Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
2007 San Francisco Conference. The Church of Laodicea. Part 2.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Our Lord demonstrated what an invisible hero in the Church-age would do: he would live inside the PPOG and stay there in spite of the pressures.
He was the epitome of the phrase –
“Quitters never win and winners never quit.”
On the cross, Jesus Christ remained impeccable and could stay on the cross bearing our sins because He was sustained by the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit inside the PPOG for His life and because He had God’s perfect happiness, HEB 9:14; HEB 12:2.
All that we have in the mystery doctrine of the Church-age comes from the great power experiment of the hypostatic union.
As a visible hero, our Lord presented Himself to Israel as Messiah, the Son of David.
As an invisible hero, our Lord was judged for the sins of the world on the cross.
That invisibility was enhanced by the fact that darkness fell across the land from 12 noon until 3 pm, MAT 27:45, during which period of time our Lord received the judgment for the sins of the world.
Sometimes the greatest manifestation of your spiritual life in the invisible realm is when you live in it but no one can see it.
You don’t quit or become indifferent or apathetic when things don’t go your way.
The invisible hero is one who refuses to quit and does not live in self-justification about why he should.
The invisible hero does not let others stop him from going forward with his relationship with God.
He stays with the plan of God and operates as a forerunner in spite of the pressure from his family, friends, neighbors, peers, and even his enemies and those who love to mock him including his family.
MAT 10:36 and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.
The key to the believer fulfilling God’s plan for his life and receiving fantastic blessings is the ability to persevere and handle abnormal pressure and unusual circumstances.
The believer who perseveres, either through thought, speech, action, or a combination thereof, “leads” and dominates in a disaster.
The believer who perseveres, through these three systems, dominates in disaster, so that people involved in the disaster are delivered, encouraged, changed, or in some other way even profited from the disaster.
The profit is not always victory, but some form of blessing at that time or at a later time.
Perseverance = in spite of opposition or distraction you are someone who is not influenced by others.
“A believer or invisible hero is not finished when he’s defeated; he’s finished when he quits.”
The price of becoming an invisible hero is hard work, dedication to the calling at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the calling of God upon our lives.
The will to win and be an invisible hero is important, but the will to prepare is much more vital.
If you want to be an invisible hero, you need to realize that success in the spiritual life is how high you bounce back after you hit bottom.
Winners make goals; losers make excuses.
The invisible hero solves his problems, but a loser is defeated by his.
Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.
Faith can move mountains; doubt can create them.
There are only two options regarding commitment.
You are either IN or you are OUT.
Adversity causes some men to break, others to break records.
For the invisible hero, he realizes that only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
Talent will not:
Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not:
Un-rewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not:
The world is full of intellectual derelicts.
If you can show me a person who has made no mistakes, I will show you a person who has achieved nothing.
You get credit for what you finish, not what you start.
A person has not failed miserably until he begins to blame others for his failure.
If you are determined to succeed in the spiritual life, remember that people of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don’t know when to quit.
While it was a wealthy city, it had one great drawback.
It lacked a good water supply.
Hierapolis was famous for its hot water.
If you wanted a hot bath, you would have to go there.
Colosse was famous for its cold drinking water.
Many believers today start out hot at the source, Bible doctrine, but by the time they come through the pipeline of the details of life, they cool off and end up lukewarm.
It became famous as an emetic, an agent to cause vomiting.
They continued to be blessed by John’s message in a non face-to-face situation.
“Write” – aor-act-imp – grapson – gravyon = “communicate.”
Writing is a non face-to-face type of communication.
Spiritual growth comes from perception of doctrine, whether it’s face-to-face or non face-to-face.
It’s better, because if you have the privilege of being a member of a doctrinal ministry, your spiritual gift can function properly.
“Write” – aor-act-imp = grapho.
Culminative aorist – views the writing of the Book of Revelation as being completed.
God uses prepared pastors, and God provides the hearers for prepared ministers.
If God doesn’t promote, you’re not promoted.
Aorist tense – indicates the provision of a world history textbook.
The Book of Revelation is the history of the world from 96 A.D. to the end of time.
The active voice:
The Apostle John, under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, produces the action of the verb.
Imperative mood:
a command to the Apostle John to write the last book found in the Word of God.
The next two words are the key to anyone in the ministry – tade legei – Tavde levgei.
Legei – pres-act-ind – lego = to communicate.
In the New American Standard, these words do not come until the end of the verse – “says this.”
Tade legei = “these things communicate”
Present tense – sets forth an event as now occurring.
The active voice:
Our Lord Jesus Christ as the ruler of the Church produces the action of the verb.
Indicative mood:
declarative for the fact that the greatest reality in your life must be what, “The amen, the faithful and true witness, says.”
God has given you your free will, and you have your freedom.
God has also given you a classroom where you can come in privacy and hear the teaching of doctrine where no one knows your business.
Under the principle of the privacy of the priesthood, this is the only dispensation where all believers are Priests.
Legei – pres-act-ind – lego = to communicate.
We never face a difficult situation, an adversity, a problem or even some form of prosperity or promotion that we cannot handle.
One of the things wrong with the believers at Laodicea was the fact that they had it too easy even though they did not have hot water.
When the doctrine is available, and we are not there to hear it or we heard it but rejected it, then we will be under the Law of Volitional Responsibility.
“The amen” – ho amen.
This is one of the titles which refer to the Lord Jesus Christ, used to confirm the acceptance of a task or a mission, the performance of which needs the will and the power of God.
Amen is used Biblically at the end of a doxology to attest the praise of God in response to the doxology, but it isn’t used in that way here.
Here it is used for a title of our Lord Jesus Christ who is both God and man in one person forever.
The “amen” refers to what is sure, certain, and valid.
The word “amen” actually means security and reality.
Ho amen is a title for the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is His title as the one who controls history.
Amen simply means this: Until our Lord sees fit to terminate human history, human history cannot be terminated by any system of angelic or human power.
1. Grace precedes judgment.
For the unbeliever, repentance means salvation.
 For the believer, repentance means a change of mind toward doctrine.
The negative volition was almost universal, and the human race was reduced to just a few people.
2. For those who repent and change their mind toward doctrine, believers only, judgment is followed by grace.
1} Grace Precedes Judgment
2} Grace Follows Judgment
We have grace-judgment-grace.
Those who survive historical disaster or judgment are the ones who heeded the warning of grace before the disaster.
JAM 2:13 For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.
The only wall of fire for believers is the wall of fire that goes around the predesigned plan of God.
It is the liturgical acclamation in Christian worship, 1CO 14:16, or in heavenly worship of the high angelic chiefs of staff in heaven.
In the Hebrew, the verb “amen” also means to believe, and therefore it refers to our response to the principle that Jesus Christ controls history.
We trust the one who controls history for our usefulness in life, our purpose in life, our happiness in life, our blessing in life, and when necessary, under disaster, our survival in life.
He is the God of amen in the Old Testament or the God of doctrine, ISA 65:16.
ISA 65:16 “Because he who is blessed in the earth (the believer) shall be blessed by the God (of amen or the God) of truth (and doctrine);”Â
“He who swears in the earth shall swear by the God of (amen or) truth (and doctrine);
ISA 65:16 – the title
“the God of amen” = “the God of doctrine”
“Faithful” = pistos – pistoV”
Noun = martus – mavrtu”
 Martus = someone who makes an accurate deposition.
Alethinos – a*lhqinov” = true.
 He is called the faithful and true witness.
The deposition is faithfulness to believers who are living in God’s plan, and the deposition is true.
The human race cannot be destroyed by AIDS or by nuclear weapons or by outer space nonsense.
Truth about His perfect plan, evidence about human history, and trends and prophecies as to the course of human history.
The Laodiceans represent the instability that comes from believers who merely use doctrine rather than live by doctrine.
“Beginning” – arche – a*rchV = beginning; it also means first cause, primacy, ruler, and rank.
Descriptive genitive of ktiseos – ktivsew” = creation.
It refers to “the new creation or the Royal Family of God.”
Possessive genitive – Theos – tou theou –
tou’ qeou’ = the creatures here, believers, belong to God.
“The ruler of the creation of God or the creation which (believers) belong to God.”
“The amen, Jesus Christ as Savior, the God of doctrine, the faithful and true witness; His deposition regarding the solutions to history, the ruler of the creation of God, which means the ruler of the Royal Family.”
It took at least 40 things at salvation, plus the provision of the predesigned plan of God, and the power of God the Holy Spirit, to manufacture the creation of God, or the Royal Family.
The uniqueness of this creation and the Church-age believer is based on the First Advent of Christ, and our Lord’s victory on the cross.
This victory resulted in halting the Age of Israel, and inserting the Church-age to call out the Royal Family.
We are royal priests.
This has to do with our intake of doctrine, prayer, giving, and serving.
Then we are royal ambassadors, which has to do with our application of doctrine, and representing the Lord Jesus Christ to others in this life.
REV 3:14 “And to the messenger (the future Pastors of the Church of Laodicea) write (these things communicate): The Amen, the faithful and the true witness, the Beginning (Ruler) of the (new) creation of God,”