Falling Out of Love with Christ | July 13, 2025 PM

Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.

The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us

or contact us at My Liberty Baptist dot.

Org or just look us up on Facebook.

And now we hope that this message from God's Word will be

a blessing to you. Revelation chapter two.

Once you found your place, we'll begin our reading in verse #1

Unto the Angel of the Church of Ephesus write these things.

Sayeth he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who

walketh in the midst of the 7 golden candlesticks.

I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou

canst not bear them which are evil.

Thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not,

and has found them liars, and as born, and as patience, and for

my name's sake has labored, and it's not fainted.

Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou has

left thy first love. What an accusation.

Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent.

Do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and

will remove thy Candlestick out of his place, except thou

repent. But this thou hast, that thou

hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I 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 God title the message tonight is falling out

of love with Christ falling out of love with Christ.

Let's have a word of prayer tonight.

Last Lord's blessing on the service and the, the message.

Father, we're, we're delighted to be in your house tonight and

we're thankful that you, you're a God that is willing and even

eager to meet with your people. I praise you for that.

I praise you that you have a word for us tonight.

You, you have a message and you desire to speak to our hearts

from that which you've already spoken.

And so I pray that you'd fill me with your Holy Spirit.

Now would you use me as your vessel, your instrument to help

your people and to be a blessing tonight.

And Father, I pray that you would accomplish what you see

fit in our hearts and in our lives.

And we give you the praise for this and we ask it in Jesus

name, Amen. Thank you for standing tonight.

You may be seated as we consider this portion of scripture.

Falling out of love with Christ. Nothing illustrates first love

like a newlywed couple on their honeymoon.

Actually, our our honeymoon, my wife and I, we spent at Cape Cod

and we got married in 2020 and had a, you know, an underground

wedding so that the government wouldn't arrest us because we

had more than three people there.

And so with love in our hearts and money in our pockets and

masks on our face off we went to our honeymoon after getting

married. And so we spent some special

time together in Cape Cod and we're able to actually come here

that Wednesday night service. We were able to visit here in

the service and, and we did some fun things.

We went to the beach. We were able to enjoy some mini

golf together. And it can get pretty heated and

competitive. And so I think I won two games

and she won 1. And I, you know, you get talk to

her, you might get a different story.

She might have won more than what I'm admitting.

But who played some mini golf? We had some steak dinners.

We got to sleep in a little bit and enjoying the pleasures of

marital bliss. Amen.

Before reality sets in, right? Enjoying marital bliss.

I mean, it was beautiful weather, crisp ocean breeze, a

high of 75. And just just think about what a

what a wonderful time to spend together.

And it was easy to be in love and to be married.

All of the circumstances surrounding our relationship was

new. It was exciting.

We didn't know what it was like to live with each other yet.

Amen. And you know, it's OK to admit

it. And yet we, we had a great time.

It was wonderful. And about a week later we had a

revival meeting at our church. And so we, we had a week full of

preaching and then we moved to Oklahoma City, 1600 miles away

from home. And as you can imagine, it's not

exactly like Cape Cod. It's hot.

People were, you know, greeting us as we got out of the car and

they're saying, y'all. And I think, what did I get

myself into here? I'm a Yankee.

I don't belong here, you know. And Audrey, of course, growing

up, both of us growing up in Connecticut our whole lives and,

and I and I learned this. And, and I would imagine that

many of you've been married would understand that when the

newness of your relationship wears off, that it's easy to,

you know, just kind of go through the motions in your

relationship, right? You, you, you don't have the

same thrill that you once had. Everything is familiar and it's

easy to fall out of love without even realizing it because it

doesn't happen automatically. It's something you have to

cultivate. It's something you have to work

at and that honeymoon experience really is transitory and it is

temporary. But I, but I've also learned

this in my marriage that, that I can experience something even

better than the honeymoon experience when I, when I invest

into my relationship with my wife, and that actually things

can improve and get better. And that our, our, our

relationship is stronger than it was just because it was new.

Now it's strong because it's on a, it's on a more firm

foundation than something fleeting, right?

Because after a while in life, everything, the newness of, of

all experiences will eventually die off and wear out.

And the, the subject that we're considering tonight is, is quite

sobering because it, it really does address the, the potential

that there is in our relationship with Christ to just

go through the motions in our relationship with him.

Have you ever experienced that? I mean, you're just going to

church because that's what you do.

You go to church and you listen to preaching and you read your

Bible and you pray because that's what Christians do.

But there's something missing, right?

And you can sense that something is missing because that that

passion that you had, that zeal that you had at one time, it

just seems like it's not there anymore.

And, and we can get into our minds these ideas like, oh, if

the preaching was better, if the church was better, if, if

everything. Else was better, my relationship

with God would be great. But the reality is we're

sinners, Amen. And we struggle with sin and we

struggle with putting into our relationship with Christ what we

ought to. And I and I just want to remind

you tonight that in a human relationship, there is always

the potential that the other party could wrong you, that they

could sin against you, that they could not put in the full effort

that is worthy of the relationship.

But when it comes to our relationship with Christ, that

is never the case. He is always faithful, He is

always right, He is always loving.

And when there's something wrong in our relationship, it's not

him. It's us and and I, I recognize

that we could understand that and make application to our own

lives individually, but I see more importantly that he's

addressing a church in our passage, a local congregation of

saved believers who are baptized into the church at Ephesus.

And he, he addresses them. And this particular letter, the,

the Book of Revelation, I, I think is a, it's sad because

there's some Christians who simply avoid the book because of

some of the interpretive difficulties that are there.

And they read about all of these images and all of this

apocalyptic language. And we can get intimidated by

the Book of Revelation. And that that could cause some

Christians to shy back away from reading it.

But really, if we understand what it says when we read it,

we're supposed to get a revelation of who Jesus is,

right? It's not the revelation of the

end times and the beast and all these events.

It's the revelation of a person. And, and he he has a basic

outline for us in chapter 1. It says in verse 19, as the Lord

revealed himself to the apostle John and he gave him this

vision, this revelation, and he says in verse 19.

Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are.

And the things which shall be hereafter.

It's a very simple outline. It's a threefold outline.

The first would record that he's supposed to record the things

that he's seen and the things that he's seen would would

certainly be the the vision that he gets in chapter 1.

Would you would you turn that with me for just a moment as we

see this incredible vision or display of the Son of God?

You look at verse 12, chapter 1 and we.

See the the glory of the Son of God revealed to.

To us, as John wrote what he saw it says in verse 12.

And I turned to see that the voice that spake with me, and

being turned, I saw 7 golden candlesticks.

And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the

Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and

girt about the paps with a golden girdle.

His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as

snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire, and his feet like

undefined brass, as if they burned in a furnace.

And his voice as the sound of many waters.

And he had in his right hand seven stars and out of his

mouth, when a sharp 2 edged sword.

And his countenance was as the sun shineth in his.

Strength and when I. Saw him, I fell at his feet as

dead, and he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, fear

not, I'm the 1st and the last. And so John sees this vision of

Jesus and. I think it's very important that

we get this, that this is not the Son of God in his, in his

humanity here on earth where his glory was veiled.

This is the resurrected Son of God in his glorious state and

his glory is being revealed. It's being disclosed, it's being

unveiled for John to see. And he sees that.

He says, I want you to write this to the other churches.

I want this to circulate to the to my people for them to know

because I am, I am the king and he's not.

He's no longer in that humble form that he was when he when he

walked this earth and he had his public ministry.

He's now glorified. He is resurrected and he is

sovereign over all the cosmos. And he has something to say to

his churches before he deals with the world and, and Israel

as well. He's going to deal with the

churches. You notice what he says in verse

20. We don't need to spend a lot of

time doing interpretation on this, these allegorical images

here because he interprets it for us.

Look what he says, the mystery of the seven stars which thou

sawest on my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks.

The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.

And the seven candlesticks, which thou sawest are the seven

churches. So, so we get a picture in our

minds of the imagery that he's using, right?

And this imagery is meant to teach us something.

He says that the the two particular images that need to

be interpreted are the stars and the candy sticks.

And he says that the stars are the angels of the churches.

Now, I would I would interpret that as the angels being the

pastors of the Church of the churches who are the messengers.

They're the ones delivering the message on behalf of God.

So God speaks to the messenger and then the messenger presents

that before the congregation. And so when he, when I, when he

says that I'm Speaking of the angels, I believe he's very

clearly Speaking of the pastor's.

He's not an angelic being, but he carries the he carries the

function of an Angel and that he delivers the word of God, the

message of God to God's people. And the second is the seven

candlesticks. Now you, you get in your mind

when you see this imagery, a Jewish menorah with, with the

candlesticks sitting on the lampstand and that light that is

meant to illuminate. And he's saying my churches are

like 7 golden candlesticks. And he sets the stage for that.

Now he's going to give 7 messages to seven different

churches that existed in the 1st century.

And I, and I believe the point of all this, there's, there's

different views on this. I don't believe that each church

represents a period of time, but rather represents

characteristics that could exist in churches generally speaking.

And there are those that would try to say that each one of

these represent an age, and I wouldn't necessarily divide with

them over that. My view is different because in

the 1st century all 7 churches existed and they all had these

different characteristics. And I believe if you look

throughout history, you'll see that while there could

potentially be certain characteristics that are, you

know, describing a, a period of time, More importantly, I think

the nature of a church, the makeup of a church, the way that

a church functions really is, is that they are all individual.

They all have their own characteristics, they all have

their own spirit and and that each church has the potential to

find themselves in a situation like Ephesus was or Pergamus or

Thyatira, etcetera. OK, I think, I think for anyone

that's visited other churches, you would see that I mean, every

church is different and every church is the Lord's body in

that local community. Amen.

We believe in. The doctrine of the local church

and that God intends that Liberty Baptist Church here in

Easton, MA would be like if Jesus were here, what would he

accomplish? We are to be his feet, we're to

be his hands, we're to be his mouthpiece here in Easton, MA.

For those of you that are members of Liberty Baptist

Church and I'm a member of Grace Bible Baptist Church back in

Connecticut, we're to be that way in Vernon, CT.

And what a what a what a wise God.

We have to realize that we we have a great work before us and

if that we're going to reach the World, one church isn't going to

do it by themselves, but partnering together we can

accomplish much. And so each of these churches,

let's be very clear, these are God's churches, but they all

have problems. I mentioned this morning that

churches have problems because people have problems and people

make up churches. Amen.

Yeah, we don't have to hide it. We we're all Sinner saved by

grace here tonight and and every once in a while we need a

message from the Lord and he loves us enough not to leave us

the way we are, but to confront us where we are so we can grow

so that we can develop more. And and what we see from the the

doctrine of the the problems in Ephesus that they had, they had

a lot of things. Going for them.

They did. It was the kind of church from

the outside you would have said, man, this is the kind of church

I want my family to be in, this kind of church I want to be a

part of. I mean, they're taking all the

right stands, but they are lacking one particular area.

And so Jesus addresses them. And I think it's noteworthy that

Ephesus was probably the most prominent city of all of these

here. And that Ephesus was, was like,

I mean, if you could get the gospel in Ephesus, then you

could get the gospel to, to move and, and to develop more

churches throughout that region of Asia Minor, but even more

importantly for world missions, right?

Because God's not just interested in one region, he's

interested in reaching the whole world.

And so Ephesus was a strategic location for the gospel because

it was a very important city in the Roman Empire.

And it was important really for three reasons.

Politically, it was important economically and it was

important based on its religion, their religious experiences.

So we know we noticed that as we study the Church of rather the

city of Ephesus from historians of perspective, that it was a

seaport city and that it was it was the kind of place that was

just booming with business. I mean, you can imagine that the

ports seeing all the traffic, all this trade and, and it was

economic, a very wealthy city for many reasons.

And so they had a lot of wealth. They had a lot of people there,

supposedly about 250,000 people that lived there in the city,

which in an ancient city was really a lot of people in one

place concentrated. And so it was, it was important

for that reason. It's geography and in a

situation economically but politically has a very important

connection here as the city itself had received a honorary

title from the Roman government known as the Neo Koros or

interpreted would be temple wardens.

And that probably doesn't mean anything to you.

But there was this problem that arose in early Christianity

known as the Imperial cult, and the Roman Emperor under Augustus

began to view himself as a deity.

He saw himself as God. And if you understand Roman

theology and Rome, the Pantheon, and the Roman view was

polytheism, multiple gods. So he's not saying he's the only

God, but he's a God. He is a deified man.

And that became a problem for Christians because they would

have this ceremony in which all the citizens of Rome would have

to go through and offer incense to the emperor.

As a God. You say, Brother Brett, what's

the big deal? Well, a Christian knows that

only Jesus is God and that the Christian God is exclusive.

Amen. That he must be worshipped

exclusively and that there is no toleration of worshipping other

gods. In the Christian worldview,

monotheism, one God, not multiple gods.

And so these Christians protested against this emperor

worship, and the emperor called himself the My Lord and My God.

He expected to be called that. He viewed himself as a deity.

And so when he realized that the Christians were no longer

worshipping him or refusing to partake in these offerings, it

was looked at as like a lack of patriotism.

And they began to. And persecute them for that

reason. Well, Ephesus, as you can

imagine, having received that honorary title from the

government, they got that because they had demonstrated

their zeal for worshipping the emperor.

And that honorary title came with it a serious responsibility

that the people would be expected to comply.

With the worship. Of the Emperor.

Well, the church at Ephesus wouldn't stand for that.

Amen. But as you can imagine, there

was quite a bit of pressure on them to cave, to bend.

And on top of that, there were other religious problems.

The biggest temple or, or one of the greatest temples in the

world at that time was one of the seven wonders of the ancient

world. The temple to Artemis was built

in Ephesus. So you have, you have all of

these different elements working together to, to really, yes, in

one sense, be a huge opportunity for the gospel, right.

But then on the other hand, and we read this from Paul's

writings, that is great opposition to the gospel.

It's great resistance. And, and we read even from Acts

Acts 19 · chapter mention

chapter 19, when Paul spent his time there in Ephesus, that he

had the most fruitful ministry had ever experienced in his

missionary journeys, but he also had the, the greatest

persecution and the greatest resistance to his ministry there

in Ephesus. And, and so it's probably been

about 30 years since Paul has he, he established the church

there. People got saved.

I mean, they, they took all of their books that they used to

worship all the false gods and they engaged in witchcraft and

they burned those books in the fire.

They didn't sell it on eBay. They burned it so that no one

else could get it again. And they got saved.

They committed their lives to Jesus Christ and they got

planted in that church at Ephesus.

But then we read the Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus and he

wrote the whole letter to the Ephesians is in your Bible.

And they had a real problem with unity because there were Jews

and there were Gentiles in the church and they struggled to get

along with one another. And so he wrote to them about

unity. And then Timothy was there, and

he wrote First Timothy and Second Timothy, and they

struggled with problems of false doctrine and false teaching.

But here we are 30 years later. Church at Ephesus is still

standing, but it's been enough time that most of the people

there would be probably made-up of second generation.

Christians and I. Don't know about you, I've

certainly experienced this. I've heard testimonies about

this that second generation Christians, generally speaking,

seem to lack the same zeal and fervor for God that their

parents had. Amen.

I'm not saying it happens every time that way, but just

generally speaking, they tend to lack that zeal.

They, they, they tend to lack that passion.

And I think as we read this passage, we can see that that is

likely what was happening. So as we, as we study this,

we'll see that while the Lord commended the church and we, we

ought to give credit where credit is due, right?

They were commended for some things.

He he did call them to repent. That's a strong word.

And it's not, it's not just a word for unbelievers.

It's something that believers need to do regularly.

And so I think we'll see and we'll get a glimpse from this

understanding how it's possible. For a church.

For individuals to fall out of love with Christ, but more

importantly, not just to diagnose that this problem

exists, but that there is a solution to get back to a place

where we can have a vibrant walk with God.

So so we. See in verse one that Jesus

Christ one through three, that Jesus Christ commended the

Church of Ephesus for their commitment to Christian truth.

They were committed to truth. And that is so important in our

day and time, is it not? We live in a world that wants to

redefine things. I hope I'm not losing anyone

tonight. They want to redefine things.

I mean, I I just think, for example, of gender.

Gender seems to be something that to some people is so

confusing and to me just seems so clear from what God's word

teaches. Amen.

There are males and there are females.

That's a sign by God at birth. It's not something you can

change. That's true.

But in our society they want to say no.

Gender is so much more complex than that.

It's something that you express by the way that you behave.

It's, it's something to express with your dress.

It's something that you express by the way that you, you, you

interact with other people. And it's just, it's kind of

fluid. It could change at times.

And it's not really, it's. It's not binary, it's just.

What you choose it to be? Well, that's not true.

Now we can. We can say that all we want and

and people with capital letters behind their name can say that.

It doesn't change that it's not true, doesn't change that it's a

lie. And the Church of Ephesus would

not have stood for that. He said no, no, no, there's only

two genders. Amen.

That's what the Church of Ephesus.

Would have done and there's plenty of other cultural issues

that we could deal with in our society in which we want to

redefine things but the truth is that you.

Don't get to change reality, you just have to live in it.

And the Church of Ephesus was strong.

They were committed to the truth in these few ways.

Notice what it says here as Jesus reveals himself as the one

who held the seven stars in his right hand.

So in each of these revelations that he gives to the churches,

he describes himself from one image that he used in the in the

vision of chapter 1. In this case, what he's bringing

out is that he is the one that holds the seven stars in his

right hand and who walks in the midst of the 7 golden

candlesticks. He chose to reveal himself

differently to some of the other churches.

The one that has the eyes like a flame of fire and the feet as

brass and and the one that has the sharp sword going out of his

mouth. So each one he uses one of those

attributes of himself or one of those descriptions and

depictions to to foreshadow what the message will be.

So he says, he says this to the Angel of the church at Ephesus.

So he's speaking to the pastor first.

Amen. I'm thankful that I've had

pastors in my life who hear from God and that they speak the

message that God has given to them to the church.

Amen. And so God speaks to the to the

Angel and he tells them, here's the message because he's the one

that is overseeing the church. He is responsible to answer to

God before the for the spiritual state of the church.

And he says I'm the one that holds the seven stars in my

right hand. What a.

What a. Personal message to that pastor

there. You're one of my preachers and

you're in my hand. And I walk among my churches.

The candlesticks. How?

How would you? Feel if you knew that Jesus was

sitting next to you in the service tonight, well, he

doesn't have to physically be next to you.

He is here because he's on my present.

He's God. He's in every church service

that Liberty Baptist Church has. He knows what's going on more

than the pastor, more than any person.

He's omniscient. Nothing is hidden.

From him. Sobering, isn't it?

And he's, he's speaking. Notice it says these things,

saith he. Here's what he says.

I know thy works, thy labor, thy patience, how thou canst not

bear them which are evil. And now it's tried them which

say they are apostles and are not, has found them liars.

And it has. Born and has patience and for my

name's sake has labored and has not fainted.

Look at some of these commendable characteristics

about the church at Ephesus. He says I know your works.

It's it's somewhat convicting that Jesus knows what's going

on, but it's also encouraging, isn't it?

Because he he sees your labor, he sees your sacrifice, he sees

what you give. He sees your contributions to

the church here and he commends you where commendation is due.

Amen. I'm talking to the Court church

here tonight and Sunday night. I mean the, the faithful group

that comes back to church on a Sunday night, praise God for

that. Praise God for church members

that come back on a Sunday night.

Jesus commends you for that. Jesus commends those that go out

on visitation and they and they give out tracks to people.

He commends you for those of you who don't just live a Christian

life when you're here at church, but you do it Monday through

Saturday. And you say, I've seen that.

I've seen your labor and Christian life is not about fun

and games. It's about labor.

It's about work. It means we have to do work.

And he's not just talking about the fact that you work a nine to

five. He's talking about the labor

that you do in the ministry at the church.

It's like, I've seen that. I know, I know the work that

you've done. And look at this, how you can't

bear them which are evil. I mean, Jesus commended them for

the fact that they were taking a stand against that which was

evil in their culture. And they had a lot to stand

against, did they not? I mentioned to you already that

they had the emperor worship that was going on.

And then, and that certainly was a huge problem, right?

Because the worship of man is a direct insult to God.

Man is not made to receive worship.

Only God should receive worship. But then you see all the other

religious confusion that was in their day and some of the, the

moral abominations that happened in those Gentile cultures.

And all, of the, all of the immoral worship that went on

there at the temple of Artemis and all, of the, all of the

different ways in which they thumb their nose at God's

standards and morality. And, and the church at Ephesus

said, no, that's not right. This is not what God intended.

And they stood against it. Notice they also tried them

which say they are apostles and are not and has found.

Them liars and their day they had itinerant preachers that

were going around and they would they would come to the church

and say hey, we're here to preach Jesus.

Do you have an opening and they promoted themselves so that they

could enter into the church and begin to propagate false

doctrine and they call themselves apostles.

You know what the word apostle means is to be sent.

Forth with orders. So they would say that they were

messengers of God, but God never sent them.

And then they would go to preach a message that God never told

them to preach in the name of God.

And then they would, and then they would, they would try that

at the Church of Ephesus. The Church of Ephesus would kick

them out of church. Say no way.

You can't do that here. We, we, we don't tolerate that

false doctrine. You're a false apostle.

Now I'm I'm I'm only. Speculating, but I know that

they, they, it says here you, you, you tried them, you found

that they're not true. Isn't that a shame that there's

so many, there's so many false teachers that we have to be so

skeptical about things that are said?

God never intended that, but but that the devil certainly does

and and uses that so that he can create confusion where God has

created clarity and he says no, you've tried.

Them and you've born and has patience.

The idea of patients is not necessarily like waiting in a

doctor's office without complaining.

We're not a very patient people in America, are we?

He's not that's not what he's talking about.

He's talking about endurance. It's the idea that you could

bear up under the pressure and continue.

You know, it's, it's sad and, and you see this as you, as you

try to preach to people, try to help them in their life, that

there are some people that get into church for just a little

while, but they don't have any endurance, They don't have any

patience. And the first thing that happens

to them as a Christian is, oh, this Christian thing doesn't

work and they get out of church. That's a shame.

Endurance. They put up with some things.

Any church will have to put up with some things.

We have to put up with each other for one thing, that's what

it says in some of the letters. Forbearance put up with each

other because we're a. Family and every family has

family problems. You're saying that you've had.

Patience, you've endured, and for my name's sake, you didn't

do it for your own glory. You didn't do it just because

you wanted attention. You did it for my name's sake.

You've labored and you haven't fainted.

You haven't given up. You keep going.

Praise God for a church like. That think man this is a great

church and it all changes in verse 4.

It's it's as if. It's as if he's talking to a

whole different group of people now, but he's not.

He's talking to the same church. Notice what he says

nevertheless. You have some good.

Things. But you have a big problem.

Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee because thou has

left thy first love. In light of all these

commendable traits in an abundance of activity, there was

something missing. Something missing.

They had left their first love. It seems that whatever the

occasion was, they had gotten away from their first love.

You say what is their first love?

Well, I I would have to interpret this as meaning their

relationship with Jesus Christ, wouldn't you?

Their first love, I mean, the one that.

Saved them, redeemed them from their sins and made them a new

creature in Christ and and gave them a gave them an eternity in

heaven. And, and knowing that their

lives would never be the same, he put joy where there was

sorrow. He gave them meaning and

fulfillment where there was emptiness.

And they had this vibrant relationship with one another.

It's just like that honeymoon experience in which this was new

and it was beautiful and it was wonderful.

And yet somehow along the line, they continue to do Christian

things, but they slowly drifted from Christ.

Can you imagine that? And and it seems they were.

Oblivious to it, it just kept going on without realizing that

there was an engine light on in their Christian life.

You know that it's good if you everything about your car is in

working order. That's great, but the fact that

you have good tires doesn't change the fact that you still

need an oil change. I hope I didn't miss lose anyone

there. Just because you have some

components working doesn't mean you don't need to fix that's

which is broken or needs maintenance, right.

They needed maintenance in their Christian life.

So brother Brett, what, what do you think caused this?

Well, I all I can do is speculate, but I know this, that

in, in our, in our finite human perspective, though, we know the

truth about salvation, that it's by grace through faith, and that

the only way that we can be saved is by God's gift, right?

We understand that. We've heard that preached,

thankfully, because we have good men of God in our lives who

preach the Bible to us, but there's still that.

In us that makes us think I still have to do.

Something to be accepted by God. I mean, it's just this, it's

performance based thinking that's in US.

And that performance based thinking.

I think especially in churches like the Church of Ephesus that

have all types of activities that are going on that are

constantly doing Christian things that they can, they can

get into their minds that this is what my relationship with

Christ is all about. Because I do this and I do this

and I do this. I go to church, I wear the right

clothes, I go out on visitation, I read my Bible every day, I

pray every day. I give myself to doing all these

Christian things. And yet in those rituals and in

those habits miss the whole point.

You know what Jesus says is the solution.

It's very simple. I see twofold, twofold solution.

The 1st is this. Remember, therefore, from whence

thou art fallen, you see uses. The word fallen.

You've stumbled. You've fallen.

What I would say is they've fallen out of love with Jesus

Christ and they've, they've fallen.

But here's what you do you, you, you recall, you recall, I, I've

had the past day or so to think about the past five years of my

marriage with my wife. We've had four anniversaries and

this will be, you know, our 4th signifying 5 years of marriage

that's coming up in August. And as we were out yesterday, we

were, we brought Drew to the beach for the first time and

he's got the cold water coming on him and he was getting kind

of scared from the waves and everything.

And that was nice. But it also got me to think back

to when we first went on our honeymoon because while we were

being tortured in the scorching heat of Oklahoma, we never got

the chance to go to the beach. And it was, you know, we were

suffering for Christ there in Oklahoma.

And I'm totally kidding, but. But I mean, it was the first

time we'd been to the beach in five years.

And you have the smells and you experience it again.

It's like, oh man, this is great.

And it brought me right back to that moment in our honeymoon

and. You know what it made me do?

I remembered some things. I remembered not just that

experience in our honeymoon, not just that that time that we had

together, but I remembered what it was like to be newly married

with my wife. And, and then I thought about

all our experiences together and all that we've been through.

And it, it caused me to appreciate our marriage in a new

way because I began to remember some things.

Do you remember what it was like when you first got saved?

Do you remember that you remember when God reached into

your life and you were you were a Sinner.

Say, brother Brad, I was just a child.

You were a Sinner in your sinful condition and God reached you.

But but perhaps. Some of you as adults got saved

as adults. I got saved as an adult.

And I remember what it was like to have my my life on a certain

trajectory and, and really feeling like it was a time that

I was really hopeless and didn't have any direction and didn't

know where I was going. And it's not like I didn't have

a career path in college and all these different things, but I

knew there was more to life that I was missing.

And it was at that moment, at that juncture in my life, that

Jesus Christ revealed himself to me and a man shared the gospel

with me, and I got saved at 18 years old.

And the entire trajectory of me in my life changed.

And every once in a while, as I've been busy and doing

ministry and preaching and wearing a suit and tie before

people on a regular basis, it's good for me to remember you

weren't always a preacher, Brother Brett.

You at one time were just a Sinner and you had no idea where

you were going. And your Lord reached into your

life and he changed you forever. I don't remember that every once

in a while. How about you and your Christian

life? When's the last time you

remember what it was like to be lost?

You were before. When's the last time you thought

about that? When's the last time you thought

about the blessings that he's brought into your life through

what He's done? You got to remember these

things. It's so easy to forget, isn't

it? We tend to focus on the negative

experiences and that can cause us to be.

Blind all the. Blessings that God has given us.

He's been so good. He says you need to remember

this is the first imperative verb of the passage and it's the

first thing he's telling you to do something.

He's recording. He's recording of the issues

there at the church and he's talking about.

Them, he's commending them, and this is the first thing he says.

This is what you're supposed to do.

Remember. Remember what it was like when I

first saved you? Remember what it was like when

we had a vibrant relationship. Maybe you don't need to go all

the way back to your salvation. Maybe just need to go back.

To the last time you were on fire for the Lord and had a good

relationship with Him. And maybe lately it's been

somewhat stale. It's been somewhat lackluster

and you haven't really had that same passion.

But you know what's amazing is that he's he's waiting for you

to come back. He's inviting you back to a

place of zeal and fervency once again.

You remember, OK, that that's the first step is you got to

remember. You recall this to your mind.

But the next step is so important.

He says repent. Remember is in the present tense

in Greek, it's in it and it's really meaning this, not just

that it's supposed to happen now, but it's supposed to have

this continuous action. You're not supposed to stop

remembering. In fact, you need to jog your

memory regularly about your your walk with God so that you keep

yourself in the right place. But the word repent is Eris

tense, meaning not that it's in the past, but that it is a one

time decision that is decisive where it says that's it.

I'm making a very serious decision and there's no going

back. See, this is what I think

sometimes we think of as forgiveness and repentance in

our Christian life. Jesus, I forget, I ask for your

forgiveness because I've sinned. Would you please forgive me?

Cleanse me from all unrighteousness.

Amen. We say our little prayer thing,

but there's. There's no real brokenness.

There's no. There's no mindset shift in

which you say that's it, no more.

I'm not doing that anymore. This is, this is a problem in my

relationship with Christ. This is a problem and I need to,

I need to separate from this. I need to sever this completely.

I need to turn from this to him. So repentance means it's simply

a change of mind that results in a change of direction.

Repentance is not you do it and you bring all your works

together and then you prove it to God.

Repentance is a change of mind that results in the change.

There's a lot of false teaching about repentance that people say

that it's like works. If you need to repent, it's not

works, it's just a change of mind.

And that when you get a change of mind, that will change your

behavior, won't it? It's pretty simple.

Change your mind. You're going to change your.

Behavior. The problem is so many times we

pray these ritual prayers with no intent of really changing.

And is it any wonder that our relationship with Christ would

not improve if we haven't had a change of mind?

We just thought that because we said a prayer made things right

again. Well, it didn't if you didn't

repent, but that's how you get back.

And he says, if you don't, I will come into thee quickly and

will remove thy Candlestick out of his place, except thou

repent. He mentions also to do the first

works. I think it's very simple.

What he's saying there is. Remember what it was like when

we were on our honeymoon experience.

Get back to what you were doing when it was like that.

But if you refuse to repent, there will be consequences.

Because as the Candlestick, you are my representatives and

you're not representing me properly.

So if you refuse to represent me properly, I'm going to give you

this space. I'm going to give you this

opportunity to repent. But sooner or later, I'm not

going to let you be my light anymore.

I'll let someone else be my light.

But this thou hast that thou hatest the deeds of the

Nicolaitans, which I also hate. I don't want to get too deep

into this because I don't want to get distracted from what I

believe Lords laid on my heart for tonight.

But the idea of the Nicolaitans, I believe is there's a couple

different ideas about it. I think what probably they were

doing, as the word in Greek is a compound word.

It's. Nike, which means victory and

then laity over the people, right?

And they were trying to separate the make distinctions between

the laity or the people in the congregation and the people that

were preaching it on the platform, the clergy and the

laity, right? And that the somehow the clergy

had victory over the people. They were superior to them.

And the church at Ephesus said absolutely not.

That is not the true doctrine of Jesus Christ.

They hated it. And then I think we see an early

form of Catholicism there and other false teachings.

They wouldn't deal with that. And so I, I, I think when we

really boil this all down, here's what we see, that the

church at Ephesus was commended, but they needed to repent

because they were committed to Christian truth.

They were committed to Christian truth, but they neglected their

love for Christ. Doesn't that seem so foreign

that you could be committed to Christian truth?

Amen. We're Baptists.

We believe the truth of the Word of God, and we have all of our

preaching points that we love to say because this is the truth

and this is the truth and this is the truth.

And yet at the same time, we could be neglecting our love for

Christ our Savior. I think the churches that are

most in danger of this mentality are churches that are

conservative Baptist churches that have been blessed to have

the truth. Don't get me wrong, this is not

a message saying we don't need to uphold the truth.

We do, and Jesus commended them for that.

We shouldn't stop holding up truth.

The problem is that we can get so busy propagating the truth

that we forget about Christian. Love, or more importantly.

Love for Christ, and here's what he's saying, is that when you

emphasize truth. Over love.

There are some dangers that come with that that misrepresent the

whole Christian message. Can I give you some examples?

I think sometimes it's easier to identify Christians for what

they hate rather than what they love.

How about you tonight? Are you more identified with by

what you hate or by what you love?

God's grace gives us the opportunity to have a revival of

love again, but when we emphasize truth over love.

And by the way, one is not supposed to have more emphasis

than the other. Both should have equal emphasis.

Because you can't have one without the other.

The Church of Thyatira had the opposite problem.

They had love without truth, but Ephesus had truth without love.

What are some of the dangers of that?

Well, I think we ought to hate the promotion of the LGBTQ

movement in our country, in our schools.

We ought to hate that, just like they hated the deeds of the

Nicolaitans, just like they hated those that were

propagating evil. They were false apostles.

But not to say we should not love people whose lives have

been destroyed by the LGBTQ propaganda.

There are, there are some really, I mean really stern

Baptist churches that will take a strong stand against LGBTQ and

they will preach, I mean, entire months of messages on the same

exact issue to the neglect of other passages just because they

want to make sure that they're strong on the truth.

But they haven't won a L GB TQ person to Christ in months and

years because they haven't preached the gospel to them.

They just preached judgment and truth, but no love.

And some would even shame a message like this as liberal.

You got to preach the truth. But if you're preaching it with

the absence of your love for Christ, then you're going to

have the wrong emphasis. I think we ought to hate the

notion of false teaching. False teaching is so horrible.

Because those that put their faith and trust in a false

teaching are going to one day face eternal ruin.

And even those that have been saved but then been deceived

into false teaching their lives here on earth for Christ are are

in in ruin and destruction, and they can no longer be used at

the capacity that God intended for their life.

So yes, we ought to hate false teaching, but we ought not to

hate people that have been ensnared by false.

Teaching I used to be a Catholic.

I'll just tell you, I I have no problem saying this, that I hate

the web of lies that the Catholic Church has ensnared so

many people in. I have no problem saying that to

you tonight because I myself was deceived by the Catholic Church.

And I have family members that are in hell tonight because they

bought in, they swallowed it and they're in hell tonight.

That, that that grieves me. And and I'm all for preaching

the truth against the errors of Catholicism, but if I'm going to

do that and I have no love for Catholics and their need to be

saved, I'm a hypocrite. I can't say I love Jesus.

And, and neglect people that he loves to reach with the gospel,

say the same would be true folks about Muslims and, and about

Hindus. And, and I know that there could

be this problem with, with, with Islam and the radical Islam and

in our own nation feeling the feeling the weight of the

terrorist attacks on 9/11. And that could so 'cause us to,

to view Muslims in Islam in a certain way.

As I mentioned, we should view Islam as a false teaching and a

false religion because it is. But there are Muslims who need

to be saved. And we may not like talking to

them or we may not like engaging with them because we have some

sort of stereotype or some sort of bias based on these cultural

issues. But if we truly love Christ and

if we're being influenced by the teachings of Jesus.

There's no people group that we can exclude and this is what

Jesus warns US against is that when you lose your love, you

lose your light. Well, here's here's what he's

saying right now. I'm giving you space to repent,

but if you don't or or else, he says.

I'm going to come to. The church I'm going to remove

the Candlestick and you'll no longer be a New Testament church

anymore. You won't be my light.

I won't work through you anymore and I will place that light

somewhere else. And why did that happen?

Because they lost their love. I think the same could be true

about our our belief in the in the word of God.

We can sit we can stand in the pulpit as preachers and and

there are people in the in the Pew rather that is man.

I got the King James Bible. Therefore, I'm a good Christian,

but just because you have the right Bible and I believe it's

the right Bible, it's what I'm preaching from tonight for

English speaking people, King James Bible.

I'm a I'm a believer in God's preserved word that it's

inspired, that it's an error, that there's no errors in it,

that he's preserved for English speaking people in the King

James. But that doesn't mean just

because I have the right Bible that all of a sudden I'm exempt

from practicing what the Bible clearly teaches is when you.

Lose your love, you lose your life.

And I've, I've seen this, I think this principle is not just

true for churches, but I think it's true with for Christians,

Christians that have that attitude, they lose their

influence with people for Christ.

And I wouldn't say they lose their influence because actually

what they do really is they put a bad taste in people's mouths

about the gospel. And I, I can only imagine the

only thing worse than not witnessing to anyone at all is

misrepresenting Jesus Christ. I think a lot of that's going

on. And so I mean, yeah, we ought to

hate sin, but love sinners. We ought to, we ought to hate

that which is evil, but we're we're in danger of losing our

light when we lose our love. So we should stand for Christian

truth, but not to the neglect of love for Jesus Christ.

So I want to ask you this tonight.

Are you, are you more heavily emphasizing truth in your life

to the neglect of love for Christ?

I think that's possible for any, any one of us to be in that

position. Maybe, maybe, perhaps you.

You would admit. Yeah, I've been there in my

life, Brother Brett, but even as a church tonight and and most of

this is going to be up to your pastor who I, I, as I've

mentioned before, I, I have a great relationship with him and

I, I really believe you've been blessed with a wonderful pastor.

Praise God for his ministry here.

And I know that his heart and his spirit would would certainly

be aligned with with an emphasis on truth and love in their

proper place. Have you fallen out of love with

Christ? Have you have you lost some of

that zeal, some of that passion? Is it not is your relationship

not what it used to be? Can I encourage you, You can you

can get right with God tonight. And perhaps you say, brother

Brett, I'm really not in a place where it's, you know, I'd say

I've fallen out of love with Christ, but I certainly know

this. I want my relationship with him

to grow. Well, here's here's how it

happens. You give yourself to love and

truth. The truth should never be

compromised for love because then it's not true love.

But we should never elevate truth above love because then we

begin to be mean spirited. We begin, we get, we begin to be

cruel to it. Now we use the truth more as a

weapon than as an instrument of healing and a bomb for those who

are hurting. You had a lot of hurting people

in your community. You know what they need any

truth and love, and that's what we need in our lives too, isn't

it? So I'll ask you to stand with me

tonight and and as we as we consider this at the Church of

Ephesus. He concludes with this thought.

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 the

paradise of God. I'm not going to deal with that

verse very much tonight, but we do have a glorious future.

And if we will give ourselves to truth and love, Liberty Baptist

Church, if you give yourselves to that, the Lord's going to do

continue to do great things through this church.

Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of

Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing

to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us

know by contacting us at [email protected].

Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,

MA. May the Lord bless you as you

grow in His Word.