Christ’s Warning to a Church in Decline

Transcript

GRM 1159
05/15/2016
Christ's Warning to a Church in Decline
Revelation 3:14-22
Gil Rugh

I want to take you back to the book of Revelation and the third chapter. A little bit ago I looked at the first church addressed in Revelation 2. Now I want to look at the last church addressed in Revelation 3. Remember how the book of Revelation goes. In Revelation 1, John has his vision of the glory of the resurrected Christ. He is going to address him and give him information regarding things to come. In Revelation 2-3 Christ addresses letters to the seven churches, then in chapters 4-5 John is transported to receive the vision of heaven and what is going on in heaven. Then chapters 6-19 cover events of a coming seven-year tribulation, culminating in chapter 19 with the return of Christ to this earth to establish His kingdom. Then Revelation 20 with that thousand-year first phase of the kingdom, the last judgment of Scripture, sentencing the lost to hell and then into the eternal kingdom in Revelation 21-22.

These two chapters, Revelation 2-3, Christ has selected seven churches to address letters to. We are about 95 A.D., rounded off, for the writing of the book of Revelation. The church was started approximately sixty years earlier in Acts 2 on the Day of Pentecost. We don't have a specific date for the establishing of each of these churches but we get close because Paul's ministry to Ephesus and so on. At least you see the framework we are in. These seven churches have been selected because they are seven historical churches of the time and Christ addresses things in those churches that are pleasing to Him, that He commends, and certain things in each of the churches that must be corrected that are displeasing to Him. And these seven churches have been selected because together they not only reflect those seven historical churches, but they reflect the churches that will be in existence down through history so that we can come and read these letters, find ourselves here, examine ourselves to see if the things that are pleasing to our Lord, the Head of the church, are characteristic of our church and are there things that need to be corrected because they are displeasing.

The last letter is the letter to the church of Laodicea. These churches, remember, are in the region we would call Asia Minor, basically modern day Turkey. They are arranged in an oblong kind of distorted circle and as we've noted, it would have been the way the letters would have been delivered in the time. And Ephesus, the first church, is on the west side of this loop, and when you come around to Laodicea, it is about 40 miles east of Ephesus, if you check the map. In this valley region where Laodicea is, was also the church of Colossae. Paul wrote the letter to the Colossians to that church. Another church, another city there which had a church was Hieropolis. Those three are in that area. We are not familiar much with Hieropolis because it doesn't have any letters that have been preserved.

I want to turn back to Colossians because Paul does talk about the church at Laodicea in his letter to the Colossians. In Colossians 2, remember these churches are in the same region, same valley there, Colossians 2:1, “For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea and for all those who have not personally seen my face.” So it was natural for him to connect the church at Laodicea with Colossae because of their close proximity. And he indicates he hasn't personally visited these churches, but the churches in that region of Asia Minor Paul did have an extensive ministry in the city of Ephesus. Those who worked with him would have traveled throughout that area and been instrumental in getting churches established and so on in the region even though Paul himself hadn't visited there.

While you are in the letter to Colossians, turn over to Colossians 4:12, “Epaphras who is one of your number,” so he was a member of the church at Colosse, “a slave of Jesus Christ sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers that you may stand perfect and fully assured in the will of God. For I testify for him that he has a deep concern for you and for those who are in Laodicea and Hieropolis.” So you can see these three cities very close to one another, so natural that the churches in cities so close would have some interaction and be involved with one another. In fact down in Colossians 4:16 Paul says, “When this letter is read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans, and you for your part read my letter that is coming from Laodicea.” So Paul did write a letter to the Laodicean church but it wasn't preserved as part of our Scripture. But you see the interaction in exchanged letters. I think we can be sure that before the Colossians sent their letter over to the church at Ephesus, they probably made a copy of it because they had the original. And when they received a copy from Laodicea, they probably then wrote a copy of that and these letters were passed on. That's how some of them by the direction of the Spirit were preserved for us.

So the church at Laodicea has had important contacts over the years, has experienced the ministry by letter of the Apostle Paul. They had opportunity to read Paul's letter to the Colossians, assuming they followed his instructions here. They had receive themselves a letter from Paul and it may have been other of the letters like he wrote to the Ephesians would have made their way naturally. This would have been the postal route, they say, in ancient times so if the letter to the Ephesians, if they had written a copy of it, they could have passed it on to the next church, the next church. So there would have been information and Scripture passed on. But we are reminded how blessed we are, we have the completed Word of God in our hands. Think about it, if you were in church on the Sunday the letter to the Colossians came, you would have had to sit there and listen while the letter was read. You didn't have a copy to take home, they didn't even have computers to be working away and getting much of it down. We are so blessed and so accountable. We have as a consistent possession, the Word of God.

Come back to Revelation 3. Laodicea was a city of wealth, prosperity, you get an idea. We see some of the devastation that takes place in the cities of the world when there is an earthquake. In 60 A.D. the city of Laodicea was destroyed by an earthquake. Rome ruled the world, but Laodicea turned down the help of the Roman government to rebuild Laodicea because they chose to do it themselves. It gives you an idea. It would be like if the city of Lincoln was destroyed in an earthquake and Washington, the government, said we will provide help and we would say we don't need it, we have plenty of money of our own. We would be complaining they didn't give us enough, but Laodicea is that kind of city.

It's the church that receives the harshest rebuke out of the seven churches. In fact it is hard to find a letter in the New Testament of any kind that is like the letter to the Laodiceans. Christ is going to give His evaluation of this church and He literally says you make me want to throw up. That's how bad you are. I can't stomach you. This is the Head of the church, the One they claim to serve, and that's His evaluation. And so the church at Laodicea is well known to us because it is the lukewarm church. But remember as we go through this, there are no doctrinal issues addressed in the church at Laodicea, there are no moral issues addressed in the church at Laodicea, like these things are addressed in the other churches. For a church that is going to receive such a strong rebuke from Christ and he doesn't point out a doctrine that they have erred in, didn't talk about moral improprieties or other kinds of sins. But it's a church totally rejected by Him and unless there is a change, a genuine repentance, they are condemned to hell.

So the church at Laodicea is a church of great importance and great interest. It pictures the decline of the church. One Bible teacher noted a number of years ago, every church, every school, every seminary goes liberal. That's the relentless tide and we are constantly battling against that. When you look around at the major denominations, I came out of the Methodist background, but the message and ministry of John Wesley would be totally foreign to what is true in the churches that often bear his name. The church at Laodicea is a church that still is going through the form but has no reality.

Let's look how it begins, that establishes something of the foundation for what Christ is going to say. He begins the letter, as New Testament letters do, by identifying Himself as the author. And in each of these letters He identifies Himself a little differently, in light of what is pertinent to that church. So He writes this to the angel or messenger “of the church in Laodicea write, the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God says this.” There is a threefold identification Christ gives of Himself—He is the Amen, He is the faithful and true witness and He is the beginning of the creation of God. All important. The Amen, we are familiar with that word because we usually say it at the end of our prayers, in Jesus' name, amen. It comes from the Hebrew, amen is the word so sometimes we say amen, sometimes we say amen, rarely do we say amen. But we have anglosized it with a little variation. It is just a transliteration of a Hebrew word. It means something that is true, that is fixed, that is certain. We have it in the Gospels, verily, verily I say unto you. Amen, amen I say unto you. Emphasizing, sometimes translated truly, truly I say unto you, emphasizing the truth, the certainty of what He is about to say. So the One who speaks certainty, who speaks that which is sure is the One speaking.

The second characterization Christ gives of Himself further clarifies what He means with that. He is the faithful and true witness. Back in Revelation 1:5, this is “from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness,” that identification of Him. Used repeatedly by John in his Gospel, for example in John 3. The Apostle John was used of the Spirit to be the writer of the Gospel of John, the three epistles of John just before the book of Revelation, and then the Revelation of John. So a large portion of our New Testament is penned by John. In John 3, this is Nicodemus coming to visit Christ and Jesus telling him you “must be born again or you will never see the kingdom of heaven.” Important, Nicodemus is a picture of the condition of Israel and he is in many ways a picture of the condition of the church at Laodicea, a religious person going through the motions with some kind of external conformity to what God has said but totally devoid of any real spiritual life. He is a teacher in Israel, he is a Pharisee, noted for their meticulous attention to the Law. Jesus said to him, unless you are born again you will never see the kingdom. You are a lost man.

In this context we come down to John 3:11, “Truly, truly,” there is our word amen, amen, “I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen. And you do not accept our testimony.” Here is the problem in Israel—just as they responded to the message of the prophets, they don't want to hear it, so Christ comes proclaiming, giving testimony to what He has seen in heaven, what He has heard from His Father, and they won't accept His testimony. Does it get any worse than this, when God speaks and you say that's not true? You refuse the testimony? That's what Jesus said. He came to earth to testify to what He has seen, He has come from heaven and born into the human race. He is the only One who has come that way from heaven and yet you don't accept our testimony, He says.

Look down in verse 32, “What He has seen and heard, of that He testifies. No one receives His testimony.” It's in the context, “He who comes from above is above all,” verse 31. “What He has seen and heard, of that He testifies. No one receives His testimony. He who has received His testimony has set His seal, that God is true. For He whom God has sent speaks the word of God.” But this is the situation in a nation that claimed to be God's people, they are closed to hearing the Word of God. They are going through the form, as we will see, the ritual, the priests' activity, the sacrifices, the observance of special days. They are still going on, but there is no life. There are Pharisees like Nicodemus teaching the Old Testament, but he has no spiritual life. The form continues long after the life is gone. So He is the faithful and true witness.

Come back to the third characterization in Revelation 3, “He is the beginning of the creation of God.” Some people might read that and say Christ was created. He is the beginning of God's creation. No, what it is saying is He is the beginner of creation, He is the One who began creation because He is the Creator. All things were created through Him and by Him and for Him.

Come back to John 1. We started out, “In the beginning was the Word,” literally in the beginning the Word already was. When you get to the beginning, Christ is already there. The beginning of what? The beginning of creation. That's where we have to begin. Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” Then you come down, when He comes He is rejected. He came to His own people, the nation Israel. Of all the peoples on the earth they should have received Him, but they didn't for the most part. Sad statement. Verse 10, “He was in the world, the world was made through Him, the world did not know Him.” He is the beginning of creation because He is the beginner of creation, He is the Creator. Apart from Him there would be no creation.

Come over to Colossians 1, we were here a little bit ago, a sister church, if you will, to Laodicea. Look at verse 15, referring to Christ, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” That firstborn referring to the fact He has priority over all creation. Why? “For by Him all things were created.” That includes everything in heaven, everything on earth. The angels came into existence by the creating act of Christ. “Invisible, visible, thrones, dominions.” Before He brought creation into existence, it was just God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Everything created by eternally existing triune God, three persons comprising one God. Came into existence through Him. The end of the verse, “all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, in Him all things hold together.” And it is God's work of reconciliation accomplished in Him. That's where we are going, that's why this is foundational to Laodicea. You see He is, verse 18, “the head of the body, the church.” And it is God's intention that He came to earth and “all the fullness of deity dwelt in Him,” verse 19, “so that through Him He would reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”

So come back to Revelation. The One who speaks with certainty, finality, the One who is the faithful and true witness, who testifies to truth. I was at a graduation ceremony yesterday for the University and the speakers kept emphasizing for the students to take your own path, to make your own way. But nobody talked about the eternal God who is sovereign over life, who is the Creator. We have rejected truth outside ourselves, we have made everyone a god so that you can make your own decision, create your own life, make your own truth. But it's a lie from the devil. Began when Satan told Eve a lie—has God said this? That won't happen. Truth didn't change, she just believed a lie. The point the church has to realize here, the church at Laodicea, they have abandoned the truth. All they are left with is an empty shell, the form, the religious activity. But the One who is the truth and the One who testifies to the truth, the Creator who also became the Redeemer has this to say.

Verse 15, “I know your deeds.” Remember He has pictured, the seven churches were identified under the picture of a lampstand because God's people are to be lights in the world. And Christ is walking among the lampstands as a priest would have done in the Old Testament, adjusting the wick, make sure they burn. That's why this is something that should not be going on, this is something that must be going on. I know your deeds, I know your works. Understand that Christ is fully knowledgeable of everything that goes on and takes place in this church. He doesn't need to be informed. We pass on information to one another, He needs no one to pass on information. He is observing it all. It is His church. Remember the One who created all is the One given to be Head of the church which He purchased with His own blood. It is His. He's looking over it, He's making sure of its condition.

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot.” Now here is a church that knows how to keep a balance. They are not going off the deep end on either side, they are not cold and indifferent to truth and rejecting the truth and checking out Eastern religions for truth. They are not over there. And they are not these fanatical fundamentalists who are battling over truth and saying we have the only way, this is all there is and it's this way or hell. This is a church that has learned to live in the world they are in. He says “I know your deeds, you are neither hot nor cold.” Then He says something that is sort of out of step with the thinking of our day—I wish you were hot or cold, I wish you were the frozen or the burning. And you think He is not serious, look at the next verse.

“So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.” You have a little #1 in front of the word spit and you look in your margin, vomit. We use this English word transliterated over in some settings for a medical term. I will vomit you out of My mouth. It's like we say to someone, makes me want to throw up. Just telling them how revolted you are. I can't stomach it, I feel like . . . Sometimes we even do the action, I wouldn't do that up here. How would you feel if this was the church at Laodicea, we have a letter that Christ has addressed to us that we just received. I'm going to read it to you. The impact on the congregation at Laodicea as they sat there an heard, “So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold,” and they are all saying that's us, Lord. Aren't you pleased? “I will vomit you out of My mouth.” You will be rejected. The kingdom that we are going to build to in this letter in the book of Revelation, you are at the end of Revelation 20, where you are cast into the lake which burns with fire and brimstone forever and ever. We have no relationship. “I will vomit you out of My mouth.”

Helps me to get a picture if I think through Scripture more broadly. This is a church, it's a church He is going to say that He loves in verse 19. How can it be a church and express His love, it's phileo love, more of a family love than agapao love, if they are rejected by Him. Well think back to the Old Testament. Now the church is not Israel, but there are things we learn from Israel's situation.

Come back to Isaiah 1. The nation Israel as a nation belonged to God because He had chosen them, we're going to Isaiah 1, but the majority of the people in the nation had no true spiritual relationship with God and were rejected by Him. That's the ministry of the prophets, to come and address them like Christ is addressing the church at Laodicea, telling them their true spiritual condition. So in that way, before we read in Isaiah, the church, Christ is the Head of the church, He is dealing with all kinds of professing believers. And that includes churches like Laodicea that profess a relationship with Christ, that profess to believe certain things. They'll take communion, they'll have baptism, they'll have Scripture readings, they may say the Lord's Prayer, they have a variety of things. This is not a Buddhist temple, just like Christ is not addressing one of the pagan worship centers. This is a professing church, as such it is included under that umbrella like all the nation, all the people in the nation, different tribes.

So Isaiah has to address the nation Israel, a nation that God had selected for Himself, had chosen for Himself. And what does he say? Isaiah 1:2, “Listen oh heavens, hear O earth, for the Lord speaks. Sons I have reared and brought up but they have revolted against Me. An ox knows its owner and a donkey its master's manger, but Israel does not know, My people do not understand.” Look at the end of verse 4, “they have abandoned the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away from Him.” So we say, they have become complete pagans. Not really. Do you know what they are doing? They are still following the Law, still have the priestly system in place, still are offering the sacrifices.

Look at verse 10, “Hear the Word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; give ear to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah.” You see it is the same kind of forceful language when Christ says, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Isaiah has to go with a word from God, “you are no different to Me than Sodom and Gomorrah,” which are infamous for people who were so revolting to God He destroyed them with fire and brimstone. Now note verse 11. He doesn't say, why have you stopped sacrificing to Me? He says “What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me, says the Lord. I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams, the fat of fed cattle. I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs and goats. When you come up to appear before Me,” they came up to the temple and the tabernacle, “who requires of you this trampling of My courts? Bring your worthless offerings no longer, incense is an abomination to Me, new moon and Sabbath, the calling of assembly. I can't endure,” and on it goes. You see what happens, they are still going through the motions. You mean God set up a priestly system? Yes, we have it. Didn't He require these kinds of sacrifices? Yes, we have them. Didn't He set certain feast days and you are supposed to come up to the tabernacle? Yes, we do them. Do you know what God says? Every time you do it, it offends Me! Isn't this better than the pagan nations around them? No, it is worse in the sight of God.

These people have God's truth and they have so twisted it that they go on with the form. And that's what is so deceptive. That's how the church declines, because we have our form. Don't we still get together? Don't we still have baptism? Don't we have communion? Don't we have Scripture reading every Sunday? And pretty soon we are going through the same motions in the same building. There is only one thing missing, spiritual life.

Come over to Matthew 12. Christ addresses the nation Israel. This had gotten so bad that the people that God had chosen for Himself as a nation, when the Messiah of their nation comes, the One who created them, they accuse Him of being the devil. But they are still going through the motions of claiming to be the ones who keep the Law, were God's chosen people. Yet they credit His miracles to the devil. Come down to verse 33, “Either make the tree good or its fruit good, make the tree bad or its fruit bad.” You see, I wish you were cold or hot. You are trying to say you put good fruit on a bad tree or bad fruit on a good tree. Be cold or be hot. “You brood of vipers, how can you being evil speak what is good? The mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.” And that's the point, the heart. “The good man brings out of his good treasure,” the heart, a good heart, “what is good; the evil man out of his evil treasure,” an evil heart, “evil,” and the judgment that will come as a result.

Come back to Matthew 11, it doesn't get any better. He began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles were done; they didn't repent. He said woe to those cities and other cities that were dealt with so firmly and seriously by God would have repented, Jesus said, if they had had the same opportunity. This is where we are going, He is going to call the church at Laodicea. They better repent. Capernaum, be cast to Hades. Sodom would have repented if they had had the exposure to light. This is the Son of God who knows, this is just not hyperbole. See how wretched the condition is of those who have truth but have never truly believed it. Worse than a city like Sodom? “It will be more tolerable,” verse 24, “for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.”

Think of what He would say to churches today. They carry Bibles and they have them around and they put them on a lectern or they read for the reading of the day. They have not really believed it. We are further along than Israel was, we now have the completed revelation of God. We have a light that is much brighter. This is the situation.

In Matthew 7, while we are in Matthew we'll just keep going backwards, here is what is going to happen. He warns in verse 15 about false prophets who come in sheep's clothing. You see again they are dressed like believers and then the good fruit on the good tree, the bad fruit on the bad tree. Verse 21, “Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in Your name? In Your name cast out demons and perform many miracles? Depart from Me, I never knew you.” You see these are people doing things in the name of Christ, they claim to have a relationship. This is the church at Laodicea, this is where it is, and they are like these people will be in Matthew 7. This is where the church at Laodicea is going to be unless there is genuine repentance. That day, I never knew you. Lord, remember? We met every Sunday, we had baptism, we had communion, we sang the songs, we had Scripture readings. Yes, but you were never saved. That's the church at Laodicea. And we are only sixty years into when the church began in Acts 2. The church at Laodicea is not that old, it started later. How did it get so far off? They are a sister church to the church at Colosse. They evidently had a chance to read the letter of Paul to the Colossians and Paul had written them a letter. And now a relatively short time later Christ is saying you make Me sick, I can't stomach you.

Come back. “I will spit you out of My mouth because you say, I am rich, have become wealthy, have need of nothing.” We're not going to go back, you can make note of Hosea 12:8 because when Hosea went and prophesied about the spiritual destitute condition of Israel, do you know what they said? We are wealthy, we don't need anything. We are doing just fine, spiritually we are good. Nothing worse than that kind of spiritual deadness. I'd rather go talk to a person who has never darkened the door of a church, than talk to a person who has some of the trimmings of it and can talk the language. I sat and listened to someone do a prayer yesterday and “thankful for Your grace, Lord, that has worked in these lives and . . .” He has a host of lost people sitting there. Going to thank God for the grace and personal relationship He has with them? What do I have to say? The most difficult people I have ever talked to have been unbelieving pastors and ministers that can use Bible verses and talk and distort it and twist it.

I got called two weeks ago to invite me to a meeting of pastors, this is a liberal pastor, that he was calling together so they could listen to a transgender person tell their story so we could learn a little more about them and how to appreciate them and welcome them. That was good. I just said I don't think I would fit that meeting very well. And I'm sure he knew. I saw in yesterday's paper he is starting a Bible study so he can teach people how to welcome the lesbian and transgender people and how the Bible says that is okay. Christ said that is worse than the Hindu over there, they are totally cold. It is more revolting to Him. It will be more tolerable in Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment.

This is serious business. How does the church get to this point? “You say, I am rich, have become wealthy, have need of nothing.” That's what they say. You say this, here is what Christ says, “You do not know.” Remember He is the One who said in verse 15, I know, you don't know. Reality. You say one thing, you think this. “You do not know you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked.” You get the point, you have nothing spiritually. What do you say? You are wretched, you are in a condition of extreme misery, you are an object of extreme pity, you are poor, you are destitute, you are a beggar, you are blind, you have no spiritual insight or perception. Like Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “the man without the Spirit, the soulish man, cannot know the things of the Spirit of God.” Doesn't say they can't read Bible verses, doesn't say they can't go through a lot of motions and all of that. But they are blind, they are blind.

I've shared with you a number of years ago, I was sharing the Gospel with my barber and he said he went to this church, a liberal church. I said, you will never hear the Gospel there, that's not where you learn and then I began to share with him. When I got done and walked out, around the corner there was the pastor of that church, sitting and waiting for his haircut. But I had opportunity to share the Gospel with that pastor a number of times.

But they are poor, they are blind, they are wretched, they are miserable. You can't fix it. This is the church. Do you know what happens? Pretty soon, the world, we have to adjust to our society, our culture. And you look at churches, their doctrinal statements get thinner and people don't come for serious study of the Word and certainly not serious study of the Word for an hour. That's all right, doesn't have to be an hour, but we keep shrinking and less and less. And let's be a little more practical and that will be more helpful to people and that will draw people. So we give self-help talks. And you know what happens, the generation that started out and is truly saved, they are there but they want it to be relevant to the young generation coming up so they make it relevant for that young generation coming up and they are further moved away from the truth and then the generation they raised, where would they have learned the truth? People that have learned the truth, I talked to a couple I bumped into. I said, where are you going? And they are going to an abject liberal church, and I said, what are you doing there? Well, I know it's not a good church, I know they don't teach the Bible but it's where our kids wanted to go. So you don't care if they go to hell? I mean, what is this? We think we will reach the young people? For what? So we can get them baptized? So they will take communion? So we can say they went through the form, so I have the confidence of knowing they are saved. We don't want to be happy with them lost. This is the way the church gets, then pretty soon, we are doing good, we are doing well. We are fine, in fact we may do a conference on how to have a successful church.

“I advise you,” here is the counsel of Christ to the church, “buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, white garments so that you may clothe yourself. The shame of your nakedness will not be revealed. Eye salve to anoint your eyes so you may see.” True riches come from Christ, spiritual riches, spiritual wealth, spiritual sight. If you are not clothed with the righteousness of Christ, what hope is there? What is there? Certainly there is no salvation.

Turn over to Revelation 7, there are a number of verses but we don't have time. Look at Revelation 7:9, and the end of the verse there you see this multitude gathered before the throne in heaven and they are clothed in white robes. Down in verse 14, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” You have to come to the Lamb of God and experience His cleansing, that's where you get the white robe and then in a life lived for Him is the righteousnesses of the saints that comes out of Revelation. But you start out with Him

Come back to Matthew 22. Here Christ tells the account of a wedding feast and I have to just summarize it for you. A king gives out invitations to his wedding feast but nobody wants to come, they all have excuses. Of course the picture is the wedding feast of the Lamb, the marriage feast of the Lamb, and the invitation goes out but people are saying no. So others are invited, the worst of society. Remember Christ said it is the dregs of society, the prostitutes, the murderers, the thieves, the tax gatherers are responding but by and large the others weren't. So finally people come in and they come for the wedding feast. Verse 11, “But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests he saw man who was there, not dressed in wedding clothes. He said to him, friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes? The man was speechless.” Do you know why? If you come in the proper way, you are given the garment. “The king said to his servants, bind him hand and foot, throw him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Many are called, few are chosen.”

You have to come in the right way, get the garment from the one who is the king, you have to have yourself cleansed in the blood of the Lamb. We sing it in the songs, but you can sing the songs and it has never gripped your heart. Understand how many young people grow up in churches where the Word is taught, but if they never respond to it themselves they are not saved. And we as parents don't want to pretend they are. That doesn't mean we are hard hearted, we want them to be saved, we love them, we pray for them, we urge them. We pray and pray and pray but we don't want to settle in and say . . . We're glad they come to church if the Word is being taught, whether it is here or another place, we're glad for them to be exposed to the Word, exposed to believers who will be concerned for them.

Come back to Revelation. Easy to summarize this because we are well familiar. You get everything you need in Christ, the spiritual reality comes through a relationship with Him. “Those whom I love I reprove and discipline. Therefore be zealous and repent.” Because this church is under the umbrella, if you will, like the nation Israel. God keeps calling them back, you were for Me. This is God's grace. Be zealous and repent. We can look at our Christianity, we pride ourselves we are a Bible-believing church. Are we a burning hot Bible-believing church? Have we settled down? You know we've been at this for many years, we've done that. I know, it just sort of becomes flat line, routine. The only thing acceptable to Christ is a fiery love as we saw in the church at Ephesus. People are on fire for Him, passionate about their relationship with Him. Should that grow dimmer? Should that grow cooler with the passing of time? It should be going the opposite, shouldn't it? If it is genuine I am more in love with Him today than I was sixty years ago when I got saved. It's more precious, more important. He is more to me. That's the way it ought to go. Well, we get enough in, we try to get to the service regularly. But we see what He is looking for. I love it, He puts “be zealous and repent,” connect the two. A genuine repentance which is a synonym throughout Scripture for true salvation, you turn from your self-dependence and hopeless, lost condition, place your faith in Him and He sets you on fire. And it's a fire that grows. Is that what the generation coming up sees in us, the older generation—their parents, their grandparents? A people that are passionate about the Word, passionate about their relationship with Christ? If not, we are in danger of more quickly than we think ending up to be a Laodicean kind of church.

“Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice, opens the door, I will come in to him, will dine with him and he with Me. He who overcomes I will grant him to sit down with Me on My throne. I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” A picture here of Christ coming to establish His kingdom. James talks about this in James 5, the judge stands at the door and he is ready to come through. Are you ready? That's the point. If you will, you will be part of the kingdom He will establish. Like He told Nicodemus, you must be born again, He is telling the church at Laodicea, you must be born again.

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Nothing has changed. Two thousand years later this is what the Spirit has to say to the churches. You'll note, not just to Laodicea, it is addressed to Laodicea but it is being said by the Spirit to the churches, plural. Has Indian Hills Community Church heard? How do we measure up? Are we on the road? Well, we have cooled but I think we are still pretty good. That's not good enough. We want to be on fire and that's all that is acceptable, that's all we would want to be.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for calling us together as Your church family in this place. You have blessed us greatly. Thank you for the riches we have in Christ, Lord, the riches of Your Word. Lord, we don't want to be a people going through the motions, even in the study of Your Word, even learning more of the facts about Your Word. And soon we are like the Pharisees that have much information, but Lord, there is no life left. May the truths that we study be taken in and be pondered, be considered carefully, be applied to our lives. May we check our own spiritual temperature regularly and we be a church that is characterized by burning in our zeal for Christ and your truth. We pray in Christ's name, amen.