May it please God to bless us
together this evening as we meditate in his word. Let's turn to the
book of the Revelation and the second chapter, and we'll speak
tonight on the message that was given to the church at Smyrna,
which commences at verse eight, down to verse 11. So we'll read
from verse eight to verse 11 in the second chapter of the
Revelation. And unto the angel of the church
in Smyrna write, these things saith the first and the last,
which was dead and is alive. I know thy works and 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. Fear none of these things, which
thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast
some of you into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall
have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death,
and I will give thee a crown of life. He that hath an ear
to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches,
He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. We're very thankful for the message
that God gave to the Apostle John when he was an old man on
the Isle of Patmos. And he tells us, he said, I was
in the spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice
as of a trumpet saying, I'm Alpha and Omega, the first and the
last. And what they'll see is write
in a book and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia. And then he lists those seven
churches. And we've read here one of those messages which were
sent to the church at Smyrna. And just to therefore make the
point that Although this is just one letter to Smyrna, those seven
letters were to be read to all the churches. And therefore it's
good to realise tonight that as we read just this one short
part about this church at Smyrna, the rest of the messages to the
churches in the second and third chapters of Revelation are also
applicable to each one. And we should not therefore try
and separate them and put them in little compartments when they
are really one whole message to the churches which existed
in that day. Well sadly of course the church
at Smyrna as such does not exist now, whether there are any Christians
in that area it's not now called Smyrna. It was called Smyrna
until about 1930s and not so long ago and of course we know
now that it's a part of the Turkish Empire and it is overrun by Islam
and so no doubt any Christians in that country in that part
will find it and have found it very difficult. Well of course
the Church of God have really always found it difficult. We
should never think that well we're okay we live in a a very
pleasant country, which we do by comparison. And therefore
our time of worship and coming together is really very simple
and we don't have any fear of any people firing at us and taking
us as prisoners. We have a great benefit and you
know we don't really appreciate the wonderful favour which is
ours today. It is freedom of worship. We know that there are all efforts
still continuing to shut down religion, to shut it out of schools
and to shut it out of places of public being, but we're thankful
to date those efforts have not been successful and still today
we enjoy freedom and we should appreciate it and all of us should
be thankful for it and we don't know how long these benefits
and privileges will be extended to us. As a country, we don't
deserve it. I'm sure we're very aware of
that. We've walked contrary to God, we've turned our back upon
God, and we've disobeyed the law of God, and we deserve to
be cut off. We deserve to have no freedom
in religion. But God is gracious, and God
is very merciful, and God is exceedingly compassionate to
such an unworthy nation. But nevertheless, we are privileged
still and we have the word of God to read and we can still
freely read it and distribute it and we're grateful for this
great privilege. Well, here we have this account
to this letter which was to be written unto the angel of the
church in Smyrna, right. And there was a message written,
and as we come down to the last point really in this message,
the word is, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit
saith unto the churches. Now, you and I today, we all
have a natural ear. None of us are deaf, some of
us might be a bit hard of hearing, but none of us are deaf, and
that's a great blessing. and we can therefore hear with
our natural ear. But the great issue really is
that you and I hear with a spiritual ear. That means that we understand
the spiritual meaning contained in the word of God. You see,
we have the Bible, which is a wonderful history, and we're very thankful
for it, but we should know that it really contains a wonderful
book of spiritual instruction. And we have a very simple phrase
in the Bible, and it's this. It speaks about a deep couching
beneath. What that means is that there's
a surface, we can all look at the surface, we can all read
the surface, we can all understand the surface, because it complies
with our natural understanding. But underneath that surface,
there is a very deep and very wonderful and very blessed spiritual
message to the Church of God. And therefore, it's wonderful
for us tonight, if we have spiritual ears, to hear what the Spirit
saith unto the churches. And indeed, what the Spirit saith
unto us tonight. We should not think that we're
here just by chance. We shouldn't think we're here
because we fancied coming tonight. It should be that we should realize
we're here under the divine direction of almighty God. And it is a
blessed and wonderful privilege to be able to hear and to read
the truth of God. And so may we not come here tonight
and as it were, put our hands over our ears so that we don't
hear what is being spoken But may our ears be opened to hear
the word of God. And listen to this great truth,
he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto
the churches. Now be sure of this, that which
the Spirit saith is good for us. In the Bible there are no
wasted words. Sometimes you might think there
are. Sometimes you might think there's repetition well there
is repetition in some places up to a certain extent but it's
very clear and obvious why such words were repeated at such and
such a time and so we have a great volume before us which is the
word of god and it's that which the spirit speaks to us and therefore
tonight may we have come here tonight wanting to hear what
God will speak to us. Well, tonight, he's going to
speak to us in the words that were spoken to this church at
Smyrna. And of course, in those days,
Smyrna was a very prosperous town, naturally prosperous, and
also benefited from having a spiritual church there. But although it
was naturally prosperous, there were difficulties, there were
hard times, It wasn't easy being a Christian in Smyrna in those
days. And it's the same today. It's
not easy being a Christian, even in England as we are at the moment,
if we are a true Christian. It's all right if we are a pseudo-Christian. It's all right if we're a hypocritical
Christian, and these words speak about that. But if we are a true
Christian, then we shall understand what the Spirit saith to the
church here at Sardis. And so we have an authority to
begin with, these things saith the first and the last, which
was dead and is alive. Well I hope we don't need too
much education to understand that the person being spoken
of is the Lord Jesus Christ. Always try and find Jesus Christ
when you read the Bible. Always look for it. Never just
read it again on the surface. Realize what there is underneath. And so here we have this statement. The words of Jesus speaking,
these things saith the first and the last, which was dead
and is alive. And the words which are spoken
are these, I know thy works and tribulation and poverty, bracket,
but thou art rich. So it's quite clear that God
knew what the Christians were doing in Smyrna and the Lord
God knows today what you and I are doing in our town here
and perhaps in the other villages or towns we may live in. The
truth is the Lord knows our works. He knows whether they are good
works and he knows whether they are bad works. He knows whether
they are works in accordance with Bible or whether they are
works in accordance with the devil's plan. You see there are
the two sides and we must recognize that as we are on the earth that
there will always be those two sides before us. That which is
right in accordance with the word of God and that which is
wrong in accordance with the temptation of the devil. And we should be very conscious
of the truth of such a statement because God knows all about us. Why does God know about us? Because
God looks into our heart, he looks into our minds. We must
not think that God is like us with no ability to observe anything
outside of ourselves truthfully The Almighty God knows exactly
what you and I are thinking. And we have many evidences of
it in the Bible when perhaps the disciples were speaking amongst
themselves and Jesus knew what they were saying and therefore
he challenges them on such points. And therefore let us not think
that what we think God doesn't know about. He does. He knows
everything that you and I have thought here tonight in this
building, from the moment we came in right up to now. And I wonder perhaps if there
was a screenshot of everything that you and I have been thinking
about, whether we might be a bit embarrassed, we might be very
embarrassed. It would be a good thing if Such a screenshot would
demonstrate that we were here with a true mind to worship God
and desire to seek the blessing of God and to find spiritual
food for our souls. That'd be a great blessing, wouldn't
it? And it's important that we are conscious that the Lord God
does know everything about us. He does know, as he reads it,
I know thy works. He knows it, everything. We can't
get away from it. We can't hide from God. You cannot
hide from God. God is in every place, beholding
the evil and the good. And may that be a good lesson
to us every day as we go to work or to school or to college or
stay at home, whatever it is, may we realize that we have a
God who knows our works, who knows what we're thinking, who
knows what we're doing, who knows what we plan to do. And it's
good to have good plans and God honoring plans and not sinful
plans. You notice those accounts in
the Proverbs and written by Solomon as he outlines those things that
people sometimes plan on their bed at night. They're not good
things, they're bad things. And other points he turns to,
as you may read the Proverbs, there are many examples there
to realise God knows all about us and we should be constantly
concerned to have good works and to do good works and to have
good thoughts and to have good desires and have good aims and
not wrong and evil ones and never forget therefore that God knows
our works. And that's on the one side and
on the other side we're told and also tribulation. Tribulation really refers to
all those things which oppose us all those things which are
difficult for us and there are and you see devil for the most
part, not totally, but often leaves alone people who have
nothing to do with God, who want to pursue their own life, who
want to enjoy their own life as they think in the things of
this world, not realizing that such a life will end up in eternal
hell. But it's a blessing therefore
to know that God knows the tribulation, that means the opposition and
the hardship which we will face and not only just on the odd
occasion but really continually. You may remember we spoke fairly
recently from that verse in the 16th chapter of John where the
Lord speaks to the disciples in the upper room just before
he commences his prayer to his father and he says, these things
have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation,
but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. And that's
a very wonderful verse. It's the last verse in the 16th
chapter of John's gospel. And it's a word to encourage
us, as we may sometimes think, well, things aren't going very
well. In fact, things seem to be going against me. In fact,
things seem to be contrary, and they don't seem to be working
out well at all. Well, it may be in that path
of what we term tribulation, and as a true Christian, the
benefit of such a position of opposition will have this effect. Do you know what the effect will
be? You young people, I must ask you to write down, what would
the effect be if you were faced with tribulation? What would
the good bit be? Shall I tell you what it would
be? It would be because you'll have to pray to God. If our lives
were all smooth, no difficulty, no problems, we would not pray
to God. There wouldn't be any need to
pray to God. Everything would be very happy and very smooth. But it's because the Lord brings
his people into these times of tribulation, difficulty, trial,
opposition, and that may not be always in an outward form,
it may be in an inward form, in our inward being. You may
say, well just explain that, I don't quite understand that.
Well, I can tell you how to understand it because the Apostle Paul explains
it to us when he wrote to the Romans. And he explains it in
this way. He says, for the good that I
would, I do not. But the evil which I would not,
that I do. Now if I do that, I would not,
it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. This
is in the seventh of Romans, and now verse 21. I find in a
law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For
I delight in the law of God after the inward man, that means his
new life, being born again of his spirit, spirit of God. He
delights in the things of God, but he says, I see another law
in my members, warring, that's a battle, against the law of
my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin,
which is in my members. See, that's what we have to battle
against, the law of sin. And that was the sin which came
into the world when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden. and that passed upon all mankind. And the Apostle then comes and
he cries out like this, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? He wasn't happy with those wrong
thoughts and the difficulties he was countering day by day. He says, O wretched man that
I am, But then he comes and it's good to read on. I thank God
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. The difference between the new
nature and the old nature. And as he goes on into the eighth
chapter, there is therefore now no condemnation. to them which
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the Spirit. That means to be directed by
the Spirit of God. That really means walking in
this way, recognising that the Lord knows our works and also
the tribulation. And therefore to be found walking
in that right way and praying to God, recognising the Lord
is dealing with us as sons and daughters of the Most High God. And what we have to constantly
realize here, that as the children of God, this world is not our
home. It's not our rest. There is a
rest that remains for the people of God, a rest to come. And that's
a rest in heaven and a rest in glory. And we should always be
looking forward to such a time and such a day. And that will
balance our position in this world as we find we have to battle
against sin. We have to battle against all
the evil of our nature and to look forward then to that time
when we should be outside of that condition, into that place
of glory where there will be no sin and nothing to perplex
us and nothing to aggravate us and nothing to make us sad and
nothing to make us angry but all will be peace and joy and
glory in heaven. Always keep that in our mind. And so he says, I know thy works
and tribulations and poverty. Well, that might mean that naturally
we are poor. What a blessing it is if spiritually,
as the apostle says here, but thou art rich. Because if we
possess the grace of God, and that means if we possess the
unmerited favor of God, if we possess the favor of God, we
are eternally rich. Because that's not something
which we lose. You might lose the things in
this world. Your children may sometimes have
lost things. But you know, if God gives us the great gift of
eternal life, it's something which we can never lose. And therefore we are eternally
rich. But thou art rich. And what does
that mean? It means that the Lord Jesus
Christ has died for us and in his death he satisfied the holy
law of God on our behalf. That law which we could not keep,
that law which the Apostle Paul has spoken of in that seventh
chapter of the Romans, we could not keep it because of the sinful
nature that we have. but to believe then in the grace
of God, the wonderful grace of God, which super bounds. And it's through that grace that
we possess this gift of eternal life. And through this grace,
it is the Lord Jesus Christ came and died upon that cross at Calvary
to take away our sins. And that will always be a good
thing if as you and I journey on day by day in this life, that
we come into situations which direct us to the cross at Calvary. You see, the cross at Calvary,
the death of Christ, is central to the true Christian's life. It's not something which is peripheral.
It's not something which just comes and goes. It should be
something which is central. which we love to dwell upon,
to realize that then we are in Christ Jesus and once in Him,
in Him forever. Eternal safety is to be found
in Christ. Well today, let us rejoice in
such a great and glorious truth. And therefore this word is true,
but thou art rich. If we are in Christ, we are eternally
rich. It won't matter really What else
occurs in our life? Difficulties, trials, opposition,
temptations, they will soon pass away. If we live to 100 years
old, 100 years is by comparison nothing as we think of eternity. So what a wonderful thing it
is to be rich in the knowledge of our Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ. I know thy works and tribulation
and poverty, but thou art rich. And then he goes on to say, I
know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not,
but are the synagogue of Satan. This really picks out those who
are not believers. Perhaps we live in a day worldwide
when there are many pseudo-Christians. Many people who pretend they're
Christians but don't walk out the Christian life. You may say,
well what do you mean by that? Well what I mean by that is this.
They want to enjoy all the things of this world. On the one side,
they don't want to give up anything. They want to be enveloped in
it. And yet on the other side, they want to have the blessings
of God. Well, the word of God tells us,
you cannot serve God and mammon. You cannot serve God and the
things of time. The devil will tell you, yes,
you can. But remember, he's always been
a liar. So don't listen to what the devil says. And it won't
be easy. But there are those today and
there are many about who really blaspheme the name of Jesus because
they pretend to walk this way. They have fair words, they have
a knowledge perhaps of the word of God, and they think they're
all right. But when it comes down to the
great important question as to what they possess that God has
given them, what life they possess, whether they have been made spiritually
alive, They draw a blank. They don't really know what you're
talking about. And as regards fellowship with
the Lord Jesus Christ, that is alien to them. And so here we
have this statement. I know the blasphemy of them
which say they are Jews and are not, but are of the synagogue
of Satan. That means they worship the devil. Devil's very happy. with such
people. He encourages such people to
believe they are true Christians. The reality is they're not. Christianity
only occupies a short time of their life, only a short time
of their week, only a short time of their day. Whereas the truth
is that true Christianity is a constant life, a constant experience,
and the true Church of God want it to be so. Because what we
know is this, when we are enjoying spiritual union with Christ,
then the things of the world fade away. They have little value. And the things of glory become
far more valuable, far more precious than it is that we view the Saviour
as a precious saviour. Then it is that we view his sin
atoning blood, as Peter says, the precious blood of Christ. It's not something which is just
of no value to the true believer. It is very valuable. It's more
precious far than life and all its treasures are. What a good
thing then if we are found amongst those true believers, And not
those who just pick up Christianity on one hand and think it suits
them and thinks, well, it's all right, it's a good thing to do.
But they're not really committed. They're not really walking with
God. They're walking with the devil
and pretending they're Christians. Sad, sad is such a state. And therefore we have here a
very clear warning. The Lord knows why. because the Lord looks into our
heart. The Lord sees what's there. Yes, it's what the Lord sees
is important, not what you and I see. You know, there are people,
and perhaps some of us know people, who think they're very okay,
they're doing all the right things, but they don't possess the life
of God in their souls. Jesus Christ is not precious
to them. He is not a living Reality is
just really a pseudo-God. Well, says the Apostle as he
writes to the church at Smyrna, fear none of these things which
thou shalt suffer. There will be things that you
and I are called to suffer because the true life of a Christian
is a suffering life. Because the world does not like
to submit to the Word of God. The world does not like to submit
to the Lord Jesus Christ. The world does not like to take
up their cross and follow Him. No, they want to still follow
the world. They still want to enjoy the
world. They're not willing, by the grace of God, to take up
their cross and to follow a despised and crucified Savior. Because
if they do, there will be opposition. There will be trials. There will
be temptations. And no doubt, Satan will worry
us. And he'll bring all manner of
arguments into our mind why we should carry on doing this and
carry on doing that. And there's no harm in it. And
we shall enjoy ourselves. The reality is it will draw us
away from Christ. That's the solemn reality of
such a thing. And so he says, fear none of
these things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall
cast some of you into prison that you may be tried. Well,
in the world at large today, if we look around, we have so
many accounts of true Christians being thrown into prison. True
Christians perhaps being executed, being tortured, and not only
old people, but children as well. It's a wonderful thing when we
read of children who are not prepared to bow down to the commands
of people like Muslims and such like Hindus who demand that people
obey their God. You see, it's very hard then
to stand firm, especially as we see many People have lost
their homes, have been burnt down, ransacked, destroyed, churches
broken down. This is the reality of Christianity. And so we're thankful then that
we have an encouraging word like this. Fear none of those things
which thou shalt suffer. Behold the devil, the devil's
work. And he's very angry when he sees
the true church of God worshipping the true God. He hates it. And those who take up their cross
and follow him, he hates it. He does everything he can to
destroy their religion. The good thing is this, if our
religion is founded upon Christ the Rock, he won't be able to
destroy it. No matter how hard he blows,
no matter how he tries to destroy us, he will not be able And we're
thankful for the evidence we're able to read about, even in the
day and age in which we live, perhaps more so today than in
recent years, of those Christians who have been able to stand firm,
have been willing to lose everything, that they may worship the true
God. And we should not forget to pray
for our brethren in those situations. We're thankful we've had a good
collection for the Christians in Burkina Faso. there are many
there who have been left homeless because of the Islamic warfare
against them. Well to read the word of God
like this should be an encouragement to us. Fear none of these things
which thou shalt suffer because they are only the things of our
natural life. What they cannot do is to destroy
the soul. That's what they want to do.
They are unable to. Fear none of those things which
thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast
some of you into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall
have tribulation. There's no doubt about it. We
tend to think, well, it'll pass us by. We won't be faced with
it. Well, in one way or another,
believe me, we will face tribulation. That means we will face opposition
for our religion. If we don't possess a real religion,
then we can expect an easy ride. If we possess a Christ-given
religion, we can expect tribulation. But the blessing is, it's a confirmation
we are a true believer and we're not a pseudo believer. And so says the apostle, behold
the devil shall cast some of you into prison that you may
be tried and you shall have tribulation ten days. I'm not sure what the
ten days refers to. Clearly it's a prophetic word.
It may have been about things which were going to happen at
that time. Some people explain it as ten
situations which occurred after this in the next few hundred
years but whatever that means we should just take it as we're
told ten days there shall be this tribulation and then he
says be thou faithful unto death faithful unto death it's easy
to read isn't it not so easy to carry out. Faithful unto death. Faithful
to God. Faithful to Him who has called
us. Faithful to hear His Word. Faithful to obey His voice. It's a great blessing to be faithful
and right unto death. Now, if that is so, What's the
result? Well, we're told, and I will
give thee a crown of life, a glorious crown to wear in glory. Again, not something that you
and I deserved, but something which we are given. We don't
work for it, we don't deserve it, but the blessed Saviour gives
us a crown of life. You see, this is eternal life. This is not something which ends
when our life ends. It's something which continues
forever and ever. What a mercy, what a blessing.
Think of it as you may have opposition and hardship. Just pass by that
and remember what the word of God says, and I will give thee
a crown of life. What a blessing for all of us
here tonight. if the Lord Jesus gives us a
crown of life. And if he does, we should expect
to have and to endure some difficulty, some tribulation. But, you know,
the Apostle Paul was thankful that he was counted worthy to
suffer for the name of Christ. good testimony, read the life
of the Apostle Paul, read what he endured, read the blessings
he was favoured with, and it gives us a little insight to
the reality of religion. It's not a pseudo-religion, it's
a true religion which leads us safe home to glory in heaven
with Jesus forever. So the Apostle then concludes
this letter to Smyrna by saying, he that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And remember, that's
not just this church, it's to all the other six churches. The
Spirit writes to each church and each church is to read what
is spoken to the other churches. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. He that overcometh
shall not be hurt of the second death. Well, there is, we die
naturally on this earth. There will be a second death
at the end of the world when all those who are not believers
will be cast into that lake of fire to spend eternity in a terrible
situation. Well, may we be blessed with
the evidence that we are overcomers. And to remember, we don't overcome
because we're a very wonderful person. How do we overcome? I'll tell you. We overcome through
the blood of the Lamb. We overcome through what the
Lord Jesus Christ has done on our behalf. As we read in Romans
8, we are more than conquerors through Him. That's our place
of satisfaction. That's our refuge. There's our
hope. And so tonight, as we go home
tonight, let us recognise the truth of these wonderful words,
that we may be amongst those who do overcome for the blood
of the Lamb. What does that do? It lifts up
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is exalted in our hearts. We render praise to Him. that
great and glorious Savior who has condescended to come into
sinful world to suffer and to die, that we might receive the
great and glorious gift of eternal life. Well, ponder these things. These letters to the churches
are very valuable, very important. We have over the years spoken
about several of the others. I don't think we've spoken about
Smyrna before, but it's a good example. It's a good testimony.
may we hear these words for the eternal good of our souls. Amen.