Christ's Letter to the Church at Ephesus

Let's turn tonight to Revelation chapter 2, verses 1 through 7. Ephesus was a huge city in the apostolic times. 225,000 people approximately. It was a city that was prosperous, wealthy, very religious city among the Gentiles. The great temple of Diana was built in Ephesus. Religious folks came there from all over the world and made their pilgrimages. And people found great employment working, involving themselves in various aspects of the worship of Diana. and accommodating the tourist who came to visit this great temple to this great goddess. I was just sitting there thinking to myself, modern day religion must have got to start here. They had artisans and silversmiths and goldsmiths who built their little trinkets and idols and all that stuff, and folks would come visit, they'd sell them to them. Everybody felt religious when they'd come visit the Temple of Diana, but it was a filthy, vile, pagan temple, a place where Satan ruled. Men claimed to worship God, but they came to worship God while they practiced all manner of immorality, disgusting filth.

Well, the Apostle Paul came to this well-known, fabulous, wealthy city on his third missionary journey, and he preached the gospel at Ephesus for something over three years. You can read about it in Acts chapters 18, 19, and 20. After he preached the gospel there, the Lord God was pleased to establish a gospel church, and it became a great lighthouse in the area. The Church at Ephesus was known throughout the world as a church preaching the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. The Church at Ephesus was devoted to Christ, and it devoted itself with great zeal in the cause of Christ in proclaiming the gospel.

But now 40 years have passed since Paul came there preaching. The children of God at Ephesus had continued in the way of faith insofar as their orthodoxy is concerned. They never departed from the faith. They held to the same creed they held to while Paul was there. They proclaimed the doctrines of God's free grace from the pulpit continually and around the world. They never backed off from those things. but something desperately evil had happened.

The Lord Jesus discovered a sad, sad fault in this church at Ephesus. And so he sends this letter to the angel, the pastor of the church, who himself apparently did not discern the fault because he apparently was much involved in it. The people, too, were unaware of it. But the Lord Jesus, with his keen, discerning eye, observed it.

And now he calls attention to it. He says, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. And what he says, he says not to this church alone, but you'll notice in verse seven, he says, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith to the churches. So what he says here, Bobby, is addressed to me. Not just to that local church at Ephesus, but to you and I in this day, in this age, in this local assembly.

Let us then ask ourselves this question. Painful as it is, let's ask it and answer it honestly. Is there, my soul, a declension in me from my first love to Christ. As our Lord begins to speak this painful word to his church at Ephesus, he begins first with a tender, loving, kind, encouraging word.

Whenever there is a stern word of reproof to be given by the master, he's so gracious that he cushions it with a kind word of commendation and encouragement. Let no one imagine that the church at Ephesus was a false apostate or even an indifferent congregation. Nothing could be further from the truth. Few churches to whom such laudable commendations could be given were to be found in that day or in this.

Look at verse 2, verse 3, and then verse 6. Our Lord says, I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience. And how that 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 thou hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. And then he says, And thou hast this, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Now, with those words, our Lord Jesus commends this church for eight things, and we ought not pass over them lightly. He says, I know thy works.

These were not idle believers. Their faith was practical. By works of obedience to God, they proved their faith to other men. They stood by their works as lights in the world of darkness to show forth the light of the gospel. They not only professed faith, they practiced it every day. And then our Savior said, I know thy labor. These were not only men and women who walked in good works before God, but they put themselves into the work that God committed to their hands wholeheartedly. They zealously, anxiously went about serving the Lord, the cause of Christ in their generation with all their might. And then our Lord says, I know thy patience.

There are quite a few people who get excited at first, you know. I've had a lot of folks cross my path over the years as a preacher, and they get excited at first, and they come, and they join the church, and they say, whoa, what can I do? What can I do? Just anxious to do something. And then they find out you've got to do something. They find out it requires something. And they begin to slack off, slack off, and slack off. And after a while, you ask them to do something. They say, no, I can't do that. I'm too busy for that. I can't do that. These folks, they were not such people.

They not only worked and gave themselves laboriously to the work, but they patiently continued in the work, so that this church has stood generation after generation after generation after generation, one people upon the heels of another people, patiently serving the Lord.

Oh, what a commendation. And then the Son of God commended the church at Ephesus for her intense adherence to gospel truth. He said, I know that thou canst not bear them which are evil. They had an intense loathing for that which was evil, both doctrinally and morally. They loved the truth. And their love for the truth made them hate every false way. Like David of old, they said, through thy precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. And then the Lord said, I know thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not. And you found them liars. You found them liars. Like you men and women here, these folks at Ephesus knew truth from error. Their ears were sensible to discern the difference between things that differ.

They heard Judaizers and free willers, legalists and Arminians preaching another gospel, another Jesus, another spirit, and their blood boiled. They said, we will not stand for that. They wouldn't have it in their pulpit, nor would they accommodate it anywhere else. They boldly denounced all such pretentious preachers as liars, deceivers, and wicked men.

And then this church at Ephesus, bore reproach and persecution for Christ's sake, and they did it with patience. The Lord Jesus said, I know how thou hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, so that in the teeth of opposition they stood firm. In the midst of the Lord's enemies, they boldly confessed Him without flinching. In the face of hardship, trial, persecution, even imprisonment, they confidently served their Master. They were loyal to the core. And then the Lord Jesus commended them for their rare, rare patience, perseverance, and faithfulness.

I know that thou hast not faith. They never failed. They never failed. There are not many folks, as I said a moment ago, there are not many congregations, not many individuals of whom such laudable commendations could be spoken. They never faltered. They never quit. The saints of God at Ephesus were rare, rare people indeed. And the Lord said one other thing in a matter of great commendation.

He said that, I know that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate." Not only did they consider those men who came as Judaizers, who came preaching legal works, who came preaching the law as a basis of justification, or as a rule of life, or as a motive of godliness, as a means and measure of sanctification. They said, those fellows are Judaizers. They claim to be the apostles of Christ, but we consider them liars. And the Lord Jesus said, I commend you for that. But then on the other side were these Nicolaitans, these who claimed to be Christians but behaved in such vile, base ungodliness. These who said, well, since men and women are saved by free grace, character and conduct doesn't matter. We can live like hell if we want to. And the Lord Jesus said, I commend you because you hate both of them. You despise every false way.

And then the Lord said to this otherwise exemplary congregation, Nevertheless, though you're orthodox, zealous, patient, persevering, uncompromising, and upright, most of you here in this congregation tonight have been with us long enough, and I can honestly say to you, all of those words of commendation apply to this congregation. You've been upright. uncompromising, persevering, orthodox, zealous, patient, even when it costs you. But the Lord said, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

I've come here tonight to preach to my own heart. The message I have to deliver to you, I have delivered to myself today. Last night, I rolled it over in my heart so much If any of you have offended as I have in this matter, this message is for you. If not, then just listen in and pray for the rest of us. May God the Holy Spirit now apply his word to our hearts. May he graciously, by his renewing power that only he can perform, cause our hearts to return to that first love of which our text speaks. The hymn writer, I believe it was Cowper, expressed what I'm saying this way. Where is the blessedness I knew? When first I saw the Lord, where is the soul-refreshing view of Jesus in His Word? What peaceful hours I then enjoyed! How sweet their memory still!

But now I find an aching void the world can never fill. You see, love that is not fed with fellowship and communion soon decays into something worse than indifference. It decays into presumption and ingratitude. We have all experienced that, if we're honest with ourselves, in some measure, with those who are dearest to us.

My wife so greatly loves me and cares for me, and I love her so dearly. But when I'm not careful to remind myself of her love, and I'm not careful to remind myself of what a blessing she is, I'm not careful to remind myself of what I would be without her, I become presumptuous and ungrateful. That's what I think this text is talking about tonight. I ask, what is this first love?

And I recognize that it's more felt than described. And I can talk about it theologically and run around the block two or three times trying to describe it for you and never get it described. If you know what it is, you know what it is. If you don't, you don't. Don't imagine that this is a mere emotional, sentimental thing, something that has no real significance.

This thing called first love is important to our God. Hold your hands here in Revelation chapter 2 and turn back to Jeremiah chapter 2. I've read and heard comments that seem to imply that somehow this first love thing is not to be too much considered, Others stress too much just the sheer emotionalism of it. But here at Jeremiah chapter 2, our Lord speaks plainly and tells us this is a matter of great importance to Him. Moreover, 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. I remember thee. I remember the kindness of your youth. I remember the love of your espousals. I remember that. The Lord speaking now. He said, I remember when you went after me in the wilderness in a land that was not sown. You went out into no man's land with me, following me because you loved me. And our Savior says, thou hast left thy first love, obviously.

He's not talking about people who once loved him and then ceased to love him. True love can never be quenched. Anyone who ceases to love Christ never truly loved him at all. Love for Christ is God's gift to his people. And when I talk about loving him, I'm not talking about just saying I love him or feeling like I love him. Anyone who ceases to be committed in his heart to Christ never knew Christ.

Believers are committed to him and committed in love. Our Lord said, I'll betroth you unto me in faithfulness, and he does, all his people. Yet God's people do sometimes leave their first love. Through indolence, neglect of duty, the care of this world, the heat and fervor of our love for Christ abates, the exercise of love diminishes. I recall When first I saw the master crucified for me, when first I experienced the cleansing power of his blood, the freeing power of his grace, when first he compelled my heart to run after him, I fell in love with him immediately.

Had he asked me then to give everything I owned to him, I would gladly have done it. Had he asked me then to have laid down my life for him, I have no question I would gladly have done it. In fact, he did, and I did. That's what it is to close with Christ, right? That's what it is to believe on Him. It's to lay everything down at His feet. It's to surrender everything to Him. All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give.

It is that love, that first reckless, careless, uninhibited, unrestrained love, that I'm afraid we in measure turn from and leave at times. Again, let me use the illustration of a man and his wife. Young couple falls in love with each other and responsible, and yet at the same time, they fall in love with each other and they just got to have each other. A fellow proposes to her and She says yes, and then they start to think, well, what are we going to live on? Where are we going to live? How are we going to live? I don't know, but we'll work it out.

And somehow you do. Just that reckless abandon of love. The only difference is this. In the case of a young man and a young woman, that reckless love that abandons responsibility is foolish. But in the case of Christ and his bride, that reckless love that abandons everything to Him, means it can be the wisest course of action in the world. Oh, for grace to wisely abandon everything to Him. That first love causes the believer to earnestly, zealously confess Christ before me.

I don't care what it costs. Sometimes the young believer acts too rash and speaks too bluntly and sometimes acts contrary to a gracious character, but the young believer full of zeal can't be accused of not confessing Christ. We get a little older and we say, well, I don't know, maybe. We start to hedge.

That first love, inspired our hearts to almost unceasing prayer, praise, and communion. Every time we would steal away a minute or two by ourselves, we'd seek to fellowship with our Redeemer in His Word. That first love for Christ makes the Word of God our delightful treasure. The ordinances of worship, our soul's delight, fellowship with God and His saints, we count it our highest We'd come to the house of God, hear and join in the songs of Zion, and oh, how our hearts would move to God with worship and praise. We'd break the bread with God's people and remember our Redeemer with joy and gladness.

The preaching of the gospel never fell on cold hearts. I can remember, God forgive me, when I could hardly think of Christ dying for me without my heart being broken, much less speak of it or hear somebody else speak of it. That first love caused us to do the will of God with unquestioning faith, unhesitating obedience.

Those were happy, peaceful days. We once enjoyed how sweet their memories still. But now things are different. Now we've gotten more refined, more settled in. We've learned more and matured more, gotten more cold. Or dead. Or useless. Or what happens? I'll tell you what happens.

The cares of the world, they creep in, yes. but somehow we become at ease in Zion. The prophet Amos says, woe unto them that are at ease in Zion. But pastor, I thought we were supposed to rest in Christ. Yeah, but not in ourselves. Mark, there's a huge, huge difference between confident faith and self-confidence. Children of God, ever be confident of Christ, but be wary of confidence in yourself. Self-confidence causes us to neglect Christ. Let the preacher be honest with himself.

I know my most besetting sin is the neglect of him whom I love most. I know that. I know that. And I hate it worse than anything. I'm not a lazy man. You give me something to do for Christ, For the good of his church, for the furtherance of the gospel, I'll immediately put my hand to it and work at it if it drives me to my grave. But I'm not nearly as quick to open my heart to communion with Christ. We're all like the planets. Those that are nearest the sun move fastest around it and are the hottest. Those that are further away move the slowest and the coldest. Oh, children of God, let us cry continually to God's Spirit, give us grace that we may snuggle up close as possible to the Son of God. that our hearts may move rapidly toward him and burn with fresh fire from off the altar of God in love for him.

But what can we do? Our Lord tells us to do three things. Now, I sound this word of warning If we belong to Christ, though we decline in love to him, his love to us will never decline. And because of his love being faithful, he will chasten us and cause us to return to him. And if he doesn't chasten us and cause us to return to him, Oscar, it's because we never do. Let's not be presumptuous. Old John Newton said, help me to love thee more and more if I love it all, I pray. If I have not loved before, help me to begin today. So the Lord says, do these three things.

Number one, remember. Remember. Remember from whence Thou art Father. Remember what a blessed position you were in. He brought me to his banquet and house and his banner over me was love. Remember where you were and what you were when he found you by his grace.

I love the story of the very wealthy man. The pastor was visiting with him one day young pastor, first time he'd been at this man's house, wept. The man in the congregation asked him to come home for dinner with him, and after dinner was over, the man was walking the pastor around, showed him the grounds, and showed him through the house, you know, like we do. But this fellow was one of the most wealthy fellows. After they'd seen all the beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, huge, palatial place this fellow lived, they opened up one more room.

Downstairs, down on the bottom floor, folded up as just bare wood walls, dirt floor, landed over in the corner. The pastor said, I don't understand. It's just beautiful, beautiful, playful. What's this? He said, Brother Pastor, that's my remembrance room. He said, what do you mean? He said, whenever I get to thinking about what I have and what I've come to in this day, I've come down here and sat for a while and try to remember this is where I came from.

Now children of God, don't forget the dung heap we were in when the Lord God called us by his grace. Remember it and fall in love with Christ again. He's clothed you now with righteousness. He's put a crown on your head. He's put His beauty upon you. He's made you to stand before God as being the very righteousness of God in Him.

Accept it. Repent. Repent of your shameful neglect. Repent, my soul, of the love of this world. Repent of that horrible presumptuous self-confidence and self-righteousness that rises up like an ugly serpent in my soul, and return." The Lord said, return, repent, and do the first works. First works. First works. What on earth is that? This is His commandment, that we believe. That's it. That's it. As you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Come again. Come again. Come on now. Right now.

Come fresh to Jesus Christ the Lord with all your sin, all your corruption, all your guilt. And look away yonder to Calvary and trust his precious shed blood. plunge in one more time beneath that fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and be made white as snow. The Lord said, now if you don't, I'm going to come and remove your candlestick. But if you will, to him that overcometh I'll give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. So I pray, turn us unto Thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned, renew our days as of old. Amen.

Christ's Letter to the Church at Ephesus

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Christ's Letter to the Church at Ephesus

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