the apocalypse, okay? The revelation
here, it tells us in verse one, is the revelation of Jesus Christ,
which God gave unto him to show unto his servants things which
must shortly come to pass, and he sent and signified it by his
angel unto his servant John, okay? So the revelation is a
book, that was written or an account that was written by John,
and it was to reveal Jesus Christ, okay? We won't get into all the
ins and outs of Revelation, but I just wanted to put you into
mind that it's about revealing Jesus Christ. And the reason
I say that is because, again, if you remember, the purpose
of us gathering together as the church is to worship and to glorify
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's one of the reasons why
we gather together, is to worship Christ, okay? And so here we
see in the book of the Revelation, John is writing, and this writing
that he is writing to is being sent out to churches, as we will
soon see. But look, if you would, chapter
one, and I'm gonna start reading again in verse one and read down.
It says, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him
to show unto his servants, unto his servants. Remember, we talked
about the church as the place of service. Whenever we come
into the congregation, we come to serve the Lord Jesus Christ
here. Okay? Doesn't mean that there
isn't service that happens whenever we are in our everyday lives
as far as testifying and witnessing and sharing the gospel, but the
place of worship, the place of service that Christ has ordained
is in the congregation when we meet together. And so he is writing
this and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant
John, who bear record of the word of God and of the testimony
of Jesus Christ and of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that
readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep
those things which are written therein, for the time is at hand. Boy, getting off on the tangent
is really pulling at me because there's a lot to say about this
and eschatology and wrong eschatology today, but I'm going to restrain
myself. Verse four, John, to the seven
churches, which are in Asia. Grace be unto you and peace from
him which is and which was and which is to come and from the
seven spirits which are before his throne. Okay, so here we
see that the term ekklesia is found in verse four, John to
the seven churches which are in Asia. So John uses the plural
form of ekklesia So he's writing to specific churches, but there
are more than one church in Asia. And as we're fixing to see, there
are specific churches in Asia. They have names. The church in
Ephesus, the church in Philadelphia, the church in Thyatira, the church
in Laodicea, okay? We see that they are specific
churches. Now, if this book was written to the universal invisible
something, he didn't need to say to the churches which are
in Asia, He could have just said to the church, John to the church,
grace be unto you. I mean, are we not reading this?
Sovereign Grace Baptist Church is the church of Jesus Christ
here in Joplin, right? This is for us to read too, right? He writes these things for us
too. But who is this letter specifically made to? Remember, we've said
this a lot in in the years that I've been here, that whenever
we come to interpret the scriptures, to read the Bible, and to apply
proper interpretation to the scriptures, one of the first
things we do is we have to look and see the context, right? And in that context, we also
find the historical setting. Who is this intended to? These
letters were written to actual churches. So before it was ever
put into the Bible for all the people of God to have a consumption
of, it was specifically letters written to specific churches
for a specific reason at a specific time. Okay? And so we have to interpret these
scriptures in light of the fact that something was at hand, right? The times are at hand. And he
is writing and signifying, that also tells us how we ought to
interpret Revelation because the things that are written in
these letters are signified. Not wooden literal, but signified. There's not gonna be a big giant
locust out there. There's not gonna be a rider
on a pale horse that's coming on a real pale horse that's a
pale rider, okay? These things are signified. So
we have to understand them within their historical context. This
is letters that was written to certain churches to tell them
certain things. So don't apply our modern day
understanding. Don't apply, oh, well, this is
written, well, it's here in the Bible for every Christian to
read. So it must, the word church must
mean universal and visible. No. And if you remember going
all the way back to Acts, or actually the Gospels, if you
remember, church was instituted to be the place where every,
not just some, but where every person who was made a disciple
and baptized was to be added to, right? was to be brought
back and taught all things whatsoever Christ has commanded. That was
the way that Christ ordained the church. Preach the gospel,
make disciples, baptize them, bring them back and add them
to the church, the gathered assembly, and teach them all things whatsoever
Christ has commanded, what I've commanded them. That was the
model. That was the form. That was the
intent. for Christ. And so it's only
because of man and his disobedience, man and his watering down, man
and his errors, that over the course of time, that that has
not been the case. And where does that fault lie?
It lies at the churches who don't preach and insist on those things.
Whenever you go out and you talk and you make disciples, what
should you do? Don't tell them, go to the church
of your choice. Go worship God, serve the Lord, be warmed and
well-filled. See you later. Now, what do you
ought to do? Hey, show them in the Bible,
take them to the Bible and say, hey, we're glad that you trusted
on the Lord Jesus Christ, that you're believing on Him. But
look, the Scriptures here says now what you must do is you need
to be baptized. And baptism is done at the church. And then you're supposed to be
with the church and meet with the church and assemble within. on a regular basis and not forsake
that assembly so that you might be taught, so that you might
encourage, so that you might edify, so that you might partake
of the ordinances. See, we need to take them and
be showing them these things. And listen, I'm telling you,
and especially as a pastor, I can tell you this for a fact, that
don't sit well with people. Matter of fact, you lose a lot
of people whenever you start taking them to the Scripture
and saying, hey, you need to be baptized. Your baptism wasn't
a valid baptism. Why? Because you were baptized
in a false church under a false gospel. It doesn't sit well whenever
you tell them, sorry, you can't have the Lord's Supper until
you're baptized because baptism has to be there before the Lord's
Supper. Or whenever you tell them that,
hey, you know, whenever you go to church, you are to, you know,
be a part of that assembly. They don't like to hear those
kind of things. And so a lot of times people leave because
they don't want to be a part of that. And so now we have today
people that despise the church of Jesus Christ as the Corinthians
did. They didn't have any discernment
about what the body was about. They didn't have any discernment
about what the church was instituted for. And so we have these errors
that pop up But if we go back to how it was formed, that was
the understanding. And so when we look at the revelation,
and we see here, to the church as, plural, which are in Asia,
so the term I can see here is speaking of individual churches. Look if you would, verse 11. Jesus here speaking says, I am
Alpha, and Omega, the first and the last, and what thou seest,
write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which
are in Asia, unto Ephesus, unto Smyrna, unto Pergamos, unto Thyatira,
and unto Sardis, unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea." So not only
does he use the word plural, churches, in Asia, but he names
them out. They were actual churches, right? So the term ekklesia here doesn't
refer to universal invisible or universal visible. It refers
to actual specific congregations. Move down to verse 20 if you
would. Actually, move up to verse 17
and let's read down to verse 20. It says, and when I saw him,
I fell at his feet as dead, And he laid his right hand upon me,
saying unto me, fear not, I am the first and the last. Now who
does that speak of? It's talking about Jesus, right?
So Jesus is talking to John at this point. He says, I am he
that liveth and was dead. And behold, I'm alive forevermore,
amen, and have the keys of hell and of death. Write the things
which thou hast seen and the things which are, and the things
which shall be hereafter. The mystery of the seven stars,
which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks."
Now, we talked about this last week in some of the things that
I mentioned about some stuff last week. But if you go back
in the beginning of chapter one, we find that this was talked
about It's in verse 12. It says, and this is right after
he said, I'm the Alpha and Omega, writing a book to the seven churches,
which are in Asia, and he named about. Verse 12, he said, and
I turned to see the voice that spake with me, and being turned,
I saw seven golden candlesticks. Remember, he sent and signified
it by an angel, okay? The things that John is seeing,
he's seeing signified to him in signs, symbols, okay? Metaphors. So let's not get carried away
with some of these things. So John is supposed to write
a letter to the seven churches in Asia of the things that Christ
is about to reveal about himself to John so that those churches
might know the things about the Lord Jesus Christ and what's
going on, about what has happened, what is happening, and what will
happen. Ain't that what he just said?
Write these things which thou hast seen, and the things which
are, and the things which shall be hereafter. Okay? And I turned
to see the voice that spake to me, and being turned, I saw seven
golden candlesticks. And in the midst of the seven
candlesticks, one likened to the son of man, clothed with
the garment down to the foot, and girt about the paths with
a golden girdle. Okay, we won't go down any further,
but in verse 16, we'll jump to that. It said, and he had in
his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp
two-edged sword, and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his
strength. And so that brings us to where
we are now, right? So John is writing to seven churches
and we've just seen their specific congregations. And now he's talking
about the mystery of the stars and the candlesticks that John
saw. In verse 20, he describes 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 seven churches." So Jesus here interprets the
vision or the signifying that John saw so he would understand
what's what. That the churches are those seven
candlesticks that he's among. Okay, and the stars that's in
his right hand are the angels of the seven churches. We talked
about this last week for those that wasn't here. Who are the
angels? Or the stars? Or the angels? That's right, it's the pastors.
It's the pastors of the seven churches. Okay, so again, we're
not talking about a universal church. Some people say, well,
seven means complete, that's the whole church. Okay, he says
churches, not church. He didn't say the seven church.
He said the seven churches, okay? He even named those churches.
So there's specific congregations that this was to be written to.
And whenever John saw those seven churches signified, he saw seven
stars in the hands of Christ, and he saw Christ standing among
seven candlesticks. And Christ said, this is what
this means. Those stars that you saw in that
signification in my hand, those were the seven angels or messengers
to the seven churches, which were the candlesticks. So the
churches have pastors who are the messengers of Christ. And
the letters that are being sent are to be sent to who? To the
pastor, for the pastor to inform and to read before the church.
Now, there's a lot of things that we can talk about here that
will deal with a lot of discussion about people that are wrought
about organized church, okay? But brethren, you can't deny
in the reading of scripture that whenever the church comes together,
that Christ has made it an orderly thing. He has put in it to be
done in order. Things are not to be done out
of chaos, but in order. And He has set an overseer, and
that word overseer means one who is to keep out the chaos,
to keep in order the things that is to be done. Okay, so that's
one of the things that a pastor does, is he oversees, and he
does that by keeping over the people order, making sure that
we're doing things in an orderly fashion, making sure that we're
doing the things that have been prescribed by Christ. Okay? And so, the pastor here was the
one who was the messenger to the church. I know a lot of people
don't even like that. Whenever they start looking at
organized church, they don't like that. They wanna think that
everybody is the voice to the church. Well, you mean you're
telling me that you're better than I am? No, I don't think
I'm better than anybody else, but that's the role that Christ
has called me to. That's the role that I've been
given the gift to work And so I'm no better than anybody else,
but I'm just at the place and doing the work and the call and
the ministry and the gift that God has given me to do. And that
is to be the pastor, preacher, teacher of the local congregation.
Don't mean I'm better than you. Don't mean I'm a higher rank
than you. Don't mean anything. It means
that that is the role that Christ has given me. But if you'll notice
here that Christ did give this to the pastor. Why? Because that's
who he has put in the place to be the minister of God's word
to the people. And I'm not meaning that that's
a hierarchy. I'm not trying to say this is
like the Catholic Pope or anything like that. We're not making out
to be Popes. Listen, everything that we do
is being held accountable by God, by the people, by the word
of God. We're just as susceptible to
error. If you guys see that I'm saying
something contrary to scripture, you come to me. And I'm not to
say, how dare you? Who are you to tell me I'm the
preacher, by the way? You don't have the right to say.
And listen, that happens a lot of places. We've had several
people that's come to our church before that have said that they've
been turned out of churches because they questioned the pastor. Listen,
I've been questioned here a lot of times, you know. And sometimes,
and this is a side note, and I don't mean, again, to go off
on a rant, but sometimes a lot of people mistake confidence
in what one believes for arrogance and pride. See, one can be confident
in what they believe or assure in what they believe and not
be prideful. Now there can be some who are
prideful think because they know a lot that there's something
above somebody else. But somebody can be confident
in what they know and understand. And because they're confident
in that does not mean they're necessarily prideful. So let's
not, you know, throw everybody out just because of that, okay? Now, the Ecclesia here. 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 congregations, or ekklesias, and the seven candlesticks
which thou sawest are the seven congregations, or ekklesia. And so we see these are local
things, and each one of them had a pastor. Look at chapter
two, verse one. unto the angel of the church.
Now, here's the letters. He's starting to write these
letters. Okay. Unto the angel of the church
of Ephesus write. Now, if we didn't read Jesus's
description there, we wouldn't know what he's talking about.
We'd think, again, that there's some invisible angel that's out
there that's fixing to go deliver this letter to the church in
Ephesus. but that's not it, it's to the
messenger, which was the pastor of the church. Unto the angel
of the church of Ephesus write, these things say of he that holdeth
the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst
of the seven golden candlesticks. Okay, so again, ecclesy here
is used to speak of a particular congregation, and that was the
one in Ephesus. Look at verse seven. 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. Okay, so here he uses the word
ekklesia in its plural. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. So this letter
that was written to the church in Ephesus Specific congregation
is also to be applied unto all churches. See that? So John, or Christ, is telling
John to let Ephesus know, this is for you, Ephesus, but anyone
who has an ear to hear, let him know, this is also for anybody
in any of the churches. He that hath an ear to hear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Now,
here's another thing I wanna draw out of this. Where is the
instruction? Where is the command? Where is
the admonition? Where is the speaking directed
to? It's directed to the churches, right? It's not directed to some
mission board, not some convention board. It's not directed to some
parachurch organization. It's not directed to an individual
for an individual. It's given to who? The church. See, yes, did the letter go to
the pastor? Yes, but the spirit through that
is speaking to the church and any that are in the churches
of Jesus Christ. But you see here that the word
ekklesia is not used in a universal, invisible way. It's used in a local, visible way. To 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. Look
at verse eight. And unto the angel of the church
of Smyrna, write these things. These things say at the first
and the last, which was dead and is alive. Okay, so now we
see ecclesy is used here, but it's used again as a specific
congregation. a local visible assembly. Look
down verse 11. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Again, we see the
same things we see back up in verse seven. Okay, the word ekklesia
is speaking of specific congregations in the plural. Look at verse
12. Under the angel of the church
of Pergamos. Okay, no one universal invisible
there. It is a local specific congregation. Again, verse 17, he that hath
an ear to hear, let him hear what the spirits say under the
churches. Once again, local visible assemblies. Look at verse 18, under the church
in Thyatira, specific local congregation, verse 23. and I will kill her
children with death and all the churches shall know that I am
He which searches the reins and hearts and I will give unto every
one of you according to your words. Every one of you churches,
unto your words. But look, the term ekklesia is
referring to plural churches, not a universal body, one body. It's not referring to one body. that is universal and invisible.
Look down at verse 29. He that hath an ear to hear what
the Spirit saith unto the churches. Verse three, or chapter three,
verse one. Under the angel of the church
in Sardis. Local, visible, specific church. Look at verse six. He that hath
an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the
churches. Again. specific congregations,
not a universal, invisible, singular, but a plurality of churches,
congregations. Chapter three, verse seven. Unto
the angel of the church in Philadelphia, again, another specific local
congregation. Look at verse 13. He that hath an ear to hear,
let him hear what the Spirit say to the churches, again, Ekklesia,
talking about specific congregations. Look at verse 14, out of the
church of the Laodiceans. Specific church, individual congregation. Look at verse 22. He that hath
an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit say under the
churches. Plural congregations. And the last one, is in Revelation
chapter 22. Look if you would at verse 12. And behold, I come quickly and
my reward is with me to give every man according as his work
shall be. I am Alpha, and Omega, the beginning
and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do
his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life
and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without
are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers and idolaters and
whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. I, Jesus, have set mine angel
to testify unto you these things in the churches." Where is the
testimony or the testifying of the things of Jesus Christ and
about his work? This whole thing, the revelation
of Jesus Christ, who he is, what he has done, what he is doing,
and what he will do. What has been, what is, and what
is to come. about Jesus Christ. You know
where they are testified to? They're testified in the churches.
You don't think it's important to be in church, to be a part
of a church, to be a member of a local New Testament church
of Jesus Christ? It is extremely important. That is where Christ is directing
his testimony. and has given gifts to teach
that testimony, and has given people with gifts to bear witness
of that testimony in their lives through service and edification
and encouragement. Brethren, it's very important. But here we find ourselves in
Revelation 22, verse 16, 115 verses, Every place where the term church
is found in the New Testament scriptures, in God's word, and we didn't
find one place where the word church was used in a universal,
invisible, encompassing all the elect of God as one group. It was speaking of individual
congregations called out of the world and gathered together for
the purpose of overseeing the things of the kingdom of God,
in which God has placed each member specifically. And each member is called on
to exercise as each member supplies. And that body is edified, that
body is, energized, is encouraged, built up by each member doing
its part. Now, some may be here every week,
but are we doing our part? Are we being what we are called
to do? Are we being servants one to
another? See, just because you come to
the body don't mean you're being a part of the body, okay? So
we have that to talk about as well for other times. But I don't
know about you, brethren, but after 115, depending on the translation
of assembly, 118 times, the word church didn't find universal
and visible anywhere. To me, that's overwhelming. To
me, that's saying that God is saying something about what the
church is. And that we have allowed theologians
and seminaries and theological establishments, confessions of
faith, smart men and preachers of old, shape our understanding
of things. And that has become so ingrained
in us that whenever we see the truth, And listen, even today,
115 to 118 scriptures read within their context, shown within their
context, there are gonna still be some that are watching, some
that are listening, that are gonna be saying, well, that just
can't be true. You're saying that I'm not part of the church.
You're saying that there's some that aren't part of the church
that are elected of God and you're not part of the church. Yes,
that's what we're saying. That is what we're saying. that there can be some who are
elect of God, but that are not part of the church. But the only
reason that these people have a problem with that and get upset
or get mad or get frustrated or offended at that is because
they come at the word church with the wrong understanding
of what the church is. They think church is this elect
body of God. And I say body, it ain't, it
doesn't, The word body isn't used for this, okay? They think
this is what church is. And because they come with the
wrong presupposition, they get offended whenever you teach the
correct truth. But see, if they realize that
when we say that you're not part of the church, if you're not
in a local New Testament church, we're not saying you're lost.
We're saying you're not part of the church. Go get in the
church. Find where the word of God is
being preached, where the gospel is being preached, where the
ordinances are being kept up, where the New Testament church
is gathered and where they are gathered, get in there and be
a part of that and to serve. That's where the service of God
is. And so whenever we say that, we don't mean, hey, you're not
a Christian, you're not elect, you're not quick and you're not,
you know, that's not what we're saying. Not saying that at all. This is what we're saying. We've
seen that in Acts. When those people, they were
pricked in their heart and they believed. And then they were
baptized. But guess what? They still weren't
in the church yet. They believed and were baptized, but not part
of the church. Those who believed and were baptized
were then added to the church. See, believing and being baptized,
has to take place before you're even part of the church. And if you mean that to be this,
then we've got salvation wrong. We're preaching the gospel wrong.
Gospel is now about believing and baptism. Now you can see
where the Campbellites veered off way back when, when they
believed that it's all about believing and being baptized. Okay, any questions? The evidence is pretty overwhelming,
isn't it? It was overwhelming to me. When
some of the brothers came and said, I tell you what, you have
your definition of church, but you show me in God's word, and
you pull up every place where that term is used, and you show
me within its context, and be honest with the context. If you'd
be honest with the context and look at that, you show me where
that's located, a Universal Invisible Church and come back to me. And
brethren, listen, I searched, I searched, I searched, I searched,
I searched, and couldn't find it. I mean, it was so overwhelming. And, you know, I told my Uncle
Tom one time, I said, you know, can it not be, you know, just
the conglomeration of everybody or the conglomeration of all
the churches together makes up the Universal Invisible Church?
And he said, well, just, you know, whenever you find it, come
and show it to me. You know, if it's there, I'll believe it.
And man, it wasn't there. It wasn't there. Couldn't find
it. So anyway, for those who are watching or listening, if
you go on our open Facebook page, Southern Grace Baptist Church
of Joplin, I have the study posted there. You can download that,
which is what I've printed off for the folks here. print that,
this is every verse in the scriptures that have that word Ekklesia
there. I also have, we passed out this morning before the broadcast
started, quotes that I did early on in the study on Ekklesia and
the etymology. So we see historically how people
understood that. And these were all the quotes
that I gathered together from various sources, but that, I
have yet to put on, but I will put that on. And then we also
put on there the comments of the 1644, 1647 Baptist Confession
of Faith and how they understood the term ekklesia, or church,
and that it was a local congregation. And anyway, some comments that
was made of that. Again, both of those are not
why we believe what we believe. You know why we believe what
we believe? Those 118 verses that we just went through. That's
why we believe what we believe. Not because Dr. So-and-so or
etymology so-and-so said this and not because the 1644 Baptist
said that. They are only attesting to the
truth of what God's word says. So anyway, those will be up there
and you can download those for your own study and your own time. Just about made a mess. And so anyway, we will continue
in our study the Ecclesia, the Lord's Ecclesia, and we're gonna
move into some other areas. Now that we've established what
the term means, and by every definition found in the Scriptures,
it's a local visible assembly. Now we're gonna move on, we're
gonna talk about, instead of the nature of the church, we're
gonna talk about the things such as like the ordinances, the offices
of the church, we're gonna talk about the service of the church,
the ministry of the church. We're gonna talk about those
things, And so we have several weeks ahead of us in this study,
and I hope it's edifying to you. And I know for some, these kinds
of messages and series isn't their cup of tea. A lot of people,
they wanna hear the gospel over and over and over again. And
I do too. I love to hear that. A lot of
times, topical stuff kinda gets a little old, but I wanna hear
the gospel. but we need to do this. The Bible tells us to preach
the whole counsel of God, right? I'm gonna teach you all things
whatsoever Christ has commanded. That's what I'm accountable to
do. And so part of that is teaching
you what the Bible says about the church and every aspect of
it. So how are we to know how to
function as the church if we don't know what God's word says
about it? So that's why we do that. And
so we will continue in our study of this For those that are listening,
I hope you continue with us and see the importance of the Lord's
Church. All right, again, anybody got anything? All right, let's
bow and have a word of prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father,