You can take out your Bibles.
I'm going to be reading from the
book of Psalms. Chapter 2, Psalms 2. We'll read the entire chapter.
Psalm 2. Why do the nations conspire and
the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their
stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against
his anointed one. Let us break their chains, they
say, and throw off their fetters. The one enthroned in heaven laughs.
The Lord scoffs at them. Then he rebukes them in his anger
and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, I have installed my king
on Zion, my holy hill. I will proclaim the decree of
the Lord. He said to me, you are my son. Today I have become your father.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the
ends of the earth your possession. You will rule them with an iron
scepter, and you will dash them to pieces like pottery. Therefore,
you kings, be wise, be warned. You rulers of the earth, serve
the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son,
lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way. For his wrath can
flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge
in him. Let's pray. Dear Lord Jesus, we thank you
that you are Lord. We thank you that you are the
Son of God. We thank you that no matter what is happening in
our world now, even though things seem chaotic, they've always
been under your control. And they always will be. We make
plans and you laugh. And we are thankful for that.
Help us, Lord, to always accept your will and to remember that
it is yours and that whatever it may be, it will eventually
be good for us. And we are so thankful, Lord,
for your power over all things, and may that give us comfort.
Be with us today as we hear your message. Be with Joe, that he
may proclaim it clearly. and that we may hear it just
as clearly. We pray these things in your precious name. Amen. All right, if you would open
your Bibles to the book of Revelation, chapter 2. At our Wednesday night gatherings,
we are going through this book again. And recently, we got to the portion in chapters
two and three where the Lord dictates seven letters for John
to send to seven churches in the area that is called Asia
Minor. As I was preparing to teach out
of these, to be honest, I was quite deeply
moved by what the Lord had to say to his churches. And I determined
then that I would preach a series on just those seven letters here
on Sunday morning. And one Wednesday evening, a
couple of weeks ago, we just quickly touched the high points
of what the Lord did and said to these seven churches. But
over the next few weeks, I would like us to look at each letter
in detail. Because the way these are written
and the way the Lord Jesus Christ commanded John to write them,
even though they are specifically addressed to a church that existed
in a historical city, seven of them, yet it's obvious he intended
all the letters be read to all the churches everywhere at all
times. In fact, that's the reason it's
seven churches. We don't make a great deal out
of numerology at this church. Not every time that a number
is mentioned does it have some spiritual significance, but here
in the book of Revelation especially, numbers often do have a special
significance, and the number seven speaks of perfection or
completeness. And so in writing these seven
letters to seven historical churches, he was also letting us know This
is the complete church. These messages is for all the
churches at all times and in all places. So let us read beginning
in verse one, we'll read the first seven verses of Revelation
7, these are what our Lord had written to the church in Ephesus.
To the angel of the church in Ephesus write, these are the
words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks
among the seven golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard
work, and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate
wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles
but are not and have found them false. You have persevered and
have endured hardships for my name and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you.
You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from
which you have fallen. Repent and do the things you
did at first. If you do not repent, I will
come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have
this in your favor. You hate the practices of the
Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will
give the right to eat from the tree of life which is in the
paradise of God." Now, if I can find where I have hidden my notes, I doubt they're even identifiable
if I left them back there in the pew. Here we go. I found them. We delight in all that our Lord
Jesus Christ has to say, or we should. When Satan tempted our
Lord Jesus Christ and said, if you are the son of God, cause
these stones to be turned to bread. Our Lord's response was
man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds
out of the mouth of God. The psalmist said, thy word is
a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Now notice that
in neither case did, was there any qualifying word describing
what kind of word. It says thy word, it didn't say
your cheerful, pleasant word, it said your word, no matter
what kind of word it is. Our Lord did not say man does
not live by bread alone, but by all the nice words of grace
and comfort which God speaks. He says we live by every word
that proceeds out of the mouth of God. It would be easy for
us, and we have to be careful that we don't do this, to treat
the Bible as you do a buffet. and go along and look at the
parts you like and serve yourself of helping of them and avoid
the things you don't like. You can be sure that when I go
to the smorgasbord, particularly the one over here at Pizza Ranch,
I just skip that whole salad thing. Go straight for the pizza. Now, that's not really good for
me, but it sure tastes good. I'm not saying that pizza's bad,
but man cannot live on pizza alone. You need some greens and
you need some other stuff. You maybe even need some stuff
that doesn't taste particularly good. And we need to look at
all that our Lord says to us. We need to look at all of it
because it's the Lord that's saying it. And we don't have
the right to pick and choose from what God says, do we? We
should also listen to all that the Lord Jesus Christ tells His
churches because we know this, He loves the church and He would
not tell us anything designed to tear us down or destroy us
in any way. Even if a word is harsh, it is
for our good. Even if we feel bruised or skinned
up a bit after we've heard what the Lord has said, we realize
it was done for our well-being. And so he listened to it all.
Now, in these seven letters, in nearly every one of them,
our Lord has some things to say about each of these churches
that he approves of and commends. In five of them, he has things
to say in which he finds fault with the churches. And he says,
you need to change. And here in Ephesus, it was no
different. Now, he comes to them and says,
here's a letter for the church at Ephesus, and
it's from the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand
and walks among the lampstands. Now, why would the Lord call
himself that or describe himself in that way? Well, he had just
given John a vision of himself. That is not a vision of John,
but a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he was a shining,
glorious person. And it says that he walked among
the seven lampstands and held seven stars in his hand. And
it tells us what this means in the last part of the last verse
of chapter one. It says the seven stars are the
angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are
the seven churches. Now, what are the angels? We
hear the word angel and we automatically think of one of those spiritual
heavenly beings. But the word really has a much
more general meaning than that. It just means a messenger. And
I believe that what he's referring to here is the pastors, the teachers,
the leaders of these various congregations. And these were
called the angels because they were the ones who took God's
message to the church. That was their responsibility.
Now the churches are called lampstands. Why? Well, lampstands hold the
light. And that's what the church is
supposed to be doing in this world. The Lord Jesus Christ
said to the church, you are the light of the world. Now we know
that essentially Christ is the light of the world, isn't he?
I mean, he is the light. But we are the light of the world
in this sense. We are the lampstand on which
the lamp or the light is set. All those who believe, the gospel,
are given the glorious privilege and responsibility of being light
in a dark world, of proclaiming him who is the light to a dark
world. And so the churches are called
lampstands. And so he says to them, I am the one who holds all these
preachers in my right hand. And I'm the one who walks among
the seven golden lampstands." Now, what does that mean to you
and me? After all, we're not in Ephesus,
and we're almost 2,000 years since this was written. Well,
remember, all these words are for all the churches in every
place at all times. And our Lord is saying here to
the church in Ephesus, and therefore he's saying to us, I am among
you. I walk among the churches. Our
Lord walks among his churches observing what they do and making
known to them his opinion of what they do. Now this is not
a judgment regarding matters of eternal life unless he were
to come to some professing church and simply say you departed the
gospel yeah that would be a message a judgment regarding eternal
life. But these are our Lord Jesus Christ Coming and looking,
he says, I know your deeds. Which means he's looking. He
cares about what we do. It means something to him. And
therefore, he speaks to the churches and says, this is what I think
of this that you're doing. This is what I think of that
that you're doing. Here's how you need to change. And he holds the leadership in
his hand. Because it's He that commissions them, it's He that
controls them, He that protects them, and He that is Lord over
them. You see, the Lord, if He calls
a man to preach and enables him to do that, He calls him into
account for what he does. Here I am, I'm up here preaching
to you. trying to gather my thoughts
the best I can, but this I know, that the Lord Jesus Christ is
listening to what I'm saying. And he says to me, I hold you
in my hand, you are responsible to me. I will take care of you,
but you answer to me, says the Lord. That's a sobering thought
for me. I come here to preach, And I
can't help but think, well, I hope they like this. I hope that when
everybody's shaking my hand as we go out, I hear a whole lot
of good sermon preacher. I mean, I'm just that way. I
guess as much as anybody, I like the approval of men. But our
Lord says to me and to everyone who dares to take the position
of a preacher, I'm listening. I hold you in my hand. You're
answerable to me. You're under my authority. I
remember Brother Mahan once saying, he says, when I am preparing
a message, it never crosses my mind to consider what anyone
thinks about it or what anyone thinks I should say. My only
question is this. What would the Lord have me say? That's why James, one reason
I believe that James says, do not many of you desire to be
teachers. For them, or to them, comes the
greater scrutiny, the greater judgment and responsibility.
And yet he holds the seven stars in his hands and he walks among
the seven lampstands, also saying to them, I'm here, I'm watching. I'm among you to fellowship with
you and I'm among you to protect you, but also this, I'm among
you to know what you are doing. Now, I realize that our Lord
Jesus could, as it were, remain in heaven. He knows of all things.
He doesn't have to come down here to do it, but He describes
it in this way so that we will realize that the Lord is among
us and He cares about what we do. Now, He commended this church. He says, I know your deeds. And
notice these things he mentions. He says, I know your work, your
perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate
wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles
but are not and have found them false. You have persevered and
have endured hardships for my name. You have not grown weary. Now I look at that description
of the church In Ephesus and I think, well, that's a pretty
good church. What could possibly be wrong? And you know, every
one of those characteristics is good and needful. He says,
I know your deeds, your hard work. Now we've been called to
rest with regard to our labors, to please God and gain his blessings
by it. especially as eternal ones. We
rest from our labors by trusting in Christ and yet it is not an
easy thing to believe God in this world. The gospel by its
very nature runs contrary to the way of this world and therefore
trying to live in this world is Following Christ is difficult. That's why our Lord said if many
man would come after me Let him first deny himself Take up his
cross and then follow me Because you can't follow him without
taking up a cross What do you mean by taking up a cross? Do
we actually have to be crucified to follow him? No, the cross
was a symbol of cursing it was a symbol of being disconnected
from the world and Paul says, the life I now live, I live by
the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me, then went on to say, God forbid that I should glory
in anything other than the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ, by which
I've been crucified to the world and the world to me. And that's not an easy thing
to do. It's not easy. As we have to live in the world,
there's some of the things in the world we've got to do. We've
got to go to our jobs. We've got to raise our families.
We've got to maintain our houses. All that is part of what we have
to do as human beings living in this world. But to be able
to do that and yet not become a part of it and swept up in
it, to be able to pursue the things we need for our health
and comfort, and yet at the same time say, if the Lord takes them
away, that'll be okay too. To honestly desire a good reputation
among people, among the people of this world, and we should
want a good reputation among them, and to work at it, and
yet also have the attitude, but if because of Christ they look
poorly on me, then so be it. Now that's easy to talk about,
very, very hard to do. I surprise myself in this, the
older I get, and maybe really nothing's changed in my attitude,
I just see it more plainly now than I did before, but just how
wrapped up in this world I am, and how ready to cling to the
things of this world at the expense of clinging to Christ. It's hard work. It's a continual
denial of self. And that's the hardest thing
there is to do. He said, I know your hard work and your perseverance.
They evidently did suffer for the gospel. But they persevered. He said, I know that you can't
tolerate wicked men. Now he's not talking here about
what a lot of religious people do these days and pick out a
few sins that are kind of noteworthy in the day and go out and protest
in the public square. You know, God never called the
church to go out and change the culture. Never did. Never called
on the church to go out and make people better people or to act
better. Just didn't do it. The wickedness
he's speaking of is what Paul in another place called spiritual
wickedness in high places. He says you can't tolerate those
that come into the church and they bring a doctrine that's
contrary to the truth. Now there's all kinds of wickedness.
And we could, if we wanted to take time to do it, we could
go out in the world and point out all the wicked things they
do. The problem is, is, you know, while we're pointing at them,
we'd have to point at ourselves too, because we do the same kind
of things. There's all kinds of wickedness,
but here is the wickedness that kills the soul. The wickedness
of false gospels. You know, Paul learned to be
a forgiving man. He's probably one of the most
tolerant of all the apostles. And he said, in Galatians chapter
one, here's something that really got his anger up. He said, if
anybody comes preaching to you, an angel, even one of us that's
been there before, even if it's me, if any man comes to you preaching
a gospel other than the one we delivered to you all back yonder,
Let him be accursed from Christ. Let him be cut off from Christ.
Now that's serious business, folks. Do you know what Paul is saying
there in essence? If any man brings another gospel
other than the gospel which they preached, let such a one perish
in hell forever. Now that's how serious that kind
of wickedness is. There is only one gospel and
it's a glorious gospel. And it is our privilege to preach
it and defend it and to test all those who claim to be sent
to preach by that, by the gospel. He says, you can't tolerate wicked
men. You have tested those who claim
to be apostles, but are not and have found them to be false.
Now, In the day and age in which you and I live, there's been
so many splits and divisions in the visible church, and everybody
just pretty much finds a church that suits their needs. But in
the days when any given city might have only one church, anybody
that professed to be a Christian would try to go there. try to
become part of it, and there were traveling preachers who
would come in and say, oh yeah, we know Paul and Peter, yeah,
they like us, they sent us out to preach. They claimed to be
apostles, sent out from the various churches to preach here and there.
But they weren't. God hadn't sent them, Christ
didn't send them, the churches didn't send them, they sent themselves.
And they had their own message, a message of their own works,
a message of their own will. He said, you all tested them.
You didn't sit still. They preached and you said, no,
that isn't truth. That's not the gospel. And you
sent them on their way. You have persevered and have
endured hardships for my name and have not grown weary. I don't know if I can say that
about me. Well, there's times I grow weary. There's times I say, you know,
it'd be nice to lay this down. I'm sure you felt the same way.
And I'm sure really the Ephesians had their times like that, but
our Lord, he was certainly writing to those who were in the church
and they had not been so weary as to give up. And so our Lord credited him
for all that. And all of this we should do. And by God's grace, all of this
I believe we have done. to whatever degree these things
apply to us. But then verse four it says,
yet I hold this against you, you have forsaken your first
love. Whatever this means, forsaken
your first love, it was sufficiently offensive to the Lord Jesus Christ
that he told them halfway through verse 5 that if he didn't correct
they didn't correct this problem he says I will come to you and
remove your lampstand from its place now I want to be real careful
here that we understand what our Lord means by this he did
not say if the church doesn't straighten up all the members
are going to hell no he's not talking about eternal things
at all in fact he's not talking to individuals
here he's talking to a church He's talking the way they were
acting as a group. And what he says of them, if
you don't repent, I'll come to your city and I'll take that
church out. That doesn't mean he has to do
anything actively. All he has to do is let the people
die off and not replace them with new converts. All he has to do, really, is
remove the testimony of his spirit among them I'm often reminded of David's
words there in Psalm 51 when he is pouring out his heart to
God because he's in anguish over the sin that he's committed with
Bathsheba and Uriah. And he knows that with regard
to eternal things, all is well. Nathanael says, your sin has
been forgiven, you won't die. But you know what was on David's
heart? He said, don't take your Holy Spirit from me. Now what
did he mean? that God would turn him over
to spiritual death once again? No, there's two ministries that
the Spirit of God has in God's people. First of all is to give
them life and light and knowledge of the truth and faith. And that's
been going on from the very beginning. In other words, what we call
the new birth or regeneration. But the Spirit of God is also
that one who brings the graces of God and gives them to God's
people to enable them to be useful and productive within the kingdom
of God. Now such a special measure of the Spirit had been given
to David so that he could be the king over Israel. That's
why they anointed their kings. That was a symbol of the Holy
Spirit being poured out on them so that they could do the job
they've been called to do. And David says, oh, don't take
that from me. Don't subject me to a work that
I cannot do because your spirit has been withdrawn. And do not
subject this nation to having to live under a king who has
no spiritual ability to do what must be done. And therefore, when he says,
if you do not correct this problem, I'll remove your lampstand from
its place. All he has to do is remove his spirit that enables
the church to be a light in this world. Wouldn't that be awful? I have often prayed like David. been brought up short by the
way I act and how inconsistent it is with a preacher of the
gospel. And I said, oh God, don't take
your spirit from me. Don't leave me alone. And don't subject this church
to the leadership of a pastor who does not have the spirit
of God within him to do the work that needs to be done. But that's
the sort of thing that he threatened the church at Ephesus with you,
well, threatened them with. What does it mean you have forsaken
your first love? And why would it be so important? Look over at 1 Corinthians chapter
13. In 1 Corinthians chapter 13,
notice what the Apostle Paul says here. Beginning in verse
one, this is a verse commonly read at weddings, and I guess
that's an appropriate place to read it, but he really wasn't
talking about love between husband and wife here. He says, if I
speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love,
I'm only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have
the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all
knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but
have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the
poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love,
I gain nothing. How important is love? It's so
important. that everything else is nothing
without it. He didn't say to these Ephesians,
you lost your zeal. He says, because I see your hard
work and that you persevere in it. He didn't say you've lost
your orthodoxy and your commitment to sound doctrine. No, they were
able defenders of the truth. He didn't say that they were
sissies, that they couldn't handle the persecutions that had come
their way. They had. Here's what He said. Well, He
didn't say you lost your love. He said you forsook it. You just walked off and left
love. First of all, love for Christ. You say, can a church
have all these things and yet it's love for Christ be weakened
and diminished? Yes! It can happen. We can become so busy doing all
these things that we're supposed to be doing that we forget why
we're doing them and for whose glory we do them. And they become
nothing more than religious obligations that we're fulfilling, just like
many other churches do. They're going through the steps.
Is it not true that a man and a woman can be married, and they
can set up a home, and boy, early in the marriage it's all excitement,
and they love one another, and their minds are completely consumed
with each other, and they serve one another in love, but then
they get involved in life, and they just start going through
the motions. being a family and yes they're remaining faithful
to one another and each one's fulfilling their place in the
whole and they're doing all this but the love's fizzling out that's
what he's talking about they were busy having church
and they forgot about him no wonder he said well if you
don't fix this I'll just move your lampstand, I'll go somewhere
else. They were diminished in their
love for one another. Our Lord Jesus said to his disciples,
by this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have
love for one another. People love to boast about their
religiosity. And they've got bumper stickers
and posters and t-shirts to tell everybody about all those things
that are supposed to designate them to be faithful Christians. And all along our Lord said,
here's how you show that you're my disciple. You love one another. In another place, one of the
apostles wrote, In his letter, love one another deeply. Deeply. You and I, if God is not gracious
to us and we are not diligent to pay attention to our worship,
we could become a church going through all the motions of doing
what a church is supposed to do. and yet have little love
for Christ himself, evidenced by little love for one another. And here's something I found
interesting. Our Lord says in verse five, remember the height
from which you have fallen, repent, and he does not say repent and
feel like you used to. He said repent and do. Love is not something that is
just a sentimental feeling toward one another. James says, you
know, if somebody comes to your door and says, I'm hungry and
I'm cold because I don't have enough to wear. And you say,
well, be well fed, be warm. And then you don't do anything.
He said, what good is that? Love is not known by what it
says, love's known by what it does. Let's look at just a few
things that were said of the early church, because I would
suppose this is the kind of thing that our Lord meant when He says,
repent and do the things that you did at first. Look at Acts
chapter 1. Acts chapter 1, beginning at verse
41. This is the first time the gospel's
been preached in its fullness. And it says, verse 41, those
who accepted Peter's message were baptized and about 3,000
were added to their number that day. Now, what did they do at
the first? And this is as early a church
as you can get. Says they were baptized. Now, does that mean
we're supposed to keep getting baptized? No, but what is baptism? Baptism is a confession of Christ,
a public declaration of being identified with Him. Now here's what happens to us
sometimes is we're all excited at the beginning and we're ready
for the whole world to know that we love the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I'm not saying we want them to know it because we're bragging.
It's just because we are so much in love with him. We think he's
glorious and the whole world should know about him. Pretty much like maybe the way
we thought about our spouse way back yonder. When we first started dating,
you know, I remember chasing Bonnie around Cedarville, and
my roommate's name was Mark Larson. And I'd spend every evening with
her, you know, make sure she didn't spend it with somebody
else. And I'd get back to my dorm room, and Mark would
be there, and he knew that I was just utterly obsessed with her.
He'd always say, did you kiss her? And, well, I couldn't. She was going steady or whatever
you want to call it with someone else, you know, but I'd say,
oh, no, no, I'll never get a girl like her. And I talked about her a lot,
talked about her to my parents. I talked about her even more
once she decided to go along with the whole program that I
had in mind. And if I meet someone who there's
going to be any kind of relationship develop, it's not long they're
going to hear me say something about her. Why? Well, because I love her
and I think she's a wonderful woman, I think the world ought
to know about her. How much more Christ How much more should our
love for Him bubble up in testimonies about His glory? I realize there's
a time and place for everything, but I do notice this. We can
become so accustomed to the week-by-week process of going to church and
singing the hymns and hearing the sermon, saying amen, and
going home, that we've got it all neatly
packaged on Sunday. And we forget we're supposed
to love Him all week long. We're supposed to be enamored
of him every day. And love for one another. We ought to count the church
family as the most important people in the world to us. I'm not saying that we should
diminish our love for any other group, for our families in this. It's just that the love we have
as those who fellowship in Christ Jesus should be overflowing such
that all other loves take a back seat. Back in Acts chapter one, or
two, excuse me. We go on, it says, they devoted
themselves, verse 42, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching
and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer.
They were devoted to worshiping with one another. They didn't
say, if my schedule allows, I will worship. Rather, to whatever
degree or whatever way they were able to control their schedule,
they controlled it to make time and room for fellowship, with
worship. When we talk about the breaking
of bread in prayer, they're talking about observing the Lord's table.
And then verse 43, everyone was filled with awe and many wonders
and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers
were together and had everything in common. Here's how these early
believers acted. They loved one another so much
that they no longer held their possessions dear to themselves,
but if they saw a brother in need, they quickly and freely
gave to him without a second thought. I'm not saying that everyone
went immediately and gathered together all their riches and
put it into a single pot. You know, and they said, all
right, now it's owned by everybody, just whoever needs it, grab.
It was just this. They didn't count their possessions more
dear to themselves than their brethren were dear to them. Now, we have social institutions
in place. In the United States, it's actually
difficult to be poor. You almost have to work at it,
because they will give you money. And when I mean poor, I mean
you can't eat, you got nowhere to live. And I'm not saying that's wrong,
I'm just saying that's the way it is. Back in this day, those institutions
weren't in place, and people that were poor, they were destitute. But there weren't any destitute
ones in the church anymore. Their love for one another overflowed
that way. It says, selling their possessions and goods, they gave
to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet
together in the temple courts, they broke bread in their homes,
and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. praising God
and enjoying the favor of the people. And the Lord added to
their number daily those that were being saved. What kind of
picture do you get of the believers here? The first gathering of
believers. They were utterly consumed with
Christ and his gospel and one another. And I believe that we
could say that that's kind of what the Lord was talking about
there in Ephesus. He says you're real busy going
through the motions. But that's not where your heart
is. You've forsaken your first love. Look at 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1. Beginning in verse 8. Actually, verse 6, you became
imitators of us and of the Lord in spite of severe suffering.
You welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And you became a model to all
believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord's message rang out from
you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, your faith in God has
become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say
anything about it for they themselves report what kind of reception
you gave us. They tell how you turned to God
from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for
his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who rescues
us from the coming wrath. Once again you get a picture
of a people utterly devoted to Christ and his gospel and his
people. And here's what I like. I wish
I could learn to do this in perfection. I know we're not going to do
anything perfect in this life. But it says, they turned to God
from idols to serve the living and true God and wait for his
son from heaven. That's what their life became.
That doesn't mean they quit doing the day-to-day things necessary
for life, but all of that was simply to sustain them. They
turned from the idols of this world. Now, they had literal
idols. I mean statues. They'd been worshiping
statues and things like that until the gospel came. But Paul
tells us that covetousness is idolatry. Anything that we allow
to take from us, that which we should
freely give to Christ, that's become an idol to us. We must continually turn from
idols to serve the living and true God and then to wait for
his son from heaven. My own heart is rebuked when
I think how often do I consider and live my life under the light
of this truth. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming
back. He could be today, maybe tomorrow,
maybe not for another 10,000 years. I have no idea. When it talks about waiting for
his son from heaven, they just don't mean waiting around, they
mean waiting in expectation. Like when you're waiting for
some loved one to visit, you know. And then Hebrews chapter 10.
Verse 32. He says to the believers suffering
persecution, remember those earlier days after you had received the
light, when you stood your ground in great contest in the face
of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed
to insult and persecution, and other times you stood side by
side with those who were so treated. You sympathized with those in
prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property.
because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. Now, you and I have never been
called on to do those things yet, but it might happen. And
I think about it sometimes and I think, boy, I don't know how
I'd deal with that. If I was unjustly deprived of
what I had rightfully gained for myself, I'm talking about
in worldly things. If I've been unjustly deprived
of them because of people's hatred for Christ, how could I deal
with that? How would I deal with those who suffered such a thing? Would I be there ready to help
them and replace what they had lost and stand with them and
be counted among them? Oh, if we love Christ with all
our hearts, we'll love his people. And there won't be anything the
world can do. to separate us from him. Now, our Lord does
not speak to his churches in any kind of rebuke or harshness
without giving them a word of comfort and encouragement and
exhortation to follow it up. Our Lord never wounds to leave
wounded. He wounds and he might heal.
And he said in verse seven, he who has an ear, let him hear
what the spirit says to the churches. Now remember I said this letter
is written to churches and yet he speaks to the individuals
in them. You know, he speaks to the churches, not everybody
in the church is going to hear what he says. There are people. And understand
that I preach these series of messages, I'm not sitting here
thinking, okay, this church needs to hear this. I'm just preaching
it because these are letters to the churches which are for
every church. We're a church, it's for us. And so each of us
must receive it in whatever way the Lord sends it to us. But
I like this, he says, he that has an ear, he's speaking to
the church, he's calling into the church and he says, you that
can hear this, You that understand what this means, you whose hearts
are encouraged by the commendations that I gave you, and yet whose
hearts have been pricked by the things I've pointed out, let
him hear what the Spirit says to the church, to him who overcomes.
What is it to overcome? It's not any kind of conquest
that the world would recognize. In fact, the world would consider
it surrender. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world. To
overcome, as the Lord is using it here, is simply to return
to that sincere and pure devotion to Christ that one had at the
beginning. To remember that all these things
we do outwardly must have as their energy the love of Christ. The love of Christ constrains
us to return to him who called us, to return to him who walks
among us. That's what it is to overcome.
And he says this, I'll give to such a one the right to eat from
the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. When God
planted that garden of Eden, a paradise, he put in there two
trees, a tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree
of life. And when Adam sinned, God cast
him out of the garden and he said to the entryway to the garden,
he sent an angel to guard two of them, I believe it was, but
the entrance was guarded. And this was why he says, lest
the man go back in and eat of the tree of life and live forever. Now, I'm not going to try to
unravel all that might be understood by that. I just want to point
this out. Ever since Adam sinned, man has
been barred from the tree of life in the paradise of God.
Now, what is the tree of life in the paradise of God? It's
Christ. It's Christ. Oh, we can get so
wrapped up in our religion and even if our religion is orthodox
and everything we're doing is right, we will discover we're
not partaking of the tree of life. We're standing outside the garden
talking about the tree of life. But the Bible does not say, talk
about how gracious the Lord is. It says, taste and see that the
Lord is gracious. What a blessing. He does not
call on them to go on pilgrimages. He does not say, fix up all your
moral imperfections. He says, return to me. And everyone that does, he will taste
and see that I am gracious. And he will find that fellowship
with me and devotion to me is the paradise of God. Now, each person's got to hear
a message like this for himself as it applies to him. I know
this, there's probably not a believer in the world that wouldn't hear
a message like this and say, that's true, I don't love Christ
like I ought to. Of course we don't. But do you
remember what our Lord said to Peter? Three times he asked him,
do you love me? Do you love me? Finally, Peter
said, Lord, you know I love you. Love's not always expressed as
it should. It doesn't always burn as brightly
as it should, but it's always there. But let each of us, according
to the measure of God's grace, say, have I forsaken my first
love? Am I just going through the motions
that I think are the right things to do? Or do I really love Christ? And if not, may he give to each
of us the grace to return to him who is the life of our souls. And may we indeed taste and see
that the Lord is so gracious and enjoy the paradise of God. Our Father, we thank you for your word in
every respect. Our Lord, we thank you. that
you walk among the churches and you hold us frail preachers in
your hand. We thank you that nothing good for us depends on
us, but rather all good things for
us come simply through you, come from you and come through looking
to you. And you have not called upon us to do mighty and great
things, but rather, Lord, you've called on us to behold the mighty
and great things that you do, to praise your name for it, and
to love you and worship you on account of it. Father, forgive
us if our love has grown weak. Forgive us if the great love
you've had for us has been returned with a weak, feeble, and diminishing
love. Spirit of God, show us Christ
clearly once again that our love for him may burn
as brightly as ever. And Lord, May this lampstand
never be removed. Work in us such that at least
so long as we live, there will be light here. In the name of
Christ, we pray it. Amen. All right, Eric.