Verse by Verse Bible Study | Revelation 1:12-2:7 | Gary Hamrick

Revelation chapter 1 is where we are let's pray first and then it will dive into our study Lord thanks for your grace your patience your mercy your love how many words could we come up with to describe your greatness your majesty Lord we're thankful that you love us so much that you would choose to reveal yourself through your word and as we open up the book of Revelation again tonight we pray that you'd speak to our hearts and that you would remind us of the things that are to come so that our hearts would not grow weary with all the things that we hear in our world right now wars and rumors of wars and stock market down the stock market up coronavirus just all these different things Lord that can easily trouble us we just pray right now that you will settle our hearts help us to focus on you and to be reminded that this is exactly why you've given us your word so that we would not lose hope so that we would know that you were on the throne and you were coming again find us ready Lord and eagerly awaiting your blessed return we praise you together in Jesus name and everybody said amen so I left off with you last week here at chapter one right around verse 12 but I'm actually going to go back to verse 9 just to get a running start so we get the context of where we left off so in chapter 1 verse 9 John this is John the Apostle he writes I John both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ so he gives us the reasons again why he was banished to Patmos it was a prison camp Domitian the Roman Emperor had banished him there for these reasons for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ he was being persecuted as a Christian he's an old man now in his 90s and nevertheless he has now been relegated to this prison camp where he's basically chipping away at marble patmos is an island that is largely of marble and just a small island thirteen square miles in the Aegean Sea one of the Greek islands and there is banished and and you know in his old age and it says in verse 10 I was in the spirit on the Lord's Day now we mentioned last week obviously Lord's Day means Sunday he's riding on a particular day here Sunday and that in the Greek original language the article's ah in front of the word spirit is not there so it literally reads I was in spirit on the Lord's Day in other words God had had given him more than just a vision that God somehow supernaturally transported him to some place here where where John has lifted up and he is able to see and to behold and to witness these various events about which he writes and so he is in spirit on the Lord's Day he says and I heard behind me a loud voice as of a trumpet it wasn't a trumpet it sounded so you know loud that it was like a trumpet saying verse 11 and if you have a Bible with red-letter Edition you're gonna see here this is Jesus now speaking I am the Alpha and the Omega the first and the last and what you see right in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia to Ephesus to Smyrna to Pergamos to taya Tyra to Sardis to Philadelphia and to Laodicea and then this is where we left off verse twelve then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me and having turned I saw seven golden lampstands and in the midst of the seven lampstands one like the Son of Man now I'm gonna pause there because he begins to describe the Son of Man so he hears this loud voice behind him he turns around he's going to behold this incredible vision of Jesus but before he describes Jesus he talks about how he sees seven go golden lampstands now these art menorahs is what is traditionally called in the hebrew menorah and this is basically a picture of one as a seven-branched candelabra it was the only source of light in the temple by the time that John writes this the temple has been destroyed since 70 AD but nevertheless when the temple was still standing the menorah made out of gold was the only source of light in the temple and John sees seven of these now it tells us further down and I gave you the reference on the screen it tells us further down if you jump ahead to verse twenty what exactly the seven lampstands represent so in verse 20 the mystery of the Seven Stars which you saw my right hand and and the seven golden lampstands the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches we'll explain that later and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches so he sees literally these seven menorahs because they're going to represent what we get to in chapters two and three seven different churches that Jesus is going to dictate a letter to and these churches are represented each by a menorah now that is significant because you know what did you just say about us Jesus not only said that he was the light of the world he turns to us and when he basically hand hands the mantle of ministry to us that the church should continue to express Jesus and demonstrate Jesus and share about Jesus he says to us you were the light of the world and he says let your light so shine before men that they might see your good deeds and glorify your father which is in heaven the church is to be the light in a dark world there's a reason why the menorah is symbolic of the church in this passage here because we are to be the light in the midst of darkness have you noticed how dark our world is and how darker it's becoming okay well the answer is you don't scream at the darkness the answer is you turn on the light and the light that we are to illuminate is of course Jesus so the church is to be you know the light set on a hill that we might let the light of the Lord shine and we might reflect Jesus in our culture in our world so this is what he sees he sees seven golden lampstands these menorahs and again verse 13 in the midst of the seven lampstands one like the Son of Man underline that the son of man that is a messianic title straight out of the book of Daniel Daniel chapter 7 verse 13 a messianic title which of course applies exclusively to Jesus seeing as how he is the Messiah so he sees the Son of Man he sees Jesus he sees the Messiah John does and now there's this great description here between verses 13 and 16 and I've summarized in the description in these four ways in verse 13 he describes his majesty we're going to read it in verse 14 he describes the purity of Jesus in verse 15 he describes the authority of Jesus and then in verse 16 he describes his glory or in the Hebrew Shekinah so in verse 13 this is part of his vision of Jesus he says and in the midst of the seven lampstands one like the Son of Man clothed here-we-go clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band his head and hair were white like wool as white as snow and his eyes like a flame of fire okay so you're seeing here this description now this is not like you know the Jesus on the flannel boards when I was growing up okay Jesus meek and mild you know gentle you know patting little kids on the head and back this is Jesus now in full glory white hair white as snow this is white is indicative of his purity eyes like a flame of fire that that's the idea of judgment he's coming now in judgment verse 15 his feet were like fine brass as if refined in a furnace and his voice as the sound of many waters and he had in his right hand seven stars and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword and his countenance was like the sun shining in its strength so all of this description here and you know it this this whole description about seven stars is gonna explain a little bit later out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword it's not that he you know carries a sword in his teeth but it's the idea that this is the Word of God that is going forth from his mouth he is the personification of the word he is the word in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God so he comes in in the full array of his glory that and John sees him like this now this is very similar if you will come back to chapter one but if you jump ahead to chapter nineteen when Jesus actually comes back to earth for his second coming John writes in chapter 19 a description of Jesus in the full array of his glory and it's very very similar language and I just wanted for a comparative sake show you revelation 19 verses 11 to 16 this is when Jesus actually comes again and this is what he will look like when he comes back to earth and so what we have in Chapter 1 is basically a preview because John sees Jesus but now in chapter 19 this is what Jesus looks like similarly when he comes back to earth verse 11 now I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and he who sat on him was called faithful and true and in righteousness he judges and makes war his eyes were like a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns he had a name written that no one knew except himself he was clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is called the Word of God and the armies in heaven clothed in fine linen white and clean followed him on white horses now these are not angels these are the Saints we'll talk about it when we get there now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword that with that with it he should strike the nation's and he himself will rule them with a rod of iron he himself treads the winepress of the fierceness fierce and wrath of Almighty God and he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written king of kings and Lord of lords hallelujah and amen to that right by the way some people have pointed out that he has a name written on his thigh so even Jesus has a tattoo well there you go back to chapter 1 so John sees Jesus like this this great description of him and he goes on it goes on to say in verse 17 and when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead as does not mean he was slain in the spirit there's just beings he's he's undone here you know when you you behold you know the presence and the glory of the Lord and you get a glimpse of him you're falling on your on your face and and you're bowing at his feet and you're you're worshiping him but you're you know you're just you're you're just undone and it says but he laid his right hand on me saying to me do not be afraid I am the first and the last I am he who lives and was dead and behold I am Alive for evermore amen and I have the keys of Hades and of death and so the Lord you know declares himself to be the risen Lord again said this many times this is what separates Christianity from all of the world religions only Christianity worships a risen Savior all other world religions worship a leader who has died and been buried Gandhi Confucius Buddha Muhammad they're all in graves or or at the least their ashes have been scattered in different places Jesus is alive because he conquered sin and death he conquered Hades and death and he says to John there in verse 19 I want you to write the things which you have seen and the things which are and the things which will take place after this now I mentioned in the intro and I'll say this again you can put it up on the screens for you right here in verse 19 is an outline the entire book of Revelation because Jesus says to John I want you to write the things you have seen that's chapter one then I want you to write the things which are present age that's the church age chapters two and three and then he says I want you to write the things which will take place after this the Greek is made at Aude and that's chapters four through twenty-two so right there in chapter one verse nineteen as an outline of the entire book of Revelation and Jesus tells him I want you to I want you to write this down and and he told he told John that often a total of twelve times through the book of Revelation John is told write this down write this down write this down again if you're beholding all these incredible visions you know you're just you're so dumbfounded that once in a while you have to be told okay keep writing keep writing and so he's told to write these things down which he does in verse 20 now the mystery of the Seven Stars which you saw in my right hand and in the seven golden lampstands the seven stars are the angels circle outward of the seven churches and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches now the word angels there does not mean as it normally does these spirit beings that attend to the Lord and that circulate in the spirit realm when you go here to chapter 2 in verse 1 he says to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus write so the word angel there in the Greek is a galuf's a glose translates messenger and in the context of these seven letters that are dictated they don't mean angels in terms of spirit beings that are active in the spirit realm the word messenger can also refer to a human vessel who is communicating something on behalf of the Lord angels never over-salt churches now now no doubt there are angels in the spirit realm that we can't see even here now who watch over us and watch over our church but specifically Jesus does not dictate a letter to a spirit being he dictates a letter to a messenger and the messenger of the church is the pastor so every time you read at the beginning of a letter through chapters 2 and 3 that it's dictated to the Angel of the church it just simply means messenger and it refers to a human vessel in this context which is a pastor now just so that you know I'm not making this kind of thing up Jesus actually called John the Baptist the same word in the Greek aguilas in Matthew chapter 11 verse 10 jesus said for this is he of whom it is written behold I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way before you behold I send my messenger it's a gallows and the Greek it is the same word so it could refer to human vessels and in the context of these letters that's what it's referring to the human vessels of the pastors over each church now as we get here into chapters 2 and 3 I want to kind of set the you know the context of everything so I'm going to go back to the board here and and we're going to take a look at the timeline of events related to the end times and I want to I'm going to get rid of the clutter first because we haven't gotten there yet the part that we're focusing on right now is the church age this is going to be revelation 1 John is writing in the church age period so it's still included in the church age but chapters 2 and 3 in particular deal with these letters to the seven churches now when we talk about these letters to the seven churches here's what we need to understand first of all these are literal churches they were in existence in the first century in in what is today Turkey and just so that because I'm kind of this way I need visual any context so let me just throw a map up for you so you can get an idea what we're talking about here so you see the black sea there and beneath the Black Sea in ancient times is called Asia Minor today we're talking turkey these seven churches were located on the western end of Turkey along the Aegean Sea so now we're gonna highlight this particular area on the map where all seven churches were located and here they are we're gonna start with in chapter 2 the letter to the church in Ephesus and then as the Lord dictates these letters to these seven churches it actually goes in a circular clockwise direction we're gonna go from Ephesus and then we're gonna read the letter to the Church of Smyrna and then we're gonna go up to pergamus over to fight iris Sardis Philadelphia and the last letter the seventh letter is the letter to the Church in Laodicea but all of these seven churches were literal churches that existed in the first century so that's important to understand this is not again entirely symbolic this is very literal as we read these letters these were dictated to seven particular churches located in what is today modern Turkey the western side of Turkey on the Aegean Sea now in addition to them being literal these letters are also spiritual in relevance in that each Church addresses spiritual issues relevant to believers today so when the Lord commends them for some things and rebukes them for some things these these are very applicable for us today too because the spiritual relevance is what is Jesus saying to the church even today and we need to wake up and take notice of the things that he commands and the things that hear abuse because the spiritual application is just as true for us today so they're literal churches that existed in the first century they have spiritual relevance and then it's also important to recognize the historical significance because what we what we're going to see as we go through these seven letters is that each church represents a different period in church history up to an in looting even the condition of the church today now I don't want to you know give you again I I recognize that in the study that look at revelation I'm firing things at ya like you're drinking out of a firehose instead of a garden hose I understand but there's there's no other way to do this so I'm sorry just drink as best as you can and and get the little booklet alright when we look at these seven letters I want you to notice with there are seven similarities of all the seven letters and here they are all begin with a special title for Jesus the author of each he dictates each letter and he refers to himself by a unique title in each of the seven letters all are addressed to the angel or pastor of each church all begin with Jesus knowing their works he's going to talk about what they're doing in practical terms and all contain either a commendation a complaint or both and we'll point it out as we go through three more things all closed with an allusion to Jesus second coming there's something in the letter that refers to his second coming all closed with a special promise or reward to the overcomers to the believers who respond to his rebuke who repent to get right with him there's a special promise in store and all closed with the same challenge he who has an ear let him hear every single letter Jesus ends that way if you have an ear if you hear what I'm saying take notice is what he says listen to what I'm saying and and here just even more than the words here the meaning behind what I'm saying here now when we look at these seven churches on a timeline of church history we're going to be going through it like this you don't have to worry about all this tonight but I just want to kind of again set the tone and set the stage each church again literal churches spiritual significance and historical relevance each church is actually pointing to a time period on the timeline of church history so the first letter we're going to read here in chapter two is the letter to the church at Ephesus anthesis represents the time period of the church from 33 80 to 100 AD 33 80s basically when pentecost happened in Acts chapter 2 and the church was birthed after Jesus rose from the dead ascended back into heaven Pentecost came Holy Spirit fell and then the church was basically birth that's 33 AD well a hundred ad is roughly the time when John the Apostle died so that was the end of the Apostolic age that's what Ephesus represents and when we go through each one I'll explain what each one means but then after Ephesus comes Smyrna 102 312 ad these dates have different significance and you'll see it as we get to it pergamus was 312 ad to 606 ad followed by five Tyra 606 to 1517 Sardis 1517 to 1750 ad and these last two letters the letter to the church at Philadelphia and Laodicea are relevant to time today because significant things happened in 1750 roughly actually a little bit earlier 1730 1740s but roughly 1750 there was the Great Awakening that happened in the United States of America and in Britain and in different places around the world but primarily in America and when the Great Awakening happened the evangelical church was born now the Protestant church you recognize 1517 those of you who have some knowledge of church history you recognize that the Protestant church broke away from the Catholic Church in 1517 when Martin Luther you know hammer deceases on the Wittenberg door the church in Wittenberg and so declaring his departure from Roman Catholicism the Protestant church was born in 1517 but the evangelical church the stream of evangelical Christianity was born around the time of the Great Awakening 1750 but something else happened at the turn of the 20th century in the night in around 1900 liberal theology began to creep in and two paths became divergent in in the Protestant Church one was even Christianity and one was liberal theology and still exists today and what we're gonna see happening is when you when you read the context of the commendation and the rebuke the church at Philadelphia gets no rebuke from Jesus the Church of Philadelphia will be raptured ok the Church of Laodicea still exists today too so you have both of these churches existing today you have the evangelical church you have the liberal theological church and seminaries that go with these and there are two different streams the evangelical church is going to be raptured the church that is full of liberal ideology and theology that make real no claim to knowing Jesus in a personal way it's just all this liberal theology that that discounts the claim of Christ ok they're gonna go through the tribulation there are some people actually think that they're saved and they're not that's the Church of Laodicea so when we get to that eventually will will you know we'll explain all that in more detail but I wanted to give you the background so that you understood where we're going as we take a look at this first letter to the church in Ephesus so if you have your Bibles open there to chapter 2 we're gonna take a look here at the Church of Ephesus and and actually before I read it you'll notice verses 1 through verse 7 is this first letter to the church at Ephesus and I'm gonna go ahead and just show you the synopsis up front and then we'll come through and and dig out these verses so here's the synopsis of the Church of the letter to the church at Ephesus Jesus is title you'll notice here is him who holds the seven stars in his right hand which was important to recognize that Jesus holds the pastors in his right hand well I had my left hand his right hand who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands so Jesus is always in our midst he's always walking among us where two or more are gathered there I am in your midst is what Jesus said the commendation that he gives this church is that they're hard-working persevering and discerning false doctrine and in particular he's going to call out a group of people called the Nicolaitans the complaint that he has against this church is that they've left their first love and the reward that he says to them if they persevere is that they will eat from the tree of life in the paradise of God so let's take a look at this letter here chapter 2 verse 1 - the angel or the pastor of the Church of Ephesus write these things says he who holds the seven stars in his right hand who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands I know your works your labor your patience and that you cannot bear those who are evil and you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not and have found them liars and you have persevered and have patience and have labored for my name's sake and have not become weary nevertheless I have this against you that you have left your first love remember therefore from where you have fallen repent and do the right works or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent but this you have that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans which I also hate do you has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches to him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God all right so I'm gonna break down the letter with you but before I do let me give you a little background on Ephesus itself since this letter is addressed here to the church in Ephesus again Ephesus as you saw in the map is located on the eastern shoreline of the Aegean Sea it it had an estimated population in the first century of 300 to 500 thousand people this was one of the most populated cities in the Roman Empire today injustice all Turkish village exists there called aya salute it was a very prosperous City in the first century because it was located around a major trade route people would come there and and dock and exchange their goods in the first and second century in particular but it was also known as a place of real immorality because located in Ephesus was and still stands the remains the Temple of Diana she was also known as Artemis it was an enormous structure the temple of diana was noted as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world it was 425 feet long 220 feet wide with a hundred and twenty seven pillars around it each 60 feet high diana was the goddess of sex and fertility so at any one point there were a thousand temple prostitutes employed in the service of the temple of diana this is why when paul went there on one of his missionary journeys and it's recorded in details in Acts chapter 19 and 20 he spent more time in Ephesus than any other city three years because it was the Las Vegas of the ancient Roman Empire I mean it was a place where you could find anything and do anything he wanted and so paul invested three years of his time in the city of ephesus ministering the gospel and there was great revival there when you read acts 19 and 20 and see what happened in ephesus as a result of Paul's preaching I mean you know they they wanted to kill Paul because all the sudden their livelihoods people who were making these little idols of of Dirty Diana we're suddenly out of business because a bunch of people were getting saved they don't want to buy the idols too - Diana anymore and it even tells us in when you read acts 19 and 20 one of the great things that happened was people even who were engaged in sorcery in witchcraft they brought their books that were all about sorcery and stuff and and they burned them and when you look at the value that it gives it in the book of Acts compared to what the dollar would be today it's over seven million dollars worth of sorcery books that they burned when they started to get their hearts right with the Lord so miracles were happening in Ephesus great things were happening but it's about thirty years later now and it's sad to think that in 30 years that's not a very long time they would leave their first love in just 30 years now notice the text does not say they lost their first love it says very specifically they're in verse 4 nevertheless I have this against you that you have left your first love who's the first love Jesus Jesus will never leave you nor forsake you but friends we need to understand and this might challenge some of your theology you can leave him it is possible to leave him he calls it out right here he says you have left your first love you've walked away from me again Jesus will never leave you nor forsake you he's committed to the relationship but are you he calls out the Church of Ephesus he says you know you guys are hard-working you are persevering I commend you for that I see your works I see your deeds especially you call out false teachers and we'll talk about the Nicolaitans in a moment but he says but you have left your first love you have forsaken him you've walked away from him you've abandoned him the Jesus is taking this very personally he's dictating this he says you've left me you've left me his heart is breaking for them because they have left him now look again mankind has been given free will from the very moment that God created Adam and Eve and he placed them in the garden and he said you are free to eat from any of the fruit of the trees within the garden except from one tree the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die what was he giving mankind right from day one free will you're free to eat from all of these trees just the one and mankind went for the one why do we do that went for the one but instinctive in a relationship with the Lord has to be freewill otherwise it wouldn't really be a relationship based on love it would be maybe illegal or a mandated or a robotic relationship but it wouldn't be one based on love God wants a relationship based on love he certainly as demonstrated if for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son and he wants a reciprocal relationship where we respond to his initiation of love he's the initiator we're the responders that we respond to the way he initiates love toward us in a reciprocal way that we love him in response he's not gonna force it he's not gonna force that from us and so the same free will we exercised in responding to his love can be the same free will we exercised in denying Him as Lord and Savior walking away leaving him and so again some of your theologies you know might be having a hard time swallowing what I'm saying here but yeah you have to make room for what he says here these are very specific words we didn't lose our salvation here okay it's it's not that it's not that frivolous you know our salvation is not something you lose like you lose your keys around the house okay and I grew up in a tradition that basically put a lot of heavy guilt on people like if you had a bad thought you got to get saved again like praise god I've been delivered from that because it you know if you lost your salvation for every bad thought or every bad thing you said I mean who who among us would be able to ever know that we're truly genuinely saved so it's it's not this simplicity of all you've just you must have lost yourself again but there can be a deliberate willful intentional denying of the faith and leaving Christ and rejecting him and no longer believing that he's Lord and Savior and though it breaks his heart no one is going to be dragged to heaven kicking and screaming it's gonna be because you will to respond to the love of the Lord now he points out here among the commendable things is the way that their hard-working persevering and they discern false doctrine here and he mentions the Nicolaitans now Nicolaitans from two greek words in the KO meaning to conquer the noun form is nike meaning victory nação and layoffs layoffs meaning Leia T so nação layoffs meaning to conquer the laity one of the things that Jesus has trouble with is a hierarchical thing in the church and we'll talk about this because on the timeline of church history we're going to talk about the Roman Catholic Church when there is this hierarchical priestly system where man stands between God and man and and where you can only get to the Father if you go through a human being that is a form of nação layoffs that is a form of conquering the laity and Jesus hates the practice of the Nicolaitans that's what he says right here and so one of the things that he commands of the church at Ephesus is that they wouldn't put up with that kind of thing there's no barrier between God and man Jesus is the only mediator between God and man no human being is the mediator between God and man we-we-we might be people who intercede in prayer for people we might help people you know to come to an understanding of faith and kind of take the hand of God and take the hand of somebody and you know help them to understand how they can have a relationship with Jesus but no human is to be a barrier between man and God Jesus is the only mediator between God and man and so Jesus says I hate the practice of the Nicolaitans and he commends the church at Ephesus that they were wise about it as well and he gives the opportunity to repent here you know it's not do more gloom he says even though you have left your first love that's his complaint against them he says in verse 5 remember therefore from where you have fallen and repent so remember like you know grab hold again of of what you remember when you first got saved like it you know it's not too late you can come back again repent remember repent and he says in verse 7 he who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches and to him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God now interesting we haven't heard about the tree of life since Genesis chapter 2 Genesis chapter 2 was the tree which they were free to eat from but once Adam and Eve had eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil god banished them from the garden and the idea was lest after that they should eat of the Tree of Life and then be forever stuck in this unredeemable state and so God cast them out before they were to eat of the Tree of Life so they had a chance to be redeemed instead of permanently sealed in that place of being unredeemable but the Tree of Life appears again and it actually is found in the last chapter of the book of Revelation we'll get to when we get there eventually in Revelation chapter 22 and it talks about those who've overcome will eat of the Tree of Life and that the leaves will even bring healing to the nation's and so the Tree of Life we see again in Revelation 22 from Genesis chapter 2 and Jesus says here to them who overcome you will eat one day of that tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God so God has uprooted that tree and it has kept preserved until we see it again appearing in Revelation chapter 22 so we only got through one letter but at least we made our way into chapter 2 tonight so we're making progress and then next week we'll pick up with the persecuted Church in verse eight the Church of Smyrna so read ahead but already our time has escaped us so let's pray father thank you for your word and we take to heart what you wrote to the Church of Ephesus and we pray Lord that we would be hard-working persevering Saints who also discern against the false practice of the Nicolaitans that Lord we would only help people to come to you and never stand in the way thinking that were some intermediary between God and man that only Jesus is that intermediary and Lord I pray if if anyone hearing this Bible study has walked away from you have left you they can come back you you even instruct remember and repent turn from your sin and return to the Lord and you will always take us back Lord you're always a gracious loving Savior you will always take us back that if we repent and return to you we will one day eat of the tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God and that's a promise for all saints who overcome looking forward one day to being in your presence eating of that tree enjoying Lord being with you for eternity so I pray that even now if there are those who have walked away from you thank you Lord that you never walk away from us but if any have strayed from you that tonight they would turn to you they would just cry out to you again just even right now they would just say Jesus take me back ward I know I've strayed from you I've wandered from you but I return to you now my first love forgive me of my sins I commit my life to you again Lord I return to you my first love and I trust you and I thank you that you always take us back thank you for loving me first Lord how I respond to your love Lord by returning to you now and for all of us father thank you for your grace in our lives and thank you for this time in your word be with us now as we go to our respective homes we praise you together in Jesus name and everybody said amen

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

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Keywords: Cornerstone Chapel, Calvary Chapel, Gary Hamrick, Biblical sermons, leesburg va, cornerstone chapel leesburg virginia, great sermons by great preachers

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Length: 43min 21sec (2601 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 05 2020