013 m1-645 Revelation 3:14-22 05-08-2013

all right let's turn to the book of revelation chapter 3 tonight there once was an emperor who was very known all around the world for his taste in clothing and he was the guy that you know every hour would change his clothes because the people of his kingdom would come and see they'd line the streets and he'd display himself and all the fancy clothing that he had and they'd say wow look at the emperor and he was known for this well there were a couple of scoundrels that saw all this and thought hey we can cash in on this and so these guys they they came up with a plot a scheme and they came and first they talked to the chamberlain then the chamberlain talked to the prime minister and then the prime minister talked to the emperor and finally they heard that well these two guys they were they claimed to be gifted tailors gifted above all other uh people who could create beautiful you know garments for the emperor and so this this emperor his ears were tuned in he thought man there's two guys that are really good with clothes so he he decided to meet with them and they said we have found a fabric we have created a fabric that's so elite that it's so fine it's almost weightless only really intelligent people in fact can see this fabric that we've created and if you are stupid or incompetent you cannot see this fabric but but if you are wise and if you're insightful you can see it well the emperor thought man i got to have a garment like this and so he said what do you guys need well give us some gold thread and a bag of gold we'll be able to create some beautiful garments for you and so he they go off and some time goes by and the king the emperor he just can't wait so much so he sends the prime minister to check in and see how they're doing with their fabric well the the prime minister goes into the place where they're working and and he looks around and sees nothing and they said what do you think of the fabric well the the prime minister thought man i don't see anything but i can't let them know that because i must mean i'm stupid and incompetent and there's no way i'm letting the emperor know that i'm stupid or incompetent so he said oh that's lovely beautiful fabric and so he came and told the king and the king said the emperor said how's the how's the process of my clothes coming in and that prime minister said man it's beautiful wait to see it well sure enough you know the story the emperor then [Applause] the emperor then was presented by the two tailors the fabric that was that was created and and the emperor when when he saw the two tailors walking with their arms outstretched as if they were holding a roll of fabric he thought oh no i'm stupid and incompetent because i can't see a thing and so the the the tailors came what do you think look how fine it is feel it touch it and so the emperor kind of thought well i don't want the kingdom to know that i'm stupid and incompetent so he started to put on a charade just kind of oh look at this fabric wow it's beautiful they said well let's measure you up and so they measured up the emperor and then they went and sewed him some garments out of this fabric that was so amazing that only really smart people could see it stupid and incompetent people couldn't so they got the king and said let's dress you in this fine you know kingly attire and so they you know they acted like they were putting on his coat and his you know as his robes and all that they were wrapping them up with this invisible cloth but little did everybody know that they were all feeling quite incompetent and stupid because as they were dressed in the king some of the people standing by thinking i don't see anything and he was standing there naked well the tailor said we think you look wonderful in your new outfit and it's incredible and so you should go as you do with all your other garments you should go and parade in front of the whole city and so the king i don't know but i but i feel so naked and then he thought but i can't let people know that because they all think it looks great and i'm the only one here who doesn't really say so he so he said well i'm going to risk all and he puts himself up on his little platform and the the whole entourage of his emperor's you know horsemen and all that they all get out there and and and the word had gone around that that there was a garment that he was wearing that only people who were smart could see it only the stupid and incompetent couldn't and so as people lined the streets they were excited to see these new clothes and so the emperor got out with his new clothes and went down the street standing in front of all well the people you heard them say oh how how beautiful the garments are we really like his new clothes and woo you look wonderful and they started yelling out wow those are amazing everybody's kind of here and nobody wanted to reveal well as the parade was going on everybody's saying how lovely the garments were a little kid came up and said daddy the emperor's naked and the dad said child quiet don't let anybody know that you don't see those clothes you know cause only the stupid and incompetent but daddy he's naked well as the crowd heard it there was a few other people saying yeah he is naked yeah and pretty soon the whole crowd yeah where's his he's totally there's no and they all started yelling and and the emperor's standing there hearing the crowd say that he's naked and he thought my whole kingdom is full of stupid and incompetent people and he stood straight up and continued down the street stark naked and they all lived happily ever after oh man you guys remember that story when you were a kid and and as a kid you know it's just wow now you say brett what does that have to do with the bible well really in our story tonight everything because there is a church that we're about to study that they think they're clothed but they're really naked that's what jesus has to say about it in fact that little uh allegory of a story that ties quite perfectly in with the church at laodicea that's where we are in our study because this church they thought they were rich and full of great possessions and that they were clothed in beautiful garments but the lord says nope you think you're rich you think you're blessed and all that but you're really blind miserable naked and uh you're in big trouble and it's the church to laodicea now if you've been traveling with us so far we've been studying the seven churches uh there in revelation chapter two and three first of course we saw ephesus the church that left their first love and we saw uh that was a literal church but we also saw historically it represented 33 a.d to 100 a.d where the early church it didn't take long for them to lose their way and to leave their first love for christ then we saw smyrna the persecuted church persecuted literally there in smyrna but also speaking of uh 100 a.d to 312 a.d we saw the 10 waves of persecution represented by that church that time period and then we saw pergamos which was a church that allowed uh worldliness to be mixed in with their church and it spoke of a time period in history 313 a.d to 600 a.d where constantine started to meld uh paganism and christianity together and it formed what even to this day we still see evidence of that it went all the way through to the fourth church thyatira which was a place that allowed this woman jezebel to teach fornication in the church and sexual adultery and and and the church tolerated her that's what we learned about and is there such thing as intolerance that's actually good and we learned that there is uh but jesus doesn't tolerate jezebel and yet the church was tolerating jezebel um i wonder if our church in america is more tolerant than jesus is something to think about jesus doesn't tolerate this jezebel in his church there in thyatira well that brings us then uh to sardis the age of dead protestantism uh we saw that they were dead you have a name of being alive but you're really dead jesus said to the church at sardis from 1500 a.d uh to the present we saw that and then philadelphia uh was the church we looked at on sunday the faithful church from 1800 to the present the church with the open door speaking of when the church decided to really take jesus seriously to go out into all the world and preach the gospel the age of missionary uh faithful to spread the gospel and to baptize people and to make disciples and we can learn from that church at philadelphia so that brings us tonight to laodicea chapter 3 verse 14. let's look at that it says and to the angel of the church of the laodiceans right now right away if you're studious you might notice there's already a difference in what we just read if you have a king james bible i think the newer translations tried to simplify something that seemed like maybe a typo in the in the original but the question is was there a typo is there typos in the original i don't believe so you say brett what's the difference well if you have a king james let's read it again and then to the angel of the church of the laodiceans right what's the difference well if you recall like if you back up to uh you know philadelphia to the angel of the church in philadelphia uh look at verse one of chapter three to the angel of the church in sardis uh chapter 18 chapter 2 verse 18 to the angel of the church in thyatira in smyrna in pergamos in ephesus notice the differences to the angel of the church of the laodiceans what's the difference well there is a little difference in the language and it's maybe i don't know i wouldn't you know build my whole theology on this but it is something that might mean that the lord doesn't even want to really associate himself as this being a real church what's that well if you read it right unto the angel of the church of the laodiceans not not the angel of the church in sardis the idea well maybe it's not really the true church maybe they have walked away so much that they're not even really called true anymore there are churches today in america that will claim to be a church but i believe jesus would say that's not a real church and you have to watch out for that just an interesting little nuance but it is uh something that is uh intriguing something worth uh considering oh it is okay kids are okay i see everybody's heads turning like oh what's going on there okay so uh let's go uh here we go thanks thanks courtney uh guys that's great we'll uh find out what's going on in the bathroom there that's quite quite a deal there well lay wood to see it now interesting the the name itself as as many of these names we've learned do uh mean uh exactly what the church was you know like the angel of the church of pergamos objectionable marriage that's what purgami pergamos it means objectionable marriage well in the same way laodicea tells us a little bit about the problem uh with the laodiceans laos that is people laity laity uh is the word for laos is the plural form of laity so laity do you guys remember the lit nickel laetins uh it was the rulers over the people nicolaitans but here we have the leo the people uh decia uh does that word decea or descen dicey what does that make you think of decision decision is the idea there uh so it's the people uh of decision uh in fact most would agree if you read the scholars on this they believe it's the rule of the people rule of the people the people are deciding for themselves their own they're their own masters they're their own leaders and this is always a dangerous thing when people lead themselves the book of judges by the way in the old testament is in fact about that people doing that which was what right in their own sight or in their own eyes and and man when you read the book of judges you realize that doesn't work out so good for people whenever we do that is right in our own eyes we're gonna find that that is the problem uh with this church at laodicea they're doing that which is right in their own site in their own eyes so rule of the people suggests a democratic church where they're uh no longer following the bible or even the spiritual leaders uh or the authority of god's word but they were only doing that which they thought was right in their own sight now this isn't new in history but in fact uh it's it's uh as old as the book of judges in fact why don't you flip over to judges real quick keep your finger here in revelation 3 and i want to remind you of a story that sort of personifies what's going on at laodicea people making up their own minds of what's right and wrong how to do church what's important what's what's good what's bad it starts in judges 17. in judges 17 verse 1 it says and there was a man of mount ephraim whose name was micah which by the way his name micah means who is like god uh verse two and he said unto his mother the 1100 shackles of silver that were taken from thee about which thou cursest and spakest of also in mine ears behold the silver is with me i took it and his mother said blessed be thou of the lord my son pause for a second does anybody see a problem with this picture the mom got ripped off she cursed the people who ripped off of her silver only to find it with her son and now she says oh blessed be thou my son does that sound like today's discipline of children uh only positive reinforcement uh this this actually speaks a lot of of today really frankly uh but this mother uh has no uh real repercussion for her son's stealing of her own money she says oh blessed be thou of the lord my son so verse three when he had restored the 1100 shekels of silver to his mother his mother said i had wholly dedicated the silver to the lord from my hand for my son to make a graven image and a molten image now therefore i will restore it unto thee again he yet he restored the money to his mother and his mother took 200 shekels of silver gave them to the founder who made their of a graven image a molten image and they were in the house of micah so micah returns his money to his mom and she says i was saving this money so you could make some gods you could carve out some molten images and you can worship gods that's why i had this money and so she gives them uh some of the money back he makes these little gods and he's real happy verse five the man micah had a house of gods and made an ephod what's the ephod it's the garment of the priest the high priest of judaism so this guy is taking a bit of jewish worship and saying i want an ephod just like the priest i want to be like the priest so he's got his own gods he's got his own little ephod and terafim and consecrated one of his sons to become his own priest he's making his own little place of worship in the way that he sees fit now question was this man supposed to be a priest was his son supposed to be a priest well we know that the priests were technically supposed to be the sons of aaron and not only that should they be priests of the only true and living god these were not gods at all these were fake gods that he was sort of making a priest and but he was trying to sort of meld the true god with all these false gods syncretism it's what we see today a melding together of religions to sort of fit your fancy whatever you think god is whoever he or she may be that's who you worship do you ever hear that it's so sad you know aaa has done a lot of good over the years did you know that aaa started where jesus was the higher power but as time has gone by now it's so sad to me because jesus is who helped a lot of people get out of uh addictions uh to drugs and alcohol and other things but um but as they have become more politically correct today most of the aaa people say just find your what higher power now who's that oh it could be a tree a rock it could be buddha it could be krishna it can be jesus and it's so sad because there's no power in iraq or buddha or krishna if you're part of aaa make sure your higher power is jesus and there's no other higher power just to call anything a higher power is an abomination that's what this guy's doing well i kind of like to think of god as sort of this little idol that i've made and so oh but i feel like i need to be sort of biblically correct so i'm going to get an ephod and i'm going to get a priest but in his heart he knows that his son being his priest well that's not so cool so what happens check it out verse 6. so in those days there was no king in israel but every man did that which was right in his own eyes and there was a young man out of bethlehem judah of the family of judah who was a levite and he sojourned there he was traveling around this guy micah's house and verse 8 the man departed out of the city from bethlehem judah to sojourn where he could find a place and came to mount ephraim to the house of micah as he sojourns and micah said unto him whence cometh thou and he said to him i am a levite of bethlehem judah and i go to sojourn where i may find a place looking for a place to live he says so micah says unto him dwell with me and be unto me a father and a priest and i will give thee ten shekels of silver by the year and a suit of apparel and thy victuals so the levite went in the levite was content to dwelt the man and the young man was unto him as one of his sons and mike micah consecrated the levite and the young man became his priest and was in the house of micah then said micah now know i that the lord will do me good seeing i have a levite to be my priest does anybody see a problem with this story it's totally whacked it's it's a it's a crazy story because really his false sense of oh i really need a levite for a priest just to sort of fulfill biblical uh protocols but he's sort of picking and choosing his protocols well as the story goes on the danites come the children of dan send some people over see the wealth of micah and all his gods and his little priest that he set up and basically totally wiped him out and took the priest took the idols and the priest was just said okay i'll go with you guys instead it was it was sort of a hired priest he was a hireling he wasn't really a true believer or follower of god at all but they have the appearance of religion and so uh the story goes on where basically uh micah and his household they're they're um taken away so look at go forward to chapter 18 verse 24. in verse 24 of chapter 18 micah says you have taken away my gods which i have made and the priest and you are gone away and what have i more and what is this that you say unto me what aileth thee in other words they were saying hey what's your problem we took your gods we took your priests whatever and uh but the problem is he's saying you've taken away the gods which i have made that's the problem with you making up god in your brain whoever he or she may be whatever your higher power is they can take that away from you because it's not a powerful god at all it's got no power whatsoever no power to save no power to forgive sin no matter how hard you try it's not going to heal your body it's not going to answer your prayers and one of the things you see in these old testament stories with people and their little gods is they get ripped off all the time you see these gods told oh you've taken my gods over and over again and that's seriously what happens today if you make up god in your brain i call it it's a new god of the people worship today i call it god to me god to me it's a false god just like any other god it's a false god um god to me is whoever you've invented in your brain to be god and hopefully none of us do that hopefully none of you do that um i like to think of god as who cares what we like to think of god as the question is what is god what does he claim to be and what does the word say about him that's the most important thing so you see the story it's really quite pitiful there in judges people doing that which is right in their own site well that brings us back to revelation chapter three the laodiceans did that which was right in their own site ruler of the people rule of the people that's that was just a democratic way of saying how do we do church we're going to vote on it and we're going to come up with who we think we should be now one of the things you'll start to recognize as we talk about this is there are churches and denominations that like to vote on theology uh they like to vote on doctrine uh in fact there have been recent votes from everybody from the presbyterians to the southern baptists and it's an interesting thing to follow oh the episcopalian uh church which we might get into tonight a little bit but have you ever noticed these people voting they're voting on whether they should allow gay priests or whether they condone abortion or they're voting about do we believe god is done with israel and that we should encourage the dividing up of israel and i mean there's all these votes and they put up these committees now one of the things i'd like to share with you about this fellowship here is we don't have committees i've never been a part of a committee i've never been to on staff at a church that had committees because i don't really see that as a biblical model of church leadership what you see in truth is a group of leaders elders deacons uh pastors uh you know and by the way those those three words can be interchangeable can be the same guy one word is bishop but we we might call that a governing elder or episcopal the one who's uh governing or leading making decisions for the church but it's not that the bishop is in charge it's it's actually what i like to call a god arche where we just say you know what what's god's word say and the goal of any elder bishop pastor deacon is to say what does the scripture say not not even to vote on anything but to say what does the bible say and and that that's really the way the creek runs in fact in acts chapter 15 you'll see this council that took place in the church when they had a tough decision to make concerning the gentiles who had become christians and should they be circumcised there was a big debate in the early church but what was great is they all kind of talked about it and uh kicked it around prayed about it but there was a settling word that james spoke and everybody said that's it that's that's the truth right there it fits with what the bible teaches and so they all with total unanimous agreement uh made a decision for the early church which would stand to this day and what's great about that is all the decisions that were needing to be made were made and written in the scriptures so when it comes to when you see churches voting like say on should we allow you know gay priests well that's not even a hard one like why would you even have to uh discuss it or vote on it when the bible says no uh the problem is that's people saying we're gonna do that which is right in our own site we're to vote god out and our little brains in we need to be careful not to change the rules or change doctrine or change theology but rather to just say it's the lord now when decisions are being made at the creek i've got a team of eight of us or the guys that get together and pray through decisions here and and we don't vote and we don't say okay all in favor say all right we don't do that what we do is we pray about it and unless we have unanimous agreement that this is the direction we're supposed to go and that we have the scriptures to back it up then unless we have total unanimous agreement we don't move we don't go forward with anything unless we have a total peace in our hearts and it's really been awesome over these last 17 years to have this group of guys who pray through things and seek the lord and we really do say what is the lord's heart what is the lord's mind for this if you thought that well brett's the pastor he must make all the decisions for the church that's not true and it's not even close to true i've had people come up and say come on brett really come on tell us the real scoop how does eighth grade run that is real and you can talk to any of my elders and ask him that question how how does it work and they'll tell you they'll tell you examples of where uh some of us have had ideas and we prayed about it we we just didn't all have a unanimous agreement so we just said okay we're gonna either say no to that or put it on a back burner until maybe later and pray about it further still but until we have total just unanimous agreement where we're all having that peace of god ruling our hearts and minds we just don't make those decisions but the greatest thing is we don't have to make too many of those decisions because so much so much is spelled out in black and white right here in the scriptures uh that it's not like the governing body of elders and eighth grade should we teach through the bible let's let's talk about it no to us that's just kind of give attendance to the reading of scripture that the bible says of itself and uh you know that's something that we need to give attendance to so we're just doing what the bible says it's so easy when you just submit to the bible the problem is when the church starts to say well we're going to come up with our own ideas that are outside of the bible and pretty soon there's traditions that are formed over the centuries that have nothing to do with the bible but everything to do with church history and and so people put church history on the same plane as they put the bible even though these were often times harebrained ideas from men of the past that had nothing to do with scripture and so we've seen that already the mixed up church in pergamos later to be uh totally wiped out by the church in thyatira with the mix mixing of paganism we saw that in our study but it's a little different in laodicea because it's not that they're just mixing evil things with the church that's what they did in laodice pardon me in pergamos and thyatira but this is a little different it's pretty much the people saying whatever we think goes we're gonna we're gonna make it up as we go and we're gonna add a little hot we're gonna add a little cold oh i'm getting ahead of myself let's take a look at what it says here it says unto the angel of the church of laodicean rulers of the people or rule of the people i should say uh right these things saith the amen now the amen means kind of like the final word when you're called the af amen that means there's nothing else after that it means the end very important the faithful and true witness the beginning of the creation of god one thing i didn't tell you um remember these these are the titles of jesus every single church has a title of the speaker which is jesus but they're different titles as it relates to the need of that church so like with smyrna that was going through persecution i am the one who was dead but then became alive resurrection that's what smyrna need to hear the titles of christ are an interesting study in all 7 of these churches this one he's called uh the the one that's the amen the end of the discussion not what's in their brains whatever they make up as they go he's the amen and the faithful and true witness the word witness there we saw that in chapter one when it was discussing who jesus is but the word is where we get our word martyr by the way he's a witness but the idea is that christ was the one who died on the cross for our sins the witness who's the true martyr or witness those two things go together because christ's death burial and resurrection is truly a witness of his reality and his truth he's called the beginning of the creation of god also there in verse 14. quiz was jesus there at creation we do know that because we know that a lot of reasons why that is but i love colossians uh tells us in chapter one there's an implication of that here it is right here in revelation but also uh in the creation story we see god say let us make man in our image uh and you say well is there one god or are there many's because it seems like he's but remember we're talking about the holy trinity uh god in three persons one being but three persons you say breth that doesn't add up i don't know if i can do that but it's the mystery of godliness great is the mystery of godliness the bible says paul told timothy that that it's god who came in the flesh that is god becomes the flesh jesus and the holy spirit jesus even said it's good that i'm leaving you because i'm going to send afterward the comforter the holy spirit and the idea is the holy spirit would fill his church and that's god filling his church god the father god the son god the holy spirit one being if you don't like the math of that just remember god's not limited to mathematics and i bet it'll work out mathematically when we see it anyway when we figure it all out but all that to say there's a plurality in the creation story and i believe jesus was part of that plurality when he says let us make man in our image but all that to say he was there at creation jesus was verse 15 he says i know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot i would thou wert cold or hot so then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot i will spew thee out of my mouth now when i was in eighth grade i was uh going to a concert with uh one of my uh well it was actually my first sort of date but it wasn't a real date because i mean you know like you might be thinking in your mind because i was with the youth group i was actually going with a high school group i was in eighth grade but i was sneaking into the high school group and uh we were going to see a concert and uh my sisters were there and all the youth group was there but there was kind of this thing where i was kind of gonna go and you know we were gonna sit together and this girl i was all trying to impress her and everything you know so there in in my attempt to impress we sat down in the concert but i suddenly felt quite fluish and i'll never forget as i was trying to be cool and everything i was just kind of holding back just trying not to let anybody know that i was really feeling quite sick and i was starting to have that urge to regurge you know what i mean and i'm right in the middle of this concert with all these kids jumping up and down and it was all hot and sweaty in there and i was just like oh this is great christian concert rock and roll yeah it's great rocco and i was feeling that well you know how it is it's worse when you try to hold it back you know what i mean so i was just i was trying to hold it back but suddenly it just came upon me so powerful you know that involuntary muscle that just you know and so in trying not to throw up on everybody i put my hand over my mouth like this and the problem with that was there were like three streams coming out you know it was like it was really bad and uh now let's see why did i tell you that oh i remember now um this this says here in verse 16 uh when he says i will spew thee out of my mouth the word spew [Laughter] sorry i don't know got it to me but spew uh is vomit yeah that's the idea it's not that he's he's gonna spit you out of the mouth he's gonna spew the vomit the idea is that just reactionary kind of hood but that's gross but it's the bible it's what jesus is saying he's pointing out something that actually makes him vomit uh don't you think there's a difference between somebody spitting something out then just saying man this makes me vomit don't miss the strength behind what jesus is saying to this church at laodicea that's why i share that gross story because you got to understand we're talking serious stuff here jesus said unless you are hot or cold i'm going to vomit you out of my mouth that's the idea literal translation check it out for yourself so what's the problem well what's interesting about this uh let's talk about leia decea for a second the lukewarm church as it's called here um what what's the deal with laodicea well it comes from mixing hot and cold uh the idea is uh you know there's a lot of things i like hot and there's a lot of things i like cold and there's nothing better than cold iced tea man i like iced tea i i i what's that guy named uh on duck commander psy man i i like him he's always carrying around his iced tea and his little cup and stuff that's great man and and i can see that man that's wisdom right there uh but i also like hot tea uh hot tea is great uh you know and it's it's kind of cozy you know devin and i we just uh recently got turned on to foils war it's kind of this british uh you know detective show and it's really cool you guys watch spoiled war uh and uh and so you know we get into our british mode you know and debbie makes up some hot tea and puts a couple gallons of honey in there it's great uh i don't think the british do that but but uh you know and man we just sip some tea and watch foils war and you know it's great because the thing is um uh i like both of those hot tea cold tea but you know what lukewarm tea makes me want to vomit uh i don't like lukewarm tea uh you know have you ever had lukewarm milk uh i like hot chocolate and i like cold chocolate milk by the way just go through dutch pros sometimes just say i'd like some cold chocolate milk just ask that it's awesome i'm getting all kinds of freebies right now man foils wore cold chocolate milk from dutch bros but all that to say cold hot it's great but lukewarm see the lord's saying there's a there's a lukewarmness that you have allowed into your church that makes me want to vomit now what's interesting about laodicea um laodicea sat uh south of philadelphia the church we studied on sunday and um it was not far from colossae you know the church that was written to paul from paul to the colossians uh it was very close to that church it um it was a very large and prosperous city wealthy wealthy was laodicea they had tons of money it was on the banks of the river lycus which was a tributary of the of the river meander have you ever heard of somebody meandering around the word meander comes from that river meander which just is one of the most squirrely little rivers in the world it just kind of goes there and there and everywhere but um in that region of the world the meander one of the tributaries is this uh this lycus which um is important to understand because water was a huge part of laodicea as it was hieropolis hieropolis was the twin city of laodicea they're twin cities the reason you should know about this is a hieropolis stood six miles away from laodicea but what hieropolis had that uh leosia did not have was warm hot springs uh to this day um by the way the turks remember asia minor here the seven churches it's modern-day turkey uh the current turkish government are attempting to harness uh the uh geothermal power uh from these hot hot springs that come out of hieropolis but the people of laodicea made a an aqueduct of sorts from hieropolis to bring the hot water from the warm springs down to laodicea it was a grand plan a six mile long aqueduct so it was very expensive um and the problem was once they did it what they found was by the time the water got down to laodicea it was lukewarm it wasn't hot springs anymore the water had cooled and so all that money all that effort it was kind of you know historically uh sort of a joke it's like one of those blunders in history that laodiceans go down as they tried to bring the hot water from hieropolis but failed um so it's kind of interesting now by the way jesus when he talked here on this earth and preached he would use examples and analogies of where he was i told you last week that when he talked about offending the little child it'd be better for you to have a millstone tied around your neck and thrown into the sea where did he say that he said that in a millstone factory uh for that's what capernaum was it was a when you go to capernaum with us in this coming november you'll see hundreds of millstones were they really into milling corn no they actually made millstones there and then shipped them out from there so jesus used the the um the thing that was common in the same way he did that you know when he'd teach he'd say consider the lilies of the field and he used those as an example and had a fig tree there that was uh not producing fruit and used that as an illustration jesus was into using the situation for illustration just like i did my eighth grade vomiting in the concert i just used something that was common uh lovely anyway um no so so jesus uses something here with the laodiceans that would be very familiar to them uh it'd be sort of like bringing up a sore subject just a little bit i would that you'd be hot or cold but you're lukewarm and they're like not the lukewarm thing again man we we blew that man we i know we built the thing and it was all our building of the aqueduct that didn't really quite uh bring the hot water to us but but in in in a perfect way as jesus always does he brings up this as an illustration of their own failure as a church as well so the city of laodicea was known for its wool uh for its wealth and for medicine also in fact um it was known for creating some kind of an eye salve that they would put in people's eyes when they became irritated and there's actually some interesting writings uh about that but um so jesus is gonna use almost all of these images of wool wealth medicine and all that uh in this description to the laodiceans but all that to say he says to them man i i know that you have good works but you're neither cold nor hot now it's interesting it says i wouldn't should be cold or hot why doesn't jesus say i would that you just be hot i mean isn't hot generally better than just cold but i i wonder if there's something there for us i found this in ministry uh for me personally i've found that the hardest people to minister to or to try to encourage or try to help through their troubles the hardest by far is the lukewarm christian the person who has just enough religion to be dangerous but not enough to be hot or passionate about the lord or to actually be willing to listen to what the word is telling them to do oh man i see this all throughout the american christian church where we we know just enough about the bible where we come in for counseling uh counseling to me has become somewhat of a joke in a lot of ways and that when you have somebody come in and and they say uh i've got a problem here's my problem what do i do and then you show them in the scriptures what it says and what the lord requires and and um you know and how to repent and just the basic things and forgiveness and mercy and grace and there's so much that the lord can do for any situation any problem but because we're so unwilling to just be passionate about the lord and believers of god and believers of his word we sort of blow off good godly christian counseling and say well i don't know if that applies really and so they they take it more as just a nice suggestion uh but they say well that's not really what i was looking for so they they go to counselor to counselor they pay this person and that person to try to get some better version and a lot of times they want something to do but it's just kind of this lukewarmness i think that makes it so that we have just enough religion to be miserable you show me a christian is just hot and on fire man that's somebody that the lord can use and he's gonna bless you show me somebody that's cold who doesn't have a bunch of bible and knowledge and and they don't uh they don't love god at all and they've never been to church and they don't know anything about the bible man it's amazing how they are receptive to god's word and how many times they'll just sit and listen and be actually astounded at the good news of the gospel it's so cool to work with people that are cold i found that to be true but the lukewarm i get it i know what the lord's saying here he says i want to spew you out of my mouth hope that's none of us he says i would that should be cold or hot but you're neither you're lukewarm so i'm going to spew well verse 17 because thou sayest i am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and know us not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked interesting uh we've got a problem laodicea's got a huge problem um there's a lot that's wrong with these guys first of all they're if you're taking notes maybe you can remember some of these things but as just as i was kind of thinking through some of this i've realized that they were first wrong in their values in that they were ruled by the people they weren't ruled by the word of god they were coming up with their own brains of what's right and wrong by the way you know what we watch what we witness in society is an opening up to sinful things normalizing it and then we move on to the next thing and what's amazing if you're if you're an older person in this room isn't it astounding to see how quickly morality is digressing and how quickly attitudes are changing uh about certain things um and um you know we some of us remember when homosexuality was considered to be sinful and wrong deviant behavior or whatever now if you say that publicly uh you're a bigot homophobe and people you know but but it's funny for for centuries we all believed that but we know more now brett well that's when people come up with the things in their own brains see and here's the problem where does it stop oh brett it'll stop right there but it's not it's not you know what the next thing is and i've said this for a long time i'm going to keep saying it because you watch it's already happening in fact i was saying this 10 years ago when nobody was saying this but the fact is pedophilia is the next open for debate discussion uh that's what people are talking about there's been journals that have been talking about it that pedophilia is going to be acceptable behavior that's that's what's going to happen you mark my word it's already happening and you know there's been a conditioning that we've seen uh you know and we could talk about michael jackson and uh his whole thing and others that you know there was just kind of some real weirdness there but the world was kind of like yeah you know i don't know about that and and then you got the the various groups uh you know namdla is no longer as powerful as some of the other groups that have come up uh which used to be what was it man boy love association or something craziness like that that's a very powerful group of of uh older men saying that it's okay for older men to have relations with a younger man a younger boy and these guys argue for this they're trying to legislate some of this stuff uh it's not just look it up check it out i'm not just making this up but that's the next frontier after we very much embrace you know homosexuality then you watch it's just gonna keep going and the reason why if the bible is not the standard if god's word is not the standard then it's whatever's in people's brains see and that's the problem uh laodicea is the the church that was uh governed by the people ruled by the people it was a democracy which is not supposed to be in the church of god um so they were doing things that were just wrong and so their values it was a lukewarm mixture of hot and cold a mixture of truth and a mixture of god to me if you would so there was values that was the first thing was their issue but also there was a vacancy of vacancy what's that well they were empty uh they thought that they were full did you hear that jesus said you think you're you're doing great but you're really empty um you know they were they were wretched miserable poor blind naked and they didn't even know it and really thus is the case with largely america in general wouldn't you say we think we're all the best in the whole world and and we really do have a lot of stuff as did laodicea but one of the things that has really opened my eyes is to be able to travel around the world i'm so thankful for being able to go to a lot of third world countries places that are most memorable for me are places like honduras places like vanuatu and the south pacific islands places like burkina faso i've been to the the deserts there in middle of africa and what what i see as a common theme is the christians there that have nothing zip it's amazing how they really are rich but they're technically poor but they're spiritually rich and then and then you look at uh americans who are really really rich but we're technically poor uh we're in poverty you know uh it's so funny to me you know i i there's certain things that i just have maybe it's an inside joke within myself and i just chuckle at these things but i listen to christian radio and stuff or christian music and it's always amazing to me because especially like the younger generation music it's always funny there's usually some christian band and uh they're they're either christian or trying to do the crossover thing to be secular without carrying the crossover you know what i'm talking about uh we're christian uh so it's so uh sad to see all these bands it's like they use christianity as a step up to get known musically and then they try to step out into the secular thing usually fail and then come back to christianity whimpering hoping that people like them still i follow this stuff i'm sorry if this is offending some of you are in your bands but but here's what you got you got a bunch of uh rich christian kids raised in the church uh mom and dad took them to youth group sunday school their whole life and somebody gives them a marshall amp stack or a vox ac30 and a les paul or a you know guitar and suddenly they're a garage band and they play and they're in their three-car garage with their you know big amp and their guitars and all that stuff and they're starting to write songs about how miserable they are and where is god and i'm just really sad because well the lord is just not with me right now and they're just whimpering about their loss and la and these are the christian bands these are the ones they're supposed to be encouraging and we play them on our radio stations as chris but but what's amazing to me is how many of these christian kids are writing songs they're totally depressing and they never really give the answer and you know the answer we should know what that is uh many of them there's there's zero joy there's zero uh help or happiness or hope it's just songs about my emotions and uh it's just kind of laughable well brett i don't think it's very nice of you to say that well just go to a third world country and see what the kids are doing there because it's very different um you know and i've i've used this example before but this left a huge imprint on my mind when i was in saponi out in the bush i was spending uh several days out in the bush in burkina faso if you don't know where burkina faso is it's it's where we like uh it's it's kind of western africa it's right on the um half of the country's kind of the sahara desert so it's very hot in fact i was there when it was like 115 degrees at 5am in the morning we don't know how hot it got that day because the thermometer only went to 124 and it reached that at like 10 a.m and we were just hot fortunately it's a dry heat but that's still pretty hot but uh all that to say uh you know during that day uh you know we were eating some goat brains and eyeballs uh for dinner uh but after our delicious dinner oh and by the way that goat that they killed they made a drum for me it was really great i mean how many drummers can say the skin on my drum is a goat that i ate i mean that's really cool but after dinner and they brought up the bloody drum to me it was great and uh you know i just kind of wiped it off and that's great that as we sat there and then i saw that evening um a bunch of the burkina faso kids uh all ages from five to like uh 15 maybe and they were out playing soccer and uh and they were out there barefoot wasn't a blade of grass for five thousand miles and they're just rocks and so out there barefoot in the rocks playing soccer and they're really good by the way i think they could kind of work all of our kids with our fancy little shin things and the lights and the artificial turf they could totally beat our kids i'm pretty sure and they didn't even have a soccer ball they had a wadded up piece of cardboard that's what they were using for a soccer ball and they were having the time of their lives they really were giggling laughing the parents were having a great time i didn't see any parents beating each other up or yelling at the coach putting my kid in i didn't see the kids all serious and like walking out like they're they're you know some pro athlete or whatever they were like to me there's something really really wrong when you have the compare and contrast but unless you've not really seen that you can hear about it you can see the tv commercials with the starving children in africa and all that and you go oh yeah they're starving but but unless you're actually there for a while and actually kind of feel it you really can't get it until you're actually right there i don't know how else to say it but here's this church in laodicea they're the emperor with new clothes they think that they're robed in wealth they think that they're rich but jesus says nope you're wretched miserable poor blind and naked and sadly the church parades down the street thinking that we have something to be seen hoping the world looks at us look at our new clothes but we're blind wretched miserable naked it's no wonder the world has an animosity toward much of the church of jesus christ today because we're the emperor with no clothes sadly the church today in america very much is marked by this church at laodicea that's just the sad truth and so what are we supposed to do where do we go from here well that's where we we see the values were lacking the vacancy there was emptiness there but their vesture their vesture for to continue these we got the values lukewarm mixture of god and and god to me vesture while they were naked they had no clothes but see here's the answer the first thing we need to do is um repent in fact let's take a look verse 18. it says i counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear and anoint thine eyes with eye salve that thou may see you see these images jesus has given us here the isab that's something these people knew about and so all that to say uh how do what do you do you got to get a you got to get clothes on man you're naked get dressed how do you get dressed spiritually well let me just read you a few passages from the scriptures first of all jot this down isaiah 64 verse 6 says but we are all as unclean things and our righteousnesses are as filthy and will all fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away our righteousnesses the things that we think are good they're like filthy rags that's bad news the good news is isaiah 61 10 and it says i will greatly rejoice in the lord my soul shall be joyful in my god for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments as a bride adorneth herself with jewels what's that the lord says i see your nakedness but i want to robe you and cover you in a robe of righteousness see this is the problem this church in laodicea they're naked and the lord's saying i want to give you a new set of clothes it says there in verse 18 that you may have white raiment and be clothed that the shame of your nakedness does not appear this is where maybe that little phrase at the very beginning of laodicea thing when it says unto the angel of the church of the laodiceans the fact that they might not even really be viewed the lord saying man you guys are on the edge of even whether you're my church at all you're just a church of the laodiceans maybe this church doesn't have a robe of righteousness and if you don't have the robe of righteousness you're in big trouble it's like saul of the old testament people say is saul going to be in heaven because he did some good things but at the end there he did a lot of bad things and he ends up kind of dying a total loser is he going to be in heaven the problem with saul of the old testament is the bible says this and the lord withdrew his mercy from king saul the idea if you don't have the mercy which is kind of the forgiveness of god forgiveness of your sins if you don't have that that means you're going to be held accountable for your sins which kind of implies to me you're not going to heaven because you need to be robed in righteousness to make it into heaven so this church i'm not going to argue whether they're really a church that's saved or not or i'm not going to get into do they lose their salvation or leave their suffering i'm not going to get into that all i'm going to get into is this you don't want to be this church amen we don't want to be the church that thinks we're clothed but we're really naked and so how do you know well you get that robe of righteousness that comes from jesus christ alone it's christ his blood that was shed peter calls it the precious blood of jesus and why is it precious because it's the blood of christ that washes away our sins jesus alone if you try to have church apart from jesus and his work of salvation the gospel if you try to make it anything else than that it's it's not really salvation at all and this church has dangerously moved away they don't have the clothing of white raiment that's what everybody needs we need to have the robbing of righteousness notice verse 18 i counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire does anybody remember gold tried by fire what might that be a reference to for you bible students bema seat judgment right somebody said it give them a free donut first service sunday morning right on the bema seat judgment now remember the bema seat judgment or the judgment seat of christ is where uh you know we're we're going to see our works tried by fire let me just read real quick since we're running out of time first corinthians 3 that says in verse 11 for other foundation can no man lay them that is laid which is jesus christ it's all about jesus now if any man builds up on this foundation gold silver precious stones wood hay or stubble every man's work shall be made manifest or made known for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is every man's work abide which he has built there upon he shall receive a reward if any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire so what's that it's the it's the it's the judgment that christians will stand before the lord where our works will be tribe of fire i believe anybody who's at the judgment seat of christ or the bema seat judgment i believe they are saved people who are going to heaven but it is a judgment of the works that we do this church at laodicea the idea is he says i counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire the implication is it's the good works that's pure that and that judgment seat of christ it will stand it's so important for us to consider our good works in fact we're told in hebrews chapter 10 that we're to love one another and provoke each other to love and good works uh so if you feel like well that's just legalism telling me i should do good works well we're supposed to provoke each other to to love people and to do good works we're not saved by our good works but that judgment seat of christ or the bema seat judgment will have something to do with the works that you do and it'll be tried by fire so let's say you teach sunday school and uh you're saying i taught sunday school lord as you stand before the bema seat judgment the lord said well let's take a look at that and see what it looks like and he puts it in the fire it's gone but lord all those kids man i taught them faithfully for for three weeks man yeah but son you did that because there was an attractive assistant in there who was helping the kindergarten class who you kind of liked hanging out with her oh motivation was wrong oh but let's try i tithe thor look at all the tithes and offerings i gave it's gone but but lord didn't i give yeah because your wife made you you gave it because you were compelled to not because you really wanted to oh well what about and on and on it goes you know it's funny how we're going to think oh i got lots of good works i'm going to have an emmett i wonder how much of that's going to withstand is it going to be gold silver precious stones or is it going to be wood hay or stubble hopefully your motives are pure enough and you've got things that you're doing that are actually really just as unto the lord and the lord will reward you for that this church the lord saying man this church has uh needs counsel you better get some of that gold that's purified uh that that's speaking of i believe good works so the the idea is that they uh they need to repent from these things so you got your values mixed up your vacancy they were an empty church it was vacancy vesture it was nakedness but the lord wants to give them clothes but then finally notice their vision uh they're blind they were blind um now i told you it was by the way it was aristotle who wrote about the laodiceans who came up with this eye salve that i was telling you about aristotle wrote about that what's interesting is the lord says uh you need to do that he says and anoint thine eyes with eye salve that you may see so he's using that as sort of a an idiom of a spiritual blindness that is set in and know this that spiritual blindness is extremely dangerous it's almost like the more we live for ourselves the more we reject the lord and his word the more blind we become and and the more we start to let our eyes adjust to this world the more blind we are to the brightness of christ your eyes can sort of become adjusted have you ever noticed that the older you get that pretty soon things that used to look really evil and sinful and wrong now they don't look so bad anymore because you're getting older you've seen that before it's nothing new the excellent and what is good innocent concerning evil romans 16 tells us but don't your eyes it's like paul telling timothy he says you know there are some who have a seared conscience in the last days that is that one time they had a conscience that would say that's wrong but as they keep living their lives pretty soon their conscience is seared another idea is that your eyes start to come adjusted to the darkness and it's something that we need to be aware of so man we need our eyes to be healed so that i salve lord would you please open up our eyes open our spiritual eyes give us a sensitivity to the things that when we see sin let's just see it for what it is the laodiceans they were lukewarm because they they probably just allowed certain things that they saw with their eyes as being good but the lord says nope that's not good be careful church this is what we're we're told so there's values that were a problem there was a vacancy they were empty even though they were had a reputation of being full and rich their vesture while they were naked and the lord says i want to clothe you with a right white raiment and their vision they were blind by the way remember samson as samson uh played with sin one by one breaking his vows of a nazirite you know touching a dead thing with the lion um going through the vineyards uh even though he was not supposed to even be close to vineyards or grapes but he was probably even drinking wine with the philistines in their parties uh and then finally he uh allowed delilah to know that his hair had never been cut he was just dabbling with sin and the problem is people think oh samson's the dumbest guy in the bible but actually uh we're all like samson we think we're getting away with sin we we just one by one we play around and we dabble and hey i'm still going nobody's caught me i'm getting away with it and god still loves me and i'm saved by grace praise god and uh you know liberty and christ liberty in christ but there's gonna come a point where that sin in your life it's gonna it's gonna blind you remember how that story goes there's one verse that it's a nice little sermon verse because it's even gives you the bees because what what does sin do to a person well samson's the the perfect example he was bound with chains and fetters by the philistines and he was grinding at the wheel there week in and week out and they blinded him with poked out his eyes they did with samson and that's what sin does it blinds you it grinds you and it binds you sin will bind you up it'll make you grind and it'll blind you and that blindness happens the more we get into sin pretty soon we just can't see it for what it is it's a it's a common thread throughout the bible spiritual blindness well um he says verse 19 as many as i love i rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore and repent it's always the key is to repent change your mind about go the opposite direction about face is the idea there um and he says be zealous about that as many as i love i rebuke and chasten there's the heart of a father chastening his children hebrews tells us that whom the lord loves he chasteneth and don't forget to be parents who do just that as well verse 20 behold i stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door i will come into him and will sup with him and he with me now the interesting thing this is a classic verse and um it's kind of cool there's even been paintings of this you know has anybody seen that famous painting where jesus is standing at the door knocking and the guy that painted it was asked once he unveiled his painting um they said a beautiful picture but they they were critical of him they said you forgot something and he said what he said they said you didn't put a door handle on the door it's just a door with no handle and he said i didn't forget the door handle the door handle is on the inside and must be opened by the person in the house to let jesus in and i i like that you know it's really a good example of what needs to happen jesus is a gentleman he stands at the door of of men's hearts and knocks now what's interesting is to ask who is this being spoken to and uh what do we do with this because a lot of times you'll hear this scripture quoted to the non-believing person the lord's knocking on the door of your heart wants to save your soul and that that that could be true as well for sure but it is a message to the churches that's what's interesting to me the standing at the door knocking at the heart of man or knocking at the door of the church even could it be that this is the lord saying i'd like to get into the church um and i believe that's often the case we exclude jesus out of our churches in america by and large and we should repent and let the lord in there's so much about this he knocks at the door if any man hear my voice oh wait it is is it a knock or is it a voice and i believe the answer is both uh the lord taps you on the on the shoulder by your whole the holy spirit he is with you before you're even saved he's tapping you saying he's knocking on your heart saying you need the lord but also his voice is spoken through the word of god if any man hear my voice it's how do people come to knowledge of christ through the word of god the voice of god if you would so if any man hear my voice i will he promises come in to him and sup with him in in jewish times to have dinner with someone means you're at one with them there's a unity there uh of course there's there's all kinds of imagery there that comes up when you sup with jesus it gives you the idea of communion the communion table eating the bread and drinking the cup uh taking in of christ and he with me there's a unity that happens man i love this well uh verse 21 to him that overcometh will i grant to sit with me in my throne even as i also overcame and am set down with my father in his throne now uh by the way the overcomer is the one who is in christ jesus has overcome he says i have overcome the world and so the good news is because he has overcome the world we get to overcome the world nothing we do our our self it's all christ and um and that's the keys talking to the churches so he says he that have an ear let him hear uh what the spirit says to the churches now before we wrap it up we're almost done but uh we see the local application at church in laodicea that was lukewarm and being in danger of being spewed the greater church application oh man we got to be careful not to be a lukewarm church but be hot or cold but not lukewarm and uh that's a easy to make uh conclusion personal application is even easier the lord's knocking on our heart he wants us to repent from our sins we don't want our eyes to be adjusted we want to be robed in righteousness i mean there's so much personal application we can make but but then what about that historical panoramic view of church history it's debatable of when in church history this first started to be seen it's it's really what we might call the age of liberalism liberalism in the church where people do that which is right in their own sight uh liberalism spiritually it also uh could be called relativism uh that is truth relative to what you think is true or false uh your you know your your colleges and universities will teach you a nice big dose of tolerance diversity and relativism everything's relative and and if it's good to you it's good to you but may not be good to be but don't make your good to you bad to me you know what i mean it's like keep your own thoughts to yourself and if it's true to you great but it may not be true to me and it's a bunch of hogwash it really is um uh it's that god to me uh religion that's being made up um moral relativism that's what the people of israel started to embrace moral and ethical relativism now by definition relativism is the belief that truth and goodness are determined within each individual but as bible believers we believe that god determines what is good and true in his word that's the difference and so we as christians believe in absolutes that the word is absolute and we don't apologize for that uh your college professors are there are no absolutes and i always say are you absolutely sure yes i mean no i mean uh it's so funny the absolute statement that they make about there are no absolutes again it's hogwash now by the way um there was an age in the church that maybe it does start around the 1500s a.d because the church you know we've been through a lot of the movements of the church but one of the things that happened that was pretty cataclysmic in the church was when king henry viii right around 1 500 came into power of course the catholic church or roman catholic church was in charge at the time but the problem was arthur died and he was supposed henry viii was supposed to marry arthur's a widow that was their rule he didn't want to marry her but the church made him merrier because that was the way they did it so he marries arthur's widow reluctantly but he falls in love with another so he says i want to divorce her well the church said you can't it's against the holy roman catholic church which is one of the few times they were actually right you're not supposed to be divorced right but he says i want to be divorced you can't be divorced they said and so what happened he uh i'm going to give you the reader's digest version here he basically said well i'm going to make up church as i go it's it's what we're talking about here and so basically he started uh the anglican church at that point uh you know basically hiring uh priests that would go along with his shenanigans with his uh ways and it got really corrupt henry viii was a guy who ended up divorcing but also killing some of his other wives beheading them um and elizabeth came along there's some other stories there associated with him but he was pretty much really out there as far as uh truth goes but that was sadly the beginning of the anglican church which later would become the church of england which where did what did it become here in america for the most part the episcopal church is it any wonder that the episcopal church is the one that's saying oh yeah we want to encourage gay bishops to come and lead the church and you'll find the leaders of the episcopal church don't even really a lot of them don't even really know jesus no personal relationship uh with jesus christ and it's so so sad uh if you go to a episcopal church by the way you'll think you're in a catholic church it's just basically a catholic church with a label of protestantism but it looks very much catholic uh which which uh i'm not saying that all episcopalians are uh out to lunch i'm just saying the sad thing is the episcopal church has by and large departed from the scriptures entire entirely um and it's because of liberalism relativism uh doing that which is right in their own sight rather than letting the word dictate and that's just a real quick version of of what happened but in america we're seeing this liberalism in the church embraced even good colleges and universities that once we're walking with the lord and believe the bible over the years have forsaken truth and become very relativistic relativism there's a couple things about relativism real quick relativism looks like tolerance by the way a zogby poll studies indicate 75 percent of americans americans excuse me american college for professors teach that there's no such thing as right or wrong 75 of american college professors nothing is real nothing is right or wrong they treat the questions of good and evil as relative to individual values and cultural diversity that's that's what they're teaching but what does the bible say the bible speaks of absolutes like first corinthians 6 9 says know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of god don't be deceived neither fornicators idolaters adulterers effeminate or abusers of themselves of mankind nor thieves or covetous drunkards revelers or extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of god that's an absolute statement from god in his word that relativism will never embrace but the bible says no so there has to be a line of ethics drawn and as christians we let the bible say what it's true so the bible says pedophilia is sin rape is sin incest is sin and on and on the list goes but once we open that door saying well we don't we like to think this is not sin then where does it stop that's the problem so relativism looks like tolerance but relativism also leads to arrogance arrogance the relativist your college professors will say that it's arrogant to say there's one true god i believe in a true and living god that's all-powerful and knows all and they'll say that's arrogance so you alone know god uh or the bible alone has a monopoly on truth and they'll they'll mock you as arrogant to believe in a true and living god but which however is the greater arrogance and this is a good thing to think through to claim the knowledge of one true real god or to claim to be like god and create your own reality one's more arrogant to say i know more than god in fact what my reality is is my little truth that's arrogance to claim you know more than god knows um so relativism leads itself to arrogance it looks like tolerance relativism loves ignorance it loves ignorance the more relativistic you are you can just choose to be ignorant on the things that you don't want to be or that you don't want to do chooses to be ignorant toward what god tells us is right and wrong and then finally relativism leads to consequence that is we think we're doing good in our own eyes but just read the book of judges every time the people did that which was right in their own sight they ended up destroyed wiped out and the loving god in heaven says don't do it because i love you and so really we see this history unfold throughout 1500 all the way to the present day the age of liberalism in the church god forbid that we become liberalists but we should become bibleists people who just believe the bible and say we're going to stick with it even if it becomes seemingly outdated by the world even when the world says well we don't agree with that we know more now today than we knew back then when the bible was written and that's what they'll say about a lot of issues and and people will argue against the bible because they want to keep doing their sinful deeds that's what the bible says so we either will read the bible and let it judge us or you can read the bible and be the judge of the bible oh man that's a dangerous position that's the church at laodicea they were neither hot nor were they cold but they were lukewarm and the lord says makes me want to puke that's what he says literally makes me want to vomit i don't want to be that church do you guys want to be that church no way lord help us i pray to not be this lukewarm church we see sadly evidence that the church at laodicea very much is similar in so many ways to the americanized church but i pray that you'd wake us up shake us up lord that we'd be repentant i pray that your word would be taught in the churches lord we live in a city that is more liberal in churches and in pastors and denominations than perhaps any other city in our in our nation and i pray that somehow your word would break in and just be revealed as true and that people would submit to your scriptures lord help athy creek to be um a salt and a light in a in a dark city lord and that your word would go out whether it's on the internet or the radio or just by these people who've been in your word to be able to communicate lovingly but firmly the truth of the word so we pray that you'd help us with these things lord your will be done in jesus name amen you

Channel: Lean-into-God

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Id: RQcPQ60NBKE

Length: 80min 53sec (4853 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 01 2020