Text for Meditation
“But beware of rejecting that which is truth. The great danger with our people has been that of depending upon men and making flesh their arm. Those who have not been in the habit of searching the Bible for themselves, or weighing evidence, have confidence in the leading men and accept the decisions they make; and thus many will reject the very messages God sends to His people, if these leading brethren do not accept them.” — Testimonies to Ministers p. 106.4
Text for study
15 “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:“ — Revelation 3:15-17
A sad deception
“What greater deception can come upon human minds than a confidence that they are right when they are all wrong! The message of the True Witness finds the people of God in a sad deception, yet honest in that deception. They know not that their condition is deplorable in the sight of God. While those addressed are flattering themselves that they are in an exalted spiritual condition, the message of the True Witness breaks their security by the startling denunciation of their true condition of spiritual blindness, poverty, and wretchedness. The testimony, so cutting and severe, cannot be a mistake, for it is the True Witness who speaks, and His testimony must be correct.” — Testimonies for the Church vol 3 p. 252.4
When people are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked as are the Laodiceans, and do not know it, then the only title that can be given them is “Deceived,” yet ironically the Laodiceans are the people most fearful of being deceived! They think themselves in need of nothing, although the Lord Himself says that they are in need of everything. They think themselves rich and increased with goods. What goods? – Not money, I am sure, for right along we hear them calling for money, even begging for it.
It is with supposedly sufficient Bible Truth that they are satisfied. They are confident that they have all the revealed Truth they need to take them through to the Kingdom. This is their great deception. They do not know their great need of Truth now while the Church is about to enter upon the final phase of her work. They do not realize that this next phase of the Church’s work cannot be carried on with her old phase of Truth. The Church now can no more do without the additional message (Early Writings, pg. 277) than could she at the closing of the Old Testament era have entered the Christian dispensation with the Old Testament ceremonial Truth isolated from the Gospel. — Timely Greetings Vol 2 no 20 p 19
But, sad to say, to speak to the Laodiceans of more Truth than what they already have is to incur their greatest displeasure: and the idea that they need no more Truth, that they have it all, and that someone is always trying to deceive them, has been drilled into them as deeply as it can be drilled. This has made them prejudiced and suspicious of everyone who dares approach them with something new. This is what puts them in as bad a position as the Jews of old. Plain it is that if the Laodiceans choose thus to remain lukewarm, satisfied in their deception, they shall be spued out and forever left without hope. — Timely Greetings Vol 2 no 20 p 19
Who are the Laodicean’s?
God is leading out a people. He has a chosen people, a church on the earth, whom He has made the depositaries of His law. He has committed to them sacred trust and eternal truth to be given to the world. He would reprove and correct them. The message to the Laodiceans is applicable to Seventh-day Adventists who have had great light and have not walked in the light. It is those who have made great profession, but have not kept in step with their Leader, that will be spewed out of His mouth unless they repent. The message to pronounce the Seventh-Day Adventist Church Babylon, and call the people of God out of her, does not come from any heavenly messenger, or any human agent inspired by the Spirit of God. — Selected Messages Book 2 66.2
Here we see that the Seventh Day Adventists are the Laodicean church. Indeed, this mark of identification is pointed out by the very name Laodicea, compounded of the two Greek words lao and dekei meaning people declaring judgment. The church therefore, which declares, “Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come” (Rev. 14:7), is evidently the one called Laodicea. And it is almost as well known outside Seventh-day Adventist circles as within, that the Seventh-day Adventist church is endeavoring to carry the judgment message of Revelation 14:7 and is therefore unchallenged in her claim to the title, Laodicea.
What is their only hope?
18 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 eyesalve, that thou mayest see. — Revelation 3:18
The gold tried in the fire obviously represents inspired Truth for this time, the only truth that saves, the only kind God would sell. And what can be the white raiment which the True Witness urges them to buy, if not the righteousness of Christ?— Timely Greetings Vol 2 no 20 p 20
“As only the “salve” will heal them from their deadly Laodicean malady, hence if they fail to avail themselves of the cure (by searching for truth as for hidden treasure) and to apply it (to repent), they will be spued out. O, Brother, Sister, will you not call for the “salve”? or will you continue in your wretchedness, miserableness, poverty, blindness, and nakedness, and thus compel Him to spue you out and to Uncover Your Shame?”
How to obtain it?
5 O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal; that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord. — Micah 6:5
Here we are admonished to remember Balak’s question and Balaam’s answer if we would know the righteousness of the Lord.
17 I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.
18 And Edom shall be a possession, Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies; and Israel shall do valiantly.
19 Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city.
20 And when he looked on Amalek, he took up his parable, and said, Amalek was the first of the nations; but his latter end shall be that he perish for ever.
21 And he looked on the Kenites, and took up his parable, and said, Strong is thy dwellingplace, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock.
22 Nevertheless the Kenite shall be wasted, until Asshur shall carry thee away captive.
23 And he took up his parable, and said, Alas, who shall live when God doeth this!
24 And ships shall come from the coast of Chittim, and shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber, and he also shall perish for ever. — Numbers 24:17-24
Christ will take the reins in his own hands
Obviously this is a prophecy of Christ having taken “the reins in His own hands.” Testimonies to Ministers, pg. 300. Such is His Righteousness that we are urged to know. Concretely speaking, knowing the righteousness of Christ is knowing whole-heartedly that in the latter days He is to take the Scepter, that He is to reign; that at the outset He is to smite the “corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth”; that Edom and Seir shall be a possession for His enemies; that Israel shall do valiantly; that He shall have dominion, and so on. According to Scripture, this is our righteousness of Christ if we know it. And he who realizes that the reign of Christ and His kingdom is not something intangible, not something imaginary floating in space, as it were, somewhere across hell, but a real thing, as real as any of the kingdoms today, will immediately inquire, as did the Apostle Paul, “What wilt Thou have me to do Lord?” This we shall again see from the prophecy of Micah– — Timely Greetings Vol 2 no 20 p 21
6 Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? — Micah 6:6,7
This inquiry by the people in the unfolding of this scripture reveals what they think would be most pleasing to the Lord. They think a gift of some kind from material things is perhaps the most acceptable gift they can offer for the remission of their sins. We with our own eyes actually see this very thing throughout our churches. This same condition obtained in the days of Christ’s first advent: The Jews were very particular about paying tithe even on the minutest item of income, on such as mint, anise, and cummin, but they omitted “the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith.” Matt. 23:23. Honest tithing was to their credit, said the Lord, but tithing should never replace judgment, mercy, and faith. This same answer comes to us today through the prophet Micah:
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? — Micah 6:8
Once having caught the vision of the great need for revival and reformation, God’s people are willing to do almost anything, even to sacrificing their first-born.
For further information Inspiration advises–
Verse 9 – …Hear ye the rod, and Who hath appointed it.” — Micah 6:9
These are God’s answers to the question, “Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God?”
Since we now clearly see that the Laodiceans perish without the message to the Laodiceans, we should hold fast to the Truth for this time, and win our crown of life, and in addition to it we shall be credited with a god harvest of souls and with the commendation ”Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” Matthew 25:25 — Timely Greetings Vol 2 no 20 p 27
Weight of evidence
“I have been shown that the greatest reason why the people of God are now found in this state of spiritual blindness is that they will not receive correction. Many have despised the reproofs and warnings given them. The True Witness condemns the lukewarm condition of the people of God, which gives Satan great power over them in this waiting, watching time. The selfish, the proud, and the lovers of sin are ever assailed with doubts. Satan has ability to suggest doubts and to devise objections to the pointed testimony that God sends, and many think it a virtue, a mark of intelligence in them, to be unbelieving and to question and quibble. Those who desire to doubt will have plenty of room. God does not propose to remove all occasion for unbelief. He gives evidence, which must be carefully investigated with a humble mind and a teachable spirit, and all should decide from the weight of evidence.” — Testimonies to the Church , Vol. 3, p. 255.1
May God bless you and protect you in your search for truth as for hidden treasure
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