Another Ephesians Part 5 "Back to Our First Love"
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 5 viewsNotes
Transcript
Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;
I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Introduction.
Introduction.
35 years after Paul founded the Ephesians church, John writes to the church and the church age “you have forsaken your first love”.
This is the same group that Paul wrote to saying:
Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,
Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
Something had happened.
1. What was their First Love?
1. What was their First Love?
Ephesus was not a deceived church, it failed itself by not continuing in perfect love. 60-1205 - The Ephesian Church Age
They had left:
“that love that you once had for them good, old-fashioned, Holy Ghost meetings”
“The fervent desire to please God”
“the passion to know His Word”
“the cry for reaching out in the Spirit”
There is a parallel in the old testament.
Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.
Israel was holiness unto the Lord, and the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the Lord.
What changed?
This was the first stage of death, the very earliest sign that something was wrong.
There were 4 stages of death to the Bride Tree.
That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; And that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; And that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.
The Bride tree was standing in its full glory in Ephesus, the Life, the bark, the leaves and the fruit was all there, but over the years some of the fruit went missing.
So this little palmerworm come around, to take off the fruits. I have two pages of “fruits.” I just want to read some of it. First thing, the first fruit he took off, was brotherly love. 62-0422 - The Restoration Of The Bride Tree
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
The “first love” in this case was brotherly love.
Now let’s picture a big Tree, of God’s Tree. It’s bearing nine spiritual gifts. They’re healing the sick. They’re speaking in tongues. They’re casting out devils. They’re doing great works, and preaching the unadulterated Word of God. No denomination to tie them down; they’re free, doing a great work.
So, in come this little old devil, setting up with his two horns setting out in front, like a grasshopper, you know, and his little old greedy teeth. That’s his first, the palmerworm, he come in to eat off brotherly love. He said, “You know, So-and-so did so-and-so, over at So-and-so’s church. I wouldn’t believe that bunch of people.” There he is, first thing.
(Faith, Joy)
So, we find out that he took away the joy. You know, David, one time, lost the joy of his salvation. He didn’t lose his salvation, but he lost the joy of it. He just cried, “Lord, restore to me the joy of my salvation.”
So this little ol’ palmerworm begin to eat that fruit of joy out. “Now, looky here. You people make too much noise. I tell you, all this crying, this saying ‘amen,’ and this shouting, that’s nonsense. There’s nothing to that.”
First thing you know, you set in a big morgue, you know, set there, all of them dead. Some of these embalming fluids of so-called Doctrine, of creeds pumped into their veins where the Spirit of God ought to be running, where the old church creed pumped in there.
No wonder they’re icy cold and dead. Spiritual thermometer, ninety below zero. Yeah. Somebody say, “amen,” everybody stretch their neck around like some kind of a goose or something, want to know what said that. It’s a shame. When, the Spirit of God ought to be joy, peace, love. But this little old bug started eating on it. He eat all the joy away.
62-0422 - The Restoration Of The Bride Tree
(Peace, knowing you are saved)
Bro. Branham leaves this off and goes to the leaves of fellowship, but I want you to notice that the Ephesian age didn’t go all the way into apostasy, that would come later. They just left their first love.
It probably didn’t seem like a big deal, but they lost the sense of His presence among them.
That is what was happening back there to the Ephesians. They were getting a bit formal. The abandonment to God was dying out and the people weren’t too careful about what God thought of them as they began to be careful about what the world thought of them.
That second generation coming on was just like Israel. They demanded a king to be like the other nations. When they did that, they rejected God. But they did it anyway. That is the history of the church.
When it thinks more of conforming to the world instead of conforming to God, it isn’t long until you see them stop doing things they used to do, and start doing things they wouldn’t do initially. They change their manner of dress, their attitudes and their behaviour. They get lax. That is what “Ephesus” means: relaxed — drifting. CAB 03 - Ephesian
The tree still looked like a fruit tree. It was still living, but the process of death had begun.
2. How did they Leave Their First Love?
2. How did they Leave Their First Love?
For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
They chose a leaky cistern instead of an artesian well.
To understand this you must realize that the Spirit is not speaking to the original saints of Ephesus alone. This message is to the entire age which lasted about 120 years. Its message, then, is to all the generations in that span. Now history keeps repeating itself.
In the generations of Israel we see revival in one generation, only to see the fires fading in the next. In the third generation, embers may be glowing slightly, but in the fourth there may be no vestige whatsoever of that original flame. Then God lights the fire again, and the same process is repeated.
It is simply the manifestation of the truth that God has no grandchildren. Salvation is not passed on by natural birth any more than is there any truth to apostolic succession. It isn’t in the Word.
You start out with truly born-again believers, and when the next generation comes along they are no longer just plain Christians, but they have taken a denominational name and are now Baptists, Methodists, etcetera.
That is exactly what they are, too. They are not Christians. You have to be born of the will of God, not the will of man, to be saved. But these folks are all coming together now by the will of man.
I don’t say that some of them aren’t right with God. Not for a minute do I say that, but the original fire has died down. They are not the same any more. CAB 03 - Ephesian
That cycle of revival and death has never failed. All you have to do is recall this last move of God in the Spirit when men and women dressed like Christians, went to church, prayed all night, took to street corners and weren’t ashamed of the manifestations of the Spirit. They left their old dead churches and worshipped in homes or old store buildings. They had reality.
But it wasn’t too long a time until they began to get enough money to build fine new churches. They put in a choir instead of singing unto God for themselves. They put gowns on the choir. They organized a movement and ran it by man.
They soon began to read books that weren’t fit to read. They let down the bars and goats came in and took over. The cry of joy was gone. The freedom of the Spirit was gone. Oh, they kept on with a form; but the fire had died down and the blackness of ashes is about all that is left. CAB 03 - Ephesian
The first generation had a pentecostal experience, the second generation knew their parents had a pentecostal experience, the third generation knew their once was a pentecost, the fourth generation wondered if it even really happened.
No age ever comes back. No revival ever comes back. It can’t have the life of God in it by natural generation. It takes a regeneration from above.
This last age started with the fires of a Pentecostal revival and they organized it right back. Instead of taking the Word they took their own ideas and did just what every age has done — substituted the manual for the Word.
Just you step outside that manual and see what happens. You are out, brother. And they will persecute you and blame it on God. And how they love their organization. No wonder.
They are second generation Pentecostals and since God doesn’t have grandchildren they are just children of their fathers, known by their creeds and form of worship. They can talk about what used to be, but they can’t produce it. Once they had the lightning but about all that is left is the thunder. CAB 04 - Smyrnaen
3. How Do We go Back to Our First Love?
3. How Do We go Back to Our First Love?
Bro. Branham taught us that each Generation has it’s own revival, a chance at the Word.
He also said: I’m not looking for revival in our generation. I’m looking for the Coming of the Lord, in our generation” These are both true statements.
There were four messengers of death and four of life. Luther, Wesley, Pentecost, Message.
The fourth one brought back the fruits, the first love.
(A valley full of very dry bones)
So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.
And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.
Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.
What’s the four stages of that coming forth of that Church? What’s the four stages of Ezekiel’s dry bones coming forth? But the Life only come, not when the sinew skin was on them, but when the wind blowed upon them. That’s when come back that fourth Message of Life.
“I will restore, saith the Lord.” Hallelujah! Glory! Praise be to God. The fourth Light is to come, that will bring forth the same signs. Watch. Justification brought back the pulp. Sanctification brought back the bark, doctrine of holiness.
What brought back the leaf? Pentecostals. What is it? Pentecostals, leaves, clap their hand, joy, rejoicing, Pentecostal.
What? The fourth was the Word, Itself. The Word made flesh, fruits of the proof of the resurrection sign that Christ has finally, after justification been planted, sanctification been planted, baptism of the Holy Ghost.
Organizations died out. And Christ has again centered Himself like that cap of the pyramid. First line, justification; sanctification; baptism of the Holy Ghost; then coming of the Cap.
What is it? That Holy Ghost bunch being honed out so that it can fit with the same kind of ministry He had when He went away, that, when He comes back, it’ll catch the whole thing in the Rapture, where the justified, sanctified, and baptism of the Holy Ghost.
That pyramid will stand again. The House of God will live again. The Tree of Life is growing again. 62-0422 - The Restoration Of The Bride Tree
This cycle of revival and death must stop for the rapture to take place. (Fruit must be ripe)
This day of falling away, and being that it is fallen to that, the people are losing concern. Remember, the tree is growing on, just the same. As Joel said, “I will restore.” 62-1125M - Convinced And Then Concerned
But remember, down in the heart of that stump, it’ll bring forth a genuine Bride. “I will restore,” saith God. And where does the tree, the fruit of it, get ripe first? Is in the top. Why? It’s closer to the sun. 62-1125M - Convinced And Then Concerned
Someone will be concerned, someone will have the Token, someone will be ready for the rapture.
What will keep the end time Bride from doing the same thing the first age did and start the process all over again?
What will keep the end time Bride from doing the same thing the first age did and start the process all over again?
Some of you people that really believe This to be the Truth, that we’re entering another age, we’re entering the Raptured Age, you know the church can’t go in its condition, and it can’t get any better. It must get worse.
It’s got to get worse. And it can’t go like this. See? It’s got to be Something, and It’s moving right now, friend. It’s on, the move is on for the Bride. That’s the Truth. That’s THUS SAITH THE LORD. 65-1125 - The Invisible Union Of The Bride Of Christ
The Ephesians had lost their first love after 35 years.
Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
This was some 33 years after Pentecost.
We are now 58 years since Bro. Branham said the move is on.
What is going to keep that greedy little bug out of our lives? What is the difference in the first age and the last one? We have the opening of the Word.
Now notice again, now, what’s His threefold purpose? Manifest Hisself in Jesus Christ; to come into the Body, by Jesus Christ, to have the preeminences; to (what?) restore back Eden, bring back that which lost. 63-0728 - Christ Is The Mystery Of God Revealed
Bro. Branham begins to read Ephesians 1:
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
“Predestinated!” There’s the mystery. He, before Christ or anything else was ever on earth, you see His great mystery, that He chose the Bride. Knowing Eve would fall, from disbelieving the Word, knowing that she would fall; but He would choose a Bride that would not fall, that would hold to that Word regardless of what all the rest of the world had to say about It.
They would hold to that Word! They are predestinated to stand there, “the adoption of children by Jesus Christ,” predestinated the Church to that great, glorious stand! 63-0728 - Christ Is The Mystery Of God Revealed
We’ve come into the fulness of the Word, the threefold mystery that was in the back part of His mind. We’ve come across the Jordan, into heavenly places.
What did Joshua do in Heavenly Places?
He fought battles, but there was a difference.
When Moses fought the Amalekites they had to stop because the sun was going down.
And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.
But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.
Joshua got into a similar situation in Canaan.
Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; And thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.
I will not let the darkness come over this battlefield. I refuse to be cold, formal, indifferent, unconcerned. I was chosen to make this stand. When all hell breaks loose I will stand.
He broke the cycle of revival and death by the Spoken Word.
The sun was going down. If them kings had time to get theirself together again the next day, he would surely lose men. But Joshua knew he needed sunlight. And he looked up to the sun, and said, “Stand still over Gibeon. And, moon, stay there over Ajalon.” And for the space of a whole day, that was all night long, the sun stood still and the moon stood there.
That’s a paradox. A man walking in the will of God could do such a thing, for he was in a…he was again in an Ephesus, in an Ephesian with the Gospel. 65-0117 - A Paradox
Hattie Wright broke the cycle of revival and death in her own children by the spoken word.
How could she do that?
In that crucial moment…Think of the men and the people that I’m acquainted with. God bypassing all the celebrities, and everything, to give a poor, little ol’ humble woman, can’t hardly sign her own name; and He knowed that what she’d ask for. And that was the greatest thing; for her sister is now dead, and her mother and father has to die, the money would’ve perished, but the souls of her boy is Eternal!
And that was the hour for them to catch It. And just as soon as I said, “I give you your boys, in the Name of Jesus Christ,” there they fell across their mother’s lap.
Notice, when you have a need, perhaps like Joshua. He had a need; he never thought of the circumstances, he spoke it, and it was God! Do you believe the sun stood still? So do I. How did it do it? Don’t try to figure it out, but it did it.
Joshua did it, and raised his hands; in that crucial moment he had access to God, and that’s what happened. It was timely. The Spirit of the Living God had seen the need of it, and pushed upon Joshua to say it.
The same God seen the need of Abraham. The same God seen the need of confirming this Scripture to me, that that Scripture’s true, too! The same God seen the need of those two predestinated boys, and it was that moment He proved it and confirmed His Word. 65-1127E - I Have Heard But Now I See
For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
You can have love, Joy Peace, all the fruits are yours.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
Conclusion.
Conclusion.
What fruit do you have need of today? Ask what you will. Life is in the tree.