OK, Revelation Chapter 2. The
next letter to the churches we're going to look at is the letter
to the church at Smyrna. I've entitled the lesson this
morning, Encouragement to Persevere. That's what that letter to them
is all about. Smyrna was a very rich city.
It was on the coast of the Aegean Sea, and it was one of the crown
jewels of the Roman Empire. So it was obviously a very pagan
city. But in the midst of all that
idolatry and that worldly influence, God raised up a church in the
midst of that city. And because of the idolatry and
the kind of city that it was in, obviously they were going
to meet with a lot of opposition, and they did. At the writing
of this letter, the pastor of the church was a man named Polycarp.
Polycarp was one of the first martyrs. They burned him at the
stake in the Colosseum at Smyrna. They took him to the Colosseum.
This is what the historians write. And they were going to feed him
to the lions. And his insistence that Christ is king, that Caesar's
not king, that Christ is king, that Christ is the Savior, made
them so angry, they said, well, I'm going to feed you to the
lions. We're going to burn you at the stake. And he said, have at it. I'm
not going to regain. And they burned him at the stake.
Now, the Lord writes a letter to that church to tell them to
continue to persevere in faith. And in this letter, you'll see
the Lord doesn't address any issues that needed to be corrected
there. He simply writes to encourage
those believers and he writes to encourage us today. persevere
in the faith. And I love the way he encourages
them. He encourages them to persevere in the faith by writing to comfort
their hearts. Now, in our society today, we
don't face the kind of opposition that they faced in that day.
The people there, if they were baptized, confessing Christ,
Monday morning, they'd lose their job. They'd suffer severe poverty
and hunger because They profess faith in Christ and nobody trade
with them. They couldn't have a job. They
get kicked out of their house. They could even be killed if
they refuse to deny that Christ is the Savior. Thankfully, we
don't meet with that kind of opposition today, but don't make
any mistake about it. The world still hates the Lord
Jesus Christ and this world still hates the gospel that declares
him. We don't face, you know, being put to death or burned
at the stake, but we face ridicule. We face hatred for believing
the gospel. And our Lord promised that, that
ought not surprise us. Our Lord promised us, in this
world, you shall have tribulation. So this encouragement to persevere
in the faith is for us today, just like it was for our brethren
then. John here gives us three words
of comfort that encourage our hearts to persevere to the end.
The first one is this. The Lord encourages us to persevere
in the faith because of who he is. Look here at verse eight,
Revelation chapter two. And under the angel of the church
of Smyrna, right. These things say at the first
and the last, which was dead and is alive. Now, it always
comforts the hearts of God's people to see our savior, doesn't
it? If you want comfort from your
trials, I tell you what to do. Look away from your trials, look
away from yourself, and look to Christ. Every sight of Him
comforts the hearts of His people. And our Lord tells us who He
is. He's the first and He's the last. And what that means is
this. Christ our Savior is in control
of everything. He's the first and the last.
Christ is the first. All things were made by Him.
Without him was not anything made that was made. He's the
first. He's the creator. He's the one who rules over all
of his creation. The one who holds all of this
creation together is Christ our Savior. He's the first. By him,
all things consist. Our Savior, the one who loved
us and gave himself for us, is in control of all things. So
he's in control of this trial too. He's in control of what
it is we're going through. It's not our enemies. It's Christ
who's in control. He's the first. He's the first
cause of everything. And Christ is the last. He's
the judge. He's got the last word on everything. And his word is always final. When our girls were very, very
little, two, three years old, They'd be in a discussion, you
know, about what's going to, they want to do something, you
know, or Janet would tell them no. And if they continued very
long, Janet would point at them and say, Mama, say it. And they
just, yeah, because they knew that was the end. There was no
more conversation. That was final. That's our Lord's
word. His word is the final word in
everything. Our Savior is the first and the
last, and he's everything in between. Christ is all. Does that encourage you to continue
in the faith? To continue looking to him? He's all. He's everything
we need. And this will comfort your heart.
Christ said, I am he that was dead, but now I'm alive. Christ our Savior died. Everybody
knows that. But here's the question. Why
did he die? Why did Christ die? He died to
put away the sin of his people. The sin of his people was charged
to him and he died to put it away. So to every believer, I
say, you don't have any sin. It's gone, gone under the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. God has reconciled his people.
God will never ever punish his people because the death of Christ
satisfied God's justice. Got satisfied. Now, doesn't that
put the world's hatred in perspective? God's justice is satisfied. Does
that encourage you to keep looking to Him? Christ is the one who
died. He died as the substitute for
His people. So His people can never die.
Now, the world may be able to touch our bodies. If the Lord
enables them, the Lord allows them, they can touch our bodies.
But they can never touch our lives. They can never touch our
soul. They can never harm it because
Christ died as our substitute. He died. And now he lives. Well, why is it that he lives?
He lives for the justification of his people. Christ was raised
for the justification of his people. The death of Christ removed
all of the sin that the father laid on him. And the proof of
it is the father raised him from the dead. He raised him from
the dead because sin's gone. There's no reason for him to
stay dead. Sin's been put away. And Christ lives. He died and
now he lives. He lives to apply that salvation
to the hearts of his people that he purchased at Calvary. He lives
to intercede for his people, always pleading his blood for
their sin. And Christ our Savior lives to preserve and protect
his people safe to the end. That's who he is. Does that encourage
your heart to persevere in the faith? To continue looking to
him? You see, we talk about persevering
in the faith. You don't have to persevere by
your own strength. Now, we persevere by the strength
and the faithfulness of Christ our Savior. He's the first and
the last. He was dead and now is alive.
Now look to him. Because of who he is, that comforts
our hearts, doesn't it? Second word of comfort our Lord
gives us is this. He encourages his people to persevere
in the faith because he knows. Verse nine, he said, I know thy
works in 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. Now the Lord says, I know. Here these brethren are going
through awful, horrible times of trial and tribulation. And
the Lord says, I know. That just comforts the heart
of a child of God. It's just like a small child
is upset about something, hurt, upset, whatever, and its mama
takes it up in his arms and says, honey, I know. And it just, it
makes it better. I know. And the Savior says,
I know. First, our Lord knows the trial.
He knows the trials that are coming. We don't know anything
about him yet, what's going to happen down the road, but he
knows. And this is why that's so comforting. The Lord knows
the trials that are coming. Not because he's a fortune teller,
but because he's the one that ordained them to happen from
all of eternity. He knows because these things
are his eternal purpose. These trials that happened to
us, they're not accidents. They're trials sent by the sovereign,
loving hand of our Father, who knows. He knows all things. He knows everything that happens
to His people, and He cares. Second, the Lord says, I know
your works. I know the motive. I know the heart behind your
works. Now when the Lord says, I know
your works, that's gonna scare a hypocrite to death. Because
a hypocrite, he knows was the motive behind his works. But
when the Lord says, I know your works, that comforts the hearts
of God's children so much. I know your works. That comforts
our hearts because what are our works? The believer's works are
the works of Christ the Savior. Perfect works. I know your works. He knows. Nobody else knows we're
perfect, but he does. He knows. Now listen, no believer
would ever bring up their works before God. We would never bring
up our works and say, you know, look at us, Lord, you know my
works. We know better than that. Our works aren't even worth mentioning.
The best works that we do are nothing but filthy rags. They're
rags that are defiled by sin. So we're not going to bring those
up. You know, even when a believer does do something, you know,
occasionally you think, I might have done something there with
a pure motive, a motive of really caring for someone else, you
know, a motive that really did, was really truly concerned about
the glory of God and the good of his people. And then we ruin
it, don't we? We get so full of pride, self-serving
pride. We get proud of our motive and
just ruin it. That's the way of our flesh.
So even a believer would never bring up our works before God.
But we can say with Peter, I've done a mighty poor job of
it, but Lord, you know all things. You know I love you. Lord, you
know that my weak, insufficient service was really done out of
a heart of love and gratitude for who you are and everything
that you've done for me. The Lord knows. He knows. And he blesses it. And do you
know what? Those works that the Lord knows
and He blesses, that He takes notice of, you know, they don't
have to be an extraordinary thing. They don't have to be an extraordinary
thing at all. They could be a very simple thing. Look at Matthew
chapter 10. Just such a simple thing. The
Lord knows that widow woman who put her two mites in the offering.
Not one person there knew it. Not one person there recognized
it but the Lord. He knew, he knew she cast in
of her poverty all her living. These good works that the Lord
takes note of are just simple kindnesses in the name of Christ
for the people of Christ. John 10 verse 40. Our Lord tells
his disciples, he that receiveth you receiveth me and he that
receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. He that receiveth a
prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward.
And he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous
man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whosoever shall
give to drink unto one of these little ones just a cup of cold
water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall
in no wise lose his reward. Just giving a child of God a
simple cup of cold water with a newborn. Just as simple. The
Lord said, he takes note of that. He knows your works. He knows
the motive behind it. And then he says, I know where
you're at. I know what you're going through. I know your poverty. I know you don't have enough
of this world's goods. I know you barely got enough
to eat. I know you hardly got enough clothes, you know, sufficient.
I know your shelter is lacking. I know. And I know why all this
has happened to you. You publicly confessed to me
and it's cost you. I know. The believers in Smyrna,
it cost them to have faith in Christ. It cost them their homes.
It cost them their jobs. It cost them their families.
The Lord says, I know. But he said, I tell you what
else I know, and you need not forget. I know that really you're
not poor. So don't, just don't get feeling
too sorry for yourselves. You're not poor. The Lord says
you're rich. You're unspeakably rich in what
really matters. in spiritual blessings. You are
so rich spiritually. If you believe Christ, you are
so rich. You have every spiritual blessing
Almighty God has for a sinner. You have it all in Christ. After the message Wednesday night,
I was talking with Tara Kennel. She told me, she said, you shouldn't
get titled that message hashtag blessed. And she's probably right.
She's smarter than me, so it might have been a good title.
But she says in social media, every time I see that, hashtag
blessed, she said, I just hate it. She said, all it is when
people use that is a veiled way to brag about themselves. You
know, they're always bragging about the things of this world,
you know. And she made this statement.
How come nobody ever says, God blessed me because he made me
poor in this world? How come nobody ever says, God
blessed me. He gave me a meek attitude. How
come nobody says that? That's not the way flesh looks
at it, is it? But the Lord's blessed you that
way. Oh, if the Lord's given you a poor spirit, so that you
need Christ. If the Lord's given you a meek
attitude, so you know you're nothing. If you're going to be
anything, Christ has got to be all to you. If God's given you
that attitude, you're rich. Oh, how rich you are. Our Lord
said, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven. You're poor in spirit, how rich
are you? You've got an entire kingdom at your disposal. Look at Mark chapter 10. At one time or another, every
believer is going to suffer the loss of something in this world.
for Christ's sake. Sometimes we think, oh, I've
lost everything. Well, we haven't. I mean, we
haven't. But just for the sake of argument,
let's suppose that you have. Let's suppose we've lost everything
for Christ's sake. Even if you had, do you know
you're still not poor? Mark 10, verse 28. Then Peter
began to say unto him, lo, we've left all and followed thee. And
Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, there is no man
that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother,
or wife, or children, or lands for my sake in the Gospels, but
he shall receive an hundredfold. Now in this time, houses, and
brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with
persecutions, and in the world to come, eternal life. But many that are first shall
be last. and the last first. Even if we
think we have lost everything, we haven't, have we? Whatever
it is you've lost, the Lord says you receive it a hundredfold
in this life. Look at this family of believers. They gonna let you go homeless?
They gonna let you starve? No. Even in this life, we've
received a hundredfold, whatever it is we think we've lost. The
Lord says, I know. And he says, too, I know. I know
those in false religion who claim to be Jews, and I'm going to
deal with this in the message this morning. They claim to be
Jews. They claim to be saved people. But they're not. They're
hypocrites. They're the ones persecuting
you. They're the very ones, these religious people. And the Lord
says, I know, and I'm going to deal with them. Look at Matthew
chapter 18. The Lord says, I know. And I'll deal with them, Matthew
18, verse five. And whoso shall receive
one such little one of my name receiveth me. But whoso shall
offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were
better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and
that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world
because of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come.
But woe to that man by whom the offense cometh. The Lord knows.
He knows and he'll deal with them in his time. But it's also
worth noting something here about persevering in the faith. Part
of persevering in the faith is not compromising the false religion.
Just don't compromise with them to get along. because of what
the Lord, this is how serious this is, what does the Lord call
false religion? It's not that, well, they're
almost right. They've got some good things
to say. They've got some things to say
that are right. They've got some things that are wrong, but they've
got some things that are right, too. We can just compromise on
the things that they've got wrong. We can compromise on things we
disagree with, and we can get along. They're worshiping the
same God we are, just in a different way. No, they're not. No, they're
not. What does the Lord say? Their
houses, their synagogues, their dwelling places of Satan. They're
not worshiping the same God. They're worshiping Satan. Free
will, religion, is Satanic. Adam, just take that apple or
that fruit See how the world infects us?
Adam, just take that fruit God commands you not to eat, and
you'll be good. Just go ahead and decide, do
that yourself. That first free will message ever preached, Satan
preached it, satanic. Works religion, where you can
work your way to earn your salvation, that's satanic. That's how serious
the Lord says these matters are. The Lord says, I know them. You
ought to too, now don't compromise with them. And I tell you, all
this goes on, the Lord allows it to go on. And even that, he
allows that religion to even flourish. The Lord allows Satan
to have some power, some influence in this world. But now listen,
don't go picking a fight with him. Don't go looking for him.
But don't fear him either. Don't fear the evil of this world.
Because look what he says in verse 10. Fear none of those
things with which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall
cast some of you into prison. that you may be tried. And ye
shall have tribulation ten days. The Lord tells us these trials
and tribulations are coming to every believer. And that's comforting. You think, how is this bad news? All this suffering is coming
my way. How's that good news? How's that comforting? Well,
the Lord forewarns us. So that when they happen to us,
we won't be taken by surprise. And then we won't get discouraged
and think, Well, God must not love me. I mean, he's letting
all these things happen to me. He must not love me. Here's a
pretty good rule of thumb to remember. Riches in this world,
they're not a sign of God's love and spiritual blessing. If you
got them, God gave them to you, but they may not be a sign of
God's love and spiritual blessing. God allowed that rich man to
have it all. Lazarus had none. In poverty, is not a sign of
God's anger and curse upon us either. The early church was
a poverty stricken people. God loved them. And the Lord
allows Satan to operate in this world to bring to pass many of
these tribulations. It's like the Lord allowed Satan
to move against Job. He may allow him to move against
us that way. Satan desired to have Peter that he might sift
him as wheat. Boy, he had at him, didn't he? He may us too. Satan may be allowed to move
the hearts of the wicked to do horrible, unspeakable things
to God's children. It happened to these believers
in Smyrna. Satan's done it throughout history, and he's going to keep
doing it as long as the Lord allows him to operate. But now
listen, don't fear those things. Don't fear them. No matter what's
going on, the Lord's still the first and the last, isn't He?
The Lord's still in control of these things. Satan's not the
first cause. The wicked world, they're not
the first cause. Our God is. And His cause is
always right, and it's good. These trials will hurt the flesh. But they'll never cause us to
lose anything of value. As a matter of fact, they'll
burn off the dross and make us more valuable. Our God's the
first. He's the first cause of it. And
He's the last. He will not allow that trial
to go any further than His eternal purpose. He says you'll have
tribulation ten days. He doesn't mean it's only going
to last ten days. Everybody's gone through a trial.
No, they last longer than ten days. What He means is this thing's
only going to be allowed to continue an exact set time. And not one second later, not
one second. And 10 days, not very long. That's a short time. Our trials
will not last very long. Our whole life doesn't last very
long. It just passes like that. Well, a trial that happens in
the midst of it, it's not gonna last very long, is it? Look back
at 2 Corinthians chapter four. When you're in the midst of it,
I know it seems like it lasts a long time, but in the light
of the eternity that we'll spend with Christ in joy, the trial
doesn't last very long. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 17. For our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things
which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. So that brings me to the third
point, the third word of comfort. The Lord encourages his people
to persevere in the faith, even unto death, because of what awaits
us in the next world. Look here at the end of verse
10. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown
of life. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit
saith unto the churches. He that overcometh shall not
be hurt at the second death. Now, everyone who's faithful
all the way to death will receive a crown of life. And that crown
of life is not a crown we're wearing on our head. It's eternal
life. But when we hear that, we think,
well, I got to persevere all the way to the end. I can kind
of doubt a little bit. I could start, I could convince
myself to fear very easily because I, this is what I know about
myself. I'm not going to be able to stay faithful that long. That's a long time. I more than
likely am going to get too tired to persevere. Here's our comfort. If the Lord
saved you, you already have eternal life. You don't have to wait
to get it when you die. You already have eternal life.
Our Lord said, He that believeth on the Son hath. everlasting
life. You already have everlasting
life. You can't lose it. Well, now he's not going to let
you quit. He, the one who gave you life, he's not going to let
you fall away and die. He's already given you eternal
life. So we don't have to persevere by our own strength, our own
stamina at all, do we? The believer perseveres by the
strength and the power of God. Now, if we're depending upon
the power of the Almighty, we've got plenty of power to persevere,
don't we? We'll persevere to the end if we're trusting Him.
The Lord says, He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second
death. Look at 1 John chapter 5. Well, how is it that we're
going to overcome? I mean, I'm so weak. I can't
defeat anybody. How can I overcome? By faith. By believing Christ. 1 John 5
verse 4. For whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world. And this is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh
the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. If you believe on Christ, you
will overcome the world. You have overcome the world.
And what the Lord's telling his people is, you just keep trusting
me. because of who I am. You keep
trusting me. I'm faithful. I'll give you what
I promise to give you. You keep trusting me. I'll give
you what I've purchased for you, Calvary. You can depend on me.
And you know the believer will do that. Will keep believing
God. The believer can't fall away
into the second death. It's impossible. Because Christ
already suffered that for us. When we talk about the second
death, We're talking about hell. That's what he's talking about.
Well, God's people, his elect can't go to hell. He can't send
them to hell. Christ, our substitute, already suffered hell for his
people. And he lives. He lives to preserve to the end
his people. All those that he died for, he'll
preserve. The second death cannot harm you if you believe Christ.
Our Savior already conquered death. When he arose from the
grave, he conquered death and the grave. Christ took the sting
of death away from his people. When he died for them, he took
the sting away. So our bodies will die, but our
soul can never die because Christ took the sting away. And we'll
rise from the grave one day too. Death cannot hold God's people
any more than it can hold our Savior because he took our sin
away. So even if our Lord does allow
our enemies to kill us, what have they accomplished? All they've
accomplished is they've allowed us to leave this world and to
go be with our Savior in perfection forever. That's the end of every
believer. Now you believe him. You trust him. You keep believing
him. Don't fear them. Don't fear them. Instead, trust
the Savior. Keep trusting. He'll bring you
faithfully to the end. All right, Lord bless you.