Volume 2 Issue 3 July 1996
by Paul Rockwell
Because of the sin of indifference, Jesus rebuked the church of Laodicea. He said because of this sin, he would spew them out of his mouth. The term spew comes from the term "emeo" and it means to vomit. This condition in this church left a bad taste in the Lords' mouth, it made him sick at his stomach and he calls upon them to repent.
The sin of indifference was not a sin peculiar to the church at Laodicea. It is in the churches in the Ohio Valley and some have been crippled and rendered useless to the cause of Christ because of it. This sin has allowed Liberalism to rise and dominate many churches. The sin of indifference is a disease of the soul. It is a disease that cripples, maims and robs brethren of energy that will cause us to be considered unworthy or unfit for heaven.
Webster defines indifference as: "state of being indifferent, impartiality, absence of preference or interest, unconcerness, unimportant."
It was the sin of indifference that allowed Jonah to dismiss the assignment that God gave him to go to Nineveh and cry out against the wickedness in that community. Instead he got on a ship sailing for Tarshish and went to sleep while 60,000 people were doomed for destruction if thy did not repent.
The sin of indifference is that which allows people when seeing that which is wrong engaged in or practiced, to respond by saying: "It's none of my affair" or I am not getting involved." Indifference deadens the urgency to cry out. God gave instruction in Ezekial 33:7-9: "So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die
in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul." We are living at a time when many want to go to heaven like a hitchhiker. A hitchhiker doesn't want to accept the responsibility of purchasing a car, he doesn't want to buy the gasoline or keep up the repairs of the automobile, but he wants to ride along free at the expense of others and get to his destination anyway he can. Friends, one does not hitchhike his way to heaven. We cannot accept an attitude of indifference or unconcerness and go to heaven in the after while. We cannot go to heaven unless we get involved, unless we stick our neck out and become concerned about our salvation and the salvation of others.
The apostle Peter called upon the people on the day of Pentecost "to save yourselves from this untoward generation." (Acts 2:40) The apostle Paul calls upon the brethren at Philippi in Philippians 2:12 "wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."
Again in Galatians 6:4-5 "but let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden." Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:10 "for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad." Friends, we cannot afford to be indifferent.
(This article was written by Paul Rockwell. This is the first half of that article with the second half to be printed in the October issue.)
