<< Back |
Chosen no: R-505 a, from: 1883 Year. |
Change lang
| |
The Seven Churches.
LAODICEA--Rev. 3:14-22.
"Unto the
messenger of the congregation in Laodicea write."
Laodicea is interpreted as "a tried, or judged people." The description shows us that they
were tried and found wanting. "These things saith the Amen." This is
the word so often translated "verily" in the gospels, and used by our
Lord as a kind of affirmation or solemn prefix to some important announcement.
From the
peculiar use Jesus made of it, we should at once recognize the speaker and
perceive that he is about to send a message of more than ordinary interest and
solemnity. "The beginning of the creation of God." If we understand
Christ's meaning here this message is sent particularly to those who profess
his name but deny the truth he here himself presents. Let those who do so, read
with special care this special message.
"What
think ye of the Christ? Whose Son is he?" (Matt. 22:42) is a question that
has had many answers. More Bible and less hymn-book theology would have made
the subject clearer to all. The doctrine of the trinity is totally opposed to
Scripture, and has not a single reasonable text to support it when the
well-known interpretation of 1 John 5:7is discarded and John 1:1is understood. We
suggest that any one who does not see this subject clearly should read carefully
and prayerfully John 17.
Another
class--Unitarians, etc.--take away from the dignity and honor of our Lord,
beside contradicting much Scripture, by denying that he had an existence before
his conception in Mary. We ask such, to compare the following texts: Matt.
22:45; John 1:14-15; 3:13; 8:58; 2 Cor. 8:9--Col. 1:15-17; Phil. 2:6-7. "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."
Here is a
picture of the nominal Church of to-day as our Lord sees her. They are not cold
in one sense; they have a good deal of zeal; but it is not according to
knowledge. They have, with much labor on the part of some, organized their
armies, developed their machinery, and multiplied their stores; but yet the
enemy does not fall before them. They claim that their principal object and aim
is to convert sinners; to (spiritually) beget children. The prophet puts these
words in their mouth when they awake to a knowledge of the situation:
"Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery,
is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy PRESENCE, O
Lord. We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have, as it were,
brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither
have the inhabitants of the earth come to (spiritual) life." This is said
after they have realized the presence of the Lord.
Neither hot
nor cold, they incite disgust and are cast out as a hateful thing from being
the mouthpiece of the Lord.
To be a
minister or priest in the nominal Church of to-day, one must bring with him a
plentiful store of that which Paul despised and left behind, namely, human
wisdom (1 Cor. 1:17; 2:16). There is a wisdom learned by the mature, "even
the hidden," "which the Spirit teacheth." This is not taught
"in the schools," neither can it be learned there, but it is
"freely given to us of God." Ministers are no more called of God with
them. They are made as newspapers are made. Blank paper (sometimes very blank)
is put into a machine, impressions are made on it, and it comes out finished. It
is wrapped and stamped and is ready to be sent away. We may search the
Scriptures in vain for an instance of God's sending through such a channel.
He hath
raised up a new mouthpiece. He sheds increasing light to a little flock who are
willing to receive it, and spread it abroad without fear. To those who humbly
and prayerfully search for the truth; having but one aim, the glory of God; one
desire, to do his will; one hope, to share that glory--according to his
promises.
We should not
look for light where little remains but the fading reflections of a former
glory. That sickly hue which now appears is but the smoke illuminated by the
piercing rays from the part of a hand which, high on the wall, is writing,
MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.
"Because
thou sayest I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing; and
knowest not that thou art the wretched one, and miserable, and poor, and blind,
and naked."
"I am
rich." I have all the spiritual light that exists in the world. I have
gotten riches; have still more enriched myself; have much goods laid up for
many years. All others are too poor to add to my store. I have all that is
worth having, and need no more. "I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall
in nowise see mourning." Of course she cannot recognize her own picture,
she is "blind." "And knowest not that thou art the wretched
one," etc. Just as the Jewish house fell, because they knew not the time
of their visitation (Luke 19:44) so, must their counterpart of this
dispensation. The visitation (presence) of the Lord is as a stone of stumbling
and rock of offence to both the houses of Israel (Isa. 8:14 and Heb. 3:5-6). The
fleshly house failed to recognize his presence in the flesh; the spiritual
house refuse to acknowledge his presence in a spiritual body. Just as he could
be seen by the eye of flesh in his first visitation, so he must be recognized
in this only by the eyes of our understanding--the only spiritual eyesight we
now possess. When we are made like him, bye and bye we shall see him as he is.
If she is so
blind that she cannot recognize her own condition and location, how can it be
expected that she should see his. When she has learned his, she will realize
her own, and it will be "pitiable, and poor, 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 eye-salve, that thou mayest
see."
Some may say,
How can this be a description of the Church of God? Is it not founded upon the
Rock, Christ? We answer, the majority of those who compose the Churches of
to-day know nothing about that Rock. Moreover, those who are founded upon
Christ, if they refuse to do his bidding, must suffer the consequences. His
call is, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her
sins, that ye receive not of her plagues."
Even though
we are built on Christ, yet, if instead of building with gold, silver and
precious stones, we daub together wood, hay and stubble, we shall suffer loss;
for the fire (of his jealousy-- Zeph. 1:18) shall try every man's work; and
such "shall be saved, yet so as by fire" (1 Cor. 3:11-15).
The gold that
is needed is the wisdom that cometh from above; the white raiment, the
righteousness of Christ; the eye-salve, the Spirit's help in the understanding
of the Word.
These will
stand the fires, and enable those who have them to stand before the Son of man.
"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous, therefore, and repent."
The words
translated rebuke and chasten, are in the Greek much more forcible than here
appears. The first means reproach, disgrace; put to shame, dishonor. The
latter, to train or educate like a child or youth. What a call! No wonder that
the proud and conceited teachers of popular churches cannot hear the call. No
wonder that some who have seen and heard refuse, to follow "the path their
leader trod." "As many as I love, I disgrace and train: be zealous,
therefore, and repent.
"What poor despised company
Of travelers are these,
Who walk in yonder narrow way
Along the rugged maze?
Ah, these are of a royal line,
All children of a King!
Heirs of immortal crowns divine,
And lo! for joy they sing."
"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."
[R506 : page 4]
Unknown to
the Laodicean Church, the Lord has returned. He stands at the door. He could
not do this if he were not present. He has not been always there as some think.
To Sardis he said, "I will come"; to Philadelphia, "I come
quickly"; to Laodicea, it is rap, rap, rap. Awake; let me come in. Do they
hear? Solomon's Song 5:3, gives the answer.
Why has this
little company had such a continuous feast of truth? Why does the light and
glory stream down upon us in ever increasing brightness? It is because the
Master has come in, and has girded himself, and made us sit down, and has
himself served us. It is because the Sun of Righteousness has arisen, and those
on the mountain and on the house-tops are already bathed in its glorious beams,
for
"The glory of the sunlight
Of the bright Millennial day,
Scatters all the powers of darkness;
Lights the gloom with healing ray."
"If any
man hear my voice." There is nothing here said about being deaf. If they
had been awake they would surely have heard. Jesus clearly foretold that he would
come as a thief, but did not tell them the hour. His orders were simply,
"Watch." They failed, and fell. "If the master of the house had
known in what watch the thief was coming, he would have watched, and would not
have suffered his house to be broken through." He slept on guard.
While the
nominal Church is still seemingly in power, while the old glory still hangs
about her, while it is still respectable and honorable to be a church member
(it will not be so long, in the eyes of many), the little flock of
truth-seekers are despised and rejected. They are covered with reproach because
they dare to point out the faults of a worldly church. They are looked down
upon by her who sits as a proud queen, lifted up that she may have the greater
fall.
The decree
has gone forth; the fall has begun; while "to him that overcometh will I
grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcome, and am set down
with my Father in his throne."
The nominal
Church has a vague [R506 : page 5] idea of a kind of
throne (composed principally of white cloud) somewhere, beyond the bounds of
time and space, in the third heaven (counting upwards) where they shall sit
forever; principally engaged in making music, and reigning (?) over their own
passions (their passions being buried out of sight with their bodies). Strange
work for eternity. God's agents, as far as we can see, are always in activity.
Christ does
not always sit on the Father's throne; he has one of his own. He
will occupy it. And those who have followed him, by the way of the cross, shall
share it with him. "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith
unto the Churches." W.
I. M.
W.T. R-505 a : page 4 –
1883 r.