of bringing people closer to god we are bringing him further from god and i don't want to to hurt anybody's feelings but we are leaving a season we can't even identify who apostolics are anymore amen we are willing to mix and mingle so much that god is saying that you are doing the same thing that the church of programmers is doing we are mixing and we are mingling that is upset with us but i pray god that there are some apostolic men giants in this time who is not going to not just i know the funny thing about is not the case where everybody in the church was doing you know it was more a case where uh while it was happening they were still tolerant to it there were people who knew what's happening but i must throw in a blind eye i don't care you know but at the end of the day we have to kill because this is the body of christ so balaam combine the sins of immorality and idolatry to please belak the king of moab and because he could not curse israel directly this is what is happening today creatures coming and we accept them peter's coming on our pulpit who preach trinitarianism and we accept them in the name of tolerance we are tolerant so anybody come around our pulpit today is a liar when when paul says if we are an angel god ever preach any other gospel unto you that's what they mean no matter who you are let them be a curse either way accepting like that and i will show them hit but at the same time we understand that we cannot mix it and that's the problem today young people are followed because they're seeing uh differences they're saying how is it that this one is doing that and who is it that this one but we need that thing praise god where the church is the church and the church needs to be a light in this last day not only that the bible said there was a whole deduction of a legal nation now we spoke about that and this is where we believe the word nicolasians uh actually come from a combination of two words uh which actually means nikolai nicolasians actually means the people rule that's what it means in essence in other words you are the later one you were talking about the fact where there's a segregation between the late and the people praise god i'll give you the greek for that um next time but in practical i was talking about the fact that there's a separation between the people who are of the lady and the people who are the crowd and and i will see these things happening in church where where pastors are getting themselves so popular exalted amen to the point where you cannot go talk to them because there are total separation between the persons who are in leadership and the persons who are in church and that's not what god put you to be i mean you must understand who your past is that you give them respect but understanding there shouldn't be such a separation like like what we see in the catholic church where the priests and these men are at once and the things are on the other side god is saying he hates this doctrine he fears these type of things and jesus warning to the church of programmers that they need to repent and guess why they need to repent if the door repents i will come to you and i will fight against you in other words just not saying that look at the end of the deal can you imagine this i mean you know that none of us here can fight against god and win amen and none of us know that if you are not on god's side we cannot win if you are if you're not on god's side it doesn't matter whose side you're on if you're not on god's side every other side become irrelevant praise god for the enemy god is saying that if you do not repent if you keep on doing these things i god i'm going to come and fight against you and how i'm going to fight against you with the sword of my mouth in other words the sword itself which was supposed to save you is the same word that is going to condemn you jesus will confront the christian programmers with his word but jesus told them that if they overcome you will give you a white stone and let me tell you what a white stone is in those days there's two purpose for the white stone the white stone was used as when when persons were acquitted from the courts when the person were acquitted from the court they would you have a big white stone on the side never show you a picture of a program that's what usually have they have like a white stone there and when you're acquitted they would write your name on the stone and people would see and say okay this person was acquitted for for this particular thing the white stone was also given as a thing a victorious gift so there are two purposes for it so jesus is saying if you overcome i'm going to acquit you from all the things that you have done in other words all you've seen all the things that that that would have kept you away i'm going to give you the victory and i'm going to give you the victory again and again i'm going to write your name on the white stone but i'm saying we'll give you a name that that that that only you alone know in other words it reminds me somewhat of like a pet name you know like when you want your you want your spouse uh you have a name when you call you so bishop woulda called him wife something that none of us don't know you know so at the end of the day there's a name that god is going to give you a special name for you between you and him so your name john but he might give you a special name between you and him and and it speaks for the fact he speaks intimacy it speaks to he speaks to the fact that god loves you says willing to acquit you and to give you a name that you're going to receive and the last thing is gives a general exaltation he wasn't here let him hear what the spirit says to the church what we need to hear right now the danger of false teaching and humanity conduct still faces the church today the danger of allah and false teaching and immorality was the problem with the church of programmers and therefore it still exists today but guess what if we have one here we need to hear and we need to adhere to what god has to say in this season with no need to be like the church of ephesus who lost their first love we don't need to be like the church of pergamos who was willing to total to mix and mingle amen but if we're like smyrna it's fine we're going to have some persecution there's no rebuke god bless you tonight and i pray god that we understand a little bit about those three churches and we understand a little bit how it applies to us today god bless you in jesus name and god bless you too god bless you too minister martin god bless you too my god what a powerful second installment to our series just type in the chat god bless you god bless you mr martin yes and type god cover you mr martin come on type amen extend the prayer towards this man of god as he prepares himself each wednesday he may throughout the week to come and share with us especially in the series god bless you sir we appreciate you so much we were taken to another amen journey as we the first three churches praise god ephesus smyrna and pergamos praise god what a riverton riverton we had tonight god bless you again sir amen god bless everyone if you are still with us youtube facebook and of course this is gonna thank god for you what not to move to our q a section segment and also to share takeaways and we want to open it up to you now and ask you to come and share with us a man your takeaway or takeaways or you may want to ask a question or see a clarification on a matter praise god over to you praise god raise your hand if you raise an icon or you may want to ask amen through the chat when i have severe sister hazard even the first sign is up even praise god sister han marie hazard and then open your mind at your person's sister hazard as your first reference tonight bishop linda tonight praise the lord where's the lord bishop god bless you go ahead praise the lord mr martin god bless you exceptional teaching as usual i bless you i have a question regarding the second church that you did mention so you mentioned about god moving christ moving um the church's canvas thicker that's the first church right can you expound a bit on this please okay in the context of the church i was saying that i made a reference to the fact that the candlestick they refers to uh the local assemblies and the bible did mention that in the first uh chapter of revelation chapter one and i was saying while the gates of hell cannot prevail against the church the church is going to be victorious at the end of the day i mean if a local assembly decides to go contrary to the work of god god can remove that local assembly so he was saying that look here if you do not um regain but your first love then i can remove you as a local assembly from my body so you have a lot of churches that even ex it is said that most of the church that that exists during that time don't exist anymore i think smyrna is the only place right now that actually do have a church out there amen in if if you do the research say so god was saying here if you do not change your ways i'm willing to remove that local assembly and he will do it amen we have seen where because people are not faithful they're doing the work but they don't have love and if they don't have love eventually the church is going to be going to win to the point where there is no assembly all right i get that but um an extension of that could be all right um each church is planted by god in a particular community or a particular area for a particular purpose so in like fashion that he made us and he made us with a particular purpose he has faced the churches in a particular area for a particular purpose so then in today's day applicable to our church is known if we quote unquote as the church or if the church safer arguments say in timber right is not functioning in their capacity in their god-given world then he can am i getting you clearly as he will either move the people from that church into another church or maybe it could be that this church will just um be shut down the persons would be just there but the spirit of god has left and that and and that was the other option that came to mind because you might have a local assembly where it's it's not it's a building but it's not really the church i mean yeah yeah you have church that were apostolic and no we don't know what they are today amen they're operating and they're still doing their thing but they're really not um the presence of god is is not there it reminds me of the whole ichabod situation the old testament you're doing everything that looks good but there's no presence of god amen but there's a great possibility amen that that if you operate contrary to what and not you know one of the things that jesus said in that particular verse is that look here it shows us even through the scriptures how important love is amen in the eyes of god it doesn't matter how how effective you think you are doing if you really don't have love at the end of the day in terms of how you deal with the brethren amen god eventually is going to back up because god himself is love amen and if you're operating outside of that they're already operating outside of god amen so um there's a possibility that the people might remain or you might have possibility but at the end they might just bring along to nothing amen but we have to god gave us the option and he always what i like about god is before he most is before he acts he normally sends a word and he will send the word sometime the length can be very a very long time but yeah we've seen a place where we had powerful churches back in india and you wonder what happened to them today they have diminished don't do anything to little or nothing they wonder is this the same church that existed back in the yeah you might check it out it might be just just for the case there's something that is missing and god has been sending word and persons have not been taking heed to the point where god has removed himself okay fine i have another question you mentioned that sometimes persons whether a teacher or a preacher will come in and they will minister but they will minister and something is awry it might not be picked up by the pastor or the leader but it might be an instance where somebody questions something and say how is this so or something it um you know or it might not be immediately might be some time after that they might read something or the lord reveals something to them and they and and they begin to question how do you then go about um rectifying that issue let's kind of put it broadly because um it might be different things that somebody would have to do you know what i do want to want to let me start with one one of the one of the recommendations and one of the one of the hallmark of a good leader would pasta um is a person who who is who ensures that whoever he brings around his pulpit is somebody who has been tested and tried somebody who is in the world um you have to be careful even in this season um he said you say i'm about my old pastor and people just said boy it was a funny thing it's not any and everybody would have come and minister around that pulpit and i noticed the same thing with bishop with our bishop here goodly bishop brown he's not everyone everybody can come and preach or even teach um because he's ensured that whoever does it is someone that is tested and tried now one of the things that the one of the responsibilities of the pastor though is that if somebody should come around up your pulpit okay you can't catch everything right so somebody come on your pulpit and they tease something that is contrary one of the responsibilities of the pastor is that after that person leaves i mean in a session probably the church he addresses the matter um and he knows how to deal with that person going forward worse if is a case where we realize it's something that is totally erroneous and contradicting to scripture um nobody's perfect and people learn over time and and we learn and we relearn and we learn and we learn you know but yeah some people are adamant and some things that are some that are obviously um contradicting um to what the scripture is teaching and you know what i just wanted a hallmark too of some false teaching is that it affects people's life in a way where it pulls them away from christ so when they say a teaching comes in and then people who use the whole part who should look like christians stop looking like christian people you realize that there is something area something missing and that put all mark as a bishop for the company brethren um you know where to draw the line and where you are um it should be done we are very careful at at pizza play i can tell you not everybody come and preach there and and i can't tell you that personally it's not everybody will do that and notice the same thing but like when i when i minister here and i say i'm humbled because it's not i know good pastors don't put anybody on their pulpits and they try them and they ensure that whatever doctrine they come with is something that they don't have to go back tomorrow to be clean enough you know um so that is something you cannot stop everybody but the good pastor will will do the the go behind and and clear the issues and make sure that he has things in place to do the research and to fix what needs to be fixed at the end of the day i hope that kind of answers the question it does thank you and god bless you thank you god bless you and my brother andrew martin for our first experience with that first experience with what you just said i had to defend the congregation a few times to him i mean um it becomes a problem because somebody went it becomes something that we continue to because right and before they went it wasn't i was moved by self movement and when i was through a number of persons the convocation of persons were saying boy bishop we were watching you all along we knew it was wrong we saw you with the head down we saw you wrecking the head and we were wondering where they're going to move where are we going to move but i could move on let's not move so uh from what i've experienced firsthand god bless you god bless you let me move now to say glenda over there in atlanta georgia come on in sir blender with your take away thank you minister martin for the wonderful teaching tonight and i have um i dropped on few information and what you just explained a while ago um about you know you might have someone come preaching in the church to the peace to your brethren but sometimes you know mr martin the prayer to preach the preacher come and the preacher prayed and he kicked up his time and we say yes yes yes but but at the end of the day they went to the past and they let the pastor know look how can you go tell the preacher something about me which in the preacher preaches i might be doing it or going through it and i feel offended and i end up and leave the church what would you do in a situation like that if a pleasure can you hear me preach the word and i am upset with my pastor and i leave the church i get mad and leave the church and i know what the preacher preached is true why should it offend me if it is true why should i walk away the truth to children is that sometimes the world can be our offense you know truth can be offense and you have to understand also that the the the preacher and in this context you're talking about somebody who actually hears from god um the preacher actually does what is called fourth telling prophet and i think i mentioned this the first week fourth telling prophecy is where the preacher comes and he delivers a word um that is that has to do with a situation or situations that are happening in the church amen and the good thing about it is that when you when the word of god is preached to you you have one or two options now you receive it and then i decide that you're going to be offended but at the end of the day god did speak to you i mean the pastor can you can't control people's choice you know that's evil god himself um comes down and and he gives you the word and he will give you a word but he will never force your hand if we could we'll get further out they realize oh god stands at the door and knock amen because he doesn't force your hand he gives you a word so if a preacher comes and he preached i understand why a person would be upset with that with a pastor for that not understanding that they serve a god who knows everything he knows you and i said that earlier he knows your works he knows what is happening in your life and therefore is not um beyond him for him to bring a fourth telling prophecy you know the pastors at my church have a principle back in the day and i said bishop daily do it and we try to add it if you're going to minister we speak with nobody before we do in other words we when we go on the pulpit we deal with what god gives us to do so nobody can say bishop brown told me this or whatever i heard beside whatever the case is because that way if god and a lot of us prophesy we don't even realize we are prophesying we are doing forth telling prophecy f-o-r-t-h which means we are speaking to the present situation that is happening in the church amen if the person is offended we can do nothing about that we cannot deliver what god says i mean um and and pray god that they come to a place where they repent i mean they see themselves and they turn amen but at the end of the day you your the preacher has one responsibility and the responsibility is to deliver the word of god i mean it didn't never say it wouldn't be look at jeremiah for example jeremiah preached the word nobody nobody listened to him amen no he was even thrown in prison forgiving the word nobody responded but did that stop what jeremiah was saying from it was truth they were going to go into the babylonian captivity this is what is going to happen if they don't repent that they listen listen to him nobody listened to him actually he had no converts but it didn't go against what the word of god says so as a preacher you preach the word and that's what our duty see the vine of god see the face of god get a word from god come back and deliver that word and then when we're done amen we speak our move amen it's not all responsibilities anything else takes up with god we are just the mailman he is the one that has the message amen and that's what i see the president and there's few points that i had dropped down you said while in your teaching that we must not be so busy that we lose it and don't spend time with god but there was a time in my life that was about to happen i'm so busy working working working and i forgot sometime i forgot to pray sometime i forgot to even read my bible so what you teach tonight it really impact me and also you i'm in the scripture in the church of episodes where he said repent do thy first words sometimes you sing i sing i say take me back lord tell me about your lord will i first receive you and i just said we must go back to the basics when we just when i just get here it was all about me and jesus but no it's not about me and jesus something else made me feel unbalanced and that's the reason why i'm so glad that every time i'm sleeping up there is a word to come to quicken me and one last point i'm gonna make with the church in smyrna this is a this would be a hard one for us you say every person who worships caesar and in your demonstration he said once you worship him one and two times i say caesar caesar is lord get a certificate then see them they are giving you a certificate but look what jesus promised us he promised us a crown of life and you forgot to mention that he gave you a crown of life for giving up your life so what you gave what you get you get you get a crown that represents the thing that you gave up stefanos are victorious from for your life that you are willing to give up they feel fine that's right even right here they have to worship get up but their purpose and that pastor that you said that all mandates were 86. all these years i'm serving that and it's still keeping me i will not didn't i by god bless your sister god bless you thank you so much we always enjoy your uh your participation in our study god stay safe in georgia let me move across to canada and we come down to antigua if we close off uh we have to have again from canada with us sisters pat and sister nelly share with us sister stanelli praise the lord bless you sister nelly here bless you again it's another blessed night to be on this teaching i am really happy for this lesson being taught tonight um there's a statement that was made about the the church that will be removed or assembly that will be removed if um they're not doing that which they ought to do like that remembering their first love and with the lord and things like that it's kind of a serious statement there that i really have a great concern about that one the church or assembly be removed that's your sister nelly yes sir can i say it actually it happened we should go and look at those seven churches uh in the first century they were christians that those countries were christian countries but today apart from smyrna i think all those churches have been removed and they become mostly muslim countries muslim taking over the place now so literally literally it happened literally it happened look at emphasis uh it was a mega church in those days we had paul you had a palace you have timothy israel agreement of god but today emphasis in the unit so so it actually happened in reality yeah that's true um we are living in a time and age in which we have seen so many um we call it now apostasy state that we are living in we're was being preached and teach and then it just flipped to something different so it's kind of uh it's a really strong statement and i'm in agreement with it but it's really a sad state that we're living in you see one of the things yes god put his word out there for us amen and that's the only thing that we can live by no matter how strong it is or or we look at it at the end of the day before it is the word of god that is going to judge us it's the word of god that we have to adhere to i mean and god makes his statement very clear to us i said before if you have the historical view and representative and therefore we have to adhere to all of these things there's a message in there for us today amen as you made a statement earlier that you see a lot of apostasy happening and this is so true it's just a sign of the time but guess what happened we have to stick to the word and understand that these things are not we should not shouldn't surprise us remember what what we should do as christians it means to ensure that we are in the world i mean and that we are we are not phone wanting at the end of the day started to show yourself up who i always tell my students a work man that is not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth be one of them that's the cure you you have the word here and we are blessed to the people because the first century people never had this they had this the collection of books that we have we have the canon we have the six or six books of the bible i mean i need nowhere to tell you people who are doing the worst of things amen but they never had this they had letters and quality and they had a piece of this other piece of that and the old testament when they talk about scripture they were talking about men in the old testament other things letters amen that not everybody had amen so we are blessed are people but in this blessed time we have become easy but guess what brethren we need to go back to our first work go back to the word of god build someone attacked that hungers and church and for righteousness we're going to church for the word of god and that is what he's going to say of us in this time i'm really grateful for the international bible class you get to learn a lot it's really a blessing i'll turn the sister path praise the lord we appreciate your love bless you go so praise the lord everybody i have two quick takeaways just one very simple question related to and hazard's earlier question so my first takeaway is the three churches that we looked at um there was a statement that was made to them it was the same statement that was made to all three churches so i quickly looked to see if all the other churches got the same statement and they did so jesus started off by saying i know thy words and that really hit me very hard and it ties into my second takeaway um relating to last week um elder martin mentioned behold the comet and it said there's a warning there that it means we need to look up and how do we look we look with our lives and tonight he talked about when we're looking at these churches applicability is is is key how do does their experience relate to us how can it apply to our lives and when i look at the church of ephesus and such a wonderful commendation that was given to them you would never think that there would be a rebuke it was just awesome and it ties into the fact that they were so orthodox in their doctrine they knew their doctrine no one could come in and tell them anything differently and i've always held that that was the key to serving the lord the right way but then i realized then that there is more than that as as elder martin mentioned paul had said to the corinthian brethren i believe he said behold i show you a a better way and so it makes me look into my life that when i think that um things might be okay and i'm doing all right perhaps i need to take a second look and when i go over to the church of smyrna you know and and christ said he basically didn't give them any rebuke but you just tell them to just hold on that's what i got from from what elder martin was saying just hold on and if you stay true then you shall not be harmed by the second death and that's such a great encouragement knowing that they uh were a church of persecution and it just makes me remember the scripture that says those that choose to save their lives will surely lose it but if you lose your life for my sake and it's not just necessarily a physical death it could be the loss of a job it could be that you're ostracized by your family if you choose christ over that then there is an encouragement there's something a great reward to be had so those are my two takeaways and my one simple question um is in it's chapter two verse five related to the candlestick it's it's it's a very simple question it might just be you know um semantics but i find it very interesting this particular word um it says remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else i will come on to thee quickly and re remove thy candlestick out of his place every time i read that i always read it as move the candlestick out of its place but it actually says out of his place and i want to know is there a significance to the word his or is it just semantics well i've i've never stopped to notice that his and it i've seen i've seen in transit i've seen in other translations probably in the in the kgb he says he is yeah in kjv's okay i don't think all translation says he is i think other translated our translator says its place um so i think it's a probably a matter of cinematics as he rightly says but i will definitely look at it how i would look at it now is look at the word behind that um and it did trigger something i'm happy for that so i will look into very good very good but i would put but as i said before i think it's a matter of romantic go because i don't know if you check other translation i can check with others i think there's that there's a translation of its place yeah in the book of exodus when they were talking about um one of the equipment i don't remember what it's called um in the tabernacle um i don't remember what it is but it's an actual equipment it's a thing but it says his foot so that when i see the his no and i remember that piece in exodus where it was talking about about part of the equipment in the tabernacle it just makes me wonder if is there is there a deeper meaning or if it's just semantics so that's why i brought it up good point though and i will definitely look into that thank you sister that's suspense and nelly but just to further um comment on the characters have been removed you will recall also in the old testament uh the lord having allowed allowed a servant to build the top of the the the temple because of the transgression the lord allowed the enemies to destroy the temple literally destroy the temple and another occasion was in the book of uh uh samuels foreign was a ascent of worship a place of worship go to china to worship and they went to charlotte to worship yearly but if you go to jeremiah chapter 7 jeremiah chapter 7 verse 12. you will see where god destroyed shiloh jeremiah 7 and verse 12. but go in now onto my place which was shiloh where i set my name the first and see what i did to it for the weakness of my people israel right now yes god is god is sovereign and and because i will remove the candidacy uh it also could mean that some churches would have lost lost effectiveness you know they would have the glory days so about glory days we're gonna move them among them but now they become a shell of themselves no more americans no more uh good good effective ministry so we have got to be careful for god to know our words so but god bless yesterday mr pat we appreciate you and we thank you for your mutual uh participation let me go across to eastern caribbean amen good to have i think this is at them in the house um euc antigua sherry that's the wife of the pastor maybe the family shall remember richards bless the lord amen greetings to everyone in the name of jesus amen thank you for having us as always a pleasure to join on uh we look forward to these sessions wednesday nights even though it's a little challenge sometimes to stay up amen with the time difference but it's so interesting praise god that you know it will keep us up blessings to you again minister martin um yes another interesting study on these as we delve into the churches i've learned so much just have one question that i want to ask it was from last week i wanted to ask when you were speaking about the ways where types of prophecy in terms of for telling forth telling and for telling so you were saying the present and the future but what about the instance where uh most times you see it in charge where uh pastor or in our time like a prophet will call up someone and we'll speak about something that happened from childhood days and something in their past what under which category of prophecy would that fall okay i mean i mean that would still be in the context of worth telling because the purpose of that prophet delivering that word to you would be in relation to something that he's going to tell that's going to happen in your life either today or is happening in your life no so he's making reference to something that has happened to say that this is what god is doing you know so he probably pulled full circle saying okay this is what happened two years ago two years ago you lost a child and god is going to be a child again so he's doing he's doing both forth telling and foretelling at the same time he's telling you that boy this is this is what your present condition probably you're hurt because of what you went through in that time and you say that god is going to do this particular thing in your life if it is fulfilled and he had no knowledge because we know there are certain requirements for what makes a prophecy so if you understand so if it is if it is a genuine prophecy then what would have happened is marquis where he's doing both forth telling he'll be speaking to what is going to happen in your life no what is happening no and what has happened in the past to present that is forth killing and what is going to happen in the future which is outstanding oh no definitely in the hands of god is what we call or telling prophecy within that category in most cases though when we say forced telling we talk about prison situations things that are happening presently but things that are happening to you presently there is a genesis with it you know it might might be things that are happening in the church no people are a lot of fornication happening in church it's not as it's happening presently while the prophet is speaking it has already passed but he's talking about the present condition of what is happening and that's what covers telling prophet i don't know okay all right yes yes yes yes because that is that has always been my understanding of fourth telling meaning something also from the past so thank you so much for clarifying that for me and my takeaway for tonight amen would be from the first church that you looked at amen the church of ephesus and what you said um that really came home to me praise the name of jesus after you look at the commendations that the lord gave to the church of ephesus amen and they talk about how the church has left is first love it's the part where you look about nevertheless and you emphasize that when nevertheless came in all the other things though they sounded good though they were so outstanding were seeming non and void but most times when the scripture is preached from in the church you know we don't emphasize this the strong or the strength of the word nevertheless we make it seem sometimes like you know it's just a little it was just a little thing you know you left your first love and so yeah if you left it but it's okay and i think that's why you know many of us as the church we can see that the the love is still missing from this church and there's not such a great need to return to it and to get back this first love that we had because i don't think we're looking at how dangerous and of the nevertheless right there because we say okay even though i left my first love i still have patience i still you know do this and i still do that as if it is so minute but in fact in this study we learned that it is not minute at all it is imperative for the church of the living god that we return to our first love we know exactly where we left it we we know it is there it's just for us to return take it as serious as the lord took it and returned to it so that is my for tonight the lord bless you all in jesus name our full power for the bible serving the riches our fallen indeed very insightful god bless you mr martin you want to comment a bit amen you made a point while teaching that it is a matter of them amen left and not leave left i noted that they left it didn't leave it they left it deliberately deliberately go ahead right and i was and i wanted to make a point on what sister was talking about being busy um it's it's not a bad thing to be busy in the kingdom but we just need to have that balance you know where um you're most as i said earlier the most common time where you are willing to you know jesus who stood this way just to get up in the morning and even though the crowd was saying boy you know the people looking for you you know and and and and i think this type of saying that people but he was willing to to understanding that irrespective of the fact that people searching for him and people want him he knew when it was time for to be with the lord and that's what we need we need to know that there's a time for jesus you know like like it's like in you know in your marriage you know you ensure that you try to keep that time for your spouse where that time for that person in a similar way there must be a time for jesus i mean so we're not neglect doing the things of the kingdom and and being involved in in certain areas in the kingdom and ensuring that we work to the best of our abilities but we're going to ensure that there's a balance there must be a time amen where we spend the time where god gets his time some days i mean when they take leave from work do not live for vacation but just leave to spend time with jesus amen he'll spend a couple days in the presence of the light when the last have we done that a lot of us take a leave and we'll take a look upon the knight course i'll tell you but whenever we've taken a leave amen to say that we're going to spend a two day or three day you know in the presence of the king because we are so much in love with him we don't want to be busy like mata and and and and and we don't want us be all spiritual earthly use but we want to have into that we have the balance where we spend time in god's presence and we also do the work of the kingdom so that's what i wanted to add to or thank you sir thank you all right we're running down uh let me come to jamaica now jamaica jamaica you can't leave with jamaica uh and we are now allowed to show your takeaway or ask a question anymore anyone in jamaica we should not be accused of leave not jamaica so the body from general connector ask a question or share a takeaway [Music] god bless you we thank god uh minister martin in closing i have always heard the the name repeating right yes it is something which really got me thinking you said you mentioned nicholas ridiculous which was one of those six deacons right one of the seven deacons several seven decades rather several weekends and he said possibly he wasn't one after this doctrine or this thing was made because he went and corrupted the faith that's kind of new to me right and this is based on the writings in the second century of a guy named um who actually because remember we study we study the writings of mosul except most of us we finish studying from the apostle paul stop writing right but when you're really studying studying scriptures and studying history you will look into the writings of people like polycarp and people like uranus and all these men from first century second century going all the way down i even look at works after julian and arkansas the first guy who kind the word trinity so we look at all their writings that were realized that's how i know the trinity induction was never developed until you reach the fourth century okay looking at your writing so it was iranians who actually spoke about him amen and then another guy in the third century also confirmed the writings and these are people who are considered to be um disciples of john who was the last episode it's based on his writing that history has to stay that the the whole doctrine of the nicolasians and nicoletans people how he defined it um came that's what it actually was talking about okay this one no problem sir yes sir yeah i'll be like a barian that's right i'm try to cover the last fortress so we have uh fire the era um we covered the pergamos so as we have paired their aside this philadelphia unlike this yeah and we're going to try to cover that using the the same perspective that we did tonight and then the other week we will jump into the historic the prophetic perspective we'll look at the two terrorist history and then we would have covered the charities from two and three then we're moving to chapter 14 what that's where we are for next week yes chapter four of the rapture chapter four yeah yes yes the rapture wow god bless you god bless you god bless the lord a minute over there in atlanta new york god bless you god bless good to have you tonight evening so god bless everyone thank you join us tonight we appreciate you whether you're still with us on youtube facebook praise god you may want also to praise the lord well i have been prompted here um it's offering time as the media team posted before us praise the lord if you if you have been blessed by the presentation tonight or last week or previously and would like to give an offering for our ministry to make a contribution uh you are seeing before you the account of our academic information from bankruptcy and jamaica and also i think we have some online options also um options also praise the lord yes yes on the options it would like to give even to our ministry to support our work in jamaica and western days we have sell amendments gmail.com paypal veterans gmail.com uh cash up uh the dollar sign bethesda hill and vernon uh vietnam praise god and then mom uh god bless you we appreciate you god bless the minister that was nice of you god bless you god bless you praise the lord uh let me help you a minute as we close out tonight a minute again god bless you and the facts praise god antigua to come in the house and pray for us to come and pray antigua blessing sir yeah just closes in prayer sister church and antigua praise the lord jesus hallelujah great are you lord you are worthy to be praised tonight you are worthy to be worshipped and adore lord jesus we honor you with everything that we have inside of us oh god from the depths of our soul we worship you tonight thank you jesus for being god and lord of our lives thank you oh god for your strength day by day god almighty we have blessed god to be experienced in your word as it is being imparted to us god almighty is through your word and to the truth and understanding of your word lord god as your children will grow from day to day lord i pray jesus that as week after week god almighty we hear these lessons jesus don't let us god almighty be hearers of your word only oh god what help us god to be doers of your word on jesus help us god to do whatever it is that is necessary oh god to make the different amendments in our lives as we look god almighty as your word tonight some of us have left our first love bless the name of jesus some of us hallelujah oh god almighty are not enduring persecution lord but i pray that you help us as your people tonight jesus god i will take heed to your word oh god as a general commendation came from your word to all the churches here let him hear what the spirits say oh god i pray lord jesus that we will share your word tonight oh god almighty we will do hallelujah that which you have commanded us lay your hands on each and every one every person on this call lord let us never be the same oh god almighty as you said to the church in ephesus i know thy works oh god nothing is hidden from us from you tonight we can hide from our pastors we can hide oh god from those around us but nothing is hidden from you and so lord i pray that you will help us to walk in holiness that will walk in uprightness before you jesus oh god not in pretence and mockery hallelujah because we cannot fool you jesus everything is naked and open before you so help us as your people tonight jesus to walk with that assurance that we are pleasing our lord and savior jesus christ oh god lay your hands on our teachers tonight bless him in a special way lord continue to anoint him from the crown of his head to the very soul of his feet and continue to impart unto him wisdom and revelation and clarity of your word so that as he teach god almighty your people will be so edified that change will come forth that transformation will come forth lord jesus lay your hands on his life on his family everything that pertains to him lord jesus of mercy be offense around him tonight every attack on his mind god almighty we ward it off tonight in the name of jesus to destroy this life we render it powerless and we pray for coverage and strength we pray for profession we pray for renewal oh god almighty continue to give you revelation in the name of jesus bless our bishop tonight oh god the one who have imparted god this wisdom unto god to teach oh god your people and to be inclusive oh god to persons all over the globe god almighty bless him and continue to lay your hands on him in the name of jesus continue to give him wisdom as he leads this organization to higher heights jesus strengthen him in the mighty name of jesus watch over us god as we lay our heads to rest protect us from the dangers and the terrors of the night hallelujah jesus and keep our spirits in tune with you that even while we sleep you can minister unto us you can bring clarity onto us you can bring revelation to us hallelujah we glorify you we honor you jesus and we thank you for doing it even now in jesus name praise god hallelujah thank you jesus hallelujah jesus name and for jesus sake praise god god bless you all amen please be reminded that tomorrow we well we are in a week of consecration and tomorrow night the lord carried in the back for a prayer meeting how of paul prayer meeting uh eight o'clock please join us if we will do for prayer meeting and then friday evening we will come back for our special uh youth service empowerment service even with dr pauline mullins as our guest presenter god bless you we give my thanks for you again may god bless you the lord bless you and keep you the lord make its face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you with light of his countenance shalom peace be on to you

Channel: Bethel United Church of Jesus Christ Stony Hill

Views: 1,144

Rating: 4.891892 out of 5

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Id: gkiRZIKvUus

Length: 165min 1sec (9901 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 08 2021