Do You Remember When? — Derek Melton

To that which would be called ordinary, or normal. There's times when my thoughts are so permeated with a portion of Scripture that I find it very difficult to focus upon any other subject or upon any other biblical text.

And these seasons are not the norm for me. My wife probably knows me better than anyone in this room, and then my children. These seasons aren't the norm. And I'm going to refrain from super-spiritualizing these seasons, but at the same time, I'm not going to discount them.

The Holy Spirit’s Defining Impressions

There are certain influences of the Holy Spirit of God that move upon the hearts of His people. And I'm certain that these impressions that God's been moving upon me with this particular text are from Him.

I've assigned these certain seasons to the Holy Spirit because it's consistent with the scriptural revelation of the operation of the Holy Spirit's working. In John 16, verse 14, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit will glorify Christ, and that He will take of Christ and disclose it.

He'll communicate it to you. And so whenever my heart has been saturated, my mind, my dreams have been centered around this portion of biblical text, and I work at the police department trying to enter in data into the computer.

I'm being bombarded with thoughts about this particular portion of text, these seven verses that we're going to walk through this morning. Something's going on. God's moving in my heart. And I will say there's not been in many, many years such a profound shaking of my soul as that has been taking place in the last month, month and a half regarding these seven verses.

Throughout the years I've learned to pay attention when my heart is being deeply and richly moved upon regarding a certain truth or a certain portion of text. These are very important moments. These are defining moments, really.

So today's sermon is the outworking of an occasion such as this. This passage is directed to my own heart. This exposition of Scripture is directed to my own heart. Yesterday I had the blessedness of having the whole mall to myself with Stacey gone and Lindy and Rachel and Hallie all went to a wedding, and I was left to be at home to be alone with God.

For God to deal with my heart and to work through this text, to be able to share with you. And not only is this directed to me, but it's also directed likewise to all of our hearts in this particular church, this particular body of believers.

And so having disclosed this burden, I want to take some moments and open the text, and I'm asking that you will track with me. I'm asking that you will listen to me intently. I'm asking that you will discern with me wisely.

Do not make the fatal mistake of flippantly, tritely receiving this sermon. Turn with me in your Bible to Revelation chapter 2. Today's sermon is, Do You Remember When? And once you're in Revelation chapter 2, if you'll stand with me to read the Holy Word of God.

Christ’s Message to the Church in Ephesus

In verse 1, the Bible says, To the angel of the church in Ephesus write, The one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this, I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, that you cannot tolerate evil men.

You put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false. And you have perseverance and have endured for my name's sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

Therefore, remember from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the deeds you did at first, or else I am coming to you, and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent. Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. Lord, help me to open up these texts in a way that honors you.

Help us to receive these texts in a way that honors you, so we might live them out, Father, and bring glory to your name. In Jesus' name, amen. You can be seated, please. The book of Revelation is the culmination of all of the books of the Bible.

Revelation brings to conclusion all the prophecies that are in the Bible. It puts into context the end time events that are for God's purpose, that are for God's creation. The author of the Revelation is none other than John the Beloved.

This is the same John, the same author of the Gospel of John, of which we are attending on Sunday mornings as we are walking verse by verse through that wonderful Gospel. There are some arguments about the authorship of Revelation, about who authored Revelation, because there are those dissenters out there that just flat do not agree that John wrote this book.

There are so many infallible proofs that their arguments hold no water whatsoever. Justin Martyr, from the first century, one of the first great theologians after the apostolic times, directly affirms John is the author of the Revelation.

Also, Arrhenius, who was a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of John the Beloved, said this, John wrote the book of Revelation. And of course the best proof of all is the Bible itself. The Bible itself.

In Revelation 1 .1, and in Revelation 1 .4, and in Revelation 1 .9, and in Revelation 22 .8, it tells us that John the Beloved penned the Revelation. Having said that, you must understand that all Scripture is inspired by God, all Scripture is inerrant, even the disclaimer of its authorship.

John wrote the book. Revelation was given as a direct command. I'm just going through some stuff first before we get into the meat of this, and this is going to build as we go along. But this is important that you understand this, that Revelation was given to the Apostle John as a direct command from God.

And that's in Revelation 1 .10 -23. It was given to John in very difficult times in Christendom. The Christians were under stark persecution. Persecution was aggressively rampant. Martyrdom was common.

And in fact, in 2 .13, it identifies a specific martyr whose name was Antipas, who was a faithful witness of Jesus Christ, but he was killed among them where Satan dwells. So amidst all the persecution that we find here, there were also problems in the church.

So not only was there persecutions from without, there was indwelling problems from within the churches of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Some of these troubles were horrible troubles. The Revelation was written around 96 A .D. from Patmos.

Patmos was a penal colony, a place where they sent vile criminals, lepers, the rejects of society, those who were banished from the ordinary occurrences of society. And this is a place that the Apostle John was banished because of the sake of the Gospel of Christ that he preached.

He was banished to Patmos. Patmos was a small, rocky island in the Aegean Sea. It was about 30 miles from Ephesus. It was about 6 to 8 miles long, and it was about a mile wide. The purpose of it is to give the final truth about Jesus Christ.

It's an unveiling of the person of Christ. It's an unveiling of the power of Christ. And it's an unveiling of the purpose of Christ. We see this all in the first verse of the Revelation. Revelation shows to us the final triumph and the ultimate triumph of the kingdom of Christ.

It shows us a new perspective on history from God's angle. And then it incites you and I as Christians to holy living. It also shows us that God has, in fact, a plan to deal with the problem of sin. And we see it.

God puts away the problem of evil forever. This is also a book of future events. It's an eschatological book. The theme of the book is the revelation of Jesus Christ. This book is Jesus Christ-centered.

It's the capstone of all of Scripture. Y 'all know what a capstone is? If you've ever laid bricks, the capstone is the one that completes the edifice. But Revelation is the capstone of all of Scripture.

It is the only prophetical book of the New Testament. It bears a lot of similar features to the book of Daniel and the Old Testament. It's the only book of the Bible that promises a blessing to those who read it.

That's in Revelation 1 -3. It has 22 chapters, 404 verses, 12 ,000 words, 285 verses that contain Old Testament type languages. There are 70 references in this book to angels. And there are no direct quotes, not even one, from the Old Testament.

The book itself is divided into three categories. They are this. There are things that you have seen. This is chapter 1. There are things which are. That's chapters 2 and 3. And then there are the things which shall be.

That is chapters 4 -22. But our focus today is upon those things which are. Those things which are. And our text deals with a particular church that was close to Patmos geographically, 30 miles of which.

We're separating them. Ephesus was a biblical church. They were doctrinally sound, ecclesiastically sound. And the outline of the sermon today that you're going to hear has seven points, and each one of them has a multitude of importance affiliated with them.

I cannot overestimate the importance of this sermon to this church, to each member of this church. I'm sad that there are people missing today. They need to hear this sermon equally as bad. Once again, I'm going to go back and say that this has captured and conquered my heart.

It's asserted its dominance, its asserted dominance over me first and foremost as an elder of this particular assembly. And I'm begging of you to listen to every word that's going to be spoken in this message because everything from this day forward hangs in the balance of this message that the Lord speaks to this church.

The first thing we see is the angel being addressed, the angel. Look with me at verse 1. To the angel the church in Ephesus write, the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this.

Chapter 2 of Revelation begins the messages of Jesus Christ to seven churches in Asia Minor. There were more churches in Asia Minor, but these are designated churches. These are specific churches that are mentioned by our Lord that model the rest of them.

Does that make sense? In other words, these seven churches that are mentioned by our Lord in chapters 2 and 3 are a representation of the types of churches that exist. These churches are representative of all churches both in the day of John and at any time given in the history of our Lord's church.

Both then and now and in times that are to come. And just as the letters were written to the church of Corinth, or not just for Corinth, but they're for all churches, both whether past, present, or future, these letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor are written in this same similitude.

The conditions that are addressed in these churches by our Lord and sovereign Savior are characteristic of the conditions that are in churches throughout all of history and even now. This letter is addressed to the angel, the angelos, the messenger of the church.

This is the overseer. The overseer of the local assembly, the local body of believers, the local church. Our Lord is addressing the pastor. He's not bypassing the order that He Himself has established whenever He has set some over the church.

The divine pecking order, the divine chain of command, the Lord. God places men into leadership positions in His church and then He holds them accountable. And if you'll notice in this verse, and in verse 1, He makes a mention of seven stars, which are the angels, and that they're held in the right hand of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And if you'll look in the last verse of chapter 1, we see an identification of these stars as the very angelos, the angels of the seven churches. These are the elder pastors. These are the elder teachers.

These are the leadership. This position, being held in the right hand of Christ, it denotes the authority of Christ over them. The right hand is the right hand of authority. This is to say that the Lord Himself has chosen these men, these angelos.

He's chosen them to shepherd His flock. They belong to Christ. And in fact, they are secure in Christ. It doesn't mean that they're not prone to human error, because they are. It doesn't mean that they're not prone to sinful possibilities, because they are.

But it does mean that the Lord's called them. But it does mean that the Lord has triumphed over them. And it does mean that He is sovereign regarding them and their office, and they're secure. He holds these stars in His own right hand.

Christ. Authority. Power. Omnipotent. The word hold here in this context comes from the Greek word kratio. And it means to be strong. It means to be mighty. It means to prevail. It means to possess power.

And of course, we know this isn't referring to the angelos, but to the might of the one that holds them in His own right hand. These are soldiers underneath His command. The command of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

There is messengers. There is spokesmen. He holds them in His right hand. He holds them secure. They are protected, but they're also responsible. They're responsible. He holds His messengers accountable.

The right hand is indicative of the authority of God. There's also a retributive side here of this authority. He holds them in His hand, but He holds them under His command. To speak what He speaks. To share His heart and to carry His heart.

To not operate upon their own whims and by their own desires, but to only operate by the will of the one that holds them. He's the commander-in-chief. He's the commander-in-chief of His church and of the leadership that He's set over His church.

And in this letter, our Lord speaks to the Angelos of the church in Ephesus. He doesn't circumvent that authority that He's established. He's called them. He holds them in His right hand. He addresses the church through His messenger.

The Assembly in Pagan Ephesus

The next thing I want you to see is the assembly. First, we saw the angel. Next, we see the assembly. To the angel of the church in Ephesus, right. Right. To the angel of the church in Ephesus, right.

So we see the assembly is the Ephesian church. This is a particular body of believers. You've got to understand something about Ephesus. Ephesus was a wicked city. And this goes along with what Pastor Jason has been preaching.

It was a major commercial metropolis of all of Asia Minor. It was located on a seaport. It was a massive center for trade, a massive center for travel, for culture, for religion, for business. It was the seat of the Roman provincial governor.

It was located right there in Ephesus. The population of Ephesus was around 225 ,000 citizens. And one of the amazing things, one of the seven wonders of the world was there, the great temple of Artemis, one of the great wonders of the world.

Acts 19, 24, 27, 28, 34, and 35 identify this. The temple of Artemis was 425 feet long and 220 feet wide. It had 120 columns within it, 60 feet high, which were gold-covered. Artemis was a deity, a false deity that had been raised up.

It was a squat, black, man-breasted image. It was a vile, heathen, wicked, perverse thing that was worshipped. And the Romanization of Artemis was called the goddess Diana. It was a vile, heathen religion.

Ephesus was the epicenter of this vile, heathen religion. It was a wicked, perverse place. But God raised up a church right at the very threshold of hell by the apostle Paul. On his third missionary journey in the 19th chapter of Acts, we see the establishment of this church in Ephesus.

We know that God, by His grace, established the church and placed a young man by the name of Timothy over the church as an overseer and an elder. Also, we see that John was there at Ephesus, both before his banishment and exile to Patmos, and after Patmos, that John was part of Ephesus and the church of Ephesus.

Paul came to Ephesus around 53 AD, and he stayed there longer than in any other city that he went to. In fact, his ministry turned that city completely upside down. The silversmiths of the city were making a mint.

It was a very lucrative business making shrines of this deity called Artemis. And they would sell them. And the influence of this powerful church of Ephesus caused a fatal decline in their trade, and it incited a riot.

This is recorded in the 19th chapter of Acts. The church of Ephesus was about 40 years old whenever John wrote this letter to them. But in fact, the book of Ephesus, the epistle, the letter to Ephesus that was penned by the apostle Paul was written about 15 years after Paul established, by the grace and calling of God, that particular body of believers.

But John is writing from Patmos to Ephesus about 40 years after the birth of that church. So we see Ephesus. The next thing I want you to see is that there is authority that is given here. It says also that the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who is walking among the seven golden lampstands, says this, the authority of a supreme Christ, a sovereign over his church.

Christ’s Authority Over His Church

The Lord Jesus here is making his authority known to the members of Ephesus and then the members of every church from there on out. His message is backed up by his deity. And in fact, this statement, this message, it falls on the heels of Christ's revelation of himself that is given in a vision to John the Beloved in the first chapter of the book of Revelation, where we see in verse 13 through 17, in the middle of the lampstands, I saw one, listen to this, like the son of man, clothed in a robe, reaching to his feet, girded across his chest with a golden sash.

His head and his hair were white like wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze when they had been made to glow in a furnace. His voice was like the sound of many waters.

In his right hand he held seven stars. And out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all of its strength. And whenever I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man.

And this is the one that holds the seven stars. But this is the one that is speaking to Ephesus in divine authority. Authority. This is none other than the monarch of the universe. This is the sovereign sage of all times.

When he announces that he's walking among the seven golden lampstands, he is announcing that he is sovereign over his church. He's demonstrating his lordship. He's announcing his omniscience. He knows them intimately.

He knows their weaknesses. They're known by Christ. Their strengths are known by Christ. He's walking among them. Not only is he omniscient, meaning all-knowing, he's also lovingly walking with them amidst the plight and their suffering.

Remember, this is a time of unparalleled and unprecedented affliction. Persecution, martyrdom, death, blood shed by the saints. This shows us, church, listen to me, that our sovereign is not some remote and distant figure who rules from afar and separated from intimacy.

No, never. He walks among the seven golden lampstands. His church is that which he has purchased with his own blood. He's intimately engaged, intimately aware, intimately knowing of them and every facet about them, caring for them, nurturing them as a mother, as a child.

In the midst of their persecution, he's walking with them among the seven golden lampstands. In the midst of their hardship, he's walking with them. Underneath the threat of martyrdom, he's walking amongst them.

He sees their tears, and he's comforting them. He sees their afflictions, and he shares them with them. He's walking among them, omnipotent but tender, sovereign but rich in sympathy. We see his authority.

We see the angel. We see the assembly. We see the authority. Now we turn in verse 2 to the accolade. The accolade. For those of you kids that don't know what that means, the attaboy. I know your deeds.

Look at verse 2 with me. I know your deeds, your toil, your perseverance, but you cannot tolerate evil men. You've put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not. You've found them to be false, and you have perseverance and have endured for my name's sake, and you've not grown weary.

Here our Lord is giving kudos to his church. He's giving them a pat on the back regarding the virtues that they exemplify in his name. Ephesus wasn't an off-track church. In fact, Ephesus would eclipse modern churches in their fortitude, in their faithfulness.

There's some key elements that our Lord identifies in his accolade or in his applause. First of all, the Lord mentions here that he knows their deeds, their toil, and their perseverance. And as mentioned previously, he's walking among the lampstands.

He's walking among the churches. He knows them intimately. And in fact, from the very foundation of the earth, he's known them. They're foreknown by God. They're his people. There's not one drop, there's not one morsel of sweat that forms on their brow apart from his intimate knowledge.

He knows their deeds. He knows their toil. Other translations term it this way. He knows their works and their labor. I believe that's what your translation would say, Chris. The Greek meaning for the word deeds means to work to the point of exhaustion.

Church, bear with me. This is to say that the believers that comprised the church of Ephesus were very relentless in their labors for the kingdom of God. They were not couch potatoes. They were vigilant to the point of exhaustion, physical collapse.

This toil, this kapos, K-O-P-O-S, it stresses the depth and the degree of their labor for the Lord. Paul uses this very same word when addressing the churches of Colossae. In Colossians 1 .29 through 2 .1, he says, For this purpose also I labor, striving according to his power, which mightily works within me.

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have had on your behalf for those who are at Laodicea and for all those who have not personally seen my face. Struggle, labor, hardship to the point of exhaustion.

Not only were they laboring to the point of absolute weariness and exhaustion, they were persevering in it. They were continuing. They were enduring. Even amidst the heavy load, they were pressing on in the face of terrible persecution, unprecedented hardship.

They were abiding. They were continuing. They were relentless in their labor. They were flawless in their commitment. This is what James meant in James 1 .2 through 4 when the apostle James said, Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.

For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. Let your steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. And then we see the Lord saying this to Ephesus, You cannot tolerate evil men.

Ephesus was doctrinally sound. They were biblically orthodox. Not only were they orthodox, but they were passionate regarding the place of orthodoxy in the Lord's church. Very passionate. And our Lord praised them for it.

He praised them for their commitment to scriptural truth. Listen, church, we're living in a time that's unprecedented, really. Where we're striving for unity in every way, except in the way that matters.

Scriptural unity. Doctrine has become a word that's been sealed in the theological vaults of yesteryear. And I want you to note that that mindset's not Christ's. Accolades are given for their doctrinal soundness.

You cannot tolerate evil men. And this is not talking about those that are just living perversely. This is talking about the evils of heterodoxy. Of false doctrine. The intolerance of evil men was doctrinal here.

This statement that's given is addressing the evils of false doctrine, and also the men that propagate it and that spread it. The Ephesian church held doctrinal truth to a high bar. They had a high view of scripture.

Sola Scriptura was their mantra. Scripture alone. Then we find in chapter 2, in verse 6, when the Lord is addressing the Ephesian church, hey, the Nicolaceans, what we find is that whenever the Nicolaceans came in with their heresies, their Gnostic antinomianism, they confronted them and refuted them biblically.

I have this in my notes, but those of you that don't know what the Nicolacean group was, it was a subgroup calling itself by the name of Orthodoxy that were not Orthodox. In Acts chapter 6, there was a deacon appointed.

His name was Nicholas. Nicholas went aloof. He went astray. He began to embrace, not only to embrace, but to also teach and to purport the doctrines of antinomianism, a very wicked and evil Gnostic doctrine, and tried to bring the doctrine into the church of Ephesus, but they wouldn't have it.

The people used the word of God to refute them. They had such a high view of scripture. They knew their Bibles. They were committed to scriptural truth. They were committed to the words of God. And whenever those liars, those false prophets, those false teachers came in from without, even in the name of the Lord, they refuted them with the Bible and rejected them.

And for this, our Lord gave them kudos, accolades. He praised them for it. It says you put to test here those who call themselves apostles, and they're not. He found them to be false. These Ephesians put them in their claims, the self-claim to be an apostle.

They put it to the scrutiny of scripture. They found them to be liars. They remembered the words of these false apostles that would come. In a previous mention by the apostle Paul to the particular church at Ephesus, the church that he had raised up, in Acts 20, 28 through 31, Acts 20, 28 through 31, Paul's talking to the church of Ephesus, and he says this, Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood.

I know that after my departure, savage wolves, Nicolaceans, Antinomians, Gnostics, will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among yourselves, men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them.

Therefore, be on the alert. And the Ephesians remembered his words, and they acted on his words, and they found them to be false. There were three major tests that were given to see whether or not there was validity as to whether or not they were true spokesmen for God.

Listen to me. The first of this is that their message and their doctrinal belief had to be right. 1 John 4, 1 and 2 declares that. Secondly, the manner of life. The manner of life. That is in 1 John 3, 10 and 4, 8.

And then lastly, the audience to whom do they appeal. 1 John 4, 5 and 6. And this just goes to show that a false prophet will have a message for a false convert and not the true church of Christ because Christ's people know his voice.

Christ's people know. The anointing abides on the inside of them and they need not any man to teach them. They know his voice. They know truth from error. They know heresy from scriptural truth. These phonies were unmasked as the very fakes that they were.

And Jesus gives them applause. He gives them accolades. Don't think for a moment that our Lord is slack about false doctrines and those that propagate them, those who teach them. No, he's walking among the seven candlesticks, the lampstands in vigilance.

And he cares. And he cares immensely. Jesus says this, and you have persevered. Church, do you see the depths of his praise? His accolades? You've endured for my namesake, he says. These Christians were under attack from the Roman Empire.

These Christians were under attack from pagan religions that were blossoming and being propagated in Ephesus. The city streets were stained with the martyr's blood. Time in human history to be a Christian.

The ruins of Ephesus stand today, looming over time, with the great coliseums to which many Christians died. Being a Christian in Ephesus wasn't easy. Standing for biblical truth would cost you your life.

These Christians were pressed by forces from every side, from every front. But they persevered. They endured. These were men and women that were purposed to live for the glory of God. You have endured for my namesake.

Enduring hardship as soldiers of Christ, suffering, arming themselves with this kind of a mind, like Christ, suffering for the Lord. And they were patient amidst suffering. They were enduring hardship as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ was their captain. And the captain was commending the soldiers. You've endured. You've persevered. You've suffered for my namesake. And then he says that you've not grown weary. They just keep on.

Year after year of hardship hadn't squelched the fervency of their labor and the endurance that they bore as Christians of the church of Ephesus. Although their labors were intense, the threats were real, the blood of martyrdom imminent, they continued on.

They labored without relenting. They preached. They witnessed. They taught. They studied. They upheld. They tore down. They built up. And they did such with tireless vigilance. Tireless vigilance. And in many ways, Ephesus casts so much light as what a church should be.

Listen to me. We sit in the very shadows of Ephesus. We sit in the shadows of Ephesus. Listen. The Lord commends them for their gallantry. He commends them for their vigilance. And I want you to understand that divine accolades are not handed out by our Lord cheaply.

They're not handed out cheaply. Ephesus wore the ensigns of nobility and they were placed on their collars by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He came down and placed the rank on their shoulders. Committed.

Enduring hardship. Doctrinally sound. Biblically acute. Biblically orthodox. This church was not a second-rate church. It was a labor-intense, doctrinally sound, robustly engaged group of believers.

And for this Christ commends them. I know you. I know your works. I know your deeds. I know your toil. I know your perseverance. I'm walking among the seven lampstands. You have the angel. You have the assembly.

You have the accolades. And now we see an accusation. In verse 4. But I have this against you. You've left your first love. Accusation. Christ's accolades are followed by His accusations. He walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands seeing not only their strengths but also seeing their weaknesses.

And amidst all of their tremendous strengths in Ephesus we find a flaw. A fatal flaw. Somewhere along the way, somewhere amidst all of the fervency and the zeal of their labors, somewhere amidst the zeal of their biblical theology, they lost their fervent love for the person of Jesus Christ.

And I want you to notice that the text doesn't say that they lost their first love. They left it. This means they neglected their personal devotion to the person of Jesus Christ. Their intimacy with Christ was in jeopardy.

They compromised their passion and fervor for the Savior Himself. They didn't love Jesus the way that they did in the beginning. Church, are you listening? Just as Israel's tender devotion to Jehovah mentioned in Jeremiah 2 -2 saying, Thus saith the Lord, I remember concerning you the devotion of your youth, the love of your betrothals, you following after me in the wilderness through a land not sown.

Israel was holy to the Lord, the first of His harvest. And our Lord too remembers the devotion of Ephesus' youth. The love of their betrothals. Their following hard after Christ. But now it's a distant memory.

A distant memory. In the Greek language, when it makes the statement, You have left. You see those three words? You have left is emphatic. The strongest sense of human language that can be asserted is being asserted here.

You have left your first love. They didn't just take their eyes off the Lord momentarily. They lost fellowship with Him altogether after 40 years of being established as a church. Although holding to a strong biblical doctrine, Ephesus didn't love the Lord the way they did in the earlier years.

The devotion of their youth was not only waxing weak, it was in danger of going out altogether. What does it mean, first love? How do we define it? What is it? Listen to me. It's the love that we had for our Savior when we first became Christians.

This is the burning love that we felt whenever we firstly discovered that our sins were forgiven and that we had in fact become children of God, adopted into the family, the household of faith, that we were eclectic and that we stood before God, innocent before God, through the substitutionary, vicarious work of Jesus Christ.

This is that ferocious love, that jealous love, that passionate love that we had for Christ when we first knew Him savingly. Listen to me. Ephesus' problem was not orthodoxy. It was orthoproxy. And you all are looking at me saying, what in the world is orthoproxy?

Listen to me. I'm going to explain it to you. Orthoproxy is the belief that right actions are as important as religious faith or heart motive. Let me say that once again. Orthoproxy is the belief that right actions are as important as religious faith or heart motive.

In other words, orthoproxy is more concerned about the mechanics or the workings of the religion rather than the loving creator around which the religion is centered. Let me put it this way. Orthoproxy is more like Martha, all busy working for Jesus, while orthodoxy is more like Mary that is setting at the feet of Jesus an intimate communion.

Does that make sense? Ephesus had become more like Martha and less like Mary. Ephesus had chosen the lesser and they have forsaken the greater. They're working well, but their love was in danger of going out altogether.

Let me ask you this question. Is this you? Is this you? You go into the motions, working relentlessly, ferociously defending the faith, but it's all just mechanical because this is exactly what Ephesus was doing.

And I would almost dare say this, that I would say that most of us sitting in this building are just as, if not more than, guiltier than Ephesus was. How can we diagnose this fatalistic error if it's in us?