(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

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