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The Revelation of Jesus Christ
"Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name" (3:11.12). THE MESSAGE TO LAODICEA-THE APOSTATE CHURCH 3:14-22 The word "Laodicea" means "the voice of the people," and the message to the church of Laodicea speaks to us of the time when the voice of the people will be listened to, and not the voice of God; of the time when the church will be controlled by men, instead of by the Spirit of God. To the church at Laodicea, the Son of God calls Himself the "Amen, the faithful and true witness," the Author of "the creation of God." Man's words will pass away, but the Word of our God shall abide forever; and the Creator of the universe was the Lord Jesus, no matter how many apostate teachers may deny His eternal deity! Moreover, He looks upon the secret thoughts of the heart; and to the professing church at the end of this age He says: "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth" {3:15, 16). You know what lukewarm water tastes like-a sickening combination of hot and cold water. It stands symbolically for the mixture of religion and worldliness, which is actually nauseating to the Lord Jesus Christ. How serious. then, is His statement: "I would thou wert either hot or cold"! God would rather have us be out-and-out worldlings than merely nominal Christians, "neither cold nor hot." And the fate of every man who does not have a living faith in the shed blood of Christ will be that of the Laodicean church; he will be "spued out" of the mouth of the Son of God. The sad thing is that, in our own day. apostate Christen dom is blind, self-satisfied, trusting in earthly riches rather than "His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."
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