Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Somewhat Against You Pt.1

Let's turn to the book of Revelation. One of the things that has really been on my heart concerning the day that we're in, and the Lord has been leading me back to the book of Revelation to look at the seven churches. I really sense the Spirit saying to me, "You need to find out who you are as a fellowship." Just like individuals, we have images of ourselves, of what we think we are, and then there's the real us. As a fellowship, we need to find out who we really are and the seven churches of Revelation begin to reveal the church over the ages. Dispensationalists--your Baptists, your Scofield Bible folks--believe that each one of these churches were a certain dispensation in the 2,000 year history of the church, ending with Laodicea. I don't believe that. I believe that what we see here is a revelation of specific churches. We've been to visit them. Many of you went on that trip, one of the greatest trips we've ever had. There's no way to replicate it. If we could replicate that, I'd go tomorrow. What a great time we had! The presence of God! We were talking about it, Chuck, Tony and I, as we were bouncing down the road between Nakuru and Nairobi, and we were just reminiscing about our trip to the seven churches, saying that it was one of the greatest times of our lives. As we went specifically to those churches--they were churches that existed historically, each of them known by these particular distinct attributes. At the same time, we realize that they do depict the church universal, or in general. I think that as I've been here now--and many of you have been here for a long time--I think, in the past 30 years that we, as a fellowship, have covered most of these churches in our own personality at one time or another. The thing that we want to address tonight is this: churches are made up of people, individuals. The church is what you are. This church is what we bring in here as individuals. I think it's important for us to identify who we are and what God expects us to be, prior to His coming.

Jeff was frustrated today as I was talking to him about some different aspects of ministry, and the conclusion, of course, is always the same. If we want to compare ourselves by ourselves with other churches, we're in pretty decent shape, but that's not our standard. We've shared so many times, and this is one of the things that I want to emphasize in these next teachings. We've said so many times, if we're staying the same, we're going backwards, because iniquity is abounding. The love of many is growing cold. In a day when the natural tendency of all flesh is to be easy on itself, to satisfy itself, gratify itself, esteem itself--it's always been the case of man. We live in a country where there is no end of being able to constantly, with an insatiable appetite, to indulge self. There's no end. Those who have been to Africa and have come back. Tragically, some of our young people have already lost it in a week. We live in the most dangerous time and in the most dangerous country on the planet.

As I've looked at us as a fellowship, I told Richard today, as we were going over some different issues, and I just shared with him what the Lord's been speaking to me concerning this particular message. I shared with him that there are two things that concern me about the condition that we're in right now. Doctrinally, we believe in the imminent return of the Lord Jesus, but we're not living like it. You're going to see these two principles that I share with you very clearly in these churches of Revelation. Secondly, we don't really understand, many of us, the true condition of our hearts and our lives and we really have the Samson perspective. "Yeah, I'm not where I should be, but when the trial comes, I'll shake myself. I'll rise up and I'll defeat this thing." Many of us see ourselves this way. We know that we're not where we should be, but we've been at lows before. We've always been able to rise up, shake ourselves, the Spirit's come upon us, and we've defeated the enemy. That's a very dangerous outlook, especially when you compare it with the admonition of placing the armor of God on ourselves on a daily basis, of taking up a cross on a daily basis. There is no place for self-indulgence and assuming that the anointing is going be there.

As we begin to look into these churches, we need to ask ourselves, "Where are we in relationship to the battle that's raging in the heavenlies around us?" Maybe you're not experiencing any personal adversity at this particular time. Maybe your body is not in pain. Maybe you don't have an incurable disease. Maybe your children are not on drugs. Maybe your baby doesn't have an incurable disease. Just the normal, "the rain falls on the just and the unjust" trials of life, nothing horrible. We ask ourselves, if that's the case, then, "What am I living for and is there an appetite in me to honor the Lord in word, in deed, in everything that I do, and what I do to do it with all of my might?" These are questions that we want to address. Jesus is speaking through John to the churches. The one thing that you're going to see in common with all of these churches--and this is what He's saying to us today--everything that we're going to share with you today is to prepare you for His coming. Do you believe that Jesus is coming back? Do you believe that His return is imminent? Imminent means that it can be in the next moment. Most of us here would say yes and amen, and so did the Ephesians. Their doctrine was exactly correct and our doctrine is pure.

Let's start here and look at the book of Revelation and the Ephesian church. We'll be spending some time and looking at all of these particular churches. I think that it's a very interesting thing, as we're speaking here out of Revelation and trying to identify the condition of the heart in Ephesus, to let your mind go back to the epistle to the Ephesians and see one of the central themes. We talked about it on Sunday and I told Jeff and Richard that, today, I felt like I wasted my breath on Sunday when I heard some of the reports coming back from the Young Adults today. It's just a waste of breath. The words just fell out there on the carpet somewhere, because it's obvious that what we were saying wasn't heard. One of the central themes of the book to the Ephesians we addressed was the need of oneness, unity, one vision. Not individuals running off and doing their own thing and establishing a priority other than the edification of the body of Jesus Christ, living for the whole and not for self. When you read the book of Ephesians, that's what that's talking about. [Paul] begins to break it down and he talks about the gifts to the church: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. In the same book, he talks about the order of the household: the husband, the wife, and the children's roles. Everything has to do with bringing the specific individuals into harmony and unity and order for the purpose of mutual edification. With that in mind, thinking about the letter to the Ephesians, establishing early in the letter, in the first few chapters, establishing the lordship of Jesus, and sound doctrine through the Word of God, that that's where the truth lies. The way to embrace that truth and reveal that truth is to live for others rather than ourselves.

John is speaking here in Revelation and he makes this comment. He says in Chapter 2 of Revelation, "Unto the...church of Ephesus write..." Now, remember, this was the most mature, dynamic, established church in first century Christendom. The ministry gifts that ministered there were Paul, Timothy, and John the Beloved. That's a pretty good pastoral staff. (Not quite as good as ours, but a pretty good pastoral staff.) He says then, "Write to the church of Ephesus. 'These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; I know thy works, [get this thing down] I know thy works, labour and thy patience." This was a group that, as I said, was the most dynamic, mature, effective church in Christendom at this particular time and Jesus is saying, "I know what you've done and I know your zeal and 'how thou canst not bear them which are evil: [This is us.] and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars.'" You don't see it a lot today. People that are willing to stand up for righteousness, that speak toward false doctrine in other ministry gifts, that fulfill the mandate of being spiritual enough to judge a righteous judgment. Jesus is speaking at this particular time and He's acknowledging all of the good things that they've done. "And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted." This is us. That's not boasting. This isn't pride. This isn't a false image. This speaks to where we've been in these last years, but I'm concerned that verse 4 speaks to where we're going. "Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; [We talked a little bit about them on Sunday.] or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. [Let me finish the context here and then we'll go back and make some other comments.] But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate."

One of the keys that we're going to see here as we go through the study of these seven churches, each of them has some areas that they need to change. Every one of us in here has to change constantly. We haven't arrived. What do we do? "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." How ready are we to hear, really? Or do we think we know? Are we confident with our position, the knowledge that we have? "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."

Let's talk about this a little bit. Here is a church that's absolutely been doing great things for the kingdom of God, zealous for righteousness, willing to judge false doctrine, willing to walk in the light, to bring reproof and rebuke, instruction into righteousness in one another's lives that we might be "...thoroughly furnished unto all good works," as the apostle says in 2 Timothy 3:17. He talks here very clearly about the consistency and longevity of the ministry, works, labor, patience, bearing long, laboring for His name's sake, not fainting. We have all of this that's done. One of the dangers with that kind of history is the tendency of natural man to reward himself. "I've worked hard. It's time for a break. I mean, how long can we keep this pace up?" We know that, as believers, we're in a marathon here, it's not a sprint. We've been working hard for a long time. But can you see the finish line? I can see the finish line. What do you do when you see the finish line? I don't care how long you've been running. What do you do when you see the finish line? Do we see it? Is the first love there? Part of what you're going to see as the first love, throughout this whole discourse, in these revelations of the seven churches, the coming of Jesus, the preparation of the bride, the opportunity to honor Him, the opportunity to be like Him, the opportunity to serve Him. Where are we in this race that we're running that Paul speaks of? Paul says in Timothy, "Don't let anybody get your crown."

We're living in a society, in an environment, that wants to come in every day in a myriad of ways, and new ways are being invented momentarily. I want you to understand something. Every new gadget, every new channel, every increase in HD, every new model car, every new store that opens in the mall--you name it--is there to choke the Word of God out of your life. The deceitfulness of riches, the lust of other things, enters in and chokes the Word of God out of our lives. We're in the world. It's a cruddy world and we're in it, but we're not of it. How do I know if I'm of it? Does it influence me from doing what I know is a priority, what I know is right? There's nothing wrong with participating in some of these things that we were just talking about. But when you have to decide between it and what you know edifies the body, honors the Lord, and builds our spirit man, what choices do you make? You say, "Well, there's always an opportunity to grow more, to study more, to pray more, to experience true koinonia." That's true. Now, listen to yourself. "Well, there are always opportunities. I mean, am I ever going to get any time for myself?" instead of, "Praise God, there are always opportunities. Amen. There is always somebody there I can minister to. There's always more room to grow. Praise God, there is always an opportunity to fellowship." As these other things avail themselves--you're misjudging God. He knows what we need spiritually and naturally. Are you afraid that God is not... What kind of Father are you serving?

My dad was the Great Generation. Even in the natural, it grieves me, we're losing all those people and we're in trouble. We're losing some of these folks. We're losing the Harrys and the Tom Millers and some of those guys. We're losing the people who have been through the Depression and World War II. We have a whole generation of "softies" that want to get softer. If we were invaded right now, dear Lord... "Well, I'd like to really defend freedom and liberty and Christianity, but there's a new movie that came out that I'd like to see. I wonder if these people who are invading will build new malls?" We're losing a great generation. Things that used to be normative, football teams in public schools where the coach would kick you in the butt, teams that you'd get cut from. We can't totally identify because we're not exactly like the world. I'm talking about a spirit that we're contending with to where everybody is "special," everybody "deserves," and it's part of the country. The last I saw it was, "We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare... [How much do you hear I, I, I, there?] do ordain and establish this Constitution..." It's something like that. I haven't read it for probably 20 years. We've come to this "I" and, we, as a nation, don't live for the community, the common good, and the general welfare. All we say is, "I have rights." We have the right to the pursuit of happiness. We're losing a great generation. I got off track, and where I was going was my dad.

As a kid, you had to do work and you had to do some different things. I still remember and we were saying, "What kind of Dad do you have?" Your Dad knows you. Dad's not against you having fun. It says, "[He] giveth us richly all things to enjoy" (1 Timothy 6:17). He wants you to enjoy life. God is not an ogre. God is not expecting you to pray and fast 24 hours a day, but He is expecting to be Lord and determine when you do it and when you don't. Amen? That's where we get into trouble. I got in trouble--my Dad was a cool Dad. We had these big eucalyptus trees in the back yard. Some of them were as much as 42 inches in diameter and we cut them down. Dad decided that my brother and I would split all this wood. These trees were 200 feet tall with a 42-inch base and it was summer. We're in the back yard with a sledgehammer and a wedge and all of the kids were up playing at the park. We could hear them and hear the bats crack and we're like "chain gang." My brother and I singing, "Sixteen tons and what do you get / Another day older and deeper in debt." Here we are, splitting wood, and we decided it was time to play, so we broke the handle. I missed the wedge and hit it with the handle and we were done, so we went to the park and were playing. We came home and Dad said, "What's the deal?" We said, "We broke the handle." He buys another handle and the next day, kids are playing, we're splitting wood and crunch! So we go out and play and we come home and Dad comes home and says, "No more broken handles." We said, "Dad, we missed." He said, "Listen. If you can hit a 90-mile-an-hour fastball, you can hit that wedge sitting still there. Here are the new rules. If you break it, first of all, I beat you, and then you buy a new one." Then Dad realized that he was missing it a little bit. These are fathers after the flesh and he realized he was missing it. He said, "I'll tell you what. You work from 8 to noon and you can go up to the park, but I still want this much production." He was still kind of Pharoah-ish with the straw and he gave us a little bit of a break. We'd go out there and, from 8 to 12, we'd produce at least two-thirds of a day's work than we did before and we got to go. Well, if our fathers after the flesh chasten us, love us, and know what's best for us, how much more your Heavenly Father? Amen?

Part of our problem is that we have the wrong concept of Father and we don't understand His love and His desire to bless us in these ways, so we take it to ourselves. All that I want to see is for us, as a people, to come back to our first love, an insatiable appetite to please God, to hear His voice. I don't know what kind of conversion you had, but I know what kind I had. I don't live every day of my life like the first day of my life, but I should. There was nothing else that mattered but getting to God and getting to know Him, living in His Word, fellowshipping with His body. It meant more to me than the college parties. It meant more to me than the college scholarship. It meant more to me than the professional athletic career. "For me to live is Christ." "You've lost your first love," He told the Ephesians. "Your doctrine is great. You have all of the right works but I'm losing your heart."

We talked a little bit about it on Sunday. We talked about the first love as seen in the first commandment, "the first and great commandment. [Love God with all of your heart.] And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (Matthew 22:39). It's part of that spirit of Ephesians that we were talking about, that book of unity, the book of community. Where do you fit in? How important do you see your contribution to building the body of Christ? Is your family time, personal time, personal preferences--whatever else it might be--what you habitually live for? I'm choosing my words very carefully. "Habitually." Do you defend your ground? Do you defend those rights to that time, to those privileges? How does that conflict with your doctrine, what you know to be true? Would anything change if you knew Jesus was coming back tomorrow? What if He gave us a week's notice, maybe 30 days' notice? What would you change in your next 30 days if you knew that Jesus was coming back? As you read the letters to these seven churches, the very thing that He's continually emphasizing is, "I'm coming back, and the reason I'm telling you these things about yourself is, this is dangerous. What you're doing is dangerous. This is not what's preparing you for My coming. I see these good things that you're doing. I recognize them." He's not even saying in some of these areas that we are lost. He's saying we can be if we continue to deal in this vein. We're in danger, potentially, of having our candlestick removed.

The church of Ephesus, the epistle to the Ephesians, I'm sure is, for many of you, your favorite epistle. It's just phenomenal, the pure doctrine, the revelation of Who Jesus is, the church, the community, the family. Ephesus was the commercial, economic and political center of Asia. At the time that Paul was there, it had a beautiful harbor. For those of you that went when we were there, it's all silted in now. It's now five miles to the Aegean. Back then, it was less than half a mile. I think that Pliny was the one that said the waves could even lap up to the theatre. He took a little bit of poetic license. It was somewhere between a quarter and a half of a mile. There was a forty-foot-wide pure marble road to the harbor, lined with 30- to 40-foot colonnades the whole way. The theatre would seat close to 30,000. Those of you who were with us remember Janet singing there in that theatre. 30,000 seats and without a mike, you could stand down there and speak and the person on the top row could hear you. The library of Ephesus was renowned in all the world. The temple of Diana, however, dominated that city. Six hundred feet in length (two football fields), 300 feet wide (a football field), one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Diana, as you know, the statue was believed to have dropped out of heaven, and the cry, "Great is Diana of Ephesians, the goddess of fertility!" You're going to find that sexual promiscuity, the preoccupation, overindulgence, overexposure to sexual permissiveness, is a prominent theme throughout these churches. Now, most of us here are not participants in our generation, but would you say that's the environment that we're living in? You can't go down and buy a wheelbarrow without a half-naked girl sitting in it to advertise it. Here we are living in Ephesus. I don't know of any greater parallel between Washington, DC and these seven churches. We're in Ephesus.

Some of the things--let me read something to you just so you can get a picture. I was hoping to remember all of this but I wasn't able to. Let me just share with you very quickly concerning the temple a little bit. I thought this was interesting. It says that the roof structure was supported by 127 Ionic columns, 60 feet high. We're talking the first century. Marble columns, the beauty, the grandeur! Now, in the midst of all of this, a little Jew showed up and began to preach the gospel (Acts, Chapter 19), and turned the city upside down and built this church that we read about in the epistle to the Ephesians and here in Revelation. The Bible says that the message was so powerful that the magicians, the sorcerers, the pornographers, brought their wares and burned them in their genuine repentance to free themselves from the defilement of their society, to recognize a distinct lifestyle of what it meant to be a Christian. The silversmith, as we read, his business fell off so badly that they came to destroy Paul and accuse him. They entered that theatre that we talked about and tens of thousands cried at the top of their voices, (Some of you have been in large arenas. You know what the sound is like. It sounds like a waterfall, thunder.) "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!"

You've lost your first love. What have we done to stir things up? How distinct are we? Are we bringing the same gospel and are we replicating the same light that Paul brought to this cosmopolitan Ephesus? Here we are, living in a time where He speaks to us concerning the need to prepare ourselves and the words--I don't know how they affect you--but the words that He speaks: "Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works." Can I ask you a question? Are you growing? Is the gift in you stirred up? Is there a fire? Is there a zeal? Can you say you're better? We're not talking doctrine. We're not talking knowledge. We're talking intimacy with our first love. We're talking about what is occupying our thoughts. Is it business? Is it the new gadget at home? Is it a new plaything? Is it a potential spouse? Is it the potential investment? What does any of that mean if Jesus comes back tonight?

Over the years, it's been said that talking about the imminent return of the Lord is scare tactics. It's just a way of trying to put fear into our lives. Yes, right. That's what it is. "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure" (1 John 3:3). Question. What if that trumpet were to sound? "Well, I'm saved, praise God." Hallelujah, and I'm not in any way minimizing that. Barely? "Well, yes." It would be better for you that He did come and found you slothful and any potential work that you might have burn up, but saved by fire. If you're in that bad shape and you would make it if He came today. What if He waits one day and you continue on the course you're on? The problem, tragically, I think, not us as a fellowship necessarily, I think that most of us can be motivated by the Word of God because most of us love the Word of God. We love the Lord. We're people that live in obedience. We're not a rebellious people. We are not a people that are carnal and dominated by carnality or sin, but we're not all there is to the body of Christ.

I frankly believe that the church needs to be stirred up in this nation. Probably the best thing that could happen to us is what is spoken here in this second church, the church in Smyrna. With the exception of Philadelphia, this church has no reproof or rebuke placed upon it. He said, "And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty...and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are [covenant children], and are not, but [in fact] are the synagogue of Satan." Those that say they're believers, those that say they're covenant children, those that say that they're living for the kingdom. "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you in prison." Tragically, Cha Cha is a lot more content than some people sitting in here tonight: separated from his family, falsely accused, contracting malaria, and smiling and counting it all joy. We get bummed because we don't have a brand new car. We don't have the newest gadget. We only live in the second nicest community in the area. We've got to find a bigger and better house. Real estate is the way to go. Two percent over here, forget that stuff. I'm buying my property. (Do not take anything I'm saying as investment principles. I have no clue of how to invest money. All I know is your median $650,000 Loudoun County house can go down the toilet overnight.) Somebody asked me the other day, what is your house worth? My house is worth $134,000. That's what I paid for it. It's paid for and I'm living in it and it's a house. I don't care if it goes to zero or eight zillion. I go home, it rains, and I'm dry. (Most of the time, except for over my kitchen. It's only been four years. We're going to find that leak yet.)

Cha Cha--I've said it so many times--we'll finish with this for tonight. We're living in Disneyland. The world doesn't live like this. This is not real. It's not necessary. It's not going to be here forever. Now where are your treasures? He speaks to the church here in Smyrna and He said, "Don't fear what's coming, the things that you're going to suffer. 'The devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation for ten days: [not ten literal days, but it is a term of definable duration] 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 of the second death.'"

We're going to pick this up in the morning service. Read the rest of these chapters. Take a look at the seven churches. See if you can find yourself. See if you can find us as a community. See if you can see a common theme that is robbing the glory of God. See if there is a common rebuke and the obvious common purpose. Prepare for the coming of the Lord. Return to your first love. The first love, as we shared on Sunday, isn't just "me and Jesus." My love for Jesus causes me to be content and active in my place in the body, for the body, for the glory of God.

Father, we thank You for Your Word tonight and we wrestle constantly with this paradox, so thankful for the stuff and so afraid of the stuff. How easily it can rob Your glory. How easily it can steal our faith. How easily the pursuit of it replaces the performance of mutual edification of salt and light. How unsatisfied we are to have to leave a time of koinonia to be fulfilled in a movie theatre or party time. I'm not satisfied until I've indulged my flesh and now I can rest. The rest of Your presence, the rest of obeying Your Word, the rest of lifting up weary hands, the rest of obedience. Free us to know You, to serve You, to be like You, to bring others to You, we ask, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let's stand before the Lord tonight. A funny thing happened in Kakamega. (I think it was Kakamega, one of the churches.) Sarah was ministering and she was asked who she was and who her father is and she said, "Gary, the piano player." "You mean 'as Gary plays' Gary?" They listen to all of the tapes. As Gary plays, what is the Spirit saying to you concerning your first love? Have the blessings overtaken the Blesser? Has the temporal robbed our vision of the eternal? Why won't we believe our counselors? We just had some young people here in our midst dealing with sin in their lives and they said these very words. They sat down with Pastor Jeff and said these very words, "It's exactly like you said it would be," weeping and broken, robbed of their innocence, but wouldn't believe what they were told. They had to experience it and then come and weep and say, "It's just like you said it would be." I want to tell you something. It's just like we're saying it's going to be. The day is coming when your soul will be pierced with those eyes of fire and you're not going to send Mom and Dad up there for you, you're not going to send your wife or your husband. We're going to be known by our deeds; we're going to be known by our words. This life is a vapor. You've got a good Dad. He's going to let you play. The one thing I spend as much time on anything in my own life is that very issue. I receive everything that Father has given me with gladness. I enjoy it to its fullness but I refuse to take anything to myself. I'm not going to take it, but I will receive it with thanksgiving. Let's sing it together and worship Him tonight.

We know the principle of chastisement we see in the church, the purity that comes from persecution, from trials, from adversity. We know the need for constant control and discipline of our flesh. Your flesh never gets better. It will not get better. It must be controlled. If you won't control it, the law will control it. If you won't control it, the body of Christ is here to contain you just like any other cancer or sickness until you can be delivered and healed. But listen to what the Spirit says, listen to what the Master says, "Behold, I come quickly." Turn to somebody next to you and say, "The Lord is coming." Amen. Go in peace. God's love go with you.

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