Alright, Revelation chapter 3,
our lesson this morning begins in verse 14. I've titled the
lesson, Disgusting Lukewarmness. And his letter to the church
here at Laodicea, the Lord does not commend them for one good
thing. Not one. Actually, he tells them
that they are disgusting to him because they're lukewarm, spiritually
lukewarm. They're not hot or cold. Now,
to be spiritually cold is to be unfeeling, is to be hard about
the things of Christ, is to be lifeless and dead. But, you know,
the gospel can have a good effect on cold people, can't it? The
gospel answers the need of someone who's cold. The gospel gives
life to the dead. The gospel warms up and softens
the heart by giving a new heart. The gospel can answer the need
of the cold. But the church at Laodicea was
not cold. And they weren't hot either. To be hot is to be on
fire, to have a burning zeal for Christ, to have a burning
zeal for the gospel, to have a burning desire to hear Christ
preach because I have a burning need of Him. To be on fire is
to have a burning zeal, to desire to protect and to keep the doctrine
of Christ, to not allow compromise, not allow it to become corrupted.
The gospel has a good effect on those people too, people who
are on fire. It answers their need by stoking
those fires, by stoking those fires of a need of Christ, by
stoking the desire of a desire to hear of him by preaching Christ. But the church at Laodicea was
lukewarm. They weren't hot or cold. To
be lukewarm is to be in the middle of the road. Now that sounds
good to human logic, doesn't it? To be in the middle of the
road. I'll never forget this. I heard Todd Nyberg say this
one time. The middle of the road is where the worst disasters
happen. That's where head-on collisions happen. Pretty good
point, isn't it? To be lukewarm is to be middle
of the road. It's to be indifferent to the
things of the gospel. I can take it or leave it. I
could just go this morning and here I could stay home. It makes
no difference to me because to be lukewarm is to have had no
need. To be lukewarm is to be willing
to compromise some of the truth of the gospel because we say,
well, it's close enough. We don't want to make waves.
That's to be the middle of the road. If you're lukewarm, you
just refuse to choose a side or to take a stand for anything. And our Lord says, That's disgusting
to me. So let's look at this letter
and see if we might learn something about the seriousness of falling
into lukewarmness. At first, we should not be lukewarm. There's no excuse for a believer
to ever be lukewarm because who our savior is. Look how he identifies
himself in verse 14, Revelation 3. And unto the angel of the
church of the Laodiceans write, these things say at the Amen,
the faithful and true witness the beginning of the creation
of God. Our Savior says He is the Amen. And that word means surely or
so be it. You know, that's what we mean
when we say Amen. We say so be it. I agree with
that. Amen. That's surely true. Well, Christ is the Amen. He is the surety. He's the so
be it. Christ is the Amen of God. The
father sent his son into the world, he said. to His creation,
look, here's truth, here's grace, here's salvation, here's justification,
here's wisdom, personified. Here He is, the Amen of God. And a believer looks to Christ
and says, Amen. So be it. When I look at Him,
Amen. I see salvation. That's the way
it ought to be, salvation in Christ. How could we ever be
lukewarm to Him? He's the Amen of God. Christ
is the Amen of the Gospel. The Gospel message is all Christ. All the promises of God in Him
are yea and in Him, Amen. He's the Amen of the Gospel.
He's the whole message of the Gospel. This is the Gospel of
our salvation. How could we be lukewarm to Him?
And Christ is the Amen of His people. The Father set forth
His Son. I said, here he is. Now you look
and live. And the believer looks and amens Christ. We amen who
he is. We amen what he's done. We amen
why he did it. And we amen where he is now.
He is the Savior. He's accomplished our salvation.
How could we ever be lukewarm to him? He's the amen. Next he
says he's the faithful and true witness. Look over back at Hebrews
chapter one. He is the faithful and true witness. If we would know who God is,
we must hear from Christ. Christ is God's witness of himself,
of who he is. Hebrews 1 verse 1. God, who at
sundry times and in divers, different manners, spake in time past to
the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
by whom also he made the worlds. who being the brightness of his
glory and the express image of his person, upholding all things
by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our
sins, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.
This son, son of God, that God sent into this world, the Lord
Jesus Christ is the express, the exact image of who God is. If you would know who God is,
look to Christ. Christ is the witness. He tells
us who God is. We never knew really, truly who
God is and how God saves sinners until Christ came. We saw it
in type and picture and pattern in the Old Testament, but when
Christ came, we saw it in person and we see this is who God is. This is how God saves sinners.
Now you follow him. You listen to his testimony.
He's faithful and he's true. He will never lead you wrong. How could we be lukewarm to them?
How is that possible? I mean, we know the answer is
our sinful, depraved nature, but how shameful, what is it
for a believer to ever fall into being lukewarm toward our Savior?
Then our Savior says He's the beginning of creation. He is
the creation of God. Christ is all in creation. In
the first creation, the creation of this world, Christ is all.
He's the beginning of it. He's the creator. He is the actual
one who spoke this world into existence. And Christ is the
reason for this creation. All things were made by him and
for him. He's the beginning of the first
creation. And he's the beginning of the second creation. He's
the beginning of the new birth. Christ is the one who creates
life. He's the one who speaks and gives life to his people.
And Christ is the reason for that new birth. He's the reason
for it. We're born again so we know him, so we believe him,
so we love him, so we're in him. That's who Christ is. That's
the one who writes this letter. How is it possible that we would
ever be lukewarm to him? What a shame that we'd ever be
lukewarm of him. Second, I want us to see this.
Here's how the Savior reacts to his people being lukewarm.
Verse 15. I know thy works, that thou art
neither cold nor hot. I would that thou were cold or
hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor
hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Now, this is the seventh
letter to the churches we've looked at. In all seven letters,
this is what we've seen. Our Lord is all-knowing. He knows
everything, so of course He knows our works, whether they be good
or bad. But I tell you the real issue, and this is what only
the Lord knows, is the heart. He knows the motivation behind
those words, why we're doing what we're doing. To most people,
just from the outside, looking at the church of Laodicea, they
may have thought everything's just fine. I'm sure that's what
the people thought. That's why the Lord had to write
this letter. If you're lukewarm, you don't know you're lukewarm.
You don't know that you've become neither cold nor hot. They thought
it was fine. They were still having services.
There must have been some form of the truth being preached there.
At least, you know, they thought it was close enough. But the
problem there in the congregation had become a heart problem. It
was a heart problem. Their heart, their affections
for Christ were lukewarm. And Lord says, I know, I know
that you're lukewarm. And I would that you were hot
or cold. I wish you were one or the other. It'd be better
if you were one or the other. Because remember those who are
cold, the gospel of Christ suits their needs. They can give life
and warm them up. And if we're hot, the gospel
of Christ suits our need, doesn't it? It stokes those fires, that
fervent zeal and desire for Christ. But the gospel has no reaction
on the lukewarm because they're indifferent to it. They're just
indifferent. They come out of form and ceremony. Someone who's
lukewarm, they probably attend, but it's just out of habit. It's
what we do on Sunday. It's what we do on Wednesday
night. And they're just indifferent to seeking Christ in the message. That's what they become indifferent
to. And the Lord says, I hate that. He said, I'll spew you
out of my mouth because you're lukewarm. The best illustration
I thought of is a cup of coffee. I love coffee. And I want my
coffee to be strong. Don't insult a cup of coffee
for making it weak. I want it strong. I like it black,
and I want it hot. If I'm working, I get up in the
morning, drink my coffee, and then I go into the study, and
I take my second cup into the study, and my third cup. If I'm there working, I kind
of forget about that cup of coffee for a minute, and I reach over
absentmindedly, take a drink of it, and it's cold. I go get
me a fresh cup. I want hot coffee. Well, you
know what the Lord's saying here is even stronger than that. He
said, lukewarmness disgusts me. It makes me sick. I will vomit
you out of my mouth. That's what he's saying. That's
very strong, isn't it? That's a strong letter. Well,
here's the results of lukewarmness. Here's why this makes the Lord
sick, why it disgusts him. Verse 17. Because thou sayest,
I'm rich and increased with goods and have needed nothing. And
knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and
blind, and naked. Now first, lukewarmness. This
is why it's so disgusting to the Lord. It leads us to feeling
like we don't need Christ. He says here, you say I'm rich
and increased with goods and I don't need anything. Not even
Christ. If we're lukewarm, we're not
fervently seeking Christ because we don't feel we need Him. That
disgusts the Savior. Of course it does. Someone who's
lukewarm says, I'm rich enough. I've got enough. So I don't need
Christ to supply everything I need. Now, the city of Laodicea, from
what I read about it, was a very, very rich city. The roads, number
of roads went in there leading out to everywhere. So it became
a very rich trading city. And almost everybody in the city
was very well off. I mean, the middle class was
very well off. Plenty of work for people there.
And they just had everything the heart could desire. And the
attitude of the city about material wealth bled over into the attitude
of the believers, or at least those who attended the church
there in Laodicea. They didn't think they were in
need because material riches had deceived Look over at Proverbs
chapter 13. Solomon has some good things
to say about this. Material riches had deceived
him. Don't ever mistake material riches for spiritual blessing.
Material riches may be a trial, may be a difficulty, something
that the Lord sends us to try us. Would they take us away from
Christ? Would they make us feel we don't need him anymore? Don't
mistake material blessing for spiritual blessing. Proverbs
13 verse 7. There is that maketh himself
rich, yet hath nothing. There is that maketh himself
poor, yet hath great riches. What Solomon's saying there is,
there is a person who makes himself rich, and he thinks he's got
everything, when in fact he's got nothing, because all he's
got is material riches, and he doesn't have Christ. But there's
the man who's poor. He's maybe poor in material things,
but he's certainly poor in spirit, and he has great riches. because
he's got Christ, he's got everything. So look over at Proverbs chapter
30. That attitude is what prompted Solomon to write this in Proverbs
chapter 30. Verse seven. Two things have I required
of thee. Deny me them not before I die.
Remove far from me vanity and lies. Give me neither poverty
nor riches. Feed me with food that's convenient
for me. Don't give me abundance, but
don't make me so poor either, lest I be full and deny thee
and say, who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal and
take the name of my God in vain. That's what Solomon warns us
about material riches. If we get too many of them, we'll
say, who is the Lord? I don't need him. He's already
given me everything I need, so I don't continually need him.
Here's what makes lukewarmness so disgusting to the Lord. It
makes me think I'm so rich. I don't need it. Being lukewarm
gives us a false sense of security because I think I don't need
anything. We're so poor and needy. How
could we ever think I don't need anything? I don't need the Lord.
Being lukewarm gives us a false sense of self-worth. It gives
us spiritual pride. Apparently, the church at Laodicea
at one time was a great church. And they became so full of spiritual
pride, they thought, I don't need the Lord anymore. He's always
going to bless us like this. They quit needing. They quit
seeking him. And the Lord says, that makes me sick, so that I'll
vomit you out of my mouth. Right, here's the second reason.
Lukewarmness makes the Lord sick. A person who's lukewarm, they
got some head knowledge of things, but they have no heart love for
Christ. The Lord says to the lukewarm,
they're wretched and they're miserable. Oh, they think they're
so fine, but really they're wretched and miserable and they don't
know it. They don't know how miserable
and wretched they are, so they don't need Christ. He says, you're
poor. The problem is not with poverty.
The problem is you're poor and you think you're rich. You think
you don't need anything because material blessings have deceived
you. You're blind, but you think you see. There's nothing worse
than a person thinking that they see, thinking that they have
spiritual understanding when they're really blind and don't
see a thing. What'd our Lord say about that? If the light
that's in thee be darkness, How great is that darkness? If you
think you see, but you're really blind, how great is that blindness?
Look back at John chapter 9. I'll show you how serious this
matter is. If thinking we see, but really we're blind. If thinking we see, but really
being blind all stems from self-righteousness, from that false sense of self-worth. John 9 verse 39. This is after
the Lord had healed that blind man. In verse 39, Jesus said
for judgment, I've come into this world that they would see,
see, not might see, and they would see might be made blind.
Now the Pharisees, they understood exactly what he was saying. The
problem wasn't that they didn't understand. The problem was they
refused to believe. Some of the Pharisees which were
with him heard these words and said unto him, are we blind also?
Are you saying that we're blind? These great spiritual leaders
and theologians, are you saying we're blind? Jesus said unto
them, if you were blind, if you knew you were blind, you should
have no sin. But now you say, we see. Therefore,
your sin remaineth. To say that we see, we have all
this spiritual light, spiritual understanding, so that we don't
need Christ. Our Lord says where that leaves
you is guilty in your sin. Guilty in your sin. All but if
you saw your need of Christ, He'd take your sin. That's how
serious this matter is. The Lord says you think you're
clothed. You think you're clothed, but
really you're naked because you think you're being clothed in
your own works. Your own works can't cover your sin. Your own
works can't cover your need, can't take away your shame. And
the sad thing is you're naked but you think you're clothed.
You think you're clothed but you're really naked and you're
strutting around in front of everybody completely naked, exposing
your shame to all to see. The Lord says that's disgusting
to you because you're just strutting around in pride without any need
of Him. All right, here's the third thing. The Lord gives us the remedy
for lukewarmness. I hope those points there scared
us to death. They did me as I was studying
this, it scared me to death. I've seen the attitude of lukewarmness. Well, if this is, the word's
been applied to your heart, scared you to death. Now the Lord gives
us some good news. He gives us, there's a remedy
for lukewarmness. Verse 18, 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 eye
salve, that thou mayest see. Now the Lord says, I'm going
to counsel you here. I'm going to give you some counsel.
And we ought to listen. This is good counsel. This is
counsel coming from the one whose name is Counselor. So this is
going to be some good counsel. The counselor says, this is the
cure for lukewarmness. This is what I advise you to
do. You buy of me gold tried in the fire. The remedy for our
poverty is the riches of Christ. Christ is this gold. He's the
gold. And if you have Christ, you have
all the riches of Christ. Christ is God's gold. How is
Christ God's gold? Well, we know that gold is made
more precious, more valuable, more shiny, more beautiful when
the refiner puts it in the fire. That's how we see the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ. He suffered in the fire of God's
wrath against all the sin of his people, and he suffered there
in that fire until all the sin laid on him was gone. Christ
was tried in the fire and he was found to be Precious gold. Precious spiritual gold. He was
found to be the only savior of sinners. He was found to be the
only sacrifice for sin that put sin away. He's the gold of God.
And he says here, now I counsel you, come and buy that gold of
me. Well now wait a minute, you just told me I was poor. You
just told me I was spiritually bankrupt. How is it that I can
come and buy Christ if I'm so poor? I'll tell you, look at
Isaiah 55. God's Word gives us the answer
to this. You can only buy Christ for free. You can only buy Christ
with nothing. The only people who can buy Christ
are the poor, the spiritually bankrupt, because you can only
buy Him for free. Isaiah 55, verse 1. Oh, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, he
who is spiritually bankrupt, come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come
buy wine and milk. You buy it without money and
without price. Wherefore, why do you spend money
for that which is not bread? Why are you spending all this
energy and time and effort on something where there's no spiritual
life in it? And your labor for that which
satisfies not. Hearken diligently unto me and
eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight itself
in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto
me. Here in your soul shall live
and I'll make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure
mercies of David. Come and have it for free. The only way we can have Christ
is for free. Not because we did anything to
deserve him, not because we've done anything to merit mercy
or grace or forgiveness of our sin. The only way we can have
Christ is without cost. without cost. You would have
Christ. You've got to give up everything
that you think makes you better than somebody else or makes you,
you know, make just something you can do that makes God happy
with you. And you've got to come to Christ. Nothing in my hand
I bring. That's how we buy Christ with
nothing. Now this word buy, it doesn't
exactly mean to purchase. It means to have the rightful
ownership of. But the only way we can have
the rightful ownership of Christ, the only way we have rightful
ownership of salvation in Him, is to receive Him freely, as
a free gift of God's grace. If you come to Christ, you're
gonna have to come empty. Really, if you come to Christ,
I tell you what, in a sense there's a cost. You're going to have
to give up everything. You're going to have to give
it all up and come as an empty sinner. And if you come to Him
that way, everything that God has for a sinner in Christ is
rightfully yours. All the riches of God's grace
is rightfully yours if you come to Him and have Him for nothing.
And if you come to Christ, you'll be made truly rich because He's
everything you need. So come to him, buy him, have
him without money, without price, freely. The second remedy for
lukewarmness here is the righteousness of Christ. That's what this white
raiment is talking about. It's the righteousness of Christ.
The remedy for lukewarmness is knowing I'm naked. I have no covering for my sin.
The only way my nakedness can be covered is by Christ, my righteousness. I need him. I need him to be
my righteousness or I'm going to be naked before God. Now,
this covering we talk about a covering, we're not talking about the righteousness
of Christ being a covering that just covers up our sin and our
shame, but it's all still there. We talk about the righteousness
of Christ wearing the righteousness of Christ. It's being made righteous
in Christ. It's not just covering up who
we are and trying to hide it. No, it's actually being made
righteous in the all-seeing eye of God. God doesn't just look
on the outside. He looks on the heart. So to
be covered with the righteousness of Christ is to be given a heart
that's righteous. It's to be made righteous because
Christ gave us His righteousness and He took our sins away from
us and paid for them like Calvary's tree. It's the righteousness
of Christ that covers our shame by taking our shame away and
suffering it for us at Calvary. That's how he presents us holy,
unblameable, unapprovable in God's sight. That's how he takes
away our shame, by making us holy. And the cure for this lukewarmness
is to see my need of him to be my righteousness. That'll give
you, if you see your need of Christ, you see your sin, your
depravity, your shame, that'll give you a zeal to seek him and
to be found in him. The third cure for lukewarmness
is eye salve. We've got to see how bad of a
condition our condition's in. And the only way we can see that
is if God gives us eyes to see. What's this eye salve he talks
about? Well, it's Christ. Christ is light. We can only
see anything spiritual in Christ. Simeon, the perfect example.
When did he finally see God's salvation? When did he finally
see what satisfied him? He saw the Lord Jesus Christ.
He said, now I can depart in peace. Mine eyes have seen thy
salvation. Christ is the eye of salvation.
Seek him. If you find Christ, you're gonna
see everything else, you included, in its proper perspective. All
right, now fourth, this harsh letter. ends with the word of
comfort. The Lord's not going to let his
people stay lukewarm because he loves them. Verse 19. As many
as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. Now, this has been a harsh letter.
The Lord said, I want to vomit you out of my mouth. But the
Lord sent this harsh letter because there were people there that
he loved. I know there were unbelievers, there were religious pretenders
in this congregation who were lukewarm. It could be the Lord
sent this letter to him because he loved him and he intended
to save them despite who and what they are. I would not be
surprised at all to find out in this congregation there were
believers who were lukewarm. At one time, this had been a
great church. When the Apostle Paul wrote his
letter to the church at Colossae, he spoke about this church in
Laodicea. So it wouldn't surprise us to
find out there's still believers there who had become lukewarm. And the Lord sent this sharp
rebuke to them to wake them up and to correct them because he
did love them. If the Lord didn't love them,
he just left them alone because they're bastards and not sons.
Solomon said, he that spareth his rod, hateth his son. He that loveth him, chastens
him. You know, if we love our children, we will discipline
them. We won't let these things go.
We'll discipline them so they learn. And if we do not discipline
our children, there's only one reason for that. We hate them.
We love ourselves more than them to put ourselves through the
process of disciplining them. The Lord loves his people, so
he chastens them. Whom he loveth, he chasteneth.
And it's the love of Christ that warms up that lukewarm heart
to love him again, to be fervent, to fervently repent, to be zealous
and repent. 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'll come in to him and will sup with him and
he with me. Now this is a verse, is there
any other verse more misused and mistreated and twisted than
this verse of scripture? This is not giving us a picture
of the Lord standing there, knocking at the door, begging somebody
to let him in. This verse does not mean God's beggar. This does
not mean, well, you know, the Lord's standing there at the
door asking to be let in. And if that sinner's smart, you
know, he'll open the door and let the Lord in, you know. If
that were true, that makes salvation dependent on man, doesn't it?
That can't be true. That can't be what discipleship
means. This can't mean, well, if that sinner is just, you know,
not smart, he's not going to let the Lord in and he'll be
damned. But the Lord wants to, he just won't let him, you know,
because this is a stubborn sinner. Well, that would mean the Lord's
purpose of grace has been frustrated. Well, that can't be what this
means because that violates the whole rest of Scripture, doesn't
it? Now, there's a sense in which when the Lord saves his people,
he comes in and he knocks that door down flat and he comes in
as the mighty conqueror. I mean, he just rips it. Who
cares if somebody don't open the door? He's going to rip the
door off of its hinges and he's going to come in and save, give
life because nobody can resist his power. Nobody keep the door
shut if he wants to come in. And this is also true. The Lord
has no unwilling children. God saves us against our will
with our full consent. He saves us against the will
of our Adam's nature. But with our full consent of
the new nature, Everyone God saves is made willing in the
day of his power. I look over at Song of Solomon,
chapter five. Do they submit these people that
God saved? Do they submit because the Lord
is just this some sort of tyrant, you know, dictator? No, they
submit to the Lord because of submit to his power because of
who the Savior is. And Song of Solomon 5 verse 2
gives us the perfect illustration of this. This is the bride speaking. Verse 2, she said, I sleep, but
my heart waketh. It's the voice of my beloved
that knocketh, saying, open to me, my sister, my love, my dove,
my undefiled. For my head is filled with dew,
and my locks with the drops of the night. And she said, well,
I'm not going to get out of bed. I've put off my coat. How shall
I put it on? I've washed my feet. How shall
I defile them? She looked warm, didn't she?
She's lukewarm to the presence of the Lord. She hears him. She
hears him knocking. He calls in the sound of the
gospel. She knows it's him. She knows
it's her beloved out there, but she's lukewarm. It's just... Something else is more important
than getting up to go have fellowship with the Lord. It's just not
that important right now because I'm lukewarm. I don't have a
need of Christ right now. So the Lord knocks and he makes
her willing because of who he is, because of his love for her.
Verse four. My beloved put in his hand by
the hole of the door, the door not stopping him from coming
in. He put his hand in by the hole of the door and my bowels
were moved for him. My heart was moved for him. I
rose up to open to my beloved and my hands dropped with my
fingers with the sweet smelling myrrh upon the handles of the
lock. I opened to my beloved. But my beloved had withdrawn
himself and was gone. My soul failed when he spake.
I sought him, but I could not find him. I called him, but he
gave me no answer. And you know how the rest of
that chapter, how she so fervently seeks the Lord. What caused her
to open the door? What caused her to seek so fervently
after him? It was who Christ is. It was
his love for her that made her fervently seeking. It was the
sweet smell of who he is. There was a sweet smell of His
sacrifice and His love and His mercy and His grace that warmed
her heart out of that lukewarmness and made her fervently seek Him.
You see, none of this was dependent on the person inside the door,
wasn't it? It was all dependent on the person outside the door,
who He is, that gave her life, gave her the fervency to seek
Him. It was all in Him that made her so fervently seek Him. Now
back in our text, Revelation 3 verse 21, our Lord closes with
a promise that ought to make us fervently seeking and worshiping.
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. Now this is not a carrot that the Lord puts out there,
you know, trying to make us chase after it. Now if you serve me,
you stay faithful, you know, you're not lukewarm and stay
faithful like that to the end, I'm going to give you a throne
to sit on. You can lord it over the rest of this, you know, men
who, uh, who oppose you now. That's not what the Lord said.
He's not saying you're going to sit on a throne. He said,
you're going to sit with me upon the throne. If you're a believer,
you're already seated on the throne of glory. We're already
seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. So how is it that we overcome
and get the victory? It's all through faith in Christ.
It's all through union with Christ. He says, I've already overcome
and I'm already sat down on the throne and his people are all
sat down with him, with him. We've already sat down in Christ. We've rested from all of our
works. We've already conquered all. in Him. That's how we overcome. It's through faith in Christ.
He's already won the battle. He's finished the work. And we
sit and rest in Him. So the Lord closes this seventh
letter, verse 22. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. If we've got an
ear to hear, even if it's a lukewarm ear, the Lord says, now you hear
and you seek. Don't fall into this attitude
of being lukewarm. and expect a blessing from the
Lord because of who you are or what you've done for Him. Expect
a blessing from the Lord because you're worthless, because you're
miserable, you're poor, you're blind, and you're naked, and
Christ is everything you need. Expect a blessing from the Lord
because you're needy, and He's gracious, and He's faithful to
supply the need of His people. Christ is worthy of our fervent
feelings. And he worthy of it? God help
us. God help us not to follow this
attitude to be lukewarm for ourselves. All right, I hope the Lord bless
them.