Now it is a joy to be back with you again and to share this time together around Word of God. As I mentioned last night, for those who were here, it's our desire to just look for a little while at the seven churches of Asia and Revelation chapter two and chapter three. So I'd suggest that you turn with me, if you will, to Revelation chapter two. and verse one please revelation chapter two and verse one for those who are staying through the week we suggest you read these verses over these two chapters and get them well implanted in your mind and your heart, and I'm sure the time together will be that much more profitable as we meet and study this interesting and wonderful portion of God's word. Verse one, chapter two, unto the angel of the church in Ephesus right, these things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience. Now thou canst not bear them which are evil, and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and has found them liars, and has borne, and has patience, and for my name's sake hath labored, and hath not fainted. Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love. Just a brief word of prayer, please. Our gracious Father, we thank and praise thee again for thy love to us, thy great salvation, and above all, our Lord Jesus Christ himself. And we ask as we consider this portion of thy word this morning if thou would guide and direct by thy holy spirit as we've been singing lord brig the word of life dear lord to me and may our hearts be challenged each one whatever the spiritual need is May by the Holy Spirit of God that need be met this morning. We pray in our Savior's precious and worthy name. Amen. Now we want to consider the seven churches and their practical value for us today. one occasion dear woman spoke to the preacher after the meeting and she said something like this she said my I really enjoyed all that you had to say today she said in fact every point that you made fitted all my Christian friends and I think that when we Often turned to the word of God or listened to the word of God, we frequently are inclined to think of someone else and say, I hope that they're listening and taking that to heart. And so often we fail to take to heart ourselves what the Lord has for us. And it seems to me that this can be true with the seven churches of Asians. I'm sure we're all aware of the fact that they can be looked at in various ways. Historically, there were seven churches. Seven churches actually existing at the time when our Lord wrote to them. The things that were carrying on and happening in those churches as outlined here were things that were happening to them at that time. And then we can look at it from a prophetic point of view. And it's challenging to notice the church in its outline from the time of Pentecost until our Lord shall come. And it's always a thrill to see how the Lord has outlined for us the progress of the church down through the history. But we want to think of it from the practical, from the personal side, rather than the prophetic side. And while one enjoys the prophetic side, so often we're inclined, I think, to sort of say, well, you know we're not the Laodiceans, we're the Philadelphians, and we're sorting out those of Sardis. And yet, there are things about Sardis we need to take to harm. There are things about the Laodiceans we need to take to harm. In fact, things about each of these churches we certainly need to take to heart today. You remember how it closes in each particular church. He speaks about he that has ears to hear, let him hear. He that overcomes. In other words, it's a personal message to each individual in the Church of God. And it's rather interesting to keep in mind, you recall back in chapter one there's a blessing to those who read the word. Remember in verse three it says, Blessed is he that readeth, he that heareth the words of the prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand. And that word blessed is the idea of happiness or the happiness. And there's a real happiness when we not only listen to the word and look into it, but lean upon it and live it out in our lives. There's a blessing for us as we go to the book of Revelation and a challenge to say the least. And you recall that seven times he tells us as a way of happiness in the book of Revelation if we lay hold of the things that are contained in this book. As rather struck coming down from Ottawa, to the park we were asked to visit at Waynesboro for a meeting or two and a few of the brethren from Waynesboro have had the opportunity of visiting the jail in fact they have an open door there to go at least twice a week and spend as long as they want ministering the word to the inmates there in the jail And so when I was there on Thursday, we went along and had an enjoyable time preaching the word to these young men. Quite a number of young men gathered together. And the Lord has blessed in the salvation of a number of them in the two months that they have been operating this jail service. And after preaching a message in the Gospel, I threw it open for questions and just asked if they had any questions. that they might like to ask. And three or four of these young men who have trusted Christ as Savior have started a little Bible study and for some particular reason known only to themselves we decided to study the Book of Revelation. And the first question that was asked I thought was rather interesting, interesting in more ways than one because I was thinking of maybe taking up the seven churches here Upon arrival, and the first question they asked was, why were there seven churches? Why were there seven churches? Rather interesting, a group of young believers just saved a matter of a few weeks would think of that particular question. Why were there seven churches? Well, it's interesting, is it not, to remember that in the book of Revelation this number seven is repeated again and again and again. Some fifty-four times throughout this particular book, the number seven is mentioned. And it's that number of completion, spiritual completion, whatever area is in mind, it sort of completes that cycle. And it would seem as we look at the seven churches, we do have a complete cycle, whether it's a complete cycle in terms of the history of the church, or as in the case that we want to look at it during these days together, in the light of a complete cycle of the problems and the difficulties, the trials that saints of God meet in every age. whether it's in the days when the Apostle Paul lived or the Apostle John or whether it's in the days in which we live today or whether it was in the Middle Ages, the problems that are outlined here, the difficulties, the challenges that are mentioned here in these seven churches are challenges that we face today. The Word of God is so up to date. And as we go over the seven churches we find that we face one problem after another and the Lord gives us answers in dealing with those difficulties. Now in looking at the church at Ephesus and I'd like to look at it this morning and then again this evening in the will of the Lord, I want to think of it as the church that was drifting and didn't realize it. Rather sad as you read through this church in one way because they were drifting and they had been drifting for some little time. But the tragedy, they didn't realize that they had drifted and were continuing to drift. The historical background to these churches is very important, very interesting. There's no doubt in my mind that when the Lord wrote to these churches, He not only zeroed in on the problems that he saw in those churches, but he also illustrated by using certain historical backgrounds relating to those various churches. For example, Sir William Ramsey has written a very interesting and challenging book along this line, and archaeological discoveries concerning these seven churches, and pointing out very effectively the comparison between the things that they have discovered as the background of these churches and what the Lord has outlined for us here in the seven churches of Asia. For example, one of the things about this church, and as you know, the word Ephesus means desirable, desirable. And apparently this city, when it was formed many years ago, had many things about it that were desirable. It was chosen apparently because of the beautiful harbor, natural harbor that was there. It had a desirable location. It became the gateway for ships going out to the east. It increased tremendously in population till over two hundred thousand people were living at Ephesus. It increased because of its tremendous harbor and its shipping, it increased in wealth until it was one of the wealthiest cities of its day. Something like the church, the church at Ephesus when it was formed, how desirable it was to God. What a delight that church was to the Lord at the beginning. You remember when the Apostle Paul wrote to them in the letter to the Ephesians, how he delighted to speak of their wealth, not their material wealth, but the spiritual wealth that they had, being blessed with all their spiritual blessings in the heavens, in Christ. and it too became a sort of a gateway for the gospel and they spread the word of God in those early days throughout the region from Ephesus. Apparently up until the present time they've uncovered only about twenty percent of the ancient city of Ephesus. But in that twenty percent, apparently they have uncovered what to the Bible believers, a very interesting thing, of course, is the remains, the ruins of the Temple of Diana, which has emphasized so much in Acts chapter eighteen. And this tremendous temple they have uncovered was one of the seven wonders of the world at that time. People came from all the then known world to see this tremendous temple. Some four hundred and fifty feet in length, some three hundred or so feet in width, with this tremendous tall pillar some sixty feet high, some two hundred and twenty-seven of them, all being donated apparently by various kings and rulers of that time. And if you have the privilege to go to Athens and see the ruins of the temple there, this particular temple they've uncovered at Ephesus is some four times larger than that one, Neocropolis at Athens. And you remember that Demetris was very much concerned about how the gospel was going to affect the worship to Diana. And you remember as Paul was preaching, the crowd gathered together and for some two hours they began to chant, Greet! It's Diana! Greet it, Diana! In Ephesus. And of course these things have been uncovered as factual in recent years. It was known as the vanity fear of the ancient world. And in this little city was a local church, very vibrant for the Lord at the beginning, but at this particular time in church history it had slipped. It had drifted. It had grown cold. We mentioned last night we wanted to think along the line of various heart conditions and the heart condition I think of when I look at the church at Ephesus is the cooling heart the cooling heart and I want to challenge you this morning beloved do you have a heart that's cooling off for the Lord or is by the grace of God and through the working of the Holy Spirit you still have as those two on the road to Emmaus, a burning heart. You remember how they said, Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way and while he opened unto us the Scriptures? And it's when the Lord opens the Word of God. It's when we sense that closeness to him and the Holy Spirit reveals the things of Christ to us that the heart begins to glow and burn for him. But when we fail in that, it's not long for the heart of ours to cool off, and that's what was happening here in the church at Ephesus. There's the lesson of degenerating into formality, degenerating into tradition, into a routine, into a habit, into a lack of vision, No power. These are the things that this particular church had drifted into. And beloved, you know as well as I know, that even the things of God that are so vital, our prayer life, the reading of the Word of God, witnessing for the Lord, fellowship with God's people can become a routine. It can become habit forming. It can be carried out in a way that we fail to do it effectively. Do it under the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit of God. Our Bible reading, we can carry on day by day with the reading of the Word of God and after a while it becomes just something that we pick up and we read our chapter or our two chapters or whatever it is and we close our Bible and that's it. We feel we've done our duty for the day. We go through our little prayer time and we almost say the same thing each time and we close in our prayer before the Lord and feel we've done our duty and we have to be consciously concerned, daily concerned. that even these things that are so vital in the Christian life are done out of a zeal, a motive born by the Holy Spirit of God, and that there's a freshness to our study of the Word of God. There's a freshness to our prayer life. There's a freshness to our gathering. There's a freshness to our remembering of the Lord on Lord's Day morning. And it's not just simply a traditional thing that we get involved in. expect you know when the next hymn is going to be given out of the next prayer and so on and so forth and all these dangers I see with this particular church at Ephesus and the Lord was concerned about it may I just divide the letter up into five little parts I want to suggest to you that in verse one the Lord sets before them the object the object that's set before the church. And in verse two and three, he zeros in on the operation of the church. He outlines what the church has been doing. When you go down to verse four, he sets out his objection to the church. I have against thee. And in verse five, he gives an opportunity to the church a tremendous opportunity and finally in verse six there's an outlook set before the church a goal an outlook that they need to be willing to respond to let's look at the first two in the time that's left to us this morning shall we the object set before the church and then the operation of this church. Mine's rather thrilling to me as I read this portion. Notice what it says, unto the angel of the church of Ephesus writes, These things sayeth he. These things sayeth he. And immediately he's directing their attention to himself. He's our object. The freshness of the Christian life revolves around my appreciation of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. As the Spirit takes of the things of Christ and reveals them to me. And He had got their eyes off the Lord. And as He begins with this church, He says, He. Do you remember back in Matthew chapter two, the wise men, He said, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? We've seen his star in the East. We've come to worship him. Where is he? Where is the Lord in your life? Is he the center around which your whole life revolves? These things say of he. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Do you remember Abraham? What caused him to leave all they had in Ur of the Calvies and go out to a land they knew not of? You remember Acts chapter seven gives us the answer. The Lord of Glory appeared unto him. The Lord of Glory. And that sight of the Lord of Glory moved Abraham to forget all else. and all few ends. What caused Saul to turn from all that he had been occupied with and had lived his life for up until he met the Savior? It was on the Damascus Road, was it not? It was that sight of the Lord of Glory and that glimpse of the Lord of Glory just transformed his whole life. so that he could save for me to live Christ and to die, gain, occupied with him. You remember Peter as he walked on the water to go to his Lord. Lord, bit me, come to thee. Lord said, come. And whilst his eyes were riveted on that blessed one, He walked above all the circumstances and difficulties he was faced with. For the moment he saw the wind, the waves boisterous, down he went. And so the Lord says, you've lost your object. You've lost sight of the one who is to be preeminent in your life. You've become so bogged down in all your little routine activities. you're ceasing to do those things for me anymore you're just doing them because it's sort of a force of habit he said get your attention back to me do you remember john in chapter one of revelation he said i heard a voice behind me And as I turned to see the voice behind me and be in turn, I saw. And he saw the Lord of glory, the man of the glory. And he said, Having seen, he said, I fell. I fell. He got his eyes back on the Lord of glory. That's where it all begins. And that's the way the Lord begins in this particular church. He said, you're drifting. let's get back to the object let's get back to the goal but not only that you'll notice in this particular chapter in the particular verse we have brought before us this person in so many wonderful ways we see his we see his work we see his walk and we listen to his words when he shows us his work he also shows us his hand. When he describes his walk, we're reminded of his feet. And when we listen to his words, we think of his mouth. When he speaks about his work here, he talks and reminds us that he is the source of all power. When he speaks about his walking, he reminds us he's constantly present. And when he speaks, he reminds us he's perceptive and he knows all what's going on. Notice, for example, what it says in verse one. These things sayeth he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, his work. What is he doing in this verse? Why, beloved, he brings his hand to play. You remember what it says over in Mark's Gospels at chapter six? They marvel at the wondrous works that were wrought by his hand. His hand. You remember in the Psalms it says, I muse on the works of thine hand. Well, let's have a look at that hand for a moment. What is that hand doing? This is something I have to be constantly reminded of if I don't risk. If I'm not to get into a routine in my Christian life, I've got to realize that my power, my source of strength is the Lord Himself. And without Him, I can do nothing. It tells us here that he's holding the seven stars in his right hand. And that word, hold, is an interesting word, and scholars have pointed out. It simply means to hold fast. In fact, we're told that in Revelation chapter two and verse thirteen. He says, thou holdest fast, my name. And that word, holding fast, is the very same word as just translated hold. in verse one of chapter two. It's to hold fast. In fact, it's used over in Matthew's Gospel when Judas said to the soldiers as they went in to take the Lord. And he said something like this to them. He said, Now, the one to whom I kiss, that is he, hold him fast. Don't let him go. And that's the very same word as here. Hold him fast. The Lord's never going to let us go. Greek scholars remind us that the word apparently has been used and was used in Bible times, not so much. They had a different word for sort of holding a Bible like this than having a word when they had a coin and they put it in the hand and they completely had control of that coin. You see, you don't have complete control of the book like this because much of it is out of the hand. but this word apparently has the idea of being in complete control. He holds the seven stars in His right hand. Well, isn't that wonderful? His right hand. That beloved is the hand of strength. That's the hand of power. That's his work for us today, or one of the manifestations of his work, is holding us, our strength. You remember over in Exodus chapter fifteen, as Moses and the children of Israel sang about the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ. They said something like this. O Lord, thy right hand is glorious in power. O Lord, thy right hand has dashed the enemies to pieces. And Father John in that lovely psalm or song, they go on to describe that right hand again and says, Lord, you stretch out your right hand and the earth is swallowed. Oh, the right hand. Over in Matthew's Gospel we read about the Lord, about being exalted to the right hand of his power. So it's the hand of power here, beloved. And that's the hand that holds us. And the Lord says, do you not realize that you must be daily, hourly, moment by moment dependent upon me. I'm your strength. I'm your power. You recall, as far as the seven stars are concerned, there are differences of opinion as to what the stars represent, and I don't profess to to know or add that much more light on the thing at all. But others have pointed out that the word stars are the angels, of course, we have that in Revelation chapter one, and the angels can be equally translated messengers. In fact, we read concerning John the Baptist that he was an angel or messenger. We read concerning John the Baptist's followers that they were messengers. We read concerning the Lord's followers that they were messengers. We read concerning the men who went in to Rahab that their same word in James chapter two is referring to them as messengers or representatives. And it seems to me this is More to the point, as I see it at any rate, these seven stars simply a representative figure of the local church. We're all stars in that sense, left here to shine in this world of darkness. And, beloved, I can't shine apart from the realization that he holds me there. I shine through his strength and his power. And then notice we have his walk. His work is the holding of the seven stars in his right hand, but his walk, he walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. Notice he's not standing in the midst of the lampstands. He's walking. He's active. He's observing. You remember over in John chapter one, In the verse thirty-five we read, And the next day John stood and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus as he walked, said, Behold, the Lamb of God. John stands where Jesus is walking. Active. Active. He's seen all. He said, There's two, there's three things you have to keep in mind. Three objectives you must keep in mind and keep fresh with me. I'm your source of power. I hold you. And my presence is constantly with you. I'm constantly walking in the midst of the golden lampstands. Golden lampstands because We are to reflect the glory of God. Why did the Lord save you? That you might be conformed to the image of his Son. That you might bring forth glory to your Lord, and every local church is to bring glory to him, for there to be a golden lampstand. Conscious of the fact of the Lord's presence in their midst, And then you'll notice he speaks here about the words, or at least we have his words brought before us. In verse one he says this, These things saith he, and then in verse two, I know thy works. These things saith he, I know thy works. So we have his works. our support we have his walk constantly with us and then we have his words and all those words are searching beloved do they search your heart do they really grip your heart I know I know you remember that in every church in the seven churches he always begins this way I know I know I know I believe it's we've in his expanded translation says in each case I know with absolute clarity I know with absolute clarity he knows every detail we might deceive our family we might deceive our friends we might deceive our neighbors but beloved we cannot deceive him Lord says I see much activity going on in your midst but he said I know I know the good I know the bad I know and just drawing to the close Notice the operation of the church. We'll just touch on it. I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil, and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles or not, have found them liars. I'm inclined to think, beloved, that if we had the opportunity if we could be sort of put into a machine, a sort of a reverse time machine, and go back into history and find ourselves at Ephesus and visited there for a week or so, I'm inclined to think we would have gone away tremendously impressed. I think we would have gone away saying, now there is an active, thriving work for God. They're just busy as bees. And they're so careful about things. Doctrinally they're correct. They don't need to allow any of false teaching there. and everything was just fine outwardly now the Lord doesn't condemn them for that he commends them for it but he sees an ingredient that is missing and that's what he condemns them for he's suggesting you have he's suggesting this church you have got yourself into a rut into a routine into a traditional setup and now you're doing things because it's sort of a thing to do rather than the love of Christ constraining you we go to our many of our places today I suppose wherever we go I know it's the same in Canada certainly I don't know too much about various assemblies in the United States, but in Canada we just overrun with much activity. If it's Monday, well, is possibly an oversight meeting or the deacons are gathering together or some other executive meeting on Tuesday, perhaps a prayer meeting, Bible study. On Wednesday, maybe there's a sister's coffee hour, maybe a young people's committee meeting. Thursday is visitation night, we go off visiting. boys and girls activity the venture club pioneers and on and on we go saturday teens young people college careers married couples groups sundays activities sunday afternoon hospital visitation and squeeze in between all these things many other little details that keep us going morning noon and night now there's nothing wrong with those activities but beloved sometimes we get burdened by them we become like martha we become cumbered above much service and our relationship to christ and our closeness to christ our fellowship with him has been crowded out We're so busy for the Lord, we haven't time to spend with the Lord. And this was the thing that concerned the Lord about this church. May we be challenged that it might concern us, but in our activities for him, we might realize he is the object for all that we do and the strength and the one to whom we seek the glory and glorify. Our gracious Father, we thank thee for our Lord Jesus Christ. We praise thee for the fact that he not only died for us but rose again, ascended back to glory, our great high priest. And we've been reminded our Father, through thy word, not only in revelation, but again and again the word of God, the importance of keeping close to our Lord Jesus Christ, to be moved and motivated by our first love, the Lord himself. We pray that that love might grip our hearts. But thou deliver us, Father, for those who hear this morning, who have not drifted but still have that freshness. Lord, may that freshness be kept in back. For any who have found that they have cool off in heart, that Christ, the things of Christ, might indeed become exceeding precious again to them. For we pray in our Savior's name. Amen.