Let's turn tonight to Revelation
chapter 2, verses 1 through 7. Ephesus was a huge city in the
apostolic times, 225,000 people approximately. It was a city
that was prosperous, wealthy. very religious city among the
Gentiles. The great temple of Diana was
built in Ephesus. Religious folks came there from
all over the world and made their pilgrimages. And people found
great employment working, involving themselves in various aspects
of the worship of Diana and accommodating the tourists who came to visit
this great temple to this great goddess. I was just sitting there
thinking to myself, modern day religion must have got to start
here. They had artisans and silversmiths and goldsmiths who built their
little trinkets and idols and all that stuff and folks come
visit, they'd sell them to them. Everybody felt religious when
they'd come visit the Temple of Diana, but it was a filthy,
vile, pagan temple. A place where Satan ruled. Men claimed to worship God, but
they claimed to worship God while they practiced all manner of
immorality, disgusting filth. Well, the Apostle Paul came to
this well-known, fabulous, wealthy city on his third missionary
journey, and he preached the gospel at Ephesus for something
over three years. You can read about it in Acts
chapters 18, 19, and 20. After he preached the gospel
there, the Lord God was pleased establish a gospel church, and
it became a great lighthouse in the area. The Church at Ephesus
was known throughout the world as a church preaching the gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace. The Church at Ephesus was devoted
to Christ, and it devoted itself with great zeal in the calls
of Christ in proclaiming the gospel. But now 40 years have
passed since Paul came there preaching, The children of God
at Ephesus had continued in the way of faith insofar as their
orthodoxy is concerned. They never departed from the
faith. They held to the same creed they held to while Paul
was there. They proclaimed the doctrines
of God's free grace from the pulpit continually and around
the world. They never backed off from those
things. But something desperately evil had happened. The Lord Jesus
discovered a sad, sad fault in this church at Ephesus. And so
he sends this letter to the angel, the pastor of the church, who
himself apparently did not discern the fault, because he apparently
was much involved in it. The people, too, were unaware
of it. But the Lord Jesus, with his keen, discerning eye, observed
it. And now he calls attention to
it. He says, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast
left thy first love. And what he says, he says not
to this church alone, but you'll notice in verse seven he says,
he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to
the churches. So what he says here, Bobbie,
is addressed to me and you. Not just to that local church
at Ephesus, But to you and I in this day, in this age, in this
local assembly, let us then ask ourselves this question. Painful as it is, let's ask it
and answer it honestly. Is there my soul a declension
in me from my first love to Christ? As our Lord begins to speak this
painful word to his church at Ephesus, he begins first with
a tender, loving, kind, encouraging word. Whenever there is a stern
word of reproof to be given by the master, he's so gracious
that he cushions it with a kind word of commendation and encouragement. Let no one imagine that the church
at Ephesus was a false apostate or even an indifferent congregation.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Few churches to whom
such laudable commendations could be given were to be found in
that day or in this. Look at verse 2 and verse 3 and
then verse 6. Our Lord says, I know thy works
and thy labor and thy patience and how that thou canst not bear
them which are evil Thou hast tried them which say they are
apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars. And thou hast
borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured,
and hast not fainted. And then he says, And thou hast
this, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also
hate. Now with those words our Lord
Jesus commends this church for eight things. and we ought not
pass over them lightly. He says, I know thy works. These were not idle believers.
Their faith was practical. By works of obedience to God,
they proved their faith to other men. They stood by their works
as lights in the world of darkness to show forth the light of the
gospel. They not only professed faith, they practiced it every
day. And then our Savior said, I know
thy labor. These were not only men and women
who walked in good works before God, but they put themselves
into the work that God committed to their hands wholeheartedly.
They zealously, anxiously went about serving the Lord, the cause
of Christ in their generation with all their might. And then
our Lord says, I know thy patience. There are quite a few people
who get excited at first, you know. I've had a lot of folks
across my path over the years as a preacher, and they get excited
at first, and they come, and they join the church, and they
say, oh, what can I do? What can I do? Just anxious to
do something. And then they find out it's got
to do something. They find out it requires something,
and they begin to slack off, and slack off, and slack off,
and after a while you ask them to do something, they say, no,
I can't do that. I'm too busy for that. I can't do that. These
folks, they were not such people. They not only worked and gave
themselves laboriously to the work, but they patiently continued
in the work, so that this church has stood generation after generation
after generation after generation, one people upon the heels of
another people, patiently serving the Lord. Oh, what a commendation! And then the Son of God commended
the church at Ephesus for her intense adherence to gospel truth. He said, I know that thou canst
not bear them which are evil. They had an intense loathing
for that which was evil, both doctrinally and morally. They
loved the truth, and their love for the truth made them hate
every false way. Like David of old, they said,
through thy precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false
way. And then the Lord said, I know
Thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not,
and you found them liars. You found them liars. Like you
men and women here, these folks at Ephesus knew truth from error. Their ears were sensible to discern
the difference between things that differ. They heard Judaizers
and free willers, legalists and Arminians preaching another gospel,
another Jesus, another spirit, and their blood boiled. They
said, we will not stand for that. They wouldn't have it in their
pulpit, nor would they accommodate it anywhere else. They boldly
denounced all such pretentious preachers as liars, deceivers,
and wicked men. And then this church at Ephesus
bore reproach and persecution for Christ's sake. and they did
it with patience. The Lord Jesus said, I know how
thou hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored. So that in the teeth of opposition,
they stood firm. In the midst of the Lord's enemies,
they boldly confessed him without flinching. In the face of hardship,
trial, persecution, even imprisonment, they confidently served their
master. They were loyal to the core.
And then the Lord Jesus commended them for their rare, rare patience,
for perseverance and faithfulness. I know that thou hast not fainted. They never failed. They never
failed. There are not many folks, as
I said a moment ago, there are not many congregations, not many
individuals of whom such laudable commendations could be spoken.
They never faltered, they never quit. The saints that God had
emphasized were rare, rare people indeed. And the Lord said one
other thing in a matter of great commendation. He said that, I
know that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also
hate. Not only did they consider those
men who came as Judaizers, who came preaching legal works, who
came preaching the law as a basis of justification, or as a rule
of life, or as a motive of godliness, as a means and measure of sanctification. They said, those fellows are
Judaizers, they claim to be the apostles of Christ, but we consider
them liars. And the Lord Jesus said, I commend
you for that. But then on the other side were
these Nicolaitans, these who claimed to be Christians but
behaved in such vile, base ungodliness. These who said, well, since men
and women are saved by free grace, character and conduct doesn't
matter. We can live like hell if we want to. And the Lord Jesus
said, I commend you because you hate both of them. You despise
every false way. And then the Lord said to this
otherwise exemplary congregation, Nevertheless, though you're orthodox, zealous,
patient, persevering, uncompromising, and upright, most of you here in this congregation
tonight have been with us long enough, and I can honestly say
to you, all of those words of commendation apply to this congregation. You've been upright, uncompromising,
persevering, Orthodox, zealous, patient, even when it costs you. But the Lord said, I have somewhat
against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Now I've
come here tonight to preach to my own heart, and the message
I have to deliver to you, I have delivered to myself today. Last
night I rolled it over in my heart so much, If any of you have offended as
I have in this matter, this message is for you. If not, then just
listen in and pray for the rest of us. May God the Holy Spirit
now apply his word to our hearts. May he graciously by his renewing
power that only he can perform calls our hearts to return to
that first love of which our text speaks. The hymn writer,
I believe it was Cowper, expressed what I'm saying this way. Where
is the blessedness I knew? When first I saw the Lord, where
is the soul-refreshing view of Jesus in His Word? What peaceful
hours I then enjoyed! How sweet their memory still!
But now I find an aching void the world can never feel. You
see, love that is not fed with fellowship and communion soon
decays into something worse than indifference. It decays into
presumption and ingratitude. We have all experienced that,
if we're honest with ourselves in some measure, with those who
are dearest to us. My wife so greatly loves me and
cares for me, and I love her so dearly. But when I'm not careful
to remind myself of her love, and I'm not careful to remind
myself of what a blessing she is, I'm not careful to remind
myself of what I would be without her, I become presumptuous and
ungrateful. That's what I think this text
is talking about tonight. I ask what is this first love
and I recognize that it's more felt than described. And I can talk about it theologically
and run around the block two or three times trying to describe
it for you and never get it described. If you know what it is, you know
what it is. If you don't, you don't. Don't imagine that this is a
mere emotional, sentimental thing, something that has no real significance.
This thing called first love is important to our God. Hold
your hands here in Revelation chapter 2 and turn back to Jeremiah
chapter 2. I've read and heard comments
that seem to imply that somehow this first love thing is not
to be too much considered, Others stress too much just the sheer
emotionalism of it. But here at Jeremiah chapter
2, our Lord speaks plainly and tells us this is a matter of
great importance to him. Moreover, the word of the Lord
came to me saying, go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem saying,
thus saith the Lord. I remember thee. I remember you. I remember the kindness of your
youth. I remember the love of your espousals. I remember that. The Lord's speaking
now. He said, I remember when you
went after me in the wilderness in a land that was not sown. You went out into no man's land
with me, following me because you loved me. And our Savior
says, thou hast left thy first love, obviously. He's not talking
about people who once loved Him and then ceased to love Him.
True love can never be quenched. Anyone who ceases to love Christ
never truly loved Him at all. Love for Christ is God's gift
to his people. And when I talk about loving
him, I'm not talking about just saying I love him or feeling like I
love him. Anyone who ceases to be committed in his heart to
Christ never knew Christ. Believers are committed to him
and committed in love. Our Lord said, I'll betroth you
unto me in faithfulness, and he does, all his people. Yet
God's people do sometimes leave their first love. through indolence, neglect of
duty, the care of this world, the heat and fervor of our love
for Christ abates, the exercise of love diminishes. I recall when first I saw the Master crucified for me. When first I experienced the
cleansing power of His blood, the freeing power of His grace,
when first He compelled my heart to run after Him, I fell in love with Him immediately. Had he asked me then to give
everything I own to him, I would gladly have done it. Had he asked
me then to have laid down my life for him, I have no question
I would gladly have done it. In fact, he did. And I did. That's what it is to close with
Christ, Rex. That's what it is to believe on him. It's to lay
everything down at His feet. It's to surrender everything
to Him. All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give. It is that love, that first reckless,
careless, uninhibited, unrestrained love, that I'm afraid we in measure
turn from and leave at times. Again, let me use the illustration
of a man and his wife. Young couple falls in love with
each other, and responsible, and yet at the same
time, they fall in love with each other, and they just got
to have each other. That fella proposes to her, and
she says yes, and then they start to think. What are we going to
live on? Where are we going to live? How
are we going to live? I don't know, but we'll work
it out. And somehow you do. Just that
reckless abandon of love. The only difference is this.
In the case of a young man and a young woman, that reckless
love that abandons responsibility is foolish. But in the case of
Christ, and his bride, that reckless love that abandons everything
to him. Lindsay Campbell, it's the wisest
course of action in the world. Oh, for grace to wisely abandon
everything to him. That first love causes the believer
to earnestly, zealously confess Christ before men. Don't care
what it costs. Sometimes the young believer
acts too rash and speaks too bluntly and sometimes acts contrary
to a gracious character, but the young believer full of zeal
can't be accused of not confessing Christ. We get a little older
and we say, well, I don't know, maybe. We start to hedge. That first love Inspired our
hearts to almost unceasing prayer, praise, and communion. Every
time we would steal away a minute or two by ourselves, we'd seek
to fellowship with our Redeemer in His Word. That first love
for Christ makes the Word of God our delightful treasure.
The ordinances of worship, our soul's delight, fellowship with
God and His saints, we count it our highest privilege. We'd come to the house of God,
hear and join in the songs of Zion, and oh, how our hearts
would move to God with worship and praise. We'd break the bread
with God's people and remember our Redeemer with joy and gladness.
The preaching of the gospel never fell on cold hearts. I can remember,
God forgive me, I can remember when I could hardly think of
Christ dying for me without my heart being broken, much less
speak of it or hear somebody else speak of it. That first love caused us to
do the will of God with unquestioning faith, unhesitating obedience. Those were happy peaceful days
we once enjoyed, how sweet their memories still. But now things are different. Now we've gotten more refined,
more settled in. We've learned more and matured
more and got more cold, more dead, more useless. But what happened? I'll tell you what happened.
The cares of the world, they creep in, yes. But somehow we become at ease
in Zion. The prophet Amos says, Woe unto
them that are at ease in Zion. But pastor, I thought we were
supposed to rest in Christ. Yeah, but not in ourselves. Mark, there's a huge, huge difference
between confident faith self-confidence. Huge difference. Children of
God, ever be confident of Christ, but be wary of confidence in
yourself. Self-confidence causes us to neglect Christ. that the preacher be honest with
himself. I know my most besetting sin is the neglect of him whom I
love most. I know that. I know that. And I hate it worse than anything. I'm not a lazy man. You give
me something to do for Christ, for the good of his church, for
the furtherance of the gospel, I'll immediately put my hand
to it and work at it if it drives me to my grave. But I'm not nearly as quick to
open my heart to communion with Christ. We're all like the planets. Those
that are nearest the sun move fastest around it and are the
hottest. Those that are further away move
the slowest and are the coldest. Oh, children of God, let us cry
continually to God's Spirit, give us grace that we may snuggle
up close as possible to the Son of God, that our hearts may move rapidly
toward Him and burn with fresh fire from
off the altar of God in love for Him. But what can we do? Our Lord tells us to do three
things. Now I sound this word of warning.
If we belong to Christ, though we decline in love to Him, His
love to us will never decline. And because of His love being
faithful, He will chasten us and cause us to return to Him. And if he doesn't chasten us
and cause us to return to him, Oscar, it's cause we never knew
him. Let's not be presumptuous. Old
John Newton said, help me to love thee more and more if I
love it all, I pray. If I have not loved before, help
me to begin today. So the Lord says, do these three
things. Number one, remember. Remember. Remember from whence thou art
fallen. Remember what a blessed position
you were in. He brought me into his banqueting
house and his banner over me was love. Remember where you were and what
you were when he found you by his grace. I love the story of
the very wealthy man. His pastor was visiting with
him one day, and the young pastor, first time he'd been at this
man's house, whelped the man in the congregation, asked him
to come home for dinner with him. After dinner was over, the
man was walking the pastor around, showed him the grounds and showed
him through the house, you know, like we do. But this fellow was
smarter than most wealthy fellows. After they'd seen all the beautiful,
beautiful, beautiful, huge palatial place this fellow lived. They
opened up one more room. Downstairs, down on the bottom
floor. Opened it up, it was just bare wood walls. Dirt floor. Landed over in the corner. That
pastor said, I don't understand. This is a beautiful, beautiful
place. What's this? They said, Brother
Pastor, that's my remembrance room. He said, what do you mean?
He said, whenever I get to thinking about what I have and what I've
come to in this day, I've come down here and sit for a while
and try to remember this is where I came from. Now children of
God, don't forget the dung heap we were in when the Lord God
called us by His grace. Remember it, and fall in love
with Christ again. He's clothed you now with righteousness. He's put a crown on your head.
He's put His beauty upon you. He's made you to stand before
God as being the very righteousness of God in Him, accepted in Him. Repent. Repent of your shameful
neglect. Repent, my soul, of the love
of this world. Repent of that horrible presumptuous
self-confidence and self-righteousness that rises up like an ugly serpent
in my soul. And return. The Lord said, return. Repent and do the first works. First works. First works. What
on earth is that? This is His commandment, that we believe on His Son. That's it. That's it. As you receive Christ Jesus the
Lord, so walk ye in Him. Come again. Come again. Come
on now. Right now. Come fresh to Jesus
Christ the Lord with all your sin, all your corruption, all
your and look away yonder to Calvary and trust his precious
shed blood. Plunge in one more time beneath
that fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and
be made white as snow." The Lord said, now if you don't, I'm going
to come and remove your candlestick. But if you will, to him that overcometh I'll give
to he that the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise
of God." So I pray, turn us unto thee,
O Lord, and we shall be turned. Renew our days as
of old. Amen. Okay, Lindsay, you come lead
us in a hymn. If you don't have something else picked out, let's
sing Cowper's hymn, number 336, Hope for a Closer Walk with God.