if you've if you've ever studied
the book of revelation before you know that people have different
ways of looking at things and some of it is is you know it's
not anything that believers should divide over for example there
are people who look at the the vision of the seven churches
as different stages of the visible what we call the visible church
here on earth as the new covenant age progresses on up to the second
coming of Christ. And then others view revelation
as these are just vignettes of problems and encouragements that
the true church here on this earth will face throughout that
age at any given stage. and that it relates to us, it
communicates to us problems that we ought to be aware of and problems
that we are commanded to avoid. And that's the way I look at
it. I think that's the way. But it doesn't matter because
however you look at it, this last revelation message to the church
at Laodicea. Laodicea certainly seems to be
a church that was begun upon the gospel but has really fallen
off to a terrible, terrible state of mind and spirit called lukewarmness. And it's the worst. In other
words, out of all these churches, with all their problems, people
say, well, this is the worst one. And that's fine. But listen
to what he says to the church at Laodicea. Unto the angel,
the messenger, which I believe is the elder, the pastor, what
we call the bishop. A bishop is not talking about
Catholicism now. A bishop is an overseer. The word bishop means overseer.
And it's one who oversees by authority of the word of God,
the church. And he says, under the angel
of the church of the Laodiceans write. Now this church at Laodicea
was a wealthy financial center in Asia Minor. Banks, things
like that, it was known for its wealth. I didn't put it in your
lesson, but it was also known and famous for a place of healing,
physical healing, where people would go to get healed. Some
of the commentators say that there was especially a center
to get your eyes worked on. They had an eye salve there,
and that's why the reference to the eye salve here. They would
understand that. It was also a place where they
didn't have a real good water source. Water had to be piped
in. And so that's why the reference
we see, the lukewarmness, and we'll see that. But this church
was one probably pretty opposite of the church at Philadelphia.
The church at Philadelphia was small, didn't have much, but
this church was bigger and had a lot. And so he says, under
the church of the layout of sins write, these things saith the
amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation
of God. Now notice how Christ identifies himself here. He's
the amen. You know what amen means, it
means so be it. He's the first word, he's the
last word. His word, it cancels all debate,
settles all debate. Whatever he says, go. We know
he's the first and last in our salvation. He's the author and
finisher of our faith. He's the Alpha and the Omega,
which he identified himself back in Chapter 1. He's the Amen. So whatever he says, this is
the last word. He's the faithful and true witness.
Now he's faithful in all things. He's honest in all things. This
specifically refers to his word of judgment as a witness, a witness
against them. In other words, when there's
a problem, somebody's accused of a crime or of a sin, here's
the witness against them. Well, Christ, he said, I'm the
faithful and true witness. He says he's the beginning of
the creation of God. In other words, his witness stands
because he is God. He's the creator. All things
were created by him and for him. Read that in Colossians chapter
one, talking about the preeminence of Christ in all things. So in
other words, the point that he's making here is that what he's
going to say, this settles the matter, this is the judgment,
and there's no argument. So his truth is true. Let God
be true and every man a liar, Romans chapter 3 says. So he
says in verse 15, he said, I know thy works. Now, he has no commendation
for this church whatsoever. So the works he's talking about
are works that evidence not their spiritual life and their fervor
and their faith, but evidence the awful state of their heart
as being lukewarm. He says, I know thy works, that
thou art neither cold nor hot. I would, I wish you were cold
or hot. Now what does that mean? There
are commentators who say, well, cold represents an unbeliever,
and hot represents a believer. And what Christ is saying here
is kind of like you're in between, and I wish you were either cold
or hot. That's not what it says whatsoever. It has nothing to
do with. Lukewarmness. What is lukewarm
water good for as far as what you use? It's useless. It's good
to be thrown out. But what about cold water? Now,
think about it in this sense. What he's talking about is conviction. And lukewarmness has to do with
this. It's a profession of the truth,
but lack of conviction. That's what it is. In other words,
somebody said, well, it's like the church at Sardis had a name,
but they were dead. It's a little different. What
this has to do with is that profession of the truth, but you don't see
it as life and death. You don't see it as an issue
of salvation. It's kind of like those who claim,
well, you know, I've just got a little higher knowledge than
the run-of-the-mill Christian. So it's lack of conviction. And
the cold and hot, that's exactly what it is. It represents conviction. Cold water, think about. What
does a drink of cold water mean to a thirsty person? It quenches
their thirst. That's what the gospel of God's
grace and salvation does. Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst after righteousness because they'll be filled. And
that's what a lot of times in the Bible, the gospel is represented
as water, the water of life, the water that we drink, a drink
of cold water that soothes our dry throats, our thirst. And
whenever we're convicted of sin and know that we have no hope
of salvation but Jesus Christ and him crucified, we want to
drink the water of the gospel that tells us of his righteousness,
of his blood. of the power of God to save us,
to keep us, and to bring us to glory. And many times that's
represented as a thirsty man or woman getting a drink and
the thirst being quenched. And that's what he's saying.
Now hot water, what's it used for? Well, it's used to cleanse,
it's used to heal. And that's what the gospel has
healing properties. Healing our sin sick soul, showing
us the cleansing value of the blood of Christ. The purification
that his righteousness imputed to us brings before holy God. And the work of the Holy Spirit
to cleanse our hearts and our minds as he applies that blood
to our conscience. the conscience that's cleansed.
And it takes hot water now to do that. Now, if Laodicea was
a center of health and medicine, this would really have some meaning
to them, you know. The doctor, he either wants cold
water or he wants hot water. He doesn't want lukewarm water
because it's good for nothing. And so he says here, he says,
I would that you were either cold or hot. I want conviction,
not just profession. this and I'll tell you look at
verse 16 he says so then because thou art lukewarm and neither
cold nor hot I will spew thee out of my mouth literally vomit
you out that's that shows you how disgusting this is to the
Lord and he's putting the responsibility on them and whenever I read that
I always think about Isaiah chapter 1 and I'll read you a little
bit of that But it's kind of like the same thing back here,
Israel under the Old Covenant going through the motions in
a way that is consistent with the commands of God under the
Old Covenant ceremonies, but for the wrong reason. And you
remember he says to them, he said in verse 10 of Isaiah 1,
he says, Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom, give
ear unto the law of God, you people of Gomorrah. Now he's
not talking to Sodom and Gomorrah there, he's talking to Israel.
He's talking to the people of Judah in Jerusalem. But he likened
them to Sodom and Gomorrah. He says, you're no better off
than Sodom and Gomorrah. And I'm sure there were people
there who heard Isaiah preach this message and said, what are
you talking about? Sodom and Gomorrah. We're Israel. We're
Judah. We're in Jerusalem. We're sacrificing the animals.
We're going through the high priest here and all of that on
the day. We're doing all of that. And
here you come up and address us as Sodom and Gomorrah. Now
you could imagine how they thought. It's like people today going
through the motions of religion, church, and false doctrine, and
even those who claim to believe the truth, but they have no conviction.
It's not life and death. And we tell them their deeds
are evil, and they're shocked. They wonder, have you gone crazy? That kind of thing. Well, think
about that. Put yourself in Isaiah's shoes
here. And here's what he says in verse 11 of Isaiah 1. He says,
to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? It's
almost like someone said, I think one time, they're doing the right
thing for the wrong reason. What purpose? You sacrifice the
animals as God commanded you, but for what purpose? What reason
are you doing it? He says, saith the Lord, I am
full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beast,
and I delight not in the blood of bullocks or of lambs or of
he goats. Now, what was that old covenant
given to them for? What was the purpose of it? It
was given to convince them of sin, of the impossibility of
sinners being saved based on their works. And he told them
early on, the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin.
These things were pictures, types, symbols of his grace in the salvation
of sinners through Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who would bring
in righteousness for his people. They had missed out on that.
They had rejected that. They were ignorant of that. It
was what I call religion without truth, religion without grace.
It was religion without Christ. They looked at these things as
making them righteous before God. Read it in Romans chapter
9. They sought righteousness by works of the law. That's what
they were doing. That was their purpose. That's an abomination
to God. We don't seek righteousness by
the law. We seek righteousness in Christ.
His righteousness imputed. His obedience unto death charged.
That's our right. He is our righteousness. The
blood of animals won't do it. And today we could equate that
with our religious efforts. Coming to church will not make
you righteous. Me preaching won't make me righteous.
Prayers won't make us righteous. Even our believing doesn't make
us righteous. Christ does. And that's what
he says. He says in verse 12 of Isaiah
1, when you come to appear before me, who hath required this at
your hand to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations. What's an oblation? That's an
offering. but it was unfruitful, it was unprofitable. Any offering
you offer unto God thinking that it'll make you righteous or that
it will cleanse you is a vain oblation. Any prayer you pray
thinking that your efforts in the prayer will recommend you
unto God rather than the high priest through whom we pray,
that's a vain oblation. He says, incense is an abomination
unto me. Now, who commanded them to burn
that incense? God did, but not for that reason. Not for the reason they were
doing it. The new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, that's
their worship services. I cannot away with, I can't get
rid of them quick enough. That's what he's saying. It's
iniquity, he says. Even the solemn meeting, your
new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hateth," he says,
they are troubling to me and I'm weary. Now to me that is
a good parallel to the church at Laodicea. You see, understand
now that the Israelites in Isaiah's day, they weren't doing like
the Gentiles were doing in their immorality. They were going through
the motions. And here in Laodicea, back in
Revelation 3, is a church who's going through the motions without
conviction. They have the knowledge. They
have the right truth, but no conviction. And he said, I'll
spew you out of my mouth. I'll vomit you. You make me sick
to my stomach. That's what he said. Just like
the Lord back in Isaiah 1 said, I can't get away from it quick
enough. He said, I hate it. Well, look
at verse 17 of Revelation 3. He says, because thou sayest,
I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing,
and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor
and blind and naked. What's that tell you? Well, they
were unaware of their poor condition, their wretched condition. And
I believe, if you look at the context of all the scripture
and that situation, I believe they had fallen into the same
trap that the natural man always falls into, that when things
are going well, when I have what I want, the desires of the flesh
and all of that, a lot of money, maybe there was a lot of people
in this church, I don't know, it seems like there were, And
they naturally reasoned, well, because all this is happening,
God's blessing us. In other words, they were judging
the blessings of God and their own salvation by wrong standards. Now, we as the people of God,
I mean, I've told you a lot of times, I wish this building were
full, I wish the walls were bulging out, that we had to go and build
a new building, all that. But whether they are or not,
it should not determine what I preach and my conviction of
it. What do people do when the truth is preached a lot of times
and people don't want it? They start honing the message
to draw in people. We've seen that. That's one of
the biggest problems of the great apostasy that marks the last
age up to the coming of Christ. People compromising the truth
in order to get more people, more money, more influence, and
to remove the offense of the cross so that we won't have to
suffer through the derision and the frowns, the alienation of
family and friends. That's what they do, they compromise
the gospel. I believe that's exactly what's going on here
in Laodicea. And he says, you have no conviction. You think
you're rich, but you're not rich. You may have a lot of money,
but you don't have, you're not rich in spirit, in the grace
of God. You're wretched. You're poor. I think about in the Sermon on
the Mount, when the Lord talking about blessed are those who are
poor in spirit. A person who's poor in spirit
is a person who has been convinced of sin. and his or her need of
righteousness by God's grace in Christ but you see now everybody
in this world born of Adam is spiritually poor but not everybody
is poor in spirit and that's what's going on here everybody's
spiritually poor but by nature we just don't know it and won't
believe it until the Holy Spirit convicts us but he says you're
miserable you're poor you're blind you don't see the problem
And you're naked. You think you're justified before
God. You think you have a righteousness
that answers the demands of God's law and justice. But you're naked.
And look at verse 18. Now here's his counsel. He said, 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 the shame
of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve
that thou mayest see. Now what he's telling them is
to wake up. Now he starts out here to buy of me gold tried
in the fire. He's not saying that salvation
is for sale, or even that conviction is for sale. This reminds me
of Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55 one, listen to this. He says, ho everyone that thirsteth,
Come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye,
buy and eat." How are you going to buy without money? Well, that's
just a symbolic way of showing, number one, the reality of God's
grace. It's a free gift. We can't buy
it, but it does cost something. It cost our Savior his life. You see, there are conditions
laid upon salvation. They're just not laid upon us.
They're laid upon Christ. And Christ met those conditions.
He paid the price. We're redeemed, the scripture
says. That's one of the main words for salvation. We're redeemed
with a price. And it's a price we don't have,
and it's a price we don't pay. It's a price that Christ had
and he paid. It's the price of his blood.
So come ye, buy and eat ye, come buy wine and milk without money
and without price. He says, why are you spending
your money for that which is not bread, that which has no
life-giving qualities? Your religion. Why are you spending
your time and your money and your efforts on things that will
not help you, will not save you? And back here in Revelation 3.17,
here's what he's saying. He said, buy me gold tried in
the fire. When you think about gold tried
in the fire, you're thinking about the precious jewels of
salvation. And they're going to be tested.
In other words, if I claim to believe the gospel, that's a
golden treasure, the gospel is. We can think about Christ himself
as gold tried in the fire. He, the Son of God incarnate,
went under the wrath of God as He was made sin in order to produce
the righteousness whereby God justifies us. Gold tried in the
fire. There were things that He had
to suffer, the scripture says, in order to bring life to dead
sinners. And when the Holy Spirit regenerates
us, and we're born again by the Spirit, and He gives us faith
to believe, and brings us to repentance. The first thing we're
going to see is that faith is going to be tried like gold tried
in the fire. It's going to be tested. It's
going to be tested. Our testimony, our stand in the
gospel, our stand with the people of God, it's going to be tested
and tried in many different ways. Tried from within, the warfare
of the flesh and the spirit, tried in the world because friends,
family will test you. Tried from Satan. Testing. That's
what it's going to be. Now, if we have a profession
of faith and we do everything we can to avoid those trials,
what's it saying about us? We're lukewarm. We don't really
have the conviction of the Spirit. And so what he's telling them
there is to look for conviction. This thing is life and death.
This is not just some different philosophy of religion or some
different phase of theology. This is not just higher knowledge
that's only given to the spiritually or intellectually elite. No,
sir, this is gospel right here. This is life. We have the words
of eternal life when we preach Christ. And it's going to be
tried. And white raiment, you know what
the white raiment is, that's the righteousness of Christ.
That conviction, which is given us by God, evidences that we
stand before God in Christ, having his righteousness imputed. And
so that we're eternally justified in him, and God will not lay
anything to our charge. We have Christ. We're not guilty. We're righteous in him. And he
said that thou mayest be clothed. You see, those who compromise
the gospel, those who avoid the offense of the cross, the trials
that come from conviction, they don't give any evidence of being
in Christ. Now, it's not saying that they're
not one of God's elect at this time or that they're not clothed
in his righteousness, but they give no evidence of it's what
he's saying. And that's what we've got to look for. I'm gonna
preach this morning on this thing about the perfect work of God.
We don't gain assurance from looking at the evidences. We
gain assurance from looking to Christ. But there are evidences.
Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Is he all your salvation? All your righteousness? Is that
a conviction or is that just a position you hold in amongst
many others? And so he says in verse 18, he
says, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. If you
don't evidence this conviction, what's left? The shame of nakedness. You may claim to be saved by
the grace of God in Christ, but you're not. And he says, and
anoint thine eyes with eyes sad that thou mayest see. He puts
that responsibility. We know that it's only by God's
grace through the Holy Spirit that we see these things. But
you know what, I think about this back in Matthew chapter
13. And there's something really significant here. You know when
the disciples ask him, why are you speaking in parables? He didn't say, you know how most
people look at the parables today, don't you? They look at them
like children's stories. He's just trying to simplify things.
And the answer's no. That's not what he said. Remember
the disciples said, why are you speaking in parables? And in
Matthew 13, I believe it's verse 11, he answered. And he said,
because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the
kingdom of heaven, but to them, It's not given. Now who's he
talking about? Them. Those who rejected the
gospel of God's grace in Christ and stubbornly refused to submit
to Christ as their righteousness before God. And he said, it's
given to you to understand these mysteries, but to them it's not
given. And that's the case. That's what God says. Now the
reason the disciples The reason they embrace these things is
not because they were better folks than the ones who wouldn't,
it's because of the grace of God in His sovereign electing
mercy. And that's what the Scripture
teaches. And I know people don't like that, but that's the way
it is. That's what the Bible says. And God's not being unfair
here, He's not being unjust here. Read the book of Romans, chapter
9. Preachers will avoid that like the plague. And you know
why they avoid it? They say, well, we just don't
understand it. I disagree. I believe most of them do. They
just don't want it. They just don't want to believe
it. And they know people don't like to hear it. But God's in
control, folks. And whatever he does is just
and right and fair. And people talk about, well,
I want fairness. Well, if he did the fair thing
to all of us, we'd all perish in our sins. But he has mercy
on whom he will. I preached on this on television
this past week, and it'll be a future message, called A Remnant
Shall Be Saved. I know a remnant shall be saved,
and I can tell you this much, I want to be one of them. I know
that. Well, what does the Bible say
about that remnant? Well, look at it. He says, it's
given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom, but to them it's
not given. But over in Matthew 13 verse 15, listen to what he
says here. He says, for this people's heart
is waxed gross. Now what that means is their
heart has grown hard. The natural man's heart is what
the Bible describes as a hard heart, stubborn, rebellious,
One of the terms in the Old Testament that's used for the natural man
is stiff-necked. He won't bow. He won't bend. And that hardness of heart, it
evidences itself in different ways. But here he's talking about
a group of people, mainly the Pharisees, who heard the gospel,
but they were even hardened more. You know, the Bible talks about
Pharaoh. God hardened in his heart. All
of that is God's judgment against him. The scripture says that
when the Holy Spirit gives us spiritual life in the new birth,
he gives us a new heart. And it's, Ezekiel called it a
fleshly heart. Not fleshly in the sense of sinful,
but fleshly in the sense of pliable. We'll bend. We'll submit. That's a gift of God. God says,
I'll give them that. The people, he's talking about
the believers under the new covenant, God says, I'll give them that.
They're not, oh, I'm not gonna come and beg them to be like
that, because they're not like that. The scripture tells us,
by nature, we're hard-hearted. But look at, in Matthew 13, 15,
this people's heart is waxed gross, grown hard, and their
ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes, they have closed,
listen to this, lest at any time they should see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears, and should understand with their
heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them." Now,
what's the problem? All right, here's a person who's
been in church all their life under a false gospel of salvation
conditioned on the sinner, doing their dead-level best to please
God as they see it. to gain God's blessing, gain
God's favor, to make themselves righteous, and here comes a preacher
and tells them that that is all evil deeds and iniquity, a rejection
of Christ. Because it is. And it's almost like, well, if
I come to believe what you're preaching, I'd have to reject
everything I've been through, everything that I've experienced,
everything I've done. I'd have to call it dead works
and fruit undergone. I don't want that. That's what's
happened. They close their eyes, lest they
should see with their eyes and be converted. I don't want to
convert to that. I don't want to say that. I mean, I understand
what you're saying. It's in the Bible there, you
know, but no, I'm not going to go that far. That's what's happening
in Revelation 3, in the church at Laodicea. And he says, now
look, this is not, when you hear this gospel, I tell you what,
I knew even under the power of a hard heart, when I first really
heard the true gospel, I knew what the preacher was saying.
My problem is I didn't want it. I didn't want it. Because I knew
what was involved there. I could see it. I could see the
implication. One day the Holy Spirit gave me a new heart. I
don't know what day, that's not the issue, but I know he did.
I said, well, that is the only way of salvation. There's no
other way. Well, look at verse 19 of Revelation 3. Now listen
to what he says here. As many as I love, I rebuke and
chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent.
God has a people of his love. That's what he's saying. And his love ensures their salvation. This is the free, sovereign,
redemptive love of God for his chosen people. And he says, look,
I rebuke them and chasten them, I correct them. I put them through
that operation of correction. You can read about it, I've got
it referenced in your lesson, Hebrews chapter 12 speaks on
it. In other words, His children,
He is not going to leave them to themselves. He's going to
call them to repentance. And He tells these people, He
said, now this is what the people of God are. They're the people
of His love. They're going to be corrected.
They're going to be chastened. And He says, be zealous therefore
and repent. This is what comes along with
it now. You can't avoid it. If you believe this gospel, if
you identify with Christ, you can expect it. And if you avoid
it, what does that say about you? It says you don't really
believe it. It's just sham religion. Now
here, look at verse 20. He says, behold, I stand at the
door and knock. If any man hear my voice and
open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and
he with me. Now you know what most religion
does with that verse. They say that that's the message
of evangelism, Christ standing at the door, knocking at your
heart, begging you to let him in. You may have seen the famous
picture where it has Christ standing on one side of the door knocking,
and you might notice there's no knob on the side that he's
on, the knobs on the inside. Well, that's not scriptural.
And first of all, If that were the case, none of
us would open the door. Now that's right. That's what
the scripture teaches. There's none that doeth good,
there's none that seeketh after God. If Christ is begging on
the other side of that door of your heart to let him in, you
won't let him in. And I won't let him in. That's
not what this is. The scripture teaches us that
That this is not the message of evangelism. You know what
this is? This is the message of judgment. That's what it is. It's the message of judgment
to those who claim to believe the truth, but who are in this
awful state of mind of lukewarmness. And it's like the door of judgment.
I'll tell you a good parallel truth to this is the parable
of the ten virgins. It's over in Matthew chapter
25, and you can read all of that. Remember Christ spoke there of
the five foolish virgins who had lamps without oil? What is lamps without oil? Well,
lamps is a profession of faith without the work of the Holy
Spirit, without the oil. And what it is, you've got people
there who are perfectly content with just a mere profession.
That's enough. And what happens? And then you
have the five virgins who had the lamps with the oil. They
had true conviction of sin. And you remember what happened
when the bridegroom came, that's the second coming of Christ,
to receive his bride, his church, the door of salvation was shut
against the five foolish virgins because they had not been zealous
and diligent in the gospel in conviction revealing that they
never truly believed it. And it was shut. And Christ is
calling the lay out of sins here to examine themselves. That's
what he's saying. Behold I stand at the door and
knock. Here's the truth. Examine yourself in light of
this. You know what, and he says there,
look at verse 20, he says, he says, if any man hear my voice
and open the door. Now who's gonna hear his voice
and open the door? Those who've been born again by the Spirit.
Those who have eyes to see and ears to hear." He said, I'll
come in with him and I'll sup with him. That supping with him,
having supper with him, that has to do with fellowship. Close,
unbroken fellowship. And that's what he's talking
about. Well, those who have eyes to see, ears to hear, they're
going to hear and they're going to open the door. In other words,
and then look at verse 21, he says, to him that overcometh
will I grant to sit with me in my throne even as I also overcame
and am set down with my father in his throne. In other words,
we're going to be in Christ, with Christ, at the throne of
God, under him as our king of kings. He's the king of kings.
We're kings in the sense that we have authority of the king
of kings. And he says, he that hath an
ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. That's
the final closing. Two things, just in conclusion
of the seven churches. Two things that we, who are under
the preaching of the gospel, two things that we need to really
emphasize to people in evangelism, in admonition, Edification is
this, number one, make sure that where you're sitting on Sunday
morning, or whatever time, you're sitting under the preaching of
the true gospel. That's number one. And secondly,
don't sit there just being content with just a mere profession of
faith, just saying, well, I know I'm under the true gospel, therefore
that means, no, examine yourself whether you be in the faith under
conviction. Is this life and death to you?
That's what he's saying to all of us. All right.