Laodicea Part 1

verse 14 to 22. Hey, can you turn the AC down a little? Don't turn it off, just maybe lower

the fan a little because I'm standing right under it. Revelation chapter 3, verse 14 to 22.

Revelation 3:14–22

Okay, to the angel of the church in Laodicea write, these are the words of the Amen. What a

name, eh? Jesus has a name and one of his names is Amen. These are the words of the Amen, the faithful

and true witness. The ruler of God's creation. What a brilliant name, the ruler of God's creation.

Despots, tyrants, kings, presidents, prime ministers, billionaires think they rule the

world. The ruler of God's creation, faithful and true witness. What a character to aspire to,

what a characteristic to aspire to. Faithful and true witness. I know your deeds. He always

knows, eh? I know your deeds that you're neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the

other. So because you're lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I'm about to spit you out of my mouth.

You say I'm rich, I've acquired wealth and do not need a thing, but you do not realize that you're

wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire so that

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. Don't be afraid of

God's disciplinary aid, even though it is painful, it is such an act of love. 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 him and he with me. To him who

overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with

my father on his throne. This is the whole co-heir thing. He overcomes, he sits on his father's throne,

you overcome, you get the same rights. He who has in you, let him hear what the Spirit says to the

churches. I know you've heard this preached by many different preachers and I've preached it too in

the past and verse 15 is where most of the preaching goes to where it says in verse 15 that I know your

deeds that you're neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other. So because you're

lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I'm about to spit you out of my mouth. When you read verse 15, the

problem with verse 15 is that Christ's desire that they be either hot or cold seems to indicate or

imply that both extremes are okay with Jesus, which is kind of odd that he's okay with you being

cold spiritually as much as he's okay with you being hot spiritually. That seems so uncharacteristic

and you don't find scriptures elsewhere to back that up but that is where we usually go with this.

Laodicea was located about 10 kilometers south of this place called Hierapolis and 15 kilometers

from Colossae and we read about this in Colossians 4, 13 to 16. You read Paul mentioning both places

when he writes to the Colossians. He says in verse 13, actually let's start at verse 12 because

Epiphras seems to be the one who was the guy who was in charge of that entire area, Hierapolis,

Laodicea, Colossae and here's what it says there, Epiphras who is one of you and a servant of Christ,

Jesus sends greetings. He's always wrestling in prayer for you that you may stand firm in all the

will of God, mature and fully assured. I vouch for him that he's working hard for you and for those

at Laodicea and Hierapolis, our dear friend Luke the doctor and Dema send greetings. Give my greetings

to brothers at Laodicea and Nimphah and the church in her house and then listen to verse 16. After

this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that

you in turn read the letter from Laodicea. So these were very connected. Why am I bringing this up?

Because in Hierapolis you had hot medical springs or medicinal springs not medical springs. They

didn't have the provincial health officer in those days. So in Hierapolis you had the hot,

you had hot medicinal springs and in Colossae, Colossae they had cold pure waters. It was known

for cold pure water. So you had Colossae which had like lakes or ponds that were or streams that

were cold pure water and then at Hierapolis you had hot medicinal springs. The waters in Laodicea

though, and Laodicea had a problem with water, the waters in Laodicea though had to be brought in

through an aqueduct and the water was tepid and lukewarm. So the contrast that Jesus is trying to

bring is between the hot medicinal waters of Hierapolis and the cold pure waters of Colossae.

One would provide healing to those that were sick or supposedly provide healing to those that were

sick. The other would provide relief or refreshing to those that were weary or thirsty. And I would

suggest to you that it makes more sense to go with the thought that the church in Laodicea was

being rebuked not for its spiritual temperature but for the fact that it neither was providing

healing for the spiritually sick nor was it providing refreshment for the spiritually thirsty

or weary. So the church was not being rebuked for its spiritual condition or temperature,

it was being rebuked for what we will call the barrenness of works. They seemed to have faith

but they didn't seem to have any works to back up that the faith they had. And that will be our

focus over today and tomorrow. This is going to be a super short teaching. That is our focus. We

have faith, yes, but do we have works? That is our focus. We have faith, but do we have works? So

that will be what we look at today and tomorrow. So I would say that we have faith,

but I'll ask the question, do we have works? That's an important question to ask at this

stage in the life of the church and in terms of this revival that God wants to spread throughout

the earth. A church that is in right relationship with God, a church that is in right relationship

with God is a church that has works producing faith. A church that is in right relationship

with God is a church that has work producing or work bearing faith. Work producing or work bearing

faith. Is that how we are? It's not a barren faith. It's not a barren faith as in a lot of

faith that is being exerted, perhaps for good personal reasons where personally we benefit,

but we're talking about churches or the kind of church that Jesus Christ wants, that the kind of

right relationship with God or the kind of church that is righteous is a church that shows faith,

but it is a works producing or a works bearing faith, not a barren faith. One of the outputs of

our times is that in Christianity faith is used for personal outcomes, not for corporate outcomes.

Not everything I teach here necessarily applies to Acts 29, but it is important to ask this question

of Acts 29 too. And a faith that doesn't produce works, a faith that doesn't produce works,

a faith that doesn't produce works should beg the question, what are we talking about when we say

works producing faith? Any answers? When we say a works producing faith, what are we talking about?

It's important to know because if we are right about what Jesus is pointing out to the church

in Laodicea, it means that they seem to be rich, they seem to have things together,

but Jesus is saying listen, you're neither hot nor cold, as in you have what it takes,

but you, I'm not talking about your spiritual condition, I'm talking about the fact that there's

a barrenness of works, you're not showing any works for the faith you have, and he rebukes them,

he asks them to repent of it, he tells them that it's vomit-worthy. So what does a life

that, what does a life look like that has faith but does not have works? There's a whole chapter

written on that in James chapter 2, which we'll go to tomorrow and look at some of it today.

James 2 · chapter mention

So let's kind of define what we mean by a faith that does not produce works.

A faith that does not produce works is a faith that only looks out for itself.

This is where we start guys, but it is not where we stay. One of the things that happened

with the faith movement is that it became a place where people learned how to grow and exert faith

for their own needs, and so it's where we start, everything has to start with you practicing

something, but it's not supposed to then hone in on you. So a faith that doesn't produce works is

a faith that only looks out for itself. Two, a faith that does not fight for others. It's one thing

to look just for yourself, and then there are opportunities to fight for others, but you choose

not to because if you fight for others, you'll have to take on their giants. You'll have to take

on their giants. Why take on their giants when you have giants of your own? A faith that doesn't

produce works. A faith that retreats when the promise is not visible. As in, God says something

and you step out in faith, but when you see what God has said not coming to pass, then you begin

to retreat, you begin to dilute, you begin to tame your step of faith because you have to be

reasonable now. So basically, a faith that retreats or a faith that begins to reason,

a faith that begins to reason when the promise is not visible or when the promise is opposed,

opposed strongly or violently. A faith that doesn't produce works is a faith that doesn't grow.

As in, your faith stories are about 10 years old or five years old. There are no new stories

being authored by the Holy Spirit because of your faith. I hate it when I have to refer to

something in your life that happened five years ago, two years ago. I do it so that I can encourage

you so that I can use that story to encourage others, but inside my head, and I say this of

myself too, inside my head I think, what about last month or two months ago? Because if faith

is a preferred lifestyle, then faith happens every day. A faith that doesn't produce works is a faith

that is not exerted corporately. As in, it's just a couple of people that exert it. It isn't something

that is growing as a people. It is growing as just a couple of leaders or individuals. So you have a

Joshua, a Caleb, a Moses, and an Aaron when there were actually a million people that left Egypt.

Now these four have to carry the unbelief of a nation on their shoulders. And if those heroes

get taken out, then an entire nation dies. And so all the enemy has to focus on is, can I take

the leaders out? Jesus himself said, when the shepherd is struck, the sheep scatter. What if

you began to become a people that exert faith corporately, like David's mighty thirty, like

Gideon's 300? What happens then? What happens then? Who do you attack? Who do you pick out? It's like

a juggernaut that rolls over you every time you stand up against it. Faith that doesn't produce

works is a faith that is not exerted corporately. A faith that doesn't produce works is a faith

that speaks, prays, declares, but does not act or take the risk.

I'm afraid that we can become like that very easily. I'm afraid that because we are city

slickers, I'm afraid that because we are a powerful declaration church, a praying church

when necessary, a speaking church, I'm afraid that that is one way that faith can go barren in our

case. Where there's a lot of declaration, a lot of speaking, but not enough action to match the

declaration and the speaking. A faith that doesn't produce works is a faith that waits for conditions

to be right. As in, it says in Ecclesiastes, when you cut a tree, don't try to figure out should it

fall north, should it fall south. No, when you cut a tree, go through with it. If you're watching the

clouds with you, should I go out today, should I not go out today, you won't end up going at all.

It is faith that waits for all the conditions to be right. What were the Israelites waiting for in

their foxholes? What was going to happen every day for 40 days when Goliath came out? What were

they thinking? What was going to happen? A stroke of lightning? Saul suddenly having the courage?

Goliath having a heart attack? What were they thinking of? 40 days, 40 nights, twice a day,

shaking in their armor like the song says. A faith that doesn't produce works looks like this.

Unfortunately, this teaching is going to go long because I had none of these in my notes,

so it was much shorter before I started. So, could someone take a picture? Oh, you've written it down?

Okay. That's what a faith that doesn't produce works look like. A faith that doesn't produce

works, be it the Ten Spies, be it Zechariah, be it Laodicea. Zechariah didn't have the faith for it.

The Ten Spies didn't have it. They had faith, but they didn't produce works. Zechariah had faith.

He was one of those priests who used to actually get to minister once in many years in the Holy

of Holies. Be it the Ten Spies, be it Zechariah, or be it Laodicea, it was not a lack of faith,

it was a lack of works. And whenever that happens, it's vomit-worthy unless repented of. It is

vomit-worthy unless repented of. It is vomit-worthy unless repented of. What it does in the bargain is

it silences God's promise. Whenever faith is present but works are absent, whenever the faith

I have is not a works-producing, works-bearing faith, then it silences God's promise. It silences

God's purpose. It silences God's provision, and it silences God's posterity. As in, it's not your

purpose that is being silenced. It's not your posterity that is being cut off. It is not your

promise that is being undone. It's not your provision that is being held back. We think it is ours,

and so we want to again rise up and exert individual faith. No, just imagine if Acts 29 does not.

Exhibit works bearing faith, then imagine the promise of God for the earth passing us by. It's

God's promise that passes us by. It gets silenced. It's God's provision that is awaiting the church

that then goes dry. It is God's purpose that gets delayed, that gets denied. It's God's posterity,

as in God's intent to produce more Davids and Josephs and Daniels that get silenced. So what

does God have to do? Go find another people. It's one of the not-so-happy-God tasks that God does.

Go in finding another people. You think Capernaum should have been passed by? You

think Galilee should have been passed by? He came to his own people, man.

Then the other fact is most churches won't even step into this place of just exerting faith,

leave alone producing works. Churchianity is paying the cost of diluting, of hyping,

of sterilizing, of taming, of rationalizing faith because the church in general is toothless.

Because we rationalize faith. We sterilize it. We tame it. We hype it.

We're producing a toothless church, but just having faith and confessing it while important

gives you teeth. It doesn't mean that it produces works. That's what I want us to

just remember for the next two days, today and tomorrow, and then practice it for the rest of

your life. So be it salvation, be it healing, be it revival. Faith cannot be reduced to

confession or just sheer trust. That's a great place to start, but it cannot be reduced to

confession and trust. It puts us in a difficult position, eh? This teaching? Because we can say

all the confessions we want, we can sing all the confessions we want about revival, but now Jacob,

if you are not able to lead the people into actual works producing faith, then you're a great faith

teacher. That's all you are. Works producing faith is what God is looking for. Always been looking

for. The Bible is full of stories of works producing faith. All the guys in Hebrews chapter 11 were

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

producing works producing faith people. Faith is invisible and fetal till it takes on full-blown

action. Faith is invisible and fetal until it takes on full-blown action or until it takes on

full-blown action or works. It must go into full-blown acts or works before it can move from its nascent

stage to something that is mature, something that is visible. Otherwise it remains invisible.

Here's the thing guys, and this really caught me. It is one thing to say to your servants,

yes the boy and I are going up that mountain and you begin the journey. That's great. Confession

is made and you even take a step of faith. As you're going up the mountain, your boy turns

to you and he says to you, but father where is the lamp for the sacrifice? And it's still

wonderful that you have the faith and the confession and the belief to say God will

provide a lamp. And you get to the top of the mountain and you're absolutely sure God will

provide the lamp. But now you get to the top of the mountain and there is no lamp. Works producing

faith is when you actually take your son and bind him and put him on the altar and pull out your

knife. That is works producing faith. And that is the question I'm asking you. Do you have it? Do I

have it? Do we have it? Genesis 22 verse 8 talks about it. It is one thing to say God will provide

Genesis 22:8

a lamp in Genesis 22 8. But it's another thing then to bind your son and lay him on the altar

in Genesis 22 9 when there is no lamp visible. And then it is quite another thing to pull out

your knife. What kind of faith is this man? It is works producing faith. It is fruit bearing faith.

It engages in works and therefore it is counted to you as being in right relationship with God.

It's crazy man. Guys these are the standards we must aspire for because faith is being lost on

the earth. You can see now why Jesus said and it's a horrible statement he makes but when I return

will I find faith on the earth? He asks that question because faith is being lost on the earth.

Faith is being lost how? Faith is not being lost by individuals. Faith is being lost by the people

of God. The people of God collectively are no longer behaving like Gideon's 300, no longer

behaving like David's mighty 30. But you have to have these individuals. Faith is faithfulness,

I love this. Faith is faithfulness to a command. Faith is faithfulness to a command which is then

evidenced in acts or works. Faith is faithfulness to a command. He received a command, take your son

go to the mountain. I want you to offer a sacrifice. It's faithfulness to a command.

This is why we as a church have less and less excuse because unfortunately

in a way of speaking we've learned to hear the voice of God.

So we will hear commands. Now that you hear commands immediately you go into a place where

now you have your it'll be seen whether you'll be faithful to the command church.

And then if you're faithful to the command it's one thing to confess it, one thing to trust in it,

one thing to pray it, one thing to sing it. It's another thing to now evidence it in acts or works

as a group of people. So we're not talking, I mean the problem with James as soon as he wrote

the book of James and people began reading it, the problem became, oh Paul said it was by faith,

James is saying it's by work. It's not faith plus works, it's working faith.

Because a work less faith is not a lifestyle that is acceptable for a believer. A work less faith,

a works less faith is not a lifestyle acceptable for a believer. So God is not saying okay now

that you've shown faith I want you to work. No, now that you've shown faith let me see your works.

It should produce fruit.

It should produce fruit.

That's why I said this line before that, faith is faithfulness to a command.

The hearing and the faithfulness to what you've heard is still vitally important.

Guys, the reason we can avoid works and just stick with faith is because once,

because we don't, the reason we cannot avoid works and just stick with faith is because works actually

test your faith.

As in, hey Abraham, I'm going to give you a little bit of a lesson.

As in, hey Abraham, so you're a man of great faith, sure let me test you. Let me see whether

you will offer your only son who I gave you by promise, whether you'll offer him up to me.

Works test your faith.

Your faith.

Second, works prove your faith.

Works test your faith.

Faith.

What is faith? Faithfulness to a command.

And evidenced in acts or works. Acts, yeah.

Works test your faith. Did I tell you this Jacob? Well, let me test your faith

by seeing whether you will actually put it into action. What works have you shown me

for the command I gave you? What have you done?

And like I said, it has to be work bearing faith, which means you've got to go through those lists,

that list that I put up earlier to see whether it actually produces works. Does it begin to retreat?

Does it begin to rationalize once you realize that yes, a command was given, but I don't have

the means. Yes, the command was given, but I'm facing opposition. Yes, the command was given,

but I have to be reasonable. Yes, the command was given, but I will look foolish.

Please try not to apply this to your personal lives only. Please think of us as a church too.

It's not just a pastor's job to think of us as a church.

So apply to your individual lives, yes, but think of us as a church too.

It's very easy for a church that knows how to walk in faith to be happy with the faith that we are

exerting every day with the muscle that we earned eight years ago. It's very easy for a church or an

individual to think that they're walking well in faith using a muscle that they developed eight

years ago because that muscle that they developed is still 95% better than the rest of the people

around them, but it is still eight years old now. Part of the reason I encourage you to discover your

season in life, your destiny at this particular time in your life, what it looks like for the

next six months is if you don't discover it, you will never meet a Goliath bigger than the

one you dealt with last time. And if you don't meet a Goliath bigger than the last one you met,

you will never break into a new place. So my question is, is Acts 29 dealing with

bigger Goliaths now or is Acts 29 dealing with Goliaths that it already beat two years ago,

three years ago? That is my fear and I'm saying to you actually that Acts 29 is beating

giants that it has already learned how to beat some years ago. We're not beating new giants.

And there ain't no revival going to happen and there ain't no new territory going to come

till we now begin to step into works producing faith which I hope to talk about tomorrow.

It's like beating the same soccer team over and over again.

I mean the Boston Bruins don't take any more pleasure in beating the Maple Leafs.

It's like happening for years on end.

How do we know the new giants? You know the new giants only if you take a risk into a territory

you haven't gone to before. You will never meet new giants if you are staying still in the place

that you have now occupied for a little while. Opposition, intimidation, fear, difficulty to

make progress, size, impossibility, irrationality, illogical and suddenly I mean all the things that

you would not desire. The best way to look at it is Deuteronomy 9.3. I know I've read this recently

but just look at it again. Deuteronomy 9.3.

1, 2, 3.

1, 2, 3.

Here O Israel, you are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations

greater and stronger than you with large cities that have walls up to the sky. The people are

strong and tall. Anakites, you know about them and have heard it said. Who can stand up against the

anakites but be assured today that the Lord your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like

a devouring fire. So he's sending them into a territory where the cities are larger, the walls

are higher, the people are giants, stronger, greater than the Israelites who have come out of

slavery but are still not the warrior type but he's sending them into it because without sending

them into it God cannot prove himself anymore to us. That's a sad thing. Not only do you not

at the end of the day who are the people that who suffers for not producing

works related faith? The people. Why? Because their God is mid-sized. Their God is the size they

met two years ago. Their God doesn't grow larger because there's nothing to beat.

That is bothersome for me and I'm saying to you that Acts 29 needs

works producing faith afresh because the giants we are presently beating are giants that we've

beaten two years ago. It's a foolish thing I'm doing.

There's another scripture.

I wish someone would find it for me. It's a scripture that says

there's another scripture.

I wish someone would find it for me. It's a scripture that says

that I'll leave some opposition, I'll leave some opposition behind so that you get seasoned in war.

Can you find that? It might be in Joshua. Don't take my word for it.

If you find that let me know. I'd love to read that scripture.

Can half of you find it and half pay attention?

Or let's just wait till someone finds it. Like I said the teaching is short. We're trying to

prolong it so that you don't feel like you're in another church.

Can someone find it?

It is Joshua.

Judges 3-1. Judges 3-1 is the one I'm looking for.

Yeah, Judges 3-1 is the one I'm looking for.

Hi, yeah. Judges 3-1. These are the nations the Lord left to test all those Israelites who had

not experienced any of the wars in Canaan. He did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of

Israelites who had not had previous battle experience. Just think of that man. Isn't it

nuts? What kind of God is this? Is this the God you really want?

These are the nations the Lord left to test all the Israelites who had not experienced

any of the wars in Canaan. He did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of Israel

who had not had previous battle experience. Verse 4. They were left to test the Israelites

to see whether they would obey the Lord's commands which he had given their forefathers through Moses.

It is nuts, man.

So I'm going to lead us in a prayer shortly saying, I'll try not to be like George Bush saying,

bring it on. It won't be that crass, but it'll be saying, oh God, please, we're dealing with

giants from two years ago. So works actually test your faith, works prove your faith.

And then the other cool thing is that works are followed by provision.

So in Genesis 22, you see works testing Abraham, offer your only son. Then you see

works proving Abraham. Do not touch that boy. You have not held back your own son from me.

And so you have proven your faith and I credit it to you as right standing with me. And then

a most marvelous thing happens. God turns up as Jaira, Yahweh Jaira. That's the name

that is revealed immediately after. For there was a lamb caught in the ticket.

It was invisible and suddenly it becomes visible. And Moses builds an altar and calls that place

Yahweh Jaira, God the provider.

There are rewards. So it's the meshing of believing and acting that gets you named God's friend.

That's the other cool thing that happens. Believing, confessing, praying is great.

But there's a place that every church must desire to go.

There's a place every individual in a church should desire to go.

But there's a place that every church must desire to go. And that place is God's friend.

And that happens through the meshing of believing and acting. The mesh of believing and acting

gets you named God's friend. And that's the place where you are going to be called God's friend.

The mesh of believing and acting gets you named God's friend.

Let me conclude with a scripture and then I'll pray and then we'll sing the voice of truth one more time.

Go to James, go to the message, go to James chapter 2.

James 2 · chapter mention

James 2, 16 onwards from the message.

James 2, 17 onwards from the message.

Okay, isn't it obvious that God talk without God acts is outrageous nonsense?

I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, sounds good, you take care of the faith department,

I'll handle the works department. Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith

not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith

than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together,

hand in glove. Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God but then observe you

complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That's just great. Demons

do that too but what good does it do them? Use your heads. Do you suppose for a minute

that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?

Wasn't our ancestor Abraham made right with God by works when he placed his son Isaac on the

sacrificial altar? Isn't it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners? That faith expresses

itself in works? That works are the works of faith? The full meaning of believe in the scripture

sentence, Abraham believed God and was set right with God, includes his action. It's that mesh

of believing and acting that God Abraham named God's friend. Is it not evident that a person is made

right with God not by barren faith but by faith fruitful in works? The same with Rahab, the Jericho

harlot. Wasn't her action in hiding God's spies and helping them escape that seamless unity of

believing and doing what counted with God? The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up

with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing, a corpse. Sometimes the message

is able to convey it very simply, very clearly.

I'm gonna do the song first and then the prayer.

Just once through, maybe the chorus repeated at the end,

otherwise straight through and then we'll pray.