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okay let’s take our Bibles this morning and turn to Revelation chapter 3 Revelation chapter 3 we’ll be looking at verse 14 to the end of the chapter and as I’ve been saying along the way that because Jesus is The Sovereign over his church and he is walking amongst and among the lampstands which are the churches and he holds the Seven Stars in his right hand The Messengers the leaders of the church and that the church it’s Main mission is to hold the light to hold the light of the Gospel to the community that they are planted in and if they don’t hold the light we see the message is consistent through all the churches then he will come and remove the lampstand and that’s Jesus who does that so you’re going to see Jesus and hear him say that I am coming to you and will will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent repentance is in a consistent theme throughout all these messages to the churches Jesus G Jesus gives a message to each Church the first war he warns the Ephesians church for declining love the second he warns the church at pergamum about about allowing truth to slip by tolerating bad Doctrine and of course the third warning is compromising with sin within the church that’s the Church of thra and then the fourth warning is our lord Jesus gives is to the church at sardus and that’s the warning of spiritual deadness because the church became apathetic to spiritual things and then the two churches identified in Revelation as having no warnings or condemnations are Samar and Philadelphia but today we’re going to be looking at the last of the seven churches lead DEA and we’ll be looking at how the Lord examines that church let’s pray Lord this morning I pray that as we look in your word that we would see in your word ourselves that we would be able to identify things that we don’t normally see if you weren’t reading scripture if you weren’t listening to preaching and I pray Lord as the spirit of God I identifies those things in us maybe good maybe bad may be sinful maybe not but Lord I pray that whatever it may be that we would be humble enough to come before you in Repentance Wanting You Lord to move upon us and move us in a direction that honors your name especially in the L days in which we live these last days Lord we need the light of the Gospel to go forth in a dark ever darkening world and Lord we need to use us to be able to communicate to others not only by our message but I pray our message would be backed up by our Lifestyle by the sanctification you’re producing in our life and Lord as we look at each one of these churches Lord we see ourselves in each one and in each part of History we see the church moving in and out of these things Lord but maybe the leodan church is the church that is the end time church the church that has everything going for it it seems but they’re wanting in a big way so I pray you would help us to see that today as we look at your word and I pray this in Christ’s name amen so this Lord’s day we’ll be looking at the church of lead deia this is a lukewarm proud self-satisfied church and it was such a church that was nauseating to the Lord another way to say that is that the sense of need for the Lord himself was gone the church could be characterized by its indifference and its being comfortable in the culture and comfortable in its own success that Jesus Christ is The Sovereign over his church and walks amongst his people and is present in their midst examining their spiritual condition to see how are they doing and as we take a look at this church at l l DEA the city was located about 40 Mi southeast of Philadelphia on the road to colossi and it stood at an intersection of three highways where the main traffic routes went East and West and north and south so that means the strength of this position of this city brought this particular church and City and Community enormous wealth and among the residents could be found bankers and Merchants and financiers in fact there was a school of medicine there and it founded the famous I medication and it was probably the Med medical school of Leia that developed what they called the perian eye powder famous in the ancient world and it is fair to guess that this was the dried mud of the thermal Springs of heropolis which could be mixed with water and form a dressing effective an effective remedy for ey inflammation so lead deia was a natural Fortress and it posed a challenge to anyone who would want to invade it although lead DEA had a serious weakness that the water supply came principally through vulnerable aqueducts from Springs six miles away to the north and that and that means that these aqueducts would the water would enter them from the hot springs possibly of heropolis and they would become lukewarm by time they got to the city or it would be the the Cool Waters that came from colossi by the time it got to the city it would be lukewarm so a place with its water so exposed it could scarcely stand a siege for the enemy Army all they had to do is is block up the aqueduct in order to keep water from going to the city and just in a few uh matter of a week they can conquer the city because there would be no water left historical records showed that Leia de sea uh its importance and its wealth is was very well known especially in its banking industry and the main product of the city was a glossy black wool from a strain of long-haired black sheep bred for trade there so these features these features in this city provide really a pattern of of scornful imagery found in chapter 3 the black garments ex exported all over the Mediterranean world the famous I ointment the city’s wealth really formed a basis for the writer stinging reproaches for all its wealth the city had very poor drinking water now as in all of the churches the first way it starts out is number one Christ’s character is highlighted now I want you to notice in verse number 14 of chapter 3 it says to the angel of the church in lead deia right the amen the faithful the true witness the beginning of the creation of God says this so here is this church was facing uh an examination by the Lord Jesus Christ but first it always gives a picture of the Lord’s character and there’s three things here in the Lord’s character Jesus is the amen now we use amen all the time and amen really has the understanding of being that which is true or that which is indeedly true the term points to the stability of God that the Lord Jesus Christ is is not unstable or fickle in his character and it is often translated so be it and that is the fixed and final revelation of God it is the self designation of Christ he calls himself the truth well amen is equal to that where Jesus says in John I am the way I am the truth so in other words all the promises in in Jesus are yes and amen meaning they are certain to be fulfilled our Lord is steady he is unchangeable in all his purposes and promises and that means for us for any church that the Lord is Dependable in his character and absolutely reliable and trustworthy second thing it says about the Lord in verse 14 is that he is faithful and true witness that means Jesus here the testimony of Christ on Earth is absolutely reliable and genuine and therefore his testimony never falls short of the truth that God’s testimony to men ought to be received and fully believed if not it will be swift but true against those who are indifferent and lukewarm to the things of God and this means that for us today is that the Lord is Dependable in what he says and then the third thing it says about the Lord is that he is the beginning of the creation of God and that is that Jesus is the uncreated son of God who is eternal as the father and is superior to Creation prior to Creation in fact he is the first cause of creation the Creator the governor of the universe and because he is the source of the creation of God if it had not been for him there would be no creation so all creation exists only in reference to Jesus Christ this is found found all over the New Testament in Colossians says all things have been created through him and for him and before he is before all things and in him all things hold together John 1:3 all things came into being through him and nothing came into being that has come into being that has not come into being through Christ see Jesus is also the creator of the church he is the head of the body he is the first fruits of the resurrection and all those who believe in him and follow him as Lord and Savior will also be raised to live with him in the new Heaven and the new Earth so the church exists only in reference to him creation exists only in reference to Christ in the church he is the first in time and position that means the church exists only in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ that means for us that the Lord is Dependable in who he is and what he has done he is Dependable in what he says and he is completely Dependable in his overall character now that these three characteristics may strongly it may strongly suggest to us that the major concern or reason for the development of this lukewarmness in this congregation is the neglect of these doctrines they were neglecting the sufficiency of Christ that he is reliable that he is faithful that he’s a true witness they are neglecting the inherent authority of the word of God they are neglecting the special revelation of All Things by God through Jesus Christ they were NE neglecting those things and moving away from those things and again the Lord is about to evaluate the church’s spiritual condition just like the church at Sardis he has no commendations this is number two Christ commendations to this church none the lord of the church has nothing good to say not one encouraging word that his skillful eye finds not even the smallest grain of a good word that’s not good so also this church does not seem to be plagued by any false teaching or under any kind of persecution or religious opposition there seems to be no outside threats to this church everything seems to be somewhat normal if you look at it again this kind of situation is always deadly to spiritual progression it is the kind of situation which makes people comfortable and when people feel comfortable and safe they begin to neglect what is really important that’s why the Lord’s always stirring up the church he’s always stirring something up so we don’t get too comfortable so to them prosperity and success equaled God’s favor now is that always true sometimes it’s true but most of the time if that’s what you’re depending on then you’re in trouble so this is the message of the health wealth and prosperity movement but it’s not only that movement it can happen in any church at any time but in this church the Lord has nothing good to say about it so now look let’s look at a verse number 15-1 17 and this is the condemnation of this church look what it says says in verse 15 chapter 3 of Revelation I know your Deeds that you are neither cold nor hot I wish you were cold or hot verse 15 so in other words the Lord knows their real spiritual condition even if they can’t discern it themselves and in this case they can’t discern it that Jesus has infallible and complete knowledge of their state of affairs and not to be cold or hot is a very precarious position to be in it’s a neutral position it’s it’s a it’s no position actually no conviction no stand they’re taking it’s it’s really it is hard to find out where someone is actually where they stand when they land somewhere in the middle right especially when it comes to doctrinal truth which is by nature propositional it’s by Nature dogmatic so the reality is their faith and life die down to only intolerable tepidness and by by the way people would take this passage to mean I would rather you be cold in opposition to me or hot and on fire for me but that’s highly unlikely it is better to interpret this passage of scripture by its historical and geographical context which is leod deia got its water either from the hot springs of her a Polish and cool to lukewarmness or the cooler Source in colassi and warmth to lukewarmness in other words this water was nauseating which represented their depl horable spiritual condition you ever get a bottle of water from your car when it was boiling in the Sun what do you do drink it down like it was fresh no you don’t you know what you do you go get a cold one inside that’s what you do there’s something nauseating about lukewarm water it represents here the bad spiritual condition of these people so our Lord’s point to them is something like this you are providing neither healing for the spiritually sick nor refreshment for the spiritually thirsty Matthew Henry that old commentary said he said this if religion is worth anything it’s worth everything and lukewarmness is inexcusable so to be half-hearted to be double-minded to be indecisive to be tolerant of everyone’s opinion or just comfortable in the status quo is totally unacceptable in real Christianity It Was Elijah in First Kings who said to the people how long will you hesitate between two opinions he says if the Lord is God follow him and if baale is God follow him see in other words he’s saying you got to make a decision you can’t straddle the fence Joshua even said the same thing to the people after getting into the promised land and right and knowing that be people weren’t where they ought to be spiritually he said to them in the end of Joshua vers the CH last chapter if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord choose for yourselves today whom you will serve whether the gods which your father served which were beyond the River or the gods of the amorites in whose land you are living as for me in my house we will serve the Lord in other words Joshua was saying is you got to land somewhere you can’t hover over the airport too long before you run out of fuel you got to land where you going to land you’re going to land on serving the lord or you’re going to land on getting into some kind of idolatry cuz there’s no uh other choices there’s no middle ground you have to land somewhere either you serve God or you don’t that’s that’s the bottom line spiritually there’s not many choices so you’ll serve someone whether an idol of your own desire or making or the Lord the true and living God so the church at Le DEA was like a spiritual chameleon accommodating accommodating themselves to the moods of the time to the whims of the culture to the wind of the doctrine that was going all over the place and then Look what Jesus does he gives a diagnosis of the church identifying the illness and the disorder in that church we’ll at verse number 16 so because you are lukewarm there’s that word and neither hot nor cold their condition is critical but it is not terminal there is a way to get out of this and the lukewarm beverage just like a lukewarm be beverage is not the norm it is outside the norm and either people order a hot drink or a cold drink usually when something is lukewarm something has gone drastically wrong that the spiritual condition is distasteful to the tongue that the church I laid the sea is was lukewarm and therefore was totally ineffective and distasteful to the Lord nauseating that’s how tepid water is isn’t it it causes only disgust and causes one to finally spit it out you rinse your mouth with warm water and you spit it out you don’t sit there and enjoy it so this is the picture how nauseating and and distasteful this condition is to the Lord now if anybody else was examining this I would say oh well that’s your opinion but the Lord is examining this and if you look at again verse number 16 it says the I will spit you out of my mouth see God God has disgusted with lukewarm believers and if the condition persists he will spit them out of his mouth I don’t know how clearer you can be and how this is an illustration that is quite Vivid if there’s a failure of repentance then this church must perish for it’s better for this type of church to go out of existence because it it is no longer a New Testament Church it is a social club that makes people feel good safe and comfortable and even if you go back to the prophets like Amos what does Amos say to the people back then he says woe to them who are what at ease in Zion woe to you when you get too comfortable and the reason for this tepid condition is found in right here in Revelation 3:17 lukewarmness will eventually lead to ignorance especially as to where one is spiritually and just as lead DEA was far from the source of lifegiving refreshing water geographically they were they have drifted away from the lifegiving refreshing water of Jesus Christ now in verse number 17 what how does the lead Dean people see themselves what’s their diagnosis of themselves look what it says in verse 17 because because you say I am rich and I have become wealthy I have need nothing so that’s how they see themselves in fact this is kind of a quote used by the leans to express their evaluation of their own church see they are saying something they are saying they are saying we have become someone we have arrived at stability we are self-supporting and we are self-sufficient the Lord should be proud of us that we need him very little that we don’t have to call on him for the big things we’re taking care of the big things and the little things yet the church had lost its discernment to see spiritual reality they are saying our accomplishments and wealth is due to our own exertion see the church’s claim is false it it actually it acquits itself because they’re wealthy and yet their wealth had led them to have a false estimate of their own spiritual condition their wealth became an illusion to them it has judged itself and found itself doing fine how you doing I’m doing fine well what does that mean that you’re doing fine well you know what they weren’t doing fine and anybody who’s in this lukewarm condition spiritually you are not doing fine matter of fact you’re on the verge of getting spit spit out by the Lord see because this church was materially rich they assumed that they were spiritually rich and the two don’t often go together you know for your information after the earthquake of 60 and 61 ad this wealthy City rebuilt itself without the aid of Imperial Rome so Rome was very much uh acceptable and very uh reasonable with this particular City because they were able to rebuild themselves at after the earthquake without any help at all no help at all and of course the church was right there rebuilding itself and why in verse 17 they say I am rich I’ve become wealthy I have need of nothing they don’t even need the Lord so this church may have acquired large and beautiful facilities developed special programs of many kinds featured a variety of musicians and artists and even gained a measure of political power they concluded we don’t need any help so their boastful pride and their selfish self their self-sufficiency rendered them blind to the truth this is not a good condition to be in and and the problem is is that living in such a wealthy country like America this is not very far from us falling into so we have to be very careful they were saying that listen we we are a great church and self-organized but they were not a great church and the question in my mind is how does a church get into a nause nauseating position and not even know it well look at jesus’ prognosis in verse number 17 he says this you do not know that you are wretched and miserable now just think of that for a minute if somebody told you you were wretched and miserable I think that would be enough to say okay why do you think that yeah the Lord gives five descriptive adjectives five aspects of one of the same disport dis um deplorable condition this church is in and he says that you are wretched that means you are extremely wanting that you are miserable that you’re extremely pitiful that you’re poor you’re extremely spiritually poor and you’re blind in fact you have spiritual cataracts because all the light is shut out from your eyes you can’t even see what’s going on and then the last one you’re just downright naked and you don’t even know you’re naked how painful such an evaluation would have been yet they could not discern themselves they couldn’t even see their own spiritual condition that M material riches often does breed spiritual poverty and spiritual blindness it also breeds which leads to a false Assumption of one’s spiritual well-being getting to the place where you’re handling it you’re taking care of it and you know what happens when people feel that way they don’t pray they don’t pray the way they ought to because they don’t really feel a need to prayer there’s nothing pressing in their life to pray and so you have a church that really stops praying as a group they’re off doing other things that are seem more important not necessarily sinful but more important but do become sinful so what’s the counsel of the Lord number four what’s the counsel the Lord gives this church in verse 18 notice what it says I advise you to the Lord in other words gives a therapy to the problem and this is his counsel as the great physician Christ speaks in their own language and says to them you have been shopping at the wrong store you have obtained imaginary wealth that will pass away with this temporary World instead the Lord says to them make a trans transaction with me for Spiritual wealth he says I advise you to buy look what it says from me gold refined by fire now Christ becomes the source of the true remedy to those who want spiritual Goods of true quality that must be and come from the Lord himself and so there’s like three musts this is what you must do and look at the first one he says here I advise you buy from me gold refined by fire so the must is that that’s what they ought to do to buy does not imply that we can buy any good work or Merit purchase God’s free gift or anything like that but that from Christ true and Lasting riches can be purchased with the currentc of faith and trust and dependence on Christ that to buy gold refined by fire is a picture of obtaining Purity through the refining process this usually includes the purifying effects of suffering and trials and what it produces and that is a faith of high quality capable of withstanding trials and capable of also getting through the discipline of the Lord so if this comfortable lukewarm church is to renounce all self-righteousness then persecution will get the dross out of their heart and produce a p pure and refined Faith because look what it says in in verse number 18 I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that that you may become rich this is real wealth when you are refined by God and usually through trials and suffering then you may become rich and find genuine faith in Christ so that’s the first M must the must to get cleansing from Jesus Christ so that you may become rich and then secondly you must get in imputed and imparted righteousness from Jesus Christ in order to be cloth and white look at verse number 18 it says and buy white garments so that you may be cloth you may clothe yourself and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed so they were clothed in the finest Earthly Garb and yet before God they were spiritually exposed and naked and ashamed and so Jesus further cels them to purchase white clothing they were remember in the business of selling black clothing a figure likely of course based on the fact that LE de was famous for the shiny black Woolen materials and garments that came out of that region and Christ off offered infinitely wider garments the garments of righteousness covering their nakedness with an inner inclination towards righteous deeds in line with a new heart so that at Christ’s return they would not be utterly disgraced but be found clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ that these garments would clothe the Christians so that they would no longer be naked and ashamed see righteousness is a symbol of white garments the clothing of the Heavenly Kingdom you find that in scriptures especially in Revelation where in Revelation 4:4 says they’re clothed in white garments and a Golden Crown on their heads Ephesians I mean Revelation 19 says that for the it says he has it is given to her to clothe herself in fine linen bright and clean for the fine linen is the righteous AXS of the Saints in other words this particular Church we’re lacking in Holiness and a disposition towards righteousness it could be that the Lord is also exposing those who are lukew as not Believers in the church they don’t have the clothing of Christ’s righteousness to protect them in the Judgment they need Christ’s righteousness why so that they may be clothed in white and then there’s a third must in verse number 18 they must bu isav to anoint the eyes so that they may see and actually the Greek word means around cake a small cake prepared as an eye remedy and it would would be like iav on the that are is applied to the the eyes in and in fact the there was a mineral found in the copper mines in the surrounding areas which got the attention to of the Physicians and they noticed that the copper Miner’s exceptional eyesight was attributed to a mineral found in the mines well they went and found what the mineral was and they started making a compound with this mineral to make the ey Sav called uh foran powder mixed with oil applied to the eyes as a doughy paste that means like a c uh and then put on the eyes in order improve eyesight of course symbolically speaking if the leod Deans applied the isav Jesus offers they would be able to see the lukewarm condition that they’re in and subsequently repent of it so their Earthly accomplishments were actually meaningless and they needed proper spiritual vision most in uh are in common agreement that the anointing of the eyes is a spiritual anointing that the eyes sa pictures the spiritual gift given by Christ to the believer and the spirit provides the illumination following uh conversion which furnishes spiritual vision and removes self-deception in other words they’re able to see their own spiritual condition and evaluate it and repent on their own so this lukewarm church was lacking spiritual discernment of spiritual matters and they could not see see they must and we must see our our spiritual blindness when it occurs and we must repent and receive spiritual healing from Christ alone that’s what we must do so what is and number five what does Christ’s rebuke and Challenge and promise to this church well the Lord does definitely rebuke them in verse number 19 of chapter 3 what’s what is the rebuke it’s chastisement if you don’t repent it says Those whom I love I reprove and discipline therefore be zealous and repent so here’s what the Lord says listen what does the Lord reprove and chasen the Lord explains what he’s doing that those who have those he has affection for he rebukes and disciplines them the Lord rebukes those he loves as a father deals with his children when he dearly loves them so the Lord does here and reprove is more of a verbal correction and discipline is more of a physical Cor rection but what is so note noteworthy here in this this verse is that Christ’s love for his children is not quenched by their sin they still have a chance and what is the chance well it is the time frame in which they repent repent notice what it says Those whom I love I reprove and discipline therefore be zealous and repent that means do it at once rush to repentance this is decisive repentance that will end all lukewarmness and the Lord is expecting and expressing love of a friend the word for love here is not Agape it’s the word fileo it’s the word uh where I have a deep affection for you so it is here to discipline in order to educate to discipline in order to chastise to discipline even in order to whip you have you ever been chastised by the Lord where the Lord comes into your life and puts a trial or a suffering or a pressure within your life for the reason of getting you to the place that you’re not getting to because you don’t see it I remember in my case early in my Christian walk a very serious thing happened in my early walk and it was so heavy in my life I found myself not being able to sleep walking the beaches of Florida at 2 3 o’clock in the morning asking the Lord what do you want from me what do you want from me I didn’t even understand that God was even disciplining me back then I didn’t know enough but I found out later he was cuz some very uh skilled mature Believers showed me the Hebrews passage that we read this morning and said to me listen if you are one of God’s kids you will be disciplined and I was several times that was not that was one time there were several times that were very significant in my life it’s part of running the race well it’s removing those things which we we read this morning and prayed for which will slow you down and hinder you from making good progress in your Christian walk see it’s in other words the heavenly father School of discipline it will teach us things that are extremely important to us though uh through our troubles that we could not easily receive if everything was going well for us all the time see if you get disciplined by the Lord you know what’s the amazing thing it says in Hebrews to Those whom the Lord loves he disciplines and scourges every son whom he receives but not only that it says in Hebrews 12:7 it is for discipline that you endure God deals with you as with sons for what son is there whom his father does not discipline and what does discipline do it really helps us not to forget that God loves us it helps us not to despise because of the character of God when he does discipline we end up saying Lord if this is what you need to do in my life at this time I’m going to accept it because I know it’s not going to last forever and I know it’s going to do what maybe I’ve been praying for Lord Make Me holy make me Godly make me more mature well how does that happen it doesn’t happen by everything going good in your life it happens when the curveballs come right that’s when it happens s because of what it throws you off a little bit and then you you don’t have your equilibrium you’re a little off balance and and you don’t know what to do and then you know what it does it drives you to your knees and say Lord what are you doing I need your help that’s what I do I need your help that’s what it does so here is the most plain and convincing evidence that you truly belong to God’s family when God disciplines you that the heavenly father who is deeply concerned for his children chastises them that’s why a parent if it says in Proverbs if a parents doesn’t discipline their children it says you hate them so however painful it may be at the time uncomfortable discipline is necessary to rid us of unnecessary weights in our life of entangling sins of spiritually bad habits for what reason to produce maturity in us that bears the characteristics and the image of Jesus Christ see chastisement is applied to All God’s children not to kill us but to correct us to show we really and truly belong to the family of God as legitimate sons and daughters and special objects of God’s care and love isn’t that good understanding to have that no matter what’s going on in my life if this trouble came in my life it is because my good father who loves me through Christ Jesus put that there to make me more mature sure to make me more like Christ to put off any kind of indifference and lukewarmness that could have gotten in my life so zealous repentance in the place of lukewarmness which means lukewarmness does not have have to be terminal keep on turning from sin make it a practice and a habit in your daily life to deal with your sin in fact the proper response to the Lord’s discipline actually leads to a quite a favorable Place matter of fact some have called this it leads to the hour of Grace in other words Jesus is not far off from you and I and we learned that maybe more in disciplin than any other time he is he is waiting for us to come to him and Jesus keeps knocking as a friend asking entrance to our life well look what it says it leads to actually to the Lord’s Fellowship the Lord’s rebuke leads to the Lord’s fellowship if we respond in proper repentance in immediate repentance look what it says in verse 20 this is this famous passage of scripture you hear people quote all the time it says behold I stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into him and will dine with him and he with me now I don’t know about you but that is a favorable passage of scripture this is a concluding verse for all the churches and if they listen to Christ’s evaluation of the church good or bad and willing to repent Jesus Takes a position outside the church and will always come in if we invite him he is always ready to forgive he is always ready to repair he’s always ready to restore a repentant heart into what into sweet fellowship with Christ and his sheep so what if the Lord stands at the door he’s knocking at the door it means to knock and knock and knock and but look what else he does he calls with his voice you know what that means you have to listen and when we’re caught in lukewarmness we’re caught in indifference in this in that indifferent spiritual condition we stop listening listening is so important right it’s so important discipline should get us to the place where we start listening because if we listen it says if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into him and will dine with him and he with me so these three things what they do is they move the will and the heart to open the door the Lord the Lord’s power of love and grace in in the word of God and by the word of God which is not only the power to save but the power to move our will to do what we ought to do spiritually as a believer and the picture is quite striking that the Everlasting King comes from his throne to ask Beggars like us to receive him and then what does the Lord do it’s it’s it’s kind of like I think broken up into two things Fellowship on Earth and then Fellowship in heaven look at look what it says in in verse 20 I will come into him and and will dine with him and he with me that this is table Fellowship some said maybe this is also connected to the Lord’s table where we sit around the table of the Lord because we’re at peace with God and we enjoy fellowship with God now there’s two views to the door one is that this is a call to the individual heart in the present that the church and its in it it actually the church and its individual members are being addressed here but it may be used to invite a sinner to repent and believe in Jesus Christ I think it leans that way that the Lord is standing knocking and calling with his voice and what does he want us to do he wants us to rush towards him in Repentance he wants us to answer the door and if we don’t want to do that we have to ask the question well what’s exactly holding us back Are you So Satisfied and comfortable and safe that you you think you’re like this church you don’t need the Lord you got it all under control you’re spinning all the plates and keeping them spinning or you feel so proud and self-sufficient and that you don’t really need anybody or maybe you’re just self- deceived as to your own spiritual condition and then others believe that this this is the eschatological door and and I believe that both could be uh you could understand it as both that Christ presents himself as right on the verge of entering and so furnishes incentive for the church to heed his command that the eschatological door through which Christ will enter at the second coming it really pictures and stresses the urgency for people in the church and outside the church to seek the right relationship with the Lord because the grace of God has limits the grace of God will not always be available it’s going to end someday so while it is available don’t turn from it run toward it run toward it and so if a person responds to the rebuke of the Lord if that leads them into fellowship with the Lord it will also lead to the promises that the Lord has look in verse number 21 it says this is this is fellowship in heaven he who overcomes I will grant to him to sit down with me on my Throne as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne that is absolute amazing promise that Jesus will give his children a pure gift of Royal Grace he will make every Victor sit down on the throne in company with him to reign with him he gives miserable Beggars like us who repent and keep the faith This Promise the one who overcame Jesus who died as a Victor Jesus Christ who finished his work on the cross never have to do it again and Jesus the reigning King we are Victors because of the victory he won so as a son shares the Throne of the father we share the Throne of the son that’s even hard to wrap your mind around but that’s the promise in fact 2 Timothy 2 says if we endure we will also reign with him if we endure we will reign with him and of course Revelation does kind of end with listen those who did not uh worship the Beast and His Image and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years so the promise of reigning with Christ is a reality because remember the Lord is trustworthy is reliable he does not lie to his children and these things may seem in a way wow it’s hard to understand that but it is true that’s the promise that he gives to us that’s the promise and of course he always ends with this look what it says in verse 22 he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches so in other words God’s children’s they have ears that perk up when the word of God is being taught they perk up that’s what they do they listen they hear they don’t just hear anything they hear what the spirit says to the churches and the spirit says the what the spirit says to the churches is found right in the word of God so the word of God becomes a central part of their life so this morning morning you know what you need to ask the Lord to show you your true spiritual condition what’s your true spiritual condition and ask the Lord to reveal to you your spiritual blind spots areas of sin you no longer see or don’t even know their sin and ask them to show you and Rush to repent of your lukewarmness if you see yourself in that place because it’s a nauseating place to be before the Lord get cleansing from Jesus so that you’ll be spiritually Rich get righteousness from Jesus so that you’ll be clothed in white Heavenly garments and get spiritual vision from Jesus so that you may see to be able to receive his promises that that he has for you and those are the things that give us the motivation to take another step to breathe another breath to get up another day and serve the Lord until he takes you home right that’s really what the scriptures there for and I just pray this this morning that you and I would would would Heed These Things take them serious in our life and put them into practice and when we do when we do and the discipline of God comes our way we will respond in the right way and we will be blessed by God amen amen let’s pray Lord thank you this morning for the word of God because Lord in it we find the treasures of life in it we find what is necessary for spiritual growth and Lord when if ever we come to a place where we are living our life in a way where it looks like we really don’t need you then help us remind us that we’ve we’ve fallen into lukewarmness and Lord you’re not happy with that at all and that it would drive us and to rush to repentance to put that sin to death and to never want to go back that way again I pray that you would do that Lord thank you for the word of God that reveals our own Hearts the own conditions that we may fall into from time to time but Lord you always give the way of repentance so Lord when we live our life I pray we would always hear you knocking we would always hear your voice and we would always respond to you in a way that honors you I pray that for us not only individually but as a church and I ask it in Christ’s name amen