Good morning. If you'll turn
in your Bibles to Revelations chapter 2. Revelation chapter
2. I am a sinner. A vile, wretched
sinner. Saved by the grace of God. In his son. When the Lord gives us a glimpse
of his glory. In the Lord Jesus Christ. We say what Isaiah said chapter
6. Woe is me, for I have undone
it. Because I'm a man of unclean
lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the king,
the Lord of hosts. And as he grows us in grace and
knowledge, of our Lord and Savior, aren't we so thankful that we
have nothing to do with our salvation? That it's all of Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. For I see both bitter and sweet
water in me. And it shouldn't be, it shouldn't be, But thank God that
Christ died for them, God. He died for the sinners. He was elect. If you ever had someone do something
for you, something so wonderful, so amazing, that it was beyond words. You remember how thankful you
were? How much you adored that someone for what they did for you. And they did it just because
they loved you. Just because it pleased them to do it. God of love. without any merit
on your part. And then they continually do
it for you. After a while, you even get comfortable
in it. Then you expect it. It's all right. It keeps giving. But then you even quit saying
thank you. Your actions don't reflect that
love. And before long, you turn your
back on that person. But they still continue to love
you, can still continue to do it for you. Oh, thank God for His grace. For Christ Jesus, love for us
never changes. And He is faithful. He sends His Holy Spirit, it's
in us and it reproves us. And it teaches us of Him. His
love keeps us. Christ's love keeps us because
he loved us and he gave himself for us. Turn us, oh God, and we shall
be turned. Here in Revelations chapter two,
beginning in verse one, it says, 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. I know thy works, and thy labor,
and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them that 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 has labored
and has not fainted. Hear the Lord who walks. He's talking to his pastors.
He's talking to his church. He holds us in his right hand. He protects us and preserves
us. And he walks in the midst of us where two or three are
gathered in my name. There am I in the midst of you.
He's near. He knows all. He sees all. And he's telling this church,
he's commending them. I see your works. I see your
labor. I see your patience, your endurance. Even through tribulation, these
people had seen tribulation. Thank God we haven't seen that,
but we may one day. The type of tribulation that
they went through. And they endured with patience. Everything seemed to be fine.
Then we go down to verse four. And the Lord tells them. Nevertheless,
I have somewhat against thee, because thou has left Thy first
love. That's the title of the message. Thy first love. Their heart, how it must have
sank. This letter written to this church,
commending them on their work and their patience through tribulation. And then the Lord tells You've left your first love. So this brings up to two very
important points. Who is our first love? And how did they leave? Who is our first love? First, John. Chapter four. Verse 19 tells us we love him
because he first loved us. God, the Father, God, the Son,
God, the Holy Spirit, the three that are one. All that God had
resides in the Lord Jesus Christ bodily. You can't know God apart from
the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't love him. You can't know him. You can't
be. He chose a people and his son
before the foundation of the world. that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love. Predestinated us into the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ himself, God loves his elect and his son. He loves you from eternity. For
the foundation of the world, he's loved you when you hated
him. He died for the ungodly. He died
for sinners. And you hated God until he revealed
himself to you and his son. He who shed his love abroad in
our hearts by the Holy Ghost that he gave unto us. He who
laid down his life for us. You turn to Romans. Romans chapter five, verse six. For when we were yet without
strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely
for a righteous man will one die. Yet preadventure for a good
man, some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love
toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Much more than being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For when
we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son,
Much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And
not only so, but we also have joy in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. If you leave your first love,
the one who loved you first, you have nothing. You have no righteousness. You
have no good works. You have nothing. That's acceptable
to God. It's only in Jesus Christ. From eternity. When we yet hated
him. Do you see how all your works
and all your labors and all your tribulations without him are
vanity? Your religion is vanity. You
leave Christ out. There is no gospel. There is no justification. There
is no righteousness. There is no love. There is no
mercy. There is no hope. There is no
faith. He is all. 1 John 4. 1 John 4. We've read it so many times.
In this, verse 9, in this was manifested the love of God towards
us because that God sent his only begotten son into the world
that we might live through him. Herein is love. Not that we love
God, but that he loved us. And he sent his son to be that
propitiation for our sins at sin atoning death. Christ in
him crucified. There's no greater love than
a man lay down his life for his friends. Christ laid down his life for
his elect, for sinners, for the ungodly, the just, for the unjust. 2 Corinthians 5, 17 says, therefore,
if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are
passed away. Behold, all things have become
new. You leave out your first love.
There is no regeneration. God created you in Christ Jesus. Your first love. Warns you again that you can
love God. You can love your brother. You
can love your first love. The one who loved you. He born us again, he calls us
by his gospel. And the gospel is Christ Jesus.
It's all about him. You leave out your first love,
you don't have that. And through the foolishness of
preaching, he creates in us, he calls us and creates in us,
his Holy Spirit quickens us, creates Christ in us, who is
the hope of glory. The confidence, as we learn,
confidence in him, in what he says he will do, that he will
raise us up at the last day. to be with Him in glory. When you leave out your first
love, there is no hope for you. He is the hope, He is the glory. God, the Holy Spirit applies
His blood to our new hearts and our consciences. Reveals Christ in you. Without
his bloodshed, there is no forgiveness of sins. There is no peace with
God. He came in the flesh. He suffered. He bled and he died. To put away our sins so you would
have peace with God. And he rose again. He was delivered
for our offenses. And he rose again for our justification. Christ has made the surety of
a better covenant. A covenant made for the foundation
of the world. To save and elect in Christ. For the glory of God. What greater
love is there? He was chosen to be our substitute.
We fell in Adam, we sinned in Adam. Everything Adam did, we
did. We're murderers. We're of that seed, we're of
that nature, that same nature that put Christ on the cross
and crucified him. Christ prayed for us. Still does. He rose again. He sits on his throne and he
intercedes for us. There's no greater love. He made him, God made him Lord
Jesus Christ. To be sin for us, who knew no
sin. He took on our flesh, he took
on our nature, but there was no sin in him. That we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. He's the son of righteousness. You leave your first love, there
is none. You don't have any. He laid down
his life for the sheep, and he loves us with an eternal love,
because he doesn't lie, and he never changes. Before you were born, he loved
you. When you hated him, he loved
you. When he revealed himself to you, he loved you, and he's
going to love you for eternity. That's your first love. It's that grace of God that come
by him. We merit nothing. We don't deserve
any of it. But he gives it to us. Grace
and truth came by Jesus Christ, your first love. There is no greater love. Now, how do we leave? How do
we leave our first love? It says, nevertheless, I have
something against thee because thou has left thy first love. We know he's faithful. You're
his. You deny him, he deny you, but
he's not going to forsake you. You can't fall from grace. If
you can, you never had it. But oh, how careful we must be. Are you just professing the knowing,
or has God given you that faith, the knowledge of Christ? Yes, God does chase in all he
loves. We learned that the other day.
through tribulation, glory in our infirmities, because Christ
deals with us as children when we're chastened. If he didn't
chasten us, we wouldn't be his children. You leave your first
love, you don't have that. You're a bastard. Look in James chapter one, James 1, verse 13. Let no man say when he is tempted,
I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil,
neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when
he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then, when lust
hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished,
bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren.
Every good gift, every perfect gift, is from above, and cometh
down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning. Of his own will he beguide us
with the word of truth. that we should be the kind of
first fruits of his creatures. We are drawn away. We are so easily beset. So easily
sin besets us. We start thinking Too highly
of ourselves, too much of ourselves, too much of this world, too little
of God. We turn our eyes. He's given us faith. And he knows
that faith is weak. When we turn our eyes, even for
one second. We're going to see him. And he
says we continually sin. That old man, that old nature
of Adam's is still in us and it's sinful. And it wars with
that new man. That new man created in us who
is sinless in Christ. And we can become so cold. So cold towards him. Get so carried away. We don't
pray. We don't study. We start. Not wanting to hear
the word of God, and if we do, we just sit there. With her eyes
and ears glazed over. We get caught up in ourselves, in the world, and we neglect
to have communion with him. Remember, he's so near. He's in us. We're in him, but
we don't act like it all the time. We don't seek him. We don't seek
him to guide us in everything. We don't see him in all things. Jeremiah 32, 33 says, and they
have turned unto me the back and not the face. Though I taught
them, rising up early and teaching them, Yet they have not hearkened
to receive instruction. See how you turn? See how you
leave your first love? He who is everything? Don't forget, he is a jealous
God. He won't give his glory to another. We are to revere him, hold him
in reverential awe. So look what he's done for us. It's Christ that's crucified. Forsake all and follow me. We need to hear his word. His
word is truth. The Word is the Son of God. He
is the Word of God. We need to hear Him. We need
Him. We need our first love. Because it's the only love we
got. Let's go on down to verse 5. 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. There's four things in here that
we need to look at, I need to look at. Remember from whence thou art
fallen, Do you remember when God revealed
himself to you in the face of his beloved son, Jesus Christ?
It's like in the opening. Wasn't your heart filled with
joy? Remember how he convinced you
of your sin, that you're the sinner, and that he's the savior
of sinners. Didn't your heart rejoice? God demands perfection. He demands a perfect obedience
to his law. And he demands that perfect righteousness. Spotless, sinless, lamb, pure. And when he revealed to you that
you didn't have any righteousness, that your works were abominable
to him, that you needed a substitute,
a surety, And he revealed Christ in you,
the hope of glory. That first love, didn't you rejoice? You didn't know what to say,
you didn't know how to say it. All you could say was praise him. How soon we forget. Where are
we at, Paul, from? Over in Ezekiel, one of my favorite
passages of Ezekiel, chapter 16, verse 6. Lord, lead you to read the whole
thing. It's so beautiful. When I passed by thee, I saw
thee polluted in thine own blood. I said unto thee, when thou was
in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee, when thou
was in thy blood, live. I have caused thee to multiply
as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen
great. Thou art come to excellent ornaments. Thy breasts are fashioning, thy
hair is grown, whereas thou was naked and bare. Now when I passed
by thee and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love. And I spread my skirt over you
and covered your nakedness. Yea, I swear unto you, and entered
into a covenant with you, saith the Lord God. And you became mine. Look, remember from whence you
have fallen. And it was your first love that
shed his skirt over you and caused A dead person to live. Spiritually
dead. He give you life. Eternal life. Spiritual life
to understand and to know. Gave you faith to believe. To believe on him. That all he did. All he has done. It's true. It's true. It is true. And he tells he told repent. Repent. Turn. To me. And leave. It's enough. Turn you back. You
turn you back to me. I still love you. Turn to me. Turn to me. We have a great high priest and
the just shall live by faith. by his faithfulness, Christ Jesus. Our God-given faith looks to
the faith of Christ Jesus. He knew when he came to bear
our sins. Father trusted him. as our surety
and our substitute. And he would do everything of
his will for our salvation. He would accomplish it all. He
would obey the law perfectly because he never sinned. Had that perfect obedience, that
perfect righteousness. Before God, sinless, harmless,
blameless. Endurance, hope, patience. Christ said all that. Those are
blessings, those are gifts. He gives us. Because everything
Christ did, we did in Him. Didn't know it. Didn't know it. We sure don't act like it. But
he did. His faithfulness. Our faith looks
to the object, to the author, to the finisher of our faith. We believe in him. We believe
on him. Hebrews 4 verse 14. Seeing then that we have a great
high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the son of
God, let us hold fast our profession for we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly. You see that? Without your first
love, you can't do that. Let us come boldly to the throne
of grace that we may obtain mercy. Find grace in the help of time
and need. We're sinners. We continually
sin. We're in this flesh. Our old man, our old nature,
it loves it. It wars with our new nature. If he suckers us, if he helps
us in our time of need, and we continually sin, how much do
we need him? We need him continually. He didn't
just save us that one time. He revealed himself to us. It
wasn't over then. He didn't leave us to ourselves.
He didn't just give us that joy And then leave. No. He does it all. He did it all. We don't do anything. We're helpless. He gives us the faith to trust
him, believe him. We continually need him. And
he is continually there. and he continually intercedes
for us. He lives to intercede for us. He is the peace. He is the God-man
between God and man, his elect. We can only go to God the Father
through the righteousness and the blood of his son. So without your first love, without
Christ Jesus, you got nothing. You got nowhere to go. You got nowhere to go. Where do you
go when you sin? You go to the one who's already paid
for it, who's already put it away. But he says, confess. For he's faithful to forgive all unrighteousness. Pardon. Peace. It's all in him. Don't let us
forget our first love. And it tells us thirdly, to do
thy first works. What were your first works? What did you do when you know
that Christ died for you? Well, you believed, didn't you? But
you didn't do that on your own. You ceased from all your works.
You trusted in his works, his perfect works. You started resting in him. We don't do anything perfectly
because we're not what we're going to be. But in Christ. In Christ, that new man he's
created in us form conforming, conforming us to the image of
his son. It's being taught. It's like a baby being born. that has a mother, father that
loves him. He's your first love. He's the
first one that loved you, gave you life, and nurtures you, feeds
you. We can't do anything on our own.
You know how helpless we were before he found us? We were dead.
We were dead in our trespasses and sins. Now we're babes. We're children. Can't do anything for ourselves.
And it grows us. It grows us in the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This gospel, which is the Lord
Jesus Christ, our first love. Those are the works we do, the
ones that he has ordained for us to do by his grace. In Christ Jesus, led by His Holy
Spirit. He makes us fruitful. But it's
all for His glory. All for His glory. We get none. We just rejoice in watching it. Being a partaker of His divine
nature. He's given us His nature. We're
a spouse to him. He given us his name. Son of
righteousness. That's your first love. He gives us that faith that works
by love. Look at 1 John chapter five. First John chapter five, verse
one. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. And everyone that loveth him
that begot loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love
the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments.
For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and
his commandments are not grievous. For whosoever is born of God
overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh
the world, even our faith. He causes us to love. He causes
us to love him, and he causes us to love each other, Christ is in us. We know no man after the flesh.
They said we knew Christ, but we know him no more. Christ is
in you. Christ is in you, and he is in
me, then we need to look at each other as if we're looking at
Christ. Not the sinful flesh. No, that
new creation that's in you. Not the outward. No, you wouldn't
want to spend too much time with me. It wouldn't be pretty. You wouldn't like me too much.
But you love Christ in me. Because I love Christ in you. You believe that? That's your first love. That's
your first love. And then the last thing in verse
five, He tells us, gives us a warning, says, or
else, or else I will come unto thee
quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou
repent. We're Christ's church. We're
Christ's people. Everything belongs to God who
gave it. And he can do with anything,
anybody, exactly what it pleases him to do, and he does. He's
already ordained it. He's already done it. It just
hasn't played out yet. If he wants to take your candlestick
away from you, there ain't a thing you can do about it. You want
to continue to turn your back on him, he'll deny you. He'll deny you, and he could. He can take a pastor away. He can take a church away off
its candlestick. It's not going to fall all the
way. It's not going to fall. He'll
pick it back up, but he'll do with it as he pleases, just as
he does us. We go through tribulations and
we know that we glory in them. Because he gives us endurance,
he shows us patience, right? Just as we learned the other
night. Gives us hope, confidence in him. He will take anything
out of the way. That keeps you from serving him
and seeing him. He'll use any of his means. To
show you who he is and what you are. Because He loves you. That may sound drastic to our
human ears. But God will do it. He says right
here He will. He can do it. That don't mean
He ain't gonna bless you, because He will. He'll bless you in tribulation. But He says, repent. Turn to
Me. Repent. Turn to me. Look to me. I am your first love. I have
not left you, and I have not forsaken you, nor will I. Have
no fear. He's with you. He's in you. You
ain't got far to go. You miss him. It's all your fault. He doesn't turn his back on you.
You turn your back on him. Look to me, turn to me. Oh God, turn us to him. Pray,
continually pray that he turns us, turns us to him. Submission,
submit to his will. He says, believe on me and love
your brethren as yourself. as I have loved you. Then we get to the Nicolaitans in verse six. But this thou hast,
that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also
hate. He commends them for hating the
deeds of the Nicolaitans. In a nutshell, I'm not a, this
is just what I have read on them. They are the antinomians. They
believe that, well, God saved us. He's put all our sins away
so we can live as we want, sin as we want, do what we want. We can sin more because where
sin is, grace abounds. Hey, there you go. We'll just
sin a lot and grace will be all over us. Well, that's Antichrist. That's blasphemy. God's not the author of evil. You don't use your liberty that
he's given you, freed you from Satan, from sin, put you under
grace. And then that you can see him.
He says, don't sin, don't sin. Look to me. Look to me. We hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans,
so do we, so do God. But I hate the sin in me even
more. I hate it in me. The more God
shows me how sinful and wretched I am, and how wonderful he is and what
he has done for me in Christ Jesus by his grace. Christ crucified. You want to see the justice of
God? You want to see the judgment of God? You look to the cross.
He bore all those sins. And when he shows you how much
you sin, You'll see how much he suffered
for you. You look to him. I hate the sin in me. Thank God that he died for sinners. and who I am, the chief. He died for the ungodly. Thank
God he died for the ungodly. So we use him as an example.
Let's use him as an example. So when there are bitter waters
and there are sweet waters flowing out of the same fountain, What do we give the impression
of? What do I give the impression of? I give the impression that
I agree with the Nicolations. That's the outward appearance
I give. I can come in here. We can have
fellowship. Everything's sweet and nice.
And I can go out here when y'all ain't around. I'll say it all
I want to. Well, God's already forgiven
it. We're saying a bound grace amount, right? Is that what we
portray? Let us ever walk so circumspectfully. We need him continually because
we continually sin. Our nature, our old man, our
old nature loves it and it don't take much to entice us. Doesn't me. But I hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans. God hates the deeds of those
Nicolaitans. All brothers and sisters, sweet
and bitter waters can't come out of the same fountain. These things must not be. Walk
in the Spirit. Walk in His light. Walk in Christ. ever looking to him by faith
that he gives. What a terrible stumbling block
we can set before others when we don't look to him. That could
be one of Christ's elect out there. That could be your brother
or your sister. We don't want to put assembly
block before him, do we? No, we don't. Because we love
him. Why do you love your enemy? Why
does he say love your enemies? Because they might just be Paul. They might be Saul of Tarsus. Dear brother in Christ. That's why we're supposed to
look to him. We don't have strength to do any of this. Not within
ourselves. don't have it. Our strength is
in him. Our first love. Our first love. Then we get on
down and I'll be as quick as I can. Here in verse seven, here's
the promise, here's the peace. 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. Do you know the Holy Spirit renews
us daily, that new man in us? He's the one. God mortifies the
deeds of the flesh. because the just shall live by
faith in Christ, the one who was crucified, who laid down
his life for his elect, rose again just for our justification. He is that object of our faith.
I am the sinner. He is the savior. Christ lives
in me and I live in him. He's my righteousness, my only
righteousness, imputed and imparted. My only acceptance, my only peace
to God. He did it all. He loved me first. He's my first
love. He's my only love. And he's all
the love I'll ever need. Comfort ye. Comfort ye, my people, with the gospel, the word of
God, the power of God unto salvation. God, the Holy Spirit, reprove
us, teach us all things of Christ. He testifies of me. I and my father are one. You
will be taught of God by his Holy Spirit who testifies of
our first love. And turn us. Keep us ever looking. Ever looking to Christ. Him alone
for everything. Even things you don't think you
need him for. Because we are not our own. We're
bought with that precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
are not yet what we shall be, but in Christ Jesus. Like in verse seven here, in
Christ Jesus, we are made to sit in heavenly places in him. He is that tree. He is that tree
of life that we feed on. And where is that tree of life?
It says it's in the paradise of God. Who's the paradise of
God? Who's your first love? He's the propitiation. He's the
mercy seat. He's where God says, I'll meet
you. I'll meet you in him. That blood,
that blood of Thomas. He. He. Our first love. From eternity to eternity. Now
I'm going to leave you with. The ending of a letter to the
church at Ephesus. About 40 years prior to this
letter. some 40 years earlier in Ephesians
6, 23, says, now peace be to the brethren and love with faith
from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all
them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.