Church in Laodicea
\nAuthor: Pat Aman<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c\u201cTo the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God\u2019s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm\u2014neither hot nor cold\u2014I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, \u2018I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.\u2019 But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.\u201d\u201d
\n\u202d\u202dRevelation\u202c \u202d3:14-22\u202c \u202dNIV\u202c\u202c<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are many in the world who are completely cold to the things of Christ. The gospel leaves them absolutely unmoved. It arouses no spiritual response. They have no interest in Christianity, no interest in the church. They make no pretense. They certainly aren\u2019t hypocrites. They don\u2019t even go near things that have to do with Christ. They are lost and they could care less. They don\u2019t want to hear the Word of God at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the other hand, believers are marked by a response to spiritual truth and they\u2019re zealous and they\u2019re fervent. And He\u2019s saying metaphorically, I could take it if you were like Hierapolis because then you\u2019d be real. I could even take it if you were like the cold water of Colossae. That\u2019s better than being the foul water of Laodicea, lukewarm. Who are they? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Professing Christians, go to church, claim to know the Lord, but aren\u2019t saved. They\u2019re content with self-righteous religion. They\u2019re hypocrites playing games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They\u2019re the kind of people described in Matthew 7 where Jesus says, \u201cMany will say unto me in that day, \u2018Lord, Lord,\u2019 and I will say unto them, \u2018Depart from me, I never knew you. You may have done many works in my name and prophesied and cast out demons, but I don\u2019t know you.\u2019\u201d They\u2019re like those in 2 Timothy 3:5 who have a form of godliness but without power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They\u2019re like the Jews in Romans 10 who have a zeal for God but not according to a true knowledge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They\u2019re just hypocrites, touched some way by Christianity but not belonging to Christ. And there is something obnoxious about them. They nauseate Christ. They make Him sick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s much more hope, frankly, for one who has been untouched by the gospel. There\u2019s much more hope for one who has made no pretense of knowing Christ – do you understand that? – than there is for the one who makes the pretense but his life illustrates that he\u2019s not really honored Christ at all. In fact, I would say there\u2019s no one farther from the truth in Christ than the one who makes an idle profession without real faith. He is really in Satan\u2019s hands. They had bought a satanic lie about Christ. They were in religion up to their neck. They called it Christianity, they said they were a church. Satan was in control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the history of the church and in my experience, no one has been harder to reach for Christ than a false Christian. Satisfied with the measure of his good works, satisfied with his attitude toward God, and they sit in churches across the world. It would be easier to win a sinner deep in sin. It would be easier to win a criminal, it would be easier to win an agnostic or an atheist, it\u2019s easier – Jesus certainly said – to reach the Publicans and the harlots than it is the Pharisees and the Sadducees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s more hope for the salvation of an atheist than a spoiled, half-hearted, conceited hypocrite who thinks he knows the truth and pretends to accept it. Like the Pharisees, they don\u2019t feel their need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They have that lukewarmness of religion. They sense no chill. If they were cold enough to feel the bitterness and the severity of their sin, they would be more readily brought to the knowledge of Christ. But these conceited, self-deceived hypocrites, this lukewarmness made Christ sick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there was even something worse than being lukewarm and that was their self-deception. Look at verse 17. Here\u2019s the second condemnation. Because you say I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. Look at that, first part of – \u201cBecause you say.\u201d Do you remember the study we did in Matthew chapter 7 and we talked about the \u201cif we sayers\u201d and the \u201cif we doers\u201d? If we say – if we say – if we say, Jesus said doesn\u2019t mean anything. What matters is if we do, if we do, if we do. It\u2019s not the people who say, it\u2019s the people who do the will of my Father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Salvation is the gold that makes people spiritually rich in faith. Salvation is the white robe that covers our sinful nakedness. Salvation is the eye salve that gives us the knowledge of God and of His truth. What\u2019s He offering? An abiding faith, an abiding righteousness, an abiding understanding. You are poor, you are blind, you are naked. Let me fix that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All that comes together when the sinner offers the price which is himself and when he repents to follow Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Friends, there is so much more history in each of these seven churches. The history of each location had important roll to the status of these churches and their surroundings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I wish I had more time to share with each of you every detail of the seven churches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Devotion Written By: Pastor Pat Aman Book \u00a9 1996\/2020, \u201cCoffee With Pat Daily Devotionals\u201d and Westbow Press a division of Thomas Nelson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Church in Laodicea Author: Pat Aman \u201c\u201cTo the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God\u2019s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","author-admin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/coffeewithpat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/coffeewithpat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/coffeewithpat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/coffeewithpat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/coffeewithpat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2003"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/coffeewithpat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2004,"href":"http:\/\/coffeewithpat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2003\/revisions\/2004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/coffeewithpat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/coffeewithpat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/coffeewithpat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}