“Left the First Love” – FBC Morning Light (12/1/2023)

Well a good Friday morning, and welcome to the month of December. We are wrapping up the year pretty rapidly here, but today in our Bible reading we're reading in Hosea chapters 7 and 8, and Revelation chapter 2.

Perhaps you're familiar enough with Revelation, maybe you've already read the chapter today, but you know that in chapters 2 and 3, John is passing along some letters that the Lord Jesus, the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, he's the Lord of the church.

He's done some investigating, he's looked over these churches, he's looked at them very thoroughly and intimately, he knows them very well, and he's got some things he wants to say to them. And remember back in chapter 1, we mentioned yesterday, that the Lord loves these churches.

He loves the people who are his people in these churches. So he's not writing out of a sense of animosity or hostility, but he's writing out of a sense of love. He loves his people, and he wants what's best for them.

And so in these letters, he's gonna have some very challenging things to say, some very hard things to hear, but they need to hear them, and because he loves them, he needs to say them. So today in Revelation 2, I wanted to zero in on his letter to the church at Ephesus, because I think this is perhaps, in maybe conservative Bible-believing churches like ours, it can be the one letter that we need to hear most from chapter 2.

And that is, that's this, that you know, Jesus points out some very commendable things about the church. He says to them in verse 2, he says, I know your works, I know your labor, your patience, that is your endurance, and that you cannot bear those who are evil.

So there's nothing wrong with that, any of that. They are people who are working, they're diligent, they labor for the Lord, they have a great deal of endurance, they can put up with some difficulty and hardship, but they can't put up with the, you know, any kind of evil shenanigans.

They get the sense that they practice church discipline. So think, for example, of 1 Corinthians 5, where, you know, there was this man in the church of Corinth who was living in incest, and the church was just kind of okay with it, and Paul challenges them, says you can't put up with that, you have to excommunicate this person from the church, this is a blight to the church, and so they end up doing so.

But here, this doesn't seem to be a problem. They don't have that problem. It looks like they've been exercising self-discipline. He says you've tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and you found them to be liars, so they've got discernment, and they don't tolerate false teachers, and he says you have persevered and have patience and have labored for my namesake and have not become weary.

This is a very busy, active church, and they're busy for the work of the Lord, they enjoy doing things for God's house and God's people, and they're just very diligent about it, they are patient in their expressing of their labor and so forth, but all of those things are true.

Nevertheless, there's a very serious charge that the Lord levels against them. He says I have this against you, that you've left your first love. You get the significance of that, right? You can do all of these things, all of these things can be true of you.

You can be very involved in your church and be serving very diligently and with a great deal of enthusiasm and energy. You can have no tolerance for evil, you won't put up with it, you won't put up with false teaching in any way, you're very guarded in what you allow to enter into your mind in terms of teaching.

But why? There's the question. What's your motive? What's behind it all? The Lord Jesus sees all of this and he says the problem with all of your activity and all these good things that are true about you is that the why is off.

You're not loving me supremely. That's the chief love, right? What is the chief, the first, the primary love? It is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength.

So all of the stuff that was being done was being done for some reason other than I love God. And you know, that can be true in our churches. We can be very, very diligent and active in laboring in the local church, but doing so because the thing that we're doing, we love doing it.

Let's say, for example, you teach children in Sunday school, and you're doing it because you love children. Well, it's great that you love children, but the first love must be I love God, and I love God so much that I want these children to know God.

Or you could work at the sound booth and take care of the live streaming services in your church. Why do you do that? Well, because you like working with technology, and you just have a love for technology stuff.

Well, that's good, you need to do that, you need to have that kind of an interest, but the first love needs to be you're doing it because you love God, and you want to honor Him, you want to glorify Him, you want to get His Word out, you want people to praise Him, you want other worshipers to come and know Christ, and know God, and worship your God.

And so on and on you can go through the various ways that people serve in a local church. Why do you not tolerate evil? Is it because you primarily love God, or because you're just detesting the behavior of certain people?

What about false teaching? Why do you keep yourself away from and not tolerate any kind of false teaching? Is it because first and foremost you love God, and you want to honor Him and honor His Word, or is it because you just hate ideas that contradict what you hold to be true?

You see, all these good things can be done without really loving God. The Lord Jesus challenges us in whatever we do in our work for the Lord, and our labor for Him, and our discernment, and all the rest of that stuff, that we we must above all else love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

So our Father and our God, we do pray today that all that we do would indeed be out of love for you. May that be the thing that drives us in all we do, in and out of the local church. This we pray in Jesus' name and for His sake, amen.

All right, well listen, have a good rest of your Friday. I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and gather with God's people on the Lord's Day. Begin this Christmas season well in this first Sunday of Advent.

May the Lord bless you.