The Naked Church

Heavenly Father, I come unto you by the blood of thy dear Son and in the name of Jesus I beseech you right now to bestow grace upon us and place your mirror in front of each of us so we can see ourself as you see us. I pray these things in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.

Well, I live in the state of Florida, friends, and down here immorality is more acceptable than, say, other parts of the country like the Bible Belt. In Florida, it is perfectly legal to operate a nudist colony and to live there. And the people in that nudist colony go around without a stitch clothing on and they see nothing wrong with it.

In their eyes, their lifestyle is perfectly acceptable. But in the eyes of a thrice holy God, they are grievous sinners in need of clothing and who need to repent. Now, there is a church very much like that mentioned in my Bible.

I'll call it the naked church. And the members of that church think they are perfectly acceptable to God, but it ain't so. God has a bone of contention with them and God has a bone of contention with any believer who condones sin in their life.

Well, let's take a look at this naked church as described in the book of Revelation and chapter three, beginning in verse 14. 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. I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot.

I will spew 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. 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 thy eyes with thyself, that thou mayest see as many as I love. I rebuke and chasten, be zealous therefore and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and sup with him and he with me. I will stop there, friends. I know a lot of evangelists use this verse about Jesus standing at the door of the heart to signify a lost person who needs salvation.

But the real picture here is Christ standing on the outside of his church. He's been excluded somehow. Jesus is pictured here on the outside of a believer's life and not a unbeliever.

He's addressing a congregation of believers who he says he loves. And because he loves them, he wants them to get right with him and to repent. He longs for their fellowship, yearns for their intimacy, but to have that means obedience to him.

I just have a two-point message today, friends. It's brief but important. My first point is I need to see myself as God sees me.

I need to get alone with God in an earnest seeking of him to discover something. I need to ask him to shine the searching spotlight of the Holy Spirit on me, to shine it over every recess of my heart and life, and to look in God's mirror, so to speak, and see myself for what I am. And that's a hard thing, friend, to see yourself as God sees you.

Well, that's the first thing I need to do. Secondly, my second point is this. When I do the first thing, then do something about it.

I need to get right with God. These folks in Laodicea were much like a nudist colony in the sense that they were completely naked. The difference was the nudists want to go around without any clothing on, but the deceived believer thinks he is one thing when he is something else.

God sees him naked. He sees himself clothed, but he's destitute of spiritual goods with a lack of spirituality because there is unconfessed sin somewhere in that person's life, and he needs to do something about it. And when he does, he will have a personal revival and power with God.

And that's where we are today, friends, in the churches. That's why our churches lack authority and power. That's why we don't have the reality of God in our life somewhere.

God is displeased with us about an area in our life that we've been covering up, looking the other way on. We need to address it. What are we going to do about it?