Truth Matters 85 (May 31 to June 4)

Hello, I'm Dr. Cheryl Davis, and thank you for listening to Truth Matters. As you've probably learned by now in our study of Chapter 1, that Jesus is coming back as a reigning king, not like the suffering servant of the Gospels. Today we would like to get into Chapters 2 and 3, which is the letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor. If you can recall back to the day that you were saved, and how you felt, and that excitement, and really if I would describe it, I would describe it as just a load off. You know, whenever we get entangled and bound in sin, our sin is a burden. But when that burden is lifted and we are free, there's a feeling that you will never forget. There's an excitement.

There's a joy. And because of all that, there's a devotion that a new believer experiences when they're first born again. And in this case, I think the honeymoon was over, and they were allowing Christianity to become a religion and not a religion. And we can do that these days. We can focus on what we need to do or not do, and really not focus on our relationship with Christ. This was their problem.

Because they were not loving Jesus, or they had walked away from their first love, most likely they were not loving each other either. But we'll see in each letter that Jesus doesn't give a diagnosis without a remedy. He is the God of the remedy. He will call out our problems in love, and He has done this in these letters, but He'll also offer a remedy.

And that comes in demands that are made on the church. He can offer us reconciliation. He can offer us a remedy, but that will be the offering for our sin. In verse 5, He says, Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen. Remember, meditating on what your relationship with Christ was like when you first got saved. From where you have fallen was the point that you fell off track, most likely the point where you become miserable.

And if anyone ever sees or are around Christians that are miserable, you'll see that they're bound in many ways, which is leading to their misery. So He's telling them, Remember from where you have fallen. He goes on to say, Repent and do the first works. Repent and do the first works. That means changing your mind and turning to go in the opposite direction.

You must go back from which you left. And I think everyone who has had a genuine experience with God and a right relationship with God will remember the condition or the point of the situation surrounding when they departed from Him. He also says, Or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent.

He says to repent, do the first works, doing again the faithful steps of discipleship. Feelings follow actions. You can't wait until you feel yourself in to do something because the feelings will follow the action. You have to be committed to follow Christ and the feeling will follow where the body goes.

The heart will follow. But he says, If you don't remember, if you don't repent, if you don't repeat, then I will come quickly and remove your lampstand from its place. And then he ends the letter in verse seven with a warning. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Listen and hear to obey. We don't listen just to gain knowledge because knowledge doesn't always produce obedience, but hearing within the heart produces obedience. But he guarantees them a promise for overcomers. He says, If you overcome, I will give to eat from the fruit of the tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God, which is evidence that if we take Christ's remedy for the church and we are obedient and we repent, there are promises that are ours. All we have to do is obey.

But just an interesting historical note in that the Ephesians did respond positively to this exhortation for a while. But in time, the once great congregation fell into ruin. Warren Wiersbe once said, The church that loses its love will soon lose its light, no matter how doctrinally sound it may be. And are we there today? Do we know what we believe and believe the truth? But because we've lost our first love that we're making our relationship with Christ more a religion rather than a relationship. And therefore we've lost our love for him and we've lost our love for others. The church that loses its love will soon lose its light, no matter how doctrinally sound it may be. Until next time, I'm Dr. Cheryl Davis.