Revelation: The Church of Ephesus (Rev 2:1-7), Part 4/6

A church can be busy, informed, and publicly respected while quietly cooling toward Christ and that’s the danger Revelation 2 puts in our faces. We talk through the letter to Ephesus and why Jesus’ warning about “removing the lampstand” is best understood as losing a place of usefulness and witness, not losing salvation. It’s the sobering picture of a starter getting benched: still on the team, but no longer on the field where it counts.

From there, we dig into the Nicolaitans and what we can say with confidence from the text: corrupt teaching that loosens holiness and invites compromise. The challenge is learning to hate what Christ hates without turning our hearts hard. We explore why “loveless orthodoxy” is real, why the fix is not tolerating error, and how love and truth are meant to travel together in discipleship, church life, and confronting false doctrine.

We also open the floor to a direct theological question that many believers wrestle with: Do we hold to TULIP? That leads us into limited atonement, the outward call versus the effectual call, and how passages like Romans 9 and the potter-and-clay imagery shape the conversation about God’s sovereignty, human responsibility, and the character of God.

If you care about biblical doctrine, Christian love, church health, and staying spiritually awake, this one is for you. Subscribe for more, share this with a friend who loves Scripture, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway or your hardest question after listening.

Transcript

Benched For Losing First Love

SPEAKER_00 0:00

That would crush me. You know? And and so think about it's it's not even, you know, we we say the loss of salvation, that's secured, but think think about like the Lord saying those things to you or removing you from that place where you glorified him at the highest, and then he says, get back to the to the back of the line there, unless you repent, you know?

SPEAKER_03 0:30

Right. It's like it's like being an athlete and being a starter, and then the coach puts you on the bench. The starter. All of a sudden, you've been demoted from first string to second or third string because of whatever attitude, whatever. Nobody wants to be benched. And this is what Christ is talking about. If you can't cut it, I'm going to bench you. I'm gonna sit you on the bench, take you out of the fight. You're not trying to win. You are just following the principles, but you're not playing with heart. You're put in the penalty box. Good illustrations here. But this is what this is talking about. It's not about losing salvation. This is his church he's talking to talking to and talking about. And so you may have a church, for example, and you know, he's not talking about destroying the church or the loss of the church's place or it's witness. I mean, what he's saying here is that listen, if you're not going to be all in out of a love for me, I will take these things. I will remove you from the position that I put you in to serve me and put you in someplace else. And keep in mind, this is talking about real things through symbolic language, but it's real. Losing your first love toward him is a very serious matter. And you can retain your name and your history and your and the buildings that we have and the monuments and the rewards that we receive for job well done in the mission field and all the outward orders and all this kind of stuff. And yet you cease to shine as a shining light for his church.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

He takes it very personally.

SPEAKER_03 2:55

He takes it very personal. Very personal. And if they don't remember from where they are fallen, the Lord threatens their removal from the position of being a light bearer. If I'm giving you light to bear to the world and you refuse to use it, then what good is you having it? What good is your having it? So this is not about a loss of salvation, but it's about a loss of position in ministry, which can be very difficult for some of us to lose that role, to glorify him in such an elevated way. Being called by him to serve is a big deal when the Lord God Almighty calls you into service. It's a big deal. This goes for a church body, and this goes for the individual. Christ alone plants churches, and Christ alone can remove them when they refuse to remember, to repent, and to do, according as he has called us to do.

Nicolaitans And Corrupt Teaching

SPEAKER_03 4:11

He says to them in verse 6, but this you have, but this you have, you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. And so Christ now begins to bookend their situation. He started off with a commendation, then he gave them the problem, and now he puts the other book in on the end, which is another commendation. The Ephesians hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans. Now, there are a lot of people, expositors, commentarians, preachers, theologians, they all sort of talk about what were these deeds of the Nicolaitans and what was their historical errors that they were doing that the Ephesian church hated. The fact is, no one knows for sure. No one knows for sure. It's not in the word of God. And so maybe history can help develop some understanding about it. But what we do know is that it involved corrupt teaching. And it promoted practices that loosened the demands that holiness requires. This is what needs to be understood. And so and so they accommodated impurity within the church. And they allowed for idolatrous compromise. But the Ephesian church wasn't going for it. And Christ commends them for that. He commends them for that. Sister Lisa, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

So I was gonna just ask you about that. The Nicolaitans, were there, so were there believe were were there believers amongst them who had come back doing whatever, you know, like who are these people?

SPEAKER_03 6:17

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

Okay, so so they're not they're not got they're not God's people.

SPEAKER_03 6:24

They're not God's people for sure, and they're not spoken about in the scriptures at all. At all. So, so, but, but, but what we do know for a fact is that, you know, like I said, people can speculate. They can speculate. Like Meg says, nations accepted pagan practice. I don't know that. The Bible doesn't talk about it. So, so I won't go overboard, and I told you this is one of those areas where sometimes I'll I'll have to say things that I simply don't have an answer for. I don't know. The word of God says nothing about the Nicolaitans other than what we read here. But what is clear was that Christ was happy with the response to them by the Ephesian church. By the Ephesian church. And he says that he says that you hate it, you hate the deeds of the knock of the Nicolaitians, which deeds I also hate. So we assume here that, and most people will assume, you being good company, that they had practices that were idolatrous and doctrines that were contrary to holiness and righteousness in Christ. And there, and and the nicket, the Ephesian hatred was directed not toward persons as objects of personal malice, but toward the evil deeds and their corrupt doctrine. That's what we do know. So, me personally, me personally, and as I said, I'll never tell you something with dogmatic, dogmatically, if I can't say more about it. What I can say is that whatever it is they were teaching, the Ephesian church, they were on top of it, and Christ commended them for shutting it down. He commended them for it. And so that's that's the extent of what I can say, and frankly, what anybody can say from a biblical perspective. Now, people can they speculated on historical things and whatever. I don't know. In my own personal studies, I've never come across anything that I felt substantial enough to be able to come and say without it without contradiction, this is what it, this is what they were what it was. But whatever it was, Christ commends the Ephesian church for not letting them get away with it. They didn't give them, they didn't give the Nicolaitian, the Nicolaitans, he didn't give them a chance, they didn't give them an inch. They did.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

And so is it much like the church today rebuking like the New Age?

SPEAKER_03 8:56

Yeah, but what one the other thing that we know for sure is that they were not teaching doctrines that are biblical doctrines. They weren't doing that. And they and we know that there's there's probably some aspect of idolatry that they were embracing, and they were definitely teaching or conveying doctrines that were not true. But the Ephesian church was on it, they were on the job, and Christ says, Hey, this is commendable. You hate it, and I hate it. That's what we

Correct Error Without Losing Love

SPEAKER_03 9:32

know. And so the lesson here is that when anything that is spoken and being taught and conveyed that is not true, we are supposed to speak up. We are supposed to speak up and deal with their error. And if they're willing to listen, great. If they're not, after the first or second admonition, we write them off as the heretic and write them off. We don't waste time with this nonsense, but we let them know it is nonsense. We let them know it's a lie. In Christian love, just because we are expected to be loving people, we are never to be indifferent toward doctrine or doctrinal errors or sin of any type. We cannot be indifferent. We need, we cannot be unbiased. We have to shut down falsehood and introduce the truth as it is intended. And the church, continuing this theme in chapter two here, the church that recovers their first love, you can't abandon discernment. And sometimes we let people get away with things. We cannot, we we if we discern something to be false, we have to deal with it as we would with any falsehood. Love and truth must go together. Always. If you have the truth with no love, and you have love with no truth, it's gonna be a problem. And this is what Christ is dealing with right now. Love must be holy, and holiness must be loving. And both of these is consistent with godliness. In this verse, also, verse 6 here also guards against misunderstanding the rebuke. Christ is not condemning the Ephesian church for opposing falsehood, he's condemning them for losing love or the absence of love while they are in the midst of opposing falsehood. That's what he's dealing with. So the answer to a love less orthodoxy is not toleration of error, the truth must be inflamed by love. Now look at this. The answer to loveless orthodoxy. In other words, Christ is saying, I don't want you to walk away from this Ephesian church. And I'm saying this to all of you. Because if this is hard at home, and you're questioning whether or not you lost your first love, what Christ is teaching us is don't, you know, in other words, if you get the truth right, but you're conveying it from the standpoint where there is no love, he is saying, don't back off from dealing with the error. In other words, don't tolerate the error because you're being rebuked. I'm rebuking you not about, I'm not, I'm I'm rebuking you not about attacking the errors, rebuking you for the lack of love in conveying the error and pointing it out in the opposition that you are leveling against the error. In other words, don't recoil from the rebuke and think that that means somehow you need to just be quiet and stop telling the truth. Because this is what a lot of people do. They get spanked and they go, like, okay, well, I'm not gonna do anything anymore. That's what a lot of people do. I have that tendency to say, okay, well, I won't say anything anymore. I know there's some of you that are like that. Somebody just has an issue with you about something and something you said, and then your attitude is like, okay, well, I'm just not gonna say anything at all. I'm guilty. This is what Christ is arguing about right now. This is what he's saying. Don't listen. He's saying, don't stop correcting the error. Keep doing that, but go back to your first love, which is your love toward me, that heated, tender-hearted joy and love you had in me. Join those two back together. But like so many of us do, like I just, like Meg just attested to, and I can tell you, I'm the same way. Sometimes when people want to correct you, you get so bruised spiritually about it that you pout, well, okay, well, I'm not gonna say anything anymore then. Since I can't talk, I'm not gonna say anything anymore. And then you open up a bigger floodgate for error to come in and to saturate and to intermingle with good leaven.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

That's why we have to love correction. It says those who love correction are wise. Right. And so we have to embrace those things.

SPEAKER_03 15:14

Right. Right. That's right. And so we need to learn these things, and and you know, listen, this is this is for all of

Doctrine Divides And Election Debates

SPEAKER_03 15:26

us. This is a great lesson to be learned by those who are always saying to all of us, and many of us, you, I'm sure every one of us has heard this, or you may have said it. Doctrine divides. Don't talk about doctrine because it divides. Christ, he didn't berate the Ephesians for their doctrine and orthodoxy. No. He commended them for it. Don't be one of these people who says, I'm not gonna tell the truth because doctrine divides. I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. And then there are those who say that parts of the word of God are not essential to salvation, so we don't need to talk about this hotly debated issue. I'm not gonna talk about predestination. It doesn't matter to salvation. If the Lord shows you, if he chose you, blah, blah, blah, we're not gonna talk about it because it doesn't really matter. And no one can understand it. That's what people who don't like the truth always say. Well, if the truth makes sense when they hear it, but they don't like hearing the truth because it's inconsistent with their human mindset about how God should be, they say nobody understands it. No, you don't understand it. You're the one who doesn't understand it. It's a fool who looks at the word of God and says, I see that. It's clear, but it doesn't mean what it says. But it's clear. He doesn't choose anyone to salvation, that's unfair. That's not a loving God. And the same people that tell you that, they will come tell you that verse is talking about predestination and God's choice, that only pertained to the nation of Israel. Why is it that when it was when he chose them for whatever reason, that was okay? That was fair. That he chose them among all the other nations and among all the other families of the earth, like Amos 3.2 tells us. That was fair. But when he uses that, in a sense of providing illustrative value for us as the church and the people of Christ, that's unfair. Every Christian who knows anything about the scriptures, they will make a reference to things that we refer to as typology. The sacrificial lamb, the ordinance that came under the Levitical priesthood, all the observances of the law. You know, these kinds of things. But they stop short when the typology, when the typology of God's election of the nation of Israel is supposed to prefigure his election of his people from among all people of all nations, all tongues, and all kindreds. That's a bridge too far. That's the one typology, him choosing them as a nation, that people that the dispensationalists reject. Everything else is fine. But we need to understand the nation of Israel were a type, they were a prototype, they prefigured what the Lord's church is to be, his elect, his holy nation, the new Jerusalem, the Israel of God, the true Jews of Romans chapter 2, verse 28 and 29. That's what they were, and that's what they are today. Christians are the true Israel of God. Don't let these knucklehead dispensationalists tell you otherwise, because they don't know what they're talking about, and they refuse to embrace the truth. They refuse. Now, verse 7.

One Church Through All Ages

SPEAKER_03 20:38

Revelation verse 7. He finishes up here by saying, He that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches. To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of paradise. He says here, everyone that has an ear to hear. Everyone. What the spirit says to the churches. To the churches. This is something everyone is supposed to hear. So the message to Ephesus is not for the Ephesian church alone, it is for everyone who has the ear to hear. A ear which only the Lord Himself can open. So that the truth can be heard. He that has an ear to hear summons every believer at every church and in every age to pay spiritual attention. Every one of us. Each letter, therefore, has an abiding relevance throughout every church age. And make no mistake about it. The total body is a unified body, and that unified body from Adam until the end when Christ returns, we are all one body in Christ, one church. Not two, not Israel and the church, one church. Stephen knew that. Look at Acts 7. He referred to the Old Testament Israel as the church. He knew that. And Christ only has one body, and that one body he laid his life down for. He says that in Ephesians 5. He laid down his body for his church. So there's no Israel or the Africans or the blacks or the whites or the yellows or Japanese. It's not all, it's one body. And that middle wall of partition, Christ tore down at his resurrection. At his death and resurrection, he tore it all down. Making one body. Never to be severed or broken again. Ever. And so he goes on to say Christ says here that he speaks through this spirit to all the churches. Every congregation, every individual must ask whether it has preserved the truth at the cost of love. Because you can have the truth. Without losing your fervency in dealing with falsehood. And so this is what we need to focus on here. And we need to see where we sit in this situation as an individual and as a congregation. And so the promise here is given to him that overcomes. And overcoming in this context means preserving, being preserved in the faith. Resisting in any manner, in all manner, in every variety of spiritual decline. And to repent of lost love or a diminishing love. And continuing in a holy devotion to our Lord and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we conquer when we cling faithfully to our Lord and Savior. But we must relinquish and resist all sin, all dullness, all coldness, all error, and all compromise.

SPEAKER_04 25:57

Yeah, yeah. I'm glad to see you, man. Yeah. Now, uh, just before I, you know, get into a couple questions and stuff, uh, I think.

SPEAKER_03 26:05

Let me finish if we can get we can get there on the end, okay? Let

Overcoming And The Tree Of Life

SPEAKER_03 26:08

me finish here. I'm almost done. All right.

SPEAKER_04 26:10

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 26:12

So almost done here, everybody. So he talks about the reward being to eat of the tree of life in the paradise of God, which we all know was lost in Eden through sin, but restored in Christ. And so the promise points to eternal life, full communion with God as a result of that eternal life, and the final, the final entrance into his renewed creation, which he also promises to all of those who believe and trust in him. And the church that repents and overcomes shall enjoy the everlasting fellowship of God. Everyone. And so this letter begins with Christ walking amongst the lampstands, and it ends with the saints eating from the tree of life. And so this present church is judged and intended to by the presence of our Lord and Savior, Christ, so that the faithful may inherit paradise with God, which is the expectation for all of us who believe. And this is where we will close on Revelations chapter 2, 1 through 7 for tonight. And we'll go on to our last comments before before we finally close.

TULIP And Limited Atonement Questions

SPEAKER_03 27:47

So, Brother Cam, go ahead. You want to say something? I can't hear you. I can't hear you.

SPEAKER_04 27:58

Can you hear me now?

SPEAKER_03 27:59

I can.

SPEAKER_04 28:00

Okay. Yeah, I was just kind of just kind of curious. I mean, you know my position. I know your position, but you know, I've always seen you as a brother in Christ. Like, I don't ever really really yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:12

Even in those videos?

SPEAKER_04 28:15

Yeah, oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:16

Okay. All right. Well I would never do that to a brother, but okay. I guess you would.

SPEAKER_04 28:23

Yeah, well, actually, I take that back. When I first started learning about Calvinism, I kind of seen it as some kind of demonic teaching, but I've kind of become more cordial to it. You know what I mean? I'm not as like harsh against it anymore. Right. I just I just don't see any point in, you know, dividing up the body of Christ over a theological difference. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. But some of the implications of the teaching do concern me. And I know that you have had to have thought about this stuff before. Like it's it's not something that you can just glaze over like everything's just all dandy and fine. Like, you know what I mean? There's a lot of stuff about Calvinism that kind of makes you think sometimes throughout the day. Sometimes you're like, wait a minute, is this right? Like it just makes you dawn on it sometimes. Like, does God really? I mean, I'm I'm not trying to I'm not trying to appeal to emotion or anything to like make my point. But if God doesn't love everybody salvifically, there seems to be some tension with some of the Bible verses I see. Okay. Like limited atonement type of stuff, and you know, unconditional election, John 6, and just these various different passages that you're probably well versed in, you know. So, I mean, there's there are different forms of Calvinism. There's obviously hard determinism, soft determinism, intolerant suit.

SPEAKER_03 29:54

Let's let's do this for a second. Because I I think about this a lot. Let's do this for a second. Because I remember last week when you you had a live and you you you asked me to come up, and and and you know, but I couldn't because I wasn't involved with something at the moment. But let's let's do this. Because one thing that I one thing that I don't like is the moniker of a Calvinist. So what I and I don't think John Calvin would like that. Now, what I'm what I'm willing to do is to be able to have a discussion about a particular or a group of doctrines you believe. I don't have to mention Arminianism, you don't have to mention Calvinism. Let's talk about the doctrinal problems that that there may be between what we the positions that we hold.

unknown 30:50

Right.

SPEAKER_03 30:51

Make sense. So let's forget about Calvinism. Let's forget about Arminianism. Let's talk about the doctrine with which we have differences about that you feel are important to talk about.

SPEAKER_04 31:05

Okay, so I'll just straight up ask the question. Do you hold the tulip?

SPEAKER_03 31:10

Yes, I do.

SPEAKER_04 31:12

Okay, every single one of those points you have.

SPEAKER_03 31:14

Every single one of them.

SPEAKER_04 31:16

Okay. I don't have much of a problem or a quarrel with most of them, because I I have an issue with limited atonement. I do have some four-point and three-point Calvinist friends, but the limited atonement one seems to impact God's character in a way.

SPEAKER_03 31:37

His character.

SPEAKER_04 31:39

Yeah, because it seems to me that if Christ didn't come to die for everybody who would freely receive the gift of grace through faith, it seems like God is choosing to hate people for no reason. Now, I know I know you wouldn't say for no reason. There's ways to phrase it and word it in a way that kind of, I guess I would say sugarcoats it where it's like it like the call, like if God is calling people to repent and believe in him, but he already has decided in eternity past that they wouldn't be the chosen few, then it seems to be a disingenuous call. Do you hold to the two different callings? Like there's the the salvific call and then the what they would call like prescriptive or descriptive call.

SPEAKER_03 32:31

There, to me, there is what I would call the effectual call versus the the outward call that goes to everybody. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:39

Yeah, there you go, the effectual and the outward. Okay, so the outward call is not to everybody. Well, it's it's to everybody, but not everybody can accept it, correct?

SPEAKER_03 32:51

Right, that's right.

SPEAKER_04 32:52

Right. But the reason they can't accept it is because God didn't choose them in eternity past, right?

SPEAKER_03 33:00

No, no. They can't accept it because they're sinners and they're dead and sin and trespasses. So if you believe in the tea in the tulip, then you understand that they have no ability to choose or to accept it.

SPEAKER_04 33:11

Right, but what's behind the curtain, though? So behind what you just said that they're sinners and all this, behind the curtain, God had already set up and planned everything in advance. So the reason that you're giving their sinners is actually God. So it's if you look behind the curtain, it's not that they're sinners, it's because God so decreed that they would be sinners, and so we can't blame them, is what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_03 33:39

We can't blame them for any well, let me put it to you this way. When the Lord talks about in Jeremiah and in Romans, when God talks about that, he makes out of one lump of clay, one vessel of honor and one vessel of dishonor, how do you understand that? Because that that is that is talking about what he has done before the creation of the world.

SPEAKER_04 34:04

Are you referring to Jeremiah 19 or Romans 9?

SPEAKER_03 34:08

Jeremiah and Romans 9. They both say the same thing. That's the whole that's what the illusion is. So if God if God takes for one lump of clay, clay meaning what man is made from, the dirt of the ground, he says that from what from this same lump of clay, from the same stuff, from the same stuff, I'm going to make one vessel of honor and another of dishonor.

SPEAKER_04 34:32

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 34:34

So how do you explain that?

SPEAKER_04 34:37

So I think the reason that they're vessels of dishonor is because they're disobedient.

SPEAKER_03 34:41

But who makes them? Well, I don't, I don't. But who makes them that way? Who makes them honor honorable or dishonorable?

SPEAKER_04 34:48

Yes, in the context of John, I'm sorry, Jeremiah 19. I'm trying to find it right now, but he literally says that he made one vessel in his hand and it became marred. It doesn't mention that the vessels that became marred were because God decreed it so. So when they become marred, it's because of choices they're making in their life, right? They're willfully disobedient.

SPEAKER_03 35:17

So you mean the clay itself did its own thing. And God didn't fashion.

SPEAKER_04 35:23

No, what I'm saying is once you have reached a point of no return, God gives you over to a reprobate mind to do things that are completely unpleasant.

SPEAKER_03 35:35

But if you say that if you say that, but but from that standpoint, from that standpoint.