Revelation Chapter 2 "The Church at Ephesus"

As you're in Revelation chapter 2 this morning, I want you to

Revelation 2 · chapter mention

turn quickly, hold your finger there and go to Romans Chapter

Romans 11 · chapter mention

11, Romans Chapter 11, Romans Chapter 11.

Romans 11 · chapter mention Romans 11 · chapter mention

Follow along with me as I read this because it's important.

Why is there war in Israel? Why has Israel set out jets to

take on Iran? Good questions.

A Because Iran was going to have nuclear weapons, They said back

in 1979. The pledge of the Iran regime

was for the annihilation, the wiping out completely of Israel,

every Jew. And God shows us in his word

that Jesus is going to return to the nation of Israel.

It will still be there and he will rule from Jerusalem.

Jerusalem will still be there, but there's going to be a lot of

people in many churches today going, well, you know, God's

rejected Israel. This is not the Israel of the

Bible. I wanted to show you from the

word of God before we get into revelation, what the Bible says.

Romans Chapter 11, Paul the apostle says this.

Romans 11 · chapter mention

I say then has God castaway his people question.

People are saying that in churches.

Well, you know, Israel's finished.

It's not the Israel or the Bible.

No, I've I've heard that and it just angers me a slight bit.

Paul says certainly not, for I also am an Israelite of the seat

of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

God has not castaway His people whom He foreknew or do you know,

not know what the Scriptures say of Elijah?

And it goes on. I'm going to stop there because

the events that are happening in Israel are preparing Israel for

the Tribulation. The church will be raptured.

We will have finished our mission Israel.

Then the clock ticks on the 70th year as Daniel prophesied.

There's been 69 lots of seven. The 70th year begins the last

seven year period and in that period Israel comes to the fore

and they begin to do what they should have been doing in the

1st place. We're the unnatural branch

crafted in and Israel will begin to proclaim the gospel. 144,000

and they're not Jehovah Witnesses, by the way, two

witnesses, Moses and Elijah. Maybe we don't know an Angel

will proclaim the gospel around the world that Israel is

becoming and is moving to the central focus of world politics.

Keep an eye on that. You should know this.

You should know the word of God. Book of Revelation, chapter 2.

Revelation 2 · chapter mention

What does Jesus think of his church?

This is Part 1 of A7, part series 7 churches, 7 letters.

Wednesday. We'll deal with Smyrna.

What does Jesus think of his church?

The church may have its critics. You only have to read and I get

basically the West Australian delivered.

It's it's about this thick. Yeah, you take out JB, Hi Fi and

the good guys and that's what you read.

I read the letters to the editor and there every Tom, Dick and

Harry has this say. Usually it's the same Tom, Dick

and Harry. And the church has its critics,

but the church has no rivals. Did you know that everyone has

their concept about the purpose of the church, why it exists,

how it should look and what it should do?

Maybe you do that this morning. Even atheists and agnostics,

people of the world have their opinion.

They're always telling us, well, if you're a Christian, you

should be doing this. If you're that's the church,

they should be doing that. And they're, they write these

letters. They have their opinion on the

subject. But more importantly I want to

ask what does Jesus think of the church, His church After all,

what things would cause Jesus to commend or criticise his church?

In chapters 2 to three of the Book of Revelation we will

discover in detail from Jesus own lips what he thinks.

There are many professing Christians that I run into him

often who say I don't need to go to church.

You know what, as I've gotten older in the Lord, I, I need to

watch my tolerance because my tolerance is getting less.

As you get older, you tolerate less.

But I think we've been playing it too smooth with so many

people when they say such things.

The biblical answer is where we need to go to such a statement

is this. You cannot say yes to Jesus

Christ and then say no to the church.

You can't do that. It's like saying no Lord, you

can't have Jesus as your Lord and say no Lord.

You can't do that cancels out one.

It was Jesus himself who established it.

There's a problem for people who say, yeah, well, no, I'm not in

the church. I don't.

I know, I know Jesus, but I don't need to go to church.

And the problem is there. The problem is not with God.

God hasn't changed. He says I'm the Lord God.

I change not, and the problem is not with his church, because

Jesus is the head of the church, what he runs, he says in Matthew

16. The gates of hell shall not

prevail against it. I will build my church.

So the problem is, is with that person.

That's where the problem sits and stays.

Jesus established the church. He gave us the model for it in

the book of Acts chapter 2 as the day of Pentecost the Holy

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Spirit fell. Then the church was born.

Peter preached 3000. I added and it says and the Lord

added to what throughout the apostles ministries to Peter's

ministry to the church such such as should be signed.

God placed them into the church. How you treat the church is how

you treat Jesus Christ because Jesus is the head of the church.

Colossians chapter one, verse 18, it says, and he is the head

of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the first born

from the dead, that in all things He may have the

preeminence. If your faith does not take you

to church, you need to seriously consider whether it will take

you to heaven. There are 7 letters to seven

churches. Jesus dictated to the apostle

John. John was the scribe.

He wrote down these 7 letters. There are 7 actual churches in

modern Turkey today. They existed at the time of the

writing. They were chosen specifically.

We touched on that on Wednesday when he picked Rome, when he

picked the Church of of a of a colossae, why didn't he pick the

Church of Jerusalem? Now he picked these seven

churches because they represented a perfect example, a

swab of all the churches. These seven churches cover and

provide a scripture panoramic, A scriptural panorama and

historical account of the period known as the Church Age, which

we're still in. The things which you've seen

Chapter 1 John saw Jesus, the things which are the period now

and the things to come. Revelation 4 on through the time

in which we're still living. The final application for these

7 letters is not only to the church, to the individuals in

the church, history of the church, the period we're living

in now, but it's also to you and I as individual believers, you

and I gathered here today, 2025, because the words mentioned at

the end of each letter by Jesus himself, He says he that has an

ear. If you're listening, you're

reading. Remember, this is the only book

that if you hear, read and carry out, you'll be blessed.

As we're going through the book, Book of Revelation, I'm getting

a blessing by reading it. You're getting a blessing by by

hearing it. And then we all will get a

blessing as we live it out. The words mentioned are he that

has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit, the Holy Spirit says

unto the churches. Plural.

In other words, there's an NB here, a note notation.

Are you listening? Are you listening?

Study of each of these letters reveal a template.

There's a model structure with each letter followed by Jesus.

We have some slides, but apparently I put them, did them

and they're not going up. But anyway, that's lovely.

Took me ages to do them and they'll have these slides as we.

What they have is they have all this stuff on there anyway, but

they're not up there. I will kill someone after the

service. They have a description of Jesus

Christ given by himself, and I actually outline and define the

flavour and theme of the letter. Then there's a positive

affirmation is stated. Then there's a corrective or

exhaustive statement made, and after that an eternal

motivation. Ephesus covers a period in

history. The period covered by Ephesus in

that period of church history is from the birth of the early

church, the Pentecost 33 AD, through to 100 AD in 97 AD.

When the apostle John wrote this book, the church sadly was

already in a mess just a few years later.

The book of Acts presents the model of the way the church is

to be operate in operation. What we're to do, and it was

decreed to operate by this model.

But Acts, the period of Acts covers only a period of

approximately 30 years. 60 years later, John is on the Isle of

Patmos, exiled. The purity of the church has

suffered. It's been compromised.

Wolves have already entered the church, false teaching has come,

and Satan found out that if he persecuted the church, it just

grew and prospered. But if he attended the church

and joined it and became a member, he could bring it down.

Satan knows the importance of the church, so much so in fact,

that Jesus says in verse 5 of chapter 2.

Remember therefore, from where you are fallen, where you once

were, and repent, and do the first works what you used to do,

or else I will come unto you quickly, suddenly, and I will

remove thy Candlestick out of his place, except you repent,

unless you repent. In other words, the church's

existence will be ignominiously terminated.

You ever driven around? I used to grow.

I grew up in Sacramento, Helen, and I grew up in that area.

You ever driven around certain areas that used to be a church,

that used to be a church? Look at that old building.

How many old buildings stand no longer churches?

What a shame. What happened, what went wrong?

Churches that were filled and overflowing and growing.

What went wrong is, is that the future of this church that one

day you'll drive past? I remember in secret it used to

be a church. Yeah.

I don't know. What?

What is it now? I don't know.

I think they do gym or something in there now.

I don't know what they do there now.

I think it's a coffee shop. Empty.

The church will lose its life, Jesus says, unless it gets back

to its first love, there will be no light in that church.

It'll have no reason for existence, and Jesus will shut

it down. Closed divine judgement that

would bring an end to the Ephesian church.

Jesus threatened that. The background to the city of

Ephesus is interesting. The name is significant, as will

be the name of each of these seven churches we study in this

series. Ephesus actually means darling.

I call Helen Ephesus all the time.

It refers to romantic love, which, as you will see, the

passion has been lost. It was the metropolis of Asia,

the gateway, the centre of trade and business.

It was a harbour port. You say, Well, it's not a

harbour port now. It was the ocean came into

Ephesus, and Ephesus was a harbour.

It was a deeply Pagan city with idolatry and immorality, deeply

routed in its culture and everyday life.

These practises were due to its devotion to its religious

fervour. It contained one of the seven

wonders of the ancient world. The Temple of Artemis or Diana

had a multi breasted colossus of a statue to a goddess of sex and

fertility. It was a city where John the

Apostle would spend his last days and die there along with

Mary the mother of Jesus. That's where she went to living

with John. It had a population at the time

of this riding of around 500,000 people deeply loyal to Rome.

It had an Amphitheatre which seats 30,000 people.

Helen and I have have sat in that Amphitheatre.

It still exists. You can sit there and you can

have plagues and everything and else, but it was a place of

worship down on the amp and you can hear every word without the

use of any electronic microphones or anything like

that. All could hear.

Jesus title at the beginning of each letter here tells us the

sort of letter that he's writing these things says he that holds

the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of

the 7 golden candlesticks. Candlesticks.

The title that he's saying is this is who I am and this is

where I draw. This is about my relationship

with you as a church. It's intimate church is not a a

club, a place where you gather where it's just you know, a

mixture of this. This is the place where God is

intimate with the body of Christ connected to, speaks to our

heart, touches our spirit and hopefully, Lord willing, we the

same in return, worship, hear his voice, sense his spirit.

Verse one to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus right these

things says he who holds the seven stars in his right hand.

He walks in the middle in the midst of the 7 golden

lampstands. We know what they are.

It's the seven churches, it's the church.

Imagine yourself as the pastor receiving a letter from Jesus

about your church. This letter evaluates the church

you pastor. Ephesus was the only church to

receive letters from 2 apostles. Paul wrote the letter to the

Ephesians, John wrote Revelation, and in John's letter

from Jesus it came some 35 years after Paul's letter.

Verse one we see Jesus gives himself the same description

that he gave himself as John saw him in chapter 1 and it reminds

us, you and I, this is about church that Jesus walks in the

midst of his church. You know who comes to Calvary

Chapel Secret Arbour every service Jesus Christ Bible tells

us that the Holy Spirit is here. Every service the Bible says

where two or more are gathered in my name, I am there.

The Bible says in the book of Psalms, I dwell in the midst of

the praises of my people. When you're away, you're missing

out on someone who is the church, not Jesus Christ, Son of

God. Wow, what Rd did he sit in?

He was in every Rd. Did you know the Bible also

tells us that angels are watching over every service that

we have peer in, wanting to know about what's going on with us

and what Jesus is saying to us. Again, to those who claim to be

Christians and tell us that they're not into going to

church, we need to remind them that Jesus indeed is.

He's into going to church. He's there all the time.

He's in the midst of it. He is into going to church and

he walks in the midst of his churches.

Jesus in each letter says, I know, I know all about you.

I know all about this church. He knows all about Calvary

Chapel, Secret Harbour. Absolutely.

Jesus knows full well what is going on in his churches.

In chapter 1, we're told his eyes were like flames of fire.

Remember that Reminding us that Jesus sees and he evaluates

everything that's going on in church.

Jesus evaluates everything that happens here.

AW Tozer made this great quote at the a convention, I think it

was a Southern Baptist. He said if God were to take the

Holy Spirit out of this world, much of what the church is doing

would go right on and nobody would know the difference.

In other words, God's not in it, and we're doing stuff that God's

not even asked us to do. Programme after programme,

gathering after gathering, this and that, this and that.

God's. That's not the role of the

church. As a matter of fact, when we get

to the last Church of the Church of Lattice here, he's outside

the church and they just jamming on the inside.

He says you don't even know what's going on.

They were so busy doing their church thing.

God wasn't there. Jesus says in verse 2, I know

your works, I know your labour, I know your patience that you

cannot bear those who are evil and you have tested those who

say they are apostles and are not man, that's pretty popular.

You know, there's a lot of there's more apostles around

today than there was in the Bible.

Self made, self appointed and have found them liars and you

have persevered and have patience and have laboured.

It's toiling. Why?

For my name's sake and have not become weary.

Bible tells us not to be weary and well doing.

Jesus commends the Church of Ephesus for being a serving

church. He was a serving church.

We try to be a serving church. We're trying to have every

individual here, no matter how old you are, serving the Lord.

Jesus says this was a serving church.

He says I know your works, I know what you do.

And then Jesus complimented Ephesus for being a sacrificing

church. I know you're exhaustive

labourers, those who come and serve and exhaust themselves.

What do you mean? I've been doing this, I've been

doing that, I've been doing that.

Exhausting labourers. He was commended for being a

steadfast church. I know your patience.

You know we gather on a Wednesday.

We continue to pray, we continue to pray.

Rain comes, it gets cold, winter.

We continue to turn up, we continue to pray, we continue to

endure. Jesus commanded Ephesus for

being a spiritual church. You cannot bear evil.

Jesus said this church, false teachers, you've kept out.

That's part of our role. Every now and then I hear

someone coming in and saying certain stuff and that's when

I'm not very tolerant. I can tell you, I go, I said,

what are you? What are you saying?

And I'm on to him because someone comes in here and want

to tell you. I want to get someone's ear and

say, you know, that's when you know, we're going to go through

the tribulation period. You know, we're you know that

the Antichrist we're going to be around when the Antichrist

around, you know, this is, you know, you don't need the Bible.

You need this and the Bible. OK, Where are you from?

Who are you? That's the role of the passes.

We're here to maintain that there's no falseness coming into

this place and bringing dribble because it sounds good, but it's

to seek and to lure your way. Paul had spoken to the church

elders at Ephesus when he met with him as he was leaving

Ephesus and he is on his way to Jerusalem in Acts chapter 20.

Acts 20 · chapter mention

Paul said in Acts chapter 20 verse 29.

Acts 20:29

For I know this, Paul said, that after I leave my departure,

savage wolves will come in among you.

They go to church not sparing the flock.

Also, from among yourselves, men will rise up speaking perverse

things to draw away disciples after themselves.

There's always people who want to come here and they want to

gather their own grip. I'm having a little study.

I'm doing this, and they're always get lost.

You want to have a study? Get down the beach and find

people who don't know the Lord. But don't come in here and seek

to draw away people to come and join your little Bible study

because that's not on, because they want to draw people to

themselves. They're not drawing them to

Christ. Otherwise they'd still be here

to draw away disciples after themselves.

Paul then says, therefore, based on all this, watch, remember for

three years I said this, I've been saying this over and over.

How often, parents, do you warn your kids about bad things and

bad people? Over and over and over.

For three years Paul did this. I did not cease to warn everyone

night and day with tears. Now, 30 years later, Jesus

commended the Church of Ephesus for keeping these false teachers

out. It booted them out.

Verse 6. Drop down to verse 6.

But this you have that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans,

which I also hate. You know, God hates certain

things in the book of Proverbs. God hates the six things.

No 7 things proud looking goes on.

One of the things that he hates is those who come to bring

division in the body of Christ. He hates that the dangerous

group Nicolaitans literally means Nicolaitans means to

conquer the people. It means clergy of a laity.

They were a group of misapplied scriptures to bring confusion to

the churches. Jesus gives this church 7 words

of commendation. You're good at this, you're good

at that, you're good at this. And then in verse, in verses 2

and three, but now in verse 4, Jesus is but we have a problem.

You have a problem. I have a problem with you and he

raises his complaint about the church.

Verse four. Look at it.

Nevertheless, I have this against you.

This is Jesus Christ speaking. You've left your first love.

It's important to Jesus and I want you to think those of you

who are married, this is a classic study for the year to

see where marriages fall apart and how they fall apart.

Why Paul talked about marriage, husbands and wives and their

relationship to one another being so similar to our

relationship with God. Jesus complaint was you have

left your first love. In other words, you no longer

love me like you did in the beginning.

Men you've met the lady you're going to marry, you're working,

you come home from work. What do you do?

Shower, Shave, Cologne, comb your hair, dress up, go out

there, open the door, close the door, politely take them out.

Do all this after you're married, works for dinner.

And in the end, as we move along the line, what happens is you

have two individuals living single lives, indifferent to one

another, who have taken one another for granted.

And the marriage is only a name, only same.

If you and I had the chance to go back in time and visit the

church, you would have been impressed by it, man.

That church, that emphasis, it is man, it is a great place.

Man, What a great church. Everyone's hard working,

everyone's serving that so active.

That's got so many programmes on.

There was a lot of going on there man.

They had everything on, but Jesus seized the heart and what

he saw was a problem with the motives.

The church was not operating out of love.

Vance Havner said. The church has no greater need

today than to fall in love with Jesus all over again.

That will fix your marriage, by the way, to fall in love all

over again. Ephesus appeared healthy on the

surface. To the outside observer, it was

about Church's thumping. They were serving, they were

sacrificing, they were steadfast, they were separated.

But it didn't know it had a serious heart problem.

I've had a heart problem. Didn't know I had it.

I'm all right, Helen said. Don't look good, just just need

a glass of milk or something. Nah, End up down the hospital.

First time ever in an ambulance. Off they go.

You had a stroke? Heart problem.

You can be super fit on the outside and within you.

Your heart can be blocked with cholesterol things and you don't

even know you can drop dead in a minute and having the greatest

surgeon right next to you would not change a thing.

It was a spiritual heart problem.

And a spiritual heart problem for believers is extremely

serious. They were doing the right

things, but with the wrong motive.

Devotion had turned into dull duty.

Oh, man, I'm in Sunday school again.

Oh, no, I'm on worship this week, haven't I?

Haven't I got a time off? When's the school holidays so I

can get out of this? And here we go, we're singing

the same song. I'm not lazing my hands, I'm too

tired. Hell, how many songs we got to

go? When's he finishing worship and

waned into work? Love had lost its passion and

become a labour. Someone once said the problem is

not that churches are filled with empty seats, but the seats

are filled with empty hearted people.

Right down this morning before the Lord, ask yourself a couple

questions. Why do I do what I do?

Why do I serve? Why do I sin?

Why do I share? Why do I give?

If your motive is not because of your love for God, then

something is seriously wrong and God knows, Paul says in One

Corinthians 13. Though I speak with the tongues

of men and of angels, but have not love.

I've become sounding brass or a clanging symbol, just noise.

Though I have the gift of prophecy, woo and understand all

mysteries and all knowledge and thought.

I have all faiths so that I can remove mountains but have not

love. I am nothing, nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, oh he's a good

giver. And though I give my body to be

burned but have not love, it profits me nothing.

You'll stand before God, Jesus says in Matthew 7 when he

returned, oh Jesus, oh man, great to see you.

I have prophesied man. I did this and I toured and I

was a missionary and Jesus says I don't even know you.

I don't know. You depart from me because

you're a worker of iniquity. That is a dangerous scripture.

Matthew 7 Ephesus had not lost their first love.

Jesus said they had left their first love.

Now I went to the beach yesterday and I'm getting old.

Got my surfboard there. Pull in.

See your pastors right down there.

I need a lock lock for my key in my car.

Drive around, don't get out of the car.

Drive home, go to the garage, get my lock, go back down

because you got to lock your car with your stuff.

Go for a surf, pull up I go. I don't have a leg rope.

I'm still driving. So drive around, go back to my

garage, get my leg rope. Is there anything else?

I've looked. You know, I've gone surfing.

I drove to Scarborough one time, Threw my wet suit in the towel

and everything. No surfboard.

I knew where they were and lost them, left them.

This was no accident. It was an action, a choice, or

choices over time. This was a case of neglect, and

neglect is the biggest killer of your relationship with God and

the biggest killer of your marriage and of parenting.

Do you know neglect causes more problems in our lives, in our

marriage, in our parenting than any other single failure?

When you neglect just Jesus looked right into the heart of

those at Ephesus and he detected the problem.

At Ephesus, the furnace was still there, but there was no

fire had gone out. This does not happen overnight.

Your relationship with God doesn't just oh, I'm on fire for

him and next day you're not doesn't.

It doesn't happen overnight. Your marriage doesn't fail

overnight. It can be a slow subtle motion,

but it is in this case, backsliding nonetheless.

King David, awesome guy, man, young guy, young kid, you know,

he's a young shepherd, sings Psalms, writes psalms, can play

music and he can kill a bear, kill a, you know, a lion and

he's protecting dad's sheep, loves the Lord with all his

heart. The Bible says man after God's

own heart. David then takes on Goliath.

He's just a little bit older. He becomes the hero of Israel.

He kills this 9 foot guy with a sling and a stone, knocks him

dead. Then David is anointed king

member by Samuel. Samuel comes down, all the sons

of Jesse are brought out. And isn't there another kid you

know? Well, he's just the one kid, you

know, the youngest he's out looking after.

Bring him in. He's the one pours the oil on

him. He's anointed.

You're the king of Israel. And from that moment, King Saul

hunts him down. What's that?

Kill him. He's jealous of him, but even

when he's hiding from him and Saul goes into The Cave and

we've been to those caves and Saul comes in and David has the

the opportunity to kill him and rid be rid of being chased

around. He just cuts off a bit of cloth

of of Saul's robe. And then I later on said, Saul,

I got look at this. I got this.

I couldn't look. I'm not after you.

I could have had you. And he writes many great psalms

during the period that Saul is after him.

And then eventually Saul dies in battle with John Jonathan, and

David becomes the true king. And David then has a time in his

life when he should be out leading his army.

He should have been leading his family.

He should have been going to church, should have been doing

what he should have been doing. He's up on the rooftop.

His men are out doing what they're doing.

They're serving the Lord. David spots a woman and you know

the story from there. He ends up sleeping with one of

his soldiers wives. She falls pregnant.

Then David has her husband Uriah killed in battle.

Adultery, murder. You know what?

In that period no songs of praise are written.

Nothing. Nothing is written by David

until he repents Psalm 51 and he writes, Have mercy upon the old

God. I acknowledge my sin against

you. Purge me with hyssop.

Restore me to the joy of your salvation.

You're here today and churches dull.

God hasn't changed, The Bible hasn't changed, the Holy Spirit

hasn't changed. What's the problem?

You see what happened to David? Life became easy, he slipped

into spiritual, neutral, coasted, no psalms are written,

and he becomes idle and he falls greatly.

Oh, if David could have had that time back again, don't you

think? This question this morning I

want to ask you, are you nurturing or neglecting your

relationship with God? Are you nurturing, building it

up, fueling it, fellowship, read, prayer, serving?

Or are you neglecting you're just doing your thing and you

turn up here for an hour and a half on a Sunday?

Well, that's a bit rough. No, it's the truth.

Now Jesus gives us the cure for the heart problem.

The solution, verse 5. Remember, therefore, from where

you have fallen, what you once were and how you once lived with

me. Repent.

Do the first works. Go back to doing like guys.

Shower, shave Cologne. Open the door.

Close the door. Be polite.

Yes, Sir. No, Sir.

Let me do this for you. Oh, no, no, that's fine.

I can do this. I can do this now.

I'm not doing that. You can do that.

Or else I'll come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from

its place unless you repent. All of our labour must be a

labour of love. That's what parenting is, and

it's what serving the Lord is. I love labouring for the Lord.

Remember Jacob? Jacob.

What a great guy. What a moral guy this guy is.

Yes, we know he was shifty, but he laboured for seven years for

the hand of Rachel in marriage. Seven years, no pay.

Just can't put that aside. Seven years because he loved us

so much. It says so.

Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed only a

few days to him because of the love he had for her.

Genesis 2930. That's what it is.

This is not. This is.

I love doing this. All of our labour must be a

labour of love. Remember how thrilled and how

excited you were when you first saved?

I do. Tuesday night.

We got saved That Saturday and Friday.

Helen and I drove and we went to every brother and sister and our

families. I have a big family.

Helen has a small family. We went to them anyway.

We said guess what? What We became Christians

Tuesday night. We prayed and received Christ as

our Lord and Saviour. No good for you.

No one was interested, but we had to tell them we were

pursing. And then I remember going to

Perth, The Good Bible Society was in Saint George's Terrace

and buying our first Bibles. Wow, had a zipper on them, $20

each. That's a lot of money back then.

And getting there by myself, this is.

And reading it and see what it says.

Let's see what it says here. And every church service, every

church service. We lived in Spearwood and our

church was in Big Park. Don't come to me and say, oh,

it's such a long way. Don't please come near me.

We went to morning, evening prayer, you name it, Sunday

school, you name it. Because we were believers.

Now our lives have changed and we've kept that labour of love

40 odd years later. Can't give you away how old I

am. I know you, I know I look 30.

But three times over you automatically shared your face.

Remember when you're first born again, what's happened?

You're bursting. You read your Bible because it

was God speaking to you. And this has never happened to

you. Did you?

Have you ever read this? Yeah, I read that too.

You went to every service. The church was possible.

Open. Is it open?

Oh, when's it open? Next.

I want to go. How can we serve in any way?

You could not get enough of the Lord.

Your life had changed. All things are passed away. 2

Corinthians 517 and all things have become new.

Jesus says repent. Do the first works, go back to

what you should be doing, what you did do change direction from

where your life is heading right now.

If you've been backsliding or growing cold spiritually, you

must confess to the Lord and seek His forgiveness.

The word repent means change something, change your mind,

change your attitude. You know, there are always

backsliders, not only out in the world and away from the church,

they're obvious to us. But there are also backsliders

within the church just like those in Ephesus.

Their inward passion has gone out.

Jesus says return, get back to the way things were with the

Lord before it's too late. That's a warning from Jesus.

Remember, Peter, Peter, you know he denied the Lord.

How many times did he deny the Lord?

Three times. Jesus restored him, didn't he?

But Jesus asked Peter just one question that time as he's

cooking him breakfast on a beach.

One question. But he asked the same question

three times. Same question three times.

Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me?

It says in John 2115. Let me read it.

So when they'd eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon, Peter,

Simon son of Jonah, do you love me more than these?

Peter said yes, Lord, you know that I love you.

He said, feed my lamps said to him a second time.

Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?

Yes, Lord, you know that I love you tend my sheep.

The third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?

Peter was grieved because he had said to him the third time, do

you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you

know all things, you know that I love you.

I want to ask you the same question if Jesus asked you

right now, because that love is going to be the first

commandment that you love the Lord your God with what?

All, all, all, or otherwise you're not, or else Jesus said

he would remove the lampstand. If you lose your love for Jesus,

it's only a matter of time until you lose your light in your

school, in your family, at your work, and in your community and

in your marriage. It's dark and in your service

for the church. Jesus gave us 2 choices.

Revival or removal, Change or be changed.

The church that leaves its love will soon lose its light.

I've been to Ephesus. How long have we walked the

streets of Ephesus? It's there.

You can go and walk the ruins of Ephesus.

There's no church there anymore. It's just an empty facade

building. There's no one there.

Malaria broke out. The river dammed up where the

boats used to come up into Emphasis and the port, and they

would sail off. Now you go.

Well, Emphasis. It's a couple of KS in there.

Yeah, the water used to come in. Well, what happened?

The light went out. The river dammed up, malaria

came and people had to leave. God closed the light on Ephesus.

Verse 7. He who has an ear, let him hear

what the Spirit says to the churches.

To him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of

life. That's eternal life, which is in

the midst of the paradise of God, and you'll be in heaven.

Heaven and eternal life.