Well, predicting the future is no easy task, is it? Ask any weatherman. The longer the forecast, the less assurance that what they say is actually going to happen, right? Over the years, I've learned there's no sense in trying to determine whether we will or will not have a church service or any kind of event until the night before or the morning of because we just don't know what's going to happen. I have a better guess sometimes than others. Back in 2011, August, a hurricane was headed for us. Some of you remember that Irene was headed straight up the Hudson Valley, and it had done a lot of damage coming up the East Coast. And so we were bracing, wondering, is this a repeat of the hurricane that hit here in the 1930s and tore everything up? It hit right in New York City and broke apart. And the strongest gusts we got here were about 40 miles an hour. And over the course of a couple days, we got four or five inches of rain. But we had canceled the service way in advance. And I just remember, I'm like, why did we do that? And then there was those times, and you're all familiar with this one. Okay, we're gonna have a dusting of snow, right? Maybe an inch. And get plastered. All right. Well, that's weather. Now today is February 2nd. And today is the day that there's a yearly prediction by a large rodent that is made about how long winter is going to last. Yes, it is Groundhog Day. The most famous woodchuck in our area is Punxsutawney Phil. Right? And some of you might even want to go and see what happened to Phil today. It's actually an interesting legend. Supposedly if he sees a shadow, winter continues for six more weeks because today is the middle of winter. That's why today is that. Six more weeks and if he doesn't then, well, it's on to spring. Now this tradition, it was interesting looking it up, it actually traces to a Christian custom of bringing candles to church on February 2nd to have them blessed in order to bring blessing through the remainder of the winter. And in England it became known as Candlemas Day. Now, there was also some other stuff going on on February 2nd because it had been commonly believed that hibernating animals came out of their den on February 2nd to check how things were going and that started becoming used for prognostication of winter. Now, in Germany, they introduced a badger into the mix for this, because badger is a hibernating animal. When Germans migrated here, especially in Pennsylvania, well, there weren't badgers, so they substituted the groundhog. That's how that rodent got in there. Now, according to Britannica, Puxatwani fill has been accurate a little less than 40% of the time. Guess he's not too good at this. Maybe he should switch his forecast. Sunny means early spring, and cloudy means winter continues, but he's sticking with it. Now, one of the characteristics that sets the true God apart from all false gods, and his prophets as true instead of lying prognosticators, is this ability to tell the end from the beginning, to forecast the future with 100% accuracy. In Isaiah, he actually uses this as a challenge to distinguish between the true God and the false gods. In Isaiah 41, 21, and 23, he put, let them bring forth and declare to us what is going to take place. That's the challenge of these false gods or those worshiping them. Declare the things that are going to come afterward that we may know that you are gods. And that's why Deuteronomy 18.22 set a standard for prophets. If your God's prophet is 100% accuracy, anything less than that, you're a false prophet and you should be stoned. Now we're currently studying the book of Revelation and we have confidence in the prophecies that are in it because of where it comes from. The author is God. This is not the metaphysical musings of man. We saw in our study of chapter one, the book is from God the Father, given to Jesus Christ, transmitted through an angel, and written down by the Apostle John for the purpose of revealing what's going to be coming in the future to all those who are God's slaves, all Christians. We saw last week that this was verified by the description of the individual that's telling John what he was supposed to write. And it's none other than the glorified and exalted Jesus Christ. The description we went over last week in Revelation 1, 13 through 18 has a human form, but is clearly something much more than human, having a head and hair white like wool, eyes like a flame of fire, feet like glowing burnished bronze, a voice like the sound of many waters, holding seven stars in his right hand, having a sharp two-edged sword coming out of his mouth, and having a face shining like the sun in its strength. How do we know it's Jesus? It's because of what the rest of the passage describes him. He says he is the one who is the first and the last, the living one, the one who was dead and as behold is alive forevermore and has the keys of death and Hades. Only Jesus Christ fits that description. Well, this morning we're gonna be moving on to Revelation chapters two and three, and no, we're not gonna do both chapters, but that's gonna be the section we're gonna be getting into in which there are seven letters written to seven churches in Asia Minor. Now, a lot of ink has been spilled over the centuries in trying to interpret these letters according to speculation and imagination because what the text It says about the origin and the purpose of the letters is overlooked or explained away. If this is someone other than the Apostle John doing exactly what he was commissioned to do by Jesus, then the book is simply metaphysical musings of a man and it can mean anything only limited by the imagination of the interpreter and that interpreter's ability to convince other people that what he's saying could be true. I discussed that in my second sermon in this series in the section dealing with hermeneutical approaches. Now those who interpret these letters as prophetic of periods of church history actually miss Jesus' direct purpose of each letter to each individual church and it destroys the message of imminency in the prophecies of the book. because the things that are then written could not soon take place and the time could not be near. You're gonna have to wait until all these periods of church history take place. Now many commentators have tried to do that and some would get very interesting. How they try to correlate the message in a letter to some period of church history. But of course, they're gonna vary greatly about which period of time would match the description given to a first century church. And of course, as time has gone on, well, you have to keep adding something, you have to change what the periods would be. For example, the last letter, that to Laodicea, It would be called the latest C and H, and it's marked by a period of being lukewarm in the church, and it comes last. So when would that period be? Depends on which commentator you're looking at. How long ago was it written? Was it medieval times? Was it pre-Reformation? Was it in the 18th, the 19th, the 20th, or is it currently now, the 21st century? Commentators range all over the place and they typically see whatever age they're living in as the last age, that must be the Laodicean age. Or when was the Philadelphia period marked by bold evangelism and being kept from the hour of testing at the same time? So you can have a lot of fun, but of course you have to really know your history. But then if you only history know of one area, you won't know what's going on someplace else. It might be the exact opposite. So here's the reality. The method ignores the fact that throughout history, different churches in different places at the same time period will be experiencing the same things described in these letters. That's always been true. There is no correlation between the characteristics described in the letters to the seven particular churches to periods of time revealed in the flow of church history. And the writings of those who've tried to do so should be placed in books in the fiction section. Now, I know that's a strong statement, but we need to be strong. We don't need to be involved in speculation. Where the Scriptures are clear, we can be clear. Where it is unclear, we can state it. I don't know what that means. In Sunday school this morning, we currently have a class of church discovery, which, by the way, you're welcome to join. I won't be here next week, but the following week, we're going currently over our doctrinal statement, but you're trying to describe the Trinity. Does anybody understand the Trinity? No. Nobody understands the Trinity. Why? Because we're trying to describe characteristics of a God who's far beyond us and different from us. Three persons, one being. I have no idea. Other than that's exactly what he says and veering any way from that becomes heresy because it's not true about God. He's three beings and are three persons in one being. Distinct persons, one being. One God, but three persons within it. And that's all I can do, is here's what it says. Giving things that I can understand reduces God to my understanding, and that means I don't have the right God. If you can understand God fully, you don't have God. Okay? That's the simplest way to put it. And it's going to be true when we're looking through Revelation. There are going to be things described here. We don't know what they are. We only know here's the description given of them. And so it has to be some strong statements with these who want to go allegorical and then try and make up all sorts of things. And then if you actually analyze it, it's not true. Now the specific commission given to John in Revelation 119 was, quote, therefore write the things which you have seen and the things which are and the things which will take place after these things. and John was careful to be obedient to the command given to him about what to write. Chapter one fulfills the whole thing about the things you have seen. It's past tense as he is writing. Chapters two and three are the things which are. Chapter four to the end of the book are the things which will happen after these things, which are the seven letters to the seven churches. So there are seven specific letters with one written to each of seven specific churches in specific locations concerning specific characteristics of that specific church at a specific point in time. And as we examine these letters, you will note as well that Jesus gives specific commands to John about what to write to the messenger of each specific church. Now in saying that, that each letter is specific to a particular church at a particular place and time, concerning particular things happening in that particular church, there is yet a wider application. But there's a difference between interpretation and application. That actually is a normal part of our study of scripture. After determining the proper interpretation of the text, what does it mean? We're looking at the grammar, we're looking at the literary genre of what's in there, we're looking at the historical period so we can interpret it according to what it would have meant to those to whom it was originally written. You define the words according to what it meant then, not now, then. You follow the grammar and things like tenses and parts of speech, that all becomes important to us. And suddenly you find out maybe I should have paid attention in English class back years and years ago. Because it becomes important to us to understand it properly. I want to understand what God is saying here. Now after you've done that, you can take the principle described in the text, explained in the text, declared in the text, and you can apply the principle in your own life. I'll give you an example. In Leviticus 18, there are direct commands given to the Jewish people concerning sexual immorality. Does that apply to us or not? It's specific to the Jewish nation. But each of these commands, God goes declaring his own view of it, his own declarations about the character saying they're abominations. Being that it is God's character making the declarations because of who he is and his view of it, that applies to everybody, not just the Jews. This is what God has said about it, period. That's what these things are. So that's going to apply to us. That's direct. But then in 1 Corinthians 10, 11, Paul points out that the history of Israel in the Exodus was actually written down for our sakes. Long after the exodus, why? Because he said we are to learn from their example what they did right and what they did wrong and not repeat the same things. Don't be like them, we're proud. You can be tempted just like they were and then fall. And so there's an application of the principle that we look into the text to. We're gonna find that as we go through each of these letters. Specific to a specific church, Specific things going on, specific point in time, and yet the principles in it, we can find, can be applied to us. In addition, this point is emphasized by the fact that each of these letters would be seen by each of the other churches, and eventually to all churches, because that is to whom it is eventually written. Back to chapter one, verse one. And then, each of these letters has this universal command. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, plural. So it's to individuals and to every church. So follow along, I'm gonna read chapter two, verses one through seven, and we're gonna come back and look at some of the details. 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, that you cannot tolerate evil men, that 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. Do the deeds you did at first, or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent. Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. Now it'd probably be helpful to have a little bit of a background about the city of Ephesus at that time, so you can understand what the church is going through then, and then where they'd be at when John is writing this letter. Now the city of Ephesus at that time, see next slide, was a very thriving seaport. Came up the Acacia River and then there was a channel cut in seaport here on the left bottom. They had to battle the Keister River because it kept filling the channel with silt. But at that time, it's a thriving seaport. In fact, the most important seaport because there actually was a rule that any high official coming into it had to come in through Ephesus. In addition, its location is where four major roads connected to the rest of Asia meet. And so it's a major commercial center. The population there is estimated between a quarter and a half million people, made up of the original natives there, the Greeks who had colonized from Athens, more recent Greeks as well. They had a very substantial Jewish population. Ephesus was also known as a free city, meaning it was largely self-governing. There were no Roman soldiers stationed there. The city also boasted important things. They had annual athletic games. They had a large coliseum for this, and their games rivaled anything else in Greece. Public buildings included not just this large coliseum, but a very large amphitheater for entertainments. And then most importantly is this Temple of Artemis. Next slide. This was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. 425 feet by 220 feet and 127 ionic columns 60 feet tall. It housed an image of a fertility goddess supposedly fallen from heaven. It's actually told to us in Acts 19.35 as they're proclaiming it and they worship this. It was a very lucrative business to make images of this idol and sell them. Acts 19 describes that. Her image was a hideous fertility fetish. Figures swathed like a mummy, covered with monstrous breasts and holding in one hand a trident and in the other a club. Prostitution was part of the cult worship in the temple. In fact, just to the west of where this temple is and a little bit south was a huge building that was for prostitution. The cult worship there included a lot of other things that simply go with paganism. In addition, the temple and the area around it was declared to be an area of asylum. And so it attracted a lot of criminals who were seeking to escape justice. Now the Apostle Paul stopped at this pagan immoral city on his way back from Jerusalem in AD 51. It's the ending of his second missionary journey, and he's heading back to Jerusalem. He wants to get there before Passover. And so he spends a short time there reasoning with the Jews in the synagogues, and he refuses to stay longer. But he leaves behind Priscilla and Aquila, who had come in with him from Corinth, and they begin the work of planning a church there, along with the help for a short time of Apollos. They discipled him, they trained him, and he eventually went to Corinth. Now Acts 19 records that in Paul's return to Ephesus, late AD 51, early AD 52, on his third missionary journey, he spends three months there debating with the Jews, reasoning with them in the synagogues until they finally, it's not gonna go anywhere. And he leaves them, and then there was a school next to it called the School of Tyrannus, and he preached there, taught there for two years. Now if we go to Acts 19, it says that during the time that Paul is there, he was performing extraordinary miracles through Paul. And the church was growing rapidly. And it was affecting all the surrounding regions. In fact, so many converts, it started to affect the trade in idols. And so Demetrius the silversmith gets upset with this, gets all those involved in this trade, and actually gets a riot started in the amphitheater. For two hours, they start shouting, great is Artemis of the Ephesians, because they're upset. They're not selling the idols, but now they think, okay, you're attacking our goddess. That's the nature of this place. So Paul had been there for a long time. Even after he leaves, other wonderful ministers were there, their name in scripture, Timothy, Anesophorus, Tychicus, and then the apostle John himself was there sometime 66 AD or maybe a little later until he was exiled to Patmos and then for a little while after he returned from exile. Strong teaching there, a strong church. It would be a wonderful church. But this letter that is being written to them now is 44 years since its founding. It's 34 years since Paul's letter to it was written. Most of that first generation, they passed away. They're not there any longer. And a second generation has arisen and they have a different experience. There'll be some things they just take for granted because that's how they grew up. For those of you who are second, third, or more generation Christians, you just accept some things because you've been raised in a Christian home. If you're first generation, you know what you were saved from. It is clear in your mind. And so there's gonna be a difference in how the church is gonna be functioning. For those that have grown up in church, A lot of these things are taken for granted, results in kind of a lack of fervency that'd be characterized to first generation Christians converted out of paganism. Keep that in mind as we go through this. Now Revelation 2.1 identifies both the author and recipient of the letter. 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, So the letter is actually addressed to the angel of the church of Ephesus. The term angel here, some of you may have some translations that use the term messenger. That's what the word means. Angelos is a messenger. And here it is not a supernatural being as I explained last week. A holy angel will not be addressed the way these angels are going to be addressed in these seven letters. This is a respected human messenger, one that is going to take the letter to that church. It's written specifically to him as representative of the church. And so throughout that, that's actually what's gonna happen there. The term you there is first person singular, second person singular. It's you, an individual. But it's gonna stand in for you, plural, all of the Ephesians, the whole church. Now the speaker dictating the letter here is Jesus Christ. He identifies himself here in the same descriptive terminology, or nearly the same terminology, I should say, as what John had used back in chapter one, which we looked at last week. Two differences, though. First, here Jesus describes himself as walking among the seven lampstands instead of just being in the midst of them. As stated in Revelation 1.20, these lampstands represent the seven churches. The second difference is there's a stronger term that's translated as hold here concerning the seven stars. The seven stars, we also saw at the end of chapter one, are the messengers to each church. This term is stronger, it means a firm hold. And so the combination signifies Christ's control over the messengers, the messengers to them, and his constant involvement with the churches. And then that's brought out in the next verse. Look at verse two. I know your deeds, your toil and perseverance, that you cannot tolerate evil men, that you put to the test those who call them 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." Those are wonderful commendations. Jesus knows His churches. He's not only involved with them, He's omniscient. So He has complete knowledge of them. It's not just that He can observe their actions. He knows what is going on in their thinking and their emotions. Jeremiah 17 tells the Lord searches the heart and tests the mind. In Luke 6, 8, it tells that Jesus knew what the people were thinking. That's who He is. And so Jesus points out here, based on this omniscient knowledge, three things, or three areas, deeds, toil, and perseverance, that he knows about them, and then he starts expanding on that. There are deeds or works, erg here, a general term for things that are actually done. We actually get a word from it. If you've studied physics, you know there is a term erg. It is a measure of energy. It's a unit of energy. We get that word from this. I know your work. I know the energy you've put into things, your labor. The next two words express the nature of that work. First, it says it's done in toil or labor. Kapas, it means exertion done to the point of exhaustion or weariness as if you had been beaten. You ever work so hard you feel that way? In fact, we say that, don't we? You come home, you're tired, you say, I'm beat. That traces to this idea in this word. That's the kind of weariness. And the work was also done, it says, with an inner fortitude of perseverance, hupomenai, which expresses a steadfastness to continue to bear up under difficult circumstances. And we noted earlier, why was Paul, or why was John exiled to Patmos? It's because of persecution had come against the church. That's what they were living in, and they were bearing up under this. They were steadfast, The next clause points out a very specific area of this. They did not tolerate evil men. They took the heart, the warning that Paul had given to the Ephesian elders more than 40 years earlier to be diligent to guard the flock, the church, from savage wolves, maybe the false teachers that would come in and attack them. And so they endured difficult circumstances, but they would not endure those who deeds and character were bad. The word evil there or bad, kakos is of low moral character. Those who are worthless, those who are godless. In addition, they would put to the test those that came claiming they were important with a specific reference that we're apostles. Now Paul mentions in 2 Corinthians 11, 1-14 of men who disguise themselves with false claims of being apostles showing this had been a problem for a long time. Not just there, it had occurred other places in previous times. Now these are not men claiming to be one of the twelve because that would be easy to discern whether you are or not. These would be men claimed to be apostles in the general meaning of the word, which is a special messenger sent with authority. And so their claim would be that we are prominent teachers sent by the authority of either Christ or one of the apostles, and so you should listen to us. There are other men who had that. Barnabas, Acts 14, 14 is included with that term. So is Anderonicus and Junius in Romans 16, 7. James in 1 Corinthians 15, 7. And Silvanus and Timothy in 1 Thessalonians 1, 1 and 2, 6. So these are men making false claims of having a messenger with an authority But when they were tested, they were exposed. They were not apostles. Never had been, never would be. Now Jesus next expands on this commendation of perseverance, pointed out in verse two. And here he marks that their bearing up is under very difficult and trying circumstances. Different word used here, basazo, and it's specifically because of Jesus' namesake. In other words, they were persecuted because of their witness of Jesus Christ. The final commendation of this verse is that they never became weary, though their labor was toilsome to the point of weariness, even in enduring these difficult circumstances. That's a lot to be commended for, isn't it? Any individual Christian, any church would love to hear that about themselves. because these are a great thing. This is better than Luke 19, 17 of the slave being told, well done, good and faithful slave. It's better than that. It recognizes the difficult circumstances under which this toilsome labor has been done and never even a thought of giving up. Their loyalty to Jesus prevented the weariness from setting in. And that brings to mind of what I prayed about earlier, brothers and sisters in places where there's real persecution going on. Let's face the persecution we face here is irritating, inconvenient, sometimes expensive, but they're not whacking you upside the head with sticks. They're not flogging you. They're not stringing you up and hanging you or guillotining you. They're not taking your property from you at threat of death. But that's what a lot of our brothers and sisters face all the time. I just saw something about 8,000 have been killed in Nigeria over the last year or so. They bear up. That's the kind of persevering he's talking about here. And yet how often is it that we go through some hard things or somebody says something that's not kind to us. I just want to give up. I'm not going to do that anymore. No, we're going to persevere. Why? Christ is worth it. I'm not doing it for the sake of a claim of other people that they like me for it. I'm doing it because of Christ. I'm just longing for him to use me. And that's the way we need to be. That's what they were doing. What wonderful commendations that are here. And so while there's so much to commend this church in Ephesus, there was also a serious defect. He points that out in verse four. But, a strong juxtaposition here, but I have this against you. You have left your first love. Now that's the only condemnation they receive, but it's serious. Jesus is against them. He's standing in opposition to them over this issue. They had left, ephemi means to let go of, set aside, seized from their first love that they had had for Christ. And the love here is agape, the love expressed in doing what is in best interest of the object loved, of the person loved. It's a love that is done even for the cost of great personal sacrifices in John 15, 13. Greater love has no man this that he lay down his life for his friends. This is the love that keeps Christ's commandments, John 14, 15, 21, 23. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. This is specifically the first love, the love which they had at first for Christ. Now the idea of what is meant by a first love is brought out in the admonishment in the passages in the Old Testament, such as Isaiah 54, 6, Malachi 2, 14, and 15, in condemning them for the way men were treacherously treating and forsaking the wife of one's youth. This is the one with whom you should rejoice, Proverbs 5.18 tells us. So in the same way that the love between a husband and wife should grow over the years as they learn to sacrifice for each other so that Christ is glorified in their marriage, so individual Christians should be growing in their love for Christ as we learn of Him and serve Him more. The more I know Christ, the more I should love Him. Now, neither of these loves are without emotion, but neither are they controlled by emotion. That's going to be a difference, and that's one of the great strengths of agape. It definitely has emotion tied to it, but it's just not controlled by it. And that emotional component should grow over the years. In the same way that the love of a husband and wife should blossom to a deep and abiding love, so that as the years progress, they look back and they're like, I thought I loved you then, but I don't think I even knew what love was. It doesn't compare to how I love you now. When I was doing the marriage series, I kept putting that in front of you. That should be your goal in your marriage. It just continues to grow. And so even more so our love for Christ. It grows to a deeper and abiding desire. I want to know him. I want to know him even more. And the more I know him, the more I love him, the more I want to serve him, the more I want to sacrifice for him. Because my knowledge of him, that's knowledge not just about him as I've studied the word, but the knowledge as I've walked through life with him and seen his faithfulness even the hardest of times. And so, it should be growing. The excitement of your first love should be minimal compared to what it is growing into. But the tragedy is, that both for husbands and wives, and for the Christian in their relationship with Christ, if there's not diligence to maintain and nurture that relationship, It is going to become rote. It will become stale. It is going to become cold. The love will diminish instead of growing. The right things are done, but it's going through the motions with a cold commitment instead of a fervent desire. That's tragedy. People who've been married 30, 40 or more years. They share the house, but that's about it. There's no relationship anymore. It's cold. The condemnation of the Ephesians demonstrates they were committed to Christ. They were committed to doctrine, but this condemnation reveals something had tragically changed. There's this cold orthodoxy, which they strongly defended, but the warmth of the love was gone. Christian talk, but no walk. Theological discourse without personal relationship, and that would spill over into church life. When Paul wrote his letter, he stated that the Ephesians had a love for all the saints, Ephesians 1.15. Jesus had said that all men will know you are my disciples if you have love for one another. What kind of love? The love that he has shown us. Love one another as I have loved you. And that is what they were like. But that was around 61 AD. It's 34 years later. Another generation is there. And there's no commendation to them in anything related to this. They become the church that toils to enforce correct theology in some areas, while in other areas of living out for Christ, that which concerning proper Christian love had become neglected. The great tragedy is that many individual Christians in many churches fit this exact description today. There is a cold orthodoxy that's strongly defended, but there is a lack of love that should be growing with the truth. the command to admonish one another, expose the deeds of darkness, Romans 15, 14, Ephesians 5, 11. Those are carried out with gusto. Maybe you've had some experience with those kind of churches. You know, if you don't come in and act just exactly like they think you should act, man, they're on you. But where's the love? One of my concerns for biblical counseling, so-called, is they're very strong and admonishing. Find the sin and get them. Well, yeah, counseling starts there. There's a sin involved. Let's expose it. But after it's exposed, what do you do? You heal it. You have to expose it so you can deal with it. Any medical person knows that. You've got to expose it first. We get a cut. We don't like mom coming in and scrubbing it, right? But she's got to scrub it for it to heal, and then she can deal with it. So there's the exposure to sin, but after that, what do you do? You have love. So many commands in Scripture. Be patient, be tenderhearted, encourage, help, forgive, accept, love one another. They're not to be done half-hearted, neglected, or ignored. That should mark us as Christians. And any admonishment is done exactly that way, with that kind of love. But it wasn't there. A cold legalism had come in, and love for the brethren wasn't there either. You do understand that love for Christ will result in love for the brethren. If that's not there, it won't be there. 1 John talks about that. So the condemnation here is serious. But Jesus being Jesus, he gives a cure. Isn't that wonderful? That should be, when we counsel, always give a cure. Okay, if you've got to monitor someone, give them a cure, and there's a cure here. That's gonna be up to them if they will pursue it, because if they don't, there is going to be consequences. He says, therefore, this is verse five, therefore remember from where you have fallen, repent and do the deeds you did at first or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent. So the cure is simple to stay, remember, repent, and to keep an R going here so it's easier, a monic here, remember, repent, redo. But to do that is going to take humility and diligence. Now the same three steps actually work in any broken or strained relationship. Remember from which you have fallen. Recall to mind the position in which you once stood and recognize you've fallen from it. It's not the same as it was before. Now for most, it means looking back to the fervency and the joy of the relationship that's now lacking there. The description here actually takes account that the fact that even if your first love wasn't so good, it wasn't there, it still was better than it was now, okay? What comes to my mind is at that time, there's still a lot of arranged marriages. You may not have even known the person, okay? So what kind of love is there? Like, oh, hi, okay, we're getting married. Because mom and dad said so. Yet if they're not gonna walk the way God wants, the initial relationship even then is gonna decline. So he takes into that account as well. But we don't live in that society. We live in a society is you marry those who you love. At least supposedly. That seems to be our society. And there's an excitement about that. I've been to a lot of weddings. I've performed a lot of weddings. I haven't been to one yet where, especially if I'm doing the counseling, they're like, yeah, we're just gonna go through this and we'll get divorced in five, six years. No one does that. They get married because they think we're gonna stay together forever. How many songs are in that? How great your love was. I'll cross anything. Highest mountains, cross the ocean, whatever. I love you so much. And it's forever. I was looking up a song the other day. If love doesn't last forever, what's forever for? It's worthless. Right? So for most people, it's looking back on that. What was your love like when you first came to Christ? Do you remember what it was like, the fervency? The commitment. So remember, the second is repent. It's a change your mind and belief resulting in a change of action. It's recognizing your current state and actions are wrong and they need to be replaced with those that are right. Change your belief. Your actions are based on what you believe and what you think. So you gotta start there. That will change the actions. and then redo. Go back and do the deeds you did when you were first in that first love and with Christ. That's that excitement, that joy that's part of when you first believe and are saved. You don't have to attend Dominic's class in evangelism when you're first saved to be motivated and go and tell somebody. A lot of you, it's like, we gotta calm you down, okay? Okay? Calm down, it's okay. Take your time. Don't spill all over and not bother to see what people are responding to you. That's a fervency, right? You wanna tell people, this is what God has done for me. Nobody has to prod you to go start meeting with other Christians. Why? Because they believe the same thing I do. They love Christ too. This is wonderful. And you wanna get involved with them. No one has to tell you, find someone who can help you learn of Christ. You want to. In fact, you become a pest. Pastor, what does this mean? I don't understand. Right? Or your friends. That's just because that's the fervency of first coming to Christ. Now you can see why, if you're coming out of paganism, if you're coming out of the world, why that's so much more than, oh, I was just taught this as a kid. Oh, nothing strange here. I was saved at six. My great sin, I recognized I was disobedient to my mom and dad. It's still a serious sin, but it's certainly not I was a drunkard, druggie who was murdering people. That wasn't my life. So obviously the fervency, the emotions can be different for different people. But there was something different back then, and it's not there anymore. Go back. Redo those things. Read in your Bible. For the love of it. For the love of what you're getting out of it. Not because pastor challenged me to read it through in a year and I gotta check off the box. I hope those things are helpful, but that wasn't the purpose of it. Praying because you desire to talk with God, not because it's something forced. Serving others in the church because you love to serve Christ and you love to serve his people. Developing new relationships, looking for people who are new to see how can God use me in this person's life. Return to doing the things you used to do and do them again. If it's dealing with relationships, it's the same thing. Do you remember when your relationship was like when it was new? Repent from where you have allowed it to go, how you've allowed it to diminish. Redo the things that you used to do that enabled that love to begin and grow to begin with. Jesus' warning is serious. He says if they do not repent and do these things so that that first love is going to be rekindled so it can start growing again, He says, I will come and remove your lampstand. The church would cease to exist. Now the fact that the church at Ephesus did continue on for a long time, hundreds of years afterward, it tells us the church did repent at that time, they paid attention. Then Jesus gives them another compliment, verse six. Yet this you do have. You hate the deeds of Nicolaitans, which I also hate. They'd left their first love, but they had not left their hatred for evil. Now note that it's not the people themselves they hate, it's the deeds, specifically, the works that these Nicolaitans were doing. Now that keeps in mind, our enemy is not flesh and blood. Sometimes it sure seems that way, but it's not flesh and blood. It's the powers that are behind that. It's Satan and his forces, Ephesians 6 tells us that. According to the writings of the early church fathers and leaders such as Uranus, Turgulian, Hippolytus, Jerome, Augustine, Eusebius, the Nicolaitans were a heretical sect who had an overstrained asceticism. I'm gonna set everything aside of certain things, and yet at the same time they were licentious antinomians. I don't recognize God's law, the commands, and I just do whatever I want. They were also gnostic. They had like, I have a secret knowledge that you don't have. And they were also syncretic with the pagan practice. The result was, immorality was part of their lives, idolatry was part of their lives, worldliness was part of their lives. Some have seen the Nicolaitans trace this to Nicholas of Antioch. He was one of the seven in Acts 6. History says that he either apostatized or was so dangerously lax in his teaching that it allowed others to exploit that teaching to their own sinful advantage. They hated that and so did Christ. Jesus gives a charge in verse 7. 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 that is in the paradise of God. This is a command that makes the principles expressed, both the commendations and the condemnations applicable to all Christians. First, it is given to anyone that has an ear and will bother to listen to what the Spirit says. Second, what the Spirit says is given to all the churches and not just to the Ephesians. It's plural. Notice as well, Jesus specifically states here, the Spirit is the source of the message. One of those many things that just keeps compounding understanding of the triune nature of God. Jesus is commanding what is to be written, and yet the message is also from the Spirit. Now there's a blessing here if you are an individual or we as a church are like the Ephesians in each of all these things he was commended for. Toil, perseverance for Jesus' namesake, being intolerant of men who are worthless and of low moral character, being diligent to screen teachers and church leaders, bearing up under difficult circumstances without becoming weary and hating false doctrine. Those are all things we need to be doing. We have to be diligent with that. If we're not, we're going to end up another sin. Is that true in your own life? Are you careful about these things? Don't become lazy. Don't become, yeah, it's not convenient to go and meet with so-and-so. Go. You need to prod. Sometimes you have to be prodded. Sometimes you do get tired. Well, don't be weary in the midst of being tired. Get up and do it anyway. Sometimes it could be something as simple as, what's your prayer life like? Well, I was busy praying, and well, I was asleep again. Now don't get, I don't want you to get me wrong. I think praying before you go to bed is great, and if you just fall asleep doing that, what better way to fall asleep than talking with God? Guys, don't try that with your wife. She'll be upset with you if you're not listening to what she says while she's pouring out her heart. Okay, so you can do that with God, but not your wife. But how often it's, are we diligent? Are we diligent to read our Bibles? Or just set it aside, there's something else I'd rather do. We have to persevere in these things. We have to see these are important. How discerning are you when whatever books you're reading, or podcasts, or something on the radio, or something you get off the internet, are you listening to people who are good? What do you know of their background? Who are your friends? Are they those that are gonna encourage you toward godliness or those who are tearing you down? We have to hate false doctrine. We have to pursue what is good. If you, as an individual, or we as a church, ever leave our first love, then we have to be very careful to heed the cure here. Take it to heart. Remember, repent, redo. One of the wonderful things about God is He's a God of reconciliation. He longs for it, and even if we mess up, if we're unfaithful, He's still faithful, Scripture tells us. Go back and get it redone. Go back and get it moving again. The same truth is in your personal relationships. If you see it's not going the direction it's supposed to do, remember, repent, redo. That's the cure, don't look at it like, okay, well, I messed that one up, goodbye. No, get it fixed. But remember I told you earlier, that takes humility and diligence. And we have to take this hard because Jesus' warning is still one that applies. He could remove the lampstand, the church could cease to exist. And you can drive around New York and you see a lot of church buildings and no church. It's a museum. It's the town's cultural center. It's a restaurant. It's a bar. Plenty of churches. They lost their love and they're no longer there. And there's plenty when it comes to individuals. First Corinthians 1130 has a very strong admonition there of a warning. There were individuals who are coming to the Lord's Supper communion. And they were doing it with the wrong attitude or wrong practice, and it was serious enough. Some were sick and he says some. Are now asleep. He removed them from life. He took him home. So it's a serious issue and we need to take that to heart. but there's motivation for us too, because there's a final blessing. There's a blessing promise that says, quote, to him who overcomes is granted the eat of the tree of life. Well, who's the overcomer? It's best to understand this is that it's actually all true Christians. It is sin that barred man from access to the tree of life. Genesis three tells us about that. In fact, he put an angel with a flaming sword so that Adam and Eve couldn't get back into it and have access to the tree of life. He barred us from it. It is by faith in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ that our sin is overcome. We didn't do it, he did it, but it's applied to us. And we begin to overcome sin in the practical sense too. And so, because the sin issue is dealt with, we can have access again to the tree. The tree, it says, is located in the paradise of God. Paradise is from a word that refers to a beautiful garden. And this is a reference to the abode of the God in the new heavens and new earth. In fact, it's described for us in Revelation 21 and 22. Revelation 22, 1 and 2 describes that on either side of the river of life that comes out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, there's a tree. Now that's got to be a big tree because it's on either side of it. And it yields 12 fruits in their season. The leaves are for the healing of the nations. We're going to have access to that. So this is part of the promise. Whatever is going to come in the future, that's where we end up. Are you an overcomer? Are you actually trusting and walking with Christ? Do you have that confidence assurance if you die today, you're going to be with Christ? You have a confidence assurance now is eventually you're going to be there. And even those of you who don't like fruit, there are certain fruits I don't like, but I know this, I'm going to like this fruit and so will you. Strong incentive here. Follow the example of the Ephesian church and what they're commended. Quickly heed the warnings and implement the cure should you find your love for Christ diminishing. We don't want our lampstand removed. We want to be a church that continues to shine brightly into a very dark world. And it could get a whole lot darker. but we want that lamp shining brightly and want you as individuals shining brightly as well with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The good news that sinners become saints because of Christ. And then look forward. One day we're going to be all eating around this tree in heaven, worshiping God and eating fruit. And you didn't have to pay for it either. Already paid for. Father, thank you for your many blessings to us. Thank you for this wonderful section of scripture. The commendations that they had, but also the warning that we will take both to heart. That we'll strive to be like the Ephesians in all these things for which they were commended. But Father, if our hearts are growing cold, in a relationship with you, and for that matter, for hearts are growing cold in a relationship with other people, that we do put into practice this cure, remember, repent, redo, that we might continue to grow in that love. Father, so that if you have Christ tarry longer, we're gonna look back and say our love then was so minimal compared to what it is now, that your name would be glorified in us as individuals and as a church. In Jesus' name, amen.