Revelation: Church of Laodicea (Rev.3:14-22), part 3/4

False accusations have a way of hijacking your mind: you replay the conversations, plan the comeback, and wonder who else believes the lie. We start with a raw testimony about that exact moment and the choice to stop fighting for control and start praying for God to act. What follows is a grounded conversation about spiritual opposition, discernment, and why the people who speak with conviction often become the ones targeted first. 

From there, we turn to one of the most unnerving warnings in the New Testament: the Church of Laodicea in Revelation 3. We talk about the lukewarm church, the danger of spiritual complacency, and how outward success can become a kind of spiritual anesthesia. Laodicea had wealth, textiles, and even famous eye salve, yet Christ calls them poor, blind, and naked. That contrast forces a question a lot of modern Christians avoid: can comfort and “blessing” be masking a slow drift from dependence on Christ? 

We also walk through Christ’s counsel to “buy” what only he can give: gold tried in the fire, white raiment, and true eye salve for spiritual sight. We discuss chastening as corrective love, not pointless punishment, and why the right response to Christ’s warnings is zeal and repentance, not endless arguing or performative religion. If you’ve felt spiritually dull, overly safe, or quietly resistant to hard truth, this conversation is a wake-up call and an invitation. 

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Transcript

When God Clears Your Name

SPEAKER_05 0:00

didn't even know me, and they were making all kinds of accusations toward me, and I'm gonna tell you, and I I know I talk with passion because it is true when I got home that day because these people had rambled against me and said things about me that I know that was not true. I told you I left work, came home, closed the door, fell on my knees, and I said, God, you said I am your child.

unknown 0:46

Right.

SPEAKER_05 0:48

And you said that it will be weapons formed against me, and you also said they would never prosper. So I believe in you. I get me out of the way, Father. Take care of me, and y'all, what I tell y'all that it wasn't even a month, those people were fired, not because of anything that I did, things just started happening, and nobody could point the finger at me. Yep. Because either I was off, I didn't know nothing about what was going on, it was a surprise to me. But that's what God said. He said that he would take care of me, and when he moved things out of my way, nobody could come back and point the finger at me.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

You know, I'll tell you something, sister. I I I've had these experiences all my Christian life, and I've even had it on this very platform. And some of the people here know some of these things. And you know what? When when these people that lather against you with all that venom, and they disappear, you know, we're like, well, wait a minute, what happened? Right? But you never want to say what you really think happened. You know, you never want to say you never want to say the Lord took them away. He moved them away or shut them up, whatever it is. But see, you need to understand that is what he did. That is what he does. That's what he does for his people. He's gonna meet you there. And when you and when these when these when these vile people speak against you, trust me, he is going to go to work. But if you're doing nothing, there's nothing for him to do. If your heart is not in a place to be used, what is there to do? You don't worry about the person who's not gonna be active.

Why The Enemy Targets The Active

SPEAKER_02 3:20

The devil's gonna, he's gonna he wants to attack the ones who are gonna go out there and make waves and want to disrupt his strategies. And so the kingdom of darkness, they always want to shut up the person who won't shut up. We got to get that woman, we gotta get that guy, we gotta shut them up. You better believe this is gonna happen, it's gonna happen probably in our lifetime here in a greater way, even in this very country that claims to be a Christian country, which it never was, but they need to shut us. But you know what? If they're if no, if you're not standing on truth, there's no reason to come after you. So that's why when you when you if you as a Christian find yourself always at ease, you need to look at why that is. Not suggesting that you are a weak infant or a weak Christian or whatever, because it just may be that God has given you ease for whatever reason. All we know about Joseph of Arimathea is that he came and he was a wealthy man, and he was the one that his whole it's like his whole life was meant for one thing to provide the tomb for our Lord to be buried in. We know nothing about him. All we know from from what we can read is that he probably had a very comfortable life. So we don't know. But what I am suggesting is this if you've been to put, you're gonna know when you've been put into places where you should have spoken up for the glory of our Lord. You're gonna know, and you're gonna know when when that spirit is urging you to move, and you're gonna know when you didn't, and you're gonna know why. And your your reason is gonna be a reason that you probably are not gonna be willing to admit immediately, which is that you were just ashamed, or you were in fear, and when you are in fear, you are elevating the source of that fear above the one who conquers all. Don't give that power to anybody. Ever. Don't let them get away with anything, not in your presence, not when they are speaking against your Lord. Sister Vicky, you know what I'm talking about. And I'm sure that all of you know. Candy and then Mariah.

SPEAKER_03 5:49

That's just like I'm sure everybody's walked into a room and felt something being called. And we're feeling that discernment of an evil spirit realizing God's spirit just walked into the room and they they make you feel a certain way because they it's that spirit, it's not even us. So when you say that invisible part, that's why I believe honestly, we are invisible because it's not us that are we

Nice Vs Kind And Hard Truth

SPEAKER_03 6:21

lost your sister. Is greater, it's he can you hear me now? Yep, it's he who is in us that is greater than him, it's he who is in us that is greater than he who is in the world, and that's why we are the invisible one because he that's in us is who them other spirits are basically trying to get out of the room from disrupting what they're there doing. That's right, and when it comes to nice being nice or kind, kindness is done out of love in love. So when you love somebody and you love the well-being of another person, speaking the truth is being kind, right, because you love the fact that you don't want the being nice is exactly what you were saying here when we were talking about one of the churches, but they just like agree to disagree and let people do this, and somebody I think mentioned about you know letting the LBGTQ and all that be a part and all that welcome and that, and it's it's they're pacifying trying to make people go against them because of the truth, right?

SPEAKER_02 7:35

I hear you.

SPEAKER_03 7:36

So that the difference between being nice and kind is we have to be kind out of in love, but that's a cross, that's a character of trust that he instills in us, right? So to stand and know that vengeance is his despite what the world throws at us. He says, Don't worry about the world, I've overcome the world. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 8:00

Let me move, let me let me move on. Let me move on, sister. Let me move on a little bit. Mariah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Yeah, I was just thinking, and Sister Cindy in the comments brought up something very good when you were talking about, you know, us doing the same thing and it being insanity. And as I was reading in 2 Corinthians, where this verse is, these people they would glory in appearance, right? Because they seem more holier to

Laodicea And The Danger Of Ease

SPEAKER_01 8:30

other people that they're respecting their boundaries and they're not pushing the Lord every which way they go. So 2 Corinthians 5, and I'm just gonna read 12 and 13, but 11 is good. It says, you know, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. But 12 says, for we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that you may have somewhat to answer them, which glory in appearance and not in heart. For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God, or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. So, yeah, we're called to be beside ourselves for God, and you know, He gets the glory.

SPEAKER_02 9:14

That's right. Be a little insane, be a little insane, everybody. And what you're saying, it it points out that that a congregation, right, like a Laodicean congregation, you can they can have a religious form, they can have wealth, they can have a reputation, even some modicum of peace, at least as far as what everyone else can see. And when it becomes useless through I mean, you I mean, see here's the thing it becomes useless when you're facing judicial rejection because of living out these things in in just this form only. So, like I said, they can have reputation and wealth and form and all that kind of stuff and all that kind of stuff. But they can be, without realizing it, facing the Lord's judicial rejection. And the visible church stands under Christ's searching judgment all the time. When I say the visible church, I mean everyone who calls themselves Christian, that whole body, whether they are true believers or not, all the soils where the sea was landed, all these folks call themselves Christian. That's the visible church. And Christ searches through that church, looking for those who are faithful amongst them who are true to him. They are not cold, they are not cold or lukewarm, they are hot. And so it becomes useless through pride and indifference. And then what he does, he removes their standing. This is how, like, when you when we go back to the history we talked about, we see how these, you know, they they pretty much got dismantled by earthquakes. By earthquake. If you go study that church where they in that region where they live at, this is what this had this had a significant, remember, they made their wealth off all this trade. But earthquakes changed the landscape so much that the trade routes were affected, which meant, which meant their wealth was going to be forestalled. And this led to their ultimate downfall. And so, and it's one of the many things that led to their downfall. May go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 11:39

I was just gonna say, Christians know that when they face opposition of any kind, it doesn't slow us down. It makes us go harder than we ever did before. It makes us more bolder. My false teachers, all these people who spew false doctrine, you know what they do for us? They work for us. They make us go back into the Word of God and study even harder and get to know Him even better. So these wicked people work for God's children, and they don't even realize it. They are in such rebellion that they don't even realize that they're working for the children of God. Because what we do at that is serve the Lord even more, go harder for him, become more bolder, speak louder. That's what we do when it comes to these things. And it's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 12:39

Yep, it is, it's beautiful. So, verse 17, I'm gonna try to put my foot on the gas a little bit. So, verse 17, Christ says to Laodicea, because you say I am rich and increase with goods, and have need of nothing, and know, and knows not that you are wretched and miserable, poor, blind, and naked. Their lukewarmness, as we talked before, arose from self-sufficiency and being deceived by self-sufficiency. This church said, I am rich, I'm increased with goods, I have need of nothing. Christ is reading them. He's reading them. Material prosperity had become spiritual deception. And most people today they associate spiritual prosperity with the blessing of God. But we see here, this was not the case in the case of Laodicea. It was their curse, and they didn't even know it. They didn't even know it. They didn't even know that the sword was hanging over their head. And so earthly comfort made this church imagine itself secure, while inwardly it lacked the very graces that make a church alive before God. If you go back and look at Philadelphia and Smyrna, the only two churches that Christ had nothing but good things to say, they were the smallest and weakest of them all. This one was probably the strongest and the most powerful, or at least among the top one or two. And so we see what happened to them. And so Christ exposes the contradiction between Laodicea's self-judgment and his judgment. They judge themselves as prosperous. He said you're poor. And so everything that they thought represented their strength, he came with a counter saying, No, you're the very opposite of what you think you are. If they thought that the you know the church thought it was blessed, Christ called it wretched and miserable. Wretched and miserable. They thought they were wealthy, Christ called it poor. It saw itself clearly, but Christ called it blind. See, they believed that what they had, like Brother Coss says, the American dream. See, they believed they had everything going for them. Everything was going for them. And they fit they believed that the way they assessed themselves was the right way. And no doubt they gave credit to God for it. But Christ says, no, you're blind. You thought you were well clothed. And remember, they remember I told you in the introduction, they were known for making this, they were known for textiles, and they had sp specifically this shiny black woolly quota

Gold Tried In Fire And White Raiment

SPEAKER_02 15:40

textile that they were known for back in the day. So they were the manufacturers of this, they were the ones that made this and got tremendous wealth from it. And Christ tells them, the maker of clothing, you are naked. You're naked. And this is one of the most this is this this is one of the most solemn portraits in all the scriptures regarding a church that is deceived by its prosperity. A church that is that is deceived by by religious ease. Religious ease. Convince everybody else. Look at how big our church is. Look how many people we have. Look how many members we got we have. Look how much we take in collections. They began to trust they began to trust in your outward success.

SPEAKER_05 16:39

Why did Jesus tell them that they were poor? Although they had all these riches.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

Because they were poor in spirit.

SPEAKER_05 16:50

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 16:51

They were poor in spirit. Terry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

I've seen the Lord too, where where people have become blessed financially, and they're very unhappy, and the success, the joy they expected to receive, or the satisfaction, or the peace, or whatever, they don't have it. And that brings them searching on a search for the Lord. Right. So if he uses all these things in different ways with his different people, you know?

SPEAKER_02 17:28

He does. He really does. And so now he gets, he's he now he gives them in verse 18, he begins to admonish them. And so he says to the Laodicean church, I counsel you to buy of me gold tried in fire. Listen to that. This is what he says here. I counsel you to buy of me gold that is tried in fire. He's telling them, This is my direction for you. Buy gold from me that is tried in fire. This is the purging fire that he's telling us to go through, so that you may be really rich. In white raiment, that you may be clothed. Buy of me white raiment that you may be clothed. And that the shame of your nakedness does not appear. And anoint thy eyes with ISAV that you may see. If you remember, does anybody remember what I brought up in the introduction about what they were famous for? They made ISAV and they distributed it throughout Rome. Apparently, it's a very popular product. And with all the uses of it, I don't know exactly. But what I will say is it contributed to being able to see in some kind of way. It wasn't like some miracle drug, but I think that in that time, whatever it was, was something that was very profound and widely, excuse me, widely used as a medicinal property. And so he tells them to buy of me and anoint your eyes with ISAV that you may see. Now imagine hearing that. Imagine hearing is that how you if that's how if that's how you have garnered so much wealth, and he tells you to buy of him ointment for your eyes, or to anoint your eyes with ISAV that you buy from him. And what he acknowledges, he basically takes everything that they were deceived by and flips it on his head and gives a counter for it. And now he tells them, you are the clothing makers getting rich off all this, and yet you are naked and don't even know it. You are selling ISAV and getting wealthy off of it, and yet you need the very ISAV that you think you're making. But only I have it. That's right. Come get it from me, and I'll give you eyes to see the truth about you and about him. It's amazing. And so his counsel to the church, he counsels the church to come to him for what truly lacks in them. And so the language of buying doesn't imply on their part merit. Because the poor have nothing to which they can make purchases. But what the what the poor do, but those who are poor must rely on for all types of spiritual subsistence, they must get from the God from the Lord. They have nothing. And so the poor person, the poor in heart is a person that is, they can't help but to depend on the Lord. They must depend on him. They must. And so it is the language of a gracious invitation that the Lord is extending to the Laodicean church. He's telling them to come to him for true riches, for a true covering, and for true eyesight. For true eyesight. The gold tried in fire. He's talking about spiritual wealth, not earthly wealth. Gold tried in fire. Faith purified is what he's talking about. A purified faith that is made pure by trials, by the trials of this life. Graces that are refined by God. And earning a treasure that can never perish. Laodicea definitely had earthly wealth, but it did not have the riches of Christ. And this is what we seek after his riches. Only that which comes from him can survive judgment. Only what comes from him. He talks about white raiment. What does this signify? Righteousness, purity, holiness that covers all of the shame of all our sin. All of it. Their nakedness was exposed, and God saw it. And Christ is telling them. That's why he says, I know your works. He tells us to all the churches, I know your works. Only Christ can clothe his people so that they can be accepted and adorned before him. You can't come into his throne without the wedding garment that he provides for you. The eye salve. Spiritual illumination is what they were lacking. Laodicea's blindness was especially dangerous because it did not know that it was blind. You're talking to the people who were known for making eyes salve, and yet they are blind. Ministers of the eyes on the outward side have no spiritual eyes after the inward parts. Christ is saying, come by from me. And I will give you all these things. This church needed the Spirit's enlightening to see grace. See his grace. They needed his enlightening grace to see their own sin. Christ's sufficiency. That's what we need. That's what we all need. But the worldly riches is all vanity. And it is one of the fastest ways to find yourself under the sword of his divine judgment. Because

Love That Rebukes And Corrects

SPEAKER_02 24:00

it takes you away, it takes your heart away from dependence on him if you're not careful. Verse 19. To me, verse 19 is another one of those staunch verses. If I had a top 10, this would be of some of the harshest words Christ has ever said. Here's another one. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. To make this make sense, you have to ask yourself the question What does he mean when he says, As many as I love? Didn't he say in John 3.16 he loves everybody? He loves every single person? That's what John 3.16 says, but you have to understand the context because here, what is he saying? He says that he will rebuke and chasten as many as he loves. Have you looked at what he's actually saying? He is saying that there are those who I don't chasten those who I do not rebuke. Why?

SPEAKER_03 25:23

Because I love them.

SPEAKER_02 25:26

Yeah, he doesn't love them. Christians don't want to say it, but that's what he's saying. Because he says that if he this what he this is what he's saying, if I love you, I will chasten and rebuke you. He doesn't do that for everybody. Because let me tell you something. If he rebukes, and notice here, this goes away from this whole idea of him speaking in a corporate position. Because now he's addressing individuals. I told y'all would bring this up. Because what does he say? As many as I love, I rebuke in chasten. Those who I rebuke in chasten, because chastening is what? Correction. The rebuke and the chastening of the Lord has one purpose and one purpose only. To correct. Here's the question: Do you believe that there is anyone that he will rebuke and correct who is not rebuked and corrected? No. No. No. He is a righteous God. When he chastens, he chastens for correction. He doesn't chasten for fun. This is not the punishment that leads to eternal death. No, this is corrective. His words here are severe, and they are not contrary to his love. He rebukes and chastens those whom he loves. In Revelation 8, we dealt with verse 29, for whom he did foreknow. Those whom he did love before. Those are those who he will chasten and rebuke. But when he corrects his child, that correction is effectual. There is no way to escape the corrective purpose for which he exacted his rebuke and chastening. He says, Those whom I chasten, I chasten because I love them. And everyone that he chastens is corrected. They are effectually corrected. And this is a warning to Laodicea. And even this warning, any warning that we read in the scriptures, any warning in this word of God that overwhelms our heart when we find ourselves slipping in some ways, these warnings are also merciful. He doesn't let these warnings don't penetrate the heart of the wicked. No, he warns those who he loves. And it is his warnings that become sideposts in our hearts and our minds and our souls, so that when we see these things, we know how to respond. So many people are constantly so wrapped up in trying to analyze some of these doctrinal complexities that they don't understand simple things like worship and extalling the glory of our Lord. People have an obsessive appetite for stupidity. I see it on this platform every day. Every day. Arguing and bickering and then examining the bickering and the arguing. And then start talking about the quality or the effectiveness of the bickering and the nobody is sitting down, rolling out the truth and going through and going through the word of God and trying to learn together and to be a blessing to each other. No, somehow these people think that what they're doing is godly and it is stupid. And frankly, it's wicked. It's wicked. The proper response to these warnings that Christ gives to the Church of Laodicea that he would give to us is zeal and repentance. Lukewarmness must be replaced by a holy fervency. Dig deep in your hearts, Christians, and find it. Find that fervency. Find that desire. Light that fire. If the pilot light is out, light it up. Do it today. Don't wait till tomorrow. Start working on that right now. Self-satisfaction must give way to contrition, a broken and a contrite heart for our lack of fervency, for our lack of vehement searching in our own souls and promoting the glory of our Lord. We are his marketing team. We are his promotional team. We should be out there serving the Lord and letting everybody know about that, about him. False riches must be exchanged for dependence upon Christ. Does it mean go out of your way to be poor and to break yourself? No, it doesn't mean that. It means to look at what the Lord has given you as a blessing and to understand that you are now a steward of all these things. And they are to be used for his glory. Used for his glory. And this call that Christ gives to the church of Laosia is an urgent call. And they must respond with urgency, as we should respond with urgency. Because if we don't, then the delay causes a hardness of the heart that continues to increase. And not only does it increase the hardness of heart, it increases our guilt for knowing that we need to do it and still not doing it.

The Knock At The Door

SPEAKER_02 32:00

So verse 20. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and I will sup with him, and he with me. Christ stands at the door and knocks. The image is addressed first to the church, which has become so self-sufficient that Christ is outside of its fellowship. Imagine him showing up to your house, he's only outside the door knocking, and you are resisting to open it. The Lord Himself. Anybody who's listening to this, who is struggling in their walk, you need to understand if you call yourself a Christian and you're not walking in the court with these things that you yourself know in your heart ought to be blazing in your heart as a fire that cannot be quenched. He stands at the door and knocks. He's knocking. How long are you going to keep him outside? Notice he doesn't invade. He doesn't tear the door down. He doesn't hire a locksmith. He doesn't bring an axe. He doesn't call the fire department. He's standing at the door. Knocking. Gentle knocking. Saying to you, we need to have some fellowship. You need to set the table and invite him in. That's what we need to do. This is a gracious work that he offers. It's a gracious work that he offers. The promise is personal. What does he say? If any man hear my voice, people take this to be, again, an evangelistic tool for the lost. It's not. He's talking to believers who are lukewarm but call themselves believers. He goes, if any of you hear my voice, open the door because I'm knocking. I'm knocking. This is personal. It's not just collective. Even where a church is broadly lukewarm, Christ calls individuals to hear and to respond. And we take and heed this ourselves. I have to do this. We have to do this. We have to constantly be reminded to ourselves of these things, and we need to constantly remind each other. And so those who open to Christ, they receive this intimate fellowship. What did he say? If you open the door, I will sup with you and you with me. And this is speaking about a communion that is restored. Covenant fellowship is restored. And the grace and presence of Christ with his people. This is what it's about. Verse 21, I got two verses to go. To him that overcomes, will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am sat down with my father in his throne. And so the promise to the overcoming, to the overcomer, is amazing here. He points out that the one who conquers lukewarmness, this is what he's talking about. Conquering lukewarmness. Getting over that. Getting over self-sufficiency, overcoming pride, overcoming worldliness by preserving faith. If you're able to do this, you sit with Christ in his throne. And this does not erase the distinction between Christ and his people. But it declares this that their participation, it declares that they will have this participation in his royal victory. And we will sit with him in his crown, in his throne, as he sits in his father's throne. And one thing is interesting to me that after all these years of reading the Bible, I've never noticed this. And I so I don't have an answer for it, but I'm just telling you something I noticed, and maybe some of you will look it up and maybe see. But it's interesting to me that he says that the overcomers, those who overcome, he says, Will I grant to sit with me in my throne?