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Men, today is the final sermon going through the seven churches in Asia that are given a special message in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 here, and the last church is the Church of the Laodiceans. The Bible reads in verse number 14, and the angel of the Church of the Laodiceans write, these things saith the Amen. Now remember, at the beginning of each of these messages, Christ identifies himself in a certain way with a certain aspect of his character. And the word Amen means truth, or it's something that you say to say that you agree when someone's preaching and then you hear Amen, they're saying, yes, that's true, I agree with that. Jesus Christ, of course, is the truth. He said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. But not only that, Amen is something that's used throughout the Bible to affirm something or to give assent, just like we would do in a sermon where people would say Amen during the sermon. Because if you go back to the law of Moses, you'll have certain curses and blessings read and different things that are stated, and then the Bible says, and all the people shall say Amen. You know, the people are supposed to agree to that and participate with that and express their assent to that. And then, of course, in the New Testament, we have virtually every book ending in the word Amen, out of 27 books, I believe 24 of them, end with Amen, which also can have a meaning of just so be it, you know, let it be so, let this come to pass. And so Jesus Christ is the Amen, He's the truth, He's the one who brings things to pass, and obviously it's our job to agree with Him and assent to what He says and to say Amen to that which He states. It says that He's the Amen, He's the faithful and the true witness, and He is the beginning of the creation of God. Some people would, of course, twist this to say that, oh, Jesus is the first thing that God ever created. That's not what beginning of the creation of God means. The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is the creator. It says all things were made by Him. That's specifically talking about Jesus in John chapter one. It's specifically talking about the Son of God. Colossians chapter one also states that Jesus Christ, specifically the Son of God, not talking about God the Father, that Jesus Christ is the creator, that He created all things. And then the Bible also tells us that God the Father created all things by Jesus Christ, by the agency of Jesus Christ. And so Jesus is the beginning of the creation of God because creation starts with Him. He is the one that God basically entrusted the act of creating. The Son specifically is the creator and there are plenty of scriptures that teach that. Colossians one, John one, and elsewhere. So after He identifies Himself, He says in verse number 15, I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou work cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Now this is one of the most famous of the messages to the seven churches, pretty much losing the first love in Ephesus and the Laodiceans being lukewarm are the two big ones that you end up hearing the most about. And Jesus says, if you're lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I'll spew you out of my mouth. Now obviously this is not literal. You didn't need me to tell you that. But the reason that I say that is because a lot of people will try to teach a false doctrine that you could lose your salvation, well you know if you're lukewarm, He's going to spit you out of His mouth. It's like, well wait a minute, hold on a second. First of all, we're not literally in His mouth. Okay, there's no doctrine about how our salvation is contingent upon being in His mouth or something. The whole idea of because thou art lukewarm, I will spew thee out of my mouth is just the idea that when you drink a beverage, you either want it to be ice cold or you want it to be hot, you don't really want to drink a lukewarm beverage. People drink coffee that's piping hot and they like that. People drink iced coffee and they like that. But people don't like that which is lukewarm. The idea is you go to drink something, you're expecting it to be cold and it's warm, gross, right? I mean what if you expect an ice cold milk or something and it's kind of lukewarm milk, you might spit it out just in shock. What's going on with this milk? You might think there's something wrong with it or you might go to drink your coffee and it's hot and it's supposed to be hot and it's lukewarm. That's the idea here. It's an idea of displeasure. It's not an idea of, oh, you're not saved anymore because you weren't zealous enough, you weren't red hot enough for Christian. No, it's just I don't like it. It doesn't taste good. It displeases me. It makes me upset. I don't like, it doesn't taste right. I don't like it. So God is upset, God's angry, but he's not going to throw us out of the family. He's not going to take away our salvation. Look, it's impossible to lose your salvation because you have everlasting life and Jesus promised that he will never leave us or forsake us. We're sealed by the Holy Ghost under the day of redemption. We've been passed from death unto life. We shall not come into condemnation. There's so much evidence that we cannot lose our salvation because of the promises of God. But what the Bible does say, if you just go down a few verses, what will actually happen? It's not that you'll lose your salvation. What actually happens is that he says in verse 19, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten, be zealous therefore and repent. So what's the punishment for not being zealous as a Christian? It's not that you're going to lose your salvation. That's impossible. What it is is that he will chase in you. He says, I will rebuke you. I will tell you you're wrong and I will chase in you. Well, look, what is chasing? Chasing is what a parent does to their child, right? The Bible says whom the Lord loveth, he chaseneth even as a father, the son in whom he delighted. Now if a father chasens his son, it doesn't mean that he hates his son. It doesn't mean these rejecting his son. It doesn't mean these throwing his son out of the family or that he doesn't love him anymore. No, it's the opposite. The Bible says whom the Lord loveth, he chaseneth even as a father, the son in whom he delighted. And so the Bible says here, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten, be zealous therefore and repent. He's saying you're lukewarm, but I love you anyway. You know, isn't it interesting that the people who try to pull this out and say you can lose your salvation. Oh, well God's just peed out his mouth. Did they forget the part where he says, well, I love you. I love you. Well, just because you spew lukewarm coffee out of your mouth, does that mean you don't love coffee? No, it just means you want the coffee to be a different temperature. It doesn't mean, oh, I thought you loved coffee. Why did you spit out that coffee? Only because it was the wrong temperature. It was nothing wrong with the drink itself. Okay. It's not that God doesn't love us anymore because we got lukewarm. It's that God is going to chasten us and rebuke us. He's going to put us in the microwave of life and heat us up a little bit because he doesn't want us to be lukewarm. Trying to speed up those molecules a little bit because we're getting a little slow and lazy with our Christian life. And so the Bible says here, I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou work colder. I wish you were cold or hot and because you're lukewarm, I'll spew you out of my mouth, he says. Now what does this mean to be lukewarm versus hot or cold? Well there are various areas in which we should not be lukewarm and I think a big one is that we should not be lukewarm when it comes to our love for God, right? Because the first and greatest commandment in the law is thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. That's the big commandment. In Mark it's stated this way, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength. Loving God with all of your might is what the Bible is saying. This is the first commandment. That doesn't sound lukewarm. Now think about it this way. What about within marriage, right? You wouldn't want the love of your spouse to be lukewarm, right? You would want them to have some passion to feel strongly about the love that they have for you. And it's the same thing with God. God wants us to be passionate about the word of God, passionate about our walk with God, passionate about the person of who God even is. We're supposed to feel strongly about these things and be fired up and excited. We're supposed to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. Not only that, but the Bible says here, I know thy works that thou art neither cold or hot. You see our works obviously reflect how we feel, right? Our works reflect our heart. And so whether or not we're lukewarm ends up coming through in our works. Just as if a husband had lukewarm feelings for his wife or if a wife had lukewarm feelings for her husband, that's going to come through in action, right? That's going to come through in the way that they talk, in the way that they do things for each other or don't do things for each other. When someone is lackadaisical about that relationship, it's going to come through in the things that they do. And guess what? When you don't really care about the things of God, when you're just kind of like, whatever about church and the Bible and the house of God and the work of God, then obviously it's going to come through in your performance as a Christian. And so he says, I know your works and I can see right through what the problem is here. It's that you're lukewarm. You're not passionate. You're not excited because what's the solution? If one understand the problem, understand the solution. He said, as many as I love, I rebuke and chase and be zealous therefore and repent. So how do you fix being lukewarm? You get zealous. So what does it mean to be lukewarm then? Being not zealous, right? It's someone who's just kind of like meh and doesn't care. He wants us passionate. He wants us zealous. He wants us fired up about the things of God. Here's what he's not saying. He's not saying go to doctrinal extremes, you know, go, go to extremes in the way that you live your life. Live an ascetic life like a monk or a hermit and live this extreme life because I don't want you to live a balanced and moderate life. That's not what he's saying. Okay. So God teaches elsewhere in the Bible that we are to live a moderate life. And here's the thing, again, going back to the marriage illustration, being zealous about your marriage, does that necessarily mean that you don't have anything else going on in life? You're just a husband or that you're just a wife? No, of course not. But what it means is that you're passionate about that relationship. Obviously there are going to be times when you go to work, when you're dealing with the children, when you're with your friends, when you're at church, when you're serving God and doing other things that don't really involve that relationship at all. That doesn't take away from that. Now obviously God is the supreme relationship in our life, but yet there are things that we do in our life. We go to work, we take care of our own personal hygiene. We obviously spend time with family and friends and we do all kinds of things in our life. And I'm not saying to live an imbalanced, ascetic life. That's not what the Bible teaches, but I will say this, man, you better be fired up about the things of God. And when it's time to serve God, you better be fired up about serving God. And when you're doing something menial, when you're out working your secular job, when you're out spending time with other people, Hey, have God in all your thoughts, do everything to the glory of God, do things in such a way that would honor God, give it your best when you go to work. That honors God be ethical at your job because that honors God be kind and loving to the relationships in your life because that honors God and you're doing it for Christ, right? You're doing it for his glory all the time. And so we're not talking about necessarily going to unbiblical extremes. Just while the Bible said be cold or hot, man, so I'm just going to take everything to the extreme. That's not necessarily what he's saying. There are certain things that are extreme and other things that should be more moderate, right? Let the whole Bible advise you on which is which Riley divide the word of truth. And so he says here, because thou art lukewarm, I will spew thee out of my mouth. But look what he says in verse 17. He says, because thou sayest, and this is key. He says, because he's like, look, I'm going to explain to you why, right? That's what because means because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and no, it's not that thou are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. Now, what is the because referring to? Well, he said, I will spew thee out of my mouth because thou sayest, right? If you kind of just ignore the verse break there and just read from 16 to 17, that's the complete thought, isn't it? You're lukewarm because thou art lukewarm. I will spew thee out of my mouth because thou sayest. So that it's like a sandwich here with a reason on each side here in the middle is God spewing them out of his mouth. But before and after he gives a reason before he says, well, you're lukewarm. That's why I'm going to spew out of your mouth because you said this and that. So the because thou sayest is another reason why he's upset. This is why God's angry and it ties in with being lukewarm, right? It's a restatement or a further explanation because he wants us to understand what is actually making him upset. And so he says in verse 17 because thou sayest, I'm rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. Now what does that have to do with being lukewarm? What does that have to do with God's anger? Well, first of all, the person who says, well, I'm rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing has their priorities all wrong because apparently to this person, the most important things in life are money and material possessions. And so this person is not passionate about their walk with God. They're not passionate about the things of God. They're passionate about making money. And so they feel like, well, I'm rich, I'm increased with goods. What else do I need? In many ways, the church of the Laodiceans is relevant to us in America today because of the fact that we are rich and increased with goods in America. Now you say, well, I don't think our church has rich people in it. Well, but here's the thing though, even just people in our church that are working class, middle class people, if we compare you to the rest of the world, you're rich, right? If we were to take all the people in this world and how much money they make each day or how much money comes through their hands in a year or something like that, and then we were to put you on that spectrum and find the percentile where you would fall, you think you'd be in the upper half? You think you'd be in the top three quarters, 80%, 90%. I mean, you're going to be pretty high up on that list. And even those of us that maybe are just living paycheck to paycheck or just scraping by, Hey, compared to a lot of people in this world, we live like Kings compared to a lot of people throughout history. We eat like Kings. I mean, we've got food, we've got a climate controlled, beautiful dwelling in most cases. And so we really have a lot going for us. And so it's easy for us to have this layout to see and mentality that just says, well, I'm rich, I'm increased with goods. I have need of nothing. And that is an attitude that has the priority wrong thinking that having what we need materially and doing well financially is somehow the measure of success. It's the idea that gain is godliness, right? The Bible tells us there are people out there, they think gain is godliness. They look at somebody who's prospering financially and they say that's success. You know, whenever I think about that, I think about all the preaching that I heard growing up over and over again and say, Hey, if the United States supports Israel, God's going to bless us. And we've got to vote for so and so the person because he's with Israel. And if we don't vote for that guy and the other guy gets in who's not as excited about Israel, well then God's going to stop blessing us. So we've got to make sure that we keep supporting Israel in order to keep on being blessed by God. Now I heard this preaching throughout the eighties. I heard this preaching throughout the nineties. I heard this preaching throughout the two thousands. And let me tell you something. Israel became a nation in 1948, the modern state of Israel and our relationship with Israel as a country really took a turn in the late sixties because you know, early on, I mean the U S has always recognized Israel and kind of supported Israel and so forth. But you know, the, the big backer of Israel in the early days was the Soviet union. Okay. So that changed later on and you know, correct me if I get anything wrong in the history, but I think I have the spirit of God here. So I think it was like 1967 or something when the U S really started supporting Israel more. Okay. And so I will tell you this from the 1960s and onward, the U S really ramped up their support of Israel. Okay. And by the time I was hearing that preaching in the eighties and the nineties, our support for Israel was in full swing and we are supporting Israel as a nation big time right now. So here's my question. If Israel became a nation in 1948 and the U S really started supporting Israel big time around 1967 and we've been supporting Israel ever since, let me ask this, is God blessing our country as a result? Has God been blessing us? Have we been thriving spiritually ever since that great turning point in 1967? Because 1967 wasn't exactly a godly turning point in our nation. It was kind of the opposite. 1967 is known as the summer of love, but we're not talking about the Bible's version of love. We're talking about a bunch of hippies, free love, drugs, rebellion, you know, living like a derelict. That's what we're talking about. And that movement obviously spilled into the seventies and our culture in many ways has been going downhill. Also what happened in the late sixties is known as the sexual revolution. That's also not a Christian movement just in case you weren't familiar with it. So we've got no fault divorce law in 1969, right? Three months after the Soviet union came up with a no fault divorce and what California, then the rest of the nation. Now it's in all 50 States. You know, what about spiritually in our churches? I mean, we've got all the modern versions coming out and getting popular in the seventies, eighties, right? The NIV came out in 1973. You know, the full Bible in what, 1984. I think that I don't remember the exact timeline on that, but they came out with the new Testament. They came out with the full Bible revised in 2011. Where is this blessing? And here's, what's funny is that I grew up hearing this preaching about God's blessing us, but you know what the evidence, the only real evidence they could point to of God blessing us is just how well we've been doing financially ever since we've been supporting Israel, right? Because America has been prospering economically, but here's the thing about that gain isn't godliness and just because you're prospering economically or financially doesn't necessarily mean that you're being blessed by God. And so this attitude that says, well, I'm rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. Therefore God's pleased with me. Therefore God's blessing me. If I have money, then I must be right with God. I mean, that's foolish, but this is the mentality that says, Oh, God's blessing America because we support Israel. When in reality we are on a downward spiral spiritually ever since the late 1960s. Okay. Uh, because the Bible never taught that we were supposed to support this modern day nation state of Israel because we're living in the new testament. Christians are spiritual Israel. We need to support Jesus Christ. We need to support the people of God, which are born again Christians. Now has our country been really promoting that since 1967 that would have brought the actual blessing of God, right? If our government was supporting Christ and promoting Christ and Christianity and safeguarding a Christian virtues and freedoms, but that's not what we see. But there's an attitude out there, isn't there that that thinks that gain is godliness that looks at poor people or people of modest means and and thinks that there's somehow inferior spiritually to those who have money. But what does the Bible say? Blessed are ye poor. Christ said, blessed are ye poor. Woe unto you that are rich. And so there's a different mentality there. And so this attitude that says I'm rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing is angering the Lord because it shows an attitude that prioritizes money and material goods over spiritual things. Okay. That's one point I want to make about that. And again, if you, there's nothing necessarily wrong with prospering and having a lot of money and succeeding and and many great men of God in the Bible did succeed and prosper financially. You guys like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, they prospered financially big time. You look at Job, look all throughout the Bible. You'll find a lot of examples of that, but here's the difference. They didn't say, well, you know what? I'm rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. I don't need God. They still trusted in the Lord, worshiped God and realized that everything hinged on God in the end. You see, the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 30, two things that I required of thee, deny me them not before I die, remove far from me vanity and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches, lest I be full and deny thee and say, who's the Lord or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain. So the writer of Proverbs there says, you know, I don't want to be rich because I don't want to, you know, think that I don't need God anymore. And so that's the danger of being rich, right? Is thinking that you don't need God or thinking that you must be right with God. You must just be awesome because you have money. Now look, if you have money, man, drop to your knees and be humble before God every day because you'd hate for God to get angry and say, well, let me take away all your money, bring you down a notch, show God, no, no, no, no, God, you know, even though I have this money, I'm still prioritizing you. I'm still worshiping you. I'm still humble in your sight. Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high minded, neither trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who richly giveth us all things to enjoy. Right? So if you're rich, the Bible says, don't be high minded. Don't be puffed up. And again, even if you're not filthy rich by American standards, if you're prospering and doing well, you've got a couple of nice cars in the driveway, nice house, you know, nice things. You ought to be, make sure that you're not high minded and that you're thanking God and trusting God and realizing that God holds your destiny in his hand. But the other problem is this attitude that just says, I've arrived, right? I'm rich and increased with good and I have need of nothing. And he says, and no, it's not that they're wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. But people who think that they've arrived haven't. And typically the people who most think that they've arrived are probably the furthest from actually arriving because actually the more Bible you learn, the more you realize you don't know. You know, the bozos whose door you knock and they say, oh, I already know the Bible. I read the Bible. I already know the Bible. I bet if you started to talk to that person about some specifics, they probably know very little Bible with that attitude. And the person who really knows the Bible well and has actually read the Bible many times, cover to cover, they don't make statements like that. Oh, I already see the Bible. I already read that. I already know that. That's just showing your ignorance. Okay. And the people who talk about what a great Christian they are, they're not people who talk about how righteous they are. They're not okay. It's the opposite. And let me tell you something. Humility goes a long way with God. Humility goes a long way with God. You know, obviously there are people who are at all stages of Christian growth and, and, you know, people that are learning and growing and improving, they're not the problem here. They're not the ones that God's upset with here about being lukewarm. You know, maybe you're just not very mature spiritually. Maybe you're a newer believer or maybe you just recently got into church or got serious about your walk with God. And so you're far from where you need to be perhaps. But you're, you're trying, you're growing, you're moving forward. You're not the problem. As long as you're humble about that, you're not the person that God's talking about here, right? The person that God's talking about here has this attitude that I've arrived, I have need of nothing. I don't need anything. I'm there. I'm good. Don't tell me anything. Don't try to correct me about anything. You know, God is correcting the seven churches here and preaching is meant to correct us, tighten things up, make adjustments where necessary. You don't want to have this attitude that you've arrived. You don't need any teaching. You don't need any correction. You don't need any exhortation. And so humility will go a long way with God and God will be merciful to those who are humble, right? God resisted the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. And so if we want God to extend grace and mercy, then we want to be humble. So he says here, you don't even realize how you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear and anoint thine eyes with eye salve that thou mayest see. Here's what he's saying. He's saying, look, you think you've got it all together. You don't realize that I'm the source of what you need. God's saying he's the source. And so you better humbly beseech me for what you need instead of saying, Oh, I got everything. No, no, no. You need to get zealous about your walk with God because I'm the one who decides how much money is in your account. I'm the one who decides how healthy you are. I'm the one who decides how your relationships go, how your jobs. I hold your breath in my hand. And what he's saying is that you need to realize that if you need something, you come to me counseled, lead a buy of me gold tried in the fire. Now mayest be rich. Oh, you think you're rich. I can take that away from you anytime. Come to me for the real riches that money can't buy. Come to me for the real. He's saying true riches come from God is the idea here. The clothing that really matters come from God. You might, you might have a whole closet filled with all the name brands, you know, but spiritually, what are you wearing? Are you in rags spiritually? That's what really matters. God sees with a spiritual eyesight. True wisdom comes from God. True sight insight. Anoint thine eyes with eyesab that thou mayest see. You think you got the whole world figured out. You got everything for you. No, no, no. You can read in your Bible every day and let me tell you how the world works. That's what God is basically saying. The riches, the clothing, the wisdom of this world are all temporal. They're all vain and God can take them all away from you anytime he wants to. And so we don't want to be zealous about making it in this world and lackadaisical about our love and service for God. We need to get our priorities right and understand God is the one who controls our destiny and we must put our effort and our passion into that walk with God more than in just getting through this life on a day to day basis. And so he says in verse number 19, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten, be zealous therefore and repent. Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me. Now some people misread this verse because they read it as I will come into him. Okay, now that preposition there is not one word into, right? Because into the box, right, is going inside of the box, right? That's what the word into means, means to go inside. Whereas into is something different altogether. You know, for example, if I said, you know, I came in to the dinner that was waiting for me, I'm not diving into that dinner physically. Does everybody see the difference there? You know, if I go into the restaurant, I'm going inside the restaurant, okay? But if I went, how would I go in to the restaurant, okay? That'd be like if I went into a shopping mall and went toward the restaurant. I went in to the restaurant, right? I went into the mall and toward the restaurant, right? If I went in to a person, I'm going to meet with them. I'm not going inside that person, okay? And so when he says here, I will come into him and will sup with, he's not saying he's gonna come inside you. The reason why it's important is because, you know, when we get saved, we do have Christ within us. We do have Christ inside of us, don't we? Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ dwells in our hearts by faith. And so the problem with this understanding of I will come into him, it's a misreading of the English here, right? Is that it's like, it's like they're not saved or something and that they don't have Christ inside of them and that, you know, they need Christ to be inside of them. They're already saved. The Laodiceans are already saved. The problem is that they're not zealous enough. Why are they subject to God's chastisement? Because God chastens every son whom he received. They're already sons, they're children of God, they're saved, their salvation isn't the problem. They don't need Christ to come into them. They need Christ to come in to them and sup with them, right? So I'm sitting at the kitchen table of my house, everybody understand? Sitting at the table and Christ is standing at the door knocking, right? If I hear Christ's voice and I go open the door, what's he going to do? He's going to come into that kitchen where I'm sitting at that kitchen table and he's going to sit down with me and he's going to sup with me. What does sup mean? Not like sup, but like sup means to eat dinner, right? Supper like dinner, dine. Supper, sup. Okay, no, no, not like that. So the point is I will sup with him. He's saying I'm going to eat supper with him. So God wants to have fellowship with us, right? That's what he says. I will come in to him, right? I'm going to come into that house and sit down with him at the table and eat dinner. Of course, again, not literal, right? It's a metaphor. Sitting down and eating with someone, having supper with someone is a way to bond with that person, right? It's a way to have fellowship. It's a way to have communion. Again, going back to the marriage illustration, right? Let's say you are lackadaisical about your relationship with your wife or lackadaisical about your relationship with your husband. And let's say you're just kind of ambivalent and just kind of, you're not really that passionate about that relationship. You're not really trying very hard as a husband or as a wife. You're lukewarm, right? And let's say one day you decided to fix that and you decide, you know what? I'm going to put some effort into my marriage. Here's the thing about that. Because we're dealing with two human beings, because we're dealing with imperfect people, if a husband decided all of a sudden, you know what? I'm going to make an effort with my wife. I'm going to build this relationship. I'm going to invest in this relationship. Does that mean that she's necessarily even ready to even get on board with that or even participate in that or even reciprocate that? No, he might just all of a sudden, you know, I've been ignoring my wife. All of a sudden, now I'm ready to spend time with my wife and then she might just blow them off. I mean, it's not right. It's wrong. It's sad, but it's out there. Or conversely, the woman could all of a sudden decide, you know what? I'm going to start caring about this relationship. And then the husband's just too checked out. He's just like, sorry, I'm busy, not interested. That'd be sad, wouldn't it? But here's the thing about the Lord is that he's ready. Here's what the Bible is saying. You know, if you've been slacking, you've been lukewarm, you're not passionate, you're not zealous. But here's the difference is that when you all of a sudden decide to start caring about that relationship, it's not like with a marriage where maybe it's too late or maybe baby she just doesn't care or maybe she never cared or he never cared or whatever. God cares. God's saying, look, I'm here, man. I'm standing at the door knocking. And if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and we'll sup with him. And he will, you know, he's ready to sit down. You know, all of a sudden you're ready to take your wife out to dinner and she's like, I'm busy. You know, right. All of a sudden you're ready to spend time with your husband. He's busy. When you decide all of a sudden that you want to spend time with God tomorrow or today or next week, he's like, let's go. Let's do it right. Hey, you want to commune with God tomorrow morning? You want to pull out your Bible and commune with God, read your Bible, pray. He's there. He's ready. He's prepared. He's saying, look, as soon as you're ready to get serious, as soon as you're ready to get zealous, well, I'm ready to do my part. And if we draw an eye to God, he will draw an eye to us. And if we open the door for him, he will sup with us. Period. And so that's encouraging to know that our zeal for God is not going to go ignored or unanswered like it could in real life in human relationships because of imperfect people. But when it comes to God, of course, he is always ready to go. And so that's encouraging. It says in verse number 21, to him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and have sat down with my father in his throne. Let me just briefly say this. This has nothing to do with the sermon, but you know, many, many years ago we had a bunch of bozos in our church, have a heresy where they denied the Trinity and taught this modalist oneness Jesus only garbage, okay, instead of actually believing in the father, the son and the Holy Ghost as the Bible teaches. But one thing that I kept hearing out of these bozos and other bozo false teachers was like, well, you know, every time you look up in heaven, there's only one throne. And to this day, I can't figure out what these idiots were talking about. There's only one throne because they found a verse one day where it's like, oh, there's a throne in heaven. And then they just took that as like, there's only, there's only ever one throne. Okay. Which makes no sense because the Bible says that God, the Father is in heaven and Jesus is seated as right hand. What do you not understand about that? Like that's pretty simple. Like, oh, look, I saw the glory of God and I saw Christ seated at the right hand of God or Christ standing at the right hand of God in the case of Stephen in Acts chapter seven. So you've got Jesus on the right hand of the father. How many thrones do we need here? But then the Bible says here, like, I'll grant him to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame him, sat down with my father and his throne. You know, it looks like this throne seats more than one person. So however many thrones there are, isn't really the issue, is it? Because either way, Christ is seated at the right hand of the father. They have a heresy that says, well, Christ is God the father, but no, Christ is the son. Now the father is God, the son is God, the Holy Ghost is God, but the father is not the son. Right? We believe in the Trinity. And so I just wanted to just throw that out there since we're here going through this verse. I'm going to go get that dog every single time I walk by it. But the main point of the sermon is we don't want to be lukewarm. We don't want to be half in, half out. Okay? Let's close on this. Go to 1 Corinthians 11. This is the last place we'll go this morning. First Corinthians chapter 11. You know, one of the big things that I emphasized about being cold or hot, not being lukewarm, was this idea of being zealous or passionate about the things of God, loving God with all your mind, heart, soul, strength. That's really right there in the context. Be zealous and repent. That's definitely true. But you know, another area where we should be cold or hot and not lukewarm is when it comes to the fact that, you know, God has given us certain commandments that we should obey and that he tells us they're not optional, right? I mean, Christ said, if you love me, keep my commandments. He didn't say keep my suggestions. Okay? And obviously we don't go to heaven by keeping commandments, but when God gives us a commandment, we're supposed to do it. Just like if our parents give us a commandment, they expect us to do it. It doesn't mean that if we disobey, we're not going to be their child, but it means that we're getting a spanking, right? But God expects us to keep his commandments. Our parents expect us to obey them. I mean, obviously we're supposed to do what we're told when it comes to commands of God. And so we don't want to have a lukewarm attitude about the commandments of God where we try to take all these really compromised positions when it comes to things that are clear in the word of God. We shouldn't take a compromised position. There are times in life where compromise is appropriate, but when it comes to the doctrines of the Bible, we're not to compromise on doctrine. You know, we need to go with what the Bible says and we're not to compromise on the commandments of God and try to meet the devil halfway. Okay. And that's what we want to stay away from. But you know, I love this verse in first Corinthians chapter 11, but in order to get a little context, let's look at verse 14. It says, uh, does not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it's a shame unto him, but if a woman have long hair, it's a glory to her for her hair has given her for covering. And so here we see that men are supposed to have short hair and women are supposed to have long hair, right? Now what's the purpose for that commandment? The purpose of that commandment is so that we're not walking around confused, trying to figure out who's a man and who's a woman. Now I can't imagine that ever happening. I can't really imagine a society where that would ever happen, but you know, you're gonna have to really use your imagination about confronting a person and you don't even know what gender they are. Well, here's the thing. Here's the nice thing about the commands of God. And here's the nice thing about Christian culture, right? Biblical Christian culture is that let's say people aren't necessarily the most handsome, masculine looking dude, and maybe she's not the most tender, delicate, beautiful woman. You have all these clues that just tell you right away what gender someone is so that we can sort out the world that we live in. You know, nobody wants to go through life confused, not understanding the things that are around them. I mean, think about it. We go through life, we look around and our eyes can discern light from darkness and our taste buds can discern sweetness from bitterness and we can hear high-pitched sounds and low-pitched sounds and we can tell whether mom is talking to us or whether dad is talking to us, right? Because we have all of these senses that are exercised to discern between good and evil, between light and dark, sweet and bitter, right? We can tell the difference, even just physically, right? Just physically we go through life and our bodies tell us information about the world so that we can sort things out. Hey, this stuff's blue and this stuff's red. And it helps us get through life and figure things out, right? So when we come across a person like that, you know, we can check their hair. Oh, short hair, man. Long hair woman. Very helpful. But in case this fails us, what if that method fails us? We got a backup. We can look at the way they're dressed and be like, oh, a dress. That's a woman. Oh, a pair of pants. It's a dude. Now that one fails us a lot, right? So it's like you need a few methods. It's like you got the hair, you got the clothing. And look, the hair and the clothing just make life so easy, especially when they both match. Like short hair pants. Yes, you know. Long hair dress. Ah, I know what to do here. You know, it's just so helpful. Now when you get a mixed signal, it's like, you know, you're like trying to figure out, like, okay. The clothing is that of a man. The hair is that of a woman. Like okay, what do I do here? And then you got it. Then you got it. Now you got to start. Then you look for facial hair. You know, it's like maybe that could be like a backup. Maybe that could help figure something out, you know. And then maybe you're looking at like the shoulder width, you know, because men tend to have broader shoulders, you know. And you look for the Adam's apple, you know. Because it's not Eve's apple. So you look for an Adam's apple. But here's the thing. You know, measuring shoulder width, looking for the Adam's apple, you know, these aren't as reliable sometimes. And facial hair, there's a lot of clean-shaven dudes. There's absolutely nothing wrong with being clean-shaven as a dude. So you got clean-shaven dudes. You know, shoulder width can vary, you know. Otherwise Michelle Obama's for sure, man, if it doesn't vary. But you know, shoulder width could lead you, it could lead you the wrong way, you know. It could mislead, you know, whatever you believe about that particular situation. But the point is, you know, you could be misled by the shoulder width situation, you know. So man, it's nice to have like these two kind of primary go-to hair and clothing, you know. Just really helps you just, I don't want, you know, not separate the men from the boys, separate the men from the women. And know which is which, right. So it's important, you know, that we, in today, in 2023 especially, that we emphasize this. What's funny is that this being preached less in 2023 than it was say 20, 30 years ago when we didn't really need it as much. Back when our culture was, you know, pretty much following this anyway. And so God wants men to have short hair and women to have long hair so we can figure out who we're even dealing with, okay. That's a big part of it. But let's back up to verse three. I'm almost done. It says in verse three, but I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ and the head of the woman is the man and the head of Christ is God. Also modulus, just, yeah, put that in your pipe and smoke it. Verse four, every man praying or prophesying having his head covered dishonored his head. Now we just learned what it means to have the head covered in verse 15. If a woman have long hair, it's a glory to her for her hair is given her for a covering. So the head covered is having long hair. The head uncovered is having short hair. Okay, this is what the Bible say. So if a man prays or prophesy having his head covered, meaning he has long hair, he's dishonoring his head, his head is Christ, okay. According to verse three, every woman that prayeth or prophesyeth with her head uncovered dishonored her head. Anyway if she doesn't have long hair, if she has short hair, that's dishonoring to her head which is her husband, okay. For that is all one, as if she were shaven. So here's what the Bible is saying. He's saying, you know, if the woman doesn't have long hair, that's as if she were just totally bald. Here's what God's saying, you know, if the hair is not going to be long hair, then what's the point? Might as well just be bald at that point. That's what he's saying. Like if you're not going to have the hair that I told you to have, then what's the point? You see, you don't just get participation points from God for trying. You know, God says, bring me the blood of the lamb and Abel brings the sacrifice of the lamb and then Cain brings fruits and vegetables. It's like, okay, well, you get points for attendance, you get points for participation, you get points for effort, but I'm going to have to dock you some points here because you brought fruits and vegetables instead of the lamb. No, it's just no points awarded and may God have mercy on your soul is what happens at that point. Okay. So Cain doesn't get points for showing up. I mean, Nadab and Abihu, well, they get points for worshiping God. No, because they brought strange fire before the Lord. They died in Leviticus chapter 10. And so the Bible says, you know, it's not like, well, you get a little bit of credit, at least you have some hair on your head. At least you got a little bit of hair. It's like, no, have it long or you might as well just be shorn. It's the same in God's eyes. For if a woman be not covered, verse six, let her also be shorn. But if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. Now is God really recommending bald women here? Is he really saying, I want women to be bald? Is he like, I like two kinds of women. I like women with long hair and I like them bald. Is that what he's saying? No, he's not saying women be bald. Now you say, why are you bringing this up? Because God's not saying in Revelation, be cold. I want you to be cold. Get, oh, you're not zealous about things of God? Go get super sinful. Get all the way out of church. Completely slack off. This is a figure of speech. He's basically saying, hey, if you're not going to have long hair, why don't you shave it all the way off and be bald? He's not, it's not like, oh, okay, I'll do this. You're taking him a little too literally there. So if he says, well, I would not work cold or hot. Here's what he's saying, get hot. Get hot. He's basically saying, you know, hey, at least if you're cold or hot, we know where you stand. Right? At least we know what you are. At least we know where you stand. But it's not that he wants you to get cold or that getting cold is somehow a good option or that somehow it's an improvement. Like well, you know, God's upset with me for having short hair, so I'm just going to get bald. And then I'm a little bit closer to God than I was when I had short hair because God said if it's a shame, you know, for a woman to be, or sorry, if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. So I'm just going to go be shorn. That's not the point. The point is when God looks at you and he sees you lukewarm, you know what? He puts that in the same category as cold in the sense of, you know, you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing, right? You need to get all the way over where you need to be. You need to be hot. And so he's saying, you know, have your hair long because I said have it long. I didn't say have it medium or a little bit or whatever. And so this idea of being all the way to one side or the other is what God's getting at here. Don't take, here's what I don't want you to do. I don't want you to misunderstand the sermon and say, well, you know what? I'm a woman. Get a buzz cut. And I don't want you to take the sermon and say, well, you know what? I'm just not ready to get all in with God so I'm just not even going to come to church. You know, and folks, you run into people with this mentality all the time where they're just like, well, you know, I'm just not ready to live for God 100% so that's why I'm not in church right now. But once I get ready to live for God 100%, then I'll get in church. That's a dumb attitude. Okay. Because you need to get all the way in church. Okay. And let's say, but let's say you are lackadaisical, you're better off going to church and that's it. When God says I would you were cold or hot, he's basically just saying, you know what? I like to be able to differentiate these things and a watered down Christian is not helping my kingdom. But here's the thing. Is it really bad? Is it even possible for you to get all the way cold as a Christian? Because it's like you're saved. So therefore, you've got the Holy Spirit inside you. You're never really going to be a true, you know, person of this world in a sense. Like you're never really going to truly be able to fit in with this world and be the guy who's all the way cold in that sense. Okay. Because you're saved. You got the Holy Spirit inside you. So you know, at least you're always going to deep down on the inside according to the inward man, love God and love his commandments and and you're going to be having that conscience when you try to go out and live that sinful life. You will have a conscience about it even if you do a lot of wicked things as a believer. And so what God is saying is to the lukewarm, just get passionate, get zealous. Don't take this as an excuse for quitting church. That's just stupid. You know, that'd be just as stupid as saying, well, God doesn't approve of my short hair, therefore I will go bald. You'd say that that person was kind of dumb if they read first Corinthians 11. I mean, if a girl read Corinthians 11 and then showed up at church the next day completely bald, would you say that she kind of missed the point? Would you? Yeah. Would you think this girl's not that smart? Okay. Well, here's the thing. That's the way I feel when somebody says, well, I'm not ready to be 100% for God, so I'm just not going to get in church. That's what I'm picturing. That's what I see. That's how I see that. And because I see somebody who just missed the point and doesn't get it. There's only one direction that we need to be moving and it's, we need to be moving forward in our Christian life. We need to go forward with things of God. Quit being lackadaisical, ambivalent, about the things of God. Get excited, get passionate, get zealous, love the Lord your God and as soon as you're ready to start putting in some serious effort, man, God's like, let's do it. If we draw an eye to God, he'll draw an eye to us. Let's borrow his name, word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. Help us not to be like that church of the Laodiceans where we're lukewarm, where we think we got it all together because we got the fancy building and we got fancy clothes and you know, our church is just, uh, got everything materially. Lord, help us to always realize that it's the spiritual things that matter and those things can only come from you and you can take them away at any time as well. Lord help us to continue growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Lord, thank you for saving us eternally. Thank you that we can never lose our salvation, but Lord help us to avoid your chastisement by being zealous about our walk with you and in Jesus name we pray. Amen.