Christ's Commands (Rev. 2:5)

The Vitality of Devotion to Christ and the Ephesian Context

0:01 There is perhaps nothing more vital in the life of the child of God than his attachment to the person of Jesus Christ in faith and in love. There is perhaps no more sensitive a plant in the garden of the heart of a Christian than the plant of devotion to Jesus Christ. It will wither when many other plants still thrive.

0:35 And in the light of this very basic principle and fact of Christian experience, I have been seeking over the past few weeks to bring into focus portions of Scripture and principles contained therein which underscore this fact and then, I trust, give us some direction as to how to live in the light of that fact. We studied together the 21st chapter of the Gospel according to John, that chapter in which our lives, the Lord asks such a searching question of Peter, lovest thou me? And he recommissions him and unfolds new facets of his will all within the context of this attachment to his person in deep devotion and in love. Two Lord's Days ago, when I was with you, we spent morning and evening beginning to consider the words of our Lord Jesus to the church at Ephesus as found, in the book of the Revelation in chapter two. We pick up our study at that point again this morning. Revelation chapter two, and I shall read the first five verses.

Review of Christ's Commendations and Complaint to Ephesus

1:52 God willing, we will carry on our study tonight and move on into the latter part of the fifth verse and on into the sixth and seventh verses as well. Unto the angel or messenger of the church of Ephesus write, these things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, I know thy works, and thy labor and thy patience. And how thou canst not bear them which are evil, and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them liars, and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast dissolved them into the fire and ye killed them in the american air. namesake, hast labored and hast not fainted. Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. Just briefly to review what we considered in our two previous

3:11 studies in order to get our minds moving in the direction of the thrust of our focus on verse 5 for our study this hour, the passage begins by an underscoring of the one who speaks. The Lord identifies himself as the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, and who walks in the midst of the golden lampstands. He recognizes the principle that we respond to the voice of a person in direct proportion to our estimation of the person who speaks. And as our Lord would secure a careful and an obedient and reverential hearing of his words of commendation and rebuke, he first of all focuses all the attention upon the glory and majesty of his person. Whatever I say to you people at Ephesus, do not detach my words from my person. For the moment you detach my words and insulate and isolate them from the one who speaks them, the words will cease to have the effect that they should have in your mind and subsequently in your life. So whatever he speaks to them, he speaks as the one who

4:33 holds the seven stars in his right hand. And as our Lord identifies himself as the one who speaks the seven stars in his right hand, he speaks them as the great, majestic, sovereign, omnipotent head of his church, in all the glory of his transcendence. And yet he speaks them as the one who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, who is active, who is imminent in the midst of his people, as the great prophet instructing, the great priest succoring and forgiving, and the great king commanding. And even judging his people. And then after reminding them of who speaks, he addresses himself particularly to the angel or the messenger, the leader of the church. But the context clearly indicates that the leadership is addressed only as the door through which the entire church will be addressed, both in commendation and in rebuke and in direction. And then as he begins to speak, he starts with his commendation. And I trust you'll remember those things for which he commends them, for things which his eye as a flame of fire discerns in their midst, and which he commends as things pleasing to himself. He commends them for their intense labor in extending his kingdom.

5:55 I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience. He commends them for their intense zeal in maintaining the purity of his church. He said, you cannot bear them. You cannot carry along with you evil men. They had apparently not joined the cult of contentment and the terrible sect of toleration. When they found evil men in their midst, they disciplined them. They did not carry them along with them as dead weight. And our Lord commends them for this. And then in the third place, he commends them for their intense zeal in maintaining doctrine. He commends them for their doctrinal integrity in the church. You have those who profess to be my mouthpieces, apostles, and you've brought them to the test of objective standards, and they fall short, and you've made it known that they are false apostles. He commends them for their heresy hunting. Now, there is a

6:51 wrong kind of heresy hunting. There are people who can smell heresy under every blade of grass. And this becomes a mentality and a disposition that is negative and caustic. And very seldom is there any kind of heresy hunting. And this becomes a mentality and a disposition that is negative and caustic. And very seldom is there any kind of heresy hunting. And very seldom is there any evidence when a person has that spirit of the graces of love and forbearance and compassion for men. But though there is an abuse of this disposition, the proper use of it in the setting of the total life of the church is commended by our Lord. And by inference, he would condemn it if it were not present. And he does. In one of the other churches, he said, you people are too tolerant. You suffer that woman Jezebel, who's a false teacher, to teach things she ought not.

7:32 And he condemns them. So wherever there is this labor to extend his kingdom, this zeal to maintain the purity of the church, this zeal to maintain doctrinal integrity, and in the fourth place, this persevering stability in the face of opposition, thou hast borne and for my name's sake has labored and has not fainted. You've not been fly-by-night Christians. Wherever these virtues are found, wonder of wonders, though his grace, creates them and imparts them, the same gracious Lord commends them. And I don't understand this.

8:11 I can understand the Lord putting his finger on my sin and saying, I blame you for that. But when he finds virtues and commends them, and the Christian knows a little bit of his own heart and believes what scripture says, that in his flesh dwells no good thing, and without Christ he can do nothing, and what has he that he did not receive, to think that the Lord commends the virtues that he himself has imparted. It's one of the most humbling things to the child of God. But having commended them, then our Lord turns to his complaint. In spite of all these things, he says, I have somewhat against thee.

8:46 Thou hast left thy first love. And the essence of his complaint is this. Oh, my people at Ephesus, your hands are very busy in my work. Your heads are very clear and sharp and articulate in the understanding.

9:03 But your hearts have dropped a few degrees in their affection to my person. Oh, you have a deep affection for me. For my sake, you've borne all of this. This has not been, as some have interpreted, barren orthodoxy. These people do love Christ. They love him enough to suffer for him. For my name's sake, you've borne and have not fainted. But our Lord discerns that the man of God, the man of God, the man of God, the man of God, the man of God, the man of God, the of their devotion to him, the degree of their devotion has just gone a couple of marks down on the thermometer. And he says, this disturbs me. And he issues his complaint. Thou hast left thy

9:49 first love. And he is not seeking to strap the conscience with a false standard, wanting his people to go back to the day when they loved him without knowledge, when they loved him with a fervor that at times...

10:04 Thou hast left thy first love. And he is not seeking to strap the conscience with a false standard, wanting his people to go back to the day when they loved him without knowledge, when they loved him without knowledge, when they loved him without knowledge, when they loved him without knowledge, when they was born mainly perhaps of pure, almost animal passion in the sense that there was very little intelligent comprehension of his glory, very little intelligent comprehension of his ways. There was just this wonderful sense of release from the bondage and condemnation of sin and this pouring out like a mighty torrent of love to his person. Many times God's people have a wrong, troubling of conscience when they think of this matter of first love. No, many of the manifestations of the love that they bore at the first will change with maturity. But what our Lord is concerned about is that they've lost some of the simplicity of their first love, that in the involvements of learning and doing and becoming what he would have them to learn and do and become, somehow Christ had ceased to be the center of all of this. As the hymn writer has said, how tedious and how tasteless the hours when Jesus no longer I see. If I don't see him in his ordinances, him in his truth, him in his doctrine, him in the midst of his

11:20 people, him in the midst of my duties, when there is that declining of the simplicity of first love, our Lord has a complaint. When there is a waning of that intensity of first love and no amount of knowledge of Christ should ever lead to a lessening of the intensity of our love, if there's someone whom you know and the more you know about them, the less you love them, that doesn't speak well of their character. Some people you can love and admire from a distance, but don't get to know them intimately, for your admiration and your love will cease. And so, if in the time lapse between the flush of their first knowledge of Christ there had been a lessening in devotion to him, it either has to be the first love or the second love.

12:05 It has to be because of some perversity in their own hearts or something unworthy they've discovered in Christ. And the second conclusion is almost blasphemous to state it. And so he says, you've lost this intensity of your first love. You've lost the sensitivity of that first love. And our Lord knew that the mother and father of all the graces of the Christian life are faith and love, or, as Paul says in Galatians, faith working by love. And if the mother is killed or the mother is sick and begins to die, then all the children will be affected. And this is what our Lord sees. He knows that if the affection to his person is allowed to wane, it won't be long before the hands will begin to grow weary in his work, and then the heads will begin to go shoddy in his truth. And then it isn't long before he says the candlestick is removed,

Christ's Therapeutic Directives: Remember, Repent, Do

13:05 it ceases to be a true church. So much then for our Lord's commendation, our Lord's complaint. Now we come this morning to consider his commands, the commands which have as their ultimate purpose their recovery from this state of declension. As a wise physician not only faces the facts of his patient's state and then diagnoses them, but also prescribes a proper remedy, so our Lord, facing the facts, I know thy works, here are the signs of your health, and he mentions them. Then he says, here are the signs of your malady, and he describes it. Then he gives a prescription to the way of remedial action. Here is our Lord's therapeutic directive to his people. And may I suggest that a grasp upon the principles in the first part

14:07 of verse 5 could be of inestimable value to us as believers, not only in the recovery of lost affection to the person of Christ, but wherever there is the discovery of sin and declension, and by God's grace we want to make our way back, that slow, painful way back to spiritual health and virility again. Notice the three imperatives which our Lord lays upon his people at Ephesus. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent and do the first works. The three imperatives, remember, repent, and do. We have in these three imperatives a command, first of all, to reflection. Remember, to repentance, and to reformation, or to renewed obedience.

15:12 The pivotal issue is that of repentance, for when he reiterates the seriousness of the matter at the end of the verse, he says, if you don't do these things, I will come quickly and remove your candlestick, except you repent. So the pivotal call is the call to repentance. But true repentance...

The Command to Reflection: Remember From Whence You Are Fallen

15:34 Repentance is bounded on the one side by reflection, and on the other side by reformation. To change the analogy, the pathway to repentance is the pathway of reflection, and what grows out of true repentance is reformation and renewed obedience. What does our Lord mean when he says, remember from whence thou art fallen? Why is the first step to their...

16:04 For the word used means simply that. It means to bring up before the mind certain facts or experiences or incidents. It's the same word used in Luke 17, 32, where our Lord says, remember Lot's wife. You've read the story of Lot's wife.

16:27 She went out that morning with the rest of the family. She got a little bit away from the cities of the plains. She turned around. She looked back.

16:34 She was turned to a pillar of salt. The Lord says, you know those facts. Now, reach into the file drawer of the mind. Pull out that file in which the facts about Lot's wife are stored away.

16:45 Bring it out and set it before the eyes of the mind. Remember Lot's wife. It's speaking of a conscious, deliberate mental activity.

16:56 It's doing what a traveler will do. He takes slides of a place he's been. In the recent trip to Great Britain, I took about 80 slides. We'll show them at one of our family suppers, the Lord willing, in a month or two.

17:09 Now, they sit up in my closet. The embodiment of my experiences, the contacts, the people I visited with, the homes, the towns, the villages, they're all there sitting up in a box of slides in my closet in the bedroom. Now, the night of our family supper, what we'll do is we'll take the slides from the shelf, put them in the machine, flash them on the screen, and with the flashing of that upon the screen, there is a setting before the mind and a recalling of all the circumstances attendant the physical objects displayed in that slide. Now, this is precisely what our Lord says we must do with respect to our minds.

17:50 He says, remember, give yourself to a certain kind of concentrated, intense mental activity. Now, what are the particulars of that activity? Notice his words. Remember.

18:04 Remember from whence you are fallen. In other words, remember and call to mind the state from which you have fallen. Therefore, our Lord's command is a command to employ the powers of memory to compare where you are now with where you once were. To draw some mental before and after.

18:34 Now, why does our Lord call them to this? In the light of the fact that this condition grieves him, and no amount of doctrinal orthodoxy or no amount of zeal in Christian work can cancel out the effect of this sin, I have somewhat against thee. The first step to recovery is remember. Now, why does he do this?

18:58 Because our Lord knows the human heart fully, and he knows that just as growth, growth in grace is imperceptible in short compass, so decline in grace is imperceptible in terms of a short segment of the life.

19:19 Often I've had believers come to me troubled about this. They say, I don't think I'm growing in grace. It seems the same struggles I had last week I have this week. In the same battles I fought three months ago, I'm fighting now.

19:30 And yet, someone who's been able to observe that life over the long haul can see tremendous evidence of growth because they're able more objectively to back off and see it in the broad sweep. Our Lord knows this. And so he says to the people at Ephesus, as you are involved to the hilt in these virtues which I've commended, this zeal to extend my kingdom, this zeal to maintain the purity of the church, this zeal to maintain doctrinal correctness, this bearing up under tremendous pressure, and remember, the church at this stage had entered a period of persecution.

20:10 This process of declining in devotion to the person of Christ had come about so imperceptibly that there was no way to recognize it in themselves but to stop and say, hey, wait a minute, pull up the reins, stop working, stop being a busy beaver Christian long enough to go back to the slides of what you were a long time ago and bring up that picture. And as you set it before the eyes of the mind and compare where you are now with where you were then, he said, then you'll see what I see. Then you'll know what I know. Then you'll be gripped by what has gripped me. As growth is imperceptible in short compass, so is decline. You find this principle in Hosea 7, verse 9, where God says of his people, gray hairs are here and there, and he knoweth it not. A man doesn't get gray overnight.

21:15 There's just a little sprinkling here and a little sprinkling there, the sprinkle there, the sprinkle there, and before you know it, he's gray, but he's never shocked by it. This is what our Lord says of Israel. Her decline was imperceptible to herself, but God saw it and God knew it. And so he's seeking to get his people to, to face the facts of what has really happened to them in terms of their waning affection to his person.

21:44 May I say by way of application that this activity of holy reflection is most often the first step in the path to return? It says when Peter heard the cock crow, he what? Remembered the words of the Lord Jesus. And then he went out and wept.

22:06 He wept bitterly. It is when the prodigal came to himself and began to think rationally of what things used to be and compared them with what they now were that the first steps to repentance were laid in his own heart or the first movements to repentance were born in his heart. We see then in God's dealings with us, even in the most intimate areas of personal devotion to Christ, we see the central place that the mind plays in the Christian life. It's only as the facts filter into the mind and the mind grasps them and the mind sorts them out and faces them that the affections and subsequently the life will be affected as they ought to be. And so to state it in a negative cast, the child of God who is too busy or who is being too busy, who has become too slippery for the duty of sober, sanctified reflection is in a dangerous state. Jesus says to this church, remember, bring before your mind's eye as a conscious mental activity where you once were. And that's a painful thing.

23:31 We'd like to say, oh, no, things aren't so bad. The Lord says, can you remember when you loved me with that love of simplicity? When as naturally as sparks fly upward your heart continually when released from other legitimate concerns flew upward to me? When the reflex action of your mind in every situation was to think of my will and my glory, what would please me?

23:56 What would grieve me? Can you remember, he says, can you remember when you loved me with that love of intensity? When it was no burden to push the covers off, to run, to rise up to pray? When it was no burden to be found sitting at times for hours with God's people around the book and any new sight of Christ you received ravished your heart and filled you with holy ecstasy?

24:23 Can you remember? He says, remember from whence you were fallen. Compare your present state with that state. When in the public gathering of God's people there was all eagerness, all intensity, all openness, all thirst, all hunger.

24:43 He says, now look at you. Now look at you. Remember. Remember from whence thou art fallen.

24:50 That's the first command, the first directive for recovery. And may I suggest the person who does not obey at this point will never be led to repentance.

25:02 It's so difficult to be honest about where we are in terms of where we once were. We've got all kinds of excuses, don't we? We are masters of rationalization. Ah, but Lord, you know.

25:13 He says, yeah, I told you that when I started. I know your works. Don't tell me what I know. I know what I know.

25:20 And I've told you you've left your first love. Yes, but Lord, he says, now look, I've told you you've left your first love. Now don't dicker with me. Don't argue with me.

25:28 You just remember. You face the facts as I know them. That's painful, isn't it? Just like the man, and I've seen this with fellows who were once tremendous athletes in great shape.

25:40 All sinew, bone, and muscle. A mass of beautiful coordination. And they don't want to admit they're out of shape now because it happened so imperceptibly, see? First of all, it was just the belt got a little tight.

25:55 And then after a while, it was just that the suits began to bind a little bit. And when he'd go up three flights of stairs, he just began to puff a little harder until finally he's just nothing but a mass of flabby, uncoordinated corpulency. And he doesn't want to face it. He doesn't want to face that fact.

26:13 He still thinks of the times when he could knock the ball out of the park or he could bounce off two or three tackles at 230 pounds and make his way to the goal line. He doesn't want to face the facts. But you know, every time they sit down with a family photo album and out come the pictures of what he looked like when he was in a bathing suit ten years ago, the poor fellow's either got to slip over that page real quick like, or just face the ugly, fat facts.

26:40 You see, we don't like to face the facts of declensions. Like the fellow who's beginning to get bald and he can't really accept the fact that he is. So he tries to compensate by growing hair on his chin or his lip or down the back of his neck when he can't grow it up here anymore. We don't want to face the fact.

26:58 We don't like to face the evidence of declension and decay and what is true physically is true spiritually. It's a painful thing to say, Oh God, Thou knowest that I am not now what I once was and there's no...

27:14 excuse for it. I think it's one of the most hardest areas of spiritual honesty that I know of. Do you? Do you find it so?

The Command to Repentance: Essential Ingredients

27:26 The Lord says, remember. Remember from whence Thou art fallen. Then he gives the second command of directive. He says, repent.

27:35 Repent. That remembrance, that reflection should lead to repentance. Now the context of this passage makes clear that this is the repentance of God. The repentance of the child of God.

27:49 But repentance as to its essential ingredients is exactly the same either in the sinner returning to God through Christ for the first time or the saint of God who is being recovered from a state of declension. The essential elements of repentance are exactly the same in the one case and in the other. What then is repentance? The definition of the Shorter Catechism is the best answer I know to.

28:16 Repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner out of a due sense of his sin and an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ does with grief and hatred of his sin turn from it unto God with full purpose of and endeavor after a new obedience. What is involved in that repentance to which our Lord calls these people in Revelation to? There must first of all be the recognition of the criminal nature of their sin. No impenitent, unconverted man ever repents with that repentance which is unto life until he is brought to discover the criminal nature of his sin. Until he can say with David against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight he'll never repent. It's only when the prodigal recognizes that his crime is against the court of heaven and he says I will go to my Father and say to him Father I've sinned against heaven. And this is true in the life of the child of God. Until there

29:31 has been that application of the word of Christ to our hearts by the Spirit and we know that it's not the word primarily of a condemning judge summing us to a bar of legal judgment but it's the word of the heavenly bridegroom who has been wounded by the defection in love in the hearts of his people until we see the criminal nature of losing first love of departing and abandoning our love as it was at the first. I say until we're convinced of the criminal nature of this sin that it grieves the heart of our Lord. He would say to us as he said to Israel what unrighteousness have your fathers found in me that they have forsaken me? I think it's one of the most pitiable pleas in all of scripture. God stands before Israel and says in the light of all that I've done for you in the way of covenanted mercies in the way of sovereign deliverance why is it that after you walked with me for a while your hearts turned away from me? God says did you discover something in me that you didn't see in the beginning? In the beginning

30:43 when you entered into covenant with me and said all that Jehovah required we will do. He said what did you discover in me that caused you to turn aside? Can you hear the Lord Jesus saying to you this morning my child what have you discovered in me that's made me less an object of your love? Until the criminal nature the unreasonableness of leaving our first love grips us there will be no repentance until we see that this sin is the mother of all other sins. Why is it that it's been so difficult to pray? Why is it that it's been so difficult to find time to be alone with God in his word? Why has it been so difficult to find those openings to witness that in times past came so easily? Here's the mother of all those sins declining love to the person of Jesus that's the mother of all of them for when the heart burns with love to him one makes time to pray. One

31:50 makes time to be found in his presence. One makes time and makes the opportunities to share the glory and the wonders of his person and his salvation with others. And so there will not be that repentance unless there is this essential ingredient of the recognition of the criminal nature of the sin but secondly there must be confidence in the forgiving mercy of God in Christ. The very call to repent is our Lord's way of saying I stand ready to forgive. I stand ready to cleanse. I stand ready to renew just as the call to the unconverted to repent is a gracious call. When Paul says in Acts 17 30 God commandeth all men everywhere to repent that's not a legal command it's a gracious command. If God calls the sinner to stack arms and to embrace his offered mercy in Christ it's the clear way God can say I delight in conferring mercy. I have

32:54 no pleasure in the death of the wicked. And so the Lord is saying to us though it's your fault that you've declined in love and though you have grieved me I have somewhat against thee and though this has been the mother of other sins and will continue to bear its children until you become something unworthy of the name of a church I'll remove the candlestick. It's not past recalling. It's not past once again being brought into the place of blessing and if there's to be true repentance there must be this confidence in the forgiving mercy of God in Christ. That confidence based upon God's own promise. If any man sinned we have an advocate with the Father but true repentance involves that recognition that confidence of forgiving mercy and in the third place grief and hatred of the sin ye sorrowed Paul says with that sorrow which works repentance you say how can I command grief and hatred for the sin of declension in love to Christ you can't command the grief and hatred that's why you've got to remember first you can command your mind to think in certain areas you cannot sit here this morning and say heart grieve over your sin of losing first love try it if you think you can

34:19 Oh how I wish my affection were at the beck and call of choice or direction of my will they aren't but I can sit here this morning as you can and I can think Lord Jesus how does this appear to your eye this loss of first love I can think of what I once was and where I now am I can face the hard facts of my spiritual grayness and my spiritual boldness and my spiritual corpulence I can face the hard facts of declension and face them in the light of him who loved me and think and meditate upon what it cost him to purchase my forgiveness what he died to obtain in me the full and undivided affection of my heart and as I meditate upon what my sin is and what it does with reference to him then grief and hatred of the sin will follow in the heart of the one who acknowledges Christ as his savior did this sin cause his groaning in Gethsemane did this sin of declension from first love cause his agony upon the cross then how can I as one who loves him and who has drawn life from his cross how

35:47 can I look upon this sin with anything less than grief and hatred and so that repentance will come to light in that grief and hatred and then in that turning from the sin with purpose to slay it with purpose to be done with it our Lord calls us this morning to that kind of repentance how was that love first planted in the heart the scripture says we love him because he first loved us it's when we had a sight of our sin and then of God saving mercy in Christ and we were enabled to lay hold of that offer of mercy love to Christ was then born in the heart by that sight of his glory as a willing and an able and a receiving savior so likewise that first love can be returned only where it was first born as we come again to the place of repentance come again to the place of faith and laying hold afresh of his mercy the old repentance by which we were brought into life was marked by grief primarily in most of us for deeds for breaches of God's holy law but the repentance

The Command to Reformation: Do the First Works

37:15 of the returning child of God who's lost his first love goes deeper than that and we see the declension in attitudes in dispositions sins against light against privilege sins against grace it's not enough to acknowledge the declension by sanctified reflection there must be this deep and genuine repentance and if there is no heart to grieve over this sin then we've been too shallow and too surface in the duty of remembering the former state and then we have this third imperative and do the first works it's the call to reformation or to renewed obedience what are those first works those works which had as the main spring driving the child of God on devotion to the person of Jesus Christ there is no indication that these people were declining in the amount of their works he commends them for toil even unto pain he uses a strong word he commends them for the full-orbed concern for purity in the church and purity of doctrine and all the rest but something had gone out of those works where once the works were done with a single eye to his glory other motives now have come in

38:43 where once they gathered with this one thought in mind Christ will be in our midst we'll see him we'll sense him we'll get a new sight of his glory now they came because that's the thing to do on Sunday morning he says oh repent and do the first works works which have as their main spring that first love that love of simplicity of intensity and sensitivity note the inspired order of these directives if we would come to recovery there must be reflection leading to repentance and a repentance which leads to reformation for any professed repentance which doesn't lead to renewed obedience has been nothing more than a little psychological blow off or a little psychological safety valve we can let the pressure build up until the conscience is so disturbed that we've got to get some relief by telling the Lord that we've declined in grace and then if that isn't followed with holy resolve to do something I suggest the repentance is insincere what is true of the professed repentance of the non-Christian who says yes I've repented there must be the fruits meet for repentance so with the child of God there must be a returning

40:11 to the first works or there has been no genuine repentance in the heart and so we have in this pattern of our Lord the reflection which paves the way to repentance and then the repentance which issues in renewed obedience and you see those things brought out so beautifully in Cowper's hymn where he speaks some of you are familiar with that hymn where he speaks first of all where is once the blessedness I knew when first I knew the Lord where is that soul refreshing view of Jesus and his word he reflects he thinks back upon what he once knew then he moves on to holy resolve in the present and says O dearest idol I have known I tear it from my breast to serve and worship only thee and then he leads on to that deep repentance and purpose of reformation that there might be a return to his first love I confess as I read last night Mr. Spurgeon's sermon on this text that I feel as he did he said there are times when the preacher preaches that it's as though he's sounding his own death now and there are certain truths of God which the preacher is preaching perhaps primarily to his own heart and only indirectly to his people

41:39 dear ones this is a serious issue so serious as we shall see tonight that unless it's dealt with it has a natural inbuilt tendency which will lead to open and ultimate declension from not only love to Christ but from adherence to his truth and the performance of his work if the Lord has found you in this study of his word he himself who has found you calls you to remember to repent and to do the first works or else or else and then God willing tonight we shall consider the threat of Jesus Christ to those who refuse to remember to repent and to do the first works let us pray