SPEAKER_00: Chapter number two.
SPEAKER_00: Wherefore, seeing all these things must be dissolved.
SPEAKER_00: What manner of persons ought we to be?
SPEAKER_00: In Revelation chapters two and three, we are given a glimpse into the kind of person we ought to be.
SPEAKER_00: Not just the kind of person we ought to be, but John talks to us about the kind of church that we ought to be.
SPEAKER_00: The church is God's representative organism on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: A local church is a group of called out, saved and baptized believers who voluntarily join themselves together to observe the ordinances and to obey the Great Commission.
SPEAKER_00: That's a church.
SPEAKER_00: There's lots of people who gathered together today that could be called an assembly, but no assembly like this assembly meets anywhere outside of this assembly.
SPEAKER_00: This is God's body on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: We are the heart and the hands and the feet and the eyes and the ears of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And what the Lord accomplishes in Inglewood this week will be through this body.
SPEAKER_00: Rooted in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Seven churches, seven needs to return.
SPEAKER_00: Each of these churches in chapters two and three have one thing that God wants them to return to.
SPEAKER_00: One thing to return to.
SPEAKER_00: See if you can find the one thing in our reading this morning from Revelation chapter two and verse one.
SPEAKER_00: Under the angel of the church of Ephesus write, these things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.
SPEAKER_00: I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear with them which are evil, and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them liars, and hast borne and has patience, and for thy name's my name's sake, hast labored and has not fainted.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, I have somewhat against you, because thou hast left thy first love.
SPEAKER_00: Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
SPEAKER_00: But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which also I hate.
SPEAKER_00: He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
SPEAKER_00: To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
SPEAKER_00: One thing to return to.
SPEAKER_00: Did you see it?
SPEAKER_00: Thou hast left thy first love.
SPEAKER_00: I know I've told this story so many times, but it's this is my story.
SPEAKER_00: They asked Mel Trotter, I told a story a few months ago.
SPEAKER_00: Trotter was a drunk who was radically converted.
SPEAKER_00: They asked him, how do you know that you're saved?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I was there when it happened.
SPEAKER_00: I was there when it happened.
SPEAKER_00: I remember that night.
SPEAKER_00: I remember how I thought of Jesus and how I believed by faith he thought about me.
SPEAKER_00: First love.
SPEAKER_00: I remember becoming a Christian and memorizing scripture and pursuing God.
SPEAKER_00: I remember.
SPEAKER_00: May we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Our Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus and this service that has prepared our hearts to speak the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: May everything that has been accomplished already have prepared each person to receive the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we're coming to this passage for the 10th or 20th or 30th time.
SPEAKER_00: Help us, Lord, to approach it as a curious child, waiting to receive from you what you have for us in it today.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll be careful to thank you for it.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for standing and please be seated together.
SPEAKER_00: If we're honest with ourselves, many of us know what it's like to keep showing up, to keep serving, to keep doing all the right things.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, in maybe so subtle of ways, feel a quiet distance of our heart and passion from where we used to be.
SPEAKER_00: But somewhere along the way, we replaced relationship with routine.
SPEAKER_00: The distance is also felt by our loving Lord, who calls us back to himself again.
SPEAKER_00: Our great God doesn't do this to shame us or to reprove us, but to invite us back into proper fellowship because he so greatly yearns to have communion with us.
SPEAKER_00: Tune my heart to sing thy grace.
SPEAKER_00: Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.
SPEAKER_00: Teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the mount.
SPEAKER_00: I'm fixed upon it.
SPEAKER_00: Mount of thy redeeming love.
SPEAKER_00: Here I raise my Ebenezer.
SPEAKER_00: Hither by thy help I'm come, and I know by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God.
SPEAKER_00: He to rescue me from danger, he interposed his precious blood.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, to grace.
SPEAKER_00: How great a debtor.
SPEAKER_00: Daily I'm constrained to be.
SPEAKER_00: Let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee.
SPEAKER_00: Here it is.
SPEAKER_00: Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it.
SPEAKER_00: Prone to leave the God I love.
SPEAKER_00: Here's my heart, O take and seal it.
SPEAKER_00: Robert Robinson wrote that song.
SPEAKER_00: He wrote it at a high peak of his Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you could hear the passion in it.
SPEAKER_00: He was in love with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But something happened in Robinson's life.
SPEAKER_00: He, what we call backslid.
SPEAKER_00: He quietly distanced himself from Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So much so that he came to a place where he doubted his faith, even that he was a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: This is back in the days of train cars.
SPEAKER_00: He purchased a ticket, he got in the train car, a public place, and there was a young lady in the train car seated with him reading the newspaper.
SPEAKER_00: And she had just read this most amazing soul-stirring poem entitled Come Thou Found.
SPEAKER_00: She said, Sir, not knowing who he was, sir, I want you to listen to this song.
SPEAKER_00: And she read what I just quoted.
SPEAKER_00: And she got to that last verse.
SPEAKER_00: Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it.
SPEAKER_00: Prone to leave the God I love.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Sir, what do you think of that?
SPEAKER_00: He said, I am that man.
SPEAKER_00: Hello?
SPEAKER_00: I am that man.
SPEAKER_00: I think it'd be good for us just to observe this morning that we are prone to leave the God we love.
SPEAKER_00: And it's in the habit and routine of our daily lives, with our suit and maybe tie on today, and our Bible under our arms and a happy look on our face, we've lost the wonder of it all.
SPEAKER_00: We've lost the joy of our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And what John calls these believers back to is a full-throated, wholehearted love for the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So sum up the message in one sentence: God wants you to fall in love with him all over again today.
SPEAKER_00: What is revival?
SPEAKER_00: Revival is a new beginning of obedience to God.
SPEAKER_00: Someone said that revival is the church falling in love with Jesus all over again.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what he calls us to in our passage this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I want to give you three things about God this morning.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, write down the God who knows.
SPEAKER_00: The God who knows.
SPEAKER_00: Under the angel of the church of Ephesus, right?
SPEAKER_00: These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the golden candlesticks.
SPEAKER_00: I, what's that next word?
SPEAKER_00: I I know.
SPEAKER_00: I know thy works.
SPEAKER_00: Now there's a few things I want you to notice about this God who walks in the midst of the church, who holds the seven stars in his hand.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, John says he is in the midst of the church.
SPEAKER_00: Or can I say Jesus Christ is present in the church?
SPEAKER_00: If you're glad for that, will you say amen?
SPEAKER_00: He is in the midst of the church.
SPEAKER_00: Now, to all of these seven churches that we'll look at over the next two months, the Lord Jesus reveals himself in a particular way to them.
SPEAKER_00: For example, to the church of Smyrna, he reveals himself as the first and the last, which was dead and is alive again.
SPEAKER_00: To the church of Pergamos, he says he is he which hath a sharp sword, a two-edged sword.
SPEAKER_00: To the church of Thyatira, he reveals himself as the Son of God with eyes as a flame of fire and feet like fine brass.
SPEAKER_00: To Sardis, he hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.
SPEAKER_00: To Philadelphia, Jesus is he that is holy and true, and hath the key of David and shutteth and no man openeth.
SPEAKER_00: To the Laodicean church age, he describes himself as the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.
SPEAKER_00: But here he introduces himself to this church as he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the book of the revelation of Christ is, it comes from the word apocalypse or the unveiling.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes people misspeak when they talk about revelations.
SPEAKER_00: It is the book of the revelation, or they'll say it's the revelation of John.
SPEAKER_00: Well, dear brothers and sisters, we don't need a revelation of a human being.
SPEAKER_00: We need the revelation of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Because in this book, he tells us of the things that were or had been, the things that are or were present in A.D.
SPEAKER_00: 95 when John pinned this.
SPEAKER_00: And he writes about the things that shall be.
SPEAKER_00: So he speaks of a few preceding events.
SPEAKER_00: He speaks of the present condition of seven churches in Asia Minor at the time.
SPEAKER_00: And from chapter four on, he takes us into the future and he unfolds events that will occur upon planet earth and in heaven as the consummation and restoration of all things is accomplished by God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So in chapters one through three, if you have this in your notes, you want to write it down.
SPEAKER_00: In chapters one through three, Jesus is in the midst of the church.
SPEAKER_00: He is here, hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: He is here, amen.
SPEAKER_00: He said, where two or three would be gathered in his name.
SPEAKER_00: That's Matthew chapter 18.
SPEAKER_00: That's a passage about church restoration of a fallen brother.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, where two or three were gathered in his name, he would be in the midst of them.
SPEAKER_00: Aren't we all glad this morning that Jesus is in the midst of the church?
SPEAKER_00: But from chapter four on, it's not Jesus in the midst of the church.
SPEAKER_00: I have good news for you.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 4 on, it's the church in the midst of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: One day we will be with him, and until we are with him, he is forever with us.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I will never leave thee or forsake thee.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is present in the church.
SPEAKER_00: But not only that, notice he's speaking symbolically here.
SPEAKER_00: If you'll notice in verse 1, he said, These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of seven candlesticks.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what in the world is he talking about?
SPEAKER_00: Seven stars and seven candlesticks.
SPEAKER_00: Well, he gives us the key to unlock the interpretation of this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the last verse of chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand and the seven golden candlesticks.
SPEAKER_00: Watch this, church.
SPEAKER_00: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.
SPEAKER_00: Stars in the hands of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I have to admit, I got a little happy when I read this this week.
SPEAKER_00: Seven stars in the hands of Jesus, and Jesus is in the midst of the church.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's three interpretations.
SPEAKER_00: I'll give them to you quickly here.
SPEAKER_00: The word angel comes from the Greek Angelos.
SPEAKER_00: It means a messenger.
SPEAKER_00: So it could be three, one of these three views.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, these could be spiritual beings or guardian angels of those seven churches.
SPEAKER_00: It could be that John had received visitors, and as messengers, they had come to John to see of his well-being, and they have returned with a message from Don uh from John to those churches.
SPEAKER_00: But the overwhelming majority of scholars agree that these stars are church leaders.
SPEAKER_00: They're the pastor leading these bodies of believers.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the stars, the angels, the messengers to declare the message of God to the church are in the hands of Jesus, and Jesus is walking in the midst of the church.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this may not encourage you a lot today, but it sure did help my soul a lot.
SPEAKER_00: It's wonderful to know that God did not call us to do something in our own strength and our own power in his absence.
SPEAKER_00: He holds us in his hands as we serve and labor with him.
SPEAKER_00: We don't labor alone.
SPEAKER_00: We don't strive alone.
SPEAKER_00: We don't go alone.
SPEAKER_00: We have God who cares for us as we seek to serve him and to deliver his message to the church.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't just not leave the church.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has the stars, but he also walks in the midst of the candlesticks.
SPEAKER_00: For second of all, we see he's not only in the midst, but he's on the move.
SPEAKER_00: He is patrolling.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the word in verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand and walketh in the midst of the candlesticks.
SPEAKER_00: He's on the move.
SPEAKER_00: Pai Patterson said that he is fully cognizant of all that is happening in the churches.
SPEAKER_00: And there is nothing hid from Christ's view.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps here is even more evidence to suspect that the angels are in fact pastors.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord walks among his churches, knowing them thoroughly, and grasping the lives and ministries of the pastors firmly in his own hand.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you, how many of you panic a little bit when you have company coming to your house?
SPEAKER_00: Will you raise your hand?
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for ten of you that were honest this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: That's why God made closets.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why you don't have anything under your bed.
SPEAKER_00: You have a place to just stock things and stow things away until they leave.
SPEAKER_00: Did we forget that the most special guest of all was coming to Calvary today?
SPEAKER_00: We had a new members' meeting in Kids City this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I don't preach a lot in Kids City.
SPEAKER_00: I did this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I came in and there were some supplies for their normal services.
SPEAKER_00: There was some candy in there, which I left alone.
SPEAKER_00: I stored it away.
SPEAKER_00: And then I said to Caleb, I need you to grab the coffee and some donuts and set it over there.
SPEAKER_00: And he he came back, he said, Pastor, there's some there's also some boxes under the table.
SPEAKER_00: Would you like me to put those out of sight?
SPEAKER_00: I said, I would.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we have some very special people who are coming to a meeting, and we want to make sure it's presentable when they come.
SPEAKER_00: Did we forget?
SPEAKER_00: Not just a guest, not just the creator, but the owner and the purchaser of the church who shed his precious blood is walking in the midst of the candlestick this morning.
SPEAKER_00: He's on the move.
SPEAKER_00: His feet, riven by rusty nails, walk in the midst of the church this morning.
SPEAKER_00: He's on the move.
SPEAKER_00: He's in the midst.
SPEAKER_00: John says he's of a right mind.
SPEAKER_00: He is perceptive.
SPEAKER_00: He walks in the midst of the candlesticks.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 2, I know, I know, I know.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 2, he says he knows their deeds.
SPEAKER_00: I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience.
SPEAKER_00: Notice verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: You can't tolerate evil.
SPEAKER_00: You don't bear with false doctrine.
SPEAKER_00: You try people who say they are apostles.
SPEAKER_00: You try them, you test them, you exclude them if they do not qualify.
SPEAKER_00: You found them liars.
SPEAKER_00: This church, listen, this church has an unassailable, unimpeachable, systematic theology.
SPEAKER_00: You read their statement of faith on their website, it matches what's preached in the church.
SPEAKER_00: They're people, they love the truth.
SPEAKER_00: They love righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: They're seeking to keep their church pure from false teachers and wolves that would enter in to feed upon the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: This is the church moving and going forward.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you lived in Ephesus and somebody said, Where can I go to church to learn the truth?
SPEAKER_00: somebody would say, You got to go down there to First Baptist Ephesus.
SPEAKER_00: They have a theology that's on fire.
SPEAKER_00: They have people that they have high standards and they they try to color within the lines and they obey the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: He said their deeds were matching God's requirement.
SPEAKER_00: Their labor was not in vain.
SPEAKER_00: And he even says they were patient.
SPEAKER_00: He says they couldn't bear with those which were evil.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3, they they had borne and had patience.
SPEAKER_00: This word means that their faith persevered even in the midst of opposition.
SPEAKER_00: There were no fair weather friends in this church.
SPEAKER_00: No, when Satan turned up the heat, they just got their roots even deeper in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: What a good church.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to be a part of a church like that.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, I would put my life and influence in a church just like that.
SPEAKER_00: The God who knows said.
SPEAKER_00: I have somewhat against thee.
SPEAKER_00: For he's not only the God who knows, he is the God who confronts.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4, I have somewhat against thee, thou hast left thy first love.
SPEAKER_00: Now the word left, it's the accusation.
SPEAKER_00: It means to be forsaken, to send away, to leave.
SPEAKER_00: It's even translated as to divorce.
SPEAKER_00: You've left your first love.
SPEAKER_00: May I say this morning that if that can happen to that church, it could surely happen to any church.
SPEAKER_00: It could happen to our church.
SPEAKER_00: For the God who walks in the midst of the church wants them to know that the thing that he is most concerned about is how much they love Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Can I show you a little comparison that's so subtle in the text, but I think it really helps us?
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: There's a group called the Nicolaitans.
SPEAKER_00: Nikkei in the Greek is victory.
SPEAKER_00: The laity would be the people.
SPEAKER_00: These are people who dominate souls.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know exactly what their belief system is, but they're a nuisance to the first century churches.
SPEAKER_00: They teach a false theology.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, verse 6, but this thou hast, he says, I want to give you some credit, some more credit.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: You hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans.
SPEAKER_00: Which also I, what's the word, church?
SPEAKER_00: I hate.
SPEAKER_00: Watch this.
SPEAKER_00: It's one thing to hate what he hates.
SPEAKER_00: And to love what he loves.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, this is not a message for a compromising church that preaches a compromising theology to reach compromising people, who waters down theology, who's culturally relevant, who does whatever it takes to win people.
SPEAKER_00: And when they compass land, this message is not for that church.
SPEAKER_00: This message is for a church who has positions itself to be in the right place where they hate the thing that God hates.
SPEAKER_00: I remember being in a meeting one time and a man quoted the Proverbs and he said it was his life verse.
SPEAKER_00: And I hate every false way.
SPEAKER_00: That guy's a blessing, let me just tell you.
SPEAKER_00: He was mean.
SPEAKER_00: I hate every false way.
SPEAKER_00: He hated what God hated.
SPEAKER_00: It's one thing to hate what God hates, but the accusation is they don't love what God loves.
SPEAKER_00: I hate worldliness.
SPEAKER_00: There's things in this culture I hate.
SPEAKER_00: I hate pornography and I hate what it does to families and to men and to women and to teenagers and young people and cell phones that are instant gateways into a life of addiction.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to go on the record and say, I hate that.
SPEAKER_00: It's one thing though.
SPEAKER_00: I hate the shedding of innocent blood in our country.
SPEAKER_00: I hate it.
SPEAKER_00: But do I love what he loves?
SPEAKER_00: God hearkened the whole world together in the waters of the Jordan River.
SPEAKER_00: He got the whole world's attention.
SPEAKER_00: You have John the Baptist in the water.
SPEAKER_00: You have Jesus getting into the water to be baptized by John.
SPEAKER_00: The whole religious world gathers at the banks of the muddy Jordan to see what God will say about his son.
SPEAKER_00: What does he say?
SPEAKER_00: This is the creator of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Hear him.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's not what he said.
SPEAKER_00: This is my beloved son.
SPEAKER_00: God wanted the whole world to know what he loved.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what God loved?
SPEAKER_00: He loved Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Oh church, do you love Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Do you really love Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: We've got to learn that song if we're going to sing it back and forth together.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, he he had to confront this.
SPEAKER_00: Now there were lesser motives that this church could live on, and we can fall victim to the same trap.
SPEAKER_00: Someone said maybe this church was guilty of institutional perpetuity.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps, Patterson says, Ephesus had succeeded well in many areas, but the maintenance of that success had become more important than the motivation for service, namely their love for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The survival of the church over their faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Tradition might have become more important to them than transformation.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was personal recognition that had become the motivation of this church.
SPEAKER_00: Let's face it, this is a prominent church.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul started it.
SPEAKER_00: Not only that, John the Beloved and Mary, the mother of Jesus, were somewhat involved in this church.
SPEAKER_00: It had not only Paul as a pastor, but Timothy as the pastor as well.
SPEAKER_00: Personal recognition might have been the thing that drove the success of this church, or maybe it was the improper ministry emphasis.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe there was an emphasis of crowds over disciples or programs over people or expansion over transformation or culture over Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But he accuses them that they have left Christ and their love for him.
SPEAKER_00: But he says so simply here, there is the ascent back to God.
SPEAKER_00: How do we get back?
SPEAKER_00: If you're married, you have somewhat of an inside track into what John's talking about here.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember the things that you were willing to do when you were seeking to gain your spouse's heart?
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember?
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you forgot, just ask your spouse, they will tell you.
SPEAKER_00: You know what happens?
SPEAKER_00: The thing that we do to gain someone's heart are the things we stop doing in pursuit of their heart.
SPEAKER_00: Hey guys, I just want to go on record and say, if you won her with love letters, it'd probably be a good idea if you kept writing them.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, ladies, how I'm trying to help you out.
SPEAKER_00: If it was mashed potatoes and gravy that won his heart.
SPEAKER_00: Get the peeler out and start mashing.
SPEAKER_00: We're so quick to stop doing the things that we did in our first love.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, remember.
SPEAKER_00: Remember.
SPEAKER_00: Now the verb is in the perfect.
SPEAKER_00: It means keep on remembering.
SPEAKER_00: Keep on remembering.
SPEAKER_00: I love that old song.
SPEAKER_00: Roll back the curtain of memory now and then.
SPEAKER_00: Show me where you brought me from and where I could have been.
SPEAKER_00: Remember I'm human.
SPEAKER_00: And humans, forget.
SPEAKER_00: Remember.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the night you, as unworthy and Christ as worthy, had on collision at an old rugged cross.
SPEAKER_00: And you trusted him and he saved you and delivered you and has worked in your life.
SPEAKER_00: If you do one thing today, remember.
SPEAKER_00: We come to a table, we take simple elements, bread and juice, why we remember.
SPEAKER_00: We come down to an altar, we bow our unworthy knee, and we thank him for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Why we remember?
SPEAKER_00: If there's one exercise Christians perform entirely too seldom, it is the exercise of memory.
SPEAKER_00: Don't ever forget, remember.
SPEAKER_00: Then he said, repent.
SPEAKER_00: The word is a change of mind that leads to a change of action.
SPEAKER_00: He says, sharply break with the thing.
SPEAKER_00: You know the thing.
SPEAKER_00: Is the Holy Spirit putting his finger today on the thing?
SPEAKER_00: Repent of that.
SPEAKER_00: Besides, if you were close enough to Jesus, you'd already know what it is.
SPEAKER_00: Because you'd love what he loves and hate what he hates.
SPEAKER_00: Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
SPEAKER_00: Someone said Christianity is not primarily negative.
SPEAKER_00: So he says to them, Remember, repent and repeat.
SPEAKER_00: Repeat what?
SPEAKER_00: Well, he told you.
SPEAKER_00: The first works.
SPEAKER_00: We'll talk about that in just a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, the God who condemns.
SPEAKER_00: You remember the nail-scarred feet walking in the midst of the candlestick?
SPEAKER_00: You remember that?
SPEAKER_00: I want you to hold your place here.
SPEAKER_00: Go with me to the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see something here.
SPEAKER_00: If you can't tell, I'm having a good time this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Had some of my guys tell me they were praying for me today.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're offended, they threw so much fuel on the fire.
SPEAKER_00: Just join them in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: We'll have a party next Sunday morning, too.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, it shouldn't it be a sin to be boring when you preach the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: You can say amen right there.
SPEAKER_00: This living book, this lively sword, this love letter from heaven, how can you be bored when you teach and preach and read it and love it?
SPEAKER_00: What a great book we have.
SPEAKER_00: I remember Lee Roberts, 90 years old, on his 90th birthday, taking that Bible, lifting it in the air.
SPEAKER_00: If God knows my heart, he said, I'd give my life for the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: You're a young man.
SPEAKER_00: You don't forget things like that.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 5.
SPEAKER_00: The sermon's short today.
SPEAKER_00: It's all the interjections taking me so much time.
SPEAKER_00: Let your light so shine before men.
SPEAKER_00: That they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: We should sing this little light of mine.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to let it shine.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you have a light?
SPEAKER_00: Alright?
SPEAKER_00: You're a light.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a light.
SPEAKER_00: Lots of light.
SPEAKER_00: If we were to go out into the pitch darkness and shine our light, would we make a difference?
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to go find a dark, dark place, and I'm going to let my light shine.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to make a difference.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what would make a bigger difference?
SPEAKER_00: What would make a bigger difference is if me and Al went out to a dark place and we we joined forces and we put our lights together.
SPEAKER_00: And then me and Al will get out there with Jeremy and Dave and David and Davy and Dawood, and we got all of our lights together, we'd have a bigger light.
SPEAKER_00: Now, wouldn't it be a good thing if we had some type of structure on which we could put our lights?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, we do.
SPEAKER_00: We just read about it.
SPEAKER_00: It's called a candlestick.
SPEAKER_00: You know why God called us to be part of a local church?
SPEAKER_00: Because we can broadcast more light together than we could separate it at places of darkness and isolation.
SPEAKER_00: 1969, Wally Metz and a group of pastors came here.
SPEAKER_00: I think they set up a tent and they got their lights together and started preaching Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: People got saved.
SPEAKER_00: They started the Calvary Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: And 57 years later, the candlestick is still accepting new candles on it because we want the light of the glorious gospel of Christ to shine in this part of the country.
SPEAKER_00: And can all God's people say, Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Candlestick.
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's go back to our text.
SPEAKER_00: And read what he said in verse five.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, repent, repeat.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to read that.
SPEAKER_00: Or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me, church.
SPEAKER_00: What's the candlestick?
SPEAKER_00: The church.
SPEAKER_00: Why do churches die?
SPEAKER_00: Well, they run out of money.
SPEAKER_00: Wrong.
SPEAKER_00: You can't, if you had$10 million, there's no guarantee you could even build a church.
SPEAKER_00: Because a church is not just built by money.
SPEAKER_00: It was purchased by blood, and it's the labor of the saints and the prayer of the people and the preaching of the word of God and widows might.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about money, it's about a message that changes people's lives.
SPEAKER_00: Why do churches die?
SPEAKER_00: Well, they not just they run out of money, though they might.
SPEAKER_00: He told you.
SPEAKER_00: Churches die because they leave.
SPEAKER_00: They leave their first love.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe tonight I'll talk to you about the life cycle of a church.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesus is unique because it's the church in the New Testament in which we enter the labor delivery room of the church.
SPEAKER_00: We watch it come into the world.
SPEAKER_00: Paul goes to Ephesus, he preaches 12 members of that church.
SPEAKER_00: He stays there a number of years.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 20, he departs.
SPEAKER_00: What a scene! As the Ephesian elders say goodbye to Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Ten years later, he writes them.
SPEAKER_00: Ten years later, he writes the epistle to the Ephesians.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't really reprimand them for any sins.
SPEAKER_00: He has to remind them of who they are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: 30 years later, they get a letter from John.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if my math is mathing, Calvary was started in 1969.
SPEAKER_00: That's 31 and 26.
SPEAKER_00: That's 67 years.
SPEAKER_00: We believe 57 years.
SPEAKER_00: 57, because if it's 67, it won't work with my analogy.
SPEAKER_00: So can I go back to 57?
SPEAKER_00: When they received the letter from John in Revelation 2, they've been in existence between 50 and 60 years.
SPEAKER_00: They had a meteoric rise and founding, they had a founding pastor of prominence.
SPEAKER_00: They developed theology.
SPEAKER_00: They developed leadership, they had a discipleship program.
SPEAKER_00: They were sending the gospel all around the world.
SPEAKER_00: And between 50 and 60 years of existence, something devastating happened.
SPEAKER_00: Was it their theology?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Was it moral failure?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: They fell out of love with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Calvary Baptist, we have a call today.
SPEAKER_00: We have right theology.
SPEAKER_00: If we don't have right theology, we ought to align with God.
SPEAKER_00: It's not theology.
SPEAKER_00: It's not facilities.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what God has done.
SPEAKER_00: But he'll remove the candlestick.
SPEAKER_00: If we ignore our love for Jesus and look to our theology and our resources and our history and our experience and not the power of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's born out of an affection for Jesus that trumps every other feeling we have for this church.
SPEAKER_00: I want to give you one last thing and I'll close.
SPEAKER_00: I took the word repeat, give you something to go home with today.
SPEAKER_00: The first works.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, rejoice in the fact that you have passed from death unto life.
SPEAKER_00: R.
SPEAKER_00: Every day of your life.
SPEAKER_00: Rejoice in the fact that you have passed from death unto life.
SPEAKER_00: Have you passed from death unto life?
SPEAKER_00: Rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: Letter E.
SPEAKER_00: Enjoy your daily time with God in His Word and in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: That's the first work.
SPEAKER_00: Spend time with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He speaks to us through his word.
SPEAKER_00: We speak to God in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: If you come with a 50-pound feed sack to the Calvary Baptist Church to let Pastor Cox fill your feed sack up for the rest of the week, you're not doing the Christian life the right way.
SPEAKER_00: This is offensive, and I don't mean it to sound offensive, but it's a New Testament terminology.
SPEAKER_00: If you come to be fed, you are a baby.
SPEAKER_00: But strong meat belongs to those who are of use, who have their senses exercised to feed themselves on Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This is the pep alley of the Christian life to motivate all of us to pursue Christ throughout the week.
SPEAKER_00: P.
SPEAKER_00: Pray with intensity, believing that God hears and answers prayer.
SPEAKER_00: E.
SPEAKER_00: Edify fellow believers with a renewed sense of obligation.
SPEAKER_00: Build each other up.
SPEAKER_00: That's the first work.
SPEAKER_00: Letter A.
SPEAKER_00: Attend the local assembly.
SPEAKER_00: You know what occurred to me when I was studying this?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we ought to go to church because it encourages the brethren.
SPEAKER_00: Is that right?
SPEAKER_00: Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another so much more as you say the day approaching.
SPEAKER_00: I really believe this.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that people will be faithful to a church if they believe that at least one person will recognize if they're not there.
SPEAKER_00: Is that a bad thing?
SPEAKER_00: Help me out.
SPEAKER_00: I'm losing you to the lunch table.
SPEAKER_00: Is that a bad thing?
SPEAKER_00: Is it the best thing?
SPEAKER_00: I love seeing all of you here.
SPEAKER_00: That's really not about you.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying to them, you ought to be faithful because Jesus is in the midst of the church.
SPEAKER_00: And we come to fellowship together with him.
SPEAKER_00: And letter T.
SPEAKER_00: Tell others what Christ has done for you.
SPEAKER_00: Easiest thing in the world to do as a new Christian is to tell somebody what happened to you.
SPEAKER_00: And then we get technical in our witnessing.
SPEAKER_00: What if someone asked me about sacerdotalism?
SPEAKER_00: They're not going to.
SPEAKER_00: What if someone asked me about transubstantiation?
SPEAKER_00: They're probably not going to.
SPEAKER_00: What if someone asked me about my view of the atonement?
SPEAKER_00: 99.9% of the time, they're not going to.
SPEAKER_00: We become so technical.
SPEAKER_00: We forget to tell a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know everything, but I do know this.
SPEAKER_00: I woke up blind one morning and I went to bed seeing.
SPEAKER_00: I got up.
SPEAKER_00: One morning lost, and by nighttime I was found.
SPEAKER_00: I was on my way to hell, but I went to bed knowing that I was seated in heavenly places with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Tell others about what Christ has done for you.
SPEAKER_00: Rooted in first love for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray, may we?
SPEAKER_00: Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed together.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that all of us will focus just for a few more moments in this time of invitation.
SPEAKER_00: How many of us would say, Pastor Cox, God's really spoken to my heart today about falling in love with Christ?
SPEAKER_00: I need to just recommit myself to follow in love with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You say, God, it's just really worked in my heart today.
SPEAKER_00: Would you lift your hand?
SPEAKER_00: I want to pray with you.
SPEAKER_00: Not for you, I want to pray with you.
SPEAKER_00: Because my hand's in the air as well.