Christ's Entreaty (Rev. 2:7)

Review of Christ's Message to Ephesus

0:01 Revelation chapter 2, and I shall read the first seven verses.

0:12 To the angel of the church in Ephesus write, These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, he that walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, I know thy works, and thy toil and patience, and that thou canst not bear evil men, and didst try them that call themselves apostles, and they are not, and didst find them false, and thou hast patience, and didst bear for my name's sake, and hast not grown weary. But I have this against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love.

0:57 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 its place. Except thou repent, but this thou hast, that thou hatest the works 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 paradise of God.

1:35 I would remind you, by way of review of the setting of this particular portion of Scripture, and likewise of the two chapters, the first two chapters of the book of the Revelation, I'm sorry, the first three chapters, it is the Lord Jesus, in all his glory and splendor, in the midst of his church, seen as the one who walks in the midst of the lampstands, and as he addresses himself to this church at Ephesus, he reminds them that he is the great, omnipotent, sovereign Lord, holding the seven stars in his right hand, and walking in the midst of his church.

2:18 So then it is Christ, in the midst of his church, as the life of his church, the light of his church, the ruler and protector of his people. It is in that capacity that he speaks to this church at Ephesus. In our previous studies, we looked at his commendation of the church. Those things which he saw in their midst, which caused him delight, and he mentions those.

2:46 Then he issues his complaint in verse 4, I have this against thee, thou didst leave thy first love. And we saw in this complaint, the tremendously vital principle, that nothing is more basic to the continuance of the life and blessing in any given church, than the measure, the measure of devotion to the person of Jesus Christ. The life of a church is not to be measured by its manifold activities. It's not to be measured primarily by its numerical standing.

3:22 It is to be measured by the reality and intensity of love to the person of Jesus Christ. And where that love begins to wane, it is only a matter of time before death will manifest itself in every realm. And so our Lord, issues his complaint. Then he gives his commands.

3:42 Remember, repent, and do the first works. This is the way to restoration. Reflecting upon what they once were. Repenting of this sin of declension in love.

3:56 And then setting themselves to do the first works. And then in our last study, we looked at our Lord's threat and his encouragement. If thou dost not repent, he says, I will come and unchurch thee. I will move thy candlestick out of this place.

4:15 The activity of Christ in judgment, causing a church to cease to be a true church, may be going on in terms of its outward organization and structure, but Christ no longer its life and its light and its presence. The worst judgment that could come to this church is for Christ to remove, remove the candlestick. But then he encourages them with those words, but this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. The capacity to love and to hate stand or fall together.

The Entreaty: Hear What the Spirit Says

4:54 And because there is the presence of hatred to evil, our Lord says, this positive love to myself can be fanned and increased and developed. Now we come this morning to verse 7, to what I am calling the entreaty of our Lord. We've looked at his commendation. We've looked at his complaint.

5:19 We've considered his command, his threat, his encouragement. Now we look at his entreaty.

5:28 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. Now this is a tremendously important statement of Scripture. It's one of the few that occurs all seven times or in all seven of these letters to the seven churches. Every one of them closes with this entreaty, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.

6:01 So if you were a part of one of the churches of this day, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamon, Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Thyatira, Laodicea, and you were sitting there in one of those churches when one of the elders read this letter, in the first 10 to 15 minutes of the reading, you would have heard this phrase seven times. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. And at the close of the seventh letter for the book of the Revelation was to go out as a unit, as one letter to all of those churches, you would have gained the impression that something was pretty important

6:44 if our Lord repeated it seven times. He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. So this morning we want to try to understand what our Lord means in this entreaty, some of the lessons bound up in this entreaty for our present edification, edification, and I trust, for our future prophet as well. And the first thing I want you to consider with me as we look at the text is the identity of the Spirit's voice.

The Identity of the Spirit's Voice: The Word of Christ in Scripture

7:21 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith, better translated in modern 20th century vernacular, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Here is the fact that the Holy Spirit is speaking, speaking to the churches. Now the question is, where do you identify the Spirit's voice? Hear what he's saying, but how can I know when he's speaking?

7:54 Where do I go to hear the Spirit's voice? That's a pretty important question. In fact, there are a few questions more vital than that. And it's on this issue that the church has been plagued with all kinds of fanaticism and all kinds of, you know, all kinds of spiritual declension through the years because she has not been able to identify the Spirit's voice.

8:20 Where does the Spirit speak? How does the Spirit speak? And so it's essential at the outset that we consider the identity of the Spirit's voice. And the answer that this passage gives is simply this.

8:35 The voice of the Spirit is the Word of Christ embodied in the words, in the words of Scripture. Let me give it to you again. I have literally spent, I don't know, probably close to a half an hour, 45 minutes, just constructing that sentence alone. And I've crossed it out and changed it and rearranged it.

8:56 And I think now it's accurate.

9:00 The voice of the Spirit is the Word of Christ embodied in the words of Scripture. Now, where in the world did I get that idea? Well, look at who's speaking. Who has been speaking in this passage?

9:17 Christ. Notice how it began. These things saith He that holdeth the seven stars. Who is that?

9:26 It's the Son of Man that John saw in the first chapter. It's Christ who says, I know thy works. It's Christ who says, I have this against thee. Remember, repent.

9:38 The Lord Jesus has been speaking throughout this entire passage and yet, when He comes to the close, He doesn't say, He that hath an ear, let him hear what I am saying to the churches. He says, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

9:58 So then, the voice of the Spirit is the Word of Christ.

10:05 Now, how do we get that? Look at verse 10.

10:09 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. John said, I was in this state where the Spirit was ministering to me. So that all that He saw and heard was in the realm of the Spirit. The Spirit conveyed to Him this revelation of Christ.

10:28 The Spirit conveyed to Him these words of Christ. Therefore, in answer to the question, where do we identify the Spirit's voice? We have this scriptural perspective that the voice of the Spirit is the Word of Christ. And how is that voice conveyed?

10:48 In the, in the writing of the words sent to the seven churches. Notice verse 11 of chapter 1.

10:57 He heard this voice saying, What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches. Verse 19, Write therefore the things which thou sawest and the things which are and the things which shall be hereafter. Now, follow with me. And I've tried to simplify this.

11:18 As I say, I've labored, to get it as simple and as clear as I know how because it's so vital.

11:26 The voice of the Spirit is the Word of Christ embodied in the words of Scripture. The things John writes, he writes as a record of what Christ speaks and what Christ speaks as embodied in that record is the voice of the Spirit. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying. And the only way he said anything to those seven churches was through the words which they read from the pen of John.

12:03 That's why it's such a terrible thing for anyone to tamper with the words of this book. The book closes with that terrible threat in chapter 22, verses 18 and 19. I testify to every man who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto them just add one word. God shall add the plagues that are written if anyone shall take away from the words if he just deletes one word.

12:36 His name shall be taken from the book of life. What's the significance? Why be so fuddy-duddy and persnickety about words? For the simple reason that the voice of the Spirit is the Word of Christ embodied in the words of Scripture and to tamper with the words of Scripture is to tamper with the words of Scripture.

12:55 is to tamper with the words of Scripture. is to tamper with the words of Scripture. and is to misrepresent the voice of the Spirit.

Implications: Beware of New Revelations and Carelessness

13:04 You say, Pastor, what are you getting all excited about? Ah, I trust you see the implications of this. The first one is, I've already been hinting at it, the voice of the Spirit is always inseparably joined to the words of Holy Scripture. Hear what the Spirit is saying and the only way they could hear it was as the elders read the words of the book of the Revelation with Christ saying, I commend you, I complain, I command you.

13:38 In the light of this, you and I must beware of that fanaticism which looks for new revelations and new voices and for any voice of the Spirit outside of this written revelation of God. When I was in Grand Rapids recently, I hinted at this the other day, I think in prayer meeting or maybe it was last Sunday night, I don't remember, I talked with a man who said, no, he said, I don't like this idea that the Spirit speaking is bound within the pages of the book. I want a fresh word to my generation. He said, I believe we speak with an inspiration equal to that with which Isaiah spoke to his day.

14:20 And under the guise of wanting a Christianity that was relevant and a Christianity that was geared to the times, this man talked about a voice of the Spirit that came separate, from and independent of the words of Holy Scripture. My friend, listen, you beware of any professed intimations of the Spirit that don't flow out of and are bounded by the words of Holy Scripture. If you do, you may be giving heed to doctrines of demons and damn your soul with it.

14:56 How we should thank God for a book in which the voice of the Spirit is still there, still heard, and through which God ministers to our hearts. Beware of that fanaticism which looks for new revelations and new voices. Also beware of that carelessness which despises the exposition of the Scriptures. Remember the Israelites?

15:26 They had that old manna coming down every day until after a while. They say, our soul loatheth this breath. We want something new. Oh, of course, they had a perpetual miracle.

15:36 But they got tired of that. They wanted something new. How often this happens in a church that was made virile and strong as the voice of the Spirit was heard through the exposition and application of the Scriptures. And people begin to get tired of that.

15:55 That's old hat. We want something new, something scintillating. We want spiritual fireworks. We want ecstatic utterances.

16:04 We want spiritual miracles. We want spiritual miracles. We want spiritual miracles. We want visions.

16:05 We want trances. We want this. We want that. We want a scintillating musical program.

16:11 And we want musical packages and gospel bell ringers and all this other garbage.

16:19 The voice of the Spirit is not heard through the bells of the musical bell ringer, through the cleverness of the singer. The voice of the Spirit is heard in the exposition and application of the Holy Scripture. That's where he speaks. That's where he speaks.

16:39 The identity of the Spirit's voice right here.

Implications: Scripture as the Church's Judge and Guide

16:45 Then the second great implication of this identity of the Spirit's voice with the words of Scripture is this. The words of Holy Scripture are the word of Christ by which the Church must continually judge and evaluate herself.

17:03 In each of these letters there is the phrase He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit says. What the Spirit is saying not just to this Church but notice the plural. What He is saying to the Churches. In other words, as the people at Ephesus have this letter read to them which includes the letter to Laodicea, the letter to Smyrna and Pergamum, they are not only to listen to what the Spirit says directly and specifically to them in chapter 2 verses 1 to 7.

17:35 Every Church is to hear what the Spirit says to every other. He that hath an ear there at Ephesus let him hear what the Spirit is saying to all the Churches. In other words, any given Church is to constantly stand under the judgment and scrutiny of what God has said to the entire Church in His Holy Word. Therefore, as a professing Church of Jesus Christ, we must seek to expose ourselves to the entirety of the Scripture and the scope of divine revelation and let the light that comes through one book judge us and guide us and search us and direct us

18:19 and the light that comes to another book through a promise, through a precept, through the Psalms, the Prophets, the Proverbs, the Epistles, all of this blessed revelation is given to be to us Christ's instrument of searching us, comforting us, judging us, evaluating us, and giving us if the identity of the Spirit's voice is the words of Scripture and if Christ in ministering to the Church ministers by the Scriptures, then we as a Church must be under the constant scrutiny of the Word of the living God. So much then for the identity of the Spirit's voice.

The Necessity of Hearing: What Does 'Hear' Mean Biblically?

19:04 Now consider in the second place the necessity of hearing the Spirit's voice. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. And the verb form used here could literally be translated he that has an ear, let him surely hear.

19:30 Now the first question that comes to my mind and I hope it comes to yours as we think of the necessity of hearing the Spirit's voice, what does it mean to hear? When the Lord says he that hath an ear, he that hath an ear, let him hear, what does that word hear mean? Does it mean simply to have the words of Scripture fall upon our physical ears so that there are vibrations set up in the inner ear and there is a reaction in the brain concerning those words? No.

20:03 For Scripture speaks again and again of people who hear but do not hear, who have ears but they hear not. Consider just a few passages which lay out the richness of this word hear. What does it mean to hear in a biblical sense? We'll look at a verse in Genesis and then we'll move through a couple other Old Testament passages just to establish the scriptural meaning and concept of the word hear.

20:31 Genesis 42.

20:35 This is in the setting of the dealing of Joseph's brothers with him.

20:42 You remember that when he was about to be thrown into the pit when they were dealing with him in their jealousy, Joseph no doubt pleaded, asked for some display of kindness and mercy. But in recounting upon this, verses 21 and 22 of Genesis 42 we read, And they said one to another, We are very guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the distress of his soul and when he besought us and we would not hear. He besought us.

21:26 They heard his words beseeching for mercy but it says we did not hear. Well, did they hear him beseeching or didn't they? Well, he said, yeah, we heard but we didn't hear. He besought us but we would not hear.

21:42 Keep that in mind. Move on to Deuteronomy 12, verse 28.

21:48 Deuteronomy 12, verse 28. Here God has been giving his law to his people and now he says, Observe I command thee that it may, I'm sorry, observe and hear all these words which I command thee that it may go well with thee and with thy children after thee when thou doest that which is good and right in the eyes of the Lord thy God. Notice that observing and hearing is equated with doing upon which blessing was contingent. Observe and hear.

22:31 There is a parallelism between observance and true scriptural hearing. Turn to Isaiah 55. We'll look at a couple of instances from the prophets and all we're trying to do is establish what our Lord meant when he said, He that hath ears to hear let him hear.

22:53 Isaiah 55, verse 3. In, incline your ear and come unto me hear and your soul shall live.

23:08 What happens if a man truly hears? He lives. Now does everyone who simply hears the gospel invitation live? Of course not.

23:17 If that were true then broad would be the way that leads unto life and many there would be in that way. Here he says, hear and your soul shall live. Hearing is something more than merely exposing your ears to the vibrations of the voice of God. Jeremiah, chapter 13 and verse 10.

23:43 And this will be the last reference we'll look at in the interest of time.

23:48 This people that refuse to hear my words that walk in the stubbornness of their heart and are gone after other gods to serve them. Jeremiah 13, 10. Here was a people of whom it is said they will not hear my words. Well, they listened to Jeremiah's preaching.

24:09 In fact, they got so disturbed by it they threw him in a dungeon later on. But God says they won't hear my words. Do you see now the general meaning of the word hear in the biblical sense? Sometimes it simply means to receive in a physical way sounds.

24:25 But more often it has this far deeper connotation. To hear the word of God is to receive that word in a disposition of trust and submission which expresses itself in practical obedience. That's the meaning of the word hear. God says hear and you will live.

24:50 Receive my word in a disposition of trustful submission and express it by practical obedience and blessing will follow. I think you'll find that that definition fits. My people will not hear my words. They will not receive them in that trustful submissive disposition which leads to practical obedience.

25:14 Oh, they're listening to your preaching, Jeremiah, but they are not hearing your words. Now, in the light of that definition, notice now our text. Having identified the voice of the Spirit with the written words of Holy Scripture, this entreaty comes, he that hath an ear let him hear. You see what that's telling us?

The Necessity of Hearing: The Spiritual Ear

25:44 Not everyone is capable of this kind of biblical hearing.

25:51 There must be a spiritual ear for this kind of hearing. He that hath an ear let him hear, indicating that not everyone in the visible church had hearing ears. So he says, the one who, who does have an ear, that is, a God-given disposition of heart and mind to receive the word in trustful submission and to walk in obedience thereto, let that person receive my commendation, receive my commands, receive my encouragements and my rebukes and lay it to heart.

26:36 You see, not anyone, no one by nature has that hearing ear. First, Corinthians 2.14 says, the natural man, what? Receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them.

26:55 And the hearing ear as well as the seeing eye as we read in Proverbs are both from the Lord. This is the mark of Christ's sheep. John 10.27, my sheep hear, my voice.

27:12 And to hear in that context means exactly what we've defined here. My sheep are those who receive my word in trustful submission and they walk in practical obedience for he says later on in verse 27, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.

Illustration: The Earless Person

27:35 Now to try to bring this home to a very practical illustration. Suppose God, by a miracle, were to do something this morning that would make in a physical way an accurate representation of what is true spiritually. Now let me explain what I mean. He that hath an ear, let him hear.

28:00 There are some of you sitting here in the visible church this morning who cannot hear the word of Christ. You can't receive his word in trustful submission resulting in practical obedience. Spiritual things are foolishness to you. You have no ear to hear.

28:19 Now what I'm saying is suppose God this morning were to make external, visible and physical what is true spiritually.

28:28 Suppose in every pew where there's a man or woman, fellow or girl who has no spiritual ear, God were in an instant of time to take the ear out and to cover it over with smooth flesh.

28:42 As I was sitting in my study thinking of this, I thought would it be a strange thing if you met a totally earless person. Can you try to think what it would look like if right now these ears were taken right off and just smooth flesh put right over just like the flesh on the side of my cheek.

28:59 So that there was no organ to receive the vibrations that pass out over the larynx. There was no antenna out there to pick up the vibration.

29:11 Wouldn't it be a funny looking person? An earless person. One of the kids is sitting down here laughing and nodding. You're glad you're not that earless person.

29:21 It'd be a funny looking thing wouldn't it? Not only funny, it'd be tragic. For you see, if you were that type of a person sitting here this morning unless you had the ability to read lips, I could talk and talk and talk and read 50 passages of scripture and preach earnestly.

29:39 It would do nothing for you. Why? Because there was no ear to receive the silence.

29:46 May I say that's the tragic reality of some of you spiritually? That though you have physical ears receiving the physical sounds,

29:58 there are no ears upon your heart. That's why the word is not embraced with delight, with faith, with obedience. You have no spiritual ears.

30:14 Nobody has them by nature. We're born spiritually deaf without ears. And it's part of the work of regeneration for God to create in us a hearing ear. I would ask you as you sit there this morning, if God were to externalize and make physical in your body what is true of your soul, would you be an earless freak this morning?

30:45 Would you? Would you? Would you?

30:52 Where, when, by what means did God create in you ears to hear?

30:59 Our Lord said to his disciples in Matthew 13, they have ears, but they hear not, speaking of the people of his day, eyes, but they see not. But he said, blessed are your ears, for unto you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. Oh, the blessing of grace in having a hearing ear.

Application: Hear Now or Face Judgment

31:23 And if you go on to the judgment without that hearing ear, there is a word from Christ that you will hear.

31:32 You won't want to, but you'll be forced to hear it. The word that summons you out of the grave, John 5, and the word that says, depart from me ye cursed.

31:44 But to those of us who have hearing ears, listen to the plea of Christ. He that hath an ear, if God has created that ear, now he says, hear what the Spirit is saying. Embrace in a disposition of faith and submission expressed in practical obedience that which the Spirit is saying to the church. And what did that mean to the church at Ephesus specifically?

32:13 It meant that when the Lord commended them, they would receive that commendation with a sense of humility and gratitude. When our Lord complains and says to them, you've left your first love, that word would break their hearts to know that they were grieving the heart of their Lord. When our Lord commanded them, saying, remember, repent, and do, they would leave the church service that morning and go home to reflect, to repent, to cry out to God for forgiveness, to plead for fresh grace.

32:48 I ask you, my friend, have you heard this word as we've expounded it from Revelation 2? Have you done any remembering? Any repenting? Any return to the first works?

33:01 Have you heard this word? It's necessary if God has given to us hearing ears, that we apply ourselves to obedience, that we might implement that which God has said to us. I've referred often and even preached on one or two occasions on those verses in Psalm 119, verses 59 and 60, but they're so appropriate in this context. I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimony, I made haste and delayed not to observe thy commandments.

33:46 There's a man who's hearing what the Spirit is saying, hearing in this biblical sense, receiving in faith, receiving in obedience, and then working out in practical submission to the word of God. And so the second point in our study of this passage this morning is not only the identity of the Spirit's voice, but the absolute necessity of hearing His voice in all the richness of that word here in its biblical context. Look at the beautiful description of this in the Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians chapter 2.

The Evidence of True Hearing

34:29 Here is a people hearing the word of God.

34:34 And for this cause, verse 13 of 1 Thessalonians 2, for this cause we thank God without ceasing that when you receive from us the word of God, ye accepted it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God which worketh in you that believe. When a man hears the voice of the Spirit speaking through the Scriptures, here's the practical evidence it is at work in him. It molds him. It shapes him.

35:08 It directs him. It governs his life. Whereas the person who is merely listening to, but not hearing in the biblical sense, the word can fall upon the external ear. He may be impressed, not so impressed.

35:24 He may like it, may not like it, but this is the one thing that's characteristic of that person. That word does not enter the citadel of his very life, his heart, and his affections, and then mold and shape the life from the inside out. Whereas the mark of the man who has ears to hear, is that he is under the government of, and direction, and molding, discipline, and power of the word of the living God. And so we have our Lord's word coming to us in this passage.

35:58 He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Final Exhortation: Cry Out for Spiritual Ears

36:09 The identity of the Spirit's voice right here within Holy Scripture. Don't look for it anywhere else. It's here that he speaks. That's the identity of the Spirit's voice, always inseparably joined to the words of Holy Scripture, always coming to us with all the authority of Christ himself.

36:36 And then secondly, knowing that that's where the Spirit speaks, how necessary for us to hear that voice. If we have ears to hear, then to pray that God in grace may stir up our wills to walk in the light of the truth that we do receive. And if you're here this morning without hearing ears, perhaps you've listened to me preach dozens or hundreds of times, some of you, and it's been up in the hundreds in eight years.

37:08 As far as your life being any different, basically, you could have just as well come through those doors Sunday after Sunday with flesh, perfectly smooth flesh, over where the ears are. There is absolutely no difference in your life in the light of what you've heard. No difference. You may as well have had smooth flesh where your ears are.

37:33 Oh, my friend, if that's your state this morning, I cry out to you and plead with you that you might cry to the God who can create spiritual ears.

37:44 Plead with him that in grace and in mercy he would do, as we read in the Old Testament, circumcise your ears. That he would cut away that fleshy disposition, that carnal mind that causes you to be enmity against God and not subject to his law. That he would do what he says in Ezekiel, take out the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh and cause you to keep his statutes and to do his judgments. Cry out to him that he would give you ears to hear this, his holy word.

38:19 And my last word of exhortation is that when we gather week by week for the exposition of holy scripture, will you not pray as you come, O Lord, enable me to hear what the Spirit is saying? The Spirit is speaking in the exposition of the words of scripture. Christ is exercising his judgment and his examination and counsel and direction in his church in the opening up of the words of scripture. If we don't learn something of the sheer joy and at times the sheer inward pain and agony of hearing his voice in the exposition of scripture,

39:04 it won't be long before we'll act like those Israelites. We'll get tired of this business of exposition and we'll either give up the whole thing as fruitless and worthless or we'll start hankering after the Spirit's voice somewhere else and the Christian church is full of people running hither and yonder hoping they'll get some new aspect of the Spirit's voice in this movement or that movement or some other movement. My friend, his voice is bound up in the words of scripture. The Holy Spirit was promised to come to the disciples and to guide them into all the truth, to bring to remembrance the things Christ said.

39:43 And so when John writes those words, it is the word, the voice of the Spirit coming in that parchment that was sent to the seven churches. May God give us ears to hear what the Spirit would say to us. Let us pray.