Now it is a joy to be back
with you again and to share this time
together around Word of God.
As I mentioned last night, for those who
were here, it's our desire to just look
for a little while at the seven churches,
these in Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3.
So I'd suggest that you turn with me,
if you will, to Revelation chapter 2 and
verse 1, please.
Revelation chapter 2 and verse 1.
For those who are staying through the week,
we suggest you read these verses over, these
two chapters, and get them well implanted in
your mind and your heart, and I'm sure
the time together will be that much more
profitable as we meet and study this interesting
and wonderful portion of God's Word.
Verse 1, chapter 2.
unto the angel of the church in Ephesus'
right.
These things saith he that holdeth the seven
stars in his right hand, who walketh in
the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.
I know thy works, and thy labor, and
thy patience.
Now 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 labored, and hast not fainted.
Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou
hast left thy first love.
Just a brief word of prayer, please.
Our gracious Father, we thank and praise thee
again for thy love to us, thy great
salvation, and above all, our Lord Jesus Christ
himself.
And we ask as we consider this portion
of thy word this morning, if thou would
guide and direct by thy Holy Spirit as
we've been singing, Lord, bring the word of
life, dear Lord, to me.
And may our hearts be challenged, each one,
whatever the spiritual need is.
May by the Holy Spirit of God that
need be met this morning.
For we pray in our Savior's precious and
worthy name.
Amen.
Now we want to consider the seven churches
and their practical value for us today.
On one occasion, a dear woman spoke to
the preacher after the meeting, and she said
something like this.
She said, I really enjoyed all that you
had to say today.
She said, in fact, every point that you
made fitted all my Christian friends.
And I think that when we often turn
to the word of God or listen to
the word of God, we frequently are in
time to think of someone else and say,
I hope that they're listening and taking that
to heart.
And so often we fail to take to
heart ourselves what the Lord has for us.
And it seems to me that this can
be true with the seven churches of Asia.
I'm sure we're all aware of the fact
that they can be looked at in various
ways.
Historically, there were seven churches.
Seven churches actually existing at the time when
our Lord wrote to them.
The things that were carrying on happening in
those churches as outlined here were things that
were happening to them at that time.
And then we can look at it from
a prophetic point of view.
And it's challenging to notice the church in
its outline from the time of Pentecost until
our Lord shall come.
And it's always a thrill to see how
the Lord has outlined for us the progress
of the church down through the history.
But we want to think of it from
the practical, from the personal side, rather than
the prophetic side.
And while one enjoys the prophetic side, so
often we're inclined, I think, to sort of
say, well, you know we're not the Laodiceans.
We're the Philadelphians.
And we're certainly not those of Sardis.
And yet there are things about Sardis we
need to take to heart.
And there are things about the Laodiceans we
need to take to heart.
In fact, things about each of these churches
we certainly need to take to heart today.
You remember how it closes in each particular
church.
He speaks about he that hath ears to
hear, let him hear.
He that overcometh.
In other words, it's a personal message to
each individual in the church of God.
And it's rather interesting to keep in mind,
you recall back in chapter 1, there's a
blessing to those who read the word.
You remember in verse 3 it says, Blessed
is he that readeth, he that heareth the
words of the prophecy, and keep those things
which are written therein.
For the time is at hand.
And that word blessed is the idea of
happiness, or the happiness.
And there's a real happiness when we not
only listen to the word and look into
it, but lean upon it and live it
out in our lives.
There's a blessing for us as we go
to the book of Revelation and a challenge,
to say the least.
And you recall that seven times he tells
us there's a way of happiness in the
book of Revelation if we lay hold of
the things that are contained in this book.
I was rather struck coming down from Ottawa
to the park.
We were asked to visit at Waynesboro for
a meeting or two, and a few of
the brethren from Waynesboro have had the opportunity
of visiting the jail.
In fact, they have an open door there
to go at least twice a week and
spend as long as they want ministering the
word to the inmates there in the jail.
And so when I was there on Thursday,
we went along and had an enjoyable time
preaching the word to these young men.
Quite a number of young men gathered together,
and the Lord has blessed in the salvation
of a number of them in the two
months that they have been operating this jail
service.
And after preaching a message in the gospel,
I threw it open for questions and just
asked if they had any questions that they
might like to ask.
And three or four of these young men
who have trusted Christ as Savior have started
a little Bible study, and for some particular
reason known only to themselves, they decided to
study the book of Revelation.
And the first question that was asked, I
thought was rather interesting.
Interesting in more ways than one, because I
was thinking of maybe taking up the seven
churches here upon arrival, and the first question
they asked was, why were there seven churches?
Why were there seven churches?
Rather interesting.
A group of young believers just saved a
matter of a few weeks would think of
that particular question.
Why were there seven churches?
Well, it's interesting, is it not, to remember
that in the book of Revelation this number
seven is repeated again and again and again.
Some fifty-four times throughout this particular book,
the number seven is mentioned.
And it's that number of completion, spiritual completion.
Whatever area is in mind, it sort of
completes that cycle.
And it would seem as we look at
the seven churches, we do have a complete
cycle, whether it's a complete cycle in terms
of the history of the church, or as
in the case that we want to look
at it during these days together, in the
light of a complete cycle of the problems
and the difficulties, the trials, the challenges that
saints of God meet in every age.
Whether it's in the days when the Apostle
Paul lived, or the Apostle John, or whether
it's in the days in which we live
today, or whether it was in the Middle
Ages.
The problems that are outlined here, the difficulties,
the challenges that are mentioned here in these
seven churches, are challenges that we face today.
The word of God is so up-to
-date.
And as we go over the seven churches
we find that we face, we find that
we face challenges that we face today.
The word of God is so up-to
-date.
And as we go over the seven churches
we find that we face, we find that
we face challenges that we face today.
The word of God is so up-to
-date.
And as we go over the seven churches
we find that we face, we find that
we face challenges that we face today.
The word of God is so up-to
-date.
And as we go over the seven churches
we find that we face, we find that
we face challenges that we face today.
One problem after another, and the Lord gives
us answers in dealing with those difficulties.
Now, in looking at the church at Ephesus,
and I'd like to look at it this
morning and then again this evening in the
will of the Lord, I want to think
of it as the church that was drifting
and didn't realize it.
Rather sad, as you read through this church,
in one way, because they were drifting and
they had been drifting for some little time.
But the tragedy, they didn't realize that they
had drifted and were continuing to drift.
The historical background to these churches is very
important, very interesting.
There's no doubt in my mind that when
the Lord wrote to these churches, He not
only zeroed in on the problems that He
saw in those churches, but He also illustrated
by using certain historical backgrounds relating to those
various churches.
For example, Sir William Ramsey has written a
very interesting and challenging book along this line
in Archaeological Discoveries Concerning These Seven Churches, and
pointing out very effectively the comparison between the
things that they have discovered as the background
of these churches and what the Lord has
outlined for us here in the seven churches
of Asia.
For example, one of the things about this
church, and as you know, the word Ephesus
means desirable.
Desirable.
And apparently the city, when it was formed
many years ago, had many things about it
that were desirable.
It was chosen apparently because of the beautiful
harbor, natural harbor that was there.
It had a desirable location.
It became the gateway for ships going out
to the east.
It increased tremendously in population until over 200
,000 people were living in Ephesus.
It increased because of its tremendous harbor and
its shipping.
It increased in wealth until it was one
of the wealthiest cities of its day.
Something like the church.
The church at Ephesus, when it was formed,
how desirable it was to God.
What a delight that church was to the
Lord at the beginning.
You remember when the Apostle Paul wrote to
them in the letter to the Ephesians, how
he delighted to speak of their wealth.
Not their material wealth, but the spiritual wealth
that they had, being blessed with all their
spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ.
And it, too, became a sort of a
gateway for the gospel, and they spread the
word of God in those early days throughout
the region from Ephesus.
Apparently, up until the present time, they've uncovered
only about 20 percent of the ancient city
of Ephesus.
But in that 20 percent, apparently they have
uncovered what to the Bible believers is a
very interesting thing, of course, is the remains,
the ruins of the temple of Diana, which
is emphasized so much in Acts chapter 18.
And this tremendous temple that they have uncovered
was one of the seven wonders of the
world at that time.
People came from all the then known world
to see this tremendous temple.
Some 450 feet in length, some 300 or
so feet in width, with this tremendous tall
pillar some 60 feet high, some 227 of
them all being donated, apparently, by various kings
and rulers of that time.
And if you had the privilege to go
to Athens and see the ruins of the
temple there, this particular temple they've uncovered at
Ephesus is some four times larger than that
one in the Acropolis at Athens.
And you remember that Demetrius was very much
concerned about how the gospel was going to
affect the worship to Diana.
And you remember, as Paul was preaching, the
crowd gathered together and for some two hours
they began to chant, Great is Diana!
Great is Diana!
in Ephesus.
And, of course, these things have been uncovered
as factual in recent years.
It was known as the Vanity Fair of
the ancient world, and in this little city
was a local church, very vibrant for the
Lord at the beginning, but at this particular
time in church history it had slipped, it
had drifted, it had grown cold.
We mentioned last night that we wanted to
think along the line of various heart conditions,
and the heart condition I think of when
I look at the church at Ephesus is
the cooling heart.
The cooling heart.
And I want to challenge you this morning,
beloved, do you have a heart that's cooling
off for the Lord?
Or is, by the grace of God and
through the working of the Holy Spirit, you
still have, as those two are on the
road to Emmaus, a burning heart?
You remember how they said, did not our
hearts burn within us while He talked with
us by the way and while He opened
unto us the Scriptures?
And it's when the Lord opens the Word
of God, it's when we sense that closeness
to Him and the Holy Spirit reveals the
things of grace to us that the heart
begins to glow and burn for Him.
But when we fail in that, it's not
long for the heart of ours to cool
off, and that's what was happening here in
the church at Ephesus.
There's the lesson of degenerating into formality.
Degenerating into tradition.
Into a routine.
Into a habit.
Into a lack of vision.
No power.
These are the things that this particular church
had drifted into.
And, beloved, you know as well as I
know, that even the things of God that
are so vital—our prayer life, the reading of
the Word of God, witnessing for the Lord,
fellowship with God's people—can become a routine.
It can become habit-forming.
It can be carried out in a way
that we fail to do it effectively.
Do it under the leading and guidance of
the Holy Spirit of God.
Our Bible reading, even if we can carry
on day by day with the reading of
the Word of God, and after a while
it becomes just something that we pick up
when we read our chapter or our two
chapters or whatever it is, and we close
our Bible and that's it.
We feel we've done our duty for the
day.
We go through our little prayer time and
we almost say the same thing each time,
and we close in our prayer before the
Lord and feel we've done our duty.
And we have to be consciously concerned, daily
concerned, that even these things that are so
vital in the Christian life are done out
of a zeal, a motive, borne by the
Holy Spirit of God, and that there's a
freshness to our study of the God.
There's a freshness to our prayer life.
There's a freshness to our gathering.
There's a freshness to our remembering of the
Lord on Lord's Day morning.
And it's not just simply a traditional thing
that we get involved in, expecting to know
when the next hymn is going to be
given out or the next prayer and so
on and so forth.
And all these dangers I see with this
particular church at Ephesus, and the Lord was
concerned about it.
May I just divide the letter up into
five little parts?
I want to suggest to you that in
verse 1, the Lord sets before them the
object, the object that's set before the church.
And in verse 2 and 3, he zeroes
in on the operation of the church.
He outlines what the church has been doing.
When you go down to verse 4, he
sets out his objection to the church.
I have against thee.
And in verse 5, he gives an opportunity
to the church, a tremendous opportunity.
And finally, in verse 6, there's an outlook
set before the church, a goal, an outlook
that they need to be willing to respond
to.
Let's look at the first two in the
time that's left to us this morning, shall
we?
The object set before the church, and then
the operation of this church.
Mine's rather thrilling to me as I read
this portion.
Notice what it says, unto the angel of
the church of Ephesus write, these things saith
he, these things saith he.
And immediately he's directing their attention to himself.
He's our object.
The freshness of the Christian life revolves around
my appreciation of the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
As the spirit takes of the things of
Christ and reveals them to me.
And they have got their eyes off the
Lord.
And as he begins with this church, he
says, he.
Do you remember back in Matthew chapter 2,
the wise men, they said, where is he,
the reborn King of the Jews?
We've seen his star in the east.
We've come to worship him.
Where is he?
Where is the Lord in your life?
Is he the center around which your whole
life revolves?
These things saith he.
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of
our faith.
Do you remember Abraham?
What caused him to leave all they had
in her of the Chaldees and go out
to a land they knew not of?
You remember Acts chapter 7 gives us the
answer.
The Lord of glory appeared unto him.
The Lord of glory and that sight of
the Lord of glory moved Abraham to forget
all else.
What caused Saul to turn from all that
he had been occupied with and had lived
his life for up until he met the
Savior?
It was on the Damascus road, was it
not?
It was that sight of the Lord of
glory and that glimpse of the Lord of
glory just transformed his whole life.
So that he could say, for me to
live, Christ, and to die, gain.
Occupied with him.
You remember Peter as he walked on the
water to go to his Lord?
Lord bid me come to thee.
The Lord said, Come.
And whilst his eyes were riveted on that
blessed one, he walked above all the circumstances
and difficulties he was faced with.
For the moment he saw the wind, the
waves boisterous.
And so the Lord says, You've lost your
object.
You've lost sight of the One who is
to be preeminent in your life.
You've become so bogged down in all your
little routine activities.
You're ceasing to do those things for me
anymore.
You're just doing them because it's sort of
a force of habit.
He said, Get your attention back to me.
You remember John in chapter 1 of Revelation?
He said, I heard a voice behind me.
And as I turned to see the voice
behind me and be in turn, I saw.
And he saw the Lord of glory.
The man of the glory.
And he said, having seen, he said, I
fail.
He got his eyes back on the Lord
of glory.
That's where it all begins.
And that's the way the Lord begins in
this particular church.
He said, You're drifting.
Let's get back to the object.
Let's get back to the goal.
But not only that, you'll notice in this
particular chapter, particular verse, we have brought before
us this person in so many wonderful ways.
We see his, we see his work.
We see his walk.
And we listen to his words.
When he shows us his work, he also
shows us his hand.
When he describes his walk, we're reminded of
his feet.
And when we listen to his words, we
think of his mouth.
When he speaks about his work here, he
talks and reminds us that he is the
source of all power.
When he speaks about his walking, he reminds
us he's constantly present.
And when he speaks, he reminds us he's
perceptive and he knows all that's going on.
Notice, for example, what it says in verse
1, These things saith he that holdeth the
seven stars in his right hand.
His work.
What is he doing in this verse?
My beloved, he brings his hand to play.
You remember what it says over in Mark's
Gospels at chapter 6?
They marvel at the wondrous works that were
wrought by his hand.
His hand.
You remember in the Psalms it says, I
muse on the works of thine hand.
Well, let's have a look at that hand
for a moment.
What is that hand doing?
This is something I have to be constantly
reminded of.
If I don't rest, if I'm not to
get into a routine in my Christian life,
I've got to realize that my power, my
source of strength, is the Lord himself.
And without him, I can do nothing.
It tells us here that he's holding the
seven stars in his right hand.
And that word, hold, is an interesting word,
and scholars have pointed out.
It simply means to hold fast.
In fact, we're told that in Revelation chapter
2 and verse 13.
He says, Thou holdest fast my name.
That word holding fast is the very same
word as just translated hold in verse 1
of chapter 2.
It's to hold fast.
In fact, it's used over in Matthew's gospel
when Judas said to the soldiers as they
went in to take the Lord.
And he said something like this to them.
He said, Now, the one to whom I
kiss, that is he, hold him fast.
Don't let him go.
And that's the very same word as here.
Hold him fast.
The Lord's never going to let us go.
Greek scholars remind us that the word apparently
has been used and was used in Bible
times.
Not so much.
They had a different word for sort of
holding a Bible like this, than having a
word when they had a coin and they
put it in the hand and they completely
had control of that coin.
You see, you don't have complete control of
a book like this, because much of it
is out of the hand.
But this word apparently has the idea of
being in complete control.
He holdeth the seven stars in his right
hand.
Well, isn't that wonderful?
His right hand.
That, beloved, is the hand of strength.
That's the hand of power.
That's his work for us today, or one
of the manifestations of his work, is holding
us.
Our strength.
You remember over in Exodus chapter 15, as
Moses and the children of Israel sang about
the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
they said something like this, O Lord, thy
right hand is glorious in power.
O Lord, thy right hand has dashed the
enemies to pieces.
And farther down in that lovely psalm or
song, they go on to describe that right
hand again, and it says, Lord, you stretch
out your right hand and the earth is
swallowed.
Oh, the right hand.
Over in Matthew's Gospel, we read about the
Lord being exalted to the right hand of
His power.
So it's the hand of power here, beloved.
And that's the hand that holds us.
And the Lord says, do you not realize
that you must be daily, hourly, moment by
moment, dependent upon me?
I'm your strength.
I'm your power.
You recall, as far as the seven stars
are concerned, there are differences of opinion as
to what the stars represent, and I don't
profess to know or add that much more
light on the thing at all.
But others have pointed out that the word
stars are the angels, of course.
We have that in Revelation chapter 1.
And the angels can be equally translated messengers.
In fact, we read concerning John the Baptist
that he was an angel or messenger.
We read concerning John the Baptist followers that
they were messengers.
We read concerning the Lord's followers that they
were messengers.
We read concerning the men who went in
to Rahab that their same word in James
chapter 2 is referring to them as messengers.
Or representatives.
And it seems to me this is more
to the point as I see it at
any rate.
These seven stars, simply a representative figure of
the local church, were all stars in that
sense, left here to shine in this world
of darkness.
And beloved, I can't shine apart from the
realization that he holds me there.
I shine through his strength and his power.
And then notice we have his walk.
His work is the holding of the seven
stars in his right hand, but his walk,
he walks in the midst of the seven
golden lampstands.
Notice he's not standing in the midst of
the lampstands.
He's walking.
He's active.
He's observing.
You remember over in John chapter 1, in
verse 35 we read, And the next day
John stood, and two of his disciples, and
looking upon Jesus as he walked, said, Behold
the Lamb of God.
John stands, but Jesus is walking.
Active.
He's seen all.
He said there's two, there's three things you
have to keep in mind.
Three objectives you must keep in mind to
keep fresh with me.
I'm your source of power, and my presence
is constantly with you.
I'm constantly walking in the midst of the
golden lampstands.
Golden lampstands because we are to reflect the
glory of God.
Why did the Lord save you?
That you might be conformed to the image
of his Son.
That you might bring forth glory to your
Lord.
And every local church is to bring glory
to him.
They appear to be a golden lampstand, conscious
of the fact of the Lord's presence in
their midst.
And then you'll notice he speaks here about
the words, or at least we have his
words brought before us.
In verse 1 he says this, These things
saith he, and then in verse 2, I
know thy works.
These things saith he, I know thy works.
So we have his word, our support.
We have his walk, constantly with us.
And then we have his words, and all
those words are searching, beloved.
Do they search your heart?
Do they really grip your heart?
I know.
You remember that in every church, in the
seven churches, he always begins this way, I
know.
I know.
I believe it's Weast in his expanded translation
says, in each case, I know with absolute
clarity.
I know with absolute clarity.
He knows every detail.
We might deceive our family.
We might deceive our friends.
We might deceive our neighbors.
But beloved, we cannot deceive him.
The Lord says, I see much activity going
on in your midst.
But he said, I know.
I know the good.
I know the bad.
And just drawing to a close, notice the
operation of the church.
Just touch on it.
I know thy works, and thy labor, and
thy patience, and how thou canst not bear
them which are evil, and thou hast tried
them which say they are apostles, or not.
I have found them liars.
I'm inclined to think, beloved, that if we
had the opportunity, if we could be sort
of put into a machine, a sort of
a reverse time machine, and go back into
history, and find ourselves at Ephesus, and
visited there for a week or so, I'm
inclined to think we would have gone away
tremendously impressed.
I think we would have gone away saying,
now there is an active, thriving, work for
God.
They're just busy as bees.
And they're so careful about things.
Doctrinally, they're correct.
They don't need to know any false teaching
there.
And everything was just fine, outwardly.
Now, the Lord doesn't condemn them for that.
He commends them for it.
But He sees an ingredient that is missing.
And that's what He condemns them for.
He's suggesting this church, you have got yourself
into a rut.
Into a routine.
Into a traditional set-up.
And now you're doing things because it's sort
of a thing to do.
Rather than the love of Christ constraining you.
We go to our, many of our
places today.
I suppose wherever we go.
I know it's the same in Canada.
Certainly, I don't know too much about various
assemblies in the United States.
But in Canada, we just overrun with much
activity.
If it's Monday, well, there's possibly an oversight
meeting, or the deacons are gathering together, or
some other executive meeting on Tuesday, perhaps a
prayer meeting, Bible study on Wednesday.
Maybe there's a sister's coffee hour, maybe young
people's committee meeting.
Thursday is visitation night, we go off visiting.
Friday, boys and girls activity, the Venture Club,
Pioneers, and on and on we go.
Saturday, teens, young people, college careers, married couples
groups, Sundays activity, Sunday afternoon, hospital visitation, and
squeeze in between all these things.
Many other little details that keep us going,
morning, noon, and night.
Now there's nothing wrong with those activities.
But beloved, sometimes we get burdened by them.
We become like Martha.
We become cumbered above much service.
And our relationship to Christ, and our closeness
to Christ, our fellowship with him, has been
crowded out.
We're so busy for the Lord, we haven't
time to spend with the Lord.
And this was the thing that concerned the
Lord about this church.
May we be challenged that it might concern
us, but in our activities for him, we
might realize he is the object for all
that we do, and the strength, and the
one to whom we seek to glory and
glorify.
Our gracious Father, we thank thee for our
Lord Jesus Christ.
We praise thee for the fact that he
not only died for us, but rose again,
ascended back to glory, our great High Priest.
And we've been reminded, our Father, through thy
word, not only in revelation, but again and
again in the word of God, the importance
of keeping close to our Lord Jesus Christ.
To be moved and motivated by our first
love, the Lord himself.
We pray that that love might grip our
hearts.
But thou deliver us, Father, for those who
are here this morning who have not drifted,
but still have that freshness.
Lord, may that freshness be kept in back
for any who have found that they have
cool love in heart.
That Christ, the things of Christ, might indeed
become exceeding precious again to them.
For we pray in our Savior's name.
Amen.