This sermon delves into the messages to the Church of Ephesus in Revelation, highlighting the importance of God's knowledge of our hearts and thoughts, emphasizing that God sees all and knows our true intentions. It warns against living a dual life and thinking that God does not see or care about our actions, stressing the need for repentance and living a life pleasing to God. The sermon also touches on the consequences of unbelief and the certainty of God's judgment based on His omniscience and righteousness.

For our scripture reading today, let's turn in our Bibles to Revelation chapter 2, and we will be reading the message of Jesus to the Church of Ephesus. Shall we stand as we read the Word of God? I'll read the first and the odd-numbered verses, and Pastor Brian will lead you in the reading of the even-numbered verses 1 through 7. 1. Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. 2. I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil. 3. And thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars. 4. And you have borne, and have patience, for my name's sake, and you have labored, and not fainted. 5. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. 6. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent. 7. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 8. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. 9. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Father, we just thank you again for your word, and we pray, Father, that this day you will help us. Lord, we want to be obedient, and we want to, Lord, follow after your instructions. And so, Lord, guide us this day in our study of your word. Enrich our hearts, and, Lord, put us on the right path, we ask in the name of Jesus, Lord. Amen. You may be seated. Well, as we're in the book of Ezekiel, tonight we'll be studying chapters 7 through 10. And so, we encourage you to read those over, 6 through 10. Read those over, and we'll be joining together tonight as we continue our journey through the Bible. This morning, we'd like to draw your attention to the 8th chapter of Ezekiel, verse 12, where we read, Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients in the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his own imagery? How that they say, The Lord seethest not, the Lord hath forsaken the earth. Chapter 8 is interesting in that Ezekiel was taken by the Spirit on a strange trip from Babylon back to Jerusalem. Ezekiel was taken as a captive in the second invasion by the Babylonians in 596 B.C., and he was there in Babylon ministering, but while he was there, here we have this interesting phenomena and experience where he is taken now by the Spirit back to Jerusalem. He describes it as, He took me by a lock of my hair, and the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and heaven, and he brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem. Now, just what is meant by this, we are not certain. Whether it is a case of astral projection or was it just a vision, we really don't know, but it isn't really important to the story. Jerusalem was about to experience a horrible siege in which the nation will almost be obliterated. One third of them will die of starvation, a third of them will die during the siege, another third will die by the sword once the enemy breaks into the city, and the remaining third will be taken slaves and scattered throughout the world, and God is wanting Ezekiel to know why such a horrible thing is happening to his people. So as Ezekiel comes to the city of Jerusalem, the Lord instructs him to dig a hole there in the wall and to crawl through the hole, and as he crawls through the hole, he comes to a chamber where he sees the elders and the spiritual leaders of the city of Jerusalem, and portrayed on the walls of this room, he sees all kinds of filthy pornography and idolatrous images. He's shocked by what he sees, and the Lord explains to him that God has allowed him to go into the minds of these men that are the leaders there in Jerusalem and to see the filthy things that they were thinking about and imagining. Sometimes people get the false idea that you can hide from God, that he doesn't really know all things, he doesn't really know what's in your heart, but that's false. In Hebrews 4.13, the scripture tells us, neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are open and naked under the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Many people are living dual lives. They are one thing at home, they're another thing at work, and totally another when they are in church, and because of their success in hiding their duplicity from men, they get the false idea and notion that they're actually hiding from God, that God doesn't see, that God doesn't know what's really going on in their hearts, and because God has not judged them, they're sometimes so foolish as to think they are actually getting by with their sinful activities, that somehow God doesn't know. But in Deuteronomy 32.35, the Lord said, vengeance belongs to me and retribution. Their foot shall slide in due time, for their day of calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them shall make haste. Again in Deuteronomy 29.19, as God has earlier told of all of the curses that would come upon the people if they forsook the law of the Lord, he said to them, and it shall come to pass that when a man hears the words of the curses that are coming, and he blesses himself in his heart, and he says, well, it won't happen to me. He said, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart and in drunkenness, but the Lord declares that he will not spare him. But the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven. As Jesus is addressing the seven churches as we read to the church of Ephesus and to each of the churches, he said, I know thy works. So whether they are good or whether they are evil, the Lord knows us backwards and forwards. He not only knows what we do, he knows what we think, and he knows the evil imaginations in your heart. In Genesis 6, 5, we read, and God saw the wickedness of man that it was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. God could see what they were thinking about, the thoughts of their hearts, their imaginations. David said to his son Solomon, there in 1 Chronicles 28, 9, Solomon, my son, know the God of your father, and serve him with your whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all of the hearts. He understands your imaginations, and he will cast you off forever. Later, as Solomon was praying as he was dedicating the temple, he prayed, then hear thou from heaven your dwelling place, and forgive, and do give to every man according to his way, whose heart you know, for you know the hearts of the children of men. This is saying that God knows your heart. He knows your thoughts. He knows your fantasies. You hide nothing from him. God said to the prophet Jeremiah in 17, 9, the heart is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked. Who can know it? But he said, I searched the heart. I tried the brains. I give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. John tells us in John 2, 25, that Jesus did not need that anyone should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. Matthew tells us in Matthew 9, 2, they brought to Jesus a man who was sick of the palsy. He was lying on a bed, and Jesus, seeing their face, said to the man who was sick of the palsy, son, be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven. And certain of the scribes said within themselves, this man blasphemes. And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, why do you think evil in your hearts? What is easier to say your sins are forgiven, or to say arise and walk? But that you might know that the son of man has power on earth to forgive sins. He said to the man who was sick of the palsy, arise, take up your bed, go to your house. Now, this is an interesting thing. What would be easier to say? If he said to the man, you know, your sins are forgiven, who knows? You don't see it. You don't see some big eraser coming and wiping his heart clean. It's just, you don't know that there's power in those words. And so, they're challenging Jesus in their minds. They're saying, you know, no one can forgive sins but God. And Jesus said, look, that you might know that there are power in my words, that I can forgive sins. I can speak it, and it's happening. He said, what would be easier to say? You know, your sins are forgiven, or arise, take up your bed, and walk? Now, if he says, arise, take up your bed, and walk, and the guy stands up and picks up his cot and walks away, then you can see the evidence of the power of his words. You know, there can be people that are sort of half with it, you know, and they go around saying, you know, your sins are forgiven, and all, but who knows? You can't really see it, you know. But if someone says to the person who is lame, hey, take up your bed and walk, and the guy picks up his cot and walks away, you say, whoa, you know, there's evidence that there's power in his words. Jesus said to the Pharisees in Luke 16, 15, you justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. People were looking at the Pharisees in Jesus' day, and they were looking at how holy and how righteous they were, because it was all in outward activities. They appeared unto men to be righteous, but Jesus knew their hearts, and he said of the Pharisees, woe unto you, you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, for you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but within you're full of extortion and excess. You blind Pharisee, first cleanse that which is in the cup and plate that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed sepulchres. You appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are dead men's bones and all kinds of uncleanness. So you outwardly appear righteous to men, but within you're full of hypocrisy and iniquity. You serpents, you generation of vipers, how shall you escape the damnation of hell? There were two common misconceptions that were held by the elders of Israel. In verse 12, we read that they were thinking, the Lord doesn't see us, for the Lord has forsaken the earth. Surely David knew better than this, because in Psalm 139, David said, if I say, surely the darkness shall hide me, then the night shall be light about me. This is exactly the attitude that so many people have today. The Lord doesn't see me, the Lord has forsaken the earth. But Paul said to the Romans, they became vain in their imaginations, their foolish hearts were darkened, and professing themselves to be wise, they actually became fools, because they changed the glory of an incorruptible God into an image likened to corruptible man, to birds and to four-footed beasts and creeping things. It sounds a little bit to me like the wacko environmentalists today who place a greater value on trees and on the animal kingdom than they do humankind. You can be fined and imprisoned if you damage an eagle's egg, and yet the government will pay you for the cost of your aborting an innocent child in your womb. You can be arrested and fined if you deliberately starved a dog to death, and yet the courts have ordered life support to be stopped from people who, that they might starve to death. You can be arrested and fined for picking up a bird feather of certain types of birds from off the ground. Talk about professing themselves to be wise, and they've become fools. Paul went on to write, wherefore God gave them over to their filthy practices as they followed the lust of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie, and they worshiped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever. For this cause God gave them up to their vile affections, for even the women did change the natural use into that which is against nature, likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust toward one another, men with men doing things that are unthinkable and receiving in themselves the consequences of their sin which was fitting. And because they did not like to retain God in their minds, God gave them over to depraved minds to do things which are unthinkable. People could not possibly do these things unless they felt that God couldn't see them, that God has forsaken the earth. As the psalmist said in Psalm 73, they speak contemptuously of God. They say, how does God know? Is their knowledge in the most high? In verse 18, God speaks of the consequences of these wicked abominations. In Ezekiel 8, 18, therefore will I also deal in fury? My eye will not spare, neither will I have pity, and though they cry in my ear with a loud voice, I will not hear them. As Paul wrote in Romans 2, 5, but after your hard and impendent heart you've only stored up to yourself wrath for the day of wrath in the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. In the book of Revelation we read, the angel that will proclaim with a loud voice if any man worships the beast and his image or receives his mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same will drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture in the cup of his indignation. And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb, and the smoke of the torment will ascend forever and ever, and they will have no rest day or night who worship the beast and his image and whosoever receives the mark of his name. You say, well I don't believe those things that the Bible is saying. I believe that the Bible is just filled with myths. God doesn't know and God doesn't care. Well whether you believe that or not really doesn't alter the truth. You may say, I don't believe that one plus one equals two. Does that mean that it doesn't? That one plus one doesn't equal two? What you were taught in kindergarten is not so. What you've been taught all the way through in your classes in arithmetic and in math is not so. One plus one does not equal two. Just because you don't believe it, does that make it so then? And so would the truths of God. If you don't believe them, it doesn't alter the truth. The truth is true. Whether you believe it or not, what God has said is true. And so I think that it's wise if you say, I don't believe one plus one equals two. It doesn't mean that it doesn't. It just means that you're pretty stupid. And it doesn't really change the fact. Nor does not believing the Bible is true or the true word of God mean that it is not true. The only means that you have never really, it only means this, you haven't really studied the Bible. For if you had studied the Bible, you would know that it is indeed the word of God. And all that has said has come to pass up to this moment in history. And there's no reason why not to believe that the rest of the things that have not yet transpired will not transpire. And it seems like many of them are going to be transpiring very soon in our world today. So the Bible speaks of the past with great accuracy. It also speaks of the future. And you can be sure that the things that the Bible has to say about the future will come to pass just as sure as those things have already transpired, which the Bible did say would come. It means that if you remain an unbeliever today, that when God will judge the world, you will be with that unbelieving crowd that will be cast from the presence of God forever in what is known as the second death. For in Revelation 21a we read, but the fearful, the unbelievers, the abominable, the murderers, the whoremongers, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. So you're in a bad company, friend. You're unbelieving. You're with the fearful, the abominable, the murderers, the whoremongers, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars as the Bible puts them all in one category together. And of course, as an unbeliever, you go into that category. It's not a good category to be in, believe me. Father, we thank you for the warnings that you give to us in your word concerning our lives and our relationship with you. And Lord, as there are so many today who are in that condition of just thinking that they are getting by, that you don't know, that you don't see, and that you don't care. But Lord, we pray that this day they will be awakened to the reality that you are an all-knowing God, an all-seeing God, and an all-caring God. And you do know what we are doing. You do care about what we are doing. And Lord, you do love us, and we thank you for that. And we pray, Lord, that this day if there be those here who have been in that category of thinking, well, they're putting it over on you. You don't see, you don't know, and they're living a careless life. Lord, we pray that the Holy Spirit will just convince them of the truth that you do know, that you do care, and that it is important that they live a life that is pleasing and acceptable in your sight, that you know our hearts, the very things that go on in our minds, the imagery of our own mind, even as you showed to Ezekiel what was going on in the minds of these people. Lord, we pray that you'll help us to realize you know our hearts, you know our thoughts. And Father, we pray that we might live in such a way that the thoughts of our heart and the imaginations of our mind might be pleasing, Lord, in your sight, and that what you see you will just acknowledge as what you want to see in our minds and in our thoughts. We ask, Father, in Jesus' name, make us pure even as you are pure. Make us holy, Lord, even as you are holy. Cleanse our thoughts, our minds, our hearts, in Jesus' name and for his sake, Father. Amen. Shall we stand? The pastors are down here at the front to minister to you this morning, and so we would suggest that if God has spoken to your heart and you realize that what he sees in your heart is not pleasing to him, that you'll get your heart straight before God, that you'll ask him to wash and cleanse and cleanse your mind, cleanse your heart, cleanse your thoughts, and he'll do it. He wants to do it if you'll just give him the opportunity. And so they're here to pray for you, and we would encourage you as we're dismissed, just come on forward and ask them for prayer, and they'll be happy to just join with you in prayer that God will just do a special work in your heart and in your life this day. The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. God bless you.