END OF TIME PROPHECIES 065

LAODICEA           The Condition of the church    Revelation 3v15-17.   

"I know thy works , that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would that thou wert cold or hot.   So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth.   Because thou sayest I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked."  

The name often gives character to the church and it is the case here.   Laodicea means "righteous people" and more properly "self- righteous people."   Some render it "the rights of the people."   It was indeed a people orientated church.   When human rights are to the fore,  human responsibilities are set aside.   The only rights we actually have on this earth is the responsibility to render to God the homage due to His name.   He begins  "I know thy works," He knows everything that they are doing and there is no commendation of this church only utter disgust.   The Lord is ashamed of this church.   The background to this assessment was the nature of their water supply and they would know exactly what the Lord meant.   Laodicea drew water from the hot springs of Heirapolis in the north and from the icy cold springs at Colosse in the south.   By the time the water reached Laodicea it was lukewarm.   The spiritual condition the Lord is describing here is that they were a people drawing from two opposite pools, and reflects something which is nauseous to God.   A halfway water supply, neither one thing or another portrayed half- hearted Christians.   This is in contrast to Himself as the faithful witness who bore singular testimony to God.   The Laodiceans wanted "the best of both worlds."   The Lord is making clear that He cannot stand people taking His name who were neither one thing or another.   He unfolds their condition in four different ways.

• The ignorance of their condition.   The classic position of such a church is marked by the apposite phrases "the sayest.....thou knowest not."     They claim to be something they are not, they think they are highly spiritual, but they are the very opposite and don't know their true condition.   (Proverbs 14v14)   says "the backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways."   Back in the book of Judges the record of the judge Samson is recorded like this.   He was a man of great strength, he hated all God's enemies, he protected the people of God, and the Spirit of God used him mightily, but there came a time when his strength was gone.   Because he gave his heart to an immoral woman it says in (Judges 16v20)   "Samson knew not that the Lord had departed from him."    This church was still operating as it had done before many times, the gatherings all took place as usual; things went on much as before but the Lord had departed from them and they did not know it.   Such is the state of the human heart that we can become insensitive to the Spirit of God.   Too many churches are presuming His presence with them based on Matthew chapter 18, but He requires conditions of heart for His presence to be amongst us.  
• The idolatry that was in their hearts.   "Thou sayest I am rich, increased with goods."   They had gone after material things; they had substituted devotion to the Lord for devotion to material gain.   Like Ephraim of old (Hosea 12v8) they put all their efforts and trust in commerce   They had become the merchants of the world (the Old Testament equivalent of the Canaanites), interested only in the accumulation of this world's goods.   They confused spirituality with material gain.   Like the people in (1st Timothy 6v5)  "they  supposed that gain is godliness."  The possession of money is not an evil, but the pursuit of money is the root of all evil.   Jesus said "you cannot serve God and riches."   The intrusion of wealth had displaced the Lord.   Material gain, the rights of the people, pleasing men, it had become a church of men without God.  
• Their independence of God.      Not only was there an accumulation of wealth,  but they boasted "that they had need of nothing."   Independence is never a good thing in life.   We need to develop an attitude of dependence on each other, and particularly dependence on the Lord.   When Israel became independent of God, they tended to depart from the Lord.   Legend has it that the people of Laodicea were so fiercely independent and self sufficient, that they refused financial help from the Roman empire following an earthquake which had ruined the city.   They rebuilt it without anyone's help, they were a proud people who needed no-one's help, the tragedy was that they didn't even need the Lord.   Independence of the Lord leads to displacement of the Lord.   there is only one truly independent person and that is God, who has no needs and to whom no-one can give anything or add to His existence.    We were created to be inter dependent and it is better this way.  
• They were impervious to real spiritual values.     He has no word of praise for this church only nausea.   He described them as "wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked."    In contrast to the One who lived His life in total dependence on God and who spoke only the truth of God, these were willing to accommodate any view as long as it rested well with all the members.   They were spiritual chameleons whose only object was temporal prosperity, rather than spiritual good.   Numbers in the church, more money, more business opportunities;   if ever a church represented many of those today, it is this one.   Casual indifference to the things that matter was the order of the day.   Powerless for God and useless to men; the seeds of what happened at Laodicea first raised their head at Corinth when a church blessed by God in spiritual gifts got above themselves and began to boast in their achievements.   Such a condition the Lord describes as "wretched" (spiritually bankrupt), miserable (to be pitied thinking they were achievers, in fact they were nothing).    Poor (they assessed wrongly that material riches were the true riches).   Blind (they had no vision, flailing about in spiritual darkness, no discernment of anything).   Naked (no character about them whatsoever, no spiritual graces.  No-one self-respecting would go about naked, but in spiritual terms these did). 

The bible faithfully records the tragic failures of man and alongside it the glorious faithfulness of God.   The last priest was blind, the last king was blind, the last judge was blind, and now the last church is blind.   The way is open for individuals to buck the trend of their circumstances and open their eyes to receive divine illumination.