So I want you to turn back in
your Bibles to Revelation chapter 3. Revelation chapter 3 as we
deal with the last aspect of the seventh church that we have
been reflecting upon. The church at Laodicea. Last week we saw that in the
church at Laodicea that Laodicea had deceived itself. It had fallen
prey to the culture. It had basically looked around
and removed the biblical measuring stick are the biblical rule,
plumb line, standard by which we are to determine our health,
our strength, our vigor, the quality of our walk with God. It had removed the standard of
scripture and had begun to judge itself according to the cultural
standards of the world. And when Laodicea had seen that
it was doing very well economically and financially and by virtue
of reputation, everyone was saying that that church was a ritzy
church. It was well off financially.
It was independent. It was autonomous. It didn't
need anything. And the folks in that church,
well, those folks drive really nice cars. And they have fabulous
homes. And they have stunning bank accounts. And they are opulently wealthy. They must be loved by God infinitely
to have that kind of reputation. Laodicea. the church of which
they were going around saying, I am increased, rather I am rich
and increased with goods and I don't need anything. That's
what our master asserted in his first assessment of the church.
You are saying to everyone and everyone is picking this message
up that you are rich. and that you have increased in
goods. It's in the perfect verb form. That means you see yourself
permanently wealthy. And you're telling everyone you
have need of nothing. And I shared with you last week
such a conclusion on the part of Christians is a betrayal of
their understanding of who they are in Christ. That when you
become a Christian, rather than boast of your independence, you
boast of your dependence. When you become a believer in
Christ, you have no problem making Jesus your crutch. And let the
atheist tell us that Jesus is our crutch. I would say, thank
you. He's the best crutch in the world. You can lean on him
and he will never break. But when you are autonomous,
independent, self-sufficient, then basically you need nothing. Our Lord has moved into sort
of a propositional mode dealing with the church at Laodicea,
which is where we're going to take up the larger portion of
our consideration today. Because you do remember now,
he's the Lord of the church, is he not? He's the master and
captain of our salvation, is he not? But he's also the lover
of our soul, is he not? He therefore is the husband of
this glorious bride called the church, is he not? And therefore
the appeal on the part of this husband is what I want to drive
home to your soul today. This is an outstanding man who
is here speaking to his wife. This is an outstanding husband. one of which every man ought
to model, but let me quickly tell you, you will fail. But
you ought to model him because what he does in his overture
to let this church know how important she is to him will completely
assuage every argument by every woman on planet earth that no
man ever cares for me like they ought. There's one man that does
his name is christ He is a great husband And there's a sense in
which as we look at this last church And all i'm going to deal
with is our lord's overtures to the church I'm not going to
deal with the promises until after the conference because
I want to deal with them as a collective whole There's a sense in which
when you look at the manner in which christ is appealing to
the church His appeal is scandalous. It's humbling. It makes no human
sense. It's almost shameful, wouldn't
you say? For a husband to have to appeal
to his wife the way he's appealing to her. Let me paint the picture. I'll go back to the start and
we'll end up there. He's on the outside of the house. knocking on the door, wanting
to come in. Now, I know right now that the
picture that I'm painting for some of you sisters, you're saying,
yeah, that's where he need to be. But not this one. Not this one. See, for him to
be on the outside of the door is another gesture of his infinite
respect for his bride. Because he owns the house. And
he's got the master key. And he can go in whenever he
wants to, because he's not at fault. But because of his respect
for his bride, he wants it to be voluntary, mutual, reciprocal
in nature, so that she receives him as he ought to be received.
Am I making some sense, brother? And how humbling this is, because
it's not his fault. It's her fault. She's a mess. We're a mess. Not the husband. We're a mess. And so the title
of our message today is, I counsel you to buy from me. I counsel you to buy from me.
Verse 18, part A. I counsel you to buy of me. That's that's the tenor of which
I want you to contemplate his now his retort his his exhortation
He has moved into a place of now instructing her and I'm gonna
unpack that statement a little bit more down the line But he's
saying to her. I want to counsel you to buy
of me Here's what he's saying. You and I are constantly challenged
every day with different lovers different salesmen different
people propagating different ideas and different notions and
different commodities and different things to distract your soul
and to get your attention and to cause you to close with them.
And he's saying to her, listen, I instruct you, I'm counseling
you to buy of me. If you buy of me, you will never
regret what you get. See, all the other stuff in the
world, some of that stuff is nothing but junk. You purchase
things that it never actually lives up to what it was purchased
to be. You buy a car. Come on, tell
the truth. A week after you buy that car, you see things that
you didn't see the week before. The quality and the value of
the car goes down immediately. And you lose that sense of satisfaction
in it because it's part of the deteriorating process. We call
it the law of atrophy, diminishing returns. After about a week of
anything new, it's old. I'm telling the truth. But what
our Lord is about to teach us, if I can get there, is you can't
buy anything from Him that is not the same a million years
later as it was the day you bought it. It never loses its value,
its worth, its impact, its qualitative nature. Never. When you purchase
from Christ, it's always good to go. And I mean always good
to go. I mean always good to go. Always
good to go. So I counsel you he says to buy
of me and therefore you and I need to actually bring some weight
to that proposition by reflecting upon verses 17 and following
points 1 through 4 of our outline So I want to call you to point
number 1 in your outline the damning delusion of materialism
the damning delusion of materialism now, there's nothing wrong with
material and I have material on. We all have material on. If you didn't have any material
on today, we would send you up to John George. We are not saying
that we are not people who are in need of material. What we
are saying is Christians ought not to be known as materialistic,
operating out of the idol of materialism. The ism is the idol
that you buy material things in order to establish a value
system for yourself and to persuade other people that you're something
that you're not. That you actually get gratification
out of the quality of the clothes you wear. or you get absolute
wealth of worth and wealth and a sense of well-being out of
the kind of home you have or out of the kind of job you possess.
See, all of that kind of thinking is unchristian thinking because
it is a false value system. Am I making some sense to you?
Now don't get me wrong, God allows us to engage in what I have been
teaching us for the longest, meritocracy. That is, if a man
works hard, he is able to benefit and accrue from the work that
he has engaged in, he or her or them, and thus enjoy life
as the scriptures have plainly said. If you labor diligently,
if you are wise and if you are discreet, If you know how to
sow to the kingdom of God, as the scripture says, seek ye first
the kingdom of God, then you can enjoy all the things that
come your way. But don't ever, ever imply that
the sum total of who you are is identified by what you have.
You are not a Christian if you do that. Your value system is
flawed. And so what's taking place in
our text is our Lord is giving what we can call an assessment.
Then he's going to give what we call the sales pitch. Then
he's going to give what we can call the clarification. And then
he's going to give the final thing, which we can call the
passion of his heart. And that's all we're going to
deal with. And so the assessment is, is that the church at Laodicea
is under the damnable delusion of materialism. I am increased
with goods. Point number one under that main
heading a false value system Luke chapter 12 verse 51 verse
15 through 21 gives us a model of this and you need to see it
This is a huge mirror and it will be beneficial to you and
me You guys remember what I said last week that most of the church
world I'm talking about the church worldwide could never fall under
the category of being Laodicean, right and that's because most
of the church is poor and most of our countries in the world
where Christians are, never ever live the level of lifestyle that
you and I live here in America. Never! They never attain to the
kind of material goods, access to the resources that you and
I have, the commodities and the just basic technological benefits
that you and I experience. Ladies and gentlemen, I know
you want to argue with me, but compared to the rest of the world,
you are kings and queens. You are kings and queens. And
there was a rich man in this text that our master is talking
about, of which he wants to warn his disciples around the idea
of falling prey to materialism, because underneath it is the
attitude of covetousness. Luke chapter 12, verse 15, here's
how the lesson goes. And he said unto them, take heed
and beware of what? Ladies and gentlemen, don't we
struggle with that? Don't you lie. Don't you lie. See, if I were to stop here and
park it, I could actually challenge you by what you have, that covetousness
is an ongoing and an abiding idol with which the Christian
church is trapped. I bet you got way too many clothes
in your closet. I do. I bet you got way, way,
way too many things that you don't ever use and you keep You
keep accruing to yourself. You and I are covetous. Be sure
of it. Be sure of it. And it will have
its weight on our life here shortly as we will see. Our master says,
take ye beware of covetousness for man's life, here it is, does
not consist in the abundance of the things which he, what?
Our master just affirmed what I said, didn't he? Your life
is not summed up in the abundance of the things that you have He
said take heed and then he spoke a parable. He said the ground
of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully You know what?
That is a person who has invite invested wisely or has labored
By the sweat of his bra and has toiled It has tilled the ground
and now it's reaping the benefits the ground of a certain rich
man brought forth plentifully He thought within himself, here
it is. See, this is a heart attitude saying, what shall I do? Because
I have no room to be stored my fruits. He said, this is what
I'll do. I'll give half of it to God and
keep my conscience clear. So when it's time for me to go,
I'll be light for the flight. Is that what he said? Here we
go. And he said, this is what I'll
do. I'll pull down my barns and I'll build greater ones. And
there I will bestow all my fruits and goods. And I will say to
my soul, soul. See, I call this guy a soul man. We've talked about him before.
I'm a soul man. This old school, this ain't for
some of you youngsters. Old school. Now a soulless man talks to himself. Are you hearing me? A spiritual
man can talk to himself, but for the most part, he talks to
God. See, a soul man has no communication with God. He only talks to himself.
He advises himself. He counsels himself. He instructs
himself. All he has is himself. Am I making
some sense? In our text, you will notice
a radical absence of any consciousness of God. He spends all of his
time persuading himself of what his agenda will be. You hear
this philosophy everywhere. Persuade yourself. You deserve
it. Pump yourself up. Tell yourself you can do this,
that, and the other thing. You hear it in business all the
time as a tactic. Listen to it. He said, I'll say
to my soul, soul, you have much goods laid up for you for many
years. Take your ease. Brother, relax. Eat, drink, be
merry. Doesn't that sound good? Eat,
drink, be merry. That's a philosophy that the
Western culture sells to you and me. That we're living large
when we are able to simply eat lavishly, drink abundantly, and
live in excess merriment. But that's a quality life. That's
a lie. That's a lie. That is an absolute lie. All
you're doing when you engage in that kind of ethic of life
is setting yourself up for an addiction. That's all. You're setting yourself up for
an addiction because you're sowing to your soul, you're sowing to
your soul boundless pleasure which can do nothing but corrupt
you. It's aimless in its ultimate spiritual objective. All it is
is narcissism. Are you hearing me? How much
can you eat in a day? How many suits can you put on
in one day? I guess some of y'all can challenge
us because you know a person can go put on a suit every half
hour. I mean, you know, some of our kids, I've seen some of
my kids, I got six daughters now, so I know what they can
do every half hour in terms of switching up on a brother. So
I know it's doable. But see, all of these are precursors
to addictive behavior patterns. Because we are not sewing to
the right thing. This man is a classic case of a narcissist. Now notice what the text says,
but God, see God's going to interrupt your life at some point. He stays
quiet on you for a while so you can get it right for yourself.
But most of the time you won't. If God doesn't interrupt your
life, you won't get it right. Especially when you're a narcissist
and all you do is talk to yourself. Like the old hip hop song goes,
I talk to myself. because there's no one else to
talk to. People ask me why I do what I do because there's no
one else to talk to. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
I said, I know why you talk to yourself because you don't know
him. So, so, so the text is very clear. God has to interrupt our
life. Problem is this man is getting ready to check out and
he didn't take care of business. God said unto him, you fool.
There it is. There it is. That's the title
of every materialist. That's his name. That's his nomenclature.
That's his appellation. That's his insignia. On the house,
on the business, on the birth certificate of every person who
pursues wealth, his name is fool. Are you hearing me? That's exactly
right. That's exactly right, because
he missed the point altogether. Thou fool, this night your soul
is what? Then who shall those things be
which you have provided? Isn't that a good question? What
you gonna do now, dude? What you gonna do now as you
separate soul from body and now have to face God in a naked state
of absolute bankruptcy? What you gonna do now? And so
and so the lesson here for us is that church folk can fall
into this same kind of trap Going back then to our text a false
value system And let me say this to you going to Luke 16 9 our
second sub point riches are a deceitful servant Riches are a deceitful
servant Luke 16 9 through 13 I just want you to get this keep
this outline because some of you need this you're gonna need
this in to reflect upon in the future when that temptation hits
you again. Or when you're trapped and you
need to understand why it is that you're trapped. First and
foremost, because wealth and materialism is a false value
system. The rich man now is standing
before God without any resources, is he not? His value now is useless
before God. As the proverb puts it, riches
do not profit in the day of wrath. Point number two riches are a
deceitful servant. What do I mean by that? And I
wrote that out wisely very advisedly and very wisely I want you to
see what I mean by a deceitful servant and Luke chapter 16 Our
master says this verses 9 through 13 and I say unto you Make friends
of your money So that when you fail they may receive you into
everlasting habitation Verse 10 he that is faithful in that
which is least is faithful also in that which is much and he
that is unjust in least is unjust also in much do you see that
there's a corresponding connection between Your handling of your
material things and your handling of spiritual things. I know this
is true This doesn't even require exegesis. This doesn't require
exposition or development or at length explanation. I When
you and I abuse material things, we most necessarily neglect spiritual
things because they are mutually exclusive principles. You cannot
be absorbed in a material life and be absorbed in a spiritual
life at the same time. Our Master is warning you, consume
yourself if you wish and you'll wake up naked. Now watch how
the line goes. My proposition is this. Riches
are deceitful servants. It goes on to say in verse 12
and 13, And if you have not been faithful in that which is another
man's, who shall give you that which is your own? That's huge. No servant can serve two masters. Do you guys understand the implications
of the statement? You say you serve Jesus. You say you serve
Jesus, but it's evident that you serve mammon. Now what Christ
is saying is, you can't serve both. This is tearing some of
you up, and it ought to. Watch now, hear me now, hear
me now. You cannot serve two masters. And may I say this? Most Christians that I know tell
me by their actions, they can. Most Christians that I know,
I'm talking about all of them that I know, act by way of their
lifestyle that they can actually serve Jesus and serve money or
serve materialism or serve the flesh or serve themselves. May I say this emphatically?
You cannot serve Christ and those other things too. You cannot be a slave of that
and the other. You can only be slaves of one. Eventually, the thing that dominates
your life will cancel out this other alleged relationship you
say you have. It happens every day. It happens
every day. And so what happens? When I say
that riches are a deceitful servant, here's the argument. Riches are
opportunity at riches, are material blessings, are prominence, are
wealth, or whatever it is. When it comes to you telling
you, hey, I'm going to make you happy, I'm going to serve you,
I'm actually going to liberate you so that you can be the best
you can be. Watch this now. The thing that you are pursuing
to give you the greatest happiness will pretend to be your servant
with one objective, to make you its slave. You look up one day
and that thing has now become your master. It rules your life. That's the deceitfulness of riches.
It will allege that it will become your servant. And one day you'll
look up and you are working for it. That's the truth. That's the truth. Riches are
deceitful servants. It will master you. Thirdly, under a false value
system, Overwhelming commitment to the delusion of materialism. I am increased in goods. I am
increased in wealth I am increased in this is a barrier to your
faith Luke 18 chapter 22 Luke 18 verse 22 when you and I are
absorbed into a lifestyle of materialism and selfishness your
faith Will now be in danger. I Say that it's a barrier to
your faith Listen to what it says. Now when Jesus heard these
things, he said unto them, unto him, and who is he talking to?
The rich young ruler. See, the rich young ruler tried
to do it. He tried to be rich and be saved at the same time.
He tried to be rich and be spiritual at the same time. He tried. Now,
As he was pursuing a very moral and ethical life based on Torah,
keeping the law, obviously he came into wealth. And he enjoyed
living large. He wore the finest clothes and
everyone knew he was wealthy. Also, he was an educated man.
He was very erudite. He was very bright. Also, he
pursued a religious degree. So when he comes to Jesus, the
master, he's talking to Jesus about religion. Good master,
what must I do to obtain eternal life? Now, our Lord is not like
most of us. We are flattered when folks come
to us and ask us spiritual questions or religious questions. But our
master always examined the motive behind the question. See, you
and I'd just be glad to give an answer. Our Lord was concerned
with the man's motive because his question was not honest. What must I do to obtain eternal
life? And so our master said, let me
deal with him at the very crux of his problem because his conscience
is bothering him because he's not obtained that foundation
of peace and joy that affirms that he already has eternal life.
He knows what the problem is, but he doesn't want to own it.
So let me help him. And rather than telling that
rich man, in order for you to obtain eternal life, you must
believe on me. He could have said that. You
know what he said? You've got to sell everything
you have. You've got to give it to the
poor. And then after that, you've got to follow me. There were
three instructions given. Extricate yourself from your
false value system. Separate yourself from the lover
of your soul, your identity base. And then respect the poor whom
you have not been respecting evidently by accruing all this
wealth and knowing that you have these poor Lazarus's all over
the place and not having been taking care of them. And you
want to come to my heaven? Are you hearing me? So turn around
and do what's right with the mammon. Make friends with the
unrighteous mammon. Then you got to follow me you
want to get to heaven you got to go through the same door I'm
going through and that's the door of self-denial Commitment
to the will of God the the glory of God and the purpose of God
and then you get to heaven Watch what the text says sell all that
you have distributed to the poor and you will have treasure in
heaven and come in what? You guys see that now if you're
asking the question, what must I do to obtain eternal life and
the Lord gives you that answer Would you not at least attempt
to do it? eternal life really mattered.
Let's look at the next verse. Watch what happens. Watch what
our Lord does. Watch this. And when he heard
this, he was very sorrowful. See it? For he was very rich. That's our point. Riches are
deceitful servants and they are a barrier to what? They are a
barrier to faith. Because see what Christ was calling
them to was faith. Faith without works is what?
Listen, when our master calls us to follow him, he doesn't
only call us to follow him intellectually or cerebrally or in a philosophical
way. He calls us to follow him by
way of our life. Our life is a life of faith.
Am I making some sense? And therefore choices that we
make are based upon a knowledge of the Word of God that corresponds
with the will of God which manifests our faith in Christ. And if that's
a call to a life of temperance and balance, of being free from
the material trappings and snares, then that's what we are called
to. What I am saying to you is that you will meet lots of people
whose sort of mental ascent to a right walk with God is running
around in their cranium, but there is a massive barrier to
faith because they know intuitively that faith without works is what?
Point number three or four rather it also and it also destroys
impure faith This is a this is a very important point here go
with me in your Bible to Luke chapter 8 verse 14 Briefly, I
want you to see the parable of the sower in the sea You know
the parable but I want you to see it again and what I'm saying
under this point is is that when you and I are trapped by the
delusion of materialism and You're going to adopt a false value
system. Riches are going to become your master, not your servant.
It's going to be a barrier to your faith. And it's going to
destroy impure faith. In other words, what wealth can
do, what wealth can do is prove to you that you're not really
sincere with God. Now watch this next proposition.
This is how it's going to show itself in the parable of the
sower of the seed. As our master gave this parable
of the seed being sown, and the seed is the what? The Word of
God. The sower is who? The preacher, the Lord Jesus
Christ. The soil is what? The hearts of men. How many types
of soil? Four types of soil. Watch what
our master said in his explanation of this thorny ground hearer. He says in verse 14 and that
which fell among the what? That's right that which fell
among the thorns Are they? which when they have heard the
word they go forth and are choked With the cares and riches and
pleasures of this life Watch this now and bring no fruit to
perfection See what I mean by how riches and wealth and materialism
will manifest and destroy an impure faith? Why is it impure? Because the faith is mixed with
a desire for this world's goods. As you ostensibly are pursuing
Jesus, you have to kind of fit Jesus into your plan. And he's getting crowded out
by the thorns of all of the other choices in your life. Am I making
some sense? So Jesus has got to be squeezed
into your agenda and your goals and your plans and that seed
of faith called the word of God never is able to take deep root
and bear forth fruit upward because it's going to be choked by the
cares of this life. Been pastoring now for 25 years. I see it all the time. I see
people's impure faith mixed with carnal agendas. Shout! The thorns
will win every time. You will never overcome the thorns
unless you root them out. If you think that you can have
Jesus and all of these material goods as well, mark this. Your
faith is going to die. All you will have is a nominal
faith. That's all you will have. Let's go on to our next point,
back to our PowerPoint. So as we have understood, a false
value system is the man or the woman that puts their trust in
riches. Those riches will become your
master, you'll become their slave. It will be a barrier to your
faith even if you're the most noble thinking individual and
you want to be right with God. If God tells you to part with
the riches in order to have heaven, you're going to be tested. And
if you try to hold both of them together, It's going to expose
and destroy an impure faith. By the way, in the parable of
the sword and the seed, only one soil bore forth fruit, 30 fold,
60 fold, 100 fold. That's the good soil, where the
heart was tealed and followed, and all of the rocks and thorns
were removed from the soil of the heart. Are you hearing me?
where the Holy Ghost had come in and began to break you down
and turn over the soil of your heart and uproot all of that
stuff that is incongruent with a good seed taking root and bearing
forth good fruit. Can I share something with you
about the element? That's the hardest part of your Christianity. The hardest part of your Christianity
is letting God go to work on your soul. and root out all of
the impurities of your own flawed agenda. Hardest part of the work. We cleave to the idol of our
own agenda to the detriment of our faith. Can I get a witness? All right then, point number
two. Point number two. You do not know the truth about
your condition. Now remember now, This is the
Lord Jesus talking to the lover of his soul. I'm going to talk
about that in a moment. Because see, we're getting ready
to have a marriage here. This is going to be outstanding,
great. I'm looking forward to it. Because we're going to get
beat up. And everybody that wants to learn
how to do better relationships, you might as well come on and
get beat up too. But we have some really faulty assumptions.
And you know one of the faulty assumptions that we have in our
present generation is that, for the most part, if you love me,
You don't ever talk mean to me. If you love me, you don't ever
rebuke me. If you really love me, you don't
ever show me that I'm wrong. If you really love me, you don't
ever hurt my feelings. That's the philosophy of our
present generation. I'm just telling you. I'm telling
you right now. And what that does is it builds a wall up to
protect you and your idols. It's designed to defend your
idols against the love of God that's there to rescue you from
your own trappings. See, as I'm sitting here and
watching my master be the best husband any husband can be, I'm
learning something about love. Are you hearing me? You know
what love does? It confronts. And it addresses
the issues. And it will appeal. And it will
discuss. And it will reason. And it will
work with you. But when you are impetuous and
obstinate, if it loves you, it will rebuke you. So he begins here. You do not
know the truth about your condition. So now here's what our Master
is doing. Are you ready? Now he's playing the spiritual psychologist. Spiritual slash psychology, spiritual
large, psychology small. Get that right. Spiritual large,
psychology small. He's able to assess the true
condition of her heart, right? Here's what he says. You don't
know yourself. Now, ladies and gentlemen, Christians ought to
know themselves. Again, that's one area and category we're going
to talk about. How is it that you cannot know the motions passions
and desires and goals and agendas and plans and Consequences of
your own heart Can I give you the answer you're deceived So
stay with me you're deceived now when I'm deceived I Don't know it Okay? And so, if an authority
speaks to me about a place that I am in, and I am deceived as
to that assessment, if I don't respect that authority, I'm not
going to believe them. Are you hearing me? But our Lord
is assuming that the church at Laodicea respects His authority. And therefore, He's going to
let her know, here are the challenges you have. I started with this
last week and I'm here now. The first thing he says, you
don't know the truth about yourself. You don't know that you are wretched.
That's a mess. Look at it. Verse 17. Stay at
the PowerPoint because you say I am rich, increased in goods
and have need of nothing. But you do not know the word.
No, that means you're not aware of your unconscious. You are so blind to the reality
of your condition that you don't know that you're right now. Can we do a little exegesis here?
Because technically it's spoken in a form of language that actually
says, you are the wretched one. I talked about that last week.
So it's not just that you're wretched like everybody else.
What our master is saying to the church at Laodicea is, you
are the wretched one. And as I said last week, the
implications of that is this. She was going around thinking
everybody else was wretched but her. What the master was saying, no,
no, no, no. Your brothers and sisters who are struggling to
rebuild their churches because of the earthquake, they're struggling
to get their jobs back, they're struggling in this area, they're
looking bad on the outward because they're not dressing like you're
dressing and living as large as you're living. You're calling
them wretched? No, you're wretched. See, they're calling on me. They're
praying to me. They're abiding in the Word of
God. Their troubles have led them to me. Your prosperity has
driven you away from me. You are more wretched than they
are. Are you hearing me? You're the wretched one, not
them. See, we can lift our nose up at people who are not doing
as well as we are. That's what we do. And we thank
God that we're not like them. And what Christ will say, uh-uh.
Philadelphia, they look bad, but I love them. with an agape
love. Are you guys hearing me? He didn't
say that about Laodicea. Philadelphia needed to be reaffirmed
in their love. Remember that? Because they were
taking hits for Jesus. Laodicea is not taking any hits.
Well, what are they going to take hits for? They're not even
preaching the gospel. They're taking no hits for Christ.
And so our master said, the church up the street, 20 miles up the
street, Philadelphia, that little group of believers, I've already
written to them, read their letter. Told them I love you with an
everlasting love I've opened the door for ministry and I'm
gonna make those folks that lie about you know that I have loved
you He didn't say that about Laodicea He says the Laodicea
you are the wretched one. Now. Do you know what it means
to be a wretch? No, you don't Okay, I mean you live in America
come on you can go to the hospital and receive medicaments and get
healed to be a wretch is someone who bears burdens that are so
massively heavy that they weigh you down to the ground. And in
your everyday life, as you're trying to get about, scraping
yourself on the ground, you build calluses all over your body because
of the burden being so heavy on your life that it destroys
the quality of your life and brings you to a constant and
full and total state of callousness. Watch the inference. When you
and I become calloused by virtue of the wretched state that we're
in, we are insensitive to biblical truth. We are insensitive to biblical
truth because we're wretched. This word is used only one other
time in the New Testament. Can I teach today? Only one other
time in the New Testament. That's in Romans chapter 7 verse
24 where Paul cried out by the Spirit of the living God under
inspiration reflecting upon his damnable state when he said,
Oh wretched man that I am. He was reflecting upon the curse
of sin, the condemnation and guilt of sin. and more the reality
of the inward corruption of his fallen sinful nature as it was
dominating his life. See, God sees you and me when
we're outside of Christ, when we're unsaved, as nothing but
a wretched composite of putrefying sores. Outside of Christ, we
are nothing but a wretched composite of putrefying sores. The word
is sick. That's our euphemism. Sick. Sick. And been sick so long we're
just calloused up like a leper. Can I carry the analogy all the
way through? It's a word that was used for the man that was
condemned in the Roman Empire for capital punishment when they
had committed murder. We call virtually everyone that
commits murder, you know, a real sinner, don't we? because he
has really or she has really been led to a heinous crime.
Murder is a heinous crime. Well, in the Roman Empire, you
know what they would do? They would capture the murderer and
take the body of the person he killed and tie it to him face
to face and hand to hand. And guess what? Mouth to mouth.
That's the Roman Empire. Aren't you glad you live in America
for the moment? Stay with me, because the dying
carcass, the rotting carcass that's on your body now is going
to seep into your life. And all of the toxins in his
gut, which is like an open sepulcher tied to your mouth, you are now
breathing in his death. It's designed to kill you slowly. to show you the value of human
life. An eye for an eye, a tooth for
a tooth, a life for a life. Isn't that wretched? And that's
what you and I are when we live upon this wretched world system
as the source of our life. Tied to it, corrupting slowly
from within. Christ said, no, you're the wretched
one. Second one. You're miserable. In fact, you're
so miserable you're to be pitied. That's 1 Corinthians chapter
15 verse 19. The apostle Paul said, if you and I are living
as if Christ did not rise again from the dead and that he is
not our authentic hope for glory, you and I are of all men the
most miserable. We're to be pitied. Now, I can't
really say that text applies to you and me. But it would apply
to a person who is serious about Jesus. Follow this. You live
for Jesus consistently all your life. You share the gospel. You
got a good ethic, a good moral sensitivity. Your ethical compass
is in line. And you're living for Christ.
You're denying yourself. You're making sure that you prioritize
the kingdom of God. God's taking care of you. And
then you die and you discover it was all a lie. You missed
out on all of the joys of life. What Paul said is we are For
Christians for us to live the kind of life we do and go through
the hell we do For us to die and discover that there was nothing
really behind this jesus thing. We're to be pitied watch this
What the laodicea laodiceans were saying about the other churches
were you guys are to be pitied? What the master was saying the
laodicea was no you're to be pitied You are worse than them
Because while they are going through external troubles yours
are internal Are you hearing what I'm saying? Poor. Poor. What does that mean? That means
to be beggarly without any resources. Our master now is playing on
terms because they're saying, I am rich, have need of nothing,
right? Our master says, you're poor. You are dirt poor spiritually. You have no spiritual bank account.
Now you might have had a bank account, but you exhausted all
the funds. In fact, you were in the red. You know how you receive those
little notices? You're in danger of overdrawing. There are a whole
lot of Christians overdrawn with God. You ain't got no money in your
spiritual bank account. You're exhausted. You're depleted.
And the only response is to now deposit back into that account
the wealth of heaven. But here's your problem. You
don't have the wealth of heaven. Because you're deluded in thinking
you have need of nothing. Am I making some sense? So, you
may not believe this, but there are many professing Christians
that you and I know who are bankrupt in their soul. That they don't
have the ability to go to God and straightway experience the
rejuvenating benefits of fellowship with Him to restore them in time
of trouble. There are many professing Christians
who don't even have the strength to pray. That's how bankrupt we are. See,
Laodicea was deceived. They were deceived. They weren't
praying. They weren't preaching Christ.
They weren't reaching lost sinners. They weren't doing the will of
the kingdom. They just had a beautiful church and they were dead. That's Laodicea. Are you guys
hearing me? And he says you're blind. Blind. What that means is loss of spiritual
sight. Can I ask you the question? Can a Christian lose their spiritual
sight? Yes! You can. Because sight is not intrinsic
to you. It's a gift of God. It's a gift of God. And God can
allow you to be blinded in levels of your life because of a consequence
of sin. Listen, my elder was talking
about it this morning. I'm getting ready to get into
it when I deal with his overtures to sell you what he has. We're
talking about it this morning. Revelation is a gift from God.
Illumination is a gift from God. Seeing the glory of God is a
gift from God. Do you believe that? Sustained viewings of the
glory of God is a gift from God. Sustained viewings of the glory
of God is a gift from God. Sustained revelations and insights
to the beauties and majesties and the glories of the person
and work of Christ are a gift from God. You don't automatically
continue to behold His glory. It's a gift from God. It actually
requires a priority of life where seeing His glory matters to you. Or else it diminishes. 2nd Peter
chapter 1, now I pull it up just in case some of my folks here
don't believe what I'm saying. So Peter tells us in 2nd Peter
that this is how you are to guard the deposit of your faith. When
God plants faith in your life, I want you to mark this now,
this is back around verse 3, but you don't have to go there,
I'll just kind of quote it. When God plants faith in your
heart, He doesn't tell you now you're good to go, you got your,
you're a card-carrying Christian, you can live like you want to,
you die, you go into glory, He says, add to your faith, virtue. Pastor, what's virtue? You go
search it out. And add to your virtue, knowledge. And add to
your knowledge, temperance. And add to your temperance, self-control.
And add to your self-control, charity. And make sure that all
of these things are the byproduct of a functional faith. He says,
when you do these things, you will never be barren. or unfruitful
in the knowledge of God. When virtue matters, when knowledge
matters, when charity matters, when temperance matters, when
you and I are putting on all the things that make for a mature
Christian walk, hear me now, God will pour into your understanding
revelations of Christ. that will more than match all
of the pleasures of this world. He will fill your soul with such
insights into who He is that it amounts to what we call eternal
life. And this is eternal life, that
they might know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent. The net effect of these ongoing
continual revelations is joy. Joy! joy in the knowledge of
God, joy in the experience of grace, joy in the communion of
fellowship with God, because He's drawing near to us, because
we're drawing near to Him. Draw near to us and draw us near
to Him. He says, if you draw near to
me, I'll draw near to you. Are you hearing me? But so many
people have such a dim view of His glory. And can I tell you
how you know it? You're not excited about it.
Like I quaintly told you, I want to see you Friday, Saturday,
and Sunday. And I don't want you coming by yourself. Now,
if you were excited about Jesus, you know what you would have
said to me? Oh, pastor, you ain't got to worry about that. I'm telling
everybody. Because I remember, I remember
how the preaching of the gospel got a hold of my soul 20, 30
years ago. And I expect God to speak to
me passionately this weekend and speak to everyone who will
be moved by my words to come out. I guarantee you, I'm going
to do all I can to compel people to come and hear what I know
is necessary for the salvation of my soul. That's a healthy
mindset. Well, I said, that's somebody
in love with Jesus. See, we know he meets us in the preaching
of the word. We know when we have holy convocations,
God works mightily to bring people to other levels of faith, remove
the shackles of sin, clear up doubts, and bring them deeper
into Christ. We know that. But I just perceive in myself,
with some of my older Christian brothers and sisters at grace,
You're too tired to honor Christ like that. Now God's gonna fill
the house. Can I tell you why? Because he
honors the labors of a few. Now watch this. If you and I
don't do what I have told you in the earlier verses to do so
that we are fruitful in the knowledge of Christ, What Peter said is,
but the man that lacks these things is what? Do you see that? You're blind. Because your view
of Christ is shrouded over by your carnal worldliness. The
man that lacks these things is blind and cannot see what? That's
why he has no long distant worldview. He's not thinking of eternity.
He's only thinking of today. Do you guys got that? A lot of
Christians are what we call secularists. You know what that means? Live
for now. I've heard that quotation. You only live once. I beg to
differ. I guarantee you, I'm going to
live more than once. I'm going to live twice and a million times. You only got this life. I beg
to differ with you. I've got more than this life.
I've got the life to come. Listen, I don't buy into that
doctrine. You only live once no We all
gonna live again in hell or heaven He that lack of these things is
blind cannot see afar so I hear Christians talking like they
have absolutely no long-distance vision They can't see further
than a day or a week in front of them. I And you and I are
supposed to be living with an eternal vision, with a transcendent
view of a glorious God in a magnificent eternity, which should shape
every decision we make. I'm sorry if I'm too passionate
for you. No, I'm not. There's always a price to pay
for being passionate for Jesus. And then he says you're naked. Can you imagine that? The one
people group who are guaranteed a perfect spotless garment are
in the eyes of Christ walking around naked. Actually, if you don't know what's
going on here, saints, for those of you who are part of Grace
and you know the language dynamic game that we talk here, what
Christ has just stated concerning Laodicea is this. You guys have
been in the takeaway mode for a long time. I've been taking
stuff away from you for a long time, and you still haven't.
Now, here you are butt naked, butt naked, and talking about
these other folks down the street, butt naked. And if you're not
only butt naked, you're blind and butt naked. It's one thing
to be butt naked, but to be blind and butt naked. And then to be
naked and ratchet. It's okay if you look halfway
good, but you're naked, wretched, and blind. You bad on everybody's
eyes. All right, let me go to work
now. This is crazy. Are you guys with
me right now? You can fire me. You can fire
me if you want to. You can fire me. But I want to
let you know something, I don't get paid to do this. OK? You can clap, because I don't
get paid to do this. See, other preachers, you can fire. You
can fire me all you want to. I don't get paid. I do this because
I want to do it. That's right. Well, here we go. Point number
three. I love this. You're getting ready
to get out the water, but you're not going to heal real quick,
but you're getting ready to get out the water. So after our Lord
admonishes the church the way he does, and my soul and the
soul of my elders and my brethren here pray that you don't go away
from this kind of preaching with Deuteronomy 29 verse 19
nailed to your forehead. Don't put it up there. I want
everybody to remember that verse. Deuteronomy 29, 19. OK? And then when you go home and
read it or go to your car and read it, don't read it now. NSA
in here. They watching you. Don't read
it now. But when you go read that verse,
ask yourself, is that me in my arrogant, pompous refusal to
hear from God through the preacher? You ask yourself. Here's my third
point. Now watch this. An offer of grace
not to be refused. Christ is absolutely amazing. He's stunning. He's absolutely wonderful. Because as deeply as he wounds
He is so quickly ready to heal anyone that is willing to be
healed and especially those he loves. Here is the scandal of
the Savior. He offers them everything he
knows they don't have. And here's my point, an offer
of grace not to be refused. an offer of grace not to be refused.
He says you're broke, you're blind, you're wretched, you're
naked, you don't have anything. But I'm the one with the goods.
Buy it from me. Now watch this. I'm counseling
you. I'm counseling you to buy it from me. You don't understand
that phraseology. That phraseology is exclusively
high priest language. It's the language of the high
priest. It's the high priest who counsels the people of God
to do what's right in order to be right with God. It's a term
to counsel that was used by Caiaphas as he instructed the people what
to do in pursuing Christ. It's only used twice in this
form. And what our master is saying
as the high priest of the church, I want you to come together with
me, hear my advice, because I actually know what I'm talking about.
I want you to buy my counsel, because I actually know what
I'm talking about. Watch this now. With me is counsel. I am understanding. By me, kings reign and nobles
decree justice. I am wisdom. I am knowledge. I am the great counselor. I am
the mighty God. I'm the one that knows your problem.
I can fix your problem. You can never get it right without
me. I'm counsel. Not that I have
counsel, I am counsel. I am wisdom. I am knowledge. You can be sure when I advise
you what stock, what commodity to purchase, it's going to never,
never deflate on you. You're never going to lose your
value with what I'm selling you. Watch this. He says, I counsel
you to buy of me gold tried in the fire. He starts at the top
of the whole business and commerce and economic system in terms
of its principles. What do you purchase that sustains
the value of all of your net worth where you don't ever have
to worry about losing the value of it? Gold. Gold becomes, around
the world, universally, the standard by which everything is weighed. Our dollar is a fiat dollar.
It has no substance. Gold is an imperishable, humanly
speaking, commodity of which when one has it, they have perpetual,
perpetual solidarity, perpetual wealth, perpetual substance.
Now watch this. He's saying, buy gold of me.
And you know what he's saying? Gold that has just been purified. Are you following me? Watch this
now. Don't buy fool's gold. Don't buy gold that has not been
tried. Because you can buy gold that has not been tried, and
when once you put it in the furnace, it can shrivel up to nothing.
Buy gold that has been purged of all the impurities, all the
dross, so that what you see is what you get. Pure gold. And
literally in the Greek, buy of me gold that has just come out
of the fire. It is at its highest value and
the gold signifies the deity of Christ. It is the wealth and
worth behind all of its promises to us. What good is the promise
of Jesus Christ to me if he can't make good on it? What good is
the dollar bill to me if it doesn't have a gold standard behind it
to protect it? What Christ is saying is this, buy gold of me
and you will never be in danger of losing your wealth again.
What is he speaking to? Being a partaker of the divine
nature. You and I are receiving the spirit
of the living God and becoming sons and daughters of God so
that your wealth is as permanent as the nature of God. Your wealth
is as permanent as the nature of God. God, when he gives you
himself, gives you his best. Buy of me gold tried in a furnace
of fire. See, you can write God's name
down on any contract and it's good anywhere you go, especially
in heaven. Are you guys hearing me? The
nature of God, the divine nature, that proposition comes from the
Father. The next thing he says, and buy
of me white raiment. to clothe your naked body. Do
you see that? White raiment. Why white raiment? Because we've already been told
in the book of Revelation, white underscores the triumph of Jesus
Christ at Calvary to put away your sins by the sacrifice of
himself. He says, you can buy of me white
raiment, and watch this, that raiment will protect your naked
soul for all eternity. It amounts to him saying to you,
if you and I buy in on this gospel proposition, we never, ever,
ever, ever have to worry about coming into condemnation. White
raiment means that we stand before God justified for all eternity. White raiment means that the
eye of justice will never look on that garment and find one
spot by which to reject us before God. White raiment means that
we will always be accepted before God, always be accepted as the
very righteousness of God himself in Jesus Christ. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? Buy of me gold, the Father. Buy
of me a white raiment, the Son. and his atoning death of Jesus
Christ at the cross. Buy of me a white raiment. Make
sure you're dressed in the wedding garment. And then he says, and
buy of me eye salve. You blind Bartimaeus, you. Buy of me eye salve. See, now
Christ has an eye salve. He has an eye salve. He has an
ointment that he can place on the eyes of blind men and women.
And that ointment will open your eyes to your wretched state. It will give you insight as to
where to go to get right with God. Do you know what that ointment
is? The spirit of the living God.
He is the anointing that Christ gives to every needy sinner to
open your eyes, to enlighten your mind, to bring you into
the revelations of God's gospel truth, to show you your real
condition and lead you to Jesus Christ. Ask Saul of Tarsus. God blinded him and caused the
scales to be on his eyes for three days. And then he healed
him and the scales fell off. And from that day on, Saul was
preaching what he saw. And what he saw was the glory
of God in Christ. A blind man now seeing the glory
of God. See, the problem with Laodicea
is they don't see Jesus. They need a fresh anointing.
They need a fresh revelation. They need a fresh healing. You
got scales on your eyes. Some of my brothers and sisters
have scales on their eyes right now. And you do not see his glory. You need to buy the proposition
of the Savior. What a heavenly merchant. What a wonderful salesman. Is he not a wonderful salesman?
He's a marvelous salesman. Watch this. He said, buy it from
me. You'll never have to worry about it losing its value. He
is the merchant from heaven. I could spend a long time on
this. I don't want to, but you can't go through the Bible and
not find God appealing to his people and propositions that
amount to a sales pitch. You can't go anywhere in the
Bible where God doesn't struggle, intentionally struggle with compelling
you to believe that he can come through like he says he is. He
says the wicked Israel in Isaiah chapter one, come, Come, let
us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet,
I will make them white as snow. Listen, that's a salesman. That's
evangelism. That's the quintessential act
of evangelism. Your garments are sin stained,
and you need someone that can wash them white as snow. Come,
says God. We can talk about it. We can
reason it through. We can work it out. This is how
he talks. And then when he came in the
flesh, when he came in the flesh, he did the same thing, didn't
he? Didn't he talk to sinners like that? Didn't he say to the
woman at the well, woman, if you knew who it was that was
talking to you, if you knew who it was that was talking to you,
you would ask for me of living waters and I would give you to
drink of the living water of life and you will never thirst
again. And then he went up the road
and he stood in the middle of that great feast of tabernacles
and he cried out, Oh, come unto me, everyone, that thirst, that
thirst, and I will give you the water of life. Out of your belly
shall flow rivers of living water. Are you hearing me? This is how
he talks. This is how he talks. This is
how he talks. And here he is talking to a wretched
wife. About restoration, restoration,
the father in his divine nature. the son in his perfect righteousness,
the Holy Ghost in his perfect revelatory work to restore the
languishing church back to a state of dignity and proper standing
with God. Is he not awesome? I close right
here with this. I close right here with this.
Here's what he says after he he plainly tells her to purchase
it for me. Verse 19. Now as many as I love, I rebuke and I chase it. That's your God. That's your
God. If it's not your God, you don't
have the right Jesus. Listen to me. If your God cannot
stop you in your tracks and tell you the truth about your sin,
you don't have the right Jesus. Do you hear me? If your God can't
be plain about the real condition of your heart and heart, you
don't have the right Jesus. And here he is. He doesn't have
to do it, but watch what he does. Are you ready? Here's what he
does. Watch. Here's what he says. I do this because I love you. And then he gives an instruction.
Here it is. Be zealous. Be zealous. That's the instruction. Now don't attach that statement
to the next instruction and repent. No, because those are two different
imperatives. The first is be zealous. It's
in what we call the present indicative verb form. That means stay in
a mode of zeal. Because your problem began when
you stopped being zealous for me. And he's also saying, if you
recover your zeal, you will repent. And if you don't, you won't. There are lots of people who
know what I'm saying is true. And because they have no zeal
for God, will never change the pattern of their life. Never
change. Let me close with the last little
proposition here. Point number five, I know we're
alone. We close out our seven churches.
This here is where the scandal really is for me. It's in verse
20. Behold, I stand at the door. Again, when you peer through
the language, here's what it's saying. Are you ready? I've been here. I've been here. I want you to
hear this now. See, in what we call a perfect
tense. I've been standing at the door. I didn't just get here. I've been here. Now watch this. And I'm going to be here. I'm
not going anywhere. Are you hearing me? See, he didn't
just get to the door. He's been at the door. And this
raises questions about the Christians walk with the Savior who's on
the outside of the door. This raises questions. What's
going on with you? How is an impeccable husband
outside the door? And why is he still there? If
he's a good man and you're a bad woman, do you expect a good man
to stay there forever? Won't at some point he pack his
bags and say this woman doesn't get it I'm out of here a Human
husband will Christ left the door open for her. That's how much he cares Next
verb Not only am I here and I've been here I You're not going
to be able to say last year you went to the door to see if Jesus
was there and he wasn't there. He was always there. You didn't
go to the door. See, we still got the cameras,
didn't I say cameras? They go way back. They zoomed in. You
haven't gone to the door to let him in in a long time. Second
point. I am constantly knocking. Does it bother you? It ought
to. See, the church at Laodicea will
not say they didn't hear the knock. Because he's still knocking. He's still knocking. When you
end up in hell, when you end up in hell, you won't be able
to blame Jesus.