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Here's Anne Graham Lutz.
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When you read your Bible and you take a paragraph of verses and you ask yourself, what does it say? What does it mean when you ask those questions? He will give you hidden manna. He will give you insights and precious promises and the whispers of the Spirit that are just for you. Let the Spirit speak to you through the passage.
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We're so glad you've joined us this week for Living in the Light with Bible teacher Anne Graham Lotz. Last time, Ann began to speak about the seven churches found in Revelation chapters two and three. She taught about the first two churches, Ephesus and Smyrna. And this week she continues with her message, his glory to be reflected through repentance on the final five churches, those being Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. Now let's join Anne and find out what church are you most like in
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Revelation chapters 2 and 3? If you'll open your Bibles. He takes the light of his Word and he shines it into the heart of these seven churches. The third church that is listed is Pergamum, and we're not going to look at that. That's a church that was situated in a very intellectual city. They had a library of 200,000 cuneiform tablets, a medical university. And people were excited when the church was planted there because they thought now the church can impact the culture, and instead the culture impacted the church until you couldn't see the difference. And the Lord commended them because they were true to the name of Christ. They called themselves Christians, but what he corrected them about or convicted them of was that they had in their midst those who held to the teaching of Balaam and Nicolation. And I don't exactly know what that was, but apparently these false teachers were causing them to doubt God's Word and dilute God's Word and deny God's Word. And so I think the warning is to be careful who you expose yourself to. So who is your pastor? Who are the podcasts that you listen to, the videos that you watch, and I'm talking about spiritually, the books that you read make sure that these people that you're listening to and that you're watching are godly and they're biblical and they're sound because the Balaamites and Nicolasians have. Have crept into the church, and if you're not careful, they will just subtly draw you away from that simple, childlike faith in God's Word. So he told them to repent. And I will call that. I don't Know if it's permissiveness or progressiveness or political correctness or worldliness or whatever it is, but we need to repent of exposing ourselves to that kind of teaching and turn away from it and cut it off. So the promise in verse 17, he says, I'll give you some of the hidden manna. You know, in the Old Testament, the Ark of Covenant. There were three items in the Ark of the covenant. One was Aaron's rod that had budded, which was represented the power of God. And then the tablets of stone on which God had written the ten Commandments. So the principles of God or the precepts of God. And then there was a golden jar that was filled with manna, with representing the provision of God when he fed his children in the wilderness. And it was the hidden manna. So when you read your Bible and you take a paragraph of verses and you ask yourself, what does it say? What does it mean? What does it mean in my life? And you ask those questions, he will give you hidden manna. He will give you insights and precious promises and the whispers of the Spirit that are just for you. And it's hidden because you don't get it in the surface reading. You have to take time to think about it, meditate on it. Let the Spirit speak to you through the passage just like he did when we were coming up here. And he gave me that verse on November 4, that he would speak peace to his people on this mountain and that his teaching would come like dew, refreshing us. And it was just hidden, man. It was right there. Or even when he said he would uphold me with his righteous right hand. Said it twice. So don't miss the hidden manna. Just a little precious word that he has for you that satisfies you deep down and just begins to build that love relationship with him. Are you listening to what the Spirit is saying? To repent of whatever it is that would pull you away from God's word, whether it's political correctness or permissiveness, progressiveness. They thought they had progressed beyond God's word, that somehow they were so intellectual and so smart that they didn't need to come humbly like a child and receive God's word by faith. They just thought they'd grown past that. If you've grown past that, you've grown too far. So are you listening to what the Spirit is saying? A church at Pergamum was not. There's no church there today. The next one was Thyatira. And Thyatira was a very small church in a Very obscure town. People don't even know how she made this list because nobody knew about her. And I think maybe there's a message in that, that she was so small, so obscure, she thought she could get by with anything because God wouldn't notice her. So I don't know if there's somebody here, you think you're just insignificant, small. Nobody knows your name. You're in a small town and you can do whatever you want because nobody cares. Nobody sees. And God sees. So Jesus spent more time on this church. There are 11 verses devoted to thyatira than he did any of these other churches. Isn't that interesting? He says, I know what you're doing, right? And it looked like they had done everything right in verse 19. Their deeds, their love, their faith, their service, their perseverance. Doing more now than what they did at first. I mean, they just seemed exemplary. But then he was looking at them with eyes of blazing fire because he had something against him. It was that they had somebody named Jezebel. And I'm assuming it's a woman, and she was immoral. And she seemed to get by with her immorality. And other people thought, well, if she gets by with it, I can get by with it. And she led the whole church into sexual immorality. Is there somebody whose example is encouraging you to sin? And you think, well, they can do that. I guess I can too, so watch out. So Jesus became very strong with this Jezebel and commands her to repent of her ways and said, if she doesn't, then she would suffer the consequences and so would her children. And I think the warning is that if you don't remove the sin, he will. And what I see in the church when we're talking about sexual immorality is pornography. So I don't know if there's somebody here who's into that, but I talked to a seminary professor several years ago, and it's a very solid, large, mainline evangelical seminary. And he said the number one problem among the students was pornography. That they would get back in the stacks in the library, get on their computer. They thought nobody would find them. And they were indulging in pornography. Repents. And if it's somebody in your church or they need help, and I know there's a lot of help today for that. It's an addiction, for sure, but you have to turn away from it. You have to turn away from it. So the principle is that God is not mocked. He demands holiness. And his standards haven't changed. You know that. So we compare ourselves with each other and we think, well, I'm better than she is and I'm not as bad as he is. And so we think we're okay. He doesn't compare us with each other. He compares us to the perfection of the Holy Spirit. And he says, I demand that you be holy as I am holy. I don't know what the sin is. Maybe it's not sexual immorality, it's something else that you're indulging in. But stop it. Put it out of your life. And if it is sexual immorality, you know, on the news popup that I use in my computer, they'll have little pop up ads. And I think if I'm a young kid with my hormones raging and I see ads like that popping up, I'd be curious and punch on them. And it just pulls them into pornography, sort of a soft porn. Put a guard on your own eyes and your children. Put a guard on what they see. Your grandchildren. It's interesting. Verse 26, the promise. He'll give you authority over the nations. And I want to point that out because I think that means you'll have power in your service. And if you're indulging in sin, even if it's private and you think nobody sees it, but you're just all immersed in it, it will rob you of your spiritual power. So when you get pleasure in that sin for a season, is it worth the trade off of not having power to impact your family, not having the spiritual power to impact your friends or your church or your community? I think that's one reason the church in America is so weak, because we're not holy, we're not separated from sin. We've indulged in it and become like the world around us. And so we're not salt and we're not light. And so repent of the sinfulness. Turn away from it. Are you listening? Thyatira was not. There's nothing in Thyatira today, not even rocks in a field. The next one is the church at Sardis in chapter three, verses one to six. And the Lord spoke to me from this. And so I'm just going to apply it the way he said it to me. But he says he identifies himself as the one who. The words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. And so it's a picture of him holding the balance scales. And you know, people say, well, God's going to weigh my good deeds against my bad deeds. And if my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds, then I'm okay. He doesn't weigh our good deeds against our bad deeds. He weighs all of our deeds against the perfection of the Holy Spirit. And he said to me several years ago from this passage, ann, you don't measure up. So I said, all right, let's see. So in verse one, I know what you're doing right? You know a few people who are right. How about that? They just. They were commended because they had some Christian friends. And then he says in verse one, what you're doing wrong, you have a reputation of being alive, but you're dead. And you have a reputation. You go around the world, you speak for me, you're holding meetings, and as I see you, you're dying on the inside. And then he told me in verse to wake up. And I knew what he was talking about. So I'm going to apply Sardis as being. If we want people to see Jesus in us, we need to repent of our prayerlessness. How's your prayer life? When do you spend time with the Lord? Just talking to him, listening to his voice? And prayer isn't just a monologue. You don't have to just talk and talk and talk and talk to God. Some people do, but I don't. Prayer is also listening. So when you get up in the morning and you're reading that paragraph of verses and asking yourself, what does it say and what does it mean? And what does it mean in my life, that's letting him talk to you, and then you talk back to him. When I read My Daily Light in the morning, that's the first thing I read when I make time for prayer, and I'll read those verses and I'll talk to him about what I'm reading. And so prayer can be a dialogue like that, like a conversation. How long has it been since you've had a conversation with God? Put prayer back in your life. He said in verse. I think it's three. He says, your deeds are not complete. And I think my deeds weren't complete because they weren't bathed in my own prayers. I can't. It's not good enough to. I can't substitute other people's prayers for my own. I need to pray myself. And yes, I need people to pray for me. And please feel free to do that. I need prayer, but I don't want to substitute your prayers for my prayers. Okay, listen to me. The principle is that God doesn't look on the outward appearance. He's not impressed with our reputation. He looks on the Heart, are you listening to what the Spirit is saying? Sardis was not. There's no church there today. And then the sixth church is the church at Philadelphia. And I've labeled her timidness. But this is the second church in this list of seven that Jesus found nothing wrong with. So Smyrna and Philadelphia were beautiful. They did nothing that he needed to correct them for. It's just that I see a tendency in this church to do something wrong. Verse seven, he says, these are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the keys of David. And I think the keys of David are the keys to doors of opportunity in your life. So who do you think holds the keys to the doors of opportunity in your service or in your life? You think it's your spouse or your pastor or the deacons or your employer or. But he says, I hold the keys. So then he says, learn from me. I know what you're doing right. I know your deeds. You have a little strength. You've kept my word. You've not denied my name. And then he says, I know what you're doing wrong. Nothing. But where I see a tendency to do something wrong is when he says, you have a little strength. And a person who has a little strength tends to feel so inadequate and so weak that when he opens that door of opportunity for them, they say, I can't do that. So I know that because God called me into ministry outside of my home right from this passage. When he gives you a door of opportunity and it's open to you, then it's not for your curiosity, so you to peek through and see, well, you know, if I serve the Lord, if I did that, this is what would happen. But you don't walk through it. You don't do it. So what door of opportunity has he opened for you? Something in your church? Something in your neighborhood? Have you walked through that open door? But I said, lord, in verse 11, he says, hold on to what you have. And I said, lord, what do I have? I know what I don't have. I don't have much time. I don't have much money. I have very little education. I don't have enough experience and don't have much strength. And I love the fact that he acknowledged annual and have a little strength. He wasn't telling me, if you just try hard, you just work up. You just have more strength than you know and more ability. He was acknowledging, I only have a little strength. But he said, hold on to what you have. So I said, what do I have? I know what I don't have. And this is the whisper that came to me. Ann, you have my word and you have me. You walk through the open door. So I did. And I can tell you I have not regretted it for one moment. I taught that class every week for 12 years. And then he called me out into an itinerant ministry. And once again, I said, lord, I can't do this. And he said, but I can. I said, lord, I'm too weak. He said, but I'm strong, Lord. I'm completely inadequate, but I'm sufficient. Walk through the open door. And I did. And I've been to countries all over the world. I've spoken in soccer stadiums and racetracks and churches and coliseums and arenas. And just walking through the door that he's opened before me, hanging tightly to what I have, which is him and His Word. And I can't imagine what would have happened had I refused if I'd never walked through that open door. Verse 11 is a warning, and it's, I'm coming soon. He says, time is short. Those doors aren't going to stay open that much longer. Rachel Ruth dramatically described God shutting the door to the ark. And there's coming a time when the door's going to shut and that's going to be it. So walk through the doors when they're open. Listen to me. The principle, and I love it, that God is attracted to weakness isn't that special. So inadequacy, weakness results in a dependency upon Him. Just make sure your feeling of inadequacy doesn't translate into disobedience. So you say, I can't do this. I'm too timid. I'm too shy. And then you use that as an excuse to disobey God. But he can use somebody who's dependent upon Him. And the weaker you are, the more dependent you are, the more he can use you. I know the promise in verse 12. I'll make you a pillar in the temple of my God. He'll make you so strong in his presence that when other people see you, they will have no idea how weak you are, no idea how scared you were, no idea how timid you are. They'll just see his strength in you made perfect in your weakness. Are you listening to what the Spirit is saying? A church at Philadelphia was the last church we'll touch on briefly, but it's worth mentioning it's the church at Laodicea. And these churches, each one, some people think, represent a church age. So Laodicea is considered to represent our church age. Whether that's true or not, I don't know. But he starts in verse 14, look at me. These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. In other words, he has the last word. And what he says is so. So his evaluation of our lives is accurate. So when he raked me over the coals up in that cabin and began to reveal sin, I couldn't argue with him because I knew he saw it. He says the right thing. He's identifying himself as a faithful witness, somebody who's telling us exactly the way it is. And then he says, I know what you're doing right? Nothing. He did not commend them for one thing. Not even knowing somebody that was right, they were doing nothing right. They were doing everything wrong. And I think there are two primary things that made them do everything wrong. Indifference to Jesus. In verse 15, he says, I know your deeds. You're neither cold nor hot because you're lukewarm. I'm about to spit you out of my mouth. They made him sick to his stomach, and I think it was a complacency, shrugging it off. They didn't really care about a lost world. They didn't care about lost people. They weren't really caring about the gospel. They weren't excited about the Word. Their church was like a religious social club. They were very wealthy and they used it to network and make contacts and proud of themselves and indifferent to Jesus. And they were ignorant of their condition. They had no idea how lost they were. Verse 17, you say, I'm rich. I have acquired wealth and don't need a thing. But you don't realize that you're wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. The problem with the Laodicean church, they had never been born again. They had a religion, but not a relationship with Jesus. Are you religious? Proud of your religious traditions, your rituals? And some of them can be meaningful, but they're not a substitute for a personal relationship with God. If you're proud religious. Substituting rituals and traditions for a personal relationship with God. Verse 19, he says, those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. Oh, God loves the proud, religious, arrogant person who's filled with rituals and traditions, trying to seek God in all of those things. He loves you. He loves you. Maybe it's somebody in your family. Maybe it's somebody in your neighborhood. Maybe it's somebody in your church. He loves them. And then verse 20 is a verse that we use for evangelism. But it wasn't given to the unsaved. This is a verse that was given to the church. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. And if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and sup with him, and he with me. He was locked outside of the Laodicean church, knocking on the door, asking to be let in. So this proud, religious, arrogant church Jesus loved, he died for and was asking them to come into a personal relationship with himself. If you invite me to come in, I'll have sup with you. That's fellowship that you'll know him. Interpersonal love relationship. So listen to me. The principle is that religion is not a substitute for a personal relationship with God. Jesus said you must be born again. That's not an option. Not if you want to get right with God. Not if you want to have your sins forgiven, not if you want to have eternal life. Not if you want to go to heaven when you die. You. You must be born again. The promise to the one who overcomes this pridefulness, I'll give the right to sit with me on my throne. So you talk about somebody who's proud to sit on the throne with Jesus. But the way up is down. You have to humble yourself and come to the cross and confess your sin and tell God you're sorry and ask him to forgive you and cleanse you and come into your heart and surrender to him and be born again. And if you do, then one day you'll share in his glory. Heaven will be your home. Are you listening to what the Spirit is saying? The Laodiceans were not. There's nothing but ruins where she once stood. 50 years from now, 100 years from now. What's your legacy going to be? Will there still be a remnant of faith passed from generation to generation to generation? Or will it die out with you? So listen to what the Spirit is saying. So if you and I want to reflect the glory of Jesus in our lives, if we want our spouse, our children, our grandchildren, our neighbors, our friends, see Jesus in me and in you, then we must repent of our sin. We must turn away from it. Ask God. So I just say, as you go to bed tonight, would you pray that prayer of David's in Psalm139? Search me, O God. See if there's any wicked way in me. Lead me into the way everlasting. Ask him to pinpoint that which is not pleasing to him in your life. So which of these churches would you be most like? Like Ephesus, The Byzant Smyrna, maybe the fearfulness, pergamum, the worldliness or political correctness, permissiveness, thyatira, the sinfulness, immorality, Sardis, the prayerlessness and Philadelphia, the timidness layer to see or the pridefulness. And you know that list of sins? I meant to bring it tonight, but maybe I'm good that I didn't. But the list doesn't stop there because there can be unkindness, bitterness, meanness, jealousy, unforgiveness. You know, the list goes on. So I think it's time to get right with God.
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Living in the Light is a weekly study in God's word with teacher and author Anne Graham Lotz. Learn to listen to his voice, then start making the choice to keep on going and believing and trusting who God is. Go to angramlotz.org take advantage of the many helpful free resources to get you started. Join us again for Living in the Light.