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====Man-centeredness 4====
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====Man-centeredness ====
  
For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. (II Corinthians 1:20)
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And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; (Revelation 3:14)
  
God's holy Word controlled the past, is controlling the present, and will control the future. "He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true" (John 3:33). God does not change. He who would follow the Lord Jesus in victory must become the Amen of God.
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The wickedness of the church of Laodicea proceeds from a false image—the image of man as the center of the universe and God as the means by which man becomes that center. The spirit of Laodicea abounds in the Christian churches of today.
  
In the beginning God created all things. At that time God created not only the physical world but everything else through to the installation of the new Jerusalem on the new earth. The Christian who does not understand that all things were completed from the creation of the world will have a difficult time entering the "rest" of God.
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The true saints of Christ will never be satisfied with the Laodicean churches. They understand that the Gospel of the Kingdom of God is not a plan for the advancement of mankind but the witness of the coming of God's Kingdom and the doing of God's will in the earth.
  
The redeeming Lamb was slain, man and the universe were created, the brothers of Christ were created in His image and also glorified, the Wife of the Lamb was brought to total maturity and unity, wars were fought, Satan was overthrown, and the Kingdom of God was brought down from Heaven to the earth. Finally God rested. All this happened in the vision of God. Then God created the heavens and the earth.
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We now are approaching the age of Laodicea, the era when man, apart from God, attains the climax of his exaltation on the earth. The people of today are in love with themselves and increasingly are concerned with their "rights"—much more than they are with the rights of God or His Christ. Men are lovers of themselves, as Paul prophesied. Humanism is the religion of the hour. The Laodicean "gospel" does not look to the coming world of righteousness but concentrates on making the present world safe and comfortable for Christians.
  
It is the sole duty of man to enter that rest through the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to enter the program of God, which is carrying us as an individual forward to the place in the new world which was created for us.
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The emphasis on man and his comfort and pleasure has entered the thinking of Christian people. The unscriptural doctrine of the pre-tribulation rapture, with its emphasis on not allowing the believers to suffer, fits well into a humanistic, man-centered civilization.
  
Christ is the Amen of God. One of the issues surrounding the church of the Laodiceans is that of saying Amen to the will, the Kingdom of God. He who would be an overcomer, a member of the spotless Bride of the Lamb, must become part of the Amen— the Lord Jesus Christ.
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In our time the Gospel of Christ is being preached as the God-given means of making people happy. It is taught that through Christ we can be prosperous and at ease in the present world. Through grace we shall enter Paradise when we die even though we have not been a true disciple of Christ. None of this is true.
  
Those who add their Amen to that of the Lord Jesus will enter the rest of God, ceasing from their own works. Those who do not add their Amen to the Amen that is Christ will fall in the wilderness of unbelief. They will be overcome by the pressures of life.
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The concept is widely held among Christians that Christ suffered so we will not be required to suffer. The truth is, we Christians are called to suffer much for the Kingdom of God.
  
Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. (Hebrews 4:11)
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Christ suffered in order to redeem mankind from the authority and power of Satan, not in order that people may live merrily in the world and still have fellowship with God. Through Christ we can be transformed so our behavior no longer merits Divine wrath. The process of transformation includes much pain and perplexity, much tribulation.
  
After God created the heavens and the earth, man's environment, God spoke four proclamations concerning man—a fourfold Divine declaration. Then God rested. It is the whole duty of man to say Amen to each of these four proclamations, thus entering the rest of God.
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Christ spoke to the Laodiceans about the need for their faith to be tested in the fires of tribulation:
  
Satan, Antichrist, Babylon, our bodily lusts, and our self-centered soul all work desperately to keep us from saying Amen to the Divine declaration and from entering the rest of God. It is because of such strong opposition that we are required to labor, to fight in order to enter the rest of God (Hebrews 4:10, 11). We must overcome Satan in every instance by the word of our testimony, that is, by proclaiming that what God has said is true and unchanging.
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I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; . . . . (Revelation 3:18)
  
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. (Genesis 1:27, 28)
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Self-centered Christianity would not be widespread if men were not becoming lovers of themselves. The believers would be better able to discern the present errors.
  
The four pronouncements of God, of which the Lord Jesus Christ is the Amen, the Verification, concern four areas of being, behavior, and destiny:
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As we examine the Word of Christ to the church of the Laodiceans we can recognize the characteristics of some of the churches of our own time.
  
Man will be in God's image.
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The church of the Laodiceans represents, according to our understanding, the type of Christianity that will be common during the great tribulation and the reign of Antichrist. Since we are drawing near to this last era we can in our own day observe many of the flaws of the church of the Laodiceans.
  
Man will be male and female.
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Continued. [[Man-centeredness 2]]
  
Man will be fruitful.
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[[Category:Sermons WOR]]
 
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Man will have dominion.
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Continued. [[Man-centeredness 5]]
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Latest revision as of 14:51, 16 July 2022

Man-centeredness

And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; (Revelation 3:14)

The wickedness of the church of Laodicea proceeds from a false image—the image of man as the center of the universe and God as the means by which man becomes that center. The spirit of Laodicea abounds in the Christian churches of today.

The true saints of Christ will never be satisfied with the Laodicean churches. They understand that the Gospel of the Kingdom of God is not a plan for the advancement of mankind but the witness of the coming of God's Kingdom and the doing of God's will in the earth.

We now are approaching the age of Laodicea, the era when man, apart from God, attains the climax of his exaltation on the earth. The people of today are in love with themselves and increasingly are concerned with their "rights"—much more than they are with the rights of God or His Christ. Men are lovers of themselves, as Paul prophesied. Humanism is the religion of the hour. The Laodicean "gospel" does not look to the coming world of righteousness but concentrates on making the present world safe and comfortable for Christians.

The emphasis on man and his comfort and pleasure has entered the thinking of Christian people. The unscriptural doctrine of the pre-tribulation rapture, with its emphasis on not allowing the believers to suffer, fits well into a humanistic, man-centered civilization.

In our time the Gospel of Christ is being preached as the God-given means of making people happy. It is taught that through Christ we can be prosperous and at ease in the present world. Through grace we shall enter Paradise when we die even though we have not been a true disciple of Christ. None of this is true.

The concept is widely held among Christians that Christ suffered so we will not be required to suffer. The truth is, we Christians are called to suffer much for the Kingdom of God.

Christ suffered in order to redeem mankind from the authority and power of Satan, not in order that people may live merrily in the world and still have fellowship with God. Through Christ we can be transformed so our behavior no longer merits Divine wrath. The process of transformation includes much pain and perplexity, much tribulation.

Christ spoke to the Laodiceans about the need for their faith to be tested in the fires of tribulation:

I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; . . . . (Revelation 3:18)

Self-centered Christianity would not be widespread if men were not becoming lovers of themselves. The believers would be better able to discern the present errors.

As we examine the Word of Christ to the church of the Laodiceans we can recognize the characteristics of some of the churches of our own time.

The church of the Laodiceans represents, according to our understanding, the type of Christianity that will be common during the great tribulation and the reign of Antichrist. Since we are drawing near to this last era we can in our own day observe many of the flaws of the church of the Laodiceans.

Continued. Man-centeredness 2