Sardis 21
The last of the seven angels that presides over, or oversee, the seven churches is the angel that holds the message of the Lord to the church in Laodicea. Again, most of the Christian messages I have heard on the Church in Laodicea is their horrible lukewarmness and that God is going to spew them out of His mouth! How sad, as this has left so many of the saints feeling lost, condemned, and judged as not “hot enough” for God. How far from the message of hope in Christ Jesus this has become.
Yahweh loves the saints in Laodicea as much as they do all the others. In His beautiful message to these saints He reveals Himself as the Divine Creator of all things. He is the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler/author/beginning of God’s creation. His desire is to draw their attention away from the wonder and power of His creation to Himself as the One who made it all and who desires to be their ruler.
Why does the Lord want rulership and authority over you? I promise you it is not so that He can dominate and control you, or to slap you up in some way, but that He can lead and guide you. Jesus said to follow Him. This is how He interacts with you. He calls you to walk with Him so that He can watch over you, lead you, and guide you as you walk through this world so that the world does not get to be lord over you.
He calls the church to know Him as the Creator of the universe. He is not “the force”, the “divine spirit,” or whatever other name the world wants to attribute to Him to lower Him to their ideology. This dethroning of God is so that men can elevate themselves as the divine being – or those that have evolved into the wonder of creation because of their own intelligence. This false worldview of God leads to the worship of the things of this world, such as gold, silver, wealth, status, beauty, etc. It places emphasis upon the glory of man and not God.
The saints had become ensnared in this ideology and as a result had considered themselves rich in their own creation and glory. At the same time, they wanted God to approve their glory and to bow down to their creation instead of them bowing to His creation. This is where God is having an issue with them and tells them their thinking is wrong. This sounds so much like part of the church today, the very church that constantly preaches that you are not good enough and that God is going to spew you out of His mouth! Not going to happen! Relax!
The use of the words, “I will spew you out of My mouth because you are lukewarm” is an idiom. God is using language to get their attention off themselves and onto Him. Yes, the words themselves are harsh, but the wonder of God is that He uses language to discipline or correct His people. But God is not harsh with His children. His intent is always to get your attention so that He can lead you back into sanity – His thoughts and His ways. It is “in Him” that you find the true life and the true witness.
This world is filled with lies, which come directly from the world of sin and death. There is no truth there and there is no hope there. You will not find Jesus in the knowledge of sin and death – the philosophies preached at you from this world. Truth is found in Him only. The issue Jesus is having with these saints is their world view instead of His eternal view. This is the lukewarmness that is causing the Lord’s frustration because He cannot lead them into the truth that is in Him. They have accepted the world opinion of what is good, and acceptable, and perfect before their god, who is not Jesus Christ! This is called idolatry which is not something He takes kindly too. Idolatry is to worship another god, which is just as real as He is but is not Him.
The Bible calls satan a god. Choosing worldly philosophies as the truth is to call Jesus a liar. This is a serious issue, and it is this issue which Jesus is driving at. His advice to His people is to stop accepting satanic lies as the truth and using them as the standard by which the saints are acceptable to GOD!
He is jealous over His people and He will discipline us. If we do not get our act together and stop thinking that worldly fame and fortune equals godliness, we will find some hard circumstances confronting us. Hard times come because of our love for the world, which is filled with sin and death.
In the rest of the letter Jesus deals with the solution to the problem and how to be “hot.” I will cover being “hot” and the rest of the letter to Laodicea when we get to look at this wonderful and hope-filled letter. We are still busy with Sardis. 😊
Have a fantastic weekend with your Creator!
Yvonne
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Its really interesting . The Lord is saying if your are luke warm , He will spew you out of His mouth and like you said is to bring correction and to get their attention. Correct me if im wrong . If we reamain in that state He will spew is from His mouth
Hi Fatima
No, He will never literally spew you out f his mouth. This is only a metaphor, a manner of speech which means to sternly rebuke someone because they are not paying attention. Like scolding a child because he refuses to listen. God does not, and will never, punish His own child, that he loves and died for, with death. He delivers from death and will use strong language to do so if necessary. This is what He is doing here. If you remain in a state of rebellion it will cost you the eternal reward (inheritance) He has set aside for you. They are not loosing their salvation. Salvation is a gift, not an inheritance or reward.
Yasser