CHURCH AT LAODECIA Revelation 3:14-22

Ephesus: Passion was Lost – Fires of Satan’s Aspiration to be worshipped!

Smyrna: Persecution from the Idolaters - Fires of Satan’s Opposition to pure worship!

Pergamos: Penetration of Worldliness – Fires of Satan’s Temptation to pagan worship!

Thyatira: Purity of the Church – Fires of Satan’s Indoctrination to Put up with sin!

Sardis: Putridness of the Church – Fires of Satan’s Destruction of God’s People!

Philadelphia: Power of the Church – Fires of Satan’s Determination to Prevent the Church from Working together.

Laodecia: God’s Parting from the Church – Fires of Satan’s Separation of God and his People!

I. Sovereign Savior - Revelation 3:14 - 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;

1. Ruler - And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write;

2. Responsible - These things saith the Amen,

II Corinthians 1:20 - For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. 21 Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God;

3. Reality - the faithful and true witness,

4. Rudiment (beginning) - the beginning of the creation of God;

John 1:1 - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

II. Sickening Situation – Revelation 3:15 - I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

1. Testimony - I know thy works,

Matthew 7:16 - Ye shall know them by their fruits.

James 2:14 - What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works?

2. Tepid (Luke Warm) - that thou art neither cold nor hot:

Matthew 7:22 - Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. 24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

3. Tolerance - 16 So then because thou art lukewarm,

4. Tragedy - I will spue thee out of my mouth.

II Thessalonians 3:6 - Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.

 I Timothy 6:5 - Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.

I Corinthians 5:1 - It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife. 2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. 3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. 6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? 7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

II Peter 2:15 - Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 16 But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet. 17 These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. 18 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. 19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. 20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. 22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.