I would like to do something
this evening that I don't do very often. In fact, I don't
remember if I've ever done this before. But having mused upon
last Sunday morning's message out of Revelation 2, there were
some questions that kept coming back to my mind concerning that
passage of Scripture. And as I looked, and you can
turn to Revelation 2, I want to make a few comments tonight.
I don't plan to expound the whole passage as I did. I want to just
look at two verses. And I want to ask three questions
about it, these questions that have been in my mind. I pray
that the Lord bless them. Revelation 2 verses 4 and 5,
nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast
left thy first love. 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 his place, except thou repent." Let's pray together. Our Father, this evening, as
we look again at your precious word. Father, I pray would you
bless it to our hearts, bless the preaching, bless the hearing,
bless it to our understanding, and Lord forgive us of our sins
for Christ's sake. Amen. The Lord wrote these letters,
seven letters, to seven churches. They were actually churches.
They were real churches. They were real assemblies. And
I got to thinking about what would I think? What would be my thoughts concerning
the Lord writing a letter to Katie? This was an actual letter. And it really got to the pastor
in these seven churches. And that pastor really read those
letters. And they were from the Lord. It was a letter from the Lord. And if in that letter the Lord
said to me to say to the church as it actually happened. And
he said, I have somewhat against thee. Whatever he said, I really, I
really want to hear what he has to say because of who it's from
and because of the seriousness of it. In the letter, he said, you've left your first love. This was the first question I
had. What is the first love that our
Lord speaks of? What is the first love that he's
talking about? He said, you've left your first
love. And then the question came to my mind, knowing that he said
that we left our first love, my question was, when or how
did we leave it? He said, you've left it. And
I thought, what did we do? What did we do? This church at Ephesus, I gave
you all the credentials, the commendations that the Lord had
given. They believed the gospel of God's free grace. They stuck. I mean, they tried false preachers,
they found them to be false. What did we do? What did we do? And then my third question in
my mind was this. when he said, remember therefore
from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works. And I thought to myself, tell me about that road right
there, doing the first works. Tell me about the road to recovery. That was the three questions.
What is the first love that you're speaking of? Knowing Lord that
you said that we've left our first love, when did we do that? And Lord, how did we do it? What happened? What happened? And then thirdly, Lord, You've
told us if we'll remember from whence we've fallen and repent
and do the first works, then there's recovery. Because the
consequences of this, according to His Word, is this, or else,
I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick
out of his place, except thou repent." And so I, as I thought
on those three questions, I thought to myself, I must preach on this
again. I must. Because I think, for
myself, I need to know the answers to those questions. He said that
if it didn't happen, he would remove the candlestick out of
his place, except thou repent. This church at Ephesus is not
there anymore. Neither are any of those six
others that were there. Thyatira and Sardis, they're
all gone. Philadelphia, Laodicea, they're
all gone. And no church, no local assembly
lasts forever. And neither will this one. This
one won't either. Except the Lord return. Except
the Lord come back for the second time and receive us all unto
Himself. One of these days, and I heard
Brother Henry said this, and I agree. He said one of these
days, One of these days you'll pass by, maybe not, I hope I'm
not here, but one of these days you'll pass by and if this building
is still here you'll say, I remember there used to be a church there.
It used to be there a long time. This is the only place that I
know of where the Lord said and gave the reason why he moves
the candlestick. Live in your first life. Three questions. That's what
I'm going to deal with for just a few minutes. Number one, what is the first love that our
Lord speaks of? Well, the word first means first
or foremost in time or place until God Almighty calls a person,
a sinner, out of darkness, there is no love for him. There's no
love there. It's just a dead heart. So there's
no love. So whenever the Lord calls a
person out of darkness and gives them a new heart, and they know
for the first time who He is, savingly, That is the first time
that they have any love for Him. Regeneration. The first love. That's where it started. Not
with Him, but with us. It starts in regeneration. There's a new heart, a new will. A new desire, a new man, a new
creation, created in Christ Jesus. And there's a love there, a love
for Christ, a love for God Almighty, a love for the gospel, a love
for God's people. There's a first love. And that first love manifests
itself. It's known. I want you to hold
your place. Turn with me to Acts chapter
2. Let me show you the evidence of the first love. Acts chapter
2. On the day of Pentecost, The
Spirit of God fell upon those that were in that upper room
praying, and they began to pray, and the Spirit of God moved,
they began to preach, and there were thousands, thousands of
people in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. and the Spirit
of God moved upon Peter and these others to preach, and they heard
the Word of God preached. And here's what happened. Acts
2 and verse 37. Now when they heard this, they
heard the Gospel, and the Lord moved upon them in power, they
heard it, they were pricked in their heart, they said unto Peter
and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall
we do? And Peter, 38, then Peter said
unto them, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name
of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, you shall receive the
gift of the Holy Ghost. Think differently. on how God
justifies a sinner, not by the works of Judaism, not by the
works of the law, by grace. Repent, think differently, and
be baptized. And here's what happened. In
verse 41 to 47, then they that gladly received the word were
baptized. And the same day there were added
unto them about 3,000 souls. 3,000 conversions on that day. And here's the evidence of that
first love, that new, brand new foremost, first in time, first
in place, first in heart, first love, first love, here it is,
first love. And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, breaking of bread
and prayers and fear, respect. came upon every soul, and many
wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed
were together, and had all things common, and sold their possessions
and goods, and parted them to all men as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with
one accord in the temple, breaking bread from house to house, did
eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising
God having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to
the church daily, such as should be saved." What an assembly. What an assembly. I mean, I'm thinking they were
all together and they were just praising God and meeting together
and hearing the gospel preached. It was just an amazing, amazing
church that the Lord raised up, saved 3,000 souls that day. First
love. First love. It didn't matter,
somebody had a need, hang on, let me sell something here, I'll
take care of that. Together they sold, breaking
bread, praying together, gladness of heart, just so thankful what
God Almighty had done for them. And I remember I'll embarrass
Glenda just for a second. When we first started dating,
Franklin's a long way from here. When we started dating, I'm going
to tell you something, it was generally about a 10 hour drive.
And I don't remember exactly how often I was coming here,
but it was 10 hours one way. But you know what? So what? So what? 10 hours, whatever, you know, I
just leave early, you know. I'd go and come here, and Brother
Scott had me preach, and I'd drive back, and I was just thinking,
I said, okay, well, let's see, okay, it'll only be just this
many more days, I'll come back. Right now, I think about driving
to Franklin, and I think, oh, not then, not then. First love. First love. New awakening. You've left your first love.
That right there. That every person, every believer
understands. He said, I have somewhat against
you. You've left that first love. You've deviated. You've neglected
it. That's what the word would mean. You've neglected it. So that's the first love he's
talking about. Here's my second question. When or how did we
leave our first love? Hardly ever, if ever, is the
leaving of the first love something that happens overnight. Not overnight. It happens usually so slowly
that we really fail to recognize it. But let me tell you, and
I'm going to do part of it from this and then part of it from
one other scripture, but what is it, based on what I just read
that they were doing, I understand quite a bit of what it is to
leave your first love. If this is what they were doing,
they gladly received, they were baptized, the Lord added, they
continued steadfastly in the doctrine of the apostles, fellowship,
breaking the bread, prayers. If that was the evidence of that
first love, that initial love, then what was it to leave the
first love? Leaving of our first love does
not mean that there's no love there at all, because it is.
God's people love the Lord. That's what Peter told the Lord.
The Lord says, Lovest thou me more than these. After three
times Peter said, Lord, you know I love you. To neglect our first love, to leave our
first love, is first of all, to leave or to neglect, not completely
leave, it's to neglect is what the word means. To neglect, first
of all, the hearing of the gospel. Now, the scripture says that
in verse 42, they continued daily, steadfastly, Verse 42, in the
Apostles' Doctrine Fellowship, they were together, hearing. Whenever the Gospel was preached,
it was the priority. That was the priority. The hearing of the Gospel. was
the message by which God had called them out of darkness.
They heard it with eagerness. They heard it with fervency. And that gospel that revealed
the mercy of God to them was declared and they received it
in heart. The Lord was talking about in
His high priestly prayer, I've manifested Thy name unto those
that You've given me out of the world and they've received it.
I've given it to them. I've put it there. I've given
them a new heart. They gladly met together and
heard the gospel of God's grace. But something happened. Something
happens. And now listen. The neglecting
of the hearing of the gospel does not necessarily mean that
we're not here. It doesn't necessarily mean that
we're absent. The neglecting of the hearing
of the gospel is when we don't give the priority
to the asking of the Lord to bless it to my heart. Lord, as
we assemble today, Lord, You're in this place. Lord, you've said
where two or three are gathered together. They that gladly received
the word continued steadfastly. They met together, sold their
possessions, continuing verse 46, daily with one accord in
the temple. Not every day, but every time
they met they continued. But there was an attitude They
didn't neglect. And listen, let me tell you this.
I'm telling you, I told you Sunday, I'm guilty. I'm guilty. The asking
of the Lord to bless the message to me. I'll pray and ask the
Lord, you know, Lord, meet with us today, but I'm thinking, Lord,
how neglectful I am. when it comes to the worship.
Leaving our first love begins when there begins to be a neglect
of the urgency of hearing the gospel, asking, seeking, praying. Almighty God blesses his people
through preaching. Lord, keep me from neglecting
that. Thank you for reminding me, number
one, is the neglect toward the gospel being preached. The second
thing is my neglect in prayer. In verse 42 again, they continued
steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship in breaking
of bread and in prayers. Luke 18.1, the scripture says,
the Lord speaking men ought always to pray and not faint. 1 Thessalonians
5.17 says, pray without ceasing. Matthew 26.41 says, Watch and
pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. The neglect
of prayer. I know this. When prayer is neglected
and every man, every woman is going to have to just answer
for themselves. I'm going to have to answer for
myself and just say that I believe me. When I kind of mentioned
to you how I catch myself trying to pray and the neglect that
I find within myself, not because I want to, because I just do
it. But when prayer is neglected,
and I would encourage you, I would encourage me, make much of meeting
with the Lord. Make much. The Scripture says
when you pray, when you pray, enter into your closet. Just
get by yourself somewhere. It's hard to get around a bunch
of people and And I was talking to a pastor the other day, and
I love dearly, and he was talking about being down with some folks. They were all together in a place
for four or five days. And there was very close contact
with everybody all the time. And he said, you know Marvin,
he said it just made me just grieved me because he said, I
just didn't have the liberty. I just didn't have the opportunity
to be able just to be alone. Just be alone. And he says it
grieved me. I said, I understand. I understand.
When prayer is neglected, the privacy of our closet has no
respect. When communion with the Lord
is not a priority, listen, listen, I'm listening, Lord help me,
when this is so, we've left our first love. When time in the
closet is not the priority, when the hearing of the gospel and
my neglectful attitude toward it is evidenced in my own heart,
we've left our first love. We leave or neglect our first
love. Thirdly, when we fail to give
strict attention to the reading of the scriptures. Isaiah 34,
16 says, Seek ye out of the book of the Lord and read. Isaiah
34, 16. Seek ye out of the book of the Lord and read. The kings in the Old Testament
there, Deuteronomy 17, 19 were commanded, and it shall be with
him, that is the king, he shall read therein all the days of
his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep
all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them. Reading. Remember those in Berea, they
searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so. So we neglect or leave our first
love when there's a laxness begins to creep in, a neglect, a neglect
in attitude toward the gospel. Neglect in the attitude toward
prayer. And neglect in the reading of
the scriptures. Believe me, I try to read. I do try to read. I try to read
daily. I try to seek the Lord daily. But I'm telling you, I will be
the first to tell you how many times, especially if I'm going
through, like old Bruce Crabtree said down when he was in Crow,
down there he said, trying to read in some of the Old Testament,
some of these names that I can't even pronounce. And he said,
how many times have I thought, this is boring. And I thought, you know what?
I can't fault him for that. I have somewhat against thee,
you've left your first love. I thank Lord, keep me from that
kind of attitude towards your word and toward communion with
you and toward hearing your gospel. Here's my last question in closing.
What's the road to recovery? Thanks be unto God, there is
a road. He said, remember, therefore,
from whence thou art fallen. Repent and do the first works. Remember, therefore. Call to
memory with a heart of agreement. There's the, you know, I've,
you know, David Listen to these words. David said in Psalm 51,
3, for I acknowledge my transgressions. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned. Here's the road to recovery.
Number one, remember. And a believer says, I want to
remember. I want to agree. I want to agree
with God. I know something of myself. Lord, you graciously
told me what I've done. You've told me your attitude
toward it and now you've told me the road to recovery. Lord
help me to do so. Remember therefore from whence
thou art fallen and repent and do the first works. Now here's
my third question. What was he talking about? The
first works. Here's where it is. Colossians
2.6, as you have therefore received Christ Jesus. And how did you
receive Him? As a needy, helpless sinner. Coming before Him, asking for
mercy. Seeking at the door of His compassion
and goodness and grace, like that old thief on the cross.
Lord, would you remember me? I'm a thief, I'm a supplanter,
I'm a trickster. Lord, have mercy on me. Lord,
when I come and I hear your gospel, Lord, forgive me, forgive me
for my attitude and help me. And Lord, when I read your word,
would you give me some understanding into these scriptures? Give me
a desire to hear. And Lord, when I pray, would
you keep my mind? Lord, my mind is so prone to
wander, like the song, prone to wander. Lord, I feel it. Prone
to leave the God I love. If he didn't keep me, I would.
I know that. Lord, that you would tell me
what I've done, and that you would tell me your attitude toward
it, and that you would tell me the road back. For that, I'm
thankful. hear the gospel with a heart
that you've appealed to Him for, to truly hear. Lord, when I come
today, let me not come with a bad attitude. Lord, let me come realizing
this is the glorious gospel of God's free grace. This is the
message that you've allowed to be here. Lord, this is the only
reason we've come. To hear what you have to say.
Don't let me come with a bad spirit. And Lord, help me to
pray without ceasing and not to faint. Lord, don't let me
be satisfied just to not have a right attitude in prayer and
it not affect me. Lord, convict me. Lord, take
not your spirit from me. And thirdly, Lord, give me a
heart for your scriptures. May I search the word daily,
scriptures daily, seeking, searching for Him. Lord, as you've said,
I've left my first love. Lord, have mercy. You said, he
that cometh to you, you'll in no wise cast out. Lord, don't
cast me out. Lord, keep me. May I be found in you for Christ's
sake.