Turn back with me to the book
of Revelation, and we'll take up where we left off this morning. In the midst of our Lord's sharp
and truthful rebukes, let us behold the indescribable mercy
of him who has not left his own to themselves." He is speaking to the church
at Laodicea. And the miracle of God's grace
is, as we said this morning, that God was not silent. Remember,
all the Lord has to do for a man to go to hell is for God just
to not say anything to him. Just leave him alone. In these
places where the gospel of free grace, the gospel of Christ,
is not being preached, where there is no hearing of the gospel,
the true gospel, God is silent. He just leaves a man to himself. He told these people, and remember,
that these that lay out a seal, some at least, I know that those
that he was purposed to speak to were his people, his elect,
those that he calls out of darkness. Anytime you see that. The Lord
is not bargaining with a man. God doesn't bargain with anyone. He comes to one in power. and speaks to him. That's what
Scripture says. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of your power. And he told them, he said, I
know thy works. He said, I know that you're neither
cold nor hot. That coldness, how does a man
know if God has made him cold? Well, we looked at Song of Solomon
this morning when the Lord commanded the north wind, the cold wind,
to blow upon his garden. A man has been made cold when
the Spirit of God reveals to him his lack of a fit righteousness,
a lack of a covering. He is cold spiritually, and God
tells him he is cold. He said, you are neither cold
nor hot. or zealous in the realization
by that same Scripture in Song of Solomon when the Lord says,
blow, O north wind, blow, O south wind, the warm wind, the hot
wind. He said you're neither cold in
the knowledge of the lack of a fit righteousness, and you're
not hot. You don't realize that only by
being robed in the warmth the spiritual covering of the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, will you be made to see your warmth. He said, you're neither cold
nor hot. You're lukewarm. Or in other words, I'm doing
pretty good. I'm just doing fine. He said,
I would. I would that thou wert. that you were cold or hot. I would. Now, when the Lord said,
I would, that word would right there, I would, or I wish, or
I would to God. This is my desire, He said. I would. It's not in the sense
that the Lord is saying, oh, I wish that you, I wish you,
come on, y'all. I wish y'all would straighten
up and fly right. I wish y'all would come on and
do it. Oh, no. When He said, I would, He was
saying, I would to God. Let me just read this to you. This is what God does when He
would. Nebuchadnezzar said in Daniel
chapter 4 verse 35, after the Lord had removed his mind and
then gave his mind back after seven years, this is what Nebuchadnezzar
said. He said, All the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his
will. In the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or
say unto him, What doest thou? If God said, I would to God that
you were hot or cold. I would to God that you were
in the realization of your need of a substitute and also in your
realization of being covered by the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. If God wills that, you write
this down. a man will know it. The Lord
will order the wind of His Spirit, O north wind, blow on my garden. O south wind, you come and blow,
that the spices thereof may come forth. He says then, So then,
because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will
spew thee out of my mouth." I'm just trying to bring it right
back up to where we were this morning. Because of your lukewarmness,
remember, every man, every woman, even God's elect, are born in
Adam just like everybody else. They came forth from their mother's
womb speaking lies, dead in trespasses and sins. neither having conviction
of their guilt and need of a substitute, not knowing anything of the comfort
found in the Lord Jesus Christ, dead in unbelief and sin. He says, Because thou art lukewarm,
and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth." Two
things about that statement, I will spew thee out of my mouth."
It means, number one, that the Lord's people, they will know,
He will cause them to know of His abhorrence and their double-mindedness,
and they will know it by the word of His mouth or by the sword
of His Spirit. I will spew you. I will cause
you. But especially, He will cause
them to know that they have been spewed out in this sense. They were crucified with the
Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, I was crucified with
Christ. I got what I deserved in my substitute. He paid my debt for me. So you remember that He is the
Creator of all these things. He's raised up this assembly
so that His sheep might hear His Word and that He Himself
would be glorified. I was looking at a passage of
Scripture. Turn over to Acts 18. Acts 18. And this is the
same. It's the same for every place
where the Lord has been pleased to raise up a church. This is
why God raised up this church almost 50 years ago, and raised
up a faithful pastor to sit and study, set forth the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Acts chapter 18. Why was the
church at Laodicea raised up? Why was Katie Baptist Church
raised up? Here's the answer right here. Acts 18 verse 7,
And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man's house, named
Justice, one that worshipped God. whose house joined hard
to the synagogue. And Crispus, the chief ruler
of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all of his house,
and many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized. Then spake the Lord to Paul in
the night, By a vision, be not afraid, but speak, and hold not
thy peace. For I am with thee, and no man
shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this
city. And he continued there a year
and six months teaching the Word of God among them. Why is a place
raised up? Why does God send a preacher
to preach the gospel? Because God has a people that
He is going to call out. I have much people in this place. Now some people in this place,
obviously, They were in the church at Laodicea. So they were sitting
where the Gospel was being preached. They heard it. They heard the
Gospel. They heard the truth, the power
of God unto salvation. But until the Spirit of God takes
that Word and applies it to a man, imparts it in power, gives that
man a heart for it, man will hear it. He'll hear it, hear
it, and hear it. And he is still lukewarm. He
still has no understanding. There were some people that were
sitting in this place, lukewarm, had a lukewarm attitude toward
Christ and possessed no life. And left to themselves, the Lord
must judge them in absolute righteousness. But in mercy to His own, He revealed
His abhorrence for their careless spirit, and He did so by His
gospel. And then He said to them, Because
you say, I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of
nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, miserable,
poor, blind, and naked, Because you say that you're rich. That's indicative of this world
today in Luke chapter 6. I'll just read this to you. If
you want to turn there, it's fine. Luke chapter 6 and verse
24. Luke 6, 24. The Scripture says
this, Woe unto you that are rich. Rich. For ye have received your
consolation. What's he talking about? Look
over at James chapter 5 and verse 1. James 5, 1. Rich. The Scripture says, Go to now
ye rich men. Weep and howl for your miseries
that shall come upon you. Let me ask you something. Does
that mean if a man has a little money, that that right there
will send him to hell? Is that what God's saying? Well,
you know better than that. That's not what it means. It
means those that say, back in Revelation, He says, because
you think, because you have found yourself in this present life,
you think that you're rich, or because you think that you're
rich in your doctrine. Remember, these people were sitting
under the gospel. These were the people that thought,
I've heard the doctrines of grace, Bob. Yeah, I know I'm not like
those Armenians over there. I know the truth. I've heard
the truth. I'm rich. I've sat under Brother
Scott for years, and I know what he preaches. I'm rich. I'm not like those people that
don't believe the gospel. Because you say that you're rich
and increased with goods, or I have religion plenty, is what
that is. I'm increased with goods. Oh,
there's many, I understand this, that think that gain is godliness. because I have much lands, and
I've got five cars, and because I have three houses, you know,
evidently God has blessed me. But these people saw themselves
rich doctrinally, and they thought they had absolutely no need,
no need of nothing. He says, Because you say, I'm
rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, and
knowest not that thou art wretched, Afflicted and troubled in sin,
what that word means, wretched and miserable or to be pitied
because you say that you are rich and you don't know that
you are miserable and poor or destitute of true wealth in Christ. Destitute of eternal riches and
he said, and because you are blind, spiritually blind and
naked, robed only with the filthiness of self-righteousness when Adam
and Eve sinned against God. What did they do? They hid themselves.
Why? Because when God came to him,
God asked him, He said, Why did you hide? He said, Because I
am naked. He said, Who told you that? He
knew He was. God had revealed to him. You
don't have a covering. He said, because you say. He
said, because of your state. Just like that infant in Ezekiel
chapter 16. The Lord says, I walked by you
when I saw you. Your navel wasn't cut. You were
lying in your own pollution. No one swaddled you. You were
exposed to everything that would hurt you. I saw you, and I said
to you, in the time of love, I looked on you in compassion,
and I said, live." That's what's happening right here. The Lord
says, because you weren't cold or hot, you had no realization,
no conviction of your nakedness before Almighty God, you were
not hot. Toward Almighty God, you had
no love for Christ. You said you were rich and you
said you were increased with goods and in need of nothing.
You did not know the miserable state that you were in. Because
of that, all men are born there. But the Lord doesn't reveal it
to all men. God doesn't teach all men. He
will call out His sheep and they shall hear His voice. He said,
because you said that. He said in verse 18, I counsel
thee. I counsel you. That means I'm
going to give you some good advice. You know, there's times that
somebody might say something to me somebody that I've got
the greatest of respect for. There's times that Brother Scott
would take me off the side and he'll say these. He'd say, listen,
I've got something for you. You know, my ears just, you know,
I want to hear what he's got to say. I want to learn something. The Lord says, because you say,
I have need of nothing. You're not hot, you're cold,
you're lukewarm. I counsel thee. I'm going to
give you some good advice. The Lord said in Isaiah 118,
come now. Let us reason together. That's
always been an amazing Scripture to me. Let's reason together. What am I going to reason with
God? Let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins
be as scarlet, you said you're rich, increased with goods, You
say you don't have any need of anything. You don't know that
you're wretched. You don't know you're miserable.
You don't know you're blind. You don't know you're poor. Because
your sins are as scarlet, they'll be as white as snow. Though they
be red like crimson, they'll be as wool. You said that you
were rich. I counsel thee to buy of me.
Buy, that is, by faith. According to Isaiah 55, without
money, without price, buy of me. By faith, in that faith that
is not of yourself, I counsel thee to buy of me gold. You say you are rich. I want
to give you some good advice. You buy of me gold. But gold
that is tried in the fire, Gold, that is, the Lord Jesus Himself,
the true riches of heaven. Gold that has been tried or proven
and accepted, the accepted sacrifice for sinners, God's Lamb. God will provide who? Himself. A sacrifice. gold tried in the fire, that
thou mayest be rich. And also buy of me white raiment."
He said, you didn't know that you're naked. He said, I'll give
you some advice. You buy of me again without money,
without price. How do you buy something with
no money that doesn't have a price on it by faith. By faith. By faith. And faith that's given by white
raiment, that will cover you. The righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ bought and purchased at the sacrifice of His blood. By faith, I think about that
woman that had that issue of blood spent all she had. She was none the better, but
Scripture says she's worse. Came to the Lord Jesus Christ,
looked in Him. She said, if I touch the hem
of His garment, I'll be made whole. And she touched Him, and
He said, who touched Me? Everybody was touching Him. He
said, no virtue came out of Me. Someone touched Me by faith.
That's what He said. The Lord gave her that faith
to believe Him. And that faith, by faith, she
responded. Faith is a gift of God. By of
Me, white raiment, that will cover your nakedness before Me. And then He says, The shame of
thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve
that thou mayest see." You see, once I was blind. Blind. I didn't know it. The Lord said,
you said you was rich. You didn't even know you was
blind. Did you realize you were blind before the Lord revealed
it to you? I didn't, and neither did you.
I thought I saw. I thought I saw perfectly, Mitch.
I saw. Somebody says, do you see? Yes,
I do. I walked down the aisle. I gave
my heart to Jesus. I prayed the sinner's prayer.
I shook hands with the preacher. I was baptized. I'm a member. Good standing. I see. And then one day, I don't know
when, a period of time, I began to see, I began to perceive,
and I realized by that north wind blowing upon me, I have
no covering for God. I'm cold. This is a cold place. I need a covering. I need some
warmth. Blow on Him, south wind. reveal
to him, teach him, show him. He says, By me, anoint thy eyes
with eye salve that thou mayest see. 1 John 2.20 says, But ye have an unction
from the Holy One, and ye know all things. You see. You see by faith. All that I
need, He supplies. All that I need to buy, He said,
buy me. He supplies. I can't come up
with what it takes. I don't have the faith. It's
a free gift. For by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourself. It's the gift of God. Free grace
and the reason for this counsel He told them, He said, this is
the way you are. This is where I found you. I
put you in this church. I put you under the sound of
the gospel. And then He revealed to them
what they were. I counseled them. And the reason
that He counseled them, why did He tell them that they were lukewarm? Why did He reveal to them that
you were not cold and you weren't hot? You had no realization of
your need of Christ. You had no realization of where
you were. I'm giving you some good advice.
Buy of me. Why did He tell them that? Look
in verse 19. Because as many as I love, I
rebuke, I chasten. Be zealous therefore and repent. All of God's people, all of them,
do you know where he finds them? Luke Warm. Where did he find
Saul of Tarsus? Where did he find him? Oh, you
ask Saul of Tarsus. Do you know God? Oh, man, he
rattled off a chain of credentials. I was of the tribe of Benjamin
on the eighth day. I was this. I was that. Luke
Warm. Oh, no, no, no, no, Saul said, I'm not lukewarm. I see. I know Him. I'm rich. I'm increased
in goods. I have need of nothing. I was
a Pharisee of Pharisees. The Lord told him, He said, no,
you're lukewarm. You say, because you say. He said his affection eternally. upon Saul of Tarsus. And I'll
tell you this, for all that He's chosen in His Son, I can say
to you with confidence, He said His affection on you eternally. And here's what He's going to
do. He's going to give you some good advice before you leave
this world. And that good advice is going
to come to you in power. The Spirit of God is going to
blow on you. And God's going to reveal your need of Him. He is going to show you where
you are. Why? Because He loved you. As many
as I love, I rebuke. I chase them. He chastened them
with the gospel. I say, the power of God unto
salvation. He taught them and He made them
willing to come in the day of His power to repent. That is, to change their mind
about how God justifies a sinner. That's what it means to repent.
As I told you before, repentance has nothing to do with morality. Now, I'm not saying that a believer
is lawless. They are moral people. But repentance
means a change of mind that is concerning how God justifies
a sinner. Unless you repent, That is, change
your mind. Man is born in this world thinking
that he knows how God justifies a sinner. He thinks he justifies
a sinner by his own free will. Oh, no. Unless you repent, you're
going to perish. He says, as many as I love, I
rebuke and chase and be zealous therefore, and repent. He is
the one that causes a man to repent. He says, behold, verse
20, isn't it amazing how many of these that we quote. How many times have we quoted
this? As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. How many times have
we heard this Scripture? I stand at the door and knock.
Isn't this amazing? All of those quotes came out
of this letter to the church at Laodicea. He said, I stand
at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and
open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him
and he with me. Hey, you know, I know here, I
don't need to say this because I've gone over this time before.
Brother Scott's preached it, I know, but I'm going to say
it anyway. I know, and you do too, how this
passage of Scripture is taken by the false religionists of
this world, and they say concerning that Scripture that the Lord
stands at the door of every man's heart and knocks. Every man's
got a chance. God's knocking at everybody's
heart. You know, the only problem with that is that it's inconsistent
with everything that's taught in the Scriptures concerning
man's ability or inability or man's free will. I know what
they're saying. What they're saying is that if
you'll exercise your free will, if you knock, He knocks, and
if you decide, He will come in. I've seen the painting. When
I was in art school, I remembered seeing that painting. And what
it is, there's no doorknob on the outside of the door in the
painting, which means that obviously that they assume that it only
can be opened from the inside. I'm going to tell you this. A
song of Solomon, and this is one that we've looked at often,
and I'll wrap up this message in these last couple of verses.
But this one right here in Song of Solomon 5, verse 2, the bride
is speaking. She says, I sleep, but my heart
waketh. It's the voice of my Beloved
that knocketh, saying open to me. Now listen to who he's speaking
to. They say, you know, he knocks
on everybody's heart. I'll tell you who he comes to
in compassion. He says, Open to me, my sister,
my love, my dove, my undefiled. The Lord Himself back in Revelation
3, verse 20, He says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hears my voice and
opened the door, the bride heard his voice and she did open the
door. But do you remember why she opened
the door? The Scripture says because he
put his hand, she gave him excuses. Why? I have already laid down,
I have already taken my shoes off, I have already retired He
put His hand by the hole of the door, and her bowels were moved
for Him. If any man hear and open the
door, if they hear, why do they hear? Because they are His sheep,
and He has made them to hear. He said, My sheep hear My voice. If any man hear, He hears because
God has been pleased to speak to him in power. If any man hear,
and if a man opens the door, if that door be opened, it's
opened because Almighty God has been pleased to open that door. If any man hear and open the
door, the gate, If there is a place that is made an entrance to by
Christ, I want you to turn back. I'm going to be done here in
just a second. Turn back to Psalm of Solomon.
I'm going to show you something. I just cannot pass this up. He
said, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice
and open the door, I will come in and sup with him. Look at Song of Solomon. Lord
willing, I'm going to deal with this Wednesday night. Verses
8 and 9 and 10. Look at verse 8. The Scripture
says, We have a little sister, she hath no breast. What shall
we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?
Now look at this. The Lord is answering here and
He says, If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace
of silver, and if she be a door..." You see that right there? "...if
she is a place where I have been pleased to open." If she's a
place that I'm pleased to reveal myself, never let it be said
that it's left to a man or a woman by the power of their own free
will to either invite or to reject that they have the power to resist
Almighty God. If they do, then He's not all-powerful. They are. He said, I stand at
the door and knock. If any man hear My voice and
open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him and he
with Me. And He, verse 21, that overcometh,
I will grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame
and am set down with My Father in His throne." He Himself is our reward. He is the rewarder of those that
overcome. But remember this, we overcome
in Him. We are more than conquerors.
We overcome, Neal. We overcome in Him. We are more
than conquerors in Him who loved us. He shall have His own in
everlasting communion and glorification. We shall sit with Him. 2 Timothy
2, 11 and 12 says, it is a faithful saying. For if we be dead with
Him, we shall also live with Him. If we suffer, we shall also
reign with Him. The Scripture says in that last
verse, He that hath an ear, as we've said before, a hearing
ear, seeing eye, hearing ear. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. The Lord God Himself
was not dealing with the church at Laodicea, trying to get them
to do anything. He revealed to them what they
were. But the mercy, this is how in
these seven letters that were listed and written to these seven
churches, as I said when we started this, those seven letters, I
said every letter that was written to every church is relative today. The church at Ephesus, Philadelphia,
Sardis, and Laodicea can all be applied and speaks to Katie
Baptist Church. The Lord raised up a church here
fifty years ago. Sent a pastor. Kept it. till this day right here. Why? Because He had a people in this
place who were going to teach Him. And in His mercy, those
and some of you, I'm sure, some of you have sat as a child, you've
sat, kind of grew up, heard this faithful pastor preach. And you
knew what he was preaching. You understood. You understood
the difference in your head between freewillism and Calvinism. You knew the difference. But
in yourself, use Luke 1, like all God's people are. But having
put you in this place that shows you the mercy of Almighty God,
He puts you where you would hear the Scriptures. the truth, Christ. And for some, for some, not all,
but those that He everlastingly loved, when it pleased Him, He
came to them and He revealed something to you. And this is
what He told you. You're not hot and you're not
cold. You're lukewarm. Because you say, I'm rich, and
because I've everlastingly loved you, I'm going to give you some
good advice. Bithe me. And the Spirit of God
spoke to your heart, imparted to your heart. I mean, imparted
to you a new heart and told you something of yourself. And He
told you, the reason I did this is because I loved you. Those
that I love, I chased and rebuked. I came to you and I said, and
I put my hand by the hole of the door, and your bowels were
moved for me. And by faith, you were willing,
willing to come. My sheep, hear my voice, they
come to me. They come by faith. He said, I told you. I told you
what you were. And I revealed to you your reward.
It was me, myself. You'll sit with me. He that hath
an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Well, let's just stop there. Lord willing, we'll start in
the fourth chapter of the book of Revelation next time. I pray the Lord be pleased to
teach us something of Himself. Would you dismiss us, please?