Good News and Bad News:About the Judgment |
Did you know that God would rather have you out in the world, not even making a profession of Christianity, than have you in the church, but not fully committed to Him?
GOD WOULD RATHER HAVE PEOPLE
COLD
THAN LUKEWARM.
That's what the Bible teaches in Revelation 3:14-22. Jesus Himself is speaking, for it says in verse 14, "These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and True Witness, the ruler of God's creation" -- that's Jesus. Revelation is Jesus' own book, the only book in the Bible that begins by saying, "The revelation of Jesus Christ." So it is Jesus Himself who says, in verse 15, "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!" He prefers cold to lukewarm.
Jesus is talking here to the last of the seven churches, the church that exists until just shortly before Jesus comes. It's the church called Laodicea. Laodicea is known for its lukewarm condition, and because of its lukewarmness, God says, "So, because you are lukewarm -- neither hot nor cold -- I am about to spit you out of my mouth." Verse 16. What is God saying here about lukewarm people? They make Him sick. Now of course God loves lukewarm people -- BUT they still make Him sick. Your self-righteousness is nauseating to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He says, "Because you are lukewarm -- neither hot nor cold -- I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked." Verses 16, 17. You'll have to admit that this rebuke to Laodica is pretty hard-hitting. In order to understand more clearly what is at stake here, let's consider what it takes to make Laodicea.
Laodicea is lukewarm. In order for a church to be called Laodicea, or lukewarm, more than half of the people in Laodicea would have to be lukewarm, wouldn't they? If more than half of the people were other than lukewarm, then the church would have been described by another title. So you're going to find a lot of lukewarm people in Laodicea.
What is lukewarm? Well, if you want lukewarm water from your kitchen faucet, you turn the hot water on partway and the cold water on partway, and you get lukewarm water. The cold-water control handle is usually on the right, and the Hot-water control handle is usually on the left. That analogy helps us somewhat, because it reminds us that lukewarm is partly hot and partly cold. But it wouldn't make much sense to try to visualize a Christian who was hot on the left side and cold on the right side. So let's look in Matthew 23, letting the Bible interpret itself, to discover how a person can be partly hot and partly cold.
Please read the entire chapter of Matthew 23 on your own; we won't quote it here. But it contains one of Jesus' sternest rebukes to the religious leaders of His day. The central point of His rebuke was that they were like whited sepulchers. The looked good on the outside, but the inside was a mess. And Jesus called them hypocrites because of this.
The whited sepulchers of which Jesus spoke were white because the Jewish people would go out every year to the cemeteries, on their memorial day, and paint the tombs of the prophets. And as they painted the tombs of the prophets, they would say, "Isn't it a terrible thing that our fathers did to these lovely prophets?" And they'd splash on some more whitewash. When they had finally emptied their buckets, they would head back to Jerusalem, where they would plan the crucifixion of Jesus.
No matter how much they fixed up the outside of the sepulchers, the inside remained the same. And no matter how much they worked on the outside of their own lives, the inside was unchanged. This gives us a clue as to what makes a lukewarm person. A lukewarm person is one who is hot on the outside, but cold on the inside. It's the kind of person who knows all the rules and regulations, who has beaten a hard path from his home to the church door, who knows all the forms and ceremonies, but who still keeps God at arm's length. The Laodicean is one who wouldn't think of doing anything wrong, who is trying to get to heaven by his good works, and who is so busy being good that he doesn't have time day by day to spend with God in His Word and in prayer. Recent surveys of Church members indicate that about 80 percent of the church members today fit that description. Four out of five church members are not spending even five minutes a day developing a relationship with Jesus. And if I find myself in that situation, then it doesn't matter how long I've had my name on the church books or how many good deeds I perform or how much money I give in to the church treasury. I'm still not a Christian, because a Christian is one who knows Jesus as his personal Savior and Friend. If I find myself in that position, then I am lukewarm -- and God would prefer that I be completely cold instead!
It says in Revelation 3 that the lukewarm person is wretched pitiful, poor, blind and naked. Verse 17. And the reason that God would prefer that such a person was cold instead of lukewarm is because the one who is cold can be brought more easily to understand his need. The tragedy of the lukewarm church member is that although he is wretched, pitiful and all the rest of it, HE DOESN'T KNOW IT. That's what makes his condition so serious.
When a person is caught out in freezing weather, at first he feels the cold intensely. But after a time, as he begins to grow numb, it doesn't seem as cold as it did at first. The temptation comes to simply curl up somewhere and go to sleep. There comes a false sense of security -- an impression of warmth where there is no warmth. But if you've heard about this or read about this from someone who has experienced the danger, you realize that there's no way you should give in to the temptation to go to sleep. You keep walking. You use every ounce of willpower and self-discipline to keep moving. You know if you stop, you'll die.
In the Christian life, the temptation comes to depend upon good behavior and moral living instead of to depend upon Jesus. It's easy to neglect the relationship with Jesus. At times the temptation is almost over-powering to give up the struggle to make time to spend seeking Him day and day, and just to sleep. But when you realize that this is where the battle in the Christian life is centered, you know you don't dare go to sleep and neglect the time of communion with God. You use every ounce of willpower and self-discipline to keep sacred that thoughtful hour for contemplating the life of Jesus. And no matter how great the temptation to sleep and forget about the relationship with Jesus, YOU KNOW YOU'LL DIE IF YOU DO.
No matter how hot he is on the outside, the Laodicean who is cold on the inside is freezing to death. But he doesn't know it. He feels secure. That's why even cold people, who are aware that they are cold, have an advantage. They seek help. But the hard-hitting rebuke to the Laodicean is a desperate attempt on the part of a loving God to wake them up before they freeze to death spiritually.
However, the message to the Laodiceans is divided into two parts. God doesn't give rebukes without offering counsel. He doesn't point out our sins and problems just to make us feel hopeless. He has a solution. The second part of the message to the Laodicean church is the counsel to the lukewarm. "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." Verses 18, 19.
Perhaps we could paraphrase it this way: I counsel you to buy from me faith and love so that you can become rich; and the righteousness of Christ, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and the Holy Spirit to put on your eyes, so you can see.
This counsel is God's answer to the problem and gives the solution to the problem.
When Jesus actually does come back, there are going to be no lukewarm people. There are going to be only two classes of people, and they are described in Scripture in various ways. They are called the good and the bad, the righteous and the wicked, the sheep and the goats, the wheat and the tares, the wise and the foolish, the hot and the cold. There are many different labels for them, but only two groups. Jesus said, "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done." Revelation 22:12. But there are only two rewards. There is no such thing as a lukewarm lake of fire for the lukewarm.
What happens to the lukewarm before Jesus comes? Where do they go? There are only two places for them to go -- they go either hot or cold. Lukewarmness disappears before Jesus comes. Before He comes again, the fence straddlers disappear. There's no more middle of the road. Either you're going to be 100% solid in you relationship with Jesus, or you will have abandoned Him altogether. Jesus made it very clear that the dividing line between the hot and cold will be the relationship with Him. In Matthew 7, he said that not every one who says to Him, "Lord, Lord," will be in His kingdom. Even if they prophesy and cast out devils, and all the rest of it, He's going to say, "I never KNEW you: depart from me." Verses 21-23. John 17:3 says that knowing Jesus is what life eternal is all about. The two groups at the end will be those who don't know God and those who do know God personally: One-to-one. Now it so happens that this relationship is going to have a tremendous influence upon the performance and behavior of the person, including his relationship to the commandments of God, the Sabbath commandment, and all the rest of them. But the determining factor is whether or not the individual knows God for himself.
Something happens at the very end, just before Jesus comes, to cause the large middle group of lukewarm church members to disappear. It starts with what is called the "shaking." What causes the shaking? It's the COUNSEL of the True Witness to the Laodiceans.
Remember the two parts of the message to the church of Laodicea? First comes the rebuke. Then follows the COUNSEL. We wouldn't be surprised, perhaps, if the church was shaken up over the rebuke. We've seen people divided by stern rebukes before. But what is there about the counsel, the reminder of the need for faith and love and the righteousness of Christ and the Holy Spirit that shakes people up? How could anyone get shaken up over the need for faith, love, and righteousness of Christ?
The counsel of the True Witness is not merely dealing with external standards, important as it is to maintain church standards. But it is possible to maintain high standards of behavior and live up to certain rules and regulations in the church and still have a heart far from Jesus. The True Witness has a message to the heart, for if the heart becomes a dwelling place for the Lord Jesus, if His righteousness is accepted within, the standards of behavior will follow. The only reason why people get shaken up over the message to the heart is that they have been finding their security in external righteousness. It happened in the days of Christ's first advent. The essence of Jesus' teaching was self-surrender. But that was an insult and an affront to the religious people who had been depending upon their own righteousness. So the great revival that is coming in the church is not going to be based upon the confessions of heinous sins. It's going to be based upon coming to the realization that we have been living our "spotless" lives apart from Jesus. We will go to our knees and ask His forgiveness for leaving Him outside of our lives; and when He knocks at the door, we will respond, "Please, Lord, come in." That's what the revival is going to be all about.
The problem of the Laodiceans is not that they are short on works. The problem of the Laodiceans is that they have left Jesus standing out in the cold, knocking, asking for admission. And the revival that comes will be when they realize their undone condition and again admit Him into their hearts and lives.
The time of shaking is represented by the old-fashioned method of threshing grain. After the chaff was rubbed off the grain, it was sometimes placed in a large, flat basket. The grain-chaff mixture was tossed into the air. The wind would blow away the chaff, while the wheat fell back into the basket. The time of shaking is in a profoundly spiritual sense what has separated the true follower of Christ from the false.
The shaking time, both within and outside the church, leaves only four groups in the world:
Groups 1 and 2 will be within the remnant church. Groups 3 and 4 will be outside the remnant church. When the time of the shaking is over, the time of the sifting will begin.
The members of the first group will finally come to understand something that they had missed before, and they will have obtained the victory. They will have become overcomers. With their faces lighted up, with praise to God on their lips, and with the Holy Spirit in their hearts, they go from house to house proclaiming the good news. The people in the third group, who have known what it means to have a personal relationship with God, but who haven't understood the messages of the three angels and all that they represent, will begin joining with the remnant church. And the people in group 4, who don't know God, who don't care to know Him, and who aren't interested in learning about the three angels either, will begin to get nervous. Just as it was in the days of Jesus' first advent, they will be the one who are the most "religious," both within and without the remnant church, who will be the most upset by the revival and reformation and victory that come from the relationship with Jesus. And they will begin to do everything they possibly can to stop the great movement of God's people.
As the persecution begins and those in Group 4 begin to do their ugly work, the ones in Group 2 will leave the remnant church. Trying to avoid persecution, they will join Group 4 to become some of the bitterest enemies of those who remain in the remnant church. But as the trouble increases, the people who know God and who also know about the three angels will stay on their knees and continue to draw closer and closer to God.
When the sifting time has come to an end, the four groups will look like this:
When the sifting time has ended, the final events will come on rapidly. The people in Group 2 can't quite forget about the charts on the closet doors and the things they learned before they left the remnant church. When the end begins to look like it's about here, they will say, It looks like the end; we'd better catch the last trolly out. But to their dismay they will find that the last trolly has left a long time ago. And they will begin to go from sea to sea and from coast to coast seeking the word of the Lord, but they won't find it. It will be too late.
The shaking and sifting time will be an awesome time to be alive. It is bad news for the ones who are being shaken out. It's bad news to see perhaps some of your closest friends grow colder and colder and finally leave altogether. But it's good news to see those who have known Jesus personally, but who have never learned about the remnant, come in and take their places. And it's good news that when the times of the shaking and sifting have come, the coming of Jesus will almost be here.
It's happening today, my friend. People in the world, people in the church, are going FAST, one way or the other.
You still have a choice today to let Him in. Jesus is still saying to each one today, "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will go in and eat with him, and he with me." Revelation 3:20. When Jesus knocks at the door of my heart, I don't want to be in the family room watching "Wheel of Fortune." I don't want to be in the kitchen stuffing myself. I don't want to be upstairs listening to music. I don't want to be out in the garage polishing my Mercedes. When Jesus knocks at the door, I want to be there to answer it, don't you?
We can be thankful today for His rebuke that wakes us up from our lethargy, and for His counsel that give us courage and guidance. The time of the shaking is a time of good news, because God has done, and is doing, everything possible to help us to be shaken IN, instead of shaken out. And the fellowship with Himself that He offers us is designed to last for an eternity if we invite Him into our hearts today.
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This page maintained by Allen Roy. Last update on 12/13/99