In speaking of the seven short epistles of Revelation chapters 2 and 3, it is important to carefully acknowledge that the epistles are addressed not to the churches but to the “angel” of each church. The word angel literally means “messenger.” These messengers are the seven stars in Christ’s right hand according to Revelation 1:16, 20; 2:1. When Revelation 1:11 states, “What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia,” the churches are mentioned as the recipients of these messages. Christ makes a distinction between the churches (the candlesticks) and the messengers to those churches (the stars in His right hand). Note that in each of the salutations to the epistles, it is stipulated, “Unto the angel of the church of . . .” Following the salutation, Christ proceeds to declare, “I know thy works,” etc. It is as if He is writing specifically to the pastor of that church rather than to the church itself. Were the pastors the problem that led to the problems of that particular church? Was the burden from the Head of the Church only addressed to the pastor, a declaration of his personal life and ministry? Was it addressed to the true messenger and the message that he was to preach to his church? Or was it addressed also to that pastor’s Church Age?
The democratic approach to church government centers all power within the congregational membership making the ministerial position nothing more than another member of the church body. In contrast, the Bible reveals that ministers do have a relation to Christ and to the Church which ordinary church members do not have. They partake directly of Christ’s authority, are responsible directly to Him, and are upheld by His right hand, beyond the power of men or spirit angels to displace them. Christ holds them as precious, as most esteemed. They are His messengers! They will speak what is needed for their generation! They are part of a group of stars who over the centuries have been voices to the Church Age of their contemporary! Yes, dear preacher! This is your Church Age! This is my Church Age! Just as God has appointed me the messenger to this church (Foundations Bible Collegiate Church), He has appointed me as a messenger to this Church Age, and so has He appointed you for your local church and Church Age.
This is the last Church Age; Christ is standing outside the door (the heart); but, He is also standing outside the Church. There is soon to be another door opened; it is the door that leads to the air, the rapture. I cannot be deceived by my contemporary Age, and I cannot be deceived by my Church Age! Things outwardly are looking good and prosperous with radio, TV, internet, satellites, missionaries, and money abounding to buy, to purchase, to build, to teach, to live, to grow. Nevertheless, inwardly, the Church is in the most pitiable state ever in its existence. It is in its most wretched state, its greatest hour of poverty, and as a faithful messenger, I must see it and declare it! How often good churches are led away from Truth into the contemporary because of a pastor-teacher who has fallen in love with the contemporary. Over time, the church of this pastor becomes what he is. If he is lukewarm, the church eventually becomes lukewarm. My earthly father, Dr. O. Talmadge Spence, often told his students that a church never rises any higher spiritually than its pastor.
The Powers of Lukewarmness
In Revelation 3:16, Christ declared the last church to be “lukewarm.” The Greek word for lukewarm appears only this one time in the New Testament. This Greek word chliaros refers to “tepid water.” Christ in this verse refers to three different spiritual states: a state of coldness, a state of hotness or fervency, and a state of lukewarmness.
There are many in the world who are cold to the things of Christ; that is, the Gospel leaves them totally unmoved, stirring no interest or spiritual fervor. This was our state before we were won to Christ through the Gospel. In our previously cold state, we had no evidence of grace or of salvation. By contrast, those who are described as hot are those who show genuine spiritual fervor and leave no question as to the presence of eternal life, the sanctifying power of Christ, and the presence of the Holy Spirit; these truly have a fervent testimony.
The normal transition for a true conversion is from a state of coldness immediately to a state of spiritual warmth. The apostle Paul was a man who immediately went from cold to hot in his passions about Christ. The man of Gadara was another example; after being delivered from the many demons, he was found healed, clothed, in his right mind at the feet of Jesus, with a desire to follow Him in His ministry. This is the way it should always be in a real work of God: from cold to hot.
This third state of lukewarmness is what characterizes the Church of Laodicea. This state refers to those who have manifested some interest in the things of God. They may be professing Christians who attend church, yet these have fallen far short of a true testimony for Christ; their attitudes and actions raise questions concerning the reality of a true spiritual life. This lukewarmness could be manifested in their attitude and spirit, their dress, their prayers, their lack of Bible reading, etc. There simply is not the fervency for God that should be there. They have been touched by some concept of the Gospel, but there is no clarity as to whether they really belong to Christ. We must realize that lukewarmness is not a transition; it is a final state. It is for this reason our Lord has such great abhorrence for it.
Christ declares, “I am about to spue thee out of my mouth.” This is not a picture of the Roman Catholic Church or the cults; this is the closest thing to Christianity identified as the Church. The tendency of the Laodiceans is toward a policy of compromise, of toleration and allowance. There is something about the intermediate state of being lukewarm that is utterly obnoxious to God. Far more hopeful is the state of one, who has been touched by the Gospel yet has made no pretense of trusting Jesus Christ, than the one who makes a profession while his life illustrates he is not really honoring the Christ whose Gospel he has heard and professed.
How many within the churches of Fundamentalism have satisfied their own hearts and have been lulled into a sense of false security? They shout loudly about their prominent doctrine of Eternal Security, yet without abiding in Christ, without believing, and without being accountable to God and His Word. They want some kind of security that requires no spiritual life; they want the world as well as an assurance they will go to heaven no matter how they have lived. Such individuals are the hardest to reach for Christ. They are quite satisfied with the measure of their devotion to God and with the moments when they feel they have acted religiously. Yes, they are quite satisfied with the way they are in their walk with God. It is far easier to win the harlots and publicans than the lukewarm. Perhaps, the more descriptive term embodied in the spirit of lukewarmness is indifference. What these individuals do not know extends to their conviction respecting the central doctrines of the Christian Faith, such as the necessity of being born again and of the dramatic change in life and perspective that is required of a true Christian. How sad but true is the assumption that membership into a certain religious organization or the label and tag of identification of Church is greater today than being in the Body of Christ. Are the churches’ modern labels the security of the lukewarm?
It is interesting to note that none of the sins named in the preceding six churches of Revelation 2 and 3 are mentioned as being at Laodicea. Similarly, no works of Laodicea are commended. Certainly it must be noted how the institutional Church today is filled with works! Religious leaders tell us today that we are in the greatest revival period in Church history. In contrast, Christ declares we are so blind, wretched, naked, and spiritually impoverished!
It is evident that the pride the Laodiceans had in their wealth was carried into their spiritual life. The statement in Revelation 3:17 reads in the Greek, “I, I am rich, and I have gotten riches.” Its understanding is, “I (emphatically) am rich, and therefore I have gotten riches (or increased with goods).” This spirit declares, “Since I am rich physically, it is the evidence that I am rich spiritually.” The physical becomes the commentary of the spiritual to the Laodicean Church. Oh, dear reader, we must never take the view that the wealth and seeming well-being of our churches is the commentary of our spiritual relationship with God. It is rare that a person with a lot of money is spiritual; nevertheless, there have been a few individuals in history whose lives rose above their wealth. Paul in I Timothy 6:9–11 warns of the power that riches and money have over men. According to Matthew 13:22 riches produce blindness; they have a way of lulling both an individual and a church into spiritual sleep.
In Revelation 3:17 the Head of the Church declares with emphatic words in the Greek, “Thou art the one wretched,” or “Thou, thou that boastest, you are the one miserable, you are poor (absolute spiritual poverty), you are blind!” This lack of insight and discernment of their condition is because of self-complacency. The Church observing the other things (the riches and what the riches produced) convinces itself that these things (wretchedness, misery, poverty, blindness, nakedness) do not exist in their personal lives or in the life of the church.
The Need of an Ear to Hear
The Lord calls to the churches, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.” The expression or variation of “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear” occurs eight times in the Synoptic Gospels but not in the Gospel of John. It is also found seven times in Revelation 2 and 3. The ears contain structures for both the sense of hearing and the sense of balance. The eighth cranial nerve (the nerve made up of the auditory and vestibular nerves) carries electrical impulses from the ear to the brain. God has provided the ability for the ear to hear frequencies from about 16–20 Hz (cycles per second) to about 20,000–30,000 Hz. The intensity or volume of the sound is measured in decibels (dB).
The physical organ of hearing was considered of peculiar importance to the Jew because it was the chief instrument by which man received information and commandments. The Bible reveals that God has made the soul with abilities similar to that of the body. The soul can eat (tasting of this world, tasting of the Lord, feeding off the Word); it has sensitivity; it can be asleep; it has a heart which is the seat of its affections and desires; and it can hear. The soul’s ear can become deaf to the things of God. Through thoughts and influences, the soul can be cultivated to an intensity for right or wrong.
Both the inward man and the outward man can hear. The oldest sin of man is found in Romans 5:19 and is linked to this matter of hearing: “For by one man’s disobedience.” God gave commandments to Adam and he disobeyed, or as the Greek states, he failed to hear. For this very reason the right ear of the priest had to be specially sanctified, the tip of the right ear being touched with sacrificial blood at the consecration (Leviticus 8:23), symbolizing the blood covering the hearing ear. Similarly, the ear of the cleansed leper was rededicated to the service of God in hearing, as blood then oil was applied (Leviticus 14).
In the New Testament we read in Luke 8:12–15 of the Word of God coming to the soil or the soul; it heareth the word. Yes, the ear of the soul must be cultivated. A person may be physically deaf but still “hear” the Word of God. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” It is the ear of the soul that must hear the Word, and the heart must believe that Word. As a Christian goes deeper with God, the ear is cultivated to the sensitivity of God’s Word, yea, His very whispers. As with the love slave of Exodus 21, the ear becomes crucified through sanctification, and it obeys the Master with delight (Psalm 40:6–8). Stephen condemned the Jews of his day by declaring in Acts 7:51, “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.” If the inner ear, the organ of spiritual perception, listens, then the heart will willingly submit. More often, the spiritual ear is hardened (Isa. 6:10) or becomes heavy (Deut. 29:4) either by self-seeking obstinacy or by the judgment of an insulted God.
The End-Time Ear
The apostle Paul warned Timothy of the end-time reaction against the preaching of the Word of God: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears” (II Tim. 4:3). The season has arrived that the true preaching of the Word is no longer desired; sound or spiritually healthy teachings are being rejected, as the “new” is being intensely desired by the people. The “people” are governing the pulpits now, and after their own lustful desires with “itching ears” the congregations are heaping or accumulating to themselves teachers that will teach what they want to hear. This type of ear belongs to those that have become tired of the sound of oft-repeated truth. They long for new thoughts, new interpretations of the Scriptures, new experiences—all coming through deceitful teachings. Paul continues to say “they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” “They” or the people will become tired of hearing the truth and will instead desire myths and false teachings. How can this be?
We are meeting more and more Fundamentalists who do not see the falling away; they do not see the direction in which their churches are leaning; they just do not see! It is evident that God is giving them over to the blindness; He has not given them an eye to see nor an ear to hear.
Years ago I could not understand why people could not see what obviously seemed to be failures in their church, their school, or even themselves. I believe I understand now. The first reason some do not see is that they may not even be saved, for according to John 3:3, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Is this true of many churchgoers today? They simply are not saved? If so, they cannot see anything spiritual (I Cor. 2:14). A second reason for lack of sight is that many are like the healed blind man of Mark 8. This man initially saw “men as trees” walking; he could not see them clearly. There are those, because of carnality and worldliness ruling their professing Christian lives, that have a distorted view of spiritual things, though they may have been saved. Remember, lukewarmness produces blindness (Rev. 3:17). Their sight is perverted because of only seeing things close up; those things at a distance they are unable to see clearly.
Whatever the reason for lack of discernment, it must always be understood that “the hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them” (Prov. 20:12). To see this Church Age is a gift from God; to hear the clarity of the Word of God now is a gift from God! Sadly, this is not the norm! Even those who once heard and saw are not hearing or seeing any more. Are we hearing what the Spirit is saying to the churches today? To this Church Age?! We are hearing what Benny Hinn and Joel Osteen and others are saying. Interestingly, we are hearing what the Neo-Evangelicals are saying and singing, but are we hearing what the Spirit is saying to the churches? Is part of the spewing out of His mouth to be seen in God giving this Church Age over to a delusion because they love not the truth? (II Thess. 2:10, 11). Are we being turned over to myths and fables because we no longer want to hear the truth?
Conclusion
As messengers and as laymen of the Church, we must pray, “Oh God, give me an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches and an eye to see my age and the Word of God!” Such seeing and hearing people will be the only ones to make up the remnant in the end time. Such a remnant will be hated by the institutional, public Church. What happened to Christ by Israel as He was taken outside the camp and suffered crucifixion will happen to the remnant; the Church will put such individuals outside. We will have to yield to this, going “outside the camp” bearing His reproach. There is no other way to survive in these final days before the coming of the Lord.
As a woman in travail, the public Church is trying to get rid of the true saints within her. Such saints are a hindrance to progress, to peace, to harmony, and to ecumenicity. The public evangelical Church will not be able to endure much longer the preaching of such remnant preachers, their exhortation of standards, and their constant pressing for the Bible to be invoked for the church, the pulpit, and the people. The Church and school leaders of today are the product of what the people want, and they in turn feed the people with what they want to hear. The remnant preacher is being squeezed out; there are fewer places for him to preach, fewer invitations, fewer conferences, fewer appointments of teaching. The people do not want a voice against the contemporary music, the carnal and the worldly, and the inappropriate dress. The Church today does not have a heart for it; therefore, it does not have an ear for it! As a result of such rejection, it is heaping unto itself teachers to satisfy the “tired-of-the-truth-and-living-it” heart. The Church will find in abundance those individuals who will tell them and preach to them what they want to hear. Such leaders will permit the music the people want as well as the absence of dress standards and holiness of life and heart.
Oh God! Give me an ear to hear and an eye to see! It will only come by my yielding to your Word in obedience! May I as a preacher not only pray for anointing, but also pray for a hearing ear and a seeing eye in this deaf and blind Church Age! May I as a layman long for a preacher who will declare Thy Word, not to my fancy, but as “the Spirit saith unto the churches.”