14 and we'll read down to verse
19. We won't finish the actual letter
to the Laodicean Church but we'll just comment on those verses. So the third chapter in the book
of the Revelation and starting from verse 14 down to verse 19.
And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans
write, these things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness,
the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that
thou art neither cold nor hot, I would thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm,
and neither cold nor hot, I would spew thee out of my mouth, because
thou sayest I am rich, and increased with goods, and of need of nothing. And knowest not that thou art
wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold,
tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich. and white raiment,
that thou mayest be clothed, and that thy shame or thy nakedness
do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou
mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and
chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. Well, the Apostle commences in
the same way as he does to the other churches. He addresses
it to the angel of the church, the Laodiceans, and the angel
represents the pastor who is over the churches, and so that's
the address to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, and
he was told These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true
witness. And as we've already made the
comments previously, that refers of course to the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is spoken of here as the Amen, the faithful and true witness. the beginning of the creation
of God. And of course we know that the
Lord Jesus was the creator of the universe and he spoke the
world into being and how wonderful that was. And then we come to
the message that he was to address the Laodiceans. We've already
commented on the other six churches. And the other six churches were
all commended mostly in the things that they were doing and the
things that they said. But this church at Laodicea,
there is nothing really that commends them. They are really
criticised for the things that they are doing and saying. And
so the Lord speaks to them and comments on that situation. It's good for us to realise what
is said. So in the 15th verse we read,
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would
thou wert cold or hot. He's speaking, of course, about
the times of worship, wishing that they would be hot to the
things of God, or cold to the things of God. But he says, so
then because they are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, he
tells them, I will spew thee out of my mouth. That situation
quite clearly was not acceptable. and how many people in the world
today come under that category who are lukewarm in their spiritual
life it doesn't really concern them very much what they do and
what they don't do and whether they really worship or whether
they don't worship whether they gather for worship or whether
they don't gather for worship and therefore their spiritual
life is really not what it should be. And that's what the Lord
Jesus here is speaking to these Laodiceans and he's telling them
about their condition and their situation. And he tells them
very clearly therefore they're not hot or cold but they're just
lukewarm. And many people today in religion
are just lukewarm. Indeed the True religion doesn't
seem sometimes to enter into their lives. It doesn't really
possess their lives. So they're taken up with it.
So it is very important to them. But if it suits them, they'll
go along with it. If it doesn't suit them, then
they won't go along with it. And that's why Jesus speaks to
them in this way and tells them they're just lukewarm. Well it's a great blessing if
you and I are not lukewarm in the things of God, but things
of God are important to us and they should be important to us. The reason? Because they concern
our never-dying soul and as we are aware we all have a natural
life and we all have a spiritual life And our spiritual life needs
feeding in the same way that our natural life needs feeding. And of course it needs feeding
with spiritual things, which of course direct us to the life
of the Lord Jesus Christ and all that he's done. And therefore,
it's a great blessing if you and I, in our lives, are not
lukewarm, but that we are true believers. Well, says therefore
the Lord, so then, because thou art lukewarm, And neither cold
nor hot I would spew thee out of my mouth." That means that
their religion was not an acceptable religion to God. And how good
it is if our religion is sincere and it's real And it's not just
something we pick up and put down when it's convenient, but
it's that which holds us. And we recognize the relevance
and the importance of it. So it's a blessing tonight, if
when we hear these words spoken by Jesus to the church at Laodicea,
we understand what is being said. And then he comes and says, because
Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and of need of nothing. And knowest not that thou art
wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. We see how that follows on. They're just satisfied with a
false religion. They're just satisfied, really,
with a natural religion. And how important it is that
we're not satisfied with a natural religion. In the Gospel of Luke,
we can read a little about that situation. And in the 12th chapter
and the 16th verse, we read this about a parable. Jesus spoke
in parables, as I'm sure you're aware. He spake a parable unto
them, saying, The ground of a rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself,
saying, What shall I do? Because I have no room where
to bestow my fruits. And he said, This will I do.
I will pull down my barns and build greater. And there will
I bestow all my fruits. and my goods, and I will say
to my soul, soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink,
and be merry." And many people fall into that category. They're
very comfortable in the things of this life. They're very satisfied
with their possessions. And they're happy to live and
exist in that situation. But God said unto him, Thou fool,
this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then who shall
those things be which thou hast provided? You see, we, I'm sure,
are aware that all of us one day will have to die And we have
to leave everything that you and I have possessed in this
life. We can't take it with us. We
were born with nothing. We brought nothing into this
world. And it is certain that we can carry nothing out. And so that's why Jesus in this
parable speaks of this rich man as being a fool. And he tells
us then, so is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is
not rich toward God. What a blessing, therefore, if
you and I are concerned about our treasure being in heaven. And of course, that's not something
natural. It's not something tangible. It's not silver and gold that
we can touch and look at, but it's a spiritual situation, and
it's the dealings of our soul with God. And what a blessing,
therefore, if you and I have a treasure in heaven. That's
a valuable treasure, and it's valuable because it lasts forever,
for eternity. It's not something that just
fades away. All the things in this world
will fade away. And when we die, we should leave
everything in this earth. So what a blessing it is, therefore,
if we possess treasures in heaven. And so the Lord goes on and says,
Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and
in need of nothing, And knowest not that thou art wretched, and
miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. Now if you spoke to
most people today, they wouldn't accept that as a description
of themselves. to be told that we're wretched
and miserable and poor and blind and naked but if we only possess
the things of this world that really is our condition that
we are poor because we don't possess that which is of God
and the result is we are actually wretched and often people are
miserable You look around today, many people are miserable because
they don't possess the treasure in heaven. They don't possess
the gift of God, which is the most glorious gift, and it's
a gift of eternal life. And so that's why Jesus says
very clearly, they don't realize that they have this need. They
say to themselves, I don't need anything else. I'm happy. with the things I have in this
world. The reality is they don't realise
there is a world to come. They have a never-dying soul
which will live forever. And what a blessing if the Holy
Spirit shows to them their need, so that they recognise them.
But unless they know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour,
they will be resting on their own works. And the Lord says,
I know thy works. And those works which we do,
generally speaking, will not fit us for heaven because they
are the works and the goods of this world. And so how important
it is that we give ourself to the things of God. Give our things,
give ourselves to all those glorious promises which are recorded in
the Word of God and meditate upon our life, our spiritual
life. And what a blessing when God
shows us that we are wretched and miserable. Why? Because we've
sinned against God. Because we've offended God. Because we've disobeyed God. And therefore the reality is
that as we stand before God, we are wretched and miserable
and poor. And the word goes on and tells
us, and blind. We don't see the truth of the
gospel. We don't look to Jesus. Our eyes do not penetrate that
glorious position. so are we remain and we're that
we're poor and we're blind and it also says we're naked you
may think that's strange because it is in one sense but spiritually
we need to be clothed and we need to be clothed with nothing
less than the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and Jesus
came into this world to die that wonderful death upon the cross
at Calvary in order to give us that righteousness, to clothe
us, to cover our nakedness. And so he says then, and we know
not that we are wretched and miserable and poor and blind
and naked. And most people today come under
that category. Well, what a wonderful blessing
if you and I have had our eyes opened to see the truth of God's
Word and to realize that we are quickly passing through this
life And soon we shall have finished our life on this earth. And then
what a blessing it will be if we are found in heaven forever
and ever. And so the Lord Jesus goes on
to tell us this. He says, I counsel thee to buy
of me. This is from God. He's speaking
to us. He's given us good counsel. I
counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire. That means
the things of God, the spiritual things which are tested, they're
tried in the fire. Naturally, gold is purified by
fire. Spiritually, our lives are purified
by trials and difficulties which are illustrated as a fire, that
thou mayest be rich. That means we possess the gift
of God. We possess the promises of God. What a mercy it is. That's what
will make us rich. And the reason is because such
blessings are forever. They don't fade when you and
I die. We take them with us. They're eternal blessings. What
a great favour that is to know that we are therefore clothed
with these wonderful blessings of Christ's righteousness that
covers our nakedness and also anoint our eyes with eye salve
that we might see. That means see spiritually. That means as we look to the
Lord Jesus Christ, what do we see? we see there a great and
glorious Saviour who has given his life so that you and I might
possess life. Now that means that we've had
our spiritual eyes opened. We see naturally, don't we? You
and I see naturally. We can see each other, we can
see the scenery around us. But what a blessing when God
opens our eyes spiritually to show us our ruined condition,
our lost condition, and directs us to see salvation in the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, that's a wonderful blessing
then, if our eyes are anointed with this wonderful favour that
we might see. And then he tells us, as many
as I love, I rebuke and chasten. God is very gracious. He doesn't
just leave us, his children, they just wander on aimlessly
in this world, but we're told he loves all his children, he
loves them with an everlasting love and therefore as we find
ourselves in this earth we are rebuked if we're doing wrong
things. What a mercy to have a God who
doesn't just cut us off and say well there's a useless person
he deals with us in love and he rebukes us and tells us what
we should not be doing and as we read the Word of God we have
many examples there of those things which we should turn away
from and be found truly worshipping the ever-living and true God
he says As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Well, we don't like
being told off, do we? In any case, but what a wonderful
thing to think that God, just have some idea, the great God
who created all things, looks down upon us and speaks to our
heart, to our minds, and chastens us, reprimands us. What a mercy, realize that we
have such a kind and gracious God. And therefore he concludes
this 19th verse with these words, be zealous therefore. That means
we should follow after these things with zeal and with a goodwill
and not turn away from them as something irrelevant. Be zealous
therefore. and repent. Repent is a gift
of God but what a blessing if he gives us that gift so we are
really sorry for our sins and we come to our God and we confess
our sins and the word of God tells us if we confess our sins
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. Therefore, my friends, may we
follow the advice given here to this church at Laodicea. And God willing, we'll conclude
the last few verses next week. Well, may God bless these thoughts
to the benefit of our souls.