So I'll be going and I'll be
going, I'll be going and I'll be going. Thank you very much. Now, open your Bibles to Revelation
chapter three. Revelation chapter three. Then you study in the series of messages on the letters
from churches. I hope you've received a blessing
from them thus far. I know I have, and studied in
them. And this is the next to last letter in this series, a
letter to the Church of Philadelphia. We'll call your attention to
the next one, a letter to the Church at Laodicea, whom he had
much to say about their lukewarmness and We want to come out Wednesday
night to hear that. I know if you're like me, you
feel that, you sadly feel that lukewarmness
far too often. Just like tonight, I feel sort
of dead, cold. May the Lord answer our brother's
prayer. Now, this letter to Philadelphia,
beginning in verse 7, the letter to the Church of Philadelphia,
I can approach this with a certain amount of gladness, a certain
amount of confidence that it clearly speaks to this congregation.
The one before it, the church that started it, he had some
very tough things to say about some
hypocrites amongst them. And those who were living right
on the edge of apostasy said, you better strengthen the are
almost dead, ready to die. In other words, he said, you're
living dangerously on the edge of leaving, quitting, apostasy. He said, you'd better be watchful
and strengthened and watch out. He said, I know there are a few
who have the name of Christ on their lips, but they're dead,
he said. That was a very convicting message,
and I didn't look forward to bringing it, but the Lord blessed
anyway. And you seem to get a blessing,
I know I did. We all need, we need refuge and
correction and admonition like that. Certainly need to be one
like that. Now this one though, he has mostly
good things to say to the Church of Philadelphia. Mostly good
things, almost all commendations. to the Church of Philadelphia,
and as I said, I can confidently bring this to this congregation
because I feel very confident about many of your relationships
with Christ. Now, this speech, he's going
to speak of several things here. He's going to talk about the
open door for the gospel, which I need to hear. I need to hear
that Christ is going to open the door for his gospel, let's
say, in our midst. I like to see fresh faces preach
to, you know, when people come to know Christ. I knew, but... And then he's going to talk about
the fullness of the Gentiles being brought in, and the conversion
of some Jews, and also the ferreting out or the detection of some
hypocrites in the form of the Protestants. Let's get right
into it. It says in verse 7, The angel of the church in Philadelphia
writes, These things saith he that is holy. That's the Holy
Father, that's the Holy Son, and that's the Holy Spirit. These
three are one, and these three covenanted together and wrote
this book together. And what they have to say? are
holy things, holy things, things that are true, things that are
just, things that are right, things that are unchangeable. These things. Sayeth he that
is holy, and it's chiefly speaking of Christ, the Holy One of Israel,
he that is holy and he that is true, he that is true, he that
is the truth, the truth. He said, John 14, I am the way,
the truth, And he lied. Everything he said is true. It's the only way. The only way. Everything he did is the true
way. The only way. No man comes unto the Father
but by him. And he, it says, he that is true
and he that has the key of David. The key of David. If you have
a reference, it will refer you back to Isaiah chapter twenty-two.
Go back there and look at that. This must surely be what he's
quoting, Isaiah 22. He that hath the key of David,
the Lord Jesus Christ, hath the key of David. Not only is he
called the son of David, but here he says he has the key of
David. Look at verses 20 through 25.
And it shall come to pass in that day that I will call my
servant Elisha, who is a type of Christ. And I will clothe him with thy
robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle. And I will permit
thy government into his hand." Talking to the church, the people
here, that the Lord God will permit the government into his
hand, into Christ's hand. He shall be a father to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah, and the king of the
house of David. I lay upon his shoulder. The
house of David is the house of the king, isn't it? The kingdom. In other words, the keys of the
kingdom are in his hands. He gives it to whomsoever he
will. So he shall open, and none shall shut. He shall shut, none
shall open. And I will fasten him as a nail
in a sure place, and he shall be for a glorious throne in his
father's house. And they shall hang upon him
all the glory of his father's house, offspring and the issue,
all the best of small quantity, the best of the pets, the best
of the slaves. And in that day, saith the Lord
of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in a sure place He
will move and be cut down. Christ will push us off and fall,
and the burden that was upon it will be cut off. Our sins
will be taken away. The Lord is spoken. He has the keys of the kingdom,
and he gives it to whomsoever he will. And that's a clear picture
of Christ, isn't it? He has the key of David, and
this key of David is the key of the covenant, the key of the
covenant. He is called the Mediator. He
is the mediator of the covenant. He is the surety of the covenant.
He is the head of the covenant. And this key, this key of the
covenant, is the key of acceptance of God. It is the key which unlocks
the mysteries of how God can be just and justify an ungodly
sinner like you and I. How a holy God can dwell with
sinful men. Do you know what that key might
be? It's the key to understanding salvation. What is that key? The key of the covenant. The
key of being accepted with the Father. The key that tells us
how God can be just and justify an ungodly sinner. What is the
key? What does it all respond? His blood is the key, his own
precious blood, which grants us entrance into the presence
of God. You can't come into God, like
Isaac said, you can't worship the Lord without the blood. You
can have the fire, you can have the altar, but without the blood,
there's no remission of sin. There's no entrance into his
kingdom without a sacrifice. It's the key of salvation, the
key of the covenant, the key to the city. All who have this
key, this purchased Christ, enter the city. And the Lord is the
one who has it to give. This is the reason, you know,
we make much of particular redemption. Because I, or to say I believe,
I do believe, but I know and am sure that the whole doctrine,
the whole issue of salvation rests upon that. The fact that
the Lord Jesus Christ, when he shed his blood for his people,
he purchased their redemption. He put their sins away. That
when he shed his precious blood, all of the people whom he saved,
or whom he shed that blood for, must be saved. The price was
paid. The law demanded it. They must
go free. Payment was made in full. The glory of the Lord's at stake.
The wisdom of God's at stake. Our salvation's at stake. It's
the blood. It's the key. The whole thing
just connects. And it's not funny, but it's
sad that Generally, when men begin to leave the gospel of
God's grace, as the Scripture teaches, the doctrines of grace,
that's the first place they leave it, the atonement. They begin
to play around with the atonement numbers. They begin to toy with
the idea that maybe Jesus Christ did die for all men. And maybe
it is, maybe that faith does have some, maybe faith is as
effectual as the blood itself. It's the blood, not my faith,
the blood. I've told you before that story
of the Passover, how that the Lord's Passover, how that, you
didn't tell that. One of our young ladies, My wife
was telling me about in her class that today she was reading a
passage of scripture. Where's that from? John 2. Turn over there a minute.
John 2 verse 13. Listen to this. Don't you think
that our children aren't learning something? They are. They're
hearing something from these faithful teachers and In verse
thirteen, it says, And the Jews' Passover was at hand. And their teacher asked them,
What's wrong with that verse? What's wrong with that verse?
And one of our young ladies answered, Both of them say it's not the
news. It's the Lord. Has to do it in
the mouth of the bay. And that's the one thing. It's the Lord. Salvation of the
Lord. Everybody's going to be. Not going to be because of their
decision because they're a Jew. But because the Lord. put the
blood on their doorposts, the Lord, the Holy Spirit. And I'll
remind you of that Passover, the Lord's Passover, how that
the elders were the ones that applied the blood to the doorposts
of the people of Israel. Weren't they? The elders. There
were men, women, and children within those houses, but the
elders were the ones that applied that blood to those door metals
and doorposts. And the Holy Spirit's the one
that applies blood to your soul, right? And faith is after the
fact. Right? Faith comes after true
salvation, really. It's like those Israelites, after
the Lord passed over, those Israelites go, come out the door and look
back and say, hey, it was the blood, wasn't it? It was the
blood. And the Lord sees the blood,
He says, doesn't He? When I see the blood, you'll
pass over that Not even us, when we see the blow. We don't see
it all the time, do we? We don't see it for our sin. We don't
see it for our blackness. But when the Lord sees the blow.
All right? So this is the key. This is the
key. The key to the city. And this
is the reason we must insist upon. Our Lord's redemption be
in particular, for particular people. Throw away the rest of
the stock. Throw away God's providence.
Throw away election. Throw it all away if the Lord's
redemption is not coming. It's the blood that makes atonement
for the soul. And go back to the text now.
It said, He that hath the key of David, and he that openeth,
and no man shutteth. He that openeth, and no man shutteth,
and shutteth, and no man openeth. What does that say? It's simply
saying that Jesus Christ is Lord. It's what it's saying. It's saying
He's the one who defied, who just granted entrance into the
family and the kingdom of God, and the kingdom on earth, the
kingdom of men. Abba Keneser came to that understanding,
didn't he? He'll give us this to whomsoever
He will. He raises up. He casts down. He promotes. Promotion doesn't come from the
East or the West. It's the Lord that gets it. He kills, he makes
alive. He wounds, he heals. He's Lord.
He's Lord. And this was his writing here.
And he's the one that opens our eyes to see the truth. Try as we may, we can't see the
truth until the Lord and the Holy Spirit opens our eyes, right?
He's the one that opens our ears. He's the one that opens our mouths.
David said that, didn't he? Open my mouth that I may proclaim
thy glorious truth. And he's the one that opens our
hearts to receive it, as our brother prayed. If the Lord doesn't
open our hearts to receive it, then we've met here in vain.
He's the one that opens doors. We don't have to resort to gimmicks
and tricks and so forth for the gospel to get a hearing. The
Lord opens those doors. He opens those doors, and he's
the one that opens heaven and vice versa. He's the one that
closes them. Don't you try to walk in the
door that the Lord has obviously closed. And the Lord generally
makes it very plain to his people. All right? Christ said, All authority
is given unto me in heaven and earth. He's the one who decides
who, what, when, how, where, and whatsoever, especially in
salvation. Now, he says this. Here's what
he said to all the churches in verse eight, I know thy works. I know thy work." And he said
it in a way of commendation to the church here at Philadelphia.
He didn't to several others. Several others he admonished
and reduced them for their half-hearted works, for their lack of work,
for their impure work. critical work and
so forth. But here he is commending the
church and he said, I know your work. I know your work, the sincerity
of them. I know the motive behind them,
pure heart, the glory of God. And I can truly say that, that
I see that within many of you people, that what you do here
and what you do for the cause of Christ, that you come to this
place not to play a game of religion, but you come to hear from God
and To say what you say, to whom you say it, for the glory of
God, for the sake of the truth, for Christ's sake, be His name's
sake. And he says this, and I like this, this is encouraging to
me. He said, Behold, I have set before
thee an open door, and no man can shut it. It's an encouraging
thought for me, as your pastor, that the Lord will bless His
church. It's His church. It's His people, it's His church,
and He will add daily such as should be saved, such as He has
ordained eternal life. I'm glad to know that. I'm glad
it's not up to me. I'm glad it's totally in His
hands. And He will add daily such as should be saved, and
He will grant His Word liberty. He will open doors. Whether it
be through articles or whatever it may be, through you spreading
the word. And I emphasize that because
I believe that's one of your primary responsibilities. It's
for you to go out in the highways and hedges and compel them to
come in here to hear me preach the gospel. For me to get in
there and study, carefully study and bring a message from God.
And for you to go out and compel them to come in, as much as the
Lord opens the door. And the Lord opens the door to
say a word on his behalf. And the Lord will grant his word
liberty and power to accomplish whatever he sent it to do, that
whereunto he sent it. I like that. His word will not
return void. It will accomplish the salvation
of his people. He will call his sheep to himself. Because he says, you have a little
strength. I've opened a door before you
and no man can shut it, but thou hast a little strength. You couldn't
keep the door open, could you? As I've said before, if it was
left up to my charisma or my talent or my teaching ability,
then the door would quickly shut. These doors would shut. You all
would run out of them. Because in spite of our apparent
little faith, faith, in spite of the preacher's little talent
or charisma or whatever, he says, you have a little bit of strength
if you kept my word. You kept my word and hath not
denied my name. That's significant, isn't it?
In light of what we've been studying. I didn't plan this. Believe me,
I did not plan any of these studies. They're coming together. Every
time you kept my word, you kept my word. Prepare that message
this morning without even thinking. That message was this morning,
without even thinking of tonight's message. And it's right in keeping
with this morning's message that true believers keep God's word
and do not deny his name. And we are saying it's my responsibility
to keep preaching the glory of God I've been in the faith of
Christ preaching God. I mean. Well. Sometimes I get
ashamed of my poor pitiful presentation of the gospel and I never satisfied, and I feel
like, oh, I just was too hard or too soft or too cold or too
hot or something. I never, never satisfied, really. I'm always, much of the time,
ashamed of my own vain babbling and lack of ability and the way
I presented, the way I was presented, and the Lord must overrule that.
But I'm going to keep preaching God high and man low. I'm going to preach God just
as high as I can preach Him. Just as sovereign. I'll stand
before a holy God someday. I say this very carefully and
very resonantly. I'm saying this for the glory
of God. But I'll stand before a holy God someday and I'll gladly
be accused of giving God too much and man too little. I should
want to stand before him, giving God too little solace, too little
glory, and man too much. So we'll keep preaching the glory
of God as seen in the face of Christ. We'll keep saying like
Jeremiah did, And that God is holy in all flesh
and grass, and Christ is God's only elect servant. Keep preaching
God holy in Christ's sovereign, successful faith, and make no
apologies for it whatsoever. Make apologies for my lack of
ability, but no apologies for the truth. Keep preaching. Liberty
is relative, but truth is uncountable. And God can overrule everything. But it's because he said, you've
kept my word. He likes that. The Lord commends
that. Keeping his word. Keeping true
to his word, Terry. Keeping right to the law and
to the testimony, buddy. That's old testament and new,
isn't it? We've said so many times, if
you're ignorant of the old, you don't understand the new. You
can't do it. There's no old Bible and then
new Bible. It's all one Bible, right? To the law and to the
testimony. If they don't speak according
to the Old Testament, and move it, because there's no light
in them, this is what Brother Henry says. And line after line,
precepts from precepts, very little there left. Everything
God says, say it. Say it from the housetops. Be
not ashamed. Be not afraid of their faith.
All right, he says this in verse nine, Behold, I will make them
of the synagogue of Satan, that say they are Jews. and are not,
but do lie. Behold, I will make them to come
and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved
thee." Now, this is a difficult verse here. You can take it one
of two ways. You can take this to mean that
many game-sayers and Those who argue and so forth cannot stand
before God's holy word. They cannot stand. They will
be brought down. They will be consumed by him,
as we saw this morning, by the brightness of his tongue and
by the sword of his mouth. All gainsayers, all arguers,
the word of God brings them down very quickly. If we can really
study and show ourselves through. He said to Titus, he said, You
and I were reading that this morning, and mouths need to be
stopped, and the Word of God will do it, won't it? You need
to stop them. They can't answer the Word of
God, and they'll have to bow down and say, Well, there's something
to it. Something to what they say. But I also believe that
this means, seriously speaking, this means that those who once
worshipped the God of this world, such were many of you. Those
who once had a god of their own imagination. Those who once walked,
according to the prince, the course of this world, according
to the prince, the power of the air. Children of disobedience,
even as others. Those who were once dead and
trespassed and sinned. Those who once boasted of their
goodness and their righteousness. The Lord says, I'll make them
come and worship. That's what we're looking at
this morning. And I was wrecking it all at Brother Henry. But
you're just a good target sitting there, buddy, that you ain't
carried on. But the rest of these people are insane both. They
thought this through. Who's a male, didn't they? Stick
on Ed. You fought it, didn't you, buddy?
You were dyed in the wool. Ranked Arminian. I believe they
call him Ranked Arminian. You see that picture of John
Gill in the front of his commentary? He's got this look on his face.
And somebody said that was after he just came out of the presence
of talking to some Armenians. Right. Armenians. And that's
the way some of you were, wasn't you? Fighting this gospel truth
in their head. Fighting the truth. Not believing
it at all. Hating it. God says, I'll make
them. I'll make them lie down in green
hay. I'll make them come, and they'll come and worship the
God they once hated. They'll come believe the things
they once fought against so vigilantly. Right? That's the power of God. That's the power of his gospel.
Taking the enemies of God, the enemies of the cross, and turning
them into lovers of God and friends of the cross. And he says, and they'll know
that I have loved thee. They'll know where the love of God is.
They'll find out that God just doesn't love everybody. The love
of God is for a particular people. And only that true gospel is
found, the gospel of God's saving, redeeming, eternal, electing
love is only found in a few places, and that's where they come. That's
something to hear. I believe that may be what certainly applies
in those things. All right, verse ten. He says,
Because you have kept the word of my patience, He kept the word of my patience.
He kept my word. There it is again. He put so
much emphasis, all through this picture, on keeping his word
down there. Well, where is that verse? I didn't write it down, but he
says, I've magnified my word above all my name. You know,
it used to be, years ago, a man's word meant something to him. Huh? You used to, I don't know
when you started in business, They didn't have credit or whatever.
What if a man came in and said, well, a man you knew, he was
honest and straightforward and upright and a good citizen and
a good friend and all that, and he came in and said, Brother
Henry, I don't have any money. If I did that, man, I didn't have
a credit card, didn't I? Brother Henry, I need $10 worth
of gasoline. Give it to me and I'll pay you for it. I'll tell
you, man's word used to mean something, didn't it? His integrity stood upon it. His personhood, right? His honesty. His name was at stake, right? If he backed down, if he hedged
on his word, he lost his integrity, didn't he? He lost his credibility.
God says, I've magnified my word. Above all, my name. He gave his son that name, which
is about every name. Word. Word. The revelation of God. And God is true to his word. And God is jealous of his word. And God is insistent, absolutely
insistent, that we keep his word, that we bow to it and be true
to it and become absolutely indignant if we reject it. Right? Because I have kept my word,
verse ten. He said, because you've kept my word, I will also keep
thee. The word of my patience, too.
He says, you've kept the word of my patience. Revelation, we're
in Revelation three, verse ten. Revelation three, verse ten.
Because you've kept the word of my patience. Talking to his
church here, you've kept the word of my patience. He said,
it's the word of his patience. Or in other words, we realize,
because it's the word of his patience, we realize because
he is patient with us, we're kept. Right? We're kept by the
power of God, by his word. Right. Because of his long-suffering,
because of his patience, he has kept us in store and preserved
us. The long suffering of the Lord
is salvation. The long suffering because the
Lord puts up with his people as long
as it's necessary. Many, many years. Some of you,
the Lord didn't reveal himself until later years, until you're
quite old. And he'd put up with you all those years, and all
your sin and rebellion against him. But he's long-suffering,
isn't he? And he's gracious, tender mercies
and patient. And because of the word of his,
because he said, I'm going to be patient God, Charles, not caring about
God, not seeking after God, going your own way, living for yourself. And the Lord God, in patience
and long-suffering, said, One of these days I'm going to save
that old boy or save that old girl. And he has to put up with
you in the meantime, doesn't he? And he does. He said, I'm going to patiently
put up with them until the day that I call them by my gospel.
And they're going to come. They're going to come. because
of his long suffering. And we come to him and we believe
him and we keep his word. And also, also I believe this
means, in verse 10 he says, the word of my patience, I believe
this also means that we, once we have seen, once we have seen
God in his sovereign purpose and sovereign will and our sovereign
Lord who reigns and rules over all things and None can stay
his hand, and that known unto him are all his works from the
beginning. And he has made a covenant with his people that are ordered
in all things, and sure. And Christ said, None can pluck
them out of my hand. I have given unto them salvation.
They shall never perish. Because we see the certainty,
the surety of salvation, and that his word is true to his
people, we can be patient. We can be patient and wait on
the Lord in his due time. There are times when we are not
very patient. Like I was telling one of the brethren this morning,
when I see all of this wickedness that goes on in the name of God
and all of this perversion and all that, I feel like the disciples,
I want to call down fire from heaven. Snuff them out. Do away with this mess. Come
and get us. Get me out of this quick. And
we do say, come quickly, Lord Jesus. But because we know that
in due time, in this season, everything is in time, this season,
that God has ordered all things in God has set man's bounds that
he cannot pass, Job said. We can wait patiently, can't
we? We'll wait. We'll wait. Chomping at the bit,
but we'll wait. And try to wait patiently. Be patient. Psalm 37 is a good
chapter to teach about that. Threaten not thyself. Wait patiently. Don't wait. He's coming. He's
coming. Coming to get his future. Wait
patiently. And he says this, verse ten, Revelation three,
verse ten, he says, I will, because you've kept my word, said that
in verse nine, you've kept my word, or verse eight, you've
kept my word, you have not denied my name, my glory, my sovereignty,
my person, my who I am and what I did, you haven't denied it,
you haven't You haven't taken the glory for yourself. You've
glorified me. You've kept my word. You've been insistent upon
it, the truth of it, the veracity of it. And those who once denied
it, verse nine, come now and worship before his feet. Worship
a gospel or a Christ they once hated. Love a gospel they once
hated. And because they kept the word
of my patience and patiently waiting, he says, I will also
keep them from the hour of temptation. I will also keep them from the
hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try
them that dwell upon the earth. Now what is this hour of temptation? What is this hour of temptation
that he says the Lord will keep his people? that will come upon
all the world. Well, Mr. Gill said, Bill, I
understand that the Puritans of old and many
of the old preachers years ago fought tooth and nail, and rightly so, fought prevalent thought or belief today,
which was Roman Catholicism. It was quite rampant. It's rampant
in our day. That is the apostate church at
Rome. It is the apostate church at Rome with its priesthood and
its Pope and its masses and Sacrificing Christ all over again
upon the altar, it's giving, it's making the priest to have
the power of absolution of sins, it's making the Pope an infallible
ruler and a head and a father and a holy father, you know,
it's an abomination to God. The Scriptures are very clear
about it, the Revelation, very clear, and these men of old stood
up very courageously in the face of fear. And I'm not afraid to
do the same. I'll stand right beside John.
I'll stand right beside John. I'll stand right beside John
Moses. He's got a good name, John. You know that? Good name. I'll stand right beside every
John. John Flable, John Warburton, John Knox. Keep going. John the Baptist. I'll stand
right beside them all in the face of this and denounce it
with every fiber of my being. And Gil said this. This is the
last struggle. He's talking about this temptation.
He said this will be the last struggle of the church at Rome
against the true church. The last struggle of the church
at Rome against the true church. But it won't be long in duration.
It says there, the hour of temptation. You know anything about the dark
ages? Huh? Medieval times, it's called,
the Dark Ages. When was that? That was when
mankind was steeped in false religion. That is, Roman Catholicism,
which was the granddaddy of them all. All false religion was steeped
in what they called the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages being when
the Word of God was chained in a monastery. The average person did not have
a copy of the Word of God, and that's exactly the way the Pope
and the people wanted, or the priests wanted it. Because you
give the Word of God to people, you set them free. They'll find
out they don't need a Pope, they only need Jesus Christ. They'll
find out they don't need to pray to any other saint but Jesus
Christ. That there's one mediator between
God and man that's not Mary, it's Jesus Christ. And they can
come right into the presence of God himself, don't have to
confess their sins to a mere mortal man who's got more sins
than they do. But they'll confess them to somebody who can do something
about them. And you change the Word of God which says all those
things, you change that in the monastery and keep it from the
people, and they'll be in darkness. And they'll be totally dependent
upon what some man comes and tells them. And don't you know
men like that? And these men have been, it's an absolute
fact down through the years, that these men have been the
most wicked and perverse men that ever lived with all their
illegitimate children and their illegitimate, or their affairs
with various people and so forth. Even today, we have a widespread
abuse of children at the hands of priests and all that. It's
a corrupt religion. The mother of harlot. And all
of the false religions fall under that trap. They've all got in
bed with her. That's what we read back there.
He said, in Proverbs 7, he said, I'll put a bed out there. Everybody
that gets in bed with her or buddies up to her. And this is
the temptation. This is the temptation. This
is the temptation. And he says that Christ will
now have his fan in his hand and purge his floor, that is,
his church, of all formal professors and hypocrites. And it will be
known in that day who are the true members of his church, who
are following Christ, and who are disfollowing religion, who
are following Christ, the blessed and most high and only potentate
and king of kings. Who's following Pope Jesus, or
who's following Pope John Paul, or Pope Pius, or Pope Pittus,
or whatever Pope's name is? Who's following who? The Lord
will have a fan in his hand, and that fan is this, and he'll
fan through us, and he'll search through us to see if these things
can be done. Don't think I work for him. And I add this, he calls this
temptation, he says, and I'm not just picking on the Church
of Rome, I'm picking picking up on. All false religion anything
other than the worship of Jesus Christ and him him alone salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ him alone that Christ is all in salvation. Anything that doesn't say that
it's false. And I have this this temptation
will come in the form of compromise remember us reading that back
in the letter to. He said he made them repent of
their buddying up to false religion and all that. He said the time
will come that this temptation will come in the form of compromise,
religious tolerance, a call for unity among the faith. And isn't
that going on today? Isn't that going on today? A call for the unity of the faith. John Warburton, you remember
that article we had in our book one time? He said, if you call
what you call charity, if what men call charity, siding up with
and pretending to worship with some God who calls my God a failure,
then he says I'm absolutely devoid of that charity. I'm not going
to worship beside a man who says God's done all he can do now,
it's up to you. That makes God a failure, doesn't it? I'm not
going to unite with people like that, are you? I'm going to renounce
that. And I want to say what I'm saying,
and this is what I got put forth with myself this morning. I want
to say all this in compassion. The servant of the Lord, he said
in 2 Timothy 2, must not strive, but must be gentle. He must be gentle instructing
those that oppose themselves. And I want to be long-suffering,
and patient, and kind, and compassionate, and deal with men. But like I
gave that illustration this morning, warning a man that was in a burning
building. Sometimes there's only one way.
Jude said that, didn't he? He said, Some save, let me, I
don't want to misquote it. He said, Some have compassion,
making a difference. Others save with fear, pulling
them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by
the flesh. I tell you, to stay in the religion
today, that's prevalent today, we're going to be burned. We're
going to get burned. And this temptation, I believe the Lord
is talking about here, He says, I'll keep you from the hour of
temptation, which will come upon all the world. It will come in
the form of this unity, a call for unity. Folks have come to
the point where it doesn't matter what you believe. Right? That's basically what everybody's
saying. You believe this way, you believe
that way. You believe this, you believe that. It doesn't matter.
Just tone it. It's God's providence. It doesn't matter. The Holy Spirit
doesn't matter. You just always just love one another, you know.
If that's what they call love, then I don't want it. Because like I said this morning,
the first commandment is love for God's sake. And David, I quoted that to me
in time in Psalm 139, David said, Do not I hate them that hate
thee. I can pray for my enemy, people. I can pray for my enemy, those
that despitefully use me and those that hate me and so forth.
Those that persecute me and those that use me and abuse me, like
that woman so abused me in her letter to You know, I genuinely,
I can say, Lord, show her the truth, you know. Don't make me
mad at her. I can say that. I can love my
enemies, but I can't love God's enemies. I can't love somebody who's abusing
my Lord. Why? He's my first love. Does
that make sense? And that's every child of God.
And that's what David said in Psalm 139, 21. Do not I hate
them that hate thee. Am I not of greens with those
that rise up against thee?" He said, yeah, I hate them with
a perfect hatred. I count them my enemy. That's just true friendship,
isn't it, huh? And I said this before, if you're
going to hate and misuse and abuse my wife, you're going to
have to answer to me. That's true love, isn't it? What
kind of love would it be to my wife if I didn't pick up for
her? If I didn't pick up for her, huh? Christ said, if any
man loves father or mother or husband or wife or son or daughter
more than me, he's not worthy of me. And that means standing
up for his honor and his glory. Isn't it? In the face of all
this, they're bringing him down, bringing him down. They've got
him down to the level of man. That's not my Lord. He's high
in this world. And like I said, I would gladly
stand before God someday accused of having Jesus Christ too high. I don't think I have anything
to worry about before God Almighty, for the Scripture says, God hath
set him forth, that unto him every knee shall bow. You can't
get him too high. You can't get man too low. You can get man
too high, and you can get Christ too low. And I believe this temptation
will come in that form, an apathy for and acceptance of anything
and everything that causes itself to be a Christian. That's the
reason I said this morning, I believe the best The best definition
of a true child of God is not necessarily Christian. I'm not
belittling that term at all. It's a blessed and glorious title
and name that I gladly take. I'm a Christian, follower of
Christ, but everybody takes that name too lightly. Everybody takes
that name on their lips. None? And gospel, that's the
reason we must clarify the gospel, because everybody's talking about
the gospel. We've got gospel singers, we've got gospel rock
musicians, we've got gospel this, gospel that. What is the gospel? And the word Christian, there's
no word quite so abused and misused and taken so hypocritically.
But you call a man or a woman, when I ask them, do you believe
God, are you a believer? That actually describes the child
of God with everybody. Are you a Christian? Yeah, I'm
a Christian. That doesn't prove anything, does it? Just because
you say you're a Christian. That's what we read there in
that letter, didn't it? To Sardis. He said, you have
a name, but you're dead. You have a name. You have the
name Christian. Well, I want more than the name, don't you? I want more than the name, the
title. I want the person. I want to be more than a professor.
I want to be a professor. All right, back in the text,
and I'll hurry. And those who keep his word,
those who are, and you will be, I am being, and you will be accused of being closed-minded. I don't care, really. I really
don't care, because you know what? I do. I close my mind totally
to everything this world has to say. All the opinions and
thoughts of man, I'm going to stick my fingers in my ears.
I'm not interested. I'm not interested in what old
Dr. Sullivan said. Are you? What's the so-called,
I'm not interested? Now, here's a man who's going
to stand up. Let me tell you what God's Word says. And if it's not in keeping with
the rest of these words, then I'll stick my finger in my ear
again. I am very close-minded. God said, My thoughts are not
your thoughts, didn't He? My ways are not your ways. He
said in Psalm 50, He said to the people, He said, Y'all thought
I was one. He said, Y'all. He said, Thou
thoughtest I was one such as thou sayest. God said, Thou thoughtest I was
one such as thyself, that I think like a man, I act like a man,
I am like a man, I am limited like a man. He said, I will reprove
thee, and set things in order before thy eyes. That's salvation,
isn't it? God's setting things in order
before our eyes now. See, He's going to set things
in order before everybody's eyes in the Day of Judgment. Everybody's
going to see Him as He is. Everybody's going to see Jesus
Christ as He is, not as they thought He was, now. They're
going to see him as he is, and every eye shall behold him. And
the Scripture says they're going to wail because of him. And they're
going to have the biggest prayer meeting ever to come, for the
rocks and the hills to fall upon them, to hide them from the face
of him who has lured them. So yes, I am very closed-minded. I refuse to listen to anything
but what God has to say. Narrow? I call you narrow. That's fine, because Christ said,
straight as a gate, and narrow is the way that leads us unto
eternal life. And few there be that find it.
I want to be just as narrow as that. Don't you? I don't want
to be broad-minded, because that's the road of destruction. Isn't
it? I'll just broaden your horizons.
You know, broaden until you fall over a cliff. I want to go one
way, God's way. Right? Don't you? Christ's way,
the true way, the narrow way. Straight and narrow. I'll stand
before God accused of all those things. I don't want to stand
before Him being accused of not loving people. I don't want that. But I just want to be, I want
to be in love with Him above all, and be zealous for Him,
just to, and be zealous for Him, and loving Him, you'll love others.
And you'll tell me the truth. And you'll risk being hated for
telling me the truth. You see, the scripture says,
faithful are the wounds of the planter. Faithful are the wounds
of the planter. You don't want me standing up
and bribing you all day, do you, Kendra? You want me to tell you
what God said about you, don't you? Every now and then I need
to give you a little encouragement. But this is the temptation I
believe we're talking about here that will come upon all the world.
Everybody's going to be caught up in it. Now, verse eleven,
I'll quit. I'll hurry. I'll hurry and I'll
quit. Behold, I come quickly. And everything,
I'm convinced of it anyway, everything points to the imminent coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ being very soon. Very soon. Everything
points to that. Christ said you ought to be able
to discern the times and the seasons. No man knows the hour. The man knows the day or the
hour. Nobody can stand up and say, in 1984, the world will
be no more. In 1985, we'll burn us all alive. In 1986, whatever that man, pick
up sticks. I've heard some man get up and
go through all that. Nobody knows the Lord. That's
in the Lord's control. But we do know the times and
the seasons. We can discern the sky, he said. He said, when a
sailor sees the skies red at night, He knows that in the morning
it's going to be fair weather. He said, and you can discern
the times and the seasons and things that are going on around
you. Man be a fool not to recognize that God's judging this planet
for its wickedness. that natural calamities and disasters,
hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, blizzards, droughts, famines,
diseases, sicknesses are on the rise like never before since
the history of the world, since the days of the plagues of Egypt.
Never has it been so multiplied as now. Something's getting ready
to happen here. The judgment of God, I'm very
clear. The hand of God that works. The
full of the Gentiles being brought in God's word is going out to
all the world. What he said in Matthew twenty
four after his word has been heard through all the world Russia's
been opened up now and perhaps maybe that's it folks. Maybe
once these communist countries communist past communist countries
once those people once God goes in there with the gospel and
saves his last elect sheep that have never heard this gospel.
That's it. It seems that way to me. You can quote
me on that. I'm not infallible, but I'm just
trying to turn the time. And it says, He's coming quickly,
coming quickly. The Lord is not slack concerning
His promise, but He's long suffering to us, says Peter. And He's coming
quickly. And, buddy, if you're a believer,
if you're a just lot, you say, oh, come get me out of this mess,
Lord. Come quickly. Come now. You say,
H, even so, come quickly. The quicker, the better. The
sooner, the better. But he says, you hold fast. Until
then, you hold fast what you have. You hold fast what you've
heard. Your only hope, hold fast. Let no man take from thee thy
crown." Now, he's not talking about a believer losing his salvation. He's talking about that crown
of rejoicing. Here's several mentions of this crown. The crown
of rejoicing, the crown of glory that fadeth not away, the crown
of righteousness, the crown of life, the helmet of salvation,
the crown of joy and rejoicing. Or that the crown is something
that you press for the mark of the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ. And that's something that every
believer has waiting for him, not a crown of glory. God's not
going to crown us. We'll cast our crowns, spiritually
speaking, cast our crowns at him, at his feet, and we'll sing
out, crown him with many crowns. Bring forth the royal diadem
and crown him. We don't deserve a crown, we
deserve the cross. He got the cross, therefore now
he gets the crown. And our crown is, he's our crown. He's our reward. Isn't that how
he said that to Abraham? I am thy exceeding great reward. On seventy three twenty five
David said whom have I in heaven but thee? Heaven to the believer
is going to be Christ, not going to be streets of gold. That's
the reason that the streets are going to be gold, because you're
going to show how much contempt you have for it. Spit on it,
if you spit, well spit on it. Gold, what's gold? Christ is
everything. He's everything. And mama's not going to be important
to us. Christ is going to be our father,
our mother, our sister, and our brother. We're all going to be
noble in marrying and giving in marriage in heaven. Not going
to be husband and wife, sons or daughters. We're all going
to be the same. No male or female, Jew, Gentile, black or white,
in Christ and in Christ all the same. We're all going to be made
just like Him. We're not going to be gendered.
We're going to be just like Christ.
And He's going to be everything. And He says, I'm coming quickly.
And He that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my
God. A pillar, a fixture. Don't you want to be a pillar,
a fixture, a fixture? He that overcometh. You know
that 1 John 5, 4 and 5 was quoted that so many times now in these
letters. But who is he that overcometh? The world, but he that believes
that Jesus was the Christ. This is that which overcomes
the world, even your faith, faith, or your object, the object of
your faith, Christ. Believe in Christ, you overcome. And I need to show you this though. He that over cometh will I make
a pillar in the temple of my God." Turn back to, and it says,
He shall go no more out. He won't go anywhere. In other
words, He'll be a fixture. He's found what He's looking
for. He'll be, He'll go no more out.
He'll be a pillar in the temple of my God. He's found that pearl
of great price. Like that man who sold everything
he had to buy that pearl of great price. He wasn't looking for
any more pearls after that, was he? That man who sold everything
to buy the one field, he's been made fully rich now. He didn't
need anything else. And the man or the woman who
finally hears the gospel of God's grace, God's glory, and of His
full and free and final and effectual and eternal salvation, when they
hear that message, they ain't going anywhere else. This is
what I've been looking for. This is all my hope. This is
all my salvation. This is what I join the guilt
in. I'll go no more out. I'm not
going anywhere else. And there'll be a pillar, a fixture. And back
in 1 Timothy, it says this. I need you to look at this. I
flat-lined till you didn't. I said I was going to quit. I
will sometime. Verse 2 to 5. Verse 10. There's just too much here. First
Peter five verse ten he says now. You remember back when Solomon
built the temple. There were two pillars that led
into the entrance of the temple here like this. Two pillars that
led into the entrance of the temple. I didn't write the reference
down. First Kings seven I believe it is. And there were two names
on those pillars. The pillar on the right was named
Jacob. Second, I'm not sure how you
pronounce it. J-A-C-H-I-N. And that means he
shall establish. And there's a pillar on the left,
the entrance to that temple. It was named Boaz. And that means in his strength. Establish his strength. You remember hearing that anywhere
else? First Peter five verse ten. He says this here in first
Peter five verse ten. That God our God shall establish
you. See it there? The God of all
grace by his who called us unto his eternal glory by Jesus Christ.
After you suffered a while he'll make you perfect. He'll establish
you, strengthen you, settle you, ground you, and settle you in
the truth. And you'll be a fixture, pillar
in the church of God. Something else pillars do. What
do pillars do? They hold things up. They hold things up. They hold things up. They hold
up. They hold forth the word of truth.
They hold forth, set forth Christ. They bear up others. They are
a servant and a fixture to the church. And even if it means Whatever
it means that you're called forth to do as a member of the pillar
of fixtures even if it's to hold down a few. You do that faithfully. Or watch a night watchman. Faithful night watchman watching
any prayer. That's fine. That's good. That's faithfully
a pillar. And it says, you'll go no more out, don't need to.
Found the words of life. Don't know who, who shall we
go? How do we need to go anywhere else? We've found it. Found it. I kept felling, plucking that
one, that one string. That fella was plucking that
big bass fiddle, one string. And the musician finally stopped
and said, don't you know anything at all? He said, well, everybody
else runs up and down that neck looking for this note.