A House Call for a Sin-Sick Church

If you have your Bibles with you, please open them to Revelation chapter three, and here in a relation chapter three, we've come to the end of chapter three, which means we've come to the end of this first section here in Revelation. It's very important section in chapters one through three, and really, I mean arguably it's the second section that we have in the second and third chapter, which are these letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor. Today we come to the last letter to the last church here in Asia Minor, and it is significant in a number of ways. This letter is significant in that it is probably the best known of the seven letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor. Even though the church at Leah Deicilla is not well known, this letter is well known. And like many things that are well known, that also comes with some difficulty. How many of us, for example, have well known songs in our past that we know and love dearly. And if you're like me, there are. Songs from your youth that you've sung your whole life, and you sing these songs and love these songs, and you know anytime you just they're just your favorite songs. And then one day you open up the actual lyrics of the song. They're on the inside of the jacket, and you read the lyrics to the song that you've loved forever and realize that you've been singing the wrong words. Amen. Sometimes that's what familiarity will do for you. How many times have we done it with our Bibles? Where there's a Bible passage that we read and we memorize and we know it from our childhood, or we've heard it over and over and over again, and then we recognize that, but that's not actually what the Bible says. The Bible doesn't say that money is the root of all evil. In Firse TIV of these six', ten it actually says that the love of money is the root of all kinds of. Evil but how many times do we hear people walking around saying the love of money is the root of? Evil that is also true here in this letter to the church At. Ledadesia there are at least a couple of instances here in this letter with which we are very, familiar but usually not in. Context and because we are not familiar with them in, CONTEXT i would argue that we're actually not familiar with them at. All that we don't understand what these things. Mean and if we don't understand what they, mean it's, difficult perhaps even, impossible for us to understand how they. Apply this is one of those instances where the question what does this passage mean to you is a dangerous question to, Ask, amen because this passage can mean to you some things that are very different than what the passage actually means Period and what we're interested in is what it, means not what it means to. You we're interested in how it applies to, you but not necessarily what it means to. YOU i don't believe THAT i have ever preached a passage of scripture where the historical geographical background was more important than in this passage of, scripture in particular here at the end Of revelation chapter. Three there are instances where if you are just you, know a history buff or an archaeology, above there's some interesting things about some places in The, bible and we can bring out those interesting things about those places in The bible no more than that they're just trivia about these particular places in The. Bible did you know that this place da da da da Da? Here, however if you do not know the history Of. Laodicea if you do not know the geography Of, leodicea it is impossible to understand this letter To Lea. Desea and that is why we're familiar with, it but don't know it like we think we know it. Well that in, mind join me here In revelation chapter, three beginning at verse, fourteen and let's read this passage that contains several familiar ideas or. Statements we read and to The angel of The church In, laodiceah, right the words of The, amen the faithful and true witness the beginning Of god's. CREATION i know your. Works so there are those familiar elements that we have in all the. Letters address it to The angel of this. Church he then, says. Right he then says the words of again equivalent to The Old testament phrase and the word of The lord came To then there's the identification Of. Jesus there's a difference, here, however this identification Of jesus does not come from the section at the end of chapter. One it comes from the section at the beginning of chapter, one which makes it unique among the other. Identifications and then there's the PHRASE i know your works OR i know your, deeds which points to the omniscience of The, lord but also opens the door to the aspects of the church that are being. Corrected he, says you are neither cold nor. Hot would that you are either cold or. Hot so because you are lukewarm and not hot nor, cold neither hot nor, COLD i will spit you out of my, mouth or vomit you out of my, mouth, literally for you, SAY. I am, rich. And i've, prospered AND i need, nothing not realizing that you are, wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and. Naked that's a sad state of. Affairs, AMEN i counsel you to buy from me gold refined by, fire so that you may be, rich white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be. Seen and save to annoint your eyes so that you may see those WHOM i. LOVE i reprove and, discipline be zealous and. Repent and then here's the other familiar. Verse, BEHOLD i stand at the door and. Knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the, DOOR i will come into him and eat with, him and he with. Me 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 he who has an, ear let him hear what The spirit says to the. Churches. Amen IF i had to title this, MESSAGE i would title it a house call for a sin sic, church BECAUSE i believe that the Way jesus lays this, out he really lays it out in almost medical, terms the way he diagnoses their problem and then comes to a treatment. Plan so what we have first is the identification of the. Physician and, again if you want to be, cured you need to go to the proper. Physician. Amen if you have a problem with your, back you don't go to the foot. Doctor he identifies, himself and then we have the. Diagnosis here's what your problem, is and we have the. Symptoms after that we have the, problems and then we have the treatment. Plan all of these things as he makes a house. Call we see there in verse twenty to this sin sick. Church so let's look at it from that perspective and see how the doctor does his. Work, first there is the identification of the. Physician look at how he's identified to The angel of The church that led us here right the words of The. Amen that phrase, there the amen means not just that he is the, truth but he is the validation of the. Truth when we say amen or, amen what we are saying is it is. So what we are saying is that is. True someone says, something and we validate the truth and testify to the truth by adding our amen to what is being. Said jesus says he is The, amen which means that he is the validation of all. Truth because he's the source of all. Truth And john fourteen and six he identifies himself as the, way the, truth and the life and says that no one comes to The. Father but by. Him Here jesus, SAYS i am the last. WORD i am the. Truth there is no truth outside Of. God there is no truth that does not align With. God And jesus is the one who stands as the validation of all that truth. That aligns With. God, second he says not only that he is The, amen but he is the faithful and true. Witness this is important for a number of, reasons not least of which is there's An Old testament allusion here To jesus actually being the Faithful. Israel that is, Prophesied christ is Faithful. Israel he is the Last. Adam he is Faithful. Israel he Is god's faithful and true witness on the, earth and now He's god's faithful and true will witness in. Heaven as the one who took on, flesh the second person of The trinity took on, flesh has ascended to the right hand of His, father and he ascended in that very flesh that he took. On so he is the faithful and true. Witness he is The, truth and he is also the faithful and true. Witness this is important also because as we look at the letters to these seven, churches there is a consistent theme when he uses that, PHRASE i know your. Work what he refers, to more often than not is their. Witness some of them had a witness on the outside that was, faithful and yet they allowed error to come on the. Inside others would not, allow like The church Of, ephesus error to come on the. Inside they stood up against error on the, inside but they were not faithful in their proclamation of The gospel on the. Outside so their witness was incredibly. Important as we continue In, revelation that idea of the witness will be extremely important and the faithful witnesses Of. God and one of the things that we see throughout The book Of revelation is that being a faithful and true witness leads to the opposition of the world and ultimately to. Martyrdom what Did jesus get for being a faithful and true? Witness he got The. Cross and as we continue to read in this, letter the faithful and true witnesses are killed nowhere more dramatically than there In revelation chapter. Eleven look with me In revelation chapter eleven for a. Moment we won't say too much about this because we'll eventually get. Here but look at me beginning verse, four look at me at go back to verse. One THEN i was given a measuring rod like a, staff AND i was told rise and measure The temple Of god and the altar and those who worship. There but do not measure the court outside the. Temple leave that, out for it is given over to the. Nations and they will trample The Holy city for forty two, months which is three and a half, years which is half of a. Seven remember seven is the number of. Completion three and a half would be a broken. Seven so it's a seven that does not come to. Completion that's very. Important AND i will grant authority to my two, witnesses and they will prophesy for one two hundred and sixty days clothed in saclothe two hundred and sixty days is another way of saying forty two, months which is another way of saying three and a half, years which is another way of saying a seven that doesn't come to its full. Completion verse. Four these are the two olive. Trees so now we got the two, witnesses who are two olive, trees the two lamp stands that stand before The lord of the. Earth and if anyone would harm, them fire pours from their mouth and consumes their. Foes if anyone would harm, them this is how he is doomed to be. Killed they have the power to shut the sky that no rain may fall during the days of their, prophesying and they have power over the, waters to turn them into, blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they. Desire and when they have finished their, testimony they are. Witnesses what do witnesses? Do they? Testify they are testifying to The gospel Of Jesus, christ the beast that rises from the bottomless, pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill, them and their bodies will lie in the streets of the great city that symbolically is Called sodom And, egypt where their lord was. Crucified what happens to faithful? Witnesses faithful witnesses are killed because as they testify to the message of The gospel Of Jesus christ that stands against everything that this world is about and everything that this world stands. For so When jesus identifies himself as the faithful and true, witness he identifies himself as the one who carried out his witnessing responsibility. All the way to the point of. Death john, eight verse, eighteen and then verses twenty seven and twenty eight. Same. Author jesus, words, THERE i am the one who bears witness about, myself and The father who sent me bears witness about. Me they did not understand that he had been speaking to them about The. Father So jesus said to, them when you have lifted up the son Of, man then you will know THAT i am, he and THAT i do nothing on my own, authority but speak just as The father taught. Me he is the faithful and true, witness even unto. Death, finally he, says the beginning Of god's. Creation so he is The. Amen he is the validation of all truth and the source of all. Truth he is the embodiment of all. Truth he Is truth. Incarnate he is the faithful and true. Witness he does not, waver he cannot. Waver there is no shadow of turning in. Him and, finally he is the beginning of the creation Of. God or he is the originator of the creation Of. God he is the author of the creation Of. God he is The Creator Colossian chapter, one verses fifteen through, twenty and listen to how much of this imagery is contained in this. Passage In colossians speaking Of, jesus he is the image of the Invisible, god the first born of all. Creation for by him all things were created in heaven and on, earth visible and. Invisible whether thrones are, dominions or rulers or, authorities all things were created through him and for. Him and he is before all, things and in him all things hold. Together he is the head of the body of The. Church he is the, beginning the first born from the, dead that in everything he might be pre, Eminent for in him all the fullness Of god was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all, things whether on earth or in, heaven making peace by the blood of his. Cross that is Who jesus. Is that's the. Physician what about the, Diagnosis, well this is where it gets a bit dicey and can be even a bit. Confusing he, SAYS i know your. Words familiar. Phrase that's a picture of his sovereignty and his. Omniscience nothing is hidden from. Him that's what the statements. Means but what of their works does he speak? Of and the reason that the statement of sovereignty and omniscience is so important as. This when he SAYS i know your, Works jesus doesn't just MEAN i know what you. Did he MEANS i know why you did. It. Amen he doesn't just Look man looks on the, outward But god looks at the. Heart jesus doesn't just say, HERE i know what you. Did he SAYS i know why you did. It how many of us have done things that look good on the, outside but inwardly the reasons that we did them had absolutely nothing to do with the glory Of, god but everything everything. With being viewed properly in our own, opinion in the sight of. Man how many of us rarely do anything without thinking about the kind of credit that it's going to be to. Us When jesus SAYS i know your, works what he means, IS i know that you said words that were encouraging to that other, person but you only said those words that were encouraging because somebody else was watching and you thought it would make you look. GOOD i know that you went and ministered to thus and, such but you only did that so that there would be a feather in your cap and you could talk about all the ministry that you. DO i know that you testified and you bore witness to the, gospel BUT i also know that you only did that because you knew that it would tweak that, person and you love doing. THAT i know your, WORKS i know the heart of your. Works that's see what he refers to here and in these letters to these. Churches that's what's. IMPORTANT i know your. Works and then here's where it gets. Interesting you are neither cold nor. Hot would that you are either cold or? Hot so because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor. COLD i will spit you out of my mouth or vomit you out of my. Mouth sometimes we get a little confused, there and we think that there's some diagnosis and prognosis there that the idea of being spit out of his mouth is really the consequence that's the. Threat the threat Is i'm going to spit you out of my mouth or voment you out of my. Mouth that's not the threat when you understand the. Context he says you're neither hot nor. Cold the way that we read this and understand it again has to be connected to the geography Of Lea. Deicea if it's, not we just sort of read this and we, go, well hot that's. Good, cold that's. Bad jesus is basically, Saying i'd rather you either before me or against, me. One or the. OTHER i, mean be against me if you're going to be against, me but at least just do it all, out go, hard or go. Home that's not What jesus is. Saying first of, all we know that because he's talking to the church At Leah. Deicia that's not what he's. Saying nowhere in scripture do we find that be against ME i would have more respect for you if you were just against. Me the other problem with this understanding of the hot and cold is that we actually reduce this to a matter of our passion and our. Intensity we think of hot as very passionate and, intense And jesus is, saying if you're not going to be, passioned, passionate and intense about, it then just don't do. It it's not what he's saying, here not at. All it just doesn't have anything to do with passion and, intensity didn't have anything to do with being for him or against. Him in order to understand what he, means you have to use all of your context. Clues one of them is This laiadicea is rich in natural, resources and we'll get to that in a, moment because that's significant as. Well but there's one natural resource that they don't. Have that's. Water they don't have their own water. Supply so there were two directions that they could. Go There's herapolis and There's. Colossi now we know that there's. A church In. Colossi you know that The letter of The, colossians and in, Fact Leaya deica is mentioned In paul's letter to The, colossians and there's a relationship Between Leia desea And. Colossi colossie was the source of cold, water these strings of cold water that were good for. Drinking they were six miles, away and so you would pipe the water in From colossi for your drinking. Water and when you pipewater in from six miles away at its, source it's, cold but by the time it goes through six miles of, pipe it's no longer. Cold it's. Lukewarm, Well herapolis was eleven miles away in the other, direction and they had hot, water hot water with calcium deposits in these streams that were used for medicinal. Purposes so the cold water was good for. Refreshing cold is not. Bad it's not hot, good cold. Bad cold is. Good any of you live In, Houston. Oh, yeah that's, right all of. Us do you live In houston on a hot? Day how about this if you want to understand this, vividly those of us who live In. Houston here it. Is you're In houston on a hot, day and you're outside doing some outside. Activity you're at the zoo where we went basically over to the, zoo, Right you're at the zoo and it's, hot like, hot Like august usedon, hot, sweaty nasty. Hot and you walk over to the water, fountain and when you walk over to the water, fountain you don't hear that familiar, buzz that, hum you, know the hum that you want to hear when you walk up to the water fountain that says that it's working and it's cool in the. Water but you ignore the fact that you don't hear the, hum and you push the button and you put your mouth down for a nice cold drink of water on a hot. Day and it's not. Cold you don't just keep. Drinking you spit that water out and try to go find somewhere where the machine is working and the water's. Cold that's what. He's saying about the cold. Water the hot water comes from. Herapolis the hot water was good for medicinal, purpose these mud baths or other things that they would have. There and it was also heavily calcified. Water so now you have hot water that's piped in that's heavily. Calcified by the time that water gets to, you it's no longer. Hot it is. Lukewarm if you drank that, hot calcified. Water it could induce. VOMITING i mean it was literally that. Nasty don't drink the. Water it's. Nasty it could induce. Vomiting so when the hot water, comes it's no longer. Hot it's not good for its medicinal. Purposes it's. Lukewarm when the cold water, comes it's no longer. Cold it's not good for its refreshing. Purposes it's. Lukewarm jesus is not, saying, here be passionate or not passionate before, me or be against. Me your problem is not. The. Temperature your problem is the distance from the. Source that's the. Issue and because of your distance from the, source you are not fulfilling any of the purposes for which you. Exist there are some ways in which the church is to be a cold drink of water on a hot, day amen. To be. Refreshing there are other ways in which the church is to be a healing. Bomb and What jesus is saying is you're neither refreshing nor. Healing you are vomit inducing. Lukewarmness that's the. Diagnosis the diagnosis is not just. Lukewarmness you have vomit inducing. Lukewarmness that's the. Disease that's what it's. Called it's a vomit inducing. Lukewarmness BUT i mean a diagnosis is, nothing, Right what are the symptoms of this disease that we? Have glad that you? Asked look at this next part of the passage. Four now he's going to give you the symptoms of the. Disease you, SAY i am, rich AND i have, prospered AND i need. Nothing here's where history comes into. Play you, SAY i am, rich AND i am, prosperous AND i need. Nothing why is that significant In ladicea because they are a banking. Center they're at a. Crossroads you've Got ephesus And herapolis And colossie and all these other. Places we're at a crossroads. Here And leadicea was extremely. Wealthy how wealthy Was? Ladicea, well lad To sea was so wealthy that in a d sixty there was an, earthquake a devastating, earthquakes and they had many, earthquakes And ladicea in this region there was a devastating earthquake and devastated. Towns all around the. Region, now in The Roman, empire they had their own version OF, fema and they would actually send money to cities in the, empire so that these cities could rebuild after a natural. Desire laad To sea was so rich that in a d sixty their city was. Destroyed rome sent, money And lada to See us sent it back, saying we don't need your. Money we can rebuild. Ourselves can we read that verse again for you, SAY i am, RICH i have, prospered AND i need. Nothing that's the attitude of lad to see. YOU i don't need. Anything that is self, reliance and that's the death nail To. Christianity self. RELIANCE i can do. This that's by the, way when you don't call On, god why do you need to call On? God you have everything you. NEED i am, WEALTHY i have. PROSPERED i have need of. Nothing. God i'll get with you IF i need. Something that's the death. Knell that's the Death. Christianity it's the death knell to The. Church we don't Need god because we have. Prospered we don't Need god because we have. Money we don't need to be on our faces Before Almighty god because things aren't. Bad here here's the other issue In leah to see. It we know about these trade, guilds and we know for, example that just a couple of churches, earlier we read about the church At, thiatyra and that in the church At thiatyra they had a problem because people were being seduced into engaging in the practices in these trade, guilds and that there are some people who had to be taken care of by the. Church he says in verse eighteen or verse, NINETEEN i know your, works your love and faith and service and patient. Endurance that word for service there refers to the service to individuals in the church who couldn't take care of. Them sells financially because of the pressure of these trade. Guilds so what's happening all Over Asia minor is that churches And christians are losing income because they will not. Compromise and if they will not compromise and join the trade, guilds they can't get. Work and if they can't get, work they're barely hanging on. Financially so in the midst of persecution of the church all over the, region and in the midst Of christians who are in great need because they won't compromise because they're faithful witnesses to The gospel and they'd rather starve than. Compromise Lea desia, says we got all the money we. Need how does that happen only through? Compromise only through? Compromise what did you say here. After the? Symptoms he, says verse, eighteen here's the. CURE i counsel you to buy from me gold refined by, fire so that you may be. Rich why is that? Significant REMEMBER i said they were a banking, center that they were a wealthy. City guess, what they had a whole lot of. Gold we're, rich we don't need. Anything why are you so rich because we have? Gold jesus, says you're, wretched, pitiable, poor blind and. Naked you think you're, rich but you've got. NOTHING i advise you to buy from me gold refined by. Fire, jesus we already have. Gold you know. What that's your. Problem you have. Nothing i'm the, vine you are the. Branches apart from, you you can do. Nothing apart from, me you have. Nothing, jesus we have. Gold, no you. Don't you need to buy gold from. Me that thing that you believe you have in. Abundance you need to come to me for that. Thing you need to recognize that that thing is not. Yours you need to recognize THAT i am the beginning of the creation Of, god and that thing is actually, mine and that thing that you think you have an abundance can be taken away from you like. That then he, says. And white, garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be. Seen, interesting they had a thriving textile industry and they were known for black. Wool jesus, says you need to buy from me white. Garments you're known for the black wool that you provide all over this. Region need to buy from me white. Garments now we know that these white garments refer to our cleanness Before god and our ability to Approach god in. Worship and then, finally he, says and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may. See Leah deicea was famous for its medical. School guess What. It's medical school was most famous for turning out doctors who would treat the eyes with the PHRYGIAN i salv made right here In Lea. Deica why do they think they're wealthy and have need of, nothing because they got plenty of, gold they got plenty of, wool and a medical school that's renowned throughout the region because of the doctors that they send out there specifically to treat this disease of the eyes with THEIR i Salf what Does jesus. Say you say you're rich and that you don't have need of, Anything you're, wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and? Naked what are they? Poor blind and? Naked whether they need From Jesus god so they won't be? POOR i saf so they won't be, blind and white garments so that they won't be. Naked that's the. Treatment what are they dealing? With self denial and self? Reliance self denial and self. Reliance so what's the? Prognosis what happens if this thing goes? Untreated verse. Nineteen those WHOM i LOVE i reprove and, Discipline so be zealous and. Repent there's the. Prognosis if you don't treat, this you will be reproved and disciplined by. Me there's several things that are important for us to understand as. Prognosis one is this those WHOM i. Love it's hard for us to wrap our mind around this because of the time in which we, live and in the time in which we, live we live in a time where everybody celebrates the universal fatherhood Of god and the universal brotherhood of. Man god loves, everyone. Folks If god loves, everyone then his love is. Meaningless it's. Meaningless think about it this. WAY i am a husband to my. Wife IF i say to my, WIFE i love you the same WAY i love everyone, else my relationship with you is no more intimate than my relationship with anyone. Else that's called. Adultery jesus, says those WHOM i, love those WHOM i. Love he is setting apart a group of people based upon the love that he has set upon, them those WHOM i, love which means that there are others whom he does not, love or at least whom he doesn't. Love in the same. Way he is angry with the wicked every. Day god hates the, wicked not just. Wickedness he hates, wickedness and he hates the. Wicked, amen, somebody we're enemies Of god before we're. Converted do we not read this in the? SCRIPTURES i was an enemy Of, god AND i am no longer an enemy Of. God he has adopted. Me here's the other, thing this whole universal brotherhood of. Man we're All god's. Children, newsflash we're. Not this is the language of adoption and childhood those of my. Love i've reproven. Discipline whom do you reprove in? Discipline your? Children not everybody. Else's In john chapter, one we see what that those who believe In, him even those who believe on his, Name he gives the right to become the children Of. God, FOLKS i don't need the right to become SOMETHING i already. Am and if we're All god's, children why Does christ die so that we can become the children Of? God In romans chapter, eight the spirit of an, adoption Whereby i'm adopted and cry, Out, Abba, Father why DO i need to be adopted By? God If i'm already a child Of? God god is going to send his children to. Hell he's going to pour out his wrath on his children throughout all. ETERNITY i don't think so his children are, Adopted they belong to, him and they will in no wise be cast. Out there is a distinction. Here this is important because when we look at verse, twenty there are those who rip, it kicking and screaming out of context and use verse twenty as though it's an evangelistic Verse, BEHOLD i stand at the door and. Knock we put that on the end of these evangelistic tracts as Though jesus Is i'm not talking to. Unbelievers. No number, one this is a letter to a. Church number, two verse nineteen makes it clear that he's using the language of. Sonship there's another issue, here those WHOM i Love he uses the word, foh not a. Goape he doesn't use a gopa. Oh he uses File, oh those are my love. Fileoh this is another one that gives us, fits mainly because of a couple of very famous, SERMONS a couple of very famous sermons About jesus restoration Of. Peter do you love me or do you KNOW i love? You feed my? Ship do you love? Me or do you KNOW i love? You do you love? Me and again in That jesus uses. Agape do you a goape? Me? Peter, YES i gotpe you. Two do you a gope? Me OR i folail? You jesus, Says do you godbe? Me peter, SAYS i folail. You jesus, says do You god be? Me peter, SAYS i folail. You and then Finally jesus, says do you follio, me And peter, says, YES i filail. You and there's a bunch of famous sermons there about the use of a gope versus, fhileoh and this idea that a goape Is god's, love a goape is the highest level of, love so on and so, forth and this huge distinction between a gape and. Fialao But jesus, says here those WHOM i. Filao here's the other. Thing john uses this a lot In john chapter, five verse. Twenty for the father loves the son the word there is not a, gape it's fialao and shows him all that he himself is. Doing and greater works than these will he show, him so that you may. Marvel john chapter, Sixteen verses twenty six and twenty. Seven in that day you will ask in my, Name AND i do not say THAT i will ask The father on your. Behalf for The father. Himself fillios, You, god follios, Me he follios, you he folios, us because you have fialayoed me and have believed. THAT i am come From. God fileao and agape are used interchangeably By. John it's the same thing they used interchangeably By John the second is the idea of the love and. Discipline we don't grasp, this we don't understand. It listen to this from our own. Confession Second Lendon Baptist, Confession chapter, sixteen paragraph. Three and though they made through the temptation Of satan and the, world the prevalency of corruption remaining in, them and the neglect of means of their, preservation fall into grievous, sins and for a time continue, therein whereby they Incur god's displeasure and Grieve His Holy. Spirit come to have their graces and comforts, impaired had their hearts, hardened and their conscience is, wounded hurt and scandalized, others or scandalize others and bring temptation and judgment upon. Themselves yet they shall renew their repentance and be preserved through faith In Christ. Jesus to the end all that bad stuff, Happens he disciplines. Us proverbs three eleven and. Twelve my, son do not despise The lord's discipline or be weary of his. Reproof for The lord reproves him whom he loves as a, father the son in whom he. Delights that's the language That john is using in verse, three verse, Twenty chapter three One corinthians, eleven thirty, one and thirty. Two this is extremely. Important every week we read. This but if we judge ourselves, truly we would not be. Judged but when we are judged by The, lord we are, disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the. World, hebrews chapter, twelve verses five through. Seven and have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as? Sons my son did not regard lightly the discipline of The, lord nor be weary when reproved by. Him for The lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he. Receives it is for discipline that you have to. Endure god is treating you as. Sons for what son is there whom his father does not. Discipline this is father's son. Language now we get the verse, twenty and look at what he says in verse. Twenty, BEHOLD i stand at the door and. Knock if anyone hears my voice opens the, DOOR i will come into him and eat with, him and he with. Me this is. Amazing what's the. Disease the disease is vomit inducing, lukewarmness, which when you understand the, geography has to do with this improper connection to the. Source this improper connection to the source that leads to self reliance and self. Deception what's the. Cure, well the cure is to be connected to and dependent upon the. Source so what does this physician do. He comes to? Us do you follow? That we Hear jesus saying to the, church you are disconnected from. Me you are not properly connected to. Me you are depending on yourself and in your self. Reliance you are deceived and you think you have everything you. Want you don't even see your own. Compromise you're not, hot you're not, cold you're not, healing and you're not. Refreshing you are. Nothing you are useless right. Now and all those things that you think you have you need to buy from me in abundance because you don't have what you think you, have and you're not who you think you. Are you desperately need to be. Connected Oh, Jesus i'm so. Sorry HERE i want to connect with you. Again here you come What i'm at the? Door do you know WHY i believe The lord doesn't ask us to go, anywhere because what's our? Problem we think we've done it. All if he says run to, me and your problem is self reliance and self, dependence then if things get, better what do you start Thinking i'm better BECAUSE i ran to? Him you know what this sounds? Like this sounds like people whose testimony goes something like. This you, KNOW i heard the, message and WHEN i heard the, MESSAGE i ran to the altar AND i surrendered everything to The. Lord that testimony makes me. Cringe first of, all you don't know where everything. Is, AMEN i surrendered everything to The. Lord, Liar, liar, liar you don't even know where everything. Is here's another REASON i know you're a, liar because you didn't surrender the pride that would make you think you actually surrendered something To. God you didn't surrender everything to The. Lord sanctification is an ongoing. Process how are you going to say that you surrendered everything to The lord and believe that sanctification is an ongoing. Process help you if you're okay with? That that doesn't, Work, folks you did not surrender everything to The. Lord but listen to the. LANGUAGE i am right With god BECAUSE i surrendered everything to The. Lord that's our. LANGUAGE i decided For. JESUS i Make jesus. Mine what are you talking? About No christ comes to. You the disease is sure improper connection or lack, thereof which makes you self reliant and self sufficient and utterly. Useless the cure you need to be reconnected to the. Source how do you do? That The source comes to? You and notice what he. Says he, SAYS i will come into, you AND i will dine with, you and you with. Me there's intimacy, here and there's dining. Here there's a couple of reasons that really irks me that we put this in our you, know sort of evangelistic. Text but one of them is. THIS i believe that the language used here has a direct implication to The lord's. Supper when we gather before the table of The, lord we always begin with, repentance and we do it so that we are reminded that we are not self, sufficient that we are utterly dependent Upon. Christ we gather before The lord's table week after week after week to remind ourselves that we are wretched and pitiable and poor and blind and, naked and we have absolutely nothing of any use before a Holy, god and we need, him and he comes into us and dines with, us and we with. Him, oh That god would grant us grace. To shake off. That incredibly inappropriate baptistic understanding that many of us have of The Lord's, supper where it's just so purely memorialized that we do not think about the presence of The Lord Jesus christ at all when we gather before those. Elements some people get so uncomfortable when you talk about The lord being, there The lord being With oh wait a, minute wait a. Minute, now you know The catholics when they do that and they reach up and they Crucify christ afresh and they believe, that you, know he becomes the elements of. That nobody's talking about transistantiation here or even consumstantiation. Here But christ is present and it's. Real and here's what's ironic about. That there are people who, will you, know have a powerful emotional music set and they'll hear the music and you, know there'll be an emotion that comes over the audience and they'll, go. The lord is here right now because of the emotions that we feel in the. Music or we give an invitation and people are coming down the aisles and as people are coming down, there we go The lord is here right, Now The lord is all over. This right, now there's a hush that comes over the room Because god is present with. Us but you say that about The lord's, supper that he. Calls his flesh and his, blood and people, go, oh, now wait a, minute don't be saying he's present in. That one of the reasons that it is so important to be renewed again and again and again in this particular, ordinance it's because of our desperate need to be reminded of our desperate. Need his body was broken for, you his blood was shed for. You and as we set before these, elements and as you take these things into your, body just like food goes in and nourishes your, Body christ nourishes your. Soul and As, christians it is necessary that we feed On christ, spiritually, continually and that we are reminded of our desperate need For. Him is that all that verse twenty is. ABOUT i don't think that's all that verse twenty is. About BUT i don't think you can ignore the implications, there both because of the significance of eating and dining and, drinking but also because of this self examination that's called for in The lord's, supper and because of the rebuke that's there in The lord's, supper some of you are sick and some of you have. Died why because you didn't judge yourself properly when you came before the table of The. Lord there are echoes. There be, zealous therefore and repent because those WHOM i, LOVE i reprove and. Discipline that's his message To, ladicea AND i believe by, implication it's his message to. Us think about think about. This the church In leadicea was really in a very difficult. Position why because they were in the wealthiest parts of the one of the wealthiest parts of the. World and not only did they have, wealth gold, money but also textiles and. Manufacturing in addition to their wealth gold, money they had textiles and, manufacturing and they were a medical. Center so what does everybody? Want everybody wants money so that you can buy things and so that when you get sick you can afford to get. BETTER i, mean that's the essence of, life if you really boil it. Down there's a whole lot of other. Stuff, Amen but really we've got to be able to provide for our basic. Needs we need. Money we've got to have stuff to. Buy we either produce it all or it's produced for, us and then we buy it with our. Money and, ultimately when we get, sick we want to be able to go to the doctor so that we can be healthy and continue to. LIVE i, mean there's not a whole lot more to life than. That by the, way can you think of a, city maybe not a, city but perhaps a COUNTRY i don't, know that's maybe more wealthy than the rest of the, world and maybe that has more manufactured stuff available to people than the rest of the, world and maybe that has more access to medicine than the rest of the. World that may make it easy for churches in that part of the world to fall into the sin of self, dependence self, deception and self. Reliance maybe, anybody could you think of such a? Place the fact of the matter is we live in such a. Place we are in such a. Place see when we gather together to meet as a, church we don't immediately bow down and pray that The lord will allow us to finish our service without somebody kicking in the door and dragging us, off or locking the door and setting the place on. Fire you, see when we gather as, believers we don't come together as believers on a regular and ongoing basis and try to figure out if we can piece together A bible among us from the fragments that some families. Have when we gather together as, believers we may, gather and we do, gather and we pray for people who are. Sick but when we pray for people who are, sick we're not praying for people who are sick who recognize our prayer for them as the only thing that they have access, to because the idea of getting to a doctor or affording one is completely outside of The roman. Possibility so what is the? Temptation we're wealthy and we really have need of, nothing all the while not realizing that we are wretched and pitiable and poor and blind and, naked every one of. US i believe that the message to The church of The, ladicea The church At, ladicea is the most directly applicable message to churches in The United states. That we find from these seven. Letters AND i believe that it is the letter with which more of us in this room can identify than anything else that we read in the letters to these seven, churches because the fact of the matter is most of us struggle with the disease of vomit inducing, lukewarmness self, dependence self, deception self. Reliance god help, Us god save. Us this is why we need The gospel Of Jesus. Christ this is why we need to be reminded again and again and again of our desperate. Need this is why the cross must be ever before. Us would you bow with? Me and as you bow before The, lord there's a promise there at the end that promises that the one who conquers will sit With jesus on his. THRONE i want to read this over you. From. Philippians have this mind among, yourselves which is. Yours In. Christ, jesus although he was in the form Of, god did not count equality With god a thing to be, grasped but emptied himself by taking the form of a. Servant being born in the likeness of men and being found in human, form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of, death even. Death on a. Cross, Therefore god has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every, name so that at the name Of, jesus every niece should bow when heaven and on earth and under the, earth and every tongue confessed That Jesus christ Is lord to the glory Of. God The Father, christ the faithful and True, witness was faithful and true unto, death unto death on the, cross which means that he was put to death at the hands of those before whom he bore that faithful. Testimony and the end result Is father exalted, him he says The church it laid to see you and to you and me, today being my faithful witness may cost you, everything. But Remember. He's the source of all true, health all true. Power as we'll see in the next several, weeks he is seated on his. Throne he is high and, exalted and when you see things from his, perspective he recognize what really. Matters as we bow before The, LORD i encourage you to examine your own heart for this self, reliance for this self. Deception when was the last time that you actually believed that you couldn't do, it that you couldn't make it Unless god in. Aven when was the last time you actually recognized that those things that you have aren't even, yours that they are merely a loan from you from The god who owns all. Things when was the last time that you recognized that you are absolutely and completely unworthy of the blessings that you've received from the hand Of. God, behold he stands at the door and. Knocks if anyone hears and opens the, door you will come in. And dine with, you and you with. Him and if you are here today Without, christ how much more is it true of you that you are self deceived in your self. Reliance because the Same christ who stands at the door and, knocks waiting to come in and dine with those who are, his is The christ who will come through the door as judge to all of those who are not