Your First Love — David Wilkerson

Oh, hallelujah. Lord, the Word gives us life. We love Your Word. Holy Spirit, I pray for an anointing. Touch me. God, get through to our hearts the message of the Holy Spirit to the churches. We are a part of the church.

We belong to the body of Christ. And Lord, we want You to speak to us through Your living Word this morning. Lord, I thank You for breaking my heart over this this morning, and the tears that You brought to my heart.

And now, Lord, convey that now to this audience. We're not here to impress anybody, Lord. We just want to hear from You. That's why we're here. We want to hear from Heaven. We want the Holy Ghost to speak to our hearts.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ and Its Prophetic Message

So please do that. We're open, Lord. We receive from You now. Amen. Now, many Christians avoid the book of Revelation. It seems so mysterious. Have you ever read through this and seen the symbols of the beast and the dragons and the man-child and the woman-clothed and the sun and the red horses, white horses, and vials of wrath and locusts with eyes and fire coming out their tails?

Martin Luther said, nobody really knows what's in this book. That's what he said. In fact, he didn't even want to include it in the canon of the Scripture. And he finally came around to quoting from it, but said nobody knows what's in it.

And a lot of people believe that. But I believe it's one of the most important books in the Bible. It's becoming more so the closer we come to the coming of the Lord. Go to Revelation 1 .1, if you will, please.

It says, the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now, if it's the revelation of Jesus Christ, it's rather important, isn't it? The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to Him. Not to John, but to Him. Now, John delivered it to us, but it's the revelation of Jesus Christ that God gave to Him to show to His bondservants.

The things which must shortly take place. He communicated it by His angel to His bondservants. Now, look at verse 3. If you wonder about the book of Revelation, well, look at this. This is prophetic. Blessed is he who reads, and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it, for the time is near.

Now, wouldn't you say that it's important for us to know it and read it? And to pray for an understanding of the Holy Spirit, what the book is all about. Daniel suggests that the books, some of them are closed until the Holy Spirit opens them at the end.

I believe God is beginning to open this book. Now, I'm saying just a little bit, but many who are praying, seeking God, really believe it's locked up. Now, God's opening to many the picture of Babylon in the 17th and 18th chapter of Revelation.

He's beginning to open the message to the church. And that's what I want to speak to you about this morning. Blessed is he, it says, who reads, and those who hear the words of the prophecy. Now, we're going to hear some of the words of this prophecy this morning.

Now, what's the promise? Blessed. Now, do you accept that or don't you? Lord, by the Holy Ghost, I accept that. You're going to bless me while I preach it, and we're going to bless all the hearers as we hear it this morning.

Praise His holy name. Now, it's written by John. Now, John was one of the three pillars of the church, remember, at Jerusalem. Now, you hear mostly of Peter, and James, you very seldom hear of John. He was one of the three pillars of the church at Jerusalem.

I wondered how John got from Jerusalem way up to Asia Minor. Because he appears to be the superintendent of the seven churches in Asia Minor. There were seven churches. This is not just symbolic. There were seven churches beginning at Ephesus.

And this is where John finally moved after his release from the Isle of Patmos. Nero, remember, was the emperor who caused the first great persecution. From Nero to the Christian emperor Constantine, there were ten great persecutions.

Nero was the one who had Paul murdered. Remember that Peter was crucified, but Paul, being a Roman, could not be crucified by law. And tradition says he was murdered, he was killed by the sword three miles outside of the center of Rome, which is tres fontaine, which means three fountains.

And tradition says that when they killed him, three fountains sprang up out of the ground. And even today, you go to Rome, and there's a little thing there that tells the whole story of the murder of Paul, the apostle, and these three springs were supposed to have sprung up.

Now, that's strictly tradition. But Paul was murdered between 64 and 69 AD, after the death of Christ. And tradition said he was killed right outside of Rome. But let me give you just a little bit of historical background.

I love church history, and boy, some of the things I'm seeing lately have really made me look at what's happening today. It repeats itself, and it's true, it's not just a clusade. The only thing we learn from history is that we don't learn from history.

Nero hated Christians, and he was the one, if you read it, it's frightening to read the life story of Nero. He painted Christians in tar, and would nail them to poles in his garden, 300 at a time, and douse them with oil, and make human torches out of them.

Of course, the tar made them burn longer, and while they were all burning 300 in a row, he'd race his white horse up and down, laughing gleefully, in and out through those burning human torches. And the whole world was under persecution at the time of Nero.

Remember, tradition says that Nero burned the city of Rome. He wanted it to be rebuilt, called Nero, after his own name, and he blamed the Christians. And that's why the persecution broke out as it did.

The Roman Empire was in turmoil. Christians everywhere were being persecuted. And it would last for 300 and some years, about 340 years, all the way up to Constantine. And remember that John is exiled under Nero to the island of Patmos.

Now, even today, there's a basilica there, and there's a cave they said is where John stays. And there really was an isle of Patmos. I believe John actually did go there. He was exiled there. And after Paul dies, he spends his last 20 years in Ephesus.

So it's very clear that John was in Asia, that he became the superintendent of the seven churches of Asia, and he was writing to them. They were in persecution at the time under Nero. Now, remember, it says, if you look at chapter 2, I want you to go to chapter 2, and it says, let's go to chapter 1, verse 20 first.

Verse 20, chapter 1. As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in the right hand, the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

Alright, look at me if you will, please. The word here in Greek, angel, means pastor or messenger. That's the actual Greek interpretation of the word angel. In fact, it should have said to the pastors of the churches in Asia.

He's saying, this is what you pastors should be seeing in the Holy Ghost. This is what you should be preaching. The message is to you first. And I receive that as from the Lord. This is something that I have to see first before I can share it.

It's something that has to be made real to me. And God is always speaking to the pulpit first. Boy, there's so many churches that are far ahead of their preachers nowadays. The letters we get, the congregations are far ahead of their pastors.

Now, not always, but generally now, the congregations are hungrier. All the ridicule that I get now from my book, the last book, does not come from the congregation, it comes from the pulpit. It comes from seven days in a row on PTL.

By some of the best-known prophecy teachers in America that they all rallied to say that it was a false prophecy. I don't care, it doesn't matter, I don't have television, I don't see it, people write and tell me.

But, you see, the pastors need to see and hear from the Holy Ghost first. So that they can bear this to the congregation. Now, I go to chapter 2, verse 1. To the angel of the church in Ephesus write. Now, there was a church in Ephesus, and this is where John died at a ripe old age.

Some claim he was 90-some years old when he died. He died in Ephesus. And there was an actual, this is not just all symbolic. Now, some people teach, dispensationally, that there are seven church ages.

There were seven church ages, and the first Christian church was the Ephesus church. And then, during the dark ages, you had Sardis and Smyrna. And then, we are the Laodicean age, the last Baxillian age.

Rich in increased goods and not knowing that we're wretched and poor and blind. But you understand that even today we have Ephesus-type Christians. We have those who have lost their first love today, don't we?

You can find those who are the synagogue of Satan today. You find those that follow the doctrine of Balaam and Jezebel. All these things. I don't see it just dispensationally, and I don't argue with people who see it as seven layers of churches.

I believe God is looking at the whole church. He's looking over from the cross all the way to His coming. Then He sees seven types. Seven types of Christians. Seven types of those who call themselves by His name.

And there are these types today. We don't have just Laodicean Christians today. And by the way, at Ephesus, they had Laodicean Christians too, who were rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing, as far as they were concerned.

There were Laodiceans even in Ephesus. So, it's pretty hard to just layer it. I see God speaking, looking over the whole church, and what I hear is the Holy Ghost bearing the heart of God as He looks at His people.

There are seven lampstands, and they're all on one. It's like a candelabra. And He's the main stem, and these churches come out of this. And He's seeing some problems developing. And remember Paul warned, he said, when I'm gone, grievous wolves are going to come in among you.

He warned that the Spirit would come in among them. Now, remember that the Holy Spirit gave this message, didn't He? Now, here's the prayer that I have with the Holy Ghost. And I'll tell you, it's a strong argument.

When you get down and pray before God, you open this book. You say, Holy Ghost, You gave this to John. You said, blessed are you who has ears to hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Now, the Holy Spirit gave this, didn't He?

He gave it to John, and He gave it to the church. Now, is there a different Holy Ghost that abides on you and me now, or is it the same Holy Ghost? You know what my argument is when I pray? Holy Ghost, You gave this to John, and You abide in me, so You know what this is all about.

Because You're the one who gave it. And You abide in me, so now You make it known to me. Now, you can go to God with that. You can put that in the bank. And you can believe with all your heart that the same Holy Ghost that gave it revealed it.

There's the same Holy Ghost who wants to make it real to us. Because He said, this is the way to overcome. I used to pray diligently, Oh God. And I'll tell you, if you're in any kind of ministry today, singing or preaching, this has to have been your prayer.

God, let me know what your heart is. Let me feel your heartbeat. So that when I get up and minister, I'm not just ministering something I've dreamed up or concocted. Not just words, I want it to represent what you feel about this society.

I want to know your heart, I want to feel it, I want to preach your heart. And here the Lord spoke to me, David, it's there, it's right there. This is what the Spirit says to the church. The Spirit's in the whole counsel of God.

He knows the heart of God, and He's already laid it out. David, here it is, get into it, seek it, pray for an opening, pray for an understanding. And I believe that the secret of the whole system in the church now and all that's happening is right here.

We're going to get into it in just a minute. The very same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead and who gave this to John is the Holy Spirit that's here this morning. And I want you to acknowledge that.

Alright? I want to consider, not all the seven churches, I'm going to consider just the church of Ephesus. And I'm going to talk about an Ephesus-type Christian, because I believe these represent types of Christian.

Revelation 2, 1 -7, we're going to read together, just follow me please. To the church, to the angel, to the pastor of the church of 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, and that you cannot endure evil men.

And you put to the test those who call themselves apostles. And they are not. And you found them to be false. And you have persevered, and you've endured for my namesake, and have not grown weary. Now that's quite a compliment to the church, isn't it?

Now would you like God to say that about you? Well, in fact He does. But, I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen. Now the church has fallen in spite of all these good deeds.

They have fallen. And repent and do the deeds you did at first, or else I'm going to come to you, and I'll remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent. And this you do have. In other words, there's one thing we have in common.

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 whoever comes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Now, looking at this, you'd say, now it doesn't appear to me that God's very upset at these Ephesian type Christians here. Look at the list. They worked hard, they persevered, that means they were patient, they were steadfast.

In fact, there are seven compliments that God gives this Ephesian type Christian. He said, you do many good deeds. Number three, you can't stand the evil doers. You just don't like to see people committing sin.

Number four, you have discernment. You've not been fooled by the false preachers. You're not a phony, you recognize phonies. There's something about you, you have discernment. You're a discerning Christian.

You've endured for the sake of my name. You really love my name. You honor my name. You've not grown weary. Now, you keep that in mind because he says you're supposed to go back to something. Well, look, you can't say, well, I got weary.

You're not going to go back to something there. It's very, very important you see this. He said, you've not grown weary. In other words, you're not ever contemplating the idea of quitting on the Lord.

You've never thought of giving up. I doubt that there's anybody here who loves the Lord who's ever thought of giving up. I've never once thought of giving up on my Lord. I can't even conceive of anyone who really loves the Lord.

So, ever entertain a thought of giving up. Now, you get discouraged, but you never think of quitting on the Lord. Do you? Of course not. Number seven, you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans. You hate them.

The Nicolaitans and the Call to Hate Sin

Now, go with me to Acts 6, if you will, please. This is very, very important. Many of us have seen this and we've skipped over it. And I want you to go to the sixth chapter of Acts. And I'm going to read the first seven verses with you.

Acts 6. We're going to find out who the Nicolaitans are. Because God says, you hate them just like that. And you find it all through the second chapter. God says, Nicolaitans, Nicolaitans, I hate them and you hate them.

Now, at this time, verse 1. Now, at this time, while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food.

And the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, it is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. But select from among you, brethren, seven men of good reputation.

Now, look at this. Seven. What kind of men? Men of good reputation. And what? Full of the Spirit and wisdom. Is that the kind of men that we're going to choose? Well, we may put in charge of this task.

But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. Now, let's see who they appoint. And the statement found approval with the whole congregation they chose. Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.

And Philip. Prochorus. Macanor. Timon. Parmenas. And who? Nicholas. A proselyte or convert from Antioch. He was a Gentile who came into the Jewish faith, the Jewish Christian faith. And Nicholas. And these they brought before the apostles.

And what did they do? And after praying, they laid their hands on them. Nicholas was one of these seven men who were appointed to wait on tables. And he was chosen because the congregation considered him full of faith and full of the Holy Spirit.

And he was anointed and laid hands on by the apostleship. Correct? Nicholas. Now, what happened to Nicholas? Boy, church history is full of it. Now, Polycarp was a student of John. And Polycarp's writings remained to then.

Much of what we learned about John we get from the writings of Polycarp. And he makes it very clear that Nicholas departed from the faith. That Nicholas, and boy, you... By the way, there's a jolly old gentleman at Christmas time.

Saint what? Uh-huh. I'm not going to get into that. But there's a lot. Boy, when you follow it through, it's frightening. Look at the... Go back to Revelation there, if you will. I want to show you an indictment against Nicholas and his followers.

Go to Revelation 2 .6. I want to remind you. Yet this you do have that you what? You hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Go over to 2nd chapter 15th and 16th verses now. Verse 15 and 16.

Thus you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Repent therefore, else I'm coming to you quickly, and I'll make war against them with the sword of my mouth. Boy, God hates this thing.

There's something that this man started. There's something that this man taught that God hates. And boy, I did a study of this man. And he fathered a very hateful doctrine. His followers became very corrupt and very sensuous because he left the message of the cross, of suffering and shame of the cross.

He rejected the cross. And Nicholas taught that the body itself was evil and could not be saved. Only the spirit could be saved. So that you could do whatever you pleased with the body as long as your spirit was right with God.

And that later became a doctrine called antinomianism, anti-law. And that antinomianism is still prevalent all over the church today. Anti-law. Jesus died to save from sin. You can live as you please.

You can smoke and drink. As long as you got saved, you're saved. It's called antinomianism, anti-law. It started with the Nicolaitans. And the Nicolaitans became very sensuous. And because they didn't hold to the cross, they didn't hold to what they did.

They said, I was born in iniquity and there's no way my body can be transformed. The body is worthless. It's no good. And that's finally why they started to wear these hair coats and reject the body. It led to monasteries.

It led to all kinds of rejections of the flesh. And remember, people spent centuries, they spent centuries trying to subdue the flesh. They tortured the flesh, beat it because it was no good. But oh, their minds could race anywhere.

They could do anything with their bodies as long as their spirit was right with God. And they became fornicators. Sexually, they became immoral. And that sexual immorality was there in the very first church of Jerusalem.

Nicholas, this fossilite, started it. He gathered up a following and his followers carried it to the far extremes. And that has been with us to this very day. The spirit of the Nicolaitans is here. Now, look at this Ephesian-type Christian.

And this really hit me. Now, the word Nicolaitan is two Greek words put together. Now, listen to me for just a moment. It's nikon, which means to conquer, and leos means to conquer people. To conquer people.

And this is a doctrine the devil instituted through Nicholas to conquer the church. The very word Nicolaitan means to conquer the people. The word means it. That shook me up when I saw it. Nicholas first seduced the people to eat meat sacrificed to idols.

He said, if I can get them to eat the meat sacrificed to idols, then he was a fornicator. He reminds me of Moses Berg, the leader of the children of God. Moses Berg used to work for Teen Challenge out in California, out on Huntington Beach.

We had a ministry there, and we gathered about 100 young people on fire for God, and he was one of the leaders. And he was on fire, a man, a great teacher, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. But the man had a spirit of fornication in him.

He never did yield that over to the Lord. And those young people used to go up and down Huntington Beach during the hippie revolution, and they would preach Christ. Moses Berg would thunder the gospel.

But then this thing got out of hand, and suddenly this Nicolaitan spirit gripped him. And he started with the young women a ceremony, a hallowed ceremony that he invented. And I'll say it as tastefully as I can, but he would choose the mates, and he was the one who had to have the first night with every bride.

And when we found it out, of course, we evicted him. Three months later, he came to my rallies in Melody Land and picketed outside, calling me the Antichrist and the beast. But by that time he had three wives, and he had seduced this whole thing.

Because you see, he had taught these young people that if he could get them to make one compromise, they'll follow him all the way. This is what Nicholas did. If I get them to eat the meat served to idols, I can get them to be fornicators.

And they went right through the altar, they went right through this compromise, and that's why compromise is so hated by God. That's why a man of God has to preach against compromise. That's why it burns in my soul.

And Moses Berg, for the last ten years, he took three or four of our leaders out of Teen Challenge. He took Linda Misner, one of our right-hand girls up in New York, thundering prophetess, boy, could she preach on the streets.

Got seduced, lived in absolute sin, and he turned all of his girls into prostitutes who were walking the streets, prostituting with men to get them to join the children of God. He sent 30 women into Gaddafi's court to try to seduce Gaddafi and his whole court so that he could have some world power.

Today, right now I'm standing here, Moses Berg is a lunatic who spends his whole time making pornographic cassettes and selling them around the world with children. His wife has been saved, one of his daughters has been saved.

I met them in a rally two years ago. They've written a book since, a chilling book, and they said, his daughter said that my father now spends his whole day, nothing sexually pleases him, nothing can touch him, he's like a lion in a cage, he walks back and forth all day long, a mad man, out of his mind, the spirit of Nicholas, the Nicolaitans.

Now, look what God is saying to this church. He said, you hate this just like I hate it. You hate sin. You're the kind, you know, and if you haven't gotten rid of it, you tell it and you still sit there and say, isn't that awful?

Man, I hate it. Well, if you hate it, turn it off. Just turn it off. Clement of Alexander, one of the church fathers, listen to what he said about Nicholas and the Nicolaitans. He said, they abandoned themselves to wild pleasures like goats in lives of shameless self-indulgence.

They were wild goats. There were two requirements of the early church. Remember? The Holy Ghost said, abstain from food offered to idols and avoid fornication. Isn't that what it said? Nicholas broke it.

He got his followers to eat the meat served to idols and to get caught up in what it meant and they became fornicators. Society of that day accepted sex outside of marriage. Nicholas capitalized on that.

Now, the Spirit sounded an alarm from God's heart. The vision type Christian hates this kind of thing. And here, it's just as plain as it can be right there in 1 .6. Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

He said, you're one with me on this hatred against sin. Now, look at me just a minute. Do you hate the doctrine of the Nicolaitans? Does your blood boil when you see the way some Christians are living today?

Even Christians in the church, their compromise? I don't dislike Amy Grant. I love her as a part of the family of God. But I hate that compromise. I hate it. There's something in me that says, God, that's not right.

You see, the whole thing is, I'm trying to bring them the message and language they understand. But if you bring Jesus outside of the cross and outside of the anointing of the Holy Ghost, there's no life to it.

It doesn't change anything. You're saying Jesus or just quoting the Scripture. That's a dead book without the Holy Ghost. Do you sit around with your Christian friends and talk about something like this?

Look how the way the world's going. Think of the wickedness of the world. Doesn't your spiritual blood boil in you? Come on now. You hate, don't you? You hate. I don't know how you can even call yourself a follower of Jesus and not hate what you see happening in the world and in the church especially.

In the church. The hatred that Brother Ravenhill's had against sin all these years, that's not it. That's from the Holy Ghost. When I feel it and when it comes from this pulpit wherever, that's the Holy Ghost venting His anger against it.

He said, you hate corruption. You hate fornication just as I do. Now that's good. Look what we have so far. We've got an Ephesian Christian who's got a servant heart. He's a persevering man or woman. He's not thinking of giving up on the faith.

He's holding to the precious name of Jesus. They're doing many wonderful good Christian deeds. They're discerning the phony stuff. They're avoiding it. They're hating sin, hating compromise with the past.

And yet God says, I've got something against you. Now that's awesome to know that God can have something against you when you hate sin. When you're holding to His name. When you're persevering. When you've not let go and you're not even weary.

And yet God says, I've got something against you. That's awesome. And that hit me the other day. Because I'd just written a book called Set the Trumpet where I've hated sin and I've told the whole world about God's hatred for sin.

And yet God in the secret clause said, I've got something against you. He said, Lord, how can you have anything against me? Man, I've preached sin like at the risk of my reputation. Man, I've preached against sin.

I'm not weary of you. I love you in your name. How can you have anything against me? He's saying, in spite of all these good things I can say about you, you're fallen. In need of repentance. In fact, God says, if you don't repent, I'm going to come to you and remove my anointing, which is the candlestick.

I'm going to remove it from you. Huh. You see, God's going to start opening some of these things to us. He's going to show us. You see, this is one of the most misunderstood... Revelation 2, 4, and 5.

Look at it. This is the most misunderstood Scripture. One of the most misunderstood. But I found this against you. But I have this against you. That you have left your first love. Remember, therefore, from where you've fallen to repent and do the deeds you did at first or else I'm coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent.

Now, you see, we preach about going back to our first love. We talk about it. We preach it. There's not a Christian here that hasn't heard about going back to your first love. I've lost my first love.

Oh, we've so misquoted that we don't even begin to understand what that actually means. I hope we can today. Let's begin by telling you what it's not. Let me tell you what I believe it is not. It is not going back to your kind of love.

Not to the zeal and the enthusiasm you had when you were first saved. You see, many people are not even coming to the Lord getting a sound salvation anymore. I'll go further. I'll say the majority of people who are getting saved today in the church of Jesus Christ are coming out of selfish interest.

They're coming out of a sense of avoiding the wrath of God. I don't want to go to hell. They're coming because people are preaching, come to Jesus and you'll find happiness. You'll hear your marriage.

You'll hear your body. It's self-interest. And because of that self-interest, we have not seen the cross. We've not seen the apostolic love for Jesus Christ. And we get the idea of the Lord saying, when you first got saved, you had such zeal.

You read the Bible. You witnessed. You prayed. Go back to that. No, no, no. I don't want to go back to that. And my Bible says that you can't enter the kingdom of God unless you become like a child. So it's not going back to something you had.

It's not going back to your kind of childlike love when you first got saved. Oh, I don't want to go back. I had zeal without wisdom. In fact, He has just painted you here. He's painted us. The Holy Ghost has painted a picture of a mature type Christian who perseveres, who's able to discern wickedness and evil and good.

Someone who hates sin? I didn't hate sin like I should when I first got saved. He taught me how to hate sin. I've matured since that point. Why would I go back to that? No, you don't go back to that. We see that as going back to an earlier experience in our Christian life.

In other words, I used to have it, and I lost it, so I'm going to go back and do... And so we keep struggling, you know, Lord, maybe if I witnessed some more, we put our spirits through trying to get back to something we feel we lost.

That's not what it means at all. I don't believe it means that at all. Well, I wouldn't want most Christians to go back to what they were. Didn't have much to start with. Because look what the Spirit's saying.

In fact, God is complimenting this efficient type for not getting weary. He said, you didn't lose something. You did lose the zeal. He's complimenting. You didn't lose your hatred towards sin if you had it.

In fact, you've not lost anything. Look at there. He's complimenting. You're not compromised. You've not been thinking of giving up. You're not getting spiritually lazy. Let me read it in the original Greek, and maybe it'll come out a little clearer.

Here is what I have against you. I'm reading in the original Greek. You don't love me as at first. Remember how far you have fallen. Turn from your sins and do what was done at first. Do what was done at first.

Where? The apostolic church. What have we fallen from? The love of those apostles. The love of that first church. He's talking about churches here. He said, you have all the doctrines of the apostles.

You have all the hatred of sin that you're supposed to have. You have all the makings. You still do the deeds. You're doing the things by wrong. You're doing all these things. But in the process, you've lost the love that they had.

Go back to something we had. We go back to what the church had. Now do you understand what we're trying to point out here now? Going back to whose first love? The first love the Holy Ghost revealed to His body, the church.

The kind of love that made them go to the stake. To be burned for the sake of the gospel. The church has fallen. God's looking on this modern church and He says, Oh, you do more charitable deeds than anybody.

You have all the right words. The doctrines are in place. You've retained all the ordinances. You still fight sin and corruption. But you've lost. You've fallen from their example of love for me. You have lost that one thing that makes all of this other worthwhile in my sight.

Otherwise, all your works is filthy rags in my sight. Just sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. Because only love, a passionate love for Jesus Christ makes it all right. Acceptable in the sight of God.

Constantine, Imperial Christianity, and the Loss of First Love

The fall from love began most notably under Constantine. Now, folks, please let me give you a little history lesson. And this is what shook me up. I spent the last few days just reading about the imperial preacher.

I'm thinking of a little book called The Imperial Preacher and The Imperial Kingdom. Because we have Christians everywhere now preaching what they call the kingdom message. They preach dominion. And the concept is this.