Welcome to Rock Harbor Church's channel on Sermon Audio. We hope this message is a blessing to you and helps you in your daily walk with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So please, settle in and grab your Bibles. Here's Pastor Brandon with this message. So I want to start on the Seventh Church of Revelation and then get to the rewards, obviously, of Laodicea. And obviously this is the last church of the seven churches, which also is the last era of the church age. And as you'll see, this is the last day's church. This is the church That's lukewarm, we'll talk about that. But then the rewards associated to Laodicea is overcoming Laodicea. So that's why I've taken the time to go through each church because the rewards are attached to overcoming that particular issue in that church. And that's why it's important to know what's really going on in those churches and not just look at the individual reward and isolate it from its context, because then it doesn't kind of make sense if you're isolated from the context. Anyway, hey Bruce, I'm not getting any feedback. I can't hear myself. I don't know if I, I feel like I'm shouting or something like that, I don't know. But anyway, so let's start down the road. So you know the interesting thing about Laodicea, it's a very, it was a very wealthy church. And when you go there to the ruins, I was there just a couple weeks ago, and you go there to the ruins, and it's one of the most extensive archeological sites there. I think Ephesus is probably the number one, Laodicea is a close second as far as how big the site is and how much money is actually going into the site. And it's funny that I was talking to Jan Markell about this and I said, this is interesting, Jan, and even Alfonso picked up on this and Ty and Keith picked up on it when we were there. Is this monitor not on, man? But anyway, what we notice is we go to Philadelphia, right? And Philadelphia is the remnant church, but yet the Philadelphia is the smaller element church, right? And Jesus says, I know you have little. So you go to the Philadelphia side, and it's like this little postage stamp of a place, and they're not doing too much with it, and it's there and surrounded by a modern town. But then you go out to Laodicea and they're throwing all kinds of money into it and it's massive and it's large and it's the contrast between the remnant church and Laodicea. The remnant church has very little resources, it's very small, it's a core, and then you go to Laodicea and all the money's there. And that's exactly what it was in history, and that's how it is in the church era. Laodicea was a very wealthy church, very wealthy. And most of the people that attended Laodicea, were from, I don't know what, I guess you wanna use the modern word yuppie? Do you know what a yuppie is? I hope you're not a yuppie. But Laodicea was a bunch of, a church of yuppies. And they sold a Phrygian eye salve, that made a lot of money that people bought. Some of the people that were in Laodicea sold a black wool, and that was very expensive and very rare to get, and it was very soft, and people wanted that. And then it was a banking center, obviously, because of the money and transactions going through there. So the people of Laodicea are very affluent, right? And so, They, this is the church in the midst of that. And so its church members are affluent. So if I look in modern day history in the West, the West is a great picture of Laodicea because the West has accumulated a lot of money compared to third world Christianity or second world Christianity. And as you can see in the West, the, Blessing, I don't know if you want, the blessing of a free society obviously produced a lot of affluence and a lot of materialism, and what ended up happening is the church became very materialistic, just like Laodicea, and the church became very wealthy. Now, that could be a good thing, but it's also, it can be a bad thing. When the churches have money, they can do evangelism, they can send missions, they can do a lot of things, and for the most part, The West was able to do that and spread the gospel wherever it went very effectively with its money. But over time the money became an issue and became the focus of a lot of things and definitely became the focus of the American church because now Some of our churches are bringing in such vast amounts of wealth, it's unbelievable, right? These pastors are living in, you know, multi-million dollar mansions. They have their own personal jets, you know. Some of these megachurches are pulling in like 50, 60 million dollars. You realize that, right? It's massive what they're pulling in. Like a Joel Osteen's and stuff like that, you know, these big megachurch. It's multi, multi, multi millions, 30 million. It's not uncommon to hear 30 million as far as their budget is concerned. I mean, it's massive, massive amounts of money. The majority of money in Christianity in the West is through the vein of the charismatic wing of Christianity. I'm not saying more conservatives don't, there's conservative churches that have money, but the majority of the money in Christendom is in the Pentecostal charismatic wing of Christianity. That's where a lot of the money's at. It doesn't shock me that it's there. I don't think it would shock anyone in this room that that's where the bulk of the money is in those types of churches, because those churches typically, not all of them, but typically they peddle a health and wealth prosperity gospel, and they see a lot of times material blessing as a blessing from God, and sometimes it's not a blessing, it's a curse. and takes them further away from God. Well, that happened in Laodicea. The money finally took them away from God. And what ended up happening in Laodicea is they started thinking that this material blessing that was on them was because they're so good that God was blessing them, and that caused them to mis-evaluate themselves spiritually. And that's a very common thing, I think, you know, in the West, when you see someone prospering materially, well, you think, well, you're blessed of God, they must be doing something right. That couldn't be further from the truth. Just because someone's prospering materially doesn't necessarily mean God's blessing them at all. It could be the devil giving them money because this is the devil's system and the devil rewards his own. I mean, think about that for a second, okay? If we're going to equate success and fame and fortune and power and all that to God's blessing, then how do you explain Hollywood? because nobody in Hollywood has an inkling, really, of spirituality, but yet they're all powerful, they all have money, they're all famous, or most of the politicians that you see in politics, you know, they're multimillionaires. I don't know how that happens. You go into politics and you come out a multimillionaire. I don't know how that happens, but you don't. And you wouldn't say that, yeah, you know, Mitch McConnell was blessed of God. You wouldn't say that. I wouldn't say that. But yet he has a lot of money or whoever it might be. Chuck Schumer. Would you say Chuck Schumer's blessed of God? I mean, would you say Nancy Pelosi's blessed of God? No. No, you wouldn't do that. So that's the problem we have in Americana, is many people think that money equates to the blessing of God, or health equates to the blessing of God. But that's what happened to Laodicea. Now here's the thing, this didn't start with Laodicea, I want you to know this. This mentality that material blessing is God's sign of, you know, of him blessing your life, that was going back with the Pharisees were doing that stuff. The Pharisees were even saying that. They were having a health and wealth prosperity type of principle. And in Pharisaism, if you were material blessed of God and wealthy, If you were healthy, that was a sign that you were in God's graces. And if you were poor, then you were cursed. Either your parents did something or you did something and you were cursed. And I mean, that's why they would look at the blind man and said, you know, you must have sinned or your parents sinned because something bad has happened to you health wise. I mean, that really is the health and wealth prosperity gospel right there. That's all that is. So there's nothing new under the sun. And so one of the applications then is to think about it in your own life. I mean, is there cases where God will bless you materially? Yeah, yeah, of course. But then you have to ask yourself why. And what you start realizing, if God is blessing you materially, it's not for you. It's for you to help others. It's for you to do something with that. It's not for you just to hoard money and just build your barns bigger, right? I think there's a parable in the Bible about that, right? Build my barns bigger. No, you don't build your bards bigger. If you are seeing God channel money to you, that means you're supposed to be a conduit for it to go out to help other believers, other ministries, or whatever that is. You're becoming a conduit for that. That's why it's better to give than receive, right? Because if you become a conduit, God will continue to bless you as long as you keep giving it out, as long as you keep helping others or whatever you're doing with your money. But if you decide, no, I'm gonna take the blessing that God's given me and then hoard it and just build my barns bigger, That's defeating the purpose, and God is not gonna do that for you. He's not gonna, that's one of the things he says in James is that some of your prayers are not answered because you would just spend it on yourself, and that's why he's not gonna give you certain things, because you would just, you ask amiss, is what James is saying, right? So I'm not saying that God can't do that, but when he does, what I typically notice is the person is a conduit for it. It just goes through them and right out to other people. It's not like they're building mansions for themselves and, oh, look at how wonderful I am. So I'm not saying that doesn't happen, but in general, so let me speak in general terms, money or materialism, if not handled correctly, as scripture says, can become a root of all kinds of evils. It's the love of the money, right? That's what ends up happening. If you start loving the thing, that then leads to the root of all kinds of evils. It's not money, it's the love of it, right? And that's what happened in Laodicea, they loved the money. And you can't serve two masters, Messiah said that, you'll love the one, hate the other. And so it's real easy to cross over and start loving the money because the money does give you a lot of things. Solomon in Ecclesiastes, he'll say under the sun, and when he means under the sun is not in regards to heaven, but under the sun as it is on this planet, as it is in reality, he says money is the answer to everything. for this reality, okay? It would seem like that. And money does cover up a lot of things. It covers up a lot of needs. It covers up financial problems. It covers up even problems in your family. I mean, You can see why money is worshiped so much because let's say you have like a pretty dysfunctional family. If that family though has a lot of money, that family can cover up a lot of that dysfunction. Oh yeah, there'll be still dysfunction. But if you bring that dysfunction to a poorer setting, it really goes bad. There's nothing to cover it up. There's not enough money to send someone to rehab. There's not enough money to support someone's addiction or something like that, right? So money does cover up a lot of things, no doubt about that. And that's what Solomon was trying to say in Ecclesiastes. It does make your life easier, there's no doubt about that. With more money, your life becomes easier to some degree. And that's a truism, that's not a hard and fast rule, it's a truism. Even ASAP mentioned this in Psalm 73, that he watched the wicked prosper, and they sleep at night, and they don't have any problems like what is common to man. It's true, that's true, they don't. They have different problems, but they don't have the kind of problems that you and I do. So there's a truism there, okay? And when you see that truism, you can see why this is an easy temptation to get into, especially those of us that live in America. I mean, all you have to do is travel outside of our country and go into a different country, even a second world country, not a first one, but a second world country. And you start really realizing, oh, wow, wow, we have a lot more than what they do. And it's not, and I'm not coming off of it as a communist Marxist type of mentality, like shame on us, but you start realizing, oh, whoa, like the poorest person in America, you know, is probably the richest person in some of these third world countries, right? That the average, what I saw last time is the stat is 75% of the world makes about $2 a day. Okay, I want you to think about that. that 75% of the world's making $2 a day. Okay, now compare that with us. So I'm not begrudging all of that, I'm just saying when I talk to like Steve Kern in El Salvador, and he's in a third world country, And he'll say, Brandon, we are praying for you guys in America. And I would always say, Steve, why are you praying for us? I mean, we should be praying for you. And he goes, no, no. And he goes, you have a bigger problem than we do. He goes, you have a materialism problem in America. And that's what I'm, he goes, we pray for you guys not to get into that temptation of materialism, of how bad it can get you. And it gets you off. There's no doubt about that, man. And I can give you tons of stories about this, but anyway, I don't want to belabor it. So this is Laodicea's problem. So before I go any further, the first thing you have to realize is it's addressed to the angel of the church. Every church has an angel, like I mentioned. It's not a pastor, it's not a messenger. If Christ wanted to speak to the pastor, he would use the term in Greek for pastor, or elder, or whatever. But it's speaking to the angel because the angel is the angel that guards that church, it's the watcher angel, and it's that angel that will execute judgment to that church if its lampstand needs to be removed, if it burns out, you know, and doesn't, continue to do what it's doing. And then that angel becomes obviously a testifier at the beam of seat to the believers in that church, and also to unbelievers at the great white throne judgment. So angels play a significant role in the church's affairs as you can see in the book of Revelation, they're all through it. The whole theme is angels, you know, as executors of God's judgment. So the first thing I wanna point out then, Laodiceans, to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans. The first clue you have about the problem in Laodicea is its name, okay? And that's Laodicean, and what you have there in Greek means rule of the people. So in this church, It's the authority has now transferred from the elders or the pastors to the congregation having all of the authority. Now, let me explain something real quick. There's a balance here with authority. So Jesus will tell the other churches twice, I hate the practice of Nicolationism. or the Nicolaitans, and Nicolaitanism in the word means rule over the people, rule over, you're lording it over the people, and that's what he told the disciples not to do, don't lord it over them. But he didn't say they don't have authority, or pastors don't have authority, they do, they're just not to exercise that authority. and spiritually abuse the people under that authority. So there's a balance there. And that's what Nicolaitanism is. It's abuse of authority over people. Okay, but then you have the other problem too. So you can have a top-down model that you see, and then you can have a bottom-up model in Laodicea, which is also a problem. And the bottom-up model means that the pastor's not in charge. What it means is that the people sitting in the pew are telling the pastor what they want to hear. And this is what we call, that matches what Paul told Timothy, the tickling of the ear. The pastor is telling the congregation what it wants to hear, not what it needs to hear. The pastor is self-editing. And there's plenty of pastors that are self-editing today. They are intentionally not saying certain things and you know what I'm talking about. They avoid every controversial subject they can because they want to appease the people sitting there. They don't want to run anyone off. They don't want someone getting upset or taking their money or whatever it is. And so what you have with Laodicea is the pastor doesn't have any authority, it's the people sitting there has authority because they're determining what's being preached from the pulpit, and the pastor plays into that. Now, that's a two-way street, no doubt about that, okay? So the pastors are playing into it, okay? They're tickling the ears on purpose, and then you have a reciprocal relationship coming from the congregation, you know, basically curtailing what the messaging is. And if that pastor stays where that messaging needs to stay, then everyone's fine, okay? That's how Laodicea is playing itself out. That's the church of the last days. And that's exactly what we're seeing. You know, there's books now that have been written, The Silence of the Shepherds. I don't know if you saw that book that came out. It's an interesting book. I think it's a good read. The Silence of the Shepherds goes through what you and I are talking about, playing into this. And so the authority then is coming from grassroots. It's coming from the person in the pew. Okay, now, bring that alongside what is also predicted for the end of the church. Apostasy. So apostasy is warned by the Apostle Paul that in the latter times of the church age, apostasy, the great apostasy, will happen. Okay? So that's a falling away or departing from previously held beliefs in Christianity to now not holding that. So for instance, 54% of Christians say that they approve of gay marriage. Okay? That's apostasy. That's apostasy. That's a falling away of a previously held view. Or, I can't remember the stat, but a good portion, probably 34 to 35, 37% of Christians do not believe Jesus is the only way of salvation. That's apostasy, right? or they don't believe the Bible is the final authority of their lives, that's apostasy, or whatever the issue might be, right, okay? That's a form of apostasy. It's something that Christians held as orthodox for the last 2,000 years, and now people don't hold those positions anymore. So that is going on at the same time that the rule of the people is happening. Okay, the rule of the people is happening the same time apostasy starts happening. Okay, well that makes perfect sense. It's like a perfect storm. So the people who introduce apostasy, Paul says will come up from among you. Okay, they will come up from among you and introduce it. So if the pastor is not in authority and holding the line and allowing the congregation to tell him what to teach, how does he stop the wolves in there bringing the apostasy in? And that's what starts happening, is the apostasy is coming from within and the pastor won't stop it. So well, if the majority of his congregation supports gay marriage, then he will not preach on that, he will not say anything, or he might even come out and support it, I don't know. But what's happening is the apostasy rises up within and then is allowed by the pastor because he's tickling ears, he doesn't want to offend anybody. So it's like a perfect storm. And then there's just flat out false teachers and there's false prophets and whatnot. But again, the false teacher and a false prophet are always going to tell people what they want to hear, always, every time. So there's like this perfect storm happening. So apostasy, on average, They say, the last stat I saw, and this is going a long time ago, that there is in America, or in the West I think it was, 75 cults per week that pop up. 75 per week that pop up. And that can range from people in their basement, YouTuber, and having 100 followers. That could range from someone starting some type of church thing or whatever, Bible study in their home, and it's totally apostate. It ranges from all over the thing. It doesn't mean that like a new church pops up and it's apostate. It's popping up all over the place in different pockets, and some of those pockets are small, but yet, It's having its effect all through the West. So because this church is ran by people instead of pastors, it tells you about the theological education of the church. And that's another thing I wanna bring out. I was talking to Jan Markell about this today a little bit on an interview. And the average person, is not theologically trained like a pastor would be, okay? We used to value that our pastors were educated, okay? And it doesn't matter if it's formal or informal, but they were educated on the scripture. They knew how to rightly divide the word of God, okay? And people expected that. Like I was telling Jen, I consider ministry, you know, it's a ministry, but it's also a profession. And we have ceased to be professional because we have people who actually go and get like a pastoral license online and then self-proclaim themselves to be a pastor. without anyone laying hands on them, any church approving of them, any authority recognizing them, any education whatsoever, whether it's formal or informal, there's no education. The guy just says, I think I'm called to be a pastor. I'm sorry, buddy, that's not enough. It's not enough to think you're called to be a pastor. That's not enough. You have to have outside verification and confirmation from witnesses within a church context that has authority. You just don't get to say, I'm the pastor. But yet we're having hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of that happening all through the West. Okay? And no one's putting it down. And so Joe Blow starts up a church, Joe Blow starts up a Bible study, and he's a self-proclaimed pastor. Yet he has no training whatsoever, he doesn't know how to do hermeneutics, he doesn't know his Greek, he doesn't know his Hebrew. I mean, imagine going to a doctor and said, yeah, you know, did you go to med school? Well, no, you know, I read some books, but. I think I got it. I was experimenting on some animals, and I think I can pull out the tumor in you. Okay? You would say, that's crazy, Brandon. No one would ever do that. Yeah, the funny thing is, how come they do it spiritually, though? They would never do that to their bodies, but they'll do it spiritually, and so you've got churches popping up all over town, and the first question I wanna ask the people sitting there, what is this guy's background, do you know? Where did he come from? It's not enough to say, I feel I'm called of God. I'm sorry, I've ran into dozens of people that claim they're called of God, but when you check them out, they don't pass the test. They don't pass any test. They just think they feel they're called of God. I'm sorry. We have to confirm that. We have to make sure you're legit. We have to make sure that this is not some wild hare in you because you feel you got a hobby horse that you wanna teach. But this is happening, right? It's happening, and it's happening all over Kern County, as an example. I mean, you've got churches popping up, and it's like I said, who is this guy? I don't know. Sounds okay. Okay, but what's his background? I don't know. He was selling used cars before this. I don't know. Well, now he's running a church. Oh, okay. And, Where's his training from? Who ordained him? Who licensed him? Who did this? Well, he just felt called of God. Oh, okay. And everyone's gonna sit there and okay with that. That's gonna lead to heresy. Because I guarantee you, if you don't have any theological training, you're gonna make a mistake. And I still make mistakes. And yet, I can't imagine not being trained and getting in front of people and trying to teach them the Bible. That would scare the life out of me to think I'm gonna go and teach the Bible and yet I have no training. in my background. And I'm not talking about a Sunday school teacher, I'm talking about like the lead pastor. Like where is this guy from? Well, I don't know, he was selling state farm insurance the other day and now he's doing this. No, that's not how it works. That's not how it works. But yet Laodicea accepts it because that kind of pastor can't demand anything from them theologically. He can't, because in fact, he probably doesn't know the Bible very well. And then that becomes the problem, and it leads into all kinds of heresy and false teachings. But nonetheless, that's going on. So Christ comes back and says, these things say the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. So you take this and you're thinking, well, why is he specifically naming these specific aspects about him to this church? Well, let's just unpack that for a minute. The amen. Okay? The faithful and true witness. So at this point, when we say amen at the end of our prayers, what are we saying? So be it. Right? That's the Hebrew for so be it. Let it be true. Amen, amen. Right? That's what the Hebrew means. It may be true. So Messiah is saying, I am the final say on all of this, not you, not the people in the congregation, not these crazy pastors. I have the final say. I'm the amen, and I'm faithful. I proved I was faithful, but the Laodiceans are not faithful. It's a contrast. to where the people think they're the amen and Christ is saying, no, no, I'm the amen. You think you're faithful, you're unfaithful to me, I'm the faithful one, if we're gonna talk anything about faithfulness. And the true witness, the Laodicea church is not the true witness, Christ is. Laodicea preaches an apostate Christ, okay? It's a Christ that, doesn't judge. It's a Christ that has a bloodless cross, or no cross at all. It's a Christ that's not the only way. It's a Christ that is not pro-Israel. It's a Christ that says you're theologically determined to be picked for salvation. You don't believe, God believes for you. It's that kind of stuff, right? And And it's not a true witness of Jesus. It's definitely not. When you have evangelicals for Kamala, I'm sorry, that's not a true witness. That's just not. That's just not a true witness, right? You can't support a demonic in saying you support Christ, okay? That kind of stuff. So he says, I'm the true witness, not you. And then he says, the beginning of the creation of God. So he's the, this goes to Colossians chapter one, where Christ is the beginning of the creation. He's the architect of creation. He's the one who actually created things. He is the memra, the logos that created all things. He's the word. So what we're talking about is, If you wanna think about it, God is the architect, and then Jesus is the supervisor that gets things going, and the Holy Spirit is the workers, the energizer for creation. So when he says, I'm the beginning of the creation, it's like I'm the supervisor. I got the plans from my father, and I'm the one that put it into effect. I'm actually the one that created it. And then the Holy Spirit energized it in the creation of it. Okay. The reason he says this has to do with what's going on in the church as far as creation is concerned. The problem with Laodicea is they're worshipping the creation rather than the creator. Because what is their problem? What are they worshipping? Money. Okay? So they have become materialistic and money-driven, and because of that, that means they're worshiping the creation now. You're worshiping that which should be sacrificed to God, that which should be rendered into service for God, right? So money is a neutral object, but if you love it and you worship it, it's becoming your God, right? And so this is why he says, I'm the beginning of the creation. You're worshiping the wrong elements. I'm the one that's supposed to be worshiped, not your money, not your materialism. So he's hammering that out, okay? Now, He says this, I know your works that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So let's just start with the first part of that verse. I know your works. Okay, so I know what you're about. I know what you're doing. I know the rule of the people. I know the silence of the shepherds. I know exactly what's happening in this church. You're tickling ears. You're part of the apostasy. Okay, I know your works that you are neither cold nor hot. So he's using the area of Laodicea to make a point to them. So if you see behind those words is the map in Turkey, and you can see the Lycus River down the Lycus River Valley. And you can see Heropolis right there. right there in the middle, and then you go down and you can see Laodicea, right? And then to the right, you can see Colossae. You see that on the map? Okay, so what's happening is from Colossae, it's a very high mountain. You can see that mountain right below Colossae. You see how where it's like a snow tip? So there's a very high mountain there in Colossae, and it has this snowpack, and that water from that snowpack flows down towards Colossae. So Colossae was known having just refreshing, clean snowpack water, and that's why Colossae was there. You have to have fresh water. And that water then went down and followed into the Lycus River Valley and went towards Laodicea. So it was cool and refreshing, okay? So then you have Hieropolis. Let me show you Hieropolis. Here's Hieropolis. That looks like snow, doesn't it? It's actually not snow. Guess what that is? It's the minerals from the Heropolis. So at Heropolis, you have these like hot water, therapeutic... You know like California hot springs up there, that mineral water, it's very therapeutic, okay? So people go there, and you can go there, I was there a couple weeks ago, right there, I saw that same mountain. That's all minerals, and that mineral is just like encased with hundreds and hundreds of years of minerals that have poured out on each other and built up this whole thing. And I know it looks like snow, but that's actually not, that's minerals. And that's the Hierapolis water. Okay, you see directly back, the mountain there with the snow cap, that's Colossae. So you see where the, that's where the snow, the water would come down and go into the Lycus River Valley. Okay, so when you're looking here, you're looking at Heropolis. Let me go back to the map. You see where Heropolis is on the map? Okay, and then it's over, you're looking, remember I showed you where Colossae is looking at that mountain? Okay, now I think maybe you got a frame of reference. Okay, so these mineral hot springs, you would go there. because it was very therapeutic, and people go there today. I mean, I stayed at a hotel right next to it, and people are going there, and the water's like 110, 115 degrees, and you go in there, and of course, with all the minerals, it feels like you're in the Dead Sea, and it revitalizes your skin, and if you have any aches and pains, this whole thing works on your body, and it's really good, and a lot of people from all over the world go there. Okay, but that's what they were doing in that day too. So anyway, that water, as you can see, all that calcium and all those minerals would flow also into the Lycus River Valley. And it would come down and you can see where Laodicea is. So here's what happened. The water coming down from Heropolis and the water coming from Colossae actually met together. and then from the two rivers formed one river, and that river then fed directly into Laodicea, okay? So if you have that in your mind, the two rivers, one cool and refreshing water that was drinkable, and now you have the hot therapeutic mineral water coming together, and then they mix. And guess what happens when they mix? The water's no longer hot, it's no longer cold, it's lukewarm. And the problem with it... You can't, if you drank it, the mineral content was so high that the immediate response that you would have if you drank it was to vomit it out of your mouth. Your body wouldn't take it. It would actually vomit it instantaneously like drinking sour milk. And so Messiah, so then he says this, because you are lukewarm, you're like the river that flows into Laodicea, neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. So that then becomes the determining understanding of hot and cold. So a lot of people, unfortunately, because they've never went to the area and they don't know the Lycus River Valley and how the two rivers flow together, they start interpreting this incorrectly. And they say, well, and then they pour in their own meanings, and they think, well, hot is being on fire for God, and cold is being cold towards God spiritually. That is not what he's saying at all. If you know the geography of the area, he is saying, look, I wish you were like the therapy waters of Heropolis, that people go and soak their bones, soak their muscles, their skin allergies go away, their cirrhosis, all that other stuff goes away like it happens in the Dead Sea. You'd be beneficial to me if you were like Heropolis. or I wish you were cold like the cool mountain refreshing water that comes from Colossi that allows people to drink that water and survive and it's refreshing and revitalizes people and from this, the heat that you guys are in here in Turkey. So both aspects are positive. Hot and cold are both positive aspects. The only negative aspect is the lukewarmness. Okay, so since I can't use the water anymore for bathing or soaking my muscles or for drinking, what has happened to the water? Yes, it's lukewarm, but what's happened to it? I can't use it anymore. It is useless, is what he's trying to say. That's how you interpret him. I wish that you were... I wish you were cold or hot, but because you're lukewarm, lukewarm means you are useless in the hands of the Messiah. He's not saying they're not unbelievers. He's not saying that. Because if he did, he would say, you need to be saved. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. It would be John 3.16, but he's not saying that. He is saying you have a spiritual problem. Because of the condition you're in, because you worship money, which makes them a worldly Christian, because you worship materialism, which makes you worldly, you're an adulterer to me, James chapter four. Those who love this world are an adulterer to me, okay? And not an unbeliever, an adulterer, a spiritual adulterer, because they're worshiping a foreign God, that which is money, okay? When you worship money and become worldly, You are useless in the hands of the Messiah. He can't use you. You're not available to him. He can't use someone that's worshiping money. So that's what he's trying to say. He's not saying they're an unbeliever, you're useless. And then here's the question to you. When you look at the swath of Western Christians, Ask yourself how many are useful and how many are useless. In my opinion, the majority that I see in the West are absolutely useless, in my opinion. They don't do anything. They are not fighting the culture war. In fact, they're the reason we lost. They're the 35 million that I said last week that said, I'm not going to vote. Okay, that's useless. And what did Jesus say when you get into a useless state? What happens to the salt when it loses its saltiness? It's only what? To be thrown on the ground and trampled underfoot. Because now the only use you can get out of it is for people to walk on. because that's all I can do. The salt doesn't flavor meat, it's not seasoning, it's not preserving, it's not doing anything that salt is supposed to do, right? Healing wounds or anything like that. It's now stopped, it's become useless, like Laodicea, it's useless. And so when you start looking at this and you take a step back, you realize, oh my goodness, that describes the majority of the West. And the reason for it has to do with worshiping money, them thinking they're large and in charge, right? And they're gonna tell the pastor what he preaches, right? Or else they'll leave, and they're gonna vote with their feet, and they're gonna vote with their money, so he's hanging onto them, right? And so now you have congregation after congregation that are absolutely useless. They're not doing anything in this world. They're not evangelizing, they're not discipling. In fact, what Warren Wiersbe warned about has happened. They've turned into a social club, and like he said, the famous line from Warren Wiersbe was, instead of being fishers of men, they have become keepers of the aquarium. And he's right, he was totally right when he said that, right? Keepers of the aquarium, that's all we do, holy huddles, we're gonna do this. But they're not effectual, they're not doing anything to affect the world and affect the gospel. Okay, so what's Jesus' opinion of them? I will vomit you out of my mouth. Okay, what does that mean? Well, again, that's going back to the reaction you would have if you drank the water. So here's the idea. If I try to drink the water, I will naturally vomit it out of my mouth. It's a reaction to the water, right? So what Messiah is saying is, look, I can't even use you. If I tried to use you, you would be like the water to me where I would instantaneously have to vomit you out of my mouth because I can't use you. So, yes, you're in a useless state, but let me take it one step further. Vomiting, or expelling it out, is a metaphor for, I will judge you for this. Okay? That's what he's going after. And this is where he means business. Because if I can't use you and you're saved, you are antithetical to your calling. You're not doing what you're supposed to do. So I will judge you for this. I will judge any Laodicea, he says. And the judgment's gonna happen in this life and at the Bema Seat too, okay? That's what can happen. And so here's the thing. It's not, It's not that sin will be accounted to them because sin has been paid for for the believer. What is being accounted for is them not producing good works, them not doing what they're supposed to do, them not sacrificing for Christ and taking up their cross and denying themselves, all that stuff, which then goes to a loss of rewards. That's what he's referring to. That's how the judgment will happen to them, is a loss of rewards. Okay, so, Oh, this is some of the hot springs right there anyway, and this is the Colossae River anyway. So with that being said, let me stop there and impress upon us, is there a way of getting out of this? Yes, there is a way of getting out of this. Any Laodicean believer can stop and arrest this in their own life, okay? And the first thing that has to happen is they've got to let go of the money. I'm not saying they have to give up their money. I'm just saying they've got to stop worshiping it. They've got to stop worshiping the materialism. They've got to stop keeping up with the Joneses. They've got to let this world go. And it doesn't mean that you stop your job and you don't pay your bills. It's not that. It's your attitude. Your attitude has to stop. Because here's what's gonna happen. When you look at this later on, The spiritual effect of what it does to them is it blinds them towards themselves. It blinds them towards themselves and reality and God. And that's a pretty scary thing to get into because he's gonna tell them they're blind, spiritually blind. Now these are believers, okay? And I'll show you that believers can go blind. But I want you to think about this on a personal level, how terrifying it would be to be in a state spiritually and not be able to see reality in front of you. That is paralyzing to me, to think that if I looked into the world and I saw what's happening next week, okay, as an example, huge election, right, big time. I mean, it's life and death type of stuff, right? And if I said, I'm just not interested, I don't care what's really happening. And if that truly was my attitude, you wouldn't even know that that's how bad you are spiritually, blinded to yourself and to reality around you. That scares me. That kind of Christian becomes very dangerous. And I don't mean like in a physical sense. They become very dangerous spiritually because they can't protect themselves, they can't protect their family, they can't protect kids, they can't protect anybody. They put everybody in a vulnerable state, including themselves. And if you think that Satan won't capitalize on spiritual blindness, you're out of your mind. he will capitalize on spiritual blindness and he will destroy you because of that spiritual blindness. And that I think is kind of the scariest thing to understand about this. So with that being said, we'll pick up on this next time. We'll get into the admonitions and how to get out of this condition, okay? Thanks for joining us for another lesson. We hope that this message is a blessing for you and helps you grow towards a more mature understanding of God's Word. For more information about our ministry, we invite you to check out our website at rockharborchurch.net. Until next time, remember, keep looking up for our redemption draws near.