Alright, if you will, take your
Bibles and turn with me to Revelation chapter 2. Last week, we looked at the order
in which God will address His churches throughout the gospel
age. He sets it before us in this
vision that He gives to John, and all these visions This is
what they're doing. They're showing us what Christ
has done, what He will do, and what is yet to come by His power. And He's going to show us this
in these visions over and over. There are seven visions. And
here, at the outset, He tells us, if you want to find Him,
here's where He is. He's in the midst of His churches.
If you want to hear from Him, here's how you're going to hear.
Christ is going to speak. The Holy Ghost is going to speak.
He's going to speak through His Word, which is represented by
the Apostle John. And then the Word is going to
speak to the pastor, and the pastor is going to speak to the
church. It's a natural order. It's taught in doctrine if you
go through the New Testament epistles. But here it's given
to us in a picture. And we talked about all that
last week. Now this morning I want you to
hear what the Lord's going to say. And He's saying to all the
churches, if you go down there in chapter 2, I think, along
about verse 7 somewhere, He says, He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit says to the churches. So He's not just,
He's speaking to the church at Ephesus, but He's speaking to
all His churches. And He does this through each
one of these churches that He speaks to. So this morning I
want you to hear what he's got to say. He's got a very stiff
rebuke to give to the church at Ephesus, but before he will
rebuke her, he first will commend her. And this is the ministry
of the Lord to his people, the patience of the Lord to his people.
He loves his people. And his rebuke is going to be
a rebuke of love. And so he commends her. And he
commends her on several things. Look here in Revelation 2. First of all, he says, I know
thy works and thy labor. Now, he's not talking here about
works of righteousness that the Ephesians did by which they hoped
to gain favor with God. And it's not works by which they
hoped to make a better or higher place in heaven for themselves.
Some of you have been exposed to that. Maybe some of you haven't.
But the church I was raised in, they talked about your prayers
and good works, sending lumber up to build your mansion. And
so if you send a lot of stuff up, you could have a big mansion.
If you just send a little bit up, you just might have a cabin. Well, that's not what he's talking
about here. And it's not to find favor with God. It's not works
by which we hope to make a better or higher place than others in
heaven, and not works of reward. But these are works which God
enabled them to do. That's what he sees. He sees
what He's done in them. Like when He looked on creation,
He looked on everything that He'd made, and He said it was
good. It was good. And He looks on these works which
He has enabled them to do. What am I talking about? I'm
talking about the work of faith. The work of faith. By grace are
you saved through faith, and that, not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. God enabled
you to believe. If you are here and you do believe,
God enabled you to believe. It's the gift of God. So he's
talking about the work of faith. He's talking about their labor
of love. They love one another. They love. Well, you can't work apart from
love. Huh? He's talking about here the work
of repentance. We turn in our turning. Nobody out here in the natural
world is turning. Believers are turning, and that's
a work. It's a work. He's talking here about the work
of the ministry, perhaps, or the work of charity. He said,
I know thy works and thy labor. Now, believers are enabled of
God to do certain things which a natural man can't do. Natural
man cannot do these things, and yet here he commends them for
their works because they actually did them. Think about that. You know, there's a day when
the Lord will say to the believer, well done, thy good and faithful
servant. If he said that to me right now,
I'd think, who's he talking to? Enter in. Enter in by a good
and faithful servant. My soul has none good with God. And yet, He looks on these works
that He's enabled you to do, and He commends you for them.
And I think here He commends you for them because you actually
do. You actually do. Christ gives us the gift of repentance. But God doesn't repent for you.
You repent. Is that true? He gives us the gift of faith,
not of works, lest any man should bow. Yet He doesn't believe for
us, we believe. And those given repentance and
faith, they repent and believe. And He says, I know thy works
and thy labor. This is what He's talking about.
gifts that he enables them to do, this work. And he says, I
know thy works and thy labor, now watch this, and your patience. He says, I see that too. He commended
them for their patience. Patience is a virtue we receive
over time. It's the fruit of grace experienced. That's what patience is and that's
how it comes. In Romans 5, verse 3, Paul said,
we glory in tribulations also. We glory in this grace wherein
we stand. We glory in that glorious gospel
of Christ and this faith and grace wherein we stand. But here
he said, we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation
worketh patience. What does? Trouble. You get in
trouble and He gets you out. You get in more trouble and He
gets you out. We do this and He just, that's
called saving, the Lord saving us. And we're being saved. We're being saved. I know we're
saved in the purpose of God and we're saved by that perfect righteousness
of Christ and so on, but we're being saved on a daily basis. What would you do today if the
Lord just suddenly cut you off? Now, people who say, well, I'm
saved no matter what, they wouldn't know the difference. But you
that know the Lord would know the difference. And what could
you do if He did? Not a thing. Not a thing. But
you see, He does do. He does deliver. He doth deliver,
Paul said. He has, and He doth deliver. And then we learn the glory in
these tribulations, knowing that tribulations work with patience,
and patience experience and experience hope. I believe it's the present and
continual sufficiency of His grace to deliver us out of all
of our troubles that produce this fruit of repentance. And
then look at this next statement. And how thou canst not bear them,
which are evil, that is, evil in their principles or evil in
their practices or both. Thou canst not bear them that
are evil. Those who minister to God's churches
despise them which are evil. We despise the evil that's in
us, and we despise that evil in others without the grace of
God. And he says here, they could
not bear them. When men do despicable things,
despicable things, I'm not talking about everyday things that all of us
do, but I'm talking about despicable things. When men do despicable
things, they cannot be allowed to continue on in the fellowship
with the saints. There has to be a correction
and, if necessary, a judgment. But they can't be allowed to
continue. Listen to this over in Titus chapter 1 verse 16. It says they profess to know
God. That's their profession. This
is what they say. They profess that they know God. But in works, they deny him,
being abominable and disobedient, and every good work reprobate. Professing to know God is not
the same thing as knowing God. Anybody can profess faith, but
not just anybody can know God. That's eternal life, and that's
the gift of God. Let me give you some examples
of that. In 1 John 1, verse 6, he said, if we say that we have
fellowship with God, God the Father, if we say God's our Father,
we have fellowship with Him. And walk in darkness, we lie. We lie and do not the truth.
Here's another, 1 John 4, verse 8. He that loveth not, No, it's
not God. Well, God is love. And then in 1 John 4, verse 20,
he said, if a man say, I love God and hate his brother, he's
a liar. He's a hypocrite. I can't bear
a man to smile at me and say, I really enjoy your message. That really blessed my heart.
And then go out and live like a heathen. Does that not upset
you? Well, it upset them. It upset
them. And the Lord commended them because
they couldn't bear it. They just couldn't stand it without
saying something, without doing something. So He commends them for not being
able to bear them which are evil. And then listen to this, and
thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not,
and astound them liars." Now, this was a problem at Ephesus
of which Paul warned the elders of the last time he spoke to
them before he went to Jerusalem to die. Over in Acts chapter
20 verse 29, he said, I know this, that after my departing,
Shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock,
and of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things
to draw away disciples after them." And whatever Paul said
in addition to this and including this, they must have understood
what he said. It must have took, because men
did rise up. And they were judged and they
were exposed as liars. And Christ commended them for
it here in these verses. There have been some who attended
here for a while who said that they did not understand why I
had so many negative things to say about false religion. Well, false religion is like
fleas. If you ignore them, pretty soon
you've got a house full. It has to be treated. You have
to deal with it. And that's the way it is with
false religion. You don't overlook it. If you
overlook it, the next time there'll be two or three going on, and
then pretty soon a whole crowd. Somebody said, well, why don't
he just say what he's got to say and move on? Why does he
have to point out the flaws in these churches? Well, that's
why. Turn with me over to Titus chapter
1. Now Peter said this, there should be false teachers among
you, among you, who proudly shall bring in damnable heresies, even
denying the Lord that bought them, and many shall follow their
pernicious ways. That's over in 2 Peter chapter
2, verses 1 and 2. But now listen to what Paul says
to Titus on this subject. Down there in verse 10, Titus
chapter 1 verse 10. He said, there are many unruly
and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision,
whose mouths must be stopped. Now listen. Who subvert whole
houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucres,
that is, gain, money, reputation, whatever, gain. But what was going on here in
Ephesus went even past false doctrine. I don't know if you
caught that when I read it. But there were men in that congregation
that claimed the title of apostles. Now this is what's going on presently
in the apostolic churches. This is the very thing that's
going on. They're claiming the status of an apostle. They're
claiming direct revelation from God. They're claiming infallible
interpretation of the scriptures. They're claiming all these things,
supernatural gifts. They're claiming all of these
things. They're claiming to be apostles. And probably an even
better example of it might be the Pope. He claims the same
thing. He claims to not only be a apostle,
but the apostle over all the churches. What powers did the apostles
have that these men sought to claim? Well, the office itself,
the highest office in the church. from getting higher than an apostle. He claims the infallible right
to interpret the word of God. He claims to have authority over
all the churches. He claims divine infallibility
to discern the scriptures. And there were men in the days
of the apostles, as there is today, who sought their gifts.
They desired their authority. They wanted their following and
reputation. But not their suffering and persecution.
They didn't want any part of that. So they pretended that
they were apostles and took the office. They took the offense out of
the gospel. Took it completely away. There's
no offense. You go in there, they're not
saying anything offensive at all. Took the offense out of the gospel.
become men-pleasers. But these men were judged by
the Ephesian pastors and exposed as liars." All right. Revelation 2, verse 3. He said, you judged these men
who said they were apostles and they weren't, found them to be
liars. And now here in verse 3, "...and
hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hath labored
and hath not fainted." The word born, I was surprised
to find out, is what's called a past participle. Everybody here know what that
is? I plunked English. I had to look it up. And I was
surprised. Isn't it something when you really
want to know something how easy it is to learn and when you're
sitting there And it's like being a little kid and they're feeding
you spinach or something, and you just don't want to get it
in your mouth, you know. And that's the way English was
to me. I just, oh, it was so hard. But a past participle,
a participle is the sense of a verb. In other words, is it
something that's going to happen? Is it something that's happening?
Or is it something that's already happened? So when you're talking
about a past participle, you're talking about something that's
already happened. It's already done. And that's
what the sense in which he's saying, thou hast born. Thou hast born. What did they
bear? Might be the responsibility of
the gospel itself. Might be that reproach for Christ
that they must bear. If you're going to follow Him,
you're going to be reproached. You're going to be persecuted.
And you're going to have tribulations. Paul said his gospel was the
one true gospel and the only gospel true to the Word of God.
And since there were no gospels besides what he preached, he
said, you might well bear with me. Might be talking about bearing
the truth. Might be. Talking about it's
a burden to bear the truth of God. But given the statement
just made about false prophets, he might be talking about their
stewardship as gospel ministers and their responsibility to reprove
and exhort and correct. It might be he's talking about
everything I just said. And they were commended for that.
And you had patience in bearing it. It requires patience to bear
persecution trials and the care of a church. And you did it for
my name's sake. You did it for my name's sake,
and you didn't faint. After the death of their pastor,
this church had dwindled down to a handful. Dwindled down to
just a handful. But you know what? They didn't
faint. They didn't quit. They didn't
faint. I tell you, many are the days
when pastors and churches alike like to just throw up their hands.
Like to just throw up your hands. What's the use? What's the use? But men who know and believe
do not quit. It's kind of like what the Lord
said to his disciples. He said, everybody else got mad
and left. When he said, except you eat
my flesh and drink my blood, you've got no life in you, they
thought he was preaching cannibalism. And a bunch of them just swelled
up and walked off. And he turned around, and he
looked at that handful that he'd chosen, and he said, will you
go too? Nothing left but a handful. You
going to go? They said, where are we going
to go? Thou hast the word of the return of life. Where are
we going to go? Isn't that why that handful stayed faithful
and didn't quit here? Where else are you going to go?
Huh? You've got nowhere to go. This
is it. And men who know and believe
the gospel do not quit. They trust in their God and Savior,
and they go on. All right. Revelation 2, verse
4. Nevertheless, Considering all
these commendations, considering all these positive things that
he said, nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because
thou hast left thy first love. What is our first love? First
love speaks of our love's object. In Jeremiah 29, verse 13, he
said, you shall seek me and find me. when you seek for me with
all your heart." I'll be found. I'll be found. Solomon said,
keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues
of life. He said, with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation. That's Romans 10 verse 10. How does the Holy Ghost establish
that everlasting covenant of grace in His elect? How is that
done? How is that done? Oh, He said,
this is the covenant that I'll make with them after those days. I'll write my laws in their hearts
and in their minds, and I'll be to them a God, and they'll
be to me a people. It's not talking about writing
laws in your minds and hearts as statutes, but laws in your
mind and heart that was fulfilled in Christ, satisfied in Christ,
exalted and honored in Christ, and ourselves made righteous
in Christ. And knowing these things, we
love Him and worship Him for it, and are thankful to Him. We desire to please Him. First
love. is the object of our love. And I'm going to tell you something
else. First love has to do with the scale of priority. The scale of priority. You know,
universal salvation, I described it one time like this. Christ said, love your husbands,
love your wives, as Christ loved the church. Well, if that love is universal,
try to imagine yourself as a husband saying to your wife, sweetheart,
I love you just like all the other women in the world. Do
you think that's going to go over? Not at all. Not at all. It has to do with
our love with him has to do with where this is on the scale of
priority. He's going to be number one.
or he's not going to be anything. Now, that's how it is. That's
how it is. Listen to this. He that loveth
father or mother more than me, not worthy of me. He's not worthy
of me. And he that loveth son or daughter
more than me, he's not worthy of me. And he that taketh not
his cross and followeth after me, he is not worthy of me. That's Matthew 11, 37 and 38. And then secondly, our love feeds
on His love. We loved Him because He first
loved us. Herein is love, not that we loved
Him, but that He loved us. He loved us. Our love feeds on
His love. Here's an example for you, Ruth,
back in the Old Testament. Here she is, her husband had
died, her father-in-law died, and his other sons had died,
and she alone came with Naomi back to the Jewish homeland. She's coming back, coming back
home. And here they come, and they
come into town, paupers. They left. On the high seat of
the wagon, she was somebody when she left. She was nobody when
she come back. And here they are, and she sends
Ruth out to scavenge in the cornfield. She's going to pick up whatever's
left. And Boaz spots her out in the
field, and he loves her. And he tells those men who were
harvesting the corn, he said, you leave handfuls of purpose
for her. When she realized why that corn
was left, why that handfuls of purpose was left, she began to
love him right then. She began to love him. And the
farther into it it goes, the more she loved him, the more
she loved him. Isn't that how it is with us?
We hear the gospel and here's handfuls of purpose. I don't
know why men despise the purpose of God. If it wasn't for his
purpose, nobody would be saved. And when we begin to rightly
understand his purpose, it's like Ruth finding the corn. He
laid this here on purpose. That's why I got two sacks and
everybody else got one. He left this here for me. And
he did it on purpose. Oh, how quickly we forget the
love of Christ. I would, as Peter put it, stir
up your pure minds by putting you in remembrance. How precious
was Christ to you in the beginning? Huh? Oh, my soul, how precious. You didn't want to talk about
anything else. You didn't want to think about anything else.
You didn't want to read about anything else. This was it. This
was it. Nothing could compare to Him.
Christ was all and in all. All you could think about was
Christ. All you could rejoice in was Christ. All that you wanted
to hear was Christ. All you wanted to talk about
was Christ. Nothing could stand in the way of that hunger and
thirst after Christ. First thought on your mind when
you woke up was Christ. Last word you uttered before
you went to bed, speaking to Him. Huh? First love. First love. And you thought nothing
could ever draw you away from Him. What happened? What happened? Three things. Willful neglect. That's the first
thing. Neglect of communion with Him.
Just getting up and going about on your way, no communion with
Him. Just thinking about the things
of the day and jumping out of bed and into it you go. Speaking with Him, expressing
our gratitude, asking for His forgiveness, His daily cleansing,
asking for His presence and His wisdom and His power. Neglect of prayer and neglect
of worship. My friend, he's established here,
and we talked about it last week. If you're going to find him,
here's where he's at. He's in the midst of his churches. You
neglect worship, you neglect his person. Is that right? Here's where he said, I'll be
found, where two or three are gathered together in my name.
That's his assemblies. This is where I'm going to be
found, seen, and spoken. and the assembly of his churches.
And willful neglect is the first cause of our leaving our first
love. Secondly, the love of this world. Demas hath forsaken me, having
loved this present world. This world has everything in
the world to offer the flesh. Everything on the... You don't
have to go far. Boy, I'd like to have that. Boy,
I'd like to do that. You actually believe somebody
makes a living doing that? Boy, I'd love to do that, you
know. This world, it's, there's no
end to what it offers. There's just no end to it. And you think to yourself, if
I could just have this, I'd be satisfied. No, you won't. No, you won't. You get one house,
you want another one. You get one car, It gets old,
you want another one. Any more you can't get one paid
for before you want another one. You get a good job. You get to
work and you get living on that income, you're thinking, boy,
if I had that job. You know, it's the appetite of
the flesh is insatiable. And the more you feed it, the
more it wants. Paul said this. This wasn't something
he knew when he was born. It's something he learned by
the grace of God. He said, I have learned that
in whatsoever state I'm in, therewith to be content. You want to learn
something? Learn that. Learn that. Philippians 4.11. And then in
Hebrews 13.5, he said this. Be content with such things as
you have. For he said, I'll never leave
you or forsake you. So we can boldly say the Lord
is our helper. It's not acquiring things that's
going to help me. It's his presence. He's my helper. And the third thing that brings
about this departure from our first love is our natural tendency
toward self-confidence, presumption, and self-reliance. That's what
will take you away from his love. One preacher said presumption
destroys perseverance. I believe that's so. I believe
that's so. He said self-confidence destroys
faith and self-righteousness destroys love. And those who
walk closest to Christ are those who walk as poor, needy sinners. You want to walk and be close
to Him, just keep reminding yourself of what you are. You're poor. David said, I'm poor and needy.
Are we? Are we? Well, we can't walk with
Him until we understand what we are. We're poor and needy. All right, well, preacher, what
can we do to remedy this thing, this thing of departure from
our first love? What can we do to remedy this? I'll give you three things. Remember,
remember. You know, when Paul got through
with his statement there about faith, by grace are you saved
through faith and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of
God where his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in. You know
what his next thing was? Remember. Remember. You're Gentiles. You remember
that? You're heathens. God gathered you out of a people
who didn't know anything. He gathered you out. So remember. Secondly, repent. Turn. Quit. Quit going that direction. Stop what you're doing. And then
thirdly, return. Return to Him because there's
nothing outside of Him.