The Bible Provocateur
The Bible Provocateur
LIVE DISCUSSION: (Rev 3:16) "The Lukewarm Christian" (Part 3 of 4)
A hard warning can be a great mercy. We take a sober walk through Christ’s words to the church of Laodicea and ask why lukewarm faith is so easy to adopt and so hard to detect. The picture of being “spit out” is graphic, but it clarifies what’s at stake when devotion becomes performance and truth gets trimmed to avoid offense. We explore the difference between outward affiliation with Jesus and inward affection for Him, and why neutrality isn’t compassion—it’s concealment.
Together we trace how self-sufficiency, comfort, and reputation can dull spiritual hunger. The conversation moves from Revelation to the full arc of the gospel: God’s holiness, human sin, the reality of hell, and the necessity of repentance. We press into doctrines many avoid—depravity, grace, new birth by the Spirit—because people aren’t spiritually sick but spiritually dead, and only Christ can make them alive. Along the way we call out trends that mimic zeal without love: church-bashing that never preaches Christ, platform-building that misleads crowds, and chameleon Christianity that blends into every room while the gospel loses its edge.
We lean on a crucial hope: Christ rebukes those He loves. His sharp words are a surgeon’s scalpel, meant to awaken zeal and heal what compromise has numbed. If you’ve settled for room-temperature religion, this is a call to trade safety for sincerity, optics for obedience, and comfort for a clear conscience before God. Listen, reflect, and share with someone who needs courage. If the message stirs you, subscribe, leave a review, and tell us where you’ve seen lukewarmness—and how you’re choosing heat over haze today.
BE PROVOKED AND BE PERSUADED!
And repent. But if you don't, I will spit you out of my mouth. I will vomit you up. Sister Sean, and then encouraging servant.
SPEAKER_02:And um, I'm just reminded of the difference between like lukewarm, you said it, that that church was self-deceived. But when you look at um Romans 6, when you look at that Roman church, they they were different because they were hungry for truth. They wanted truth. Even when you look at um the church in Ephesus and Revelation, when he talks about you left your first love, they they um they were still with Christ, but they had, you know, they had some things that they had to work on. Right. Just like all of us do.
SPEAKER_06:All of us do, sister. We we really all do. We have to we have to guard our hearts daily. Um, this is what we have to do to make sure that we that we remain in alignment with our Lord and what he what he commands of us and what he expects of us as as servants. We want to continue growing in his grace and growing in the knowledge of him. This is what we're supposed to do. Brother Jeffrey, encouraging serving. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_05:Jonathan, I just wanted to share that uh those that he will and does vomit out of his mouth, those people that it happens to, Jonathan won't even know it. They don't have enough of him in them to even know that he has expelled them from his life and with fellowship with him. Because they had no fellowship with him to begin with. Right, they won't even know it. That's the funny part about this whole thing. It just occurred to me. They won't even know. He'll do it, he's gonna do it. He said he would.
SPEAKER_06:They won't even know it. Right. Because, but you know, Christ tells us here in verse 17 you say that you are rich and wealthy and have need of nothing. And and do not know, like you said, do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. So you're right, brother. He said he he said that exact same thing you're saying. They don't even know it. See, what happens is lukewarmness, it is this state of those who maintain this outward connection to Christ, but inwardly they are unmoved by his truth. But they have this outward connection. So everyone knows, oh, yeah, that's the guy who, you know, that he he's really profound in his teaching. Oh, that's the guy who's really profound in his in his in his prayers. This is the guy who's always showing up to the to the events and serving tables. This is the guy, this is the guy, that's the girl, that's the girl. But see, the thing about it is, but the principle, the seed of truth in them, they are indifferent about. They don't care. They maintain this, they maintain this posture of neutrality, avoiding uh offense, which is God's truth, and if it's God's truth and a person is offended, then it is he that he they should be offended by, not you or me, if we're telling them the truth. But these people are, these are the kind of people that don't like to quote unquote rock the boat. Don't rock the boat. Don't talk about religion at the job. You can talk about pornography on the job, you can talk about the you know, the the game last night, you could talk about anything under the sun. God forbid you talk about the very words of Christ that are able to be communicated to the saving of your soul. Don't talk about that.
SPEAKER_05:I'm sorry to jump in on unannounced, but you talk about them not wanting to rock the boat. My brother, they don't even know they're in the boat.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_05:There's the problem, they don't even know they're in the boat. This is it's excellent teaching, but it just raises your aggravation level when you see and understand more of what Jesus is talking about when he says he's going to spew them out of his mouth. Now, this is a lot more clear and understandable to me tonight what he was talking about and why he's gonna do it.
SPEAKER_06:Yep. See, they they they these these people, the lukewarm Christian, is a person they don't want to rock the boat, they don't want to offend anybody. These are the ones that are always spouting John 3.16 that all you need to do is believe and nothing else matters. Nothing matters about salvation other than their version of what the gospel is. Christ is called a savior. We said this last night. Christ is a savior for a reason, because he's saving us from something. And until the sinner is warned about what their fate is and what they are facing, they're not going to appreciate as they should the salvation that Christ is offering. Hell is the consequences of man's sin. It is the debt, the debt, the wage that God pays for the debt you have against him as a sinner. He is most holy and he is eternal. When you violate his law, what he says, and you choose not to have the righteousness of Christ, and you want to stand in your own righteousness, these consequences are of the eternal magnitude. And it cannot be revoked, and it cannot be altered, and it cannot be stopped, and it is not going to be the result of you having no existence, because that would be the biggest part of what we should be called in the gospel if it were true, and it is not. These people like to hold a position of neutrality, they fall for every equivocation, they acquiesce to everything, they don't want to offend, so they hold back the truth while people are plunging headlong into the depths of hell because because the person who the person who's refusing to tell them the truth, their their attitude is like, well, I'm saved, I'm not going to be condemned. It doesn't matter if they know the truth. Doesn't matter. They profess just enough so that their conscience is not ruffled. They don't want their consciences ruffled. And they still love the world just enough so that it doesn't completely suffocate their own spiritual life. So they straddle this fence. They straddle this fence. I seen these, I seen this one guy, there's a couple guys that have uh a big following on here, and all they do is talk about what's wrong with the church, the tithes, and the ministers falling into sin. The church is this, the church is that, the church is that, you know, these churches, these buildings, and all this kind of stuff. There's never this one guy, I don't, I've never seen him ever say anything that lends itself to the saving of a soul. Telling somebody how bad the church is and the condition that it is that it is in today, which is probably somewhat true, maybe a lot true, but that message is not a gospel message. It doesn't save anyone. It may get you followers, it may get you a whole lot of unbelievers following you because they hear you claiming to be a Christian, condemning the very thing you're trying to get them to convert to. We need to be adamant and staunch on communicating the truth of God's word in all of it, the whole council. The whole council. So the condition of these folks is worse than just outright coldness. Being lukewarm is worse than just out and out, out and out coldness. Open unbelief, you know, it is it's so hard to to to put your finger on it. But what these people do, they don't they don't want to ruffle any feathers. Go ahead, Jeff. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, Jonathan, when you're cold, at least God knows where you stand. Right. He knows where you are. And like I said, if you're hot, he doesn't have to do anything because you're there. But it's like, again, even God in his infinite wisdom, mercy, and knowledge, doesn't know what to do with you. So what does he do? Spits you out. How frightful of a thing, and then I'll be quiet. John, how frightful of a thing is it and would it be to be spit out of the mouth or spewed out of the mouth of God like that? How frightful a thing is that?
SPEAKER_06:I don't know if it, I don't know if there's there's nothing more frightful than that. Nothing. It's just like in Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 5, when he says, in due time their feet shall slide. In due time their feet shall slide. If you, if everybody here listen, if you if you have never read it or heard it, go listen to the sermon preached by Jonathan Edwards called Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Do yourself a favor and listen to this sobering sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. And he's preaching on Deuteronomy 32, verse 5. In due time their feet shall slide. So what I was saying about these lukewarm people, and I'll get back and I'll get to you, Mariah, in a second, their condition is in such a way where being lukewarm, like I said earlier, is worse than being an atheist. It's worse. Because their unbelief, it doesn't, their unbelief doesn't come off as like as like they don't, they don't, like they're not like somebody who's cold, an atheist, they're not masquerading their atheism in devotion. They're not pretending to be believers under the mask of of atheism. They're not doing that. But what lukewarmness does, what luke, but what being lukewarm does, it it takes godly things and it mixes it up with carnal ease. And it's and so you have twice the guilt. Because you're trying to bring, you're trying, what lukewarm people do, they try to make a marriage between worldliness and spirit and godly spirituality. They try to blend the two. And in Christ, the way he presents it, he presents it as being something that is disgusting, so much so that his reaction is, I will spew you out of my mouth. A very vivid expression of his of his um of his repulsiveness toward this whole thing. Mariah, go ahead.
SPEAKER_01:You know, there is either, I know he uses this expression here, but it's either you're saved or you're unsaved. Right. And it's the people who think that they can be in the middle of some type of imaginary thing. Um but it it seems to me like the scripture and then I'm gonna paraphrase because I don't know about heart, but it says that it's better to for them to loan away, right? Like loan the way and then ready and they turn away from what this is talking about here. They know the way they know of the Lord, but they are not fully coming to the Lord. They haven't fully um come to that understanding or something because there is no middle ground, there's no gray area with God.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:I mean, these are the people that are these are the people that are always that are always saying, like, let's say, for instance, you're you're having you're let's say, for instance, you know, you're trying to witness to somebody the truth, and you have somebody else to go on, you know, telling you, um, I don't think you should say that. I think you should, I think you should temper that. I think you should, I don't think you should be saying that. Or they'll they'll they'll be thinking that you're going too far and then you're gonna turn this person away, and they're trying to get you to stop and be quiet and and whatever. And I can't tell you on how many occasions I've told people, don't don't interrupt me when I'm talking about this. You know, there are so there are so many people who do this. You you will be sharing with somebody else, they won't. But when they see you doing it, and they see the way you're doing it, now they want to come tell you how you should be doing it while you're doing it. And so you sometimes you will find yourself having to tell them, no, you be quiet, and let me finish what I'm saying. Because we we need, like the brother Memphis here before, we need to have people in the Christian church in the Christian faith being developed with a willingness to never compromise. To never compromise. And it is hard to do sometimes because we don't want to see people shattered. But here's a reason, here's the thing people need to be broken before they can be made whole. They need to be. I was, and you were Sean and then Pat.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, and absolutely. And in thinking about, you know, talking about lukewarm and talking about, you know, the difference between, you know, the them and atheists see, because the atheist knows that they don't believe, right? But a lukewarm person, they think that they're okay. They are self-deceived, and you know, Jesus can save someone who knows they're lost, but someone who thinks they're saved when they're not is much harder to reach.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_06:You know, it's interesting.
SPEAKER_02:Because you can be so far in your mind.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, it's it's true. I mean, here's here's here's what a lukewarm person is like. They're chameleons. You know, they will go, they will go and be around Christians and they'll be the most spiritual person in the group. But then they'll go around the most ungodly people and be and be just as ungodly around them as they as they are, you know, as any of them are. They try, they they try to like, they they think this is a this is holy conduct. They think this is the way it's supposed to be. We are supposed to be a light to the world. We're not supposed to be those who mingle with them in a sense where we go we get carried away by their dissimilation, as the scripture tells us. We're supposed to be in the world, because we can't help that, without being of it. The lukewarm person tries to be of the world and of Christ at the same time. This is what they do. They don't want to get anybody upset, they want peace and unity everywhere. And that's impossible. When you are going to preach the gospel, trust me, and I'm sure you know this. I don't need to, I don't need to be trusted, you know this. It is not going to be pleasant for people. You're not, even on TikTok, you're not gonna get a whole lot of people following you telling the truth. It's not gonna happen. I'm I'm sure there's gonna be a there's a countdown before they pull down this account and I have to do another one. And then maybe another one after that, and another one after that. But as far as I'm concerned, this platform, like any other platform, they all belong to the Lord. All of it. So there's no excuse that we can make. We can reach people, and we and we we have no reason to be afraid to tell the whole truth and stick to it. Lukewarmness is self-deception, and what it and what self-deception does is that it hides its very danger. It hides its own danger. And like Brother Jeff said, you don't even realize it. You don't even know. These people, they hold the truth in the letter of the law, but they abandon the Lord. But they sound good, they look good. These are people who can't decide if it's okay for a gay man to be a preacher in the church and to be married to another man. They have to think about this, and they think that when you call it out, you're being unloving.
SPEAKER_05:And you will hear this from the lukewarm Christian, or they can't even tell you what a man or a woman truly is.
SPEAKER_06:That's what I'm saying. You know, you got Christians deciding this, they they are becoming revolutionary in their thoughts, and you will find the Christians condemning other Christians for calling out sin. It's a sad state of affairs. Brother Pat, go ahead.
SPEAKER_03:Is why do we find politicians so vile? When you think of politicians, they don't mean anything that they say, they try to say all the right things, they're out there kissing babies, God bless America, while they're selling us, you know, under, and and that's why universally everybody is revolted by politicians because they're they're giant fakes that don't actually believe what they're saying.
SPEAKER_06:Politicians get on my nerves, and I uh and I'll tell you something. These people, like you know, I know some I know some pretty powerful people in politics. And these people, if you go to DC, you will be surrounded by brilliance. I'm talking about intellectuals. You're gonna be surrounded everywhere you go in DC. Restaurants, everywhere, they're everywhere. Surrounded. These people go to school, graduate with the highest levels of degrees, and then they enter into politics. And the whole thing is the whole thing is tell the truth, tell the truth, tell the truth, tell the truth, only so that when you get the job, now you can lie. Now you can lie. They go through all of that. You you you go through your your backgrounds, you get your clearances, you get all these kind of things, and they want to know everything about you. Everything you have to be truthful, you have to answer all these questions and you know, hundreds of questions, you know, and you do all these things, you need to be truthful. Only so that you get the job where it is required to lie about everything. And these are the people that are in power. Let's look at just look at Hollywood. Hollywood, you are paid to lie. You are paid to deceive. You're an actor. The very word actor comes from the Greek word hypocritus, where we get our English word hypocrite. They get paid to pretend. But we as believers, our role is to tell the unvarnished truth always. Even when it doesn't feel like we're in the proper venue to do so. Every opportunity to share and to communicate God's word should be an opportunity for us to glorify God and to elevate our Savior in their minds and so that they are now responsible for these truths. But when you are in a situation where where you want to cozy up, where you want to cozy up with these folks, you will do whatever it takes to avoid giving out and dispensing with God's unvarnished truth.
SPEAKER_08:I don't want to hurt their feelings.
SPEAKER_06:But here's the thing Imagine if your child needed surgery, and you're and the doctor says, Well, I know how to cure her, but I gotta go, I gotta cut her open, and I don't want to do it because I don't want her to deal with this pain. We're gonna be like, do it. I want my son or my daughter to live. You're doing the same thing. You're doing the same thing. And lukewarm Christians, there is no place for them in the Christian in the Christian community. There's no place for them in the New Jerusalem. There's no place for them in this holy nation. If you are afraid of other men's faces to the point where you're gonna withhold the truth, there's no place for you. You're like the double agent in these spy movies, playing both sides. That's what you are. These people are cowards, they're afraid. They're afraid to lose whatever it may cost them in their minds by telling the truth. It's so sad. And Christ says that the only cure for this is arousing or awakening within you of a true, sincere zeal that can stir up repentance. He says that if that that the lukewarm Christian needs to repent. You're such a good man. I appreciate you. You know, so this is where there we are. Because you know, when Christ when Christ threatens us, he does it to heal. He doesn't do it to us to destroy us, he does it to heal. He uses his threats to his believers, his people, he uses it as an instrument, as an instrument of healing, like the surgeon's scalpel to stir your minds and to stir your hearts into a more holy zeal and reverence for him. And so we have we always have to continue to seek to do these things and without compromise. You can't be in the world and and you can't be in the world and and in God's kingdom at the same time and think that it's gonna have a lasting beneficial effect because it won't. Christ tells you what it results in. It results in him vomiting you out of his mouth.
SPEAKER_08:Sister May, go ahead.
SPEAKER_00:When I read about the background of Laodicea, they were wealthy, they had, you know, they had built this city on their own, and they needed they needed no help. So they were they were content in where they were. But there's one thing that they say basically is like, we don't need anything. They didn't say that they hated God, they didn't say we reject Christ, they didn't say we love sin. They said simply we don't need anything. So I think as we're learning in Job, we we're realizing that like self-sufficiency is the greatest enemy of salvation. Oh, yes, because God is the one who created his creation to be dependent on him, and here we are out here trying to freestyle, acting like we don't need God, right? And I think that that's the the gravest danger. It's like the hardest people to save are the ones who think they don't need saving, right? And so he's warning them and he's telling them, you know, and and the other thing is he's not using salvific language, right? He's he's not he's saying you are naked. Well, wait a minute, Adam and Eve were naked. What does that mean? Oh, Christ had to clothe them from their nakedness, so he's using this this language of telling them that the I feel like the most the people in the church as a whole were unregenerate, but there were people in the church that could be saved because he said some he said, I what did he say about loving them? Oh, he says, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.
SPEAKER_08:Right.
SPEAKER_00:But as a church whole, they weren't.
SPEAKER_08:Right.
SPEAKER_06:See, their attitude is say the lukewarm person, their attitude is like this. I'm good. And so they don't they don't really care about your soul. They don't mind cutting corners on what was necessary for them to come to Christ. But they don't mind, but they have made a judgment in terms of what they should teach. In other words, it's like, well, you know, maybe God doesn't understand, because I'm down here on the ground and he's up there. So I understand better about how to deal with these other folks than he does. So I'm gonna hold back this part of the truth in order to keep them listening. But the problem that we have right now is that so many of us refuse to give the unfiltered truth. We just refuse. We're afraid. We don't want to offend. Sister Mariah, go ahead.
SPEAKER_01:I just wanted to read um 2 Peter chapter 2, verse 20 through 22, if I may. And this is what I was speaking on earlier, but I went to go read it and and it rings true to what it is that you're saying. Um, so it says, for if they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome. The latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them to not have known the way of righteousness than having known it to return, I mean, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it happened, it is it is has happened to them according to the true proverb. A dog returns to its own vomit, and so having washed to her wobbling in the mire, and that's interesting to me because it's as you're saying, being mixed with the world, going back and mixing with the world, and they themselves return to their own vomit. I just thought that that was very interesting.
SPEAKER_06:Very interesting, very interesting indeed. Uh, brother Jeffrey, encourage and serve. Go ahead, brother, and then Pat.
SPEAKER_05:No, Jonathan, I want it was it's interesting. You were talking about uh truth and how nobody wants to hear it, nobody wants to speak it. It's gotten to the point here in our nation and in our culture, Jonathan, that truth is actually defined now as a hate language. You speak truth about anything, you're speaking hate. And then, of course, that is gets shut down. Okay. But it's important for us to continue to speak that language no matter the cost. And it's it's as time goes on, it's gonna be interesting to find out, Jonathan, who is willing to continue to speak that language and who is gonna continue to shy away from it.
SPEAKER_08:Right.
SPEAKER_05:And here's where we need to be focused, focusing our attention and our thoughts is are we willing to continue to speak it or are we just gonna kind of go mute and not say much of anything?
SPEAKER_06:Right. I mean, the the these, you know, the the lukewarm Christian, the lukewarm Christian is a Christian that is, like I said earlier, they are indifferent to Christ, they're indifferent to religion, and they don't have a true heart or affection for him. They they they they like the affiliation. You know how it is when when it's like, you know, when we were young, you know, when you're young, you always want to hang around the cool kids. You know, you want to hang around the people who are when you're when you're in high school, whatever, or junior high school, you want to go and hang around with all the kids that are getting into the the cool parties and hang around the cool people. And if you've worked worked in Hollywood, you know, people always want to get around, you know, the celebrity types or whatever. They want they want to be affiliated. And so you have Christians that are like, you have people that are like this. They want to affiliate themselves with Christ, but they don't want to separate themselves from the world either, but they want to be able to get into that environment, that circle, and they want to be accepted there. And then they want to be then and they still want to be accepted in the other world. You can't do that when it comes to Christ. You can't, you can't do that. You know, when when when you are a true believer, when you are a true believer, you you are going to have a reputation where people say, whether you like them or not, they're consistent. They're consistent. They tell me about hell, they tell me about the law of God, they tell me about the atonement of Christ, they tell me about my election, they tell me about my depravity, they tell me that my soul will persevere because of what God has done for me. They tell you that I'm saved by grace and by grace alone, and that my will, no matter how much or how I exert it, can never get me into heaven. Only Christ can get me there. Only the call of the Holy Spirit that works inwardly, giving me new life and therefore giving me a new vital will that is able to choose and embrace Christ. These are the kind of things that people need to be told. You can't come to Christ on your own, your own free will. You can't do it because you're depraved. You are dead in sin and trespasses. And Paul tells us in Ephesians 2, verse 1, you need to be made alive. And you can't be made alive unless you were dead. You weren't sick, you were dead. But people don't want to priest us today. They don't want to tell you this. The modern church today has a form of godliness but has no power. I'm not talking about just individuals, I'm talking about at large. A form of godliness, but no power whatsoever. It is lacking in as plain as the noses on our faces. This kind of a profession is nauseating to our Lord. Nauseating. Useless and worthless. He says, I will spit you out of my mouth. In other words, he will reject you. He'll reject you. And that's a sad state of affairs to be in. Um, brother Tad, go ahead.
SPEAKER_03:And he's an individual. Um, being in Southern California, I've I've gone out street preaching with him multiple times, shoulder to shoulder. And I'm gonna tell you how it feels for me. It's like a knife being stabbed right in my back. And um I'm just a person. Imagine the betrayal of Jesus. You know what I mean? If I feel that way as a mere man, I feel utterly betrayed. Like I stood with you like a brother, you know what I mean? And we preach the gospel shoulder to shoulder. And for for you just to betray what you once declared, you know, um, it just feels like betrayal. And and if I feel that way. I know what you mean. That's all I wanted to say about it. It it's a it's a terribly sad situation.
SPEAKER_06:I know what you I know exactly what you mean, brother. I've been there. I know what you're talking about. I know exactly what you're talking about. Sister Ashley and then Meg.
SPEAKER_04:So what I had to say was kind of similar to that because you see a lot of people with platforms that all of a sudden it's like, oh, let me give them a hallelujah, but let me go still live my life and like talk about Jesus in Hollyweird, because that's what I call it. But um also I think that the like how volatile it sounds like I'm gonna spit you out of my mouth, is because let's just take that scenario. How many people are following this gentleman and are being misled? And I think that is what infuriates our father. Like, that's what you're doing.
SPEAKER_06:See, see, I'll tell you something, Sister Ashley. If I were him and I came to that conclusion, and let's, you know, and I'm assuming that he's fully sought out on this because that's the only reason why I can imagine why you'd be stupid enough to say it out loud. But I wouldn't be thinking that, you know, if you're contemplating with this and if you are wrestling with it, because you got so many people that are trying to make it sound like what he said he didn't say. But it's he said it, he said it. But I would not be wanting to say that. But then again, I can't, because that that I just can't, I I just don't believe that. I believe it's I believe the Bible is pretty clear on this. But what it would take for somebody who has built a reputation on leaving Hollywood behind and picking up the mantle of service to the Lord Jesus Christ to come all this way to make this the one thing that people are gonna remember you for. I I just don't I don't understand I I understand what the word of God tells us about these kind of things, but when you see it, it's just it's still shocking. But it shouldn't be, but it is. Sister May, go ahead. And then Candy.
SPEAKER_00:Sorry. Um, I think the other thing with Laodicea is right, they were it to me it it reminds me of like uh a prosperity gospel church because this the city was rich, they had money and they had water sources. I mean, they had all these things, and then when you think about it, it's like people people equate those in the prosperity, quote unquote, gospel, they equate material success with spiritual blessing, right? But when we