Revelation chapter 2, unto the
angel of the church of Ephesus write, these things saith he
that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand who walketh
in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. I know thy works,
and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them
which are evil, and thou hast tried them which say they are
apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars, and hast borne,
and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and
hast not fainted. Nevertheless, I have somewhat
against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember,
therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the
first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove
thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent. But this
thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which
I also hate. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh
will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst
of the paradise of God. The Apostle Paul, in the book
of Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20, says, I am crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live. I
live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave
himself for me. Now, beloved, that is a tremendous
verse of scripture. A tremendous verse of scripture
because it tells us again about that union that we have with
the Lord Jesus Christ. And all those that are in Christ
have been in him from the foundation of the world. And Paul says,
I was crucified with him when he was hanging on that cross.
I was in him. I was in him. I died when he
died. His death to sin was my death
to sin. And he went on to say, I'm crucified,
but yet I'm alive. I'm living. Nevertheless, I live. He said, yet not I. And a believer
is alive in the flesh, but yet the Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul
goes on to say, is living in the believer. He lives in the
believer. And he says, yet not I, but Christ
that liveth in me. And he said, the life that I
now live in the flesh. And we're all living out, are
we not, day by day, our life in the flesh. And he says, I'm
living out that life in the flesh by the faith of the Son of God. Meaning that Jesus Christ has
given me the gift of his faith. and the very life that I live
by faith, I'm living with the faith of Christ. I have his faith
in my heart. He lives in me, and he walks
in me, and I live by his faith, that faith that was in resignation
to God. You remember the Bible says that,
lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me,
to do thy will, O God. And Jesus said, not my will,
but thy will be done. The Lord Jesus was in submission
to the will of the Father. He came not to do His own will,
but the will of Him that sent Him. And that faith was in the
Apostle Paul. And I want to tell you, that
faith is in every believer, the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. And if we're alive today and
Christ is in us, it is His faith that is in us. And Paul says,
it is the faith of the Son of God who loved me. He loved me. He loved me, Paul said. And you
know that Paul never got over the fact that God in Christ loved
him. Never got over it. Never did.
And I do not believe this morning that we ought ever to get over,
as long as we're in this flesh, The fact that God has in Jesus
Christ loved us out of the pit of sin and loved us into the
glorious revelation and truth and liberty of the gospel of
God's free grace. What a wonderful thing it is
that He loves us. And you know, as I was meditating
upon these verses in Revelation chapter 2, there were many things
that come to my heart about the love of God. And Mike led us
in two or three hymns this morning that talked about the love of
God. Oh, how wonderful, how wonderful,
how amazing is the love of God. And in Ephesians 2, Paul said
again in verse 4, he said, but God, who is rich in mercy for
his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead
in sins, hath quickened us, made us alive in Christ, made us,
he quickened us together with Christ. There's that union again. When the Lord Jesus was quickened
in the grave and brought out of the grave, all of his people
came out with him. All them that was in Him when
He was crucified, they all were quickened. And there is a sense
in which the people of God have been quickened from the foundation
of the world since they were put in the Lord Jesus Christ. We know experientially it's when
we're begotten of the Spirit or when we're regenerated of
the Spirit of God. But He quickened us together
with Christ. By grace are you saved. By grace are you saved. Now even when we were dead in
sins, The Lord loved us, that great love, wherewith he loved
us. In 1 John chapter 3, John spoke
of that manner of love. He said, behold, behold, behold,
look at this, stop and look, gaze upon this, and think of
this. He said, behold, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed, and that word there could be
translated lavished. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath lavished upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God. How amazing that is! How wonderful
it is that the Father hath so loved us that we are now called
the sons of God. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and we are, as 1 John says, and it does not yet appear
what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we
shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And in 1 John
chapter 4 and in verse 10 it says, herein is love. Not that
we love God, not that we love God, but that God loved us and
gave his son to be a propitiation or a satisfaction for our sins. Isn't that marvelous? Herein
is love. This is love. Not that we love God, not our
love to God, but herein is love. God loved us and gave his son
to be a satisfaction for our sin and then in 1st John 4 19
we love him because We love him because he first loved us now
these verses are They make me ask some questions. And one of
the questions that I made to ask after meditating on those
verses and after thinking over them and quoting them over and
over and over again to myself was, why would God love me? Why would he love me? Why would
God lavish upon me such wonderful, such blessed love, the love of
his heart? Why would he do that? Well, our
brother read to us the 14th chapter of the book of Hosea this morning,
and in Hosea 14 and four, God said concerning erring Israel,
backslidden Israel, rebellious Israel, he said, I will love
them freely. That's what he said, I'll love
them freely. And in Romans 3 verse 23 and
24 Paul said all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God being justified freely. Freely. Now this word freely,
I will love them freely, is a condensation of all the glorious message of
salvation which was delivered to us in Christ Jesus our Redeemer. Let me say it is the only way,
it is the only way in which God can love such people as we are. to love us freely. He must love
us without cause on our part. It's not on our part. We didn't
do anything to make God love us or to induce God to love us. I will love them freely, God
said. Now it may be that he can love
angels because of their goodness But my friend, he could not love
us for that reason, because there is no good thing to be found
in us. We're not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be. And there is no good thing in
our flesh. God must love us freely. It may be that he loved the angels
because of their goodness and because of their service. that
they rendered unto him. Maybe they rendered something
to him that would move his heart to love some of the angels. But
not us. Not us. Now the only manner in
which love can come down from God to fallen creatures is expressed
in this word freely. God must love us freely without
cause. Now God's love comes to men all
free. It comes unbought, undeserved,
nor sought after. Without our having merit to deserve
it or money to buy it, the love of God has come to my poor soul. And I did not, as I say, I did
not but freely. It means that no prayers of mine
no tears that I ever shed, no good works, whatever they might
be, talk about them if you want to, or pass them by, do what
you will, no good works, no giving of mine was an inducement to
God to love me. Not a thing that I ever did or
did not do induced God to love me. Now, not only nothing in
me, but nothing anywhere else was the cause of his love to
us. There is nothing in man to attract
the love of God to him. It must be sovereign grace, sovereign
love, sovereign mercy. God will love whom he will, and
this fountain of love has its spring in itself. Not in you,
not in me. but only in the Father's own
heart of goodness. Now, beloved, I believe that
the cause of the love of God toward us is the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that God can love us
freely as he has put us in his Son, his only begotten beloved
Son. Now I know that Jesus is altogether
lovely. Don't you believe that? Don't
you believe that the Son of God is altogether lovely? And don't
you, can't you see how that if God has put us in union with
Christ, And the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 1.30, but of God
are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made into us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. But of God are
you in Christ Jesus. Can't you see that if God put
you in union with Christ, and if he chose you on the basis
of the righteousness of Christ and the perfectness and completeness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, can you not see how that he can love
you in him? Can you not see that? Well, my
friend, as long as he looks at Christ and doesn't look at me,
he can love me in Christ. And I'm as happy about it as
I can be. I'm happy about it. I'm thrilled
about it. I rejoice in it. I glory in it. And I love the Lord Jesus Christ. I love Him. Do you love Christ?
Does He love you? Absolutely He loves you. And
the reason you love Him is because He first loved you. Now my friend,
I've said all of this, quoted all of these verses, read these
verses to you, made these comments that I've made to you this morning
to help you to see that our God has genuinely, freely loved us. He has loved us out of our sin,
and we're in Christ, in Him who is altogether lovely. To the
end, that you might see how great The sin is of one leaving their
first love toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Shame on us! Shame on
every one of us if we have left our first love toward the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I want to speak for a few
minutes this morning upon this portion of Scripture here in
Revelation chapter 2. And I trust that God will bring
to bear upon our hearts this morning the force of this truth
that's here in this passage. And that we'll not be the same
when we leave here this morning. Are you thrilled about the love
of God? Are you thrilled about the love
which God has lavished upon you unworthy sinners as we all are? Are you thrilled about it, being
justified freely without cause on your behalf, being loved freely? God not taking into account anything
you ever did or did not do, just loved you freely. He didn't consider
your response to the old covenant of works, not one bit. He just
loved you freely. Can you not see why it is that
we must take heed to our hearts before God, having had such love
lavished upon us, that we do not sin against the lover of
our souls? And we must not lose the sweetheart
love that the Lord put in our hearts when we first discovered
all these truths about the love of God. It must be rekindled
by our God in us this morning. I feel a great burden toward
this. Now the church at Ephesus was
a strong church in their conviction. They had strong convictions.
And she could not give up her faith. She believed God. She
trusted God. She could not be a traitor to
her Lord. This church was truly the Lord's
church. For this her Lord commended her
in our text this morning, and yet he says, Nevertheless, I
have somewhat against thee, in verse 4, I have somewhat against
thee, and that is because thou hast left thy first love. Now, beloved, when love dies,
orthodox doctrine becomes just a corpse. It becomes powerless. It becomes just mere formalism. Love Jesus, brother, sister,
and then it's well to hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans. But mere hate of evil is nothing
if love to the Lord Jesus Christ be not there to sanctify it in
our hearts. It is evident to me that Jesus
can see evil beneath all the good that is in our life. He
does not ignore the good, but he will not pass over that which
is wrong in our life. This evil was a very serious
one in this church at Ephesus. It was love on the decline. It was love that was abating. Thou hast left thy first love. Is that serious, you ask? Is
that a serious offense, you might ask? It is very serious indeed,
for the church, you know, is the bride of Christ. And for
a bride to fail in love is for her to fail in all things. It
is idle talk for a wife to say, I am obedient unto my husband. if love to her husband has evaporated. Her duties as a wife cannot be
fulfilled scripturally. She has lost the very life, the
very soul of the marriage if she does not have love to her
husband. So, brother, sister, this is
a most important matter, our love to Christ, because it touches
the very heart of our communion with Him, which is the crown
and the essence of our spiritual life. As a church we must love
Christ Jesus or else we've lost the very reason for our existence
in this world. We're in this world to love our
Lord Jesus Christ and to bear a witness and testimony faithfully
and to live and to walk faithfully with the Son of God bowing our
knee to the Lordship of Christ at all times and to be constrained
by the love of God is the only way that men and women can possibly
live for the glory of God in this world. And I might go on
to say that a church has no reason for existence, no reason for
being a church, if they have no love within their heart for
Him who first loved them. It is a disease of the heart,
beloved. Leaving off of the first love
is a woeful thing. It is indeed a woeful thing.
Lord, have mercy on us. Lose love. Lose love to Christ. Lose all, my friend. You lose
your power. You lose your usefulness. You
lose all when you lose love for Christ. Leave our first love,
and we've left strength. We've left peace. We've left
joy. And we've left off holiness. I call your attention to this
point, and this is very interesting to me, and that is that it was
he that is the lover of our soul, that is, that one who had laid
down his life for this church that found it out. Jesus himself
found it out first that this church had left its first love. Now, I do not know how that strikes
you, but think it over, if you will. If I began to leave off
loving Christ or love Him less than what I did back in my early
days, I would like or prefer, would you not, to find it out
myself first. I'd like to discover it myself. So hopefully I could do something
about it before I were to grieve Him who has so loved me and so
forgiven me and so saved my soul. I would like to find it, but
for him to find it out, it seems so hard, it seems such a sad
thing, that we should keep on growing colder and colder and
colder and never care about it or notice it until the Lord himself
points it out to us. Now even the angel of the church
or the pastor of the church, he didn't know it. He didn't
know that this church had left their first love. But the Lord
saw it. The Lord Jesus saw it. And he
delights in our love and he pines when it begins to fail, when
that love begins to weaken toward him. To him his people are unutterably
and inexpressibly dear. They're very precious. You see,
he laid down his life for the sheep. You see, he went to Calvary's
cross and suffered that horrible death on the cross for his sheep. He loved us up out of the pit
into his own bosom and loved us up from the dunghill where
we were among beggars to sit at his right hand upon his throne. And it's a sad day when he has
to complain of our cooling love. while we are utterly indifferent
to the matter ourselves. Isn't it a sad day? Does Jesus
care more about our love than we do? Does he care more about
our love to him than we do? I say, yes he does. Yes he does. You say, Preacher, I think I
love the Lord. Well, you may. But I'm going to tell you something,
your Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, that one who died in
your womb and stayed in place, cares more about your love toward
Him than you care about it, regardless of how much you care about it.
Our Lord wants your heart. He wants your soul. He wants
your devotion. He wants your communion with
Him. So this is not the complaint
of an enemy, but of a dear wounded friend. You have left your first
love. Now I can hardly conceive a greater
grief to him or to a husband. You know the Lord is the husband
of the church. Than to look her in the face,
his bride in the face, and have to say, Thou hast left thy first
love. You've left your first love.
What a grief! What can the church give him
but love? Can you give him anything else?
What would you bring, my friend, as a substitute for the love
of your heart? toward this one that we've been
talking about this morning that has so loved us. What would you
give? What can you give? Is there anything
you can scrape up? I mean, do you have a box someplace
that you have hidden treasure in that you can bring that he'll
take notice of? Something that will salve his
heart when you have lived in coldness and indifference toward
him and the love of your heart has diminished? What can you
give him? Will we deny him what we can
give him? That is the love of our hearts.
What are we without him? He married the church. He is
married to us. We're joined unto the Lord. They that are joined unto the
Lord are one spirit. They are joined unto him. For
this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall
be joined unto his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh.
And those that are joined unto Christ are as much married to
Jesus Christ as any man or woman here is married to each other.
We're joined to the Lord Jesus Christ that we might bring forth
fruit unto God. But he married the church when
she was in poverty. Think of it. Here's a man, and
he meets this woman, and she's in debt clear up to her ears,
as the expression is. And she cannot pay her debts.
But he falls in love with this woman, and he marries this woman,
and when he marries this woman, he assumes all of her liabilities. Every one of them, he assumes
it. And then he's responsible, and he must stand for those obligations
and those responsibilities. And our Lord Jesus Christ married
His church when she was in poverty and when she was a beggar. And
if we do not give Him love, pray tell me, what else do we have
to give Him? If she's unfaithful in heart
to Him, what is she worth? What is the church worth? Why,
an unloving wife is a rottenness to her husband's bones. An unloving
wife, an unfaithful wife, a discomfort and a dishonor she is to her
husband, to his name. Shall it be so with us? Will
we grieve Emmanuel, God with us? You see, it's not like he
was an absent lover. It's not like he was away from
us. It's not like he was so far away
that he cannot tell what's going on in our hearts. You see, Emmanuel
is God with us. He's with us, my friend. And
all things are naked and open unto the God with whom we have
to do. There isn't anything that misses his eye. He knows all. He knows our situation. He knows
our condition. And so, will we grieve Emmanuel? Will we wound our well-beloved?
Jesus is not so sick of our sins as He is of our lukewarmness
and our indifference toward Him. This is sad business to me. I
hope it is to you. I'm fighting, I'm fighting an
uphill battle on this every day of my life. Do I love the Lord
or no? Am I His or am I not? Am I really
in love with the Lord Jesus Christ? Will I really deny myself and
follow the Lord Jesus Christ? Will I take up my cross? Will
I follow Him? Will I walk with Him? Will I
obey Him? Will I fulfill my obligation
toward Him as a redeemed soul? Will I obey the Lord? Well, this
first love, and I'm not sure that anyone can really define
the term first love, But I am sure that it can be closely identified. Do not imagine for a moment that
this is merely an emotional and sentimental thing that has no
real significance. The thing called first love is
very important to God. Very important to him, I remember
reading in Jeremiah 2 and verses 1 and 2, God told the prophet
Jeremiah, you go cry in the ears of Israel. You go cry in the
ears of Israel and say, thus saith the Lord, I remember thee
the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals. When
thou wentest after me in the wilderness, Israel was holiness. Unto the Lord the Lord said I
remember that I remember when you went after me in the wilderness
I remember when you were young and the kindness that you showed
me in your youth the youth as a nation I remember that God
said and thine espousals Well, what is this first love? I say
God is mightily concerned about. God remembers how it was with
you when you first heard these truths that we just mentioned
in the very outset of our message this morning. Well, what is this
first love? When our Savior says, Dallas
left your first love, it is obvious that he's not suggesting that
there are some here who once were true believers, and they've
left off believing Him altogether. They've ceased to trust Him,
and they got lost again. Obviously, this is not what he's
talking about. This kind of doctrine is absolute,
total heresy. True faith never ceases to believe,
and true love can never be entirely quenched. Anyone who ceases to
trust Christ never truly trusted Christ. And anyone who ceases
to love Christ completely and entirely and turns away from
Him and has not a flicker of desire or love toward Him never
really loved Him at all. Faith in and love for the Lord
Jesus Christ are gifts of God's saving grace and they can never
be taken away. They can never be taken out of
the soul, yet God's people do sometimes leave their first love. Through indelible collective
duty and cares, the cares of this world, the heart and the
fervor of our love for Christ sometimes abates. And the exercise
of love toward Him, it diminishes. Go back, if you could, to Mount
Calvary, where the Lord Jesus Christ first appeared to you,
bleeding and dying and suffering upon the cursed tree as your
substitute. There He spoke to your heart.
By His Spirit, through the word of His grace, He said to you,
I am thy salvation. I have redeemed you. You belong
to me. You're bought with a price. Therefore,
go forth and glorify me in your body and your spirit, which are
mine. All sins are forgiven. They're
washed away in this fountain filled with blood drawn from
my veins. Immediately, did we not fall
in love with the Son of God? Had He asked? You would gladly
have given Him anything and everything at that time, even your very
life. In fact, He did ask. And you
gladly lost your life to Him. And for His sake, did you not? Did you not really? Are you so
far gone that you can't remember ever really being in love with
the Lord Jesus Christ? Can't you ever remember of ever
getting a closet? finding a place where you could
pray and you'd get on your knees before the Lord, your heart just
in love with Christ, and you just couldn't help it. You just
couldn't get low enough. You just couldn't get far enough
in the corner. You just couldn't. You were bowing your heart and
knee to Christ, and you were begging Him to take your life
and to use it and to bless you, make you a blessing and to make
you all that He could make you, and your desire just to be His,
to be His, to be His. completely and entirely. You
wanted to be heroes all together. Can you not remember that? My
friend, that's first love. First love for Christ. Oh, how
wonderful it is. First love inspired our hearts
to almost unceasing prayer. praise and communion with God. I always rejoice when somebody
tells me I've been making some time to praise the Lord. That just blesses me. That encourages
me. Because I tell you what, if a
person will praise God, If there's prayer in the heart, as the old
Spurgeon said, ere long the angels are going to be in the house.
And if there's praise in the heart, it's going to be very
long before there's going to be a brokenness, before there's
going to be a More attention being given to the minute details
of that person's life. More attention being given to
the responsibility that has fallen upon the shoulders of that individual.
They're praising God for each blessing and everything that
has fallen out to them and the goodness of God. They're not
proud and they're not haughty and high-minded and think God
owes them something. They're praising the Lord for
what He's given them. Now brother, sister, this is
important. Communion with the Lord. The places where you've
lived since you've been a Christian. Can they testify? What would
they testify about? You've been there. You've been
there. You lived there for a number of years. What is there? What is there that they could
testify about you and about your communion with the Lord Jesus
Christ? The walls, if they could talk
in the places where you live, what could they tell us about
your fellowship with the Lord, your communion with Christ? I
lived about 14 years out here in a place out on the Fairfield
Bench. I never thought a whole lot about it, but I prayed all
over the place. All over the place I'd pray.
God knows how I prayed all over the place. Well, a few years
after folks moved in, I was talking to one of the families that lived
there one day, and they said, you know, they were a little
bit, well, they professed to be Christians, and they said,
you know, we can just feel it. When we first came on this place,
we could just feel there was something about this place that
was not like any place where we had ever been before. Something about it that gripped
our hearts in this place. Now, beloved, you can say what
you want to. But I'm going to tell you something, that as we
live out our days and lives, there are those things that witness
whether or not we love Christ or not, and whether or not we're
communion with Him. You say, nobody will ever know
it. Oh, yes, they will know it. They'll know. You say, well,
I love Christ. I don't think anybody pays any
attention to it. Yes, they do. But most of all, your Redeemer
pays attention to it, and He knows it, and He knows about
it, your communion, your fellowship with God. His first love inspired
our hearts. First love calls us to earnestly
and zealously confess Christ to men and women around us. First love for Christ made His
word our most delightful treasure. I never will forget it, how the
Lord implanted in my heart appetite For the word of God, when I was
a sophomore in high school, to the point where that I read the
epistles of Paul day by day in the study halls, every opportunity,
that's what my heart was given over to from the time God saved
me, was to know this book, read this book, memorize these scriptures,
and to study them. The most important book you'll
ever get acquainted with is this Bible. And if you're a believer,
my friend, if you're a believer, You'll have surely an appetite
for this Word. And then first love made the
house of God. It made the ministry of the Word
of God and the fellowship of God's saints the most important
and the most joyful thing in the world to us. Now you judge. Why some folks, there are some
folks who profess to be Christians, they could do without it. They
don't need any, they don't need to hear the Word of God preached.
They don't need to go to the house of God. They don't need
to be with people that love Christ and know Christ. They don't need
it! Well, my friend, there's a real question mark in your
life, and that is whether you love Christ or not, and whether
your heart is in love with Him supremely. Say, Preacher, are
you going to have the gall to stand up there and tell us that
we ought to love Christ supremely? I'm here to tell you this morning
that you better not love Him less. Love Him supremely. Love Him with your whole heart,
your soul, and your strength. Love Christ supremely with all
of your heart. Now, we would have given Him
anything, anything for the cause of Christ. We'd have done anything
for the glory of Christ. We would have gone anywhere at
the bidding of Christ if He'd have said, I want you. I want
you. Young man, I want you. Young
man, I want you. I'm going to use your life."
You were to give it to him. You were to give it to him. But
then after a while, in that day, no sacrifice seemed to be a sacrifice. When our hearts burned with live
coals from off the altar, nothing seemed at that day to be a real
sacrifice. No trouble to give it up. No
trouble to give up that foul mouth. No trouble to give up
all of this waywardness, wanderings in the world, and lusting after
the things that... No, no, not in that day. Because
the love of God burnt permanently in our hearts and in our souls.
Now we're more mature. More mature now. We're more learned
now. Oh, we know too much now. We're
more settled. We're more refined. We're more
thoughtful. And we're more cold, too. More
cold. And we're more lifeless. And
we're more useless. Ain't hardly anything about us
anymore. We're cumbering the earth. Cumbering
the earth. What reason does God Almighty
have to keep giving you breath? What reason? You know He's gotta
give you every breath you breathe. What reason has He got to give
you anymore? What reason? Well, it's a good
thought. We need to be thinking about
it and get serious about this, that we've outgrown our love
to Christ and we're just more moderate now. There's no fire
in us anymore. No fire in the boiler. There's
nothing anymore that excites us. And we don't get carried
away at saying, oh how wonderful, how amazing is the love of God. We don't get moved anymore. And
we'd rather the preacher just kept a low, low, low, low voice
and not say anything too loud. We don't want it. Well, how do
we leave this first love? What happened? Where did we go
wrong? Rarely if ever does this decline
in love toward God begin with some climatic event. It very
seldom ever begins so. It's just gradual, and it steals
over our hearts, and it suffocates our souls by degrees. But the cause of the decline,
I think, can be found, if we be honest with ourself, we'll
find that the decay comes from, generally, from three sources.
One, our love declines whenever we willfully neglect the Lord
Jesus Christ. when we just won't draw up near
Christ. You know, we just cannot believe
that if you draw an eye to God, he'll draw an eye to you. We
don't believe that. We don't believe it. But that's what the
Word of God says. He says, you draw an eye to me,
and I'll draw an eye to you. Now, it's kind of like the planets
and the sun. There are some planets as hot
as fire, I understand. I'm no scientist. But others
are as cold as ice. Some move very slowly around
the sun, others spin around it with great speed, and some are
very near the sun and others are very far away, and so it
is with us. If we live near Christ and we
stay in close communion and fellowship with Him, we cannot help loving
Him and being controlled by our love for Him. The heart that
lives nearest to the Son of Righteousness is most inflamed with love by
Him and for Him. Don't forget that. Do you live
near the Lord? Do you live near Him? I heard
a story one time about a fellow, he was talking about these coals
in the fireplace. He said as long as he kept them
all raked together, they just kept burning and burning and
burning. But if he separated them, pushed this one over here,
that one over there, and just separated them, it wasn't long
before they all went out. And you know, if we stay together
near the Lord, if we draw an eye to Him and come up close
to the Lord and hug the Lord Jesus Christ, hug Him with the
heart of faith and fellowship The heart that's nearest Him
will be the most inflamed with love by Him and for Him. But
when we neglect our Savior, our love is going to decline. Our
hearts are less inflamed with and overwhelmed by love for Him
when we're away from Him. That's true about, you know your
own self. That's true about people that
are deeply in love with each other. They need to be near each
other. They want to be near each other.
They want to be in fellowship with each other. They desire
it with all their hearts. They want it. But if they're
away, if they're away, if they're away, you know, as the old saying
is, that, you know, I know that some people say, well, the heart
grows fonder as it's away. But really and truthfully, after
a time, There's a mellowing, there's a, is that the word?
There is something that happens. And I say it is true with the
hearts of the Lord's people. If you don't stay in fellowship
with Christ, my friend, you're going to lose that love that
constrains you and motivates your heart. Another thing that
causes our love for Christ to decay is the love of the world.
The Lord Jesus spoke of how that because iniquity abounds, the
love of many waxes cold. And I'll tell you what, we're
living in a world that's no friend of grace to help us on to God.
Don't you know that? We're living in a world that
drag us down, smothers to death. This is a wicked and evil world.
My soul, the things that we have to deal with in our day and time. I just really feel a helplessness
when I think of this world and the awful sins that are being
committed in this world, and the great evil that's all around
us, and the blanket that just smothers the people of God in
our day. Helpless. Only our God and it
reminds me of that verse that tells me that he that is in us
is Greater than he that is in the world and that's our hope
brother sister. That's our hope but I want to tell you that very
very few people living in this world and living in riches That
live in grace at the same time you need to pray more if you
have more you need to pray more and Of all the temptations to
which God's saints are exposed in this world, this is the most,
I suppose, dangerous because it is the most subtle. Too much
of this world is an evil encumbrance to anyone. And the more you got,
the more you got to pay attention to it, the more you got to give
yourself to it, the more you got to look after it, the more
you got to take care of it. And it's going to be an encumbrance
on your life. There's no sin in having this
world's goods. I'm just telling you that it's
going to, if you're not careful, it's going to draw your heart
away from the Lord. It will. It will. Where poverty
has sunk ten riches have sunk their hundreds and their thousands.
Just remember that. Too much of this world is an
evil encumbrance to anyone. Now the third cause of decline
in love for Christ is carnal presumption. Carnal presumption. I say fleshly presumption. Presumption
Quenches zeal you just figure out everything you study everything
out. You say well. I've analyzed that
I've analyzed that you say I've looked this thing over and I
figured it every way that it can be figured and I just don't
think there's any need for me to get to to Riled up and too
much concerned about getting involved too much in my life
with these things That's carnal presumption My friend, you better
listen to what the Word of God says. You better fall in love
with the one who fell in love with you and died for you. Save your soul. You better give
up your self-confidence, because that weakens faith, and your
self-righteousness, which makes your heart as cold as an iron
wedge. Give it up. Self-carnal presumption. Well, what can be done to regain
our first love? If we truly belong to Christ,
though we decline in love to Him, His love for us will not
decline. Isn't that a wonderful thing?
That His love for us is not going to decline. It never will. Well,
you sat there kind of smug, and you say, well, that's all right.
That's good. That's all right. Preaching and
reviving that. But listen, let me tell you something. If you
was as sensitive about this as you ought to be, you'd just kind
of move forward a little bit on your seat. that the Lord's
love is not going to decline towards you because your love
has declined to the point that it has this morning. And you
would be a little bit more concerned and you would be thankful in
your heart that God's love is not going to decline. Because
He loves us, you know what? Because He loves us, He's going
to chasten His people. And He'll cause us to return
unto Him. He'll cause us to return unto
Him. Those that I love, He said, I
will rebuke and I'll chasten. Now, if we do not return to Christ,
if our decline is permanent, mark it down. It's because your
love is a fake, it's a pretense, it's a sham. You have a sham
profession of love and no more. If you don't return. If any lover
of Christ would regain that first love, he gives us, I think, three
things, three words here of counsel, and we'll hurry on to conclusion.
First of all, he said, remember. Remember in verse 5. Remember
from whence thou art fallen. Remember what a blessed condition
your soul was in. And remember what kind of condition
you are in now. Remember how you enjoyed. Love
to Christ, how you enjoyed the things of Christ. Remember! Think
a little bit. Meditate a little bit. You know,
some people don't want to remember anything about the past. Some
things about the past, it's best not to be remembered. But there
are some things that you ought to remember. And our Lord Jesus
said here, you remember from which you're fallen. Remember
about the condition that you were in when God first saved
you, and the love and the warmth of your soul toward Him. Remember
it! What a blessed condition. Remember what you were and where
you were when the Savior found you. You know, the Lord Jesus
found you in a pit, and He brought you up. out of the pit. Remember
what you owe the Son of God. You remember what Ezekiel 16
says, When I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own
blood, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, I said
unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, I said, Live. I said, Live. Yea, he said, I
said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, he said, I said,
live. And when he found you, you were
dead, dead in sin. And he said, live. So he said,
you remember that. You remember, I passed by you.
You were in your blood. You were dead. And I said, live. And because I said live, you
live. You're alive unto God. Never
to die for all eternity. Hallelujah. What little bit of
difference does it make in this world how things are? What difference
does it really make? He said, I said live. And I believe
that's eternal life. I believe God gives us the same
kind of life He's got. Don't you? Amen? Don't He give
us eternal life? Everlasting life? He said, I
said live. He mentioned it to them twice. When I saw you where
you were, I said live. Well, I know you may not get
much out of that, but I'll tell you what, it revives my heart
a little bit. You know there's a difference
between being dead and alive, wouldn't you think so? Huh? Wouldn't you think so? Difference
between being dead and alive. Well, I think most of you would
agree with that. You might be a little bit slow
to say anything, but there's a difference. Remember, remember
you were dead. But now you're like, and he said,
repent. Oh, you say, preacher, I'm not giving much to that.
Repent. Repent, as you did at the beginning. Repent, change your mind. Some
of you got some things to change your mind about. You know it
and I know it. Some of you got some things to
change your mind about. Some of you let yourself slip.
He said, you repent. You know, repentance is more
than an act. It's a disposition of the soul.
And it's more than a once-done act. It's something that you're
doing all of your lifetime as a believer. Repenting, repenting,
repenting. Turning from the mind of the
flesh to the mind of God. On and on and on. Repent of the
evil you've done to Christ. The insults. Shame that's in
your heart. Repent. Do the first works. That's
just another way of saying return to the Lord, return to the place
where you first met the Son of God, return to Calvary, bathe
your sin sick soul in the precious blood of Christ, go over these
truths, these Bible truths again. Quote with Paul, Galatians 2.20
I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me. The life that I now live, I live
by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me." Quote it over and over again, and go back to it, and
God give you the blessing of it. The blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. John 1 and verse 7. Well, that's the message this
morning, I do hope. I just thank God for his word
and his truth. And my own soul has been touched
with these things, meditating upon them. The word of God is
precious. Precious. Precious. It's a miracle of God that I
could have lived as long as I had and still have any love in my
heart toward Christ. It's a miracle if a man lives
to be 67 years old and still loves Christ. You've been away
50 years, still loves Christ. That's a miracle of grace. Miracle
of the grace of God. Anything else? Miracle of God's
grace. You get as old, you get up in
years, you're going to say the same thing. Ah, it's been a miracle
I ever made it. Been a miracle I ever got this
far. Just a miracle that I ever come this way. But it's a good
hand of God. Go out of here asking yourself
the question, why should God give me another breath? Why should
He do that? Why should God give me another
breath? What is it that I'm doing in
this world for His glory that He ought to give me another breath?
Go out of here asking yourself that. I hope there's some repentance,
some turning around, and we see some people coming back to that
sweetheart love for Christ, where they're willing to give themselves
a new and a fresh, give themselves again. Say, I don't know if He
ever took my life or not. You give it to Him again. He'll
take it. He'll take it. He'll take it. Give it to Him. Father, in the
name of Jesus, we thank you this morning that we're able to be
here and we're thankful for this time we've had, this fellowship
around the Word of God. Do thou, our Father, incline
our hearts toward remembering the right things. and toward
getting our hearts fixed on thee and on your eternal truth. Lord,
revive our hearts. Revive our hearts. Revive us
again. Fill our hearts with your love.
May each soul be rekindled with fire from above. We pray it in
Jesus' name, for his sake. Amen.