Good morning. I will draw your attention back to God's Holy Word that's found in Revelation this morning in chapter 2, is where we're going to be concentrating. Revelation 2, 1 through 7 is going to be our text this morning. So we'll read this together and pray that God will bless the reading of His Word and that He'll apply it to our hearts here this morning. Revelation chapter 2, starting in verse 1. To the angel of the church in Ephesus write, the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your works. your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary." I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent." Yet this you have, you hate the work of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God." Let's go to hymn and prayer this morning. Our Lord God and Heavenly Father, Lord, we pray that our worship, our praise, our adoration would be acceptable to You this morning. We pray that You would feed us from Your Word here this morning. Lord, that You would open our eyes to see Your Word, open our ears to hear what the Spirit says here this morning. Lord, give us insight into Your Word, give us discernment, Lord, hide it away that we might meditate on it throughout this week. In your name we pray. Amen. Well, we have seen in our previous messages from Revelation what the foundation for the whole book of Revelation is. We see Christ. We have the revelation of Jesus Christ to his people. We see what the foundation in chapter 1 is for the 7 letters that are going to be written or that are written to the churches throughout Asia Minor. And that's where we'll be beginning this morning is with the first letter to the church in Ephesus. But before we look directly back to the text, I want to look at a few preliminary things that are in common among these seven letters. So we'll get these out of the way this morning and hopefully not revisit these in detail as we go forward. But I want to look at to who the messages are sent. Who are these angels that are spoken of in the first verse of every letter that is sent to the seven churches? Well, some have suggested that these are guardian angels that are put into a position to watch over the churches in these locations. I don't think that is what is in mind here, and there's a couple reasons why. But who these angels are, that word means messenger, to the messenger of the church at Ephesus, or to the messenger of the church in Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, Laodicea, Philadelphia. These are those who have been put in the position of the pastor, the preacher, the bishop, the interchangeable words here, the one who is given to be the under-shepherd, under Christ, of that community of believers. Well, how can we infer this from this passage? I think there are two things that shed some light on this for us. The letters themselves, these are physical letters. This is contained within the greater letter that is being written to the Church of Revelation. These letters are to be delivered to the messengers at these churches. That is a very difficult thing to do if the messenger was not an actual person. If this was an incorporeal being, a heavenly body, an angelic body, that would be awful difficult to do, right? The second thing is that these letters, I should say, that are directed towards the angels of the churches in these locations, they are given in a way that Christ speaks to the church, yes, of great things that are occurring in these churches, but also areas where they are lacking. And I find it difficult to believe that this would be addressed to an angelic body, a heavenly body or a heavenly being, and Christ point out things that are troubling about these churches. So I think that we can infer from Scripture that these are the under-shepherds, like I said. These are the ministers of these churches who have been placed with authority to preach and to teach the Word of God, to exhort their congregation, to rebuke their congregation, and to give to them the Word of God, to preach, to teach, day in, day out, in season, out of season. Well, where are these churches? Well, we've talked before that these churches, these seven churches that are mentioned here, are along a postal route in Asia Minor, which is modern-day Turkey. Ephesus, the first letter that was sent to, the first letter that was addressed here, is a coastal town. And then there is a mail route that goes in a circular rotation around Turkey, and each of these cities, each of these churches, these cities that contain the churches, are along that mail route. Now, this may have been seven copies of Revelation that was already made that were sent along the postal route. It may have been that the letter was delivered to Ephesus from John on the Isle of Patmos, and then he delivered that message through a someone who would carry it to Ephesus, and they may have copied Revelation. And then it was sent to the church at Smyrna, and they may have copied it, and then another copy was sent to Pergamum. I don't know. But this was delivered along this route, and then from there, I think we can safely assume that copies were made and sent to all of the churches around. And praise be to God, He's preserved it for us. and we have this to learn from, to have Christ revealed to us through the book of Revelation. Now, this has been taught in the past, and still some hold to this theory, that these seven churches that it's addressed to actually represent seven different ages in history. So you would have the church at Ephesus being the early church, And then you would have another age in church history where Smyrna would be representative of that age, that letter being representative of what is going on in a certain age. And I think this really, really falls apart. We won't go into the issues this morning. We can talk about this later sometime or when we get together for a Bible study or something like that. But there are some real issues with this because what you're doing is you're trying to cram in ourselves into a certain letter and find churches that are representative in a certain age of this letter when, in fact, we can look today And if we study these as we are going to, these seven letters, we will find churches that represent the commendations and the rebukes throughout our world in this day and time, as it has been in every day and time throughout history since this was written. And I think that if we're really willing to humble ourselves, we will find in our own church hints of these things that Christ says to all seven of these churches. We will see that good things can be observed in these churches. We will see that in today's time. We will see that there are problems that exist in some of these churches that we see in our own time. And we can see, once again, this number seven that we talked about before, being representative of the fullness or the completeness. That's, I believe, why we have seven letters addressed to seven churches. Because this is representative of what is going on in the fullness of Christ's churches throughout all of history. yesterday, today, and in the future until Christ returns. And we don't have to deal with the things that we struggle here with this morning. These are actual churches. that are made up of actual believers. This is not a hypothetical church in Ephesus or a hypothetical church in Smyrna. These are actual churches made up of actual believers who suffer from the same problem and the same root problem that all of us suffer from, which is sin. So these same problems are going to show up through all of history until Christ takes us home and we are glorified, we see Him as He is, we become like Him when we see Him as He is, and this sin that we deal with today is a long gone problem. Well, Christ has a word for His churches. In the end of Revelation 1, he tells John to write, therefore, the things that you have seen, those that are, and those that are to take place. And then he begins to write the letters to the churches. So the structure of the actual letters, let's talk about really quick. Each letter begins with an address to the angel of the church at so-and-so or this place. We will see over and over again a recapitulation or a retelling of the vision of the character of Christ that John has in chapter 1. So each letter begins with John taking a portion of that vision that he had of Christ himself, And it starts with a telling of the church that this is who is writing this letter to you. So in the letter to Ephesians, he says, to the angel of the church in Ephesus write, the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. That should immediately draw our mind back to chapter one, where John has this long list of things that he sees that aren't what Christ actually is, but what his character is. what he is in his personality, what he is in his power, what he has revealed himself to be. John, what he is calling us to see and calling these churches' attention and us through that, What he's calling their attention to is what he has already stated to them about Christ, and he's making it clear who the actual author of these letters is. John is nothing but the recorder of the One, the recorder of the words of the One, who brings truth and power into what he is saying. Remember back at Acts 19 that we read in our scripture reading this morning, that God worked powerfully through Paul. Paul wasn't doing these miracles. God was doing these miracles. This is John writing to us, but John is writing to us and he is but a recorder of the words that Christ told him to send to the churches. And in actuality, isn't that what all of the gospel is? All of the word of God. is but men who the power of God, the Spirit of God breathed into them the words, His words, that He would have us to hear. And then we have I know statements in this. I know thy works. I know your tribulation in the letters. I know where you dwell. In each of these letters, there is attention being drawn to the fact that Christ is not detached from what's going on in his church. He knows. I know your works. I know the tribulation that you're going through. I know where it is that you dwell. To the church in China, I know what's going on in China. I know what you're dealing with. I'm not detached from that. You're my church. The next thing that we'll point out here that is commonplace in all seven of these letters is an evaluation of the works of the churches. This comes in two forms, and it doesn't follow with every one because some, there's nothing negative. Some, there's nothing positive. But this comes in two forms, commendation or recognition, and then rebukes or chastisements to the churches. And then in each one of these, we have a, each one of these letters, we have a promise. This may be a negative promise, a punishment to evildoers. This may be a threat of what will happen if the church doesn't repent. And this may come as a promise also of something glorious as to the one who conquers, the one who overcomes, the one who perseveres. And finally, in every single one of the seven letters is a call to hear. Every single one of these letters has the statement, he who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, plural. Ephesus, I'm addressing this letter to you because of my concern for what's going on in your church, but you need to hear what I say to Laodicea. You need to hear what I say to Pergamum. You need to hear what I say to each of these churches. And we need to hear what He says to all of these churches. Now to our text. Ephesians 2, 1-7. To the angel at the church of the church in Ephesus write, As we have seen in this particular letter is addressed to the angel, the minister, the one who has been given authority as an under shepherd over the church in this particular location of Ephesus. The letters written to the one who's been given charge of the local body of believers who preaches the word, like we said, who exhorts the one called to be a faithful witness, a faithful proclaimer of the word of God. And it's at Ephesus that this particular angel, this particular messenger, pastor, is addressed. So let's take a look really quick at the city in which this church dwells. We probably know more about Ephesus than we do the other locations of the seven churches. Ephesus was a major city. It had a population at this time of about 250,000 people, which for a city in that era was massive. It was on a big trade route. It was a commercial capital for Rome. The religion that was in that was a mix. There was a lot, the imperial cult and Caesar worship was prevalent in Ephesus. When we read from Acts chapter 19, and go back and read that after we, Acts 19, part of 18, 19 and 20, as we are going home and as you have some time throughout this week, read those chapters. And you'll see also that magic, dark, sinful, demonic activity was ever present in Ephesus. We just read that this morning in Acts chapter 19. When the situation that we read about with the seven sons of Sceva being beaten by the man possessed with an evil spirit came about, There were many that we have recorded for us in verse 17-19 of chapter 19 of Acts that came to know of what happened in great fear. Fear of the one true God came upon them during this incident that occurred within the city of Ephesus. Same city that this letter is addressed to. They came to a knowledge of the one true God that it came upon them and they began to repent and confess of their sins. They believed on the Lord and a number of those who had previously been engaged in these magic arts and this demonic activity brought their books of magic and burned them in an act of repentance and faith. Now what we read there and comment was made These books were valuable. The books were valued at 50,000 pieces of silver. Now, a piece of silver, most of the historians that I've read and commentators have said that this probably refers to a piece of silver being a day's wage. This is 50,000 days wages. A man would have to work 137 years to afford these books. Put that into perspective a little bit. And these are just the ones who the Lord saved out of it. How much more was going on in that population of 250,000 in Ephesus? Remember what a painstaking process it was to create a book back in that time. This is before the invention of the printing press. These were hand copied. Books about this demonic activity. We're not talking about a magic that was like a magic eight ball or a sleight of hand trick or a mathematic trick. We're talking about true satanic activity was occurring in Ephesus. Practitioners of this, probably demon-possessed, practicing these demonic arts. and had collected even among those that were saved 50,000 pieces of silver in the approximate value of these books. This was widespread among Ephesus. Ephesus housed about 25 to 30 known temples. One of which we read about in Acts chapter 19. The temple of Artemis, or as some of us may know, the temple of Diana. This was regarded as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Sometime look up and they have artist renderings. Because there are very, very few pieces of this temple that still are there today in the ruins of Ephesus. Most of it was shipped off to Istanbul or somewhere else to make another temple. But this temple was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. When it was constructed, it was 425 feet long, longer than a football field. It was almost a football field long width. It was 220 feet wide. And it was 60 feet high. It had 127 huge stone pillars, 36 of which were overlaid with gold and jewels. they would sell trinkets. Remember the person from Acts 19 that caused such a hubbub about this because we're losing our livelihood. They would create these distortion, this grotesque silver statues of Artemis or Diana. And I won't go into what it looked like, but it was this grotesque figure, and they would worship that figure. Remember, the gods made with hands are no gods at all. This is what they were creating in and around this temple of Artemis. It was a huge money-making venture. There were sacrifices that were offered in this temple. There was a free space for criminals. You could not arrest a criminal in and around the Temple of Artemis. They were selling and buying these trinkets and making these silver trinkets. There was cult prostitution running rampant, sexual idolatry. to the utmost occurring in the Temple of Artemis and the other temples, the temples even to the imperial temples that were in this area. All kinds of cult prostitution, sexual idolatry, grotesque sexual acts being committed on a daily, hourly basis in and around these temples. This church at Ephesus had some of the most faithful ministers recorded for us throughout the Word of God. Achilla and Priscilla, Apollos, who were taught more fully the ways of God by Achilla and Priscilla. This one who Apollos was... I forget the words that were used there in Acts. He was eloquent. Right? Incompetent in the Word of God. Yet, Achilla and Priscilla saw that there was more that he needed to understand about the ways of God and they took him aside and they taught him. And he had a teachable spirit and he learned and became a great minister for God. We have Paul that spent nearly three years in and around the church of Ephesus. teaching them, preaching to them, exhorting them, teaching them the way of the Lord. And then we have Timothy, who in 1 Timothy, we find Paul telling Timothy, stay in Ephesus. Stay, linger there as you preach the word. And then tradition has it that John was there in Ephesus. even brought when he left Jerusalem, tradition states that he brought Mary with him, and she is buried in Ephesus. This is a magnificent city with a history of all kinds of religion, but a great history even within the people of the way. These Christians, those that served and worshipped the one true God. Well, in verse 1, the second part of it, the words of Him who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. Once again, John calling us back to the fact this is the one who has these words for you. Christ Jesus, our Lord, our Savior, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Ruler, Creator. He's everything. And He writes this letter to you. These are His words. McShane tells us in a sermon, McShane was a Scottish minister, lived to be the old age of 29 in Dundee, Scotland. He writes of this and he says, these words are sweet. He says, because they show us not only what the mind of Christ was, but what it is now as he himself is in glory. The Gospels are very sweet because they show us what the mind of Christ was in the days of His flesh when He tabernacled with men upon earth. But these are sweet because they show us that Jesus is the same when standing at the right hand of the Father as when He stood by the Sea of Galilee. that He is the same now while holding the reins of the universe. As when He stood by His disciples and blessing them said, Blessed be ye poor for yours is the kingdom of God. These are sweet words. This is He who holds the stars in His hand and walks among the golden lampstands. He's got a word for you. He has something to say to you. And He's the same as He was when He was here in the flesh. Christ is walking among the lampstands and holding His ministers in His hand. He is actively engaged in building up, in the upholding, in the preservation of His church. He built in the days when He tabernacled among us, before His ascension, and He continues the work even to this day. He walks among us. in all His churches as they are placed in different parts of the world. Wherever they are, whenever they are. Can any other realization give us more hope? Think about that. Can it give us more peace, more endurance, than understanding the fact that Christ is engaged, He walks among His churches. Christ is at work. He doesn't rest from this. He is active in his church, which he purchased with his own blood. It's his. He does not leave them comfortless. Right? He walks among the lampstands where he places them. He pours his spirit, his oil into his churches. He trims the lamps, He gives them the light of His person to be a light to the world. He ever lives to do this until we are all united in that perfect place where sin, sorrow, trials, tribulations are no more. Ministers only shine forth if they are held in His hand. The church, the lampstands, only reflect the light of Christ when He is walking among them, or there are no churches at all. The minister and the lampstands hold up the light of Christ. They don't seek to draw attention to themselves. They seek to draw attention to the one that they hold up. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must Christ be lifted up. We don't draw our attention to the pole, to the stand. We draw our attention to Christ. And then he says, I know your works. The Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, the Sovereign of the Universe, the Creator of the heavens and the earth knows their works. I don't know anything that brings more fear than that. More repentance than these words. Christ says He knows their works. There is not a thought that goes through the mind. There is not an act that is done. But what the one who has eyes, going back to Revelation chapter 1, eyes like a flame of fire, sees. He knows it all. This is a most humbling thought, is it not? For those for whom Christ died. He purchased us with His blood. And He knows our inmost thoughts as individuals and our works as a church. Well, He commends the church at Ephesus for their works. There are things that are most commendable about what the church at Ephesus is doing. They toil, according to our text. They work hard. They have a patient endurance. They cannot bear with those who are evil. They have tested the people that call themselves apostles and found them to be false. They struggle in doctrine. Strong is their stance in the word of God and the doctrines of scripture. Strong in their orthodoxy. They endure patiently and they have not grown weary according to the last part of verse three. Remember Isaiah 40, 31. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. This church at Ephesus was waiting patiently on the Lord. This is the church at Ephesus. They wait upon the Lord. what commendable attributes we see in this church. And these are attributes that we as a church should seek to live after and strive for. They're a great example to us. We see this once again in Acts, where the church in Ephesus is doing these things. Look at Acts 19 from where we read earlier today, what they were doing in that area. God was at work in them. They were taking a stand for what is true. That's evidenced by the fact that this, if we would have read earlier, there was a great riot in Ephesus. Because the silversmiths at the Temple of Artemis were worried that their livelihoods were in danger because people were following the true God. And saying that those idols that they're making, they're making with their own hands, are no gods at all. They were strong for the truth. Were they not? If we had time, we would look at that in detail from Acts 18 to Acts 20. Like I said, I recommend that you go back after this and read this. Read about Ephesus. We see Achilla and Priscilla doing these things with Apollos. You know, he was eloquent. He was, like we said, competent in the Scripture and God's Word. But they built him up. Made him stronger in his doctrine of God. If only this happened more in the professing church. Mature Christians and leaders taking aside those who may be immature in their understanding of the doctrine of God, and the doctrine of salvation, and the doctrine of man, and built them up to have a strong, a sure foundation in the truths of God's Word. This is what Ephesus was doing. We see them, we see Paul teaching about the Holy Spirit to those who had never heard of the Holy Spirit. We see the church rallying and standing strong against demonic activity that was occurring in the city of Ephesus. They stood strong, they endured. against these false prophets who perverted the truth. But there's a but. And this is often the case. We are not people of balance. And as long as we have sin and this sinful nature, we so easily get out of balance. He says, but in verse 4, I have this against you. You have abandoned the love you had at first. Lest we get proud in this letter, Christ commending us for the great work that the church is doing, but I have this against you. You've abandoned this love that you had at first. Christ is telling them, but you church at Ephesus, you churches throughout all ages, I am Christ. I'm the one who knows your works. The one who holds your minister in my right hand, I'm the one who walks amongst you and I have this against you. That's a difficult thing. This is the one who purchased his people. with His blood, who died to save them, and He comes to them and He says, you got these going for you? You're doing good here, but I've got this against you, and it's a big one. You've abandoned the love that you had at first. What a crushing word from our Lord, that a church, a people who call themselves by His own name, were Christians. Because we're of Christ. We're in Christ. But we've abandoned the love that we've had at first. He is saying, Ephesus, your orthodoxy, your adherence to the truth, it's commendable. But you've lost the reason that is important. You've lost what matters most. Well, why can we say that? Well, turn with me real quick to Matthew 22. I've got to hurry here. Matthew 22. Verse 34. And we're going to read through verse 40. But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. Teacher, what is the great commandment in the law? And he said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And then he goes on and he says, a second is likened to it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. The Jews were always trying to trap Jesus, weren't they? Always trying to trap Him and test Him. Well, He silenced the Sadducees, so the Pharisees wanted their shot, right? And they send probably one of their wiser Pharisees, a lawyer, and they ask Him this question. The greatest commandment, Christ says, is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind. This is the great and first commandment. Love God. But there's more. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love, love your neighbor. Then we see what he concludes this with. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. Love. They hang on love. 1 Corinthians 13, the great love chapter that we read so often at weddings, right? It ends by telling us that faith, hope, and love abide, but what is the greatest? The greatest of these is love. The chapter 1 Corinthians 13 starts in verse one, if I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all, think about what the church was commended for, and have all mysteries and all knowledge. And if I have all faith, so to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, if I stand strong to the point even of death, but I have not love, I gain nothing. Love! We must have love. Well, where does this love come from? 1st John tells us, the same John who wrote Revelation tells us, we love, why? Because He first loved us. We know love, we experience love because He loves. You know, think of the love you had at first for your spouse. What would you not do out of love for your spouse? And you want to tell everybody else about how much you love that person. We cannot grow to the point that we have abandoned the love that we have at first. Have we, as a church, we as individuals, Have we fallen prey to losing our first love? This is a question for every church. We see this in churches today. We may see it in our own church. We may see it in our own hearts that we have somewhere along the way lost the first love that we experienced when the love of God was made manifest to us. When we saw our unlovable nature and were shown the love of Christ in His sacrifice and His atoning works for us on the cross when we were unworthy, unable, and unlovable. What is the response to this love of Christ? It's to love Him. Love Him, and in turn, that produces a love for others. The first commandment, love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind. And the second, likened to it, love your neighbor as yourself. It's love. Love Him, producing love for others, and the desire to see that love become a reality in their life as well. Orthodoxy is important, and it is to be commended. Christ commends Ephesus for their orthodoxy, for their stance on doctrine, for their stance against those who oppose Christ. And standing strong for truth is one of the pillars of the church, but cold orthodoxy, apart from love, is useless. No one ever went to heaven because of their biblical wisdom. Think about that. They went to heaven because of the love of Christ and His sacrifice for them. Remember the thief on the cross? Alistair Begg has a video that's been going around for several years now, but it speaks of this. Luke tells us that this one thief in Luke 23, 43 was shown the love of Christ. Christ said to him, truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. This thief knew nothing of the doctrine of justification. No clue. No clue. He knew nothing of any of the great doctrines of Scripture. He never had a chance to be baptized. Never took communion. But he experienced what? He experienced the love of Christ. And in his brief time on earth after experiencing that, I'm sure his heart, even in the midst of the pain that he was about to endure, the broken bones that he was about to endure so that he would die, Before the Sabbath, he experienced the love of Christ, and I'm sure his heart was overflowing with love for his Savior. Today, you will be with me in Paradise. You know, this love of Christ is not diminished when we share this love with someone else. Our inheritance doesn't get halved when someone else comes to know the love of Christ. There is a fullness to the love of Christ that is bottomless. It's bottomless. To those who believe on Him, to those who call upon His name, to those for whom He died, there is a never-ending bottom to this love of Christ. Well, what's the solution if we find ourselves or we find our church in this same issue that Ephesus has here? Well, it's to remember, to recall, to bring to mind constantly the love that we had. Remember from that which we have fallen, and repent, do the things that we did at the beginning when every thought and every deed was saturated with the love of Christ and His gift to us. You know, it's very interesting to think about the dates that were written. We won't get into this. But the date that Revelation may have been written, whether you think it's an early date or a late date, and when 1 John, the epistle of 1 John was written. And the more I think about this, the more I think when I read John and I read about the love of God in John and the love that we're to have for one another, it's almost as if John was so overwhelmed by what Christ said to the church at Ephesus, that that's a major theme that the Holy Spirit breathed into him for the epistle of 1 John. And I'm not going to go anymore into that because we don't have time this morning, but it's a very interesting thought. Go and read 1 John in light of what Christ says to the church at Ephesus. What is it that makes us always come back to the love we had at first? It's the conviction of sin and the knowledge of where the deliverance of that sin came from. It's the knowledge of the love of Christ and the finished work on the cross that overwhelms our hearts with love. It's not cold and frozen doctrine, as important as doctrine is. It's life through the vine, right? Through Christ. And it creates love for God and love for neighbor. I don't want to have us have a misconception or be deceived about what he is saying here in verse 5. This call for doing the works which we had done at first, it's not that those works can create in us the love of Christ, but we first have to remember where that love came from. because of the love of God which He showed to us in His Son. We grow into these works through the love of Christ which He displayed in His substitutionary death and atonement on the cross and by giving us His Spirit which produces fruits of the Spirit. What's the first fruit of the Spirit? Love. Well, there's a threat here. Last part of verse 5. If you don't repent, I'm going to come and remove your lamp stand. Unless you repent, I will remove the church and the ministry of that local body from the earth. If a church does not shine in witness of Christ, it will no longer be Christ's church. A body is only a body Only a church when Christ holds that minister in His hand and He walks among that lampstands. When it's tended by Him and He walks among it. Well, let the glory of God never depart from this church. May we always hold fast doctrine, yes. but chief among all things, the love of Christ, the love that we had at first. No matter what we face in this world, may we love the Lord our God with all of our heart and all of our soul and all of our mind and love our neighbor as ourselves. And may his glory never depart from this place. May he never write Ichabod, above our door. Well, we have here in verse 6 another commendation. You hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. We don't know much about the Nicolaitans. We'll discuss this a little further when we reach the letter to Pergamum, where the context gives us a little bit of insight as to what this group may have been about. But we will leave it today with the fact that they hated the work which Christ also hated. This has something to say in opposition to what the church, the professing church, in the world says today. They tell us by and large, the professing church, not the true church, the professing church, tells us that all roads lead to Christ. And you will be accepted as long as you believe in something. Christ is nothing like the God of the Old Testament. How many times do we hear that from preachers today? That's a vengeful God. That's a wrathful God. Christ is all love. Well, He is to His people. But they say Christ loves all things. Just accept Him. Or even if you don't know who Christ is, if you believe in something, Christ will accept you. But here we have a commendation from the lips of Christ Himself as recorded by John that He hates this work of the Nicolaitans. Christ tells the church at Ephesus and us today that He hates the work of evil doers. He hates the works of those who are opposed to truth. opposed to His standard, opposed to His righteousness. Christ, in essence, is saying that He is the standard of right and wrong. He is. Society is not the standard. He changes not, and His standard is eternal. He hates the work of those who oppose Him and lead others to sin against Him. And I think as we look to the letter to the church at Pergamum, we'll see that that's what the Nicolaitans were about. He is the sovereign and he rules. Anyone who claims that the God of the Old Testament is different than the God revealed to us through the New Testament, the second person of the Trinity, Christ, Jesus, the Son of God, the God-man, If they can say that He is different, they've never read through the end of Revelation. He has vengeance upon those who oppose Him. And He conquers them. The call today is for the church to be tolerant. And in love, there are some things that we can be tolerant of. But opposition to what God hates is a must for the church. We cannot tolerate those things which God says He hates. We can't tolerate evil. And we ought to not tolerate it in our own lives as much as we don't want to tolerate it in the lives of those around us. Verse 7, He who has ears to hear Let him hear. Every church and every member of the body throughout time in every place is to hear what the Spirit says to the church at Ephesus. It's not a suggestion that we might want to hear. It's a command to see and to hear what Christ tells us through His letter to the church at Ephesus. To the church facing tribulation, hear this. To the church facing war, hear this. To the church that is meeting here this morning in a society that is opposed to Christ, to his law, to his word, to his salvation, we need to hear this. Stand strong in truth. Yes, don't leave your first love. Maybe there's churches, maybe in our own hearts we're on the verge of losing the love we had at first. Hear what he says to the church. Repent. Repent. Remember that from which you have fallen. There is something here for all of us as a body and as individuals this morning. May the Spirit cause us to meditate on this throughout the week, that this that our Lord and Savior Christ says to His church. And lastly, there's a promise. May the Spirit lead us to meditate on this promise. given which closes out this letter to the church at Ephesus in the last part of verse 7, to the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God. Remember, Adam and Eve, when they were barred from the garden, He put a cherubim with a flaming sword at the entrance of that garden to keep them from what? The tree of life. He barred them from access to the tree of life. But through the love of Christ and His work, He's making all things new. He that conquers, He that preserves, or perseveres by the preservation of God, I should say, the one that endures to the end, will be granted access to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. Remember several weeks ago, we said that Revelation 17, 14 would be important to us as we go through these letters to the churches, that it would be fitting for us to remember as we go through these messages, they will make war on the Lamb. Revelation 17, 14 tells us, and the Lamb will conquer them, for He is the Lord of lords and the King of kings, and those with Him are called and chosen and faithful. To those who are with Him, that's how we persevere unto the end. That's how we endure all things. This is how we conquer. To the one who conquers. How do we conquer? Because we're with Christ. It's because we are in Him. We are united to Him. He has won the victory. And we who are united to Him in His work, in His victory, will be called chosen and faithful. that we may worship Him for all eternity. As we see in Revelation 22, one through five, and I'll close with this. I know we've been a long time. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. Also on either side of the river, the tree of life. with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will dwell in it, and His servants will worship Him. They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads." And night will be no more, there will be no need of light or lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light and they will reign. They will reign forever and ever. How? Because we're in Him. Because we're united to Him. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your truth. We thank You for Your love. Lord, may we never, never forsake, forget, or slip from every day. being immersed in the love of God, and being reminded of that love that we had at first. Lord, may we meditate on the great gift that you've given us, the gift of your love, the gift of your sacrifice, the fact that we who are sinful may have our sins atoned for, that we might stand before God just as if we had never sinned. Lord, may we be overwhelmed with love for you and love for others. In your name we pray, amen.