Letter to Paul to the Colossians, chapter 2,
first verse.
I would have you know how greatly I
strive for you and for them at Laodicea.
Chapter 4, verse 13, I bear him witness
that he has much labor for you and
for them in Laodicea.
Verse 15, salute the brethren that are in
Laodicea.
16, and when this epistle hath been read
among you, cause that it be read also
in the church of the Laodicean.
The letter to the Philippians, chapter 3, verse
12, not that I have already obtained or
am already made perfect, but I press on,
if so be that I may apprehend that
for which also I was apprehended by Christ
Jesus.
Brethren, I count not myself yet to have
apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting the
things which are behind, stretching forward to the
things which are before, I press on toward
the goal unto the prize of the on
high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Let us therefore, as many as be perfect,
be thus minded.
We will hold those scriptures in mind while
we sing another hymn.
In these closing verses of the third chapter
of the book of Revelation, we reach the
concluding phase of the first movement of the
risen Lord toward the consummation of divine
purpose in this age.
Throughout this time we have sought to have
the great end of God for his church,
overshadowing everything, kept clearly in view, because
what we have here in the first part
of this great book, and in the last
chapters, is the great purpose of
God in our salvation.
Paul, as we have read this evening, said
that he was on full stretch to apprehend
that for which he had been apprehended by
Christ Jesus.
And then, without defining exactly what that was,
that object, that purpose, he did at the
prize of the on high calling of God
in Christ Jesus.
It was unto that that he conceived himself
as having been apprehended by Christ Jesus.
Not only to be saved, but to be
brought to a great and glorious destiny in
and by Christ Jesus.
He calls it the prize of the on
high calling.
The end of this present part of the
book of the Revelation, which book is bringing
us very near to the goal.
The intention of the book is to get
the church ready for the end, for the
great crisis in view.
At the end of this first part of
the book, which has to do with the
church, we are told what it was that
Paul made by the prize of the on
high calling.
This is it.
To him that overcometh, I will give to
him to sit with me in my throne,
as I also overcame and sat down with
my father in his throne.
That is the great object and goal for
which people are seen and apprehended by Christ
Jesus.
To a place of sharing with him, their
Lord, the throne government of this universe.
That is the meaning of Christianity.
That is in the heart of the Lord,
in giving the gospel, in appealing to men.
It is that, dear friends, that is in
view in our Christian lives.
Nothing less than that.
Great calling, an on high calling, a wonderful
prize, throne sharing with Christ in government.
Well, it is of course quite significant, is
it not, that that is the last note
in this phase, this section of the book.
And we can say, because it is quite
true, that it has been that that has
governed all that has gone before.
The wonderful presentation of the Lord Jesus in
person, in chapter one, was in order that
by showing his victory, the glory of his
risen person, the standard should be set.
And then through all these seven messages to
the seven churches, as representing by their very
number the whole church in all ages, in
all that is said through these, this thing
is governing, this end is overshadowing.
It is to this that everything is moving,
the judging, and the condemning, and the demand
to put away everything that would thwart that
end, and the encouraging, and the confirming, and
the exhorting in relation to other things that
will help toward that end.
The end governs everything beyond high calling, the
prize of the on high calling of God
in Christ Jesus.
That is in view, that explains everything.
It explains all the Lord's dealings with his
people.
If at all times the Lord is dealing
with us, we could but pause, be quiet,
and think what's the meaning of this, why
this, and allow ourselves to entertain this great
governing truth.
He's getting us ready for the throne.
He's doing something now that relates to that
glorious end.
He is paving the way, he's preparing us,
he is canceling out things in us that
would hinder our progress toward that end.
He is seeking to inculcate and develop in
us the things that will hasten us toward
that end.
Only we could be convinced that is exactly
what it all means.
It would be a tremendous help.
Now you notice the Lord in these letters
says that quite clearly to his people.
We were thinking earlier in the day about
that suffering church, that suffering church called to
be faithful unto death.
Lord simply told them in plain language that
their tribulation was all with a spiritual and
divine purpose, and quite clearly to prepare them,
to qualify them for their great eternal destiny.
Well that's how it is.
I think dear friends perhaps our obsession with
the importance of this life is often a
great limitation upon our appreciation of the heavenly
calling.
We make far too much of this life
from one standpoint, from another perhaps we don't
make enough of it.
From one standpoint we make far too much
of it that if we don't see everything
accomplished here and now in this lifetime and
all our hopes and expectations realized then we
are disappointed people.
The Lord never looks at it like that.
Never has anything been made perfect in the
lifetime of any one believer except the Lord
Jesus.
It's like that.
On the other hand perhaps we do not
make enough of the tremendous importance of what
the Lord is trying to do with us
in this lifetime.
However be that as it may there is
this that stands over our lives now.
These lives here.
It's this tremendous heavenly calling unto which we
have been apprehended by Christ Jesus.
But unto the realization of that or what
Paul calls the attaining unto that certain things
are necessary.
And in this message to the church in
Laodicea the Lord makes perfectly clear what is
essential in the final issue.
And he does that in the first place
by presenting himself in certain terms.
You notice how he introduces himself here?
These things set the arm in.
The faithful and true witness.
The beginning of the creation of God.
That may not be very clear as to
what it really means.
Well I suppose everybody is quite clear on
the first.
If you aren't then you're terrible hypocrites.
But I've been hearing a lot of amens
tonight.
That prayer drew out many amens tonight.
And we're accustomed to using that word.
Is it just a word?
Is it just something we take on at
the end or at a certain point?
Is it a habit?
A custom?
What do we mean?
No.
We understand that the meaning of that word
amen is verily, truly, positively yes.
We mean it.
These things set the arm in.
The arm in.
The one in whom and about whom there
is no uncertainty or indefiniteness.
My dear friends, if you and I at
all value our salvation, we owe it to
him who was so thorough in the work
that he did for our salvation.
Where should we be if he had been
indifferent about our salvation?
If it had been a willy-nilly matter
with him whether we were saved?
Whether he was neither cold nor hot about
it?
Where should we be?
No, everything about that work of redemption sees
him as one who without any reserve whatsoever
or two minds divided heart gave himself for
our sin that he might redeem us and
from all in it.
He did not stop halfway, thank God.
He did not suffer himself to be turned
aside or to be influenced by secondary interests.
Not at all.
He is the guarded servant of the Lord
who came as we have some from the
mansions of glory, having laid aside his robes
of comfort and ease, girding himself as a
servant he's come for on business and thoroughgoing
business.
He's finished the work.
These things said such a one, the
faithful and true, the faithful and true
witness.
You see these are strong, emphatic words.
He has been faithful, absolutely faithful.
The Apostle Paul called upon Timothy to remember
Jesus Christ who before Pontius Pilate gave his
testimony faithfully.
Yes, he was a faithful witness and a
true.
Point is, the underlining is that everything here
is emphatic, it's positive, it's definite, it's real,
it's utter, it is unreserved.
The beginning of the creation, how does that
come into this?
Well, first of all, we've got to get
that word beginning.
It is not the word that means the
first of the creation.
He was the first one created, and then
there are a lot more after him created.
It's not that word at all.
The Greek word arche which means the source
of everything, the fountainhead of everything, the one
in whom and from whom everything has come,
and who is himself the standard and model
of everything.
That is what we mean when we speak
of an architect, one who produces the model
out of whom comes that which is to
be the source of everything.
That's the word here.
The beginning of the creation of God, how?
See him coming forth, for it says that
in him and through him and unto him
were all things created.
All things were made by him.
That's the scripture.
Was he lackadaisical in the creation?
Was he careless in it?
When the thing was completed, the evening of
the sixth day, was there a lot left
to be desired, and a lot that needed
improving upon?
No.
The verdict is, it is very good.
It is very good.
The divine verdict.
He done his work thoroughly, and well, he
had applied himself to it.
What we now even in a wrecked creation,
a ruined creation, can trace of his creative
fingers, impresses us with the wonder of it.
The wonder of the mind there.
The wonder of the power there.
It's all there.
My point is, dear friends, that this is
only one further, it's the third phrase that
bears upon this one thing.
You're dealing with somebody who is very thorough.
Thorough in creation, thorough in redemption, and thorough
in his own person and his own witness.
And that is how he is introduced to
Laodicea, as though he would say, this, this
and this alone will bring you to the
end.
Such a spirit, such a mind, such a
devotion, such a thoroughness, such an Amen disposition,
is essential if you're going to reach the
end.
You have got to mean business.
You've got to mean business to reach that
goal and obtain that prize.
That's perfectly clear as the basis of his
speaking to Laodicea, and he goes on then
to show that Laodicea's attitude of mind and
heart and will would never get them there,
never get them there.
I have this against thee, thou art neither
hot nor cold.
There's all the difference between sitting with him
in his throne and being spewed out of
his mouth.
Those are the alternatives resting upon this matter
of downright and utter committal
devotion and persistence unto God's great end.
Like that.
Then he analyzes this thing and in so
doing indicates some things, other things, more things
essential to the attaining.
Notice, because thou seest I am rich and
have gotten riches and have need of nothing,
Laodicea was a very wealthy city.
It was the great banking center of Asia
Minor into which and out from which all
the wealth of the province flowed.
And the Lord took hold of that.
They were proud of their wealth in Laodicea,
the world was.
But in the church of Laodicea there was
a complacency, a satisfaction, a sense of
being quite sufficient, having got there and
there was not much more to do about
it.
Rich and increased in goods and had need
of nothing, the Lord said that will never
get you to the prime, that will never
get you to the prime.
One essential, if you are to come to
that for which I have apprehended and chosen
you, one essential is and must remain, sense,
deep sense of your own insufficiency, of your
own need, of there still being far more
in Christ than ever you have discovered or
possessed.
It's this sense, deep sense of spiritual need
which is essential.
Any kind of gratification or satisfaction you have
much further to go or to gain.
You're content with a little, the little that
you've got or perhaps you want a little
more.
But here is the spirit of the great
apostle, and we've discerned it over Laodicea, I
will have you know, I will have you
know, my travail, my conflict for them of
Laodicea.
Dear friends, anything in the nature of settling
down with less than God's full content of
Christ as our calling will rob us of
the prize, rob us of the prize.
It will just be the people who are
deeply, deeply conscious.
They have not attained, neither are they already
complete, but who have yet everything to gain
in Christ, however much they may have.
That is the spirit, the mind, the disposition
that is here demanded of Laodicea.
Then I counsel thee, because thou knowest not
that thou art wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked,
I counsel thee, first of all, to buy
of me gold refined, that thou mayest become.
This is not buying salvation.
Salvation is without money and without price.
If there is something to be secure, it
is not salvation by our effort or our
work or even our earnestness.
Not that.
That's of grace.
But being saved, we are saved unto something
that will draw us out and extend us
to the full in the matter of faith.
And it is in the fire, in the
fire that faith is refined and will be
the currency by which the crown is won.
I'm not going to dwell upon all the
details here.
I just want you to catch the spirit
of this without an exhaustive exposition.
Thou knowest not that thou art poor.
Thou knowest not that thou art blind.
I counsel thee, to buy of me eyes
solved, to anoint thine eyes that thou mayest
see.
Thou knowest not that thou art blind.
Here again is a local touch taken up
in connection with one of the temples in
Laodicea.
There was a famous medical school.
And from that medical school, all over the
Greek and Roman world, an eye salve went.
It was famed for this ointment for eye
trouble.
Everybody knew what this meant in Laodicea.
And yet, and yet, right there in the
precincts of the place where the world was
getting its natural eyes healed, the church was
blind.
Spiritual blindness.
Thou knowest not that thou art blind.
Let us say right away, without too many
words, an absolute essential of reaching that end
of God is to have a vision.
To have a spiritual vision.
I ask you, my dear friends, every one
of you personally, now to challenge your own
hearts, have you got a spiritual vision?
Are you drifting on from day to day?
Are you going on without a mighty incentive
of a divine, eternal purpose?
Are you in the shadows or in the
dark as to what it all means and
what the end is intended to be?
Or is there before you, before your enlightened
spirit, a clear vision of what God has
determined as the issue of all things and
has called you into?
Or is there before you, before your enlightened
spirit, a clear vision of what God has
determined as the issue of all things and
has called you into in fellowship with his
Son?
Are you clear about it?
You know quite well that no one ever
gets anywhere without a vision.
An artisan will never get anywhere without a
vision.
No one will ever make any progress unless
they clearly see what they're after, what they're
aiming at.
In any realm of life, in order to
get somewhere, you want to know where it
is and what it is you're going to.
And here, an essential is that you should
see.
The whole force of these letters and the
presentation of the Lord Jesus is a revelation
that is going to master our being, a
revelation of Jesus Christ that shall capture us
and draw us on and make us people
of a purpose, people who know where we
are going and what we are going after.
Do you like that?
You've got the vision of God's eternal purpose
in Christ for the church into which you
have been called by his grace.
You've got the vision.
Is that something that is coming down into
your life continually?
Are you tired of hearing that phrase, the
eternal purpose, the eternal purpose?
Has it lost its music?
Its charm?
Its captivating power?
Ah, that's Laodicea, you see.
Lost vision.
That is essential to arise.
I counsel thee to buy of me, I
saw, thou mayst anoint thine eye, thou mayst
see.
What do you mean when you talk like
that figuratively and symbolically?
Buy of me, I saw.
Well, again, I'm going to take you back
to such familiar words in Paul's letter to
the Ephesians that he would grant unto you
a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of the eyes of your heart being
enlightened that you may know what is the
hope of his calling.
There it is.
Buy, I saw.
That means lay yourself out with all your
being before God that the Holy Spirit will
open the eyes of your heart, give you
to see what God means for you as
a part of his church.
Buy, I saw.
Knowest not that thou art naked?
I counsel thee, buy of me white garments,
that thou mayst clothe thyself, that the shame
of thy nakedness be not made manifest.
Again, Laodicea was famed as a manufacturing center
for a beautiful fleece which they cultivated in
their surrounding fields and made wonderful garments which
were world-famous.
A glistening fleece of Laodicean manufacture.
They knew what it meant.
Here, in a place where everybody knew how
this beautiful garment material, people were proud of
wearing those Laodicean garments.
Right in the presence of it all, as
the Lord looked at them, he saw them
naked.
But they didn't know.
They didn't know.
Knowest not that thou art naked?
He saw them as they were by nature.
You know, dear friends, when our eyes are
open about ourselves, the one thing we want
is to get covered up somehow.
As soon as Adam's eyes were open, the
one thing he wanted was to get covered
up.
He went and hid himself.
We know ourselves, and of course you know
what I'm talking about.
And we begin to know ourselves in the
light of God.
One thing we feel to need is all
for a covering, all for a hiding, all
to get out of the way, out of
the scanning of those eyes.
If only we could hide ourselves from ourselves.
This is no pleasant view when we begin
to see ourselves.
But they didn't know it.
That's how they were.
That's how God saw them.
But they had no sense of nakedness.
They were priding themselves in the garments of
their own flesh, their own making.
Again, the Lord says quite clearly, if you
are going to reach the end, you must
have a very, very poor opinion of yourself
and realize your absolute need of a clothing
that you can't make for yourself, the white
raiment of Christ's own righteousness.
That's your only way to the end.
So Paul says that I may gain Christ.
Not having a righteousness of mine own, but
the righteousness which is of God through faith.
That's the white raiment.
We've got to sense our need of that
because of our deep and overflowing sense of
our own unrighteousness.
These are the people that are on the
way to the throne.
Any sense whatever or degree of self-righteousness,
of being at all of it, will put
us out of the running for the prize.
This may be comforting to most of us.
But this is, after all, the gospel, isn't
it?
And it all just amounts to this, that
on the one side of this great argument,
the Lord is saying, you've got to be
a people who characterize by such a strong
sense of need, which only the Lord Jesus
can supply.
You've got to be a people like that
if you're going to get there to the
place where you're called.
How different this is from the whole world
attitude.
Why the world's attitude is always certain fitness,
certain ability, certain self-sufficiency, and self-importance
to receive the prizes.
It's not the spirit of the world that
feels absolutely unfit and unworthy and worthless.
That's not the spirit of the world.
This is the spirit of Christ, and this
is the spirit called for.
As many as I love, I reprove and
chasten.
These people are a chastened people.
Well, some of us know a little about
that, what it is to be chastened.
But as many as I love, I reprove
and chasten.
Then the appeal.
Be zealous.
That word simply means be on fire, be
burning.
Be not like that stream that runs alongside
of Laodicea, which is not a hot stream
nor a cold stream.
It was well known what he meant.
There it was, a river just by the
city of tepid water.
Neither one thing nor the other.
Be not like that, but be zealous.
Be hot, therefore, and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door.
We could dwell much upon that, but it
has been dwelt upon so much.
It just means this, that where conditions obtain
such as these, no sense of the need
of him, no sense of our own undone
condition, helpless condition.
Well, the Lord's outside of that.
He's not inside that at all.
He's outside of that.
But he says, I stand at the door
and knock.
That knocking may mean many things.
Many things.
The Lord is trying to get on the
inside by many a form of knocking.
And then this, if any man opened the
door, I will come in, will sup with
him, he with me.
And looking at that word sup, I find
there are three words.
One that applies to the Greek breakfast, which
was but a bit of bread and a
drink and that suffice.
Another was another little larger meal that they
had during the day.
But there's another word which is used for
the full meal of the day.
And that's the one here.
I will come in and there'll be a
full meal.
You see, everything that you look at in
this part of the word is something positive,
isn't it?
Something full that the Lord is after, not
something partial, not just the early morning scrap
with which you start the day, but the
full meal.
He's after fullness.
I'll come in and there'll be fullness.
It's all that.
Well, he calls for us to be of
that mind, of that spirit, of that disposition.
For again, he says, it's just the people
who have but one thing, this one thing
I do.
Leaving the things which are behind, all the
things, and having only one thing to do,
this one thing I do.
Leaving the things which are behind, I press
toward the mark of the prize of the
on high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Oh, dear friends, don't be satisfied with less
than God meant for you when he saved
you.
Don't settle down to something that is not
his full thought for you.
Don't you be robbed of your prize by
any compromises of any kind or any carelessness.
Be you an Amen man, an Amen woman.
May our churches be like that, be like
that, that everybody can say those people know
where they're going, what they're after.
There's no doubt about them.
They're on business bent.
They're not just a people either drifting or
just having meetings.
They're people who are marked and characterized by
a sense of a great meaning, a great
purpose.
The Lord make us like that.