Peter Brandon emphasizes the need for believers to align their hearts with Christ's desires, urging them to love what He loves and hate what He hates. He reflects on the condition of the Laodicean church, which was lukewarm and self-satisfied, failing to recognize their spiritual poverty. Brandon highlights Christ's call to repentance and the importance of genuine communion with Him, rather than mere intellectual acknowledgment of faith. He encourages the congregation to seek a deeper relationship with Christ, moving beyond materialism to spiritual richness. Ultimately, he reminds them that Christ desires intimacy and fellowship, knocking at the door of their hearts for communion.

Now we're going to read from Revelation chapter 3 and we'll commence reading at verse 14. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. 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 spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich and increase with goods and have need of nothing. And knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich. And white raiment that thou mayest be clothed. And that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. And anoint thine eyes with thyself that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore and repent. Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Now may I say immediately, I do not believe that Laodicea is a universal disease that's marking the church at this time. I am quite sure there are places in the east, there are places in Africa, there are places in eastern Europe that are really living in first love Christianity. The big problem in the west is Laodicea. Now again I want to repeat, if we are going to apply this to our local churches, we shall be judgmental and probably wrong. If we can apply this to our own hearts, all of us will get a blessing including the preacher. Therefore I'm going to take this individually. Now first of all in verse 15 or 14, if you look very carefully, you see there three outstanding titles given to the Lord Jesus. We shall look at them quickly because our brother has mentioned those facts already. Secondly from 15 to 17, mainly 15 and 16, we have the condition of the church. Then in 17 we have the cause of the condition of the church. Then if you look at verse 18, you have the counsel of Christ and if you like the cure from this condition and that goes right down to verse 19. And then in verse 19 and 20 we have communion with Christ and I'm not saying that that's the cure but that is the cure for people individually. Now if we can keep to that order I think we shall look at the narrative and find some help. You will notice that every time the Lord exposed the condition of the respective churches, he gives us a preview of the loveliness of Christ. And the first thing he is called the Amen. In the old English it's put verily. In John the affirmative is doubled, it's verily verily. Now when we pray we finish the prayer by saying Amen so let it be. God always puts his Amen not at the end but at the beginning and therefore the Amen is related to his promises. All the promises of God are yes and Amen in Christ. Now why should that be in Laodicea? They were moving away obviously from first love. Their hearts were indifferent but God is basically saying even in a Laodicean condition I will still fulfil my promises. What an encouragement. Then he moves not to the promises but to the person, the faithful and true witness. Already we have heard very beautifully that he was faithful and true before Pontius Pilate. We also know as a great high priest he will always be faithful and true to his people. We may be unfaithful to him but he will never be unfaithful to us and therefore in an environment that's based on Laodicea neither hot nor cold he still remains faithful to us and that should lift our heart. Then you will notice that he is the beginning or as it should be the head of the creation of God. Now what does this mean? This refers to his purposes. Now nothing will thwart the purposes of God, nothing. He said at Caesarea Philippi upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it and in spite of the unfaithfulness of his people he will build his church and it will be complete. More than that Israel now is unfaithful to him. For instance if you would go to Israel you would find nearly most of the Jewish people are atheists. There's only about 10 to 15 percent believe in the existence of God and yet we must be sure of this one fact. He will be faithful to all his promises that he made to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob and there will be an Israel and there will be a millennial reign. But that is not the final purpose of God. The final purpose of God will be when he builds a new heaven and a new earth where in dwells righteousness and that's the fixity of God's purpose and therefore he says he is the head of the creation of God. Having said that to encourage those that were opening their hearts for communion in the church he then analyzes the condition. Because thou sayest. Now if you are fond of underlining your bible underline the word sayest. It's vital. It doesn't mean to say because they were rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing they were there to see it. But the emphasis is on the word thou sayest and that simply means this. They were boasting in it. They were glorying in it. In other words they went in for the material more than the spiritual. Now could I share with you an ugly fact that took place in our country. A great crowd of young men myself included came out of the war and among those young men in Britain there were some outstanding young men who should have been preachers and teachers and pastors. I can think of at least 25 myself in the London area. But instead of going in for spiritual things they went in for material things and they all reached the top and became outstanding men. But they died spiritual paupers. Now I have permission to say this. A brother came to me in Brisbane. A man that you all know and has been in big business and this is what he said to me in tears. Peter at the age of 30 I made a mistake. I went in for big business and reached the top. But I am a spiritual pauper now. Have you got it? Rich, increased with goods and need nothing. Now what was wrong there? They accepted the cross and all its blessings but rejected the reproach. They would glory in the power of his resurrection but not in the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable to death. They took all the blessings of a risen Lord but they rejected the idea of losing life. They were converted after a style but rejected consecration. And can you see what was basically happening? They wanted a good life and they wanted Christ life. In other words they wanted to be Christians but not disciples and that was the problem. Beloved years ago in my country when I first started to preach and I was having missions the brethren used to take their holiday and use it for the campaign. It was wonderful. Prayer meetings in the morning would be packed at half past six to about half past seven and then they went to work. Lots of the men came straight from work straight into the prayer meeting without having a meal. But now this is what happens you have a mission and half the church goes on holiday. You see they want the Christ life but they want the good life at the same time you can't have it. He that loves his life shall lose it and he that loses his life for my sake shall keep it unto life eternal. Or you may put it like this they love to be at the cross but they almost rejected being on it and they despise being under it. Again I repeat they wanted all the blessings but rejected the reproach. Rich increase with goods have need of nothing. Now he goes a little deeper and he's going to show them now the cause of the condition. Because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. Now what does that mean? The word wretched if you go through the New Testament you will find it's always linked with powerlessness. Give you one example do you remember in Romans 7 when the Apostle was struggling with the enemy of the flesh and he finishes that particular prayer by saying Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death. Therefore these Christians although they were rich and increased with goods when it came to their spiritual life they were totally powerless. And that's what that word basically means they were wretched. The word miserable means perhaps pitiable and it's linked with the idea of being joyless. It means that they went through the process of talking about the exalted Christ but there was no hallelujah in it. They would add up all their spiritual blessings but there was no praise the Lord. In other words the scriptures really to them was just an academic exercise and therefore they had all these seeming blessings but they held them with a joyless life. Is that so today in our lives? Let's go on. If you look at it carefully you will see it again because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and then he says no it's not that thou art wretched, miserable and poor. Now what does that mean? It means that spiritually they were worthless. It's an awful word. In other words the Lord was saying yes you have the riches, you have the beautiful homes, you have the magnificent chariots, you have the white garment, your eyes are glistening, they've been anointed with thy soul but in my sight you're totally bankrupt, you're worthless. Then he goes on. I'm blind. Now what does that mean? It means they were visionless, sightless. Do you remember the man that the Lord gave sight to and he said what do you see? And he said I see men as trees walking. You see obscured vision. Do you remember Stephen when he was being stoned, rejected by the world and as the stones were crushing his skull a beautiful thing happened. He being full of the Holy Ghost, now stop, looked up steadfastly. The word means to look with the rigidity of vision. It's the idea of astronomer that looks at a star for six months studying all its details and that's the word. He looked with fixity of vision and what did he see? The glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. Now can you see what was happening here? They were blind. They couldn't see that glory. And then you will notice they were naked. Now what does this mean? They used to sell in Laodicea, so the historians informed me, a white garment. It was similar to the white linen that came from Ireland but it was white and crisp and it was sold all over the world and it was very expensive and only wealthy people could wear it. And therefore if you were in that local church you would see all the ladies would have long hair but it would be studded with gold and then you would see their eyes crystal clear where they had washed their eyes with this special eye soap that was sold all over the world. And then they had these pure white garments and they must have looked beautiful with their white mantillas draping over their shoulders. But the Lord said, you are in a state of nudity. Now what does that mean? The in-wrought righteousness of Christ was not seen in them. They were living just like carnal people, the people of the world. Now you might say, well brother Peter, what caused all this? Well let's examine it deeper. If you went along to a prayer meeting you would listen and everything would be correct. If you went along to a bible study, I don't know if they had complete bibles then, but some of them would have a few scrolls and some of the inspired writings would be in one or two hands. But if they had a bible study they would be absolutely sound. If you went along to the worship meeting, I have no doubt you would hear oratory that was very good and grammar that was perfect. If you went along to the gospel meeting you would hear the gospel beautifully presented. But there was something wrong. You see when you go through Laodicea, if you look at it carefully, you do not find in Laodicea the deeds of the Nicolaitans. You do not find there the synagogue of Satan. You do not find there the doctoring of Balaam like you do there in Pergamos. You don't even read of the seduction of Jezebel that you find in Thyatira. Again you don't find the mention, the synagogue of Satan like you do in Philadelphia. So we imagine that they are doctrinally sound. But what was happening? The word of God was only reaching their minds. It wasn't getting down to their heart. Now I don't want to stray because I want to get to the main point tonight. Some of you will remember that in the burnt offering, and in the burnt offering you will remember the animal was slayed and placed upon the altar. But when it came to a pigeon or a bird, two things happened. First of all all the feathers were removed. And secondly the crop was cast on the east side of the altar before the bird was offered. What was the crop? The undigested food. Now do you remember in Colossians Paul says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Now note this, this is important. In Ephesians he says using the same expression, be filled with the spirit. But when it's the Colossians he says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. It's the same thing, but what does it mean? The word of Christ getting into the mind, going right down into the constitution, so it becomes an inward part of us. Now that's what they lacked. Beloved when I was ill last year, as you know, right in the vortex of the illness, God spoke to me. And it's not hard to say this to you. But he said, be not many teachers for greater will be your condemnation. Beloved if I am not living out what I'm teaching tonight, when I stand before the beamer, it will all be burnt up. It's a dangerous thing to have a head full of knowledge and a heart as small as a thing. And what was happening here in Laodicea, they had a head knowledge of the word, but it was never grafted into their experience. And therefore they were neither hot nor cold. Now what does that mean? If you examine their prayers, there would be no further, no weeping, no groaning, no prostrating before God. It was an exercise. If you listen to the worship, it would be intellectually correct. But no tears, no busting out, hallelujah. It was right. Correct, but mechanical. If you went to the Bible reading, perhaps they would know the scriptures very well indeed, but it never seemed to affect them. You see they had moved now from the organic, and they were moving into the mechanical. Now my dear friends, don't look at your assembly, please don't do that. Test your own spiritual condition. When did you last weep at the Lord's supper? When did you last shed tears for the lost? When did you last preach the gospel and wept as you preach the cross? Has it all become mechanical? Now this hot nor cold, what does it mean? Now there is no expression in the Old Testament where we find it. There is no expression in the New Testament where we find it. And generally speaking, scripture is its own interpreter, but not here. Now immediately you cannot find an equivalent statement in scripture, the next thing you must do is to go back to geography, and this is what the geographers tell us. That Laodicea was situated between Colossae and Heraclides. In one of the cities when the water came from the source it was hot, in the other city when the water came from its source it was beautifully and cold. There was only one thing that spoiled Laodicea and that was its water supply, and that was siphoned two miles from out of the city, and when it came originally from its source it was hot, but when it came into the city it was insipid, lukewarm, and the travellers spat it out, rejected it. Now comes the shock, we never read of the Lord ever spewing Israel out of his mouth, he let them away into captivity. The only time in scripture you have that statement is when the nations would spew them out if they turn to idolatry, and what this word simply means is this, you make me violently sick, what a shock. Now I must say this when I was examining this portion I quietly said but Lord that's sadistic language, that's almost marked by violence. The word not only means sick, it means violently sick. Could it be the language that's marked by violence? Impossible, there's no bitterness in the heart of God. What then does it mean? I want you to imagine a young couple and they marry, and when they marry they marry in love. I'm not referring to a Christian, and that marriage goes on for five years, and suddenly the wife comes home and the embrace is not there, then she keeps coming home and there's a coldness. This goes on for 18 months and then he says to his wife, can we chat? And he says this, Mary I love you beyond description, but your love has waned in the last 18 months and it's breaking my heart. She sits there cold and indifferent, and then he says this, I just can't stand it, if you're not going to respond to my life, I can't stand it, it's too much for me. These people were taking the bread and the wine of his white hot love with indifference, got it? They were praying over the souls of men with indifference, they were preaching the gospel as though it was an academic exercise, brilliant, scientific, yes, but no warmth in him. The Lord says I can't stand it no longer. Now note, he is not rejecting his people, that's impossible, but he's rejecting the testimony, and then he says to them, I cancel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that's the cure. Now what is gold? I have no doubt in saying this, it represents the lamp stand and the golden lamp stand represents the glory of God and the glory of Christ, and what he was basically saying is this, don't go in for the material, go in for knowing the Lord. And what did the Apostle Paul say? His one great desire was this, that I might know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship with him in his sufferings being made conformable unto thee. You see he had this insatiable desire to know intimately the Lord, but he said not only know the gold but know it with fire. What does that speak of? The purging of the gold so that the flesh is judged, but more than that, not only know him and the power of his resurrection but also know the fellowship with him in his sufferings. Go in for gold. To me that is an intimate knowledge of Christ and in white raiment, what does that mean? He was saying something like this, I'm not concerned about the gold braid in the ladies hair, I'm not concerned with the white linen garment, I'm not even concerned about the clarity of your vision and the eye so that you use. What I'm concerned about is this, that the righteousness of Christ is manifested in your body and may I use now the language of the Apostle Paul, that Christ might be magnified in your body. Beloved think of it, we only live in this body for approximately five seconds and then we're out and there's only one thing that matters and that is that Christ is formed in our personality, that's the white raiment. And can you conceive of anything more beautiful than to see 40 people around the Lord's table who are full of the beauty of the Lord Jesus, that's the white raiment. Now what about this eye salve? Now of course I'm aware that there are doctors in the congregation so I must be careful but according to the historians they sold an eye salve that was sold all over the Roman world and Laodicea was one of the hottest places on earth and where you get heat you get dust and therefore where you get dust you will get irritation in the eyes and where you get irritation invariably you can get blindness and therefore they invented an eye ointment that would wash the eyes from dust so that you had clear precise vision. Can you see it? What he was saying was this, I'm not concerned so much about your natural vision but I want you to have the vision of Christ. I remember once being in a meeting, never forget this, and my own heart was cold, that's possible, and I looked across the room and I got a shot. A sister took the bread and she took the wine and she was weeping, weeping. My eyes were blind, her eyes were open. She saw the Lord, got it? And then he turns and then he gives us this wonderful instruction. Quite frankly as you read Laodicea you come to the conclusion that the Lord had excommunicated the church. Now that's serious. You see when it comes to immorality it's so easy and yet we should be very careful about it when that person is lovingly and gently excommunicated. When it comes to wrong doctrine such as Judaism coming into Christianity or Gnosticism taking the place of the doctrines of Christianity, it's so easy to identify it and you can deal with the offender. But how can you deal with indifference? You can't put someone out for being indifferent. So can you see the problem now? The church is going in for the material more than the spiritual. The church was going in for the things of the world more than the things of Christ. And the Lord slips out of the church and he's not there. He's outside of Laodicea. But outside then he makes this wonderful promise and with this I close. As many as I love I rebuke and chasten. Now it doesn't mean that when the Lord loves you that he's going to give you the stick all the time. The word there for rebuke and chasten means child training. And it's the idea of a mother leaning over her child when he's doing some homework and saying look there you've got that some wrong. Or if perhaps the child is doing some composition to say look you've got the wrong verb there. It's the idea of child training and correction. Now he says as many as I fondly love I chasten and rebuke be zealous therefore and repent. Now why does he say be zealous therefore and repent? The hardest thing to get out of is materialism. Can I repeat that? The hardest thing to get out of is materialism. Wherever I go and the Lord's people are up to their eyes in material world there's a very little spiritual power. Now that's a fact. And once we are glued to materialism it's a very difficult thing to repent. So he says be zealous and repent. Then he makes this wonderful promise. Behold I stand at the door and knock. Would you mind if I did it? He's not really knocking at the hearts of a sinner. Not here. Let me do it again. He's not even knocking for consecration. He may be but that's not the point. He's knocking for communion. You see it's not knocking to save. It's knocking to sup. Now notice the transposition. First of all he will come and sup with you and you with me. We can give him a little but he can give us luxury. Now what does this mean? What basically is he asking? He is asking for communion. Now I know this is hard and I want to say this in love because I know my own heart. Brothers and sisters could you face this? If your life of communion was registered in this building the time you spend alone with the Lord. Not studying the scripture for a message. I'm not referring to that. But the time you spend alone with the Lord in communion. If it was registered in this building would you be embarrassed? That's what he's knocking for. And he's knocking loudly. Beloved if I see my Lord. He's hard up for worshipers and he's knocking. Can I make it personal? He's knocking at your heart's door sister. Brother is knocking at your heart's door. Young man is knocking not for salvation. But for communion. And then he closes by saying this. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne even as I also overcame and sat down with my father in his throne. In other words he says you'll be an overcomer. Campbell Morgan tells a beautiful story that I must pass on to you. He said he knew a friend who was fabulously rich but a very spiritual man. He never said that he was rich. He never gloried in them but he was. And when he came home from his business all the children would come in to study with his wife and they would report all that happened at school. On Saturday he would go for a walk and there was one girl that would walk with him. She was about 12 years of age. And according to Campbell Morgan sometimes they would walk in silence for half an hour but there was telepathy between father and daughter. This went on for some time. I believe this walk started when she was at the age of 11 and went right on until she was nearly 13. And then one day he was going out for a walk and she excused herself. The next Saturday she did the same. And that went on for two months. And although this gentleman didn't say a word to the child he was heartbroken. Lost the closeness. Then after about four months walking alone it was his birthday. And all the children were there with their presents and the mother. And then this girl came with a big parcel. Beautifully wrapped. And she laid it right down at his feet and said would you open it dad. And he did. And his heart was still exceedingly tender. And he lifted out of the parcel a pair of homemade slippers. And he said thank you dear. Thank you very much. She said they're homemade daddy. He said you've been making them for four months haven't you. Yes. And with a tear he said this. Dear it's you I want. Not the slippers. Buy them next time. Beloved it's you he wants. And he's knocking at the door. Who's going to open that door for communion with Christ. Tonight.