The sermon by Paul Carrington discusses the message to the church of Laodicea from Revelation 3:14-22. It describes Laodicea as a wealthy, self-sufficient city that became spiritually lukewarm. The speaker emphasizes that lukewarmness, or spiritual complacency, is a severe issue that leads to a church losing its witness and effectiveness. The sermon highlights the importance of being spiritually 'hot' for Christ, contrasting with the self-sufficiency and complacency seen in Laodicea. The historical context of Laodicea is used to illuminate the scripture, noting its wealth, banking significance, medical advancements, and the inadequate lukewarm water supply. The speaker warns against the 'fool's gold' of self-reliance and prosperity that can mask spiritual poverty, urging believers to seek true spiritual riches, righteousness, and vision from Christ. The sermon concludes with a call for repentance and renewed fellowship with Jesus, emphasizing that He stands ready to restore and dine with those who open their hearts to Him.

Good morning the scripture text this morning is Revelation chapter 3 Verses 14 through 22 And To the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write 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 could 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 am 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 with a 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 eyesalve 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 us pray. Lord, we thank you for this section of scripture. We pray for our brother Paul as he comes to exposit and extract and articulate truth to us, Lord, that we may learn from this section of scripture. Lord, we pray that we are not a lukewarm church. We pray that you help us put away this sin that so easily creeps into churches to blend in, to not be too controversial, to preach the gospel to its full extent.

Lord, we pray that we be hot for Christ. Lord, that you would give us the strength and courage and boldness to speak his lines as we should about the gospel, Lord, and that we would be found faithful to you when you inspect us. Lord, we pray for Brother Paul, Give him strength, wisdom, and words to exposit this section of Scripture. Thank you, Lord. Amen.

And I just want to take us back, if you if you looked back to the very beginning when we started looking at these seven churches We saw the picture of the Lord himself walking in the midst of these seven golden lampstands They weren't just lampstands, but they were golden lampstands. This idea of preciousness that he had invested so much into these churches that he had made them what they were, pure. It was all because of their relationship to him that they had become golden. And it really highlights what the simple design of the Lord is for his church. And that is this, you know, in the sermon on the mount the Lord says to those saints, those disciples, He says, you are the light of the world.

A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand. And it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven." And so you see the design of the church. It's a golden lampstand to be enlivening and enlightening the sin darkened world that we live in. It's to show God's glory in the midst of a world that's totally undone.

That's the entire design that the Lord has for a church. But what happens when a church no longer does this anymore? When what happens when a church begins to confuse the watching world as to who her Lord is and what the calling of the church actually is by its lifestyle, by its priorities. What happens at that point when its eyes drop from the things that are above and they settle on the things of this world and they become satisfied in the things of this world. Well what happens is you get a letter like this, a letter to the church of the Laodiceans.

And key to understanding this text is verse 19, where he says, as many as I love, I rebuke and I chase them. These are sons, these are people that are already Christians. They've been justified and so on. It's a letter to a church to a golden lampstand Some people might say that you know, these were totally unsaved people But I think verse 19 helps you see that he's writing to people that he loves already He set his love and therefore he rebukes and chastens just like we see a father chastens his sons. And so it's this chastening that he's applying as we look at this letter here to try to to wake them up.

And what do we want to understand today? Well, we want to understand how did a church get this way? A church that at one point would have been vibrant, a church that was full of life, how did it come to this place? This is the critical question because think about it, more churches throughout history, more churches throughout history are found buried in this graveyard than in any other graveyard. If you excavate this graveyard you will find the remains of churches that at one time were full of life but over the course in the passage of time they they just dissipated and lost everything that they had so why is it why does the Lord have this for us it's here as an intense warning because the temptation so often is that we can confuse fool's gold for the true tried gold that the Lord has to offer.

And today the entire summary is really to do with self-sufficiency and self-dependence, otherwise defined by the Lord as Luke warmness. When we live in a culture like this where self-dependency is really the definition you know the American mindset is kind of pull yourself up by your bootstraps, do whatever you have to do, that pioneer spirit of just never giving in, never giving up, hard scrabble, and that's all well and good. It is a commendable thing, but when it eliminates dependence upon God, when the church takes on that spirit you all of a sudden have an altogether different problem and it renders a church deathly sick over the course of time that it it becomes not what it ought to have been where that lampstand that golden lampstand begins to not give off the light that it should. Well, there are two things I wanna just make clear here at the outset as we look at these, at this church and these few scriptures here. I wanna make clear that this is not a call to monastery living.

This is not a call to monkery. All of a sudden, let's sell everything we have and go off to the woods or give to the poor. That's not necessarily what the Lord is saying here. It's not an endorsement of poverty. That's not what the Lord's argument is.

And it's not something that's to make us feel guilty either for the blessings that the Lord has given, the physical blessings, the material blessings. That's not really the intent of this letter. But what I do want to say is that oftentimes, oftentimes prosperity is purchased at the cost of spiritual health. And so there's a reason why there's so many warnings throughout the Bible, even more so from Christ himself when you go through the New Testament and the Gospels, because there is a very real warning against living in a culture much like the one that we live in. And the other thing I want to say, just the second part, just to set the tone, is that there are actually seven churches.

A lot of people will try to make the argument that these seven churches represent dispensations in the church age. And so the very first church, Ephesus, was the church in the second century and you know you kind of go along the spectrum and you get to Laodicea and everyone likes to make that argument that Laodicea is that end times church. Well that's not the case at all. There's really no biblical backing. Now that might be the case in a certain country or a certain time, but this is not a dispensational argument whatsoever.

Rather, what the Lord is doing, He's giving us case studies that we can look at these churches and gain an understanding of how the church looks throughout all the different ages. And what's astounding to me when I'm looking at this, all of these seven churches, is that in just seven cases, the Lord reduces almost all the conditions the church will face. It's amazing, you go through Ephesus and Smyrna and Pergamos, Thyatira, all the way down, and there's almost no case that churches will not face that aren't covered in these seven letters. But these are real churches that existed in time, And it's a mirror for us, isn't it? It's a mirror so that when we look into these seven letters, we can see ourselves.

Where are we? Where are we stacking up as we kind of navigate into the harbor? Where are the shoals and the danger points that we need to make sure we avoid? And that we keep ourselves and we keep looking to him as really the source of everything that there that there is and and so it's so important that on the one hand every enemy is pointed out in these seven letters but on the other hand we see all of these wonderful promises that the Lord extends to his people and most of all what do we see? We see Christ himself standing out from everything.

And so today we have some hard words, there's no way around it, there's some hard words that the Lord is going to be bringing to this church and by extension to us and yet no other letter Displays the lengths that he will go to save us from ourselves Such a display of love and no other letter is the heart of God more clearly seen one brother prayed earlier about having about us being true worshipers that worship him in spirit and in truth. No other letter conveys what God is after more than this letter that we see before us here. And so how did Laodicea get this way? That's the hope, that's what I hope to uncover to us today and hope that we can discover you know a couple weeks ago two weeks ago I was I was talking with a brother an earnest brother weren't even talking about this text at all and he says you know Paul he says my greatest fear is not that my children will not be saved, but my greatest fear is that they will be lukewarm. And I laid that to heart.

Here's a man who's, he's trusting that the Lord is gonna save his children in time, not presuming, but he hopes and prays, oh Lord, what I ask you to really save them from is lukewarm, tepid religion. And so may the Lord help us to see here in this message if there is something that we can take away and be strengthened by. I want to start off in verse 14, it says, and to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, these things says the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. And so he starts off writing this letter, the address is to the Laodiceans. Just by way of explanation, the city of Laodicea was about 40 miles south of Philadelphia.

It was nestled in the in the Lycus Valley and there were two other cities that you'll know of if you read the New Testament that were its neighbors that actually had sister churches as well. Also you have three churches kind of within a very short distance of time or a short span of distance. You have the city of Colossi which is about 10 miles down the road and then on the other side you have Heropolis. So both of these churches are mentioned in the book of the Laodiceans, the book of Colossians, and in the book of Colossians you have the mention of the Laodiceans about five times. So you get to get some understanding that this church was really kind of in relationship with these other two churches, both Colossae and Heropolis.

And the Lord, the Apostle Paul, he actually writes to the Colossians at the end of it. He says, now when this epistle, the book of Colossians, is read among you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. We don't have a recording of that epistle, but they received an epistle from the Apostle Paul. And there are four absolutely vital things that we need to understand about this city in order to really unpack and understand what the Lord is saying to this church. Otherwise this letter kind of remains somewhat superficial.

The very first thing that he wants us to know or that we should be able to derive from this from this letter is that Laodicea was a city of intense immense wealth it was a city that was a major banking center and just to give you a sense of the enormity of the wealth that they possessed In 8060 there was an earthquake that took place in that area, and I mentioned that last time when we talked about Philadelphia. Philadelphia was destroyed along with some of these other cities, and Laodicea was totally destroyed as well. But Laodicea was the only city to actually turn down disaster relief from the emperor. And so you have the the historian Tacitus writing this. He says in the same year Laodicea, one of the famous Asiatic cities was laid in ruins by an earthquake but recovered by its own resources without assistance from ourselves.

It would be like your house burning totally to the ground and you say well I know the insurance check is in the mail but you know what I'm just gonna foot the bill myself that's kind of what Leo de Silla did after being totally devastated but they didn't just rebuild the city what they did is they made major upgrades they put in a stadium they had three marble theaters they had a gymnasium these heated baths that you know that piped in all this water and so on and they put in massive new gates and walls. They didn't just rebuild to what it was but they took the opportunity to even exceed what they were previously. That's wealth. That's proud self-sufficiency. We don't need your help, Emperor.

We can cover the bills ourselves. And that will factor in to this letter. Another part that's important to understand is that Laodicea was renowned for its medical school, specializing in ophthalmology. And ophthalmology is really the branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the eye. And so they specifically, they invented an eye salve.

It was a powder mixed with oil that people would travel all over the world to try to get this to heal ailments of the eye. And these doctors were so well known and so respected that they even adorned the coins, the Laodicean coins. They had two of their most famous doctors on those coins. That's how they thought. And so this was another aspect that was important to understand.

And then the third piece is that they were also very very well known for trade and it was likely that a lot of the people in the church would also have probably been in some way involved in this lucrative trade of textiles. They had this this black wool that was the softest, sleekest wool that would be woven into all sorts of garments and then exported all over the Roman Empire. Especially at a time when clothing was super expensive these people had it in abundance and they could weave it sell it do all the types of different things and they were known for that and then the fourth piece is that despite all of this affluence they had a major weakness and that was that you have Colossae I mentioned being about 10 miles away and Colossae had this pure cool drinking water from a mountain stream that was the source of the water in Colossae and then about six miles away you have Heropolis and Heropolis even up till today it has hot springs that are known for medicinal healing. People go there even today to be sitting in these hot springs and to somehow allow the minerals to to soothe them and so on.

But Laodicea had really no good solid water source. It had a clay, white water. It was contaminated from the Lycus River that ran right through it. And so what they did is they piped in their water from Heropolis. So it started off in Heropolis boiling hot, but by the time it reached Laodicea six miles away it had become lukewarm through this aqueduct and so remember these four things as we go through this letter well it says these things says the all men the faithful and true witness the beginning of the creation of God.

He gives them three titles. He says I am the Amen. That's the the so be it. Remember how oftentimes we seal our prayers. We say amen at the end of it all.

It's the very last word if you flip to Revelation 22 in our Bibles. You see the word amen and that's because Christ is the personification of the truth of God he's the one by whom God certifies all of his promises so that we read in Corinthians that all the promises of God in him are both yes and in him are amen. He wants us to know this very important piece. He is the Amen. He's not only the Amen but the faithful and the true witness.

And what this means is that he will declare the truth without exaggeration at all or minimization he's gonna deliver it plain and and when he speaks there's no other opinion that's gonna matter when he says what's true it's simply the fact of the matter And he also says he is the beginning of the creation of God. Not that he's a created being but he is the actual the cause and the creator. He's the life spring of all creation. And we read that in John chapter 1 where we find out that all things were made through him, that is through Christ. And without him nothing was made that was made.

And so we know these four things now about Laodicea and these three titles that the Lord addresses her with and we go on into verse 15 and 16 and we get to understand well what is the problem what is the sickness that he's going to be addressing here and he says I know your works that you were neither cold nor hot I wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you were lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth." He starts off by saying, I know your works. These were, as I said earlier, Christians. At one time they would have been hot. When Paul writes to them it seemed like it was a vibrant community of believers just like the people in Colossae.

They were afflicted and affected by some of the false teachings around Christ and Gnosticism and all this kind of special revelation that was creeping into the church even in those early days. And so Paul wrote to them a letter, but they were likely a vibrant church, just like the church in Heropolis or Colossae. But somewhere along the way, they had cooled, just like their drinking water had cooled. In Christ, He knew their works, but in whatever spirit that they were done, they were not acceptable to Him. Somehow they were doing things, but the works that they were doing weren't really acceptable.

And we should take this as a warning to beware. It's very possible to be busy about working for the Lord and yet have our hearts cool towards him personally. We can be busy about his work and yet not be in communion with him on a regular basis. Another thing to always keep in mind is that our God is not Allah or some other false God, but he actually takes care of the spirit, doesn't he? In which the works that you do are done.

And even the motive, He takes all of these things into account and so whatever was happening in Laodicea He doesn't give any commendation whatsoever He says I know your works and that's it the only church to receive zero Commendation from the Lord is found here in Laodicea. He says you were neither cold nor hot I wish I could wish you were cold or hot. He says, you're neither cold like the waters of Colossae. You're neither hot, or the word hot is boiling. You're neither boiling like the waters of Heropolis.

Therefore, so then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth." He says you're lukewarm. He says that you're tepid. And these are the words of the faithful and true witness. He doesn't he doesn't bait the hook with any rhetoric, you know. He's not trying to win applause.

He's got a far far greater goal that he has before him today. His errand is for the health of their souls and so he spares nothing to awaken them to their desperate condition. And you can think about this mothers as mothers, think about it for a moment. You know if you're if you're trying to sue the crying baby, you might try to sing him into a happier mood or rock him into a happier mood, do something to just try to calm him. But if that same child falls into the fire, That same mother takes on an entirely different disposition, doesn't she?

She takes all steps to save that child. And it's much like what Christ is doing here. When you read such, I would say, violent language, that I will vomit you out of my mouth. He's doing something different than just simply saying hey you're doing well keep doing what you're doing He's trying to awaken them to their condition that they might escape and that's what he's saying Can you can you think of I will vomit you out of my mouth? Can you think of stronger words found anywhere else in?

Scripture referring to God's people Is there a tone that reaches a higher pitch than these few words found right here that I will vomit you out of my mouth? Well He's going to define the source of their lukewarmness in the next verse, but here's some things I just want you to really consider. If you could stay with me for a minute, just think about this. Why is it that the harshest language, the greatest condemnation that you find anywhere is reserved for this particular condition of lukewarmness. What could it be?

What's so offensive about lukewarmness that the Lord uses this language? Well I think there's two things I want to highlight. There might be more, but the first one is the impact on lukewarmness on the watching world. Remember what we said about the church being a lamp stand, that's really the design of the church. And this church is no longer shining brightly into the world all around it.

It's a church that the Lord warns about in the same Sermon on the Mount. He says if the salt loses its flavor, how will it be seasoned? What do you do when a church loses its salt when the church is actually the salting influence in the world? You can imagine the devil saying, hey, let the steeples pepper the landscape as long as they are of this sort of church. It doesn't really matter.

What need of a Jezebel or a Balaam? What need to rally persecutors like in Smyrna or in Philadelphia or infiltrate the church with heresy like in Pergamos or Thyatira when a church has this lukewarm temperature abiding in it. This is the kind of religion that makes the worldling smile, Makes him comfortable that he's doing okay because if that's true religion We're both in the same boat. He just has a different way of making himself feel better kind of a therapeutic religion And I want to have us here think about the lukewarm think about this as a young person as well as you interact and engage even with with one another and maybe with unbelievers but all of us should consider this you know the Luke warm man he speaks of heaven but he is content to make this world his home he says he believes in hell but he never sheds a tear or stretches out an arm to pull somebody back and snatch them from the flames. He makes claims about the transforming power of God, but what does the worldling see?

He sees a man much like himself, an appetite, an entertainment. The lukewarm man might be morally dignified but the the worldling sees him as not that energetic in the pursuit of holiness. It's a religion that's neither able to heal like the waters of Heropolis and they're neither able to soothe and comfort and refresh like the waters of Colossae. His life speaks of so little soul satisfaction in Christ. He makes a myth of the abundant life that Christ promises in in John chapter 10.

You remember the event in Numbers 32 where you had the two tribes? Everyone was on the brink of going into the promised land but the Gadites and the Rubinites, they were content to settle on this side, the eastern side of the Jordan because of the pasture land. They didn't want to go in. There was no real pressing need to make the promised land their home. I think we'll just set up shop here because everything looks good.

That's what the lukewarm professor, the lukewarm Christian is really saying with his life. It's the most confusing religion in the world because of who we say that we serve. It's a living contradiction of the highest degree, isn't it, to have a lukewarm Christian. Well, the other thing is, what does this say to Christ and about your relationship with Christ? What makes lukewarm religion so prized by the devil and so offensive to Christ might be another way of asking the question.

Well in one sentence what does it do? It contradicts the entire witness of heaven. Where we read in the Bible how Jesus is the pearl of great price. We see in Revelation how he is the theme of heaven's praises. But the lukewarm professor, not so much.

Not that enticing, not that attractive. You know William Plummer in the 19th century, he wrote this about Christ. He says, It is no marvel that children love him. The saints praise him. The martyrs die for him.

The sorrowing long for him. The humble trust in him. The penitent pour out their tears before him. And the believing lay fast hold of him. His frown shakes the heavens, his smile gives life, his presence converts dungeons into palaces, his blood cleanses from all sin, His righteousness is the white robe of the redeemed.

But for the lukewarm all of that is just words, empty words, nothing nothing much. And so while the world is always at peace with a lukewarm church, What you need to know is that God is not. He's never at peace. See here they were at room temperature. Here's a little experiment you could do.

If I take this cup of water and I leave it out here for the balance of the sermon, what will happen is that will become room temperature. And if I were to close my eyes at the end, I could dip my finger into the water and I could barely tell if it's wet, if it's in the water or not, because it's become acculturated to the surrounding climate, hasn't it? It's just become normal. It's become nothing like a lamp stand, nothing like salt, nothing like light, bright and shining in the darkened culture. But it's become just normal.

So you can't even tell that Christ is in the midst. This church had reached a comfortable truce with the world all around it and we're not called to a comfortable truce and so he says to them I will vomit you out of my mouth that word I will vomit you out of my mouth the phrase is actually I am about to there's still a window there's a small window of hope if you would but repent, if you will hear what I have to say for the rest of the letter. And so he goes on into verse 17, he says, because you say I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched miserable poor blind and naked He says 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 eyesalve that you may see and So he defines lukewarmness here as these three descriptions. He says because you say I am rich Have become wealthy and have need of nothing.

That's the definition of lukewarmness. It's Independence you remember the city that said hey Roman Empire. We don't need any help. We got this we'll foot the bill ourselves that same spirit had rubbed off into the church of the Laodiceans and they were self-sufficient and conceited and that the way that they were conducting themselves and this is the source of the noxious taste in the Lord's mouth that makes him want to vomit this church out. This is what he's tasting when he comes to this church.

They lacked any sense of their true need. Their prayers might have been prayers, but they were not prayers of pleading. There wasn't fervency. There wasn't, if He doesn't come, we are undone. There was none of that.

If He doesn't come, you know what? We'll be fine. We'll just make do ourselves because we have the resources. That was the mindset. They never uttered those words.

They would never say, I am rich and so on. But this was the spirit that describes the church that we find here. You know a few years ago, one of America's most popular preaching stars, and it's a shame that it happens to be a woman by the name of Paula White that tells you a lot about American Christianity. She was on a televised event preaching her whole heart out. You see her there just preaching, preaching, and at the end of it she says, anyone who tells you to deny yourself is Satan.

Oops, because the Lord Jesus Christ says if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. You see that total contradiction was it that Laodicea was feeding themselves on that kind of if they didn't say it outwardly that was the way that they lived that self-denial was something not to be brooked but to keep it a distance. Well this is the danger. But on the other side we have true religion. Think about it like this.

The words of history's greatest sermon, I love the sermon on the mount, it's the one that the Lord used to to save me when I was 20. In the very first words out of his mouth he could have said anything, but he says blessed are the poor in spirit. That means those who are destitute of any righteousness, those who know that they're bankrupt, Blessed are you if you have that disposition. Think about those who can say along with the Apostle Paul, for I know that in me that is in my flesh nothing good dwells. See this is true religion in contrast to Laodicean religion.

Think about those who fall upon Christ continually. Is this you with these words, oh wretched man that I am, Who will deliver me from the body of this death? That's true religion. Or to utter those words like the apostle Paul, who is sufficient for these things? When he looks at his calling and when he looks at the monumental task, I can't do it.

Who is sufficient for these things? And then it causes him to look upward towards his Lord. These words would never cross the lips of the Laodiceans at their present state. There was no trembling before the Lord. There was no sense of unworthiness.

They knew nothing of the inner conflict that hot Christians face on a daily basis, those assaults that come to even the most faithful followers of Christ. You know, you might be in that state where you lament how far short you fall. How little that you love or how dimly you see or how slowly you're going on but that's a far better place to be than to say I have need of nothing because it causes you to do what? To not be self-sufficient and independent but it causes you to cast yourself upon the one who can carry you and make you strong. They knew nothing of the joy of drawing buckets of water from those wells of salvation.

There was no joy welling up in them as they considered every time they get to hear the Word of God or to share the Word of God with a stranger. None of that. That was all foreign to the people of Laodicea. They were too busy because their eyes were tunnel focused and they were looking on the things of this world and we always we all want to be aware of this that it's not always open reckless flagrant sin that sinks God's people but it's excessive attention to things that can be lawful even in themselves it wasn't that they were out carousing but they were just simply distracted by the things of this world and so they became lukewarm over the passage of time and they had what you could call a near terminal case of affluenza, taken from the word affluent, not influenza, but affluenza. And nothing quite blinds people like affluenza.

It's one of those terrible conditions that you can you can contract living here in America very very easily because it's viral well you could ask yourself could the gap between what you say and what you are be any broader Jesus says you say this but what you really are is this and the gap is a million miles wide. They flattered themselves. Their pastors preached peace peace when there was no peace. They would just continue in this kind of fake religion. They never laid the Apostles words to heart, therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

That never even occurred to them. But Christ is not deceived by the glitter at all. Their problem is self-sufficiency. That's what led them into this luke warmness and he says you do not know that you are miserable, wretched, poor, blind and naked. There's something, There's a mineral by the name of pyrite, I've mentioned it already.

And pyrite is otherwise known as fool's gold. And the amazing thing about it is it almost perfectly mimics the look of pure gold, of true gold, at least to the untrained eye. You look at it and you might think, wow, this is amazing. It earned its name from early miners who would find this gold rock in their pans, as they were panning out in California or somewhere else, or digging in the shafts. And then they would mistakenly think that they found true gold.

They would get out and go and they would walk around. We've hit the jackpot, you know, glowing with success. But then they would go to the assayer's office. And he would have to deliver the bad news that that wasn't true gold, but that's fool's gold. You see, the difference between true gold and fool's gold is all the difference in the world.

Fool's gold is light. There's nothing really to it. Whereas when you hold an ounce of true pure gold you know you're holding something with some some substance to it and so they they thought that they had treasures laid up in heaven you say this but it all they had laid up in heaven was fool's gold. Because they had currency with the world. They thought they had currency with Christ, but that was not the reality whatsoever.

And so look at the the words describing this true condition, this state. It's terrifying to think of how the condition of affluenza can so easily mask itself. Because it says you do not know. Notice that. He says, they say this And Christ says, but you do not know that you are this, wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.

And you look at these words wretched, it's this picture of somebody crippled. They can't even stand upon their feet. How contrasting that is to someone who says, I have no need. I can do everything on my own. It says, you're miserable.

This is a picture of someone that's to be pitied, so far from needing nothing. He says that you're poor. You've been reduced to beggary. I know that you're wearing the finest wool and the best suits money can buy. He says but you're naked, you have nothing to actually cover yourself and keep you warm.

He says that you're blind. It's a picture of somebody kind of groping along the wall feeling for the way, unable to see, stretching out the hands. This is the true description of this church. And this is important for us to understand, you know, Christ wasn't catching these people on a bad day. We all have bad days.

We all even have bad weeks or even dry periods in our lives where we might even have a bad month. But this wasn't a bad day or a bad week or a bad month. This was the the settled trajectory and character of this church. Very important for us to know that this was their abiding condition. That they had become lukewarm.

And I want to ask us today, do you as a person, as an individual, do you stop to consider from time to time your trajectory? The course of your life, or even maybe the course of the life of our church. You know, what is the drift of your life? A few weeks ago, my wife and I were at over at the domes and they had a family gathering or husband and wife gathering and he his ten minute talk was all around the question where and how quickly are you drifting you say he says I'm not gonna ask you are you drifting? You are drifting.

That's not the question. But where are you drifting and how quickly are you going there? Because see life is not static. We're all in this current of life and the current and the winds are gonna blow you somewhere and we're all going in a certain path and unless we're awake and aware to the dangers around us we end up all of a sudden five miles off the coast ten miles off the coast and we don't you know how quite we got there There was never a point in time but it was just a slow steady drift. Well the question to ask is what are you placing value on in your life?

What are the things most valuable, not what you say like the Laodiceans, but what are the things if your life was to be x-rayed like this, would Christ say, brother so-and-so or sister so-and-so, most values this? Fill in the blank. Can I ask how your private prayer life is? Are you on speaking terms with the Lord? It's a good question to ask because secret prayer is really pivotal, it's so important.

There are other means of grace, reading your Bible, attending church, other things that are super critical, but that one is one that oftentimes we can seem to get by with without much attention when he says this to them verse 18 I counsel you to buy for 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 eyesalve that you may see." And so what is the cure for this near-terminal case of affluenza? Is it to double their efforts? Is it to work harder? Is it to sell everything and go somewhere else? Is that really what he's saying?

That's not it at all. But now that the case has been stated as it is, Christ is gonna give this church some good counsel. And this is where true life is going to be breathed back into this church. So you can say, well this is a depressing and a sad letter, but almost a third of it is reserved for glorious things that he's going to tell them. And it's almost reminiscent of those words remember when Isaiah approached the people in Judah and the Lord spoke through him and he says come now and let us reason together Says the Lord this is almost the same spirit that the Lord by the way the one who spoke in Isaiah is the one Speaking in Laodicea.

He's saying take my advice come now. I'm gonna give you Good advice, and I'm gonna use language That you're acquainted with. He says you're poor but he says buy my gold. He says you're naked but buy my clothing. He says to them you're blind but you can buy my eyeself.

But with what? Now that the situation has been laid bare and these people have been seen for who they really are, that they're actually the most poverty-stricken of all the seven churches. How can a people like this buy anything? Is this a mockery? Is the Lord kind of dangling something over them that they can't get?

To mock them for their backsliding? That's not it at all. In Isaiah chapter 55 we read these wonderful words. He says, Ho, behold, pay attention. This is the words of the Lord.

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. He asked this question that we can ask ourselves, why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and let your soul delight itself in abundance the invitation has been laid out to the people in Isaiah's day it's also laid out to the people here in Laodicea who may partake Only those who cannot pay may come.

Still the same today, that only those who have nothing with which to bring, only to the cross I cling, have any currency with Jesus Christ. It's a call to part with being done with self-sufficiency. It's a call to part with lukewarm religion that you might be truly rich. And so to a church that's falling away, he calls them back to the storehouse, to this treasure trove, and he's saying, come, I want you to buy these things. I will give you beauty for ashes.

It's almost like he's literally opening up a vault, and he's saying, why don't you enter and take whatever you need because look at your condition as you currently are He wants him to purchase these three things with the money by the way that he provides That they may be truly rich here is the remedy for lukewarmness these three things he says I want you to buy tried gold doesn't not just gold but tried gold what that means is it's it's gold that's been purified it's fresh from the furnace it's had its dross and impurities burned out of it And this is not a sadistic prayer. I want you to just get pain, tried gold. But he does understand this. It's not a call to pray that you could be beaten and persecuted and all of that kind of thing. But the Lord knows this.

He knows this, that if this people quits their lukewarm religion, what will happen? The world around them will all of a sudden wake up when the light goes on and they begin to see there's something here, when they begin to taste and there's salt again. And what will that do? Just like it will do here, it will draw ire from the ungodly watching world and so they've been able to skirt trouble by befriending the world unlike Smyrna unlike Philadelphia but he says I want you to buy from me tried gold. It's this kind of Hebrews 11 tried gold, you know these people that we read about in the book of Hebrews chapter 11.

He says you're gonna suffer for me now but you're gonna be much the better for it. He says I want you to do away with the light stuff, the fool's gold. He says what is the chaff to the wheat? That's kind of what he's saying to these people here. And then he says white garments, not just garments, not just white garments, but the word here is brilliant, almost blinding, dazzling garments trade in that black wool that everyone knows you buy and everyone comes to buy from you and that you're able to sell.

He says I'm gonna give you something truly satisfying. This would have been a total contrast and now you're gonna be covered whereas before you were naked. Now you're gonna be truly covered. And then he gives him this last one. He says I want you to buy from me, I self.

And this is where he hits them, where they pride of themselves most with their medical school and all of their achievements. You see, they had been overrun by the spirit of Demas. Paul says in Timothy, he says, that Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world. They had been overrun by that. They had been short-sighted.

Somehow, something had gotten into their eyes spiritually speaking and their eyes had become dim you can consider Moses where Moses forsook the treasures of Egypt and the passing pleasures of sin because he esteemed the reproach of Christ as greater riches. These people weren't doing that. But you know what it says in Hebrews 11? By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. This eyeself that I have to sell you is that kind of eyeself that enabled Moses to forsake all the riches of Egypt and run this race.

It's the I self that you read about in Hebrews 11 where they saw a city a far off it says and they were persuaded. They were looking for a city that has foundations whose builder and maker is God. See this world what does it do? You can examine your own heart. I know what it does in my heart.

It deadens your desire even for eternal things doesn't it? If you're honest with yourself the more comfy and cozy you get in this world oftentimes is the less you desire heaven and to be with Christ. It's just a simple reality. You can maybe tell me different but that's the experience I have personally and I know many many have and so he set this storehouse before him. The thing about eyesalve, by the way, is this.

Is that eyesalve, when it's applied, just like this rebuke to the people in Laodicea, it hurts terribly when first it's applied to your eyes. It stings. You might even cry. You might, your eyes begin to water and gush, but it has a wonderful healing effect afterwards. And it's the same thing when you take the rebuke of the Lord and you apply it.

It might sting, it does sting, it's chastening. He doesn't hide that, but afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness because God is good and he intends our best and you see that no more clearly than in the next verse it says as many as I love I rebuke and chasten Therefore be zealous and repent Behold I stand at the door and I knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into him and dine with him and he with me There's no more breathtaking display of love than you find right here. This is the great motive of the whole letter. It's found in this one word, as many as I love. That's why I've spoken to you the way that I've spoken to you.

You might be, as I said earlier, listen to this and be somewhat discouraged, but there is no greater love demonstrated in all seven of the letters than what you read in these next couple of verses. Because the heat of the rebuke that the Lord gives, that threat that I am about to vomit you out of my mouth is actually a great manifestation of his love for these people. You know in Hebrews chapter 12 we we read this that if you endure chastening God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons." And so if he had not loved them in this way he would have left them to simply apostatize and to go into that graveyard of the all the other churches in the world but he doesn't he comes to them and he awakens them he treats them as sons he he calls them to not despair but he calls them to repentance This is the best thing that has ever happened in the church of Laodicea.

He says, therefore be zealous and repent. This is the remedy, this renewed relationship with Jesus Christ. And that same word zealous is the same word used in verse 16 for hot. Be hot in your approach and your repentance. Let it be the equivalent of that hot water that comes from Heropolis.

This is what he's calling them to be, to be heated to a boil. It's not even just hot, warm water. It's to be almost boiling in the way that you turn yourself back to God. And you could say, well, hadn't this church gone so far or too far? This was the worst church of the seven.

Hasn't his grace been exhausted? Surely. I mean look at the state that these people are in. They say all these wonderful things about themselves. But Christ shows us here that none are so bad.

But Christ affords them some grounds for hope if they will but turn. It's a wonderful offer. Though their distance from Him is great, what do we find? That His distance from them isn't far at all. Where does He find Himself?

He says, behold, I stand at the door and I knock and this is perhaps the most twisted scripture maybe outside of judge not that you be not judged in all the world this is used you know all of a sudden the pianist will start playing a little lightly and you close your eyes and the preacher begins to just rally everyone together and says he stands at the door and he knocks and if you just open just even a crack or even if you put your ear to the door whatever you need to do the Lord will come on in but you have to turn the latch of your heart because there's no handle on the outside. All of these things that men use to win men to Christ. But that's not it. He's speaking not to unbelievers here, but he's speaking to the church. This is not a picture of Christ begging either.

It's not Christ, oh please let me in, just please give me one more chance, I promise. This is nothing like that. But he's standing at the door. He's on the other side. That's the message here.

He's excluded. It was a church that had everything except Jesus Christ. How precisely this can describe the American church, the American culture. He Says I knock at present he's on the outside. This is this is literally a picture of a church on the brink of apostatizing But he knocks and how does the Lord knock he he knocks?

Through faithful sermons he knocks through his word through times of meditation maybe through the faithful words of a friend that might even wound you. Maybe impressions of the Spirit, those types of things to kind of waken you to cause you to go on with the Lord. But he can open any door but what he's attempting to do here is to woo them back. I stand at the door and I am knocking, but if any man hears my voice and he comes and he opens, I will come into him." That's what he's saying. And notice how it gets personal.

Up into this point, he's speaking to the church, but he says, they have any one. And this is what Spurgeon says, he says we must not talk about setting the church right. We must pray for grace each one for himself. For the text does not say if the church will open the door, but if any men hear my voice and open the door, it must be done by individuals. The church will only get right by each man getting right." And so I want to ask ourselves has Christ withdrawn himself from anyone's life today?

Have you sensed a withdrawing? Maybe Christ has been crowded out, he's no longer your dependency? Because what we always want to know, understand is that inward decline always precedes outward collapse. That gutting of the inside comes before that outside crumbles. And you might be in the church today, you might even be partaking of all of the blessings, but have you grown happy with fool's gold, with imitation gold?

And the question he's asking, why would you stay a moment longer? I've opened up all of the treasures of my storehouse for you, if you would but repent, if you would but turn. And he uses this word, I just want to spend a minute on this word dine. He says, I will come in and there's this beautiful promise of dining with Christ. And the main, The purpose of this word, this word highlights what dining means.

It's really the main or the principal meal of the day. This is not like a Chick-fil-A drive-through, you know, kind of get what you need on your way to something else. This is an actual sit-down meal where there's interaction, where there's looking across the table, and it takes time. This is not a rush thing that you can just do, okay I'm gonna dine with you and then I'm gonna go back to what I was doing before, but it's a renewal that he's calling them to. It's a picture of restored fellowship.

It's the one who says I want to spend time with you. I want to get to know you or renew my love for you once again. And it's also a picture of the communion that we're going to partake of in a few minutes which foreshadows the great supper of the Lamb that is on the horizon when Christ comes again. And you might say, but I have nothing to serve Him. And that's the beauty of it all, is that Christ brings everything needful for this restoration of fellowship with Him.

And so here's the thing I just want you to remember is that the strength of any church, the strength of any pulpit or any ministry, any family, any missionary, any mission, It comes from this simple three words, fellowship with Christ. Let that be your pursuit. Let that be your your burning heart and if you've lost it, he's calling you back to it today, to that secret prayer, to enjoyment with him in the quiet place in a world that's so loud and fractious he's calling you aside to have true fellowship with him 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 talks about this word over common and and we talked about these Rubenites and the Gadites. Let's beware that we don't fall prey to taking our ease and being content on this side of the Jordan but cross over into the promised land we must we have to have that spirit about us that is that pilgrim spirit like men and women that are not yet at home we need to have that burning within us on a regular basis he you know Christ he says as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne, he endured temptation yet without sin, you know.

The constant appeal of the devil to Christ himself was spare yourself. He used Peter to do it, He took him up on the mountain to do it. He did all of these things. If you will just bow down and worship me, I'll give you everything. And that same lure is the same lure that's dangled in front of us often today.

It's the same lure that Laodice had clamped its mouth shut on. And that's what he's saying to him and he ends with these words, he that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Do you hear the Lord's warnings against lukewarm religion? The worst rebuke is reserved for those that are lukewarm One commentator he said let tepid churches call themselves clubs But not churches not lampstands not not golden lampstands. And so the only remedy that we have for this Luke warmness for this affluenzas for the excluded Christ to be readmitted into our midst into our hearts Individually and corporately there's always this danger praise God.

He he hasn't left us. He's given us grace He's with us we can and we can but there's always this danger like every other church in history To fall into this snare And so I just want to conclude with a few thoughts here. My great prayer is that we would see the crime of lukewarmness here and that we might avoid sinking into it and if any have sunk into it individually that you would Recover yourself today that you wouldn't continue in the state that you're you've been going in today Because think about it like this that the the things we claim to believe and the person that we claim to believe in He is of such importance that we we simply can't not be hot Without practically denying him It's almost an impossibility when you think of what happens in heaven and you have this Christ that you name and we name. It's impossible to be lukewarm when we have a true understanding of what he really is and who he is. And so in these seven letters we found warning suited to every possible danger, haven't we?

We've seen the beautiful union between holiness of life on the one side and purity of doctrine on the other side. And we've seen it above all the prominence and the preeminence of the Lord Jesus Christ wearing some of the grandest of his titles in each of these seven letters, these wonderful attributes as he walks in the midst of these seven golden lampstands. And what God I think wants us to know is this, that I have spared absolutely nothing in your redemption and salvation. He wants us to know that and that should garner a response from us as well because looming at the finish line of this short life that you have, this life is but a vapor, looming at the finish line is Christ himself. He is the victor, the conqueror.

He's the one who is reigning right now as the King of Kings, as the Lord of Lords. He calls himself the Alpha and the Omega. He's the lamb that has been slain but now ruling as the lion of the tribe of Judah. There he is looming at the finish line. If you would have that eyesalve that all of a sudden would clear your vision and see you would run this race with renewed vigor and passion to meet him at the end.

And here's the words of this hymn. I just want to end with this and you might have heard this hymn before it's one of the most beautiful says turn your eyes upon Jesus look full in his wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Let's pray. Oh Lord we we come before you as your people. Lord we thank you that you take such care to shepherd your church, to guide your church, Lord.

Thank you for this great display of love here in Laodicea, even despite their condition being near ruining. Lord, we ask you today to help us, to awaken us, to just reach down your hand of mercy, Lord. And if there are any that are found in this condition as we've read today, as we've gone through today, that you would do your work. Do mightily, O Lord, redeem and strengthen and have mercy. Lord, we need you.

We don't want to be independent, self-sufficient, but Lord, we want to be constantly as those found waiting at your gates, hearing your voice and having communion with you, Lord. May you help us even now. In Christ's name we pray amen