Well turn with me to Revelation
chapter 2 and verses 8 to 11 which is the letter, you know
there are seven letters from the glorified Christ via the
Apostle John given to him on the Isle of Patmos in the Aegean
Sea in about AD 95 and this is the second of the seven because
it's symbolical of all the church in all time. We saw Ephesus last
week, this week it's to the church at Smyrna. In 1940, May 1940,
Churchill had just been made Prime Minister and the war situation
was looking absolutely dreadful and the conflict was going to
get very, very brutal very, very soon. It was the brutal tyranny
of the Nazi regime in Germany versus Freedom. Britain stood for freedom. France
had fallen, the rest of Europe was either under fascism or in
a very perilous state. And Britain alone stood for freedom.
And Churchill was made the Prime Minister. And his intention,
he summed it up in one word, victory. That was his intention.
Because victory would bring the prospect of a bright future and
of freedom for the peoples of the world. But he said this,
on the road to that, I have only this to offer you. He said this
to Parliament and then in a broadcast. And you might remember the words,
blood, toil, tears and sweat. That was all he could promise.
What's it going to be like? You know, you don't hear many
politicians give us the honest answer these days, do we? But
he said, blood, toil, tears and sweat. Now, the reason I start
with that is because I think it parallels the situation of
the true church in the world today. The true church upholds
the principles of the kingdom of God in the front line of its
battle with the world, the kingdom of Satan, because this world
is the kingdom of Satan, the kingdom of Antichrist. When I
say the principles of the kingdom of God, what do I mean? The principles
of the kingdom of God. I mean this above all else. Underline
it. Score it in your mind. Underline
it. The principles of the kingdom of God are the righteousness
of God established for a multitude of sinners whom God chose in
electing grace before the beginning of time. That righteousness established
by redeeming grace in Christ who came, who honored the law,
who bore the sins of his people in his own body, who paid the
price of that sin to the justice of God which demands that the
soul that sins it shall die. And it's on that basis that there
is a kingdom of righteousness and peace in eternal glory with
God without sin forever. It's that that is important.
By contrast, the kingdom of this world, the kingdom of Satan,
And that's the beast from the sea that Peter read in Revelation
chapter 13 and verse 1. You know, those mysterious pictures
that sound, well you can tell where Tolkien and his Lord of
the Rings got his imagery from. He was stealing his imagery,
the style of the imagery at any rate, from the scriptures. But
in Revelation 13, the beast from the sea and the beast from the
land, ten heads and seven horns or is it the other way around
but anyway all of that imagery You know, it isn't weird. It's what we're living in today.
It's the kingdoms of this world. It's the empires of this world.
It's the nations of this world, the political leadership of this
world, all underpinned by the philosophy of this world. Note,
note, politics, every one of them, whichever country, whether
it be communist China or whether it be capitalist USA, whichever
one, USA with all its so-called Christian religion, but you scratch
beneath the surface and you will see it is all based on nothing
to do with the true righteousness of God established in the Lord
Jesus Christ. That is the fact. That is the
fact. It all seeks human cooperation aiming for a utopia without God's
righteousness and without the satisfaction of divine justice. And I'll tell you what it does.
It fosters this kingdom of Satan, the kingdom of this world. It
fosters as good that which God calls evil, and it fosters as
evil that which God calls good. Am I not right? You, who've been
around a while, think what it was like 30, 40, 50 years ago.
Think what the morals of society were like, even if underneath
it wasn't very good, but think what the morals of society were
like, and how they've been completely turned on their head in the face
of the righteousness and justice of God, especially in the last
10 years. It has always been thus, in a
way, since the fall in the Garden of Eden. The world empires seeking
to subsume the Kingdom of God. In the Old Testament, the Kingdom
of God on this earth was manifested if it was manifested to any degree,
but it was only manifested in Israel and Judah, Judah especially. Because from there, the Messiah
of God, who would establish the righteousness of God, would come.
But the empires of this world sought to subsume it. Not to
crush it and destroy it, but to subsume it, to blend it in,
so that there was no difference, so that there was no distinctiveness.
Just as Britain, we could have done what Hitler said. Britain
could have done what Hitler said. We could have avoided that war,
we could have just capitulated and just adopted the fascist
Nazi philosophy of life and, you know, it would have been
lovely, wouldn't it? No, it wouldn't. No, it wouldn't.
Life wouldn't have been worth living. But, anyway. There's
always been this conflict. But you see, God cannot permit
His kingdom of righteousness and peace to be subsumed into
the kingdom of this world. His kingdom of righteousness
and peace must triumph, but not without conflict. There is a
conflict. And, you know, the The security authorities are
constantly scanning everything we say that's going on the internet,
and so I'm sure there's some algorithm somewhere listening
to me now and thinking, oh, is he talking about insurrection
and terrorism and whatever? No, of course not. The kingdom
of God is not a kingdom of physical presence and physical weapons
in this world. The kingdom of God is in the
hearts of God's people, but there is a conflict. And the weapons
of our warfare, says Paul, are not physical weapons of guns
and bullets and swords and bombs. He said the weapons of our warfare
are mighty to the pulling down of strongholds because they're
conceptual, they're spiritual, they're weapons of righteousness
and of the truth of God, the sword of the Spirit, which is
the Word of God. Now, the letter to the church
at Smyrna, A.D. 95, remember, in the first vision
of the book of Revelation, we've seen the glorious Lord Jesus
Christ, God as He is manifested, the Ancient of Days as the Son
of Man manifested, speaking to His church, and He's spoken to
Ephesus and given a lot of praise, but a great warning about them
leaving their first love. And the second one is to Smyrna. Smyrna was a place just up the
coast in Turkey from Ephesus, a beautiful place. The letter
to Smyrna is to a church in the very front line of the conflict
between the kingdom of God, them representing the kingdom of God,
part of the kingdom of God, against the kingdom of this world and
everything it tried to do to subsume that church and its unique
and its distinctive witness into the philosophy of the world.
It's a letter to Smyrna then, nearly, well, 1900 and a bit
years ago. It's a letter to all true churches,
all true churches since Christ, especially in our day. Do you
know, I've said it often, but I am increasingly convinced that
we are living in what Revelation 20 calls the little season of
Satan. It says that following the triumph
of Christ at the cross and his ascension, that Satan was bound
for a symbolical thousand years. Now, his binding was a restriction
on what he was able to do, on a chain that's of a length determined
by God and allowed by God for his purposes. But that chain
prevented him from massive deception, which is why the truth of the
Christian gospel went forth as that white horse throughout the
world. And although there was a lot of false Christianity,
nevertheless the influence of it was very great. But it says
at the end of the symbolical thousand years, there is a period
called Satan's little season, when the restraint is loosed.
And he is allowed to go forth once again to, it says, deceive
the nations. What does he deceive the nations
with? The idea that God is false, the scriptures are a lie, the
truth of God, that God created, that God sustains, that God upholds,
that God is sovereign over everything, is a lie, is something that we
regard as trivial, is something that we regard as a silly load
of nonsense that we don't need to bother about. That is the
philosophy of this world. We're in that little season of
great deception. Now, amongst these letters, Smyrna,
and one other, Philadelphia I think it is, stands out as not having
one word of criticism from the Lord. In these four verses here,
not one word of criticism. Verse 8, the speaker, let's look
at this, verse 8, And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna
write, These things says the first and the last, which was
dead and is alive. Who is speaking here? Well, of
course, it's Christ. who is in the midst of the seven
golden candlesticks, which represents his church in this world. Candlesticks,
things that bear light. The light is him. He is the light
of the world. He who believes in him shall
not live in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Christ
is the light of the world. He said he was. He that stands
in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks and says right to
the angels, the messengers, the pastors, the preachers of the
churches, tell them to hear what the risen glorified God says
to His people in this world. I pray that they may not be taken
out of this world, said Christ in John 17, but that they be
kept in this world as a testimony to the truth of God, that they
be kept from evil in this world as they testify, until all things
are fulfilled. This is the first and the last
who is speaking, the Alpha and the Omega, the infinite God. The pictures that we saw in chapter
1 of Him, like the Son of Man, but with all the appearance of
the Ancient of Days that Daniel saw in Daniel chapter 7. One
like the Son of Man was brought to the Ancient of Days, but now
that one has accomplished redemption's purpose at Calvary. And now He
is portrayed here. The Ancient of Days is manifest
to His people. The Eternal Infinite God is manifest
to His people. The Father is known by His people
in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Son of Man.
Son of God and Son of Man. He is manifest as the glorified
Son of Man, the One who is the origin, the first. I am the first,
the Alpha. He is the origin of everything.
And He is the Omega, the last. The Greek alphabet, Alpha to
Omega. He is the last, the Omega, the
One who will conclude everything. He is God in whom is life. I am alive, which was dead and
is alive. He is the one, he is God in whom
is life and in whom alone is life. In whom alone is life. God is the giver of life. God
is the source of all life. In him was life and the life
was the light of men. Men lived in darkness and didn't
comprehend the light. God is light and yet God As a
man come down to die, as Philippians 2 says, he thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, Christ. Why? Because he was God. He is
God. He is the eternal God. He is
the manifestation of the Father to his people. He came down from
His glory, He laid His glory aside and became obedient unto
death, even the cursed, shameful death of the cross. Why? Because
only that way is God's justice satisfied. He came and died to
satisfy offended, divine righteousness and justice. Because only in
that can he redeem his people, can he pay the liberty price
from the curse of the law, from the bondage of the law. And this
is the one who speaks truth. Would you know truth about life?
In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. There
is no knowledge of truth outside of him, really. In him is no
lie. Satan is the father of lies,
but Christ only speaks truth. In Him is no possibility of failure. He shall save His people from
their sins, and He shall not fail. There is no possibility.
His success depends not on the whim of man. His success depends
entirely on His divine attributes, and He has accomplished everything.
He sees everything. He's omniscient. He knows everything. He's omnipresent. everywhere. He can do everything He determines
to do, for He is Almighty God, and He is the one, this awesome,
awesome God, with whom we have to do. This is the one who loves
His people. He says, I have loved you with
an everlasting love, therefore with cords of love have I drawn
you. He draws His people, those whom He put in union with himself
before the beginning of time, and for whom he came to redeem
from the curse of the law, he's loved with an everlasting love."
It's everlasting. It never had a beginning in time,
and it will never have an end in time. He will accomplish all
of his purposes. And he's writing to a church
in Smyrna. What's the situation in Smyrna? As I said, Smyrna is north of
Ephesus, on the Turkish coast, on the Aegean Sea. It's, as far
as I can make out from the maps, it's modern-day Izmir. You can
go to Izmir today. It was a beautiful and a prosperous
city in the days when John was writing, at the end of the first
century, A.D. 95. But it was right on the front
line of the battle between the kingdom of God, which the church
stood for, and the kingdom of Satan. The Lord Jesus Christ,
our God, in heaven, looking down, directing all affairs, says this
to them. He says this to the angel of
the church. The angel of the church, we think
from history, although it doesn't say it here, but we're pretty
sure from historical records that the angel of the church
in Smyrna was a man called Polycarp, and his name in Greek means much
fruit, Polycarp. He was the pastor, if you like,
of the church at Smyrna. He was the preacher there. He
got God's word and he preached the gospel of grace to them.
And he says, Christ says, through the angel of the church, I know
your works. I know your works. Is that not
reassuring? I put a little piece by Don Faulkner
in the bulletin. I know thy works. He knows our
situation. I know your tribulation, the
troubles that you are experiencing as a church of God. I know the
poverty that you've been driven to. I know that material, physical
poverty that you've been driven to for maintaining the truth
of the gospel of grace. That's why I had us read Revelation
13 just before. You know when we got towards
the end of that chapter of seeing the kingdoms of this world, and
you could only operate in the kingdoms of this world if you
had the mark of the beast, which means that you had adopted the
philosophy of the kingdom of this world. You had agreed to
the unbelief in God of this world. You had swallowed Satan's lie
about the truth of God. And being like that and having
the philosophy of this world and all happily getting on together,
you could trade, you could go to work, you could, you know,
just don't talk about your religion. And those that didn't have that
mark of the beast, Those that were sealed with the blessing
of the gospel of God in their foreheads, not literally, they
couldn't trade. People wouldn't do business with
them. You say that's a bit extreme. You think about it. You think
now, in this politically correct, I think the expression is woke,
I've never quite understood it, but I'll use it because I hear
it being used all the time. But unless you've got that attitude,
there are increasing number of jobs that you're just not allowed
to do. I would imagine that if you are absolutely solid 100%
for the principles of the Kingdom of God, you would struggle to
be appointed to a position in the police force, because everything
has to be so woke. so politically correct, so adopting
of the philosophy of the kingdom of this world, of the kingdom
of this world which turns the righteousness of God on its head.
And because of that, poverty comes along. But he says to them,
but you are really rich. The world might view you as poverty-stricken,
you might feel hunger and shortage, but you are in truth rich, because
God has blessed his people with every spiritual blessing in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. And therefore we are rich, for
the kingdom of God is ours, and we are heirs with Christ of everything
that God has, heirs of it. And he says, I know where you
are and I know the difficulties that you're in. I know your works
of faith for the kingdom of God. I know the troubles and the difficulties
this has brought you. I know that. I know the physical
deprivations to which you're subject. What is it that caused
it as we've seen? The kingdom of this world. Satan's
world kingdom without the justice of God. Just let me remind you
some of the verses that Peter read to us earlier. You see,
it says in verse 8, they that dwell upon the earth shall worship
him. The beast. The kingdom of this world. The
philosophy of this world. They'll go along with it. Who
are they? Those whose names are not written
in the Book of Life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of
the world. When you get down to the end of Revelation chapter
20, you'll see the most important book to have your name written
in In all of time is the Lamb's book of life. And then look down
at verse 15, verse 15. He had power to give life, this
is the second beast, had power to give life unto the image of
the beast. You know when you read that it
reminded me so much of Daniel. in the kingdom of Babylon, in
the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar, when he reared up his great image. And the edict went out that whenever
the trumpet sounded throughout the land, everybody had to stop
what they were doing and bow down to the image of the beast.
And you think that's all a bit weird, but do you know something?
Is it that weird? Is it? Is it? You think about
our society in recent months through this pandemic. I'm a
great fan of the National Health Service here. I really am. I
know a lot of people in America have problems with the socialised
healthcare system, but we find it works, generally speaking,
very well for us. But do you know something? We
got through a period of many, many weeks where the trumpet
sounded at eight o'clock on a Thursday night and we all had to go outside
and we all had to bow down to worship the image of the NHS. Very, very similar. Very, very
similar, wasn't it? Anyway, the image of the beast
should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship
the image of the beast should be killed. Oh, do you know the
worst thing you could do amongst your neighbours was not go outside
and clap the NHS. Wasn't it? Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh, what's wrong with them? Ah,
oh, they don't revere the NHS. Do you know the NHS is the nearest
thing we have in this country in these days to a national religion. It really is. It really is. And
he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and
bond, to receive the mark in their right hand and on their
foreheads, that no man might buy or sell, save he that had
that mark. and the number of the beasts.
You see, it's adopting the philosophy of that age. And at times throughout
history, this persecution becomes intense. It was for these folk
in Smyrna. It might be for us in the days
in which we live. I don't know. I'm not trying
to be scaremongering, but All the signs are there, and God
has told us to be prepared for it. This is why I'm looking at
these letters at the moment, because I think it's so apt for
the time in which we live. Persecution of note for those
in Smyrna came not generally from the world around, though
it did, but the most intense came from those that are mentioned
here. The blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not,
but are the synagogue of Satan. It came from religious zealots. The Jews there in that Turkish
town were zealous. They have a zeal for God, says
Paul in Romans 10, but not according to knowledge. They had a zeal
for God, like Saul of Tarsus before he became Paul the Apostle,
had a zeal for God. Abraham's physical descendants,
they hated the Christ preached by Polycarp at Smyrna. They hated
the Christ of sovereign grace, the one who in sovereign grace
has called not just Jews, but his multi-ethnic multitude that
no man can number, the elect of God. You know, it's not the
physical descendants, the genetic descendants of Abraham that are
his children, but as Galatians 3, 7 says, Know ye therefore
that they which are of faith, the same are the children of
Abraham. Although they claim the pure religious credentials,
the Jews, he says, Christ says, God says, they are a synagogue,
a meeting, a gathering. They're a band of Satan's followers,
doing Satan's bidding. They're wholeheartedly enlisted.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, says Joshua. And
these had all said, we're lining up with this. We're lining up
with this, the kingdom of Satan. They might not have known it
as that, but that's what they did. That's what most religion
does today. Even that which is called Christian,
the majority of it is in the same camp as Satan's kingdom. Like the woman of Revelation
17, the woman in Revelation is a picture of the church. When
John sees a woman in Revelation 12 verse 1, that is undoubtedly
the true church of God, persecuted by Satan, from whom the Christ
comes. And then, when he's accomplished his work, the woman is taken
by wings of faith into the wilderness, into a place prepared of God,
where he feeds her until he comes again. In Revelation 17, John
sees another woman and he thinks at first that she is the church
because the woman represents the church in these visions.
But the closer he looks, he sees that she is a harlot. She is
unfaithful. She is a prostitute as far as
faith goes. Fidelity to God is concerned.
Her name is Babylon, which speaks of everything which is the kingdom
of Satan and opposes. You know, Babel, the Tower of
Babel, that's where it comes from. The wound that we saw in
Revelation 13, verse 2, is it? The beast whose head was wounded
was when God confounded the languages at the Tower of Babel. That was
the wound. Splitting up these nations that ganged up against
the kingdom of God. But our God assures us that He
knows the situation we're in with this world's opposition
all around. As then, these days in which
we live, are as Paul wrote to Timothy, 2 Timothy 3 verse 1,
he says, this know also that in the last days perilous times
shall come. I believe that we're in them
or we're entering them. Perilous times of the end when
the kingdom of Satan will unleash its fury against the people of
God, the kingdom of God. How long before preaching the
gospel of grace is labeled hate speech. I tell you, we were so
close to it already. How long before God's Word is
mutilated by the society in which we live to protect, I'll call
it this, the rights of perversion? How long before that happens?
All the seeds, all the indications of it are there. But there's
an encouragement from our God. Look at the very next words,
verse 10. 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 trouble ten days. Be thou
faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. Don't
fear what will happen. It is going to happen, and it
will feel temporarily difficult and painful. But it will soon
end. There's a hymn that says, the
bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower.
That's what he's saying to his people. The bud of this persecution
may have a bitter taste, but it will burst into a flower which
is so sweet. You will suffer, he says, you
will suffer material loss because the kingdom of this world won't
trade with you. You will suffer poverty because they won't buy
your goods or use your services or pay you for it. They will
scorn you. They will distance themselves
from you. They will ill-treat you. They
will imprison you. You will even be put to death,
as was Polycarp, according to history. He suffered a brutal
martyrdom, did Polycarp. Why? Because the record says
he wouldn't renounce his faith. All he had to do was say, no,
this is rubbish, the Jews are right, and they wouldn't have
put him to death. But he wouldn't do that, and
they put him to death. They were encouraged to remain
faithful. Look, be thou faithful unto death. Be thou faithful until the day
that God takes you out of this world because You can be sure
it isn't violent men that take you out of this world. It's the
hand of God that permits it for His purpose. But look, it's trouble
for ten days. What does that mean? Is it literal?
Of course not. The vast majority of the numbers
and things in this book of Revelation are symbolical. They're visions.
They're signifying the truth. Ten? is the number of God's completeness. You know, there are ten commandments,
there were ten virgins, there were ten plagues in Egypt. It's
God's number of completeness. So it's that which is complete
as far as God is concerned. But they're not years, they're
not months even, they're not weeks, they're days. So the symbology
of that is that they're short, it's a short period of time.
He says, remain faithful even if it results in martyrdom, because
we know that to depart, as Paul says, to depart and be with Christ
is far better. How are we going to be faithful?
Do you have the strength to be faithful? Do I have the strength
to be faithful? Not in our own strength, but
what else did Paul learn? When he was given the thorn in
the flesh because of the exaltation of the visions that he had seen,
he was given a thorn in the flesh that he might not be puffed up
above measure. And he prayed the Lord three
times that it might be taken away from him. And God said to
him, Don't worry about this. My strength is made perfect in
your weakness. In our weakness, we experience
the perfection of God's strength in His children. He has said,
I will never leave you nor forsake you. The best meaning disciples
on the night in which he was betrayed said to him, we will
never leave you nor forsake you. And of course, a couple of hours
later, they all fled in fear because they were mere men like
we are. We're just mere flesh and blood,
sinful, weak flesh and blood. But he is not. He is God who
cannot change. He said, I will never leave you
nor forsake you. He won't ever leave or forsake
His people. He will keep His people to the
end for His Father is greater than all. The Father is greater
than all and none can pluck His people out of His Father's hand.
And He holds out for them a reward. A reward. A lot of people talk
about degrees of reward in heaven. They talk about some believers
having been much better believers than others, and therefore God
rewards them for what they've done. I just do not see that
in the Scripture at all. I think that's an utter distortion
of the Scripture. How can that be the case when
a parable like the labourers in the vineyard, the ones that
worked just for one hour at the end of the day, got exactly the
same wages as those that toiled all the day long? What is the
reward of the believer? To Abraham, God said, I am your
exceeding great reward. He says, He that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He that
overcomes shall not be hurt of the second death. I will give
thee a crown of life. A crown of life and not hurt
from the second death. In other words, life eternal,
heavenly glory, in intimate unbroken communion with God and his saints.
As I've said, to Abraham he promised, I am your exceeding great reward. You see, the things that God
has in store for us, as Paul says in Romans 8, 18, he says,
I reckon that the sufferings of this present time, you in
Smyrna, the sufferings that you're going through in this present
time, us maybe in the days that lie ahead of us, the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared. You balance
them, it's going to hurt, oh it's going to hurt, ah but the
glory's going to be, oh no. No, Paul says it just isn't a
comparison. The sufferings of this present time are not worthy
to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.
Do you have an ear to hear what the Spirit says to the churches?
If you have, it's because God has given you it. Has God's Holy
Spirit given you new life to know the truth of God's kingdom?
If he has, you will not be able to resist believing him. You
will know for certain that God in Christ has paid your sin debt,
that God in Christ has qualified you with the holiness you need.
Follow holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. In
Christ you have it, for he has made his people the righteousness
of God in him. And that being accomplished,
that being, as he said on the cross, finished for all eternity,
nothing can separate you from it. Whatever might happen in
this world, persecution from without, no, that won't separate
you from it. Doubts and failings within, because
we're weak. All of us, if we admit it honestly,
we're sinners and we're weak and we're frail. Weakness of
the flesh, weakness of the understanding. None of that can separate us
from the love of Christ. How do I know? How can I be so
confident? I'll finish with this one verse.
Philippians 1 verse 6, Paul says this, being confident of this
very thing. that he which hath begun a good
work in you will perform it unto the day of Christ Jesus. There
you are. There's no need for concern.
God will accomplish all of his purposes. Whatever the situation
might bring in the front line of conflict between the kingdom
of this world and the church of Christ, the kingdom of God,
God will keep his people. Remain faithful unto the end.
Pray that he will give you that light of life. Pray that he will
give you that grasp of eternal truth. Pray that he will give
you that faith to hold on. Pray that he will keep you and
never let you go. Amen.