If you will, turn back in your
Bibles to Revelation 2. I had us to read as our theological
reflection this morning, Matthew 5-16, which is generally called
the Beatitudes. And that's because I believe
as we are contemplating the admonition given by our Master to the church
at Ephesus, as we try to work through the idea of love a first
love of which he is calling attention to the church at Ephesus as having
left. As I think through the idea of
leaving one's first love, which is in verse 4, I think we struggle
with the challenge of defining that love and then determining
what that expression of love is that the church at Ephesus
was indicted for having already left. Our master said they had
already fallen. That's verse five. So it wasn't
that he merely saw them in a posture of gradually departing from this
idea of the first love, but that they had fallen. And so with
all of the commendable things that were attributed to the church
at Ephesus, as we saw last week, And there were a number of which
we will touch on today as we build a mental column between
the things that we have and the things that we don't have to
help us understand a bit more of our Lord's admonition so that
you and I can get a practical handle on the danger that's inherent
in this kind of church setting. There are seven churches to which
our master wrote And he wrote them specifically with the intention
that all of the letters would be read in all of the churches,
as is noted in verse 7. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit says unto the churches, in the plural. So that this letter to the church
at Ephesus is also to the church at Smyrna, the church at Thyatira
of Pergamos, and to the church at Grace Bible Church here in
Hayward. It's to us. It may not be directly given
to us with regards to our own endemic problems as a local body,
but certainly we can learn from it and seek to avoid the potential
pitfalls that come to any local church. So the title of our message
today is First Things First. First Things First. I think if
you took that little quip and ran with it for about a month
and made it sort of an axiom for your life. First things first,
you would find that you would rearrange your priorities. That
if you were really dealing with a concept of first things first,
you would make different choices about what you do, about where
you go. about how you engage yourself
and what level of intensity you apply yourself to this or that.
If we were really working on the principle of first things
first, in a very vertical sense, in a very Coram Dale sense, in
the presence of God, there would be a lot of things, child of
God, I think that we wouldn't be doing. If we were really dealing
with first things first, in other words, if we were really adhering
to Matthew 6, 33, first seek ye. the kingdom of God in all of
his righteousness. Let that be the chief objective
of your life. And I think there's a element
of that admonition in Matthew 6 that applies here. And I hope
to be able to bear that out here in a little bit. But if we were
really truly giving ourselves over to the kingdom of God in
the sense that it would have priority over our lives, I think
that we would be far, far from the admonition given here that
we have left our first love. So there is a need for us to
reconcile what is generally a very emotional, intangible, ethereal
kind of idea about love. We got to reconcile this more
psychological and emotional sort of concept of love and reign
it into something that's much more concrete. Because when you
have a nebulous or a vague understanding of something, it's real hard
to apply it when we don't really know what it means. Like, I challenge
people all the time on the assumption that they know what love means.
I hear it all the time. Well, you know, just love them.
Well, what do you mean just love them? Love has to manifest itself
in some kind of concrete form, doesn't it? And then watch this. Sometimes when you love people
a certain way, people will say you're hating. So when you tell
me just love them, you better help me put some substance into
that statement. Because certainly our Lord is
not leaving us hanging. He did not leave us hanging,
I believe, around this idea that you have left your first love.
Now, I know we get sentimental with it. One of my sisters last
week said one of the messages she heard about 700 years ago
from her previous pastor was around this text, the thrill
is gone. Now, you know he was an African-American
preacher that preached that, right? The thrill is gone. want
you to turn to Revelation chapter 2. The title of my message today
is the thrill is gone. Well that may be true but it
still doesn't give us a handle on what our Savior wants us to
understand in a very practical way around this issue and I've
read dozens and dozens and maybe even more of commentaries around
this text, not because I'm scratching my own head as to what I believe
it's saying, because I am actually going to confine myself to the
text and the language in the text to define the word love
for us here in a moment. But here is my proposition to
you, child of God. The first love warning in verse
eight, The first love warning, as I had stated last week, verse
four, the first love warning in verse four, as I stated last
week, is not the idea of multiple loves being sort of divided up
into different regions of our life, but rather the idea of
the preeminence, the pervasive, the all intrusive principle of
love as a foundation for everything that we do. When I say first
love, I think what our master is really getting at is that
Christians can fail to understand that the foundation for every
choice we make must be based upon love. That it has to be
the foundation. That whatever we do in word or
indeed we must do it in light of the concept of love and that
if we were to tease out love scripturally the idea of love
would simply mean the revelation of the glory of God in the person
of Jesus Christ, which is God's definition of love to mankind
that if we were to tease out the word love, the word love
would have as its synonym Christ. Christ. And then if we were to
work through that without being, you know, sort of contemporary and quippy in phrases,
Christ would be to us God's expression of love towards sinners. in a
way that would redeem them from all iniquity and put them in
a favorable position with God for all eternity. In other words,
if we work through love and we take and define love according
to the revelation of God, love always has, as its first objective,
a consistent walk with God, obedience to God. If you love me, what? And the whole of the commandments
hang on these two principles. Love the Lord your God with all
your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and then your neighbor as your
what? So we have a vertical-horizontal connection, and they're inseparable. If we're gonna do biblical love,
love for my neighbor must be rooted in my love for God. If
I detach or separate my love for God and then operate on an
independent love for man, my love for man is gonna be deficient.
My love for men is going to be human in nature. My love for
men is going to be selfish in nature. If I love men apart from
a knowledge of God, apart from a conviction of my own walk with
God, my love for you is going to be partial. If I love you
apart from a gospel love, my love for you is going to be discriminatory. I'm going to discriminate. I'm
going to love some more than others. And some of you I'm going
to love for reward. or for benefits, or for reciprocation. There's gonna be a dynamic in
my love towards you that's gonna ultimately redound to my own
satisfaction. Are you guys hearing me? If I
separate biblical love, a vertical love that's rooted in the revelation
of God in Christ, I'm gonna talk more about that here in a moment,
and I simply just love you. My love is human. And your love
towards me is human. If your love towards me is merely
human, you're going to take advantage of me with your love. And then,
if I don't respond to you accordingly, you're going to take your love
back. And you're going to punish me.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? So stay with me, because if you
simply think that first love means just some kind of sentimentality
that's rooted in the pulsing beat of our own heart, that is
far from what God is saying. Far from what God is saying.
Now, I don't take away from the implication of a communion and
fellowship between Christ and the church under the larger rubric
of a husband and a wife. I see that here clearly. I see
very clearly that the head of the church, being the husband,
is saying to his bride, love me back. Are you hearing me? I see it very clearly. And to
me, that's wholly appropriate. And in fact, we can affirm that
in the scriptures. that a child of God who has been
brought into union with God through Christ has been brought into
union by love for love's sake. And that the natural response
on my part towards God is to love him above everything. Now
that's my foundation. My foundation for what I do is
love. God demands it, does he not? And before we work through
our text, if I got your attention for a moment, isn't that absolutely
Astonishing that God would demand love for him. And thus, it would
transcend, it would penetrate, it would exceed mere activities,
mere duties, mere practices, mere responses to commands and
imperative and laws and rules that what God is saying is a
true relationship with God is indeed a heart relationship.
Proverbs 23 around verse 26. You can go there in your own
time. My son, give me your heart. My son, give me your heart. And
if you think I'm still being a little bit sentimental, once
again, I want you to capture love from God's monumental expression
to humanity in the person of his son, Jesus Christ. God so
loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever
believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life you
guys believe that so now watch this the origin of love is God
the the Instrumentality or expression of that love in term of in terms
of his objective is Christ the instrumentality and expression
of that love in terms of God's objective is Christ The objects
of his God of his love are lost sinners The aim of his love is
that those lost sinners be saved and brought into an everlasting
relationship with God. Is that love? Is that love? That's the biblical definition
of love. And then if I confine myself, if I constrain myself
to that definition of love, watch this now, everything that I do
must be filtered through the evangelical love of Christ to
sinners. Otherwise, my love is deficient
and selfish if I love you. I must be by my life Leading
you to Christ Can I keep talking to you for
more so my wife is over in the Children's Church teaching and
so this morning I had to get up and go to work because you
know when your husband you you working all the time and And
so I had to go and I had to cut out a hundred pieces of little
clippings for the kids, right? That's my job. That's what I
get paid to do at that house. She hired me to do that. And
so she asked me, how do I frame Matthew's 25 where Christ is
dealing with the sheep and the goats? The sheep on the right
side, the goats on the left, which is a harsh passage for
people who do not understand that God is holy. She said how
do I teach two to five year olds the gospel in this passage? I
said tell him if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
love God as he has loved us in Christ your life is going to
be manifested by what those sheep did on the right side and If
you don't your life is going to be manifested by what those
goats did on the left side. It's just that simple Goats don't
obey God sheep do Goats don't do the will of God.
Sheep do. Goats hear only. Sheep hear and
do. Goats hear but don't go. Sheep
hear and go. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And so she said, okay, I got it. I said, yeah, see, so what
Christ is saying is in the same way in which God saved us, we
are to express that same love to sinners everywhere they are. Everywhere that that matters
to God now, does that matter to you that matters to God now?
Does that feel like God is calling you to do something you better
know it and if you aren't doing it or Have done it and cease
to do it now go to the admonition do the first words over Right. Yeah. So now let's just go to
work Let me exercise your senses on some things here so that you
can grasp really the import of The text let me remind you now
that the Lord Jesus is the great high priest of his church the
great high priest of his church verse 1 of our text says Unto
the angel of the church at Ephesus write these things said he that
holdeth the seven stars in his right hand. The seven stars represents
the seven messengers, our seven pastors, our seven elders of
the seven churches. Did we not learn this last week?
They represent the angels of the churches. Every believer
in their own right is a star. Do you believe that? We shall
shine as stars forever in the heavens when Christ comes. And
in fact, even right now, because we dwell in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus, we are the only light in this dark universe by
virtue of the right of Jesus Christ to call men out of darkness
into his marvelous light. The people of God are the light
of the world. Didn't we learn that in Matthew chapter 5 verses
1 through 16? Did not Christ admonish them
to make sure that they understand who they were? Indicative. And
then what they do? Let your light what? That's an
imperative. Here's what you are. You are
stars. Here's what you do. You let your
light shine. So that men may see your good
what? There it is. I'll tie it together here in
a moment. I'll tie it together here in a moment. And so our
master essentially is speaking to his bride about a dilemma
that has confronted the church at Ephesus after all the commendations
that have been rendered. As you remember, he said to them
in verse two, I know your works. I know your labor. I know your
patience. I know how you cannot bear them
which are evil. What a wonderful gift there,
intolerance. See, in our present generation,
we're called to tolerate everything. He has commended them for not
tolerating evil. I told you that that is the counterside
of actually loving. He says, I know that you cannot
bear them which are evil and that thou has tried them, tried
them which say they're apostles and are not. and has found them
liars. So they had the gift of discernment. They had the gift of being able
to determine by examination men who were imposters when it comes
to the truth of the gospel and found them liars. We'll take
this up again when we deal with the church at Philadelphia. We'll
see explicitly who these false apostles are and liars. He says,
and you have borne, that is you have endured, you have experience
at length and you have gone through periods of opposition for my
namesake you've labored and you have not what so the context
in which our lord is describing their perseverance of faith their
perseverance of faith is to be commended. He's saying, I have
seen you guys withstand all of the opposition of evil, all of
the opposition of false teaching, all of the opposition of those
things that are contrary to my word. You have stood fast on
those things. That's very important, particularly
in a day like ours, where our churches are folding every day. Now, they're not folding in numbers,
nor are they folding in their departure from their location,
but they are folding from commitment to the Word of God. Every day,
leadership in churches every day are abandoning the Word of
God, abandoning the Word of God for felt needs and human agendas,
as I said earlier, a kind of human love that has nothing to
do with the salvation of the soul. Every day, churches are
collapsing under the infiltration of humanistic doctrine rooted
in liberalism and ideas that are contrary to God's Word every
day. Every day people are being deceived in mass about a kind
of love that does not have Christ at the center. Sin as the issue,
redemption as the solution, and hell as the consequence if you
reject it. Every day churches are finding
themselves abandoning this message I'm sharing with you and they're
lauding the word love. We love everybody. No, you don't. You don't love
God, because if you loved God, you would obey his word. How
are you gonna love everybody when you don't love God's word?
See, and the writer here is John, the human writer, and you know
John stayed on the church about love, didn't he? My little children,
I rejoice That you are walking in the truth and loving one another
for hearing his love that we keep his commandments You see
so John is pressing home the biblical definition of love in
a significant way Verse one tells us that our master is in the
midst of the church. You notice what he says I'm the
one who holds the seven stars in his hand and I walk in the
midst of the seven golden candlesticks Let me advise you of this reality
that in all of Christ churches He is present by his spirit.
We advise you of this reality also that he is not only present
by his spirit, he is also actively present by his spirit. This beautiful
phraseology, I am the one who is presently walking in the midst
of the seven golden candlesticks, speaks to a marvelous privilege
that I don't want us to miss before we get to the admonition.
You'll note that three specific occasions, actually four now
that I think about it, but certainly three prominent occasions address
the fact that God was present walking among his people. The
first one is in the garden. The garden of Eden, that motif
that closes out the Bible with its ultimate eschatological vision,
that in the garden we are noted that we could hear the voice
of the Lord walking in the cool of the day. It speaks to communion
and fellowship, that in that garden motif, What God had established
was a relationship and an atmosphere of communion and blessing and
felicity between God and his son Adam and his daughter Eve.
That they were in fellowship with one another. Are you hearing
me? And this is how powerful the fellowship was. God was just
walking around in the garden. Kicking it with his son and his
daughter. Isn't that good? I am he that walks in the midst
of the seven golden candles. This is the same one. This is
the same one walking now in the book of Revelation. And so the
idea, again, that we might draw away from this is the privilege
of being an institution, according to Ephesians 2, the habitation
of God through the Spirit. That God would dwell among us.
Now, folks talk about God dwelling among them. Listen, if the book
ain't there, God ain't there. And if the book's not obeyed,
God's not there. Do you understand what I'm getting
at? So the Word of the Lord is always where the Lord is among
his people who listen to the Word of the Lord. This is where
Adam and Eve got in trouble. They didn't listen to the Word
of the Lord. They found themselves on a journey, didn't they? The
next time God uses this language of walking through the midst
of his people, In the book of Deuteronomy where he plainly
said to them in Deuteronomy 23 14 as he's admonishing them the
children of Israel in the wilderness How are how they are to live?
He's telling them I am the Lord that walks among you Therefore
be holy as I am holy and what are you saying is this you are
privileged to have me in your presence But now don't act a
fool now When you have me in your presence, you need to be
careful about the relationship. I So he gave them very specific
rules of how to conduct themselves. Like they were to remain holy,
they were to remain clean, they were to remain sane. There were
things that the children of Israel had to do and to not do in order
to sustain the presence of God among them. Because God will
not dwell with unclean people. He will not dwell with the man
or the woman who is not committed to a communion with God, which
means walking appropriately with God. God just won't countenance
evil. Deuteronomy chapter 23 uses an
interesting little incident there of which I have actually called
attention to it many times. He says, now, when you go about
your business out in the streets and you're in the wilderness
now, you carry with you both a sword and a paddle. He says,
now you carry the paddle, because when you do your business, you
know what I mean by do your business? When you do your business, what
I want you to do is dig a big hole in the ground and cover
up your business. Cover it up very good. And here's
the reason why, because I, the Lord, your God, walk among you. And I don't want to be stepping
on your business. So let me help you understand
that. See, clean animals cover up their business. The unclean
animals don't care at all. They leave it there for people
to step in and wallow in. And see, God is taking those
Old Testament things and using them as examples of the difference
between the holy and the unholy, the clean and the unclean. This
is Leviticus chapter 10, verse 11. In chapter 11, that you might
discern between that which is holy and unholy, between that
which is clean and unclean. You know what that means, saints?
When God is in our midst, we walk with him according to his
holiness. That's right. That means if our
attitude is jacked up, fix it. because God's not stepping in
stuff. So the next time that we read about Him walking in
our presence is not in our account, but it's when the Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us, dwelt among us, tabernacled among us,
and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of
the Father, full of truth. Did God dwell among us at that
time? Did He walk among us? Did He dwell with His disciples?
Did He fill all of those Old Testament types in the person
of Christ, the tabernacle of God? He did. He did. And now
he dwells among the people of God who are called the church
of God, represented by the candlesticks as the great high priest. And
what does he do in his church? He does two things in his church
in your outline. His duty as the great high priest
of the church, the Melchizedek of the church. Remember, that's
who he is. He's a king and a priest, is he not? And his duty is first
and foremost to keep, to keep, to tend to. The manure was to
be tended to by the priest. It was to be kept clean. It was
to be kept clear so that the oil could flow into the manure
so that the light could shine. See, that was a maintenance process.
The job of the priest was to make sure the articles in the
temple were clean, that they were functional, and that they
were functioning. The job then of the high priest
was to make sure that that manure burnt all the time Remember the
law let the candle let the light be burning at all times never
let it go out Never let it go out. So his job was to maintain
it That's his job. That's the job of the Spirit
of God We learned this several months ago when I preached out
a couple months ago when I preached out of first Thessalonians chapter
5 quench not the spirit Right? Your life and mine is always
regulated by the intensity of our fellowship with God and the
continuity of it. I want to maintain fellowship
with him, don't you? Listen, I don't want to hear like I heard
from King David, God, where are you? You are far off. Job says, I can't find you. I
look for you on the left and on the right, and you are not
there. others of the psalmist says God if you don't show up
if you continue to hide your face from me I will be like a
dead man out of mind you know what they were all saying at
that point in which they were enjoying magnificent fellowship
with God somewhere along the line they lost the value of it
and God had to help them understand that Fellowship with me is the
most important thing in the world. And if you don't know it now,
you will when I back away from you for a minute and let you
run life on your own. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed. And I think every
child of God knows those cold days, those dim days, those dark
days, those distant days, cold, dim, dark, distant days. when
the true light that lights every man that comes into this world
backs up just a little bit. And don't you think it's quite
intriguing that the sun, that big old ball of fire up there,
if it were to back up just a little bit, we'd all freeze to death? I'm so thankful that God is faithful,
aren't you? And so the writer is making it clear, Christ is
making it clear to the church at Ephesus, I'm among you now.
And with this revelation of his presence and control over the
leadership of the church and their being proficient at opposing
false doctrine and false teaching, he still wants them to make sure
that they don't forget very critical issues relative to their calling. Which brings us to our second
point. Why Ephesus? First, why them first? We read of the seven churches
in chapter one, verse 11, where it says, I am Alpha and Omega,
the first and the last, what you see, write in a book and
send it unto the seven churches, which are Asia, unto Ephesus
first. Do you see that? Then to Smyrna,
then to Pergamos, then to Thyatira, then to Sardis, then to Philadelphia,
then to Laodicea. Well, there are a couple of observations
I simply want to make for your vision. First and foremost, it
was given to Ephesus because of its location. If you pull
that up on a map, you'll be able to see there's a model of the
seven churches in their route around Asia Minor, which is specifically
where John the Baptist was on that Isle of Patmos. You see
the word Patmos there? Patmos is way here out there
in the Aegean Sea here on this little rock here. Some distance
from Ephesus. You guys see Ephesus there? Now
Ephesus from Patmos is about 10 to 15 20 miles away at the
most. And so if one were to make their
way to the shores of Asia Minor, the first church you would come
to is what? Ephesus. Now from Ephesus, there is a
track that goes up to Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia,
and ultimately further down to the south is Laodicea. Now why
wouldn't we go from Ephesus to Laodicea and then up and back?
Well, because in that culture, the mail route started with Ephesus
and ran through Smyrna up and around and came to Laodicea.
You guys see that? That's how the mail route works.
Which tells us something about God's pragmatism when it comes
to the gospel. He uses human means to get the
gospel out. We thank God for technology,
don't we? We thank him for the wisdom to set up mail routes,
right? You know what that means? Every epistle that went to every
church was available to all the people in all those regions,
including unbelievers. Because Asia Minor was a place
in which there was a lot of traffic, a lot of activity on the part
of unsaved people, or what we would call Gentiles. So the seven
churches are strategically set up in Asia Minor to be a witness
to that whole region. That's why they're called candlesticks.
Are you guys hearing me? This is going to bear testimony
of what we're talking about when it comes to losing our first
love. That's one of the reasons for
which they would be noted as first. And Ephesus then being
this large populace, this massive populace, there were about 200,000
to 300,000 people in Ephesus. And at that time, that's a large
city. But more to the point, Ephesus was one of those cities
wherein there was a lot of activity, a lot of commerce, a lot of business,
a lot of sports. Lot of educational learning,
but a lot of religion. Do you remember Acts 19 and 20?
Do you remember how when the apostle went through the first
time and he's preaching there and all kind of ruckus stirred
up because as they are preaching the gospel in Ephesus, they are
attacking the goddess Dianus? This big institution of idols
that everybody bowed down and worshiped, that as the gospel
was being preached by Paul and Timotheus and Barnabas and others,
men and women were coming to Christ and abandoning the idolatry? Well, listen, that kind of preaching
shakes hell up! Do you recall what happened?
They gathered together, the whole guild of the city, all of the
people said, look, look, these Christian folks would be cool
if their message wasn't messing with our money. Remember that? And so they started stirring
up people against Paul and them, and there was great contentions.
And then on top of that, there was a large constituency of Jews
there, which we'll play into our text in a moment. And the
Jews were still very hostile towards Christianity. So they
jumped on the bandwagon as well and sought to discredit the apostles.
This is the chapter in which you and I discover that there
were a handful of disciples of John who did not know the gospel
and had not experienced the spirit of God. Remember that. And then
as the apostles continued preaching, there were these crooks who rose
up and tried to be exercisers of demons, casting out demons.
Remember that? The seven brothers, Sceva brothers. And the demons let them know,
didn't they? We don't know you nor do we know your Jesus. And
they smarted for it. and then subsequent to that fiasco
of false religion, which always tries to pop up where the true
gospel is, and rather than preaching Christ and allowing the authority
of the gospel to actually break the bondage and break the shackles
of the souls of men, they go through this sort of ritual of
laying on hands and casting out devils, which we have going on
today, apart from the preaching of Christ, which is nothing but
a farce. It's a distraction. It's a distraction. But while that's going on and
God is exposing them for the hypocrisy of not being true servants
of God, guess what's going on in Ephesus? Multitudes of people
are coming to the faith. in such a radical way that they're
bringing all of their books of witchcraft and evil. And they
created a big bonfire in the middle of the street, burning
up thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars of witchcraft
and black magic and pagan worship. Now listen, we talk about people
being saved. because they make a decision
for Jesus. And we jump and shout and holler and have fits. They
all say nothing in their life changed. They still got all the
black magic books on the shelf and they're still reading through
them and they're still practicing it. Only they didn't attach the
name of Jesus to it. Nothing of that constitutes a
real power of deliverance. So what I am saying is that Ephesus
was a city that was targeted by God. Let me see if I can help
us get this a little bit. Ephesus is not just a campaign
where the great evangelist the Lord Jesus with his disciples
is running through the town showing his power Ephesus is a place
where God has a multitude of his elect Stay with me now and
wherever God's elect are God is concerned. Are you hearing
me? So if God has an elect people
who are to be brought to salvation through a knowledge of Jesus
Christ here in Hayward, then I need to be concerned with Hayward.
I don't care how bad Hayward is getting. I don't care how
bad Union City is getting. I don't care how oppositional
they are to the gospel, how hostile they are. I don't care how city
councils get together and erecting all of these wild and wicked
and crazy rules, right? And it does not matter that they
are opposing us. We still have the job, if God
has elect people in this city, to seek to reach them for Christ.
Are you hearing me? Are you guys here? See, what
I'm doing is reining you in and bringing you to a place of understanding.
It's not merely a matter of opposing the evil. It's pursuing lost
sinners, which is the ultimate evidence of love in our life.
Stay with me on it. That's the point. And so why
Ephesus first? Well, because Ephesus lauded
itself in being the place where learning was high, education
was high, good money was made, they had major sports activities
there, and the worship of emperors was massive in Ephesus. Emperor
worship bowing down to Nero bowing down to Trajan bowing down to
Domitian bowing down to Vespasius bowing down to these these Pagan
human beings who call themselves saviors And our Lord has been
contending with them from the beginning of time Christ contends
with the false saviors of the world. Are you guys hearing what
I'm saying? How does he do it? He does it
through his church So now follow this now Here, Ephesus is popular,
it's burgeoning, it's growing, it's successful, a lot of money
being made. The goal of the Christian in
a society like that is to shine as light, demonstrating the far
surpassing beauty and glory of Jesus Christ. The goal of the
local church in a context like that is to demonstrate that Christ's
glory far exceeds the glory of paganism. I want you to hear
this now, because what I'm doing is I'm juxtaposing the dark kingdom
over against the kingdom of God. I'm getting ready to show you
what I mean by why he says you have left your first love. See,
because environment means everything. See, you and I can be the most
faithful Christian on the moon. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
But now when you drop us in the middle of the hood, or in Hollywood,
or Times Square, are somewhere where all of those external circumstances
have the ability to pull and tug on us and challenge our faith. Well, now let's see how faithful
we are. So contextually, what we're dealing with is our master
saying to his church, you have done well, you have run well,
you've done a lot. Listen, but listen, in order
for you to finish, remember our job is to what? Finish. You've
got to make sure that you don't fall prey to the things we're
getting ready to talk about. So why Ephesus first location?
Why Ephesus first privilege? You remember I told you this
last week and we'll jump quickly past this. None of the churches
in the seven churches of Asia Minor here have the privilege
of saying the apostle Paul started that church. Paul didn't started
Smyrna. I don't know who started Smyrna.
I don't read Smyrna in the New Testament, do you? Thyatira,
Pergamos, not even Philadelphia. Certainly not Laodicea. Now we
have commentaries about them in the New Testament, but we
don't see any of the apostles having established those. But
Ephesus? Listen, we have a magnificent epistle on the church of Ephesus
with a glorious, glorious Magna Carta of the person and work
of God in Jesus Christ, don't we? And when you read Ephesus,
did not God teach us through Paul to love one another? Ephesians
chapter 1 verse 15, he says, I'm thanking God for your faith
in Christ and your love towards one another. In chapter 3 verse
7, he alludes to it as well, speaking to being rooted and
grounded in the love of God, so that we might understand and
know the surpassing love of God in Christ, which passes knowledge. And he goes on to say in chapter
four, make sure that as you are preaching and teaching, that
you speak the truth in love. And then in chapter five, he
says, dear brethren, walk as dear children, even as Christ
has taught you how to walk, walk in love. And he closes out the
sixth chapter with verse 24 this way, praise to all those who
love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Praise to all those
who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. The term love is
used 14 times in our text. So stay with me on that. The
church to whom John is writing now received this admonition
to couple everything you do with love back 40, 50 years earlier. Isn't that right? Couple it with
love. Now I want you to see what it
looks like. Move to our third point. I want you to see what it looks
like when we get in trouble In terms of our service and our
duty in the church Disconnected from this first love principle
of which I've already talked to you about earlier. It is essentially
it is essentially our union with God through Christ in the fulfilling
of the commandment love the Lord with all your heart soul mind
and strength and your neighbor as yourself and And the ethic of it, ladies
and gentlemen, is manifested in Matthew chapter 5, verse 1
through 16. Do you remember in Matthew 5, 1 through 16, what
Jesus said? He gave the beatitudes or the
blessings. He says, blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are
the pure in spirit. Blessed are they that mourn.
Blessed are they that are persecuted. God bless you when you are in
trouble for Christ's sake. God bless you when you love men
and not revile them and not return anger and hostility towards them.
God bless you for that. You guys remember that? In other
words, Christ was saying, the manifestation and expression
of a commitment to Christ in that context is to be forward
in our love to him, even though we're taking hits from the world.
It's in that context that he said, and therefore, because
you are a city set on the hill, which cannot be hid, let your
light shine. I submit to you that the love
that he's talking about is an evangelical love. It's a love
that coexists between God and his people, that targets lost
sinners for their salvation. That what happens is, when you
and I are operating out of that foundational premise of love
for Christ, that what it does is it creates, yes, in some context,
hostility, but that hostility only becomes a platform for the
glory of God. Are you guys hearing me? Stay
with me now for a moment. That's why I've been talking about that
sister from Sudan for the last three or four days. You guys
know who I'm talking about. Our young sister who just converted
to Christianity, marrying one of our American soldiers who
was a Christian and she was Islamic. And because she married him,
one of her relatives sold her out. Matthew 24. Your brother
and your sister will betray you when you come to Christ. They
sold her out. And now she's in prison, getting ready to face
the death penalty because she won't recant. Do you know what
that's called? Evangelical love. That's what
that's called. Are you hearing me? That's evangelical
love. And as I told the fellows yesterday,
look at how economic God is. He brings her to him. Her faith
now is tested at the highest level because the ultimate price
that you pay for the gospel is death. But she waited out. And you know what she says? Are
you ready? He died for me. Are you hearing me? We can argue
all you want to. You can tell me all about your
faith. You can bring me that. You can back a Mack truck up
and show all the evidence about your faith you want to to me.
But until your faith is ready to pay the ultimate price, your
faith and my faith is suspect. Because the character nature
of love in the scripture is greater love hath no man than this, than
that he lay down his life for his friends. Now, if you really
want to start running from it, you can run, but here's what
I want to say. When God gives you His faith, He also gives
you His grace in order for you to be able to stand in the midst
of the wicked one. and let them scare you with threats
of death. He already taught us not to fear
him that can kill the body, but fear him that can kill both body
and soul in hell. I submit to you that for these
few moments that this woman is standing in prison, the whole
world gets to see the love of God in Christ. The whole world. The whole world. And I declare
to you, child of God, this is part of the gospel call. God
calls us to this. And what I am intimating by our
text is that the Ephesians have fallen prey to one side of love
and not the other. Remember I told you that faith
works by what? That's Galatians 5, 6. Now mark it. You and I,
if we're not careful, can have our love, which is the basis
of our faith, shift from what faith is designed to do. Faith
is always designed to give God glory by the public demonstration
of our commitment to him. Always. Faith is designed to
give God glory by our public demonstration of commitment to
him. So you remember when our master
took his disciples and they jumped that little tin can boat and
left the regions of Galilee and went over into the territory
of the Decapolis. And they found that brother filled
with demons, sleeping in the tomb, scratching and cutting
himself. And how our master masterfully saved him. You guys remember
that? And you remember what that young man wanted to do after
he was clothed in his right mind and sitting at Jesus' feet? He
wanted to stay with Christ. He wanted to stay with Christ.
You know what that's called? Love for Christ. You know what
Christ said? No, go home. Is that what he
said? No, go home. See, because now
that I have saved you and planted faith in your heart, and now
that I know you love me because you know I love you, go tell
your people. Are you hearing me? I submit
to you that it would have been easier for the demoniac to simply
sit in Jesus' class rather than go back home and have to take
hits for Christ's sake. You see where I'm going with
this? Do you guys see where I'm going with this? It's very important
that you understand that high on the list of our Lord's concern
is our motive for serving him. Because if our motive for serving
him is flawed, our service is going to be flawed. What does
losing their first love look like? I want to share with you
four or five things here in our outline. First, for the church
at Ephesus, losing their first love looks like orthodoxy. You see that? Orthodoxy. That
is accurate theology, but not comprehensive theology. So I
have been talking to my brethren about this. There's a difference
between being orthodox and being sound. There's a difference being
simply being right in your theology at a certain level and not being
comprehensive in your theology How do we know that because Christ
admonished the leaders all the time about doing some things
and failing to do other things Now the things that they did
were right But what they did not do which they should have
done was wrong now what we would say is that that's not sound
theology The word sound there is the word for healthy, whole,
complete. And it means that the truth ought to have such an impact
in our life that it moves us from merely assenting to the
propositions of biblical truth to obedience to that truth. That
I am not sound until I walk in obedience to the truth of the
gospel. Am I making some sense? So if
I sit and simply hear you and say, I agree with every one of
the things you're saying, that doesn't make me sound. That just
makes me knowledgeable and guilty. Because when God calls us to
know, he calls us to go. Isn't that the command? Go ye
into all the world and preach the gospel. Now, see, this is what we're
working through in the book of Acts. The gospel is not sound until
we are actually living the gospel out. You're just religious. You just have a body of truth
of which you can defend. And you can protect and guard
that truth, but it does not move into that next dimension of evangelical
witness for which Christ has called you. See, so the church
at Ephesus appeared to me to be orthodox, but not sound. They
were right, but they were not righteous. Ooh, I'm gonna get
some hits for that, but let me help you with that. They were
right in what they taught, but they didn't live it out. That's
what the New Testament means by righteous. He that doeth righteousness
is of God. He that doeth not righteousness
does not know God. See John had to deal with this
in the book of first John Remember as we went through that for several
months that John had heretics that came into the church that
were fundamentally Gnostics and who were merely intellectuals
who did not see the reality of Jesus Christ and they denied
his incarnation and denied his deity and denied the Implications
of his atoning work and John says listen if a man say he has
no sin He's a liar and the truth is not in him If he says that
he has never sinned, he does not know God. And if a man says
he loves God but hates his neighbor, he does not have the truth in
him. He's a murderer. So what John did was recover
the theological accuracy of the gospel with the practical outworking
of that gospel as a test whether or not you are a true believer.
See, let me see if I can help you a little bit more. In 1 John
chapter 4, remember what he said? Chapter 3, he says, listen, Little
children, do not love in word only, but word and deed. Do not
say, oh, how I love Jesus. But you have a brother or sister
in need, and you do not seek to meet that need. How dwells
the love of God in you? Are you hearing me? See, it's
real easy to be religiously right and not be righteous. See, so
our master is saying to the church at Ephesus, you're falling prey
to a mode of retreat where you're backing up and you're circling
the wagons and you're protecting your territory. You're protecting
your theology, your doctrine. You're protecting your territory.
But protecting your territory is not evangelical. Point number
two, you're apologetic. That means you're defending the
truth, but you're not evangelical. You know what evangelicalism
is? Promoting the truth. See, you're protecting it, but
you're not promoting it. There are people like that. They
stick their head in the book and they learn it, but they don't
have a forward gear. They stick their head in the
book and they learn it, but they don't have a forward gear. It
takes grace mixed with love to go to a lost sinner and tell
him about Christ and be ready to take the hit for Christ. It
takes love. It takes love. It takes the love
of God for us to tell our knucklehead loved ones over and over and
over and over and over again. You still, after 30 years of
me telling you, you still need Jesus. Are you hearing what I'm
saying? It takes love. See, and what
our master is saying is where we have started to retreat this
proactive manifestation of God's grace in our life the candle
is going out candles going out so you can be Orthodox but not
sound you can be right but not righteous you can be apologetic
but not evangelical what does that mean you have no scandalous
ethic this is why people don't like to do evangelism because
the evangelism requires an ethic of scandalism You have to be
ready for the dirty stuff that comes with evangelism. See if
I can help you a little bit. I shouldn't have to do this.
All you have to do is read your Bible. See, that's why summed
up in Jesus Christ are all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
He is the full revelation of the invisible God. Did Christ
have a scandalous ethic? Did he? Did he have a scandalous
ethic? Did he go places, do things,
talk to people, Hang out with folks that he knew was gonna
create scandal Did he do that? He had a scandalous ethic. He
knew the word is offended offended scandal loss means to be offended
He knew if he would have went over to Gentile territory Even
the disciples were tripping while they were in that boat. They
said well now man We never crossed these lines It seems like the
masters... John is saying to Peter, Peter,
it seems like the master is going over to the Gentile area. We
Jews don't do this. And John is saying, I don't know
what he's up to, man. I don't know what he's up to. You know, other disciples say,
is he losing his mind? Scandal! Scandal! See, to be evangelical is to
accept scandal. Because the only way you can
reach dirty sinners is to get in that dirt. You understand
that? The only way you can reach sinners
who are nutty and fruity is to get in that box. But now, if
you're worried about people calling you nutty and fruity because
you're climbing in the box because you care about somebody, then
you don't have a scandalous ethic. You cannot be an evangelist if
you're worried about what people think about what you're doing
for Christ. Can't do it. Can't do it. That's why people don't go. That's
why I love my missionary brethren. That's what I'm looking for.
I'm trying to formulate for us this year before it's out. A
missionary conference. I'm trying to formulate. Listen,
how do you go to a bunch of pagans that if the weather's too cold,
they take you up and throw you in a big bucket and cook you
and eat you? Do you hear me? My one of our missionary pastors
has been preaching to the folks in Papua New Guinea. for decades. Those folks eat people. Do you
understand that? You're talking about loving them
out of their carnage and making them civilized men and women
who love God in Christ. And the testimonies are, if you
would just, the testimonies are, they are marvelous. That's why
I can't wait till they come. When you hear what happens when
men give their lives for the souls of other people, and the
gradual development of a transformation of the mind, and the barbarian
becomes a Christian. Are you hearing me? When a barbarian
becomes a Christian. And now the barbarian who has
become a Christian is taking hits from his other barbarian
brethren. And he has to now walk in the
ethic of the gospel in order for them to ultimately become
Christian. Listen, not for a week. for decades. I'm talking 20,
30, 40 years, 50 years, 60 years. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? See, this is what Christ meant when he said, go ye into
all the world. He knew the world was a mess when he sent the 12
out there. And see, this is what he's saying
here in our text. So, yes, we must be careful to be orthodox,
but we must be sound. We must be careful to be apologetic,
but we must be evangelical. We must have an ethic of scandal. We must be ready to become all
things to all men, everywhere, at all times, if by any means
we can win some. If by any means we can win some.
Are you hearing me? Don't be too dignified. to reach
down into the pit and pull men out of the fire, hating the garment
stitched by the flesh. Are you hearing me? Don't ever
be too dignified for that. And if you feel yourself struggling
with that, ask God to show you a relative of yours that's in
the pit. Because see, one day your son
or daughter going to be in the pit. Your husband or wife going to
be in that pit. Somebody you really care about is gonna be
in that pit. And now you're gonna wish that you had exercised all
of the experience and skill set of a scandalous ethic so you
can break through all of that facade and reach your brothers
and sisters in that pit. For which Christ died. This is my wife's teaching this
morning with the two to six year old. She preaching the same message.
Y'all can leave here and go over there. She preaching the same
message. When you visited me in prison,
when you came to the backside of Skid Row, when you met me
in the halfway house, I was there. That's what he said. Is that
true? Listen, me and my brothers who've
been there, we know this. We know that God's elect are
there. Some of them were here and back there. And they're waiting
for some of us to go back and help them come back out again.
Who said you only go in the pit one time? But you have to have an ethic
of scandal that's rooted in love. Or you can't do this thing. And
see, the danger of churches is they get petrified in orthodoxy. Am I making some sense? And the
love wanes in the area of that full maturity of Christian expression. Because I've said it before,
and I'll say it to you again. Evangelism is nothing but full-grown Christianity. That's all evangelism is. Listen,
missionaries who are evangelists are not super people. If you
ever meet them, you say, well, what gives this woman or give
this man the gall and gut to go reach people? They're just
as goofy as me, and in some cases, goofier. You don't see anything
about them that empirically evidences they're being qualified to go
reach pagans more than you. But there's something on the
inside. You know what that is? the love of God in Christ manifesting
itself as Christ did to come to unlovely people with himself. Are you hearing me? See, that's
really what our master was talking about. So now watch this. You
can hate evil, and the Bible tells us to do so, but not practice
loving each other, our lost sinners. Boy, that's a cold church. Is
that a cold church? Let me share something. That's
a cold church. where we are zealous to expose error and condemn external
evils, but fail to see the evil of a heart that does not love
itself, love one another, or love sinners. I think that's
an evil. I think that's an evil. God deliver
me from that evil. I'm an evil man if I see a lost
sinner in need. And God doesn't grace me to see
that my job is to help that lost sinner out. Are you hearing what
I'm saying? I'm an evil man. I think that's
one of the worst evils there is. And yet we can be that way.
See, one other thing that we're hearing the little hustle and
bustle around the Bay Area right now is the inability of certain
churches to be able to actually go reach this growing, burgeoning,
multi-ethnic context of cultures and ethnic groups. How come we're
not going to reach those folks? Because we're different than
them. Lord, look at them. They're darker than me. They're
crazy, too, Lord. I don't want to talk to nobody
like that. I only want to talk to people like me. Now, you know,
Lord, I do better with civil rational people, Lord, reasonable
people. Let the poor people talk to the
poor people. Let the black people talk to the black people. Let
the white people talk to the white people. You understand
what I'm saying? That's completely non-christian,
isn't it? I'm simply saying, if you're uncomfortable, it's
a mirror raising up on you. That's okay, that's the Lord.
You can throw rocks at me if you want to. I'm just simply
saying that, like our elders said it earlier, every one of
the seven churches is an admonition to us in some way. So my elder
already prayed for us, didn't he? Lord, if I'm like that, deliver
me. If I'm scared to talk to people,
because they look like some type of stereotype that I've already
written off as unworthy of talking to. Grant me repentance so I
can tell people the truth in love. All right, give me a few
more minutes of your time. Point number three, point number
four. Our master quickly moves after
he admonishes the church at Ephesus around these matters to simply
do something. You know what amazes me, Saints?
People get upset when you go to correct it, but they're bad
because they're already in a bad place, suffering consequences. And when you say, hey, you change
that, they're like, don't tell me to change that. Well, stay
where you're at then. I'm so glad the Lord don't say
like that. See, I say, well, you stay where you're at. No,
our Lord says watch this now hear what he said. Here's what
he says. I have someone against you You've left your first love
now watch this now remember therefore where you have fallen. Do you
see that? Just see he act number verse 5 is worthy of analysis
all by itself, but I'm going to share with you a little insight
This is this too is something we were talking about last night
in our class. We're we're entering into a little crash course on
Greek Basic Greek. You guys have that in your outline.
You want to show up on Wednesday and learn a little Greek, that'll
be great for you. But the word here, remember, in our text is
the word from which we use the term mnemonics. You guys know
what mnemonics is? It's a device and methodology
on the part of teachers to use acrostics and acronyms, little
terms and phrases by which you can instruct people and teach
the kids. And it sticks, right? Mnemonics. There are all kinds
of methods by which that is done. And our Lord is saying here,
you need to remember, you need to exercise an effective means
by which you get brought back to square one. You need to remember,
exercise a strategic and effective method by which you go back to
square one, because your issue is square one. Your issue is
where you started. Now, sometimes people have a
hard time going back to where they started. Are you hearing
me? They have a hard time getting
back there. And what our Lord is saying is, take your time
and work through. Work through that process of
experience which gradually eroded. Those things that demonstrated
your passionate priority for my will in your life which led
to you simply going through the external forms of religion. Go
back to where you were when you were really doing it for the
love of God. In the book of Acts, we're going
through the book of Acts, and we have learned that early on in
the chapters of Acts, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4, the
people of God were so thoroughly committed to Christ that you
know what they were doing? They were selling their goods.
They were taking their wherewithal, and they were giving it to the
apostles so that the needs of everybody in the church could
be met, and no one asked them to do it. They just did it. Do you know why they did it?
Because there was a need. They didn't do it because somebody
was cajoling them, let's take an offering because we need to
help brothers such and such. They did it because they were
committed to an expression of the grace of God in their life
to that local body. Remember, love God, love your
neighbor. Love God, love your neighbor. And you know what was
happening in that community? Because they were loving God,
loving their neighbor, people were coming to Christ. So here's
the application. We talked about this in evangelism
class yesterday. Evangelism is the cooperation
between God's elect in Christ and drawing men and women to
Christ through the word and by their testimony. Now watch this
and by their testimony. So now. How effective do you
think you and I are going to be at reaching people with the
gospel if if our life and walk with God is defective? Are you
hearing what I'm saying? So now if God has called your
family to be evangelical, and I think God has called mine to
be evangelical. Ever since me and Barb got together and the
Lord revealed his glory to me and my wife, we are an evangelical
family. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Now follow what I mean by that. Follow what I mean by that. Now we have
the burden on us to live to the glory of God in the public view. Me, my wife, and my children.
That's an impossible task. It takes grace to live that way.
Because you know we are jacked up people. We got issues. Do we not? And you cannot. You are not bringing folk to
your house. You are not bringing folk to
your house. When you wrestling with your
son or your daughter all over the floor, because they not doing
what you say do. You are not bringing folk to
your house when your son is a Tasmanian devil and he breaks out at times,
unalarmed, unaware. He scares everybody in the house. You not bringing anyone to your
house when you know there's civil war going on in the house between
the Hatfields and the McCoys. You're not bringing anybody over.
At the moment, watch this, at the moment, no witness. The curtains
are down. You didn't actually put a clothes
sign on the front door. And it's not even a business.
And you know why? Because we have failed to understand
the comprehensive nature of the gospel. So now watch this. If we assert a love for God that
does not take into consideration our immediate family's welfare,
And then our neighbors. We are not operating out of biblical
love. You know, we hear all these folk
talking about, I love the Lord. That love better manifests itself
horizontally and then evangelically. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Because that's the reason for which Christ saved you. It should
be in the heartbeat of every Christian to line their home
up in such a way that you are a witness to everyone of the
grace of God to guilty hell-bound sinners like you and me. We're
not talking perfection. Far be it. But we are talking
commitment. Listen, you know a gospel family
because they are tenaciously committed to the gospel even
through storms, even through battles, even through conflicts.
You see the whole house committed to weathering the storm. Are
you hearing what I'm saying? We're going to weather this storm.
We're going to weather this disease. We're going to weather this sickness.
We're going to weather this financial setback. We're going to weather
this debacle. We're going to weather this conflict
because we believe God. We trust Christ. And we're going
to be a testimony to men and women that if you hold on, God
will deliver you. That's an evangelical family.
That's an evangelical family. And see, actually, I'm going
to stop here. The church at Ephesus is really
the beginning of a process of Christ exploring and exposing
to the health of his church the different inroads that the enemy
makes into the church. Ephesus is the beginning. Ephesus
is called to live it out. Live it out. We're going to get
to Smyrna next week. And Smyrna is called to die. See, every local church has different
missions. You understand that? Ephesus
live. Smyrna die. See what I'm getting
at? Smyrna die. You know why Smyrna
is called to die? Because they were living. Ooh,
that's good. Listen to the last point so I
can close it out. Point number five. Our master, after giving
us a call to repent, remember therefore from which you are
falling and repent and do your first works over. else I will come
unto thee quickly and I will remove your candlestick out of
its place except you repent I'll get the point five here after
this let me just say three things about verse five that's important
so the reason why I'm pressing children of God that the emphasis
of love here is really rooted in affirming the authenticity
of our love for God on a personal level, and then because our love
for God on a personal level is really our love for God in Christ,
that we have no option but for that love to manifest itself
horizontally. In other words, it's impossible
to love God only and not love your family and not love your
neighbor in the same way in which Christ loved us. Got that? You
are obligated to love men and women that way. It must sound
out that way. That's the end game for gospel
people. You cannot just say, well, we
love God. Don't nobody see your light. Watch this. He says, remember from which
you are falling, the issue is love. Then he says, and do the
first what over? Words. Do you see it? Now watch
this. He's tying love to words, isn't
he? Is he tying love to works? And
then watch what he does. Watch what he does. Give me your
attention now. Watch what he says. He says, remember, do the first
works over or else. Now watch this. I am already
on my way. You'll learn that when you study
some Greek with us. I'm already on my way. Remember, do your
first works over because I'm already coming. Watch this. And I'm going to remove your
candlestick. So here are the three words, your love, your
works, your life. Love, work, life. Do y'all see
that? Love, work, life. Love, work,
life. You know what that's called?
Matthew chapter 5, verses 1 through 16. Matthew 5, 1 through 16. Y'all see that? Argue with me
all you want to. What matters with our Lord is
that we demonstrate the vitality of our relationship with Him
on an evangelical level. He knows you're going to take
hits for it. But he took the hit for you. So let me close with the last
point. The one that overcomes, I'll deal with verse six later.
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Do you see that? Now,
ladies and gentlemen, that's in the singular form. That means
you individually. He that hath an ear, let him
hear. Not them, him, you. Me. what the Spirit saith unto
the what? Our church. Beautiful truth here. To him that overcometh will I
give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the
paradise of God. The last point. Paradise is yours,
overcomer. Paradise is yours. The man or
the woman that simply lives out the gospel, understanding that
it is going to redound to two things, hostility towards Christ
But maybe some being saved. The promise to you and me is
that we if we if we let our light so shine that the promise is
paradise. Point number one, this tree of
life of which they were given to eat was in the garden back
in Genesis two nine, was it? It was present in the garden,
wasn't it? But ladies and gentlemen, it was not promoted. It wasn't
pressed. It wasn't pushed. Remarkable. It was present. It wasn't promoted.
It wasn't pushed. It was there. But Adam and Eve
didn't make it. Listen to what our Lord is saying.
If you die in faith, not only is that tree present, it's yours. Do you see it? It was present
in the garden. It's promised, but it's only
promised in Christ. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. He that hath the Son hath life. All the promises of
God are yes and amen in Him. The tree of life is the fullness
of the blessings of Christ. You know what that means? If
I die in faith, I am promised to be brought directly to the
tree. Never, ever again have to worry
about being distracted by the devil. I get to enjoy the presence
and fellowship of God, the father and God, the son and God, the
Holy Ghost and the saints of God. from beginning of time to
the end of time in a continual feast around the tree of life,
which is a metaphor for eternal life, ever and ever and ever
and ever. Do you see it? Do you see it?
Great and precious promises, not cards and houses. God give you the grace to be
able to embrace this and walk it out. Make sure you're right
with your Savior. Make sure your motive for everything
that you do is love. And then let that love be affirmed
by you strategically committing your life to telling men and
women about Christ. Amen.