“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.
“‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.
“’Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” Revelation 3:14-22 ESV
Let’s begin here by defining “lukewarm.” It means to show little enthusiasm, to be indifferent, halfhearted, apathetic, uninterested, listless, unconcerned, lazy, and uncaring. If you are lukewarm, you are not really for something but you are not totally against it, either. Whereas “hot” indicates that you are passionate, strong, ardent, and fervent, i.e. zealous, eager, devoted, dedicated, and committed. And cold means unkind, callous, uncaring, and hard-hearted. So, lukewarm incorporates a mixture of hot and cold together.
So, those who are lukewarm are not really for the Lord, although they profess him as their Lord and Savior. They are not passionate about serving him with their lives. They are not committed to obeying him and to living holy lives. But they still go through the motions of religious practice, attending gatherings of what are called “churches,” perhaps even reading the Scriptures daily (or not). Some of them may even be pastors of said “churches.” And they don’t really care that they are living that way.
Essentially they are worthless to God and to his mission for our lives for they are content in their mediocrity and unconcerned about how what they are doing impacts their relationship with God or with other humans. Many of them are convinced that their salvation is secured for them and so how they live doesn’t really matter for eternity. And so they go on from day to day living for self, doing what their selfish hearts desire, regardless of who gets hurt in the process, and while totally ignoring God’s commands.
So, essentially our Lord’s counsel here is for them to wake up and to see their spiritual condition, to see how wretched they really are. For many of them have an overly high opinion of themselves because of their religious traditions and their own egos. And so they convince themselves that they are far better than what they really are. And so they ignore their own depravity and hypocrisy and lewdness and immorality and deception and unfaithfulness. And they convince themselves that they are really okay.
And when the Lord counsels them to buy from him these various things mentioned here, he is really asking them to surrender their lives to him, to make him their Lord and Master, and to forsake their sinful practices, and to now walk in obedience to his commands in holy living. He is counseling them to now have spiritual insight into God’s will for their lives and to walk in his ways in righteousness and in moral purity, uprightness, honesty, faithfulness and devotion to him and to his will and purpose for their lives.
And then he reminds them of his love, and of how he reproves and disciplines those he loves, so they were to be zealous and to repent of their sins of spiritual apathy and laziness and mediocrity, and they were now to get on fire for the Lord and to walk in the ways of righteousness. And then he spoke in terms as though he was on the outside of their hearts and lives knocking on the door for them to let him inside, and for them to now commune with him in genuine walks of faith with the Lord Jesus.
And truly the Scriptures do teach us that if sin is what we practice, and if obedience to our Lord and righteous living are not what we practice, that we will not inherit eternal life with God. In fact, the Scriptures teach that if our spiritual condition is like that, we don’t even know God, we are not born of God, but we are of the devil. So, if you are in the spiritual condition as is described above and you know God is knocking on your heart’s door, and you know he is counseling you to make him Lord, please do not delay!
For it is the one who conquers this mediocrity and this lukewarmness and who surrenders his heart and life to the Lord, and to his service, and who now walks in the ways of the Lord, and no longer according to the flesh, who has the promise and the hope of salvation from sin and eternal life with God. So don’t gamble with your salvation. Don’t assume that just because you made a verbal confession of Christ as Lord that you are now guaranteed heaven when you die. You are not if you are still walking in sin.
[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
For Our Nation
An Original Work / September 11, 2012
Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.
Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Men deceiving: We’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.
https://vimeo.com/379406352
No comments:
Post a Comment