This morning, we are confronted with one of the most bracing, really one of the most sobering passages in all the Scripture. In Revelation chapters 2 and 3, we find what are known as the seven letters to the seven churches, or just the letters to the churches. And the passage before us this morning is the first of those letters, the letter to the church in the city of Ephesus. In Revelation 1, the Scriptures make plain to us exactly what these letters are. Revelation 1, we're told that the Apostle John, he's rather advanced in age by this point, he's in exile on the island of Patmos. Through his evangelism, through his gospel work, John had attracted the rage of the Roman authorities. And so they had exiled him to this remote, desolate island in the Mediterranean Sea. And one day, one Lord's Day specifically, as John was there on Patmos, everything, everything that his purely physical senses could perceive fell away. And John was, as he says in Revelation 1 verse 10, in the Spirit. John was engulfed by God the Holy Spirit, and he received this staggering vision. And as the vision began, John was instructed. He was instructed by the glorified Jesus himself that he was to write down everything that he saw. He was to write down, essentially, the book of Revelation, and he was to send his written record to the churches in seven different cities in what we today know as the nation of Turkey. But while Jesus lists the seven specific cities to which John is to send these things, Jesus didn't intend for John to send the record of his vision to only those seven cities. Throughout the book of Revelation, the number seven is deeply significant. Ever since the beginning of time, when God had created all things in six days and rested on the seventh, ever since the dawning of time, the number seven throughout the Scriptures has represented completion or perfection. And that significance of the number seven is on grand display in the book of Revelation. When Jesus tells John that he is to send this written record to the seven churches in Asia, what Jesus means is that John is to send this written record to all of the churches in Asia. In fact, all the churches in the world, the church in its fullness, the church in its perfection, the church of seven. And the first part of this vision that John is to record and to send are these seven letters. Jesus dictates one letter to each of these seven churches in Asia. And these letters peer into the very core of Jesus' church. On the one hand, Each of the letters is very highly individualized. Jesus speaks of particular strengths, particular weaknesses, particular needs in each of the congregations. These aren't generic letters. And yet they're letters for all of their specificity that apply to all churches. If you notice just a minute ago, as you're reading the passage in verse 7, Jesus says, He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." Jesus uses the plural, churches. And if you were to glance ahead, you'd see that Jesus says the same thing to each of the seven churches. What He says to each church is to be read and considered by all of the other churches. Spread throughout these seven letters, Jesus is diagnosing the condition, the need of His church in its fullness. And what He says to one, He says to all. Now, not just in John's day, but in every day, Jesus here is speaking to the fullness of His church. In these seven letters to the seven churches, Jesus is speaking to His church in every age, in every place. Back in Revelation 1 at verse 14, We're told that Jesus's eyes see everything. They radiate light, darkness, obscurity. They scatter before the gaze of Jesus. He sees and He knows everything about His church, everything about His people. And He here is speaking to His people, bringing them comfort, bringing them rebuke. He's speaking to His people in every generation. He's speaking to us. Sometimes, you know, people try to categorize churches today or categorize the church at various eras of history as being one of these seven churches. You know, this is like the church in Ephesus or this is like the church in Smyrna. But that misses the entire point. All of these letters are true of every church in every age. These are Jesus' words to the fullness of His church. He's here diagnosing a spiritual condition that's not confined to one congregation or one age. All of what he says, he says to all of his people in all generations. Now, in our passage this morning, he's speaking specifically, in the first instance, to the church in Ephesus. From the scriptures, we know a fair amount about the church in Ephesus, the Ephesian church. In Acts 19, we read of the apostle Paul spending a considerable amount of time in Ephesus, preaching there, caring for the church there, From what we find in Acts chapter 19, Paul's time in Ephesus was not entirely a peaceful time. The scriptures tell us that there was this huge temple to the false goddess Diana in Ephesus. And many of the people in that city made their living in one way or another connected with the temple and all of the visitors who had come from far away to see it. Ephesus was a pagan city. It was a city whose very livelihood, whose very reputation, was founded upon and centered upon the false worship of false gods. Pagan worship, the lies of pagan false gods, they weren't just in the background in Ephesus. They were what stitched the city together. The central importance of paganism in Ephesus, as you can imagine, caused tremendous problems for the young church in that city. In Acts chapter 19, we read of the people rioting because of the success of Paul's preaching in the city. The men in Ephesus set out to harm the church because they were going against the false worship of Diana. You know, we oftentimes think that we find ourselves in the midst of a hostile culture. Increasingly, we do. But ours is nothing like Ephesus. This was a drag the Christians into the street and beat them and throw them in prison because they won't worship Diana kind of hostile environment. Ephesus was a pressure cooker for the church. And the assaults didn't only come from the outside. In Acts chapter 19, Paul was in Ephesus. In Acts chapter 20, Paul warns the elders of the Ephesian church that false teachers, and Paul calls them wolves, they'll seek to infiltrate the church and lead the people into lies. In the books of 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy, we see that Paul dispatches his most trusted sidekick, Timothy, to Ephesus, essentially to serve as their pastor, to correct some of the theological errors that were seeping into the congregation. The church in Ephesus, as we find it in Acts, is devoted. not even rioting crowds threatening their lives can dissuade these men and women from worshiping Jesus. But the road ahead for them promises to be incredibly long and incredibly hard. In fact, by the time you get to Revelation, the time frame when John would have been receiving this vision, sending this letter to them, decades would have passed since the events of Acts chapter 19 and 20. More than likely, a good number of the original members of the Ephesian church would have died. Their children, perhaps, now were among the members of the congregation. Many decades have passed under the relentless pressure of external hostility, nefarious internal lies. Decades have passed under these pressures. And all of these things have borne their mark on the Ephesian church. And so Jesus has a very pointed, a very gentle, and yet a very direct word for the Ephesian church, a word that has something to say to us as we labor in the word here at seminary, as you prepare to go out into the fields that the Lord is even this moment preparing for you. The church of Jesus Christ must love the truth and love the Lord of truth, for all things are in His hands." Now, the first thing that we need to see this morning is that the church of Jesus Christ must love the truth. You look with me at verses 2 and 3, and then down at verse 6. Beginning in verse 2, we read this, I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil. And thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars, and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted." And then down in verse 6, "'But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.'" Now, the church in Ephesus knew the truth. They knew the gospel. When Paul had warned them about false teachers who would come, when he had sent Timothy to set them straight, the Ephesians evidently had taken it all to heart. They knew the truth of the gospel. They knew it with rigor. In verse 2, John says that the Ephesians have tested men who have come to them claiming to be apostles. And every time, without fail, the Ephesians had unmasked these men as liars. These Ephesians weren't a people who listened uncritically. They knew what Paul had taught them. They knew what Timothy had taught them. They knew what the Scripture said. And if anyone came in teaching anything else, they forced that man out. They examined everything that they heard. So often today, it seems like if a man or a woman claims to be a Christian, goodness knows if he or she gets a book published by a supposedly Christian publisher, Everyone in the church just drinks in what that person teaches and what that person writes, even if it's wrong. Even when it's patently contrary to the scriptures that we've been given. But the Ephesians aren't like that. They know the truth and they wanted nothing to do with lies and they examined everything that they heard. And they were zealous in this love for the truth. Verse two, Jesus says, the Ephesians, can't not bear them, which are evil. The words that Jesus uses there, you even could translate them something like, will not tolerate. The Ephesians were intolerant. They were intolerant of those who would come and spread lies under the guise of the gospel. Down in verse 6, it may have struck you, Jesus says that the Ephesians hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans. Now, we don't know much about the Nicolaitans, other than that they were a group of false teachers at that time, and for their false teaching, for their lies, the Ephesians hated them, hated them just as Jesus hated them. The living God loves His people, and He loves the gospel, and those who distort it Those who seek to disfigure the gospel of Jesus Christ, God hates them. Those are strong words. Those are words that might make some uncomfortable. But if we're able to see as God sees, if we're able to see with complete, holy, searing clarity, we're able to see the unspeakable value, the unmixed beauty of the gospel, and the obscenity of distorting that gospel, if we're able to see the blackness of the hearts of those who would seek to obscure the word of life, we might not be so uncomfortable. Certainly, the Ephesians saw with clarity. They realized the gospel was their only hope. It was the only hope for all men and women. And they realized that those who sought to undo that gospel were sending souls to hell with their lies, and they hated them. The Ephesians knew the truth. And with the zeal that ought to make us hang our heads in shame, they care about the truth. And they've cared about the truth for a long time, through many tribulations, As Jesus points out in verse 2, the Ephesians have been laboring to protect the integrity of the gospel for a long time. They've worked, they've labored, they've shown patience, they've persevered. Through it all, they've never become weary. Imagine they live in a city that defines itself by, that prides itself on the false worship of a false goddess. It's all around them. And to teach Anything to the contrary, people won't hear it. They won't hear it because if the false goddess is false, their livelihoods are gone. The money is gone. And so the church is endlessly barraged by lies and deceptions. The false teachers keep cropping up. year after year after year. They put down a lie, then they have to put it down again years later. It's easy to defend the truth the first time. But when it grinds on and nobody seems to care, it gets wearisome. But not for the Ephesians. Imagine what a deep, palpable comfort must have settled upon the Ephesians when, in verse 2, They read Jesus say, I know. All of the labor that didn't seem to matter to anybody else, Jesus knew it. The thankless, repeated defenses of the truth, Jesus knew it. The times they had stood up for gospel truth and doubtlessly had been shouted down by a world that wanted darkness rather than light, Jesus knew it. All of their thankless, unending, At times, I'm sure, seemingly fruitless labors, Jesus had seen them, and they were precious in His sight. After all the struggles, the Ephesians here are told by Jesus Himself that He delights, that in Ephesus, the church of Jesus Christ loves the truth. Now, what would He say about you? Do you love the truth? You're here training to be a pastor, training to be a missionary, training to be a counselor, perhaps a teacher. You're studying the scripture. You're doing exegesis. You're reading theological texts. Are you giving yourself to those tasks as one who loves the truth? Not who just values a grade, but who loves the truth. Because the training you're doing here is precisely for the purpose that one day you might be, as the Ephesians were, zealous for the truth and knowledgeable about the truth and intolerant of any variation from the core of Jesus's saving gospel. Are you undertaking your education with a dedication that reflects the weightiness of that calling? Because one day you will find yourself in the midst of a people entrusted to your care who need you to know the truth and to be ready to defend it, even when it's hard, even when it's terribly unpopular. Or what about you, my colleagues? Do you labor here because you love the truth? Or is it just a job? Or do you sort of like the elevated profile? Or do you love the truth? And let me assure you, brethren, all of us, that in your labors, your labors here in seminary, the labors that lie ahead for you in years to come, Jesus knows, and Jesus sees, and He delights when His people love the truth. the church of Jesus Christ must love the truth." But there's more, of course, in the passage. Pressing forward, we see that the church of Jesus Christ must love the truth and love the Lord of the truth. And look at verses 4 and 5. Beginning in verse 4, we read this, Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent." Now, these are the staggering words. Jesus just has commended the Ephesians for their love of the truth, And then he says that he has one thing against them. They've left their first love. You know, people argue about exactly what Jesus means here. What is this first love that the Ephesians have left? Well, it's love for Jesus. Not just an almost intellectual commitment to the truths of the gospel, but a love for Jesus. A heart that loves him, that wants to be with him, that wants to be like him. a heart that, outside of any theological debate with the Nicolaitans, just loves Jesus, that warms to be with Him. The Apostle Paul, as a prisoner in Roman chains, and incidentally, as a man who defended precise gospel truth more stridently, more patiently than anyone else, that Paul, in Roman chains, said that he wanted to die so that he could finally just be with Jesus. All of the truth, all the doctrine, it was fantastic. But what Paul loved wasn't the argument and it wasn't the doctrine. What he loved was Jesus. And that's the love that's grown cold in Ephesus. Now, certainly that would have ripple effects. Love for Jesus manifests itself in love for his people. So the Ephesians perhaps were experiencing some coldness in their fellowship with each other, coldness in their service to each other. They doubtlessly had become more hesitant about evangelism. They were perhaps happy to dispute amongst themselves or dispute with false teachers. But to tell the pagan on the street corner about Jesus, maybe not quite so interested. There would have been untold ripple effects. But at the center of it, the Ephesians' love for Jesus had grown cold. But Jesus tells them what to do to kindle it again. In verse 5, Jesus gives three very specific things that the Ephesians are to do to rekindle their love for him when it had grown cold. First, Jesus tells them that they are to remember from whence thou art fallen. The Ephesians are to remember. remember the love that they had for Jesus before. They're to remember the way that Jesus used to make their hearts sing, how he used to make everything else seem so insignificant. They're to remember the enrapturing love for him that had made them care so much about the gospel in the first place. They're supposed to remember the love that had made them step outside of their culture in the first place, back before all of the theological debates had begun. And having remembered that, the Ephesians, secondly, are to repent. They're to confess to God that they've grown cold, that they've loved other things more than they've loved Him, that they've loved the gospel more than they've loved Jesus. That sounds strange, but it's entirely possible for a man to love the gospel, to love the prospect of eternal life. to love the benefits that Jesus brings, to love the intellectual study of and defense of the gospel more than he loves Jesus of Nazareth. And that's where the Ephesians are. And John tells them, Jesus tells them to repent. And then thirdly, Jesus tells them to do the first works. Those things that they first had done. back when they really loved Jesus. They're to do them again. They're to do those things that first stoked and kindled their love for Jesus in the first place. Go back to the things that had fostered their love for Jesus at the start. If they don't, if the Ephesians don't change, if they don't repent, if they don't start loving Jesus again, Jesus will take their church away. That's serious. Jesus is pleased that the Ephesians know the truth, and he's pleased that they're tireless in defending it. But if they don't love him, none of it matters. This is serious. And it's serious for us this morning. What Jesus tells us here ought to rattle us to our very core, us perhaps more than others. What he's telling us is that there are people who know the gospel, people who would not abide any error in that gospel, who would oppose all manner of worldliness, all manner of deceptions, yet who have lost their love for Jesus. Is that you? Do you really just love what you expect that Jesus can give? Eternal life, all the rest? Are you really just committed to the church out of habit or out of the expectation of others? Do you just like the intellectual certainties of the gospel? Do you just like to be the big guy with the answers who can explain the concepts, use some fancy words? Or do you love Jesus? This morning, if you've grown cold in your love for Jesus, if you've left your first love, You must heed Jesus's instructions. Remember the love that you had. Remember how the thought of Jesus, the very name of Jesus, once thrilled your heart. How all you wanted to do was be with Him, to know Him better. Remember your zeal for the Word. All of those exegetical papers ago, all of those Bible reading plans ago, your irrepressible desire to just read the Bible. and to pray about it. You remember and repent of how far you've fallen. And then here's the crucial thing. Do your first works again. Read the Bible. Even if it means making yourself read the Bible, read the Bible. Not for a class, but to be with Jesus. You pray. Even if it feels like a chore, pray. Be in worship. Be around God's people. It's tragic. So often, if a Christian has his love for Jesus wane, and that makes reading the Bible, praying, worship, it makes all of those things less appealing. The man just doesn't feel like doing them. And so he stops. You have to study anyway, right? Maybe private worship, you can just let it slide for a while. You're reading the Bible for class anyway. You suppose that if you force yourself to do these things, that'll only build more resistance and won't really be sincere anyway, and so you step back, ostensibly hoping that something will happen to draw you in again. Well, that's exactly the opposite of what we must do. If your love for Jesus has grown cold, and you're just really not interested in reading the Bible on your own anyway, it's precisely that moment that you must read the Bible. It's when you don't want to pray that at precisely that moment you must pray. It's when you're so bored with the faith that you would rather just skip a Sunday at church to study, it's then that you have to come to worship. Not because any of these things are going to win God's favor. Not because there's some sort of magic token. but because these are the ways through which God draws near to His people. They're ways in which He shows His love for His people, that He stokes and fans their love for Him. Even if after week, after week, after week, if you're just not kindling the love again, continue in it. And we live in a romanticized culture We want to have some glow develop in our hearts in an unexplained sort of way, a glow that will make us want to read the Scriptures or want to go to worship. But we're sinners, and sometimes there is no glow. And so we read and we pray and we read and we pray and we read and we pray, and the Spirit blesses it and the glow comes back. Sometimes it's doing the acts of obedience, placing ourselves under God's Word. that God uses to kindle the love as we do the things that we did at the first. The church of Jesus Christ must love the truth and love the Lord of truth. But there's one final thing that we need quickly to see. The church of Jesus Christ must love the truth and love the Lord of truth, for all things are in His hands. And look at me first at verse 1. Then down at verse 7, verse 1, we read this, Under the angel of the church of Ephesus write, These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. Then down in verse 7, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. And in verse 1, Jesus refers to Himself in terms of certain details of the vision that John had recorded back in chapter 1. In chapter 1, John had seen Jesus walking among seven lampstands, or candlesticks, that represented the seven churches, and he had seen Jesus holding seven stars in His hands, which, Revelation tells us, represented the angels, spiritual representatives of the seven churches. That vision had been showing John that the church was in Jesus' hand. The church was under His protective gaze. The church belonged to Jesus, and He had it under His care. In verse 1 of our passage this morning, Jesus reminds the Ephesians of all of this. When Jesus goes on to tell them what He's going to tell them, He wants them to know. He wants them to remember that His people are in the deep of His hand and the church is under His sovereign control. He is in the midst of them. So they're to be encouraged when they love and defend the truth because it's all in God's hand and He will not allow it to be obscured. This even, and it may sound strange, It even invests Jesus' dire warning in verse 5 with gentleness, with hope. If the church in Ephesus disappears, it won't be because the Nicolaitans have won the debate. It won't be because a new set of false apostles have sowed lies in the congregation. If the church in Ephesus disappears, it won't be because the pagan followers of Diana finally kick all the Christians out of the city. None of those people, none of those groups have any authority over Jesus's church. None of them can take away a lampstand that is under Jesus's piercing gaze. Only Jesus can do that. So rather than fearing these other groups or fretting about potential false teachers, the Ephesians are to set their hearts down on Jesus. It's all in His hands. And so they can give themselves to seeking to rekindle the love that they have for Him. Jesus has them in His hand. The church is His. So rather than worrying about everything else, the Ephesians are to draw near to Him. Those who do, those who truly are His, those who are in His hand, and because they are in His hand, they will persevere to the end. They will be with Him in an endless paradise. Verse 7, Jesus speaks of allowing them to eat of the tree of life. Well, in Revelation 22, verse 2, we're told that in the new heavens and the new earth, there will be the tree of life. In the realm of endless day, where there is no more sun, where all of the light comes from the face of Jesus, there is the tree of life. And Jesus will bring His people there. He'll bring the Ephesians there. All of their tolls, all of their labors will be ended. Their disputes with false teachers will be no more. And they will be there with Him. That ought to fill even their most repetitive, their most thankless labors with joy. And it ought to make them long to love more and more the Jesus in whose presence they will live forevermore. The Ephesians don't need to worry about anything else. All of it is in Jesus's hands and his people will feast with him through all of eternity. Do you know the piece of that this morning? The future may well hold hardship, hardship for you as an individual, hardship for your family, hardship for the congregation where you serve, hardship for the church throughout our nation, throughout the world. Hardship may well lie ahead, and it may last a long time. But on the far side of it, there is a river flowing out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, and it waters the tree of life. And God's people will be there, eating life. Let that sink into your soul. If you belong to Jesus, you will be there. What worries can there be from the trials of this life? What more important work can there be than seeking to rekindle and to build and to strengthen our love for the Jesus who will fill that world with His light? Being the church, being Jesus's servants in the midst of this world never is easy. There's opposition, there's seeming discouragement, No one won't bear the truth, but Jesus wants his people to tell it and he wants them to tell it tirelessly and to do so out of hearts that love him above all else. Loving Jesus, serving Jesus as we await that day when the uncreated light of Jesus's face will light our way to the tree of life. That promise makes our struggles glow. and it ought to make our love for Jesus burn. The church of Jesus Christ must love the truth and love the Lord of truth for all things are in his hands. May God be pleased in us and may our love for Jesus grow until it covers the mountains and fills the seas. Amen. Let's pray. Our great God and Father in heaven, we rejoice this morning that the Lord Jesus is in the midst of His church, that He walks among the candlesticks and protects and nurtures those who are His. And we do give Thee thanks, O Lord, for the opportunity that Thou has given all of us in different capacities to be here and to apply ourselves to the knowledge of the truth And Lord, grow us in our knowledge and our understanding that we might articulate and defend and treasure and protect the truth that Thou hast committed unto Thy people. Make us to be men and women who love that truth and who are devoted to it. And in our love for Thy truth, be leading us ever deeper, O Lord, into our love for Jesus, that we might treasure Him. Lord, keep our hearts warm to Christ, even in the midst of mundane labors, even in the midst of opposition and trial. Lord, we give Thee thanks that by Thy Spirit Thou hast kindled our love for Jesus at the first. We beg, O Lord, that by that same Spirit, Thou wouldst keep us warm and enduring in our love for Christ. And Lord, we give Thee thanks that Thou dost indeed reign in all the earth. Lord, make us faithful and be pleased even through the labors of men and women such as ourselves. Be pleased to get glory unto Thy great name. Do what we ask. for we ask it in the marvelous name of Jesus. Amen.