Today you can go to church, a church, some churches, they
don't have the Bible, no Bibles in the pulpits.
But I have songs and they just sing about love and stuff.
I'd sing about sin, but I won't sing about heaven.
And you can have a complete service without God, a
Christless church. Laodicea is the only church to
have its name in the dictionary. You know, you can go home to
your dictionary, look up Laodicea and there it is in the
dictionary. And I have a Collins dictionary
at home. And it means this in different
in religious matters. In different in religious
matters, there's nothing worse than indifference.
Indifference is what kills a marriage.
Two people get married, the honeymoon is over, and then they
start to live as two single individuals and they become
indifferent to one another. It's terrible.
It's like slow death. And so according to Collins
English Dictionary, if you called a lukewarm Christian a
Laodicean. And in today's bulletin, I given
a greater explanation of what the term lukewarm means.
We'll touch on on it again later.
You're not only being biblical, but also using a legitimate
dictionary term as well. English Laodicea is the true
carnal Church of the last days, the apostate church, the church
that is alive today and is gathering and forming even more.
We are, you know, in the past, some of you, anyone here used to
be a Presbyterian in the old days, Presbyterian.
Anyone used to be a Methodist. Yeah, knows.
And and then they then they amalgamated.
We changed and, and, and things changed.
And I remember Presbyterians were very strong in their, in
their teaching, Methodists as well, very biblical in their
teaching. And over time now things have
changed, haven't they? Churches have mellowed, Churches
have adapted. And so it's the time where the
church is adapting. I read the letters to the editor
and I get furious each day I read them and in them is always
people telling the church to get with the times.
Come on, adjust, change the way you're thinking.
Come on, move along. You're old fashioned.
What you think and what you believe when you teach, it's
come on, let's, let's get more tolerant and, and, and stuff
like that. Interesting.
The city of Laodicea was named after Anticus the second his
wife. Her name was Laodice due to its
location, it's in modern day Turkey, back then Asia Minor,
and it's an elevated city very high.
The city had no natural water source of its own, so all
drinking water, all water that it needed to survive as a city
was sourced via an aqueduct. When we go to Israel, we
actually see one of the great aqueducts, I think of the world,
ancient world. When we go to Caesarea, Herod
said I want a beach house. So he actually built his house.
The foundation is the limestone at the beach.
It's a classic being magnificent.
And he said, we're building a house there.
And I said, well, there's no water there.
I'm building my house there. And so they built an aqueduct.
I think it's 9 to 12 miles, gravity fed.
They got water delivered to Herod's beach house.
So it's a marvellous, marvellous sight to see.
Well, Landasia needed an aqueduct to get water, so they
got water from both Heropolis, which was 11 KS away.
Heropolis had Hot Springs, mineral which rich water which
they pumped down into the aqueduct and also Colossae.
Colossae was 16 kilometres away from Laodicea and that had
called fresh water so that pumped into the same aqueduct.
By the time of this mixture of water reached Laodicea, it was
lukewarm and it contained a great deal of sediment.
In other words, it was dirty Laodicea.
The city was known for three things.
It was a wealthy banking city. Think of Singapore today.
It's just commerce. It really thrived with all the
banks that were banking of the world occurred there and an
earthquake struck Laodicea, decimated the city.
Laodicea didn't need a a loan from the Romans or anyone else
at all. Said we just rebuilt that.
We got plenty of money. They just rebuilt.
Didn't worry them one iota, they had enough funds to amply
rebuild the city again. Secondly, it had a world
renowned medical school there that was famous for an exclusive
I self for the treatment of eye vision and and sore eyes
etcetera melodies and it was sold throughout the world.
Thirdly, it was a fashionably wealthy city because there they
sold the best black wool you could get and to make stuff out
of this black wool a man it was it was chic and it was sold
throughout the world. Three big things.
This letter that Jesus writes to Laodicea is the most brutal of
all. Let's read it and to the Angel
of the Church of the Laodiceans right now Jesus will give us
remember that each the structure, the template.
He'll give us the title of himself and that gives us the
flavour of the letter. These things says the Amen one,
the faithful and true witness. 2 the beginning of the creation of
God. Three, he says 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. Amazing.
Jesus says you make me sick. This is God, General Jesus and I
walked on the beach and tapped all the kids on the head and
lovely Jesus, he said, you, you make me nauseous.
Imagine the pastor reading, OK, we got a letter from John, it's
from Jesus. Anyway, we'll skip that bit.
We'll go on. But there's no bits that they
could skip because there was no good stuff.
It goes on and says because, and here's the reason the church
made Jesus nauseous. You say this is their saying.
You say I am rich, have become wealthy, have need of nothing.
You could throw in there no one and do not know.
Jesus says this is what the reality of you we are, that you
are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked, ashamed.
He should be ashamed. Here's the advice he gives.
I counsel you. Here's what you're to do.
Buy from me gold. Now, obviously they're not going
to go. Where's the Bank of Heaven where
we're going to go and buy gold? Who's going to afford gold?
So he's not talking about literal gold refined in the fire
that you may be rich and white garments.
Now he's not saying go out and buy some clothes.
Where? Where does Jesus set up a
where's his store? Does he have a supray somewhere?
No, that you may be closed. So he's talking something else,
that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed.
And now anoint your eyes with eyes so that you may see.
Let me give you clear sight. As many as I love, I rebuke and
chastise or chasten. Therefore he doesn't just say
repent, he says be zealous and repent.
So there's an adverb there. Behold, I stand at the door and
knock. Where is Jesus?
Outside I will come into him and dine with him, to the person and
he with me who opens their life to me.
To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my
throne next to Him, not the Father's throne, as I also
overcame a set down with my Father on his throne.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the
churches. As I said, this letter is by far
the most severe from Jesus of all the seven churches.
Jesus doesn't have one word, praise for this church, the
Church of the last days. It's an apostate church that has
moved away from the faith in God, and it is filled.
This church is filled with unsaved religious people.
They go to church. John Stott brilliant commentary
Bible commentators labels this church.
This is the respectable, sentimental, nominal, skin deep
religious religiosity that is so widespread today is the Church
of Laodicea. Jesus title of introduction at
the beginning of his letter to Laodicea tells us a great deal
We read out three things. These things says the Amen
faithful and true witness the beginning of the creation of
God. Three things.
Jesus gives himself three titles.
The first one is the Amen. Now he's not saying this because
he's from the Deep South. The Amen.
This church was full of compromise.
So Jesus uses the title for himself as Amen, a name.
Now the word or the name or appears, the word appears 72
times, Amen in the Word of God in the Old Testament.
It's used by God's people, Israel, to express agreement
with what the Lord states. They would.
You know, someone prophet would say that they go Amen.
So be it. It is the truth.
That's what it means literally. In the New Testament, Jesus used
the term Amen to endorse his own words.
But there's a little difference because if you study each time
Jesus uses the term Amen in his life, you will see he never says
Amen at the end of the statement.
I am Jesus, this is what I do, Amen.
He doesn't do that, but always at the beginning of his
statement, Jesus will use that as if to say what I'm about to
say to you is the absolute truth.
So he starts off with Amen. Jesus used Amen as a proper
name. He's stating why does he use
this? That he is the God of truth.
So we're getting truth is going to be a great part of the
narrative here. And Isaiah 6516, Isaiah the
prophet says this so that he who blesses himself in the earth
shall bless himself in the God of truth, the Amen.
And he who swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth,
the Amen. Jesus is the Amen here because
he is the one who confirmed all of God's promises.
In two Corinthians chapter one verse 20, Paul writes this for
all the promises of God and there are tonnes of them for all
the promises of God in him in Jesus are yes and you know the
next and in him Amen to the glory of God through US.
Secondly, Jesus after the giving the title, the name of Amen, he
says I am also another name. I am the the faithful and true
witness. You see, the Church of Laodicea
was indifferent. There's that terrible word, thou
are apathetic. So Jesus calls himself faithful.
He's reliable. He's there when he says he's
turning up, when he says he's going to do something he does.
People who are in different go, well, it didn't matter, but
didn't come. That doesn't really matter.
I know I said I was going to come, but no big deal.
You know, the church and Laodicea had lost its witness,
had lost its testimony. So Jesus called himself the true
witness. I'm the true witness.
What you see in me is what God is really like and what living
for God is really like. In other words, unlike the
church, he says I'm trustworthy, I'm reliable.
In John 14-6, Jesus said I am the way, the truth, and the
life. What?
No one comes to the Father except through me.
I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life and you can rely
upon me. Jesus is addressing this church
and accurately assessing their spiritual condition.
You see, it doesn't matter what I think about my life and my
walk with God. Doesn't matter what we think
this church is before God. What's important is what does
God think about how I'm walking before him And what does God say
about Calvary Chapel, Secret Harbour?
So Jesus says, I'll tell you the truth, I'm going to tell you
what you really like. I'm pulling the, the band aid
off, I'm revealing, I'm, I'm lifting the log off and seeing,
we're seeing all the critters that are underneath.
I'm, I'm pulling back the screen, the facade and I'll
accurately assess your spiritual condition.
Thirdly, he says I am the beginning of the creation of God
and the Jehovah Witnesses will jump into this and say, oh, see,
Jesus is creator. No, he's not.
Because if you read the text and the context and the actual
language, he's not saying that at all.
Jesus tells the church at Laodicea it is he who is the
source of all creation, not he's a created being.
He's the one that created everything.
The Bible is full of that through the New Testament and
also the very first verse of the Old Testament.
In the beginning God created heaven and earth.
That's Jesus Christ. Jesus tells them.
It's he who is the source of all creation.
Jesus is the creator. Revelation 2213.
Jesus says of himself, I am the alpha and the Omega, the
beginning and the end, the first and the last.
He's not a created being. He created everything.
John chapter one in the beginning was the Word, the word
with with God and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh
through him, through Christ, through his power.
He was the one let there be light and there was light.
Everything was created. Colossians tells us that too.
Jesus is not a created being as the Jehovah Witnesses teach
blasphemously. They belittled him.
That's disgraceful. Jesus is the beginning of all
things. I am the alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
Verse 15 he says, I know your work.
So Jesus always knows what we're doing.
You know, when you go and pray to God, don't, don't say, oh
God, I've been a bit rude with my wife and I haven't been
polite. I haven't said the wrong.
No, no, say it like it is because Jesus knows exactly what
you said, what you did, what was the attitude?
So don't try and go. Oh God, yeah, I I made a few
slip UPS. No, tell him like it is.
David does in the sons. David pours out his heart.
David says this is this is who I am.
Jesus says, I know your works, that you are neither cold nor
hot. And here's Christ's heart.
I could wish you were cold or hot.
I wish you were one or the other.
That's what Jesus wanted from them.
So then because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot.
He says I will vomit you out of my mouth and other other time we
read that some are being vomited out was Jonah.
Remember when Jonah was running away from God.
God said no, you're going to do what I asked want you to do.
And then anyway there'll be great fish lands near where
Jonah's got to go. Next minute the fish goes and
out pops Jonah. Jesus gets straight to the heart
of the matter. No praise at all.
Jesus says. Either hate me or love me with
all your heart, but don't give me your lukewarm attitude, he
says. That makes me sick.
How often did Jesus get into the Pharisees when they were given
off their well? Yeah, but we do this.
Woe unto you, Vipers. Woe unto you, you generation of
this. And he'd go on and on and on.
In Scripture, there are just three temperatures. 1 is hot.
That is, you are spiritually alive.
You are born again, you are filled with the Spirit of God.
You are walking with God, and thus your life reveals the
fervency of a transform life to Corinthians 517.
All things are passed away and behold, all things have become
new. If you're a new person, you're a
new creature in Christ. We need to see Christianity.
We should see it in your life. Read 1 John.
When John gets to the point, the heart of the matter too often we
go, well, you know, I don't have a Christian or not we we should
be able to see Christ in the way that you speak, that you live,
that you think we should be able to see your Christianity.
James says. You can see my faith by my
works. You can see who I am.
We should be able to see the fruit of the spirit.
There are so many people that are, that are around today that
have a label of being a Christian.
But really Jesus said it's pretty simple when you go to a
lemon tree, by the way, a lemon tree, we got a lemon tree grown,
it's full of lemons. When the first one goes yellow,
I'll bring it another six months on it.
Jesus said this, how do I know it's a lemon tree?
For every tree is known by its fruit, you should be able to
tell a Christian what by the fruit.
What's the fruit, Galatians? The love is the fruit, and then
the flavour of that fruit is seen in how you live.
We should be able to tell you a Christian, we should be able to
see your love for God. You know, Chuck Smith used to
always say, you know, so many people used to say about
speaking in tongues and well, speaking in tongues and the
Pentecostal movement was a sign of that.
You're filled with the Spirit, he says.
That's not the sign that you're being filled with the Spirit.
Being filled with the Spirit is that we can see the love of God
exuded in you. We can see the love of God
demonstrated in how you live, how you speak.
And so for every tree is known by its fruit.
For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather
grapes from a Bramble Bush. Secondly, the outs that it's
hot, the second one is cold. What is that?
These are those who reject Jesus Christ.
I don't want Jesus. I'm not interested in Jesus.
They have no interest in God's word.
You can talk all you like to me about God.
I'm not interested. I don't bother.
I'm not. I don't want to be a Christian
and I don't want to go to church.
These people are not hypocrites. They make no pretence about
their position. They're cold, cold to the things
they've got. But then Laodicea had this
lukewarm the third one. They didn't fit into either
category. They are not genuinely saved,
yet they do not reject Christ. You can talk to a lukewarm
Christian about Jesus Christ. How many of people have used the
term I'm a lapsed so and so. What does that mean?
Lapsed. Imagine your wife saying to your
husband, I'm a I'm lapsed pregnant.
What does that mean? Are you pregnant or not
pregnant? I don't know.
And so the lukewarm attend church.
They claim to know the Lord. They're like the Pharisees and
these are the people of Matthew Chapter 7, the most frightening
verse in the Bible to me as a pastor.
Matthew Chapter 7, verse 21, Jesus says not everyone who says
to me, Lord, Lord, these are people who call Jesus, Lord
shall enter the Kingdom of heaven.
But he who does the will of my Father in heaven, Jesus says, if
you love me, you'll do my will. Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not? And they do all church stuff.
Now, have we not prophesied in your name?
And we not cast out demons in your name and we not done many
wonders in your name. Now here Jesus makes the call on
lukewarm people. He says, and I'll say to them
because he's going to say here, I never knew.
We have no relationship. You say the Lord, but I'm not
your Lord, I'm not your Saviour. You've never repented of your
sin. You never asked me to come into
your life. You never open the door to your
heart for me to come in. You are not born again.
And then he says these words depart from me.
You've got nothing to do with the Kingdom of God.
You who practise lawlessness, New King James says the old King
James says wickedness. Jesus said either hate me or
love me with all your heart, but don't give me he says your
lukewarm attitude. This church as I said made Jesus
nauseous. But worst and saddest of all,
and this letter is the people of this church was self deceived of
their spiritual standing before God.
There is no greater mistake in life that any person can make
that you expect heaven, but you're not going to go there.
It's these people that the Sunday after the rapture, they
will head off to church just as usual.
They will drive off and they'll wonder car parks a little less
full today or whatever. Hopefully it's empty.
But are these these are the ones that are going to go?
What's going on? What's happened?
A lukewarm, warm person is cosy in their religion.
I've got everything I need. Comfortable is unsaved.
And the sad part, they don't know it in the old days.
Here we go with another all day story.
Yeah, I was so poor. Anyway, I like guys.
How poor we were, I don't remember.
And we had stables in our backyard.
And then we had other things and chickens and ducks.
Next door was my uncle. The next door.
And when Christmas was coming, it was always the time.
Well, chickens are going to get ready and you don't go down.
You couldn't go down to the supermarket and buy chicken.
So my 2 uncles who both been to war, both gone to New Guinea.
The ones that are we're going to do the job.
They were the worst chicken executioners ever.
And the the implements that they used you could butter bread with
honestly. So anyway, picture the scene.
All the kids would gather they're doing the chickens and
doing the chickens. So all the kids would grab them
and we would stand there. And anyway, and they get poor
old, they grab the chicken or the duck, put a stretch the neck
across this is censored. Just hands it and and the next
minute, you know, off with the head and then uncles will bolt.
We're all standing over here. And next, you know what happened
comes next. The chicken starts the run.
And who does the chicken chase? Chases all the kids a headless
chicken. It's terrifying and you laugh at
those again. And when it comes to you, it's
terrifying to have this handlers demonic chicken chasing you, you
know. Oh man, that was scenes.
So a little boy asked Dad why do the chickens run around as they
do? And they're headless.
And Dad replied, well, it's because they don't even know
they're dead yet. They're still running around
flapping. So too were the people allowed
to see him. They did not know that they were
spiritually dead. And it's, it's sad, it's
heartbreaking. They had religious activity,
they had church programmes and they gave a false appearance, a
facade of spiritual life. The problem was they just didn't
care. They are indifferent to the
things of God, as Paul said, we spoke about it the other week.
They were forever learning but never coming to the knowledge of
God. They had not been born again.
And Jesus says you must be born again.
Billy Graham was asked, what do you always say that you must be
born again? Because he says because the
Bible says you must be born again.
That's why I say it all the time.
Jesus rebuked them for their self assessment.
They were indifferent, they were sterile, they were religious,
but they weren't followers of Christ.
In Revelation 317, he Jesus says this because you say and he's,
you know, how often would Jesus be with people and they hadn't
asked the question And they Jesus would tell them what's on
their mind, what they'd be thinking, you know, and here
Jesus does the same for the church.
You say this is what you think I'm rich, become wealthy, have
need of nothing and you do not know that you are wretched.
These are Jesus words, miserable, poor, blind, naked.
When was the time that we read of someone being naked?
Adam and Eve after they'd sinned.
Remember the man in Ghaderi to living in the turns?
Gladys Seer was a wealthy city. This wealth gave the members a
false sense of security. Oh man, God's blessing us.
Wealth a blessing. Wealth and blessing doesn't
necessarily mean you're in. They imagine their spiritual
wealth just mirrored the city's material prosperity.
They were rich in spiritual pride.
Man, we're rich, we're wealthy, we're we don't need anything.
But they are poor in God's sight, in saving grace.
You're wretched, poor, blind and naked.
You're ashamed. Jesus counsels them.
Isaiah 96 tells us these great words.
You know the the verse and part of that says his name will be
called wonderful counsellor, the mighty God.
I want to encourage you today. Many people you know seek
counselling. Never seek counselling until
you've gone to the counsellor first.
Go to God. The Bible tells us in James
chapter 1 that if you need wisdom, seek God and he'll give
it to you. What?
Sparingly? No, liberally.
What the problem is for you and I today is that we want someone
to just tell us to, well, tell me what do I need to do?
And if they don't say the right, well, I'll go to this person.
You tell me what I need to do. And we go around and we go
around like the headless truck until someone says, aye, this is
what you. Yeah, I like that.
I'll go with that. No, no, no, because we don't
know what you need to do. You need to go to God.
You know what that means? It means you sit alone and you
spend time in prayer, reading God's word and seeking God's
will. That's why people seek
counselling more and more and more today because they've moved
away from the counsellor and they warning instead of going
through the right way, seeking God.
And God says, well, actually, now that you and I are together,
I've got some things I want to talk to you about first before I
even get to this over here, because this is the problem over
here. You want wisdom for this over
here, but I'm telling you the problem is over here.
I want to encourage you seek God's counsel.
How? Prayer and the word.
So when you pray, have your Bible, have a journal, write it
down. When God speaks to you, write it
down. And then the part is this.
After God counsels you is what's the next step?
Obey it. When you read it, obey it.
And less and less people will come to another person and go,
what should I do on the matter? What should I do on the matter?
I know the book of Proverbs says, you know, you sit in a
multitude of counsellors as wisdom and that's good.
But here's the thing, seek God yourself.
God alone knows you, knows your situation here.
Jesus, he says, here's what you're to do now.
The Church of Laodicea could have had a conference.
Good night, let's have a revival, let's have a
conference. Jesus, that's not what you need.
Jesus could have easily, instantly judged and removed
this church, but instead notice he graciously offered them
genuine salvation. God, God will never turn you
away. He gives the invitation for true
salvation. Jesus one offered them spiritual
gold 2 offered them spiritual clothes.
Three offer them spiritual vision or sight and Isaiah 55
one Isaiah the prophet says, ho everyone who thirsts come to the
waters and you who have no money come by and eat is come by wine
and milk without money and without price.
Jesus says in verse one purchase gold from me refined by fire.
What is that gold free from impurities?
It's the priceless wealth of true salvation.
The greatest and most costly gift that you and I have the
opportunity to receive is the gift of God's grace, because it
cost the death of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Grace is free, but it's not cheap.
It's priceless. Ephesians 17 says in whom Christ
we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins
according to the riches of his grace.
You want to be wealthy? Get born again.
Secondly, he says buy white garments.
The garments are to cover the shame of your nakedness, because
without Christ, when we stand before God and people will do
that at the great white throne judgement, Romans tells us
they'll not utter a word. They'll go, Oh no, no, it told
me, oh, I, you know, I, I've got good reason why I didn't
receive, but I want to receive Christ now.
No, no, they'll utter not a word.
It says their mouths will be shut because they'll stand
before God in all their nakedness, just like Adam and
Eve were when they were hiding and trying to cover themselves
up with fig leaves. How dumb is that?
Both Paul and Isaiah tell us about being unclean.
You see, the prestigious black wool of Laodicea symbolise The
Dirty, sinful garments that cover the unsaved.
Paul and Isaiah both called the clothing of the lost filthy
rags. Isaiah said this Isaiah 64 six.
But we all like an unclean thing, and all our
righteousnesses are like filthy rags.
The white garments symbolise the righteousness of God.
Where does that come from? Christ?
Remember the possessed man at Ghaderah?
He was naked, cutting himself, living in the cemetery.
What a tragic life, screaming at night, chained.
And the disciples come back. And then where do they find him?
Sitting. Sitting for the first time.
He's not roaming around. He's actually got peace now
kneeling before God and what else was about him clothed?
Did Jesus just look ring up and get AI need a what size are you?
I need an extra large brought out to ghaderi.
Can you bring a ring Uber? I wonder did Jesus go?
Here you go. I put that on seated clothed and
what was the third thing in his right mind?
Finally, peace. Isn't that a wonderful picture?
Clothed. This is what Jesus offered, the
white garments, the robe of righteousness.
Thirdly, I sell to anoint the eyes.
You see, they thought they had spiritual knowledge, but in fact
the latter sins were spiritually blind.
I remember Pastor John Miller telling me about the philosophy
of the world. Philosophy of of the world tells
you to go into a dark room with black glasses on with no lights
looking for a black cat. Blindness always represents a
lack of understanding and knowledge of spiritual truth
because that's what Jesus says. Blindness is Speaking of the
Pharisees and the religious leaders that came to him.
We're arguing with Jesus. Jesus said to them, let them
alone, just leave me go. Let those guys go to the
disciples. Matthew 1514.
They are blind leaders of the blind and if the blind leads the
blind, both will fall into a ditch.
Later on in Matthew 23, verse 16, Jesus said woe to you.
Blind guides, your religious leaders.
You don't know where you're going.
All unsaved people need Jesus Christ to open their eyes.
Didn't that happen to you? I did to me when I got saved,
man, I saw myself for the first time.
Wasn't a good picture. Romans chapter 3.
This is who you really are. This is what you're capable of.
You're a Sinner. Wow.
Yeah, that's me. And I began to see the world as
it really is. Remember Paul Saul, He's on the
road to Damascus. Powerful light knocks him down
and he's what? Blinded for a couple of days
until Ananias goes to see him, prays for him, and it says
scales fell off his eyes. Finally Paul could see.
Now Saul becoming Paul, could see what things were really
like, where he had been, how he had lived, and how he'd been so
wrong, Colossus chapter 1 says. Verse 12 giving thanks to the
Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance
of the Saints in the light. He has delivered us from the
power of darkness and conveyed us into the Kingdom of his dear
Son. He's taken you out of The Cave.
You and I, when we're without Christ, we lived.
We we thought we could see what we're doing.
You know what? We were blind.
We didn't know where we're going.
We're banging our heads into everything, bumping into things,
falling into things, hurting ourselves, you know, just just
with, with now. And now we have been placed in
the Kingdom of the light, the Kingdom of the Son of the
Beloved. And now we can see where we're
going. We can see the world.
I can see myself. I can see my life.
I can see other people what they need.
I can see the glory and the wonder of God as well.
Now Jesus says this verse 19. Therefore be zealous and repent.
He doesn't just say repent. How can 1 be zealous and
repentance? I think that's this is missing
today. Mourn over your sin, people.
Too many people come. I want to receive Christ.
Do you really do you really want to see receive Christ?
You know what it means to become a Christian?
Yeah, I think I will, but doesn't mean I have to do this.
Can I? Do I have to give that up or
what? Hang on a minute, you see, to
come to Christ. You mourn over your sin.
You realise that you're a lost, wicked Sinner and you repent,
that you don't deserve salvation and that God's grace and
forgiveness is a gift that you don't deserve.
That's why we remember Jesus. Mourn over your sin Matthew 54
Sermon on the Mount Blessed, oh how happy.
Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted when you
realise how great a Sinner you are and you come to God.
You know what God does. He says I'm going to change all
that. I'm going to remove all that.
I'm going to make you now a child of the of the Kingdom of
God. You'll be able to call me ABBA
Father. Secondly, hunger and thirst
after God, people come to go. Do I have to be in church?
And how long has he gone for? You know what's going on?
No, the Bible says seek him with all your heart.
You see, that's the real church. That's the church that is, is in
love with God. You know, Oh, are we going to
worship? How many songs are we doing?
Do we have to read the Bible? Do we have to pray?
No, you don't. And you know what?
You don't have to go to heaven. You got a choice, you see.
Where's the passion? You see a couple get married and
they're in love with one another, aren't they?
You're going to maintain the passion.
They are passionate about each other, but you need to maintain
that passion. How do you do that?
Through prayer, fellowship and the Word of God.
I continue to hunger after God. Now I continue to seek Him.
I'm passionate about God. I love coming to church.
I love reading the Bible. He said, well, Keith, you're
mad. Now I'm saved, I'm no longer the
idiot I used to be. Verse 20 Behold, I stand at the
door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and
opens the door, I will come into 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 was an ear. Let him hear what the Spirit
says to the churches. The Church of Philadelphia,
remember, was the church with the open door.
God open it. No man could shut it.
Laodicea was the Church of the closed door.
You know who was close to God? God wasn't needed, you know,
with the other six churches. Jesus spoke and you'll see in
each of the letters he spoke to the church that is in like
Smyrna, that is in Philadelphia. But notice in verse 14 here
Jesus addressed the congregation, the Church of
Latticea as the Church of the Lattice sins different because
the people ran the church didn't need God.
It was a Christless church. This is why we find Jesus
outside the church, knocking to let him back in.
It was not his church, it was theirs.
That's why you don't have a democracy or what?
OK, everybody, you know, what are we going to do?
What are we going to? No, it's a theocracy.
God is the head of the church. He runs the church, not men, not
boards. Jesus stands outside the church
that does not need him or know him.
They live religiously happy without him.
We're rich, we're wealthy. We have needed nothing.
You know what? We don't even need God.
We got it down. God, Holy Spirit, don't need
you. Sit over there.
We've got this place rocking. He is outside the apostate
church now. He makes a personal invitation.
Why? Because salvation is always
personal and it's always individual.
You can be here with your mum, your dad, your brother, your
sister, your husband and your wife.
But salvation is what you are to do as an individual.
No one else can do it for you. It's between you, you alone and
God. If you receive Christ into your
life, you will become an overcomer.
Bible says that to him who overcomes, I will grant to sit
with me on my throne. You'll enjoy intimate, close,
personal fellowship with the holy God.
You'll walk with him, you'll be the friend of God, you'll talk
with him prayer, He'll speak back to you through your word
each day and heaven will be yours, guaranteed.
What God has started, he will finish.
He's the author and finisher of our faith.
One Corinthians 63, Paul says, do you not know that we'll judge
angels? We'll reign with Christ during
the thousand year Millennium. We'll reign with Jesus Christ.
We'll judge angels. That'd be interesting, won't it?
I lower your wings. Come on, put those wings over
here. Sorry, I shouldn't joke like
that. We will have a sense of humour
in heaven far better than mine. There are times when we hear
God's word and it speaks strongly to us, doesn't it?
Speaks to our hearts. Maybe today you're thinking,
light us here, man. Why are we getting hammered with
this? We sense we know that God is
speaking directly to us at different times, don't we?
Amazingly, as many as I love, Jesus says in verse 19.
Notice this, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.
And here's the connection. If you sense God has chastened
you, spoken strongly to you this morning, if you sense his hand
has perhaps been heavy upon your soul, as did King David when he
wrote Psalm 51, the bones that you have broken may rejoice
because David speaks as a shepherd.
What they would do with sheep that would run away over and
over. They would snap a bone on their
leg to stop them running away. So well, that's cruel.
No, because then the shepherd would carry that sheep.
He would bind the leg up bracelet so it would repair and
the shepherd would carry the sheep with him.
He would learn to not run away. He would learn the love and
closeness of the shepherd. David had that.
If that's you this morning, then like David, what should your
reaction be? He says be thankful, not
disheartened. Oh, that's a bit hard.
No, no, you're taking it the wrong way.
It is God's love that you're experiencing, His love being
revealed to you. As many as I love, I rebuke and
chasten. I want God to rebuke and chasten
me forever in my life because it shows me His love for me.
I want to be corrected over and over and over by God, and I need
to be. This morning.
God is knocking at the door of your life, but He'll only enter
if you open it to Him. The Almighty God desires to eat
with you. Each and every one of us
receives rebukes and chastening if we loved by God, because God
loves you. And He'll do whatever is
necessary to save you, to get you back on track with Him.
In eating in the Middle East, when you eat and you're asked to
eat with a family, it's considered a sacred activity.
When you eat together, you share the meal together, the same
food. And so the food that you eat
together becomes part of each of you, gathered at the meal,
nourished both of you, all of you, by the same cuisine.
And so you become one because you're eating of the same meal.
You're being linked together in essence.
So too Jesus is saying I want you to enjoy intimate
fellowship. How many of you have intimate
fellowship with God because He invites you to, He longs to, and
He will share His secrets with you so that you can be 1.