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 Sermon > Lecture Messages |
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Title |
Revelation Lectures(21) |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Revelation3:1-6 |
Date |
2007-04-06 |
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Revelation 3:1-6
[1] "To the angel of the church in Sardis write: He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars, says this: 'I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.
[2] 'Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God.
[3] 'So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.
[4] 'But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.
[5] 'He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
[6] 'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
Beginning today I will explain the words given by the Lord to two of the seven churches that heard only words of reproach without any words of praise, they are the church in Laodicea and the church of Sardis.
This church of Sardis heard the words of painful reproach from the Lord, ". . .you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead."
It means that the church looks alive, but it's actually dead. In other words, they profess that they believe in God and the Lord, and that they are saved. But, from the viewpoint of the Lord, they have nothing to do with salvation.
It's just like what the Lord says in Matthew 7:21. He says, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter."
Let's say there is someone who thinks to himself that he has been devoted for God's kingdom and righteousness. But when he stands before God on the Final Judgment Day, God says to him, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness," as written in Matthew 7:23. What a tragedy it is!
I pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that you may look back on yourself and your faith after you listen to what the Lord says to the church in Sardis, get rid of the faith that 'seems alive but actually dead', and possess the faith that is spiritual, alive, and true.
In order to do so, just as written in James 1:21, which reads, "Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls,' I wish for you to receive all the messages from this podium with humility, and develop faith, life and strength from them.
Dear brothers and sisters.
In verse 1, it describes our Lord as the One 'who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars'. The seven Spirits in this verse are very important in your believing life.
Especially at this time while the 'Seven Week Special Prayer Meeting' is in progress, if you want to be healed, blessed, or answered, you must clearly understand the seven Spirits, and satisfy the conditions for answer completely.
그래서 오늘과 다음시간에 걸쳐서는 이 일곱 영에 대해 증거하도록 하겠습니다.
Thus in this and the next lecture, I will explain about these seven Spirits.
예전에도 이 일곱 영에 대해서는 몇차례 증거한 적이 있지만, 이번에 다시한번 증거할 때, 여러분의 신앙을 잘 점검해서 기도하고 간구하는 것마다 응답받아 나가는 여러분이 되시기를 주님의 이름으로 축원합니다.
I've already delivered a message about the seven Spirits several times. However, you can take this opportunity once again to check the status of your faith so that you will receive answers to your prayers and desires.
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I pray!
Dear brothers and sisters. God is love.
And through receiving salvation, He becomes our Father.
Just as parents want to satisfy their children's desires of out of their love for them, our Father God of love is also eager to satisfy whatever His beloved children desire.
More over, God is almighty.
It means, He is capable of doing anything that His children want.
No matter how serious their diseases or infirmities, God can heal them. It doesn't matter how seriously impoverished they may be or how great the tribulation, God can fully satisfy anything they might need.
Even though there is no amount of worldly wealth, honor, authority, or knowledge that can solve it, He can solve any difficulty by His almighty power.
Then, do you think all you have to do is just come before God and pray saying,"God, I believe in You. I love you. Please give me an answer to my problem. Solve my problem for me, please!"
Even though God is full of love and He is eager to answer to His children's call, He doesn't unconditionally answer everyone's prayers.
That's because God is the God of love, and at the same time, He is the God of justice. He always answers His children's prayers strictly according to justice.
What if anyone could receive answers to whatever they pray? Wouldn't the world become terribly chaotic?
The prayers of the greedy heart, evil heart, and self-seeking heart would be answered, and the prayers of those whose vessels are not ready to receive blessings and answers would also be answered. It definitely would not do much good for most people as well.
Therefore, when God gives answers and blessings, He does it according to the Law of Justice and the Law of Righteousness.
Accordingly, in order to receive an answer, you must understand this Law of Justice. The seven Spirits in tonight's scripture function under the Law of Justice. You should know within the context of the law what you must do to receive answers.
Then, what are the seven Spirits?
The seven Spirits are the heart of God who is Spirit itself.
In order to receive answers from God, you must understand the heart of God.
Even in this world, when children want to get something from their parents, they first have to know their parents' heart. If they ask for what they want according to their parents' heart, then they will more easily get what they want.
The same applies when you try to receive answers from God.
When you understand the heart of God well, and ask for what you want according to His heart and His will, the God of justice will give you an answer.
Now then, how can you understand the heart of God?
You can get it straight from the 66 books of the Bible.
The heart of God is in the Bible; in detailed information it tells you how to please God and how to receive answers from God.
And, it is the seven Spirits that show the heart of God and the conditions of answer.
The number 'seven' here doesn't mean that the Spirits of God are seven in number.
Spiritually, 'seven' means 'complete and perfect'.
Just as John 4:24 says, "God is spirit," God is spirit itself.
The reason that the heart of God who is spirit itself is the seven Spirits is because the Spirit of God is perfect and complete.
Revelation 5:6 says, "And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth."
God, who is perfect and complete spirit, always searches and supervises every human life throughout the earth. It is during this time of searching that God sends the seven Spirits that are the heart of God.
The seven Spirits that are the heart of God, search for the heart and behavior of every man. And, according to justice, God gives answers and blessings to those who are proper in the heart of God.
To make it easier to understand, you may think of the seven Spirits as a scale that God weighs the contents that are to be measured to give the answers.
When you buy certain items of produce, you weigh them on a scale, and pay the price according to the weight. Likewise, when you want to receive answers, you must satisfy the condition to receive the answer by the measure of the seven Spirits.
Then, what is it that the seven Spirits measure to decide whether it is "yes" or "no"for giving your answer?
The seven Spirits measure your complete heart, mind, and behavior precisely without any error; they are categorized into seven fields.
First, it is 'Faith.'
The Bible clearly says, "It shall be done according to your faith (Matthew 9:29)."
So, do you receive answers as you pray while confessing that you believe?
If you confessed and prayed because you have true and spiritual faith that you can truly believe in your heart, then what you pray for would come true.
But if there's no answer even though you think that you believe, but in your own way or according to your own standards, then, it should prove to you that your confession is not the one of true spiritual faith.
In other words, the level of your faith remains fleshly faith that is just knowledge.
God doesn't consider your faith to be at the level of true faith if it is just the knowledge you possess and confess only with your lips.
Then, what is spiritual faith?
It is the faith that you can believe in your heart without any doubt, even though it cannot be seen and it's not in accordance with your thought or knowledge. It is the faith for you to believe something can be created out of nothing.
But it is not the faith that just anyone can have, and it's not just when they want to have it.
Spiritual faith is faith that is given from God. It is the faith that God gives to the same extent that you get rid of the evil in your heart by means of sanctification.
Therefore, in the "Seven Week Special Prayer Meeting," when you just pray and confess saying, 'I have received the answer.' it is not necessarily a confession of true spiritual faith.
You must cast off evil in your heart and circumcise your heart while you pray, and then the faith to believe in your heart will be given from God. Then you will make a true confession by faith while you pray, and you will be given answers.
Therefore, spiritual faith must be accompanied by works (acts of faith).
In other words, these are the works of living by the word of God and obeying the word of God.
James 2:22 says, "You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected," and 2:26 says, "For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead."
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
Faith is the basic foundation of a believing life.
It is to believe in God the Creator who is alive; it is to believe that His Son Jesus became our Lord and Savior, that Jesus died on the cross, He resurrected as Jesus Christ on the third day. It is believing that He ascended into Heaven, and believing that Jesus Christ will come back again.
And it is to believe there is a judgment, eternal life, and a heaven that is prepared for the children of God.
If you truly believe these facts in your heart, it has to change you life.
You will not have hope for the life on this useless earth, but hope for the eternal heaven. And in order to be qualified to enter such a beautiful heaven, you will fight the good fight without ceasing.
One by one you will put into practice each word of God written in the Bible, and you will be changed into truth.
The more you are changed, the stronger your faith will become; and the stronger the faith, the greater the scale of obedience and works will be.
Now, is your faith getting stronger and stronger?
Are you showing proper works and obedience that are appropriate for your level of faith?
If measured by the seven Spirits, how much has your faith grown compared to last year, or 5 to 10 years ago?
If your works before and now were measured against a scale of faith, to what degree have they reach completion?
Dear brothers and sisters.
In the measure of the seven Spirits, the reason that faith is the first category is because all the standards of other categories will be decided depending on the level of faith.
In other words, depending on each person's level of faith, God uses the seven Spirits' different measures of the standards.
For example, if the same standards were applied both to a man who has the faith of a child and to a man who has faith of a adult, then it will be too difficult for the one with the faith of a child to receive answers, and too easy for the other.
Then the one with the faith of a child would give up trying to receive an answer. On the contrary, the other will not make sufficient effort any longer to move into the deeper levels of spirit.
Therefore, God of justice applies different standards that the Seven Spirits measure depending on the level of faith of each person.
God first measures the faith through the seven Spirits, and then applies different standards in the rest fields according to the measure of faith.
However, even though the measure of faith is the same, in order to receive an answer to a bigger problem, you must surely show greater faith.
You must not be satisfied with the current level's measure of faith. It's necessary for you to show greater works that are beyond your level of faith.
Only then can you receive answers to your big problems. And through this case, your faith can grow up to the next level.
May the 7 Week Special Prayer Meeting become such an opportunity, in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, I pray!
Second, the seven Spirits measure prayer.
But you must pray in ways that are proper for the heart and will of God.
Now, during the 7 Week Special Prayer Meeting, how proper is your prayer for the heart and will of God?
The prayer that is appropriate to the heart of God must first be prayer that habitually seeks after God.
Just as the Lord tells you to pray without ceasing, you must have prayer that is habitual by practice every day
Only those who pray like this are awake all the time so that they will not fall into temptation. Even if they face a problem or a trial, they will quickly receive answers and pass through it.
But if they pray only for an occasion like the Special Prayer Meeting, but at other times they don't pray regularly, they are not the ones who are accustomed to praying
Of course, depending on the measure of faith, there are some who can receive answer if they pray only during the special prayer meeting. But if you are called to have faith, then you must not stop praying as though it is a custom.
And if you pray all the more with your heart, mind, and strength during the special prayer meeting, then you will receive answers to the prayers and desires of your heart.
But those of you who usually don't pray but just come to pray for this special prayer meeting! Please don't give up praying just because you think it may be difficult to receive an answer.
If you become a man of prayer through this special prayer meeting, how wonderful you look to God, and why should He not give you an answer?
Now, you must kneel down when you pray.
Not only the prophets in the Bible, but Jesus also knelt down when he prayed.
It's natural that you kneel down in humility before Father God the Almighty and ask Him for what cannot be done by human ability.
There may be a situation when you cannot kneel down. But, kneeling down when you pray is very Biblical, and it can be more proper for the heart of God.
And, you must pray not according to your will, but God's will.
Just as Jesus said in prayer, written in Luke 22:42, "Yet not My will, but Yours be done," you must pray not for your own will or sake, but for the will of God.
James 4:2-3 says, "You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures."
You must know that the prayer in greed that is not proper for the will of God will not be answered.
Now, you must cry out fervently in your prayer.
The bible says in Luke 22:44, 'He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground."
Through this kind of prayer, you receive the answer just as written in Genesis 3:17, which reads, "In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life."
Then, you must pray from the depth of your heart.
That's because God looks at your heart and not you outer appearance.
Regarding prayer as well, the important thing is not how you look when you pray, but how deeply you pray from the depth of your heart.
No matter how fervently you appear to pray, it's useless if you don't pray from the depth of your heart.
When you fervently pray from the depth of your heart, your lips will open automatically, you will cry out in your prayer with fullness of the Holy Spirit.
That's why when you pray from the depth of your heart, you naturally pray fervently.
And, you must pray with faith and love.
James 1:6-7 says, "But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord."
If you doubt whether you will receive an answer or not when you pray, you prayer cannot be answered.
You must believe that the living God will surely give you answer, and you must pray with love for Father God.
Faith and love are also measured by the Seven Spirits. When you pray, if it's without faith and love, the prayer cannot become aroma that is worthwhile to be taken in by God
Likewise, when the seven Spirits measure just one field, like faith, they don't just check whether or not you pray. They correctly measure whether or not you give prayer that is proper for the heart of God, and rate it completely.
If you want to receive answers through the 7 Week Special Prayer Meeting, I hope that you will be able to give up the aroma in prayer that has the proper standards acceptable to God.
In the next lecture, we will look into the rest of the standards; that is, joy, keeping the commandments, faithfulness, and love.
Dear brothers and sisters.
Tonight, I explained the two of the seven standards that the Seven Spirits measure; faith and prayer.
You may say, "I want to listen to the rest of the standards because I want to receive answers in this Special Prayer Meeting." but the fact is that if you put the two things that you heard today into practice with faith according to the will and heart of God, it will be easy enough for you to pass the other standards as well.
They will be explained in the next lecture, but you must have faith to pray, be joyful and thankful, to keep the commandments, to be faithful and to love.
Eventually, the standards that the seven Spirits measure are not separate, but they are closely related to each other. They will meet the conditions while mutually supplementing others.
Therefore, please pray fervently with faith.
Then naturally, joy and thanks will come from the depth of your heart, and you will keep the commandments and the word of God with joy and thanks.
You will naturally be faithful to the kingdom of God.
And you will not do it reluctantly, but you will do it because you love God and the souls.
I hope that you understand this fact, and satisfy the conditions that the seven Spirits measure so that all of you will receive answers.
Also, may your everyday life meet the standards measured by the Seven Spirits until the Lord comes back so that you will live a life of receiving answers from Him everyday until you meet God, in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, I pray!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
In the second half of this service, there will be Easter Cantata.
I hope that you will think of the love of the Lord who gave up His life for us. I wish that you will ask yourself how much you love such a Lord, and how joyful and thankful you are for the grace of the Lord who saved us while enjoying this wonderful and touching moment.
During the Cantata, there are two women who will pay a visit to the grave of the Lord in the morning when the Lord was resurrected. They are May Magdalene and the Virgin Mary.
The name of Mary Magdalene is clearly written in the Bible, but not the name of the Virgin Mary.
Matthew 28:1 says, "Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave."
And Mark 16:9 says, "Now after He had risen early on the first day of the week, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons." It's clear that Mary Magdalene was the first one who saw the resurrected Lord.
Then, how can we know that 'the other Mary' who went to the grave was Virgin Mary?
In may parts of the Bible, we can find who 'the other Mary" actually is.
Luke 24:10 says, "Now they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James; also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles."
Here, Joanna is the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, as written in Luke 8:3.
And Mark 16:1-3 says, "When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might come and anoint Him. Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. They were saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?""
Also Matthew 27:56 says, "Among them was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee."
Like this, in the site of the Lord's resurrection, beside Mary Magdalene, there was Mary who was also called 'Mary the mother of James', or 'Mary the mother of James and Joseph.'
Then, who is this Mary?
In Mark 6:3, it says, ""Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?" And they took offense at Him."
We can see that James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon are the sons that Virgin Mary gave birth to between her husband Joseph, after she gave birth to Jesus by the power of theHoly Spirit.
In sum, the mother of James, or the mother of James and Joseph was Virgin Mary.
We call a married lady 'mother of whom.' Likewise, Virgin Mary was also called 'the mother of James' or 'the mother of James and Joseph' as she gave birth to James and Joseph.
Just for you information, however, the Bible doesn't use the expression of 'Virgin Mary.'
Since she conceived Jesus and gave birth to Him by the power of the Holy Spirit as a virgin, later people started to call her that in order to differentiate her from other Mary's more simply.
So, please make sure that the two Mary's in the Cantata are Mary Magdalene and Virgin Mary.
These are the two women who are given the highest ranks in heaven among all women. May you feel in your heart what kind of heart they had at the site of the Lord's crucifixion, and then at the site of the Lord's resurrection!
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I pray!
Amen |
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