Commendable Discernment & Deeds

Transcript

GR 1506
11-02-08
Moral and Doctrinal Discernment
Revelation 2:1-3
Gil Rugh

We're in the book of Revelation together and we're ready to begin chapter 2 which is the second major division of the book of Revelation. Chapter 1 verse 19 John is instructed to write the things which you have seen, which would refer to chapter 1 and particularly the vision of the glorified Christ in that chapter; the things which are, which refers to the time of the churches in chapters 2-3; and the things which will take place after these things, which carries us after the time of the churches, which will encompass chapters 4 and following.

The first church that is addressed specifically, there will be seven of them in Asia Minor, so they are the seven churches of Asia. They will be addressed individually, but the book of Revelation in its entirety is for each of the churches and all the churches. So the message to Ephesus isn't separate but the church at Smyrna would be able to also read the letter to the church at Ephesus. And so for all the churches. We noted the churches were seven literal churches at that period of time in history. You could have visited them, attended there and so on. These seven are selected by Christ because they will represent the church in its entirety, down through its history. Every local church can find itself here in the commendations and condemnations. We have much to learn from the head of the church, Christ, in His evaluation of the church.

It's addressed beginning in verse 1, to the angel of the church in Ephesus, write. And he'll first unfold the commendations, the things that Christ approves and commends and then there will be a message of rebuke, condemnation. Very stern, very serious. And then promises to conclude the letter. It's addressed to the angel of the church and we've noted in this context it seems that we're talking about the messenger. The word angel refers to a messenger, most often we think of the heavenly angels, spirit beings. It's also used in the Bible of physical beings to serve as messengers. And I think that's the significance here. It's not Christ giving a message to an angel to give to John to give to another angel to give to the church. But rather this comes from Christ to His angel, sometimes directly to John, sometimes to the angel to John. And from John to the messenger. Evidently these messengers have come to John in his exile on Patmos and they will be the ones who carry the book of Revelation back to the churches.

So to the angel of the church in Ephesus, write. And this messenger is representing the church. So the church is being addressed through the messenger that comes as their representative. The church in Ephesus, write. And we've had much to do with Ephesus lately as we've also looked into Paul's second letter to Timothy. And in the letters to Timothy, Timothy is at Ephesus, and Ephesus plays a key role in the New Testament. There is a letter that Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, called the letter to the Ephesians. The recording of the establishing of the church at Ephesus is found in the book of Acts, particularly chapter 19. Here we have this letter. Paul wrote the letter to the Corinthians, I Corinthians, while he was in Ephesus. John resided in Ephesus and probably did much of his writing from the city of Ephesus, and you have his gospel and his epistles. So the city of Ephesus plays a major role in New Testament revelation, it's a significant city.

Let's talk a little bit about the city, some of this we've covered, but let me just remind you of the kind of city that this church is located in. It's the largest city in Asia Minor, that which is part of modern day Turkey. It was a Roman province called Asia, it was the capital city of that province. Some of the outstanding characteristics of the city. It was a major commercial center. It had a seaport, somewhat declining in significance because of the silting up of the harbor, but it still was significant as a seaport. It also had three major trade routes coming through it, and that made the city a very prosperous city. And with all that goes with being a major trade center, the kind of activity you have, people drawn there, the wealth that is to be made there. It was a significant place for that reason.

Secondly, it was of great political importance. It was what was known in the empire as a free city. That means the Romans granted it the right to be self-governing. They didn't station Roman soldiers in Ephesus. That doesn't mean they never appeared there, the Roman governor would show up there, but it was a self-governing city. It had a great amount of freedom. You remember in the riots that occurred there the mayor of the city, you might call him, warned the people they were in danger because if Rome thought that they couldn't keep things under control there, the whole status of the city would be changed. And that would have a great impact. So it's of significant political importance. The Roman governor would make regular tours through the province. If there were important cases to be tried, he would try them in Ephesus. So any important court cases that required the input of Rome, the Roman government would handle those for the province of Asia in Ephesus on one of his regular tours through the area. Of course, when the Roman governor appeared, these were men who represented the greatest empire in the world at the time, and they were also men, because of their position, who were caught up with themselves. So there always was a great amount of pageantry associated with his arrival, which added to the whole importance of the city.

It's also a major athletic center. We're familiar with the Olympic Games that would be held over in Greece, but the Pananomian games, probably have not heard of that as much. But they were athletic contests at the time on the level of the Olympic contests. And so this brought a whole other dimension. In the month of May these major athletic contests were held here in Ephesus. And that would bring a great, huge influx of people. So you see with the commercial dimension, the political aspect, the games and sports events (we can appreciate their importance), you just have great hordes of people constantly coming into the city for one reason or another.

It's also a city of great religious importance, and we probably are most familiar with this. The temple of Diana, and the Latins referred to her as Artemus, the Greeks, was in Ephesus And it was at the time one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. So if you're going to do any traveling it was on your must-see list, if you will. It was 425 feet long, 220 feet wide. It had huge columns, 127 of them that were 60 feet high surrounding the temple. Each of these columns had been paid for by a king. So you get some idea of the significance of the city if 127 kings spread in various places thought it was so important to be identified with Diana and the worship of Diana that they would pay to have these pillars erected. This is where the image of Diana was found, that grotesque carved figure of a woman, which symbolized fertility, and associated with that worship system were all kinds of lascivious activities, hundreds of prostitutes, some would say thousands of prostitutes associated with this vile form of worship. That alone would bring a whole flavor to the city. I mean, you have a city that has one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, it has this kind of importance in the world as a commercial center, a political center and now a religious center. And the religion that is practiced here is practiced in the context of perverse, lascivious, vile forms of worship that involve hundreds of prostitutes. You can imagine the characteristic of the city that is dominated by this religious system.

The temple of Diana also possessed the right of asylum. What that meant, if you had committed a crime someplace and you were able to get to this temple, you were free from prosecution. And so 200 yards out from the temple was part of the asylum grounds. So all around the temple there is a 200-yard area. And so you committed a crime of any kind, if you could get to Ephesus and get within the 200-yard boundary of the temple of Diana, you were free from prosecution. You were home free. Now you can imagine what kind of people this brought to the city—the worst of the worst who had done vile things in other places and committed various kinds of crimes. Here they show up at Ephesus. And you can see what kind of mixing pot you have here in this particular city.

The temple was also the center of superstition, and you know how that is in the world. These worship centers become centers of superstition and you could buy all kinds of charms there that supposedly gave you supernatural powers, or would bring you certain special blessings and so on. We think of sending for somebody's prayer cloth and you'll get rich if .............., it's anointed but of course you have to send some money. These aren't new. I mean, the devil's worship system always follows similar kinds of patterns.

One writer put it this way. So into Ephesus there poured a stream of criminals of every kind, fugitives from law, escapers and avoiders of justice. And into Ephesus there flowed a torrent of credulous superstitious people, for in a superstitious world Ephesus was well nigh the most superstitious city in the world. The character of the people of Ephesus was notoriously bad. The people had the reputation all over Asia of being fickle, superstitious and immoral. And here you have the church that has been planted in Ephesus. And you think, of all the hard places to have a church and a testimony for Christ, this is not a pleasant place to be. We sometimes get disheartened, we think, what's happening to our country, what are we going to do if (you fill in the blanks). We don't have any idea how bad it can get. I mean, we need to go back and read about cities like Ephesus where God established the church at Ephesus. And remember the church was symbolized by a lampstand. That's going to come up in a moment in verse 1, the seven churches represented by seven golden lampstands.

Back up to Philippians 2:14, do all things without grumbling or disputing. Why? So that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world. That's what the church at Ephesus was. In this cesspool of perversity God in His grace has established a lampstand with a light on it, it is shining in the midst of the darkness, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. You know that's what our church is, it's to be a light in the midst of darkness. We somehow think if we could only clean up the darkness. That's not what we're called to do. People on the outside may look less perverse in one place than people in other places. We understand as God looks into the heart He sees a heart that is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. And He establishes to be a light in the midst of darkness. How strange it is, Christians wring their hands and fear what is going to happen. Our country is getting worse, our society is going downhill. By what measure? Sin may be becoming more open. Are people less lost or more lost than they were? Less on their way to hell and more on their way to hell? I mean, we lose our perspective on what we are and where we are and whose we are.

And so here the church at Ephesus, back in Revelation, is a lampstand planted in a difficult place. We won't go back and look into Acts when Paul came here at the end of Acts 18. Priscilla and Aquilla ministered here, Apollos ministered here. In Acts 19 Paul spent three years on a return trip ministering in Ephesus, getting the church established and built up. Longest place recorded where Paul stayed on any of his missionary journeys.

About forty years have passed since the church was established, what we would refer to as a generation. Forty years have passed and now we get to look at the church. And there are some wonderful encouraging things that have continued in the church, and the church has a good testimony. So here how we start out, to the angel of the church at Ephesus, write, the One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands says this. I mean, does that not get your attention? We saw in chapter 1 the description of the resurrected Christ and now as will happen with these churches, we keep going back into what we have as chapter 1 where John wrote the things which you have seen. And something of what was revealed of Christ is connected to that church and the message to that church. Here Christ is identified as the One who holds the seven stars in His right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. And we take what was said in chapter 1 and repeat it, but it is heightened. What do we mean by that? Well you note here, He holds the seven stars in His right hand. Up in verse 16 of chapter 1, in His right hand He held seven stars. But the word in chapter 2 verse 1 for hold is a stronger word than was used up in verse 16. So the same thing is said but you have an intensified emphasis here. It stresses in a stronger way that He is holding them. So you take that image here, now you take it to Ephesus. This is the One who holds the seven stars. And His authority here is primarily what is in view. There is security, but the prime emphasis coming out in these descriptions here is the authority that is His. This is the sovereign One who has total control over you as His church. And He will exercise that authority because before the letter is done He will threaten them with the removal of their lampstand, if things don't change. So right at the beginning, He holds, and as they would receive this in Greek that emphasis is intensified for them, to get their attention.

He walks among the seven golden lampstands. In verse 13 of chapter 1 He is seen in the middle of the lampstands, standing there. But now you see Him moving among the lampstands, looking at them, evaluating them. And we noted, He is pictured there in the garments that would display authority that aren't repeated here, and the garments that would be true of a priest as well. And as you see Him walking among the lampstands He is evaluating the condition, and that does remind you of the responsibility of the Old Testament priests to tend the lampstand in the tabernacle.

Come back to Leviticus 24. The point being as He examines that lampstand, it must be burning brightly as He intends it to. So He is here to evaluate that. In Leviticus 24, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, command the sons of Israel that they bring to you clear oil from beaten olives for the light, to make a lamp burn continually. Outside the veil of testimony in the tent of meeting Aaron shall keep it in order from evening to morning before the Lord continually. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generation. He shall keep the lamps in order on the pure gold lampstand before the Lord continually. Now here you have the Lord of the church walking among the lampstands as the high priest of the church, evaluating the church at Ephesus, to see if indeed it is burning as it should and what changes and adjustments need to be made to bring it more into line with His will and purpose.

And here is what He says, I know your deeds and your toil and your perseverance and that you cannot tolerate evil men. And you put to the test those who call themselves apostles and they are not. You found them to be false. You have perseverance and have endured for my name's sake and have not grown weary. I know, and that emphasis is clear. He is among the lampstands—I know, I have a thorough complete knowledge here, I know all about you, I know everything going on. I know the good things about you, I know the bad things about you. I know. And out of that knowledge will come first His commendation. We just read the bulk of that, and out of that will come things that are not pleasing to Him, that must be changed.

He starts out by saying, I know your deeds, your works. Simple word for works. Their works are the subject of His evaluation. What follows will come out of the work that they are doing and the works they are doing for Him. So He is evaluating their work. This is His church, people that claim a relationship with Him as their Savior, as their Lord, as the Head of the church. He is evaluating their service as a church. Keep in mind He is addressing the church, this individual local church. I know your works. Out of that comes the kind of work they are doing. Your toil, and this word toil means labor, work that is exhausting, that is tiring, that is draining. I know your toil. They were serious in their works. They just didn't do the easy things and let the other things go. This is a good church in that sense. I know your works and your toil. They didn't hold back. And He is commending them for this. This is in the section where He is speaking well of them, this pleases Him. It's good to be reminded, and it comes up again and again in the word of God, that the work of God is hard work when it's done to be pleasing to Him. He didn't call us to do easy things. The service of the Lord was never intended to be easy, as we talked about in our earlier study today. It has to be done in the strength of the Lord, but that doesn't take away the fact that it will drain all your energy.

I have to say over the years, I've sometimes commented, I didn't know it would be this hard. In fact I have to be honest now that I'm old. When I was young I thought it would get easier with the passing of time. And now that I am old I find out that it hasn't gotten easier. And you've found the same thing in your service to the Lord. It still takes all your energy to get it done.

I know your toil and He commends them for that. This is good, it's a positive. It's not well if you were doing it in my strength it wouldn't be so wearisome. Don't fall into that trap. The work of the Lord is wearisome in the sense of it's exhausting, it wears you out, even when it's done in the strength of the Lord. That's the only way it can be done. It takes His empowering and all your energy, if you will, to do His work.

And I know your perseverance. Your work, your toil and your perseverance. They had endured in the doing of what they should. Through the toil, perseverance. Simply a compound word, hupo, to be under and meno, to live. You live under pressure, is basically what it is. That's what perseverance is, it's keeping on under the pressure, through the difficulty, in the toil. I'm exhausted but I take the next step. Lord, only by your grace and your strength I do what next has to be done. You persevere. They are commended for persevering in the hard toil. That shows their inner stamina and characteristic of staying at it.

Furthermore, I know that you cannot tolerate evil men. And that will be explained in what follows in verse 2 and He'll return to it in verse 6, in the midst of condemnation and rebuke He'll give them another word of commendation for not putting up with evil men in the church. You cannot tolerate evil men. That word translated tolerate, some of you probably are using an edition of the New American Standard Bible, it has the word endure there. They changed it when they updated. It's a word that means to bear a load, so you can't put up with them, you can't bear with them. It's used in Galatians, we are to bear one another's burdens. That's a good sense. But here you don't put up with, you don't bear evil men. That's good. In the church we shouldn't be tolerant of everything. There are certain things that are not acceptable, we don't put up with evil men, men that would practice things and do things that are contrary to the revealed will of God. The church ought to be a place for everyone. No, it's a place where everyone can hear the truth, it's a place for the people of God to demonstrate the holy character of God. And so the church at Ephesus would not endure, would not tolerate, would not bear with evil men. That's commendable, it's commended by Christ. We need to learn and know what not to put up with, that's not acceptable here. Rarely have we had to deal with an issue where it doesn't come up, I don't see why we have to deal with that, whether it is church discipline or other issues. Well, we have to. Why? It's commendable to the Lord of the church that we don't put up with the practice of evil. And here he puts the people in it. You do not endure evil men, those who would practice evil.

Specific cases, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostle. That carries us on. The word evil there was the practice of evil things, all kinds of evil. Now you also put to the test those who call themselves apostles. Doctrinal discernment here. Now we have moral discernment, if you will, and not putting up with evil, moral impurity and practice. Here are those who would be doctrinally in error. You put to the test those who call themselves apostles. Evidently men had come into the church and claimed to be apostles, like Paul and Peter had been. We, too, are apostles. We have authority from God, we have truth from God. That shouldn't surprise us. I've shared with you on other occasions, there is a movement today that says we have the revival of apostolic ministry. I've shared with you and read in past occasions some books I have on apostolic churches. They are growing, some of them are huge. And these are men who claim that the apostolic gifts have been revived. We are apostles. There's a whole movement of this. So in the church at Ephesus men had come in claiming to be apostles. They put them to the test and they found them to be false.

Go back to Acts 20, probably one of those sections that is well worn in your Bibles and that is good. Paul is addressing the elders at the church in Ephesus. He's met with them, a brief stop, a little distance from Ephesus as he is traveling back to Palestine. And he addresses the elders, the leaders of the church at Ephesus. Verse 26, therefore I testify to you this day, I am innocent of the blood of all men, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. That's what we have here. These savage wolves, these men who came in claiming to be apostles. But they are not, they are there for the destruction of the flock that Christ purchased with His own blood by corrupting the truth that God has revealed. From among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the alert. And remember, for three years my time with you earlier, I labored day and night and admonished you with tears. He was concerned for the church and what he had said happened. But the church at Ephesus responded as they should—they put these men to the test of scripture and they flunked. And they revealed them to be false, pseudo apostles.

Come over to II Corinthians 11. We think there is so much repeat in the Bible. Well, it's repeated for a purpose. You understand the Lord of the church calls us to account for putting into practice what He has said. If He says it once, that's enough. Some of these things are repeated again and again. In II Corinthians 11 Paul's concern is the same for the church at Corinth. He tells them in verse 2, I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I've betrothed you to one husband so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you've not received or a different gospel which you've not accepted, you bear this beautifully. They were putting up with things they shouldn't be putting up with. It has become a “virtue” in the church today to be tolerant. And if you try to hold the line doctrinally you're viewed as narrow, arrogant. You understand the Lord of the church expects and requires His church to be narrow, to be discerning, to be intolerant of any teaching, any doctrine. So the church at Corinth is rebuked for putting up with doctrine that is contrary to what they had received from Paul.

Come down to verse 13. Paul says, such men are false apostles. There we have it. You know the devil is a brilliant counterfeiter. Do you think these men didn't have good personalities? Do you think they weren't good communicators? Do you think they didn't win over the hearts of people? False apostles, deceitful workers disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds. This is what we have to deal with. We are not smart enough, not wise enough, not discerning enough in our own abilities to sort these things out. That's why everything must be brought under the searchlight of the scriptures and carefully examined.

I've shared with you before, an evangelical seminary that I attended, a professor who had served there for years shared with me what happened in that seminary. A man came on the faculty and had a wonderful personality and had the professors over to his home and took an interest in them and helped them with their problems and just won them over and began to infiltrate the seminary with his corrupted teaching. The end result was the destruction of the school. Even men who were trained in their theology, somehow the minds, eyes got blurred and my examining them in light of scripture and his teaching in light of scripture all of a sudden confused. I wrote a long letter to the president of that seminary and shared with him the things I knew. I never did get a response. How can you let this happen? You know, I have evidence that you know, but you lack the courage to step up and deal with it. That happens to churches. Well, they are our friends, we like them, they are good people. What does that have to do with anything? They are my friends, they are my family. What does that have to do with it? It's not my church to decide they are good people, it's okay with me. I'm not the Lord of the church, you're not the Lord of the church. We must come to be examined in light of the word of God Himself.

One more passage on this, come back to Matthew. You know I think the Lord repeats some of this for us as His children, just like we do with our children. They go through that period of time in their lives where they seem to be especially vulnerable. It's like we can't tell them enough in warning them of certain dangers. You don't get into the car with strangers, you don't even get into the car with someone your friend knows. You just want to keep reminding them. Now we get to a day where parents want to walk their children to school. My parents didn't walk me to school. It seemed like an awfully long way, and it's snowing. Well, put your boots on, you won't melt. Now get going or you'll be late. You don't love me. Get going. That's the way the Lord is with us, He wants to warn us of the dangers again and again. Look at what Christ says in Matthew 7, what will come out of the judgment day. Verse 15, beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Note the warning. They are in sheep's clothing, they look one way but inside they are something totally different. You'll know them by their fruits. Down to verse 20 after some examples, so then you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles? Then I will declare to them, I never knew you. You never did belong to Me. Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness. So you build on the foundation of His word, is what He goes on to say.

Come back to Revelation 2. The church is to be a place of discernment. It's not that we are closed to people, not that we want to be harsh. This is for our good, for the blessings of the Lord to be upon us. Verse 2, you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, they are not, you found them false, pseudo. Believers are to test the spirits, we are to try these things. Go back to I John 4, written by John, probably from Ephesus. Verse 1, beloved, do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world. Then he goes on to tell them about their examination of these individuals.

Now this gets to be hard draining labor. Have we ever gone through a discipline case or a doctrinal conflict that just hasn't drained everything out of you and you just think, I don't know how many of these I can do. You go into it and think, do I have to do this. And you want to examine carefully to see whether it's going to take this. The elders have been involved in these things. Often before they come to the church there have been months of trying to sort it out, trying to deal with it before it gets to be a church wide issue. But it has to be dealt with, whatever it takes it has to be dealt with. So the commendation is here for the church at Ephesus. They have been faithful in this area.

Verse 3, Christ goes back now after having dealt with various areas they've been in and repeats in a summary process what they've done, because it is commendable to Him. You have persevered, have endured for my name's sake, have not grown weary. How wonderful it is to hear the Lord of the church say that. Those difficult times when we thought we couldn't afford to lose people, but they found they weren't genuine, they had to go. We evaluated what they were doing and their deeds were evil. It revealed them to be evil men, they had to be dealt with. You have persevered. That repeats what He said in verse 2, I know your perseverance. He repeats it to commend them. It takes steadfast endurance to do what you've done here. That perseverance is commendable, to stay with it. And here I am as you've done these things, in the forty years of your history you have persevered, you have endured. Interestingly, we have basically the same word, a different form of it, but the same word translated endured in verse 3 is translated now tolerate. Some of you would have it endured if you have the early edition of the New American Standard Bible. The more recent has changed it to tolerate. It would have been better if they had left endured because you get the connection. You have perseverance and you have endured, you have put up with it, you have borne it, you have carried along with what you should. They knew what to put up with and what not to put up with, they know what to carry and what not to carry. They don't put up with it, they don't tolerate, they don't carry wicked men. But it's commendable that you have endured, put up with what you should. I you have to put up with it, it's difficult. That's commendable, knowing what to put up with and what not to put up with. And so the Lord of the church commends them for having endured, put up with, carried on with what they should.

For my name's sake. You did it for Me, you did it in obedience to Me, you did it from a commitment to Me. I want to commend the church at Ephesus for that. Isn't that a commendation we want to hear? He's evaluating our lampstand just as surely as really as He evaluated the lampstand at Ephesus. You have not grown weary. And this verb is in the perfect tense, it denotes this has been their continual practice. Perfect tense, something that happened in the past and the results continue on so it denotes something of a permanence, a continuing condition. The verb you have here, not grown weary, is the same basic word related to the word translated toil in verse 2. I know your toil, your exhaustive work, your wearying work. But you haven't grown weary in the sense you didn't quit. In one sense it is wearisome because it wears on you, but you didn't let it wear you out. You didn't become weary and quit, that's the point. Now we are to grow weary in well doing, we will reap the benefits in God's time, as we're told in Galatians 6. They kept at it, they were faithful. We're doing this for the Lord. Can we go through this another time? We have to for the Lord's sake, because this is what He would have us do for the purity of the church. That's what is commendable. They didn't wear out, they didn't quit. They kept at their wearisome labor but they didn't weary of it. It was exhausting but they kept going.

You know, the church under the guise of being loving, being accepting just doesn't want to do the unpleasant task of maintaining the purity of the church, morally and doctrinally. And the result is corruption comes in. I've shared with you before, several years ago I was at a conference and visiting with a pastor of a large church. He knew some of the issues we had dealt with, doctrinal conflicts. And he had some prominent men in his church and he said, I'm facing the same thing in my church and it's not right, it's not biblical. We talked about it for some time. When I got done he said, Gil, I just don't have the heart to deal with them, they're good men. I said, well, then you are stuck. If you don't do what the scripture tells you what to do, what is your future? The evil didn't go away, it permeated the church. I mean, what's your alternative? He grew weary, other things became more important—they are good men, they are likable men, I think they have a good heart. Now I'm trying to evaluate hears, I can't evaluate a heart. Only the Lord can do that. I, the Lord, search the heart, I try the heart, the motives. To follow up on the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. When I think I can say, I know they have a good heart, I know their motivation is right. How do I know that? Who am I to examine the heart? Only the Lord can do that. How can I say the motive? Paul says I can't even judge my own motive, I have to wait for the Lord to do that. We fall into these kinds of things because we think, I know them, I know their intentions are good. I don't know their intentions. All I can do is evaluate what they are doing and if they are teaching contrary to the word of God they have to be dealt with. If their moral activity is contrary to the word of God, it has to be dealt with. It's that simple. I mean, here is the Lord of the church. Do you think we're going to stand in His presence and say, well, Lord, I thought ............... I didn't ask you to think, I told you what to do. I mean what excuse will we have as a church for doing otherwise. It's hard to maintain doctrinal purity. I've had people leave our church, they've said, I'm tired of the conflict, I don't want to face the next one. Period. What can I say? I don't know where you go, but do you decide to be unfaithful because you don't want conflict? Where are you going to go in this sin-cursed world, a world of darkness where you are going to be a light for the truth and not have conflict? You find a church where the devil leaves it alone, I'd like to pastor it. There isn't any such place, is there? So what do we expect? Some of you have joked, it's hard to enjoy the quiet times because I know the next battle will come. Of course it will. We know our enemy.

All right, we have to stop here. Let me just summarize in several quick statements. 1. Christ is sovereign, He walks among His churches. That's a message for us. He is evaluating us just as carefully as He evaluated the church at Ephesus. 2. All our works are known to Him. 3. Faithful service involves exhausting toil. 4. Faithful service involves endurance. 5. We must be intolerant of wicked men, men whose actions and activities and conduct do not conform to scripture. We must be intolerant of false teachers. We must put spiritual leaders to the test. Those who claim to be teachers, those who claim to be those who can communicate God's truth must be evaluated very carefully. 6. We must not grow weary in the task that has been entrusted to us.

And by God's grace His strength is sufficient for our church. If we stopped here you'd think this is the church to be. But sadly the letter is not over and so we'll pick up with verse 4, I have this against you. As good as they have done the church is not in an acceptable state. And we'll learn from that in our next study.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your truth. Thank you for presenting for our benefit your evaluation of this local church at Ephesus. Two thousand years almost have gone by and yet it is pertinent and relevant and a message for us to learn from today. May we take this truth to heart, Lord, that we might have these commendable characteristics when the Lord of the church evaluates us. We pray in His name, amen.