Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: We live in a world that loves quick fixes, instant results, easy answers, shortcuts to success, hacks for life. But when it comes to our faith, those practices don't work.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee calls that kind of shallow thinking "Band-Aid belief," and it might cover the problem for a moment, but it really never brings real healing. Welcome to Thru the Bible, where we're learning how to guard against that trap and then grow deeper in our walk with Jesus Christ ourselves.

The Bible bus is on its last leg of our five-year journey through the whole Word of God, but we've got some high mountains to climb through the Book of Revelation yet, and we'll begin in chapter two starting at verse four. But first, let's listen as Dr. McGee gives us great context for understanding this wonderful book.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: We have come now to this great book of Revelation that's like a great airport where planes are coming in from every direction and from strange places, by the way. And you must understand where these planes come from to understand the meaning of them when they arrive.

We find that a great many people like to begin studying Revelation without any reference to the rest of the Bible. Well, you need to know these great themes of prophecy. Every great theme of prophecy comes into the Book of Revelation like a great airport is a terminal where it's brought to a conclusion in this particular book.

We are right now talking about the church. Well, the church, you need to know where it began, back yonder at the day of Pentecost, something about its over 1,900 years of history, and then this book will make it very clear to you that the church is going to disappear from the world scene before that great time of the Great Tribulation comes upon the earth. These are things that make this book a very wonderful book.

So I'm going to begin today with a little poem that someone sent in, and I like it very much. It's to the point and it came from a place called Arleta, California. It says: "Reach out to Him. He'll be there, and He'll see you through. He will help you grin as you rest in Him. He will help you speak when you're feeling weak. He will strengthen you when there's work to do. He will cast out fear as you persevere. He will direct your day as you continue to pray. Reflect on the battle that was won, your dead to sin alive to win. Let's claim the victory. Christ Jesus set us free to proclaim His wondrous story and give Him all the glory." I like that very much.

Steve Schwetz: I don't know about you, but I'm excited to go deeper into Revelation. So as you grab your copy of God's Word, we've got a few minutes to share some great letters from our fellow Bible bus passengers. Let's start with this note from Mary in Indiana.

"I started listening as a new believer and got the notes and outlines for free. I didn't have the money to send. I stopped listening for several years, but now listen daily to Dr. McGee's teaching, and it's been a great help to me in understanding the Bible. I can now support the programs and am a member of the World Prayer Team. I can't wait to meet Dr. McGee in heaven. I thank God for you."

Thanks for writing, Mary, and for your support. I love that you got the notes and outlines when you needed them and now help provide them to others. Next is a note from Rhodie from Ohio. She writes: "My husband found you on the radio of the truck he was driving for his work and listened. He became interested, and then we both listened to Dr. McGee teach the Word of God. At one time, we even began recording the daily messages, but then bought the commentaries and used them a great deal."

"When I moved to an assisted living facility, there wasn't room to keep all of my books. Then I began listening online and have been doing that ever since. I often tell people to listen to Dr. McGee. I even forward the daily emails that feature letters to missionaries I know in that region of the world to point out that God's Word is effective in reaching and encouraging others. I'm now 97 years old and will continue to witness for Jesus until He calls me to the home which He has prepared for me."

Well, Rhodie, thanks for your faithfulness to God's Word and His people. I'll keep saving you a seat. Our last note is from Theresa in California: "I've been listening to you for a few weeks and wow, what a ministry. In a short time of listening to this teaching, I have been blessed with encouragement and have great admiration for Dr. J. Vernon McGee's vision to fling the entire Word of God worldwide."

"I hope that I can listen to the five-year teaching for the rest of my life. In hindsight, I remember giving up hearing this program on the radio because the preacher's voice was uncomfortable to my ears. I confess the loss was mine, and now I have a hard time not sharing it with others."

Well, share away, Theresa. There's always room for more on the Bible bus. If like Theresa, you'd like to share God's Word and this program with others, we've got some Bible bus passes that can help. Each pass is about the size of a business card and it contains a QR code that links to the program.

The best part is that they're free. Just call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE and we're happy to put some in the mail to you. Let's pray. Father, thank You for the gift of Your Word and the privilege that we have to study it together. Lord, as we turn to Revelation, open our hearts and minds by Your Spirit so that we can hear and believe and then obey what's been spoken to us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now friends, we are in the second chapter of Revelation, and here we have the things that are. These are things that pertain to the church. We have seven letters of the Lord Jesus that He sent to seven churches that were in Asia Minor. It's in what is today modern Turkey, and most of these churches are near the coast. One or two of them are quite far inland, probably around a hundred miles inland.

I've had the privilege of being to the ruins of all seven of the churches as well as others, and I believe that this brings you closer to the days of the Bible, especially the New Testament, than even a trip to Israel. So many have mentioned that. Now we have seen that the Lord Jesus, as He addresses each church, He lifts something out of this glorious vision of Himself as our great high priest, which John has seen there on the Isle of Patmos.

And he's told to write to the church in Ephesus. That's the first one that's mentioned here. We talked about Ephesus yesterday, that it was a great city. It was one of the great cities of that day, and it was a great commercial center, it was a great religious center, and it was a great political center. But this city was a seacoast city at that time. It's not today. The Little Maeander River has silted it in and filled in the harbor so that actually it's about six miles from where it was in the days of the original Temple of Diana.

At that time the waters lapped up at the very base of the temple. In fact, it was built in a swamp. And then later on this temple burned down, and then Alexander the Great led in the building of the one that became one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. We described that last time. It was probably the greatest center of heathenism that has ever been on the earth. It was the largest Greek temple ever built, four times larger than the Parthenon in Rome, and it was, of course, a thing of beauty.

Paul had a great ministry there. The impact of that ministry can be seen actually in the ruins of the city. There at the entrance to the harbor, because Lysimachus moved the city to higher ground and the ruins we see today are those ruins of that city, the city that Paul visited. The harbor had moved way far down, and it was a very small harbor, but the ships of that day could get into it.

And you landed at the foot of Harbor Boulevard, a great wide white marble boulevard that led right up to this great theater, and along the way there were temples and lovely buildings. And then there were four great towers that were built there, four great monuments, one to Matthew, one to Mark, one to Luke, and one to John. That shows that the Gospel had made a tremendous impact in that area.

And there other evidences of it, where pagan heathen temples were later on turned into churches, and the church in Ephesus became a very prominent church. Paul founded it and then John the Apostle became pastor later on. Now we saw last time that there were seven words of commendation that the Lord had for this church. It was the best church of all. It represents the apostolic period up to about 100 AD, to about the death of John.

It was the church at its best. Never has the church reached such a high spiritual level as this church did. And these things He commended them for are wonderful things. But He always had a word of commendation first and then a word of condemnation. But as we've noted, there are two exceptions to that, and we'll see one of them in the next church that we visit and see here.

Now He says in verse four a word of condemnation: "Nevertheless, I have against thee that thou hast left thy best love." That seems ever so trivial. Why does He say that? What He's really saying is that you're leaving your first love. They hadn't departed. Well, it's difficult for us in this cold, indifferent day in which we live, in this very skeptical and cynical age in which we live, where the church is so caught up in the things of the present.

In other words, the world has intruded into the church today in a very definite way. But you and I can't conceive the intense and enthusiastic devotion to the person of Christ that the early church had. The Holy Spirit had brought the believers in Ephesus into an intimate and personal relationship with Jesus Christ, whereas they could say to Him, as I trust that you and I can today, "Lord Jesus, I love You." And they were getting away from that first love.

I tell you, Ephesus, with all of its attractions, and it was a great city, was beginning to draw them away. And it was this church that became such a potent church in evangelism. That entire area, probably 25 million people, and even the Roman emperors and the nobility that attended there, they all heard the Gospel. They had an opportunity to hear it. And they saw a moving of the Spirit of God that probably has not been duplicated since then.

But every now and then we meet someone that has been brought into that close personal relationship with Christ. There are many men we could mention. I'm just going to use one example today: David Brainerd, the missionary to the Indians in this country. He was suffering with what was known in that day as consumption, or today as tuberculosis. And he would travel along by horseback, and sometimes he'd have a regular convulsion, vomit blood, become unconscious, fall off of his horse, lie in the snow there.

And when he'd do that, the horse learned to just stay right there. When he'd come to, he'd crawl back on the horse on his way out to preach to the Indians. Why, he would cry out, "Lord Jesus, I've failed You, but You know that I love You." Oh, how these folk had been brought in the past into such a close, intimate, personal relationship with Christ.

And friends, that's the all-important thing today. We are so involved in methods. I get rather amused at all of these Band-Aid courses that are making Band-Aid believers. It's some little legal system, generally, where if you follow certain rules and you observe certain psychological patterns, you're going to solve all your problems. You'll be able to get along with yourself, and that's a pretty good order right there. And then you can get along with your neighbors, you can get along with everybody, and especially your wife.

All of those things are very important, and they are the problem today, and a great many people think if they get a few rules and they think that solves the Christian life. May I put it in a nutshell? Do you love Jesus Christ? Now I don't care what your system is, your denomination is, your program is, your little set of rules. They all come to naught if you don't love Him.

And if you love Him, well, some systems are better than others, but almost any system will work if you love Him. That's the important thing. And it will make your relationship to Christ, your service, it'll make everything more beautiful, more wonderful. The story is told in New England years ago when they had so many cotton mills there. Two girls worked in a cotton mill. One of them quit, and the other one quit later and got married.

And so they hadn't seen each other for a long time. They met on the street, and this girl that quit first said to the other, "How are you getting along?" And she said, "Fine. I got married." And she had asked her the question first, she said, "Are you still working?" And she said, "No, I'm not working. I got married." And you talk about working. Well, that girl when she worked in that mill, she watched that clock every evening.

When 5:00 came, I tell you, she's walking out of there, she's got her hat on, she's on the way out, and it was hard work and she didn't like it at all. Now she's married, and is she working now? Well, she said she's quit working, she got married. But if you go and see, she married this fellow and she gets up of a morning, she fixes his lunch, and that's early. And then she throws her arms around him, tells him goodbye.

And then all day long she's working with two little brats—I should say two little angels. They're hers, and my, I tell you, they keep her busy. And then when 5:00 comes, why, she begins dinner. She doesn't quit work. She starts cooking dinner. Along about 6:00 here comes the husband, and she's right there at the door to throw arms around his neck and tell him how much she missed him that day.

You know, friends, when you come home of an evening and there's nobody there to greet you, and you open the door and step in and a voice from way upstairs or way somewhere in the house says, "Is that you?" the honeymoon's over, friends, when that takes place. But this girl, you see, she's in love, and she's not working anymore. But do you think she quit working at 5:00? She just really got going, feeding those children and putting them to bed.

That's not easy. And I tell you she was weary when she finally got in bed, and this poor girl, she's not working. That's the difference. I tell you, friends, when church work becomes a burden to you, there's something wrong with your relationship with Christ. When you get that straightened out, other things will get straightened out also. Now will you notice what He says here, that you're getting away from your first love, your best love, the Lord Jesus. And that is the solution.

Now what are they to do? In verse five He says, "Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen." First, remember. Memory's a marvelous thing. A memory is something God has given us so we can have roses in December. But here in California, we have them because we all got short memories out here, and we have the real roses. But memory's a marvelous thing. Someone said it's a luxury that only a good man can enjoy.

Remember, do you remember when you were converted? Do you remember what a thrill it was and what the Lord Jesus meant to you, and have you become cold and indifferent? Have you gotten away from Him today? Are you in a backslidden condition? Remember. Remember where you were, and you can get back there. And He says, "And repent." And believe me, we need that today, repent.

We need to break the shell of self-sufficiency, the crust of conceit, the shield of sophistication, and the veneer of vanity and get rid of the false face of piety and stop this business of everlastingly polishing our halo as if we're some great saint. Repent. Go to Him, and repent means to return back to Him. And repentance is the message for believers today. How dare the church tell an unsaved man to repent?

What he needs to do is to turn to Christ. Now when he turns to Christ, he'll turn as the Thessalonians did from idols. Whatever his sin is, he'll turn from it, but you've got to turn to Christ first. And that's the way the Thessalonians did it. How ye turned to God from idols, to serve the living God, wait for His Son from heaven. But the church needs to repent, and that's a message they don't want to hear today.

Repent and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly and I will remove thy lampstand. Remember, repent, and return unto Him, or He'll come quickly and He'll remove thy lampstand out of its place except thou repent. He says I'll remove your lampstand. And how many churches have been practically closed, that at one time the crowds came but they don't anymore because the Word of God is no longer being taught?

And my friend, may I say to you, He's still watching the lamps, and He doesn't mind trimming a wick, and He doesn't mind using the snuffers when it refuses to give light. Now He says to this church: "But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate." And we're going to have them before us again. We might say here the word is a double word: nikaō means to conquer or rule and laos means the people—we get our word "laity" from that.

And it's difficult to identify who the Nicolaitans were. There are some that think it was a priestly order that was beginning to take shape and they attempted to rule over the people. The second is that there's no way of identifying this group with any in the early or late church history. And then the third explanation that's been offered is that there was a man by the name of Nicolaus of Antioch.

And he apostatized from the truth and he formed an antinomian Gnostic cult which taught that one could indulge in sin in order to understand it. They gave themselves over to sensuality with the explanation that sins did not touch the spirit. And that "Nicolaitan" refers to this cult, and I rather think that's the best explanation. The church here in Ephesus hated it. A little later on we'll see the church in Pergamum tolerated it.

Now He says: "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." He that hath an ear, that is that blood-tipped ear. Not everyone can hear the Word of God. Oh, I know they can hear the audible sound, but they miss the message. And this is a phrase that the Lord Jesus uses to alert dull ears. Remember He used that expression: they have ears to hear but they hear not.

Now He speaks to those with spiritual perception, and I hope you're listening today. Now the Spirit here is the Holy Spirit, He's the teacher of the church. And it says to him that overcometh, that refers to the genuine believer, and we can only overcome through the blood of the Lamb. Now He says, "I'll give to him to eat of the tree of life." And if you will recall, man was forbidden to eat of this tree after the fall.

But in heaven the no-trespassing sign will be taken down and they'll be given the privilege, all of us, to eat of the tree of life. Now what kind of fruit it is, I don't know, but I think it's going to really enable you to live it up. Oh, most of us really don't know much about living yet. We just have sort of a vegetable existence down here, but we're going to have a good fruit existence up there. We'll eat of the tree of life and we're going to live as we've never lived down here before.

Now the paradise of God that's mentioned here means the garden of God. Heaven is a garden of green primarily, and it's not just a place with streets of gold. Let's not emphasize that too much, by the way. That brings us to the letter to the church in Smyrna. The church in Ephesus we've looked at represents the church at its best, the apostolic church. Now we come to the church in Smyrna.

And out of the apostolic church that was so close to Christ, loved Him so much, there comes the martyr church, the church in Smyrna. We'll look at that next time. And until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.

Steve Schwetz: Did you know two of the seven churches of Revelation still exist today? We'll hear more about one of them in our next study. Until then, if we can help you find a resource to deepen your study of God's Word, call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE or visit ttb.org. That's 1-800-65-BIBLE or ttb.org.

And when you're in touch, be sure to let us know how you listen, whether it's on the radio, our app, online, or one of the many other ways that the program's available. It's always encouraging to hear how God's Word is reaching you. I'm Steve Schwetz, praying for you as you walk in God's Word.

Thru the Bible exists to take God's whole Word to the whole world, and we invite you to stand with us with your faithful prayer and financial support. Where will God's Word go today?