The Church at Laodicea

Laodicea — A True Church

I want to bring to you a message from what the Lord said to the church at Laodicea. This church was a very fine church indeed. It is not what many of you think. If you were to go there, I am sure you would think there was a spiritual poverty, something that would cause you to feel: "Oh dear, there is something unhappy here; something is wrong." No, not at all.

If you went to the Laodicean church you would be very impressed — impressed by the obvious prosperity, by the great numbers that were there, by the well-oiled organization that somehow or other just went on and on in a beautifully harmonious way, by the routine, by the much activity, and by the many meetings. You would be above all impressed by the knowledge of the church in Laodicea. They had such knowledge of God's word, and they seemed to know. Furthermore, you would also be impressed by the experience of the church at Laodicea.

Now this church was not a chapel or just a collection of Christians. It was a true church according to the New Testament. The people were true believers who knew the Lord. And you will remember that there was a reference in the New Testament to the church at Laodicea in the letter Paul wrote to the Colossians in which Paul poured out his heart in one of the greatest revelations of the fullness of Christ. He says, "See that this letter is read to the church at Laodicea and that you also read the letter I write to them" (see Colossians 4:13-16). In other words, these people were like the church in Ephesus in that they had a history, and they had revelation. They were a true church constituted by the Holy Spirit, and they were a functioning church of God. Here then is the Laodicean church.

Then we notice something else about this church. We could say that it was the church of the middle-age spread. In its beginning it had something truly of God. We might say that in its youth it had been full of zeal and utterly devoted to the Lord. Now we can see from this letter in Revelation that they were sinking back. It had come to the place where it was resting and sort of spreading out; it was quiet.

The Root of Their Trouble — Pride

Let us look at what the Lord put His finger on when He spoke to the Laodicean church. What was the root of their trouble? I think it is going to make us very, very uncomfortable as we look at this church in Laodicea because it is like a mirror. We will begin to see features in this mirror that are none other than the features of our own heart or our own face, as it were. We will begin to see in the mirror features of our own company — let alone companies elsewhere.

What is the thing that the Lord puts His finger on and says, "This is the root!"? Hear what He says: "Because thou sayest, I am rich and have gotten riches and have need of nothing." What is that? Pride! Pride is the root of all sin and all departure. As soon as pride begins to develop, unconsciously, our hearts shut Christ out. Every kind of evil comes in the train of pride. We will recall that the fall began with the pride of Lucifer when he said: "I will be like the Most High." The poison that he injected into Eve and then into Adam was that they might become equal with God! The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which was next to the tree of life, was a kind of constitution that can grow and grow in knowledge and become more and more self-sufficient and more and more independent.

If we are partakers of the tree of life, we have Christ within us; yet there is still so much of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in us. We have this capacity for increasing knowledge and not practicing it. We have this unbelievable capacity for filling our brains with doctrinal material and living in absolute contradiction. In the assemblies you meet with, there are no doubt ones who take the bread and drink the wine who cannot even talk to their brothers and sisters, ones whom they cannot work with, whom they cannot really love — let alone the Christians outside of the company with whom there is bitterness or strain or tension.

What absolute nonsense it is to take the bread and the wine and say, "Look at us! We are one! All one in Jesus!" And then there is someone somewhere who is a child of God whom we know that we cannot really get on with. We find ourselves avoiding them or trying to evade them. The church of Laodicea had fallen into pride which says: "I am rich!" What is the thing that lies behind criticism? What lies behind the passing out of judgment on others? Sometimes we are not even conscious of it, but it betrays pride. Maybe we think we are at such a stage that we can pass judgment on so and so or say things about them. We can recall stories or little incidents that we can pass on. It is pride — "I am rich."

Riches

Now if we were talking with the Laodicean church, they would not say, "I am rich." They might say, "We have so much of the Lord here. We feel sorry for you where you go because you are so poor and we have so much. I do not think so and so has really seen what we have seen." It is superiority! "I am rich and have need of nothing."

Here then the Lord puts His finger upon something that is in all our lives and in our life together which is the root of nearly all troubles. It is not only pride that comes out as superiority, it is pride of attainment, and it sounds like this: "We have gotten riches," which means that we think we have gotten somewhere. We have attained to a standard that others have not. Not only are we rich, but we have gotten riches.

Then we begin to take up things, and it is no longer Christ. Not only have we gotten riches, we have gotten things. It may be doctrine, it may be experiences, it may be truths, it may be the way we meet; but they have become just things, and we are proud of them.

Sufficiency — Need of Nothing

Let us also note that there is sufficiency: we are in need of nothing. Some people say that they do not come to the times of prayer because they cannot see the point of it. Poor child of God, have you not read in Scripture: "They that seek Me shall find Me"? Do you really think then that you have everything and there is no need to humble yourself and get on your knees? Why does the Lord say to every church: "Repent!"? How do you repent if you have everything? How can you repent? The only way is by getting on your knees and seeking the Lord. If you think you have everything, you are going to wake up one day in heaven to find that you have very little. Of course, you have everything in Christ, but you need to get on your knees and ask the Lord to open your eyes to see what you have in Him and how to possess it.

"I have need of nothing." Of course, it is a finished work — we know that. Of course, the Holy Spirit has been given — we know that. Of course, we know that the Lord's great purpose stands secure and fast — we know that! But have you ever noticed that the people who stress all these things, in them God has gotten nothing? We can all hide in vain behind saying that we do not agree with this or that doctrine. We are not quite sure about the theology of it or the doctrine of it. But the point is really this: the thing we want to avoid is not the doctrine or the theology but the cost. And when we avoid the cost, the result is spiritual middle-age spread. We do not want the sacrifice. We do not want the pain. We do not want the agony.

The church of Laodicea had everything! Therefore, they just wanted to continue to float on. Everything was nice and lovely — they had it all. Christ was in the midst. Did He not say He would be in the midst? The Holy Spirit came two or three generations ago at Pentecost. Since we have it all, why bother? Let us just go on. We have many meetings — and really nice meetings. We have rich ministry straight from the Bible. But underneath it all was pride because they thought they had it.

Result of Pride: Lukewarmness

What is the result of pride? There are two things that always come out of pride. First of all, there is lukewarmness. Maybe you think you have everything and you do not feel there is any need for you to get on your knees night after night and seek the Lord. But how warm is your devotion for the Lord? Is it red hot? Is it white hot? Is it boiling? If your answer is no, then you are lukewarm and you have the middle-age spread.

The Lord says, "You are neither hot nor cold. I would rather have you cold or hot." That is a terrific thing for the Lord to say. He would rather have some of us absolutely stone cold — or white hot. But He cannot bear this ghastly compromise, this lukewarmness, this going on with everything — the same old routine. So the Lord says, "If you do not repent, I am going to be sick and spew you out of my mouth!" What a way to speak to children of God! Isn't the Lord vulgar! Can you believe He said that He was going to spit us out? What a terrible thing to say! But do you see what the Lord is really saying? You are nauseating to the Lord, and He wants to vomit. That is harsh language, but that is Scripture. He wants to vomit, spew you out because you are nauseating to Him. You are so respectable, you have such a nice standard, you have so much stored in your mind, you have so much in your history and so much experience, but the Lord is sick of you!

Result of Pride: Christ Is Outside

Then there is another result of pride. Not only is there lukewarmness, but it results in this most remarkable thing — Christ is outside. Someone may have trouble with this and say that I am theologically wrong: "Is Christ not in me?" The Scripture says, "If any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." And that is just the point! Theologically you may be correct, but experientially you may be absolutely wrong. As we consider the church, has Christ not said: "Where two or three are gathered together, there am I in the midst"? But where is He here? He is knocking on the door! He is outside!

Let's look at what might have been going on in this church. Let's go to the prayer meeting and listen to them on their knees praying: "Holy Lord, bless so and so. Lord, Mrs. So and So is sick. Lord, here are the children; bless them. Lord, remember the unsaved, and save them. And then, Lord, there is your eternal purpose."

Then let's go to the Bible study and see what is happening. Wow! They are studying the eternal purpose of God. That is a marvelous word! Look at them; they are all so happy about it. Now they are going to have a time of fellowship. Here they are all talking about their children, their little problems, their work, and a multitude of other things. Isn't it all nice!

But listen! Your ears are not pierced; therefore, you cannot hear. There is a knocking. Where is the knocking? Who is knocking? It is Christ, and He is outside the prayer meeting at the front door. Where is Christ in the fellowship? He is outside. They are all enjoying fellowship with one another, but Christ is not in the midst of it. He is out — not in.

"If any man hear my voice and open the door." "What a thing to say, Lord. Doesn't the church of Laodicea know your voice?"

"They think they do. A long time ago they heard My voice, but they hear it no more. They cannot even hear Me knocking. I am outside and they cannot hear Me. Listen to them studying My word; listen to them all praying their hearts out; listen to them all having fellowship; listen to them in their evangelism, but they cannot hear Me because I am outside."

"But Lord, why are You outside?"

"They have become proud. Pride has come in."

If there is pride in your heart Christ is outside! If there is pride in the assembly where you gather, Christ is outside. We can have all the works; we can have everything that seems marvelous; we can have all the knowledge; we can have all the faith; but if there is pride Christ is outside.

The majority of us are probably lukewarm. I would almost say that nearly every one of us is in that condition; and because we are lukewarm, the Lord is not in the midst. The Lord is the white heat of the love of God. If you have the Lord in the center of your life, before long everything melts, and the iceberg is gone. You are melted into perfect love that casts out fear. God is a fire, and you cannot get over it. God is the very fire of love. When we get Him in the inside, He melts everything and bursts outside. You cannot get away from that. However, where there is lukewarmness, Christ is outside. This is the state of things that has resulted in a lukewarmness of devotion, of service, and of testimony.

When was the last time that you joyfully served the Lord? When was the last time that you came to the meeting with something to contribute that you wanted to contribute and it was a real joy because the Lord was in it? When was the last time that you spoke to another person about Christ?

Maybe you think that you are not lukewarm. Do not try to escape from it. Just answer in your heart. When was the last time you spoke to an unsaved person about Christ? Some of us have not spoken to an unsaved person about Christ for years. We can spout off about things — but is it Christ? We have not spoken for years. Or when was the last time you spoke to another child of God about Christ? We can talk about the meetings or the fellowship or about the brothers and sisters. No; when did you actually last speak about Christ? But you say you are not lukewarm, and you do not need to get on your knees. You do not need to seek the Lord because you already have all you need. Have you? Do you really have it?

The Five-Fold Estimate of Their Condition

Let us look at the Lord's estimate of their condition, and it is five-fold. It is good that the Lord said: "I will in no wise fail thee or forsake thee." He looks at you and says, "You are wretched! Miserable! Poor! Blind! Naked!" What a five-fold verdict! Wretched — here we go out to the unsaved in our wretched condition, and He says to us: "You are wretched!" Here we go out to those who are miserable and the Lord says: "You are miserable!" Here we go out to those who are poor, and the Lord says: "You are poor!"

"Wait," we might say to the Lord, "didn't Your Spirit say to the apostle Paul that we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus"? Has he not said, "My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus"? Yes, he did say that, but the Lord says, "My verdict of you is that you are poor! You are poverty stricken. You have it all in your head and nothing else. You have it all in things — not in a Person. You are poor, and you are blind."

Now, telling them that they were blind must have been the most stinging thing of all that He said to the church of Laodicea because they knew so much. They had it all, but they were blind. I wonder what they thought about that as they remembered all their Bible studies and everything else they had going on. The Lord's verdict on them was that they were blind. And they were naked. That is a strange thing for Him to say because after all we would say they were clothed in Christ. But the Lord's estimate is: "They are naked."

If that is the Lord's estimate of us, it is a pretty terrible one, isn't it? However, pride does just that. It strips us of our clothing; it blinds our eyes; it makes us poor; it makes us miserable; it makes us wretched!

The Lord's Answer: Be Zealous and Repent

What is the Lord's answer to this condition? "Be zealous and repent." What does this word mean? It means "to stir yourself up completely and repent." "As many as I love, I reprove and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent" (v. 19). Be zealous! Do not let this condition go on one day longer! Stir yourself up and get before the Lord. Be zealous!

What does it mean to repent? There are many of us who no longer have that word in our vocabulary. We do not know what it is to repent because we are so proud. It is just not in our vocabulary. That is how far we have gone.

"Me repent? Children of God getting in the dust before the Lord? — surely not! That is not right!" But it is right. The Lord says: "Be zealous therefore and repent!" And if you do not repent, the Lord will vomit you out. That is not very pleasant, is it? Does it mean we will lose our salvation? No, but He will put us in such tribulation and fire that we either come to our senses or go right out altogether. The Lord is not going to have this lukewarmness anymore. He is not going to have this thing that calls itself a church and He, who is the character, the source, the meaning, and the energy of it, is outside knocking like a beggar. How can He who is the Head of the church knock on the door of something which is His body?

But this is just the simple point. If you are proud, our glorified Christ is out. And His church says, "We are rich, we have gotten riches, and we have need of nothing. We are it! We have got it! Look at us — how rich we are; how we are prospering; what we have seen; our history; our experience." Then the Lord comes like a simple ordinary mortal and knocks on the door. That is humility.

Some of us think that the only time the Lord was ever humble was when He was born of a virgin. But the point is this: the character of God is humility. There is never a time that He is not humble. How can He possibly say: "I will in no wise fail thee nor in any wise forsake thee"? He can say it because He is so humble. Do you realize that when you and I get onto the pedestal, the Lord comes and kneels at the foot of it and pleads with us to get back into our right place. Fancy the Lord of glory, the glorified, risen Head of the church, knocking on the door, asking to come in. Does that not upset you? You and I are the ones who shut Him out.

Buy Gold

"Be zealous, repent and buy." Be zealous — stir yourself up and take hold of the Lord with determination. Repent and buy.

What must you buy? You must "buy of me gold refined by fire, that thou mayest become rich" (v. 18a). Oh, Lord Jesus, what words these are! "Buy gold refined in the fire that thou mayest become rich." What is that gold? It is the inward character of Christ. The Lord says to the church at Laodicea: "You have it all, but you do not have the character. You have all the outward things — the phraseology and the knowledge, but you do not have the inward character. Buy of Me gold refined in the fire. It is the cost of experience, and if only you will repent and buy it, you will become rich!"

Oh, the manifold grace of the Lord! He will not give up the church at Laodicea, and He pleads with them: "Oh, come; buy this gold, and I will make you rich. I will make you truly rich." Do we have that inward character? We certainly do not if there is pride or anything else like that in us.

How do we buy it? The first thing we do is be zealous and repent. And the second thing is to say to the Lord: "Lord, we want more of You — not more of things." Then the Lord will take whatever steps are necessary to see that the gold gets into us. Surely the Lord will do it.

Buy White Garments

Then He says, "You have to buy white garments that thou mayest clothe thyself." Not only could the Lord see that the church at Laodicea was naked, but the world could also see their nakedness.

You may be working in an office, and you say you are a Christian. You really think you have it all, so as you look at the people around you, you think they all need saving. But they see that you are naked even though you think you are covered. When you go out, somehow or other, they see through you. Your pride makes you think you have all you need and are clothed, but others see that you are naked and can see right through you. The Lord says: "Buy of me white garments that the shame of thy nakedness be not made manifest" (v. 18b). That means there not only has to be inward character but outward character as well. The inward and the outward must go together. There will be garments that can be seen.

Buy Eye Salve

And then the Lord says this: "Buy of me eye salve that thou mayest anoint thine eyes that thou mayest see" (v. 18c). The church in Laodicea thought that was the one thing they did not need. This may have been their response: "Lord, you know we do not need eye salve to see. We may need more of inward character and perhaps white garments on the outside, but we do see. We have read the letter to the Colossians, and we understand it because we have studied it again and again. And not only that letter but we have read and studied the one that was written to us by Paul, and we have revelation."

"No," says the Lord, "you have not seen. There is all the difference between mental appreciation and apprehension and actually seeing with the eyes of your understanding. You cannot see. You have not seen; therefore, you must buy eye salve to put on your eyes that you may see."

Communion Restored

And then the Lord says this: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (v. 20). What is the Lord saying? He wants communion. "Let's get together," the Lord says. And the most intimate way He puts it is to have a little meal together so that over the meal they can talk. Isn't that lovely? That is what the Lord wants. The church at Laodicea had lost its communion and intimacy with the Lord.

Have you lost that intimate communion with the Lord? When was the last time you had a little meal together, as it were, with the Lord. He sat at one side of the table and you sat at the other, and you talked about all kinds of things.

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him." He did not say, "And he will sup with Me and I with him." He says, "I will sup with him and he with Me." Oh, the humility of Christ and the absence of pride! He wants to come in. He will knock at the door because He wants to meet with you. He wants you to give Him a meal so He can be with you. In the end it is what you get of Him that matters — not what He gets of you. The Lord wants you. He does not want all the routine, the well-oiled great organization, all the great and many activities, all the marvelous knowledge — all He wants is to have intimate communion with us! He wants us to stop all the busy rushing and sit down and just have a few moments of intimate communion with Him. Tell Him about the troubles, what we feel, and listen to what He has to say to us. The church in Laodicea had long since forgotten that and had gotten into a terrible rut. The Lord was outside. That is not a very comforting picture, is it?

The Amen

But here is the wonderful thing. The Lord describes Himself to the church of Laodicea in this way: "These things saith the Amen." This is wonderful! If He had said it to Philadelphia we would have said: "Of course, the Lord is getting His purpose and securing what He wants in Philadelphia." But it is to the church of Laodicea that the Lord said: "These things saith the Amen." In other words, "In spite of this unhappy condition, I am the Amen. I am God's final word. I am not only the Alpha and Omega, but when that is finished, I am the Amen — the very last thing."

Some of us are far too proud to accept anything that has been said here, but if we go away and forget it, I will tell you what will happen. In years to come the Lord will spew us out of His mouth — that is all.

The Lord says, "To Him that overcometh will I grant to sit down with me in my throne" (see v. 21). Isn't that wonderful? That is God's promise to the church at Laodicea.

"But Lord, I am wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. I will never get to the throne."

"Oh yes you will," says the Lord, "I am the Amen — not you. I am the Amen. Be zealous, repent, buy, open the door and you will sit down with Me on My throne in the end." There can be no more wonderful promise to a church that has fallen so far from what the Lord wants.

Now do not take this word and think it would be good for sister So and So to read or for brother So and So to read so he will get on his knees and repent. You are the one. Wretched. Miserable. Poor. Blind. Naked. You are the one who is to be zealous and repent. Buy until the dawn, lest suddenly the trumpet of God should sound and suddenly we are ushered into the presence of the Lord — wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.

May the Lord have mercy on us. Amen.

Opening Prayer

Could we have a word of prayer?

Beloved Lord, we are so thankful that we're found in your presence this morning. We thank you for the time we've had together as we've thought of you, and praise you for all that you have done for us on the cross. Lord, we praise you and worship you for yourself. Now we come to your word. Dear Lord, we need the Holy Spirit to be with us both for the speaking and for our hearing. To that end, we praise you for the anointing which our Lord Jesus won for us through his finished work on Calvary and has made available to us in the person of the Holy Spirit into that anointing power and grace. We stand now by faith, dear Lord, take the weakness of the vessel and let your flame of fire burn. Take, we pray, all of us, and speak to our hearts. Lord, we are living in Laodicean days, we are living in days of judgment beginning upon the nations and upon this nation. And, Lord, we need you in a way we've always needed you. But we need you even more as we enter into these days of turmoil, conflict and distress. Hear our prayer then, in the name of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah. Hear our prayer and gloriously answer it. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.

A Message Rediscovered

Beloved brothers and sisters, this passage is well known to you. And I don't want you to think that I'm trying to bash you, sort of whacking you over the head, as it were, with the word of God.

But some dear sister in California, apparently searching through my website, found some message which attracted her. Now, I don't know her age or anything really about her, but she was attracted by the title. Middle age spread. And I don't know what she thought she would get out of the message, but she began to hear it. And it turned out her life and the life of her family upside down.

Then she wrote to Shirley, I believe, and asked if Shirley would mind if she made a transcript of it. Shirley said that she should ask me. So she sent me the transcript and asked if it was possible to publish it. When I read it, I was shocked. I never thought that I ever had the boldness to say what I said.

One of the things I was asked was, when did you give this message? I realized that it was 60 years ago, at the very beginning of the Halford House story. Then I began to understand. I was young, very undiplomatic, not at all gentle and sensitive in the way I said things. I couldn't believe that I'd said what I said. Of course, there was nothing wrong. It was simply truth unvarnished and not in any way made helpful to the listeners.

Now, I'm a good deal older. I'm not sure I'm more diplomatic. I told the dear sister, you can publish it. She said, this describes the American church scene exactly.

The Key to the Message

Now, with the years that have passed, I noticed something that I never noticed 60 years ago. I noticed how the Lord summed up the whole thing. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man, not if a great group of you, but if any one of you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me.

Suddenly I realized that is the key to the whole message to Laodicea. You see, very often it's taken as an evangelistic verse, you know, just to preach to the unsaved — Jesus is outside. Your door is closed. Open the door. Jesus will come in and will be life and power and salvation to you. All of which is right. But as a result, we tend to think that verse has very little to do with the rest of the message. In fact, it is the key to the message.

You see, the Lord Jesus called himself to this Laodicean church. He said, I am the Amen. In other words, amen in Hebrew comes from the root aman. In Hebrew we say Ma amin, which means I believe amen. Amen means let it be. I believe that I have faith for that. It's something that means the end. Do you remember how the apostle Paul wrote in his second letter: how many soever be the promises of God in the Messiah, in Christ is the yes, and through him is the Amen unto the glory of God. In other words, you find that the promise is yes in the Lord Jesus.

But the Amen is when it's performed in you, when it becomes reality in your circumstances. It's always through Him. It's yes in him and Amen through Him. There's a process. Initially you stand on a promise, then there is a process. And then comes to fruition.

He began this rather shocking message to the Laodiceans with the words, for anyone who has an ear to hear, I am the Amen. Even in a Laodicean situation, Jesus is still the Amen to the purpose of God for the church. He is the Amen to the word of God in its realization in us. Amen.

And then he said, I am the faithful and true witness. They didn't realize in Laodicea, but they were faith — unfaithful, faithless. They thought they had it all, but in actual fact they were unfaithful to the Lord. They had lost their first love. They had lost their passion for the Lord. They were no longer the faithful ones holding the testimony of Jesus. But it made no difference to the Lord Jesus. He is still the faithful and true witness.

And then he said the beginning of the creation of God, the new man, the new heavens and the new earth, the new Jerusalem. Everything to do with the Lord Jesus is to do with newness.

A Church Running on Methodology

The problem with Laodicea is probably they had picked up a whole number of things along the way. They had a routine. They had an organization that was probably good. They had a methodology. They had ritual and ceremony. They had baptism on the Lord's table. They had it all. It didn't really matter whether the Lord was there or not. That is the Laodicean church. It doesn't matter whether the Lord is present or not. They use his name, they praise his name, they pray in his name, they study his words. And he's outside.

I don't want to upset you this morning as good Americans, but the American church is very much like this, by and large. Of course, people read this message and they say, well, this is the traditional church, this is the institutional church. This isn't us. We are evangelical. But this church was made up of born again believers. It was a true New Testament expression of the church. They had everything. They had their meetings, they had the Lord's table, they had their Bible study, they had their evangelistic outreach, they had everything. They probably had very good teaching. But somehow or other they had substituted for a living relationship with the Lord Jesus, a methodology. They had the steps.

I remember years ago in Singapore, when the spirit of God was moving all over Southeast Asia, people were being saved, delivered, miracles happened, but the folk were as green as green could be. I remember after you spoke, you know, people came forward and I remember one case of a man that was obviously demon possessed, a young man, and the mothers didn't know what to do. They just gathered around and said, Lord, show us what to do. And then one of them said, I believe we should do so. And they all agreed and they did it. And he was delivered.

A year or two later, a brother from the States came with two jumbo jets filled with, they were called prophets. One jumbo and another jumbo was filled with miracle workers, healers and so on. They had seminars for a whole weekend and suddenly everything died. They got a methodology, the four steps to deliverance, the five steps to salvation, the three steps to holiness, or whatever else.

Isn't it interesting, this living — at least in their estimation, this living church with its whole life, its meetings — Jesus was nowhere to be found in it. Can born again believers be so deluded that they believe Jesus is there? When he's not there, he's outside knocking.

Rich, Yet Wretched

And in the most plaintive word that Jesus spoke in the New Testament, he said, if any man hear my voice — their estimate of themselves and the Lord's estimate of them were a million miles apart. They said they were rich, they had gotten riches and they had need of nothing.

Now, Laodicea was one of the wealthiest cities in Asia Minor. Its whole wealth came from wool which was woven black and white, wool which was woven in a special way and was kind of something everyone wanted all over the Roman and Hellenic world. They were affluent physically, but I don't think when they said the church, I am rich and have gotten riches, need of nothing, that it was the physical they were thinking about. They really believed they had everything. They believed that they had seen the deep mysteries of God, that they understood the purpose of God, that they believed in the word of God in its entirety. There were no liberals amongst them, at least as far as we can see. The Lord never said, some of you don't even believe this or that or the other.

But the Lord's estimate of them was he called them the wretched one. Could the Lord speak of born again believers, a company of born again believers, as wretched, the wretched one? Then he went on, miserable. What a description of an evangelical born again church. Then he said, blind, naked.

Is he speaking about believers? Yes. Are those believers so deluded, so deceived, that they believe they have riches, that they have become wealthy, that they're marvelously clothed, that they see the mysteries of God, the purpose of God, and still the Lord says, it's not real, there's no reality.

A Broken Fellowship

How interesting it is that our dear Lord said, behold, I stand at the door and knock outside. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me.

The problem with Laodicea is that they had fallen out of fellowship with the Lord Jesus and they did not know it. This is the thing that wasn't in the message I gave 60 years ago. Now I see it. The key to this whole situation was living fellowship on every level. Leaders, elders, those with ministry, right through the whole company. The key was living fellowship.

Fellowship as a Shared Meal

Not always, so don't get me wrong on this, but so often a meal is just a means to live. We eat to live. Whereas in Asia, Africa, and certainly in the old days in Israel, a meal was a time of fellowship. That's why when you see some of your modern versions, you will see, I will come into him and will dine with him and he with me. Or in another version it says, I will come into and will eat with him and he with me. Because a meal in the Bible is a symbol of fellowship.

Do you remember when God with two angels visited Abraham and Sarah? They had no idea it was the Lord. Abraham, he did realize, I think, that they were angels. And then they had a meal, very unkosher one, because yogurt was mixed up with the meat. And then the Lord sat down with Abraham. You remember, it was a meal as if God longed for fellowship. Why do you think the Lord visited the garden of Eden every day with Adam and Eve? It was a longing for fellowship. He wanted to sit with them.

Did they eat? We don't know. I imagine they did have to eat. I mean, they weren't in that blessed place in eternity. They were in this particular period of history.

But everywhere you look. Do you remember when the Lord Jesus rose from the dead? Do you remember how he walked with the two to Emmaus? Do you remember? They had no idea who he was till they asked him, don't go further. Come in and have a meal. And he came in, and when he broke the bread, which is the kiddush, as he broke the bread, they suddenly saw it. It was Jesus.

Do you remember when the Lord appeared again to them in their place, he said, have you any broiled fish? Have you anything to eat? Well, it's a very strange thing for the Lord to say. Why did he need something to eat? And they said, we have a little bit of broiled fish. That'll do. He said, let's eat it together. They ate broiled fish.

Do you remember in Galilee when the Lord said to them to put their nets out? And they brought in the fish and he cooked them. He grilled the fish on the seashore. Out of that fellowship came those wonderful words to Peter, do you love me more than these — three times the Lord said it.

Slipping Into Routine

Dear folks, this matter of fellowship is essential, foundational. The problem with us is we fall out of fellowship with the Lord Jesus. Somewhere along the line. Laodicea was so thrilled with their teaching, so thrilled with their initial experience of salvation, that they fell out of fellowship with the Lord. Then it was methodology, routine, ritual.

Beloved brothers and sisters, I don't want to upset you. You're good Americans and I imagine, for the most part, patriotic Americans. But the American church, by and large, is a whole matter of getting something off the ground. We get a methodology, we get a routine. We build an organization. And the danger is that it can run on whether the Lord is there or not.

You can have fitted carpets from wall to wall. You can have magnificent choir. You have ministers of education, ministers of youth, ministers of age, ministers of theology, all kinds of ministers. And the Lord is a stranger.

A. T. Pierson's Dream

You remember, I think it was A. T. Pierson who had a dream. He dreamt that the church of which he was pastor, a stranger appeared in the packed church. But he said he couldn't take his eyes off him. And all the time he was preaching, he looked at this man and then went on with his preaching. And then he looked back again, the man vanished. So he was unable to reach the door to shake his hand. Then the Lord spoke to A. T. Pierson and said, I was at your church. And then Pierson said, nobody knew it. Nobody knew that you were in the church. And if I had known, I would have preached a very different message.

Laodicean, you are very clever in this country, in business, at least you have been up to the present time. Very clever in the ways you have built businesses which are now worldwide and the machinery that goes with it and the whole thing. But that's what's happened to the church.

What is the key? How wonderfully the Lord speaks to this church of which he is outside. He says, as many as I love, I reprove and chasten. Be zealous. Get out of that lukewarmness. Be zealous. Let a passion fill you to repent.

A Shocking Word, Revisited

Now, I go back to what I said 60 years ago, unashamedly, actually. But I must say, it was a bit shocking the way I put it, but I said, can you believe that the Lord could ever say of a company of born again believers, you make me sick. This is the Lord we sing about. We pray in his name, we study His Word. And he says, you make me sick. The actual Greek is dreadful. You make me vomit. My version puts it so beautifully, I will spue you out of my mouth. Your modern versions say, I will spit you out of my mouth. But just think for a moment, they come home to you. It's as if the Lord is saying, I've got nausea over you. I'm sick to the eyeballs and the only way I can get this thing out of me is to vomit. What a dreadful thing for the Lord to say to a company of born again believers.

And yet the promise stands. If there is a passion with us to turn to the Lord, to repent, then the promise comes. If any man open the door, I will come into him and will dine with him and he with me. The greatest single need for believers is to have a living, ongoing, continuous experience of the risen Lord. Then every trial, every tribulation of which we have many, will only force you nearer to him, will only bring you into deeper experience of Him.

Lady Ogle's Peace

I've told you the story. Years ago, I was convalescing in Lady Ogle's home in the south of England because I had been ill. And she had said, well, as soon as you are not infectious, come and convalesce at my home. And I did, and I very much enjoyed everything about it that time. But I remember looking up on the wall. And I saw on the wall this little text on a piece of wood. My peace I give unto you. And I thought to myself, what a trite little saying to put up on the wall. My peace I give unto you.

And then in some way the matter came up. I never said to her, well, that's a very trite thing to put up on the wall. I wasn't that rude. But she began to tell me an experience she'd had. She said, I think it was over her husband's death. She was only 23. They'd only been married for three or four years, and he died in the great flu epidemic after the First World War. She was in absolute agony of spirit, didn't know what to do, where to turn, or what the way ahead was. And she said suddenly into her heart came the words, peace, I leave with you. My peace I give unto you.

And she said, in a flash, I suddenly realized that the peace he left, he never needed. It was peace for sins forgiven. It was sin — the peace of having your sins washed away, blotted out, forgiven, being justified. Because he became our sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. But when he said, my peace I give unto you, it was the peace he had in Gethsemane when he was in an agony and said, nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. And then the same peace on the cross after he had cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He suddenly said, not only finished, but he said, into your hands, I commend my spirit in peace. That peace, she said. He said, that's my peace. I experienced it. I will give it to you.

Now, that trite little piece on the wood had a whole history behind it. The word of God had come into her life and become her. It had become flesh and blood in her, her own experience. You can never take that away. That's forever. That's fellowship.

Hearing His Voice

To be able to walk with the Lord, to be able to follow him, to hear his voice and to follow him. Now some people say, oh, I'm sick to death of these people who all the time say, the Lord said this. And the Lord said, well, there are people who've got balmy ideas. We have to recognize that they're overboard. But the fact of the matter is, Jesus said, my sheep, hear my voice.

In every single believer, there is an organism. It's a spiritual organism. It's in your spirit, not your soul nor your body. It's in your spirit. And that spiritual receiver picks up the voice of the Lord. If the Lord Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice, he obviously means it.

Now here is the key to this hard word of the Lord to Laodicea. He said to them, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with me. What went wrong with Laodicea? Just that kind of fellowship.

Buying Gold Through Experience

Now he says, I counsel thee to buy of me gold refined by fire. But how can we buy gold when everything to do with the Lord Jesus is God's unspeakable gift to us? The only way is by experience. It is a free gift. But for there to be gold in your being, eternal gold, you have to go through deep experiences. Are you ready? When you go through those experiences, you come out the other end with real gold. The gold of his life, the gold of his nature. It's in you forever. Fellowship.

You see, this word fellowship in Greek koinonia really speaks of having something in common. Well, do we have anything in common with the Lord Jesus? No. But in the most wonderful way he puts something into us. Then there is something in common. He puts into us the gold of his own life and nature through salvation, through his finished work. But the price is experience. And sometimes that experience is unbelievably costly.

And he goes on and says, you're naked, wretched, poor, miserable, blind and naked. What a catalog for a living church. A church of godly baptism, evangelical church, born again believers. I say, if any Christian leader said this today, they would howl him down. You can't say things like that to those who are born of the spirit of God. But the Lord Jesus did.

He said, you need white raiment to clothe you. That's the finished work of the Lord Jesus. That's justification. Not your righteousness, but his righteousness. And eyesalve, that you might see.

It's one thing to mug up doctrine, it's another thing to see spiritually what it means. Why do you think I've said it before? And I must be careful that I'm not just boring you with what's already been said. I mean, I have a wonderful Jewish imagination. And I imagine everything. And I think of the letter to the Ephesians, and I see the Apostle Paul dictating to this poor secretary, this poor amanuensis. He's saying now, let's start here, you see? And then he goes and he comes out of him phrase after phrase after phrase that are mind blowing. No one's ever thought fully plumb the depth of the meaning of these incredible things that the Apostle Paul wrote. And then he stops for a while and then he says to the amanuensis, to the secretary, just wait.

Do you think we should tell them what we're praying? And the secretary says, I do, I think you should. I think it would be very good for them to know exactly what you were praying. Otherwise, he said, all this marvelous material that you've given by the Spirit of God will become stuff for theological seminaries. It will become material for sermons.

And then the apostle says, right, put this down. We are praying the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, that he would grant to you the Spirit, a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of the Messiah. The eyes of your heart being illumined, that you might know — not know about, know. What is the hope of your calling? What the exceeding greatness — sorry, what the glorious riches of his inheritance in the saints and what the exceeding greatness of his power to us, what you believe.

Well, that changes everything. It means you've got to have eyesalve. It's not just an academic thing, not just study up the truth. You've got to see. It's when you see something that you're changed.

Isn't it true? How did you get saved? Only when you saw that Jesus was your Savior, then it happened. How did you come into something more of the Lord? Again and again, when you saw.

A Question Worth Asking

Well folks, I think that's it for this morning, if I haven't shocked you all. But the thing is, basically, let me just say this last thing, and I'm not getting at you, please. Do you think it could be possible that a company such as this could get into such a place that the Lord was outside knocking at the door?

Well, are you asking me this question? I'll answer it. If we look at church history, there is not a single initiative that Jesus launched by the Spirit of God that in the fourth, fifth or sixth generation went off the rails. Look at church history. Everywhere you turn you will see at the beginning passion, experience, fellowship with the Lord, fellowship with one another. Sometimes by the second generation, third generation, it had become a methodology, a routine, an organization. In some cases it lasted even a hundred years. I think of the Moravians and I think also of the Brethren, but so very little did it last in the history of the Church. Why? Because somewhere, somehow we fell out of fellowship.