Christ's Message to His Church: Ephesus Revelation 2:1-7

Eureka Baptist Church

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May 7, 2023

00:18: Last week we looked at Revelation 1 where Jesus sets the table for chapters 2 & 3 of this glorious book this prophetic book is known as Revelation in chapters 2 & 3
00:34: Jesus addresses seven different historical churches Over the next seven weeks.
00:41: We are going to look at each of these churches Some theologians believe that each of these churches describes a period in church history that can be described best with the
00:54: Evaluation that Jesus gave and there may be truth to this and I will sprinkle that in to each of these sermons each of these churches described in a specific church and a period of church history has similarities and differences
01:11: One similarity they have is that they are all considered a true church Jesus is not addressing churches that are engaged in full -blown apostasy a
01:23: False church is not a true church Just because a place has the name church attached to it does not mean it is a true church
01:31: He's addressing churches that he considers somewhat legitimate Although a few of these churches were very close to being false
01:40: Apostate churches and Jesus warned them of that He still considered them at the time.
01:47: This was spoken to be true When we think about what makes a church a church no human decides this
01:54: All the instructions as to what a church should be is outlined in the pages of this book the
02:02: Holy Bible All true churches believe that the Bible is their sole authority
02:09: Man's tradition does not run the show the Bible does The leadership of the church is made clear
02:17: There are elders and deacons the preaching from a true church comes from the Bible man's opinions on their own hold no value
02:26: The model church is also to be unified in love for God and love for one another Every church should strive to be a model church there are lots of unhealthy churches out there and Jesus is going to describe some unhealthy churches as he addresses these seven churches and Every church that we are going to see him address has relevance for us
02:51: Some of the churches that Jesus addresses as I just mentioned had serious issues and we do not want to be like them
02:58: But any church that thinks it can never become like this is not being careful
03:05: Over time churches can fall into ways of doing church that are not in accord with the
03:12: Bible So every church we are about to hear about we need to pay close attention to we want to be like the model churches and we of course do not want to be like the ones that had serious issues and As I think about our church
03:27: Eureka Baptist the church that started in 1881 and is still going over a hundred and forty years later
03:33: What I want to say now and what I will sprinkle in throughout is that I believe
03:39: God has done wonderful things In our church over the last several years I've never loved a church like I love this church
03:48: With all due respect to my past church experience I have never been a part of a church where I see the love that you have for the
03:53: Lord and for one another I'm really encouraged by what I see taking place here
04:00: But even as I say that we are not a perfect church We can still grow and I pray that we would grow to even more health through a look at these seven churches that Jesus addresses
04:14: I Pray that we would heed the warnings and not fall into a place of unhealth
04:19: This can happen to any Church that is not diligent in continuing to do what made the church healthy in the first place
04:29: So this is our second Sunday in our sermon series through the first three chapters of Revelation and the next seven
04:35: Sundays Will have the same title the sermon title is this Christ's message to his church and the first edition here is
04:46: Ephesus that's the church. He's addressing Ephesus at this time. I encourage you to turn with me to Revelation 2
04:54: We'll begin by reading the text verses 1 through 7 of Revelation 2
05:07: And if you don't have a Bible, we do have the red Bibles in the pews These are the words of the
05:12: Lord Jesus To the angel of the church in Ephesus write the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand
05:20: Who walks among the seven golden lampstands? I know your works your toil and your patient endurance and how you cannot bear with those who are evil
05:31: But have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not and found them to be false
05:36: I know you are enduring patiently and burying up for my namesake and you have not grown weary But I have this against you
05:46: That you have abandoned the love you had at first Remember therefore from where you have fallen repent and do the works you did at first If not,
05:56: I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent
06:02: Yet this you have You hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which
06:08: I also hate He who has an ear let him hear what the
06:13: Spirit says to the churches to the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God Here's our big idea
06:24: What this text what Jesus is calling you to do what he's calling this church to do beware of focusing excessively on sound biblical doctrine beware of focusing excessively on sound
06:44: Biblical doctrine and Jesus gives us one reason why and I'm going to share that reason why at the very end as we will see it
06:51: Come out in his address we are going to begin by reading verse 1 of Revelation to it.
06:58: We already read it, but we're gonna zero in on it now where Jesus Says again to the church in Ephesus The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand who walks among the seven golden lampstands
07:10: What we read is that Jesus is addressing this church in Ephesus and as I have already explained this is a historical church
07:19: Ephesus was located in what modern geography says is Asia Minor it was located three miles inland from the
07:28: Aegean Sea when I was 26 I actually Was on the
07:34: Aegean Sea only I was on the other side Greece and Thessalonica on the other side of Thessalonica is the location of Ephesus and The and the
07:45: Aegean Sea is a portion of water. It's a smaller sea. That's a part of the
07:50: Mediterranean Sea The the
07:56: Kayster River allowed access to the sea So this made Ephesus a port city all these ships are coming in Trading at this location and not only was
08:06: Ephesus a big sea trading location. It also had four major roads That ran through it st.
08:14: Louis, Missouri Historically has been called the gateway to the west because it's located on the
08:20: Mississippi River in Ancient times Ephesus was known as the gateway to Asia The primary worship of the people in the city was the worship of the
08:30: Greek God Artemis The Greeks called this God Artemis while the Romans called the
08:35: God Diana Artemis his temple was there and this temple was so impressive that it was considered one of the seven wonders of the world
08:45: But even though false religion abounded in the city. There was a strong Christian presence
08:51: The book of Acts describes the Apostle Paul's missionary journey there According to Acts 2031 the
08:58: Apostle Paul spent three years there and the letter of Ephesians is addressed Of course to the church in Ephesus Church history records that the
09:06: Apostle John also spent time there In fact, this is the last place he was believed to be before he was exiled to this island in the
09:17: Aegean Sea the island of Patmos and He was exiled by the Roman Emperor Domitian If you look at a map of the
09:25: Aegean Sea the island of Patmos is not far from the port city of Ephesus So the church in Ephesus is the first church that Jesus addresses
09:36: What we read in verse 1 is that Jesus specifically addresses the angel of the church in Ephesus So the church in Ephesus is the first church that he addresses and what we read in verse 1 is that he specifically addresses the angel
09:51: That belongs to this church now as I have already explained one week ago the Greek word for angel means messenger in Some context of Scripture this messenger is a spirit being sent from God to serve
10:05: God's people But in this context, this is not the case in each of these seven churches that Jesus addresses
10:13: He opens by addressing the messenger. The messenger is not a spirit being it is the elder
10:20: Of that specific church. It is the shepherd the pastor Here Jesus is speaking to the
10:28: Apostle John and he is telling him to write this to the elder of the church the pastor Who will then pass this on to the church?
10:38: What we will notice too as Jesus addresses these seven churches is that he always says something about himself
10:44: He says something glorious about who he is as he speaks to the church in Ephesus He says concerning himself in the second half of verse 1
10:53: The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand who walks among the seven golden lampstands
11:00: Once again, the seven stars are the elders that Jesus is addressing. The seven lampstands are the seven churches
11:09: What he is saying is that he holds the seven elders in his hand They are his instruments
11:17: That his instruction is communicated through The ultimate authority is not in the pastors.
11:26: It's in the Lord Jesus Christ The only authority I have is this book the moment
11:33: I veer from this my authority goes away This is the authority of any church
11:41: And what Jesus is saying is that he holds the seven elders in his hand so the seven stars are the seven elders while the seven lampstands are the seven churches and what
11:51: Jesus says about his Relationship with the seven churches is that he walks among them This is to indicate that he is intimately involved with them
12:01: He cares what happens at these churches as we think about our church.
12:06: We might think that he cares more about some big church somewhere that everyone knows about No He cares deeply what happens here and he cares deeply what happens at any true church
12:21: What he does with his churches is that he examines them he wants churches to do what he tells them to do and to be what he tells them to be and As we think about this we need to remember that as he addresses these churches.
12:36: He's also addressing us The message we are getting from Jesus is not exact We don't have a letter in the
12:44: Bible addressed to Eureka Baptist But there is something in each of these addresses that we are to take away
12:51: So after this introduction in verse 1 he gets to the meat of what he wants to say in verses 2 & 3
13:00: Once again, he says I know your works your toil and your patient endurance and how you cannot bear with those who are evil
13:06: But have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not and found them to be false
13:12: I know you are enduring patiently and burying up for my namesake and you have not grown weary Here Jesus is speaking to the
13:22: Apostle John Okay, and again, this is addressed to the this is addressed to The elder who is addressing to the churches and the first thing that Jesus says that he knows their works in our proverb study on Wednesday night
13:38: We recently saw a proverb that Jesus is describing here Proverbs 15 3 says the eyes of the
13:46: Lord are in every place Keeping watch on the evil and the good
13:52: This is describing the Lord's omniscience omniscience means that the Lord knows Everything there's not one detail in all the universe in all of history that he does not know
14:05: He knows every detail about your life he knows everything that is happening in this church he's omniscient if Jesus walked into our church is not as if he would
14:19: Have to be informed by someone, you know, this is what's happened over the last several years. No He knows exactly
14:26: What is going on? Here and because he knows every detail he is able to give an accurate
14:34: Evaluation he's the judge of all the universe every day every
14:42: Sorry one day everyone Will stand before him Everyone will have to answer to him
14:51: The God -man that everyone will stand before Cannot be accused of having false information or of not having enough information
15:01: Everything that he says concerning the evaluation of one's life will be 100 % accurate
15:09: So as Jesus addresses these churches, there's no debating what he says Since he knows everything and what he tells the church in Ephesus is that he knows their works
15:20: Then in the remainder of verse 2 he tells them what he knows about their works Specifically he knows about their labor in their patient endurance
15:29: What he's telling them is that they have been through many battles and they have endured these battles the battles
15:36: They have endured are dealing with those who are evil Then he gives more detail about what he's talking about in the remainder of verse 2
15:45: They have tested those who claim to be called Apostles but are really phonies the battles the church in Ephesus have endured our
15:58: Doctrinal battles their battles over what does this book say? What is the true understanding of?
16:07: This word this word from God They are battles over the fidelity of God's Word to fight for the fidelity of God's Word is a very good thing
16:20: Okay, let me be very clear on that. It's a very good thing. It must be done Jude 3 describes upholding the fidelity of God's Word as a fight there
16:30: Jude wrote I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all
16:38: Delivered to the Saints for certain people have crept in unnoticed too long ago were designated for this condemnation ungodly people who pervert the graces of our
16:48: God into sensuality and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ What you just saying here?
16:56: To these Christians is he saying contend for the faith once for all delivered to the
17:02: Saints This comes from God to his people and we have a responsibility to protect it
17:09: Think of how many people try to pervert the Bible today, and we say no that is not what it says the truth that came from God's mouth never changes
17:25: It was passed down from the mouth of God to his followers and we are to preserve it with all our might that which
17:31: God has given us and It's a great fight in our day False teaching is rampant and we are called to fight in our present world we hear
17:43: We need to hear what the Prophet Jeremiah said in his day Because what he experienced in his day is similar to what we experience in our day in Jeremiah 6 16
17:54: The Prophet Jeremiah said on behalf of the Lord. He said stand by the roads and look and ask for the ancient paths
18:02: Where the good way is and walk in it and find rest for your souls
18:07: But they said we will not walk in it. We are to follow the ancient way
18:17: We are to follow God's way His truth never changes in this progressive world we live in we hear
18:26: We should move on Be more progressive get with the times Move on from that archaic way of thinking
18:35: They'll call you Neanderthals, right? We've been called that Move on There's a better way a man has progressed.
18:44: There's new thinking. There's new wisdom and when you hear that, you know, that's not from God His word never changes truth is timeless
18:53: It doesn't matter what area you live in it stands the test of time it's always the right way
18:59: We are to contend for the faith and in Jesus addressed to the church in Ephesus in verse 2
19:09: He is praising them for doing this noble thing He tells them they have patiently endured the battles they have stood for the truth and exposed false teachers
19:22: Everyone should know what Eureka Baptist stands for They should know what we proclaim.
19:30: They should also know what we're against Sometimes you hear people say they should not know we should not we should not be known
19:37: For what we are against but what we are for okay, and that's partly true, but we should be known for both
19:43: We are for this and we are against this They use discernment that the church in Ephesus did
19:54: In this discernment came from who? the Holy Spirit First Thessalonians 521 says test everything hold fast to what is good but even though they were faithful in testing spiritual leaders through understanding sound doctrine and Exposing those who were false
20:12: This was not a perfect church What we will see
20:17: Jesus to in his address to these seven churches is take the sandwich approach to criticism
20:24: Anybody heard of the sandwich approach you may have learned this approach and offering criticism in school and Managers and business learn how to do this with those below them in the company
20:35: The sandwich approach is offering criticism in a constructive way The goal of constructive criticism is to build someone up rather than tear them down The goal is to bring positive change in the future to the person being corrected
20:52: So if you want an example of constructive criticism in the Bible Jesus does this in chapters 2 & 3 in his address to these seven churches
21:01: He starts off by telling them that they are doing something good He tells them you are standing for the truth against false teachers
21:10: Who are spreading false doctrine? But then he points out an area where they need to improve and then he ends it with something good again
21:19: Before we look at how he corrects the church in Ephesus Let's look at what he says on the other side that ties in with what he says in verses 2 & 3
21:27: Okay, so verse 6 is a compliment again. He says in verse 6 Get this you have you have you hate the works of the
21:34: Nicolaitans, which I also hate Okay, they're doing good What is interesting is that Jesus also addresses the
21:43: Nicolaitans with the church we will look at in two Sundays Pergamum So who were these people?
21:51: there were two Sound teachers in the early church that mentioned this group Irenaeus and Clement of Alexander Irenaeus said that Nicholas Was an apostate
22:04: Christian who taught people that freedom in Christ meant a license to sin
22:09: And by the way, this is still around today You can live how you want. But what does Paul say? Should we go on sinning the grace may abound by no means right you're freed from sin
22:21: Why would you go back to it? But this is what Nicholas Taught and Clement of Alexander said that this false sect led a life of self -indulgence and called it
22:35: Christian Jesus compliments the church in Ephesus by telling them
22:40: I hate what they are doing and you are standing against them One of the ways that we follow
22:47: Jesus is by hating what he hates You're supposed to love the Lord our
22:52: God with all our heart soul and might We're also supposed to hate Satan With all our heart soul and might it's the reverse is the reverse is true.
23:00: Also. We hate darkness. We hate evil. We love
23:06: God So we need to love what God loves we need to hate what God hates
23:14: So he compliments the church in Ephesus by telling them you're doing good here The Church in Ephesus hates two groups that Jesus hates the false apostles and the
23:23: Nicolaitans They are both working on behalf of Satan not God he is telling them keep up the good work and guarding the truth and exposing falsehood if you think of how many people harm this book
23:38: Reinterpreted say things that it doesn't say that people try to say. Well the Bible supports this the
23:43: Bible supports that No, it doesn't Not even close this book is clear and we need to defend it we need to guard it.
23:53: It's our responsibility to do that Every church should do that.
24:01: But what was their problem? What is the problem with the church in Ephesus? And what is the problem with churches like the church in Ephesus?
24:10: In between these two compliments he rebukes them on a very important area where they have lost their way
24:18: In verses four and five. He says this But I have this against you that you have abandoned the love you had at first Remember therefore from where you have fallen repent and do the works you did at first If not,
24:33: I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent
24:39: Okay, so we see the sandwich approach compliment Criticism compliment.
24:44: Okay. So now we're gonna focus in on the criticism. He tells them in their effort at doctrinal precision
24:52: And their effort to stomp out poisonous teaching they have forgotten the most important thing
24:59: The most important thing is to love him think about this
25:06: The goal of learning is to get to the truth But the pursuit of knowledge does not stop there
25:15: If you stop there you miss what it's all moving toward the goal of learning is to love
25:21: God That's it that should be the model of every school
25:27: I Remember the college I went to Crown College on the library wall.
25:34: It said the fear of the Lord Is the beginning of wisdom? all
25:39: Intellectual efforts fail if the love of God is not at the center of it
25:45: That's the whole goal. That's the end It's not enough to accurately know who
25:54: God is and what his word says You must love him This is the greatest commandment of the law as I read this morning
26:01: Deuteronomy 6 5 you shall love the Lord your God with all Your heart and with all your soul and with all your might it's the greatest commandment
26:09: It's not nearly enough to know truth You must love God This is the reason you exist
26:18: This is the meaning of life To love God, I remember when
26:24: I graduated from seminary we had a commencement speaker give an Appropriate message to us students who had massive heads from several years of studying
26:35: The graduates including myself had immersed ourselves into lots and lots of study over a four to five year period
26:43: We read an enormous amount We wrote lots of papers we learned
26:48: Hebrew and Greek and we took lots of exams We had received information overload on the
26:56: Bible and theology and Molly knows I'm talking about she just graduated
27:01: Friday, by the way, congratulations But none of that mattered None of that mattered if we missed the whole point of our study
27:13: At the heart of any study must be a deep love for God That needs to be the end as I've already said
27:18: Proverbs 1 7 the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom And what is the fear of the
27:24: Lord by the way? It is an awe a reverence and a love for him as you learn about him and his world
27:33: It's not just learning the Bible. We need to understand everything in accordance with the Bible But it's studying science and math and history and all these different fields
27:47: Anthropology and everything this book has all the answers But you can learn more out in the world and this is always at the center of it of anything that we learn
27:59: Everything must be learned through the lens of Scripture This book is not a
28:05: Diving board. Okay, if we start here and then we it just gets us going and then we really find the truth out there
28:11: No, this is the center of it So at my graduation this commencement speaker took us to the last chapter in John's Gospel chapter 21
28:23: Where Jesus had a conversation with Peter? his disciple in this famous conversation
28:29: Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved him and Peter was hurt because he felt like he didn't need to keep answering
28:38: But three times was appropriate Since this was the number of times that Peter denied
28:43: Jesus. So Jesus asked him three times. Do you love me? Then after Jesus said this to Peter he told him to feed his sheep
28:54: Peter for the remainder of his life would be one of Jesus shepherds But he was only qualified to feed his people his sheep with the truth of God's Word if he loved him
29:08: Think about that at the top of the list to be qualified to be a pastor is to have a great love for God It's more important than knowing every little detail about the
29:20: Bible to be a faithful Christian It's the same thing what God cares about most is your love for him
29:29: And please understand That sound doctrine is very important but precision in doctrine is not as important as loving
29:38: God It's not like the most mature Christians are the ones who know the most they're not
29:44: They're the ones who look most like him. Those are the most mature Christians We need to know the character of the
29:53: God we love. Yes, and we that's it comes through study But sometimes the people who know the most about the
30:00: Bible and theology don't really love God that much and Some don't love him at all
30:07: There will be theologians in hell Who didn't really love him. I once had a professor who said that More important than understanding the
30:17: Trinity, which is a complex Doctrine is loving the Trinity far more important Love the
30:27: Trinity Love the Father Son and Holy Spirit. We want our church to be defined by our love for God More than anything.
30:38: That's what we want to be known for When people ask about Eureka Baptist, we want them to say these people love
30:44: God and they show it By the way, they live and by the way, why do we fight false doctrine?
30:51: Because we love them. That's at the root of it a Church that loves
30:57: God will have certain characteristics a church that loves God will have people who show their love for God by loving each other deeply
31:07: The church will be a warm and friendly environment that truly feels like a family It should be this way because we are a family.
31:15: God is our father. We are brothers and sisters in Christ any church that lacks this that's a huge problem and This should be a top priority in any church
31:27: And I'm delighted to see this in our church As I said earlier, I've never been a part of a church where I've seen so much love and unity in My life
31:36: I have visited churches that were known for doctrine They were known as churches that saying
31:44: Theologically sound songs like the songs we sang today That preached a verse by verse through the
31:49: Bible we do that too That knew the ins and outs of theology that had a respected pastor
31:59: But what I noticed that was present was coldness It was cold theology
32:10: One of the churches in particular I visited 20 times in my life probably and no one ever said hi to me
32:20: It was not a warm environment My experience was a church that was doctrinal but there was something that was missing
32:30: Love How sad it is when a church is doctrinally sound but lacks love
32:37: When people see this they leave the cold doctrinal churches and instead they are drawn to churches that are super friendly
32:45: But the problem is sometimes the church these churches that they're drawn to are weak in doctrine Not very deep, but they're nice and so like oh,
32:54: I'm gonna go here and what a shame that is It's not supposed to be this way the healthiest churches
33:02: Teach the whole Council of God and show their deep love for God and this is shown in the love and unity within the church
33:11: The greatest commandment is to love God and the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor You know that you love
33:18: God when you love his image bearers There are a few things worse than cold theology When Jesus was with his disciples there would have been such warmness
33:28: It's an understatement to say that Jesus loved his father and out of the deep love for his father
33:34: He loved his disciples, and he loved everyone he came into contact with We should not get so caught up in sound teaching that we forget the whole point of truth in the first place
33:48: The goal of all truth is to love God more We live at a time when we need to contend for the faith false teaching abounds
33:58: We could spend several years going through every problematic teaching that exists in the
34:03: American Evangelical Church we do pay attention to that and we want to be those who expose false teaching as Jesus praises that We invited
34:17: John Harris here last year who exposes social justice for what it really is
34:23: I've called out the corruption in the American Evangelical Church on numerous occasions I have named false teachers from this pulpit and in pastors pages
34:32: We are supposed to do this Jesus praises that But he does not want us to forget our first love as he says in verse 4
34:43: The zeal for Christ can wane while a passion for just holding on to truth can grow
34:49: Our passion for the truth is intended to develop a stronger love for him, but it doesn't always work this way
34:58: Churches and individuals can make the same mistake that the church in Ephesus made as One author said the
35:05: Ephesians passion and fervor for Christ had become cold mechanical orthodoxy
35:11: Their doctrinal and moral purity their undiminished zeal for the truth and their discipline to service were no substitute
35:18: For the love for Christ they had forsaken There was no one more glorious than Jesus He deserves our highest love we are to love him far more than anything in this world
35:34: So the question is do you love him? The question also is do you have a desire to love him more?
35:41: This should be the greatest desire of our hearts Now aiming to love God more does not mean that we should diminish our understanding of the scripture
35:51: Biblical illiteracy is never a good thing We need to know the one we love so that we can love him better We need to know what pleases him
36:00: But we need to remember that the ultimate goal of following Lord is not getting every detail right about doctrine
36:08: It's not aiming to impress other is by how much of the Bible and theology that you know It's it is not forgetting the whole point of knowing the
36:16: Bible The ultimate goal is loving him to the fullest. It is loving him with everything you have
36:24: What Jesus communicates to the church in Ephesus is that if anyone Knows lots of biblical data, but does not love him there needs to be repentance
36:34: What he's telling the church in Ephesus is This problem is rampant at their church.
36:40: He's giving a perfect evaluation. Remember he knows everything He's saying this is a rampant problem at your church
36:49: He says return to your first love he's calling for repentance and Repentance is a change of course.
36:57: They are loving doctrine and not him and they need to change course He even warns that he will remove their lampstand if they do not repent
37:07: What does this mean? It means that if they continue this course of cold doctrine, they would experience
37:13: God's judgment This judgment would be shown either through the church not existing any longer
37:19: Like he shuts it down or he would judge the church by giving it up to apostasy
37:28: And that happens all the apostate churches in America were once Orthodox churches They were once churches that believed in the authority of Scripture.
37:36: What happened? God turns them over at some point as they fail to listen to his warnings
37:48: They need to return to the early days The days when they loved him the days the richest times in the history of this church in Ephesus It's like a married couple that falls deeply in love and then over time the marriage becomes stale
38:05: The strong affection that was once there is gone This happens because people forget what drew them to their spouse in the first place
38:14: The newness wears off and the wonder of it all wears off Husband and wife take each other for granted and what happens over time is a dead marriage or divorce
38:26: The Christian life can be like this When someone becomes a Christian one has great joy in his or her heart and this person's love for the
38:35: Lord is obvious to everyone But what happens far too often is that this love that was once strong wavers
38:43: But it does not need to be this way Christians should always desire to have a strong zeal for the
38:51: Lord Jesus a deep love for him should always hold steady through the twists and turns of life
38:57: You should be able to say as Peter said in first Peter 1 verses 8 and 9 Though you have not seen him you love him though.
39:03: You do not now see him you rejoice with joy That is inexpressible and filled with glory
39:08: Concerning the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls It can waver over time if we're not diligent in continuing that zeal for the
39:22: Lord So we need to be careful Our church Eureka Baptist should never assume the truth
39:30: But we should be filled with a strong zeal for him When people walk into this place and when people run into people from this church the love for Christ should radiate out of us
39:42: One of the ways it is obvious that you love him is that you tell people about him Think about when you first started dating your future spouse.
39:50: I Can't wait to tell you about my wife. I remember when I met Brianna That's like all I talked about for three months was her
39:57: It's all you want to talk about and it's that way with your love for the Lord. Can I tell you about him?
40:03: He is amazing. You need him. If you follow him, you will be happy forever
40:11: So people shouldn't see this Come out of us And you should be the kind of person that you you're a delight to be around because there's a love pulsing from you
40:19: It's not cold theology It's boring. Come on. I mean, it isn't it boring.
40:25: I mean a seminary can be really boring I mean, it shouldn't be that way This is meant to light a fire in us and as Jesus says in verse 7 the one who listens to this instruction
40:38: It will be great root greatly rewarded. He says again He who has an ear let him hear what the
40:44: Spirit says to the churches to the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life Which is in the paradise of God what marks true believers is
40:54: That the love for the Lord that flicker of light that flame never goes out
40:59: It continues and sometimes it does it does wane and that's where we need to pay close attention
41:05: Say Lord light that fire that was once there light it in me again for your sake
41:12: So beware of focusing too much on sound biblical doctrine obsessively focusing on it
41:20: Missing the whole point of it and in this text we have seen one reason why? That reason why that Jesus gives is that a church with this obsession forgets to love the
41:33: Lord They forget to love him As I mentioned in the introduction
41:40: Some people Believe some theologians believe that this describes the church of the first 70 years from 30
41:48: AD to 100 AD The apostolic fathers were the earliest defenders of the faith and their fight against false apostles and other false teachers is described in the
41:58: New Testament It may have been that in their fight many churches like churches today
42:04: Forgot what the goal of truth is a deep love for the Lord So Eureka Baptist in one sense we want to be like Ephesus We want to be defenders of the truth, but if that's what we are known for We have fallen way short
42:21: May it be true of us that we not only defend the truth of God's Word But that each one in this church has a deep love for him
42:30: Now next Sunday. We will look at the second church the church in Smyrna and May we take to heart what he has for us there as well if you bow your heads with me at this time
42:43: Father in heaven I thank you for this instruction And it's a great reminder to us to fight for the truth
42:51: But not forget the whole point. I pray that everyone Here would examine that part of their life
42:58: Lord the most important part of their life Love you more, and if anyone here has not put their trust in Jesus Christ My prayer is that they would love you for the first time
43:09: By believing that Jesus died in their place when he went to the cross and rose glorious from the dead
43:16: That they would believe in him and love him Forever so help us Lord to love you more in Jesus name.