Ephesus: The Loveless Church

[0:00] Well, this evening, with the Lord's help, if we could turn to the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation, chapter 2.

[0:18] Revelation, chapter 2. And we're going to consider the letter to the church in Ephesus. That's chapter 2, verses 1 to 7.

[0:33] Revelation, chapter 2, from the beginning. Where Jesus says, To the angel of the church in Ephesus write, The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, Who walks among the seven golden lampstands.

[0:52] I know your works, your toil, and your patient endurance. And how you cannot bear with those who are evil, But have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, And found them to be false.

[1:06] I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, And you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, That you have abandoned the love you had at first.

[1:17] Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen. Repent and do the works that you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, Unless you repent.

[1:32] Yet this you have, You hate the works of the Nicolaitans, Which I also hate. He who has an ear to hear, Let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

[1:45] To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, Which is in the paradise of God. Now one of the things that we're bombarded with, In the 21st century, Is the need for healthy living.

[2:08] And as you know the NHS, They have many campaigns about various health problems in our nation. Obesity, Heart disease, Smoking, Alcohol, Diabetes, Stroke, Dementia, Cancer, All these things are highlighted to us, And they are emphasised to us, So that we will make sure that we're all living healthy lives.

[2:32] In fact the NHS, I don't know if you know this, They offer a free health check, To anyone who wants it. Which is only a good thing. Because we all want to be healthy.

[2:43] We all want to prevent illness, If we can. We all want to live long enough, To see our children, To grow up. And I'm sure that it's good to have a health check.

[2:57] But what about a spiritual health check? Would it not be good to have a spiritual health check? To see where we are as a church? To see where we are as individuals within a congregation?

[3:10] Would it not be a good thing to have a spiritual health check? To know what we're doing right? And to know what areas we need to correct and improve upon?

[3:21] And you know that's what the letters to the seven churches are. They are the results, you could say, Of a spiritual health check. Jesus, who is the great physician of souls, He is here giving to the seven churches in Asia, He's giving to them the results of their spiritual health check.

[3:43] And as we shall see in the coming weeks, Some of the things that Dr. Jesus has discovered, Is that there are things that need to be rectified immediately. And if they're not rectified immediately, They could have detrimental effects upon the spiritual well-being of the church.

[4:00] Now the reason Jesus is giving the results of a spiritual health check, Is because He has a care, And He has a concern for the spiritual well-being of His church.

[4:13] We were told last week when we considered chapter 1, That Jesus loves the church. Jesus washed the church. Jesus freed the church from their sins by His own blood.

[4:26] And now as the risen and exalted and glorified Savior, Jesus is the king and head of His church, And He wants His church to be faithful and obedient, In a world that is hostile to the gospel.

[4:40] And you know, that was the reason the book of Revelation was written. Because the book of Revelation, it's all about Jesus Christ. It's all about this risen and exalted and reigning Savior.

[4:52] And He is being revealed to us by God the Father, In order to call the church to live faithful and obedient lives, In the face of opposition and even persecution.

[5:06] And so Jesus, He commands His servant John, The apostle John, To write to these churches, And He wants them to know the results of their spiritual health check.

[5:17] But He wants to not only give them the results, He also wants to prescribe a remedy, To encourage the church to be faithful and obedient to Jesus Christ.

[5:31] You know, as we mentioned last week, The reason there are seven churches is symbolic. Because the seven, the number seven, It represents the whole church of Christ.

[5:43] And so the letters to the seven churches, They apply to the whole church of Christ. They apply to us. They are an important message to us here in Barvis.

[5:57] And they have been sent by Jesus Christ. And you know, what we have to remember, Is that Barvis Free Church, Or Bor Free Church, Whatever you want to call it, It belongs to Jesus Christ.

[6:10] And Dr. Jesus, This great physician of souls, He has a care and a concern, For the spiritual well-being, Of our congregation.

[6:24] And so we have to take heed to the results, Of these spiritual health checks, So that we will be able to apply, The prescribed remedies to our own congregation. And that we will seek to be faithful, And obedient, In the church of Jesus Christ.

[6:39] And so the first letter, Jesus commanded John to write, Was to the church in Ephesus. And the church in Ephesus, It could be described, As the loveless church.

[6:52] The loveless church. But what does the letter, To the church in Ephesus contain? Well, It contains a word of commendation, A word of condemnation, And a word of consolation.

[7:07] That's what Jesus has to say, To the church in Ephesus. He has a word of commendation, A word of condemnation, And a word of consolation. So we look first of all, At Jesus' word of commendation.

[7:23] A word of commendation. Look at verse 1. Jesus says, To the angel of the church in Ephesus, Write, The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, Who walks among the seven golden lampstands.

[7:37] I know your works, Your toil, And your patient endurance, And how you cannot bear with those who are evil, But have tested those who call themselves apostles, And are not, And found them to be false.

[7:49] I know you are enduring patiently, And bearing up for my name's sake, And you have not grown weary. And you know, The first thing we ought to notice about the letter, Is who the letter is sent to.

[8:05] We're told in verse 1, That the recipient of this letter, Is the angel of the church in Ephesus. And that's how the letter to the churches begins. It begins with the recipient of the letter.

[8:18] That's the way they all begin, All these letters. It says, To the angel of the church in Ephesus, Or Smyrna, Or Pergamum, Or Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, And Laodicea.

[8:29] To the angel of the church. Now there have been many suggestions, As to who or what, The angel of the church is. Some have suggested, It's this guardian angel, Sent from heaven, To protect the church.

[8:44] Others have said that, It refers to the spirit of the church. What the people are like. Some have said that, It refers to the elders of the church. Which is more probable.

[8:57] But I believe that the angel of the church, Was the pastor of the church. And I say that simply because, The word angel, Can also be translated as messenger. And that's what the pastor of that church is.

[9:10] He is God's messenger, To God's people. The pastor's responsibility, The minister's responsibility, Is to bring the word of God, To the people of God.

[9:22] And the spiritual health of a church, Is the responsibility, Of the pastor. Yes the elders, They have a vital role, In the spiritual oversight, Of a congregation.

[9:34] But it's the duty of the pastor. It's the duty of the minister, To lead his people, And shepherd his people, Ensuring that his people, Are fed, And taught, And challenged, By the word of God, Correctly.

[9:49] And you know, That's why Paul urged, Young Timothy. Timothy, He was actually the pastor, In Ephesus, 30 years before this letter, Was written.

[10:00] Or even sent. Paul, 30 years before this, He urged young Timothy, To be a faithful messenger of God, To the people in Ephesus. And he said to Timothy, Timothy, I charge you before God, And before the Lord Jesus Christ, Preach the word.

[10:18] Be ready in season, And out of season. Convince, Rebuke, Exhort, With all long suffering, And teaching. Timothy says, Preach the word.

[10:29] And that was Timothy's duty, As the pastor in Ephesus. That was his role, As the messenger of God. It wasn't to be a social worker. It wasn't to be an addiction counselor.

[10:42] It wasn't to be a celebrity preacher. His duty, And his calling, Was to preach, The word of God, To his people. And to shepherd his people. Ensuring that his people, Were being fed, And taught, And challenged, By the word of God, Correctly.

[11:00] That was his role. That's my role. To present to you, The word of God, Correctly. And so I believe, That the angel of the church, Was the pastor, Or the minister, In the church.

[11:15] And Jesus here, He gives to the pastor, Of the church in Ephesus, This word of, Commendation. I know your works, Your toil, And your patient endurance, And how you cannot bear, With those, Who are evil, But have tested those, Who call themselves, Apostles, And are not, And found them to be false.

[11:35] I know you are enduring, Patiently, And bearing up, For my name's sake, And you have not, Grown weary. Now Ephesus, Ephesus, It was a wealthy, Seaport city.

[11:48] It was, Situated, It talks about Asia, But it was actually, Well, The southwest coast, Of modern day Turkey. That's where we are, Just now. That's what Ephesus is, The southwest coast, Of modern day Turkey.

[12:02] Now as a wealthy city, Situated along this, Key trade route, In the Aegean Sea, It was an influential city, In the Roman Empire. But sadly, What Ephesus was renowned for, Was two things.

[12:19] Idolatry, And immorality. That's what Ephesus was renowned for. Ephesus was famous, For its temple, To the goddess Artemis. Sometimes known as the, The goddess Diana.

[12:33] And, There was this Greek temple, In Ephesus. And it was, And it was dedicated, To this goddess, This Artemis. And it was this, The temple was so grand, In its structure, That it had become, Known as one of the, Seven wonders, Of the ancient world.

[12:51] And of course, With such a prestigious temple, With such a well known goddess, It was a money making opportunity. And the city of Ephesus, They certainly took advantage of it, They made, A fortune, By manufacturing, Replicas of this goddess, That they had sitting, In their temple.

[13:10] And they sent these replicas, All over the world. Making more and more money. And you know, We didn't read it, But that's what it was talking about, In Acts chapter 19.

[13:21] If you want to read that, When you go home. Everyone in the city, It says in Acts 19, They were making their livelihood, From the idolatry in Ephesus.

[13:33] But in the ancient world, What commonly came alongside idolatry, Was immorality. And the immorality of Ephesus, It came in the form of, Temple prostitutes.

[13:45] In which the temple priests, They owned temple prostitutes. And the prostitutes, They worked for the temple, And their acts of prostitution, It made more money for the temple, And all its administrators.

[13:57] And in many ways, The temple prostitutes, They were just slaves, Owned by the temple. And so Ephesus, It was nothing more than sin city. It was a place of idolatry, And immorality.

[14:12] It was a dark place. And yet the Lord led Paul, To plant a church, In Ephesus. The Lord led Paul, To plant or to place, A candlestick, In this dark city, And minister to the people there.

[14:29] In fact, As we were reading, In Acts chapter 20, Paul remained in Ephesus, And taught, And encouraged, And he said himself, He preached the whole, Council of God, To the Ephesian Christians, For three years.

[14:44] And as you would expect, Paul challenged, The idolatry in Ephesus. He challenged them, He persuaded, Many of the Ephesians, To turn away, From worshipping Artemis, Saying to them, That God's made, God's made with hands, Are not God's at all.

[15:04] And you know, When Paul preached, There was an uproar. Paul even, He had to leave Ephesus, At one point, Because Paul's preaching, Was affecting those, Who were trying to make a profit, By all of these, The sale of idols.

[15:20] And the people said, About Paul, There is a danger, Not only that this, Trade of ours, Will come into disrepute, But also that the temple, Of the great goddess Artemis, May be counted as nothing, And that she may even be deposed, Of her magnificence, She whom all Asia, And the world worship.

[15:40] You know my friend, When Paul preached, The gospel in Ephesus, It had a massive impact, Upon the city. Because many people, They turned away, From their idols, And they turned, To worship the Lord Jesus Christ.

[15:55] And of course, There was always a danger, Of the Ephesians, Returning to their idolatry. But you know, It seems that, Because Paul preached, The whole counsel of God, They were well taught, And they remained committed, To following Jesus Christ.

[16:14] But you know, When Paul wrote, His letter to the Ephesians, It wasn't, He didn't write, That letter, It's a wonderful letter, He didn't write it, To tackle any, Particular heresy, Like he does, With some of the, Other letters he sent, He wasn't trying to, Tackle a heresy, Or some error in the church, It was just a letter, Of encouragement, An encouragement, For the Ephesians, To stand firm, In their faith, And to remain faithful, To the teaching, That they had heard, From Paul.

[16:45] The teaching, The whole counsel, That he proclaimed, That they're saved, By grace alone, Through faith alone, In Christ alone, And this is what, And this is what Jesus, Commends here, About the church in Ephesus, He commends them, For standing firm, That they didn't fall, Into the temptations, Of idolatry, And immorality, Even though he, As Jesus says here, Even though they were tried, And tested, And tempted, The Ephesians, Patiently endured, And didn't grow weary, And it's a great, Commendation from Jesus, To have stood, Firm in their faith, Without wavering, And without turning, To idols, Look again, What Jesus says, He says, I know your works, Your toil, And your patient endurance, And how you cannot bear, With those who are evil, But have tested those, Who call themselves, Apostles, And are not, And found themselves, To be false, I know you are enduring,

[17:46] Patiently, And bearing up, For my name's sake, And you have not, Grown weary, And you know, I love that phrase, At the beginning of verse 2, Where Jesus says, I know your works, I know your works, The church in Ephesus, We must remember, It belonged to Jesus, He had redeemed this church, By his own blood, And because it was, His church, He knew everything about it, He knew what the church in Ephesus, Was faced with, He knew what they were being, Confronted with, Day by day, And even what they had to deal with, Jesus knew, Its strengths, And he also knew, Its weaknesses, And you know, It should be a great encouragement, To us tonight, That whatever we may be facing, As a congregation, Or as a presbytery, Or as a denomination, Or as a nationwide church, Whatever we are facing, The king and head of his church,

[18:47] Jesus Christ, He knows everything about it, Nothing is hidden from him, And he has a care, And a concern, For his church, That we will stand firm, That we will remain faithful, And through witnesses, For his cause, I know your works, Jesus knew everything, About the church in Ephesus, He knows everything, About the church in Barbers, He knows everything, That's going on, He knows what's going on, In my heart, He knows what's going on, In your heart, He knew everything, About the church in Ephesus, He knew their strengths, But he also knew, Their weaknesses, Which is why Jesus, Not only gives the church, In Ephesus, A word of commendation, He also gives, A word of condemnation, So secondly, A word of condemnation, A word of condemnation, Look at verse four, Jesus says,

[19:49] But I have this against you, That you have abandoned, The love you had at first, Remember therefore, Where you have fallen, Repent, And do the works, That you did at first, If not, I will come to you, And remove your lampstand, From its place, Unless you repent, So when the Lord, Led Paul, To plant the church, In Ephesus, Around, 52 AD, Which was over, 40 years, Before this letter, Was written, This letter was written, Around 95 AD, So, Paul planted the church, In Ephesus, 40 years, Before this letter, Was written, And even though, Paul had to leave, Ephesus, Because of the opposition, He faced with, Because of the gospel, There were many people, Who responded, Favorably, To the gospel, And at that time, There were many people, In Ephesus, Who were converted, They turned away, From their idolatry, They turned away, From their immorality,

[20:50] And they turned to Jesus Christ, For their salvation, And in many ways, You could say, That there was, A revival in Ephesus, There were people, Being converted, They were being taught, The scriptures, They were growing in grace, They were growing, In the knowledge, Of their savior, Of Jesus Christ, You could say, That back then, When Paul planted, The church in Ephesus, Everything was on the up, Everything was positive, Ephesus was, A thriving city church, It was being educated, In the doctrines of grace, They were becoming, Knowledgeable, In the truths of the bible, They were becoming, Active in the pursuit, Of faithfulness, And obedience, And holiness, You could say, That Ephesus, Back then, Was a model church, For the early church, But now, Over 40 years later, Things had changed, Ephesus was no longer, The model church, It once was, So we have to ask the question,

[21:52] Well what changed, What had changed, In Ephesus, Well when Dr Jesus, Performed his, Spiritual health check, On the church in Ephesus, His diagnosis, Was that they had lost, Their first love, They had abandoned, And let go, Of their first love, They had stopped, Loving God, And living for God, The way they used to, And they were now, Living according, To their doctrine, And their traditions, And making these things, Their priority, And it was an easy mistake, To make, But an awful trap, To fall into, And you know, What I believe, Happened, In Ephesus, Was that Ephesus, Became such a model church, Not only in its witness, And in its worship, And in its work, But you could say, That Ephesus, Was the theological center, Of the New Testament church, And they prided themselves,

[22:52] In their doctrine, They prided themselves, In their traditions, They prided themselves, In their knowledge, Of the Bible, And the people in Ephesus, They were under the ministries, Of some of the greatest minds, In the New Testament, They had the apostle Paul, He planted the church, He ministered to them, For three years, He preached the whole counsel of God, Then after Paul, They had Priscilla, And Aquila, And Apollos, And Silas, After that, They had young Timothy, And as we mentioned, Timothy, He was encouraged by Paul, To keep preaching, The sound doctrine, That he had preached, He was to keep preaching, In season, And out of season, And then after young Timothy, They had the apostle John, Ministering to them there, And you know, It's safe to say, That the church in Ephesus, It had a great heritage, Of men, Men who were, Who feared God, And preached the gospel,

[23:53] And stood up, For the truth, And taught, The doctrines of faith, And the people in Ephesus, They loved the gospel, They loved doctrine, They loved, The traditions, Of the church, But what became, A stumbling block to them, Was that they had lost, Lost sight, Of their first love, Jesus Christ, Because when these great preachers, In Ephesus, When they had gone, When Paul had finally, Been executed, Silas and Timothy, They had moved on, When John was, Exiled, To the isle of Patmos, When these men, Were no longer there, To challenge the Ephesians, To live out their Christianity, In faith, And obedience, To Jesus Christ, The Ephesian church, They lost sight, Of their first love, They lost sight of Jesus, And what replaced Jesus, Was their doctrine, And their traditions, And their theology, That's what became, A priority to them,

[24:55] They didn't, Put into practice, What they were hearing, What they had learned, They became lazy, In living out their faith, Now don't get me wrong, We need to be educated, In the doctrines of grace, We need to have knowledge, Of the Bible, We need to know our theology, But, If all that information, If it doesn't become application, Then it's of little benefit to us, And it's of little benefit, To those around us, If we're not living out, What we hear, From the pulpit, And what we read, In our Bible, Then we are not going to live, A faithful, And obedient life, For Jesus Christ, And you know, What I believe, Happened in Ephesus, And maybe, What we're in danger of, Happening here too, In Barvis, Is that the Ephesians, They were so well taught, Theologically, They had generations, Of solid preaching,

[25:56] Good theological education, And yet they placed, It all above, Knowing Christ, Personally, And intimately, They had traditions, They had, Religious customs, And practices, That may have seemed, Good and beneficial, But these things, Became the priority, They became the focus, They became, The first thing, You had to do, The first thing, You had to adhere to, They became, The defining features, Of Christianity, Instead of loving Jesus, And loving other people, And sadly, The church in Ephesus, It became so obsessed, With doctrine, And traditions, That they lacked love, For one another, And they ultimately, Lost their first love, Their Christianity, It became, Superficial, Where they, Looked the part, They wore, All the religious garb,

[26:56] They said the right things, They carried out, Their religious customs, They did their, Religious practices, They held all the traditions, And as long as, All these, Superficial acts, Were performed, Everything was fine, But Jesus says, I have this against you, You have abandoned, Your first love, And Jesus, The one they were meant, To love, Is telling them this, I have this against you, You have abandoned, Me, Your first love, And as a remedy, To their diagnosis, Jesus says, The beginning of verse 5, Remember, Remember, Remember, And as we saw this morning, In the book of Ecclesiastes, When the Bible uses the word, Remember, It's not asking us, To use our memory, Because the word,

[27:57] Remember, It's a call, To immediate action, And that's what Jesus, Wants from the church, In Ephesus, He wants them, To act immediately, He wants them, To rectify the problem, By repenting, He says in verse 5, Remember therefore, From where you have fallen, Repent, And do the works, You did it first, If not, I will come to you, And remove your lampstand, From its place, Unless, You repent, So Jesus reveals, The disease, That has crept, Into the church, And he calls the church, To act upon their knowledge, And repent, He calls the church, To turn, From the error, Of their ways, And return, To their first love, And that's what the word, Repent means, It means to change your mind, To turn around, To turn back, And that's what Jesus wants, He wants the church in Ephesus, To turn back,

[28:59] To turn around, To return, To their first love, Jesus wants the church, To return to loving him, And putting him, First, Because when we love Jesus, And when we put Jesus first, The outworking of that love, Is that we will love others, And you know, We mentioned this on Wednesday night, In the prayer meeting, When we were looking at Paul's letter, To the Philippians, Paul's prayer for the Philippians, Was that they would, Abound in love, More and more, That they would, Love one another, And Paul emphasized, That when we love Jesus, We will love others, When our love for Jesus, Deepens, Our love for our congregation, Will deepen, When our love for Jesus, Deepens, Our love for our community, Will deepen, But the problem with the Ephesians, Was that, Even though they knew the love of Jesus,

[29:59] They knew it theologically, Even though they knew all these things, They loved doctrine and tradition, More than Jesus, And when they lost their first love, They stopped loving Christ, As they ought, And they stopped loving the Christian, As they ought, And they stopped loving their community, As they ought, And because of this, The city of Ephesus, This godless city that they lived in, They didn't recognize, The disciples of Jesus, Anymore, They stopped recognizing the Christian, And the church, The church stopped reaching out, Into its own community, My friend, Listen to Jesus' words of condemnation, And we have to see that they apply to us, As a congregation, Because Jesus warned the church in Ephesus, He warned them that, If they failed to turn back to him,

[31:00] And love Jesus, And live out their doctrine, For Jesus, He says, If they didn't turn back, They would have no love for their fellow Christian, And no love for the lost, In their community, And when they have no love for Christ, The Christian, Or the community, Jesus warns, The church will die, The church will die, Jesus says, If you will not repent, And turn back, And love Christ, The Christian, And the lost in your community, Then I will come to you, And remove your lampstand, From its place, The condemnation of Ephesus, Was solemn, Because you know, Like many of the churches, In our island, And even in our nation, We have known years, Of faithful preaching, But unless that preaching,

[32:03] Is applied in our lives, And lived out, With a love for Christ, A love for our fellow Christian, And a love for the lost, In our community, Unless the next generation, Is reached, Then the church, In our community, Will die, And the lampstand of Christ's witness, Will be removed, My friend, The warning of Christ here, Is that we can't sit back, And do nothing, We can't sit back, And do nothing, We can't hide, In our holy huddle, Because we have to reach out, We have to love Christ, First and foremost, And the outworking, Of loving Jesus Christ, With all our heart, Mind, Soul and strength, The outworking of that, Is loving first of all, The Christian, And then loving the lost, In our community, We have to put Jesus first, He must be, Our priority, Above all our wants, And all our desires, We have to seek to live lives, For his glory, And the extension of his kingdom,

[33:05] Because if we don't, If we don't, The warning here is that, He will remove the lampstand, From our community, And you know, That's the last thing we want, It's the last thing you want, This church to be closed, And you know, You might be thinking, Well that won't happen here, That won't happen to us, Living in Barvis, We've seen revivals, We've had blessing, In the past, The Lord has been good to us, The same was said of Ephesus, And look at Ephesus today, It doesn't exist, Ephesus, You can't find it on the map, The lampstand, Is gone, We need to love Christ, We need to love the Christian, We need to love the lost,

[34:05] In our community, And we need to love the lost, So that they'll come, And know the love, Of this saviour, And so Jesus, He sends a letter, To the church in Ephesus, With the results of this, Spiritual health check, It's a reality check, And the letter it contains, A word of commendation, A word of condemnation, And lastly and briefly, A word of consolation, A word of consolation, Says in verse 6, Jesus says, Yet this you have, You hate the works of the Nicolaitans, Which I also hate, He who has an ear to hear, Let him hear what the Spirit says, To the churches, To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat, Of the tree of life, Which is in the paradise, Of God, And so as Jesus concludes, His letter to the church in Ephesus, He gives to them, A word of comfort, And consolation, Because even though, They had lost their first love, He says that they hadn't,

[35:06] Compromised their Christian witness, Their love for doctrine, It had actually, Helped them prevent living, Like the Nicolaitans, And Jesus says, You hate the works of the Nicolaitans, And the reason, They hated the works of the Nicolaitans, Was because the Nicolaitans, They were heretics, They were heretics, Who taught, That you could become a Christian, But still live like idolatrous, And immoral Ephesus, In other words, The Nicolaitans taught, You can love God, And do as you please, But for the Ephesians, They knew that, That wasn't an option, That's not what the Bible teaches, The Bible teaches, That you're to be holy, Separate, Distinct, From the world, And even though, The Ephesians, Had lost their first love, And become obsessed, With doctrine, And tradition, They were still unwilling, To compromise, Their Christian witness, And Jesus gives them, A word of consolation, He reminds them, To be faithful, And to apply,

[36:06] The word of God, In their lives, In fact, Jesus says in verse 7, He who has an ear, To hear, Let him hear, And you know, We've seen that phrase before, Jesus said those words, After he told the parable, Of the sower, You'll remember in the parable, Of the sower, That Jesus spoke about the seed, The seed being the word of God, And as the sower, Sows the seed, The effects that the seed has, Depends upon what type of soil, The seed landed on, And the purpose of the parable, Was to show, How people respond, To God's word, And in the parable, Jesus says, That there are some people, In church, And they just have a hardened heart, The seed just lands there, There are others, Who have a shallow heart, It goes a wee bit, Into the ground, But it springs up, And well, Their Christianity is short lived, Others says,

[37:07] Jesus they have a strangled heart, They can't let go of the world, But others says, Jesus they have an open heart, And it's when Jesus spoke, About the response of the open heart, The open heart to God's word, Jesus cried out, At the end of the parable of the sower, He who has ears to hear, Let him hear, Jesus called, His listeners to respond, In faithfulness, And obedience, To God's word, And that's exactly, What Jesus is doing here, He's calling the church, In Ephesus, To respond to his letter, In faithfulness, And obedience, And you'll see, In these letters, That Jesus says the same thing, To all the churches, He concludes each letter, With this phrase, He who has ears to hear, Let him hear, And the reason Jesus does that, Is because he's calling, The whole church, He's calling his church, To live lives of faithfulness,

[38:08] And obedience, To God's word, He says, He who has an ear to hear, Let him hear, What the spirit says to the churches, To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat, Of the tree of life, Which is in the paradise, Of God, And so what Jesus is saying there, Is that if you conquer, If you overcome, If you endure to the end, If you don't make shipwreck, Of your faith, He says, You will eat the tree of life, In the paradise, Of God, And the word paradise, It's translated as, Garden, Meaning the garden, Of Eden, And it was Dr. Joel Beeky, Who's a great preacher, And publisher, Of our generation, He writes in his commentary, On the book of Revelation, He says here, About verse 7, He says, What Christ holds, Before his church, To encourage the Christian,

[39:09] To live faithful lives, Is the hope, Of once more, Walking with God, In the garden, In the cool of the day, Everything that we have, Forfeited by sin, Has been recovered, By the blood of Christ, And will be restored, To us, In the end, Therefore, With such great promises, Of reward, Nothing should keep us, From using all possible means, To recover, Our first love, That we may overcome, By faith, And obtain the promised, Blessing, And you know, That's the desire, Of Jesus for his church, He wants us, To take heed, To the results, Of this, Spiritual health check, So that we will, Apply, This prescribed remedy, To our own congregation, Here, And that we will seek, To be a faithful, And obedient church, To the glory, And honour, Of Jesus Christ, That we will love,

[40:10] First of all, Christ, And the Christian, And the lost, In our community, That's what Jesus, Is wanting us to do, To love Christ, The Christian, And the lost, In our community, And so the church, In Ephesus, It was the loveless church, Jesus, Had a word, Of commendation, A word, Of condemnation, And a word, Of consolation, May we, Heed, What Jesus is saying, And apply it, In our lives, May the Lord, Bless those thoughts, To us, Let us pray, Heavenly Father, We give thanks, For the blessing, Of being able, To study thy word, And to have Jesus, Thy son, Speak directly, Into our situation, And into our congregation, And we pray, Lord, That we would take heed, To what he has said, That we would love, First of all, Our saviour, And realise, What he has done for us, That he has loved us,

[41:11] And gave himself for us, Help us, Lord, To love Christ, Help us to love, The Christian, Those, Lord, Whom we walk with, Day by day, In this wilderness journey, And help us, To love those, Who are lost, Still graceless, And godless, Still needing, To be saved, Help us, To love them, Help us, To look upon them, With compassion, And have this great desire, That they would know, Jesus for themselves, That they would know, The promises of eternal life, That they would know, The hope, The hope that is found, In Christ, And Christ alone, Oh Lord, Watch over us, Then we pray, Help us, To apply thy word, In our lives, And to live it out, For thy glory, Take away our iniquity, Receive us graciously, For Jesus' sake, Amen.

[42:01] Shall bring our service, To a conclusion, By singing the words, Of Psalm 31, Psalm 31, In the Scottish Sauter, Page 243, Psalm 31, Singing from verse 21, All praise and thanks be to the Lord, For he hath magnified, His wondrous love to me, Within the city fortified, For from thine eyes, Cut off I am, I in my haste hath said, My voice yet heardst thou, When to thee, With cries, My moan I made, O love the Lord, All ye as saints, Because the Lord doth guard, The faithful, And he plenteously, Proud doers doth reward, Be of good courage, And he strength, And to your heart shall send, All ye whose hope and confidence, Doth on the Lord depend, These verses of Psalm 31, To God's praise.

[43:02] O praise and thanks be to the Lord, For he hath magnified, His wondrous love to me, With him, The city fortified, For from the night, That hope I am, I in my haste hath said, My voice yet hurts thou,

[44:07] When to thee, With Christ my moan I made, O love the Lord, All ye his saints, Because the Lord doth guard, The faithful man, He plenteously, Rout to earth's touch reward, Be of good courage, And his strength,

[45:09] And to your heart shall send, All ye whose hope and confidence, The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, The love of God the Father, And the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, Be with you all, Now and forevermore.

[45:48] Amen.