Remember, Repent and Do

Transcript

GR 1507
11-09-08
Remember, Repent and Do
Revelation 2:4-7
Gil Rugh


We're studying the book of Revelation and we're in chapter 2, so if you'd turn to Revelation 2 in your Bibles. We're looking at the church at Ephesus. When people think of the book of Revelation, they usually think of the material that begins in chapter 4. And we're always ready and anxious to get into the prophetic side of the book and those great truths that are unfolded in such striking ways. But as Jesus Christ addresses this letter as it is to His churches, He takes time to set forth His evaluation of the churches. And He's doing that with the church at Ephesus. And so far it has been all good. We've looked at the opening portion of the letter, it begins in verse 2 after the identification of Christ, taken from material in chapter 1. He says, I know your deeds, your toil, perseverance, that you cannot tolerate evil men. You test those who claim apostleship, you found them to be false, you have perseverance, you have endured for my name's sake, you have not grown weary. That word, remember, your toil in verse 2 means working until exhausted, kopiao. We talked about that in II Timothy. Toiling until exhausted, but they didn't get weary in the sense of giving up, of quitting. So the toil is tiresome, the persevering is difficult but they don't quit. No church is perfect. With this kind of commendation from the Lord of the church, we can sign off on Ephesus and move on. But that's not the way Christ evaluates His churches. He is concerned to evaluate them, compliment them on their strengths, on their faithfulness, but make no mistake. His review could be no more severe. After those good things He has to say, He has a problem with them. And in spite of all the good things He has said, the problem is serious enough in His sight, if it's not corrected, He'll shut them down as a church. I say that because sometimes we tend to look at our relationship with the Lord and look at the positive things and the good things, and we should. But we stop there and think, well, nobody is perfect, we can be content with this. But again it is His evaluation that matters.

So verse 4 comes as almost a striking contrast after those words of commendation. But I have this against you. Can you imagine, you are in the church at Ephesus, you are sitting there and they are reading this letter to you and you are hearing that and you are sort of sitting up straighter and getting a little smile on your face and feeling really good about the church. And then you have that statement, but I have this against you, that you have left your first love. You've left your first love. In spite of all the good things that have been said and your faithfulness, your hard work, your deeds, your perseverance, your dealing with apostates. But I have this against you, you've left your first love. It's not like it used to be. And I take it His primary focus here is on their love for Him, although that would include, then, love for other believers. The biblical love that is to be characteristic of them has faded. So they are doing many good things, but the passion of those early days has dwindled, has cooled down. Remember in our study of II Timothy 1 Paul told Timothy to be sure to keep that gift burning at full heat. So here, you've left your first love. There has been a decline when compared to the early days, is what He is dealing with.

Turn back to Jeremiah 2. Note how he begins in this chapter. Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, go proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem saying. So he's gone to Jerusalem, southern kingdom. Northern kingdom was carried into captivity a number of years earlier, the northern ten tribes. Now he goes to Judah and Jerusalem the capital. And he is to say, thus says the Lord, I remember concerning you, the devotion, the lovingkindness of your youth, the love of your betrothal. I remember the early days, the love that characterized you in your youth, when I took you for myself, that first love. And his condemnation to them is, it's not like that anymore. You've cooled, the devotion, the love of those early days is not there. The love of your betrothal. It would be like talking about someone in a marriage forty years after they are married. Do you remember back what it was like when you got engaged? Is it that way today? That's what he's talking about, that love that characterized early days, you know that love we had when we first came to know the Lord, that indeed our lives got arranged around Him. And it's just like we were overwhelmed and the Lord was everything to us. And humanly speaking life was out of balance. But really it had been brought into balance. Is that the way it is now. And that's what he is talking about here.

Now something has happened in Israel during all these years. The nation now is a mixture and unbelievers have come in and that pulls down the whole tenor of the nation. Because even believers can be impacted now by this false mixture. And unbelievers who may go through certain activities, they are still going through the rituals of sacrifice and priestly activity and so on. But there has been definite cooling. That's the situation in the church at Ephesus.

Come in the New Testament to the gospel of John. You know sometimes I think when we look at this passage in the letter to the church at Ephesus we sit back and try to think of the emotional feelings that we should have. There is a song, I can just remember part of it, one statement in it says I've lost that loving feeling. I don't know where I heard it, but that stuck with me. I've lost that loving feeling. Well what does that mean? Does it mean I used to feel more in love with you than I do now. That's not what we're talking about here. Jesus is not saying to them, you don't feel the depth of love for Me. It is more concrete than that, it will come out when He talks about the solution. But look in John 14, Jesus speaking to His disciples and He says in verse 15, if you love Me you will keep My commandments. Down in verse 21, he who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. Down in verse 23, if anyone loves Me he will keep My word. Verse 24, he who does not love Me does not keep My words. You see that inseparably joining together of love and action. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. That's why we talk about this love, agapao love, as a love of action, doing what you should. That would be characteristic if we were going to follow the picture drawn in Jeremiah 2. Those early days of relationship when you become engaged, all you think about is that person and what you can do for them and what they would like and how you can please them. Now that shouldn't change, the focus of the life should be in that other one, the one loved. Somehow we can drift away from that. But understand when He says you have left your first love, in spite of all the good things they are doing, they are not doing all the good things they should be doing, is where we are going. There has been a cooling off when measured to the love of the early days.

Come back to the letter to the Ephesians, the church at Ephesus, and pick up something in this letter. You know it has been 35-40 years since the church at Ephesus was founded by Paul and his early days of ministry there and others associated with him. That's a long time. I've been here going on 40 years, so that's a measure. Now the church is older than that, but just marking out the time I've been here. I was thinking as I work through this again, what was it like in the early days of the time of my ministry and the ministry of our church. And what is it like now. And have we cooled. Is our love the same as it was then. Are we so consumed by it, so thrilled by it that it determines our actions, it shapes what we do. I want you to note how the letter to the Ephesians ends, last verse of the letter to the church at Ephesus, written by Paul some 30 years earlier. Grace be with those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love. The last word in this letter is the word we have translated incorruptible. Grace be with all those who are loving, present participle, who are loving our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption. The kind of love that is permanent, that doesn't deteriorate. It's used of our resurrected body, we will be raised imperishable. That's the word. Usually used in Paul's writing in that kind of context. Looking into eternity and that which is imperishable, it doesn't decay, it doesn't decline, it doesn't deteriorate. And it's interesting that here at the close of this letter, grace be with those who are loving, present tense, that's their ongoing condition, they are continually loving our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption, in a love that doesn't deteriorate, that doesn't become perishable in any sense.

Now with the passing of time something has happened in the church, there has been a decline of the love. Now he is addressing the church as the church. And we get to individual instructions here. That's why I say the church at this time over 30-40 years, people grow up in the church, they conform and go through the motions, even as we hear in testimonies of young people who have grown up in the church but haven't experienced the life-saving, transforming power of God's salvation. You know in that kind of setting that zeal for service begins to tone down. I adhere to all our beliefs, I agree, I go through. But you know I'm not consumed with that and so my obedience is not as complete and thorough as it should be. So that's how we measure the church, looking at the church. We're going to find out that there is a mixture here in address given, in a little bit. We have to be careful as believers in Jesus Christ that we set the pace, if you will, for this church. There is to be no decline. The use of my gift has to be burning at full flame, as Paul told Timothy, my love for Christ is not in any way diminished from the early days when I came to know the Lord and all I could think about was Him and His Word and serving Him and what would honor Him and having a life of holiness and purity and devotion to Him and what could I do to serve Him better and more fully.

Back in the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2. He quickly moves on, that's just the statement. I have this against you, you have left your first love. And now in verse 5 you have three quick commands, what has to be done. You might want to mark them—remember, repent, do. Three commands, imperatives. This is the Lord of the church speaking. You see it never descends down into that warm, fuzzy, sentimental. I mean, here is Christ addressing His church for the last time, it will be the last spoken word we have from Him. And it is just not sentimentalism, some kind of emotional feelings that we are developing. He commends them and now He sternly, if you will, sharply commands them, remember, repent and do.

Remember, present tense command. Be remembering from where you have fallen. We don't want to live in the past but we do want to learn and grown and build on that. Remember from where you have fallen. Remember the command is in the present tense, something that is to be ongoing. The verb has fallen is in the perfect tense, denotes something that has happened in the past and it continues into the present. They've settled down into this state, their love has cooled and fallen off as a church and this is where they have continued. You know something happens when our love cools and our service diminishes, we begin to measure ourselves with ourselves and we say, we're not doing bad. I look around, everything seems to be all right. And we compare ourselves with other churches, the ones we may choose to compare ourselves with and we say, I think we're even doing better. All irrelevant. The church at Ephesus may be doing better than the church at Laodicea, we'll have to see when we get there. That doesn't have anything to do with anything. You know it's like your kids when you talk to them you may compliment them about something, then you give them some stern instructions. And they want to say, I think I've done a lot better than ........ You say, wait a minute, that doesn't have anything to do with anything. I'm talking to you about your responsibility. And so the church at Ephesus is being dealt with. You'll note each of these churches is directly responsible to the Head of the church. There is no intervening organization like we've built in many situations. Ephesus is directly responsible to the Lord, Thyatira will be directly responsible to the Lord, Philadelphia will be directly responsible to the Lord. And you need to remember, stop and think, reflect upon from where you have fallen. We need to look at ourselves as a church as well as individually. How are we doing? Is it the way it was? Not that we want to live in the past, but is our love service for Jesus Christ on that same level. Is it growing? It's not just like it was, it is increasing. Remember from where you have fallen.

Second command, repent. Now the first command was a present imperative. This is an aorist imperative, something to be done. Period. Do it. This is the action required. Repent. Now that means you change your mind and your accompanying action. I mean you remember from where you have fallen and you compare that fallen state you are in to what it once was, you better repent. Not find excuses why this is okay, but repent. Lord, there is no excuse acceptable to you the Lord of the church that our church has a diminished love from those early days. Lord, we repent of that. And repent is not just an action of the mind, this is an action of the min that shapes the behavior. Repent.

The third command, do, which is the follow through on genuine repentance. Paul told the Corinthians that the sorrow of the world doesn't produce any change, but true godly repentance does bring about change. So the third command here is another aorist imperative, it's a command, it's something that must be done and done now. You do what? Do the deeds you did at first, the works you did at first. Now that's the connection. True repentance will result in changed behavior, changed conduct. That's what we stopped in John and looked at, if you love Me you will keep My commands. You have fallen from your first love, you have left your first love. Do the deeds you did at first. You see what is lacking. The good things they did are good. The problem is it's not enough, it's not acceptable. Again, if I can use our children as an example. You tell your children things that must be done. You come back and they've done several of those things very well, but they haven't done the other things. And they want to say, look what I did and you commend them for that. Well then can I go out? Wait a minute, we're not done. You didn't do everything I told you. That's where we are as a church, we are accountable to Him. He expects us to do all that He commands us to do.

So do the deeds that you did at first. So we're not talking about working up an emotion here, trying to develop a deeper feeling. We have the spiritual disciplines that are becoming popular today and want to go back to the early monks and so on, so-called holy men who tried to lead ascetic lives. We're not talking about this kind of development, we're talking about just living out as a church what God has commanded us to do and to be. Do the deeds you did at first.

Back up to I John 5:1, whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him, loves the one born of Him. So you see the connection, when you're born of God you move into loving God, loving the children of God. By this we know we love the children of God when we love God and observe His commandments. It's all intertwined, the love we have for one another and the willingness to serve one another. All tied to our love for God and desire to serve Him. For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome. We're not talking about the Ten Commandments here which are part of the Mosaic Law, the commandments of the Mosaic Law. We're talking about the commandments Christ has given to His church. Some of those we have been studying in II Timothy, some of them we are studying now. Remember, repent, do, commands coming from Christ, the Lord of the church. And His commandments are not burdensome to us, it's not wearisome to do them. Part of it is we do them in His strength when we do them biblically, right? And the power, the enablement that He gives.

In II John 5, picking up the commandment, now I ask you lady, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, the one which we have had from the beginning that we love one another. And this is love that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it. This is the way we live our lives, in obedience to Him. That's love, that's love for fellow believers, that's love for Jesus Christ, that's love for God the Father, doing what He tells us. It's not sitting in a room and having a certain kind of feeling. It's not coming to a church service and hoping that we will feel like we worshiped. It's hearing the Word of God, meditating on the Word of God, thinking upon it and taking it to heart and doing it.

So when you return to your first love, back in Revelation 2, you'll do the works you did at first and all that entails. Suffering for Christ as we've talked about, serving others, doing whatever it takes at great cost.

Back up to Hebrews 10, one example passage. Verse 32, and you see a similarity in what is being told to these Hebrews. Look how he starts in verse 32, but remember the former days. Similar to what Christ is saying, isn't it. Remember your first love, remember from where you have fallen, remember the former days when after being enlightened, when you came to know the Savior, the light of the gospel shone in your hearts. You endured a great conflict of suffering, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, partly be becoming sharers with those who were so treated. You see being identified with Christ and being identified with those who were suffering for Christ all went together. You showed sympathy to the prisoners, accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence which has great reward. You have need of endurance. Yet a little while, He who is coming will come, will not delay. That's where we are going in the letter to the church at Ephesus. We are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.

Remember the former days, remember your first love, remember what it was like when you first came to know Me. The church at Ephesus, remember, was born in the midst of conflict, tribulation, trial. But you know those were small things. Think about what it was like when we first trusted the Lord. If they had stormed my house and wanted to take everything I own, that's all right, I know the Lord. Let me tell you about Him. Somewhere along the line some of that gets cooled down. That's why Paul is writing to Timothy as we've talked about, that's why Christ is addressing the church at Ephesus. Something has happened, you've left that first love, the love of your betrothal time, that early devotion to Me, and that willingness to serve Me whatever the cost.

Come back to Revelation 2. These commands for the correction are not optional. We like to get this warm cuddly view of our God, that to us He is like a big loving grandfather that just understands and overlooks all our flaws. He compliments us but He never really sternly rebukes us. I remember telling my dad, my kids would visit him, my kids are little, he'd do all kinds of things with them and spoil them. I'd think, Dad, you never let me get away with that. He'd just smile. And sometimes we transfer that to God, He sort of has become like a big loving grandparent who overlooks all the flaws and can't say enough good about the things we do so all the good things we do just get blown out of proportion for goodness. That's not what our God is like. He's a loving heavenly Father, but you understand He has a very stern serious side.

And you see here, He tells them His compliments, He tells them what is wrong, He gives them three commands. Then He says to them, if you don't do these things I tell you, you either do them or else. I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent. So here He is walking among the lampstands, and here He is at the church at Ephesus evaluating His church, His lampstand. Here is what is good, here is what is not good, here is what you must do. If you don't I will be back to remove your lampstand, I'll put you out of business. This is not our church, it is His church. When it no longer functions according to His standard, it no longer serves His purpose. Here is a church doing these good things, verses 2-3, but if they don't make the corrections, I'll put you out of business, I'm done with you, I have no use for you. You see partial service is not acceptable, diminished love is not acceptable. Or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent. This is their only alternative. This is the all-encompassing thing, because if they do truly repent it will indicate that they have remembered from where they have fallen, and they aren't doing what they were told to do. So understand, in spite of the good things you are doing you must make the corrections or else you are done. Unless you repent you are done.

But a word of commendation is inserted here. Yet this you do have, you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans which I also hate. You know we have to be careful, sometimes in the church when we examine ourselves we say, we're really strong here, we are weak here. We ought to put less attention here and put more here where we are weak. You'll note Christ doesn't say that. He doesn't say, don't work so hard on these areas, don't be so concerned about that. You just keep doing that, that's what pleases Me. But you also have to do the other. That's what He requires. So here, you have this you do have, you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans which I also hate. And that's a positive on their side. You know, interesting. Here is a church that has left their first love and they are commended for hating. You say, I don't know that they need to be commended for hating. They need to work on the love side, don't you think. Well, they are commended for hating what God hates. Now they need to intensify their love. That doesn't mean they should stop hating what God hates. But they need to start getting back to their first love.

You hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans which I also hate. The early church history, some of the early church fathers like Tertullian, Irenaeus, Hippolytus say that this group formed from one of the early deacons in Acts 6, Nicholas, who apostasized and founded a group that was characterized by licentious antinomian kinds of practices. We don't know for sure. We do know that that is characteristic of the Nicolaitans. Turn over to Revelation 2:14, the letter to the church at Pergamum. I have a few things against you, you have some who hold the teaching of Balaam who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, commit acts of immorality. So you have also some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. So the teaching of the Nicolaitans was like the teaching of the Balaamites. That involved immorality, idolatrous practices and so on. We don't know anything else for sure about the Nicolaitans. That's something that Christ hated, their deeds, their practices. And the church at Ephesus hated that as well. That's good. So you don't want to in any way diminish what Christ has commended you for. You even want to get better at that. And while you do that, though, you need to deal with the things He has rebuked for as a church.

This word hate, that's a very strong word. People like to talk about the love of God, and He is a God of love and we've experienced that love in His salvation. But you understand He is a God not only of infinite love, but infinite hate. And when He hates some things, I mean, that's a strong statement. And I hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans. And it's a good thing that we learn to hate what God hates. In Jeremiah 44:4 we are told that God hated the abomination and impurity that even were present among His people in Israel. So it carries over.
Turn back to Psalm 139. The man after God's own heart had learned to hate the things that God hated. Look at verse 21, do I not hate those who hate you, oh Lord. Do I not loathe those who rise up against you. I have them with the utmost hatred. They have become my enemies. You'll note here, he hates the enemies of the Lord. We sometimes say we hate the sin but we love the sinner. And we do love sinners, but we also hate them. God not only hates sin, He hates sinners.

Turn over to Malachi 2:16, in the context God is warning the men against dealing treacherously against the wives of their youth. God says, for I hate divorce, says the Lord the God of Israel. So He hates that deed, divorce. And him who covers his garment with wrong. So take heed to your spirit that you do not deal treacherously because God hates those who do that. So you see God hates sinners. I realize it is a paradox, for He loves sinners. God so loved the world, and this is the great demonstration of love in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. That's true gospel. God hates sinners and He will send them to an eternal hell, pour out the fierceness of His eternal wrath on them. And yet He loved them and had His Son die for them. That's true. We indeed hate sinners. There would be no sin without sinners, you understand. From out of the heart of a sinner proceeds all kinds of sinful things, Jesus said in Mark 7. So we want to be careful we don't separate sin from sinners. There would be no sin. Rocks don't sin, trees don't sin. You understand that. Sinners sin. So that's why God hates sinners, David hated sinners. We as God's people hate sinners, but we love them, too, and want to bring them the love of God, tell them of the great love of God for them. Even though they are sinners Christ died for them. But you understand you can't prey upon the love of God. If you don't submit yourself to that love by believing in His Son He will condemn you to an eternal hell and you will find out just as real as His eternal love is the reality of His eternal wrath and hatred. That's the point. So you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans. That's good, I hate them, too. We learn to hate what God hates.

Come back to Revelation 2:7, he who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. So you see He is addressing the church at Ephesus, but this is a message for all local churches to listen to and pay attention to and every believer in those churches who has an ear to hear and every true believer in the church at Ephesus better listen. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. So it's not that you just sit and the Word of God has gone by, but you really listen to it, you can hear what God is saying. Take it to heart and respond to it. Talking to true believers. So an indication here, even within a church like Ephesus, you can have a mixed group. And of course over 40 years of existence you have a variety come in. People have come in, conformed, gone through it, children have been brought into it and they've conformed externally. But without the change of heart there is no salvation.

There is the promise, to him who overcomes I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God. To him who overcomes, we've talked about the overcomer in our introduction to the churches. Just back up to I John 5:4, for whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. The overcomer is the believer in Jesus Christ. He has become the victor in Christ, remember, as we looked at the subject of the overcomer a little more fully. So a promise to the true believer, the one who has ears to hear, the one who has believed in Christ and thus become an overcomer. To that one I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God. Not everyone in the churches has ears to hear, not everyone in the churches overcomes, not everyone in the churches will be privileged to partake of the tree of life.

The tree of life, we have to go back to Genesis 2:9. In the Garden of Eden, out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food. The tree of life in the midst of the Garden, as well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There is the tree of life. Look at Genesis 3:22, after the fall, after Adam and Eve sinned. Then the Lord God said, behold the man has become like one of us. We have the triune God here, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. And now he might stretch out his hand and take from the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him out from the Garden. Verse 24, He drove the man out, at the east of the Garden of Eden He stationed a cherubim and the flaming sword which turned in every direction to guard the way of the tree of life. What an act of mercy and kindness. Because if Adam and Eve had eaten of the tree of life in their fallen state, they would have been forever lost, confirmed in their lost condition for eternity. So God in His grace prevents them from eating of the tree of life until a Savior comes and salvation comes.

Now you come to Revelation 22, we're in eternity. Verse 1, then He showed me, this is after the thousand years, the first phase of the eternal kingdom. Then He showed me a river of the water of life clear as crystal coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street. And on either side of the river was the tree of life bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing or the health of the nations to partake of freely. Look at verse 14, blessed are those who washed their robes, cleansed them in the blood of Christ, washed clean from the defilement and guilt and sin. Who washed their robes so that they might have the right to the tree of life. What because of sin had been forbidden man, now as a result of the marvelous grace of God in providing salvation, now we freely will eat of the tree of life because we have eternal life. It is ours, we partake of it, eat it freely because now we are redeemed and we are confirmed in that redeemed condition.

The tree of life is in the paradise of God, we are told in Revelation 2:7. Remember Paul in II Corinthians 12, I know a man, whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. Such a man was caught up to paradise, the third heaven, the dwelling of God. That's where the tree of life will be, in the very presence of God where we will dwell for eternity. That will be the privilege of the overcomer.

So you see the church at Ephesus has cooled off, it needs to make the correction. The true believers in that church need to take hold of the truth of God and the commands of Christ and set about doing them. Early church history tells us the church at Ephesus, the early church father Ignatius writing in the first part of the second century, said the church at Ephesus took to heart this letter and made the corrections. And they existed down into the fifth century, continuing to be a lampstand, giving off a testimony for Christ. That's the way believers need to respond. We as a church need to listen to this message, evaluate ourselves in light of it. The true believers in this church need to take hold of this with the ears they have to hear the word of the Spirit of God and do what Christ instructs. So that we might be a lampstand, giving off the light of the truth in honoring Him.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your grace. Thank you for your love, thank you for your patience, thank you, Lord, for the commands that are given. Lord, this reminder to us, your church, in this day, in this place here to hear what the Spirit has said to the churches, to learn from it, to take it to heart. May we, every true believer in this congregation, take this truth to heart, examine ourselves personally, individually, and then as a church. And Lord, any area of our lives individually, any area of the life of our church, that is not what it needs to be. Lord, where our love has fallen, may we remember, repent and do again those things which are pleasing and honoring to you. May that be true of our lives and our service for you in the week before us. We pray in Christ's name, amen.