A Letter for Today's Church

On the Lord's Day morning of July 26, 1874 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London Charles H. Spurgeon preached a sermon entitled, 'An Earnest Warning Against Lukewarmness.' It was based upon the letter to the Laodicean church as found in Revelation 3:14-22. This message is the first of a series of reviews of Spurgeon's sermon. Initially considered is the concept of being 'lukewarm.' By way of expansion, seven structural similarities of the seven letters to the churches of Asia (Revelation 2 & 3) are identified. Finally, the first of Spurgeon's three major headings is taken up, that is, 'the state into which churches are very apt to fall.' The first characteristic of this state is that of having a public reputation which is very different from what Christ sees and knows.