Lord’s Day, Vol. 9 No. 11
(1) High Time to Awake
And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. (Romans 13:11)
The Apostle Paul warns the believers against spiritual slumber and tardiness. He exhorts the church to spiritual alertness and vigilance. Our Lord Jesus is returning soon to take the church to glory. When Jesus comes, He will reward His faithful servants. We are to make sure that when the trumpet call comes, we will be caught up to heaven just like the godly Enoch who was taken to heaven physically without seeing death.
Genesis 5:21-24 And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: 22 And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: 23 And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: 24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
For the slothful, there will be a loss of reward like the church in Laodicea, the worst of the seven churches described in Revelation 2-3.
This church in Laodicea is the last and the worst of the lot. The church in Laodicea is in a state of spiritual delusion.
The church in Ephesus had a coldness of heart and the chill is bad for her spiritual health, she needed to rekindle that first love. It was obvious.
The suffering and persecuted church in Smyrna thought herself poor when she was really spiritually rich, fervently in spirit.
Thyatira, too, had a warmness of heart, a fervency of love though infiltrated subtly with falsehood and not dealing with sin.
Progressively, Pergamos is worse than Thyatira in that sin has come in openly and has to be dealt with for her salvation, though there is still that fervency of love in the midst of persecution.
The church in Sardis is pronounced dead and at least they admit that there is that deadness or coldness in them.
The church in Philadelphia is fervent in spirit, faithfully serving the Lord.
But this 7th church in Laodicea is one of her kind! She is neither hot nor cold, in a state of self-delusion. It was going through the motions of piety. But sadly, there was no true piety. Yet, it is claiming herself pious, very much like the state of Israel during the time of Christ, the state of spiritual hypocrisy. If you expose them, they turn against you.
Nevertheless, our Lord loves this church in Laodicea and sought her repentance, that she may come back to Him, though the words may not be well received as did Jesus’s encounter with the Pharisees and Scribes.
May we be up and about the Lord’s business.
(2) Cast Off the Works of Darkness
The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. (Romans 13:12)
A serious indictment is given here for the believers to repent of their sins. This is a call to self-examination and confession of sins. Let sin be rid of and let holiness be our portion.
The Bible character Lot, the nephew of Abraham, was vexed by the immorality and sin-sickened of the inhabitants of Sodom. Yet, he tarried there hoping to make an earthly gain by his association with the men of Sodom. He suffered great loss. His wife was judged by God. She turned into a pillar of salt. His daughters were so plagued by the ill-moral standards of the city, they committed incest with their father.
It does not pay to allow sin to fester in our life. There is a heavy price to pay for the wages of sin is death (Hebrews 6:23). Come to Jesus Christ for cleansing and renewal.
Search me, O God, and know my heart today;
Try me, O Saviour, know my thoughts, I pray.
See if there be some wicked way in me;
Cleanse me from every sin and set me free.
When we turn from our sins and come to Jesus for cleansing, we are cleansed from our sins by His precious blood shed for the remission of our sins. What a wonderful Saviour! The promise in God’s Word from 1 John 1:9 is this, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Put on the armour of light which is the protective covering of a holy life (William MacDonald).
May the Lord grant us His grace to walk in the light.
Yours Lovingly,
Pastor Lek Aik Wee