Laodicea Church of Revelation (Neither Hot nor Cold - Lukewarm) - John Nixon

revelation the Bibles last book and chapter three verses 14 to 17 to begin hypothermia keep your Bible at hand this is the New International Version of the Bible to the Angel of the Church in Laodicea right these are the words of the Amen the faithful and true witness the ruler of God's creation I know your deeds that you are neither cold nor hot I wish you were either one or the other so because you are lukewarm neither cold nor hot I am about to spit you out of my mouth you say I am rich I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing but you do not realize that you are wretched pitiful poor blind and naked here is one of the most depressing passages in Scripture Christ's assessment of his last church what a letdown especially after the high praise given to church number 6 the contrast of Laodicea could not be more disappointing the letters to the seven churches generally follow the same format commendation complaint and then correction but the second and sixth church and this the seventh church are the exception Smyrna and Philadelphia received no criticism and Laodicea receives no praise the Lord is on able to find one redeeming quality in his last Church meanwhile the Laodiceans are busy commending themselves the other churches of Asia all receive a claim of some kind some godly trait for which they are applauded perseverance endurance loyalty faith love even in vacillating Sardis where the order is amended and complaint comes first because God just has to get it out even there at least a faithful few can be found to receive commendation but not in Laodicea the divine disfavor is complete any worse language and God could be talking about the devil himself and this is the last of the seven churches the prophecy as you know is both historical and prophetic John wrote to seven contemporary churches in Asia that were about fifty miles from each other but his writing also forecasts the history of the Christian Church down to the end of time Laodicea then is God's last Church on the earth so therefore there are two depictions of the last Church in Revelation Laodicea is the first of them the heroic remnant of chapter 12 and following that keeps the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus through all manner of persecution is what we are called to be but that great test is yet to come and if something doesn't happen we'll never be that Church the only description of a last Church to which we can lay claim right now is this one rich and increased with goods but at the same time wretched miserable poor blind and naked the letters to the seven churches are God's MRI reports on their spiritual conditions so now is the time for us to accept his diagnosis of us the recovery cannot begin until the alcoholic admits that he has a problem it is such a strange assessment because by every human standard Laodicea is doing well the city itself was the richest in Frey Gia a financial center and the home to a number of extremely wealthy people Laodicea was famous for its banks its textile industry and its medical school and the Christian community partook of the same prosperity as with the city so with the church tithe returns were booming but local ministries were flush the church had all the best equipment and the latest technology the parking lot was full of expensive cars any one judging by outward appearance would have nominated the Laodicean pastor to be pastor of the year but God does not judge by outward appearance and he never will at the same time the external signs all point to success inwardly Laodicea is rotting away the coffers are overflowing but the spirits of the people are dying and here is the most disturbing truth of all the two conditions are interrelated the outward prosperity and the inward decay they have everything to do with each other the one is caused by the other here is the part of the message that we don't want to hear because it touches one of our most cherished idol the Word of God is about to mess with our money and we've been waiting a long time to get some in the first place we're starting to get ours now and we don't want any preachers bothering that in 2004 the net worth of the average African American household rose to a hundred eleven thousand dollars a year there is a wide and disturbing discrepancy in the black community between the haves and the have-nots but most of us sitting here tonight are on the up side of that equation we're starting to get ours now if our great-grandparents could see us tonight they would not believe their eyes they would stand outside in the parking lot and calculate that there were no black people inside this building but what would they say about our faith again and again in his teaching ministry Jesus warns us about the evil of money and its withering effect on the soul in his first public discourse the Sermon on the Mount he deals with it he says in Matthew 6:24 no one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he'll be devoted to the one and despise the other you cannot serve both God and money money is capitalized in the NIV translation to indicate not just the dollars and cents but the system and the power that is behind them we try to say that we can have both God and money so long as we are careful to return a fateful tithe but jesus juxtaposes the two and makes his disciples choose he says you can't have both it's one or the other it's one of his earliest messages and we have yet to accept we have rationalized the theology of tithing to say that if we give our 10% the 90% is ours to do with as we please some of us double tithe 20% then we know we're in the clear with the rest but that has never been the spiritual meaning of tithing in the tithing theology but 10% is given as a token of God's ownership of the hundred percent just like the seventh-day Sabbath we give God one day as a sign that he totally possesses us every day and we return the tithe to show that all of our possessions belong to God and he can do with them whatever he pleases and he doesn't have to ask permission first he says write a check I pull out my checkbook if he says about another one I write another one if he wants the whole checkbook I turn it over to him it's his money not mine that's what tithing signifies just like the seventh-day Sabbath one of our students preached in class yesterday about the dilemma of job and he preached the job story right he didn't make it about Joe he made it about God when job lost everything in a single day everything he owned in a single day including his children job is the antithesis of mrs. lot imma talk about her in a minute hear me now when job lost everything in a single day everything he owned including his children the Bible says the words out of his mouth were naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked will I return the Lord has given the Lord has taken away blessed be the name of the Lord let's do it you sorry yet you came out to church tonight it's gonna get worse before it gets better now it's gonna get worse throughout human history Satan has used the system of money to destroy faith in God from the day he became the prince of this world he has used the ability to bestow wealth as a means of leading human souls into destruction Satan can make you rich and then use materialism to embezzle your soul away from God Jesus purchased us with his own precious blood Satan steals us back with mansions luxury vehicles and stock options the devil is behind the system of materialism that is so rampant in our world it is not neutral it is demonic turn me to Genesis chapter 4 in your Bible Genesis 4:17 let me share something with you here is a verse from early human history earliest Cain lay with his wife and she became pregnant and gave birth to anak Cain was then building a city and he named it after his son Enoch I want you to focus on six words Cain was then building a city the first city ever built was built by a murderer human civilization was conceived by Satan through Cain and the devil controls it we take it for granted that the world is organized the way it is but this is not the way God created us to live whatever existed in the Garden of Eden was lost with the entrance of sin the world we live in today this is the devil's system and it is calculated to separate us from God and turn us against each other I want you to notice three facets of human civilization that we think of as benign but they are clearly demonic the first one is that in human civilization especially Western culture there is the justification of greed Cain named the city after his son that is after himself claiming as his own that which he had received as a gift from God we don't own anything down here including our own lives the Babel builders after Cain indulged in the same arrogant presumption when they built their tower their words were come let us build ourselves a city and a tower that reaches to the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves and human civilization greed is justified we have a right to put self first secondly competition competition is nothing more than a civilized form of murder in which I promote myself by keeping you down my success is based on your failure we criticize it in the Adventist Church when it comes to organized sports but competition is everywhere not just in sports it's in our schools it's in business it's in government it's certainly in the markets this is what produces the economic extremes in our culture that shrink the middle class we're becoming a society of winners and losers only the very rich and the very poor with nothing in between there's no community like the Koinonia of Acts 2 and 4 not even in the church the Bible says of that community that was a godly community the Bible says of that community there were no needy persons among them there were no poor because those who had gave up what they had for the sake of those who had not the world rationalizes it by calling it survival of the fittest but have Christians become social Darwinian stew thirdly materialism power and privilege based on the accumulation of things we are a society that not only permits individuals to amass tremendous amounts of wealth we praise and adore them while they are doing so more wealth than they could ever use or ever spend in a lifetime we stand in awe and celebrate as they display it stockpile it multiply it and hold on to it as long as humanly possible material prosperity is a narcotic that produces an addiction and the want for more and we get a contact high from other people's money ain't got two dimes to rub together but just grinning as Oprah and Tiger take another hundred million to the bank there is an intangible force behind materialism that is unholy it is not neutral money encourages spiritual complacency it breeds a false sense of security it ties our hearts to the world and the things of the world Satan is behind it and he wants to use it to destroy our souls and it doesn't have to be a hundred million dollars you can have a hundred and B grasping and greedy about that and in the last days we are warned about it by our Lord Jesus himself Luke 17 in your Bible 28 to 32 look at how Jesus talks about the role of money in the final conclusion before his return to the earth it was the same in the days of lot people were eating and drinking buying and selling planting and building but the day lot left Sodom fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all it will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed on that day no one who is on the roof of his house with his goods inside should go down to get them see total detachment told ya it was right in the next room don't even go get it jesus said be detached so you can walk away from it in a moment's notice detachment he says don't even go down and get them likewise no one in the field should go back for anything and then these ominous words in verse 32 remember Lot's wife here's what I want us to see just as Sodom served as a preview of the condition of the world in the today's so says Jew 7 so also Lot's wife is a preview of the condition of the church in the last days she did not die in the city when the fire came down from heaven nor did she reach the town the Lord had preserved for her family her carcass was left smoldering on the plain between the two she wasn't cold enough to die with the sinners nor hot enough to be saved with the religious hers was a death of lukewarmness mrs. lot was the chara member of the Church of Laodicea and her downfall was her love of money Ellen White patriarchs and prophets 161 she rebelled against God because his judgments involved her possessions and her children in the ruin the antithesis of job she felt that she was severely dealt with because the wealth that had taken years to accumulate must be left to destruction she didn't cherish salvation she cherished her things here's watchman Nee love not the world a book I recommend by the way who would dare to say you do wrong to eat and drink who would dare disapprove of marrying and giving in marriage who would question your right to buy and sell these things are not in themselves wrong the wrong lies in the spiritual force behind them which through their medium presses relentlessly upon us The Devil's try to entangle us in our things materialism the tendency to consider material possessions as more important than spiritual values it's the religion of America and more and here is the blasphemy of the last days that in this generation the two have become combined into a deadly syncretism money has become spiritual in fact it is now the spiritual value above all others the prosperity gospel declares that through faith in Christ will receive money and privilege in this life that's the meaning of faithfulness now God believes in our dreams and he will make them come true if we claim it like jay-bez did Joe Osteen you know is the well-known pastor of the Lakewood Church eighteen thousand seat arena he preaches from a packed house every Sunday in one of his sermons you can hear it on his website one of his sermons increasing in favor here is what he says I believe one of the main ways that we grow in favor is by declaring it it's not enough to just read it it's not enough to just believe it you've got to speak it out your words have creative power he goes on in the sermon to testify about he got pulled over for speeding more than one time but when the officer learned his last name was Osteen no ticket was issued he said the same could happen for every Christian who wakes up to declaring that they have God's favor by following the method of claiming it Oh steam says he has been able to get the best parking spot in a crowded parking lot a first-class seat on a crowded plane with no boarding pass and priority seating at restaurants that's his sermon that's why Jesus died good seats for me and a license to speed there is no mention in his message of sacrifice to which I am called for the sake of others or the tribulation I must endure as the test of faith and this is what popular Christianity has come to in the last days the seventh-day Adventist Church included and it is no accident it's by the deliberate will and plan of the enemy of our souls no wonder God is about to vomit his church out what a travesty what a trivializing of a cross of Jesus Christ John predicted the book of Revelation describes three arenas in which Satan will establish his kingdom in the earth in the last days through the beasts power we have written and preached disproportionately about the first two and not enough about the third in revelation 13 the Beast is shown in the political arena the whole world wonders after the Beast and everyone is required to receive a mark in his forehead or in his hand revelation 17 shows the beast in the religious arena the Scarlet woman drunk with the blood of the saints she has persecuted as the self-appointed head of the universal Church and then though third of all revelation 18 the Beast is shown in the economic arena her luxury her fine linen and glittering gold with whom all the merchants of the earth have conducted commerce and the testimony is this in one hour such wealth has been brought to ruin when they see the smoke of her burning they all exclaim was there ever a city like this great city that's John's prophetic prediction none of our wealth is leaving here there is no baggage section or overhead compartments on the chariot cloud that takes us home we leave it here empty hand all our material possessions are going to be left behind that's what gets left behind none of our holdings are transferable to the kingdom of God there is no currency exchange angel waiting to take your dollars and turn them into heavenly coin God does not intend for one of his Saints to have a penny left in the bank by the time Jesus comes and the servant of God says that if you pay attention Jesus will tell you when it is time for you to dispose of all your holdings she says it won't be the same time for everybody but it's going to come for every believer in Christ everybody gives it up before we go home he gives it to us so we can give it away the only safe use for wealth for the Christian is to give it away to use it for God's kingdom like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea two rich men in the early church the servant of God says by the time they got to their deaths they had nothing left they spend all their money on the new church when Jesus said it's hard for a rich man to enter heaven this is what he was talking about it's hard because the rich man has so much to give up it's easy to give up two dollars then $200,000 but give it up we must or we will not see heaven we can change our life ambitions right now tonight as we sit in the presence of God we can give up once and for all the materialistic dream of ever making the Forbes list and concentrate instead in keeping our name in God's list the Lamb's Book of Life the most frightening thing about the MRI on Laodicea is the self-deception the deadly lukewarmness of contented orthodoxy it's one thing to be blind but quite another to be blind and not know it to be naked and think you're clothed to be to be poor and believe that you're rich lukewarmness is complacency comfortableness and no desire for change the Laodicean is still a believer you see in the pew every Sabbath no alarm of paganism or atheism discomforts his mind he feels perfectly safe in his tepid religion devoid of any radical commitment the weekly affirmation of his Adventism is all he requires to maintain the illusion of superior standing with God sin is restrained and suppressed in his public life though not expunged so he feels perfectly safe that's the most frightening thing the self-deception it reminds me of the final stages of death by freezing when the body is exposed for a long period of time to extreme cold it begins to react in defensive ways even if you have access to food and water extreme cold all by itself will kill you first the surface capillaries in the hands and feet constrict sending blood away from the skin to the torso to protect more vital organs fingers and toes become numb even as they ache with frostbite when the body's core temperature drops below 95 degrees the enzymes in the brain become less efficient and amnesia sets in at 91 degrees at he comes at 90 degrees a stupor you are now in a state of profound hypothermia the condition of having a dangerously low body temperature you realize that for some time you've been shivering an involuntary trembling of the muscles in an attempt to generate body heat but at 88 degrees as hypothermia becomes critical shivering stops the body is giving up in the final stages before death the heart becomes a rhythmic pumping less than two thirds the normal amount of blood lack of oxygen and slow metabolism trigger hallucinations you start seeing things that aren't there and here is the diabolical part as freezing kills it offers a perverse salvation the illusion of warmth and comfort that's Laodicea you imagine yourself somewhere safe and cozy perhaps before a nice fire and you stop fighting you stop resisting everything's okay now and you slip quietly into death there's an adage about hypothermia it says you aren't dead until you're warm and dead I've always wondered why the Lord would say that cold is better than lukewarm isn't lukewarm closer to being hot not if it's the lukewarm of freezing it's closer to death it's critical Church we are running out of time God is going to find somebody else to finish his work in the earth if we don't get it together but it's not too late yet our last passage revelation 3:19 and 20 listen to the words of Jesus those whom I love I rebuke and discipline so be earnest and repent Here I am he says I stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in and eat with him and he with me I want you to notice two things about Jesus appeal as I close first of all it's an appeal based on love he still loves us how love for him may have grown cold but not his love for us he speaks these hard words to us because he loves us he's trying to shake us out of our lethargy he's trying to wake us up before it's too late He loves us his love has not failed it has not waned he loves us as much as he did when he laid his life down for us he hasn't come to condemn us he's come to arouse us so that we may yet be saved secondly and last I want you to notice it's an individual appeal in Sardis Jesus appealed to a small group of thankful few in Laodicea the appeal is one by one a knock on the door of each individual heart if anyone lets me in I'll come in I'll sup with him and he with me Jesus is courting us tonight he wants to renew the engagement and get married again he's not the one who left us we left him but he's the one knocking on the door he wants it like it was before he's proposing to us what is your answer he wants a yes but but remember his words you can't have me and your money too you got to choose Jesus is praying and hoping that we choose him who believes father in heaven thank you for the warning to the last church the warning that is given to arouse us from our lethargy we have fallen asleep at the wheel we've been distracted by worldly things we spend more of our time thinking about money than we do thinking about God from the time we wake up in the morning it's bills and needs and gifts and achievements all the time we've gotten caught up in the rat race we've even turned church into the rat race Lord forgive us tonight and help us to listen help us to hear help us to be aroused and help us to surrender through Jesus Christ our Lord

Channel: Healthy Lifestyle Choices

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Keywords: Christianity (Religion)

Id: dOY0quFJBdQ

Length: 34min 57sec (2097 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 23 2013