©2000 Larry Huntsperger
Peninsula Bible Fellowship
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7/16/00
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Spit It Out!
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Revelation 3:14-22
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7/16/00 Spit It Out!
We are studying the book of Romans,
though for the next few minutes
it is not going to sound like it.
I know I've mentioned this before,
but I consider the question and comment time
at the end of most of our Sunday mornings
to be in some ways the most valuable times of
learning we share together.
A question came up last week
that I want to spend a little more time on
before we return to our study
in the 3rd chapter of Romans.
If you were here last week
you will remember we were studying Romans
3:21-24,
a passage in which Paul introduces us
to the new agreement God is offering us
through Christ.
After showing us in the first 3 chapters of Romans
our helpless
and hopeless situation without Christ,
showing us that no human being
can ever hope to find peace or security with God
through approaching God on the basis of
obedience to His moral law,
Paul then turns a major corner in his writing with
these words...
Rom. 3:21 But now apart from the Law the
righteousness of God has been
manifested...
Then, in our study last week
we moved ahead into the next few verses
and talked about this offer God makes to us
in which He tells us that He will give us
true righteousness,
true, absolute moral purity,
true holiness
in response to our faith in Christ.
And before we ended last week
we saw that this righteousness He gives us
is not a righteousness based upon our
performance, our behavior,
but rather it is the result of His recreating
within the Christian
a new heart,
a new, righteous spirit within us,
a spirit that loves God,
and longs to please Him.
To the Christian God says,
"My child, I want you to look at the deepest longing
of your heart.
Do you see what I have created there?
Under all of your confusion,
and your ignorance,
and your fear,
and your wrong thinking
there exists at the core of your being
a deep love for Me
and a longing to live a life that honors Me.
That, my child, is who you really are.
That new heart within you is My creation, My
handiwork,
and nothing will ever again change it.
I call you "My holy one" because that is who you
truly are.
The battles you and I fight together
against the sin and evil the still disrupts your
life are important battles,
and together we will find victory and
stability in those areas.
But those battles never have
and never will define who you are.
You are now,
and shall forever more remain My righteous
one,
absolutely holy and pure in heart."
Following my comments
the question came up
asking me to explain how the creation of
that new heart
relates to Christ's comments in the book
of Revelation
where He accuses the church at Laodicea of
being lukewarm
and then says that because they are neither
hot nor cold
He will spit them out of His mouth.
That's an excellent question,
and one I want us to spend a little more time
with today
before we get back into our Romans study.
Christ's comments to the church at Laodicea are
recorded for us
in Revelation 3:14-22.
And for us to understand what's happening in these
verses
we need a little background information.
Those of you who were with us several years ago
when we were studying this section of the book
of Revelation
may remember that the entire book
is the result of a vision given to the
Apostle John
by Christ near the end of John's life.
This vision was given to John
about 50 or 60 years following the resurrection
and departure of Christ.
During that half century
the message of Christ had been spread
and churches established throughout the
Roman Empire.
The Revelation given to John by Christ
has two major sections.
The first section is a series of seven messages
for seven specific church fellowships.
These were real,
existing churches
in seven 1st century cities.
But as we studied our way through them
we saw that they are also symbolic
of both churches
and time periods throughout the history
of the Church.
This quotation about the lukewarm church
is found in Christ's message
to the seventh of these seven churches.
The second section of the book of Revelation, in
chapters 4-22,
then jumps into the future
and gives us a window into the events
surrounding the second coming of Christ.
I'll go ahead and read
Christ's message to the Church at Laodicea in
it's entirety,
and then I'll talk a little about
what's going on here
and how it relates to the new heart
God recreates within the Christian.
Rev. 3:14 ¶ "To the angel of the church in
Laodicea write: ¶ The Amen, the faithful
and true Witness, the Beginning of the
creation of God, says this:
Rev. 3:15 ¶ ' I know your deeds, that you
are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you
were cold or hot.
Rev. 3:16 'So because you are lukewarm,
and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you
out of My mouth.
Rev. 3:17 'Because you say, "I am rich,
and have become wealthy, and have need
of nothing," and you do not know that you
are wretched and miserable and poor and
blind and naked,
Rev. 3:18 I advise you to buy from Me
gold refined by fire so that you may
become rich, and white garments so that
you may clothe yourself, and that the
shame of your nakedness will not be
revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes
so that you may see.
Rev. 3:19 ' Those whom I love, I reprove
and discipline; therefore be zealous and
repent.
Rev. 3:20 'Behold, I stand at the door and
knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens
the door, I will come in to him and will
dine with him, and he with Me.
Rev. 3:21 ' He who overcomes, I will
grant to him to sit down with Me on My
throne, as I also overcame and sat down
with My Father on His throne.
Rev. 3:22 ' He who has an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit says to the
churches.'"
Something I did not mention last week
and want to begin with this morning
is a distinction that is central to our
understanding of what is happening
throughout all of these seven church messages.
These seven messages
were not sent to individual Christians,
they were sent to established,
structured,
organized local church bodies.
If we were to place this
into a contemporary setting,
it would be like receiving a letter from Christ
addressed to "All those in the greater Kenai
Soldotna area who identify yourselves as
Christians".
That illustration breaks down because
in our culture we have no organizational
structure that unites all the local church groups,
but what I want us to understand here
is that Christ's comments in this message
were being directed to the organized church as a
whole.
There are many students of the Bible
who believe one of the major reasons
why Christ singled out this church at
Laodicea for a special message
is because it pictures the general condition of the
organized church throughout the world
just prior to the return of Christ.
Understanding this distinction between
the church organization
and the individual Christian
is essential for any correct understanding
of these messages of Christ to these local
churches.
We don't have time to study the passages this
morning,
but I'll just tell you that
both Christ Himself
and several of the writers of the New
Testament
made it clear that no organized Church group
that has ever existed or ever will exist
has been purely or perfectly Christian.
Much of Satan's finest work
and most effective servants
are found within the organized church,
and in fact
Christ went to great lengths
to prepare His people
for an active, life-long battle
with that corruption within the organized church.
He began this preparation
with the comments He made
about His own 12 disciples.
There was a critical point in Christ's relationship
with His disciples
when Peter, speaking for the 12,
offered the Lord a bold affirmation
of their faith in Him.
"Lord... You have words of eternal life.
We have believed and have come to know
that You are the Holy One of God."
And listen to Jesus' response to Peter's words:
John 6:70 Jesus answered them, "Did I
Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet
one of you is a devil?"
You see, He was preparing both them and us
for the true nature of the organized church -
if purity of faith didn't exist there,
in the first 12 disciples,
don't expect it in any organized group
identifying itself as Christian throughout the rest of
history.
I bring all of this up
because it is only in this context
that we can understand
Christ's comments to the church
organization in Laodicea
when he says, Rev. 3:16 "...because you
are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I
will spit you out of My mouth..."
This is not God speaking to the individual believer
wrestling with unresolved conflicts in his own life,
this is Christ speaking to an organization
that has claimed His name
without seeking and submitting to Him
and His leadership.
Christ powerfully illustrates what's really going on
through His invitation in Rev. 3:20.
Speaking to the organized church Christ says,
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if
anyone hears My voice and opens the
door, I will come in to him and will dine
with him, and he with Me."
He pictures Himself as being on the outside of the
organized church
seeking individuals within the organization
who will invite Him into their lives.
This is the end result
of the gradual transformation
of true Christianity into the counterfeit
Christian religion.
This is Christianity as a business,
affluent,
socially prominent and secure,
a Christianity that uses the name of Christ freely,
and teaches the doctrines of Christ effectively,
and speaks the Name of Christ with
reverence,
but a Christianity that has no place
for the Person of Christ in its business as usual.
This is the Christianity
that dominates our society today.
It is a Christianity
that proclaims with boldness,
"I am rich, and have become wealthy, and
have need of nothing,"
And the only thing it lacks
is its Savior.
There is a strong implication in Revelation
that this is the Christianity
that will dominate the world
just prior to the Return of Christ.
But even here Christ makes it clear
that, for those who have grown weary
of a Christianity without Christ
... if anyone hears My voice and opens the
door, I will come in to him and will dine
with him, and he with Me.
And even in this message
that contains some of the harshest words of
condemnation
found anywhere in Scripture
for those who use the name of Christ for
their own ends,
there is also found one of the most thrilling
reaffirmations of God's offer of redemption
found anywhere in Scripture.
And the beautiful thing
is that He doesn't ask us to fix anything.
He doesn't ask us to change anything.
All we need to bring
is our affirmation of our need.
Rev. 3:17 '... you say, "I am rich, and
have become wealthy, and have need of
nothing," and you do not know that you
are wretched and miserable and poor and
blind and naked..."
Our God does not ask us
to change anything about ourselves.
He wants no promises that we will be different,
no vows that we will rebuild our lives.
He simply wants us to accept the truth.
"My God,
without You,
without Your love,
without Your healing,
I am wretched and miserable
and poor and blind and naked."
And His advice...
Rev. 3:18 I advise you to buy from Me
gold refined by fire so that you may
become rich, and white garments so that
you may clothe yourself, and that the
shame of your nakedness will not be
revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes
so that you may see.
The gold, the garments, and the ointment, of
course, are figurative.
Peter talks about the gold in I Peter 1:6-7.
In that passage he is talking about
... an inheritance which is imperishable
and undefiled and will not fade away,
reserved in heaven for God's people.
Then he goes on to say,
1 Pet. 1:6 In this you greatly rejoice, even
though now for a little while, if necessary,
you have been distressed by various trials,
1 Pet. 1:7 so that the proof of your faith,
being more precious than gold which is
perishable, even though tested by fire,
may be found to result in praise and glory
and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
The gold refined by fire
is that faith in our Lord
that can only come from not running away
from issues He has placed before us,
but rather walking with Him
through the fire
and coming out the other side
having found Him faithful
each step of the way.
The white garments
that Christ calls them to put on
are the covering from our shame
that only He can give us.
Rev. 7:13 ¶ Then one of the elders
answered, saying to me, "These who are
clothed in the white robes, who are they,
and where have they come from?"
Rev. 7:14 I said to him, "My lord, you
know." And he said to me, "These are the
ones who come out of the great tribulation,
and they have washed their robes and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Every one of us
comes trotting into God's family
very much like a seven year old boy
who has been out playing in the mud. We
are caked and splattered
from head to foot with dirt and grime. God
takes each of us,
much as a parent would
take that dirty child,
and He begins to clean us up.
He washes
and scrubs
and pats
and drys
and hugs us throughout the process.
With every one of us, though,
there comes a time
when we suddenly look at what we've been
wearing
and cringe in shame
at the filth we had wrapped around us.
With each of us
there will very likely be at least one stain on
those clothes
that, to us, seems far worse than the rest.
When we first see that spot,
our response is nearly always
to attempt to cover it up.
We want to hide it so that He can't see it.
We anticipate condemnation,
and fear what He will say.
It will help us to remember that,
no matter how carefully we think we have
hidden it from view,
our Lord has already seen that spot long ago.
He knew it was there
the first day He brought
His muddy little child into His family.
To God, that stain is no different in nature
from all the rest of the filth
we brought with us.
He knows just exactly what to do.
First He cleanses our hearts,
placing within us a love for Him
and a longing to follow His lead.
Then He takes all those old clothes of ours,
and wads them up and throws them away,
and then He takes a brand new white rope,
one just our size,
woven from His own righteousness,
a robe He wraps around us Himself,
and ties with His love,
a robe with which He hides our shame forever.
God's words of warning
to those He would spit out of His mouth
were not words spoken to an individual
Christian
wrestling through growth issues in his own
life.
They were words spoken to an arrogant
organization
using His name for their own ends,
while at the same time
denying the Person and power of Christ
to change our lives.