Passion Growing Cold? Repent!
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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 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 of 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 deed to 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 watch
Tower 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 So they made they may have had quite a following, you know
I I remember we first came here pastor Fry would tell me some stories about people who would come through that door back there and they would sort of think that they had been sent here to set us straight and to bless us 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 and there was 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 say oh, we're apostles the Lord will 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
Guy's 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 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 name's
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 in their midst 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 tees crossed and eyes dotted who with the best of the old
Scottish divines could set their jaw and Persevere through the worst, but 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 and so far
She's done real well twice Once it wasn't my fault.
It was not my fault. I was an L2 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 this 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 at 43rd Avenue and I was trying to get across and I was at one of those
Stop lights where unless a car shows up. You're never going to get across and so I Got one foot out of clips, and 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, I'm 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
God's Justice demands that the Lord of the churches Show holiness among the churches there is 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
And I fear that reformed folks Can become really good at convincing everybody else.
We have a great fear of admitting No, 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 or 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 Frye or myself are 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 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 ever be self.
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 is 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 for Christ a
Passion that touches the heart 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 you hurt, you know what you think about during the day
And you remember those times if you're a true believer when you were passionate
About the things of God all the time Impacted your every word your every thought your 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 Say 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 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