Well, good evening. It's a delight to be with you this evening. It's always a joy and honor to be able to preach here at First Press. I think the last time I preached was around 2017, so I don't take it lightly when I get the moment. We're going to be in Revelation 3. We're coming to the end here of our study on Jesus's letters to the seven churches in Revelation. And as we walk from Ephesus all the way around to the last stop clockwise of Laodicea would get here to the very end. And the words to Laodicea are not great news. So in the words of Dr. Thomas, this is going to be tough. Let's dive into Revelation 3, 14, and as we go, let's turn to the Lord in prayer. Gracious Father, thank you for your holy word. Thank you that it's breathed out by you and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness. The man and woman of God may be complete and equipped for every good work. May it be so tonight in Jesus' name, amen. Let's give attention to God's word. Revelation three, starting in verse 14. And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write, the words of the amen, faithful and true witness. the beginning of God's creation. I know your works. You are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with them and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Thanks be to God for his holy, inspired, and errant and therefore authoritative word Well, if you know me, you know that I'm not a DIY guy. I can't do anything at the house with my hands. And last week, my wife went to Ikea. She doesn't go there very often. There's nothing more simple to put together than an Ikea piece of furniture. But she went out of town with my kids to be with their grandparents, and as she was gone, I decided to put together a dresser and watch a spy thriller. I love to watch military movies or spy thrillers when my family's away. And so I was enthralled in this spy thriller. And every good spy thriller has a climactic moment of a possibility of compromise for the spies. And this spy thriller had two spies that were compromised. And at this climactic moment, both of them were arrested. One would later on be executed. It was an amazing moment. I was caught up in it. And as I looked back down, I had hammered the back of the dresser into the front of the dresser. There's only two things you can do with IKEA furniture break them or Nail it into the wrong area that you could go wrong. And that's what I'd done I had thought to myself the more nails the better tink tink tink What had happened was I had become captivated with compromise I'd become captivated with compromise and that happens with us too, doesn't it? We're captivated by compromise when a pastor falls When a church sells out, when we hear of deconversion stories, when a friend of ours leaves their faith, we're captured by compromise and we think to ourselves, but we would never. But we would never. Here in this passage, the Lord Jesus tells us that he hates, he's disgusted by compromise. And yet, he offers fellowship to compromisers. He's disgusted by compromise, and yet he offers fellowship to compromiser. So let's look at this passage in two points. A compromising church, here in verses 15 to 17. Laodicea was a compromising church. Counterclockwise, it's the last stop on this trip, and it was in a very important city. In fact, there was a road that went from the west of Turkey, Asia Minor, all the way to Syria. And if you took that road to get to the east, you had to pass through Laodicea. And as a result, it was wealthy. People had to pass through this town and it prospered, this town, as a result. There was a church there, more than likely Epaphras, who Paul speaks about in Colossae, founded and ministered to this church. Paul even alludes to writing this church, writing a letter to this church in Colossians 4. But not all was well. They had a water situation. In fact, Heropolis, which was six miles away, had hot springs. They were known for their hot springs that had medicinal purposes to them. And Colossae, that was 11 miles away, was known for its cold springs. Its water was delicious to drink. But Laodicea had no water source. And so this Roman engineering, these aqueducts would transport the water there, and by the time it got to Laodicea, the water was lukewarm. and lukewarm water was only good for spitting out. As I thought about this passage, it made me think of a humorous illustration. This passage is not very humorous, but it made me think of a humorous illustration of a skit from Saturday Night Live years ago when they were on the sports field and it was a commercial for Gatorade. And they're on the sports field and everybody's exhausting and they're so ready for a cold drink and they start squirting each other with these Gatorade bottles and what comes out is cookie dough. Cookie dough. Can you imagine being so thirsty for a cold drink and cookie dough lands on your face? Well, it's worse than that here. You'd want us to vomit that out, but Jesus actually says the same is true here of their spiritual condition. They're lukewarm and therefore he wants to spit them out. Or in other words, vomit them out. He says spiritually, you're a lot like your water. You're lukewarm. which means you're disgusting, you're undrinkable, and you actually make me sick. Those are strong words from the Lord Jesus to a church. This isn't, I don't think, a scale talking about hot, you're on fire for the Lord Jesus, that's really good. Cold, you've abandoned the Lord Jesus, you're not a Christian, that's really bad. Lukewarm, Jesus is saying, wow, I'd rather you be lukewarm than a non-believer. I don't think that's actually what he's saying. And he's playing on this sense of what's happening here in Laodicea and he's saying, I want you to refresh me like a hot drink on a cold day. I want you to refresh me like a cold drink on a hot day, but instead you're lukewarm and I'm finding no refreshment in you. That's where this church is. Why? Because they've compromised with the world. They've become a compromised church. How did they get in such a bad spiritual condition? Well, again, their location made them prosperous, but more, they were known for their banking industry. They were rich, they were wealthy because they had a strong, robust banking industry. They were also known for their clothing industry. Around Laodicea, there were all kinds of black sheep. And so if you were to walk through Laodicea, you would see everyone dressed in fine black wool. They were clothed with black wool. And beyond that, they were known for their medical industry. They were world renowned actually for some sort of eye salve that they had. Where you could come and be cured for pink eye or glaucoma or other eye illnesses that there was some sort of chemical thing that they had That that made them be able to heal people and help them see they were they were extremely wealthy And they knew it verse 15 says that they said I am rich or verse 17. I am rich I've prospered I need nothing. In fact, if you've been here the last few weeks, you've heard the different pastors talk about this earthquake that came through the Lycus Valley at the time in 60 AD. And Laodicea was right in that valley. Its city was completely destroyed. But Philadelphia last week, they needed help from the emperor for a decade to rebuild their city. Laodicea actually refused help. They said, we need nothing. And they built their city back by their own wealth. They were extremely prosperous and they were right. They needed nothing and yet they were spiritually bankrupt. And Jesus says that they're wretched, that they're pitiable, that they're poor and blind and naked. He says to a city that was rich, you're poor. He says to a city that prided themselves on healing eyes, you're blind. He said to a city that prided themselves on producing clothing, you're actually naked. And because of this, this spiritual bankruptcy, this thinking that they were good while they were in horrid shape, Jesus actually says to them, you're a wretched, pitiable church. But not really a wretched, the article is here. He actually is saying to them, you're the wretched, pitiable church. You stand above all others in wretchedness and pitiableness. But the problem is they were too blind to ever see it. They thought, but we're polite. We're respected. We dress nicely. We're good stewards of our money. We take care of ourselves. We take care of others. We rebuilt this whole city. We're doing well. We stay busy. We produce. Does any of that resonate with us? Caring about financial resources is really good until we actually love our comforts more than Christ. Caring about how we look is fine until we become those who care more about what we possess than how we steward what we possess. Caring about our health is good until we spend more time on physical development than spiritual development. It's easy for us, I think, in a passage like this to think, this is gonna be really good for that guy in front of me, or that girl in front of me, or that person above me on the social strategy. But one pastor said, there's no actual church in these seven churches that resonates more with the American church than the church at Laodicea. This passage is not a sermon for someone else, it's a sermon for us. We, all of us in this room, are prosperous. We're prosperous. More than perhaps most people who've ever actually walked on the face of the earth. Did you know that more than half of the world's population lives on less than $2.50 a day? We are so prosperous. But we struggle with what one author calls affluenza. She goes on the right. Affluenza is an array of psychological maladies such as isolation, boredom, passivity, and lack of motivation engendered in adults, teenagers, and children by the possession of great wealth. Isn't there a boredom about us that comes from the fact that we have everything but it doesn't twinkle anymore? And so we move on to the next great thing. We buy the next fun toy. We know wealth isn't bad. This isn't a sermon to knock a wealth in and of itself. But when we have everything, there's always the temptation that the mundane won't hold our attention. If we have everything and we're bored with it, then how will a daily quiet time hold our attention? How will a robust prayer life capture our thoughts? How will regular attendance at church grab ahold of us when everything else is actually offered and even at our fingertips? Jesus says, that's the temptation. Every one of these church actually has the opportunity to compromise. And Jesus says, Laodicea, you have because you had it all and you forsook your Savior. This is exactly what they're going through. They've been compromised by the world. And the question for us is, have we? Have you, have we as a church, do we hoard to feel safe? Do we buy to feel pleasure and comfort? Have we learned the secret of contentment in Christ? That if we have nothing and we have Christ, we have everything. And if we have everything and don't have Christ, we actually have nothing. That's the secret Paul writes about in Philippians 4. That's what the Laodiceans needed to hear. Okay, let's get out of this first point. A compromised church, but Jesus also speaks as a counseling Christ. If you know Josh Squires very well, you know he loves to counsel. And I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. He has a threefold formula of counseling. Comfort, conviction, exhortation. What does this person need? Do they need the comfort of the gospel? Do they need conviction of truth? Or do they need exhortation and moving along and living out their faith? So this week, Josh and I talk a lot. This week I was a bit frustrated about something. I'm texting with squires and he begins to send me texts and at some point the text pivot into into speaking some truth into my life and I and I knew what he was doing I caught on and I texted him back and said hold on buddy Don't be convicting and exhorting me. I'm still in the comfort stage. I Haven't gotten past the comfort stage But the Lord is like that, isn't he? He comforts us when we need it. He convicts us when we need it. He exhorts us when we need it. His word actually in 2 Timothy 3 says that it's breathed out by God to teach us, to rebuke us, to correct us, to train us. He knows exactly what we need when we need it. And his Holy Spirit is actually described, Jesus describes him as the paraclete. the one who comes alongside of us to help us, to counsel us, to comfort us, convict and exhort us, that we might grow into Christlikeness. And that's what Jesus is doing here. Says in verse 18, I counsel you, a wayward people, I counsel you, come and buy. This is the only letter in the seven letters where the first verse doesn't start out with a reference back to chapter one. Here, Jesus is described as the amen, the faithful and true witness. What Jesus is really saying is that he is the thrice amen. He is the truth. The amen, the amen, the amen. Essentially what he's saying to a compromising church is that he is the truth that never compromises, no matter the situation. But here in verse 18, we see a description of him. that he is the one that we are to buy gold from refined by fire, white garments and salve for our eyes. This is a reference back to chapter one of who Jesus is. What he's saying here is you bankers of Laodicea, you think you're rich but you're bankrupt and you need refined gold from the one who has the golden sash about his chest. The gold of Christ-like character that is refined through the fire, that's what you need. To a city clothed in fine black wool, he says, you're black hearted. You're actually naked and you should be ashamed and you need white garments from the one whose hair is white, like white wool, like snow. It's interesting how much time we spend thinking about our clothing. I'm a clothes guy. I like clothes. I actually like shoes. A little secret there, I like shoes. And before church, I'll ask my wife, do these shoes match my belt? Does this tie match my socks? That's too far. But that's what I do. Jesus seemed to be concerned about clothes. He says, hey, don't worry about what you'll wear. I'll take care of you. Peter says, hey, there's gonna be a temptation that you're more concerned about your external adornment than the adornment of your heart. And actually this goes all the way back to the garden that when Adam and Eve sinned, the first negative emotion they felt was shame, and they had an instinct to cover it with fig leaves. And Jesus says, you know, that won't do. And so God covers them with deer skin or some sort of animal skin that required blood. If you're gonna have your shame covered, it's actually gonna require blood. And Jesus says to the church at Laodicea, there's something deeper. You care about external attire, but your black heart really needs covering. Isaiah 61 10 says, the anointed one here says, he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness. And the Lord Jesus actually offers that robe to cover our shame. the robe of righteousness. He says, come and clothe your nakedness, clothe the shame of your nakedness in my righteousness. And to a city full of pride for its contributions to medicine, for the way that it actually, it is involved in helping blind people see better. Jesus says, you are blind. Coming by a different kind of salve. Coming by a salve from the one whose eyes are flames of fire. And we rightly read this passage and say, but how do we who are blind, naked, and poor come and buy? We don't have any money. And we could never afford the price that it would cost to buy this kind of covering, this kind of sight, this kind of hope. And so the Lord says in Isaiah 55, one, come everyone who thirsts, come to the waters and he who has no money, come and buy and eat, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. The Lord Jesus is saying, you don't have anything to offer. Come and buy, come and experience what I've already bought for you by faith in the finished work of Christ. What's he really inviting us to here? Verse 20 says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me. This verse is often used to speak of conversion, but I don't think it's really pointing to conversion so much as it is Jesus inviting his church to renewed fellowship. He's inviting people to come and sup with him. He's speaking in verse 19 in a loving, reproving, and disciplining way to his people and saying, come back to me. Come back and sup with me. Linger long, in other words, at table with me. Spend intimate time with me. Sup with me, renew your fellowship with me. The one who doesn't actually have to counsel us. He could abandon us. But instead, out of love, he reproves us and says, come, come back and sup with me. And so he says in verse 19, repent. Repent to make a decisive move, to make a decision that I'm going to turn from, compromise with the world. and sup with Jesus. And don't just repent, but be zealous. Ongoingly here the perspective is, ongoingly zealous to be with me. You know, I'm convinced that the longer I go in my Christian journey, and the more that I read about pastors falling, I read about one this week, and the more that I hear about churches compromising, And the more that I hear about deconversion stories or know folks who have left their faith, the more that I'm convinced that we have a decision to make daily that's really not that complex, but it's challenging. And it's this, will I follow Christ or will I follow the world today? I actually think that this was a huge concern of Jesus in the Upper Room Discourse. That when Jesus is meeting with his disciples and he's about to go to the cross and he's gonna leave them for a time, he knows their temptation is going to be to fall away. And they do. But he says in that Upper Room Discourse in John 15, if the world hates you, know this, that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own, but because you're not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. He's saying, look, you can't have both. The world is either going to love you because you've abandoned me, or the world's gonna hate you because you love me. And you're gonna be tempted all the time, subtly and not so subtly, to compromise on Christ to choose the world. And so Jesus goes on to say, why am I telling you this? I've said all these things to keep you from falling away. Chapter 16. Who will you be friends with? It's not that people are leaving the church in droves because science has disproved Christianity. It's not that people are abandoning faith in droves because they came upon a complex theological situation and they couldn't get an answer. It's because we really never leave middle school, right? We just want acceptance. I want acceptance. We want the world to actually like us. And Jesus says, no, no, don't fall for that trick. It offers you a friendship that will never satisfy you. It will only abandon you. It will always let you down. I offer you a friendship that's everlasting. A salvation that has a hope that never fades. That temptation's always gonna be there. And what Jesus cares about is that we conquer. Verse 19, verse 21, the one who conquers. This is actually something he said to every church. that the temptation is to compromise and he cares that we conquer. Or in other words, that we endure to the end. How? By choosing him daily, by clinging to him, by loving him, by recognizing the subtle temptations of the world. He counsels those who've given in from time to time. Maybe this week you gave in from time to time. You said, you know what, actually, the world's pretty enjoyable, pretty pleasurable. Jesus comes and instead of abandoning you, he says, let me lovingly reprove and discipline you to return to me that you might endure to the end. Don't compromise. What a savior we have here in this passage. Maybe for you, you've never actually even heeded the voice of that Savior who says, come, come and sup with me. I've finished the work on your behalf. I wanna clothe your shame. I wanna help you see. I wanna make you rich spiritually. Or maybe you've heeded that call, but the world has become loud just now. I drowned it out a little bit. The Lord Jesus says, come back. Don't forsake my counsel now. Come and sup with me. renew your fellowship with me. Come and sup that your soul might actually be refreshed so that when Jesus comes to gauge the taste of this place, and he does it every Sunday, he's doing it now, and he'll come back finally one day, that when he comes to gauge the taste of this place, he might actually find that we're like a cold drink on a hot summer's night. Maybe so of First Press Columbia. Let's pray. Gracious Father, we are those so tempted to compromise, Lord, because the ways of this world are so enticing. Lord, we ask that you would forgive us this week for the ways in which subtly, Lord, we thought we didn't have any needs. We thought we were rich. We thought we could see, we thought we were well clothed, and we were really compromisers, Lord. Would you forgive us? Would you clothe our naked shame? Would you cause us to see? Would you make us to delight in our richness in Christ Jesus, who is our riches? Lord, that the world might see something of the beauty and the difference of Jesus and his gospel for your glory in Christ's name, amen.