Christ's Complaint (Rev. 2:4)

The point: Consider the importance of understanding what our Lord's complaint is and grapple with the statement 'Thou hast left thy first love' until you understand it.

Martin asks listeners to imagine a friend who, despite many virtues, expresses a serious 'breach' in the relationship, illustrating the gravity of Christ's complaint.

Suppose you had a friend who was. Everything in the world that a friend could be to you, and you sought to reciprocate that friendship, kindness, consideration stood by you in your deep periods of trial, shared your joys as well as your sorrows. What would you think if this particular friend paid you a visit someday and recounting all of the things that made your friendship a precious experience? Nevertheless, at the end of all of that, looked you straight into the eye and said, but in.

14:28 - 15:00 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that leaving first love is not an inevitable spiritual weakness but downright sin, and therefore requires repentance.

Martin uses the analogy of repenting of arthritic joints to highlight that 'leaving first love' is not an inevitable weakness but a sin requiring repentance.

with arthritic joints to repent of that condition? You'd say, well, that's cruel. Arthritic joints are simply one of the natural outworkings of the remains of sin, or in this life where sin still remains. There's no moral evil involved in arthritic joints physically, and I fear that many times God's people look upon this issue, whatever it is, the abandonment, the forsaking of first love, as sort of an inevitable spiritual weakness that sets into your joints, and there's nothing you can do about it, and certainly the Lord would never hold you accountable for it. I say that's contrary to the co...

17:30 - 18:35 Read in full sermon

The point: Avoid misunderstanding first love, which can lead to unnecessary bondage or contentment with a condition displeasing to the Lord.

He compares the initial 'feverish infatuation' of meeting a spouse to the early emotional passion of conversion, arguing that mature love is a deeper, principled commitment.

Some of us can remember when we first met the person who is now our lifetime companion. And, if it happened to be, whatever that is, I'll use the term, love at first sight, if it happened to be that kind of feverish infatuation that drew us to that individual, well, we can well remember how that the very thought of seeing that person would cause our breath to come quick, our heart to beat, and then when their eyes met ours, there was the flush of the cheek and perhaps even a little tingle down the spine, and you know what I'm talking, or maybe you don't, maybe you do, maybe you don't, I don't ...

26:53 - 28:18 Read in full sermon

The point: Avoid misunderstanding first love, which can lead to unnecessary bondage or contentment with a condition displeasing to the Lord.

Martin contrasts the 'popping of firecrackers' (initial passion) with 'glowing embers and coals' (steady, deep, continuous heat) to describe the difference between initial and mature love.

But this would be a very unrealistic view of a developing relationship which needs more and more to be based not upon the heat of passion, but upon what? Commitment to principles. You see? So that where the initial stages of love may have been like the popping of firecrackers with a lot of white light and a lot of immediate heat, the ongoing relationship of love is like the glowing embers and coals there in that fireplace as we see them there in England where they burn coal in their fireplaces, and when that fire's really gotten going well there's just that bed of red coals giving out, not whi...

28:55 - 30:23 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: First love is characterized by simplicity, meaning Christ remains the focal point and fountainhead amidst growing knowledge and responsibilities. He illustrates this with the…

He uses the analogy of a bike wheel losing its hub to illustrate how the Ephesian church lost sight of Christ as the center amidst their growing responsibilities and knowledge.

No, no. This was necessary. But somewhere along the line, in the absorption of the knowledge, in the recognition of their duties, in the acceptance of their manifold responsibilities, they began to lose sight of the simplicity of all of this, in that it centers in and in the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the can be the fruits of righteousness, Philippians 1. But something happened, and in the course of the responsibilities legitimately laid upon them and leg...

35:35 - 36:59 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: First love is characterized by simplicity, meaning Christ remains the focal point and fountainhead amidst growing knowledge and responsibilities. He illustrates this with the…

Martin describes a couple who resent the responsibilities of marriage (children, making a living), likening it to spiritual immaturity if believers resent the 'fruits' of their union with Christ.

this, I've seen it, and had to counsel in situations where it's been most grievous, where this happened in a human relationship.

37:52 - 37:59 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: First love is characterized by simplicity, meaning Christ remains the focal point and fountainhead amidst growing knowledge and responsibilities. He illustrates this with the…

He shares a heartbreaking story of a couple married 15 years who deliberately chose not to have children and kept themselves isolated, illustrating the tragedy of an ingrown, self-centered relationship.

We've seen this with a couple. We were talking about it driving over tonight. They're not members of our church here. But what a heartbreaking thing.

39:21 - 39:29 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: First love is characterized by simplicity, meaning Christ remains the focal point and fountainhead amidst growing knowledge and responsibilities. He illustrates this with the…

Martin describes a home where the 'fruits of a love relationship' are evident (children, responsibilities, involvement in community), contrasting it with the previous negative example to show a healthy, outward-focused love.

The Lord isn't talking about that. But oh, how beautiful it is when you go into a home. Where there is this great structure of the fruits of that love relationship. You see the children.

40:11 - 40:24 Read in full sermon

The point: Maintain the simplicity of your love for Christ amidst the growing involvements and responsibilities of the Christian life.

He paints a picture of a seasoned saint, full of knowledge and useful activity, yet retaining the 'glow of the simplicity of his first love,' easily speaking of Jesus and giving Him glory.

It's the most beautiful thing next to that relationship seen in the life of a believer. What a precious thing to meet a seasoned saint in his 60s or 70s. With a head that is full of much knowledge of God and his truth. With a life that is filled.

40:55 - 41:20 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: First love is also a love of intensity, a burning desire to know Christ's mind and heart, to speak of Him, and to be spent for Him. Martin challenges listeners to consider if…

Martin shares his personal testimony of how, upon conversion, his intense passion for sports (specifically the Brooklyn Dodgers) vanished, replaced by a desire for God's Word, illustrating the intensity of first love.

I couldn't have cared less about reading the sport page in the paper. I was a terrible sports fanatic in the strictest sense of the word. Back when the Dodgers used to be at Ebbets Field and in Brooklyn. I knew the average of every one of those fellows. Duke Snyder.

45:34 - 45:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Cultivate a love of sensitivity, where whatever grieves and offends the object of your love (Christ) grieves and offends you.

He uses the grotesque metaphor of 'ten sore toes' to describe a sinful, touchy kind of sensitivity, distinguishing it from the healthy sensitivity of first love.

I think I used the grotesque illustration back a year or two ago that some people are like ten sore toes all swollen to about six inches in circumference. Now you can imagine a poor person whose ten toes, every one of them, was all swollen up like that and everywhere they went and anything that touched them or they touched, oh, would they let out a beller and a holler. Well, there's that kind of sensitivity and that's a terrible thing. I know some of you are wrestling with this problem.

49:36 - 50:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Cultivate a love of sensitivity, where whatever grieves and offends the object of your love (Christ) grieves and offends you.

Martin vividly imagines the Ephesian church's tender, tearful, and immediate response to Paul's letter (Ephesians 1-5), illustrating the love of sensitivity in action.

Can you imagine what it was like when that letter of the apostle first came to that church at Ephesus? Can you try to put yourself back in an assembly there at Ephesus when one of the elders stood on a Lord's Day morning and said, Beloved brethren, we have a letter from the apostle and in it, in our worship this morning, we shall give ourselves to the careful reading of this letter that comes from this one commissioned by Christ with peculiar authority to instruct us. And then he began to read. And as he laid out those tremendous statements of the doctrines of grace and these people reflected ...

50:30 - 51:34 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Thirdly, first love is a love of sensitivity, meaning whatever grieves Christ also grieves the believer. He illustrates this with the Ephesian church's response to Paul's letter…

He recounts the story of Bill, a mentally limited boy who, after conversion, was profoundly broken over the 'terrible sin' of losing his temper and throwing down a rake, illustrating a profound love of sensitivity to sin.

Do you remember? I shall never forget. You'll never forget one of the most vivid illustrations of this, and though it's happened a good 12 years ago now, it's as vivid in my mind as though it were yesterday. When I was engaged in the itinerant ministry, much of that ministry was out in the Midwest, and there was a boy who started coming to the meetings of a certain church where I was preaching for two weeks who either congenitally or in terms of an injury was somewhat limited in his mental faculties.

56:21 - 56:52 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine your heart: Is Christ less glorious and precious to you? Do you feed upon Him, and speak of Him spontaneously?

Martin quotes Octavius Winslow's 'Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul' to describe the symptoms of declension from first love, particularly regarding one's dealings with Christ.

As Octavius Winslow has soed, so eloquently said in this excellent book, Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul, when the believer has but few dealings with Christ, his blood seldom traveled to, his fullness little lived upon, his love and glory scarcely mentioned, the symptoms of declension from first love in the soul are very obvious. Perhaps nothing forms a more certain criterion of the state of the soul than this. We would be willing to test a man's religion both as to its nature and its growth by his reply to this question, What think ye of Christ? Does his blood daily mo...

61:06 - 62:14 Read in full sermon

The point: Test your spiritual condition: Do truths that once thrilled you now leave you cold, indicating light in the mind but a loss of warmth in the heart?

He quotes Winslow again, emphasizing that the loss of spiritual enjoyment, not necessarily intellectual light, is a key symptom of declension, where truths are assented to but their influence is scarcely felt.

The loss of spiritual enjoyment, not of spiritual perception of the loveliness and harmony of the truth, shall be the symptom that betrays the true condition of the soul. The mind shall lose none of its light, but the heart much of its fervor. The truths of revelation, especially the doctrines of grace, shall occupy the same prominent position as to their value and beauty, and yet the influence of those, those truths be scarcely felt. The word of God shall be assented to, but as the instrument of sanctification, of abasement, of nourishment, the believer may be an almost utter stranger.

66:43 - 67:21 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine your view of the world: Does the sinful world system still appear evil in your eyes, or have its goals and standards become more tolerable?

Martin confesses with shame that in his first love, his witnessing was sometimes 'unwise' and 'aggressive,' but he longs to recapture that intense concern for the lost.

And the words of James find him, Whoever would be a friend of the world makes himself the enemy of God. On the other hand, when we think of the world as the mass of lost humanity in the flush of our new love to Christ, we would give our blood if we could win that world. And there is that spontaneous, many times, oh, how unwise, in aggression, that kind of witness that just runs roughshod over people, that fails to take into account they have certain rights as creatures in the image of God even though they're lost creatures. And I look back and I wonder sometimes that people didn't just punch m...

72:41 - 73:24 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not excuse, rationalize, or evade the Lord's discerning eyes, as this is dangerous ground; instead, seek Him to overcome this declension.

He mentions his recent trip to Great Britain and the observation that there is 'no church left at Ephesus,' serving as a stark warning about the consequences of losing first love.

But if you're going to excuse and rationalize and you're going to try to evade those eyes as a flame of fire, my friend, you're in dangerous ground. Dangerous, dangerous ground. For it's to him that overcome it that the privilege of eating of the tree of life will be given. May the Lord make us by his grace a people to whom not only these words of commendation will come in these various areas but who will be able to say nevertheless though I did find you lacking in first love I no longer find you in that state. There's no church left at Ephesus. Not a trace of a church. Nothing but darkness in...

75:30 - 76:32 Read in full sermon