In the sermon titled 'Laodicea - The Lukewarm Church', Scott Brown examines the letter to the church of Laodicea in Revelation 3, emphasizing Jesus's harsh rebuke for their lukewarm faith. The church is described as wealthy and self-sufficient, yet spiritually bankrupt, likened to lukewarm water that makes Jesus want to 'vomit'. Brown discusses two interpretations: one viewing the text as a call for salvation for unbelievers, and another as a call for reformation for believers. He stresses the importance of assessing one's works as evidence of faith and warns against the dangers of pride and self-sufficiency. The sermon highlights Jesus's character as the 'Amen', 'faithful and true witness', urging believers to repent and renew their zeal, while offering hope through His love and promises of heavenly reward for those who overcome.

Find Revelation chapter 3 and begin in verse 14 and we'll read all the way to the end of the chapter Revelation 3 14 and to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans right these things says the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. So then because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. Because you say, I'm rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.

And do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich and white garments that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, And anoint your eyes with eye salve that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore, be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, Let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Let's pray. Oh Lord, we thank you for giving us your Son to speak the truth to us and to draw us with cords of love, with the lures of pure gold, with the blessings of white garments and ears they can hear.

Lord we're so thankful for your zeal for us to speak words of truth and love in correction of us. I pray that you would come in both correct and comfort, that you would come and heal and save as a result of these words here. Amen. Please be seated. So here we are, we're continuing our journey through the Book of Revelation.

We've now arrived at the seventh letter to the seventh church, the last church mentioned in this section. And these letters were written to seven specific churches, but they also were written to all churches of all times thereafter. This church was a successful and rich, health-conscious, fashionable church from all we can gather. It was a proud church and they were energized by their success and they were fueled by their self-sufficiency. And that was the whole problem.

It wasn't Jesus Christ that energized them. It was other things. And it's very striking here, you'll notice it, I'm sure, that the Lord has his harshest words for this church than all the other churches. And yet at the same time, he offers them so many blessings and he offers them the most wonderful thing pure gold not just gold but pure gold and white garments and eyes that see because the Laodiceans really didn't need help from God and the Lord Jesus Christ is ready to spew them out of his mouth with violence with the violence of vomiting the graphic imagery in this section is remarkable but he calls them to repent It's not over for them That's very very clear and he wants to give them something greater So these letters they're meant to do surgery on every church. They're meant to do surgery on our church.

Hope Baptist Church and they force us to ask questions of ourselves. Who are we as a church corporately? Are we anything like this? Who are we individually? Are we anything like this?

And you know We know that churches have their different maladies. We've already seen this in the letters so far. Ephesus had lost their first love. The church in Smyrna was a poor and persecuted church, but they were rich. And then you have Pergamos was a compromising church.

They were believing worldly teachers. In Thyatira, they were tolerating a woman teacher named Jezebel who really was bringing people to compromise morality. In Sardis you had a big church with a big reputation. They had a name that was being a lie but they were dead. Philadelphia was a small church, a weak faithful church that did not back down in the face of their adversaries.

So what about Laodicea? What was the problem here? How did they get to the place that Jesus would be so harsh in his treatment of them? And there are probably many reasons. One reason that's very clear in the text, It really speaks to a principle, is that pride often rides very, very close to wealth and earthly security.

They were wealthy in the world's goods, But they were bankrupt in their souls. That's the terrifying part now how to interpret this text It's possible that I've studied this text more than any other and heard more sermons on this text And how am I supposed to interpret this? Well, some preachers teach this as a salvation text alone, that Jesus is speaking to unbelievers, that Jesus is outside the door, and the people in the church were unconverted, and Christ is there calling to them. And so today you're going to find me treating this text that way. And I've been praying that there's going to be somebody in this church who's going to look back and say, I was saved in Laodicea.

God saved my soul there. He confronted me. He told me who I really was. But others believe that Jesus is calling the believers in the church to change. He's calling for them to change their lives, to stop this trajectory that has led to their lukewarmness.

And so the appeal here is to change your ways, to look and see what you must change. And The approach here is a call for reformation, to put off the old man. Now, some of you are here when Paul Carrington preached this text before he went to Turkey in November before he went. And he preached this text as a Reformation text, that the church should awaken and be enlivened. You know, we should look at just the poorness of our works and crank it up, right?

That was his message. It was a great message. Go ahead, Go back and listen to it. It really is a warning. I listened to it again.

But then after that, somebody criticized him and said, you know, no, no, no, no, no, this is a salvation text. This is not a Reformation text. He was sharply rebuked for it. We had a discussion about that as elders, about which one it was. So what's my position?

I'm gonna give you some interpretive fair warning here. Here's how I want you to hear this text. This is a salvation text for us here today. And this is also a reformation text for us here today. That's how I'm going to preach it.

Most preachers preach it one way or another. I'm going to preach it both ways. You can hear it out of both sides of my mouth. So, and I think, I think the church in Laodicea was like our church. There were some who were and some who weren't so lukewarm.

Churches are always like that. So I think it's a warning to those whose life has cooled down to the point of getting lukewarm. Have you gotten lukewarm in anything? You're going to hear me ask that question in different ways through this. The other is you must be born again.

Are you born again? Are you dead? Do your works Show you that you are not born again So those are the two questions and the two approaches Here's one thing it's really clear the church has not been vomited out yet Not yet That's true of all of us not yet Praise the Lord for that for God's mercy, you know the more I read this the more I see just the mercy and the patience of God For us for all of us for those who are not born again, who still say, I don't know if I am a Christian, and to those who say, I know I'm a Christian, but I'm not what I ought to be. So as we walk through this text consider who you are in this text. That's the question we should always ask, who am I in this text?

So, you know in terms of interpreting it there there's also quite a bit of rich information. Almost every preacher who ever preached this text says a lot of the same things, that this city was known for its wealth and its wool and for its physical health well-being. And almost every preacher who preaches this text uses the water supply of Laodicea to provide the interpretive grid of the text. And now in my preaching through Revelation, you've noticed, I'm not really emphasizing the historical and military backgrounds of these churches. I'm trying to look at the text here.

But it's quite possible that the Laodicean economy and the water supply and the culture and those beautiful black sheep that created these beautiful black woven garments are part of the interpretation. But everyone says that they are and they may be, you know, they were a wealthy city. They were so wealthy that in 60 AD when earthquake destroyed the city, the government came in and said, you know, we're going to give you some supplements here. We're going to come in and prop up your economy. And Laodicea said, no, we have all we need.

We don't need you. And so preachers often say that was the spirit of the city and that was the spirit of the church. And then you have the wool, the black sheep, the famous black sheep that surrounded the countryside in Laodicea and they provided this famous clothing and the people were clothed beautifully with it. And then you have a medical school there, and a famous eye salve that apparently was healing people from eye infections, and they were very concerned about their well-being. And their water supply came from somewhere else, and by the time it got there, it was lukewarm.

Now, if you have any questions about this, I've already preached this sermon to every kid in this church under 12. You can ask them about the aqueducts of that coming into Laodicea. Now some say every every city in that area was served by aqueducts not just Laodicea so who knows but here's what we know for sure in the text The Lord Jesus Christ is wooing the Laodiceans in a lot of different ways and he starts with his character. He's telling them who he is right off the bat. Now you have an outline in front of you.

You can see exactly how I'm gonna move through this text so you can follow me but he's he's he's wooing them first of all with his character and he is the messenger the messenger to the Laodiceans speaks here and he's drawing them with cords of love he starts out telling them what he's like and it's just so wonderful to read about it. And he's just displaying his superiority and his beauty above all others who might speak. He's really calling everybody else a liar and he the amen, the triple truth-er basically, and you'll see why I said that. That's why he says in verse 14 these things says the amen the faithful and true witness the beginning of the creation of God his name is amen You know there are many names of Jesus. There are dozens of them.

Well one of them is Amen. He is the Amen. This is his title. And of course it means truth. He is the final truth.

He is the absolute truth. You know it's interesting, you know if you listen to entertainers, entertainers and psychiatrists like to talk about your truth, finding your truth. And you are the amen. You are the truth. This is just nothing but idolatry.

You are not the truth. You don't have your own truth. There's really only one truth. There's only one way, one truth and one life and Jesus Christ is the truth above all truths and you know following mankind always wants to find truth outside of himself. It doesn't exist there.

It exists outside of ourselves. It exists in Jesus Christ. The amen. The lies are everywhere in this culture, but Jesus Christ is truth incarnate. True truth, unadulterated truth.

If you want truth, don't try to find it in your own heart, don't try to find it in this world, you find it in Jesus Christ, and he is truth. All of his promises are true. Isn't that wonderful? Now just think about that for a minute. Are all of his promises true?

Do you think they're true? For you. Second Corinthians 1 20 the Apostle Paul said that for all the promises of God in him are yes and in him amen. In other words all of his promises are true. He is fixed unchangeable truth.

By the way the last verse in the Bible, the last word in the Bible is amen. This is true, amen. So be it. This is what it is. And Of course this idea of the Amen, Christ being the Amen, is rooted in the Old Testament.

It comes from Isaiah 65 verses 15 and 16, Isaiah 42, 43 and 44, where you have the servant songs. And by the way, you know, this just remind us again how to interpret revelation. Don't interpret revelation by going to your newspaper. Don't even really interpret revelation by reading a historian. It might be helpful, But do what Revelation tells you to do.

Go back to the Old Testament, and it'll tell you what it means. And so that's what we find here as well. This whole idea of Jesus Christ being the amen is an Old Testament idea that Isaiah particularly promotes. Also, he is the faithful and true witness. He's reliable.

Jesus will always tell you the truth. There is no fake news with him. There is no spin with him. And this is so refreshing in a world. I don't know if you've been like me.

I don't even know what news outlet to believe anymore. I really don't. No matter where in the spectrum they fall. But I was very taken by something that a theologian proposed. Douglas Kelly, he reminds us that Jesus Christ in this passage right here in this verse reminds us that he is the Amen three times in this one verse and I'll just read it.

He says Christ says I am the Amen. Second, the faithful witness which is another way of saying Amen and thirdly the true witness which is another way of saying amen. And thirdly, the true witness, which is another way of saying amen. He effectively says, I am amen. I am amen, and yes, I am amen.

So, he is the truth. And he is the supreme creative authority in the universe. It says he is the beginning of the creation of God. This is your God. He is true and then he is the beginning of the creation of God.

The word beginning means originator, it means source, it's not created being. Jesus Christ is not a created being, he is the originating source of all being. And I think this harkens back to John 1, 1 where we read in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God he was in the beginning with God and all things were made through him and without him nothing was made that was made. It's just a declaration of who he is. This is your father's world and Jesus Christ is the co-creator and he is the supreme authority.

Paul, the apostle speaks of the same thing to the Colossian church in Colossians chapter 1 verse 10 where he says he is the image of the invisible God the firstborn over all creation for by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers all things were created through him and for him and he is before all things and in him all things consist here in this first verse the Lord Jesus wants the Laodicean to church to know who it is who's talking. And he's saying, it's me, the creator of everything that there is. The amen, the amen, the amen. He is proclaiming himself to be the one who will rescue you with the truth. He wants to rescue the Laodiceans with his truth.

And so he is with his honesty and with his wealth as creator, he comes to this church. Because the church really only has one truth and it is the Word of God and we have to cleave to the Word of God in all of these things And so he first of all declares his name and his title. And then the problem is revealed in verses 15 and 16. I know your works that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot So then because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot I will vomit you out of my mouth Now he says he begins with this this repeated statement I know your works.

He says this over and over again to these churches and this should be so comforting. You know he does have eyes like a flame of fire and he knows what you did he knows when you did it he knows why you did it and and he is there to help you through it and he knows he knows all things But then he comes with some really harsh words, the harshest of them all. I will vomit you out of my mouth. Now, I don't, it would be hard to find a more vivid and graphic, It would be hard to find a more vivid and graphic, it would be hard to find a more grotesque and violent way to express feelings about something. And Jesus is saying, frankly, Jesus is saying, you make me sick.

He's telling this church this, you make me sick. And this would be very hurtful, you know, for example, if I said this to any of you or any of you said it to one another. But Jesus Christ is often harsher than we could ever be. And we often think that we can only imitate Jesus when He's sweet. But the truth is, the Lord Jesus Christ is truthful, and he is truthful enough to throw temples out of the temple and drive everybody out with a whip.

He called religious leaders a brood of vipers, a big bag of snakes. And he says that if you say you love God and hate your brother you're a liar. So Jesus Christ is often hard with us. He's hard with us today. And he is saying to them that this feature makes him sick.

But the truth is, if you're going to hell, you need to know how serious it is. Or if you're slipping into uselessness before God, you need to know what that is. It makes him sick. And I don't know how, these are the words that are here. It makes the Lord Jesus Christ sick.

He wants to vomit you out of his mouth if this these things are true of you and so it's very striking and very very disarming really and what was it it was their lukewarmness. I know your works. Your works. He focuses on the works. That you are neither cold nor hot.

I wish that you were cold or hot. So then because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth." Now, what's this all about? It was their works that told the story. Their works showed that they were lukewarm. It betrayed the reality of their life.

Lukewarm people have lukewarm works. So What about ours? What about mine? What about yours? Oh my, these questions have dogged me.

Where are you cooling off? If you're a Christian, If you have assurance of your salvation, based on biblical assurance, then are you cooling off? Where? Where are you cooling off? How quickly are you cooling off?

What is causing you to cool off? And they were lagging behind in diligence if they were Christians. They were not fervent serving the Lord. They were just cruising. Their works were lukewarm and their works didn't match their profession and that's the problem.

But Jesus, I know, I know your deeds. Now this is the focus here is on deeds by the way. We have a tendency to think, and I'll get to this in a minute, that this is all about your emotions toward God. No, it's not. It's about your deeds.

It's about what you're doing. We need to be careful to understand what he's saying here. In Matthew chapter 7 verse 6 the Lord Jesus says, you will know them by their fruits. He's talking about their deeds. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?

Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit." And this is something that we must do today. We need to ask ourselves about our works. Now he's either talking about the works of the Christian that have been failing, or he's talking about the works of a non-Christian that aren't there at all. And, you know, the Lord Jesus Christ is very careful to explain this matter of works.

You're not saved by your works, but your life is proved by your works, your salvation is proved by your works. That's why the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter seven, he said, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, But he who does the will of my father and then he says Many will say to me in that day many will set be standing before God at the judgment And they will say many will say Lord Lord have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, done many wonders in your name? Many will say that, and The Lord will say, I never knew you. I never knew you. Please, please, you don't want to be at the judgment and have him say I never knew you and then to have him say depart from me you who practice lawlessness you who reject the law you do not obey the law you who do not do my will.

That's the test. When we stand at the judgment, the Lord Jesus Christ will look at our works and did our works prove our profession. But many will be in that place. I pray that none of us will be. In Romans chapter 2 verses 6 through 8 Paul made it clear that judgment would be based on your life, on your deeds.

He said he speaks of God who will render to each one according to his deeds eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory honor and immortality but those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish on every soul of man who does evil." That's why James said, What is a prophet of man if he says he has faith but does not have works? You know, there really is a damnable heresy that has taken root in the church. It's called the Doctrine of the Carnal Christian. It was something that was launched in the mid-century in the United States by Bill Bright. He wrote a tract called the Four Spiritual Laws and he created this category, this separate category of the carnal Christian.

And so you have lots and you have the carnal Christian and you have the spirit-filled Christian. One of our friends Paul Washer says that nothing has sent more people to hell than the doctrine of the carnal Christian. There is no such thing as a carnal Christian. Because when you become a Christian, God changes your life. He changes it.

And that's how you know that you're a Christian. Your affections have changed. Your wonder has changed. You don't want the old stuff. You want the new stuff.

You want the pure gold. You want the white garments not the filthy ones so now we might think that Luke warm and passion are what's referred here does hot mean emotional and passionate That's a question that comes to our mind. Is he just talking about pure zeal? You know, what, is the message for us, hey, you gotta crank up the passion. You gotta get passionate, you know?

You gotta start, you feel it. You gotta feel it more. Is that what he's really saying? That's not what he's saying, he's identifying your works as a manifestation of your faith. So it's easy to think that lukewarmness is just an emotional lack of passion.

And if you take that approach, you're always gonna be questioning your salvation because your passion ebbs and flows, everybody's does. Some people are born with more passion than others. You've been alive long enough to know, that's true. And some people are just way more emotional. Some people cry faster, some people cry slower.

So don't say, well, I haven't cried so I must not be saved, you know. You know, this happens, you know, children growing up in churches often really struggle with this. They face this question. They often grow up And they think, wow, my feelings aren't just what they should be. My passion for the Lord isn't, my desire isn't just what it should be.

But when you start asking them questions, you say, do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Yes, I do. Do you believe that He died for your sins and only his righteousness can save you? Yes, I believe that. Do you love the light and hate the darkness?

Yes. Do you want to follow him? Yes. But I'm not a Christian because I just don't feel it. That happens all the time and I sympathize with it because when you grow up in a church and you grow up in a Christian family where things are orderly and the word of God was there, it might feel differently to you than the person who had wrecked his life in 50 different ways, it might feel differently to you.

And your conversion might not be as emotional, but one thing you can know, your life will change. If your life has changed, that's the issue here. I know your works. And these are works that have to do with either either lukewarm or hot or cold. So do you, Here's the test of salvation.

Do you believe? That's one. It's not the only. Do you obey the Lord? Do you keep His commandments?

Do you love the people of God? Do you love the light? Do you love the world? Do you hate sin? Do you hate your brother?

Do you confess your sins? Do you believe that Jesus Christ's righteousness is all you need? Now if you want to know where the scripture references for all of those, just go to 1st John. They're all there. Testing your salvation by the words in 1st John is one of the most helpful things you can do.

So I don't believe he's speaking mainly of emotional passion. I think it can include that for sure. Because the sentence explains what he's referring to, your works. He's asking you, do your works reflect a hot-heartedness toward God or cold or lukewarm? So People feel that they're saved by their religious feelings, and that's a misunderstanding of the gospel.

You're not saved by your feelings. You're not saved by your passion. You're saved by Christ's righteousness, and he breaks the power of sin in your life. And then he gives you a desire to obey the Lord. So okay here's here's something that I think is true about this.

The lukewarmness isn't the problem. The lukewarmness is the result of the problem. Now, so for the believer, you know, are your works lukewarm? You know, do you give your worst to God? Are you like the people in Malachi who are bringing their tithes in and they were saying oh my how tiresome it is if they were just going through the motions you know giving their money doing their religious thing you know is it has it become like that you know are are your works lukewarm Are your works of evangelism hot or lukewarm?

Are you praying, is your prayer for the lost hot or lukewarm? Is my fellowship with my brethren hot cold or lukewarm is my hospitality hot cold or lukewarm Is my the rate raising of my children hot cold or lukewarm is love for my church hot Cold or lukewarm Is my love for my spouse hot, cold, or lukewarm? Is my obedience to my parents hot, cold, or lukewarm? Is my educating my children in the training the admonition of the Lord hot, cold, or lukewarm? Christians ask yourself those questions.

Have you slipped back in any area? Is there any any area that is cooling or cooled and you're just okay with being lukewarm in any area of your life? That's the question I think that's being posed to this church. The Apostle Paul spoke about this in many different ways. He spoke to the church in Rome about getting lukewarm toward one another.

I'm going to call it relational lukewarmness. In Romans chapter 12 verse 9 he says, let love be without hypocrisy, abhor what is evil, cling to what is good, be kindly affectionate to one another and brotherly love in honor giving preference to one another so this is the whole one another scheme and then he says not lagging in diligence fervent in spirit serving the lord this is luke warmness in your relationships in this church. That's what he's talking about. Are you hot, cold, or lukewarm toward the people in this church? Are you or are you not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord with these people in this local church that you're part of?

The Thessalonians were actually strong in brotherly love. In 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 9 the Apostle says he commends them he says you don't need anybody to instruct you in love God taught you that but then he says but we urge you brethren that you increase still more more and more so you know there's this matter of lukewarmness in our relationships with one another in the church in the way that we think about one another and treat one another. Like, are they really your family or not? Are you really in covenant with them or not? You know, are you gonna fulfill the covenant or not?

You know, Are you relationally hot, cold, or lukewarm with your brothers and sisters? You. Not them toward you, you toward them. So you know, This church, they didn't need God. You know, I don't think this church probably prayed very much because they didn't need God.

Do you pray much? Pray little? Is it a reflection of a slide? Now When you hear the word room temperature, what comes to mind? Room temperature.

Well, that could be good or bad, depending on how you look at it. But this church was kind of at room temperature. But one of the problems was their self-assessment was wrong and that's what we find in verse 17. Their self-assessment was wrong because you say, in other words, they were saying things to themselves. They were, Their self-talk was all wrong.

They were lying about the real problem. They were talking about themselves. They say, I'm rich. I've become wealthy and I have need of nothing. We're fine.

We're okay. I don't need, I really don't have much to repent of. I'm okay, I'm fine. I'm satisfied. That's what they're saying about themselves.

They felt pretty good about themselves. Now, I'm gonna say that the lukewarmness was because of pride. That was the root cause. They were proud. And they were saying, look, We're fine.

You know, some people think that money will solve all their problems. And when they get money, they're more satisfied. Well, that's deceit. That's deceptive. That's deceptive.

But it was their self-sufficiency and their pride that was the problem. Now notice what they're not saying they don't the first thing that comes to their mind isn't we love the Lord we worship we obey we love one another. No no no no no they're not talking about that's not what's on their minds it's their riches it's on their minds that was the problem they needed no help from God they were self-funded self-sufficient they were self-satisfied and they were self-righteous. And what they said about themselves condemned them. That's why Jesus is so harsh and he uses of the imagery of vomiting, retching in his disposition toward them.

So the root problem in Laodicea was self-sufficiency and it was pride. So much to say about pride. Pride is the fundamental sin. Pride is the is the sin that drives all the others. Jonathan Edwards says that the pride is the main door that the that the devil gets into your life.

He said it's the chief inlet of smoke from the bottomless pit to deceive you. He called it the main handle by which the devil gets a hold of you. He called it the main spring of all of the other errors. It springs out all the other errors in your life. That's what pride does.

They did not need God. They did not need to pray. They did not need his word. And they were just super comfortable. It's the comfortable church, comfortable with their wealth.

Edwards also says that spiritual pride in the mind justifies all other errors. He says that pride guards yourself from the light. He says that pride protects you from being corrected. You won't be corrected. You're not gonna let anybody tell you what to do.

It's pride. It's only pride that does that, says Edwards. He says the spiritually proud man is full of light already. He doesn't need instruction and he's ready to despise the offer of it. That's what happens when you're proud.

But true Christianity actually it actually begins with a with poverty of spirit. The genuine believer really begins his journey recognizing that he's all of pride. He's sorrowing for his sin. He feels that he has nothing to offer God. That's why Jesus said in the very first of the Beatitudes in Matthew 5.3, he said, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven Blessed are you who are empty?

Blessed are you who need God so badly you realize you are empty without God You need him. You don't have anything to offer at all You know, that's why Isaiah 66 verse 2 talked about where God dwells. He doesn't dwell with the proud, he dwells with the humble. You know somebody said the Bible says that God dwells in one of two places. He dwells in heaven and he dwells with the humble on the earth.

And he said, but to this one I will look on him who is poor and of contrite spirit and who trembles at my word. Like the sinner in Luke chapter 18 who said be merciful to me a sinner so the Lord Jesus Christ is pointing out their pride he's saying they're wretched and poor and miserable and blind and and they are naked And then Christ gives them advice. Are you ready for the advice? He says, I advise you. Here's what Jesus is saying.

Can I counsel you? I'd like to counsel you. And so he does. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire that you may be rich and white garments that you may be clothed that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed and anoint your eyes with eye salve that you may see." So this is the message of the gospel. Buy from me gold, gold that is true gold.

They had bought fool's gold, but Jesus has pure gold. And this is the gospel, buy gold. This is the good news. Man is lost in his corruption he stands guilty and condemned because of inborn sin his sin offends a holy God yes we are offensive to God in our sins. The wages of sin is death.

And God calls sinners to believe in Him and trust in Him and to buy gold and to get white garments and ice so they can see. And what do they have to pay? Nothing. They pay nothing. They have nothing to pay with.

He says, buy from me. Takes us back to Isaiah 55 where we read, ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come, buy, and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. So the Lord he comes to this church and he he's offering them pure gold the gospel not fool's gold everlastingly pure gold he offers them white garments the forgiveness of sin by the atoning sacrifice of Christ as he took our sins upon his shoulders.

And then he anoints our eyes with ISAV so that we might see. He opens our eyes and we come with nothing. We have nothing to bring. Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling. We have what the song says, nothing but the blood of Jesus Christ.

And why? Why should you come? It said that the nakedness of your shame may not be revealed. In other words, the doors open. Deal with yourself so that you're not exposed.

We find the same language in the Lord's Supper. He says examine yourselves so that you wouldn't be judged. Judge yourself so that you won't be judged. Very same thing here. Repent so that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed.

And I take that to be revealed on the last day when you stand before the Lord and God forbid that he will say, I never knew you. And then he gives his love. He explains his explanation and motivation. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. That's verse 19.

There are times when love requires rebuke and chastening. That's the whole motivation of his saying, I'm gonna vomit you out of my mouth. He said that out of love, not out of meanness, and and he says I rebuke and I chasten. And then he says, he appeals to them, he says therefore be zealous and repent you know what that means there's hope that means the story is not over for them the laodicean church is not at a dead end at all and I don't think any churches at a dead end None of these churches seem to be at a dead end of the seven. And then he tells us of this moment that they're in, in verse 20, Behold I stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him and he with me." Let's make something really clear.

Jesus is not knocking at the door of your heart. He's knocking at the door of the church. And there are people in that church and he's knocking on that door and he's saying I'm outside this door We just sang a song earlier of the blessedness of the sweetness When Christ is within the doors Wow, I love that song. I love that line, with Christ within the doors. There's nothing better than that.

But the church is in a bad way and I think he's addressing two kinds of people in that church. The Christians whose works are at room temperature and the unbelievers who are lost and the Lord is gonna say to them I I don't know you and he's appealing with all of his heart but notice how much compassion and love and mercy he is crying out with. He says, I will dine with you. I want to dine with you. He's talking about not just the Lord's Supper, but the marriage supper of the Lamb and every supper that happens in between among the people of God where they rejoice and they feast together like we're gonna do this afternoon.

I want to dine with you. You know as we gather together as we dine every afternoon after the Lord's Supper, the Lord is dining with us. We should be so conscious of that and minister to one another on the basis of he's with us, dining with us. This is just a foretaste of something that will happen everlastingly. And then this is now this is to me one of the most shocking amazing things about this passage.

It's mind-boggling. It's in verse 21. Look at this. There's a promise. To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne.

What? As I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne He says I will he will it hasn't been done yet You know God takes his enemies and he makes them his friends He dines with them and then he lets them sit with him on his throne in heaven. That's what God does. This is mind boggling. He takes us to heaven and he puts us on his throne with him.

Does that shock you? It's astounding to me that he would do this. Now, he says, as I overcame and I sat on my Father's throne, so will you. It's a picture of conversion. You die, You're buried with Christ, you're raised up with Christ, and you're seated with Him at the right hand of God.

With Him. And you are a co-heir of all of His wealth. Now, this is all about the throne of God. This section ends with a testimony of the throne of God. Okay?

Isn't it interesting that when you turn the page to the next chapter and the chapter after that, four and five, it's a picture of the throne. That's what it is. Isn't that wild? He says you're gonna sit with me on this throne. Well, here's what it's like.

So I'm gonna give you just a sneak peek, just for a second, okay? Now, okay, just before I read this, I want you to have chapter four, verse two. That's where we're gonna start. But just, the picture here is astounding. It's unreal.

It's like nothing you've ever seen. It's absolutely amazing. But here's what I wanna say about this. Do you believe that's true? Do you believe this throne and this life in heaven is true?

Here's why you should believe it's true. Okay. You live in a world right now that is amazingly beautiful. I was just walking around this morning before church, walking around our property, and I was looking at the sky, and I was looking at the trees, and their budding, and I was looking at the grass that's beginning to grow, and I was looking at the grass it's beginning to grow and I was looking at the water and I was looking just at the beauty of the clouds wispy out there and I thought you know it is it must be it must be real this is real this is real and heaven is real too Heaven is actually a real place where you're conscious for all eternity. It's not like this ethereal, ghosty kind of place.

It's a place with real stuff. It's just like here, only way, way, way, way better. It's real, just like this is real. I think God gave us the trees and the skies and the waters and the rivers and the oceans and the fish and the birds and The mammals and the insects and the reptiles He gave us all those things to say, hey, it's real here and it's real there too. Okay?

Believe! Believe in the gospel and go to heaven. Okay, this is the end of the sermon right here. Chapter 4, sneak preview. The next time I preach, it's going to be on this text.

Next week we're gonna have John Snyder come and he's gonna talk about all the churches of Revelation again three times morning, afternoon, and night. But then when I come back I can't wait and I'm gonna hit chapter four and five. It's heaven. Immediately I was in the Spirit and behold a throne set in heaven and one sat on the throne and he who sat there was like Jasper and a sardius stone in appearance And there was a rainbow around the throne. Have you ever seen a rainbow?

In appearance like an emerald. Ever seen an emerald? Around the throne there were 24 thrones. And on the thrones I saw 24 elders sitting, clothed in white robes. And they had crowns of gold on their heads, and from the throne proceeded lightnings, ever seen lightning?

Thunderings, ever heard thunder? It's a picture, it's a shadow of what's to come, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Before the throne, there was a sea of glass like crystal, and in the midst of the throne, and around the throne were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, ever seen a lion?

The second living creature was like a cap. The third living creature had a face like a man and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes all around and within and they did not and they do not rest day or night saying holy holy holy Lord God Almighty who was who is and is to come praise the Lord That's where you're headed if you believe in the gospel and the Lord Jesus Christ sees your deeds that they're not lukewarm and he calls you whether you're a Christian or not to repent. For the believers that are here, let's just, let's crank it up. Examine your works.

Examine your works in every area of your life, from top to bottom. If you're not born again, come to Jesus Christ. Heaven really is real and the thunderings and the lightnings and the calves and all the stuff down here is pointing you to another real place. And it is real and you will face God. Please don't face God and have him say, I never knew you.

Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. God has given us a very urgent message to the unbelievers and we should be very careful to deliver it. Would you pray with me? Father we thank you for this remarkably beautiful convicting hard passage to to shake us out of our sleep, to shake us away from our lukewarmness. Lord we pray that you would use these words from your word to cause us to examine all of our works and to do everything we can to make them hotter than they've ever been.

Oh Lord, we pray also that you would cause the ears to open and those who don't know you that they would find that they were saved in the church in Laodicea. Amen.