It's good to be here with you. When Paul calls me, it's either about a message I've
preached or coming down here to speak. And he called and asked
me to come down here, and I look forward to doing it. It is a real privilege, and I
realize this as I get older, to be able to stand and brag
on God's Son and to be able to be here and
tell you about Him. Turn over to Revelations chapter
2. Let me read the first seven verses, and I'll lead us in prayer. Revelation
chapter 2, unto the angel of the church
of Ephesus write, These things saith he that holdeth the seven
stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven
golden candlesticks. It's hard to imagine, but it's
so, that the Lord is walking in our midst. That's a reality. I know thy works, and thy labor,
and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are
evil. And thou hast tried them which say they are apostles,
and are not, and hast found them liars, and hast borne, and hast
patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless, I have somewhat
against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember
therefore from whence thou art fallen. and repent and do the
first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove
thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. But this
thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which
I also hate. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh
will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst
of the paradise of God." Our Father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. I pray, Father, that you give
us ears to hear this morning, that you'd enable me to preach
in the power of thy Spirit. Lord, no man is sufficient for
these things. Our God is our sufficiency. We
look to thee for all things. Thank you for the mercies that
you've given us over our lifetime. Thank you for bringing us to
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Father. Thank you for not leaving
us alone. Help us this morning to worship
you. Our greatest desire at this time is that we would be able,
as thy family, to worship you in spirit and in truth. In Christ's
name we pray, and amen. Now, I want to talk to you this
morning for a little while on this subject. How is my relationship with Christ? I want to talk about my relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, some of you have been married
for a long time. How's that going? How's that
going? You say, that's personal. Our
relationship with Christ is personal. It's very personal. I'll show
you here a little bit out of Song of Solomon. Do I have a
relationship with our spouse? Is it better or worse? Do we know each other better?
Do we enjoy each other's company more? Do we? Relationships take work on our
part because of sin. Because there's so much sin in
us, it takes work. It takes work. And I dare say that our relationship
with each other, with our spouse and with each other, is a direct
reflection of our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. I
believe it is. Now let's apply this to our relationship
with our Lord. We say that the Lord has saved
us. Do we know Him better? Do I know Him better than when I first began? Do we enjoy thinking upon Him
more now than I did 35 years ago? These are the things that
I'm concerned with. I can say that at this point
in my life, my greatest concern is my relationship with the Lord
Jesus Christ. If I preach, that's of God. If
He opens the door for me to preach, I pray He'll give me something
to say, but I tell you what, every day I wake up, my great
concern is my relationship with Him. It's very real. It's not a fairy tale, it's very
real. It's very real. David says over here in Psalm
104, let me read this to you. In Psalm 104, listen to this.
He says in verse 33, in Psalm 104, I will sing unto the Lord as
long as I live. I will sing praises to my God
while I have my being. My meditation of Him shall be
sweet." He said, it's sweet. David said, my meditation of
the Lord is sweet. I will be glad in the Lord. Is my meditation of Him now sweeter
than when I first began? Is it? Do I like spending more time
with Him? Do I desire spending more time with Him? These are
things that I look at in myself. And I'm just sharing them with
you. I told my wife, I told my wife not long ago,
I said, if you knew how much I enjoy your company, you would
never get out of the truck. You would not get out of the
truck. If you knew how much I enjoy your company, how much more do I enjoy his
company? That's what I'm concerned with.
Enjoying his company. When you love someone, You love
to think upon them, you love to be with them, you just can't
get enough of them. You really can't. Can we say with real conviction,
can I say with real conviction, as the heart pants after the
water book, so pants my soul after thee, O God? Can I say that? Can I say with
the woman in the song of Solomon? Have you seen him whom my soul
loveth? She says, have you seen him whom
my soul loves? And when you see him, tell him
what? I believe the doctrines of grace.
He knows what we believe. When you see him, tell him I
love him. Tell him I love him. That's what
she says. I know we have doctrine. We have
doctrine. And we must have it. And we love
it. But we only love it in proportion
as our love is to Christ. Election doesn't mean anything
until Christ means everything. And then it means something.
Behold mine elect, God says. When he means everything, then
the doctrines of grace mean, they mean something. That's when
they really have their meaning. But my relationship, listen now,
my relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is more than doctrine,
isn't it? My marriage to my wife is more
than a marriage certificate. There's a real relationship that
I had between me and my wife that's more than just a marriage
certificate. More than that. There's love. There's growth. There's hugs. There's kisses. There's communication. There's
affection. Now that's a relationship. That's
a relationship. Let me read you something over
here in the Song of Solomon. I'm just going to read some verses
out of this. I'm not going to have you turn to these, but listen
now, listen to this. I'll start in the first chapter,
in the second verse. Let him, let him, oh what a letter, what
a letter. Let him kiss me with the kisses
of his mouth. For thy love is better than wine.
And then he says, Behold, thou art fair, my love, behold, thou
art fair, thou hast dove's eyes. As the apple tree among the trees
of the wood, so is my beloved among the suns. I sat down under
his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my
taste. Stainless flagons. Comfort me
with apples, for I am sick of love." I'm lovesick. That's a
relationship. That's a relationship. And listen
again. My beloved is mine, and I am
his. He feedeth among the lilies. What language. Boy, what language
we have here. It would have been a little that
I passed from them. But I found him whom my soul
loveth. I held him, and I would not let
him go until I brought him into my mother's house and into the
chamber of her that conceived me." When I read this, I think, Lord,
I want this relationship. I want this. Now. This is not something I want
when I die. I want this now. I charge you, O daughters of
Jerusalem, if you find my Beloved, that you tell him, I'm sick of
love." Now that's one thing to be sick of, just be overcome
with love. What is thy Beloved more than
another Beloved? O thou first among women, what
is thy Beloved more than another Beloved that thou dost so charge
us? Who is he that you charge us
so? Well, since you ask, let me tell
you about him. Listen to how she describes him.
My beloved is white and ruddy, the cheapest among ten thousand.
His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy and
black as a raven. His eyes are as the eyes of doves
by the rivers of waters washed with milk and fitly set. His
cheeks are as a bed of spices and sweet flowers. His lips like
lilies dropping sweet-smelling myrrh. His hands are as gold
rings set with the beryl. His belly is as bright ivory
overlaid with sapphires. His legs are as pillars of marble
set upon sockets of fine gold. His countenance is as Lebanon,
excellent as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet." Yes,
he's altogether lovely. This is my beloved and this is
my friend. It's really something. If your
beloved is also your best friend, or daughter of Jerusalem, that's
a relationship. That is a relationship. And it's
very real. It's very, very real. The problem the church had in
Ephesus was that she left her first love. Did she know it? No. No. When you go back and you read
that, she's doing everything right, but she neglected him. She neglected
him. You know this even in your marriages.
Kids come along, you get busy, and you're going this way or
that way, and you neglect each other. And then one day the kids
grow up and they leave and you look at each other and say, who
are you? You got so busy? You just, you listen to this church. He
said, I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and
how thy fests not bear them which are evil. And thou hast tried
them which say they are apostles, and they are not, and thou hast
found them liars. Thou hast borne trials and troubles and heartaches
over the gospel. And for my name's sake, you've
labored. It's been a labor of love, and you've not fainted.
But here's the problem." He said, I have a problem. After reading
that, you've got a problem? Yes. Your heart has left me. Your affections have left me. You know, we can do the right
things like Martha in the kitchen preparing, and we forget that
we need to be married if we have to sit at His feet and learn
of Him. This union that we have In Christ, it's very, very real.
It's very, very real. We're not just coming here and
going through emotions and doing some religious things and...
No. No. The one thing that makes worship,
worship, is to stand in admiration of Him. It's standing in admiration
and love and awe of Him. After our Lord's resurrection,
what was one of his first concerns? His relationship with Peter.
Peter, do you love me? It was that heart relationship
between him and Peter. Peter, do you love me? One time, my grandson laid his
head on my chest when he was just a little fella. Well, he's
still just a little fella. He just turned ten. He was about
four years old. And he was listening to my heartbeat. He got fascinated with that.
He was listening to my heartbeat. And I thought, if you only knew,
if you only knew how I felt for you, boy, if you only knew what's
going on in here for you, Oh, you'd be astounded. Son, you'd
be astounded. And if we only knew, and we can
know more than we know, how much the love of God is for us in
Christ, we'd be astounded. We'd be astounded. We seek Him more often than we
do. More often. It's so easy to get caught up
in doing, and I don't know if I ought to call it religious
things, but it's so easy to get caught up in doing those things
and neglect Him. It's easy to do that. It's so
easy to indoctrinate that we forget to sit at His feet. Our Lord always spent time, when
He walked on this earth in the flesh, He always spent time alone
with His heavenly Father. He'd pray all night. He'd pray
all night. You know, prayer is communion
with God. It's not us informing God, it's
communion with Him. That's what it is. It's speaking
to our Father. It's communion with our Father.
It's not informing. It's communing. And I learn to
do that all the time. All the time. It's our relationship
with Christ that makes the doctrine sweet or cold. How's my relationship
with Him? I can tell, I can tell right
now, as some of the years have gone by, But I can tell in a man's preaching,
if he has spent more time with John Gill than he has with the
Lord. You can tell the difference. When they noticed the boldness
of the disciples, you know what they noticed? You know what they
said? They noticed that they had been
with Jesus. With Jesus. With their King. With their Master. Now I have John Gill's commentaries
and I like them. I don't use them nearly as much
as I used to, but I like them. But I've learned right here,
this commentary on the Bible is the Bible. If you need an understanding
of it, only God can really give it. Only God can really give
it. Paul said this in Philippians
3, or that I might know him and the power of his resurrection.
That I might know him more and more. When was the last time, and I
ask myself this question. These are things I've asked myself.
When was the last time my heart burned when I heard the gospel
preached? You went home, and I tell you,
you just... I can say this over the years
when I sat under my pastor. The preaching, the effect that that preaching
had on me, it made me, when I went home, I wanted to read more,
I wanted to pray more, and walk. and walk in a way that was pleasing
to God. Preaching, I believe it's under
the power of God's Spirit, has that effect on you. You're never
the same. You'll never be the same. When I walked with those men
on the road to Emmaus, they said, Did not our hearts burn within
us when he spoke with us? Lord, speak. Speak. What's the cause of this problem?
What's the cause? This church had here in Ephesus. Well, one of the things I believe
is something else takes our affection. It may just be the work that
we're doing that takes it. We're so engulfed in it, we forget
the one we're doing it for. That's why Paul said in Colossians
3, set your affection there on things above. Right where it
sits, at God's right hand. Set your affection there. Set
your affection where you're going. Set your affection on things
above. Solomon said, Son, give me thine
heart. Give me thine heart. Set your
heart. But set your heart on him. And here's another one. Becoming
independent. Becoming independent. I know
a couple that divorced. And I watched them over a period
of years. I watched them become independent
of each other. She started going her way, doing
things in her job, and he was going his way, doing his thing
in his job. And they went like this. Christ said, without me,
you can do nothing. And we have to remember that. We can never do anything independent
of Him. It's not that we can't do it.
Can't do it. It's not possible. Always dependent on Him. And
then out of sight, out of sight, out of mind. Our Lord rose from
the dead, spoke to His disciples, and they didn't see Him for a
few days. And Peter, you know what Peter said? I'm going fishing. I'm going fishing. And you know
what those other disciples said? Okay, we're going with you. Be
careful who you follow. Peter said, I go fishing. And
they said, let me go with you. And the next one they ran was
on the shore and turned around and said, Peter, do you love
me? Do you love me? We say in our wedding vows, to
love and to cherish. Is that my experience with Christ? To cherish Him? To love? To love
and to cherish Him? Do I cherish Him? Above everything! Above everything. Oh, to cherish Him. How do we
repair this? How do we repair this? Well,
He says in verse 5, Remember! That word means reflect. Reflect. Remember, therefore, from whence
thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first verse, or else
I'll come to thee and quickly remove the candlestick. But remember,
reflect, consider Him again, and repent from whence you've
fallen. Return. Fall in love again. Fall in love
again. You know, we believe anew every
day. Every day we wake up, we believe anew, don't we? Every morning we wake up. We
believe. Fall in love again. One of the
best things couples can do is go back to the beginning. Go
back to where you He said, remember from which you are falling. Where did they fall from? Him.
They were just so caught up in what they were doing. Their affections were up on other
things instead of Him. And they were scared to know
Him. I've studied to know Him. I've learned this, and it's something
that took me time to learn. I don't study to preach anymore.
I don't study to get a message. I used to, I'd look and realize
I'd been looking for a message. I study now just to feed, to
feed on the Word of God, and that I might know Him. And messages develop out of that. I tell you, it makes a difference
when you're approaching the Word of God. Study to know him. Peter said, be ready to give
an answer to them that ask of the hope that you have in you.
You be ready to give an answer. And then sit at his feet again
and admire him. Sit at his feet again and admire
him. Think upon him. He hasn't changed. He hasn't changed. And let us never question His
love for us. Let us never question His love.
You say, I don't do that. I bet you if you ever go through
a real hard trial, you will. If you ever go through a real
difficult time, You'll find out what's still in there. I tell
you, you'll find out more about what's in you through hard clouds than
you'll find out any other way. You'll think, man, I didn't realize
that was still there. It's still there. It's still there. And pray. Talk to Him. Commune with Him. We need to
learn how to communicate. Most marriages break down from
lack of communication. And if there's anything this
human race is probably the worst at, it's communication. And then meditate on him. Meditate
on him. Let me close with this scripture
over in Malachi chapter 3. Malachi chapter 3. Meditate on
him. Look at verse 16. Then they that
feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened,
and he heard it. And a book of remembrance was
written before him for them that feared the Lord and that sought
upon his name. Meditate. Think upon it. Think
upon it. And they shall be mine, saith
the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels. And
I will spare them as a man spares his own son that serves him." My great concern is my relationship with the Lord
Jesus Christ. I want that to be right. I want
that to be right. That's what I want. Alright.