Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.” Isaiah 58:12.
The Law of God is likened unto a wall in the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. In Isaiah, we are told that a part of the wall has been broken down. It has been broken down for a long time, for many generations. However, God says that there is going to come a group of people who will restore this wall. They are going to build it again, but with this promise comes a condition: “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, [From] doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight . . . .” Verse 13. In other words, do not be like the Jews who mournfully went about doing God’s will. Oh, no! The Sabbath is to be a joy and delight, because we are doing God’s work. Doing God’s work should be the most wonderful thing in the world.
Notice that it is God’s work we are to do on this day—not our own work. This is what Jesus did on the Sabbath. He healed the sick. He preached the gospel. He fellow-shipped. But He did not go out and build homes or buy clothes. So it is; we are to do God’s work on the Sabbath, not do our own ways, “Nor finding your own pleasure.” Verse 13. Would you say that “your own pleasure” would include sports of every kind? “Nor speaking [your own] words.” Ibid.
There is going to be a people who restore this great commemoration, which God established at creation. The seal, the sign, God says in Ezekiel 20:20, that we are His people, is going to be restored.
The church of Pergamos did not have the Bible. God told them that He would not hold them responsible for anything more than what they knew. Very few of them knew about the Sabbath. The Waldenses knew, and they kept the Sabbath, but the average child growing up in the average home at that time never, in his or her entire lifetime, heard about the Sabbath. They never saw a Bible. Did God hold them responsible for what they did not know? No! What a fair, just, and good God! How glad we should be that God does not hold people accountable for things they do not know or ever could know.
More is Less
We have the Bible. We have the opportunity to study it and to know what it says. Today, God’s gospel is being preached around the world. Today, He holds us accountable for more. This is the trouble with Laodicea. They have more; they know more, but they do not do more.
God says, to the church of Laodicea, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.” Revelation 3:15. Is the charge against Laodicea that they are so sinful? That they are terribly, terribly bad? Does God say, “You murderers”? No. Does He charge, “You thieves”? No. Does He accuse, “You swear”? No. Does He proclaim that they are so terribly bad? No. He says that they are lukewarm, and this is worse than being terribly bad. You see, to make an appearance of being righteous without being converted is actually worse than being totally bad.
Someone may think, then, that they might as well go out and be bad. Well, this is true! If you are satisfied with just a lukewarm state, you might as well, but I do not want to be either terribly bad or lukewarm, because I will be lost either way, and I want to be saved. God is the True Witness. (Revelation 3:14.) You may have your own ideas; you may have intelligence; you may think you know so much, but God is the Creator, and He truly knows!
Faithful and True
Being lukewarm is worse than being totally bad. In my ignorance and human wisdom, I say, “God, how could this be? I would not want my children to be totally bad. I would much rather my children be lukewarm than totally bad. Spare my children from being totally bad in this drug-infested day and age, with homosexuality and all the other sins. No, no, let them at least be lukewarm and have a form of religion.” But God says, “No! I know more than you do. Remember, I am the Faithful and True Witness. I tell the truth. It is better to be totally bad than to be lukewarm.”
This should keep us from ever judging the drunkards on the street or any other people whom we might think are bad! We might be worse than they, if we only knew ourselves. God says, “I am the Faithful and True Witness.” When we give an appearance of righteousness without being converted, we deceive others and ourselves. The person staggering down the street drunk is not fooling anyone. He is who he is. He is showing everyone that he is drunk. Everyone can see it; everyone knows it. But the Christian who has an appearance of Christianity, without being totally converted, fools everyone.
Good on the Outside
This is what makes it so difficult for people to keep the Sabbath. They may observe a preacher who is not keeping the Sabbath—but he seems so great and so good, and he does so many wonderful things and preaches such good sermons. It makes it difficult for them to keep the Sabbath, because they look at this man who is making a profession of religion, and they see that he is not keeping the Sabbath. Of course, we cannot judge a person, but we are to be fruit inspectors. (Matthew 7:16, 20.)
Such situations make it difficult for some people; it fools them. The more some individuals do missionary work and other good things, without obeying God, the more they fool other people. And millions of people are being fooled today, not by the drunk on the side of the street, but by preachers who—on the outside—are living good, conscientious lives, but—on the inside—are not keeping the Ten Commandments. More than that, when we make an appearance of righteousness without having Jesus within, we allow Satan to come in and deceptively use us.
Control or Truth
This is the way the Jewish leaders were in the days of Jesus. Did they have an appearance of righteousness? Oh, did they ever! The people thought, when the leaders spoke, that it was the voice of God. They had degrees in religion, and they knew the Bible from A to Z. They knew all the rules and regulations, and never would they consider breaking a commandment. They knew it all; they acted it all on the outside, and they crucified Jesus.
In reading the account of Laodicea, I find a perfect description of the Pharisees in Jesus’ day. When I study about the Pharisees in Jesus’ day, I find a perfect illustration of the Laodiceans. In fact, Ellen White wrote: “The trials of the children of Israel, and their attitude just before the first coming of Christ, have been presented before me again and again to illustrate the position of the people of God in their experience before the second coming of Christ—how the enemy sought every occasion to take control of the minds of the Jews, and today he is seeking to blind the minds of God’s servants, that they may not be able to discern the precious truth.” Selected Messages, Book 1, 406.
As we consider the people of Jesus’ day, were they more interested in church control or in the truth? Oh, church control, for sure. What about when John the Baptist began his preaching? Did they search the Word, comparing Scripture with Scripture, to confirm what John the Baptist was saying? Did they tell him they were happy for the words he was speaking, or did they come to him and say, “John, who gave you the authority to preach? What degrees do you have? Who gave you the permission?” What did they do? Which way was it, the first or the second? It was the second. God was not pleased with that. May He save us from that experience.
Lukewarm or Bad
In Matthew 11:21, 22, we read about a lukewarm, Laodecian people in Jesus’ day. “Woe to you, Chora-zin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.” The people of Chorazin and Bethsaida were Sabbath-keeping, tithe-paying Jews; today, many would call them Christians. Although they were not Christians, they professed to be God’s true people. They went to church every week, and history tells us that they even had church schools. They were highly educated. The people of Tyre and Sidon were noted for their idolatry; they worshipped idols. They were heathen in every sense of the word. In fact, the Old Testament tells us, in Ezekiel 28, that Satan was the king of Tyre. You cannot get much worse than that, can you?
What does God say? “Listen, you people who are reading the Bible in Chorazin and Bethsaida. You are worse than these devil-worshippers of Tyre and Sidon.” Is it worse to be lukewarm than to be totally bad?
Accountability
He goes on to say, “And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.” Verses 23, 24.
Capernaum had a beautiful temple where people worshipped. Jesus preached there, in the beginning of His ministry. He cast out demons there. (Mark 1:21–26.) It was a great center of the Lord’s work in the area near Galilee. The people were faithful churchgoers. Some were involved in witnessing. You might say that they were actually better than some of the other Jews.
They had more light than did those in any other city, but they did not live up to their privileges. God held them accountable for more. Because they did not live up to their privileges, they came under the delusions and deceptions and control of Satan without even knowing it.
And God said, in verse 24, that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for the people of Capernaum in the Day of Judgment. The word Sodomite comes from the word Sodom. They were homosexuals, and God destroyed them with fire because of their abominable sin of homosexuality. Yet, He says that in the judgment it will be more tolerable for those terrible people who had become a whole nation of homosexuals in Sodom, than for those of Capernaum.
Is being lukewarm worse than being totally bad? It is the worst thing possible, because we deceive ourselves, and we deceive others. We come under the control of Satan just the same as if we were drinking alcohol or using illegal drugs.
Recognize Our Need
If we are not under God’s control, under whose control do we eventually come? If we come under Satan’s control while we are doing the outward works of religion, we are in the worst possible condition in which anyone could be, because we need to realize our need, so we do not fool others.
How can God help us? Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician.” He was talking to the Pharisees and Sadducees. Did these people have need of healing? Yes, they did, but they did not realize it. Those who think they are well do not realize they have any need, only “those who are sick. But go and learn what [this] means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” Matthew 9:12, 13.
Oh, I never want to get so good, in my own eyes, that I do not need Jesus, that I do not need repentance, that I do not need His message, that I get upset if someone brings to my attention something that I need to do or to change. I pray that God spares the church from ever reaching the place where they become upset if messages of warning and reproof are given to them.
Not Indispensable
God says, “Because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.” Revelation 3:16. There are only two churches that God warns of moving them out of the way, and they are the two churches that thought they could never be moved. One was the church of Ephesus, which was started by the apostles. They thought they could never be moved. But God says that we are not to fool ourselves; no one is indispensable.
The Jews thought they were indispensable. It is a most dangerous philosophy to come to the place where we think we—or whatever we are associated with—are indispensable. God is not dependent upon us.
This is the philosophy that led the Jews to crucify Jesus, because they figured that if they could put Him out of the way, God could not do away with them, because, eventually, what they did had to be right. This is rather mixed up reasoning, but they had the philosophy that if they really condemned and crucified someone, sooner or later it would be found to have been the right thing to do, because they were the true church and they could never be done away with. Who could question what they did?
What circular reasoning! But it is amazing how many people believe this way. The Catholic Church believed it for 2,000 years. In 1870, at the first Vatican Council, the Catholic Church declared themselves to be infallible. They proclaimed that they had never erred nor could they ever err. Holding that philosophy, you can burn people at the stake and, after having done it, accept the action as being right, because the church cannot err; it is a true church. So all you must do is have someone condemned and burned and that person is bad forever, because the church cannot make a mistake. Is this not strange reasoning?
It is my prayer that God will spare His church from any taint of this crooked kind of reasoning.
Bear Good Fruit
Many people today are asking, Is God dependent upon the Laodicean church to finish His work? God is going to have a people who go through. The last message is the final message God has to give to the earth. There is no other.
Matthew 3:9, 10 contains a message that shook up the Jewish nation. It is the same message that needs to shake up the church today. God intends for it to be given to the present day church. “Do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as [our] father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Notice, it does not say, “every tree, except the last tree.” It says, “every tree,” period, “which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” There is one way for God’s last church, as presently organized, to go through, and that is to bear good fruit. There is no other way. There is one way for you, in your church, to go through to the end, and it is to bear good fruit.
The Elijah Message
This was, by the way, the Elijah message. It was the message Elijah brought to the children of Israel, and it was the message that John the Baptist repeated. We read, in Luke 1:17, that the message John the Baptist gave was the Elijah message: “He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” In Matthew 17:12, 13, Jesus recognized it as the Elijah message: “ ‘But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands.’ Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist.”
Do you know who else is going to give the Elijah message to the world? We learn, from Malachi 4:5, 6, that the Elijah message has to come to God’s last church. It says, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
Last Day Elijah Message
This message must come again, right before the great and dreadful day of the Lord. I consider the following quotes to be from the Elijah prophet, brought to God’s last people, who, today, have so many privileges.
“A carnal security and ease in Zion prevail. Peace, peace, is sounded in her borders, when God has not spoken peace. They have forfeited the terms of peace; there is reason for an alarm to be sounded in all ‘my holy mountain.’ The sinners in Zion should be afraid, in a time when they do not expect it, sudden destruction will surely come upon all who are at ease.” Review and Herald, December 23, 1890.
Is there a condition? There are conditions, and Ellen White says that they have been forfeited.
“The Holy Spirit strives to make apparent the claims of God, but men pay heed only for a moment, and turn their minds to other things: Satan catches away the seeds of truth; the gracious influence of the Spirit of God is effectually resisted. Thus many are grieving away the Holy Spirit for the last time, and they know it not.” Ibid.
When the Holy Spirit was grieved away from the children of Israel for the last time, they did not know it. They went on sacrificing their sacrifices and going about their daily activities. They did not know their time of probation had come and gone.
“The words spoken by Christ of Jerusalem are, ‘Your house is left unto you desolate.’ [Matthew 23:38.] What anguish of soul did Jesus feel when all his appeals, his warnings and reproofs, were resisted! At the time he brought them home to the soul, impressions were made; but self-love, self-sufficiency, love of the world, came in and choked the good seed sown. Pride of heart prevented his hearers from humbling themselves before God, and confessing their sin in resisting his Holy Spirit, and reluctantly it left them. On the crest of Olivet, as he beheld the city, he wept over it, saying, ‘If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace!’ [Luke 19:42.] Here he paused; he was loath to utter the irrevocable sentence. O that Jerusalem would repent! When the fast westering sun should pass out of sight, her day of mercy would be ended. Jesus closed his sentence, ‘But now they are hid from thine eyes.’ On another occasion he lamented the impenitence of the chosen city: ‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.’ [Luke 13:34, 35.] The Lord forbid that this scene should now be repeated in the experience of God’s professed people! ‘My Spirit,’ he says, ‘shall not always strive with man.’ [Genesis 6:3.] The time will come when it must be said of the impenitent, ‘Ephraim is joined to his idols; let him alone.’ [Hosea 4:17.]
“Will the church see where she has fallen?” Ibid.
There Will Be a People
We need to read all of inspiration, not just the parts we want to read. God is no more dependent upon any human organization today than He was in the days of Jesus or than He was in the days of Ephesus. He says specifically in His counsel, “I will spew you, Laodicea, out of My mouth, unless you repent.”
Oh, yes, the message is going through, and there is a people going through. But we need to understand that God, if He needs to, will take people off the streets and make them His people, replacing every one who thinks they are His people. There is not a soul on this earth upon whom God is dependent! We are dependent upon Him. Oh, He loves us. He wants us to be saved more than anything else in the world. He died for us. He will do anything to help us be saved, but He is not dependent upon us. There is a difference.
Message to Laodicea
God will do anything to help us be saved, but unless we are converted, we will be lost, no matter what our profession. This is the message to Laodicea. The message to Laodicea is that the Laodiceans are in a lost condition. The trouble is, they think they are saved. It says, in Revelation 3:17–19, “Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, [that] the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.”
Be Zealous and Repent
“ ‘Be zealous and repent,’ is the admonition of Jesus to the Laodicean church. There is something to repent of. Worldly-mindedness, selfishness, and covetousness have been eating out their spiritual life. . . .
“The gold of faith and love, the white raiment of a spotless character, and the eye-salve, or the power of clear discernment between good and evil,—all these we must obtain before we can hope to enter the kingdom of God. But these precious treasures will not drop upon us without some exertion on our part. We must buy,—we must be ‘zealous and repent’ of our lukewarm state. We must be awake to see our wrongs, to search for our sins, and to put them away from us.
“Those who have set their affections upon earthly treasures, have a work to do to overcome their love of the world. Many are not giving heed to the admonition of the True Witness. They desire the blessings which he offers, but do not seek them with earnestness proportionate to their value. While striving for the possessions of earth, what zeal and energy they manifest! What cool calculations they make! They plan and toil early and late, and sacrifice their ease and comfort to obtain a treasure that must soon pass away. A corresponding zeal on their part to obtain the gold, the white raiment, and the eye-salve, would place them in possession of these heavenly treasurers, and of everlasting life in the kingdom of God.
“Jesus is saying, ‘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.’ [Revelation 3:20.] But many have so much rubbish piled up at the door of the heart that they cannot admit Jesus. Some have difficulties between themselves and their brethren to remove; others have evil tempers, pride, covetousness; with others, love of the world bars the entrance. All this must be taken away, before they can open the door and welcome the Saviour in.
“How precious is the promise, ‘I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.’ Oh, the love, the wondrous love of God! After all our lukewarmness and sins he says, Return unto me, and I will return unto thee, and will heal all thy backslidings.” Review and Herald, September 4, 1883.
Oh, friend. Do not be one of those who is lukewarm. Be zealous and repent. You can overcome. Accept the way of escape, which Jesus died to make available for you, that you may overcome every fault, resist every temptation, and sit down at last with Him on His throne.
Pastor Marshall Grosboll, with his wife Lillian, founded Steps to Life. In July 1991, Pastor Marshall and his family met with tragedy as they were returning home from a camp meeting in Washington state, when the airplane he was piloting went down, killing all on board.