Now, remember again that our
subject is going to be found in this text, I have somewhat
against thee, and my subject is false of modern churchy. But here's our text, and let's
look at it very carefully. Revelation 2, 1 through 7. unto
the angel of the church of Ephesus write, These things, saith he,
that hold the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in
the midst of the seven gold candlesticks, I know thy works, and thy labor,
and thy patience, and how thou canst not 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 hath labored, and hath not fainted. Nevertheless, I have 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 church. 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 look again at verse 4. Nevertheless, I have
somewhat against thee. Now, fall down to chapter 2,
verse 14 and verse 15, and let us read, But I have a few things
against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine
of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before
the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idol,
and to commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold
the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate." Then look
at verse 20. This is to a different church.
Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee, because
thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calls herself a prophetess,
to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to
eat things sacrificed unto idols." Now, there are our opening texts
and there is our subject. Now, let me begin in this manner
by saying that there has long been with interpreters and exegetes
concerning the seven churches in Revelation chapter 2 and chapter
3, all of them in a circle there in Asia Minor, as whether these
churches are to be viewed and interpreted simultaneously or
as representing the successive churches and the different kinds
that are in the history of the church over the course of the
age. The question would be then, whether
or not the Ephesian church, as John Gill wrote in his commentary,
represented the apostolic church, or the church in the apostolic
age, and the church at Laodicea, the seventh one, the churches
in the latter time. One's view of it would probably
be determined and would be settled by their view of the book of
revelation. So it is not my intention this
morning, nor does it lie within my ability to consider these
views in this particular study today. However, we do notice
one thing, and that is that all of these churches existed at
one time and were in existence at the time of the writing of
John. And we see the different situation. We see the different condition
present in them. We saw what there was to commend,
and our Lord commended it. We saw what there was to condemn,
and our Lord condemned it. We read here of threats of judgment
against some of these churches in this section. And we even
read of the threat of extinction altogether. They were individual
churches to which John is inspired by the Spirit of God to write,
or should we note, that they are addressed. All seven churches,
the letter is addressed to the angel of the church at so and
so, at least in the King James Version. And the word here is
the word angelos, often in the scripture translated by the word
angel. and referring to those spiritual
beings that God has created and that are the host about His throne
and that serve God. The word also means and can mean
a messenger, a messenger who brings glad tidings. A messenger
being the very same word that we would find in Mark chapter
1, and verse 2, and Matthew chapter 11 and verse 10, both places
speaking of John the Baptist. Behold, I send my messenger,
and that's the word that we have here, before thy face. Again in Luke chapter 7 and verse
24, It is translated messenger. They are referring to the disciples
of John, and you can see that again in Luke chapter 9 and verse
52. And in James chapter 2 and verse
25, it is used of the spies that were received by Rahab. Now, of course, the message was
addressed to the angel of the church, but was intended for
the church in its entirety. It was given to and through the
messenger of the church. Now I'd like for us to jump back
into chapter 1 just for two or three readings in that particular
place. Revelation 1 and verse 11, saying,
I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, what ye see, write
in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia,
Ephesus, Smyrna, and Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia,
and Laodicea. Then we read verse 11 and verse
12 in that chapter. Finally, Revelation chapter 1,
And verse 20, and let's look at it. The mystery of the seven
stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden
candlesticks, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches,
and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the churches. So in the emblems of the seven
stars are the angels, the candlesticks are the churches. And see that
thread in chapter 2 and verse 5, to remove his candlestick
out of his place. In the footnotes of the New Geneva
Study Bible, some of you may have that, the New King James
Version, there is a rather helpful chart there showing or outlining
the seven churches of the apocalypse in a chart. And listing in each
one of the cases and each one of the seven churches what was
commendable in them. Now, when you read through it,
you'll find that only Laodicea, the last of the seven, had no
commendation from the Lord our God. It was in such a condition
that it had no commendation. But then we also see the faults
that are listed there and the blame. The correction and the
exhortation, and there is included the promise of God to each one
of the churches in heeding the word of God and being obedient."
Now, one thing that we concede from these seven churches, we
also concede it from the epistle to the churches that are written
and included in the New Testament, like Corinth and Galatia, and
Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae, Rome, and so forth. And from
history itself, and then from our own personal observation,
we have observed this, that there are no perfect churches anywhere
at any time. Not one. Not one. But what the Lord can and must
say unto it, I have somewhat against thee, none are without,
some margin of error and some mixture of tares sown in them. There are no churches in which
every member is in perfect accord with the Holy Scripture or fully
sanctified. There are no churches that hold
in absolute purity the total doctrine of our Lord, or that
hold the doctrine of Christ without some shortcoming. And certainly
there are no perfect preachers among us, none whatsoever. There are no infallible preachers,
never have been and never will be. So that leads me to say,
there is an old saying, you probably have heard it. If you were to
find an absolutely perfect church, please do not join it. As it will, by your joining it,
become imperfect. Those who see themselves as champions
of orthodoxy, Those who see themselves as Hercules of the Scripture
often sometimes find it hard to find and to fit themselves
into a church. They're a little like those in
Matthew. Chapter 7, verses 3 through 5,
"...who behold in the brother's eye a mote, a sliver, a little
speck of sawdust, a tiny little chip they see in their brother's
eye, while a two-by-four is sticking out their very own eye." Here
they are with a timber or a beam trying to clean the speck out
of the eye of another. And still, though there are no
perfect churches, and though they fall into the conditions
that have been described in the passages that we read, the promise
of our Lord is that the gates of hell shall not prevail against
the church of the blessed Lamb of God. Which though having her
infirmities here in this world, but yet being imperfect, but
that it might. be cleansed and sanctified and
perfected and presented unto the Lord without spot and without
limit, being made ready, as we read in Revelation, as a bride
for her husband. And yet, while the churches function
here in this world, they are beset on every side within and
without by various societies that influence them in a negative
way. Have you noticed that every evil
in society eventually, to some degree, bleeds over into the
churches and is much too welcome there? But they are beset with
him and without, sometimes from that bleeding over from society,
sometimes by persecution, sometimes it's by materialism. often churches
are infested with a gross worldliness and a partial apostasy. And sometimes the apostasy becomes
total. And from such, the candlestick
is then removed and the light goes out that once did shine
in a certain place. Now, with that in mind, let's
take a look at the three verses in the seven letters, each one
of them addressed to a particular one of the churches. In Revelation
2 and verse 4, to the angel of the church at Ephesus, in spite
of the commendations, nevertheless, I have against thee. Now, the
nevertheless is in relation to verse 2 and 3 where they are
commended as we read in the beginning. There's another commendation
to them down in verse 6. This was one of the best churches
of its day. Nevertheless, literally but,
notwithstanding, yet I hold this against you, that you have left
your first love. There is a lessening, a waxing
and a waning of their former fervent love unto Christ and
all things spiritual that represented by Him. Love was not gone, but
it was not as it once had been or should have been. For a similar
situation, I invite you to see the complaint of the prophet
Jeremiah that he made unto Israel. And you'll find it in Jeremiah
chapter 2, verses 1 through 3. I'll not turn there to read it,
but the prophet speaks of the love of thine espousal. And when Israel was holiness
unto the Lord, there was a time of the love of their espousal,
when it was new and fervent, and Israel was holiness unto
the Lord. But they had left that, and the
prophet is condemning them. Next, in Revelation 2 and 14,
to the church at Pergamos. But I hold a few things against
thee. Now again, we see the but. after the commendation in the
13th verse. But verse 14, nevertheless, on
the other hand, there was a fault. And the fault was, as we saw,
allowing the adherents of Baalism and such like. Next, in Revelation
2 and verse 20, the messenger at Thyatira and the church there,
notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee. And what
was their fault? Well, we read it in verse 20. They suffered aloud, permitted
that Jezebelian woman to be in the congregation and to become
a seducer. I agree that this was not the
literal woman Jezebel, that fuzzy wife of Ahab, for she was a long
time dead and gone. but one of the most despicable
characters in all of the Old Testament. But they had in their
midst there a woman, presumably, who led and taught people to
live in open immorality and even adultery. And the author calls
her Jezebel, who was famous for her wickedness and her opposition
unto God, by whom God caused to meet a miserable, horrible
end in her death. Though John Gill applies this
Jezebel here as referring in this place to the apostate church
in Rome are out of Rome. Consider the church at Ephesus,
which at one time, in the days of Paul, was one of the most
spiritual and doctrinally sound churches of them all in that
period. As Herman Hoeksema wrote in his
book, it enjoyed the labors of some of the greatest, most devoted,
ablest servants of the Lord God." Paul himself had been there three
times in the city of Ephesus and ministered there in the church,
one time staying among them for a period of three years, continually
teaching them, declaring unto them the whole counsel of God
as he says to them in Acts chapter 20. They began to decline, and
there was fulfilled in them the prediction that Paul had made
in Acts 20, 29, and 30, that after his departure they would
enter in grievous woes, not sparing the flock. And by the writing
of John, this church had declined in their first love. Now consider, even when the Lord
Himself sowed good seed in the field, the devil sowed tares
among the wheat, and they came up and got entangled with the
wheat. You'll find that in Matthew,
the parable, chapter 13, verse 24 through verse 30. Paul warned the Corinthians very
sternly. Beware of another Jesus and another
gospel which some would come preaching unto them. 2 Corinthians
11, verses 1 through 4. Some would come preaching a different
Christ and a different gospel from that one that Paul had delivered
unto them. And Paul feared that you might
bear with them, that you might accept them, that you might by
their subtlety be deceived as he was. Paul said the same thing
to the church in Galatia, lest they espouse another gospel which
is not another. Galatians 1 and verse 6 and verse
7. So Paul is constantly warning
that there will come heretic, a defilement of the truth of
God, a perversion of the gospel, and a toning down of the spiritual
things of God Almighty. Now with all of that said, and
laid as our foundation, let's come to speak of some of the
faults and deficiencies in the modern churches in our day, which
are evident when they are weighed in the light of Scripture. Not in the light of social mores
or what's acceptable, but in the light of Scripture. We put
them in the scale of the Scripture. By the way, this is our only
standard, this is our only guide, this is our only authority, is
the very Word of God. First of all, we concede something,
and that is that there are many, many, many churches in our day. There are perhaps more churches
now than there have ever been at any time in history. Many different denominations,
many different persuasions. A few of them staking the claim
that they are the one and only true church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. There are small churches, there
are medium churches, there are big churches, and then there
are super-sized churches in our midst and our generation. Though I prefer to call the latter
goat barns, what are called in our day mega-churches with ten
and twenty thousand members. Now, these churches all of them
that exist today at one and the same time, they have different
oriented agendas about them upon which they focus. Some are promoting
the prosperity doctrine and the healing doctrine. God wants it. He wants you to prosper. God's
got it. If you ask for it, you can have
it. Others are emphasizing the overcoming
life. a striving at perfection and
a fuller and a fuller sanctification. Others there are who are emphasizing
soul winning, taking the city and the state and the nation
and the world for Christ, though this has never happened in a
single place in all of history. Many today, and this is my charge,
many today are offering entertainment for the flesh, fleshly music
and worldly entertainers who know nothing of the gospel of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. They have what they call a music
ministry, quote-unquote, a music ministry. And to that I'll say
this, I get calls or mail almost every week telling me that a
certain singing group is going through our area and that they
are taking bookings and they are looking for places that they
might perform. In many places today, the music
completely overshadows the teaching and the preaching of the gospel
and the word of God. Well, I guess that Because most
people, or many people, like singing much more than they like
preaching. For they clap, and they smile,
and they giggle at the singing, and then they go to sleep when
the preaching starts. But more about this later. First
of all, let's name, identify some of the faults of modern
churchy which they have fallen into. In most cases, I guess,
without even realizing it. It's like that proverbial frog
in the water. But calling it, nonetheless,
Christianity. To many, surely the Lord would
say, I have this against you, this I have somewhat against
you, that thou hast there them that do thus and so. Now, the first bill of indictment
that must be pressed upon many of the modern churches of our
day, and it will be point number one for me, point number one. There is a combined, literally,
a combination of gross ignorance and of a lack of confidence in
the Holy Scripture in so many churches in our day. They do
not look at it as the inerrant, all-sufficient God in all things
spiritual. They do not look at it as the
Scripture is the only, the first and the last authority and guide
to the churches and to the Christian life. That by the Bible our views
of this and that are formed. Our beliefs are grounded. Our
attitudes are grounded in the Scripture. Many have no confidence
that the Scriptures are all-sufficient. Can we not almost hear Christ
say, I have somewhat against thee? For thou hast them there
that put psychology, sociology, and science as equal or above
the word of God." You doubt that? You doubt that's true? Then I
want you to remember the Southern Baptist Convention and the issue
in days gone by, every time they met, was a fight over whether
or not The first eleven chapters of Genesis were inspired truth
or were myth. I know what I'm talking about.
I started out in that monster. How many, when creation is brought
up, how many when thinking about creation and the origin of the
earth, when it's brought up, where do they flee? They flee
to science to see if they can find the answer. Some there are
in the churches who even accept theistic evolution, that God
perhaps created by a process of evolution. Theistic evolution. Then when grappling with human
behavior and all the sin and the crime and the immorality
that is in the people and even in the churches, Instead of fleeing
to the Scripture for the answer, they will flee to the psychologist
to explain it. When faced with the crazed mind
of men and some people today, they will flee to the couch of
Freud and there call upon the so-called quote, expert, unquote. And when they're faced with all
of the social injustices, they call upon the social expert,
the sociologist, so forth, to explain why people are doing
what they would do. When all the while the Scriptures
are clear upon every one of these matters, God created the heaven
and the earth. Men act like they do because
they're fallen, sinful, and they are depraved. I agree with a
statement in a pamphlet that came into my hand recently that
the churches are now, many of them, so influenced by worldly
views that they can hardly be called Christian anymore. Hardly. Are they worthy? of the
name of Christian. That what they teach and what
they practice is not, in fact, Christianity. I read something
interesting the other day. I'd like to share it with you.
In a little seminary, one day the professor walked into his
classroom. There the students were gathered,
waiting for him to come and give the lesson of the day. He came
in without saying a word, went to the blackboard, picked up
a piece of chalk, and began to draw footprints, one after the
other, all the way across the blackboard. And when he had finished,
he turned to his class facing them, and he said this, and I
quote, Aristotle is walking the halls of this institution. Beware, for I hear his footsteps
more clearly than those of the Apostle Paul and even the Lord
Jesus Christ." You know, psychology is regularly preached in many
churches, and the people do not know the difference between that
and the gospel. The motto of the churches ought
to be, Scripture above all else, Scripture and Scripture alone,
Scripture only. Thus saith the Word of the Lord. That's our motto, that all Scripture
is God-bred and it is profitable. Preaching should be an exegesis
of a passage of the blessed and holy Word. But it's the hardest
kind to do. And preachers ought to ever be
studying the Word of God. But alas, Some churches have
pastors who are ignorant in the Scripture, knowing nothing as
they ought, and speaking against, quote, doctrine, unquote. I had
a preacher say to me one time, doctrine, doctrine, doctrine.
That's all you think about. Well, doctrine is the teaching
of the Scripture and the Word of God. But they de-emphasize
doctrinal preaching in favor of what they call practical teaching. And then you hear such subject
as managing your money, how to succeed in business, how to have
a winning personality, how to be an effective witness, and
on and on. This is not in an improvement
seminar. This is in the church. But while
the great and essential doctrines of Christianity, such as divine
sovereignty, the attributes of God, the person and deity of
Christ, the infallibility of Scripture, the gospel of salvation,
all of these are hid, as it were, under a bushel, buried under
the rubble of human opinion. and the traditions of men that
have been brought into the church, and what an old-timer J.C. Ryle called, quote, the whole
circle of ritualistic theology, unquote. And again, let me give
you a quote from a book by J.C. Ryle, the title being, Warnings
to the Churches. And he wrote this book, and the
things he said in it and that were written were spoken concerning
the churches in England. Not in America, but in England,
he said these things about the churches in his day. And see how apropos it is for
our quote. between men adding to the truth
on one side and taking away on the other, between those who
bury the truth under traditions and those that mutilate it by
stubbornness, between superstition and infidelity, between Romanism
and neology, that is, those who adopt new views, between ritualism
and rationalism, between these upper and nether millstone, the
gospel is well nigh crushed to death. How true a saying that
is. Now again, a second indictment
against many of the churches today. Not only do they not have
full confidence in the scripture, but the Lord secondly could say
to most churches, I have this against thee, because thou hast
them there that deny or hide the full truth about human depravity
by such evil inventions as the age of accountability that we
hear so much about. denying original sin, denying
total depravity, and when they admit original sin, they have
a false way of removing it. Many there are who seem ashamed,
or perhaps the word is afraid, to tell people how sinful they
are in the sight of God. It seems hard to get up and preach
the full measure of human depravity and human wickedness in our day. Seldom would you hear them exegeting
a passage like Romans 3, 9-18, none seek God, none righteous,
no, not one. They are hesitant to offend people
at what sinners they are, and they deceive themselves by giving
false comfort and by telling them one and all, God loves every
one of you, and Christ has died for each of you, and I want to
tell you something and challenge you to search it out. This is
not a formula. that you will find used by Christ,
by the Apostle, by any other preacher, or in the New Testament. You will not find that formula
bantered about to a crowd of wicked men. God loves you all. Christ died for all of you. You
won't find that in the Scripture. Oh sure, they talk about people
being sinful or people being sinners. They ask a little child,
did you ever tell a lie? Did you ever take a dime out
of mommy's purse without telling her? Did you ever lie or take
something that didn't belong to you? Then they give them a
false comfort that they are the objects of God's love and tell
them they have the ability on their own to come to Christ,
placing the salvation of their soul in the hands of their very
own free will. Hear the complaint of Jeremiah
again, chapter 6 and verse 14, against false shepherds. They
have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying,
Peace, peace, when there is no peace. That's what the false
shepherds had done in the day of Jeremiah. I think you'll see
that again in 1 Kings chapter 22 and in verse 6 when the ministerial
alliance was called before Ahab, and they gave him blessed assurance. Go! God's with you. God will
give you the victory. Do you know how that ended up? 1 Kings 22 and verse 6. Then there are those today who
give these long, weepy, little willy, grave story, emotional,
invitation, having people to repeat a sinner's prayer, or
taking them down what they formerly called the Roman road and such
like. We just don't hear the truth
of depravity. It would burn the ear of the
average church goer. Thirdly, and I must hurry along,
a great fault of many churches and of many preachers is trying
to make Christianity appealing to the world. Trying to make
Christianity appealing. Here are some of their terms.
Exciting, fun, and acceptable to the world and the unregenerate. And what do they do? They present
Jesus in a lowered form as a good old boy. just as at home in the
cowboy church as he would be in a 10,000 seat sanctuary. And some of the worst offenders
here are the so-called meager churches which are supersized
monstrosities with no doctrine attached to them at all. I kept an article from the Houston
Chronicle. the title of it, Mega Churches
Going Big on Casual Worship, unquote. It was about a goat
barn up yonder in the woodlands. The article described this, quote,
folks in jeans and t-shirts sip lattes in a bright cafe. Gaming consoles line one wall
of a spacious room with a foosball table and a snack bar. Instead of suits and ties, think
shorts and sneakers. in place of stained glass windows
and choir lofts. There are video screens and a
rock band. That's the end of the quote from
that article. But in that article, the quote,
executive pastors quoted as saying that religious messages are presented
in a modern way that are familiar unto people. They don't want
their buildings to look like churches anymore. Have you noticed
that? They don't want their building
to look like a church. In fact, you hear them calling
them what? Campuses. Campuses. Our campus here. Our four campuses. Our five campuses. And the article
stated, and again I'm quoting, a growing number of churches
are ditching the stuffy conventions associated with traditional worship
in favor of something more laid back, unquote. And on the campus. of this church. There are sand
volleyball courts, a fellowship park, a place to throw a frisbee. And my question was, can dancing
go-go girls in bikinis be very far behind? These are not churches. These are theme parks where something
or one and all. It's not church. It's entertainment. It's fleshly feeding entertainment. Entertainment mixed in. Don't
go so far as to offend or run off any that might have a desire
to come and to listen. I saw this ad in the paper. It's
been in there all this month, I think, an ad where a large
Baptist church in Houston, one of the largest, one of the better
known preachers in Houston, In December, all through December,
we'll have, and I'm not making this up, I'm reading it right
here, we'll have miniature trains on peppermint platforms in the
lobby of all five campuses. All five campuses, little trains,
will be running around in the lobby on Peppermint Foundation. You realize how much money, how
many millions are spent every year on Christmas performances
and such like? But another irreverent thing
to appear in modern churches is the practice of clapping and
applauding in church. Someone sings a special. A preacher
makes a really good point. Or someone gives his testimony.
We've even heard some preachers say, let's give Jesus a big old
hand. And so they break out in clapping. Let's clap for Jesus. That is
so irreverent. A pastor in Kansas City wrote
an article. In today's churches, he said,
musical performances are called worship when in fact they are
entertainment. He also said these churches are
infected with an entertainment mentality. How can such preachers
live with themselves? who so do those things. Many
would argue, wait a minute, this gets people to church who otherwise
wouldn't go to the traditional type of churches. And so it does. But what are they hearing when
they are there? Not the gospel. Not the sovereignty
of God. Not the Lordship of Christ. Not
the truth about depravity. Somebody else is going to say
to me, you're just envious and jealous. because you don't have
enough people to fill a shirt tail. I promise you. I promise
you. I am not jealous or envious of
them at all. They have prostituted themselves
to the world. Thus a generation of ignorance
of the true nature of the Christian church, of the gospel, and of
the Bible has arisen. And such is the state of many
churches in our day. And what has Christ against them
should the letter be written? I have somewhat against it.