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No manuscript is available for this sermon.

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Introduction: It is good military practice to use part of your force to press the attack against an enemy so that they bunch up their resources in one area spreading themselves thin in other areas, thereby creating a weakness, and you can then breakthrough in the weakened area. All of us struggle to fight a war on two or more fronts. Many of us are able to stand up to a trial, but we tend to crumble when all sorts of things of all sorts of types come against us. This was the problem at Pergamum. Pergamum had been faithful under trial, not denying the faith even in the face of death, but they were tolerant of false teachers. They seem in some ways to be the opposite to Ephesus. Where Ephesus was strong on doctrine to a fault that they had closed hearts to the world and each other; Pergamum was weak on doctrine and the world leaked into the church. Ephesus was on the extreme of too much doctrine and became loveless; Pergamum was on the extreme of laxity towards doctrine and was infiltrated with false teaching. One was too guarded; the other was not guarded enough. They put enough effort in the face of persecution and did their duty, but they failed when it came to standing against false teaching and administering church discipline. Christ’s letter to Pergamum reveals the difficult conditions they faced, their infiltration of false teachers and failure to discipline and the consequences for those who do not repent and those who overcome.

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Introduction: ‘I don’t like to go to church because I don’t get anything out of it.’ This statement could be a reflection on the poverty of the pulpit in the present church, but it also reveals a consumer mindset by which the church is judged and found to be deficient, amateur, antiquated and thereby useless. Consumerism has infected everything we do, and those churches that have buckled to the market mindset and accommodated unbelievers in what they think church should be have not done us any favours but affirmed this mindset. We subconsciously go into all relationships now with the underlying attitude, ‘what is in this for me?’ Selfishness has been institutionalised in the form of consumerism, and so now the customer is always right, and any organization if it wants to continue to exist must bow itself to the whims and fancies of its users. Christians whose minds are not renewed by the word treat the church in the same manner withholding their presence, money, time, talents and positive critique until their unsanctified notions of what a church should be are satisfied. They fall into habits of casual use, irregular attendance, non-engagement, shallow relationships, prioritizing of personal hobbies and interests at the expense of commitment to the church, and all the while they wonder why their spiritual lives are in such a poor condition. The bible’s understanding of what it means to be a Christian and a part of the body of Christ flies in the face of this individualism. ‘Go your own way’ some lyrics from Fleetwood Mac characterise this age. Our young people when they get out of school are encouraged to find themselves with a year of travel. We have emblazoned upon our minds the lonely searching soul with his rucksack hitchhiking his way through countries...

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Introduction: Things are not what they seem! This is one of the most important truths that Christians are to learn from the book of Revelation. We see in this book that it is those who die as martyrs who are the victors over satan Revelation 12:11. The slain lamb of Christ is in fact the Lion and ruler. The invincible Rome is Babylon and will be judged. What appears to be a perfect storm of catastrophes manufactured to wipe out the church are in fact the God ordained, allowed and controlled prejudgements anticipating the removal of all evil. This paradoxical perspective, this ironic view is the vantage point from which Christ views the church in Smyrna. We see that Smyrna is poor but in fact are rich, the Jews are not Jews, the apparent people of God are a synagogue of satan, and they will conquer through dying. For any Christian going through suffering of any type this is the most important perspective to maintain, to look through the eyes of faith not sight, to interpret things through the bible not our pain, to evaluate future outcomes on the faithfulness of God’s promises not worldly approximations. We come to the letters to the church in Smyrna, this is one of two churches that receive no rebuke but only commendation. It is these same two churches who also undergo intense persecution. This helps us to see what one of God’s ways of purifying His church is, suffering and persecution. As we examine Christ’s words to this persecuted church we will observe the reasons for why they probably suffered, the forms that the persecution took and the promises given to them to sustain them in their persecution.

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Introduction: What are the most important distinctives that make a Baptist Church a Baptist Church? You might think that believer’s baptism would be the first thing offered. This is not true! Baptists believe in the direct unmediated Lordship of Jesus Christ through His word in the local church. We do not need Popes or Presbyteries to know His will for our church. Baptists believe in the priesthood of all believers recognising that the Spirit has gifted every Christian for service in the church, and an ability to know God’s will through the word and Spirit and be responsible for big and important decisions such as church discipline. Baptists believe in the separation of Church and state; that God has appointed each realm of authority and one does not have jurisdiction over the other. These are some distinctives along with believer’s baptism that mark a Baptist Church. But another very important Baptist distinctive is Regenerate Church Membership. We believe that the bible teaches not only that every Christian should be committed to a local church, for the only Christian life described in the Bible is one intertwined with the Church. We also believe that the Bible teaches that only those who have been born again by grace through faith in Christ are the legitimate candidates for membership. The church today has come under vicious attack, the most repeated criticism of the church is that it is full of hypocrites. I will readily admit that this is true, though I would want to make a distinction. There are those in the Bride of Christ who are born again and on the path of holiness, who are not perfect this side of eternity but are striving towards it. These are true believers who admit their imperfection but who are honest about their sin...

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Introduction: Gordon Macdonald was a successful and famous Christian writer and speaker who fell into adultery. After being restored he wrote a book and in it he gives an illustration of the Christian life. The Christian life is like a yacht, you can have a spotless yacht, new sails, fresh varnish, bright upholstery, polished brass fitting and still sink if you do not pay attention to the condition of the yacht under the water line where the eye does not see unless we deliberately go inspecting. Ephesus was like a yacht, to the casual observer it looked to be a good yacht, but underneath the surface, in the area of their hearts there were dramatic problems. Our hearts are the hardest part of ourselves to maintain because they are invisible and so we have to be deliberate. The letter to Ephesus teaches us the danger of having a busy and doctrinally correct church that has lost its heart. As we continue with Christ’s letter to His Church in Ephesus we want to look at Christ’s rebuke, the advice He gives and the final parts of the letter.

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Introduction: Christianity has been displaced as the dominant religion of the West. Fewer people are becoming Christians, and the churches are emptying and closing down. A common reaction to this trend is one of overreaction where the Church is being pronounced outdated and an irrelevant organization. It is being claimed that Church as we know it is antiquated and we need to change or die. We are being told that what has been happening for the last 2000 years is now suddenly ineffective and we need a radical overhaul. Spirituality is in but church is out, community is in but organizations are out, Jesus is trending but Christians are not. This has given rise to the popularity of churchless Christianity. Church without buildings, church as the meeting of a group of Christians, Christians without leaders and followers, meetings without structure, meeting without repetition, Christians getting together without preaching, the Lord Supper, prayer, singing, or bible reading. And this we are told is having Jesus without the church.Christianity has been displaced as the dominant religion of the West. Fewer people are becoming Christians, and the churches are emptying and closing down. A common reaction to this trend is one of overreaction where the Church is being pronounced outdated and an irrelevant organisation. It is being claimed that Church as we know it is antiquated and we need to change or die. We are being told that what has been happening for the last 2000 years is now suddenly ineffective and we need a radical overhaul. Spirituality is in but church is out, community is in but organisations are out, Jesus is trending but Christians are not. This has given rise to the popularity of churchless Christianity. Church without buildings, church as the meeting of a group of Christians, Christians without leaders...

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Introduction: Your greatest strength can become your greatest weakness, this is the lesson of the letter to Ephesus. One of our great weaknesses as finite sinners is that we cannot multitask the good. We focus in on one good thing but we do so to the neglect and at the expense of all the other good. Ephesus was good at doctrine and discernment, and this strength became their weakness. They became a loveless head church, an abomination of a floating bloated head with no heart of love. I said that I felt this was the church more than any of the others that speaks to us as a Reformed church. Our greatest strength is our doctrinal robustness, our historical awareness of the various views and creeds. And in pursuing the good of knowledge we can do so at the expense of love. It is not the case of choosing the wrong emphasis but one at the expense of the other. We are to speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:16). The warnings to this church which was so doctrinally correct are so severe and withering, the threat to remove their lampstand altogether, that I feel compelled to stress the importance of this letter for us who do try to love the truth. Let us beware that are love for the truth does not sour into a love of being right, and this leads to us loving being right more than we love God, each other and the world. Those lab technicians who find cures to the world’s most deadly diseases live a high risk life always in danger of becoming infected themselves. We, because we are sinners run the risk of turning truth into an enemy, we run the risk like those lab technicians of being destroyed by the very...

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Introduction: What is faith? One of my favourite ways to define faith is to look at faith’s opposites, what is the opposite of faith? Firstly, the opposite of faith is unbelief. When Christ was walking on this earth proclaiming who He was and attesting these declarations with miracles, there were those who did not believe what He said. Secondly, the opposite of faith is fear. Hebrews talks about faith being the assurance of things hoped for, faith does not doubt whether this promise is true but finds God trustworthy and is full of confidence not fear and doubt. The third opposite to faith is works. Paul especially emphasises this aspect of faith when stressing how we become righteous before a holy God. We do not trust in our own works, or any form of righteousness that can be manufactured by us, but we put our trust or faith in Christ and what He does not us. The nature and effects of faith is what Paul has been exploring in Romans 10. You will remember that Paul in Romans 9-11 is speaking to the controversial issue of the unbelief of the Jews. He has looked at God’s involvement in election, and the Jews involvement in unbelief. Paul made a bold statement in 10:4 which he has been unpacking from v5-13, ‘For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.’ The Gentiles have been included by faith but the Jews are excluded because they cling to their law keeping instead of to Christ as their law keeper. Paul has been developing the two points he made in 10:4, firstly, that those who believe are made righteous in Christ; and secondly, everyone who believes will be made righteous. We have been looking deeply into the nature of faith...

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