When I come to Faith Bible Chapel and
I hear those things, those fellows sing, I
say to myself, it's just not fair because
I can't sing, know very little about music,
and there's just a little spark of envy
or something that says it just doesn't seem
right, and it's just so beautiful, and my
how it complements the service.
We thank God for it.
I'd like for us to look this morning
in Revelation chapter 1, and
we'll read from verse 9.
I, John, who also am your brother and
companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and
patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle
that is called Patmos for the word of
God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
I was in the Spirit on the Lord's
day, and heard behind me a great voice
as of a trumpet saying, I am Alpha
and Omega, the first and the last, and
what thou seest write in a book and
send it unto the seven churches which are
in Asia, unto Ephesus and unto Smyrna, unto
Pergamum, unto Thyatira, unto Sardis, unto Philadelphia, and
unto Laodicea.
And I turned to see the voice that
spoke with me, and being turned I saw
seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of
the seven lampstands was one like the Son
of Man, clothed with a garment down to
the foot and girded about the breast with
a golden girdle.
His head and his hair were white like
wool as white as snow, and his eyes
were like a flame of fire, and his
feet like fine bronze as if they burned
in a furnace, and his voice like the
sound of many waters.
He had in his right hand seven stars,
and out of his mouth went a sharp
two-edged sword, and his countenance was as
the sun shineth in its strength.
And when I saw him, I fell at
his feet as dead, and he laid his
right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear
not, I am the first and the last.
I am he that liveth and doth live,
and he that is dead.
And behold, I am alive for evermore.
Amen.
And have the keys of Hades and of
death.
Write the things which thou hast seen, and
the things which are, and the things which
shall be hereafter.
The mystery of the seven stars which thou
sawest in my right hand, and the seven
golden lampstands.
The seven stars are the angels of the
seven churches, and the seven lampstands which thou
sawest are the seven churches.
Now, if you will, turn to chapter three.
Chapters two and three are devoted to the
messages to the seven churches this morning.
Of course, for time's sake, we're going to
devote our attention to this last church, the
church at Laodicea.
Verse 14 of chapter three, and unto the
angel of the church of the Laodiceans write,
These things saith the Amen, the faithful and
the true witness, the beginning of the creation
of God.
I know thy works, that thou art neither
cold nor hot.
I would thou wert cold or hot.
So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither
cold nor hot, I will spew thee out
of my mouth.
Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased
with goods, and have need of nothing.
And knowest not that thou art wretched and
miserable and poor and blind and naked.
I counsel thee to buy of me gold
tried in the pot, that thou mayest be
rich, and white raiment that thou mayest be
clothed.
And that the shame of thy nakedness do
not appear, and anoint thine eyes with fire
that thou mayest see.
As many as I love, I rebuke and
chasten.
Be zealous, therefore, and retent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If any man hear my voice, and open
the door, I will come in to him,
and will sit with him, and he with
me.
Him that overcometh will I grant to sit
with me in my throne, even as I
also overcame, and am sat down with my
Father in his throne.
He that hath an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
And may God add his blessing to the
reading of this, his holy word.
I'd like for us to think about these
messages to the churches.
At the very outset, what we read in
Revelation 1 sets, I think, the scene for
us.
Here is the Apostle John, and he's confined
on the Isle of Patmos because he has
been a faithful witness for the Lord Jesus,
and it tells us that he was in
the Spirit on the Lord's Day.
And, I would remind you, not the Lord's
Day as we know it.
I think that the Spirit of God, without
question, was able to transport or project the
Apostle John into the future of that day
of the Lord when he comes again, and
remind us of, indeed, conditions as they would
exist at that time.
This picture that we have painted for us,
this portrayal of the Lord Jesus and these
things that are so descriptive of him, indeed
are all in spite of the unspeakable gift
of God.
To think about this wonderful person, the one
that we trusted, the one that we have,
indeed, entrusted the eternal destiny of our souls
into his care.
I am persuaded that he is able to
keep that which we have committed unto him.
Indeed, the committal of our souls into his
holy care is a wise decision.
As we think about this, and we get
to the seventh of these churches, and each
one of them has a message for us,
but what do these churches and these messages
that John gives to us concerning these churches,
what does it teach us?
Well, it teaches us one thing for sure,
that there's been a decline in the church,
and of the church, since the birthday of
the church.
Now, men, the humanists of today, tell us
that men are getting better, and everything we
see around us just proves that.
Man is not getting better.
Man possesses a depraved nature, and man, because
of all of the evil that is within
his heart, a part of his very nature,
causes the world that he lives in, and
everything that he touches, to be defiled by
the things that he does.
But, when we think of the church, in
the day of Pentecost, the church was pure.
It was filled with the Spirit of God,
and you can see in God's dealings with
Ananias and Sapphira that evil would not be
tolerated, because a man and a woman, that
through deception and lying, were struck down dead.
And, it was a reminder of the holy
character of the God that they had identified
with, and today, if that same principle was
carried out in our lives, perhaps many of
us wouldn't be here, because holiness is indeed
a part of, and should be a part
of, the very character and makeup of God's
people.
Be holy as I'm holy.
Paul reminds Timothy, Godliness with contentment is great
gain.
But, indeed, the world that we live in
seeks after some shallow, superficial concept of joy
and happiness that does not even relate in
the remotest way to what is Godliness.
That which brings true contentment to the soul.
Instead of increasing in spiritual power, the church
is pictured in this Laodicean picture that we
have for us, this last church that is
mentioned, as being lukewarm, being faithless, horrors of
horrors priceless, because the Lord Jesus is seen
as standing on the outside.
In the book of Daniel, chapter 12, we're
told that in the last days many shall
run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.
I read recently in a newsletter that between
1900 and 1950, knowledge doubled.
There was an increase to the extent that
previously known to man, all the knowledge that
man possessed, that it was recorded that knowledge
doubled.
All that man had ever known between 1900
and 1950.
Between 1950 and 1965, knowledge doubled again, and
now we're told that knowledge is doubling every
five years.
How are you going to keep up?
It makes you feel rather insignificant, because you
realize sometimes, I don't know very much.
You look at the Word of God, you
think about the unsearchable riches that are found
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the unspeakable gift of God.
You think of all of the ignorance that
prevails today concerning the plans and the purposes
of God, and indeed you realize that though
men are increasing in knowledge, scientific advancement, all
of the things that are so appealing to
the natural man, and yet I have to
sadly report to you that spiritual knowledge seems
to be on the decline.
I just want to read a few words
from Paul in his letter to the church
at Cairn, in which he reminds us of
some things that I think certainly fit this
situation.
He says, "...for the preaching of the cross
to them that perish is foolishness, but unto
us who are saved it is the power
of God.
For it is written, I will destroy the
wisdom of the wise, and will bring to
nothing the understanding of the truth.
Where is the wise?
Where is the scribe?
Where is the disputer of this age?
Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of
this world?
For after that, in the wisdom of God,
the world by wisdom knew not God, it
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to
save them that believe.
It tells us that the Jew required her
sign, and the Greek seek after wisdom.
We preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a
stumbling block, and to the Gentiles foolishness.
But unto them who are called both Jews
and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and
the wisdom of God.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than
men, and the weakness of God is stronger
than men."
Now, I know that in the world today,
the things that are happening of such a
spectacular nature in the realm of advancing knowledge,
and so forth, impresses many people.
But as a Christian, as someone that understands
in some small measure the infinite wisdom of
God, and what it is revealed to us,
men and women created in the image of
God, the likeness of God, all that was
lost through the fall, the very fact that
I have had revealed to my soul that
all that was lost can be gained again
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
All that was lost, the glory, can only
be restored in the person of that wonderful
Savior of ours, the Lord Jesus.
I'm not really impressed with a lot of
the things that are advanced today as being,
in a sense, opening up new frontiers of
knowledge, as it regarding space, scientific advancement, this
sort of thing.
Because the natural man, in his pursuit after
these things, there's so much about it that
becomes religious in nature.
Secular humanism.
I've mentioned the very fact that man can
resolve all of his own problems.
He doesn't need God.
Man is deified.
Man is not just brought up on par
with God.
He itself is God.
He is above God.
They don't need God.
I'm saying that because it is the spirit
of the day in which we live.
Paul said in the last days, the distressing
days, the perilous days, perilous times.
Think about men's hearts failing them for fear.
There's a lot of fear and uncertainty in
the world in which we live today.
Paul says God has not given to us
the spirit of fear.
We have a sound mind.
We have the spirit of God within us.
We have the love of God that has
filled our souls.
God doesn't want us to be afraid.
If we have a spirit of fear within
us, it is not from God.
It's from some other source.
This resume of the teaching of the seven
churches and conditions in these churches is a
description, it's a rather prophetic outline of the
spiritual history of the church from the time
when John wrote in about A.D. 96
down to the taking away of the church,
the rapture, the taking away out of this
world of that which is precious in the
sight of God.
Members of a body, a living body.
The church is not the building on the
corner, mind you.
It's a living organism made up of men
and women born again filled with the spirit
of God, a part of the family of
God.
Indeed, even the spiritual history of that body
is one that John marks out for us
as being in a steady condition of spiritual
decline.
Why?
Leaven came in.
Sin was tolerated.
You read the accounts of these seven churches,
and we learn some rather startling things.
If we are to interpret these messages of
the seven churches, we have to realize that
at the time that he wrote this, and
perhaps for some time following that, the truth
that related to the seven churches as applying
to the church in a dispensational way was
hidden from the church, hidden from believers.
It took the course of time itself to
reveal these conditions.
It took time for church history to develop
and to be written so that a comparison
could be made by what John had written
and the actual condition that existed during that
period of church history.
It's remarkable that as you read this, as
you know a little about the history of
the church and the various periods of church
history, that the character of these seven churches
is indeed descriptive of the church during seven
periods of history.
At the end of the first century, the
leaven of false doctrine was at work in
the church.
It starts in Ephesus.
Remember that this very distinct weakness of each
period does not disappear with that period, but
continues on through the whole age right down
to the present day.
And when I think about that, it's rather
frightening to think when I read in Ephesus,
they left their first lot.
That condition still prevails in the church today.
Among God's people, it amazes you sometimes when
you meet someone, and all of the freshness
and the growth of having found God's way,
having had revealed to that soul that God
has a plan and a purpose, and that
you have discovered that in the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ, God can bless.
He can restore.
He can make one righteous.
He that knew no sin but was made
sin for us, that we might be made
the righteousness of God.
Isn't that profound?
Isn't it wonderful to know that in the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can
stand in the presence of God in his
righteousness?
But to be aware that all of the
imperfections, all of the things that indeed in
the sight of God are abominable, they are
still present in the church today.
And the fact, you could say, in this
accumulation of years, in this period of church
history, all of the things that John points
out for us and reminds us of as
characteristics of that particular period, they're all with
us today.
There's been a compounding of the problems that
exist in the church down through these last
2,000 years that is rather frightening, and
it would cause each one of us, I
trust, to search our own hearts because that's
so important.
If revival is to ever come, it must
start with me.
It must start with you, and we live
in a day in which the church should
indeed check up and be sure what its
priorities are.
There's so much that is advanced today as
being a program for the church.
A little better organization.
The professional religionists of our day have so
impressed the masses that sometimes we lose sight
of the fact that our God would have
one thing be a first priority for the
church today, and that is that Jesus Christ
might have first place.
Let him have the preeminent place, and when
people talk to me about serving God, right
away I want to know where Christ fits
in to their life.
Is he enthroned?
Is he the Lord Jesus Christ to you?
The spirit of this day in which we
live tells us, and even as we look
at very specifically the Laodicean church, Christ did
not have first place, and indeed starting with
the church in Ephesus in which there was
abandonment of that first love.
They found something else.
Something else was substituted, and so it reads
as we go down through this list.
Ephesus, a backslidden church.
Smyrna, the persecuted church.
But that persecution, there was a reason for
it.
There'd been sin in the church.
It was God's chastening hand upon them.
Pergamus, a licentious church, all of the things
that were tolerated.
Thyatira, a lax church.
Sarnia, a dead church, dead.
Philadelphia, a favored but an awakened church that
speaks to us of a period in which
God was flashing great revivals, and Laodicea, a
lukewarm church.
Our Lord has not one commendation for the
Laodicean church, but the complaint was that there
was lukewarmness, and you know if you want
something refreshing and cool when you put it
to your lips, you want it to be
everything that you expect it to be.
By the same token, those that like their
coffee and like it real hot, or their
tea real hot, and they tell me that
it's not that when they put it to
their lips that they're terribly disappointed, and I
know that liquid that is supposed to be
cool or cold and refreshing, and it's not
that.
It's lukewarm, it's rather nauseating, and yet that's
exactly what our Lord says concerning this church
at Laodicea.
I know thy works, and you know there
should be the realization in the heart of
every individual that indeed that power that God
possesses of being omniscient and knowing all.
There's so many things that are hidden today.
You know, we are able to camouflage sometimes
our lies.
There's pretense.
There's that leaven of hypocrisy, the leaven of
hypocrisy of the Pharisees.
Pretense that says everything is all right within
my soul, going through all of the motions,
even being regular at services, and that sort
of thing, and yet never really hot or
cold in that sense.
And the Lord looks at that condition, and
he says that's the condition that existed at
Laodicea ever so dangerous, ever so nauseating, disapproved
of the Lord.
That's his complaint concerning that church.
I said at the very outset in the
world today, and in what I believe to
be the Laodicean period, there's been a substitution
by man of more committed, more organization, well
organized, but no true spiritual power.
Now, we were in a prayer meeting just
a few minutes ago, and I look for
this when I'm in the prayer meeting with
the president.
Are we depending upon our own strength for
what we do for the Lord, or are
we depending upon his power and his strength?
If what we say about the word of
God is not empowered by the Spirit of
God, it has no power.
It is lacking in that one ingredient that
God wants us to have.
God wants us to have power, spiritual power.
It's incumbent upon us that our souls be
cleansed, sin be confessed, and forsaken.
In that prayer meeting, there was frequent mention
of, let the power of the Spirit of
God be upon what we do so needed
in our service for him.
In fact, he says, without me you can't
do anything.
Soul winning has become a big business in
the world today.
You can turn on the television, you can
turn on the radio, and you never heard
of so many things that are being done.
Giant campaigns and things, promotional ideas that are
being used to propagate the so-called gospel.
Very often it may be just the social
gospel.
It may be lacking in these very ingredients
that we're talking about this morning.
Men are clever, and men are able because
of that cleverness, and because of their wisdom
in the ways of the world to deceive
those that are in the world.
Let God's people not be deceived.
John says, let us indeed try the spirits
to be sure of what source they are.
Brother, if you have not the Spirit of
God in you, you're none of Christ.
And none of this business of looking for
that so-called spirit baptism that some speak
of today, and speaking in tongues as an
evidence of having received the Lord Jesus and
been baptized into one body by one spirit.
There's a lot that surrounds that subject today
that is not found in the word of
God.
It has no basis in the word of
God, the self-deception.
And I am reminded that the word of
God says that the heart, the heart of
man is so deceptive, and the thing that
is so remarkable about that is that it
deceives self.
The one that possesses that deceptive heart within
him, he is deceived.
And in this case, we have those that
no doubt in sincerity thought that they were
doing something that was right, but actually they
didn't know.
In fact, they said, they said perhaps in
sincerity, we are rich.
There was a boast about it, and I
hear so many today that because of the
very success that's been enjoyed, and program is
growing, membership is being expanded, this is wonderful.
This is of God.
Not necessarily so.
Again, by clever promotion, that sort of thing,
these things can be carried on.
Self-deception.
Thou sayeth, that's what the Lord says, thou
sayeth that God is going to say something
else, and it's quite contrary to what they
said.
They said they were rich, increased with goods,
we have need of nothing.
We got it made.
The 21st reminds us that the Lord Jesus
wasn't even in their midst.
He was outside the door trying to get
in.
They said we're rich, we've got everything, all
the bills are paid, got a tremendous program
going here, things are just wonderful, increased with
goods, and have need of nothing.
We don't need the Lord.
I remember what Bill McDonald said one time.
He said there are many churches today that,
indeed, the Spirit of God could depart.
There'd be no recognition that he'd even left.
He's not relied upon to begin with, and
for all those things that men would do
to impress others with their holiness of character
and their goodness, unless it is truly spirit
born.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, and
joy, and peace, long-suffering, patience, goodness, faith.
All of these things are a product of
the Spirit of God, and only he can
produce those things in a human life, in
a redeemed life for the glory of God.
All self-effort is of no avail, for
by grace are you saved through faith that
not of yourselves it is the gift of
God, not of works lest any other should
boast.
And, brother, look, in working out your salvation
with fear and trembling, be aware that it
is the Spirit of God, it is the
Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ in us
that enables us to live for the glory
of God, and we cannot do it in
our own strength.
We are powerless to do anything for the
glory of God, apart from the power that
he provides, and any credit that I take
for anything in my life that is for
the glory of God is a terrible mistake.
He, and he alone, can produce anything in
this life, in your life, for his glory
and honor aside from the power that we,
in a sense, receive, appropriate for bringing that
honor and glory to his name.
They were boasting, we're rich, we're increased in
goods, we don't need anything.
We got it made.
They knew not, they know it not.
That's the word.
They were wretched.
It doesn't hardly seem reasonable to put these
conditions side by side.
One thing they're saying, this is what the
Lord had to say about it, they are
wretched, they are miserable, they are poor, they're
blind, they're naked.
The richness that they had and the riches
that they said they possessed, it was a
burden to them, and so often it is.
Having riches even in this world, Paul says,
can be a snare, but they are encouraged
to take counsel.
I counsel thee to buy of me gold
of true and approved righteousness.
The Apostle Peter tells us about the refining
process that goes on in the individual life
in which God applies the appropriate amount of
fire, sometimes that's trial and testing, to each
individual life so that, indeed, a given condition
might be realized.
It might become pure gold.
All of the drops, all of the things
that are so worthless in life that they
might be brought to the surface, they might
be swept away and out of our lives.
Pure gold is what he said.
Pride in the fire, that which comes forth
as the pure righteousness of God.
Quite raiment in the sight of God, there
was moral nakedness there.
There was impurity there.
There was that which had defiled, and indeed
there was not that which bespoke of the
glory of God manifest in their midst, but
rather so much that was morally impure.
Quite raiment was the feats of the purity
and the righteousness, again, of our God.
Nakedness, spiritual destitution, the pretense that's made sometimes,
the boast, and very often that which is
done is not being done for the glory
of God.
There's almost the impression given that there is
an arrogance, there is a shredding, there's a
brazenness about the attitude of the church at
Laodicea.
You see it in the world today.
It's not that humility of spirit, not that
recognition that God is all in all, and
if anything is to be accomplished in our
lives for his glory and honor, he must
do it.
Einstein, the need for the anointing of the
eye, the eyes that are sealed shut because
of sickness.
Light has come into the world, but men
love darkness rather than light.
They love the darkness because their deeds are
evil, and it doesn't matter if it's down
on some low moral plane, or if it's
in the church itself, the professing church today.
There needs to be true spiritual enlightenment.
The men of this world, to them spiritual
things are foolishness.
To the truly spiritual man, all of these
things indeed are made plain.
But there's chasteness, there's a warning, there's repentance
needed.
You can't make salvation out of repentance.
Some seek to do that.
If you repent, if you just turn around
and do a little bit better and reform
a little bit, first thing you know, they'll
pat them on the back, baptize them, and
they become genuine church members of some local
church put on the rope.
Never having had a true experience with God
in salvation, but true repentance, godly repentance, which
the heart is broken, there's brokenness before God
and a realization that, indeed, we have gone
contrary to his will and his way, and
in this instance we have shut out the
Lord of glory.
I think in that 20th verse, it has
to be one of the most startling statements
in the New Testament.
This picture of the Lord Jesus standing on
the outside, knocking on the door, seeking admittance
back into the church.
The church that he loved, the church that
he died for, the church that he shed
his precious blood for.
Christ outside of the church, knocking, seeking admittance.
He was rejected by his own, he came
into the world, and he came unto his
own, and his own received him not.
But as many as received him, to them
gave he the power, the authority, to become
the children of God.
To be reminded that that nation of people,
indeed so honored of God, so blessed of
God, they rejected the very Messiah that he
sent for them, excluded and crucified by this
world.
That's the attitude toward the person of God's
Son.
We will not have this man to rule
over us.
That's the cry of the world today.
They feel adequate within themselves.
If you think about the life of the
Lord Jesus, there was no room in that
inn that day.
He never owned a home.
Those that followed him were warned.
You know the birds of the air, they
have their nests, the foxes have their holes,
but you know the Son of Man has
not where to lay his head.
He didn't have a home.
This world, in a sense, was indeed hostile
toward the Lord Jesus Christ, and when you
look away at Calvary, you find out they
had one place for him, and they set
away with him, crucified him, and they put
him upon the tree.
John is reminding us that in the last
days, conditions as we see them, as we
have described for us in the book concerning
the church at Laodicea, they truly exist today.
There are marks of this all around us
when the disciples ask, indeed what will be
those signs of the return of the Son
of God?
As it was in the days of Noah,
so shall it be in those last days.
Marrying and giving in marriage, feasting, all of
the things that go to make up mankind
in his endeavor to be satisfied, and in
a sense to justify, perhaps, in his own
eyes.
Everything must be all right, because God hasn't
spoken from heaven in a long time.
But believe me, if you read his words,
if you listen to his voice by the
Spirit of God, he will indeed speak to
us in these days.
He will speak to each one of us,
and may the Spirit of God speak to
us this morning and remind us that I
have an awesome responsibility as a Christian.
Where is the Lord Jesus Christ in my
life?
Is he enthroned in my heart, or is
he outside of my life?
Have I shut him out?
Am I saying business as usual, and doing
so many right things, and yet he is
not enthroned upon my heart?
And, if you don't know the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ in the experience of
salvation this morning, our prayer is that the
Spirit of God, with all of the power
of conviction that he can bring to bear
upon your heart, will convict you of sin,
of righteousness, and judgment.
For his glory and honor, we ask this.
Let us pray.
Our Father in heaven, we do bow in
thy presence and thank thee again for the
day, and for the very comfortable circumstances in
which we are found.
Indeed, O God, in these last days, in
these rather distressing times in which we live,
we thank thee for the enlightenment that you
have provided us, and for this thy holy
word, and all that you would have us
learn today.
We pray that we shall learn.
We pray that we shall acknowledge our need
of thee in every circumstance of life, and
that in all that we do and say
there will be more and more Christ-likeness
in each of the lives of your dear
children.
And for those that stand in spiritual darkness
today, we pray thee, O God, by the
power of the Spirit of God, awaken them
out of darkness.
For this we pray in the name of
our Lord Jesus.
Amen.