last Sunday evening after the
message was preached, and then last night, visiting with Bob
and Sally just a little bit, they both expressed that the
message was just exactly what was needed for them. I have a
message tonight that is exactly what's needed for me, and I suspect
for you. Our blessed Savior ought to be
loved ardently loved with an all-consuming love. He ought
to be served with zeal, with an all-consuming zeal. As the
Jews beheld the Lord Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus and said,
Behold, how he loved him. We ought always to behold the
wonders of our Lord's grace and mercy to us and confess, behold,
how he loves us. You and me, such things as he
has found in the bottom of the dung heap of fallen humanity,
he's chosen us, redeemed us, called us by his grace, washed
us in his blood, made us to be the saints of God, set us among
princes as the heirs of God. how zealously he served us. And yet, if one word could be
found to summarize that which I see constantly in the churches
of Christ, and I'm talking about the very best of them, if one
word could be found to summarize the constant battle of our hearts,
one word could be used to summarize the state and condition of the
church of God in this age, I'm afraid that word would be lukewarm. And that's a much prettier word
than we imagine, apathetic, indifferent, careless. And yet there are many, many
professing to know Christ, to love Him, professing to trust
Him, who are indeed lukewarm, apathetic, indifferent, and careless
toward Him. It must also be acknowledged
that even those who do truly know Him and trust Him and love
Him, because of the weakness, the corruption, the sin, the
depravity of our nature, the corruption, the weakness, the
sin, the depravity of our hearts, we struggle incessantly with
a horrid tendency toward lukewarmness. Oh, what a horrid, horrid fact. I can't speak for you, but I
must acknowledge that to be true concerning myself. And I want
to address this problem tonight, and I address it to myself. You
listen in. Maybe God will be pleased to
speak to both of us. My text is Revelation chapter
3. We'll begin at verse 14. 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. I know
thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot. Concerning this church at Laodicea,
the master has nothing good to say, nothing. So then, because
thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee
out of my mouth, because thou sayest, I am rich and increased
with goods and have need of nothing. And knowest not that thou art
wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. Now apparently this church at
Laodicea was at one time a healthy, strong, spiritual, vibrant congregation,
a pillar of truth, a lighthouse in the midst of great darkness.
The Apostle Paul wrote at least one letter to this congregation.
He talked about the church in his epistle to the Colossians
in chapters 2 and in chapter 4. And he mentions nothing amiss
in the congregation at that time. Apparently, during his days,
this church was held in high esteem by this faithful servant
of God. And so all the days of Paul's
life, it appears, this was indeed a strong, vibrant congregation. But something went wrong, terribly
wrong. In the process of time, this
Laodicean church, so great, so useful, once on fire for God,
degenerated into a sickening state of lukewarmness. It became careless, lax, indifferent. I don't know what happened. We're
not told. But in the light of history, I suspect we can guess. The earlier generation had died
out and a younger group had come on. Perhaps the wealth that this
church had, had seduced it into worldliness and carelessness
with regard to spiritual things. Laodicea was a wealthy, wealthy
town. Probably the wealthiest city
in Asia Minor, a city that was known for its tremendous wealth. In fact, they were known to be
unbearable snobs, arrogant. They had the attitude, we're
it, and everybody knew it. Perhaps that attitude crept into
the church. Perhaps the church's freedom
from persecution had produced in these people a sense of just
ease. It has a way of it, you know. a lack of trouble, lack of opposition,
a lack of difficulty, a lack of trial, freedom from adversity,
kindly causes us in our sinful stupidity to take things for
granted. A man and his wife dwell together
in blessed happiness and harmony and have good health and then
suddenly, suddenly he or she is stricken ill and one of them
is fixing to die. And you start thinking back and
say, boy, I wish I had said, I wish I had done. We take everything
for granted because everything comes so easy. And when trouble
comes, when trouble comes, then our hearts are turned again toward
God and cry out to him. That's sad, but that's just fact.
That's just fact. We want our sons and daughters,
you know. We just got one. We don't want any of them to
go through the trouble we went through. We don't want them to
have to scrape and get by. We don't want them to have to
go to the grocery store and buy beans instead of meat, you know.
We want them to have everything. Oh, but it was the trouble we
went through that knit us together. That's what caused us to build
the kind of homes we have. Perhaps these folks had been
too long without any. Whatever the cause, this church
was now in a state of horrible, nauseating decline. It was neither
cold nor hot, but lukewarm. Now, I'm gonna tell you something
about lukewarmness. Nothing can be done with lukewarm
people. Like lukewarm food, like lukewarm
milk, like lukewarm beverages, Lukewarm hearts are good for
nothing. Nothing. There's hope for cold,
hard-hearted rebels. And it's a great joy to work
with men and women whose hearts glow with love and zeal, fervent
for Christ. Even when the zeal and the fervency
is somewhat untamed, it's a delight to work with folks whose hearts
burn with love for the Master. But lukewarm religionists are
sickening, nauseating, disgusting. The Lord Jesus himself can't
stand such. This is what he says in our text.
Because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will
spew thee out of my mouth. You see, lukewarmness, apathy,
indifference toward Christ, betrays the apostasy of the heart from
Christ. Here's the charge. The Lord Jesus lays this solemn
charge of lukewarmness at the church at Laodicea and to all
to whom it's applicable. It's a charge that would assuredly
be followed with judgment if repentance is not found. This
charge of lukewarmness, apathy, indifference, and carelessness
is that which our master speaks about. Now, let us be warned. Lukewarmness is gradual apostasy. It is lingering death. It is
the forerunner of sure judgment. Stephen Charnock, the Puritan,
made this statement, and he was exactly right. If once we become
listless, we shall quickly become lifeless. Complacency. is a spiritual corruption
that usually indicates spiritual death. Oh, may God save us from
this plague of lukewarmness. Now, look at our text. In verse
14, this epistle, like the other epistles, was addressed to and
spoken first to the angel, the pastor of the church at Laodicea. I told you the message is first
for me, and it is. You see, I'm responsible as the
pastor of this church. I'm responsible for the congregation.
I'm responsible for the condition of the congregation. I hear preachers,
I travel a lot, you know that, and I correspond with folks all
the time. I hear preachers gripe about
their churches. Be careful. They just reflect the pastor.
The church seldom ever rises above the leadership. It appears
that there were some in this church whose hearts were genuine
and true, but generally, on the whole, the congregation was insensitive
to Christ, insensitive to the gospel of his grace, insensitive
to his will, insensitive to the glory of his name. They considered,
as our brother prayed just a little bit ago, nothing except himself. God's will, God's glory, God's
cause didn't matter. There was no fire in the pulpit
and there was no warmth in the pew. Now listen to the witness. This message of stern reproof
came from Christ himself, the righteous judge, who here calls
himself the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning
of the creation of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
amen. That means he's unchangeable.
He's immutable. In all things, he's steady. His
purpose will stand. His promises are sure. His word
is true. He says, I am the Lord, I change
not. He is Jesus Christ, the same
yesterday, today, and forever. He is that one of whom it is
written in him are all the promises of God, yea and amen. He's the
faithful and true witness. I looked this over today. I've
been looking at it since early this morning. And I keep coming
back to it. Why does our Lord here describe
himself as the faithful and true witness? When he says that he
is the faithful and true witness, he's telling us that what he
says is true and what he does is just. Because he is both faithful
and true, Christ's testimony of God to men is to be received
and believed. And because he is the faithful
and true witness, you can rest assured his testimony of men
to God will be received and acted upon. Those whose names he confesses
to the Father will be accepted. And those lukewarm, carnal ones
who merely profess faith in his name, whom Christ will deny before
his Father, shall be rejected. And then our Savior calls himself
the beginning of the creation of God. Now don't let that throw
you. This is just another way of saying he is himself God Almighty. He who is the parent, the producer,
and the first cause of all things is himself God. Listen to what
he says. Turn back there, if you will,
and look at it in John chapter 1. In John chapter 1, this is
a Important to spend a little bit of time here because there
are lots of folks in these days who deny the deity of Christ
and and will have you to believe that he is some sort of a God
but not God that he is Some sort of a creature of God higher than
us, but not quite God They point to this text description say
now there you see he's the beginning of the creation of God Well,
the fellow who starts something is the beginning of it And that's
exactly what this means. Look here in John chapter 1 verse
1 In the beginning was the Word of God and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. Quite literally translated, that
should read, and God was the Word. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him,
and without him was not anything made that was made. He is the
beginning of the creation of God. The Lord Jesus Christ, our
Savior, the Son of God, is the one who began everything. That
is, he has all that has been, all that is, and all that hereafter
shall be began with the word who in the beginning spoke and
said, let there be light. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
head, the beginning of all things in the old creation of nature.
And he is the head of all things and the beginning of all things
in the new creation of grace in his kingdom and in his church.
Jesus Christ is therefore called the Everlasting Father, the Everlasting
Father. Well, some might say, well, that
proves there's no such thing as the Trinity. No, no, no, no,
no. Jesus Christ acts the part of the Father to all his children
because we all flow from him, though he is himself God the
Son. He is the Everlasting Father
from whom all things have being and all things have life. William
Hendrickson said this, The Lord reveals himself here as one whose
eyes not only see exactly what's going on in the hearts of all
people, but whose lips also declare the exact truth of what he sees. He who is the witness and he
who shall be our judge is faithful and true. He's the beginning
of the creation of God, that one from whom all things have
their existence. And he observes everything exactly
as it is. And that's the way he reports
it. As he describes himself here, the Lord Jesus is saying to the
Laodiceans, you're dead. You need life. You need a new
heart. Look to me. Turn to me. I can
make you new creatures. All right, now here's the accusation
he lays against this church. The Son of God draws up this
solemn indictment and says to the church as a whole, to the
pastor, to the elders, to the deacons, to the teachers, and
to the people in general, thou art lukewarm. They had been so
secure. They thought they were healthy
and strong. But the Lord Jesus, the faithful and true, says you
look warm. Christ, who is our life, charges
this congregation of professed believers with spiritual death. Verse 15, I know thy works, that
thou art neither cold nor hot. I would that thou wert cold or
hot. I wish you were one way or the
other. The Laodiceans weren't hypocrites. They were deceived. They were blind men who thought
they had perfect vision. They were dead men who thought
they had life. They were lost people who were
very, very sure they were saved. Lukewarmness, apathy, indifference
with regard to the Lord Jesus is absolutely the worst condition
a person can be in in this world. If Christ is real, Now think
with me a minute, will you? If Christ is real, then he's
the unspeakable gift of God. We ought to earnestly seek him,
lovingly embrace him, and zealously serve him. If he's an imposter,
then he is the most vile imposter the world has ever known, and
we should earnestly oppose him. If Jesus Christ is worth anything,
he's worth everything. Why haunt you between two opinions? If Jesus Christ is God our Savior,
the faithful and true witness, we should devote ourselves to
him totally. If he's not, then we should devote
ourselves to opposing him and being against him in the totality
of our beings. Concerning the Son of God, concerning
the gospel of the grace of God, There's absolutely no room for
neutrality, no room for indifference. Matthew Henry said, Christ expects
that men should declare themselves in earnest, either for him or
against him. With Joshua, I hope we will each, when we lay our heads on our
pillows tonight, from our hearts, make this firm resolve. As for
me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Oh, what an intolerable evil
indifference is. Our Lord says, I would that thou
wert cold or hot. You see, it's better to be utterly
ignorant of the gospel than to be a vain, carnal, indifferent,
lukewarm professor of faith. These Laodiceans profess faith.
but they had no interest in promoting it. They professed love for Christ,
but they had no zeal, no heart attachment to him. They professed
an allegiance to the gospel, but they had no zeal for the
gospel. This lukewarmness, this apathy and indifference toward
the Son of God, he says, is nauseated. Look at verse 16. So then because
thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee
out of my mouth. We excuse these things in ourselves
and in others. We say this is, you know, this
is the 20th century. We've got to be moderate and
charitable. We've got to behave ourselves
in such a way as to show respectability and be politically correct with
everyone. But our master looks upon such
things as nauseating. Indifference to him is nauseating. Can you imagine what it'd be
like to live with a woman that had no regard to your thoughts,
no regard to your desires, no regard to what you like, no regard
to your honor, no regard to your name, no regard to anything about
you, just lived, she just existed in the house? She would be fortunate
to be able to leave. You wouldn't want to take your
shotgun and blow her head off. I mean, I can't live with this. Yet, my God, how much like that
we are to our Savior so often. The cause, the cause, Lindsay, is always
the same, always the same. the cause of all sin, the cause
of all corruption, the cause of all betrayal, the cause of
all indifference, the cause of all worldliness. It's always
the same. It's always the same. It doesn't
matter whether the person's rich or poor, old or young, male or
female, learned or unlearned, doesn't matter. The cause is
always the same. P-R-I-D-E, pride. Look at it, verse 17. Because,
because. The Lord Jesus says I'm gagging
on you. I'm about to vomit you out of
my mouth because you say I'm rich and increased with goods
and have need of nothing. And no it's not. that thou art
wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. These Laodiceans were people
who had a very high opinion of themselves and therefore they
had a very low opinion of Christ. They flattered themselves with
the delusion that all was well when in fact nothing was well.
They were doctrinally sound, morally pure, but spiritually
dead. They had a great name to uphold.
They had a sound creed to defend. They had religious ceremonies
to maintain. All they lacked was life, that's
all. They said, we're rich, we're
increased with goods, we don't need anything. Materially wealthy, certainly
that's clearly implied. But the riches that these folks
claimed were riches which they thought they had spiritually.
They had material wealth, but their material wealth made them
think that surely now we have God's favor and we're rich spiritually. You see, the fact is riches seldom
do any good for churches or for people who seek to serve Christ.
I do not suggest, as I have heard fellows suggest, that riches
necessarily imply evil. That's not so. but riches certainly
do not necessarily imply divine favor. The problem with these
men and women at Laodicea is that they presumed, since they
were wealthy materially, they were therefore wealthy before
God. They knew the way of life, so they presumed they had the
way of life. They had the doctrine of Christ, so they presumed they
had life in Christ. They had the gifts of the Spirit,
so they thought they had the grace of the Spirit. They had
the ordinances of God, so they presumed they had the power and
presence of God. How careful, how careful, how
careful we must be that we do not deceive our own
souls. Bobby, if we're his, we'll never
perish. But the fact is, as long as we're
in this world, we're gonna have to struggle with this flesh.
And we're gonna have to cry out to God like David. Search me,
oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. And see if there be any wicked
way in me. A better translation would be,
See if I'm in the way of wickedness. Not that you need to know. Oh
my God, I've got to know. And lead me in the way everlasting. Make me ever aware of my sin.
Make me ever aware of my corruption. Make me ever aware of my nothingness.
And turn my heart, oh God, unto you, to look to you to trust
you. Lord God consume everything else. Be warned. There's nothing more dangerous,
nothing more deadly, nothing more damning to our souls than
self-complacency, self-satisfaction, and self-conceit. these folks who thought they
were so much the Lord Jesus says you're wretched and miserable and poor and blind
and naked and whenever we get to thinking
ourselves right up on the top of the totem pole We get to imagining
that we're it. Now we have arrived spiritually.
Larry, we're poor and blind. And those rags, those filthy
rags of our self-righteousness in which we boast so much. I know here we've got more sense
than to do that doctrinally. We wouldn't dare say it openly.
Oh, how we cling to those dirty rags. You're naked and dead. Wherefore, awake thou
that sleepest, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give
thee life. Oh, Lord, turn us and we shall return. Draw us,
and we will run after thee. We beg of you, our God, leave us not to ourselves. Leave us not to ourselves. For
Christ's sake I pray, amen. Lindsey, if you will, pick us
out of him and come loosen him, that'll be our benediction.