Can we have another word of prayer?
Lord, we do thank You for the fresh reminder of Your amazing love: love so amazing, so divine. We thank You that we can be in Your presence, Lord, in the presence of One with such a heart of love, who has drawn us to return unto Him this day. We do worship You, Lord.
And, Lord, we thank You that as we consider Your Word, we can really look off unto You afresh and anew. May the words that we read and hear today truly be words of life, showing us in a fuller and greater measure, Lord, Your great love.
Lord, we thank You that Your love will not let us go. Today we put our trust in You, looking to You for Your anointing, equipping, and enabling for this time together. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Can we turn to Revelation 3:14? This is a letter to the church in Laodicea—everybody’s favorite church.
I really pray that, as we read the verses related to Laodicea and fellowship around them this morning, the Lord would give us an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying. I think, of all the letters to the seven churches, we can take and live with some of the rebukes in the other churches. We know ourselves so well, it seems.
But we have a tendency with Laodicea, more than any other letter, to push it aside and say, “It doesn’t apply to me. That’s someone else, Lord. I’m not lukewarm. I’m not like that.” This is the letter we push away more than any of the others.
And the more we push it away, the greater danger we have of that spirit of Laodicea residing within our hearts. So we really need to ask the Holy Spirit today to help us, so that the living Word within this letter could be quickened to us. We need to see what it is saying to us today and learn from this epistle.
Revelation 3:14:
And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this:
I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot;
I would that you were cold or hot.
So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.
Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,”
and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,
I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich;
and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed;
and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.
Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline;
be zealous therefore, and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock;
if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.
He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne,
as I also 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.
As we come to consider this letter to the church in Laodicea, we shared last time concerning Philadelphia, which is represented by brotherly love. As we come to Laodicea, this is often called the twentieth-century church.
One of its characteristics is that it has come out of the church of brotherly love. Those who had seen something of the Lord, those who had been touched by the Lord, can forget how they saw the Lord. In an unwillingness and with a heart of satisfaction, they settle into being content where they are. They also settle into a spirit of pride: “We have achieved. We have arrived. We are it. I know what it is to be spiritual. I am rich. I have need of nothing.”
We do not ever say those words, but our actions and our hearts can speak them.
One of the greatest contrasts between Philadelphia and Laodicea is that Philadelphia’s very foundation was love—brotherly love—because they knew that the Lord first loved them. The foundation for the church in Laodicea has changed from brotherly love to self-love.
Self is the focus there. Self-love says, in one way, “I am rich because I am important.” But self-love can never be satisfied; it always craves more. It is a contrast in one way, because you are saying that you are self-sufficient, and yet at the same time, that self is craving more and more.
So, as we consider this letter today, may the Lord help us to learn the lessons from Laodicea.
We know the two features of Philadelphia: the Lord commended them for keeping His Word and not denying His name. This contrast helps us see the condition in Philadelphia and the condition in Laodicea.
Within Philadelphia, whose word is it? It is His Word. It is our Lord Jesus’ Word. His Word is the Word that prevails.
But within Laodicea, whose word is it? It is man’s word. It is the word of man. Laodicea has left the Lord’s Word and started following man’s opinion, man’s custom, and man’s way of doing things.
They think they are rich. They think they know. They think that they have arrived: “I have seen something.” One of the things about Laodicea is that it comes out of blessings.
After we have been blessed, there is a tendency to focus on the blessings more than the Blesser. Out of that blessing, we start to think we are rich: “I know how it should be done.” It changes our whole perspective. Instead of the foundation being the Lord’s Word, it becomes man’s word.
Within Philadelphia, whose name is the center? Whose name is the focus of all? It is Jesus. They have not denied that name.
In Philadelphia, the Lord says that He is the Holy One and the True One. They did not deny that. They said, “You are holy. There is nothing common about You. There is a holiness unto You, Lord.”
But in Laodicea, the name has changed from Jesus to I: “I am rich.” Again, there is a focus upon man and self. This change has occurred from Philadelphia to Laodicea.
The real heart and foundation of Philadelphia is found in its name: brotherly love. Is this brotherly love from themselves? We know it is not. We can love the brethren because the Lord first loved us, and it is through the working of the cross that we can love one another.
In our natural selves, there is no way that we can love one another. We can, for a short period of time, tolerate one another. But as we go on, even that will end. Our natural patience will wear out.
But Philadelphia is founded on brotherly love. Laodicea is all focused on self; it is a self-love. I was reading the other day that the greatest testimony to self-love is: “My needs are not being met. Nobody loves me and cares for me.” That is the testimony of self-love in the world today.
It is a change of perspective. The focal point of Philadelphia, the center, is the Lord. The focal point of Laodicea is our own self, and everything has to revolve around that because we are the most important thing.
The difference between Laodicea and Philadelphia is a willingness to embrace the cross.
The unwillingness of self to pay that price is significant. The Lord says, “Buy from Me,” and we will fellowship more about that later. To buy from Him is to enter into a transaction with the Lord—to go the way of the cross and allow His life to be formed within us.
Within Philadelphia, there is a realization of being in Christ and Christ in us. They realize that they are created in the image of Christ, and that He is being formed within them. Their desire is that His life would be expressed in a greater measure.
But in Laodicea, what is the image of Christ? He becomes our Christ, made in our image. We know that God created man in His image. When we come to Laodicea, man creates God in his image.
Whoever we want Christ to be, whoever we want God to be, that is who we create. That is who we make Him to be. In doing so, we miss who He really is.
Laodicea has no place for the cross. In Philadelphia, they realize that the cross is the pathway to life. As we want to know the Lord more and receive more life, the cross is that pathway to life.
But in modern-day Christianity, in the world we are living in, there is an unwillingness to pay the price. When the brothers were together the other Sunday night, we were challenged that in order for us to go on, there is a sacrifice associated with it. It will cost us something.
Are we willing to allow the Lord to draw us to Himself? It will cost us our self-life. It will cost us our self-conveniences. Are we willing to go through that in this day and time, when all that we hear about in modern Christianity is that your needs will be met?
If you are an alcoholic, here are twelve steps. If you have this kind of problem, just do this and you will feel better. You have a certain problem; go here and your needs will be met. But none of those things are really taking us back to the foot of the cross, where we can see the pathway of life.
In Philadelphia, there was a realization that when they were born again, they were in Christ and they were the body of Christ. There was a beautiful testimony of knowing the body of Christ—not only knowing it in their heads, but knowing it experientially.
They knew it by being devoted to one another, needing one another, and understanding how we affect one another. Sometimes I pray within my heart that we would realize how much we affect one another.
The actions we do and the things we do affect other brothers and sisters because we are in the body. We do not see that effect many times, but there is an effect. If I get careless with a word, if I say something about a brother that I should not have said, it lets something loose within the body. That is a sin.
We really need to ask the Lord to help us see how much we need one another and how we affect one another.
When we come to Laodicea, it is interesting that it takes two forms concerning the church. One is exclusive. It says, “We are it.” They actually end up making the church too small.
They say, “Unless you meet with us, we meet on church ground, and we are the local church. Unless you meet with us, you are not in the church.” They take a truth and narrow it too much. There is an exclusiveness.
Or, on the other extreme, we get too wide—ecumenical. We either go to one extreme or the other. We either make the church too small by being exclusive, or we make it too big by being ecumenical.
The Lord is saying, “Where is the truth?” The truth always comes back to the simplicity of being founded on His Word and allowing His name to be the living Head. Once we get out of the Lord’s way of doing things—the Lord’s way of the church—and come into man’s way, we can come up with all sorts of contortions and different perspectives.
Now, in Laodicea, what do they say of themselves? They say, “I am rich and have need of nothing.” If you had to pick one word for what that is, it is pride. It is the sin of pride.
This whole aspect of being rich falls into two overall categories. One relates to objective truth. They think they are rich because of doctrine or teaching, and they come to say, “We are the true church. We have the message. We are it.”
It comes out of objective truth. They think, “We have received much.” Again, it comes out of blessings. The Lord has imparted His understanding, but they go a little too far. They say, “I know how a church should operate. I know how this should be done. You should do this, this, and this. You are not doing that; therefore, you are wrong.”
You notice a judgmental spirit. A self-exaltation and self-elevation start to come in: “I know how it should be done,” or, “We know how it should be done.”
We can even start to make the church smaller and smaller. In the past, I have read about what were called “overcomer conferences.” I would like to know who went to those, but there was a series of overcomer conferences.
What it is, though, is a subtle pride: “We are spiritual, and we who are spiritual, and really going on with the Lord, want to get together. The rest of the brothers and sisters do not really have a heart for the Lord, so we who are spiritual are going to get together and seek Him and go on and obtain more blessings.”
In the New Testament, does the Lord ever draw apart only those who are more spiritual unto Himself? He calls apart all and imparts His Word. There are times in Acts when the elders are called to Miletus, but that is more of a governmental position. It is not, “You who are more spiritual, come here, and the rest of you stay over there.”
Lord, keep us from overcomer conferences, and let us simply be the brethren gathering together unto Him.
In addition to becoming exclusive or having pride come in from an objective doctrinal point of view, Laodicea can also be very subjective. It can be based on Christian experience: “Because we have had this experience, we are it.”
How many times do you hear in Christianity today, “If you really want to go on with the Lord, you need this experience. We have the blessing; therefore, you need to come and receive the blessing. We have the secret”?
I was fellowshipping with a brother the other day, and this is one of the subtleties of the Toronto Blessing that goes around. It is like, “If you really want it, we have it. You have to come to us, and then you can be more spiritual.”
It is a drawing away from the person of Christ and a drawing back to one another. In Laodicea, this is so subtle because it comes out of blessing. How we need our hearts to be guarded and preserved, and how we need to remain humble before the Lord.
We talk about being humble and humility, and that is a hard word to understand. What does it mean? The definition that I have always enjoyed is that the humble person is simply one who is teachable.
Are you teachable? Are you correctable? Are you allowing the Lord to speak to you? If you have that attitude within you, the Lord can keep us.
As we go on in the Lord and the Lord blesses us so much in our experiences, we can become self-confident in our daily walk.
When you start talking about daily walk, you get more personal. You have to be careful with examples because everybody is different. But in our daily walk, things related to recreation, activities, dress, whom we associate with, what we read, and what we want all have an influence on us.
They can distract us. They can dissipate us. They can even defile us, if we are not careful.
The subtle thing within a Laodicean spirit is that we think we are mature enough in the Lord to handle the things of the world and that they will not affect us. It is a trap.
We think we can play with the things of the world—the good things. We know the bad things are out, but we think we can handle all the good things, and they will not affect us because, “I am a strong believer. I can be separated from this, and it will not affect me.”
We are Christian daredevils. We are out there playing with the world, and we think it is not going to affect us. But, brothers and sisters, it does. It can distract, dissipate, and even defile.
Would the Lord touch our hearts so that we could see His call to return unto Him? In Philadelphia, He says that He is holy and true. Holiness is not a matter of degrees. You are either holy or you are not.
We think we are so relative today. Laodicea is the church of relativity. But within our Lord, there is an absolute holiness to which He calls us—separation unto Himself.
As we think about this matter of being rich and having need of nothing, there are two indicators on which we can focus: prayer and fellowship.
One who is rich and has need of nothing will see his prayer life go one way or the other. First, he may never pray because he has no need. People who have no needs have no need to pray.
“Why should I pray for this day? Why should I pray for my job? I can handle it. Why should I pray for this situation? It can work out.”
Or prayer goes to another extreme: the whole prayer life is centered around oneself. It gets back to self-love and self-devotedness. Every time they are asking, they are looking at themselves, and the whole matter focuses there.
Besides prayer, there is fellowship. The wonderful thing about the church in Philadelphia—the beautiful thing about the brethren there—is that there is a horizontal relationship. There is transparency. There is fellowship one with another.
There is a desire for one another because they know they need one another. But within Laodicea, fellowship takes on a different tone. There is either no fellowship because there is no perceived need, or the fellowship is in a condescending way.
Have you ever talked with a believer—and I am not even going to call it fellowship—and felt like you had a crick in your neck from always looking up at them while they looked down at you? That has not really been fellowship. It has been their self-pride, whatever term of self you want to use, looking down at you.
Fellowship is a two-way street. Fellowship is a sharing of Christ’s life one with another. At times, we need to go to one another and ask for counsel and advice, but even in that, it is a coming alongside—both together seeking the Lord.
In that spirit of fellowship, we can really see how much we need each other. Brothers and sisters, we really need the Lord in a fresh way to show us how much we need each other and how much He loves us.
We can all subtly fall into a spirit of Laodicea. It may not be within our whole being, but we are compartmentalized. We can get along fine in one area, but stumble in another. We can get along well here and mess up there.
Even within our own selves, there can be areas in which, given a certain circumstance, we operate the way the Lord would have us operate. But given another circumstance, we can get into that Laodicean spirit of, “I know how it should be done. I am right.”
There is that unwillingness to take the cross. May the Lord help us and convict us as we consider this.
What is the Lord’s counsel to Laodicea? In the midst of this, He says, “Buy from Me.” He says, “Buy from Me.” He is the only source. There is only one source to which we can go.
As we go to our Lord and buy from Him, it is a personal transaction. Our brother reminded us at the beginning of the meeting of how the Lord desires a corporate body, yes, but there is also the individual.
We do not need to get so lost in the corporate that we lose the individual call on our lives. It is a personal transaction that the Lord requires of each one of us: to buy.
He says, “Buy from Me gold.” This gold speaks of what people call divine righteousness. It is the righteousness of God. Christ has been made unto us our righteousness, as it says in Corinthians.
But divine righteousness can become one of those theological terms. Let us turn to Philippians 3:8. To me, this is Paul’s testimony of buying gold. We can start in Philippians 3:7.
But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ,
and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law,
but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings,
being conformed to His death;
in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on
in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
That is buying. That is a transaction. It is counting all things—not just the bad things, but Paul’s great heritage—as loss.
What is the gold that he buys? “That I may gain Christ and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own.” That is the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, and be conformed to His death.”
That is gold. It is Paul’s testimony of his transaction with the Lord and of his willingness before the Lord.
When you buy something, there is a cost. On the Lord’s side, it cost Him His Son. We know that grace is free. But what is the cost to us? It costs us our self-life. It is counting all things as loss that we may know Him.
I am afraid that, within my own life and perhaps within many of our lives, we like to use the phrase, “I count things as loss,” but we leave out the word all. We count things as loss, but we leave some things. We say, “The other things I still really like. I want to enjoy those. I want to have a good time.”
There is almost a concept in much Christianity that if we leave this behind and come in for the Lord, we will not have a good time. But Paul said, “I want to know You more, Lord.”
The more we know of Him, the more we see Him. The more we see Him, the more willingness there is on our part to lay all things aside, that they might be counted as loss.
If there is something valuable within our lives that we are not willing to let go of, or that we wrestle with the Lord over, may we ask the Lord to let us see more of Him. Let us see more of His love, all that He is, and all that He has done for us.
May He be the One who adjusts our perspective. As we see Him, we can be drawn closer to Him.
Revelation goes on and says to buy from Him white garments. The garments spoken of in Revelation relate to what is called practical righteousness—our daily walk, daily works, and daily lives. They should be white, not dark or dingy.
How do our garments become white? Even though they become blood-red, they are made white as snow by the blood of the Lamb. It is a daily knowing of the blood and its work upon our lives.
In that, there is a separation of holiness and righteousness before the Lord. This whole issue of our works and our daily lives relates horizontally because it is to our brothers and sisters that our works are shown.
The gold is our relationship with the Lord. The white garments are our relationship one with another.
Finally, He says, “You also need to buy some eye salve.” You buy this salve and put it on your eyes so that you can see.
What are you seeing in this? It is a refreshing and renewing of the Holy Spirit, that we would be continually filled with the Holy Spirit and drawn by the Spirit unto Himself.
It allows us not only to see the Lord but also to see ourselves. The one in Laodicea is self-deceived and self-righteous. The only way a self-righteous person can be set free is through the indwelling Holy Spirit touching and convicting the heart.
If you have ever tried to argue with a self-righteous person, you have wasted many futile words. We do not win. We need to pray for that eye salve within our hearts, so that the Holy Spirit can open our eyes.
Then we can truly see the state of poverty that we are in. As we see more of the Lord, even though we realize that we are not rich, it gives us a greater appreciation of how rich we are in Him.
In ourselves, we are poor. He tells them they are poor. But in Him, we are truly rich.
If you were trying to summarize what the Lord says to Laodicea, you have the yearning heart of One who is crying out to someone He loves.
He does not merely tell them; He advises them. He counsels them. He almost begs them to repent and come back unto Him.
But there is a cost, as we have said. Between Philadelphia and Laodicea is the willingness to go the way of the cross. That willingness is in Philadelphia.
But in Laodicea, in this modern twentieth-century Christianity, you talk about the cross, you talk about suffering, and there are always alternatives: “You do not need to go that way. We can fix you up. We can patch you together and make you look all right.”
But you are really only fooling yourself. We fool ourselves as we wrestle with our conscience. That is why we need the eye salve of the Holy Spirit afresh within us.
The brethren in Philadelphia knew the love of God. Somehow, in Laodicea, they had lost that love. They had lost sight of how much the Lord loved them and died for them.
The preciousness of the table this morning speaks of how much He loved us. But there was a subtle self-sufficiency coming in, the subtle way of saying, “I am right, and I know.”
Every time the Lord shows us something, may we continue to go back to the cross.
As James says, the Lord is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. There is a grace there that allows us to go on in Him and know Him in a fuller and greater way.
It is never easy sharing on Laodicea. In one way, when you share on Laodicea, at least for me more than any of the others, you feel like a hypocrite when you are sharing.
That is one of the things I have been wrestling with all week before the Lord. May the Lord really work within our hearts. There is not much history or many external matters concerning Laodicea; the history of it will be written down in the future. But the spirit of it is before us.
It is a subtle thing. It comes out of blessing—out of those who love the Lord, who have experienced the grace of God, who knew the wonderful testimony of His Word and His life, and who subtly allowed pride to capture their hearts.
We know that one of the most blessed angels of all time subtly let pride rob him of his place. Pride is always there. Pride is a greater temptation to those who are strong than to those who are weak.
When you have something to be proud of, you need to return to the Lord and humble yourself, that you may be kept by Him—by His grace and by His mercy.
May we continue to walk before Him by the blood of the Lamb, in a clear way and with a clear conscience. May the Lord help us.
As we have been considering this series on church history, it is helpful to summarize what we have seen. It encourages me to see the great faithfulness of our Lord.
Christ is the center and focal point. Throughout history, however, man—whether based on emotions or intellect—swings one way or the other. It is our soul that leads us astray.
In the second century, through Montanism, there was a movement of the Holy Spirit that was used by the Lord to bring people back to the center. But man can become so focused on the experience that he continues over to the extreme.
The same is true on the side of intellect. During the Reformation, after the Dark Ages, there was a recovery of many truths, including justification by faith. The Lord brought people back to the center. But then man, in his intellect, turned those truths into a theology.
Yet the Lord, in His faithfulness, always has a solid line. He always has those faithful few. This should cause us to remain humble before the Lord, because history shows that man has always gone to one extreme or the other.
Would the Lord keep us on the center line, focused on Christ? Those who focus on emotions can begin to focus upon experience or the gift rather than the Giver. Those who focus on intellect can turn words of life into dead letters.
There is a word of life, and there is experience, but both are in Christ. In Him, we can continue going on together.
People have asked what I have learned most from doing this series. There are a lot of different lessons, but we started this series by saying that there are seven characteristics normally seen in the moves of the Lord—what we could call normal Christian church life.
We have seen throughout church history how these different aspects have been manifested:
They are not devoted to one another merely for themselves; they are devoted to one another for His glory. There is to be a continual separation from the world.
One of the things that encourages me in church history is the faithful ones throughout the times. Today, we look back and many of the men whose names we have mentioned are famous—some infamous—but in their own times they were not famous.
They were simply faithful brothers and sisters who obeyed the Lord. The Lord said, “Do this,” and they did it. They realized that they had a treasure in earthen vessels. There was nothing great within themselves, except a willingness to respond to the Lord when He asked them to do something.
They did not start with great credentials. Those who started with great credentials generally had to go down, and after that they could really be used by the Lord.
We see that picture with the Lord and His disciples. He did not choose the twelve disciples because they were the great ones of the world. They were the foolish things of the world.
To me, that encourages my heart. It gives me hope that we do not have to be something in order for the Lord to use us. We simply have to be willing.
Not to be something, but to be willing. If we have a willing heart and let Him use us, He can use us.
Another overall lesson from church history is the Lord’s love for the church. Throughout all the different eras, we see a jealous, yearning love. In spite of circumstances and situations, He gets the brethren through and carries them through.
In Ephesus, we saw His encouragement for them to return to first love. In Smyrna, there was a suffering love in persecution, but the Lord met them and kept them.
In Pergamum, Constantine merged the church and state. Yet there was a separating love, drawing people unto Himself.
During the Dark Ages of Thyatira, there were only a few brethren. The Catholic Church was being built and establishing itself, but there were lonely ones such as the Paulicians and the Bogomils—only a few scattered here and there. Yet there was a lonely love, and His love was manifested and kept them through.
In Sardis, as we came to the Protestant movement, the Lord encouraged them to go on: “Wake up. Do not settle for what you have. Push on. Persevere.” There was the persevering love of the Lord that draws us to Himself and encourages us onward unto Him.
In Philadelphia, we saw brotherly love. In Laodicea, His love is a holy love. It is not common; there is a holiness about His love, and He calls us by His love.
As we know from Ephesians, it is because of His great love for the church. He died for us individually, but He also loved the church and gave Himself for it.
Would the Lord refresh our hearts with the realization of how much He loves the church, and with His heart and purpose for it? As we are in various situations and go through various times, would we know the sufficiency of His grace to carry us through?
Another thing that touched my heart is that we have great hope because our God is faithful.
The Lord says, “I will build My church.” He will do it. Zechariah says, “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” and, “Grace, grace to it.” Romans says that it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
That keeps us in the right place. He has called us to co-labor with Him, but we also see throughout church history that, in spite of ourselves, He will build His church.
We have a choice as to whether we will go on with Him in this building process. But if we go aside individually within our hearts, He is going to go on. Throughout history, when those who had been used by the Lord departed, others were raised up. They carried on the torch of testimony.
May we not think, again in that spirit of pride and Laodicea, that the Lord’s purpose depends upon us. He will build His church, and He will do it.
One of the great fallacies within what is called restoration theology today is the idea that man has to create a perfect world, and then the Lord can return. Once man restores everything, then God can return and set up His kingdom.
The Lord is not that dependent upon man. He desires to work through us, but in spite of us, He will build His church.
The last four churches are running together. They are running parallel with one another now, until the Lord’s return.
The question we have to ask ourselves is: Which one are we in? Or you can phrase it another way: Which one is in us? What spirit? Which characteristics are in us?
In Thyatira, the foundation is works: “You have to do this to receive the Lord’s blessing.” In Sardis, we see so much of the mind trying to figure things out—the rational mind. In Laodicea, we have seen the basis of self-love and emotions coming in.
Whereas in Philadelphia, those are led by the Spirit.
Brothers and sisters, we know which one we want to be in. We just have to pray. Each time the Lord says, “He who has an ear,” there is that individual calling again: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Brother Nee tells the story of a couple of men walking down a busy street. Cars were going every which way, and there was noise all around—the hustle and bustle of a big city.
One of the men said, “Wait a minute. I hear a cricket.” The other man said, “What do you mean, you hear a cricket? There are cars going every which way. You cannot hear a cricket.”
But the first man said, “No, I hear a cricket. Let’s go over here.” They walked over, and up on the ledge of a store there was a cricket.
The other man said, “How did you hear that cricket?” He said, “Well, it depends on what you are listening for.”
The auto mechanic walks down the street and hears a car engine missing. He hears that it needs a new muffler. He can tell what is wrong with every car just by listening.
The banker walks down the street and sees money everywhere. He is thinking of money and listening for ways to make money. But the man said, “I am an entomologist. I study insects. I listen for insects. That is how I heard it.”
The musician listens for music and can hear music almost in any sound. But that man was trained to listen for the insect.
What are our ears trained to listen to? Are we trying to listen to the Spirit of the Lord? The Spirit of the Lord is speaking to us in these days.
May we have the ear—the ear of our heart—open to really hear what He is saying. There are many voices, many noises, and many sounds out there.
The Lord challenges us in different ways than we anticipate. At times, we can put the Lord in a box and say, “God does not act that way. Why am I in this situation if God acts that way?” But do we have an ear to hear what He is saying?
I am really blessed by the many young people coming next weekend—more than a hundred from out of town—to come and hear from the Lord. I am praying that they will have an ear to hear, and that we would all have an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying.
Not in a self-examination way, but let us allow the Lord to search our hearts. As we have looked at these lessons from church history, some of them come a little closer to home than others. Some are a little more uncomfortable than others.
But may we allow the Lord and the Holy Spirit to really touch our hearts and teach us, that we could learn.
He closes out in the latter part of the letter to Laodicea:
Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline;
be zealous therefore, and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock;
if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him;
I will dine with him, and he will dine with Me.
There is a two-way street there. He dines with us, and we dine with Him. He simply says, “Come unto Me and repent.” There is no barrier there. He is at the door, almost trying to push it open so that He can come in and dine with us.
May we have an ear to hear what the Spirit says. Let us pray.
Lord, we thank You for Your great love. We thank You for Your love that just does not let us go.
Lord, we see how, once we taste of Your blessings, we are so prone to become proud of those blessings—proud of what You show us. We ask, Lord, that You would help us within our hearts to come back unto You in a continual way.
May our home be at the foot of the cross, and may we testify, “Not I, but Christ.” We thank You for Your love that has drawn us. Thank You for so great a salvation.
Lord, we thank You for the heritage we have throughout these centuries. We pray that, as You have given these as examples for us, we could learn from those who have gone before us, that we would not think we stand lest we fall.
Be merciful unto us, Lord. In Jesus’ name.