407. Thursday after Twentieth Sunday after Trinity.
Give us, O God, an ear to hear
what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
Revelation 3, 14-22. 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 thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. 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: 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 eyesalve, 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.
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This is a most impressive sermon. Let us all lay it to heart! These are the words of Jesus, set down in order that we also may hear them. There are many who deceive themselves with a sort of Christianity in which there is no life. They neither have knowledge of their sin, nor do they seek the grace of God. They refuse to practice self-denial; and they live in sensuality, covetousness, hate, anger, pride, deceit, and other sins. They boast of Christ, though they mock and deride him in his saints and trample his blood under foot.
O you blind, deceived, and spurious Christian; certainly the word of God never taught you that you can be saved in this way; nor has it been preached by any of the prophets or apostles. On the contrary, the burden of their preaching is this: If you wish to receive forgiveness, you must repent, and renounce and hate your sins, and believe in Christ, your only Savior and Redeemer.
— Johann Arndt
Others have begun to repent, but have then gone the way of Demas, spoken of in 2 Tim. 4, 10. They may perhaps keep up a certain appearance of piety, and have converse with the true Christians; and they “have a name that they live, — and are dead.” — However, in the sight of God there is no greater abomination than that lukewarmness which he reproaches in the Laodiceans. He who is “the Amen, the faithful and true witness,” — thus he here calls himself in order to wake us up; — he knows your works, and would rather have you to be cold than lukewarm. Give ear, then; awake, and know yourself! It is not the one that is wretched whom he will spew out of his mouth; — not the one who is sensible of his sin, and feels sorrow by reason of his misery; but the one that is satisfied with himself, and is rich and has need of nothing. When we no longer pray: “God be merciful to me a sinner;” when we no more feel the need of putting on Christ; when we have no desire to “behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple”; when we no longer have the wish to confess God, and to serve the brethren; — then we are lukewarm, and on the way to perdition. Deplorable self-complacency! For Jesus’ sake, rouse yourself from your torpor! He chastises you by his word, and disciplines you by means of afflictions, because he loves you. He knocks at the door, because he wants to sup with you. Will you force him to reject you? Is it to become necessary for him to place another in the seat intended for you? You may yet “overcome,” and then you shall “sit with him in his throne.” Note this: You may overcome, and sit with Jesus in his throne, he says, “even as I also overcame, and am set with my Father in his throne.” He still holds you in his heart; will you compel him to “spue you out”? to pronounce judgment and condemnation on you by his word? He yet loves you; yet there is time! Do return his love; go to your chamber, and pray with all your heart: Lord, wake me; and quicken me, and keep me. — Lord Jesus, if thou canst yet save me; if thou wilt yet have compassion on me, I humbly beseech thee to do it. “I would be, dear Jesus, where thou wouldst have me. I take thee, O Lord, into my heart with all thy grace and gifts.” Faithful Savior, let us keep together; I cannot live without thee, I must not lose thee. Chastise me, but do not cast me off; save, O save thine own, whom thou hast bought with thy life. Amen.*
Just as I am, without one plea,
But that thy blood was shed for me,
And that thou bid’st me come to thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am, and waiting not
To rid myself of one dark blot,
To thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
[TLH 388a (listen here); or TLH 388b, LSB 570, ELH 319 (listen here)]
* Here the head of the family says a short morning or evening prayer in his own words, and closes with the Lord’s Prayer and the Benediction. This is to be done every day. If the stanzas are not sung, they may be read in their proper place before the impromptu petition and the Lord’s Prayer.