The Church That Jesus Detests: Part 1 - Revelation 3: 14

0:45Verse 14, chapter 3. 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 cold nor hot, 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 be. Become rich, and white garments, so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed. And I 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 into 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.

2:18Well, we have looked at the church that Jesus cherishes. We've just been looking at that church in Philadelphia. Today we begin looking at the church that Jesus detests, the church that Jesus detests. And he will explain just the degree to which he detests this church in very graphic language as we work our way through this. But this is a church that is really caught between two masters and has chosen the foul one. In fact, much of life, as we go through our journey through life, I can tell you that we are people who are caught between two masters. Who will you serve? The God of the universe or the God of this earth?

3:13Why has God placed you on this earth? Becomes one of the fundamental questions that you will answer in your life by what you choose, who you go after, the pursuits you undertake, all reveal to us, to yourself, and to the universe who your master really is. Who is your master this morning? Who do you serve? Why do you think God has placed you on this earth? You know, we go through life, we just sung songs that depict the great loving kindness of our God and our King, Jesus Christ. He's the one who truly loves your soul. You have a real enemy, the one who despises you, the devil who hates you, but his real hatred is of God, the true king, the true master.

4:28That's who he hates. You're just the territory on which he takes out his aggression against God. And sometime in life, I hope you come to realize the one who truly loves your soul, and that you will respond to the one who truly loves you and not be duped, taken in, and trampled over by the one who despises you. First point of wisdom in life is to respond to the one who truly loves you. And it is not the gods of this earth. It is not the gods of your own making. It is the God who made you.

5:15He's the true master. Where are you today? Have you come to a point in your life where you say, I'm done serving lesser things. I will respond to the true lover of my soul. I will love him because he has first loved me. That's wisdom. That's somebody who's dialed in, somebody who responds to the spirit of truth. Well, this church that we're dealing with is a church that is caught between two masters. In fact, in Matthew 6, 24, Jesus says this, No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or will be devoted to the other. The one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. You cannot serve God and wealth. The particular pursuit of this church, as we will come to lay out here this morning, is one of wealth. It's a church of affluence, great affluence. I could easily call this church the church of affluent apathy. Could call it the church of phony Christianity. I could call this the church of idle profession. I could call it a lot of things. I could even call it a very graphic term, the church that Jesus vomits. My wife made me change the title because that's the way I was going. Softened it a little bit to the church that Jesus detests, just as good.

7:00But this morning I want us to just begin by introducing this church to you. It's a church that makes Jesus sick to his stomach, a church that Jesus spits out of his mouth. And I want you to step into their struggle this morning, a little bit what's going on in their world. And then I want us to take a moment, just as we look at verse 14 this morning. Morning and showcase the one master who truly is worth serving. So, just by way of introduction, just to give you a little bit of a background to the church at Laodicea, we're at the very last church in this series. We've looked at the church at Ephesus, the church of Loveless Orthodoxy. We've looked at the church of Smyrna, the ones that were ready to die, the church of living martyrs. We've looked at Pergamum, the church whose loyalty was endangered. We looked at Thyratira, the church that had compromised their loyalty. We looked at Sardis, we've looked at Philadelphia, that church that Jesus cherishes. And then we've now come to the church of Laodicea, this church that Jesus detests.

8:20Let me tell you a little bit about the city, just to start laying a context, as we have done with each of these seven churches, laying important historical and even geographical context will help us as we make our way through these next few weeks through this church. But it was the last of the and most southeastern church. The name really goes back to around the middle of the second century, third century BC, around 250th. Plus BC. It was named by Antiochus II, Greek, after his wife, Leo Decei, Lao de C, who he divorced like three years later.

9:20Leo divorce. I don't know. But one of the prominent things about this place was that it was the wealthiest city in the region. It was, and some even say that eastern part of the world, and some even go beyond that, even the world, that it was, it was a, it was famous for its wealth because of its banking industry. It was actually where Cicero went and cashed in his treasury bonds. There's evidence that it was a place that minted coins, it changed money, it was a very wealthy, prominent banking center. And when the earthquake in the 60s that we've seen impacted the other churches of this region, this is the only church that didn't need government aid to rebuild itself. In fact, Tacitus says that Laodicea rose from the ruins by the strength of her own resources and with no help from us, speaking of the Roman. government.

10:32And yet in this context they think they are wealthy and have need of nothing, but this is the church that is poor. It is poor, contrasting with Laodicea's wealth. It's no question that the church itself was very prominent, had enjoyed a lot of luxury wealth, and that'll be evident even as we just look in a preliminary fashion. But it also had a medical center. It was a it had a medical center that focused on eye salve. And they had this powder that would they use to treat all kinds of eye problems. And it was known for that. And its and other aspects of their community, they took great pride in their medical skill, especially their ability to help people see. And yet it is Jesus who refers to this church as spiritually blind. So again, in contrast to the world they lived in. There was also another element of this city that distinguished it, and that was it it had a unique corner on the market for some of the softest, glossiest black wool ever made. In fact, many of their citizens would cover, wear the black tunics and clothes, and as just, again, a source of their pride. But it's Jesus who then again refers to them as being naked and needing to buy white garments. So you get an idea of the city, but there is one thing that really stood out, and I'm going to take you into a little bit more in detail into what I call this tri-city area of Laodicea. On a different map that shows some of the geographic features, you can see there's six of the churches. Laodicea is here. Let me see if I can blow up that a little bit. You can see where Laodicea is here. There's three churches there, and off to the right, you see Hierapolis and Colossi, other churches, a little tri-city area that enjoyed a lot of fellowship together and church interaction together.

13:12But one of the things that is clear about Laodicea is they had a very poor water supply system. They had one Achilles heel of this city. It was they had a very vulnerable water system. They did not. Have good water in their area, so they had to pipe it in. Otherwise, it would have been a great city for a fortress throughout the centuries, but because it didn't have water, a good water supply, they had to pipe water in across plains, and that made it easy to cut off the water supply. And so, in prosperous times, during the Roman Empire, or certainly that Pax Romana time, where there was a where Rome had just was enjoying a time of peace, everybody was enjoying a time of peace because of Rome.

14:08It said it all set all a rebellion down for the most part. In that climate, it became a very centrally located place, a very important place for commerce and a banking industry. And so, during that time, it thrived and became very, very wealthy and outshined the other cities in that little tri-city area. And it became the most prominent and the wealthiest of the cities. But it still had a water problem, and they were able to develop systems to mitigate that. Well, let me tell you about some of the waters in the area. First, there's the waters of Hierapolis. And it is, let me give you a picture here. What do you think you're looking at?

15:03Snow. It's not snow, is it? It is calcium carbonate. It is water from the this is the waters of Hierapolis. They're heavy with calcium, heavy with lime, and they are said to. We wonder, I mean, what a beautiful picture. You'd think, okay, this is a beautiful snow scene, and it's really not, but it's calcium. In fact, what was said about this water is that it had all kinds of healing powers. They were minerally rich, waters saturated with minerals. They could heal kidney disorders, even paralysis. It could heal heart disease, circulatory problems, rheumatism, high blood pressure, digestive problems, nervous disorders, and eye and skin diseases. Sounds like some pretty good water for that, for those purposes. And so that was what attracted a lot of people. And still today, if you go there, you can see these features. And it looks like a snow mountain, but it's not.

16:23It's calcium carbonate. In fact, if you're standing in Laodicea at the Point of the ancient theater. You can barely see it on the top right corner. There's a little arrow. You see a white outcropping up there? That is the waters that are coming out of Hierapolis. And so you can see that feature very prominently. Well, there's another city, Colossi, which was very close. Their water supply was very different. They were known for their cool. This is a picture of the sign there and the tell that's there now, ancient Colossi. But it was known for its cool, clear, clean water. It was located at the foot of Mount Cadmus, where it would go up 8,500 feet. That water would come down, snowmelt, and charge on some underground streams, and that water was known to be very clean, very cool.

17:34And so that is the water at Colossi. Now, let me tell you about the water supply a little bit at Laodicea. Of course, you know, my former background is hydrology, so I couldn't resist to spend a little time talking about the water, trying to make it as biblically relevant as possible, but I. It's just fascinating. I'm taken with water systems and clean water. But the problem with Laodicea is their water. And I think Jesus is going to point out to them: you know, you're just like your water.

18:14I think that's where he's going with a lot of this: your water. But I'll just give you a little picture of just ancient Laodicea, very big. You can tell a lot of wealth there at one time. Here's streets. But they had to pipe in the water. And it's fascinating if you study the area. There's these large ancient pipes. And here's a picture of one: stone they would carve, and they would fit them together. They even had developed a system of what we call a siphon system. You can see it happening all over the different places today when you have to get water over a mountain. Well, they had developed a system to where they could pressurize water and build these siphons that would then carry the water over a mountain. And this is just one picture of what those water distribution and piping system look like. And of course, it makes it easy. You can see if you've got a big water supply going over a hill and some your enemy comes and breaks that water, you're in trouble. And so that's, but during his Time of peace, this became a very effective way to bring water into the city. Then, for their distribution system, the way they would do their water is you get like a potter's wheel, and you ever wonder how they did ancient pipes? It's not too much different than it's done today, by the way. You get a potter's wheel, you get some clay, and you have someone shape a little pipe about this big with two fittings on the end that fit together. And so you could do little pipe segments and just put them, and it's all over the ancient world. And so, you can see, this is one of them right there, and you can see how here's a lengthy one. You just keep putting these little about two-foot sections of these little pipe sections together, and you could seal them, and you create a water pipe, clay water pipe. They still make clay water pipes today. The technology is advanced, of course, and they can make much longer pipes, but really very similar. You still buy clay pipes today, manufacture them. They can just make them a lot bigger sections, still away, and they stick them together, and that's the way they work. Now, one of the things as you study the archaeology and what's been uncovered, here is a pipe. They discovered that the water had a problem. There was a lot of lime in the water, or calcium carbonate, and you can see this section. Of pipe here, and what do you see building up on the inside? A little bit of carbonate, calcium. And by the way, they make that same stuff.

21:11This is what they will make travertine out of. They will mine this stuff and some of these deposits, and that's travertine they would use. That's how hard this stuff would get. And so you can imagine what do you think would happen after a long period? What do you think is going to happen to this pipe? It's going to get plugged up. Here's another one that's a little bit further. You can see it gets down to where the water just gets to where it can hardly move. Here's a section, and you can see that what would periodically happen is they'd have to go back and put in new pipes. And so they would often cut off a section of pipe or terminate it and then pick it up and put in new pipe. And you can find that evidence because they had this problem with calcium carbonate building up in their pipes. Now, can you imagine? So it's clear that their water source was probably of some of this kind of the same groundwater movement or whatever that you saw up at Hieropolis that laid all this calcium carbonate. Well, you've got that kind of water in the area. And so you can imagine putting that through pipes. And then it has, it comes out very hot, but then by the time it makes it through the distribution system with all this mineral rich, and you get a drink of water, what do you think you're going to feel like doing with it?

22:43You'd probably want to spit it out. You'd probably be more inclined to spit it out than you would be to drink it and swallow it. You can imagine heavy mineral contact, lukewarm, that kind of thing. Well, that's the water. It's got a problem with its water supply. Next, I want to talk to you about Laodicea from putting it together from other New Testament passages. There's not much written about it, but there's enough for us to get a picture of what this church was like and what kind of issues it was dealing with. Well, it's clear that, or it seems to be clear, that Paul did not found the church there at Laodicea. In Colossians 2:1, Paul says, For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf, speaking to the church at Colossi, and for those who are in Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face. So it seems like Paul, although he probably would have been through Paul's ministry there at Ephesus for those years that he was there, that The church was founded, though Paul doesn't seem to have personally been there, at least certainly at this time.

24:10There is some evidence that you could say that Epaphras is the guy who founded the church. In Colossians 1:7, Paul refers to a faithful steward, a faithful servant, bondservant, Epaphras. In fact, to the Colossians, he says, Epaphras, who is one of your number, so Epaphras is somebody who belongs to the Colossian church, who's a bondslave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greeting, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, so that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God. But then Paul goes on and says, For I testify for him that he has a deep concern for you, that is the church at Colossi, and for those who are in Laodicea and Hierapolis. So Epaphras is the one individual that Paul is intimately acquainted with who has a passion and heart for this tri-city area. In fact, it is in Hierapolis, where you saw those white, they call it cotton formations, or what is the word today? I think they call them their cotton castle, is what that is called, and the name.

25:39But it is there that Philip, the disciple Philip, was, by reliable tradition, was martyred some few years, not too long after James was martyred, by stoning. And there's a place there that they commemorate that to this day. But that's what place where, so the apostles, there is a ministry there, but certainly Epaphras has a passion for this area. There is then another individual named Archippus, Archippus. What's interesting about him is he's also spoken in Colossians. It says, when this letter is read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans. So Paul had written to the Colossians, and he was expecting the word, the letter to the Colossians, to be read at the church of Laodicea. And then there's another letter, maybe the letter of Ephesus that Paul wants them to read. So there's a sharing of these letters. These letters that Paul wrote are circular and are making their way through these churches. Then in the very next verse, He says, say to Archippus, take heed to the ministry that you have received in the Lord that you may fulfill it. So in his instructions to the church at Laodicea, to Colossians, to take and read the church at, read the letter to the church at Laodicea, Paul singles out a guy named Archippus and says, Make sure you take care of that ministry which you have received.

27:31Very well, could be the pastor of Laodicea. And there seems to be already some trouble happening in Colossians for Paul to single him out, take heed, take care of the ministry that's under your care. So there's some things going on. Then we come to another place, Philemon. You remember Philemon? He was a Laodicean. The church met in his house. And also, he had a runaway slave. So we know that Philemon was a man of means. He had a runaway slave that met up with Paul. And Paul sent him back to Philemon and said, Receive this former slave of yours as a brother. So Paul, to Onesimus says, go back. Philemon is your brother. You go back.

28:37Philemon, you receive him as a brother. So there is a church that is meeting in Philemon's home. He is a man of means, a man of wealth, and Archippus is there as well. Archippus, fellow serger, fellow soldier, meeting in the church in his house. And there are later some people who identify Archippus with Philemon's son. So you have, at least at this time, this very well could be the pastor, Archippus, the church in Laodicea, is meeting in the home of a wealthy man named Philemon. Some 30 years later is when we come to this church and this letter that Jesus writes. Jesus sent his letter, and the church, 30 years later, looks like it's prospering from all human measurements.

29:43The church was confident in its success, and yet the church was not in a good spiritual condition. Wealth has a corrupting influence on the church. Least on this church. Wealth cannot serve two masters. And so this church was caught between two masters. Would it choose to serve the true master, the true king, or would it pursue wealth and worldly things? Well, and this is the church that Jesus is going to compare to its water supply. So that's the church. A little brief introduction to the place, the setting. But what's interesting is looking back at verse 14.

30:44To 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 want us to spend the next few moments looking at verse 14. I want you to see three expressions of Jesus' self-identification. I want you to see how Jesus sees himself or how Jesus identifies himself in the way he relates to this church. But as we do, I also want you to see the true master. This is the true king. This is the one who wants to come in. This is the one who truly loves these people, who loves humanity.

31:30Desires a relationship with him, with them, and they desire them to have a relationship with him. So, I want us to look at these three self-descriptions of Jesus. It's very important how he portrays himself. You want to see Christ this morning? I want you to see three descriptions that Christ gives you so that you can know who he is. First of all, look back at verse 14. You ought to be able to see it. You ought to know my outline without even putting it up there just by this verse. How does Jesus identify himself? First, he identifies himself as the amen. The amen. That's an interesting word.

32:18The word means that which is binding. We say it after every prayer, or lots of times, anyway. Amen. So be it. It is so. Let it be this way. Amen. Can't add to it. That kind of says, it speaks of certainty, final, something final. In Isaiah 65, 15, God refers to himself as the God of truth. Because he who is blessed. In the earth, will be blessed by the God of truth. Literally, Elohim Amen. Elohim, Amen. That is his name. And he who swears in the earth will swear by Elohim, Amen. And here, Jesus is saying, He is the Amen.

33:23He is the one who is valid. Amen. In fact, it's interesting. I'm going to take you guys down a little bit of a trail of trauma today. I read an article and just came out this week in a major news outlet, and it's referring to a new kind of religious trauma that is being studied. It's called rapture anxiety. Rapture anxiety. There are people, and here's the studies that are taking place that there is this concept out there called the rapture where Jesus is going to return and take his people. Sound familiar? In fact, if you look back a couple of verses, Jesus, the Amen, says this in verse 10. Of chapter 3, because you have kept the word of my perseverance, I will also keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth. We spent some time looking, yes, an hour of trial, an hour of great tribulation for the purposes of testing and for the purposes of drawing people to himself. There comes a time when you need to be done with serving the cruel master and serving the true master. And we looked at that as we were there, and that the purpose is behind the tribulation and this great trial of testing is one of bringing people to the end of themselves so that they would look to the one who saves them.

35:15Well, this news article goes on. It says that these events refers to them as damaging beliefs of evangelical churches, specifically Baptist churches. It goes on to describe this as religious trauma. It is a chronic problem. And this is the, of course, it's a new area of study. And this is what their research has already revealed: that this religious trauma leads to an increase of anxiety, depression, paranoia, and even some OCD-like behaviors. So now, think about that. Not only am I white, not only am I straight, not only am I a male, if that's bad enough, not only do I believe my Bible, not only do I go to a Baptist church and am a Baptist preacher, I am also one who believes in the rapture and causing trauma.

36:34So why would I keep on saying these things? Well, because the Amen has said them. Who is the final authority? The so-be-it says it. It's not about us. And a word about anxiety, depression, people say, yeah, boy, I mean, that's a load. So now all the mental health conditions are coming back to this religious trauma. And then they go on further and say, and this concept is really espoused by dispensational premillennialists. Singles out the dispensational premillennialism.

37:22Okay, that's us. That's me, anyway. I prefer the term futuristic premillennialist. In other words, I see the millennium still to come in the future. It's not something that has happened in the past. It's not something that's currently happening in our present. I see it as something future and that Christ will return before then. So I think it is a better term to say that I am a futuristic premillennialist. But it's interesting that this really scathing critique singles out Baptists. Let me just read you what it says. This concept of the rapture, known theologically as dispensational premillennialism, is not prevalent in Catholic or mainline Protestant denominations like Episcopalianism or Presbyterianism and is most commonly adhered to in evangelical and fundamental churches. All those fundamentalists again, those fundamentalists who believe what the Bible says. So dispensational premillennialists are on par with young earth creationists and etc., etc., and causing damage. Do you see where this is going? When you proclaim truth, that brings people to a point of anxiety, a point of need, of want, of restlessness, that somehow you have damaged them.

39:01Causing mental health. Well, let me tell you something about things about anxiety and depression. Let me relate it to you this way: you have this mechanism in you. When you get thirsty, what are you supposed to do? Go get a drink. There's a physical mechanism that when you are thirsty, your body says, I'm thirsty, I need a drink, and you go get a drink. The thirst moves you to take care of the situation. Same is true with food. You get hungry, you need something to eat. Your body is telling you that. When you are depressed about the right things, there are some things in life that you need to be depressed about. You shouldn't rejoice when things are going wrong. You shouldn't rejoice when something is off. There should be an anxiety.

40:04You should get anxious when your son is playing in the street or your toddler is playing in the street. It should move you to take care of. And the same is true with biblical truth. As Christ brings the truth to bear upon us, yes, we are separated from God. Yes, we are sinners. Yes, my whole being resonates with that. I understand my sin. I am convicted of that sin, but all of that is good. It is to prompt me to go and. Find the remedy for that sin. It's to awaken a thirst and to find the one who can satisfy in truth.

40:43Well, and much of the emphasis of these dispensational premillennial Baptists, they like to teach from the book of Revelation. So says the article. They end by basically saying they're tired of what they see as a system peddling shame and rejection. That what we have, what this is boiled down to is that we peddle shame and rejection and seek to manipulate off that. Well, so who's the final authority? This is the rhetoric that's amping up, and it's not going to die down.

41:30Who is the final authority? The amen. The one who says, so be it. This is so. This is certain. This is certainty. This is the one. And so when he is referring to himself as the amen, Jesus is referring to himself as the final authority, the God of truth. As he states, saying, so they are. He is the one who speaks the final word. Just like a judge who decides a case and drops the gavel, the final word.

42:17Second, notice how Jesus defined himself here as the faithful and true witness. Literally, the martyr, the faithful one, and the true one. Literal expression, literal translation. The witness, the martyr, is in the place of emphasis. So says the martyr for truth, the true one, the reliable one. Unlike the false and unreliable promises of earthly wealth and the deception of wealth and earthly pursuits, Jesus' testimony is sure. Those who build their lives upon his words, as Jesus said, are wise. Matthew 7:24. They may be like a man who built his house upon a rock. What are you building your house upon? Are you taking Jesus' words as true? They are faithful. They are reliable. That is where you build your life.

43:23And he is saying the wise one is the one who builds upon. And this is important. Because he's about to critique this church. So everything that's going to come after in this letter is an evaluation, a counsel, and an invitation. Listen, the heart of your God is to have a relationship with you. The heart of your Creator, He created you so that you would have a relationship with Him. Amen. So that you can build your life and respond to Him accordingly. The wise one is the one who responds to their Creator. Listen, God's given you enough information to let you know He's the one who loves you. You also have enough information to know there's a great evil in this society. You also know what it's like to bow down to that evil, to taste, to be part of, and to feel the pain and the emptiness.

44:30We'll add to that, Jesus identifies Himself as the Amen, the faithful and true witness, and third, the beginning of the creation of God. The beginning of the creation of God. And this expression is the word for, it can mean source or ruler, the beginning, the source of the creation of God, the source and ruler of, both concepts are involved. The one who creates, the one who begins. Imagines, brings about the one who starts is the one who's going to end. This is not an expression that he was the first one created. That is not what this is saying at all, not even close. The context is about his authority over. The word itself speaks of source and rulership. It doesn't make any sense to say that this is, well, he was the first one created. Well, so what if he's the first one created? What really matters is his authority, and that's what Jesus is describing.

45:34He is not a created one, he is an eternally existent one, and the one that begins the creation of God. Colossians 1:15, I read it earlier. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for by him all things were created, both in the heavens and the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things would be created through him, and for him he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is also the head of the body, the church, and he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself would come to have first place in everything. Listen, there are those schools of thought that really, even the Aryan controversy that's going to spring up even around in this area, this tri-city area. In fact, you already have Colossians written.

46:30Seeming to address this issue, and the idea of this whole Aryan controversy was to make Jesus a created being, that God created Jesus first, that he is creature, he is not creator. But let me, just an expression: he cannot be a created being and create all things, can he? Think about the logical breakdown. If he created all things and he himself is created, it doesn't really work, does it? Because either he created all things except himself, it's a logical breakdown in the text itself. He cannot be a created being and come to have first place in everything, including God. No, only God can have first place in everything.

47:29And this heresy, you can see it in modern-day Jehovah's Witnesses still. And I've gone to their translation of this, and they add the words, all other things. He's the creator of all other things. You can see it in italics there. It denies Jesus His deity. And this seems to already have a footing there. But John writes, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. God and the word was God, very similar to what Paul has been saying here. He's the image of the invisible God, the creator. All things hold together in him. But this same expression is what Jesus is referring to himself here, the ruler. We have the word for archbishop or the head, the beginning of the first creation, the source and the ruler.

48:24Well, this church is caught up between two masters. Who is it going to serve? Is it going to pursue wealth, affluence, or is it going to pursue the amen, the faithful and true witness? The beginning of the creation of God. And even as we reflect upon these words that this church was in that struggle, we find in our own times and ourselves that's where we are. Listen, as you go through life, you make statements about who you are. You judge yourself by what you perceive to be true or what you will hold to be true.

49:12Who is your master? It stands to reason. The one who created you should be your master. It is only a crime that keeps. You from responding to your true master. And this truth is brought to bear upon us because your creator loves you and he wants a relationship with you. And you can respond to him today by taking him up on the invitation we read just a little bit ago. Open the door to him. Serve him.

50:00The wise person is the one who ceases trying to argue him away or redefine him in a palatable way. Seek to know him as he is. Spend your mental energies really trying to understand God. And you'll find that he is good. And what a good way to spend your mental energies and your days. You'll find him if you'll truly seek him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the truth of your word. How you're just so not a respecter of persons. You love truth. And you tell us truth for our good and for our benefit. We thank you, Father.

50:56I can't even know all what's going on in my own heart, but I. Know that your word is true. And so it's because of that I look to you, and we look to you today for you to complete the work that you have purposed for your word to do. We ask you to do that this morning. Those who do not know you would really, truly come to understand and hear the voice of you calling them into a close, intimate relationship.

51:28Father, those of us who have walked with you for many a day, Father, still we see the residual dispositions and likings to that which is unprofitable. We desire to be more about you, less about us. We really believe you are true, Master. That we've settled. Help us to respond to you with a whole heart and love you completely. In Jesus' name, amen.