Matt Hagee - The Church That Lost It's Soul
Here in Revelation 3, there's a lukewarm church that says, "Uh, you know, we're thinking about it". And when you consider the source of the words that are being spoken to them, you recognize how powerful this lack of decision is in determining the outcome of your life. The words are not written by some preacher with a bone to pick. The words are written by the one who is the head of the church, Jesus Christ himself. In the New Testament, we are called "The body of Christ". And this is why he says, "I would wish that you were either hot or you were cold, but because you're not and your in my body, I want to vomit you out of my mouth".
Now I know that when we read the words that are in red, for whatever reason, it might have to do with King James, who was a British king that interpreted the Bible. I don't understand it, but I think that a lot of times we want to become very passive. Therefore, verily I say unto thee, "Since ye are neither hot nor cold, I shall spew. No, let's be a little harsher, vomit you out of my mouth".
But when you understand how passionate Jesus was for the people that he came to seek and to save, when you understand that he sweat great drops of blood as he knelt in agony in Gethsemane, when you understand that his bowels were wrenched as he sat on the hillsides outside of Jerusalem, and he looked at a city that would not believe: when you understand that he was so full of fire that he flipped over tables in the Temple Mount whenever he saw innocent people getting cheated out of their wages: whenever you recognize how much passion was in our Savior, there is no way that you could look at what is being said in Revelation and not hear the voice of the Almighty, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, as he says, "I wish that you would either be hot or cold, but since you're neither, I don't want you"!
And I don't say that to be dramatic. I say that because you need to understand you have been bought with a price! And the only people, who do not value the price, are lukewarm. lukewarm is measured by what you will tolerate, not what you're intolerant of. I'll give you some examples. How many of you are married? How many of you would tolerate just a little adultery in your marriage? I mean not much? Once a month? Once a quarter? Once a decade? How many of you would tolerate it? Not at all. Why? Because you're not lukewarm about that relationship. There's something in that relationship that means more to you than "Well, we'll see. We'll figure it out as we go. Our position is evolving. We're going to get together and discuss it later. We'll let you know how the board votes".
How many of you would tolerate a little child pedophile breaking into your house on occasion? No. Why? Because you value the lives of your children. How many of you would tolerate a little bank fraud in your checking account? "We regret to inform you: $1500 is missing". "Uh, ain't no big deal. Easy come: easy go". It wouldn't even need to be $1500. If some of you are $5 off, you call the bank. You're like, "I demand to know who's in charge down there. Charging me for these service fees: come on man"! And that's just 20 quarters. But you won't tolerate it, because you value it. And yet, here we have a group of people that Jesus Christ is addressing in a letter that he dictated. He came to visit John, the apostle, his disciple, on the Isle of Patmos. And he said, "John, I am The Great I Am. John, I am the One who was, and is, and is to come. John, I am the First and I am the Last. I am the Alpha. I am the Omega. I am He, who was dead. And John, I am alive forevermore"!
And he said all of that just so we would be certain about who was doing the talking. And then in chapters 2 and chapters 3 of Revelation, he tells John, you get out your pen and you get out your paper, and I have something that I want you to write to seven churches. And to each church, he sends a specific message. And so the words that are written to the church of Laodicea are written by John from Jesus Christ, who is the head of the church. We are his body. We are his bride. We are his precious people. And as the bride of Christ, if we in our earthly covenant relationship, will not tolerate a little adultery in our earthly marriage, why would we tolerate it in our heavenly one? Because we're lukewarm. Because there's things we'll allow in this relationship that we would never consider in this one.
And so Jesus writes these letters to each of the seven churches. And I want you to recognize some of the things that are in common in these letters. First, every church has an angel. Read the words of Revelation 3:14. It says, "And to the angel of the church of Laodiceans write". You'll find the same opening in all seven of the letters, to the angel of the church of Ephesus, of Smyrna, of Pergamos, of Thyatira, of Sardis, of Philadelphia. Why is this important to note? Because first and foremost, angels are real and angels have a purpose. Angels were created by God. They are spiritual beings. They're celestial beings, meaning they live in heavenly places. And their purpose is not to float around and do what they want or sit on the edge of your bed and visit with you.
Angels are God's messengers. God uses them to bring heavenly messages down to earth and to bring earthly messages back up into heavenly places. This is what Jacob saw, a ladder going into heaven, and angels were ascending and descending. This is a very literal thing. And you need to know that not only does every church have an angel, but God has assigned angels over each and every one of you. He said he has given his angels charge over you. That's a military term meaning that he has two angels, at least, because it's multiple. And there's days when I think he gives me at least like four of five squads. But he said he's given his angels charge over you to watch over you wherever you go. Each church has an angel. And God uses these angels to send messages, specifically, to the church.
So he speaks to the angel of Laodicea. And what message does he send to them? He sends this message, "I am your precedent". You see the Laodicean church is described by its name. "Laodicean" is two Greek words that have been pushed together. The first half of the word is "Laos". That means people. So it was a church made up of people. Imagine that. The second word is "Diceas," which comes from the Greek word "Dike," which means to demand. So the Laodicean church was a demanding people. It basically is translated this way: it is a church filled with people, who are demanding their rights. Understand that if we are the body of Christ and he is the head, we have no rights. We have no will. Our rights are to do what is right in his eyes. Our will is not my will, but thine be done. The Laodicean church is a church that is filled with people who are demanding their rights and willing to do what they want, rather than to do what God requires. They have forfeited their purpose for their preference. And Jesus says to them these things: "I am the precedent".
You see the thing about a precedent, if you erase it, then you can rewrite the future. But the purpose of a precedent is so that you can go back and reference it and know what to do moving forward. And Jesus was speaking to a church that he died for, a church that he loved dearly, a church that he wanted to redeem, a church that he wanted to repent. I don't want you to hear what he had to say about vomiting you out of his mouth and think that Jesus doesn't want anyone. He wants everyone. That's why he died. But he was talking to this group of people, and he said, listen: you may think you're living in unprecedented times, but you're dead wrong. I am the precedent. This is why he said to the angel of Laodicea, "'Write these words,' says the Amen".
Do you know what "Amen" is? It's the final word. That's why it ends the prayer. Jesus sends a message. He says, I am the Amen. I'm the final word. What I say, that's exactly how it'll be. I'm the faithful witness. You can doubt everything else you see. You can doubt everything else you hear. You can doubt every other statistic you read. But when you hear me, when you see me, when you know me, I am a faithful witness. I am the beginning of God's creation. Think about that. If you're looking for a precedent, you can't get any better than the beginning of God's creation. This is why Hebrews said, "Looking unto Jesus, who is the author and the finisher of our faith, who endured the cross that was set before him".
Tell me something, church. What is it that we are facing in our day that Jesus did not endure in his? He is the beginning of God's creation. He was telling the church, "I am". I am the God who was here before the world began. I am the one who was here before time began. Go read the first chapter of the book of John. It says clearly, "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. And there was nothing that was made, and all things were made through him". And then in verse 14, it says, "And the word became flesh and dwelt among us". What does that mean? That means that the Jesus Christ that we're talking about, he was here before the Garden of Eden. He was here before Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
He was here before the kingdoms of this world tried to rule the earth. He was here before the greatness of the Greeks and their knowledge. He was here before the ruthless ways of the Romans. He was here before modern governments, and prime ministers, and presidents sat in offices. Our Savior was here before the modern world. He was here before a social media account was ever liked, clicked, hashtagged, or forwarded. He was here before fake news was ever broadcasted. He was here before COVID-19 and six-feet of distance existed. He was here before you had to wear a face mask. He said, "I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life". He is the good shepherd! He is the one who is the door of salvation. He is our healer, our comforter, our way maker! He is our soon-coming king! Give the Lord a handclap of praise!
He told this church: "I am your example. Stop looking at the world and thinking that being culturally relevant is your purpose on earth." Let me tell you something. When the world finds us relevant, heaven finds us insignificant. The church has always been counter culture. What does light have to do with darkness? The second message that Jesus sent to this church was, "I know your works". Now we don't like hearing that, because often times the nature of a human being is to try and hide what we don't want other people to know. But you can't escape the all-seeing eye of God. Somebody on earth, flesh and blood, tells you, "I know what you're doing". You look at them and say, "Don't judge me. You ain't me. You come walk a mile in my shoes".
And that's fine when you're talking to other human beings, who have limited knowledge of space and time, and all of these things. But when you're talking to the beginning of creation, and you're talking to Jesus Christ, who sits on the throne and is all knowing, and he looks at you and he says, "I know," the time for arguing is over and the time for listening has begun. He says, "I know your works," I know why you do what you do. I know when you do it and I know whose kingdom it's for. Believe it or not, not everybody that you run into on the earth that says, "The Lord told me," is telling the truth. They'll use God's name for all kinds of things. And most of the time it's their will, not his. You see when we read words like: "I know your works," most of us, with our church attitude, want to go, "I know who he's talking about". Because we like to hear about the juicy, little, dirty secrets that are locked up in personal closets.
Jesus is not talking to a group of people with secrets in their closets. He's talking to people in his church. He says, I know why you do what you do, and you think you've got it all figured out. You think you're rich. I think you're wretched. You think you can understand. I call you blind. You think you've got it covered. You're naked. Why? Because what you're doing, you're doing for you: you're not doing it for me. People say, "Well I don't understand how that works". Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 7:22 through 23. He said, "Many will be that will say, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? Have you not cast out demons in your name? Have we not done wonders in your name?'"
Now understand that the question is not, "Did they do the work"? And the question is not, "Was the work done in Jesus' name"? That's settled. The question is, "Who did they do the work for"? Did they use the name of Jesus to do the work that brought them glory? Or did they use the name of Jesus to serve him and bring him glory? And Jesus says to them in verse 23, "Then I will declare, 'I never knew you: depart from me, you who practice lawlessness'". The question is not, "Were people healed"? "Were people delivered"? "Did lives get changed"? All of that can be done in Jesus' name, no matter who does it! You say, "How do you know that"? Because his name is the name above every name!
So who is this Laodicean church? They are a lukewarm church. They're willing to tolerate just about anything and everything except for the cold, hard truth. They're a group of people demanding their rights. They want to be a church in Jesus' name, but to accomplish their purpose. They're a people who say, "Yes" and "Amen" to their will, and they shout "Hallelujah" when it feels good. But they don't want to stand up and be counted when it's time to be good. The purpose of the church is that we are to be a pillar of truth in a lost and dying world.
1 Timothy 3:15, Paul says, "The house of the living God, a pillar and a ground of truth". And what Paul is describing here is the church of the living God, the church of Jesus Christ, is a church that cannot be moved, because it is a church that is anchored on truth. But the lukewarm church is a truth-intolerant church. Why? Not because the truth is bad, but it's because of what we've added to it has rendered it useless. How many of you know people with lactose intolerance? Gluten intolerance? Every day, they're coming up with more and more intolerances. It used to be you could have a covered dish at the church, and no one would sue you.
Now there's so many allergies, and infections, and rejections, and exceptions that the only thing you can serve is toothpicks. How many of you remember a time when we didn't have all these allergies? It's not that wheat has become bad. It's that we've taken wheat and we've modified it so that it'll do things that wheat was never intended to do. And now that we've modified it for our own purposes, it's the additives that we put in the wheat that have made the wheat bad. And now we've got people with problems with wheat. The same is true in the church. This is the bread of life. This is milk for babes. This is meat for men. This is living water.
When you leave it alone, and you let it be pure, and you use it for God's purpose, there isn't anything that it cannot overcome! But a lukewarm church says, "Preaching like that doesn't work anymore". You know why? Because the things you're adding to the word is what's making the bread of life no longer valuable. A lukewarm church will ordain what God calls an abomination. There are churches right now ordaining homosexuals. There are churches right now with influence in the body of Christ across the nation, saying, "Well our position on homosexual marriage is starting to evolve as we consider all perspectives". Let me give you the perspective of the beginning of creation, who is the precedent, who is the amen, who is the faithful witness, who is the one who is and is to come. He said that in the beginning they were created male and female. And he commanded them, "Be fruitful and multiply".
As long as you can stay inside that position, you have won. Outside, you're lost! There are churches and influential leaders that are deciding who they can and cannot support on a political basis and not considering what the Bible has to say. Pastor Hagee has made it clear, "Vote the Bible"! Say it with me just so you know I mean it. "Vote the Bible". "Well pastor, you have to understand". Please tell me what I need to understand. "Well there's special circumstances". What circumstances? "Well I prefer this particular candidate over that particular candidate". Okay. I understand your preference. "Well but you have to understand. Even though they're pro-abortion", uh-uh. There are no special circumstances for that. "Well no. You have to listen to what the science says". No, I don't. I have to listen to what the precedent says. And in Proverbs, he says that there are certain things he hates. He says he hates lying tongues. He hates proud looks. And he hates hands that shed innocent blood. "Oh, but you don't understand". No. I think I do.
If he is the alpha, then he knew who would be born when, where, what time, for what reason, and in what season. If he is the omega, then he is the one that we'll stand before for the things that we did on this earth. And if through his word he has told us that he hates hands that shed innocent blood, anyone who does so while they're here on this earth, will answer to him when they see him face to face. Anyone who stands upon the promises of the Word of God, cannot support anyone who is willing to take the life of an innocent child while it is in the womb of its mother! Lukewarm churches, they preach to feelings, rather than standing upon the promises and teaching believers to live by faith. Lukewarm churches would rather tell you about the number of followers on their Facebook and social media accounts, rather than the number of people that they've got written in the Lamb's book of life that year.
Don't tell me about the likes you get on Twitter. Tell me about the people that you've baptized in water and those that you've seen filled and set free with the power of the living God. Tell me what you're doing for the cause of Christ in this generation. Because until you can, then you haven't done anything! A lukewarm church prefers comfort over complacency, rather than standing upon its convictions, rather than living and pursuing for the power of the Holy Spirit. A lukewarm church forfeits the promises in exchange for social popularity. This is the milk and the meat of the Word of God. This is the bread of life for all who hunger. This is living water for all who thirst. This is not to be modified. This is not to be manipulated. This is to be read and to be believed, because it is the yea and it is the amen of the Word of God!
When every other promise fails, his promises endure. "The grass may wither and the flower may fade, but the word of the Lord endures forever". I don't care who you are. I don't care what you're going through. There is a promise in this book you can stand upon. His promise says, "I am with you always". His promise says, "Nothing is impossible to you". His promise says, "Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life". His promise says, "Call upon me, and I will answer you. And I will show you great and mighty things that you know not". His promise says, "Draw near to me and I will draw near to you". His promise says that if you ask, you'll receive. If you seek, you can find. If you knock, the door will be opened.
It says, "If you give, it shall be given unto you pressed down, shaken together, running over until you cannot contain it". His promise says that if you serve him, "You'll rise up on wings like eagles. You'll run and not grow weary. You'll walk and not be faint". You'll have the ability to do the impossible. Church, his promise says, "If you believe in me, you shall never die:" that "Nothing can separate you from the love of God:" that "All things work together for the good of those that love him". Stand upon his promises! They will not fail you! Speak his promises! They're a two-edged sword in your mouth! Believe his promises! They'll set you free