I Wish That You Were Cold or Hot — Paul Washer

Well, it's a great privilege for me to be here this evening with all of you and kind of give something of an introduction to maybe what the Lord would be doing a week or so from now. But before we go on to anything else, let's go to the Lord in prayer.

Father, I come before you in the name of your Son. I know that apart from Him, I would have no part with you. Yet you are a gracious God and you have provided a sacrifice, a victim to carry away your wrath, to satisfy justice.

It is in Him and in Him alone that we stand with full confidence and privileges of the sons of God. Father, I pray that tonight you would get glory for yourself and that you would help your church and help your people.

Lord, who am I? Oh, Lord, I need your grace, your mercy, your power, your wisdom, your Word. Father, help us and we will be helped. Strengthen us. We will be strong, but only in you. Let all flesh be abased and let God alone be exalted.

In Jesus' name, Amen. It is a great privilege, as I said, to be here. And I want us to look at a text in the book of Revelation, in chapter 3, verse 14. The message of Jesus Christ to the church in Laodicea.

Now, whenever I direct people to that passage, automatically there's a trembling in the heart and maybe even in the spine. And they brace themselves in the pew thinking, well, we need to get ready for it tonight because we're going to get waylaid.

Well, maybe you need to be waylaid. But this passage, like all passages in the Word of God, is not negative. And it is not designed to hurt God's people. It is designed to build them up, to edify them, to correct them, to do all that is necessary so that they might be made conformed to the image of Christ.

If you stand here, sit here tonight, outside of Jesus Christ, without Him, the Bible says you are under the wrath of God. But if you are found in Christ Jesus, there is no wrath for you. There is no changing disposition.

The only thing upon you is the love of God. And no matter how God speaks, no matter sometimes how hard His Word, His disposition toward you will never change because Christ paid for everything on that tree.

For you every word is spoken in love as a father to a child and not as a judge to a criminal. Now, let's look at this text. We'll take it line by line. To the angel of the church in Laodicea writes, The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God says this, I know your deeds that you are neither cold nor hot.

I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. Because you say I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing. And you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

I advise you to buy from me gold refined by the fire so that you may become rich. And white garments so that you may clothe yourself and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed. And eyes have to anoint your eyes so that you may see.

Those whom I love I reprove and discipline. 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 in to him and will dine with him and he with me.

He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down 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.

Christ’s Message to the Church in Laodicea

Now, I want us to look at several things in this text. Mainly, I want us to look at the text and see all the truth here that is for you and for me. Individually and collectively as a body. Now, first of all, he says, to the angel of the church, let us say a rite.

Now, there has been all sorts of debate on exactly what is this referring to. It seems to be referring to a messenger. Most commentators down through the history of conservative Christianity have thought that it was a message given to the leadership.

A message given to a messenger to share with the body in Laodicea. Now, I want to stop here and talk to you a moment about preaching. Today in America, it seems churches are just about entertainment and meeting felt needs of people.

No, churches are about the communication of truth. Churches are to be about learning the truth of God and applying that truth to our lives. And one of the means through which God does that is through preachers.

And not only preachers, but pastors and the leadership of local autonomous churches. And what I want you to see here for a moment, first of all. In our country, we have come to, in a sense, despise authority.

Not only that, but we're a democracy. No one's going to tell us what to do. But in the New Testament, we see a completely different view. There is a sense of authority in a church. There is a sense. There are shepherds and leaders and pastors and teachers.

And those who have authority, not because of their calling, but only to the degree that they live according to and administer, preach according to, the Word of God. Now, I will not be coming back here in a week to entertain you.

I will not tell you jokes for 20 minutes and then give a long extended invitation in order to manipulate you to do something that God's not in. My job is to come here and communicate truth. And that is extremely dangerous.

That's extremely dangerous for me and that's extremely dangerous for you. Now, why is that? Well, first of all, it's extremely dangerous for me. Teachers will be held in a higher account. A greater condemnation, an old translation puts it.

That to be a teacher is a privilege, but at the same time, to be a teacher and a preacher is a very dangerous thing. Because if I teach you something that is not in accordance with the Word of God, I will be judged.

Now, that works two ways. If I positively teach you something that is not God's Word, I will be judged one day. Also, if I hold something back from you because I'm afraid of you, I will be judged. I'll never forget one time I was preaching and afterwards a young man came up to me.

The sermon caused quite a stir, I guess, among several people. And a young man came up to me and he said, You're not afraid of anybody, are you? And I said, Well, as a matter of fact, I'm probably the most fearful man in this room.

He said, How can you be afraid? You just stood up there and told a bunch of men stuff that made them so mad they want to beat you up. What do you mean you're fearful? I said, Son, it's all a question of relation and degree.

I can be more afraid of men than anybody in this room. But if I fear God more than I do men, I can still be bold. You see, it's just a question of one fear driving out another. If I'm going to be fearful, I may be fearful of you.

But there is someone much greater than you. And if I am to fear someone, it should be Him. Because Jesus Christ said, Don't fear men who can kill you. Fear God who can not only kill you, but can cast your soul into hell.

So the preacher is doing a dangerous thing. Every time your pastor gets in this pulpit, it is a dangerous thing. Because one day he will be tried. If he preaches something that is not correct, that is heresy.

If he withholds things from you, that is the fear of man. And so preaching is very dangerous for the preacher. But also preaching is extremely dangerous for you. Now if I stand up here, or anyone else, the pastor or anyone else you might bring into this pulpit, and we preach something that is not true, then it does not bind you.

You will not be held accountable for it. It is false. You should not follow it. You are free. But if a preacher stands up here and preaches according to God's Word, and what he says is in conformity to the Word of God, then you should be afraid.

Why? You will be held accountable for that Word on that great day. In the same way that the preacher is held accountable for preaching it, you are held accountable for receiving it. Now let me talk for a moment about authority, which is very, very important.

You know, we have all these TV preachers today, and they are all marching around making their millions and doing all the things they are doing in the name of some special authority that they have. Some men think they have authority because they have been called to preach.

Some men think they have authority because they have got some special anointing that no one else has. Let me tell you where true authority comes from. I have authority only to the degree that what I tell you lines up with this book.

If it does not line up with the book, I have no authority. But if what I say lines up with the book, I have authority. Now, let's just get personal for a moment. I have heard so many people, not only when I have preached, but when other preachers have preached faithfully the Word of God, and as I have watched people, have they gone out the door of the church after the service, they will say something like, well, I just don't agree with that.

Okay, that's okay. But then you have to answer another question. Why? Is it because it goes against your personality? Or goes against something you have heard? Or something you have always believed? Or is it because you can open up the Bible and show where the preacher was wrong?

You see, you just can't walk out the door and say, I don't agree with it. There has to be a biblical reason for not agreeing with it. And if you do not agree with it, in the name of love, you are to come back and talk to the preacher in order to try to help him.

You see? Or sometimes people will say, well, I just don't like his attitude. I had a young man come up to me one time. He was pretty angry. And he said, I just don't like the way you said that. And I said, well, I have often been known to be in the flesh at times.

I apologize. But now, it doesn't matter how I said it. The question is, is it true? Do you see that? I mean, I have always said that preachers are God's living example, that He still speaks through rocks and donkeys.

So if God sends a donkey to speak with you, you will not be able to dismiss what He says simply because He is a donkey. The question is, what the donkey said, is it true? Because if it is true, you will be held accountable on the day of judgment whether you liked his personality or not.

Do you see? And then some people will walk out. And this happens, we see this in the political realm, in media and things. For example, someone will make a politically incorrect statement. Let's say that it's a biblical statement, but it's politically incorrect.

No one will deal with whether or not the statement is true. They'll just attack the person who said it. Well, sometimes we'll hear a preacher, and when he says something, the question in our heart is not, is it true?

But automatically, we put up these defense mechanisms. Well, I don't like the way he said it. I don't like him. I don't like his personality. I don't like his delivery. And we think that somehow that will shield us from being responsible.

It won't. If what he says is true, it is true because it conforms to this book. And if it conforms to this book, both you and I are bound by it. Do you see that? So, not just when I come here in a week to preach, but when your pastor preaches.

The question is not, did we do it that way before? The question is not, that doesn't agree with my personality. The only question that has to be answered is, is it in the book? Is it in the book? Is that what Jesus says?

Authority Belongs to the Word of God

So, there's a sense of authority, and he's writing to the angel of the church in Laodicea. Now, who is writing? Who is speaking here? This is absolutely essential. Now, I'll tell young preachers, I'll tell them, Now look, young preachers, most of you are preaching this way.

You're facing the congregation and you're speaking to them as though it was your authority and your word to correct them. But what you need to do, maybe, is almost preach at them sideways. To let them know that it's not you speaking your opinion, but it's God's word coming to both the preacher and the one sitting in the pew.

You see, this word is not only binding upon you, the hearer, it is even binding more upon me, the speaker. So, who is really speaking? If we're speaking according to God's word, it is Christ coming to us.

Christ coming to us in His word, irregardless of the man. If what he says is true, and it's the word of Christ, it carries his authority. Now, let's look for a moment at the one who is speaking to us.

Because, I'll give you an example. I was preaching down at the University of Alabama last week to a group there. And after I finished, the leadership came up to me and they said, Brother Paul, anytime you want to come here and speak, just come back.

Other mature Christians came up to me and said, Boy, that was really helpful. When I get back to my office a few days later, I get this letter from someone who was just really mad about the whole deal.

Now, I didn't take the letter that seriously. Why? Because the leadership there, the mature Christians, and everything else, were all in agreement with what was said. So, what I'm trying to tell you is this.

When someone comes to us speaking a word, we always need to look, Who is this person? If a person comes to us with no integrity, no authority, no power, no place, maybe we don't have to listen. If someone comes to us mean-spirited, whom we know does not love us or care about us, maybe we can turn a deaf ear to what they're saying.

So, who is the one speaking to us through the Word? Well, here in the Bible it says in verse 14, It is the Amen, the faithful, the true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. Who is this? Jesus Christ, in His Word, comes to you and speaks to you.

That is why it is so dangerous to come to church on Sunday. Because you get into a commonality. You get into this thing of just, ok, I'm here. Can you tell me what was preached this morning? Have you fed upon the Word that was given?

Have you taken serious consideration so as to think your life must change because of what you heard? Don't you realize that even this morning, if what was preached was the Word of God, you're accountable to it.

Because the one coming to you is Jesus Christ. It is never a common thing. Even when the most humble and most uneducated man of God gets in the pulpit, it is not a common thing. Because if he preaches the Word of God, it is dangerous.

Jesus Christ as the Amen and Faithful Witness

Now, the one speaking to us is the Amen. What does this mean? Let me read a passage from 2 Corinthians 1 .20. For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes, therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.

What is he saying? Who is the Amen? Jesus Christ is the Amen. What does it mean? He is the fulfillment, the completion of every promise God ever gave you. The one who speaks to you in the Word, who sometimes even comes to you with a hard thing to hear.

You can hear Him. Why? Because He has kept every promise to you He's ever made. Can't you listen to someone like that? I can. He's not someone against you, someone who spitefully wants to use you, or to hurt you, or manipulate you.

The one who comes and speaks to you through the preaching of God's Word is the one who has fulfilled every promise He ever made to you. You ought to listen to Him. Not only is He the Amen, He's the faithful and true witness.

My dear friend, we all know about appearances, don't we? We all know about appearances. I had a young man come to me one time, a reporter, after I was preaching, and he came to me and he said, I don't believe man is as bad as you say he is.

I said, Sir, if I could take right now and put your entire life on a video film strip and I could show it here tonight in this auditorium, you would run out of this building and you would never show your face here again because you have fought and done things so wicked you cannot share it with your closest friend.

And he just bowed his head. He knew it was true. And the same can be said about everyone in this room. The One coming to you, you can't hide from Him. You can't cover up from Him. You can't run away from Him.

He's the faithful and true witness about everything that you are and everything that you've done. He is omniscient. He knows everything. And He knows everything instantaneously, exhaustively, and without making any effort or investigation.

He's not like a doctor who can misdiagnose you. He knows everything about you. Can't you listen to someone like that? When He tells you, you can come to Me and maybe misunderstand and say, Brother Paul, I think you're this way.

And you could be totally a million miles off the mark because maybe you're judging by appearances and you don't really know. And I could say the same thing about myself toward you. But when Jesus comes and begins to speak a word to us, He doesn't misdiagnose.

He knows everything. But let me share with you something. That's good! That is good! I love the fact that I have a Savior from whom I cannot hide who knows everything about me. Isn't it easy to open up our lives to Him knowing He's not going to misunderstand?

He's not going to misdiagnose? Not only is He a faithful witness though about you and me, He's a faithful witness about God. In my opinion, the greatest preacher that's ever lived since the apostolic times is Charles Spurgeon.

I can't think of a greater, more balanced preacher-theologian that's ever been. And yet, Charles Spurgeon was not the faithful witness of God. He could be wrong. He was a man. We can all be wrong. But the One who speaks to you through the Word and this is the reason why you need the Scriptures so much, not only in the pulpit, but in your personal life, you need the Scriptures because the One speaking to you is the faithful and true witness of God.

Everything He tells you about God will be right. Absolutely everything. And I want you to know something. As I quoted earlier, loosely, from Jeremiah 9, if you're strong, don't boast in your strength.

If you're wealthy, do not boast in your riches. If you're going to boast, let a man boast of this, that he knows God. The greatest need of this congregation is the knowledge of God. Greater knowledge of who He is and what He has done for you.

And that is found in the person of Jesus Christ. You need Christ. You need Christ to speak to you through His Word. Now, he goes on and he says also, he's the beginning of the creation of God. This comes from a Greek word, arkis, which can mean origin or source.

Christ as the Source and Ruler of Creation

Now the Jehovah Witnesses take this passage and totally twist it to say that Jesus was the first thing or the Son of God was the first thing created. That is not at all what it means. It means two things.

First of all, He was the source of all creation. The Bible teaches, I think quite clearly, and almost all conservative theologians would back me up on this, that the Son of God has always been the mediator.

Always. God created. God the Father created the world. How? Through His Son. God revealed Himself, even in the Old Testament, through His Son. Isaiah says, He saw the Lord high and lifted up in His train, filled the temple, and above Him stood the seraphim, each one having six wings.

John 12 tells us that Isaiah saw the Son and His glory. God created the world through His Son. God the Father revealed Himself to the world through His Son. God the Father saved the world through His Son.

And God will one day judge the world through His Son. He's the source of everything. Christian, this is for you. Do you not realize, Jesus says in the Gospel of John, you do not have life in yourself, nor do you have light in yourself.

You cannot live the Christian life just running around out there, cut off from Him. He is the vine. You are the branch. He is the food from which you must eat. He told a very terrible thing to a group of Jews one time.

He said, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, and they go, hold it, that's going too far. But what He's saying is this, Jesus Christ must be the source and sustenance of your entire life, and you must feed upon Him.

Now, He goes on and He says, beginning of the creation of God. This not only means that He's the source of all life. The One who comes to you to instruct you is the One who is the source of your life.

Now let me look at it this way. How insane could it be for a man on a life support system to do everything in his power to cut the line? That's absolutely insane. And that is why sin is insane. Because in sinning, we're trying to cut the line of life that flows from Christ to us.

He's the source of life. The One who speaks to you. But not only is He the source of all creation, arkis also means that He is the ruler of all creation. Make no mistake about it. I always hear evangelists say, you need to make Jesus Lord of your life.

Absolutely preposterous. The only thing you can make is an idol. Jesus is the Lord of your life. He was the Lord of Hitler. He was the Lord of every atheist and God-hating individual that ever walked on this planet.

He is Lord. You don't have to make Him that. Now you can decide whether you want to keep running in rebellion or you want to bow down on your knees, but He's Lord. It says God has made Him both Lord and Christ.

Do you know that in the Greek New Testament Jesus is called and one of the words translated Lord or Master is the word despot. You ever heard despot? That man is a despot? Or that ruler is a despot? It literally means someone with absolute power that can do anything they want at any time.

Now despot when used towards men always has a negative connotation because men are corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. But Jesus is the despot. He has absolute authority over everything. And you will.

You will acknowledge that. You will. But why do it in judgment when you can do it in a day of mercy and grace? Why? Make no mistake, the one who talks to you, if you're lost or you're saved, know this, the one who talks to you is the ruler of all things.

I don't know how many things are out there, but whatever's out there, He rules over them. All. He lifts up His hand and no one can hold it down. He holds His hand on the table and no one can pry it up.

He rules over everything. And to rebel against Him is rebellion indeed. It's like the Puritans used to say, they would say, it is not against the mayor of some small village that you have rebelled. That would be enough.

But you have rebelled against the Lord of glory. Now, that's the one who speaks to us. Now, look what He says in v. 15. The natural flow of logic. He says, I know your deeds. There ought to be two responses in this room right now.

If you do not know Christ, do not care to know about Christ, you love the world and the things of the world, your friends are of the world, you're a worldling. It is obvious at this moment, this very moment, you have no idea what I mean when I say He knows your deeds.

Because if you did, you would be utterly terrified to think that this ruler of all creation knows absolutely everything you have done and will one day hold you accountable for it. If you're a Christian, I can tell you, you do not fully understand these words, I know your deeds.

Because if you did, you would be rejoicing right now with tears in your eyes, worshiping God, praising Him, throwing your hands up in the air because you would say, He knows all my deeds, but He took all my wicked deeds that He knows and He nailed them to a tree.

And I am free. I am free. I am free. He knows your deeds. Church, He knows your deeds. Some in the church should hear that who are genuine Christians and says, He knows my deeds. That needs to spur me on to greater works because I'm not serving Him as I should.

Others of you are serving Him, but you struggle with doubt and depression. You wonder is anything you're doing any good? Does anybody see? And Christ goes, I know your deeds. Though no man recognize you or see what you're doing, the prayers you make in the evening when everyone else is asleep, no one sees all that you're doing in my church, but I know your deeds.

That should encourage you to go on and abound. We do not do deeds so that they can be seen by men. That's what Pharisees who go on into hell do. We do deeds because He knows our deeds. Now He goes on, I know your deeds.

The Danger of Lukewarm Christianity

And He says, you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot. He says cold or hot. The word hot here, very important word, comes from the word zestos. It means boiling hot. I would that you would be boiling hot or that you would be cold.

Not just hot. Boiling hot. Now, what does this mean? Well, let me go through a few different things. One of them will be a kind of an interpretation that you've probably heard before. And another one will be kind of unusual.

Let me give you the unusual one first. It could have some grounds to it, but it's not mentioned much anymore. It used to be more by the older guys. And it was the idea, you always think of cold or hot.

I'd rather have you all the way for me or all the way against me. Some interpreters have taken it this way. I would rather have you cold or hot because, well, cold water I can use. I can use it to refresh, to bless, to quench the thirst of my people.

Or hot because with hot water, I can use that in order to purify and clean. If you were cold, I could use you for something. If you were hot, I could use you for something. But the fact of the matter is, you're lukewarm and I can't use you for anything.

And the idea here may be usefulness. Because you see, one of the signs in Romans 3 of a lost man is that he has altogether become useless to God. He's not useful for anything. He doesn't serve God in any way.

Let me ask you a question. This is a personal question. How do you serve God? In the context of your family first and in the context of your local New Testament church, how do you serve God? You know, we have that thing that everyone's always saying, 80 of the people do 20 of the work and 20 of the people do 80 of the work.

And sadly to say, that's in the church. Are you useful to Him? Or has service to God simply been reduced down to nothing more than, bless God I attend. I don't forsake the assembling of ourselves together.

But you've got to read on. There's a reason for assembling yourselves together. It's not just to hear a sermon and to listen and to sing some songs. It's to spur one another on to love and good deeds.

It's to be actively involved in the fellowship. Are you actively involved? Well, that's one unusual way of looking at it and it may hold some credence. But the most common interpretation of this is He's saying, you're either with me or you're not.

It would be better for you to be zealously following after me or totally rejecting me than just being this lukewarm in the middle. Now, I want to give you a few reasons why. Because we sit there and go, okay, Lord, I could figure out why it would be better for someone to be hot, zealously following You.

But why would it be better for someone to be just totally cold and rejecting the Gospel completely than following along lukewarm? These are some of the reasons. One, a person who is totally turned off to the Gospel, makes no identification and no association with Christ, does no damage to the Kingdom.

But a person who gathers together with a congregation and yet they really don't follow Christ and they pretty much live in sin and rebellion, does much harm to God's church. As a matter of fact, God says, Jesus says, they are a seed that was planted in God's field and planted by the devil himself.

They do great, great damage. Because if you have a hundred sheep and they're all walking with God and you have one person who's not really a sheep but is identified with a sheep and he goes out there and commits all kinds of sins, the people in the town are not going to talk about the 99 faithful.

They're going to identify the 99 faithful with the one wicked. Someone who is lukewarm does far more damage to the church than someone who just says, I don't have anything to do with the church at all.

Another reason. Lukewarmness is a breeding ground for disease. It really is. I served in Peru and in the jungles and in the mountains and stuff for ten years. The most dangerous thing in Peru is not a jaguar or an anaconda.

It's water. You're out in that jungle. You forgot your purifying tablets. You don't have a carbon strainer. There's no fire. You better hope it rains and you can collect some rainwater. Because if you start dipping in to that lukewarm water in those creeks, you'll be dead in the sight of a few days.

We all know this. Lukewarm water is just a breeding ground for disease. Now, just listen to me for just a moment, church. I want to help you. I want you to think about this. Churches are democracies. We do what the majority says.

Is it not true, though, that the majority of the people in church are lukewarm? And you mark it down because it's happened and it's happened over and over again. The majority carries the vote and the majority is usually lukewarm.

And a lot of times, the small majority of people who really want to serve the Lord cannot. Because the church is so filled with lukewarm people who want to do things that are outside of the will of God.

That's terrifying. Terrifying. Someone comes in and preaches a truth that's biblical, it's historical, it's Baptist. A bunch of people rise up and say, No, we're not doing that. We're not doing that. But a small majority of the people who are out there soul winning and praying and listening to the Word and reading their Bibles go, Oh, that's so true.

I wish we could do it. That's scary, isn't it? Scary. Lukewarm is very dangerous because it's a breeding ground for disease. But one other thing. It is better to be cold than to be lukewarm because there's a greater chance that a person who is cold is going to actually be saved one day.

It is better to be a Saul of Tarsus who is kicking against the church, slandering it, trying to kill its members off and everything else. He has more chance of being saved than a Judas who walks with Jesus and yet is a hypocrite.

Has just enough religion to kill him. He thinks he's safe because he goes to church some, because he's been baptized, because maybe this or that. Just enough religion to kill him. Very dangerous. Very dangerous indeed.

Christ’s Reproof and the Purity of the Church

Now, verse 16, he says, So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. Now, church, I want to stop here for a moment. The literal word here is vomit. That literally in Greek.

Now, just bear with the logic for a moment. The church is the bride of Christ. He gave his own blood for her. He loves her and he's working to cleanse her. Do you honestly think he's going to vomit his bride out of his mouth?

No. Then what's going on? Here's what I want you to understand. We hear today all the time this. There's just as many liars in the church as outside of the church. There's just as many sinners in the church as outside of the church.

Just as much adultery and immorality in the church as outside of the church. The church is just as ugly as the world. What's the difference? That is a lie. And I'm going to show you how. Let me tell you about the church in the United States of America.