EVERYBODY IS KNOW FOR SOMETHING
Decisions and Bifocals
Rev. 3:14-22
INTRODUCTION: All of the messages to the churches of Asia are extremely practical, but perhaps none fits the conditions in North America as much as does the message to Laodicea, a church that had become lukewarm in its self-sufficiency.
John MacArthur writes:
One of the remarkable sidelights in the staggering political changes in Eastern Europe is the fact of a vibrant Christianity that has emerged in the midst of the suffering, persecution, and atheism of these Communist dominated countries.
By contrast, in free Europe where there has been prosperity and democracy, the church is almost completely dead. The church has ceased to have any impact on the society. Atheism and humanism have taken over. Government and public policy is governed almost totally by philosophies that are antibiblical and even intolerant of the truth of Scripture.
If you look at the U.S., you find much the same thing. Government and the media, which affects the thinking of so much of America, are, for the most part, liberal and intolerant of Christianity. Leadership in both Europe and the U.S. are working for a one world government while the populace is preoccupied with their comfort and pleasure or the good life. The moral climate or condition of both free Europe and the U.S. is rotten to the core. According to a number of polls, if you compare the values, priorities, practices, and pursuits of professing Christians and non-Christians alike, you find very little difference on the whole.
Yet, much of free Europe and all of America owe their freedom, their prosperity, and blessings to the preaching of the Word of God, to the reformation in Europe, and to the ministries of men like the Wesleys, George Whitfield, and Jonathan Edwards in America.
What then is the problem? Is it freedom? Is it prosperity? No! But there are inherent dangers in both freedom and prosperity, subtle dangers.
It is more than a curiosity that the church has flourished behind the Iron Curtain while dying in the West. The reasons are clear. Lacking any visible external threat to our faith, many in the free world have lost any sense of the subtlety of the enemy and how he attacks. We have grown careless and apathetic. We have become concerned more with our own comfort and well-being than with the command of Christ that we should follow in His steps (1 Pet. 2:21)
PEOPLE CAN’T STAND PROSPERITY SPIRITUALLY!
WITH PROSPERITY COMES THE TEMPTATION TO TRUST OUR BLESSING RATHER THAN OUR BLESSOR
I WE NEED TO MAKE A DECISION FOR JESUS – 3:14-16
A Jesus tells us who He is
1 The Amen
a To be firm
b To be stable
c To be sure
d To be established and trustworthy
e The idea of finality
PRIORITIES NEED TO LAY IN THE ETERNAL, NOT THE TEMPORAL
B Jesus knows all about us
1 Knowledge of our true condition
C Jesus wants us to make a decision
1 Jesus wants us cold – Cold water is refreshing
2 Jesus wants us hot – Hot water is soothing
The city of Laodicea had no water source of its own, and thus had to pipe water from the hot springs to their south. By the time the water reached the city it was tepid, and tasted terrible. The condition of the water was a constant complaint of the city
3 Jesus does not want us lukewarm
a Lukewarm believers are a sickness to the body
1) “spit” or “spew” means to vomit
2) Lukewarm is comfortable
COUCH POTATO CHRISTIANITY!
D The Reality
1 “I would”/”I Wish” – 3:15
a A wish that a thing would happen
b A reality that it probably would not happen
THERE WILL BE MORE BELIEVERS WHO WILL NOT RESPOND TO THE COUNSEL OF JESUS, THAN WILL RESPOND TO HIS COUNSEL!
2 The Marks of Lukewarm Christianity
a “I am rich” -- An overabundance of material blessings
b “Become wealthy” – constant adding to what we already have
c “Need of Nothing” – believing that they need no help from man of God!
Pastor Glass is not preaching against having things, Pastor Glass is preaching against things having you!
AMERICA HAS:
n More churches per capita
n More Bibles
n More Christian Literature
n More Christian Schools
n “In God We Trust” on our money
YET
n There is little difference in the lifestyle of the believer vs. the unbeliever
n We are plagued by crime and abuse
n Any name but Jesus is okay in our schools
OUR ABUNDANCE HAS PUSHED JESUS OUT OF OUR LIVES!
E What Jesus says about our condition
1 We are wretched – “to bear hard callous”. We have developed a callousness to our condition and to the truth.
2 We are pitiful – We have become the object of pity – to who? Jesus
3 We are poor – “beggarly”, looking for crumbs to satisfy our craving and need, and not finding them no matter how hard we look
4 We are blind – no spiritual discernment
5 We are naked – “to be poorly clothed”
Luke 12:19-21 And I’ll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." ’ 20"But God said to him, ’You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 21"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."
CONFIDENCE “OUTWORLDLY”, REVEALS PERIL SPIRITUALLY
We Need To Re-Focus:
I am at the point where I need Bifocals. I have found this to be sort of “right of passage” for adults. The addition of bifocals is a sign of age. Many of us do not want to grow old, and so we resist. We deny that we need them (really only fooling ourselves, because EVERYBODY around us KNOWS we need them). Or maybe we get them but don’t use them. The bifocals become little more than window dressing. BUT, we could get them and use them.
The same is true with the counsel of Jesus to follow. We can use it, not use it, or pretend to use it, the choice is ours …
II THE COUNSEL OF JESUS – 3:18
A Buy refined gold from me
1 Refined gold is gold bought at a premium
2 Buy means to acquire or gain
HOW DO WE BUY/ACQUIRE FROM GOD?
Isaiah 55:1-3
"Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
2Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
3Give ear and come to me;
hear me, that your soul may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.
a We get the best when we listen to Jesus
b We settle for less when we refuse to hear
B Where the right clothes
1 Laodicea was known as a textile center, esp. in wool
2 The city was known for its black wool robes.
BE IDENTIFIED WITH CHRIST, NOT YOUR THINGS
3 Take care of your eyes
a Are you seeing things right
b Is your vision dim to spiritual things
III THE PROMISE OF JESUS – 3:19-22
A “I Stand” – I am waiting patiently
B “Knock” – I am seeking your fellowship
C “Share a meal”
1 Table fellowship was considered one of the most intimate times people could have
2 It was a commitment between the guest and the host to a close relationship.
3 Notice that Jesus not only wants to eat with us, but he wants us to eat with Him!
4 Jesus has a lavish banquet for us!
Rev. 19:9 Then the angel said to me, "Write: ’Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’ " And he added, "These are the true words of God."
5 The door is closed on our side!
6 We get to sit with the King!
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