In this episode, we delve into the profound guidance offered in Revelation Chapter 3, exploring the spiritual wake-up call extended to the church in Laodicea. David Hawking challenges us to reflect upon our spiritual state and recognize the profound need for true riches, spiritual clothing, and vision that can only be fulfilled through Christ. Through an examination of biblical passages, we are reminded of the enduring importance of spiritual renewal and reliance on the Holy Spirit.
His instruction reminds us of the seriousness of our spiritual condition. Verse 18, I counsel thee. Next time somebody said, you ever been to counseling? Yep, go every day. Sit at the feet of the greatest counselor in the world. How much that cost you? Not a thing. Cost him a lot, but not a thing to me. It cost the counselor? Yep. I counsel thee. The first thing I’d point out is that we must recognize our spiritual need and that only Jesus Christ can meet that need.
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What if Jesus stood outside your church and knocked? This is Hope for Today with David Hawking. And in Revelation chapter 3, 14 to 22, we come face to face with a church that thought it had everything. They thought they had everything, but they left Jesus on the outside. He calls them blind, naked, wretched, and he warns them to wake up before it’s too late. This isn’t just a letter to Laodicea. It’s a wake-up call to our generation. This is day three of David’s message, Material Prosperity, and it starts in mere moments. First, a quick word about a powerful resource called Whatever Happened to Morality, written by David Hawking. Listen, this straightforward book takes on the moral collapse we’re witnessing in our world today and shines a spotlight on what God’s Word says about right and wrong and the hope that believers have. This month is our way to say thanks for your most generous donation of $20 or more. To make a donation and receive your copy of Whatever Happened to Morality, call 1-800-75-BIBLE in the U.S. or 888-75-BIBLE in Canada, Bible by the numbers 24253. Or make a donation and receive the book on our website, davidhawking.org. And here’s David.
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We’ve talked about the identity of Christ. That should remind us to trust him fully and depend on him. He’s totally reliable. He’s the amen. He’s the infallible one. The unchangeable one. He is the beginning of it all. We should trust him. He knows what he’s doing. His plan is operating in the world according to what he designed. But instead we think we’re in charge. And his insight reminds us that we cannot hide from God. Point number three. In verse 18 and 19, his instruction reminds us of the seriousness of our spiritual condition. Verse 18, I counsel thee. Do you need counseling? There’s no one better than Jesus. I counsel thee. We must recognize our spiritual need, and only Jesus Christ can meet that need. Look, person who call yourself a Christian, Do you really know? Do we really know what our need is? The Lord here is rebuking those who think they don’t have need. You’ve got to recognize your own spiritual need and that only Jesus Christ can meet that need. And he really gives three needs here. What is our spiritual need that we don’t seem to recognize? One, it’s a need of spiritual riches. You see, when you’re focused on the world’s goods, you lose perspective. You’re not focusing on spiritual riches. He said, I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich. Turn over to 1 Peter 1. Look at verse 7. Our need of spiritual riches. 1 Peter 1.7. This great banking center was able to rebuild their city without any help from anyone. That attitude affected the church, and God says, oh no, you’ve got a tremendous need. In 1 Peter 1.7, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Isn’t it interesting that our need for spiritual riches, which is gold tried in the fire, and again, believing that the Scripture best interprets the Scripture, isn’t it interesting that the usage of that refers to the testing that we go through? The people are really going through hard trials. I bring for your evidence today the experience of thousands of Christians who have suffered terminal illness. And at those moments, almost in a startling awakening in their life, have discovered that there’s something more than what they had been working for all their life. When it’s stripped away and you know the end is near, something we should all sense every day. then all of a sudden you begin to work on what really counts in the inward man. The outward man perishes, but the inward man is being renewed day by day. While we look not at the things that are seen, which are temporal, but the things that are not seen, which are eternal. The things that are temporal, hey, they’re passing away. Things that are eternal are going to last. Lay up treasure in heaven where moth and rust doth not corrupt and where thieves do not break through and steal. The need of spiritual riches. Back to Revelation 3. The second need that we need to recognize and understand that only Jesus Christ can meet is the need of spiritual clothing. He says in chapter 3 and verse 18, not only do I counsel you to buy me gold that you may be rich, but also, he says, white raiment. that thou mayest be clothed. And they could not help in Laodicea but to be struck by the contrast, because the garments that everybody in the world wanted, the beautiful soft texture of their sheep, was black, not white. And Jesus said, I counsel you to buy white raiment. What you need is white raiment, that the shame of your nakedness does not appear. And again, the shame of nakedness is referring to unbelief. What he’s saying is, you need to be clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. How are those garments made white? Look at Revelation chapter 7, verse 13 and 14. How are we made clean and pure and white in his eyes? Though your sins be as scarlet. We can be clean and forgiven. Revelation 7, 13, one of the elders answered, saying to me, Who are these who are arrayed in white robes, and from where did they come? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. He said to me, These are they who came out of the great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of the Lamb, the blood of Jesus. We need spiritual clothing. Recognize your spiritual need. You are cleansed only one way. Not two, not three, not four. One way. By the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We need spiritual riches. We need spiritual clothing. And number three, we need spiritual vision. What happens when we start wandering away from God? When we no longer trust and depend upon the living Lord who is immutable and reliable and the priority and preeminent one who’s all-powerful, who has a plan for everything? When we get our eyes off of him, we lose vision, perspective. We need spiritual vision. And the Lord says in verse 18, and anoint thine eyes with eye salve. That’s what they offered in Laodicea for physical healing. But he says, I’ve got something you need that you don’t see. The entrance of thy words gives light. Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. You need to have your eyes anointed. Turn back to 1 John, also written by the same writer of the book of Revelation. Look at 1 John chapter 2. Just a word about that anointing. I believe the Lord here is making an interesting play on the situation. There is an anointing that comes from God that opens your eyes. And it’s a lot better than any anointing or eye salve that you’d use for a physical eye problem. In 1 John 2.20 it says, But you have an unction, an anointing, from the Holy One, and you know all things. And that’s not encouraging us to be arrogant and proud. It’s saying that the knowledge of what we need in life, everything that we need to understand, is found in the anointing. Now we speak sometimes of people who are anointed by God. And people were anointed by God. And often it was symbolized by pouring oil all over their heads and their garments. The anointing represented the anointing oil, the power of the Holy Spirit. Clear from Zechariah 4 when it says, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord. We need to be anointed by the power of the Holy Spirit. But there’s something more here than just the person being anointed. He’s talking about the anointing, what it is. Look please at verse 24. Let that therefore abide in you which you have heard from the beginning. If that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he has promised us, even eternal life. These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. They’re trying to deceive you. But the anointing which you have received of him abideth in you, and you need not that any man teach you. But as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. Some say in it. No, what it’s talking about is the Holy Spirit. You have an anointing from the Holy One. And you have the Holy Spirit in you who will teach you, the Bible says. And, of course, the Word of God is also the product of his teaching. He is the Spirit of the truth and will guide us into all the truth. And it’s not a lie. It is true. And you can count on it. It’s reliable. Why do people lose vision? Because they’re no longer seeing things from God’s perspective. It isn’t the Holy Spirit teaching them through the word of God. As the psalmist said, open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. We no longer pray for that. We think we can handle it. Oh yeah, I understand what to do today. Don’t worry about it. No, yes. We all need wisdom from God. We all do. We need to know what God says, what God wants us to do. And it doesn’t come easily. To those of us who study the Bible year after year, we need to go back and renew our minds in the Word of God. We might know the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the anointing of the Word of God in our lives, so that we have direction, that we have spiritual vision. In Proverbs 29, it says, in 18, it says, Without vision, the people perish. Remember that? Without vision, the people perish. The Hebrew is a little different. The word vision is the word for revelation. Without revelation, meaning from God, The word perish is not the word in Hebrew. It’s unrestrained or unchecked. Let’s think about it again. Without the revelation of God, people go unchecked or unrestrained. When we get away from the word, when we think we can handle things without the word, that we know what to do, we heard about it before, all of a sudden we’re no longer trusting in God completely. which is the way the whole letter started. It’s so easy to get your eyes off of him whom you love, whom you want to serve, whom you want to be with forever, but all of a sudden you’re not depending on him as you once were. And this world is constantly fighting us. It’s teaching us to be independent, self-confident, and handle our own affairs, and we don’t need anybody to tell us what to do, and we can do whatever we want to do, and we can cope with everything. And Jesus says, no, no, no, no. You are wretched and blind and poor and naked, and you need my help, and I counsel you. We must recognize our spiritual need and that only Jesus can meet that need. And secondly, go back to Revelation 3, verse 19. We must realize why he rebukes and chastens us. Why? Verse 19, as many as I what? love, I rebuke and chasten. Proverbs 3.12 reminds us that the Lord loves the son whom he corrects. Hebrews 12.6 says the same thing. When God rebukes us and corrects us, brings judgment into our lives, it’s not because he’s against us and wants to wipe us out. That’s definitely the devil’s plan. He’s the roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, but that’s not God’s plan. God rebukes and God chastens and God disciplines because God loves us. Aren’t you glad of that? God loves you. That’s the reason. And third, we must respond immediately with repentance. He said, be zealous. That means to get on a stick now. Do it now. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. Change your mind about your spiritual condition. The mature believers among us think they’re not. I love that statement. I’ve read it several times. They don’t think they’re mature at all. The closer you get to the Lord and the more knowledge you have of him, the greater you see your spiritual bankruptcy and your need of the Lord every day of your life. Do you believe that? The final thing, Revelation 3, 20 and 21, is the invitation of Jesus Christ reminds us that it is a personal decision and commitment that we must make. Nobody makes it for us. The invitation of Jesus Christ reminds us that it is a personal decision and commitment we must make. Look at his position again. He’s at the door, it says. Behold, I stand at the door. And look at his plea. He says, and knock. Our part, if any man hear my voice and open the door. And of course, everybody asks, what is the door? What’s the door? I like all the things I’ve read about it. So I’m going to give you all four views. Some people say it’s the door of the church in Laodicea. So it’s an invitation only to individuals who are true believers in an apostate church to come out of the church. That’s a possibility, but he said he would come in if you open the door. So maybe the church isn’t as hopeless as you think. Another possibility, it’s a door of an unbeliever’s heart. I stand at the door and knock, and that makes sense to me. We use this verse often in evangelism, do we not? Others say, no, it’s the door of a believer’s heart. Open the door because you are carnal, and that goes back to the issues on cold and hot and lukewarm again. And the other one is very interesting. Do you remember back in the church of Philadelphia, he said, I set before you an open door and I have the key of David. And back in the passages that we read, it dealt with opening up the messianic kingdom so people can walk through, be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven. So some say it’s continuing that thought and it’s the door through which Jesus Christ will come again because he said, I will come into him. And that it’s a metaphor or a picture of his second coming for us. I’m not sure about that. I like it, but I’m not sure because he says, I will sup with him, singular, and he with me, singular. I think this has something to do with those who say they’re Christians. and really have no personal relationship with Christ because he is outside the door. If it is the door of the heart, he’s not on the inside. He’s on the outside. And by implication of the picture, the person is not a believer. They do not have a personal relationship. Are they in the church? Yes. But he would spew them out of their mouth unless they repent. They’re professing believers who do not have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And he’s saying, I want to fellowship with you. I want to sup with you and you with me. We can abide in Christ and he in us. We can have a depth of our relationship with the Lord that many of us don’t even understand. Why? Because we have not opened the door. The doorknob’s not on the outside. He keeps knocking. He can force his way in if he wanted to. He’s God. But he doesn’t do that. The doorknob’s on the inside. You must open the door. Open the door. Repent. Do it right with the Lord. And open the door and invite Jesus Christ to come in. Look at his promise. His promise involves not only his abiding presence in our life, which is mentioned in verse 20, but a position in the future to him that overcometh, the true believer. That’s why I think it’s probably an unbeliever in verse 20. A professing Christian who doesn’t know the Lord. Professing only, but not possessing. To him that overcometh, to the true believer, will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne. Boy, is that beautiful or what? You know what I like about that verse? One of my favorite chapters in all of Revelation. I get so jazzed about chapter 4 because we go into heaven and we view the Father on his throne. And it is a glorious chapter. It’s fabulous. But… Isn’t it interesting that the seven churches, remember John wrote the whole book, concludes with, I grant to sit with me in my throne and I’m sat down with my father in his throne. And the next chapter says, I saw a throne set in heaven. I just think it’s too close to not be a connection. To the overcomer, to the believer, he’s going to now introduce us to the glory of being in the presence of God in heaven around his throne. And that’s where we’re going. So get ready for space travel. We’re going to heaven. Father in heaven, how we thank you for your wonderful word. And we’ve been rebuked as we read a passage that seems all too familiar as we look at our current culture and its attitudes. Material prosperity has gripped the hearts of many of us, and that’s what we live for. We don’t realize that we’re poor and wretched and blind and naked and We need help. Father, I pray for those that know, at least are quite unsure, of a personal relationship with you. They have never opened the door of their heart to Jesus Christ. Maybe they know about him and have been hanging around church a long time. Maybe they’ve even been letting their friends and family think they are, but they’ve never made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ. God, I pray. They will hear the continual knock of the Lord Jesus, and they will open their heart and invite Him to come in. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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The Bible says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by me. The one who paid for your sin and will deliver you from sin, death, and hell is our Lord Yeshua, our Lord Jesus Christ. And right now might be a good time for you to just open your heart to Him. Lord, I know I’m a sinner, and I need to confess my sin to You and to trust what Your Son has done for me. He’s my Savior. I receive Him as my Lord and my King. And thank you for loving me as you do. And I give my heart to you. and I want to see you in heaven. God bless you.
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That’s Bible teacher David Hawking, and this is Hope for Today. If you’d like to know more about what the Bible says about following Jesus Christ—not church tradition, not culture, but the Bible—we’d like to send you two free resources. First, David Hawking’s powerful little booklet, What Is Christianity? Straightforward, Scriptural, and Eye-Opening. And second, a free Bible study by mail that will help you dig into God’s Word for yourself and start growing spiritually right away. There’s no cost, no strings, if you’re not yet a Christian or if you’re new to the Christian faith. Call us in the U.S., 800-75-BIBLE. In Canada, 888-75-BIBLE. Or send us a message on our website, davidhawking.org. And David returns in just a moment to close out our time. Just ahead of that, Matt’s here, and we want to share a powerful resource from David that takes a hard look at the state of our culture and what God’s Word has to say about it.
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Matt? Whatever Happened to Morality is the title of our featured resource by my dad for July.
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And we want to send you a copy when you join us in ministry with a donation of $20 or more.
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You know, Jim, our culture today is struggling desperately because it’s working feverishly against biblical principles and moral values. This war against God’s will and loving boundaries is like little we’ve seen before. Unbridled pleasure, worship of material gain, dehumanizing the unborn. Embracing contradictions as truth, like all paths lead to God, for example. Yeah. Our culture is in a state of rapid descent into chaos. Romans 1, 22 to 23, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. So what did happen?
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to morality. How do we end up in this sorry condition and what does scripture declare about it?
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And Matt, is there any hope? Yeah. How can believers be a shining light of testimony? What do we say, Jim, to this and the next generation? Those questions are so important. You’re going to find the trustworthy answers from God’s word inside whatever happened to morality. Our gift to you when you contribute $20 or more this month.
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Prayerfully consider our donation.
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Give generously as God leads and provides. And you will find reassuring insight and encouragement inside the 278 pages of Whatever Happened to Morality.
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And your donation makes you a partner with us in ministry. To make your donation and receive a copy of Whatever Happened to Morality, go to Call us at 800-75-BIBLE in the U.S. or 888-75-BIBLE in Canada, Bible by the numbers 24253, or visit our website davidhawking.org. Listen, if God is moving your heart to partner with us in ministry, you can give securely online at the website, again, davidhawking.org, or by phone. Every gift helps keep these uncompromised Bible teachings on the air and reaches people hungry for the truth. And we’d also love to hear your story, your testimony, how you’ve seen God work through the Bible study time here on Hope for Today. Please drop us a line at Hope for Today, Box 3927. Tustin, California, 92781. In Canada at Hope for Today, Box 15011, RPO, Seven Oaks, Abbotsford, BC. V2S8P1. You can also share a testimony by phone or with the contact form on our website. If you’d like to include a one-time or regular monthly financial gift with your letter, it’ll go a long way towards our mission of bringing you the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible to you and a world that’s lost in darkness. Thanks for praying for us and for whatever you might be able to do financially. Once again, here’s David.
SPEAKER 04 :
We’re in chapter 3, as many of you know, and in verse 14 down to verse 22, we have the final message to the church, and it’s the message to Laodicea. He said, I rebuke and chasten you, but I love you. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. When he said, Behold, I stand at the door and knock, and if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him. and sup with him, and he with me. What a wonderful, gracious way. He’s knocking at the door of the church, and the invitation is to any individual. I really wonder, are we listening? Are we getting right with the Lord? What’s going on in your church is very important. God bless you.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, thank you, David. And next time on the program, we step through the open door into heaven itself. Revelation 4, verses 1 through 11. You’ll see the throne of God and hear the worship of angels and understand why the universe revolves around his glory. It’s a vision that demands our attention and ignites worship. Be sure to invite a friend to listen along with you right here on Hope for Today.
In this episode, we delve into the profound guidance offered in Revelation Chapter 3, exploring the spiritual wake-up call extended to the church in Laodicea. David Hawking challenges us to reflect upon our spiritual state and recognize the profound need for true riches, spiritual clothing, and vision that can only be fulfilled through Christ. Through an examination of biblical passages, we are reminded of the enduring importance of spiritual renewal and reliance on the Holy Spirit.
