Revelation 3:14b
14 And[kai] unto the angel[aggelos] of the church[ekklesia] of the Laodiceans[Laodikeus] write;[grapho] These things[hode] saith
[lego] the Amen,[amen] the faithful[pistos] and[kai] true[alethinos] witness,[martus] the beginning[arche] of the creation[ktisis] of God;[theos] KJV-Interlinear
14 "And to the angel of the
church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the
Beginning of the creation of God, says this: NASB
It is the seventh church to be addressed. Laodicea had a mixed crowd of apathetic
peoples.Neither hot or cold in their
attitude, they simply did not care nor did they see any value in Bible doctrine. This is where a great many people live their
lives in this world.And as we will see,
Gods attitude is spelled out in verse 16.
He will vomit them out (not spit), and we all should know the value of
vomit and the disgusting characteristics that go along with it (smell, taste,
appearance).This is not a clean vomit,
but the rankest kind that you can imagine.
So much for the dignity of mankind.
The world has its own kind of prosperity, and this
is that which existed in Laodicea.Vast wealth. But
earthly wealth is not eternal wealth.
Wealth from this earth can disappear in a heartbeat as it did here in
the earthquake it had in 60 AD, which devastated that city. Even today, the city is not very important as
commerce goes, and its glory is in mere archeological ruins. It has suffered many military defeats over
the centuries, and has been at the mercy of its captors, just as mankind is at
the mercy of sin and death, when they ignore God and His Word.
God speaks.
Jesus Christ is God.He has many
titles.Holder of the seven stars, the
communication of doctrine.The first and the last, the victor over death. The holder of the sharp two
edged sword, master of judgment and mercy. Son of God. Having feet of burnished bronze, sacrifice
results of the Cross, and flaming fiery eyes, all powerful and piercing
discernment.Holder of
the seven spirits, process and function of spiritual growth and advancing to
spiritual maturity.The Holy one,
righteousness and justice fulfilled.The true one, the word of God and the light which reveals. Key of David, salvation,
government, dominion, and authority.
The one who opens and the one who shuts, Jesus Christ controls history.
And now the 'amen', the
'faithful', the 'beginning of creation' (all beginnings).
And He 'says'.
When God speaks, things happen.
When God speaks your whole life should become silent, your eyes should
open into alertness, your mind focused and, more important, your attitude and
motivation concentrated on Bible doctrine.
'Amen,’ I believe it, certain, so be it. A word of finality. God has decided and so it shall be. No if, and's, or but's.All the
evidence is in, all testimony has been heard, all facts are now known, all
options have been considered, and the decision is now made. God speaks and history is recorded.
God is faithful, 'pistos,'
trustworthy, sure, true, to rely on with certainty. God is able to do what He says,
and He says what He will do.God is
immutable.He never changes. His policies have been the same since the
beginning of creation in eternity past and prior. He does not vacillate. He does not make decisions based on bias or
prejudice.He does not treat anyone with
favoritism, but treats all the same.God
has the power and the knowledge to accomplish all that is best for each one of
us. He is the only source of refuge, the
only source of blessing.
God is the true witness. He is omniscient, He
knows all that is possible.He is
foreknowledge, He knows all that is and has and will happen. He is wisdom, and knows all the correct
decisions and solutions to all possible problems. He possesses all the facts. He knows all our thoughts, motives,
decisions, and actions.Nothing is
hidden from God.God cannot be fooled.
He is the beginning and He created all
beginnings.He created the angels, the
universe.He created a solution for the
angelic conflict.He restored the earth
and created mankind. He created a plan for salvation and accomplished it. He will create a new universe, and heaven
only knows how many other new things in the future. God is the source of all things. Evolution is foolishness and an outright
rejection of God.He created the
universe out of nothing, 'bara', if you remember your study in Genesis. Creating something out of
nothing.A big bang would be
creating something out of something.So
that theory is rejected.
Jesus Christ, is God, and
He 'says'.From the source of His
essence comes these words of doctrine. Information given to us
direct from God.God does not
speak to us face to face, or through dreams or visions. We do not hear His voice in the night. God speaks to us through His written word and
in accordance with the mechanism of doctrinal communication which we have
already studied. See the seven spirits chart on the index page.
All scripture is God breathed. Every word in the original languages came
directly from God, and was written down for our benefit by various men who were
given the gift and privilege of recording Gods words. Many were exposed to terrible hardships and
even death for their writings.
Many think that Mary was a blessed mother, but that
was nothing compared to the events involved in the writing and maintenance of
the scriptures throughout these thousands of years by many, many people. Mary was certainly blessed in a unique way,
but too, so are we all.
We, each of us, are unique to God, and the
individual plans for our lives are unique to each one of us. We all have the potential for great
blessing.We all have equal opportunity
and equal access to Gods plan for our lives.
No one has an advantage over anyone else. Your life now and in eternity is entirely up
to you and your attitude toward Bible doctrine.
And yet despite all of these things, the vast
majority of peoples ignore God, Christ, doctrine and their spiritual
lives.
Most folks think that when the great apostasy,
which will occur at the end of our dispensation, will be characterized with great
crime sprees, with great economic collapses, with great violence and hate and
prejudice and turmoil.But such is not
the case.
As the Bible has already stated, in the end time
people will be marrying and will be given in marriage. They will be partying and having a good time.
They will be working and hustling and traveling along in life. And that describes a busy world chasing after
social happiness in ‘things,’ while totally ignoring doctrine.
After all, who wants to work for their spiritual
progress?Most folks just want to be
entertained.They want to hear moving devotionals. They just want their spiritual side to just
be there, without them doing anything.
Or better said, they want both lives, their
spiritual life and their carnal life in this world.
Too often, God is just too inconvenient when it interferers
with ones day to day activities.It is
far more fun to sign up on lists, play games, pursue social activities, be a
busy body in activities, be involved in the habits that we have formed for our
daily lives, and not have to actually ‘read’ and ‘study’ the Bible.
Heaven forbid, that means that we would have to actually
evaluate our own life!We would have to
listen, or learn, or subordinate our opinions to something called truth.
So, the last church is the most significant,
because it is the church of indifference, or apathy, of talking the talk (if
even that), but not walking the walk.
It is the church of hypocrisy, pretense, and
insincerity.And that will be the
character of the population, of our dispensation when we approach its end. Do you suppose that we are nearing that
point?
Two subscription options to receive these daily studies everyday via e-mail, are availablehere.
Donations
http://www.dailybiblestudy.org/m-donation.html
