Title: Warning to a Lukewarm Church
Scripture: Revelation 3:14-22
Speaker: Nate Pickowicz
Well, this morning, we are actually not going to finish First Timothy. We'll do that, Lord willing, next week. But I did want to take this opportunity to to pivot and really what I believe is draw application from last week's sermon and sort of focus our minds and our hearts a little bit about some of the truths that we've been learning before we wrap up that letter.
There is a zeal and really an excitement that accompanies the Christian life, especially when it comes to new conversion to Christianity. A person realizes that they are a sinner. They recognize that they're bogged down with guilt.
They're bogged down with shame. They know that they're under condemnation because they know that they have rebelled against God and because God is holy and he cannot be in fellowship with sin, he hates sin. The Lord is determined to punish any and all sin to the fullest, which results in eternity in hell.
But we also know that God is loving and God is merciful. The Bible says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. That's Jesus Christ.
And whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. John 316. And so when a sinner realizes that God is willing to forgive them.
And he is. When they realize he's willing to save them and bless them with eternal life, they turn away from their sins in repentance and they embrace salvation by faith. And the realization that Jesus died on the cross to pay for their sins, earn their forgiveness and accomplish their salvation.
It fills them with hope and it fills them with joy, with awe and even thanksgiving. And new believers, when they recognize the power of the saving gospel of Jesus Christ, they become excited and they become zealous for God. New believers, they'll read their Bibles every day.
They pray regularly. They evangelize everyone they know. They go to church regardless of what's going on.
They're there any time the doors are open. They're serious about confessing their sins. They give generously.
They serve selflessly. And this is all the joy, the excitement of new belief in Christ. And it's all out of a love for God and an amazement that he would save a sinner like them.
But then, as can happen sometimes, familiarity begins to set in. Prayer becomes irregular and rote. Church becomes obligatory.
Evangelism becomes infrequent. Their Bibles begin to collect dust and their love for God begins to cool. They start to become like the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2, who's lost their first love.
And sadly, this happens to believers and it can also happen to churches. Well, why am I bringing this up today? Well, first of all, it's better than bringing it up on Father's Day. But no, primarily it's because if here's the thing, if we're not careful, if we're not careful, this kind of thing can happen to us as well.
We can become very comfortable and used to biblical sermons. We can become used to new members all the time. It can become a habit for us to just have baptisms every year.
And money in the bank. And freedom from persecution. And freedom to worship.
It's an exciting time in the life of our church right now. We want to rejoice in that. But if we're not careful, beloved, we can fall into this rote sort of Christianity where this just becomes common for us and it ought not to be.
We can begin to take for granted the work that God is doing here and begin to resort to becoming indifferent or even lukewarm. But thankfully, the Lord has written for us a letter for the benefit of our church and for every church, really it's a challenging letter, but it can also serve as a warning to us. And so I would invite you to turn with me to Revelation chapter 3. Revelation is the last book in the Bible.
Revelation chapter 3. Now, Revelation 2 and 3, so both chapters 2 and 3, they consist of seven letters written to seven churches that existed in the end of the first century. The apostle John, who wrote the Gospel of John as well as three letters, in his old age he receives revelation from the Lord Jesus Christ who was including specific messages to send to these churches. The church in Ephesus, for example, which is the audience that Paul is addressing in 1 and 2 Timothy, by the way, and so this letter is coming about 30 or 35 years after 1 Timothy, but the church in Ephesus, they had lost their first love.
By the time Paul had written the second letter to Timothy, from that time till this point, they'd lost their first love and they needed to not only repent of their sins, but re-engage in their fruitful deeds. The church in Smyrna was a persecuted church and they needed to be encouraged to overcome opposition. Pergamum was a compromising church.
Thyatira was a corrupt church. Sardis was a dead church. However, the church in Philadelphia was a faithful church and they were encouraged to persevere.
And then the last letter to the seventh church here is to Laodicea. And the Lord Jesus describes this church as a lukewarm church. And when you read the letter, it is perhaps one of the saddest of them all.
Now, just to untangle a little bit of the web of confusion, for years Bible scholars have tried to understand the meaning behind the seven letters to the seven churches. Some have simply seen it as historical, that John was writing letters to seven prominent churches at that time for the benefit of their situation only in the first century. Others have seen this as a collection of letters that are more prophetical, that the seven churches represent seven periods of church history with Laodicea being the period of time that we're currently living in right now.
Others have seen these letters as typological, representing the types of churches that exist in the world across all ages for all time. But what's interesting, however, is that this letter to Laodicea diagnoses the problems of the American and certainly the Western churches in a way that is almost startling. Writing about 50 years ago, Pastor John Stott noted this about this letter.
He says, perhaps none of the seven letters is more appropriate to the 20th century church than this. It describes vividly the respectable, sentimental, nominal, skin-deep religiosity which is so widespread among us today. He notes our Christianity is flabby and anemic.
We appear to have taken a lukewarm bath of religion. And there are sadly so many gatherings that are churches around this country and even across the Western world that that is apropos. That describes their situation.
Now we might bristle a little bit at Stott's broad-brushing comments, but I think when you read the letter, it does give us an opportunity to pause and consider. And so we're going to read the end of Revelation 3, verses 14-22. The Apostle John records the words of our Lord and he says this, To the angel of the church in Laodicea write, The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God says this, I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot.
I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. Because you say, I am rich and I have become wealthy and I have need of nothing.
And you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed. And I salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.
Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. Therefore, be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him and he with me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with me on my throne. As I also overcame and sat down with my Father on His throne.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The ancient city of Laodicea is in the region of what is now known as central Turkey, north of Syria, which is northeast on the Mediterranean coast. In the first century, we find this church located in the Lycus Valley, which is the place where we find ancient cities like Colossae and Hierapolis.
There was the great Roman road that passed through Laodicea, which made that city a very important stop along the trade route. It was a city that was bustling and busy. It was extremely wealthy.
In fact, we have historical account of Cicero going and making some deposits there and doing banking in Laodicea. But this made it easy for people who were living in the city to feel very agreeable and compromising to anybody and all people who would come into the city. The religious expression in Laodicea was very broad.
There were many pagan deities that were worshipped there and didn't seem to bother anybody while they were there. Everyone was largely accepting and largely tolerable, regardless of the idolatrous offense to God. Now, we don't exactly know the origins of the church that was in Laodicea, but perhaps Epaphras, one of Paul's disciples, was the church planter there.
But we know that by the end of the first century, they were in need of correction. And so John receives this letter prophetically from the Lord to the angel of the church in Laodicea. Laodicea literally means the rights of the people.
It's a church that was focused, at least by their title, on democracy. But it's been some discussion as to what it means for there to be an angel of the church there, whether it was an actual heavenly angel who presided over the care and protection of this church, or whether the word angelos, the word for angel in the Greek, refers to a messenger to that church. It's unknown to us.
But we do know who is sending the letter. Look at the second half of that verse there in verse 14. We see the identity of the writer of this letter, the official writer, which is, he says, the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.
All of these titles are references to the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, beginning in Revelation 1-5, John names Jesus Christ and calls Him the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. But here in verse 14, the word Amen means that Jesus is true.
It characterizes who He is. The Bible maintains that Jesus is the way and the truth and the life, John 14-6, which speaks to the exclusivity of His salvation. We also know that He is the faithful and true witness.
At a time when the Laodiceans were faithless and tolerating false religion, they were tolerating lies, John reminds them that Jesus is the divine witness to all truth, that He Himself is faithful and true. He's also the beginning of the creation of God. This word arche in the Greek can mean beginning, but also can mean origin or source.
It could even refer to the one who is the ruler of all things. As a wealthy, self-sufficient city, they needed to be reminded that they themselves were not the source of blessing. They were not the source of abundance.
But the source, the ruler, the originator was actually the Lord God. And then in verse 15, we see the beginning of the Lord's charge against them. Look at verse 15.
Jesus tells this church, I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot. Here, He speaks about their deeds, what they do.
Again, they're professed believers in this Laodicean church, but He says, I know them, I know you. That's the thing, our Lord knows not just this church broadly, large here, but He knows every single person here. Whether you're a believer or an unbeliever, whether you have never heard the gospel before and this is brand new, or whether you've been here for a while and don't have a saving faith, but you've been pretending.
The Lord knows every single heart, every single situation. He knows the churches. And what are they like? What's the Laodicean church like? He says that they are neither cold nor hot.
In other words, they're mediocre, unimpressive, lukewarm. And then He adds this, I wish that you were cold or hot. Now, spiritually speaking, He's not telling them that He wants them to be spiritually cold.
That's not the sense of the sentiment here. Rather, it's more like, I wish you weren't on the fence. Because here's the thing, objectively, cold has a purpose.
Hot has a purpose. Lukewarm, kind of useless. I don't know if there's very many uses for lukewarm water in the world today.
Of course, this is particularly noteworthy for the Laodiceans. Why? Because it's interesting to note that their water supply did not come from inside the city. Their water supply was actually really very poor.
Their water that was there was full of impurities. And it oftentimes would be kicked up in the water supply. And when they would drink it, it would make them sick to their stomach.
And people, if you drank the water in Laodicea, you could actually get very sick and you could vomit. So they constructed these elaborate aqueducts in the ancient world that piped in cold, fresh water from Colossae. And then from the hot springs in Hierapolis, they would bring the hot water piped in as well.
So they were an ancient pipeline system. They had both hot and cold water coming into the city. I read one report from the ancient sources that says that the water that was coming out of Hierapolis hot springs was 95 degrees.
They had 95-degree water coming into the city. And so they enjoyed both hot and cold water. But here's the problem.
If the water remained in the pipeline too long, if it sat idle, it would eventually become lukewarm, and it would be no good to them as even their own water supply. But that's what they had become. They had become lukewarm.
And so Jesus says in verse 16, So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. They had become spiritually lukewarm. They had become uncommitted, undevoted, blasé.
They had no passion for God, no zeal. There was no sense of urgency. Very little fruitfulness.
And because of this, Jesus expresses his disgust. He says, I want to spit you out of my mouth. This word for spit in the original Greek is emeo, which literally means to vomit.
Spiritual uselessness makes the Lord sick. Turns his stomach. Because here's the thing.
At least if you're cold spiritually, there is some sense of hope. Because then if you're cold, and you recognize that you're cold, you can be called to repentance. A person who has no spirituality, and they recognize that they're dead and lost, you can entreat them, and you can say, Come to Jesus, and there's a chance.
Or if you're hot, and you're spiritually on fire, then you can be encouraged unto more faithfulness. But most of what we see in the Western church, the American church, the broader scope of it, is sort of this lukewarmness. Now, I will admit, I do believe it's different in the Northeast, but I have friends that are pastoring churches in the Bible Belt.
It is very difficult. I would much rather pastor here in New Hampshire than to go to some of these places in the South. Do you know why? Because at least here, there's no incentive for you culturally to be here.
You're not going to get any brownie points from your neighbors. You're not going to look good by going to church, because nobody up here cares. In the South, everybody's a Christian, right? I remember I met a family from Texas one time, and they were telling me about where they lived, and I said, Oh, are you guys Christians? And they smiled and they said, Well, we're from Texas.
Everybody's a Christian in Texas. That's terrifying. People go to church because they go to church.
They're on the rolls. They're members. They haven't been in the church in five years, but they're members.
And there's no follow-through. There's nothing inside of them that desires godliness. And I'll tell you, yes, it's easy to say that in the Bible Belt, but the same thing is possible here as well.
It exists the possibility in any church to be neither hot nor cold. Again, to be lukewarm spiritually is nothing, because at that point, what are you even doing? Are you playing games? Are you just passing the time? Well, I guess I've got nothing else to do on a Sunday morning. I guess I'll go to church.
I mean, I know we don't think logically that way, but you have to ask yourself the question. And for this church in Laodicea, part of their problem was that they were so wealthy. 1 Timothy 6-17, we even see this 35 years before in Paul's first letter to them.
That there were members in the church there that were extremely wealthy. And there was a danger for them to be so focused on preserving their wealth and gaining more wealth and sort of padding their bank accounts that they had forgotten what true life was really all about. And we talked about this last week.
There's a very large risk. There's a deep concern for us as Americans, even if we don't consider ourselves to be wealthy or rich by anybody else's standards, we are pretty well-preserved here. We have a lot of creature comforts.
We are very wealthy in the world's eyes. There are some nations, you cannot count on food in the grocery store. Some nations, there are no grocery stores.
Some nations, you can't count on clean water, on a regular shower, on a roof over your head, on a vehicle that's newer than 25 years old. I mean, these are things that we just consider normal here. And we're so used to it.
And I praise the Lord for the blessings that He's given to us, but we can become very, very lackadaisical about how much we've received. What was the cause of the Laodiceans' lukewarmness? He identifies it in verse 17. He says, Because you say, I am rich, and I have become wealthy, and I have need of nothing.
That is a terrifying sentiment. I don't need anything. There it is.
They were self-sufficient. They wanted for nothing. They were very comfortable.
And that is always a temptation for those who have money, that you don't need anything. And here's the problem. It even translates spiritually.
If you don't need anything in the world, guess what? You also don't feel like you need God either. What do I need God for? I'm doing fine. My life is pretty good.
Without realizing that there are deeper realities, there is an eternal future that you have to reckon with. See, here in the city of Laodicea, they had three major industries of sources of wealth. They were known for three main things.
They had first a vibrant clothing industry. They were known for manufacturing, weaving, creating this fine black wool. They had some way of producing it.
They had these sheep and goats, and they would dye the wool, and they would export this very fine black wool to every region in the world. They were also known for their medicine. Laodicea was even famous for a medical school that was in the city.
And they also produced something called Phrygian powder, which could be turned into some kind of an ointment, a salve to be applied to eyes for eye conditions. And so they were known for their medicine. And then finally they were known for their banking.
They were sort of the Wall Street of the ancient world. And they'd become so wealthy, in fact, that historians tell us that there was a massive earthquake in 60 A.D. that destroyed most of the city. And when the imperial empire, when the Roman government stepped in to try to offer some help to rebuild the city, the city turned it down.
And they reconstructed the whole city themselves. They could afford to build their own city again. So they didn't need anything from anyone.
They didn't even need their own government's help for anything. Completely self-sufficient. But again, that was actually a huge problem.
Jesus tells them, not only do you have all these riches and you feel like you need nothing, He says here is the real problem. You do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. He says you think you're doing well, but you're actually wretched.
Wretched. The Greek word here is telai poros, which means distressed or miserable. You're also eleinos, pitiful, which can also be translated miserable.
You're not doing well spiritually. Externally, yes, you look great. Your city is beautiful.
You've got lots of money. Your clothes are fantastic. You think you're doing well, but the Lord Jesus, He sees right through all of it.
He knows exactly what's going on. And even though they were wealthy by the world's standards, Jesus tells them that they're actually poor. They had exported medicine for the eyes, but they themselves were blind.
They were world famous for their designer clothing, but Jesus tells them you're naked. They were focused on the worldly success, the externals, but they had neglected the most basic of spiritual necessities. Remember the words of Jesus in Mark 8.36. He says, For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and then forfeit his soul? You know, we work so hard to get, don't we? We want to get things.
We want to obtain. And we talked about it last week. Even we talked about money.
I don't believe, this is my personal conviction, I don't believe that most of us here in the room have a desire to be ultra wealthy. I heard this week that Elon Musk just became a trillionaire. Good for him.
All I got to say is good luck with that. I mean, you can have every single person coming after you for money, and the biggest one is going to be the government coming after you for taxes. So good luck with your trillions, my friend.
I don't think most of us want that, but most of us, I believe, do want to be comfortable. We are addicted to desiring comfort. And we think that if we can sort of pad ourselves with comfort, we'll be okay.
But Jesus says, ultimately, what is that? What is that going to accomplish for us? So what does Jesus commend? Look at verse 18. Jesus tells this church, he says, I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may become rich, and white garments, so that you may clothe yourselves, and that the shame of your nakedness shall not be revealed, and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. He advises them of three major deficiencies that they have.
First, he says, I want you to buy gold from me. Gold refined by fire. That's pure.
100% pure gold. Buy that from me so that you may become rich. Now, you look at their situation, and you're like, what are you talking about? They have all the gold.
Again, they're the Wall Street of the ancient world. What gold do they need? He's not talking about precious metals. He's not talking about investing in some commodities market.
No, he says, I want you to buy a different kind of gold. A real gold from me. This is a very similar invitation.
You read this in Isaiah 55.1. It happened hundreds of years before even this time. This is the words of Isaiah 55. Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.
And you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. It's the Lord inviting the sinner to just come.
And the sinner says, I have nothing. And He says, I know. Come anyway.
I can't afford what you have. I know. I'm giving it to you.
The cost of the purchase is not money. It's not gifts. It's not talent.
It's nothing. You know what the cost of purchase with the Lord is? Faith. Come to Me because you know who I am.
And I'll give it to you freely. It's not free. It costs me everything, but it costs you nothing except your faith.
It's the same kind of a thing. In other words, don't worry about the earthly riches for earthly reward. Come to Christ and receive what He's freely offering.
He's doing the same thing here with Laodicea. But what does He mean by buy pure, refined gold? Charles Feinberg, one commentator, believes that this gold represents divine righteousness. John MacArthur elaborates on the gold.
He says it represents the pure, true salvation that would bring them into a spiritual relationship with Him. If you bring to bear other verses in Scripture, for example, 1 Peter 1.7 talks about saving faith that is, he says, more precious than gold. There's something about the faith here that is more precious.
In other words, you don't need more money. What you need is stronger faith. You've got to trust Him.
You need to become rich in faith. And that's what he's advocating here. Come to me by faith, and you'll become rich in the kingdom.
Secondly, he says, I want you to buy white garments so that you may clothe yourself and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed. In contrast, interestingly enough, to the black wool that they were exporting to the whole world, Christ commends them to buy white garments. White represents purity here.
But what are these garments? We understand when we think about the imagery biblically, there's lots of imagery about garments and clothing and things like that. We think about even salvation. At salvation, when you come to Christ by faith, you are clothed.
You are wrapped in the righteousness of Christ. When He dies on the cross to pay for sins, He's doing a lot of things while He's on the cross. He's paying the atonement price to the Father.
He's paying for your sins. But the Father in that moment is also doing something in what's called the doctrine of justification. He's imputing righteousness.
So what does all this stuff mean? It means He's taking the filthy garment of sin and wicked deeds that you have that you're drenched in. He takes that garment off of you and wraps it around Christ when He's on the cross. But then the Father also, in the same moment, takes the perfect righteousness of Christ, the royal robes of Christ, and He wraps them around the sinner and accepts them by faith.
It's an amazing transformation that happens here. The imputation of righteousness. The crediting of a righteousness that is alien to us.
It's remarkable. The Lord quite literally takes the white, pure robes of Christ and gives them to the filthy sinner. And yet when we stand before God as wretches, He doesn't see our wretchedness anymore.
He sees the righteousness that we've been draped in. And He says, I recognize that righteousness. That's My Son's righteousness.
And He receives you into the Kingdom by faith. And so there is that metaphor available to us. But I do think that this specific reference here, when He's talking about white garments, refers to more of a practical righteousness that accompanies a saved life.
When we become rich in good works, as 1 Timothy 6.18 says, we talked about that last week. He says, don't become rich in money and treasure. Become rich in good works.
Do the things that accompany your saving faith in Jesus Christ. In fact, it's interesting because Revelation 19.8 says that the bride of Christ is clothed in fine linen, bright and clean, so in other words, white. For the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
If we bring that metaphor from the book of Revelation into this, that's what's happening, I believe, here. He's talking about doing the things that accompany our genuine saving faith. See, here's the problem.
When a person becomes conceited and prideful over all that they possess, what they're doing is they're actually revealing that they're spiritually naked. It's like when a religious person brags about themselves. They brag about everything that they do.
All their deeds, all their righteousness. And they think they're fooling people when they brag about themselves. But you can hear it.
You can smell it a mile away. They brag about themselves, but you know from just looking at the fruit of their life that it's empty talk. There is something about when they do this, the conceitedness, the pride, the arrogance, the foolishness.
It's embarrassing. It's shameful. When a person brags about how righteous they are and yet there's nothing to accompany their talk.
It's embarrassing. But that's what Jesus talks about here. The deeds of righteousness that are done by believers.
Again, we're not earning our way into the kingdom. We receive the kingdom by faith. But once you belong to God, what are you supposed to do? You do the things that are pleasing to Him.
Not as a payment, but as a fruit of righteousness. And so we do the things that accompany our salvation. And so these deeds of righteousness, they function like a white garment that covers us.
And along with that, He also adds, lastly, Christ advises this lukewarm church to buy eye salve to anoint their eyes so that they might see. We take this other metaphor here. What is that? This eye salve, the ointment that ministers to the condition of their eyes.
Well, this is the antidote to spiritual blindness. It's the summation of wisdom and understanding and discernment. See, when you're shielded by your sinfulness, when you're shielded by your self-sufficiency, you don't see that you don't see.
And we see it even in culture around us where people are just so blinded by their sin. They're blinded by the schemes of the world. They're blinded by lies.
They're deceived. I mean, it's become more and more obvious in the Western world even today. When I was a kid, it was slightly different.
And I'm not going to get into, well, when I was younger kind of a talk, but I'll tell you, things have really changed. To the point where we don't even know what a man and a woman is. We don't even know that 2 plus 2 is not 5, it's 4. But for some reason, we've convinced ourselves that these things are not true.
And it's almost become a joke, isn't it? Except that it's not. And we almost hear the scolding words of Jesus telling this fallen world, you don't even know that you can't see. You think that you can see, but you're blind.
He says, so come to me, and I'll give you the eye salve. I'll give you the medicine to anoint your eyes so that you might see. But the problem here, when a church becomes lukewarm, when they're lukewarm, they are devoid of the genuine treasure of saving faith, they're devoid of the good works that's wrapping them as a robe, and they're devoid of spiritual understanding.
And this happens all the time. And when that begins to happen, when a church begins to decline and apostatize, they cease to be churches, and they become social hangouts for religious people. And there are so many of those everywhere.
Where do you go to church? Oh, I go to such and such a church. And I go onto the website, I look at their doctrine, I look at their affirmations, I look at whatever else you can see that's posted online. I'm not talking about trying to get in and read their hearts, I'm talking about how they present themselves.
And you say, you're not even a church. You're pagans living in a church building. And so much of that exists, especially up here.
Buildings that were filled with faithful believers, they're all gone. And now you have these pagans, these idolaters, going to church on Sunday morning and worshiping a God that did not create the heavens and the earth. But Christ says that there's a solution.
He says the solution is to come to Him. Look at verse 19. He says, those whom I love I reprove and discipline, therefore be zealous and repent.
There is hope. There is a solution. Again, this letter is addressed to a lukewarm church.
A lukewarm church. Well, what does that mean? He's not saying that every single person in the gathered assembly is gone, but there are in that assembly in Laodicea, there were unbelievers. There were backslidden believers who needed to wake up.
They were unaware of their condition. And certainly, that's always possible in any church gathering. I mean, I know most all of you, but I don't know what's happening inside of all of your hearts.
In fact, I don't even know what's happening in any of your hearts. And if I'm honest, theologically, I don't really even know the depths of my own heart. But the Lord does.
He knows where you are. He knows what's going on. And yet, John 3, 16, and other verses in the Bible, what do they teach us? That God has a love for the lost.
He doesn't love the world in terms of worldliness, but He so loves the peoples of the world. Why? Why does He love? Because it's who He is. Verse 19, He exemplifies a phileo.
It's an affection, a friendship kind of love, even though we don't want to parse out those words too, too much here. But the Lord does have a love. He does have an affection for people.
And because of God's love, He brings chastening. He brings reproving. He brings discipline.
We oftentimes think when the Lord disciplines us, that He's somehow angry and taking out His vengeance on us. That's not always true. Yeah, there are times when the Lord will punish and there will be consequences for sin.
Yes, that does happen. But for those who belong to Him, when He brings chastening, when He brings reproof, it's not because He hates you. Quite the opposite.
He says, those I love, it's right there in the verse, those whom I love, what does He say? I make their life easy? Those whom I love, I bless them with everything under the sun that they could never want or need anything at all? No! He says, those I love, I reprove and discipline. He brings chastening. This word for reprove is elencho, conviction, rebuke.
It's good for you to feel conviction. It's good for you to be corrected and chastened. And then He says, I also bring, the word is pedia, originally, but it refers to a child training.
The way that you would train up a child in the way that they should go. See, again, we're falling into another trap, culturally, where we don't want to discipline and train children anymore. And it's having an effect, isn't it? Because now we're seeing these spoiled adults that demand and you can never correct them.
We have uncorrectable people and that is extremely dangerous for a society. It's good to be told when you're wrong. I enjoy being told when I'm wrong.
I don't really, but it's good for me. My wife is very skilled at telling me where I am wrong. It's good for us because when you think that you're always right all the time, you don't realize how grave of your danger you're really in.
The Bible says, faithful are the wounds of a friend, right? Like iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. It's good to be corrected. And when the Lord corrects you and disciplines you and chastens you, it's good for you.
We've got to get it out of our heads that trials equal bad. Yeah, trials are hard. I don't like trials, neither do you.
But the purpose is very different. The Lord is disciplining and training us. For those who have fallen off the wagon, however, or for those who are simply playing church and have no genuine saving faith, the Lord intends to reprove and discipline so that they will turn away from their sins and repent.
That's the goal. There are people who, they're fighting the Lord. Maybe some of you even today.
Maybe you're here as sort of a last-ditch effort. Things have been going so poorly. You know that you're at war with Heaven.
You know that there's something wrong with you and God. And you've been fighting Him and pushing Him off and saying, I'm doing my own thing. But life is beating you down to the point where you're like, I don't know what to do.
And maybe you've walked in here thinking, maybe there's an answer here. Well, guess what? I have good news for you. I have an answer for you.
The Bible has an answer for you. If you're running from God, stop. Repent.
Turn away. Repent means a change of mind. It means you've got to stop thinking about yourself and justifying yourself before God recognizes that your sins make you estranged from Him.
Stop fighting Him. Repent. Stop what you're doing and say, Lord, I know You're right.
I know I'm wrong. Lord, I'm sorry. Please forgive me for rebellion.
Please forgive me for running away from You and fighting You. I don't want to fight anymore. I accept You.
I recognize that You've given Your life for me, and I need to be saved. And I trust in Jesus Christ to be my Savior. And not only will He save you and give you an eternity in Heaven and forever, but He's going to begin to change you here.
And He'll begin to have a mind and a heart for God. And He'll grow you. He might not make your life easier, but your life will be good in Him.
And you'll have what you're looking for in Christ. The Bible tells us God disciplines those He loves and chastens us as beloved children. Let me just read to you one of my favorite passages.
Hebrews 12 7 says, It is for discipline that you endure. Believers, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom His Father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which we have all become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not much more rather be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good so that we might share in His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful.
Yet those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. He doesn't do it to destroy us, but to stir us to repentance, and to stir us to earnest zeal. I'll tell you, when you get beat up, and the Lord sustains you, and holds you up, and puts a fire in your stomach, you begin to run again, don't you? Yeah, maybe your legs and your body and your heart hurt because of the afflictions in your life, but your spirit, it runs.
And you're zealous for the things of God. So I would exhort you, if you find yourself in a lukewarm state today, if you find yourself backslidden or spiritually lazy, I'm going to tell you from the Lord, repent to the Lord and be forgiven of your sins. Lord, I've been keeping myself away from You.
I don't read the Bible. I don't ever go to You. I don't talk to You.
I don't pray to You. I live like the world. My mouth speaks like the world.
I don't care about people. I don't love people. Lord, that's all sinful and wrong, and I repent.
And I want to do the things that please You. I want to know You. And I want to love Your people.
That's good, and that's zeal for God. And He can give it to you. Don't think that if you've been struggling spiritually that you're just stuck there.
He can revive your spirit. That's what the word revival is all about. Awakening is when new believers come to Christ.
Revival is inside of the Spirit to wind you up to do the things for God that you're supposed to be doing for God. And so dive in. Get off the fence.
If you're not hot or cold, get off the fence. Get busy serving the Lord. Seek Him and you'll find Him.
I promise you. If your earnest prayer is Lord, I'm not close to You. I want to find You and seek You more.
I promise you He'll answer your earnest prayer. Because that's what He wants. He wants you to seek Him.
You might ask yourself, well, alright, but how do I know that I'll find Him? What if I can't find Him? What if He's out there somewhere and I can't find Him? How do I know that I will find Him if I seek answer? Because He's knocking. Verse 20. Now He's writing this to the church here.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to Him and will dine with Him and He with me. He's not out there.
He's not gone. He's not lost. It's not that you can't find Him.
He's here. Jesus Christ is as close to you as your own breath. He's here.
Now, admittedly, this verse has been twisted at times evangelistically to say that He's knocking on the door of your heart. Now that's certainly a truism. But in the context here, it pictures the Lord standing outside a church and knocking on the front door of an assembly that claims to serve Him.
This is different than the evangelism that we oftentimes associate. This is actually a terrifying thought of a church that gathers for worship and yet Jesus is outside on the curb knocking on the door trying to come in to have fellowship with people. And yet the door is closed to Him.
And sad is the state of any church that has left Jesus outside. Well, how do you do that? How do you leave Jesus outside a church? Well, first of all, you stop teaching His Word. When you stop teaching God's Word, you kick Him out of the church.
And oh, so many churches have stopped teaching God's Word. And it is terrifying. This pulpit is not mine.
I designed it. I love this thing. This is my heavenly desk.
This isn't mine. This pulpit belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the place where God's Word is opened up and preached.
Whether it's me, Pastor Mike, the elders, another teacher, it doesn't matter who's here. The vessel is irrelevant. This is the place where God's Word goes out.
But when this stops happening, Jesus is kicked out. If you don't hear from Him, then who are you listening to? When you don't teach God's Word, you kick Him out. When He's left out of the worship, when worship is just this emotional fruitless thing, when it's just the same chorus of nothingness, I mean, these days there are so many modern worship songs that could be written by anybody.
There's a worship song that's charting right now that was written by a Muslim. And people in churches are singing it. Theology and music is vitally important.
Style? Not as important, frankly. Theology, the words, the doctrine is important. When Jesus is left out of decision making, what are we going to do as a church? What does the Lord want us to do? That's super important.
When He's left out of missions, when He's left out of how we serve, we're not just here to do good deeds for each other and that be the end of it. No, you serve and give and love unto the Lord. When He is the focal point of our worship, if He's the focal point of our church, then He's here.
But woe to this church if we ever remove Jesus from this assembly. And I'm not just speaking to you. I'm speaking to your kids.
And I'm speaking to your grandkids. And young people who are here, pay attention. Because someday we're all going to pass away.
We're all going to go home and be home in glory. And you're going to inherit this assembly. And you make sure that the person who stands here preaches God's Word to you faithfully.
And you make sure that everything you do is an honor and service to the Lord Jesus Christ. Because if you don't have Him, this church will die. Be careful.
Why do we exist? We exist to bring glory to Christ. That's why we're here. It's simple, but it's not easy.
But we exist for Him. And yet He promises, if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I'll come in. And I'll dine with you and he with Me.
That's John 10.27. My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me. You know when Jesus is speaking to you through His Word. You know when your conscience is being pricked and it's the right thing according to God's Word.
You know. Believers hear Him speaking and we recognize. Again, through the Word and through conscience.
And so don't keep the door closed. We've done all we can and continue to do. We want to honor Christ here.
We want to teach His Word. We want to obey His instructions for how we even do church. He has instructions.
There are some things that are open to judgment, but there's quite a few other things that are very clear in Scripture. Who's allowed to teach? How we are to discipline. The fact that we're to gather and assemble.
The way that we order the services. A lot of things that we do that are prescribed in Scripture. We can't just invent things on our own.
We want to honor Him. We want to endeavor not only to open the door, but to keep it open. So that Jesus Christ feels free to come in and come out and move around and live and have His being with us.
We want this assembly always to be open to say, Jesus, anytime you want us to do anything, say anything, go anywhere, serve, whatever, we're yours. We want Jesus to be welcome here. And what do we experience with Him? He says it's loving fellowship.
That's the metaphor. To dine here is to have closeness and intimacy and fellowship. I want to be close to You.
I want You at my kitchen table, Lord. I want to have fellowship. But this also prefigures a fellowship that we are going to have, because one day Revelation 19 tells us that every believer will gather and experience the marriage supper of the Lamb.
We're going to gather together someday. People ask me all the time, what's it going to be like in Heaven? I don't have an idea in my head about that. Apart from what Scripture says.
I can speculate all day long. But I will tell you what's very clear about the marriage supper is that all believers are there. Somehow we're gathered together and we dine together and we're dining with Christ.
But it's in glory and it's in perfection. But here's the thing. We must endure in our faith.
Verse 21, He who overcomes, I will grant to Him to sit down with Me on My throne as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. This word overcome means to prevail. At the cross, Jesus overcame, prevailed over the world.
He overcame sin and death and the devil. Jesus is the victor. And He sat down at the right hand of the Father.
He is our conqueror. He is our overcomer. And the Bible says that in Him, Romans 8.37, we ourselves are more than conquerors.
In Him. Furthermore, 1 John 5.4 says that for whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.
Our faith. And who is the one who overcomes the world but He who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. How do you overcome? You've got to just muckle up your strength and power through and keep on slugging.
Nope. Your strength is not what overcomes. Your faith does.
Your trust in Him does. Because your life might get very difficult. Maybe for some of you, your life is very difficult right now.
And so it's not a matter of just hanging in there until we get to the end. No. It's trusting in Jesus.
Whether it's good, whether it's bad, you're trusting in Him. And it's your faith that will overcome. Well, how can anyone who believes in Jesus be lukewarm at that point, right? Because in Him, our sins have been forgiven.
I think we forget that. That becomes ordinary truth to us. Banish the thought.
Our sins have been forgiven. You have eternal life. You've been blessed with fellowship with God.
You know God. If you're a believer, you know Him. Yeah, but I don't see Him.
You will. You will. You can hear from Him now.
But you will see Him. Ephesians 1.20 says that you have been seated. Past tense.
You have been seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ. In other words, you're already in Heaven with Him. It's just that your geography is not quite realized.
By faith, you are seated with Christ in heavenly places. And so I would exhort you, if you have ears to hear, hear this. And I would even bring in the truth from last week.
Stop chasing the world. Stop chasing the world. Stop chasing creature comforts.
Stop chasing wealth and vain pursuits. We are so good at distraction and things that don't matter. It's not going to do anything for you except make you lukewarm to the things of God.
Instead, the Bible exhorts us to be zealous and repent. To chase Christ and chase Christ-likeness. And He will make His home with you.
And He will bless you. And He will dine with you and you with Him. It is our great joy to be seated with Christ in heavenly places.
It's our great joy to know Him and to be known by Him. And so, brothers and sisters, this is not only a warning from Revelation 3, but an exhortation to excel still more. To keep running well and trust in Him.
And we will endure to the end. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank You.
I thank You for Your Word. And Lord, even though these kinds of texts, they do reprove us, they do correct us and challenge us, Lord. They do warn us.
And yet, they also exhort us. They convict us when we're in sin. But they also put a spring in our step when they motivate us, Lord.
Because this world is passing away. Along with its passions and pleasures and desires, this world is passing. And Lord, every day that we look around, we see that there is just ultimately nothing of eternal value here.
And yet, when we realize that, and we look at what You're doing in the church, but in Your Kingdom, around the world with believers everywhere and people coming to faith and sharing the Gospel and growing spiritually, and maturing in godliness, and bringing honor and glory to You, we have a great deal of hope that Your name is being proclaimed around the world and it will continue to be proclaimed forever. What a blessing and an honor it is to belong to You. Lord, we know that You dwell in the hearts of believers through faith, and so we don't have to invite You in the way that it is so often times popularly done.
You are here in our midst because You dwell in the hearts of believers. But Lord, I do want to ask You, and I do want to plead with You, Lord, that as long as Harvest Bible Church exists, until the day the trumpet sounds and You come home, I beg You, O Lord, to keep this church faithful, that even after we all pass on, and there are other believers and children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Lord, don't ever let this church go. Don't ever take away our lampstand, O Lord.
Let this pulpit always declare Your truth until You return, because You're all that matters. Heaven and earth will pass away, but Your Word will never pass away. And so I plead with You, Lord, as a shepherd here, that You would always have a home here with us.
Glorify Yourself through these people. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.