Let's read the first three verses,
Revelation 2, under the angel of the church of Ephesus. Write,
These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right
hand, that walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlestick.
I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou
canst not bear them which are evil. and has tried them which
say they are apostles and are not, and has found them liars,
and has borne, and has patience, and for my name's sake has labored,
and has not fainted." God's word here is to His church. That's
what we read in chapter 1, to the churches, write these things.
He said in chapter 1, verse 1, show them to His servants, verse
4, to the seven churches. These are written to the seven
churches. And it says, look at verse 7. He that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Verse
11. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Verse 17. He that
hath an ear, let him hear. It keeps saying this, doesn't
it? We have ears. Oh, that God would give us an
ear like a single eye, a hearing ear, a receptive heart. Now we
must not miss the symbolism here, the meaning, and this is when
he talks about angels, stars, and a candlestick and so forth.
Even the description of our Lord is symbolic, symbolic, not literal. I don't believe really that The
description of him is little, but it has something to do with
his majesty, because Christ is the same that the disciples saw
him, isn't it? But the symbolism here, the first
thing is to the angel. He talks about the stars. He said that, that these angels,
the seven stars in chapter 1, verse 20, are the angels or the preachers. That's who these angels are.
The Lord sent each church an angel. Now that's not a lofty
title, it just simply means a messenger. Okay? Small a, did you notice
that? Small a. The angel of the Lord,
the spirit of God or Christ himself often. But these messengers or
preachers, pastors given to the church, every church, every local
church. This is what he said in Ephesians
4, that when our Lord ascended, He gave gifts unto men. He gave some apostles, He gave
some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for
the perfecting of the saints. for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ. So that's who these
stars are, these angels. They're called stars because
stars give light, don't they? And our Lord talked to His disciples
on the Sermon on the Mount. He said, you're the light of
the world. And stars give light when? In the darkness. And stars were
used years ago, and still are by some, to navigate, to find
the way, as the stars point to the way, which is Christ himself. So these angels were given. Now, it's sad, but you know, when
the church, when God sends a man to the church at first, and the
people hear him, hear the Word of God, they really do consider
Him an angel. Sad fact, after they hear the
same voice over and over again, that star in their minds and
hearts begins to dim. It should not be, but it is.
Moses. Would you have listened carefully
to Moses? Would you have liked to have been led by Moses? Most everybody turned against
him. Moses. Samuel. What a man Samuel was,
huh? After a while they said, we want
to know the king. David. My, my. What a David. What a king. Jeremiah. All of them. All of them. Paul. This goes along with the rebuke
he's going to give us in a little bit. Leaving your first love.
He goes right along with it, sure does. But before any rebuke,
the Lord commends them, the church. Before any condemnation, He comforts
them. He says to the seven churches,
and this is to the church at Ephesus, these things say of
He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand. Well, I'm
thankful for that. that he has me in his hand. I'm so thankful. Because who is sufficient for
these things? Paul. Paul said that our sufficiency
is of God. And he holds all of his people
in his hand, doesn't he? He said, I give unto them, my
sheep, eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hand. The Lord holds us in his
hand. And it says in verse 1, these
things saith he that walketh in the midst of the seven golden
candlesticks. Our Lord promised that where
two or three are gathered in his name, he said, there am I
in the midst. In the midst. Some of you like
Psalm 46, don't you? All of you do. Which says, God
is our refuge and strength, but very present help in trouble.
Why is it present help? Because he's always there. God
is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God shall
help her. And that right early. The Lord
of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. Stop and think on that. So He walks in the midst of us. Is He with us right now? This
is not something mystical or some... Fable, Peter said. He's real. Didn't He say to us in there,
chapter 1, I'm He that was and is and is to come. Didn't He
say, I was He that was dead, but I'm alive forevermore. He
said the last thing He said before He left, I'm with you, even to
the ends of the earth. God is with us. So He walks with
us in the midst of a golden candlestick. What's that? It's a church. Churches.
Church is. And like that candelabra in the
tabernacle in the temple, they're all really connected to one main
brain. That's Christ. They're the branches, and he's
the vine. And from him they get their lights. But candlestick, that's what
the church is. It's a light. You're a light.
You're a light. He said a candle is not put under
a bushel, is it? It's put up where it can be seen. So, church is a light in a dark
world. And we're in His hand. And He
walks in the midst of that. Now, as I said, before any rebuke,
He gives comfort. Verse 2, I know thy works, and
thy labor, and thy patience. Listen to this in Hebrews chapter
6. God is not unrighteous. Hebrews 6 verse 10. He's not
unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love. We are. We're
unrighteous to forget things that people do for us and not
give them thanks, not give our God the thanks that He's doing.
We are, but God's not. Although He works in us with
the will and due of His good pleasure, yet He commends us.
And that's something. That's like a parent, isn't it?
A parent teaches their child, raises them up, teaches them,
gives them everything. At Christmas time, you give your
children money, don't you? You give them money for them
to go shopping, and then they buy you a gift, and you say,
oh, thank you. You gave them money, but it's
the gesture in it, and you acknowledge that. So it is with our Lord.
He acknowledges our works. But aren't you glad, like David
said, Isaiah said, Lord, thou hast done all thy work in us. You've ordained the work in us
and for us. It is God which worketh in us
both the will and do of his good pleasure. Nevertheless, he acknowledges
works. He says this to every church. Look at verse 8, verse 9, I know
thy works. I know thy works. And to Pergamos,
verse 13, I know thy works. I know thy works, in Thyatira,
verse 19, I know thy works. Thy works are important. We've
been looking at that, haven't we? Faith without works is not
faith at all. Now look with me at Titus, go
over to Titus chapter 2. Salvation is unto good work. It's not thy works of righteousness,
which we have done. But it is unto good works which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Why? Because herein, our Lord
said, herein is the Father glorified that you bear much fruit. I don't want to be a barren fig
tree to you. I don't want to just come to
the ground. I don't want to just be a taker and a taker and a
taker to you. I want to give something back. Titus chapter
2, I see it. Our children, we want them to
grow up. Number one, for our children, our great desire is
for them to know the Lord. That's it. No matter what their
vocation is, no matter whether they're married or not married,
whatever they become, and it's where we want them to know the
Lord. That's it. Number one. And we want them
to grow up and become humble, kind, merciful, loving, Caring. Considerate. Compassionate. Helpful. Servants of other people. Unselfish. Loving. Don't they? Full of pity. I didn't mention one thing about
riches. Sure we want them to be healthy. Don't want them to
be in need. But our Lord said, having food
and rain, we should be content. We should want nothing more for
ourselves or our children. So we want them in this way,
we want them to be productive, fruitful, to give back of something
that they've been given, right? So that's what good works are.
They're not merit. It's just love. It's just doing
a reasonable service unto Him that did so much for us. Titus
chapter 2, look at verse 1. Speak thou the things which become
sound doctrine. To aged men be sober, brave,
temperate, sound in faith, charity, patient. Amen. Do we need to
learn? Let's ask the oldest man in here.
John. Oh yeah, we've got a lot to learn
over here. The aged women. The aged women, likewise. Let's
ask the second oldest woman in here. Nancy. Did we need to learn? Of course we did. Alright. The aged women, in behavior,
have become opponents, not false accusers. Not given to much wine. Teachers of good things. Teachers
teach young women to be this way. Sober. Love their husband.
Love their children. Be discreet. Chaste. Keepers
of home. Good. Obedient to their own husbands. Let the word of God be not blaspheming.
Young men, likewise, exhort to be sober-minded. In all things,
showing thyself a pattern of good works. Our Lord said, I
know thy works. Look at verse 14. Christ gave himself for us that
he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar
people, zealous of good works. The more wretched and wicked
this world becomes, the more peculiar godly or god-believing, fearing
people They will be absolutely an oddity that believe what God
said. Look at chapter 3, verse 8. This
is a faithful savior. Titus 3.8. These things I will
that thou affirm constantly. That they which have believed
in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are
good and profitable unto men, aren't they? I like good works
a whole lot better than bad ones, don't you? I know thy works. He said that to every church.
Is it important? Certainly is. Certainly is. All
right, look back at our text. I know thy labor, thy labor of
love, Faith, which works by love for the cause of Christ. Your
patience, he said. Verse 2, I know your patience.
Trial of our faith. Peter said this. Let me just
read this to you. 1 Peter talks about faith, hope,
and love. He's talking about trials. The trial of your faith. 1 Peter
1 says this. He says, "...were kept by the
power of God, ready to be revealed in the last time, wherein greatly
you rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness
through manifold temptations or trials, that the trial of
your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though
it be tried with fire, might be found under praise and honor
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." And another place
it says, The trials of our faith work with patience. Patience. Our Lord said here, I know your
labor, I know your patience. Patient enduring of trials. So many of God's people who have
gone through trials have witnessed a good profession. And for that,
we thank the Lord. That proves their faith to be
God-given and very real. And God was with them. That proves
it. Look at the next thing. He says, I know that you can't
hence not bear them which are evil. Now has tried them. What's he talking about? Religion. He's talking about false religion.
The first church. The first thing he says. I know
you cannot bear, you cannot tolerate what you're hearing. what's being
said about your God and about Christ. You can't do it. God
says, I can't tolerate it either. You cannot bear it. You tried
them to say they're apostles. You know, there are men that
still say they're apostles. Right down the road here is a black
church and right on the corner has a parking space for the apostles. It's not funny. It's ignorance,
yes it is, but it's... Here's what our Lord said, He's
commending those who stand for the truth. He found them to be
liars. Boy, the Lord uses plain language,
doesn't He, when He talks about these fellows and these even
women. He says you can't bear them. You can't bear them. The Lord
commends His people for being zealous for the truth. and jealous
for his name. You know, that's his name. You
know, the Lord said that my name is jealous. The Lord is very
jealous for his glory. He will not share his glory with
another. And those who love his name,
those who love his glory, They're very jealous for that
glory too. And it greatly disturbs them when people lie about God. You know, our sister was running
for, she held an office and she was running and had all these
posters everywhere of her opponents. And I felt for her. I did. I know how she felt every time
she passed by one of those. When I see these signs on church
buildings, that that's me, my God, and lie on my God, and lie
about Jesus Christ, and compare Jesus Christ to the most flippant
character, it makes me angry. Does it you? You have to. You have to. If you love His
name, if you love His glory, if you love His honor, if you
fear His name, If you fear for people, if you fear for them,
if you care about people, you'll tell them. Our Lord commended this, didn't
He? He commended this. Look at verse
3. You're born, what is that? It
means you had a burden. You bear something. What prompted
me to want to deal with these letters was I was reading through
Isaiah and there was about seven or eight burdens. Burdens of
the Word of the Lord. The Lord gave Isaiah a burden
for the message. Can you picture Isaiah? Whoa,
whoa, whoa. Can you picture him smiling?
All the time, silly smiles. He had a Jeremiah. He's called
the weeping prophet. But Isaiah had a burden for Egypt,
a burden for Babylon, a burden for Moab. Moab is brethren of
Israel, but they're idolaters. He had a burden for the Valley
of Vision, Israel false professors. He had a burden. He said, I know what you've borne,
this burden that you bear. And your patience, verse 3, patiently
endure trials. Our Lord said, He shall be hated
of all men for my name's sake. The true church is hated. One
time, a man moved into Ashland, Kentucky, and he was going to
work at the steel mill. And he went up to a man, and
this man that moved into town was religious, and he asked the
man at the steel mill where he could go to church. And the man
said, go anywhere but 13th Street. I venture to say that the same
thing can be said about this place. You know where the man
ended up? And he did that 13th trick. Henry
made him. The Lord saved him. He stayed
there the rest of his life. I know how you can't tolerate
it. The Lord says that. Look at verse 13. We'll deal
with this in Pergamos. But verse 13 says, I know you
dwell where Satan's seat is. Where's that? The Bible belt. That's where Satan's seat is.
That's where he does his work. His ministers. Wolves in sheep's
clothing. Ministers of righteousness. Angels
of light. Clothed. Deception. Where did he do his work? Against
God. In the garden. With God's people.
Lies. Lies. Couched in truth. I know. Our Lord said, I know.
I know your patience. I know what you patiently endured,
the persecution you endured, for my name's sake. I mean, we
really do, brethren. I trained at trying to build
a big work here. All the churches you know, they're trying to build
a big work, trying to bring in money so we can build a gymnasium.
Oh, no. You want people to hear the truth,
don't you? You want people to know the truth. I know, our Lord said, be patient. And verse 3 says, and you haven't
fainted. You're not going to faint. You're
not going to faint. Brethren, we don't hate people.
We're accused of that. We're accused of not being charitable,
not getting along with people and all that. It's just not so. Life can't have fellowship with
darkness. Can't get gathered together.
I can't meet with them, they're praying in the courthouse step.
Number one, the Lord said not to. But we pray to different gods. We can't meet with, have
a county-wide meeting at the churches. We can't meet at the
tent meeting. We're not going to go there unless they let me breathe.
Right? Listen to John Warburton's statement
here. I've had it in the bulletin two
or three times, and I'll put it in there again. It's what
they mean by love. He said, I constantly maintain
the glories and the beauties and the preciousness of love,
and yet I'm branded as an enemy of love. John Warburton back
in the late 19th century. If by love they mean I ought
to unite with those who deny the deity of my God and Savior,
If by love they mean I ought to unite occasionally with people
who say without a blush that election is a damnable doctrine? What they mean by love is that
I should unite with those who call imputed righteousness imputed
nonsense? That's what John Wesley called
it. That's what John Wesley called it. Imputed nonsense. If they mean by love ought to
unite with people who testify that we may be a child of God
one day and a child of the devil another, that Christ died and
atoned for the sins of Esau as well as Jacob, for Cain as well
as Abel, for Judas as well as Peter, that there are thousands
in hell for whom Christ died. If they mean by love ought to
unite and call them brethren who profess to believe the doctrines
of grace and call themselves Calvinists, but at times those
blessed doctors are not the truth but just Higher forms of knowledge? That's the reformer, the reformed
religion today, isn't it? They believe Armenians are saved,
they just need to be, just need to know a higher doctrine. If
what they mean by love, if that's what they mean by love, I confess
from my heart, if this is love, I don't have it. And instead
of being grieved, That glory and not having it. Why, John? Because he loves God's
glory more than the praise of men. Right? Like Martin Luther. He stood against the world. Can
all those people be wrong and one man, one little German monk,
right? Yes! And he said, here I stand. I can do no other, I'm not quitting
unless God used him to. God's people pretty much stand
alone where they are. I know, the Lord said, I know.
And he commends us. I'm glad. Paul was apprehended,
false witnesses against him, slandered. Not a finer man ever
lived, but they slandered him. False witnesses against him,
they beat him. He stood firm. He said, after
the way they call Harrison, this is what I believe. So Simon Peter, all the apostles,
he said, you judge. Is it right? Should we believe
men or God? I can't help but speak the thing
of sin. Our Lord commends, look at verse
13 there, it says, I know your works, you sit where Satan's
seat is, and Antipas was my faithful martyr. The Lord calls this man
His faithful martyr. Stephen. You remember Stephen?
The Lord stands with those who stand for Him. Don't you love
that story, Stephen? Where Stephen was preaching to
all those Pharisees, and he was just telling the truth. Stiff-necked,
hard-hearted. You resisted the truth. You don't
believe the truth. Christ is the truth. You don't
believe Him. Full of self-righteousness. Just told it like it is. Just
told the truth. And they rose up in anger, and
they stoned him. Well, Stephen being a godly,
a Christ-like man, Well, as he was dying, he said, Lord, lay
not this sin to their charge. And it says that he looked steadfastly
to heaven, he said, and Stephen was being stoned to death, Stephen
said, I see the Son of Man standing. Now Christ sat down at the right
hand of the majesty on high. after he went back to glory and
sat down. But when his faithful martyr was standing for him,
he stood with him. He stood up. Do you stand with Stephen? Do
you stand with Martin Luther? Do you stand with me? I'll stand
with you. You stand by me, brother? We'll
be Aaron and Hur. How's that? And hold up our Lord's
glory, His name. It's not about doctrine. This
is God's glory. And our Lord commends it. He
commends it. It's not hate. It's just love
for God. Love for His name. And defending
His honor. Read Psalm 139 for yourself where
David talks about hating them that hate God. Now, verse 4,
the rebuke. You know, when I think of this
letter, I always think of the first letter. Don't you? But
that's not the first thing he said, did he tell me? He commends
them in our Lord's kind. And brethren, everything he says
to all seven churches, there's seven different churches, but
everything he says to every church applies to every church. We all
have all of these things, all of these are in every church.
Alright? And, well, let's go on. Verse 4, inevitably I have somewhat
against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Now, the Lord is not against
us, but He has something against us. The Lord is not against them
or He wouldn't have been speaking to them. Like Adam and Eve, huh? He came walking. Where are you?
The Lord is not against us, but there's something we do or don't
do that He holds against us, and we're doing actually against
Him. We've left. We leave our first
love. We do. Now, Christ and His church
is a marriage. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and his mother, and cleave unto his wife, and the
two become one flesh." And this marriage is a mystery. But I
speak, Paul said, of Christ and His Church. It's a union. Christ and me. Christ and me. We're one. I'm His bride. I'm His wife. You, you're His
wife. You're His bride. You're one.
You're one. Two are one. In heart, in love,
in life. Now, if you're one, you're supposed
to find joy, happiness, fulfillment in each other, aren't you? Not
anywhere else. Is that right? We're mighty unfaithful, wasn't
we? Jeremiah 2. Look at Jeremiah 2. He says,
you've left your first love. Look at Jeremiah 2. Go to a couple
of places here. I've got to hurry. You don't
have to hurry. Chapter 2. You have it Jeremiah
2. Read it. When was the last time
you read through Jeremiah? Read it. Hosea. We briefly went through Hosea.
Ephraim. Jeremiah 2, the word of the Lord
came to me, saying, Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying,
Thus saith the Lord, I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth,
the love of thine espousal, when thou wentest after me in the
wilderness. Verse 3, Israel was holiness
unto the Lord, firstfruits of His entry. Verse 5, What iniquity,
thus saith the Lord, what iniquity have your fathers found in me?
that they are gone far from me and walked after vanity." What have I done to make you
leave me? He said, in language we can understand. Verse 13,
my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me,
the fountain of living water, and hewed them out cisterns,
broken cisterns that could hold no water. It would be like that
woman at the well. Going back and getting that water
pot. And going back to that life you want to live. And forget
about crap. What a fool. How could she do
that? Look at verse 32. Verse 32. Can a maid forget her
ornaments? A bride her attire? Yet my people
have forgotten me in days without number. So in it. It's so. First love. So you left for your
first love. Do you remember your first love?
Right there sits my first love. I married, thank the Lord, my
first love. Really. You know, you had this
puppy love. There was a girl in high school
named Mindy. It wasn't this one. It wasn't
love. It wasn't love, honey. I try to make her jealous every
now and then. She does the same thing to me. But that, she was
my first love. Absolute. Bless God, He let me
marry her. First love, you remember? It
involves several things. Infatuation. Infatuation is not
a bad thing, it's a good thing. I mean, you're wholly, completely
taken up with that person. You just, you just, just infatuate
with them. Your heart. has been seized. Your heart feels two things.
It feels joy and pain. You know what I'm talking about. That person is on your mind all
the time. You can't quit thinking about
it. I used to work on the railroad and I was on the road all the
time. I'd take a train out of town
and bring another one back. Gone all the time. Home about
8 hours and gone 18 or 14. All hours of the night. The whole time I was going I
was thinking about her. The whole time I was coming back
I was thinking about her. As soon as I got home I didn't need
to go to sleep. I wanted to see her. And quite
often I did. I'd run over to her house. We kissed until I had to go to
work again. Without sleep, I was living on
love. Right? That's just the way it
is, isn't it? First love. He'd call. Oh, did we call, call, call,
call, call, call. Talk, commune, hours on end. We didn't need anybody or anything,
did we? but each other. Isn't it sad that even marriages and friendships
do this and leave that? Why? What's happening? Things. Things. Stuff. People. Vanity. Things like that. When
the Lord first revealed Himself to you, you couldn't get enough
of hearing that Gospel. Infatuation? Oh, enamored with
the Gospel. I remember reading everything
I could get my hands on. All of New Park Street. It's
fine print. Three big thick volumes of Persians.
Everything I could read, get my hands on. Every message I
could hear. Wherever somebody was going to
preach the gospel, let me go. Can I go? Whenever a man would
preach a message, whatever it was, no matter what he preached,
it was the greatest message I ever heard. Sweetheart love, Barnard
used to call it. Sweetheart love. Hear the word
mercy? Oh, hear the sound? Forsake everyone and everything. Forsake sleep. Forsake comforts. To worship. To hear the gospel.
Have to have it. What happened? What happened? Things. The Lord calls it idolatry. Comfort is idolatry. The God's adultery. He calls it adultery with other
people. preferring other people over
him. Our Lord said, if any man loved father, mothers, husband,
wife, son or daughter more than me, didn't he? You know, when we leave our first
love, like in this life, work often consumes some people. Start
working, and relationships suffer. You become enamored with work.
Whereas before, you were just going to work, biding your time,
and couldn't wait to get home to your husband or your wife,
right? What happened? You become consumed with that
work, that career, making money, play, stuff, recreation. You
worked so hard, didn't you have that time to recreate? The only
time off you wanted from work is when you spend it with your
love, lover. Right? Am I hitting the nerve
here anyway? They begin to think on, pursue, and find pleasure
in things. This happens spiritually. Put
off praying, communication. Put off reading, calling, fellowship,
until you become estranged. Estranged from your husband,
your maker. as your husband, you've left
your personal life, you've gone after things, over and over,
let me say that, over and over throughout the scripture, you've
played the heart of every green tree, everywhere, this and that,
give me just a little bit of your time. You might call on
me, you might not. What kind of husband would stay
with a woman like that? A good one. A faithful one. and his only one is Archipelago.
But this is Rebukin. This is to his church. And he
tells him there's an answer for this. I want you to see this,
okay? Song of Solomon. Go over to Song of Solomon, okay?
This is perhaps the greatest illustration of this. Song of
Solomon is a love story between Solomon and his Shulamite, his
wife, Shulamite maiden. And it's the story of Christ and his church. Song of
Solomon chapter 1 verse 1, the song of songs, which is Solomon's. Let him, here's what she said,
let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. Thy love is better
than wine. This gospel, the savor of Thy
good ointments, Thy name is as ointment poured forth therefore. Do the virgins love Thee? Draw
me. We'll run after Thee. The King
hath brought me into His chamber. Oh, we'll be glad and rejoice
in Thee. Verse 5, I'm black. She marveled that this King would
marry her. She was full of amazement. Do you remember when you first
came to hear the gospel and the Lord revealed Himself to you
and you thought, me? Could I be one of His people? No way. Yeah? Oh, you marveled. You just thought, what a great
privilege, what an honor to be in His church, for Him to love
me. How can it be? How can it be? Chapter 2. Verse 16. Chapter
2. My beloved is mine and I am his. He feedeth among the lily. So
that's where she's found. But she went through a little
trouble. Chapter 3 verse 1. By night on my bed I saw him.
She had a sleepless night. She sought Him whom her soul
loved. I sought Him. I found Him not. She rose up.
She went about. I seek Him whom my soul loveth.
I sought Him, but I found Him not. The watchmen that go about
the city found me. Have you seen Him whom my soul
loveth? Have you seen Him? I need Him. I'm not going to quit looking
until I find Him. You know what? Verse 4, just
a little while, I found Him. I found him. And all was well. All right, time went on. She got a little comfortable. She got too comfortable. Rich. Brethren, the first letter is
to Ephesus, you've left your first love. The last letter is
to Laodicea. It says, you're rich. Because you're rich, an increase
of goods in your living form. You see that, how it all goes
together. You leave your first love because of things. Riches increase. And he said,
you don't know it, but you're poor. You were richer when you
were poorer. And now that you're richer, you're
poorer. There's he that hath great riches
and hath nothing. And he that is poor hath great
riches. You understand it. Look at chapter 5. The Lord says, I've come to my
garden, my sister, my spouse, I've gathered my myrrh. Verse
2, she said, I sleep, my heart waketh. The voice of my beloved,
it knocketh open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, I'm undefiled.
She says, verse 3, I've put off my coat, I'm too comfortable.
I'm tired. It's full of food, drink, comfortable,
lying in bed. She falls asleep, and she loses
him. And Amy, she doesn't know she's
going to find him again. She worries that he's left her
for good. And our Lord said, you've left,
you're first left. And it happens, doesn't it? It
happens. It's happened before, hopefully
it won't happen again, but it just might. But our Lord is so
good, that in Jeremiah, he said, my people are bent to backsliding. He said, I'm going to heal them.
I'm going to heal that backsliding. Oh my, go back to the text. Let
me close. So he says here, remember, verse
5, remember therefore from whence thou art fallen. Remember where
you were when the Lord found you. Remember who you are, the
pit from which you're digged. Remember, don't forget, you still
don't deserve His love. Remember, from whence thou art
fallen. You know, if you stay low, if
you stay broken, if you stay humble, you can't fall. But if
you get high, rich, puffed up, it'll be a great fall. But He
raiseth up them that fall in. Remember, and repent. Repents. I was going to have you turn
to Hosea. Oh, it says, oh, Jeremiah. It says, oh, when he realized
what he'd done. See, he's smoking his top. You
ever done that? What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me? Who'd I
go after? Who? What? Was it worth it? No. Nothing's worth him. Smote on his thigh. And over
in Hosea, he says, here's what you do. Take with you words. Go to him and say, I'm sorry. Forgive me. Will you take me
back? I've been unfaithful. Will you
take me back, please? Really? Every time. Every time. Isn't it good? Ready to pardon. Remember, do the first works. What are the first works? Well,
let's go back to that sweetheart love, shall we? Call. Walk with. Talk with. Spend time. Forsake everyone else and everything. Put it down. Go be with Him. Spend some time with him, huh?
Communicate. Do the first works. I'll come
unto thee if you don't and remove thy candlestick. He doesn't say
here, I'm going to cast you out of my kingdom. He says, I'm going
to remove your influence as a church. If you lose your zeal, if you
leave your first love, you lose that. love for the truth and
want people to hear it, I'm going to remove your candlestick. Take
it somewhere else. But now, he says, this you have,
the hate, the deeds of the Nicolaitans. I really don't have time to go
into this. Maybe we'll pick it up in the
letter to Pergamos. But we will pick it up later.
But verse 7, he says, he that hath an ear, let him hear what
the Spirit saith unto the church. I have ear. I heard this tonight,
did you? Most everyone in here was awake,
and you heard this. Well, let these sayings sink
down deep in your ear. Let them sink down so deeply
that they were written on the tables of your heart, okay? And
don't leave your first love again. Hold fast the beginning of your
confidence, steadfast to the end, and let nothing part you
from Him. Verse 7 says, to him that overcometh,
what is it that overcometh? What does John say? Faith. Faith. What is faith? It's love. It's
love for Christ. And faith which worketh by love. But him that overcometh will
I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of
the paradise of God. Here it is, to eat. Here's what
the Lord will give us to eat. What's that tree of life? Well,
it's not a what. Christ is the tree. Our Lord said, everyone
that thirsteth, come, buy, eat, wine and milk. Why do you spend
money for that which is bread and not bread? Your labor for
that which satisfies not. Same thing. Hearken diligently unto Me. Eat
that which is good. Let your soul delight itself
in fatness, fat things and wine on the leaves. What is that?
Christ is who it is. Here's what he said. He said,
He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and
I in him. My flesh is meat indeed, my blood
is drink. He that doesn't has no part in
it. And what that means is Christ is your life. Your love, your
life, your desire. I remember as a young believer
hearing my pastor. We're going to sing. We're going
to sing a closing. 323. 323. My pastor made this
three-fold comment, and I wrote it down in a Bible, my first
Bible. Still got it in there, a little tiny thing. And he said
this and it made such an impression on me because it's what I felt.
He said, I have three desires. He said, I want total commitment
to the Lord Jesus Christ. I want complete communion with
the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want total conformity to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that true? Well, may God make it so. stand
with me, 323, sing a couple of verses here. More love to Thee,
O Christ, more love to Thee, This is my earnest plea for love,
oh Christ, to Thee, for love to Thee.