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Laodicea The Lukewarm Church, Part 2 (Revelation 319–22) John MacArthur · THE BELIEVER'S CHURCH | Let’s Build Our Faith Together

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Open your Bible to Revelation chapter 3 and we will
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: look again at our text, verses 14 to 22, the
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  Speaker 1: final of the seven letters to the churches in Asia Minor,
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  Speaker 1: namely the letter to the church at Laodicea. This is,
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  Speaker 1: as you remember, part two in our look since a
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago we went through the major portion
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  Speaker 1: of the text. By way of introduction, let me just
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  Speaker 1: remind you of a perspective that may help you get
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: a grip on the nature of this letter. One of
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  Speaker 1: the most heart-moving passages in Scripture is found in the
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  Speaker 1: tenth chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans because it
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  Speaker 1: gets us in touch with Paul's own heart. In Romans 10.1,
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  Speaker 1: it says, brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to
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  Speaker 1: God for them, that is for Israel, is for their salvation.
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  Speaker 1: For I bear them witness that they have a zeal
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  Speaker 1: for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. Paul is
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  Speaker 1: saying that His heart prayer, his deep felt concern and
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  Speaker 1: desire is for the salvation of Israel. He grieves over
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  Speaker 1: their lostness to the point where he will even say
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  Speaker 1: that he could almost wish himself accursed if he could
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  Speaker 1: be damned in their place. He was heartbroken over Israel.
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  Speaker 1: He was as heartbroken, I suppose, in some way as
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  Speaker 1: Jesus was when He wept over the city of Jerusalem
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  Speaker 1: and said, how oft I would have gathered you, but
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  Speaker 1: you would not. And what broke the heart of Jesus
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  Speaker 1: and what broke the heart of Paul over Israel was
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  Speaker 1: the fact that they were the recipients of such great
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  Speaker 1: spiritual privilege. They had such tremendous opportunity. The Jews were religious.
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  Speaker 1: They had been given the Scriptures and the promises and
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  Speaker 1: the covenants and the prophets and the priests. And with
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  Speaker 1: all of that privilege, they were doomed to hell. They
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  Speaker 1: had been given the Scripture but refused to believe it.
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  Speaker 1: They had been given the covenants but refused to keep them.
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  Speaker 1: They had been given the prophets but killed them. And
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  Speaker 1: what makes the story so sad is the privileged position
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  Speaker 1: that they occupied. Because of that, their case is more
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  Speaker 1: tragic than the case of others. God had, you remember,
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  Speaker 1: chosen them out of all the world's peoples. And God
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  Speaker 1: had set His love upon them, His affection, and then
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  Speaker 1: granted them this immense spiritual privilege culminating even in the Messiah.
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  Speaker 1: But as they had rejected the word and as they
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  Speaker 1: had stoned the prophet, so they killed the Messiah. So
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  Speaker 1: says Paul, my heart's desire, my prayer, my deepest concern
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  Speaker 1: is for the salvation of Israel because of their tremendous privilege.
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  Speaker 1: They were zealous for God, he says. They were sincere,
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  Speaker 1: but not according to knowledge. The problem wasn't that they
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  Speaker 1: lacked sincerity. The problem wasn't that they lacked a zeal
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  Speaker 1: or a religious interest or a pursuit of God. The
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  Speaker 1: problem was they devised their own means to do that
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  Speaker 1: and rejected the truth. They were religious and damned. We
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: look back on the story of Israel and we affirm
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  Speaker 1: its great tragic nature. We understand why Jesus felt the
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  Speaker 1: way He did. After all the promises of the Old
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  Speaker 1: Testament to this people, the Messiah finally comes and they
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  Speaker 1: kill Him. So we look with Paul, I think, and
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  Speaker 1: Jesus on the story of Israel as a supreme tragedy.
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  Speaker 1: And in fact, even today I think the evangelical church
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  Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ has an unusual compassion for Jewish people
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  Speaker 1: in wanting to see them come to the true knowledge
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  Speaker 1: of their Messiah. That great tragedy, I believe, has a
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  Speaker 1: parallel today. Another tragedy not unlike that one exists. It
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  Speaker 1: is a story of an equal kind of tragedy. It
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  Speaker 1: is a cause, I believe, for an equal kind of heartache,
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  Speaker 1: an equal kind of concern, and an equal kind of prayer.
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  Speaker 1: And it is the lostness of the church, the lostness
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  Speaker 1: of the church. Today, within the church, there is a
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  Speaker 1: lost population of people. Religious, yes. Having in their hands
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  Speaker 1: the New Testament. Having in their hands all the information
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  Speaker 1: they need about the New Covenant. Holding in their hands
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  Speaker 1: in the very Scriptures the truth about Christ, the saving
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  Speaker 1: truth about Christ, His death, His resurrection. They have the
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  Speaker 1: understanding that God has given in the Scripture of saving
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  Speaker 1: faith and repentance. They have the truth about sin and
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  Speaker 1: eternal destiny. Many of those churches have sincere people, very religious,
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  Speaker 1: zealous people, but they are doomed just as Israel was.
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  Speaker 1: They have the Scripture. They have the gospel. They have
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  Speaker 1: the truth about Christ. They have the source of all
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  Speaker 1: necessary teaching for life and eternity. And they are very
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  Speaker 1: busy being religious, but they reject the truth. They have
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  Speaker 1: Bibles they don't believe or obey. And may I suggest
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  Speaker 1: to you something you probably never thought about. There are
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  Speaker 1: more people today doomed in the church than there were
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  Speaker 1: doomed in an apostate Israel. The Jewish people were small
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  Speaker 1: in number. The apostate church is huge all over the world.
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  Speaker 1: Millions of people are in it. And they too deny Christ,
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  Speaker 1: deny the Word of God, follow false teachers, follow liars,
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  Speaker 1: follow the agents of Satan disguised as angels of light.
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  Speaker 1: And our hearts should be as grieved over the lost
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  Speaker 1: in the doomed church as was Paul's over the lost
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  Speaker 1: in a doomed Israel. For they and the church have
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  Speaker 1: had a great heritage. When you stop to realize that
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  Speaker 1: anybody today who is in the church, in its widest sense,
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  Speaker 1: the Christian church, if you take them back to their heritage,
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  Speaker 1: are a part of an organization founded by Jesus Christ,
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  Speaker 1: sustained by faithful men and women, perpetuated by the blood
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  Speaker 1: of martyrs, enlightened by the skill of great scholars. And
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  Speaker 1: so they are among a very elite group that are
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  Speaker 1: the spiritually privileged in the world. And yet, Masses of
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  Speaker 1: humanity exist within the framework of the church who are
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  Speaker 1: in unbelief and do not know the truth. Very zealous, religious,
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  Speaker 1: religiously active. But like Israel, they seek to please God
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  Speaker 1: by their works. They go about to establish their own righteousness.
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  Speaker 1: Many of them deny the deity of Jesus Christ as
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  Speaker 1: the Jews did. Many of them refuse to acknowledge the
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  Speaker 1: depth of their sin and iniquity. And many of them
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  Speaker 1: will refuse to understand the utter inability they have to
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  Speaker 1: meet God's holy standard. Apostate Israel was Paul's greatest grief.
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  Speaker 1: The apostate church is mine. Laodicea is an illustration of
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  Speaker 1: the apostate church. The last of the seven churches addressed
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  Speaker 1: by the Lord Jesus and the worst. Out of the seven,
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  Speaker 1: there were two good churches, Smyrna and Philadelphia, and the
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  Speaker 1: Lord doesn't say anything negative to them. There were five
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  Speaker 1: bad churches, five of them were tainted by sin to
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  Speaker 1: one degree or another. And as you go through the five, Ephesus, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Laodicea,
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  Speaker 1: they get progressively worse until finally Laodicea is fully apostate.
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  Speaker 1: You remember the church at Ephesus had left its first love.
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  Speaker 1: Then the church at Pergamos tolerated sin. Then the church
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  Speaker 1: at Thyatira had engaged in full-blown compromise with evil. Then
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  Speaker 1: the church at Sardis was dead. And now the Laodicean
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  Speaker 1: church unsaved and doomed. This is the apostate church. But
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  Speaker 1: I believe that our attitude toward the apostate church needs
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  Speaker 1: to be the same as the attitude of the Apostle
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  Speaker 1: Paul toward apostate Israel. The attitude, if you will, of
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  Speaker 1: the Lord Jesus toward apostate Israel. And that is a
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  Speaker 1: certain attitude of sadness and sorrow. For the letter to
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  Speaker 1: the church at Laodicea is the only one of the
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  Speaker 1: seven letters in which Christ has absolutely nothing good to say.
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  Speaker 1: Apparently there wasn't even a contingent that was significant enough
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  Speaker 1: a contingent of saved people to make a comment to them.
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  Speaker 1: So like churches all over the world, this was a
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  Speaker 1: religious group, positive on religion, sincere in their efforts to
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  Speaker 1: please God by their own works, but doomed. Now what
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  Speaker 1: I want you to learn as we look at this
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  Speaker 1: letter tonight is the Lord's attitude toward the apostate church.
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  Speaker 1: Because it needs to be our attitude as well. And
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  Speaker 1: it is not an attitude of standing back and condemning only.
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  Speaker 1: There is an element of compassion here. And we will
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  Speaker 1: see that as we look at verses 19 and following.
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  Speaker 1: But before we get to that, You remember that the
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  Speaker 1: correspondent is identified, the Lord Jesus, in verse 14 as
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  Speaker 1: the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of
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  Speaker 1: the creation of God. The Amen simply affirms truth. Jesus
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  Speaker 1: Christ is the Amen who affirms all of God's promises.
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  Speaker 1: He is called the faithful and true witness because He
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  Speaker 1: is perfectly accurate and completely trustworthy. He is called the
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  Speaker 1: beginning of the creation of God. That simply means He
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  Speaker 1: is the beginner, the originator, the initiator, or the Creator Himself.
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  Speaker 1: So the Lord who writes is the Amen. That in
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  Speaker 1: the Old Testament is a term used for God Himself.
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  Speaker 1: He is the one who affirms all that God has promised.
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  Speaker 1: He is the faithful true witness. He is the Creator
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  Speaker 1: of all creation. And He writes to this church. Now
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  Speaker 1: we noted last time the city. The city of Laodicea,
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  Speaker 1: this city we made a couple of key notes about.
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  Speaker 1: It had a water supply that was brought in in aqueducts,
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  Speaker 1: and so the water supply was putrid and dirty. The
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  Speaker 1: aqueducts had become clogged. The water was foul and tepid,
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  Speaker 1: and that comes into play later in the letter. Center
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  Speaker 1: for Commercial Enterprise, and they had three components to that,
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  Speaker 1: as you remember, a banking center, a wool industry in
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  Speaker 1: which they produced black wool, and a medical school which
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  Speaker 1: was famous for its eye salve. The third thing we
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  Speaker 1: note in each of these letters is the church. We
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  Speaker 1: don't have any record of the founding of the church
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  Speaker 1: in Laodicea. We assume that it was hit by the
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  Speaker 1: same heresy that hit the church at Colossae. It was
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  Speaker 1: one of three churches in the Lycus Valley, Heropolis, Laodicea,
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  Speaker 1: and Colossae, and probably had been hit with the same
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  Speaker 1: heresy that was denying the deity of Christ. Only Colossae
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  Speaker 1: fought it off. Apparently Laodicea just bought into it. They
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  Speaker 1: were deniers of the person and work of Christ to
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  Speaker 1: the degree that they were an unsaved bunch of apostates.
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  Speaker 1: We could easily call them the liberal church of the time.
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  Speaker 1: As far as the fourth point, we always look at
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  Speaker 1: a commendation, but there isn't any here, so there's nothing
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  Speaker 1: to say. And then comes the condemnation in verses 15
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  Speaker 1: and 16. He says, I know your deeds. You're neither
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  Speaker 1: cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot.
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  Speaker 1: So because you're lukewarm and neither hot or cold, I
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  Speaker 1: will vomit you out of my mouth. In Heropolis there
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  Speaker 1: were hot springs. The hot water of Heropolis was tremendous
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  Speaker 1: as a therapeutic aid. People would go to Heropolis and
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  Speaker 1: sit in the hot water for its healing properties. In
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  Speaker 1: Colossae there was a clear, cold, refreshing stream. You could
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  Speaker 1: be refreshed wonderfully in the cold water of Colossae. So
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  Speaker 1: Heropolis had hot springs with therapeutic value. Colossae had cold
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  Speaker 1: spring water, fresh and clear to quench your thirst. But
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  Speaker 1: all they had in Laodicea was tepid, filthy, dirty, foul
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  Speaker 1: water coming through the aqueduct that couldn't restore you or
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  Speaker 1: refresh you. The church was a lot like that. They
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  Speaker 1: made Christ sick. Some churches make Him angry. This church
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  Speaker 1: made Him sick. Cold speaks of spiritual coldness, spiritual indifference.
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  Speaker 1: Hot speaks of saved. So you have the spiritually indifferent
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  Speaker 1: and the saved. And He says, I'd rather deal with
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  Speaker 1: either of you. I'd rather deal with those people who
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  Speaker 1: are cold and dead and lifeless and spiritually indifferent or
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  Speaker 1: those people who are saved than to deal with sincerely
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  Speaker 1: religious people who are content with their own self-made theology.
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  Speaker 1: As I said a couple of weeks ago, it's easier
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  Speaker 1: to lead an outright abject pagan to the gospel than
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  Speaker 1: a religious person. He says, I wish you were hot
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  Speaker 1: or cold. If you were hot, obviously I'd prefer that.
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  Speaker 1: If you were cold, I'd even prefer that as a
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  Speaker 1: second choice. But you make me sick because you're in
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  Speaker 1: the middle. They're not saved, but they're religious, and that's
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  Speaker 1: a sickening condition. Not only that, in verse 17 He
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  Speaker 1: says you're deceived. You think you're rich. You think you're wealthy.
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  Speaker 1: You think you don't need anything and you have no
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  Speaker 1: idea that you're wretched and miserable and poor and blind
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  Speaker 1: and naked. You're deluded. You see how like the Jews,
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  Speaker 1: the apostate churches? You could take that Scripture and easily
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  Speaker 1: impose it on the Pharisees, couldn't you? On the Jewish
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  Speaker 1: leaders who thought they were rich and wealthy and spiritual
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  Speaker 1: things and didn't need anything and didn't know they were wretched, miserable, poor,
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  Speaker 1: blind and naked. That is a marvelous description of the
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  Speaker 1: religious and lost person. Those people who are caught in
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  Speaker 1: these churches that deny gospel truth or deny the deity
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  Speaker 1: of Christ or deny the veracity and errancy and authority
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  Speaker 1: of the Word of God, who have come up with
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  Speaker 1: their man-made religion under the name of Christianity, they think
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  Speaker 1: they're erudite, they think they're academic, they think they're well-trained,
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  Speaker 1: they think they're very religious, and they don't know that
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  Speaker 1: they are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
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  Speaker 1: And so they are in the same condition as apostate Israel.
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  Speaker 1: They sicken the Lord and they are self-deceived. Then in
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  Speaker 1: verses 18 to 20, we noted the command, the command.
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  Speaker 1: In verse 18, I advise you to buy from me
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  Speaker 1: gold refined by fire that you may become rich and
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  Speaker 1: and white garments that you may clothe yourself, and that
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  Speaker 1: the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, and
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  Speaker 1: eye salve to anoint your eyes that you may see.
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  Speaker 1: In other words, you need to remedy your situation. And
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  Speaker 1: he tells them to do three things. To buy these things,
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  Speaker 1: and of course you purchase them by faith, not by works.
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  Speaker 1: I want you to buy gold. That's true spiritual wealth
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  Speaker 1: because you don't have any. I want you to buy
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  Speaker 1: white clothes, the garment of righteousness. And I want you
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  Speaker 1: to buy eye salve to anoint your eyes. And there
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  Speaker 1: you can see Him playing off the situation that was
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  Speaker 1: well known in the city of Laodicea. They had a
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  Speaker 1: great banking center. He says, I want you to go
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  Speaker 1: for spiritual riches. They were famous for black wool. He says,
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  Speaker 1: I want you to go for white garments of righteousness.
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  Speaker 1: And they had a medical center that produced eye salve
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  Speaker 1: to give physical healing to the eyes. And He said,
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  Speaker 1: I want you to put on eye salve that will
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  Speaker 1: give you spiritual understanding. He said, I want you to
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  Speaker 1: purchase faith and righteousness and wisdom. All come to the
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  Speaker 1: believing sinner who pays the price of self-denying repentance and faith.
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  Speaker 1: And so He says to them, you need to remedy
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  Speaker 1: your disastrous situation. Then in verse 19, we pick it
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  Speaker 1: up where we left off. This is a direct appeal,
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  Speaker 1: and this tells us now what our attitude is to
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  Speaker 1: be toward the apostate church. Those whom I love, I
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  Speaker 1: reprove and discipline. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. This is
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  Speaker 1: not an easy verse to interpret. Some people on the
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  Speaker 1: surface immediately think he has to be talking to believers
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  Speaker 1: because he says, those whom I love. Not necessarily so.
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  Speaker 1: Because if I remember my Bible right, one of the
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  Speaker 1: first verses I ever learned was John 3, 16. And
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  Speaker 1: John 3, 16 says, quote it with me, God so
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  Speaker 1: loved the world. The context here in verse 18... indicates
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  Speaker 1: that these people needed the gold of true spiritual riches,
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  Speaker 1: they needed the garment of true righteousness, and they needed
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  Speaker 1: the sight of true spiritual understanding. That tells me they
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  Speaker 1: weren't converted. Verse 20 tells me that Christ is still
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  Speaker 1: on the outside trying to get in. So we must
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  Speaker 1: assume then in verse 19 that these are not believers.
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  Speaker 1: But God loves the world. And I think there's a
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  Speaker 1: sense in which because these people have outwardly identified with
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  Speaker 1: the church, outwardly identified with the kingdom, which has grown
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  Speaker 1: to be so massive that it includes the true and
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  Speaker 1: the false, as some of the parables of Matthew 13
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  Speaker 1: indicate that it would. But the very fact that they
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  Speaker 1: go around naming the name of Christ and outwardly identifying
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  Speaker 1: with His church puts them in the unique sphere of
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  Speaker 1: His concern. So He says, those whom I love I
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  Speaker 1: reprove and discipline. Could He be here referring to unbelievers? Yes. Reprove.
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  Speaker 1: is the word that means to treat with contempt. It's
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  Speaker 1: used that way in many extra-biblical sources. In Matthew 18,
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  Speaker 1: 15 it is the word to convict. In Ephesians 5,
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  Speaker 1: 11 it means to expose. So He is saying, I
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  Speaker 1: love the world and I love the world enough to
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  Speaker 1: expose the sin of the world to convict, to bring
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  Speaker 1: reproof and judgment. Frankly, it's nothing more than a general
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  Speaker 1: term for God's action toward sinners. You can compare its
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  Speaker 1: use in John 3.20, 1 Corinthians 14.24. And then the
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  Speaker 1: word discipline is used also in Luke 23. Twice, once
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  Speaker 1: in verse 16 and again in verse 22. And there
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  Speaker 1: in its uses, it's very important to point out, it
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  Speaker 1: means flatly to punish. To punish. And that's how it's translated.
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  Speaker 1: In 2 Timothy 2.25, it is used again of a
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  Speaker 1: form of punishment that is wrought against unbelievers. It's translated
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  Speaker 1: correcting those who are in opposition so that they may
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  Speaker 1: come to salvation. God will reprove or treat with contempt
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  Speaker 1: the unsaved. He will punish the unsaved even though He
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  Speaker 1: loves them. God so loved the world that He gave
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  Speaker 1: His only begotten Son, but to those who do not believe,
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  Speaker 1: He brings condemnation and punishment. And so it is not...
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  Speaker 1: wrong to see this as a verse referring to unbelievers.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, it makes very good sense. I love you,
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  Speaker 1: he's saying. And there's a note of compassion and tenderness there.
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  Speaker 1: And those whom I love, I will convict, I will
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  Speaker 1: expose to judgment, I will punish. And he is referring
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  Speaker 1: here not only to a convicting work which leads to
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  Speaker 1: salvation in some cases, but to an ultimate punishment which
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  Speaker 1: leads to damnation. It's just a very general expression. Don't
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  Speaker 1: think that because I'm a loving God, I'm not going
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  Speaker 1: to punish you. Don't think that because I'm a loving God,
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  Speaker 1: I'm not going to treat you with contempt. I will.
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  Speaker 1: God does not desire to do that. He has no
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  Speaker 1: pleasure in the death of the wicked. So there's a
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  Speaker 1: note of tenderness in these words, as there is in
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  Speaker 1: this whole letter. The Lord is showing tender affection for
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  Speaker 1: an unsaved church. The word love here, by the way,
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  Speaker 1: is not agape, agapao. It's not that supreme word for love.
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  Speaker 1: It's the word phileo. And it's the word that translates
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: into affection. I have a tender affection for the unsaved,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: but I will punish and I will judge. There is
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: affection from God even toward the apostates, those who are
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: caught in heresy, those who are in the false church,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: but there's no relationship. It's not the relationship of love.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: It's not the supreme relationship. He says, I have an
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: affection for you. But you are on the edge of conviction, exposure,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: and judgment. So in the light of that, he says,
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: be zealous therefore and repent. I appreciate your religious zeal.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: I appreciate your religious activity. But be zealous therefore and repent.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: Please note that call to salvation is a very familiar one.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: There is no salvation without repentance. This repentance is to
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: come in one decisive act, prompted by the direction of
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: the zeal. Once you understand that even though God has
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: affection for the sinner, the sinner realizes he's on the
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: brink of judgment, he is going to redirect his zeal
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: toward repentance lest he feel the judgment of God. If
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: you're going to be zealous and if you're going to
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: be sincere, he says, let it be in the pursuit
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: of repentance. The salvation call always, always includes repentance. Jesus
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: called for repentance as John the Baptist before him had.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: Paul preaches repentance, Acts 11, 18, Acts 20. James in
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: chapter 4, verses 6 to 10 demands a repentance, a
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: turning from sin, a cleansing of the life. That is
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: the very essence of a saving zeal, saving faith. Luke 16, 16,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: the law and the prophets were proclaimed unto John. Since
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: then the gospel of the kingdom of God is preached
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: and everyone is forcing his way into it. The point
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: he's making there is it is not easy to come
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: into the kingdom of God. It is not easy. It
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: is a tremendous struggle. It is a battle and a warfare. Why?
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Because it demands genuine repentance. Repentance means that you realize
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: you're guilty. You realize you're a vile sinner in the
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: presence of God. You realize that though God has affection
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: for you and He loves you as He loves the
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: whole world, you're on the brink of judgment. You realize
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: that you deserve that judgment, that wrath, that punishment. You're
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: hell bound. You realize the cause of this is your sin.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: You realize that you can't remedy that. And so you
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: turn from it. It's not easy to do that. It's
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: a great struggle. But the message to the lukewarm, unsaved
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: church is be zealous and repent. Turn your zeal and
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: your sincerity in the pursuit of repentance. There is an
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: invitation here that indicates that the Lord's attitude toward the
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: apostate church is not one of indifference. He says, You're
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: part of the world I love, but you're part of
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: those I'm going to damn unless you repent. He goes
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: a step further in a tender invitation in verse 20.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: He uses the exclamation, behold, because this is indeed a
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: startling reality. You'd think he'd say, behold, I stand at
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: the door ready to come in and destroy you. I
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: reject you. I offer you nothing, you apostates. That's not
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: his attitude. Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I'll
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: come in to him and we'll dine with him and
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: he with me. Since I was a little boy, I've
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: heard this verse used over and over and over again
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: in evangelistic sermons and tracts. I've even seen pictures painted
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: showing Christ knocking on the door of the heart. May
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: I be so forthright and bold as to stick my
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: neck out a little bit and say to you, I
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: don't believe He's talking about the heart. What door is
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: He knocking on? The door of what? Church. That's obvious.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: Christ wants in His own church, the church that bears
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: His name. Let me in. He's outside His church and
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: He wants to come in. There's so many churches like that.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: They're up and down Roscoe Boulevard. They're all over the place.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: And He's outside. These are churches that even Jesus Christ
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: isn't welcome to enter. He says, I stand at the
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: door of your church. And I'm knocking. I want to
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: come in. You're supposed to be the church. Why do
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: you shut me out? I want you and Laodicea to
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: repent and therefore open the door and let me in
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: your church. The knocking is this letter. This letter is
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: the knocking. This command in verses 18, 19, and 20,
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: this essential statement, do this, repent, let me in, that's
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: the knocking. I stand at the door of your church
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: and I knock. If anyone hears my voice, he's saying,
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: is there anybody in the church? You can imagine the
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: guy reading that letter to the church the day he arrived.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: Is there anybody here who will open the door? Do
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: you know something? It only takes one Christian in a
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: church and Christ is there, right? You take an apostate church,
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: one person in that church who believes and I'll be there.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: What that tells me about the Laodicean church is that
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: there's every reason to conclude there wasn't a Christian in
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: the place. Won't somebody let me in? It just takes
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: one believer in a church and Christ is there. The
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: invitation is a personal one. So he says, if anyone
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: hears my voice, hears me knocking and the knock says, repent, repent, repent,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: repent from your unbelief and your self-righteousness and your sin.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: If just anyone hears my voice and assesses their true
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: spiritual condition and opens the door, repents, exercises saving faith
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: that rejects works righteousness, that recognizes bankruptcy, nakedness, blindness, that
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: abandons self-effort and turns from sin to Christ, if just
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: one person does that, I'll be in that church. And
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: then it'll be like the church at Sardis where there
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: were only a few. If just anybody will open the door,
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: He says, I'll come into Him. I'll enter My church
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: in that individual. Save that individual. Take up residency in
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: that individual and I'll be there in that church. That
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: spells hope for that church, doesn't it? And He says,'
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: I' ll come into him, we'll dine with him, and he
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: with Me.' Dine, interesting. Dining was always the point of fellowship.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: It's just another way of saying, I'll have communion, I'll
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: have fellowship, we'll sit down, we'll be friends, we'll talk,
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: we'll share life, we'll share joy. We'll be close. We'll
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: have affection and love and intimacy. See, a shared meal
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: in ancient times in the East, a shared meal was
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: a symbol of union and loving fellowship. The word here, dine,
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: is dapenon, and it refers to the evening meal, the
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: last meal of the day before night falls. And Jesus
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: is saying, look, if just somebody will repent, I'll come in.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: and I'll save you, and I'll have fellowship with you
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: before the night of judgment falls. What does He mean
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: when He says, I'll dine with you? I think He's
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: talking about fellowship. I think He may be also anticipating
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: the marriage supper of the Lamb to follow, indicated in
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: Revelation 19.9. He may also be indicating the future kingdom
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: where we will eat with Him. Luke 22 lays that
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: beautiful picture out. We're going to dine with Him at
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: the marriage supper. We're going to dine with Him in
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: the kingdom. We're even going to eat with Him in eternity,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: as Revelation describes heaven, as having trees which bear fruit.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: But I think it starts with fellowship now. He says,
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: I'll come in and we'll start having fellowship and it'll
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: go on forever in different forms. But let me in
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: for the last meal before the night falls. That's His invitation.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: And I just remind you that you're going to face
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: a lot of folks in churches like this. I do.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: And the Lord is still knocking on the door of sickening, lukewarm, unsaved, apostate,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: heretical churches, and He just wants somebody to let Him in.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: I've been mentioning to you that I was at Southeastern
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: Seminary in Raleigh, North Carolina, the most liberal of all
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: Southern Baptist seminaries up until about four years ago. They
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: would have denied, of course, the inerrancy of Scripture. There's
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: still a number of faculty there that do. They would
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: have rejected and been considered as apostates. On the faculty
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: was a woman by the name of Lindemann. She had
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: written a number of books. These books were critical books
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: that denied the authorship of Scripture. They attacked the Scripture.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: She was a formidable writer of liberal persuasion and her
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: books led many people astray. They were books that denied
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: the Scriptures, all in the name of academic Christianity. Then
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: something amazing happened. Just a few years ago she got saved.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: She was delivered from scholastic night into biblical day. And
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: a reporter came to her and said, we understand you've
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: become an evangelical Christian and been born again. She said,
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: that is right. The reporter said, well, what would you
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: suggest we do with all your books? To which she replied,
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: the same thing I've done with them. Throw them away.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: They're worthless. Transformation. The Lord was knocking at an apostate
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: church and one who espoused that apostasy prolifically, who taught
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: in a seminary and wrote books, was saved and the
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: door was opened and the Lord came in. We can
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: become so hostile toward liberalism and neo-orthodoxy and apostasy and
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: false teachers, whatever they're in, wherever churches are that are
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: filled with error and illusion and deception, we can become
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: so hostile that we lose our perspective. And so the
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: Lord says, I know the condition of the church is wretched.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: It makes me sick, so sick I want to vomit.
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: But still my heart cries out for their salvation, even
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: as it did over the city of Jerusalem and the
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: apostasy of Israel. Even as Paul, who had his heart's
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: desire for the salvation of an apostate Israel. We take
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: a strong stand on the truth, but we don't ever
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: want to be lacking in compassion, do we? Because God
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: in His wonderful mercy and grace can save some of
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: these deceived people. As long as they are not those
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: who with a full understanding... have totally rejected and become
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: those unredeemable apostates that are described in Matthew chapter 12
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: and Hebrews chapter 6. These churches that are steeped in
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: error are filled with people who are still redeemable. And
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: so we come against that church on the one hand,
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: exposing its heresy, and on the other hand, knocking, as
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: it were, in the behalf of Christ and calling those
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: people to salvation. And so the Lord shows us in
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: this command to that church how we are to regard
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: those who are in error in the church. Not just
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: to attack, but to invite. To call them to repentance
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: because God loves them and they stand on the brink
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: of His judgment. to plead with them to let Christ in.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: Then the final promise. We call it the council. Verse 21,
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: he who overcomes. Who's that? The believer, right? 1 John 5, 5.
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: We've said that in every case. He who overcomes is
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: the believer. I'll grant to him to sit down with
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: me on my throne. as I also overcame and sat
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: down with my father on his throne. What is he saying?
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: If you'll let me in, I'll not only have fellowship
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: with you now and at the marriage supper and in
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: the kingdom and throughout eternity, but here's another thing. I'll
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: grant you a place with me on my throne as
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: I also overcame and sat down with My Father on
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: His throne. I'm telling you, that's getting elevated. I'll lift
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: you up to sit with Me in the heavenlies. That's
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: absolutely amazing, and frankly, astounding statement. He doesn't say, I'll
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: let you in my heaven and you can run around
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: on the fringes. He says, I'll take you to the
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: throne and I'll seat you there. Jesus said in Matthew 19, 28,
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: Truly I say to you that you who have followed
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man will
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: sit on His glorious throne, you shall also sit upon
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. He says
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: to the disciples, someday you're going to have your thrones taken.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: In Luke 22, verses 29 and 30, just as My
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: Father granted Me a kingdom, I grant you that you
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom,
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: and you will sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: of Israel. Again, He says to the disciples, you're going
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: to be up there, you're going to be at My table,
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: you're going to be sitting on thrones. And now He
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: even goes beyond that. You're not only going to have thrones,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: but I'm going to lift you up, you who believe,
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: and I'm going to put you down on My throne,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: and My throne is the same as the Father's throne.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: And what does that mean? I mean, is he just
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: talking about a literal seat where we're all piled up? No.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: He's saying you're going to judge the world. You're going
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: to sit with me and have authority and rule and reign.
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: The Lord has a throne. And we're going to be
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: with Him in it. We're going to sit there. Kings.
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: Chapter 1, verse 6, and priests, and we're going to
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: reign with Him on His own throne. What a tremendous promise.
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: The supreme dignity imaginable that I, this humble, worthless sinner,
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: would sit with Christ in His throne, which is the
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: Father's throne. Absolutely unbelievable. When God says He will exalt you,
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: that's exactly what He means. And then in verse 22,
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: He closes as He always does. He who has an ear,
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: And all I can say is who wouldn't want to
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: listen to this? Here's an apostate church. Easy to damn, condemn.
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: You see some people caught in heresy and you can
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: have an attitude of animosity, hostility. Not right. We confront
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: their error. We preach the truth. We warn them about judgment.
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: But we have the heart of God toward them. We
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: love them. We have an affection for them. We warn
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: them about coming judgment. We plead with them to repent.
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: We stand at the door of that church and we
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: knock and we plead in behalf of Christ that they
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: would open and let the Savior in and fellowship with Him.
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: And if they'll do that, He will identify Himself with them,
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: not only in time but in eternity. And there He'll
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: take them to His Father's throne. So we are called
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: then to be compassionate toward the Laodicean church because of
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: their immense need. We're right back where we started. Paul
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: confronted an apostate Israel. He hated their apostasy. And he,
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: more than any other New Testament writer except Jesus Christ Himself,
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: blasts an apostate Israel. If you want to get in
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: touch with that, just read Romans 2 and then read
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: Romans 3 and see how he condemns that. Read the
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: book of Galatians and see how he condemns their self-righteous
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: work system. No one was more powerful, more confrontive, more
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: condemning of false teaching than Paul, particularly in the church.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: And the letters that he wrote directed themselves so often
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: at false teaching in the church, heresy, misrepresentations of Christ
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: in Scripture. But Paul's heart was also broken over Israel
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: and grieved over the church because they both had had
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: such immense spiritual privilege. And here we see the Lord
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: Jesus Himself who has every right to damn and condemn
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: the apostate church, still graciously, tenderly knocking and calling to repentance.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: And that should be our attitude as well. Well, in
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: our day, all seven of these churches are represented, and
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: each of them poses its own challenge. There are pure
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: churches like Smyrna and Philadelphia. There are churches that have
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: left their first love and need the fire of devotion back.
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: There are churches like Pergamos that have tolerated sin and
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: won't deal with it. They are beginning to escalate and
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: to grow in our day. They don't want to deal
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: with sin. They don't want to confront iniquity. There are
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: churches like Thyatira that are in full-blown compromise with the world.
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: There are churches like Sardis that are mostly dead and
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: only a few believers left, and there are the apostate churches.
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: But in every case, the Lord says to these churches
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: with all their defects, please repent. Please take the steps
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: necessary to make it right. The Lord loves to that
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: level and continually calls His church to purity, to holiness.
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: That should be our challenge as well. Father, thank You
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: for our time in Your Word tonight. We ask that
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: You would confirm to our hearts the role that we
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: might play as individuals in bringing to pass the application
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: of this truth. Help us while hating error to love
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: those that are trapped in it. and to compassionately call
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: them to repentance. I thank You, Lord, that You're still
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: knocking on churches that we might easily give up on
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: and asking if there isn't someone who would let You in.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: Use us, Lord, to reach people in those churches so
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: they'll open the door. And who knows... how your grace
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: may spread. To that end, we pray for Christ's sake. Amen.
• 47:11
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• 47:14
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• 47:17
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• 47:21
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• 47:27
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• 47:31
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