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2:05The words of Revelation need to be contended for to the same degree that the words of Genesis are being contended today, and rightfully so in many circles who hold to the inerrancy of Scripture. It's good. We need Genesis, we need Revelation. Why? Because through that, you get the trajectory. And we get the panoramic time sweep of human history. We understand the origins. We understand the problem. We understand the solution. We understand where it's going. We understand what we are to be doing while we are waiting for things to conclude. And you get that as you put together Revelation and get to understand its contribution. To everything that's been said.

3:02And tonight, what I want to do is continue for a little bit just adding some revelations on Revelation. Now, what I mean by that is there are other scripture that sheds light on the book of Revelation. So, Revelations, other upon Revelation. We're not looking to use another text to put a straitjacket over Revelation and make Revelation fit. We're trying to harmonize these scriptures. First, we've got to have a good understanding of what Revelation says, and then harmonize what other veins, flows, streams of prophecy flow into this scene of the end times, the coming of Christ again, and all of that. And so, I want to look at a few verses tonight, just really from the Gospel of Luke. It's a really simple outline. What I want to do tonight is: I want to look at a couple of few parables from Luke's Gospel, and then I want to just answer a few questions that have come to me, QA's. And by the way, as I say this, I want you to pick up a card if you have a question on Revelation. I don't want to leave Revelation with Lingering questions out there. If you have a question from anywhere, anywhere about it, you can be anonymous if you want. You can put your name down. You don't have to. If you have a text that you don't, from some other place in Scripture that you're kind of like, I just can't reconcile these, put it down.

4:52Put the best thoughts, put your best thoughts into this. And really, I want you to try to reconcile these. And anything that's hung up in your mind, please write it down and please submit it. I don't want you leaving this book without an explanation as best can give and harmony as best they can be reconciled. And so I welcome that. And we will have some time. I'm going to Turkey, going to where these churches were here in a few weeks. And we'll spend some time there.

5:28But afterwards, we'll have some time this summer to finish up in the evenings on these revelations on revelations, speculations on revelation, whatever avenue you want to go. Because having done all this, we need to make sure we're able to connect it and let it impact and shape our lives. So tonight, I want to look at a few parables. And just starting in Luke's Gospel, first of all, I just want Read. I'm going to do a little more than just read them. And I'm going to start toward the end of Luke's Gospel and just work back with a few parables. Read them and just make a few comments and do a little more than that. But just to get a big main thrust, it's interesting to know, and the reason I'm going backward is because Jesus knew all along what he was going to do up in Jerusalem. He was going to go, he was going to go to the cross, he was going to be rejected, he was going to be raised from the dead, he was going to go to his father, and he was going to then come again for his own. He knew that at the beginning.

6:46But it took a while for the disciples to get it. And as you're going through the gospel and all the gospels for that matter, Jesus is saying things that just aren't easy to comprehend. And the disciples aren't getting it. But if we start at the end, we start seeing these parables, then the earlier ones really start making sense as to what Jesus is pointing to. So let's just start in Luke chapter 19. This is the parable of the ten minas, very familiar. Verse 11, while they were listening to these things, Jesus went on to tell a parable because he was near Jerusalem. And they supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately. Stop there. That's the reason he's writing this. Or the reason he says this is because people are thinking that the kingdom of God is going to appear immediately. Now, right there, that'll tell you something. That at this point in Luke's Gospel and the others, we'll confirm that the kingdom of God is something that is being pointed in the future. It's not just a spiritual reality there. Yes, there's a spiritual reality present at the moment. The king is there. And where the king is, yes, the kingdom is.

8:09And even now, Christ is with us. So, yes, there is a way, in a sense, we can say the kingdom of God is here among us now with the presence of God's Spirit and presence of Christ Himself in spirit with us. Yes, we can say the spiritual kingdom here is. But there is something else that this text is pointing to. They were thinking that the kingdom of God is going to appear immediately. It's not. Not in this sense. Not in the physical sense that they were expecting. So, in verse 12, so he said, A nobleman went to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself and then returned. He's speaking of himself. He's going to go to the father and he's going to come back.

9:06And he called ten of his slaves and gave them ten minas and said to them, Do business with this until I come back. But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, We do not want this man to reign over us. When he returned, after receiving the kingdom, he ordered that these slaves to whom he had given the money be called to him, so that he might know what business they had done. The first appeared, saying, Master, your mina has made ten minas more. And he said to him, Well done, good slave. Because you have been faithful in a very little thing, you are to be in authority over ten cities. The second came, saying, Your Mina, Master, has made five minas. And he said to him, Also, you are to be over five cities. Another came, saying, Master, here is your mina, which I kept and put away in a handkerchief, for I was afraid of you, because you are an exacting man. You take up what you did not lay down and reap what you did not sow. He said to him, By your own words, I will judge you, you worthless slave. Did you know that I am an exacting man, taking up what I did not lay down, and reaping what I did not sow? Then why did you not put my money in the bank? And having come, I would have collected it with interest. Then he said to the bystanders, Take the mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten. Minas. And they said to him, Master, he has ten minas already. I tell you that to everyone who has, more shall be given. But from the one who does not have, even what he does have, shall be taken away. But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence.

10:56King going away, going to come back, going to reward his faithful slaves, going to deal with his wicked slaves, and is going to slay those who do not want him to reign over them. Now, look at the slave in the field. That's what I call it, slaves in chapter 17. So you get that picture of the Minas, a king going away, entrusting something to his servants to go and do business with, to be good stewards of. And then he's going to come back and check their work. Recording. Report.

11:44Chapter 17, verse 7. Which one of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, Come immediately and sit down to eat. But will he not say to him, Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and serve me while I eat and drink. And afterward you may eat and drink. He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he? So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, We are unworthy slaves. We have done only that which we ought to have done. It's the heart of a bondservant.

12:30God has entrusted something. Let us be good stewards of it simply because that's what we ought to do. And indeed, that is the heart. Peter was in the context of saying, increase our faith. And he tells that parable there. Just do what you ought to do. Doesn't that make life simple? Don't do it for praise. Don't do it for reward. Don't do it for just do it because it ought to be done. Because your master has entrusted something to you. He has put us in a station of life while we are waiting for him to return. So do what you ought to do. For no other reason than you ought to do it. That's what a bondservant, that's what a good slave does.

13:23Now, there's this unrighteous manager. That's what I call him. Some people call him something else. Chapter 16. Some might seem the unjust servant, but this is an interesting one. Chapter 16, verse 1. Now he was also saying to the disciples, There was a rich man who had a manager, and his manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions. And he called him and said to him, What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager. The manager said to himself, What shall I do? Since my master is taking the management away from me, I am not strong enough to dig. I am ashamed to beg. I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management, people will welcome me into their homes. And he summoned each one of his master's debtors, and he began saying to the first, How much do you owe my master? And he said, 100 measures of oil. And he said to him, Take your bill, sit down, quickly write 50. You get the picture of what he's doing. Oh, you owe my master 100, just here, quickly, while I still have the authority. I'm going to write it down, mark it down 50, so that you'll like me.

14:51And then he said to another, verse 7, how much do you owe? And he said, 100 measures of wheat. And he said to him, Take your bill. Bill and write 80. And his master, what do you think the master would do? Get angry. No. And his master, verse 8, praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly. This is not a righteous servant. It's an unrighteous manager. He says so. And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly.

15:31And then Jesus explains: For the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings. He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much. And he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another's, who will give you what is your own? No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. And all this, what's happening? The unrighteous steward is knowing that his time is short. His ability to manage things is going to disappear. And he's thinking, what am I going to do with the short term that I have? These resources still entrusted to me, still under my power. I know I'm going to use them for my limited time, use my power and authority, so that when I'm gone and completely stripped of my ability, I have friends that will receive me, friends in high places.

17:12Well, you think about what Jesus is saying here, what's being praised here. It's not his unrighteousness. He's making a point. We, our strength, our abilities, our ability to manage things is quickly disappearing. And, boy, you feel it. You recognize our strength, our resources. All that is fading. We can't hold on to any of it. So, what do we do with it? Let us use it. Let us use what he's calling here unrighteous mammon, investing that in true riches. That doesn't mean unethical. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about just common things.

17:58Invest that in eternity. Use your resources, use your time, use your strength, be shrewd in evangelistic purposes, in building up, in making friends who will receive you in eternity for the glory of God. Let's kind of prepare for the future by using money wisely. That is, use it for eternal purposes. Use your talents, use your gifts. You see, all this, as these disciples are hearing all this stuff and they're going up to Jerusalem, and all of a sudden it's like, okay, what's going to happen? He's going to go away. He's going to return. He's entrusting that which is important to him and to the care of his disciples, the truth, people.

18:53And he wants them to use their strength and energy for eternal purposes. That's a good investment. Be shrewd. Can't serve wealth. That strength is going to go. I don't care who you are. But your wealth can serve eternal purposes. And that's the point. Now, let's go to chapter 12. This is the faithful steward. Beginning in verse 41, but let's back up and look at first. There's an expectant steward. Verse 41 says, Peter said, Lord, are you addressing this parable to us? What parable? Well, the one he just told. So let's just look at that in verse 35.

19:49Be dressed in readiness. It's dressed in waiting. Be dressed in readiness and keep your lamps lit. Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes. Truly, I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve and have them recline at the table and will come up and wait on them.

20:26Whether he comes in the second watch or even the third and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into. You too, be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect. So now Jesus is talking about the coming of the Son of Man. Now, what's going on? He knows where he's going. He's going up to Jerusalem. He's going to go through the cross, through the grave. Through the skies, and he's going to return.

21:04Having received the kingdom of God, that's going to show up when the kingdom of God, when the kingdom of the earth becomes the kingdom of God. Express language in Revelation that we've read. But here's, he's saying, incredible. Be alert, be expectant. And he says, Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes. Truly. And when he says truly, he means every word he says. When he says truly, he's emphasizing this. Truly, I say to you that he will gird himself to serve and have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. What a picture of Christ's return and a statement.

21:56Returning. Find you. Ah. Good servant. Good bondservant. I want to serve on you. I want to serve you. That's what it says. So that's the parable. Now look at verse 41. Peter said, Lord, are you addressing this parable to us or to everyone else as well? This expectant servant and of this thief. And the Lord said, who Then is the faithful and sensible steward, whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper time. Blessed is that slave whom his fat master finds so doing when he comes. In other words, he's coming. Who's the sensible steward? Who is the one that the master, when he comes, is going to take that steward and put him in charge of all of his possessions? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds doing so when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all of his possessions. But if that slave says in his heart, my master will be a long time in coming, and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him, and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with unbelievers.

23:34And that slave who knew his master's will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will will receive many lashes. But the one who did not know it and committed deeds worthy of a flogging will receive but a few. From everyone who has, much has been given, much will be required, and to whom they entrusted much of his. Him, they will ask all the more. So, here's Jesus saying, again, to be faithful. He doesn't really answer Peter's question. He says, Look, do you want to be a faithful steward? Let me tell you who's blessed, who's the sensible steward. Let me tell you who the real believer is. The one who is doing what he ought to be doing when the master returns. Blessed is that slave. Truly, I say he will put him in charge of all of his possessions. But if he says, you know, he's not really coming anytime soon, so I'm going to go ahead and do my thing, go about my business. That master, the master's going to come. He's still master of all. He's Lord of all, the righteous and the unrighteous. And he will cut him in pieces. Assign him a place with the unbelievers. You know, that's what happens when you don't believe he's coming and you put it off.

25:03You get assigned with the unbelievers. That's how strong of an emphasis Jesus places. And so, as you look at these parables, Jesus is going to go away. He is going to entrust. And he is going to have some expectations. He's going to have something that he wants his life. Bondservants to be doing, to be looking out for, to be caring for. And when you come into the book of Revelation, all of a sudden the parables start coming alive with specifics.

25:47Let me tell you what you're going to face, bondservants. Let me tell you the catalog, hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. And he says these through the seven churches. He tells us what he expects. And he, and so you get, that's the beauty of Revelation. You're starting to get some specifics of what the world's going to become like, where it's going to go. And boy, you can see it. You can see these elements in our world today.

26:26And they should give you pause to marvel at just how wonderful the Word of God is, how accurate it is, but it should cause you to live expectantly with specifics in mind. And so I'm going to shift gears because this does play into some of the questions and answers. And I wrote the question up there, one of them. I have a problem with reconciling the pre-tribulation rapture teaching when reading 1 Thessalonians 4, 13 through 18 in conjunction with Revelation 20, verses 4 through 6.

27:17So turn to, let's just read and get that verse in our mind. 1 Thessalonians. By the way, thank you for taking the time to write this out. I would love for more of these. Let me just read 1 Thessalonians 4, 13. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with the shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. So this is.

28:30A clear statement on the rapture of the church. Be snatched away, will be caught up, snatched away. We'll meet the Lord in the air, in the clouds. We will meet him in the clouds, in the air, and we will always be with the Lord. Comfort one another with these words. And so, this is given in the context of, remember, 1 Thessalonians and what they went through. They got hammered, and some people may have lost their lives in the brutal attacks. And so, Paul is writing to comfort them and to tell them what's going to take place. Christ is going to return, and he's going to rapture his people, but the dead in Christ are going to raise first, then those who are alive will be caught up together with him, and will always be together with the Lord. So, that's 1 Thessalonians.

29:27Now, turn to Revelation 20, verses 4 and 6. Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus, and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshipped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand. And they came. To life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who has part in the first resurrection. Over these, the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years. So I think the question is in Revelation chapter 20: there are those who are clearly beheaded because they have not worshipped the beast, putting believers in that same time period as the beast. And so I would say, yeah, that's what it's declaring. And so, how do we process that? Then, the thought here in 1 Thessalonians 14 is that, okay, then are we all caught up together and are we going to go through the tribulation? That's the idea: is the rapture, let me put it more like this on the screen. So, like, we have, you remember these pictures. This is basically the whole book of Revelation. Well, the heart of it, anyway. And so, where does the rapture happen? Well, it doesn't talk a whole lot about the rapture, but there is, it does. But here, the question becomes: is there pre-tribulation rapture? Does it happen before? And this white horse depicts the rise of the global empire that's really going to turn all of its guns on Christians and on Israel. So you get the rise of this evil empire, and of course, war, famine, all that comes about. So is the church taken out before this time? Another position would see, well, no, the church is clearly being taken out post-tribulation. So if you call all this the tribulation, then either the church goes out here or it goes out here.

32:12And the, as you know, I've been going through, this is where I believe that harmonizing all of the texts of Scripture, that's where I believe the church goes out before the rise, before the solidifying comes to power. Yes, we might see him come on the scene and all that kind of stuff, some of the birth pangs and all that kind of stuff. But this question seems to be addressing, okay, how do we there are clearly people who are living during the time of the beast. And I would just say, well, yeah. I think it's helpful to divide and to understand, call them saints, and maybe not call them the church. Think about Old Testament saints, New Testament saints, tribulation saints, and millennial saints. They are sanctified ones, they are believing ones, and they are, their names are going to be in the book of life, and they will all get swept up in that bridal image in Revelation chapter 22. But it's important to make these distinctions. There are clearly those witnesses that are there. Now, another view is that, well, let me just go back to 1 Thessalonians 4 and let's keep reading into chapter 5 because he's going to continue the thought, the rapture of the church, the coming of the Lord. And he's speaking about the coming of the Lord. And this is in context of rapture being taken away. And Jesus, in John chapter 14, remember 1, 2, and 3, he says, Look, I'm going away, but as I go away, I'm going to come back and receive you. And so, this in conjunction, he's coming back for his own, for his people. Then Paul goes on in chapter 5, verse 1: Now, as to the times and epics, brethren, you have no need for anyone or for anything to be written to you, for you know yourselves full well that the The day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night, while they are saying peace and safety, then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief, for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness. So then, let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do they're sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. And as you're going through, God has not destined his people for wrath. Key thought. And by the time you're getting into the mid the revelation, as the seventh seal is opened up, you realize it's very clear you are into the day of the Lord. That's what the text says. The great day of his wrath has come. Well, so that has led many to think: okay, well, clearly, then there's a pre-wrath rapture. So the pre-wrath is before all the trumpets get blown. That's when the church is going to get pulled out. Because clearly, there are a bunch of martyrs in here who are dying for the faith.

36:00So, who are they? Well, I, again, think you have church, you have New Testament saints, you have tribulation saints, you have millennial saints. And when you're trying to connect them all, you've got to harmonize. Remember, we're trying to let every text make its contribution and harmonize and understand how it, there's no contradiction. It's given by the same mind, same spirit. Listen to what Revelation chapter 3 and verse 10. I read it to you this morning. Because you have kept the word of my perseverance, I will also keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth. I am coming quickly.

36:56I am coming quickly to keep you, Philadelphia, of the faithful church, from the hour of testing. And so, when you're putting that together, how does that promise to the faithful church hold true if he takes them out here? It doesn't harmonize. Or even if he takes them out here, in my opinion, I have grown in my appreciation for the mid-tribulation vantage point, but at the end of the day, It really destroys the doctrine of imminency. Because I believe, and I think the word is very clear, that Christ can return at any moment. And that any moment, that imminency is in rapture, where we will meet him together in the clouds and so be with him forever.

37:55That was the question. I would take some questions, but we won't get on to the next question. But we'll keep going. I'll try to answer another question. Question number two: Of the seven churches' flaws, to which do you think EBC is most prone? Let me come back to that one. Because questions three and four also ask questions about the seven churches. Question three: While they were literal churches at the time, can they also be viewed as broad categories for modern-day application, almost like symbols?

38:41Well, let me say it like this: Yes, they were literal churches. Yes, they had historical context, they had issues, and they were addressed. Christ Himself, what we have in chapters two and three are the epistles of Jesus. Jesus writing an epistle. Even though he's sending it through an angel. So they are literal churches, but can they also be seen as certainly modern-day application? Absolutely, that's what they're for, is modern-day application. Over and over, you hear, hear what the Spirit says to the churches. There's seven churches, but there's others in Asia Minor. Colossi wasn't one. For some reason, he picked seven, kind of like a complete picture of the church. He gives kind of a status of the church at the end of the first century, and this is going to be the issues that the church is really going to deal with throughout the church age. And so, and the church age is all the way to the rapture. And so, yes, I think they very much have modern-day application. Almost like symbols. Well, I would say there's application, and you can, I think when you go like for symbols, one of the issues with symbols is I've seen people run all kinds of different directions. Like, okay, you have the Ephesian age, that was the first 300 years, and then you have the Sardis phase, then you have the Sardis or Pergamum, and you start going these different phases, and so in symbolic, not in that way, but certainly reflective of the church and the issues that the church. Is facing. And this is where I think you get specific in the kind of things that Christ is telling us so that we know what we are to be contending for. So in our day, I think that these specifics, he's entrusted us, he's wanted us to be about his kingdom work, but what specifics are they? Well, you see that in the seven churches. You see the issues they were facing, the ways he commended them, and the ways he warned them, and the way he encouraged them are certainly all valid today as applications, but they stem. But another thing about that, why I wouldn't just simply read them as symbols, is because think of the book of 1 Corinthians. We don't read it that way. Or the book of Colossians. We don't take those letters and then all of a sudden just say, okay, well, this is, we're going to just start piling it with all kinds of symbolic language. No, we don't. And that's where some will start saying, well, I don't know why we would do that with these letters either, even though it's in the context of Revelation. And that's where some people will elevate their rules of genre over just plain reading. No, they're epistles from Jesus to his churches, and we shouldn't go more complicated than that. But do they have application to us today? Absolutely, modern day. And they are.

41:54Here's another question kind of came on that same vein. If none of those specific churches exist, Exist today, does that mean God removed the lampstands of all of them? Were they all unfaithful? Well, first of all, I don't know how many of those churches are still there. I don't know what's all there. I heard report when I studied this that all the way up until really about Hitler's time and the Turks moving in and pushing the Smyrna's off, the Greek Smyrna's out, that there was witness for Christ all the way through that. There is a continual witness for Christ in that.

42:37But, you know, let me try to say, I don't know if they were unfaithful, that I don't know. Some, perhaps. You know, we used to be downtown, and we don't, we're not downtown anymore. We're here, right? So is that because we our lampstand was taken away? It used to be burning in downtown Brian. Now we've kind of moved it out a little bit. But no, I would say that those churches don't necessarily mean that they were all removed, but don't know. But certainly the words of Christ were true. And it's very possible, yeah, some were. There certainly is a darkness over that land now.

43:30And so, but the purposes of the gospel haven't been thwarted. Gospel's going through the nations, going through the world, calling those out, because he's going to come back with people from all the nations. And as a king, who are you going to rule through? Through your trusted servants. And as he has proven to be faithful to Israel, he's going to prove to be faithful to all the nations. As he's been proven faithful to give the boundaries of Israel, protect those, so he's going to prove to be faithful to protect the boundaries of all the nations. And there are going to be those from all the nations that are loyal to him. So, yeah, it's fitting for him to come back with the church from people of all the nations to rule the nations. Pretty simple.

44:16Okay, let's go back to this question. Got five minutes. No. Planned it that way. Oh, timeout. We've got to go. Of the seven churches' flaws, to which do you think EBC is most prone? Well, let me. I think, first of all, the way the exhortations were given, the seven churches were, the Spirit kept saying, Christ kept saying over and over, here what the Spirit of God is saying to the churches. So what, it's not just like, okay, you're one church and you're going to fit this category. And also.

45:01Jesus started out by commending them. And so I would say, as I'm looking through this, let me answer the question, and because of time, but let me just rule out two churches right away, and that's the church at Smyrna and the church at Philadelphia. Why? Because there weren't any flaws. Christ only commended them. They stood firm in the face. So that gets us down to five. So then, if you're looking at the lukewarm church, there's Laodicea, and that's a church that is wishy-washy and neither hot nor cold. And let me say this: it's not just a snapshot. I see different things in the generations. And what one thing may be true of some in this church as the older generation, another characteristic that characterized another church might characterize the younger ones. So this is like a whole snapshot of the things that we're going to be dealing with in the church, all of these letters and all of the issues. And you're going to see also the strengths of all of these churches in a healthy church. And so the dead church, Sardis. Is a church that has really just going about things.

46:36So I don't really see so much of that. I see us as a very active church, but sometimes there's a danger in activity that we can start just going through the motions of activity and not really strengthening it. So I think that, but I do see a work in the church here of strengthening ministries and a love for ministry and growing in depth and trying to disciple better. And so the vestiges, I don't see dimming. I see the church going the opposite direction.

47:12Then there is the corrupt church. That's the church at Thyratira. And I've seen in this church, and they were dealing a lot with the trade guilds and the gods of the workplace and sexual immorality and compromising, and I've talked to a lot of y'all, and I know that there are some in this church who are standing very firm on truth and principle in their workplace and not bowing to the God of the age. And so I don't see. Then there's this church here at Pergamum. This is where Satan's throne is. And they at one time stood fast in the faith, firm. But this is what started happening to them.

48:04You hold to the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality. I would say one of my concerns about this church is, at least with the younger generation, is that of paying tribute to the God of this world, whether that be through our entertainment, through the movies we watch, through the alcohol we consume, through the music we imbibe.

48:43I could see there is a lot of pressure, worldliness. I think that's what this church was. Oh, it's not expressly forbidden. Oh, you guys are a bunch of hard heads over there and stuff, but I'm free to do this. And I see that as a threat. And even some older people who are not careful and who are setting an example, that some will go this far and the younger generation goes farther. So I would say I'm concerned about that. I'm concerned about all the things that the concerns, but this is certainly one of them. And certainly among our younger generation, there's a lot of pressure to conform to this world. And that leaves one, the church of Ephesus, lovelessness, that a pursuit of truth.

49:30To the extent, let me call it to the pursuit of orthodoxy, being in the club of the right doctrine, and somehow making that, if you can sign off on the right doctrinal statement, somehow that's what Christianity is about. And I could see that, I don't think that as big of an issue, and not like it was there, but I do am concerned that in all of our ministry efforts, we never lose in all of our pursuits of right doctrine. And certainly in the circles that maybe I'm accustomed with through my years, that I have seen a lovelessness that can set in and ministry based on not on lovelessness. So I would say those are some of my thoughts to which one the most. I don't know if there's really one because it would be different. I see different elements, different flaws maybe showing up in different parts of our body, different sectors. But in all of this, I do see healthy marks and growing marks and a growing confession, a growing love, growing love for truth, growing love for the Christ revealed in Scripture and growing love for people. And so commend this church for that while also exhorting to avoid the dangers. I'm going to stay up here. But I'm going to go ahead and dismiss us, and I'll stay up here and answer questions. Heavenly Father, again, thank you for this evening. Thank you for your churches. Thank you for your Spirit who is speaking to the churches and to us here tonight. May we prove to be faithful stewards and be about the things, diligent about the things that you would have us be diligent about as we wait for your return. For it's in Christ's name. Amen. Dismissed.