Well, we have come to the last teaching session in the conference, and it certainly did go by quickly. It is always hard to do this last session, especially after the children have been such a blessing. But there is something else that I have to share in my heart regarding this matter of the sons of Issachar.
I wonder if we could turn tonight to Jesus as He speaks to the church of this day in Revelation 3:14—to the church of Laodicea.
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 wish 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, so that you may become rich; and white garments, so that you may clothe yourself and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.
Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous 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.—Revelation 3:14-22
Then, just a few verses in Daniel at the end of the book. First, Daniel 11:35, talking about the pressures of the Antichrist in the last days.
And some of them of understanding shall stumble, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for an appointed time.
—Daniel 11:35
Then, three verses from Daniel 12, beginning in verse 8.
And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?
And He said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
Many shall be purified, and made white, and refined; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.—Daniel 12:8-10
Our Father, as we come to this last meeting, we are so thankful for all that You have spoken to us. So thankful that You were able to share Your heart with us through our brothers.
When we come to this last time, Lord, we want again to ask You to finish and accomplish the burden that is on Your heart, to seal up the word in our lives. We are so thankful that, when we come to a time like this, we do sense in a very real way that we are in the kingdom time zone.
You are dealing and working and pressing upon us, opening our eyes, causing us to awake, to repent, to begin again—all the work of Your Holy Spirit in these last days. So now help us, Lord, in this last message to receive and not be distracted by going home or all such things that lie straight ahead.
We want to focus upon our Lord Jesus as He speaks to us this final word in Revelation. We pray that Your Spirit would speak to us, and that we may hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
The challenge of the last days is for the children of light to awake and become as the sons of Issachar, understanding the times and what Israel must do. We are trying to connect all these things together tonight.
The sons of Issachar represent a remnant within Israel who paid a price, who went through lessons and failures and a time of bondage in order to come to the place where they could discern what time it was and what Israel must do, as they joined together and found David, actually making him king of the kingdom in Israel.
The last time I spoke, I spoke on the sons of light, or the children of light. In terms of the kingdom of God, when we look at the kingdom of God, who do we see that understands the times we live in and can tell us what to do? Indeed, it is the children of light.
It is those who have awakened into the kingdom time zone. They are living in that abiding presence with the Lord, and in that they have paid a price to stay awake, to remain walking in the light and not get out in the shadows. So, in the kingdom, we look for these sons of light to say what time it is and what we ought to do.
Tonight, we look at the realm of the church in the last days. Of course, now the sons of Issachar and the sons of light are represented in the overcomer, who in the midst of the church pays a price to be able to see and know what the times are and what we must do.
According to the Scriptures, the sons of light will be pressed, as we near the end, more and more on all sides. As our expression goes, the sons of light will find themselves between a rock and a hard place.
As we learn from Daniel, as the kingdoms—the four great empires—run their course, and we come down to the end times, and the Antichrist starts to arise, and things start to move toward the end, saints from on high will be pressed and pressured to be defiled.
So, it is going to take that kind of a Daniel who is willing to pay the price, who has set his heart not to be defiled by the world. If we do not set our hearts to be pure before the Lord, we will be defiled by the riches of the world, by the corruptions of the world, by the sensualities of the world.
We will be pressed on that side—the world pressing us more and more, trying to oppress us right into their attitudes and their beliefs and their corruptions.
But strangely, in the last days, for those saints who would be true to God, there is pressure from another quarter entirely. Actually, ironically, it is the church.
It is the church at this time of Laodicea. As it more and more loses its light, its holiness, and its conscience, the church will put pressure on the saints to compromise, to not be true to the Lord.
It will come today, I think, pretty soon, where the church across the board—not talking about the local church, but Christendom, the whole situation—will say that you are not a Christian unless you believe that everybody is saved. You are not a Christian unless you accept all other religions as equal in value and in truth.
You will find more and more such things, especially for young people, as we draw near to the end of this age. We are going to be pressed more and more in these kinds of ways.
Daniel 11:35 foretells that in this time of pressure at the end, some of those with understanding will stumble. Under the pressure, they will give in. They will stumble, be humbled and repentant, then be tried and refined in the furnace, and come out white in the end.
Daniel 12 says virtually the same thing, but it is talking about something we sometimes do not realize. Daniel 12 is talking about a separation among the saints.
There will be those who are gaining costly wisdom, paying the price, suffering, and being refined. Then there will be those who, in wickedness, are blind. When the end comes, they will not understand what is going on. But there are those who will be wise at that end time. These are talking about things to come.
Tonight, we want to talk from the context of this being the Laodicean church age. You know, in Revelation 2 and 3, there are seven churches mentioned, and there are different ways of interpreting these churches and talking about them.
They were literal churches in Asia Minor back in the first century. They had their own blessings and their own struggles, and Jesus came and spoke to each one of them. They also represent seven different kinds of churches that we find down through the ages, with different compromises and different blessings—each church unique, but representing kinds of churches that we see even today.
But the way I want to interpret this Laodicean church tonight is the historical view. That is to say, if you were to be asked, “What time is it? What are the times we are in?” I think perhaps you would realize that these are the days of the Laodicean church.
Now, we are speaking broadly. I hope that the particular place where you go and worship, break bread, witness, and read the Bible is pure. I hope that it is full of life. I hope that it is filled with people who are sons of light, pressing more and more into the Lord.
But the church as a whole is now in the Laodicean lukewarm phase. It is falling away from the Lord, and we see it described here in Revelation 3.
Chronologically, time-wise—chronos—we are in the Laodicean church age. But praise God, you can still get into the kingdom time zone by His abundant grace. There is still grace for those who would be faithful to the Lord, and kingdom times abound.
Here is the point that I want to make, and I hope you understand. In the end, as our brother David brought to us a few days ago, we have a choice here in the Laodicean camp, in this whole atmosphere of the Laodicean church: whether to be part and parcel with that church or whether to overcome.
That is the choice before us in this age. We are in this time where there is a Laodicean spirit, and I think it would be a great mistake if we think that we are not deeply affected by this age in which we are living.
It is naive for us to think, “Oh, well, we have no problem with this stuff—not in our church, not in our assembly.” It is affecting us all.
The Laodicean church age affects us all through unbelief. This is an unbelieving generation. This is a church that is unbelieving. Pride so infiltrates the church; we have no idea how much it affects our lives. Worldliness. Self-satisfaction. And we have more spiritual poverty than we could possibly imagine.
This Laodicean age envelops us in an atmosphere and a spirit which, unless we resist it with all our faith, we become part of. The cloud comes over us, and suddenly unbelief is part of all of us. It is an age, it is a spirit, it is an atmosphere, and we are all in it.
So tonight, let us be awakened to the fact of what the times are. If we would be faithful, we have to decide whether we are willing to swim upstream against the current of what is presently prevalent in the church as a whole.
Now, notice a couple of things. First of all, the Lord never calls us out of this church, but He tells us to overcome in the church.
Of course, today you can leave a church here and go down one block, and you are in another church. Back in that day, there was one church in Laodicea. You could not leave it. Maybe you could not go thirty miles to the next town and go to the church there. If you were in Laodicea, you were the church in Laodicea. It was not a place or a building; it was a people.
Jesus never said, “Now leave Laodicea and move to Ephesus.” But He said, “Overcome the proud atmosphere by clinging to the Lord with first love.”
There is something in these last days, within this challenge and call to overcome, that produces the bride ready for her Husband. There is something salutary in this problem.
If you are willing to overcome in this Laodicean church age, there is some kind of building work that the Lord will do in us that will prepare us as the bride for the coming of the Lord. It is the Spirit and the bride that say, “Come, Lord Jesus.” But we are being prepared by being placed in this oppressive atmosphere.
We have to choose what we are going to do about it. Hopefully, if we overcome, we can stand up as children of light and hold that lampstand—the testimony with the light of Jesus. Holding that up, maybe others who are in this Laodicean church and blind, as we have read the Laodiceans are, might see the light, see where they are, wake up, repent, and follow the Lord.
So, we have a very important purpose here. There is a lampstand. Every church is a lampstand. And when we come to Laodicea, ladies and gentlemen, the light is out.
There is a lampstand. How much value is a lampstand when the light is not there? It is just a hunk of furniture.
Christ is the light of the lampstand. But if Christ gets snuffed out by compromise, somebody, by overcoming, can actually light that lamp. Thus, in a dark place, people can see the truth of Christ and follow after understanding the times and knowing what we should do.
When we come to this matter, we see that overcoming, as it is found in all seven churches—the call to overcome, overcoming to the Lord’s return—is a sobering matter for us all.
We are being called to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches despite the great noise and thundering of the dragon. In the last days, the dragon is going to make rock and roll louder and louder, and yet we are asked to hear what the Spirit is whispering to the churches in the midst of that.
We are being asked to be wholehearted in our faith and follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes, despite the fact that the church has come to compromise and is settled and happy in its lukewarmness.
It is for us to sense kingdom times and what Christians should do, but we will only come to that, as we will see tonight, by paying a price. Jesus says, “I want you to buy from Me.”
Only those who are able to overcome by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of His testimony, and by not loving their lives even unto death—those people understand what times we are in and what to do.
This is going to be a time of pressure, a time of choices, a time of sacrifice, a time of persecution. Here in the United States, we live in what Lance always used to call a fool’s paradise.
But you look around the world, and in many countries there are African countries in danger of all the Christians being killed. There are times when you are laying your life on the line when you say, “I believe in Jesus Christ.”
Gradually, the whole world is going to turn in a direction opposed to the testimony of Jesus Christ. But at the same time, if you decide to be an overcomer, to be a son of Issachar, to be a child of light, you will experience supernatural keeping grace.
If you have to go through times of persecution, if you have to go through seasons where the cross is heavy upon you, you can know the dwelling presence of Him who is within you and overcomes the world.
To the overcomer, there is a special grace to overcome—His overcoming life keeping you, sustaining you, and giving you grace to be more than an overcomer. You know, we had that Scripture: “More than conquerors through Christ who loved us.” It is the same word as overcomer—more than an overcomer through Christ who loved us.
Let me come to this a little more clearly as we look at the church of Laodicea. My first question to you is this: when you read the account from the angle and viewpoint of Jesus Christ, is Laodicea living in the times of the kingdom? Are they living in the kingdom time zone?
Now, here is the church. Laodicea was a church, a literal church of believers, born-again believers. But were they living in the kingdom time zone, in the fullness of the presence of Christ? Well, of course, the answer is no.
When we look at the church of Laodicea, because it represents the last season, the last phase, the last age before the end of this age, you just look at the church of Laodicea and you see why Jesus has not come back for His bride yet.
Why is He delaying? Because Laodicea has utterly failed in its purpose of developing into a holy, loving, Christ-like bride ready for her King. Look at Laodicea. Can you find anything redemptive in Jesus’ opinion of what they have been doing?
They are not ready as the bride. They are going backward. They are going into adultery, it almost seems. In the spirit of this age, suddenly there seems to be a disinclination and a falling away from holiness, Christ-likeness, and purity.
Except for those willing to pay the price—those overcomers who, by the very pressure of this time, will be developing this same Christ-like character.
When you look at Laodicea’s testimony, they are living totally out of sync with the kingdom of God. Let me give you a few examples.
In the kingdom of God, Jesus always talked about bondservants. There are bondservants who bear the testimony of Jesus, bondservants who carry the word of God, bondservants who are faithful.
When you look at Laodicea, do you see these bondservants seeking first His righteousness and His kingdom? Do you see such bondservants with the testimony of Jesus? Wholly lacking.
How about the testimony of the church? What do you see there? Do you see them in the kingdom time zone? By what Jesus describes, Laodicea has no cross, no tribulation, no testimony of Jesus, and no gold refined in the fire.
What kind of testimony is that? They are wearing no bridal white gown; they are naked, according to Jesus’ viewpoint. What has happened to the church? What has happened to God’s people? The world has been drawing them with its temptations.
Look at the spirit of the Laodicean church. The spiritual character of the kingdom is humility.
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
—Matthew 5:3
When you look at Laodicea, they have a spirit of boastful pride—not just humble pride, boastful pride. “You say, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.”
Look at their ministry. It is out of sync with kingdom ministry. There is a lot of ministry going on today. Laodiceans are preaching a cheap gospel. There is no consecration, no cross, no crucified flesh. There is no hell anymore.
It is to that that Jesus warned in Matthew 7. The day is going to come when Jesus is going to say to these kingdom ministries, “I do not know you.” What have you been doing?
There are many kingdom ministries today, many gospel ministries, many works going on. Praise God every time somebody preaches the gospel and somebody gets saved. But there is a question that must be asked behind all the ministry that is going on worldwide today in the Laodicean church.
Is the goal of this ministry to build and prepare the bride for the King? Is this ministry to perpetuate itself? Is this ministry to build itself up? Is it a human kingdom that is being built? Is today’s ministry perfecting the bride?
I say that for myself and for everybody who ministers: Is our ministry perfecting the bride? If it is not, it is not in sync with the kingdom time zone.
We look at the Lord as He evaluates Laodicea, and we see that this is the most severe of His comments to the seven churches. In all of the previous six churches, He commends something about the church—even Thyatira. He commends something about what they are doing.
He comes to the church of Laodicea, this final age which to us seems like, “Wow, this is a wonderful age. Wow, there is a lot of Christian stuff going on.” But the Lord looks around, and He sees nothing to commend. He does not say, “I commend you.” He says nothing.
As a matter of fact, He uses a physical reality about Laodicea to express how displeased He is. If you have ever visited that area of Asia Minor, or Turkey today, Laodicea is down here, and up a slope a couple of miles away there is a city called Hierapolis where they had hot springs.
The Romans built an aqueduct that carried water from up that hill down to Laodicea. But by the time the hot springs got down to Laodicea, it was like warm tea—not hot tea, warm tea.
Because the waters were sulfuric, when you drink tepid sulfuric water, it is nauseating. Jesus says, “You know, Laodicea, you are getting your water from somewhere, and it is nauseating Me. I feel like spitting you out. Everything you do nauseates Me. It is tepid, it is lukewarm, it smells, it is distasteful to Me.”
What a thing for Jesus to say to His church. These are born-again believers. But obviously Jesus is making a point.
The most striking thing that Jesus will touch on, as we read the story, is this: Laodicea is full of foolish, irreverent, argumentative pride before the Lord.
One of the most difficult books in the Bible, I think, to teach on without people running away is the prophet Malachi. God in Malachi is dealing with people who argue with God about everything.
Can you imagine arguing with God? I mean, let us just stop for a second. What are you, crazy?
When God says, “I have loved you,” the saints in Malachi say, “How have You loved us?” God says, “You have robbed Me.” “How have we robbed You? Tell me how.” And God tells them how. But can you imagine arguing with God? What kind of a fool does that?
The church of Laodicea is telling God what to do. They are arguing with God over things. Frankly, God is not to be argued with. Jesus is your Lord. How are you going to argue with Him?
But the church today is arguing: “Well, we think Jesus meant this, but it does not really mean hell. It just means a pit outside Jerusalem.” People are changing theology because it is not politically correct anymore. They argue with God, argue with God’s Word: “I am right; the Word must be wrong.”
That is Laodicea. It argues with God and develops alternative theologies as suits our own personal inclinations.
So Jesus, before He gives His opinion, gives His three credentials in Revelation 3:14: “The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the beginning of the creation of God.” These are His three credentials to examine the church of Laodicea.
First, the Amen. What does amen mean? It means, “That is true.” Amen is the truth. When Jesus says, “Verily, verily, I say,” He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you.” He says, “Amen, amen.” The Hebrew word from which amen comes means truth.
The point is, “I am the truth. I speak the truth. And when I speak the truth, that is it.” You have an argument with Me? If Jesus is the truth, how could there be a second opinion?
“The faithful and true Witness”—it is almost as if Jesus is saying, “You know, you are supposed to be a bearer of My testimony and a faithful witness, but you have no witness of My testimony. So I am going to witness about Myself. I am the faithful and true Witness. I will tell you really the truth.”
That means there is a lampstand there in Laodicea, but it is missing the light. Jesus is not the faithful and true testimony upon their lampstand. Here is the lampstand—where is the light? It is not there.
Jesus says, “I am coming to light that lamp. I am going to tell you what I see in this light.” The third thing He says is, “I am the beginning of the creation of God.” What He means by that is, “I have created you a new creation, a new man. I have created you, My bride. But when I look at you, you are of Adam. You are of the old creation. You are not what I created you to be.”
So Jesus is coming to the saints in Laodicea and asking them, really, “How well do you know Me? How well do you know Me?”
He begins by rebuking. Here we see something quite incredible, but it is true, unfortunately: the total, utter contrast between what the Laodiceans think they are and what Jesus sees they are.
This is so diametrically opposed that you almost think it is impossible that people could have such an estimate. It is so far off a kingdom point of view. The King is speaking the truth, but their estimate is here and His estimate is here—diametrically opposed.
The first thing He says is, “Because you say, ‘I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.’” The “I” is emphatic because the pride is emphatic. This church is proud.
We do not actually know what it means by its riches. Of course, Laodicea was indeed a merchandising town, and it was supposedly a wealthy city. Maybe they were bought by the world and had become worldly in their riches and prosperous in their riches.
Listen, the saddest thing in the world to me is when I see a church where people used to love the Lord, and they are so rich now they do not have time for God anymore. They just do not have time.
But perhaps they were also rich in their ministry, rich in what they accomplished, rich in their teaching, rich in their liturgy, rich in their worship. “Why, we have the best worship team on the East Coast.”
Everybody is proud and boasting about these things, whether it is the love of money or the love of ministry. But they say this—and listen, there is a difference here—“I am rich and have become wealthy.”
That is a separate statement, because what it means is, “I am rich, and I made my wealth by myself. I got this way by myself, thank you very much. Thank You, God, for starting me out. Everything comes from You, but I have worked hard, and I have built up an empire.”
“I am increased with goods, and I have made myself wealthy.” Oh, so wealthy. And to the point where, “I have need of nothing.”
As Lance always used to say, the Laodicean church can meet and God not even be there, and they would not even miss Him.
Jesus is standing outside the church, knocking, trying to get in. Meanwhile, they are having a wonderful service and saying, “Hey, do not bother us. Tell whoever is at the door to get away. We are having a wonderful worship time. Oh, listen to that band. They have just transposed the song to A-flat. Oh, it is beautiful. Listen to the choir sing. Oh, look at the speaker. The speaker brings us up to heaven and throws us down to hell. Oh, such great sermons.”
The Laodicean church has never been so rich as it is today. But they do not have a shred of a sense of a need for the Lord—no sense of poverty, no sense of neediness or dependence.
Whether it is a great budget, comparing churches with churches to see who has the biggest budget, the number of ministers, the number of campuses—“How many campuses do you have on Sunday?” “I have six.”—or the number of young people, or the lighting equipment, or whatever it is.
But one thing the Laodicean church has learned—and you know this, because no matter where you go in Laodicea today, you can go to the West Coast, the East Coast, or overseas—everybody in the church of Laodicea has learned the mantra.
What is the mantra? What is the saying? “I am nothing. I am just a humble servant. I am nothing. The Lord is everything. There is no good thing in me. I just hide behind the cross. Oh no, little old me. I am nothing. There is nothing good in me. I am just dirt. I am a worm.”
That is spoken by every Laodicean brother and sister. They have learned that mantra. But for those who have to protest that they are nothing a lot, it shows that they still have an opinion about themselves.
If you really knew you were nothing, you would stop bothering about yourself. People are always going around saying, “No, no, no, it is not me. No, no, no, I did nothing. You see, I cannot do anything. No, I am a Christian. I am a totally wiped-out sinner. I am no good. I cannot do anything.”
All the time, they are so proud of how they have become rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. They are putting money away, the stock market is going up, they are voting for Trump, and everything is going up.
All I can say is, this atmosphere pervades everything. If we would overcome, the first place we start is repenting of this pride that comes from the pit of hell.
Pride is Lucifer’s middle name. Everything that speaks of pride comes straight from hell, and the church is full of it. You should see ministers’ meetings sometimes when they get together and start bragging about who has this and who has that.
Pride, pride, pride. “What is your building? How many buses do you have?” Does that matter? It does in the Laodicean church.
The overcomer is going to have to repent of pride, and repent of pride, and repent of pride, because we are so full of pride. You have no idea how much pride we have—no idea—unless the Lord exposes our pride.
So the Amen, the truth—His estimate, who is true and faithful—says this: “That is what you say, and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.”
Now take the Lord’s word as He says it: you really do not know. Laodicea has no idea. They do not think they are proud. They do not think they have left the Lord on the side, that they are out of the kingdom time zone. They have no idea.
Can you imagine? Let us put ourselves in Laodicea’s shoes. Here we are up there in Asia Minor, as it was called back then, and we get the letter. Seven copies were sent out. Let us say we got the one to Laodicea, and we got to Revelation 3:14 and started reading about ourselves.
I believe when they read this portion, “And to the church of Laodicea,” their mouths gaped open. “What? Us? Humble little us?”
They really did not see. And we really do not see. We do not see all the subtle ways pride gets into our lives and affects the whole spirit of what the Lord is trying to do. You really do not know.
Here is the Lord’s estimate: “You do not know that you are wretched.” Now let me explain what the Greek words mean. I do not know what the Mandarin words are, and the English words are not so good either.
“Wretched” in Greek means when a body is so infected that it is rotting and putrid, and it causes you to turn away. It is the smell that turns you away. That is how wretched the church of Laodicea was.
“Pitiable” is when someone is so down and out that it draws pity from everyone who goes by. “Look at this mass of humanity—so pitiful, so nothing.” Jesus says, “You are pitiful. Pitiful.”
And you are poor and blind and naked. These are the most destitute people in the world: poor, blind, naked. That is who you are. Jesus says, “Thus saith the Lord, the Amen. That is who you are. This is what you think; this is what I say.”
Now, are you going to humble yourself and repent, even by faith, if you really think you are this?
I have to believe that the greatest tragedy of the church today is that we do not realize our true condition. I hope your particular assembly is better than this; I have a feeling it may be.
But looking at the church as a whole, dear brothers and sisters, I do not know if it has really come home to us. The Lord says, “Those whom I love, I reprove.”
The Lord Jesus loves every born-again believer, no matter what kind of blind, dead, and dark state they are in right now. Do you realize how much He loves all of His people, how much He longs for them all?
But the pervading atmosphere is this kind of way. So the church of Laodicea goes on—powerless, divisive, messages tickling ears.
Every couple of years, for one reason or another, I get to Jerusalem. Let me tell you the tragedy of the church in Jerusalem: there is no church in Jerusalem. There are a hundred little vying churchlets who vie for who is best, who compete with one another.
Some minister to the Jews, some minister to the Arabs. The Jewish ministries hate the Arab ministries. Fighting, vying, separate. Where is the oneness? Where is the fullness? Where is the real life? Where is the gathering together? Where is the light of Jesus the Lord?
No, it is all split up into all kinds of little groups, camps, special doctrines—some Messianic, some Gentile. It is just incredible. It is a tragedy that the church was born in Jerusalem; you cannot find it today.
But that tragedy is being repeated all over this world. Now, okay, are you down on the ground yet? A real estimate of who we are is a good beginning.
But the good news is that He is telling us not only that He is coming quickly, but that there is still time—still time—to sync up with the coming kingdom. There is still time. It is not too late.
So He gives this message in order that we might repent. He is calling for the church to hear, to repent, and to stand for Him as a testimony.
The overcomer now must bear the testimony of Jesus. If the whole church is half dead, the overcomer needs to shine that light of Jesus like John did.
The overcomer now has to be the one to say, “I know what time it is. He is coming quickly. He is coming quickly.” People say, “Oh, people have been saying that for years.” You say, “Yeah, but I have seen the light. He is coming quickly.”
When you see the light, He is coming quickly. When you are in the dark, you say, “Well, I am not sure when He is showing up.”
The overcomer is the one now to hear and obey what the Spirit says to the churches. Oh, the Lord is so merciful. The Lord tells them how we can get back.
Do you think the whole Laodicean church is going to repent? I would like to hope they would. But anyway, Jesus gives them some counsel here. There is still time, and here is what you are going to have to do: you are going to have to buy back your testimony.
Here He says, “I counsel you to buy from Me.” Ah, that causes problems for people who believe everything is by grace.
But we are saved by grace, we are gifted by grace, we serve by grace, we overcome by grace, and we have no currency. Now, how are you going to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, especially if you have no currency?
Although Isaiah 55 tells you that you need to go and buy without money, you need to go buy from the Lord. What is this talking about?
This buying is a choice we make that is going to cost us something.
Let us go back two stages. The sons of Issachar became the sons of Issachar because they paid the price of discipline and learned from the mistakes they made regarding their own inheritance. Through that process, they came to a true understanding of what time it was and what needed to be done.
The sons of light walk in the light, but then they go into darkness, fall asleep, and have to be awakened. But through a process, they pay a price to become those sons of light who see what the times are and what needs to be done.
So, even in the church of Laodicea, there is a need to buy something—and to buy something from Me, from the Lord Himself. Do not go buying out there. You cannot get it at the bookstore. “Buy from Me.”
Laodicea, come back to Me and buy from Me. It is going to cost you something. It is a transaction. It is a free choice. It is a responsibility. It is a transaction with the Lord.
“Buy from Me gold.” What is your currency? You are going to have to sacrifice something. How are you going to get that gold? That gold always speaks of divine life. We are being asked to buy gold and then have it refined in the fire.
What is going on here? Everybody who is a born-again Christian has a treasure in an earthen vessel. It is the life of Christ in us.
But now you need to offer that life of Christ to the Lord and let Him refine and purify that golden life of the Son in you until that begins to transform you from glory to glory, and you become a bride ready for the Groom.
Your currency is the life of Christ given back to Him—in your life of devotion, in your life of worship, in your life of service, in your ministry.
Listen to Paul:
Now if anyone buildeth on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones…
—1 Corinthians 3:12
Now wait a minute. Where do you get that gold to build on the foundation? You have to buy that gold. If you have a ministry, and if you are ministering, you have to buy your ministry.
You say, “Oh, that is ridiculous.” No, you have to pay a price. To find God’s heart, to find God’s Word, you have to pay a price—to study, to show yourself approved. You have to take hold of the Lord and ask Him, “Lord, help me. What should I say? What are You saying?”
There is a cost involved in ministry that builds the house of God with gold. You see what I am saying? It is not talking about having some kind of currency just to lay down. It is talking about a price you are willing to pay to overcome.
As the days draw nearer to the end, there is a price we are going to have to pay to overcome. Are you willing to buy from Me gold refined in the fire? What a tremendous thought that is.
Then He says to buy kingdom raiment. “I want you to buy,” in Revelation 3:18, “white garments so that you may clothe yourself, so that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed.”
I do not know what you have done, saints, but you have gotten uncovered. You are naked. There is nothing glorious about you. It is especially shameful because I gave you white robes, and I covered you with My righteousness from the moment you were saved.
But some of you have allowed that white robe to become spotted and soiled. You remember how He speaks to the children of Sardis, and He says, “Now you overcomers in the church of Sardis, you have not allowed your white garments to be spotted and soiled.” But many allow that.
The white garments become filled with dirt and all kinds of things that are not right. No, no, no—there are white robes, and you have to buy them, and you are going to have to clean them, and you are going to have to pay a price for them.
He gave you the robes. How much did it cost you to get your robe of righteousness by the precious blood of Jesus? How much? Absolutely free. But now, take care of that robe.
You are going to have to buy that robe. You are going to have to pay a price to wear that robe in holiness and good works.
There is so much regarding the white raiment, and we do not have time to go into it, but the Bible talks about it so much. As an example, Revelation 22:14 says:
Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city.
—Revelation 22:14
Ah, this white raiment. We need this. We can have this.
Then He says, “You have got to buy from Me eye salve.” Ah, Laodicea, you are blind.
How do we know Laodicea was blind? Because if, for one nanosecond, the church in Laodicea saw the Lord in His glory, they would see that they were wretched, blind, and naked.
You can think you are rich, but if you see the Lord, your riches turn to dust. One moment you see the Lord, you know your estimate. Nobody needs to tell you. But these people had not seen the Lord.
You remember how in Revelation 1 John saw the Lord, and he fell down like a dead man. Wow—the riches, the glory, the power, the might, the holiness of Jesus. Wow, it is tremendous. Whoa, I am nothing.
If Laodicea had ever really seen Jesus, they would have no estimate of this boastful pride—rich and do not need anything. It would be stripped away like that.
But they need eye salve, and it is going to cost them something. “Buy some eye salve for your eyes so that you can see again.” How are you going to buy that? That is costly stuff. What does it cost? I will tell you what it costs: your pride.
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. Are you willing to humble yourself before God and say, “Lord, I am blind. I do not even know who I am. I do not know my estimate, my true value. Lord, show me. Give me this eye salve so I can wake up and see.”
“I have lost the focus of the single eye of the kingdom.” If your eye of the kingdom is single, your vision is clear. You see what time it is because a single eye has its focus on the King. So you see what time it is right there with a single eye.
But when you are blind, you have no kingdom vision at all. You do not know what time it is. You do not know the Lord is there. You do not know what the Lord is like. Oh, we need eyes.
If we could just buy with our pride, pay the price, and bow before our God, saying, “Lord, I am nothing, but I do not realize it. Open my eyes to see”—whoa—it would change our lives, our congregations, and our assemblies, because we are all infected with this incipient pride.
This is what the Lord says to the church: “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.”
Is it possible for the whole church in Laodicea to repent? Will they repent? Will we repent in these last days before Jesus comes? Will we see this blindness, this lethargy, and this pride reversed?
Jesus would like it so. But He is calling for the overcomer. He calls to all those He loves.
But when He calls to all that He loves, there are some people listening in the midst of this Laodicean church—some people who are listening and saying, “Wait a minute. Do I hear somebody knocking?”
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. He who hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him. I will dine with him. I will love him. I will have fellowship with him. He will have fellowship with Me.”
Do you hear Him knocking on our door? Do you hear it? Oh, but it is that whisper from the glory. Who hears it?
Laodicea is too busy. Besides, they have a big kind of door that opens automatically in the front of the place. They do not hear that little side door over there where Jesus is outside, trying to get in for personal fellowship with those who are willing to hear—for those who can even hear Him knocking.
Even in the midst of Laodicea, would it not be wonderful if we actually heard Him knocking and saying, “I really want to get into this assembly. I really want to get in among you people. I really want to show you who I am and let you see who you are. I want you to be prepared as My bride.”
“So listen to Me. Let Me in. Let Me talk to you. Let Me fellowship with you.” That is a still, small voice.
Wait a minute—there is the overcomer. How do you know? “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”
I can just imagine when the letter was written and they read in Laodicea that there were some people who said, “Oh Lord, we fall down and repent before You.” And some of the people said, “Wait a minute, wait a minute. I am not sure this is right. I think this is just John’s opinion.”
Well, there were some overcomers. Maybe even the majority were overcomers; I do not know what happened there in Laodicea. I just know the town was wiped off the face of the earth by an earthquake, but that is another story.
Those who have an ear, who hear and obey and respond, He gives the most wonderful promise that an overcomer, a son of Issachar, a child of light could ever hear.
Here is what He says:
He who overcomes, by His amazing grace, 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.
—Revelation 3:21
Now, we know the story. Jesus ascended into heaven, and He sat down at the right hand of the Father on His throne. There the Holy Spirit was poured out upon Him and out upon the church.
Now He says, “I am moving from the Father’s throne to My throne.” He who overcomes in this Laodicean church, at the end of this time, because you have heard My voice, repented, and are buying from Me—when I come, you are going to sit with Me on My throne in the millennial kingdom.
Listen, there is nobody in Laodicea who deserves that. But this is not a question of deserving. This is a question of being the Lord’s and being willing to pay the price—to be those crazy salmon who swim upstream at the possible loss of life because they know it is up there that they actually spawn.
It is for the Christian who overcomes and swims upstream, even when everybody else is swimming downstream.
I am amazed at how easy it is now to be a Christian. First of all, you do not have to be a Christian. Second of all, you can just go someplace, take a class, and join. Third of all, you can just attend whatever you want.
So, if you have a meeting on Sunday with two hundred people, and you have a Wednesday night prayer meeting with fifteen people, you have fifteen people in the church and a lot of visitors.
Things are so easy now. “I think once a week is enough,” or, “I go to church online.”
I do not even want to get into all the ways the Laodicean church has to get around being a disciple and bearing the testimony of Jesus. But you cannot bear the testimony of Jesus alone.
You have to be standing with at least two hundred men from Issachar. You have to be able to stand with those who have been called, who have heard, and who have repented.
So I bring this last message to you because the time is very near. Those whose eyes are opened, who repent and get that eye salve on, say, “Wow, the coming of the Lord is very soon.”
Have you ever said that to some Christian at work or something? They say, “Well, I do not know about that. That is what people have been saying all along. Maybe it is going to be the twenty-second century.”
Or until some crazy man comes along and says, “Look, we are building a big ditch out in Denver, Colorado. We are all going to live there because Jesus is coming back September 12, 2018.” Then he finds three thousand people who believe, and they all go out there.
We do not believe God, but we believe men making up all kinds of crazy stuff. But when our eyes are open, what we see is, “Wow, He is coming quickly. I can hear a faint knock. I can hear the whisper in the glory.”
You start singing, “Glory, glory, glory, hallelujah,” and then they take you to a hospital to examine you.
Brothers and sisters, in the last days the Lord just looks for people. I hope it is the whole church. I hope whatever your assembly is, the whole assembly comes into a living testimony and expression of Jesus Christ in these last days, shining as lights in this world.
But I cannot guarantee what is going to happen to all those brothers and sisters. All I know is that you and I have a choice. Are we going to hear His voice?
If He tells us to repent, are we going to repent? If He tells us we are proud, are we going to ask forgiveness and humble ourselves before Him? If He tells us to buy some, to pay a price, are we going to pay that price?
That is the choice we have to make. We can slide and glide into the church of Laodicea, and I do not know where it is going to end up. It will not be good.
But the Lord is looking for those who are saying, “Lord, I want You. I want You, Lord, whatever it costs. I want You. I want to buy from You. I want to know You. I want to pursue You. I want to climb to You. I want to see You.”
“I want to know You in Your Word. I want to know You in prayer. I want to know You in worship. Lord, I am willing to pay the price.” And you will know Him.
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.
—Revelation 3:21
Be prepared. That is all we have to do. Just be prepared. Get back into the light and pay whatever price is necessary, because there is a great tide of opposition that will continue to build against the righteous overcomer.
But God is faithful. He will give us grace to overcome. As John well knew:
Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.
—1 John 4:4
The only way you discover that is by overcoming and seeing that He overcomes all that which tries to despoil our Christian testimony. May the Lord help us in these days. Let us pray.
Lord, we heard it so many times from our brother Stephen that we know that You are coming very soon. As he expressed his heart, we amen. And for those here who have eyes to see, they also know: He is coming soon.
We pray for those who have ears to hear, because there are obediences to be done in this short, brief hour until You come. You want to find us so doing when You come back.
I pray that everybody here will take that overcoming road. I pray that everybody here would respond to Your calling to a serious devotional and discipleship life.
I pray that everybody here would be as Daniels, as the children were taught this week, always setting our hearts not to be defiled. We set our hearts to know You in these last days.
We thank You for Your grace that keeps us and heals us, and even when we stumble, picks us back up, purifies us, and refines us for the end time which is yet to be.
So we commit all these things to You. Lord, You are in control. Come back for Your bride, and may those be ready to receive You, singing, “Glory, glory, hallelujah. The Lord is coming soon.” In Jesus’ name. Amen.