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Laodicea The Lukewarm Church, Part 1 (Revelation 314–18) John MacArthur · THE BELIEVER'S CHURCH | Let’s Build Our Faith Together

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  Speaker 1: Now let's open our Bibles to Revelation chapter 3 and
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  Speaker 1: we come to the last of the letters to the
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  Speaker 1: seven churches, the letter to the church at Laodicea, the
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  Speaker 1: church that made the Lord Jesus Christ sick, the lukewarm church.
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  Speaker 1: These letters, as you know, are directed at seven churches,
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  Speaker 1: actual churches, historical churches in actual cities in Asia Minor.
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  Speaker 1: But they transcend their time and space, and they become
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  Speaker 1: model letters to various kinds of churches that exist in
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  Speaker 1: all eras of church history. They illustrate for us the
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  Speaker 1: character of churches in our own day, in fact, since Pentecost.
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  Speaker 1: And Laodicea, the last, is the worst. Five churches with
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  Speaker 1: serious problems have already been addressed, and they are on
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  Speaker 1: somewhat of a descending scale. As you move through the
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  Speaker 1: seven letters, remember two of them had no condemnation, that's
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  Speaker 1: Smyrna and Philadelphia. The other five progressively degenerate. There was Ephesus,
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  Speaker 1: the church still strong doctrinally, but the church that left
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  Speaker 1: its first love. There was Pergamos which had not denied
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  Speaker 1: the faith but was tolerating sin. There was Thyatira where
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  Speaker 1: there were still some good things going on but full-blown
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  Speaker 1: compromise with evil had taken place and the majority seemed
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  Speaker 1: to have been involved. Then there was Sardis, a church
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  Speaker 1: with only a few genuine believers, a church which had
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  Speaker 1: a name but was actually dead. And now at the bottom,
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  Speaker 1: if you will, is Laodicea. This is an unsaved church.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, if there were any believers in this church,
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  Speaker 1: they aren't even referred to in the letter at all.
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  Speaker 1: It is a church that is characterized by lukewarmness, which
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  Speaker 1: becomes a metaphor for being non-saved people. Laodicea has the
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  Speaker 1: grim distinction. of being among all seven letters the only
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  Speaker 1: one in which Christ has nothing good to say. It
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  Speaker 1: is unmitigated, unspaired condemnation. There is in this church apparently
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  Speaker 1: absolutely no redeeming feature. This is the unsaved, unregenerate, false church. Also,
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  Speaker 1: because of the nature of the church, this is the
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  Speaker 1: most threatening epistle. This is the most blistering rebuke and
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  Speaker 1: it is sent to a proud church. Now the richness
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  Speaker 1: of this letter will become apparent to you as we
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: endeavor to examine it. It begins in chapter 3 and
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  Speaker 1: verse 14 and runs to the end of the chapter.
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  Speaker 1: In order to understand, however, the richness that is contained
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  Speaker 1: in the letter, you really have to understand some background.
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  Speaker 1: And we're going to work our way through that background.
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  Speaker 1: Listen carefully and it will make the whole letter come
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  Speaker 1: alive to you. First of all, we begin in verse 14.
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  Speaker 1: And to the angel, that is the messenger, the one
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  Speaker 1: who was to deliver the letter, the word angel, angelos,
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  Speaker 1: being angel or messenger. This was the seventh of the
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  Speaker 1: messengers that had received these letters from the Apostle John
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  Speaker 1: on the Isle of Patmos. And as they moved from
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  Speaker 1: city to city, each one would arrive at his own
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  Speaker 1: church with the letter for that church. We don't know
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  Speaker 1: whether each of them had a copy of the whole
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  Speaker 1: of the apocalypse, the whole of the Revelation, but we
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  Speaker 1: do know that each one would have a copy of
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  Speaker 1: the letter specifically for their own church. This being the seventh,
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  Speaker 1: this man must have made the journey by himself. Alone
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  Speaker 1: he travels to Laodicea to give them a letter which
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  Speaker 1: surely he has read and re-read. To the angel of
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  Speaker 1: the church in Laodicea write, and here we introduce to
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  Speaker 1: the correspondent, the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the
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  Speaker 1: beginning of the creation of God says this. Now you
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  Speaker 1: remember that in each case the letter begins with an
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  Speaker 1: identification of the one who writes, none other than the
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  Speaker 1: Lord Jesus Christ. You also remember that for the most part,
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  Speaker 1: the identifying characteristics are taken from the vision of Christ
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  Speaker 1: that is given in chapter 1. However, in this case,
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  Speaker 1: this is a somewhat unique introduction. The Lord identifies Himself
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  Speaker 1: here in three titles. He calls Himself the Amen, the
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  Speaker 1: faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.
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  Speaker 1: First of all, the Amen, that is a unique title
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  Speaker 1: and it probably reflects a Hebrew original back in Isaiah 65, 16.
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  Speaker 1: It says, the God of Amen. That's Hebrew for truth
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  Speaker 1: or affirmation or certainty. God was called the God of
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  Speaker 1: truth then, the God of certainty, the God of affirmation.
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  Speaker 1: Whatever God says is so, whatever God says is true,
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  Speaker 1: whatever God says is certain, therefore He's the God of Amen.
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  Speaker 1: Now the word amen is often used in Scripture as
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  Speaker 1: a word to affirm the veracity of a statement. Sometimes
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  Speaker 1: it is used before a statement, and when it is,
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  Speaker 1: it is usually translated verily, verily, or truly, truly. But
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  Speaker 1: in the Greek language, for example, it is amen, amen.
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  Speaker 1: You often see before some very significant statement, amen, amen.
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  Speaker 1: And there it is to affirm the truthfulness of what
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  Speaker 1: is to be said. Sometimes you see it at the
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  Speaker 1: very end. And at the end it is to seal
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  Speaker 1: the certainty of what has been said. Amen means firm, fixed, certain, faithful, unchangeable.
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  Speaker 1: Those are all words that surround the meaning of amen.
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  Speaker 1: Now how is Christ here the amen? Well, we could
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  Speaker 1: say that He is the Amen in the sense that
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  Speaker 1: He is God. If God is the Old Testament Amen,
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  Speaker 1: certainly Jesus Christ being God in human flesh is the
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  Speaker 1: New Testament Amen. But there's more to it than just
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  Speaker 1: the reference to deity. He could have chosen a number
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  Speaker 1: of things to refer to Himself as God, but choosing
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  Speaker 1: the Amen takes it a step further. He is the
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  Speaker 1: Amen because He is true. He is the Amen because
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  Speaker 1: He is certain. But more than that, more specifically even
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  Speaker 1: than that general affirmation, Scripture tells us in 2 Corinthians 1.20
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  Speaker 1: a very important truth. It says, for all the promises
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  Speaker 1: of God in Him are amen. All the promises of
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  Speaker 1: God in Him are amen. What does that mean? That
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  Speaker 1: means that all God's promises and all God's covenants are
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  Speaker 1: are guaranteed and affirmed by the person and work of
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  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament God said, I will
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  Speaker 1: forgive your sins. God could never do that if it
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  Speaker 1: were not for the person and work of Christ, right?
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  Speaker 1: Because forgiveness was purchased by His atoning death. All of
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  Speaker 1: the promises that God made to take men and show
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  Speaker 1: them mercy and loving kindness, grace, and give them a
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  Speaker 1: kingdom and a hope and an eternal life are bound
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  Speaker 1: up in Jesus Christ fulfilling His work. So that everything
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  Speaker 1: that God ever planned or purposed for man, everything that
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  Speaker 1: God ever promised for man finds its amen in Jesus Christ.
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  Speaker 1: God's promises are all certain in Him. They all become
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  Speaker 1: sure in Him. And so Jesus Christ is God's Amen,
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  Speaker 1: the One who confirmed all the promises. Then He identifies
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  Speaker 1: Himself as the faithful and true witness. This further elucidates
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  Speaker 1: the same line of thinking as the word amen. As
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  Speaker 1: I noted, amen has reference to truth and certainty and
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  Speaker 1: he follows that up by saying he is the faithful
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  Speaker 1: and true witness. Not only is Jesus by His work
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  Speaker 1: the amen or the one who makes the promises of
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  Speaker 1: God certain, but every time He speaks what He says
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  Speaker 1: is also true. What He did puts the amen to
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  Speaker 1: punctuate the promises of God. What He says is always true.
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  Speaker 1: He is the faithful and true witness. He is completely trustworthy.
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  Speaker 1: He is perfectly accurate. His testimony never fails to be reliable.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, in John 14, 6, He said,' I am
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  Speaker 1: the way, the truth, and the life.' He is, of course,
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  Speaker 1: the perfect true witness. Back in John chapter 3 in
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  Speaker 1: verse 31, we read this, he who comes from above
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  Speaker 1: is above all. He who is of the earth is
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  Speaker 1: from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who
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  Speaker 1: comes from heaven is above all, speaking of himself. What
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  Speaker 1: he has seen and heard of that he bears witness
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  Speaker 1: and no man receives his witness. He who has received
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  Speaker 1: his witness has set his seal to this, that God
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  Speaker 1: is true. Jesus comes, He speaks. Men reject Him. But
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  Speaker 1: whoever accepts what He says is saying God is true.
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  Speaker 1: He is the Amen of God. He is the faithful,
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  Speaker 1: true witness who speaks the very Word of God. He
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  Speaker 1: is then living verification and confirmation of the promises of
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  Speaker 1: God in everything He does and He affirms the truth
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  Speaker 1: of God in everything He says. He is absolutely true.
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  Speaker 1: And this is a good way to begin the letter
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  Speaker 1: because it affirms to the people in Laodicea that He
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  Speaker 1: knows what He's talking about, that whatever assessment He gives
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  Speaker 1: of the church is absolutely accurate, that whatever promise He
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  Speaker 1: offers the church is absolutely affirmed in His perfect work.
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  Speaker 1: When He rightly assesses their unredeemed condition, He is a
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  Speaker 1: faithful and true witness to that condition. When He offers
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  Speaker 1: them the promise of fellowship in verse 20, which is
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  Speaker 1: a promise of salvation, He can offer that because He
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  Speaker 1: is the Amen who seals the covenant of God, the
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  Speaker 1: promise of God. The third thing He says about Himself
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  Speaker 1: is He is the beginning of the creation of God.
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  Speaker 1: The English here, frankly, is a bit ambiguous. But that
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  Speaker 1: ambiguity disappears when you understand what He means by what
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  Speaker 1: He says. When He says He is the beginning of
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  Speaker 1: the creation of God, He doesn't mean that the first
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  Speaker 1: thing God ever created was Him. He doesn't say He
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  Speaker 1: was the first creature God ever created. He says He
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  Speaker 1: is the beginning of the creation. What He means by
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  Speaker 1: that is He is the source of it. He is
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  Speaker 1: the power by which creation began. It should be noted
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  Speaker 1: for you that this letter sent to the church at
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  Speaker 1: Laodicea has much in common with Paul's letter to the
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  Speaker 1: church at Colossae. They were very close together. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: you could say that three cities were sister cities, Hierapolis, Laodicea,
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  Speaker 1: and Colossae. Apparently, there was a heresy in Colossae about
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  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. And that heresy said that He was a
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  Speaker 1: created being and not at all God. It wouldn't be
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  Speaker 1: too hard to surmise that that heresy that depreciated the
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  Speaker 1: deity of Jesus Christ had gone up the road a
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  Speaker 1: little bit and hit Laodicea. And when Jesus says here
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  Speaker 1: He is the beginning of the creation of God, He
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  Speaker 1: is the arche, He is saying essentially the same thing
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  Speaker 1: that Paul said in Colossians chapter 1 verse 15. He
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  Speaker 1: is the image of the invisible God, the prototokos of
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  Speaker 1: all creation. Of all those who have ever lived, He
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  Speaker 1: is the supreme one. And of course in His humanity,
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  Speaker 1: He did become man. But He says, by Him all
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  Speaker 1: things were created, both in the heavens and on earth,
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  Speaker 1: visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.
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  Speaker 1: All things have been created by Him and for Him.
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  Speaker 1: He is before all things, that is prior to them.
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  Speaker 1: In Him all things hold together. He is the head
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  Speaker 1: of the body of the church. Here it is, He
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  Speaker 1: is the beginning. Apparently there was some question about Him
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  Speaker 1: because obviously Jesus had become a man, was born. He
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  Speaker 1: of creation was the prototokos, the supreme person ever born.
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  Speaker 1: But though He was born as man, He always existed
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  Speaker 1: as God. And while as man He had a beginning,
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  Speaker 1: as God He was the beginning. And so here I
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  Speaker 1: believe is a very important note. I believe the reason
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  Speaker 1: you have an unsaved church in Laodicea is because they
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  Speaker 1: had an errant doctrine about Christ. It was their heretical
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  Speaker 1: Christology that produced an unregenerate church. And what our Lord
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  Speaker 1: is saying to them in this letter is, you must
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  Speaker 1: understand who I am. I am the one who has
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  Speaker 1: confirmed all the promises and covenants of God. I am
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  Speaker 1: the one who speaks truth and only truth, and I
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  Speaker 1: am the beginning of the creation. Colossae was ten miles away.
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  Speaker 1: Those two churches were sister churches. It is very likely
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  Speaker 1: that whatever Christological heresy had filtered its way into the
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  Speaker 1: Colossian church and attacked the deity of Christ and reduced
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  Speaker 1: him to a created angelic being had also affected the
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  Speaker 1: church in Laodicea. This church had bought into that erroneous
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  Speaker 1: view of Christ and consequently was unsaved and lost. That
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  Speaker 1: is a tragic thing. But always you will note The
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  Speaker 1: damning error is the error about Christ, is it not?
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  Speaker 1: Start naming the cults and what is in common with
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  Speaker 1: all of them? They deny what? The deity of Jesus Christ.
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  Speaker 1: When Paul was closing the letter to the Colossians, verse
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  Speaker 1: 16 of chapter 4, the last little part of Colossians,
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  Speaker 1: he said, when this letter is read among you, have
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  Speaker 1: it also read in the church of the Laodiceans. Why? Well,
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  Speaker 1: they must have been into the same error. And then
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  Speaker 1: he says, and you for your part read my letter
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  Speaker 1: that is coming from Laodicea. That would have been the
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  Speaker 1: epistle that we know as Ephesians, most likely. So whatever
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  Speaker 1: was going on in Colossae probably had spilled over only
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  Speaker 1: the church in Colossae was fighting it and the church
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  Speaker 1: in Laodicea had bought it. So when He calls Himself
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  Speaker 1: the beginning, He is the arche, that is the beginner,
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  Speaker 1: the originator, the initiator. It's the same idea as in
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  Speaker 1: Revelation 22, 13 where He says, I am the Alpha
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  Speaker 1: and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning
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  Speaker 1: and the end. He is the first. He is the Alpha.
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  Speaker 1: He is the originator. He is the beginning. John put
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  Speaker 1: it this way. By Him were all things made that
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  Speaker 1: were made. So the Lord Jesus Christ is preeminent as
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  Speaker 1: the Amen, as the faithful and true witness, and as
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  Speaker 1: the Creator. He is sovereign, saving God, the uncreated source
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  Speaker 1: of creation. So the letter begins, the Lord who has
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  Speaker 1: created everything, the faithful and true witness to the Word
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  Speaker 1: of God, the One in whom all spiritual promises are fulfilled,
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  Speaker 1: says this. Now I want to talk a little bit
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  Speaker 1: about the city, the city of Laodicea, because it's absolutely
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  Speaker 1: essential and fascinating to understand this city. It was located
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  Speaker 1: in the Lycus River Valley. the southwest area of Phrygia.
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  Speaker 1: Of the seven cities in the letters, it is the
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  Speaker 1: most southeasterly. It is 45 miles southeast of Philadelphia and
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  Speaker 1: would be about directly east of Ephesus about a hundred miles.
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  Speaker 1: So these seven letters traverse a little bit of a
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  Speaker 1: loop in Asia Minor. Heropolis, one of the sister cities,
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  Speaker 1: six miles north. Colossae, ten miles to the east and
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  Speaker 1: south a bit. Because of the Lycus Valley being one
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  Speaker 1: of the most common routes of travel to the west,
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  Speaker 1: people obviously wanted to travel through a valley rather than
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  Speaker 1: across mountains, Laodicea became a very important city. Anytime these
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  Speaker 1: cities were on a trade route, they became significant. Not
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  Speaker 1: only was it a significant city on the east-west trade route,
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  Speaker 1: but it was also a significant city on the north-south
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  Speaker 1: road from Pergamos to Ansardis, moving south to the coast.
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  Speaker 1: So they were crisscrossing all these people who went east
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  Speaker 1: and west and north and south and coming through the
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  Speaker 1: city of Laodicea. It had been founded by Antiochus II
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  Speaker 1: in the third century B.C. He named it for his wife.
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  Speaker 1: We know it was founded before 240 B.C. because that's
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  Speaker 1: the year he divorced her. And you normally don't name
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  Speaker 1: a town after your divorced wife. No comment. The modern
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  Speaker 1: name of this Turkish city is Eskihisar, still there. Eskihisar
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  Speaker 1: means in Turkish, the old fortress, named for some of
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  Speaker 1: the ancient ruins. It is interesting to note that it
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  Speaker 1: had a large Jewish population, and that large Jewish population
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  Speaker 1: probably was the starting point for the development of the church.
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  Speaker 1: You say, where do we find that it has a
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  Speaker 1: large Jewish population? Quite interesting. Every year, Jews had to
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  Speaker 1: pay a temple tax. It didn't matter where they lived
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  Speaker 1: or where they were, they had to pay that. That
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  Speaker 1: was part of their religious duty, and they had to
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  Speaker 1: pay that temple tax. Any male Jew over 21, it
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  Speaker 1: amounted to half a shekel. In 62 B.C., Flaccus, the governor,
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  Speaker 1: put a stop to any exporting of gold from Laodicea.
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  Speaker 1: We have this in archeological records. He needed it to
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  Speaker 1: back the currency, so he said no gold can be
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  Speaker 1: exported out of Laodicea. Well the Jews always paid their
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  Speaker 1: tax with gold. They would do this, all the Jews
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  Speaker 1: in a local town would get together, they would put
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  Speaker 1: it all together and one lump of gold, that's how
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  Speaker 1: they would pay their tax, one lump package of gold.
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  Speaker 1: In spite of the flocus order, they sent their gold
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  Speaker 1: anyway back to Jerusalem to pay their temple tax. The
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  Speaker 1: Laodicean authorities confiscated it and they weighed it in at
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  Speaker 1: what amounts in our terms to about twenty pounds. Twenty pounds.
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  Speaker 1: would be equal to about 7,500 shekels. So you can
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  Speaker 1: see that there were quite a number of Jews. That's
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  Speaker 1: only the males over 21 plus the females and the children.
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  Speaker 1: Significant number of Jews. These Jews existed in the midst
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  Speaker 1: of a pagan culture. They had probably come there because
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  Speaker 1: they were entrepreneurial and wanted to start their businesses. And
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  Speaker 1: they found themselves in the midst of pagan culture and
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  Speaker 1: morality and they became mixed with it. And if you
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  Speaker 1: read in the Talmud, you will read, interestingly enough, about Laodicea.
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  Speaker 1: And you will read that Laodicean Jews had come to
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  Speaker 1: the apex of ease and laxity. It probably was that
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  Speaker 1: Jewish contingent that was the first point of evangelization. That
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  Speaker 1: was certainly Paul's normal process and though Paul never went
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  Speaker 1: to Laodicea, when the church was founded there, it was
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  Speaker 1: probably founded something along the path of his kind of
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  Speaker 1: strategy which was to go to the synagogue first. There
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  Speaker 1: would have been a synagogue there for sure with that
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  Speaker 1: many Jews, a very large one. Now there's something else
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  Speaker 1: to know about this city and I think it's fascinating.
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  Speaker 1: Crucial to the city was its water supply. There were
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  Speaker 1: some local streams in the area, but as the population
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  Speaker 1: grew and developed, the local streams and rivers were inadequate.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, some of them dried up in the winter
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  Speaker 1: and so water had to be brought in. Well the
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  Speaker 1: only way they could bring it in there was by
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  Speaker 1: an underground aqueduct. Being very enterprising, they managed to build
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  Speaker 1: an aqueduct and the water flowed down this aqueduct into
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  Speaker 1: the city of Laodicea. It did have an impact on
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  Speaker 1: their strength militarily because anybody could come along and conquer
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  Speaker 1: them by just cutting off the water supply, finding where
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  Speaker 1: the aqueduct was, identifying it, sealing it off, and just
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  Speaker 1: sitting out and waiting until the siege of the city
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: accomplished its end as the people had no water. Though
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: it was fortified architecturally, an enemy could find the aqueduct
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: and leave them rather helpless. So it never became much
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: of a military power. Kenneth Dotter has written some interesting
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: things about the city and he says this, they couldn't
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: use the Lycus or the Meander rivers for drinking because
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: they were too dirty. Besides, the Lycus River often dried
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: up during the dry season. Most of the springs in
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: the area are hot springs full of gases and other chemicals.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: The Laodiceans had no choice. They had to pipe in
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: water from a distant spring through twin lines of stone pipe.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: Each stone was about three feet across and hollowed through
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: the middle. The water carried by those pipes was so
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: charged with impurities that it dropped much of its load
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: in flow. The calcium carbonate gradually clogged the pipes. The
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: water was collected in a central water tower then distributed
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: through the streets by pipes radiating from it. The water
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: tower and sections of the terracotta pipes are still visible
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: even today. It is evident at least that the water
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: it carried was bad for thick deposits of calcareous impurities
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: can still be seen almost choking the surviving section of
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: the pipes. So whatever water finally got to the city
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: was dirty, impure. Another writer says, the orientation of the
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: aqueduct has suggested to archaeologists that the springs at the
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: modern town of Denzilli five miles to the south were
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: the source. So here ran this little aqueduct to get
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: them water. This was a major issue because a city
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: can't exist obviously without that. A second key feature that's
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: going to come into play in the letter that dominates
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: the city is the commercial. aspect. There are several things
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: you need to know about the commercial aspect of the city.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: First of all, it was a banking center. It was
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: a banking center. It was very wealthy. Apparently because it
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: was on the crossroads north, south, east, west, it became
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: a business hub and it became a banking center for
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: people moving in all directions to put their funds. They
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: became so very wealthy that when in 60 A.D. the
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: city was totally flattened by an earthquake, Rome offered to
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: give them some money to rebuild and they refused it
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: saying they had plenty of their own. The people of
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: Laodicea prided themselves on rejecting the offer of financial help
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: from Rome and rebuilt the city far more beautiful than
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: it had ever been and they did it with their
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: own funds. Tacitus writes, Laodicea arose from the ruins by
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: the strength of her own resources and with no help
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: from us. Tacitus, the Roman historian. And so they were
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: extremely wealthy. A second feature in the commercial area had
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: to do with the wool industry. Laodicea became famous for
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: its wool industry and the major product, this is very interesting,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: was a soft wool that was glossy black in color,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: shiny black. It was used for clothing and it was
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: used also for weaving into carpets both locally and after export.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: The third key feature about the city in a commercial
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: sense was its medical school. It had about thirteen miles
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: north of the city a very famous medical school. basically
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: established in connection with an ancient temple that was associated
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: with the god identified later by the name of Aesculapius,
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: the god of healing who's still around in old medical literature.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: The medical school had famous teachers, but the thing that
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: was most prominent in the medical school was they developed
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: a certain salve for the eye. And people from all
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: over that part of the world when they had an
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: eye ailment would come to this medical school near Laodicea
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: to get the eye salve that they would then put
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: on their eyes which would bring some measure of comfort
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: and healing. So as you look at the commercial aspect
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: of Laodicea, you see finance, black wool, and eye salve.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: And all three of those industries play a major part
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: in this letter, and so does the water supply. The
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: third thing I want to mention about is the church.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: He says to the angel of the church in Laodicea,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: now there's no record of the founding of the church,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: but we can sort of put two and two together.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: While the Apostle Paul was ministering in Ephesus... His friend
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: Epaphras evangelized the Lycus Valley and he even evangelized Laodicea,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: that's in Colossians 1 7. Out of Ephesus where Paul
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: was building this sort of mother church, people were going
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: and founding other churches and Epaphras went to Laodicea about
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: a hundred miles to the east and a bit south
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: and founded the church there. By the time Paul wrote
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: Colossians in the early sixties, he had not personally visited
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: Laodicea or Colossae for that matter. He told Philemon, you remember,
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: in verse 22 of Philemon that he wanted to come
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: and visit Colossae. He said he would be soon released
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: and be able to come and visit there. So Paul
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: never went there. It is possible that Archippus, a son
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: of Philemon, was a real leader in that church. in
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: Laodicea as well as in Colossae since the churches were
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: associated with one another in proximity. So the church was
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: founded during the same period of time as the others
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: in the ministry of Paul in Ephesus. As we noted earlier,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: it got infected with a deadly heresy that misrepresented the
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: deity of Jesus Christ. I think that's inherent in the
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: title there and in the situation in the church. Corrupt, unsaved, lost.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: Sardis was dead but had a few living, worthy believers.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: Thyatira was compromising, sinful and idolatrous, but had some who
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: held the truth. Laodicea was a church that was absolutely
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: no church. It was tares without wheat. Somebody asked the question,
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: what about the messenger? Was he genuine? Probably. Probably was.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: It may well have been that a messenger had to
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: be selected from somewhere else to take the letter. We
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: don't know. In each of these letters, we've also come
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: to a fourth point, the commendation. However, there is no
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: commendation here, so there's nothing to say. Verse 15, he says,
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: I know your deeds, period, and I've got no comment.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: There isn't anything to say to commend anything you do.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: So that takes us to the condemnation. And the condemnation
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: is very important, verses 15 and 16. I know your deeds,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: that you are neither cold nor hot. I would that
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: of My mouth. Whoa. Strong language. I know your deeds.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: I know them intimately and I know them infallibly. I
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: know your deeds. Just a footnote on that, deeds always
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: reveal what a person is, always. By their fruits you
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: shall Know them. Romans 2, verses 6 to 8, Paul
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: makes it as clear as anywhere in the Bible. God
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: will judge you on the basis of your deeds. God
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: will render to every man according to his deeds. To
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: and honor and immortality, He'll give eternal life. To those
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: who are selfishly ambitious and don't obey the truth but
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: obey unrighteousness, He'll bring wrath and indignation. You say, wait
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: a minute, I thought we were saved by grace and
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: faith and all of that. That's right, we are. But
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: whether we are saved or not shows up in our deeds.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: James says the same thing. Your faith is made known
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: by your works. So He says, I know your deeds
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: and therefore I know your heart. I can see by
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: what you do what you are. That is a very
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: important statement with sweeping implications in the New Testament. A
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: person who is a Christian manifests it. A person who
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: is not manifests it. And then the statement, the most relentless,
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: overpowering rebuke yet. And the rebuke says, basically, I spit
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: you out of my mouth because you're lukewarm. This takes
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: us back to our comments about the water supply. In Hierapolis,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: six miles to the north, there were some famous springs,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: hot springs. In fact, they were one of the most
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: well-known and popular places for healing. The water was hot.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: and you went there and sat in that water and
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: it had therapeutic power. It is still used today. Heropolis
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: had hot water, and that hot water was therapeutic. In Colossae,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: 10 miles south and east, there was a cold stream.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: We learned that the stream was perennially running and perennially cold.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: like typical water that flows from the high mountains. That
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: water was thirst quenching. That water was famous because of
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: its cool, clear character. They didn't have the hot therapeutic
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: water of Hierapolis and they didn't have the cold, clear,
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: refreshing water of Colossae. They had the foul, dirty, tepid
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: water that flowed for miles through an underground aqueduct. It
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: wasn't hot and it wasn't cold. Not hot enough to
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: relax and restore, not cool enough to refresh and quench.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: Laodicea couldn't provide the refreshment of Colossae, it couldn't provide
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: the healing of Heropolis. Its lukewarm water was absolutely useless.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Any visitor who came there who wasn't used to the
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: stuff would put it in his mouth and immediately emit it,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: spit it out. And the word lukewarm... is simply a
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: word for tepid water. One historian says the water supply
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: of Laodicea was derived from an artificial pipeline bringing water
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: which was literally lukewarm and so impure as to have
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: an emetic effect. What is the spiritual significance of this?
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: Simply that the Laodicean church made Christ vomit. It was
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: a sickening church. Some churches make the Lord weep. Some
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: churches make the Lord angry. This one made Him sick.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: Back in chapter 2 and also in chapter 3, we
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: saw His anger towards some churches, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis. But
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: here He's sickened. Now how are we to interpret these
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: three categories? What does cold mean? Well, that's not too tough.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: Cold means spiritually cold, open, outright rejection of Jesus Christ,
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: repudiating the gospel. He says, you're not cold. I mean,
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: you're just not openly outright rebellious, rejecting Christ and repudiating Christianity.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: But on the other hand, what does hot mean? Zealous,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: spiritually alive and awake and eager and fired up, as
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: it were, for the Lord. He says you're not that either.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: You're not boiling with spiritual zeal for the Lord, nor
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: are you openly outright cold. There are many in the
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: world who are completely cold to the things of Christ.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: The gospel leaves them absolutely unmoved. It arouses no spiritual response.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: They have no interest in Christianity, no interest in the church.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: They make no pretense. They certainly aren't hypocrites. They don't
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: even go near things that have to do with Christ.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: They are lost and they could care less. They don't
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: want to hear the Word of God at all. On
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: the other hand, believers are marked by a response to
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: spiritual truth and they're zealous and they're fervent. And he's
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: saying metaphorically, I could take it if you were like
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: Heropolis because then you'd be real. I could even take
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: it if you were like the cold water of Colossae.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: That's better than being the foul water of Laodicea, lukewarm.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: Who are they? Professing Christians, go to church, claim to
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: know the Lord but aren't saved. They're content with self-righteous religion.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: They're hypocrites playing games. They're the kind of people described
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: in Matthew 7 where Jesus says, many will say unto
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: Me in that day, Lord, Lord, and I will say
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: unto them, depart from Me, I never knew you. You
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: may have done many works in My name and prophesied
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: and cast out demons, but I don't know you. They're
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: like those in 2 Timothy 3, 5 who have a
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: form of godliness but without power. They're like the Jews
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: in Romans 10 who have a zeal for God but
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: not according to a true knowledge. They're just hypocrites. touched
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: some way by Christianity but not belonging to Christ. And
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: there is something obnoxious about them. They nauseate Christ. They
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: make Him sick. There's much more hope, frankly, for one
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: who has been untouched by the gospel. There's much more
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: hope for one who has made no pretense of knowing Christ.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: You understand that? than there is for the one who
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: makes the pretense. But his life illustrates that he's not
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: really honored Christ at all. In fact, I would say
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: there's no one farther from the truth in Christ than
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: the one who makes an idle profession without real faith.
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: He is really in Satan's hands. They had bought a
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: satanic lie about Christ. They were in religion up to
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: their neck. They called it Christianity. They said they were
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: a church. Satan was in control. In the history of
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: the church and in my experience, no one has been
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: harder to reach for Christ than a false Christian. satisfied
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: with the measure of His good works, satisfied with His
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: attitude toward God, and they sit in churches across the world.
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: It would be easier to win a harlot. It would
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: be easier to win a criminal. It would be easier
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: to win an agnostic or an atheist. It's easier, Jesus
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: certainly said, to reach the publicans and the harlots than
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: it is the Pharisees and the Sadducees. There's more hope
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: for the salvation of an atheist than a spoiled, half-hearted,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: conceited hypocrite who thinks he knows the truth and pretends
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: to accept it. Like the Pharisees, they don't feel their need.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: They have that lukewarmness of religion. They sense no chill.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: If they were cold enough to feel the bitterness and
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: the severity of their sin, they would be more readily
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: brought to the knowledge of Christ. But these conceited, self-deceived hypocrites,
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: this lukewarmness made Christ sick. John Stott once wrote, the
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: Laodicean church was a half-hearted church. Perhaps none of the
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: seven letters is more appropriate to the twentieth century church
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: than this. It describes vividly the respectable, sentimental, nominal, skin-deep
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: religiosity which is so widespread among us today. Our Christianity
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: is flabby and anemic. We appear to have taken a
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: lukewarm bath. This is a people who aren't saved. But
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: it's not an outright rejection. It's not a repudiation. It's
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: not a hostility toward the Lord Jesus outwardly. They probably
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: named His name. But I submit to you that Jesus said,
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: I would rather have you cold than like this. I'd
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: rather you be a prostitute than a Pharisee. I'd rather
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: you be a sinner who knows his sin than a
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: hypocrite who doesn't recognize it. I'd rather you be a
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: publican beating on your breast saying, God, be merciful to me,
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: a sinner who feels the coldness of his lostness than
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: a Pharisee who says, I thank you that I'm not
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: as other men. Anything is better than lukewarmness. But there
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: was even something worse than being lukewarm and that was
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: their self-deception. Look at verse 17. Here's the second condemnation.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: Because you say, I am rich and have become wealthy
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: and have need of nothing, and you do not know
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: and naked. Look at that, first part of the verse,
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: because you say. You remember the study we did in
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: Matthew chapter 7 and we talked about the if we
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: sayers and the if we doers? If we say, if
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: we say, if we say, Jesus said doesn't mean anything.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: What matters is if we do, if we do, if
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: we do. It's not the people who say, it's the
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: people who do the will of my Father. So here
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: are the if-we-sayers again, the unregenerate religionists who want to
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: name the name of God and the name of Christ
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: and show you everything they've done. And he says they're
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: doing it again. They're saying, and here's what they're saying,
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: I am rich and have become wealthy and have need
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: of nothing. Reminds me of the rich young ruler, doesn't you?
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: Matthew 19. As I told you, Laodicea was a very
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: wealthy city. It had material wealth that gave its people
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: a false security. They were famous for that wealth and
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: apparently the church thought it was wealthy too. You say,
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: were they talking about money here? No. No, I don't
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: really think they were talking about money. I think they
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: thought they were rich in spiritual reality. I think they
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: thought they had spiritual riches. Let me go a step further.
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: I think the heresy in Colossae was a form of
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: of incipient Gnosticism, a sort of a preview to what
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: later became known as Gnosticism. And Gnosticism comes from the
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: word gnosis, which means to know. In other words, there
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: were people who believed that they had attained to the
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: ascended knowledge. Christ was not enough for them. They had
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: gone beyond Christ. Christ was just an emanation from God,
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: an angelic being on a descending ladder of beings that
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: go from good to bad. And he was somewhere up
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: in the good category. The Gnostics said, but we have
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: ascended beyond the simplicity of Christ. Christ is only a part,
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: a component. We have reached the ascended knowledge. We have
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: gone beyond that. And that's why Paul in Colossians chapter
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: 2 so explicitly says of Christ, in Him are hidden
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and you are
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: complete in Him. And don't you let anybody spoil you
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: through philosophy and empty deceit and think there's something more
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: elevated than Christ. That same heresy had found its way
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: over here, no doubt. And these people are saying, we
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: are the ascended ones. If this isn't the typical, hypocritical,
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: liberal line, all of you mindless fundamentalists, all of you
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: people who just believe the simplicity of the Bible are
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: not educated. You're not erudite. You haven't attained to the
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: ascendant knowledge. We are anti-intellectual. Oh, they had spiritual pride.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: They were rich. They had become spiritually wealthy. They had
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: attained the ascended knowledge. They had gone past that simple
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: belief about Christ that these uneducated and non-trained Christians believe.
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: They think they're spiritually rich. So they said, I am rich.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: That's their state. And have become wealthy. That's the process
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: to that state. They did it by themselves. I'm rich
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: and guess who got me there? me and I have
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: need of nothing. That's a self-righteous works system, isn't it?
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: I've attained it all. I've reached the elevated level. This
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: is the hardest person to reach, the intellectual apostate, the
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: intellectual unsaved hypocrite who stays in the church. Liberal churches
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: flood our country, Europe, Canada. the world, full of people
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: who think they've ascended beyond. They have an aberrant view
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: of Christ. They see Him not as the Creator God.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: They have an infatuation with their own intellect and assume
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: that they have been elevated beyond the simplicity of fundamental truth.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: And they have developed a self-righteous work system that makes
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: them think they are the spiritually elite who need absolutely nothing.
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: And when you come with the simple gospel, they laugh.
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: These are the ones, by the way, in the words
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: of Jesus, Matthew 7, 13 and 14, who are on
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: the broad road. It's a road of religion that says
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: heaven but it ends up in hell. They're the ones
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: who build their house on the sand in Matthew 7,
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: 24 to 27. So He says to them, you say, ha,
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: and you don't know. Boy, that's got to be a blast.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: You say you have all this spiritual stuff and you
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: don't know anything. The truth is you are wretched and miserable. Why?
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: Because you are poor and blind and naked. You are wretched,
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: that's your state. You are miserable, that's your condition, because
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: you are poor and blind and naked. Here we see
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: it clearly. The lukewarm condition is lostness. It is the
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: sickening condition of thinking you are spiritually rich when you're bankrupt,
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: of thinking you are beautiful when you're wretched, of imagining
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: you are to be envied when you are to be pitied,
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: of believing you see clearly everything when you see nothing.
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: You are stone blind. A feeling you are clothed in
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: spiritual finery and you are stark naked. That's what he's saying.
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: You've got it exactly opposite. You may have a bank
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: account in the spiritual bank. You may be wearing the
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: shiny black wool and you may have the eye salve,
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: but you're poor. You are poor. and you are blind
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: and you are naked. This is a person to be pitied.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: That's what it means, miserable and wretched. You have no riches.
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: You have no clothes. You have no vision, no sight.
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: Spiritually naked, spiritually blind, spiritually bankrupt. This is the message
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: I would preach in a liberal church. Verse 18 gives
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: us the command. This is fascinating. Listen to this command.
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  Speaker 1: I advise you to buy from me gold refined by
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: fire that you may become rich, and white garments that
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: nakedness may not be revealed, and eye salve to anoint
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: your eyes that you may see. Ooh, now you see
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: how the industry of that city comes into play? I
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: advise you, I'm giving you some counsel. Isn't the Lord gracious?
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: He says, you make me sick, but my grace compels
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: me to give you an invitation. He could have turned
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: them into cinders by the breath of His mouth, but
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: it's an invitation to a church full of hypocrites. And
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: it reminds me that they still are worthy of an invitation,
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: are they not? From a gracious God. He says, you
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: need to buy from Me. Well, you say, now wait
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: a minute, what do you mean buy? Well, it's the
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: same kind of buy as Isaiah 55 verse 1. You
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: remember that wonderful chapter which is an evangelistic appeal. In
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: Isaiah 55, let me just read it to you so
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: you'll have it exactly as it was written. The call
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: of God to the unregenerate sounds like this,' Ho, everyone
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: who thirsts, come to the waters. You who have no money,
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: come buy and eat.' Did you get that? You who
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: have no money, come buy and eat. So this is
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: the kind of thing you can buy when you don't
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: have anything. You come and buy it. You say, now,
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: wait a minute. If I don't have anything, what do
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: I buy it with? You ready for this? The only
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: thing you have is what? Your own wretched condition. So
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: that's all you can offer. So you come and you say,
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: I'll give you me for you. Is it a deal? No.
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: Jesus said that. What will a man give in exchange
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: for his soul? What shall it profit a man if
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: he gains the whole world? Can he give that in
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: exchange for his soul? No. What can you give in
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: exchange for your soul? Only yourself. That's what repentance is.
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: I renounce myself. I yield myself. I give myself to you.
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: And he says, I want you to buy three things.
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: You give yourself to me. That's the price. All that
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: you are for all that I am. And first of all,
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: I'll give you gold refined by fire that you may
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: become rich. Pure gold refined by fire, no impurities. They
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: thought they were rich in spiritual truth. They thought they
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: were rich in spiritual reality. They thought they were transcendent,
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: you know. They were bankrupt. He says, I'll give you
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: spiritual gold. I'll give you the spiritual riches. I'll give
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: you what is pure and what is valuable and what
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: is priceless. I'll endow you with such spiritual riches you
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: never dreamed of. I'll give you a true and tested faith.
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: 1 Peter 1.7 says, The proof of your faith is
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: more precious than gold. What is the gold He's talking about?
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: I think a real faith, a true faith. 1 Timothy 6.18,
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: James 2.5, lend credence to that interpretation. I think He's saying,
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: come to Me and just give Me yourself and I'll
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: give you a pure faith, a true faith, a proven
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: faith that is priceless gold. What does that mean? A
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: real relationship to Me, a genuine belief that affirms that
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: you're a true Christian. Then He says, buy white garments
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: that you may clothe yourself. Get rid of those black ones.
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: Get a white one. Back in Isaiah 61.10, Isaiah said
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: that God wants to clothe us with the robe of
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: His righteousness. We know in chapter 3 of Revelation, verse 4,
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: He said that people who... walk with the Lord will
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: walk with Him in white, for they are worthy. Over
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: in Revelation 7, 9, you see the saved multitude and
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: they are in white robes. And over in chapter 19,
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: verse 8, it says that she is clothed in fine linen,
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: white or bright and clean, and this fine linen is
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: the righteousness of the saints. So He says, I'll give
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: you a true faith, a pure faith, a saving faith,
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: a confident faith, and then I will give you righteousness.
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: I'll give you a righteous nature and I'll give you
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: righteous acts. And then He says, I want you to
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: get some eye salve to anoint your eyes so you
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: can really see. You know what they used to do?
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: There was some kind of a powder that they found.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: It's called in some history books Phrygian powder. And they
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: knew that if they placed it on the eye, it
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: had a very soothing effect, a therapeutic effect, actually a
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: medicinal effect. And so what they would do is they
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: would put that powder in some coarse dough and then
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: they would place that coarse dough in the eyes and
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: somehow they would seal it so it remained there for
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: a length of time. It brought healing and restoration to
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: the eyes. And He says to them, in effect, you
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: think you see but you don't see. But if you
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: come to Me, I'll give you eye salve and you'll see.
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: Salvation is the gold that makes people spiritually rich in faith.
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: Salvation is the white robe that covers our sinful nakedness.
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: Salvation is the eye salve that gives us the knowledge
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: of God. and of His truth. What's He offering? An
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: abiding faith, an abiding righteousness, an abiding understanding. You are poor.
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: You are blind. You are naked. Let me fix that.
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: All that comes together when the sinner offers the price,
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: which is Himself and when he repents to follow Jesus Christ.
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: Let's pray. Father, we thank You for the wonder of
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: this text. We thank You for its insightfulness, for what
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: we have learned, what we've seen. Thank You for the
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: elucidation of this truth to help us understand churches around
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: us all over the place that are like this Laodicean church.
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: They make you sick. They make us sick. But even
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: though they made you sick, you still were gracious and
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: you said, if you'll repent, I'll make you rich, I'll
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: clothe you, and I'll give you sight. Father, give us
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: that same sickening feeling when we see those churches that
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: have blasphemed the name of Christ, that have substituted false
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: spiritual knowledge, and that have developed a system of self-righteousness
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: which makes them smug and self-satisfied. May we be nauseated
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: by them. May we want nothing to do with them.
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: And yet may we have the compassion of Christ to
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: call them out of their condition, to help them see
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: their poverty and their nakedness and their blindness. It isn't
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: easy for someone like that to be saved. Better they
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: were cold. Better they were cold. But even so, we
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: must faithfully call them to repentance. And may we do
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: that as You give us opportunity. And may there be
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: some people in churches like that who hear this message
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: tonight or on tape or on the radio somewhere down
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: the line when it's played, who in hearing come to
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: truth and in giving themselves as the purchase price, they
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: are given in return gold, a white garment, and eye salve.
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: Be gracious, Lord, to many caught in Laodicean churches. For
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: your own glory we pray. Amen. You've been listening to
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: John MacArthur, Bible teacher with Grace to You. For free
• 56:53
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• 56:56
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• 57:00
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• 57:06
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• 57:11
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• 57:16
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