I'm actually taking as a text
Revelation chapter two verse seven. I want to speak to you
about the tree in paradise. And I'll go ahead and read this
one verse, and then I'm going to actually work on the first
seven verses of Revelation chapter two. But verse seven says, he
that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the
churches. to him that overcometh, that
is to him who has the victory, who is victorious, will I give
to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise
of God. That's where I want to go, is
the paradise of God, don't you? We studied this past Lord's Day
of that paradise into which God put Adam and Eve. It was a beautiful,
beautiful garden, and then specifically the paradise there. And Eden means delightful. We think of especially property
or that which is beautiful. We'll even use that word Eden. It's as beautiful as Eden. Well,
there is one place more beautiful and more glorious than Eden,
and that is the paradise of God. That is the paradise into which
our sister Pat has entered, and it is the paradise into which
the thief was taken by our Lord Jesus. Our Savior went into paradise. He said there in Luke chapter
23, today, he said to the thief, today thou shall be with me in
paradise. That's where the Lord went. That
is the Holy of Holies. That is the very presence of
God. And that's where the Savior went,
and that's where the thief on the cross went, that's where
our sister Pat went, and all of those who've departed in Christ,
that's where they all go, in the paradise. And there is in
that paradise a beautiful tree. It has all manner of fruits. And that sets forth the the wonders
and the graciousness of God that come to us through the substitutionary
death, that is the cross death of our Lord Jesus. Now this is
located, this verse is located, chapter two, verse seven, right
at the end of our Lord's words to one of the churches, one of
the seven churches of Asia Minor, which was Ephesus. Ephesus was
a very large city. It was a great economic city,
and it was an idolatrous city. Idols were everywhere, especially
the goddess Diana. And in the purpose of God, in
the providence of God, he sent a preacher there. He sent the
apostle Paul to Ephesus, and there he preached two years.
and God established a very solid gospel church. After that, some
say Timothy pastored there, some say John pastored there, certainly
John lived in that general area, but they had faithful preaching
for many years. This was a church that the Lord
established. This is one of his golden candlesticks. You'll notice that at the very
end of chapter one, John identifies what these seven candlesticks
were in the midst of which our Lord Jesus, he saw walking. He
said there were seven golden candlesticks. You see, every
local assembly is a golden candlestick. Golden, valuable, valuable. The world thinks very little
of a local church where the gospel of grace is preached, where the
Lord Jesus is exalted, where God is declared to be God indeed. The world thinks very little
of the local church. We're insignificant on the radar
of all religious establishments, but to God we're a golden candlestick. He has made us valuable. There's
nothing more valuable in this location, all around us. There's nothing more valuable
than that church that exists to set forth the gospel of the
Lord Jesus. We're of gold. We're the value
of gold to our God. What did it cost Him? It cost
Him His blood to redeem us, to buy us, to purchase us. The Lord has invested quite a
bit in us. In old eternity, He set us apart
and gave us to His Son. And then He sent His Son from
heaven's glory to die for us, to redeem us, as I've already
said. And then He sent us a preacher.
He sent somebody to tell us the truth. And then He established
this golden candlestick in this part of Boyd County. This is
valuable to him. And the church of Ephesus, the
Lord was so gracious and so merciful in the very midst of that idolatrous
area. Terribly idolatrous. With Diana
worship all around, God right down in the midst of Ephesus,
He established a work where Christ Jesus was magnified. Isn't that
marvelous? These were people who weren't
looking for the truth. They weren't out searching for
the gospel. It wasn't that they sought the
Lord. He sought them. And so it was the way this church
was established. As God brought together men and
women and young people that He had taken out of the world. People
to whom He instructed in the gospel and how He could be just
and justify the ungodly. And so every local assembly is
to God a golden, golden candlestick. We give off light. Light. The world is in darkness. All
of us by nature are in spiritual darkness. We've got to have light. And it's the light of the gospel
of the grace of God that illuminates us as the Spirit of God takes
the truth and puts it in our hearts. We're illuminated. And we then give off the light. We exist to set forth the light
of the gospel of the grace of God. And so as we get to Revelation
chapter 2, and the Lord is going to send, He's going to send seven
letters to seven individual churches. And the first one is Ephesus.
Now look at verse 1. Unto the angel of the church
of Ephesus write. Now who's the angel? preacher,
the pastor, that's who the angel is. John is the writer who writes
this. He's been exiled upon the Isle
of Patmos, as we well know, for the gospel of Christ Jesus, for
the word of his testimony, for the record that God had given
him, this glorious report of the Savior and the grace of God
to sinners through this blessed Savior. And so John receives
instruction from this glorified Christ And he says to John, now
take out your pen and your parchment, and unto the angel, unto the
preacher of the church of Ephesus, you write these things. You ready,
John? Write. These things saith he
that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand. who walketh
in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks." Now, the first
thing that the Lord wants the people of Ephesus to know And
the first thing that he would have us to know this evening
is the one who gives instructions to John to write this is the
one in whose hand are the seven stars, and among whom he walks
among the seven golden candlesticks, this is the one who gives the
instructions to John, and this is the one who gives him exactly
the words to write. He holds the seven stars in His
right hand. These are preachers. In themselves,
they're nothing. Make no mistake about that. In
themselves, they're nothing. They're weak, very frail. They're sinful men, just like
everybody else, but He's made them to be His stars, that is,
His messengers. And I'll tell you this, and I'm
honored to be one, but I'll say this to you. These particular
stars, those preachers of the gospel are way yonder more valuable
in this world than people realize, and they're more valuable than
the stars in the sky. Because we give off light. We
give off knowledge. The Lord takes a poor old worm
like me from Bassett, Virginia, nobody going nowhere, and teaches
me the gospel of His grace, and then as He teaches me, He has
educated me and instructed me, and He puts me in a position
to set forth the glories and the wonders and the beauties
of Christ Jesus to sinful men and women like you. And were it not for the fact
that He holds the stars in His hands, you know what these stars
would do? They'd fall. They'd be fallen
stars. He's the one who upholds us.
And He walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. Oh, blessed Savior, by Your Spirit,
walk in the midst of us tonight. Hmm. Be with us. Our meeting is vain
unless you meet with us. Walk here, would you, Lord? Walk here with us in Ashland,
Kentucky. And you know, by His Spirit,
He is with us. He said, where two or three are
gathered together in my name, I'll be in the midst. He is here. That makes every meeting special,
doesn't it? Makes it special. Oh, if he's here. Yeah, I want
you to be here and I'm thankful these folk to join us by way
of the internet. I appreciate them too. Although
there is one whose presence we cannot do without. That's his
presence. And he walks in the midst of
the golden candlesticks. And he writes to the church at
Ephesus first. He speaks to the church of Ephesus.
He begins by giving words of what I'll call commendation. Look at verse two. I know thy works, and thy labor,
and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are
evil, and that thou hast, you've tried them which say they are
apostles and are not. And you found them liars, and
hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake have labored,
and hast not fainted." These folks labored in the gospel.
They served the cause of Christ. They were patient when faced
with severe trials. Can you imagine what it would
have been like in Ephesus, an ungodly city, where idolatry
was all around? Not much different than the city
we live in. Because this is a city of idolatry. Every false Jesus that's preached. every false God that's preached.
They're just idols. They come forth from man's evil
and vile imagination. And here, these people, they
stand for the gospel. And our Lord commends them. Now,
indeed, all that they did and all that they suffered patiently,
they did because he gave them grace, but they did it. In other
words, they were responsible to labor, and they did. They
were responsible to work and to get the gospel out, and they
did. And they were responsible to
be patient, even in the midst of difficulties and trials, and
they were faithful. And our Lord commends them. He commends them that they could
not bear with that which was evil. They could not bear with
immorality, which is evil, and moreover, they could not bear
with spiritual evil, that is error. They were offended by
false religion. As they saw the idol to Diana,
and as they saw all of those who were serving this false goddess,
and other false gods as well, they were offended. And they
said, this is not right, this is evil. There is one God and
we must worship Him in spirit and in truth and we worship Him
through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. There's one God who rules. There's one God who reigns. There's
one God who created. There's one God who sustains.
There's one God who blesses. In Him we live and move and have
our being. There's one God. And all these
other gods, the Apostle Paul said, and then later Timothy
and John, when John preached there, they said, this is all
idolatry. And the saints of God said, Amen. And we detest false heresy. We detest false gospels. They
couldn't bear with it. And when other religions came
up to them and said, let's all get along. They said, no, we
can't get along. We're preaching a different God.
We're preaching a different Jesus by the power of a different spirit. No, we can't meet together because
we don't have anything in common except our own natural condition. That's all we've got in common,
but we've got a different message. Yours is a message of works.
Yours is a message of self-righteousness. Ours is a message of imputed
righteousness through Jesus Christ our Lord. You see, we can't get
along. They couldn't bear with those
that were evil. And it wasn't, I'm sure that
they were mean to them, but they just knew there could be no cooperation
with them. There could be no joining in.
After all, can two walk together except they be agreed? James
three, or excuse me, Amos 3.3 says that. And then it says in
verse two, you've put to the test, you have tried them which
say they are apostles. We're an apostle. But they aren't,
because they didn't have the message of the apostles. They didn't have the message
of Paul. They didn't have the message of John. They hadn't
seen the resurrected Christ. They hadn't been called by him
to preach the gospel. And he says, you've listened
to what they had to say, and then you've said, hey, you guys
are liars. That's pretty strict, right?
You're liars. He didn't just come out and say,
well, you know, I don't think you guys are telling it the way
you should tell it. He just said, you're liars. That
takes some boldness right there. It takes a little bravery. In
a city of idolatry, you talk with somebody you work with and
say, listen, your preacher's lying to you. It's not true what
he's saying. You found them liars. In verse
three, you born. You born whatever it is God put
upon you. And you've had patience in the
midst of your trials. Everybody's got troubles, we
know that. I don't know any child of God
who doesn't either themselves or somebody in their family have
some kind of troubles. The Savior said, in this world,
you don't have tribulation. Don't be shocked when you have
it. Don't be shocked when trouble comes knocking at your door.
And of course, when trouble knocks on the door, actually, he just
walks right on in. That's what trouble does. Don't
let it shock you. You're going to have that in
this world. But He said, you've been patient. And when the trouble
came, the trial came, you said, this is from my heavenly Father. He gave me this in His wisdom. And as I've said a bunch of times,
if there was a better road for me to be on, He'd have me on
it, because He loves me with all of His heart. And all the
things that touch me, all the things that have to do with me,
They all come ultimately from my heavenly Father. Lord, give us patience. The people
of Ephesus had patience. And he says this, and for my
namesake, for my namesake, for my glory, you've labored. You've labored in the gospel
and you hadn't fainted. Man. That's good commendation
there. You hadn't fainted. You hadn't
slowed down. You didn't quit. My, what a commendation. Notice
what he says in verse six. Here's something else they did.
There's another word of commendation. But this thou hast, thou hatest
the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate, Christ said.
Who in the world were the Nicolaitans? Well, they were people who believed
that the more you sin, the more you magnify the grace of God,
because God would forgive you if you sin. So the way to magnify
the grace of God, the way to make much of the grace of God
is just sin more. And the more you sin, the more
grace will abound. And the Lord says, you've hated
that, And I hate it too. No believer is ever looking for
an excuse to cover over his sin. All of us who are the people
of God, we hate sin. We hate it everywhere, especially
in ourselves. We hate our attitudes so much
of the time. We hate some of the thoughts
that we have. We hate our selfish motives. And it doesn't enter into our
minds, well, the more I sin, the more the grace of God will
be exalted. That never enters into our minds,
I hope. That's ungodly. And the Savior
says that He hates that. I don't want to love what He
hates. No, that's how Paul begins Romans
chapter six. Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? God forbid, that's what he says. God forbid. So there are words of commendation. But here's the second thing I
wanna show you. Here are words of caution. Words of caution. Verses four and five. Nevertheless, Notwithstanding these things
that I commend you about, nevertheless, I have somewhat against you. Our Lord, he sees more than the
action. These people were busy, zealous,
but he looks way deeper than the outside. He sees that which is within. He sees the heart. And he sees that some of these
people had left their first love. He saw a cooling off of their
love, in fact, a slow leaving of the love that some of them
profess to have for him. Now, let's establish this. That love for Christ which is
real, which is a gift of the Lord, it's a love that'll last
forever. He's not saying that you who
love me, you've left your first love and you're just gonna leave
it alone. You're gonna go back to the world.
No, that's not what he's saying at all. Because we know if God
had chosen us in grace, we're always vessels of mercy, right? We're always vessels of mercy.
If He's predestinated us into the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to Himself, we're always going to be His children. If
He's redeemed us by the bloody death of the Lord Jesus Christ,
we're always going to be redeemed. If He has regenerated us by His
Spirit, the Savior said, you must be born again. If we've
been born again, well, we're always gonna be born again. We
can't, we're not gonna be spiritually made alive and then spiritually
die. No, that's not gonna happen.
He's gonna preserve us and we're gonna persevere to the end. But
he is saying this, even among the people of God, and this love
that we have for the Lord Jesus, there can be a waning of that
love. That's very serious. The Savior
put it this way, thou hast let thy first love. You remember your first love
for the Savior. When you first saw your need
of Christ Jesus, and perhaps you were here preaching, perhaps
it was Brother Henry or Brother Bill, and you were listening
to the preaching, and then all of a sudden the Lord awoke to
your need, and you saw the Savior of needy sinners, and your heart
was made to rejoice, and you just fell in love with Him, and
you went into the baptismal waters, and you were just thrilled to
confess faith in the Lord Jesus. Remember that? That was your
first love. And remember when you were received
into the fellowship of the membership of a true church, a true gospel
church, and you were so thankful to say, I'm a member of 13th
Street Baptist Church, where the gospel of God's sovereign
grace is preached. Oh, God, thank you. Thank you
for bringing me in. Remember that? Remember how you
were so anxious, so thrilled? Oh, how much you loved the truth.
And that first time, they passed that plate of bread in front
of you. And your heart was broken. You
said, Lord, you were broken for me. You shed your blood for me. And you took that little piece
of bread. And after the preacher prayed,
You put it to your lips and you chewed it and you said, Lord,
thank you for the bread of life. You remember that, wasn't it?
That's precious time, that first time. And then here, they pass
the wine. This is the blood of the New
Testament, which was shed for many, for the remission of sins.
And you put that wine to your lips and it was sweet and you
said, oh, how sweet the gospel is. Oh, how wonderful it was
for the Lord to call on me. That was your first love. And
you were so zealous. I mean, you just, at Sunday morning
services over, I'll see you tonight, preacher. And just, you kept
looking at your watch. Man, when will it be time for
that evening service? And Wednesday night. You loved Him with all your heart
and you were filled with a fervent spirit, a deep love for Christ. Your heart just throbbed for
the Savior. It was just a sincere desire
to consecrate yourself totally to the Lord. Lord, here's my
life, here's my money, here's my time, here's my job, here's
my family, here's my... Lord, it's all yours! I just
want Christ Jesus. Give me the Lord Jesus or I'll
die." That was your attitude. You loved Him so much for the
power by which He took you out of the kingdom of darkness and
put you into the kingdom of light. Nothing seemed too difficult
for your faith. And you were ready at all times
to tell anybody and everybody about the Savior. Your heart just burned within
you when you heard the Word of God. Like those two disciples
on the road to Emmaus. That's what they said, wasn't
it? Did not our hearts burn when He spoke to us the things of
the Scriptures and He opened our understanding? You remember
when the Word of God was full of life to you? You just couldn't
get enough preaching. That's the way it was with the
Ephesian brethren. But even though they were still
battling evil and still opposed to bad doctrine, something was
a little off. And nobody else perceived it
except that one who held the preachers in his hand and who
walked in the midst of the golden candlestick. That one who said, I, the Lord,
search the heart and try the reins. You're losing that first love. And all of us from time to time
are guilty of that. What's the reason for losing
or leaving that first love? And I'll say this, it rarely
happens all at once. It's ever so slowly, almost imperceptible
to the eyes of those around us, and maybe not even perceived
by ourselves. Why does it happen? Neglect of
Christ and His gospel. You begin to think about, I need
to do more. Let me tell you something. There's
nothing more important, nothing more important than what you're
doing right now. You want to do something? People
will tell you, I want to do something. Worship God. Come to the public
declaration of the Gospel. It's nothing more important than
that. No, I mean, give me a work to do. This is a work to do.
Would you honor God? Would you bless God? Would you
magnify the name of Christ Jesus? Assemble with other redeemed
sinners and bless the Lord for what He's done. And listen to
the Gospel. And why does it happen? We become a little indifferent
to the gospel. Other things begin to take priority. Priority. It used to be, I'm sure it didn't
this way with y'all, but it used to be, you know, with some people,
and I've seen it happen through the years. If company showed
up, before church time, said, well, come on, go to church with
us. Well, no, we just come to visit y'all. Well, just stay
right here at the house and we're gonna go worship God. We'll be
back a little while. Y'all just stay here, make yourselves
at home. But no, now, said, well, I don't wanna hurt him by his
feelings. I mean, they went to the trouble to come see me, so
surely the Lord will understand. Will he? Yeah, he understands.
Oh, you understand more than you know that there was something
more important. Or the world and the things of
the world, they get a strong hold on us. That happens for
sure. Well, what to do? Well, he tells
us what to do. Look what he says in verse 5.
Remember. Remember, repent. and do the
first works, go back to the beginning. Remember, therefore, from whence
you're fallen. Remember whose you are and what
you are. When I was a teenager going out, my mom and dad, that's
almost inevitably the last thing they'd say to me before I left
the house, and I'd think, why'd you have to say that to me again?
Remember whose you are and what you are. Huh, got to keep that
on my mind all the time. Yeah, it'll help guide you. Well,
we need to remember whose we are. When we're out there in
the world, let's remember whose we are. And before whose eyes
we walk, lest we bring any kind of reproach upon His name. He says, remember what the Lord's
done for you. Remember where He found you. He found you in the gutter, in
the gutter of sin. He lifted you out. Remember. John Newton, I got verse jotted
down here somewhere. But John Newton, one of his favorite
verses, Deuteronomy 15, 15. Look at it. And he loved this
verse so much, he had it printed out and he had it framed, hung
it up on a wall. Deuteronomy 15, 15. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the
land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee. Remember! Remember where you were! And
remember what He did for you. That's what the Lord is saying
back here to these folks at Ephesus in Revelation chapter 2. Remember. Remember from whence you're fallen
and repent. Repent, come back to the Lord. And do the first works. But here's
a word of threat, or else. Oh, we're really getting serious
now. When the Lord Jesus says, remember, repent, do the first
works or else, He's dead serious. He always is. Or else. He says the same thing to the
next church in verse 16. He says, repent or else I'll
come quickly and I'll fight against them with the word of my mouth
or else. That shows our responsibility
to straighten up. You remember when your mom and
dad was misbehaving and they said, if you don't straighten
up, you will straighten up or else Remember? I'd say, or else! And most times, that's all it
took. Or else. What's the threat? I'll come
quickly. And I'm going to remove your
candlestick out of its place, except you repent. I'm going
to take away the light. And you know, he's taken away
the light from many a local church, and they never even knew he was
gone. That's a sad thing. He's still going through the
motions. You know, Southern Baptist churches, you know, they were
founded in the truth of God's sovereign grace. Yeah, if they
go back and read their constitution, all that kind of good stuff,
and go back and read James Pettigrew Boyce, who was their chief theologian
in the Southern Baptist Seminary, sovereign grace, they got his
book in the office, and then they begin to depart
from the truth, The Lord took his candlestick
away. Oh, but churches keep on meeting. Don't even miss him. That's pretty bad when the Lord
leaves you and you don't even know he's gone. I hope that don't
ever happen here. But he gives this word, promise,
and I've got to hurry quickly in verse 7. Here's a word of
promise, verse 7. He that hath an ear, do you have
an ear? Do I have an ear? The hearing
ear and the seeing eye, the Lord gives them both. He that hath
an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
Lord, what do you have to say? To him that overcometh, who sticks
with it, who stays the course, This doesn't
mean you're perfect, you're far from it. You're perfect in Christ,
but you're not in the flesh. But you just keep to the truth. He says, I will give to eat of
the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of
God. Here's what this means. You keep holding on to the gospel.
It doesn't matter what people around you say. They're all talk. Don't let them bother you. Don't
let them affect you. Don't let them ruin things for
you. You just keep believing the truth,
going to hear the gospel, and when you leave this world, you're
going to paradise. And when you get into paradise,
you're gonna see, and this is symbolic, this tree is symbolic,
and I'm going to address this same subject this coming Lord's
Day from Revelation 22. The tree is symbolic. This is the Lord Jesus and His
substitutionary work upon the cross of Calvary. You're gonna
enter into paradise, and you'll see Him who is the tree of life. And that tree of life is in the
paradise of God. And that paradise of God has
a river coming from the throne of God. It's called the river
of God, the river of life, the love of God. And it flows through
heaven, flows through paradise. And that river of life, that's
Christ Jesus too. He's the water of life. He's
the tree of life. And we're going to eat of his
fruits. We're going to eat of the fruit of that tree. What
are the fruits of the cross of Calvary? Redemption, reconciliation,
atonement, forgiveness, Righteousness, regeneration, glorification,
all of the things concerning the gospel, they're the fruits
of which we will eat forever and ever. We just know a little
bit. You know, I love the doctrine
of justification, don't you? Justified by grace, justified
by the bloody sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's so
much about it we don't know, but one of these days we're going
to get to glory. And this one who is the tree of life, he's
going to say, now eat of this. Let me go into justification
for you. And we're just going to sit there
and listen. And our hearts going to burn. And we'll say like Brother
James, that's a good one to Brother James. That's what we'll say
to one another. Yeah, that's where Pat's at now. She's in paradise. She's eating
of the fruit of the tree of life, feasting on the gospel of Christ
Jesus, our Lord. Well, I hope that'll help you
a little bit. Let's bow together.