Address—Nick Simon
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Let's sing 330 again.
We sang it yesterday.
Watts raised the wondrous thought. Or who did it suggest that we the Church to glory, Broad should be, should with the sun be blessed?
Dial 10-4 0, 10-4, 10-4 0 10-4 10-4 5 10-4 101 Dresses for the Lord. All right, you're praying harmful.
The ham is actually sort of the antithesis of what I want to speak on.
The subject, in short, is the ruin of the church.
That expression is objected to on two accounts. One, there's those that object to it on technical ground, so in principle they don't deny it.
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The other party they rejected outright as being unscriptural.
It's a burden of my own heart because I think it, as we'll see, and I don't want too long of a preamble because I have quite a bit of material I'd like Lord willing to cover. But it is really what characterizes Laodicea is a denial of the ruin of the church and not understanding it or, or the way we understand it defines how we are going to walk.
In this in Christendom, and incidentally I will use that word Christendom.
And, uh, I just wanna make it very clear that when I use that word, I include ourselves. I just wanna make that clear because it's one of those trigger words that we use. And, uh, very often the assumption is, is that we're not including ourselves. I wanna be very clear.
By Christendom, Christianity, the professing church, I include myself ourselves.
So for those that object to it on technical grounds, I'd just like to turn to Ephesians 5 and just read there a well known verse Ephesians 5 and verses beginning verse 25. Husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to himself. A glorious church.
Spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that should be holy and without blemish. And it's certainly true that the church will be presented as the bride of Christ wholly without blemish. And we saw that in our chapter that we've been going through in Revelation chapter 21. No need to turn there. But we had in the second verse, I, John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared. Now listen carefully.
Ted as the bride adorned for her husband. The picture that that creates in my mind is the picture of the the bride being ushered down through the middle of wherever it is that one gets married, a whole, a church, whatever it might be, and that that scene captures in my mind.
Is what this this verse captures the bride prepared, adorned.
For her husband.
But as I mentioned yesterday, as much as we like to keep that upright in that position for all eternity, in reality, that's not practical. We learn as husbands that our wives are not China porcelain dolls that we set on the counter to be to admire. They're, they're humans. They're, they're, they have independent thoughts. And I don't want to digress. It's just impractical.
But in eternity, things are not bound by time or distance. And so in this very same chapter, she's also referred to as the as the wife. She can exist in both capacities for all eternity. We are bound by the realities of the world in which we live, and it would be impractical, umm, uh, unreasonable to imagine that our wife is going to be forever in her wedding gown there before us.
I don't know that I was understood when I mentioned that yesterday.
But in that's the way that God will see, uh, the, the Christ will see the church for all eternity in, in the capacity of the wife, but forever as the bride as well. I get that.
And we could say that Jehovah God too, when he looked down upon this earth and looked upon Israel, he also saw Israel and in her perfection. And so we could read that in Numbers 23.
Numbers 23 And I'm going to turn to a lot of verses because I have to. I'm not good at memorization, rote learning and recalling, uh.
In Numbers 23 we know that Barack hired Balaam to curse Israel and instead he blessed Israel and he noticed the Numbers 23. In verse 21 it says he hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither has he seen perseverance in Israel. The Lord his God is with him in the shout of a king is among them, however.
To confound what God has purposed, according to his counsel.
With our responsibility.
Is.
Uh, well, let me reverse that. We cannot confound the things that God has purposed, according to His counsel, with that which corresponds to our responsibility. Yes, indeed, the Church will be presented.
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Through Christ in all her perfection, God could look down upon Israel and see perfection.
But to ignore what the Prophet spoke concerning Israel, their failures are fully detailed for our benefit in the Old Testament. Fully detailed.
And they cannot be overlooked. Israel failed in her responsibility. Let's just look at the end of Chronicles. Chronicles chapter 2.
Hi, this is chapter 2. That's not what I meant. I mean second Chronicles last chapter.
Verse 16 But they mock the messengers of God, despised his words, misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, till there was number remedy, and we could read on down. Verse 19 They burnt the House of God, breakdown the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces off with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.
Israel's history ended in a literal ruin.
A temple that was destroyed, a city that was stones and.
And ruin. When we speak of the ruin of the church, obviously we're not talking of a literal ruin in that sense, but figuratively speaking, we are.
I'd like to now to, uh, Ephesians.
Chapter 4.
Because there are those that are going to say, well, let me read a verse.
Ephesians 4 and verse four it says there is one body and one spirit even as ye are cold in one hope of your calling. Incidentally, that expression the ruin of the church if you object to it on technical grounds. If you go to PT PS website and search for a put it in quotes. So actually find the expression and not just the words.
It comes up over 200 times.
You go to Stem Publishing, for whatever reason, another, uh, repository of brethren writings that comes up over 300 times.
This recognition of what had come in the ruin of the church was fundamental, was foundational to the thinking of those brothers that left the systems of men, and they were the systems of men. And begin breaking bread and the ground of the one body alone in remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ, as a testimony to the one table.
It was, as it was, foundational to their thinking.
But if we go to Ephesians 4, it says that there is one body and one spirit, even if you call one hope of your calling. We look at Ephesians one verse 22 and says and have put all things under his feet and given him to be gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth All in all Colossians chapter one.
And there it says in verse 18, he is the head of the body, the church.
It was the beginning, the first born from the dead and so on. So you might argue and say there is one body and that is absolutely true and there's nothing that we can do to change the reality of that one body. And so the question might be asked.
It's not our responsibility.
God sees the church in her perfection. He sees the one body. It's not our responsibility to maintain the one body. And I would agree with that, but I would turn and ask, has therefore the church no responsibility? I'm not Speaking of the professing church. I'm Speaking of the true church. Does she not have responsibilities?
And has she lived up to those responsibilities?
Has she been a testimony to the one body of Christ? Has she truly owned her head? Uh, Christ in heaven, He is the head of the body and head to the body as she really owned her head.
And the answer is no, she has not. She has not lived up to that. If you don't think it's our responsibility, let's just look at a verse in First Corinthians 12.
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West Christians 12.
Says there in in verse 12, for as the body is one and hath many members, it is one. Yes it is. I agree. Also agree it's not our responsibility to maintain the one body.
Uh, it says, and the members of that one body, being many are one body. So also is Christ of the Christ, for by 1 Spirit we're all baptized into one body.
Verse 25 that there should be no schism or division in the body.
The church, to repeat, has not lived up to her responsibility. She has not been a testimony to the one body.
You could say, well, this verse was Speaking of our care for one another in the assembly. So I asked you this question now care for one another in the body is not to be schismatic, is not to be divided, but it's okay if our testimony to Christ is.
This verse also does not say that there should be no schism in the assembly.
If it did, we might be permitted perhaps to say, oh, it's just talking about division within the local assembly, but it doesn't say that.
Now the church should have been a testimony to the one body by her actions, by her practice, but in that she has failed completely. And again, I'm not talking about the professing church, I'm talking about the true church. Now we can get to the professing church because there's another view that Scripture gives us the church. I've spoken briefly and and certainly not.
Expounded on it, But the church is the body of Christ. But the church is also presented as the House of God. Incidentally, is in connection with the body of Christ. We never read of this with Israel.
Israel was never one with Jehovah, one body, never. You won't find an expression like that in the Old Testament. You will find the expression that Israel has likened as the wife. We have a parallel to that connection with the church. We also find the House of God in the Old Testament as well. But in this present dispensation it is the church, as we shall see is which is the habitation of God through the spirit.
But when we get to the House of God too, we also see.
Two different aspects to the house. One is perfect, which God is building. The other is in connection with our responsibility. And again, we will have to admit that we have failed terribly when it comes to our responsibility. But let's just quickly read Matthew 16.
And verses 16 and 17, Simon Peter Anson said Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed out thou, Simon, by Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven. But I say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Ephesians chapter 2.
Remember, first of all, I'm gonna give you the church. It's the House of God in her perfection.
In Ephesians 2, verse 20, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the buildings fitly framed together growth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in whom also ye have builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.
But there's a side of the house that's committed to man, and we have that in First Corinthians 3.
1St Corinthians 3.
Paul could say in verse 10, according to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder, have I laid the foundation?
Another buildeth their own, but let every man take heed how he builds. Thereupon no other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man built upon the foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble.
Every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire.
And the work shall, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereof, on he shall receive award. If any man's work shall be burnt, he shall suffer loss, for he himself shall be saved. Yet so as by fire. Know ye not that ye that is collectively the corporate side of things of the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. Later in this Epistle we also have the individual side, where the Spirit of God dwells in US individually. But here we.
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On the corporate side now I asked the question as that which man has added to the church, being consistent with the foundation that Christ has laid, that the apostles laid? No, absolutely not. So we can say that the Church in its present state, in this case I should perhaps say Christendom, the professing church, because the House of God embraces that which goes beyond the true Church.
So the House of God is.
In ruins, in ruins in connection with that which is being committed to man and his responsibility. Again, there is a side of it which God sees that he's building something that is in its perfection. But there is a other aspect, that which is our responsibility. And, uh, and we have that in First Timothy and in some ways this, uh, meeting.
Comes out of what I spoke on in in Saint Louis, which is the life of Timothy, but in Paul's first letter to Timothy.
He gives instruction to him in his first epistle in the third chapter, 15th verse. But if I carry long, that thou mayest know how thou orders behave thyself in the House of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar, and the ground of the truth, as the Church being the Pillar, the upholder of the truth.
No, she has not. She has not. You can see that roof and those walls crumbling because she has not upheld the truth.
By the time you get to second Timothy in the second chapter we read there, the the church has become a great house, but in a great house there are only vessels that go into silver, but also wood and of earth. And it's not so much that the water earth that the of the material here that's important. So no doubt there is a lesson to be learned in that, but some to honor and some to.
Dishonor.
Now, I just wanted to break a brief hiatus because I want to address, I trust that if you object to the expression, the ruin of the church on technical grounds, that you'll feel, I trust, a little bit more comfortable with it. It's certainly an expression that the early brethren used repeatedly, repeatedly. And as I said, it was foundational to their understanding of the condition of things that ultimately LED them to take the steps that they took.
But for the vast majority of Christ, chrysanthemum.
This thought that the church is in ruins is not only objected to on technical grounds, but is objected to on doctrinal grounds. They absolutely rejected deny it.
And uh.
And I'll give you the reason why in Matthew, and I've spoken on this before. I used to not try to repeat myself because I thought that was a sign of old age. But as I've gotten a little older, not necessarily wiser, I realized that I don't remember the things I said or when I said them. So if you think I'm hopping on something, forgive me. I know I've spoken on this, and it was perhaps even in the.
Here two years ago, though, it was on the other side of the river, but.
In Matthew 13 there is a parable of the of the leaven, and this is going to take a little detour to speak of this briefly. In Matthew 13 verse 33, it says another parable speaking unto them, The Kingdom of heaven is like unto 11 which a woman took and hid in three measures a mill, till the whole was leavened. Now quoting.
One of the writers from the Reformation, he wouldn't write in English, but this is an English translation of what he wrote. He said Levin, is that influence which so small were imparted in effect upon a large quantity of meal. Men may scoff, but God will strike them through with amazement, and astonished and astonishing display of his power. They view the leaven, they. Who are they in this case?
Those that hold reform doctrine, umm, the teaching that came out of the Reformation.
Which would account for probably 80% of Christianity. They believe that the leaven here spoken of is the gospel, and that the gospel is going to fill the world. And when it's filled the world, Christ is going to return and establish his Kingdom. And we're going to reign with Christ on this earth now, whether or not our feet touch the earth after the rapture.
Is not inconsequential or unimportant.
But the one thing we need to understand, we will never be earthed well as again, never. We will not rain on this earth as earth dwellers. But it may surprise you to learn that much of Christendom believes that we will. And I'm talking of those that have a that are genuine, that truly are saved. They believe that the leaven is the gospel and it's.
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Permanent throughout the world. The trouble with this doctrine won't #1 The first trouble with this doctrine is that it doesn't agree with what Scripture tells us. And so even the writer of this piece here.
He says, well I know that in Matthew 16 and verse 11 it says beware of 11 of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And there the word leaven is used as evil. And he says I know that in first Corinthians 5 it says.
There, umm, your glorying is not good. No, you know that 1111 is the whole lump pursed. Therefore out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump. So ye unleavened even Christ Apostle of His sacrifice for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness. The writer.
That I quoted here recognizes in these two verses that Levin is spoken of as evil, but he says, but in Matthew 13, it's not evil. It's Speaking of a small influence that will infiltrate the whole. The trouble is, is if that's the case, it's the only verse in Scripture that presents leaven in a positive light from the Old Testament where leaven was not to be.
Included in the sacrifices. Someone will probably mention this this feast of weeks, but I don't have time to digress there. Umm.
But the sacrifices did not involve leaven. They had to remove leaven from their homes at the Paw server and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Leavened Scripture from beginning to end, is a picture to us of the insidious working of evil. But not only that. In Matthew 13, where we have those seven parables beginning with the sower and the seed, we also have the wheat and the tares. The tares.
Is that a good influence or a bad influence?
It's not good, it's evil. And then we've got the, the herb that grows into a great, uh, tree, or a large shrub perhaps, and the birds of the air come in and nest in its branches of it. Again, they'll say, well, that's a picture of the gospel growing, but who are the birds of the air? Well, we don't have to guess at it because the birds of the air, the fowls, come along and ****** that seed and we're told what they are.
In Matthew 13 verse 19 says Then cometh the wicked one.
And catches them away. So my point is is to say that the leaven in the parable of the 11 in the meal is a positive influence is completely inconsistent with the parables that preceded, so we cannot doctrinally accept that teaching.
I cannot accept it on the the ground of what we read in the word of God. So the other problem with this teaching as well is how do we reconcile what we see around us with this teaching that the gospel supposedly is filling the well? There's two ways. Either we become very discouraged with what we see around us because it doesn't look like it to me that the gospel is filling the world. In fact, the Western world is more like.
A bathtub with a plug pulled out. It's draining quickly.
But the other way to reconcile with what you see around us is to adjust what we define as the gospel. So I'm sad to say, but a social gospel has replaced the true gospel. If we don't make headway with the true gospel, the gospel of the grace of God, then maybe we'll make headway with the social gospel. And that's exactly what has happened in Christendom. In fact, Charles Wesley though this was.
Many years ago, umm, I don't exactly remember when he lived, maybe 300 years ago, something like that, Charles Wesley came over to the United States as a missionary to preach to the Indians. But what did he want to preach? He wanted to civilize them.
And he suddenly realized that he had nothing to offer them. He went back home and he got saved.
If you look in our list of authors in our lower block invoke, you'll see C Westley as, uh, author of a number of our hymns. It was a proficient hymn writer, a proficient prolific hymn writer who's proficient as well, but prolific hymn writer. And we now think his hymns. But that's what happened. If you, This is why the subject is important. Some people might say to talk on this is defeatism.
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But I say it's realism. You know, if you misdiagnose the disease, you're not going to know how to treat it. We misdiagnosed what's happening in Christendom around us. We're our behavior is not going to be correct.
It's not going to be guided or right.
But I just want to spend a few brief moments going through Scripture establishing what I have said that because perhaps you're not yet convinced that the church is in ruins, but what does Scripture tell us? So again, this is going to be fairly quick.
Turn. I'm going to turn to Scriptures, beginning with Acts chapter 20. What is the pole? What is the Apostle Paul tell us there?
In verse 29 of Acts 20. For I know this, that after my departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock also of your own cells shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them?
Look at Romans. Does it speak something different? Let's see Romans 11.
Romans 11/21 For if God spare not the natural branches, take heed, lest he also spare not thee.
Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God on them which fell severity but towards the goodness. If thou continue in the goodness, otherwise thou also shall be cut off. Has the Church continued in the goodness of God is the papacy.
Umm, to continue in the goodness of God? If not the papacy, then how about Protestantism?
Ecumenicalism would try to combine the two, but they both can't be right. As the Church continued. In the goodness of God, the answer is no.
Let's keep going.
Umm, acts from Corinthians. Well, I already read to you from First Corinthians 3, we know that men have added and built this grand edifice, ruined it, ruined it with the things that he's added which are going to be ultimately tested by fire.
Umm, and I'm not. This is not a complete survey by any means. Let's go all the way to Philippians.
Philippians, Chapter 2.
Verse 21 For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ.
Let's go to the.
2nd Thessalonians. Again, I this is not a complete survey by any means.
No, I, I read something when I was in Saint Louis and I, I have it with me still, but there is a teaching that says that.
I don't know how quickly I can turn to it's one piece of paper.
It's amazing how hot it is to see things on it when you're standing up front here.
He, uh, it is. It is those that preach an order of things cannot apostasize. Only individual can do this. The true assembly never apostatizes. The Word of God never speaks of the apostasy of the church. Well, I agree with him that the true assembly never apostatizes. I also would add to what he says. And a true believer never apostatizes either, but the word apostasy. Apostasy occurs in the New Testament just twice.
In the book of Acts and there it's not in connection with the church, you can.
Researcher yourself, look it up. It's very easy to understand the context in which it's being used. It's not reli. It's not connected to the subject we're talking about. The only other place that's used is here in Second Thessalonians and it is used in connection with the professing church. And so it says here in, uh, Second Thessalonians chapter 2, verse three. Let no man deceive you by any means for that day. That is the day of the Lord shall not come except.
First there come a falling away, an apostasis, an apostasy first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. I'm afraid the professing church is going to give up all reality.
And apostasize.
Umm, Second Timothy. I already read verses from second Timothy how that the church is is was even in the apostles day and were warned against. It's going to become a great house, submitting vessels of honor and dishonor.
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Umm.
Uh, first Peter.
First Peter, chapter 4.
Verse 17. For the time has come, that judgment must begin at the House of God.
And if it first begin at us, what shall the envy of them that obey not the gospel of God? Why should judgment begin at the House of God, if?
Era if evil has not entered it.
Second Peter.
Chapter 2. But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privilege shall bring in damnable heresies.
Even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves with destruction.
John's first epistle.
Verse 18. Chapter 2. Verse 18. Little children, it is the last time that ye have heard that Antichrist shall come. Even now there are many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time they went out from us. But they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. So the Scripture speaks of Antichrist those that.
Substitute something else in the place of Christ.
Incidentally, it's a curious thing that the one of the Pope's gowns, I don't remember which one it is, all the way around the border of it is written Antichrist.
The word anti in that situation, the Roman Catholics are not foolish.
The word anti is rather like we won't use the word anti as an antechamber. So that entranceway could be called an anti chamber. It comes before the main chamber. And so in the Roman Catholic theology, the Pope is the Antichrist literally because he is seen as coming or standing as the vicar of Christ. But that in itself is exactly what an Antichrist is, one that stands in the place of Christ before man.
Jude. Jude's Epistle.
And we know what Jude's epistle is about, but verse four it speaks of.
Umm for verse four, there are certain men crept in unawares, who are 4 of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
And how long will they exist within the professing church?
Verse 9, F 14. Enoch also the 7th from Adam prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with 10,000 of his Saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of their ungodly days, which they have ungodly committed, and all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners spoken against them. They were to be expected to be among the professing Church of God, until Christ return.
We'll get to it, I trust, to a more positive side of this, umm, before we close. But when we look at the positive side of things, particularly, for example, is brought out in Second Timothy, we never read of Restoration. Never. We never read of Restoration.
Not universal, anyway. I realized that there have been revivals and we're thankful for them, but they have never been universal. The ungodly men that have come in amongst the professing within the professing church, have been admitted, will remain there until Christ's return. And now, of course, we get to the Book of Revelation, which is a subject which is dear to my heart, just because.
I find it very interesting, but Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3 presents to us an outline of the history of Christendom of which we are a plot, and it begins with the Church of Ephesus, and it would describe the Church during the Apostolic period.
And right there immediately we read that she left her first love. And I don't. And that word love in that context, if you look it up in a Greek, like on my phone, I have a Greek. It's kind of interesting because on our way to meeting, we go past the church and there's a, a billboard that they put out front as many churches doing it. So did your Bibles close to your cell phone? And I can say, yes, mine is because my cell phone has a Bible on it.
Umm, it's very handy actually. Umm Doug was the one that pointed me to it a few years back. It's invaluable for those of us that have.
Deficit, Gray matter and can't retain things. It's umm, it's helpful to say the least. But I have a Greek Bible on there and it tells you the form of the word and it will tell you that love in this verse is a noun.
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So it's not really the style of love that they had left, but their first love that they had left, which is Christ no longer.
Completely occupied their focus. And then we get to so the the emphasis. That period of church history only lasted perhaps to about 100 AD until the apostles passed from the scene.
And then, uh, we have sodas and, uh, I mean, Simona, sorry, Simona. And there we have the persecuted church. Now these first, uh, four churches follow each other consecutively in time. And Smyrna continued up until, and I have notes in my Bible that they're too small to read when I'm in a hurry. Umm, the, the reign of Constantine, the Edict of Milan, I think it was like 315 AD, something like.
That someone could correct me on that later. And what happened then? So during that, uh, 200 years, the church went through 10 periods of persecution, some unbelievably severe. That's Smyrna. And then we get to Poganos, which begins with the reign of Constantine emperor and the Edict of Milan offered protection, extended protection to Christians. Incidentally, it extended protection to all religions, the Christianity.
An extended protection to Christianity, you might think at that point the church should have flourished.
Because it has received the protection of the political powers then instead, what does it say in verse 13 of Revelation 2? I know without Wellis thyworks is not there without Wellis and where Satan see, even where Satan's seat is. There's no real strong evidence suggests that Constantine was ever a true believer. In fact, many of those early emperors that profess Christianity.
There's nothing in their lives to suggest that there are actually believers.
In fact, most of them waited to be baptized until the last minute before they died because they believed that that was what gave them entrance into heaven.
So we find in uh Pergamos, Umm Veilum and Valic reappear and what did Balaam do? He couldn't curse Israel, he had to bless them. But where he failed in that, it says in verse 14 that he cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel eating sacrifice and idols and commit fornication. Then out of the Pergamos period grew by a tire, which is the next church and it really is a picture of.
Catholicism, and I don't remember what date typically is attached to that, but for example Umm Charlemagne was crowned King of the Holy Roman Empire, though that expression was not used until some much later. But he was crowned King of the Holy Roman Empire by the Pope on Christmas Day, 800 AD. We find the political world and the religious world firmly hand in hand with the religious world.
Power to the political world. Rome ruled the world so in Thyatira. But then we get to the last three churches. We have Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea, and they we can think of. So the, the, the first four are like the trunk of the tree. You've got Ephesus and the the Apostolic Church, Smyrna, the persecuted church.
Pergamos, you've got the church with Umm Constantine and the protection of the government.
Of Rome and then out of that fire tire is like the first big branch off to the side, but the next three are really spring not so much from the SAT that flows from that branch, but out of rejection of what uh, that branch stood for. So saddest would speak of the Reformation and the Protestant church and it came into existence out of rejection of what the Church of Rome taught and saw this is not so much the.
To the Reformation, but what the Reformation ultimately sank down into. And we find there that they're told to be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die for. I've not found my works perfect before God.
Anyway, we don't really have time to go into these and then we get to Philadelphia.
Philadelphia, I have absolutely no doubt speaks to the recovery of the truth that occurred around 18 in the early part of the 18 to mid 1800s.
When the.
There were many things that were uniquely revealed to the apostle Paul, but four of them had explicitly told us that he received it by revelation there in connection in the First Corinthians 1159. Someone, if I get this wrong again, I'm welcome. Correction. I believe 1St Corinthians 11 we have in connection with the Lord's Supper. We have it in First Thessalonians 4IN connection with the rapture, you have it, I think in First Corinthians 15.
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And you have it in Ephesians 3IN connection with the one body, how that we are brought in there as umm.
Uh, I'll just read it.
Umm, the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. 1 body, no longer Israel, no longer Jew and Gentile, but in distinct contrast or distinction, I should perhaps say, from those you have the one body, the Church of God, where we've been brought in into uh.
One body.
Those four things that were uniquely given to the Apostle Paul were all abandoned by the Church at a very early stage. Given up, misunderstood.
They were all recovered, the truth of that in the the mid 1800s, those things.
I once made the comment that I didn't think the early Brethren recognized themselves as being that midnight cry. Actually, they did. You can say, well, that was proud of them. It wasn't.
Was not, but with the, the, the 10 versions in Matthew 25, five wise 5 foolish. And we read there that, uh, while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept and at midnight there was a cry. There was a recognition of the truth that God had given them. They didn't really, brethren didn't take credit for these things themselves.
So in Philadelphia, I have no doubt in my mind that it corresponds to the recovery of these truths concerning the Church, concerning the hope of the Church.
And so forth in the in the 1800s.
And it sprang out as again, as the rejection of what Protestantism had fallen into, not only what had fallen into, but Protestant, that you've got to give those early reformers a lot of credit. We have much to be thankful for. The light that they recovered. Umm, Luther and uh, Calvin, who had more, I don't want to be judgmental, but he said saw things in a clear light.
Than uh, than Luther, Zwingli, umm.
Umm, I'm not necessarily pronouncing these correctly, but those reformers, they were coming out of a, a darkness that I don't think we appreciate, but they, they also confounded Israel and the church. There are some things that they never saw clearly, the hope of the church and so forth. And, uh, as, and you can read what is written concerning sodas and it was out of that that we have Philadelphia, but I believe.
Also out of rejection of what was recovered at Philadelphia, we find laid to see him and what character, and I gotta move along here, what characterized Laodicea is in verse 17.
Because they'll say I am rich and increase with goods and of need of nothing, and knows not that there were wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. Important to understand, I think in the early brethren, I saw it this way, that our Philadelphia corresponds to a moral condition of things. Even in connection with Sadas, which fixes the Reformation. We can't say, well, it's a Dutch Reform judge. Well, it's the Lutheran it, it is the those churches.
Who identify with the teaching of the Reformation.
And with Philadelphia Legacy, we have a moral condition of things. And the moral condition of things in Laodicea is that I am rich. It is the day in which we live. There is a refusal, a rejection to accept of of the condition of the church, to acknowledge that it is indeed in ruins.
And when the so there are, it's rather interesting. And I've mentioned the story too, but I was on a road trip once with an individual that was a new employee at our company. And he asked me what church I went to and I opened up and told him some things and so on. And he says and I and he, he spoke very well.
Moral, upright person. But as he got to speaking, I suddenly realized he was a Mormon.
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And he said, it's so interesting, you know, Mormonism grew up around that time and I thought that is interesting. But not only did Mormonism, uh, come into existence in the mid 1800s, so did Jehovah's Witnesses. If there is going to be a testimony, then there is always going to be a counter testimony. And so you have Jehovah's Witnesses, you have seven day Adventists and they're not in the same category. I don't want to paint them in the same category. A little later, early 1900s we.
One thing that the early brethren, as I said, it was foundational to their understanding this idea of the ruin of the church. They and as I was and this is where we should head actually in Second Timothy there was going. They recognized that there would be no restoration that they that they could not and did not attempt to return back to the days of Pentecost.
That's that would would have been pretension. One thing that characterizes the remand in the Old Testament in the book of Hezor and Nehemiah is the lack of pretension.
They didn't pretend to be any more than what they were. In fact, when they rebuilt the temple, the old men wept at the sight of it. In fact, God tells them that he he asked them in Haggai. I'm just going to quick turn to it so I can read it to you.
It's in Haggai 2 verse three God asked the question who's left among you that saw this house in her first glory and how do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it has nothing God tells them it's nothing it's nothing We cannot pretend to be anything. In fact, you know a connection with Philadelphia we we so there are at the end of the.
So that you as I said, there was a trunk of a tree the 1St.
Four churches follow consecutively the beginning with fire tire as I mentioned first mention of the Lord's coming where it says there in umm Revelation 2IN verse 25, but that which we have already hold fast to like come the Roman Catholic Church and and I think that fire Tyre probably also takes in the East and also Orthodox as well continues on to this present day.
Sadist, that which came out of the Reformation, continues on to this present day, and will until the Lord's return.
Philadelphia, I believe that moral condition of things is available to until the Lord's coming. Laodicea, likewise, that condition of things will continue into the Lord's coming. Which one are you going to be found in? Which one are you going to be founded? It's not a question of, of, uh, of, of claiming a position. It's absolutely not a question of claiming position.
But what moral condition do you want to be found in? You can go join the Roman Catholic Church and be identified with Thyatir.
You can go join a church that grew out of the Reformation, and there are many. And in each of these, each of these churches, there are overcomers Within the Roman Catholic Church, within that system, there are true believers, true Saints of God.
Within the churches that came with the Reformation, there are true Saints of God. There are overcomers. You could go identify with them.
Glad to see you. They're also overcomers. But Christ is seen as outside the church and Laodicea outside knocking. He's not within.
He's not in the midst in Laodicea, he's outside.
So we have a choice to make.
Unfortunately or fortunately.
We have a heritage, and I spoke on this in Saint Louis. We have a heritage. What are we going to do with it? Philadelphia, as I said, was a rejection, a practical protest against the the era.
Of the Reformed churches.
To go back to them now, to go back to that condition of things is to do what I believe we find in Galatians 2, where it says in verse 18, for if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. I don't think that many of us that grew up with these truths really appreciate. We don't.
We don't until later in life when we start digging into things, really appreciate some of the the truth of these things. And so I want to be very careful and make it known publicly that I do not accuse.
Any of those that we might know that have left our number as being building in the things which they destroyed and therefore are transgressive. I think in many instances. And again, I want to be very careful not to be umm judging of things of motives that I cannot know, but I don't think many cases they understood the position.
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That I trust, we we hold.
But brightness side of things, and they've only last five minutes. There's many parallels from the Old Testament that can be drawn to the present day of Laodicea. Because laidacion is the prevailing wind, as it were, the day in which we live, and it's so easy to be caught up in it.
And to say you're so defeatist, you're you're.
Whatever, I don't wanna put words in people's mouths, but in Ezekiel's day, Chapter 9, I'm gonna have to move very swiftly here. Chapter 9, verse four says the Lord said unto me, so this is a day which corresponded. I believe you can find parallels with the present day in which we live. The Lord said unto him, go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem has set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that are down the midstream.
You know, it's not being defeated to be a realist, in fact.
You don't, as it says in the Gospels, you don't go out to battle with first counting the cost. We want to know how the land lay. We should understand how the land lays, and it should cause us to weep. It should cause us to mourn. The the counter of this is Malachi, which also, I believe, has many parallels to the present day in which we live.
And the third chapter in the third chapter of Malachi in verse 14, it says.
You have said it is vain to serve God, and what prophet is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? That is the prevailing teaching.
Of the day in which we live. What profit is it to be mournful about these things?
What profit is be mournful and please understand that I'm less It's not my desire to criticize individuals. So the individual walk. I'm talking about systems.
You know, a young brother, I spoke recently, now Sunday school meeting and I, I spoke on the Lord's Day when my wife and I had an opportunity to go back to England for our 30th wedding anniversary and went back and I visited Bellum, uh, Blenheim Palace, and I bought a calendar there. And when I got home and hung it on my wall, I got terribly confused. And then I realized it began on Monday and I took it to Sunday school and asked the kids what was wrong with my calendar.
And, uh, anyway, I, I used as an opportunity to speak about the Lord's day and afterwards, uh, younger brother came to me and said that was really good. You know, if you're gonna be preachy, you did it right.
I thought, well, that's that's I guess a backhanded compliment. I didn't intend to be preachy. And that's why I bring up here, I don't intend to be preachy.
I want us to understand some of the fundamental truths that were recovered 200 years ago that led them to take the steps they did, because if we don't understand them, we won't understand the distinctions between things.
So I'm down to now 2 minutes and you're saying you haven't seen anything positive yet?
So Josh, you're 24 verse six and of Joshua's day, it reminds me again of the day in which we live. So there be therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the Lord of Moses. Be very courageous. It takes courage to walk in this present day. It takes courage to take a stand and not just fall in with the flow of things with the prevailing wind.
And end of Joshua flows into the Book of Judges.
And you find in fact there's an overlap you find in Judges chapter 2, verse 7, the people serve the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who has seen all the great works of the Lord that he did for Israel. And Joshua the son of Nan, the servant of the Lord, died being 110 years old, and they buried him. Verse 10 And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers, and there rose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the.
She had done for Israel, chapter 3, verse six, and they took their daughters to be their wives and gave their daughters to their sons and serve their gods. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord begat the Lord, dear God and surveillance and the Groves. You know, I was not privileged to be raised in the assembly. I did not have the benefit of going to conferences to have other fellowship with other young people. I have been in the United States now for 34 years and it wasn't long.
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Came here that I started going to meeting in Oakland. The connection was created an interesting way, which I won't go into, but in those roughly 34 years that I've been attending meetings and conferences, I have seen a generation pass away.
And a new generation is arising and I for myself, feel my very much like I'm in the time of the judges. And I have to say for myself that each of the judges were very flawed individuals. And I have to confess that I am a very flawed individual.
But this is a word to each of you.
Be very courageous.
We need you. We need you to go on.
You know, Timothy, that Paul's second letter, Timothy is full of decline. Each chapter I read something from them in Saint Louis. Each chapter mentions the decline, but you never find despair there. In fact, Paul says to Timothy, what's your problem? Rekindle that gift, stir it up. You know, Paul says in the first chapter of 2nd.
Timothy and I'll wrap it up here. I do see where the clock is at, he says. Umm.
Uh, verse 15 this thou knowest that all they which in Asia be turned away from me of humor. Philemus and homogeneous Asia would include Ephesus, the church that received the highest truth. It would include colossi.
It would, umm, it included. I had to see it. But what do we find at the end of Second Timothy?
First of all, it says in verse 10, For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved his present world. You notice that in Judges they married the women of the land, and then they started worshipping their gods. To the degree we were taken up with this world, we will worship this world's idols.
But you notice, if I could put my finger on it first. 12 Tetricus have I sent to Ephesus. Ephesus gave up on the apostle. The apostle never. Asia gave up on the apostle. The apostle never gave up on Asia. Let's just close with prayer.