{"id":18965,"date":"2018-10-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-14T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/revelation-017-the-curse-of-prosperity\/"},"modified":"2018-10-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-10-14T05:00:00","slug":"revelation-017-the-curse-of-prosperity","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/revelation-017-the-curse-of-prosperity\/","title":{"rendered":"Revelation 017 – The Curse of Prosperity"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[111],"series_event":[490],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18965","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-revelation","series_event-revelation","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Revelation 017 - The Curse of Prosperity","sermon_date":"20181014","sermon_month":"10","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":6127,"sermon_slides":6134,"sermon_mp3":6136,"sermon_id":"10141885472","series_or_event":490,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":111,"chapter_and_verse":"3:14-20","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nThe Curse of Prosperity\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 10-14-18\n\nRevelation 3:14-20\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 17\n\nGood morning everybody. If we could take our Bibles and turn to the Book of Revelation, chapter 3 beginning at verse 14. If time permits, probably today, probably in the next week we\u2019re going to try to make it through the end of the chapter, verse 22.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is The Curse of Prosperity.\u00a0 \u00a0And here we are continuing through the Book of Revelation, in that middle section of the book where John is specifically told to write down the things that are; seven letters to seven churches in Asia Minor back in the first century, John receiving a visitation from Christ Himself on the Island of Patmos in A.D. 95, writing to each church.\n\nWe\u2019ve seen Christ\u2019s words to Ephesus, the loveless church, Christ\u2019s words to Smyrna, the persecuted church, Christ\u2019s words to Pergamum, the compromised church, Thyatira, the corrupt church, Sardis, the dead church.\u00a0 You say this is depressing.\u00a0 Well, cheer up, it gets worse today.\u00a0 We did spend a few weeks on Philadelphia, which is the highlight of this whole set of letters, the mission minded, missionary church.\u00a0 But we sort of moved from the height of this section to the low point, Christ\u2019s final words to Laodicea.\u00a0 We would call Laodicea the man-centered church.\n\nHere is sort of our outline we\u2019re going to be using as we take a look at Christ\u2019s final words to Laodicea.\u00a0 And look at this, we\u2019re making progress, we\u2019re at the end of that middle section of the book and pretty soon we\u2019ll be raptured into heaven, chapter 4, and we\u2019ll get into the futuristic section of the book.\n\nNotice what Jesus says to this church at Laodicea there in verse 14.\u00a0 Notice how he gives the destination.\u00a0 He says, \u201cTo the angel of the church in Laodicea write:\u201d\u00a0 Notice the word \u201cchurch,\u201d that\u2019s very important.\u00a0 As I\u2019ll be sharing with you there\u2019s a great temptation on the part of many commentators to say these folks are so far off the mark there\u2019s no way they could be saved.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be showing you that I believe these folks were saved; one of the reasons we think they were saved is they were in church, they were meeting in a church.\u00a0 Going to church, of course, doesn\u2019t make you saved but in the first century there\u2019d be no real reason to go to church unless you\u2019re a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nIt says, \u201cTo the angel of the church in Laodicea\u201d now all the way through I\u2019ve been trying to explain that I think the angel to each church is the messenger, or the pastor of each church.\u00a0 So if this is truly the pastor of the church at Laodicea this is a guy I really feel sorry for because he had to bear a great burden as he watched his own church become progressively man-centered, anthropo\u00ad\u00adcentric, centered on man rather than Theocentric, centered upon God.\n\nThe destination is Laodicea, there\u2019s where Laodicea appears on the map, it\u2019s the final church in this section that we\u2019ll be looking at.\u00a0 Laodicea was about forty-five miles southeast of Philadelphia, about forty miles east of Ephesus.\u00a0 And everything we know about Laodicea was it was a place of great wealth.\u00a0 It was a place of great commerce.\u00a0 The standard of living was very, very high and that, as I\u2019ll be sharing with you, was part of the problem here at Laodicea.\n\nIn fact, the name Laodicea itself really reveals the heart of the problem.\u00a0 Laodicea is a compound word which basically means two words making up one word.\u00a0 Laodicea comes from Laos meaning people and then the Greek word dikeo<\/em> or dicao<\/em> meaning to rule.\u00a0 And literally what Laodicea means is the people ruling.\n\nWilliam Newell in his commentary on The Book of Revelation says this: \u201c\u201cThe name comes from laos<\/em>, people, and dikao<\/em>, to rule: the rule of the people:\u201d and then he says \u201c\u2018democracy,\u2019 in other words.\u201d\u00a0 [William Newell, The Book of the Revelation (Chicago: Moody, 1935), 75.]\u00a0 So this is a mindset in that particular culture where God had no say about anything, man is the center of all things.\u00a0 And that spirit of the world sadly invaded the church and this is what happened to Christ\u2019s final church that He addresses here.\u00a0 It became very, what we would call, worldly or man-centered.\n\nOf course this is very applicable to those of us living in the United States of America because we too, compared to the rest of the world, enjoy a very high standard of living which can have a very negative spiritual effect on us.\u00a0 We are also in a very humanistic man-centered culture.\u00a0 In fact, humanism is the dominant doctrine taught in the school system today in the United States of America.\u00a0 Humanism basically is the belief that man is the center of all things; God, if He exists at all is irrelevant to man.\u00a0 So anthropocentrism eclipses in the United States theocentrism.\u00a0 So this is a little bit about the culture of Laodicea.\n\nNow you\u2019ll notice here in part two how Jesus Christ describes Himself to this church.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t just surface things just to be irrelevant in His information; He surfaces things that would be relevant to them and their mindset.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice there in verse 14, the second half of verse 14, Jesus describes Himself in four ways.\u00a0 Take a look if you could at verse 14, the second part of the verse.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThe Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this:\u201d four descriptors of Jesus.\u00a0 Number one, He is The Amen.\u00a0 When we say \u201camen\u201d after a prayer for example, we\u2019re saying it is certain, or it is true.\u00a0 Jesus, in describing Himself as the \u201camen\u201d is basically describing Himself as the one who guarantees confirmation and certainty of all that He says. What Jesus said is absolutely true.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why we, as Christians, are called not to be double-tongued; we\u2019re to be called people of truth.\u00a0 Our character should be backed up in the things that we say.\u00a0 We should be just like that.\n\nJesus also here is called \u201cfaithful,\u201d faithful means trustworthy.\u00a0 In fact, He\u2019s the only one in your life, people let you down all of the time, He\u2019s really the only one that you can count on.\u00a0 He\u2019s described that way many places in the Bible, not the least of which is 1 John 1:9, \u201cIf we confess our sins He is\u201d what? \u201cfaithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unright\u00adeous\u00ad\u00ad\u00adness.\u00a0 Aren\u2019t you glad Jesus is not duplicitous as we confess our sins to Him\u2026 oh, I forgave him last week but not this week\u2026 NO, He\u2019s absolutely consistent in His character.\n\nAnd He\u2019s also described here as the \u201ctrue witness.\u201d\u00a0 You probably have memorized John 14:6 where Jesus called Himself \u201cthe way, the truth,\u201d definite article in front of \u201ctruth\u201d \u201cthe truth, the life, no one comes to the Father but by Him.\u00a0 [John 14:6, \u201cJesus said to him, \u2018I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.\u201d]\n\nThis is who Jesus Christ is; He is the amen, He is faithful, He is true, in fact, He is everything that the church at Laodicea was not.\u00a0 These people were not faithful to anything but themselves and so Jesus holds Himself out here in terms of His character by way of contrast.\n\nAnd it\u2019s interesting here at the end of verse 14 He actually calls Himself, the NASB translates it this way, \u201cthe beginning of creation.\u201d\u00a0 I think it might be better translated through that Greek word arch\u0113<\/em> meaning beginning, the originator of creation, the source of creation.\u00a0 Some have even argued that what it\u2019s actually saying is Jesus is the ruler of creation.\u00a0 And that sort of becomes a big deal because there are many people throughout history that attack the doctrine of the Trinity, probably one of the earliest individuals in the history of the church to do this was a man named Arius, who basically said there was a time in which He was not.\u00a0 Jesus had a beginning point.\u00a0 And the Nicene Creed was formulated to refute Arius because there is a clause in the Nicene Creed concerning Jesus that says this: Begotten and not\u201d what? \u201cmade.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cBegotten\u201d meaning unique, but He was never made. In fact, not if but when the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses show up at your door they will put on a song and dance about how Jesus actually is a created being.\u00a0 They are, in essence, recycling the ancient heresy of Arius that was corrected through the Nicene Creed.\n\nJesus was not\u00a0 a created being.\u00a0 Jesus is part of the eternally existent Trinity.\u00a0 In fact, not only is Jesus NOT a created being but Jesus Himself is the one who created everything.\u00a0 For example, in the Book of John, chapter 1, verse 13, it says, \u201cAll things came into being through Him\u201d that\u2019s Jesus, \u201cand apart from Him noting came into being that has ever come into being.\u201d\n\nColossians 1:15-16 says, \u201cHe is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, [16] \u201cFor by Him all things were created both in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities\u2014all things have been created through Him and for Him\u201d\u00a0 If you find yourself thinking that somehow there was a time in which Jesus was not and Jesus Himself came into existence at some point in history, you\u2019re in great theological error and\u00a0 you\u2019re in a church that\u2019s promulgating a Trinitarian heresy.\u00a0 In fact, it\u2019s an attack, if you will, on the Trinity itself.\n\nA lot of people have this idea that with the virgin birth Jesus came into existence.\u00a0 And that simply is not true, Jesus has always existed.\u00a0 He is the uncaused cause, just like the Father is., just like the Son is.\u00a0 The only thing that happened with the virgin birth and His incarnation is in a moment of time eternally existent deity, what was added to that was humanity.\u00a0 The virgin birth was not a subtraction; it was not an exchange.\u00a0 It was an addition to something that already existed.\u00a0 Jesus is, at that point, !00% God\/100% man because only such a person could qualify to be our Savior.\u00a0 But the point of the incarnation, the point of the virgin birth, the point of the virgin conception was never the beginning of Jesus.\u00a0 Jesus has always been and will always be.\n\nNow we move away from the description of Christ to the commendation; He commends each church \u2026 what happened to the words that are positive that He shared with each church, every single church where they\u2019re doing something right.\u00a0 Some churches He seems to be struggling to find something to say but He always acknowledge something.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice that the Laodicean letter completely deviates from that pattern.\u00a0 He gives no word of affirmation; in other words, there\u2019s absolutely nothing positive happening within this congregation so He skips that step altogether.\u00a0 It\u2019s the opposite of what He did with Smyrna, no rebuke; Philadelphia, no rebuke, but He gets to Laodicea and there is no word of praise.\n\nSo what in the world is wrong with these people?\u00a0 Well, we find out in verses 15-17 where He immediately launches into a rebuke, and He rebukes them here for four things: number one, their lukewarmness.\u00a0 Notice, if you will verses 15-16, notice what it says. \u201cI know your deeds, that you\u2019re neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot.\u00a0 [16] 'So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.\u00a0 [Revelation 3:15-16]\u00a0 Notice that He \u00a0says there in verse 15, \u201cI know,\u201d this is something that He has said virtually to every church, \u201cI know,\u201d I know exactly what\u2019s happening, I know what\u2019s happening within this culture, I know what\u2019s happening within this congregation, I know exactly what\u2019s transpiring because I am the Creator of all things and I am head of the church.\u00a0 You can\u2019t pull the wool over Christ\u2019s eyes, in other words.\n\nJohn 2:23-25 says this and I\u2019ve used this verse many times to describe the omniscience of Christ.\u00a0\u00a0 It says, \u201cNow when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. [24] But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them,\u201d why not?\u00a0 \u201cfor He knew all men, [25] and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.\u201d\u00a0 He knew exactly what group of people or what individuals to entrust Himself to and which ones to avoid because through omni\u00adscience He could see the true motives of people.\n\nAnd through His omniscience He is giving a peak here of the church at Laodicea.\u00a0 Now within Laodicea, at least nearby, there was a well-known hot springs so he is using language from their own culture that they can relate to, to communicate a spiritual point.\u00a0 He says, \u201cyou are neither not nor cold, you\u2019re lukewarm.\u201d Many people misunderstand this and they think what Jesus is saying is if you\u2019re not going to be hot spiritually I\u2019d rather you be cold, which really doesn\u2019t make any sense because why would Jesus ever want us to be spiritually cold. What He is saying is your lukewarm state makes you of no use to me, because I can do something with hot water, and they knew all about that because they had a hot springs; think of all the things you can do with hot water, hot coffee, laundry, dishwasher.\u00a0 And then you could do things with cold water, can\u2019t you?\u00a0 You can quench someone\u2019s thirst.\u00a0 But what in the world can you do with water that\u2019s lukewarm?\u00a0 It\u2019s become useless for anything.\n\nSo if you\u2019re not hot I wish that you were cold because I could at least use you for something but because you\u2019re neither and have become useless, because of your worldliness I am about to spit you out of my mouth.\u00a0 [Revelation 3:15, \u201c'I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot.\u00a0 [16] 'So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.\u201d]\n\nI think a similar kind of statement made in Scripture you can find in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:13 where Jesus says to the believers, \u201cYou are the salt of the earth;\u201d think how critical salt is in terms of a preservative, \u201cYou are the salt of the earth but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.\u201d\u00a0 If salt becomes tasteless what can you use it for?\u00a0 Virtually nothing, it loses its power as a preservative to the culture.\u00a0 That basically is what you have happening here in Laodicea; they\u2019re not hot; you can do something with hot water.\u00a0 They\u2019re not cold; you can do something with cold water.\u00a0 But they\u2019re right in the middle in sort of this lukewarm state which means they have no utility to Him in terms of using their lives to advance His purposes.\u00a0 And we saw the Lord\u2019s reaction to that at the end of verse 16, where He says I\u2019m about to \u201cspit you out of My mouth.\u201d\u00a0 When you take in lukewarm water it gives you that sort of feeling, doesn\u2019t it, feeling of nausea.\u00a0 I mean, what can you really do with lukewarm water, it doesn\u2019t even taste good, it doesn\u2019t even taste right.\n\nSo Jesus here is commenting on the nauseous state that He Himself is under when He looks at the man-centered church there in Laodicea.\u00a0 A lot of people misunderstand this verse and they think it means you can lose your salvation.\u00a0 For Christ to teach you can lose your salvation here would be to contradict what He said in John\u2019s other book, John 10:27-29 where He said:\u00a0 \u201cMy sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; [28] and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish;\u201d double negation in Greek followed by the word eternal, \u201cand no one will snatch them out of My hand. [29] My Father, who has given them<\/em> to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them<\/em> out of the Father\u2019s hand.\u201d\n\nIf you\u2019re a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ\u00a0 you are what I like to call in the double grip of grace.\u00a0 Not only are you in the Son\u2019s hand but you are in the Father\u2019s hand and absolutely nothing can remove that condition.\u00a0 But that doesn\u2019t mean that your life can\u2019t become nonproductive for God as we become worldly.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t mean God can\u2019t look at the life of a Christian, not in terms of his position but in terms of his practice and feel absolutely nauseous when He looks at it. And that\u2019s sort of the description that you have here, taking place in Laodicea.\n\nWell what in the world is wrong with these people?\u00a0 The problem is what I like to call the curse of prosperity; they just had too much of this world\u2019s power and possessions and influence.\u00a0 In fact, they were so blessed materially they forgot God and forgot their need for God.\u00a0 I mean, it\u2019s sort of hard, isn\u2019t it, to pray for your daily bread if you own your own bakery?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that difficult?\u00a0 Why would I pray to God for it, I own my own bakery, I don\u2019t need to pray to God any more for my daily bread. \u00a0And this is what I like to call the curse of prosperity; a lot of people today, particularly in the United States, see this as the height of spirituality. There\u2019s even a whole gospel for this movement called the \u201cProsperity Gospel\u201d which equates material prosperity with spiritual prosperity.\n\nWhat our Bible is saying is it could be the exact opposite.\u00a0 This is what was happening in wealthy man-centered Laodicea.\u00a0 You see, it\u2019s hard to pour water into a cup that\u2019s already full.\u00a0 And that\u2019s how a lot of people are;\u00a0 you share with them grace\u2026 I don\u2019t need grace, I mean, my life is going pretty well, I\u2019ve got things figured out, I\u2019ve pulled myself up by my own bootstraps.\u00a0 Dependence on God, well, what would I depend upon God for, look at how self-sufficient I am.\u00a0 And this mindset of the culture sadly invades the church and the church becomes very man centered.\n\nLook at the whole problem there in verse 17, Jesus speaking to the church, \u201c'Because you, Laodicea, say, \u2018I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,\u2019\u201d in fact I\u2019m so wealthy and I\u2019m so popular and I\u2019m so powerful and I\u2019m so healthy that I don\u2019t even need God any more, and this is what I would call the curse of prosperity.\u00a0 The curse of prosperity is spoken of many, many times in your Bible.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a few verses: Deuteronomy 8:11-14, the children of Israel about to enter Canaan were warned of the prosperity that they would experience in the land of Canaan\u00a0 and the detrimental impact it would have on their spiritual lives.\u00a0 It says this: \u201cBeware that you do not forget the LORD your GOD by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today,\u00a0 [12] otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, [13] and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies,\u201d in other words when you achieve the American dream, \u00a0[14] \u201cthen your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.\u201d\n\nHe\u2019s essentially saying it\u2019s actually more advantageous to you when the manna would appear day by day because that way you had to depend upon Me.\u00a0 But you\u2019re entering into Canaan where there won\u2019t even be a need for me to give manna any more; that land flows with milk and honey, the land is capable of sustaining its inhabitants and you\u2019re going to really begin to prosper, your career is going to take off.\u00a0 Your financial assets are about to dramatically increase and I want to warn\u00a0 you what could happen to you.\u00a0 You\u2019re going to forget Me if you\u2019re careful; the curse of prosperity.\n\nDidn\u2019t Jesus talk about this all of the time in His ministry?\u00a0 Didn\u2019t He say things like this: Matthew 19:20-23, \u201cAnd Jesus said to His disciples, \u201cTruly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. [24] Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.\u201d\u00a0 The problem with having this world\u2019s goods is you\u2019re used to buying your way out of\u00a0 your problem and if you\u2019re used to buying your way out of\u00a0 your own problems through your own self-sufficiency, isn\u2019t it interesting how there\u2019s a tendency to ignore God as\u00a0 your provider.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think the Bible is against financial resources, that would be a doctrine called asceticism which is equally wrong.\u00a0 But I\u2019ll tell you this much, having this world\u2019s goods, there\u2019s severe warning to us in the Bible about this detrimental to one\u2019s spirituality.\n\nPaul, in fact, instructed young Timothy, who was pastoring the church at Ephesus in 1 Timothy 6:17 and he gives a command that Timothy is to relay to the rich in Ephesus.\u00a0 And he says, \u201cInstruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited\u201d isn\u2019t that interesting how wealth makes us arrogant, \u201cnot to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches,\u201d you have a tendency to place your confidence in your worldly goods, \u201cbut instead fix their hope on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.\u201d\u00a0 Notice he says that having money, having nice things is not necessary evil in and of itself. The Bible never says money is the root of all evil; it says what?\u00a0 \u201cThe love of money is the root of all sorts of evil.\u201d\n\nThe issue is not do I have possessions, rather the issue is do my possession possess me. It\u2019s not do I own things but do the things I own actually own me.\u00a0\u00a0 And during seasons of great prosperity in our lives we have a tendency to forget God.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I so like Proverbs 30:8-9, the prayer of Hagar, kind of an unknown person named Hagar is given a slot there in Proverbs 30:8-9, \u201cKeep deception and lies far from me, Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my portion,\u00a0 [9] That I not be full and deny You<\/em> and say, \u2018Who is the LORD?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Or that I not be in want and steal, and profane the name of my God.\u2019\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 You know, Lord, don\u2019t make me so poor that I have to steal and dishonor you but at the same time don\u2019t make me so rich and prosperous that I have a tendency to forget You.\u00a0 And so this, in essence, becomes a problem at Laodicea; it\u2019s all there in verse 17.\u00a0 He\u2019s narrating what they\u2019re thinking because Jesus knows all things.\u00a0 You\u2019re saying I\u2019m rich, I have become wealthy and I don\u2019t need a single thing.\n\nHe corrects them also for another issue, their own spiritual blindness.\u00a0 The most tragic thing about Laodicea is the people were in this condition and they didn\u2019t even know it.\u00a0 In fact, if you were to serve them and interview them they would probably think everything\u2019s fine, thumbs up about everything and they were blind to their own spiritual condition before the Lord.\u00a0 Look at what He says there in the second part of verse 17, \u201cYou do not know\u201d now watch this, look at these descriptors, \u201cthat you\u2019re wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.\u201d\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it interesting in verse 15 Jesus says I know, but then you drop down to verse 17 and He says \u201cYou do not know.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 You do not know what I know because of your own spiritual blindness.\u00a0 And these descriptors are incredible, five adjectives, \u201cwretched\u201d he\u2019s talking to God\u2019s people here in their daily life, \u201cmiserable, poor, blind, and naked,\u201d not in terms of their position but in terms of their practice.\n\nThink back to the second church we studied, the church at Smyrna, the struggling church, the church that was really on the bottom shelf in terms of the poverty level.\u00a0 Remember what Jesus said to that church, Revelation 2:9, \u201c'I know your tribulation and your poverty\u201d but remember that parenthetical comment, \u201c(but you are\u201d actually \u201crich)\u201d, it\u2019s the opposite with Laodicea.\u00a0 They had material prosperity but they were in a place of spiritual poverty.\n\nWhat do you do with a group like this?\u00a0 He moves directly there, verses 18-20, into the exhorta\u00adtion and he exhorts these people to do four things.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice how he begins there in verse 18, \u201cI advise you to buy from Me,\u201d you guys think you\u2019re rich, you think you\u2019re prosperous, you think you have everything so I\u2019ll tell you what; you need to buy from me these items and once\u00a0 you receive these items these things, once they come into your life are going to put you back into a position of dependency that you need before me.\u00a0 Notice the sarcasm here, God can be very sarcastic when you study the Bible and He\u2019s very sarcastic with these people.\u00a0 You guys are rich, okay, here\u2019s what you need to purchase, here\u2019s what you need to put on your credit card, here\u2019s what you need to go down to the mall and buy and get these five things straight and then you\u2019ll be straightened out.\n\nCharles Ryrie in his Ryrie Study Bible has a fascinating note here on verse 18.\u00a0 He says, \u201cThese perhaps refer to the cities three main sources of wealth.\u00a0 Number one, banking; number two, production of wool or cloth and number three, medicines.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus is giving some analogies that they would understand from their own world concerning cloth and the industry that existed there, banking and the industry that existed there, and Laodicea was also well known for its very effective medical school which based on what we know from history had a particular eye ointment that could be used to correct many deficiencies in terms of seeing and so forth.\u00a0 That\u2019s how badly Jesus wants to communicate with people.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t just start rattling on and on about things that they would not know anything about but He starts using the spiritual lessons from their own culture and their own world that they would readily understand and grasp.\n\nWhat do these people need?\u00a0 Number one, they need to purchase some things from Christ.\u00a0 Number 2, they need to be zealous.\u00a0 Number 3, they need to repent.\u00a0 Number 4 they need to restore fellowship with Him.\u00a0 What do they need to purchase from Christ?\u00a0 Three things from their own industries that they would understand.\u00a0 The first thing you need is you need to buy gold from Me.\u00a0 Now here in the United States we\u2019re kind of gold bugs, aren\u2019t we?\u00a0 Everybody is telling us the stock market is going to collapse, the economies of the world are going to collapse (and maybe that\u2019s true) and let\u2019s stock up on gold.\u00a0 Jesus here starts talking about gold but He\u2019s obviously not talking about material gold, He\u2019s talking about a spiritual lesson from something that they would under-stand.\u00a0 He says, verse 18, \u201cI advise you to buy from Me\u201d\n\n\u201cI advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich,\u201d that\u2019s very, very interesting; \u201cgold refined by fire,\u201d [Revelation 3:18a] what could that be?\u00a0 We have an answer, don\u2019t we, in 1 Peter 1:6-7. It defines what gold refined by fire is.\u00a0 It says in 1 Peter 1:6-7, \u201cIn this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, [7] so that the proof of your faith, being<\/em> more precious than\u201d what? \u201cgold which is perishable, even though tested by\u201d what? \u201cfire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.\u201d\u00a0 Translation: you know what you need in Laodicea?\u00a0 You need a trial, you need a problem, you need adversity, you need a frustration,\u00a0 you need a setback, because it\u2019s only if that setback, whatever it may be, comes into your life are you going to come to the end of yourself and you\u2019re going to recognize your dependence upon Me because after all I\u2019m the Creator and you after all are the creation.\n\nWhen you compare this with the church at Smyrna I would interpret it this way: self-sufficiency makes you poor, that\u2019s what your Bible teaches.\u00a0 If you\u2019re self-sufficient then you have all of the resources and you have all the answers to the point where why even pray any more, where your prayer life just kind of dissipates and becomes just sort of an empty ritual, because you really don\u2019t need God.\u00a0 Spiritually speaking that puts you in a position of poverty.\n\nBut isn\u2019t it interesting how reliance and dependence upon God has the opposite effect; it makes a person rich.\u00a0 I am reminded of the story of the rich man, he\u2019s described in Luke 12:16-21.\u00a0 [Luke 12:16, \u201cAnd He told them a parable, saying, \u2018The land of a rich man was very productive. [17] And he began reasoning to himself, saying, \u2018What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?\u2019 [18] Then he said, \u2018This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. [19]\u2018And I will say to my soul, \u2018Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come;<\/em> take your ease, eat, drink and<\/em> be merry.\u2019 \u00a0[20] But God said to him, \u2018You fool! This very<\/em> night your soul is required of you; and now<\/em> who will own what you have prepared?\u2019 [21]So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.\u201d]\n\nHe talks about his productivity and how he\u2019s going to have to tear down his barns and build bigger barns because a lot of the prosperity that he had, and he was saying to himself in Luke 12:19, \u201cSoul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come;<\/em> take your ease, eat, drink and<\/em> be merry.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Verse 19, the American dream.\u00a0 Verse 20 though says, \u201cBut God said to him,\u201d you what? \u201c\u2018You fool! This very<\/em> night your soul is required of you; and now<\/em> who will own what you have prepared?\u201d\u00a0 [21] So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.\u201d\n\nYou\u2019re so rich and successful and so powerful that you\u2019ve even forgotten that you\u2019re here for a brief moment, you\u2019re like mist that appears for a little while and then it\u2019s gone and this very night you\u2019re about to die.\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019re not thinking about that, are you?\u00a0 You\u2019re not thinking about it because you\u2019ve stopped thinking of yourself as a dependent creature and creation of God. \u00a0This is the curse of prosperity, this is Laodicea.\n\nJames 1:9-11 puts it this way: \u201cBut the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position; [10] and the rich man is to glory<\/em> in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away. [11] For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away.\u201d\n\nAre you today in a position of need before God?\u00a0 A\u00a0 position of dependency, whatever the issue is, health, finances, relationships?\u00a0 Then you ought to glory in your position because at least you can recognize your\u00a0 need before God.\u00a0 But if\u00a0 you\u2019re here today in a place of self-sufficiency you should find yourself in humiliation in your very low position because you\u2019re in a state of deception that Jesus sees and that you cannot see.\n\nThis is why the Apostle Paul had, 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 a thorn in the flesh.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have any idea what the thorn in the flesh was, many people speculate, but I know this much, a thorn hurts.\u00a0 It was something that was in his life, it says in that passage that he asked three times for God to take it away.\u00a0 In fact, it says he pleaded with God to take away this problem.\u00a0 But God said to him each time, no,\u00a0 [9] \u201cMy grace is sufficient for you.\u201d Therefore Paul says, \u201cMost gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. [10] Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ\u2019s sake; for when I am weak, then I am\u201d what? \u201cstrong.\u201d\n\nI mean, are you here with some issue in your life and you keep asking God to remove it?\u00a0 And no matter how much you pray about it and how sincere your prayer is and how many people you get on the prayer chain to pray for it the issue never gets resolved, could it be rather than thinking God is your enemy, could it be that very thing, whatever it is a gift, because it\u2019s helping you recognize your dependence upon God, and as you\u2019re walking in dependence upon God you\u2019re a pliable, usable vessel.\u00a0 Gosh, they sure didn\u2019t have that in Laodicea, did they?\n\nGo to one of the richest areas in the United States; go to Beverly Hills and try to start a church there that wants to teach the Word of God, it doesn\u2019t want to cater to the masses but it wants to do the kind of ministry we do here, teaching the Word of God even when it\u2019s uncomfortable.\u00a0 What kind of reaction would you get there?\u00a0 That\u2019s what you get here in Laodicea.\u00a0 So I am advising you, number one, purchase from Me gold refined in the fire.\u00a0 \u00a0[Revelation 3:18, \u201cI advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.\u201d]\n\nNow there\u2019s something else they need from their industries that they would understand; they need some white garments.\u00a0 Look again what he says in verse 18, \u201cI advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed\u2026.\u00a0 What is this business here about white garments?\u00a0 White garments is the righteousness of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 It\u2019s something that is supplied to us by way of grace; we receive it at the point of faith when we trust in Christ we become positionally righteous. Philippians 3:9 says, \u201cand may be found in Him, not having<\/u> a righteousness of my own derived from the Law\u2026.\u201d\n\nI hope when you stand before God one day you\u2019re not planning on standing before God through your own loin skins, and the works of religiosity that you have created, which isn\u2019t going to get you zip with God and my works of righteousness aren\u2019t going to get me zip with God either.\u00a0 What I need is what the Protestant Reformers called alien righteousness, transferred righteousness, righteousness from the outside.\n\nAnd these folks, I would think this, maybe they had received that but they had forgotten all about it.\u00a0 There\u2019s a verse in 2 Peter that\u2019s very interesting, it\u2019s talking to Christians, and it says this, 2 Peter 1:9, \u201cFor he who lacks these qualities is blind and short-sighted,\u201d and people say well that\u2019s unbelievers.\u00a0 NO! \u201chaving forgotten his purification from his former sins.\u201d\u00a0 These are people that have experienced purification from former sins, they were saved.\u00a0 And yet the pressure of the world was so profound in their minds they had forgotten their identity and so consequently weren\u2019t living according to their new identity at all.\u00a0 That\u2019s what you have in Laodicea.\n\nYou need to go back and remember how you got saved and why you\u2019re saved to begin with.\u00a0 And by the way, you\u2019d better quit trying to live the Christian life through your own power because the grace that saved you is the grace by which you live.\u00a0 Didn\u2019t Paul say in the Book of Galatians, chapter 3 and verse 3, \u201cAre you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit,\u201d obviously saved people, unsaved people don\u2019t have the Spirit, \u201chaving begun by the Spirit are you now being perfected by the flesh?\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019ve forgotten grace.\u00a0 You\u2019re trying to work out the Christian life through the energy of human power and human flesh.\n\nAnd by the way, you\u2019re in a man centered culture that says you can do anything.\u00a0 So that has been brought into your Christian walk, that has been brought into your Christian experience and you don\u2019t even understand your own position any more.\u00a0 You don\u2019t even understand that you were saved by grace and if it weren\u2019t for the grace of God you\u2019re not even going to survive Monday morning.\u00a0 But you\u2019ve become so self-sufficient in your own eyes\u00a0 you\u2019ve for\u00adgotten your position.\u00a0 And so you need these white garments.\u00a0 You need to remember, number one, what\u00a0 you have, and number two, you need to recollect that the power of God that saved\u00a0 you is the power of God that\u2019s going to keep you.\n\nThere\u2019s something else you need to buy because you have a medical school there so let me give you a third illustration.\u00a0 You need this eye ointment, eye salve.\u00a0 You see it in verse 18, \u201cwhite garments so that\u00a0 you may clothe yourself and that the shame of\u00a0 your nakedness will not be revealed,\u201d look at the end of verse 18 \u201c; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019re dealing with people in the body of Christ that are in essence in a state of blindness over their own condition.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I read to you a little earlier 2 Peter 1:9,\u201dFor he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-cited, having forgotten his former purification\u201d or his purification from his former sins.\u201d\n\nIf these people are so blinded they don\u2019t even see their condition how do you get your eyes opened?\u00a0 You need eye ointment for that, and the eye ointment that you need is the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 You want to see your condition?\u00a0 Then ask the Lord through the Holy Spirit to open your eyes because He\u2019s the only one who can help you see spiritual things.\u00a0 What did Jesus say to Nicodemus in John 3:3, \u201cTruly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot\u201d what? \u201csee the kingdom of God.\u201d\u00a0 The unsaved person can\u2019t even see it without the Spirit. The saved person that quenches the Spirit may become blind again.\u00a0 \u00a0So you need the Holy Spirit to start to reopen to reorient your thinking so you can see your true condition.\n\n1 Corinthians 2:14 says, \u201cBut the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God\u2026.\u201d Does this sermon sound foolish to you?\u00a0 You\u2019re in a very dangerous class of persons if the whole thing sounds foolish to you.\u00a0 \u201c\u2026, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.\u201d\u00a0 But what the Spirit of God will do for the unsaved (and for the saved) is He\u2019ll really open your eyes to reality if you let God do it.\n\n1 John 2:27 says, \u201cAs for you the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you so that you have no need for anyone to teach you, but as His anointing teaches us about all things and is true and it is not a lie, just as it has taught you, abide in Him.\u201d\u00a0 Do you want to be growing in the Christian life?\u00a0 Do you want to keep progressing in the Christian life?\u00a0 Do you want to keep seeing the world and yourself the way God sees you?\u00a0 Then continue on with the abiding ministry of the Holy Spirit. But if you\u2019re so self-sufficient that you don\u2019t even see your need for the Holy Spirit then expect\u00a0 yourself to go right back to the deplorable condition you once were in.\u00a0\u00a0 You didn\u2019t lose your salvation but you\u2019ve forgotten the grace that\u2019s been given to you.\u00a0 That\u2019s the church at Laodicea. You need gold?\u00a0 That\u2019s a trial.\u00a0 You need white garments? That\u2019s the righteousness of Christ, positionally and practically.\u00a0 Number three, you need the eye ointment or eye salve, that\u2019s the ministry of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 And you need to purchase those things from Me.\n\nHe says in verse 19 to be zealous.\u00a0 Look at what he says there in verse 19, \u201cTo those whom I love and reprove and disciple,\u201d that\u2019s 19a, we\u2019re going to come back to that, maybe not today but down the road, \u201cTo those whom I love and reprove and discipline therefore be zealous and repent.\u201d [Revelation 3:19]\u00a0 What does it mean to be zealous?\u00a0 It means to be motivated concerning the things of God.\u00a0 You know, zeal is sort of a tricky thing, isn\u2019t it\u00a0 Paul talks about those in Romans 10:2 who have zeal but it is not according to knowledge.\u00a0 [Romans 10:2, \u201cFor I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.\u201d]\n\nJust because someone is zealous about something doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re right about something.\u00a0 The prophets of Baal were very zealous, weren\u2019t they.\u00a0 In fact, 1 Kings 18:28 says, the prophets of Baal, \u201cSo they cried with a loud voice and cut themselves according to their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out on them.\u201d\u00a0 Sounds like a pretty zealous group of people.\u00a0 But the fire of God never fell because they were zealous about the wrong thing.\u00a0 I would say the 9\/11 Hijackers were very zealous people but they died in the wrong cause, didn\u2019t they?\u00a0 John 16:2, Jesus says, \u201cThey will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.\u201d\u00a0 People out there killing Christians thinking they\u2019re serving the Lord.\u00a0 Zealous but not according to knowledge.\n\nAnd then you have other people that have knowledge but there\u2019s no zeal; it\u2019s sort of a sit, soak and sour mindset; oh, I\u2019ve heard that before.\u00a0 Yeah, but where\u2019s the energy?\u00a0 Where\u2019s the excitement?\u00a0 Where\u2019s the [can't understand word] of your life.\u00a0 What happened to the evangelistic fervor?\u00a0 Oh, I\u2019ve heard all that before.\u00a0 In fact, you give them a doctrinal test they\u2019d pass with flying colors but they\u2019re just apathetic.\u00a0 So you have zeal without knowledge, you have knowledge without zeal.\u00a0 What are the Laodiceans?\u00a0 They didn\u2019t have either.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that terrible.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t even know what condition they were in, no knowledge.\u00a0 So number one, you need to acquire knowledge,\u00a0 you need to acquire a proper perspective on your spiritual walk. And number two, you need to be zealous for what you\u2019re learning.\n\nThe danger of a Bible church like us, that focuses so heavily on the exposition of Scripture, and I love it that way, I wouldn\u2019t change a thing, but the danger is the apathy that can set in through the perpetual giving out and intaking of information to the point where you start to look at knowledge as sort of the end game when the reality of the situation is God never gave knowledge as an end game, He gave it not as a last step but as a first step.\u00a0 Brethren and beloved, if the knowledge\u00a0 you\u2019re gaining at this church is not turning into action in your life, you might as well just go ahead and go to church somewhere else because the only thing it\u2019s doing is it\u2019s increasing your level of judgment at the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ because \u201cto whom much is given, much is required.\u201d\u00a0 [Luke 12:48]\u00a0 That\u2019s just expected, that\u2019s the order of God.\n\nAnd so we need to be people of knowledge.\u00a0 We don\u2019t downplay knowledge at all but that\u2019s not the end; there\u2019s supposed to be a zeal in the learning of knowledge.\u00a0\u00a0 [can't understand word] need to get knowledge, a proper appraisement of yourself, my eye salve will give that to you through the Holy Spirit and\u00a0 you need to become zealous over that and you need to repent\u2026 repent!\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that what Jesus is saying to five of these seven churches, the word \u201crepent.\u201d\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that a lost word today in modern day evangelicalism.\u00a0 When was the last sermon you ever heard\u00a0 in many churches on the subject of repentance.\u00a0\u00a0 You know in the south what they used to have?\u00a0 They used to have altars that you could go up to and they had Kleenex at those altars and those were basically called, not prayer stations but crying stations where there was an opportunity for people in church services to sort of come forward and literally emote or weep over their own spiritual condition.\n\nIsn\u2019t that appropriate in the Bible?\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t the Book of James when we fall into sin say weep over that.\u00a0 Weep and wail.\u00a0 [\u201cNow listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. NIV]\u00a0 When was the last church you went into with a crying altar in front of it. I mean, it\u2019s almost a practice that\u2019s a relic of the past.\u00a0 I don\u2019t even know how that would fit within our contemporary ministry philosophies.\n\nBut he says here very clearly, verse 19, \u201cBe zealous and repent,\u201d what does it mean to repent?\u00a0 The word \u201crepent\u201d as\u00a0 you probably know means to change your mind.\u00a0 It\u2019s the word metanoe\u014d, meta<\/em> means change, noe\u014d<\/em> means mind, it means change your mind.\u00a0\u00a0 You have to do that to get saved because you have to change your mind about Jesus and trust in Him and Him alone for salvation.\u00a0 So we believe in that sense that repentance is a synonym for true saving faith.\u00a0 A person can\u2019t believe without truly repenting; repentance is always involved in saving faith because it involves a change of mind, away from my own works and religiosity into Christ and Christ alone for salvation.\u00a0 I\u2019m trusting in Christ, I obviously can\u2019t do that unless I\u2019ve changed my mind about Him.\u00a0 See that?\n\nA lot of people say well, you know, I\u2019ve repented already.\u00a0 He\u2019s dealing here with Christians.\u00a0 All of these letters are written to saved people; five of the seven letters are written to save people and so what happens with a saved person is God loves we as we are but He loves us too much to leave us as we are so He moves us away from phase one of salvation into what? \u00a0Phase two, which is your growth in Christ, your development in Christ, your maturity in Christ.\u00a0 That\u2019s called progressive sanctification, a single moment of repentance is necessary to be justified but what does it take to walk with God?\u00a0 It takes perpetual repentance because the Holy Spirit as you walk with God will bring things into your mind that says that\u2019s not right with Me, you need to change your mind about that, you were sort of short tempered with so and so, that\u2019s not right, and I\u2019m going to bother you about that and you need to change your mind about that and you need to rely upon My empowerment to become less short tempered.\u00a0 Or you\u2019re gossiping about something and the Holy Spirit will say that\u2019s not right either, I need you to change your mind about that.\u00a0 Or you\u2019re into compulsive spending and the Holy Spirit will say that\u2019s not right either, that\u2019s not good stewardship, change your mind about that.\n\nAnd over and over again this is what the walk of God is; this is why there was these crying stations\u00a0 in churches because people were, the way God has designed it, to be mournful over their own sinful condition.\u00a0\u00a0 And so this is something that Laodicea desperately needed to hear, it\u2019s something they desperately need to do, they needed to change their whole mindset concerning where they were and they needed to get back to dependence upon God and looking to Him for their sufficiency rather than to themselves.\n\nAnd look at verse 20 and we\u2019ll conclude with verse 20 and jump back to verse 19a next week.\u00a0 There\u2019s something else you need to do, and I need to spend a few moments on this because this is probably one of the, if not THE most misquoted verses in the whole Bible.\u00a0 Revelation 3:20 says, \u201cBehold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door I will come into him and will dine with him and he with Me.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 You need to restore broken fellowship with me God says.\n\nAnd 99% of the time when you hear this verse it\u2019s in an evangelistic appeal to the unsaved. The greatest evangelists in the world use this verse; in fact, a lot of people get saved through the use of this verse, my own mother included.\u00a0 But that\u2019s not because of their use of this verse, that\u2019s in spite of their misuse of this verse because God can take a lousy presentation of the gospel and turn it around for His glory, can\u2019t He?\u00a0 This verse is not evangelistic at all; this verse is a broken fellowship verse.\u00a0 In fact, not a single time in the whole Bible will you ever hear the expression, you need to invite Jesus into your heart.\u00a0 And yet people teach this perpetually, they base their understanding on Revelation 3:20.\u00a0 [Revelation 3:20, \u201c'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.\u201d]\n\nFolks, the Bible doesn\u2019t say that; it never says invite Jesus into your heart.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know where that idea came from, some para church ministry somewhere, there\u2019s not a shred of biblical data to support it. What the Bible says 150 times is you need to trust Christ for salvation.\u00a0 That\u2019s what you say to the unsaved person, you need to believe or trust (synonyms) Christ for salvation.\u00a0 You don\u2019t tell them to invite Jesus into their heart because the Bible never does that.\u00a0 In fact, look at all of these salvation experiences through the Bible.\u00a0 How did Abraham get saved?\u00a0 He invited Jesus into his heart?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t say that does it?\u00a0 It says, \u201cAbraham believed in the LORD and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.\u201d\u00a0 [Galatians 3:6, \u201cEven so Abraham BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.\u201d\u00a0 James 2:23, \u201cand the Scripture was fulfilled which says, \u2018AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS,\u2019 and he was called the friend of God.\u201d]\n\nIt\u2019s as simple as John 3:16, \u201cFor God so\u00a0 loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever\u201d invites Jesus into their heart\u2026 it doesn\u2019t say that!\u00a0 \u201cwhosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cSirs\u201d the Philippian jailor, Acts 16:30-31, \u201cwhat must I do to be saved?\u201d\u00a0 [31] They said,\u201d invite Jesus into your heart, fill out this card and walk this aisle\u2026\u00a0 No, it says, \u201cBelieve in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved\u2026.\u201d\n\nSo if this not talking about evangelism what is it talking about?\u00a0 It\u2019s talking about Jesus outside the door of His own church.\u00a0 It\u2019s talking about a group of people that are having Christianity without Christ; that\u2019s how out of fellowship they are with God.\u00a0 It\u2019s about the Lord wanting fellowship and re-admittance into His man-centered Laodicean church that has kicked Him out a long time ago because they\u2019ve got everything figured out.\u00a0 I don\u2019t need God any more.\u00a0 We\u2019ve got our vision statement and our plans and our programs and we\u2019ve got our budget and we\u2019ve got our staff and we\u2019ve got our academic degrees and I even have a logos program that allows me to search every Greek and Hebrew word ever known to man, why do I need to cry out to God for understanding?\u00a0 May God help us to see this.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to come in here and give some kind of sermon based on some word study that my intellect came up with.\u00a0 I want to go before the Lord and say Lord, these are Your people, what do they need to hear?\u00a0 And I need the Lord to touch my heart just like you need the Lord to touch your heart.\n\nYou\u2019ll notice in verse 20 he says I want to come in, and what does it say, \u201cdine with him.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 3:20, \u201c'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s a meal.\u00a0 Here in the western culture\u00a0 we go through drive through\u2019s, we eat, we think nothing of it.\u00a0 In the ancient world when you ate with somebody that was fellowship.\u00a0 That was intimacy.\u00a0 After all, Jesus had with the disciples the last what?\u00a0 Supper, check it out in the Bible, if there\u2019s a meal it\u2019s intimacy.\u00a0 That\u2019s what Jesus is saying here.\u00a0 I want intimacy or fellowship restored with My church, is what I want.\u00a0 I want you to exercise 1 John 1:9, not to get saved but to get back in fellowship with Me.\u00a0 [1 John 1:9, \u201cIf we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.\u201d]\n\nI want you to go back to the vine and the branches discourse which was only given to believers, because Judas had left the room.\u00a0 Eleven believers, He talked about a branch in the vine bearing fruit and a branch out of the vine not bearing fruit.\u00a0 That\u2019s not saved versus unsaved folks; that\u2019s in fellowship, out of fellowship, unconfessed sin breaking fellowship with God.\u00a0 That\u2019s what that is.\u00a0 And what He\u2019s saying when He\u2019s outside the door of His church, knocking on the door, He\u2019s not knocking on the heart of the unbeliever, He does that by the way, through conviction, that\u2019s not the context.\u00a0 What He says is I want fellowship restored, I want to dine with you.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want Christianity any more without Christ.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want church without Jesus.\u00a0 I recommend the booklet, we may have a few in the back, if we don\u2019t we\u2019ll get some more, by Dennis Rokser, it\u2019s called Seven Reasons Not to Ask Jesus into Your Heart<\/em>, kind of a provocative title but it\u2019s reorienting the church back to what the gospel is.\u00a0 The gospel is not invite Jesus into your heart; the gospel is trust in Christ for salvation.\u00a0 There\u2019s a lot more we could say about that which we won\u2019t do because it\u2019s 12:32.\n\nWhen we reconvene next week we\u2019ll look at the rest of this letter, the consequences if they don\u2019t which includes divine discipline.\n\nIf you\u2019re here today and you\u2019re unsaved we\u2019re not going to tell you to invite Jesus into your heart, we\u2019re not going to tell you to walk an aisle, we\u2019re not going to tell you to do anything other than a simple condition that God has given for salvation which is to trust or believe in Christ; you stop trusting in self and trust exclusively in the Savior for the safekeeping of\u00a0 you soul and in a nanosecond\u2026 in a nanosecond that makes you justified before God.\u00a0 And then the calling on your life is to grow as a Christian, which we\u2019ve talked about in the middle tense of our salvation. So if you\u2019re here today or listening somewhere,\u00a0 your computer or online, our exhortation is to trust Christ for salvation.\u00a0 And for the rest of us we need to have a walk with the Lord with dependency so we are more Philadelphian in our walk with God, rather than Laodicean.\u00a0 Shall we pray.\n\nFather, we\u2019re grateful for the things in the Bible that sometimes are a little bit harder to digest, the letter to Laodicea is one of those things but help us to take in this truth as part of Your Word. We\u2019ll be careful to give\u00a0 you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026 Amen!","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t