Going back to Revelations chapter
3. I titled this message, Luke 1. Luke 1. If you were going outside today
to have a picnic, What would be
your ideal temperature? I bet you'd say, I know what
I'd say, 70 degrees. 70 degrees is lukewarm. It's lukewarm. When someone is
sick, they usually run a fever. You
feel their head, like one of your children, you feel their
forehead. To see if they're hot. To see if they are running a
fever. That's how you know they're sick. You feel the poor egg and
say, man, he's hot. But that's not the way it is
in spiritual sickness. When someone is sick spiritually,
they are lukewarm. They're just lukewarm. Lukewarm
as death. to a church and nauseating, absolutely
nauseating to the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I would, you were cold
or hot. This in-between stuff, I can't
stand. He said, I will spew thee out
of my mouth. That's how nauseating lukewarmness
is to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's like spoiled milk. You ever
drink spoiled milk? One time I got a little thing
of milk out of one of those machines. I opened it up, took a drink,
and it was awful. That taste, I thought I'd never
get rid of it. Our Lord is here saying, I will
spew thee out of my mouth. It is so distasteful to Him. Said, I'll spew you out of my
mouth. How did we go from the church
in Philadelphia to Laodicea? How does a church go from that,
the church of Philadelphia that we looked at last week where
the Lord commended it, he had a little strength, he opened
the door for it, and here you said you're lukewarm and you
have need of nothing. You're lukewarm and I can't stand
it and then you say you have need of nothing. That's how you
become lukewarm when you say, I'm rich, I have everything I
need, I have need of nothing, not even God. You know at one time this church
was a great church. Over in Colossians chapter 2
verse 1, Chapter 4 verse 13 and verse 15 the Apostle Paul speaks
of the church at Laodicea. At one time it was a great influential
church in the gospel and it degenerated into this lukewarmness. Now let's
look at this. We have first of all in verse
14 the speaker, the revealer of secrets. of course, called
over in Daniel. He's called here, and he calls
himself here the Amen. That's his name, the Amen. We must be careful how we use
that word, for it's his name. I want you to look over in Isaiah
65. Isaiah 65. Let me read something
to you. Look in verse 16, to show you that this one who
calls himself the Amen is God. He is God. This is the one speaking,
God Almighty. In verse 16 of Isaiah 65, that
he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in
the God of truth. Now, in the original translation
of this verse, it reads, That he who blesseth himself in the
earth shall bless himself in the Amen. That's how it reads
in the original, in the Amen. And he that sweareth in the earth
shall swear by the God of truth or the Amen. Then over here he
says, he that speaketh unto thee the Amen. Same one speaking over
in Isaiah. The Amen. Matthew Henry said
this. Concerning this word, amen. One
that is steady. One that is steady and unchanging
in all his purposes and promises. Never changes. He calls himself
here the faithful and true witness. This is the God-man mediator
speaking. His testimony of God is to be
received. His testimony of God, of us,
and of himself is true, and is to be received, is to be believed. Christ said, as I hear, I speak. As I hear, I speak. The words
that I speak to you is not mine, it's the Father's. He's the faithful
and true witness. He came from God. He came from
above. He is the faithful and true witness. He has witnessed, now listen,
He has witnessed everything from eternity. He has witnessed everything
from creation. He's the true witness. You know,
I have seen a very small part of this life. You couldn't call
me in as a witness on very many things at all. I only know a
little bit. I've only seen a little bit. But our Lord is the faithful
and true witness. And listen, the beginning of
the creation of God. Not just 2,000 years ago. He was in the beginning with
God. He was God. He's the one who created all
things. The scripture says in Colossians, by Him all things
were created. All things were created by Him
and for Him. None of this was created for
me. It was not created for you. It was created for the Son of
God and for His glory. And some are going to get to
see and experience that glory. the beginning of the creation
of God. All things are made by Him and for Him. He's the firstborn
from the dead. He has a preeminence over all.
He's the reason. Jesus Christ is the reason all
of this exists. If you take Him out of the picture,
there's no creation. None of this would happen. God
is going to populate heaven with a people. just like His Son,
not just like the angels, not like the angels, like His Son,
like His beloved Son. He's going to have many sons
like His one Son. He's going to populate heaven
with people just like His Son. Now, He says to them, to this
church, I know thy works. He knows the works. He knows
the motive behind the works. I'm telling you, that's what's
important. It's why we do what we do. That's what the Lord says. Why we do what we do. And he
says this, I know thy works, that you're neither cold nor
hot. Here's what they were. And it's a warning to us. Indifferent. Indifferent. To be indifferent is to say,
I don't care. You really don't care. You really
don't care for His glory. You don't care for His honor. It's just indifferent. You've
been around people that's indifferent. Oh, do whatever you want. It
doesn't matter. Whatever makes you happy. That's indifferent. And Christ said, I hate that.
Our Lord said, I hate that. I despise that. He despises indifference. Let me give you an example. When
someone denies the gospel for another gospel, like they did
over at Galatians, they started bringing another gospel. Was
Paul indifferent? When another gospel was started
to be preached there in Galatians, Paul said, let that man, let
that person be what? A curse. Let him go to hell is
what Paul said. Is that indifferent? No, that's
hot. That's hot. Indifference is saying, well,
you know, they have a right to believe what they want to believe.
Let me tell you something. We don't have a right to believe
anything but the truth. We don't have a right to believe
anything but what God says. And to not believe it is to perish. It's to perish. When someone denies the gospel
for another gospel, the lukewarm professor says, well, that's
just what, you know, if they want to believe that, that's
okay. You know, you do that, I believe this, you believe that. Now, you know, there's only one
gospel. There's only one truth. There's not, there's many religions
in the world. Actually, there's only two religions.
One's all of grace and the other's all of works. Indifferent, that's what he's
saying. Indifferent. Indifferent in love to Christ.
There's no heart felt love to the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
no burning love to Christ. Did not our hearts burn when
he talked with us? They said on the road to Emmaus.
Did not our hearts burn? The heart burns no more. There's
no fervent love. Paul tells us to have fervent
love to one another, doesn't he? I don't know if there's any other
kind of love but fervent love. Anything less than that's not
love. Indifferent in love? You wouldn't
put up with that in your spouse, would you? Would you put up with your spouse
just being lukewarm with you? Lukewarm in love with you? That's
why many marriages fail. It's that old Lukewarm. Our Lord doesn't put up with
it either. He said, I will spew the air out of my mouth. Lukewarm
allows compromise. That's what it allows. It allows
compromise. It allows worldliness to settle
in. It allows covetousness. It allows
all sorts of problems. That's why the Lord said, and
I'll tell you this, it leads to apostasy. This church here didn't last
a long time. The one at Philadelphia was 800 years. This one didn't
last over 800 years. There were a few believers here.
That's why the Lord's writing the letter to that church. That's
why he's sending it to that church, because there's still some sheep
in that church. But the overall attitude of that church had just
grown cold. Well, it wasn't even cold, it
was just lukewarm. Just so-so. Our Lord said, I would thou work
cold or hot. At least when someone is cold
or hot, You know where they stand. You know where they stand. A church in a community that
does not stand for the gospel fervently, and that community
really doesn't know where that church stands. That's just lukewarm,
and our Lord says it's awful. He said, I'll skew you out of
my mouth. I would if you were cold or hot. There's hope for
cold or hot. There's hope for cold or hot.
Not much for lukewarm. And lukewarm professors do not
stand for anything. They're weak in character. Weak
in character. Afraid of a fight. We went through these churches.
And some of them, one of them, he said, you're right where Satan's
seat is. Some of you are going to die. I mean, some of you are
under tribulation. You're persecuted. They took
the heat for the gospel and they didn't back down. But this church
didn't disturb anybody. This church disturbed no one. No one. The Lord said, I'll spew
thee out of my mouth. That's how bad he hates it. He tests it. Now look what lukewarm
leads to, a wrong opinion of oneself, a wrong opinion of oneself,
because thou sayest, thou sayest. Ragging on yourself
is always bad, especially in spiritual matters. Solomon said,
let another man's lips praise you, another man's mouth praise
you, not you yourself. And as we get older, and I'm
guilty of this, we talk about what we used to do and used to
be. Used to do and used to be. And it's always greater than
what we really were and what we really used to do. Let another man, let another
man, let another mouth praise you. Don't you do it yourself.
Thou sayest. You're boasting. He said to this
church, you're boasting that you are rich. I'd rather the
Lord say I'm rich. Let him say I'm rich. Look back
in chapter 2. Look in verse 8. And unto the angel of the church
in Samarna write, these things saith the first and the last,
which was dead and is alive, I know thy works of tribulation
and poverty." I know you're poor. See, they said, the church of
Laodicea said they were rich. But here, the Lord is saying
to this church, I know your poverty, but what's to say after that?
But thou art rich. Thou art rich. They were a poor
church in purse. They were in poverty, they didn't
have much, and their poverty was over the gospel. Their poverty
was over the gospel. You believe the gospel on that
day, in that place, you had a lot of trouble going on. You'd lose
your job, lose your family. He said, but you're rich. You're
rich in the things that count. You are rich towards God. But
this church, They said they were rich. It said, thou sayest thou
rich. Their opinion of themselves is
their problem. They were a very influential
church outwardly. I have no doubt they had a lot
of influential people in that church that were rich materially,
but they were poor in the gospel. They had become that way. They
were not that way for a period of time. But, you know, Paul said riches
are deceitful. They're deceitful. This church was not rich toward
God anymore. It used to be, but not anymore. They were increased
with goods and had need of nothing. You know, one of the reasons,
I believe, that the Lord brings us into trials and hardships
and heartaches, these things, is to make us recognize our need,
our need of Him continually. I pray that the Lord not let
this church ever get to the point where we think we are in need
of nothing. Because when you get to the point
when you are in need of nothing, you're not in need of God anymore. Increased with goods and had
need of nothing. This is how the world wants to
be. It gives a false sense of security.
A false sense of security. Someone told me once, a man that
confessed to believe the gospel. He told me once, he said, if
I didn't have an X amount of dollars, he told me the money.
And it was a lot of money. He said, if I didn't have an
X amount of dollars in the bank, I don't know what I'd do. He
said, I'd be worried to death. I was stunned that he told me
that. But my thought was this. I didn't
say it to him. Now if I had to do it again, I would have. You
need to be broke for a while. You need to ask for your daily
bread for a while. Because you're in need of nothing. It gives a false sense of security. What do we have? What do we have
that we cannot lose that fast? Material-wise, material-wise.
We can't lose Christ. Our lives are hidden with Christ
in God. Can't lose our life, can't lose Christ. But everything
else in this life we not only can lose, in a little while we
will lose. Every relationship, every physical
relationship in this room, is going to be dissolved in a little
while. It's going to be dissolved. Our
relationship to Christ will not be dissolved. Our relationship
with one another in Christ will not be dissolved. But every earthly
relationship will be dissolved. One day I won't be Vicki's husband
no more. She'll not be my wife. That relationship will be dissolved. It will be dissolved. But our
relationship to Christ will not be dissolved. That's the one,
now that, hey, that's the, you work on that relationship, and
I tell you what, it'll make this one sweeter. It'll make this
one sweeter. The greater our relationship
is with Christ, the greater our relationship is with one another
here. But this lukewarm stuff, Christ said, I hate it. And then it produces a false
sense of self-worth. Self-worth. Someone said to me once, two
years ago, that retired. He said, I've kind of lost my
sense of self-worth. You should have lost that when
the Lord saved you. We ought to lose that. We
ought to lose that. My self-worth is found in Christ. Christ is all my worth. Is He
or is He not? He's all my worth. Everything else is nothing. Everything
else about me is nothing, apart from Christ, apart from Him. And this gives a false sense
of importance. If I die today, the sun will
come up again tomorrow, and you'll go to your jobs, and life will
move right on. It will go right on, I assure
you. The sun won't miss us. That sun will not miss a beat
on a cross. You get a false sense of importance. I used to run a company once,
one time, years ago, up in Huntington. And it was, you know, successful. He was making some money at it.
But I left and the guy that took my place made it even more successful.
He made it even better. So there's your importance. Oh, he said, you say you're rich
and you're increased with goods and you have need of nothing.
But here is the way you really are, and this is the way we are
without Christ. Get this, you're wretched. Does that offend you? Well, I
didn't say it, he did. Take it up with God. He's the one that said there's
none good, no, not one. Take it up with him. Now, wretched, wretched is a
harsh word, but it fits. Our Lord, He's a true and faithful
witness. He's going to tell us the truth. The Lord reveals what we are,
and if He does not do that, we will not be saved. Now, that's
just the way it is. We'll not be saved. And he said,
you're miserable. You would think people that were
rich would be the happiest people on earth, wouldn't you? But those
people in Hollywood, they're not happy. They're not happy. Miserable. This church had no
real happiness. You know, Solomon said, the rich
man's riches won't let him sleep. They won't let him sleep. This church had no real happiness,
though they were rich in goods. It was the wrong goods. It was
the wrong goods. And you're poor. You're poor. He's describing
this church. He said, you're wretched, you're
miserable, and you're poor. You're really, you're not rich.
Oh, you have abundance of possessions, but that's not rich. Real riches
is being rich toward God. Real riches is having everything
you need to stand in God's presence. Is that not real riches? This is greats against the flesh.
I mean, every one of us likes to win the lottery. And it's
just greats against us. But the Lord said, this is the
way you are. See, He pulls back the curtain. He says, you say you're rich
and increased with goods and have need of nothing, but that's
not the way you really are. Here's the way it is. You're
miserable. You're wretched. You're poor. And you're blind. You're blind. You don't see what's going on.
You don't see. You do not see your wretchedness.
I see it, but you don't see it. You don't see your misery. I
see it. You don't see it. You don't see your poverty, your
spiritual poverty. You don't see it. You don't see your blindness
because you're blind. They did not see these things.
Here's why they did not see these things. Here's how they lost
sight of it. They lost sight of Him. They lost sight of Him. They
had become lukewarm towards Him. He's not saying you're lukewarm
in religion. They were going through the motions.
They were gathering together just like this. There's no heart
in it. No worshipping. It was something
you do on Sunday. You're brought up as a child
like that, but our Lord says, He'd be worshipped with the heart,
perfectly. You will not find in the Word
of God anywhere where we are commanded or allowed to do anything
half-heartedly. Saul said, whatever you do, do
it with all your might. Seek the Lord how? Lukewarm? Diligently? Half-heartedly? No,
diligently. Seek Him diligently with what?
With all your heart. All your heart. And they were naked. They had a closet full of clothes.
But before God they were naked. Now here's grace. Here's the grace of God toward this church and a warning to us. He said,
I counsel thee. I counsel thee. Our Lord is the
great counselor. He called that in Isaiah, the
counselor. He's the counselor, not us. Not us. Do not set yourself up
to be a counselor. Don't do that. Point men and
women to Christ, who is the counselor. He is the counselor. When the gospel is preached,
like right now, what's going on right now? The Lord is counseling
this church. The Lord is doing it. If he's not doing it, then We're
wasting our time. We're wasting His time. What
time He's giving us. He's the counselor. And Christ
counsels His church through the preaching of the gospel. I cannot
tell you how many times over the years I sat under Henry and
had questions on my mind, on my heart, and over time, it got
answered. And I never went I never went
to his office. I didn't go and ask him about
this or that. I did that one time. And he said,
you know what to do. That's what I got. I went and
asked him. He just looked at me and said,
you know what to do. I thought, well, okay. But sitting under the gospel,
I learned that over time, my questions were answered. It may not get answered today
because you're not ready for the answer. You're not ready for the answer. He'll give you an answer when
you and I are ready for the answer. When you and I are ready to follow
his counsel. He's got to bring us to that
point. We have to be brought to the point to be ready to follow
his counsel. I'm not asking his opinion. The
Lord doesn't give us his opinion. Truth is not an opinion. Everything
else might be an opinion, but truth is not an opinion. It's
the truth. It's the way it is, and it's
no other way. And when you and I are brought
to the place where we are ready to follow his counsel, then he'll
answer. Here's his counsel. Are you listening? This is what will keep from becoming
lukewarm, from becoming like this, what will keep this church
from becoming lukewarm. Buy of me gold, try it in the
fire. It does not say go buy gold and
bring it to me. Buy of me gold, try it in the
fire. And I looked at that verse, and
I looked at that verse, and I thought, what is he talking about? Himself. He was tried in the fire of God's
wrath. You see, the lukewarmness is toward Him. And when it's
toward Him, then it becomes like that and everything else. This gold tried in the fire is
Him. He was tormented. He suffered under the fire of
God's wrath. His blood was shed through torment. It's not like going to the hospital
and giving blood. He didn't do that. He went to
the cross and it was shed. It was extracted from his body
through pain and suffering. And when he talks about buy,
it's the same way over here in Isaiah 55. It's not like we can
purchase salvation. In Isaiah 55, ho everyone that
thirsteth, Isaiah 55 verse 1, ho everyone that thirsteth, Come
ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye by." How
do you buy with no money? He's not saying, this is not
to the rich who has plenty of money, and he says, come and
I'll sell it to you. He says, you who are broke, busted, in
poverty, you have nothing, absolutely nothing with which to pay. He says, you
come and buy. You come to me. And I'll give
it to you. I'll give it to you. Come ye,
buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without
price to be had for the asking. And then he says it's white raiment.
Go back here to Revelation chapter 3, verse 18. I counsel thee to buy of me gold,
try it in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, Rich toward God. I tell you what, in a little
while, life will be over on this earth for all of us. In a little
while. And the only riches that matters are the riches I have
in Christ. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
redemption. That's true riches. that thou
mayest be rich in white raiment." What is that? You see, he told
them they were naked. Anyone and everyone who does
not believe God, who does not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
stand before God naked. Open. Open. No covering. You know, all those
thoughts and stuff that run through your mind and all those. That's open before him. You can
hide it from me. I can hide from you. None can
hide from God. It's open. White Raymond is his righteousness. It's his righteousness. We are
saved by his righteousness. We are saved by his right doing,
not mine, not yours. that thou mayest be clothed,
that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear." Aren't you glad
that God, and I know every believer here is, are you not glad that
God does not open up and show everyone what's going on in here? Aren't you glad of that? That the shame of thy nakedness
do not appear. and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve
that thou mayest see." This eyesalve is the gospel of Christ, who
is the gospel. He said, you anoint your eyes
with eyesalve. Get back to the gospel. Listen. Listen. Like He said to the church
in Ephesus, return to your first love. You left your first love,
return to your first love. Now, lest anyone think that Christ
is being too hard, He says, As many as I love, I rebuke and
chase them. This is the reason I'm writing
this letter to you. This is the reason we have this
letter now to us. As many as I love. You know, love is not only demonstrated
in giving gifts. It is demonstrated in discipline.
You love your children, you discipline your children. You discipline
them. Love deals honestly. Our Lord
deals honestly with us. The scripture says, love hideth
a matter. That's why I said, aren't you
glad he doesn't reveal what's going on in here. Love hides
a matter, but not from the one it loves. He reveals to us what we are. You're wretched, you're poor,
you're blind, you're naked, you're miserable. Love does not discover our sins
to everyone, but it discovers our sins to us. As many as I love. This is how
we handle the chastening hand of God. whether it be however
severe it is. This is how we handle it. This
is my father dealing with me in love. You say, well that's a strange
way to show it. Well, his thoughts are not our thoughts, his ways
are not our ways. He deals on a completely different level
than you and I. And one day when we lay this flesh down, We're going to see the death
of the love of God for us in Christ. We're going to see it. Behold, 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. desires fellowship with his church,
with his people. He said, but now listen, he does
not force himself on anyone. Thy people shall be made what? Willing. By his grace, by the
work of the Holy Spirit, they are made willing in the day of
his power, they are made willing to fellowship with him. willing
to receive Him, willing to bow to Him, willing to love Him. I mean, here's a church that's
been snubbing Him. Here is a church that has just
a lukewarm, he may show up today or may not, so what? That's the
attitude of it. That was the attitude of the
church at Laodicea. It was just lukewarm. And yet
our Lord, Our Lord says, I stand at the door and knock.
If any man will hear my voice and open the door, if any man
desires fellowship. Anyone here desire fellowship
with Christ? You'll have it. You'll have it. If you can desire fellowship
with the President of the United States, you're not going to get
it. You won't even get a look. But any soul in this world that
desires fellowship with Christ will have it at any given time. You don't have to make an appointment. 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. We shall reign We shall reign with Christ forever
and ever. All those who believe on Christ,
all those who love Christ fervently. And the sad part is our love
does go up and down. His doesn't. Ours, we do. But we shall reign with the Lord
Jesus Christ forever and ever. This morning I was going back
over this and I wrote down the best is yet to come. The best is yet to come. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. How gracious our
Lord is to send such warnings and encouragement to his churches. Even Laodicea, even Sardis, which
he didn't have one good thing to say to that church, He didn't
have one good thing to say, but he wrote him a letter, called
him his church. It's amazing. It's amazing, I
think, how far we can fall and still be his. You look at Sardis,
what they did. The Lord didn't have one good
thing to say about that church, but it was his church. And he
said, there's a few names there. Thou hast a few names. There
are a few sheep still there, and you're my church. Because
of that, you're still my church. Well, we have everything that we need in these letters. As I said before, we don't need
any more letters. He wrote seven letters for the seven churches.
Instructions. Commandments. Gracious words as well as reproof. Repent, my soul, that God of
heaven and earth, who we have sinned against, who could annihilate
us like that, once again says, repent. Repent, turn, come back. Oh, how gracious our Lord is.
How gracious.