The two most astounding things
in the world to me, things that amaze me more than
anything else, are two things which seem to
be mutually contradictory. I am more constantly and fully
overwhelmed at the greatness of Christ's love for me today
than ever I have been. He loved me, chose me, redeemed
me with his blood, called me by his grace, and has kept me
to this day. His love, his grace, his mercy
has never faltered or failed, never changed, not in the least. With regard to this man, I know
it to be so indescribably true where sin abounds, grace does
much more abound. That's amazing. It's amazing. And the thing that amazes me
almost as much is the terrible tendency of my
heart toward indifference, apathy,
lukewarmness, apostasy from Him whom I most love. That's not true of any earthly
experience. That's not true with regard to
my wife, with regard to my daughter, with regard to my family, with
regard to my granddaughter, It's not true with regard to you. But him whom I most love, I am
most constantly inclined to abandon. Is it so with you? Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I We sang just a little bit ago,
take away my bent to sinning. Now that's just reality. That's
just reality. Perhaps it is for this reason
that often the scriptures address true believers in exactly the
same language with which the scriptures address unbelievers. Perhaps it is for this reason
that the scriptures often address men and women who walk with God
in the same language as those who do not know God. You see,
I am fully convinced, I'm more fully convinced than ever that
it requires the same grace, the same mercy, the same mighty right
hand of God Almighty to keep me in the way of faith as it
did to put me there. It requires the same grace to
keep me believing as it did to cause me to believe. It requires
the same grace, Lindsay, to hold our feet in the way as it did
to put us in the way. Same thing. People often ask, can somebody
who knows the Lord really leave him? We answer things theologically. We answer them accurately. Somebody
asked Ralph Barnard that one time. He said, if you can, you
can. If you can, you can. No, none
of God's elect shall ever forsake Him, but I'm telling you, if
He lets you go, if He leaves you to yourself, if He leaves
me to myself, we won't last any longer than a snowball in a blast
furnace. That's just fact. Therefore, this passage here
in Revelation chapter 3, verses 18 and 19, becomes very, very, very significant
to every one of you here. This is God's Word to you and
to me, to you who believe and to you who believe not. Our Lord
Jesus is here addressing the matter of lukewarmness, apathy,
and indifference. Lukewarmness among God's people. As I read the text, as I prepared
this message, I thought, how can even talk like this about
God's people? And yet it's so very real. Lukewarmness is indifference. It's apathy. It's complacency
with regard to the things of God about which we ought to be
constantly burning with zeal. Our Lord said, the zeal of thine
house hath eaten me up. Would to God I could say the
same. But what causes lukewarmness? I think two things more than
anything else. Our Lord said it in Matthew 13, the care of
this world. Rex, we get so concerned about
ourselves, about me and mine. about the care of this world.
Not the ungodly care, the legitimate care of this world. The care,
the responsibilities of life in this world so engross us and
so enwrap us that we tend to just forget Christ. The other is self-satisfaction. We get easily to the place, buddy,
where we're pleased with ourselves. We don't ever say it. We don't
ever talk that way. We wouldn't dare speak like that
and offend against a generation of God's children, but that's
just fact. We easily, easily, easily begin to think that we're
rich and increased with goods and see everything and have need
of nothing. That self-satisfaction, That
carnal, ungodly, ungodly, ungodly self-righteousness is the greatest
enemy you and I face in our own hearts. Pornography, licentiousness, all the filth that's out yonder
in the world The filth that's in us, nothing, nothing, nothing
is so dangerous as self-righteousness, nothing. And I know this, lukewarmness
will result in reprobation unless God intervenes, unless He stops the lukewarm
apostatizing heart we will forsake him let us ever pray then Lord
God don't leave me to myself all right now with that in mind
let's read our Lord's counsel the counsel of love which he
gives us in this text Luke or Revelation chapter 3 rather verse
18 The Lord Jesus says to you and
to me, I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire,
that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment that thou mayest
be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear,
and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see. As many
as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. What a tender, compassionate
Savior He is. God Almighty, our blessed Savior,
the incarnate God sitting on the throne of glory, stoops constantly
in His grace. He bends constantly in His grace. He condescends constantly to
counsel ungodly men. Listen to what He says. Come
now, let us reason together. Isn't that amazing? God says
to you and to me, He says, let's reason together. Say, if the
Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white
as snow. Listen to me now. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. He counsels sinners to buy salvation
from him. Though we are often people who
cast his counsel behind our backs, the Son of God counsels you and
me to buy of him gold dried in the fire, to buy of him his salvation. Hold your hands here in Revelation
and turn to Isaiah 55. Let me show you. Isaiah 55. I know that you may think to
yourself, well, Brother Don, that sure sounds strange for
a fellow who preaches sovereignty and predestination and election
like you do. Our Lord counsels you and me
to buy His salvation. And I'm gonna tell you, you can't
get it unless you buy it. You can't do it. Look what it
says. Oh, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. He that
hath no money, Come ye buy and eat. Now wait a minute, how you
gonna buy if you don't have any money? That's the only way you can buy.
When you got no money. He that hath no money, come buy
and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. Wherefore do you spend your money?
What money? All your possessions, all your
talent, all your energy, everything about you. Why do you spend your
life for that which is not bread? Wherefore do you spend your money
for that which is not bread, your labor for that which satisfieth
not? You've been working all your life. You spend all your
energy trying to get something that you can say, now I've got
it. Now I've got it. I've got that which will satisfy
me. Anybody satisfied? With anything
here? With anything you do? With anything
you've tried? The Lord counsels us. Read on.
Hearken diligently unto me. and eat that which is good and
let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear. Listen now. The Lord God says,
if you're not in too big a hurry to go to hell, listen to me.
Listen to me. Listen to me. Come unto me here
and your soul shall live. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with you. What kind of covenant? Covenant
that he made with his son before the world began. Well, but he
makes it with you? Yeah, he comes and lets you in
on it. I'll make an everlasting covenant with you. Even the sure
mercies of David, all the promises of God, I'll make this yours.
Read on. Behold, I've given him, the Lord
Jesus Christ, David's great son, for a witness to the people.
He's the one who is the revelation of God. A leader, a commander
to the people. Behold, thou shalt call a nation,
the Lord says to his son. Thou shalt call a nation that
thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run
unto thee. How come? Because God does it.
You ever come running to him, it'll be because of the Lord.
And for the Holy One of Israel, you'll run because God has shown
you the Holy One of Israel. And you say, I've got to have
Him or I perish. Read on. For he hath glorified
thee. The Lord Jesus Christ now is
glorified in the eyes of those who come and buy without money
and without price. He's glorified by the hand of
God in the eyes of those to whom he's revealed. So the Lord speaks
again to you and me. He says, seek you the Lord while
he may be found. Well, man can come to God anytime. I wouldn't count on it. Seek
ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he's near.
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts,
and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Oh, there's hope for
sinners. As long as Jesus Christ, the
sinner's friend, speaks graciously by the gospel, he says, today,
today. Oh, God, help me today. today
if you will hear his voice. Heart, not your heart. Here's the counsel of love which
our Savior gives to wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked
sinners. Even to proud, self-righteous
folks like you and me, our Lord counsels the poor to buy, to
buy. If we would have Christ, We must
make a purchase of Him. In Matthew 13 and verse 44, our
Lord compares the kingdom of heaven to a treasure hid in a
field. Which is a man, he stumbles over and he finds the treasure
and he sees the value and the beauty of the treasure and he
goes and sells everything he has and buys that treasure. That's
how you get Christ. Our Lord tells us in the parable
of the foolish virgins, the wise and foolish virgins, in Matthew
chapter 25 in verse 9, the foolish virgin says, let's have some
of your oil. And the wise virgin says, we
just got enough just for us. You go buy for yourself. I can't give it to you. You can't
give it to me. Go buy for yourself. Well, how? The apostle Paul tells us in
Philippians chapter 3, He talks about his pedigree. He talks
about his religious birth and religious training and religious
uprightness, his religious zealousness, all his goodness, everything
that made him think he was rich. What you just read in Acts chapter
9. Everything made him so proud that he became a persecutor of
those who he thought were less than him. He says, I counted
all. Listen now. I counted all dumb. What's that? Bobby, that's the
best thing you've got. The best you are. The best you
are. Pastor, that's the best you are. Your best righteousness, your
best desires, your best ideas, your best thoughts, your best
needs just maneuvered. For what reason? I counted all
nothing that I may win Christ. and be found in Him, not having
my own righteousness, which is after the law, but the righteousness
of God, which is by faith in Him. That's the price. What will it cost a man to be
a Christian? What will it cost you to have
Christ? Let me tell you, nothing of you, nothing from you, But
all of you, all of you, all of you. Our Lord said, come after
me. You got to hate your father,
your mother, your brother, your sister, your own life also. What's that
mean? That means nothing rivals me. Nothing. Our Lord counsels the
poor to buy of him gold tried in the fire. What is that gold? Not the kind you put in your
pocket. It's the exceeding riches of God's grace in Christ. It's
like gold. As gold is refined by the fire,
so the grace of God comes to sinners only through the blood
of the crucified substitute who endured the fire of God's wrath
as our substitute. Grace is gold. Gold has been refined, made pure
in the infinite warmth and justice of God's holiness. When the sacrifices were offered
day after day, there was a fire burning on the altar, constantly
burning, constantly burning. And there they offered the sacrifices
and the fire burned the sacrifice. The Lord Jesus came, of whom
the sacrifices spoke, and the fire of God's wrath burned upon
him. And this is a sacrifice that
consumed the fire. the grace of God in Jesus Christ
that makes poor sinners rich before God. Listen to what the
Apostle says, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, how
that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor,
that you through his poverty might be made rich. Paul is what
that means. He became all that we are to
make us all that he is. He took all our sins, and gives
us all his glory as the God-man, our mediator. Isn't that what
he said? He said, Father, give me the
glory which I had with you before the world was. And he said, the
glory which thou gavest me, I've given thee. Christ counsels naked souls to
buy of him white raiment. Look at it. Buy of me white raiment. This of course refers to the
perfect righteousness of our Savior. It's white because it's
pure. It's called raiment because it's
like a garment to warm us, to beautify us, to adorn us, to
make us perfect, holy, blameless in the sight of God himself.
You see, the gold speaks of God's grace purified for us to receive. Now, that doesn't mean that God's
grace has to be purified. But it does mean that the only
way it can come to you, the only way it can come to me, is on
the grounds of justice satisfied. The righteousness speaks of Christ's
obedience. The Lord Jesus Christ, by his
obedience to God, fulfilled all righteousness in our room and
in our stead. And by his death at Calvary,
satisfied the justice of God for all our sins. And now, he
says, come to me, without money and without price, and by this
gold and by this raiment, that you might stand before God holy
with his spotless garment soul. as holy as God's own Son. My soul. Because the Lord Jesus
counsels spiritually blind sinners to anoint their eyes with eye
salve that they might see. The eye salve spoken of here,
of course, is the gospel of the grace of God. When it is applied
to the hearts of chosen sinners by the grace and power of God
the Holy Spirit, the Gospel, illuminates our souls and brings
us out of darkness into God's marvelous light. This blessed
eye, sayeth, gives us the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. I see now God's It's not some emotional dazzling
light that you see physically or even emotionally. That's not
it at all. The glory of God is the revelation of God himself
as a just God and a Savior. God in his glory. found a way
to say such things as we are without compromising His holiness
by the sacrifice of His darling Son. And now we see the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ who satisfied all the demands
of God in our room and in our stand. Now though this I sayeth
can only be effectually applied to blind sinners, By the effectual,
irresistible grace and power of God the Holy Spirit, our Lord
counsels each of us to anoint our own eyes with this eye salve
personally. Personally. He says, you anoint
your eyes with the eye salve. Well, pastor, how can that be? You go where it is. You anoint
your eyes with the eye salve by hearing the gospel. Not only
do you hear it, you believe it. You believe it. You say, well,
you folks teach us that salvation comes by the grace of God and
sinners have to be given faith in Christ? Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
You can't believe unless God gives you faith, but you better
believe or you're going to hell. It is your responsibility to
believe the gospel. You must believe. The Philippian
jailers asked Paul, said, what shall I do to be saved? He said,
believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved. I said, well, that makes salvation by man's will. No,
if you ever believe, you'll know better than that. You'll understand
God gave you faith in Christ. We anoint our eyes with the Isaiah
by seeking to understand the gospel of God's grace. The more
you understand it, the more clearly you comprehend the things of
God, the more clearly you see everything. Turn to Psalm 86,
let me show you this. Here is David, man after God's
own heart. This man who is the eminent type
of Christ the King in the Old Testament. This man who is the
sweet singer of Israel. This man after whom Christ the
King is constantly named. He's the son of David. This man
through whose loins Jesus Christ as a man came in this world.
Now listen to how he prays. He says in Psalm 86 verse 11, Teach me thy way, O Lord, and
I will walk in thy truth." How are we going to walk with Him,
Larry? If He teaches us His way every day, day by day. Unite my heart. Do you ever feel
like your heart is just pulled in a thousand directions, just
pulled in a thousand directions? Pray like David. Lord, gather
up my heart. All the affections of my heart
into one affection. Unite my heart to fear thy name. Look in Psalm 119, verse 26. The same psalmist is writing.
I love the Psalms. They're so meaningful because
we're allowed here to go into the closet with a man after God's
own heart and learn something about prayer. These are David's
prayers penned by inspiration. He says, I have declared my ways. Thou heardest me. He said, Lord,
I've spoken plainly of my ways to you. Teach me thy statutes. Oh, God, teach me the book. Teach
me the book. Whatever it takes, teach me the
book. Teach me. And if God teaches,
you'll get the lesson. Make me to understand the way
of thy precepts. Everything you say and do, so
shall I talk of thy wondrous ways. This is the wise counsel, the
gracious counsel of the Son of God, the wonderful counselor.
If we follow his counsel, he's honor-bound to make it effectual.
He says, come and buy. Will you obey his voice? The
Son of God graciously rebukes and chastens the people he loves. He tenderly but effectually causes
each of his own to repent. and come to him. This is what
he says in verse 19. He says, whom I love, I rebuke
and chase. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee. Turn to Hosea chapter
2. Let me see if I can wrap this
up with some personal application. The Lord Jesus Christ will not
lose the soul he loves. It won't happen. It won't happen. Every blood-bought child will
be brought by his grace to repentance. He may lead you through difficulties
indescribable, troubles more terrifying than you can imagine. in order to bring you to himself. But if you're his, he's going
to get you. He will fetch you to himself
and you'll be thankful for every tear shed along the way. If he has to set your barley
fields on fire, he'll set your barley fields on fire. What are
they? If he has to send a swarm of
bees, he'll send a swarm of bees. If he has to kill your child,
he'll kill your child. But he'll make you willing in
the day of his power. He'll do it. Here in Hosea, our
Lord commands Hosea to go love Gomer, a woman, with the love
wherewith he loved the children of Israel, his elect. And this
is how Hosea spoke concerning Gomer. This is how God speaks
concerning his elect. He says in verse 6, Therefore,
behold, I will hedge up thy way, and I'll hedge it up with thorns. I'll make a wall, and she shall
not find her paths. Lord God, hedge up my way. She shall follow after her lovers,
but she shall not overtake them. She shall seek them but shall
not find them. Then shall she say, I'll go and
return to my first husband for then was it better with me than
now. And then the Lord explains what
he's talking about. For she did not know that I gave her corn
and wine and oil and multiplied her silver and gold which they
prepared for Baal. Therefore I will return and take
away my cord in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof,
and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness. Now I will discover her lewdness
in the sight of her lovers. I'll make her to appear for what
she is. Now listen, and none shall deliver
her out of my hand. I'll cause her to quit laughing.
I'll cause her mirth to cease. I'll destroy her vines, he says
in verse 17. He said in verse 14, or verse 12 rather, he says
in verse 14, I will allure her and bring her to the wilderness,
and I'll speak comfortably to her. I'll speak to her heart,
and she'll be mine. How does the Lord rebuke and
chasten his own? With the word of the gospel,
he convicts and convinces. With the word of his law, So
that the sinner who's made to see his corruption and guilt
stands terrified before God's holy law because he knows that
a just God must punish his sin. And he does it with his providence. The chastening of the Lord is
that by which he both brings us to him initially, and by which He continually brings
us to Him. Here's my heart. Oh, take and
seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. No matter what the cost, no matter
what the pain, I pray God will bring you to himself. And I pray
no matter what the cost, no matter what the pain, he'll keep you
and keep me coming to him. Amen.