I would say build monuments along the way. Build things that will help you remember. In the book of Joshua, he is always building monuments as to what God has done for his people. Not just recalling The past But acting on the memories. That is what helps us love.
I remember when God did this, I was so bad, it was in a bad spot, and only God could have changed it, and He did. There's a monument for you, and you do well to remember those things. You're listening to Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Revelation.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about cross-reference radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now here's Pastor Rick with the conclusion of his study called Ephesus: Love Lost, as he teaches in Revelation chapter 2. Heresy goes against scripture, denies essential doctrines of our faith, and there's no way to reconcile them. Uh they are Irreconcilable. A heretic denies the Christ, his deity, for example.
And he is used as Satan. Often they become apostates.
However, That's heresy. There are doctrinal differences, charismatic gifts.
Some might say, well, the tongues ended with the apostles. And some say, no, they're still ongoing.
Well, that doesn't make you a heretic to take one side or the other. Eternal security, once saved, always saved, for example. If you don't believe that. If you say, well, I can lose my salvation or I can't lose it, neither one of those makes you a heretic. The rapture of the church.
If you say, well, I don't believe the church is going to be, you may be wrong in some of these, but it doesn't mean you're a heretic. It could be. But it would be because of other reasons.
So, we have to make those distinctions: theology, heresy, and then there's a third category. Conviction.
Someone may feel Convicted or convinced that they have to wear a suit to church on a Sunday.
Well, there's no sin in that. It's not heresy. That's their conviction. But If they try to make it law of God, Now it's no longer their conviction. It's creeping into bad doctrine, perhaps even at some point heresy, when you begin to say you can't be saved because you're not wearing a suit to church.
Now I've never come across anybody like that, but it helped makes my point. I've come to some close ones though.
So verse 3, and you have persevered. And have patience. and have labored for my name's sake, and have not become weary.
Well, they were still going strong in the faith. And again, they don't know that their love is damaged. And that if they don't fix it, it will eventually Overtake them. They will die on the vine. Love is that source, that direct source to Christ, agape love is comes from God, like the fire that came down on the altar from God to Moses, the Jewish first altar, that fire that came from heaven.
Well, that's agape love also.
So Failing, coming back to hypocrisy, failing to be strong is not hypocrisy. Choosing to lie about what you criticize others for is hypocrisy. If you say that I don't do this, And you are a sinner because you do it. But you do do it, and you don't care that you do it.
Now you're coming into. Hypocrisy. and have become weary. Pardon me, have not become weary. Plenty of energy in that flock.
Outwardly everything that should be there was visible. That's true. except the love that only Jesus could really discern for us that it was absent.
So as far as the world could see, they were devoted to their religion. as far as a Christian could see. This was a remarkable church. And these commendations that Christ is giving them, they're remarkable. But then verse 4 comes.
Nevertheless, it's like a clap of thunder. It's a deceiving word potentially because it sounds like it's all, but like it's not going to be a big thing. Nevertheless, you know You have a horrible wardrobe. No, that would have been harmless enough, but it's much more powerful. Nevertheless, I have this against you.
that you have left your first love. devastating pronouncement. Here is the sickness. The next verse will give the remedy. Works labors, patience, and tolerance of evil.
Discernment Enforcement.
So many good things. that a lot of churches lacked. were very pronounced in this church. Can you imagine? The shock and the horror, that blanketed That passed his heart when he was told he was failing the Lord and therefore failing the flock.
If he was a man of God and this was the critique on his church, it would have been hard. He's probably saying, Man, I put so much into this ministry, so much of me, I don't even know who I am anymore. And then Yeah, well you're failing. Uh I don't mind if you criticize other churches. Don't criticize this one.
I have this against you.
So God is opposed to him now. to that church.
Solid Bible study. had failed in its application. You can learn the scripture, you can quote the scripture, you can argue the scripture. and still fail. If you're not doing it out of love.
You know, some of those Christians that just want to argue Christian points to show you how smart they want you to think they are, and there's no love coming from them. Their points may be right to some degree, But they're dying on the vine. This one charge against them was so significant that the Lord threatened to disown them. That is how serious it was. I'm going to take your lampstand from you.
You won't be a church anymore. You might be a community center. You might be a crowd. But you won't be the Ecclesia. Under my lordship.
You have left your first love. This wasn't the fault of God they left. This was not Paul's generation incidentally. That 40 years ago that Paul ministered there, most of them are dead and gone. This is that next generation, which is a challenge to the younger Christians.
Right now, you're in a church with a lot of people love on the Lord. Where are you going to be forty years from now? Are you gonna be loving on the Lord? You're going to be loveless? Are you going to be an apostate?
By leaving their first love, they left their best love. Loving Jesus became white noise to them. You know, white noise is like you know, y the refrigerator making a noise in your home. You don't even hear it anymore. It's just a common noise in the background.
It does not draw any attention. That was love. They could preach on it. But it lost its vitality. Its presence was diminished The foreground became the background.
They had it backwards. Paul was writing about some. widows in the church younger widows, females. who had grown wanton, And he said, having condemnation because they have cast off their first love. Which is Christ.
There's nothing if you have no love for Christ. How can you be a Christian? Paul said, if they do not love the Lord, let them be anathema. Pretty serious deal. Peter?
Do you love me?
Well A love Peter thought he had. found out that he did not have it. But he gained it after Pentecost, and he never lost it after that. Busy Martha Works without adoration. Luke chapter 10.
This is, of course, Mary. Mary, the crowd comes over to her house. The Lord is teaching. Mary says, I'll go hungry. I just want to hear this word.
And Martha was: no, we've got company. We've got to do this. This is the etiquette. This is what we all do. We'll be shamed.
Mary says, okay, I'll be over here.
So Martha, Martha, when she appealed to Christ, make my sister come help. And he says, Martha, Martha, you know. You are worried and troubled about many things. Church of Ephesus. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part which will not be taken away from her.
So they kept the leaven out. The love too. This has me examining myself. I read about this church, am I losing my love for you, Lord? Maybe I'm not emotional about it as before.
That doesn't necessarily mean I'm losing my love. Ephesus could be us. To repeat. If we're not careful.
Now they had not drifted into apostasy. They stayed away from it.
Well, having lost their love, they were not going to drift back into that love. They had to take action. It had to be deliberate. It was necessary. They had their role to play.
and staying passionate about Christ. That's why, when you see someone who's been a Christian a short period of time and they want to teach and all this, it's like, you know, come talk to me 15 years from now. When life has slapped you around the room a few times, you then come back and tell me about scripture and divorces and marriages and death and all the other things that go with life as a Christian. How about singing without feeling? Is that always an indication of lovelessness?
Not at all.
Now we gotta be a little careful here. The fact that you're concerned, I don't feel like I used to feel when I sing, is an indication you do love the Lord, you do care. Keith Green, my eyes are dry, my faith is old. My heart, it is hard, my prayers are cold. Powerful song and I know how I ought to be.
alive to you and dead to me. What can be done for an old heart-like mind?
Soften it up. with oil and wine. You have to do something about it. And it doesn't necessarily mean you're doing something about it's going to bring you instant results, but that sure is a lot better than being satisfied with being numb when it comes to worshiping your Lord. I encourage some, you know, is something There's something beautiful about learning how to worship in song.
The time we Christians get to throw some emotion into what we're doing. is when we worship the Lord in song. It is a good thing to hold the hands up, not out and slap the guy in the face next to you. Which might be called for. But not in the sense of you know, when we worship like that, what we want to be careful is that we don't draw attention to ourselves and therefore away from Christ.
And you know, some churches they I think they go overboard. I think some of them need to be in padded rooms, to be honest with you.
Well, I hate that expression, to be honest with you. I'm sorry I said it. Yeah. If I got to tell you, I'm trying to be honest with you, something's wrong.
Well, back to this. When you worship, you know. It's okay to put your heart into it. It's okay to weep. Or cry, It's just not okay to lose self-control.
The Holy Spirit does not cause us to lose self-control. He is the cure for. the loss of self control. John said in 2 John verse 8, look to yourselves that we do not lose those things we worked for. You got to do something about this too.
Now, it may take time. What do you do in time? You say, Lord, my eyes are dry, my faith is old. It's not happening. Endure.
Continue. Labor. Don't let that knock you out of the box. You know, we can get many important things right as this church was and still sink in our faith. by failing to keep the most important things the most important things.
What are we Christians supposed to major in? Love of the Lord. which brings his truth, which includes his truth, That's why we love him so much, because he's right. Luke's Gospel The Pharisees, Jesus addressing them, woe to you Pharisees. You could say, woe to you Bible teachers.
For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the love of God, these you ought to have done without leaving the others undone.
Now, again, in the midst of all this, there are times when the love is, you know, we go through some traumatic event, and just the love is hard to find. Jesus gives us that space. But when the seas calm down, Years ago, I took um, I was going to take the steel workers. physical. You had to take a physical to get into the apprenticeship program.
And I said, well, I'm going to take the New York State Trooper exam to get a tune-up. I know I'm not going to pass that trooper exam for one reason, which I'll get to in a minute.
So I take the written exam, do well on that. I take the physical the physical fitness course exam, I blew that thing out of the park. And I remember when I finna came across that last obstacle. The trooper that was over one of them was saying, That is a really good score. It and it was.
Okay. And then I said, well, let me go get disqualified. And I walk into the room and doctor in there said, read the bottom line on that chart without your glasses. What chart? Yeah.
I knew that was coming. And so that was it. I was disqualified. Because of the eyesight thing. All the other things, the brains, the brawn.
rendered inadequate without Sight. Inadequate sight, I needed critical sight. And that's Ephesus. They had the brains and the brawn. But the critical sight of love was not there anymore, which is a double trouble for them.
They had it and they lost it. It's not like they never had it.
So he says, remember, therefore, from where you have fallen. Verse 5, repent and do the first works, or else. I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. I don't think the Lord's tone was harsh. I didn't think it has to be harsh.
The words speak for themselves.
So where he says, remember therefore from where you have fallen. They must have been up pretty high. I would say build monuments along the way. Build things that will help you remember. In the book of Joshua, he is always building monuments as to what God has done for his people.
Not just recalling the past. But acting on the memories. That is what helps us love. I remember when God did this, I was so bad, it was in a bad spot, and only God could have changed it, and He did. There's a monument for you, and you do well to remember those things.
Have you ever heard this before? The words of Jesus Do this in remembrance of me. They were losing it.
So when we have the community here, Does your pastor say, tell the Lord how much you love him? Love on the Lord. Let him love you. Don't think it's just going to all be automatic all the time. That's why We have to be tested.
before we are appointed to certain positions. They forgot to remember him in love. But they thought they had it. 'Cause their doctrine was right. They could preach on the 1 Corinthians 13, no problem.
It just was not active. The Church can stress right doctrine at the exclusion Of the presence of Christ. Not just the doctrine, his actual presence. And then they become what? Suspicious, judgmental.
Unloving. That's the problem. Repent, do the first works. Christ says, fix this. Love again.
Love me again. Or else, ominous words, a consequence, I will come to you quickly, remove your lampstand. from its place. A church cannot live long. Without Jesus Christ, it'd still be truly a church.
Of course there are many false ones that go on like this is no problem at all. That would leave them in darkness if he takes their lampstand. And anybody that comes in contact with them. There are no Christians in Ephesus today. The ancient city is in ruins, and the villages around it are given to Islam.
The ruins are a mere tour site uh tourist site. Unless you repent, loaded with hope in that, there's a way out. Verse 6. That means do something different. Mm-hmm.
But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans. which I also hate.
Well, now another encouragement comes. But it won't help them if they don't get that love fixed. Notice that it is the deeds which are hated by Christ, not the people. which gives us that old Adaj. Hate the sin, love the sinner.
He doesn't say, I hate the Nicolaitans. He says, I hate the deeds. I hate what they're doing.
Well, if they don't fix it, it's not going to be as though he hated them at the judgment, the wrath of God. We don't know much about This group of people. We know enough, though. The meaning Nicolaitin is debated.
Some say it means the conqueror of the people. I can't see a mom naming their kid. I'm going to name you conqueror of the people, you little tyrant. You know, others say it means let us eat, in other words, the Epicurean type. Like, we'll just live life, have fun, doesn't matter, sin doesn't matter, just enjoy yourself.
I don't know, they don't know themselves.
Some say it's connected to Nicholas, one of the Chosen deacons in Acts chapter 6, there's no evidence for that, as hearsay.
So we come right back to, I don't know who they were. But we know what they were doing by what's described. And they were lawless, and likely an early form of Gnosticism creeping into the church. That movement that said, knowledge will save you, not obedience. knowledge of the arcane.
I think the m the Freemasons do some of that. No Christian needs to be a Freemason. or a costly one. Lady. They were leading, they were associated with Balaam.
And what did Balaam do? He led people into sin. He said to Barak, Balak. This is how you trip up the Jewish people. And it worked for a while.
And if it weren't for Phineas, then Aaron the high priest, they might have got away with it. Balaam used his influence to seduce God's people into immorality.
So um Again, one historian says about these Nicolaitans. They abandoned themselves to pleasure like goats. Leading a life of self-indulgence. That's a Christian historian calling them goats. And so I don't think there's anything else to add to that except to say.
That Ephesus Hated what the Nicolaitans were about.
Now here's the punchline. But Pergamus harboured it. What is that? Yeah, my church won't allow that. But you can go down the street to that church.
And they'll do it.
So by the time John writes the revelation, He has become A force, of course, in what he has to say, but so have these. Um Gnostic Influence type people coming into the church.
So, again, which I also hate. Because it menaces his church and it damn souls. It means something. Verse 7: He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says. To the churches, to him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
Well, Jesus singles us out when he says, He who has an ear to hear, he gets very personal. See, you know what? You know what I'm saying. Let's not play games, it's singling us out. It is possible to know the Bible and miss the point.
Acts chapter 13, here's an example of Those who had the Old Testament and still missed the point. For those who dwell in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not know him, nor even the voices of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, have fulfilled them in cons in condemning him. They read the scripture all the time and they still don't get it. Their hearts aren't right. And Jesus spent his ministry calling that out.
What the Spirit says to the churches. And the Holy Spirit says, He's a divine person. He's not a human. But he is a person. He's not an it.
And so it continues here. The tree of life It's immortal the immortality in God's kingdom, the eternal life. Those born twice die once. Those born once die twice. Paradise.
Did I have a smug look on my face when I just said that? I felt like I did, but I wasn't trying to. I don't usually have a smug look, so when it happens, I catch it. I'm making, I'm being silly. Eric, coming back to this, not silly about this, paradise.
Confirmed by Jesus to an outlaw on the cross. If that guy can get in, I can get in. That's one of the points that comes out of that. Today you will be with me in paradise. You will have eternal life.
What does that look like?
Well, we're out of time, but you can reference Revelation 21, verse 4, where there is no more sorrow, no more tears. Who overcomes fifteen times, the Greek word shows up. We translate the here overcomes. Uh It it's victorious. And so at the end of all of this, the Lord promised them heaven if they fixed this, which means they have the resources within themselves to fix this because God will cooperate and help them.
And at the end of all of this, As the messenger of this church, I ask, I pray. May we never hear the Lord say, You have left your first love. Yeah. Um This has been Cross-Reference Radio with Pastor Rick Gaston. This program is a radio outreach of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Mechanicsville, Virginia.
Pastor Rick has been teaching through the book of Revelation, but if you're interested in learning about a different book of the Bible, we have hundreds of past episodes available to listen to on demand. Just visit us online at crossreferenceradio.com and you'll find an archive of Pastor Rick's past teachings. While you're there, you can also find links to follow our program on your favorite podcast app, as well as links to get connected with us on Facebook and YouTube. There's also an interviews tab where you can learn more about Pastor Rick's heart for ministry.
Well, we hope you'll join us next time here on Cross Reference Radio. Yeah, hello.
