This morning to the book of the
revelation chapter 2 I Want to read beginning with
verse 1 and read down through verse 7 verse 7 Unto the angel of the church
of Ephesus write these things saith he that holdeth the seven
stars in his right hand and 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. I want to speak today on the
subject First Love and First Work. First love and first work. I take from my text verse 4,
where our Lord says to the church at Ephesus, nevertheless, I have
somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Now the church at Ephesus was
strong in her convictions and she could not give up the faith
which the Lord had taught her, which the Lord by the Spirit
had led her into, nor could she become a traitor to the Lord
Jesus Christ who had loved her and gave herself for her. The Lord Jesus bought the church,
the Bible says, with His own blood. He laid down His life
for the church and He paid the ransom that was due, divine justice,
in order to purchase the church. unto himself. And for this, her
Lord commended her. Her Lord commended this church
for her faithfulness. He said, I know your works. He
said, I know your labor and I know your patience. I know you can't
bear those that are evil. I know you've tried them which
say they're apostles and you've found them to be liars. You've
borne You've borne, you've stayed under the load, and you've had
patience for my name's sake, and you've labored, and you've
not fainted." The Lord did remember, and He commended her, and yet
He says in verse 4, Nevertheless, I have somewhat against me, or
against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Now, beloved
brother and sister, this morning when love dies, doctrine orthodox
doctrine becomes a corpse and it is powerless and it is powerless
I would say formalism when love is gone. Now love Jesus and then
it is well to hate the doctrine or the deeds of the Nicolaitans. I say love Jesus And then it
is right to hate sin and to hate evil. It is evident to me, but
listen, let me say this, a mere hatred of evil is nothing if
love of Jesus be not there to sanctify it. Love, I say to Jesus,
is entirely important for anything else that we do to be significant
and to be honoring to the name of God. It is evident to me,
and this is something that just stands out to me here, that Jesus
can see the evil. He can see the evil beneath the
good. He does not ignore the good,
but he will not pass over the evil. The Lord can see beneath
the good, I say, and see the evil. He'll not ignore the good. He will not ignore that, but
He will not pass over the evil. He said, I've got somewhat against
you. Thou hast left thy first love. Now this evil was a very serious,
a very serious one. It was love declining. It was
love abating. Thou hast left thy first love. Is that serious, you ask? Is that serious? Well, indeed
it is. It's very serious. For the church
is the bride of Christ. And for a bride to fail in love
is for her to fail in all things. Now it is idle talk for a wife
to say that she is obedient to her husband if love to her husband
has evaporated. It is certainly, it is certainly,
I say, idle talk for a woman to talk about how she is obedient
and how that she, maybe some people you know, and I know in
some circles in landmark churches, where that they are very, very
strict on women wearing the symbol. of authority, very strict about
this, and they want to indicate the fact that the women are obedient
to their husbands. But if love to her husband, if
love to a woman's husband has evaporated, then her duties as
a wife cannot be fulfilled. If love has evaporated, now I've
got a message here, and I want you to listen to what I'm saying.
I'm talking about Christ and the church, and I'm illustrating
it by saying that if love to a husband by a wife has evaporated,
if it has abated, if it has declined, then her duties as a wife cannot
be fulfilled. She may go through the motions,
but she's lost the very life and the soul of her marriage.
She's lost the very life and the soul of her marriage. So
brother, sister, this is a most important matter. Our love to
Christ, because it touches our love to Christ, a most important
matter because it touches the very heart of that communion
with Him, which is the crown and the essence of our spiritual
life. Now as a church we must love
Christ Jesus or else we have lost our reason for existence. We've lost our reason for existence
if we do not love supremely Our Lord Jesus Christ. Now we know
that love is that principle which our Lord looks for in the lives
of his people. Now the love of God has been
shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. And when we're
born again, God's love is put into our hearts. Love for God,
love for Christ, love for the Lord's people, and that love
is the motivation for everything we do as children of God. And
you can just be as dutiful as you want to be, but unless you
love God and that love motivates you, toward Christ and toward
the things of God then whatever motive you have is unacceptable
unto God. A church has no reason for being
a church if she has no love within her heart for him who first loved
her. Now it is a disease of the heart
I'm talking about. This business of having left
thy first love, it's a disease of the heart. Now if you've got
a little something wrong with your thumb I got a black thumb,
nail. If you got a little something
wrong with some other part of your body, it may not be too
serious. But when you, when someone, when
the doctor tells you, you got a disease of the heart, you got
something wrong with your heart, then that is a very serious serious
thing, and that's what we're talking about here this morning.
It is a disease of the heart for the church to leave their
first love. Now leaving of the first love
is a woeful thing. It is a woeful thing. Our Lord
said here that he that hath ears 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." But he said, except you repent, I'll remove
the candlestick. This is a very serious, a very
serious thing. Lord, have mercy upon us. Lose love, lose all. You lose
all power and usefulness. If you leave your first love,
you've left your strength, you've left your peace, you've left
your joy, and you've left your holiness. I call your attention
to this point, and I want you to get this. This is something
that really struck my heart and moved my eyes to almost tears. Now listen to me, there's not
too many things make me cry anymore. I've been in this world a long
time, I've felt an awful lot of pain, and an awful lot of
problems, I've dealt with a lot of problems, and I don't cry
much anymore. But I call your attention to
this point, and that is that it was He that found it out. Jesus Himself found it out that
this church had left its first love. Now the angel of the church,
the messenger, didn't know it. He didn't understand that this
had happened. And the pastor, he didn't know
that this had happened. I think they're one and the same.
He didn't know. But I do know how this strikes
me. I don't know how it strikes you
this morning that our Lord Jesus is the one that discovered that
the church here at Ephesus had left its first love. Now you
think it over. You think it over. If I ever
begin to leave all, loving the Lord Jesus Christ, or if I love
Him the less, I would like or prefer to find it out myself,
so hopefully I could do something about it before my Lord sensed
the fact that my heart was cold toward Him. I would like to,
I'd like to know it first. I know He knows everything, to
begin from the beginning, and I know that my down sittings
and uprisings are known to Him. And I know that all things are
naked unto the eyes of Him with whom I have to do, and I'm not
pulling any wool over His eyes. All my life is open before God. I wished it was better than it
is, but it's all open before Him. But I do want to love the
Lord Jesus Christ, and I do want that love to be increasing. And I'd like to love Him as I
first did about years ago, but I'd prefer that I could find
it out myself. But for him to find it out 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 till the Lord Himself must point it out to us. Thou
hast left thy first love. I've got something against you.
You've left your first love. He delights in our love and he
pines when it begins to fail. To him his people are unutterably,
that means inexpressibly, dear. He loved us up out of the pit
into his bosom. He loved us up from the dunghill. We were among beggars, you know.
And the Lord loved us up 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're utterly indifferent to the matter ourselves. I think
it's a sad day. Does Jesus care more about our
love for him than we do? I say yes. I say it's so. He loves us better than we love
ourselves. And I know that it's very much
a part of human nature for one to love himself scripture says
never a man hated himself and so I know we love ourself but
I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ loves us more than we
love ourselves how good of him to care about our love to him
how good now this complaint of our Lord here in verse 4 is not
the complaint of an enemy But it is the complaint of a dear
wounded friend who says, I have somewhat against thee because
thou hast left thy first love. Now I can hardly conceive a greater
grief to the Lord Jesus Christ, being he's the husband of his
church, than to have to look his church in the face here and
say, thou hast left thy first love. Here he is, he looks his
bride in the face and says, I got somewhat against you. You've
left your first love. What can the church give him
but love? What can we give him? Will we
deny him this? What are we without him? What are we without the Lord
Jesus Christ? Now he married his church when
she was in poverty. He was joined to her. When we
were in beggary, the Lord Jesus married his church, and if we
do not give him love, pray tell me what else we have to give
to him. What else do you have to give
to him, old church, this morning than the love of your heart?
I mean, do you have something other that is put away that you
can bring out and offer in the stead of a warm heart, a fervent
spirit? A heart that is inflamed with
love toward the Son of God for all that He's done for you? I
mean, do you have something else to give? Well, I say that we
have nothing else to give, and if the church is unfaithful in
heart to Him, what is she worth? The church is worthless if she's
unfaithful to her God. Now, we know that an unloving
wife is as rotten as to the bones of her husband. She's a discomfort
and a dishonor to his name if she is unloving to her husband. Shall it be so with us? Will
we grieve Emmanuel, God with us? Will we wound our well-beloved? Jesus, I don't think, is as 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 on this ground.
I've been on this ground for a while, and I'm fighting all
the time to hold my own on this ground. Thou hast left thy first
love. Now, beloved this first love,
I want to talk about that a little bit. I'm not sure that anyone
can really define the term first love, but I'm sure that it can
be clearly identified. It can be clearly identified,
this first love to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I don't want anyone
to imagine here for a moment that this is just merely an emotional
or sentimental thing that has no real significance. This thing
called first love is very important to God our Savior. There's some
verses that I might mention as I go along that you could write
down that you could look at. I don't have time to look at
them this morning, but in Jeremiah chapter 2 verse 1 and 2 is very
significant. in regards to the way our Lord
looks upon our first love. What is then this first love?
Well, when our Savior says, Thou hast left Thy first love, it
is obvious to me that He's not suggesting that there were some
who once trusted Him, who once believed on Him, and once truly
loved Him, and then cease to love him and cease to trust him
completely. Now that's, it's obvious to me
that's not what he's talking about. That kind of doctrine
would be heresy. I know this morning that if you
ever love the Lord Jesus Christ, you still have love in your heart
for Him because He first loved us, and we love Him because He
did. And not only that, but because
of the fact His love has been shed abroad in our hearts by
the Holy Spirit, because God is love and God dwells in His
people. I know that there is a degree
of love in our hearts this morning if we were chosen of God and
called by the Holy Spirit effectually, and if God dwells with us and
in us, there's faith and there's love. Degrees of it, yes indeed. But I'll say this, that true
love can never be entirely quenched. Anyone who ceases to trust Christ
never truly trusted Him at all. Anyone who ceases entirely to
love Christ never truly loved Him. Faith in and love for the
Lord Jesus Christ are gifts of God's saving grace that can never
be taken away. They can never be completely
eradicated out of the soul of a child of God. They're always
going to be there. Faith and love toward the Lord
Jesus Christ. Yet God's people do sometimes
leave their first love through indolence, through absolute laziness
and neglect. of the Lord Jesus Christ through
care of this world, the heat and the fervor of our love for
Christ, the exercise of our love toward Him, it diminishes. And that's what our Lord is talking
about here. Now, beloved, go back, if you
can, to Mount Calvary and think about that place there where
the Lord Jesus Christ combed there where He suffered and died.
And think about the time that He first appeared to you through
the preaching of the Gospel, through the ministry of the Word
of God, through the reading of the Word by the Holy Spirit. The Lord dealt with your heart
and showed you the doing and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ
upon the cursed tree as He hung there as your substitute. And
He spoke to your heart by His Spirit through the word of His
grace, and He said somewhere along the line, to our souls,
I am thy salvation. I am thy salvation. I'm all that the Father demands
of you. I am the all-sufficient Savior. I am able to deliver thee, and
I'm able to save you for all eternity, save to the uttermost
all that come unto God by me. Somewhere along the line, the
Lord said, I have redeemed you. I have redeemed you. And you
felt the message and the impact of it in your soul. You felt
that the Lord had redeemed you, that He had bought and paid for
your soul, and that you belonged to Him, and that all your sins
were forgiven, and that they had been washed away in the fountain
of His blood. Immediately when that happened,
You couldn't help it. You couldn't help it. I know
you couldn't help it. But you fell in love with the
Lord Jesus Christ when that happened in your life. You fell in love
with Him. Immediately I say, had He asked you, you would gladly
have given Him everything. You would gladly have given Him
anything. Even your very life. In fact, He did ask. And you
gladly laid down your life. before Him for His sake and for
the Gospel's sake. And listen to me this morning.
Did you not voluntarily at one time or the other in your life
Answer me if you can in your own heart, not audibly, but in
your own heart. Did you not at one time voluntarily
lay your all at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you not
laid down everything at one time or the other and said, Lord,
I do this because I love you, because I love you. That's the
only reason I do it. I love you for what you've done
for me. and I lay down my life at your
feet. It is that first love. Listen now carefully, very carefully
in the next few moments here. It is that first love, that reckless
that careless, that uninhibited, that unrestrained love, that
love that considers neither cost or consequences that is sometimes
left by the Lord's people. Have you left this first love
for the Lord Jesus? Have I left it? First love. Now let me describe it to you.
Let me explain to you what it is. First love inspired our hearts
At that time, when the Lord saved us, it inspired our hearts to
almost unceasing prayer. Almost unceasing prayer, praise,
and communion. I remember very clearly, and
I thought about this this morning, it came home to my heart. In
the old house that we lived in when the Lord saved me, It had
a Quonset hut upstairs. It was kind of built like a Quonset
hut and it was a long room. And there was only one heat duck
up there, right up over the old wood stove that sat down in the
living room. There was a little hole about
that size and it had screen wire over both sides of it. And that
was the only hole, the only way to get any heat upstairs. And
I remember many, many a time praying and seeking the Lord's
face there over that hole. in that floor, trying to keep
a little warm while I was doing it, and many of the battles that
I fought as an early believer, fought it right there, over that
hole in the floor. Trying to find the mind of the
Lord, committing my way into the Lord, having assurance after
assurance coming to my heart, through prayer and communion
and fellowship with God, in that day, and nothing could have kept
me from doing that. And then I walked several miles
to church, and always with a joyful and praiseful heart, and a heart
of prayer toward God, crying to God, and it's amazing how
that when we get a little older, we've been in the way a little
longer, we somehow or other through self presumption, somehow or
other we just assume that everything's okay and we get a little cold
hearted about this prayer business, about seeking the Lord. But I
want to say that the first love of our Lord in our hearts inspired
our hearts to unceasing prayer, praise, and communion. Now the
next thing I say is that first love caused us to earnestly and
zealously confess Christ to men. In other words, after the Lord
first saved us, couldn't keep our mouth shut. Could not keep
our mouth shut. We had to talk about what the
Lord had done for us. We had to tell whoever it was.
Making a difference, it was a smart aleck, smart mouth friend that
lived up the road on the hill. As he come down to walk to school
with me, whatever, had to tell him what the Lord had done for
me. How that the Lord Jesus had come into my heart. How he had
changed my life. What a wonderful thing had happened
to me. I'd been saved. God had visited
me. And I'd been changed. I was a
new creature in the Lord Jesus Christ. I couldn't keep my mouth
shut. I didn't know a whole lot to say, but there were several
people that got out that I was a good talker and they liked
to hear me talk about what the Lord had done for me. Well, beloved,
I couldn't help it. I couldn't help it. I had to
talk about it. And first love for the Lord Jesus
will cause you to earnestly, zealously confess Christ to men. And then first love for Christ
made His Word our most delightful treasure. Oh beloved, how wonderful
it is when we first discover the Word of God, when the Word
of God becomes food to our soul. David said, why I love the Word
more than a honeycomb, when the Word of God becomes precious
to us. And I remember, and I don't like
to just use myself as an example, but I certainly remember when
the Lord, when the Word of God first began to really speak to
my heart. I began to read it in study hall,
began to memorize it in study hall. I used my study halls not
to study books, but to read the Word of God and to memorize the
Scripture. And I'll tell you how precious
this Word was to my heart. And many, many of the Scriptures
that I'm familiar with today, it took place then. when my first
love for the Lord Jesus Christ made the Word of God precious,
precious to my soul. That first love also made the
house of God and made the ministry of the Word and the fellowship
of God's saints the most important and most joyful thing in the
world to my heart. And I believe that's true of
God's people. You know, somebody says, well,
I just wonder why people would drive in there every week and
go down in that basement and sit and listen to a preacher
get up and preach a fire. Why would they do that? Well,
beloved, it is because of love to Christ. It's because we love
the Lord Jesus. It's because of what He's done
for us. Well, we love the saints of God. And it's because the
Lord has loved us. Christ has loved us. And we cannot
help it. The Bible says we're taught of
God to love one another. We're taught of God to do that.
And so, beloved, this is the first love. And then, also let
me describe it this way, this first love caused us to do the
will of God with unquestioning faith and unhesitating obedience. You know, it's always good when
somebody comes to know Christ, to see them immediately say,
I want to be baptized. I want to be baptized. I'm ready
right now to be baptized. I'd be baptized right now, today,
if I could be. And to hear them talk about,
they just are ready to follow the Lord. unquestioning faith,
unhesitating obedience. Well, that's the first love that
we have toward the Lord. Do you remember that first love
in your experience? Do you remember it? Then we would
have, at that time, given anything for the cause of Christ, done
anything for the glory of Christ, and we would have gone anywhere
at the bidding of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know down the
road of peace, after the Lord saved me. He said to me one time,
except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides
alone, but if it dies out to itself, if it dies, it'll bring
forth much fruit. And the Lord said to me, I want
you to go way off up yonder, and I want you to preach the
gospel up there in Montana. Well, because of love toward
Christ, I can. And I have stayed here because
of love toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Love toward Him. That's
the only reason why I'm here. I'm here because of Him. I'm
here because of Him. I'm here for His sake. I'm here
for the Gospel's sake. It's my love for Christ that
motivates me and keeps me in the place that I am in. So then
listen to me, in that day no sacrifice seemed to be a sacrifice
when our hearts yet burned with live coals from off the altar
of God. Nothing was a sacrifice back
in those early days when we first loved our Lord Jesus. Now, we're
more mature. Now, listen to me now, we're
more mature now. We're more learned now. We're
more settled now. We're more refined today. We're more thoughtful today.
We think out things more today than we used to. Yes sir, there's
been a big change. We're more cold today. We're more lifeless today. We're more useless today. The charge, I fear, must be owned. Thou hast left thy first love.
You've left her. Now I don't know whether that
means anything to you or not, but it means a whole lot to me. I
want to describe quickly, how did we leave our first love?
What happened? What happened? Where did we go
wrong? Well, rarely, if ever, does this
decline in love begin with some climactic event. It gradually
just steals over our hearts and suffocates our souls by degrees. But the cause of the decline
I don't think is too hard to find. If we'll be honest with
ourselves, I think we can find that the decay comes from three
sources. Three sources. Number one, our
love declines whenever we willfully neglect. the Lord Jesus Christ
right down the song of Solomon chapter 5 verses 2 through 6
and you can read that there these are precious verses we're kinda
like the planets and the sun now some planets are as hot as
fire and others are as cold as ice some make some move very
slowly around the sun others spin around it with great speed
Some are very near the Son, and others are very far away. And
so it is with us. Listen to me, if we live near
Christ, if we live near Christ in blessed communion and fellowship,
we cannot help loving Him and being controlled by our love
for Him. The heart that lives nearest
the Son of righteousness is not or let me say is most inflamed
with love by him and for him, but when we neglect our Savior,
our love declines, our hearts are less inflamed with and less
overwhelmed by love for Him. Now another thing that causes
our love for Christ to decay is loving this world. In Matthew
chapter 13 in verse 22, let's look at that verse right quick.
Matthew chapter 13 and verse 22. Listen to it. He also that
receiveth seed among the thorns, is he that heareth the word,
and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches,
choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. The care of this
world and the deceitfulness of riches. Matthew chapter 13 verse
22. Now very very few people ever increase in riches and in
grace at the same time. I say, I didn't say there's no
one who can increase in riches and increase in grace at the
same time. I said very few people do. Very
few people do. Of all the temptations to which
God's people are exposed in this world, this seems to be, this
is the most dangerous because it is most subtle and because
we somehow or other welcome prosperity and we welcome increase of goods
we welcome it so much and that's why it's so subtle and why the
care of this world will sap away our love for the Lord. Too much
of this world is an evil encumbrance to anyone. Matthew Henry said
the care of getting and the care of keeping will cause your heart
to become lukewarm. Now the third cause of decline
and love for Christ is carnal presumption. Carnal, fleshly
presumption. Meaning this that we somehow
or other come to the place where we got everything figured out
and we reason out everything We don't pray much about anything
anymore, and we don't read the scriptures to get some wisdom
about things We're just pretty well got everything figured out. Well, presumption quenches zeal
for prayer and for the study of the Word of God. Self-confidence
weakens faith. Who are you trusting? Well, you
say, I try to trust the Lord and I know something about this
along the way that the old flesh would like to have a little something
more stable and that's the way the flesh looks at it, something
more stable than the Lord. Well, that's foolishness. The Lord is the only security
we've got. He is the only real security
we've got. You say, well, I've got a little
something else. Well, you may have, but self-confidence weakens
faith in the living God. And so we need to trust in the
Lord, and that, I think, will bring us back to where we ought
to be. And self-righteousness, that
cools love for Christ. In other words, when a person
says, well, you know, I was a sinner when the Lord found me, but now
I'm a saint. I'm a saint now, and I'm pretty
good now. Fact is, I've come to the place
where I really feel I measure up pretty good on the scale,
and I think the Lord is proud of me. I believe He is. Well,
my friend, let me tell you something, this kind of self-righteousness,
it'll make you cold in your heart toward Christ. And the reason
is, is because Christ will be all in all to His people. He'll be all in all, and He'll
strip you, and He'll make you see that you don't have one good
thing about you to commend yourself to God. That the only thing that
ever commended you to Him was your sin in the beginning. And
we need to get rid of self-righteousness and quit thinking that we're
better than somebody else or that we've somehow or other got
to the place now where we don't need the blood and we don't need
the grace of God like we once needed it. That's not true. We
need it more today than we ever needed it in our life. And that's
just a trite statement. we need the grace of God and
the love of our Lord Jesus Christ and the cleansing of the blood
of the Lord Jesus and so this is the way we get in trouble
is when we begin to thank ourselves to be somebody and then it's
not long that we don't really have a whole lot of appreciation
for Christ after all we can appreciate ourself look what we've done
look who we are well my friend May God hasten the day when we
won't have one thing, not one inch of ground upon which to
glory, so that we'll make Him our all in all, love Him supremely,
and follow Him to the death, and give ourselves over daily
to who He is and what He is, and make it our lifelong search
to find out all the treasure that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, what can be done Will not
decline the Lord's going to keep on loving us and even though
our love declined He's going to keep on loving us now because
he loves us He will Chasen us because the Lord loves us, you
know, the scripture says that everyone that he loves he rebukes
and chasens everyone he loves And my soul, it's the greatest
evidence that God loves you when He rebukes you and when He chastens
you. The Bible says He chastens every
son that He receives, every one of them. And when the Lord suspects
that you're getting cold and indifferent toward Him, then
He's going to be coming and He's going to be chastening you and
rebuking you for your failures in your life. Now, because He
loves us then, He will chasten us and cause us to return to
Him. Now, you listen to what I got
to say. If we do not return to Christ, if our decline is permanent,
it is because our love is a fake, it's a pretense, it's a sham
profession of love, and it's no more than that. It's holla. if we don't return unto the Lord.
You know, the wonderful thing, and I know I've suggested this
before, but the wonderful thing about our God is that He always
brings us back. He always brings us back. If
we're His people, He will not leave us alone. He will bring
us back. He will come to us. The Lord,
listen, though we fall seven times, the Lord will lift us
up. The Lord will not abandon His
people. He will come to them. Now if any lover of Christ regained
that first love, if any lover of Christ would gain that first
love, I think there's three words here of counsel that we ought
to listen to. And that's found in verse, I
think it's verse 5. three words of counsel listen
to it remember he says in verse 5 remember therefore from whence
thou art fallen remember what a blessed condition your soul
was in when you enjoyed that first love song of Solomon write
it down chapter 2 verse 4 through 6 remember that Time that I've
tried to describe here this morning, how things were when we first
loved the Lord. Remember what you were and where
you were when the Savior found you. Isaiah 51 verse 1. Isaiah 51 verse 1. Remember where you were when
the Lord Jesus found you, that pit that you were in. Remember
where the Lord found you. and return in your mind and your
heart to that pit. Remember what you owe the Son
of God. Remember what you owe Him. I
heard a story one time about a fellow who got wealthy. And
he lived in the old house that he grew up in when he was poor.
And so he furnished and redone all of the house except one room.
and that one room he left it just like it was when his mother
and daddy lived in it and whenever he was a kid he left it just
like it was at that time so that if he ever got the feeling like
he somehow or other lost touch with his roots then he could
just go in that room and sit down in the old chair in there
and meditate and dwell on just where he came from and I'll tell
you what it does every child of God good every once in a while
just to sit down and just look back and see where it is the
Lord found them where they were at when the Lord found them it
just will warm your heart it'll inflame your heart it'll make
you more joyful toward the Lord and it'll make you appreciate
more what the Lord has done in your life. Well, that's exactly
what John here, or the Spirit is saying through John the Apostle. He says, Remember therefore from
whence thou art fallen, and repent. Repent. Now, I've told you before
that repentance is a lifelong work. It's not something you
do one time and get it over with. You can't do that. You can't
do that. You see, the reason you can't
do that is because You just keep on in the mind of the flesh and
you need to be turned from the mind of the flesh to the mind
of God all of your life. You need to just keep turning
away from the things of the flesh, the things of the world, and
turning more and more to God, to His Word, and to His truth. And so remember Then, the Word
of God. Remember what you owe the Son
of God. Ezekiel chapter 16, verse 6 through
14. You can write that down. And
then this word, repent. Repent as you did at the beginning.
Repent of the evil you've done to Christ. Repent of it. If you
haven't loved Him like you ought to, ask Him to forgive you for
that. Return, repent, and do the first
works. That's just another way of saying
returning to the Lord. return to that place where you
first met the Son of God, return to Calvary, and bathe your sin-sick
soul again in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 John
1 and verse 7, I read it this morning. The blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. The blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Wouldn't it be a wonderful
thing today to feel clean one more time. And you know, the
Lord Jesus shed His blood to wash away our sin. And He said
that He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And I do hope this morning that
somehow or other the Lord has spoken to us, each one of us,
and to the church collectively about this first love, first
works business. That we'll get back to where
we belong and we'll be able to praise the Lord, pray, commune
with Him, fellowship with Him and with one another as He would
have us to do because truly our fellowship is with the Father
and with the Son through the blessed third person of the Holy
Trinity, the Holy Spirit. May God bless this message to
your heart.