That last verse says, by others for their virtue fair, let rich rewards be sought. And a lot of people think that by their righteous deeds that they shall somehow gain the favor of God. But our hope is in that which he says in the last line, give me my God to freely share what thou hast freely bought. We're not looking for anything that we can gain of ourselves or somehow cause the Lord to smile upon us. But all of our hope is wrapped up in Christ and what he did. And we have no hope beyond that. And we reject all hope beyond that.

And that was, of course, error of the Israelites, as Brother Al Ably pointed out from the beginning, it was idolatry. And that was a rejection of that which the Lord, the sufficiency of the Lord. They thought they had something that was better, that they could do something. And that by their actions, they could gain whatever it was they sought.

Men today seek out religion for that reason, what they can get out of it. People say, well, you know, we're getting a lot out of this or we don't get anything out of it. When you go together with God's people and They go off time looking for the wrong thing.

If you come looking for something other than Christ, I hope you go away empty. Because there's nothing worth having that's beyond that. And so if you come seeking happiness, happiness is not a bad thing. But I'd rather have Christ than happiness. Even though Christ is that which makes us happy. You know, the world can't give you happiness. It holds out that it can. I mean, you know, there's a million things that the world has to offer. Something for everybody. But all of it turns out to be nothing. Christ is everything. And so we're looking still in the book of Revelation, the Revelation, only one.

Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus, we're gonna look again at Ephesus and perhaps might look at Smyrna, which is the next church mentioned, but we'll read this again. Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write these things, saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand. and who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. And the seven golden candlesticks are the churches, as he said, and the stars are the messengers, or the angels, of those churches.

He says, I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst bear them which are evil. And thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars, and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast 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 will 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.

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, as we have pointed out, these messages are to the churches. That is, they are to the churches as a whole, not to each individual church, although each individual church is mentioned, and perhaps these are characteristics, I believe, that exist in all churches to some extent.

When we read these things, we need to read them all together and look at them, and you can see perhaps yourself in all of these. because the Spirit of God is teaching us one thing, and that is our necessity to follow Christ. And all things else, as I've said, are just fluff. I mean, it's there. but it's not essential. It's not the thing that's the one thing.

And of course, Brother Al speaking here this morning about the rending of the kingdom and how the Lord, he would magnify and manifest the errors of Israel in the splitting of this kingdom even as he manifests his glory and the weakness of men in the messages that he gives to these churches.

One thing that I was thinking about as we looked at the splitting of the kingdom and Rehoboam having the two tribes and being in what we call the southern kingdom which was Judah where Jerusalem was and which, of course, Rehoboam was the natural descendant of Solomon. Jeroboam was not.

Christ, in his natural lineage, comes from the house of David. And so, We look at the tribe of Judah as being that one which is typical of Christ, because he is the lion of the tribe of Judah. These other nations of Israel, the other 10 tribes, even including, I might add, the Levites. Now keep in mind that the Levites were the priestly class, but they had no power. Christ had the power. He was the lion of the tribe of Judah. The Pharisees, they hated Christ. They were the Levites. I mean, they were the priestly class. They were those that were the leaders in Israel, but yet, they rejected him. And why did they reject him? They rejected him because they wanted power.

And of course, we see in all of these splittings of this nation, of the nation of Israel and to the two kingdoms, was specifically about power. Rehoboam wanted the power. He didn't have sense enough, humanly speaking, to maintain it. Jeroboam wanted power. He was glad things turned out like they did so he could have power. And so he, as the Pharisees were willing to destroy Christ because they wanted power. They didn't want him being this one to lead the nation of Israel. They wanted to lead it, but they wanted to lead it their way.

And so just like Jeroboam set up those idols in order to maintain a semblance of religiosity, those idols, and to make it easy for the people, they put Christ out of the way. And as Jeroboam worshiped those idols and had the people, so did the Pharisees, would have the people in their mind to worship an idol, which was their religion. Now, it was a glorious religion to be sure, but it was a religion nonetheless.

And the Lord would rend that kingdom in two because he would show that his kingdom is one, and he's the king of it. And he won't share that with anybody. And there won't be any idols, and there won't be any worship. in his kingdom other than him. That's why the scripture says that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess to him because he is going to manifest his glory in the earth among men.

And so he said, I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience and how thou canst not bear them which are evil and hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not. Now this was among the early believers, that was a thing that men clamored to be, was an apostle. We still have them today. In fact, you even have some that go around and call themselves apostles, apostles so and so. And that somehow confers on them some great rank or whatever. God alone is the one that can call an apostle and bestow upon him a rank. He did bestow a rank of apostle.

I believe there's 12 apostles in the scripture. There's not 13, there's not 50, there's 12. He chose 11 of them while he was on this earth. Now he chose 12, but he said one of them was a devil. That was not, Judas was not essentially an apostle. But he called one out of due time, and his name was Paul. And those 12 men, as the scripture speaks about the 12 apostles, those 12 men are all the apostles that there are.

But men come along and they claim to have these powers that the apostles had. The apostles had powers that we, I personally believe they had powers that we don't possess today because we don't need those powers that they had because we have something that they did not have. And that's this Bible in its completion, the word of God, even the revelation of Jesus Christ, that we might know him. And so that work of the apostles is in that sense passed by and is not to be repeated because he set them as where he would have them to be.

And so there, as men come along, saying to something that they are not. And any man that comes saying, I've got the inside track, I can tell you everything there is to know, you need to listen to me, don't listen to anybody else. Now, obviously, any man that comes preaching the word of God by the power of the spirit of God, he believes what he's saying is true.

And I believe what I'm telling you is the truth. But I'm not foolish enough to think that I know all the truth. I know the one who is the truth, but he has not shown to me all things. And I can't tell you everything that you might need to know. Well, I can actually tell you everything you need to know. I can't tell it to you in detail. There may be some things that the Lord would teach you that I can't tell you. But you see, the Lord will teach his people. and he'll teach them in a way that only he can do it.

He'll bring people into your life and he will use whatever means he's pleased to bring you to where he wants you to be. There's things that will happen in your life from this point forward that you never had any idea about that the Lord will use for your benefit, to bring you to himself in a greater knowledge and understanding of him, if you belong to him.

That's why the Hebrews, we read in the Hebrews, be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware. You've entertained messengers. You need to be mindful of things that people come telling you. Now that doesn't mean you believe everything that somebody says, but the Lord sends people. to you with the Word of God.

Oh, that He might give us discerning spirits and minds to be listening. Don't just say, well, I've got it all figured out. I'm just going to Listen to this, no, listen to the Lord. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he's near. I mean, you know, let your mind go after him with all that's within you. Don't be satisfied with what you presently know.

Now, of course, the basic truth we know, and we know that it's Christ. If somebody comes speaking to you anything other than Jesus Christ and him crucified, run from them. But when they come seeking only the glory of Christ, listen, listen. May the Lord give us a mind to do it.

But to recognize that there are liars in the world. And the liars in the world are those that come telling you something else. I don't care how sweet it sounds. If it is something other than Jesus Christ and Him crucified, if it's something that causes you to start thinking about what you're doing rather than what He's done, then run from it. Because our mind and our heart, as He says here, needs to be captured in that one place, that first love. For our first love is Christ. And I was born and had patience for my name's sake, have labored and has not fainted. There is a labor among the children of God. We're laboring.

Isaac Watts wrote a hymn, he said, in it, am I a soldier of the cross, a follower of the lamb? He said, must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease while others fought to win the prize and sail through bloody seas? It's not necessarily an easy thing to follow the Lord. It's not always roses. Sometimes it's hard work. Sometimes it's a labor. It's a sacrifice. Now, you know, what happens is often men get the thinking, oh, I'm making the sacrifice, you know, and I'm doing all these things for the Lord.

No, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about what the Lord calls you to do. Do it with all your might. Don't be slack. If the Lord's called you, do it with fervor and excitement and gladness, as only the Lord can cause us to do. has born, has patience for my name's sake. See, that's why we're seeking the Lord. We're not seeking the Lord.

You know, I remember when I was young, there was a movie. that in the movie, the name of the movie was Stars in My Crown. I don't know if any of you has ever seen it or not, but there used to be an old song, and this comes from that song. Will there be any stars, any stars in my crown, when at evening the sun goeth down? When I stand with the blessed in the mansion of rest, will there be any stars in my crown? And the idea of the stars in the crown was things that people did to earn these stars. You know, like when we was kids in grade school, and if you did something good, you read a book or whatever, you got to go put a little star on the chart. And that's a good thing. I mean, that's a good motivational tool for a child.

But brethren, there's no such thing as that in the kingdom of God. Because when we have done everything that the Lord has told us to do, he said, you're still unprofitable servants. There's no stars in the crown that's put there by us. All of those things that are purchased, that we enjoy, are purchased for us by Christ.

He purchased, in fact, in that song, I think it was the one we just sang, he talks about how he purchased our crowns. There is a crown that awaits the children of God. Paul speaks about it. He said, there's laid up for me a crown. We have a crown, brother. We are kings and priests before God. And we've been made kings and priests by Jesus Christ. He has purchased for us a crown. But we won't ever wear it. We don't want to wear it. Because we want to put that crown out at his feet.

Because he's the one worthy to be praised. And so, he says, you've labored and you have not fainted, you've not become weary, you've persevered. But he said, nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Now we need to understand the Lord does not hold things against his people. That's not what he's speaking about here. He's not saying I'm gonna hold this against you.

He says, I have somewhat against you, but I thought of that in the same way in which when he came to his disciples in the garden, and he said, I want you to stay right here, and I want you to pray with me. And I'm gonna go yonder. And he came back, and he found them asleep. And he said, get up, pray. And he came back three times. And on the third time, he told them to sleep on them. He had somewhat against them, did he not? He wasn't mad at them. He wasn't angry with them. He was not fixing to cast them off. He understood what they were. And he brought them to that place Just like he put Peter outside that boat to walk on the water, he put him there for this reason, to show them that they could not walk in the flesh.

You can pray, but you can't pray long, because the flesh is weak. I remember one time years ago when I was in, grew up in the church down the road there, and they were gonna have a night of prayer. And a whole night was gonna pray. And so they set up, and they had people come in, you know, every hour or so, and that was their turn to pray, and they was gonna keep up this prayer vigil all night. And some of us said, well, man, we gonna just pray all night.

We're gonna just stay here, man. We're, you know, strong in the faith. We can do it. And of course, we were just like those disciples, you know. The spirit was weak, but the flesh was weak. Brethren, we are weak creatures. Now, do we say that to beat one another down? No. We say that so we know what we are. See, you need to know what you are. Because until a man knows what he is, he can't properly give Christ praise. Because you see, the Lord never had his love did not diminish one iota for his disciples. He loved them just as much when he came and found them sleeping the third time as he did when he called them. It didn't diminish.

He said, I have someone against thee. You've not been what you should be. And when we tell one another that, we're not beating one another up. We're just telling you like it is. It's the way it is. We're weak creatures. We need the Lord. We have left our first love. Which one of us could not say that that's true? I mean, does our heart burn as brightly and as fervently for the Lord every day? Do we not find ourselves often caught up in the cares of the world and we think, oh, wait a minute. You know, we hadn't sought the Lord as we ought.

Remember, he said, therefore, from whence thou art fallen. Do you think maybe that those disciples, Peter, James, and John, who were with him there and he told them to pray, you think that from time to time when they were praying, they didn't remember that place? They didn't remember his words? As he said, could you not pray with me?

Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works. That is, do that thing which the Lord has called you to do. For else I will come unto thee quickly, and remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent.

So, you know, as you look at these churches, and we talked about that, None of them that I know of are still in existence today, at least not in an unbroken train from this. Now, of course, if you listen to certain groups that claim to have these apostolic succession right on back to the beginning, they claim that all of this, the Lord just came right on.

But the fact of the matter is that these churches cease to be. Nobody was there, why? Because the flesh is weak. Because they could not maintain that. And how, we need to understand, I mean, unless the Lord build a house, they're laboring in vain to build it.

Everything that we say and do, it's not gonna stand because of us. If anything of the faith that he has given us, if any of that lasts beyond our life on this earth, it'll be because he caused it to do so. It won't be because we built a monument unto the Lord or we did something that people will remember, oh yeah, we remember old brother so and so. No, we remember what Christ did. because that's all that matters.

But this thou hast, thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Now that's mentioned twice in the book of the Revelation, the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, the deeds, and no one is really sure what that was. And so to say what it is is speculation. But whatever it is, whatever it was, it was something that was permeating those churches at that time. And the Lord said, I hate this doctrine. I believe it was something to do with the flesh, with the way of the flesh, with men going over to the flesh.

And then he says this, what he says to all the churches. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Listen. You see what he said? The Spirit saith to the churches. He didn't say, hear what the Spirit saith to the church. He didn't say, okay, hear you at Ephesus, hear what the Spirit saith to the church at Ephesus. Now they needed to hear it. But he said, listen to what the Lord saith to the churches.

Because the same message that comes to one of the children of God comes to all of us because we're all basically the same by nature. In the flesh, there's not a lot of difference in people. People like to think, well, I'm better than so and so, and this, that, and the other, but when it all boils down to it, we're all cut from the same cloth. We all came from Adam. We got Adam's blood flowing through our veins, and just as surely as Adam was a sinner before Almighty God, so are we. And apart from the grace of God, we'll be no different.

He said, to him that overcometh, Well, I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. To him that overcometh, how do we overcome? They overcame by the blood of the Lamb. So that's the only way men can overcome. You're never gonna overcome. You know, I've heard men preach and teach, oh, you know, you need to strive and all of these things against this and the other, and then you'll overcome it. You'll never overcome one thing in your life.

Now Christ may take it away from you, but it won't be because you overcame it. It'll be because he overcame it in you. It'll be his work, his power. And he said here in the midst of the paradise of God, remember, there's a very famous time when the Lord mentioned the paradise. He said to the thief on the cross this day, you will be with me in paradise. What did the thief do? What did he overcome? What religious deed did he perform? What was it that you could look at and say, man, I want to be like the thief?

Not a thing in the world, in this world. But oh, what a glorious thing to be united together with that thief in the paradise of God. And paradise, you know, it's not an empty room. When he's speaking about being in paradise, some people try to make a big deal out of there being like a, like a, I'm trying to think of the term, an intermediate state in which God's people go. You know, you die, and then you go and you sit in this little room here waiting till the day the Lord comes. That's not how it is.

I mean, the Lord said to him, today you're gonna be with me in paradise. And that's the place all of those that overcome by the blood of the Lamb are gonna be. Now, I don't understand how all these things happen, but I believe this to be true. that as Paul said, he would rather be absent from the body and present with the Lord. Because being absent from the body, when God's people are absent from the body, they are present with the Lord.

They're not present with the Lord waiting for something else to happen. They're with the Lord. You know, this is not a timeline. People get hung up on that. They think, well, you know, this has got to happen. They go up there, and then they're going to sail around and wait, look over the banisters of heaven and all these things. And then one day, then the Lord's going to come back, and then everything, the intermediate state will be over, and we'll go to be with the Lord. No, dear brethren, when God's people pass from this life, if they belong to Him, they will pass into the presence of Jesus Christ.

Just as he said to that thief today, the only thing he knew was time. He didn't know anything about eternity. He didn't say anything to him about eternity, did he? He didn't even know what the kingdom of God was. He couldn't have told you one thing about the kingdom of God, but he knew the one that was the king. And see, when you know the one that's the king, it don't matter about the kingdom. You don't care about the kingdom, you don't care about all the details and all of those things, because the king's enough.

He wanted to be with the king. He said, Lord, when you come into your kingdom, remember me. And he did, and he will. Remember all of those for whom He came into this world to suffer. And He calls out of darkness and into the light. What a glorious King He is. Somebody have a question or a comment.

You know, I feel every time I look at this book, I feel very inadequate to even begin to scratch the surface of these things. But may the Lord just give us an understanding that if we can just, by His grace, see Christ in every word of this, then we will have seen what it is. Whether we understand all these types and foreshadows and figures and things that I can't explain like Ezekiel when he saw a wheel within a wheel, what in the world is that?

I mean, he didn't know. He couldn't tell you. You could ask him later on, what in the world do you see? He says, I don't know. But he says, I know one thing, it was glorious. Because he saw the king in his beauty. Paul said he did. And he heard things that was unlawful to utter. But see, those things are that to which the sons of God are called by his grace. Someone else.