Page 16 - February 2025 - Truth & Tidings

his present age of grace is marked great comfort in our Lord’s promise: “I
by gospel proclamation and church will build my church; and the gates of hell
Texpansion. Even as the Lord con- shall not prevail against it” (Mat 16:18).
1
tinues to build His Church, there is still Even if we might feel that the work of the
a need for spiritual revival, beginning Lord has stalled in our area, we should
with repentance. This is borne out by the look up and look out to see that the fields
apostle John in the last book of the New are still white unto harvest. All over the
Testament, the Revelation of Jesus Christ. world, and often in less favored places,
While the emphasis of the book is on fu- many souls are coming to faith in Christ.
ture events in heaven and upon the earth, Let us rest assured that the ultimate fruit
chapters two and three comprise a group of the redemptive work of Christ upon the
of letters addressed to seven churches of cross will be second to none.
John’s day. These assemblies of Chris-
tians were in the Roman province of Asia Ephesus – A Loveless Church
(present-day Turkey). They represented “Remember therefore from whence
spiritual conditions in the first century, thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first
but they also apply to assemblies today. works” (Rev 2:5).
There is a consistent structure through- The assembly at Ephesus was an out-
out most of these letters: a picture of standing example of faithfulness in doc-
Christ, a commendation, a condemna- trine and busyness in practice. Their or-
tion, a call to repentance, a warning of the thodoxy was commended. Nevertheless,
Lord’s judgement, and a promise to the there was one glaring fault in the eyes of
overcomer. There are a few notable excep- the Lord – they had left their “first love.”
tions to this general pattern. For example, They were as cold as ice. The warmth of
the Lord had no word of criticism for the a vibrant and fervent love for Christ had
suffering church in Smyrna or the weak gone. In a real sense, they had left Him.
company of believers in Philadelphia. This was no minor matter; it was described
Conversely, there was no commendation as a fall. The situation was so serious and
for the proud and arrogant assembly in urgent that they needed to repent; other-
Laodicea. wise the Lord would come quickly and
We cannot be certain whether those five remove their testimony.
assemblies urged to repent ever did so.
Did they experience the blessing and joy Pergamos – Worldliness
of revival? It is solemn to note that today, “Repent; or else I will come unto thee
in that region of the world, “the seven quickly, and will fight against them with
churches in Asia” are only identified by the sword of my mouth” (Rev 2:16).
ancient ruins. We cannot deduce from this Once again, this church had many com-
that Paul’s efforts there were substandard mendable features. However, the Lord
or deficient in any way. Far from it! With
the onward march of history, places and 1 Bible quotations in this article are from the
circumstances change. And yet, there is KJV.

48 TRUTH kTidings February 2025