Ralph Martin - Will Our Lampstand be Removed?

[Music] hello brothers and sisters i've been very concerned as you know to try to discern what the holy spirit is saying to the church today and i feel like one of the ways in which we can really pay careful attention to what the spirit might be saying to us is to see what the holy spirit is saying to the world in the whole church in the book of revelations so i am going to spend this video and some subsequent videos commenting on what the spirit is saying to the church as we discover that in the new testament and of course we discover particularly the book of revelations where the seven churches with about 50 mile radius of each other in what's currently turkey uh the spirit is saying something very clear to each of the churches which has relevance for today so today i'd like to talk about what the spirit is saying to the church in ephesus and what the spirit is saying to church and smyrna on drawing out simplifications for us which these are strong messages and they have clear implications and they're really important we pay attention to them now i'm not going to get into some of the background information about a certain new testament old testament illusions or connections to other new testament passages maybe occasionally i'll do that but uh people sometimes ask me what bible translation do i prefer and i prefer the ignatius study bible which has put been put together by a team from the saint paul center for biblical studies uh scott hahn and his collaborators and the footnotes are very good uh they're not too technical but they're very solid they're very scholarly but clear so this is the the new testament bible translation that i uh prefer and the footnotes are are very good they're about to come out with an old testament version it's completed but it's working through the various kind of pre-publication processes i don't know when it's coming out the second thing i'd like to recommend for people who would like to look into the book of revelations more deeply is a commentary in the book of revelation is that my colleague at the seminary dr peter williamson has published it's called revelation by dr peter williamson sometimes when i say things too fast we get lots of uh messages saying could you tell me what that book was that you recommended so uh if you're interested pay attention it's called revelation by dr peter williamson and it's in a series called the catholic commentary on sacred scripture that peter williamson and my other colleague dr mary healy have overseen as the general editors it's a great commentary series on the new testament they're currently working on some old testament commentaries also which will probably appear in the next year or two so uh for more information about the book of revelations i recommend this uh for shorter information i'd recommend this the ignatius study bible it's called the nation's catholic study bible new testament second catholic edition based on the rsv translation so let's begin with what the spirit is saying to the church in ephesus to the angel of the church in ephesus right now the angel is probably the bishop or the pastor or the leader of the church to the angel of the church at ephesus's right the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand who walks among the seven golden lampstands i know your works your toil and your patient endurance and how you cannot bear evil men but have tested those who call themselves apostles but are not and found them to be false i know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my namesake you have not grown weary you may say wow what what could be lacking in this church what could be lacking in this diocese what could be lacking in this parish and praise the lord we do have dioceses and we do have parishes that are solid in the faith that teach the faith that are orthodox that celebrate the liturgy with reverence but what could be missing here it comes but i have this against you that you've abandoned the love you had at first remember then from what you have fallen repent do the works you did at first if not i will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent so a lot of times when we experience conversion or we come to the faith for the first time or we come off a retreat or our life in the spirit seminar or ignatian exercises or we've come across the carmelite saints or whatever we've uh we've experienced a conversion to the interior life and a lot of times in the initial stages there's fervor there's fire we want to tell other people about it we're excited about the lord now a lot of times people say well that stage isn't meant to last and it's true that the emotional intensity of that initial stage isn't going to last but what it's supposed to do is lead us into a depth of commitment of faith of conviction where the fires of love and the fires of urgency to evangelize are burning deep and this urgency there and this fervor there based on conviction based on faith uh which does affect our emotions from time to time and we experience you know some kind of sensible experience of that but it's supposed to not be an initial experience that that fades in that sense but an initial experience that leads to a deeply rooted love conviction and fervor that isn't always experienced emotionally but it's really there in a very deep way so what the holy spirit is saying here to the church in ephesus is repent and return to that initial fervor not necessarily the emotional peak but the the conviction that leads to zeal that that actually becomes a virtue uh to a conviction actually leads to fortitude to to a depth of commitment actually leads to sacrifice that actually leads to the willingness to be a martyr for the sake of christ and again the emotional intensity of that will vary but the conviction is supposed to be deep it's supposed to be based on decisions it's supposed to be based on our response to a light of faith that god has given us is supposed to be based on the clear word of god and how we're supposed to respond to it and hear it and not just hear it but to heed it now remember then from what you have fallen repent and do the works you did at first if not i will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent now i i think we are in danger in having our lampstand removed i think we're in danger of experiencing the fate of the salt that loses the savior and there's nothing good to be thrown but but be thrown out jesus has warned us that if the church loses its spark if the church loses its fervor if the church loses its intensity of commitment its depth of virtue its zeal for the gospel and zeal for holiness if it loses that what good is it it will not be attractive to people it will not clearly communicate the urgency of faith and repentance and it's possible that our lampstand will be removed what does that mean it means that the protection that the lord gives to us the blessing that the lord gives to us will be removed it reminds me of what it says in ezekiel chapter 10. versus uh well in ezekiel chapter 10 i've got to get my old testament out verses 18 to 20 where it says the sad day during the time of the prophet jeremiah where the prophet ezekiel saw the glory of the lord leaving the temple you remember when solomon dedicated consecrated the temple the tangible presence of the lord descended upon the the the temple and people couldn't even go into it the presence of the lord was so strong the glory of the lord was so strong it filled the temple but after years of infidelity including the tragic end of solomon's life where he ended up worshiping other gods of marrying foreign women in in you know in march numbers uh and became unfaithful uh but the whole nation kind of turned to idolatry and sexual immorality and lukewarmness and uh and then in the time of jeremiah ezekiel sore the glory of the lord the presence of the lord leaving the temple and terrible destruction coming upon the temple upon jerusalem upon god's people because of their infidelity i think we're standing on a razor's edge right now i think it's hard to deny that in some ways the glory of the lord is leaving the temple that large parts of the church sometimes including whole dioceses or whole parishes are departing from the faith and even in orthodox solid dioceses and parishes that correct that uh celebrate the liturgy appropriately and are orthodox uh there's a lukewarmness there isn't a fire or preaching there isn't a fire of calling people to repentance there isn't a fire calling people to save themselves from this wicked generation there isn't the willingness to confront the culture as it's engulfing our own people and taking away our young people the uh the the zeal that's needed in a time of war we are in a time of war a tremendous battle is going on right now the devil's trying to devour souls uh our our children are being targeted right now by so many agencies like the united nations just recently published a study saying that it may be okay for children to be exposed to pornography uh other kind of advocates of that are kind of speaking out more and more more and more programs kind of geared towards children including disney programs are trying to uh introduce people to uh gender confusion uh uh trans ideology uh and and just accustoming people to uh a life apart from god a life that's disobedient to the order of creation and the explicit words of christ just recently uh the barner uh survey people published a survey saying that you know even though lots of people identify themselves as religious as catholic as protestant as muslim that when you get down to it very few people very few christians who identify as christians really have accepted the biblical worldview or really living within the word of god or really looking at realities god looks at it but actually people are barnard says are synchro syncretistic they're kind of picking and choosing they're they're making together their own mismatch of mix mesh of of what they believe and and and very few a very small minority of those who identify as christians are really accepting the whole word of god and uh this is a very serious matter so it looks to me like we're we're heading towards our remnant now this is how it has always been when large parts of god's people abandon the faith or compromise the faith or mix the faith with other views yes judgment comes yes purification comes yes the lord doesn't tolerate it forever he's so patient he's so long-suffering but i think we're on the knife's edge now of going into open rebellion and the judgment of god coming now the judgment of god uh is expressed in so many ways in scripture it's about when your sons and daughters are carried off our sons and daughters are being carried off right now by the wa by the wolves by by the world and there aren't strong voices being raised to protect them to defend them to instruct them to to rescue them we need to hear again the voice of the apostle peter on the day of pentecost save yourself from this corrupt generation we need fervor we need fire we need repentance we need to lose our fear of men and lose our fear of the culture and even lose our fear of being canceled and excluded and even being killed for the sake of jesus christ and for the sake of the salvation of souls for the sake of the the well-being of our our fellow human beings who are being carried off into a wicked captivity romans chapter 1 uh extrives it so well when people refuse to worship god all kinds of disorder begins to come and it's the punishment for the refusal to worship god it's the punishment for the ways in which they've killed their conscience it's the punishment for the ways in which they've culpably suppressed the truth and have chosen to believe a lie rather than the truth of god so we are in grave danger of our lampstand being removed if it hasn't already been removed in many places we're in grave danger of the glory of the lord departing from the temple of the church in the temple of our own bodies so we really need to hear the word of god here we really need to repent we really need to return to our first love we really need to rediscover jesus as the treasure as the pearl of great price is the one worth sacrificing everything for this is a really serious warning from the holy spirit we're supposed to learn from historical precedent first corinthians chapter 10 uh paul says these things that are preserved in sacred scripture from the old testament are there because the holy spirit wants us to learn from them these churches of ephesus of smyrna and we're not going to get this murder today these churches disappeared their lampstand was removed they lost their savior they lost their salt and they were good for nothing but to be thrown out may the lord spare us from that fate but he will only spare us if we heed his word and obey and repent and ask god to stir on up us the fire of love for him to return to our first love to put him before everything else in our life and to be willing to experience persecution and suffering for his name for the sake of the salvation of souls for the sake of our own salvation remember then from what you've fallen repent if not it will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent i think we're in grave danger of our lampstand being removed may god have mercy on us but each of us can do our part whatever happens to other people whatever happens in the culture around us whatever happens to whole diocese and whole sections of the church we have a responsibility to give an answer to god for ourselves about where we stand and where our loyalty is and what we're willing to endure for the sake of christ may god give us the strength may god give us the grace and he will and he is to be faithful to him and to return to our first love if we've fallen from it amen [Music] you

Channel: Renewal Ministries

Views: 30,469

Rating: 4.9447641 out of 5

Keywords: Christianity, Jesus, Christ, Evangelism, Mission, Spirituality, Evangelization, Religion, Catholic, Church, God, Trinity

Id: 9D6SM4FGHG8

Length: 17min 23sec (1043 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 31 2021