Revelation 2, go over there now,
Revelation 2. Revelation 2, this is a fitting
message for the last day of the year, in these last days. We're here again, most of us,
I look around, most of you, are here that were here the very
first day of this year, which was the Lord's Day. And we're
doing what we did then today. We've come here to worship our
Lord as we did in the beginning, so we're doing it in the end.
May we be found doing this over and over until the end of time. That's my prayer. My prayer. Until the end of time,
the Lord loves His own and may we love Him as He loves us to
the end. Ruth said this to Naomi. I couldn't find it. And this
is the prayer of every one of God's people to Christ. She said,
entreat me not to leave thee. Don't let me leave. Don't let me leave. Entreat me
not to return from following after thee. For where you go,
whither thou goest, I will go. And where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people. This God, your God, is my God. Where you die, I die. I want to die. I want to be crucified
with Christ, don't you? Crucified to the world. The world
to me. There will I be buried. I want
to be buried with Christ, don't you? I want to rise with Christ. I want to be with Christ. The
Lord do so to me and more if anything but death keeps me from
following you. Is that your prayer? Let nothing
but death stop me from coming to worship my Lord. And then
that won't stop you. It's just like you. Revelation,
let's read the text, okay? Verse 1 of chapter 2, under the
angel of the church at Ephesus. Right. These things... saith
he, Christ, that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand,
that walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.
He said, I know thy works, thy labor, thy patience, how thou
canst not bear them which are evil. Thou hast tried them which
say they are apostles, and are not. He found them liars. You born are born up under everything
I've sent. You've had patience. For my name's
sake, my glory, my honor, you've labored, have not faded, have
not quit. Nevertheless, I have something
against you. Thou hast left thy first love." Oh, my. This message is so, so
vital. I told Mindy on the way over
here, I said, this is just a vital message for the church in these
last days. Paul said this, he said, in the
last days, some shall depart from the faith. Be a falling
away. That's what he said. And he said
over and over again in the scriptures, he said, we are partakers if
We hold fast the beginning of our confidence. Step fast to
the end. If, not saying it's up to you,
he's just saying a fact that if you still believe him, if
you die in the faith, then you're a partaker. Okay? And over and
over throughout Hebrews, he says you're a son, you're a partaker
if you hold fast The confidence that's Christ, hope to Him, faith,
and rejoicing of the hope, firm at the end. Meaning, if you ever
quit rejoicing in the gospel, you're in trouble. If you ever
quit loving to hear the gospel, you've left your first letter.
And that's a dangerous, dangerous thing. Now if the Lord doesn't
give you repentance and turn you from that, You'll leave forever. You'll leave forever. So this
message is vital. And I told Mindy this also. I
said, you know, this will help your marriage. Those who are
married in here, this will help your marriage. But this is not
about your marriage. This is about your marriage to
Christ, if you're a believer. Because you're married to another.
And the time is so short. I want to help our marriages.
I want to be a better husband. I believe you do too, husband
and wife. But I'm married to another, and the time is so short
that very soon our husbands and wives are going to be gone, one
way or another. And this love must remain. And it must be principal, our
first love. First love. That's the title.
First love. It's a message on first love
and a church leaving her first love. The church. This is to the church. Look at
it. Verse 1. Unto the angel of the
church. The church at Ephesus. And this is to every church.
I started to bring a message. I intended to bring seven of
these letters. Go through all these letters,
but I couldn't get past this one. I don't know if we'll go
on with these other ones or not. I don't know. If you ask me, we might. But
this one is the first one of most importance. You've left
your personal. The last letter is to the church
at Laodicea, and they were rich, increased with goods, in need
of nothing, and they were lukewarm. And the Lord said it made him
sick. He didn't have that fervent love and desire for hearing the
gospel as they first did. He said it made him sick. So
this one begins about losing, or not losing mind you, leaving. There's a difference. Alright,
to the church. Now, every letter is written
to the angel. Who's that? That's the pastor.
Angel, small a. Angel means messenger. Okay? Messenger. It's to the pastor
of the church. Every single church had a pastor.
Ephesus had a pastor. That was the man the Lord sent
them. That's who they needed to listen to. You know? He's the man God sent them. He's
the man who loved them. They loved him. He's the man
that they needed to listen to. He had his finger on their pulse,
like a nurse sent to a patient. When I was in the hospital, you've
done the same. They assign nurses to your case,
don't they? And that nurse gets to know you,
and you get to know her. I don't want to hem, but you
get to know her and she knows your case better than the doctors
did. Paul said that one time. He said, I'm like a nurse for
you. You know who the church at Madisonville needs to hear
more than any other? David Edmondson. You know who
the church at Spring Lake needs to listen to more than anybody
else? John Chapman. He's the one losing sleep over
them. He's the one that loves them. He's the one the Lord sent. Pastoring a church is like a
marriage, too. If he's faithful, they need to be faithful. The
Lord sent him. He really cares for them and
loves them more than anybody else. It's just so. It's so. I stayed awake last night worrying
about somebody. It's to the angel. Now, everything
he says to the angel, he says to the church and to the church
and to the angels, he needs everything that they need. He is just like
them. He's a man of like passions.
Can the pastor leave his first love? Absolutely. We all have. Right? I'll just go ahead and tell you
what happens. When you leave someone that you
profess to love, it's always for something or someone else. Right? Right? Always. So this is a vital message. Okay? So this is to me, and it's
to you. Ephesus. Don't you love Ephesians? Don't you love Ephesians? I venture
to say that most everybody in here, when you first really heard
the gospel, it was from Ephesians. Chapter 1. I started to go over
there, John. I thought, I'll get stuck. Oh,
what a place to stick. Don't you love The book of Ephesians,
it's the gospel of blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ according as if chosen us. Sovereign election. Who did
he choose? Who did Christ come down here
to marry? Who? A lovely lady? Oh no, a harlot! He came for
her. He loved her. Blessed be His
holy name. Chose us. predestinated us, set
His love upon His people, redeemed us with His precious blood, forgave
us everything, frankly, freely, forever, forgiven. That's what
love does, doesn't it? Behold what manner of love. Ephesians. Don't you love the wonderful
book of Ephesians? By grace are you saved. Aren't
you so thankful? Salvation is by grace. If it's
not, I'm a goner. I am the chief of sinners. I'm not preaching to you because
I've risen above sin. I'm preaching Christ to you because
I need Christ now more than ever. You need Him. Ephesians. Oh, don't you love
the wonderful book of Ephesians? By grace you saved. Through faith. And even that's not of yourself.
Faith is a gift of God, isn't it? There was a time I didn't
believe. I didn't care. I didn't want to hear this gospel. But God! Let me never grow tired
of saying those two wonderful words. But God! This is my story, Ephesians.
Here I am, I'm stuck. Ephesians. Don't you love Ephesians? You know what? You cannot love
the Lord and not love the doctrine. You can't. You cannot love God
and not love His sovereignty. You cannot love the gospel, the
truth, and not love His sovereign election. You cannot. You can love election and not
know and love Christ. You can. You can defend election. You can believe it with all your
heart and not know God and not know Christ. I know. That's the
way I was as a young boy, as a young man. So you see, Out of the heart
are the issues of life, not the head. Not the head. If it's only doctrine, you leave. But if it's a person that you
love, you can. You can. Love never fails. Faith, hope, and love, what's
the greatest? That's it. No matter what happens,
if you love somebody, they love you. No matter what happens,
it won't end. It can't. It can't. So I hope during this
message you'll examine yourself. Know you're not your own self.
How Christ is in you. That is a love for Him. All right,
verse one begins, he whom holdeth the seven stars in his right
hand. And these seven stars are the
churches. He who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. Aren't you thankful our God has
hands? You were in religion before,
and they told you God had no hands but your hand. And you
were so proud of Him for letting Him into your heart and letting
Him be your God and accepting Him as your personal Savior.
Now you know it's all a farce, fake, phony. You didn't know
him at all. Now, when you found out who he
was, you found out you were in his hands. You so glad? So thankful? Aren't you glad
everything's in God's hands? We don't know what the future
holds, do we? This country might just completely
fold. That's a very real possibility. You understand? There's no security
in money and anything. This nation, if you trust the Lord, if we
lose everything, we don't lose anything, really. You understand? Might be the best thing to happen
to this country. That's what he said. You're rich and increased
with good. You don't need anything. You don't know you're poor. You're
rich materially, you don't know you're poor spiritually. poor
in material things and rich in faith, and vice versa. He who holdeth the seven stars. The Lord has hold of this church.
I worry about this church. I lose sleep over this church.
But this gives me great hope and comfort. This is not my church.
So it's not up to me. That gives me such... And if you're His sheep, I can't
run you off. That gives me such peace. If I could, I would. I mean,
if I could have, I would have long time ago. If you belong
to him, he can't leave. He who holdeth,
he walketh among it. He said where two or three are
gathered together, my name there, my right in the middle name.
Why did you come here today? I know most of you. I believe
that most of you, I really do, you came here to worship the
Lord. You came here hoping, praying that you would hear from Him. You came here, you want to worship
Him in spirit and truth, don't you? You really do. You didn't
come here because you're supposed to. You didn't come here because
you have to. You came here because you want to. And you need to. You hunger and thirst after Christ,
don't you? I know you do. I know you do.
He walks among the candlestick. Verse 2, he said, I know your
works. I know your labor. I know your patience. I know
your works. To every single church, he acknowledges
their works. Faith without works is dead. Faith worketh by love. It's not
works to be saved. It's work because you're saved.
It's works of love. Not legal. Oh, I have to do it. No. You won't do it. This is
the first work. This is the work of God. What
we're doing right now. Worship. That's the work of God
isn't it? You wouldn't come here and worship
if God didn't do this work in you. So He said, I know your works. And like a loving parent or husband,
friend, He commends them. He commends them. You love your
children. Are their works? They try to
please you, don't they? As do all the children that love
their parents and all believers that love their Lord. They try
to please you. Not to be a sign, but because they are. You understand?
Right? You know that Our works, they're
not merit, they're love. And you're ashamed of them, but
you try. He knows that. He knows our frame. Little Sophie, when she was so
little, both of them, they were hard workers and they would help
me. One time I was picking beans and it was hot,
it was in the middle Summer, August, is that when beans come
in? June, July, and it was hot. We
were out there, and if you've ever picked beans, you know,
they're prickly, and the mosquitoes were out there, and Isabella
was right beside me, just prickin', sweatin', rollin' down her face,
pickin' it. She said, Pawpaw. She stopped and said, Pawpaw,
I'm gettin' itched up. I'm gettin' itched up. I like
to have that back. Anyway, I said, well, honey,
quit. Go back up there and get in the
cool, get you some lemonade. You can quit. Well, she did.
She went in. And lo and behold, just a few minutes later, here
she came back down and tore right back into it. I said, honey,
you don't have to do that. Oh, I won't do it, Papa. We do this because you want to. I know you're a laborer. I know
you work. I know your patience, he said. Your patience, the trials,
there have been many. There have been some hard ones. Lose
a spouse. I haven't been through that.
I don't want to go through that. Lose a child. I can't imagine. You have. You have. You have. All over this room. And you're
still here. You're still here. His grace
really is sufficient. And you know He did this. You know why? That's right. He didn't love
you. He wouldn't bring you through
it. And the Lord loved if he chastened. He said that in chapter
three. He said, as many as I love, I rebuke, I chasten. So he'd
been through these things. He'd borne up there. You know,
he said this, he promised, he said, there's no trial, no affliction,
nothing you've been through that others haven't been through,
but with that trial, He will make a way that you may be able
to bear it. Right? What is that? It's what
you're doing right now. You come here to hear Him speak
to you, speak peace to you, and tell you, I did this, I love
you, I'm going to bring you through this. It's all for your good,
isn't it? You come back again and again.
Tell me now. Tell me again. I need it. You bear up. Way to bear it. This is it. This
is how you bear it. Read on. He said in verse 2, you can't bear them that are
evil. You've tried those that say they're
apostles and found them liars. Boy, don't you hate this false
gospel out there? Don't you? I hate it. I hate what they're
saying about our Lord. Don't you? I can't bear it. I
can't bear it. If you really love your spouse,
if somebody was using their name in vain and speaking ill of them,
what would you do? What would you do? It'd make you angry. If you love
Christ more than you love your spouse, you can't bear what they're
saying about Him. You can't stand it. It's just so. And you don't want
to be around those that say those things. You can't. You can't. You can't. So, He says in verse 3, You're
born. You're born up unto these trials.
You've had patience. You know, we're waiting on our
Lord. I want to try all of our faith work with patience. What
is that? But we're waiting on Christ to come forth. Waiting
on our Lord to come forth. He's gone. He's gone back to
glory. And He said, blessed are those
that wait Him. We wait Him when He comes. When is He going to
come? We don't know. So what are we doing while we
wait? We're waiting on Him. We meet
together, don't we? I believe he's going to come
when we're meeting together. That's the way he left. He said he's
going to come in the like manner as you've seen him go. Who saw
him go? Everybody loved him. There were
120 people in that upper room. Loved the Lord. Loved his gospel.
Loved each other. And he left. He said he's going
to come back again the same way. How's he going to work it out,
those in Australia and those up here at the same time? Seriously? You think that's a problem? Well, he said, you wait him,
patience. And for my name's sake, you've
labored. He's God. God. You're not fainted. The very
first message brought to you by God's grace I brought to you
in March of 1989 was from 2 Corinthians 4 verse 1. Therefore see, and
we have this ministry we thank not. We're not going to quit. We've got this ministry of the
gospel for the glory of God, the glory of Christ, for the
kingdom of God, for His people, and we're not going to quit.
This is what we're doing. By God's grace, 35, nearly 35 years
ago, preaching this one gospel, and here we are all these years
later doing this one thing. Right? Right. I'm not going to quit. There's
nothing in it. Nevertheless, I have something
against you. It's our Lord talking to you. If you're His church, it's you.
I have something against you. It's personal. It's against Him. He said, I have. Not this person
has something against you. That person has. He said, I have
something against you. This is what you're doing to
me. Alright? Though there's sound
in the faith, He commended their faith, their patience, There's
sound in the faith, but there's a serious problem. It's so serious
that if He doesn't rebuke them, if He doesn't make them see this,
if they don't repent and turn from it, He'll cut them off. What is it? Verse 4. He said,
you've left your first love. He saw it before she did. He felt it before she did. She needs to feel it. We need
to feel it. He sees it long before we do. Right. He feels it. It's an affront to him long before
we're ashamed of ourselves. Long before. The messenger saw it. He told
him first. And he saw it in them because
he saw it himself, he said. And he could easily recognize
it in them. He saw it before they saw it. What does he do? He warns them. He warns them. You've left your first leg. And
others often see it before you do. It's true isn't it? Others first see it. You've left
your first love. You don't love him as you first
loved him. You don't hear the gospel like you first heard it. You don't hear, you don't need,
you're not calling like you first called. You're not coming like
you first came. You don't respond like you first
responded. Anybody? Everybody. We all get it. Look at what he
says in verse 5. Remember therefore from whence
thou art fallen. Remember when. Anybody ever heard
that Alan Jackson song, Remember When? Don't listen to it. It'll tear
you up. It'll tear you up. Talking about first love. Things
happen. Fall out. Thankfully, fall back
in. Remember when. This is what he
said. Remember when. Look back. Think
back. I want you to remember, the Lord
says, I want you to remember where I found you. Have you forgotten
where I found you? Now look at you where you're
at now. Think back on where I found you and what you had or didn't
have. What you were when I found you and where you are now and
what you have now. How could you do this to me? Who's done so much for you? Think back now. What all the
Lord has done for us. where he has brought us, what
all he's brought us through. And we don't know the half of
it. Do you understand? We haven't seen his hand in every
single aspect, facet, day of our lives. Restraining, constraining,
withholding, protecting, giving, providing, doing everything,
everything working together. We haven't seen it all. We just
go on about our business without giving him a thought. And He's
doing it all. Watching over us. Loving. Protecting. Guiding. Restraining. Keeping you from
doing what you would do if He didn't keep you from it. What the Lord has done. What
you have done. Or not done for Him. After all
these years, what can you and I say that we've actually done
to pay back what He's done for us? What have we done? He says, you've left your first
love. If it's true love, it's lasting
love. Notice He says here, you've left
your first love. He didn't say you lost it. You don't lose love, you leave
it. You follow me? If you really
love somebody, you leave it for another thing and hopefully if
it's still there, get it back. And hopefully, what I hope to
show you is that love left can actually be stronger than it
was in the beginning. I'll tell you when you lose it,
the one you love, well you miss them more than ever, don't you?
If you think there's no hope of ever seeing them again, well,
you love them more than you ever did. Right? Now you do. Could you live without Christ?
Could you live without this gospel? Could you live without this church?
Could you live without these people? Some have. Some don't. How about you? I'm
not talking to them. I'm talking to you. You need this candlestick. First
love. Now, first love. Here's some
things about first love. You know, first love, is it true
that there's love at first sight? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Is it true, Joseph? Joseph? Is
it true, Karen? Is it true, Stephen? It's absolutely true of the Lord
Jesus Christ. If you ever see him, If you see yourself and you see
Him, oh, it's love at first sight. Love
at first hearing. You hear His voice. That's how
you're going to fall in love with Him. You hear His voice.
You see His glory. You see yourself for what you
are. You see His beauty. You see your
ugly. You see what He did on Calvary's
tree. You see, you see, you see. That's what my father-in-law
said. He was listening, listening, and finally he said, I see. I see. Christ actually came down
here for the likes of me. How could that be? Because that's
who he is. That's why. First love, you know,
first love, love at first sight, begins with you, you hear that
person's voice, and you begin to talk to that person, begin
to speak to that person, you call on that person, and you
visit with that person, and you're with them, you can't get enough
of being with them. First love. You hear their voice,
you know, and I began dating, I was working on the railroad,
all the live long day, right Steven? All the live long day.
Working on the railroad, I was home eight hours, and gone 24
or 36. Home 8 hours. I had to sleep 6 hours. I needed
to sleep because they were calling me at 6 and a half hours to go
back to work. You know who I spent 4 of those
6 with? My beloved. My first love. You know, she's
still with me. Amazing. I still love her. She's my first
love. that I would spend all my time
with her. And it wasn't a sacrifice. It
was my joy. Nothing and no one could keep
me from her. I didn't have eyes for or ears
for anybody but her. And that's how it is when you
first hear this gospel, when you first Fall in love with the
Lord Jesus Christ. You hear this gospel. You can't
get enough of hearing it. How about now? There was never
a sermon too long for me. There was never a conference
with too many preachers. What about now? We have meetings once a year.
I tried to bring it down to three preachers, two. Last time we
had one preacher. He drove nine hours to come one
way. Is that a lovely man or what?
Is Bruce Crabtree worth coming here? He knows you. He loves you. He
loves coming here. He came along with some, but some people didn't
show up. He left here first. Man, I remember Brother John
Chapman and I were such close friends, and Todd, and so on
and on it went. And a bunch of us, and one of
us would be going out to preach, and the other one would say,
can't we go with you? I'll drive you. And we'd go. It didn't matter how far. We'd
talk about Christ all the way, worship Him when we got there,
and talk about Him all the way back. What about now? who you talking
about on the way here? What are you talking about on
the way home? There's a God Bible conference
going on down here. What happened? Repent. Do the first works. You need to go back the way it
was. See what he's saying. Is this needful? First love. First kiss. You remember your first kiss
with the one you first loved? Anybody I call your name, you
start blushing. We all remember, don't we? I
remember Mindy and I used to kiss till the cows came home. We just read there in Song of
Solomon that, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.
That means what comes from his mouth You couldn't get enough.
It's sweet to your taste. This gospel, the word, you couldn't
get enough of it. Read that to me. Read it to me. You read it. Do you remember
when you first heard it? You read the Bible. Did your
loved one ever write you love letters? I used to write Mandy
poems. She still has them. She still
reads them. Why? I guess she still loves
me. That's what this is. You remember
when you first heard the gospel, you just read and read and read.
What you want him to say is to say unto my soul, you're my salvation. Tell me that you came from me.
Tell me that I belong to you. You read and read and read. I
read New Park Street Pulpit. Every word. Have you looked at
that book? It's fine print. They're this
thick. I couldn't get enough of it. I started in Metropolitan
Tabernacle. Read Bunyan, Gill, Spurgeon,
you name it. Read, read, read. Couldn't get
enough. Hungry. Loved this. What happened? I
see change. There's a gospel change. Need
changes. Love grows cold. Grows cold. Love, first love, you can't spend
enough time with that person. You never tire of hearing their
voice. You call on them, don't you? Call on them. Call on them.
You've got to hang up. Oh, wait, wait. Anybody? I've got to go. Wait, don't go. Do you still call on the Lord? Do you? Help me, Lord. As said, true love is not lost,
it's left. Forsaken. What for? Always. Always for something, someone
else. And you tell me, every single
married couple in here, if you did not go through, maybe going
through, a time where at first all you were living on is each
other. That's all you needed, wasn't it? You didn't need a
fancy house. You didn't need anything. You just needed each
other. You're living on each other. Man go to work, he couldn't
wait to get home. He's not going to go out with
the guys. He's going to come home. But in time, what happens? Things. Stuff. You begin to accumulate
stuff. Takes up your thoughts. Takes
up your time. Takes up your efforts. You begin
to think about those things. You have to work a long time
to keep those things. And you spend all your time Accumulating
and taking care of and keeping things and you leave the one
It's always You know we all live in this world We enjoy the things
of this world that our Lord told us. He warned us love not the
world know the things of the world it means the people of
the world means the things of this world because he said God
said If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not
in him. If you love anyone or anything more than Jesus Christ,
the love of the Father is not in you. But we can get caught
up in these things. Even His bride, even His people
can get caught up in the things of the world and get sidetracked
by people and things in the world. And they draw away our hearts
from Him whom we love. And rather than leaving them
for Him, we leave Him for them. Is that not right? Whereas before,
we leave everyone and everything to go worship the Lord. No, no,
I've got to get there. We come early, we stay late. Satan is the God of this world
and there's nothing he desires more and the thing he endeavors
to do more than anything else is take you away from Jesus Christ
and His people. And He'll use people and things
to do it. He's a master at that. What's our hope? Our hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus Christ's blood and His righteousness. Our hope
is in Him. Our hope is that He loves us. You know that? We love
Him. Yes. Why? first love. Listen to me brother. If he first
loved you, he'll never quit loving you. I got a little Pentecostal
on you last Sunday. I'm sorry. Forgive me. I asked
some of you to say amen. I'll just say it myself. Hallelujah. If he really loves me, He won't let me go. And how He does that is what
I'm doing right now. He does it through His angel,
through His Word. Let the righteous smite me. Wake
up, honey. She said, I'm sleeping. I can't
get up. Don't sleep the sleep of death like others. Wake up.
Don't you see what you're doing to Him whom you're so loving?
How could you do this to Him? Don't you love Him? Don't you
appreciate His love? You've left Him. He didn't leave
you. Oh, I hope He'll wake us up,
don't you? He says repent. Look at verse 5. Remember from when you do the
first work, repent. Every single one. Repent. Repent. Repent. What's repent mean? Repentance is godly sorrow. It's
sorrow towards God. Everything you do is against
Him. And repentance is personal. Against thee and thee only have
I done this evil. It's nobody else's fault. Well, this so-and-so did this
to me and so-and-so did that to me. Well, she said this to
me. Well, that preacher, I'm mad at him. So you're going to
take it out on God? No, against thee and thee only
have I sinned and done this evil in your sight against me. I've left you. It's nobody's
fault but mine. That's repentance. It's godly sorrow that needeth
not to be repented of. It never changes. You realize that all the evil,
everything in your life that's happened to you, most of it you've caused. You've
caused it. But God, so good, so loving,
so gracious, keeps loving you. When you take it out on this
person, that person, no, no, no. It's not them or them. It's
you. I have something against you, he said. Repent. It's repentance toward God. Sure,
we need to ask others forgiveness. But principally, it's against
him who loved you and gave himself for you. Repentance is a heart
broken over what? Sin. Whose sin? My sin. Self. You know what sin is principally?
It's self-love. I love myself. It's hardness of heart. That's
what repentance is. Repent over your hardness of
heart. God love to thee so cold, so faint, and thy love to us
so great. Come Holy Spirit. Help me. Dear Lord, and shall we ever
live at this poor dying rate? Newton wrote that poem, "'Tis
a point I long to know. It gives me anxious thought.
Do I love the Lord? Do I not?" What's wrong with
me? He left you first, man. Now look
at this, and I close. He said, do the first works. Look at verse 5, and I quit,
okay? Do the first work. Repent. Turn
from this course. Turn from the course of the world.
Turn from the world. Come out from among them. Come
back to Christ. Do the first work. You know,
we're not saved by works, don't you? We're not saved by works.
He's not talking about work to get saved. You know that. We don't come by works, we come
by faith. That's how we're saved, isn't it? These are works of
faith and labors of love. This is what love does. Do the
first works, alright? As I said, this will help our
marriage. But I'm talking about being married to Christ. When you first heard the gospel,
you couldn't get enough of hearing it. You couldn't get enough of hearing
it. And when our hearing becomes
dull, when we become dull of hearing, and I see it, Most everybody
in here is an open book. Very transparent. I look at you.
I've known you for years. I can tell when you're not here.
You know, we ought to hear this gospel now more keenly than we
ever heard it in our life. You know, we're bigger sinners
than we were when the Lord first found us. To whom it's forgiven
much, we'll love much. We ought to hear this gospel,
brother. We've sinned against love. We've
sinned against mercy. We've sinned against such grace.
We ought to never hear the gospel again. He ought to just say,
I've taken it from you. You don't deserve to hear this. Right? Do the first work. What's that?
Hear and your soul will live. Hear and your soul will love.
The only reason you won't hear is you start hearing and listening
to other things. Turn it off. Turn it off. and listen to His voice. Turn
off all the voices. Stop listening to these things
that are drawing you away from Him. Time alone. You want to help
your marriage, marriage to one another, marriage to Christ?
Time alone. When you first were married,
who do you want to spend all your time with? You know, we live in a generation
that can't stand to be alone. People can't stand to be quiet,
silent, alone. Had to turn something on, you
know. Wow! Conscience! Conscience. Jacob learned a great lesson
alone. Jacob was left alone. What happened?
The Lord came and arrested him. Got him down. Blessed. He said, don't let go. He said,
I'm not. I'm not going to let go. Time
alone, wrestling with the Lord. Talk. Talk. When you, as husband
and wife, you quit talking to one another, you're going to
lose that person. In the beginning, you talk. Communicate. Communicate. Communicate. You're
attentive. You're listening. You're interested. You're interested
in what the one you love says. You're interested. It's in there. Self-love wants to hear self-talk. Oh, my. I'm alone. Flowers. Tokens of love. Our Lord doesn't need flowers.
You know, flowers. You women just love to receive
flowers. They do, but not just at Valentine's Day. You're supposed
to. It's when it's not expected and
you've gone out and not, you know, oh, what am I going to
do? Oh, here's some roses at Kroger. Here, honey. Oh, I love
you so much. No, that was real convenience.
You go out in the field, you see some flowers and you think
of them. You pick these wildflowers and make this bouquet come in.
Did your children ever come to you with some daisies? Did they
ever come to you? Here, mama. Oh, honey. Our Lord doesn't eat flowers.
You know what we render unto Him? The food of our lips. How
did you sing these songs when you first heard the gospel? How did you sing Amazing Grace
that saved a wretch like me? I once was lost, but now I'm
found. You know what? You don't realize,
he said to the lady of the city, you're a wretched, miserable,
poor, blind, and naked now. Flowers, food of our lips, tokens
of love, work, labor. Jacob worked for
Rachel for how long? 14 years. You mean, what if your
father said, you can't marry my daughter, do you work 14 years? You know what it says? You know
what it says? It was like a day. It wasn't
too long. It wasn't too hard. It wasn't
labor at all. He said, when it's all over,
he said, now, can I marry her? Yes. Now, oh, I've been waiting
for this day. What about giving? What about
supporting the church? What about laboring? We have
work days. It's God's house. But we work
together, not labor. necessarily. Gifts. Gifts. Love is extravagant. That's too
much. You're giving too much. You can't give too much. That's
not possible. You can't give too much. You can't love too much. Gifts. If absent you call, you write. Do the first words. Do the first
word. If not, he said, I'll take your
candlestick. What's that? The light of the
gospel. You know, a preacher is a candlestick.
He's a star. There's a few churches right
now without pastors. And they can't find one. I know you got a sorry one, but
you got one. It's a blessing. He'd take it. He'd take it. He goes on to say,
you write this down. Now, he that hath an ear to hear,
verse 7, let him hear. Did you hear this? I hope so. I hope so. It's to the churches. And if you're his church, if
you belong to him, his bride, you'll hear. You'll repent. You'll
do the first work by his grace. And he said, you'll overcome.
Overcome. Overcoming. Remember, Jacob wrestled. Overcoming or being overcome
involves a fight and conflict. It's a warfare. It's effort,
right? It's a struggle. That's what
overcome means. You either overcome or you're
overcome. Struggle. To him that overcometh, give
diligence to make your covenant this year. I would that all of
you give the same diligence. Fight the good fight of faith.
Lay hold of eternal life. And hopefully, by His grace,
you'll never leave, and that love will be stronger in the
end than it was in the beginning. Lurking under here. OK. That's
saying a closing here.