Christ's Threat (Rev. 2:5)

The Vitality of Our Relationship with Christ

0:01 than his relationship to the person of Jesus Christ in faith and love and knowledge. Nothing so vital in the life of the child of God than his relationship to the person of Christ. There is no more tender plant in all the garden of God in the heart of a Christian than this plant. Long before the plants of church attendance and adherence to right doctrine and all the rest have shown any signs of withering, this plant of deep, sensitive, vital, warm attachment to the person of Christ may be terribly withered and drooping and appear to be well nigh unto dying. If I had but five minutes to spend with each of you, and I were concerned to go to the heart of your present spiritual condition, I think this is the question I would ask you. What is your relationship to the person of Jesus Christ right now? It's the most telling question perhaps in all the world.

1:20 What is your relationship to the person of Jesus Christ?

1:26 Is he your life? Is he the one whose glory captivates you? Is he the one? Is he the one?

1:35 Is he the one? Is he the one? Is he the one? Is he the one?

1:35 Is he the one? Is he the one? Fellowship with whom is the most precious thing in all of life?

1:41 A very telling and searching question, isn't it? And in the light of a passage like Revelation chapter 2, the importance of this issue cannot be circumvented. We cannot skirt around it. We dare not try to pass it off and fail to feel the weight of some of the implications.

Christ's Commendation, Complaint, and Command to Ephesus

2:03 For our Lord says to this church, and I read now from Ephesians 2, These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, that walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks or lampstands, I know thy works, and thy toil and patience, and that thou canst not bear evil men. Thou didst try them that call themselves apostles and are not, and didst find them. And thou hast patience, and didst bear for my name's sake, and hast not grown weary. As the Lord Jesus looks into the garden of all the plants and flowers of his grace in the Ephesian church, he says that flower of intense labor is blooming. That flower of jealous concern for the purity of the church, flourishing. That flower of doctrinal concern, and doctrinal purity, no sign of any drooping. All of those flowers are in full vigor.

3:12 But he says, I have this against thee. I see in the center of the garden, the most vital plant in all of that garden. It's not dead. It hasn't lost all its petals.

3:26 It's just beginning to droop a few degrees.

3:31 I have this against thee. Thou didst leave. Thou didst leave thy first love. Remember, therefore, whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else I come to thee and will move thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

3:52 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the work of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches, to him that overcometh, to him will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. As we have tried to think our way through this message of our Lord to the church at Ephesus, we focused our attention first of all upon the one who speaks. He speaks as the omniscient, transcendent, majestic, omnipotent Christ, holding the seven stars.

4:34 He speaks as the eminent Christ, who walks in the midst of his churches as a succoring priest, a discerning prophet, and a commanding and ruling king. And then he gives his commendation. He looks at the flowers that are flourishing, and he commends them. Then he issues his complaint and says, I have somewhat against thee.

5:01 Thou hast left thy first love. You have left. You have left that relationship in love to my person, which you knew at the first. And our Lord is not in any way picking fault with them because their love has matured, because they perhaps have lost some of the high peaks of the emotional overtones of their love to him.

5:25 Not at all. In the growth in any relationship with a person in love, there is a deepening. There is a settling. There is a smoothing from sparks into the deep glow of principle.

5:38 And our Lord is not complaining that there has been a maturation in their love, that perhaps there is a little less of the sparks and a little more of the deep glow, but he is concerned that there has been a loss of the glow. Less delight in communion with him. Less delight in communing with his people. Less delight in the truths that cluster about him.

6:01 Less sweetness in the ordinances. Less delight in the ordinances. Less sense of his presence in the midst of his people. And he says, Thou hast left thy first love.

The Call to Remember, Repent, and Do the First Works

6:11 And then he turns to them and commands them. And he gives these three imperatives, which we studied last Lord's Day morning. In the light of this declension, he says, Remember. He calls them to a course of sanctified reflection.

6:27 Let me ask you, have you done any remembering in the past week? Have you taken time to look back, to former days and see what you once were? Are you afraid to do it?

6:39 Like the man who bulges at the waistline and recedes at the hairline and doesn't want to face up to it. He never goes back to the photograph album which shows what he was 20 years ago. Because pictures don't lie. And he knows if he looks at that picture, which shows him when he was 32 around the waist instead of 42, and when his hairline came to here instead of back there, he knows he cannot escape.

7:06 The fact that great declension has set in physically.

7:11 And so often the child of God is unwilling to remember. Unwilling to take even a half an hour and just sit down and think, what was it in the days of my espousal to Christ? Can I remember back to those days when his word was precious? When a preacher didn't need to tell me you ought to have devotions.

7:35 The new life within. Instinctively. Instinctively ran out in the direction of Holy Scripture. And every spare minute I was found with my nose in this book.

7:45 Now every spare minute your nose is in your TV or in your newspaper or in ladies' home journal or something worse than that. Remember. Remember from whence thou art fallen. I can remember back eight years ago when I first came to this place when people were so thirsty for the word that they'd even come home weekends from their vacation.

8:09 They'd hear the word preached Sunday morning, Sunday night.

8:19 And now some can't even be bothered coming out Sunday night.

8:25 Remember.

8:28 You say, Pastor, that's getting pretty personal. I know it is. I want to help you to remember.

8:33 Remember from whence thou art fallen. Remember when some of you had been starved for a long time in a ministry in the word and when God was pleased to bring a ministry that fed you, you couldn't get enough. Remember. It's not that way anymore.

8:51 Is it because the word is not preached anymore? Is it because there is less unction in the word? Well, that's a possibility that I must wrestle through before the Lord. But I think there are some indications that that's not the problem.

9:06 It's because you've left your first love and you don't find the same delight in hearing the voice of your Savior and seeing His face. Remember. Remember. That's the command of Christ.

9:19 Then he says, repent. Turn from that condition and everything that's led you into it. All of those subtle influences that have acted like termites at your spiritual foundation. To go back to the analogy of the plant, the garden of God.

9:38 All of those cold winds that have swept across the garden and have caused this flower of love and devotion to Christ to wither. Remember. Repent. Deal with those things.

9:50 And then he says, do the first work. Set yourself to do that which you did in the days of the flush of your first love. For some of you it may mean a total rearrangement of the patterns of the home. A total rearrangement of what you do with your leisure time.

The Terrifying Nature of Christ's Threat

10:10 But our Lord says, reformation must follow repentance or repentance is not genuine. And so if you've not been remembering, repenting and doing, may the command of Christ, now we come to consider the latter part of verse 5. Now I confess this is one of the most sobering passages of scripture with which I've had to wrestle for some time. For in it, we have nothing less than a forthright threat given by the Lord Jesus Christ.

10:45 The same Christ who commends his people, who complains against them, commands them. Now he issued issues a threat. And I debated whether I should use the word threat, but I got out my Webster's Dictionary and found that to warn simply means to tell of a coming danger. When you warn someone, there's no necessity that you are involved in the danger concerning which you're warning them.

11:15 I might this morning say, I am warning you a tornado is coming. I have nothing to do with the bringing of the potential danger. But in a threat, in a threat, there is an expression of intention to punish by the one who makes that threat. And that's precisely what our Lord does here. He says, repent and do the first works or else I come to thee and will move thy candlestick out of its place except thou. Repent. And so we have the threat of Christ to a church that has left its first love. Consider with me as we think our way through this statement, the fact that this is first of all, a terrifying threat. Secondly, a conditional threat. And thirdly, an appended threat. But this thou hast

12:19 that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans. What makes this threat such a terrifying threat? May I suggest it's a terrifying threat first of all because of the one who gives it. He underscores this by saying, I come to thee and will move thy candlestick. The very one described in chapter one, the majestic exalted Lord with the sharp two-edged sword proceeding out of his mouth. His eyes is the flame of fire. His voice is the sound of many waters. The one of whom we sang in our hymn this morning prior to the opening up of the scriptures who claim to be truth incarnate. I am the way, the truth, and the life. You and I will give an account of every idle word that we have spoken, but our Lord has never spoken an idle word.

13:20 Every promise is sure. Every promise is sure. Every promise is sure. Every statement of fact is certain and every threat is a valid and a genuine threat. He never indulges in the idle threats of the unprincipled parent who says, you do this or else. And the kid knows, ah, mama's just blowing off steam again. She doesn't mean it. And so the kid goes right ahead and does what he plans to do. The Lord Jesus is never, never involved in idle threats. When he says, remember, remember, repent and do or else I come. That's a terrifying threat because the one who speaks it is truth incarnate. Secondly, it's a terrifying threat because of the form of the language he uses in making it. Those of you who have an ASV will notice that the word is translated this way. Not I will come to thee, but I come, a present tense.

14:25 And this is what he says. It's what is called in the original language a futuristic present. It's speaking of the future but uses a present tense and it makes it all the more forceful in terms of certainty. As one authority on that language has said, it affirms and not merely predicts. It gives a certain sense of certainty.

14:50 It's like the Lord Jesus when he says verily, verily. Everything he said was true. But whenever you're reading, the gospels and you find him saying but verily verily i say unto you our lord is adding extra emphasis to the validity of his words everything is true and ought to be taken as absolute truth but when he says verily verily he's underscoring in red for us and the very form in which he makes this threat to the church at ephesus underscores the terrifying nature of it he says to them not just remember repent and do or else i will come but i am coming it is as certain as though i were on my way to judgment and i say that's a terrifying threat when it's underscored not only by the veracity of him who is truth but by the very form of the language he uses in making it and then thirdly it is a terrifying because of the substance of that threat what does the lord say he will do to this church he says in essence i will come to you in an act of judgment and i will unchurch you you will no longer be one of those churches in whose midst i move and work and through whom i

16:17 carry on my redemptive purpose you remember the original vision in chapter one john turned to see the voice that spoke with him and when he turned he saw seven golden lampstands and in the midst of them the son of man in other words all that the lord jesus is in his person he is with reference to and in identity with his church now in introducing this message the lord jesus says these things saith he that holdeth the seven star who walketh in the midst of the lampstands in a peculiar way christ is the life and the presence of his church his gathered people now when he says in this threat i will remove thy lampstand he's saying i will take you out of the sphere and the orbit of my peculiar presence and ministry and power i will unchurch you

17:26 now this statement must be understood in this larger context of the fact that god's purpose through his church in terms of its ultimate triumph of course cannot be frustrated the lord jesus said in matthew sixteen i will build my church in the gates of hell shall not prevail against it the lord jesus said other sheep i have which are not of this fold them also i in ephesians five paul says christ gave himself for the church that he might present it to himself a glorious church and he will do that so this is not a matter of god's overall purpose of redemption through the church being frustrated no but just as certainly as scripture reveals the fact that god's ultimate purpose for the church universal will and must be realized christ shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied

18:46 scripture nowhere says that there is any promise to any particular local church that it may not be unchurched and have the lampstand taken away there's not a promise in the word of god assuring the perpetuity of any particular lampstand not a one as one author has said the churches of the lord are lampstands as bearers of his light which is to benefit the entire surrounding and ultimately the whole world they are not themselves the light but just as a lampstand of itself is unable to shine so the church shines so the church shines shines only as christ by the spirit is the light which they bear to the world now what would this mean in practical terms if the lord carries out his threat at ephesus if he unchurches them if he removes them from being one of those lampstands in whose midst he moves as the life and light of those churches well it will mean something in a two-fold direction it will mean something in a two-fold direction it will mean something to the church there at ephesus and then it will mean something to the world in which the church was placed there in ephesus so this removal of the lampstand has a reference to the church

20:14 and also to the world what would it mean to the church itself it will mean that christ would no longer be found walking in their midst his presence would be gone if they would be removed now what does that mean well in the light of the teaching of scripture that christ is the light the life the glory the power of the church when he goes it is a stinking religious carcass that is all now how does he do this sometimes by unusual judgements which destroy both the essence and the visible existence of what would be called the church and that is exactly what happened at ephesus and one commentator who was there in the 1940s was bold enough to say quote there is now no Christian church of any denomination in Ephesus and the city is left in total ruin think of it a place that had the apostle for three years a place that became the recipient of that tremendous letter which spans the whole scope of God's salvation by grace from election in eternity to the presenting of the church as a glorious body without spot or wrinkle this threat has been literally fulfilled and not only has there been a destruction

21:44 of the essence of the church but the very visible existence of the church has been utterly removed from Ephesus but other times and more frequently this threat as far as the church is concerned is carried out by the gradual process process of decay the rotting and eroding of the foundations of truth and then subsequently of vital godliness so that what remains is no longer a lampstand bearing the light and heat of the person and work of Christ by the spirit but simply a religious organization what I called earlier a religious carcass Christ no longer the life the light no longer does he walk in the midst as a prophet instructing a priest suckering and forgiving a mighty king commanding and protecting and into such a place men and women and fellows and girls can come for years and know nothing of Christ in the glory of his person and the sufficiency of his saving work they can live and die as deluded and ignorant of saving truth as a pagan and my friends

23:11 if that doesn't strike fear to your heart and if you don't think that's real take a month off with my blessing and just make your way to many churches right here in Essex County and go in with paper and pencil and put in one column what do I hear of the uniqueness and the glory of Christ's person what do I hear of distinction and the glory of Christ's person and I can only be restored in Christ and your pencil in some situations would be sharp after a whole month what's happened Christ has removed the lampstand and where did it start listen it did not start all of a sudden when someone came out of a liberal seminary and stood up and said to the people of God Christ is not the unique son of God there is no efficacy in his saving work there is no efficacy in his saving blood no no they'd have run him out and tarred and feathered him you know how it all started the flower of zeal for pure doctrine was blooming full the flower of zeal for purity blooming heartily there began to be a waning of affection to the person of Jesus Christ the subtle encroachments of the world began to lower the temperature

24:38 in the hearts of the people of God and when Christ in his person begins to be loved a little less then it's not quite so important to maintain right views of his person and so a little subtle innuendo crept into Sunday school literature about Christ being much more considered as the son of man what we need is one whom we can identify with oh yes he's the son of God he's divine in some way or form and by degrees as people's hearts declined in attention to Christ's person in devotion and love the mind began to relinquish the unique truth about him and when that happens then people don't begin to feel their desperate need of him and they don't need a supernatural salvation so the truth about his saving work begins to be relinquished by degrees until over a process of time Christ has removed the lampstand and nothing else nothing else nothing else nothing is left but a religious carcass and over every single door post or entrance could be written it couldn't happen here but it has happened and dear ones it doesn't start

26:02 by relinquishing the notions of the head our Lord says it starts by declension of the heart and if this beloved will have much to answer for for we've been duly warned and duly exhorted for Christ says I will come and unchurch you into such places not only do the unconverted come and hear nothing of Christ but into such places the little remnant of true believers may come and never hear the ringing voice of biblical authority Christ does not minister as a prophet they're never ravished with the sight of his beauty they're never warned by the sense of his presence and they go home instead of refreshed and uplifted and their hearts made full by the sight and sense of Christ's presence they go home and they weep in secret for they know that the glory has departed and when he's removed the candlestick what hope is there for the child of God

27:27 well what happens then to the world when Christ fulfills this threat what happens then to the world what happens to that geographical area that city that county that country well think of Ephesus the very center of pagan darkness seat of the worship of the goddess Diana everything was held in the Stygian darkness of paganism until the gospel came and as the gospel came you read the account of it in the book of the Acts there was this great stir until it became a public issue and then there was this burning of the books of the heathen worship and the church was established and for the first time in the midst of all that darkness light sprang forth and now there was a center of light there was this shining diamond against the black velvet of pagan darkness the church at Ephesus beams of light and truth going out into that whole area the church being constituted now the light of the world the light of Ephesus and so to have the church removed is to see once again the devil hold undisputed sway in the hearts and minds of men it's to see the jaws of hell open up unchallenged by the presence of the church

28:56 if the coming of the gospel and the establishment of the church is the pillar and ground of the truth is the greatest blessing which can be given to the church and come to any people in any place then the removal of that church and hence the removal of the truth is the greatest curse which God can bring upon any people Charnock, one of the old Puritans has a sermon on this text and he calls it the removal of the gospel and he goes on to enlarge this theme that when the church removes when Christ removes the lampstand so that either the church removes the lampstand either by removing not only the essence but the existence of the church or by simply leaving an empty carcass without his presence the honor and ornament of a nation departs the strength of a nation departs and when God removes the church it is but the preview to coming and more powerful judgments I suggest that this is a terrifying threat because I know of nothing in the corporate life of the church in the corporate life of the people of God in the community more terrible than to have Christ say I come to remove the lampstand but this is not only a terrifying threat it is in the second place a conditional threat and this is where the little light of hope

The Conditional Nature of Christ's Threat

30:26 and the little glimmer comes notice how the threat is bounded on the one hand with these words remember, repent, and do the first works or else here's a condition or else could be translated but if not I will come to thee and remove thy candlestick out of its place except thou repent the Lord summons them to remember from whence they have fallen to repent and do the first works and now he says my carrying out of this threat is contingent upon your response to my call to repent clearly indicating if you do not repent I will come to thee I will come to thee I will come but if you repent I will not come and remove your candlestick so the very threat is suffused with a promise of grace the one who commends them in his grace and says look I see in you things that please me you try those that say they are apostles you can't bear evil men you're bearing for my name's sake that same Christ when he turns to complain and says I have some but against thee it's a complaint of grace of wounded grace and even when he threatens them his threat is suffused with grace for he says

31:53 but if not I will come except thou repent he's saying in essence my whole threat can be cancelled out if you repent if you repent it is a conditional threat it is a threat contingent upon their response to his call to repentance he who commands them in grace complains in grace threatens with grace but when the gracious call to repentance is refused they call down God's judgment and Christ's exclusion in other words if the gracious call to remember to repent and do will not prevail upon us to remember to repent and to do then the gracious call and the certain threat of judgment will prevail if we will not be wooed we shall be crushed if we will not fall upon that rock it shall fall upon us if we do not heed the word of grace we shall feel the rod of judgment that's what he's saying a conditional threat and now by application let me say all of this has got to be personalized how does the church at Ephesus repent of declension from their first love except in the individual members of that church how does a sick body get better

33:22 except by the restoration to health of the specific organs of the body that are sick if a man's sickness is in his liver his body gets better when his liver gets better if his sickness is a boil on his hand he gets better when the boil on his hand gets better if poison is going through his system by an infection in his ear the ear's got to get cured if poison is infecting the system through an abscessed tooth you've got to have the tooth pulled and so if this condition in the church at Ephesus which by and large had declined from first love if that condition is to be remedied it will only be remedied when individual members of the church at Ephesus who've declined from their first love do some sanctified reflection they remember they do some earnest deep repentance and then there is the reformation which follows and it's just precisely here that the great breakdown comes we hate close personal intimate dealings with God when it comes to the matter of our sin and our declension oh we're glad to have personal dealings with him when it comes to getting little goodies from him when we need them and when we want our little goodies we just don't come and say oh God bless everybody somehow somewhere sometime we just don't come and say we say oh Lord bless me with this thing right now in this circumstance

The Personal Application of the Threat and Call to Repentance

34:50 but oh when it comes to close individual dealings with God about our sin and about declension we want to let George do it let Henry do it let Mary do it and oh I plead with you this morning that the word of Christ shall be taken seriously as a personal word he says to you and to the extent that you are a part of the church this word comes to you this thing that is in saying should befest you here for a part of the table maybe that your action that was an action that was needed for every step but every moment a bit of whatnot a loss that you might not want and a kinda of regret but that is what's happen for any chance it's a Halishah for good an error giving no feeling a kind of need this is what you should not consider as you control as you push and take away shed forth in power on the day of Pentecost, and it could happen here. I don't know whether this is common to people. When you get over 35, you begin to think about other unborn generations. I don't know. Some of you have been down that road longer than I have, will have to tell me.

36:07 But it seems in recent days, as I've been meditating upon this portion, this awful sense of responsibility to my children and to unborn generations has gripped me. Somebody was too busy with his own little circuit of trinkets, own little circle of playing with his trinkets at Ephesus, to consider the awful darkness into which that area would be plunged for generations by failure to heed the call of Christ. Maybe we ought to do some sober thinking today. You stop and ask yourself, do you want to be a do you want your children to come to a, quote, church, a religious organization where the truth concerning Christ's person and his work and his saving power is obscured and blotted out by the mere mouthings of men's opinions? Do you want people who happen to come by and move into the neighborhood and are seeking out, quote, a church to come through those doors and sit for weeks and never be told that they're lost and undone? And their only hope is sovereign mercy in the Savior who is the unique Son of God, the unique

The Appended Threat: Hating the Deeds of the Nicolaitans

37:24 Son of Man? Then, if you want to bring that to pass, just fail to remember, to repent and do, and Christ will fill the word of his threat. He will fulfill it. But it's not only a terrible threat and a conditional threat. Very briefly, in closing, it is an appended threat. An appendix is that which is an appendix to the word of God. It is an appendix to the word of God. It is an appendix to the word of God. It is an appendix to the word of God. It is an appendix to the word of God. It is an appendix to the word of God. It is an appendix to the word of God. It is an appendix to the word of God. Added as a supplement, you find it at the back of certain books, an appendix. And our Lord gives this threat an appendix. And I must confess that there was a long while when I thought this next statement was out of place. Why did he put it here? But this thou hast that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which also I hate. I thought this should have appeared up there when he was

38:18 commending them. When he says, you've tried them that say they are apostles, I would expect him to say in there, and you hate the deeds that I hate. But he doesn't put it there. Now why?

38:28 May I suggest that it's well nigh too blasphemous to say our Lord forgot? Forgetfulness is a part of our experience, not his. Our Lord puts this here with a specific purpose in mind. What do the words mean when he says, but this thou hast that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans? Who were the Nicolaitans? Well, reams have been written, and the only thing we can know for certain is that they were a sect that had broken off from the mainstream of true biblical Christianity, whose peculiar doctrines were that the grace of God gave you license to go ahead and live as you pleased, and we didn't need to be careful about how we lived. They taught a doctrine of antinomianism. It led to license in living. That's all we know for certain about them. They

39:22 tried to lower the radical demands of the gospel. They tried to lower the radical demands of the gospel. They tried to lower the radical demands of the gospel. They tried to lower the radical demands of the gospel. They tried to lower the radical demands of the gospel. They tried to lower the radical gospel in the heart and in the life. Now, what does it signify that they hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans? I believe this is what our Lord is saying. The ability to hate what I hate and to love what I love stand and fall together. He's saying if you hate what I hate, it's an indication that there is yet in you some love to what I love and therefore love to me. The presence of hatred for error is an indication there is still some love for truth. Whenever you find the capacity to hate evil and error and the devil and sin is gone from a man, you can rest assured that the capacity to love righteousness and God and truth is gone from a man. It's said of our Lord, thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity and those

40:32 two are fused, two sides of the coin. There's no such thing as a holy positive love. You show me the man who says he loves his wife with a holy positive love and that's all and I'll show you a man who's got a wife who wished she were someone else's wife. If he has no capacity to hate the approaches of another man, to hate the seduction, of another man, if he has no capacity to love with a jealous love, his love isn't worth a nickel, is it girls? Would you want that kind of love? Someone said my love for you is holy positive.

41:06 Anybody else can love you? Anybody else can have you? I just love you with a holy positive love. You wouldn't want that. Now our Lord says to this church, though you have declined in your love, I see a little ray of encouragement here. You have not declined to the place where you can look upon evil. That is, departure from my truth in theory and in practice with indifference. You look upon it with a positive aversion. You hate it and he says this you have and if that disposition of grace in the heart is increased in development, developed, it will bring you back to the place where love to my person once burns and glows as it ought to. Again, I see the grace of Christ, looking for every signal of encouragement. And also, could it be that our Lord realized that to the true people of God at Ephesus, to whom this word came, thou hast left thy first love, to hear Christ complaining against him is the biggest grief to a true Christian. Maybe there were those who would have been so swallowed up in their grief they were about to say, what's the use? The Lord

42:26 says, now don't be overly discouraged. I pointed out your area of fault, but let me encourage you, there is that in you right now, which if properly nourished, can develop again into all that it ought to be. Is there someone sitting here this morning who says, I know, as I've done some sanctified reflection, I've left my first love. There isn't that delight in God, in prayer, in the ordinances, in the fellowship of his people, but what's the use?

43:01 Ah, though you've lost your first love, do you still find your righteous soul vexed as you live in this veritable Sodom? Do you find yourself actively hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans of our day? Do you find yourself hating a cheap, tawdry gospel that encourages men to believe that they've got a ticket to heaven in their pocket while their feet walk in ways of fleshly indulgence? Married to the world and to the flesh, do you find you have a right to be a Christian? Do you have this capacity to hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans? Do you? Do you?

Encouragement and Final Exhortation to Repentance

43:37 The Lord says, take encouragement, take encouragement, for this shows that your heart is still in some measure sensitive to me and to my ways and to my truth. Seek me, and I who have wrought this grace in you and sustained that much in you, I will tenderly nourish that plant, that flower of love to me until it blooms full and vigorous once more it's a terrible thing to have christ make a threat terrible because of who he is terrible because of the form in which it comes terrible because of the substance of it yet this is a conditional threat it need not be fulfilled in us if we comply with his call to repentance and it's an appended threat we should be encouraged by every present evidence of grace to believe that that grace can develop and that that grace can grow let me read from charnock as a closing paragraph this morning let us prevent by repentance and prayer the removal or eclipse of the gospel the loss of your home the massacring of your children the chains of captivity are a thousand times more desirable than this you

45:06 deplorable calamity your estates may be recovered new children may be raised fetters of political bondage may be broken off new houses may be reared upon the ashes of the consumed ones the possessions of a country regained but it is seldom the gospel returns when carried away by the judgment of christ that's a frightening statement but it's true not deny this is what the gospel presents to us all the time which is a so he will not have his gospel extinguished in all parts of the world or all parts of this western world but what does this secure us from any does this secure any one of us from a great eclipse what if God will not remove his gospel may he not suffer many to be infected with potpourri that is Romanism may not many of your friends and children be tainted with this leprosy

46:21 that may prove incurable in them let us now therefore seek unto him chiefly to him and only to him for he only can remove the candlestick but he only can put his hand upon the church to preserve it men may be instrumental for its removal but it's Christ only who removes the candlestick and he only can maintain it against the puffs of men and devils he hath his enemies unachained and the full command of their breath place no confidence in men some may have some power to give relief and will not others may have the will to help and cannot if we maintain our feud with God he will bid the gospel go and it shall go if we make our peace with him he will bid the gospel stay and it shall stay and as he hath angels to bring so he hath angels to carry away the everlasting life so he hath angels to carry away the everlasting life remember the threatening in the text is not absolute but there is an else and except to mitigate it remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come to thee quickly and remove thy candlestick out of this place except thou repent

47:48 may God grant that we shall hear the voice of our gracious Savior and repent let us pray let us pray our Father we are sobered when we realize that we're not dealing with just some nice little thoughts to act like a tonic or a vitamin pill for the coming week but we've confronted truths this morning that bring in the whole compass of unborn generations of the whole influence of the gospel in communities in cities in counties in nations Father oh have mercy upon us lest through our irresponsibility our irresponsible indifference and our refusal to remember to repent and to do you should be forced to fulfill the threat of your dear Son and remove this candlestick oh God may we think of how wonderfully you have brought this candlestick into being we know that this is no assurance of its perpetuity

49:12 Lord Jesus be the life and the light of the world Lord Jesus be the life and the light of the world this church we pray that where we've grieved you by losing and forsaking our first love that you will forgive us for every silly little trinket which has occupied our interest every single foolish pursuit that has sapped away our affection from you forgive us for succumbing to the flirtations of the world forgive us for running after things that have dulled our sensitivity to sin and to your presence, that have made your word less precious. Lord God, have mercy to us as a church. The world would look at us and call us fanatics, and many of your people would look at us and say, well, that's a church in pretty good shape. But Lord, you see our hearts, and you know the areas where we've declined, and we pray that you'd give us the grace of spiritual honesty, give us the grace of repentance, give us the grace

50:29 and ability of reformation, that we may do the first works. Father, what can we do but call upon you to have mercy, and to restore us, and to preserve us? Oh Lord Jesus, walk in our midst in power. Lord, if you don't shed forth the light of your presence,

50:53 whatever. gentleness if there isn't the warmth of your presence what barrenness lord jesus don't leave us be in our midst may we not grieve you by disobedience by hardness of heart oh lord come in gracious power by the spirit and revive and warm our hearts and make your presence felt and known to the edifying of your people and to the gathering to yourself of those other sheep that you must bring to this end seal your word to our hearts and may there be eternal prophet be with us through the remainder of this your day help us to honor you in it may we like john be in the spirit on this your day and like john may we see you in a new way oh may we see you with the eyes of newáHSB. of faith, and may we fall at your feet as John did. We ask in the name and for the glory of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.