Revelation chapter 2 is where
we are going to ultimately land our thoughts But let me recap
just a few things we left off last week with John the Apostle
prostate prostrate before the presence of this glorious Lord
of whom we saw in chapter 1 verse 17 and when I saw him I fell
at his feet as dead and Dead and we talked about the impact
of the revelation of Jesus Christ upon the soul that is a Significant
thing and we affirmed it last week that the distinct difference
between this mediator the Lord Jesus Christ of whom John is
now staring upon and has collapsed under his presence the the the
manifold glory of this person we are We made a clear distinction
between this mediator did we not and all of the other false
saviors of the world And I called your attention to this fact that
all the the false saviors and heroes in our world Have to wear
uniforms And they have apparatuses Existentially engaged to their
bodies And we look for them to deliver us, at least if it's
not in the real sense of military and army and other folks, at
least in the romantic sense of superstars. I told you, I do
enjoy Iron Man. And I have a great affinity for
the Hulk. I understand his rage a little
bit. I really do. I really do. And I can. from a child be jazzed
about Superman, Batman, Spiderman, all these other cats, even the
sisters got in on it with the stars and their darts and their
whips and this and all of that stuff. And for us, what we are
hoping in as a metaphor is that their apparatuses work. Because
once the enemy takes the apparatus, they're done with. And I told
you that's like trusting in an empty suit. You and I are trusting
in the works of the flesh. You and I are hoping that man's
methodology, his techniques, his schemes, the things he invents
will save us. And we are in awe of those things
because we're superficial and we're carnal. Now John does not
drop his jaw at a man who is draped with all sorts of paraphernalia. He drops his jaw at one whose
glory, as we learned last week, was intrinsic to his nature. I told you, if you take away
the two pieces of which John saw, a robe from his neck to
his feet, and a simple sash or ephod, if you will, around his
chest and breast. If you remove that, that's it
to the man. But what John sees underneath
is absolutely stunning. He sees a glorious, glorious
savior whose worth is intrinsic, whose value is altogether in
his nature. His power and virtue resides
in who he is. And remember, John spent a lot
of time explaining to us what he saw. He saw a man whose body
was bronze all over. He said, and his eyes were like
a flame of fire. He says, also I saw that out
of his mouth, not in his hand, not existentially, out of his
mouth, which means coming from his nature, was a two-edged sword. This guy is sharp, isn't he?
This is our Savior. This is our savior and he goes
on to say and he has in his right hand seven stars And he's walking
among the seven golden candlesticks These are all emblems and symbols
of the nature of Jesus Christ in his character as our high
priest walking through the church of the living God running the
world and as his father's co-regent for the glory of his father's
name and for the good of the church of Jesus Christ. I'm safe
with a high priest like that, aren't you? And in fact, I didn't
tell you last week, but when you and I are, as it were, taking
the Daniel account and the Ezekiel account and the Zechariah account
and putting together all of the imagery and symbolism, what we
have before us in Revelation chapter two and one is the pre-incarnate
Son of God. the post-resurrected Christ,
the risen and exalted and reigning Savior. All three of those categories
are right here. And when we say the pre-incarnate
Christ, what we are saying is we're talking about from everlasting
to everlasting, you are God. We are talking about the God-man
Jesus Christ. Daniel said, I saw him in Daniel
chapter 7. Go with me there. I want you to see it. Daniel
7 verses 13 through 16. I need to make this good in our
thoughts so that you know that as we enter into our contemplation
and all today we're going to do today is put a framework on
the church at Ephesus. We won't be there long. We're
going to take two studies to work through Ephesus and gain
the lessons there. But I want to make sure that
you have at least a working knowledge and handle on the one who is
made known to us The Daniel's Ezekiel Zechariah accounted then
has the full conflation or merging of all of these prophecies concerning
him given to us in the revelation of John in Daniel chapter 7 I
want to read verse 13 through 16 and tell me do you not see
the similarity of As Daniel had already stated, there is a throne
that is established in verse 9. I beheld to the thrones where
cast down are established, and the Ancient of Days did sit.
Verse 9, point A, speaks to the one who is sitting on the throne,
right? Who is the Ancient of Days here? God the Father, whose
garment was white as snow. Isn't that what it says about
Jesus? whose hair and head are like pure wool. Isn't that what
it said about Jesus? Watch this now. I want you to
mark it now. And it goes on to say, and his
throne was like a fiery what? Flame. And his wheels as burning
fire. And John says this is the way
Christ appeared in his body, which means that Christ had his
dwelling in the presence of the burning flame. Christ coexists
in the presence of this glorious being who to us is as a Fiery
flame God is a consuming fire Now notice what he goes on to
say a fiery stream issued from him came forth before him thousands
of thousands ministered to him Ten thousand ten thousand before
him the judgment was set and the books were open We'll be
getting there in the 20th chapter of the book of Revelation, right?
Notice what it says now Jumping down to verse 13, I saw in the
night visions and I beheld one like the what? Son of man. Who
is this? Jesus Christ. And he came, didn't
he? With the clouds of heaven. When
is this? This is in the resurrection,
saints. We saw him leave according to Acts chapter 1. The apostles
beheld him as he was taken up into heaven in a cloud. And the
angel said, why are you gazing all the day long? This same Jesus
whom you behold will come in like manner as you so see him. Now watch this now. I want you
to see it now. He goes into heaven in a cloud and he came to the
what? So the Ancient of Days in this
context is someone else other than the Son of Man, right? The
Father, and now the what? The Son. So the Son is coming
to the Father, is He not? Now watch the language, ladies
and gentlemen. And they brought Him near before
Him, and there was given unto Him, what? Dominion and glory
and a kingdom. that all people, nations, languages
should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion which shall not pass away. His kingdom is that which
shall not be what? Now ladies and gentlemen, isn't
that Revelation 4 and 5? Didn't John say, I beheld a lamb
in the midst of the throne who came to the Ancient of Days and
received that document that was in his right hand? And we have
here that prophetic language and imagery of what John is saying
in Revelation chapter 4 and 5 is fulfilled in the person of Jesus
Christ. Do me a favor, ladies and gentlemen,
turn in your Bibles now to Daniel chapter 10. I just want you to
see briefly in Daniel chapter 10. Again this expression that
Daniel himself saw concerning this one who also was glorious
to him Here again in Daniel chapter 10 verse 8 therefore I was left
alone and I saw this great vision and there remained to me no strength
but For my comeliness was turned into me into corruption, and
I retained no strength. Now watch this. Yet I heard the
voice of his words. Isn't that what John experienced?
And when I heard the voice of his word, then I was in a deep
sleep on my face toward the ground. And behold, a hand touched me.
Here it is again, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms
of my hand. And that individual started speaking
unto John. And that individual was gloriously
manifested to John. Look at what it says in verse
16. And behold, one like the similitude of the sons of men
touched my lips. Then I opened my mouth and I
spake and said unto him that had stood before me, oh my Lord,
by the visions my sorrow are turned into me and I have retained
no strength. And Daniel describes this individual
back in chapter 10, verse four and five this way, verse five. Then I lifted up my eyes and
looked and behold, a certain man clothed in linen. There you
have your priestly garments again. And he was girded with, here
it is, fine gold of Euphrates. Isn't that what John saw? His
body was like beryl and his face was the appearance of lightning.
Amazing. And his eyes, once again, what?
Lamps of fire. And his arms and feet, like the
color of what? Polished brass. See, Daniel sees his arms. And
the voice of his words are like the voice of what? Is this not
the same person that John is dealing with? Go back to our
text then. Let's consider a few things.
John is prostrate, laid low before this individual, according to
verse 17. And according to verse 17, this
individual, who is our Lord Jesus Christ, laid his right hand upon
him, saying unto him, fear not. Do you see it? Isn't that what
the angel did with Daniel? Laid his hand on him. The idea
of laying the hand on one is to claim them, to own them, to
have authority on them. But the right hand being laid
on that individual means that you have favor with him. See
you and I we're believers in Christ. We are at the right hand
of God right now It's in fact, I want God right God's right
hand on my side because if God gives me his left hand, I'm in
trouble Do you know God's left hand is his judgment hand? His
right hand is his hand of grace in favor. We are speaking metaphorically
here and so John is experiencing the aid of his high priest because
in the presence of his high priest he is a Just lambasted with his
glory and this is what our savior says to him fear not I am the
first and the last That's what he said over in verse 11. I am
alpha and omega the first and the last what you see, right?
Here we have as I had stated last week the voice of the son
speaking for the purpose and will of the father and he is
here giving us that glorious triad I am he that liveth And
was dead and behold I am alive forevermore. Isn't that good?
John said John says the master told me he lives. You know what
that means ladies and gentlemen. He is the living one He is not
only alive, but he is life itself. He says to john. I am he that
liveth And this is true and characteristic of the father and the spirit.
Are they not the living god? Are they not the true and the
living God? And in fact, he is not the God of the dead. He's
the God of the living. He is the truth. And in fact,
when it says he that liveth, we could we could derive from
this, this truth, which is elsewhere spoken. Watch this. He is the
source of all life. In him is the life and the life
is the light of men. Here, Christ is the life of the
world. And what John is being told here
is, John, don't worry. Don't worry. I am the one who
is alive. I was dead speaking to his crucifixion,
but I'm alive. Watch this now forevermore. Amen. And then he goes on to
say this. I have the keys of hell and death. Wasn't that good? See, if you understand that by
implication, this is what you know. You know that if your savior
has the keys of hell and death, you are in good shape. See, He
has the authority now. He has the authority to hold
people under judgment and He has the authority to release
people. And therefore, you and I don't ever have to worry about
what happens to us, because our master holds the keys to life
and death. We are told that he destroyed
the works of the devil, 1 John chapter 3. We are told that by
his death in Hebrews chapter 2, he put an end to the power
of the devil, which was the capacity to kill men who were all their
lifetime driven by fear because they were insecure in their eternality. They didn't know God. See, the
reason why a believer today can die confidently? Because our
master holds the keys of death and hate. He has the keys. He can lock people up and he
can let them out. And do you know this? I used
to be dead. I used to be locked in hell.
But he led captivity captive and he delivered me. There are
other implications to be drawn out of that, of which we'll deal
with down the line. But remember last week what I said. If you
look at these characteristics and these attributes of Christ,
our great Savior, they will spread themselves out not only throughout
the book of the seven churches of Asia Minor, but they're going
to run all the way through the book of Revelation. You're going
to see Him in these attributes featured at different times,
as it were, exercising a sovereignty over the situation That means
he is a sovereign Lord with absolute power. Now this has moved us
into our first point, his authority over all opposition. Essentially,
that's what I am saying. What I am saying is when he says
to John, John, I am he that is alive. I am the life. I was dead,
but I am alive forevermore. And I have the keys of hell and
death. John, I have authority over all opposition. Now think
about this for a moment. Where was John? He was on the
island of Patmos. He was suffering persecution
for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus. Now, John
had already seen a number of the apostles killed. In fact,
virtually all of them had died by now. Here John is the final
apostle of our Lord presently living. And wouldn't you think
he would be worried about him dying? And wouldn't it be a comforting
word for the Savior to come to tell you It's all right, John,
I have the keys of hell and death. And see, and in fact, not only
is John receiving this word of comfort for himself, he's receiving
it for the church. And everywhere the church is
suffering for the cause of Christ, this is a word to them. Everywhere
the people of God are struggling with persecution and being tormented
and being killed for Christ's sake, here's the word for them,
I have the keys of hell and death. You don't have to fear him that
can kill the body, but fear him that can kill both body and soul
in hell. And when you're in good standing with him that can kill
both body and soul in hell, you and I are not really worried
about what they do to our body. See what I'm getting at? And
so John is not only being brought into the revelation of Jesus
Christ and his sovereignty, but he's also experientially receiving
the comfort that comes with the message that he has to bring
to The seven churches and then he says in verses 19 and 20 write
the things which you have seen and the things which are and
the things which shall be hereafter and John the mystery of the seven
stars which you saw in my right hand and the seven golden candlesticks
The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the
seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven Churches
and so what you see here again is his authority over the churches.
What do you mean? He says the mystery of the seven
stars Which you saw in my what right hand? In his right hand
means that he has authority over them. He has control over them
And in fact, not only does he have authority and control over
there. They are themselves in the pocket of his protection
and care He said, John, I want you to mark now. I am actually
upholding these seven stars. I need you to understand the
symbolism here. Because if we rightly interpret the seven stars
as really referring to the leadership of the church, there are two
interpretations. One I think is kind of fanciful.
The second one I think is much more consistent with the nature
of a messenger. The one interpretation is that
every local gospel church that is faithful to the Word of God
has a kind of an angel watching over the local church. This is
a long-time interpretation. I don't think we can actually
establish that in terms of biblical affirmation. I know it's a nice
idea that every local church can think that we got an angel
on the outside with his sword drawn watching over us when we
come in. That all sounds cool. But I think the second interpretation
is more valid, and it's this. That the angels, like the stars,
are symbols of the people of God. And that the angel is really
a representation of the leadership of the local church. Because
the word angel simply is angelon or messenger. And the messenger
is the one who brings the message. Now I may not look like an angel
to you, but I am God's angel. I am God's angel listen to me
now and you as a child of the living God having Deposited in
your soul the word of God and having the message of the gospel
in your heart in life Anytime you talk to anyone about Christ
from that word by his spirit. You are an angel, too All right
You're an angel, you're an angel too. Angels, all they do is deliver
the message. They are helpers, ministers of
those that are heirs of salvation. Isn't that true? And so when
you meet people who ostensibly either are already Christians
or are designated to salvation because they've been chosen in
Christ and you share the gospel with them, you are an angel. So today we celebrate the motherly
angels in our congregation. We bless God for you. for bringing
us into the world. We consider you guys more angels
than you do us. In any event, when John is seeing
what our master is telling him to mark, John, you saw the seven
stars, which are in my right hand and the seven golden lamp
stands. Now each lamp stand is a representation of one of these
churches, correct? And each lamp stand was a manure
of it in its own right. He says the seven stars are the
angels of the seven churches and the seven candlesticks which
you saw are the seven churches. Now this language is gonna be
again, is going to be spread through the seven churches. So
we'll get a chance to look at it once more. Let's open up then
and begin to understand a little bit of our Lord's message to
the church at Ephesus. Verse one of chapter two, unto
the angel of the church Ephesus write these things said he that
hold it the seven stars in his right hand do you see it who
walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks that's amazing
because if you don't know it again Every time our Lord addresses
each one of these churches, he will address them with a unique
aspect of this apparatus of which you have already been exposed
to. To the church at Ephesus, he says, I want you to see me
in this role as the one who has in his right hand, as it were,
the seven stars. And I am the one who is walking
through the seven golden candlesticks. This is a unique message to the
church at Ephesus. He's not gonna come to the church
at Smyrna this way, or the church at Thyatira, or Pergamos, or
Sardis, or Laodicea, or Philadelphia, only to the church at Ephesus.
And it's to the church at Ephesus that they are called upon to
contemplate Christ in this role. In other words, this vision of
Christ means something specifically to this church. And we'll deal
with that more fully next time. Now notice what he goes on to
say. And I know your works, and I know your labor, and I know
your patience, and how you can't not bear them which are evil,
and you have tried them which say they are apostles and are
not, and you have found them to be what? It's something interesting
to note about the church here at Ephesus, which again brings
us to our third point. Ephesus known, Ephesus commended,
and Ephesus exposed. Do you see that in your third
point? I intentionally kept these tight and turst because I want
to take the time to deal with this church more fully next week.
But I may say this, if you have been in church long enough to
have had the seven churches of Asia Minor taught to you, one
of the things you will have heard about the church at Ephesus is
that it has the gross problem of coldness of heart toward Christ. And that is an issue we'll deal
with here in a moment. And the church at Ephesus is
very little commended for the remarkable, remarkable things
that Christ commends it for. So let me share this with you.
Whenever God commends us for something, regard that commendation
with the highest of value because it means something. Notice how
our Lord opens up the letter. This is a lesson in admonishing
someone in love. regarding their frailty and weakness,
acknowledging their strengths and virtues before you discipline
them in what they're doing wrong. This is a good way to do it.
This is good for you parents too. When you go to discipline
your children, before you discipline them, tell them how thankful
you are for the things that they do right. Here, I may help you
because our master is teaching us how to do it. Let them know
because one of the things that does occur often is in our readiness
to discipline our children, we defraud them of the fact that
they actually put in earnest effort to do things right. And
if you fail to acknowledge that, they will actually not benefit
from your admonition because you have not recognized them.
You have not recognized him. And so when we go through the
seven churches of Asia Minor, you must know this. Our master
is not here to destroy the church. He's here to purge the church,
to strengthen the church, to build the church up. It's his
church. He died for his church. Now the
church is jacked up, but it's his church. You're jacked up
too, but you're his. That's a t-shirt. I'm jacked
up, but I'm his. That's a t-shirt right there. I want 10% of the revenues. Now
listen to it. Listen to what he says. He says,
I know your words and I know your labor. and your patience,
and how you cannot bear them which are evil, and you have
tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and have
found them liars." I must say this to you, Saints, under four
ideas that are rendered with this particular point. Emphasis
known. Did our Master know them? He
knew them very well. He knew them well enough to be
able to explicitly and with some emphasis, poignant emphasis,
let them know, I am aware of the labor you put in. Now isn't
that the echo of the Hebrew writer when he says in Hebrews 6, God
is not unrighteous to forget your labor of love and your work
of faith, which you have done for his namesake and towards
all the saints of God. Child of God, will you hear me?
Every pancake we fixed this morning, God saw it. Every batch of eggs
we made this morning, God saw it. God saw the love and the
thought that we put into fixing this breakfast for His glory
and for our love towards you. God saw it. Watch this. Whenever
we do anything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, He sees
it. And you know what He's told us? And I told you this before.
Get ready for it. He will never fail to reward
you when you do something in His name. He will never fail
to reward you. This is a reward. Think about
a letter from heaven coming to GBC. And as he speaks to us,
he lets us know the things that are commendable Man, that's amazing
because I mean so frequently we fail to even I guess secure
within our own heart that we're doing anything that's commendable
to God. I Mean because if grace is working in our life We're
sinners That's if grace is working And if grace is working, all
works by nature are filthy rags. If grace is working, if grace
is working, we know that we can't render unto God any kind of works
that would merit righteousness. If grace is working, if grace
is working, I'm at least aware that I better not attach myself
to my good works as if those good works are intrinsic to my
hope for glory. Grace is working. I better do
good works because he's told me to and I want to out of the
motive We're gonna deal with in the end, but I'm gonna I'm
gonna quickly leave those good works there when I'm done Just
in case he wants to burn him up Are you hearing me? Because it's not by works of
righteousness, which we have done but by his mercy hath he
saved us. I And I'm saved purely by grace
at the time of my conversion, justification, throughout the
process of my sanctification, that's the maturing and developing,
and then at the glorification. It's all of grace. Our words
are here to adorn the gospel and to help folks, but they must
never be attached to as somehow adding to the security of our
salvation. My goodness, the truth is, if you and I put our confidence
in our good works and we have a scintilla of any sense, we
are condemning ourselves. Is that right? We would condemn
ourselves if we would attach ourselves to our good works in
hope that God would commend us. Paul counted all of his words
as dong, refuge. That's a good way to look at
them. Now, God accepts them because of the motive, not necessarily
because of the qualitative nature of them. But here he's speaking
to the disciples at Ephesus and saying, listen, I know that's
the deep, concerned knowledge of a high priest that walks through
his church. Is that right? I remember telling a church this. four years ago that had gotten
into some trouble theologically. I told them, I said, listen,
let me help you understand something. It appears to me that you have
defaulted into religion. You guys have forgotten that
the church is the handiwork of Christ. And you are acting right
now as if you run the church and own the church. Don't people
do that? Don't people act like the seat
that they in, they bought that seat? I'm doing some work right
now. So when the ushers say scoot
over, don't get an attitude, scoot over. Don't get an attitude,
scoot over. Get over, make room. What if
there was but one more seat in glory and you came knocking on
that door and you had a stinking attitude saint like you, not
wanting to scoot over to let you in. Scoot over. See, all this here is boot camp
for glory. Am I making some sense? Scoot
over. See, and our Lord would say,
make room. Make room for every sinner that's coming to me. Scoot
over. If there's no room, you can sit
with me. Because I want somebody to scoot over when I go to knocking
on the door. Scoot over. Folks get crazy starting
to take over and think that this is their church. And I told that
church in one of my last messages there, I said, the Lord Jesus
Christ is in the midst of this place judging, judging. And if you do not repent, this
is what I told that church, he will destroy this place. They
did not repent. He destroyed it. He walks in
the midst of his churches. He's in the midst now. That's
why you shouldn't, You should pay attention when the preaching
is going on. You should pay attention. I saw the wicked come and go
from the place of the holy, the preacher said. And when they
died and when they were buried, we forgot them. They had come
and gone. The gospel didn't make any impact
in their life. Do you know why? They couldn't
see the Lord of glory in the church. See what our master is
saying to John to say to the church at Ephesus is this, I'm
in your midst. See, we act like He's so far
gone away that He don't see anything that we do. But saints, listen,
His eyes are as a flame of fire. The night and the day are alike
to Him. The light and the darkness are
the same. There is no differentiation in
the eyes of omniscience when it comes to what you and I are
doing. Even in the deep, dark crevices of our heart and conscience.
Does He see? Does that make you uncomfortable?
It ought to. Brother said, yes, yes. It ought to until you get rooted
and grounded in this reality. He brought you near to him by
the grace of God in order to establish perpetual and unending
friendship with you. And I knew a man named David
who said to me in Psalm 139, Lord, search me and try me and
see if there be any wicked way in me. And when you find it,
because there will be, remove it far from me. You get to walk
through my temple. You get to go in every chamber,
every room. You get to deal with every article
and every artifact. Clean it up. Remove it if you
have to. Take every unclean thing away
that I might be an acceptable vehicle in your sight. Am I making
some sense? And so he's speaking to the church
at Ephesus along these lines. He says, I know your works. And
then he says, I know your labor. Now, those are two different
things. I know the end product of what you do, and I know the
mechanism and the process by which you do it. He says, and
I know your patience here. Saints, he's talking about the
perseverance of the church at Ephesus in the cause of the gospel. Listen to the language. He says,
your work, your labor, your patience. Did you know that's the nature
of gospel ministry? It's a work, it's a labor, and
it's a patience. The word patience here is endurance.
And so we recall when the Thessalonians were told by Paul that, you guys,
we pray for you and thank God for you because you're a labor
of love and you're a work of faith, which you show to all
the saints, right? So love, what? Labors. And faith, what? Words. And it all produces endurance. So what our master is saying
is, hey, you at Ephesus, I see your labors. And this is remarkable,
saints. I'm just giving us a preface
before we go into it next week. The church at Ephesus was uniquely
blessed above all the other seven churches for this reason. There
was no other of the seven churches whereby it could be said that
the apostle Paul started that church. That the Apostle Paul
preached in that church for over two and a half years. That the
Apostle Paul laid the foundation of the gospel in that church.
No other church could say it in the seven churches that Timothy,
the son of Paul in the faith, preached in that church, taught
in that church, ministered in that church. Couldn't be said.
No other church could say that John the Apostle was the residing
minister of the church at Ephesus at that time. Boy, they got some
preachers in that church, don't they? They've got some ministers
of the word in that church. They are privileged, are they
not? Remember now, the church at Ephesus is the epistle of
the Ephesians that we have. Are they solid in their doctrine?
Are they deep in their theology? Are they rich in their heritage
of gospel preaching? Yes, they are, like no other
church. And this is why our master says,
I know your labors, I know your work, I know your perseverance.
The second thing he discloses is this. I recognize the discernment
that you have and the aversion of evil and heresy that you've
demonstrated. That's point B in your outline.
Do you see that? It's so critical to have discernment today. Not
only is it critical to have discernment, but it's critical to respond
to heresy with the spirit of aversion. Listen to what he says
in verse two. Are you there? I know your works,
your labor, your patience and how you cannot bear them Which
are what? What attitude? Do you understand
how counter that is to 21st century thinking? In our present day,
you and I put up with all kinds of stuff, and that's called maturity
in the faith. We sit around and allow all sorts
of abominable ideas and vain and foolish notions about God
to persist, and we don't have an attitude of aversion towards
it. Do you know why? Because we're sinners. And we
naturally gravitate towards sin, too. And haven't you noticed
that struggle in yourself, child of God? Now, stay with me now.
I only need one honest person. Now, all you mamas need to be
honest, at least for today, because we didn't just honor y'all now.
Haven't you struggled with the fact that you put up with sin
too much? Too much. Haven't you struggled with the
notion that, man, you know, sometimes I wonder if I have grace even
to say that's wrong. Do you understand what kind of
virtue is present? When not only do you have the
discernment that a thing is wrong, and I'm here to tell you, our
present 21st century church doesn't even have discernment! It doesn't
even discern doctrine. It doesn't discern heresy. It
doesn't discern heterodoxy. It doesn't recognize when the
church is drifting into error. It's so wrapped up in its own
narcissistic agenda, in its own carnal goals. For them, the only
thing that matters is we learn how to tolerate everybody. That's
the world's agenda. It's not the church's agenda.
That's the world's agenda. Listen, you are not mature because
you let somebody sit around and dump that folly on you and not
say, hey, hey, I've got some space here, too. You don't get
to just the only reason you can dump on me is after I have told
you that the only way to glory is through the person and work
of Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth and the life. And no
one comes unto the father but by him. And if you don't like
that singular, So secure way by which we go to heaven then
spit on me Are you hearing what I'm saying? But the idea of us
just hanging out with folks and and they just dumping on us just
back in the truck up and just dumping it up Just dumping it
on us and they're doing it intentionally to see how much Passion you have
I've tried to find a better word than the street word I'm gonna
use a street word how much passion you have for the truth and Let's
see if these people love God. Let's see if they love God. I
am telling the truth. See, what I'm doing right now,
before we beat up on the church at Ephesus, is letting you know
they have some remarkably commendable things with which you and I need
to be craving. The persistent endurance of faithful
service. Where are we at in our service?
And then they have the capacity to discern. Falsehood from error. What a gift What a gift to be
able to listen to men and women and when they open their mouth
We can tell whether they're coming from heaven or hell whether they
are speaking from the light or darkness Whether the Spirit of
God is in them of a truth or whether they are speaking to
us from some pagan Gnostic emotionalism that has no basis in biblical
truth. Are you hearing me? Discernment
of biblical truth is critical to your honoring God And then
when you can discern it, the next thing you have to ask is,
do I have a natural aversion to it? See, Peter said it, and
he spoke from the book of Job and the book of Psalms. The man
or the woman that's going to see good days and long life,
let him love the Lord, let him love truth and let him hate evil,
hate evil, let him eschew evil. Are you hearing me? Avoid it. Avoid evil. Eschew it. It's amazing. let us resonate on that thought
how important it is not only for you to say I know it's wrong
we're supposed to say it's wrong and it stinks your discernment
and your aversion of evil and heresy gives us a little bit
of an insight into what level of allegiance you have to Christ
point number C in your outline he says and you have tested them
and you have rejected the heretics hallelujah Hallelujah Hey now
that's a long time coming to See because in our present generation
we have this spirit of ecumenism Where all we want to do is get
along with everybody Do you understand what I just said that we don't
want to actually say hey now, sir, ma'am Gentlemen, let us
let us know where you are coming from theologically before we
can determine whether or not we're going to line up with you
with a cause. I want to know, do you believe the Bible is the
Word of God, in total? the verbal, plenary inspiration
of Scripture. Not that it contains the Word
of God, but that it is the Word of God. I want to know whether
or not you are persuaded of who the true and the living God is
and how He reveals Himself to us in the person of His glorious
Son, Jesus Christ. I want to know, do you hold to
the claims of the Gospel concerning the person and work of Jesus
Christ as your sole ground of salvation? I want to know, do
you believe the Word of God? Because see, that's where we
have to determine whether or not we have true friendship or
not. If you don't believe the gospel, we have no fellowship. Are you hearing me? Yes, but
see, folks don't want to go through that door. They don't want to
go through that door. You know what they want us to
do? Assume that we all love Jesus. Sorry, too many Jesus' for us
to assume that. Is that right? Too many Jesus'
for us to assume that. And so in love, we will, in love,
my leadership, my team of teachers, you know, we have an ethic. We'll
put up with people because we want to win you to Christ. And
we'll listen to you talk. But when it come out wrong, we're
preparing to deal with you. It's true. It's because we know
that how can two walk together except they be a group? How can
we have authentic fellowship unless we're bigger? And we bend
over backwards. Don't we bend over backwards?
I tell my men, you better be patient with people. Endure them.
Find a way to understand where they're coming from so that you
can actually reach them with the truth. Because I know once
you lay it on them, the likelihood is they're going to be offended
and leave. But before they get offended and leave, find a way. Our men had to discover that
a little bit last night. Find a way. Find a way to talk to
them. But you and I cannot compromise
the gospel, nor can we allow ourselves to get conditioned
to put up with this blasphemous, this heretical, this God-denying,
Bible-denying generation that we live in. Can't do it. Can't
do it. Can't do it. Now, we might have
a room full of people, but God is gone. What's the point? What's
the point if we have a room full of people and Christ has left?
Now watch this. Christ hasn't left. He's there.
The image that he's given to the church at Ephesus is I'm
here. But watch this now. The apostle Paul had already
told the church at Ephesus in Acts chapter 20, as soon as I
leave, grievous wolves are coming in, not sparing the flock. And
then some are going to rise up from among yourselves, also speaking
perverse things, false doctrine, false teaching, heresy and error. He says, be on guard. It's wonderful because here we
are possibly some 60 years later and they were on guard, weren't
they? Isn't that good? Isn't it a wonderful thing when
a church can make it through two, maybe even three generations
and remain faithful to the gospel? That's what I want for my downline.
That's what I want for our grandchildren. That's what I want for our great-grandchildren.
I want our great-grandchildren to be able to listen to the CDs
100 years from now. and say, man, these teachers
at Grace was getting at it! Man! That's what I want. I grew up in an era, a hundred
years ago, where they actually preached the truth a little bit.
I don't see it today. Breaks my heart. Breaks my heart. I grew up in an era where I was
used to the elders Preaching sound doctrine where it was clear
that they were committed to the glory of God and loved the Word
of God That's where I was and and how how edifying is it to
an 18 year old 19 year old 20 year old man when he can simply
sit back and hear the truth preached unadulterated How securing it
is to the soul? It tunes all your notes all your
keys. It has you singing right about
the glory of God We saw out of tune the day in the church the
strings are broke and the keys are broke and the noise is disjointed
and Ugly when it comes to biblical truth ugly he says you have tested
them and you have rejected them and It's amazing. Notice what
he says with regards to that. He says in verse 2 that you have
tried them, dokima, the Greek term means you tested them. Are
we not to test the spirits? Are we not to try doctrine? Examine
doctrine? Are we not to prove all things
and hold fast to that which is good? We better? No one can just
come up in here and say what they want to say and expect us
not to put it through the fire. and tell them whether they're
dealing with gold, silver, precious stones, or wood, hay, and stubble. Are we better? Our eternity depends
on it. And it goes on to say, not only
did they try them and test them, listen to it, they also found
out that they were not apostles, but liars. I'll get a chance
to deal with this more fully in the church at Ephesus, because
the seven churches of Asia Minor work in a structure, really.
They're like bookends. This is an aside, but there's
a structure to the book so that the church at Ephesus really
corresponds to the church at Laodicea and the church at Smyrna. corresponds to the church at
Philadelphia. And then you've got your Thyatira and your Pergamos
church, which is a whole nother paradigm within itself. So we'll
work some of these things through to show the kind of continuum
with which the Spirit of God is making the relationship from
this church that we're starting with, and we get to the final
church of the Laodiceans. Because they fundamentally have
the same problem that Ephesus does. It's only grossly more
evident. This is an amazing idea. And
yet he's commending them for exposing the false apostles. And the church of Philadelphia
is gonna deal with the same thing. Now notice what he says in verse
three. And you are born, that means you carried. That means
you have tolerated. And you have been patient. Now
here's the point that I want you to see. For my name's sake,
hallelujah. So now, stay here for a moment,
because the words you're reading here are not mine. They are Master's
words, right? And again, he's the high priest
walking through the church. And wouldn't you and I want him
to be able to commend us in that way? That you guys have been
patient, you have borne a lot of things. Mind you now, these
are churches that are suffering persecution. The church at Ephesus
is too. You guys have borne a lot of
heat for my namesake. I was talking to my sister this
morning. about the fact that she has been ostracized from
her own children and grandchildren for standing for the faith. That's
common. That's common all over the world.
The moment you stand for the truth of the gospel and not buy
into this false gospel of ecumenism and openness and everybody is
right in what they do, people are going to cut you off because
we are now fast becoming the minority. Okay, Christians are
becoming a minority and now we're going back to where we should
have been all along in the mindset that we need God. See, because
when we're in the majority, we mess up. We start taking on politics
and using carnal methods and we stop depending upon the Spirit
of God and we start looking at numbers and we actually start
becoming arrogant and pompous and in our majority status, we
can actually start being oppressive against people ourselves. Now,
how does it feel to be the only one on your job that actually
believes the Bible? Are you sneaking in? You see
what I'm saying? See, it didn't used to be that.
Now, when you go to work, you have to be very judicious and
careful. But you better not deny him.
You have to be judicious and careful, but do not deny your
Savior. Listen to me, saints. You were
saved and kept here to be a witness. That's your job. You cannot deny
him. Whatever comes, let it come.
And the church of the living God will be there. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? And so he says, you guys are
born. All kinds of implications can be drawn out of that. You
suffered, you've taken hits and you've taken it for my namesake
and you have labored and you have not fainted. God, give us
that grace. We're a teenager here at Grace,
19 years. Give us grace that after a hundred years, or at
least as old as Ephesus is, probably about 50 years old, 60 years
old by now, even 70, 70, 50 years from now, will the Lord
be able to say to us, you have not fainted. My goodness, what
a commendation that would be. We got a race to run, don't we?
Now let me deal with verse four and shut it down. He says, nevertheless,
I have somewhat against you. Now again, the language there
is simply saying, we've got some matters to deal with. This is
why I've written to you. I have somewhat against you.
And here's what our master has pointed out in the church at
Ephesus, that is of a critical nature, worthy of him telling
them, not only here is your problem of which I am against, but he
also says to them, you've got to repent of this. Because if
you don't repent, I'll remove your candlestick for this one.
So I want you to know now as we get ready to shut it down
and just meditate briefly on this statement, you have left
your first love. It's something for which all of us individually
have to meditate, think through and understand what it means
in its basic premise and then its application to us. Because
really what he's saying is this to them, you have the privilege
of being a local church, but be careful to understand this,
that if you get haughty, and start thinking that you stand
on your own two feet and fail to realize the necessary and
essential union between you and me. So as to begin to operate
apart from my grace, apart from my spirit, apart from all of
the resources necessary for you to live your life for me. See,
your lights don't cut on without my oil. Did you get that? Your light doesn't shine without
my oil. You need my oil. I mean, you might be a beautiful,
beaten, golden candlestick, but if nobody can see you, what's
the point? And so fundamentally what he's saying is, and I believe
that he's actually warning them about something down the line,
not so near and ready, but nevertheless, because he cares about them,
sometimes God will warn us way, way, way before we can even detect
it. He doesn't always wait till we're
in critical stages He'll want us wait. In fact, you know what?
Let me let me back up and say he does that a lot He does that
he in fact, that's the way God has worked all our life Let me
clean this up. God has been Talking to us and
speaking to us in his care for us all our life in multiple areas
of which watch this We don't pay him no attention until they
start hurting So let me keep this thing straight. This is
Mother's Day. I'm gonna let y'all go out here happy. You mothers,
you pray for yourself and you pray for your children. Because
we're all very stubborn when it comes to the Lord. We wait
till it hurt to go calling on him and he say, listen, I told
you about that years ago. You just left that thing alone
and turned it into a malignancy. Now you won't help. And the area
in which he's dealing with us now is just fascinating. I'm
just going to touch on it a bit and then close it down. What
does it mean for us to have left our first love? I'll do a little
bit more of an exegetical approach to this and hopefully even a
more textual application next week. But I'm just going to run
through the three points and the definition that we have in
our outline for today. The loss of love for Christ in
their service I believe is what he's talking about. Now, I know
that may sound tautological, like I'm saying the same thing
in two different ways. I'm not. I don't think. If you listen
to the language, notice what he says. Because you have left
your what? First love. And in time past,
you have heard people interpret leaving one's first love as if
the first love meant one's primary love, like the most important
love. Are you hearing me? And what
might be implied by that is this, that there are secondary loves
and tertiary loves and remote love, like we can have a category
of love. At the highest of my love is Jesus. You got that? And then under Jesus is my love
for my family. Under that, my love for my job.
Under that, my love for my idols. Under that, my love for this
or that, right? And then when we mess up, what
we do is switch our love for our idols with Jesus. Jesus goes
way down at the bottom and our idols go up here. I don't believe
that that's what he's talking about. Now, I know we can have
that, I think. I think. I got five minutes,
I'm gonna let you go out of here in five minutes, but I'm just
working something through here. Can we do that for a minute? I'm
just meditating on something. I don't know, child of God, I
don't know if we really can have multiple loves. So stay with
me for a moment, because you know we deceive ourselves, don't
we? Had a friend of mine tell me
this years ago. I was a young man, didn't know
nothing about love. So you could lie to me about
love, because I didn't know nothing about it. You know, when you're
young, we buy into anything. We're trying to build our anthem
and our thesis. So tell me whatever you want
to tell me, because 15, 16, 17, you don't know nothing about
love. He told me he can love several different women at the
same time. That was a fog in my head. 15 years old, we don't
know nothing about love. I guess you can, whatever. Ladies
and gentlemen, I've known something about love now for a few years. And what I'm understanding, and
I've learned it on two levels, a divine level and a horizontal
level. And what I have come to learn
is love is a singular dimensional issue or experience our character,
our emotion, our disposition of the soul, our volition of
the will, or intentionality of the mind. That is really one
thing. It's not a bunch of things. That
either you have love or you don't. Now I'm not talking about how
you parse your love to different people and different things.
I'm saying that you can't have one kind of love here and another
kind of love here and another kind of love here and another
kind of love here. Either you have love or you don't. Am I making
some sense right now? So next week, I think I'll try
to argue for that. But here's what I think our master
is saying. I think our master is not saying
that you can have love for this and love for that and love for
the other thing, but you don't have love for these things. I think what he's saying when
he says you have left your first love, is that you have left love
as the primary principle and basis for all that you do. So I want you to watch this now.
I want you to watch this. Maybe I'll make it good down
the line, but I do understand the impact of a waning of our
love for Christ. I think what our master is saying
is, You have failed in all that you've done, all the good stuff
that you've done, and all of the patience and all of the ministry
and all of the work that you've done. You have failed to remain
attached to the fundamental basis upon which those things actually
have life, upon which those things actually work. You have failed to understand
that the life of faith is love. That the life of service is love. That the life of duty is love. That the life of ministry is
love. And that love is my love. That
the love of Christ must be the foundation for everything we
do. That when once you have failed to understand the virtue of Christ's
love as the premise and motive Energy by which we do anything
now. We have defaulted to religion
Am I making some sense? So so so and this is quite again
this is quite intriguing to me because our masters actually
addressing a whole congregation around a Critical motive of which
somehow they have failed to see has diminished Remember their
good works are laudable They've done a lot of wonderful things.
And on a human level, probably no one has detected that there's
a deficiency taking place in the church at Ephesus because
they are doing ministry. They are doing evangelism. They
are preaching the gospel. They are discerning false doctrine.
They are discerning error. They are actually exposing. And
watch this. They have enough hatred towards
evil that they actually averted it. That's remarkable. We've already talked about the
absence of those virtues in our present generation. We want those.
Well, that's not what Christ wants us to want mostly. What
he wants us to want mostly is him. It's him. I don't think you can actually
have these other things in a vital way. But what Christ is talking
about here is the deep and profound motive of the soul in relationship
to the gifts that he gives us. So here's four things in your
outline under the loss of love for Christ in your service. And
I think some of you may know this by experience. We all get
tested with it. Point A, a shift from the motive of faith. What
is the motive of faith biblically? Do you guys know? Faith works
by what? Don't ever forget it. Galatians
chapter 5 verse 5. The Apostle Paul taught us frequently
through the New Testament. All things work by love. And
where there is the absence of love, everything we do is tinkling
cymbals, sounding brass, empty in its content, inefficacious
in its ultimate lasting effect in the lives of people. We make
noise. but we make no change. This is
where churches go from being sound in doctrine to simply noisy
in their music. Are you hearing me? And so under
this concept, I talk about the shift from the motive of faith.
What does that feel like? I think it feels like this. I
think it feels like you will spend most of your time, as you
are manifesting your faith by good works, laboring to make
sure those works externally existentially are approved of you and others
Rather than whether or not they are approved of God If there's
a subtle imperceptible shift from a motive of love for Christ
in what you do You'll be more concerned with what people think
about what you're doing Than whether or not God thinks about
it That's the first one the second one a drift into formality, a
drift into formality. When that love for Christ, which
should be the motive for which you breathe in and breathe out,
when that love for Christ, which should be the motive for which
you say, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Once that motive
is gone, You and I, because of the continual demand to come
to church and do ministry, and we've been told people, we're
Christians, so we got to do this thing. Yeah, we've been told,
folks, we're religious. We're holding Bible studies and
prayer services, and we're doing ministry, going to the prisons,
and we go halfway home. We're doing stuff now, right?
But our heart is not inflamed. in his motive towards Christ
on a personal level, which makes the external work manifested
as our faith easy to do. It's easy to do when you are
vitally connected to the Savior in a joyful communion with him
because of how he has shown himself to you. It's easy to serve God. When that's not there, it is
not easy. You can't even get to church
on time. Let me get back and get done
point number three When the subtle imperceptible shift of the motive
of faith is going which is love there's a drifting into formality
a drifting into formality a Read the verses for yourself all four
of those verses I gave you 2nd Timothy 3 5 a form of godliness
but denying the power thereof Ezekiel 33 31 Matthew 15 a Jesus
is they draw near to me with their words their heart is far
from me Far from me. That's amazing that he would
put an approximation on the distance of the heart from him Is it important
to God where our heart is? amazing And then finally he says,
after the drifting in the formality, a forgetting the need for personal
communion. I think when our first love factor
is diminished, we have forgotten that the most important thing
is your personal communion with Christ. So here's what I would
say. You cannot tell me that you don't
have a passionate commitment to his ministry and yet at the
same time have a passionate commitment to him. I think he would tell
you that you are being a farce to yourself and to me. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
It's a form of godliness denying the power thereof. And finally,
basically is what I said earlier and I'm going to stop here. I'll
read John chapter 14 verse 31. and remind you what our Master
said in John 17, 26. First love, to me right now, means love first. Whatever the definition of love
is, and I would challenge many of you in terms of your definition
of love, I would gather to say most people in our present culture
simply adopts a meaning of love that is basically, again, cultural
and not actually something that you've studied or examined or
learned. Most people just adopt terms
like love. What is love? What do you mean
by love? Define love am I making some sense define it don't just
have this kind of bland notion of love based upon cultural consensus
Define it and when you do because it's a term that the Bible uses
a lot Find out whether or not your definition of love squares
with the biblical definition of love, right? And then when
once you find out what the biblical definition of love is you get
to examine yourself and say whether or not It's there so I'm going
to take the chance as I close here to assume that love is one
of those things that we know intuitively. Okay? Can I do that? For the moment, you can go home
and check out your dictionaries, thesauruses and lexicons, all
that, and come back. You can write long commentaries. Send it to me on the email. I'll
read about five lines of it, and I'll pretend I read it for
you. Let me just kind of assume that we all intuitively know
what love is. And if you want a good working
definition of it, go to 1 Corinthians 13, okay? Because love is this,
love is that, love is this, love is that, and love is not this. And you can look at that list
and determine how we stand before Christ. And what we'll come back
next week and do is listen to our lovely high priest talk to
us about how to restore that love and to continue to walk
in his favor, amen.