Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #2 in Revelation 2, and we will read Revelation 2:2:

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:

In our last Bible study, we were discussing an individual that stands by the grace of God in salvation and how that relationship between God and each one of His elect has been assumed by the churches as they claim to stand in that same relationship with God.  But that is not true because the corporate body, the outward representation of God’s kingdom on earth, does not stand by grace, but they are bound to a “works relationship” to God, and they are obligated to keep the commandments of God, the Gospel of the Bible.   This is why the Lord Jesus said in this same passage in Revelation 2:4-5:

thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

How could Christ say that to a congregation if they stood before Him by grace?  Grace is “unmerited favour,” or favour that is undeserved.  And we are sinners who have offended God in many different ways, and it is by His grace we are saved through faith, and that is the faith of Christ.  So if the churches stood in a grace relationship, they could say, “Lord, how can you come and take away our candlestick?  Do you not overlook our errors, in the same way you overlook all our transgressions?  After all, we are continuing only by your grace.” 

Do you see how that cannot be true?  It does not fit with this or with what Christ said here and in other places.  God has warned the churches in several places that they must continue in His Word, and be faithful to His Word.  An individual congregation during the church age could lose the light of the Gospel, but finally at the end of the church age, the entire church world lost their mandate, and no longer would they be God’s representatives on the earth, but God would “give them up” and judge them, and that is what He has done, and we have been witnesses of this over the last twenty years, or so.

Let us concentrate on the first part of Revelation 2:2:

I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil…

Again, Christ is speaking to the church at Ephesus, and in the first instance, to the angel of the church of Ephesus, which would point to the true believers there.  But this was also being said to all the churches, so this is a positive statement the Lord is making during the church age.  He knows their works.  Again, the churches were in a works relationship, and they did do some good works.  They were faithful to some degree, and they did follow the Gospel to some degree.  And He knows their labour and their patience, and they cannot bear them which are evil.  So it starts off with some positive things that the Lord took note of concerning this church at Ephesus.  Historically, it could have been true of this particular church, but spiritually, it would indicate that the churches did have some positive things about them at various times during the 1,955 years of the church age.

These words, “I know thy works, and thy labour,” are found in some other places.  In order to see what God is saying to the church at Ephesus, let us look at a couple of verses.  It says in 1Thessalonians 2:9:

For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.

Here, the “labour” involved preaching the Gospel.

Also, it says in 1Thessalonians 1:2-3:

We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers; Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;

These three words are the same three words we see in Revelation 2:2.  The Greek word for “work” is the same; the word for “labour” is the same; and the word for “patience” is the same.  But notice how God identifies these words with another word, “faith.”  It says, “your work of faith.”  And what is the work of faith?  It is believing God.  It is believing what He has said in His Word. 

And this is a verse that is helpful to us in order to understand that we cannot be saved by our own faith.  When the Bible speaks of faith in salvation, it cannot be that the faith that brings about justification in salvation is our faith, or an individual man’s faith.  It is not possible because it is a “work.”  When the Scriptures says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved,” that is a command, and commands in the Bible are to be obeyed. And if we do attempt to obey them – whether  it be Abraham offering his only son Isaac upon an altar; or whether it be keeping the Sabbath Day holy; or whether it be believing on the Lord Jesus Christ – they are all good works.  Works are simply obedience to the commands of God, and faith is a work, as it says in 1John 3:23:

And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

What is a commandment?  It is a Law of God: “…believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ.”  You are commanded to believe.  I am commanded to believe.  Every individual in the world is commanded to believe.

And “to believe” is a Law of God, just like we are commanded not to kill, not to commit adultery, not to steal, or not to worship idols.  We are commanded to believe on Christ, and some people have fallen into the snare, and they have been entrapped in a “works gospel” because they have been deceived (by their churches, by theologians, by pastors, and even by the congregation itself ) into thinking that they cannot get right with God by keeping any of His other commandments, such as the Ten Commandments. They would say, “No.  If you try to keep those commandments, you will involve yourself in a works gospel, and you will come under the curse of God.”  And that is true, and God is very clear about that.  Let us read this to remind ourselves in Galatians 3:10-13:

For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:

Here, God is telling us that no man is justified by the Law in His sight, and as many as are of the works of the Law are under the curse, and “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.”  For the poor soul that thinks he can be saved by keeping the Ten Commandments, he would have to keep Ten Commandments perfectly, as well as every other commandment of the Bible.  All Scripture is the Law book of God.  The Bible is full of commandments, and the Bible says in James 2:10: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”  Once you head down that road, you are traveling the way of “works,” and if you have placed yourself on that particular path, you must do it all (perfectly). 

And this is just the terrible tragedy and great deception that has overtaken the church world.  They have deceived themselves in thinking, “Well, of course you cannot keep the Law of God, or keep His commandments and become saved through works.  You would enter into a curse and fail.   However, you can believe.  Just do that.  Just perform this one thing, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” 

But we just read in 1John 3 that we are commanded to believe, so it is a Law of God, and to attempt to obey it is to place yourself under “works,” and there is no salvation in works, but only a curse.  And even though these people are ignorant of this, and they may not realize what they have done, they have entered into a pact to obey all the Law, and they cannot do so.  They have failed to keep the Law of God perfectly, and therefore there is no salvation.  It is a gospel that cannot save, and this is the horrible thing that the Christian church world has fallen into, especially now.  Even during the church age this would happen, but at the time of the end it seems that practically all churches fell into the false gospel of thinking they had “free will” to accept Christ and believe, and they are basically saying, “There is one commandment I can keep that will save me.”  But as soon as they did that, they are obligated to keep all the commandments, and there is no salvation for them.

Let us also look at 1Corinthians 3 regarding the idea of “labour” and “work” that we are looking at in Revelation 2.  It says in 1Corinthians 3:8-9:

Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.

This is how God typifies the Gospel and typifies His salvation plan.  It is as though He is a husbandman who is bringing in the crop of His precious fruit, the elect.  Those that send forth His Gospel are labourers together with God in this work of husbandry.

God also typifies His salvation plan as a “building,” or “house of God,” and as we involved ourselves in the task of getting the Gospel out to the world (as the churches did in the church age) we have joined the Lord in the building process.  As each one that heard the Gospel became saved, he or she was a “living stone” laid upon that foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and built up the spiritual temple, or spiritual house, of God.  So we can see the direction this word is taking us in, and we can take that back to Revelation 2:2:

I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience…

That is, the churches had been involved in a right way with God by sharing and spreading the Word of God, and God was pleased with that.  He is not finding fault here.  He is recognizing some good works that the church at Ephesus did, and this would apply to the churches in general throughout the centuries.  And the churches did a good work in spreading the Gospel, and we can see evidence of this today by the fact that there are churches all over the place; they are numerous in our country, and in many other countries of the world.  In many cities of the world, you can find churches on the street corners, and the congregations of the churches spread far and wide.  That was God’s plan:  “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel…”  And they brought the Bible to all the world.  And many of them did labour faithfully in the task of sharing the Word of God, and the Lord Jesus is commending them for this in our verse.  Then He goes on to say in the next phrase in Revelation 2:2:

… and how thou canst not bear them which are evil:

We are not given all the details here concerning those which were said to be evil and what they were involved in, but it would seem that God, again, is commending them for doing what they should have been doing regarding evil in the congregations.  They did not “bear” it.  In other words, they did not put up with it.  They would have exercised their proper authority to discipline, and they could have removed certain individuals from among them, or, perhaps, the answer to what kind of evil it was comes in the ending of the verse in Revelation 2:2:

…and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:

Certainly, to say that you are an apostle, but you are not, and to lie is evil.  So this could be specifically what Christ was referring to when He said, “… and how thou canst not bear them which are evil.”  And in this instance, they are again being well spoken of, to the degree they have not borne them which are evil.  (The word “bear” is the same word as “borne” in verse 3: “And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.” 

Again, it said, “… and how thou canst not bear them which are evil.”  They did not put up with them.  They may have cast them out of the congregation, and the next phrase tells us why: “…and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles.”  Again, this is another positive thing the Lord Jesus Christ is pointing out about the congregation at Ephesus, and that has application to the churches in general.  Whenever the churches did this it was a positive thing, and they had done their duty as they listened to their teachers, pastors, and preachers, and they “tried them.” 

You know, the Bible speaks of the ear trying words as the tongue tries meat, and when we listen to a teaching of the Bible, it goes into our ears, and we are listening.  We are evaluating and weighing what we are hearing with that which we know about the Bible.  Even as we listen, in our minds we are doing a quick spiritual comparison as we listen to the teacher, and it may remind us of other verses.  But at times, something does not “ring true.”  It just does not sound right, and really what that means is that we are not hearing the “voice of Christ,” as the Gospel of John declares.  “My sheep hear my voice.”  The children of God know the voice of Christ.

The problem in the churches was that not all the congregation were not “true sheep.”  There were both sheep and goats.  But here, God is commending those within the congregations, and we would have to understand this to apply also to professed Christians as this is just a general statement concerning the church at Ephesus, or to the churches in general.  And this means it is possible, to some degree, for unsaved people (the tares among the wheat) to have some form of discernment when hearing a teaching.  They would not have any way to have the discernment of a true child of God, but they would have some ability to understand certain things about the Bible, and when a certain teacher would go contrary to those things, it could cause them to also be disturbed.

Again, here, the Lord is commending the congregations as a whole for the times when they heard those that said they were apostles, but they actually were not, and they “tried them.”  (We will look at that word “apostles” later.) 

Let us go to 1John 4, and we will see that the congregation at Ephesus was doing the correct thing.  It says in 1John 4:1:

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

Here, God is laying down a basic principle for His people: do not believe every spirit.  God does not mean that you should dismiss everyone who is teaching, and just write them off: “Oh, you are just a man teaching, so I am not going to believe you.”  No, that is not what He means when He says, “Beloved, believe not every spirit.”  But we are to “try the spirit,” and not just to accept what we are hearing, no matter who is doing the teaching.  This is what each child of God should be doing in response to a teaching from the Bible.  Our ears should be “trying it,” and we do run it through the filter of our current understanding of Scripture, and what we know to be true.  We could say we have “tried it” just through that process, but we should also be taking the verses, reading them, and comparing it to other Scriptures to see if it is faithful to the Bible. 

And those in the church at Ephesus were doing this, as it says in our verse in Revelation 2:2:

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:

These souls, the hearers of the teachings of these so-called apostles at the church of Ephesus, were listening intently.  They “tried them,” and they checked out the things they were hearing.  And what did they find?  They found that they were not true apostles.  How did they know that?  It was because they were liars; they were not speaking the truth.  They were not saying what the Bible says faithfully.  They were adding to it, or subtracting from it.  We do not know, but it was not faithful to the Word of God, and they discovered through that fact that they were false apostles and not true apostles.  A true apostle is one sent by the Lord Jesus Christ.

When we get together in our next Bible study, we will see what the Bible means by “apostles.”  Does it only refer to the twelve, or does God have something more than that in mind?