Man, this morning I'm gonna be preaching through some of these messages to the
seven churches that are in Asia. Of course these seven churches were literal
churches that existed at that time in a certain geography which is Asia Minor,
what we would call today Turkey, but at the time that this was written it was a
place of Greek speaking and Greek culture and it was it was part of that
greater Greek world and so the of course the New Testament's written in
Greek and and the Apostle John is writing to these seven churches the
message that Christ gives him in these first couple of chapters and it says in
verse number one, under the angel of the church of Ephesus write, these things
saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand who walketh in the midst
of the seven golden candlesticks. Of course this is a description of Jesus
that we got from chapter one and so now Jesus is giving this message to the
church at Ephesus. Now a lot of people have tried to say well these are church
ages or different things but we need to not miss the literal interpretation here
that these are actual churches and they are pattern churches because there's no
new thing under the Sun. Today in 2023 there are churches like the church at
Ephesus, there are churches like the church of Smyrna, there are churches like
the church of Pergamum and these churches are a pattern for us to look at
ourselves and say wait a minute you know is faithful word Baptist Church like
Ephesus? Have we lost our first love or are we like Smyrna where we're going
through tribulations and persecutions and so these messages are relevant in
all time periods depending on the situation of a church at that time and
so people say well we're living in the Laodicean church age so people are
lukewarm but not every church is lukewarm. There could be some red-hot
soul winning churches that are not lukewarm whatsoever. In fact there are
and then there are other churches that are lukewarm but guess what at any
period over the last 2,000 years I guarantee you there are some lukewarm
churches. I mean here's a lukewarm church in the first century AD Laodicea right?
So with that being said let's get into this message to the church at Ephesus
specifically. He says in verse 2 I know thy works and and let me just point out
that all of these messages to the seven churches start out with this phrase I
know thy works I mean you could look at verse 13 it says I know thy works right
I mean we could go down the list verse 9 I know thy works just just glancing at
this verse 19 I know thy works. This is of utmost importance to God the work
that we actually do. You know it's one thing to talk a good talk it's one thing
to have the right doctrine on paper but apparently Christ is pretty concerned
with the work that we actually accomplish as a church the work that we
get done he says I know thy works. Later in Revelation he's gonna say behold I
come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work
shall be and so you should ask yourself this question sometimes what work have I
done for the Lord what work did I do for the cause of Christ I'm glad that you
believe the right things I'm glad that your heart is in the right place but
what work have you done because God says I know thy works or lack thereof right
and so our works are very important the things that we actually do as a church
matter. One of the big works that we do as a church is we go out and preach the
gospel to every creature right we're out there knocking doors every single
week and preaching the gospel get involved in that and then if you get
involved with that then Jesus could look down on you and say hey I know your
works you went out and evangelized you went out and preached the gospel you did
soul winning right that's a work that Jesus could know that you did and I
don't want Jesus to be looking down on me saying I know thy works and here let
me list all your works I just did because you're doing nothing you know
what a shame that would be and what a shame for a church how many Baptist
churches are there that are correct on the gospel they've got the right doctrine
they've got a King James Bible and they don't do any evangelism they don't do
any soul winning they're not doing any work outside the walls of the of the
church itself what a shame what a tragedy he says I know thy works and thy
labor you didn't you just say that I mean you just said works hey apparently
this is a pretty important subject if God's just gonna hit it twice in a row
first let's talk about your works okay we got that out of the way now let's
talk about your labor all right and then what what's labor hard work work and
hard work so when things are doubled in the Bible it's because they're important
they're repeated because of their importance and so we should be working
hard for the Lord I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience what is
patience referring to again probably a reference to work okay because when you
go to work you've got to patiently grind out whatever the work is that you're
doing diligence at your work often involves being patient right being able
to have the attention span to stay with the task and and to endure things now
obviously patience is referring to more than just work though because also
patience could involve enduring persecution enduring trials and
tribulations and being able to get through anything whether it's getting
through work getting through rough times but just having the patience to get
through it not being the person who only comes to church when it's fine or when
it's exciting or when you're all motivated and fired up no patience is
the one who's still there six months later a year later five years later ten
years later still instant in season and out of season he says and how thus thou
canst not bear them which are evil and God is saying this is what I like about
you I like it how intolerant you are as a church right because we live in a day
where tolerance is the buzzword we're supposed to be tolerant right well
here's another word for tolerance bearing with right isn't that what it
means to tolerate something it's to bear with that you know if I tolerate someone
I'm bearing with someone and he said you know I'm glad that you don't tolerate
evil people I'm glad that when someone is just straight evil you don't have
tolerance for that kind of a wicked person you don't bear with them that are
evil you don't say well you know I know this guy's evil but you know let's just
bear with them let's just tolerate him let's just have you know some freak we
were just talking about before the service I guess some freak had left a
bunch of voicemails or emails that he's gonna come down here and drag or
whatever and so you know we did we just have a whole bunch of roughnecks ready
to just you know hurl this guy into next week why because we're not gonna bear
with them we're not gonna be like all right everybody just leave them alone
you know and and and we're just gonna you know let's just have our church
service and just you know let's not make a scene here no we're not gonna bear
with them that are evil some freak comes here and drag we are gonna get them out
immediately I'm not gonna bear with those that are evil someone who comes
here and literally is writing to us and and leaving us a message say I'm coming
there to do evil I'm coming to corrupt your children I'm coming to corrupt all
of your eyeballs I'm coming to be wicked in the house of God we're not
gonna bear with someone who's evil you say well what if someday the law forced
you to allow these freaks into your church it will never happen it would
never happen okay because no one can force me to do anything at the end of
the day it would be me choosing to comply choosing to go along with it you
know I would sooner just disband the church and send everybody home then to
have a church service with one of these freaks in it I would literally just say
tonight and so Israel and we you know we'd all go home then to sit there and
and have the house of God be corrupted and in that way but the Bible says hey I
like the fact that you work that you have labor that you have patience and
how thou canst not bear with them that are evil God likes that he doesn't want
us to just put up with anything and to just tolerate any level of evil no
people that are evil should not be tolerated and thou has tried them which
say they're apostles you know somebody shows up claiming to be an apostle
claiming to be a prophet of God you don't just blindly believe them you're
not just gullible you test them out you try them and he says you've tried them
which say they're apostles and are not and has found them liars good job for
exposing the frauds and false prophets and false teachers and has born what
does born mean it means endured right and as born and has patience and for my
name's sake has labored and has not fainted notice how the same themes keep
coming up again working labor patience getting rid of the phonies right not
tolerating the evil people not tolerating the fake apostles and and the
false teachers and so forth enduring patience labor some of those same themes
keep coming up not fainting right keeping on going and so those are the
things that God likes to see in a church we want to make sure that we at faith
for Baptist Church excel in these areas that Christ is praising the church at
Ephesus for excelling in but he says nevertheless I have somewhat against
thee because thou has left by first love and so this is not something that he's
only doing to the church at Ephesus it's not like well all the other churches are
fine and Ephesus is messed up throughout this passage we're gonna find that he
will often have good things to say about a church and bad things to say about a
church so it's not that this losing of the first love just negates everything
that he just said about the church at Ephesus no he was giving them a sincere
actual compliment for those things because he's gonna do the same thing to
a bunch of other churches as well he's gonna say look this is all the stuff
you've got right here's what you've got wrong now this losing of the first love
though is a very serious problem and in fact it's so serious that it will
literally just this one thing even if they're right about everything else if
they mess this up it will ruin the church the church will be totally ruined
okay and we're gonna see that in this passage it says I have somewhat against
thee because thou has left thy first love remember therefore from whence thou
had fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come into thee
quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent now
what's the candlestick well back in chapter 1 Christ is in the midst of seven
golden candlesticks and the Bible tells us the seven candlesticks are the seven
churches and so when he says I'll remove thy candlestick out of his place he's
basically saying I'll remove your church out of its place and and really we're
not though necessarily talking about the physical entity is gonna physically be
removed but the church as a spiritual entity right it's symbolically going to
lose the candlestick as it were you know my pastor back in Sacramento he
would always use this illustration about one time there was a Kentucky Fried
Chicken and there was a crane like removing Colonel Sanders head from the
Kentucky Fried Chicken and Colonel Sanders head was like swinging from a
crane and he said what's going on he said you know this restaurant lost the
franchise because they were deviating from the corporate policies they weren't
serving the fried chicken according to that secret recipe or whatever and so
they had deviated from the standard to the point where they had lost the
privilege to be called Kentucky Fried Chicken anymore okay and so that's
what's gonna happen to the church that disregards the Word of God and
disregards Christ's rebuke here is that they lose the the franchise the
candlestick is removed the Colonel Sanders is removed and they're no longer
considered by God to be legitimate in his sight you know he's not gonna bless
them as a right church here if they persist in these things and so I'll
remove thy candlestick out of his place he's saying you know you're gonna cease
from the privilege of being a scriptural church okay whether that's literally
being wiped out and taken away and scattered and disbanded because churches
do disband don't they churches do close their doors this could be a literal
closing of the doors or it could be more of a spiritual removal where the Colonel
has to come down because of the fact that they have deviated from Christ's
commands and so it's very serious this thing of losing the first love now keep
your finger and go to the book of Ephesians because the thing about the
church at Ephesus is that there's a whole epistle written by Paul to the
Ephesians when it comes to Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Laodicea,
Philadelphia this is not the case but with Ephesians there's actually an
epistle written to the Ephesians right so look at chapter 1 of Ephesians and
look at verse number 15 of chapter 1 now this is being written much earlier okay
the Apostle Paul is writing this epistle to the Ephesians that the part of the
New Testament that was written the earliest is the epistles of Paul okay
and I'm not going to go into all the reasons why that's clear from reading
the New Testament but if you read through the New Testament and you do the
math the epistles of Paul are the first texts that were written that make up our
New Testament and so Ephesians is earlier than what we're seeing in the
book of Revelation look at Ephesians chapter 1 verse 15 it says wherefore I
also after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints
so the Apostle Paul saying your love for all the saints your love for your fellow
Christians is renowned you know it's a church that's known for their faith and
their love and he's saying I also cease not verse 16 to give thanks for you
making mention of you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the
Father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of him well that prayer was answered because they definitely got the
spirit of knowledge and revelation they even got the book of Revelation
specifically addressed to them but in chapter 6 if you would go to chapter 6
obviously we could look through the whole book of Ephesians and and see
different things that Paul is admonishing them with but one of the
things that he tells them in chapter 6 is that they be clothed in the whole
armor of God right and this is of course a famous passage about that and then he
talks about how one of the things that they need to have as their armor in
verse 15 is that they would have their feet shod with the preparation of the
gospel of peace right because going out and preaching the gospel is always
associated with the feet because it's going out and preaching the gospel we
don't wait for them to come to us we go into the all the world and preach the
gospel to every creature and so he says have your feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace he says in verse 18 praying always with all prayer and
supplication and the spirit and watching there unto with all perseverance and
supplication for all Saints and for me that utterance may be given unto me that
I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I'm
an ambassador and bonds that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak so
there's some teaching in Ephesians chapter 6 about going out and and being
prepared to preach the gospel of peace and also to have utterance to open your
mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel and to speak the Word of
God to the lost right we need to open our mouth and witness to the loss and
tell them about Jesus and tell them about Christ so go back if you would to
Revelation chapter 1 or sorry Revelation chapter 2 Revelation chapter 2 we have
this message to the church at Ephesus who had previously been known for their
love they were a loving church and apparently their love has waxed cold
they're still good on doctrine they're still doing a lot of work they're still
going through the motions as it were but they've lost their first love they're
good at exposing false teachers but they're not the loving church that they
once were they were known for love in Ephesians chapter 1 and they've lost
that first love and he says remember therefore from whence thou had fallen
and repent and do the first works now how do you get the first love back I
mean how do you just snap your fingers and make yourself love right because the
Bible says husbands love your wives the Bible says that women should love their
husbands and love their children okay well how does that work right how do you
just start loving someone or continue to love someone how does the church get
back to the first love well the Bible says that they get back to the first
love by doing the first works see if you do the first works you are stoking the
fires of the first love and this could go for any area where love is involved
now what one thing that obviously we would want to point to when we talk
about the first love and the first works has to do with loving the lost that's a
big thing because of the fact that Jesus Christ when he ascended up to heaven he
gave that great Commission go ye therefore into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature go ye therefore and teach all nations you over
and over again you have Christ leaving his disciples with this great
Commission as my father has sent me so send I you he said the Son of Man has
come to seek and to save that which was lost well I don't know about you but the
big reason why I go out so winning is because I want to get people saved
because I don't want people to go to hell because I love people loving the
lost should motivate us to witness to the lost you know when you have a friend
or a co-worker or a relative that you don't give the gospel to it kind of
makes you question your love for that person if you really cared about that
person you would want them to have this most important gift of eternal life you
would want them to go to heaven when they die and you would dread the thought
of them going to hell when they die you know recently there was someone in my
personal life that I had wanted to witness to and I you know I prayed Lord
give me an opportunity to witness to this guy I want this guy to be saved and
a couple days later like literally two days later God gave me a perfect
opportunity to witness to this guy that I had specifically been wanting to
witness to right because I prayed and asked you know that utterance would be
given unto me so that I could open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery
of the gospel and here's the thing about that is that why did I feel that way
because I love this person I wanted this person to get the gospel I wanted this
person to get saved and that's what the Bible is talking about here when it says
do the first works so that you can have the first love you know when you're out
there doing the first works and and you know people could debate what are the
first works well there's really two explanations that make sense if you're
looking at this passage I can only think of two explanations that really make
sense one way you could look at it is just do the stuff that you used to do
right that'd be one way to look at the first works right do the stuff that you
used to do or you could look at it as dude the first works like the first
works are a thing okay and if the first works are a thing then it would be the
stuff that's the most important stuff the primary stuff right the stuff that
comes first you can think of it that way and I think that when you look at the
four Gospels and you look at the works that Christ did when he first recruits
the disciples the first thing he says to the disciples when he recruits them is
follow me and I'll make you fishers of men it's about evangelizing it's the
first thing he says to them and then the last thing he says is go ye therefore
into all the world preach the gospel to every creature and so you know you can
see that this is paramount this is the first works that Jesus talked to his
disciples about they're the first in importance so I think it's pretty easy
to see that the first works are gonna involve witnessing to the lost they're
gonna involve evangelizing they're gonna be soul winning you know as far as the
first works do what you used to do you see if I go out and knock on doors and I
am actually opening my Bible and showing people how to be saved how do you think
I'm gonna feel about those people that I'm giving the gospel to you know I have
feelings of love toward them and I want them to be saved I have compassion on
them now it's easy for people who live a righteous life or people who are living
a clean relatively clean relatively godly Christian life to despise other
people and to lose that first love and to start to have just this gate disdain
and disgust for anyone who's not saved or anyone who's not living for God and
it's easy to become like that Pharisee thanking God that you're not as other
men are and just full of yourself and self-righteous and looking down on
everyone out there in this world instead of having that Christlike attitude that
says father forgive them they know not what they do you know you hear a lot of
talk about white privilege how about Christian privilege that's the real one
there's no such thing as white privilege but there sure is Christian privilege
because you know what if you grew up as a person who's black or Asian or Hispanic
but you grew up in a Christian home you got privilege that's what makes you more
likely to succeed has nothing to do with skin color it's the fact that you grew
up in a Christian home that's a privilege that's an advantage that will
advantage you for the whole rest of your life I'm necessarily being white because
you know you could be a white person and have some really sleazy parents and
crummy parents and wicked parents that's not gonna help you in life whereas you
could be Asian black Hispanic and have godly parents and you're you're set
you're privileged all doors are open unto you that's the real privilege my
friend Christian privilege okay and so it could be easy for one who grows up in
a Christian home and has the truth handed to them on a silver platter to
then look at the derelicts of this world and look at people who are ungodly and
sinful and despise them you know we should love them we should feel bad for
them we should try to help them we should have compassion on them you know
Jesus had compassion on the loss we should have compassion on the loss and
shouldn't just get all high and mighty and so thankful that we're not as other
men are we should love people and one of the ways that you don't lose that love
for people is by going out and ministering to people going out and
preaching the gospel to people it helps you stay in tune with the lost and and
and because you're doing something for someone it makes you love them more but
you know even outside of evangelism even outside of soul winning doing
things for other people increases your love for them how about just doing
things for your wife doing things for your husband doing things for your
children doing things for your parents that's gonna make you love them more
when you invest in something where your treasure is there will your heart be
also and when you invest your time and your thought and your energy and your
work into someone you will have more love for that person so how do you love
your wife do the first works what were the works that you did when you were
first dating your wife what were the works that you first did when you were
dating your husband do those works what about when you were first married and
you were so in love back in those days and you think about how oh we were so in
love and it was so wonderful well you know why don't you go back and do some
of the things that you did back then and rekindle that first love by doing
the first works but then you're not doing any of the same things and yet you
expect to have that same love you're not doing the works you know it's always
funny to see people when they get divorced and all of a sudden they start
improving themselves so greatly you know my kids are always joking around with me
because you know because my teeth are a little bit messed up they're not really
you know where they should be and you know apparently my children like to
point that out sometimes but my tip but but what you know we would joke around
in our house that oh you know they're like oh you get your teeth fixed or you
need to get this Invisalign or brace or I said well you know I don't I said I
don't want everybody to think I'm divorced you know when I'm when I'm this
40 year old man walking around with braces it you know just kind of I'm
divorced everyone you know right and so you know it's it's kind of and it's just
a joke don't get all offended or take it too seriously and if you're in your 40s
and have braces god bless you I'm glad you're straightening your teeth out you
know I'm just I'm too lazy to get it done all right but anyway here's the
deal okay you see people they get divorced all of a sudden they're losing
weight they're getting in shape they're taking better care of themselves they're
grooming themselves they're improving themselves they're all of a sudden now
they're they're trying to become a more interesting person it's like here's an
idea why don't you do that while you're still married and then maybe you can
improve that relationship you know it kind of reminds me of these people who
say well eventually our planet you know might get screwed up and we're gonna get
off spaceship and we're gonna go terraform some other planet you know
it's probably a lot easier just to fix this planet or just to deal with
whatever issues are on this planet then to take some rock out in space and try
to you know make something out of it from scratch sorry to get a little sci-fi
there with you but you know that's that's what it's like that's the
mentality though right you know divorcees from outer space it's like you
know it's like it's like oh screw this planet we'll just go find another one
no yeah Mormon the Mormons that's another sermon yeah hey fix this planet
right and and it right now it's fine I'm just saying like in these hypotheticals
where it's all screwed up or whatever you know it looks great to me I'm
looking out the window it looks beautiful there's nice and fresh and
wonderful but here's the deal okay if you would actually put some work into
your marriage it's just funny to see someone let their marriage die and then
all of a sudden now they're fixing themselves well fix yourself while
you're married do the first works why are they fixed because they're doing the
first works now for the second go-round and then they're gonna go on dates and
they're gonna be nice and they're gonna be fun and they're gonna be thankful and
they're gonna be why don't you be those things and then you'd still be married
right take care of what you've got do the first works rekindle the first love
and let me bring up another subject how about the subject of adultery you know
people commit adultery and they have to do all this sneaking around first of all
it's super wicked God punished adulterers with a death penalty in the
Mosaic law but people who commit adultery what are they doing they're
sneaking around they got to buy some burner phone they've got a you know pay
cash and all these hotels and restaurants and whatever and they're
spending all this money and stress and energy and time on committing adultery
you know what if you put that same energy and money and time into your
actual marriage you know you could actually go to those dinners and go to
that hotel and and do all those things and put that money and effort and energy
into your actual marriage then you might be able to actually make your marriage a
little more fun or exciting or whatever it is you think you're gonna find out
there committing adultery and and committing that stupidity and wickedness
you know why don't you put that same energy and time and effort into
improving the situation that you have and do the first works and and look just
to anyone who's married if you want your marriage to be to be blessed and to go
well and and if you want it to be pleasant you've got to put some effort
into it because you put effort into dating you put effort in in those early
days you got to keep putting in that effort right keep putting in the effort
keep putting in the effort and don't just get lazy and say oh well now she's
stuck with me so who cares let yourself go to pot you know don't give her any
attention don't don't spend time with her don't be thoughtful just nuts to it
who cares it is what it is just take it for granted folks this is a recipe for
disaster you've got to do the first works but in general even even outside
of just the idea of the first love and the first works here's another concept
that I think we can derive from this passage is that you stay great the way
that you became great okay you stay great the way that you became great you
think about businesses that used to be great businesses maybe they used to have
a really quality product and then they just fell off big time who can think of
some examples of places like that you know restaurants that used to be really
good brands that used to be really good you know used to be their products were
made in the USA or made in Germany or made wherever now they're made in China
and I'm not saying everything that's made in China is is garbage but like it
just seems like everything made in China is kind of garbage and it's probably
nothing against Chinese people it's probably some American company telling
them make garbage cut corners do it cheaper right and it's it's funny like I
used to really like playing the harmonica a lot and you know there's
there's one brand that's the standard in harmonicas I mean anybody know what it
is I mean somebody call it out all right thank my son knows it's a honer right
the the standard harmonica the best harmonicas are made by honer okay and a
honer harmonic here's what's cool about the harmonica you know musical
instruments are expensive right and especially if you wanted to buy the best
piano or the best guitar or the best trumpet I mean you're gonna pay
thousands and thousands tens of thousands dollars right but here's the
cool thing you know you can get the most pro best harmonica and it's been about
ten years since I bought one so inflation could be a thing but you could
pay you pay literally like thirty thirty five dollars and you've got literally
the same harmonica that a professional would use and it's a honer it's made in
Germany super high quality I mean it's a big difference in quality between that
and the lower quality stuff but here's what's funny I started to notice that
you'd go to the music store you go to Guitar Center or another music store and
they would have the honer models that are made in Germany they say made in
Germany the honer models and then you had all of a sudden these honer
harmonicas that were much cheaper made in China and they're like five bucks so
you could pay thirty bucks sometimes there's like twenty five for the made in
Germany models and then you'd pay seven or eight dollars and get a total piece
of garbage a worthless piece of junk that it didn't sound right it would
break after a really short time it was just trash just wasn't any good and I
thought to myself you know honer here is just trying to make a quick buck like
here they've got the reputation they've got the expensive stuff and then they're
just putting out this trash just to make a quick but you know if I were honer I
would refuse to put out that trash even if it makes money because it's just it's
just it's a lack of integrity because that product is not doing anybody any
good it's not like well you know it's a cheaper option for people who need to
afford it it's 30 bucks for the Cadillac harmonica if you don't have the 30 bucks
then you just don't deserve to play harmonica and you need to you need to
save up the 30 bucks okay some piece of junk that's gonna you can't learn on the
thing it's gonna break it doesn't sound right that the reeds are constantly
getting stuck it makes no sense you got to pay the 30 bucks but I'm saying like
you know that's example of just a company that has a good reputation
putting out a crappy product and I you know and at least they're still putting
out the good ones but I guarantee you you could list car companies that they
used to be a good car and now the cars are cheap now the stuff's not the same
restaurants that used to be good and fell off right I mean we could go down
the list I don't know if I want to just you know open up the floor to all that
anybody have just a really good example though that you're just dying to tell me
Target Toys R Us Toys R Us is Toys R Us even exist John Deere's not what he used
to be now it's like McDonald's yeah you know that's funny because McDonald's
probably was good when it first came out you know and it probably was good it's
like companies are started by visionaries who are excited about you
know making a food that they like or putting out a product that's high
quality and then you just see it go down hills you know Stanley Tools were they
ever quality were they ever good or they always been all right craftsmen has
craftsmen fallen off a little bit yeah you know somebody I googled it online
and somebody people kept bringing up the peer X glassware that it used to be that
you could get it real hot it would never break and then they're everybody's
giving these horror stories how they made a casserole put in the oven and
just explode the glass shattered and exploded and I've seen peer X glassware
shatter and it's like it did you know when when I was a kid that never would
have happened and so it's just it's sad right and what about churches let me
tell you a story about a church and in fact this church could be any one of
churches you'll never know who I'm talking about because there are a
million churches exactly like this right young zealous guy starts a church he's
soul-winning preaching builds a church from nothing right God builds the church
of course but it's done through his labors and efforts and from nothing this
church builds up and and grows and thrives and then eventually the church
gets to where it's nothing but old people churches only old people and and
now it's just there's seven old people in a giant building a 300 seat
auditorium 500 seat auditorium there's 15 elderly people left because they've
just totally stopped reaching people totally stop preaching anything worth
hearing just some pastor has just run it into the ground the second pastor the
third pastor the fourth has just ran it completely into the ground folks there
are churches all over this city right now it's funny because you know here we
are with 300 people in a meeting in a strip mall here you know meeting an
office space and then down the street there's a 300 seat auditorium with 12
old people in it so here's what they do then they sell the building for millions
of dollars and then they just have millions of dollars sitting in the bank
account and then the pastor can just got to get paid to sit on his butt and
babysit ten seniors until everybody dies and then when they all die I don't know
who gets the money I mean we we had we had a an old guy come through our church
one time he's like yeah there's only three of us left but we've got eight
hundred thousand dollars in the bank we're just looking for a church to you
know join and drop off our 800 grand it's like what in the world what a
squandering of resources how's that and and he did he drop it off here no he
didn't cuz it's like oh you guys aren't pre-trib it's like take your 800,000 and
shove it buddy this happened in two that was in 2006 when I first started the
church that guy came around but there but you know I was just talking to a
pastor friend of mine that was talking about how you know he was looking to buy
in this building and it's just a tiny church gigantic building so they're
selling it right they ran it into the ground you know it's sad because you
know why why does a church go from thriving and soul-winning and packing
out that 300 seat auditorium 400 seat auditorium whatever how do they go from
that to being 12 people that are that are all gonna be dead in the next 15
years unless some miracle of science you know keeps them alive how do they get
that way like how does that happen right because they stopped doing the
first works they don't have the first love you know you stay great the way
that you became great whatever you do to start a church that's what you do to
keep on growing as a church right it's not like and it's funny we'll be out so
many every once while we run into somebody and this is what they'll say oh
you know we when we first started the church that's what we did we'd go out
and knock doors and invite people and evangelize you know back when our church
was first starting and and some other people will actually ask us oh is this a
brand new church is that why you guys are going door-to-door because it's
brand new who's been asked that outdoor yeah they think like oh you must be
brand new no no it's not that we're brand new it's that we're just still
doing the first works we're still doing the same thing you know when I started
faith-forward Baptist Church in my living room 17 years ago with just me my
wife and three kids can you believe that there was a time when I only had
three kids that's a really weird thought but I just had three kids my wife couple
first-time visitors in my living room 17 years ago you know how did we get to
where we are now we got here through soul-winning we got here through
preaching the Bible right preaching hard so how are we gonna keep going how are
we gonna keep on being what we are right now we stay great the way that we became
great right and this is a great church and so I'm thankful for a faithful word
Baptist Church how did we get here we got here by evangelizing we got here by
staying true to the King James Bible we got here by preaching hard and not
watering down and sugarcoating the message so why would I all of a sudden
start sugarcoating the message watering it down oh let's start canceling
soul-winning let's scale it back to once a month let's just switch to a door
hanger well I'm not you know I used to preach really hard I'm gonna back off a
little bit tone things down a little bit well you know the new King James takes
out some of the profanity and you know it's a little easier to understand I
just preached about that on Friday night in and where was I I'm like Texas I
wasn't in Texas I was in a cool place I was in Washington I was in a beautiful
place one person got my joke but anyway you know I was a sure foundation I was
in Washington preaching and I was preaching about the strong language in
the KJV and then people were literally commenting and saying oh there's this
church over here that was a King James Bible preaching church and they just got
rid of the King James and switched to the ESV and one of the reasons they gave
was the obscene language that in the KJV it's outdated you know because because
bastard didn't used to be a bad word or you know pissed didn't used to be a bad
word or you know you know I mean faggot didn't used to be a bad word but that's
not in the Bible that's I digress but but the thing is you know they'd be like
oh it has these words now that are awkward and uncomfortable and in my
sermon on Friday night is just kind of a little advertisement for my sermon in
case you didn't hear it so that you can go find it wherever it is online where
it hasn't been censored but if you go find my sermon I said in my sermon I
said well look look at all these other uncomfortable passages in the Bible look
at all these passages that are awkward in every version get over maybe you're
just the one who has a wrong mentality if these things make you so
uncomfortable and bother you so much why don't you just chill out because God
said some pretty hardcore stuff over here that's the same in every version
but it's like oh I don't want to hear those potty words you know and then
these people probably go home the same people probably go home and they watch a
bunch of movies and TV filled with way worse language way more vulgarity and
these big-time hypocrites like yeah but you know we don't want to hear that word
you know ass in the Bible you know it needs to be donkey or whatever get over
it you big baby you wimp anyway that you go listen to that sermon when you get a
chance that's your homework assignment
but you know it's you know these are the churches that are that are dying they
get rid of the King James that's a sign that they're dying candlesticks gonna be
gone oh we're gonna remove Baptist from the name just take it to the bank when
they start room and look obviously there's no biblical requirement that you
have to have Baptist in the name of course but when you see a church who was
called Baptist and they're removing the name just ask yourself why they're doing
that and that's why it's a sign that that church is going downhill fast
because why would they take the the name Baptist off off the label well the same
reason why you would go into your pantry and start removing the labels from your
canned goods right you ever just go into the pantry and just start ripping labels
off the cans and everything's just a silver can you know I would never do
something like that it's so stupid because you don't you don't know what's
what the whole point of putting Baptist on the sign is so we can know what's
what I want to know a Catholic from a Lutheran from a Presbyterian from an
Anglican from a Baptist we're just wandering and I have no idea what's
being taught no idea what these people believe you know but I'll tell you why
they want to remove the labels look if I remove the label from a cans because I
wouldn't want people to know what was inside that would be the only purpose to
remove a label now if a church never had a label in the first place whatever but
when you have the label and then you remove it what does that say oh I don't
want people to know what's inside because I want to bring in people who
who basically believe stuff contrary to Baptist doctrine I want to bring I want
to worship with people who believe you can lose your salvation I want to
worship with people who do not stand for the fundamentals of the faith that we
stand for as Baptist that's what that that's why they're doing it and maybe
you could find one in a million who's removing it for a legitimate reason but
we could show you nine hundred ninety nine thousand nine hundred ninety nine
that are losing it because they want to be non-denominational because they want
to bring in a multitude of doctrines a multitude of Bible versions a multitude
of different beliefs how can we be of one accord and look I'm all for a
visitor coming to our church visitors are welcome but you know what do I want
50% of the church or 30% of the church or 40% of the church to consist of
unsaved people or people who don't believe that the King James Bible is the
Word of God or people who believe in losing your salvation well I already
said unsaved people same thing you know down the list you know no we need to be
in one accord on these things you know hey I'm all for visitors and people
coming in but you know what we need to be a church that believes that baptisms
by immersion after you're saved not baby sprinklers that's who we are we're
Baptist why would I remove that from the sign not gonna do it we stay great the
same way that we became great and it's like this in every area of life you know
you could you could work out and get in shape and train as soon as you stop
training you're gonna get out of shape as soon as you stop lifting your
strength is gonna go down as soon as you stop running look I've I've been running
now for like over ten years but there have been times when I didn't run for
months on end and I totally lost my ability to run long distances I you know
if I didn't run for six months after one or two miles I'm dying I'm trashed what
why because I wasn't doing the work and you don't want to fall off as a believer
you don't want to fall off as a church right we want to stay consistent and we
won't be like these has been businesses and has been couples and has been
churches and preachers no we need to do the first works and retain the first
love and he says look if you don't do this I'll remove the candlestick right
so we need to make sure that we keep our hearts right as Christians that we have
love for each other love for our brothers and sisters in Christ love for
all the Saints and even love for the lost because that's gonna motivate us to
go out and preach the gospel to lost love for our spouses love for our
children etc and again just to prove to you that everything that he said at the
beginning to the Church of Ephesus about the compliments that he gave them that
that was sincere he comes back and compliments them again even after
criticizing them for losing the first love he says in verse 6 but this thou
hast that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans which I also hate Christ is
like man I hate that stupid Nicolaitan doctrine I'm glad that you hate it too
Oh doctrine you know isn't important doctrine doesn't matter man this is
about the relationship man it's just it's just about loving Christ well he
says hey yeah it's important to love love Christ love your neighbor love the
Saints love the Brotherhood love the lost but you know what hate the doctrine
of the Nicolaitans so it's possible to be a loving person and a loving church
and a loving evangelist while still hating false doctrine while refusing to
tolerate those who are evil you could still be it because a lot of people say
oh you just not loving because you're preaching hard on sin he's saying man rip
on sin don't tolerate those that are evil hate that doctrine of the
Nicolaitans hate false doctrine but love be loving so when he says you've lost
your first love he doesn't I think the reason why he then turns around and
brings up this thing about the Nicolaitans is he doesn't want them to
misinterpret what he's like hey you've lost your first love and they're like oh
well we just need to stop being negative we'd be more loving let's stop being
negative he's like no no do the first works to get the first love back but I
want you to continue being negative about the Nicolaitans continue being
negative about those who say they're apostles and are not continue being
negative about those who are evil is what he's saying so he's making sure you
don't misunderstand love as just being this love everybody everything goes
anything goes type of a mentality he says I hate the dick of the I hate the
deeds of the Nicolaitans I'm glad you do too verse 7 he that hath an ear let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches to him that overcometh will I
give to eat of the tree of life which in the midst of the paradise of God and of
course that is defined over in 1st John 5 just flip back a couple pages to the
left in your Bible 1st John chapter 5 verse 4 it says for whatsoever is born
of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world
even our faith 1st John 5 5 who is he that overcometh the world but he that
believeth that Jesus is the Son of God so this is about salvation right those
who believe that Christ is the Son of God they will eat of the tree of life
which is in the midst of the paradise of God you know what it's one thing to be
saved it's one thing to be a church that's right on the gospel it's one
thing to be a church that you know recognizes false doctrine and and
recognizes false teachers but in order to be a church with whom God is pleased
we've got to keep things fresh we got to keep it fresh we got to have the first
love the first works right we got to be like newlyweds again you know I'm not
talking about marriage now I'm talking about as a church right be excited like
we were in the past be excited like when the church first started be excited like
when you first started coming to the church right and you say well I just
don't feel that way I'm bored I've been here for years I'm kind of just bored
with it hey why don't you get out and do the first works you know maybe start
showing up for soul winning again maybe sign up for one of these trips you know
sign up to go to the Indian Reservation sign up for a small town so any sign up
for the missions trip you know where you can go to a place where it's receptive
and you can remember again why you go soul winning yeah I was just so winning
a couple days ago and my soul winning partner and I knocked on a door and it
was the perfect door just that person who's just ready to be saved just so
ripe unto harvest and this lady got saved and I walked away from the door
with my soul any partner I said man I said these are the doors that we live
for you know and and and and that's what you know you're just kind of like soul
winning man but then you have a door like that and it's like the first love
is back because you did the first works you know if so winning can be tiresome
frustrating exhausting but when you get somebody saved it gets exciting again so
that's why you got to keep doing it keep getting excited keep doing those
first works do the first love all right now we got six more churches to go
everybody ready just kidding sermons over let's pray dear Lord we thank you
so much for this admonition to the Church at Ephesus Lord I pray that Lord
you would help us to apply it to our church and not only just to our church
but even to our own personal life to our marriage to our family to our job Lord
help us to continue delivering the quality that we once delivered to stay
great the way that we became great to do the first works to have the first love
so that we're not just outwardly going through the motions Lord but that we
actually feel the way that we once felt Lord God please bless faithful word
Baptist Church help us never to become some has-been high steeple few people
Church Lord help us to always be a zealous soul winning Church Lord in
Jesus name we pray amen