Today, Wednesday March 09
Lukewarm Hypocrites with No Value Revelation 3:14-17 "And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, 'These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. 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…”
The Church of Laodicea had become lukewarm. A lukewarm church is a church that is full of hypocrites! Why was it so important to the Lord that if the church wasn’t going to be hot that it should go to the other extreme and be cold. If someone is on fire for the Lord everybody knows it. Even the devil knows it and he is going to do everything he can to discourage you and bring you down.
If you are loving the Lord and fervently living for Him you are a powerful witness to those around you. People see Jesus in your smile, your talk, your walk and in everything you do. Some of them are drawn to Jesus and desire to know more. But others feel condemned by your godly life and they will mock, deride and oppose you.
This is what happened to the Apostle Paul wherever he went. One day the people thought he was a god and the next day others were trying to kill him as a devil.
To be cold means that no one even suspects that you are follower of Jesus! There is no evidence of Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. You look like, talk like and act like the world around you! You don’t read your Bible, don’t pray, don’t tithe and don’t go to church anymore! Interestingly, Jesus would rather you to be like this than to be lukewarm. Why? Because the greatest obstacle between a lost person and Jesus is someone who says they are a Christian and yet don’t live like it. You become their excuse for not believing on Jesus.
The harshest words Jesus had was for the hypocrites. Read Matthew 23 and see what Jesus thinks about the hypocrites. Here is a couple of verses from that chapter: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” (Matthew 23:14-15)
The Church of Laodicea had not only lost its vigor and fervency it had lost its value in the kingdom. The church proclaimed itself to be “rich, wealthy, and to have need of nothing'. But Jesus said that is was “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked…” I’ll never forget something that A.W. Tozer said. He said, that he had never met a Christian who was so heavenly minded that he was no earthly good, but that he had met many of them who were so earthly minded that they were of no heavenly good.
When we are lukewarm and living like a hypocrite, we are both wretched and miserable. We are wretched in both the Lord’s eyes and everyone else’s eyes too. And we are miserable inside! We have locked the Lord Jesus out of our hearts and lives and He’s not welcome there anymore. We forgot that “without Him we can do nothing!” (John 15:5) That is why later in this letter, Jesus says He is standing outside the door of the church, or the door of our hearts, and He is knocking and asking to be let in once again. (Revelation 3:20)
This chat might not be the most encouraging words to hear today, but for sure, if the world around us ever needed some believers with vigor, fervency and value it is now! The Apostle Paul put it this way, “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. (Romans 13:11-14)
God bless!