It is not until we are humbled by the reality of what the Gospel teaches, that Christ has died for the ungodly, and we give up our feeble claims to might and self-identity that we can come and take on the yoke of Jesus our Lord. Yet, in some sense that only gets at the beginning of the solution. It is that need not only to know, but remember this in the use of the means of grace, our reliance upon the love of God for sinners, the gift of the Holy Spirit who as we read the word convicts us, opens our eyes, and gives us a power that is not own.

So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

— Revelation 3:16

The letter our Savior wrote to the people of Laodicea is probably the one that we know the best of the seven. The picture of Christ spewing out members of a local body is quite arresting, yet it’s why He does it which makes all the difference, and that will be the subject of our prayer and worship help today.

I said in the sermon Sunday that I’d much rather someone hate me than not recognize my existence. At least when someone frets about your existence they recognize that you matter to them, even if it is in a negative way. Apathy has a way of causing more trouble than disagreement. But what is it that causes that kind of thing, especially as is the case with the people of Laodicea, when it comes to the Lord of Glory Himself? It’s a question that may or may not hit too close to home, because it is a matter of a heart which is alive or at least thinks it is. Everything seems to be going well in their church. It’s a time of prosperity, as v. 17 says, “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing . . .”.

A common sin that the prophets condemn Israel for is that in the times of plenty they forget and forsake the God who had not only enabled their blessing, but had chosen them out of all the nations of the world to represent His covenantal mercies.

At the end of the story of Gideon Judges 8:33-35 reports:

So it was, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel again played the harlot with the Baals, and made Baal-Berith their god. Thus the children of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side; nor did they show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal (Gideon) in accordance with the good he had done for Israel.

Gideon of course had been selected by God to deliver His people from the scourge of the Midianites, and the Lord had sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to bring that message to the father of Gideon, Joash the Abiezrite. As He appeared (Judges 6:11) under the Terebrinth tree of Ophrah Gideon’s response to His presence is instructive. First, He doubts God’s goodness in allowing the evil that had come upon the Israelites, which to be sure is an inauspicious start. However, the Second Person of the Trinity is not undaunted in His encouragement of the future savior himself. As Christ witnesses in His forbearing grace to the questions that Gideon asks we see something of the nature of the mercy of God in the calling of His children.

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