Revelation 3:14-22 (Laodicea, Conquer Your Lukewarmness, Jeff Kliewer)

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Revelation 3:14-22 Laodicea, Conquer Your Lukewarmness March 8, 2020

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Give us passion for the name, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Fire changes things.
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Seems that on a regular basis, everything goes on as usual in our neighborhood,
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Ramblewood Farms. Nothing's different. People come home from work, they go into their houses.
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Maybe a kid goes outside and plays for a few minutes and then goes back inside to play video games. But not long ago, there was a change, a major change.
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In fact, all of the neighborhood was out. And there were cars and there were fire trucks and emergency vehicles all up and down our street because there was a fire five houses down from us.
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It brought all of the neighborhood out and it changed everything, at least for that one night.
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Because fire changes things. Pharisaical religion never changes anything.
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In fact, it came about that there was a beggar who sat at the gate called Beautiful outside of Jerusalem day in and day out and he had done that for years.
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Nothing ever changed. Nothing ever changed. The Pharisees walked by, the Sadducees came by, all the religious leaders came by and nothing ever changed, it was just the same.
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Until one day, just after Pentecost, along came Peter and John and there was a fire in their hearts, a fire for the name of Jesus.
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And this beggar asked for silver or gold and Peter and John said, silver and gold have I not, but what
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I have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and walk. Everything changed.
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This crippled beggar was given legs that work. His legs sprung up and he was walking and leaping and praising
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God and soon the whole of Jerusalem came to see the sight. The fire changed everything.
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And that day, the Bible tells us that the number of believers in Jerusalem grew to 5 ,000.
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Thousands of people became saved because of the fire of God that was at work that day.
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Fast forward from that year around 33 AD to the 12th century, the 1100s.
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The Pope was building and was in Rome and there was a great theologian in the land named
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Thomas Aquinas. Maybe you've heard of Thomas Aquinas. Well, he set out on a pilgrimage to go see the
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Pope and when he got to see the Pope, he came in and he found that the Pope was conducting an audit.
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And so Aquinas was brought into the royal treasury of Rome, into the
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Vatican to see the wealth of Rome. And the
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Pope commented. He said, no longer can it be said, silver and gold have we not.
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And showing Aquinas the wealth, he basked in the glory of Rome, basked in the wealth and the opulence that Rome controlled.
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But Aquinas was not impressed. He said, neither can it be said in the name of Jesus stand and walk.
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This church had lost its power. They had wealth and they felt they needed nothing.
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But Aquinas rightly said, no longer can it be said stand and walk. Now, I don't know that God is doing the kind of miracles, the kind of sign gifts that we saw
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Peter and John do in Acts chapter four. Certainly, I think he is still doing miracles and his spiritual gifts are still at work.
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But I know this, that unless the church can say rise and walk, it has no place in being a church.
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To the dead sinner who has no spiritual life to say arise in the name of Jesus, preaching the gospel.
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When that dead sinner becomes alive by believing the gospel and then begins to walk in newness of life, there you have a living church.
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Peter and John, when they approached that beggar, they came to him as a living church, as the church being sent to this person.
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The power was with them because fire was in their hearts. Sadly, many churches are like the church of Laodicea, which we'll turn to now.
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Revelation chapter three, verses 14 to 22 today. It is possible for a church to lose that fire.
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And the assessment that Jesus gives of a lukewarm church is one of disgust.
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He's disgusted and ready to spit that church out of his mouth. And yet in love, he tells them that.
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He brings this call to repentance and renewal, to return to their first love and to the fire of God.
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He calls them to reformation fire. When the church in the 12th century had been reduced to just a smoldering wick, hardly any fire,
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God sent reformers. And even before the reformation proper began in 1517, there was
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Jan Hus, there was William Tyndale, there was John Wycliffe going forth, preaching the genuine gospel.
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And there was a remnant of that fire. And soon that fire kindled into a flame and the reformation burst out across Europe and has been carrying the true genuine gospel to the ends of the earth ever since.
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The fire still burns and yet there are many churches that are merely lukewarm.
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So today let's read Revelation 3, 14 through 22, the lukewarm church.
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And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write, the words of the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.
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I know your works. You are neither cold nor hot.
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Would that you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold,
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I will spit you out of my mouth. Pause and let that sink in for a moment.
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The words of the faithful and the amen. He says, I will spit you out of my mouth. Verse 17, for you say,
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I am rich, I have prospered and I need nothing. Not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked.
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I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.
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Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. So be zealous and repent.
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Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me.
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The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne. As I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne.
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He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.
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And so let's review the seven churches of Revelation. He has a message to each of the seven.
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We began in Ephesus in Asia Minor. If we have a map of that, let's bring that up.
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Jesus is speaking through the apostle John who's exiled to the island of Patmos.
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He writes a message from the Lord himself to each of these seven churches. And the first of those is
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Ephesus. This is the commercial center, the port, where all the roads, the Roman roads intersect.
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It's a very important city. But Jesus tells the church of Ephesus, although he commends them for many good things, he says,
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I have this one thing against you. You have left your first love.
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And that, brothers and sisters, that is the first warning sign in your own heart.
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That's the first sign of danger. It's not that you're not doing the good things that you've always done.
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You have right doctrine. You have moral behavior. But there's just not as much love in your heart as when you first got saved.
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That's the first step in a downward progression. From Ephesus, we went up to Smyrna, and this was the persecuted church.
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Smyrna has the same Greek word as myrrh, which is a kind of anointing.
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It comes from a plant, and it would be crushed to release a fragrance, a beautiful fragrance.
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The church in Smyrna is being crushed. And because of that persecution, they're clinging to Christ, or maybe it's the other way around.
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Because they're clinging to Christ and they're preaching the word, therefore persecution has come upon them. But in any case,
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Smyrna is a faithful church, and here you have no rebuke from the Lord Jesus Christ. But continuing the downward progression from Ephesus, not only have they lost their first love in Pergamos, they're beginning to sin sexually.
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They are following the teacher Balaam figuratively, some who say it's all right to engage in sexual immorality, and they have them among the church who follow the teachings of Balaam.
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Things get worse as you head inland. To Thyatira, not only do you have sexual immorality in Thyatira, here you have teachers recognizing the church.
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She's called that woman Jezebel that's tolerated by the church leadership, and it's become institutionalized in the church.
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So you see the downward progression. You're losing your first love, sexual immorality has come into the church, and then it's become part of the doctrine of the church.
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So the church itself is becoming worldly. Next you move down to Sardis, and they have a reputation for being alive, but Jesus says you are dead, dead.
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Can't get much worse than dead, right? It's a pretty bad diagnosis. However, in Sardis there is a remnant that are faithful, and they are commended there, so there's still some commendation, not just condemnation.
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Now to Philadelphia, another respite from the downward slide. In Philadelphia, you have the small church that's faithful and has not denied the name, and that holds onto the word.
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This is a godly church. They have little power, but the door that God has opened for them, no man can shut.
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So this is a great example, and I believe this is the kind of church that we are at Cornerstone. I pray we remain that way.
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And finally, we get to Laodicea, and you have no commendation whatsoever.
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It's all rebuke. In fact, look at the words here in verse 16.
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Because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
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This is a church that's in danger of being spit out entirely. Fully rejected.
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So this is not where you wanna be, is it? So what is it about Laodicea geographically as a city that lends itself to the words that Jesus speaks?
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Let's talk a little bit about that. Laodicea is a banking capital, and so they are very, very wealthy.
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In fact, the Roman historian Tacitus commented in one of his writings how the church, not the church, but the city of Laodicea rebuilt itself in 60
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AD after an earthquake that completely leveled the city. They were so wealthy that they refused help from the
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Roman Empire. They rebuilt without our help, says Tacitus. So it shows they had great resource, completely rebuilt the city after it was leveled in 60
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AD. Great wealth. They were part of a three -city network of Hierapolis, Colossae, and Laodicea, all within six or 10 miles from one another.
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Interestingly, and this will come into play as we get into the text, Laodicea did not have a fresh water source.
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Colossae had a cold stream flowing down into Laodicea and Laodicea flowing into it.
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And Hierapolis, even to this day, is famous for their hot springs. So in this network of three cities, you have
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Hierapolis with the hot springs, which was a healing center, again, worship of that Asclepius, that false deity of healing.
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People would come to Hierapolis for the hot springs. There was also a medical school and they had
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ISALV in this region. And so you see that what's different about Laodicea is they had no water source.
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How did they get their water? They piped it in. There was a five -mile aqueduct that brought in the water, but even the remnants of that particular aqueduct show that it was corroded.
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And the rumor is that as the water came in for five miles, it became very disgusting.
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By the time it got into the city of Laodicea, it was not the fresh water stream of Colossae or the hot water of Hierapolis.
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It was tepid and contaminated, polluted, and makes you want to spit it out of your mouth.
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So that's a little background of Laodicea as a place. Anything else
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I should mention there? No, I think that gets it. So let's get into the text, verse 14. And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write, the words of the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.
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So first of all, we need to understand Jesus asserts authority. This is what he's doing here.
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He calls himself the amen. Sometimes when we finish our prayers in Jesus' name, amen, a little kid thinks that amen means the end.
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That's the end of the prayer. Well, it doesn't mean quite the end. It's an affirmation of agreement saying it is true.
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So we say amen to affirm that something is true. And we are right to do that.
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That's a good practice that the church has, to say amen. I love when people say amen. Don't shout it out like maybe a
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Pentecostal church to the point where it'd be distracting to other people around you. But I like when I hear some amen.
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I like that when I'm preaching. And you like that during a Bible study. It's good to say amen.
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We should say amen. But there's one who says I am the amen.
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In John 14, six, he says, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life.
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No one comes to the Father but through me. Here, Jesus makes this remarkable claim. The words of the amen.
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He claims to be the truth. He's asserting authority.
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Next, he says the faithful and true witness. There's many who come along with political opinions, religious opinions, doctrines, ideas.
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But there's one who is a faithful and true witness. Everybody else comes from earth.
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He says I come from heaven and I tell you things that I saw and knew in heaven before I came to earth.
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Jesus is the only trustworthy, absolutely reliable source of information.
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What he says is. He is the truth and what he speaks is absolutely trustworthy.
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He is the faithful and true witness. Finally, he is the beginning of God's creation.
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Now, if you ever get that knock on your door on a Saturday morning and a
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Jehovah's Witness is standing there, this person might very well take you to this text and say, see,
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Jesus is a created being. It says right here in Revelation 3, verse 14, he is the beginning of God's creation.
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Understand, the word beginning here is arche. It means source, it can mean chief.
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It is that he was at the beginning when everything was made, but he's the instrument of that creation.
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A great place to go with the Jehovah's Witness or anybody else who doesn't understand that Jesus is eternal
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God, not created, but in fact the creator is Colossians 1, verses 15 to 20.
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There, Jesus is called the firstborn of God's creation. And again, the Jehovah's Witness will say, see, he's the first one born from God, but the word is prototokos.
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It means the preeminent one, the firstborn. It didn't always refer to the firstborn chronologically.
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So Ishmael was born before Isaac, but Isaac is called prototokos. Esau was born before Jacob, but in Genesis 25, 33,
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Jacob is called prototokos in the Septuagint. The point means it's the preeminent one, the one who has rank, the one who has authority within the family.
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And so as you follow the argument of Colossians 1, 15 and following, you see that all things were made by him and through him and for him and to him.
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Paul exhausts the use of adjectives to show that Jesus is the one to whom all things, or for whom all things are made, for his glory.
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Point being, when we see in verse 14, the beginning of God's creation, that means that he's there and the world is being made through him.
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He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.
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Absolute authority. He is the truth and what he says stands. See guys, sometimes we love the opinion of man and we love our own opinions.
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We love self -assessment, right? We look at ourselves in the mirror and see how we're doing physically.
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We take a personality profile to figure out what we're like. We might take some kind of IQ test to see how smart we are.
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And we love to assess our spiritual condition. And isn't it just fascinating that the human ability to justify itself is almost unbelievable.
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No matter what behavior a person is involved with, a person generally will regard themselves as good.
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No matter how many times a person is told a lie or taken the Lord's name in vain, we have this self -justifying mechanism in our brain that we always assess ourselves as doing well.
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And that's true across the board. People rationalize.
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Behavior. Churches assume that they're the faithful one.
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There's not a cult on the earth that thinks all the other cults are wrong and theirs, I'm sorry, that everybody else is right and theirs is the one that's wrong, right?
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Every person justify themselves, but what we have here is the assessment of Jesus that very few people want to hear.
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In verse 15, this is how the amen sees things. He says,
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I know your works, you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot.
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So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
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That's hard to hear. Hard words. So picture again, Laodicea.
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The waters that flow into Laodicea are tepid, they're polluted, contaminated.
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And when you take a sip of that water, it makes you want to vomit. It's worth the five mile walk to Colossae to get some water from that stream because the water that they're piping into this place is disgusting.
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And that's the analogy that we have here. That's why it's not quite how many people think that, because you'll notice, cold is regarded as good in this passage.
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I want you to be either hot or cold. So the issue of lukewarmness, the problem of lukewarmness is that it's disgusting.
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That's the analogy that's being drawn here. There could be an analogy also of lack of passion. So coldness would be bad in that sense.
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But the big idea that I don't want you to miss is that Jesus is disgusted by the kind of religion that he's seen.
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There is a kind of religion, sorry, that is disgusting to the
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Lord. You guys ever heard the expression, God loves the sinner, but hates the sin.
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You ever heard that? There's truth in that, to the point that God loves all the world.
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He wants sinners to repent and come to faith, be forgiven of that sin.
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But listen, it's not the sin of the sinner that God throws into hell.
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It's the sinner. Sinners themselves are punished in hell. I want you to look just briefly with me to the
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Psalms, trying to find the actual reference.
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The Psalms in 14 places in the first 50 chapters express God's hatred for sinners.
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Now that sounds pretty controversial, right? He is disgusted by not just sin, but the sinners who commit those sins.
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Psalm chapter five, verse five and six. I'm tempted to say, can
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I get a reader? I better do it myself. Psalm chapter five, verse five and six.
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For you are not a God who delights in wickedness. Evil may not dwell with you.
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The boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all evildoers.
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You don't just hate the sin. He hates the evildoer. There's complexity in God.
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He also loves the evildoer, desires that evildoer to repent, but recognize that there is this aspect of God's character being that he is the holy
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God over the universe who created creatures in his image that when those creatures are rebellious to him, he is offended.
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And turning back now to Revelation chapter three, verse 16, he registers that feeling as disgust.
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It's repulsive to him. So what is this that's so disgusting to God?
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See, he gives his, he registers that disgust before he tells us what the big deal is, okay? He catches our attention.
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Everybody listening now? He hates this, what you're about to hear. He hates this attitude. What is it?
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Verse 17, you said, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.
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There it is. Not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, naked.
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This is disgusting to him. What is it that's so abhorrent to the
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Lord of glory? They say, I'm rich.
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They're content with what they have, and they don't have Christ. I have prospered, and I need nothing.
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This is a church that has never come to that broken place where you look into your own heart and see wickedness, when you see your own wretchedness and your pitiable estate, when you see that you, me,
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Jeff Klewer, is poor, blind, and naked. Apart from Christ, I have nothing. I was at the gym just last night, just shooting some hoops, trying to get my jump shot back, because it's been broken, going into the playoffs, side note.
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And I saw this guy shooting hoops, he started talking to me. So I said, hey, change the subject. Jesus died on a cross for you.
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If you'll believe in him and repent. He rose from the dead to pay for your sin.
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You ever heard that before? You ever read the Bible, just got into this conversation? And he said, oh,
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I went to Catholic school. And he said, you know, I get it.
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But he didn't get it. And then I said, well, if you were to die today, would you go to heaven? And he said, oh, definitely.
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Doubly so. Doubly so, he said. Why? Oh, you should see the people
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I help. And I'm not mocking this person. This is a person who is reflective of how people in the world think until they come to the point of repentance.
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He thought he was fine. And so he talked about his righteous deeds. And I said, don't you know, the
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Bible says that even our righteous deeds, every good thing that you just listed are filthy rags to him.
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Even our righteous acts are filthy rags in his sight. And that's not to mention every lie and every curse word and every sexual immorality.
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Even in the thoughts of your mind, we talked about the Sermon on the Mount and how Jesus raises the bar on that. And he seemed to be getting it.
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And I hope, I hope he gets it and believes. Because this attitude that I am fine is disgusting to God.
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That self -reliance, that self -justification where you judge yourself as okay, you vindicate yourself, it's disgusting to God.
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We are sinners in the hands of an angry God. We are sinners in the hands of an angry
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God. Jonathan Edwards was right. Don't mock him for that sermon. And yet that angry
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God poured out his anger, his hatred, his wrath against my sin.
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He poured it out on his own son, Jesus, who stood in our stead and bore that wrath and absorbed it into his body and turned that wrath away, satisfying
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God's wrath. And now he looks to the one who looks to the son and declares us innocent and righteous.
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So what is the state of this man who comes in faith? It's saying, I have nothing. I am a sinner.
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Looking to Christ, we see that he's the substitute that died for our sins. He bore our sin on that tree.
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And now humbled by this, recognizing that he's my only hope,
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I turn in faith to him and God is merciful to a sinner like you and like me. That's the gospel.
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It all has to start at this point of coming to an end of your own righteousness where you say,
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I have nothing. I'm the pitiable one. I'm the wretch. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
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They say they're rich. Look across the land. Look across America.
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There are many churches that have gorgeous buildings and there's still lots of people that come, but they're lost because they deny the
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Bible. They don't believe the Bible. In fact, I read one Barna study from 2011 where more than half of the people in these churches do not believe the
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Bible is God's word. They don't believe in the virgin birth. They don't believe that Jesus died as a substitute for our sins.
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They don't even believe in a literal resurrection from the dead, and yet they go through the motions. And boy, are they rich.
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I looked up some statistics on a few of these organizations and to varying degrees, they believe some of these things, but certainly not inerrancy.
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Duke University just had an article. They received $12 million to strengthen their divinity school, which is a divinity school devoted not to the gospel, but to a social gospel.
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Princeton Theological has $1 .13 billion in an endowment.
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Think of that number. Harvard Theological has an endowment that makes
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Princeton's look like a poor man's endowment.
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This is like the Bloomberg of theological endowments. $40 .9
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billion in their theology school. And my favorite was, not for the number, it's $108 million, but this
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Union Theological Seminary. They're the ones that apologize to plants in a ceremony at their school.
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They divested themselves of any of their interests in fossil fuels. And they were very proud of their doing that.
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They say union is the cradle of progressive Protestantism in the US. So I expect this decision will have a major impact.
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As a seminary, we have a moral obligation to no longer profit from the production of fossil fuels.
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I hope that people see our actions as a beacon of hope. Union's vote is to divest.
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And this vote is prophetic and strong. You see the self -assessment of Union Seminary?
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They say we are prophetic and we are strong. What about the prophetic words of the amen?
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The faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation. He says, you want a prophetic word?
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Here's the prophetic word from the amen. I will spit you out of my mouth.
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They deny the Lord of glory. They do not believe in the exclusivity of Christ. They don't believe he's
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Lord. They think he's an ordinary man with some moral teachings like any other religious leader.
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They don't believe in the Bible. They would laugh at these words. And yet they consider themselves the beacon of hope, the prophetic and strong voice.
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You are woke in your own eyes, but you're wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
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How will you escape being thrown into hell in the words of Matthew 23? See, the
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Laodicean deception was not just 95, 96 AD for one church in Asia Minor.
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This same spirit is active in many thousands of churches across America.
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And in the seminaries that are training the pastors that are preaching in the pulpits of those churches.
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Laodicean churches are everywhere. It's a sad assessment, but it's true.
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Zechariah 11, verse 12 and 13. You don't have to go there, but it's a prophecy. It's a prophecy of the betrayal of Christ by Judas Iscariot.
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Judas valued Jesus at 30 pieces of silver. And that's what he took to betray him.
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And see, this is the issue with the Laodicean deception. They feel like they're rich, they need nothing.
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But the problem, the root issue is that they do not value the
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King of glory. It's the worth of Christ that's the issue.
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He's worth more than anything we could imagine, than anything in this world.
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Zechariah mocks the one who valued him for the handsome price of 30 pieces of silver.
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Revelation 3 .18, I counsel you, here's something of true value. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich.
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There once was a man who was out walking in a field and somehow in digging his foot into the ground or something, he stumbled across a treasure.
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And when he found that treasure, he recognized, well, that treasure's in the ground. It belongs to the person who owns this field.
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So you know what he did? He went and took everything that he had and sold it and came back and used that money to buy that field.
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And when he bought the field, he got the treasure. You see, Christ is that treasure in the field.
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When you come across the pearl of great price, when you see Christ for who he is, Jesus, the son of God, the
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Lord of glory, you must be willing to sell everything to take this treasure.
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It's an exchange, your old life for his life. To be crucified with him, even counted dead in this world.
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To have him, and he's worth it. That's the point here. See, he is the creator.
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This is one of the things I was trying to communicate to this young man last night. He's the one that made the world.
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The world was made through him. So how much value does he have if he made everything that exists?
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And not only did he make everything, he's the redeemer who came into the world, born to a virgin, walked among us, and his precious blood was spilled on the cross to pay for my sin.
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Apart from that payment for my sin, I pay for my sin in hell. So he paid for my redemption.
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If he's the creator and he's the redeemer, how valuable is he? Nothing in this world compares to the value of Jesus the
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Christ. He's infinitely valuable. So sell everything and take him.
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That's the point. Verse 18, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, every impurity removed.
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This is pure gold. The dross has been drained away. This is a treasure worth having, and white garments.
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The word white there is luka. It's like Luka Doncic, you can remember it that way.
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That's what his name must mean, the basketball player. Luka, it refers to a white light, a glorious and pure light, not just like the way that some of your clothes are white.
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This is a radiant, just resplendent light bursting out.
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These are the garments that he offers so that you may clothe yourself.
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It's an image of the righteousness of Christ. When you take this gift, his righteousness clothes you, and you are seen in the eyes of the
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Father as resplendent, pure, righteous.
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The imagery is coming from Isaiah 61, 10. Turn there real quick, or you can just listen.
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Isaiah's speaking prophetically of the imputed righteousness of Christ, a righteousness that's credited to our account that makes us glow with the glory of Christ.
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It says in Isaiah 61, verse 10, I will greatly rejoice in the
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Lord. My soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation.
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He has covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
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He clothes us in his righteousness. If you stand before God with your own deeds, your own works, and you think, yeah,
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I've helped so many people, I'm such a good guy. You bring that to the throne room, and it is filthy rags that cover you.
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You find yourself spit out. But you come to the throne room on the day that we're raptured, or the day that you die, whichever comes first.
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You come dressed in the righteousness of Christ, resplendent with Luca white clothes, covered in his righteousness.
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You are accepted, and welcomed, and loved, treasured. And buy also salve to anoint your eyes, a reference to that healing school at Hierapolis, so that you may see.
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We need Christ and these treasures, these gifts that come from him.
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Verse 19, and this is where I'm gonna depart from the venerable and wonderful John MacArthur.
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Because MacArthur takes this to mean, takes this passage to mean that there are no believers in Laodicea.
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It is a completely apostate church where no believers are there. But I look at this language in verse 19, it says, those whom
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I love, I reprove and discipline. So be zealous and repent.
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I think in the milieu of that apostate church, in the lukewarmness of the water, many genuine believers could have been there, and grown lukewarm in their love.
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Because the language he uses at verse 19 is very much like the language of Hebrews 12. The language addressed to a genuine believer.
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And it's a genuine call here. I don't want to spit you out of my mouth. He's saying, those whom
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I love, I reprove. I'm telling you this because I love you. Yes, I'm disgusted by this offense to my holiness.
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I hate sin. And there is an eternal damnation of souls where a soul, a human sinner, is cast off into hell forever.
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But he's saying, I'm telling you this now because I love you. I'm rebuking you,
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I'm chastising you because I want you to come and be wholeheartedly devoted to me.
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And so I take this as a call to myself. Just as I heard in Ephesus, not to leave your first love,
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I say to my own soul, soul, do not grow lukewarm. Burn with the same passion that you ever did or more.
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Grow in your love for Christ. Brothers and sisters, apply this passage to yourself, not just to the liberal churches that deny the inerrancy of the word.
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Apply this passage to your own heart. And the key word at the end of verse 19 is repent.
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It means to renounce sin and to renounce your self -reliance. That whole idea that I'm okay,
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I need nothing. Get rid of that thought and you come humbly. You throw yourself at the feet of Jesus.
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And you repent. You say, forgive me, Lord, I'm a sinner. And I'm coming now with empty hands.
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I've got nothing to bring here, but I believe Jesus. You're the Savior and you're my only hope.
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I want you to be my treasure. You come and you repent. He says, I love this imagery.
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Behold, I stand at the door. You guys know it from the children's song, right? And knock.
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If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me.
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George Beverly Shea had it right. I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold.
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I'd rather be his than have riches untold. I'd rather have Jesus than houses or land.
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I'd rather be led by his nail -pierced hand. Good words. You get
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Jesus, he opens the door. He comes in, he sups with you. This is the evening meal that's pictured here.
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Before night falls, before it's too late, before the curtain call, you come, you open that door.
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And so I think he is preaching to an apostate church and mostly unbelievers there.
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But there can be some children in the midst of that. Some who will come and repent and turn to him.
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Look at verse 21 and 22. These are the promise for those who do conquer. The one who conquers,
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I will grant him to sit with me on my throne. Can you imagine? Reigning with Christ.
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If we endure, we will reign with him. Paul tells Timothy.
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As I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the
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Spirit says to the churches. So there was a woman named
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Carmen Lee who moved to Canada from Hong Kong. She was expecting to get there and reach unbelievers.
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But what she discovered, she needed to preach in the churches. She says, when I moved from Hong Kong to Canada, not preach, but to evangelize, share the gospel,
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I expected that I would evangelize to unbelievers. But I didn't think I would need to evangelize to professing
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Christians too. She was rudely awakened by what she saw in Canada.
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I think she'd see the same thing here. Missionaries now coming to America because there's a lot of lost people in America.
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Far more than there are saved. And just because someone goes to church doesn't mean they're born again.
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That's the message I take from Laodicea. First of all, it's a message to each of us. Don't let your heart grow lukewarm.
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If you've never thrown yourself at the foot of the cross, you do that. It's a personal message. Come, he's inviting you.
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He doesn't want you to be cast off. He wants you to come. He's offering that genuinely. Genuine offer to come be saved.
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If you're not saved, today is the day to do that. Now is the day of salvation.
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What are you waiting for? You don't want to be spit out. But it also says something to us as Christians that when you're evangelizing and someone tells you, well,
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I go to such and such Laodicean church. Don't stop there. You press on because they very well could be on the verge of being spit out.
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And when they die, they go to hell just like someone who doesn't go to church. Evangelize with that kind of passion, aware from this text that there are many, many churches like this.
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They need is not the church. They need the gospel. They need Christ himself. And that brings you into a genuine church.
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But the church doesn't save them. You can't get saved just because you sit in a pew. You get saved because you come to an end of yourself and you say,
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I am pitiful and poor and blind and naked. I'm a wretch. But I believe that Jesus is the pearl of great price, infinitely valued.
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You come to him, you trust him and you will be saved. Let's pray.
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Thank you for that, amen. Father, I pray now for those who are not yet born again.
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Maybe they've been coming to church, playing church, but it's been Laodicea.
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Not Philadelphia. I pray, Lord, for any who have not been born again that right now you would give them the gift of repentance and faith.
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Draw their hearts, open their eyes that they can see themselves for their true estate, not their self -assessment, but your, amen, faithful, true witness to what each of us is like apart from Christ.
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Pitiful, poor, blind, naked, a wretch. And I pray then,
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Lord, that they would throw themselves at the foot of the cross and be saved. Pray also that you would strengthen us to go forth preaching the good news to those who are lost.