In the traditional, longstanding church calendar
going way back, even before the Middle Ages, tomorrow, August 24th, was always celebrated
as Saint Bartholomew's Day, Saint Bartholomew's Day. That, in itself, is not particularly notable,
however. On Saint Bartholomew's Day, August 24th, 1572,
the French Protestants were targeted by the Roman Catholic Church for assassination. It was the Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre. It was followed by a wave of Catholic mob
violence that resulted in the death of 3,000 protestants. That historically makes Saint Bartholomew's
Day significant. But on August 24th, 1662, 90 years later,
again, Saint Bartholomew's Day, a remarkable and significant event happened in England:
2,000 faithful English Puritan pastors were permanently ejected from their churches by
the national government. It was called the Act of Uniformity, and the
idea was to silence all those who were preaching something other than the heresies of the time. The Act of Uniformity dispossessed those 2,000
Puritan pastors of their pulpits, and as a result, silenced the vast majority of England's
evangelical preachers. It was called the Great Ejection, and it was
no isolated event, and it had far more than a temporary significance. It was, in fact, perhaps the greatest spiritual
disaster in English history. It is such a disaster that it is the dividing
point in the history of England spiritually. It is like B.C. and A.D. Matthew Mead, one of the Puritans, said, "This
fatal day deserves to be written in black letters in England's calendar." It was said that it was the greatest spiritual
disaster ever in England. It was led by apostate leaders and constituted
essentially a wholesale condemnation of the Bible, the gospel, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Our dear friend Iain Murray wrote, "After
the silencing of the 2,000 came an age of rationalism, of coldness in the pulpit, and
indifference in the pew: an age of skepticism and worldliness that went far to reducing
national religion to a mere parody of Christianity." In 1852, J. B. Marsden wrote, "As proofs of God's displeasure,
a long, unbroken coarse of disasters began, and within five years, London was laid waste
twice." He and others saw these disasters as the judgment
of God for the Great Ejection. The first disaster - remember the ejection
was in 1662 - the first disaster hit full force in 1665 three years later. It was a plague that killed 100,000 people,
a fourth of the population of London, and it was basically transmitted through the bite
of a rat flea. Historians say the city was a wash in dead
bodies and a wash in sewage. Within a year, it was followed by the 1666
London fire that consumed the homes of 70,000 to 80,000 people, and burned to the ground
90 churches. Marsden, again, writing in 1852 said, "Other
calamities ensued more lasting and far more terrible. Religion was almost extinguish. The lamp of God went out." There followed, in England, a culture of coldness,
a culture of barrenness. J.C. Ryle, who has enriched us so greatly with
his writings, says, "The Great Ejection was an injury to the cause of true religion in
England, which will probably never be repaired." The next 25 years after the Great Ejection
featured one long record of attempts to silence the now scattered Puritan preachers. For 25 years, they chased them wherever they
went and endeavored to shut their mouths. Preaching the truth of God became a crime,
a crime. It's probably true that England has never
recovered. In the gospel of John, chapter 3 and verse
20, we read, "For everyone who does evil hates the Light. Everyone who does evil hates the Light." I don't know exactly where we are in American
history. I don't know if there's a great ejection coming
down the road. I don't know when the truth of God proclaimed
will become a crime. I do know there are a couple of bills before
our national bodies to make saying anything against abortion or anything against any kind
of sexual behavior a crime. But I do know that there is a rapidly increasing
hostility toward the truth. This is a generation committed to doing evil
at breakneck speed; and everyone who does evil hates the Light. So I think sooner or later, we face increasing
hostility from the rapidly exploding and dominating paganism. Sadly, not only were church buildings burned
in England subsequent to the Great Ejection, but the church itself, as I said, seemed never
to recover - which then poses the question: "What's going to happen to us when the hostility
reaches that level, if it does?" Are we going to follow that history? I certainly hope not. The church has always been an island in a
sea of paganism; it was in its very beginning. The highest ambition of the faithful servant
of the Lord William Tyndale, 1494 to 1536, calls out to us. This is what Tyndale said: "I call God to
record against the day we shall appear before our Lord Jesus, to give a reckoning of our
doings, that I never altered one syllable of God's Word against my conscience, nor would
this day, if all that is in the earth, whether it be pleasure, honor, or riches, might be
given to me." William Tyndale. Cost him his life. He was killed for the truth, the crime of
proclaiming the truth, the crime of translating Scripture. This is the same world in the hands of the
same devil in the same darkness, compelled to the same misdeeds, wickedness, unrighteousness,
and iniquity. It's a new day in some ways for the church. In our country, anyway, being a Christian
is not a crime. I suppose we never imagined it would be. We could basically preach anything in the
past. How long that will be allowed, I'm not sure. But in order for us to see clearly what the
Lord asks of us in the coming days, I want you to look at Revelation 2. In Revelation 2 and 3, we have seven letters
written to seven churches. They're embedded inside the marvelous book
of Revelation. Starting in chapter and running to the end
of chapter 3 are these seven letters. They are to seven churches. If you go to chapter 1, verse 11, they're
listed: Ephesus, and Smyrna, and Pergamum, and Thyatira, and Sardis, and Philadelphia,
and Laodicea. Those are all cities in Asia Minor, which
would be modern Turkey - cities in Asia Minor. In fact, in that order, that's the postal
route to go through the whole country, stopping at the regional postal centers. John, you remember, is on the Island of Patmos
- chapter 1, verse 9. He's on the Island of Patmos because the Word
of God and the testimony of Jesus is a crime. He's there for the crime of preaching the
Word of God and the testimony of Jesus, and he has been sent to a rock in the Aegean Sea
that is a prison colony, in his 90s, to break rocks. And when he gets there, the Lord gives to
him the amazing visions of the book of Revelation. The opening vision, which we looked at last
Sunday night, is a vision of Christ moving in His church. In verse 12, John hears a voice, he turns
around, and he looks in this vision and he sees seven golden lampstands, which verse
20 says represent the seven churches. And then there are also seven stars in the
right hand of the Lord that he sees among the churches, and they are the seven messengers
- the seven pastors most likely - of those seven churches, who have come to Patmos. And John will receive the book of Revelation,
record the book of Revelation, copy it six more times, hand one to each of those seven
men to take back to their various churches, with a letter to each church embedded in the
book. As we look at these seven letters from the
Lord, who is described here as, in the vision, "like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching
to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash." That's His priestly appearance. "His head
and His hair were white like white wool, like snow." That is His wisdom, His glory. "His eyes were
like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze." That is His omniscience. And in response to what He sees, He judges.
"His voice - " that's His word, " - like the sound of many waters. And in His hand He holds these seven ministers
- " these seven pastors, " - and out of His mouth come a sharp two-edged sword to defend
His church. And His face is like the sun shining in its
strength." This is a glorious picture of Christ. It's so overwhelming that John falls over
like a dead man. The Lord says, "Get up and write. The seven golden lampstands represent the
church, the seven messengers represent the leaders of the church - the seven stars - and
I'm going to give seven letters." These are actual churches in actual towns. This is not some kind of look at history,
this is simply seven actual churches in seven places in Asia Minor. But they are like churches throughout all
of history. There are always going to be churches like
these churches. Asia Minor is pagan. They are, again, "islands in a sea of paganism." As you read through the seven letters, you
realize that they're suffering. John is suffering. Back in chapter 1, verse 9, he calls himself
a "fellow partaker in the tribulation." He's going through trouble, that's why he's
an exile. These are churches that experience tribulation,
persecution, the encroachment of worldliness: false teachers, false doctrine, compromise,
coldness, indifference. These are churches like churches throughout
all of church history. Two of them are faithful, two of them: the
church of Smyrna and the church of Philadelphia. The letters to them bring up no issues, they're
just commended. Five of them are in severe danger: Ephesus,
Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, and Laodicea. Our Lord speaks to each of these churches,
confronting the incipient danger that is creeping into the churches from the pagan culture in
which they sit. These are so instructive for us. There is a kind of sequence to them as well
- we'll see that as we go. But keep in mind, these are real churches,
historic churches in actual cities made up of actual believers. But they are symptomatic and emblematic of
churches perennially throughout history. Some of them are just uniquely good and sound
and faithful, but that's the exception. Most of them are a mixture of good and evil. And as we go, as they move away from Ephesus,
they seem to go in a descending way; they get worse. We learn the dangers that we face in a hostile
world. Let's read about the first one, the opening
of chapter 2, verses 1 to 7: "To the angel - " or the aggelos : the messenger, the pastor,
" - of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand,
the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this." Who is that? That's the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of Man
pictured in the vision in chapter 1. The Lord is the speaker. It is Him speaking to the church. In the second letter, the one who speaks is
"the first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life." Again, it's the Lord. The next letter, to Pergamos, in chapter 2,
verse 12: "The One who has the sharp two-edged sword says this." The next letter to Thyatira, verse 18: "The
Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says
this." And in chapter 3, "To the messenger of Sardis:
The one who has the seven Spirits of God, the seven stars, says this." And to Philadelphia in 3:7, "The one who has
the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens." That, too, used to describe Christ earlier
in chapter 1. To the church in Laodicea in 3:14, "The Amen,
the faithful and true Witness, the beginning - " the prōtotokos " - of the creation of
God." That's how Christ is described in the early
part of chapter 1. In each case, Christ is speaking to His church. So we said last week, chapter 1 is Christ
working in His church, the work of Christ in His church. Here is the word of Christ to His church. Now, this is church in Ephesus, in Ephesus. Some of you may have had the opportunity to
go to what is now in Turkey called Kusadasi, which is ancient Ephesus, and the ruins are
still incredibly remarkable there in that city. It is one of the great ruins really anywhere
on the planet; amazing experience to be there. The church at Ephesus is spiritually strong. The church at Ephesus is founded well, taught
by the best possible leaders, the best possible preachers and teachers. Let me give you a little background. Likely, it was founded by Aquila and Priscilla,
who in the 18th chapter of Acts, were left there by the apostle Paul. They may have been the original folks who
got the church going. Later in the 18th chapter, we learn that another
man came and influenced that church, and his name was Apollos. He came there from Alexandria and he was mighty
in the Scriptures and the Old Testament. But he only knew the baptism of John the Baptist,
so Aquila and Priscilla taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ. He left a group of followers of John the Baptist
there, whom Paul later encountered on his third missionary journey when he came to Ephesus. He clarified the gospel for those followers
of John the Baptist, baptized them in the name of the Lord Jesus - that's recorded in
Acts 19 - and then stayed for three years, three years. Paul trained and retrained the pastors there,
Acts 20. They loved him so much, they wept when he
said he was leaving. Later, Timothy pastored the church at Ephesus. In fact, when Paul wrote to him, he gave him
instruction about how to do it. Another faithful servant named Tychicus pastored
there. And, finally, the great apostle John. So you would have to say they had the best
of it: Aquila, Priscilla, Apollos, Paul, Timothy, Tychicus, John. It really was firmly founded on that third
missionary journey of Paul when he was there for three years. It had an amazing beginning. Go back to the 19th chapter of Acts. We won't belabor the point, but it is wonderful
to see. While the gospel arrives with Aquila and Priscilla
and is enriched by Apollos, things really break loose in the 19th chapter. Paul came to Ephesus and found some disciples,
all right; they were the products of Aquila and Priscilla. He said to them: "Did you receive the Holy
Spirit when you believed?" They said, "No, we have not even heard whether
there's a Holy Spirit." And they were all connected still to John
the Baptist, as I said, a moment ago. He tells them the truth of the gospel; they
believe, they're baptized; and in a sense, the church is born. Verse 8: "He entered the synagogue and continued
speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient,
speaking evil of the Way before the people, he withdrew from them and took away the disciples,
reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. This took place for two years, so that all
who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks." It went all over Asia Minor. That's how it got to the other cities. It was the planting of the church in Ephesus
that launched into those other cities. Verse 11: "God was performing extraordinary
miracles by the hands of Paul - " really extraordinary. "Handkerchiefs or aprons were carried from
his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and evil spirits went out. Some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from
place to place, attempting to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord
Jesus saying, 'I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.'" In other words, some of the
false exorcists were trying to take advantage of Paul's name; didn't work. "Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest,
were doing this. And the evil spirit answered and said to them,
'I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?' And the man, in whom was
the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that
they fled out of the house naked and wounded." Bad day for the false exorcists. "This became known to everyone, Jews and Greeks,
who lived in Ephesus. Fear fell on all of them, and the name of
the Lord Jesus was being magnified. Many of those who had believe kept coming,
confessing, disclosing their practices. And many of those who practiced magic brought
their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone; and they counted
up the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord was growing mightily
and prevailing." What an amazing beginning for a church. Talk about church planting: wow, incredible
beginning. Later in that 19th chapter, of course, there's
a riot. As the antagonists of the gospel start a riot,
Paul has to run for his life. Really an amazing, amazing beginning. Broke up idolatry. Verse 23: "About that time, there occurred
no small disturbance concerning the Way." Verse 29: "The city was filled with the confusion. They rushed with one accord into the theater,
dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul's traveling companions from Macedonia." It turned into a riot. Why did the riot start? Because the gospel was destroying the business
of selling idols. It was an amazing, amazing beginning. Now, just a little bit about it - you can
go back to Revelation 2 - a little bit about Ephesus. Ephesus was the place where John lived, I
think about 60 miles from where he was on Patmos. Apparently, John went there after the fall
of Jerusalem, and he's now in his 90s, and he's really the last apostle and the patriarch
of the era in the church. Although Pergamos apparently was the actual
capital, Ephesus was, by far, the greatest city. It was called Luminasia in Latin, the "Light
of Asia." Prominent for many reasons. It had the greatest harbor in Asia Minor. If you go there today, you won't see it because
the Cayster River, which flowed into the harbor, has filled up with silt over the centuries. But in those days, it was the greatest harbor
in Asia Minor. And as a result of that, it was a place where
many goods were brought, and from which many were sent. Four great highways led into Ephesus: one
came from the north from Pergamos and Smyrna; one came from the northeast from Sardis, Galatia,
Phrygia into Ephesus; one came from the southeast, the great trade route from the Euphrates by
Colossi and Laodicea into Ephesus; one from the north from the rich Meander Valley. Everything converged in Ephesus. It was called the "Market to Asia." It was the port of Corinth. In later times, when the martyrs were brought
from Asia to be thrown to the lions in the arenas in Rome, Ignatius called Ephesus the
"Highway of the Martyrs." They were brought through Ephesus to Rome. It became the vanity fair of the ancient world. Politically, it was a free city. Rome gave Ephesus the right of self-governing. No Roman troops were stationed there, it had
its own independence. Biggest event every year was the Great Games
rivaling the Olympic Games were the Ephesian Games. It was a massive pageant of athletics and
drama and parades and sacrifices. And as Paul closes out 1 Corinthians in 1
Corinthian 16 and verse 8, he says, "I will remain in Ephesus until Pentecost; for a wide
door for effective service has opened to me, and there are many adversaries." Why did he want to stay? Why did he want to stay until Pentecost? Because in the month of May, the Games took
place, and pilgrims of the entire ancient Mediterranean world came to Ephesus, and a
great door would be open for the gospel. Likely, he didn't get to remain because of
the riot started by the silversmith; but he wanted to. From a religious standpoint, Ephesus was the
center of the worship of Artemis, Artemis, or Diana - sometimes called Artemis, sometimes
called Diana. One of the characteristics of ancient paganism
is that it had lost its distinction between the genders. That's not new, that's part of ancient paganism. Diana, or Artemis, was the most sacred goddess
in the civilized ancient Greco-Roman world, and the temple to Diana was one of the Seven
Wonders. There was the Pharos Lighthouse in Alexandria;
Egypt, there were the Pyramids; the Hanging Gardens of Babylon; the Tomb of King Mausolus;
the Colossus of Rhodes; the Statue of Zeus on Mount Olympus; and the Temple of Artemis,
or Diana, in Ephesus, made of glittering Persian marble. It was 425 feet long, one-and-a-half city
blocks, 260 wide. Columns stood 60 feet high: 130 columns - 37
embellished with gold and jewels. And all of it was the gift of kings. The altar, beautiful beyond words, was carved
by the Greek sculptor Praxiteles. It was a museum, and that temple was a sanctuary
for criminals, a sanctuary for criminals. The worst criminals in the world found safety
in Ephesus, which only led to the debauchery of the city. It also was the bank of the Mediterranean. The wealthy kept their treasures in the inner
shrine of the temple because it was sacred. Kind of a strange thing to have the same temple
a sanctuary for criminals and a bank. It was big business, and the big business
was selling idols to put on your chariot, to put in your house, to hang around your
neck. It was beyond description. Historians say there were scores of eunuchs;
thousands of priestesses, prostitutes; unnumbered herald singers, flutists, dancers. The worship was a kind of hysteria: a debauchery,
drunkenness, sexual deviation, frenzies of shameless mutilation, mutilation. Heraclitus wrote that the morals of the temple
were worse than the morals of animals. "The people - " he said, " - who engaged in that
were fit only to be drowned." Huddled in the middle of this city of such
sin is a group of men and women proclaiming the message of Jesus Christ. And in spite of their environment, some of
the greatest victories of grace that were ever won were won in the city of Ephesus. The church flourished; the church grew. The preaching by Paul had affected the worship
of the idols; sales dropped off seriously. The little flock began to grow, taught by
Timothy, and ultimately, by John - incredible. Faithful little flock in that place. Now, that gets us to verse 2, where we want
to be right now. There is a commendation of this church, and
if they have anything that can be said good about them, it's marvelous, because remember
this: all the people who were converted there were converted out of that culture, out of
that dominating culture. This is a church to be commended. Verse 2: "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." If that church was in your town, you'd join. Wow. "I know your deeds - " your labor, your kopos
. Labor, again, as we saw this morning, "to
the point of exhaustion - the kind of toil which takes everything that mind and muscle
can bring." This was a church of people who toiled for
the sake of the kingdom, for the sake of the gospel. They weren't lazy, they weren't indifferent;
they were busy. They were giving everything they had - unlike
some people who attend church and all they're looking for is a box seat to be entertained,
or a banquet table to be fed spiritual food. There are a lot of onlookers and watchers
who love to eat the fruit of the harvest, but want no part of the planning and the cultivation. Not this group in Ephesus. They were all added and they were always added:
teaching, loving, giving, sharing, proclaiming the gospel, ministering to one another, and
for the sake of Christ. They were active - not a church offering weekly
solace for the hours of boredom, not a church offering a couch to take a rest on, but a
church that really understood a yoke under which they had been called to labor in plowing
the field and sowing the seed of the good news of Christ: service of love. Not only were they known for their deeds and
their toil in those deeds, but their perseverance, patience, hupomonē . It literally means "to remain under." Same verse as "abide" or "remain" - hupo , under. This is not grim resignation, this is not
just giving up; this is courageous gallantry which accepts hardship, suffering, persecution,
loss. This is an invincible attitude that is not
beaten down, is not cast out; it endures. They were persistent; they were staying with
it. Their deeds were honorable God-glorifying
deeds. They worked hard at it, and they stayed under
the difficulties and persevered - hard-working, relentless, indomitable. What a wonderful church: not lazy, not looking
for instant gratification. Beyond that, verse 3 says something else about
them: "You cannot tolerate evil men. You cannot tolerate evil men." They were intolerant of sin. They were sensitive to the presence of evil. They hated evildoers as God hates evildoers. They resented evil; they resented evildoers. They resented sin; they resented sin in the
church. They recognized the damage that sin does to
the fellowship and the testimony. They saw that sin in the church destroys the
unity of the church and destroys the testimony of the church. They hated all that was morally bad, all that
was spiritually bad. They knew that a little leaven leavens the
whole lump. Paul had told them in the letter that he wrote
to the church, the letter called Ephesians: "Neither give place to the devil - " and they
didn't. They wanted nothing to do with that which
was from Satan. Of course, they hated evil outside the church,
but this is telling us that they hated evil inside the church. Maybe they followed the instructions of the
Lord in Matthew 18. When they saw somebody sinning, they went
to the person, and then they took two or three, and then they told the church, and then they
pursued to bring back that sinner to repentance. I don't know what else you could say about
the nobility of the church than to say they worked relentlessly under tremendous duress
and pressure, and never gave up, and suppressed evil at the same time. Or, you could say this: "You put to the test
those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false." This is a church with discernment. Where does discernment come from? Well, where does discernment come from; clearly,
it comes from a knowledge of the truth, right? The only way you can discern error is know
what? Truth. You have to have the truth in order to see
the error. This is really an amazingly remarkable church. They're not orthodox by birth, they're not
orthodox by atmosphere, they're not orthodox by osmosis; they're orthodox because they've
been taught from the very beginning. They were taught by Aquila and Priscilla. They were taught by Apollos. They were taught by Timothy and Tychicus,
Paul and John. They were a well-taught church. Their theology was so sound that they could
literally measure anyone against the truth and expose error. In the words of Peter: "They could give a
reason to any man who asked for the hope that was in them." Many evil people come into the congregations,
particularly in the early church. Satan was infiltrating these early churches
all the time. Judaizers, false teachers were everywhere. This church took the warning seriously. Apostle Paul actually said to them in Acts
20, "After my departure, after my departure, grievous wolves are going to come in, not
sparing the flock; and of your own selves, perverse men are going to rise up and lead
you astray - " and he warned them. And you remember it says in Acts 20 that "he
committed them to the word of God, which is able to build you up." That was in his farewell address, Acts 20:28
and following. When
evil men of all types and all kinds, emissaries of false teaching - whatever it was - moved
into the church at Ephesus, they were exposed. They were tested and failed the test. The only ones who were welcomed into that
church were those who were faithful to the teaching of the Word of God. Verse 6 says, in particular, that "they hated
the of the Nicolaitans - " a heretical group, " - which God and Christ also hate." Amazing group: hardworking, persevering, intolerant
of sin, knowledgeable in theology in truth so as to be able to discern true teachers
and false teachers. And they did it all - look at verse 3: "persevering,
enduring, for My name's sake." Oh, that's the epitome, isn't it? They did it for the honor of their Lord. They had amazing powers of endurance. They were spiritual marathoners. He already said "perseverance and toil" in
verse 2. Now He says perseverance again and adds, "have
endured." But the key is "for My name's sake, and have
not grown weary." Sure, disappointments come, criticism comes,
rebellion comes, struggles come. They never grew weary - hard-working, persevering,
enduring, undaunted, amazing group - and they did it all "for My name's sake." They did it for Christ. They did it for Christ. Supreme motive: for the sake of the name,
for the sake of the name. Paul went out to preach the gospel, Romans
1, for the sake of the name. John in his epistle, talks about those who
went out to preach for the sake of the name. There were no personal ambitious agenda. And then in verse 6 - just to comment on that
- specifically they stood against the error of the Nicolaitans. Who were they? A little hard to be certain about it. It's from the same Greek word as "overcomers,"
"conquerors." Maybe this is some kind of heresy that developed
from a man by the name of Nicolas; perhaps the followers of that man. We don't know who he is. But, eventually, it developed into some kind
of a false cult, some kind of a sect. Some historians say it was characterized by
extreme indulgence and filth, uncleanness. In chapter 2, we'll see it again, and it's
linked to Balaamism, Balaamism: Balaamism which was allowing the sensual into the church
- some kind of false cult; some kind of false, corrupt, heretical movement - and they hated
it. They took the Lord's side on that. I think it was Clement of Alexandria who once
said about the Nicolaitans: "They abandon themselves to pleasure like goats, leading
a life of self-indulgence." It has been associated with loose living,
immorality, perversion - maybe in the name of grace, maybe a kind of libertine license. But they rightly hated it. You know, for all intents and purposes, you
would say this is a great, great church. But, verse 4, we go from the commendation
to the condemnation: "I have this against you, I have this against you, that you have
left your first love." Unmistakable: "You have left your first love." What do you mean by that? The flaming love that you had for Christ the
day you were delivered from the kingdom of darkness; the burning heart that you had like
those on the Road to Emmaus when the Scripture and the truth dawned on you and you saw the
significance of His death and resurrection; the day when you realized that you had been
delivered from the world; the day when you felt like Peter: "Lord, You know I love you. You know I love you. You know I love you - " as he said three times
in John 21 - those early days of hot hearts, passionate labor. Devotion to Christ, being consumed with Him,
with loving Him was becoming replaced by a kind of dutiful,
doctrinal coldness. The heat of that first love was gone and they
left it, they left it. You know, it's a danger for all of us. I think we're very much like the church at
Ephesus: work hard, persevere, endure, know the truth, we have discernment, we hate sin,
we're capable of exposing error. But the danger for us is to leave first love. This really comes out of Jeremiah 2. Jeremiah says, "The word of the Lord came
to me saying, 'Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem saying: Thus says the Lord: I
remember concerning you, the devotion of your youth, the love of your betrothals - I remember
that - your following after Me in the wilderness, through a land not sown. You would follow me anywhere. I remember - ' says God, ' - the love of your
betrothals. I remember that.'" Jeremiah goes on to say, "You've long ago
left that." And that is the message that the Lord of the
church gives to the church at Ephesus: the honeymoon is over. Love for Christ has cooled and this is very
dangerous. The cooling of love for Christ is the forerunner
of spiritual apathy. Apathy is the forerunner of love for something
else. Love for something else means love not for
Christ but for something else - and that means compromise with evil, and that means corruption,
and that means death, and that means judgment. And that's the sequence of going from Ephesus
to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Laodicea. You eventually become a church the Lord spits
out of His mouth. Doctrinal, morally pure, zealous, hard-working,
disciplined, born in an incredible way in the middle of the pentacle of paganism, born
with a miraculous beginning of signs and wonders and an explosion of the gospel, having been
given the priviledge of the best of all possible leaders: you had it all. You still come, you still work, you still
give, you still believe, you still sing, you still hold to the truth, but I know you don't
love Me like you did. You don't love Me like you did - the supreme
motive. When the heart grows cold, you're in danger. How serious is this? Verse 5, the Lord says, "Therefore, remember
from where you have fallen. Remember from where you have fallen." What about you? Can you take it or leave it coming to church,
take it or leave it reading the Scripture? You believe the right things. Are they as precious to you as they once were
when you came bursting out of darkness into light, when you were delivered from sin and
death and hell? Or have you grown cold. Start by remembering: go back, remember how
it was when you were truly converted. Remember from where you have fallen. Go back and remember the glorious experience
that was yours when you came to Christ, and then repent. Remember; repent. And then do the deeds you did at first. You know how you restore the love? By going back and doing what you did at the
beginning. Remember; repent of your lack of love - failure
to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Repent of any cold, mechanical service to
Christ, and then go back and do the deeds that you did at the very beginning. Go back and start again. You say, "Well, this is kind of minor defect,
isn't it?" Mm-mmm, because if you look at verse 5, He
says in the middle, "or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of
its place - unless you repent." I'm going to shut the church down. Can you imagine when that pastor from Ephesus
read that letter to that church the response? "You either repent, remember, and return to
the things you did at the beginning, with the love of Christ burning in your heart,
or I will put you out of business." It will not be a happy coming. "I'll remove
the lampstand." That's the end of the church: "I'll terminate
the church. I'll terminate it." Did that happen? Yes, that happened, that happened. And it all was so wonderful. Today, there's no church in Ephesus, not even
a city there. Some final counsel in verse 7 for all of us:
"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Another way of saying: "Are you listening? Are you listening? Everybody listen to what I just said." This transcends that church, that real church
in a real place at that time. This transcends to all of you who hear this.
"Listen, listen - " for all Christians, for all churches, for all time, " - understand
the danger of leaving your first love and finding your exhilarating passion in something
else other than Christ and His kingdom." And then a promise: "To him who overcomes
- " that term "overcomes" comes from 1 John, chapter 5, verse 4: "Whoever is born of God
overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world - our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but
he who believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?" "To you overcomers - " the call to
faithfulness, " - to you overcomers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is
in the paradise of God." That's a picture of heaven. Eden was the created paradise of God on earth,
Genesis 2 and 3. Heaven is the paradise of God above, Revelation
22. "To him who overcomes, to the true believer, the faithful believer, I promise you heaven." Why does He say that? Because if you're there and you're a faithful
believer, a true believer, and the Lord puts your church out of existence, you could conclude,
"I'm done. I'm doomed." But, no. "To the overcomer, even in a church
that has left its first love, I promise you heaven, I promise you heaven." As we'll see when we go through the other
letters, this is where the slide starts with leaving that first love. Even those of us who are believers, who will
experience the tree of life in the paradise of God - as it's described in Revelation 22,
in heaven - need to make sure that we do not leave our first love. If I can borrow from this morning: Is this
saying that there were people in the church at Ephesus, who actually failed to abide in
Christ and walked away? Could be. "Don't do that. Stay, triumph through faith, and I promise
you heaven." Lord, we're so grateful that you've given
us Your Word. It's so rich and powerful. It opens up so much to us that we need to
know, need to understand, love to hear. But at the same time, Lord, with all of its
wonders, all of its beauties, it is very convicting. Deliver us, Lord, from the loss of first love. This can certainly mean a person who makes
a pretense and walks away and is not an overcomer - doesn't abide, doesn't remain; like a Judas
branch. But also even for us who are true, we need
to remember a true conversion, true love, repent of our coldness, and return to the
fire of those beginning years. May it never be that You would have to say
to this church, "Go back to your first love or I'll put your light out." We love You, Lord, and we want to love You
more. We want to love you with all our heart, soul,
mind, and strength. We want to live in the wonders of that first
love when it all dawned on our dark hearts and minds, and we were swept away in the joy
of salvation. May the fires of that love burn in our hearts
so that our light may continue to shine. These things we ask in Your Son's name, Father. Amen.
