Keep sharing good news without ads.
Bro. Bill Nichols
Yeah, this is definitely working now. It's definitely working. I can I can hear it up there. Now we're ready to begin or we still waiting. We are still. Oh, that's a little bit Okay. Yeah, I think can you hear me?
Yeah, I can hear it now. This is better for me. I won't have to sit right on the phone, but I can lean a little bit away. We're still in Revelation chapter 3 and we're going to go back to verse 14 to begin and Unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans.
Right these things saith the Amen the fateful and true witness the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would that thou were cold or hot. So then because there are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot I will spew thee out of my mouth.
Let us pray most gracious Heavenly Father. Thank you for bringing us together once again in your house of worship a place that you've given us where we are free to study Your word and to worship you. Thank you for providing for us the Holy Spirit to lead us in our studies and in our understanding of your text.
Thank you for giving us the spirit and the desire to wish to know about you. Help keep us on fire for you. We pray that you keep us from becoming a lukewarm Church. In Jesus name we pray Amen. Well, we were dealing with the lukewarm Church last week and this is how far we got the lukewarm Church.
We ended with the question To whom does the church Really belong. I've seen some people come in. I'm gonna wait just a second. Is John on his way. I'll wait just another second. We are in Revelation chapter 3 and we are on the Passage to the church of the Laodiceans and We actually began there last week and we spent the whole time dealing with basically.
To whom does the church belong? And that was the question we ended with. To whom does the church really belong? Does it belong to the people. Is the church a congregational church? Is it like the church of the Laodiceans a church that voted on everything.
A Church that bent to the will of the people. And is that necessarily a bad thing? If you. If you look back into your past and I can look back into mine. I grew up as a Southern Baptist and what we did was we voted on everything.
We voted on the coat of the carpet. We voted on the deacons. We voted on the pastor. We voted on Everything and everybody voted. Everybody that came into church voted. We were a very democratic Church.
Everybody had the same voice. Well. That was the way the Laodicean Church was. They bent to the will of the people. It was after all called the church of the Laodiceans. Every other church was called the church at a place.
The Ephesus Church was the church at Ephesus. This the Smyrna. The Smyrna Church was identified as in Smyrna at Philadelphia was Identified as in Philadelphia, but the church of the Laodiceans Was identified as the church of the Laodiceans not the church at Laodicea.
It wasn't in a Bible where it was. It was identified by who the church. Who the church belonged to it belonged to the Laodiceans? Well, that's the way the Southern Baptists were. The Southern Baptists were a congregational church and they voted on everything.
Well what the Lord said about the Laodicean Church is it was a church that he said he would spew out of his mouth. We translate that now vomit. It's even stronger than spew. That was not a very helpful healthy thing to be.
Well. Does it belong to the leaders? That's another style of the church. A Church that belongs to the leaders of the church. The church that belongs to the elders. The church that is run by the elders of the church.
Is it a church like Pergamos. A church holding the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. The word Nicolaitia means power over the people. That's a church. Which the Lord said he hates. Or does the church belong to Christ?
Now that's where we were last time. We came to the Conclusion That really the church we should model ourselves after is a church that belongs to Christ. Not a church that belongs to the people. Not a church that belongs to the elders.
A Church that belongs to Christ. So, let's go on back to the church of the Laodiceans. So then because thou art neither lukewarm and neither hot nor cold I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art Wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked now.
That's a good contrast between the way they viewed themselves and the way the church of Smyrna Viewed themselves. The church of Smyrna had a self Perception that they were that they were poor but the angel identified them as Rich.
They were identified as poor but rich. Every church in this list had a perception of Themselves that was not true. That was untrue a an erroneous Self-perception. This comment to the Laodicean Church is the ultimate rebuttal to a fluent contentment and to spiritual complacency that usually results from Affluent contentment if you think you have everything that you need or you can get everything you need.
Then you do not rely on the Lord as much as you should and you are spiritually poverty stricken. So what does the Lord what advice does the Lord have for this church for the church of Laodicea? He said I counsel thee to buy of me tried in the furnace that thou mayest be rich and white raiment that thou mayest be closed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear and Anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see.
So, how is it that the Lord that God used the church of the Laodiceans? How does the how does the Lord see the church of the Laodiceans? Okay, that's what you ought not then what you ought what you ought not do.
You won't not be self-content. You won't not be Self-sufficient. You won't not believe that you are the ultimate answer to all of your problems. That they need to understand what The word ought. Yes.
The church is the body of Christ. Yes. Yes, and I really like your analogy and that takes me to a a tie-in point that is Better than what I have. So you are the body of Christ? And how are you clothed of Christ?
That's the white garment and this it's unfortunate the way this is translated it says I counsel of thee to buy of me Gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed.
You're not going to buy that white raiment. That white raiment is what it is a free gift of God. It's something that you got whether you wanted it or not. It was given to you because the Lord chose you to be one of his one of his body.
Now you can either clothe yourself in your own righteousness and be naked and filthy or You can clothe yourself in his righteousness and be pure and clean. Not as you as clean as you can be. But as clean as he was because he gave you his cleanliness.
And that was a much better way. I'm going to skip what I was going to say. All I said was it would be the though the white raiment that he's talking about later on in the verse it would be the free gift of Jesus Christ and Now we get to the exhortation these things always come in pair in groups of seven the the name of the church the title of The Speaker of the angel.
A commendation a Criticism and then an exhortation. Now if we go back through the Leah and there's two more we go back through the list the title was the church of the Laodiceans and The person talking to them was the amen the beginning of the creation and all of that.
The commendation was he didn't have a single good thing to say about him not one. So he goes straight to the criticism and we just read the criticism and now we're to number five the exhortation. Okay, you have been a you have been identified you have been it's been spelled out what you are.
I've told you all the good stuff about you. Which in this case is nothing and the things you need to correct which in this case is a lot now what as? Many as I love he says this is the exhortation as many as I love I rebuke and chasten.
Be zealous therefore and repent. So what is he telling you? I? Still love you even in your filthy condition. Does he want you to stay in that filthy condition? No, he wants you to cleanse yourself to repent and To clothe yourself in the righteousness that he has provided for you and not to try to rely on your own.
So is there any hope for the lukewarm Christian? Evidently there is he says repent. So evidently there is hope. Is there any hope for this church? Not this church this church. We're sitting in this church.
We're talking about. I hope we're not sitting in this church. Is there any church it is there any hope for the lukewarm church, that's the way I said it. I should have said it this way to start with if they repent.
So he goes on to say in verse 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock and if any man I highlighted any man and I would like for you to underline any man if you are in the highlighting or Underlining business.
Underline any man if any man in this church. Hear my voice and open the door. I will come in to him and Will sup with him and he with me. We had a really long and I thought wonderful Sermon from Spurgeon that I read Last week and it's titled the earnest Something of the lukewarm church.
I forgot the title. I can look it up in a minute. But if you did Spurgeon and the word earnest spell with a e a r n e s t. It would pop it up and you could get the entire sermon and it would be worth your reading.
This is down toward the latter part of this sermon. And here's what Spurgeon said about this passage and I'll bet every one of you have heard this passage Preached to in the way that Spurgeon describes.
Tell me if that's the case as we go behold, he said Behold saith he I stand at the door and knock this is Spurgeon and he is quoting. I have known this text preached Upon to sinners Numbers of time as though Christ knocked at their door and they had to open it and so on.
So this is this is preached a lot as an evangelical Passage. I stand at the door and knock and it's your duty to open the door. He goes on to say the preacher talking about the preacher that is preaching this text that way.
Has never managed to keep to the free grace. It's not something that he is preaching To to get you to do something so that he may come into your life. He is not asking you to come down to the to the front and Commit in front of everybody that you belong to him.
That's not what he's he's not even talking to that person. For this reason Spurgeon goes on to say that the text was not meant to be so used. And if men will write a text the wrong way it will not go.
This text belongs to the Church of God. Not to the unconverted. It is addressed to the lay of the sin Church. There is Christ outside the church Driven there by her unkindness. But he has not gone far away and he loves his church.
Too much to leave her all together. He longs to come back and therefore he waits at the door post. He knows that the church will never be restored till he comes back and He desires to bless her. So he stands there waiting knocking and knocking again and again.
He does not merely knock once but he stands knocking by earnest sermons by providence. By impressions upon consciousness by the quickening of the Holy Spirit and while he knocks he speaks. He uses all of his means to awaken his church.
Most condescendingly and graciously does he do this? For as having threatened to spew her out of his mouth He might well have said I will get me gone and I will never come back to thee again. That would have been natural and just.
He offered you. He selected you he offered you his righteousness and you chose your own. You chose to present yourself to him naked and filthy. He would like for you to repent of that to cleanse yourself and to come back to him.
But he's not talking about John Doe out in the street he is talking to you who has been selected has been given his grace and His righteousness and you have rejected it because you think you have a better way to go.
That's the way I interpreted what? Mr. Spurgeon is saying. But how gracious is he when have you expressed his disgust? He says disgusted as I am with your condition. I do not wish to leave you. I Have taken my presence from you, but I love you and therefore I knock at your door.
And I wish to be returned into your heart. He does not break bolt and bar. He does not break bolt and bar and come in as he often does into the sinner's heart. Carrying the soul by storm because that man is dead in sin and Christ must do it all or the sinner will purchase will perish.
But he is sure speaking to living men and women. Who ought to also be loving men and women and he says I wish to be among you open the door to me. We ought to open the door at once and say come in good Lord.
We grieve to think that we should ever have put thee outside that door at all. That is a wonderful sermon if I if I could say anything to you, I would say look that passage up and read it. You can get all of his sermons or almost all of his sermons free if you Go on the internet.
He goes on Behold us. This is the this is revelation 320 behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door. I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me. Spurgeon goes on to say and see what he promises.
See what promises he gives. He will come and sup with us that is we shall be the host and Shall entertain him. But he adds and he with me that is he will be the host and the guest by turns. We will give of him our best.
But poor fair that is too poor for him and yet he will partake of it then he shall Be the host and we will be the guest and all how we will feast on what he gives. I will come in to him what if he opens the door and sup with him and He with me and now to the overcomer.
To him that overcometh. I will grant to sit with me in my throne. Even as I also overcame and I'm sitting down with my father on his throne. If you wish you can turn to first John chapter 5 verse 4 and it will talk about who is the overcomer and What it is that you're overcoming.
For whatsoever is born of God Overcometh the world and This is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
So who's the overcomer. Those that have been selected by God and who believe that Jesus is the Son of God and You can believe all the things you want to believe and all the things you want to believe are good.
You can believe if I were to get up and walk over there and sit down on that chair that chair would support me and Hold me up. But if you knew what it was really made of and what I'm made of you would be Amazed.
I didn't fall right on through. You can believe what you want to believe but there's only one belief that you can have that will lead you Take you to be an overcomer. And what is that that Jesus is the Son of God if you don't believe that.
You don't have a belief that will save you. And then we get to the closure. The last thing the thing that he ends every passage with he that hath an ear to hear. Let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches now.
We had we had said that many times and I'll just ask it one more time. Who is it that has an ear to hear? The elect the ones that the Lord has given the ability to hear what he says and to see what he does.
We must examine ourselves. This is Spurgeon again finishing out his sermon. We must examine ourselves and We must confess the fault if we have declined in grace. If you don't have as much grace as you used to have whose fault is it?
It's your fault and Then we must not talk about setting the church, right? We must set ourselves right and then we must not talk about setting the church, right? We must pray for grace for each one for himself for the text does not say if the church will open the door.
But it says if any man Hear my voice and open the door it must be done. By individuals the church will only get right by each man getting right. Oh that we might get back to an earnest zeal for our Lord's service and love and We shall only do so by listening to his rebukes and then falling into his arms.
Clasping him once again and saying my lord my god. That healed Thomas didn't it? Putting his fingers into the prints of the nails putting his hands into the side that cured him poor unbelieving staggering.
Thomas Only had to do that and he became one of the strongest believers and he said my lord and my god. Come close to me and what's getting close to him. Never go away from him anymore. The Lord bless you dear brethren and the Lord bless you in this thing.
We have now finished the last of the seven letters to the seven churches in One sense we can view these letters. Okay, we're in good shape. We can view these letters as seven literal letters to seven literal churches which indeed they are each church is a real literal concrete church and Each one is filled with literal people and each one has a message given to it but in a broader sense the seven can be viewed as a number of completion and we can symbolically view the seven letters as a unified message.
From God to his complete church because it does say if you remember to the churches. Each time it says to the churches not simply to the church at Philadelphia. So now in the narrow sense, what is his message to these several literal churches?
We're going to sum it up to the church at Ephesus. The message was remember your first love and return to it. Doctrinal and moral purity undiminished zeal for the truth and discipline service are Admirable but they're no substitute for the love of Christ a Love that this church had forsaken and the Lord Instructed them to return to the first love.
The next message was the one to the suffering church the church at Smyrna. Those who prove the genuineness of their faith by remaining faithful to the Lord even unto death They will receive as their reward the crown the victor's crown the crown of life.
James said in chapter 1 verse 12 blessed is the man that endures temptation. For when he has tried he shall receive the crown of life Which the Lord hath promised to him to them that love him. Perseverance proves the genuineness of their faith as They endure the suffering.
The scriptures teach that true Christians will persevere. That biblical truth was understood by the authors of the Westminster confession of faith. They wrote this. They whom God hath accepted in his beloved Effectually called and sanctified by his spirit can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace.
But shall certainly persevere therein to the end and be eternally saved. There was a message to the church at Pergamos it could repent and receive all the blessings of eternal life in the glory of heaven or it could refuse to repent and Face the terrifying reality of having the Lord Jesus Christ declare a war upon it.
Maintaining the path of compromise Ultimately leads to judgment. You can't compromise. You can't be of God and of the world. That was the message to the third church. Yes Christians can't not repent and be Christians.
Christians must repent. Yes, I can't add anything to that. That is exactly right. It is so easy To come just become distracted and that's the role of Satan. We'll get to that In not too distant of a future when we look at the war that is going on between Good and evil.
When it began. Where it is right now right now this Satan's focus the forces of evil the focus is on the people. Putting things in your path not necessarily bad things. It's not bad to be a basketball coach and love the game.
But it is when you put it ahead of Christ. It is when you even put it close to Christ. All the things that we love and we it's not bad to be a golfer but it is bad if it comes between you and the Lord and What Satan does he puts things out there attractive and it and it comes in the place in between God and us and Satan celebrates.
We should celebrate when we repent and if we don't repent. The church could refuse to repent and face the terrifying reality of having the Lord Jesus Christ declare war on it. Maintaining the path of compromise Ultimately will lead to judgment.
Then we have the message to the church at Thyatira number four. Three important truths stand out. First this letter reveals the seriousness of Practicing and tolerating sin and that God will judge continued unrepentant sin in the church.
Second a pattern of obedience marks true Christians. If you're a true Christian John you are required to repent. The the the obedience to that require requirement to repent can be seen. And finally God's gracious promise to his own is that in spite of the struggles with sin and errors in the church.
And there will be many in every church you go to and in every life. There will be struggles and errors. They will still experience all the fullness of Christ as they reign with him in his kingdom. Those in his church who fail to heed the divine message.
The message will receive divine judgment. Those who do heed his message will receive divine blessing. If you refuse to heed the message you'll be judged. Your judgment might be entirely worldly. It may only be that you're taken out of this life and moved into the next one.
Sometimes that is the erasure from the book of the living. Sometimes that's his choice. Sometimes he chooses to take us out in every case. You'll experience judgment if you do not obey. Obey but if you do You will Receive divine blessings.
Message five the message to the church at Sarnas the spiritually dead playing church. Needed to heed Christ's warning of impending judgment. The indifferent believers needed to wake up before it's too late to save their church.
And the fateful few could take comfort in the knowledge that their salvation is eternally secure. Just because you're attending church in the church that is on the verge of being dead doesn't mean you have to be dead yourself.
The church to the the message to the church at Philadelphia the holy true sovereign in pop omnipotent God Pours out his blessings on churches that remain loyal to him. He will bless them with open doors for evangelism eternal salvation Kingdom blessings and deliverance from or through the great time of testing that will come on the earth.
He will ultimately bring All of those who persevere in their faith to the eternal bliss in heaven where he will reveal himself fully to them. And the final message the message to the Apostate Church of the Laodiceans was threefold.
First to the straying sheep repent to the lost sheep. Open the door to Christ before judgment falls and to the lost goats. Beware judgment is at hand. That was the message to the literal church. The collection of all those who met together whether they were sheep or whether they were goats.
There was a message to them. Now in a broader sense, what message does God have for us for those who have already been brought into? God's family. We're gonna go through the same list of churches. The quicker message number one We're to remember our first love.
We're not to stray and if we have strayed would return to him. Number two we who are effectually called and Sanctified by his spirit cannot fall away from the state of grace, but shall shirt. But shall certainly be eternally saved.
Number three if we follow the path of compromise we will surely be judged. Number four if We do not heed the Lord's message to repent. We will receive divine judgment if We do heed his message will receive divine blessing.
Number five the indifferent believers need to wake up before it's too late to save their church. And The faithful few can take comfort in the knowledge that even if they're unable to save their church their own salvation is eternally secure.
And number six He will ultimately bring all of those who persevere in their faith to the eternal bliss in heaven where he will reveal himself fully to them. And to number seven Repent before judgment falls.
Now that's the end of What I have today. But I'm going to open the floor to questions and comments and maybe I can respond to them. Or maybe one of you can or maybe we can just hear them. No church is perfect.
That's correct, brother David on a church that didn't repent. I would I think that Either one of two things either it would continue being an assembly Where God was absent or it would cease to exist or maybe Do one for a while and then the other eventually they all die.
Yes, sir, I think it certainly cannot. Was the church left in a better condition and and so and and so and so the ultimate fate of the church.
The church can talk can totally cease to exist and there's many examples of churches that don't exist anymore. It can be apostate the yes.
He told. So it turned into a 14-day. Something like that. But on the last night. And within a few weeks of that We weren't even there. That church that's all the new promise.
It's just It's an assembly of the people a True legacy in church and and that's at that's sometimes the outcome when you read When you fail to repent I Well, some of them are not and see that's that that's the that's the good thing.
There were some good people came out of that church I know for certain because I know that in some sense brother David came out of that church and mrs. Mitchell came out of that church and a Lot of good came out of that church and the good that he had In that church had the minister there.
They needed to have when they needed to have him and He could have written a kabbalah on the whole church at some point.
And Probably did. Yes. Yes.
Yes, and every time in every time that woman was his wife and Every time she ran away and rejected him and rejected his righteousness She came back to him. He had to reclothed her and he did and It that that is a wonderful thing.
Most gracious heavenly father. Thank you for this day. And thank you for all of our many blessings. Blessings and keep us and go through the services today in Jesus name. We pray. Amen.