In the Book of Revelation, in His stirring message to the Laodicean Church, Jesus Christ counsels each of us to buy from Him “gold,” “white clothes,” and “eye salve.” Revelation 3:18. Pastor Steve Wohlberg explains the meaning of these “deep things of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:10

<p>In the Book of Revelation, in His stirring message to the Laodicean Church, Jesus Christ counsels each of us to buy from Him “gold,” “white clothes,” and “eye salve.” Revelation 3:18. Pastor Steve Wohlberg explains the meaning of these “deep things of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:10</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

White Horse Media

Steve Wohlberg

Gold, White Clothes, Eye Salve Needed Now

All right, let's open our Bibles up to the book of Revelation, chapter 18.

The title of my message today is called Gold, White Clothes, and I Salve Needed Now.

And that title is really based upon 1 Bible verse, which is in Revelation chapter 3, verse 18.

But we're not gonna start with that text.

We're gonna start with Revelation 18, and I'll kind of lay the groundwork for what this is all about.

And I really believe that the Lord has a message for us today.

He has a message for me, through me, for me, and he has a message for you.

So let's pray together and ask God to open our hearts to his word, to his message, what he has to say to us.

Dear Father, Heavenly Father, it is good to be here in your house, in your church today.

And we pray for the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, to come down from heaven, to move among us, and to go deep into our hearts.

We all have hearts that need to be penetrated with your power and with your Holy Spirit and with your truth.

So we pray that you will go deep, that you will speak to us, Speak through me.

Open our hearts and help us to understand the message for the hour.

Okay, by the way, I forgot to ask you, sometimes I ask pastors or churches, is this a 12 o'clock church?

So if we're gonna eat, okay, so I'm not gonna try to go on too long.

Give us time to eat, give time for me to get some sunlight and for us to get over to the auditorium.

The book of Revelation is my favorite book of the Bible.

And in chapter 18, Revelation 18, it's a chapter that describes God's last call to the world before Jesus comes.

And if you look at the first verse, verse first is very powerful.

John wrote, after these things, I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great, and what's that next word?

Many Bibles say power, some Bibles say authority, great power, great authority.

And the earth, what happened to the earth?

So this verse is describing the final time, a dark time before Jesus returns, when God is gonna give a great burst of light into this dark world.

It's represented as an angel coming down from heaven with tremendous power.

And the whole earth is gonna be lightened or illuminated with the glory of God.

And our church has been reading this chapter, we've looked at this verse for over a hundred years.

We have been praying and hoping that we'll be a part of this final outpouring of the power of God.

In our church, we often refer to this as the latter rain.

In the Old Testament, it talks about the former rain and the latter rain, which based on the agricultural year of the Jewish people in the land of Israel.

Their early rain was the rain that came down and got the plants growing, got them started.

And then the latter rain came at the end of the growing season and helped to bring the plants to the harvest.

The early rain is the symbolized the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, when the early church received power from God to spread the gospel into the world, to get the church started really.

And then we refer to the latter rain down at the end of time as the final outpouring of the Holy Spirit to finish the work so we can go home.

The latter rain's gonna really, it's gonna be the final boost that we need.

And we also, it says in verse 2, that when the power comes, that this angel cried mightily with a strong voice.

And in our church, we often refer to this as the latter rain coming and then giving us the power to give what we call the loud cry.

The loud cry is the final call, the final message from God through his people to those that are in Babylon.

Revelation 18 is all about Babylon and the fall of Babylon and how Babylon is in trouble.

It's full of devils, it's full of demons and false doctrines, and yet God has people in Babylon.

In verse 4, it says, "'I heard another voice from heaven saying, "'Come out of her, my people, "'that you be not partakers of her sins and that you receive not of her plagues." So when the final power comes, it gives God's people the ability to give the loud cry, the last message, to call other people who are God's people to call them out of Babylon.

I like to say that the other people are the right people, but they're in the wrong place.

There's a lot of people in a lot of different churches out there.

We do not believe that that our church is the only church where there are people of God.

God has people in many churches all around the world who don't quite see things the way we do.

They need a deeper understanding of the Bible, but they are still people of God.

And we recognize that, and the call at the very end is to call them out of false religion, false teachings, false doctrines, call them out of Babylon, and get them closer to the Bible, closer to Jesus, so they can be ready for the second coming.

Now, 1 thing, well, many things, but 1 thing has really impressed me is in verse 7.

Verse 7 describes Babylon, which is actually, she's described, Babylon is a woman, she's a false church.

She is described in more detail in Revelation 17, this harlot woman that's riding a seven-headed, ten-horned beast.

She's got a golden cup with all of her false doctrines and the world drinks her wine.

So God gives a message to call people out of Babylon.

And Babylon is described in more detail in this chapter.

And in verse 7, 1 of the things that says about Babylon, it says, notice Revelation 18, 7, how much she has glorified.

How much she has glorified herself and lived deliciously.

For she says in her heart, Notice she has a heart problem.

She says in her heart, I sit a queen and I am no widow and I shall see no sorrow.

So this woman is characterized by the exaltation of the Lord or of who?

And also she has a spirit, she has a pride in her heart that says, I am a queen.

I am sitting high and I am not a widow and I will see no sorrow.

And yet verse 8 describes what's coming upon her.

It says, therefore shall her plagues come in 1 day, death and mourning and famine, and she shall be utterly burned with fire for strong is the Lord God who judges her So this is a very strong chapter God is very definite that Babylon is going down and that people have to come out of Babylon because if they don't come out of Babylon, they're gonna go down with Babylon.

So in his love and mercy, he gives a message to call people out.

Now I thought a lot about this, And it has struck me that Babylon's character is a character that glorifies herself.

And it just makes sense to me that the people that receive the latter rain, that receive the power of God, that give the loud cry, that call people out of Babylon, that we must become a people that do not participate in her spirit of self-exaltation.

Gold, White Clothes, Eye Salve Needed Now

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