Revelation, Part 3

All right. Then we will launch into the sermon. This is part three, in case for those keeping up with everything. The very first sermon we touched on was the book of the first chapter in Revelation. And we went through it almost verse by verse so we could understand exactly what God is trying to tell us. Because of all the books in the Bible, the book of Revelation is the most confusing to most people.

They do not understand it, big parts of it. And I have been trying to do a series on it. We will have another series to go a little deeper into it later on in the year. But I wanted us to take small bites, not dive into the whole thing, but take small bites so that hopefully you can understand exactly at the first of the book and exactly what carries through. Because even the first, as we'll talk about during the Bible study today, the first six chapters basically cover, the first six seals, the seventh seal of Revelation.

The rest of the entire book of Revelation encompass the time after that. So it's something that we need not fear. It's something we should not make an idol out of because some people have in prophecy. But one of the things that I wanted us to understand, as we talked about last week, as we went into Revelation 2 and Revelation 3, was the understanding God is given to us about the churches. And that the churches not only are mentioned in the book of Revelation, the seven churches are not only...

It not only talks about those churches at that time back in 90 AD, but it also, they're multi-dimensional, it talks about the church ages. That's why there's seven down through the time. And then it also, as we talked about last week, discusses the attitudes that are prevalent in the church today as those attitudes were prevalent at 90 AD. And he warns us all how we need to look at this to understand the messages and apply them to us today. Now, as we go through these, last week we talked about, in chapter 2 of Revelation, the church of Ephesus.

Remember that? And how it, the message it gave to that church, and hopefully you will all read that again if you want to understand it, or this... We'll put on a website so you can go back and listen to it. But it also covered not only the church at that time and the attitudes that exist today, but also covered a period of time from about 31 AD to 150 AD.

And so, as I did last week, I would also like to cover that even today as we finish, as we did three churches. If Miss Ephesus will come back up again and take hers. As we also understand the symbolism of the churches in God always. Thank you, Lois. You remember Ephesus? What the theme of Ephesus was about? What he had to say? That it was a church that she represents. She's symbolic of the church at Ephesus that we talked about.

And that Lois lost her first love. That is what the church is about. Lillian, excuse me. Yes, Lillian. Lost her first love. But she got it back this week. Hopefully she studied the book. Found out what she was all about. And it says, Repent. You can turn each of these churches. God, through these churches, he addressed them, gave a positive message at the end of each of the addresses. Each of the letters to these churches. And so, we also went through Smyrna, which was the next church down the road.

Which was called... Who was Smyrna last week? You remember? Lola, you mind being Smyrna. You remember what Smyrna was about? Lillian, you're the closest to Ephesus. And God didn't really have any negative things to say about Smyrna. A lot of positive. But they were also known to be poor. They went through a great deal of tribulation. There was a lot of martyrdom that went on at the time. And then we came to Pergamos, which was the third church on this mail route.

Who was Pergamos? Remember who was Pergamos last week? She's not here? No, it was Victoria. Yeah, Mary, you come up and be Pergamos. No, I had Pergamos, compromising church. Had a lot of bad to say about Pergamos.

But it also had a few good things to say about Pergamos. I won't go through those today because I want to cover the other four churches. And if you turn to Revelation 3, we go back to the fourth church and the fourth church era. And in chapter 2, verse 18, it said, To the angel of the church of Thyatira, these things says the Son of God. Verse 19, I know your works, your love, service, faith, and your patience.

And as for your works, the last are more than the first. So there was a church at Thyatira at that time in 90 AD when these letters were written. And Christ is saying, there are some good things. I like your love. I like your service. I like your faith and I like your patience.

Now, what's interesting as we study Thyatira, it was a working person's town at that time in 90 AD. It was known for the making of pottery. It was also known for its cloth, all the clothing. I guess you would say manufacturers, if you could use that word, that we would understand today. The making of cloth. If you remember your book of Acts, Paul ran across a woman from Thyatira and worshiped with her and had Sabbath services with her out by a river. Her name, of course, was Lydia. And you will remember her as a seller of purple, because purple was a very expensive cloth back then. And so the makers of cloth and the dires of cloth were very prevalent in Thyatira. But it was a hard-working town. But what's interesting is that not only Thyatira as a city, but also the era. And if you study the book here, or the letter, it's actually the longest of all the letters to the churches. But it's also the longest era that took place. Most scholars believe the era took place from about 500 AD to 1500 AD. 900 to 1000 years, this era of God's Church took place.

Now, as we look at this, in verse 20, it says, as He commended them for their love and their service and their faith and their patience, He says, verse 20, "'Nevertheless, I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and beguile my servants, to commit sexual immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols.'" We talked about that last week and how those sexual immorality and to eating things sacrificed to idols was a way that Satan used to pull people out of the church, to get them to compromise their beliefs, get them to say, well, I can do this, eat this food that's been sacrificed to idols, and it's no big deal. I can not be fully involved in their religious practice, but I can kind of have one foot in and one foot out.

And here we see what's interesting during this period of time, this 900 to 1000 years, and all historians will back me up on this, is from about 500 A.D. when Rome, as a nation, the Romans actually were overrun and conquered, there was a period of time of about 1900 to 1000 years that the Roman Catholic Church began to grow, began to have its fame, even though the Roman Empire was gone. The Roman Catholic Church, as one historian said, the Roman Catholic Church dominated the Western world from about 500 to 1517. They dominate the Western world, controlled religion, philosophy, morals, politics, art, and education, as they literally took charge of all of Europe and up and down the West and Europe at that time. Now, what's interesting is the letter written to Thyatira talks about a Jezebel, talks about a woman, and as we have talked about here, and a woman in the church in the Bible is typically symbolic of the church, as God used that both for pro and con. But obviously, at the church in Thyatira at the time, there was a problem with a woman, and she is referred to as Jezebel.

What I found interesting by doing my study of history, said that during this time, women often played major roles as priestesses in contemporary Roman and Eastern cults in Asia Minor, as they would basically lead part of the religious practice. And as some historians have said, it was at that time, it was easier for women to attract newcomers to the church. It was easier for a woman to lead practices of religion out to worldly practices.

Now, what I thought was interesting is that it ties this sexual immorality in eating things sacrificed to idols, because at that time, food was very hard to come by. It's amazing that during this time of this 900,000-year period, as most historians said, it might be known as the Dark Ages. You have heard of the Dark Ages.

It's amazing that the Roman Catholic Church ruled over the Dark Ages. Whether that's symbolic or not, I'm not going to go into that, but it is interesting that that time is referred to. The letter to the church talked and referenced the bad as the church-tolerated immorality, compromised on morals. Because at that time, the Roman Catholic Church, as you can read their doctrines, I'm reading a book called Caesar and the Christ, William Durant, also going into the later history of the Dark Ages.

It's so interesting because the prominent religion of the day was Roman Catholic, and that if you had money or food, you could buy your way out of condemnation. They came up with a system of paying for sins. They came up with a system so that you could go in and worship and be cleansed by the priest at that time. If you had enough money, remember back they even had this, I almost made a copy, they had this thing where every sin had a value. So if you committed adultery that week, you could just go in and if you had enough money, you could just pay and then that would all be absolved.

Even lying, that was very little, so it didn't cost you much if you went into lying. But that way you could feel good about yourself, all part of this tolerant attitude and behavior. And God is telling the church at that time that lived through that time that you were even affected by it, that you found ways around. You found ways around sin. It's interesting if we go back to Acts 15, remember the council? This was the council that Peter, Paul, and Barnabas all met there with all the disciples, and they were talking to Paul and giving him and Barnabas a letter to take to the churches in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia and all the Gentile churches about what they should keep and what they shouldn't keep because you had Jewish leaders that came over going, oh no, you've got to be circumcised.

No, you've got to have this. No, you've got to do this. You've got to wash your hands just the right way. They were doing all this disturbing the churches. So they wanted to know, what do we tell these churches? And it's interesting here when you look back in Acts 15 and verse 24, this is a letter they wrote. It said, So they're saying that people came and actually from Jerusalem and went to these churches and said, oh no, you've got to be circumcised. You've got to keep all the law. And they said, no, we never sent anyone saying that. It's not what we said.

Verse 25, So when this conference, this big conference they had, the first one since Christ's death, all the disciples came in together, all the apostles, and so they set down some of the rules and so forth of the church and how everything would be conducted. But it said in verse 28, For it seemed good to us, it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things. And look at the necessary things, the things that they wanted them to keep so that there wouldn't be problems. 29, that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality.

If you keep yourself from these, you will do well. It's interesting that this took place in the late 40s, 40 AD, 49, 48, 49 AD, which was 15, 20 years after Jesus Christ passed, and that the rules or regulations, admonition that they gave these people had nothing to do with doing away the Sabbath. Now, here was a chance to say, okay, now you guys, your Gentiles, was taught today, well, no, Gentiles never had to keep the Sabbath.

You no longer have to keep the Sabbath on a holy day, you can just do whatever. But no, what did he tell them? Sexual immorality and food offered to idols. Why? Same thing that we talked about last week.

Because that is, those are the things that were involved in idolatry and the worship. Sexual immorality, as they even had bales and whistles and everything else that would go off when someone went into a pagan temple to worship. Because sexual intercourse would be involved, there would be food spread out, it would just be a, a, Romans called it a regular good time, I guess.

And God said, and I want you to have any part of that. And if you compromise on that, it will lead you to compromising your entire life. And that is what He is telling us today. Thyatira. Thyatira.

Ampe, do you mind being Thyatira today? Miss Thyatira is coming up to receive her crown. But I want you to think about Thyatira, because I want us to be able to relate to that. That we must not have that mindset today. Because that's why this letter was written, not only to those back then, but to us today. Do we compromise? Do we tolerate immorality? Is that a part of our life? Do we look at pagan religions? Because, face it, unless you're worshipping God, it is pagan religion, isn't it? Unless you're worshipping God.

Do we get involved in some of those things? I had a professor at the University of my wife taught at, who was a retired minister, but he also taught college, and he also had a small church. A small church, a hundred people or so in a town. I did a job for him and got to know him pretty well. We had lunch a couple times. He was a very scholarly man about the Bible. He understood a lot of things. He didn't understand a lot of other things. So, as we talked over time, one time after lunch, I discussed with him some of the history of the church, some of the same things we're talking about today, which was all new to him. He did not know much about the book of Revelation, but he was intrigued. And so he said, well, hey, that really sounds great. I like that. How about you coming to my church Sunday and teaching that? I said, well, no, I don't think that would be a good idea. No, it would be great. And he was a very nice man. He said, if you'll come this Sunday, I'll come to your church next Saturday and speak. He didn't see anything different, different days. I could tell him different gods. I mean, my god worships on the seventh day.

His god worships on the first day.

We must be careful. There are some very good ministers, speakers, as I might say, even on television and radio. As I go through, I occasionally will hear a message of, gotten some things from other people. Well, we have to be very careful, even what we listen to, because subtle things will slide in. And then we begin to say, well, you know, they're pretty good people. They believe in Jesus Christ and the love of God and all this kind of stuff. And the next thing you know, we can begin to be like Thyatira and go, well, maybe we'll just stay on the fringes and stay on the good side of these churches. We have to be careful. Now, it's not my job to tell you how to worship, but it's your job to look in the book and see how to worship. We just have to make sure that we do not compromise on what your beliefs are. The next church, if we can go back, to Revelation 3. The next church talks about after Thyatira is the church of Sardis. And it's interesting, there's only like six verses of addressing the church of Sardis.

And it's interesting because Sardis was only 60 miles from Ephesus and Smyrna. And it was a one-time capital of the Lydian Empire, but it just dwindled. That city just dwindled to little or nothing. And it's interesting because Sardis is believed the time sequence in there, or the era, was about 1500 to 1800 AD. Now, what's interesting is, in chapter 3, verse 1, it says, I know your works. This is a church in 90 AD, but also talks about an attitude even today in that era as we go down through time. And it says, I know your works that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain, that you're ready to die. For I have not found your works perfect before God. Remember, therefore, how hard you have received, therefore, how you have received and heard. Hold fast and repent. Therefore, if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief in the night, and you will not know the hour in which I come.

And it's interesting, this Sardis, as its reference in Scripture and reference in my theologians, it was called the dead church. It was called the dead church. Why was it called dead?

Why? Because they just didn't care.

It said, hold fast and repent. The church at that time in Sardis was similar to maybe even some churches today, where, okay, I've heard all this stuff, heard all this stuff. I get it. I get it. I don't really need to be that excited. I don't need to be, you know, I'm just going to hold what I got right here, and Jesus Christ will come back, and I'll be changed, and everything will be fine. I do not really need to grow. That was the attitude. I don't need to really stimulate other brethren. Let's just all just show up and just go through the motions.

It was a dead church.

There were, as it says here in verse 4, you have a few names, even in Sardis, who have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. It didn't say there were some, there were a lot. It said there were a few, even in that church, who were what? They weren't dead. They were alive. They didn't defile their garments by compromising their lives. We talked about there being attitudes today, and the church is the seven attitudes that exist, and what becomes predominant in a church is exactly the attitude of the people in the church.

If we had a Sardis church, it would be a church that just said, I'm not really worried about spiritual growth. I'm pretty good the way I am. And I don't really care if we grow. I don't really need to have people, a lot of new people coming in the church. You know, we're fine just the way we are.

That's a Sardis church. Vicki, would you be a Miss Sardis for me?

The reason that we talk about these things is to make sure we realize, are we like that as a church? Now, I do want to emphasize that I truly believe, because I've been around the church for a very long time, also been around a lot of churches, that all seven attitudes exist in most churches. There's people who are on fire. You've seen them. There's people who have lost their first love. There's people who are compromising with the world. There are people who are just dead. There's nothing really there.

What kind of church do we want here?

Because I do not believe God can call people into a church that is dead.

Call into a church that's lost their first love is a predominant attitude. We need to. We need to have this zeal and fire.

And it's interesting here, as it talks about in verse 5, He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments. As I talked about last week, the word overcome in the Greek means to conquer. Does not mean just get by. It means to conquer. We must conquer these attitudes that keep us from being everything that God wants us to be.

Do you conquer these things? Or is there, well, I'll just move them off in a corner so they're not real prevalent, so a lot of people do not really see them. Or do we say, I'm not going to let fear take over me. I'm going to conquer it. I'm going to put it in God's hands. And then I'm going to do everything I can in my power.

And then in Revelation 3, we come down to the angel of the church of Philadelphia. Philadelphia. It's interesting that there are only six verses in Philadelphia. As a matter of fact, at the time in 90 A.D., the city of Philadelphia was founded by the citizens of Pergamos.

And they are famous. The city of Philadelphia no longer really exists there. But they were most famous because they were on kind of the, what would be considered, east there, the east side of Asia Minor. And when the barbarians first made their trek in to start taking over Rome, the citizens of Philadelphia armed themselves and defended the city. And successfully drove out the barbarians. Now, they later came back and conquered all of Rome. But they were known because they were zealous, because they stood and they fought.

And they believed that they could win. Now, it's interesting if you read the letter, and hopefully you already have. Read it many times. In verse 8 says, I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door and no one can shut it, for you have a little strength. You have kept my word and not denied my name.

And in verse 10 it says, Because you have kept my command to persevere, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that shall come upon the whole world. Behold, I come quickly. Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown. So the good about it is they're faithful. They persevered.

And Christ does not really have many bad things to say about Philadelphia.

Except they need to hold fast that no one takes their crown.

That has happened to a lot of people. Whether they get carried away with this doctrine, it seems like I was talking to somebody last night or something about, oh yes, I was talking to somebody and they brought up, had a guy that came into church and got all messed up about new moons. Oh, he just had to have these new moons. And we, you know, he believed all the truth, but boy, we just, we just have to have this great understanding about new moons. And he's got so carried away that it eventually took him out of church. And next thing you know, nobody knows what he was doing. Some mystic religion somewhere out there.

We have to make sure that we hold fast to what we do have.

We have to say, what are salvation issues to you? Okay, there are salvation issues. Now, we can discuss survival all day long because there are different issues where you can look at it one way, you can look at it another way, but they're not salvation issues unless people tend to make them that way.

So, Philadelphia is thought to be because in the 1880s, there was a revival of sorts, not only in the Seventh-day churches, but also in the Sunday churches. There was a revival period where people began to look, especially in the United States, to the divine providence as the country was coming into its power years, as the United States was being blessed. And they realized, as preachers were telling them everywhere, this just didn't happen by fiat. But the God is the reason that the United States is becoming the most powerful country on the earth at the time, even more than Great Britain.

And what was interesting, there seemed to be a zeal of getting the word out, getting the gospel out, that happened during the time from, I said, 1880s to 1980s.

And there was a lot of work done at that time by different ministers, a zeal to get the word out.

And it's so interesting because we find now there are people who have kept the Sabbath day, the Holy Days, that got them from someone else way before who we got it from.

We're finding now with the Internet, now that there are churches all scattered through the entire world that has kept the Sabbath and the Holy Days ahead. That came from just reading the Bible. And the instruction to the Church of Philadelphia is, hold fast what you have. Do we have that attitude of Philadelphia in here? Do we have the Philadelphia attitude? We look at it and go, hmm.

I hope so.

Melita, would you take this?

What kind of church do we want to be? What is going to be the predominant attitude? Will it be Philadelphia? Will it be Sardis? Or will it be the last church that we read about? And that's what my message mainly is about today. The Church of Laodicea. Church of Laodicea.

And I've got from 1980s to the time of Christ's return.

Will we be like Laodicea? Because that's where I want to go into today. This Church of Laodicea. The attitude. Will that be our attitude?

As it says in chapter 3.

In verse 14, the heading in mine is the lukewarm church.

The lukewarm church. And as many historians said, they understand this as being eras because it shows that when Christ returns, the church at Ephesus starts out, but by the time Jesus Christ makes His return, the entire world and the churches have become lukewarm. I guess that's why Jesus Christ brought up the question, when the Son of Man returns, will He find what? Faith. Will He find faith? Faith in whom? Faith in God.

If these eras are correct, will the predominant characteristics, character of the church, be lukewarm?

If it is, that's why I want to talk about it in the time I have left today. We need to cover this Laodicean church, to see if we're like that and what we can do about it. And that there's a good chance that this is the Laodicean era, if we believe these churches are resulted in eras. And this will be the last era that Jesus Christ will come in our time. I believe He will.

Now, why is it important? Like you turn back to 1 Peter. 1 Peter.

Peter made a statement in 1 Peter 4 and verse 17. Said, For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. And if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now, if the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?

The time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. What are you saying? We're being judged now. We are standing before Christ. As I said, all will stand before and be judged by Christ. Others at another time, each in their own order. Our order is now. We are standing before Jesus Christ. Being judged daily, do we repent? Is this the house of God? Are we the sons and daughters of God? Children of God? Do we possess God's Holy Spirit? Scarcely is a righteous one saved. Are we the righteous in an unrighteous world today? I ask this question, are you righteous? I'm not going to have you raise your hand if you consider yourself righteous, because there are people who are too humble to say, yes, I'm righteous.

But is that a little too personal? Have I gone to meddling?

Is that too personal for most of us?

If I were to hand out a piece of paper, are you righteous? Yes or no?

To answer that question, we really have to look at ourselves, don't we? What is righteousness? Are we righteous? I hope everyone in here could say, yes, I'm righteous. Because if the givers are showing there's right and there's wrong, if we're trying to do what's right, we're righteous. If we don't care, guess what? We're not. We're not trying to do what's right, we're not righteous. There was a movie a few years ago with Harrison Ford, I think it was called Clear and Present Danger, of where Harrison Ford was some type of secret service or head of defense or whatever it was. And he stood before the president, he found out there was corruptness, and the president knew about it and lied about it. And the president looked at him as he was telling him, he said, I've got to make this public or I need to tell this or this, this, you knew this. And just getting in the president's face, and he looked at Harrison Ford and he goes, how dare you?

And Harrison Ford looked back, how dare you? So I'm going to, how dare you today?

You know, different preachers take a claim to the Philadelphia church. Why not a stake a claim to Laodicea? You know, drive down the road, you don't see any churches. You got to lay on the side of the other side of the Laodicean church. Oh, what's the high-diver? We're the corrupt church. You don't see that, do you? But everybody wants to, oh well, now we have a Philadelphia attitude. Oh, we're from, you know, we're the Philadelphia church. And people follow men who say, we're Philadelphia, we're the only true church. Makes people feel secure, doesn't it? I feel good about myself. I'm the elect of the elect.

Especially since I follow the right man. I follow the right government. I follow God's government in the church. Oh, brethren, no church has God's government. Never did have God's government. God's government cannot be implemented till God is here, till Christ is here to rule. God's government is up there. It's not down here. That's why it says, pray what? Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, what? On earth as it is in heaven. God's government is up there. They're ruling. The man to follow is Jesus Christ.

Paul said, follow me as I follow Jesus Christ. That's why I want everyone to read the book. Read this book. Follow that. God's government will not be on earth till Jesus Christ returns and sets up His government. See, we're humans, are we? Some more than others. Sometimes I feel more human than other people. And humans are incapable of running God's government. Just look at the last 6,000 years and I make my point.

A 6,000 year track record, all bad.

That's why He says that kings and priests will rule with Him in the thousand year millennial reign of Christ. It will be His sons. It will be those who have His Holy Spirit that will be led by the Spirit, not by the flesh. Why do you think we're told, pray Thy kingdom come? If God's government was here somewhere now, why would they need to pray that? It's not here. It's waiting. We're praying for it. That's why in the Greek text, it actually says, let come Your kingdom, then Your will will be done. And that's what it's about.

So back to Revelation 3. I'd like to look at this as we finish up here today. Revelation 3 and verse 15 to the lukewarm church says, I know Your works that You are neither hot nor cold.

I could wish that You were cold or hot. So He said He would rather You be cold or hot and not lukewarm.

So then, because You are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew You out of my mouth. Now, it's interesting there. In fact, thankfully, one gave me a copy of Greene's Interlinear Greek to English, which is a very good. He does a very good job of translating the Greek into English. And what's interesting I will read there is in the original Greek, because I will spew You out of my mouth. One translation says, I'll spit You out of my mouth.

Well, in the original translation, when it's translated, it says, because lukewarm You are neither hot nor cold, I am about to vomit You out of my mouth.

I don't know whether You've ever been sick before, but if You've been so sick, You've had a few food poisoning, or You've had cold or flu or anything, and there is a big difference between spitting and vomiting in there.

Because most of the time, you vomit, you don't have any... It's just like, it just happens, right? It's never pleasant. You just hope you're near a commode when it happens, right? God is making it so crystal clear here that He does not want you to be lukewarm, because you can see from the other churches in the past, some of them were, that He's not going to entertain it. Well, wait a minute. I can be in the church, I can worship God, but I don't have to really 100% commit.

I can just... Let's just say I get one and a half feet in the church.

That'll be good, because I feel good, because I'm not odd, I'm not strange to the world, and I don't have to defend.

Do you really want God vomiting you out of His mouth?

Verse 17, because you say, I am rich and have become wealthy and need of nothing, and do not know that you are... I'm rich and have become and have no need of nothing. We may not say it, but we sometimes think it, don't we?

The interesting part of the Church of Laodicea in 90 AD was that they were a very rich church.

They were very wealthy as a city, so wealthy that when there was a... we call it an earthquake, and it destroyed a big part of the city. You know what happened? Rome was going to come in and rebuild it, and they said, no, we've got enough money, we'll do it ourselves. They didn't need anyone.

And the reason they were called by the Laodicea was that the water that came down that fed the city was not cold. It was kind of lukewarm. And so it really wasn't fit to drink, so they actually had to pump and build, because they had so much money. Find these streams and pump them. I forget what it was. Eight to nine miles of fresh flow of water into the city, so they could have cool water, because it's hot there. But in the city itself, they had plenty of water. It was all just lukewarm. They were very wealthy, because they also were... they were called a medical city, where they had a lot of medicines that were made there, manufactured there. One was they were supposed to have this iFav that was supposed to help your vision. But it's interesting, because you tie this to us today in the church. And it reminds me of Hosea. You don't have to turn there. Hosea 12 verse 8 says, Surely I have become rich. I have found wealth for myself and all my labors. They shall find in me no iniquity that is sin. And you see that so much in people who have money. They typically... I don't like religion, because they really don't want to be told what to do.

That's what's hard.

And he's describing the church at the end time, that the church will be like that.

You don't really have a struggle like Ephesus, or even like Smyrna, who were poor. But he's talking about the spiritual attitudes of this church. And so here, he reflects here about the spiritual attitude of the Laodiceans. And if this is the last days, we have to be sure that we are not Laodiceans. But that's interesting, because this nation, this country, the state, and this church, we as a people, individually, are the richest Christians who have ever lived. You ever thought about that? You are the richest Christians who have ever lived down through the eras. For thousands of years, it's been a struggle. Just people would spend virtually their entire day just coming up with food to eat. How long does it take you to go shopping today? Of course, you have to earn that money, right? So it's not just a given. But we are the richest Christians, and sadly, for most of us, we don't see it that way. And if you turn on the TV, you see, it used to be the show, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. You remember that with some British guy that made you feel like you were in the presence of loyalty? Right? And so you would see how the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. But today, there's like HGTV, Fine Living Channel, Travel Channel, what do you see? We watch it sometimes. My wife likes to watch House Hunters. But here, I even look at the House Hunters, and they're looking for a new house. Anybody seen House Hunters? Yeah, most everybody has. Okay, here, a young couple. They're very young, just got married or whatever. They're young. They go into this house. They want this huge house. They don't want to start in some small house. Right? They want this huge house. They go into this really nice house. They go, oh no, the countertops, they're not granite. Oh no! And look!

The tile is just, I can't, oh, well, this is all going to be taken out.

And then, we'll say, oh yes, it is. Yes, it is. Well, we can do all this, right?

And yet, people across the world, there's houses, even in the church, where you can go, and there's still dirt floors. They're dirt!

And yet, we wonder, well, I want hardwood instead of carpet.

It's interesting that a third of the world's income is $2 a day. A third of the entire, almost 2.5 billion people live on $2, $2 a day. Now, God has prospered and blessed us. As He did, if you go back and study your Scripture, if you go back, you realize that even when Judah and Israel split, He blessed Israel for so many years. But it didn't take long before they didn't need Him anymore, did they? And they lived out those blessings until they were destroyed, conquered. We're headed the same way.

We're headed the same way. See, brethren, the whole country is tainted. This whole country is tainted, and we wear lust-colored glasses, don't we? Lust-colored glasses. We want more. And, boy, that the world's viewpoint, especially in this country, it rubs off on all of us.

But the second part of verse 17 is the climax of the sermon. It's the pinnacle of these verses, and I need us to look at it. And this will be a part of how dare you, because I am going to touch on areas that may strike you as hard or difficult. But we need to face it. I have to face it. We need to face it as a church. We have to make sure that this church is not defined as a Laodicean church spiritually. That's what it's about. Okay? Because we have people in here that make all different kinds of money. Some make better money than others. It's not about physical. It's about the spiritual. I'm not here for your physical well-being. You're not here today because it makes you feel good physically to be here.

We're here to worship God for your spiritual well-being. That's why we're here.

And in verse 17, it says, because you say, I am rich, I have become wealthy and have need of nothing. Do you not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked? So God is telling this church that, oh, we've got everything. Oh, we're fine. Don't you know spiritually that you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked?

How about you spiritually? Let's go quickly through the Greek. The Greek word, Greek text for wretched there. It actually means a certain weight where you come up short. It's what wretched means. You've seen the balance where it had two sets of scales and you put weight on one. Well, this Greek word actually means that you're way out of balance spiritually. You may think you're balanced. You may think, well, wait a minute. I read the Bible an hour a day. So, do you study the Bible? I would rather you study for 30 minutes than read for an hour, right? Study it. Okay, how does that apply to me? What good am I going to get out of it? It can't be like a novel you read 10 years ago that you couldn't even tell you what you read today. The Bible can't be that way. It's our guidebook. It's what makes us who we are. It's what will fulfill our destiny if we read it. Miserable. Actually, it means the Greek text means pitiful.

Miserable means pitiful. Spiritually, you're pitiful. You may think, as church thought at the time, that, oh, well, I'm okay. But no, you're not. You're pitiful, spiritually. You're poor, which Greek text means a beggar. We're talking spiritually. You may think that you may have nice shirts, suits. You may have everything you need. But Christ is saying, Laodicea, you're poor. You're spiritually, you're a beggar on the street. You don't have a dime of spiritual worth at all.

And it happens so many times when people get involved with the things, either their job or things in the world or friends in the world. It can happen. But we're pretty soon. You just don't even think about the number one goal in life.

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

So you're wretched, you're miserable, you're poor, and then you're blind. It's interesting that the word blind there doesn't mean what we think blind is. It's actually, the Greek means opaque. Opaque.

Smokey. It actually means you can see but just not clearly.

And see, that's an attitude that happens in God's church. It's happened for years and it will happen again if we're not careful. Okay? You can't see, but it's not really clear. You kind of know, well, I need to show up on these holy days. I need to show up on the Sabbath. I need to do that, but really, you're blind.

You don't see why. You don't see the necessity. It's not in your hearts. It's why we're blind.

We need to be able to see and know why we're here. And then it says you're naked, which Greek just means bear. You think you're clothed, but you're naked.

Is that picture? Is that a picture of you? Do you go, well, no, that's not me at all. Well, I have none of that. I spiritually, I am rich. The Pharisees thought they were, weren't they? Sure thought they were rich, weren't they?

You know, it was interesting, Mary brought this up to me a week ago, that the book of Colossians was actually sent to Colossians and to Laodicea. So if you want to know a little bit more about Laodicea, study the book of Colossians.

So you may say to me, how dare you question my spiritual life? How dare you, Chuck Smith? Who are you? You're just our minister. You get paid to get up here and preach and take care of things and not offend us. Right?

No. How dare you and how dare me want to get into God's kingdom, wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked? How dare we even think that we can do that?

Do you?

See, I can't fool God. Neither can you. We're not going to fool God.

So the bad news is we really have to look at our spiritual lives and face our shortcomings. Are we willing to do that? Are we willing to look at these churches and say, okay, here's this and I need to work on this or I need to work on that?

Well, what if you are Laodicean? Or what if we all, we all have a little bit of this and that's where we're a little lukewarm. Some days I just get up. I don't feel like, man, I need to study this and I'm just kind of like, oh, well, let me do that later. So instead of doing it in the morning, I'll put it off. And then what happens later on? Oh, I better do it just before I go to bed. So it's just like the short time thing. I don't think I'm the only one. Right? Not the only one that's wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked? And that's good that we see it. It's those that do not see it that think everything's fine.

Because it says in verse 18, he says, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire that you may be rich. What is that gold? The actual Greek word means I recommend or I give you advice to buy from me gold. This is from God. The most valuable thing in the world is what? Everybody thinks it's gold. Well, play to him and all these other. The most valuable thing on earth, the most precious, as it says, more precious than silver and gold are the words in this Bible. They are the words that can change our attitudes. They can change our lives. They can change your destiny. It changes your eternity.

If you will just use it. He said, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire that you may be rich and white garments that you may be clothed that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed.

Do we? White garments. What do we need white garments? What are the white garments?

Turn over Revelation 19. Revelation 19, verse 8, we get a picture of the Bride of Christ. The Bride of Christ, the one who will live forever, the one who will be granted everything. And in verse 8 it says, And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright. For the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints that are clothing. That's what we need to be clothed with, the righteous acts.

And anoint your eyes with eyesab that you may see.

We need some spiritual visine, don't we? How about you? You need some? I don't know you, but I've had to use visine a couple of times where things, boy, it sure does. Man, it works like that. For most of us, well, our eyes are burning or whatever. I put that in, and oh, man! But then you forget you even had an eye problem. How about some spiritual visine? Isn't it time we go and ask God for some of this to take this film, to take these blinders off of me, off my eyes spiritually so I can see what He wants me to be and be what I know He requires me to be?

Verse 19, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.

I rebuke and chasten. You remember, Lloyd, you have to chasten. You have to rebuke. Nathaniel, right? He's a good kid, right? Most of the time, occasionally, he gets off. And so you have to go, no! Go this way. God has to do that, too. That's what these verses are about. That's what these verses and these churches are about. It lets us look at us and say, okay, this is where I am. This is where I need to be. God, take me there. Because if you're trying to do it on your own, you're not going to eat His help.

Then He says, therefore be zealous and repent.

Repent of what? Do you know? He says, be zealous and repent. It's easy. He's telling you to repent of not being zealous. So He's saying, repent and be zealous for Him, for this way of life. In verse 20, it says, Behold, I stand at the door and...

Right? I stand at the door... Do you ever get irritated with somebody who stands at your door when they knock and just...

Okay! I'm going to go open it.

But what if it's somebody you want to see?

Run to the door, right?

Jesus Christ said, I am standing at the door! I'm knocking!

And if anyone hears my voice, you heard His voice lately? Have you heard Jesus Christ's voice?

And I'm very serious about this. If you have not heard His voice, you better question your spiritual life. Okay. You need to hear His voice.

He speaks through His Holy Spirit.

Do you ask?

Knock at the door. Have you had those things, you know, where some comes to your mind and you know, but I just wait on that. Maybe you even have where there's a scripture that pops in your head. There's a story of the Bible pops in your head while you're driving and you go, you know, I need to look at that.

Then you go home and, oh yeah, what was that? Oh, wasn't it? Oh, yeah, it was...

We need to listen. You need to listen for the knock. That's why we're here. He wants to speak to you. He wants you to do these things.

Used to be this old saying when I was growing up is, ding dong, Avon's calling. You remember that? Ding dong, Avon's calling. Avon, is that... are they even in business anymore? They are. Well, guess what, brother? Ding dong! Jesus Christ is calling. Are we going to answer? No, we go. He just wait outside. He'll wait till I need Him. He'll wait till I need Him. Really need Him. Then I'll answer the door.

Where are we? As a church. And it says, he who overcomes, are we, brethren? Are we overcoming? And you remember, if nothing else you get from this message, what did overcome mean? Conquer! Conquer! It's time we conquer our spiritual lives and not just be driven over here and driven over here. I'll get to Bible study when I need to. That's how important it is. And he says, if you do, you will sit with me for eternity. He who has an ear, let him hear. He who has an ear, let him hear. I've got two. How about you?

Do we hear? Are we hearing? Is it important to us?

Are we going to go home today and be changed?

Because this word was given to change people's lives, not to make us just feel good, but it's to change our lives so that the people around us see Christ in us. That's what's important. So, is the Fort Lauderdale church listening?

Are its members listening? What kind of church will we be? See, Revelation is just not about what's going to happen at the end. It's about what's happening now as we prepare for the end, because the end is coming.

We've been called to make it into God's kingdom. We're also called to help others make it into the kingdom. Do you realize that? I'm just not here for myself.

I'm here to help you. You may say, well, good. That's what you get paid to do, right?

You are here to help each other make it into the kingdom. To build each other up. To pick each other up when they're down.

I have people call occasionally. They deal with problems. There's a way through this thing. It helps. That's why we have friends. That's why we have a relationship. And I always say, look, take it to Christ, too.

Let Him help you, because we're all going to have those problems. We need to be there for each other. And with that, I would like to say that in the coming months after Feast Tabernacles, I'd like a Bible study. When we have a Bible study, we're going to do about three Bible studies a certain way. Different than we've done before. I'm going to ask you, and I want you to think about it now as we prepare. I'm going to ask you in the New Testament, take away the book of Revelation and Acts and 3 John, which is your favorite book?

Think about it, because I read the statement the other day. Which New Testament book do you own? Ask you. I even asked my wife over here. She said, what do you mean, own? I said, which one can you turn to? I know that book. And if nothing else, let me tell you how that book goes. Because with myself, I study the entire Bible. I once studied the entire Bible, but there are certain books. Book of James, I can honestly tell you, I own it. I own it. I can tell you what the meaning of everything in that book, every single word in that book is. And the book of Matthew, I own it.

Because I've studied it so much, I've looked up most verses, I can tell if I need to instruct someone, if I need to help someone, they have a question about Matthew, bring it on! I've got it.

I can't do that with every book. What about you? Which book do you own?

Do you want to own a book?

God wants you to own a book. Because with that book, you can help people. If you own it, you know it. So what I'd like to do, not this Bible study, not the next one, because we're going to do one on health, but after that we're going to have a Bible study. And I'm going to ask you to take a piece of paper and write down the book you want to own in the New Testament. And we're going to put that together. And I'm going to look up all those and put your name on it, and then I'll pull it together and put a group. And whoever wants to own that book together, that's what we're going to have a Bible study. You're going to have a time, and you're going to be studying that book. And as a group, whoever has that book, I want you to communicate. I want emails and shemails. Emails sent by males and emails sent by females to each other and study that book and bring it. Own it. So as a group, whoever has that book, okay, share it together. We need to grow in grace and knowledge. We cannot be leo descends.

I can't allow it. I have to do everything I can. To make sure that we are not this church.

I don't want to see anyone spewed or vomited out of God's mouth. If I can help it, I'm going to do everything I can. And one of those is the answers I hear. So I hope you will think about that. What book do you want to own? And then that's what we're going to spend a couple Bible studies, having just small groups together. Study that book and know it inside and out. So if anybody asks, I know that. That's what we need. That's the future.

So I brought up the question today. How dare you? Chuck Smith questioned my spiritual growth. Question my righteousness. And as I said earlier, how dare you? How dare me? That I think I can just get in His kingdom, being Luke 1. So review the churches. Look and see what you want to be. Not what you are now, but what you want to be and what God wants you to be. And be zealous and repent. Repent of not being zealous. That's the story of the last church era. What will we be? Who will we be? If Christ was to stand there, who would He say we are?

It's up to you.