How to remain faithful?

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That's cornerstonerbc.com. Very good. My dear brother and sister, you have your Bible in your hands by God's grace. There are many brothers and sisters throughout the world that do not have their Bibles in their hands.

So let us be thankful for that fact. As I said, I want us to consider together how to remain faithful to truth and love. When it comes to the Christian life, it's not so much about the present, which it is. But if you go through the scriptures, you will realize that endurance and making it until the end is one of the key elements and the key factors of the Christian life to endure until the end. You may have seen or heard of many people whom we thought to be Christians in the past.

And in the past, we would have been completely sure that these people were in Christ Jesus. And endurance was not in their lives. And at some point, they finished and they were no longer with Jesus Christ. With Christ is not only about the Spirit being with us in the present time, but the same Spirit taking us until the end. And of course, this is not a work of our own strength, right?

This is not a work of our own hands. This is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our only duty is to look to Him through the Scriptures and through the Holy Spirit so that our faith today will be strengthened to continue to remain in Christ. And then, by His grace, one day He will receive us in His glory as faithful servants. Even though we do not deserve it, He will receive us in His presence as faithful servants.

By God's grace, we have the Word of God that speaks to us about our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and how we can remain faithful in truth and in love. So, I want us to consider that from the first seven verses of chapter two. Let us read together, my dear brother and sister, from verse nine. Chapter one is going to give us the context of this vision that the Apostle John has. Now, because it is a vision, let me just do something here before we read the text so that our reading will be profitable.

The Apostle John is going to have a vision about the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of his churches. If you pay attention to that vision, the vision is explained in verse 20. Let me just simply do this for the sake of our reading. In verse 20, we're going to be given the explanation of the vision that the Apostle John has about Jesus Christ in the midst of his churches. It says in verse 20, As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, this is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to John.

As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, seven stars in his right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, then he tells us, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. And the seven lampstands are the seven churches. The vision is that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the midst of these lampstands, seven of them. And these seven lampstands are going to be real churches. These churches are going to be given to us in verse 11.

Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamon, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. These are the seven real churches that are represented in this vision that the Apostle John has, these seven lampstands. And the vision is that the Lord Jesus Christ has in his right hand seven stars, and those seven stars are the angels of those seven churches that are represented by those lampstands. Those angels or those stars or those seven churches are very likely the ministers or the pastors of those seven churches. Ephesus and Smyrna and Pergamon and Thyatira and Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.

We are going to consider the first one of those letters, and that is the letter to the church in Ephesus. And I want us from that letter, those seven verses, to consider together, brethren, how to remain faithful to biblical truth and to biblical love. Now that I hope we have perhaps now the picture of this vision, let us read together the Word of God. This is the infallible, inerrant, all-sufficient and perfect Word of the Lord. Revelation chapter 1 verse 9.

I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, and Smyrna, and to Pergamon, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and in turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of men, clothed with a long robe and with golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire.

His feet were like a burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like a roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars. From his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, the Word of God, and his face was like the sun, shining in full strength. When I saw Him, that is Christ, when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying, Fear not, I am the first and the last and the living One.

I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and hades. Rather for the things that ye have seen, those that are, and those that are to take place after this. As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. To the angel, the star, 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. 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.

I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my namesake, and ye have not grown weary. But I have this against you. that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent.

Yet this you have. You hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, 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. Amen.

This is the reading of God's word. Now, my dear brother and my dear sister and my dear friend, one of my main purposes or intentions with this short series of studies that we have been doing in the last couple of months about lie or things pertaining the life of the local church is to show you one thing. And that is the importance of the local church in your Christian life. The Christian cannot or should not be separated from the context of the brothers and sisters. The person who has received the Spirit of God should not be willingly separated from the brothers and sisters.

And there are many reasons when we go through the New Testament for why that is true. And the reason that I have given you repeatedly, it is found in 1 John chapter 3. And that is that the sign that a person is a genuine Christian is that this person loves the brothers and sisters. The apostle makes it very clear. If you are a genuine Christian, then the genuineness of your Christianity is going to be seen in the fact that you love your brothers and sisters.

And the beautiful thing about that statement in verse 10 of chapter 3 is not only what explicitly says that we are to love one another, but what implicitly assumes. And that is the existence of the local church. For how can a person be a genuine Christian and say that they love the brothers and sisters if they are not with the brothers and sisters? How can a person obey that commandment of loving the brothers and sisters if that person is willingly separated from the brothers and sisters? So then the local church becomes the environment in which we grow individually in conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ.

The church as a body has been called to grow in conformity to the stature of the Lord Jesus Christ, Ephesians chapter 4, but so the Christian individually grows in conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ in the context of the local church. For the gospel is very clear and we are called to forgive others as God has forgiven us in Christ Jesus, Ephesians chapter 4 verse 32. How can I forgive others if I'm not with others? It is easy to forgive those with whom I live in my house, but it's more difficult to forgive those who come from different countries and different places and different backgrounds. Only there the Spirit of God is the one that leads me to fulfill the will of the Lord.

How can I serve? Christ came to be a servant and to die upon the cross if I'm not with the brothers and sisters, if I'm on my own. The local church is the environment in which you grow up in conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ. How am I going to live a sacrificial life like the Lord sent his Son to die upon the cross sacrificially to show us what sacrificial love is? How am I going to walk in the ways of the Lord Jesus Christ if I'm disconnected from the context of the local church?

the Christian should not be separated from the context of the local church. And last week I told you that there are two elements or two components that are very important for the individual life and for the life of the church. And those two elements are truth and love. I said to you that truth and love are not two separate virtues that we can just simply choose which one we are going to emphasize, but rather biblical truth and biblical love are the result of the presence of the Holy Spirit in us that leads us to the truth that is Jesus Christ himself. And once we are in the truth, Christ Jesus, the outcome of the fruit of it is going to be Love.

I cannot have truth without love, and I cannot have love without truth, at least from a biblical point of view. I can certainly have truth in a fleshly way in my own mind, and I can have love in a fleshly way in my own definition. But when it comes to the truth of God and the love of God, these two come together, and I cannot break them or separate them. So where the Spirit of God is, there will be truth, and there will be love. However, it is not only the Spirit of God that is present within us.

Until glory arrives, there's someone else or something else that is also present within us, and that is sin. Sin is also present in your life, and sin is also present in the context of the local church. And because sin is present in us and within us, There's going to be times in which, because of our sin and because of our flesh, we're going to deviate from the path of love and truth that the Lord has appointed for us. The call of the Lord for the Christian and for the church is this. You are to remain faithful to the truth of the gospel, and you are to remain faithful to the love of God that is displayed in the gospel.

We are to remain faithful to what is written here. And we are to remain faithful to what is written here is supposed to produce in us. And the way that we remain faithful is by abiding in the person of Jesus Christ. But because sin is present in us and among us, there's going to be times among us, and there has been times throughout church history in which Christians and churches have departed from the way of faithfulness of abiding in truth. and in love.

And we have that example here with the Church of the Ephesians, my dear brother and sister. We have a church that was really good at doing many things. This church will be the type of church that if you walk into that church, you see all the things that they are doing, and you certainly want to join that church. Because that church is just so busy at doing so many things that are good things. They are preaching the gospel.

They are preaching the Word of God. Perhaps they are even in discipleship or other activities. They are enduring tribulations. They are enduring trials. Even in the text that we read, we are told that the Ephesian church was so good of a church that they had discernment.

That when it came to false prophets and false teachers, the church at Ephesus had the ability and the knowledge and the comprehension of the scriptures that they could define and they could see, they could discern who was a genuine apostle and who was not a genuine apostle. With the eyes of men, the church of Ephesians was a perfect church. However, the words of the Lord Jesus Christ are terrifying. I have this against you. You think that you have the truth.

You think that you have the answers. You think that you have the works and the deeds of a church. But you have abandoned your first love. And because you have abandoned your first love, I'm calling you to repent. And if you do not repent and return to the works that you had at first, then the Lord says, I'm going to remove your candlestick.

That is, that it does not matter all the things that you're doing, all these actions, all these works, all these deeds. It does not matter all the knowledge that you have in your head, that you can discern false from true teachers. It does not matter all the activities in which you're engaging. Because you have abandoned your first love, because you departed from the love that you received upon the time in which you became a Christian or became a church and the gospel was displayed, because you departed from that love. If you don't repent and you don't do the work that you did at first, if you don't hear the voice of the Lord, then I'm going to remove your candlestick.

And you know what a terrifying thing it is, brother? That we read these things in these seven verses, but you know that there's no longer an efficient church in the world? There's no efficient church in the world. Gone. Now, we don't know if perhaps the church disappeared because of what is written here, but certainly the warning is here, brother, right?

The voice of the Savior to remain faithful in truth and love, not my own definition of truth and love, not my own religion in which I just simply define what the church should be and remaining faithful in my own endeavors, in my own things, but rather to hear the voice of Christ and to remain faithful according to what God does. Because you know who is the builder of the church, brethren? Who is the builder of the church? Christ Jesus. Men can only build up groups of people, communities, and perhaps empires that, when they see with their eyes, may be prosperous and powerful.

But when the fire of God comes, All of that passes away. The only thing that stands is what God has built in our hearts and in our church. That's why the eyes of the Christians should not be placed in ourselves or in someone else, but the eyes of the Christians should be always placed in Christ Jesus. So I want us, brethren, to consider from this text that we have before us three important, perhaps two or three because of the time, two or three important lessons that I want us to see from the text of how to remain faithful in truth and in love. How can I remain faithful as a Christian, individual Christian, and as a church?

How can I remain faithful, of course, until the end? Okay, two or three lessons that I want us to see from the text. First, the first very important lesson that we need to consider from this text and from what we see here on how to remain faithful is this. that the Lord Jesus Christ that came to die for our sins, and when he died, then he was powerfully resurrected on the third day, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father in the majesty and high, the Lord Jesus Christ who is now in heaven at the right hand of the Father, that Lord Jesus Christ who abides in heaven, brethren, is also with us and among us. Jesus Christ is with us and among us.

And I know that many of you are thinking, of course, brother, that Jesus Christ is with us and that He is with His church. Of course, He is God and He's omnipresent. He's not only in heaven, but He's also with His church. But brothers and sisters, let me submit to you that one of the main intentions and purposes of the book of Revelation was to remind the Christians who were going under trial and tribulations, persecutions, and difficulties that this Lord Jesus Christ that most of them have only heard about because many people have already died and perhaps the generation that we have in this book had not seen the Lord Jesus Christ, Many of these brothers and sisters had seen their brothers and sisters died. Many of the apostles also died.

Many of the promises also perished. They have heard from the apostles that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come, and the Lord Jesus Christ has not come. The purpose of this book is to assure these people that even though they do not see with their eyes the Lord Jesus Christ, that even though they did not touch the Lord Jesus Christ when he was here, that even though they know through the scriptures that the Lord Jesus Christ is in heaven, The Lord Jesus Christ is also among them. And that is the vision that they have, that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the midst of the seven lampstands that are the churches. The apostle of the Spirit of God wants to say to the churches, the Lord Jesus Christ is with you.

And He is the one that is going to take you through trials and tribulation, and the final victory of the church will be because Christ is with you through His Spirit. And this idea that the Lord Jesus Christ is with us is not only one that gives us consolation, of course, Knowing that Christ is with us in times of trials and tribulation is of great consolation. We don't need to see him. We don't need to touch him. We don't need to hear his voice audibly.

We know that Jesus Christ is in us and is present among us. And that is a glorious thing for consolation. But it's also a very serious matter, brethren. Because if Jesus Christ is among us, So then that means that He is the Lord of that which is called the church. If He is in heaven seated at the right hand of the Father, but He is also present with His church on earth through the Holy Spirit, then that means that everything that He said about His church is true, and that He is the Lord of the church.

And because he is the Lord of the church, he's the authority of the church. And I think that is what the vision shows us, that Jesus Christ is in the midst of the churches, and he's the one that holds in his right hand of power those who are entrusted the ministry of bringing the light of God to these churches. The authority of the word of God that is given from heaven to the churches, it is through these stars, through these angels that guide and lead these churches, but they are in the hand of the Lord. The moment that the Lord lets them go, they go. Because Jesus Christ is the one that is the head of the church, the authority of the church.

And primarily, the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be given to us and shown to us through His words. Every one of these letters given to these churches, brothers and sisters, will always start like this. The words of Him who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. the words of him who is the first and the last who died and came to life, or the words of him who has the two-edged sword in his hand, or the words of him who is the Son of God. the Lord Jesus Christ is with his church, and because he is with his church, he is the Lord of the church.

And if he is the Lord of the church, do you know what that means? That means that we are not the Lord of the church. You see that, right? If he is the Lord of the church, then that means that you and I, we are not the Lord of the church. So then that means that whatever we are going to do with the church will be according to whose word?

My word? according to the word of the Lord. Faithfulness starts when I hear his voice and I follow him. Not when I do religious stuff that Christianity has developed over the years and now have become the traditional way that Christians do things. You see that, right?

Faithfulness is when I hear his voice as the head of the church, as the one that is present in the church, and I follow his words. But brethren, the fact that he is present among us is fearful, because if he's among us, he's also looking to what we do. Pay attention to that word in verse two. I know your works. That is certainly to produce reverence in our hearts or not, brethren.

I know your works. If I, as your brother and pastor, can say that I know certain things about your life, if I, with my limitations, can say that I know certain things about each one of you, Imagine, brethren, how much beautiful it is to know that Jesus Christ knows your works. That he knows not only the things that we do externally, but more importantly, he knows the things that we do secretly, and the intentions of our hearts, and the motivations of all things. The Lord Jesus Christ knows the works of the Christians. Why?

Because he is present among us. And that should be a reason for us to remain faithful, paying attention to his voice and not paying attention to any other words, brethren. Because in the end of the day, the life of the person churches are going to be judged by the one who builds up the church. He is the one that is going to define the standard by which a person makes it or not. Of course, by grace through faith, we're united to him.

But he's the one that judges the world. Do I want to live by the standard of a person just to please that person, or just to conform myself to this system so that I'm accepted according to this system? Or do I want to please the One who created heavens and earth, and sent His only begotten Son to die upon the cross, and now this church is built upon Him? I want to obey Him, brethren, because He knows my works, He knows my deeds, He knows my intentions, He knows what is secret in my heart, He knows my works. But this, my dear brothers and sisters, shows us not only that Jesus Christ knows and that he will judge according to the things that we have done, but brothers and sisters, this also shows us that Jesus Christ cares for his church.

He's not a lord of the church that only just simply leaves the church to be whatever they want to be. But when we read this letter given to the church in Ephesus, we see that the Lord Jesus Christ cares for what we do. If He did not care, He would not say anything to the church of Ephesus or to the other churches. But because He cares, He cares that the church will follow His word and that the church will be obedient. Because He truly cares is that He speaks to us through His word.

He's a Savior, He's the head of the church, and He wants His church too. come and fulfill the requirements of His law, to walk according to His will. And many times, brother and sister, the way that the care of the Lord is revealed and manifested to us is by pointing to the things that we do wrong. You see? Some people might think that because the Lord Jesus Christ is coming and exposing now the works of the Ephesian church, telling them, I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance.

But then when he says that I have this against you, that you have abandoned your first love or the love that you had at first, some person or some people might think that that is actually something bad, that that is something, you know, that should not be done. But when the spirit of God points us to the things that we are not doing, according to how we are supposed to be doing them, this is a grace of the Lord that reveals to us the care that God has for His people. When we're walking in sin, when we're walking in darkness, when we're not doing the things as we're supposed to do either individually as a church, when the convicting power of the Holy Spirit comes to our hearts and it reveals to us that we should not be doing that, we should not be saying that, we should not be thinking that way. I should not be treating my wife that way. I should not be treating my husband that way.

I shouldn't be treating my brothers and sisters that way. When the Spirit of God comes and reveals that to us, even though that is not comfortable or that is not nice, this is the grace of the Lord. The grace of the Lord that is trying to point us to repentance and to bring once again and to walk in the way of the Lord. And that is the way that God cares for us. That points us to the things that are not, so that we will make them according to the are.

But I don't know if you see here in the text, my dear brother and sister, but certainly The Lord Jesus Christ, who is the head of the church, is not only caring for us, but he's also very gracious. That he comes, and before he says that he has against this church, that they have abandoned their first love, he comes and tells them all the good things that they have done. How gracious our Lord is, that instead of coming to the point of the sin that they have actually committed, namely, that they have abandoned their first love, then this Lord comes to recognize and to acknowledge the good things that these people have been doing. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. And knowing that he's present and among us, and knowing that he sees and observes all things, and knowing that we're going to have to give an account to him, and knowing that Jesus Christ is the standard, and that he is the one that is going to judge the living and the dead, should be sufficient reason for us to remain faithful to truth and love.

It should be sufficient reason for us to remain at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. It should be sufficient reason for me to be fearful of my own wisdom, to be fearful of my own ways, to be fearful of my own imaginations, but rather to acknowledge that apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, I can do nothing. And actually, if I do something, it's going to be unrighteous, and it's going to be walk away from the will of the Lord. How to remain faithful in truth and love? Knowing that Jesus Christ is present among us and that one day we're going to have to give an account to that Lord.

And that the future of every Christian and the future of every local church is at the hands, not of the government, not of the circumstances, not of the market, not of society, not of the trends of the world, but that the future of every single person and every single church is resting in the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. If the Lord Jesus Christ wants Ephesus to disappear in the second century, then Ephesus will disappear in the second century. If the Lord Jesus Christ wants a church to endure and to make it until the end and to be for many years, the Lord Jesus Christ will preserve and build up his church according to his own ways. Because the church of Christ is in the hand of Christ and not in the hand of men. And I don't know if that produces this for you, but it certainly does for me.

Peace and rest. because the church of Christ Jesus is not built upon the shoulders of men, brethren. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ is built in the Lord and on the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Second thing that we learn from this text, and I hope that you can also see it there, it is that the works of the flesh without love are absolutely nothing. The works of the flesh, or works that I do without love, are absolutely no value.

And I know that this is something that we know, my dear brother and sister, but we can easily depart into just simply doing things and doing them externally, but it does not matter, even if those things look okay from the outside, if my works lack the substance of love, then they are of absolutely no value. Love is the substance that is supposed to move all the works of the Christians. If you quickly come with me to Galatians chapter 5, verse 6, there's going to be a verse there that I hope that you can remember and that you can put in your memory. Galatians chapter 5. Boy, it's really hot here.

Galatians... Galatians chapter 5. There is a very important verse there, brethren, that we have mentioned many times. Oh, it's not on. Okay.

Okay. Thank you. Galatians chapter five, pay attention to this verse. I think this will guide the way that our faith is supposed to operate and the way that our works are supposed to operate. Remember this Galatians chapter five, verse six, it says, For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything."

In other words, circumcision and uncircumcision count nothing. But the only thing that counts, but only is, faith working through love. The only type of obedience that actually matters and counts in the life of the individual Christian and in the life of the Church, dear brother and sister and friend, is the type of obedience that comes together with faith and love. That which does not proceed from faith is sin, according to Romans chapter 14. And that which is done in absence of love, it is also sin and counts for absolutely nothing.

The substance that is supposed to regulate, to empower, and to move the works that we do individually and as a church is love. And this already brings us to the point in which we can ask ourselves, do I do what I do in the context of the church, or do I do what I do as a Christian? not because I have grown used to do it, or not because I have taught to do it in this particular way, or not because I have developed now a routine in doing it in such a way that I just simply do it, or am I doing it rooted in love? Am I doing it because Jesus Christ died upon the cross for my sins, and now the love that the Father has bestowed upon me is compelling me in such a way that the things that I do, I do them for my Savior and for His church? Because the lesson that we learn from the Church of the Ephesians is that I can do so many things absent from the presence of love, brethren.

And when I do all of those things without love as the root and the motor of all of those things, then the Lord does not count those things of any benefit, but rather He counts that as a reason for the judgment of Christ to come upon that church. What a serious matter! Return to Revelation chapter 2, and you can see the many things that this church was doing, this efficient church. This efficient church were already busy and invested in many, many things. Pay attention to Revelation chapter 2 verse 2.

This was a church that was very diligent in good works. Pay attention to verse 2. I know your works, your toil. and your patient endurance. This was a church that was busy in doing many things, that endure, that toil, that worked, that do many things.

This church had put themselves in a position in which activity was that which characterized them and defined them. They were doing, doing, doing, and all of these, brethren, without genuine love for the Savior who loved them and gave himself for them. This is terrible. Now, if you move and just continue in that text, you can see that this is not only a church that was busy doing many things, but certainly this was a church that had doctrinal discernment. We are told there in the continuation, 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.

The Ephesian church is perhaps one of the best churches in the New Testament. I don't know if you know it, but this is perhaps a church that was started by Aquila and Priscilla. You remember Apollos, who was a mighty man in the scriptures, Acts chapter 18 and 19? This is how this church started with Aquila and Priscilla and Apollos, who was mighty in the scriptures. He only knew the baptism according to John, remember?

But then Aquila and Priscilla will come to him and explain to him the way of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then they remain in Ephesus and the church starts there. And then the Apostle Paul will come and spend almost three years with a fish in church. And we are told in the scriptures, in Acts chapter 20, that the Apostle spent day and night with tears, teaching the members of the church and people in the church about the Lord Jesus Christ. not a famous preacher of our day, the Apostle Paul, spent three days preaching the gospel, teaching them doctrine, teaching them about the Christian life.

And when he was going to go, Acts chapter 20, he named or ordained elders. You remember the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20, men of God, who had been trained at the feet of Paul, who had heard the teachings of the Apostle Paul, who had seen the experience and the example of the Apostle Paul. They were the teachers of this church. And if that was not enough, then years after that, Timothy will be ordained as the pastor of this efficient church. 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, this is for the church of the efficient.

1 John, 2 John, 3 John, this is for the church of the efficient. Many of the ideas and many of the theology of the Apostle Paul is developed for the efficient. And if Timothy was not enough, brethren, years after that, the Apostle John will come to be the elder of the Ephesian church, to teach them, to write to them, to explain to them, to give them an example. All of that doctrine, all of that theology, brethren, was not enough. Isn't that beautiful?

that you can receive the greatest teaching and the greatest sermon and all the truth. And we can have all the knowledge that we can read all the books and have all the questions, answers in our minds, in our hearts. If I do not have love, I have nothing. That's why we depend upon the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ to be the one that guides and directs absolutely all things that we do. And the Ephesian church came to an end.

If someone was going to assess the ministry of Timothy, or if someone was going to assess the ministry of Tychicus, which is another pastor of the Ephesians, or if someone was going to assess the ministry of John, or even the Apostle Paul, based on what happened to Ephesus, they will say, you failed. But brethren, they didn't. Because the faithfulness of the church is seen in the proclamation of the word of God and the work of the Lord. He is the one that builds it and he is the one that keeps it. Our duty is to remain faithful to truth and to love.

And remaining faithful to truth and to love is to remain faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ. Because He is truth, and He is love. I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ is the personification of the love of God. The love of God was manifested in this way, that He sent His only begotten Son to die upon the cross.

The duty of the Christian, and the duty of the Church, is to remain faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ through the truth that is given to us in the Scriptures, not only intellectually, but in the heart. It is easy to fill our minds with knowledge and answers, but it is impossible in our own flesh to fill the heart with the principles of Christ. Do you want to give up that thing that captures you in a secret place in your eyes and your mind? Do not try to fix yourself. Go to Christ Jesus.

Are you trying to fix yourself from that behavior that you have developed over the years? And then you're trying to develop this program one or two or three steps to do in order to leave that behind? Brethren, that is not going to work. We are to come to Jesus Christ. Are we trying to understand the doctrines of Christ and this Book of Revelation or we're trying to understand whatever other thing?

Come to Christ. And Jesus Christ will be the one that gives you light to understand and to live. Because apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, we can do nothing. And the other way in which we remain faithful, and finally with this, my dear brother and sister, it is what we are told there in verse 5. It is to hear, or better, in verse 7, to hear the voice of the Savior.

Pay attention to verse 7. He who has an ear, 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. When the Spirit of God convicts us of the ways that we have been walking on, and when the Spirit of God speaks to us about these things that we are not doing as we are supposed to do, or when the Spirit of the Lord convicts us of the sin that we have committed, then the response of the Christian is not to be just simply going on your own ways and try to fix yourself in your own strength. but rather to hear the voice of the Savior.

Hebrews chapter 3 says, do not harden your hearts. Here, pay attention to the word of the Lord. Do not harden your hearts as in the day of the rebellion when the people of Israel heard the voice of God and they fell in the wilderness because even though they could hear with their physical ears the voice of God that told them what they needed to do, They could not hear with their hearts and by faith the testimony that God had given them to remain faithful, to make it into the promised land. These people could hear the sound of the voice of God, but they could not hear by faith in their hearts. When the Spirit of God reveals to us the sins that we have committed, we are to hear carefully and pay attention.

And the way that we pay attention to that is verse 5. Remember therefore from where you have fallen. to remember that apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, we will remain from the place in which we were taken. Apart from the grace of the Lord that is given to us, we will not be walking in grace or in light, but we will be in that place from where we were rescued. We are to remember that we were in darkness, and if we are in the light, it is only because of the work of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to remember the day of our salvation, to remember the grace that was bestowed and given to us, to remember the great love that the Father has bestowed upon us in saving us and in making us his children.

But not only to remember the place from where we have fallen, repent, it says, repent and do the works you did at first. If we hear the voice of the Savior, we're not only to be hearers of his voice or his word, but we are also to be doers of his voice and of his words. There's nothing about understanding with our minds what God says, but it's everything about by faith and in love, obeying what God says. So if at some point the Spirit of God convicts us of our ways and convicts us of things that we are not doing, the worst thing that we can do is just simply forget the voice of the Lord and not repent of our sins. The glorious thing about the gospel is that those who are in Christ Jesus always have the grace of God available to them.

It does not matter what has taken place. It does not matter what sin has been committed. If we are still alive, then the grace of the Lord is always sufficient to push us to move forward and to walk in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's absolutely no sin that has been committed or no work that has been done against the Lord that cannot be forgiven by the power of the gospel and the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why our repentance is guaranteed because of the Spirit of God.

He who comes to the Lord and confess their sins, he's just and faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is the freedom that we have as Christians, that it does not matter what sin we have committed or from where we have fallen short. It does not matter that we have done all the things that a fish and church did. When we come to Christ and we hear his voice and we say, yes, Lord, I have fallen, I have abandoned my first love. Yes, Lord, I departed from Your presence.

Yes, Lord, I have been so busy doing all of these things, not from my heart of genuineness, but from a heart of religion and repetition. Yes, Lord, when I confess that genuinely and truly in my heart, and then I move towards Him, He's just and faithful to forgive and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and to give to us of his Holy Spirit that empower us to live and to have victory over the sin that we have committed. This is the glories of the gospel, brethren. This is the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in doing so, brethren, we do need to understand the seriousness of what sin does in the individual life and in the context of the church.

Because what these people were doing, the fish in church, that had all of this discernment, and all of this knowledge, and all of these works, and all of these deeds, was perhaps the reason why they no longer exist. And it's very likely that perhaps they did not pay attention to the voice of the Lord when He told them that you have abandoned the first love, and that they stopped being a church and continued to advance because of the sin. If that is the case, that is fearful, but we are to pay attention to the warnings that the Lord Jesus Christ gives us. That He is the one that sustains, He is the one that keeps, but He is also the one that is going to come to judge the living and the dead. Apart from Jesus Christ, we can do absolutely nothing, and that's why we as Christians depend upon our communion with the Lord Jesus Christ.

How are we to remain faithful to truth and to love? Only by abiding and depending upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Not trusting our own imaginations, not trusting our own wisdom, but are always knowing that apart from him we can do nothing and that he is the one that leads us and guides us. That we are not going to find what is required inside of our minds or among us, but that is the duty of the church to submit to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that we are not the Lord of the Church, that He is the Lord of the Church, and we are not the providers of the Church, He is the provider of the Church, that we are not the sustainers of the Church, He is the sustainer of the Church, that we are not the ones that ensure that we are going to make it until the end, but rather the Lord Jesus Christ is the one that ensures and gives us the certainty that He's going to keep us until the end, and for that reason, brethren, The church is to live and abide in the person of Jesus Christ. What a glorious dependence.

What a glorious dependence that gives you freedom. Freedom from trying to be successful in your own imaginations. Freedom from trying to be a better person in your own strength. Freedom from trying to be a better Christian according to our own understanding. Freedom to just simply rely and rest upon Jesus Christ in his truth and in his love, and by depending upon him, becoming like the Lord Jesus Christ, and then given the fruits of righteousness for the glory of the Father, as the scripture calls us to have.

So, I said to you last week and this week that truth and love cannot be disconnected. You can have many things in your head, but if you don't have the love of God, then it's very likely that that which you have in your head is empty knowledge that has been the result of your prideful endeavors and not communion with the Savior. And if you have love, but then you do not have truth, then it's very likely that that which you have is just the result of emotions of the flesh that do not correspond to the will of the Lord. Because when a person is spending time with Christ Jesus through the scriptures and the Spirit of God, then the result is going to be that truth leads to love, and love leads to that truth. And this is the fruit that we bear as Christians and in the context of the Church.

And one day, when he comes and he takes us to glory individually or as a church, we're going to make it into his presence, not so much because we developed in ourselves fruits of righteousness or fruits of truth, but rather because the spirit that he gave us when we first believed is the one that is working in us, biblical truth. and biblical love, and even our faithfulness until the end, it will be a reason to give Christ Jesus all the glory, because He is the one that has completed the work of His hand, and He will be glorified on that day. Amen? Amen. Let us pray.