Apathy really. Renders its host immovable. If you find someone that's just apathetic, they're not moved by anything. The Holy Spirit can't convict them, they're too calloused to receive anything. And this church had no passion.
for the things that Christ wanted them to have passion for. They were passionate about themselves, just like in the book of Haggai. They took care of their own homes, just the Church of God could stay in ruins. I could wish you were cold or hot. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston.
Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Revelation. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now here's Pastor Rick in the book of Revelation, chapter 3, with this edition of Cross-Reference Radio. In this country in 1922, a heretic by the name of Harry Emerson Fosdick.
Very much supported by John Rockefeller. He preached a sermon. And in that sermon he said, Shall fundamentalism win?
Now, that church is still in existence in Manhattan, Riverside.
Well, one of three churches. That wasn't the one he preached at, but that was one of the churches that he. But he finished at Riverside, and to this day It's it's completely immoral and a heretic church. But in 1922, As a Presbyterian, Pastor, he preached, Shall Fundamentalism Win? And what he was saying is, the Bible is outdated.
We're modernists now, and it's a humanistic approach. And it really catapulted Liberal theology because he was so respected. He had so much money in the back of him.
Well, another pastor, Clarence McCartney, He wrote a counter article And preached a counter-sermon, shall unbelief win? Because that is exactly what Fosdick was preaching: unbelief. And that represents to this day the apostate church. That is going to again go through the Great Tribulation period.
So here the faithful and true witness Sticks to His Word because it is faithful. The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the Word of God stands forever. But to the liberal theologian, He has to get rid of that some way. And he elevates humans. And he demotes God's word, thereby demoting God's voice, thereby demoting God.
The faithful and true witness is the author of the ninth commandment. You shall not bear false witness. Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 4. He is the rock. His work is perfect.
For all his ways are justice. A God of truth. without injustice. Righteous And upright is he. I guess poetic.
Righteous and upright is he, because he is the God of truth, not imagination. Imagination is the foundation for all idolatry. The imagination of man. Back in Genesis, God had to deal with that. And he has put it in print so we can understand.
We go by the revelation of God's word. which is from Genesis to Revelation. and not by speculation. Just this week, I was listening to a radio station. It was once solid.
We gotta get going here. We're only in verse thirteen, right? But there's always a time for anecdotes.
So I'm listening to this radio station last week. I was saying, who is this guy speaking? It's nothing about scripture, it's nothing about God. It's all about making people feel good about themselves. We go to a motivational course for that.
Well, it turned out to be Rick Warren. No surprise there.
So I I went back again the next We do I think yesterday before yesterday, one of these days. was one of the days in this year. And I'm listening, and my wife was with me, and this guy is talking about. Imagination. He wrote a book, Imagining Heaven, or something like that.
And there's all these stories about, and Jesus came, and I died, and I saw the light, and someone held my hand, and Jesus said, This is cool. People are gobbling this stuff up and it's junk. Nest. Who who put who aired this? Who is supporting this book?
The imagination of heaven is something to Those lines. In one hand, I try to delete it, in the other hand, I try to say, Lord, is this useful information from the pulpit?
Well Some of you may like focus on the family. I'm not one of them, never have been, won't ever be. I prefer my focus on God, and I had a trouble with that from the day one. And this is the kind of stuff they're putting out. They've always been putting out this kind of stuff.
I know, I know. But it helped me so much. You know, you can be a carrier of something. Like Tyford Mary. IFOI didn't bother her, it was just taking out everybody she dealt with.
Just because you get away with something doesn't mean it's right. What does the scripture say? That's what Filters out everything. or leave them what is necessary.
Well, and you know, so here you have a pastor that's saying, hey, we have radio ministries out there That are doing more damage than not, that pastor has got to be ready for people to leave his church when he preaches those things. The pastor at some of these churches weren't ready for that. And that's what caused the problem. And when the people in a church begin to want to see their church grow under any circumstances, Get out of there. It has to be according to the scriptures.
One of the beautiful things about the Gospel of Matthew That the scripture might be fulfilled. That the scripture might be all over his pages, he puts that in there, that the scriptures might be fulfilled. Because ideally The Jewish believer was to adhere to their scripture. As Jesus said, about his church. If you keep my word, you are my disciples indeed.
Well Coming back to what we have here is a reminder that the church at Philadelphia, incidentally, when Clarence McCartney. countered Emerson Fosdick. with shell Unbelief when he was preaching that sermon. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Just kind of an interesting little Thing to go alongside where Fosdik is being laodicea here from Philadelphia, the voice of Philadelphia comes McCartney.
Anyway, the Philadelphian church. turned to the Word of God From the world, but the Laodicean church turned from the word of God. to themselves. Not even the world, they're just so self-impressed. The beginning of the creation of God.
This is the one that's talking to the church here at Laodicea. Creation started at his command. He's self-existent. Not made, not created. begotten In other words, coming into view.
For us proceeding from the Father. He is beyond king, he's creator.
Well, Colossians 1:16. John 1, 3. Hebrews 1:2, make it clear. Christ is the one, the voice that says, you know, let there be light, Jesus, that's him. There are three major beginnings in Scripture.
There's the beginning of God, not a commencement. But an expression for our sakes. of his eternal state, and that would be John 1, verse 1. And see of course Christ right there with it. The beginning of the physical universe, Genesis 1:1.
And the beginning of God being born. As a human, In 1 John Chapter 1 verse 1 Well, we've got some other interesting things that are going to come out of this section. Verse 15: I know your works. That you're neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.
This did not work for them for them. He knew about their works. They weren't even worth mentioning. Oh, by the way, all churches work at something. But so does hell.
It's not enough to say, well, we're busy. You're doing what? Is The church Going through the great tribulation period? I don't believe so, not the true church. But the false one will.
He says that you are neither cold nor hot.
Now, Laodicea. had an inadequate water supply of its own.
So what they did is they piped in water from the mountain regions towards Colise. about ten miles to the east.
so they could get some of that snow-capped cold water coming into their city. They also ran Aqueduct from Uh hierapolis. which is about six miles to their north. And that would bring in water from the hot springs.
Okay. What the engineers, as clever as they were, Did not factor in that the hot water would cool by the time it reached Laodicea and the cold water would become lukewarm.
So they lost their, like, you might as well just, you know, lug it from a well or something. It didn't work out. And Christ is taking advantage of that. He understands they can identify with this. That While they wanted cold water to refresh them in the summer and warm water to soothe them in the winter, they got neither.
It didn't work. And so, like the water the church had laid out to see, it was neither refreshing nor That's cold water. No soothing is a hot spring. Am I a Christian like that? Am I a generator or a drain?
Do I suck the life out of an environment when I go into it, or do I bring life into that environment? Am I an asset or a liability?
Now, I mean, sometimes we just, you know, physical things and we have problems, but I'm talking about the behavior, a disposition. Are we like this church in Laodicea? There's more to say about this lukewarmness. Water from the labor of man. And the natural Water sources.
Could not and did not satisfy the soul. Jesus said, Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.
Well, here's the big thing. They were apathetic. They weren't hot or cold. Apathy renders its host immovable. If you find someone that's just apathetic, they're not moved by anything.
The Holy Spirit doesn't can't convict them. They're too calloused to receive anything. And this church had no passion. for the things that Christ wanted them to have passion for. They were passionate about themselves, just like in the book of Haggai.
They took care of their own homes. The Church of God could stay in ruins. I could wish you were cold or hot. This is not a uncertain hope like oh boy sure wish This is an expression of the desire, I would have you. In fact, some translations prefer that translation which is more accurate.
I would have you hot or cold. Because there was no passion in them, Apathy. was a harder thing for the Holy Spirit to fight Then hatred. then passion's misguided. Indifference to Jesus, eternity, and salvation.
What can you do with anybody? I don't care. Do you know the Bible preaches this? Do you know the historic prophecies? Yeah, I don't care.
It doesn't bother me. I'm not interested. It damns souls, and without exception. Imagine standing before God and going, eh? That's apathy.
And it comes with a price.
Now, there's some things we can be apathetic about. I'm apathetic about football, but not baseball. They had wealth and independence, but they didn't have those things as believers. Saul of Tarsus, His hot hatred towards Christianity. Did not stop him from being saved.
Not that I'm condoning, certainly not, but Acts chapter 9, there's a story. breathing threats of violence. Then there was the centurion at the cross. It's cold. Yeah.
I'm just doing my job. But how did that go? At the end, surely this is the Son of God. That's Matthew 27, verse 54. How about the woman at the well?
The Samaritan woman. She engaged Christ. What if she just said, Look, I got no time for this. I got to get this water back, got to make dinner. No, she engaged.
And she walked away doing what? Licking her wounds, yes, because he convicted her. But she told the city. And all the things that that woman was, she was not a woman. a liar and they knew it.
Otherwise, they never would have acted on her word. You gotta come meet this guy. They did do that. How about the Athenians in Acts chapter 17? They were indifferent.
All they wanted to do is discuss. Theories. They were lukewarm. And so, to summarize this, I wish you were hot or cold. I wish you had something going on in you that I could address.
But you're not. You just eh? You know the gospel of Jesus Christ. can be preached through the revelation of Jesus Christ. You can lead somebody to Christ by preaching to them what is happening in this book also.
And this is a good example. You can say to someone, are you hot? Are you cold? Where are you? Are you indifferent?
Because if you are, then I'll have to look for someone else. In verse 16, so then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot. I will vomit you out of my mouth. I best a word. Spew is the old King James.
Well Where do you go from here? They were As I mentioned, unenthusiastic. The faithful and the true witness. found the church repulsive and he tells them. they should count themselves lucky.
No, I I don't mean the word lucky as, you know Some unknown force in the universe affecting things, I mean they should count themselves fortunate.
So that's a self-correcting moment. You didn't see that. All right.
Well, God could not stomach their ways. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine that to a congregation who thinks that they're Christians? Say that to anybody: God can't stomach your ways. You repulse Him with what you're doing.
Is there a stronger expression of disgust? In the whole Bible.
So God says. The calling yourself a church without him in it. grosses him out. How unfortunate. The unbeliever.
angers the Lord. And the unbelieving believer sickens the Lord. That's their great pretender. Spewed into the great tribulation. Verse 17, because you say, I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.
Oh man.
So he read their hearts. And he disagreed with their self-serving assessment of themselves. They thought they were all that. He says, I disagree. They said, I am rich and have become wealthy.
In stark contrast to the church of Smyrna, who in chapter 2, verse 9, They were in poverty. Because of persecution. Their problem here in Laodicea was not their wealth per se. Certainly nothing wrong with having a lot of money. It's something I've tried.
to get God to use me to prove. But it was a smug self-satisfaction. It engendered. That's the problem. They thought material wealth meant spiritual health.
That's the prosperity movement, and all of its heresy.
Well, if you're rich God must love you. I'm sorry I no, I'm not. I'm not sorry I use that tone. Thus they were completely caught. up in themselves.
Powerful to buy, powerless to bless. Man, that's got if I had a lot of money. I mean, like a lot. And I was that way and I heard a preacher say to me, That you're powerful when it comes to buying. But you're puny when it comes to blessing.
That would be something that would convict me, I would hope. And I'd run to the Lord and say, What do I do with this? Because the solution is never just throw money at something. We go to Christ, find out how it's his money, and I'll come to the verses that were. Say that momentarily, but we must not allow the world to determine the criteria for success.
on spiritual matters. He says that they were saying, We have need of nothing.
Well, only God is self-sufficient. They felt, ah, we don't need Rome to rebuild from the earthquake. And we really don't need God's input in the church.
Now they were not I doubt anybody would verbalize it that way. They just did it. And if you showed up And you said, hey, where's Christ? Probably chase you out.
Well, how would I know that? Because I look at the churches that are doing this kind of stuff today. And you went and you said, How many of you guys don't read the Bible?
Well, because then we can't be woke. He continues, and that they were saying, and you do not know. It is a question. Do mean people know they're mean? Do arrogant people know they're arrogant?
Do cheap skates know they're cheap skates? They can't afford to tell. Yeah. That you are wretched. That's nuclear.
That's fighting words. Christ comes and says, You know, you're wretched. You're making me sick. Too wretched to realize that they were unhappy blind paupers. to reality.
It's unsettling to know that people can Become like this. Because we have to say, Lord, am I this way? He says they're miserable, no joy. You know, when you sing worship songs. You don't you know, you can just let the songs minister to you.
And receive joy that way. I would encourage, you know, enthusiastic worship, not out of control, not emotional ism. But I also understand that maybe you don't feel like singing, but you're still being blessed by the content of what is being sung. Is it saying or sung? Is it Sam or something?
Is it Samsung?
Alright, back to reality. They are miserable. They're poor spiritually. They're blind. They're ignorant.
In a city that produced. Eye care. They had a medical school there, and they produced the eye salve, and they're blind, so he's, you know, he's. They can easily identify with this. They were naked.
That means they were exposed, often associated in Scripture with shame and the shame of sin. They were a threat to themselves. Self-inflicted. You know, there are people that they're just self-inflicted failure. There's no reason why they should have failed.
They did it all by themselves. It wasn't like Smyrna, where you had this exterior attack. It wasn't like Progamus, where you, well, yeah, Progamus, where you now had an interior attack because you let them in. There's no mention of anybody bothering them. Satan wouldn't waste the resources on this church, he didn't have to.
Hey, look, look, go mess with Philadelphia. These guys are self-destructing. Yeah, you get, you know, you bristle up at the thought of these things. They had succumbed to their own affluent lifestyle. And they didn't know it.
And they're not the first ones. Another ancient city also succumbed to opulence. Let's go around the room and see if you can guess. I'm kidding.
Sodom. Ezekiel chapter 16. Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom. She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness. Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy.
There's a pattern that's formed in Scripture that we cannot ignore. They were lulled to sleep. by carnality. In the face of God's blessings, God allowed them to be wealthy. Again, we're going to come to those verses.
Uh very shortly.
So Bottom line with this Looking good is not the same as being good. It can be A false appearance. You can wear an Amani suit. I would like to. Any of you have a tailor and some cash, and you want to donate to the pastor?
No, I'm not Kenneth Copeland. I'm sorry. It won't work. But what about Prada?
So maybe it's like you wear product. I, before in writing, said, Let me just go to their website, see if they post how much their stuff costs. It's like, you know, I can get that same tie for $25. Not $400. That's just a neck tie.
I mean, if you can afford it, I'm not knocking, I mean, if that's the league that you can play in, I'm not knocking that. But uh But I am saying that's not going to make the Christian. They were shamefully naked in spite of their ability to afford these things. Verse 18. This is not a tirade against rich people.
Again, I would say if you can get a rich friend who's willing to pay your mortgage, that you should do it. Just don't tell him you're being deceptive and devilish. Certainly. poor or rich is irrelevant. Where are you with Christ?
That's what it comes down to. Uh every single time. There's better things to do than judge other people on how they spend their money. Christ is not judging them on how they spend their money. is judging them on how their money has spent them.
That there's nothing left for him. As with Haggai, verse 18: I counsel you to buy for me gold. which they thought they had. refined in in the fire, that you may be rich. with white garments.
that you may be clothed that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed and anoint your eyes with eyesalve That you may see.
So Jesus, he is giving them the solution.
Okay, so we're not big on counseling, we'll do it if it will help. But we're not big on it because one reason, well, I'll give you two. The second one is the most important. The first one is. Too much counseling creates a desire for just more counseling.
Do you have time to sit and talk about me?
Sometimes it's necessary for a little bit, but it gets addictive and it's not helping anymore. And the main reason why Is what Jesus, what the Bible says about Jesus. wonderful counselor. the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. He is the counselor.
Yeah. Uh This has been Cross-Reference Radio with Pastor Rick Gaston. This program is a radio outreach of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Mechanicsville, Virginia. Pastor Rick has been teaching through the book of Revelation, but if you're interested in learning about a different book of the Bible, we have hundreds of past episodes available to listen to on demand. Just visit us online at crossreferenceradio.com and you'll find an archive of Pastor Rick's past teachings.
While you're there, you can also find links to follow our program on your favorite podcast app, as well as links to get connected with us on Facebook and YouTube. There's also an interviews tab where you can learn more about Pastor Rick's heart for ministry.
Well, we hope you'll join us next time here on Cross Reference Radio. Yeah.
