For I would have you know how greatly I strive for you, and for them at Laodicea.
—Colossians 2:1
For I bear him witness, that he hath much labor for you, and for them in Laodicea.
—Colossians 4:13
Salute the brethren that are in Laodicea.
—Colossians 4:15
And when this epistle hath been read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans.
—Colossians 4:16
Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may apprehend that for which also I was apprehended by Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I count not myself yet to have apprehended: but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before,
I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded.
—Philippians 3:12-15
We will hold those scriptures in mind while we sing another hymn.
In these closing messages of the third chapter of Revelation, we reach the concluding phase of the first movement of the written Word toward the consummation of divine purpose in this age.
Throughout this time, we have sought to have the great end of God for His Church overshadowing everything, and to keep it clearly in view. For what we have here in the first part of this great book, and in the later chapters, is the purpose of God in our salvation.
All that we have read this evening says that Paul was on full stretch to apprehend that for which he had been apprehended by Christ Jesus. Then, without defining exactly what that object or purpose was, he did name the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
It was unto that that he conceived himself as having been apprehended by Christ Jesus: not only to be saved, but to be brought to a great and glorious destiny in and by Christ Jesus. He calls it the prize of the high calling.
The end of this present part of the book of Revelation brings us, there in the church, to the goal. The intention of the book is to get the Church ready for the end, for the great time of crisis in view.
At the end of this first part of the book, which has to do with the Church, we are told what it was that Paul meant by the prize of the high calling. This is it:
He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with Me in My throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with My Father in His throne.
—Revelation 3:21
That is the great object and goal for which people are saved and apprehended by Christ Jesus: the prize of sharing with Him the throne-government of this universe.
That is the meaning of Christianity. That is in the heart of the Lord in giving the gospel, in appealing to men. It is that, dear friends, that is in view in our Christian life—nothing less than that.
It is a great calling, a high calling, a wonderful prize: throne-sharing with Christ in government.
Well, it is, of course, quite significant, is it not, that that is the last note in this phase, this section of the book? We can say, because it is quite true, that it has been there that has governed all that has gone before.
The wonderful presentation of the Lord Jesus in person in Revelation 1 was in order that, by showing His victory and the glory of His risen Person, the standard should be set.
Then, through all these seven messages to the seven churches—representing by their very number the whole Church in all ages—in all that is said through these, this thing is governing. This end is overshadowing. It is to this that everything is moving.
The judging and the condemning, and the demand to put away everything that would frustrate that end; and the encouraging and the exalting in relation to those things that will help toward that end—the end governs everything. The prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus: let that be in view.
That explains everything. It explains all the Lord’s dealings with His people.
If, at all times when the Lord is dealing with us, we could but pause, inquire, and think, “What is the meaning of this? Why this?” and allow ourselves to entertain this great governing truth—He is getting us ready for the throne; He is doing something now that relates to that glorious end—it would be a tremendous help.
He is paving the way. He is preparing us. He is cancelling out things in us that would hinder our progress toward that end. He is seeking to inculcate and develop in us the things that will hasten us toward that end. If only we could be convinced that that is exactly what it all means, it would be a tremendous help.
Now, you notice the Lord says that quite clearly to His people in these letters. We were thinking earlier in the day about that suffering church, that suffering church: “Be thou faithful unto death.” The Lord simply told them in plain language that their tribulation was all with a spiritual and divine purpose, and quite clearly to prepare them, to qualify them, for their great eternal destiny.
That is how it is.
I think, dear friends, perhaps our obsession with the importance of this life is often a great limitation upon our appreciation of the heavenly calling.
We make far too much of this life from one standpoint; from another, perhaps we do not make enough of it. From one standpoint, we make far too much of it: if we do not see everything accomplished here and now in this lifetime, all our hopes and expectations realized, then we are disappointed people.
The Lord never looks at it like that. Never has anything been made perfect in the lifetime of any believer, except the Lord Jesus. Just like that.
On the other hand, perhaps we do not make enough of the tremendous importance of what the Lord is trying to do with us in this lifetime. However, be that as it may, there is this that stands over our lives now, these lives here: this tremendous heavenly calling unto which we have been apprehended by Christ Jesus.
But unto the realization of that, or what Paul calls the attaining unto that, several things are necessary. In this message to the church in Laodicea, the Lord makes perfectly clear what is essential in the final issue.
He does that, in the first place, by presenting Himself in three terms. You notice how He introduces Himself here:
These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.
—Revelation 3:14
They may not be very clear as to what it really means. Well, I suppose everybody is quite clear on the first. If you are not, then you are terrible hypocrites, for I have been hearing a lot of “Amen” tonight. That prayer drew out many amens tonight, and we are accustomed to using that word.
Is it just a word? Is it just something we tack on at the end, or at a certain point? Is it a habit or custom? What do we mean?
No, we understand that the meaning of that word “Amen” is, “Verily, truly, positively, yes.” We mean it.
“These things saith the Amen.” The Amen: the One in and about whom there is no uncertainty or indefiniteness.
My dear friends, if you and I at all value our salvation, we owe it to Him who was so thorough in the work that He did for our salvation. Where should we be if He had been indifferent about our salvation? If it had been a willy-nilly matter with Him whether we were saved, if He had been neither cold nor hot about this, where should we be?
Everything about that work of redemption sees Him as One who, without any reserve whatsoever, without two minds or a divided heart, gave Himself for our sins, that He might redeem us unto God and from all iniquity.
He did not stop halfway, thank God. He did not suffer Himself to turn aside or to be influenced by secondary pressures—not at all. He is the girded servant of the Lord.
As we have sung, from the mansions of glory, having laid aside His robes and comfort, girding Himself as a servant, He has come on business. And how He has gone about His business! He has finished the work. “These things saith such a One.”
“The faithful and true witness.” You see, these are strong, emphatic words. He has been absolute.
Paul called upon Timothy to remember Jesus Christ, who before Pontius Pilate gave His testimony faithfully. Yes, He was a faithful witness and true. The point is, the underlying thought is that everything here is emphatic. It is positive. It is definite. It is real. It is utter. It is unreserved.
“The beginning of the creation of God.” How does that come into this? Well, first of all, we have got to get that word “beginning.” It is not the word that means the first of the creation—the first One created, and then a lot more after Him. It is not that word at all.
It is the Greek word arche, which means the source of everything, the fountainhead of everything: the One in whom and from whom everything has come, and who is Himself the standard and model of everything.
That is what we mean when we speak of an architect: one who produces the model, out of whom comes that which is to be the source of everything. That is the word here: “the beginning of the creation of God.”
See Him coming forth. It says that in Him, through Him, and unto Him are all things created. All things were made by Him, says the Scripture.
Was He lackadaisical in the creation? Was He careless? When the thing was completed, at the evening of the sixth day, was there a lot left to be desired, and a lot that needed improving upon? No. The verdict is, “It is very good.” It is very good—a divine work. He has done His work thoroughly and well. He had applied Himself to it.
Why, now, even in a wrecked creation, a ruined creation, we can trace His creative fingerprints. The wonder of the mind is there, the wonder of the power is there—all there.
My point is, dear friends, that this is only one further—the third phrase that bears upon this one thing: you are dealing with Somebody who is very thorough. Thorough in creation, thorough in redemption, and thorough in His own Person and His own witness.
That is how He is introduced to Laodicea, as though He would say, “This, this, and this alone will bring you to the end. Such a spirit, such a mind, such a devotion, such a thoroughness, such an Amen disposition, is essential if you are going to reach the end. You have got to mean business.”
You have got to mean business to reach that goal and obtain that prize.
That is perfectly clear as the basis upon which He is speaking to Laodicea. He goes on then to show that the Laodicean attitude of half-and-half will never get them there. Never get them there.
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
—Revelation 3:15
There is all the difference between sitting with Him in His throne and being spewed out of His mouth. Those are the alternatives, resting upon this matter: downright and utter committal and persistence unto God’s great end.
Then He analyzes this thing, and in so doing indicates some other things—more things—essential to the attaining. Notice:
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing.
—Revelation 3:17
Laodicea was a very wealthy city. It was the great banking center of Asia Minor, into which probably all the wealth of the province flowed. The Lord took hold of that.
They were proud of their wealth in Laodicea—the world was—but in the church of Laodicea there was a complacency, a satisfaction, a sense of being quite sufficient, of having got there, and that there was not much more to do about it: rich, and increased in goods, and having need of nothing.
That will never get you to the prize. That will never get you to the prize.
One thing is central: if you are to come to that for which I have apprehended and chosen you, one thing is central and must remain—a sense of your own insufficiency, of your own need, of there still being far more in Christ than ever you have discovered or possessed.
It is this deep sense of spiritual need which is essential. Any kind of gratification or satisfaction—you have much further to go. You can take with a little the little that you have got; perhaps you want a little more.
Here is the spirit of the great apostle, and we have discerned it over Laodicea: “I would have you know, I would have you know, my conflict for them of Laodicea.”
Dear friends, anything in the nature of settling down with less than God’s full thought, God’s full content in Christ, as our calling, will rob us of the prize. Rob us of the prize.
It will just be the people who are deeply, deeply conscious that they have not attained, neither are they already complete, but who have yet everything to gain in Christ, however much they may have. That is the spirit, the mind, the disposition that is here demanded of Laodicea.
Then:
Because thou knowest not that thou art the wretched one and miserable and poor and blind and naked:
I counsel thee to buy of Me gold refined by fire, that thou mayest become rich.
—Revelation 3:17-18
This is not buying salvation. Salvation is without money and without price. If there is something to be secured, it is not salvation by our effort, or our work, or even our earnestness—not that. That is of grace.
But, being saved, we are saved unto something that will draw us out and extend us to the full in the matter of faith. It is in the fire, in the fire, that faith is refined, and will be the currency by which the crown is won.
I am not going to dwell upon all the details here. I just want you to catch the spirit of this, without an exhaustive exposition.
“Thou knowest not that thou art blind.” “I counsel thee to buy of Me eyesalve, to anoint thine eyes, that thou mayest see.”
Here again is a local fact taken up. In connection with one of the temples in Laodicea there was a famous medical school. From the medical school, all over the Greek and Roman world, eyesalve went. It was famed for this ointment for eye trouble. Everybody knew what this meant in Laodicea.
Yet, right there in the precincts, the place where the world was getting its natural eyes healed, the church was blind. Spiritual blindness was there. “Thou knowest not that thou art blind.”
Let us say right away, without too many words, an absolute essential of reaching that end of God is to have a vision—to have a spiritual vision.
I ask you, my dear friends, every one of you personally: now challenge your own heart. Have you got a spiritual vision? Are you drifting on from day to day? Are you going on without a mighty incentive from a divine, eternal purpose?
Are you in the shadows or in the dark as to what it all means, what the end is intended to be? Or is there before you, before your enlightened spirit, a clear vision of what God has determined as the issue of all things, and has called you into in fellowship with His Son? Are you clear about it?
You know quite well that no one ever gets anywhere without a vision. An artisan will never get anywhere without a vision. No one will ever make any progress unless they clearly see what they are after, what they are aiming at.
In any realm of life, in order to get somewhere, you want to know where it is and what it is you are going to. Here, an essential is that you should see.
The whole force of these letters, and the presentation of the Lord Jesus in Revelation, is that there is going to be a revelation of Jesus Christ that shall capture us and draw us on, and make us a people of purpose—a people who know where we are going and what we are going after.
Are you like that? Have you got the vision—the vision of God’s eternal purpose in Christ for the Church, into which you have been called by His grace? Have you got the vision? Is that something that is coming down into your life continually?
Are you tired of hearing that phrase, “the eternal purpose”? Has it lost its music, its charm, its captivating power? Ah, that is Laodicea, you see: lost vision, lost vision. That is essential to the prize.
I counsel thee to buy of Me eyesalve, to anoint thine eyes, that thou mayest see.
—Revelation 3:18
What do you mean when you talk like that figuratively, symbolically: “Buy of Me eyesalve”? Again, I do not need to take you back to such familiar words in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians:
That He may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of His calling.
—Ephesians 1:17-18
There it is: eyesalve. I mean, lay yourself out with all your being before God, that the Holy Spirit will open the eyes of your heart and give you to see what God means for you as a part of His Church.
“Thou knowest not that thou art naked. I counsel thee to buy white garments, that thou mayest clothe thyself, and that the shame of thy nakedness be not made manifest.”
Again, Laodicea was a manufacturing center. A beautiful black wool was cultivated in the surrounding fields, and they made wonderful garments which were world-famous—a glistening fleece of Laodicean manufacture. They knew what He meant.
Here, in a place where everybody knew these beautiful garment materials, people were proud of wearing those Laodicean garments. Right in the presence of it all, as the Lord looked at them, He saw them naked. But they did not know. They did not know. “Knowest not that thou art naked.”
He saw them as they were by nature. You know, dear friends, when our eyes are opened about ourselves, the one thing we want is to get covered up somehow.
So, as Adam’s eyes were opened, the one thing he wanted was to get covered up. He went and hid himself.
We know ourselves, and of course you know what I am talking about. When we begin to know ourselves in the light of God, the one thing we feel the need for is a covering, a hiding, to get out of the way after the scanning of those eyes. If only we could hide ourselves from ourselves.
This is no pleasant view when we begin to see ourselves. That is how they were. That is how God saw them. But they had no sense of nakedness. They were priding themselves in the garments of their own place, their own making.
Again, the Lord says quite clearly: if you are going to reach the end, you must have a very, very poor opinion of yourself and realize your absolute need of a clothing that you cannot make for yourself, but of the white raiment of Christ’s own righteousness. That is your only way to the end.
So Paul says:
That I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.
—Philippians 3:8-9
That is the white raiment. God, give us a sense of our need of that because of our deep and overpowering sense of our own unrighteousness. These are the people that are on the way to the throne.
Any sense whatever, or degree, of self-righteousness, of being something at all, will put us out of the running for the prize. This may be comforting for most of us, but this is, after all, the gospel, is it not?
It all just amounts to this. On one side of this great argument, the Lord is saying, “You have got to be a people characterized by such a strong sense of need that only the Lord Jesus can supply.” You have got to be a people like that if you are going to get there, to the place for which you are called.
How different it is from the whole world attitude. Why, the world’s attitude is always self-confidence, certain ability, certain self-sufficiency, and self-importance to receive the prizes. Not the spirit of the world: feel absolutely unfit, and unworthy, and worthless. That is not the spirit of the world. This is the spirit of Christ, and this is the spirit called for.
As many as I love, I reprove and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
—Revelation 3:19
These people are chastened people. Well, some of us know a little about that—what it is to be chastened. But, “As many as I love, I reprove and chasten.” Then the appeal: “Be zealous. Be zealous.”
That word simply means, “Be on fire. Be burning.” Be not like that stream that runs alongside of Laodicea, which is not a hot stream, not a cold stream. It was well known what He meant. There was a river just by the city: tepid water, neither one thing nor the other. Do not be like that. Be zealous. Be hot, and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
—Revelation 3:20
We could learn much upon that, but it has been very popular. It just means this: where conditions obtain such as these—no sense of the need of Him, no sense of an undone condition, a helpless condition—well, the Lord is outside of that. He is not inside that at all. He is outside of that. But He says, “I stand at the door, and knock.”
That knocking may mean many things. In many ways, the Lord is trying to get on the inside by many a form of knocking.
Then this:
If any man hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.
—Revelation 3:20
Looking at that word “sup,” I find there are three words. One applies to the Greek breakfast, which might be a bit of bread and a drink, and that sufficed. Another was a little larger meal that they had during the day. But there is another word which is used for the full meal of the day, and that is the one here.
“I will come in, and there will be a full meal.” You see, everything that you look at in this part of the Word is something positive, something full, that the Lord is after—not something partial. Not just the early-morning scrap with which you start the day, but the full meal. He is after fullness.
“I will come in, and there will be fullness.” It is all there.
Well, He calls for us to be of that mind, of that spirit, of that disposition. For again, He says, it is just the people who have but one thing: “This one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind,” leaving the things which are behind, and having only one thing—“this one thing I do.”
“I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
Oh, dear friends, do not be satisfied with less than God meant for you when He saved you. Do not settle down to something that is not His full thought for you. Do not be robbed of your prize by any compromises of any kind, or any carelessness.
Be an Amen man, an Amen woman. May our churches be like that—be like that. Everybody can say, “Those people know where they are going, what they are after. There is no doubt about them. They are on business.”
They are not just people either drifting or merely having meetings: people who are marked and characterized by a sense of a great meaning, a great purpose. The Lord make us like that.