Another look at the Laodicean message

[skyblue888]

At the end of His Christian life, after 30 years of walking with Christ, the apostle Paul declared, "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief." 1 Tim.1:15. This is the Spirit of the Gospel. Paul had come to understand and appreciate the fact that without the grace of Christ he was capable of the worse sins being committed by the worse of unbelievers. Therefore though it is written that "There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus," (Romans 8:1) if you are in Christ you will always acknowledge yourself as erring, helpless, and a condemned sinner, even the chief of sinners! "Are you in Christ? Not if you do not acknowledge yourselves erring, helpless, condemned sinners." E.G. White, 1893 General Conference Bulletin, p.178. To me this ought to be the most beautiful Christian paradox there is!

[skyblue888]

This reminds me of a song, in fact, of the most popular song there is in all the churches of Christendom. You guessed it. I am talking about Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound. All are familiar with these words: "I was blind but now I see." Let us take a closer look at the words of Jesus speaking to the Jews, His professed people in His day. He said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, We see; therefore your sin remains." John 9:41.

Was Jesus telling them that they were not actuated by the Spirit of the Gospel when they said, "We see"? Yes that is exactly what He was saying. Please let me explain further. I am sure that a few of us here are familiar with these words from Mrs. White. "The message given by A.T. Jones and E.J. Waggoner is the message of God to the Laodicean church." Letter 5-24, 1892.

[skyblue888]

It was in 1888, at the General Conference in Minneapolis, that these two gentlemen spoke on the Laodicean message in demonstration of the Spirit and power of God. Five years later, at the 1893 General Conference A.T. Jones repeated that same message but this time it is said that he presented it "in special measure."

We can read his own words on this from page 474 of the 1893 General Conference Bulletin, taken from lecture #22.

"God has given us a message, and has borne with us these four years, in order that we might receive this which is now the message. Those who cannot receive that message are not prepared to receive this message, because they rejected that. And now when God gives the other IN SPECIAL MEASURE in order that this may be received, and both together are slighted, then what can become of those blind eyes? What can become of them?"

[skyblue888]

Now I invite you all to take a closer look at that message from lecture #8 in which brother Jones discusses the Laodicean message. You will see how, indeed, this message was, as Mrs. White recognized it, heavenly illumination.

"There have been things written to me in regard to the movings of the Spirit of God at the last Conference (1893), and at the College, which clearly indicate that because these blessings were not lived up to, minds have been confused, and that which was light from Heaven has been called excitement. I have been made sad to have this matter viewed in this light. We must be very careful not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in pronouncing the ministration of His Holy Spirit a species of fanaticism. How shall we understand the workings of the Spirit of God if it was not revealed in clear and unmistakable lines, not only in Battle Creek but in many places?" Selected Messages, Vol.1, 130.

Please read the whole before posting your comments.

Thank you.

sky :)

[skyblue888]

The following is taken from p.166 of the Bulletin. Brother Jones just quoted John 9:41 "If you were blind, you should have no sin; but now you say, We see. Therefore your sin remains."

When Jesus tells you and me we are blind, the thing for us to do is to say: 'Lord, we are blind.' He told those folks they were blind, and they were blind; but they said it was not so. It was so. Well, then brethren, the thing for us to do is to come square up to the Laodicean message, and say that every word He says is so. When He says that you and I are wretched, tell him, "It is so, I am wretched.; miserable, it is so, I am miserable; poor, it is so, I am poor, a perfect beggar. I shall never be anything else in the world; blind, I am blind, and shall never be anything else; naked, that is so; and I do not know it; that is so too. I do not know it at all, as I ought to know it." (1 Cor.8:2) And then I will say to Him every day and every hour, 'Lord, that is all so; but, oh, instead of my wretchedness, give me Thine own satisfaction; instead of my misery, give me Thine own comfort; insteaf of my poverty, give me Thine own riches; instead of my blindness, be Thou my sight; instead of my nakedness, oh do Thou clothe me with Thine own righteousness; and what I know not, Lord, teach Thou me." (Congregation: 'Amen.')

[skyblue888]

Brethren, when we come with one heart and one mind to that place, we shall have no difficulty at all in repenting. It will not be difficult to repent, and there will be no lack of repentance. That next verse will be fulfilled: 'As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous and repent.' The difficulty about our not being able to repent is that we have not confessed that what the Lord has told us is the truth. Every moment that I do not see and confess that I am blind, and have Him as my sight, I am in sin; He says so. Now you say you see; therefore your sin remains. And every moment that I do not see my nakedness and depend only and absolutely upon Him and His righteousness to clothe me, why so certainly I am ruined, utterly ruined, and every moment that I begin to say, 'Now I know so much,' no I do not know that at all. Well, then the thing that I am to do, is to say, 'Lord, I do not know it; I depend upon Thee to teach me everythig, even to teach me that I am wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, and that I need all these things. And when I tell Him that, He will give all I need. He will do it. That is our situation." A.T. Jones, 1893 General Conference Bulletin, p.166-167.

[skyblue888]

"Oh yes, but when I come to Him for wisdom and ask Him for wisdom and He gives it to me, then can't I boast and say, 'I am wise'? Why, no. Just the moment that I say that, I'm a biggest fool than I ever was before in the world. Because by yielding to the Lord He has deigned to stand by me, and so give me His wisdom, that it may lead me and guide me in wisdom's ways, and that I should walk in the way that is right. His having done that, can I then pride myself upon it and say, 'Now, I am wise'? Don't you see, in the nature of things, that would be the biggest piece of foolishness that ever struck me. He did it, He helped me, He gave me His wisdom, He was my wisdom. When I did not walk wisely, He gave me His wisdom; His wisdom guided me, His wisdom took hold of my mind and heart and led me and kept me in wisdom's ways. Then He is my wisdom, and I have no wisdom at all, but His wisdom. Don't you see? Now you just get it that way, and then you will know that it is a fact. 'I will guide thee with Mine eye.' When He says He guides me with His eye, I shall answer, it is His eye that guides you and me, and not our own eye. Then the only thing to do is to just let ourselves go, utterly, completely, and let ourselves be His, utterly and completely, that He may be all, and in all of us. Therefore He is our wisdom, our scantification, our redemption, and our righteousness. (1 Cor.1:30) Then He is my satisfaction where I am wretched; He is my comfort where I am miserable; He is my sight where I am blind; He is my riches where I am poor; and He is my knowledge where I do not know...

[skyblue888]

"And now about that thought last night--some thought that I was going entirely too far. They could say, it is well enough that He says, 'You are wretched,' I say I am wretched. When He says, 'You are poor,' I say, I am poor. When He says, 'You are blind,' I say I am blind.' And then when He says, 'You don't know it,' then I am to say, 'Lord, I know it'?--No, no. When He says, "You don't know it,' I am to say, 'Lord, I dont know it.' Do not go to putting construction upon His way. When I say I am wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, and on top of it He says that i don't know it, I say, "Lord, I don't know it.' That brings us right to the text we started with that night,--'If any man thinketh he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know it.' 1 Cor.8:2. I do not know yet, as long as I have been acknowledging that thing, yet, I know not how wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked I am, if He should show myself just as I am. Just as certainly as we take that Laodicean message as He speaks it, we shall receive all He has in it. Then, brethren, that is what it is intended for. That is just what the Laodicean message is intended to do. Let it do its own work in His own way." 1893 General Conference Bulletin, p.178-179.

[skyblue888]

"Brethren, I do not say these things to find fault, or to condemn; but I say them in the fear of God, that each one of us may know where we stand. And if there be any of those roots from Minneapolis lingering these four years, or any caught from this and have been crops of this four years' standing, let us see that we here and now root up the whole thing, and prostrate ourselves at the feet of Christ with only that one plea,--'I am wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, and I do not know it as I ought to know it.' That is where we are. I know that some there accepted it; others rejected it enterily. You know the same thing. Others tried to stand half way between, and get in that way; but that is not the way it is to be had, brethren; that is not the way it is received. They thought to take a middle course, and although they did not exactly receive it, or exactly commit themselves to it, yet they were willing to go whichever way the tide turned at the last; whichever way the body turned they were willing to go. Since that time others have seem that God is moving the body of the cause forward in this very line, and they have proposed to go along with the body, as they see it moving that way. Brethren, you need to get that righteousness of Jesus Christ nearer to your heart than that. Every man needs to get the righteousness of God nearer to him than simply weighing up things and compromising between parties, or he will never see or know the righteousness of God at all...

[skyblue888]

Others have apparently favored it, and would speak favorably of it when everything was that way; but when in the fierceness of this spirit--this spirit described there as the persecuting spirit--when that spirit would rise up in its fierceness and make war upon the message of righteousness by faith, instead of standing nobly, in the fear of God, and declaring in the face of that attack, 'it is the truth of God, and I believe it in my soul,' they would begin to yield and in an apologetic way, offer excuses for those who were preaching it, as though it were a matter only of men's persons, to be held in advantage because of admiration. Brethren the truth of God needs no apology. The man who preaches the truth of God needs no apology. The truth of God wants your faith; that is what it wants. All that the truth of God needs is that you and I shall believe it, and recieve it into our hearts, and stand by it in the face of all the attacks that can be made upon it; and let it be known that you do stand by the messengers whom God sends to preach, not because they are certain men, but because God sends them with a message. That however, is but a sample. There will be things to come that will be more surprising than anything we have yet seen. And, brethren, we will be required to receive and preach that truth. But unless you and I have every fiber of that spirit rooted out of our hearts, we will treat that message and the messenger by whom it is sent, as God has declared we have treated this other message." 1893 General Conference Bulletin, 184-185.

[skyblue888]

In short, daily we are to come to God just as we are, wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, pleading the merits of the blood shed for us upon Calvary's cross. (Rom.3:25; F.W.105) Then we shall receive all the help that we can desire (P.P.431) in order to form a Christian character. (F.W.38,76; Mark 4:26-28)

But there never will come a time when we can say, "Now I see," or "Now I know," for then we would be in sin. He says so! John 9:41.

"If any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know it." 1 Cor.8:2.

"If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, We see. Therefore your sin remains." John 9:41.

"If any man think he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself." Gal.6:3.

"Are you in Christ? Not if you do not acknowledge yourselves erring, helpless, condemned sinners." E.G. White.

I don't know about you, dear reader, but as far as I am concerned, this message is "a special testimony, a special message of truth which is appropriate for this time, which message is to be received, believed, and acted upon. It is the truth that is efficacious, not fanciful ideas." E.G.White, Bible Commentary, vol.7, 984.

End.

Thank you for your attention.

Your comments will be appreciated.

sky

[Ted Oplinger]

Sharing this was greatly appreciated, Sky. Thanks.

Blessings,

[skyblue888]