We are grateful to be here for this time of fellowship together regarding the church and all its aspects.
It is noted, I think, by many that the conference, even in its planning, and then our brother John’s coming and various different aspects, has involved a bit of resistance, probably in the heavenly places. And perhaps for you in your life, even coming here has been more difficult. It is hard to know. I think probably every year there are difficulties.
But I think the nature of this message, and the Lord’s heart desiring to recover, makes it so that you almost have to overcome just to be here for these times. So may the Lord bless you and us as we are together.
I was really blessed by John’s word last night, and again by our brother Stephen’s this morning. I feel like the Lord is truly trying to speak something to us. Even as we were back there praying, one of the brothers had a very strong Scripture about our need to stand and watch and see the Lord’s house, and to take it to heart and set our resolve toward that house.
So may the Lord help us all. This is indeed the last days, and we really need His grace for the finishing race.
I would like for us to begin tonight by reading some verses in the Gospel of John—John Chapter 13, beginning in verse 31, immediately after Judas goes out. Jesus speaks of His glory.
Therefore, when he had gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him.
If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately.
Little children, I am with you a little while longer.
You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, Where I am going, you cannot come.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.—John 13:31-35
John Chapter 14, verse 1:
Let not your heart be troubled: believe in God, believe also in Me.
In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.—John 14:1-3
And then verse 18 of John Chapter 14:
I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
After a little while the world will behold Me no more; but you behold Me: because I live, you shall live also.
In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself unto him.Judas, not Iscariot, saith unto Him, Lord, what is come to pass that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world?
Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep My word: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.
He that loveth Me not keepeth not My words: and the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father’s Who sent Me.—John 14:18-24
Then we want to read a few verses in John Chapter 17, beginning in verse 20.
Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on Me through their word;
That they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us: that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.
And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as We are one;
I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and lovedst them, even as Thou lovedst Me.
Father, I desire that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world.—John 17:20-24
And then, turning to two passages in Revelation, one in Revelation Chapter 2—to the church at Ephesus—beginning in verse 1.
To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These things saith He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, He that walketh in the midst of the seven golden lampstands:
I know thy works, and thy toil and perseverance, and that thou canst not bear evil men, and didst try them that call themselves apostles, and they are not, and didst find them false;
And thou hast perseverance and hast endured for My name’s sake, and hast not grown weary.
But I have this against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love.
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent and do the first works; or else I come to thee, and will move thy lampstand out of its place, except thou repent.
But this thou hast, that thou hatest the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh, to him will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.—Revelation 2:1-7
And then over to Revelation Chapter 21, just a few verses, beginning in verse 1.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more.
And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His peoples, and God Himself shall be with them.
And He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more: the first things are passed away.—Revelation 21:1-4
Let us have a word of prayer.
Oh Lord, we thank You for Your faithfulness. We thank You that, for those who have an ear to hear and a heart to see, You would reveal things in the last days. Lord, we come to You asking that You refresh us by Your Spirit. Refresh our bodies, that we could remain awake and attentive during this time, but especially quicken our spirit, that we may be attentive to whatever You want to show us this day.
Lord, we depend upon Your Spirit. He is the agent of perfection, and we need His help this day. Lord, fill us with the Spirit, with understanding, with wisdom, and with love. We pray in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
In the last days, we see that the Lord is doing an extraordinary thing. We had our brother John share last night, I think in a very poignant way, about the present condition of what we would call the outward view of the church—that is to say, the condition of the church in this day.
Some spiritual men even say it is in devastation. There is so much compromise and so many Christless things.
And the extraordinary thing is that the Lord’s reaction to this in the end days is to reveal the full thought He has regarding His Son, His church, and His purpose. Now, isn’t that amazing? This is the strangest antidote I have ever heard of.
How do You deal with subnormal situations? You know, there was one old country preacher named Vance Havner. He always had a way of putting things in a very amusing and powerful way. He said, “Today the church is so subnormal that if any church became normal, they would be considered abnormal.”
And that is a reality. The church is so subnormal that even those who are saying, “We are the church,” are subnormal.
The Lord’s reaction to that is not to be on the subnormal, nor to eradicate it, nor to do the kinds of things that man might do. But what God the Father does in the last days is, by the Spirit, open our eyes to God’s full thought regarding His Son, His full thought regarding His church, and His purpose in the end age, and then He waits to see who has the ear to hear and the heart to understand.
This is an amazing strategy of God. We have to conclude that it shows us at least two things.
First, He has absolute confidence in the ability of His word, going forth, to come back producing what He desires.
Now, even when we face the full view of our Lord Jesus and what He desires for the church, I do not know about you, but frankly, when I see something so clearly—even as our brother was sharing this morning—my response is, “This is impossible for man. This is impossible for man.”
And yet God’s word goes forth. He captures what He wants to capture, He draws in and perfects what He wants to draw in, and He accomplishes that which He set out to do.
As our brother shared this morning, when the Lord reveals something, it is always something very precious to Him. He does not reveal things cheaply, nor for no reason at all. So we know that if you perceive, by God’s grace, if the Spirit of revelation opens your eyes to something regarding Christ and His church, consider yourself under arrest.
Because it surely means that God is going to work it out in our lives through much trembling.
There is a tremendous sanctifying, perfecting work still to be done. Only those who really see the end will have the grace to go through the perfecting. These two things we can know regarding the end times.
Yesterday I tried to convey the deepest aspect regarding what the church is. What is it that God is building? What is the Lord Jesus building?
Indeed, we tried to speak about the church as a living organism. This is the place where we have to start if we want to go out from there and see how everything is going to be done.
The Bible, speaking about this living organism—the body of Christ—uses the term the fullness. Because in the end, the church as a living organism is the fullness of Christ, Who fills the church.
It is as our brother has been saying. We can only imagine what it must have been like in the garden when Eve came to Adam. “This is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.” It must have been a song he sang every day of his life. But he found fulfillment.
“Oh, wow. Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. This is what I have been waiting for.” We can imagine Adam dancing around over Eve.
And this is a type of how much the Lord desires bone of His bone. The church has been taken out of His side. It has to be according to Christ—nothing else. But when He sees Himself in the church, He says, “Bone of My bone.”
Whenever He sees Himself in the church—when the Lord looks over the seven churches in the book of Revelation—He is looking for nothing less than bone of My bone. “Do not give Me works. Do not give Me Bible studies. Do not give Me some kind of thing you are doing—works, accomplishments. Fine, fine, but I want to see bone of My bone. I want to see everything you are doing coming out of My life, not man’s trickery, not man’s devices. Bone of My bone—that is what I am looking for.”
And in the end, this is what the Lord is going to gain. His church is going to be all of Christ—everything according to Christ, flowing from Him and through Him and to Him. The church will be, as Ephesians 1 calls it, “the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.”
Now, if You can fill all in all, you would not think You need any fullness. But though He fills all in all, He wants some correspondence. He wants somebody responding out of free will. He wants somebody who loves Him just for Who He is, and not just for filling our tanks.
And that is the church: this living organism, this fullness. Now, you see what I am saying? Stack that fullness of the body against the present church situation, and you see the seemingly impossible chasm.
But the Lord is going to close that chasm because He has said it. It is His counsel. As our brother shared this morning, He is not going to do it any other way. He has decided. We are His bride, and He is going to fix us up. So hold on to your seatbelts, because He is going to work.
Yesterday we tried to share a little bit about this organism, the church—this living organism made up of all of us, fused together by the Holy Spirit. This is a wonderful picture.
Out of this picture, as we describe the church, we can take other aspects of His nature and find different expressions of this picture within the Bible.
Out of God and Who He is, out of the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, everything that He does and expresses is full of three things:
The church must therefore be a living organism that is holy, loving, and righteous.
When we find pictures by which we can describe these three attributes of God—indeed, the very being of God—we find that these pictures are given to us as descriptions of what the church is.
The church is the holy temple of God. When we think of the temple, we think especially of His holiness expressed. So we are the temple of the living God to express His holiness—and of course love and righteousness as well—but there is this particular emphasis in the holy temple.
Then, when we talk about the house, which we will talk about today, it is the house filled with love. It is a loving house. This is God’s church: a living organism, a living house, however you want to describe it, that is full of love. It has to come out of His very nature. God is love.
Perhaps tomorrow, Lord willing, we will touch a little bit on this third matter of righteousness—namely, that the church is also a kingdom of righteousness.
Now, the church is a living organism, but it must have these expressions. Just to be loving without holiness and righteousness is not good enough; or just to be holy, if you could be, without love or righteousness, is also not enough. This fullness of the church is expressed in these three ways: a holy temple, a house of love, and a kingdom of righteousness.
As you can gather from the Scriptures that we read today, we are going to talk about this house of love.
When we read these Gospel passages, did you think I had perhaps sidetracked from this matter of the church? “Wait a minute, we are talking about the church. We should be in Ephesians, of course, or at least Corinthians or Galatians. What is he doing back in the Gospel? Oh no, not the Gospel of John again—Dana’s favorite book. Oh, here we go.”
Did you think that this was not about the church? Or let me put it another way: when you read this last message of the heart of Jesus in John Chapters 13 through 17, did you think that it was about anything other than the church?
I think today perhaps we can see. I want to make a very simple point: I want us to look at the church as the house of love, and specifically put it very pointedly in this way:
First love is the only condition in which there can be reality in the church.
Setting aside for a moment the need for truth, order, authority, power, righteousness, and holiness—if the church is not in first love, where is the reality of the church?
Obviously, that is the point in Revelation 2. Where is the testimony if the house is not filled—filled—with love?
When we see the church at Ephesus in the book of Revelation, we see a church that is not perfect. There is no church that we see that is perfect in any of those seven churches—not even Philadelphia. But the question is this: if they could recover their first love, they could maintain holding that lamp of perfection, that golden lampstand.
That speaks of everything of God, everything of Christ. The church right now on earth—you and I—we are imperfect, but can we hold that testimony of His perfection? You cannot hold it if you cannot behold it. You cannot behold it unless you are coming into the measure of it.
So this is the question for the church today. We are not going to find a perfect church until the Lord comes back and finishes His work. But at the present time, one of the absolute essentials of being able to hold this lampstand, all of gold, is first love.
I am sure even in the Old Testament the priest must have been a little finicky about touching those gold vessels. Even when he polished them up, put the bread on the table, fixed things up on the lampstand, and put the incense on the altar, he was pretty careful about the gold, because gold meant all of God—all of God.
That lampstand: all of God, burning with the oil of the Holy Spirit. This is what we say: “Our Jesus is perfect. He is the light of the world. He is perfect. We want to stand and say that we want to be this lampstand that manifests this light of God.”
Wow, that is some testimony. That is exactly what God wants for the church to be: this vehicle of sharing God’s light, the light of Jesus, the salvation of Jesus—the lampstand.
If we had to be perfect, nobody could hold that. But we do not have to be perfect. We do have to measure up to a measure of reality in order to be able to hold this lampstand. The one thing I want to emphasize today is this matter of love—first love.
Now let us go back to this matter in the Gospel of John and see that love is the basis of church life. We read John 13:34:
A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.—John 13:34-35
Now here is a revelation of His house—the house that is in His heart. You know, He goes immediately on to speak about the Father’s house, this house that He is building.
Bear with me just a minute, just in case somebody here did not think this has to do with the church. Jesus was leaving His disciples. The heart, the mystery, that Jesus wants to reveal is the church, even as God wanted to reveal Jesus.
Now Jesus wants to reveal the church in a living, dynamic way, as it is—an organism. Just before He goes, He wants to speak from His heart regarding the church. That is what we find in these chapters. It is the nature, the essence, the love, the internal power of the church that He speaks about.
You and I would be tempted at this point—and I suppose if the disciples really understood how late the hour was, they might have said, “Jesus, would You just give us a little manual on the church? Just give us a little instruction, even a Cliff’s Notes outline.”
“Because when You go—you are telling us You are going to go—we need to know how to run this thing. Could You just give us a little outline, some kind of summary? How should this church work? How many people? When do You break off and start another one? Do we all work together, or do we each go our separate ways?”
None of that do we find—no definitions specifically—because, of course, it is a living church. You do not tell them what kind of cupcake mold to put the church in, because it is living.
So there is no manual. But indeed, here is the rule. Oh, we have a rule: “Here is My commandment: love one another.”
“Jesus, how are we going to build the churches?” “Here is My commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, love one another. That way the world will see that I came; they will get saved too. Love one another.”
“Okay, right, right. But now, on Thursday night, what do we do?” So Jesus says, “Okay, let us turn to John 15, verse 12. Here is what you do on Thursday night: ‘This is My commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you.’”
“Okay, but then there are always the weekends. What do we do?” Well, this comes up in verse 17: “These things I command you, that ye may love one another.”
Now, is there a point here? Is there a point? Actually, brothers and sisters, it is a very serious point.
I cannot help but notice that there are a number of people here of real intelligence. I am glad that you are smart. That means you have probably studied your Bible and read some books, and some of you are well ahead of me, I know.
I am from German stock. They do not tend to be too smart—just stubborn. Excuse me, I said that to some Germans here; do not leave. I was just making a simple point. Forget it.
But with all of that, all of our smarts and all of our intelligence, if we have all knowledge or all gifts of the Spirit and have not love, we are just not really the church.
I do not know why exactly; we will look at some things today. But that seems to be where the church falls off first.
If we take the progression in Revelation as something of a progression in the declension of the church, or what the church goes through, we have to come to the very first church and say what is missing is that they have left their first love.
So here is a rule for the church. Is it a rule for the church, like just a commandment? Or is it the very lifeblood of the church? Is it the rule of the church, or is it the very essence of the church? “Love one another, even as I have loved you.”
If we obey this commandment—to love one another with first love—then John Chapter 14 is simply about the abiding place. Now, that is the church: the Father’s house, the abiding place.
You did notice that Jesus spoke a few times about a present abiding place, not just the Father’s house in heaven being prepared. As an example, John 14:23:
Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep My word: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.
—John 14:23
That word abode in verse 23 is the same as the dwelling places in verse 2: “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places.” The Lord wants us to live with Him. This is His house. But if we are going to live in the house, here is rule number one: love your brothers and sisters. Period.
If we do that, we also discover John Chapter 15, which is about the abiding source. How much love do you have for your brothers and sisters? How long does it last?
Some people are very loving. Southern people especially come off as very loving people. Sometimes there is a little bit of a cultural thing there. New Yorkers are famous for not loving people very much.
But the fact of the matter is, naturally speaking, we all do not have much love. We have some natural love, but it gives out pretty quick, does it not? That is why the Lord wants you to stick it out in a fellowship at least twenty years.
By then, you will really be drawing on the agape from heaven. No more natural love after twenty years. It is all from heaven, or you kill each other.
That is why we need John Chapter 15 in here, because you cannot abide in this love unless you are abiding in the vine and drawing from His life. You cannot have one without the other. External love is not what He is talking about at all.
He is talking about those highest virtues that Peter learned very well in his ministry and life. After denying the Lord, he was brought back by the Lord saying, “Do you love Me? Feed My sheep.” What he learned!
Then, when he wrote out the list of ascending virtues that would make your calling and election sure, at the top of the list he says, after adding all these other things, add agape love. Not only is it what we start out with—the basic grease on the pan—but it is also the icing on the top. Agape to agape, love to love.
The house of love can only be maintained by abiding in the source in John Chapter 15.
Then, when we go on and look at John Chapter 16, the only way we can abide in these things is to abide in the Holy Spirit of truth. Some people talk about love, but they do not have much discernment.
But we have to abide in this Holy Spirit, Who does two things in John Chapter 16. First, He convicts us when we are off. Second, He leads us into all truth.
We need to abide in that if love is going to be deepened, find discernment, and become beneficial to one another. Oh, we have to abide in the light of the Holy Spirit as He leads us, convicts us, and perfects us.
Then John Chapter 17—I hardly know what to say except that we need to abide in the unity that has already been provided.
Jesus is saying, “Father, I have kept these disciples. I have kept them for You, and now I am going away. You keep them. You keep them in Your name.”
Here we are abiding in this Keeper, abiding in this unity—a unity already bought for us by the work of our Lord Jesus upon the cross and by the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Now, that is very simple. But if you look at that, it is the internal life side of this thing we call the church, the house of love. This is where we need to abide.
I loved Brother John last night as he jumped us into the book of Acts and started us out with this fellow who had no idea what was going on. Actually, he stole that from my notes, so I am just going to pick up where he left off.
On the day of Pentecost, this man is standing around, and suddenly he hears the gospel message and gets saved. The next thing you know, they are plunging him down in the water at the spring, and he comes up with three thousand people.
Now, what does he know? What does he know about the body of Christ? I doubt he knew anything about the body of Christ, because on the day of Pentecost this reality was not even revealed.
I think Paul was the vessel who really saw that the church was the body of Christ and explained it to the saints. But when Paul finally revealed this and wrote about it, and people read it, they said, “Aha! I knew there was something going on here. I just did not know how deep it was.”
What did this poor fellow know? Did you ever name him, John? No, you never named this poor fellow—Benjamin. This man Benjamin knew nothing about the body of Christ, nor did he know that when the Holy Spirit took hold of him, He plunged him into the body of Christ. He did not know that.
But I will tell you what he knew. He knew he had suddenly been profoundly connected with these people he had never even known before. This fellow perhaps came from out of town, and suddenly he is connected with these one hundred twenty and these three thousand others. Some of them did not even speak his language.
Yet he says, “Wow. Such love, such connection, such unity.” It was something deep within. It was something instinctive.
The body of Christ is an explanation of the instinctive spiritual reality that we all feel from the minute we are born in.
I will never forget: I got saved when I was twenty years old. My wife and I, soon after I got saved, went back up to New York. I was living in North Carolina and going to school. We drove back up to New York, where I told family and friends that I had been saved.
We got out of the car and headed into my parents’ home. I went out to get some luggage, and who comes walking by but the old next-door-neighbor girlfriend from high school.
She went to Catholic school, but she was nice. I saw her and said, “Hey, how are you doing?” She said, “Good. How are you doing?” I said, “Gwen, you are not going to believe this, but I have been born again by Jesus Christ.”
That girl, who was going to a Catholic college, just openly broke down and wept. She told me how she had been praying for me and rejoiced that I was a Christian.
Now, there is a Catholic who was saved. She knew exactly what I was talking about. I felt such a connection. My goodness, I had never been so close to this girl, because she knew what I was talking about, and she was born again too. I was thrilled about it. Oh, I was so happy.
Of course, I went back home and shared this as a testimony, and I got soundly rejected because all the people in the church back home knew that Catholics could not be saved. Thus I fell into my first confusion: then how come I felt like we were one?
I remember as a young Christian how much I enjoyed this. Julie and I were commuting to school, so we went to the commuters’ lounge. Of course, I could not keep quiet.
One by one, as a new Christian—while I was smoking my pipe, by the way; it gives Christians a little extra character—I was witnessing to the various students there, talking about my newfound faith.
What a joy to find out that some of those students also knew the Lord. I felt like I was in a fraternity, or I do not know what it was, but it was so wonderful, so wonderful. I still feel that today.
My, oh my, it is such a privilege to go somewhere like Russia, just go around the world, and meet some people. You say, “Hallelujah.” They say, “Hallelujah.” There you are. Nothing has changed. “This is my brother. This is my sister. We are absolutely one.”
This is an instinctive thing. It is a spiritual reality. We are one. Why do we lose that?
Instead of maintaining this unity of the Spirit, we put so many rules and regulations on it that the next thing you know, we are shoving people out who are our very parts—parts of that body.
Here were these Christians in Jerusalem. On the day of Pentecost, we know the Holy Spirit came down, and these people were born again. These people were baptized into the body of Christ.
But I want to put it this way: the Holy Spirit came down upon them, and the love of God broke out throughout Jerusalem. A love feast began as the love of God was shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Spirit.
I do not know whether to call it power, life, or love. I do not think you can distinguish the two, because the truth of the matter is that the spiritual power of a Christian is love.
I remember before I was a Christian, the thing that affected me most—me being the brilliant college student, so I thought—was the men who were witnessing to me. They had not gone to college.
As I argued with them, I felt I had totally beaten their arguments. They brought out their black Bible and quoted Scriptures. I would give them this question and that question. I thought I had always won the argument.
But I did not win the love battle. These brothers looked at me when they were through witnessing to me, and I said, “Oh, I do not believe the Bible. I do not believe that stuff.” Afterwards they would say, “You know, Dana, we are so glad you let us talk to you. We know Jesus loves you. We love you too. We want you to know we are praying for you every day.”
Now, that is what won me to the Lord. You cannot put a barrier up to love. It is pretty hard. I can put intellectual barriers up all day long, but when those men sincerely loved me, there was no, “Well, if you are not going to listen to us, if you are not going to agree with us, then never mind.”
There was none of that. From my proud perspective, those men were good losers. They lost the argument—how come they were being so nice to me?
In the funniest kind of way, I started to love it when they came by and witnessed to me, because they were genuine. Oh, if Christians would just be genuine with the agape of God, whatever answers you have are good enough. It is the way you do it that shows people Jesus is in you. They cannot hide from that. They cannot wall that up. It is there. It is real. It is love.
Can you imagine that love feast that broke out in Jerusalem? Oh my goodness. These people were so excited. They were feeling the love of God. My, how they loved one another. Boy, how they cared for one another.
Some people were selling land and doing things. It was nothing. The grace of God was upon them; all they wanted to do was care for people. The Lord broke through boundaries they had always had.
The Jews had come together for their various feasts. Those feasts were an outward testimony to unity. When they gathered for Passover, Tabernacles, or any of their feasts, they gathered with a testimony of unity, but it was all outward.
Now the Holy Spirit had done something in their lives, and they had an inner unity. It was a feast all the time. Do not think it was easy.
Immediately, the Jerusalem Jews—purebred Jews, Hebrew-speaking Jews, or Aramaic, if you are a liberal—had to deal with the Hellenistic Jews, Greek-speaking Jews, who had a sort of semi-kosher kitchen.
They ate the kosher food, then they had a Twinkie. It was a little different. Their ways were different. Their culture was different. Their backgrounds were different. Their eating habits were different. But they were Jews, and they were there in Jerusalem.
These Medes and Parthians and all those people standing there on the day of Pentecost got saved, came together, and started speaking in their languages. The Jews would say, “We do not understand what you are saying, but hallelujah.” And they said, “Hallelujah.” Then they hugged and had a meal.
It was difficult, but that love—first love—is almost impossible to define, because it is at once vertical and horizontal at the same time. You cannot just say, “I love God; I just do not like these people.”
First love is both at the same time. So what is it—diagonal? I do not know. But they had such a love for God, and they had such a love for one another. It was infectious. These people were being cared for.
The Lord was breaking down these barriers, and they were seeing, “Wow, this is my brother, and this is my sister.” A couple of people got together and fellowshipped, and found out they were distantly related from the tribe of Dan and all kinds of things.
They stood around, talked, fellowshipped, and cared for each other. Oh, it was such love. The Holy Spirit poured the love of God through their hearts, transcending these barriers.
There is something about first love that enables us to forget about ourselves. There is something so large that these people were caught up into that they could deny themselves. Especially in a time of first love, being able to forget about yourself, even temporarily, is a wonderful thing.
So they cared for one another. We all know Acts 2:42. It is one of my favorite verses:
And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.
—Acts 2:42
Every time they gathered together, they sensed the presence of God and His love. Whether they met in their little homes and broke bread together, or whether they went down to the temple with a large crowd of four or five thousand, there was one thing they knew: God’s presence and love were there.
“Wow, look at the grace. Why, He saved the Pharisee today. Whoa, the grace of God.” How they rejoiced together with gladness and singleness of heart, sharing the love of God even with their neighbors. The Lord was adding day by day those who were being saved.
They knew that presence in every meeting they had—large meetings, small meetings, daily meetings, long meetings.
It remained like that for a long time, continuing steadfastly. Today, we need this first love.
First love is a great enabler. The life pushes us into this steadfast continuance, into this faithful gathering daily. The church should gather daily in some kind of way.
Today, our phrase is more, “We endure to the end—our meetings.” Some people are looking at their watches already. “Oh my goodness, five minutes before they say, ‘How much longer is this going to go on?’ Lord, help me endure to the end.”
We have prayer meetings where we say, “Lord, please, please, just have the brother fall unconscious so we can stop.” We just try to endure. Somehow, we feel guilt-ridden enough or duty-bound enough to go to these meetings, but as soon as we get there, we are looking for a way out. “Let’s see, when can I go?”
I looked at my watch during meetings too, and one day the Lord said, “Ah, you have got Hezekiah’s wristwatch.” I thought, “What does that mean?” Well, Hezekiah was given another fifteen years, and the sign was that the sundial moved backward.
I found myself looking at my watch. It was five to four; now it was ten to four. I thought, “I better stop looking at my watch. It is going back.” The more you look at your watch, the longer the meeting gets.
We are going to endure to the end, you know. There are some people who have to escape from the conference before it is officially over. They have to get out of here. Whatever it is—Friday, Saturday, Sunday morning—makes no difference. Friday morning? Whew, they are out Thursday night.
Now, they are going nowhere. They are going to go home and watch television, but the most important thing is, “I have got to get out of here.” We cannot stay to the bitter end; we have to leave early. They pack the kids up in the middle of the night and take off.
God lives in us, brothers. This is enduring to the end. I have to stay right to the end because I need more comments about my hair. There are still a few hundred people who have not said something, so I am going to stay right to the end. Everybody could speak.
But here is the litmus test, if I could put it that way. What is the litmus test of first love? At least this: they could not get enough of the Lord, and they could not get enough of being together.
As a matter of fact, although this was a remarkable period of time in Jerusalem, the fact of the matter is, they could not go home.
They had twelve people staying in a room, some people staying in stables, I am sure, and some in tents. Bethany probably became a major city just because Simon the leper and Lazarus lived up there. Christians were crowding that little town of Bethany up on the hill, and John Mark’s upper room was a motel.
That is okay if you do that during the seven days of a feast, but then it stretches through the long hot summer, through the Feast of Tabernacles, into the winter, and they cannot get enough. They are still meeting together.
All kinds of problems are coming up, but still the Lord is giving them grace. They still love one another. They still care for one another. This thing actually stretches on into the years.
Because they were a house of love, when persecution came, what did it do? It drew them more closely together.
They began praying. At first, when persecution was first known among them, they began praying, and the Lord answered their prayers and delivered those being persecuted.
But later on, as the martyrs began to be numbered, the testimony of the martyrs—of their love for Jesus—stirred the church even more in a resolve to love one another. Isn’t that amazing?
Finally, when they were forced to scatter by the havoc Saul wrought in Jerusalem, they became those who scattered the seeds of the gospel out into Judea and Samaria, to the uttermost parts of the earth.
How do we picture this house of love? We are just describing some of its externals, but think of the inner reality touching these people’s lives: the love they had for God, translated also into love among the brothers.
Can you imagine, for example, being a Jew, a remnant Jew, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and suddenly He has come? Now the Messiah is sitting on His throne, and you are related to the Messiah.
Your worship is of One greater than David. You heard stories of David; now this greater than David is on the throne in the heavens, and He is your Lord. I am telling you, you talk about worship—it was such a love explosion in Jerusalem. It was pent up for generations.
Think about Jews who loved God and could not express it—could not even say the word the Lord out of respect for His holiness. Suddenly, boom, in comes the Holy Spirit. They are born again, and out of their mouths comes the Abba release.
Can you imagine Jews who had been holding back their expressions of love for generations, released to say, “Abba”? I think it would almost be frightening for a Gentile to be there, because I do not think Gentiles could have understood the intensity of love poured out in those days.
We know basically nothing about their worship times, but I will tell you: there were those who were lost in worship, in a first love for the Lord that was so real.
Can you imagine them saying, “Oh Lord, we worship You. Father, we worship You for Your beloved Son”? They sensed that agreement with the Father in heaven, Who said, “This is My beloved Son.” They said, “We agree. He is a wonderful Son of Yours.”
Such worship. Such love. Such a house of love.
This was not novelty. This was not something that just lasted for a little while. Sometimes we look at it and say, “Well, that is what happens at the beginning, in the early days.” But it turns out this was not mere novelty.
I have been part of a fellowship at some time where the grace of God was upon us. Oh, it was a joy to be together. Nobody prepared, but we came together and the Lord met us. So we began to think, “That is the method. Do not prepare; just come.”
The Lord was so gracious. I pulled out a guitar, somebody started singing, I started playing, somebody had a word, and we thought, “Oh, this is such—oh, we can do this forever.” But that does not last forever.
After that initial period of God’s grace, He starts to work out His desire for His people to be holy, righteous, loving when it costs, loving when you have to spend your money to supply somebody else, and all of that. Then we find that these grace fellowships drop off significantly.
Sometimes these gracious seasons last for six months, a year, or a couple of years. But sooner or later, the cross comes before that fellowship. Most of the time, people, not understanding what is going on, leave. Many are fair-weather, gracious Christians, but boy, when the time gets tough—
Let me say this about first love as we see it in the Bible: it was not just superficial, “Let’s come together, have a good time, no strings attached, grace, grace, grace.” It was not that.
There was something deep here. There was a real sharing of lives and sharing of Christ with one another. This was not a novelty that ended in Jerusalem.
The saints were spread out, and we see in the book of Acts only sketches of the different places the apostles went. But certainly we can say this: in Antioch, there was the same love feast. In Ephesus, there was the same love feast. It was first love for the Lord, expressed in first love one for another.
Now we want to go to Ephesus, just to continue the picture a little bit. Let us turn to Ephesians Chapter 1 and notice one verse.
You remember in Ephesians Chapter 1, verse 15, we read the prayer yesterday: Paul’s desire that the brothers and sisters in Ephesus could see, through the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, Christ, and then the church hidden in Christ—in its calling, its riches, and its newfound power.
But notice the basis upon which Paul can pray this prayer. In Ephesians 1:15, he says:
For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which ye show toward all the saints.
—Ephesians 1:15
The church in Ephesus was abiding in the Lord and abiding in this first love. Paul, even writing from jail, still hears that their testimony is faith in the Lord Jesus and love for one another.
So Paul is excited, because he wants to share some of the mysteries which eye has not seen, ear has not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man—the things God has prepared for those who love Him.
He could not share that at Corinth. He writes to the Corinthians, “When I came to you, I could not share that wisdom for the mature because you were babes.”
When we look at Corinth, what do we see? We see a congregation of a whole bunch of people, but they are individuals. They are fighting with one another over who has the gift, who can eat meat and who cannot, who is eating this food and who is not eating. They had fights over everything.
They fought over who their favorite leader was. You see, they were not loving one another; they were fighting one another. They had not learned that the self has to abide in “love one another.”
They were scrapping for the highest place. They had some men there who thought they were better than Paul. Paul said, “There is one thing you need: you need the cross. You need the cross on your gifts, the cross on your freedom, the cross on your toleration of sin,” and so on.
But to the Ephesians, Paul says, “Ah, I have heard of your faith and your enduring love for one another.” Perhaps this was written five, seven, or eight years after Paul had been to Ephesus. Still, they loved one another. So Paul says, “Let me share with you some of the secrets.”
If what we know about the church is just what our eye can see, our ear can hear, or our brain can understand, we do not know the mystery. The mystery is what the eye cannot see unless it is opened, and what the ear cannot hear unless the Spirit speaks. Neither can the heart understand unless the Lord opens the heart.
Many of us, and many people who say they know what the church is, know only an outward church. But Paul says, “Oh, I want to share with you the mystery—this wonderful mystery hidden in God, revealed through Christ.”
“I want you to see the fullness of the body of Christ. I want you to see that He is building this holy temple in the Lord. I want you to see this righteous kingdom as it is worked out. You are learning Christ. I want you to walk by the measure of Christ. Christ is your life. He is Who you are. Identify, correspond, live in Him.”
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is wonderful, and it is high because they were prepared to see these things.
Here we see God’s dilemma. It truly must be. God would want to reveal His mysteries regarding His purpose to all Christians, but He cannot.
Those who are carnal will either not understand or will devalue it; they will misuse it; or they may even be destroyed by it.
This matter of the church, our calling, and God’s purpose is a very great thing. It can puff somebody up. Some people go around snapping their suspenders and saying, “Hey, I am the church—God’s special beloved one. God loves me the most,” and all this wrong understanding of the great mystery of who we are.
Indeed, who we are is very amazing, wonderful, and deep. But it is something that can only be received by those who love Him.
Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not,
And which entered not into the heart of man,
Whatsoever things God prepared for them that love Him.—1 Corinthians 2:9
The Ephesians could be ushered into this because of their love for Him.
I am sure you have noticed many times that you find Christians with little knowledge and a strong testimony because they have first love. Conversely, many times we find those who have great knowledge and little love.
This is why, for me, I am so blessed to be able to go to Russia and other places like that on occasion. I meet many new Christians. They do not know the revelation of the body of Christ, but they are just living in it.
They love one another, share with one another, and go out and preach the gospel to everybody they know. It is working. I am even hesitant to describe to them the mechanics of it, lest they get the knowledge and stop living in the reality of it.
I recently saw a wonderful set of DVDs. I know there is probably some partial vision and things in it, but there is this wonderful set on God’s work in China, or the church in China.
To see some of those simple people living in first love, so fervent for the Lord—and here we have so much, and you cannot even dig up ten people on a Tuesday night for a special passing-through brother. It is just—
I am not trying to do anything about the knowledge part. God wants us to understand these mysteries. He wants to open them to our hearts, but not at the expense of our losing our hearts. That is not at all the desire here.
We do notice in Revelation Chapter 2, verse 7, perhaps, that there is a problem there about what tree they were eating from.
You see in verse 7 that the overcomer is granted to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. I think for all our days, brothers and sisters, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is going to tempt us.
As we eat from that tree, we lose that first love. I cannot say for sure that is what happened in Ephesus, because these things are deep.
Ephesus had had the foundation laid by Paul himself, a wise master builder. Others were building upon that foundation, hopefully with gold, silver, and costly stones.
But somewhere in the history, the heart of the house got left out. How could we build the house and leave out the heart? If the house is a house of love, how can we forget about that?
I do not know. There is something about building up the stuff. When they built the house, they ran into a lot of opposition. They had to start exposing people who took this matter of being an apostle as a means of gaining money and gaining power.
The Ephesians had to begin examining people. Love used to be very simple, but it had to become discerning. Now, this is true. It is not their fault that false brothers had obviously gone in there a time or two. They had their ears perked up, testing people who came through saying, “Hey, I am an apostle. Listen to me.”
They were testing to find out whether these things were true. But somewhere they lost the heart. “You have left your first love. Now it is not My house of love anymore.”
“What are you doing? What are you building now? You are checking out false apostles, but where is the love in the middle of the thing?”
I am going to suggest, because of that tree of life—where the Lord wants us eating in Revelation 2:7, where the overcomer ends up eating—that this is the place that sustains first love: eating from the tree of life in the paradise of God.
Not only in the age to come, but I believe this reward must have some kind of application now for the overcomer: being able to eat life, even in the midst of a lot of knowledge perhaps going on.
The testimony of history has been that many times knowledge narrows the heart. Perhaps with the Ephesians, knowledge narrowed the heart even to striving for perfection.
Isn’t that interesting? Even if the enemy can get us off in that direction—striving for perfection—when it is eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil regarding holiness and perfection, it causes division.
First love wants to hold the testimony of Jesus, and that involves moving toward holiness and perfection. But here is the point: when you have first love, you realize you have to move with your brethren. You know you are connected to your brethren. You cannot move alone.
It is the person who gets in the deluded spot who thinks he can do something on his own. We cannot be perfected on our own. That is why we have brothers and sisters: because they rub against us. They bring us back to reality.
We have to deal, long-suffer, travail, and go through all those things that lead us toward perfection. You cannot do that in a hothouse. It is done in the church.
First love wants to be perfect because we see the testimony that we are holding. Whenever you see the perfections of Jesus, what does that do in you? It makes you want to be perfect, even as Jesus is perfect. Of course, there is that desire there.
But then here I am with my brothers and sisters, and we are all imperfect. You know what? I am not any better than them. I may have the edge over here, but they have the edge over there.
So we need to say, “Lord, help us move toward perfection. Help us hold on to one another. Let us correct one another. Let us pray for one another. We need to move toward this perfection.”
Oh, that we might have that first love moving us, with a heart of love at the center of the house. This is the Lord’s desire for us.
What does the Lord do? Here is an assembly, this house in Ephesus, where they have left the first love. What does the Lord do?
The question is: who will hear when the Spirit speaks and says, “Overcome”?
You see that testimony? You see that testimony of Jesus? He is perfect. You see what He wants for you? Perfection. You see, He is not going to change. This is His counsel.
Now, are you willing to stand up, even if it is against the tide, and be full of love? You may have to be a lone vessel, an overcomer, as it were.
Isn’t this amazing? Only God could plan this out in His wisdom. God has overcomers in some churches that are so subnormal that half the congregation is not even regenerate, and there is an overcomer over there living in life, living in love.
They stand out like a sore thumb. Occasionally, I go to a wedding somewhere in some building, and there is a congregation of people. I look around and say, “Hmm, I wonder who is born again here.”
I look around at all these sour-faced people sitting there. I am sure some of them are secret Christians, but there are a couple you can just see. Everybody is singing “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” in E-flat, and they are singing it in E major.
They have a smile on their face, and they are holding a prayer meeting at their house on Tuesday nights. Oh my. Isn’t the Lord amazing? How can He get somebody swimming upstream in a downstream church?
You know what it is? They have seen the Lord, and they are moving toward Him, like Paul was. You could put Paul in jail, and he was still going to run toward the Lord. You could not stop him.
An overcomer has that kind of life. It is that abiding life. It is that love. Then they become a virtual house of love. Everybody they touch senses the love of God.
So who will hear the Spirit say, “Overcome”? Who is willing to repent and do the first works?
I have been haunted by that for years—what that means. “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent and do the first works.”
We do not have time to deal with what that means, but there are some basic things that we lose as we get busy in the building work. Sometimes it is the heart of the issue.
I am so thankful that I meet with a precious bunch of brothers and sisters, and they still have a gospel meeting once a month, or regularly, one way or another. Thank God for that.
I do think that is one of the first works. When the church loses its burden for the lost world, there is something missing of the heart of God in the middle of that house.
But without going into that, who is willing to repent and come back and say, “Lord, whatever You want, I trust in You. I am willing to do it”?
Who sees the High Priest? This is the point as Jesus addresses the angel of the church in Ephesus. He says, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.”
Here is the saint who is going to be recovered. Here is the saint who is going to repent and come back to first love. You know who he is? He is the one who looks up and sees the perfect High Priest standing there.
That is the one. All you have to do is see the Lord in His perfections, and something is going to break.
Imagine: still in this hour, as late as it is, He is the High Priest over the churches, and He is still looking. Because He is the High Priest, there is still that invitation: “Draw near to the throne of grace.”
He is still standing there. He is still sitting there. You can fall down before that throne of grace and say, “Lord, I am so pitiful. I have left first love. I have gotten busy in knowledge and doings, and I have left some of the heart of the thing out. Oh God, forgive me.”
At that throne of grace, the High Priest can minister, recover, and restore. That person who is recovered is not the superhero, not the super-Christian, but the one who hears, looks up, and sees.
In the end days, the Lord is revealing His Son and all His perfections for those who have an eye to see.
All I am trying to point out today is that the church is to be the house of God—the house filled with love.
The church is not perfect. It is being perfected. The church needs to hold on to the lampstand of the testimony of Jesus and all His perfection, not our perfection.
The Lord will take that in this present age as the spiritual reality of the church.
Here is a group of one hundred people, just for the sake of a picture. Ninety-nine of them are swimming downstream. They have let go of any serious attempt to be faithful, to be loving, but they are still Christians, of course.
But there is that one faithful overcomer who sees the Lord and says, “No, the Lord wants us to be all for Him—full of love, full of holiness. Oh, we want to hold up that testimony that Jesus is the Lord and the Savior, pure and holy. We want to hold that testimony of Who He is.”
That one person standing there in that assembly of one hundred—the Lord looks down and says, “There is My church.” They are standing as a testimony of the spiritual reality of what the whole church is going to be.
In these last days, as we are talking about this whole matter of what the church is, we have to start there. Sometimes this reality of the church is very small in the midst of a large outward form. But the Lord is looking for reality. It is not a question of numbers; it is a question of reality.
May the church be the house of love. Let us never get away from that.
Let us pray.
Lord, we gather here because we have met You in Your love, and Your love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
Oh Lord, we know that even in these last days You do not want us shutting down in paranoia and separating from one another, living in caves and becoming ascetics. You want a house of love.
Oh, that those who live in darkness could see Your love among us. Oh, that those who come could see the testimony of Jesus in the midst.
Lord, help us. Where we meet, help us, Lord. We do not want the testimony taken away.
Oh Lord, if it is taken away, restore it, Lord. Grant us to see You in all Your perfections. Grant us to be this house of love.
Fill us with first love. Without that, how can we be the church?
Oh, teach us these lessons in the most simple and concrete ways, even while we are together this week.
Let us be those who resolve at this moment, by the grace of God, by abiding in His life, that we are going to love one another as You have loved us, so that all may know that You have come.
Oh, help us to obey this one command. We pray for Jesus’ sake. Amen.