Now shall we read from the book of
the Revelation, please, and chapter two.
The book of the Revelation and chapter two,
verse one.
Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus
write, These things saith he that holdeth the
seven stars in his right hand, who walketh
in the midst of the seven golden lampstands,
I know thy works, and thy labour, and
thy patience, and how thou canst not bear
them which are evil, and thou hast tried
them which say they are apostles and are
not, and hast found them liars, and hast
borne, and hast patience, and for my name's
sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou
hast left thy first lamp.
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and
repent unto the first works, or else I
will come unto thee quickly, and will remove
thy lampstand out of his place, except thou
repent.
But this thou hast, that thou hatest the
deeds of the also hate.
He that hath an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
To him that overcometh will I give to
eat of the tree of life, which is
in the midst of the paradise of my
God.
Now we trust that the Lord will help
us in our meditation together today.
You will already perhaps have observed that this
book of the Revelation, I believe possibly in
its entirety, was sent to those seven churches
in Asia Minor with a message direct from
the Lord himself.
The book is divided into three distinct parts.
I suggest the Spirit of God gives us
the clue to that division in verse 19
of chapter one, where, remember, the words are
recorded, write the things which thou hast seen
that would encompass chapter one, and the things
which are that would encompass chapters two and
three, and the things which shall be asked
of these present things that would encompass chapter
four to the end.
The very fact that chapter one uncloses and
chapter two opens with such symbols as stars
and lampstands indicate to us that in these
chapters we are dealing with night conditions.
It's a night scene that is presented to
us.
But we thank God that when we come
to the end of the book that night
scene has been replaced by a morning, which
in turn is replaced by a day that
knows no night.
Dear fellow believer, today we are morally in
the scene of the world's darkness.
Corporately and individually we are set as lightbearers,
and we have a responsibility in that direction.
But we wait and we look for one
who says, I am the bright and the
morning star.
And when he appears, when we shall be
gathered to him, we shall pass out of
the scene of the world's darkness into the
celestial light of his divine presence.
But it is good to think this morning
of how the Spirit of God intends us
to behave, and what the Spirit of God
intends us to be in this interim, before
that moment comes when he shall himself descend
from heaven with a shout.
You will observe too, perhaps by way of
introduction I might say this, you will also
observe that in each of these seven letters
we have the expression, He that hath an
ear, let him hear what the Spirit says
unto the churches.
I take it that that would imply to
our hearts that throughout the whole of this
present dispensation the Spirit of God is speaking,
and his voice is as clear and as
fresh today as it was when the church
of Ephesus existed.
This morning as we open the word of
God together, it is a good exercise for
every heart to recall that the Spirit is
speaking to the churches, and he is demanding
our attention, and he is demanding a knee.
Perhaps it is unnecessary to remind you, but
I will remind you, that we may look
at these seven letters in three specific ways.
First of all, we may look at them
historically, for there is no doubt that these
seven churches actually existed at that particular time.
But I suggest they were not the only
churches in Asia at that time.
There is no mention here, for instance, of
Colossae.
There is no mention of Hierapolis.
But the Spirit of God has been selective,
and he has produced characteristics that were there
seen in seven representative assemblies to impress upon
our hearts, and to write indelibly on the
page of Holy Scriptures the kind of pattern
that he sees throughout the church age.
That leads me to the second point, and
that is that there is little doubt that
it is the mind of God that we
should look at these seven churches not only
historically, but we should look at them prophetically.
And when we look at them prophetically, we
cannot but understand that there is a pattern
of general decline.
It moves from Ephesus on the one hand,
down to Laodicea on the other.
I know that there are high spots.
I know that we have assemblies such as
Philadelphia and Smyrna.
But generally speaking, the pattern is a pattern
of decline.
The gold is becoming dim.
And dear fellow, believe it today, we must
not be complacent about conditions in 1986 any
more than we were in 1985.
There is a great need for us to
hear again the voice of the Spirit of
God, and to recapture the things which he
loves, and to avoid the things which he
hates.
Of course, one of the great problems in
this is to assess and appreciate our condition
under the eye of God.
It's very easy, of course, to look at
the assembly next door.
It's very easy to look at the people
of God across the way, and to rest
upon that.
If we are perhaps just a nose ahead,
we think, well, we're fine.
But when we come to Revelation 2, the
assembly is not under the scrutiny of men.
It is under the scrutiny of one whose
eyes are as a flame of fire, and
who neither slumbers nor sleeps.
So, we look at them historically.
We look at them prophetically, but we may
look at them practically.
And that's what I would like to do
in the time at my disposal today.
It is not without significance, I suggest, that
the first of these letters is addressed to
the assembly at Ephesus.
Ephesus, of course, means desirable, and Ephesus was
that.
I suppose it was about A.D. 56,
when Paul comes to Ephesus, the record in
Acts chapter 19, and there he sees a
work for God established.
Four years later, he gathered the elders of
Ephesus together, and he reminds them that for
three years he had not ceased to warn
them night and day with tears.
Four years after that, he sends the Ephesian
letter.
A few years after that, he sends the
letter to Timothy, and they all find their
way into the Ephesus assembly.
And some thirty years later, by the hand
of the apostle John, this short, brief, yet
necessary epistle finds its way to the assembly
at Ephesus.
So, we see the amount of privilege that
this assembly had.
Paul had been there, Apollos had been there,
Priscilla and Aquila were there, Timothy was there,
and so on.
You can almost feel the very warmth of
the heart of God towards this assembly, based
in the midst of idolatry, having to move
in the very proximity of the great temple
of Diana of the Ephesians.
And yet it is of this little company
at Ephesus that the words are recorded, the
church of God, which he hath purchased with
the blood of his own.
As God assessed the work at Ephesus, and
the value of that company to his own
heart, he guarded it jealously for himself.
It reminds me of the condition of the
heart of the apostle with regard to the
Corinthian assembly.
Remember, in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, I think
it is.
He says, I am jealous over you, with
godly jealousy.
For I have espoused you to one husband,
that I may present you a chaste virgin
to Christ.
And yet he hides the feeling and the
fear of his heart.
He says, I fear less by any means.
The serpent who beguiled Eve through his subtle
death may seduce your minds away from the
simplicity that is in Christ.
So that on the one hand we have
the depth of his feeling, jealous with godly
jealousy.
On the other hand we have the fear
of his heart, lest it should be seduced
away from the simplicity that is in Christ.
Dear fellow believer, I am going to suggest
to you that that language that was applied
to the assembly of Corinth might well be
written over the assembly at Ephesus as we
see this letter sent to them.
We think too of the word of Jeremiah
with regard to the nation of Israel, because
this isn't something which is entirely new.
This is really history repeating itself.
And remember the prophet there, as he writes
chapter two, he says, I remember thee, the
kindness of thy youth, and the love of
thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in
the wilderness, in a land that was not
sown.
He looks back to the days of their
pristine glory.
He looks back to the days of their
newfound affection, and with a sense of grief
he remembers that which belonged to a former
day.
So it is, I suggest, with regard to
the church at Ephesus.
We notice that the letter is not addressed
directly to the saints, as is the epistle,
it is directed to the angel of the
church at Ephesus.
I just suggest in passing that here we
are dealing with symbolic language, and that raised
within the assembly at Ephesus, a body who
is charged with the responsibility of the assembly's
conduct and their well-being.
That is a serious matter.
It is a serious matter to take up
the responsibility for the care and the government
and of the well-being of a local
assembly.
None of us should do it lightly, and
all of us should do it in the
fear of God, knowing that we exercise that
work as those that must give account.
Now having said all that, by way of
background really, I want to look at the
letter in three parts.
You'll observe that first of all, the Lord
exhibits himself according to the character which he
is displayed in, in the previous chapter.
Here it is the one that holds the
seventh star in his right hand.
Secondly, we have the Lord's message to the
assembly that we have in verses two to
six.
And thirdly, we have the Lord's promise to
the overcomer that we have in verse seven.
So we have the revelation of the Lord's
character, we have the delivery of the Lord's
message, and thirdly, we have the promise of
the Lord to those that would overcome.
In verse fourteen of chapter one, the sixteen
I should say of chapter one, you will
see that the Lord is presented as having
in his right hand seven stars.
That is, he has them as his possession.
When we come to chapter two, he moves
on a little bit from that, for not
only does he say that he has them,
in chapter two he says that he holds
them.
That is, I suggest, that not only do
they belong to him, but these stars are
under his divine control.
They are accountable to him.
That takes us to the thought of overseership
as in Peter's epistle.
For he reminds us that the heritage belongs
to God.
It is his heritage.
And those who exercise overseership exercise that overseership
under his divine control.
But furthermore, I am going to suggest to
you, brethren, that in this expression we probably
have the idea of being upheld and strengthened
for the difficulties of the way.
After all, he has assured us, has he
not, that no man goes to war at
his own charges.
And if he has entrusted the work, he
will give the enabling and the strength to
his people to see that work through.
And so that body, that governing body, that
responsible body, is seen as being in the
right hand of the risen Lord.
That's good, you know, for John had already
known something of the touch and of the
feel of that hand.
Remember the experience of the previous chapter?
When I saw him, I fell at his
feet of death.
But he laid his right hand upon me
and said, Fear not, I am the first
and the last.
Brethren and sisters alike today, how good it
is to think that the hand of the
risen Christ is upon us, to comfort and
to sustain and to uphold and to control.
And if we allow ourselves to rest there,
I tell you this morning, all will be
well, whether young or old, whether brethren or
sisters.
We need to recognize the omnipotence and the
sovereignty of the hand of Christ.
That's where they are.
That's how he presents himself.
And then you will notice that he is
seen as walking in the midst of the
seven lampstands.
That is perhaps a somewhat unusual expression.
It is certainly unusual in the light of
the Ephesian letter.
For in that letter he is seen as
having been seated.
And furthermore, the saints are seen as having
been seated with him.
But now he is seen as walking in
the midst of the assemblies.
In other words, it is a judicial scene.
He is estimating.
He is assessing.
He is taking things into account.
He is exercising a judicial role.
Remember in chapter one, his feet are as
varnished brass.
And those feet of varnished brass are now
moving amongst the assemblies.
And he is assessing the true condition of
each assembly as it appears to the eye
of a righteous judge.
So that's his character.
Now I want you to look at the
message.
Point number one.
He says, I know thy works.
The assessment is personal.
It is factual.
It is absolute.
There is no impartiality here.
No error of judgment here.
His eyes are as a flame of fire.
He moves as a righteous judge, and he
says, I know thy works.
Ah, brethren, if we could but grasp the
spirit of that.
If this morning we could appreciate that his
eye is upon us, there would be no
room for pretense.
There would be no room for hypocrisy.
Only for reality.
For nothing is hid from his all-seeing
eye.
It's not the estimate of the brethren now.
They only look on the surface.
They only see the activity.
They only see the movement.
But as Jesse discovered on a past dispensation,
the Lord seeth not as man seeth.
For man looketh on the outward appearance, but
the Lord looketh upon the heart.
And it's not the external, brethren.
And it's not the exterior.
And it's not the trappings.
The Lord is concerned with what is within.
He's concerned with what is in the heart
of the thing, whether it be the collective
or the individual.
And thus he looks at the assembly, the
beloved assembly at Ephesus, and he says to
them, I know thy works.
Now at first sight, this assembly had nothing
to be ashamed of.
And we ought to recognize that.
There was diligence there.
Look at it.
Thy works and thy toil and thy endurance.
There was diligence.
And would to God there was more diligence
amongst the people of God today.
For one of the great problems of a
materialistic age is lethargy in relation to the
things of God.
There was no lethargy in the assembly at
Ephesus.
Furthermore, you will observe that they were endued
with a spirit of discernment as to what
was right and what was wrong.
They kept the doors at Ephesus.
They could not endure evil.
They put men under the microscope of the
scrutiny.
They rejected those that were found to be
untrue to the faith.
And perhaps you would agree with me today
that perhaps in the assembly of God's people
we could do with a little more discernment
in our dealings with God and with the
people of God.
Discernment marked the assembly at Ephesus.
And furthermore, they were marked by a spirit
of determination.
That verse 3, let's have a look at
it.
Thou hast borne and hast patience and for
my name's sake hast laboured and hast not
grown weary.
In the face of opposition and in the
face of difficulties, what the Lord is saying
is that they had laboured to the point
of weariness, and yet they had not become
weary in the work of God.
That's good, isn't it?
Diligence, discernment, and determination.
Now, I want you to notice something perhaps
that we tend to overlook in this passage.
And that is that their motive was not
called into question.
Look again at verse 3, brethren, and you
will discover that what they were doing, they
were doing for him.
It was for my name's sake.
That's interesting, isn't it?
We might have thought they were doing it
for self.
We might have thought they were doing it
for the praise of man.
But the Lord, true to his character, he
acknowledges that what they were doing, they were
doing for him.
I wonder if, as the people of God
today, we are marked by that kind of
diligence.
The problem was, you see, there was no
lack of activity.
There was no lack of appreciation.
But what the assembly at Ephesus lacked at
this point in time was affection for Christ.
I have this against thee, he says, that
thou hast left thy first love.
They had allowed themselves to relax.
They had allowed themselves to let go of
that first, primary, chief love for Christ.
And they had become content to go through
a mechanical process that was not generated from
a heart that was beating with servant love
to him.
And that, brethren, was the basis and the
only basis of the Lord's complaint to the
assembly at Ephesus at this particular time.
I come to you this morning with a
conviction and with a burden that what was
true of Ephesus in 1890 is true of
the majority of those that profess his name
today.
Remember when that first letter to Timothy was
sent to this very assembly, he says, To
them take heed unto thyself and to the
doctrine.
And it may be with Ephesus and indeed
with us that we have put a greater
emphasis on the doctrine than we have upon
the hearts from which the doctrine flows.
The Spirit of God would speak to us
today, and he would say to us not
only to take heed to the doctrine, but
he would say, take heed to thyself.
Now, the Lord was talking.
He was speaking against a background of experience,
if I could put it that way.
For when we come to the close of
the old economy, we are in precisely the
same kind of situation as we are here.
Here with the nation, the words are flowing
from the pen of the prophet Malachi.
God is speaking to the heart of the
people, and he says, I have loved you.
I have loved you.
And I understand that the force of it
is, I have, and I do, and I
will.
It's a continuous affection from the heart of
God.
And yet, ye say, wherein hast thou loved
us?
Brethren, that was the burden of Malachi's message.
And from that question there flows all the
corruption and profanity and emptiness of Israel's religion,
so much so that God desired that someone
would rise and close the doors of the
house that they offer not infants upon his
altar in vain.
If the heart was wrong, nothing else could
be right.
And the problem at Ephesus was going to
become the problem at Thyatira, and ultimately the
problem at Laodicea.
You see, we open that prophecy of Malachi.
We only go on a chapter, and the
people are saying, behold, what a weariness it
is.
It was an empty, hypocritical, mechanical process that
meant nothing to God and nothing to man,
and it became a weariness to the people.
Brethren and sisters, today I'm going to suggest
to you that all degeneration begins in the
deep recesses of the heart into which no
human eye can penetrate except the eye of
Christ.
He sees not only what is there, but
he sees its potential, and he recognizes that
the assembly that has lost its first love
today will be playing the harlot with the
world tomorrow.
That's what we have in Thyatira.
And therefore in faithfulness, and yet with deep
affection, the Lord says to the assembly, I
have this against thee, that thou hast lost
thy first love.
I wonder, brethren, sisters, today, if the Lord
were to audibly speak to these hearts of
ours this morning, would he be saying to
us what he says to Ephesus so long
ago?
And he sums up his message basically in
three words, thus five.
He says, remember and repent and return, or
else I will come unto thee and remove
thy lampstand out of its place, except thou
repent, solemn, serpent, but true.
Now, I don't want to be unduly pessimistic.
I do want to be faithful.
I'm going to suggest, brethren and sisters, that
this is not a question really of writing
off the assembly.
It is not really a question of removing
the lampstand.
The message to Ephesus is really an appeal
for the recovery and an appeal for the
return.
Of course, divine justice demands that unless they
serve the purpose for which they were placed
there, there is really little point in the
lampstand continuing.
And unless where we are placed there is
an effective, living, valid witness for God out
of hearts that be true to him, then
it is nothing more than an empty profession.
Thus the appeal of the risen Christ, remember
and repent and return.
I'm not going to get into the technicalities
of verse six, at least not in five
minutes.
That's perhaps a good excuse not for getting
into it.
But let me say this, brethren, that it
seems to me that the early church had
two great problems to encounter.
One was the problem of legalism as represented
in Judaizing teachers.
And right up through the epistles we have
the influence of those Judaizers infiltrating the assemblies
and seeking to perpetuate that which God had
fulfilled and set aside.
On the other hand, there was the problem
of liberalism as represented in those who turned
the grace of God into lasciviousness.
And this is probably what we have in
the Nicolaitan doctrine under these in chapter two.
And it's commendable that the assembly hated in
this respect what Christ hated.
It's not sufficient.
It's good, but it's not sufficient.
We need not only to hate what he
hates, but we need to love what he
loves.
And you know, perhaps that is more difficult.
But the assembly are commended for that and
for their attitude to this liberal permissive attitude
that is going to be to the detriment
of the assembly and its testimony.
And then briefly, we have the appeal, verse
seven, to hear.
And we have the promise to those who
will overcome.
First of all, I want you to observe
that although this letter is written to an
assembly, an assembly that actually existed and worked,
toiled for God, when he comes to the
appeal it is not to the assembly as
such.
It is to the individual.
See that?
He that hath an ear, let him hear.
There is little point in me today speaking
to a mass of people.
Really, we've got to break the thing down
because every assembly is comprised of individuals.
And what the individual is, the assembly is,
really, in the last analysis.
And thus the Spirit of God, when he
comes close to us, verse seven, he doesn't
say, they that have an ear.
He says, he that hath an ear.
Could I speak to an individual this morning,
just an individual here and there, a brother,
a sister?
Are you willing today to give your ear
to the voice of the Spirit, the Word
of God, and to listen to his appeal,
even to his complaint, that the assembly may
be rejuvenated, rededicated, and return to that first
love and the first works?
Secondly, and with this I'm going to close,
I want you to notice that in each
of these assemblies the Lord assumes that there
will always be overcomers.
You get that in Ephesus?
You get it right through.
And even in Laodicean conditions he appeals to
overcomers.
So today we don't have to succumb to
the conditions around us.
We don't have to go with the stream.
In the midst of departure, in the midst
of declension, and in the day of falling
away, the Lord always anticipates that there will
be a remnant who, on the principle of
faith, will overcome.
And those overcomers will be amply and abundantly
compensated.
May the Lord bless to our hearts his
Word.