Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
2007 San Francisco Conference. The Church of Laodicea. Part 4.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
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 …”
1. Self-knowledge –
God is eternal and therefore His knowledge is eternal.
The first category of God’s knowledge is self-knowledge. God knows himself.
2. The omniscience of God.
While God’s self-knowledge relates to His divine attributes and the knowledge of the other members of the Trinity, omniscience relates to creatures.
JOB 37:16 – He is one who is perfect in knowledge.
We usually can go back and evaluate things that have happened in the past, see our failures, and, hopefully, learn from them.
We are slaves to time because we are limited by time.
Knowing about it, and being perfect, He provided a perfect provision and perfect solution for every problem we would ever face.
We may not understand the adversities and the sufferings which come into our lives; yet in the end, we will discover that God knew all along exactly what we needed and what was best for us.
Omniscience = God’s objective knowledge of the universe, which He created, and all the creatures in it.
The thing that really counts in life is not God’s knowledge of everything, which is absolute and completely perfect, but our knowledge of God, which is very weak and shaky.
God’s omniscience sees every thought that every person ever had, and with that, every motivation that every person ever had.
Omniscience knows every thought you would ever have, your motivation in life, your decisions, and your actions.
This is a part of the Divine Decrees programmed by the omniscience of God.
Omniscience also knows the things that could have happened, but didn’t!
 That is the probability of life.
Only actuality is programmed into the Divine Decrees.
Human history is simply every thought, every action, every decision, every motive of every person.
The issue in changing man is to allow him the use of his free will.
Omniscience includes the actual and the probable.
Omniscience = God knows perfectly, eternally, and simultaneously all that is knowable.
3. The foreknowledge of God.
Foreknowledge is actually the print-out of human history.
Omniscience programs the computer of Divine Decrees with historical facts.
Foreknowledge is the printout of the facts that God entered into the Divine Decrees.
 1} Omniscience
2} Divine Decrees
3} Foreknowledge
Foreknowledge has absolutely nothing to do with the violation of human will.
Foreknowledge is the result of the consideration of human will.
The Spiritual application personally for each one of us is the fact that perception of doctrine is programming your computer.
As you program your computer and your memory center, then when you get into any kind of a problem with either adversity or prosperity, then you call upon your computer for a printout.
The input = perception of doctrine.
The printout = application of doctrine.
If you are in the cosmic system, then it is garbage in garbage out.
The omniscience of God feeds the facts to the computer while the foreknowledge of God prints out the facts.
1. His perfect, subjective knowledge of Himself that goes far beyond the universe, time, space, and both the angelic and human creation.
2. Omniscience = God knew in eternity past billions and billions of years ago everything that you would ever think or do or decide.
3. Foreknowledge.
Per-act-ind – oida = God has perfect knowledge about the believers at Laodicea.
Man is responsible for his own decisions, whether they are decisions to sin, decisions to glorify God, decisions to succeed, or decisions to fail.
This negative estimate of the situation begins with the conjunction hoti.
“I know your deeds (or your accomplishments), that”
Pres-act-ind – eimi – to be = “…that you are (or keep on being)…”
Present tense – perfective present = a fact, which has come to be in the past, but is emphasized as a present reality.
The active voice:
The believers in the Church-age, namely at Laodicea in 96 A.D., produce the action of the verb – which becomes a pattern for believers throughout the Church-age who fail.
The indicative mood is declarative for a historical reality.
Two negative adverbs translated “neither” and “nor” = oute.
 With each one of these negative adverbs, we have a predicate adjective.
Predicate adjective – psuchros = cold.
The second predicate adjective – hot or boiling = zestos.
“Neither hot or cold.”
“Cold” or psuchros is used for the unbelievers in the Laodicean Church.
“Hot” refers to believers who have lived in God’s predesigned plan, have utilized grace, and have advanced to maturity.
The solution for the cold unbeliever is to believe in Christ.
The hot believer does not need any solutions, because he has the problem-solving devices made available through his relationship with God.
The uses of cold, hot, and lukewarm are interesting categories used by the Lord Jesus Christ.
They are based on the problem in the Laodicean water works.
While it was a wealthy city, it was the center of banking and industry in the Roman province of Asia.
Hierapolis and Colosse were in competition with Laodicea.
A second problem coming up, as a part of the isagogical background, is the problem of what happens to intellectuals when they become arrogant.
No matter what they know, no matter what they have done, arrogance plus intellectuality means pseudo intellectuality.
If they were cold, He could give them the Gospel.
If they were hot, He could give them advanced doctrine.
Warning is one of the most unproductive types of teaching.
They constantly manifest their lifestyle through soul kinks.
There is nothing that medicine, there is nothing that the pleasures of life, and there is nothing that success or public recognition can do to help.
There is no immediate problem-solving for those who are lukewarm.
It is very difficult for a lukewarm believer to recover and get hot for the Lord, because it requires a lot of humility, especially toward your Pastor-Teacher.
The beginning of your solution is simply to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ through a non-meritorious system of perception called faith, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Answers which will change their eternal status and give them opportunity for changing their temporal status as well.
“Hot” = the believer whose momentum is moving him in that direction.
The mature believer has a human spirit, which has been programmed by God the Holy Spirit when the believer has made himself available to the perception of Bible doctrine.
Lukewarm is garbage in, garbage out, and therefore has no solutions to the problems of life.
It was used as an emetic.
It induced vomiting.
Divine discipline is the teacher of those who will not learn doctrine.
1. To learn academically through Bible doctrine.
This is the way of spiritual growth and blessing.
2. To learn the hard way through self-induced misery, through the law of volitional responsibility.
HEB 12:6 “For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.”
EUCHARIST CELEBRATION
You are commanded as a believer in Christ in the Church Age to partake of the Eucharist elements in memory of Christ… the greatest memory you can have in this life.
Your right to partake of these elements is a reminder of your volition… your ability to choose… your free will… the central principle in your life.
You must be a believer in Christ to partake of these elements… and you must be in fellowship with God as you do it… “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in (the filling of the) spirit and (in) truth.” JOH 4:24
But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. 1CO 11:31
Take a moment to “rebound,†if necessary…
During the Eucharist, Let Your Mind Dwell on the Person of Jesus Christ
…fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith (doctrine), who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. HEB 4:12
In the first three sessions of our study of the Laodicean Church, Pastor posed three questions…
The first question is, “What kind of believer are you?â€
The second question is, “What is your motivation?â€
The third question is, “Are your deeds hot or cold or lukewarm?â€
“What kind of believer are you?â€
EPHESUS When did I forget my first love? SMYRNA When did I suffer for blessing? PERGAMUM When did I become a stumbling block to others?
THYATIRA When did I tolerate false teaching and false doctrine? SARDIS When did my spiritual life fall asleep? PHILADELPHIA When did I make God proud?
LAODICEA When did I lose touch with reality, becoming lukewarm?
“What is your motivation?â€
MY MOTIVATION FOR BECOMING A PASTOR For double discipline For rejection regularly For the pressure of inaccuracy
MY MOTIVATION FOR BECOMING A PASTOR For the shame and humiliation associated with bearing my Cross To be buried by tribulation To bathe in affliction
MY MOTIVATION FOR BECOMING A PASTOR To become invisible
“Are your deeds hot or cold or lukewarm?â€
Is your spiritual life one that would cause God to engage in “reverse peristalsis?â€
Peristalsis is a distinctive pattern of smooth muscle contractions that propels foodstuffs distally through the esophagus and intestines… also known as…
Vomit
If you’re honest with yourselves you’ll answer the questions this way…
“Oh I’ve never been to Philadelphia…but I’ve been to Thyatira†Your motivation is peithy…foolish And you’d immediately begin the dry heaves
Then, face to face with these things, you’d have to mimic Paul in ROM 7:24…
Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? ROM 7:24
His answer is our answer…CHRIST
Thanks be to God (the Father) through Jesus Christ our Lord! ROM 7:25a
The only answer to the problems of this life?
CHRIST!
What is the Christian Way of Life all about?
CHRIST!
Everything in the world can be summed up in one person…
CHRIST!
For consider Him (Jesus Christ) who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. HEB 12:3
CHRIST!
Can you see me up here?
“I have been crucified with Christ… it is no longer I who live, but CHRIST lives in me…†GAL 3:20
My salvation is…
CHRIST!
My hope is…
CHRIST!
My life is…
CHRIST!
My health is…
CHRIST!
My wealth is…
CHRIST!
My career is…
CHRIST!
My refuge is…
CHRIST!
My individuality is…
CHRIST!
My nourishment is…
CHRIST!
My LOVE is…
CHRIST!
For to me, to live is (occupation with) Christ and to die is gain (profit). PHI 1:21
Begin thinking of such a person…Jesus Christ…that you may not grow weary… fainting in your souls. HEB 12:3
The only answer for any human problem is…
CHRIST!
So if you’re hot… be hot for CHRIST
If you’re ambitious… be ambitious for CHRIST
If you’re relentless, be relentless for CHRIST
Christ has all the answers…
Because Christ IS the answer…
Don’t wonder what kind of believer you are…don’t question your motivation….don’t ask if you’re lukewarm… You already know…
During the Eucharist, Let Your Mind Dwell on the Person of Jesus Christ
The bread of the Eucharist represents the true humanity of our Savior Jesus Christ…eating the bread indicates personal faith in Jesus Christ.
And when He (Jesus Christ) had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given (as a substitute) for you; (keep on) do(ing) this in remembrance of Me.” LUK 22:19
The cup of the Eucharist represents the salvation work of our Lord, the second person of the Trinity in undiminished Deity… drinking of the cup also indicates personal faith in Jesus Christ.
In the same way He (Jesus Christ) took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; (keep on) do(ing) this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 1CO 11:25
By eating the two elements in combination, it’s a ceremonial rejoining of true humanity and undiminished deity in hypostatic union.
Let us partake of the elements…
Let us pray…