Turn in your bibles please to
the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ again and to the
very end of chapter one i'd like to draw your attention to verses
19 and 20 which reads 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. The seven stars are the angels
of the seven churches and the seven candlesticks which thou
sawest are the seven churches. We've seen before that in the
book of Revelation there are seven parallel visions of the
time between the ascension of the Lord Jesus and His coming
again. And from chapter one through to the end of chapter three,
we see the first opening, the first vision, which is the vision
of the Lord Jesus, the vision of the Son of Man, stood in the
midst of seven golden candlesticks. The vision of Him stood in glory,
in His ascended glory, having completed his work to save his
church, and ruling amongst his churches, over his churches as
the judge of those churches, and as the judge of all the earth.
And then John is given to write seven letters to each of the
seven angels of the seven churches in Asia, and to write down what
he writes, that we may perceive and understand the judgment of
Christ, against those seven churches against his one church is one
ecclesia in the earth not just at that time but throughout all
the ages so this morning i want to draw your attention to these
seven churches these seven letters to the churches we're not going
to look in detail at them but to take them as a whole and the
overall message which the spirit is giving us here through these
seven letters. The Book of the Revelation is
an allegorical book. It is not to be taken literally. The various pictures, numbers
and descriptions are full of allegorical language. The numbers
used, the repetitive use of the number seven, symbolic of perfection. Twelve, free, the numbers used,
they're all numbers with special meaning, the pictures used, they're
all full of meaning. And we will not understand the
intent of the writer here or the intent of the spirit in writing
these things unless we see that these are allegories and are
spiritually discerned. Here in this first vision we
have an allegorical vision A picture of the Son of Man in the midst
of seven golden candlesticks. That is not to be taken literally.
The vision, the descriptions of the Son of Man is not to be
taken literally. They're descriptions of Him in
His character. And these seven golden candlesticks,
as we read in verses 19 and 20 here, are not literal candlesticks. but they represent the church
in seven assemblies and as one church in its golden perfection. We see Christ in the midst of
his church. We see seven golden candlesticks. Seven, a perfect number of churches. Gold, pure. and candlesticks,
those things upon which light burns. We see here a vision of
the church as a perfect and a pure church, in which the light of
Christ shines forth in the midst of a dark world. This is the
church of Christ in this world throughout all the ages. It is
perfect, it is pure. and it is that in which the light
of Christ in his gospel radiates and shines forth. And yet of
course in the letters which we read that John was commanded
to write to the seven angels of these churches, we note much
that is not gold, much departing from the gold which is found
in Christ, much dross, and much of the judgment of Christ against
that dross. And we have much wisdom set before
us here, much rebuke, much exhortation to the church as a whole, of
those things into which it can fall, should it turn its gaze. in any way away from the one
that stands in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. Yes, seven golden candlesticks.
The book of the revelation of Jesus Christ is allegorical,
but it is also a book of angelic activity and a book of judgment. we have seven visions and throughout
the seven visions we repeatedly hear of seven angels and the
reason for this is that Christ as the judge of all the earth
commits his judgment of both the earth and all things and
also his very own church his ecclesia he commits his judgment
unto the angels who work as his delegates When he sends forth
judgment at the end of time, he sends forth seven angels to
pour out the vials of judgment upon an evil world. And when
John is commanded to write the judgment of Christ upon his church,
he's commanded to write to seven angels, to whom the judgment
of each of the assemblies, each seven assemblies of that one
church is committed. It's often said that these angels
here are men, are the pastors of the churches. It's one interpretation. But the trouble with interpreting
the word angel or messenger here as relating to men in this particular
case, is that it sets this first vision at variance with the other
six in the book of Revelation. In every other place in which
we read of angels in the book, we have no doubt that it is angels.
angelic beings, those created of God to do his bidding, not
men. And yet because the church is
upon earth, many automatically think that because of the context
the angels here must be men. But really there is no reason
to think of them as anything other than angels. Particularly
given that again, what is committed unto the angels here, as in the
other visions, is judgment. And what John is told to write
here, to those angels who take responsibility over the church
which is Christ, is a description of the judgment of Christ against
those churches. Yes, he is told to write to the
angels who take upon themselves the responsibility of these assemblies. But consider what he's sent to
write and the progress from each letter to each letter that we
see in these seven letters. We see a remarkable progression
through these seven letters of the state of these seven churches. From the letter that's written
to the angel of the church of Ephesus regarding the church
at Ephesus, right through to the letter regarding the church
of the Laodiceans we see a progression. The commendation of the Church
of Ephesus is actually quite good. What Christ has to say
about the Church of Ephesus is that he knows thy works, and
thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them
which are evil. and that has tried them which
say they are apostles and are not and has found them liars
and has borne and has patience and for my namesake has laboured
and has not fainted. The church at Ephesus, the believers
at Ephesus were those who laboured, those who laboured with a labour
of love, those who were patient in their service of the Lord.
There was much to commend them But what the Lord has against
this assembly is this one point. Nevertheless I have somewhat
against thee because thou hast left thy first love. Thou hast left thy first love,
thou art fallen. Thou art fallen from 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. Yes, they'd left their first
love. Nevertheless, Christ commends
much in the church at Ephesus. But as we read through the other
letters, we read a steadily progressing description of churches which
have gradually turned away from Christ. Steadily the descriptions
get worse. At Smyrna they are commended
for their works, their tribulation, their poverty. But the blasphemy
of the false believers in their midst is condemned. They are
warned of the destruction in the second death for those who
do not overcome. But those who do overcome are
promised the crown of life. By Pergamos, They are commended
that they hold fast Christ's name and have not denied his
faith, despite the fact that they dwell where Satan, who opposes
them, dwells. And yet there is the teaching
of Balaam and the Nicolaitans, which Christ hates in their midst.
They have allowed compromise and false teaching in, and Christ
will fight against them with the sword of his mouth if they
repent not. By fire Tyre again, Good points,
works, charity, service, faith and patience are commended. But
here the dreadful teaching of Jezebel is allowed in, who leads
the servants astray. And tribulation and destruction
is promised to all those who will follow Jezebel's way. By
the time we reach Sardis, we read of a church which has a
name to live, but is dead. There remain a few amongst them
who yet live. They are instructed to strengthen
that little which yet remains and is yet to die, and to remember
how they first heard the gospel and to repent else Christ will
come upon them as a thief in the night to destroy them. By Philadelphia they are told of the one who
can open a door and no man can shut and shuts the door and no
man opens it. And we read of the false Jews
among them. And by Laodicea We read of complete
apathy. They're neither hot nor cold.
The Lord can find nothing to commend this assembly. They are
neither hot nor cold. They're lukewarm, apathetic. Their apathy stands in a complete
lack of awareness of their need of Christ. They're self-sufficient. Their love of Christ has grown
so cold that they've begun to think that they can stand alone. They think they're rich when
they're poor. They think they're strong when
they're weak. They think they see when they
are blind. Yes, we go from Ephesus where
much is commended, right through to Laodicea. where there's nothing
left to commend. Apathy, resting in their own
self, their own strength, their own wisdom, and their own self-righteousness. Yes, there's a progression. You
may say, but I don't quite see the progression. I thought at
Ephesus that they had left their first love. Is this not much
the same as this apathetic assembly at Laodicea? Has not Ephesus
fallen greatly? Well the answer to that is understanding
what is meant by their falling from their first love. You see
the first love at Ephesus is not simply a love of Christ. We may speak of our first love
as being our love of Christ. but there's more to the first
love of Ephesus than just the love of Christ. Their departure
from the truth is much more subtle. It's evident from their works,
their labor, and their patience, and their hatred for the false
teachers, that they have not turned from their love of Christ
entirely. This is still a company that
loves Christ. This is still a company that
has a love for his gospel. And yet, nevertheless, Christ
says that they have left their first love. And what exactly
have they departed from? They've departed from that love,
not just of Christ, but as Christ as the head of his body. From
their love of the head of the body, from their love of the
body of Christ, and from their love of the unity of the body
of Christ. That was the love that the Ephesians
knew. They knew more than just the
love of Christ for them as individuals. They knew what it was to be bound
together, almost more than any of the other assemblies. They
really knew what it was to walk as one body in Christ, to be
knit together as an assembly, to be knit together with all
the assemblies. to be bound in the head as members
of his body, to walk in love one for another and in love for
their head who is Christ. They knew what it was to have
a fervent love of that unity. They tasted of the unity and
the blessing of the unity. They tasted how pleasant it is
for brethren to walk together in unity. They knew what David
the Psalmist meant in the 133rd Psalm when he said, Behold how
good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in
unity. It is like the precious ointment
upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard,
that went down to the skirts of his garments. as the dew of
Hermon and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion, for
there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. When the Lord commands the blessing,
when he sends forth life to his people, he does so not simply
to them as individuals, to be quickened as individuals out
of the death of this world and out of the death of sin unto
life in Christ. But to be gathered together as
one body. They're brought to that one life
in Christ, that one unity in Christ. And the Ephesians knew
it. They knew it in experience and
they'd been given a love of it. As we read earlier in Ephesians
in chapter four, Paul exhorted the Ephesians when he wrote to
them, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that
ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. With
all loneliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing
one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit
in the bond of peace, there is one body, and one Spirit, even
as ye are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one
faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all
and through all and in you all. For unto every one of us is given
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. At the
end of chapter four, he exhorts them, be ye kind one to another,
tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's
sake, have forgiven you. Yes, this was a company that
knew the truth of one body, in which there is one spirit, a
company who was called in one hope of their calling, unto one
Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. That
was their first love. And that is what in Revelation
the company had begun to depart from. They'd begun to turn from
their first love. They hadn't completely turned
from Christ, but they had begun to turn from the love of the
unity. They had begun to turn from their
zeal to maintain the unity. They had begun to turn from their
zeal to have nothing come into the church which could affect
that unity. To tolerate no other teaching
than the pure gospel as they had received it at the beginning. To tolerate no other practice
than that which the apostles had left unto them and instructed
them in. To tolerate nothing else which
could be seen as any departure from this one unity in Christ
and in his gospel. This is what they'd begun to
turn from. They'd left their first love.
How do you know this? You may say. Well, it's reinforced. Each letter's message is reinforced
by the title which Christ uses of himself as he writes to each
church. He describes himself in seven
different ways as he writes to each church. And when he writes
to the church at Ephesus, he says, these things say, if he
that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh
in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. This is his description
of himself. as the one who holds the seven
stars, the seven messengers to the seven churches, the seven
angels, and who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. He reminds the Ephesians here
of that purity of the seven golden candlesticks. He reminds them
that he is the one who stands in the midst of his church, as
one golden candlestick as one united golden candlestick with
seven golden candlesticks upon it as one church having seven
golden candlesticks the reminder here to the Ephesians that should
understand it most is that the body of Christ is one body united
in Christ knit together in love. This is who writes unto the Ephesians
and in using this title of himself he reminds them of that first
love from which they have begun to depart. You see their departure
is subtle, it's not wholesale, this is not a church here which
has a name to live in yet is dead. This is not a church here
which is lukewarm, they work, they labour, they're patient,
they discern false teachers, but they've lost that love of
the absolute unity and the absolute need for unity of Christ's assemblies
as they are united in the one gospel, in Christ alone, as one
body, with one spirit, one faith, one calling, one Lord, one faith,
one baptism and one God and Father of all. Yes, it's a gradual progression
from the letter at the church to the church at Ephesus, a gradual
progression as they subtly turn from that first love of the unity
of the body, that love of Christ as the head of the body, that
love of their brethren as the members of the body, that love
of the unity of the body. A subtle departure, a subtle
turning away from looking unto the one that stands in the midst
of the seven golden candlesticks. A gradual turning away which
gradually, step by step, church by church, letter by letter,
comes to Laodicea, where they have turned completely. Each
letter marks a progress in turning, until at the end, the people
at Laodicea are pointing completely the other way. They take the
name of Christ upon their lips, They think they are rich, they
think they are his, they think they are his church, they think
they are saved. And yet they look not to him
and they don't even know that his presence is not amongst them.
They recognize him not. He stands in the midst of the
seven golden candlesticks but they know none of his voice. Their ears are shut to it. He's
there but they don't see him. He's there, but they perceive
him not. He's there, but they see him not. He's there, but
they hear not. For like John, when the vision
of the Son of Man in the candlesticks came unto him, like John, they
are pointing the wrong way. And like John, they need to be
turned to hear, to see the voice that spake with John. They need
to be turned to see the one that stands in the midst of the seven
golden candlesticks. It's by the time we reach Laodicea,
the turning, the departure is complete. It begins subtly at
Ephesus and it reaches its fulfillment at Laodicea. We see here, as
it were, a progression in seven steps of turning away from the
one in the midst of the candlesticks, of turning away from salvation,
of turning away from the one in whom there is life. We see
a progression through the letters of turning away first from the
body and the love of the body, then from life, then from truth,
then from truth in the inward parts, Then they turn to the
strength of man. Then they turn from the truth
that it is Christ alone who saves. And finally they find themselves
resting in their own strength. Blind and deaf as it were to
the voice of Christ. Yes a progression of seven steps. away from Christ, back as it
were to where they were before they ever heard of him. A church
which is completely apostate, a church which has completely
turned aside, a church which has turned its gaze away from
Christ and his gospel, back to the world, back to where they
came from, back to darkness and death. If you were to turn the
lesson from each letter around, If you start with Laodicea and
work your way backwards through to the church at Ephesus, you
have, as it were, a progression of the work of God in illuminating
man in the gospel. At Laodicea, they are, as it
were, where man is by nature. Apathetic to God, apathetic to
Christ, apathetic to the truth. believing himself to be rich
when he is poor, wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. You have
man by nature. And as you work back through
the letters back up to Ephesus, you have a gradual hearing of
the voice of God, a gradual illumination in the heart, a being brought
to life by the truth of the gospel, a being brought from death unto
life, and being brought to that love of Christ and that love
of the unity of the body of Christ, that love of that people who
are united in Christ and united together in Him and in His gospel.
But these letters show a progression in the opposite direction. Salvation
brings us out of darkness unto light, out of the world into
the church, away from man unto Christ, away from the works of
man unto faith alone in Christ, away from the strength of man
to an experience in the grace of God alone. But here the judgment
of Christ against the church through the ages as time goes
on unto the end, is that throughout the churches you see a progression
of turning, turning, turning, turning, gradual turning, until
finally the gaze is looking back to where we once came from, not
looking under Christ at all. Oh where are you looking today?
Where do you find yourself amongst these letters? Are you like those
at Ephesus? Do you have a love for Christ?
Do you work for him, labour for him? Are you patient? Can you
not bear those who bring in evil? who teach another gospel? But
has perhaps your love of Christ and the unity of the gospel,
the unity of the body of Christ, has it begun to wane? Has it
begun to grow cold? Has the first little steps towards
compromise begun? Are you further on? Have you
become accepting of other gospels and other teaching? Have you
begun to turn further? Do you have a name to live, when
yet you are dead? Or have you gone completely the
way of the Laodiceans? Have you grown apathetic? Has
your heart grown cruel to the things of God? Not completely
cold you see, still attending the meetings, still reading the
Bible, still outwardly religious, And yet, never looking unto Christ. No more communion with him. Merely
holding on to the form and the things you have in your own strength.
Oh, where are you? He that have an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. What is the Spirit saying unto
the churches here? He's saying, firstly, that the
departure from truth is gradual. It doesn't come upon us all of
a sudden. We're not one moment saved and
alive. A church and assembly is not
one moment vibrant and built up under the gospel. It's not
one moment full of believers, zealous for the Lord, zealous
for the gospel. knit together in love, it's not
one moment there and then the next moment dead. The progression
is little by little, step by step, turning by turning, hardly
perceptible. One moment you're united as one
body, the next the love of the unity is beginning to slip, the
next the discernment of error begins to Fade. The next, the allowance of compromise
gets greater and greater. Next, the pragmatism comes in. The not wanting to rock the boat. The not wanting to offend man. The not wanting to cause a disturbance. The not wanting to walk the hard
and the narrow path. Little by little, the world The
care of the world, the deceitfulness of riches begins to starve that
which was growing up in the beginning. And gradually, gradually the
assemblies grow colder and colder, until at the end they just have
a name, a name that they live, and yet they are dead. Lukewarmness, thinking we're
okay when we are not. having an awareness of spiritual
things but a gradual resting upon our leaves thinking we are
we have life thinking we are saved thinking we are good we
are righteous and yet we are dead we are lost we are yet in
our sins yes in the letters there's this turning back to where man
is by nature But where is man by nature? Man by nature is where the Laodiceans
were. Apathetic. He thinks he has some
strength, he thinks he can get to God on his own merits. He thinks he can attain to something,
when really he's wretched, miserable, poor and blind. The voice of
Christ comes in the gospel. Christ comes and stands at the
door and knocks. If any man hears his voice and
opens the doors, he will come into him and suck with him, and
he with me. Yet who opens, who hears? Man
is deaf. He hears not. He hears not the
knock. He sees not the hand at the door.
He thinks he's rich when he's poor and wretched. Is that you? Have you even heard the gospel? What does the Spirit say in these
letters to the churches? The clear message as we read
the progression from Ephesus to Laodicea is that salvation
is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord from
start to finish. All is of grace. As Christ says,
I am out for an omega, the beginning and the end. Salvation begins
with Christ. It begins with his voice in the
gospel. It begins at Laodicea. It begins with man dead and wretched
in his sins, blind, deaf and dumb, thinking he's rich when
he's poor. It begins with God. It progresses
with God. It progresses with one who came
to lay down his life for those who are dead in trespasses and
sins. one who gave himself, one who
shed his blood, one who washed the people in his own blood.
It progresses with one who died to wash the sins of his people
away while they were yet sinners. And it progresses with one who
rose again from the dead that he might bring life unto those
who are dead. And in bringing life, he quickens
them and he raises them up and he gathers them into one company
and one body as members of his own body. And it ends in one
company, one body, one body in Christ. saved by Christ, chosen
by God from all eternity, brought to hear his gospel, brought unto
him, brought into everlasting life, loved from the beginning,
loved to the end, and gathered in and built up as one people.
Yes, what does the Spirit have to say to the churches here?
The resounding message, step by step, to the very end, as it shouts out loudly to those
that think they have a name when yet they are dead, to those who
have grown lukewarm, as it shouts out loudly to an assembly that
once was saved and yet is so departed, so returned, so turned
from Christ, so taken its gaze away from him, so turned back
to its own strength. It reminds them again Salvation
is of the Lord. You never brought yourself to
life in the beginning and you will not keep yourself alive
to the end. As I said, each title to each
church describes the one that writes to them and characterizes
why he writes to them. When he writes to Ephesus, he
writes as the one who stands in the midst of seven golden
candlesticks. Ephesus are reminded of the unity
of the one body. When he gets to the apathy of
Laodicea, he describes himself as the one, the amen, the faithful
and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. Laodicea, Laodicea, what have
you departed from? What have you shut your eyes
to? What have you forgotten? What have you forgotten? You
have forgotten that I am the beginning of the creation of
God. All begins with Christ. All ends
with Christ. It begins with His new creation. It ends with his one body, one
perfect church. He is the Alpha and Omega, the
beginning and the end. If you turn in any way from that
fact, that he begins all and he sustains all, then you will
end up dead. Where are you looking? Where are you looking? Where
are the churches looking? Where is their ear? Him that
have an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. There are many churches today,
many professing churches, do they hear? Well, no, they don't. But then Christ isn't writing
to professing churches here. He's writing to his church, he's
writing to those assemblies throughout time that have had in their midst
the children of God. However far Laodicea may have
departed, it was an assembly, it was one of the seven churches. There were there those who were
Christ's, even though all was but gone. The professing church
don't want to hear and won't hear. Their ears are shut to
what the Spirit saith unto the churches. When the Spirit comes
and says, salvation is of the Lord, I am the beginning and
the ending. I am your all in all. Turn, repent,
look unto me. Look unto me all ye ends of the
earth and be saved. When he says, look unto me salvation
is by grace i have done it all the churches say no no thanks
we have our part to play and they have no ear for what the
spirit said to the churches but then the spirit isn't speaking
to them he's speaking to his churches is he speaking to you
Have you heard His voice? Have you turned? Will hear His
voice to turn back again? Are you turning from that steadfast
beholding of the Son of Man in the midst of the seven golden
candlesticks? Have you begun this sevenfold
step away from a love of the unity of the body? Away from
a love of Christ and His people? Away from a love of the unity
of that people. Have you begun to compromise?
Begun to accept that which is false? Have you begun your walk
towards Laodicea? Then the Spirit calls you. Repent. Turn. He that endureth to the
end, he that overcometh, will be saved. Well how can you How
can you turn when you have no strength? How can you repent?
Repenting being a turning, not just remorse for your sins, but
a turning again, a turning of the mentality, a turning from
looking that way, back to looking to Christ, looking wholly to
Christ. When someone hears the gospel
and is saved, they repent. They're granted repentance. They
are turned from darkness to look unto light. They're turned unto
Christ. They're turned from resting in
their own works to looking and resting upon his work and giving
himself a sacrifice for their sins. They're turned. But repent. Have you turned aside? Then turn
again. May the Spirit turn you. You
cannot turn. You cannot overcome. You cannot
endure. But Christ can turn you. And you will be turned when you
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And what the Spirit
saith unto the churches is that the work is entirely of God. If you're trying to turn yourself,
if you're trying to keep your zeal, if you're trying to make
yourself hot rather than cold or lukewarm, if you're trying
to seek after God in your own strength, if you're resting in
your own strength, if you're trying to work and labour by
your own strength, if you cease to look unto the One in the midst
and to rest in Him entirely, to rest in His grace entirely,
to rest in His mercy entirely, then you've begun to turn. And
when the Spirit comes unto you in this message and in this gospel,
His message is to turn back to Christ and Christ alone, to rest
in Christ and Christ alone. What is the Spirit saying? He's
saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I
am the beginning of the creation of God, says Christ by His Spirit
to the church. I begin, I bring you to life. I once was dead and now I'm alive. You once were dead if you are
mine, and now you are alive. And you will remain alive one
way and one way only. in me and in me alone and any
assembly will remain alive and one way and one way only by looking
and resting in me and in me alone by looking and resting unto that
one true gospel of grace and in that one gospel alone by resting
in the one faith the one lord the one baptism the one spirit
the one god and father of all and in that alone You turn aside
from that in any way, and you've brought in the strength of man.
And when a church departs from this gospel, from this truth,
from this unity, from the one who stands in the midst of the
seven golden candlesticks, it begins its path to the taking
away of the candlestick, to the apathy at Laodicea. to its being
pronounced upon that it has a name that it lives and yet is dead
that it's lukewarm that he will spew them out of his mouth oh we cannot love we can't keep
our first love can you we can't keep ourselves hot our tendency
is to turn our tendency is to compromise But there's one in
the midst of the seven golden candlesticks who is otherwise. There's one who keeps us. There's
one who keeps us to the end. There's one who will never let
us go. Does he ever turn? Has he ever
left his first love? Consider him. Has Christ ever
left his love of his body? Has he ever left his love of
his people? Has he ever turned from his love
of the unity of that body? Has he ever grown cold towards
those people? Believer, has he ever grown cold
towards you? Is he ever lukewarm? Is he ever
apathetic? Is he? He's not. Loving his own, he loved them
to the end. He went to the cross for them.
while they were yet sinners, while they were apathetic, whilst
they were dead like Laodicea. He loved them, he set his love
upon them and he went to the cross to die for them, to save
them. Oh how his love burned for his
own, it burned with a passion which is never dimmed. No matter
how much they may wane, no matter how much they may turn, It is
never dimmed. And He will keep His church pure. He will turn His people to look
unto Him, to look unto Him who stands in the midst of the golden
candlesticks. He will cause them to the end
to endure. He will cause each and every
one of His sheep to overcome everything that is set against
them. Oh, will he not? Does his love
ever grow cold? It does not. Oh, he'll cause
them to overcome. And what a promise he makes unto
all his people. To him that overcometh will I
give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the
paradise of God. I will give to him that overcomes
the hidden manna a white stone, and in the stone a new name written
which no man knoweth save if he that receiveth it. I will
give to him that overcomes to rule over the nations, to have
power over the nations. I will give them the morning
star. I will give to them that overcome
to be clothed in white raiment. to have a name that's never blotted
out from the book of life, to be confessed before the Father
and before his angels. I will cause him to be pillars
in the temple of God, to write upon them the name of my God
and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem.
To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne. even as i also overcame and i'm
set down with my father in his throne oh to him they're overcoming
how will we overcome by our strength no by the strength of him who
is the beginning of the creation of god of him who stands in the
midst of the seven golden candlesticks of him who loved us and washed
us from our sins in his own blood, under him who is the beginning
and the ending, the Alpha and the Omega, the firstborn from
the dead, under him who is life eternal, life evermore, under
him in whom salvation is and belongs, for salvation is of
the Lord. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Amen.