The Church at Laodicea

Well, good morning.

You can turn your Bibles with me to is this thing turned on?

You can turn your Bibles with me to Revelation 3, beginning at verse 14.

Now we go. Yep.

We continue study, and this will be the last, Lord willing, of the seven churches here that we looked at in Revelation. Verse 14 says, "And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, write: These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would that thou art cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, 'I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing,' and knowest not that thou art 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 ramen, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. And anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. And 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 sub with him and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and sat down with my Father in his throne.

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."

Wow, that's quite the letter. You know, I really do feel bad this morning. So we come here and we had a good start. We had very inspirational discussions, and we had an inspiring devotional just to stir us up to a deeper excitement about the Lord. You know, one thing about preaching the Word of God, we get to share the good news, the Gospel, the good stories, the exciting stories, the victory stories. But we also get to share the warnings, the hard things, the sad things. And I'm disappointed to tell you this morning I'm going to share about a church that is in a really bad way.

Jesus has put this in his words in a letter for us today. And hopefully we can find some good news. Hopefully we can find some hope in this letter this morning. It's not all bad. Because the author of the letter is Jesus. He introduces himself as the Amen.

The Amen simply has the idea of, "So be it." Wow, that's heavy, isn't it? So when we say Amen, it means, "So be it." I never thought of that. Recently, I was trying to come up with 50 different names for Jesus or for God, for a person that was texting me almost weekly and rebuking me as a Christian for using different names to describe God. To him, it should only be Jehovah.

And I was coming up with a list of names that we find in Scripture, and I missed this one. So if we don't know how to call Jesus this morning, let's just call him the Amen, so be it, a new name for Jesus in my vocabulary this morning. He's the Amen.

So let's look at a little bit of the contrast of the last message that we had on the church at Philadelphia. Remember, if you remember there, that was a church that was in a good way. And Jesus told them that, "I have the keys of David, and I have the ability, the authority to open doors that no man can shut, and that I have the ability and the keys to shut a door that no man can open."

And then he told them that he puts before them an open door. And to me, that's a good news message. He has this door that is wide open. They're not behind locked doors.

And I believe his expression in that context was to a church that was hurting, a church that was persecuted and tried and tested. And he said, "As a way of comfort, there's no one out there that has the authority to hurt you.

And therefore, look at me. I have the keys." In this church, we see another door, and Jesus is on the outside of the door, and he's knocking like a beggar, "May I please come in?" What in the world happened to the keys from the previous church we read about?

Who has the keys now? Well, he pictures this as the church has the key to open and allow Jesus to come back in and have fellowship.

What happened? How did this church come to the place in this sad situation where Jesus is outside the door?

Not only is Jesus outside the door, but he says, "I'm turned in my stomach." In fact, when I take you in, I think of vomiting or spitting. That word spew simply has in the Greek word, its definition is vomit.

Do you ever feel like vomiting? I had a one saved, always saved person challenge me very hard with his scriptures that once we're saved, there's no unsaving. There's nothing we can do to be unsaved. And I took him to this scripture. I said, "What did Jesus tell the church in Revelation?" He said, "Repent, or else I'm going to spit you out of my mouth." And I asked this man, "What do you think that means?" He said, "I don't know for sure, but it doesn't mean that you're going to lose your salvation."

Well, I said, "If it doesn't mean that I'm going to lose my salvation, I still don't want to be spit out of the mouth of God. Whatever that means, it's not good news." And Jesus assured these people that the only way that there's going to be fellowship again is through the gift of repentance, and we'll talk about that a bit later.

And I didn't know if this needs a title. I know often it's referred to as the lukewarm church, and I think that is true. But I think there's a much deeper problem going on than lukewarmness. And I thought of pride. I thought of independence. I thought of a church that's just simply comfortable. All the other churches we read about in Revelation, in the letter, there was some sort of a tension that was still there. It was a struggle in the church. Even though the churches were losing out, there was still a battle going on between good and evil in that church in some sort of way.

This church we come to, and the church doesn't have any tension. They're just comfortable. They're just okay with the way things are. And Jesus basically doesn't say that you're struggling here or struggling there, and they don't express any of that.

Well, this nauseated feeling that Jesus has when he drinks of this church or when he tastes of this church, I believe, is twofold. Because in the wording he says, verse 16, he says, "Because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot."

And then in verse 17, he says, "Because thou sayest." So we have two causes that are given there.

You know, the story goes of a mother once, and I think it's just a story, but it makes a point. A mother once said that she was going to cook a special meat for her family, and she said, "We're going to have something special for dinner tonight. It's going to be a special meat." And the one son, especially, was supposed to guess what he had after supper.

Well, she asked, "Was the food good?" And he said, "Well, yeah. I mean, I've had better, but yeah, it's okay. Well, could you guess what it was?" Well, he began these guesses, and she finally said, "It was dog meat."

And you know what the boy did? He went out the back door and just cleansed his stomach. He vomited. So you see the twofold. The taste, we can go beyond. And the lukewarm taste, Jesus can handle that. We can all handle lukewarm coffee, can't we? It's not our number one preference. You could drink it. You wouldn't vomit edso over lukewarm coffee, would you?

Lukewarm. We want it hot or cold, and that's what Jesus is saying. "I want hot or I want cold." Now, I know this has often been used to saying, "Well, Jesus can't do anything with a lukewarm person." That's why he's saying, "I want you cold, because when you're completely cold, there's still potential for you to repent and get right."

Let's hold on to that thought. But let's look at the history a little bit of this city, the city itself now, not the church necessarily, the city. So the condition of the city, it stood between Herapolis and Colosse, which were familiar cities that also had churches in them. In fact, if we read the book of Colossians, we will see that Paul is writing to the church at Colosse, and he's saying, "Now, I want you to have this read to the church at Laodicea." And I believe he refers to the other church there in Herapolis. If you look at the route where these churches were, the letter that was circulating around went right close by those particular churches.

So it seems like Paul had some sort of interaction and connection with this church. And it's also believed, according to his writing in Colossians 4, I believe it is, you get the feeling there that Paul had once written a letter to this church as well, and somehow it got lost or never got put in the Bible.

He talks about his epistle to the church at Laodicea. Now, let's think a little bit more about the city itself, a very wealthy city in comparison and contrast to Philadelphia and Smyrna and some of those. They were an important route. They were the hub of commerce. They had a textile industry, which was known all over their known world at the time. They had this popular purple, glossy wool that was produced by black sheep, and I want to talk about that just a little bit later.

Very expensive wool. That was one of their backbones, one of the financial backbones. They were also a banking center where you could get coins exchanged, gold for coins, and other items of deposit for local currency. So they also were home of a medical school that specialized in special ointments for burns and so on. And also, they thought they had the monopoly on eyesight. Any kind of eye ailment the person would have, it was just located west of the city. You would go to there, and you could fix your eyes.

And if you go and visit there today, I'm told you can find in the ruins evidence of an amphitheater with 30,000 seats. And in the midst of all that, you can also find results of emperor worship and all of that. So they had all that in there as well. But they were among the wealthiest.

This infamous earthquake that hit in some of the history books tell us in AD 17, others say AD 60. This was this tremendous earthquake that ruined, almost completely destroyed a number of these cities. And if you remember, we talked about that with the church at Philadelphia. They were destroyed to the point where they weren't even considered part of Rome for a number of years, and then some emperor come along and rebuilt the city and got it back going again. Well, you know what this city did when that earthquake hit, and they were destroyed? They said, "You know what? They didn't accept any help from Rome to rebuilt themselves." They said, "We got this. After all, we have the resources to rebuilt ourself."

And history tells us that's what happened. They rebuilt themselves. So you see a little bit, this little church that's operating and living in this kind of environment. We got it. We can handle it. We can rebuild ourselves. We don't need aid.

But they did have one major problem. This city had no water. The little bit of water that they had was so loaded with minerals that it was hardly drinkable. So just north and west of the city, about six miles, in the city of Herapolis, I believe, if you look at the map, you'll see that there are the hot springs of 95-degree Fahrenheit water just gushing, and it's loaded with minerals.

So these were the hot springs that people could go to. They believed there were healing agents in there with the minerals and the heat, and just getting a soothing hot bath in the mineral water was a good thing.

And everybody in the city knew that. And then east, 11 miles, Colosse was the city that we read about in Paul's writings. There were the cold springs, and they had just this wonderful spring. If it was modern day, I believe we would have a water bottling company from Colosse.

If you look at pictures of the water and the freshness of it, it just almost stirs your thirst to look at it.

And then what the city did for their own use of water, they had what they call water ducts, aqueducts. They had piped water in from five miles away. And in the ruins, you see pictures of these water ducts, channels, aqueducts, they called them.

And some of them were enclosed. It wasn't the modern plumbing we have today. And then there were some areas where they're just open, like an open type of trough where water is just floating through this trough. And this was all above ground for the most part, unless they're going through hills and valleys. For the most part, it's just sitting above ground. So by the time that water ever made it into the city, it just was hardly drinkable.

It was lukewarm. It's just lost its freshness. And that helps us understand a little bit the language of this letter. Jesus meets us right where we are, and he was meeting these people right where they are. And when he said, "You're not hot and you're not cold," I believe he was referring to the hot springs six miles north and west when he's talking about hot. "You're not that way. There's nothing about you that is healing or soothing or" and you're not like the springs over in Colosse. You're not cold. You're not fresh. You taste like your own water, your own water. And I think they knew exactly what he meant. I believe that was a message in itself.

Because when you took a drink of the aqueducts, it was disgusting. It was really disgusting.

Why was it disgusting? Because it was exposed to the environment, to the heat of the sun, and this openness. Maybe there's a few leaves that trickle down into the trough as it's coming down through. Maybe a few bugs or whatever. Maybe every now and then, there's a lizard that finds its way in through, and it just is disgusting. And if you're trying to drink the lukewarm water and you begin thinking, "Oh, was that a lizard I just" again, it's twofold. It's one thing to eat and drink lukewarm things.

There's another thing to let your mind just go a little bit, "What was that thing? And what is the source of this? Why is this lukewarm?" Jesus, I believe, is thinking in that way. This water is not only lukewarm, but it also has a deep reason behind the lukewarm.

That's how it is with our life. I think Dale's devotions this morning, he was trying to stir us up, right, Dale? You're trying to stir us up. Get out of your sort of lukewarm drowsiness. Patrick speaks about, "How do you say that? A kick in the spiritual hind end or whatever."

And I think of that. What is lukewarmness? Have any of you ever battled with just being a lukewarm Christian? What's it feel like, Gilbert? Pretty mundane. Anyone else?

I mean, that Eudicus, I think, was his name when Paul was preaching, and he was up there in that window in the third floor, and he fell asleep and fell to his death. Do you think he was lukewarm?

What was going on there? Falling asleep in church? How do we mark lukewarmness today? I love that story. Paul must have seen a lot of hope and potential in that young lukewarm man because he went and brought him to life again, went right on preaching.

Any more markers, any more things? How do we feel, and how does it look when a person is spiritually lukewarm?

Just not really interested in spiritual things, just unmotivated spiritually. I mean, those might all be markers or identifiers of lukewarmness. We could make a list this morning, but I think Jesus is driving to something much deeper. There's always a cause behind our lukewarmness.

Verse 17, he says, "Because

thou sayest, 'I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.'" I'm comfortable. I'm okay. I'm rich. I have need of nothing. That is a spirit.

That spirit is motivated often, I believe, by pride, self-sufficiency, independence. And that is the root cause, I believe, of this lukewarmness, is when we just don't sense our neediness anymore. We will, and this is for us today, we will push Jesus out of our life.

He will be on the outside of the door knocking. "Can I come back in?"

The spirit of the age in Laodicea, their culture of the city, was influencing the church. That's very obvious, the attitude, the spirit.

They adopted the culture of the city, and I don't know on what any other basis they had the authority to tell Jesus. Now, did they say it verbally? But he said, "You say that I have need of nothing." On what basis did they have that more than the basis of the spirit of the age of that time when the city of Laodicea said, "We don't need help from Rome"? To me, that expresses sort of a prideful, arrogant, "We got this." And that attitude and that spirit became the spirit and the attitude of the church. We see that in the way Jesus describes them.

I think of North America today. Here we are.

Does it feel like, as we described and looked at Laodicea, does it sort of make its connection to that spirit as well? I mean, after all, we live in a good country, don't we? We have really good authorities. We have a really good political system, do we not, for many, many years? We have a strong military team, system.

As far as the economy, the strength of it for years, I think, was the strongest in the world. I don't know where that is today, but we just have it pretty good. And I guess my question to us today, if the church at that time couldn't handle the affluence, the outside cultural influence, what are we going to do different today to survive this?

Can we survive it? Can we survive it? When I read this and I read the history of the attitude of this church or this city, I just couldn't help but think, "Well, that's where we are today. We are there. We got it. We really got this." And if you live in America today, we talk about homeless people in America. There are some poor people in our community that call themselves poor. But if you live in America, we're sort of rich, aren't we? My wife and I, we're in Hagerstown the other week, and a fellow walked right straight up to us and no conversation at all. He just simply said, "I need $2."

"Oh, you need $2? Well, I thought he's sure not asking for much."

And I could sense by the way he approached this that he was going to get $2. It was the way he got around, apparently. Well, he got his $2, a few more maybe. He was on his way again.

And I told my wife, "$2? Any more? What can you buy with $2? I mean, he's sure not asking for much." And she's like, "Well, if he goes $2 here and $2 there, $2, and everybody says, 'Well, he's not asking for much. I can afford $2,' and he goes from person to person, he's a rich man. He lives in America. He has his needs met." We were at the Harkin House Wednesday evening. There was a young man there off the street. I didn't recognize him. I said, "Who are you?" "Oh, I'm so-and-so. I come in here every Wednesday night for a meal." "Oh, okay."

And probably Tuesday night, he's over at the room. I don't know. But you see what I'm saying? When we live in America, even though we live in the street, our needs, for the most part, are being met.

What about those of us that work and take responsibility? I can't believe the resources that we can tap into. How are we going to survive this when our needs are all met? How are we going to shun that spirit that says, "I don't need anything"?

What are we going to do different is the question.

I think there's things we face here they didn't back in Laodicea. We have that thing called the internet today. Did they have it back then? There's something about our system today. I feel every year it's getting worse. I can hardly do business with people anymore. I mean, I make major purchases on the internet, and then on their auction sites, their ad is that we take no responsibility in loading equipment. You make appointments through email, and you honor the open hours of our business, and you come and you load your own equipment. I can spend $30,000 on the internet and not see one person in the whole process.

There's that push. This week, I called my credit card company to make some changes on my credit card deal and finally got a hold of a person, and she said, "Oh, your request, yes, but we can't do that on the phone. You got to go online." I'm like, "You mean we can't talk about this?" "Nope. We can't do it. It all has to be done online."

We don't need relationships anymore, do we? We do online shopping. We do online banking. We do online almost any push anymore. Now, here, they're doing online dating. How's that go? Do you think the time ever will come that we do online marriages?

That would be pretty cool, wouldn't it? We get an argument, and we just turn each other off. But you see the whole push is, "I don't really need people in my life anymore." I think that spirit can enter right into the church.

I don't really need my brothers after all because my needs are met. I have money.

All my needs are met. If I don't have quite enough, I just go after more. I don't need accountability, really, do I? After all, why would I? Relationships are hard work anyway. Can we do it online somehow? Now, we have churches online.

"I have need of nothing" is a spirit of the age. I think it was on a T-shirt, a bold writing recently, that said something to the effect, "I don't need you. I need money."

Is that a spirit of the age, and is that going to move into our churches and destroy us?

And what are we going to do to guard against that?

Jesus, let's look at His life. If there was anyone that ever walked on the streets of this earth and had the authority or the backup to say that, it would have been Jesus because, after all, Jesus was God. He was perfect. While He was a human being, He was still God.

But Jesus told His disciples when He was in His trial, when He was facing big things, when He went to the garden, He told His disciples, "Can't you?" He asked, "Can't you even be with me and watch with me for one hour?"

And when Jesus, before He went to the cross and His trials, remember He told His disciples, "I really desire to eat this meal with you." Why did Jesus need people in His life? What about the Apostle Paul? We're going to see that in Romans 1. Come and write up in our discussion.

There was a plea in that letter, "I need you. How I long to come to you." And I think He said it something like this, that, "I may be refreshed in you and you in me." In other words, we need godly, brotherly fellowship. If Paul needed that, do we need that today?

Do we need it? If Jesus needed that, do we need it? Do we need it? Do I need direction in my life from my brothers?

Is that one of the secrets to survival in the age that we live in? Do I need counsel? Do I need help?

Well, Jesus said, as He looked into this church, He said, "Your real condition is you say you're rich.

You're comfortable, but I say you're miserable. You're wretched." The word wretched is a prison language. It's the same word Paul uses in Romans 7 when he says, "Oh, wretched man that I am." Basically, Jesus is telling this church that you are miserable, locked-up people in your own prison, and you don't know it.

And then He tells them, "You're poor." And they're like, "Really?

We live in the wealthiest city there is around here. Really?" He said, "You're poor." And then He says, "You're blind. Really? Didn't you know we have a medical clinic up the road here that specializes in eye ailments, and we can go and get our eyes fixed?" Jesus said, "You're blind."

And then He says, "You're naked."

"Naked? Really?"

I'm very interested in this subject right here because we read throughout the Bible that purple clothing was the elite clothing. It was what the rich people wore. And I always thought these clothing that they wore back in those days had some artificial dye in them or whatever, but I came across an article about sheep. I found this interesting. Here in America, we have black sheep or we have white sheep.

Well, what they had, they were black sheep, and then with those high minerals in their water, this brought a purple shine, a glossiness to their wool. And I saw pictures of them. Beautiful. Those sheep are just breathtaking when you look at them. Their wool is dark purple. It just has a purple shine to it. And they tell me that has to do with the high minerals in their water they drink.

Laodicea got onto something here. They were raising these sheep, and it put them up a notch, big time, and their purple wool was known all across their known world. If you weren't wearing the purple that Laodicea produced with these sheep, you weren't cool.

And now, Jesus blows their bubble, and He says, "You are naked. You are naked. How can this be?"

This is a sad predicament. It's a sad commentary, a sad story of a church full of people, isn't it?

And then we come to verses 18 and 20, and Jesus offers them the gift of repentance. Verse 19, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent." And then He gives them a key.

And I like to think that in these keys of repentance, He's also giving them a key to the door to open the door through repentance.

First of all, in verse 18, He says, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold that has been tried in the fire."

There's three things that this church had wrong.

Was one, was their values. Now, in that particular city, you could go to almost just like America here. You can go and shop wherever you want to shop, and you can have all these flavors of shops and stores.

And Jesus said, "I have a shop too. And when you go shopping again, I want you to go to my shop, and there you will learn that the values are different. There's a whole different culture behind this."

First of all, He's saying you got to change your value system. The first step towards repentance for you folks is to get your value system right. It's going to be gold. They're familiar with that, but are they familiar with the gold that is pure, that has eternal value, that has been tried in the fire, that will shape? Now, remember, then He says that you might be rich. So He's talking about values. He's talking about qualities of different types of values. The church at, I believe it was Smyrna, that poor, persecuted church, He said, "I know your poverty, but you're rich."

And here, He's saying, "You're poor, but you're going to be rich."

Jesus' prayer just before He was in John 17, that familiar prayer that Jesus prayed, "The hour is come," He says, in His prayer to God, "Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may glorify Thee." And this is just before Jesus is going to be put to trial on the cross and go through that. And I look at that, and I say, "Jesus, we look to He's already glorified." But Jesus is in His prayer saying, "I need to go through another process so that you can be glorified in Me."

And that's a lesson for us. When we change our value system, Jesus never told us it's going to be an easy, comfortable road, but are we willing to take the way of the cross? That's what Jesus was asking for in His prayer, I believe.

And we, many of us, by choice or not choice, we face some really hard things. And what are we going to allow that the fire, the trial? I believe Jesus here is asking for a character that is beautiful. When He says, "God, I need to get back to be like You. I must go through this process."

I have a brother, a blood brother, one of my blood brothers, that has gone through some pretty difficult times into their first, I don't know, first five years after he was married. Maybe he was involved in a pretty serious farm equipment accident where he was hanging between life and death for a number of days.

He did survive that, and shortly after he was through that, his wife was diagnosed with cancer, and she battled cancer for several years maybe, and then she died at age 26.

And then you think that's about enough for one man. His young daughter, after the mother died, his young daughter was trying to be responsible over household things very young, and somehow she got gasoline and kerosene confused in a container.

And whatever she was doing to start a fire for cooking, I don't remember those details, but she had gasoline, and there was an explosion, and she was burnt severely for months and months. I mean, to the point where she lost her hearing. They thought there again they were going to lose her.

But as I watch my brother go through all of this back to back, it makes you wonder, why does one man have to face so many deep trials? But my brother came out of that as a very sweet, a very kind, a very graceful, just a beautiful person. And Jesus is telling this church, "I want you to get your priorities different. I want you to value the things that I value." When Job was tried the way he was tried, remember his testimony was, "He knoweth the way that I take.

When I am tried, I shall come forth as gold."

And folks, this morning, if we get our values, the world is going to say, "I want to keep you comfortable." That was Laodicea. I mean, we want to keep you comfortable. We live in America, and America is geared to keep us comfortable.

And when that spirit enters into the church, we just want to be comfortable. Jesus never promised us a comfortable road, did He? In fact, He said, "It's all about suffering. It's all about pain." And all of His followers in the Bible, we see the apostles, every one of them, I believe, was martyred. Maybe John had a but thought to be martyred. I mean, John the Baptist. I mean, here comes this man, and in one of his first sermons, he just maybe rebukes and points and warns another man for being with a woman he shouldn't be with, and it cost him his head. Just like that. It's over.

Another thing that is bringing out here they had a problem was their identity.

He said, "I want you to go and not just get rid of that nice purple coat." In fact, in His eyes, they were naked. "You're not just to swap out your purple garments for a white garment, but we need to get some white garments put on you, whatever that means." We like to spiritualize these things. Can we get a little practical? In the Bible, we had garments that identified the priest and the king, the harlot. We had garments there that would identify the rich and the poor.

Today, we have garments that identify the sports figure. We have garments that identify the Western cowboy. We have garments that identify the actor and the actors, the stars, the punks, the rednecks, you name it, Hollywood. In fact, I was in there looking for a pair of reading glasses the other week, and this thing came up on that slogan that I didn't appreciate. I didn't know what it meant, but it says there, "Who's behind these Foster Grants," I believe.

I'm like, "I just didn't feel good about that slogan." And I looked for a pair of reading glasses, and I found nothing else but that in that particular store. Did a little research, Foster Grant. What's behind this slogan? Well, it goes back almost 100 years ago, the first sunglasses put together by this company just very innocently.

And then one day, a movie star from Hollywood, her name, I believe, was Raquelle, can't say the last name now.

Welsh. Welsh. Welsh, there you go. And somebody saw her. It's like, "Who's behind those Foster Grants?" And the company picked up and put that on as a slogan, and their sales went crazy, basically all over the world.

Our culture shapes us when we don't have Jesus. I don't mind wearing these glasses if they're a good pair of glasses and they're reliable, but I don't really want to be identified with Rachelle Welch. I mean, I think she was a very wicked woman, very popular, but I think you get my point. These people had garments on that identified. They lost their identity of Jesus in the mix of the shuffle.

There was another group of people once, and in the book of Revelation, we read about them. There was John the Revelator, who was able to see and get a glimpse of the people of God. There was a large number, and they were clothed in robes of white, and the question was asked, "Who are these people?" We could say, "Who's beyond? Who's behind those white robes? Who is it?"

And the answer came back and said, "They are those that have been washed. They've been with Jesus. They've been sanctified and washed in the blood of the Lamb." Do you know clothing today is an identifier wherever we go, and it's still there in Revelation? White garments in the Bible speak of purity, speak of righteousness, speak of sanctification.

And I have the question for us. When we go out and about today, and we do our shopping, and we look for clothing, do they have the expression of purity, modesty, separation, holiness, sanctified? Do they speak of Jesus, my Savior, or do they make a connection with some ungodly, immoral society?

What are we going to do today? How are we going to keep ourselves and keep Jesus inside with us? Do we want to identify with God and His people or with the system of Laodicea?

Well, it's getting time to be closing here.

The overcomers. I can't overlook these last two verses here.

He has a word to the ones that will repent, the ones that will open the door, the ones that will take the key and allow Jesus in. "You overcome," it says, "you will get to be with Me." Do you notice that?

You're going to be with Me right next to My throne, in My throne, verse 21, in My throne. So reason number one to really encourage us, to challenge us, to hold on and to hang tight, to cast our lot with Jesus and His people because there's a good news promise here. You get to do something that James and John couldn't. Remember when John, I believe it was James and John, were discussing, and Jesus said they came to Him and said, "Hey, we have a request." Jesus says, "What is it?

Could we get to sit right next to You in Your glory?"

And here Jesus says, "You get to. You get to be with Jesus right next to Him." Now, I don't know what that does for you today. Who's Jesus? We never met Jesus. We never walked with Him. But I want to clue you in a little bit. All those that walked with Him on this earth could hardly let Him go. His disciples, when He was tried, when He went to the cross, those women that followed Him, those that wanted to be at His burial, those that came on Resurrection morning to the tomb just to be with Jesus, His body, the disciples that saw Him ascend, they were there like this, "Oh, dear," longing after Him. They didn't want to let Him go.

Zacchaeus, he wanted to see Jesus. He wanted to be with Jesus. He ran ahead and into the tree. And we could go down through the list of those that were in the presence of Jesus. Think of Peter when Jesus said really hard things to the disciples and the Pharisees, and one by one, they walked away and deserted Him.

And Jesus turns around, "Peter, are you going to go away too?" "No," I think, "to His disciples. Are you going to leave Me as well?" And Peter says, "Where would we go? We have nowhere to go." That is very telling that all those that were in the presence of Jesus, even though He told them hard things, they just wanted to be with Jesus.

And I believe that is, like I say, we've never saw Jesus. We've never seen Him face to face, but there is that promise that we can be with Him. And the other thing is Revelation. We're finishing up here.

I don't claim to understand the book of Revelation in detail very well, but as I go through the book of Revelation, there's one thing that is very clear. All the scary things that happen in the book of Revelation maybe will happen yet.

Jesus and His people are always the winners, and He tells us that in this verse.

To those that overcome,

in verse 21, "To Him that overcometh, I will grant to sit with Me and My throne, even as I also overcame, even as I also overcame." In this world, we have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. And Jesus is going to be the winner. In the end, after the dust settles and Revelation is finished and with all its beasts and all its dark powers and all its rulers and all that scary stuff we read about, those beasts with horns and tongues and whatever else it is, after the dust is settled, Jesus is going to be the winner.

And folks, we want to be on His side, and that starts today. I want to thank you for paying attention and staying with me through this study. I thoroughly enjoyed looking into these churches and the letters and the warnings, the blessings, and what can we learn and take away. God bless you. Anything from any of you before we close?