Let us ask God's blessing on the hearing of His Word. Father, help us to listen to Your words of insight, that we may maintain discretion and that our lips may preserve Your knowledge. We seek Your help and ask that Your Spirit would guide our understandings, O Lord. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Please turn in the Scriptures this evening to Revelation chapter 2. Revelation chapter 2, we will read the first seven verses dealing with the church in Ephesus. Beginning at verse 1 of chapter 2. To the angel of the church in Ephesus write, These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand. and walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work, and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, and that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for My name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you. You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen. Repent, and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor. You hate the practices 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 give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. Thus ends the reading of God's Word this evening. Beloved of our Lord Jesus Christ, if I were to ask you the simple question, how do you know if a church is on its way to becoming spiritually dead? What would be your answer? In a recent poll, over two-thirds of all pastors' questions said that the most pressing issue for the church in our day is need for spiritual revival. Complaints increase that the church is standing paralyzed as the world becomes more complex and innovative every day. The methods that the church has used for centuries, they say, are now outdated and we need to be as innovative as the world. But the answer on how to bring revival is greatly debated, for many feel that this cause of sluggishness is a result of our bad methodology. Many today characterize whether or not the church is dead with things like old music, low church attendance, worship not exciting, not enough good programs, etc. But these are greatly contrary to what Christ says and constitutes a church that is becoming spiritually dead. This evening we look at the church in Ephesus. And we find a shocking warning from Christ that we in our day must take heed. At first, we want to notice the Lord's commendation of the church in Ephesus. Second, the Lord's complaint against Ephesus. And third, the call for Ephesus to return from where it has fallen. Now, as we begin to evaluate this church here in Ephesus, there are a few important things we want to immediately take notice of. In verse 1, we notice that it is Christ who holds the seven stars in His right hand and who walks amongst these seven golden lampstands. We know from the previous chapter that the stars are the angels or messengers of the seven churches. But what's of most interest to us this evening is the fact that Christ walks in the midst of these seven lampstands. We are told they represent the seven churches. What immediately comes to mind is that great seven-armed candlestick that was in the holy place in Jerusalem that was to be kept burning continuously. But interestingly, what keeps them burning is His presence. For Christ walks among them, for the church is the light of the world and He keeps them burning. But these lampstands, who also represented the Israel of God in the Old Testament, now represent as the middle wall has been torn down in Christ and the distinction between Jew and Greek is done away with. Notice that these lampstands represent the Israel of God in the New Testament. and this is what Christ is telling us is that as the head of His church He walks amongst these lampstands overseeing them for He is their light and if His presence was not there among His churches their candlestick would not burn and they would be in darkness and unprofitable to the world and so knowing that He walks amongst His churches He oversees their works what we want to look at this evening is what He says then concerning this church in Ephesus. First notice our Lord's commendation of their works. Now if you remember, Ephesus was a pagan metropolis known for its temple prostitutes and fertility cults. It was a wicked, wicked place. And as one of the great ancient wonders of the world stood there, that great pagan temple to their goddess Diana, it was the very place that Paul was almost martyred for the great riot that took place in Acts 19, That man Demetrius the silversmith was making silver shrines of their goddess Diana. And scripture tells us that it was no small profit, for he was making great amounts of money. But they viewed the gospel of Jesus Christ as a great threat to their idolatrous prophets. The church in Ephesus had a lot of pressure on them because the gospel wasn't so appealing to this pagan culture around them. And the question that plagued the average Ephesian in that city, the Christian in that city, were things like this. How is our church going to be able to survive in this overwhelmingly pagan, hostile culture? How can our little, weak, marginalized church in any way make the slightest dent in this overwhelmingly unchristian city? How can we, as a church, be effective in this type of environment? And it was here that Christ had placed His church. And amazingly, what we first notice is that He commends them for their sound doctrine. Listen to the second part of verse 2. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not and have found them liars. And listen to verse 6. But this you have, that you hate the deeds of Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Here was a church in the midst of all of this great contemporary innovation and pressure to change that remained sound in their doctrine. What was known as syncretism was running rampant at this time. Syncretism was simply the assimilating of all of one religion's beliefs and practices into another. The acceptance that everything is true. And there was great pressure even for the early church to assimilate their thinking into these ideas that surface with these fertility cults. But the problem is found in our day. Isn't this amazing? It's so similar that we're okay when we say that we believe in God. Everyone seems to believe in God in our day, but when we say that Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father and without Him you do not have eternal life, Now we've crossed the line with the world and are blamed for ignorance and bigotry. But see, the church in Ephesus held strong to its doctrine. We know it had solid instruction from great doctrinal preachers. We know the Apostle Paul had visited Ephesus at least three times, one of which he stayed almost three years laboring day and night with tears. Even Timothy labored in Ephesus for some time as a pastor. Most of the issues that Paul wrote to Timothy about, he had to deal directly with in Ephesus. And it's even said that Apostle John spent much time in Ephesus. So it was a place that had the strongest preachers of the day, the strongest doctrinal preachers, because to them doctrine was important. And the Lord commends them for holding fast to their doctrine. Why? Because it's through sound doctrine that the unity of the church is kept and air is exposed. And this is how the church remains strong in unity. But how untrue it is in our day when we hear that simple phrase, doctrine divides. I couldn't disagree more. Doctrine unifies because a like-mindedness develops when people are unified in what they believe. But today we hear quite differently, don't we? The word doctrine is scarcely used because it's claimed to be divisive. This is why today so many members of churches are tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. And when the knowledge of the truth becomes hard to find in a church, when the great doctrinal truths of Scripture aren't expounded on, the doors are wide open for falsehood to creep in. I find it so disturbing that in our day, the issues that are so unclear and confused in the church, the issues that seem to be cause for division, are the issues that are completely avoided. Why? We have so many problems in our day because doctrine is devoid. These great doctrinal truths that fill the back of our Psalter hymnals and our own confessions in many churches today are avoided. How then do we take steps to correct the heresies that creep into the church? Do we avoid these issues because they're possibly offensive and complicated? Do we compromise on what we might believe so that we might have more people enter our doors? Let's be honest. Confronting sin and calling people to repentance and change of their lifestyles doesn't sit well with the world. It's not appealing. And so the church's task is to remain faithful to the preaching of the Word, even if it's not popular. Hosea cried out in his day that his people were destroyed for lack of knowledge. Beloved, without sound doctrinal teaching, without great instruction through the preaching and the teaching of the Word, those great scriptural truths that expose error, if these are avoided, the truth will not and cannot be maintained. Here's the point. This wasn't the problem in Ephesus. The truth was maintained. They did stand up against these things. Paul had to warn Timothy that he would face people who would depart from the faith and hold to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. He warned them that there would be people who would be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God who would have a form of godliness but deny its power. And he reminded Timothy to be faithful to his task to preach the Word, in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and patience. For the time will come when men will not endure sound doctrine, But according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they would heap for themselves teachers and turn their ears from the truth. And when these things crept into her door at Ephesus, they knew that the only way that these things were to be corrected was through sound doctrine in addressing the issues, the deep preaching and teaching of the Word of God. And as a church corporately in Ephesus, it did this. They could not bear those who were evil. what language, if we could only get a sense of how zealous this church was for the truth of God's Word. Because they knew that what they believed determined how they would live before their God as the body of Christ. Their doctrine was a matter of life. Doctrine is so very important. But yet it seems that there were many from their own flock who were wolves. And these Ephesians tested and tried and did not tolerate these apostates. The elders heeded the warnings of Paul in Acts 20 in Ephesus. Take heed to yourselves and to the flock among whom the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God whom He purchased with His own blood. For this I know, that after My departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And this is interesting. And also from among yourselves, Men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves. Therefore, watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn you day and night with tears. These false apostles rose up from their own people and sought to cause great controversy off in secret corners by their disobedience rebellion. And most of all, sought to take a great number of people with them to carry the sheep into falsehood. And amazingly, Ephesus did not only not tolerate this behavior, they exercised discipline. Not only did they do as the book of Titus says, that through sound doctrine they exhorted and convicted those who contradicted, but they disciplined them for their evil. And the Lord was greatly pleased with them. He commends their actions. It says in verse 2, they found them to be liars. This means they tested the spirits. to see if they were from God. For they knew that many false prophets would rise up among them and they disciplined them. They hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans, it says. These were a heretical group, probably associated with the doctrine of Balaam. And they hated these things that were a threat to the truth, no matter how close it hit to home. And since they could not bear evil practices and doctrines, we know that proper church discipline was administered. Oh, the keys of the kingdom. How beautiful they are, but rarely found in our day. We've already seen how preaching is downgraded in our day, but it seems that one of the greatest marks of a true church is discipline. It's discipline. Ephesus could not tolerate wicked men. We've heard all the arguments. The church's call is not to reject, but to save. We need to get them in any way as possible, no matter how they live. Where Paul told the Corinthians to deliver that man over to Satan who was having his father's wife for the destruction of the flesh, that he might be saved on the last day, these people today would say no, as one pastor said. That would be insensitive. That would be insensitive and condescending. True faith is a matter, not a matter of doctrine, but of the heart. Christ will not have this. And the church at Ephesus is commended by Christ for their obedience and applying their doctrine and applying church discipline. What a faithful church. What a faithful church. A church that Christ commends for their works, their labor, and their perseverance. A church that He openly says is laboring for His namesake and not becoming weary. Obviously, at this point, not a church sitting in dry orthodoxy. Not dead, but still commended in many ways by Christ Himself. However, in verse 4, Christ has one major complaint against them. Yet this I hold against you. You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen. Repent and do the things that you did at first. Surprising state. With all of their obedience, doctrinal integrity, zeal for the truth, good works, even praised by Christ for their, quote, intolerance, yet this church was on the brink of apostasy this was a church if not corrected right now would become dead and soon at that we need to point out that Christ addresses this church as a whole doesn't he what was the original makeup of this church had now changed his emphasis is on the corporate nature of the church in Ephesus and Christ is pointing out the most dangerous problem for a church to leave their first love this is the root of all problems for if this love is left all the other problems will follow the church at Ephesus was facing a decay in love so much so that they had left it they had left it you see while outwardly Christ could praise this church He could look at them and praise them for their labor and their patience. He could also look inwardly at the heart of this church. And what was happening was a moving away from that first excitement that took place when the church was originally formed. You see, when a church begins to leave its first love, all the other problems will come. The very things that Christ had commended this church for would soon be what Christ would hold against them. If they did not keep that original love, they would soon be like the church at Pergamos who accepted the false doctrine of the Nicolaitans. They would soon be like the church at Thyatira that allowed many of its members to be carried away to sexual immorality. They would soon be like the church at Sardis who was dead. Who was dead and had no spiritual life at all because it did not obey the commands of God. they would soon be a church of compromise. And if you see churches of compromise around you in our day, you can bet that it all started here with the leaving of the first love. What we see then is leaving of the first love. This is the root problem of all problems in the church. We've already looked at some of the problems facing the church in our day. doctrinal ignorance, neglect of the keys of the kingdom, and so on. And all this can be traced back to this leaving of the first love. But the question that must be lingering, what is this leaving of the first love? Interestingly, it seems, and this is somewhat debated, but it seems that Ephesus was about 40 years old. It was about 40 years old when the book of Revelation was written. This means, of course, that another generation had risen out who had not experienced that original zeal of those who were there when the church originally formed. People in Escondido, maybe some of you remember when these very walls went up in Escondido. Do you remember that original excitement when you saw Christ working among you? When you saw His mighty hand gathering a people unto Himself here in Escondido and your original excitement of knowing your salvation to see God working amongst you. I think there's an anniversary coming up. How blessed you are to say that you remember your beginnings here as a church. That's rare. Do you remember? For Ephesus, that original zeal and love for Christ, the joy of knowing their salvation, that personal love relationship between their hearts and God's was gone. It was gone. That deep devotion for His glory. That time spent in intimate, personal fellowship, heart to heart with God had faded and was becoming extinct. No more was this a church on fire for the gospel, so to speak, that had become lax and complacent in its love for God. Sure, this generation ran. But Ephesus ran on the fumes of the old. As one pastor said, a steamer will continue in the ocean for a while with apparently undiminished speed. even after the engine has been shut down, inertia. They were continuing on the strong tradition that had been laid, the strong teaching they had received, and they were still commended for their labor. But with the leaving of their first love, it would only be a matter of time before the steamer would sink, before the church would become dead. We have to remember that for Ephesus, And I think this is so important when we look at this passage. That original love was not built on mere emotionalism. It was not built on emotion. They were strong doctrinally first. And then left it. That's a much more serious problem. Maybe we're inclined to think of people who are someone who is new to the faith. And they're excited. And after a while that excitement goes. And it's true, while many today are kept on an emotional high with great music, dramas, and plays, and they're kept there. After a while, that goes down, doesn't it? But this is the point. This was not Ephesus' problem. Theirs was much more serious. They had originally come to Christ with a knowledge based in His Word, and then left it. That's different. Now keep in mind, I'm not talking about individual salvation here. I think that's important to point out. The constitution of this church had changed as a whole. For they had always been doctrinally sound, and yet they had lost that inner love of God in the heart. What church who keeps their first love, whatever apostatizes? What church who keeps their first love, whatever neglects the keys of the kingdom? Ephesus was on this track. And headed for apostasy. Congregation. What this all means is that a church, that a church can separate all of their doctrine from a proper love of God. The Apostle Paul said the same thing. This is nothing new. He says in 1 Corinthians 13, And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing. If there's any church, I believe we in the Reformed churches must take heed to, it's the church in Ephesus. We have a strong doctrinal tradition. A rich heritage of thinkers and studiers of the Word of God. What a blessing. What a blessing. We have our doctrine beautifully laid out. How blessed we are. But there's a danger to leave it, isn't there? There's a danger to leave it. To fall into dry orthodoxy, we've seen it happen to churches. In college, I attended a small church who had recently discovered from Scripture the truths that are so rich and forgotten today. They were so excited about what they studied in Scripture, they had no idea of what to call it. Lo and behold, when they found out that what they had discovered was the historic Christian faith, the entire church, and I'm not kidding, the entire church went reformed. But the covenant, the great scriptural truths, this whole church, couldn't believe that they had been missing all of this time. And I went to college and attended all of this in the midst of a small revival. People went back, hashing out the Scriptures, loving the Word of God and zeal and great excitement for the doctrines of the Christian faith. They were so excited of what they had newly discovered from Scripture. Their love of God was so great and they couldn't keep it in. Well, then what happens after a few years? Where does that original love go? Congregation, can it be said of you that you are one who walks with God? For Enoch walked with God and he was not for he was taken. Those whose hearts are constantly joined to their Maker in prayer, fellowship, meditation on His goodness and a desire out of thankfulness to be obedient to His commands. Where are they? Is this not the love that Christ is referring to here? Where are those anymore that have said, this is a man after my own heart? What was it that God could say that about David? A man after his own heart? Do you want that? Can you share with the psalmist, O God, You are my God. Early will I seek You. My soul thirsts for You. My flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I've looked for You in the sanctuary to see Your power and glory. And how much more? These are Old Testament saints. How much more on this side of the cross do we see that they did not? Is that your sole desire? Can these things be said of you as a body of Christ? Oh, what works of excitement flow from this type of love. It's a love grounded in the Word. In the fact that unworthy sinners have been justified by the blood of Christ and therefore motivates our whole being to know love and serve Him with zealousness and integrity of heart. Do you remember? Do you remember when you first knew of your salvation? When you understood that your Savior suffered a horrendous death on the cross to save you for your sins, do you remember when you understood the righteousness of Christ that has been provided for you, that because of Jesus, those who are His children will never suffer eternally in hell? Jesus says, the one who has been forgiven much loves much. But the one who has been forgiven little loves little. the more you realize your forgiveness, what the Savior had to go through to reconcile you to God, will be manifested by your devotion and love for Him. Where's that original excitement? Have you even experienced it? Or is your heart simply as far and rebellious from God as it possibly could be? Do you speak to Him and meditate upon Him day and night like the psalmist says? Is there a burning within your heart to know the true and living God and to be with Him? Congregation, these people at Ephesus who had once shown a great love and zeal for God as they wept over the Apostle Paul's neck when they knew He was to be martyred had left this zealousness. They had forgotten. Have you? Beloved, this sin is great consequences for a church body. Christ is stern in His warning to let this particular sin go no further. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the first works. This church was called to remember where they once were, that original love that they had had. We're reminded of David's request from the Lord when his sin had blinded him, return to me the joy of my salvation. That's what the church was called to do, To remember. Will you remember of His covenant faithfulness? Will you remember what you witnessed tonight? What you witnessed tonight? A baptism of a covenant child. What a sign of His work amongst you. That God's children are set apart and that His covenant of grace is an assurance to us that we are His children and heirs of the promise. In a few weeks, will you remember? And what about our cadets? Seeing them grow in the fear and admonition of the Lord. He's working amongst us. He's working amongst us. How easy it is as time goes to become terribly passive and forget the past. And so he tells them to repent and do the first works. Not only confess your sin to God, turn from it and return back to where you once were. That's what the church at Ephesus was called to do. If they decided to continue down this path of rebellion, it would be costly. Or else, he says, the Lord, I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place. What this means is, look, I will take away what supports you, what supports your church. The Lord is threatening to take away His blessing of His presence as the true light and let the church go His own way. A church can go on, beloved. A church can go on without the presence of Christ's blessing while they think they're doing the right thing. What a judgment to be given over a sin to a sin they do not even see. What a sin to leave one's first love. And yet, even in this, Christ has promised that He will build His church and the gates of hell will not prevail. What grace. Hold fast, beloved, in thankfulness of this grace in a time of great compromise and that is what we are in. Be assured of that. Remember God's calling for you to return to that first love as a people of God. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Amen. Our Father in heaven, may we never leave our first love. Return to us, O Lord, the joy of our salvation to know that we have been redeemed and bought and made anew by the blood of Jesus Christ. Set those things before us, O Lord, to take joy only in you and what you have done. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you.