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Turn with me, please to the book of Revelation Not revelations, hopefully you don't have a book of revelations, but the book of Revelation singular chapter 2. Book of Revelation chapter 2 before we look to God's Word.
Let us bless ask him to bless our time together. Our gracious Heavenly Father. We do pray that once again, you will help us to set aside All those things that would distract us. That you would allow us to hear your word focus upon your truth Lord that you would speak to us this evening by your spirit by your word.
That we might be better servants of yours. You pray in Christ's name this morning. We spent time giving consideration to What God had done in the past in bringing about? the Great Reformation of the church.
The proclamation of the gospel once again with clarity. And so I felt that it would be appropriate this evening to look at one of the letters to one of the churches why. As I have studied the letters to the seven churches down through the years.
One of them over and over again struck me as having the most Application in my opinion. To most of us who hold firmly to the doctrines of grace and to the Reformation. That is while we can I think learn from every single Letter to every single church we can learn and be warned about things that can happen.
And I'm not going to this evening Get into the arguments of those who see in these these various churches different stages of church history and things like that. There might be some interest to those things, but honestly I think in each of the churches we can see elements of Every church that exists today, and we can learn from these letters Things that are encouraging and I hope that we will be encouraged this evening.
But likewise to hear the words of warning that are here. We have the Lord walking amongst his churches seen in the first chapter of Revelation. He walks amongst the the the golden Candle stands and and he is powerful.
He is the resurrected Lord his his word goes forth from his mouth he's glorious as John sees him and Having established his power we then have these letters and the first letter seems to me to have much to say to those of us who will rightly stand firmly for the truth and Yet, we need to be very careful because the possession of the truth without passion for the truth Can be a deadly?
Combination possession of the truth. Without passion for the truth can be a deadly combination. Think about history. It would seem to me That as we look at Jesus's ministry Who was it that was? Constantly mentioned as his opponents those opposing him.
But the Pharisees and indeed some of the strongest language in all the New Testament 23rd chapter of Matthew is reserved Primarily for the Pharisees and it's very easy for us if we read only the New Testament.
We don't think about the backgrounds. It's very easy for us to think my Where did these people come from? Hypocrites serpents. Man who who possessed the Word of God and yet they don't hear the Word of God.
They don't believe the Word of God and Yet history would tell us That in reality this movement grew out of what we see in Ezra and Nehemiah and it grew out of a proper healthy appropriate concern about God's law.
I Mean we saw in those books the the concern that God had about who would minister and an intermarriage amongst the people and things like this there was a an appropriate concern and yet over time the mere possession of truth without a passion for truth Resulted in the one type of attitude that seems to me God shows the strongest disfavor toward and that is the attitude of the Pharisee one who possesses the truth on many many issues.
Jesus was exactly in line with where the Pharisees were and yet Their heart was no longer wedded to the one who had given that truth. They were now using that truth to their own ends. And we hear God's condemnation of that attitude.
That warning is given to us in the message of the Lord of the church to the church in Ephesus. Let's look at Ephesians. Ephesians Revelation chapter 2 the letter to the Ephesians to the angel the church in Ephesus, right?
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 tolerate 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 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 we 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 of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
Amen. It seems that this first letter is addressed the church at Ephesus because certainly after Jerusalem and after Antioch and certainly amongst the churches of Asia Ephesus had a primary position. The City of Ephesus was a great city.
It was a place of much commerce. The Apostle Paul had spent three years in that one place which if you're a missionary is a little bit unusual, especially given the traveling that he did but he recognized that by planting a church there in Ephesus and Making sure that it was solid and firm and properly taught.
That he would in essence be Evangelizing the entire Lycus River Valley because Everybody in that valley would be influenced by what was going on there at that primary church. Paul put time and thought into his missionary activity and It is interesting that he spent so much time in that one place.
He lectured and taught regularly. He Obviously was very much involved in the planting of that church and the choosing of the elders. Remember that incredibly touching story in Acts chapter 20. Paul is going to Rome and he's passing nearby Ephesus.
He doesn't actually go into Ephesus because he probably knows they'll never get out if he does. But he calls when he's as close to them as he's going to be in his travels. He calls for the elders plural of the church at Ephesus.
How many there were we don't know but it was a major metropolitan city, so it was probably a number of men and They came to him and he told them that he was going away. They would probably not see his face again.
There were tears that were shed that day. But just as when he wrote to Timothy in 2nd Timothy and warns him at the difficult times are coming deceivers are coming. Just in the same way his last words the Ephesian elders should echo in our ears as well.
He warns them of difficult times persecution. He even says That evil men would arise from their own ranks. Those weren't exactly Happy words to be sharing in your last meeting with these men whom you had spent so much time.
Investing yourself in them and training them in this new infant faith. But upon warning them and Timothy that there would be deceivers inside the church. What does he say to them. What does he say to Timothy.
In both instances he directs them to the Word of God. It's the foundation upon which they would be able to stand even in the midst of troubling heresy and false teaching. He does not direct them to a Pope in Rome.
He does not direct them to a man who would live in upstate New York in 1830 and receive at the Book of Mormon. He does not direct them to anybody who would be in Brooklyn, New York and watched our Bible and track Society.
Nothing like that. He directs them to the gospel and to the word. And many people today would tell if that's not enough we need more. But the Word of God says it is enough for God's people and isn't it interesting.
That as soon as the Lord Jesus begins to speak to this church at Ephesus. The positive things he says directly reflect what the Apostle Paul had done in their midst. Notice the positive things He says I know your deeds your toil your perseverance.
That you cannot tolerate evil men and that you put to the test those who call themselves Apostles and they are not and you found them to be false. You have perseverance and endured for my name's sake and have not grown weary and then later on.
Even after the negative portion says yet this you do have that you hate the deeds and Nicolaitans which I also hate the Nicolaitans evidently being a certain kind of group of false teachers that were troubling the churches in Asia Minor in this day and.
So notice that the positive aspects include discernment the ability to test. Perseverance toil. These were hard-working Christians the church at Ephesus Paul had done a good job. Let's consider these positive things.
It's very easy for our minds to go to the negative things that we do need to hear the warnings. Especially since the warning is accompanied with if you don't repent I will come to you and I will come in judgment.
But the positive things need to be seen as well. First of all notice something. I know your deeds and your toil. Sometimes we feel far away from the heavenly shore. And sometimes we feel that the work that we do in the church Is unknown by anyone?
But just as Paul had promised whatever you do do it heartily as unto the Lord knowing from him you will see receive the reward. Realize that whatever you do in service to Christ in his church He is fully aware of it.
He knows your deeds. He knows your toil. It's very easy to become discouraged. Sometimes I think of you know, I'm very thankful. It's been a while since I had to do this. But many moons ago back in the in the 1990s on Wednesday nights I took my turn teaching the young people as well and There were a couple nights.
There were a couple nights when I was developing sermons on purgatory in that particular process. I really was I mean There there is a certain conjunction of young men that came together at that particular point in time and There were a few times I had to claim the promise of this text that the Lord knows your deeds and your toil and your perseverance because we needed to have that and Yet years later you look back and it was something you said at that time something you did at that time the Perseverance you had the Lord used that in the life of this young person and that young person.
You see the Lord knows He is amongst his churches. He walks amongst the golden lampstands. He's not a distant Lord. He gathers with us where two or three are gathered in his name. He is there at our midst so he knows their deeds.
He knows our deeds our toil our perseverance. He has seen he has observed. It's so easy, especially in the midst of trial and persecution. To begin to think that oh Woe is me. The Lord has abandoned me.
But the reality is he is right there. Sustaining you by his grace and by his spirit. Notice the next positive thing you cannot tolerate evil men in our day. That seems to be a Christian virtue to tolerate evil men.
Isn't toleration the very thing where aren't we all supposed to be so tolerant. How this phrase? Rings empty amongst so many today. There are so many evil men who rejoice in their evil. Oh. It's easy to see those outside the church.
Just this past weekend certain men who are well-known. Allegedly as being comedians. I always will continue to think of them as being comedians but they're evil men. Their mouths are filled with bitterness and cursing and blasphemy of God and Yet the world loves these people and loves their blasphemies.
They're evil men, but they're evil men inside the church as well. They're evil men who call themselves Christians. They promote evil amongst the people of God. I Think of one that I have debated in the past.
His name is Bishop. John Shelby's long. He's an evil man. The Bible identifies his views and his teachings as evil. The church at Ephesus Kid did not tolerate evil men. We're told you must be tolerant.
Well, if you mean by that that I'm not going to go burn down somebody else's church. Yeah. But that's not what toleration means. In our day today to tolerate means to no longer identify as evil, but the Ephesian Church would not compromise in this way.
They would not tolerate evil men. But notice they didn't just preach against evil men. They showed Discernment when they said someone was evil is because they had shown the discernment that is necessary to put some weight behind that statement.
Let's face it. One of the reasons that the world does not listen very clearly. When people in the church call something evils because there are so many people in the church that don't give any thought before they speak.
Think about what happened with the Quran burning guy recently. Does he know anything about the Quran? Does he know anything about Islam? No, it was a publicity stunt and Yet the world sees that Says oh you're calling Islam evil.
Therefore anyone who uses that kind of language is participating in that kind of shallow thinking. That's a problem that we face. That's not what the Ephesian Church was doing. These are not bigots. We're talking about here.
These were men who are exercising proper biblical discernment and discrimination. You put to the test Those who call themselves Apostles and they are not and you found them to be false now that's a just a little bit of gumption.
I Mean when people walk into your midst and say we are Apostles of Jesus Christ now, but that happens today. We sort of go really. It's been a while since Jesus is on the earth, you know, and there's this standard for apostleship, you know, so, you know but there were still apostles living in this day and they claim to be sent and.
And so they made they may have had quite a following, you know I I remember we I first came here pastor Frye would tell me some stories about people who would come through that door back there they would sort of think that they had been sent here to set us straight and to bless and they were expecting that we would just Throw open the pulpit to him and say come on up and teach us.
We recently had some guys show up and that's sort of what they were offering to do. We didn't let him do that. In fact, we we guard this spot up here pretty carefully. There's a very small number of men who have stood behind this pulpit very small number.
There's a reason for that Discernment Demands that we test those even those who claim to have some kind of special authority from God. That means the Ephesian elders Understood what the source of authority was.
They weren't overawed by people who say oh, we're Apostles the Lord. We'll need to worry about that New Testament stuff those letters that John has written or or Paul's epistles or that epistle He wrote to you enough.
Don't worry about that. We're Apostles. They tested these individuals they searched for consistency based upon what they already knew is apostolic teaching and they didn't just conclude that. Well, we just don't happen to agree.
No you found them to be false. There's another one of those unpopular words. Not found them to be not quite in line with our particular confessional view found them to be false. They were not Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This takes Perseverance. This takes patience. Because you know those apostles might have gone down the road to the next city. And set themselves up a nice big church with lots of people attending in a great show and a great band.
And I don't care. What anybody says when you're a human being as an elder in a church and you look down the road and they're putting up their next new building in their next new building and people are going and the and the guys obviously doing well.
And you know, he's compromising the gospel you feel it. Everybody does they all look down the road though. What are they doing down there? It takes perseverance it takes Patience and the people who have that kind of persevering patience are people who are absolutely convinced that the proclamation of the gospel is Absolutely central To what we've been called to do as the church when we read over and over again in the pastoral epistles sound doctrine sound teaching.
Maturity pass these things on Timothy to those who you know are able to teach others. There's a reason for this but it requires perseverance it requires Patience and you have perseverance you have patience and you have endured for my names sake the church at Ephesus was already feeling the effects of that persecution that was Beginning to sweep across the Roman Empire.
How could they hide. It's a little bit like the Coptic Church in Egypt today. They are under so much pressure from the Muslims. So much persecution, but they have no place to hide. They are the church in Egypt.
They can't just disappear. The church at Ephesus everybody knew about the church at Ephesus. They didn't have any choice. They had to endure for the sake of the name of Jesus Christ and they had. Not just for a brief season.
Let's face it. There are two different kinds of endurance that we as Christians Need to seek to cultivate in our lives. One is that kind of perseverance that we experience? When we encounter some great tragedy and difficulty in life something that takes us beyond ourselves the death of a loved one.
Tragedy in one's life and We are forced at those times to rely upon the Spirit of God. Bringing to our minds the ministry of the Word of God bring to our minds these things that we know in our hearts.
And that's when the church comes around us. Comes around us and ministers to us. Perseverance is needed at that time if we want an example recently in our own fellowship think about Going from this building down to st. Joseph's how many times that happened?
With the jubilees and you have that kind of intense suffering and difficulty. We all know what that's about but there's another kind of perseverance and it's the kind of perseverance that I think in many ways is even more an evidence of The present ministry of the Holy Spirit than the other and that is perseverance.
Over time we might call it endurance not perseverance for the week or the month. But perseverance that goes for year after year after year after year that to me and It wasn't this way when I was much younger, but Once you get a little snow on the chin, I would say snow on the roof, but I have roofing problems.
Once once you get a little a little the gray going it seems to me That one of the greatest evidences of the work of the Spirit of God is That the Spirit of God can keep us frail so easily distracted so easily stumbling human beings.
Moving forward on the path of grace toward heaven. You want a miracle? I'm sorry, but lengthening somebody's leg does not strike me as one of the greatest miracles the Spirit of God has ever done but getting Someone through this life to where they can on their deathbed.
Respond to your question. Do you die in full confidence of the righteousness of Jesus Christ? When you bring someone through all those trials and tribulations to that point and they can say yes I do. There is no miracle on TV, and it's going to get close to that and if you have true Spiritual eyes you see that but so many don't see that that kind of patient endurance.
Brothers and sisters that is the work of the Spirit of God. So there's the positive. Along with the fact they hated the deeds of Nicolaitans. Paul had done a good job. This was a discerning church. This was a mature church.
They were not torn asunder by false teachers and their myths they identified them immediately put them out. No danger of those people. Ending up in leadership here. No, we we heard what Paul said. Rising amongst our ranks.
We are going to look very carefully to the leadership here. All those things are very good. But then there's the word of warning. I Believe it's a word of warning. We need to listen to as well. The Lord the church says to those who have all their doctrinal t's crossed and I's dotted if the best of the old Scottish divines could set their jaw and Persevere through the worst.
I have this against you that you have left your first love. I have this against you singular you have abandoned your first love literally your love. The first what does that mean? Well Commentaries will wax eloquent in trying to identify the specific way in which the church at Ephesus had abandoned its first love personally, I'm thankful that there is not some kind of specific identification of The exact nature of what this is because as churches down through the years have read this.
There's room for the spirit to make application to each one. Whatever it was, you'll notice in verse 5 therefore remember from where you have fallen. In other words the church at Ephesus Was not going to argue about this.
When you have fallen from a position, you know it I've only fallen off of my bike twice. Almost 54 ,000 miles. I've only fallen off twice. Kelly's fallen off more times than I have in just a few months.
But she's trying to set a record in so far. She's done real well twice. Once it wasn't my fault. It was not my fault. I was an altar to Tucson 22 23 miles per hour a whole pack of guys and two guys in front of me cross tires and one guy comes off of his bike and when a 160 pound guy lands on your front rim.
Guess what? You're going down. There is no surviving it. And I remember sliding down the asphalt road on my back at 20 miles per hour and I will confess. The first thought in my mind was keep your bike off the ground.
Because skin heals Campanola doesn't and I kept it in the air. That wasn't my fault, but there was another time. I Remember exactly where I was. I was that 43rd Avenue and I was trying to get across and I was at one of those stoplights where unless a car shows up you're never going to get across and So I got one foot out of the cliffs.
I went over and I hit the little button. The problem was that I started backing down toward the road. I didn't realize that they had put one of those things in where it's it's at an angle I started leaning this direction and I was trying to get my foot out of the clip.
But I couldn't get it out and it was just like that slow motion. And you feel so stupid it hurts like anything but you feel so. The First thought across my mind is is there a car at the corner that saw that because I don't want and I look and of Course there was and they're staring at you like yeah, just started doing this.
Huh? Yeah. No, not really. One time I fell and let me tell you something. I knew from where I had fallen. It was not something that was leaving me with any doubts whatsoever and the church at Ephesus.
There's no argumentation here. Remember from where you have fallen. Remember so in other words the church at Ephesus can look back and remember the love that they had at first and That means it seems to me what the Lord's doing here is, you know.
You know, you know the coldness that has crept in. You know the apathy. You remember the spiritual fervor that was yours and I see all of us are thinking of this on the personal level. But this is addressed to a church.
But a church is made up of individuals, I think that's why you don't have a specific definition of what this is. Because each one of us can look back and we can remember those periods of True spiritual fervor.
I'm not talking about necessarily That immaturity that we had at conversion Where the Lord was gracious to sort of keep us in a cage for a while before we hurt ourselves and everybody else but we know what it means to have a Proper first love for what's most important and therefore remember from where you have fallen and repent and do the deeds you did at first or else I'm coming to you and Remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent.
There is no promise that any single local church Shall forever endure the church will but local churches church history would tell us that Many of these churches, I mean once Islam came along many of these churches ceased to exist, but many of them had ceased to exist before them for various and sundry reasons justice demands that the Lord of the churches Show holiness among the churches.
There was a need for repentance. Whatever this lack of first love was It wasn't so much a sin in the sense of adultery Stealing from the church coffers or something like that. No evidence of that whatsoever, but we all know that To go through the motions without passion is simple and I fear that reform folks Can become really good at convincing everybody else that we're just fine.
We have a great fear of admitting, I don't know I'm struggling I'm hurting or even worse. I'm cold. I'm indifferent. Yeah, I'm still doing the things I'm supposed to do but my mind's a million miles away.
The world's caught hold of my attention here. The world's caught hold of my attention there or I haven't been forgiving towards someone or Something maybe even toward God and I've allowed that Sense of having been wrong to overwhelm me.
Am I speaking to anyone here? It can be a very slow process. It can be a creeping thing. But in our moments of true honesty Hopefully every third Sunday When you're holding a piece of bread between your fingers or a cup like this and Pastor Fry or myself We're standing here and we're saying let each one examine himself.
Hopefully at times like that There is the thought in the back of the mind. There is the work of the Spirit within our hearts. I remember a time when my passion Was consistent with my confession and the message of Revelation chapter 2 should be to us avoid the attitude of the Pharisees you see today's Reformation Sunday, and it's so easy for us to put on our Martin Luther persona and Nail the 95 theses to the door or thunder with Calvin or Zwingli against the abuses of Rome.
There's a need to do that. We live in a day when everyone's afraid to say anything about Rome. But the danger is that we can become so focused upon our ability to discern and the Ephesians could discern.
To test and the Ephesians could test to persevere. Oh, I haven't given up. I'm a stony-faced Calvinist. I'll be here until they drag my corpse out and think that somehow that means I'm right. I'm right with God.
I'm right where I need to be. I'm self-satisfied. We should never ever none of us have ever reached a point of pure sanctification. And the danger is that because we can discern because we have a certain level of knowledge.
What did Paul say? What does knowledge do? It puffs up. It seems that the church at Ephesus Had gotten the right foundation. We aren't moving we're persevering we're patient we're enduring. We're discerning all positive things nothing wrong with any of that, but if that is not joined with a path a Passion that touches the heart and that doesn't have to mean look God created us all differently.
There are some people that if they're passionate they are going to show it all over the place. My Ethnic background isn't that way. I show my passion by my perseverance and endurance. That's where my passion expresses itself.
That's how my people are. That's fine. When I go to Peru this week, it's probably a little bit different. That's fine. Don't make the mistake that somehow how somebody else expresses their passion must be how you do it.
You know What you're passionate about in your heart, you know what captures your heart, you know What you think about during the day and you remember those times if you're a true believer when you about the things of God all the time.
Impacted your every word your every thought or every action. What the Lord is saying the church is if you've left your first love that means you've moved on to a second. Something's captured your heart.
Repent. Returned that first love. See the very fact that Jesus says this to the church. Means that he wants the church to repent. He wants each one of us. Every time we find that the world has captured our hearts has placed something in our hearts other than the glory of Jesus Christ.
As the central purpose why we do everything no matter what you're calling it. There's always Repentance. There's always return. Anyone who turns to the Lord Jesus Christ finds him to be a merciful Savior.
To the church the whole to the individuals in the church he who has an ear. Let him hear what the Spirit says to the church and to him who overcomes. I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God heavenly bliss not creaturely bliss heavenly bliss.
To eat of the tree of life to have. That spiritual nourishment that results in eternal life to him who overcomes. That's the promise the Lord gives to all of us today as he gave to the church in Ephesus long ago.
And as we rejoice in what he has done on this day. May we at the same time pray O Lord? May we hear your positive affirmation of our standing for the truth? But in so far as we have left our first love may we repent beginning right now.
May we be a people? Whose commitment to the truth is matched by our passion for it. Let us pray together. Oh great king of the church. We have gathered in your name this evening relying upon your spirit to be with us and.
And great king of the church. We truly desire to be like the church at Ephesus in having perseverance endurance discernment. May we like them stand against the tide in our day that would tell us to abandon the truths of the gospel.
To edit the gospel so we might it might be more appealing to the world. But Oh great king of the church if we have left our first love By your spirit bring us true repentance help us to remember our first love.
The deeds We did at first what motivated them pure love. For the one who gave himself for us. Oh great king of the church be glorified in This place we pray in Christ's name.