It
means something to bear the name of God. If we will let
the Lord be our shepherd He will keep us in the paths of
righteousness for His Name's sake. Letting down 'here and
there' is a reproach on the name of God. We must walk in
the paths of righteousness to bear the name of God. The
early church worked and labored and bore for His Name's
sake. He told of all the goodness and greatness…as you
have read many times. I always hate to read the next
verse. After He told what they had done, He said,
"nevertheless I have somewhat against thee."
It's sad
to think about this. After all these commendable things He
said, "I have somewhat against thee." Rev. 2:4.
People think you are all right, you think you are all
right, your wife thinks you are all right the 'church
world' thinks you are all right: "I have somewhat
against thee."
Friends,
we cannot measure ourselves by ourselves or anyone else.
We must measure ourselves by God's Eternal truth and that
alone. We cannot follow people; we cannot follow groups of
people. It has been preached and re-preached. Everyone
must measure themselves by Christ and His Eternal Word.
What did
He have against them? "Thou hast left." I want
to repeat; not lost, but left. You are to be pitied if you
lost your first love. Thou hast LEFT thy first love. What
did He mean, you left your first love? Here is what He
meant. You don't love Me like you used to and you don't
love one another like you used to. The saints don't love
one another like they used to; do you know the reason?
They don't love God like they used to. The outgrowth of
love of God is a fervent love for our brethren. There is
no man who can love God wholeheartedly but what he loves
God's creation. If we begin to feather the edges of our
love for our fellow man, our love for God has been
interrupted first. He didn't say, they didn't love Him;
they have left their first love. We'll find out the same
thing is happening today. People today love God. Sure they
do, lots of people, but many love pleasure more than they
love God.
It's the
same thing that happened to Ephesus. She had lost her
first love. Christ came looking for a bride; not a
servant. And that is what He is looking for today. He can
get a lot of people to serve Him, but the thing that's
required is love. Serving God alone won't work. Why do I
mention that? There are too many today, that have let this
thing become a duty. How do I know? I hear them testify.
"Well, I was going to do 'so and so' tonight, but I
thought it was my duty to 'come out' to prayer meeting.
Well, you might as well have 'gone on, and done so and
so.'=) The Word of God says, when you've done your duty,
you are still an unprofitable servant. If we are not
careful, we are going to have a congregation full of
unprofitable servants -- trying to 'show the world' -- the
Church that Jesus built.
This is a
service of love. We serve Him because we love Him. It's
not our duty to serve Him; we love Him. What would you
think, if my wife would say, "Come on, let's go
home." And I'd say, "Well, I don't want to go,
but I suppose it is my duty to go home with my wife."
How about when you leave for work in the morning, and your
wife wants a 'good-by kiss' before you leave…and you
say, "Oh, I don't know, I hate to do it, but come on,
It's my duty, come here, I'll kiss you. Sure it's our
duty. God bless your heart, there is a law that lifts the
standard above that and makes us forget all about duty.
The reason many are missing church is because they don't
really want to be there.
God sees
the intent of the heart. People that love to serve God are
serving Him and people that love to go to church are
going. People that love the truth have got the truth. That
is one reason Brother Wilson is not compromising. I love
the truth too much. Also, that is one reason Bro. Wilson
is not running after other women. He loves his wife too
much. God bless your heart, not because a marriage law
would govern me. No. There is something deeper and richer
and more complete than that; and I want us to see it. You
get people with a first love, and you can forget about
your paid choirs, paid song leaders, and paid everything
else. =)
Paul said
when He was questioned, how he could 'go on' after his
cruel treatment; stoned and beat up and laid outside the
gate. But he picked up that old beat up body, about half
dead, and tripped off, and got up a little strength and
preached again. How can you do It Paul? It's the love of
Christ that constraineth me. I'm not doing it for money.
I'm not doing it for fame. The love of Christ constrains
me. The love of Christ will constrain you and push you on,
beyond your strength, beyond that, which you are able to
do. He'll Cause you to go 365 days a year. The old
fashioned love of God in the heart, was what sent the
church out conquering and to conquer.
The white
horse in the Revelation is a symbol of that morning church
going forth conquering and to conquer. They were
conquerors before they went out and then, they conquered
when they went out. Unless we are conquerors before we go
out, we'd better not go out. If you don't 'live it' at
home; stay at home; don't go any farther than that. If you
don't 'live it' in the congregation where you are at, stay
there until you get straightened out. Don't try to go out
some place else.
They went
forth conquering. They were conquering before they went
out; the battle was won before they even went. How did
they conquer? You go over to the 8th chapter of Romans and
Paul will tell you how they conquered. He asked if
anything could separate us from the love of God, and they
met them one by one -- principalities, powers, things
present and things to come. What can separate us from the
love of God? Life! Yes, people get too busy living. He
'came on down' and said we are more than conquerors. Why?
Because the love of God had been shed abroad within our
heart. This is what sent the morning church conquering. It
wasn't their head knowledge. It wasn't their education of
powerful Institutions because they didn't even have any
church buildings. There was a love put within their heart
that caused them to preach it. That's the love that
Ephesus lost!
Well,
this sixty and thirty fold 'business' has always been a
sad thing to come into the picture. God wants a
hundredfold and God requires a hundredfold. The Lutherans
and the Wesleys could get along on a thirty and sixtyfold
and God would work with them…when they had no greater
light, but when a full light comes -- what did He do
towards that thirty and sixty fold? He 'kissed' old
Babylon 'good-by.' He said, "Come out of her my
people."
Now, what
do you do when you come out of her? You come out of a
thirty and sixtyfold 'state' and come into a hundredfold
'state,' back to Mount Zion, the evening light, just as it
was in the morning light. Let me read a little farther.
"Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, thou
hast left thy first love." Now, I wouldn't want
anyone to become confused, dealing with this first love,
it is not a 'jelly-fish' love. They had the love of God
shed abroad within their hearts. The first love, that
propelling force, that restraining force, that moved them
on.
The sixth
verse said there are some things that God hates. This love
of God has some hatred about it too. The Word of God gives
us a seven there again, a complete number of things that
God hates. Right in the midst of the day and age in which
people are preaching that God is love and trying to tell
you that He is too loving to exclude you, no matter what
you do, and too loving to send you to hell; He never will.
Brother, If you 'make your bed there,' God didn't have
anything to do with it. But there are some things that God
hates.
What did
He say? The Nicolaitans -- you hate the deeds of the
Nicolaitans, which things I also hate. He didn't hate the
Nicolaitans; He hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans. There,
my friend, is another precaution to the church today. It
takes nothing but the fire of the Holy Ghost in this
'trying and shaking' time to be able to hate the deeds of
an Individual and love him. We've got to be careful or we
will be rejoicing in some things we shouldn't be rejoicing
in. Even though people are modernizing and apostatizing I
am not going to be happy because they have bad luck. If a
man was devil possessed here and he walked out and had an
accident, I would feel sorry for him. I want nothing to do
with the spirit that has gotten hold of him, and I am not
going to pet the thing, but we must have enough of the
Spirit of God within us to be able to differentiate
between the devilish spirit and system that has gotten
hold of men and women.
If the
love of God would hold men for their deeds with that
thought, Christ would never have come down here for us,
because God had something against all of them. But
overlooking the deeds to that extent, He came to reach us,
if we abide by His Word. Let us be men and women and 'try
them' that are apostles and use the Word to do It.
He loved
the Nicolaitans, but He hated their deeds. I've got a
reason for saying that. Let's look at the 6th verse,
"But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of
the Nicolaitans which I also hate." Now, what is He
talking about? You Bible students know that when you study
the Nlcolaitans--they were a loose sect of that day. They
sheltered under the name of Christianity, but had no
possession of the Spirit of God whatsoever. They had just
forms and procedures, sheltering under the very name of
Christianity. Now, Christ spoke to the church at Ephesus
and said, "…you hate the Nicolaitans." Why?
They are just professors, and just profess something they
haven't got. And He said, "Which I also hate."
Ephesus, you are doing the same thing you are hating the
Nicolaitans for. People will 'carry on' about the
Nicolaitans and think they are awful, they are professing
something they haven't got. Christ said, I hate that too,
but you are doing the same thing; you have left your first
love.
My
friends, this 'groupitis' is of the world, you can see
that condition and God has showed it to me. People
'fall-out' in this or that group and they are guilty of
some of the same things. You hate the deeds of the
Nlcolaitans. They are professing something they haven't
got. Well, Ephesus, you are doing the same thing. You are
professing to be the church, and you have lost your first
love. God hates it, whether the 'Church of God' is doing
it or the Methodist. Study Ephesus. Were not they doing
just as the Nicolaitans were? Professing something with no
possession, having left their first love?
The
professed church is doing the same thing. We see her put
in the same shape as the Nicolaitans, She loves me, but
not like she used to. Let's go back to Jeremiah, the
second chapter. Let's read a couple of verses,
"Moreover the Word of the Lord came to me saying, Go
and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the
Lord; I remember thee and the kindness of thy youth, the
love of thine espousals," There is what God remembers
about the church. What do you want me to tell Jerusalem?
Tell them I remember her in the days of her youth and I
remember the love of her espousals. What are espousals?
They are vows. One set of espousals are those vows we make
when we become married to a Companion. Here is God
speaking to the church saying, Tell her I remember her
youth, how she was in the days of her youth; the love of
her espousals. He may not remember the vows, but He
remembered the love that prompted those vows; the love of
thine espousals. My friend, no person ever got truly
consecrated, if it wasn't because of the very love for God
and appreciation of God, which led him to the place of
yielding himself and his all unto God. That is the thing
that God says to the church--He remembers "the love
of her espousals." "When you walked with me in
the wilderness, that was not so." It ties into the
very thought that we are using. "When you followed me
in the wilderness, or I led you into the wilderness."
What is He talking about? Why, back there, if you please,
when we didn't know our way. That was the time to take the
church in the wilderness, but back in a day when we didn't
know our way, we had to trust Christ to lead us. He was
truly the head. But the professed church today knows her
way around too well, God wants to remember, and is
remembering the church by the love that prompted those
espousals, I encourage you to go back in your experience,
if you ever fully consecrated--the love of God that moved
upon your soul and melted you down and caused you to want
to give your all that you possessed or ever expect to
possess. It takes God moving on the heart to cause you to
give up your houses, land, ... Amen. You think about that.
Cannot we see that many have lost the love of God?
