Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 792 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Phil Enlow: Praise God for the wonderful truths we have to sing about. Praise the Lord! Let's turn, if you will, to Revelation chapter 3--Revelation chapter 3. I've had some thoughts come to my heart and I'll just trust that this is what the Lord has for the service this morning...beginning in verse 14.

Now this particular section of the book of Revelation consists of letters that our Lord Jesus sent to seven churches who were in Asia Minor. And so this was one of those letters. And so, really, if you have a red-letter edition of the Bible, this should be in red right here, because this is...these are words that the Lord Jesus uttered, not while He was on earth but while He was...since He's returned to heaven. So, I'm just gonna go ahead first and just read this passage beginning in verse 14 and then we'll see what the Lord desires to bring out of it.

"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.

"But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.

"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." (NIV).

Now this is a passage that's been used in a lot of different ways, but I sense something in my spirit this morning that is very much in keeping with things the Lord has emphasized recently. And I believe that what this letter embodies is actually some of the very heart...it's close to the very heart of what Christian faith is all about. Christian faith is not simply believing certain doctrines as doctrinal principles. It's not simply performing certain activities like praying and reading your Bible and going to church. There's so much more that God intends for us in real Christian faith and this is what this passage is dealing with.

Now I find it interesting that of all the churches, the problem with this one is that they had kind of settled into a routine. They had kind of gotten their lives in a place where they weren't feeling any real need. They were comfortable. They were...there was a sense of complacency.

And, what's interesting about this is that of the seven cities that were involved in these letters, this was the one that was most prosperous. And I believe with all my heart there's a correlation between material comfort and prosperity and spiritual complacency, I guess is the word. This was one of the more wealthy cities in the region. They were known as a banking center. They were a very wealthy community. They were famous for textiles that they produced for clothing. The things that they were famous for are kind of interesting in light of what He says in the passage. Another thing this town or this city was famous for was eye salve. There was actually an ointment that would help people...soothe eye irritations and eye problems and even heal things.

And so these people were living in a place where, apparently, there wasn't any real persecution, and they probably all had businesses and jobs and they shared in the general wealth. But it seems that the effect of this on their spiritual life was not a good one, was it? And I see that as a great danger, not just to us but to God's children in America, particularly.

It's one of the most difficult things, in a sense, to serve God when you think...when everything's kind of going your way. And even though, yes, we have our trials, we have these...we have things that happen to us, yet basically, we have it pretty good, don't we? There seems to be that dulling effect when we get...our lives become busy. Our lives become...somehow we actually, subconsciously, can make an equation between...well, things are going good for me materially, therefore, God is happy with me. Everything is wonderful. I can just kind of coast along and everything is like it should be.

You know, it was the very thing that the Lord warned the Israelites about in Deuteronomy chapter 8, particularly, a passage...I won't go back to it to open it, but it's something the Lord has used many times in our midst, when Moses spoke to the people and said, I want you to remember where you've been. Remember these last 40 years. God brought you through a terrible wilderness and he fed you with manna. Your fathers didn't know anything about it. You didn't know anything about it. This was a new experience for you, but you were placed in a position where you were very, very dependent upon God and you saw the faithfulness of God.

God was concerned about teaching you that man doesn't live only by bread alone...that is, material things. He lives by the Word of God. And I want to warn you because I'm sending you into a country that is flowing with milk and honey. You're going to inherit lands that are fertile. There's hills where you can dig copper and iron out and build things. There are vineyards that are already there. You didn't even have to plant them. There's olive trees.

You're going to enjoy a time of material prosperity, but I want to warn you. When you get there, the tendency is going to be for you to settle into that and forget the Lord, and kind of slide into a comfortable existence where you don't feel your need of God. And I sense in my own spirit, the pull of the comfort that we have in this country.

And it's...you know, one thing I want to say about a passage like this. It's easy when you hear something like this to say, oh, here's the Lord, He's gonna criticize me again. There's stuff that I'm not doing that I ought to be doing and I'm just...no matter what I do He's always got something negative to say about me. And here it is...there's something else I've just got to do as a religious duty.

But I see in this, as perhaps I have never seen before, that that is far, far from the spirit that I sense in this passage, in this Word from Jesus. It is a reaching out of a heart that is full of love for His people, a desire for a deep personal relationship that was missing.

( congregational amens ).

And how easy is it for us to get to the point where we do exactly what these people do? We kind of coast...we kind of settle in. We feel like, well, I went to church Sunday morning, and things are going good and I've got lots to do. I'm busy so I'll just kind of let...I'll let other things slide. I won't come to this. I won't come to that.

And you know this isn't designed to try to get on to people about what they come to. But I'll tell you what, the barometer of our spiritual life is the hunger that we feel. It's the desire that we have to change and to grow and to get nearer to the Lord. The farther we get spiritually from where we ought to be, the less we feel our need of God and the easier it is to kind of let things coast and slide.

You know we spoke recently about Paul and his...the one thing that he did in his life, the great drive in his life was to know Him, and everything else in his life he counted as just a bunch of garbage, a bunch of trash to be thrown out. But you know, you could take something like that even and sense it, or see it somehow as a religious duty. Oh, I've got to do stuff. I've got to...put forth this kind of an effort and it's me. It's like it's one sided.

But that's not what I sense in this passage. There is a Lord who reaches out to His people motivated by one thing, love. Praise God! He's looking down and His point of view of this church that says, I'm doing fine...the Lord's blessing me. I have money in the bank. I'm healthy. I believe the right things. I pray. I read my Bible. I come to church. What's wrong? Why are you so...you know, what reason would you have to say that there's anything wrong at all?

But yet here's the Lord looking down at these same people and saying, you don't understand. You don't see yourself as I see you. I see you as wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. There are things in every one of our lives we have settled for. We have accepted things that are not what God desires out of us as just the norm.

I'll tell you what...one of the great dangers that exists in any group of people who would serve God, is the tendency to compare ourselves one with another. Because if you and I simply look at one another, it's easy if we feel some kind of a need to look and say, well, there's brother So-and-So, there's sister So-and-So and they're not really any different from me. So, everybody accepts them. I must be okay. We simply compare ourselves one with another. But that's not the standard--that's not the standard. Jesus Christ has called us out of the world in order to make us like Himself...in order to fill us with His life and His power. And that's what this is about.

And there's a...I don't want to say...it's not in a spirit of criticism, it's not in a spirit of condemnation that He says these things. I sense an anguish in the heart of the Lord. I sense that there's a longing in the heart of the Lord. You know there was a time when this same Lord walked with Adam in the Garden of Eden?

Can you imagine what that would be like? for the Lord to come down and walk with you and say, Adam, how'd your day go? What are you doing? And Adam talks about the beautiful things the Lord has given him. He says, you know Lord, I found this wonderful plot of land over here and I'm thinking about developing it. I want to plant these beautiful flowers that You have created and then I'm gonna have trees. You know, the first landscape architect was Adam.

And so interested was he in watching the animals and learning all about 'em, and he said, Lord, I'm so glad You created otters. I spent hours today just watching them play. Lord, it's a beautiful thing that You've done, and You've made all this wonderful harmony and...but do you know something? The Lord did not just come down. This wasn't a one-sided relationship. This was something where the Lord actually enjoyed coming down and talking with Adam.

That's the side of the equation that we miss. It's the hunger and the nature of the Lord to reach out in love to His creatures and actually get pleasure from drawing near to us! And that's what I sense the Lord wanting to convey to me and to all of us today. He came down and spent time with Adam, interested in what Adam was doing with his day, interested in everything about his life.

You know, when He brought Adam to the...or brought all the animals to Adam, He didn't say, all right now, Adam, you're just kind of a dummy here, let me tell you all about...He said, Adam, what do you want to call 'em? There was a person...personal walking together, a relationship that He had.

And when Adam sinned what happened? The Lord came and what did He say? Adam, where are you? Adam, where are you? Do you think that was a cry of condemnation, of anger? There was a hurt. There was a longing. There was a sense of love reaching out to Adam. There was a sadness that was gripping His heart 'cause He understood what had happened and saw the terrible power of darkness begin to seize His creatures.

I'll tell you what...it's not a small thing. We need to see our redemption from the other side and see the heart of God. We sang a lot about His love, but do we understand it? Do we just sing words then we say, oh yes, I know the Bible says He loves us. Thank You Lord for loving us. Oh God, you love me. You really, really love me.

That's what this is about. He sees a group of people that have just been...their life has become routine, mechanical. They've lost their sense of any kind of purpose of why He called them to Himself. There was no relationship. It was just, Lord...hi Lord, see you later. Bless me today, Lord. I'm busy now. And the Lord was knocking on their door and saying I want you to spend time with me. I love you. You see what's going on here?

I'll tell you what...the Lord says, "I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire." You know when we wake up one day and God does something in our lives to cause us to feel our need of Him, a lot of times what He'll do is, He'll upset our nest a little bit. He'll put us in places where suddenly we feel a need. We feel, perhaps pain, suffering, difficulty, something that drives us to Him. But what is His purpose there?

You see, they had a...they had their own concept of what it was to be rich. It was that my life is going okay. I have plenty. That was their concept of what it was to be rich. The Lord said, you're poor. You don't get it. I want to give you the true riches. And what is the true riches? It's the faith that we have that He puts in our hearts. That's the faith that's like gold.

Do you remember what it says in Peter? Let's turn over to 1st Peter...1st Peter. He says in verse 3, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...." Now in the first place, if there's no new birth, there's no Christian faith at all. This is the beginning point. If God has not performed a miracle in your heart, there's no basis for any kind of relationship with the Lord.

But it doesn't stop there, does it? It says, "...And into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."

I'll tell you, conditions can come upon your life, conditions can come upon the world where your gold and your possessions mean nothing! There's only one thing that matters at that time. It's the faith that God has put in your heart to trust in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to stand upon a foundation that can never be moved even when the earth is gone. This is a foundation that'll stand.

But I'll tell you, God wants to build the true riches in our lives. It's a faith that's able, as I say, to stand in a time of test and in the time of trial. When the rich man who's trusted in his riches, all of a sudden he doesn't care any more. All of that's worthless to him, and he looks at you and he says how can you be like you are?

He says, I trust in Jesus. He has given me the riches that really matter. I wasn't content just to live a quiet little life and not ever really grow and change. I was hungry for Him. I wanted to learn. I wanted to spend time with Him. I wanted to become like Him. And He's touched my life and He's touched my heart. And He's put in my heart a faith that sees beyond bread alone. It sees that I stand by the Word of God. God has spoken to me. He's communicated with me, one on one, and I've learned from Him. And He's put something in my heart that can...that no...eternity itself will never take away.

Oh, praise God! That's what the Lord is longing to give His people. He's saying, you think you're rich but I see you as poor. You don't have what you need to have and I long to give it to you. Cry out to me. Don't be satisfied where you're at. Cry out to me for the things that you're lacking in your life. Don't ever allow yourself to be get satisfied.

I guess there's a theme here over the last several weeks, but I sensed in a special way last night and this morning. "...And white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness...." I'll tell you, that's the righteousness of Jesus Christ. God is wanting to so cover us in a practical sense with His righteousness and bring us into conformity with His righteousness. It's wonderful that my sins are blotted out. They will never be remembered any more against me, but He wants me to live and to walk in a manner that's pleasing to Him. I can only do that as I learn and grow and draw from Him.

I'll tell you, there's so much Christianity out there, so called, that emphasizes so many other things. It emphasizes a lot of do's and don'ts, some of it. Some of it just is a lecture series on Christian doctrine and if you believe the right stuff and you do the right stuff, why everything's right, and then you just go on and you live your life. None of that is real Christianity--none of it.

That's not what...I mean there are things to believe, there are things to do, but oh, they are fruits of something that is much deeper and that's what this passage is talking about. That's the longing of Christ in it for His people. He senses something. He sees a lack and He's longing to reach out to them and embrace them. "...And salve to put on your eyes...."

You see how He draws upon where they live even to illustrate what He's trying to do for them. You live in a rich place. Let me tell you about the true riches. Your community, your city is famous for the clothes that it makes, but I want you to have the real righteousness. Your community, your city is famous for making an eye salve to heal people's eyes. I'll tell you, you need spiritual eye salve. You need your eyes opened.

You know, as I've said many times, the measure of our...of where we're at spiritually is the sense of need that we have. That's a strange paradox. You would think that if I was in great shape spiritually I would just feel, oh, I'm flying like an eagle, everything's going great. But the most spiritual person I know, perhaps, after the Lord Jesus in the New Testament was the Apostle Paul. And what did he say? "I don't count myself to have apprehended. I press toward the mark for the prize. There's a sense of always...there's something more that the Lord wants to give us. There's something more that He wants to do and Paul had that sense of hunger in himself. How did he do that? Well, he just declared his purpose. I want to know Him. It came from a personal relationship.

I'll tell you as I...as the Lord was telling them this, listen to what He says. He says, "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline...be earnest, and repent." Now listen. What He starts with, He says, those I love I rebuke and discipline. This is...the whole theme of this thing is the love of Christ for His people. It's the intense desire of Christ to have an intimate, daily, personal, one-on-one relationship with His people. That's why I'm saying this, Jesus is saying. I love you. That's why I'm telling you what's wrong.

Notice what He said up in the beginning. "These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness...." You know you can get a lot of opinions if you just kind of go to the wisdom of others around you and the general opinion of the community you're a part of. But I'll tell you what I need. I need His witness. I need to know what He says, because He's the only one that's gonna be faithful and true to my soul.

He will never flatter me. He will never tell me something that's so when it isn't. He's always going to tell me the truth and I need that truth. He says if you're my disciple...if you really believe Me, you'll follow Me. You'll be My disciples indeed if you continue in My Word. Then are you My disciples indeed and you will know what?

( congregational response ).

The truth! Jesus said, I am the truth! There's something about being around Him that sets things in their true light. And oh, do we find ways to avoid that and the devil finds ways to trick us out of that kind of a relationship. And so we fall into this condition so easily. Where we think things are one way and the Lord is saying, no they're not. No they're not. You don't have what you think you have. You need me. You need more.

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