Now, as I said last week, the
church at Philadelphia is one of the seven churches in which
the Lord himself, revealing these things in a vision to the Apostle
John, had no word of correction at all for them. It was all an
encouragement for the grace of God in keeping them faithful.
And I mention this, you know, In the salvation of sinners,
all conditioned on Christ who met those conditions, both faith
in Christ and faithfulness to Christ are gifts from God. They don't come from our own
goodness or our own power or our own so-called free will.
It's all by the grace of God. And yet the Lord commends this
church for the grace of faithfulness because in that grace, in that
gift, in that power of the goodness and wisdom of God, He gives us
a mind, a heart to follow Him. to keep on trusting Him, to cling
to Him, whereby we, as the book of Hebrews chapter 12 says, that
we run the race of grace looking unto Jesus as the author and
finisher of our faith. So as we continue, as we persevere,
as we have patience, he mentions patience here, that's endurance,
as we endure, We know that the only reason that any of us have faith in Him and the only
reason that any of us are faithful to Him continually is His preserving
grace. We attribute it to Him. And so
that's what he's talking about here in this church at Philadelphia
on the grace of faithfulness. And what he's doing is he's showing
us as a church in the last days that it's necessary that we remain
faithful to him, faithful to his truth. Now look at what he
says in verse 7. To the angel or the messenger,
the pastor of the church in Philadelphia, write, These things saith he
that is holy, that's Christ, the Holy One of God, who is separate
from all others, he that is true, he who himself is faithful, We
went over to Hebrews 10 and read that passage where he talks about
us encouraging, provoking one another to love and to good works
and to not let go of the truth, to be faithful in the truth,
for he is faithful at promise. So Christ is true to all that
he himself was obligated to do under covenant obligation. Before
the foundation of the world, he became our surety, wasn't
he? And our sins were charged to him. And he agreed in that
covenant to come to earth and to take into union with himself
a perfect, sinless humanity, human nature. And to walk this
earth in complete obedience to the law without sin and to go
to the cross of Calvary as our substitute, having our sins imputed
to him, he would drink damnation dry by his obedience unto death,
his suffering, bleeding, dying for our sins, and in that he
was faithful to establish the only righteousness whereby God
could be just to justify the ungodly. But now his faithfulness
didn't end there. He's still true. Right now he's
true. And this is really what is significant
for the church today. For this church here, but for
any true church of the Lord Jesus Christ in the last days. What's
significant is this, we're gonna go through trials, we're gonna
go through tribulations, we're gonna be tested from within,
from without, gonna be attacked, we're gonna be disappointed.
We look around and we wonder sometimes why are there so few
who believe the gospel and there's so many who flock to false religion. And sometimes we just wonder
why. Well, we can never lose sight
of the fact that Christ is still faithful, he's still on the throne,
he's still in control, he still ever lives to make intercession
for us so that we can never be lost. And rest assured, no matter
how many are here or how many are not here, his church will
prevail. The gates of hell will not prevail
against his church. And we know that because he said
it. He's true, he's faithful, and he's faithful to bring us
unto salvation. That's why Paul said, I know
whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that he's able to keep
that which I've committed unto him against that day. Now, what
have I committed to him? My whole salvation is committed
to Christ. My whole justification before
God is committed to Christ. My whole preservation unto glory
is committed to Christ, and he's able. Now I'm not able, and you're
not either, but he is. He's able to save to the uttermost,
that's to the nth degree, them that come unto the Father by
him. So he's true, verse seven, he that hath the key of David,
that's a messianic title that links him with David, as that
one who was promised to come through David, the king of Israel,
not of an earthly kingdom, but of a heavenly kingdom that would
be fulfilled, the promise of David back in 2 Samuel 7, that's
the royal covenant, that that promise would be fulfilled not
by an earthly king, but by the heavenly king of kings, who of
the flesh was born of the seed of David without sin. And the
key of David is the way to open the door. Christ holds the key
to salvation. He holds the key. He opens the
door and he shuts it and it says, he that openeth and no man shutteth
and shutteth and no man openeth. And as I said last week, what
he's talking about there, now Christ is the key to salvation.
And he's the one who opens the door and shuts the door in that
area. But this is talking about opportunities
to preach the gospel. When he opens the door, Listen,
we're to preach the gospel. We don't have the authority or
the wisdom to say, well, I'm gonna preach to this one, but
not to that one. The Bible says go into all the
world and preach the gospel to every creature. Who are we to
preach the gospel to? Who are we to witness the gospel
to? I'll tell you exactly, anybody who'll listen. Does that mean
that they're going to be saved? No, but we hope and pray they
will be, don't we? Everything that we do is by command
of God and opportunities that he gives us. Now if somebody
doesn't want to listen, we have no right or authority or power
to force it on them. And that's why you've got to
understand, you know, in the history of what the world calls
Christianity, These religions and denominations and clerical
authorities who tried to force people to confess and force people
by sword point or gun point to believe, that's not Christianity
at all. That's false Christianity. But
whenever God opens a door and gives us an opportunity to preach
the gospel, we're to step through that door and to preach it. And
he's responsible for the results. Well, and then when God shuts
the door, we're not to try to force it open. We can't force
it open. But we're not even to try. So
you understand what that's talking about now? That's witnessing
the gospel. This church of Philadelphia was a witness of the gospel.
in that town, in that idolatrous town where God gave him opportunity.
And verse 8, he says, I know thy works, and these works that
he's going to be talking about are the fruit and the result
of God's power, God's goodness, and God's grace in their salvation.
And here's what he says, I have set before thee an open door,
and no man can shut it. Same as he continues. I've put
you in this place to be a witness to the gospel. And nobody can
shut you down. Now God can. Now you remember
in the churches where he issues forth a correction, an admonition,
he makes this statement, he said, repent or I'll take the candlestick
away. Now God can shut it down, but
no man can. When he opens the door, no man
can shut it. And when he shuts the door, no man can open it.
He says, for thou hast a little strength. I believe he's referring
to the physical weakness of that church. There weren't a lot of
them. They weren't one of these big
super religious organizations. They didn't have a lot of money.
They didn't have a lot of influence. But he says, but you've kept
my word. You haven't compromised the gospel. And you know, that's the problem.
You know, I know people in churches and pastors across the country,
and in other places of the world, who claim to believe the same
gospel we believe, who claim to believe the doctrines of sovereign
grace, which the Bible teaches. And they would show up, and there'd
be a small crowd there, and they would, first of all, reason in
their minds, now what can I do to get more people here? And
what's the first thing they normally do? They compromise the message. They remove what the Bible calls
the offense of the cross, and then it becomes nothing, just
a compromising church. And we've seen that in some of
the other churches here in Asia Minor. But he says, you've kept
my word and has not denied my name, verse 8. Listen, to compromise
the gospel is to deny the name of Jesus Christ. Because His
name is who He is. His name identifies Him. His
name distinguishes Him. Who is Jesus Christ? He's Emmanuel. I'm going to be talking about
that in the message this morning. His name shall be called Jesus, for
He shall save His people from their sins. His name is Emmanuel,
God with us. His name is Jehovah Sidcanu,
the Lord our righteousness. He is salvation. He is God in
human flesh, the Word dwelling among us. All of these things
identify and distinguish him in his glory. So if we compromise
that, we deny his name. What did he accomplish? You see,
his name involves not only who he is in his nature, in his character,
but it involves what he accomplished in his work. That's why Paul
said, Paul didn't say, I strive not to know anything among you
but Jesus Christ. He said, I strive not to know
anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And what Paul's talking about
is the accomplishment of the redemptive work of Christ as
the surety and substitute of His people. He who had our sins
charged to Him worked out a perfect righteousness that not only secures
the entire salvation of all for whom he died, but it demands
it. His righteousness demands the
salvation of his people. He didn't make salvation possible
for those who would cooperate because the Bible tells us that
by nature none of us will cooperate. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. We fell in Adam, and we're born spiritually dead. So by
nature, we're not gonna cooperate. The accomplishment and power
of his death, his blood, his righteousness, is not conditioned
on us. And to say it is, is to deny
his name. And I hope we understand that.
That's his glory, right there. And he said that, John chapter
17, you don't have to turn there in his high priestly prayer.
He said, glorify thou me with the glory which I had with thee
before the world was. And what did he connect it to?
He connected it to the fact of him giving eternal life to as
many as the father had given him. That's what it was connected
to. And remember he said, all that the Father giveth me shall
come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast
out. So that's his name. Verse nine, behold I will make
them of the synagogue of Satan, which 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. I believe that what he's talking about is a very common
problem that existed In the Gentile world that the Apostle Paul traveled
in and others of the preachers and evangelists and even some
of the apostles, there was a very common problem wherein they would
go into a place where there was a synagogue and there were many
Jews there. who worshipped in an idolatrous
way according to a misshapen idea of the Old Covenant, just
like the Jews of old in the Old Testament. They turned those
things in the Old Covenant that God had given them to expose
their sin and drive them to Christ, they turned it into a cleverly
disguised system of legalism and works, and they denied the
Lord God. Well, here in the days of John
and the apostles, in these days especially, there were Jews who
claimed to have converted to Christianity. And they claimed
they believed that Jesus of Nazareth was their Savior, that He is
the Messiah. They wanted to retain their legalism
from the law, their perversion of the law. They wanted to retain
that. They'd say things like, well, these Gentiles who claim
to be Christian, you've got to have them circumcised or they
can't be saved. And you can see examples of that
in like Acts chapter 15. That's one where Paul went back
to Jerusalem and that question arose. And the whole book of
Galatians is about that, isn't it? That's what it's about, those
Jews who tried to impose the legalism of their perversion
of the law on Gentile believers. And I believe that's who Paul's
talking about here, and he says, he says, listen, they're not,
they claim to be Jews. Now what that means is they claim
to be children of God, connected with Abraham. Remember how the
unbelieving Jews basically boasted of three things that they believe
claimed gave evidence of there being children of God. Number
one was their physical connection with Abraham. And I always think
about old John the Baptist on that because you remember back
in Matthew chapter three when the Pharisees and the Sadducees
went out to see John and he was preaching his message and the
baptism of repentance, he looked at the Pharisees and the Sadducees
and he said, you generation of vipers, bring forth fruits, meat
for repentance And then he sort of, in his message, he cut them
off at the pass. Because he knew what they were
going to say. He knew what their retort would
be to him when he said, bring forth fruits, meet for repentance.
He knew they were going to say, well, we're Abraham's seed. That's
what they told the Lord, wasn't it? We're Abraham's seed. We've
never been in John chapter eight. Well, John the Baptist said this.
He said, bring forth fruit, meat for repentance, and say not we
be Abraham's seed, because that's not going to do you any good.
Just because you're physically connected to Abraham has no bearing
on your salvation. You're still born, you fell in
Adam. You're still born in sin. You still, the only way of redemption
is still by the blood of Jesus Christ, and you must be born
again. That's the only way. So they boasted of that, and
they boasted of their physical circumcision, and they boasted
in their law keeping. We have Moses. Of course, Christ
took care of that in John chapter five, for example. He said, I
didn't come to judge you. You have one who will judge you,
even Moses, in whom you trust. And he said, Moses wrote of me.
Now this synagogue of Satan, I believe, has to do with that
issue. I believe they were Jews who
claimed to be Christian, claimed to be children of God, but Christ
tells John, he says, they're not. They're of their father,
the devil. And I think we looked at this last week, John 8.44.
You're of your father. If we didn't, you can look at
it. John 8.45. I think I've got it cited here in your lesson. When he said, yeah, the Son of
God said, you're of your father the devil and the works of your
father you'll do. He was a liar from the beginning. He abode
not in the truth. That's what he says. That's satanic.
Do we understand that the message of salvation by the works of
man or the will of man is a satanic message? Do you understand that? That's right. That's what, listen,
that's what Adam and Eve fell into. That's what motivated Cain
to bring the works of his hands. You see, salvation in any way
but the sovereign mercy and grace of God is satanic. And you know,
people say, you know, we look at the perversions, the moral
perversions of the day. And people say, well, Satan is
working hard. And I think, and this is one
reason why I'm preaching the message that I'm preaching today
on salvation from sin. You know, we have to be taught
by God how to look upon, how to think about this issue of
sin. We really do. When you talk about the moral
perversions of today, you know what that is? And I know Satan,
he relishes in the spread of moral perversion and all that,
but you know what moral perversion is? It's really just human nature
let go. Now you can blame it on the devil
all you want, but it's just human nature doing what human nature
does, sinful human nature. If you want to know where Satan
is really working, go to the Bible and read it. And remember,
like, for example, 2 Corinthians, what is it? Chapter 4. I think
it starts out in verse 3, where he says, That's the gospel of God's grace
wherein the righteousness of God is revealed. If our gospel
is hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of
this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them.
Satan's alive and well and working, but I'll tell you where he's
sowing his tares, his false churches. I'll never forget a lady up in
Ashton asked me when talking about Harry Potter. And she said, you believe the
devil's in Harry Potter? And I said, no. I said, that's
fantasy. That's like Mickey Mouse. That's what Harry Potter's like.
If you believe in Harry Potter, you might as well believe in
Mickey Mouse and Goofy and all the characters. That's fantasy. She said, do you believe that
Satan's in Harry Potter? And I said, no. I said, I'll
tell you where Satan is. He's down the road there in that Free
Will Baptist Church preaching. Is that too hard? Well, that's
what, listen, that's what it is. That's a satanic myth. You
say, well, you shouldn't say that. Well, then go, if you ever
meet the apostle John, tell him the same thing. The synagogue
of Satan, that's what he says. And he says, I'll make them,
look at verse nine, come and worship before thy feet and to
know that I have loved thee. That doesn't mean they're gonna
worship these believers. It means they're going to acknowledge,
they're gonna bow, they're gonna be forced to bow by the sovereign
power of God to acknowledge that these believers in Philadelphia
were the true children of God, that they were loved of God with
that unconditional love that comes in Christ. Verse 10, he
says, because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I will
also keep thee from the hour of temptation or testing, which
shall come upon all the world to try them, test them that dwell
upon the earth. Now what he's saying is here,
the evidence of their patience, their endurance in the gospel.
All right, that's by the grace of God. That's the true children
of God, that's sinners saved by grace, true believers, all
who are washed in his blood and clothed in his righteousness,
will be tested now. The Bible says that. Hebrews
12 talks about chastisement. And those who are without chastisement,
those testings of faith, are not true children of God. But
the chastisements of a child of God are acts of love from
the Father. to his children. It's a correction.
It's a teaching. There's lessons that we have
to learn. And these tests, these chastisements towards us drive
us more to Christ, don't they? It's like I've always told you,
I said, I go through these tests and I never come out on the,
I always come out on the other end because God brings me there
and I never feel good about myself when I come out on the other
end. But I'll tell you what I do. I come out clinging to Christ
even more. trusting him even more and knowing myself a little
better that's how we're going to be tested but what he's talking
about here in verse ten is the test, the trials that's going
to come upon all the world to those who are unbelievers those
who dwell upon the earth that's not just talking about people
left on earth when he comes back that's talking about those who
are connected to the earth and understand that now When he talks
about people who dwell on the earth, he's not just talking
about people who exist here on this earth. We exist on this
earth right now, but we don't dwell on the earth. We're citizens
of another country, if we're in Christ. We're citizens of
a heavenly country. We're in the kingdom of God.
These are earth dwellers. He's talking about people who
are so connected to this earth, to this world, that it's their
hope. It's their love. They have no
thoughts towards Christ and salvation and the church and love of the
brethren. It's all about the world to them. And he says they're going to
be sent a trial that they will not pass. It's the wrath of God
that comes upon unbelievers. Look at verse 11. So he says,
Behold, I come quickly. That means soon. People argue
about how soon. We don't have to. We don't know
when he's coming, but he's coming quickly. And it may not seem
quickly to us, but listen, God measures time a whole lot differently
than we do. And 2 Peter says it this way
in chapter 3, a thousand years to God is as a day, and a day
is a thousand years. So don't get bogged down in these
arguments about time and eternity and this coming and that coming.
I just know he says it's going to be soon. And I'll tell you
what, It'll be soon enough that if the Lord doesn't come back
in my lifetime, it'll be pretty soon that I go meet him, won't
it? So he says in verse 11, hold
that fast which thou hast, which you possess, that no man take
thy crown. Now we know the crown there he's
talking about is the crown of life, the crown of righteousness.
the crown of the spirit, all of that. These are not crowns
we earn by our works, they're given us in Christ. I've got some, I think I've got
a couple of passages there that you can refer to. It's a crown
of everlasting life, a crown of glory, which is given us through
Christ, who is our life and glory, and it's all based on his righteousness
imputed. And we know that if we possess
those crowns by the grace of God, nobody can take it from
us. But what he's saying here is this. We're to hold on to
it for dear life. We're to look at this as our
most prized possession. We have an inheritance that's
incorruptible, which can never be taken away. And we're to hold
on to it like we would hold on to our very lives. And he says
it that way so that God's people will realize that, yes, we're
secure, we're safe, and I believe we can say it this way. I know
a lot of people don't like this, but I believe we can say it this
way. We're sure for heaven as if we were already there based
on the righteousness of Christ. But God also uses means of His
own making and His own empowering by which He glorifies Himself
through us and that is by our perseverance. We persevere, we
hold on and He preserves. We know our perseverance and
our holding on does not save us and does not make us righteous
before God, but we do that because we love Him. That's the dynamic
of grace in the heart. Look at verse 12. He says, him
that overcometh, now you know the overcomers in scripture,
that's talked about several times in these churches, he that overcomes.
He says that's a sinner saved by grace, preserved by the grace
of God, who perseveres in the faith. He says, him that overcomes
will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no
more out, and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the
name of the city of my God, which is the new Jerusalem. So he's
talking about a heavenly Jerusalem here, spiritual Jerusalem. That's
a spiritual kingdom. Which cometh down out of heaven
from my God, We'll read about that later on in Revelation 21.
And I will write upon him my new name. The new name is the
name of the Lord, our righteousness, the Lord of our salvation. And
what he's talking about here, you'll be a pillar in the temple
of God. This is not a pillar like that holds up the roof or
bears up any part of it. It's a pillar like a monument.
That's what it means. It's a monument. And here's what
he's saying. If you're a sinner saved by grace,
you're a monument to the glory, the goodness, the power, and
the grace of God in Christ. You're a trophy of his grace.
You're not a self-made person. And nothing in this church or
in this kingdom or in this city is held up by your power or your
goodness. It's all by him. You're a monument
to his glory. That's what that means. He says,
and he shall go no more out. The way that's stated there,
it almost seems like, well, you mean we can go in and out? No,
what he's talking about is, it's just a way of stating in the
original, there's not going to be anybody leave this church. Not the true church. Remember
what John said? First John 2, 18, they went out
from us. They were not of us. Had they
been of us, they would have no doubt remained with us. That's
what he's talking about there. In the church here on earth,
now remember this is the first vision, up to the end of chapter
3 is the first vision that Christ gives to the Apostle John of
the last days. And here's Christ walking among
the churches here on earth. And in the church here on earth,
there's gonna be a lot of problems. You're gonna have people come
and people go. But in this true church, the new Jerusalem, the
temple, this temple, nobody's gonna leave. They're all kept
there by the power of God. And he said that new name, I'll
write upon him the name of my God, a just God and a savior. We could go through the scripture
on the names of God. In the name of the city of my God, the new
Jerusalem. You know, Jerusalem means peace.
City of peace. Here's peace. And he said, which
cometh down out of heaven, and I'll write upon him my new name.
And that's the name of the Lord. We are His. We belong. We have
His name because we belong to Him. And I've got Jeremiah 23
and 33 referenced here, and you can look at that. But verse 13
says, he that hath an ear to hear, let him hear. what the
Spirit saith unto the churches." That's the closing he gives to
every one of them. If you've got ears to hear, then hear it. Listen. Obey it. Only those who
have ears to hear will. All right.