I want you to turn back in your
Bibles to Revelation chapter 3. You can follow me in your
pastor's commentary. Revelation chapter 3, if you
will. We're in Revelation chapter 3,
looking at the last church. And we'll be here for a couple
of weeks. And then on this week, next week, Lord willing, we'll
be able to close it out. And we'll have our conference
weekend. And subsequent to that, I plan on going into the Book
of Romans So we'll be in Romans for about a year, revisiting
that massive constitution of the gospel and treaties of God's
glory to all of mankind and Jesus Christ. It will be a very challenging
educational as well as provocative study in the book of Romans as
well. I hope you'll join us. The church
at Laodicea. Now the title of our message
today is Thou Sayest. We love to talk. And we love
to talk about things that are important to us. But sometimes
what we don't understand or recognize is that God hears us. He hears
us talking. And so when I say that our title
is Thou Sayest, it's because our master said in verse 17,
because you are saying, this is the present indicative, These
are the things that you're saying. That means God hears us. Especially
when we repeat them over and over again. Especially when we
make them our marquee. Especially when we imply by what
we're saying something extra important about ourselves. And
we all talk. The Proverbs is very clear that
we are all full of talk and full of words and full of this and
full of that. But the Christian church ought
not to be known by what they merely say, but what they do
and who they are. But sometimes our words overshadow
who we are, and as a consequence, get in the way of our mission.
And I think that that's where our Lord would want to take away
from the admonition today from the church at Laodicea. What
are you saying? in your life? What are you saying
as a local assembly? What are the words coming out
of your mouth telling people in general? Because, you know,
people know us by our words. They know us by our common mantras. They know us by our common phraseology. Oh yeah, that's Pastor Jesse.
We know that because he's always saying this. Or that's this person. We know that because they're
always saying this. We're prominently known by what
we say. And so if what we say does not
correspond with whom we say we are, then that becomes a problem,
doesn't it? And I do want to remind you what
we are contemplating here is the fact that the Lord Jesus
listens to our conversation because he is very much concerned about
how you and I appear before the world. Just in case you don't
know, our study in the seven churches of Revelation is all
about us understanding and recognizing that God cares about our testimony
and our witness in the world, right? He cares enough to show
up. He cares enough to write to us. He cares enough to admonish us
and correct us. He cares enough to let us know
he's on our side and is affirming our work and affirming our task
when we are doing the will of God. Now, the last church that
we're dealing with is the church at Laodicea. And this is a very,
very unusual letter to them, which merits serious consideration
But as I said, I only have a couple of weeks to go and so I'm going
to kind of give you bullet points with a little bit of interpretation
or application and we'll move forward for today. One of the
serious problems in this region of the world where Laodicea and
the seven churches of Asia Minor were, right there off the coast
of the Aegean Sea, as we've seen it on the map so many times.
One of the problems in this culture, and this was true of Laodicea
as well as Philadelphia, as well as Sardis, and other smaller
cities in that region, in that area would have been the church
of Philippi and other churches as well that are not marked out.
But one of the problems in that area during that time, and even
presently today, is a problem that we have in the West Coast
as well, and that is earthquakes. Earthquakes are prominent in
Turkey, they're prominent in the Middle East, and they're
prominent here in America. We live on major faults in our
world. San Andreas Fault, the Hayward
Fault are two massive faults that could literally, if God
wanted to, if he just got tired of us Californians, we could
disappear. I just want you to know it we
would have to become now marine animals because we could get
sucked up so quickly by the Shifting of those tectonic plates. Well
in asia, minor earthquakes were So prominent and so massive people
died by the thousands and even in our lifetime I have seen and
heard I remember this was about 10 years ago when there was an
earthquake in turkey now turkey is right there in the regions
of the seven churches of Asia Minor. It would be further to
the east there, but you would be able to see it. And when they
described the damage, there were tens of thousands of people who
died in the earthquake. Tens of thousands. And the cities
were ruined. Ruined. And this is the context
in which the seven churches existed. And during the recovery process,
The Roman Empire, which was the dominant kingdom at that time,
would give help to the cities for the restoration of their
foundation and their structures, their major buildings. They would
receive what we would call emergency help. The same thing that we
do today when cities go into dire crisis, we help them. Well,
the story goes that Laodicea had become such prominent wealthy,
just massively wealthy of a city that they didn't need the government's
help. And the news went about that, Laodicea said, we don't
need your help. We appreciate it, but we don't
need your help. We're just fine. We can help ourselves. And it
was known that Laodicea was the city that rebuilt itself without
government help. Now, right now, there should
be internally, not externally, an applause. Because we are such
welfare-oriented people, we want to get every dime we can get
from the government, whether we're having foundation problems
or not. And there are times when it's
appropriate for governments to help. But we would call this
a virtue, wouldn't we? That a city would have managed
its money so well. that when a crisis came, that
that city government did not have to go to Washington DC to
get help. Wouldn't we call that a virtue?
Wouldn't it be a virtue, just in case you don't get it, because
I'm going to get a hold of you today. Wouldn't it be a virtue? If in
your own household there were a crisis that occurred that,
you know, was of a natural catastrophic nature and you didn't have to
get anyone's help, you didn't have to get a loan from the bank,
you didn't have to get a loan from anyone, you were so prudent
in your finances and your resources that you could rebuild your own
home without any help. Wouldn't we call that prudent?
Wouldn't we call that virtuous? Absolutely. Self-sufficient,
self-sustaining, economically wise, having need of nothing. Problem with that attitude is
it has a tendency to leak over into the church and get a hold
of people's character. And this is what happened here.
What our Lord is saying when he says to them, you say, you
say you are rich, verse 17, and increased with goods. and have
need of nothing so that everybody knows you as self-sufficient. Your problem is, however, is
that attitude has divorced you from your need for Christ. So
one of the things that the seven churches of Asia Minor has taught
us, and I think as honest Christians we would agree, very seldom do
we, who are children of God, plucked out of our culture and
yet living in our culture, very seldom do we rise above our culture.
Very seldom do we find ourselves standing over against the culture
as anti-cultural, trans-cultural, and yet engaging the culture
as the people of God. Most of the time, your average
Christian is just like the culture they live in. Most of us do not
carry about any kind of distinctives, any kind of abnormalities that
would be of a spiritual virtue, any kind of ethic or mode of
operandi that would say to our friends and relatives, he's different,
she's different. They carry themselves differently.
They have a different worldview. They deal with things differently.
You know, they're not wrapped up in materialism. You know,
they're not given to what they have. They're not given to false
value systems. You know, those people, they
live very humble lives and, you know, they don't run with the
Joneses. They don't get caught up in the
common fads that take most people. That's not true of the average
Christian, particularly in the West. We are so given to our
cultural picadillos that we're just like the culture. And that
was the problem with Laodicea. Laodicea was part of a massive
wealthy culture. And guess what? The church folk
in Laodicea were wealthy too. They were well off. Everybody
had jobs, great jobs. Everybody had great finances.
The only problem was their wealth and their opulence obscured the
glory of God. And this is where Jesus comes
in at. This is where our text is going to teach us some fascinating
things about christ Remember the bible is about jesus And
it's about knowing him in his person and his work. And so if
you rightly Uh attend the listening of the word your job is to hone
in on how christ perceives the situation What is his assessment
of the situation? How does jesus address a culture
a church culture that is no different than the world? That's what you
and I want to derive from the lesson today. We don't want to
fixate ourselves on Laodicea as much, although we have to
learn some lessons about them, because Laodicea very much marks
out our present church world, particularly in the West. My
hot flashes is getting me. Somebody make sure you take care
of that air condition over there. In biblical interpretation, when
you try to force an eschatological view on the seven churches of
Asia Minor, you would have some people say that the church at
Ephesus represents the first century church, the church at
Smyrna represents the persecuted church, and on and on that, to
the point that the last church, Laodicea, would represent the
church in the end times. Have you ever heard that theory?
OK, a few of you have. Well, that theory is wrong. And I'll tell you why and I just
want you to hurry up and dismantle that theory no time in church
history has the church ubiquitously Pervasively everywhere in the
world been wealthy No time in the history of the church has
every local Congregation been as prominent as wealthy as independent
as opulent as Laodicea Are you guys hearing what I'm saying?
No time in church history has all of the Church of the Living
God, both East and West, been so prominent that we could call
the whole church age, our church era, Laodicean. So back away
from that interpretation. However, you can say this, that
if ever there was a Laodicean age, it's ours in the West. It's yours and mine. If any group
of Christians would fit the paradigm of the Laodicean church. Now,
we don't want it freezing in here now. If any church fits
the Laodicean age, it would be the Western church. Do you know
you and I are very, very, very, very well off compared to most
of our brothers and sisters and that we would fit the Laodicean
church? We would fit the church that's lazy, that's selfish,
that's indulgent, that's given over to narcissism, that's wrapped
up in materialism, that's bound by our own sort of self-accomplishment. That would be us. And so the
text is applicable for you and me, is it not? It wouldn't be
so in India. It wouldn't be so in Africa.
It wouldn't be so in parts of Asia. It wouldn't be so in the
dire, dire straits of Sudan or Darfur or even in the Middle
East where we're dealing with our Pakistani brother, our Afghanistan
brother, other brother in Iraq. It wouldn't be that way for them.
They would laugh us to scorn if we called them a Laodicean
church, but it would fit us to the T. You and I have way, way,
way more than the average individual Christian around the world. And
you and I probably are susceptible to some of the defaults here
and demerits here in our text. And we have to be ready to deal
with that, don't we? We have to be ready to deal with
that, because our master is concerned. So the first thing I want to
call your attention to under these five points is this. The one
true witness who comes to speak to the church at Laodicea, Look
at what he says over in verse 14. And unto the angel of the
church of the Laodiceans write, these things saith the Amen,
the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation
of God. See, I can sit here for a long time. I don't want to.
But you will notice that Jesus, our master, does something in
the scriptures that's just absolutely amazing. He'll say, Amen. at the beginning of his sentence
even before he says it. He'll be jazzed about his own
truth before you will. He will go, Amen! I am the true
and the living God. And then he'll go, Amen! Amen!
He'll double it up. All through the gospel, Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John, when our master is preaching, he will
say, verily, verily, I say unto you, and that is the Old Testament,
I am phraseology. And what it means is, what I
am saying to you is God honest truth. You can trust what I'm
about to say. And so often he will actually
precede his words with the assurance of the truth that he's talking
about. More than that, it's not only that he is jazzed about
what he's saying because he is the truth in person, but because
he is in essence the truth that we all need to look at. He is
the truth that we need to look at. Now in this context, what
he's doing is juxtaposing. himself as a faithful witness
over against Laodicea. So it's an admonition right out
the gate. Watch this. He says in verse 14, these things
say the amen, the faithful and true witness. and the beginning
of the creation of God. How is He coming to the church
at Laodicea? Now, I want you to mark this now. Laodicea has
shown itself to be able to handle the defaults of a broken world,
a broken ecological system, catastrophes coming to itself, but in a fashion
that does not give glory to God, but gives glory to itself, which
makes Laodicea, at this point, an unfaithful witness. Laodicea
has been able to handle a crisis on its own without God and therefore
is a false witness. Laodicea has been able to handle
a crisis without giving glory to God. Laodicea has been able
to say we can handle this on our own and thus are not bearing
true witness to God. See, tell the truth now. Laodicea
really did not handle that business on their own. Not truly. Who
gave them the strength to work? Who gave them the wisdom to enterprise? Who gave them the prudence to
save money? It was all from God. Is it not
from God? Does not God give us wealth and
strength? and wisdom and perseverance to
acquire income, God does that. And so even if you and I store
up in our bank account resources for the rainy day, which is not
a bad thing, when that rainy day comes and we have to now
exhaust those supplies, to whom are we to give glory? God gave
me grace to save this money to take care of this need. And so
the church at Laodicea at present is bearing false witness because
it's not doing what it's called to do. Whether it's crisis or
triumph, the goal of the church is to bring glory to God. Whether
it's a crisis that you go through, child of God, or whether you
are triumphing in something wherein God has called you to be an overcomer,
your job is to give glory to God. Whether you are going through
trouble or enjoying the victory of Christ's promises in your
life, your job is to give glory to God. And to the extent that
we don't give Him glory, we have failed to be a true witness.
Am I making some sense? So Christ now being the model,
the model of a faithful witness, the text says he was the faithful
and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. Now this
is the second time that statement is used, the faithful and true
witness, is used again in Revelation chapter 1, 5. I just want you
to see a couple of verses along these lines to affirm that this
is not the first time it was said this of Christ. That he's
the true witness in revelation chapter 1 5 as we go through
that sort of triad a blessing Uh given to the church by the
father son and the holy spirit. We come to verse 5 and from jesus
christ Who is the what faithful witness? And the first begotten
of the dead the prince of the kings of the earth unto him that
loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. And again
this language is used in Revelation chapter 19 verse 11. Will you
go there and notice it at the end of the book that Christ has
attributed to him once again the term and title fateful witness. Revelation chapter 19 verse 11.
Look at verse 11 and I saw heaven open and behold a white horse
and he that sat upon him was called what? Faithful and what
true and in righteousness he doth judge and make war and what
I am getting at as we go back now and deal with the three points
under that particular title the one true witness is that Jesus
Christ bore record to the truth all the days of his life and
and that as the body of Christ, by extension, your job and mine
is to bear record to the truth. Now there are three things for
which Christ bore record, and I want to call your attention
to them, being the true and the faithful witness and the beginning
of the creation of God. That term beginning in verse
14 means the origin of creation, the creator of creation. That's
what that means. It doesn't mean that he was created.
It means that he was the origin or source of creation, the creation
of all things. But under the one true witness,
there are three things I want you to bear testimony to. Christ bore true and faithful
witness to God as his father. The one man in the world that
has revealed God in his true nature to us is Jesus. In theology,
we call this paterology. Pater is the Greek term for father.
You will note when you read your Bible that the term father is
used in the Old Testament almost exclusively, with the exception
of about three verses, with regards to human fathers like Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, our fathers. Very seldom in the Old Testament
is the term father used for God, with the exception of a few places.
When you flip over to the New Testament, immediately there
is a barrage of expression of God being our Father because
He was revealed to us in the person of His Son Jesus Christ.
What Jesus came to do at the top of the list of all the things
he had to do was to bear record to his father He came to testify
to his father. He came to reveal the nature
and character of his father And so we read in John chapter 118.
No man has seen God at any time You guys understand that right?
So, you know when people come to you say, you know, I saw God
last night You know what to do, right? No man has seen God at
any time, only He who is in the heart, in the essence, in the
bosom, in the center, in the effulgence of His being, He hath
revealed Him. That Christ the Son is the revelation
of God the Father, who is an invisible God. That men cannot
comprehend God properly, nor have a right relationship with
God as Father, unless Christ reveals Him to them. In fact,
the general knowledge of God that we have in the world It's
not a saving knowledge, it's a damning knowledge. Outside
of Christ, all the knowledge that men and women have of God
is nothing but a knowledge that will condemn them. The knowledge
of God as our Father is a saving knowledge. When a man or woman
is able to legitimately call God their Father, it's because
they have been born again. And if they have been born again,
it's because Christ has revealed the glory of the Father, not
just to them, but in them. If in fact you have been born
again, you now have the spirit of adoption whereby you cry Abba
Father That's a revelation given to men and women by Christ Exclusively
and in a saving way Christ came to bear record of him and they
killed him for that witness. You know that right? They killed
him for that witness because he made himself to be the exclusive
son of God Making himself equal with God They killed him for
it they killed them for. And the other witness that Christ
bore to was the truth of the Scriptures. Right. See, so in John chapter 539,
which is the truth he indicted Israel for, we also indict people
for today. And that's a wrong usage and
application of Scripture. So lots of people have Bibles.
But people don't rightly understand their Bibles or apply the truth
of their Bibles to themselves when they fail to understand
that the truth of Scripture is the truth of Jesus Christ. When
you and I are reading our Bibles and all we're doing in reading
our Bibles is merely seeking to ascertain some principles
for financial success or some principles for relational success. are some principles of power
to overcome the darkness of hell. You and I are mishandling the
scriptures. The goal of the scriptures is
for you to know God through Christ. The goal of the scriptures is
for you to come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ. And so Jesus
has made a couple of very profound absolutes, and one of them is
in John 5, 39. You should know this grace as an axiom. You are
searching the scriptures, you religious people. And in that,
you think you have eternal life. You know how you know people
who can quote a lot of Bible verses? And just because they
can quote more Bible verses than you, they think they're more
saved than you. Come on, tell the truth. They can wrap you
around with Bible verses, hogtie you and drag you in the open
market with Bible verses. And they think they're more secure
with God because they can quote Scripture. Let me share something
with you. Merely quoting Scripture makes
you a devil. That's all quoting Scripture
does, makes you a devil. From the beginning, the devil
has been what? Quoting Scripture? A scripture quoter only makes
you a devil, not a child of God. I got other stuff along that
lines too, but not on today's message. So just because you're
quoting scripture doesn't make you a child of God. It means
that you're more qualified to be a devil than the child of
God. Until you are able to rightly divide and interpret and make
plain what the scriptures mean, you are nothing but a devil.
Jesus said you are searching the scriptures and in them you
think you have eternal life, but they are they which testify
of me Christ came to bear record of the truth and he came to bear
record that he is the truth of which the scriptures bear record
of and so we read in John chapter 17 verse 17 father sanctify them
in thy truth thy word is true and And Christ is that word that
we're talking about. So he's praying to the father
that you and I would come to rightly divide God's word, that
we would come to know that the word of God is designed to lead
us to Jesus and to help us to see that Jesus comes in the volume
of the book is written of him. Now, ladies and gentlemen, stay
on this point because this is for you. The rest of us go hurt.
Now watch this now. Stay on this point. You can know
that you are in a vital relationship with God. when your knowledge
of Christ matters to you. You can know you're in a vital
relationship with God when your desire to know Him matters to
you. If all you're desiring to do
is know doctrine, absent of, minus, less than the person of
Jesus Christ, you are not safe in terms of your salvation. The
end of knowledge for our soul is to know God. John 17 3 and
this is eternal life that they might know you the only true
God and Jesus Christ Whom he has sent every day of your life.
You get to ask this question. Am I in pursuit of eternal life? Am I pursuing eternal life and
you can answer that question by asking this question. Am I
in pursuit of Jesus? Jesus is the life And therefore,
the man or the woman that is vitally interested in Christ
is vitally interested in eternal life. And we have learned this
over many, many years, and I hope this blesses your soul. We have
learned this over many, many years. You will avoid so many
heretical pitfalls, so many doctrinal, erroneous pitfalls if you make
Jesus Christ your primary, almost sole objective when it comes
to theology. If you stay on Jesus, you will
never go far from the truth. If you fail to see Jesus as the
preeminent revelation of biblical truth, you will find yourself
on all kind of other theological and philosophical excursion that
will lead you into nothing but darkness and despair. We know
so many people who have departed from the gospel because they
have failed to make Christ the number one objective. Their lives
don't do it. Don't do it. Make sure Christ
is the most important thing to you. Make sure he is under the
third category Representing our regarding the one true witness
is the one true gospel So when Jesus says in verse 14, I am
the faithful and true witness He's talking through and through
that the only way for us to get to God the Father is through
God the Son That's John 14 6 that makes it exclusive doesn't it?
Then in John 6 45 pull up John 6 45. I want you to read that
what Jesus says in John 6 45 and it's Christ speaking Here's
what he says. He says it is written in the prophets as Isaiah and
they shall all be taught of whom That's right. Who's doing the
teaching? That's right all three persons Father son and Holy Ghost
They're all doing the teaching now watch this the net effect
of the father teaching watches every man Therefore that hat
what her See faith comes by what? Every man therefore that has
heard and has learned of the father who's doing the teaching
The father and has been taught by the father. What does he do?
He comes to christ This is how you know, your bible teaching
is right. It lands you smack dab in front of life itself And
that's jesus if your theology is running you somewhere else
god. The father is not teaching you The only thing that god the
father is doing through the whole volume of scripture is bringing
men and women to jesus christ Can I tell you why because when
once you have christ and christ has you you are saved You are
saved in the hands of christ of whom god has made him to be
heir of all things over the church This is why he says through the
church at laodicea Listen, you're missing the point of your existence.
I'm the true and faithful witness, not you. It's time for you to
get back on point. Now let's go to work. Point number
two in our outline. A lukewarm professor, a lukewarm
professor is nauseating to the Savior. A lukewarm professor
is nauseating to the Savior. This is the part, this is the
area of the swimming pool that's going to get a little murky for
you. Put your goggles on because you're getting ready to get wet.
Here's what he says. I know your words, verse 15,
that you are neither cold nor hot. And I would, that Greek
word means my desire, is that you were either cold or hot So
then, because you are lukewarm, and therefore neither cold nor
hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. This is the master speaking to
the church at Laodicea. And he's given his assessment
of that church, hasn't he? What he's basically said to that
church is, Laodicea, you have a major problem, and that problem
is not with the culture, it's with me. As I told you, Laodicea
was swallowed up by the culture so much so that it had no external
testimony. It was not faithful to the one
who had called her to be his partner in ministry. And now
our master is giving the assessment. You are lukewarm. Now, ladies
and gentlemen, when was the last time you heard that word? It's
been a while, hasn't it? If ever. What does he mean by
being lukewarm? Now, this is the strategy of
Christ. And this is a sound exegetical strategy. When you are teaching
people, you are the teacher and your auditors are listening to
you. It is a very tactful methodology
to make sure that you incorporate in your teaching relevant facts
about that people's life, circumstance and surrounding, where they live,
what they're going through, their own struggles and challenges.
If I were to use that hermeneutic from Ephesus all the way up through
Laodicea, I would have shown you how in virtually every one
of those churches Christ used something with regards to the
context in which they were living to show them where they were
spiritually. In this context, Laodicea would have been stung
by this statement, you are lukewarm. Now you and I, we don't trip
off that because we don't drink lukewarm nothing. If we want
cold water, we get cold water. If we want something hot, we
get something hot. Laodicea was a city that lied between two
cities. One was a Hierapolis and the
other was a city that had for its springs a very cold, refreshing
water source. So they were in between a hot
water source and a cold water source. Laodicea had aqueducts
running on both sides of their city into these two other cities.
One's a hot springs. Have you ever been to Napa hot
springs? Anybody been up to the Napa hot
springs? There you go. Did you cater yourself? Did you step in those hot springs? Did you take the mud baths and
all that type of stuff? The hot springs up there, and
they're supposed to be medicinal and healing. I never did it.
They're supposed to be medicinal and healing and all that. Hot
springs up there. Hot springs up there. They have
their virtue and they have their purpose. Then there are areas
in which, as I said, passing by the Lycus River, which is
over by Laodicea, are cold springs, where the water is cold and refreshing. And what our Lord is saying is
this. A hot spring has benefit. And a cold spring has benefit. But lukewarm waters benefit no
one. And the waters that were running
through the aqueducts in Laodicea, everybody knew that the waters
were lukewarm. They were chalky waters. No one
wanted to drink those waters. It's amazing because our Lord
is saying, that's exactly how you are in relationship to me.
Laodicea, you Laodicean church, you know how you don't want to
drink the water that's running through your aqueducts available
to you because it's nauseating when you drink it? Well, that's
how you are to me. This is a powerful analogy, and
if we reflect upon it, what this is inclined to teach us is that,
and I think this is a fair interpretation. You can help me with this. I
think that Christ is passionate about His communion with His
people. I think that when you read passages
like this in others, and certainly the whole of Scripture, You cannot
avoid this conclusion that God sees your relationship with him
as extremely important. Are you hearing me? That for
you and I to think that God is casual in his view of your walk
with him is a radical misstatement when it comes to what the scripture
says. God is desirous of absolute passionate communion between
himself and the object of his love. And this is true all the
way through the Word of God. Well, think about this with me
for a moment. Here's an analogy, right? Watch
this, watch this. Christ says, you are to me like
water that's in my system, which bears no satisfaction, no joy,
no pleasantry. And I am about to vomit you up. So stay with me for a moment.
If you don't get the analogy if it evades you forget the vomit
Okay, that that that that that's relevant. But here's what I want
you to think about biblical intimacy and so you and I are getting
ready to some of us are going to have a five weeks of Marital
classes and everybody's invited you can invite your mom or your
daddy dog cat everybody because this is about relationships Okay,
so come on out So you can learn something about biblical relationships. It's going to be profoundly important
to you. But I want you to think about this. When Christ says
to his bride, the church, that I have you in the essence of
my being, ingested in my stomach, he is talking about as intimate
a communion as anyone can get. where he is actually feeding
on his bride. That there is something about
her that is to be consumed, to be taken in, and to be experienced
as part of him. Is that analogy too gross for
you? Does it transcend biblical reality? No. Do you remember
the fig tree in the Gospel of Mark and Matthew, to which our
Master came to? And he desired fruit, and he
wanted to eat the fruit. and he found that only leaves
were on the tree and he cursed that tree. Man, isn't that wild? But why did he curse it? Because
it was analogous to Israel being a tree without fruit of which
the master wanted to ingest that food in order to enjoy the fruit
of his own labors in the lives of his people and they were not
ready for him. And I can give you analogy after
analogy after analogy of the intensity of the relationship
that Christ demands of me with Him. Stay with me. You would not tolerate a lukewarm
relationship if you are a healthy person when you're in covenant
with an individual for whom you said, I will love you to the
death. You would not tolerate it. That's
what we're going to learn. Covenant demands radical love. Covenant demands radical love. In fact, you have to sign on
the dotted line. I will love you through thick
and through thin, through poverty, through wealth, through sickness
and hell, till death do us part. That's a radical vow and pledge,
is it not? That's biblical marriage. And
this is what Christ is calling Laodicea to. Because Laodicea
has just gotten to the point where she don't even care Watch
this now, that he is not even in the house. Now, you know your
relationship is jacked up when you aren't even aware that he
gone. See, next week we're going to get to it, but he's standing
on the outside of the church knocking. You know what that
means? There has not been any love making
between those two in a long time, metaphorically speaking. Metaphorically
speaking you grown folk ought to be able to handle this See
for me this just this raises my level of respect for Christ
infinitely because you know what he's doing He's making a public
nuisance out of something that should have been a private normative
He's making a public nuisance out of something that should
have been a private normative. I mean he loves her and he loves
doesn't her enough to say hey, I You are nauseating to me. Do you hear me? Power. And so what I'm getting at is
that you and I don't want to fall prey to lukewarmness as
Christians. To be a lukewarm Christian is
to be a nominal Christian. If you don't know the word, write
it down. You know what nominal means? In name only. In name only. That means the
only thing people know about your Christianity, watch this,
is you say you are Christian. That's it. Nothing else. They don't see a wedding ring.
They don't see the knot on the neck. They don't see the smile
on the face. They don't see the dip in the
hips. They don't see the joy in the
soul. They don't see the honor and dignity. of being a wife
to the greatest man in the universe. They don't see it. In fact, they
actually see you wide open to be spoiled by all sorts of other
lovers because you are a nominal Christian. Are you hearing what
I'm saying? That's exactly where we are. That's exactly where
we are. So I have to go a little deeper.
Can I do that? I told you this was going to hurt a little bit, but I have
to go. Because see, this is about Christ and the bride that he
bought. And he's at that point in his
exhortation where she needs to know she's in danger. What's
the danger, pastor? Listen, if you are a hot Christian,
on fire for Christ, everyone knows you love him. Everyone
won't know no one will ever ask you how much do you love Jesus?
They will see it by the way you talk by the way you act by the
way you carry yourself You are infatuated with the Savior They
will know it because every conversational door that even just begins to
nudge open you gonna kick open and start talking about the master
They're going to know it. They're going to know it because
you spend your time getting to know Him more and more and more
and more. They're going to know it because
you're struggling in your soul, because you don't know Him as
you ought to know Him. They're going to know it because you're
going to be committing your time to going deeper with the One
who loved you and gave Himself for you. That's how they're going
to know. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a powerful evangelical
tool. That's a powerful evangelical
duty. You want to reach sinners for
Christ? Let them see your zeal for Christ. And you'll reach
them. I guarantee you that. You'll
reach them. You'll reach the one that God wants you to reach.
And so I'm saying this to you and me, that as a church, we
have to always ask ourselves, where do we stand? Are we nominal?
Or is it clear that we are committed to this nuptial, covenantal relationship
between us and Christ? That question has to be asked
because this is the premise for which he is coming to her. He
says, because you are lukewarm, I will spew you out of my mouth. And again, to be cold, sometimes
we would interpret that as being antithetical to being hot. But
it's not because in the scriptures, it speaks to the blessing of
something being cold. Proverbs puts it like this. When
you give a cup of cold water to a thirsty soul, it's like
good news from a far country. See, so when you and I have the
provisions, see, when he used the analogy of being hot or cold,
he wasn't merely talking about how we feel, he's talking about
how we are. He's talking about his ability
to use us. Stay with me now. Not only to
consume for himself and enjoy, but he's the one that's handing
out commodities to men and women by which they might get to know
him. Is that right? So now watch this now. Here's the application.
If I am hot for Christ, he can give a lost sinner a cup of hot
soup through me. That their souls might be warm
if I am refreshing to christ. He can give a thirsty soul a
cold Refreshing cup of water through me because that soul
needs that and in fact, that's the only way they're going to
get it It's through us See what we're talking about is usefulness
Use the master saying lukewarmness is not useful useful for me Nor
for the people that I want to bless and you and I are called
to be a blessing in people's lives When I come into a person's
atmosphere, into their space, I should leave them edified,
either warmed with the nice, hot experience of the grace of
God, or refreshed with the cold waters of God's mercy, of God's
kindness, of God's restoring grace. You and I should be a
blessing to people like that. We should never be a nauseating,
lukewarm experience when it comes to Christ. See, Christ is walking
with you and Christ is working through you to bless people or
bear witness to people in your life. And when you go away from
them, they will be able to answer this question, whether or not
you and I were hot or cold. whether or not they enjoyed that
cup of cold water or that cup of hot water or not. And our
Master is going to help us understand in a minute that this has everything
to do with His glory in our lives as a witness to other people.
Are you hearing me? His glory in our lives as a witness
to other people. Don't go anywhere. Don't go anywhere.
Under the concept of lukewarmness, I have three points. I'll rush through them quickly.
To be a lukewarm professor, which is nauseating to the Savior,
is to not be passionate for Christ. I think I persuaded you on that,
right? You guys remember Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 13? You guys
remember? You know how we used to quote
that? You shall seek me and you shall find me, when you shall
seek me with all your heart. You will find me and I will be
found of you because I know my thoughts towards you. Their thoughts
of good, their thoughts of blessing, their thoughts of peace that
you might have been expected in. But you've got to come after
me. You know what he's saying? You've got to come after me.
And I've told you before, Hebrews 11, 6. Y'all should know that
verse too. See, these are the verses I commit to my soul to
keep my soul from going to hell. He that cometh unto God. must believe that he is and is
a rewarder of them that casually seek him. So to not be passionate
for Christ is to be a lukewarm professor. It's to only pretend
that he matters when in fact he doesn't. To pretend that he
matters. Psalm 27 4 Matthew 7 21 24 look
at Psalm 24 27 4 pull that up I want you to see a brother that
I think you would agree with me know something about passion
for Christ Listen to the verse and ask yourself. Do you ever
think like this? I just want you to see the verse. Are you
ready one thing? Have I desired of the Lord? Stop
right there See you don't need to desire for five things I Sometimes
when we're desiring multiple things, we're actually putting
up a facade for not really wanting the most important thing. David
says, one thing have I desired of the Lord. Do you guys see
that? So now stay with me now, watch this. This is what we call
an exegetical. This is an explanatory verse
or a statement that actually now follows up upon the proposition. I desire something, right? I
desire one thing from the Lord. Well, how do I know that desire
is credible? Because I will seek after it. Do you see it? Watch it again. One thing have
I desired of the Lord, that will I seek. That will I seek. See, so if you say you desire
the Lord, we have a legitimate basis for asking the question,
are you seeking it? One thing have I desired of the Lord that
I will seek now watch this here It is that I may dwell in the
house of the Lord all my day stop Crazy So so in David's mind
the ultimate objective the ultimate prize the ultimate blessing is
to be in the presence of God Do you see that? Do you, ladies
and gentlemen, see that? See, this is why God could say
of David, with all of his mass, this man is after my own heart. Because at the core of his existence
is one objective, to be in the presence of God. I want to be
in his presence. Do you? Well, you say you do. Remember the title of the message
is, thou sayest, See, but David says, one thing have I desire,
I know that because it's constantly on my mind. It's constantly on
my mind. Constantly on my mind. With all
of the myriad of things I have to do, the one thing that's prominent
on my mind, and I find myself pursuing it, is that I want to
dwell in the house of the Lord. All the days of my life. To behold
the beauty of the Lord. Is he in love with God or what?
Behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple
see what David is doing David is affirming John 17 3 he's affirming
Philippians 3 Oh that I might know him and the power of his
resurrection be made conformable unto his death that if by any
means I might attain unto the Resurrection I count all things
done for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ as Paul Jesus
again John 17 3 and this is eternal life that they might know you
and For all eternity, getting to know God. For all eternity,
just dwelling in His presence and growing in my knowledge of
God. Does that bore you? That excites me to no end. I
am so frustrated with my own person not being able to get
God more, to comprehend Him more, to know Him more, to love Him
more, to experience Him more. I'm limited by my fallen nature.
Limited by my father, limited by circumstances, limited by
atmospheres and environments, limited by trials and testings,
limited by adversaries, limited from being able to get God. That's
part of the marriage and hell part, part two, what we're going
to get into. What a struggle we have in this life. Isn't it? See, you and I don't interpret
it as we ought to. Hell is trying to keep you from
heaven. And sometimes we're giving them
a little help. Hell is trying to keep you from
heaven. And you know, you and I call that, well, these are
just life issues. No, there are things keeping
you from heaven. There are things keeping you
from God. To get to God, you got to take
the journey. You're not going to jump from
where you are and land in heaven. You're not the Hulk. You're going to get there step
by step by step by step. Perseverance is going to get
you there. You're going to get there degree by degree by degree
by degree incrementally as long as you stay on point, as long
as one thing I have desired prevails. Otherwise, you're going to be
off the tracks. You will never make it to glory so long as multiple
other things have equal access to your heart and mind along
with the truth. Am I telling the truth? You better
know I'm telling the truth. This is so critical. It's so
fascinating. The master is coming to this
kind of listless woman. Our elder quoted from Song of
Solomon in the opening of our message, talking about how much
he loved the Lord. But see, in Song of Solomon,
chapter five, verse three, there was a time when she was in bed
and he came knocking on the door. You know what she said? I'm already
in bed. You see how quickly the love
will wane? I didn't already wash my feet. You mean I got to get
up to come open the door? See, back in chapter 3, you know
what the text said in chapter 3? The woman would get up, get
dressed, and go out and run the streets to hunt him down. Read
it for yourself. She got up. She ran the streets
to hunt him down. She ran by the watchman Some
beat her up some knocked her down some smothered. These are
all false prophets. See when the soul is on his hunt
for god It's running through the night to find him and sometimes
you run across false prophets and false teachers And they beat
you up and they dog you and they rape you, you know what she did
She got up cleaned herself up and kept looking for jesus until
she found him whom her soul loved It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. So when he speaks
here, he's speaking out of a depth of passion. So a lukewarm professor
is one who is not passionate for Christ, only pretending. And finally, under this point,
neglecting genuine communion with him. So, you know you look
warm because you neglect genuine communion. Tell the truth. You
don't get up with him. You don't talk to him. You don't
text him during the day. You don't email him. You don't
write him letters. You don't take his text. His
text is Genesis to Revelation. That's our master's text. He's
been texting from the beginning of time. Isn't that good? He's
been texting from the beginning of time. I got a text for you. From the beginning of time, he's
been texting his bride. Anytime you want to read one
of his texts, just open that book up. He didn't text us. We
got a whole bunch of texts from our master. Point number three. A gross public rejection is pending. Verse 16. So then, because you
are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I am, this is those of us
who are dealing with technical language, I am about to spew
you out of my mouth. So think about that. And then
I want to just deal with my last point. We'll come back next week.
Think about this. What he's saying is my experience
with you, my having brought you into my being like a person puts
food into their system, my experience with you is that you are rejecting
communion with me. So the bowels, your stomach now
is irritated by what's inside. And you know you're about to
regurgitate it. You know you are. And here's
what the master is saying to that church. I am about to regurgitate
you. Now ladies and gentlemen, what
that means is he's about to reject that church as a gospel church.
It no longer will be a viable witness to the culture. because
it's been neglecting him for whom it has been raised up initially
in the first place. If the local church is not going
to be the salt and light of the world, be the message of redemption,
be the bride of Christ, that otherworldly institution that's
trans-cultural, anti-cultural, and culture-engaging, what's
the purpose of our doors being open? Am I making some sense? And so what he's saying is, I'm
about to shut your doors. I'm about to shut your doors.
Now, this is absolutely phenomenal about our master. Do you know
when he loves someone, he gives it four, five, six, seven shots. That's love. See, first of all,
he's letting her know it's gonna happen. Now the elect in that
church will be preserved. We learned that with Sardis in
Philadelphia. The elect in that church, they'll
be preserved. But this church is getting shut down. In fact,
it did. Laodicea, a few years later, was completely wiped out
as a gospel church while Philadelphia continued for eight generations.
Remember I told you they lost 12 bishops to martyrdom just
50, 60 years after Christ's prophecy. You're going to go through an
hour of trial, but I'll keep you. But from that point for eight
generations to the eighth century, The church at Philadelphia had
a witness in that culture. They went through all the synods.
They went through all the creeds and confessional arguments. Bishops
were always in the Nicene Creed argument or the argument at Constantinople
all the way up to the 8th century. That's how God kept the church
at Philadelphia. The church at Laodicea died out
a few years after this warning. So here's what he does. This
is absolutely amazing. He says, a gross and public rejection
is pending, meaning that everybody's going to know in a little while
that Christ has actually abandoned that church in total. Now, I'm
not going to go to the first point, mark the deep and sincere
offense to Christ, but I just want you to mark it. It's possible
for us to deeply and sincerely offend the lover of our soul.
Read it for yourself. Jeremiah chapter 2, Hosea chapter
2 verses 1 through 10. You remember Hosea. Hosea was
the prophet that God said, now Hosea, go marry a whore. Remember
that? Go marry that whore. Because
that whore represents Israel. Now I'm married to Israel, but
this is how she's acting to me. So I want you to... I told you,
I'm so glad I'm in the New Testament. So glad. Because those Old Testament
brothers worked in the heat of the day. Most of us New Testament
ministers, we get to work at the last couple of hours of the
evening where it's cool. but we all get the same pay.
Hallelujah is the pay of grace. I love it. I'm getting the same
thing. But he had to go marry a harlot
in order to teach Israel her abominations. This is how radical
God is in seeking to get the attention of his people that
you cannot live like you want to live and think that it does
not matter to Christ. And this is crazy. I'm way overdue. I'm going to reverse 18 and then No, I'm gonna read verse 17 and
18. And I just want you to hear this. And I'll come back and
deal with this next week. This is amazing. Now watch this. I'm gonna spew you out of my
mouth. And here's the reason why. Because you say, I'm rich. And I am increased in goods.
You're going around telling everybody how satisfied you are with your
material riches. And you're going around telling
everybody how much your bank account is abounding. Literally,
when the phrase says, and have increased in goods, it means
that you are actually increasing in goods. It's as if the economy
for you is going so well, every time you look at your Roth IRAs,
your 401Ks, your money markets, you have made abounding amounts
of compound interest. And you can see in a few years,
you're going to be filthy rich. Remember the rich man in Luke
chapter 12? So take your ease. He had to tear down his small
barn, build bigger barns, because his wealth became so absolutely
enormous. Remember that? And what Christ
is saying to the church at Laodicea is, you're going around telling
everybody you're happy. And I know you haven't spent
any time with me. You guys got it? See, this is
the material Christian. This is the carnal Christian.
This is the worldly Christian. This is the material Christian
who is saying to people they're Christian, but that's it. Now
I want you to mark what he does. I learned this years ago when
I dealt with the book of Revelation, and it was so powerful, and I
think this will be a blessing to you. He says, you have told
everyone that you're rich and increased with goods, and you
have need of nothing. You just slapped Christ in the
face. I don't even need you, Jesus. Do you see that? Do you see it? I have need of
nothing. You aren't even giving Him the
glory and the honor for the things you have. You just slapped Him
in your face. Because see, Jesus is standing
there watching as you tell everybody about how large you live it,
how well you've got it, but have consistently failed to acknowledge
the crown rights of Christ in your life and the blessings that
He has given you. You just slapped Him in His face.
You know your husband, slapped Him in His face. He doesn't get
any honor, any glory. Am I bringing it home, saints?
Am I bringing it home? It's very important for you to
know that he cares about what you say about yourself in relationship
to him, since you're married to him. And notice what he goes
on to say. And you do not know. Now see,
this is the danger of the lukewarm person. The lukewarm person says
a lot of stuff, but what they don't know is that they're wretched. Do you see that? and miserable
and poor and blind and naked. Now, ladies and gentlemen, if
this is not paradoxical, I don't know what is because externally
you look good. You look so good to everyone
else. You look so absolutely on top of your game to everyone
else. But to Jesus, it's exactly the opposite. Do you see that? It's exactly the opposite to
the lover of your soul. The lover of your soul is saying
you actually are a radical hypocrite. And you're deceiving people massively
because you are appearing to everybody like you got it going.
And in reality, you're wretched. And in fact, literally in the
Greek, you know how this word goes? You are the one who is
wretched. You know what that meant? It
meant that they were going around calling other people wretches.
In the pompous false security of their own nominal Christianity,
and well, they were saying to other folks, y'all wretched.
You other cities that need help from the government, you're wretched.
Christ says, no, you're wretched. In fact, he says, no, you are
the wretched one. Now I'm going to explain what
it means to be wretched next week because y'all from America
and y'all don't know what wretched is. It just sounds bad, doesn't
it? Wretched. Well, I'll explain that next
week. Come back next week, I'll explain
it. It's a bad word. I want you to know it's a bad
word. Watch this. You're wretched and you're miserable. Isn't that crazy? Now watch this. Somewhere in the secret chambers
of the reality of their being, you know, we talked about the
false egos that we all have. This is one of the things I talk
about when I'm dealing with truth issues. I talk about how we can
have these different personas. We put up these personas in people's
purview, and they see us this way. Another person sees us that
way. Another person sees us this way. We got all these personas.
We pop up. This is called theatrics. It's called hypocrites, these
personas. But behind all that is a real person. And what Christ
is saying behind all of these personas is a miserable person.
See, because he deals with the truth. He deals with the truth. He knows you're miserable. He
knows you. And I'm coming back and deal
with it next week. Now, he says, also, you're poor. You don't
have anything. We're going to deal with that.
You can show people your 401k, your money market, all of the
houses. Do you understand that that does
not constitute riches? Comes the day, go in the mall.
You're poor. Let me go on, I'm almost done.
You're blind and you're naked. Boy, isn't that pitiful? You're
tore up, aren't you? Now, I've got to close with something
that you've got to get a hold of this. You've got to get a
hold of this. Will you get a hold of this? Will you get a hold
of this? Get a hold of this. He knows
our condition. and he's ready to fix it. Give me that next verse. You
look at this verse. I want verse 18. I, verse 18. I counsel you. This is my advice to you, sweetie.
That's why my outline is, let's start all over. Isn't that what
my point said? Is that what my point said? Is that what it say?
Let me look at that. Y'all act like y'all don't have
the notes. Let's start from scratch. Let's start from scratch. I'm
unpack this next week, but I love my master. He's willing to start
from scratch. You didn't mess this thing up
so bad. It's probably better to start
from scratch, but he's willing to do it. He's willing to do
it. All that comes under him. He
will, and no wise cast out. He's willing to start from scratch
and he's got good advice by of me. Try of me. I will clothe
you. I will heal you. I will cover
you. I will give you everything you
need to be everything that you need so that you don't have to
pretend to people that you got all that. And the overture of
his commitment to fix her problem is staggering to me. Staggering. This is why we call him the greatest
lover in the world. Do you see that? It's staggering
that he would come with these propositions to meet each one
of the demerits in your life. Blindness? I can fix that. Poverty? I can fix that. You need clothing?
I can fix that. You need food? I can fix that.
You want jewelry? I got that. This is what we call
the heavenly merchant, the greatest salesman in the universe. His
wares are worth buying. Buy it and do not ever sell it. Amen. Amen.