From His Heart with Jeff Schreve

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
When is the last time that the Cross of Jesus
Christ has moved you to tears? You know, if it's
been a long time, something's wrong. The most glorious thing
that ever took place happened on Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.
That's the most important weekend in all of human history,

(00:21):
is what Jesus did for us on the cross, and
then when he broke the power of death by rising
from the dead. And if it doesn't move your heart,
something is wrong. Do you have passion for the Lord?
When you get lukewarm, you lose your passions.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
With truth? This this is from his heart with Pastor
Jeff Shreeve, thank you for joining us today. Is he
focuses on the many churches who are lacking the conviction
that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation. Now

(01:02):
that seems hypocritical, and it is many have turned from
trusting God and becoming self sufficient. Is your church losing
its passion for the Gospel truth? If so, how can
you detect the slippery slope your fellowship may be on?
Will be challenged and encouraged with today's lesson from the
series Future Shock. What in the world is going on?

(01:26):
And the lesson today the Church in the last days,
you see, there are significant and in fact disastrous consequences
that will occur for churches and their leaders who compromise
the message of Christ alone for salvation the pastor before
you start the lesson today and before you explore the
compromising church, let me ask you this question, what makes

(01:49):
you think that the end times are so near?

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Jesus said in Matthew twenty four that we would experience
wars and famines and earthquakes and natural disasters. I think
we're seeing a lot of that, But I think one
of the biggest telltale signs for me is the rapid
departure from the true faith. The scripture says that there
will be an apostasy before the coming of the Lord

(02:14):
in tewod Thesalonians chapter two, and I think we're seeing
that right before our eyes. With the issues related to
same sex marriage and other forms of legalized immrality, and
just an overall malaise in the church concerning those issues
really fits in with what Jesus said was going to
happen before his return.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Well, the church in the last days is not the
same church you grew up in, nor did I but
we know this will unfortunately ring far too true for some.
Now remember if you miss any of these lessons this
month from the Future Shock series, you can go to
Fromhishart dot org to catch up after they've aired. Colick

(02:57):
the listen tab right now open you by to Revelation
chapter three, as Pastor Jeff describes that compromises that will
sneak in and destroy the Church in the Last Days.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
We're in a series called Future Shock. What in the
world is going on? And today we want to talk
about the church in the Last Days And sadly, I
think the church has become very me church oriented. But
the Lord has much to say. Actually in the book
of the Revelation, which is about it's not revelationuns plural,
it's the Revelation to John. John the Apostle is exiled

(03:35):
on the island of Patmos, and the Lord comes to
him and gives him a revelation of what is going
to happen in the future. He tells him what's going
on right now, and then he shows him what's going
to happen in the future. It's really the revelation of
Jesus Christ to John on the island of Patmos, And
as the Book of the Revelation opens, chapters two and
three are seven letters to seven churches. It's the Lord

(03:57):
himself coming to the seven churches of Asia Mine and
he's giving them an assessment of their church, how things
are going. And the last church he visits is the
church at Laodicea. And some have tried to say, well,
you know, each one of the churches from Ephesus all
the way to laotisseea, each one of those churches represents
a time period. And some have said that, and some
have shot holes in that. But listen, I think there

(04:20):
is significance in how the Lord lines out the seven letters.
The last one is to Laodicea. And in the letter
to the Church at Laodicea, the Lord has absolutely nothing
good to say. All the other churches he had something
good to say. He would have rebuke, but he would
have something good to say. Actually, two of the churches,
Smyrna and Philadelphia, he didn't have anything on an order

(04:42):
of rebuke, nothing bad to say. But in Laotsea he
had nothing good to say. Everything was bad to say.
And right after the letter to the Church at Laodicea,
you hit chapter four and in chapter four verse one
of Revelation, you have a reference to the rapture. So
I believe that we can learn much from the letter
to the church at Laoutis, to see what was going
on in their church, to see what is going on

(05:03):
in the church in the Last Days Revelation Chapter three,
I'll begin reading in verse fourteen, and to the Angel
of the church in laouticea right the Amen, the faithful
and true witness the beginning of the creation of God,
says this, I know your deeds, that you are neither

(05:26):
cold nor hot. I would that you were cold or hot.
So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold,
I will spit you. I will vomit you out of
my mouth. Because you say I'm 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

(05:47):
and naked. I advise you to buy from me gold
refined by fire, that you may become rich, and white
garments that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame
of your nakedness may not be revealed. And iyesav to
anoint your eyes that you may see those whom I love,
I reprove and discipline. Be zealous therefore and repent. Behold,
I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears

(06:09):
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. The message to the church at
Leaadicea is a stern message of rebuke. Nothing that they

(06:35):
were doing, the Lord said, comes up nothing, no commendation
at all. So what are we to glean from this?
What does the Lord say? If this is indeed a
picture of the church in the last days, what do
we learn from this? Well, I want you to notice
three insights concerning the church in the last days. Insight

(06:56):
Number one, the church will become lukewarm clear from this passage.
Now remember this, When the Lord talks about this church,
he knows everything about the church, and he knows everything
about the area. And it helps us to understand what
he said. If we understand a little bit about the
church and about the area. Laodicea was a city that

(07:19):
was part of a tri cities area. Above to the
north of Laodicea was a city about six miles up
called Hieropolis. Hieropolis was a city known for hot springs,
kind of like hot springs Arkansas. They had lots of
hot springs and people would go there for the medicinal
benefits of the hot springs. That water was horribly tasting

(07:40):
because it was mineral laden, but it was it was hot,
and so it had some healing properties. And that was
just on across the Lycas River. Because those tri cities
Hierropolis and Laodicea and Colossie, they were all along the
Lycas River and they were in the plain of the
Likeas River. So if you were to travel about eleven
miles to the east, you would come to another of

(08:01):
these cities called Colossie. Paul wrote a letter to the Colossians.
The Colossians lived at Colossi. Now at Colossi you had
some mountains close by, and they had a water source
at Colossi that was mountain water that was very cool
and clear, and it tasted good. Now in Leotaicea, they
didn't have a good water supply. They didn't have hot springs,

(08:24):
and they didn't have any cold water. They just kind
of had yucky, mineral laden, lukewarm water. They didn't like it.
So what they did was they tried to get water
from Colossi. Their water's good and it's cool because it's
from the mountain, but they have to pipe it over
and they have an aqueduct and it goes eleven miles
and you know what, by the time they get the water,

(08:46):
it's not cold anymore. It's kind of lukewarm, kind of tepid.
They got some water up above from Hieropolis, and they said, well,
we'll get some hot water. But when the hot water
came and traveled us six miles, it was not hot anymore.
It was lukewarm. And so Laodicea was known for bad water.

(09:06):
It was also a very rich city, very very wealthy city.
It was also known for a glossy black wool that
they manufactured and produced there in Laodicea. It was also
known as a medical center, especially for eye disease, because
they made a certain product for people's eyes that would
help bring comfort and heal diseases. That was the city

(09:30):
called Laodicea, and the Lord speaks directly to them and
their particular circumstances and the things that they are built upon.
And he talks to them as the scripture opens up
the amen. The amen means the truth, the truth. Jesus
Christ is truth, and he is the Amen of God.

(09:52):
The let it be so. The faithful one, the faithful
and true, witness the beginning of the creation of God.
That literally means the source of create. This is God,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God. He comes to
the church at Laodicea, and he speaks to them, and
he sees everything going on, and he says to them,
I know your deeds. Deeds reveal the heart. I know

(10:15):
your deeds that you are neither cold nor hot. You're
not cold like Colossie just eleven miles to the east.
You're not hot like Hieropolis, just up north six miles.
I know your deeds that you are neither cold nor hot.
I would that you were cold or hot, But because
you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will
spit you out of my mouth. He says to them,

(10:38):
You guys are lukewarm. You're just like your water and
it's nasty. Now what does it mean? We understand what
it means. Lukewarm water. Nobody likes lukewarm anything. You know,
you're hot and you come inside, you've been working in
the yard. You come inside and you want to drink something.
You want to drink something cold. If somebody gives you
a glass and you take a drink of it thinking
it's cold water and it's lukewarm water, you spit it

(11:00):
out because it's like, oh, that's not what I want.
Or if you are cold and you come in and
you want hot chocolate, or you want hot coffee, or
you want hot tea, that's what you want is hot beverage.
You don't want lukewarm beverage, tepid beverage. That kind of
stuff is like, ah, that's why at a restaurant when
you're drinking coffee, they come by periodically to freshen it up.
Why so it stays hot because people don't like to

(11:22):
drink lukewarm tepid beverages. Well, the Lord tells them, you're
spiritually lukewarm. Now what exactly does that mean? Well, it
means this the lukewarm lack passion for the Lord. There's
no passion for the Lord Jesus Christ. They're just kind
of blah. They're just kind of lukewarm. They're just not
very excited about Jesus. This is the Church of Jesus Christ.

(11:46):
Upon this rock, Jesus said, I will build my church.
And the church was built in Layouticea, and it's supposed
to be all about Jesus. But they're just kind of
blaw about Jesus. They're just kind of like, yeah, okay, hey, yeah,
he died for me. Wonderful. You know, they're just not
all that gung ho about him. How many people do
you think that describes they go to church today that

(12:10):
say they're followers of Jesus, but there's no passion there,
there's no excitement there. It's just all kind of blah.
It's all kind of ho hum. When I interview people
for positions at our church, and I asked this question,
when is the last time that the Cross of Jesus
Christ has moved you to tears? When's the last time

(12:31):
that happened? You know, if it's been a long time,
something's wrong, something's wrong. The most glorious thing that ever
took place happened on Good Friday and resurrection Sunday, that's
the most important weekend in all of human history, is
what Jesus did for us on the cross, and then

(12:53):
when he broke the power of death by rising from
the dead. Hey, when we sing songs about him and
what he did for us, that ought to move your heart.
And if it doesn't move your heart, something is wrong.
Do you have passion for the Lord? Scripture says in
Second Chronicle sixteen, verse nine, for the eyes of the

(13:13):
Lord move to and fro throughout the earth. And what
is he searching for? The eyes of the Lord move
to and fro throughout the earth, that he may strongly
support those whose heart is completely his. God is looking
for people who have a heart for him. You know,
David is called in the Bible a man after God's
own heart. I remember asking my father in law, who

(13:34):
was a pastor for over fifty years, when I was
very young in the ministry and just starting to teach
a Sunday school class, and I'd ask him, I said, Gerald,
what does that mean? And he said, David had a
passion for God. He loved God and he felt it,
and it was in his heart. He was passionately pursuing God.
That has never left me. I always pray on a
consistent basis God, I want to have a heart like that.

(13:55):
I don't ever want to get to the place where
my heart starts to cool towards you, where I start
to on in the face of the glory of God
and just say, well, yeah, I'm go. I've been a
Christian for a long time now. Oh yeah, Jesus died,
I'm across from me. Yeah, tell me something that I
don't know now that ought to always grip our hearts.
But what happens when you get lukewarm? You lose your passion.

(14:19):
But not only is there a lack of passion in
the lukewarm, there's a lack of backbone for the Lord,
a lack of passion for the Lord, a lack of
backbone for the Lord. They don't stand up for him.
They just become politically correct Christians. They lack the wherewithal
to take a stand on certain things because they say, well,
you know, I don't want to let's not go crazy

(14:39):
about this stuff. I mean, let's just go along to
get along. And you know, if the winds of change
are coming to our city or to the world, well
we just go along. With it. You know, if people
want to change the moral landscape and they want to
make redefinitions of marriage and other things, let's just go
along with I mean, let's not rock the boats. And
so they bail out the lukewarm, they bail out on

(15:02):
the truth of God and the truth of His word,
and they just say, well, you know, let's just ride
the fence here, and let's just play it smart. We
don't want to get people all riled up at us,
so let's just go along. That's not what the Bible
says we're supposed to do. When Paul in his last
letter two Timothy, he told young Timothy, who his pastor
in Ephesus. Ephesus was about one hundred miles from Laodicea,

(15:24):
and he told him, he said, hey, Timothy, you make
sure I solemnly charge you before the Lord Jesus Christ.
You preach the word of God and reprove and rebuke
and exhort with great patience and instruction. That's what you're
supposed to do, Timothy. As a pastor, you're supposed to
do three things. Two of them are negative, reprove and rebuke.
The third one is positive and exhort. Hey Timothy let

(15:47):
him have it. Step on toes. Not in a way
of I'm trying to beat you down, but I'm trying
to help you connect with God and stay on track
with God. And the Word of God does that. And
he says, listen, Timothy, the time is coming when men
won't endure sound doctrine. They're not gonna want to hear
the truth, but they are going to accumulate for themselves.
Teachers who will do what. They'll tickle their years. They'll

(16:10):
tell them things they want to hear. They won't reprove,
and they won't rebuke. They'll just talk about how wonderful
everyone is and how it's just so wonderful that we
can all love one another. And it's just gonna be mushy,
and they'll turn aside from the truth, Paul said to Timothy,
and they will embrace a myth. And that's coming. And

(16:32):
that's what happens in the lukewarm church. No backbone for
the Lord, no backbone for truth. Many of you remember
the song. We probably haven't sung in it a long
long time in most churches. Onward Christian Soldiers, Onward Christian Soldiers.
It was written in eighteen sixty five onward Christian soldiers
marching as to war, with the Cross of Jesus going
on before Christ, the royal Master leads against the foe,

(16:55):
forward into battle, see his banners go. Someone has written
a hymn that would better describe the Church today. It's
called Backward Christian Soldiers. It says, Backward Christian soldiers fleeing
from the fight with the cross of Jesus, nearly out
of sight Christ, our rightful Master, stands against the foe,

(17:17):
onward into battle. We seem afraid to go. Sit here, then,
ye people, join our sleeping throng. Blend with ours your
voices in a feeble song. Blessings, ease and comfort ask
from Christ the King. But with our modern thinking, we
won't do a thing. Backward Christian soldiers fleeing from the

(17:38):
fight with the Cross of Jesus nearly out of sight us.
The lukewarm, Hey, we have no passion for the Lord,
and there's no backbone for the Lord. And they're not
standing up for truth. They're just riding the fence. And
the lukewarm, as it says in this passage, are nauseating
to the Lord. I would The Lord says that you

(18:01):
were either cold or hot, but because you're lukewarm. I
took a sip of you, and you're lukewarm, and it
was nauseating to me. I spit you out of my mouth.
I've had that happen before where I've been hot and
I took a drink and I thought it was cold
water and it was warm water, and I spit it
out because it's like, I don't want that in my mouth.
That's what the Lord says. And then Laoticea, their water

(18:22):
supply was mineral lady. You know, as they were trying
to bring it from Colossi and from Hieropolis, they have
uncovered some of that aqueduct and they found that it
was all calcified because there were so many minerals in
the water that was being delivered to them that finally
it shut down the aqueduct. It shut down the pipe
because it had so much scale in there, and water

(18:43):
that's filled with minerals doesn't taste very good. And so
the Lord says, I spit you out. You make me sick. G.
Campbell Morgan, great preacher of Yesteryear, said this speaking of
lukewarm worship and the lukewarm in Revelation chapter three. He said,
the worst form of blasphemy is not sexual immorality. It's

(19:09):
not idolatry, it's not false teaching. The worst form of
blasphemy is lukewarmness. For someone to say, Lord, I believe
in you, but I'm just not all that moved by you.
You just don't excite me very much. It's nauseating to
the Lord. What will the church be like in the

(19:29):
last days? It will become lukewarm. Second insight, the church
will become proudly self sufficient, proudly self sufficient. Look what
he says in verse seventeen. He told him, you're lukewarm.
This is coming from the Amen, from the Truth, the
one who is the faithful and true witness, the one
who is the source of creation. You know, how did
creation come about? Jesus was never created. Some of the

(19:52):
cults will like to tell you. See they said, well,
he's the beginning of the creation of God. See, Jesus
is not God. He was created by God. In the
three hundred, you had a man named Arius. And Arius
had the Aryan controversy, and the Arian controversy said this,
there was a time when he was not speaking of Jesus.
There was a time when he was not. There was
never a time that Jesus was not. Because he is

(20:15):
the source of creation. In him, all things hold together.
He is the God who spoke it all into existence.
Apart from him, John says, nothing came into being that
has come into being, and so the Amen, the faithful
and true, the origin and the creator of the creation
of God. He says to them, I know what you
think of yourself Verse seventeen. You say, I am rich

(20:37):
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. What is another insight
of the church in the last days? The church will
become proudly self sufficient. That's why she's lukewarm in Laodicea,
because she just says, I'm rich, and Leaadicea was a

(20:59):
very wealthy city. I'm rich, I have need of nothing.
I don't need nobody. I don't need no one. That's
the thought behind that, I'm rich and I need of nothing.
I mean, we're doing great. If you were to have
asked the pastor and the staff of First Church at
laot Sea, howd thing's going great? Going? Great? Man? We

(21:22):
got more money than we know what to do with.
We got people coming from all over because we have
the best facilities. And man, it's going good. And the
Lord says it's going bad. It's going bad, and you
don't even know it. And the pastor says, no, that
can't be right, because the people are coming and they
love the music, and they love the worship center, and
they love the fact that I preach such short messages

(21:44):
and just makes them feel so good. And you know,
the lukewarm always like short messages, just saying I just
start throw that out there, but they do. They like
it to be short. And so he said, man, it's
just going great. It's going terrible because the Amen, the
faithful and true, the beginning of the creation of God,
the origin of the creation, says it's terrible. You don't

(22:05):
even know it, but it's so bad.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
Well, the church will, in the last days erroneously believe
that it's doing well, but the reality is it's not.
And as Paster jet For shared today, the time we
have left until Christ comes back grows shorter every day,
and you don't have to look far to see the
signs of the end all around us. As believers, those

(22:36):
signs in and out of the church compel us to
live with urgency in sharing the Gospel. It's kind of
like you're in an airplane and you know it's going
to crash. So what do you do? You hand out
as many parachutes as you can. And that's why we're
so grateful for your gift this month to help us

(22:56):
from His Heart as we continue to broadcast the life's
saving message of Christ with more people as the days
draw Here for your gift of any amount this month,
we'd like to say thank you for helping us by
sending you Pastor Jeff's booklet How Near Is the End
and the timely nine message series Future Shock What in

(23:17):
the World Is going On? It'll come to you on
a USB flash drive, on CDs, DVDs, or digital download.
To get these two powerful enlightening resources, call eight six
six for zero Bible, eat six y six for zero Bible,
or go online to from his Heart dot org. If

(23:38):
you'd like to listen to the broadcast again or downloader
free MP three of this broadcast, you can do so
when you go to Fromisheart dot org and click the
listen tab online. We also have special end times messages
and resources from Pastor Jeff as he's taught extensively on
this topic over the years. Just go online for details.
I'm Larry Nobles and we try that you'll be right

(24:01):
back here next time for part two of this challenging
lesson for church going Christians, as we open God's word
and share real truth, real love, and real hope From
His Heart.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
Always.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
From His Heart is the listener supported broadcast ministry of
doctor Jeff Shreeve speaking the truth in love to a
lost and a hurting world. Remember, no matter what, God
loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
Find out more at from his Heart dot org.