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Voddie Baucham - Laodicea, A Letter For The American Church · Voddie Baucham Sermons

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So what's the prognosis? What happens if this thing goes untreated?
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Verse 19 Those whom I love I reprove and discipline
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  Speaker 1: so be zealous and repent. There's the prognosis. If you
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  Speaker 1: don't treat this you will be reproved and disciplined by me.
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  Speaker 1: There's several things that are important for us to understand
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  Speaker 1: this prognosis. One is this, those whom I love, it's
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  Speaker 1: hard for us to wrap our mind around this because
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  Speaker 1: of the time in which we live. And in the
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  Speaker 1: time in which we live, we live in a time
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  Speaker 1: where everybody celebrates the universal fatherhood of God and the
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  Speaker 1: universal brotherhood of man. God loves everyone. Folks, if God
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  Speaker 1: loves everyone, then his love is meaningless. It's meaningless. Think
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  Speaker 1: about it this way. I am a husband to my wife.
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  Speaker 1: If I say to my wife, I love you the
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  Speaker 1: same way I love everyone else, my relationship with you
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  Speaker 1: is no more intimate than my relationship with anyone else.
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  Speaker 1: That's called adultery. Jesus says, those whom I love. Those
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  Speaker 1: whom I love. He is setting apart a group of
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  Speaker 1: people based upon the love that he has set upon them.
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  Speaker 1: Those whom I love. Which means that there are others
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  Speaker 1: whom he does not love, or at least whom he
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  Speaker 1: doesn't love in the same way. He is angry with
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  Speaker 1: the wicked every day. God hates the wicked. Not just wickedness.
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  Speaker 1: He hates wickedness and he hates the wicked. Amen, somebody.
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  Speaker 1: We're enemies of God before we're converted. Do we not
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  Speaker 1: read this in the scriptures? I was an enemy of God,
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  Speaker 1: and I am no longer an enemy of God. He
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  Speaker 1: has adopted me. Here's the other thing. This whole universal
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  Speaker 1: brotherhood of man, we're all God's children. Newsflash, we're not.
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  Speaker 1: This is the language of adoption and childhood. Those whom
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  Speaker 1: I love, I reprove and discipline. Whom do you reprove
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  Speaker 1: and discipline? Your children, not everybody else's. In John chapter 1,
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  Speaker 1: we see what? That those who believe in him, even
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  Speaker 1: those who believe on his name, he gives the right
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  Speaker 1: to become the children of God. Folks, I don't need
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  Speaker 1: the right to become something I already am. And if
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  Speaker 1: we're all God's children... Why does Christ die so that
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  Speaker 1: we become the children of God? In Romans chapter 8,
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  Speaker 1: the spirit of adoption, whereby I'm adopted and cry out, Abba, Father.
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  Speaker 1: Why do I need to be adopted by God if
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  Speaker 1: I'm already a child of God? God is going to
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  Speaker 1: send his children to hell? He's going to pour out
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  Speaker 1: his wrath on his children throughout all eternity? I don't
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  Speaker 1: think so. His children are adopted. They belong to him
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  Speaker 1: and they will in no wise be cast out. There
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  Speaker 1: is a distinction here. This is important because when we
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  Speaker 1: look at verse 20, there are those who rip it,
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  Speaker 1: kicking and screaming out of context and use verse 20
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  Speaker 1: as though it's an evangelistic verse. Behold, I stand at
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  Speaker 1: the door and knock. We put that on the end
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  Speaker 1: of these evangelistic tracks as though Jesus is somehow talking
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  Speaker 1: to unbelievers. No, no. Number one, this is a letter
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  Speaker 1: to a church. Number two, verse 19 makes it clear
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  Speaker 1: that he's using the language of sonship. There's another issue here.
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  Speaker 1: Those whom I love, he uses the word phileo, not agape.
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  Speaker 1: He doesn't use agape-o, he uses phileo. Those whom I love, phileo.
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  Speaker 1: This is another one that gives us fits, mainly because
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  Speaker 1: of a couple of very famous sermons. Uh, A couple
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  Speaker 1: of very famous sermons about Jesus' restoration of Peter. Do
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  Speaker 1: you love me? Lord, you know I love you. Feed
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  Speaker 1: my sheep. Do you love me? Lord, you know I
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  Speaker 1: love you. Feed my sheep. Do you love me? Again,
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  Speaker 1: in that, Jesus uses... Agape, do you agape me? Peter, yes,
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  Speaker 1: I agape you. Two, do you agape me? Or I
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  Speaker 1: phileo you. Jesus says, do you agape me? Peter says,
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  Speaker 1: I phileo you. Jesus says, do you agape me? Peter says,
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  Speaker 1: I phileo you. And then finally, Jesus says, do you
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  Speaker 1: phileo me? And Peter says, yes, I phileo you. There's
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  Speaker 1: a bunch of famous sermons there about the use of
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  Speaker 1: agape versus phileo. And this idea that agape is God's love.
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  Speaker 1: Agape is the highest level of love. So on and
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  Speaker 1: so forth. And this huge distinction between agape and phileo.
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  Speaker 1: But Jesus says here, those whom I phileo. Here's the
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  Speaker 1: other thing. John uses this a lot. In John chapter
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  Speaker 1: 5 verse 20. For the father loves the son. The
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  Speaker 1: word there is not agape, it's phileo. and shows him
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  Speaker 1: all that he himself is doing. And greater works than
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  Speaker 1: these will he show him, so that you may marvel.
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  Speaker 1: John chapter 16, verses 26 and 27. In that day
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  Speaker 1: you will ask in my name, and I do not
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  Speaker 1: say that I will ask the Father on your behalf,
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  Speaker 1: for the Father himself phileos you. God phileos me. He
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  Speaker 1: phileos you. He phileos us. Because you have phileoed me
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  Speaker 1: and have believed that I am come from God. Phileo
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  Speaker 1: and agape are used interchangeably by John. It's the same thing.
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  Speaker 1: They're used interchangeably by John. The second is the idea
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  Speaker 1: of the love and discipline. We don't grasp this. We
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  Speaker 1: don't understand it. Listen to this from our own confession,
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  Speaker 1: 2nd London Baptist Confession, chapter 16, paragraph 3. And though
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  Speaker 1: they may through the temptation of Satan and the world,
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  Speaker 1: the prevalency of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect
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  Speaker 1: of means of their preservation fall into grievous sins, and
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  Speaker 1: for a time continue therein, whereby they incur God's displeasure
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  Speaker 1: and grieve His Holy Spirit, come to have their graces
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  Speaker 1: and comforts impaired, have their hearts hardened, and their consciences wounded, hurt,
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  Speaker 1: and scandalized others, and bring temptation and judgment upon themselves,
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  Speaker 1: yet they shall renew their repentance and be preserved through
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  Speaker 1: faith in Christ Jesus to the end. All that bad
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  Speaker 1: stuff happens. He disciplines us Proverbs 3, 11 and 12.
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  Speaker 1: My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be
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  Speaker 1: weary of his reproof. For the Lord reproves him whom
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  Speaker 1: he loves as a father, the son in whom he delights.
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  Speaker 1: That's the language that John is using in verse 20
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  Speaker 1: of chapter 3. 1 Corinthians 11, 31 and 32. This
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  Speaker 1: is extremely important. Every week we read this. But if
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  Speaker 1: we judge ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But
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  Speaker 1: when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined
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  Speaker 1: so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
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  Speaker 1: Hebrews chapter 12, verses five through seven. And have you
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  Speaker 1: forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son,
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  Speaker 1: do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor
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  Speaker 1: be weary when reproved by him, for the Lord disciplines
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  Speaker 1: the one he loves. And chastises every son whom he receives.
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  Speaker 1: It is for discipline that you have to endure. God
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  Speaker 1: is treating you as sons. For what son is there
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  Speaker 1: whom his father does not discipline? This is father-son language.
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  Speaker 1: Now we get to verse 20. And look at what
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  Speaker 1: he says in verse 20. Behold. I stand at the
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  Speaker 1: door and knock. If anyone hears my voice opens the door,
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  Speaker 1: I will come into him and eat with him and
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  Speaker 1: he with me. This is amazing. What's the disease? The
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  Speaker 1: disease is vomit inducing lukewarmness, which when you understand the
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  Speaker 1: geography has to do with this improper connection to the source.
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  Speaker 1: this improper connection to the source that leads to self-reliance
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  Speaker 1: and self-deception. What's the cure? Well, the cure is to
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  Speaker 1: be connected to and dependent upon the source. So what
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  Speaker 1: does this physician do? He comes to us. Do you
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  Speaker 1: follow that? We hear Jesus saying to the church, you
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  Speaker 1: are disconnected from me. You are not properly connected to me.
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  Speaker 1: You are depending on yourself. And in your self-reliance, you
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  Speaker 1: are deceived and you think you have everything you want.
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  Speaker 1: You don't even see your own compromise. You're not hot.
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  Speaker 1: You're not cold. You're not healing and you're not refreshing.
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  Speaker 1: You are nothing. You are useless right now. And all
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  Speaker 1: those things that you think you have, you need to
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  Speaker 1: buy from me in abundance because you don't have what
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  Speaker 1: you think you have and you're not who you think
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  Speaker 1: you are. You desperately need to be connected. Oh, Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: I'm so sorry. Here I come. I want to connect
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  Speaker 1: with you again. Here you come. What? I'm at the door.
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  Speaker 1: Do you know why I believe the Lord doesn't ask
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  Speaker 1: us to go anywhere? Because what's our problem? We think
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  Speaker 1: we've done it all. If he says, run to me
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  Speaker 1: and your problem is self-reliance and self-dependence, then if things
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  Speaker 1: get better, what do you start thinking? I'm better because
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  Speaker 1: I ran to him. You know what this sounds like?
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  Speaker 1: This sounds like people whose testimony goes something like this.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I heard the message. And when I heard
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  Speaker 1: the message, I ran to the altar and I surrendered
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  Speaker 1: everything to the Lord. That testimony makes me cringe. First
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  Speaker 1: of all, you don't know where everything is. Amen. I
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  Speaker 1: surrendered everything to the Lord. Liar, liar, liar. You don't
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  Speaker 1: even know where everything is. Here's another reason I know
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  Speaker 1: you're a liar, because you didn't surrender the pride that
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  Speaker 1: would make you think you actually surrendered something to God.
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  Speaker 1: You didn't surrender everything to the Lord. Sanctification is an
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  Speaker 1: ongoing process. How are you going to say that you
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  Speaker 1: surrendered everything to the Lord and believe that sanctification is
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  Speaker 1: an ongoing process? Help you if you're okay with that.
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  Speaker 1: That doesn't work, folks. You did not surrender everything to
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  Speaker 1: the Lord. But listen to the language. I am right
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  Speaker 1: with God because I surrendered everything to the Lord. That's
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  Speaker 1: our language. I decided for Jesus. I made Jesus my...
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  Speaker 1: What are you talking about? No, Christ comes to you.
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  Speaker 1: The disease is your improper connection or lack thereof, which
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  Speaker 1: makes you self-reliant and self-sufficient. And utterly useless. The cure,
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  Speaker 1: you need to be reconnected to the source. How do
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  Speaker 1: you do that? The source comes to you. And notice
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  Speaker 1: what he says. He says, I will come into you
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  Speaker 1: and I will dine with you and you with me.
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  Speaker 1: There's intimacy here and there's dining here. There's a couple
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  Speaker 1: of reasons that really irks me that we put this
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  Speaker 1: in our evangelistic text. But one of them is this.
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  Speaker 1: I believe that the language used here has a direct
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  Speaker 1: implication to the Lord's Supper. When we gather before the
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  Speaker 1: table of the Lord, we always begin with repentance. And
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  Speaker 1: we do it so that we are reminded that we
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  Speaker 1: are not self-sufficient, that we are utterly dependent upon Christ.
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  Speaker 1: We gather before the Lord's table week after week after
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  Speaker 1: week to remind ourselves that we are wretched and pitiable
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  Speaker 1: and poor and blind and naked, and we have absolutely
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  Speaker 1: nothing of any use before a holy God, and we
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  Speaker 1: need Him And He comes into us and dines with
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  Speaker 1: us and we with Him. Oh, that God would grant
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  Speaker 1: us grace to shake off that incredibly inappropriate, Baptistic understanding
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  Speaker 1: that many of us have of the Lord's Supper, where
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  Speaker 1: it's just so purely memorialized that we do not think
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  Speaker 1: about the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at all
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  Speaker 1: when we gather before those elements. Some people get so
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  Speaker 1: uncomfortable when you talk about the Lord being there, the
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  Speaker 1: Lord being with... Oh, wait a minute, wait a minute now.
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  Speaker 1: You know, the Catholics, when they do that and they
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  Speaker 1: reach up and they crucify Christ afresh and they believe that,
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  Speaker 1: you know, he becomes the elements of that. Nobody's talking
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  Speaker 1: about transubstantiation here or even consubstantiation here. But Christ... It's
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  Speaker 1: present and it's real. And here's what's ironic about that.
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  Speaker 1: There are people who will, you know, have a powerful
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  Speaker 1: emotional music set and they'll hear the music and, you know,
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  Speaker 1: there'll be an emotion that comes over the audience and
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  Speaker 1: they'll go, the Lord is here right now. Because of
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  Speaker 1: the emotions that we feel in the music. Or we
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  Speaker 1: give an invitation and people are coming down the aisles.
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  Speaker 1: And as people are coming down there, we go, the
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  Speaker 1: Lord is here right now. The Lord is all over
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  Speaker 1: this right now. There's a hush that comes over the
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  Speaker 1: room because God is present with us. But you say
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  Speaker 1: that about the Lord's Supper that he calls his flesh
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  Speaker 1: and his blood. And people go, oh, now, wait a minute.
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  Speaker 1: Don't be saying he's present in that. one of the
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  Speaker 1: reasons that it is so important to be renewed again
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  Speaker 1: and again and again in this particular ordinance because of
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  Speaker 1: our desperate need to be reminded of our desperate need.
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  Speaker 1: His body was broken for you. His blood was shed
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  Speaker 1: for you. And as we sit before these elements, and
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  Speaker 1: as you take these things into your body, just like
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  Speaker 1: food goes in and nourishes your body, Christ nourishes your soul.
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  Speaker 1: And as Christians, it is necessary that we feed on
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  Speaker 1: Christ spiritually, continually, and that we are reminded of our
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  Speaker 1: desperate need for him. Is that all that verse 20
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  Speaker 1: is about? I don't think that's all that verse 20
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  Speaker 1: is about, but I don't think you can ignore the
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  Speaker 1: implications there. Both because of the significance of eating and
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  Speaker 1: dining and drinking, but also because of the self-examination that's
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  Speaker 1: called for in the Lord's Supper. And because of the
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  Speaker 1: rebuke that's there in the Lord's Supper. Some of you
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  Speaker 1: are sick and some of you have died. Why? Because
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  Speaker 1: you didn't judge yourself properly when you came before the
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  Speaker 1: table of the Lord. There are echoes there. Be zealous, therefore,
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  Speaker 1: and repent. Because those whom I love, I reprove and discipline.
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  Speaker 1: That's his message to Laodicea. And I believe by implication,
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  Speaker 1: it's his message to us. Think about this. The church
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  Speaker 1: in Laodicea was really in a very difficult position. Why?
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  Speaker 1: Because they were in one of the wealthiest parts of
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  Speaker 1: the world. And not only did they have wealth, gold, money,
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  Speaker 1: but also textiles and manufacturing. In addition to their wealth, gold, money,
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  Speaker 1: they had textiles and manufacturing and they were a medical center.
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  Speaker 1: So what does everybody want? Everybody wants money so that
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  Speaker 1: you can buy things and so that when you get sick,
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  Speaker 1: you can afford to get better. I mean, that's the
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  Speaker 1: essence of life. If you really boil it down, there's
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  Speaker 1: a But really, we've got to be able to provide
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  Speaker 1: for our basic needs. We need money. We've got to
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  Speaker 1: have stuff to buy. We either produce it all or
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  Speaker 1: it's produced for us and then we buy it with
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  Speaker 1: our money. And ultimately, when we get sick, we want
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  Speaker 1: to be able to go to the doctor so that
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  Speaker 1: we can be healthy and continue to live. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: there's not a whole lot more to life than that.
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  Speaker 1: By the way, can you think of a city, maybe
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  Speaker 1: not a city, but perhaps a country? I don't know,
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  Speaker 1: that's maybe more wealthy than the rest of the world.
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  Speaker 1: And maybe that has more manufactured stuff available to people
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  Speaker 1: than the rest of the world. And maybe that has
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  Speaker 1: more access to medicine than the rest of the world
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  Speaker 1: that may make it easy for churches in that part
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  Speaker 1: of the world to fall into the sin of self-dependence,
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  Speaker 1: self-deception and self-reliance. Maybe anybody could you think of such
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  Speaker 1: a place? Fact of the matter is, we live in
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  Speaker 1: such a place. We are in such a place. See,
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  Speaker 1: when we gather together to meet as a church, we
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  Speaker 1: don't immediately bow down and pray that the Lord will
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  Speaker 1: allow us to finish our service without somebody kicking in
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  Speaker 1: the door and dragging us off. or locking the door
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  Speaker 1: and setting the place on fire. You see, when we
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  Speaker 1: gather as believers, we don't come together as believers on
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  Speaker 1: a regular and ongoing basis and try to figure out
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  Speaker 1: if we can piece together a Bible among us from
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  Speaker 1: the fragments of That some families have. But when we
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  Speaker 1: gather together as believers, we may gather and we do
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  Speaker 1: gather and we pray for people who are sick. But
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  Speaker 1: when we pray for people who are sick, we're not
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  Speaker 1: praying for people who are sick, who recognize our prayer
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  Speaker 1: for them as the only thing that they have access to,
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  Speaker 1: because the idea of getting to a doctor or affording
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  Speaker 1: one is completely outside of the realm of possibilities. So
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  Speaker 1: what is the temptation? We're wealthy and we really have
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  Speaker 1: need of nothing. All the while not realizing that we
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  Speaker 1: are wretched and pitiable and poor and blind and naked.
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  Speaker 1: Every one of us. I believe that that the message
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  Speaker 1: to the church at Laodicea is the most directly applicable
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  Speaker 1: message to churches in the United States that we find
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  Speaker 1: from these seven letters. And I believe that it is
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  Speaker 1: the letter with which more of us in this room
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  Speaker 1: can identify than anything else that we read and the
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  Speaker 1: letters to these seven churches. Because the fact of the
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  Speaker 1: matter is, most of us struggle with the disease of
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  Speaker 1: vomit-inducing lukewarmness. Self-dependence, self-deception, self-reliance. God help us. God, save us.
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  Speaker 1: This is why we need the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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  Speaker 1: This is why we need to be reminded again and
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  Speaker 1: again and again of our desperate need. This is why
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  Speaker 1: the cross must be ever before us.