The Lord's Message to Ephesus

So good to have you with us today as we worship the Lord together. I want to remind you of our church picnic on July the 10th. You can sign up in the foyer area today. We'd love to have you be a part of that and meet the people who come to the first service.

People you never see, but they do exist. So you can meet them on July the 10th. So we'd love to have you be a part of that with us. Also on Wednesday night, Patrick Foss, Patrick stand up, Amanda stand up. This is Patrick Foss, his lovely wife Amanda. He will be speaking to us on Wednesday evening. And Patrick is the candidate for our youth ministry job. And so we want you to be here, support him, listen to what he says, make sure to say anything out of the ordinary. And we'll go from there. So pray for Patrick and for Amanda, two wonderful people.

They spoke on youth today. They'll speak in the church on Wednesday night and then in the youth next Sunday morning. So we want to pray for them, that God will give us direction and give them clarity as well. All right. So if you are able, join me on your knees, we approach with the grace. Father, we thank you for today because you are the King of all creation. We thank you, Lord, that we have been called by your name and we understand what it means to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray, Father, that you would do a mighty work in all of us today.

We thank you for Patrick and Amanda being here with us today and a chance to share with our young people. We pray for them on Wednesday. And of course, next Sunday, pray for our elders, that you give us wisdom as we begin to understand your call upon this man, his wife and the ministry of this church. We thank you, Lord, for all those who are here today. Thank you for those who are visiting. Thank you for those who come all the time. We're grateful, Lord, that you've allowed us to gather together, sing praises to your name, to worship you, to pray, to give, to truly seek your face.

Our prayer today, Lord, is that we would truly have an encounter with the living God. As we study your word, behold your glory, we would begin to see more and more of your beauty. And thus, we'd be the kind of people you want us to be, praising and honoring the King of kings and Lord of lords. We pray for every family today, every father, every mother, every son, every daughter, that God, you do a mighty work in their lives. We pray that families would grow in Christ's likeness, that children would be obedient to their parents, that parents would learn to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and that great things would happen because you reign supreme.

We thank you for this day and ask that you do a mighty work in Jesus' name. Amen. If you have your Bible, turn with me to the book of Ephesians, I'm sorry, the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter 2, as we look at the church of Ephesus.

We are looking at the ministry and message of Christ to his church. We spent two weeks looking at the ministry itself and how Christ has a particular ministry that he has with the church even as we speak today. To understand his ministry helps us to understand his message. John receives the message and John is going to write it down. He's going to write down what he sees. He's going to write it down seven times and distribute it to seven different churches in Asia Minor. The Lord tells him to write down what he sees.

So John's on this island in Patmos, he's there according to what the Bible says in verse number nine, excuse me, because of the word of God and because of the testimony of Jesus.

He's on this island, he's all by himself, he's isolated, he's cracking rocks because that's what they did for punishment and the Lord Christ appears to him. He hears this voice and he hears the voice tell him to write down what he sees and send it to seven churches in Asia Minor, seven particular churches that truly existed at one time. And the unique thing about these seven churches is that they are representative of every church that's ever existed in the history of the church age. And so by studying these seven churches, you can begin to understand what is happening in the church of America today.

And so as we begin to look at them, we begin to understand that Christ had a particular ministry and that ministry is depicted through his apparel and through his appearance.

John turns to look at the voice that's speaking and he sees seven golden lampstands, which are representative of the seven churches in Asia Minor.

We know that because of verse number 20 of Revelation chapter one. And he sees in the middle of those seven lampstands, one like a son of man. And he begins to see the appearance and the apparel of Christ, which depict for us the ministry of Christ, the ministry of his presence among us, the ministry of his praying for us, the ministry of his purging and purifying of the church itself, the ministry of his protecting the church, his preserving of the church, as well as his punishment of the church, all for the glory of his kingdom.

That's all the things we covered in our first two weeks, several weeks ago, that is his ministry presently among the church today.

And now he's a message to seven churches. And we begin with the church at Ephesus. Let me read it to you.

Verses one to seven of Revelation chapter two to the angel of 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.

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 will 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. Now the first letter goes to the church at Ephesus, and each letter goes in succeeding order, meaning that each, if you were a postal service individual, you would deliver these letters in this particular order.

And the order is unique because the sequence tells us about how the church begins to deteriorate from the inside. And so the first letter is given to the church at Ephesus.

And the Bible tells us to the angel of the church at Ephesus write. Now the word angelos is referred to an angel all throughout the book of Revelation. So you'd think that it's an angel here as well. Only problem with that is, is that there is never in Scripture an angel that's in charge of the church. And so that messenger could be translated pastor or overseer. And so because these seven stars, which are representative of the seven angels of seven messengers are in the right hand of God. In other words, he has the authority over them.

He is delivering this message to that pastor, that overseer, that messenger who was over that church, that he might read that letter to the church and that they might understand. And John's going to write it down seven times because every church is going to hear what the spirit of the Lord says to every other church as well as their church presently and about the future. So the Lord says to the angel of the church at Ephesus write the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and the one who walks among the seven golden lampstands says this.

Who's that? That's a son of man. And you will note that in the letters to the churches, Christ is described with the characteristic that depicts his ministry in verses nine to 20 of chapter one. And so you're able to put two and two together and realize that this is a son of man who is delivering this message to the church at Ephesus. Christ is speaking. John is writing down what Christ says, and it's going to be delivered to these churches.

Now you must think about the church at Ephesus. It was a fabulous church. If you go back to Acts chapter 18, you realize that there were, there were two people in Ephesus, one Aquila, one Priscilla, and a man by the name of Apollos shows up in Ephesus. And yet Apollos was only instructed in the ways of John the Baptist. He didn't hear about the coming of the spirit of God. And so Aquila and Priscilla would take him aside and instruct him. And he would begin to understand about the coming of the spirit of God.

And he was a man who was, as the Bible says, was mighty in the scriptures. And he was a very powerful man. And he could refute the Jews unlike no other, except for maybe the apostle Paul. In Acts chapter 19, Paul shows up in Ephesus and there's a group of people that are the disciples of John the Baptist who had not heard about the coming of the spirit of God. So he shared with them about the coming of the spirit of God. They, we see the spirit, the church is born in Acts chapter 19, and Paul is the first pastor of the church at Ephesus.

Not only that, Paul was a man who instructed them for three years as their pastor. And in Acts chapter 20, he gives this departing message about guarding themselves and the church of God. Why? Because false teachers will arise from within, and you've got to be very careful about that. He commends them to God and to his word that they might be built up and strengthened. And in that text, he says, remember what the words of our Lord Jesus, that is more blessed to give than it is to receive. And the whole bunch of elders weep profusely because Paul is leaving.

Next pastor would be Timothy, then and then the apostle John. So they had great men who led the church, who, who pastored the church. Very important. Why? Because Ephesus was a city located in Asia minor, which was a port city. There were four major roads that went in and out of Ephesus that allowed them to have great commerce and trade in Asia minor. They became a very popular city. Ephesus was not the capital. Pergamon was the capital, but Ephesus was a great and powerful city. It also had all these athletic games that rivaled the Olympic games that took place every May where athletes all around the region would gather to compete together.

But on top of all that, you need to understand that there was one of the seven wonders of the world, and that was the temple of Artemis or Diana. And that's very important to understand that if you're Greek, it's Artemis. If you're Roman, it's Diana. But, but you need to understand that what was characteristic of paganism is that it lost the distinction of the genders. That's not new today. You could worship the male god or the female god, whatever you chose to be that day. See? And so what was characteristic of pagan religion is that they confused gender identity.

That's what they did. That's not new today. This has always been going on. And so what would happen is that there was great idolatry, immorality in the city. There were these great orgies that took place filled with dancing and drinking, and it permeated the entire city. And the apostle Paul shows up, and these disciples of John receive the spirit of God, and Paul is used in a mighty way to preach the gospel in Ephesus, and people are getting saved. So much so, the impact of the gospel is so unique and so strong that it began to upset the idol making business in the city.

And there was a riot by the unbelievers because of the impact of the believers in Ephesus. That's the way it should be today. It's not, but that's the way it was in those days. And Paul was preaching the gospel and people were getting saved. And you man, you came out of that culture. There was a transformation that took place. You were a new creation. There was a transformation that made you a new person. And these people gave their life to Christ, and Paul was their pastor for those first three years.

And so Christ writes this letter to these churches, Ephesus number one. He gives, first of all, an affirmation.

After he gives the affirmation, he gives an accusation. After the accusation, he gives an admonition. And then he gives an application. So there are four points that we're going to cover with you this morning. Every church has an affirmation. Five of the seven have an accusation. Church of Smyrna and the Church of Philadelphia have no accusation against them. Each church has an admonition. Each church has an application. So let's look, first of all, at the affirmation that Christ gives to the church at Ephesus.

This is what he says. He says very clearly, very plainly, 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. Wow. What a church. He commends them, number one, for their service.

He commends them, number two, for their steadfastness in that service. He affirms, number three, their sensitivity to sin.

And then, number four, their scrutiny of false teachers. He affirms those four qualities in the Church of Ephesus. He says, first of all, I want to commend you.

I want to affirm the fact, because I know your deeds, and I know that you serve energetically. I know that you toil unceasingly. I know that you persevere, and that you do not quit. I know there's high labor intensity in the church. You're working hard. That's a good thing, right? People were involved in the ministry of the church. There was no one who was lazy. There was no one who was lethargic. There was no one sitting back and saying, well, let's let them do all the work. And they had a consumer mentality.

No, they were involved in the ministry, and they had to be. Why? Because they had come out of a culture that was reaming with idolatry and immorality. And so, you were either a part of that culture or a part of the Church of Ephesus. And so, when they came out of that culture, they involved themselves in the church and the service and ministry of that church, because God had done a great and mighty work. And they were excited about it. So, Christ affirms that. I know your deeds. I know your energy.

I know your work. I know your service. I see it. I know that. On top of that, I know your steadfastness in that service, how you've endured, hupomone, to bear up under pressure, under persecution, under difficulty. You were able to persevere. You don't quit. You're marathoners. You're not spiritual sprinters, but you're spiritual marathoners. You don't quit. You just keep on going and going and going. I have to energize your body, man. You just don't quit, man. You keep on going. No matter what the pressure, no matter what the difficulty, you guys just keep on moving and keep on serving, no matter how bad the pressure.

And the pressure was great. The pressure was great for the families who weren't converted, right? So, I get converted. I get saved. I give my life to the church. And my family back home is persecuting me, and they're ridiculing me. They're rejecting me. And so, they bear up under that pressure, and they just keep on serving Christ, because that's what they have been taught. Acts 20, 35, Paul told them when he left, remember the words of our Lord Jesus, it's more blessed to give than to receive. This is not about giving of my treasure.

It's giving my time and my talents as well. And they understood that. They just kept giving and giving and giving, and they just couldn't give enough. They just kept serving, and they kept serving steadfastly. And this is this. He says, you cannot tolerate evil men. Isn't that good? You cannot tolerate evil men. You have such a sensitivity to sin that you will not allow the evil man to exist in your presence. What a hallmark of the church. They understood the words of Christ in Matthew 18 about church discipline.

They understood the words about examine everything, abhor that which is evil, cling to that which is good. And they had such a sensitivity to sin that they would not even tolerate the evil man. If there was evil that existed, they confronted it. They dealt with it. They would not let it exist in the church because they know what the purifying ministry of Christ to the church. I'm sure they had heard about the story of Ananias and Sapphira and the church of Jerusalem, and they had heard about how God is concerned about the purity and the integrity of the church and its ministry.

And they wouldn't tolerate evil. They wouldn't tolerate the evil man because they knew, Ecclesiastes 9, 18, one sinner destroys much good. They knew, 1 Corinthians 5, one little leaven, leaven's the whole lump. They knew that. They got it. They digested that. And they weren't going to allow the evil man to exist in their presence without there being a confrontation. And if he would not repent of his sin, then he would be asked to leave the church. They understood that. So Christ says, I affirm this in you.

I affirm the fact that you guys are committed to your service. I commend the fact that not only are you serving me, you are steadfastly serving me. You're not quitting. You're not lazy. You're not lethargic. You're working hard. And on top of all that, you're sensitive to sin and deal with sin. But know this. I also want to commend you for your scrutiny of all false teachers. You scrutinize them. You put them to the test. They knew the words of the Apostle Paul back in Acts 20. Be on guard for yourselves and for all the church because savage wolves will creep in and men of corruptness will come and rise up from within.

They understood that. And so they scrutinized everybody who said that they were an apostle. They scrutinized everybody who said that they were a teacher. They put them to the test. And they were affirmed because of that. They scrutinized everybody. And Christ says, I want to affirm this in you.

I want to commend you for this. This is the way you've lived your lives. Look at verse six. In verse six, it says, yet this you do have that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Wow. What are the deeds of the Nicolaitans? Remember, what's happening today is not new. There's nothing new under the sun, Solomon wrote in the book of Ecclesiastes. What are the deeds of the Nicolaitans? Remember, they would not tolerate the Nicolaitans. The church of Pergamum, which is after the church of Samarna, they did tolerate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, and they had them in their church.

But Ephesus, no, you will not tolerate the deeds of the Nicolaitans. What are those? Well, best we know is that they come from one of the first leaders of the church in Acts chapter six, a man by the name of Nicholas, whose name comes from two Greek words, nikao and laos.

Nikao means to conquer, and laos, the people, to conquer the people. And Nicholas was a false believer. He was an apostate, and he would lead, because of his position in the church, he would lead the people away from the true gospel. And the emphasis that he had was on, listen, Christian liberty. And your Christian liberty allows you to do whatever you want to do and be satisfied with it, because everything is covered under the grace of God anyway. It was a license for people to sin, and that's how he conquered the people, by giving them the idea that they could do whatever they wanted to do, whenever they wanted to do it.

It's okay, because God's a God of grace. It's going to be all right. No, it's not. A lot of churches teach that today, but that's not true, because as Jude said, these false churches, teachers take the grace of God and turn it into licentiousness, a license to sin and be satisfied with my sin, no matter what. You can't do that and claim to be a believer. Well, they would not tolerate the deeds of Nicolaitans. They would not. Christ says, I hate him.

You hate him. We're on the same page here. That's good. So he affirms them. And you think, wow, this is a great church. This is the way every church should be, right? Every church should have everybody involved in service in the church. No pew sitters. Everybody's involved. Everybody wants to serve. Every church should have people that are sensitive to sin and sinful people. Every church should have people who scrutinize false teachers and deal with them. Every church should be people that are steadfastly enduring in their ministry, never quitting, always wanting to continue on in the service, no matter what happens at home or abroad.

Wow, that's a great church. But Christ says, I have this against you. This comes the accusation, from the affirmation to the accusation. I have this against you. Listen, it's okay if the world has something against the church. All right. That's okay. It's okay if another person or church has something against your church. That's okay. But if God has something against your church, that's not okay. So Christ says, I have this against you.

That's not a good phrase you want to hear. Christ says, I have this against you. You have left your first love.

What? Yeah. You've left your first love. In other words, you have left the priority of your lives. I'm to be your priority, and you've left that behind. You've diminished me as the priority in your life. Well, how can you say that? Because it says that they did it in verse number four, three, for my name's sake. Ah, but they did. They left behind their number one priority, Christ.

They could still serve. They could still hold fast the doctrine. They just forgot that the doctrine pointed to the Christ. They became very mechanical in their service, very mechanical in their steadfastness, very mechanical in all the things that they did. It was almost like it was routine. It was everyday kind of routine things. You've left your first love.

You've left me behind. I want to affirm the fact that you're sensitive to sin. I want to affirm the fact that you serve me. I want to affirm the fact that you endure to the end. I want to affirm the fact that you hate the deeds of Nicolaitans. So do I. I want to affirm that in you because that's all true. But what I'm concerned about is that you have left your first love, your passion for me, your desire for me, your life about me.

You've left it behind. This doesn't happen quickly. This happens gradually and slowly, but very surely over time. And unfortunately, some people never notice it.

We assume that people love the Lord because they serve the Lord. We assume that people love the Lord because they're sensitive to sin. We assume that people love the Lord and he's a priority in their life because they test every false teacher. That's not the case. That's not the case because their service became their priority. Their deeds became their priority. The way they went through things routinely and mechanically became their priority. Their ministry in the church became their priority, not the master of the church, but their ministry in the church became the priority.

And Christ says, I had this against you. You have left your first love. They're like deatrophies. They seek the preeminence. Remember him in 3 John? Deatrophies was one who sought the preeminence. And he was the kind of person that wanted everything to be about him. And how easy that happens. We take our position in the church as more important than Christ's position in our lives. We take our ministry in the church as more important than the master of the church. We take our service in the church and our deeds in the church as the greatest of all things.

And we hold on to them too tightly as if they mean everything to me. And if that ministry gets taken away or I can't do it any longer, I can easily go to another church and do that same ministry because it's all about the ministry and it's all about me. It's not about the Lord and the worship of Christ. See? And all of a sudden my ministry is really my ministry. It's not Christ's ministry. It's mine. My service is about me. My deeds are about me. My steadfastness is about me. It's all about me. And Christ says, everything you're doing, you're doing it for my name's sake, but you have left me behind.

There's no passion for me. There's no love for me. There's no commitment to me. And everything about what Christ says is about our love for Him.

Remember that last question asked of Christ? Matthew chapter 22, the last question asked of Jesus during His earthly ministry was this. A lawyer came to Him and asked Him, testing Him, Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? He said to Him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets. Last question. The Bible goes on to say that no one dare ask Him any more questions after that. That was it. What's the greatest of all commandments? The greatest is that you got to love me. Here oh is He, the Lord our God is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. All that you have, it must be about me. You must love me.

We love Him because He first loved us. Paul said the love of Christ compels me. It constrains me. It motivates me. There's only one thing that motivates me. Only one, only one reason I do what I do. I am motivated by the love of Christ, Paul says. And interesting to know that this is, this is taken from Jeremiah chapter two, because in Jeremiah chapter two God says this to Israel, I remember concerning you the devotion of your youth, the love of your betrothals.

You're following after me in the wilderness through a land not sown. I remember that. I remember how you were devoted to me. I remember how you loved me. And Jeremiah goes on through the Spirit of God to denounce Israel's idolatry and moving away from their love for Christ. Christ says, I know you're doing great things, but you're becoming very, very cold and callous toward me.

And this is where the sequence of the church degenerating begins. A coldness, a callousness, which leads to the church of Pergamum, which was a church that caused them to compromise, which leads to Thyatira, which caused them to be corrupt, which led to Sardis, which causes them to be a corpse, the dead church, which leads to Laodicea, which is a counterfeit church. And that's the downward spiral begins with a coldness and a callousness toward our relationship with the living God. A lot of people in the church today are serving God, serving God vehemently, with high energy, enduring to the end.

But their relationship with Christ has grown cold. So Christ says, as he gives an admonition, okay, moves to the admonition.

Because Ephesus would say, hey, wait a minute, wait a minute, we've lost our first love. How can that be? Yes, Lord, we rooted out all those who teach heresy. How can you say we don't love you? It's like, it's like what Christ said to Peter, Peter, do you love me? He says, of course I love you, Lord. No, no, no. Do you, do you, of course I love you, Lord. Peter, do you really love me? Do you really love me, Peter? Christ says to the church of Ephesus, do you love me?

We rooted out all heresy. Of course we love you. No, no, no. I mean, do you really truly love me as your King? Of course we do. We hate the Nicolaitans. We're sensitive to sin. Of course we love you. No, no, no, no. Do you, do you really truly love me with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength? And Ephesus would say, well, why do you ask that? We've done this and we've done that. It's like the, it's like the wife who says, honey, do you love me? Well, of course I do.

I bring home the paycheck every Friday. But do you love me? Well, of course I do. You have a house surrounding you, don't you? You're protected from the elements on the outside. You have air conditioning when it's hot. You have heat when it's cold. Of course I love you. And she says, well, but honey, do you love me? Well, I bought you a new dress last week. I've taken you out to dinner. Of course I love you. Why do you ask me that? Because evidently the love relationship has grown cold. See, she knows that.

So Christ gives the admonition. He says these words in Revelation chapter two, therefore, remember from where you've fallen and repent and do the deeds you did at first, or else I'm coming to you and we'll remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent.

So here's the admonition. First of all, you got to remember from where you've fallen. Number two, you got to repent of your sin.

And number three, you got to go back and repeat the first deeds. If you don't do that, I will remove your lampstand. I will remove your church. I will snuff out your church. Well, that's kind of a harsh thing to say, isn't it? Why would the Lord do that? Why would the Lord snuff out a lampstand, snuff out a church? Christ says, remember from where you've fallen.

Remember the way it was at first. That's why I love baptisms. You know, we have baptisms here on Wednesday nights and we bring people up here to the stage and they're inside the baptismal there and they give testimony as to when they gave their life to Christ. And every time that happens, I remember how it was when I was baptized. I remember how it was when I gave my life to Christ, how excited I was about serving the Lord, how excited I was about reading scripture, how excited I was about memorizing scripture, how excited I was about telling other people about Jesus, right?

Remember that? Remember the way it used to be. Remember, listen, remember when you got saved and you never missed church. Remember that? How do you know you're cold? You always miss church, right? You got to come sporadically. The flame is flickering and barely flickering at that. But when you got saved and you were in church, you wanted to be with the people of God. You wanted to somehow serve in the church. What can I do to help serve in the church? And you couldn't get enough out of the Bible.

You're reading your Bible. You want to memorize scripture. You're on your knees. You're praying. You might not know how to pray, but at least you're talking to Jesus and you're involved in these kind of things. And Christ says, remember from where you have fallen.

Remember the way it used to be. We've forgotten. They'd forgotten the way it was when Paul came and they heard the gospel and they were saved and they were, they were so excited about, about serving the Christ. And they couldn't wait to worship and they couldn't wait to, to meditate upon the scriptures. And they couldn't wait to tell others about Jesus. How do you know you're getting cold? You don't tell anybody about Jesus. How many, when was the last time you told somebody about Christ? When was the last time you shared your faith with somebody else?

You can pretty much tell your life's getting pretty cold with Jesus when you're not talking about Jesus with the unbelievers. Because that's what you did when you got saved. I got saved. I gave my life to Christ. You did what? I gave my life to Christ. What's that mean? I'm born again. Born what? Yeah, I'm saved from my sin. That's the way it was when you got saved, right? And then after a while you became like everybody else in the pew. Cold and calloused. We don't talk about Jesus unless we're going on a missions trip.

We don't talk about Jesus unless somebody asks us. See? But when you're saved, you're excited about it. Christ says, remember from where you've fallen and repent.

Repent that you don't want to go to church anymore. Repent from the fact that you don't share Christ anymore. Repent about the fact that you don't spend time in God's word anymore. Repent from the fact that you don't spend time in prayer anymore. Repent from the way things are now from the way they used to be. And then, listen, repeat. Repeat your first deeds.

Go back and do them again. He says, listen, repent and then go back and start sharing Jesus. Go back and start reading your word. Go back and start falling on your knees. Go back and start getting back in church again. Go back and do the things you did when you were saved. Go back at the very outset when you were born again and the excitement that was there. Go back and do your first deeds.

I don't want to do that. I don't feel like doing that. You know what Jesus says? He says, I don't care how you feel. Because Jesus never asked you, how do you feel? Did you know that? He never said, how do you feel about going to church? How do you feel about telling people about Jesus? You feel good about that? How do you feel about reading the word of God? Do you feel good about that? Jesus didn't ask you that because Jesus don't care how you feel. He just cares that you obey. Why? Because he knows what you don't know.

When you fulfill your duty, there will always be delight. Always. See, he knows that. If you just do what he says, take it by faith and believe what he says, everything changes from the inside out. There is great delight in serving Christ, great joy in serving Christ, great joy in honoring Christ. Who said we don't feel like it? Let's translate it over to a marriage, okay? A lot of times our marriages become mechanical. So let's transpose Ephesus into everyday living with our husband and wife. Sometimes things become routine, right?

They become mechanical in the marriage. Not the first couple of years, it's like 15, 20, 30, 40 years down the road.

Things become very mechanical. And the flame begins to flicker at best every once in a while. But there's no excitement there. There's no love there. There's no passion there. And so Christ is saying to you, remember from where you were following, remember how it used to be when you were dating, when you were engaged. Remember that? Remember that when you were dating, you didn't care what he wore. See? But now you do. You didn't care how he wore his hair. But now you care he has no hair. You didn't care where you went to dinner.

You didn't care. As long as you got something to eat. Now you care about where you go to dinner. Go back and remember the way it was when you first started dating.

Go back and remember, fellas, how you used to send cards impromptu and send flowers impromptu, just off the cuff, and how you used to pick up the phone and call her, and how you used to text message her. Of course, there were cell phones back in those days. I don't know. Some of you, you can't do that. But the bottom line is that go back and do the things you used to do. Remember from where you followed, remember how it used to be. Remember those days? Boy, they were so exciting. You didn't care how she wore her hair.

You didn't even care if she did her hair. You didn't care if she even wore makeup. You didn't care. You didn't care about the color of her dress or the size of her hips. You did not care. But all of a sudden, all of a sudden, that thing, you care about that now.

Really? Yeah. And she says, yeah, he was athletic. He was built. Now he's fat and flabby. Okay. Okay. I get that. All right. I understand that. But the bottom line is, remember from where you follow, remember how it used to be. You didn't care how they looked. You didn't care how they dressed. You didn't care if their breath smelled bad or not. You were so in love and so wanting to be with that person that no matter what the obstacle, you were there just to be with that person. Because no matter what you ate, no matter what they wore, no matter what they looked like, no matter if they had makeup on or no makeup on, whether they were skinny or fat, you were with that person and you loved being with them.

Christ says, remember from where you follow. He says, remember from where you follow. Repent. Sometimes in our marriages, we got to repent for selfish attitude, right? We got to repent because you don't look the way you used to look. You don't do the things you used to do. You don't, you're not the same person I married. Oh yeah. They're the same person. They're the exact same person. You just were willing to overlook all those offenses when you were dating. Now you're not. So repent of your sin, repent of your selfish attitude, your arrogance spirit, repent of those things and repeat your first deeds.

Repeat them. Go back and do the things you used to do. And you always hear, and I hear this all the time, I don't, I don't, I don't feel like, I don't feel love toward that person. I don't, I don't feel like going back and doing those things anymore. I don't feel like that. And I always say, who cares how you feel? Just do what you're supposed to do. Be obedient to the word of God. Cherish your bride, love your bride, honor your bride. And if you're dutiful and disciplined, the delight will always follow, but you must obey what the word of the Lord says.

Same is true in the church. Same is true in the church. There's no difference. You got to remember the way it was. Do you even remember the way it was? I do. As if it was yesterday. I can remember how it was when I was born again, what Christ did in my life. Whenever I feel there's a sense of coldness overcoming me, where I am not what I used to be passionately with Christ, I go back and I repent and repeat my first deeds and realize I couldn't wait to be in the word.

I couldn't wait to memorize scripture. I couldn't wait to share Christ with somebody. I couldn't wait to be in church. Today, it's unfortunate that people just kind of blow off church. Listen, if you're blowing off church, you're blowing off Bible study. You're blowing off prayer time. And I know you're not sharing Christ with anybody. I know that for a fact. You're not sharing Christ with anybody and you are as cold as ice. Oh, you might look on the outside, you're warm. You might be all bubbly and excited about Jesus, even say his name a couple of times a week.

But you're cold on the inside. And over time, that coldness leads to callousness. And that callousness will always lead to compromise. And that compromise will always lead to corruption. And the corruption will be the fact that you're dead on the inside. That's the way church's artist was. And we'll look at that progression as we go on.

That's Christ's admonition. Repent. Or the result is I'm going to remove your lampstand. I'm going to snuff out your church. Why would Christ do that? He did. Ephesus, there's nothing there. Go to Ephesus today. There's nothing there. There is no church in Ephesus. Nothing. Because they did not remember, repent, or repeat their first deed.

They did not do that. And so Christ says, I'm true to my word. Your lampstand will be removed. You know, before that happens, the light of that lampstand becomes very, very dull. Because the light is representative of the glory of Christ, right? And when Ichabod is written across your church, the glory of the Lord has departed. The brightness, the beauty of Christ is no longer seen in the church. And before Christ snuffs out the lampstand, the light becomes so dim, it makes no no impact in that society, in that community.

In fact, the community doesn't even know the church is even there. Because there is no impact in that community. See? Christ says, I have this against you.

You have left your first love. I am no longer a priority for you. Something else has become a priority over me. Your service, your deeds, your doctrine is taking precedence over me. I can't have that, Christ says.

Can't have it. So remember from where you have fallen, repent from your sin, repeat your first deeds, or I will remove your lampstand.

And then he gives his application. Last verse. He says, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Okay? So listen, if you have an ear, listen up. And Christ has a big emphasis on how you hear. All throughout his ministry, be careful how you hear, be careful what you hear, be careful who you listen to, because you need to make sure that you hear the right thing. So he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. This is across the board. This is not for emphasis.

It's for everybody. So listen to what I'm going to say. To him who overcomes, that is the most important title of the believer in Scripture. You are a victorious warrior, an overcomer. What is an overcomer? 1 John chapter 5 verses 4 and 5 tells us the overcomer. It says, for whatever 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 is the Son of God. We who believe that Jesus is the Son of God are called overcomers, victorious warriors.

In fact, in Romans 8, we are called huponike, overwhelming conquerors. Wow, what a title. That's amazing. And the word overcomer, same word from Nicholas, from the Greek goddess Nike. We get our English word Nike. That is, you are the overcomer. You are the victorious warrior. Whenever they went, whenever the Romans went into battle, they would pray to the goddess Nike that they would be victorious in their efforts. Christ says, to him who overcomes, you are the true victory warriors.

To him who overcomes, I will grant to you the tree of life and the paradise of God. Because there'll be people listening to this letter saying, hey, wait, I love the Lord. I love Jesus. I love Christ. I'm sold out to Christ. I love him. And if my church is snuffed out, what's going to happen to me? See? And Christ says, hey, let me give you this encouragement.

To him who overcomes, don't worry. I will grant you the opportunity to eat from the tree of life in the presence of God, because the paradise of God is always representative of God's presence. You will eat in my presence forever. They would need to know that. This was their encouragement. This is for those who sit there and listen and say, what's going to happen to my church? What happens to my church? What's going to happen to me? Christ gives this promise. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life in the paradise of God.

This is a great admonition for all of us, because we live and serve in a church that's committed to the purity of the gospel and the truth, that people live pure and holy lives in honor of Christ. We are committed to that. We are. But we could very easily, gradually, and slowly lose Christ as a priority in our lives. Our love for him can begin to wane. And all of a sudden, our ministry, our position in ministry, our doctrine becomes more important to us than the relationship we have with the living God, to love him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

The Church of Ephesus, talk about great pastors. Paul, Timothy, Tychicus, John. Wow. They were led by pillars of the Christian faith. But Paul was, I mean, John was now in prison on the island of Patmos. He's 90 plus years of age. He looks back and he hears what the Spirit of God says to the church he once pastored had to be of grave concern to him.

He would not even begin to imagine that he wouldn't heed the warnings of Scripture, that they would ignore it, not pay attention to it. Of course they would, wouldn't they? The question comes for us. We hear the Word of God. What are we going to do? How are we going to be? This is for every one of us in the room that we would understand that the priority of our life must be to love Christ more than we love anything else or anyone else, to be passionate about our Christ, committed to our Christ, that no matter what happens in me personally, I am so in love with the Christ it doesn't matter because I'm committed to him.

Let me pray with you. Father, thank you for today, a chance to be in your Word. We are reminded once again of the greatness of the church of Ephesus. The things that they did probably could not be compared to any other church that's ever existed, and yet you had this against them. They had left their first love.

Our prayer for us, Lord, is that that would not happen to us as a church or as individuals who make up this church, that truly we would represent you, live for you, and love you. Help us, Lord, to remember constantly from where we have fallen. Remember how it used to be. Repent where there's sin and go back and do the first deeds again, knowing that once we are obedient to your Word, dutiful in our responsibility, comes great delight in serving Christ.

We pray this in the name of our soon coming King. Amen.