In this sermon, Pastor Joe Babij completes his look at the topic of declining love for Jesus by examining Revelation 2:1-7 and Jesus’ words to the Ephesians church. Pastor Babij explains Jesus’ commendation, condemnation, counsel, and challenge, first to the ancient church and then to us today. We must remember and return to our first love for Jesus.
Full Transcript:
Let’s take our Bibles this morning and turn to the main text I will be looking at. I’ll also be looking at other scriptures, but the main text will be Revelation 2:1-7.
Let’s have a word of prayer. Lord, this morning as we meet together, as we break open the bread of life, Holy Spirit, we want to be able to listen, take scripture to heart, to apply them to ourselves. Lord, if need be, to make the necessary adjustments, which may mean repentance of sin, to get back where we once were as Christians. If somebody here does not know You yet, they have not responded to the demonstration of love that Christ showed us on the cross of calvary, then that You would convict them of where they would stand before You and where they would go if they died today. Lord, I pray that we would just be Yours today so we can be vessels of honor. I ask in Christ’s name, Amen.
This is the third message of three messages springing from the passage of scripture in the Epistle of Jude 1:21, where the Bible says,
Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.
That passage does emphasize the Christian’s responsibility. My assessment, which I believe is rooted in scripture, is that the noblest goal for a Christian to reach is growing in love for God, staying in the love of God, and making sure to regularly cultivate that love to keep this reflexive command in Jude. Keep yourselves in God’s love (Jude 1:21). In other words, stay where you’re supposed to stay, where you’re already at.
Jesus Christ indicated clearly in Matthew 13 that the church age would be a very strange era. It is. By way of a parable, he said that the term ‘church’ used in its broadest sense would include wheat and tares. What He meant by that is that the church will have people who are true and false, faithful and unfaithful, and righteous and unrighteous. There’ll be servants and be sitters; those who know the lingo and those who know the Lord; those who like religion and those who genuinely love God; those who socialize and those who want to evangelize; those who play church and those who are the Church; those who tip their hats to God and those who give Him their lives. That’s going to be the age of the church. If you haven’t experienced those things, you will, and if you’ve been around, you’ve probably encountered all of those things.
The distinguishing mark of true saving faith is love for God. When a person is truly expressing saving faith, there is a great love for God and a great delight in the law of God—in the very word of God. A Christian’s delight will be that God is honored and glorified in their life. Just like we sang this morning, the chief happiness, like the Psalmist wrote: as a deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God, my soul thirsts for God, for the living God. That’s what a believer is. That’s what somebody who knows God is—that’s what’s going on inside of you, even though those things are not done perfectly.
However, most people in this world are consumed with their own happiness. Many people say they are Christian but are consumed with their own happiness. They don’t pass the first test that Jesus told to His disciples in Matthew 10:37,
“He who loves father and mother more than Me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.”
That is the highest test, and we all, as believers, need to pass that test. People love themselves; they don’t love God. In the days in which we live, it is obvious, and again the scriptures ring true where Paul told Timothy that people would be lovers of themselves, money, and pleasure rather than lovers of God. You notice that in a passage of scripture like that, there are not both things going on; you either give up one for the other.
They say the worst thing that can happen to a car engine is heat death. Your car gets so hot it overheats and stops running. If you don’t catch it soon, or if it happens too frequently, it will severely compromise the health of your engine. Most vehicles, however, are equipped with a gauge that monitors the temperature of your vehicle. The temperature gauge will warn you if the temperature exceeds normal. It either will blind you, or the needle will move into the red danger zone—I don’t know if you’ve ever been there, but I have, and it’s not a good place to be. You probably have if you’ve driven for a while.
Similarly, though, the scripture is our visible gauge. It’s our gauge that we use to see how we are standing. It is our gauge to see if things are working properly in our Christian lives. Are we keeping ourselves in the love of God? If God is not our highest desire, check your spiritual gauge, and then ask yourselves some questions. Is God my supreme delight? Do you long for, in the deepest part of your soul, to love God and to draw near to Him to know more about Him? Do you take your responsibility seriously to keep yourselves in the love of God? Are you taking measures to hedge against declining love and the tragedy of love uncultivated?
Before I get to Revelation, here are some things to check your spiritual gauge to see if you are declining in love. There are five marked characteristics of declining love. The first would be when love becomes less an object of fervent desire, holy delight, and frequent contemplation. This is where we can suspect at that point that our love is declining in our souls. If there’s a coldness in our affections for God if the mind grows earthly, carnal, selfish, and self-centered. Usually, when that happens, a dark, gloomy shadow will gather around the character and the glory of God. If one has a divided heart, it is subject to rival interest, and when that happens, God is no longer the object of one’s supreme love; nor the fountain of one’s pure delight. God’s presence that was once glorious to you and God’s voice that was so sweet suddenly turns dull, murky, hard to hear, and difficult to understand. You can suspect that you are declining in love when you feel that or are in that state.
A second this would be when there is little inclination for communion with God; the throne of grace is sought as a duty rather than a privilege that is the throne of coming to God in prayer. In any case, little fellowship is experienced, which is strong evidence of a declining love in the soul. The person who knows God, who with eyes of faith, has discovered some of its glory, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, understood and felt something of His love in their life will be able to discern between God’s sensible presence and/or His absence in your soul. We will agree that the more we desire the presence of any object (the source of sweet delight and contemplation), the more we miss it when it’s absent. If you decline in love for Jesus, your spiritual affection will become blunted, and worldly influences and occupations usually freeze your love.
When a Christian gets immersed in the world’s cares, the sense of the presence of God is not felt by them. Was God absent at that point? No, the change was in the creature, us, not in God. If you are a professing child of God, this is no way to live, and God does not want us to live like that. It is a poor lifeless existence, unworthy of your profession, the name that you bear—Jesus Christ, and unworthy of the glorious destiny that you are heading for. What is that? The very presence of God, where we drop off these bodies of sin, and we go into the presence of God and enjoy Him forever. We need to start enjoying Him now—today.
Just like it says in 1 John 3:2,
Beloved, now are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purified himself, just as He is pure.
A third thing would be when there is less holy obedience in our walk with God, and we may ascertain that a decline of our love for God is present. That means obedience is the action of actually loving and following Christ. The Holy Spirit of God sets you apart in salvation and makes you holy, and that means that every true Christian will love Christ and obey Him, though not perfectly. Like John 15:10 tells us,
If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
That means you’ll do exactly what Jesus did. The purpose of God choosing us from Ephesians and in 1 Peter was for what? 1 Peter 1 says this: we are chosen to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood. See, election leads one through salvation to a life of obedience. Obedience is what God wants from your life now that you are one of His followers and children. That is why you are saved. That is why He saved you. God saves a soul not to leave them to follow their own path but to become joyful, obedient servants of Jesus Christ. Indeed, the person who obeys Christ finds out that God’s commandments are not burdensome and that there is true freedom in Christ. You’re freed up from everything! You’re freed up from guilt and judgment. You’re freed up that you know you stand before God righteous because of what Christ has done—that’s freedom.
Again, in the Gospel of John 14 says,
21He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to Him.
23 “If anyone loves Me, he will be My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”
24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words
That’s pretty clear. You ask, how does that look? When the Holy Spirit of God, who’s in us, causes us to obey Christ when the Spirit of God says believe and be baptized. Believing is a command of God for you to respond. The believer responds: I love you Lord, and I want to obey. Or when the Spirit of God says not to forsake the assembly of ourselves together, the believer says: I love you Lord, I want to obey. The Spirit of God shows us from scripture that we are to study and show ourselves approved to God, and the believer says to God: I love you Lord, and I want to obey. When the Word of God says that we are to be present and partake of the Lord’s table as often as your church assembles to do it, you say: Lord, I love you, and I want to obey.
When the Bible says that a husband, filled with the Spirit, ought to love his wife, the husband says: I love you Lord, and I want to obey. When the Holy Spirit of God says to the wife to submit to your own husband as unto the Lord, the wife says: I love you Lord, and I want to obey. When the scripture tells us to be thankful for everything, rejoice always, praying without ceasing, a believer responds with: I love you Lord, and I want to obey. When the Holy Spirit of God says to abstain from all sexual immorality, the believer responds with: I love you Lord, and I want to obey. When the Holy Spirit of God tells young people to flee youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, and peace, the young believer responds: I love you Lord, and I want to obey. Do you get the point? The point is that we obey. The purpose and goal of election is obedience.
A fourth reason that there would be a decay of love from the saints of God is that their love is declining. If we love God with a sincere and deepening affection, we must love His image wherever we find it. In other words, we will love the saints. That’s all over the scriptures. The Bible says that if anyone says I love God and hate his brother, he is a liar.
The last characteristic would be when love for God declines, it also declines in the interest of advancing God’s work on earth. In other words, a lively interest in the increase of Christ’s kingdom and the growth of His Church will decline. There will be a decline in the diffusion of truth in the world. There will be a decline in the deepening of holiness in the church. There will be a decline in the conversion of sinners. When love declines, we don’t care about those things.
The legacy of heaven and the inexhaustible riches of God’s love belong to all who trust Christ and love Him. Pursuing a relationship with Christ is the most important goal of the Christian life. What if we drift from that noble goal? If you’ve been a Christian for any time, then you have drifted here and there. You have felt cold and distant from God. You have not had your affections so overwhelmed that you wanted to be obedient to the Lord. You slipped back, and you slipped away from that. A great example of that is found right here in Revelation 2, and I want you to turn there now.
Here in Revelation 2, the Ephesian church got knocked off their course by good and noble spiritual pursuits. In fact, they were doing things that were vital and important to the ministry of all churches. Look at Revelation 2:1, it says,
1To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this:
Here we see this passage as the Lord speaks to John the Apostle and the seven churches. We are finding language that was in the context of the first century conditions is relatively clear. Emphasized here is the sovereignty of the head, Jesus Christ. What does this sovereign head do? He walks amongst the lampstands, and according to chapter one, the lampstands are the churches. As the Word of God says, He holds the seven stars in His right hand. The seven stars are the leaders of the churches, the pastors, and the elders of the churches. He has authority over them.
God has given revelation concerning the church, and He says the church is like a lampstand. Why does He say that? Because the lampstand holds the light. The church holds the light and shares the light in their geographical area. The one great mission of the church is to share the light. Brethren, if a lightbulb no longer gives light, what are you going to do with it? Save it? No. Usually, what you do is you take it out and throw it away. If a church doesn’t bear the light, the Lord will remove that lampstand. He will remove that church.
Looking at the end of Revelation 2:5, it says,
5Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.
In other words, the head of the Church, Jesus Christ, is coming, and He’s walking amongst His churches. He’s present when we’re present. He’s there seeing how you’re doing. We know from chapter one that He has absolute wisdom. We know He has absolute omniscience—His eyes are like a flaming fire. We also know that He has absolute authority in verse fifteen of chapter one:
His voice was like the sound of many waters.
The one speaking, Jesus Christ, His voice is not just loud. It has force, command, and finality about it. Therefore, in other words, if Jesus is speaking, you better listen. His words here, in Revelation, is that Jesus is holding the leaders of these churches in His hand, and He speaks through them to the people. As we saw in our reading this morning, what was John’s response when this came to Him? It says in Revelation 1:17 that he fell on his face because he was in the presence of God. He knew the one speaking was the one who is the living one, who was dead, and is alive forevermore, and has the keys of death and hades.
Jesus says to John the Apostle, John, I want you to speak to the churches for me, and when you get what I’m saying, give it to them. The seven letters to the seven churches. This is what it ought to be. It’s the Lord’s examination of the church. It is a pattern for all church ministries. Jesus gives the state of the church, whether it is praise to the church, a promise, rebuke, or warning. We see that the Lord is walking amongst His churches, examining them, and continually knows their work, suffering, ministries, and sins. He has eyes that are a flame of fire, so he sees with penetrating discernment and accuracy which no one can attain. He is the ultimate judge.
If we were to judge the church, we would be too lenient. We would judge inaccurately because we don’t have all the knowledge. Or we would judge too severely, too harshly. We’re not the judges. We are never the judges—Christ is the judge. Only Christ can judge His church properly; be sure of this, He does. We have it right in scripture.
As the Lord examines this first church, the church at Ephesus, this is what He will do. He will first give a commendation, then a condemnation, then counsel on what to do, and then He will give a challenge after the counsel. That’s how the Lord does it. That’s a pattern of all good counselors to be able to put those things into practice.
Let’s look at the first thing in Revelation 2:2, the commendation Christ perceives. It says in verse two,
2I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; 3 and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary.
To me, that is a great church. They’re a hardworking church that had good deeds and labored to the point of exhaustion—enduring even the burdens of ministry with great patience. They were a separate church. They couldn’t even bear evil. They were unwilling to put up with evil people, meaning that they were a church that did church discipline. Also, they were a pure church. They exposed unsound, heretical teaching, and they found those to be true and false. Doctrinally sound and unwilling to put with false teachers. That’s the church.
Then, they were an enduring church, in verse number three. They had perseverance. They were not quitters. They refused to give up in the face of opposition and hardship. They didn’t grow weary in doing God’s work.
Then, of course, this is the church that hated what God hated—verse number six,
Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
Of course, the Nicolaitans were immoral and promoted immorality in their religiosity. They designated them and pointed them out as false believers. We can conclude from all these things that Ephesus was a strong, biblically orthodox church with strong convictions, and she couldn’t yield the faith or play the traitor to the Lord. They excelled in discipline, in the soundness of their faith, in accuracy toward heretics. Would you and I want to join that church? Absolutely! I want to be part of that church. As a matter of fact, that’s what we strive for in the church.
A church, though, may have every wheel turning and the machinery of ministry moving steadily, yet something very important could escape their nose. In the next passage in verse four, I want you to notice that the Lord tells them what does not please Him. Notice what it says in Revelation 2:4,
But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
This is the first church of the seven churches that the message will go to in Asia minor. The Lord repeats this verse. This is what He points out again. Just think of this: this great church, this orthodox church, in all its behaviors and ministries, lacked love. How did that happen? This early love, proof of their new life in Christ, had cooled off despite their doctrinal purity and active service. The great physician put His finger on the problem and diagnosed the condition, and the condemnation is singular, but it is very serious. That is that of declining love. This is no complaint of an enemy but a dear wounded friend. Will we grieve Him whose heart was pierced for our redemption? Brothers and sisters, can you and I let Jesus know our love is departing, and we cease to be zealous for Him anymore?
Along the way of running the Christian race and fighting the Christian warfare, the Ephesian church got distracted away from devotion to Jesus Christ. This is a warning to us. The warning to us who are being faithful, who are doing everything we know to do as a believer, who want to be faithful to the Lord and obey Him, who want to love the Lord. They stopped pursuing the goal. The goal of the Christian life is the goal of Christlikeness through a personal relationship with Christ.
We don’t want to become a church of loveless orthodoxy. But it takes everyone to make sure that doesn’t happen. Not just one person, everyone. Declining love can be an infection in the congregation, and I think that’s what it was here. Any time we depart from one thing, we replace it with something else. We have to be sure of this any time we depart from our first love, we depart to some other object of affection.
That’s why Paul told Timothy, listen, people are going to be lovers of self—he was talking to the Church–lovers of money, lovers of pleasure, we have it all before us in America. All these things are right at our fingertips, and they are the goal of most people, but they are not the goal of believers. Thank the Lord that stuff is there, but that’s not my goal because losing that doesn’t affect my relationship with Christ.
A church that moves away from its first love will be susceptible to developing misplaced affections and risk becoming cold-hearted and even hard-hearted. I know all the doctrine and truth, but I display it like that; I don’t have the love that goes along with it. You have to have both.
Many things can be easily given to the throne of our hearts and crowd out our affection for God. If our love has grown the least bit cold this morning, we have done something terribly wrong to our best and closest friend, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Can there be greater grief in the church than having the Lord say that He has this against us? I know your heart, I know where you’re at, I know what’s going on in your homes, I know your ministries, I know what you love. The Lord knows all these things, that’s the point of the passage. He has penetrating judgment. He sees down to the deep recesses of our hearts. God takes special notice of the way and the way His people think of Him and how they tend His services and worship. He takes special note of that.
In fact, why are we saved? Of course, I said to obey, but we are saved to worship. That’s why we’re saved. To have a relationship with the God who created heaven and the earth through Jesus Christ. The God that we’re going to spend all eternity with.
But thank the Lord that He doesn’t leave us there. In Revelation 2:5, He now gives the counsel He prescribes to the church. What is the counsel? It’s a three-fold counsel to remember, repent, return, and repeat. Look what it says in verse five,
5Therefore remember from where you have fallen,
This is how we execute, meaning put to death and eliminate this grievous sin in our life when we detect it. First, remember that the church has lost their bearing and needs to regain them again and that the church’s previous condition alludes to how they fell. It says, from where you have fallen. It’s a fall away from something. A departure from their first love is viewed as a fall from their previous position. That position was a growing, loving relationship with Christ. They’ve fallen from that, even though they are doing everything else right. They’ve backslidden.
When we backslide, it is not the Lord who has moved or changed His love. It’s us who have moved away from the Lord. There is a subtle truth that Alexander Straff brings out in his book on love, and he says this: love can grow cold while outward religious performance still appears to be acceptable and even praiseworthy. It’s easy to be satisfied with religious performance or even to check our boxes.
Jesus even says to the religious leaders of His day: woe to you Pharisees, for you paid tithes of mint and rue and every kind of green garden herb, and yet disregard justice and love for God (Luke 11:42). Then He says this: but these things you should have done without neglecting the others. Both obedience and love go together. I obey Jesus not because I have to but because I love Him. It’s completely different than just hard obedience to a ruler, right? Or someone authoritative. I want to do this; I want to serve the Lord and live for Him. I want to please Him.
Mark it down, Christian, the greatest danger to any church at any point in history is declining love. This is the very thing that displeases God, but you notice in our text here to remember to recall your faithfulness in your early years and take inventory. Remember when you first came to Christ, and He saved you? You were full of joy and desire to know His word. You wanted to know more. Your affections were aflame for Christ. Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so—that was your mantra.
We need to recall past joys when we’re in the valleys, which we are there most of the time. We need to remember the joys and attitudes and the experiences that we have had as believers and that we still, today, want to know more of Jesus and more of His word. At one time, nothing could divert our attention from Him. You were never weary of hearing of Jesus. You were never weary of hearing from Him. You loved to hear the Gospel because every time you hear the Gospel, you learn more about it. Of the deep, broad, high love of Jesus Christ towards you and I. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. You couldn’t get enough of Jesus and His Gospel.
Perhaps now, though, your attention is not so keen on preaching. You can’t wait to get home and do what you must at home—cut your grass, eat lunch, visit somebody, or just relax on your couch, watch your favorite soap opera, tv program, or YouTube. That’s what you’re thinking about. If you’re thinking like that, you’re departing from your first love. Maybe your Christian life is kind of dull now.
You have a spiritual appetite for being more excited with novelties than about truth and theology. Once, you were never disappointed with Jesus or displeased with Him, but because of a sickness, loss of a job, a family problem, or some disappointment in your life, you lost interest and cooled off. At first, you would have blessed His name in everything, but now you go home and grumble in your houses at the slightest problem. You were once consecrated to Him in zealous, joyful service. When He said I want you to serve, you had no problem being the first in line.
So, remember the big beginning and compare that with your present state. For the Ephesian church, the way forward was backward. Look back from where you’re falling. You think you’re doing alright, but you’re not. You’re in spiritual decline, and I (Jesus) am not pleased with that. Then you have to ask yourself: self, how can I be fairing with my Lord? How am I fairing with my Lord? Have I fallen away from the measure where I ought to be?
The second thing He says in verse five is that remembering is first but is followed by another imperative command: repent. Do you know what will change God’s will in scripture? Do you know when God relents? People say, well, does God change His mind? The answer is yes, but not for everything. He changes His mind when His people repent. He changes His attitude toward that person. His love is still there, but now something gets rekindled because we repent of it. The Lord’s command is by way of command to the believer. Here it’s an urgent appeal for an instant change of attitude, thinking, and conduct and to do it before it’s too late.
Whenever we think of repentance, we must think of at least four simple things. Number one, repentance means you call your sin what it is. Don’t call it a nice name. Call it what it is. In this case, it’s declining love. I’ve moved away from the Lord, and I’m sinning because I’ve done that. Also, you must drop it once you realize it ad identify it. As it says in Isaiah, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord. You have to drop it. Then you have to prove you dropped it. As it says in Luke: therefore, bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance. That means you’re going to get back to where you’ve fallen. Fourth, you have to replace your sin with righteous behavior. There’s always this taking off that old sinful garment and putting on that clean garment, taking off unrighteous and putting on righteousness.
Then, He says a third thing in verse five. He says, do the deeds you did at first. That means to return and repeat. Do something you once did. It could mention that these are things such as not thinking about the Gospel anymore or not praying the way I once did with the Lord—not being regularly consistent with that. Or not meditating upon the Lord, not responding to preaching. Many things could go into this.
Notice, it does not say repent and get back your first love. It says,
Repent and do the deeds you did at first
he responsibility is on us and its practical repentance. In doing the first works, you will prove that you have returned to your first love. Obedience out of love for Christ. It’s not doing more things here. It’s rather the quality of love—duty motivated by transparent love for the Lord Jesus and one another. The church finds delight in the two great commandments: to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy mind, all thy soul, all thy strength, and then to love your neighbor as yourself.
He’s calling us back. Thank the Lord that when we repent, He receives us. He’s ready to forgive. He’s ready to bring us back from where we’ve fallen.
Here’s the challenge He gives, also. Part of the challenge in Revelation 2:5, the last part of the verse, is of a threat and then a promise. Notice in verse five, it says,
or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.
It’s all depending on our repentance. Getting back, making sure our affections are back where they ought to be. He tells them that if they don’t repent, He will cut down the lampstand that holds the light, so it will be unable to hold that light and share it with their geographical area. The great mission of the church will be shut down in that local area unless you repent. Who says this? The Lord says this. Do you know who closes churches down? The Lord does. The building is not the church.
Many churches are still around, but if you go inside them, they’re not preaching the Gospel and don’t even open up the word of God anymore. They are doing things in the organization of leadership, putting women in leadership, where the Bible is clear that male leadership is in the church. The church is not carrying our church discipline. They’re not teaching the word of God. They’re not living a holy life or doing any of those things. That means they’re no longer a church, so the Lord removes them. You can have your building and do what you want, but the Lord’s removed the light.
Can Christ do anything other than that if He’s not honored there? Christ cannot allow His church to be apart from His love. If the first love has been abandoned and there’s no repentance, the church shall be left in darkness. It may mean that the Lord removes the faithful ministers who bring the word of God and removes them to another sphere. It may also include that the Lord will cut loose the usefulness to preserve the truth in that place if love does not return. Further, if the Lord wills, it could mean that He takes away the church altogether, and their very existence goes out. They’re done. The Lord will do that and for what reason? There’s no love for God there.
Then He gives a promise. It says in verse seven,
7He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’
Here’s the promise. He says, if you repent, I will bring you closer to the very tree of life in God’s presence. See, brethren, we need to heed the message that the Lord Jesus communicates to His churches so that we remain a light-bearing community of obedient believers who keep themselves in the love of God. We need to see this. We need to hear this. We need to act on this.
He says he who runs well until the end will receive a crown of life. He says that there’ll be a reward for those who hold in there, keep going, walk with Me all the way. There’s always hope. Jesus counsels His church so that they, as a life-bearing community, can fulfill their mission in the days when God calls them a church at any particular time in history.
If, somewhere along the way, you stopped pursuing a deep loving relationship with Christ. If you walked off the path of righteousness, started walking in your own righteousness, and enjoyed the ease of worldly pleasures, then your spiritual gauge reads danger. You have left your first love. Here’s what we need to do. To keep ourselves in the love of God, we need to do exactly what the scripture says; remember where you have fallen, repent, and do the deeds you did at first.
Here are some directives to help you that I gleaned from an old puritan, Thomas Vincent. He was born in 1634 and died in 1678. He was only 44 years old. He memorized the whole New Testament and the book of Psalms. He wrote many things. He wrote a book called The True Christians Love to the Unseen Christ. He says, here are nine principles that we should always be practicing in our pursuit of Christ so that our love doesn’t cool off.
He says very simple things. Number one, be much in contemplation of Christ. Your first priority is to meditate on Christ, who He is, what He has done, and what He is going and is doing for you. How wonderful and miraculous and matchless His mercy, grace, and love are towards you. Meditate on that.
Secondly, he said, be much in reading and studying the scriptures. Colossians 3:16, let the word of Christ dwell richly where? Within you. Feed on the scriptures for spiritual food and your soul’s health.
Thirdly, he said, be much in prayer to God for this love. This is God’s will for us, if we ask Him for it, to keep us where we ought to be.
Fourthly, to get much faith. It says in 1 Peter 1:8 that though we do not see Him, we love Him, and though we do not see Him now, but believe in Him, we greatly rejoice with joy inexpressibly full of glory.
Number five, he said, labor for much of the Spirit. Labor for much of the light of the filling of the Holy Spirit. Where Ephesians says, don’t get drunk with wine, for this is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. In other words, be continually filled with the Holy Spirit, walking in the Spirit, not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh.
Number six, he says, labor for clear evidence of His love to you. Labor for that. Look for it. See proof of it.
Number seven, he says, get much hatred for sin. Get much hatred for sin, and accordingly watch, pray, strive, fight against sin as the worst evils as that which so much displeases the Lord. Get sin out of your life and put it to death.
Number eight, he says, associate yourself most with those who have most love for Christ. Be around people as much as possible who love Jesus. Where it says in Philippians 3:17: Brethren, join in following my example and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.
Number nine, he says, be much in the exercise of this love whereby it is increased and heightened. In 1 Thessalonians 3:12, it says: may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another and all people just as we also do for you.
Make these scriptural principles part of your daily routine. If you didn’t get those down, don’t worry about that. These principles we should put into practice in our everyday life. Our every activity, contact and thought that Christ is to be our focus. When you love Christ with all your heart, soul, and strength, God is pleased, and He’s glorified. If we don’t, Revelation 2:5,
or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.
I said don’t worry about wring those down because I’m going to give you a book this morning. I ran across this book at the Shepherds Conference years ago. It was put together by John MacArthur. It’s called Remember and Return: Rekindling Your Love for the Savior. I pulled the book out, and I said to my wife, why don’t we take one day to meet together, sit on a bench, and read one chapter? It’s meant to be a devotional for each day, but we’re only doing one short chapter a week—I read, she reads, then we pray. We’re on the seventh week or something like that. I said this would be profitable for everybody to do. Every chapter has something to do with bringing your mind again to focus on Jesus Christ so you do not drift away and that your love is always rekindled for the Savior.
Whether you do this once a week, I would recommend that. Read one chapter either yourself, go somewhere, or better, get someone else to do it with you. Then, I want you to ingest what you’re reading because it’s full of scripture, and he does pull a lot from the old puritans too. I want you to then meditate upon it. Then I want you to digest it, so it gets into your soul. Then I want you to adore the Lord. I want you to confess your sin. I want you to be thankful for so great a salvation God’s given you. Then pray that the Lord will make you a servant in His church. Pray that He will make you aware if you are drifting away at any point in your Christian journey, and He will pull you back. Pray for that.
I want you to receive this gift, and I pray you will use it. It’s a good thing to go. Just once a week, get with somebody, get with your wife if you’re married, get with a friend if you’re not, or get with yourself. Just take one chapter, once a week, and just think about that. I don’t want it to be like a firehose in your brain where you have all the stuff and don’t get anything. I want one thing and then think about it. Meditate on it. Let it be part of your life. For what reason? We as a church can be doing a lot of good things, but one thing we cannot do is drift away from Christ, right? We cannot. These days, we cannot, and I know there are tons of distractions. I get distracted and pulled away. We have these things called cellphones, iPad, and computers, and we’re on those things way more than we should be. They pull us away with all this worthless information and doesn’t help us spiritually. You have to be disciplined in that area.
Alright, I said enough, so while you’re going out the back door, get one of these devotionals. It’s called Remember and Return: Rekindling Your Love for the Savior.
Let’s pray. Lord, thank You this morning for Your people. Thank You, Lord, for o
Let’s take our Bibles this morning and turn to the main text I will be looking at. I’ll also be looking at other scriptures, but the main text will be Revelation 2:1-7.
Let’s have a word of prayer. Lord, this morning as we meet together, as we break open the bread of life, Holy Spirit, we want to be able to listen, take scripture to heart, to apply them to ourselves. Lord, if need be, to make the necessary adjustments, which may mean repentance of sin, to get back where we once were as Christians. If somebody here does not know You yet, they have not responded to the demonstration of love that Christ showed us on the cross of calvary, then that You would convict them of where they would stand before You and where they would go if they died today. Lord, I pray that we would just be Yours today so we can be vessels of honor. I ask in Christ’s name, Amen.
This is the third message of three messages springing from the passage of scripture in the Epistle of Jude 1:21, where the Bible says,
Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.
That passage does emphasize the Christian’s responsibility. My assessment, which I believe is rooted in scripture, is that the noblest goal for a Christian to reach is growing in love for God, staying in the love of God, and making sure to regularly cultivate that love to keep this reflexive command in Jude. Keep yourselves in God’s love (Jude 1:21). In other words, stay where you’re supposed to stay, where you’re already at.
Jesus Christ indicated clearly in Matthew 13 that the church age would be a very strange era. It is. By way of a parable, he said that the term ‘church’ used in its broadest sense would include wheat and tares. What He meant by that is that the church will have people who are true and false, faithful and unfaithful, and righteous and unrighteous. There’ll be servants and be sitters; those who know the lingo and those who know the Lord; those who like religion and those who genuinely love God; those who socialize and those who want to evangelize; those who play church and those who are the Church; those who tip their hats to God and those who give Him their lives. That’s going to be the age of the church. If you haven’t experienced those things, you will, and if you’ve been around, you’ve probably encountered all of those things.
The distinguishing mark of true saving faith is love for God. When a person is truly expressing saving faith, there is a great love for God and a great delight in the law of God—in the very word of God. A Christian’s delight will be that God is honored and glorified in their life. Just like we sang this morning, the chief happiness, like the Psalmist wrote: as a deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God, my soul thirsts for God, for the living God. That’s what a believer is. That’s what somebody who knows God is—that’s what’s going on inside of you, even though those things are not done perfectly.
However, most people in this world are consumed with their own happiness. Many people say they are Christian but are consumed with their own happiness. They don’t pass the first test that Jesus told to His disciples in Matthew 10:37,
“He who loves father and mother more than Me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.”
That is the highest test, and we all, as believers, need to pass that test. People love themselves; they don’t love God. In the days in which we live, it is obvious, and again the scriptures ring true where Paul told Timothy that people would be lovers of themselves, money, and pleasure rather than lovers of God. You notice that in a passage of scripture like that, there are not both things going on; you either give up one for the other.
They say the worst thing that can happen to a car engine is heat death. Your car gets so hot it overheats and stops running. If you don’t catch it soon, or if it happens too frequently, it will severely compromise the health of your engine. Most vehicles, however, are equipped with a gauge that monitors the temperature of your vehicle. The temperature gauge will warn you if the temperature exceeds normal. It either will blind you, or the needle will move into the red danger zone—I don’t know if you’ve ever been there, but I have, and it’s not a good place to be. You probably have if you’ve driven for a while.
Similarly, though, the scripture is our visible gauge. It’s our gauge that we use to see how we are standing. It is our gauge to see if things are working properly in our Christian lives. Are we keeping ourselves in the love of God? If God is not our highest desire, check your spiritual gauge, and then ask yourselves some questions. Is God my supreme delight? Do you long for, in the deepest part of your soul, to love God and to draw near to Him to know more about Him? Do you take your responsibility seriously to keep yourselves in the love of God? Are you taking measures to hedge against declining love and the tragedy of love uncultivated?
Before I get to Revelation, here are some things to check your spiritual gauge to see if you are declining in love. There are five marked characteristics of declining love. The first would be when love becomes less an object of fervent desire, holy delight, and frequent contemplation. This is where we can suspect at that point that our love is declining in our souls. If there’s a coldness in our affections for God if the mind grows earthly, carnal, selfish, and self-centered. Usually, when that happens, a dark, gloomy shadow will gather around the character and the glory of God. If one has a divided heart, it is subject to rival interest, and when that happens, God is no longer the object of one’s supreme love; nor the fountain of one’s pure delight. God’s presence that was once glorious to you and God’s voice that was so sweet suddenly turns dull, murky, hard to hear, and difficult to understand. You can suspect that you are declining in love when you feel that or are in that state.
A second this would be when there is little inclination for communion with God; the throne of grace is sought as a duty rather than a privilege that is the throne of coming to God in prayer. In any case, little fellowship is experienced, which is strong evidence of a declining love in the soul. The person who knows God, who with eyes of faith, has discovered some of its glory, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, understood and felt something of His love in their life will be able to discern between God’s sensible presence and/or His absence in your soul. We will agree that the more we desire the presence of any object (the source of sweet delight and contemplation), the more we miss it when it’s absent. If you decline in love for Jesus, your spiritual affection will become blunted, and worldly influences and occupations usually freeze your love.
When a Christian gets immersed in the world’s cares, the sense of the presence of God is not felt by them. Was God absent at that point? No, the change was in the creature, us, not in God. If you are a professing child of God, this is no way to live, and God does not want us to live like that. It is a poor lifeless existence, unworthy of your profession, the name that you bear—Jesus Christ, and unworthy of the glorious destiny that you are heading for. What is that? The very presence of God, where we drop off these bodies of sin, and we go into the presence of God and enjoy Him forever. We need to start enjoying Him now—today.
Just like it says in 1 John 3:2,
Beloved, now are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purified himself, just as He is pure.
A third thing would be when there is less holy obedience in our walk with God, and we may ascertain that a decline of our love for God is present. That means obedience is the action of actually loving and following Christ. The Holy Spirit of God sets you apart in salvation and makes you holy, and that means that every true Christian will love Christ and obey Him, though not perfectly. Like John 15:10 tells us,
If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
That means you’ll do exactly what Jesus did. The purpose of God choosing us from Ephesians and in 1 Peter was for what? 1 Peter 1 says this: we are chosen to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood. See, election leads one through salvation to a life of obedience. Obedience is what God wants from your life now that you are one of His followers and children. That is why you are saved. That is why He saved you. God saves a soul not to leave them to follow their own path but to become joyful, obedient servants of Jesus Christ. Indeed, the person who obeys Christ finds out that God’s commandments are not burdensome and that there is true freedom in Christ. You’re freed up from everything! You’re freed up from guilt and judgment. You’re freed up that you know you stand before God righteous because of what Christ has done—that’s freedom.
Again, in the Gospel of John 14 says,
21He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to Him.
23 “If anyone loves Me, he will be My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”
24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words
That’s pretty clear. You ask, how does that look? When the Holy Spirit of God, who’s in us, causes us to obey Christ when the Spirit of God says believe and be baptized. Believing is a command of God for you to respond. The believer responds: I love you Lord, and I want to obey. Or when the Spirit of God says not to forsake the assembly of ourselves together, the believer says: I love you Lord, I want to obey. The Spirit of God shows us from scripture that we are to study and show ourselves approved to God, and the believer says to God: I love you Lord, and I want to obey. When the Word of God says that we are to be present and partake of the Lord’s table as often as your church assembles to do it, you say: Lord, I love you, and I want to obey.
When the Bible says that a husband, filled with the Spirit, ought to love his wife, the husband says: I love you Lord, and I want to obey. When the Holy Spirit of God says to the wife to submit to your own husband as unto the Lord, the wife says: I love you Lord, and I want to obey. When the scripture tells us to be thankful for everything, rejoice always, praying without ceasing, a believer responds with: I love you Lord, and I want to obey. When the Holy Spirit of God says to abstain from all sexual immorality, the believer responds with: I love you Lord, and I want to obey. When the Holy Spirit of God tells young people to flee youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, and peace, the young believer responds: I love you Lord, and I want to obey. Do you get the point? The point is that we obey. The purpose and goal of election is obedience.
A fourth reason that there would be a decay of love from the saints of God is that their love is declining. If we love God with a sincere and deepening affection, we must love His image wherever we find it. In other words, we will love the saints. That’s all over the scriptures. The Bible says that if anyone says I love God and hate his brother, he is a liar.
The last characteristic would be when love for God declines, it also declines in the interest of advancing God’s work on earth. In other words, a lively interest in the increase of Christ’s kingdom and the growth of His Church will decline. There will be a decline in the diffusion of truth in the world. There will be a decline in the deepening of holiness in the church. There will be a decline in the conversion of sinners. When love declines, we don’t care about those things.
The legacy of heaven and the inexhaustible riches of God’s love belong to all who trust Christ and love Him. Pursuing a relationship with Christ is the most important goal of the Christian life. What if we drift from that noble goal? If you’ve been a Christian for any time, then you have drifted here and there. You have felt cold and distant from God. You have not had your affections so overwhelmed that you wanted to be obedient to the Lord. You slipped back, and you slipped away from that. A great example of that is found right here in Revelation 2, and I want you to turn there now.
Here in Revelation 2, the Ephesian church got knocked off their course by good and noble spiritual pursuits. In fact, they were doing things that were vital and important to the ministry of all churches. Look at Revelation 2:1, it says,
1To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this:
Here we see this passage as the Lord speaks to John the Apostle and the seven churches. We are finding language that was in the context of the first century conditions is relatively clear. Emphasized here is the sovereignty of the head, Jesus Christ. What does this sovereign head do? He walks amongst the lampstands, and according to chapter one, the lampstands are the churches. As the Word of God says, He holds the seven stars in His right hand. The seven stars are the leaders of the churches, the pastors, and the elders of the churches. He has authority over them.
God has given revelation concerning the church, and He says the church is like a lampstand. Why does He say that? Because the lampstand holds the light. The church holds the light and shares the light in their geographical area. The one great mission of the church is to share the light. Brethren, if a lightbulb no longer gives light, what are you going to do with it? Save it? No. Usually, what you do is you take it out and throw it away. If a church doesn’t bear the light, the Lord will remove that lampstand. He will remove that church.
Looking at the end of Revelation 2:5, it says,
5Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.
In other words, the head of the Church, Jesus Christ, is coming, and He’s walking amongst His churches. He’s present when we’re present. He’s there seeing how you’re doing. We know from chapter one that He has absolute wisdom. We know He has absolute omniscience—His eyes are like a flaming fire. We also know that He has absolute authority in verse fifteen of chapter one:
His voice was like the sound of many waters.
The one speaking, Jesus Christ, His voice is not just loud. It has force, command, and finality about it. Therefore, in other words, if Jesus is speaking, you better listen. His words here, in Revelation, is that Jesus is holding the leaders of these churches in His hand, and He speaks through them to the people. As we saw in our reading this morning, what was John’s response when this came to Him? It says in Revelation 1:17 that he fell on his face because he was in the presence of God. He knew the one speaking was the one who is the living one, who was dead, and is alive forevermore, and has the keys of death and hades.
Jesus says to John the Apostle, John, I want you to speak to the churches for me, and when you get what I’m saying, give it to them. The seven letters to the seven churches. This is what it ought to be. It’s the Lord’s examination of the church. It is a pattern for all church ministries. Jesus gives the state of the church, whether it is praise to the church, a promise, rebuke, or warning. We see that the Lord is walking amongst His churches, examining them, and continually knows their work, suffering, ministries, and sins. He has eyes that are a flame of fire, so he sees with penetrating discernment and accuracy which no one can attain. He is the ultimate judge.
If we were to judge the church, we would be too lenient. We would judge inaccurately because we don’t have all the knowledge. Or we would judge too severely, too harshly. We’re not the judges. We are never the judges—Christ is the judge. Only Christ can judge His church properly; be sure of this, He does. We have it right in scripture.
As the Lord examines this first church, the church at Ephesus, this is what He will do. He will first give a commendation, then a condemnation, then counsel on what to do, and then He will give a challenge after the counsel. That’s how the Lord does it. That’s a pattern of all good counselors to be able to put those things into practice.
Let’s look at the first thing in Revelation 2:2, the commendation Christ perceives. It says in verse two,
2I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; 3 and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary.
To me, that is a great church. They’re a hardworking church that had good deeds and labored to the point of exhaustion—enduring even the burdens of ministry with great patience. They were a separate church. They couldn’t even bear evil. They were unwilling to put up with evil people, meaning that they were a church that did church discipline. Also, they were a pure church. They exposed unsound, heretical teaching, and they found those to be true and false. Doctrinally sound and unwilling to put with false teachers. That’s the church.
Then, they were an enduring church, in verse number three. They had perseverance. They were not quitters. They refused to give up in the face of opposition and hardship. They didn’t grow weary in doing God’s work.
Then, of course, this is the church that hated what God hated—verse number six,
Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
Of course, the Nicolaitans were immoral and promoted immorality in their religiosity. They designated them and pointed them out as false believers. We can conclude from all these things that Ephesus was a strong, biblically orthodox church with strong convictions, and she couldn’t yield the faith or play the traitor to the Lord. They excelled in discipline, in the soundness of their faith, in accuracy toward heretics. Would you and I want to join that church? Absolutely! I want to be part of that church. As a matter of fact, that’s what we strive for in the church.
A church, though, may have every wheel turning and the machinery of ministry moving steadily, yet something very important could escape their nose. In the next passage in verse four, I want you to notice that the Lord tells them what does not please Him. Notice what it says in Revelation 2:4,
But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
This is the first church of the seven churches that the message will go to in Asia minor. The Lord repeats this verse. This is what He points out again. Just think of this: this great church, this orthodox church, in all its behaviors and ministries, lacked love. How did that happen? This early love, proof of their new life in Christ, had cooled off despite their doctrinal purity and active service. The great physician put His finger on the problem and diagnosed the condition, and the condemnation is singular, but it is very serious. That is that of declining love. This is no complaint of an enemy but a dear wounded friend. Will we grieve Him whose heart was pierced for our redemption? Brothers and sisters, can you and I let Jesus know our love is departing, and we cease to be zealous for Him anymore?
Along the way of running the Christian race and fighting the Christian warfare, the Ephesian church got distracted away from devotion to Jesus Christ. This is a warning to us. The warning to us who are being faithful, who are doing everything we know to do as a believer, who want to be faithful to the Lord and obey Him, who want to love the Lord. They stopped pursuing the goal. The goal of the Christian life is the goal of Christlikeness through a personal relationship with Christ.
We don’t want to become a church of loveless orthodoxy. But it takes everyone to make sure that doesn’t happen. Not just one person, everyone. Declining love can be an infection in the congregation, and I think that’s what it was here. Any time we depart from one thing, we replace it with something else. We have to be sure of this any time we depart from our first love, we depart to some other object of affection.
That’s why Paul told Timothy, listen, people are going to be lovers of self—he was talking to the Church–lovers of money, lovers of pleasure, we have it all before us in America. All these things are right at our fingertips, and they are the goal of most people, but they are not the goal of believers. Thank the Lord that stuff is there, but that’s not my goal because losing that doesn’t affect my relationship with Christ.
A church that moves away from its first love will be susceptible to developing misplaced affections and risk becoming cold-hearted and even hard-hearted. I know all the doctrine and truth, but I display it like that; I don’t have the love that goes along with it. You have to have both.
Many things can be easily given to the throne of our hearts and crowd out our affection for God. If our love has grown the least bit cold this morning, we have done something terribly wrong to our best and closest friend, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Can there be greater grief in the church than having the Lord say that He has this against us? I know your heart, I know where you’re at, I know what’s going on in your homes, I know your ministries, I know what you love. The Lord knows all these things, that’s the point of the passage. He has penetrating judgment. He sees down to the deep recesses of our hearts. God takes special notice of the way and the way His people think of Him and how they tend His services and worship. He takes special note of that.
In fact, why are we saved? Of course, I said to obey, but we are saved to worship. That’s why we’re saved. To have a relationship with the God who created heaven and the earth through Jesus Christ. The God that we’re going to spend all eternity with.
But thank the Lord that He doesn’t leave us there. In Revelation 2:5, He now gives the counsel He prescribes to the church. What is the counsel? It’s a three-fold counsel to remember, repent, return, and repeat. Look what it says in verse five,
5Therefore remember from where you have fallen,
This is how we execute, meaning put to death and eliminate this grievous sin in our life when we detect it. First, remember that the church has lost their bearing and needs to regain them again and that the church’s previous condition alludes to how they fell. It says, from where you have fallen. It’s a fall away from something. A departure from their first love is viewed as a fall from their previous position. That position was a growing, loving relationship with Christ. They’ve fallen from that, even though they are doing everything else right. They’ve backslidden.
When we backslide, it is not the Lord who has moved or changed His love. It’s us who have moved away from the Lord. There is a subtle truth that Alexander Straff brings out in his book on love, and he says this: love can grow cold while outward religious performance still appears to be acceptable and even praiseworthy. It’s easy to be satisfied with religious performance or even to check our boxes.
Jesus even says to the religious leaders of His day: woe to you Pharisees, for you paid tithes of mint and rue and every kind of green garden herb, and yet disregard justice and love for God (Luke 11:42). Then He says this: but these things you should have done without neglecting the others. Both obedience and love go together. I obey Jesus not because I have to but because I love Him. It’s completely different than just hard obedience to a ruler, right? Or someone authoritative. I want to do this; I want to serve the Lord and live for Him. I want to please Him.
Mark it down, Christian, the greatest danger to any church at any point in history is declining love. This is the very thing that displeases God, but you notice in our text here to remember to recall your faithfulness in your early years and take inventory. Remember when you first came to Christ, and He saved you? You were full of joy and desire to know His word. You wanted to know more. Your affections were aflame for Christ. Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so—that was your mantra.
We need to recall past joys when we’re in the valleys, which we are there most of the time. We need to remember the joys and attitudes and the experiences that we have had as believers and that we still, today, want to know more of Jesus and more of His word. At one time, nothing could divert our attention from Him. You were never weary of hearing of Jesus. You were never weary of hearing from Him. You loved to hear the Gospel because every time you hear the Gospel, you learn more about it. Of the deep, broad, high love of Jesus Christ towards you and I. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. You couldn’t get enough of Jesus and His Gospel.
Perhaps now, though, your attention is not so keen on preaching. You can’t wait to get home and do what you must at home—cut your grass, eat lunch, visit somebody, or just relax on your couch, watch your favorite soap opera, tv program, or YouTube. That’s what you’re thinking about. If you’re thinking like that, you’re departing from your first love. Maybe your Christian life is kind of dull now.
You have a spiritual appetite for being more excited with novelties than about truth and theology. Once, you were never disappointed with Jesus or displeased with Him, but because of a sickness, loss of a job, a family problem, or some disappointment in your life, you lost interest and cooled off. At first, you would have blessed His name in everything, but now you go home and grumble in your houses at the slightest problem. You were once consecrated to Him in zealous, joyful service. When He said I want you to serve, you had no problem being the first in line.
So, remember the big beginning and compare that with your present state. For the Ephesian church, the way forward was backward. Look back from where you’re falling. You think you’re doing alright, but you’re not. You’re in spiritual decline, and I (Jesus) am not pleased with that. Then you have to ask yourself: self, how can I be fairing with my Lord? How am I fairing with my Lord? Have I fallen away from the measure where I ought to be?
The second thing He says in verse five is that remembering is first but is followed by another imperative command: repent. Do you know what will change God’s will in scripture? Do you know when God relents? People say, well, does God change His mind? The answer is yes, but not for everything. He changes His mind when His people repent. He changes His attitude toward that person. His love is still there, but now something gets rekindled because we repent of it. The Lord’s command is by way of command to the believer. Here it’s an urgent appeal for an instant change of attitude, thinking, and conduct and to do it before it’s too late.
Whenever we think of repentance, we must think of at least four simple things. Number one, repentance means you call your sin what it is. Don’t call it a nice name. Call it what it is. In this case, it’s declining love. I’ve moved away from the Lord, and I’m sinning because I’ve done that. Also, you must drop it once you realize it ad identify it. As it says in Isaiah, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord. You have to drop it. Then you have to prove you dropped it. As it says in Luke: therefore, bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance. That means you’re going to get back to where you’ve fallen. Fourth, you have to replace your sin with righteous behavior. There’s always this taking off that old sinful garment and putting on that clean garment, taking off unrighteous and putting on righteousness.
Then, He says a third thing in verse five. He says, do the deeds you did at first. That means to return and repeat. Do something you once did. It could mention that these are things such as not thinking about the Gospel anymore or not praying the way I once did with the Lord—not being regularly consistent with that. Or not meditating upon the Lord, not responding to preaching. Many things could go into this.
Notice, it does not say repent and get back your first love. It says,
Repent and do the deeds you did at first
he responsibility is on us and its practical repentance. In doing the first works, you will prove that you have returned to your first love. Obedience out of love for Christ. It’s not doing more things here. It’s rather the quality of love—duty motivated by transparent love for the Lord Jesus and one another. The church finds delight in the two great commandments: to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy mind, all thy soul, all thy strength, and then to love your neighbor as yourself.
He’s calling us back. Thank the Lord that when we repent, He receives us. He’s ready to forgive. He’s ready to bring us back from where we’ve fallen.
Here’s the challenge He gives, also. Part of the challenge in Revelation 2:5, the last part of the verse, is of a threat and then a promise. Notice in verse five, it says,
or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.
It’s all depending on our repentance. Getting back, making sure our affections are back where they ought to be. He tells them that if they don’t repent, He will cut down the lampstand that holds the light, so it will be unable to hold that light and share it with their geographical area. The great mission of the church will be shut down in that local area unless you repent. Who says this? The Lord says this. Do you know who closes churches down? The Lord does. The building is not the church.
Many churches are still around, but if you go inside them, they’re not preaching the Gospel and don’t even open up the word of God anymore. They are doing things in the organization of leadership, putting women in leadership, where the Bible is clear that male leadership is in the church. The church is not carrying our church discipline. They’re not teaching the word of God. They’re not living a holy life or doing any of those things. That means they’re no longer a church, so the Lord removes them. You can have your building and do what you want, but the Lord’s removed the light.
Can Christ do anything other than that if He’s not honored there? Christ cannot allow His church to be apart from His love. If the first love has been abandoned and there’s no repentance, the church shall be left in darkness. It may mean that the Lord removes the faithful ministers who bring the word of God and removes them to another sphere. It may also include that the Lord will cut loose the usefulness to preserve the truth in that place if love does not return. Further, if the Lord wills, it could mean that He takes away the church altogether, and their very existence goes out. They’re done. The Lord will do that and for what reason? There’s no love for God there.
Then He gives a promise. It says in verse seven,
7He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’
Here’s the promise. He says, if you repent, I will bring you closer to the very tree of life in God’s presence. See, brethren, we need to heed the message that the Lord Jesus communicates to His churches so that we remain a light-bearing community of obedient believers who keep themselves in the love of God. We need to see this. We need to hear this. We need to act on this.
He says he who runs well until the end will receive a crown of life. He says that there’ll be a reward for those who hold in there, keep going, walk with Me all the way. There’s always hope. Jesus counsels His church so that they, as a life-bearing community, can fulfill their mission in the days when God calls them a church at any particular time in history.
If, somewhere along the way, you stopped pursuing a deep loving relationship with Christ. If you walked off the path of righteousness, started walking in your own righteousness, and enjoyed the ease of worldly pleasures, then your spiritual gauge reads danger. You have left your first love. Here’s what we need to do. To keep ourselves in the love of God, we need to do exactly what the scripture says; remember where you have fallen, repent, and do the deeds you did at first.
Here are some directives to help you that I gleaned from an old puritan, Thomas Vincent. He was born in 1634 and died in 1678. He was only 44 years old. He memorized the whole New Testament and the book of Psalms. He wrote many things. He wrote a book called The True Christians Love to the Unseen Christ. He says, here are nine principles that we should always be practicing in our pursuit of Christ so that our love doesn’t cool off.
He says very simple things. Number one, be much in contemplation of Christ. Your first priority is to meditate on Christ, who He is, what He has done, and what He is going and is doing for you. How wonderful and miraculous and matchless His mercy, grace, and love are towards you. Meditate on that.
Secondly, he said, be much in reading and studying the scriptures. Colossians 3:16, let the word of Christ dwell richly where? Within you. Feed on the scriptures for spiritual food and your soul’s health.
Thirdly, he said, be much in prayer to God for this love. This is God’s will for us, if we ask Him for it, to keep us where we ought to be.
Fourthly, to get much faith. It says in 1 Peter 1:8 that though we do not see Him, we love Him, and though we do not see Him now, but believe in Him, we greatly rejoice with joy inexpressibly full of glory.
Number five, he said, labor for much of the Spirit. Labor for much of the light of the filling of the Holy Spirit. Where Ephesians says, don’t get drunk with wine, for this is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. In other words, be continually filled with the Holy Spirit, walking in the Spirit, not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh.
Number six, he says, labor for clear evidence of His love to you. Labor for that. Look for it. See proof of it.
Number seven, he says, get much hatred for sin. Get much hatred for sin, and accordingly watch, pray, strive, fight against sin as the worst evils as that which so much displeases the Lord. Get sin out of your life and put it to death.
Number eight, he says, associate yourself most with those who have most love for Christ. Be around people as much as possible who love Jesus. Where it says in Philippians 3:17: Brethren, join in following my example and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.
Number nine, he says, be much in the exercise of this love whereby it is increased and heightened. In 1 Thessalonians 3:12, it says: may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another and all people just as we also do for you.
Make these scriptural principles part of your daily routine. If you didn’t get those down, don’t worry about that. These principles we should put into practice in our everyday life. Our every activity, contact and thought that Christ is to be our focus. When you love Christ with all your heart, soul, and strength, God is pleased, and He’s glorified. If we don’t, Revelation 2:5,
or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.
I said don’t worry about wring those down because I’m going to give you a book this morning. I ran across this book at the Shepherds Conference years ago. It was put together by John MacArthur. It’s called Remember and Return: Rekindling Your Love for the Savior. I pulled the book out, and I said to my wife, why don’t we take one day to meet together, sit on a bench, and read one chapter? It’s meant to be a devotional for each day, but we’re only doing one short chapter a week—I read, she reads, then we pray. We’re on the seventh week or something like that. I said this would be profitable for everybody to do. Every chapter has something to do with bringing your mind again to focus on Jesus Christ so you do not drift away and that your love is always rekindled for the Savior.
Whether you do this once a week, I would recommend that. Read one chapter either yourself, go somewhere, or better, get someone else to do it with you. Then, I want you to ingest what you’re reading because it’s full of scripture, and he does pull a lot from the old puritans too. I want you to then meditate upon it. Then I want you to digest it, so it gets into your soul. Then I want you to adore the Lord. I want you to confess your sin. I want you to be thankful for so great a salvation God’s given you. Then pray that the Lord will make you a servant in His church. Pray that He will make you aware if you are drifting away at any point in your Christian journey, and He will pull you back. Pray for that.
I want you to receive this gift, and I pray you will use it. It’s a good thing to go. Just once a week, get with somebody, get with your wife if you’re married, get with a friend if you’re not, or get with yourself. Just take one chapter, once a week, and just think about that. I don’t want it to be like a firehose in your brain where you have all the stuff and don’t get anything. I want one thing and then think about it. Meditate on it. Let it be part of your life. For what reason? We as a church can be doing a lot of good things, but one thing we cannot do is drift away from Christ, right? We cannot. These days, we cannot, and I know there are tons of distractions. I get distracted and pulled away. We have these things called cellphones, iPad, and computers, and we’re on those things way more than we should be. They pull us away with all this worthless information and doesn’t help us spiritually. You have to be disciplined in that area.
Alright, I said enough, so while you’re going out the back door, get one of these devotionals. It’s called Remember and Return: Rekindling Your Love for the Savior.
Let’s pray. Lord, thank You this morning for Your people. Thank You, Lord, for our church. Thank You, Lord, that we have many people in our church who love You, your word, ministry, and want to tell others about You. I pray, Lord, that that would not stop. That would get more intense as time goes on, and as the world gets darker and more distracted by all kinds of foolish things, I pray, Lord, that Your church would not. Our eyes would be fixed upon Our Savior. I pray, Lord, as we fix ourselves upon You, that You would definitely be present amongst us, and that we would know it, that the Spirit of God would not be quenched or grieved, and the Word of God would be exalted as high as Your name. I pray, Lord, that You would be lifted up, that men and women, boys and girls, people would see Christ and want to run towards Him for salvation. We would love You, Lord, we would love people and the lost. I pray and ask this in Christ’s name, amen.
ur church. Thank You, Lord, that we have many people in our church who love You, your word, ministry, and want to tell others about You. I pray, Lord, that that would not stop. That would get more intense as time goes on, and as the world gets darker and more distracted by all kinds of foolish things, I pray, Lord, that Your church would not. Our eyes would be fixed upon Our Savior. I pray, Lord, as we fix ourselves upon You, that You would definitely be present amongst us, and that we would know it, that the Spirit of God would not be quenched or grieved, and the Word of God would be exalted as high as Your name. I pray, Lord, that You would be lifted up, that men and women, boys and girls, people would see Christ and want to run towards Him for salvation. We would love You, Lord, we would love people and the lost. I pray and ask this in Christ’s name, amen.