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We have nothing to seek or to choose.
This world is a world.
Where and where did I start and?
All the little version of the whole gardening.
Stay.
Meeting on the passage before us.
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It's good.
What verse should we start with the address to Laodicea?
We can get starting. We can always go back.
Revelation Chapter 3.
And we'll start with verse 14.
And unto the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans rite these things saith the Amen, the faithful, and true witness the beginning of the creation of God. And I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot.
I would thou Wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth, because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich and white, Raiment, that thou mayest be clothed with the shame of thy nakedness do not appear.
Anoint thine eyes with eye cells that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chase, and be zealous therefore, and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him, and will Sup with him, and he with me.
To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am sat down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
Interesting comment, pass it on to you.
I think it was Brother Patterson and one of the monthlies.
He said that.
Morally.
The overcomer in each assembly morally is a Philadelphian.
And I enjoyed that.
Because that's really what this characteristic of Philadelphia is. He he keeps his word, and that's really what the overcomer does in each one of the assemblies, although they may not have the light that the Philadelphia has.
Dispensationally, if you want to look at it that way.
Philadelphia And there was, there was a there was a movement that had that character.
In the last century, but I like that thought.
That morally, the overcomer in each assembly is a Philadelphian principle.
You say then Chuck that in Thyatira, Stardust, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. We all have the ending he that overcometh. Would you put them all in that class?
And so it was. I was asked, between the meetings.
What about the people in Laodicea? When the Lord comes, are they going to?
Have the blessing of the 10th verse.
Well, yes, Thyatira Sardis.
Philadelphia, when that shout comes in.
1St Thessalonians 4 All Christians are going to go.
All Christians are going to be caught up. All are going to be taken up into glory and be.
Reserved. Free from that trial that is going to try those that are upon the earth.
So all four of them we have, don't we, The he that overcometh.
A blessing for he that overcometh.
Not the characteristic of faith, isn't it is that principle which overcomes the world, our faith. And so a real believer is an overcomer. Even though he may have ups and downs, he is an overcomer. That's the characteristic of it. I think that's good to get a hold of that.
I'd like to say something on this little expression we get that the towards the end of every church, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
To me, this shows that the moral application of every church should be taken for each one of ourselves. Brethren, you might say, well, I'm not part of the Church of Philadelphia or Laodicea or any of the others. I don't live in any of those cities. But still, he that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. It applies to us morally. We need to apply each one of these churches as a message.
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To us, and we need to take it. And there's the blessedness in applying the truth of the Scriptures to us in that moral way. I know there's a dispensational teaching, which is very good too, but I think this shows that what we have in these seven churches applies to every one of us, if we have an ear to hear.
Moral sense, you mean? That's right, Yeah.
And I'm not curious about all the covers and look up what it said in the new and Concise dictionary and I think it relates to what we've just had before us. I'll just read it to you. It's very brief. Overcomer is one who has faith to surmount the special danger that exists in his day.
And So what one may have to overcome may not always be the same, but they have the faith to proceed and overcome what faces them. And I think that's an encouragement to us too, because we can't exactly identify with each one of these churches, but we surely can look to the Lord to be an overcomer.
Might add just one other little thought before we go on about that with the overcomer. It doesn't say to those that are overcomers, though. Indeed, in each case, no doubt there are those who collectively would answer to that. But it's an individual thing, isn't it? And that's something that we need to recognize for each of us that to overcome now in this that we're taking up in the day in which we live. It's faith, and it's an individual thing. Individual faith is needed.
That doesn't set aside at all The thoughts of the collective testimony is gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ. But if I could just say it this way, I can't go on as an overcomer. Because if I may say it this way, the brethren go on. I have to individually, in faith, go on as an overcomer. And so these are directed, these things are these thoughts are directed to each one of us, personally and individually.
To what David said at the beginning of the meeting, there is a teaching that only those who are.
Faithful Philadelphians will be raptured when the Lord comes, and then 3 1/2 years later the rest of Christinom will be raptured. Or something like that.
That's making a fundamental mistake between his, the first aspect of his second coming and the 2nd aspect.
The second stage of his second coming, the 1St, is all grace to take his own home to glory. That's all. Grace. Rewards are not connected with that. That's a secret rapture. The world won't see that and he'll call his own home because they have faith and the reason he calls them all home, whether they they fit being in Philadelphia or some. Maybe they're in Sardis, or maybe they're in Thyatira. Even if they have faith, they'll be raptured. And because it's grace, it's all grace.
Rapture is all grace. It does not depend on our faithfulness. It depends upon Christ and his work. But his The second stage of his second coming is appearing, the appearing of his glory. That has to do with rewards. And then there will be a difference between those that went on faithfully for him and those that didn't. And those that didn't will will lose something, but they won't lose their salvation. So what is strictly grace?
There's no difference. We're all going to go.
And what is connected with our faithfulness and rewards are connected with that, and that those will be dispensed when he comes back and sets up his Kingdom. But I think it's important to make that distinction, because that's a fundamentally wrong principle to say that only certain part of the church will be raptured at 1St, and those that weren't as faithful, they'll come later. That makes the rapture dependent on our faithfulness and not on the work of Christ.
And that's bad.
Isn't it interesting that in the case of Thyatira, excuse me, in the case of Laetacia, the Lord Jesus says, even as I also overcame?
He doesn't say that to the other six churches.
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But he was the faithful one and as was said earlier in the meeting this morning.
What he puts before them is what will touch their conscience in regard to their state. And so here Laodicea, who had lost sight of the person of Christ, they had been more occupied with themselves. And so then he sets before them, even as I have overcome. And so we go back to the cross. We go back to the scene of what he overcame and what a scene that was. And so that's what he presents to.
Laodicea to turn their heart back to himself.
He presents himself to Philadelphia. These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David. And those were the holiness and truth are connected with what he was morally down here, and then with his authority to open and shut as he sees fit. And this, this last epistle is also connected with his character. Now the the Philadelphian answers to that character of holiness and truth, and they're commended for that. They answer to that.
The way he presents himself to Laodicea, which means the people's rights. Laodicea, the people's rights. Laos is the people.
They don't answer to any of the characters that are presented here of the Lord. He was the Amen. He was the confirmation of God's Word, God's truth. He was the faithful and true witness, No more faithful and true witness than he was. He was the beginning as the risen Christ. He was the beginning of the creation of God refers to him as the head of a new creation, The beginning of a new creation.
Now the assembly at Laodicea was not a confirmation of the word of God. She was not a faithful and true witness. She did not give expression to the new creation at all. He was living basically in the old creation. And so all of those 3 characteristics that He presents himself as being to this assembly was to rebuke them, to show them that they were just the opposite to what He was when he was here with Philadelphia.
It was consistency with what he was here in Laodicea. It's just the opposite, isn't it?
One of the writers that I read, I think it's Hamilton Smith. Usually his writings are excellent. I'm quite sure I recall this right. He makes the beginning of the creation of God relate to the original creation. I don't think that's right. It it relates to the new creation. Christ risen becomes the head of a new creation.
Probably refers to the Second Corinthians 517.
You are a new creation. Behold, all things are new. All things are passed away.
And that's what every Christian is, a new creation. We're no longer found in that old condition.
Well, this is related to to Colossians one. I'll read it Colossians 1.
Verse 18.
He is the head of the body, the church. Now when did He become that? After He died. He was not that when He was here on earth. After he rose from the dead, after he ascended to heaven and sent down the Holy Spirit. Then He became the head of the body, the Church. Who was the beginning? When did He become the beginning? Well, in resurrection He became the beginning of this new creation. These things, these expressions in this verse, the first born from the dead, He was the one that was raised.
That in all things he might have the preeminence. So now earlier in Colossians 1.
It says in verse 15, who is the image of the invisible God? The first born of every creature or first born of all creation. That refers to him as being the preeminent one over all creation. Not a creature, but he is the first one, the preeminent one connection with the creation that he brought into being, but as the.
The beginning of the creation of God. That's the new creation.
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You could not have a Laodicea following upon Sardis.
Or Thyatira, you could not have a Laodicea. You'd have to have first of Philadelphia. You have to have first the full recovery and expression of what the church is according to the mind of God. That's Philadelphia.
And that has come out now that's been expressed.
And what follows?
Laodicea What follows after the best has been presented. This artist isn't the best. It was a recovery of some truth, but they came far short of the full recovery of it. But Philadelphia was a recovery of it. Of it all. What follows that? A complete breakdown, a complete denial and breakdown in Laodicea.
From Christ being everything to self being everything, That's Laodicean.
Saturday.
What is the significance of the expression unto the Angel of the Church of Laodiceans? And it's true for the other six churches, but why is it unto the Angel?
I believe the Angel represents the responsible element in the assembly.
The light bearers, it says in Revelation one, the angels, the stars of the angels of the seven churches, starved in the darkness of the night, is to give light and those that are responsible for the moral state of the assembly. Actually we're all responsible, yes, but there are the leaders. There are those that take the lead and and.
Form the.
The state, so to speak, of the assembly. The apostle Paul and John say that if you don't go on, well, it's to my shame, he says, And John says the same.
They were his children in the faith and he was their father, Paul was. And so those that are in the in the place of leadership, those who are teachers and leaders and shepherds in the assembly.
Are really?
Responsible for the state of the assembly.
They're held accountable.
But I'd like to say, too, that I think we all need to feel our responsibility as to the ongoing testimony. And as the Lord walks through the midst of the candlesticks, he observes. And sometimes I've seen those who are younger saying, well, I'm not a responsible person. I know things, yeah, but the older brothers are responsible if you know something, young person that needs to be addressed.
You are responsible. And I think it's good to realize we're all responsible. Some much more than others, like you were saying, but we're all responsible.
I'd like to suggest another consideration as to the angels. We notice whether in the beginning, when seven of them are mentioned, they're in the plural, but when it comes to each assembly, it's singular. It isn't the angels of the Church of Laodicea, but it's singular and characteristically of an Angel.
Is that he depicts?
A representation. So you have the thought of the Angel of the Lord he was in. Whenever they had that capacity, or they had the reflection of the mind of the Lord that they would be sent, an Angel of the Lord would come, and he would reflect the Lord's attitude at that time as the Lord's representative.
And so I would like to suggest that the Angel depicts a true representation of the assembly that it's spoken of as being the Angel of. And so the Angel of the church at Laodicea depicts the true condition of Laodicea as seen by. God might not have had that representation as seen by men.
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But as an Angel, he gives a very true, accurate representation of the assembly. And what I'm saying is, is that you look at the assembly at Addison and what does God see it?
How does he see it? How is it represented to God? Well, if it's a bad representation as this Angel to Laodicea, it depicts Laodicea, then the overcomer in that assembly must overcome that condition so that that Angel doesn't represent his state of soul. But I would like to suggest that it might possibly be.
Representing.
These true state.
Of each assembly as seen by God, not necessarily as seen by men, but as seen by God.
For the Lord in the midst of the seven churches.
How does that fit in with the fact that he holds the seven stars in his right hand? He has the seven stars in the first chapter.
Verse 16 He had in his right hand seven stars. In the 20th verse, Mystery of the Seven Stars, which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.
Verse one of chapter 2 These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand.
The chapter 3 verse one these things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.
I I still feel that they refer to the figurative representation of those held accountable in the Assembly for its state.
Now you're saying say that again.
I just was looking at them as representing the true state of each assembly.
But you're connecting it with responsible brothers and I I'm just connecting it with the assembly as a responsible light. They're giving this character instead of a true representation, but I submit.
That I think that's right too.
There's probably more to it than either one of us understands so.
I hope so.
We often make the raise the question when there is an assembly difficulty. Is the Lampstand still burning in that assembly? In other words, is the Lord in the midst? And it's interesting to me here that it says that.
In verse 20 of chapter one that you referred to the seven stars which thou source in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks, and that immediately brought to mind the thought was Laodicea, what we would call today a viable assembly if we think of it in that sense where the Lord was in the midst.
Well, I think you're.
Mixing the Lord in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, which is the Church testimony in this present period from the Apostolic days to the Rapture.
You're mixing that with being gathered to the Lord's name, according to Matthew 1820, and I don't think they're the same thing.
It's an interesting thing, that responsibility.
Lies with those that are responsible.
I'd like to read a scripture from the book of Judges, the second chapter of Judges.
The seventh verse and the people serve the Lord all the days of Joshua.
And all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord that he did for Israel.
And Joshua the son of Nun died now the tenth verse. And there arose a generation which gathered under her father's narrows, another generation after them which knew not the Lord. Why?
Why? Because the generation of Joshua's time and the generation that followed, they walked with the Lord, but they did not walk in front of their children in such a way to cause them to walk with the Lord. They did not teach their children. So we may say, yes, everyone is responsible, and I believe that is true.
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But each and everyone of us that's older and has in some sense walked with the Lord. What have we done? How have we raised our children? How have we walked before the Saints in the assembly? How have we brought the truth of God before those that we are with that we're responsible for? You know, it's a serious thing to think that in the third generation after Joshua, they knew not the Lord. And so when we look at the Book of Revelation and.
The third chapter in Philadelphia.
And Laodicea.
You know, we have to think and hang our heads.
To think that that has been the result of unfaithfulness, later see as a result of unfaithfulness nothing else.
It's a rejection of the distinctive truths recovered at Philadelphia.
But like you say, Jackets. An extension of what?
After Philadelphia comes Laodicea, and it was such a remarkable movement of the Spirit of God in the last century. To simply open up those truths that were always there in the Scriptures were not new, but they had been lost to the enjoyment of God's people. And then they were recovered again. And it was such a remarkable move that the tendency was that all Christendom started noticing.
This group of people and associated thinking of associating with them, or their lack of association with them, and they became the object of attention instead of the Lord. And little by little we tend to be occupied with ourselves, what we are, what is our testimony, and it degenerates into Laodicea occupation with ourselves.
Brethren, it's the testimony of the Lord, not our testimony.
It's the Lord's table, not our table, And I think it's so important to keep that focus, right? That's the reference point, not us. And so often it seems like we go in cycles like the people of God in the book of Judges, where you have them stirred up in faith to lay hold of the inheritance that God had given them and remarkable deliverances.
And then they settled down into the enjoyment of what God had given them. Little by little, they settled down to the point where the enemy starts encroaching again until they're totally at the mercy of the enemy. Then again, God raises up those who, in faith, act before God and delivers the people of God. It's a cycle. It's a continual cycle. And we need to be exercised to walk in the truth of God. Otherwise we're going to lose it again, and that's what.
Why Leticia follows Philadelphia, and I really believe, brethren, if we can realize that if we become occupied with something that is merely outward with ourselves, with those that before were associated with those that were connected with Philadelphia, we will become Laodicea. And that certainly is most characteristic of the Christian testimony today, is Laodicea. Heartlessness is to Christ.
Indifference and lukewarmness. The Lord help us to be occupied with Christ and not with ourselves.
Like to suggest a simple thought. And why this has come to me is because I notice as I have read these passages, that every time I read verse 15 I read I know thy works, that thou art neither hot nor cold, and I had to catch myself and realize that's not the way it's stated. There are three conditions and I just want to say this simply. There's cold and there's hot and there's lukewarm and I would like to.
Certainly hear from our beloved brethren their thoughts, but at least this for our hearts. Beloved brethren, when we think of cold, we can sometimes, and rightfully so, associate lack of life with that. I don't want to be unseemly, but.
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A dead body is cold. We have weather coming, though. It doesn't seem like it, perhaps today, but there's going to be weather in these parts of the country that are going that's going to be very cold.
When it gets very cold, things don't grow. The grass is dead, The trees are dormant, They look dead. Things don't grow in the cold. There's no life.
Well, it's not hot or cold, but it's cold or hot, because if it's cold, there's no life. I want to just say that God, I want to be very careful with this, but that's a condition that he can work with, that he can bring life into that condition. That's what he's done with each one of us. We were dead in trespasses and in sins. And by his spirit he worked in marvelous grace, and he brought life.
And I would suggest in the application I'm making that that would be hot. There's life. Lukewarm. Well, beloved brother for my soul that's saying, as you mentioned the word, it's saying I don't care.
It's, if I can say it in this way very carefully, it's the world saying as it thinks about Christ, it's Christians, those who bear the name of Christ, those who ought to be walking with him in joy and in a display of life, not a display of death. Saying it's no big deal. It's indifference. And that's what this world as a Christian world says. And beloved young people, beloved brethren. That's what happens when I don't walk by faith, when I don't walk in a present sense and consciousness.
Of my beloved Savior who died on the cross for me, who gave everything for me.
And I begin to walk in that spirit of I don't care. It doesn't mean anything.
That's lukewarm, and it's such a solemn thing. Think of the Lord Jesus as saying I'd rather.
That it be cold. That there be no evidence of life at all.
Or hot, but it is nauseous to him. He spews it out of his mouth.
That condition of lukewarmness all beloved brethren, may we seek in grace.
The face of our blessed Lord Jesus to be stirred up, that we never allow morally in our walk and in our ways the attitude or the spirit of saying, I don't care.
We've seen it. We've seen an illustration of that in the political arena when the impeachment of President Clinton was in process. We've seen that the lukewarm, nauseous condition that the Lord says he'll spew out of his mouth is what characterized the majority of American people. They don't care. So what if he did these things?
So what? That was their attitude and.
What a state this country is in. Well, this isn't talking about the political arena. This is talking about the Church of God. And it's worse there, isn't it, When there's that kind of an attitude, Far worse when Christians have that kind of an attitude?
The focus in these seven churches that it is the candlesticks. It's the public testimony down here that the Lord Jesus is walking in the midst of and viewing and judging, and there are those in these connected with these.
Seven churches that are not really saved at all and will go on into the Tribulation.
Believe it's right to say in chapter in connection with Philadelphia verse 10 that all true believers will go on the Rapture. But I remember Brother Lundin speaking about.
Sardis and it talks about the coming and he talks about coming as a thief that is at the end of the tribulation and he made the comment Sardis will go on till the end of the tribulation.
Because he comes as a thief there another one in Thyatira, he says. I will throw those who commit fornication with Jezebel into great tribulation. They're going to go into tribulation. And then there's this spewing out of his mouth. When does that happen? It's the public disowning of what is not according to his mind after the rapture.
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Of what remains of the false church is going to disown it publicly. That's the spewing out. Is that right?
Just said that leads people. I agree with what you just said. That leads people to say that at the Rapture, only certain ones that are really Philadelphians will go, and then the ones that are just Sardis, they'll come, they'll go at the end and so on. You're talking about the system that that has a real and unreal there, all who are real. No matter which one of the churches they're in, they'll go at the Rapture, they'll be taken to heaven. That's what we were explaining before you agree with that and you're talking about after the Rapture. Christians, Christians, nominal Christians will still go to church on Sunday.
There'll still be sermons preached and so on. How long that will go on, we don't know. But Christianity won't be overthrown instantly. But it won't take very long because all the true believers will be gone, so there won't be anything here to hold them there. The Spirit of God will be gone as the Constitutor of the Christian testimony, so that will be given up pretty fast. And that's called the apostasy.
Rather than to consider the way lukewarmness or is manifested in our day. And that is through saying that everybody is right, Nobody's wrong.
In the differences that have come in in Christendom, what that does in principle is it leaves the Lord out because the Lord is the head of the Church. And when if we agree to disagree and say everybody's right or that we agree, we won't.
Face certain issues that leaves the Lord outside because he's head of the church.
And what do we have without him? And so it's an indirect way, or maybe not so indirect, but it leaves the Lord outside, and that's why it's nauseous to him. I just call that the tension, because I think we're being attacked on that front today in agreeing to disagree about fundamental principles, which in essence leaves the Lord outside.
They always say. But you bigoted Christians?
You're not right. They won't have us as being right.
That's exactly where you find the Lord Jesus in these churches. Verse 20 is outside a closed door.
In the first six assemblies addressed by the Lord, they listen, but they don't answer.
The 7th and land to see us. They answer back. They tell the Lord, but they are.
There's a tremendous lesson, isn't there, in that when the Lord speaks to us, our place is to listen and to hear what he says. And can I say keep our mouth shut. It's a very dangerous thing to hear us individually or collectively, speak about what we are practically, practically before God. It's one thing to speak about what the Lord has done, but when we start speaking about ourselves, collectively or individually?
We need to be careful. The Lord speaks here to them and they respond. They say, oh, I'm rich, and I'm this and I'm that. And there's a tremendous lesson for us in that. I believe that Laodicea is morally the same picture that is seen in Malachi.
And in Malachi there is an insensitivity to what the Lord has to say.
There's even an incapacity to listen and understand it. They speak about themselves and what they were and what they thought about themselves, to the point where they were not even did not even have a hearing ear when the Lord spoke to them. And so they would say to them, well, we're in Hast thou loved us when the Lord spoke to them? There was no response from the heart as to what the Lord was having to say to them. And I think this lukewarmness is characterized by that insensitivity.
Which is in my own soul at least connected again with what we said in First Second Corinthians 5 about new creation. That's this chapter in which the words of the Lord are the love of Christ constraineth us, and those words are given in connection with new creation, or the beginning of the creation of God, which is seen here. And there can be a state into which we enter that produces in us a lukewarmness toward the Lord when we are no longer walking in fellowship with Him in such a way.
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That we are constrained by His love, and consequently we are not drawn.
Were cold or lukewarm to himself and his that attractive power which is in himself toward us. And so he has to turn around and use that love that no longer constrains us to rebuke and chastise us.
Would you suggest to go on to verse 18 and tell us your thoughts on these things? The Lord counsels them to buy of Him.
Not indicate if they had to buy this of him that they didn't have it. And if they didn't have those three things, does that not indicate they were lost? Would you?
No, I just did. I just did. But I want to hear your thoughts. What you just said was so excellent. Well, Chuck came beyond the very beginning of the 18th verse. When he says, I counsel thee to me, it's the insensitivity to the Lord that he has to get to the point where he can, only as it were at first. When he spoke to them, they listened. At least they didn't respond. We assume they listen. But finally it comes to this final condition of soul and of the collective testimony.
That characterizes Christendom today, and I hope we don't take ourselves out of it. I'll make this comment. It's not an answer to what Chuck says, but it's very strong in my soul. Malachi represents a later stage of soul of the Saints, which were gathered back to Jerusalem. They were, if I could use a parallel expression.
The Saints and Malachi were the gathered Saints of that day, and their Philadelphia seen in Ezra and Nehemiah had become Laodicean in Malachi. And consequently, I believe when the Lord speaks to us this afternoon, he wants us to listen and not respond but rather say if he says to us, I counsel you, then let's take the Council.
But you go ahead and explain the point.
I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire. Gold is divine righteousness. If you don't have that, you're lost.
That thou mayest be rich and white raiment. That thou mayest be clothed. The white raiment is the righteousnesses of the Saints that's produced by a divine life that one has. And if they don't have that righteousness produced in their life, they don't have a life.
And I said that should read to anoint thine eyes that thou mayest see The eye, sav, is the Holy Spirit. It's a little bit obscured in our King James. It says anoint thine eyes with ice. And it really is. I counseled either by of me gold white raiment, and I salve to anoint thine eyes that Almeis see. Well, if one doesn't have the Holy Spirit, he's not saved. Now is there a legitimate? My question is this is there a legitimate application?
Of the gold, the white raiment, and the ISAF to true believers who are in this Laodicean state. And I ask that because the next verse he says, as many as I love, I rebuke and chase it. That indicates to me that there were those there who were real, though they were in Laodicea. The zealots, therefore in repent. Now he's calling upon Saints. I would take it from that verse to repent of the state they were in.
In other words, verse 18.
In Edward Dennett's exposition of this passage, he makes Laodicea to be modernism.
And it certainly fits. But.
I don't, I don't know. So that's the proper interpretation. It's it's probably one that's legitimate. But what Don just said certainly is commendable that.
Malachi, the same group that returned the days of Ezra Nehemiah, and that's the state they fell into. So by analogy I would say.
The state that you see depicted in Laodicea was once Philadelphia.
That's why I mentioned before Jack and I I don't know. It's helped me a bit to understand. It's not the body of Christ that is addressed in these seven churches. It's not what is inward and vital, it's what is outward and connects itself with the testimony. And he looks at them and he says, what I see, I don't see the marks of reality. And if it is so that you haven't reality in your souls before God.
00:50:23
You need to buy that gold. You need to have that. I salve to anoint your eyes with, but a Christian can get so.
Far down in its testimony at times that it's almost you can't distinguish him, and only we can say the Lord knows them that are His. But what he's addressing is what is outwardly representing him here in this world, and this is what he sees in Laodicea.
So it's not so much a matter of inward vitality, it's a matter of outward testimony. That's the way I see it and seem to fit more in that picture. Bob is to support that in every church. He says, I know thy works. He's not talking about their heart, but the way they are proceeding through this scene. So I think that substantiates your thought fully.
Well, I guess there's an example, isn't there?
In the Old Testament, who would have ever looked at Lot and said he was a righteous man? But in Peter it says he vexed his righteous soul from day-to-day. Outwardly he looked like anyone else in Sodom, but before the Lord, the Lord knew his heart, so he records it. And that's true of you and me and but I believe the whole emphasis here is let us demonstrate the fact that we are a Christian.
Let's not go on like Laodicean and be questioned as to whether we know the Lord or not.
I think it's interesting that we demonstrate a fact that we are a Christian.
Don't we have a similarity to this? In the 25th of Matthew, the Lord of the next attendance virgins were five wise 5 fools. They all have the lamps of profession. They all look to like for what they do. They were small, sleeping well. There were five that had soils in their land and had the spirit of God, and they were ready. Others were not. But the five without the oil were lost. They were. They didn't. They didn't go in.
They were lost and that's really my question.
If you I think what Mr. Dennett says.
Is is is not the way we should interpret it? Because that would lead me to say, well, Laodicea is modernism. I'm not a modernist, I'm not a Laodicea, so I'm off the hook.
Family which says, Because thou has kept the word of my people, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation. The only one who will enjoy that statement is one who is at walking in fellowship with the Lord.
And you take what the Spirit of God is, taking the force of the word of God and applying it to the soul and conscience.
And if I am insensitive to it, I will not get the benefit from it. It's not a doctrinal statement of who's going to be taken or not taken at the rapture.
We have verses in 1St and 2nd Thessalonians that give us really the doctrine that we call the Rapture.
But here it is addressed to people to try the state in which they are or to tell them that. And the one that responds to it and says, I'm not going to go through the tribulation, is the one who is in fellowship with the Lord. There may be and there will be. There are many true believers today who think they are going through the tribulation. That is the state in which they are in their understanding or in their walk, that they do not enjoy this verse and its application to themselves.
And I think in Laodicea it's a similar thing. There are many places in scripture where the Spirit of God addresses us in our moral state at that point and intends us to feel the voice of the Spirit to our own conscience. And we in turn try to make sometimes doctrine out of things and say this is believers or this is unbelievers. And consequently we look at Scripture and we're really trying to say, well, this applied to us or no, this is applied to somebody else.
When in fact, the Spirit of God is seeking to reach our own conscience where we are morally.
00:55:01
At that point, and I believe in the sense of what you're saying, Chuck, that verse 18 is not really intended for us to try to separate between believers and unbelievers, but it is the spirit of God addressing us.
To our state. And there will be a response in the soul that answers to that. And if we are lukewarm, the Lord says, I counsel you to cause me gold tried in the fire, because we can lose the complete understanding, or more seriously, the appreciation in the soul, the effect in the soul of truth, that we may hold doctrinally.
Very good. Excellent question.
The application of the court.
In the reference to the goal that he counsels them to buy and what it really means.
Would we say?
God, I'm reading from the new translation, Mr. Darby's translation.
Would we say God's divine righteousness was purified by fire?
I think not.
I think the Spirit of God is careful, you know.
He'll have this hope in him, purifies himself not as he is purified, but as he is pure. My my point being, divine righteousness, I wouldn't need to be purified by fire, but.
There is an aspect of our faith that is tried by fire and.
Dross is eliminated in our lives and what I would like to suggest.
There is a riches that God has for his own, in contrast to what they thought they had. They said I'm growing rich. Well, the Lord said, if you really want to be rich, you'll have to buy of me gold that's purified by fire.
Their goal? That they had enriched themselves with so far from being.
Something that God was interested in purifying.
It caused them to settle down in their riches in absolute ease. Their condition is what every one of us here is natural men would desire to have. The whole world is been on.
What they call Social Security. And having no need in this world, we do everything we can to provide for all of our own riches for our security. But the Lord has a true riches that.
When he sees our desire and our movement to buy it, he purifies it, and he takes an interest in it. And then he goes on, and he chases those whom he loves for the purpose of enriching them even greater with gold that he purifies in our lives. I I ask that in a question, or as more as a consideration.
But I don't think divine righteousness is purified.
Seems to me that in light of what you say, Henry, that it puts a special.
Light on us who live in prosperous lands, we can say that there is perhaps not been a civilization that has been prospered economically like we have been.
And it tends to make us complacent and indifferent. And I think we need to realize, brethren, that the majority of Christians in this world live in difficult circumstances. Many parts of the world, Christians are persecuted severely, some put to death. Believers put to death every day according to what is reported and.
In other lands where there's poverty, it's a real discipline struggle. Life is a struggle. From the first moment of birth on, it's a struggle. And we have plenty in this land and we feel in a major complacency, and it's a special voice to me. Does that mean the Lord can't get through to us brethren? It seems like younger and younger brethren are being afflicted with cancer.
01:00:10
Is that no voice to us? Is it not he that's standing there saying please wake up, listen.
I I really feel that there's a voice the Lord has something to say to us, and He wants us to be awakened as never before. We're right on the edge of the moment. We're going to be called into eternal glory. And I just believe, brethren, that it's going to be like it was in the days of.
Of Malachi, that state of things, that indifference seemed to permeate those people until the Lord actually came. And when the Lord actually came, there were just a few that were alert enough, awake enough to recognize him. We have the names of six of them, and we know there are a few others, but the majority of that nation had no idea that the Messiah had come.
Absolutely asleep. And will it be the same for his second coming? Or is it the Lord speaking to us in a very distinct way by the trials He's allowing amongst us? He's rebuking, He's chastening because he loves us. The Lord give us brethren ears to hear.
It's nice to connect.
What I have suggested with the assembly at Smyrna, that's the other assembly that the Lord doesn't find fault with. And it's such a vivid contrast to Laodicea, he says invert and again I'm reading from Mr. Darby's translation in verse nine. I know thy poverty, but thou art rich. Then he goes down and says.
The devil is about to cast a view into prison that ye may be tried.
And ye shall have tribulation 10 days, but be faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of light.
That where there is the movement in our hearts to what is of God.
Accompanying that is not going to be eased. You know, the great sweeping and Christian profession is that Christianity and following Christ should be the equivalent of being prosperous. That's the legacy of that's how the Church ends its days characterized by prosperity, and they are promoting it. If you're faithful to the Lord, you should be able to make millions. Well, it's such a contradiction to the ways of God.
So if we pursue.
What God values his goal, He's going to try it, and not for the purpose of discouraging us, but to enrich us and further enrich us in divine things and values.
Would like to say too, I don't know whether I should say it is interpretation or application of it, but we can look at the word rich here in a totally different perspective than materially Rich.
There is such a thing as saying I am spiritually rich and be very poor. When the state of the heart doesn't answer to the truth professed, it very often leaves the soul miserable.
As he goes on to describe their state, he says, Thou art wretched and miserable, and poor and blind and naked. And when we are exposed to the greatest truths of God, perhaps passed on from our forefathers to us, and we know them in our minds and intellectually embrace them, but they are not the reality of our everyday life. It very often produces in the soul misery.
And so we may say, as we look, can I say intellectually at some other believer.
And look at ourselves in comparison to that person and we say I'm rich, I've got everything.
I have the sense of where the Lord is in the midst. I have this. I have that. I know about the Rapture.
01:05:00
I know that I'm eternally safe and we start to enumerate doctrines that we know.
But if they are not, the present reality lived out in the soul, can I say if the love of Christ is not?
Day by day, constraining our hearts practically. If we are truly lukewarm, then our lives, often inside, are miserable.
Even though we say I am rich. And so it's a tremendous counseling of the Lord that we might have in reality, in our souls in an everyday sense, the gold, the white raiment that characterizes a life lived in fellowship with the Lord, in holiness and in separation from evil. But if those things are not a present reality with us, then we must stop and listen to the Lord.
And recognize that maybe why some of us don't choose to go on in the things of the Lord in reality is because of this very state of heart that we have the state of our souls, because we're not really walking in the present enjoyment of the effect that doctrine, the truth should have practically upon my soul.
If we don't walk practically, and what we doctrinely profess to walk in, then the self justification has to take place to to to to justify our position of why we do walk the way we do. And instead of our position being what the Lord has made us, what do we have in Christianity, brethren, it's only what we have from the Lord. And if we don't walk in that, then we lose the sense practically of the Lord.
Justifying and giving us that gold and then we start to justify ourselves that we got the gold.
And the Lord gets left outside and it's a very sad predicament. And I think that's why I really appreciate the comment, Chuck, that you made about how Laodicea must follow Philadelphia testimony. You got to you have to have that that position that Philadelphia would bring you in before you you claim it for your own and and walk but without the real practical walk and brethren if we don't walk in the truth that we.
We profess we really don't have it, we don't have it and we've only got it intellectually. If we don't walk in it, we're not enjoying it.
And therefore the justifying Well, the Lord is so wonderful to tell us where to go back to, to get the gold. Go back to him. He's got it. He wants to give it.
What number?