SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_02: I promise, this time it is not in my notes to thank you for singing.
SPEAKER_02: Normally I plan to say that.
SPEAKER_02: Man, I don't get to preach often enough during single service Sundays.
SPEAKER_02: I wish they were all that way.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, it's good to sing with you.
SPEAKER_02: It's good to hear you.
SPEAKER_02: It's good to not feel the immense pressure of not messing up my harmony lines.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, surely the Lord is our salvation, and all glory and honor belongs to him for it.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, would you pray with me?
SPEAKER_02: Father, we ask for your help as we come to your word.
SPEAKER_02: Give us strength, give us humility, give us clarity and honesty to comprehend together all of your love, that you may be more glorified in our hearts and minds.
SPEAKER_02: It's in your Son's name we pray.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Several decades ago, the city was nearly destroyed by a great natural disaster.
SPEAKER_02: Many public buildings were damaged severely as a result.
SPEAKER_02: The people recovered, the community bounced back, they were strong.
SPEAKER_02: They were surrounded by rich farmland all around.
SPEAKER_02: It propped up and secured their economy.
SPEAKER_02: What's more, the city had a fantastic school of medicine, specializing in all kinds of things.
SPEAKER_02: Had established and successful banks, well-marketed businesses that sold quality goods.
SPEAKER_02: Don't forget the winning athletic tradition, the strong culture of the arts.
SPEAKER_02: They marked it out as the brightest city in the valley.
SPEAKER_02: Propped up by private citizens of substantial wealth, who possessed a philanthropic spirit.
SPEAKER_02: They loved their fellow man.
SPEAKER_02: The city nonetheless had an independent and proud streak.
SPEAKER_02: After all, when the earthquake hit, it wasn't the emperor who rebuilt Laodicea, but the men of means who rebuilt it.
SPEAKER_02: Those men who got their names on plaques and statues.
SPEAKER_02: You guys thought I was talking about Grand Forks, didn't you?
SPEAKER_02: Gotcha.
SPEAKER_02: But really, all of that is readily researched.
SPEAKER_02: It's accounted for in ancient historians like Strabo and Cicero and Tacitus and other names I'm not going to try to pronounce.
SPEAKER_02: The city of Laodicea was just like the city of Grand Forks, and more ways than we have time to go into, and more ways than our minds can bear.
SPEAKER_02: And this city had a church to whom Christ wrote a letter some 30 years or so after an earthquake nearly destroyed the city.
SPEAKER_02: And so that letter, I think, is very instructive for us here in Grand Forks.
SPEAKER_02: Turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Revelation, chapter 3, and verse 14.
SPEAKER_02: And let's hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
SPEAKER_02: Revelation chapter 3, verse 14.
SPEAKER_02: Paul along with me as I read it.
SPEAKER_02: And to the angel of the church in Laodicea, write the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.
SPEAKER_02: I know your works.
SPEAKER_02: You are neither cold nor hot.
SPEAKER_02: Would that you were either cold or hot.
SPEAKER_02: So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
SPEAKER_02: For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.
SPEAKER_02: Not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
SPEAKER_02: I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments, so that you may clothe yourself, and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.
SPEAKER_02: Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline.
SPEAKER_02: So be zealous and repent.
SPEAKER_02: Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
SPEAKER_02: If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him, and he with me.
SPEAKER_02: The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne.
SPEAKER_02: He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
SPEAKER_02: And we'll begin in verse 15 with the condition of the Laodiceans.
SPEAKER_02: For centuries, maybe even millennia, Christians have misinterpreted the meaning of lukewarmness and its consequences.
SPEAKER_02: Especially us moderns, with our hot water heaters.
SPEAKER_02: But from this passage, people often draw the conclusion that the risen Christ, that's who's speaking, would prefer an unbeliever to a lagging Christian, as if God Almighty would rather quite enjoy the taste of vulgar opposition to his name over a measure of spiritual apathy.
SPEAKER_02: So let's take both of those and turn canonically.
SPEAKER_02: First, those who are in outright opposition to God.
SPEAKER_02: Let's see if God really prefers that, the so-called cold ones.
SPEAKER_02: What shall we say of Pharaoh?
SPEAKER_02: That great enemy of God and God's people.
SPEAKER_02: Surely none were more directly opposed to God, Yahweh, than Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_02: This Pharaoh who in Exodus 5 said, Who is Yahweh that I should obey his voice and let Israel go?
SPEAKER_02: I do not know this Yahweh.
SPEAKER_02: What did Pharaoh get from God as a result?
SPEAKER_02: Ten plagues, lost a son.
SPEAKER_02: And then this, in Exodus 14, verse 4, God says to Moses, I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, that is, into the midst of the sea.
SPEAKER_02: And I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh.
SPEAKER_02: You will know, God says to those who are opposed to him.
SPEAKER_02: What do we say of the wicked kings of Israel who led God's people into idolatry, false worship of nonsense gods?
SPEAKER_02: Do we really think God prefers the crisp, refreshing taste of Jeroboam in his mouth?
unknown: No.
SPEAKER_02: First Kings 14, 5, God says, You have done evil above all who were before you, and have gone and made for yourself other gods and metal images, provoking me to anger and have cast me behind your back.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, behold, I will bring harm upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both bond and free in Israel, and will burn up the house of Jeroboam as a man burns up dung until it is all gone.
SPEAKER_02: Surely God doesn't find that palatable.
SPEAKER_02: One more, we'll make this a New Testament issue, and then I'll settle the point.
SPEAKER_02: Do we really think God finds the malignancy of false teachers palatable, enjoyable?
SPEAKER_02: For in the letter to the Laodiceans, cold is good.
SPEAKER_02: Does God really think that the people of whom the apostle writes to the Galatians, let them be accursed if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, or of whom Peter writes, but these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed, these are false teachers Peter's writing about, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing.
SPEAKER_02: They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime.
SPEAKER_02: They are blots and blemishes.
SPEAKER_02: Yuck.
SPEAKER_02: Reveling in their deceptions, accursed children, or of whom Jude writes, for certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation.
SPEAKER_02: Ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Do we dare to suggest that God prefers the taste of opposition in his mouth to the taste of the half-hearted?
SPEAKER_02: May it never be.
SPEAKER_02: Upon these, the wrath of God is assuredly coming, but let's take the companion misinterpretation as well.
SPEAKER_02: There we go.
SPEAKER_02: That is the faltering Christian, the so-called lukewarm one, right?
SPEAKER_02: The less than zealous Christian, who people often say Christ finds nauseating.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, Christian, tremble before you say that.
SPEAKER_02: For hypocrisy knocks at the door of your heart to suggest such a thing.
SPEAKER_02: Isaiah 42, verse 1.
SPEAKER_02: Behold, my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights.
SPEAKER_02: This is Jesus God is speaking of through Isaiah.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus, I have put my spirit upon him, he will bring forth justice to the nations.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus will not cry aloud, nor lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street.
SPEAKER_02: A bruised reed Jesus will not break, and a faintly burning wick Jesus will not quench, he will faithfully bring forth justice.
SPEAKER_02: Can the Savior of the world appointed to not break bruised reeds, nor snuff out smoldering wicks?
SPEAKER_02: Would that kind of Savior, would that God find the lethargic, the weary, nauseating?
SPEAKER_02: Is not the faith of even the youngest children precious in the sight of God?
SPEAKER_02: Can the Savior who calls the lost sheep, these little ones, cast out any for whom his blood was shed?
SPEAKER_02: No, may it never be.
SPEAKER_02: His grace is too great, his mercy too magnificent for such a thing.
SPEAKER_02: And so it cannot be, it cannot be, that our text for this morning, it cannot be that lukewarmness refers to a sort of half-heartedness or weakness of genuine faith.
SPEAKER_02: It's not what it means.
SPEAKER_02: It can't mean that.
SPEAKER_02: I'd even go so far as to say it's blasphemous to suggest that.
SPEAKER_02: As if Christ simply longed for them to care a little more about the things of God.
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: Because if there be faith, no matter how small, Christ recognizes it, cherishes it, and zealously defends it.
SPEAKER_02: And so it cannot be that lukewarmness is such a thing.
SPEAKER_02: Unless, unless these Laodiceans are no Christians at all.
SPEAKER_02: But we'll come back to that.
SPEAKER_02: So what then is lukewarmness in our text?
SPEAKER_02: If it isn't that lagging apathy or a spiritual half-heartedness, I don't mean to downplay how bad that would be.
SPEAKER_02: That's blasphemy.
SPEAKER_02: To be half-hearted about the things of God is sin.
SPEAKER_02: But that's not necessarily what I think this text is about, because quite clearly, from just this passage, it's obvious.
SPEAKER_02: I think, from just right here, that lukewarmness refers to something utterly disgusting.
SPEAKER_02: Christ says, I'm about to spit you out of my mouth.
SPEAKER_02: The verb there is vomit.
SPEAKER_02: Like you open a bunch of lexicons, they say, vomit.
SPEAKER_02: There's not a lot of ambiguity there.
SPEAKER_02: Christ says, I'm about to vomit you out of my mouth.
SPEAKER_02: Your works are so disgusting to me that I'm about to gag for the taste of them.
SPEAKER_02: Your spiritual condition is so appalling, so repugnant, that I think I'm about to wretch.
SPEAKER_02: You make me sick, Jesus says.
SPEAKER_02: And so without leaving our Bibles, without leaving the canon of Scripture, without leaving God's word, we can see that lukewarmness is not just mediocre Christianity.
SPEAKER_02: It's categorically wrong.
SPEAKER_02: It's sin.
SPEAKER_02: It's not just not quite good enough.
SPEAKER_02: Lukewarmness is entirely bad.
SPEAKER_02: The works of the Laodiceans aren't just good works done half-heartedly, they're wretched works.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: It's worse.
SPEAKER_02: It's worse than we've always thought.
SPEAKER_02: And several ancient sources give support to this way of reading the text because Laodicea as a city had no good water.
SPEAKER_02: They had none.
SPEAKER_02: They had to pipe it in.
SPEAKER_02: You see a discovered piece of pipe right there.
SPEAKER_02: They had to pipe it in from hot springs several miles away.
SPEAKER_02: And after that hot spring water sat on the counter for a minute and cooled off just a little bit.
SPEAKER_02: It was so disgustingly laden with minerals from the spring and pollutants from the pipe that it could actually be used to induce vomiting for medical purposes.
SPEAKER_02: It was disgusting.
SPEAKER_02: Cicero even comments on it.
SPEAKER_02: It was a well-established fact of the community.
SPEAKER_02: Their water was nasty.
SPEAKER_02: It was gross.
SPEAKER_02: And so were their Christians.
SPEAKER_02: Christ found them nauseating.
SPEAKER_02: Their works foul.
SPEAKER_02: Their service off-putting, rancid, revolting, repugnant.
SPEAKER_02: So much so that he was about to vomit them out of his mouth.
SPEAKER_02: He was near to rejecting them.
SPEAKER_02: Their works were so despicable that the risen Christ had nearly lost his lunch.
SPEAKER_02: And they were clueless about it.
SPEAKER_02: They walked around in their haughty grossness, bragging on themselves.
SPEAKER_02: This church says, verse 17, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.
SPEAKER_02: Imagine an entire church that so flagrantly boasted in their self-sufficiency.
SPEAKER_02: The tense of that Greek verb implies that they just keep saying it.
SPEAKER_02: It's what they say.
SPEAKER_02: Like somebody who can't help but boast about their past accomplishments, even if they were 30 years ago.
SPEAKER_02: They just keep reminding you of all the great things they've done.
SPEAKER_02: They just keep on talking about it.
SPEAKER_02: This church keeps on saying, I am rich, I have prospered, I have need of nothing.
SPEAKER_02: And the powerful irony here is they sound just like the pagan Laodiceans.
SPEAKER_02: They sound just like their neighbors.
SPEAKER_02: Laodicea, as I mentioned earlier, was a rich.
SPEAKER_02: They had a favorable trade route, rich farm ground.
SPEAKER_02: These were the first influencers on social media.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not kidding.
SPEAKER_02: Their wealth and their status gave them capacity, gave them the ability to influence public opinion.
SPEAKER_02: And so they made black clothing, the hip, cool, and hot thing to wear, because their flocks had black wool.
SPEAKER_02: And so they cut out the cost of dyeing the wool, drove up the demand for black garments, and made a killing.
SPEAKER_02: They're smart.
SPEAKER_02: But the Laodiceans were so wealthy, so proud, so independent that when that earthquake came through in the 60 AD, they turned down imperial aid from Rome and rebuilt it themselves bigger and better than before.
SPEAKER_02: They added theaters and temples, they built up big walls.
SPEAKER_02: We can see on the stadium an inscription of a man that he built it outside of outsiders.
SPEAKER_02: That is, without the help of foreigners.
SPEAKER_02: The same guy has his name on three such inscriptions.
SPEAKER_02: One of them even says, out of his own resources, out of his own pocket.
SPEAKER_02: And the church tried to keep up with the arrogant boastfulness of their wealthy neighbors.
SPEAKER_02: You don't hang a sign like that unless it's cool to do so.
SPEAKER_02: So that guy was well thought of.
SPEAKER_02: And they wanted to be well thought of too.
SPEAKER_02: They said, We're rich, we've prospered, we have need of nothing.
SPEAKER_02: Who knows?
SPEAKER_02: That guy with his name on stuff may have even been in the church.
SPEAKER_02: We don't know that.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, if he was, he's probably in a position of leadership, but that's just speculation on my part.
SPEAKER_02: Imagine how this letter hits that guy.
SPEAKER_02: Oof.
SPEAKER_02: But for all of their boasting, all of their bragging, all of their self-sufficiency, the Laodiceans had skunky water.
SPEAKER_02: For all their monuments, taking a bath was an adventure.
SPEAKER_02: For all their fashionable clothing, their haughty faces had to choke down their beverages.
SPEAKER_02: It's not really pretty, like gag when you're taking a drink of water, right?
SPEAKER_02: The church, for all her boasting of wealth, was revolting to the glorified Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Her works made him sick.
SPEAKER_02: Because contrary to her boasting that she was rich, wealthy, and in need of nothing, she was clueless, oblivious, ignorant to the fact that she was wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
SPEAKER_02: And now we get a real look at what lukewarmness means.
SPEAKER_02: This is Christ's description of the Laodiceans.
SPEAKER_02: Lukewarm, wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
SPEAKER_02: And you don't know it.
SPEAKER_02: The first two in that list of five things go together.
SPEAKER_02: They combine to spell miserable, wretched, and pitiable.
SPEAKER_02: This is the opposite of prosperous independence.
SPEAKER_02: According to Christ, the Laodicean Christians were not happy, healthy, wealthy, and wise.
SPEAKER_02: As Ben Franklin would say.
SPEAKER_02: Note too, friends, in our world, in our day, and in general, self-sufficient arrogance often leads, not always, but often leads to depression, anger, anxiety, irritability.
SPEAKER_02: Pride goes before the fall, and puffed up people are really deflated.
SPEAKER_02: It's a shot across the bow of our Western wealthy Christianity.
SPEAKER_02: For we seem more discontent and divisive than the poverty-stricken, persecuted Christians of other nations.
SPEAKER_02: You think you've got it all figured out, Christ says, but you're sad.
SPEAKER_02: Pathetic even.
SPEAKER_02: And so this church of the Laodiceans is full of sad, pathetic, disgusting, repugnant wretches, pretending everything is just fine.
SPEAKER_02: Christ's self-identification in verse 14 is important here.
SPEAKER_02: He calls himself in this letter.
SPEAKER_02: He identifies himself.
SPEAKER_02: He announces himself this way.
SPEAKER_02: He says, the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.
SPEAKER_02: The words of the Amen, that phrase very nearly identifies Jesus with the God of the Old Testament himself.
SPEAKER_02: For in Isaiah 65, God refers to himself as the God of the Amen.
SPEAKER_02: And Christ is all that is true of God.
SPEAKER_02: He is, in fact, God's truth, the truth, full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_02: And all of God's promises find their yes and amen in him.
SPEAKER_02: He's it.
SPEAKER_02: He's the faithful and true witness.
SPEAKER_02: He always comes to give testimony faithfully, and the testimony he gives is true.
SPEAKER_02: The word witness here would later become, it doesn't have this meaning now, but later, this is the word that the church fathers would use to name the martyrs.
SPEAKER_02: Those people who bear faithful and true witness, no matter the cost.
SPEAKER_02: And more yet, Christ, the beginning, the ruler, the originator, as some of your translations may say, the originator of God's creation.
SPEAKER_02: He's the supreme king, the originator of all that is.
SPEAKER_02: It's funny, this verse, this passage is often quoted by those who want to make Jesus into a created being of a lesser order than God, like Jehovah's Witnesses.
SPEAKER_02: But in fact, Jesus said it and the apostle wrote it for the opposite reason.
SPEAKER_02: And I think this assertion from Christ is just as mind-boggling as the beginning of the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_02: Where John says the Logos took on flesh.
SPEAKER_02: Because for centuries before your New Testament was written, Greeks sought after the Archae.
SPEAKER_02: That's the word written here, the Archae.
SPEAKER_02: Like Arch nemesis or Archbishop.
SPEAKER_02: The word Archae.
SPEAKER_02: Thales called the Archae water.
SPEAKER_02: And Anaximander called it the infinite.
SPEAKER_02: Anaximenes called it air.
SPEAKER_02: Heraclitus called it change, but the apostles called him Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: For from him and through him and to him are all things.
SPEAKER_02: In the beginning was the word reads, in the Archae was the Lagos.
SPEAKER_02: And the word, the originator, the ruler of God's creation, took on flesh and dwelt among us.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the sovereign Lord of all that is.
SPEAKER_02: Revelation chapter 4, verse 11.
SPEAKER_02: Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power.
SPEAKER_02: For you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.
SPEAKER_02: This is the all-knowing, all-testifying, all-creating, all-powerful God of the cosmos speaking.
SPEAKER_02: The faithful and true witness of Yahweh, the amen of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_02: And no church can claim to be rich apart from him.
SPEAKER_02: In the valley of the Laodiceans and the Colossians, for they were neighbors, there was this Proto-Aryan heresy that Christ was again somehow that created being of a class less than God Himself, and that through some super-spiritualized Judaisms or asceticisms of beating the flesh or observing things, men like you and I could rise above the things of Christ, the things of heaven.
SPEAKER_02: It's nonsense.
SPEAKER_02: Christ rules it out out of hand right here, and he says, I know your works.
SPEAKER_02: I know your works.
SPEAKER_02: He exposes them.
SPEAKER_02: His eye searches them out.
SPEAKER_02: He testifies truly and plainly before the Father of their lukewarm repugnancy.
SPEAKER_02: The Holy One of Israel walks among the lampstands of the seven churches.
SPEAKER_02: He takes these puffed up people, full of themselves and their wealth and success and status.
SPEAKER_02: He exposes their sin, for he knows their work.
SPEAKER_02: The faithful and true witness takes the stand as Christ gives his glorious testimony.
SPEAKER_02: Too far.
SPEAKER_02: There we go.
SPEAKER_02: You disgust me, Christ says to this church.
SPEAKER_02: Just like your glittering city is disgusted by her shameful water.
SPEAKER_02: Your works are undone before me.
SPEAKER_02: You're not rich.
SPEAKER_02: You're poor.
SPEAKER_02: The cattle upon a thousand hills are mine, Christ says.
SPEAKER_02: The cosmos is mine.
SPEAKER_02: I am the originator of all that is.
SPEAKER_02: It is in me that you live and move and have your being.
SPEAKER_02: You're not rich.
SPEAKER_02: You're poor.
SPEAKER_02: You're blind, Christ says.
SPEAKER_02: You can't see.
SPEAKER_02: The great irony here is that the Laodiceans had that medical school and they had cutting-edge treatments and medicines for eye diseases, eye ailments.
SPEAKER_02: They produced a special powder that we still don't know the contents of because they protected it, because it made money.
SPEAKER_02: But even with all of their wisdom and insight and medical genius, they couldn't see that they were wretched and pitiful.
SPEAKER_02: You're naked, Christ says.
SPEAKER_02: See, I've exposed you that your hypocrisy may cause you shame.
SPEAKER_02: I see the things you hide, Jesus says to them.
SPEAKER_02: And the city, renowned for their luxurious garments that inspired confidence in the wearer, stands naked, trembling and exposed before a holy God, just like Adam in the garden, or Isaiah in the temple.
SPEAKER_02: And what God finds is repugnant to him.
SPEAKER_02: It's about to make him sick.
SPEAKER_02: Their boasting and utter lack of holiness make them lukewarm, disgusting, repugnant.
SPEAKER_02: But here's the beauty of this letter.
SPEAKER_02: Here it is.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 17 and verse 18 go together.
SPEAKER_02: The logic is backwards of how we would often say it, but it's not uncommon in our way of speaking.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 17 and 18 go together.
SPEAKER_02: Let me read it for you.
SPEAKER_02: For you say, or rather, because you say I am rich, not realizing that you are wretched, I counsel you to buy from me gold.
SPEAKER_02: Do you hear that?
SPEAKER_02: Christ's counsel comes primarily as a response to their condition and their ignorance.
SPEAKER_02: Because you're wretched and because you don't get it, I counsel you to buy from me gold.
SPEAKER_02: It primarily forms the reason for Christ's counsel, not the explanation of lukewarmness.
SPEAKER_02: I really wanted it to be that.
SPEAKER_02: And it is that.
SPEAKER_02: Just not as directly.
SPEAKER_02: Where else would we find the description of lukewarmness?
SPEAKER_02: But right there.
SPEAKER_02: But the reason Christ writes it, the reason Christ brings it up, the reason he says those things to them, is because he wants to counsel them to buy from him gold.
SPEAKER_02: Because you say you're poor, because you say you're rich, not knowing that you're poor, I counsel you to buy from me gold.
SPEAKER_02: There isn't Christ counsels the poor people.
SPEAKER_02: Imagine how that hit the Laodiceans.
SPEAKER_02: He counsels the poor people, for that is what he called them, to buy from him gold, pure gold, true gold, gold refined by fire.
SPEAKER_02: An image Peter uses to describe genuine and tested faith.
SPEAKER_02: Forsake your riches thereof nothing and cling to mine.
SPEAKER_02: The poor may buy them without price, Christ says.
SPEAKER_02: He counsels the naked, those whose sin has been found out.
SPEAKER_02: Upon him conviction has come forcefully, such that they scatter for fig leaves and hide in the bushes.
SPEAKER_02: Christ says, Let me clothe you, just like he did in the garden.
SPEAKER_02: You poor people, come buy my garments, white garments of righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: Let me cover the shame of your nakedness, friends.
SPEAKER_02: This is the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: His robes for mine, such wonder none can know.
SPEAKER_02: Christ God's beloved, condemned as though his foe, he as though I accursed and left alone, I as though he embraced and welcomed home.
SPEAKER_02: Christ offers to clothe naked sinners in the robes of his righteousness as he hangs naked upon the tree.
SPEAKER_02: So that the shame of their nakedness may not be seen.
SPEAKER_02: Let's put that behind us.
SPEAKER_02: Let's move on.
SPEAKER_02: Let's move forward in my righteousness, not yours, Christ says.
SPEAKER_02: He counsels the blind to buy his healing sav.
SPEAKER_02: Remember that medical school?
SPEAKER_02: Remember the fancy Phrygian powder, as it was called?
SPEAKER_02: Remember the blind men healed with spit mud?
SPEAKER_02: Nothing elegant about spit mud.
SPEAKER_02: But Christ says, let me open your eyes.
SPEAKER_02: Let me show you your true condition.
SPEAKER_02: Open your eyes to my words.
SPEAKER_02: Oh friends, do you not hear the hymns?
SPEAKER_02: Do you hear them?
SPEAKER_02: They're screaming off these pages.
SPEAKER_02: Sing it with me.
SPEAKER_02: What else are we doing?
SPEAKER_01: Amazing grace.
SPEAKER_01: How sweet the sound that save the wretch like me?
SPEAKER_01: I was lost, but now found was blind.
SPEAKER_01: But now I see.
SPEAKER_02: What made Newton write that hymn?
SPEAKER_02: Could have been this, right?
SPEAKER_02: But the question remains.
SPEAKER_02: Question I asked earlier.
SPEAKER_02: Are these Laodiceans true believers?
SPEAKER_02: My whole argument about lukewarmness hangs on that.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you figured that out yet.
SPEAKER_02: But are these Laodiceans true believers?
SPEAKER_02: Or are these hypocritical boasters just phonies?
SPEAKER_02: Just fakers.
SPEAKER_02: They sure sound like their pagan neighbors.
SPEAKER_02: They sure sound like the Pharisees, don't they?
SPEAKER_02: Those whom I love.
SPEAKER_02: Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline.
SPEAKER_02: Language Christ borrows from his own word.
SPEAKER_02: He's allowed to do that.
SPEAKER_02: This guy doesn't have to cite his sources.
SPEAKER_02: Christ borrows this language from Proverbs 3, 12, right?
SPEAKER_02: It's right there for you.
SPEAKER_02: For the Lord reproves him whom he loves as a father, the Son in whom he delights.
SPEAKER_02: Same passage the author to the Hebrews comments upon.
SPEAKER_02: If you are left without discipline, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
SPEAKER_02: And so when Christ says that, Christ calls them his.
SPEAKER_02: And in verse 20, Christ says to him, As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels, the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
SPEAKER_02: There are seven stars.
SPEAKER_02: There are seven golden lampstands.
SPEAKER_02: Christ threatened to take one away.
SPEAKER_02: He threatened to unchurch the Ephesians.
SPEAKER_02: But there are seven golden lampstands, and one of them belongs to Laodicea.
SPEAKER_02: These are Christians.
SPEAKER_02: These are believers.
SPEAKER_02: And so it could never be, it could never be that lukewarmness is half-heartedness.
SPEAKER_02: Because Christ would not spit out the genuine faith for even so blasphemous a thing as that.
SPEAKER_02: No, friends, lukewarmness is far worse than just apathy.
SPEAKER_02: Though it can include apathy.
SPEAKER_02: All sin, repugnant works, wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked, and hypocritical about it.
SPEAKER_02: When we make lukewarmness just apathy, when we say that lukewarmness is a special condition of genuine believers that would cause them to fall under judgment, for that's what we mean, that's what it means when Christ says he will vomit them out of his mouth, that's judgment, to say that these are genuine believers under a special condition of sinfulness is to argue that there are Christians who aren't as fire, as on fire as whatever arbitrary standard we set up.
SPEAKER_02: When we say that, we better be saying there are no Christians at all.
SPEAKER_02: Because to suggest that Christ would snuff out the smoldering wick is to call into question the character of the beloved.
SPEAKER_02: It is a blatant denial of grace to say that works are required for salvation, that some could have faith but only lukewarm works and thus not be saved, is not the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: It's not.
SPEAKER_02: Let such a doctrine be accursed.
SPEAKER_02: That is a different gospel than the gospel of the New Testament, because the weakened faith, the stumbling brother, the backslider, if he's a genuine believer with real faith, and he might not be, but if he is, then he is a brother or sister in Christ who is saved by grace alone through Jesus Christ who died to forgive sins seven times, 70 times over.
SPEAKER_02: If we say that some quantity of sin or some lack of quality of service makes somebody too sinful or not holy enough for Jesus, then you and I have no hope for salvation.
SPEAKER_02: Because if you could lose your salvation, you would, right?
SPEAKER_02: You would.
SPEAKER_02: Hear me.
SPEAKER_02: You have sinned enough since Christ redeemed you to earn hell for yourself 7,000 times over.
SPEAKER_02: You have.
SPEAKER_02: You are the lukewarm Laodicean.
SPEAKER_02: I am the lukewarm Laodicean.
SPEAKER_02: If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
SPEAKER_02: But here is the glory.
SPEAKER_02: Here is the beauty of this passage.
SPEAKER_02: Even the repugnant, arrogant, despicable, lukewarm Laodiceans.
SPEAKER_02: Even they are within reach of Christ's forgiveness.
SPEAKER_02: How far have you fallen this week, brother?
SPEAKER_02: How cruel have you been, sister?
SPEAKER_02: How blasphemous was your tongue this week.
SPEAKER_02: Your sins disgust the living God.
SPEAKER_02: You are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
SPEAKER_02: Undone before a holy God who loves you.
SPEAKER_02: You're broken before the amen of God, the originator of creation who knows your name.
SPEAKER_02: You're humbled before a mighty king who cares for you.
SPEAKER_02: This is the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't change.
SPEAKER_02: This is the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: Run to Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Run to him.
SPEAKER_02: You're not rich.
SPEAKER_02: Buy from him gold.
SPEAKER_02: Run to him.
SPEAKER_02: You're naked.
SPEAKER_02: Let him clothe you with white garments.
SPEAKER_02: You're blind.
SPEAKER_02: Let him let him fix your eyes so that you may behold wondrous things from his law.
SPEAKER_02: Be zealous and repent.
SPEAKER_02: If you read the first six letters this week, you'll see that repentance is one of, if not the, dominant theme.
SPEAKER_02: Repent.
SPEAKER_02: You are the lukewarm Laodiceans.
SPEAKER_02: Be zealous.
SPEAKER_02: Run to him.
SPEAKER_02: For behold, you Christians.
SPEAKER_02: He stands at the door and he knocks.
SPEAKER_02: This is no timid, playful knock that sounds like a hoe-down tune.
SPEAKER_02: It's not that.
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: This is the forceful wrapping of knuckles with authority that come when the archae of creation is at the door.
SPEAKER_02: For three years, I was responsible for enforcing alcohol policies in a freshman dorm.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Nick knows.
SPEAKER_02: He's been here.
SPEAKER_02: It didn't go, Paul.
SPEAKER_02: But most of the time when I knocked on somebody's door, what I heard was shh.
SPEAKER_02: It's web.
SPEAKER_02: Hide that.
SPEAKER_03: Hide that.
SPEAKER_02: Everybody good?
SPEAKER_02: You good?
SPEAKER_02: Everybody good?
SPEAKER_02: You good?
SPEAKER_02: It's nonsense.
SPEAKER_02: The worst.
SPEAKER_02: Forgive me.
SPEAKER_02: The worst was when I knocked on a door just to see how somebody was doing because I knew they had a test that day.
SPEAKER_02: And I heard shhwap.
SPEAKER_02: It's no good.
SPEAKER_02: I ended up having to write a report instead.
SPEAKER_02: Because, friends, what comes with a knock, what comes with a knock first isn't just the exposing of what's hidden within.
SPEAKER_02: What comes first with a knock is a command.
SPEAKER_02: Open up.
SPEAKER_02: It's an opportunity for obedience.
SPEAKER_02: And delay is disobedience.
SPEAKER_02: Will we open the door or will we wait?
SPEAKER_02: Will we shrink back at his coming?
SPEAKER_02: When Christ comes, do you need half an hour to get cleaned up first?
SPEAKER_02: Do you need to hide the stuff you've been doing?
SPEAKER_02: Will you smile at the sound of your Redeemer?
SPEAKER_02: You see, this entire church, by their self-sufficiency, had denied the gospel of God and they'd gone about their Christian lives their own way.
SPEAKER_02: Their own way.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, you cannot grow in Christ that way.
SPEAKER_02: You cannot grow in Christ the Grand Forks way any more than they could the Laodicean way, by doing what's right in our own eyes.
SPEAKER_02: And you certainly cannot build a church that way.
SPEAKER_02: How can you build Christ's kingdom without Christ?
SPEAKER_02: How can you do God's work without God?
SPEAKER_02: And so I ask you, where did the Laodiceans find Christ?
SPEAKER_02: In a letter given to the beloved apostle, circulated amongst the churches, and delivered by the messenger.
unknown: In a book.
SPEAKER_02: The incarnate word, the Son of Man who stands amongst the lampstands, has put himself in a book.
SPEAKER_02: And the letter came knocking.
SPEAKER_02: In your pursuit of holiness, in your war against your own repugnancy, do you open your Bible?
SPEAKER_02: In your weariness and sorrow, do you turn to Christ for strength?
SPEAKER_02: In your ambitions and dreams, finding jobs, making homes, raising families, do you seek after wisdom and insight more precious than gold, Solomon says?
SPEAKER_02: Or do you trust in your own righteousness?
SPEAKER_02: Do you trust in your own insight?
SPEAKER_02: Do you trust in your own wealth?
SPEAKER_02: That's what the Laodiceans had so wrong.
SPEAKER_02: What of our ministry?
SPEAKER_02: What of your ministry?
SPEAKER_02: In your discipleship, do you trust your gut or your Bible?
SPEAKER_02: In your evangelism, do you try to convince people that a life like yours is better than a life like theirs?
SPEAKER_02: Or do you preach the word at them?
SPEAKER_02: In your small groups, your prayer groups, your coffee groups, your fellowship lunches, your committee meetings, I'll put it on me, in my worship team rehearsals, in my service planning, in my volunteer management and soundboard protocols, in all of our efforts to reach the lost and needy, in our comforting and counseling of the weak, sick, and lukewarm.
SPEAKER_02: In all of these things, the word of God is sufficient for life and godliness because God gave it to you.
SPEAKER_02: There is no better way to do Christian ministry than Christ's way.
SPEAKER_02: There is no richer way, there is no more prosperous way.
SPEAKER_02: You need him.
SPEAKER_02: And he has spoken to us by his word.
SPEAKER_02: Will we open the door?
SPEAKER_02: To the one who conquers his lukewarm self-sufficiency.
SPEAKER_02: To the one who conquers his boastful pride of life, Christ will grant with him to sit on his throne with him.
SPEAKER_02: Just as Christ sat with his father on his throne.
SPEAKER_02: There's enough reason right there.
SPEAKER_02: You could be with him.
SPEAKER_02: Or you could be rich.
SPEAKER_02: He who has an ear.
SPEAKER_02: Let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
SPEAKER_02: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_02: Oh Lord, you have spoken to us by your word.
SPEAKER_02: We are humbled by it.
SPEAKER_02: We ask you to give us gold that we may be rich, garments that our sins may be covered.
SPEAKER_02: O Father, open our eyes to behold wondrous things from your law.
SPEAKER_02: May all that we do as a church, may all that we say as a family, all that we sing, pray, think, and proclaim, may that be seasoned with salt, saturated with scripture, glorifying to you.
SPEAKER_02: O Father, it is in you we have our being, in you we have our salvation, in you we have our sanctification.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, it is in you that we have this ministry of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_02: May our lives and our life together sing the song of grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, and Scripture alone, so that you alone get the glory.
SPEAKER_02: You must increase, O Christ.
SPEAKER_02: You must.
SPEAKER_02: We want that.
SPEAKER_02: May you be lifted high.
SPEAKER_02: And O Lord, in the process, may we decrease.
SPEAKER_02: So that we would be with you.
SPEAKER_02: We love you, Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: It's in your name we pray.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.