welcome back I'm Robert breaker get out your Bible with me please and turn to Revelation chapter 2 every week I come to you with a new sermon in English and it's Spanish and it's been a great blessing these three and a half years doing this and preaching teaching the Word of God and a lot of folks have told me that it's a great blessing to be learning from the Scriptures you know it's not easy to be doing this every week preaching and teaching in two different languages but it's worth it and I've got a lot of people in English and in Spanish that have been writing to me and telling me we appreciate what you're doing brother breaker keep up the good work so I will continue to do so and today we're going to look at the the subject of the seven churches in the book of Revelation so we're gonna start in Revelation chapter two and these seven churches are mentioned in chapter two in chapter 3 of the book of Revelation so a lot of reading today this is a thing that I've been receiving emails about probably for last 3-4 years brother breaker would you please preach or teach on the seven churches please explain those there's a lot of people that have questions about what what are these seven churches in the book of Revelation are they for us today do they apply to us who is he writing to how come it sounds like in some of these that a person could lose their salvation why is that we're going to look at that today many are confused on this because many people say you can lose your salvation and that is not what the Bible teaches those who know me know that I preach what the Bible says and I preach it rightly divided as it says in 2nd Timothy 2:15 how we're supposed to rightly divide the word of truth and so rightly dividing where the truth we find clearly that Paul is our apostle today and we're supposed to go by what Paul has written and in Paul's writings we don't find anywhere where Paul says you can lose your salvation on the contrary the Apostle Paul says once saved you are sealed forever with all the spirit of promise it's called eternal salvation eternal life eternal redemption so we thank God for once saved always saved thank God that we know where to go to get our doctrine today and it's through the epistles of Paul so we're going to rightly divide today seven churches I'm going to show you what the seven churches are historically prophetically and doctrinally there are three interpretations of who these churches are a lot of people trying to say well their churches now know well when you read about the the seven churches in Revelation chapter 2 verse 3 what you have to understand is you're reading a book of prophecy when you go to the very first chapter of the book of Revelation look at what it says chapter 1 verse 1 the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him to show it to his servants okay so it's the revelation of Jesus Christ which God who's that god father given him God the Son to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John so Jesus Christ reveals something to John and that's what we're gonna read it's a revelation of Jesus - to John about things that God said are very shortly gonna come to pass so some people think well this must be written to two people in the time of John and things that are gonna happen in his day and they're what you call preterists they say it's all past history then you're do you have others and say no no this is this is a this is historical for us today and it goes throughout the entire church age then you have those and say no this is a future thing so I want to look at that I want to look at the different interpretations of John John's revelation here are God's revelation to John it's better stated of John's book of Revelation what are these two churches and I believe that there's there's actually a triple application I do believe that this is prophecy and I do believe that many times when God gives a prophecy it is fulfilled God came like God tells us before something happens what happens but I think God is so smart that he can tell us something in a prophecy that has a double or a triple application and I clearly see in these seven churches this application of a triple application by that I mean if these this reading of the seven churches can apply to more than just one thing I think it applies to two or even three things and do my best today to take you through the Scriptures explain to you the teaching of the seven churches and I hope it is a blessing now there are seven literal churches mentioned here in this passage and what I'll do is I'll draw up here and this is how I remember it's kind of hard to remember the seven churches so when I was in Bible School I set up my own little system to remember have another one over here I forgot one there's my seven churches and I remember the seven churches like this ESP TSP L shall I always remember all the seven churches the ESP TSP yeah and that's just the way that I remember so what you have is you have the first one as emphasis then you have smear nut what a funny name smear not then you have Pergamos then you have Thyatira then you have Sardis then you have fil Adelphia and then you have the last Church lay oh nice this a yeah I understand let us see it and so that see I think you have to look at my notes to remember the names I was able to remember through that ESP TSP L and that's how I recommend that you learn these churches and memorize that as well so you can remember these churches now these churches are mentioned in the Bible in a minute here I'm going to read all the chapter two in all chapter three and we're going to look at everything God says about these churches Ephesus is mentioned in chapter two verses one through seven Smyrna is mentioned in chapter two verses eight through eleven pergamus is mentioned chapter two verses 12 through 17 30 right is mentioned in two eighteen through twenty nine Sardis is mentioned in chapter three verses one through six Philadelphia is chapter three verse 7 through 13 and of course Laodicea is chapter three verses 14 through 22 and so here we have the seven churches and where they were mentioned in the Bible and I'll go ahead just go ahead and put up here the three theories if you will three yeah I'll put interpretations interpretations of the seven churches and the first one is very simple the first one is they were seven churches in the time of John so seven churches in John's day so we'll look at the seven churches the first interpretation is these were seven actual churches that existed in the time of John and you look at that look at that historically you find out yeah that's absolutely true there were these seven different regions and they were called out believers in those different regions at that time so he was literally writing to seven different churches in his day and they were all in one land mass and I'll get to that as we go a little farther on so I believe that John is writing here sometimes between 70 to 95 AD and we know that the Apostle John was on the island of Patmos when he writes to these churches and he's writing in a time to churches that actually existed that he was aware of in his day that he knew existed that he's writing this to them so that is the first interpretation is that literally he's writing to seven churches that existed in his day and look what it says here in verse 10 I was in the spirit on the Lord's Day I'm in Revelation 1 110 and I read and heard behind me a voice it is of a great trumpet verse 11 saying I am Alpha and Omega first and last and what thou seest write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia unto Ephesus and the Smyrna and unto Pergamos and unto Thyatira and unto Sardis and unto Philadelphia and the latest thing so here he is and God Pierce - who says I want you to write this book and give it to these seven different churches so I guess after he wrote this he would probably have to make seven different copies or maybe had someone else that copied it seven different times and God wanted this sent to those seven different churches so we have here these seven churches is seven different churches in a little time period of seven times so let's go ahead and read what God says to these churches because when we read it it does not sound like the Apostle Paul at all it sounds like a works gospel and it sounds like when God is talking to this churches he's telling you you better do this or else or else so let's go ahead and read Revelation chapter two verse one unto the Angel of the Church of the emphasis write these things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks who's that while that's Jesus I know that works in thy labour and thy patience and how thou canst not bear them which are evil and thou has tried them which say they are apostles it or not and it's found them liars so there's in this church there were people that claim to be apostles but they weren't and I've taught for years that the Apostles only lasted for a certain time and then God was done with the Apostles there was no need for those signs of the Apostles and he continues here verse 3 and that's born and has patience and for my name's sake a flavored and that's not fainted nevertheless I have somewhat against thee because thou has left thy first love 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 thou repent but this thou hast that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans which I also hate 7 he that hath 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 which is in the midst of the paradise of God now wait a minute the tree of life the tree life that that's in the Millennium so how can it be writing to these people in Asia well maybe he's saying in the future they'll get to eat of the tree could be that's what he's talking about but it's quite interesting that it's got stuck in there that doesn't seem to jive with the church age so that's what God says to Ephesus now Smyrna starting in verse 8 the angel of the church in Smyrna write these things said the first and the last which was dead and is alive who's that Jesus he rose again from the grave I know that works why does he keep saying that works we're not saved by our works now after we're saved we do good work so maybe gotta say yeah I know what your works are he says I know that works in tribulation and poverty but thou art rich and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not but are the synagogue of Satan Oh fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison that you may be tried and he shall have tribulation for 10 days it says you shall have tribulation 10 days be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life now here's someone going through some tribulation and therefore 10 days now that must be a literal 10 days that someone is persecuted did that take place shortly after the time of John verse 11 either haven't hear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death the second death well that's that's going to hell after the great white throne of judgment and it says there overcometh what does mean overcome where some verse 10 we see the next church and to the Angel of the Church of Pergamus write these things saith he which had the sharp sword with two edges well what would that be hebrews 4:12 tells us that's the Word of God verse 13 I know that works and where thou dwellest even where Satan's seat is and thou holdest fast my name and has not denied my faith even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth now Antipas means int a puss-puss means everything and handy means against so his faithful martyr that was against everything they were very anti world leading this miss Church but yet the devil's seat Satan's seat was in the middle of this church and what's interesting you look at pergamus in the ancient world pergamus was where all these ancient mysteries came from these ancient pagan mystery craft a lot of that has to do with witchcraft or pagan teachings false teachings so this church was sitting right in the very center of where the devil had his doctrine and his pagan as' paganism teachings verse 14 but I have a few things against thee because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of who taught Balak to cast a stumble booking for stumbling block before the children Israel to eat things sacrificed unto idols and to commit fornication verse 15 so has thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans which thing I hate verse 16 repent or else I will come unto the end will fight against me with the sword of my mouth when does Jesus fight with a sword that comes out of his mouth well that's the Battle of Armageddon that doesn't sound like the church age and one of the raptures got to come before that interesting number 17 he would happen to hear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna and will give him a white stone and in a stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it that's an odd thing to say back to verse 18 now or are on to verse 18 now continuing and it starts with the other church Thyatira so we've looked at SS Ephesus Smyrna and pergamus now what does it say about Thyatira 18 unto the angel the Church of Thyatira write these things saith the son of God who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire and his feet are like fine brass 19 I know that works again God says I'm judging you based on your works well that doesn't sound like how we're saved today today our works are down to the cross so that's quite interesting I know thy works and charity and service and faith and thy patience and thy works and the last to be more than the first your last works are more than your first works hmm notwithstanding I have a few things against thee because thou suffered that sufferest that woman Jezebel which calleth herself a prophetess to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto idols Wow wow that's a pretty bad Church they're letting a woman be a preacher and the woman is seducing people getting them to worship idols and to commit fornication with her Wow what is that verse 21 I gave her space to repent of her fornication and she repented not behold I will cast her into abandon to them that commit adultery with her and to Great Tribulation except they repent of their deeds someone's going through some great tribulation here and I will kill her children with death and all the churches shall know what I am that I am he which started search it the rains and hearts and I will give unto every one of you according to your works but unto you I say and to the rest in Thyatira as many as have not this doctrine of which have not known the depths of fish Satan as they speak I will put upon you no other burden but that which you have already hold fast till I come and he can overcome if they keepeth my works unto the end to him will I give power over the nation's now people say see seven churches well that's us today that's church age and that sounds like you're saved by works and it sure does it sure does and he shall rule them with the rod of iron as the vessels of a Potter shall they be broken to shivers even as I receive of my father and I will give him the morning star he that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches so someone's got to endure and then Jesus will come and rule over them with the rod of iron why that that literally takes place at the Battle of Armageddon so what is this what what is this well for some reason God's talking to these seven churches and he's talking to him like this almost like he's dealing with them with a works gospel now we go to the next Church Sardis and this begins in chapter three chapter three of Revelation verse one this is the angel of the church in Sardis write these things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God in the seven stars and I know thy works that thou hast and it says that thou has the name that thou liveth and our dead be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that already died for I have not found thy works perfect before God remember therefore how that thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent if therefore thou shalt not watch I will come on thee as a thief and thou shalt know not know what hour I will come upon thee thou has the few names even as Sardis which have not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy now look again at verse five he that overcometh the same shall be clothed in white raiment and will not blot out his name out of the book of life but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels he that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches as we're reading through the seven churches it sounds like God is dealing with these people whoever they are was some sort of a works gospel rather than the Gospel of Paul why is that does the Bible tell us why that is yeah it does I'm just kind of holding on to that till the end so you get an idea of when this probably applies to mostly but at the same time maybe God is telling the church see it's not an individual he's telling the church this is what you guys are doing and the church itself isn't right now continue there we're gonna look at Philadelphia and verse seven so chapter 3 verse 7 this is like the best of all the churches Philadelphia this is the one that God says he's so happy with and it says is the best he says there in verse 7 into the angel of the church in Philadelphia now Philadelphia means brotherly love I haven't been giving you what each of these church names mean let me do that quickly the first church we we see is the Church of Ephesus Ephesus means fully purposed that were fully purposed in their mind to do something Spira means bitter perfume it was something that smelled bitter it did smell like it should have I guess you could say they think the next one pergamus Pergamus means much marriage much marriage it's almost like Pergamus was the church that married with anybody and everybody's like they took all other doctrines and they kind of just they were ecumenical they got everything marry means put together so they said let's put everything together let's don't separate ourselves dietary means odour of affliction odor of affliction so obviously they were afflicted and God could smell that smell that they were they were afflicted after that here comes Sardis Sardis means red ones red ones either they were dressed in red or their blood covered them when they were killed and a lot of a lot of these people had to die they were actually killed by Romans and the Romans killed these people literally for their faith Philadelphia means brotherly love and Philadelphia was the church that God was so happy with you think maybe God's telling us that maybe we that are Christians ought to love one another yeah maybe we ought to have a little brotherly love with others who claim to be Christians hey says here verse 7 in the angel the Church of Philadelphia write these things saith he that is holy he that is true he that hath the key of David he that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man open it I know thy works behold I have set before thee an open door and no man can shut it for thou hast a little strength that have kept my word and have not denied my name the older will make them of the synagogue of Satan which say they are Jews it or not but do lie behold I will make them to come and worship before thy feet and to know that I have loved thee because thou has kept the word of my patience I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth so God says you guys are going to be alright because you kept my word the most important thing about Philadelphia is they kept God's Word faithfully they didn't change it they didn't make a new version they stuck with the one true Bible and no other that's something that we should do today if we want God to give us open doors because clearly God likes it when we only have one book as your study the King James Bible you find out that's the only real Bible all other versions come from different texts that have been messed with and changing yes there are errors and historical mistakes and and and and many different errors and doctrinal mistakes in any other version of the Bible then the King James that's why I believe in the King James only and I am King James only but I do have brotherly love I do have some folks that there are friends of mine that don't use the King James only and I'm working on them I'm working on them trying to get them to us to get a standard huh you know when you preach you when you teach let's all use the same book you know if you want to use that on your own time you help yourself but King James is the Word of God the Bible says where the word of a king is there's power there's power so we should all have the same book I've never my life found another version of Shakespeare it's one version of Shakespeare when you chants like Shakespeare in Spanish or another language there's there's not more than one there's just one translation how come there's over 200 different Bibles in English only one of them is right which one and we'll see here a little bit why it's the King James so he says here behold I come quickly verse 11 hold that fast which thou hast and no man take that crown okay I'm gonna hold fast to my King James Bible verse 12 him that overcometh will i make a pillar in the temple of my god he shall go out no more and I will write upon him the name of my God in the name of the city of my god which is New Jerusalem which cometh down out of heaven from my god and I will write upon him my new name okay now we've got a connection to New Jerusalem how interesting is that verse 13 he didn't have to hear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches and unto the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans so verse 14 begins with Laodiceans now let Asiya means rights of the people and this sia elao this seer rights of the people in other words the people standing up and saying we have our rights it's all about us and it focus is on them rather than on Jesus mob rule I guess you could say when the crowd is all about we have the right we have the right no in a republic you're supposed to follow the law but in a democracy people follow what they think is right rather than the law so it says here in verse 14 and unto the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans write these things saith the Amen the faithful and true witness in the beginning of the creation of God I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot I would thou wert cold or hot so then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot I will spew thee out of my mouth because they'll say that I am rich and increased with Goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked this church says we're rich we don't need anything guy goes you might be rich physically but you're just as poor as jobs Turkey when it comes to the spiritual stuff he says there 18 God speaking says I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou mayst be rich and white raiment that thou mayst be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see they're just as blind as a bat to the spiritual to the things of God verse 19 as many as I love I rebuke and chasten be zealous for and repent behold I stand at the door and knock If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me now you know a lot of people will take this verse right here and go out and try to win people to the Lord with this verse and say hey God's knocking on the door of your heart open your hearts door and let Jesus come in and I always looked at that and said what foolishness he's talking to a church he's not talking to a person and we're gonna see that here in a second it's like God's saying here's the church and he's going through the church he's knocking on the door to go hello anybody home and there on one side going we're worshipping Jesus and we love Jesus and Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus and Jesus is outside going well you know remember the Flintstones you know what Jesus is on the outside someone saying I'd really like to get in there you know be in there with you guys I mean you're talking about me how about letting me in so you see it's the church that doesn't have Jesus in the church should invite him in but they don't they kick them out the door so it's not talking to an individual about salvation it's talking to a church that's turned against God and yet they get lissome lip service to God and talk about God they don't even have God in the service sounds like a church full of lost people rather than safe people says here verse 20 behold I stand at the door knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me so you see God's knocking on the door of the church and saying hey since it's obvious you don't want me to come in how about any one of you come out to me because you're not going to get saved in there you've got to get out of there to get saved because I'm not in there and they're not telling you the way of salvation so salvation is you got to get out of that before you can get to me what a thing what a thing we're starting one to him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne even as I also overcame and have sat down with my father in his throne he that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches so what I've done with you I've gone through you I've read to you the seven churches in the book of Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3 we looked at Ephesus Smyrna Pergamum Thyatira Sardis Philadelphia and living which is the one they said was the best we're gonna put a little star here by the one that God said was the best the one that God was most impressed with was Philadelphia the brotherly love and why was God most impressed with them because they are the ones that kept his word and this is supposed to be a Bible and not a very good person as far as drawing but God was so impressed with this church because they were faithful to keep his word all the other ones seemed to kind of forget gods were kind of mixed with the world one of them even married the world that says so God goes through it he's talked about these seven churches and this is what God thinks of these churches and so what God says about so the very first theory of who these churches are are they were little literal churches between 70 to 100 ad that existed in the day of the Apostle John and God is telling John write to these seven churches and tell them I said this about them so that's pretty revealing that not even well let's see Jesus died in 33 AD so 73 would be 40 years later so 40 50 60 70 80 years after Jesus they went into apostasy and only one of them was good and kept the word the rest of them went off the deep end into false doctrine one of them even let the devil in the church his seat was there the Bible says Satan seat that's that's not very good that shows you just how quickly something can turn from being something that's right and good and go downhill headlong into apostasy and turning into something that's bad does it take that many years just one generation for things to change so the second idea or the second theory of this and this is what I like this is kind of fun for me to teach I enjoy this but I have no way whatsoever to get in as detail as I'd like to you in this teaching this is a very very profound teaching there's no way that I can get into this with enough time so this is going to just have to be as brief as I can but the second interpretation of these seven churches is that these are seven periods of time or stages as some people say seven periods of time during the entire church age all right now what do you mean by this now some people understand this already other people don't and this is one of the things that people have been asking about because they say well brother breaker you just keep saying the apostate later to see in church the apostate legacy in church what are you talking about and some of my videos I say and we're in a day and age of apostasy we're in the day of the Laodicean Church age and people go what do you mean okay so I'm gonna try to make this as clear as I can so that you'll get this so what I'm gonna have to do is oh boy put this up here and hopefully I can explain this to you go with me to 2nd Peter chapter 3 and verse 8 2nd Peter 3:8 2nd Peter chapter 3 and verse 8 in 2nd Peter 3:8 we read these words 2nd Peter chapter 3 and verse 8 the Bible says they can find it here 2nd Peter chapter 3 and verse 8 says but beloved be not ignorant of this one thing that one day is with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years is one day we go back in Genesis it says God made everything in 6 days and on the seventh day God rested so God made everything in six days and rested on the seventh day well if a day with the Lord is a thousand years a thousand years is one day you get to looking at that thing and you go wow wow from Adam to Jesus Christ is exactly four thousand years exactly and so when Jesus dies or is cut off while that starts the church age we know that the church age is going to end with the wrap and then Jesus said there's going to be a 1000 year period called the Millennium in which he is going to reign in this earth so you have the Millennial Kingdom and it's a thousand years well that would line up with the thousand year reign or the last day in which God rested because of the Millennial Kingdom God rests so well that means from the rapture all the way back to Jesus what we today called the church age how long would that be well if there's only seven days of creation and the last day was the day of rest and and that were to line up with 7,000 years of history which it does and it was 4,000 years to Jesus then that means the church age is only going to be about 2,000 years and when the church age is over at the rapture then there's 1,000 years when Jesus reigns now somewhere in there is the tribulation I believe the tribulation is right after the rapture so is there a verse of scripture in the Bible that tells us that the church age is going to be 2,000 years the other is as a matter of fact go to hosea chapter 6 hosea chapter 6 and verse 2 God is talking to Israel and if you know your Bible you know that when Israel killed Jesus Christ their Messiah they rejected the Messiah and so God said okay you rejected me that I'm gonna reject you and I'm gonna go to some other people and save them instead of you and this is what's called the church age but God promised that he wasn't finished with Israel and then he would go back to dealing with them and he does and in the tribulation period God goes back to dealing with the nation of Israel and so it's amazing see it's wonderful it's awesome to read the Bible and see all this because it's just it's all there so we look at this and we see that there's a time of Jacob's trouble is what it's called or the Tribulation Period how long until God goes back to dealing with the Jews well 2000 years look what it says in Hosea chapter 6 Hosea 6 come and let us return to the Lord for he has torn and he will heal us he has smitten and he will bind up after two days will he revive us in the third day will he raise us up and we will live in his sight so after two days of a day with the Lord as a thousand years a thousand years one day as it says in 2nd Peter three eight then Hosea is saying Hosea chapter six four four one and two but this is going to be a two thousand-year-old year period so the church age is going to be a period of two thousand years now what we do and what many have done and when you do this you just kind of look at it go wah ha ha this is pretty amazing if you go to the church age which is what this time period is this 2,000 years and you divide that up into seven and make each one of those divisions the seven churches in order you get quite an amazing thing so let me just uh give you that here one two three four five six seven all right let's make sure I get that right one two three four five I'm not the best when it comes to making divisions but I try I'm not an artist so it's kind of hard to to draw this thing out right so here we have the church age the entire church age if we look at all 2000 years of the church and we look at that we say what if all seven churches here line up with the 2000 years of the church that would mean that Laodicea would be the last one all right now I don't have room here so I'm just gonna have to do my e as P T SPL and you just have to look up there to know what they stand for so what many Bible scholars do is they say that revelation is a prophecy of the church age and the seven churches are different time periods within the church in order of when they take place so that means that Ephesus would be the first and then it's the church age goes along it changes to Sardis and then to Pergamon it's a Thyatira that system er Sardis give them except Sardis and Smyrna Smyrna and then Philadelphia then Thyatira thus artists in Philadelphia that would mean since we're about right here we're very close to the rapture that we are in Laodicea here in the church age of legacy or the church period people call these times or periods or stages or different times now if you were to take 2000 and you were to take 2000 and divide it into seven you would come up with two hundred and eighty five point seven one four years and so that's what I literally did now other people don't do that but I took that and I say well okay two hundred and eighty-five years so this one would be two hundred eighty-five years that was two hundred eighty-five years that was two hundred eighty-five years that was two hundred eighty-five and you divide that two thousand years on the church age and it comes out to each church age or each of the seven churches would be a period of time of two hundred eighty years during that and that's what a lot of people believe and that's what a lot of people teach that's why they say we're in the last days we're in the Laodicean Church age and you go look at the way of seeing church age you go that's not a good church they kid got out what does that mean that means they're apostate and that's what happens in the last days there's apostasy and I'll just abbreviate that so what I did is I divided by 7 2000 and I came out to two hundred and eighty five point seven four and so I said now I'd like to line that up with history so we can get some dates historically actually what I did to get rid of the the numbers here was I just uh I said what's two thousand divided by two hundred eighty-five and they came up with seven point one four and I said well that's good enough so I just went ahead and and I started and I said okay so here's zero all the way to 285 so zero the 285 would be Ephesus and then I said well so Sameer no it would be two eighty five to five seventy and I said so five seventy and I'm doing this on the calendar 855 to 855 well that would be the church period of what's called pergamus and then I go from 855 I come up with 1140 and why that would be VII tira and then I said what is all Sardis here from from 1140 you add 285 you get 18:25 Sosa phone from 1425 all the way out to 1710 would be this one here in Philadelphia and then if you wanted a time period 1710 all the way out here to 20 what is it 33 year 2018 or whenever the rapture is gonna be and hopefully it's not 2030 3 2 1 hopefully 2018 so what I did is I went and I divided up the church age 2,000 years of the church age into seven four seven churches and I said what if each one of these churches corresponds with this time period in history of of the actual church when it actually took place now people a lot of people don't do that a lot of people read church history and they say well no what we find is is we find the dates are different so they come up with different dates and that's fine but they still come up with some amazing things because what you come up with as you study church history is that the things that take place in these different periods sound exactly like what takes place in the history of the church and you look at that you go wow somebody knew what would take place over the next 2,000 years and they had a guy write it in a book around 70 to 95 AD and you cannot deny as you read those seven churches wow that sounds like exactly what took place in history of men so many say that this division lines up perfectly and they say that the stages of equal to R naught are equal time periods others say that they're not equal time periods rather they're distinct assemblies of different churches that do different things and you have to read in Revelation what they were guilty of and then you look in church history and find out when the next church period started and so they have different dates a guy named Clarence Larkin who does great this is his book greatest book on dispensational truth of the world here's Clarence rockin chart on the message of the seven churches and he's got it all laid out here and I will definitely put that up here I copy this on line made a jpg file and I'll put this on here so you can see and you can look there with me on how he says that oh it's all about 160 AD is Ephesus house Mir that goes to about 300 AD or 312 how the Pergamus period goes all the way out to 606 how the Thyatira period according to hand goes all the way up to 1520 how the Sardis period goes to about 1750 and how latest iya starts in about 1900 so when you look at Clarence Larkin he's got the dates different and that's fine however you want to look at it but what you're looking at is you're looking at the book of Revelation as a prophetic book and that the seven churches are not only seven literal churches that lived in the day of John but they correspond to the entire church in each and when you start studying your church history you look at you go ha ha ha ha this is pretty amazing you see if officience even if it goes to about 150 to 170 AD I have here that goes out about 285 but if you go by the math you know you don't always go by math you go about what happened in history but in the early church there were many dogmatic Christians who were willing to die for what they believed in and that took place their story after story in the early church of Rome murdering Christians in the Coliseum killing them but yet as you see within the home first hundred to about 150 170 years of the early church they slowly became apostate they left their first love as it says in a formulation chapter 2 about the Church of Ephesus but 150 to about 313 ad we have this Smyrna and Smyrna what was it well there there were Christians that were persecuted and we're put in jail go back to Revelation with if you will and what's amazing to me is how when you study church history you look at this and what happened in history and you look at this as seven different periods within the church age and the things that were reading at we took place in church history exactly like it says in the book of Revelation and you figure that out how could anyone write a book 2,000 years before it took place and then write to you the entire history of what takes place over the next 2,000 years unless it was God that wrote the Bible so you go to Smyrna in verse 10 of chapter 2 fear none of these things which thou shalt suffer because the devil shall cast some of you in prison that you may be tried and ye shall have tribulation ten days and in that time period of history it's so amazing there was a Roman dictator I want to say it was Diocletian I'd have to look that up again but he he did such persecution against Christians in the early time period of the church they killed Christians but there was one period to this day history says it was a ten long day period of persecution against Christians so for ten days after the Bible's passed this Roman Empire says for the next two days I want as much persecution against Christians as possible and that just happened to take place during the period that would have lined up with summer now again these baits aren't always right different people put them in different ways but there was much horrible horrible persecution during that time and there were some people that were killed next one and like I said I'll go ahead and put up here what some people put for the dates you know some people will divide it up mathematically other people put the dates differently they say Ephesus only goes to about 150 others say that Sardis goes to about 313 others say that the pergamus is to the year 500 others say that the year 1000 would be about when Sardis starts others say 1500 I've even seen some to say 1517 because that's when the Reformation started at least around that time with the Nighy that was it in the ninety nine thesis or 90 thesis of Martin Luther some people say Laodicea starts in 1881 when Westcott and Hort came out with their own new Greek text their perverted Greek New Testament and that's not holding faithful the Word of God which and so that starts that so people have different dates but anyway you look at it they divide up the church age into seven distinct different periods of time and then look at what happened in church history and they go WOW everything that it's saying the book of Revelation appears to line up there was a period of time in which there was a Roman dictator and he for ten days persecuted the church and God tells these people now you guys are going to be persecuted for 10 days and you go wow oh wow Pergamus now what does the Bible say about Pergamus well there's some murders there's some people that are killed for their faith but look at chapter 2 around there verse 13 it says where Satan's seat is in 325 AD the Roman Catholic Church started you need to study history because historically a man named Constantine got together and Constantine says you know I'd really like to join the church in the state because these Christians man the more we kill them the more they pop up if we just get Rome and mix it with the Christianity while we'd be fine and he meant a constant team got together and got all these people and they did the council of nicea in 325 AD that's the official start of the Roman Catholic Church what does the Roman Catholic Church the church that sits in Rome where's the seat of the sake of Satan Rome you look at the book of Revelation chapter 17 talks about somebody a wicked somebody who rides a beast and she sits on a city of seven hills you know what Rome has always been called in ancient times in ancient times from one hundred two hundred three hundred four hundred years before John 100 200 and 400 years after john rome was always called the city of seven hills you go to rome that you can look there's the seven hills they all have names and they built the vatican now I know the Vatican was built way later but the Vatican is built in Rome on a hill in which many Christians were slaughtered and their bones are buried under that hill today so could that be what God whispering to you is where Satan's seat is you see the Pope is not God if you study the Bible you look at the Pope you find out this guy is not of God he wears a hat that says macarius for you did Allah and you look at that in Roman numerals and you take all the letters out that are also numbers Roman numerals and you get 666 and you go wow wow the Antichrist wears on his head many blasphemies now that's blasphemous to have 666 and Roman numerals on your head when you wearing this little Pope's hat so what you have in history is you have the true church starting and then a false church the trencher CH has always been those that believe the truth and the true church was always persecuted by the false church and so you have this false church this state religious church being set up calling itself the Catholic Church and all throughout her church history these Catholics begin to kill these people who believed in the Bible you've heard the Spanish Inquisition I don't have time to get into all of that but you look at the about 500 to a thousand that's what they call the dark ages what are the dark ages why were there dark ages well the Roman Catholic Church took over the Roman Catholic Church says no you're not allowed to read the Bible and no one was ever allowed to read the Bible that's why it was the dark ages because the Bible is light it's the Word of God and so you look at these things if you see Sardis okay well if I tear a first Thyatira is here and there's a Jezebel spirit and a woman teacher and things like that you got to start it's like I said I don't have time to get into this completely but you go to Sardis and the Catholic Church what a Sardis mean read once well during this time period between a thousand five hundred fifteen hundred ad you see the rise of the Spanish Inquisition you see these Cardinals wearing red shirts and red clothes and they go around and they judge people and say well we're gonna kill you in Spanish Inquisition if you don't agree with us and they killed people and much blood was shed and people that were Roman Catholic we're killing other people that were Christians Christians killing Christians now I say that lightly because it's hard for me to believe a Christian can kill another person in cold blood so I don't look at many of the Catholics as Christians as saved I look at them saying we're Christian but it's not Christian to kill other people so I see that as a false church I see lost people in that church persecuting people that were truly safe by the right gospel see the Catholic Church doesn't preach the right gospel the right gospel is 1st Corinthians 15 one through four and there have always been in all of church history people that held to this gospel and what's interesting is as the church started and you look at her church history the early church called themselves Polish uns and they said we're followers of Paul they said we're wall densest and the Waldenses well densest used to go out and hide in the mountains and then who would they hide from they were hiding from the Catholics who wanted to kill them and then they'd come down from the mountains and guess what they preached first grade these 51 through 4 so all throughout church history you have the true church that's following Paul and then you have a false church that's following guess who Peter isn't it funny the Roman Catholic Church says we follow Peter and the Bible says and God revealed to Paul what's for us today so you have these two different churches throughout church history the true when this appalled Church Pauline doctrine and you have a false church that follows Peter now I don't have time to get into that but that is interesting now in this Church of Sardis look what it says about Sardis actually not how it's not Sardis let's back up quickly just the one before at that era in Thyatira look what it says here about Thyatira he says here in talking about Thyatira that I would give you the morning star verse 28 I'm in chapter 2 verse 20 I would give him the morning star now you go there to Thyatira and there was a man named John HUS and to this day in church history John HUS is referred to as the the morning star of the Reformation and a lot of things that that old John HUS preached why they call him the morning started yet if you look this thing historically you can't help but see man that almost seems to line up and so it's just amazing how church history itself as you study when did John Huss live if he lived about 1400s so he would be over here in Sardis I said Thyatira he was over here around solder and he was one of the guys that helped lead the Reformation and what was the Reformation the Reformation was this false church getting back closer to the true church now they didn't come all the way you know you had your Protestants you had the Reformation and the Reformation was many people saying you know look how the church is so corrupt there's got to be some change I mean you can't do what they're doing this is wrong so they're there telling people if you'll pay me money I'll do a mass to get your dead person out of hell no it doesn't work that way if you die without salvation you're you're in hell for good you can't get out and so there are all these false doctrines teaching them here's the cool thing here's what I wanted to get to you look at the Church of Philadelphia that's anywhere between 14 25 to 17 ten or fifteen seventeen to eighteen eighty eight you know where the Bible comes from Philadelphia is said to be the church that was the faithful Church that kept God's Word guess what God's word for us today is the King James 1611 a 1611 Bible came out in the church period of Philadelphia you know what's neat Philadelphia was the first capital of the United States of America in the 1700s they met in Philadelphia George Washington Benjamin Franklin all these people Hancock and they said look we need to we need to form our own nation we need an impendence from England which is corrupt and that was 1776 now that's why I say 1710 you know mathematically 1710 but a lot of people say allowed to see it doesn't really start until 1881 and that's when Westcott and Hort changed from the King James Bible and so that's when they stopped holding faithful the Word of God and it just so happens the KJV comes out in this period of time in which is the period of time if you look at the seven churches that God says and they're the ones that have the faithful word I deal with people all the time say King James Bible is not a good translation it's not God's Word as theirs takes his problems and I said no doesn't know it's the faithful word because it came out in the right time period in which God was speaking to the church and said you've got the right word so I think 1881 would be one letter to see it started and guess what that would mean 1776 would fit in this period of Philadelphia and guess what happened in 1776 America was founded as a nation when they declared their independence in Philadelphia literally in Pennsylvania in a city called Philadelphia they lighted King James Bible and they got together said we've we got to be free and God used the United States of America as the greatest nation on the face of the earth to go forth into all the world and cause revival and win people to the Lord and the greatest missionary movement the world has ever known outside of the Apostle Paul was in this time period of Philadelphia from about the 15 1600s to about the 18th to end of the 1800s see some people say 1900 is the beginning of Philadelphia and it's in this time period you have the greatest missionary movement in the history of the world all because of a King James Bible the book that has sold more than any book in the history of the world and will never be caught up with was the King James Bible God used that Victorian age in Victorian morals and they all came from men preaching the gospel so I look at the seven churches and I and I say well that's neat idea let's take the seven churches let's take them in let's put them on here in the 2000 year church age and let's look at them as though they were time periods and each one was a about 200-300 years each and let's see what church history looks like and you find out that each one of those lines up with something that took place in church history and at the greatest church of them all was Philadelphia and a jealous so happens by coincidence wake wink that the world came out of the Dark Ages there was a Reformation of learning all the Bible texts came out and just happened to be in England in a library just in time for a time when God said hey let's get a king and let's get an authorized version did you know the King James Bible is called the authorized version did you know the Bible says where the word of a king is there's power did you know that the King James Bible came in a time period when there was more scholar learning than any other time in history did you know they found the right texts the Greek text did you know the King James Bible is God's Word did you know God said this church is great because they kept his word are you keeping a King James Bible where you keeping God's Word well the last one is let Asiya and soleus see it shows up la bestia is the wrong church the bad shirt the church that basically full head full that heads that falls headlong into apostasy and it's the apostate church and Laodicea is the bad church is the church that turns against God and literally kicks God out and you see Philadelphia God said that's the church that God gave an open door to and the door to the whole world was opened and that's the time when there was more exploration than any other time in history David Livingstone went into Africa to places that no white man had ever been before he took the gospel the open door was Philadelphia I'll draw a door up here I'm not good at drawing doors but Philadelphia was the open door now you look at this door and it's there's the doorknob that door was open what is glad to see a do we read in the Bible about Leia to see it they have a closed door you see the door is open when it comes to matter it is this picture that was an open door and so you I'll put black behind it so you can't see in there you know like though the door is open now what did Lana see you do while they come along and they say shut that door don't let anybody in except us and for sure don't let Jesus in so Jesus is on the outside going hey I'd sure like to get in there and it's like there's a lock and key Laodicea apostate they've turned away from Jesus they kicked Jesus out and the church today I say that loosely it includes a lot of people that claim to be Christians that aren't even safe but the church today all claims to be followers of Jesus but they kicked Jesus out they've got the wrong Bible they've got the wrong gospel they've got the wrong doctrine they're doing everything in their own name and they go around and brag look how rich we are look how rich we are and God having going I don't see it to me someone who's rich is someone that has spiritual joy and happiness and peace because they're saved you guys aren't even saved knock knock knock let me they've kicked God out so so much more than I can say there I want to finish here the last one the last thing about these seven churches is this one of these were seven churches during the tribulation now this would make sense this would make a lot of sense now I'm not saying that it's one of these interpretations I'm saying that this could be all three and that's what I see when I see the seven churches I see literally John writing the seven churches today and God rebuking them I also see God writing the book of Revelation for all to read for the next 2,000 years and as you read that and you look at it you go wow it's like God knew what was gonna happen in the next two thousand years and he did but I also looked at the book of Revelation and I say those seven churches could very well be seven churches during the tribulation that means after the rapture there could be people that come to Jesus in this time of the tribulation and God is writing to them as well he said that's far-fetched that's for fish why would you say that okay go to Revelation chapter one Revelation chapter 1 verse 1 through 4 the revelation of Jesus Christ which God given to him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John who bare record of the word of God of the testimony of Jesus cry of all things that he saw blessed is he that readeth and they hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein though the time is at hand now verse 4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia now what you remember him saying that the seven churches in Asia he doesn't just say it once he says it twice notice what he says here verse four to the seven churches which are in Asia grace be unto you and peace from him which is and was which is to come and from the seven spirits which are before his throne now go down there to verse nine in verse nine he says I John who also am your brother and companion in tribulation what and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ was in the isle that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ now look at verse 10 and 11 I was in the spirit on the Lord's Day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet saying verse 11 I am Alpha and Omega the first in the last and what thou seest write in a book and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia and he says now these are the names of the churches now why is this important I've taught and I continue to preach because this is Bible that in the church age we are under Paul's ministry Romans 1113 tells us Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles so Paul is our apostle and God made some revelations under Paul just as he did two gentlemen but God revealed in Nepal seven mysteries and it's the seven mysteries that are some of the best things in the Bible for doctrine for the church age today so God chose Paul and Paul is to be the apostle of the church age and it's his books that we find the doctrine of the church now Paul he started a church it's called the Church of Ephesus but whenever Paul ended his ministry look what it says in 2nd Timothy chapter 1 the end of Paul's ministry Paul tells us something and I saw this probably two years ago and I said wow how come I never saw this before second Timothy chapter 1 verse 11 says 2nd Timothy 1:11 look at what Paul says the end of his life this is what have been the last book that Paul would have written second Timothy before he was killed by the Romans and it says here where - I'm appointed a preacher and an apostle and teacher of the Gentiles for the which cause I suffer these things nevertheless I'm not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day doesn't sound like you said I have to overcome he says I know I'm safe and God's gonna keep that and not bring it up verse 13 hold fast the form of sound words worst I've heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus that good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us now verse 15 this thou knowest that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me of whom were fine jealous and Hermione's Paul says all of the people in Asia turn away from Paul well they turned away from Paul what did they turn to probably false doctrine probably things that weren't true so it's easy to see that when John is writing to these seven churches in his day he's writing the churches that have turned away from the true doctrine of Paul no wonder God is saying repent repent repent that makes sense except for one that stuck with it and that was Philadelphia they stuck with what was right they stuck with the doctrine of Paul but Paul says that his day there were some people that turned against him now that's the case then these seven churches in Asia they would not be followers of Paul except maybe Philadelphia so that makes sense what God was telling them they repent so there's three interpretations of the churches in the book of Revelation they could be seven churches in John's day and if so they turned against Paul so God's rebuking them repent come back seven periods of time during the church age that clearly works out as a prophecy but I think these seven churches can also apply to the tribulation now I'm not going to go back and read chapter two in chapter three because I don't have time anymore but I've read them earlier and remember how many times when I read revelation God says and he that overcometh and he overcome even in Jerseyan he that does that see that and it sounds like somebody who's living in the Tribulation Period and I read you hear what John said I am your fellow companion in the tribulation so the book of Revelation the seven churches have a past prophecy or a past application to seven churches in the day of John they have a present application they presently apply to the age in which we are in the dispensation of the church and they're laid out as the seven churches in that 2,000 year period and they also could literally be a future seven churches in the tribulation period and what they go through in the tribulation I think that that makes sense that makes sense so they're not Paul we know Paul says you can't lose your salvation but it sure sounds like you could use your salvation in the book of Revelation so that's why it's so important that you understand that you read I appreciate you watching this I hope it's been a blessing to you I hope this explains more about the seven churches thank you for watching we'll see you next time
