is Revelation 2, verses 1-7. In this chapter, we will read about a church that is in need of revival, which is our theme. The following headline was taken from the Denver Post, January 20, 1905. The following story, I should say. For two hours at midday, all Denver was held in a spell. The shops of trade were deserted between noon and two o'clock this afternoon, and all worldly affairs were forgotten. And the entire city was given over to meditation on higher things. The spirit of the Almighty pervaded every nook. Going to and coming from the great meetings, thousands of men and women radiated this spirit which filled them. And the clear Colorado sunshine was made brighter by the reflected glow of the light of God shining from happy faces. Seldom has such a remarkable sight been witnessed. An entire city in the middle of a busy weekday bowing before the throne of heaven and asking and receiving the blessing of the king of the universe. Imagine if we could read a headline like that story in today's newspapers. The New York Times, perhaps. The first week when we started this series on revival, we looked at the issue of what is revival? It seems a logical starting point. What is it? What does it look like? So we went from Old Testament to New, and looked at several examples of what we would call revival. The second week we looked at the need for personal revival, because that seems a logical next starting place, okay? We've learned what is revival, what's it look like. Now we need to say, I need revival. And I stand here as your minister, confess to you that I need revival. This is not me preaching to you. Last week was about, I need revival. And I'm assuming that if I need it, it's possible you might need it too, individually. That it does me no good to sit here and talk about how terrible the world is if I've got problems. It's just changing the subject. It's me fiddling with other people and focusing on their problems and presuming to be their counselor when I've got my own mess to fix. I need to address me first, number one. And that's what last week was about. Today we progress to the next logical step, corporate revival. And here I'm not addressing the nation or this town, I'm addressing this church, us, as a corporate unit. That we need revival. And what we see in Revelation 2, 1-7, is a church that needs revival. And this is striking. To the angel 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, 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 namesake and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore, remember from where you have fallen and repent and do the deeds you did at first, or else I am coming to you and I 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." Before we get to the heart of this passage, let's just look at some of the things to consider here in the text. The angel, he's writing this to the angel. Almost all commentators believe this means the pastor of the church. Not because every pastor is a little angel. not because they're angelic beings, but because the word for angel, angelos in Greek, can be translated either way, messenger or angel. And it's just a translator's decision whether to put messenger in there or angel. Most of them believe that it is referring to the minister, for after all, the minister seems to be included in the commendation and the rebuke. The angel. If you're writing this to the angel, and then you're rebuking that person, as well as commending them, That seems to not refer to an angelic being who would not be subject to rebuke. The message is delivered to the minister just as in the Old Testament the message is delivered to the prophet. And then that person has the responsibility to deliver it to the people. Sometimes Jeremiah tried to keep inside what God gave him. I don't want to tell them this. And he said it burned in him so bad he had to speak it. It was something he didn't want to say, and he knew they weren't going to like it, and he had to say it anyway. It works in the New Testament somewhat like it did in the old. God writes a letter to the angel of the church, which would be the minister, and then he takes that message to the church and says, this is the letter I got. This is what God says. This is what Christ says. Christ specifically is writing this. Thus saith the Lord." Now, the reality of false prophets in this world, and there are many, and Jesus said there would be many. 1 John says there will be many. Peter said there will be many. That can make us look at ministers with a very jaundiced eye and say, yeah, maybe what you're saying is right. And we need to have a sense of discernment. We need to be Bereans, and I've frequently told you this, you need to be Bereans who search the Bible yourself and discern whether these things are so. You can't just carte blanche say, well, he says he's a minister, he says he loves God, and he says he likes the Bible, therefore we just need to receive everything he says without questioning any of it. I'm not saying that at all. But we can get so much into the I need to be on guard and discernment method that we are setting ourselves up as the own arbiter of truth, and then if the message comes to the minister to deliver to the people, then we have to say, is this from God or from the devil? It's one of two places. There's two people to send you messages. One is the devil and one is God. And so if you search the scriptures and you see that what I'm saying to you is so, and it seems to be a message from God, then you should receive it, of course, and heed it, and act upon it. If it's from the devil, you should get rid of me with all haste, if I'm bringing you messages from the devil. But if you reject a message that I bring you and it's from God, then you can forget me in the equation. I'm irrelevant. I'm just the messenger. And you're rejecting God if his message is truly given to me and I'm giving it to you. But that's the way it works. He sends messengers. He's not going to materialize for you in your bedroom and reveal himself in the flesh. and come and say, hey, it's me, it's Jesus Christ, here's what I have to say to you personally. He sends it to messengers, and then the messenger is supposed to go to the people and tell them. It doesn't mean God doesn't ever speak to congregants, and he always speaks to messengers, I'm not saying that. But this is just his normal mode, this is the way he normally operates. He sends messengers, and then the people have to decide, is this from God or not? Is this messenger delivering God's message to me or not? Christ walks among the churches. That is the message that we get there. We have some of the imagery that you see here already explained for us in Revelation chapter 1. He tells what these symbols are. And Christ is walking in the midst of the churches. That means that Christ is walking in our midst this morning. Who would suggest that if Christ is walking amongst the churches, therefore that he's not walking amongst us? Are we a true church or not? If we are, then Christ is here. He's walking in our midst. This would be, I would think, the primary time that he would show up. When we gather together on Sunday morning. That's the epitome of the church's week, is Sunday morning. He walks in our midst. Take care then. Makes a difference, doesn't it? How you sit in the pew, how well you listen, what you do, how many times you get up and down. There can be good reasons to get up and down. Don't get me wrong. And I understand with children. I understand all that. I'm just saying. It would make a difference, wouldn't it? If we thought Christ was really in the room and he was observing our conduct and he was walking up and down one aisle and around the back and he was looking at all of you, it would make a difference. how you conducted yourself, and how I would conduct myself. So I'm not just preaching here and thinking, well, how's this going to go over with people, or how... Is anybody going to be listening to this on SCTV this afternoon, and what will they think about it? My primary concern would be, you know, Christ is here. What does He think about it? He's my audience. He's listening to what I'm saying. Take care. Verse 7 says, that this, what the Spirit says to the churches. He wasn't here, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, indicating that though this is a specific church, this is a real church in the first century that he's writing to, it has application to the churches. And the book of Revelation was collated and put together and all of John's vision, the apocalypse as it's called, is sent out to all the churches, so the church at Ephesus is going to read what was written to the church at Smyrna, what was written to the church at Philadelphia, and so on. They're going to read each other's stuff. And let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. So, there can be things that apply to us as a church that don't apply as much to other churches. True churches. And there can be stuff that applies more to them than to us. And yet, each of us as churches can take the message written to someone else and go, hmm, take heed. If they fell in that regard, we can fall in that regard. But in this particular church, certain things that are addressed. First of all, they're commended. I mean, commended well. They do a lot of things well, this church does. First thing, I know your deeds. Deeds refers to works, good works. They were doing good works. They weren't just sitting around doing nothing. They did things as a people, as a church. They did good to others. They did good to each other, and they did good probably in their community. They were probably generous. Oftentimes, good deeds refers to works of generosity. They were generous with their money, not stingy. They had done good deeds, were doing good deeds, helping people, denying themselves when the interests of others were more important than their own. Titus 2.14 says that Christ gave himself to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds. He redeemed us so that we would be zealous for good deeds. Now, I'm not sure if this church is zealous for them anymore, but they're doing them. It says in Titus 3.14, our people must also learn to engage in good deeds, to meet pressing needs so that they will not be unfruitful. We talk a lot about good works do not save you. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do good works. You should. You shouldn't even be zealous for them. He says, I know your toil. These were people that didn't just sort of do what was convenient for them. Well, I'll do it if it's convenient. Well, I'll do it if it's easy. They toiled. The word toil implies blood, sweat, and tears. That's what the Greek word behind it implies. I know your toil. This is not easy stuff. They had pain involved in it. This wasn't a church that just said, well, if it costs me nothing, I'll do it. No, they would give to the point of pain. Perseverance. In verse 3 and 4, this word is repeated twice in each of the verses. I know your perseverance. And you have perseverance. Perseverance always in Scripture connotes that there is suffering and persecution involved in the faith, and you're persevering anyway. When people mock you and insult you and treat you with contempt, when they beat you, slap you, throw you in jail, whatever, that doesn't stop you. You keep going in the faith. That's what perseverance is. This church had perseverance. They persevered through difficulties and sufferings. They were not the stony ground hearers that Jesus told about, that they spring up with joy, hey, this is great, until persecution comes and then they're out of here. That wasn't this church. They persevered. He says they've endured and not grown weary. They've endured through the persecution and the persecution didn't make them weary and won't give up. That wasn't them. That wasn't their problem. They persevered in the past. They were still persevering. They were no more inclined to compromise their principles than before. They were enduring. They had not grown weary. Compromise was not their problem. They could not tolerate evil men. They practiced church discipline. A lot more than we can say for most churches. They couldn't tolerate evil men. They put them out, expelled them, excommunicated them. They believed who Jesus, when he said a little leaven, excuse me, Paul, a little leaven leavens the whole lump. They know bad company corrupts good morals. You let cancer sit there and it will grow. They knew that. They couldn't, they didn't tolerate evil men. They weren't like the modern American church that thinks tolerance is a virtue. We tolerate people here. 1 Corinthians 5, where Paul rebuked them for their tolerance. Not that it wasn't their problem. They put them out. They tested false apostles, meaning they understood the scriptures, and they knew right from wrong, and they knew the truth, and they knew what wasn't truth. And they were savvy with respect to false apostles. They could recognize, that's sheep's clothing. That's just an appearance of righteousness. You're not really righteous. You're just an appearance of it. You're a fake. And they could tell. And they knew it. They tested false apostles. They knew how to test them. And they found them to be false. And they got rid of them. Pretty good stuff. They weren't stupid people. They weren't gullible. Well, he says he's a Christian. Talks about the scripture. I wasn't them. They hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans. John Gill says of the Nicolaitans that these were people who committed fornication, adultery, and all uncleanness, and they had their wives in common. Wives were common property, they'd share them back and forth. That was the Nicolaitans. And they ate things offered to idols. This church couldn't stomach that sort of thing. They thought that was disgusting. They hated that. They hated the same things God hated. They were in line with God. God's offended with that, they're offended with it. They were a church with many strengths, and this is what struck me. This would be considered today a solid church. Solid. By most people who would call themselves Calvinist or Reformed. This would be a church you'd recommend. Go to that church. This church would be on sermon audio. They're doctrinally sound. They wouldn't be considered a good church, but it would be a great church today. And yet, consider, they are rebuked. I have this against you. And this is no small thing. This is not like, hey, you know, on a score of 10, you got 9 out of 10, and there's just this one little problem, and it's not really essential anyway, so I hate to even bring it up. No, that's not the tone of this. I have this against you, and unless you repent, I am going to come over and go, you're done. You're finished. Wow. You've left your first love. What would the first love of any Christian be? In talking to Christians, you're talking about new creatures. When they were made new in Christ Jesus, and it's not the old man anymore, there's a new creature. What did they love? They loved Christ. They loved His Word. They loved His people. They loved their neighbor. They're loving people. Christ first and foremost, when the person is first born again, and they're coming out of their bondage into freedom, when they're coming out of the heavy load of sin on their back, like Christian, and it falls off their back, it's because they're looking at the cross, and they're finding deliverance in Jesus Christ. He is the object of their first love. And it would seem that when Jesus writes to this church and says, you've left your first love, it is a subtle way of saying, you've left me. You have left me. We are like little ducklings who imprint when we're born. Born again. First thing they see, they imprint. And that's what I'm following. I'm following that one. That's my mom. We're like that with Christ. New creatures. We see Christ. Born again, we see Christ. And we follow Him wherever He goes. That love manifests itself. That love for Christ, since He's not here with us, the way that we prove that we love Him, and the way that it's obvious that we love Him, is we love His Word, and we love His Church, and we love other people. This is a big deal. You can tell by the language of the text. Christ is not saying, ah, this is just one little small problem you have. That's not what He's saying. Consider why this is such a big deal. Consider who you've left. The Triune God and Jesus Christ. You were once with Him, and then you left Him. He didn't leave, you did. It's as if you were in the room together and you were having communion and you just got up and walked out and left him. You've left your first love. This is all they're doing. They've left. Who do you think you just walked out on? I mean, would people in authority appreciate it? If you're a child and you're under the authority of your parents, would your parents appreciate it? If they were sitting there talking to you, you just got up and walked out? But I'm talking here. Where are you going with someone in authority appreciated if we just walked out in the middle of their sentence? It's a sign of great disrespect. It means that we don't think the person that we walked out on is important and we don't think their words are very important. We've got better things to do than to listen to you. That's what it implies. It means that he wrote a book for you and he put things in it that he thinks is important for you to know and you barely read it? What does that say? And I'm speaking to myself here, too. I have been neglecting the Word of God. I've been living off the fumes of previous years' investments into the Scriptures. Oh, sure, I know them. I know where stuff's found, I can tell you. And I can rest in that and think, I know the scriptures. I know them. Pick a verse, any verse, I can probably tell you where it's found. Good job. But I've not been in them. Except to study for preparations. But not for personal need. Left. Left the first love. It would be as if You had a relative, and they set up a Vonage account, they live long distance, and they set up an account for you to call long distance, and you never call. Well, we have our own Vonage account, it's called Prayer, and if we neglect prayer, it shows that we really don't care much about communion with him. There's no way of getting around what it suggests. These Christians were offended by false teachers, they were disgusted with the Nicolaitans, but they were not offended by their own coldness toward God. Neglect is set in. It's like a husband and wife, where neglect is set in. And you can tell. The children can tell. They can see the distance. They can see that mom and dad really don't love each other. anymore. They may be used to, but not anymore. Neglect has set in. And they just coexist. They just live in the same house. And they're both really busy. And they don't maybe openly quarrel with one another and make war with one another in front of the children or do that. They just sort of live apart. They live separate lives. They do their own thing. And usually a lot of times what will happen is as soon as the kids are grown up and out of the house, The only thing that the mom and dad, the husband and wife, had in common is now sort of gone. It was their mutual affection for their children that kept them somewhat in the vicinity of each other, and now what do they do? There's nothing left to keep them there anymore. So they divorce and they're done. That's what it can be like with God. Just neglect sets in. We're not quarreling with him openly, we just We just sort of coexist. He's just not a big part of our life. We can go day after day after day and never read the book he wrote for us and never talk to him and not really miss it. Because we've grown used to not doing it. Love is the sum and substance of the whole law. Love sums up everything. We have to do the right things for the right reason. We have to do the right thing out of love or it's worthless. If we defend the sound doctrine, like this church apparently did, it must be because we love God. If we put out evil men, it must be because we love God and even love that person and know that's what's best for them. If we reject false teachers and false teaching, it must be because we love God and we love His people. If we speak the truth, we must speak the truth in love. So Paul said in Ephesians, meaning it's very possible to speak the truth and not speak it in love, or he wouldn't have said it that way. Just speaking truth and say, okay, well truth is always bound up in love, truth is always loving. No, it's not. I can speak the truth and not speak it in love. I can just be venting, I can not have your interest at heart at all, and what I can say can be absolutely true. But we must speak the truth in love. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, 1-7, if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and I don't have love, I've become a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal. That's irritating. Who wants to listen to that? The cymbals are one of those instruments that have no use in society whatsoever other than a band performance. Other than that, they're just annoying. Nobody wants to sit there to a cymbal solo. No one's going to show up for that recital. It's irritating to listen to. It wasn't created for that. That's what Paul says we are if we speak with the tongues of men and of angels and don't have love. If I have the gift of prophecy and I know all mysteries and all knowledge, boy I know the Bible, I can explain any passage you want to explain. And I don't have love? If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but I don't have love, I'm nothing. Oh, I believe God, I step out in faith, I trust Him for things, I trust Him for my finances, I don't have to know what's coming next, but I don't have love, so what? If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, wow, if I surrender my body to be burned, if I go to be burned at the stake because I'm a martyr, But I don't have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient. Love is kind and is not jealous. Love does not brag and is not arrogant. Love does not act unbecomingly. It does not seek its own. It is not provoked. It does not take into account a wrong sufferer. It does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but it rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. That's what Christ prices. Matthew Henry says, the first affections of men towards Christ and holiness in heaven are usually lively and warm. God remembered the love of Israel's espousals when she would follow him with us wherever he went. These lively affections will abate and cool if great care be not taken and diligence used to preserve them in constant exercise. Christ is grieved and displeased with his people when he sees them grow remiss and cold toward him, and he will one way or other make them sensible that he does not take it well from them. The church is then exhorted, commended and rebuked, and then exhorted, remember from where you have fallen. He says, Jeremiah 2, 1 through 5, God reminded Israel from where she had been and where she had been fallen. 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, your following after me in the wilderness through a land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the first of his harvest. All who ate of it, that is, persecuted it, became guilty. Evil came upon them, declares the Lord. Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord. What injustice did your fathers find in me that they went far from me and walked after emptiness and became empty? Remember the days in Acts 2, 42-47? This church could have perhaps remembered some of those days. They might have experienced the same sort of revival that was poured out in Acts 2 by the Spirit and started something like this. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. They were devoting themselves to these things. Can we say the same? Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe, and many wonders and signs were taking place with the apostles. Well, we can't reproduce that. Of all those who had the need were together and had all things in common, and they began selling their property and possessions, and they were sharing them with all as anyone might have need. Day by day, Day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day, those who were being saved. And as I said last week or two weeks ago, I've been here eight years and the sun was just not telling me something, three conversions, and I rejoice in those. there was adding day by day to their number. Conversion wasn't a rare thing. Wow, a conversion! And that's what all the authors of old speak of. They say, when revival comes, things happen in 30 minutes that took 30 years to occur before. That's the difference. Remember how you used to read your Bible? Or as now you hardly do? Remember how you used to pray, whereas now you greatly neglect it? And it's not, though, when you get back in prayer, it's not like this miserable experience. When you read the Scriptures, it's not like, God, I hate this book. No, that's not the way you feel. You actually like it. And then you neglect it again. You just don't do anything about it. Remember how you used to talk about spiritual things, whereas now it's just mostly worldliness? Remember when you were generous with your money and your time and you helped others out and now you just think about how this is going to cost you? Remember how you used to witness others and testify to the truth and you were bold and now you're kind of cowardly and you keep your mouth shut all the time? Remember how you used to trust God and step out in faith and trust him for your provision and now you don't believe anything unless you see it? It's all about, well, do I have it in my budget? His next instruction is repent. Turn back from your lazy approach to following Christ. Turn back from your lethargy. Turn back from your coasting, easy-going mentality. Turn back from your worldly rationalizations of the status quo. You left Christ. You left Him. Go back to Him. He's still there. Go back to Him. Do the deeds you did at first, He says. Do what you did at first. Don't talk about doing them. Do them. Don't talk about, yeah, I really need to do that. Do them. Prove yourselves doers of the word. You do realize, of course, that people who are not doers of the word are not Christians. According to James 1, they are merely hearers who delude themselves. People who hear, and then they hear, and then they hear, but they never do it. They delude themselves. They deceive their own hearts. They think that by hearing and hearing and hearing and saying amen to good sound doctrine that therefore they're in good shape. They're not. They must be doers of the word. They must obey it. Apply what they hear. The church is then warned, or else I'm coming to you. Now think about the book of Revelation. We think about it as the coming of Christ. There's different kinds of comings. This one isn't good. This is like when you were a kid and you were quarreling upstairs with your brother and your dad spoke from the bottom of the stairs and said, am I going to have to come up there? Nope. Marvelous ability to be reconciled in an instance. All sunshine and lollipops up here. This is that kind of a threat. I will come to you. If you don't repent, I'm coming to you. And it's not a good kind of coming. It's a threat. And I will remove your lampstand. The lampstand is the source of light to people in darkness. It's the preaching of the scriptures. Why did you trace that word throughout scripture, and particularly the New Testament? You see that. Luke 11.33 says, No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar or under a basket, but on the lampstand. so that those who enter may see the light. That's what light's for. It's to set up a lampstand so that others who are in darkness may see the light. If I could do an illustration, I would here, but I can't. If I could turn out all the lights and shut the blinds and get pitch dark in here, and then all eyes would be right here. This would be the only thing you'd really see. Your eye would be drawn to it. That's what this world is like. That's what Seneca is like. Utter darkness. People have no clue what the truth is. No clue. And the scriptures, and the preaching of them, and the explaining of them, is the light. In John 3, 19-21, Jesus says, this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, meaning himself, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and they don't come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God. Those who practice the truth, those God's working on and He's stirring in their spirit, they do come to the light. You are the salt of the earth, Jesus says in Matthew 5, but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. This is a warning to Israel, and of course it was fulfilled upon Israel. They were thrown out and trampled underfoot by men because they ceased to be the light of the world. You are the light of the world, Jesus says. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand. And it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Christ will remove the lampstand over one thing, even though the church is doing lots of other things well. They have left him. They have left their first love. They're just going through the motions. And he will remove the lampstand and he will leave that entire community in darkness. And there will be no light there and everyone in that town will perish. Unless light is provided somewhere else. That they can get to. But there's... Internet's good, but it's no substitute for real church. TV church is way down here. And church is not just watching something on a screen or listening to it. It's participating in the body of Christ. It's one body, many parts. The hand cannot say to the foot, I don't need you. You're supposed to be part of the church, not just sitting on a couch watching it on television. That's not church. If a person is stranded and they have no way to get out, or they have no other Christians in their community, like we read, whenever I read that from Heart Pride ministry, about some of the missionaries that they support, and they're the only Christian in their entire village, and they don't have TV or internet. But if they did, that would be a blessing to them, but it's not church. What does a land scan removal look like? Here I speculate. One possibility is that Christ will see to it that the church is an empty shell. It would mean in our own case that no one needs for church here anymore. This is just a building sitting on the highway. Another tribute to a bygone era. Another empty church, and then a growing godless culture. Another one closed. I forget how many churches close every day, but they run statistics on these sorts of things, and there are lots of them closing every day. This would just be closed. There would be no one to come here. There would be no light. Christ would remove the minister is another possibility. He would remove me, if it were applied to this. Either by death, or simply by calling me elsewhere. to another field of ministry, and all of that would depend upon my unusefulness. And no replacement would be found until gradually things would just dwindle down and become nothing. That was the condition of this church when I arrived. They had gotten rid of a good minister for as much information as I can figure out many years ago, and they couldn't find a replacement. And they got interim pastors who'd come from here and there, and somebody come this Sunday, somebody else come that Sunday. No doctrinal unity. And this was a doctrinally sound guy. I know him. And this church dwindled down to almost nothing. The lamp was gone. But he brought light back. Or, Christ could turn the church over to power brokers who quarrel and squabble over control of it until the church is slowly destroyed by people devouring one another. That happens a lot. A new minister could be hired, but he's a false prophet and he successfully fools the church. And he fools the church because that church is under judgment. because they didn't repent and he removed the lampstand and so their ability to see clearly was lost and they brought in a false prophet and pretty soon he's filled up the church with people like himself and they're members and he's lowered the membership standards and now they're members and they can vote and you can't get rid of him it's too late he's entrenched and his people are there entrenched and your only option is really to leave here and go find some place on the light just disappears it's gone That's another possibility. Just a group of people meeting here, and the building's still open, but it's just a semi-religious group of people who don't know the Lord, and they're meeting together for social reasons. The light is gone. It's the only light in the darkness, and it's just removed. Matthew Henry says, If the presence of Christ's grace and spirit be slighted, we may expect the presence of his displeasure. He will come in a way of judgment, and that suddenly and surprisingly upon impenitent churches and centers. He will unchurch them, take away his gospel, his ministers, and his ordinances from them. And what will the churches or the angels of the churches do when the gospel is removed? Supposedly, there is a bit of a disagreement over what happened with the Church of Ephesus after this. John Gill says it survived for quite a while, indicating that they did repent, but eventually, of course, their lampstand was removed. It was eventually removed, and I read here from Albert Barnes, who describes it. A long sense, the Church has become utterly extinct, and for ages there was not a single professing Christian here in Ephesus. Every memorial of there having been a church there has departed, and there are nowhere, not even in Nineveh, Babylon, or Tyre, more affecting demonstrations of the fulfillment of ancient prophecy than in the present state of the ruins of Ephesus. A remark of Mr. Gibbon in his book Decline and Fall will show with what exactness the prediction in regard to this church has been accomplished. He is speaking of the conquest of the Turks, that is, the Muslims. In the loss of Ephesus, the Christians deplore the fall of the first angel, the extinction of the first candlestick of the revelations. The desolation is complete and the temple of Diana, or the Church of Mary, will equally elude the search of the curious traveler. In other words, that was destroyed too. Thus the city, with the splendid Temple of Diana and the church that existed there in the time of John, has disappeared, and nothing remains but unsightly ruins. The ruins lie about ten days' journey from Smyrna, and consist of shattered walls and remains of columns and temples. The soil on which a large part of the city is supposed to have stood, naturally rich, is covered with a rank, burnt-up vegetation, and is everywhere deserted and solitary, though bordered by picturesque mountains. A few grain fields are scattered along the side of the ancient city. Toward the sea extends the ancient port, a pestilential marsh. Along the slope of the mountain and over the plain are scattered fragments of masonry and detached ruins, but no thing can now be fixed on as the great temple of Diana. There are ruins of a theater. There is a circus or stadium, nearly entire. There are fragments of temples and palaces scattered around. But there is nothing that marks the site of a church in the time of John. There is nothing to indicate that even such a church then existed there. Consecrated, first of all, to the purposes of idolatry, Ephesus next had Christian temples, almost rivaling the pagan, in splendor, wherein the image of the great Diana lay prostrate before the cross. After the lapse of some centuries, Jesus gives way to Muhammad, and the crescent glittered on the dome of the recently Christian church. A few more scores of years, and Ephesus has neither temple, cross, crescent, nor city, but is desolation, a dry land in a wilderness. What is affirmed here of Ephesus has often been illustrated in the history of the world, that when a church has declined in piety and love and has been called by faithful ministers to repent and has not done it, it has been abandoned more and more until the last appearance of truth and piety has departed, and it has been given up to error and to ruin. This same principle is as applicable to individuals, for they have as much reason to dread the frowns of the Savior as churches have. If they who have left their first love will not repent of the call of the Savior, they have every reason to apprehend some fearful judgment, some awful visitation of his providence that shall overwhelm them in sorrow as a proof of his displeasure. Even though they should finally be saved, their days may be without comfort, and perhaps their last moments without a ray of conscious hope. or we'll remove your candlestick is the threat. Isn't it amazing that a church that has so much going for it would just be removed? Our thinking is, they're doing a lot of stuff well. What will happen if they're removed? Darkness. And he's willing to bring darkness if we don't repent. They didn't tolerate evil men. They practiced church discipline. They tested false prophets and rejected them. They were discerning. They had sound doctrine. They had good deeds. They had perseverance under persecution. They hadn't grown weary. And they did all this for Christ's namesake, it says. They even did it for his name. And still, they were in danger of having their candlestick removed and snuffed out, leaving Christ offended. It's no other conclusion. This greatly offends him. He doesn't care how much we know, if we're cold about what we know. If we're cold toward God, cold toward other people. If New Hope Baptist Church has left its first love, we've sort of done this as a group, and I know that I have. And it's time for repentance. And if I have, it's possible you have not, but ordinarily that's not the way it works. One minister long ago said the righteousness of a people rarely exceeds that of their minister. It's just kind of the way it works. You see it in all fields of life. They have a leader and that person has a profound influence on the people who are led by him. So it's safe to assume that if I have left my first love and have grown complacent and have grown sluggish and lazy with respect to my relationship with Jesus Christ, it's very possible that you have as well. Maybe not all. But if New Hope Baptist Church does not repent, return and be revived, we're finished. I don't know when, but we are. Let us close with the consideration of a different church that was commended in the opposite way of this one. 2 Thessalonians 1, 3-4. The Thessalonians were a model church. Here Paul says to them, We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as he is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged. It's enlarged, it's growing. You're either growing or you're drifting backwards. The pilgrim's progress is uphill, it's an uphill thing, and if you coast, if you take your foot off the accelerator, you go backwards. There's no coasting. It just doesn't happen. Your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love, here we go, the love of each of you, each one of you, toward one another, grows ever greater. Therefore, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure." So they had not only perseverance in the midst of afflictions like the church that Ephesus did, but their love grew ever greater. It wasn't languishing and diminishing and rotting. Father, we know that when you wrote this, and you gave your son to write it, and sent it to the angel of the church in Ephesus, that it had application for more than that church. And that other churches have left their first love. Not just this one. Application is to the churches. He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Let us take heed, let us hear, and not just hear with the ears, but apply and do, be doers of the word. Give us power to return to you. Though there be some here, I'm sure that have never been with you in the first place. I pray for them that they might come to you for the first time. But for those of us, Lord, who've been with you and we've done sweet communion and fellowship, And through no fault of yours, and through no reason that you ever gave, we just up and left. And we got busy with a hundred million other things. We ask for your forgiveness. Please restore us. And have mercy upon us. And may your light not diminish here, and be snuffed out and removed, but may it grow ever brighter. May the truth abound and may it abound in love. Fill us with your Spirit so that we might be filled with love. In Jesus' name.