Revelation 3:17 “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:
We are not just one of these,….but all of these.
We should be crying out, like Paul…..”O wretched man that I am, Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24)
But, according to the Lord….the Faithful and True Witness against us….we are unaware of our true condition….
….we think we are rich. Rich here means “abounding with”.
John 10:10 “…I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
But in Laodicea, if we have His eternal life….we are not abounding with it….but we are poor in the things of God. In those things He looks for in His beloved children. (Philippians 4:6-8)
We do not have the reality of what we profess. That is why our Counselor speaks first of our buying from Him, by devotion and obedience….gold, tried in the fire.
Revelation 3:18 “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, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.”
Gold speaks of God in my life. Gold tried in the fire is pure gold….the dross or admixture of other influences….burnt out.
Peter, when writing the Jewish Christians dispersed throughout the world, wrote….(and I think it is a call to us Laodiceans, as well)…
1 Peter 1:3,6-7 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy (there is abounding life again)…hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
(Christ’s sacrificial death gives us salvation from sin…..Christ’s resurrection gives us life…abundant life.)
“Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:”
In Laodicea, perhaps we have forgotten that the trials we face, are all part of the purpose of God to “burn away” the flattery,…and the fear of those circumstances around us….
….we become more dependent upon His life within….and as we look more and more to Him, and less and less to ourselves or others…..His life starts to abound within us…and then through us:
And this is what the “white raiment” speaks of….our being clothed upon with the righteousness of Christ…..so that we may do righteousness, or righteous acts (Rev. 19:8) by the Holy Spirit through us….which requires yielding to Him.
We become…”a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” (2 Timothy 2:21-22)
If you look at what is said about this vessel unto honor….
….we are sanctified or set aside to God, by the Holy Spirit….and by ourselves yielding to the Holy Spirit.
We are “meet for the Master’s use”…or easily used, profitable to the Lord!
(I know when I use a knife in the kitchen…esp. a paring knife….I have a favorite. It fits my small hand, and I can use it easily. I do not have to grasp it hard,…I can just cut with confidence. So we can be in the hands of the Lord….easy to use, for whatever job)
We are “prepared unto every good work”….we are always present before Him, to hear His Word,…relying upon His Holy Spirit to show us the words and attitudes….and to do “every good work” through us….(whether they are “important” or “insignificant” to us)
We started this with the verse that says….”Because thou sayest”.
And then, what the Lord says.
Who are we going to believe?
If I am, in the sight of the Lord wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked….and I am…and so are you, Laodicean….
….what are we to do about it?
Well, Jesus Christ calls us to “repent”….be zealous and repent. (Rev. 3:19)
How much time we have left to become vessels unto honor….to get the gold of God in our lives (not just in our hearts by faith,…but in our everyday lives)…we can not tell.
A few months ago, I would have “said” that my health was good. But in a night, all that changed…and I was sidelined for weeks.
Jesus Christ stands at the door of the Laodicean Church….but it is to me, to you, to each one of us….that He speaks to:
(Revelation 3:20). “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock:”
He is ready to do for us…..are we ready to let Him?
“If any man hear My Voice,”
His Voice by His Word, by His Holy Spirit within us, by preachers and teachers, by circumstances …are we listening for His Voice to us?
“And open the door”
The door we open is our lives. We opened our hearts to Him in salvation….but this is a call to a life, open and receptive to Him.
“I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.”
When the Faithful and True Witness says, “I will”…we can count on it. His companionship, His provision, His Presence….what would we lack?
Let us start with:
Romans 14:22 “Hast thou faith? Have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemned not himself in that which he alloweth.”
What is it that we condemn ourselves in?
Set that right, and go on with Him. The rest of our lives are ahead….let us become lives which manifest Him…ready to do what He commands.
Preaching, Teaching, and Notes 