Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
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And now we hope that this message from God's Word will be
a blessing to you. Revelation chapter two.
Once you found your place, we'll begin our reading in verse #1
Unto the Angel of the Church of Ephesus write these things.
Sayeth he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who
walketh in the midst of the 7 golden candlesticks.
I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou
canst not bear them which are evil.
Thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not,
and has found them liars, and as born, and as patience, and for
my name's sake has labored, and it's not fainted.
Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou has
left thy first love. What an accusation.
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent.
Do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and
will remove thy Candlestick out of his place, except thou
repent. But this thou hast, that thou
hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
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 title the message tonight is falling out
of love with Christ falling out of love with Christ.
Let's have a word of prayer tonight.
Last Lord's blessing on the service and the, the message.
Father, we're, we're delighted to be in your house tonight and
we're thankful that you, you're a God that is willing and even
eager to meet with your people. I praise you for that.
I praise you that you have a word for us tonight.
You, you have a message and you desire to speak to our hearts
from that which you've already spoken.
And so I pray that you'd fill me with your Holy Spirit.
Now would you use me as your vessel, your instrument to help
your people and to be a blessing tonight.
And Father, I pray that you would accomplish what you see
fit in our hearts and in our lives.
And we give you the praise for this and we ask it in Jesus
name, Amen. Thank you for standing tonight.
You may be seated as we consider this portion of scripture.
Falling out of love with Christ. Nothing illustrates first love
like a newlywed couple on their honeymoon.
Actually, our our honeymoon, my wife and I, we spent at Cape Cod
and we got married in 2020 and had a, you know, an underground
wedding so that the government wouldn't arrest us because we
had more than three people there.
And so with love in our hearts and money in our pockets and
masks on our face off we went to our honeymoon after getting
married. And so we spent some special
time together in Cape Cod and we're able to actually come here
that Wednesday night service. We were able to visit here in
the service and, and we did some fun things.
We went to the beach. We were able to enjoy some mini
golf together. And it can get pretty heated and
competitive. And so I think I won two games
and she won 1. And I, you know, you get talk to
her, you might get a different story.
She might have won more than what I'm admitting.
But who played some mini golf? We had some steak dinners.
We got to sleep in a little bit and enjoying the pleasures of
marital bliss. Amen.
Before reality sets in, right? Enjoying marital bliss.
I mean, it was beautiful weather, crisp ocean breeze, a
high of 75. And just just think about what a
what a wonderful time to spend together.
And it was easy to be in love and to be married.
All of the circumstances surrounding our relationship was
new. It was exciting.
We didn't know what it was like to live with each other yet.
Amen. And you know, it's OK to admit
it. And yet we, we had a great time.
It was wonderful. And about a week later we had a
revival meeting at our church. And so we, we had a week full of
preaching and then we moved to Oklahoma City, 1600 miles away
from home. And as you can imagine, it's not
exactly like Cape Cod. It's hot.
People were, you know, greeting us as we got out of the car and
they're saying, y'all. And I think, what did I get
myself into here? I'm a Yankee.
I don't belong here, you know. And Audrey, of course, growing
up, both of us growing up in Connecticut our whole lives and,
and I and I learned this. And, and I would imagine that
many of you've been married would understand that when the
newness of your relationship wears off, that it's easy to,
you know, just kind of go through the motions in your
relationship, right? You, you, you don't have the
same thrill that you once had. Everything is familiar and it's
easy to fall out of love without even realizing it because it
doesn't happen automatically. It's something you have to
cultivate. It's something you have to work
at and that honeymoon experience really is transitory and it is
temporary. But I, but I've also learned
this in my marriage that, that I can experience something even
better than the honeymoon experience when I, when I invest
into my relationship with my wife, and that actually things
can improve and get better. And that our, our, our
relationship is stronger than it was just because it was new.
Now it's strong because it's on a, it's on a more firm
foundation than something fleeting, right?
Because after a while in life, everything, the newness of, of
all experiences will eventually die off and wear out.
And the, the subject that we're considering tonight is, is quite
sobering because it, it really does address the, the potential
that there is in our relationship with Christ to just
go through the motions in our relationship with him.
Have you ever experienced that? I mean, you're just going to
church because that's what you do.
You go to church and you listen to preaching and you read your
Bible and you pray because that's what Christians do.
But there's something missing, right?
And you can sense that something is missing because that that
passion that you had, that zeal that you had at one time, it
just seems like it's not there anymore.
And, and we can get into our minds these ideas like, oh, if
the preaching was better, if the church was better, if, if
everything. Else was better, my relationship
with God would be great. But the reality is we're
sinners, Amen. And we struggle with sin and we
struggle with putting into our relationship with Christ what we
ought to. And I and I just want to remind
you tonight that in a human relationship, there is always
the potential that the other party could wrong you, that they
could sin against you, that they could not put in the full effort
that is worthy of the relationship.
But when it comes to our relationship with Christ, that
is never the case. He is always faithful, He is
always right, He is always loving.
And when there's something wrong in our relationship, it's not
him. It's us and and I, I recognize
that we could understand that and make application to our own
lives individually, but I see more importantly that he's
addressing a church in our passage, a local congregation of
saved believers who are baptized into the church at Ephesus.
And he, he addresses them. And this particular letter, the,
the Book of Revelation, I, I think is a, it's sad because
there's some Christians who simply avoid the book because of
some of the interpretive difficulties that are there.
And they read about all of these images and all of this
apocalyptic language. And we can get intimidated by
the Book of Revelation. And that that could cause some
Christians to shy back away from reading it.
But really, if we understand what it says when we read it,
we're supposed to get a revelation of who Jesus is,
right? It's not the revelation of the
end times and the beast and all these events.
It's the revelation of a person. And, and he he has a basic
outline for us in chapter 1. It says in verse 19, as the Lord
revealed himself to the apostle John and he gave him this
vision, this revelation, and he says in verse 19.
Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are.
And the things which shall be hereafter.
It's a very simple outline. It's a threefold outline.
The first would record that he's supposed to record the things
that he's seen and the things that he's seen would would
certainly be the the vision that he gets in chapter 1.
Would you would you turn that with me for just a moment as we
see this incredible vision or display of the Son of God?
You look at verse 12, chapter 1 and we.
See the the glory of the Son of God revealed to.
To us, as John wrote what he saw it says in verse 12.
And I turned to see that the voice that spake with me, and
being turned, I saw 7 golden candlesticks.
And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the
Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and
girt about the paps with a golden girdle.
His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as
snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire, and his feet like
undefined brass, as if they burned in a furnace.
And his voice as the sound of many waters.
And he had in his right hand seven stars and out of his
mouth, when a sharp 2 edged sword.
And his countenance was as the sun shineth in his.
Strength and when I. Saw him, I fell at his feet as
dead, and he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, fear
not, I'm the 1st and the last. And so John sees this vision of
Jesus and. I think it's very important that
we get this, that this is not the Son of God in his, in his
humanity here on earth where his glory was veiled.
This is the resurrected Son of God in his glorious state and
his glory is being revealed. It's being disclosed, it's being
unveiled for John to see. And he sees that.
He says, I want you to write this to the other churches.
I want this to circulate to the to my people for them to know
because I am, I am the king and he's not.
He's no longer in that humble form that he was when he when he
walked this earth and he had his public ministry.
He's now glorified. He is resurrected and he is
sovereign over all the cosmos. And he has something to say to
his churches before he deals with the world and, and Israel
as well. He's going to deal with the
churches. You notice what he says in verse
20. We don't need to spend a lot of
time doing interpretation on this, these allegorical images
here because he interprets it for us.
Look what he says, the mystery of the seven stars which thou
sawest on my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks.
The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.
And the seven candlesticks, which thou sawest are the seven
churches. So, so we get a picture in our
minds of the imagery that he's using, right?
And this imagery is meant to teach us something.
He says that the the two particular images that need to
be interpreted are the stars and the candy sticks.
And he says that the stars are the angels of the churches.
Now, I would I would interpret that as the angels being the
pastors of the Church of the churches who are the messengers.
They're the ones delivering the message on behalf of God.
So God speaks to the messenger and then the messenger presents
that before the congregation. And so when he, when I, when he
says that I'm Speaking of the angels, I believe he's very
clearly Speaking of the pastor's.
He's not an angelic being, but he carries the he carries the
function of an Angel and that he delivers the word of God, the
message of God to God's people. And the second is the seven
candlesticks. Now you, you get in your mind
when you see this imagery, a Jewish menorah with, with the
candlesticks sitting on the lampstand and that light that is
meant to illuminate. And he's saying my churches are
like 7 golden candlesticks. And he sets the stage for that.
Now he's going to give 7 messages to seven different
churches that existed in the 1st century.
And I, and I believe the point of all this, there's, there's
different views on this. I don't believe that each church
represents a period of time, but rather represents
characteristics that could exist in churches generally speaking.
And there are those that would try to say that each one of
these represent an age, and I wouldn't necessarily divide with
them over that. My view is different because in
the 1st century all 7 churches existed and they all had these
different characteristics. And I believe if you look
throughout history, you'll see that while there could
potentially be certain characteristics that are, you
know, describing a, a period of time, More importantly, I think
the nature of a church, the makeup of a church, the way that
a church functions really is, is that they are all individual.
They all have their own characteristics, they all have
their own spirit and and that each church has the potential to
find themselves in a situation like Ephesus was or Pergamus or
Thyatira, etcetera. OK, I think, I think for anyone
that's visited other churches, you would see that I mean, every
church is different and every church is the Lord's body in
that local community. Amen.
We believe in. The doctrine of the local church
and that God intends that Liberty Baptist Church here in
Easton, MA would be like if Jesus were here, what would he
accomplish? We are to be his feet, we're to
be his hands, we're to be his mouthpiece here in Easton, MA.
For those of you that are members of Liberty Baptist
Church and I'm a member of Grace Bible Baptist Church back in
Connecticut, we're to be that way in Vernon, CT.
And what a what a what a wise God.
We have to realize that we we have a great work before us and
if that we're going to reach the World, one church isn't going to
do it by themselves, but partnering together we can
accomplish much. And so each of these churches,
let's be very clear, these are God's churches, but they all
have problems. I mentioned this morning that
churches have problems because people have problems and people
make up churches. Amen.
Yeah, we don't have to hide it. We we're all Sinner saved by
grace here tonight and and every once in a while we need a
message from the Lord and he loves us enough not to leave us
the way we are, but to confront us where we are so we can grow
so that we can develop more. And and what we see from the the
doctrine of the the problems in Ephesus that they had, they had
a lot of things. Going for them.
They did. It was the kind of church from
the outside you would have said, man, this is the kind of church
I want my family to be in, this kind of church I want to be a
part of. I mean, they're taking all the
right stands, but they are lacking one particular area.
And so Jesus addresses them. And I think it's noteworthy that
Ephesus was probably the most prominent city of all of these
here. And that Ephesus was, was like,
I mean, if you could get the gospel in Ephesus, then you
could get the gospel to, to move and, and to develop more
churches throughout that region of Asia Minor, but even more
importantly for world missions, right?
Because God's not just interested in one region, he's
interested in reaching the whole world.
And so Ephesus was a strategic location for the gospel because
it was a very important city in the Roman Empire.
And it was important really for three reasons.
Politically, it was important economically and it was
important based on its religion, their religious experiences.
So we know we noticed that as we study the Church of rather the
city of Ephesus from historians of perspective, that it was a
seaport city and that it was it was the kind of place that was
just booming with business. I mean, you can imagine that the
ports seeing all the traffic, all this trade and, and it was
economic, a very wealthy city for many reasons.
And so they had a lot of wealth. They had a lot of people there,
supposedly about 250,000 people that lived there in the city,
which in an ancient city was really a lot of people in one
place concentrated. And so it was, it was important
for that reason. It's geography and in a
situation economically but politically has a very important
connection here as the city itself had received a honorary
title from the Roman government known as the Neo Koros or
interpreted would be temple wardens.
And that probably doesn't mean anything to you.
But there was this problem that arose in early Christianity
known as the Imperial cult, and the Roman Emperor under Augustus
began to view himself as a deity.
He saw himself as God. And if you understand Roman
theology and Rome, the Pantheon, and the Roman view was
polytheism, multiple gods. So he's not saying he's the only
God, but he's a God. He is a deified man.
And that became a problem for Christians because they would
have this ceremony in which all the citizens of Rome would have
to go through and offer incense to the emperor.
As a God. You say, Brother Brett, what's
the big deal? Well, a Christian knows that
only Jesus is God and that the Christian God is exclusive.
Amen. That he must be worshipped
exclusively and that there is no toleration of worshipping other
gods. In the Christian worldview,
monotheism, one God, not multiple gods.
And so these Christians protested against this emperor
worship, and the emperor called himself the My Lord and My God.
He expected to be called that. He viewed himself as a deity.
And so when he realized that the Christians were no longer
worshipping him or refusing to partake in these offerings, it
was looked at as like a lack of patriotism.
And they began to. And persecute them for that
reason. Well, Ephesus, as you can
imagine, having received that honorary title from the
government, they got that because they had demonstrated
their zeal for worshipping the emperor.
And that honorary title came with it a serious responsibility
that the people would be expected to comply.
With the worship. Of the Emperor.
Well, the church at Ephesus wouldn't stand for that.
Amen. But as you can imagine, there
was quite a bit of pressure on them to cave, to bend.
And on top of that, there were other religious problems.
The biggest temple or, or one of the greatest temples in the
world at that time was one of the seven wonders of the ancient
world. The temple to Artemis was built
in Ephesus. So you have, you have all of
these different elements working together to, to really, yes, in
one sense, be a huge opportunity for the gospel, right.
But then on the other hand, and we read this from Paul's
writings, that is great opposition to the gospel.
It's great resistance. And, and we read even from Acts
chapter 19, when Paul spent his time there in Ephesus, that he
had the most fruitful ministry had ever experienced in his
missionary journeys, but he also had the, the greatest
persecution and the greatest resistance to his ministry there
in Ephesus. And, and so it's probably been
about 30 years since Paul has he, he established the church
there. People got saved.
I mean, they, they took all of their books that they used to
worship all the false gods and they engaged in witchcraft and
they burned those books in the fire.
They didn't sell it on eBay. They burned it so that no one
else could get it again. And they got saved.
They committed their lives to Jesus Christ and they got
planted in that church at Ephesus.
But then we read the Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus and he
wrote the whole letter to the Ephesians is in your Bible.
And they had a real problem with unity because there were Jews
and there were Gentiles in the church and they struggled to get
along with one another. And so he wrote to them about
unity. And then Timothy was there, and
he wrote First Timothy and Second Timothy, and they
struggled with problems of false doctrine and false teaching.
But here we are 30 years later. Church at Ephesus is still
standing, but it's been enough time that most of the people
there would be probably made-up of second generation.
Christians and I. Don't know about you, I've
certainly experienced this. I've heard testimonies about
this that second generation Christians, generally speaking,
seem to lack the same zeal and fervor for God that their
parents had. Amen.
I'm not saying it happens every time that way, but just
generally speaking, they tend to lack that zeal.
They, they, they tend to lack that passion.
And I think as we read this passage, we can see that that is
likely what was happening. So as we, as we study this,
we'll see that while the Lord commended the church and we, we
ought to give credit where credit is due, right?
They were commended for some things.
He he did call them to repent. That's a strong word.
And it's not, it's not just a word for unbelievers.
It's something that believers need to do regularly.
And so I think we'll see and we'll get a glimpse from this
understanding how it's possible. For a church.
For individuals to fall out of love with Christ, but more
importantly, not just to diagnose that this problem
exists, but that there is a solution to get back to a place
where we can have a vibrant walk with God.
So so we. See in verse one that Jesus
Christ one through three, that Jesus Christ commended the
Church of Ephesus for their commitment to Christian truth.
They were committed to truth. And that is so important in our
day and time, is it not? We live in a world that wants to
redefine things. I hope I'm not losing anyone
tonight. They want to redefine things.
I mean, I I just think, for example, of gender.
Gender seems to be something that to some people is so
confusing and to me just seems so clear from what God's word
teaches. Amen.
There are males and there are females.
That's a sign by God at birth. It's not something you can
change. That's true.
But in our society they want to say no.
Gender is so much more complex than that.
It's something that you express by the way that you behave.
It's, it's something to express with your dress.
It's something that you express by the way that you, you, you
interact with other people. And it's just, it's kind of
fluid. It could change at times.
And it's not really, it's. It's not binary, it's just.
What you choose it to be? Well, that's not true.
Now we can. We can say that all we want and
and people with capital letters behind their name can say that.
It doesn't change that it's not true, doesn't change that it's a
lie. And the Church of Ephesus would
not have stood for that. He said no, no, no, there's only
two genders. Amen.
That's what the Church of Ephesus.
Would have done and there's plenty of other cultural issues
that we could deal with in our society in which we want to
redefine things but the truth is that you.
Don't get to change reality, you just have to live in it.
And the Church of Ephesus was strong.
They were committed to the truth in these few ways.
Notice what it says here as Jesus reveals himself as the one
who held the seven stars in his right hand.
So in each of these revelations that he gives to the churches,
he describes himself from one image that he used in the in the
vision of chapter 1. In this case, what he's bringing
out is that he is the one that holds the seven stars in his
right hand and who walks in the midst of the 7 golden
candlesticks. He chose to reveal himself
differently to some of the other churches.
The one that has the eyes like a flame of fire and the feet as
brass and and the one that has the sharp sword going out of his
mouth. So each one he uses one of those
attributes of himself or one of those descriptions and
depictions to to foreshadow what the message will be.
So he says, he says this to the Angel of the church at Ephesus.
So he's speaking to the pastor first.
Amen. I'm thankful that I've had
pastors in my life who hear from God and that they speak the
message that God has given to them to the church.
Amen. And so God speaks to the to the
Angel and he tells them, here's the message because he's the one
that is overseeing the church. He is responsible to answer to
God before the for the spiritual state of the church.
And he says I'm the one that holds the seven stars in my
right hand. What a.
Personal message to that pastor
there. You're one of my preachers and
you're in my hand. And I walk among my churches.
The candlesticks. How?
How would you? Feel if you knew that Jesus was
sitting next to you in the service tonight, well, he
doesn't have to physically be next to you.
He is here because he's on my present.
He's God. He's in every church service
that Liberty Baptist Church has. He knows what's going on more
than the pastor, more than any person.
He's omniscient. Nothing is hidden.
From him. Sobering, isn't it?
And he's, he's speaking. Notice it says these things,
saith he. Here's what he says.
I know thy works, thy labor, thy patience, how thou canst not
bear them which are evil. And now it's tried them which
say they are apostles and are not, has found them liars.
And it has. Born and has patience and for my
name's sake has labored and has not fainted.
Look at some of these commendable characteristics
about the church at Ephesus. He says I know your works.
It's it's somewhat convicting that Jesus knows what's going
on, but it's also encouraging, isn't it?
Because he he sees your labor, he sees your sacrifice, he sees
what you give. He sees your contributions to
the church here and he commends you where commendation is due.
Amen. I'm talking to the Court church
here tonight and Sunday night. I mean the, the faithful group
that comes back to church on a Sunday night, praise God for
that. Praise God for church members
that come back on a Sunday night.
Jesus commends you for that. Jesus commends those that go out
on visitation and they and they give out tracks to people.
He commends you for those of you who don't just live a Christian
life when you're here at church, but you do it Monday through
Saturday. And you say, I've seen that.
I've seen your labor and Christian life is not about fun
and games. It's about labor.
It's about work. It means we have to do work.
And he's not just talking about the fact that you work a nine to
five. He's talking about the labor
that you do in the ministry at the church.
It's like, I've seen that. I know, I know the work that
you've done. And look at this, how you can't
bear them which are evil. I mean, Jesus commended them for
the fact that they were taking a stand against that which was
evil in their culture. And they had a lot to stand
against, did they not? I mentioned to you already that
they had the emperor worship that was going on.
And then, and that certainly was a huge problem, right?
Because the worship of man is a direct insult to God.
Man is not made to receive worship.
Only God should receive worship. But then you see all the other
religious confusion that was in their day and some of the, the
moral abominations that happened in those Gentile cultures.
And all, of the, all of the immoral worship that went on
there at the temple of Artemis and all, of the, all of the
different ways in which they thumb their nose at God's
standards and morality. And, and the church at Ephesus
said, no, that's not right. This is not what God intended.
And they stood against it. Notice they also tried them
which say they are apostles and are not and has found.
Them liars and their day they had itinerant preachers that
were going around and they would they would come to the church
and say hey, we're here to preach Jesus.
Do you have an opening and they promoted themselves so that they
could enter into the church and begin to propagate false
doctrine and they call themselves apostles.
You know what the word apostle means is to be sent.
Forth with orders. So they would say that they were
messengers of God, but God never sent them.
And then they would go to preach a message that God never told
them to preach in the name of God.
And then they would, and then they would, they would try that
at the Church of Ephesus. The Church of Ephesus would kick
them out of church. Say no way.
You can't do that here. We, we, we don't tolerate that
false doctrine. You're a false apostle.
Now I'm I'm I'm only. Speculating, but I know that
they, they, it says here you, you, you tried them, you found
that they're not true. Isn't that a shame that there's
so many, there's so many false teachers that we have to be so
skeptical about things that are said?
God never intended that, but but that the devil certainly does
and and uses that so that he can create confusion where God has
created clarity and he says no, you've tried.
Them and you've born and has patience.
The idea of patients is not necessarily like waiting in a
doctor's office without complaining.
We're not a very patient people in America, are we?
He's not that's not what he's talking about.
He's talking about endurance. It's the idea that you could
bear up under the pressure and continue.
You know, it's, it's sad and, and you see this as you, as you
try to preach to people, try to help them in their life, that
there are some people that get into church for just a little
while, but they don't have any endurance, They don't have any
patience. And the first thing that happens
to them as a Christian is, oh, this Christian thing doesn't
work and they get out of church. That's a shame.
Endurance. They put up with some things.
Any church will have to put up with some things.
We have to put up with each other for one thing, that's what
it says in some of the letters. Forbearance put up with each
other because we're a. Family and every family has
family problems. You're saying that you've had.
Patience, you've endured, and for my name's sake, you didn't
do it for your own glory. You didn't do it just because
you wanted attention. You did it for my name's sake.
You've labored and you haven't fainted.
You haven't given up. You keep going.
Praise God for a church like. That think man this is a great
church and it all changes in verse 4.
It's it's as if. It's as if he's talking to a
whole different group of people now, but he's not.
He's talking to the same church. Notice what he says
nevertheless. You have some good.
Things. But you have a big problem.
Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee because thou has
left thy first love. In light of all these
commendable traits in an abundance of activity, there was
something missing. Something missing.
They had left their first love. It seems that whatever the
occasion was, they had gotten away from their first love.
You say what is their first love?
Well, I I would have to interpret this as meaning their
relationship with Jesus Christ, wouldn't you?
Their first love, I mean, the one that.
Saved them, redeemed them from their sins and made them a new
creature in Christ and and gave them a gave them an eternity in
heaven. And, and knowing that their
lives would never be the same, he put joy where there was
sorrow. He gave them meaning and
fulfillment where there was emptiness.
And they had this vibrant relationship with one another.
It's just like that honeymoon experience in which this was new
and it was beautiful and it was wonderful.
And yet somehow along the line, they continue to do Christian
things, but they slowly drifted from Christ.
Can you imagine that? And and it seems they were.
Oblivious to it, it just kept going on without realizing that
there was an engine light on in their Christian life.
You know that it's good if you everything about your car is in
working order. That's great, but the fact that
you have good tires doesn't change the fact that you still
need an oil change. I hope I didn't miss lose anyone
there. Just because you have some
components working doesn't mean you don't need to fix that's
which is broken or needs maintenance, right.
They needed maintenance in their Christian life.
So brother Brett, what, what do you think caused this?
Well, I all I can do is speculate, but I know this, that
in, in our, in our finite human perspective, though, we know the
truth about salvation, that it's by grace through faith, and that
the only way that we can be saved is by God's gift, right?
We understand that. We've heard that preached,
thankfully, because we have good men of God in our lives who
preach the Bible to us, but there's still that.
In us that makes us think I still have to do.
Something to be accepted by God. I mean, it's just this, it's
performance based thinking that's in US.
And that performance based thinking.
I think especially in churches like the Church of Ephesus that
have all types of activities that are going on that are
constantly doing Christian things that they can, they can
get into their minds that this is what my relationship with
Christ is all about. Because I do this and I do this
and I do this. I go to church, I wear the right
clothes, I go out on visitation, I read my Bible every day, I
pray every day. I give myself to doing all these
Christian things. And yet in those rituals and in
those habits miss the whole point.
You know what Jesus says is the solution.
It's very simple. I see twofold, twofold solution.
The 1st is this. Remember, therefore, from whence
thou art fallen, you see uses. The word fallen.
You've stumbled. You've fallen.
What I would say is they've fallen out of love with Jesus
Christ and they've, they've fallen.
But here's what you do you, you, you recall, you recall, I, I've
had the past day or so to think about the past five years of my
marriage with my wife. We've had four anniversaries and
this will be, you know, our 4th signifying 5 years of marriage
that's coming up in August. And as we were out yesterday, we
were, we brought Drew to the beach for the first time and
he's got the cold water coming on him and he was getting kind
of scared from the waves and everything.
And that was nice. But it also got me to think back
to when we first went on our honeymoon because while we were
being tortured in the scorching heat of Oklahoma, we never got
the chance to go to the beach. And it was, you know, we were
suffering for Christ there in Oklahoma.
And I'm totally kidding, but. But I mean, it was the first
time we'd been to the beach in five years.
And you have the smells and you experience it again.
It's like, oh man, this is great.
And it brought me right back to that moment in our honeymoon
and. You know what it made me do?
I remembered some things. I remembered not just that
experience in our honeymoon, not just that that time that we had
together, but I remembered what it was like to be newly married
with my wife. And, and then I thought about
all our experiences together and all that we've been through.
And it, it caused me to appreciate our marriage in a new
way because I began to remember some things.
Do you remember what it was like when you first got saved?
Do you remember that you remember when God reached into
your life and you were you were a Sinner.
Say, brother Brad, I was just a child.
You were a Sinner in your sinful condition and God reached you.
But but perhaps. Some of you as adults got saved
as adults. I got saved as an adult.
And I remember what it was like to have my my life on a certain
trajectory and, and really feeling like it was a time that
I was really hopeless and didn't have any direction and didn't
know where I was going. And it's not like I didn't have
a career path in college and all these different things, but I
knew there was more to life that I was missing.
And it was at that moment, at that juncture in my life, that
Jesus Christ revealed himself to me and a man shared the gospel
with me, and I got saved at 18 years old.
And the entire trajectory of me in my life changed.
And every once in a while, as I've been busy and doing
ministry and preaching and wearing a suit and tie before
people on a regular basis, it's good for me to remember you
weren't always a preacher, Brother Brett.
You at one time were just a Sinner and you had no idea where
you were going. And your Lord reached into your
life and he changed you forever. I don't remember that every once
in a while. How about you and your Christian
life? When's the last time you
remember what it was like to be lost?
You were before. When's the last time you thought
about that? When's the last time you thought
about the blessings that he's brought into your life through
what He's done? You got to remember these
things. It's so easy to forget, isn't
it? We tend to focus on the negative
experiences and that can cause us to be.
Blind all the. Blessings that God has given us.
He's been so good. He says you need to remember
this is the first imperative verb of the passage and it's the
first thing he's telling you to do something.
He's recording. He's recording of the issues
there at the church and he's talking about.
Them, he's commending them, and this is the first thing he says.
This is what you're supposed to do.
Remember. Remember what it was like when I
first saved you? Remember what it was like when
we had a vibrant relationship. Maybe you don't need to go all
the way back to your salvation. Maybe just need to go back.
To the last time you were on fire for the Lord and had a good
relationship with Him. And maybe lately it's been
somewhat stale. It's been somewhat lackluster
and you haven't really had that same passion.
But you know what's amazing is that he's he's waiting for you
to come back. He's inviting you back to a
place of zeal and fervency once again.
You remember, OK, that that's the first step is you got to
remember. You recall this to your mind.
But the next step is so important.
He says repent. Remember is in the present tense
in Greek, it's in it and it's really meaning this, not just
that it's supposed to happen now, but it's supposed to have
this continuous action. You're not supposed to stop
remembering. In fact, you need to jog your
memory regularly about your your walk with God so that you keep
yourself in the right place. But the word repent is Eris
tense, meaning not that it's in the past, but that it is a one
time decision that is decisive where it says that's it.
I'm making a very serious decision and there's no going
back. See, this is what I think
sometimes we think of as forgiveness and repentance in
our Christian life. Jesus, I forget, I ask for your
forgiveness because I've sinned. Would you please forgive me?
Cleanse me from all unrighteousness.
Amen. We say our little prayer thing,
but there's. There's no real brokenness.
There's no. There's no mindset shift in
which you say that's it, no more.
I'm not doing that anymore. This is, this is a problem in my
relationship with Christ. This is a problem and I need to,
I need to separate from this. I need to sever this completely.
I need to turn from this to him. So repentance means it's simply
a change of mind that results in a change of direction.
Repentance is not you do it and you bring all your works
together and then you prove it to God.
Repentance is a change of mind that results in the change.
There's a lot of false teaching about repentance that people say
that it's like works. If you need to repent, it's not
works, it's just a change of mind.
And that when you get a change of mind, that will change your
behavior, won't it? It's pretty simple.
Change your mind. You're going to change your.
Behavior. The problem is so many times we
pray these ritual prayers with no intent of really changing.
And is it any wonder that our relationship with Christ would
not improve if we haven't had a change of mind?
We just thought that because we said a prayer made things right
again. Well, it didn't if you didn't
repent, but that's how you get back.
And he says, if you don't, I will come into thee quickly and
will remove thy Candlestick out of his place, except thou
repent. He mentions also to do the first
works. I think it's very simple.
What he's saying there is. Remember what it was like when
we were on our honeymoon experience.
Get back to what you were doing when it was like that.
But if you refuse to repent, there will be consequences.
Because as the Candlestick, you are my representatives and
you're not representing me properly.
So if you refuse to represent me properly, I'm going to give you
this space. I'm going to give you this
opportunity to repent. But sooner or later, I'm not
going to let you be my light anymore.
I'll let someone else be my light.
But this thou hast that thou hatest the deeds of the
Nicolaitans, which I also hate. I don't want to get too deep
into this because I don't want to get distracted from what I
believe Lords laid on my heart for tonight.
But the idea of the Nicolaitans, I believe is there's a couple
different ideas about it. I think what probably they were
doing, as the word in Greek is a compound word.
It's. Nike, which means victory and
then laity over the people, right?
And they were trying to separate the make distinctions between
the laity or the people in the congregation and the people that
were preaching it on the platform, the clergy and the
laity, right? And that the somehow the clergy
had victory over the people. They were superior to them.
And the church at Ephesus said absolutely not.
That is not the true doctrine of Jesus Christ.
They hated it. And then I think we see an early
form of Catholicism there and other false teachings.
They wouldn't deal with that. And so I, I, I think when we
really boil this all down, here's what we see, that the
church at Ephesus was commended, but they needed to repent
because they were committed to Christian truth.
They were committed to Christian truth, but they neglected their
love for Christ. Doesn't that seem so foreign
that you could be committed to Christian truth?
Amen. We're Baptists.
We believe the truth of the Word of God, and we have all of our
preaching points that we love to say because this is the truth
and this is the truth and this is the truth.
And yet at the same time, we could be neglecting our love for
Christ our Savior. I think the churches that are
most in danger of this mentality are churches that are
conservative Baptist churches that have been blessed to have
the truth. Don't get me wrong, this is not
a message saying we don't need to uphold the truth.
We do, and Jesus commended them for that.
We shouldn't stop holding up truth.
The problem is that we can get so busy propagating the truth
that we forget about Christian. Love, or more importantly.
Love for Christ, and here's what he's saying, is that when you
emphasize truth. Over love.
There are some dangers that come with that that misrepresent the
whole Christian message. Can I give you some examples?
I think sometimes it's easier to identify Christians for what
they hate rather than what they love.
How about you tonight? Are you more identified with by
what you hate or by what you love?
God's grace gives us the opportunity to have a revival of
love again, but when we emphasize truth over love.
And by the way, one is not supposed to have more emphasis
than the other. Both should have equal emphasis.
Because you can't have one without the other.
The Church of Thyatira had the opposite problem.
They had love without truth, but Ephesus had truth without love.
What are some of the dangers of that?
Well, I think we ought to hate the promotion of the LGBTQ
movement in our country, in our schools.
We ought to hate that, just like they hated the deeds of the
Nicolaitans, just like they hated those that were
propagating evil. They were false apostles.
But not to say we should not love people whose lives have
been destroyed by the LGBTQ propaganda.
There are, there are some really, I mean really stern
Baptist churches that will take a strong stand against LGBTQ and
they will preach, I mean, entire months of messages on the same
exact issue to the neglect of other passages just because they
want to make sure that they're strong on the truth.
But they haven't won a L GB TQ person to Christ in months and
years because they haven't preached the gospel to them.
They just preached judgment and truth, but no love.
And some would even shame a message like this as liberal.
You got to preach the truth. But if you're preaching it with
the absence of your love for Christ, then you're going to
have the wrong emphasis. I think we ought to hate the
notion of false teaching. False teaching is so horrible.
Because those that put their faith and trust in a false
teaching are going to one day face eternal ruin.
And even those that have been saved but then been deceived
into false teaching their lives here on earth for Christ are are
in in ruin and destruction, and they can no longer be used at
the capacity that God intended for their life.
So yes, we ought to hate false teaching, but we ought not to
hate people that have been ensnared by false.
Teaching I used to be a Catholic.
I'll just tell you, I I have no problem saying this, that I hate
the web of lies that the Catholic Church has ensnared so
many people in. I have no problem saying that to
you tonight because I myself was deceived by the Catholic Church.
And I have family members that are in hell tonight because they
bought in, they swallowed it and they're in hell tonight.
That, that that grieves me. And and I'm all for preaching
the truth against the errors of Catholicism, but if I'm going to
do that and I have no love for Catholics and their need to be
saved, I'm a hypocrite. I can't say I love Jesus.
And, and neglect people that he loves to reach with the gospel,
say the same would be true folks about Muslims and, and about
Hindus. And, and I know that there could
be this problem with, with, with Islam and the radical Islam and
in our own nation feeling the feeling the weight of the
terrorist attacks on 9/11. And that could so 'cause us to,
to view Muslims in Islam in a certain way.
As I mentioned, we should view Islam as a false teaching and a
false religion because it is. But there are Muslims who need
to be saved. And we may not like talking to
them or we may not like engaging with them because we have some
sort of stereotype or some sort of bias based on these cultural
issues. But if we truly love Christ and
if we're being influenced by the teachings of Jesus.
There's no people group that we can exclude and this is what
Jesus warns US against is that when you lose your love, you
lose your light. Well, here's here's what he's
saying right now. I'm giving you space to repent,
but if you don't or or else, he says.
I'm going to come to. The church I'm going to remove
the Candlestick and you'll no longer be a New Testament church
anymore. You won't be my light.
I won't work through you anymore and I will place that light
somewhere else. And why did that happen?
Because they lost their love. I think the same could be true
about our our belief in the in the word of God.
We can sit we can stand in the pulpit as preachers and and
there are people in the in the Pew rather that is man.
I got the King James Bible. Therefore, I'm a good Christian,
but just because you have the right Bible and I believe it's
the right Bible, it's what I'm preaching from tonight for
English speaking people, King James Bible.
I'm a I'm a believer in God's preserved word that it's
inspired, that it's an error, that there's no errors in it,
that he's preserved for English speaking people in the King
James. But that doesn't mean just
because I have the right Bible that all of a sudden I'm exempt
from practicing what the Bible clearly teaches is when you.
Lose your love, you lose your life.
And I've, I've seen this, I think this principle is not just
true for churches, but I think it's true with for Christians,
Christians that have that attitude, they lose their
influence with people for Christ.
And I wouldn't say they lose their influence because actually
what they do really is they put a bad taste in people's mouths
about the gospel. And I, I can only imagine the
only thing worse than not witnessing to anyone at all is
misrepresenting Jesus Christ. I think a lot of that's going
on. And so I mean, yeah, we ought to
hate sin, but love sinners. We ought to, we ought to hate
that which is evil, but we're we're in danger of losing our
light when we lose our love. So we should stand for Christian
truth, but not to the neglect of love for Jesus Christ.
So I want to ask you this tonight.
Are you, are you more heavily emphasizing truth in your life
to the neglect of love for Christ?
I think that's possible for any, any one of us to be in that
position. Maybe, maybe, perhaps you.
You would admit. Yeah, I've been there in my
life, Brother Brett, but even as a church tonight and and most of
this is going to be up to your pastor who I, I, as I've
mentioned before, I, I have a great relationship with him and
I, I really believe you've been blessed with a wonderful pastor.
Praise God for his ministry here.
And I know that his heart and his spirit would would certainly
be aligned with with an emphasis on truth and love in their
proper place. Have you fallen out of love with
Christ? Have you have you lost some of
that zeal, some of that passion? Is it not is your relationship
not what it used to be? Can I encourage you, You can you
can get right with God tonight. And perhaps you say, brother
Brett, I'm really not in a place where it's, you know, I'd say
I've fallen out of love with Christ, but I certainly know
this. I want my relationship with him
to grow. Well, here's here's how it
happens. You give yourself to love and
truth. The truth should never be
compromised for love because then it's not true love.
But we should never elevate truth above love because then we
begin to be mean spirited. We begin, we get, we begin to be
cruel to it. Now we use the truth more as a
weapon than as an instrument of healing and a bomb for those who
are hurting. You had a lot of hurting people
in your community. You know what they need any
truth and love, and that's what we need in our lives too, isn't
it? So I'll ask you to stand with me
tonight and and as we as we consider this at the Church of
Ephesus. He concludes with this thought.
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 the
paradise of God. I'm not going to deal with that
verse very much tonight, but we do have a glorious future.
And if we will give ourselves to truth and love, Liberty Baptist
Church, if you give yourselves to that, the Lord's going to do
continue to do great things through this church.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.