Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the second epistle of John,
the second epistle of John and verse 8. Look to yourselves that we lose
not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive
a full reward. John is writing to, we are told
in the first verse, the elect lady and her children. He tells us that he loves them
in the truth. and it is very evident that he
views them as being saved and as knowing the truth. So what
he is writing to them is not thinking that they are not saved. He is not thinking that they
are out of the way. There is everything to indicate
that he has a very high view of them. And yet, he would be mindful of what
the Lord taught. It's recorded in Matthew 24 verse
4, take heed that no man deceive you. And it's related in the
other Gospels as well. The Lord warning of those that
shall come saying they are Christ and they are not, and are trying
to rob and take away from the people of God that which they
already have. And so John, he is aware of this. If ever Satan is going to attack,
he's going to attack where the truth is, where there are those
who already have escaped his clutches. and he's going to seek
to try them, to bring them back to the pit, and to undo any good
that has been done. We've only got to think about
those that Paul refers to, Demas, hath forsaken me, having loved
this present world, or to think of the parable of the sower that
our Lord told, of which with those four types of hearers,
the word, the good seed, it did drop upon the ground, one was
taken straight away, but there were those that did spring up
for a little while, and then they came to naught. Where the
word was snatched and taken away, either because it didn't have
much root and the persecutions and trials that came upon it
caused that person to go back, or else it was choked with the
things of this world. The Word of God is full of those
that have seemed right for heaven, but they weren't. And amongst,
sadly, our families, our acquaintance, those that we've known that have
even been baptized into gospel standard chapels, and they've
endured for a while, they've attended the prayer meetings,
their prayers have been loved and commended, and now they have
cast everything away and no longer worship in any place of worship
at all. And let him that standeth take
heed lest he fall. We are not to think that God
just saves the people and when he's given them grace, that they
in themselves are invincible. We are told that the trial of
your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth,
though it be tried with fire, be found unto praise and honor
and glory that last day. And in that trial of faith, It
is faith that centers on the Word of God. We would remember
what is said of those that do endure unto the end. Those that
have an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, reserved in heaven
for you. For who? For you that are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation. And put it simply,
they are kept because the Lord has given them a hearing ear
They've had faithful pastors that have warned them, they've
listened to the warnings, they've taken heed, and they've delivered
from the snare and the triumphs. If you and I are to endure unto
the end, not only will we receive the truth through the ministry
and receive it for the first time, but we'll also be kept
in the truth, and by that word, not only as Peter was to feed
the sheep and feed the lambs, but also to strengthen the brethren
as well. And so our strength is not seen
and felt in ourselves, but it is seen in the Lord. And there
will be those times that we may hear a word preached, and it
may be this evening, and you think, why is this word being
given? And by the end of the next week,
you might well know why it has been given, because something
has come and the Lord has seen fit to warn and to prepare you
before it has come, through the Word, as to know how to act,
how to answer, what to do. Or it may be you've already had
that in the previous week, and as you come into the house of
God, then you have the answer. Remember Asaph in Psalm 73? He saw the prosperity of the
wicked, He wondered how it was that there was no bands in their
death, their strength was firm, they had all that their heart
could wish. And yet the people of God, they
were in trouble, they had bands in their death, they had afflictions. And he says, I was almost gone,
my steps had well nigh slipped. That's how far godly Asaph had
gone when he's considering these things that are happening. And
have you got those things that you see? Those things you think
the devil says, if the religion was true, that wouldn't happen,
that wouldn't be like that, that shouldn't be like that, and he
starts to make you question and reel to and fro. Well Asaph said
it was until he went into the house of God, then understood
either end. Then he understood as that veil
of death. Suddenly they were consumed by
terrorists, the other side of the grave. They saw what they
didn't see, this side of the grave. But God's children, they
do see it, and they do know it. And that is an example of where
we are tossed to and fro, and in trouble, until we come into
the house of God. And then we have that help, and
then we have the strength. So, it is God's people that need
the warnings that need the word like we have in our text. Look to yourselves that we lose
not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive
a full reward. Now I want to consider three
points this evening. The first is the impact on others
and ourselves should we depart from the faith. The second is things received
which ministers have wrought among us. Our text says, look
to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought
but that we receive a full reward. And lastly, the warning, really
the beginning of the text, look to yourselves. But firstly, the impact that
is upon others. Now you may have noticed as we
read our text that it does not say Look to yourselves that ye
lose not those things which we have wrought, but that ye receive
a full reward. Now some would point out in some
of the ancient copies the word ye is put in. In our authorized
version and the Greek text and the same with the New King James,
it is as we have it here, we. And indeed it is consistent with
the rest of Scripture. That is quite an amazing thing,
isn't it? Here is the Apostle, here is
those that have been teaching the Word of God, imparting it,
and as they have laboured, they have seen the fruit and the effect
of that labour, that there's been conviction, there's been
those that have believed, that have been saved, there's been
fruit to their ministry, seals to their hire, if you like, that
has encouraged the apostle, that encourages a minister. Now, if
those that he has baptised or that have received the truth
then hearken to some error and they fall away and they go away,
that is going to affect him. He is seeing all his labours
wasted and gone. He has seen a soul that he felt
was saved and now is lost, felt was in the right way, he's put
him in the right way, and now he's going in the wrong way. And so what is happening to that
person, personally they are losing their faith, personally they're
running on wrong ground, and believing Satan and going back
from the way that they've been sent in and can be in that danger
of falling away completely. And we would make it very clear,
this point really, that God's people that are chosen in Christ,
those that are elect, they cannot be lost, they must be saved.
That fatalism and election of very different things. Those
that are truly saved will not be fatalistic. They, of all people,
will know the worth of their souls, the existence of eternity,
what it is to be saved, what it is to be lost, and of all
people will be the most concerned that they be right and that they
do not fall away along the way. Don't be discouraged if you have
doubts, fears, if you are wanting to be really sure and wanting
to know that you truly shall be saved, the Hemrider says,
but can I bear the piercing thought, what if my name should be left
out when thou for them shalt call? God's people, of all people,
do know their sin and how it works in their hearts, in thoughts,
in words and in ways And the Hymn writer again says, if ever
my poor soul be saved, tis Christ must be the way. We grow in grace,
we grow less and less dependent upon our works. We see our works
as stained and dyed with sin, and more and more depending on
grace. And it's only then, as faith
is strong, that we can have that assurance and comfort in the
face of so much discouragement from within. And so, I do not
want to suggest in any way that God's own children shall fall
away. They may. They may go into, like
Bunyan puts it, a by-path meadow. They may suffer much, like David
did, for going into sin and then smarting for the rest of their
days. They may. take up with errors
that bind them and hold them fast and as a snare, and take
away their fruitfulness and usefulness, and be as a handicap all their
journey through. But they will not utterly fall. But there will be those that
have appeared to be right, and then they do, like demons, fall,
and they are not right. Those who have been the ministers,
they view these with great sorrow. And those that are in that position,
those that go back and walk no more in the ways of the Lord,
it's better for them that they've never known the way, even outwardly,
than to have entered upon and then turned back. Again Bunyan
portrays those that his Christian met, and they're coming back
the other way, and saying there is no celestial city. and they're
going back. Many of God's children know what
it is to backslide. It is where the word of God is
to pick them up and to find them and to bring them back again,
the good shepherd, to find them again. But this impact upon others,
you think what is said by the Lord of those that repent, there's
joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, More than 99
just persons that have no need or feel no need of repentance. Well what if it's the other way
around? And the angels see those that did repent and then they
are turning away and they're falling away. Does not it affect
others? What if it could be possible
that God's children be lost? If one for whom he suffered,
bled, and died in Calvary be lost, the whole of salvation
would be null and void. All of the precious blood of
Christ, the certainty of it, would be gone. And so what is
happening to one sinner has profound effect. It has effect upon families,
upon fathers, and mothers, and those around us, and the Church
of God. It's not just, we're not just
an island. You think of how many times Satan
has tried to take a minister and he succeeded, and the minister
has fallen, and been left to go into open sin. He's had to
cease his ministry, or perhaps he's persevered on with it when
he shouldn't have. And the damage it causes to the
churches is not just one that it affects. Yes, our soul is
very precious. that made me think of how many
others. If we who are fathers and a pastor
and have grandchildren who are brought up under the truth, if
we cast everything away and speak against it, all of those, our
children, our grandchildren, our church, and all of that,
they're all affected. What a trial that would be to
them all. And you think if Satan knows
that, and he does know that, how much he will try. and how
much we need the warning, and that which is in our text, that
we be kept, we be aware of what is at stake. Now we're taught
today it's you. Everything must be done so that
you feel right. It's right for you. Don't worry
about other people, it's gotta be right for you. You do what's
right for you. If your marriage is not right,
you just dis-annul it, and you find someone else. Or if you're
not happy, with things, then you just change it, but it's
all you, you, you, self, self, self. But with the things of
God, God's dear children, they're part of a body in which Christ
is the head. They're joined, one joint. If
one joint is of our natural bodies, if it's hurting, that hurts us
all, it's not just one. And so we must remember that
with the things of God, it's not selfish, the whole gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ is completely against that selfishness. He
laid down his life for others, even so ought we to lay down
our lives for the brethren. I thought that years ago, going
to, on a Saturday to visit a dear friend who hadn't made an open
profession at all. in a hospital some 15 miles away. I had so much to do on that Saturday,
and I was pulled. I wanted to go and see him, but
I wanted to get all of these things done. And there was this
struggle on in my heart as I was driving along, and I can know
the spot in the road where the Lord dropped in. Even so ought
we to lay down our lives for the brethren. And the Lord told
me that time that that dear man was one of the brethren. And
he told me, you lay down all your life, what you were doing
that day, and you go and see him. And it's been a lesson I
hope you never forgot. There'll still be sometimes that
tug, but then it comes back. And where we're in that position,
in not of ourself, with us, it impacts those round about us. And you think of the apostle. We said how it flows with the
rest of the scriptures there. And the Apostle Paul in Galatians
4 and verse 11 where he says he observed days and months and
times and years. I am afraid of you lest I have
bestowed upon you labour in vain. He taught them and then he got
other teachers coming in and they were going after those other
teachers and he felt his labours were in vain. When he writes
to the Philippians, in the second chapter, verse 16, he says, holding
forth the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ,
that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain. And so, he is bound up with the
people that he's actually writing to. And he writes to the Corinthians,
he brings to them that same message as well in the third chapter
in his first letter to them. And he says, now he that planteth
and he that watereth are one and every man shall receive his
reward according to his own labour. For we are labourers together
with God, ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. and the preacher and the people
they are bound up together. Our Lord spoke of those in John
4 that one has watered or one has sowed, another has watered
but God has given the increase and another enters into their
labors and the fruit. God's people are the the fruit
of Christ's sufferings, His death, the fruit of the ministry, and
it is right that we should be very mindful of how bound up
together we are, and how one sinner destroyed much good, and
how the devil can easily get an opening in. But it really
struck me in this text, how much it's put In the way of the preacher
of John to this lady whom he loved in the truth, he says,
look to yourselves that we, the ministers of the gospel, the
apostles, lose not those things which we have wrought, but that
we receive a full reward. and seeing the offspring come,
and seeing the fruit, in receiving it last, well done, thou good
and faithful servant. Behold, I am the children whom
thou hast given thine." It is right that those of us in the
ministry, we shouldn't just be content to think, well, we're
just going to bring forth the Word, and make sure we open it
up right, and explain the Word out, and not be at all concerned. What effect did it have on our
heroes? Is it being used to quicken them
into life? Has it been used to warn them,
to admonish them? Is it feeding them or not? Are
they benefitted by it? Is there honour and glory to
God, not just for an excellent sermon, but for the fruit that
is an evidence of the Spirit accompanying it and blessing
that word. in this first point, just think
of that impact on others and ourselves, because especially
as a hearer and those that are interested in these things personally,
it impacts upon us personally, and of course John as well, was
to be saved by the same gospel, every minister, he's saved by
the same faith, for the same work of the Spirit in his own
heart as the people are. And so there is a binding together,
a joining together here. It's very evident in this letter
that John writes to this elect lady. Look to yourselves that
we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we
receive a full reward. And we could extend this, extend
it to parents, to grandparents, where you prayed over, taught,
watched over others, friends it may be, as well, to just be
mindful of how they are, how they're walking, how many times
it's so easy to say one to another, oh, you know, we're worried about
that person, they seem to be a bit, led astray there, they've
gone down this track. But do we take up the pen? Do
we warn them? Do we admonish them? It struck
me years ago, a book, it's James Bourne's letters, and one of
the letters that he wrote was to a fellow pastor. He'd been
called as a visiting minister to minister to the flock of his
ranch. And afterwards he wrote to his
friend who was the pastor of that flock. And he said, I found
them quite a sleepy and indifferent congregation. He says, I can't
see any reason for this except that their pastor doesn't spend
enough time in his study and upon his knees and close to the
Lord. Would you think of writing that
today to a minister? How would we receive that if
we had a visiting minister as pastors and someone wrote that
letter to us? I hope if it was true we'd fall
before it and humble ourselves before God. But those in those
days, they valued the soul. And so where they saw something
was wrong in loving kindness, with the desire not to inflame,
or antagonize, or to alienate, or discourage, but to kindly
point out what the concern was. What was the error that is being
drunk into? And not lie at a hatch either,
and wait until they fall into the snare, and then say, ah,
look at you, you made profession, now look what you've done. The
Lord would be right in turning it around and saying, well, you
saw and you never warned. Naturally so. If you've got a
child, a brother, they're walking along and there's a hole in the
road. You see the hole. They don't
see it. You don't warn them. They fall
into it. They're injured. It's your child
that's injured. You feel it too. But why didn't
you warn them? Why didn't you stop them falling
into that hole? There's an application here when
you think of the people of God joined together and what happens
to one affects the other, not on our own. So I leave that thought with
you and that first point to really consider prayerfully consider. I bring it before myself as much,
having meditated upon it and now preached on it. But secondly, those things which
ministers have wrought amongst us. There are many things I could
bring up, I might mention some later, but I want to keep to
the context here, to what Ashley John is writing to this lady. If there is a possibility of
losing something then it is implied first that there must have been
something to lose and there must have been something that is gained
and given Because by nature we do not have anything spiritual,
we don't have anything of a saving nature at all. May that be an
encouragement to some of you here, all those listening. Remember
this, that we are dead in trespasses and sins. The natural man receiveth
not the things of God, neither can he know them, they are spiritually
discerned. We are blind, we're in darkness,
We're alienated from God through wicked works. We are apt as people
to often measure by what is not done on what we haven't got,
rather than what is done on what we have got. How many times you
might have a long list of things to do at home, and at the end
of the day you feel dejected because you say, all of these
things I haven't done. But why don't you say, all of
these things I have done? But we measure it by what hasn't
been done. And so it can be as well that
we measure by what we don't know or what we are not, rather than
what the Lord has done for us. The dear man that was born blind,
who the Lord opened his eyes, he wasn't like that. He says,
one thing I know, Whereas I was blind, now I see. When we think
of the children at school, the grandchildren come home very,
very pleased because they've been able to read this little
book or write their name. And we don't say to them, well,
that's nothing at all. You haven't read Shakespeare
yet, and you haven't done calculus and math yet. All you've done
is add one and one. But we encourage them. Because
they are learning. And the word says, line upon
line, here a little and there a little. And even the smallest
thing learned by the smallest child, if that's taken from them,
if it's robbed from them, they've lost it. And they need to keep
it, they need to retain it, it needs to be built upon. So as
much as this highlights that which is lost, It also emphasizes
here is a people that have something to lose, that have been given
something, and it is that that I want to speak to on this second
point. Now, you'll notice in the very
first verses, in fact four verses, the thing that John mentions
concerning this elect lady is the truth. In verse one he says,
whom I love, in the truth. In verse 2, for the truth sank. In verse 3, at the end, from
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. In verse 4, I rejoiced greatly
that I found thy children walking in truth. All the time He's setting
forth the truth. What do we read of Israel? Truth is fallen in the streets. Is not that like our nation today? Who doesn't know what a man or
woman is? And truth is fallen in the street
in so many ways. And this is what he commands.
So have we been taught the truth? The Lord said to those that believed
in John 8. He says, if you continue in my
word, Then you shall be my disciples indeed, a follower indeed. You
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. The
word of God is the only standard of truth. Pilate says to our
Lord at Calvary, what is truth? I took a young people's once
on that, strength in truth, that question, what is truth? Truth
is reality as perceived by God. By God. We might stand upon the
seashore and look out to sea and we see two ships on the horizon. They're sailing towards each
other and we hold our breath. Think they're going to hit? But
by and by they pass and they keep going. From our perspective
it looks like they're on a collision course. If we were to look up
from a satellite and look down, we'd probably see them miles
apart. We can view things from our perspective
and think that's truth. I could go in Australia and prove
to you the Bible's wrong. Because in Australia, out of
the north does not come the cold. The heat comes out of the north
from the equator. But the Bible says the cold comes
out of the north. You go into this hemisphere where
we are now, and that is true, and where the Bible is written.
But from our perspective in Australia, we can say, or think we prove
it's wrong. And it's very important. How
do we get God's perspective? The Bible, the Word of God. That's
where we get the perspective. I was criticised once by one
who wanted to make, as it were, the invitations of the Gospel
to everybody, In our gospel standard articles we say the invitations
of the gospel are the characters. He said, oh no, if you were having
a race and you got people running along, he said if you had a stand
of water outside and you had a stand and say, if you feel
thirsty you can have some water, he said people would come to
that and think, am I really thirsty? Am I really not? Oh no, I'll
leave it for someone else and go on. He said, just put a sign
out there saying water and don't make any conditions and then
they'll just come and take the water. But the word of God, it
says, he that is a thirst, come and
drink. The word of God says, come unto
me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and whosoever will,
who is willing to walk according to the word of God, to put themselves
under the authority of God, to submit to God, in every invitation
there is a character that is put there. Now we can use our
own wisdom and say, well, this would be better wording, a better
way. But when we look at it in God's perspective, we look at
it according to the word of faith, the truth, not man. There's so much of this. putting
her own interpretation, her own thought, instead of the Word
of God. Well, John, he demands this woman
and her family, they've been brought to know the truth. Question,
have you, have I been brought to know the truth? Have we been
brought to look at the Word of God and say, here is truth? If
I want to know and discern right and wrong, Between what is of
God and what is not, then the Lord has given us the Word. To
the law, to the testimony, if not according to these things,
there's no truth in it. Bless the Lord, if the Lord has
opened your eyes to the truth, and you want to know the truth.
The Lord says that those who deeds of darkness will not come
to the light, lest their deeds be made manifest. The light is
the Word of God. So then under this heading, you
have four other points. We have the doctrine of Christ,
which is really emphasized in this epistle. If any doctrine
is, it is this one. Because we have in verse nine,
whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ
hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son, the eternal Son
of God manifest in the flesh, seed of Abraham, flesh and spirit. Not as falsely taught by some
in our assemblies at Clapham, that this place of the soul is
taken by the divine person. It is not. He didn't take angels,
which is just spirit. He didn't take the bodies or
flesh of animals, which is just flesh. His seed of Abraham. Thou
shalt see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. Every
error, you get Mormons, you get Jehovah's Witnesses, you get
Christadelphians, and they all attack this error. They're all
in error concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. The doctrine of
Christ is the only way of salvation. How many, our King included,
will say, no, I'm going to champion faith. All these other ways.
One way. It's more prevalent than what
you would think about falling into error concerning the doctrine
of Christ. We have it in verse 7 as well. For many deceivers are entered
into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in
the flesh, this is a deceiver and an antichrist, the Muslim
faith, that is such a deceiver. The second one is this, to have
love one to another, verse 5. And now I beseech thee, lady,
not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, that that which we
had from the beginning, that we love one another. In John's
first epistle, he says, we know that we have passed from death
unto life because we love the brethren. See that we don't lose
that, the love to the brethren. Have we been given that? Be encouraged,
dear friends. If once, and this is me in unregeneracy,
I didn't love the brethren, Not for the truth's sake, might I
love them as people, but not for the word of God's sake. And
if the Lord has given that love to the brethren, see that that
is not taken away, and not robbed from us, and we start falling
out, and start going away from the brethren. The third one,
walking after the commandment. Verse six, and this is love that
we walk after His commandments. This is the commandment, that
as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it. Practical
living, walking, the love of Christ constraineth us. The Lord
Jesus said, ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command
you. It's not in word only. The Lord
gave the parable of the one that built his house upon the sand
and one upon the rock. What was that teaching? the difference
between being a doer of the Word and being one that just heard
the Word and didn't do, didn't obey. So may we receive and know
that truth and have received it, that we do hear the Word
of God and change our lives to suit it. It tells us what we
are doing wrong, so we stop it. It tells us what we should do,
so we do it. And sometimes it reproves us,
and sometimes it instructs us. But we desire that we might walk,
and be doers of the Word, and not hearers only deceiving your
own selves. And it applies to all of our
life. The Apostle Paul, he says, the
life that I live, I live according to the faith by the faith of
Jesus Christ. The faith that the Lord Jesus
gave to him affected everything he did in his life. He didn't
do some things and that was just luck and chance, and some things
was his wisdom. No, he walked by faith. Walked according to the word
of God. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path. I will instruct thee and teach
thee in the way which thou shalt go, I will guide thee with mine
eye. May we take care that that is
not taken away from us, that we start to use other ways of
direction. The fourth one comes in with
the theme of the hymn so far tonight, and that is grace, the
doctrine of grace. In verse 3, Grace be unto you,
mercy and peace from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus
Christ. If ever there was a doctrine
that is to be held fast to, by grace she is saying, through
faith, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. And this
is one of the things that is set before this elect lady that
must not be taken from, how much the flesh loves to have something
to work, something to do. We might be brought up amongst
our churches where we contend for the free and sovereign grace,
and then we come to another church and they say, well, we're Calvinistic,
but then it turns out that it almost seems that the gospel
ends up like the law, and it's wielded with a great big stick,
If you don't exercise faith, if you don't believe tonight
might be your last chance and last opportunity. And you get
these words coming up from the Calvinistic church and they're
saying, well, we're preaching the gospel. No, you're not. You're
taking the beautiful gospel and you're making it like the law
and beating the people. You can do that with the law.
By the law is the knowledge of sin, but the gospel is oil and
wine to heal and cherish. It gives strength, it gives grace,
it gives mercy, it gives contralised blessing. It is what poor, hell-deserving
sinners, feeling so in themselves, need. That which we look for
death and the Lord gives us life. We look for hell and He gives
us heaven. He has not dealt with us after
our sins deserve. That's the Gospel. The Lord doesn't
give any strength, but whatever the law commands, Whatever the
gospel is set before us as a precept in the gospel through the grace,
free, unmerited favour of God, He gives repentance, He gives
forgiveness, He gives strength, He gives the will, He gives teaching,
He keeps on giving to poor sinners. That's the wonderful thing of
a gospel day. May we never, never lose the
the healing balm and the oil and wine to heal and cherish
to the gospel as good news to sinners, to those that are poor
and those that are needy. Well, I want to then look at
our last point, the third point, which was the warning, look to
yourselves. If John is writing, and he's
writing here to a person, if those persons are walking
right, then they will also be gathered together in churches,
and we've spoken about what affects one affects the other, especially
in the church of God. And so this is the reason why
we read in the Revelation, because in the letters to the Revelation,
we have the Lord's Word to churches, and this applies to right through
this Gospel day. It doesn't mean that one church
is only like one of these churches. Often there's aspects of them
in each church. But two of these churches had
nothing to be reproved in them. All of them had things that they
were warned against. It is chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation
where these letters come. The church of Ephesians. What
had happened to them? Chapter 2, verse 4. They had
left their first love. They lost their first love, you
might say, as in the words of our text. And the exhortation
is look to yourselves. Examine yourselves. look to your
own, we often look at other people, but no, look in the mirror and
look and see how it is with you. Well in this case, the first
love is Christ of a soul, and very often when we're first called
and first quickened, Christ is precious, the world dims and
we're after Him entirely, but then that love to the Lord dims. and we go back and it's not so
warm and it's not so fervent as it once was, and this church
at Ephesus, this is what was reproved for them. Take heed. Look to yourselves. Lest ye lose your first love,
thou exhorted to repent, to turn, to go back again, to seek again
to the Lord. Then we have, in verse 10, the
church of Smyrna. This is one of those that was
a good church. They were a faithful church.
But they resorted to look to themselves that they be faithful
unto death. It's one thing to begin, it's
another to continue. If we might look to ourselves
and we see and we feel that the Lord has kept us, we are in the
right way, We are walking faithfully. Well, what we're to look to ourselves
is that we keep on in that way and that we don't slip back and
end up not walking and not faithful. And then we have the church at
Pergamos in verse 14. They were those that had amongst
their number those holding the doctrine of Balaam who taught
the children of Israel to sin, to go after fornication and strange
flesh, a church that had some error in it. That may be exactly what is in
a church. Some members of it may hold error. The church doesn't discipline
them, doesn't deal with them, put them out, or it may be with
us. We have something that is an error that we're holding and
think, That doesn't matter, we can still hold that, we can still
go along with that, or go along with someone that's holding this
error, it won't affect me, but it will. Be careful who we join
with and who we drink into their errors. So this exhortation again
is look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we
have wrought. Then moving to chapter 3. We have this artist church, a
name to live, but dead. They're exhorted to strengthen
the things that remain. They had things, but they'd lost
them. They'd once had a name of being
upright, a good church, and now the name was still there, but
in practice, they weren't walking according to the name. How searching
that is. Are we just resting in a name,
or has it been that the devil's been quite content? So you can
keep your name, as long as you don't walk according to that
name. How many you might look, and
sometimes on sermon audio I've looked and said, oh, 1689 church,
oh, they hold that confession. And then you look at them, and
you look at their services, and you look at their music, and
you look at your worship, and you think, Is that really one
that holds to the traditions and teaching of the 1689 Reverend? No. And so there's a warning
there to see that we don't lose what the name stands for. Those
of us with strict and particular bounties, strict communion, particular
redemption, the love of Christ to his people, particularly the
election and all the five points of Calvinism, beautiful doctrines
of grace. May we truly hold that and walk
according to it. Then we have the Church of Philadelphia,
again that is a church that is a good church, and they were
exhorted to hold fast that they had, that no man take their crown. Again, where there was that which
is right, they still needed warning, they still had to be exhorted
that they did not lose that which had been wrought, had been imparted
and given to them, that crown of glory that was awaiting them.
Then we have lastly the Laodicean church in chapter 3 in verse
15. We have this reproof, I know
thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert
cold or hot, so then because thou art lukewarm. The Lord was
to spew them out of his mouth. A lukewarm Christian. Is that
what we are? Half in the world, half out. Everything that we do, insipid
and cold and no zeal, no diligence, no love in it, just lukewarm. These are the things that the
Holy Spirit of God, inspirer of the Word of God, chose to
set before the churches, those things that they had, but those
things that they lost and yet were exhorted to have them restored
and to regain those things. And we could add others, of course.
We could think of a tender conscience. Bless the Lord if he's given
us a tender conscience. May we not lose that. A teachable
spirit. Teach me about thee. Bless the
Lord if we have a teachable spirit. Pray that we might not lose that.
The fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom. Has
the Lord given us that? Pray that he would not. leave
us to that chance there is no fear of God before their eyes. Maybe we've been like the Thessalonians
to wait for his son from heaven but as the Lord delays we get
taken up with the things of time and we not lose that expectancy
waiting as the Lord given us a real blessed hope of being
with him forever and ever and that once was really Precious,
lovely to us, we look forward to it, but now we've lost that,
we've become earthbound. Well, dear friends, may this
word of warning, may this text be a help, a strength to us.
Look to yourselves, look to ourselves, that we lose not those things
which we have wrought, but that you receive a full reward, even
heaven itself. and be able to say, Behold I
and the children whom thou hast given me. May the Lord add His
blessing. Amen.