03.15. The Message To Laodicea

The Message To Laodicea (Revelation 3:14-22)

Introduction

"And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write: These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God" (Revelation 3:14). Laodicea means "the people’s rights" and aptly describes the seventh and last period of the history of professing Christendom, which is prophetically set forth by the characteristics of this Assembly as revealed in the Lord’s message to it. It is an era of democracy, both in the world and in the professing Church. It is a time when the masses of the people are rising up and claiming their rights and power as never before.

Self-assertion and man’s will is what characterizes the last days as the apostle Paul was inspired to describe them in 2 Timothy 3:1-8. This corresponds with what we find in the meaning of the name " Laodicea " and in the Lord’s words to this seventh Church. There is no thought of what is due to the Lord or concern for His rights and will. The voice and will of the people is heard and followed in their clamour for "people’s rights." All this is in sharpest contrast to what we found in the Philadelphian Assembly where the Lord’s Person, name and word of His patience were deeply regarded and kept.

We shall find that there is the greatest indifference to Christ and His glory and comfortable self-complacency and latitudinarianism in Laodicea . This arises from despising the testimony to the Lord’s Name and rejecting the light of truth recovered in the Philadelphian period. The Laodicean condition and period is the fruit of the rejection of the Philadelphian testimony. It is the last state of things in Christendom, which brings the time of Christ’s patience to an end and the rejection of it all by the Lord. The Laodicean period began in the latter half of the nineteenth century and has steadily developed in our twentieth century, so that today we see a full manifestation of the real Laodicean features in Christendom about us.

Presentation Of Christ To the Assembly at Laodicea in this lukewarm, indifferent, self-sufficient attitude, the Lord presents Himself as "the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God." This is what the Church should have been for God in the world. The Lord said to His disciples, "Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). But the Church has failed to be a true witness for God; it has been an unfaithful and false witness. This is especially seen in this last state of the professing Church as portrayed in Laodicea . The Church should also have been the "Amen," the verifier of all the promises of God, but having forgotten her heavenly calling and settled down in a scene where the Lord is rejected and relying on her own resources, she has become in this way the denial of, instead of being the Amen to, the promises of God. As united to Christ risen and glorified, who is thus the "beginning of the creation of God," the new creation, the Church ought to have displayed the power of the new creation by the Holy Spirit, for "if any one (be) in Christ, (there is) a new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17, N.Tn) Instead of this, as is fully manifested in Laodicea, the professing Church has become the expression of her own grandeur, avarice, earthly-mindedness and materialism. The Church having so greatly failed in all the above, the Lord presents Himself to the Assembly at Laodicea, which prophetically presents to us the last phase of professing Christendom, as the One who is the true Amen, the faithful and true witness, and the beginning of a new creation when all has failed of the old creation. All has been secured and verified for God in Christ, the faithful One amidst man’s unfaithfulness. God will have His glory maintained; if His people fail in upholding that glory in true witness-bearing, He will Himself vindicate His own Name in His beloved Son. As God cannot leave Himself without a witness, Christ immediately presents Himself as the "Amen, the faithful and true witness," when the professing Church has failed in giving a heavenly witness. This is a great comfort to faith. The devoted and exercised child of God, distressed by the Laodicean condition of Christendom about him, can thus look to Christ for the verification of all the promises of God, for the true witness to Him and for the bringing in of the new creation that cannot be touched by man’s failure. In 2 Corinthians 1:20 the apostle Paul tells us: "For all the promises of God in him (the Son of God, Jesus Christ) are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us." Jesus Christ is the affirmation and confirmation of the truth of all that God has spoken; He is the fulfilment and the verifier of all the promises of God. Amen is from a Hebrew word that signifies what is fixed, true and unchangeable. Its equivalent in Greek is the translated word "verily," found duplicated so many times in John’s Gospel. It implies divine certainty. In Christ we have the guarantee that every promise and every truth of God will be Amened, fully carried out. Christ is God’s last word, His Amen. The book of Revelation opens with a message from the eternal God, from the seven Spirits before His throne, "and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth" (Revelation 1:4-5). A risen and glorified Man is "the faithful and true witness." His life and death here was a perfect witness of all that God is, of the grace, love and holiness of God’s heart. His death witnesses the total ruin and failure of the first creation, of all pertaining to "the first man Adam," and of the setting aside in judgment of man after the flesh. Christ, the glorified Man in heaven is a witness that all blessing, joy and delight is found now in "the second man," "the Lord from heaven," "the last Adam" (1 Corinthians 15:45-57). In the Gospel of Christ He is preached as the faithful and true witness of what is in the heart and mind of God for man. All true witness, individual or assembly-wise, is presenting in testimony what Christ is. The Church should have been the continuation of Christ here in faithful and true witnessing. Having utterly failed in this, Christ abides faithful, and the ministry of Himself as the faithful and true witness brings hearts back to Him the unfailing One. This is the stay of the heart of faith and firm ground for the believer amidst the wreck and ruin of Christendom. Here faith is sustained amidst the rising tide of evil. Christ is "the beginning of the creation of God." As another has well said, "He is the starting-point of all that God has ever done or will do." He was the beginning of the first creation of Genesis 1:1-31, which has been ruined by man’s sin. In Colossians 1:18 we see Christ risen and glorified as the Head and Beginning of a new creation: "And he is the head of the body, the Church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence." Here He is the Beginning, the Firstborn and Head of a new order of things, a new creation, according to the power of resurrection from among the dead, into which man is brought into a new position gained by the redemption of Christ. This epistle to the Colossians was also to be read to the Church of the Laodiceans (Colossians 4:16). Had they heeded it and realized Christ therein presented, they would not have fallen into the awful state we find this Assembly in at the time of the apostle John in Revelation 3:1-22. This is a practical word for true believers today. If we are in the good of the ministry of Christ set forth in the Colossian epistle, we will be preserved from the Laodicean state of Christendom about us. In the presentation of Christ as "the beginning of the creation of God" there is the true antidote for the disease of materialism, occupation with the things of the old creation, which so characterizes Laodicea and Christendom today. Enjoying, in the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ and the blessings that are ours in Him, the Head of the new creation, is the only way of being kept above the power of materialism that so enthrals and characterizes the Church today. This is the only power of deliverance from it.

We would reiterate what we have often observed and stated in these studies of the Lord’s messages to the seven Churches of Asia, that in the character of the Lord’s approach to each Church, in the way He presents Himself, we have the key of the situation and the remedy for the spiritual condition and the wrong which the holy eyes of the Lord see. Thus it is important for us to notice carefully the character in which the Lord presents Himself to Laodicea, as we have done in the foregoing. Therein we find the correction for the bad state and the character of ministry suited for the needs of this Laodicean period. In this message to Laodicea we do not find the promise of Christ coming to take the Church to Himself, as in Philadelphia, "but Christ Himself taking the place of full and perfect testimony for God, and as the accomplisher of all God’s promises. . In this character, Christ, as it were, supplants the Church in the manifestation of the purposes and promises of God, which cannot fail. If the Church be irrevocably gone, the witness remains, and that will be the stay of the faithful." (JND). The Lord’s Censure

"I know thy works, that thou are neither cold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth" (Revelation 3:15-16). In each of the messages to these seven Churches we have the expression "I know." In our King James translation the words "I know thy works" are found in each message, but in more critical versions of the Scriptures the words "thy works" are not found in the address to Smyrna and Pergamos. Proverbs 15:3 tells us "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good," so He who is divine and omniscient can say, "I know," "I know thy works." He sees and knows everything and evaluates all according to the holy standard of the sanctuary of God.

We see in Revelation 3:17 that the Church at Laodicea had a very good opinion of itself; it was saying that it was rich, increased with goods, and had need of nothing. But the Lord who searches hearts and wants reality says, "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot . thou art luke-warm." Such is the real state of the Laodicean Church, of the present condition of Christendom, which Laodicea portrays. This is its true condition as discerned by the all-seeing, all-knowing Christ.

"Neither cold nor hot" - it is not the cold of no profession of allegiance to Christ at all, nor the hot of hearts that truly love Him. The state is lukewarm; this is indifference and latitudinarianism which comes from want of heart for Christ. There is no zeal for Him, no hatred of sin, but rather an easy, self-satisfied toleration of everything, which regards all religious beliefs as alike good, provided there be sincerity. Modernism with its denial of the deity and virgin birth of Christ, etc., is characteristic of the Church today. It is not ignorance that produces luke-warmness, but the heart remaining indifferent to the truth after it has been fully brought out. Such an one does not want the truth, because he is not willing to make the sacrifice it calls for, or separate from the present evil world. This Laodicean luke-warmness of indifferent, neutrality towards Christ and the truth of God, which is so characteristic of the professing Church of our day, is the result of the rejection of the truth and testimony to Christ which was brought forth in the preceding Philadelphian period. There is not the coldness of the dead state of the Sardis epoch. A stimulating effect was felt in the professing Church by the warmth of the revivals in the Philadelphian age. Much truth was heard and ardent devotion to Christ was witnessed. But the masses in Christendom have not had their souls touched by God’s testimony to Christ and His truth recovered in the Philadelphian era. The result is lukewarm indifference to Christ with a false pretension of the truth; there is light but not that which the light should produce. There is much intelligence, but not the love of the truth, nor life in the Spirit or walking in the truth. As another has said, "The Laodicean picture is, of course, most distinct, but seems to be largely the result of dislike and contempt for the testimony that the Lord had previously raised up" (W. Kelly). This lukewarm state of indifference of heart to Christ, coupled with a boastful profession of riches, is so nauseous and repulsive to the Lord that he says to the Church of Laodicea, "I am about to spue thee out of my mouth" (N.Tn). We do not know of such a contemptuous expression used by the Lord anywhere else. It would indicate that to be luke-warm to Christ is the worst condition of all and draws forth all His indignation and utter rejection. This condition in Christendom is the last state of decay which the Lord will not let go on any further. He has resolutely declared that He will spue the Laodicean, professing Church out of His mouth, which means He will entirely reject it as His public witness, as His responsible light-bearer in the world. This has not yet taken place, for the Lord has not thus far come for the true believers, for His blood-washed Church, His bride. He will never spue one of His own out of His mouth, for He has promised, "him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37 ). The following comment by Walter Scott is helpful at this point: "It has been remarked more than once that the last four phases of the Church run on concurrently to the end. The mass in Thyatira and Sardis are involved in the doom pronounced on Laodicea, whilst the remnants in these churches equally share in one distinctive blessing of Philadelphia - ’caught up’. The Lord’s coming is not referred to in the address to Laodicea . Its public repudiation as God’s witness will be effected by the translation of the heavenly saints. In other words, the removal of Philadelphia and the rejection of Laodicea are coincident events, the latter being dependent on the former."

"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" (Revelation 3:17). Thus the Lord continues in His message of censure to the Assembly at Laodicea . In the foregoing words He exposes her true state of boasting, self-satisfaction, and points out the Church’s real spiritual condition of misery, poverty, blindness and nakedness. In their estimation they had need of nothing; they were satisfied with their material attainments, numbers, gifts, intellectual acquirements, influence and earthly riches and possessions. Undoubtedly they thought themselves wealthy in spiritual riches also. Learning and intellectualism in religion they prized and great pretensions to spiritual riches were made. The source of her wealth was forgotten and all was ascribed to herself. Laodicea speaks of herself and not of Christ. It is the "I" of the first man, fallen Adam, that has displaced Christ. Man is made much of and exalted in his reasonings and attainments in science, philosophy, culture and progress in civilization.

How true all this is of the professing Church to today! The foregoing characteristics of Laodicea are surely evident in the present state of Christendom. What boasting there is in intellectualism, material riches and possessions. What vast building programs and architectural beauty is displayed. The Church may be rich in the culture of its ministers with their degrees in theology and education, so that they can decide which part of Scripture is inspired and which is not, or whether any of it is. Besides the learned minister, there is the minister of Christian education, the minister of music, and the minister of pastoral services in today’s modern Church. But oh! what spiritual poverty and lukewarm indifference and disloyalty to Christ is manifest. In all her possessions she has not Christ; He is outside its doors, though outwardly proclaimed within.

Laodicea says she has need of nothing. This is manifest in the lack of a prayer meeting in the busy schedule of the weekly activities of the average Church of today. Prayer is the expression of felt need and dependence upon God. Where there is no realized need, but self-satisfaction instead, there is little or no real prayer. Even amongst true regenerated Christians today the prayer meetings are poorly attended. Some are never or rarely found present in the weekly prayer meeting. Are not such saying by their actions, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing"? nothing to pray for! How easily the spirit of Laodicea creeps in amongst Christians in this day of materialism and prosperity. If we are neglecting individual, private prayer we are approaching the spirit of Laodicea also. The Lord’s words to this complacent Assembly manifest its lack of discernment and spiritual blindness "knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." There was no realization whatever of their true condition in the sight of the Lord. While Laodicea was revelling in her fancied wealth and claims of superior knowledge and attainments, the Lord surveyed this Assembly with eyes that were as a flame of fire which tested and penetrated into the real character of everything. His infallible estimate of its state is that they were totally ignorant and did not possess one single thing of true riches. Their miserableness, poverty, blindness and nakedness were fully manifest to His holy eyes.

Such is the Lord’s estimate of boasting and proud Christendom of our day which is so characterized by the marks of Laodicea . Though filled with self-satisfaction and glorying in man’s attainments, and having no need of atonement by blood, or of being born again, the Lord sees all such as wretched, impoverished, sightless and standing before Himself in all the shame of their nakedness. Perhaps the worst feature is the insensibility and utter ignorance of the true condition before God of unregenerate, religious man as he rests in his fancied riches and spiritual attainments. Having no need of Christ and His redemptive work, there is no hope, but ultimate rejection by the Lord of Christendom’s empty profession without divine life. The Lord’s Counsel

"I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see" (Revelation 3:18). Though the state of Laodicea was so repulsive and grievous to the Lord that He was about to spue her out of His mouth, in tender grace and long-suffering mercy He offers divine counsel to this self-sufficient, lukewarm Assembly and would draw her attention to Himself as the only source of recovery and true riches. He does not as yet give them up, but graciously offers that which would fully meet their need. In the counsel of the Lord to Laodicea we observe three main needs of this Assembly, (1) their poverty, (2) their nakedness, (3) their blindness. These He tenderly offers to supply - "I counsel thee to buy of me." "Gold tried in the fire" is a symbol of divine righteousness. Isaiah truly declared, "all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). For the believer in Christ the word is, "of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30). So the apostle Paul desired to "be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith" (Php 3:9). All who have this imputed righteousness of Christ are indeed rich and all who are without it and trust in their own righteousness are wretched, miserable, poor and naked as the Lord told Laodicea . How many in the professing Church of our day of the Laodicean period are without this gold of divine righteousness and thus so very poor and naked before God! Should any such read these lines, we would urge you to heed the Lord’s counsel and obtain of Him by faith this divine righteousness - "gold tried in the fire." As to the Lord saying, "buy of me gold tried in the fire," etc., Isaiah 55:1 gives us the terms upon which He sells. "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." If one owns his poverty as a bankrupt sinner, and comes to Christ in true soul thirst and need, he finds he can buy or obtain divine righteousness without money or price, because the great price of it was fully paid by the Saviour at Calvary .

"White raiment" sets forth the practical righteousness of believers in Christ. Revelation 19:8 tells us that the wife of the Lamb, the true Church, will be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white; "for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints" (N.Tn). When one is in possession of divine righteousness by faith in Christ, there will be manifest in that one’s life fruit of believing in the Saviour, by the power of the indwelling Spirit. Holiness and the moral features of Christ will be seen in the life and such will be seen clothed before men in white raiment which the Spirit of God produces in the believer consequent upon the possession of divine righteousness. The two things of divine righteousness and practical righteousness of life go together. Without divine righteousness in Christ there can be no practical, spiritual righteousness, no saintly works of white raiment. And if one has the gold of divine righteousness by inward faith in Christ, there should be seen the outward clothing of the white raiment of practical righteousness of life. Both are obtained from Christ alone. The believer is not only in Christ positionally before God, but Christ is in the believer and is to be manifest in one’s life. "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love" (Ephesians 3:17).

Though Laodicea thought itself rich and in need of nothing, they did not have this white raiment which alone could cover the shame of their nakedness. They were clothing themselves with works, seeking like Adam and Eve to cover their nakedness with fig leave aprons of their own making. But the Lord saw them naked and seeks to arouse their conscience as to this that they might receive from Him the white raiment they needed. What a word for Christendom today so busy with a social gospel of works for the betterment and improvement of man in the flesh, and rejecting the Gospel of salvation by the blood of Christ and regeneration by the Spirit of God! God sees all such in the shame of the nakedness of sinful man with no covering in His holy presence, just as it was with our first parents after the fall in Eden . But the eyes of the Church of Laodicea, and of religious man today, are blinded with self-conceit and cannot discern its nakedness and need of divine clothing. So the Lord speaks of the third need of having their eyes anointed with eye salve that they might see. This is the spiritual discernment which comes from the "unction from the Holy One," "the anointing which ye have received from him" (1 John 2:20; 1 John 2:27). It is the anointing of the Holy Spirit that alone can take away the blindness of nature and give one true, spiritual sight. The vision of the Spirit of God is needed, first of all, as to one’s own natural condition, and then as to God and His truth. In this Laodicean period there is boasting in the abilities of the human mind and its competency to judge things, but the need of being born again by the Spirit of God and having spiritual vision by the Spirit is ignored, so there is the blindness of nature amidst all the religious pretensions. The Lord gives this anointing of the Spirit to those who come to Him in true faith as needy sinners, poor, naked and blind.

Present Laodicea

We believe the following description of a present movement in Christendom gives a vivid picture of religious activity in this Laodicean period and shows us where it is heading for.

"The movement for a world church fostered by the National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches - They desire to rephrase the old truths of the Bible, traditions of the Church, modern liberalism and neo-orthodoxy, into a new ecumenical language and restating in a new eclectic philosophical and theological apologetic for the coming great Church - rethink the Christian faith till we all have one mind in Christ, the ecumenical mind. The ecumenical double talk of today is far more treacherous than the double talk of the modernist. It is being devised for the purpose of eventually delivering Protestantism into the clutches of a new Romish hierarchy and building a Church which is not the Church of the New Testament" (John I. Paton).

Another has well written: "The giving up of ’the blessed hope’ (the pre-tribulation rapture of the Church) is helping to prepare the way for the ecumenicalist’s dream of one world and one church - in other words, " Babylon the Great"(PW). Such is the development of the Laodicea of our present day which will end up in Babylon the Great of Revelation 17:1-18.

Note: Since these articles on Laodicea were written and first published in 1959, much has happened in Christendom in apostasy from the true Christian faith and in developments of a great ecumenical movement. These rapidly advancing efforts for a united World Church have taken definite form and shape. Ecclesiastical machinery has been set up and the formation of "Babylon the great" of Revelation 17:1-18; Revelation 18:1-24 is going on under our eyes today. This we made brief reference to in 1959 under the heading PRESENT LAODICEA . Much more has developed since that time which we will endeavour to point out in future issues. (R. K. Campbell, January, 1971).

Dealings With His Own

"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent" (Revelation 3:19). Up to this point the Lord addressed His message to the angel of the Church in Laodicea . Now He announces a general principle of His governmental dealings with His people, that of rebuking and chastening those whom He loves, and calls upon those individual believers that may be found in this corrupt Assembly, to be zealous and repent. The Church as a whole is not called upon to repent here; He is about to spue it out of His mouth as a nauseating thing. But grace is always available to individuals, especially to His redeemed ones, to whom He ever remains faithful, however far they may have fallen into the coldness or carelessness of the religious profession around them. He ever seeks to awaken the consciences of such whom He loves, by chastening and rebuking discipline in order to bring home to the soul how much they have grieved Him and to deliver them from the evil they are associated with, or from the lukewarm state.

It was stated in the Old Testament and also in the New, that "whom the Lord loveth he correcteth" or "chasteneth," and that we are not to despise His chastening or faint when rebuked of Him (Proverbs 3:11-12; Hebrews 12:5-6). He never afflicts willingly, but if His saints continue to remain unresponsive to the entreaties and appeals of His loving heart, He cannot allow them to go on unrebuked and without chastening. So the Lord here warns true believers as to His rod of discipline and the need to be zealous and repent, or His hand would fall in chastening dealings with them and in rebuke. The purpose of God’s chastening of His children is "that we might be partakers of his holiness" (Hebrews 12:10), and that by trying and difficult circumstances and unpleasant situations of His chastening dealings with us, we might be delivered from our own wills and become yielded to God’s "good, and acceptable, and perfect, will" (Romans 12:2). Chastening is not just punishment or chastisement; it is really child training, instruction and discipline, which every child of God must experience from the Father who deals with us as sons (Hebrews 12:7). In this Laodicean period of our day, one sees that this chastening and rebuking by the Lord of those who are truly His redeemed ones is much in prominence. It is His way in faithful love with His own to deliver them from the characteristic evil features of Laodiceanism which surrounds them everywhere. Many difficulties, trials and distresses are allowed to befall the Lord’s people in these closing days of the Church. All of these things are part of the Lord’s discipline with us as He seeks to bring us to the end of our own wills and of confidence in the flesh, whether in self or in others, that we might find rest in the will of God and heart satisfaction in Christ, the "faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God." In His governmental ways with His people He would work repentance and zeal for Himself in their hearts.

We must notice that there is no note of commendation from the Lord in His message to Laodicea . Unlike all the other Churches, where there was something which the Lord could commend, there was nothing in this Assembly pleasing to Him for which He could praise it. Its state was so bad that He was outside of it all, appealing to individuals to hear His voice and open their door to Him. This action indicates a moral disowning of the professing Christian body of the Laodicean period. The Appeal To Individuals

"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: 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). These words indicate that the Lord has taken a place outside of the Church of Laodicea, a solemn thing indeed. Its wretched moral state compelled Him to assume this position. On the other hand, it is equally true that the door of Laodicea is closed upon Christ; He is shut out and left outside. The following quotation from E. Dennett is very helpful on the verse before us: "If, however, the Lord has definitely taken His place outside of Laodicea, He has not abandoned any of His own who, failing to discern that the Lord has departed, may still be inside. Hence He says, ’Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.’ Full of longsuffering and grace He waits upon any who may have been carried away by the seductions around them, lulled to sleep by the atmosphere in which they have been living, and with urgent appeals seeks to arouse them out of their lethargy.

"He thus stands at the door, the door closed upon Himself, and knocks, if perchance any true-hearted but slothful saint, like the bride in the Canticles (Song of Solomon 5:1-16) may respond. Should there be even one such as may hear His voice and open the door, He says, ’I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.’ The order of the possible response is to be observed. There is first hearing His voice, and then opening the door. Now, the bride heard His voice, but lacked the energy to open the door until it was too late. It is not enough therefore to hear His voice; many believers, found, alas! in evil associations, do this, but remain where they are; and so it might be with saints in Laodicea, unless indeed in His mercy the Lord lays hold of them, as the angels did Lot in Sodom, and compels them to open the door.

"The door being opened (’if any man open the door’), how rich the blessing realized. First, ’I will come in to him’ - not into Laodicea ; its doom is sealed; but in to him, to him who, by grace had opened the door. And coming in He will manifest all His grace. ’I will sup with him;’ that is, ’I will come down to where he is .’ How wondrous His condescension! But if He first will sup with him who has opened the door, it is that He may lead him up into the higher blessedness of supping with Himself, of having fellowship with Him in His things, communion with Himself, the most exalted privilege, though intended for every saint, and the most blissful enjoyment that any can possess whether in time or in eternity; for it is the realization of our perfect association and fellowship with Christ." This is the present position of the Lord today. He has placed Himself at the door and continues knocking, appealing to individual hearts to let Him in. This He will continue to do until He comes for His bride, the true Church of redeemed ones. Then the Laodicean profession will be utterly rejected and spued out of His mouth.

Individual supping with the Lord will surely bring one into communion with what is in the heart of the Lord in regard to the Church which He loved and gave Himself for. So that such an individual will not remain individual as to the sphere of his thoughts and affections, but have his heart expanded into the breadth of the interests and affections of Christ. The Lord would bring us individually into the good of what pertains to the saints collectively and corporately as the house and family of God, as the body of Christ, as His temple. Individual faithfulness and the enjoyment of individual privilege of supping with Christ, can never lead to isolation or independency of fellow believers. It should lead one to an increased appreciation of other believers and of every link of fellowship which one can take up with brethren that is in keeping with the truth of the assembly of God and the holiness of our Lord.

Promise To The Overcomer

"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne" (Revelation 3:21). As in each message to the previous six Churches, so we find here in Laodicea the Lord looks for overcomers and gives an encouraging promise to such. Those who hear His voice in the chastenings and rebukings and repent, those who hear the Lord’s knockings and open the door to Him and sup with Him will become overcomers in the power of the Spirit of God. Such will overcome the Laodicean state of lukewarm indifference to Christ and all the characteristics we have considered. The overcomer will judge the condition of Laodicea and separate from it morally. The promise to the overcomer in Laodicea is that of association with Christ in His throne in the public display of His glory in the kingdom reign. It is not as high and great a promise as that given to the overcomer in Philadelphia or in Pergamos, but it is a cheering reward for overcoming that which the Lord condemned as so repulsive to Himself. The Lord Himself is brought before us in this promise as the great Overcomer. He overcame the Jewish world of profession, self-righteousness, unreality and enmity of religious Scribes and Pharisees. Having overcome all opposition and the world of Satan, He has been granted the blessed reward of sitting down with His Father in His throne. So he that overcomes for the Lord now will be privileged to sit with Him in His own throne when He shall reign on earth as King of kings and Lord of lords. The Call To Hear

"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches" (Revelation 3:22). As in the messages to the three previous Churches, the call to hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches closes this communication of the Lord to the Assembly at Laodicea . As the exhortation is to hear the message of the Spirit unto the Churches, not just the word to the particular Assembly at Laodicea at that time, it is evident that these messages have been recorded and preserved for the benefit of the whole Church at all times, even for ourselves today. So we do well to give heed ourselves to the message of the Spirit in this epistle, that we may be overcomers for the Lord in this evil day of luke-warmness and indifference to Himself.

Parables Of Matthew 13:1-58

We have been pointing out in this series the similarity between the seven Churches of Asia and the seven parables as to the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 13:1-58. As we did not speak of the comparison of the sixth parable of the pearl of great price to the Church at Philadelphia, when considering the message to that Assembly, we would draw attention to it at this point. The pearl of great price, which the merchant found and sold all that he had and bought it, is a type of the Church of Christ in its unity and beauty, also in the cost necessary for the Lord to have it. In the Philadelphian period the truth of the one body of Christ, the oneness and unity of the true Church was realized in a great way. The Church was seen as "one pearl of great price." The seventh parable is that of "a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world (age - N.Tn), the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just" (Matthew 13:47-49). The last stage of the great profession of the kingdom of heaven is likened by the Lord to a dragnet that gathers in the sea of every kind, good and bad. How like the Laodicean period of the professing Church where great efforts are made to attract people of "every kind" into the various denominational "nets," regardless of their being converted to Christ or not. In the parable the good fish are gathered into vessels and the bad are cast away. While this will be fulfilled at the coming of the Lord to set up His kingdom on earth and the wicked will then be cast by the angels into everlasting fire, we may make a comparison with what we have in Laodicea . When the Lord comes for His own and gathers them to heaven, He will spue the unsaved professors out of His mouth. The bad will be cast away, as in the parable, and later taken by the angels into "the furnace of fire."