Would you join me tonight in
the book of Revelation chapter 2, chapter 2. Revelation chapter 2. These chapters 2 and 3 have the
message that God sent through his son the Lord Jesus to seven
churches of Asia and particularly as it shares with us in the first
verse under the angel or the pastor of that church under the
angel of the church at Ephesus. Now, yes, this letter is to the
church at Ephesus, but directly through the pastor. Uh, it is
interesting that oftentimes as the pastor, so goes the church
and it's not usually the other way around. So I have heard of,
I have seen where pastors have come in with new ideas and have
changed a church, and the church just thought that they were doing
the best, and it wasn't actually the best thing. So the responsibility
lies here, and as much life in me, I want to guard this place
very much. And that's what I keep hearing
from Uh, those of you that love the ministry here is guard that
place guarded. And, uh, Charles Spurgeon had,
um, several people in his pulpit that it was his business. And I have trouble enough just
being with one church, but he shouldn't have had, he shouldn't
have had, they were famous people, but they shouldn't have been
in his pulpit. They didn't even know the gospel. that they were
American and he wouldn't pay respect. Well, let's look here
at this first entry in this second chapter with regard to the church
at Ephesus. Now, I want us to remember what
we heard read in the Bible class on Sunday, that verse, for he
himself knew what he would do. I put that over Genesis 1-1 in
my Bible. I just want to remember that
verse of scripture wherever I go. He himself knew what he would
do. Now, it is this the King of Glory, it is this the High
Priest of the people, it is this the Chief Shepherd that is holding
up here in verse 1. He is the one that holds the
seven stars in his right hand. He's the one that is supporting
the pastors. And that is the only way that
there will ever be any spiritual success. And I'm not talking
about numbers, I'm talking about spiritual success is that when
God holds up the pastor. Now the people pray for the pastor,
and the people support the pastor, and the people love the pastor,
and I appreciate that. I appreciate your love. I appreciate
your care. But if I could not feel that
the Lord was supporting me here, it would be a terrible place
to be. It would not be a comfortable
place to be. In fact, the people that stand
in this place and do not feel like they're being supported
by the Lord, they need to sit there. That's what they need
to do. So they need to step out and
sit there for a while. I'll never forget the instructions
as Todd Nybert shared with me. A young fellow came to his church
and he said, brother Todd, I feel the call to preach. So he called
up his pastor, the boy's pastor, he was attending college there,
and said, should I have him speak? He says, oh my, no, we don't
want to ruin him. Let him sit a while, let him
sit a while, let him sit a while. Don't ruin him by putting him
in the ministry. Now, if he can sit there, that's
good. If he can't sit there and keeps
persisting, You know, well, then that's the Lord, and he'll support
him. He'll support him. All right,
he says here that, under 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. And I just love that view, that
picture that we have here as the Lord moving in and among
his people, in the hearts of his people, And then he is also
the one that walks beside his people. He is the guide of his
people. He's the guide of the church.
And it is he that gives the direction to the church. We never want
to get in the position of our judges today and start legislating. We're not at legislators. We
don't create laws. We're not creating doctrine.
We have a book full of it. It's all of our time spent in
just following this book. We don't have to create anything.
So it's very clear, and I like that passage of scripture about
the simplicity of the gospel. It just makes it so simple to
follow the guidebook of it. And stay right there. So he's
walking among the seven golden candlesticks or among the seven
churches. He walks among his churches. That passage of scripture
where two or three are gathered together in my name, there will
I be in the midst of them. He's with one, all his people
are always covered. But where two or three, there's
a special capacity that the Lord fills when two or three are gathered
together for fellowship and worship and for the preaching of the
gospel and sharing of the gospel and that capacity. God is so
pleased to bless his people when they assemble together, even
in the twos or the threes. and how he blesses there. He
walks among them. He cares for them. The oversight
is in his hands. And then we find in verse two,
the wonderful knowledge that God has. You know, sometimes
here we've had, I have an unspoken request. You know what? I know thy works. I know you. We don't have to speak out loud
to have God informed. I know you. I know your works.
I know all about you. I know you Ephesians. I know
what's going on in your town. I know the plight you're in.
I was reading this afternoon therefore Paul was wanting to
say a word and for two solid hours the whole town was saying
great is Diana of the Ephesians. Can you imagine for two hours
a town chanting that? And here's Paul up there wanting
to say a few words to him. for two hours. It was a place. Ephesians was
a place. I mean, it was sold to idolatry
and paganism. And the real problem that Paul
faced there was he was saying that God is a God not made with
hands. And the silversmiths who were
creating the idols for Diana were in a dither because they
were losing profits. And so they bring these charges
up against the Apostle Paul. We also remember that it was
the Apostle Paul, as he was headed for Jerusalem, he sent for the
elders of the Church of Ephesus to come and meet with him, and
he had a blessed time with them, and they wept when he left, but
he did say, you know, preach the gospel, preach the gospel,
preach Christ. For there is going to be grievous
wolves enter in, not respecting the flock. And he just told him
what was going to happen. Well, here in the book of Revelation,
we read a little bit about what they were bringing in to the
church at Ephesus. And it just says, Sovereign Grace
Assembly, Sovereign Grace Baptist Church, be careful. Watch and
pray. Be on alert. Don't let your guard
down because there are people that would love to come in and
bring their doctrine with them. And silence is the only true
defense. I will invite anybody into the
house of the Lord, but they'll not speak. Let them sit and listen,
let them listen. All right, it says here, thou
hast born, 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 that they are apostles and are not and
has found them liars and has born and has patience and for
my namesake has labored and has not fainted. Well, that sounds
so good and it is complimentary. Sounds good. You've just served
and served and served and served. Now, how many have a real silver
dollar at home? The old cartwheel. How many have
one? Do you have one? All right. How
many have an Ike dollar? Okay. Pull out one of the silver
dollars. Now, don't pull out the proof
one. Pull out one and hit it with
another coin. Now there's a melody. I mean,
not a melody, but a tone. It is so clear. It is just so
clear. Now turn it and do the same thing
to the Eichdaller. It goes clunk. It doesn't have
the same resonance. It doesn't have the same beautiful
tone to it. Now they appear to be able to
buy the same thing, but one of them is made of silver and the
other one is made of some composite material, copper and all the
other stuff that they've ruined our money with, and one of them
has a clear tone and one of them doesn't. And it doesn't matter
how much effort went into the creation of either one of them,
it's the tone that comes out that's important. And that's
what we find with regard to this church at Ephesus. They were
working and laboring and appearing to have everything going their
way, and the Lord God Almighty shares this. I have someone against
you. And when a church has this charge
against them, as it shares with us in verse four. The rest is
pitiance. The rest is infinitesimal. The rest could go out the door. The rest isn't worth the meeting
over. The labor and the work and all
the trivial stuff is not worth it if the charge is you've lost
your first love. The rest, let's turn it around. If you have the first love, then
the rest will just be in its position. But if you forgot the
first love and you've let the first love slip, then all of
the other labor is ridiculous. As it says, 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 yet, it
tells us in verse four, here's the charge I have. You forgot
your first love. Now, I was thinking there, what
is that? What is that? And how could you
lose it? Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of Galatians. Would you turn with me to the
book of Galatians chapter 1? Galatians chapter 1. As we think
about this, he says, Nevertheless, I am somewhat against thee, because
thou hast left thy first love. Now the first love is not soul
winning, the first love is not Bible study, the first love is
not all the things that people think about. The first love is
Christ and his word and the gospel. That's our first love, is Christ. Now he generates that love in
our soul for him. He does, he generates that. He
creates that love in our soul to love him. And he said, you
forgot your first love. Now notice over here in the book
of Galatians chapter one, the apostle Paul in writing to the
churches of Galatia. Says this in verse six, I marvel
that ye are so soon removed from him. Now, that really struck
me when we was going through the book of Galatians, from him.
Now, that's the whole crux of the matter. All your patience
and work and service and discovering apostles that are not apostles
and all the other religious paraphernalia doesn't mean a thing if you have
forgot him. if you've left Him, if you've
stood up to Him. It says there, I marvel that
you are so soon removed from Him that called you into the
grace of Christ and to another gospel, which is not another,
but they are some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel
of Christ. But though we or an angel from
heaven preach any other gospel, Now there, oh, this is the crux
of the matter. This is the whole crux of the
matter. There may only be two or three, but never forget this
most valuable, most valuable part. This is primary. This is not secondary. It does
not follow. This does not follow labor and
patience. This does not follow service. This does not follow door to
door. This does not follow witness. This does not follow prayer. This follows nothing. This is
the most valuable, most interesting, and the crux of the whole matter,
and this is the issue that Jesus Christ brought up to the church
at Ephesus and brings up to us every time we have a service.
What is it? He says, I marvel that you've
so soon been removed from him that called you. Now he says
in verse eight, but though we are an angel from heaven preach
any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto
you, let him be accursed. Now that's serious. And in essence,
that's what the Lord Jesus Christ is sharing with the church at
Ephesus, because he said, unless you repent, I will remove your
very authority to stand where you are. Now I know this. Jesus Christ shared this with
the apostle Peter. He said upon this rock, I will
build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against
it. Now, the day that Ephesus died,
the day they quit preaching the gospel, the day that God said,
I'm through with that place, you know what it was a sign of?
All the sheep were saved. Because he's not going to leave
one of them unpreached to. All of them were saved. And that
church died. They forgot their first love.
And if they did not repent, now you can't find the church at
Ephesus today. It'd be wonderful to go there and have them say,
you know, our favorite book is the book of Ephesians. Paul wrote
that to us 2,000 years ago, and we still love it. But you can't
go there now. But there are churches that you
can go to, and they will say to you, the book of Ephesians
is about wore out in our Bible. We love it because God sent it
to us through the Apostle Paul and we love what it has to say
about how people are saved. We have discovered by his grace
that people are saved by grace and not by works. And he had
an interest in us before the foundation of the world to do
that very thing. Turn with me if you would. to
the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 23. 1 Corinthians
chapter 1 verse 23. I don't know how many times in
the New Testament the Apostle Paul uses this type of language,
and this is exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ is finding
an accusation against the church at Ephesus. You forgot your first
love. You've left your first love.
When that happens, all the works that may go on, all the services,
Bible studies, everything else is null and void. They're worthless
if you don't have this. You can talk about the law, you
can talk about morals, you can talk about family living, you
can talk about marriage, you can talk about all the other
stuff that people come up with, but if you don't have this, you
don't have the powder to blow anything away. I mean, it's worthless. It's worthless. It just turns
into a sorority. It turns into a business club. It turns into one of these clubs
that are downtown. That's all it turns into if you've
left this. This is the difference. This
is the difference. Now, notice here, 1 Corinthians
1, verse 23, the Apostle Paul, again, was used to write this,
but we preach Christ. crucified. And that's what he
preached. We preach Christ crucified under
the Jews' stumbling block and under the Greeks' foolishness.
And then in chapter 2 and verse 2, we read these words, for I
determine not to know anything among you. save Jesus Christ
and him crucified. That's the crux of the matter.
If you have that, you're going to have doctrine. If you have
that, you're going to have the Lord's Supper and you're going
to have baptism. You're going to have the valuable things,
but if you don't have Christ, these other things are hollow,
tinkling dollars. They look valuable, but really,
it's just a bunch of tin thrown together. If all we have is prayer
and Bible study and morality and, and, and, and leave Christ
out, we become a tinkling bell and a clattering trumpet. No clear sound. Christ is the
value. Christ is the most important.
We cannot, we must not ever leave our first love. He is the one
that has created love in us for him, and we cannot, we must not
ever leave that. When we have people in our pulpit
that don't believe the gospel, we're allowing that to creep
in, and it won't be long, and it won't be long. Oh, let's just
shut it off. We can't have it, can't have
it. I'll never forget a pastor friend of mine, when he was gone
from his church one time, had a Camelite preacher come in and
fill in for him, a friend of his. Do you know what Camelites
are? Church of Christ, baptismal regeneration. My goodness sakes alive. There's
nothing between Sovereign Grace and Campbellism that's alike. They will insist on the King
James Version and that's about it. You just can't do that. Turn with me if you would to
Ephesians chapter 3. Ephesians chapter 3 and verse
8. As we think about this you forgot, You've left. Oh, let's keep this in forefront. In our generation, let's keep
this in the forefront. We can't protect the next. That's
going to be up to Dan. His generation. But in our generation, let's
keep this in the forefront. Let's make this the most important.
This is those four things that have to agree. The music has
to agree with the message, has to agree with the methods, have
to agree with the motive, has to agree. You can't have bad
music and good motives and good preaching. It just can't agree
that way. We have to have them all agreed,
straight line, straight arrow on everything. The motive, numbers,
that doesn't fit the rest of it. faithfulness to God, preaching
Christ in him crucified, and hearing the Lord speak to Paul
and say, you know, I have much people in this city. And that's
one reason we're here. Right here. There's someone somewhere
here in this city that needs to hear the gospel. Now I do,
I trust you do, but there's some lost sheep of the house of Israel
here. Yeah, they're here. All right, here in the book of
Ephesians, Ephesians chapter three, verse eight, unto me who
am less than the least of all the saints is the grace given
that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches
of Christ. most important, most valuable.
Every message has to have that as the heart and the core. It
must be. That must be the lock, the stock,
and the barrel of the message. Every verse of scripture we ever
want to use in anything, the first thing we want to do is
head to Christ with that. Take it to Christ. He has to
be the heart and the core. He has to be the beginning and
the ending. He has to be the Alpha and Omega. He has to be
our first love. That's the most valuable thing
that we could enjoy is having Christ as the heart and center
and core. Philippians chapter 3 and verse
8. Philippians chapter 3 and verse
8, we have here this wonderful passage about Lord Jesus Christ
again and the value of him as it is recorded over there. The
apostle John was used to write this letter to the Ephesians
and he had to share that. He said there in verse 4, nevertheless,
I have someone against you because thou has left thy first love.
You know, you drop the great big L on Lord Jesus Christ. You drop the big C on Christ. You drop the big J on Jesus. You start dropping those, and
it can be done by emphasis, you know. Oh, he's Lord, you know. In most things, he's Lord. You've
left your first love. He needs to be the Alpha and
Omega. He needs to be the Lord Jesus
Christ. Master. Sovereign. King. Use those words. The Lord God
Almighty. Use them. Oh, that's the center,
heart, and core of our message, is a Savior that saves, actually
saves. A Redeemer that actually redeems
his people. A king that has a kingdom and
rules it well, a master who has his servants and treats them
with all graciousness. All right, here in the book of
Philippians chapter 3, verse 8, we read these words, yea,
doubtless I count all things but loss. for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things and do count them but done, but that
I may win Christ and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness, which is of God by faith, that I may
know him." Oh, that is just... That's a prayer for every morning.
Oh, that I may know him. I may know him. And then he goes
on to say there that I may know him in the power of his resurrection. Now, how do we know that? It
takes the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the tomb to
raise us from a cold, dark slab of sin that I might know him
in the power of his resurrection. What's that mean? In the power
of his regeneration. In the power of his resurrection.
In the power of his salvation. in the power of him working in
me, both to will and to do of his good pleasure, that I might
know him in that capacity, and then it goes on to say there,
and in the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable
unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
from the dead. What a plea, what a desire the
Holy Spirit put in the Apostle Paul to put on print so we could
read it and say, Oh God Almighty, help me with my first love. Help me with my relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ. May he be the heart and core
and center of all my salvation. I love what David had to say
in his last words. It's all my hope and all my salvation. He is. He had a love for him.
Not a sinner man. He was a sinner man, just like
the rest of us. But in his closing days, closing
hours. He is all my hope, and he's all
my salvation. He was the heart and core. His
love was continuous, even in old age. He was the heart, core,
center, the very, very center. Now, turn with me, if you would,
over to the book of 1 Timothy, chapter 1. Now, this is what
we have to be careful of. We know what it is. First love. But this is what we have to be
careful of. And you know, the world is so prone to do this
to God's people. First Timothy, chapter one. First Timothy, chapter one. And there in verse four, it says,
neither give heed to fables. This is where we have to be careful.
We know what we need. We know the value. We know Christ. We know preaching Christ. We
know what it can do. Preaching Christ changed lives.
Preaching Christ raises people from the dead. Preaching Christ
brings in the lost sheep. Preaching Christ changes us.
Preaching Christ gives us a view about this world that we can
say, I'm not going to worry too much about what's going on because
I trust Christ. But here's what the apostle Paul
said, I'm warning you, this is what they are going to try to
do. This is what they're going to try to enter in with. He says
there in first Timothy chapter one, verse four, he says, neither
give heed to fables and endless genealogies. No, those Jews just
said, well, I've got my father Abraham. And you know what? They could
trace it right back. They had their books. It was
so valuable to them. And he says here, Don't give
heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions rather
than godly edifying which is in faith. So do 2 Timothy 2 and
verse 23. Be on guard. All the endless
questions and worthless questions. Nobody minds answering a good
question. But some questions just don't
even warrant an answer. Just don't warrant. Here in 2
Timothy, beyond guard, chapter 2, verse 23, but foolish and
unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. Want to talk about Christ? We
can talk about Him. Want to talk about foolishness?
I just saw in the paper the Blazers were doing pretty well. I don't
know what they are or not. There's sometimes it's just not
worth talking about, getting into discussion. I was relating
to someone the other day, yesterday, yesterday, one of the men I had
coffee with is talking about a religious group that has come
to visit him and I says, you know, I used to Nancy and I were
first married and living in an apartment there in Medford. Our
landlady was one of those religious groups and she took me down blood
transfusions and saluting the flag and all that stuff. Now,
I didn't even know Christ. And I took the trip. But after
it was all over with, I said, I'll never do that again. I'm
not going to get in a discussion about saluting the flag. I'm
not going to get in a discussion about giving blood transfusions. I told a man this afternoon,
a lady told me one time she was out hanging her clothes on a
line, and at one of the clothesline posts, she looked up and there
was Jesus, big bright face, and started speaking to her. And
I says, what do you say about that? I said nothing, because
you can't argue with it. You just can't argue with it.
Now when someone sees Christ, they won't have the problem. This is how he still speaks to
us right here out of this book. Now, people see what they want
to see, and I'm not going to argue about it. I'm not going
to argue about saluting the flag, and I'm not going to argue about
whether it be a hell or not. The value is what think ye of
Christ. The rest of it's sorted out then.
When God saves his people, the rest is sorted out. By golly,
there is a hell, and I'm not going. And Christ is all-valuable. It
says here, 2 Timothy 2, verse 23, but foolish and unlearned
questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. The servant
of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt
to teach patience, meekness, and so forth and so on. So that's
our value. Watch out, though. Don't be caught
in this trap. Don't be caught here like this,
trying to prove a point. Christ is the most valuable.
Now, when you have Christ, you have doctrine. But when you have
doctrine, you've missed the point. Christ is our doctrine. He is
our teaching. And he had all to say about all
that's necessary. Yes, church is important. Yes,
Lord's Supper is important. Yes, baptism is important. Yes,
this is important. That's important. But you can
have all those things and still have God charge you with, thou
hast left thy first love. Staunch on the doctrine of this
and staunch on the doctrine of that and have left your first
love. And he said, Paul said, and he's
just speaking for the church. He realized, and so does the
church, I preach Christ and Him crucified. And woe is me if I
preach not Christ, and all those other verses. Titus, would you
turn there with me? Titus chapter three, and there
in verse nine. Again, he's speaking here to
avoid some things. Don't get involved in some things,
but avoid foolish questions. Did Adam have a navel? Now that's
one that's been discussed. Or how many angels can sit on
a pin? Or did Jesus actually own his
garment? You know, such things as that. There was an entire council called
over those last two. And these guys got together to
discuss how many angels could sit on a pin and how did Jesus
actually own his garment. And the ones who wanted wealth
said he did. And the ones who declared poverty
said, no, he didn't. Endless questions, stupid, foolish
things. Now here it says, Titus chapter
3, verse 9 says, but avoid foolish questions and genealogies and
contentions. And what? Strivings about the
law. Someone brings up, I believe
in the law. You know, we're at the wrong point here. We need
to back up on this point. Because someone says, I believe
in the law, and I believe in following the law. We have missed
the point altogether. We need to back up to Christ. That's the issue here. My goodness,
someone says that. They missed the first point.
We're not going to even discuss this. The Christ is the most
important. And then Christ will show us how to live. Christ is
our manner of life. He is our example. He's the one. His Holy Spirit is powerful.
It's powerful. He is powerful. Don't ever underestimate
the power of one billion, trillion, zillion, million atom bombs in
the person of the Holy Spirit. He can shake our boots up right
where we are. He's powerful. He can apply the
word and divide even to cut to even the dividing of center of
soul and spirit. He can work and he can go where
we can't go. So Holy Spirit, it's yours. strivings about the law, they
are unprofitable in vain. A man that is a heretic after
the first and second admonition. There's the door. Be quiet or
leave. Be quiet or leave. Sit down and
listen or leave. It's a gift to listen. It's a
gift. God's gift to us to listen to
his word. Jude, would you turn with me?
Jude, verse four. I love this verse of scripture. This is what it is. People that
come in, those wolves, grievous wolves that came in, you know
what the first thing they want to do is they wanted to remove
grace from the vocabulary. That's the first thing they want
to do. Or, if they want to use grace, they want to use a little
g. That's the first thing they want
to do. Get rid of that. Speak ill of that. Lessen that. Don't let it be free and sovereign
grace. It's grace, but we have a participatory
part in it. Now here, notice this, for there
are certain men crept in unawares. Now, I believe from what we read
here, Jude had a desire to write about Christ. He says he wanted
to write about a common salvation. Well, there's only one commonality
between all people that God has ever saved, and that's who saved
them. There's our commonality. But it was imposed upon him. You've got to write about this.
This is necessary. He says, for there are certain
men crept in unawares who were before of Orald ordained to this
condemnation. Now, I've heard of government
agencies hiring people in their agency to go and see if they
could talk people into breaking the law so they could arrest
them. You know, they're just testing
us. They're testing people. They're testing their own people.
Oh, some of you knew that preacher down in Portland that used to
be there, Ralph Doty. He got a job one time of going
into, what was the upstart computer
company? I can't even think of it, but
any, Microsoft. And he was hired to go in and
see how far he could go without getting stopped. So he went down
and bought him a cheap lab coat, got himself a clipboard with
a notebook on it, and started going up to thermostats. And
he got into the heart and core of that company with his clipboard, lab notebook, and
a pen checking the thermostats. Now when he's got through, he
was paid $150 or something like that, which was big money then,
and there were about 25 people were fired over that. Now he's paid to do that. Now
this is what these guys are. They've come in. Notice this.
They've come in. They've been appointed to this.
They've been ordained of old to this condemnation. Ungodly
men. test men. They're test men. They're test men. God sends them. They're checkers, ordained of God to do this very
thing. What's it say? They have certain
men crept in awares who were before ordained to this condemnation,
ungodly men, and the first thing they suggest is, it's not really
grace, turning the grace of our God
into lasciviousness. The first thing, that's it. If
we can get them soft on this issue, then we have won the battle.
Oh, my. The Lord said to the church at
Ephesus, I have somewhat against thee. Thou hast listened to my
testers, and you've lost. Now, you have this option. Get
rid of them. Get them out. Kick them out. Remove them. Put them away. Tell them to shut up. Whatever
is necessary. Repent is what he says. Repent. How are you going to do that
with these guys in there? Get rid of them. Get them out
of their offices. Get them out of the pulpits.
Get them out. Get them out. Get them out. Tell them to shut
up. Sit them down. If they'll stay and be quiet,
okay. But if not, get them out. Why? because they'll turn the
grace of our God into lasciviousness. And I don't believe that's just
sexually immorality. There's a whole lot said in the
Old Testament about spiritual immorality, which is far worse. I like what Rupert had to say
about that whole thing. There's a whole lot more sinning
going on Sunday morning than there is Saturday night. When preachers stand up in the
pulpit and lie about God and say that grace is not effectual
and God doesn't try to do, he's trying to do something but can't
get it done, they're lying on God and that's more sin than
what happened the night before in the bars. So he says, turning
the grace of our God into lasciviousness and then denying the only. Now notice this. Denying Jesus
no Denying the only Lord God. What's that mean? He's not sovereign
He's not sovereign, I don't know where you got that idea oh We
just don't read Romans 8 or 9 10 or 11, but he's not sorry we
don't read Ephesians 1 but he's not sovereign and turning the
grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God. If that was translated, we'd
have sovereign Lord, sovereign King, sovereign. Denying the
only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. What does that mean?
Denying the effectiveness of Jesus Christ's death on the cross. Denying the gospel, denying the
whole scheme of God, denying his purpose before the foundation
of the world, denying everything about him. Oh, he loves everybody. That's what this means. Denying
the grace of God and denying the Lord God and denying the
only Lord Jesus Christ. That he is not king, that he
is not savior, that he is trying and we know where it leads to.
And that's where it just leads to. And pretty soon you have,
well, we have Bible study, and we have visitation, and we're
staunch for the doctrines of the Lord, and we're staunch,
and we're staunch, and we're staunch. But Jesus told the church
at Ephesus, I have someone against thee. And that is, you've taken
Jesus Christ and made him little J, and little L and little G,
and you've removed him from his high place. And I have someone
against you. You've lost your first love.
You've left your first love. Now there's a few in that church,
and hopefully, when that message got to the pastor, he said, oh
my goodness, oh my goodness sakes. He wept in sackcloth and ashes. He went to his study and said,
oh my. He started going over his messages
and says, you know, he's right. I've been, I failed the people. I didn't want to be offensive,
but I failed the people. He said, I just, I got soft. Got soft. And the next Sunday
he stood up in his pulpit and says, I failed you. But from
this day forward, you can check my notes. We're going to preach
Christ and him crucified. And then the deacons got together
and said, you know, I don't really like what he's preaching now.
I just don't like it. And the pastor got up and says,
you're fired. Now you can sit down and shut
up, or you can leave. But this is the message that's
going to be here. And then they voted him out, and he started
another group. It happens. It happens. All over
it happens. I have several pastor friends
that are pastoring the splits. People didn't want to hear the
gospel, so he left and a whole bunch of people left with him.
Rupert Rivenbart pastoring a split. They didn't want to hear the
gospel. A bunch of them left. He didn't leave. Brother Henry,
he pastored a church for 52 years. They didn't want that gospel
preached in their pulpit. So he left and a bunch of people
left with him. So that's just him. I'm sorry,
Lord. I haven't been preaching like
you admonished me to preach. From this day forward, we're
going to. And then the ruckus starts. If it's allowed to start
for a while, go on for a while, the ruckus will be there. And
people are either going to leave or there's going to be a split.
And I want to read. My time is up.
I realize that. But Jeremiah chapter 9. Jeremiah chapter 9, verse 23
and 24. Boy, that's not it. Yes, this is it. Jeremiah chapter 9 verses 23
and 24, Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in
his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might. Let not
the rich man glory in his riches, but him that glorieth glory in
this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord
who exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in
the earth. For in these things I delight, saith the Lord. Let
a man glory in this, the Lord Jesus, the King of glory. Rejoice in this. I pray that
there was a season, and we'll finish this letter to the Ephesians
next time, but that there was a time when that message got
to them, they said, oh my goodness, Lord, deliver us. Let's go back
to our first love. Let's go back to the first principles.
Let's go back to Christ. And that happened. We don't have
a record, but that's the encouragement of the Lord. I'm completely blessed
that the Lord would even send a letter to him in that condition.
Oh, how he loves his people. How he loves his people. How
he loves his church. How he loves us. How he wants
us to serve him. And he gives the grace to do
that. He just does. He gives the grace to do that.
And that we'd serve him and love him as our first love.