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SERIES: THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST, WEEK 9

TITLE: PURE THROUGH PERSECUTION

TEXT: REVELATION 2:8-11

INTRODUCTION: (1) G. CAMPBELL MORGAN WROTE AND I QUOTE: “IT IS A VERY REMARKABLE THING THAT THE CHURCH OF CHRIST PERSECUTED HAS BEEN THE CHURCH OF CHRIST PURE.

* THE CHURCH OF CHRIST PATRONIZED HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IMPURE.” (END QUOTE)

** NOW WHAT G. CAMPBELL MORGAN SAID IS TRUE BOTH FROM CHURCH HISTORY AND WHAT THE SCRIPTURES HAVE TO SAY.

*** FROM SCRIPTURE, THE CHURCH AT LAODICA IN REVELATION 3:14-22 WAS A WORLDLY IMPURE LUKEWARM CHURCH.

*** THEY WERE RICH AND WEALTHY, EVERYTHING OUTWARDLY AND MATERIALLY WAS GREAT, APPARENTLY THERE WAS NO PERSECUTION, BUT CHRIST’S ASSESSMENT OF THEM IS FOUND IN REVELATION 3:15-17 WHERE HE SAID: (READ THEM).

(2) NOW THIS CHURCH OUTWARDLY WAS SUCCESSFUL, BUT BECAUSE OF THAT THEY WERE SELF-SUFFICIENT AND IMPURE.

* AND LIKEWISE THROUGHOUT ITS HISTORY AND VERY EVIDENT IN THE WEST TODAY, CHURCHES ON THE WHOLE THAT ARE IN ECONOMICS THAT ARE GOOD WITH NO PERSECUTION ARE LUKEWARM AT BEST.

** YET IN CONTRAST, CHURCHES THAT ARE POOR AND PERSECUTED HAVE BEEN PURE AND STRONG.

*** FOR EXAMPLE, FOR DECADES, CHURCHES IN THE FORMER SOVIET UNION AND EASTERN EUROPE WERE POOR AND PERSECUTED BY THEIR ATHEISTIC COMMUNIST GOVERNMENTS.

**** MANY WERE IMPRISONED AND MARTYRED AND NOT TO OPENLY PROCLAIM THEIR FAITH AS BELIEVERS ARE IN SOME MUSLIM COUNTRIES TODAY.

(3) YET IN THE FORMER SOVIET UNION, NOT ONLY DID THOSE CHURCHES SURVIVE, THEY THRIVED.

* FOR THE LIFTING OF THE IRON CURTAIN REVEALED A POWERFUL, PURE CHURCH.

** ONE CHARACTERIZED BY GENUINE FAITH, DEEP SPIRITUALITY, HUMILITY, ZEAL, LOVE FOR CHRIST AND SINGLE MINDED DEVOTION TO THE LORD.

*** AT LEAST THAT’S WHAT I’VE SEEN IN MY 3 TRIPS THERE!

**** AND BELOVED, SCRIPTURE LINKS PERSECUTION AND SPIRITUAL STRENGTH.

(4) IN JAMES 1:2-4 JAMES WAS INSPIRED TO SAY: (READ THEM).

* IN I PETER 5:10 THE WORD OF GOD SAYS: “AFTER YOU HAVE SUFFERED FOR A LITTLE WHILE, THE GOD OF ALL GRACE, WHO CALLED YOU TO HIS ETERNAL GLORY IN CHRIST, WILL HIMSELF PERFECT, CONFIRM, STRENGTHEN AND ESTABLISH YOU.”

** AND THE TRUTH HERE IS THE PUREST CHRISTIANS ARE THOSE FORGED IN THE FURNACE OF ADVERSITY.

*** AND THE CHURCH AT SMYRNA WAS FORGED IN THE FURNACE OF POVERTY AND PERSECUTION.

**** THEY DISPLAYED THE POWER AND PURITY THAT COMES FROM ENDURING PERSECUTION.

(5) PERSECUTION HAD PURIFIED AND PURGED IT FROM SIN AND AFFIRMED THE REALITY OF ITS MEMBER’S FAITH.

* FOR YOU SEE HYPOCRITES DO NOT STAY AROUND WHEN THE FIRE GETS HOT BECAUSE FALSE BELIEVERS DO NOT WANT TO GET BURNT AND ENDURE THE PAIN.

** AND WHEREAS TRIALS AND PERSECUTION STRENGTHEN AND REFINE GENUINE SAVING FAITH, TRIALS AND PERSECUTION DESTROY FALSE FAITH.

*** AND THOUGH THE CHURCH AT SMYRNA SUFFERED POVERTY AND PERSECUTION, THE BELIEVERS AT THIS CHURCH CLUNG TO THEIR IMMEASURABLE SPIRITUAL RICHES.

**** BECAUSE OF THAT, THE CHURCH AT SMYRNA IS ONE OF TWO CHURCHES (ALONG WITH PHILADELPHIA) THAT RECEIVE NO REBUKE IN ITS LETTER HERE IN REVELATION 2&3 FROM THE LORD JESUS.

(6) THEY WERE PURE THROUGH PERSECUTION, WHICH IS THE TITLE OF MY MESSAGE TODAY AS WE STUDY THE CHURCH AT SMYRNA, “PURE THROUGH PERSECUTION.”

* AND UNDER THAT THEME, WE’LL LOOK AT 4 POINTS IN OUR STUDY OF THIS PURE CHURCH.

** NO. 1 THE CORRESPONDENT – THE LORD JESUS, WHO IDENTIFIES HIMSELF IN V. 8; NO. 2 THE COMMENDATION BY CHRIST TO THIS CHURCH, V. 9; NO. 3 THE COMMANDS GIVEN BY CHRIST TO THIS CHURCH, V. 10; AND NO. 4 THE COMMITMENT BY JESUS TO THIS CHURCH, V. 11.

*** AND WITH THAT OUTLINE TO WORK FROM, WE’LL GO TO OUR FIRST POINT IN OUR STUDY, THE CORRESPONDENT. LOOK AT REVELATION 2:8 PLEASE.

I. THE CORRESPONDENT, (READ V. 8)

A. NOW LIKE THE LETTERS TO THE OTHER CHURCHES, THIS LETTER TO THE CHURCH AT SMYRNA IS GIVEN BY JESUS, TO JOHN, TO THE ANGEL OF THIS CHURCH AND THEN TO THE CHURCH OF SMYRNA.

* AND SMYRNA WAS A TOWN ABOUT 35 MILES NORTH OF EPHESUS LOCATED ON THE AEGEAN SEA IN WHAT WOULD BE MODERN DAY TURKEY TODAY.

** IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL TOWN IN ITS DAY KNOWS AS THE “GLORY OF ASIA” OR THE “CROWN OF ASIA”, A WEALTHY CITY.

*** BUT UNLIKE EPHESUS, THIS CITY STILL EXISTS TODAY AS THE CITY OF IZMIR IN TURKEY, A TOWN OF ABOUT 200,000 PEOPLE WITH A THIRD OF THEM PROFESSING TO BE CHRISTIANS ACCORDING TO THE UNDER BIBLE DICTIONARY.

**** NOW THE WORD SMYRNA IN THE GREEK LIT. MEANS MYRRH.

1. AND MYRRH WAS A SWEET PERFUME USED IN EMBALMING DEAD BODIES IN JOHN 19:39 – SPECIFICALLY CHRIST, BUT ALSO USED AS A PERFUME FOR THE LIVING, AS THE WISE MEN BROUGHT THE CHILD JESUS GOLD, FRANKINCENSE AND MYRRH IN MATTHEW 2:11.

* AND THE NAME SMYRNA, MYRRH, PERFECTLY FITS THE CHURCH THERE IN ITS MEANING AND ASSOCIATION.

** FOR MYRRH’S ASSOCIATION WITH DEATH PICTURES THE SUFFERING CHURCH AT SMYRNA. LIKE MYRRH, PRODUCED BY CRUSHING A FRAGRANT PLANT, THIS CHURCH CRUSHED BY PERSECUTION, GAVE OFF A FRAGRANT AROMA OF FAITHFULNESS TO GOD AS WE’LL SEE AS THIS LETTER UNFOLDS.

*** BUT CONTINUING ON IN V. 8, NOTICE HOW THE CORRESPONDENT OF THIS LETTER, CHRIST, IDENTIFIES HIMSELF TO THIS SUFFERING CRUSHED CHURCH.

**** AS “THE FIRST AND THE LAST, WHO WAS DEAD, AND HAS COME TO LIFE.”

2. AND CHRIST’S DEITY, HIS DIVINITY, THAT HE IS GOD AND HE IS ETERNAL IS COMMUNICATED BY THIS PHRASE.

* FOR AS THE FIRST, JESUS PREDATES ALL CREATED THINGS AND AS THE LAST, HE REMAINS WHEN ALL ELSE HAS PASSED AWAY.

** HE IS THE ETERNAL, INFINITE GOD, WHO ALREADY EXISTED WHEN ALL THINGS WERE CREATED AND WHO WILL CONTINUE TO EXIST AFTER THEY ARE DESTROYED.

*** SIMPLY PUT, JESUS CHRIST TRANSCENDS, IS ABOVE AND BEYOND TIME, SPACE AND THE CREATION.

**** BUT ALSO JESUS IS THE “WHO WAS DEAD AND HAS COME TO LIFE.”

3. AND AS THE GOD-MAN JESUS CAME INTO THIS WORLD TO DIE FOR SINNERS, THE PLAN OF GOD, TO BE PERSECUTED AND SUFFER UNJUSTLY, BUT HE WOULD RISE AGAIN THE THIRD DAY AS THE DEATH CONQUEROR.

* AND THESE DESIGNATIONS OF CHRIST ARE USED AS A MEANS OF COMFORT FOR BELIEVERS IN THE CHURCH AT SMYRNA WHO WOULD BE PERSECUTED AND DIE.

** BELOVED THERE IS IDENTIFICATION HERE. CHRIST THE ETERNAL GOD BECAME MAN AND WAS PERSECUTED AND DIED, BUT ROSE AGAIN.

*** AND BELIEVERS AT SMYRNA WHO WILL BE PERSECUTED AND DIE WILL CONQUER DEATH THROUGH THEIR SAVIOR WHO ROSE AGAIN, FOR DEATH WILL NOT BE THE END FOR THEM BUT A GLORIOUS NEW BEGINNING.

**** THE VICTORY OF THE RESURRECTION IS IN VIEW HERE AS A MEANS OF DIVINE ENCOURAGEMENT, THE STING OF DEATH IS REMOVED, READ I CORINTHIANS 15:51-57.

4. WELL, AS WE GO BACK TO V. 8, THE CORRESPONDENT TO THE LETTER, THE ETERNAL ONE WHO IS GOD, BEGINS WITH ENCOURAGEMENT, HOPE AND COMFORT IN THE TRUTHS HE USES TO IDENTIFY HIMSELF. WHAT A GREAT BEGINNING!

* AND IN V. 9, THE ONE WHO IS THE FIRST AND THE LAST, WHO WAS DEAD AND ALIVE WILL COMMEND THIS CHURCH IN V. 9, WHICH IS OUR 2’D POINT TODAY, THE COMMENDATION. LOOK AT V. 9 PLEASE.

II. THE COMMENDATION, (READ V. 9)

A. NOW NOTHING ESCAPES THE VIEW, THE ALL-SEEING EYE OF THE LORD OF THE CHURCH. HE KNOWS EVERY DETAIL ABOUT THE CHURCHES UNDER HIS CARE.

* BECAUSE OF THAT, HE KNEW ALL ABOUT THEIR TRIBULATION AT SMYRNA.

** NOW THE WORD TRIBULATION LIT. MEANS PRESSING, PRESSING TOGETHER, PRESSURE IN THE GREEK.

*** AND THE CHURCH AT SMYRNA WAS FACING INTENSE PRESSURE BECAUSE OF THEIR FAITH AND FAITHFULNESS.

**** FOR YOU MUST UNDERSTAND, WHEN YOU ARE FAITHFUL IN YOUR COMMITMENT AND SERVICE TO CHRIST, THERE WILL BE GREAT PRESSURE FROM THE ADVERSARY.

1. THERE WILL BE OPPRESSION, AFFLICTION, TRIBULATION, DISTRESS, LIT. PRESSURE. SATAN WILL TRY TO PUT THE SQUEEZE ON YOU.

* HE WANTS YOU TO QUIT, TO GIVE UP, TO BACK OFF AT THE VERY LEAST. PRESSURE WILL COME, COUNT ON IT.

** IN FACT THIS SAME GREEK WORD TRANSLATED TRIBULATION, MEANING PRESSURE IS USED BY OUR LORD IN JOHN 16:33 WHERE HE SAID: “THESE THINGS I HAVE SPOKEN TO YOU, SO THAT IN ME YOU MAY HAVE PEACE. IN THE WORLD YOU HAVE TRIBULATION, BUT TAKE COURAGE; I HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD.”

*** AND THEN PAUL IN HIS MINISTRY OF ESTABLISHING CHURCHES, RETURNED TO LYSTRA, ICONIUM AND ANTIOCH IN ACTS 14:21, AND IN HIS MINISTRY OF ESTABLISHING THEM ACTS 14:22 SAYS: “STRENGTHENING THE SOULS OF THE DISCIPLES, ENCOURAGING THEM TO CONTINUE IN THE FAITH, AND SAYING, “THROUGH MANY TRIBULATIONS WE MUST ENTER THE KINGDOM OF GOD.”

**** AND THEN THIS GREEK WORD IS USED IN ROMANS 5:3&4 BY PAUL WHEN HE SAID: (READ THEM)

2. ALSO READ ROMANS 12:12, II CORINTHIANS 1:4 AND II CORINTHIANS 4:17&18.

* NOW PRESSURE WILL COME BELIEVER. AND WHEREAS ANXIETY AND WORRYING OVER PRESSURE IS SIN, PRESSURE ITSELF WILL COME AND GOD’S PURPOSE IS TO GROW US AND REFINE US AND BUILD PERSEVERANCE AND DEPENDENCE UPON HIM.

** AND SATAN’S PURPOSE IS TO GET YOU FRAZZLED AND FRUSTRATED AND QUIT OR BACK OFF AND TO EVEN LOSE YOUR JOY.

*** REMEMBER, THE LORD KNOWS YOUR TRIBULATION, HE KNOWS YOUR PRESSURE AND ULTIMATELY HE IS IN CONTROL OF IT AND WILL USE IT TO GROW US, IF WE LOOK TO HIM.

**** BUT ALSO THE LORD KNEW ALL ABOUT THE CHURCH AT SMYRNA’S POVERTY.

3. AND THE GREEK WORD FOR POVERTY HERE, WHICH YOU CAN SEE ON THE SCREEN LIT. MEANS ABJECT POVERTY.

* IT DESCRIBES BEGGARS, THOSE WHO ARE DESTITUTE, STRIPPED OF ALL MATERIAL RESOURCES.

** AND MOST LIKELY THEIR ABJECT POVERTY CAME AS A RESULT OF PERSECUTION FOR THEIR FAITH FOR SMYRNA WAS A WEALTHY TOWN.

*** BUT NOT BEING CONNECTED, OSTRACIZED, THE INABILITY TO JOIN TRADE GUILDS BECAUSE OF PAGAN ASSOCIATIONS, AND SUFFERING CONFISCATION OF THEIR MATERIAL POSSESSIONS BY A HOSTILE GOVT., ALL COMBINED TOOK IT’S TOLL ON THESE BELIEVERS THAT THEY WERE REALLY POOR.

**** BUT NOTICE THE WORDS IN PARENTHESIS FROM OUR LORD IN MOST TRANSLATIONS, (“BUT YOU ARE RICH.”)

4. AND I LOVE THIS SPIRITUAL ASSESSMENT BY THE LORD OF THE CHURCH.

* THEY WERE RICH! FOR IN WHAT REALLY MATTERED, THEY WERE WEALTHY, FOR MATERIAL RICHES ARE TEMPORARY, HERE TODAY, GONE TOMORROW, AND CERTAINLY MATERIAL RICHES CANNOT BE TAKEN WITH US. (SWINDOLL QUOTE)

** AND BELOVED, GOD WORKS BY A DIFFERENT STANDARD, ITS NOT THE GOLD STANDARD OR THE SILVER STANDARD OR THE THING STANDARD OF HOW MANY THINGS YOU HAVE.

*** IT IS THE ETERNAL STANDARD. AND THOSE WHO ARE POOR IN THIS WORLD ARE RICH IN CHRIST. READ PROVERBS 11:24&25, PROVERBS 13:7.

**** IN II CORINTHIANS 6:10 PAUL IS TALKING ABOUT HIMSELF AND THE SERVANTS OF GOD SAID: “AS SORROWFUL YET ALWAYS REJOICING, AS POOR YET MAKING MANY RICH, AS HAVING NOTHING YET POSSESSING ALL THINGS.”

***** JAMES 2:5 SAYS: “LISTEN, MY BELOVED BRETHREN: DID NOT GOD CHOOSE THE POOR OF THIS WORLD TO BE RICH IN FAITH AND HEIRS OF THE KINGDOM WHICH HE PROMISED TO THOSE WHO LOVE HIM?”

5. THEN IN I TIMOTHY 6:6-8 & 10&11 IT SAYS: (READ THEM).

* ALSO READ PROVERBS 23:4&5.

** NOW IT’S NOT WRONG TO BE RICH. IF YOU ARE, YOU ARE TO BE A FAITHFUL STEWARD USING YOUR RESOURCES THROUGH CHRIST’S CHURCH.

*** BUT OUR PURSUIT AND PASSION CANNOT BE RICHES. AND IF YOU ARE POOR TODAY, BUT KNOW CHRIST, I REMIND YOU THAT YOU ARE RICH.

**** NOW GOING BACK TO REVELATION 2:9, THE LORD WAS THOROUGHLY AWARE OF THIS CHURCH’S PRESSURE AND POVERTY, BUT COMMENDS THEM THAT THEY ARE RICH.

6. BUT ALSO THE LORD WAS AWARE OF “THE BLASPHEMY BY THOSE WHO SAY THEY ARE JEWS AND ARE NOT, BUT ARE A SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN.”

* NOW THIS IS A STRONG STATEMENT AND CERTAINLY WOULD NOT BE POLITICALLY CORRECT IN OUR CULTURE.

** FOR AT SMYRNA THERE WERE JEWS WHO WERE JEWS PHYSICALLY BY BIRTH, BUT NOT JEWS SPIRITUALLY THROUGH FAITH IN CHRIST.

*** IN OTHER WORDS, THE JEWISH COMMUNITY AT SMYRNA BELONGING TO THE SYNAGOGUE IN THAT CITY HAD CLEARLY REJECTED CHRIST AND WERE HEAPING FALSE ACCUSATIONS, SLANDEROUS SPEECH, BLASPHEMIES AGAINST THOSE WHO WERE FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST.

**** THESE JEWS WHO WERE PHYSICAL JEWS, BUT NOT SPIRITUAL JEWS THROUGH TRUSTING THEIR MESSIAH, WERE CAUSING ALL KINDS OF PROBLEMS FOR THE CHURCH AND WERE BEHIND SOME OF THE PERSECUTION.

7. AND ALTHOUGH THEY CONSIDERED THEMSELVES A SYNAGOGUE OF GOD, IN REALITY THEY WERE A SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN, A STATEMENT THAT WOULD BE HIGHLY INFLAMMATORY TODAY.

* BUT THE REALITY WAS THEY WERE DOING THE WORK OF SATAN AND THAT’S WHAT THE LORD CALLED THEIR ASSEMBLY, THEIR SYNAGOGUE.

** NOW AS CHRISTIANS WE ARE NOT ANTI-SEMITIC. WE LOVE JEWISH PEOPLE FOR THEY WERE GOD’S SPECIAL COVENANT PEOPLE OF THE O.T. AND OUR SAVIOR WAS A JEWISH MAN.

*** AND WE ABHOR AND DENOUNCE IDEOLOGIES THAT

PERSECUTE JEWISH PEOPLE FOR THEIR PHYSICAL BACKGROUND.

**** BUT SPIRITUALLY IF A JEWISH PERSON OR ANYONE REGARDLESS OF NATIONALITY DOES NOT COMMUNICATE CHRIST AS THE ONLY WAY AND COME TO CHRIST AS THEIR LORD AND SAVIOR, THEY ARE A PART OF FALSE RELIGION ENERGIZED BY SATAN.

8. AND UNDERSTAND, HISTORICALLY AND TODAY, FALSE RELIGION HAS BEEN AND IS MOST ZEALOUS IN OPPOSING THAT WHICH IS TRUE.

* AND FALSE RELIGION OPPOSED THE CHURCH AT SMYRNA.

** BUT I MUST MOVE ON TO OUR NEXT POINT FOUND IN V. 10, THE COMMANDS OF CHRIST. LOOK AT V. 10 PLEASE.

III. THE COMMANDS, (READ V. 10)

A. NOW THE FIRST COMMAND BY OUR LORD IS DO NOT FEAR WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO SUFFER.

* AND THE VERB “FEAR” IS IN THE IMPERATIVE MOOD, A COMMAND IN THE GREEK.

** AND OF COURSE THIS IS A REPETITIOUS COMMAND IN SCRIPTURE AS I POINTED OUT TWO WEEKS AGO, THAT CHRISTIANS ARE NOT TO BE PARALYZED WITH FEAR.

*** AND SPECIFICALLY IN THIS CONTEXT, FEAR OF PERSECUTION, FEAR OVER WHAT THEY WERE ABOUT TO SUFFER BEYOND WHAT THEY HAD ALREADY GONE THROUGH.

**** AND NOTICE THAT CHRIST DOES NOT PROMISE THEM IMMEDIATE RELIEF OR THAT THE WORST WILL NOT HAPPEN. HE TELLS THEM PLAINLY THINGS WILL GET WORSE.

1. FOR HE SAYS: “THE DEVIL IS ABOUT TO CAST SOME OF YOU INTO PRISON, THAT YOU MAY BE TESTED, AND YOU WILL HAVE TRIBULATION 10 DAYS, BE FAITHFUL UNTIL DEATH.”

* NOW THESE ARE NOT THE WORDS I WOULD THINK THAT THEY WANTED TO HEAR. I MEAN WE ALWAYS WANT TO HEAR THINGS ARE GOING TO GET BETTER AND THEY WILL ULTIMATELY.

** BUT THEY MAY GET WORSE BEFORE THEY GET BETTER. AND THIS CERTAINLY GOES AGAINST THE GRAIN OF THE WORD OF FAITH MOVEMENT AND THE HEALTH WEALTH AND PROSPERITY MOVEMENT.

*** FOR JESUS MAY WANT YOU POOR AS WE LEARNED IN V. 9, AND HERE WE LEARN THAT JESUS WANTED SOME OF THEM TO DIE A MARTYR’S DEATH.

**** SO BEYOND JESUS WANTED SOME CHRISTIANS TO BE POOR, AND RATHER THAN MAKING YOU HEALTHY HE MAY TAKE YOU HOME, YOUR APPOINTMENT OF DEATH EVEN THROUGH SUFFERING MAY BE OUR LOT.

2. AND IT’S CRUEL AND UNBIBLICAL TO TELL PEOPLE THAT YOU LACK FAITH IF YOU’RE POOR AND LACK FAITH IF YOU’RE SICK.

* FOR THAT IS GOD’S WILL FOR SOME OF HIS PRECIOUS FOLLOWERS.

** AND YOU MIGHT RESPOND, BUT RAY, THE DEVIL IS BEHIND ALL OF THIS, CASTING THESE BELIEVERS INTO PRISON AND PERSECUTING THEM AND THEIR TRIBULATION.

*** BUT I TELL YOU SATAN CANNOT DO A THING THAT GOD DOES NOT PERMIT HIM TO DO OR IN WHAT HE HAS ORDAINED AS AN END.

**** SATAN COULD NOT AFFLICT JOB WITHOUT GOD’S PERMISSION AND EVEN THROUGH WHAT GOD ORDAINED AS HIS PURPOSE.

3. AND GOD’S PURPOSE HERE IN REVELATION 2:10 IS TO TEST, NOT TEMPT THESE BELIEVERS.

* TERTULLIAN SAID, “THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYRS IS THE SEED OF THE CHURCH.”

** AND GOD USES THESE TESTS TO STRENGTH, TO PURIFY, TO EXPAND HIS CHURCH, AS I SAID IN MY INTRODUCTION TODAY.

*** AND THE DEVIL IS NOT IN CONTROL OF THESE THINGS. AS MARTIN LUTHER SAID: “THE DEVIL IS GOD’S DEVIL.”

**** MEANING THE DEVIL IS JUST AS MUCH GOD’S SERVANT IN HIS REBELLION AS HE WAS AS GOD’S SERVANT AS A CHERUBIM IN THE DAYS OF HIS SWEET OBEDIENCE.

4. ERWIN LUTZER SAID: “THE DEVIL HAS EXACTLY AS MUCH POWER AS GOD LETS HIM HAVE AND NOT ONE MITE MORE.”

* BELOVED GOD IS THE KING, THE SOVEREIGN OF THE UNIVERSE, NOT THE DEVIL. AND YES HE IS A POWERFUL FOE, BUT A DEFEATED ONE.

** FOR THE CRUSHING BLOW OF CHRIST TO HIS HEAD WAS GIVEN THROUGH THE CROSS.

*** SO THE LORD SAYS, “DO NOT FEAR, BE FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH.”

**** AND GOD ALONE SOVEREIGNLY CONTROLS ALL THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF LIFE AND WOULD NOT PERMIT SATAN TO TORMENT THE SMYRNA CHURCH FOR LONG.

5. FOR JESUS PROMISED THAT THEY WOULD HAVE TRIBULATION FOR ONLY 10 DAYS.

* AND THOUGH SOME SEE 10 DAYS SYMBOLICALLY REPRESENTING EVERYTHING FROM 10 PERIODS OF PERSECUTION UNDER THE ROMANS, TO AN UNDETERMINED PERIOD OF TIME, TO A TIME OF TEN YEARS, THERE IS NO EXEGETICAL CONTEXTUAL REASON TO INTERPRET THEM AS ANYTHING OTHER THAN 10 ACTUAL DAYS.

** AND SATAN’S ASSAULT ON THAT LOCAL CHURCH WOULD BE INTENSE BUT BRIEF AND THERE IS A BLESSING FROM CHRIST AT THE END OF V. 10, “THE CROWN OF LIFE.”

*** AND THIS IS PROBABLY BEST RENDERED “A CROWN WHICH IS LIFE.”

**** FOR NOT ALL CHRISTIANS AT SMYRNA WOULD DIE A MARTYR’S DEATH, BUT ALL THE FAITHFUL ONES WOULD SHARE IN THE VICTORY OF CHRIST.

6. AND ALTHOUGH SOME INTERPRET THIS CROWN TO BE A MARTYR’S CROWN, JAMES 1:12 WHICH TALKS ABOUT THIS CROWN APPEARS TO TEACH OTHERWISE.

* FOR JAMES 1:12 SAYS: “BLESSED IS A MAN WHO PERSEVERES UNDER TRIAL; FOR ONCE HE HAS BEEN APPROVED, HE WILL RECEIVE THE CROWN OF LIFE WHICH THE LORD HAS PROMISED TO THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.”

** AND BEYOND THEM IS A REWARD FOR THE BELIEVER WHO PERSEVERES THROUGH TRIALS: ETERNAL LIFE.

*** A TRUE CHRISTIAN WILL PERSEVERE AND PERSEVERANCE PROVES THE GENUINENESS OF FAITH.

**** AND SO FAITHFULNESS THROUGH TRIBULATION WOULD EVIDENCE THE REALITY OF THE DIVINE LIFE THEY ALREADY POSSESSED AND THE CROWN WOULD REFLECT THEIR FAITHFULNESS TO CHRIST WHETHER IN LIFE OR DEATH.

7. ETERNAL LIFE IS GOD’S PROMISE TO THOSE WHOM HE SAVES BY HIS GRACE. AND IN ESSENCE THIS IS COMMITMENT BY CHRIST TO HIS PEOPLE.

* AND THIS COMMITMENT IS VERIFIED IN V. 11, OUR LAST VERSE AND LAST POINT TODAY, THE COMMITMENT.

IV. THE COMMITMENT, (READ V. 11)

A. NOW HERE WE SEE AGAIN THE PHRASE, HE WHO HAS AN EAR, LET HIM HEAR WHAT THE SPIRIT SAYS TO THE CHURCHES, PLURAL, TO ALL CHURCHES.

* AND THIS IS THE CLOSING OF ALL 7 LETTERS, TO LISTEN UP, TO TAKE HEED TO GOD’S VOICE IN SCRIPTURE WHICH COMES THROUGH THE INSPIRING MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

** AND THEN THERE IS THE REMINDER TO ALL BELIEVERS, NOT JUST MARTYRS, TO OVERCOMERS, WHICH ARE ALL TRUE BELIEVERS, FOR I JOHN 5:4&5 SAYS: (READ IT).

*** NOW THE VERB “OVERCOMETH” IS THE GREEK WORD NIK-AH-O FROM WHICH THE WORD NIKE MEANING VICTORY COMES FROM.

**** SO IT LIT. MEANS TO BE A VICTOR AND THERE IS VICTORY IN JESUS. ALL WHO ARE TRULY IN HIM WILL OVERCOME AND NOT BE HURT BY THE 2’D DEATH.

1. AND THE 2’D DEATH IS NOT ETERNAL LIFE BUT ETERNAL SEPARATION FROM CHRIST IN THE LAKE OF FIRE, READ REVELATION 20:14&15 AND REVELATION 21:8.

* AND BELOVED, THE 2’D DEATH WILL NOT HURT US. AND NOT IS THE STRONGEST NEGATIVE THE GREEK LANGUAGE CAN EXPRESS.

** THERE IS NO WAY AN OVERCOMER, A VICTOR IN CHRIST, A TRUE BELIEVER, CAN BE HARMED BY THE SECOND DEATH.

AND AS I WRAP UP THINGS (1) THIS TRUTH IS SUCH AN ENCOURAGEMENT.

* HEAVEN IS AHEAD, ETERNAL LIFE IS COMING.

** AND YOU MAY BE SUFFERING NOW, BUT THE BEST IS YET TO COME. GLORY AWAITS, THE CROWN WHICH IS LIFE, WE WILL NEVER PERISH ETERNALLY.

*** AND CERTAINLY THE SWEET BY AND BY IS SET BEFORE US TO GO THROUGH THE NASTY NOW AND NOW.

**** AND IT’S NOT PIE IN THE SKY, BUT AN ETERNAL TRUTH, AN ETERNAL PROMISE OF ETERNAL LIFE FROM THE ETERNAL GOD, THE LORD JESUS WHO IS THE FIRST AND THE LAST, WHO WAS DEAD AND HAS COME TO LIFE.

(2) AND I KNOW I DON’T THINK ABOUT HEAVEN ENOUGH. LET’S NOT ALLOW THAT TO CONTINUE.

* LET’S BE REMINDED TODAY OF GOD’S MERCY IN SAVING US FROM ETERNAL HELL, THE LAKE OF FIRE AND THE 2’D DEATH.

** AND LET US SET THE TRUTH OF HEAVEN BEFORE US TO MOTIVATE US THROUGH DIFFICULTIES WE ARE EXPERIENCING NOW. WE WILL BE WITH CHRIST AND WHAT GLORY THAT WILL BE.

*** I CLOSE WITH A QUOTE FROM SPURGEON.

**** HE SAID AND I QUOTE: “ABOVE, BENEATH, AROUND, WITHIN, WITHOUT, EVERYWHERE IT IS HEAVEN. I BREATHE HEAVEN, I DRINK HEAVEN, I FEEL HEAVEN, I THINK HEAVEN. EVERYTHING IS HEAVEN. OH, WHAT MUST IT BE TO BE THERE? TO BE THERE IS TO BE WITH CHRIST.”

(3) BELOVED, TO BE THERE IS TO BE WITH CHRIST. TRULY THERE WILL BE VICTORY IN JESUS.