What Does It Mean in Rev 3:16 Where the Lord Talks About Spewing Out of His Mouth?
1) Direct Answer
It means the Lord rejects the lukewarm church condition and removes it from being His mouthpiece. He will not speak through, endorse, or own that mixed, complacent state. He casts it out of His fellowship as a body, while still calling individuals to repent and overcome.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- “Because thou art lukewarm… I will spue thee out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:16). Lukewarm is neither hot (on fire of the Spirit) nor cold (openly unbelieving), but a safe, self-satisfied mixture.
- He describes them as saying, “I am rich… and have need of nothing,” yet He says they are “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17).
- He counsels, “buy of me gold tried in the fire… white raiment… and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve” (Revelation 3:18)—true faith, His righteousness, and spiritual sight.
- He stands outside, knocking: “If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in” (Revelation 3:20). The system is rejected, but individuals are invited.
- Overcomers are promised to sit with Him in His throne (Revelation 3:21).
The “mouth” in Scripture is the place of His Word and confession (Revelation 1:16; 2:16; Jeremiah 1:9; Romans 10:9-10). Being in His “mouth” pictures being the instrument He uses to speak and testify.
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- The church is to be His Body on earth; the “mouth” is the part that speaks His Word.
- When a church becomes lukewarm—mixing truth with worldliness, boasting in wealth and programs while lacking the fire of the Spirit—He cannot let that represent Him. Like lukewarm water, it is nauseating, so He spews it out—He separates from it.
- Yet He loves and rebukes: “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent” (Revelation 3:19). Those who hear His voice and open to Him personally will dine with Him now and reign with Him as overcomers.
4) Reinforcing Statement
Now notice, He rejects the lukewarm system, but He is calling out a people who will be hot with His life, clothed in His righteousness, and fit to speak His Word. Be zealous, repent, and let Him back inside.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
The cruelty of sin and the penalty it cost to rid it
53-0403 §13
But, tonight, let's go back in the Old Testament. I want to talk on: The Cruelty Of Sin, And The Penalty That It Cost To Rid Sin From Our Lives. In Isaiah 53, the prophet, anointed, seven hundred and twelve years before the coming of the Lord, he said these words. Who hath believed our report? ... to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and ... a root out of ... dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we shoul...
The Voice of God in this last days
63-0120M §12
Now turning to the book of Isaiah, the 40th chapter, we read: Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith ... God. Speak ye comfortable words unto Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she has received of the LORD's hand double for ... her sins. The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and the mountain and hill shall be made low: and the croo...
The invasion of the United States
54-0509 §124
Shall we pray. Our kind Heavenly Father, as we view back this morning with our minds, back down yonder some hundreds of years ago, when there stood Jehoshaphat standing there by the side of King Ahab. And a little spirit down in his heart, still left of God, though he had made a mistake, told him, said, "This is wrong. This is wrong. It's not clean. It's not holy. The prophet has said these things couldn't go on like this." And the little fire of God woke him up. And then You had somebody to answer that little fire...
The Queen of Sheba
60-0401E §1
[Pastor introduces Brother Lamsa.] ... he speaks the language and can read the language and read the original documents in which the New Testament was written. So with him, it is so wonderful that he can read directly from the original script the very words that Jesus and the disciples spoke and wrote. He felt that these translations that we have are not always correct and true. And that's where the criticism comes in, because he criticizes the King James version, and some people think that St. Paul preached from t...
The Spoken Word is the original seed
62-0318 §281
Christ's bride did the same---mixed her denominational seed and put Christ, her espoused husband, away. You dry-washed bunch of Pentecostals; what's the matter with you? Revelation the 3rd chapter and the 20th verse, we find in prophecy, Jesus Christ outside of His own church in this Laodicean age, knocking on the door trying to get back---the most pathetic picture in the Bible. What did she do? She took on whoredom. When Jesus comes, what's He knocking for? Jesus come back to receive His bride; and when He come to...