Light on the Hill

Jain: Today on Light on the Hill, we'll tell you about the church that God spit out.

James Kaddis: I have found that peace only comes from you. I have found that joy only comes from you. All I need is you. All I need is you. All I need is you.

Jain: We're glad to have you with us today as we continue our verse-by-verse study through Revelation on Light on the Hill. Pastor James Kaddis will begin to look at the last of the seven letters to the seven churches, Laodicea. Unlike the church that we looked at previously, the Lord had really nothing good to say to this group. Today, Pastor James points out there's really a lot of bad teaching out there on this passage, and we need to clarify what Jesus meant by hot, cold and lukewarm.

James Kaddis: Revelation chapter 3. Now, we're going to start in verse 14, but before we do, I just want to say this, because I want to prepare your minds for this a little bit, okay? Unless you have only gone to this church and you've never gone to another church, it's very likely that you have not heard this teaching.

But if you've gone to any other church or you listen to lots of Bible teachers, then I can promise you this right now, what I'm about to teach you is nothing like what is normally taught when it comes to this letter to this church, okay? I will make this statement in that this letter to this church is perhaps one of the most poorly taught passages in the Bible. It is very misunderstood. It is incorrectly approached.

There is a lot and a lot and a lot of bad teaching out there on this, even by some of the great Bible teachers. They do a terrible job. And here's the reason why it happens, okay? It's very easy. It's basic. It isn't because they're studying and it isn't because they're looking at the obvious, because if they were studying and looking at the obvious, they would be treating it the same way I'm about to treat it with you, okay?

The reason why this is such a poorly taught passage and it is often times misappropriated is because it represents a point of tradition that is often times approached and brings about a certain slang within Christian culture that gives people the wrong idea about what's going on.

By the way, the Bible is filled with passages like this, and the church continues to abuse the Bible in that context and does not approach it correctly. By the way, there's lots of passages where we see this happen, right? Here's one that often times people like to characterize as something that it isn't. How many of you have heard a pastor get up there and preach or maybe somebody in a prayer group and they say, "Lord, where two or more are gathered, you're in the midst, so we're all here and gathered in your name." How many of you have heard that? Quick show of hands. Yes.

Keep those hands up. Everybody, how many of you ever heard me say that? Quick show of hands? Ah, thank you. If you had your hands up, you're liars, okay? I'm telling you that right now. Here's the reason why. Nobody did have their hands up, so I can say that, unless there was somebody in the overflow. You know, sorry, you're lying. But, let me tell you why you never heard me say that.

Because that passage in Matthew 18 has absolutely nothing to do with prayer, okay? It has everything to do with confrontation with respect to a particular issue that's being put in front of the disciples, but it has nothing to do with prayer. And what do people do? They often times associate it with prayer because that is what has been traditionally communicated over the years, at least in recent years. There's lots of other ones like this.

How about this one? How many of you have heard this one? And I promise you you've never heard me say this. But, how about this one? God will never give you anything more than what you can handle. How many of you heard that one? Quick show of hands? Oh, yeah, that's a big one. A lot of people talk about that one, right? Guess what? It's a lie, okay? The Bible actually makes it very clear that God allows us to deal with all kinds of things that we cannot handle. Why?

Because where we are weak, he is what? That's right, and he handles those situations, right? I mean, listen, honestly, think about it. Could the Apostle Paul actually handle, you know, handle being bitten by a snake that was about to kill him, right? He couldn't handle that. That was something that the Lord had to help him with. Could he handle getting stoned? I'm talking about, you know, I'm talking about when they threw the rocks at him, right? Could he handle that? No, he couldn't, right? He was he was going to die. You know what I'm talking about, right? He couldn't handle that. That was something that the Lord handled on his behalf. Our lives are filled with circumstances that we cannot handle and I can I can tell you this right now, my life is filled with all kinds of insurmountable issues that I can't face, which is why I know full well that the Spirit of God is working on my behalf because it's his problem to handle, okay?

Here's the thing, that passage actually says that God will never put a sin in front of us that we cannot say no to. That's what that first Corinthians passage talks about. It has absolutely nothing to do with a circumstance that we can or cannot handle. But perhaps one of the most significant mistakes made not only theologically, but grammatically speaking, happen in this passage right here with the church of Laodicea. So, let's get into it because this is important.

By the way, I want to say this before we do read it. There are a lot of people who correctly and accurately spend a lot of time talking about the geography of Laodicea. They talk about the fact that there's a hot spring that came down from a very particular location, and that hot spring joined in with the spring that was very, very cold. And when those two waters collided with one another, there was a sort of a lukewarm element of what was left at the down end of that, and many people hated drinking that water and often times didn't use it for that purpose because it was lukewarm and it was not enjoyable. And so, it was very, very appropriate that God would use the illustration with Laodicea, hot or cold. But since you're neither hot or cold, you're lukewarm. I'll spew you out of my mouth. It fits with the geography and anybody who was in Laodicea would have completely understood the significance of the word play being used there, which by the way, the Bible is filled with such things. We see this kind of thing all the time all throughout the scriptures where word plays are being made in the context of certain geographical locations or maybe some function of linguistics. You see it all over the Bible.

But, I don't have the time to go over that and quite frankly, to emphasize the principle here, you don't need that background. Although it will greatly enhance your understanding and learning of things based on how the flow of the language works to be able to know that background, you don't have to have it here, which is why I'm choosing not to spend a lot of time talking about it, even though I've probably spent a little bit of time talking about it. You guys will better understand me in just a minute. Look what it goes on to say. Let's read verse 14.

It says, "Unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, these things saith the Amen, the faithful, the true witness, the beginning of the creation of God." I'm going to stop for one second and just remind everybody that we are writing to the messengers of the church, right? That's the angel of the church, that means the messenger, which is actually translated into pastor. So, we're talking about the pastors of these churches that are getting these messages. And remember, this is important, we've talked about this, when God wants the church to behave a certain way, who is the first person he will go to? He will go to the church leaders. Why? Because the culture that God has taught us is the do as I say and as I do. So, when he wants the church to act a certain way, he goes to the church leaders and demands it of them first, right? So, there's no such thing as a functional separation that exists between the two with respect to the way we live our lives, we're that example.

So, this is why he's handing it to the messenger of the church of Laodicea, because he wants the messenger to understand it first. It's very important and remember, each and every single one of these churches were real churches during real periods of time and existed at the moment that all of these letters were being written, but they all carry specific dispensations associated with them, that means time periods, and quite frankly, every single one of these churches are viable for us today. They all are designed to communicate to us today. How do we know that? Because the Bible says in each and every single one of these letters, there is a phrase that says, "He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches," which by the way, some people will argue, "Well, he who has an ear is for the men of the church." No, it's not. It is actually something that is designed to be without understanding of specific gender. It is designed to speak to male and female. It's referring to all humans, right? And yes, it is genderized as male, but you need to understand that is just a functional use of the linguistic flow that exists within the grammatical context of the sentence structure, but what it means to tell us is this is for all people. Anyone who has an ear, let him hear. Anyone being associated with him means all of mankind, okay? So, the idea here is this is for anybody who has the ability to hear this, which is why the message given to us in the particular in every single one of these letters applies to all of us today in this particular time as the church of Jesus Christ. We need to know that. It's critical, okay?

Now, the other thing is, next week we're going to do this. We're not going to do this right now, but next week what we will do and it is very important to understand this is that we will go over all of the titles that Christ gives to himself in these letters. Why? Because all of these titles are worthy of time being spent with them. Because if you will stop for a moment to to to study what is critical about these types of titles that are given to the Lord, it will help you better understand what he's communicating and you will learn a lot about a lot more about Christ himself. So, we're going to do that next week. Before we move on to chapter 4, we're going to go through chapter 2 and 3. We're going to go over the different titles that are being given to the Lord, and we're going to have a conversation as into the significance of those titles, what they mean and everything that's there and that's going to be a really fun study. I think you guys are going to love it, okay? So, what does he say to the church? Let's read it. This is important, right?

He says, starting verse 15, "I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would that thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will do what? I will spew thee out of my mouth." Now, this is the error, and everybody makes this error and it is a substantial error. It's a huge error, right? Everybody tells us, so many people teach it this way, that God would rather that you hate him. Right? That cold represents hating God and against God and hot means that you love God and that you're on fire. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is a terrible theological conclusion. It does not it does not line up with the pattern that we see in the Bible and it undoubtedly does not line up with the text here, okay? This is what the Bible tells us here in this verse. It says, "I would that thou wert." He says, in other words, "I wish that you were either cold or hot." He has an equal desire. Let's deal with the theological problem with this statement, right?

It's a huge problem theologically because theologically God does not wish that the wicked would die. God says it, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked." Matter of fact, he tells us in the New Testament, we're going over this right now as we're going through Peter. He makes it very clear. God is not slack concerning his promise with respect to his coming, right? But what is he doing? He is willing to give some time for people to repent because he's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, right? So, we know that God's desire is to see people come to know him and love him, and he has no pleasure in the wicked hearts of man. He has no pleasure in people hating him. No one think about this, folks. There is not a single person on the face of the earth that God does not want to be with him in heaven, right? But we are the ones that make that decision. We're the ones that choose to do this.

So, to say that God would rather that we be cold is an absolutely insane assertion, okay? What's being condemned here is being lukewarm. So, let me say something very importantly, and I'm going to explain myself. Hot and cold, believe it or not, are both good. They're both good things. They are not one of them is not bad and one is good. Let me let me get into the illustration a little bit, because I need you to understand the use of metaphorical terminology associatively valued with this passage. It's important that you understand this, okay? It's critical.

Cold day. You know what I'm talking about? When I talk about a cold day. Let's talk about Southern California cold, right? Because all the people on the East Coast are going to lose their minds with me, right? Okay? Let's just talk about Southern California cold. What's a Southern California cold day? 50 degrees. That's a freezing day, right? That's it's just terrible. This is when people wear four jackets, right? Now, I don't wear a jacket on a 50 degree day because I got this massive coat on me that kind of keeps like I'm like I'm built-in insulated. But, anyway. That coat's getting smaller but, you know, that's for another day.

Here's a funny thing, right? On a cold day, what does everybody want? Everybody wants something hot to drink. You know what I'm talking about? Most people, right? Now, some of you, "I don't drink coffee." Okay, your hot chocolate, whatever it is that you're that you're drinking, your foo-foo drink, it doesn't matter. But all of you like to drink something hot. That that's just it's just a very attractive notion. The idea that on a cold day, you've got something hot in your hands.

You know, one of the things that we do, we talked about this, our tradition that starts on Thanksgiving night, right? We load up the kids in the car, we play Christmas music and every single night until January 7th, which is the day that we celebrate Christmas in the Middle East, right? Every single night, what do we do? We go driving around looking for Christmas lights, right? And if the kids have had a good day and it's cold enough, I always have a cup of coffee in my hand. My coffee is the way any man should drink it, black, no sugar, no anything like that, right? That's just my my point of view. The most fancy coffee I think I've I've had in recent years is an Americano, which is basically another form of black coffee, it's just a different way that it's prepared, right? Um, but pick your hot drink, doesn't matter. My wife drinks every kind of foo-foo thing that you can think of, you know, all that, but you know, she's different than me and that's okay. And so, my children don't drink coffee at all. So, what they'll do is if they've had a good day, they'll get their hot chocolate, and then they all bundle up in the car, they get their their covers on and, you know, everything is good and everybody is happy and the music is going and it's cold and especially on a cold rainy night, like the kind that's like an Alaskan storm, you know what I mean, where it's like really, really, really cold. Man, there's nothing like that. You drink that hot cup of coffee, I'm speaking about myself, there is nothing like that. It's just awesome. Or, you know, a stroll on a cold day, nothing like an absolutely crisp cold day like I just talked about earlier, right? You got your cup of coffee in your hand. Man, there's nothing like that.

By the way, coming from the perspective of anybody who loves cold weather, crispy cold days. There's nothing better than that. Makes you want to wake up extra early and spend a little bit more time praying out about. It's just an awesome time, right? So, you know what I'm talking about? You have a hot cup of coffee in your hand, you've got something hot in your hand, it's great. Or how about this? How about the day gets super hot, right? I'm talking hot. I'm talking Southern California hot, right? I'm talking, you know, 90, 100 degrees. There's nothing better than to have, yes, forgive me for saying this, all of the activists that are out there, a nice big fat, thick Styrofoam cup, right? That just has a ton of ice in it with water or whatever it is that you're that you're drinking, right? There's nothing like it, right? There's just absolutely nothing like it.

And you're going out there and you you just, man, you're you're hot, especially when it's not humid at all and it's just very dry, and you kind of feel like your throat is just all cottoned up and you take a sip of that. Oh, man, there's nothing better than that, right? Cold water on a hot day, unbelievably refreshing, right? And here's a little tip, right? If it's a super, super hot day and you you're really thirsty, don't drink soda, don't drink lemonade, don't do it, just get a big cup of ice with a ton of water and then take your straw and put that straw right in the middle of where the ice is and then take a big old sip of it. Man, there's nothing that feels better than that. I'm just I'm just being descriptive because it's important for you to understand the principle here, right? Those are two extremes that are refreshing. You know what I'm talking about? Two refreshing extremes.

No, let's go back to the cold day. You're on that cold day and you got a cup in front of you and there's steam coming out of it and you know what it is. Man, it's so inviting. And you pick up that cup and you put that to your mouth and the liquid that goes in your mouth is so ambient with respect to the temperature of your mouth that you don't even feel like there's liquid in your mouth. You know what I'm talking about? It's nasty. It's kind of a nasty feeling, okay? Or on a hot day, you've got condensation around the cup, there's maybe a cube or two of ice floating at the top and you think, "Oh, that's great. If there's still ice on the top, that means that the water is still cold." And you go to drink it and it's lukewarm. It's nasty, right? It's not it's not a great experience. And there have only been a few times when this has happened, because I'll still gulp it anyway, but there have only been a few times when I'm like, spit it out. It's like, I want nothing to do with it. It's nasty. Okay.

Let's take the metaphor to its conclusion, which I think is uniquely important to do, okay? Hot and cold are both good. You understand that? They're both good. You know what they represent? They represent different personalities. They represent extremes that are on different sides of the spectrum. Okay, let's talk about me for just a second, okay? I'm considered hot. I'm lit up, okay? When I talk, if you're falling asleep in this room, it's because of spiritual warfare. That's what it is. You could be the most exhausted person in the world, and if you're doing this while I'm talking, it's do the enemy's messing with you. It's warfare. There's no way you could fall asleep in this kind of loudness unless you live with me. If you live with me in the Kaddis home, our children fall asleep, it's like it's like music that lulls them to sleep. The ah! That's just the way it is, because that's how it is in the Middle Eastern home, okay? But if you are here at this church, you're not falling asleep to how loud I am. I am considered hot, not because of this chiseled body, but because of my personality. Right? I think we should understand that, right?

But then there are other people that are considered cold. You know one of the coldest people that I can think of right now? Chuck Smith. You ever heard Chuck Smith teach? Chuck Smith is cold. You know what I'm talking about when I say that? Look, think about it like this. He he teaches and in certain pauses, you actually think that the record or whatever it is you're listening to is broken. You know what I'm talking about? He'll he'll say, "And you're checking to see if something's not right." I've gone to the point with Pastor Chuck that I, because I listen to him pretty regularly, that I listen to him double time, typically, especially if it's one of his earlier studies, and if it's a later study like the 3000 series or the 5000, then I will actually listen to him in triple time, right? There's a hack by the way that you can do to get it that fast. And because listen, when I listen to a podcast, I listen to it in double time. I don't care how fast the people talk, it's just the way it goes. But understand this, because this is like really, really, really, really important.

They're different personalities that can exist on each side of the spectrum in an extreme way and they're both good. Chuck Smith is as cold as cold could be, but is probably one of the most brilliant Bible teachers that ever walked on the face of the earth, right? We represent different personalities on different sides. The issue that God wants to see in us is that we are extreme in those personalities. Those personalities should be reflective of an extreme love for God, an extreme desire to worship God, to serve God, to live for God. God is making it very clear that whatever personality he gave us is the one that we can continue to have. Now, I do want to make one little statement here and it is a caveat that should be very, very carefully paid attention to, okay? Understand this.

The extremities represented in our personalities is never an excuse for belligerent behavior. You understand what I mean when I say that? So, I'm a very aggressive person, and I I often times say things that are highly offensive to people, and I do it in a way that are perceived as being very, very, very, very angry and aggressive because a lot of people have a difficult time associating an intelligent and very assertive statement with something that's completely different, right? A case in point, many years ago, I had a conversation with one of the lieutenants at the police department. Actually, he was a captain at the time, where he basically lost his temper with me in the middle of what we call admin row, and he basically cursed at me and said a bunch of other things. And I basically looked at him, and I responded to him in the most, for lack of a better term, a respectful way that I could, but I never said a single curse word to him and I wasn't even loud, I didn't raise my voice, but I basically said in the 22 years that I've known you, I have never treated you disrespectfully. I've never cursed at you. I've never ever spoken to you in a way that was unbecoming of the uniform that you wear, or the uniform that I wear, and especially considering the fact that you're in front of your subordinates, I want to put you on notice that what you're doing degrades who you are and degrades the position and everything that you say completely removes the credibility that you thought you had wearing those bars, because what you wear on those bars is earned and it is a function of something that you choose to be with the people around you and you have failed to do that in front of the very people that work for you with the chaplain of the department, by the way.

And he says, "Well, come on, let's go have a private talk." And I looked at him right in the eyes and I says, "I'm not having a private talk with you anywhere under any circumstance until you publicly acknowledge the fact that you behaved irresponsibly and you apologize because you not only owe me an apology, you owe the ladies that are around you that watched you lose your mind an apology because it was unbecoming of you to behave the way that you behaved." And so, you know, he kind of has a tear or two. It was weird. I've never seen a grown man do that like in that context, you know, and he apologizes to me and he apologizes to all the ladies and then we go in his office and we have a very fruitful conversation because he is actually with everything said and done, a kind, tender-hearted man and we had a very good conversation, right?

You know what happened the next day at the station? The next day at the department, the rumor was, "The pastor, oh my gosh, he just cursed the the captain out. He said every curse word in the book. He called them this, he called them that. And he [bleep] this and [bleep] that." And that's what everybody heard. You want to know why? Because they conflated a very aggressive and straightforward approach in communication with actually the type of communication that is becoming of a monkey in a cage trying to get out. You know what I'm saying? Right? Because both of them are perceived to be as violent and assertive conversation. One was belligerent, one is not. You understand what I'm saying? So, the whole idea here is that your personality is not an excuse to be belligerent. You don't get to say, "Well, God made me this way so you all can forget it." Right? We're not called by God to do that, right? We are called by God to make very clear and distinct representations the way that God made us, but we don't use it as a license to behave belligerently.

James Kaddis: ♪ (Music) ♪

Jain: Pastor James Kaddis is leading us verse by verse through Revelation here on Light on the Hill. To hear this message again, visit lightonthehillradio.com or onplace.com. It's also available through the Light on the Hill app. Pastor James is back with us and you effectively pointed out that there's a lot of bad teaching springing from this passage in Revelation. When we hear something from even our favorite Bible teachers, isn't it the best idea to search the scripture to see if it's an error or if it's the truth?

James Kaddis: Yeah, Jane, listen, this is very, very important and you know this. We are to go back and we are to confirm the things that are being taught to us. This is important for our soul. This is critical for the fact that we have this relationship with God where we are expected to understand clearly what he's telling us and we have to filter that. We have to filter that through what God's word says. And also, look, you're doing a favor to the person you're listening to because if it is wrong, if there is something incorrect, they're going to want to know that. They're going to want to hear it so that they can literally change what they're communicating, that the people that hear it might be led in the ways of the Lord. I think it's very, very important.

Jain: Thanks, Pastor James. Light on the Hill is made possible through the generosity of our listeners. If the Lord is leading you to support this ministry, please visit lightonthehillradio.com to donate today or you can give through the Light on the Hill app. You can also send us your questions about Revelation and Bible prophecy through our website, lightonthehillradio.com. We hope to hear from you soon. Join us next time when Pastor James Kaddis will continue through the book of Revelation. That's right here on Light on the Hill, a listener-supported ministry of Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.

James Kaddis: ♪ (Music) ♪ I have found that peace only comes from you. I have found that joy only comes from you. All I need is you. ♪ (Music) ♪