← Back to sermon library

You may turn in your Bibles to 
Revelation chapter 3 as we come to the last letter of the seven 
letters to the churches in Asia Minor. And this church, like 
the church in Sardis, receives no commendation whatsoever. However, in Sardis, Christ identifies 
that there were a few names who had not defiled their garments. There is no reference like that 
in this letter to the church in Laodicea. The indictment leveled 
against this particular church is terrifying because of the 
proneness that churches have to fall into such patterns of 
sin. We'll notice in this particular 
instance it was a complacency, self-satisfaction, and self-reliance. We saw something of that mindset 
condemned in Luke 18 in the prayer meeting this morning. Jesus taught 
parables that men ought to pray and not lose heart. And then 
he describes two men who went to the temple to pray, and one 
of them was a Pharisee who trusted in himself, who looked to his 
own accomplishments, and who despised others. Well, that one 
was condemned by the Lord Jesus Christ. It was the humble publican 
who could not even so much as lift his eyes to heaven, but 
simply beat his breast and said, God be merciful to me, the sinner. He was the one that went to his 
house justified. God is opposed to the proud, 
but he gives grace. to the humble, and pride was 
a sin indicative of the people of Laodicea. And I'll just pick 
up reading in Revelation 3 at verse 14. And to the angel of 
the church of the Laodiceans write, These things says the 
Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation 
of God. I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot, 
I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are 
lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of 
my mouth. Because you say, I am rich, have 
become wealthy, and have need of nothing. And do not know that 
you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel 
you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be 
rich. and white garments that you may 
be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, 
and anoint your eyes with eyesalve that you may see. As many as 
I love, I rebuke and chasten. 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 dine with him and 
he with me. To him who overcomes, I will 
grant to sit 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. Amen. Well, let us pray. Our Father, we give you thanks 
for the Holy Scriptures. We give you thanks for your mercy 
and your grace. And we even see the mercy and 
the kindness of Christ displayed in this letter. a church that 
was so indifferent, a church that was so spiritually ignorant, 
and yet Christ says he loves them. Father, how we thank you 
for that great love that you have demonstrated to us. And 
we pray that even now we would learn from this letter and that 
we would put these things into practice as individuals and as 
a local body. And we ask in the name of the 
Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now, Laodicea was a very 
rich city. There was an earthquake that 
had occurred in the city, and in a very short time the city 
was able to rebuild itself because it was very resourceful in terms 
of wealth and riches. The city had a very important 
banking center, a textile industry, and a medical school, which, 
as you see Christ's specific words here, he seems to be alluding 
to those particular things. The reference to garments, or 
white garments, and the fact that they were blind. Well, the 
medical school in Laodicea had developed a special eye salve, 
and so the city had a claim to fame in terms of these particular 
resources and important means of money making. Well, as we've 
seen through all of these letters, the church unfortunately took 
on many characteristics of the city. pride and complacency and 
self-satisfaction and self-reliance and having a wrong assessment 
of their position before God truly affected this local body. We'll note three observations 
or three particulars this evening. First of all, the self-description 
of Christ. We have seen over and over again 
that the way Jesus identifies himself answers particularly 
to the church that he is instructing. And first, Christ identifies 
himself as the Amen. We saw last week, in the letter 
to the Philadelphian church, the prophet Isaiah was alluded 
to several times, and the same is the case in this particular 
letter. In Isaiah 65, in verse 16, God 
describes himself as the God of truth, or the Amen. Christ speaks as absolute true, 
contrary to the lies that were proceeding from the people, the 
professing people of God in this church in Laodicea. He highlights 
this again by identifying himself as the faithful and true witness. This comes from chapter 1 and 
verse 5 where Christ is described in this matter. This reference 
gives us insight as to the nature of the problem in Laodicea. They 
were faithless in their witness to the Lord Jesus Christ. Churches 
do not exist simply for themselves. They exist to worship God and 
they exist to effect change in the society in which they're 
a part of. Not again by militant ways, not 
by going out and being obnoxious, but by being a place where truth 
is preached and truth is trafficked in It is to be a place where 
the Christians are equipped to go and shine his lights and to 
glorify the Lord God Most High. Beasley Murray comments, this 
element in the character of Christ, the fact that he is the faithful 
and true witness, contrasts strongly with the faithlessness and inconsistency 
of the Laodiceans in relation to the faith they profess. And 
then Christ goes on to describe himself as the beginning of the 
creation of God. This should not be taken as a 
reference that Jesus is a creature. It is parallel to what Paul does 
in Colossians 1, 15-20, as he sets forth the preeminence of 
Jesus Christ. And probably the reference here, 
he is the beginning of the creation of God, specifically the new 
creation. the church that he has started. In that text I mentioned in Isaiah 
65-16, after God identifies himself as the God of truth, well 65-17 
and following deal with God's making new heavens and a new 
earth. Well he does this through his 
Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, or through the Lord Jesus. G.K. Beal says, what John has in mind 
is not Jesus as the principal origin or source of the original 
creation, he is that, but Jesus as the inaugurator of the new 
creation. That's the significance here. 
Christ is head of the new creation. And that is how he describes 
himself to the Laodiceans. Now notice, secondly, the condemnation 
given by Christ. He states the problem in verse 
15. I know your works, that you are 
neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or 
hot. Now, this has been misunderstood. Some take this and say that it 
would be a better thing to just be an outright atheist, to just 
be utterly cold. I mean, God respects that more, 
that you at least announce your intentions, and you at least 
announce your mindset, rather than sort of playing the game 
and being lukewarm. MacArthur says that the coldness 
refers to those who openly reject Christ. Beasley Murray says the 
coldness refers to those who are outright pagans. Well, that 
creates a problem because Jesus wishes they were like that. The Bible doesn't teach us that 
Jesus wishes that people who are outright pagans are openly 
rejecting Him. The meaning is, and this is a 
bit of geography or topography or whatever it is that deals 
with water supplies that it's helpful to know, but I don't 
think it's absolutely crucial to understanding the figure of 
speech here. But just for the geography, Laodicea 
was one of the churches in the Lycus Valley, along with Hierapolis 
and Colossae. Remember, there are studies in 
Colossians. Epaphras was probably converted 
during Paul's ministry that is recorded in Acts 19. Remember, 
Paul rented the school of Tyrannus, and he lectured there, and it 
says that all those who lived in Asia heard the word of the 
Lord. More than likely, one of them 
was Epaphras. He went back to the Lycus Valley, 
and it was through his witness, through his testimony, through 
his prayerfulness, that these churches in the Lycus Valley 
were started, Colossae, Hierapolis, and Laodicea. In fact, at the 
end of the letter to the Colossians, Paul says that they were to take 
that letter and it was to be read in Laodicea. There was connection 
between the churches. Now, within the Lycus Valley, 
Hierapolis had a hot spring, sort of like Paris in hot springs. Colossae had a very fresh water 
supply of their own. Laodicea did not. Water had to 
be piped into Laodicea. By the time the water got there, 
it was lukewarm. It was in bad shape. It was nasty. They didn't have the refreshment 
of a Colossae. They didn't have the natural 
healing springs. of a Hierapolis. And so Jesus 
is using that analogy to describe their spiritual state. You're 
not cold in terms of gospel refreshment. You're not hot in terms of medicinal 
healing. that comes through the Bible 
through the Word of God. Your witness is such that you're 
like that lukewarm garbage that gets piped into your city. It's 
not tasty, it's not refreshing, it's not medicinal or has any 
healing properties. All it's good for is to spit 
out of one's mouth. Now, even if we didn't understand 
that about the water supply in the Lycaeus Valley, I think it's 
pretty common that we don't like lukewarm, as a general rule. I realize there's going to be 
someone out there that says, I like lukewarm pot. I like lukewarm 
coffee, but as a general rule, we are drawn to a hot beverage 
or we're drawn to a cold beverage. It's just the way things are. Jesus says, you're not hot, you're 
not cold, you're like that stuff in my mouth that's just disgusting 
that I want to get rid of. You're not good for anything. You don't make me happy like 
a hot cup of coffee. I'm not endorsing or I'm not 
saying Jesus was necessarily a coffee drinker. Though I tend 
to think he probably was. Or a drinker of Coca-Cola. But as a general rule, we like 
something cold, we like something hot. Christ says, you're neither 
of those things. I could wish that you were one 
or the other. I don't think Jesus wishes that 
people were outright pagans or would openly reject him. That's 
hard to swallow in light of the remainder of the Bible. What Chilton says is that the 
Christian's calling is not to blend in with a pagan environment, 
but to convert it and reform it in terms of the whole counsel 
of God as mandated in his word. To cite but one example of modern 
Laodiceanism, consider the many Bible-believing evangelical churches 
which would shudder at the suggestion that they are worldly or liberal, 
which continue on in their complacent lifestyle, organizing encounter 
groups in summer camps, completely oblivious to the murder of over 
4,000 unborn infants every day. Often these churches are afraid 
of making political statements on the grounds that they might 
lose their tax exemptions. But whatever the cause, such 
a church is disobedient to the word of God. There's no hot, 
there's no cool. There's just sort of this blending 
in with the pagans around us. Not expecting any change, not 
praying for revival, not living or shining as lights in a crooked 
and perverse generation, not holding forth the word of truth, 
but just sort of being there and being shaped and molded, 
not by the word of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit, 
but being shaped and molded by Laodicea the city. Christ is 
not wishing that you were an outright pagan. He is saying 
that he would that you were cold and refreshing with the gospel, 
or hot and medicinal with the preaching of his truth and the 
living in terms of love to others and effecting change. It is that 
lukewarmness that makes him want to vomit. And that brings us 
to the judgment. threatened in verse 16. So then, 
because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will 
vomit you out of my mouth." We go, ooh, that's gross. We don't 
like to hear the word vomit. That's a pretty powerful illustration. 
I mean, when you stop and think about vomiting, it cannot be 
done with dignity. Well, with Christ it can be. 
But it's just, the suggestion shows you the gravity of the 
problem. What's the backdrop? Leviticus 18. God sent Israel 
into Canaan. And he said, dispossess the land 
of the Canaanites. The land vomited them forth. And God said to Israel, if you 
live like Canaanites, the land will vomit you out from its place. What's the implication? That 
in the new covenant, it's not the land of Palestine that's 
going to vomit us out of its mouth when we are lukewarm. It is Jesus Christ who vomits 
us out of his mouth when we are lukewarm. Christ is serious. You are to be cold, you are to 
be hot. If you're playing games, if you're 
professing, if you have an inaccurate self-assessment, if you are spiritually 
ignorant, you lack discernment, you're blind and you're poor 
when you think you're rich, all those things, Christ says, I'll 
spit you right out of my mouth. That is very severe. And then notice the reason given, 
verse 17. Because you say, I am rich, have 
become wealthy, and have need of nothing. And do not know that 
you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. Christ 
sees the specifics. We can't fool him. We can't fake 
it. Remember the church in Smyrna. They had an inaccurate self-assessment 
as well. They said that they were poor. 
Christ says, you're rich. This church in Laodicea is poor. They're pathetic. They're in 
very bad shape. And yet all the while they're 
saying, we're rich. We're doing great. We're okay. I'm okay. You're okay. Could 
have been a book on their book table. You say I am rich and 
become wealthy and have need of nothing. That's self-sufficiency. That's self-dependence. That's 
complacency. That's like that man in Luke 
12, who after he built his barns, he said to himself, soul, take 
thy knees. You have many goods laid up for 
many years. Just relax and enjoy what you've 
been given. I wonder how many churches fall 
prey to this, thinking that everything is good, thinking that everything 
is right, thinking that everything is peachy, when Christ says you 
don't even know how bad it is. You don't even know how miserable 
it is. You don't even know the condition 
that you're really in. This letter to the Laodiceans 
ought to be memorized by churches, we ought to carefully consider 
the contents, and we ought to repent. Because face it, it's 
not just this church in Asia Minor in the first century that 
falls into complacency, self-satisfaction, and self-reliance. I am certain 
that we have done the very same thing. We're not going to pick 
on all the churches out there. We need to think about our church 
with reference to this letter. Are we cold? Are we hot? Or are 
we lukewarm? Do we have an inaccurate self-assessment? Do we see ourselves as being 
so right on, and so pure, and so holy, and so good, and yet 
Jesus says, you don't even know. You're poor, you're blind, you're 
naked. Everybody else sees it, but you 
don't. Christ sees it, and they don't. And then notice clearly the exhortation 
given by him. Verse 18, I counsel you to buy 
from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich, and white 
garments that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness 
may not be revealed, and anoint your eyes with eyesalve that 
you may see. First Pancaleo to see is not 
going to help you. The textile mill is not going 
to help you. The medical school with its ice 
hat is not going to help you. Jesus is the one who has the 
resources that the church needs. The answer is not continue in 
your worldly ways. Not to continue in your carnal 
means. The answer is to come to Christ. Isn't that always the answer? 
It is always the answer. When we sin against God, what 
are we supposed to do? Go to God. Not always what we 
want to do. We're like that prodigal son 
who, when he looks at the pig food, he's thinking, oh, before 
he goes back to his father, he goes and joins himself to another 
man. It's got to be something else 
before I go back to my father. What's the answer? We're all 
screaming at him. Go back to your father. but will 
seek out everything other than the biblical truth, the biblical 
answer. And it is God. I counsel you, 
Jesus says, to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you 
may be rich. Now, he's speaking spiritually. 
He doesn't want them just to have Rolls Royces and summer 
homes and all of the things that money buys. He's speaking about 
spiritual riches. I think the backdrop here is 
Isaiah 55, verses 1 to 3, where the prophet says, Ho, everyone 
who thirsts, let him come. You who have no money, come buy 
and eat. He says to the people of his 
day, why do you spend your money on that which does not satisfy? 
Listen to me, I will give you abundance for your soul. That's 
what Christ is doing. He is the Yahweh of Isaiah 55. He's saying, ho, everyone in 
thirst, come to me. I will give you abundance. Don't spend your money for that 
which does not satisfy. And then notice. Not only the 
remedy specified, but the motive in Christ. This is probably one 
of the most surprising statements in the entirety of the Bible. 
Verse 19, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten, therefore 
be zealous and repent. Isn't that amazing? As many as 
I love? Out of the seven churches in 
Asia Minor, the worst is Laodicea. I think it would be very difficult 
to find a church just like Laodicea today. I mean, I think we all have tendencies 
and we definitely imitate Laodicean type of Christianity in a whole 
host of ways, but to find this amount of raisin unspiritual, 
unbiblical self-sufficiency. I guess there probably is a lot 
of Laodiceanism out there. I just think the liberalism, 
and I think of the denial of the spirit, and the denial of 
sin. Yeah, there's probably a lot of Laodicean churches today. 
But the point is, Christ not only does he not unchurch them, 
he has threatened them, In fact, go back for just a moment to 
verse 16. When he says, I will vomit you out of my mouth, it 
sounds certain death. But the Greek does not indicate 
that. It is, I am about to. You say, well, that's not much 
better. I'd rather almost be about to be spit out, than I 
will spit you out. Because implicit there is that 
if you take his counsel, if you come to him for gold, if you 
come to him for garments, if you come to him for eye salve, 
he will heal you, and he won't spit you out of his mouth. So 
what appears to be a certainty in the New King James is actually 
not a certainty. It's a conditional statement. 
I am about to vomit you out of my mouth. The decision has not 
been rendered completely at this point. He is giving them time. 
He is counseling them. He is calling them to repentance. 
He is calling them to renewal. And he gives this as his motive, 
as many as I love. I rebuke and chasten. Christ 
says these very hard things because he loves them. We need to get that. Christ doesn't 
just come and coddle us in our sin. No, it's okay. You're okay. I'm okay. Just do whatever you 
want. He doesn't coddle us in our sin. He doesn't want us to 
sin. He doesn't want us to continue in this spiritual blindness. 
He doesn't want us to be undiscerning wretches. He wants us to commune 
with Him. He wants us to glorify Him. And He comes and He oft times 
says it in horrid words so that we'll listen. But it's born out 
of love. As many as I love. He doesn't 
say that to any of the other churches then. It's almost like 
he had to speak the hardest to this church, so he's going to 
lubricate those hard words with a lot of love. Isn't that gracious? Merciful and kind? He doesn't 
just ram it down their throats. He rams it. He does it in love. I mean, if I was in the Laodicean 
church at that time, that would be a thing I'd be amazed about. 
Not that he's going to spit me out of his mouth. Not that he's upset because I'm 
in sin. I'd be amazed that he actually 
said, as many as I love. You still love us? You still 
want our good? We're the church in Laodicea. 
We are bad news. We think we're something, and 
we're not. And yet Christ says, as many 
as I love, I rebuke and chasten. He gives the exhortation, therefore 
be zealous and repent. Zeal is to be a continuous disposition, 
not just zealous initially and then you waver. It's too easy 
for us to get zealous for a moment. Zeal ought to be part and parcel 
of the Christian life. We all ought to be like Phineas. 
God commended Phineas for his zeal. Remember Phineas, he was 
the man that took a javelin and he drove it through an Israelite 
man and a Midianite woman, who brazenly and openly engaged in 
sexual immorality before Israel, after God had just destroyed 
their leaders for violating his covenant. Phineas takes the javelin, 
he drives it through them, and instead of God saying, that was 
a harsh response, Phineas, God says, this man is zealous for 
my zeal. and he commended him. I have 
to qualify it, don't go out and get a javelin and drive it through 
your enemies. But he's zealous. There's got to be something of 
that pearl merchant in us. What's the pearl merchant do 
when he finds the pearl of great price? Imagine if you found a great 
big pearl, or you found a big sack of money, would you go, 
oh well. That's how we function as Christians, 
oh well. We are heaven bound. Jesus has 
died for us and risen again. Jesus has promised us a place 
in the New Jerusalem. Jesus has given us every spiritual 
blessing. We are co-heirs with Christ. We need to be zealous. Let your 
life reflect the gospel. Therefore be zealous and repent. Repentance in this instance was 
to be a decisive event. And repentance happens in the 
mind. We associate the fruits of repentance 
with repentance. And therein we do make mistakes. Repentance is first and foremost 
a change of mind. The Bible says that when we repent, 
there will then be fruits consistent with that repentance. It is first 
hearing, making a decision, and then living in light of that 
decision. Be zealous and repent. So in 
this instance, stop acting like you're rich. Stop acting like 
you're poor. Stop acting like you can see. 
You need to make the conscious decision, you need to recognize 
your spiritual poverty, you need to realize that you are not what 
you think you are, and you need to stop right now. And then notice this invitation 
for communion, verse 20. Behold, I stand at the door and 
knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come 
in to him and dine with him and he with me. This is not an individual 
evangelistic plea such as we find in Matthew 11, Mark 1, John 
7, Acts 16, or various other places. This is not Jesus standing 
at the door of your heart, hoping you'll open up to him so that 
you can get saved. That's not what this text is 
teaching. This text is a promise to the church, so that within 
the church, if there were those within the church who listened 
to Christ, And they opened the door for communion with Christ. Even in the Laodicean church, 
when there was all these other problems, quite feasibly a faithful 
Christian could come and have a day of worship in that context. I actually think Revelation 320 
teaches a principle that many today need to come to grips with. 
We get out of church what we put into church. If we're passive 
spectators, if we leave our minds in the parking lot, or worse 
yet, where our minds are in front of the TV watching the game, 
and we come in here expecting this razzmatazz, we will be sorely 
disappointed. But if we come eager, and we 
come realistically, and we come acknowledging our state before 
God, and we come desirous of communion with God, Jesus promises 
to come to us, so that even if it's a cold, dry, dead-almost 
atmosphere, we can still commune with the living God. That's the 
promise of the text. Again, Scholten says it with 
his consistent forthrightness. Several Reformed commentators 
have pointed out the widespread abuse of this passage by modern 
evangelicals, who rip the verse from its context as a message 
to the elders of the Church, and turn it into a watered-down 
Arminian request from a weak and helpless deity who is at 
the mercy of man. We must remember that Christ 
is speaking here as the Amen, the faithful and true witness, 
the creator and sovereign Lord of all. He is not making a feeble 
plea as if he did not rule history and predestined its most minute 
details. He is the King of Kings, who 
makes war on his enemies and damns them to everlasting flames. Nor is he speaking to people 
in general, for he is directing his message to his church. This 
is a corporate promise. This is a corporate blessing. 
You ought to want to come to church because Jesus has issued 
a very special promise that when you're in church, if you open 
up to him, he will come and he will suck with you. He will manifest 
himself to you, not in some mystical strange way, but through the 
word and through his spirit, you can truly commune with the 
Lord Jesus Christ. And then, as he has with all 
of the other letters, he ends with a promise to overcomers 
in verse 21. To him who overcomes, I will 
grant to sit with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down 
with my father on his throne. Over and over again, overcoming 
is the repeated theme in each of these letters. This is what 
the Spirit says to the churches, and we do well to take heed to 
it. We need to guard against the 
sin prevalent in Laodicea in the first century. Pride. Pride is a certain way of imitating 
the Laodicean church. Generally speaking, pride is 
everybody's problem. You may actually say, you know, 
I've never actually committed an idolatry, I've never erected 
an idol, I've never bowed down to it. But your heart or your 
being is an idol. We've all been guilty of that. 
One of the purposes of Christ's redemptive work is so that we 
who live for ourselves would no longer live for ourselves, 
but for Him who died for us and rose again. Pride says that we 
are number one. Pride says that we are most important. Pride says that everybody in 
this church should esteem me as better than them. Because 
the biblical imperative is Philippians 2, let each of you esteem others 
as better than himself. We pay lip service, but face 
it, we come in here on Sunday or we go home from work or whatever 
and we expect everybody else to obey that command with reference 
to us. Oh no, not me, yes you. Having a loftier view of self 
than is biblical. Having a lower view of God than 
is biblical. We need to have a proper understanding 
of who God is and who we are relative to God. A second way 
we can imitate the Laodiceans is self-sufficiency. Self-sufficiency. If we just do these things, we'll 
be fine. We need the spirit. The more 
I grow as a Christian and as a pastor, the more I'm utterly 
convinced that we need the Holy Spirit. You know, the temptation is, 
well, why don't we just do this? More people will come. Why don't 
we just go that route? More people will come. So what 
if more people come and the Spirit doesn't? We need the Spirit of God. We need 
revival. We need the presence and the 
power of the Spirit in a way that we haven't yet tasted. Please 
pray for this. Please beseech God for this. 
It doesn't take long. I'm not saying you've got to 
spend three hours in prayer each week praying with the Spirit. 
God, send your Spirit powerfully upon us. Our children need this. Our young 
people need this. They need to see something other 
than a lethargic, apathetic, half-hearted approach to the 
Gospel. Several years ago we went to 
the L.A. Zoo. Worst zoo ever. Zoos are great. Animals are great. God made them. They're beautiful. 
It's awesome. Except in L.A. They just lay 
there. I want to see a lion run and 
eat meat. I want to see him lay there. 
I want to see monkeys swing on trees, not just lay there. I 
don't know if it's the smog, I don't know if it's the heat, 
I don't know if it's how they tend to those animals, but they're 
lethargic, and they're apathetic, and you're wandering through 
there saying, do something! I wonder at times, We need to 
lift something, like that L.A. Zoo. He's zealous, Jesus says. We need the Spirit. We cannot 
do spiritual activities with earthly means. Remember when 
David was going out to the battlefield and he put Saul's armor on. He 
says, I can't roll like this. I haven't tested it. I haven't 
proved it. It doesn't fit right. I just 
need my sling and I need five smooth stones. David was not 
presumptuous. He was not a hyper-Calvinist. 
Oh yes, God only used one, but he took five. little sideline 
note there. But he knew going into battle 
against Goliath, he couldn't do it in Saul's armor. We cannot 
do church in Saul's armor. We have to be clothed with the 
Holy Spirit. Self-sufficiency is wrong. Christ-sufficiency is right. That's how Paul deals with the 
Colossians. God willing, we'll see that next 
week. Walk in Him. Beware of those who try to trip 
you up or cheat you of your reward with Douglas' philosophy. What's his antidote or what's 
his remedy? Christ. The one in whom all the 
fullness of deity dwells bodily. Christ, the one in whom you are 
sufficient and complete. Christ, the one who has spiritually 
circumcised you. Christ, the one who has cancelled 
out your trespasses. Christ, the one who has disowned 
principalities and powers. We need Christ. A third way of 
imitating the Laodiceans is spiritual ignorance. The Laodiceans did 
not know their real condition under God and in society. They thought they were doing 
all right. That's tough, man. You think you're doing well, 
and someone comes along and says, no, you're not. What's the first 
response to get defensive? Wait a minute. No, I'm doing 
great. It's Laodiceanism. No, I'm doing great. Jesus says, 
you're not doing great. Ryle speaking on the Beatitudes, 
on the blessed of the poor in spirit, for they shall see God, 
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. He says, if we would 
build high, we must begin low. That's Christ's word to this 
church. If you would build high, you 
must begin low. Fourthly, material prosperity. Remember, Laodicea was an affluent 
society. It affected the people of God. 
They had stuff, they had money, they had resources, which the 
Bible does not outright condemn. The Bible, however, provides 
a context and a framework for having material possessions. We need to, with those material 
possessions, have a proper fear of God. We need to have a proper 
understanding of stewardship, that the earth is the Lord's 
and the fullness thereof, and that anything we have has been 
given to us by God and we are responsible for its righteous 
use and employment. And there ought to be a biblical 
desire to see the advancement of Christ's kingdom. Maybe God 
has given you a lot of money so you'll write big checks to 
finance the kingdom. Oh, the kingdom of Jesus is spiritual, 
it doesn't need financing. On one hand, yeah, you're right. 
But on the other hand, Jesus' spiritual kingdom, people go 
to China or India or wherever based on money for plane tickets 
and all those other things. Try to go to Air Canada and say, 
hey, I'm a missionary, man. Give me a ticket. Yeah, sure. Matthew 6.33 pronounces or provides 
the proper context for material prosperity. Seek first the kingdom 
of God in His righteousness, and then all these other things 
will be added to you. What's the context? Food and clothing. See the continuity between the 
New Testament and the Old? Jesus isn't undoing what the 
Old Testament says. Always the foundation for economic 
prosperity in Israel is seeking God. The New Covenant, the same 
thing. The foundation for material prosperity 
is seeking God. If you don't seek Him first in 
His kingdom, then it doesn't matter if you have all these 
other things. And then finally, compromise. The witness of the 
Laodiceans was compromised by their mingling with the world. 
They were neither cold, they were neither hot. They blended 
in. God have mercy on us if we blend in. If we become a place 
of entertainment and we become a place of great comfort and 
no conviction. We become a place only of fellowship 
and no worship. We mustn't blend in. There's 
enough clubs out there. There's enough social, you know, 
environment. There's enough entertainment 
in this entertainment-based society. The last thing sinners need is 
to be entertained at church. That is the wrong approach. We 
must not compromise. We must hold forth the whole 
counsel of God. And we must do so in the power 
of His Holy Spirit. Well, let us pray. Our Father, 
we pray and ask that you would keep us from the sins of the 
Laodicean Church. We pray that we would not be 
self-sufficient, but see our sufficiency and our completeness 
in Christ and in him alone. And our Father, we do pray for 
the power of your Spirit. We pray that we would not be 
apathetic or lethargic or cold-hearted with reference to the truth of 
Holy Scripture. We pray that you would give us 
that zeal and that desire to serve you and to honor you in 
this lower world. and help us not to compromise, 
but to be a faithful church, witnessing to the truth of God 
and to the glory of Jesus Christ. We ask that you would go with 
each one of us now and keep us and watch over us and continue 
to bless those who have physical ailments, bless those who are 
battling with discouragement or trial. We pray that you would 
grant jobs to Paulina and to Joe, that you would just bless 
them from your bounty, God, cause them to seek first your kingdom 
and your righteousness, knowing and trusting that all these other 
things will be provided for, and we pray through Jesus Christ 
our Lord. Amen.