In the book of Revelation, we
read seven letters written to the churches. In chapter 3, verse
6, we read the following. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And to the angel
of the church in Philadelphia write, these things saith he
that is holy. He that is true, he that hath
the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth, and shutteth,
and no man openeth. I know thy works. Behold, I have
set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. For thou
hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied
my name. 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. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also
will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come
upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold,
I come quickly. Hold that fast which thou hast,
that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh 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 New Jerusalem, which cometh
down out of heaven from my God, and I will write upon him my
new name, he that have an ear. Let him hear what the Spirit
saith unto the churches. These things saith he that is
holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that
openeth, and no man shutteth, and shutteth, and no man openeth,
I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee
an open door, and no man can shut it. How would I have set before thee
an open door and no man can shut it? What door is set before you? What door is set before you,
an open door or a shut door? A door, a gate, a way which leads
unto everlasting life. or a door, a gate, a way which
leads unto destruction. What doors are open to you? Have the gates of death been
opened unto thee? Or hast thou seen the doors of
the shadow of death? In Job 38, 17 we read, Have the
gates of death been opened unto thee? Or hast thou seen the doors
of the shadow of death? What doors are open to you? Are
they a door? Are they doors which lead unto
everlasting life? Or have the gates of death been
opened unto you? Or has he seen the doors of the
shadow of death? By nature, we are sinners. By nature, we are rebels. By
nature, we have turned our backs upon our God and our Creator. We may have heard his truth.
We may have heard his gospel. We may have heard of His Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. We may know of Christ coming
into this world. Many at this time of year will
speak of Jesus Christ and His coming into the world and the
peace which He brought. But they remain in their sin.
And their hearts are shut to His message. and whilst they
may take his name upon their lips and speak of the babe Jesus,
truly they hate the man he grew to be and they hate the God he
is. They don't mind a babe in a manger,
but they hate the Saviour who was nailed to the tree, crucified,
who rose again, and who sits on the right hand of God from
whence He rules over all this earth. The Saviour who came to
save His people from their sins, the Saviour who determines those
who will enter heaven's glory through those gates which lead
unto everlasting life and those who will depart into everlasting
destruction. By nature we are sinners and
our sins have earned us the wrath of God, have rightly earned us
His indignation, have rightly earned us His judgment. Left in our sins and left to
ourselves and left in the state in which we're born, we deserve
God's wrath. and we deserve the gates of death
to be opened up unto us. Have the gates of death been
opened unto thee or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow
of death? Now very often in our complacency
we pass through this life never thinking about death. Never thinking
about the shadow of death. Never thinking about what lies
beyond the grave. Never thinking about where we
stand before a holy God. We're apathetic, we don't care. We're taken up with many other
things. And whether or not the gates
of death are open unto us doesn't pass through our heads. And it's
only at the final hour that the terrors of death come upon a
man. when he knows he's about to die, when he knows he's wasted
his life, seeking after all manner of things which are passing from
him, which he can't lay hold of, which he can't take through
the grave with him. When death faces him, then he's
filled with terror. Then he may ask, have the gates
of death been opened unto me? Then he may see the doors of
the shadow of death and fear. Then he may reckon that there
is a God before whom he will stand. But it's too late. It's too late. He spent all his
life shutting the door unto this gospel. Shutting the door unto
the truth. Shutting the door unto God. Shutting the door unto Jesus
Christ. He spent all his life with the
door firmly shut and in the end there's a door open unto him
and it's a door which leads unto death. Oh the folly. of man in his natural state,
his fallen state. It wasn't natural when God created
man for man to be in this state. He wasn't made full of sin. He wasn't made a rebel. He wasn't
made dead in trespasses and sins, but man turned against his God. He would not follow. He would
not obey. He would go his own way. And
as with Adam in the beginning, so with you, so with me, so with
all of us. given the choice we will not
obey, we will not follow, we will not pass through any door
that leads unto God, we shut the door, we run away. And rightly
might we ask, have the gates of death been opened unto me? Have I seen the doors of the
shadow of death? For those gates and those doors
are not the only doors which are opened unto man. Paul, who
went about persecuting the church. Paul, who like you and I despised
and hated Jesus Christ. Paul, who saw Christ as an enemy, one day met with him, and one
day came face to face, as it were, with his God and Maker,
the Saviour, Jesus Christ. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? And that day, and that encounter,
and that voice which he heard from the heavens changed him
forevermore. For from that voice he heard
the gospel. The Gospel that set him free. The Gospel that delivered him
from the gates of death. The Gospel that took him from
the shadow of death. The Gospel that set before him
an open door and led him another way that leads unto life eternal. And God took Paul and God sent
Paul and God put his word in Paul's mouth and God opened Paul's
mouth that he should preach. Preach the gospel unto the Jews
and to the Gentiles. Preach the Son of God. Preach the everlasting Son of
God, preach his everlasting salvation, preach his eternal righteousness. He sent him forth with a message
of life, and that message of life which Paul preached opened
a door unto people like himself who were once locked in captivity,
once locked in darkness. once sentenced by their own conduct
unto death it opened a door unto a people who were lost to come
unto a Saviour who would deliver them and take their bonds and
set them free and that message which Paul spake was a message
which opened the door unto everlasting life to all those who heard and
Paul had a prayer. He had a prayer that God would
open the door to this Gospel. He had a prayer that being given
this Gospel and knowing the life of this Gospel that God would
open the door that it should go forth and that people would
hear. His zeal, his love, his desire
was to preach this message that those in darkness as he was in
darkness should be brought to the light. He prayed with all,
praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of
utterance to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also
in bonds. This life-giving message, this
mystery of Christ, this gospel, which Paul preached, which opened
the doors to sinners unto eternal life, was a message which brought
Paul into bonds. Men didn't like it. Mankind doesn't
like it, mankind rails against it and when you come with this
gospel they'll take you and they'll bind you and they'll try to shut
the door to you and they'll say don't come in here we don't want
you and Paul knew the effect of that, he was in bonds for
preaching this message He knew what it was to have doors shut
to Him. He knew what it was for men and
women to shut the doors of their synagogues, to shut the doors
of their meetings, to shut the doors of their homes and to shut
the doors of their hearts. To Him, to His message, to His
Saviour. He knew what it was for them
to take Him and to bind Him and to set Him, to put Him into captivity. He knew what it was to suffer
for this message. He knew what it was to have doors
shut to him. So he prays that God would open
unto him and his fellow preachers and apostles a door of utterance
to speak the mystery of Christ. For the opening of the door is
in God's hands. And the shutting of the door
is in God's hands. Paul went about with this gospel
and men shut doors under him. They would not listen. They refused. They mocked and they scoffed.
They took up stones to stone him as they took up stones to
stone Christ. Men shut the doors to this message. You may shut the door of your
heart to this message. You may be hardened to it. The
more you hear it, the more you may harden your heart to it.
But ultimately, it's not men that shut the door. And ultimately,
you cannot shut or open the door of your heart to this message. The doors are in God's hands. These things say of he that is
holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that
openeth, and no man shutteth, and shutteth, and no man openeth. I know thy works. Behold, I have
set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. It may seem like men shut a door. It may seem like men shut the
door to the gospel. But when the Lord opens the door,
no man can shut it. And when the Lord shuts a door,
no man can open it. It isn't men who open or shut
the door to the gospel, but God. Very often there are those who
don't want to hear the Gospel we proclaim. Their door is shut
to it. Their pulpits and their meetings
are shut to it. There is much religion about
in many places that call themselves churches, who will have this
person speak and that person speak, but they'll never open
the door to the Gospel. They'll ask anyone and everyone
else to preach. But when a faithful gospel preacher
comes their way, the door is shut. But it is not they who
shut the door. If God wants them and their congregations
to hear, He will open the door. And that people will hear the
voice of the Son of God by whichever man He sends to speak. He will
open the door. Indeed it's a solemn thing for
anyone when their door is shut to the truth. Any people, any
meeting, any individual who has the door shut to the preachers
whom God sends, it's a solemn thing. For their door is shut
unto eternal life. They think they've shut the door.
They think they're acting wisely. They think they're guarding.
what is said in their place and to their people. But in reality,
if they've ended up shutting the door to the gospel, the door
has been shut to them. They have no power to close the
door unto Jesus Christ, unless Jesus Christ says, this door
is shut. and when he shuts one door he
opens another door and when a door is shut to one people he will
open it up to another people he will open the door that his
people shall hear and he will shut the door that others will
not hear the door and the key is in his hands now we see his
mighty opening of doors throughout all the scriptures how we can
open the heaviest of doors, the strongest of doors. Those which
are locked, those which are beyond the strength of man to open.
We read in the Acts of the Apostles several accounts of when the
apostles, the preachers, were put into jail, put into bonds
for preaching this Gospel. They were put in jail, solid
jail. great stone doors that no man
can escape from. And yet God set them free. In Acts 5 we read, then the high
priest rose up and all they that were with him, which is the sect
of the Sadducees, and were filled with indignation and laid their
hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison. But
the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought
them forth and said, go stand and speak in the temple to the
people all the words of this life. They put them in the prison,
this will silence them, this will stop them spreading their
message But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison
doors, brought them forth and said, go stand and speak in the
temple to the people all the words of this life. It will not
be shut. It cannot be contained. This
word, this message, this gospel cannot be contained. If God will
have it heard, he'll have it heard. And when they heard that,
they entered into the temple early in the morning and taught.
But the high priest came, and they that were with him, and
called the council together, and all the senate of the children
of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. But when
the officers came and found them not in the prison, they returned
and told, saying, The prison truly found we shut with all
safety, and the keeper standing without before the doors, but
when we had opened, we found no man within. Because God had
opened the door. In Acts 16, again, we heard of
the apostles in the prison. And again God would set them
free. Suddenly there was a great earthquake,
so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately
all the doors were opened, and everyone's bands were loosed.
And the keeper of the prison, awaking out of his sleep and
seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would
have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. God sent an earthquake and shook
the foundations of the prison and opened all the doors and
everyone's bands. Nothing can prevent God opening
the door. And nothing can prevent him shutting
the door when he purposes to shut. That passage in Acts 16
of course is a great picture, a great allegory of the prisons
within which all men find themselves and the doors which are shut
unto all men to escape from their sin and the condemnation and
judgment of God against their sin. We're trapped in a prison. And when God purposes to set
His people free, He'll come with His gospel and He'll shake the
earth. He'll send an earthquake through
His gospel. He'll send that gospel which
is the power of God unto salvation. He'll shake the earth and all
the doors of the prison that keep you bound will be opened
and all your bands will be loosed. And the keeper of the prison
The evil one, the adversary, the accuser, will see the people
freed and know he is beaten. In Acts 12 again we read another
account. And as Peter knocked at the door
of the gate, a damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda. And when
she knew Peter's voice, she opened not the gate for gladness, but
ran in and told how Peter stood before the gate. And they said
unto her, Thou art mad. But she constantly affirmed that
it was even so. Then said they, It is his angel.
But Peter continued knocking. And when they had opened the
door and saw him, they were astonished. But he, beckoning unto them with
a hand to hold their peace, declared unto them how the Lord had brought
him out of the prison. And he said, Go, show these things
unto James and to the brethren. And he departed and went into
another place. If God purposes to take you out
of prison, He will open the door, and no man can shut it. Are you
in a prison? Are you bound fast by your sin,
your rebellion, and the righteous judgment of God against it? Do
you know anything of the guilt which your sin deserves, which
your sin has brought in? Do you stand before God and know
that you are a sinner before Him? Has He shown you anything
of what you are? Do you know the captivity? Do
you feel the bonds upon your hands? Do you feel the chains?
Do you feel the prison all around you? Do you know you need to
be set free? Are you striving to open the
prison door? Are you striving to set yourself
free by your own strength? Well if God has put you in that
prison then you will never open you will never be able to set
yourself free. Nothing you can do, nothing you
can say, no strength of your own, no righteous living, no
wisdom and learning will set you free. But if God should come
your way and through the gospel send an earthquake, then all
the doors will be opened and no man will shut them. You and
I by nature have shut the door of our heart unto Jesus Christ. This world had shut its door
unto God and his Son, but God opened the door to Christ and
God would send him And God would have Christ, his Son, do that
which he had promised. And no man could stand in his
way. God opened the door. When Christ
came into this world, when Christ Jesus was made a man, when he
was promised, when the angels spake unto Mary, and said who
she would conceive, who she would bring forth as a child. When
God sent forth Christ, when Christ was born in Bethlehem, all the
doors of this world were shut to Him. The doors of the inns
were shut. Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem
seeking a place to stay that she might bring forth her child
and there was no place to stay. All the doors of the inns were
shut. The people shut the doors to this one. The doors of the
inns were shut. The doors of Israel were shut.
The doors of Bethlehem were shut. The doors of the Jews were shut.
The doors of man's heart were shut. unto Jesus Christ. Every door was shut and if God
had sent his son unto you, if you'd been one of those innkeepers,
if you'd been there on that day, your door would have been firmly
shut. But God sent his son and God
opened the door And God would have that son be born even if
it meant going to a stable and being born in the midst of filthy
animals. God opened the door and no man
could shut it. God sent his son. He would have
him brought forth. He would have him grow. He would
have him live. He would have the Son of God
take on human flesh. He would have him be a man. And
he would send him to the cross to take the sin and the rebellion
of man's heart. To take the sins of his people
and to pay the price that they might be set free. Paul writes
in 1 Corinthians 16 verse 9, A great door and effectual is
opened unto me and there are many adversaries. A great door and effectual is
opened unto me and there are many adversaries. A great door
and an effectual door was opened unto the Son of God. But there
are many adversaries. There were many adversaries then
and there are many adversaries now. Man didn't want him then
and man doesn't want him now. He came unto his own and his
own received him not. He came unto the Jews who should
have loved him and looked for him and welcomed him and they
received him not. He grew up and lived amongst
them and they put him to death. There are many adversaries. Are you his adversary? Is your
heart shut unto the Son of God? As we read in Revelation 3, He says, I have set before thee
an open door and no man can shut it. He addresses this to this
church at Philadelphia. And he says of that church, for
thou hast a little strength and has kept my word and has not
denied my name. There is a people before whom
the door is open, a people unto whom the Lord Jesus comes, a
people who receive him, who have little strength in themselves,
but God has opened unto them a door. and he's given unto them
his word, and he's caused them not to deny his name. For this
door and the opening of the door stands in his name. What do you know of the name
of Jesus Christ? What do you know of the name
of Jesus Christ, of Joshua? of the Anointed, of the Son of
God, of the Great I Am, the One who said, I am the door. I am the door. Have you entered in through this
door? Have you understood His name? Have you seen him as the one
who is a door opened unto everlasting life? Behold I have set before
thee an open door and no man can shut it for thou hast a little
strength and has kept my word and has not denied my name. In the gospel when we preach
Jesus Christ we set before thee the door The door that no man
can shut. The door which if thou enter
through, you will be led unto everlasting life. We set before
thee Jesus Christ, I am the door. An open door that no man can
shut. But when Christ was set before
the Jews, when Christ came unto the Jews, they shut the doors
of their heart to Him. They received him not. And they
tried to take the one who said, I am the door and to destroy
him. They tried to shut the door himself. They tried to shut not just their
door to him, but to shut the door. They tried to take the
Son of God, the door into everlasting glory, and they tried to destroy
Him. They took up stones to stone
Him. They tried to put Him to death.
They fought and took council of ways to put Him to death.
And in the end, they delivered Him up to the Romans and cried
out of Him, crucify Him, crucify Him. Away with this man. They tried to shut the door. And mankind throughout the generations,
throughout the ages, has tried, does try and continues to try
to shut the door, to silence Christ, to put Christ to death,
to shut His voice, to silence His voice. They try to silence
the gospel, to tread it underfoot, to take away any possibility
of it being heard. They try to shut the door. But
they put Christ to death only because Christ said, now is the
hour. And when he had died, they thought
he was gone. But on the third day, he rose
from the dead. That door they thought was shut,
burst open. And all the people of God, for
whom he died, rode forth out of the door, out of his side,
flowing forth as blood and water. They came forth out of his side,
as the bride of Christ, as Eve was taken out of the side of
Adam. All the people of God flowed forth out of his side, as the
door of God was opened once more. And no man can shut that door. He is risen. He is risen indeed. And the door has been opened.
And all the people of God have flowed forth out of the door
and enter into eternal life. And what door man thought he
had shut was opened forevermore. Behold I have set before thee
an open door and no man can shut it. You will never shut. the
door which is Christ. You will never shut the door
which is his gospel. You will never silence his voice
and you will never silence his gospel. You can take up stones
and you can stone me or another preacher and silence me and another
preacher will be raised up of God with this gospel. For you
can never shut the door to this gospel. I have set before thee
an open door, and no man can shut it. You can shut your ears,
you can shut the door of your heart, and the outcome might
be for some, for you perhaps, that one day you will find another
door, another gate opened, as Job, Bacob, have the gates of
death been opened unto me. But you will never shut the door,
which is Christ. and you will never shut his message.
Man tried to. Satan, the adversary, tried to. He thought he'd conquered, he
thought he'd won, he thought when he crucified Christ and
put him in the grave that there was the door shut forever and
the door simply burst forth open. No man has the power to take
Christ's life from him, he said. And he has the power in himself
to lay down his life. He has the power to take it up
again. No one can take it from him. No one can shut the door. And no one can open it except
he chooses to open it. God opened the door. Jesus Christ. He sent his son into the darkness
of this world that the light might shine forth, that the door
might spring open in the darkness and the light might shine forth.
When you consider Bethlehem, when you consider the bay borne
in the manger, when you consider the entrance into this world
of the King of Kings, should you hear of him at this hour,
at this time, at this season, remember who it was remember
what shone forth that door that light in the darkness that Lord
of Lords that King of Kings that one who came to set the captives
free but men at that hour shut their hearts and shut their doors
because they would not They could not and they would not believe
on the Son of God. What of your heart? What of your
door? In what do you believe? In whom
do you believe? Where is your trust? Where is
your hope? Where is your door? You may shut
the door You may shut the door of your heart, you may shut your
eyes and shut your ears, but when God chooses to enter, He
will enter. When He chooses to open your
door, He'll open your door and He'll come riding in victorious. Behold, I stand at the door and
knock, he says. If any man hear my voice and
open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and
he with me. Well, you don't hear, do you?
Because your ears are shut. And you don't open the door,
do you? Because your hard heart doesn't
want to. So the door remains shut and
there's nothing that you do, think or say. There's no decision
you'll ever make which will change it. Your will is set against
him. But there comes an hour. when
He comes and the knocking stops and He opens. He makes you to
open. He enters in and speaks in such
a way that you cannot shut the ears any longer. The Spirit of
God comes with His gospel with such power in such an earthquake
that His voice cannot be silenced. The hour is coming and now is.
when even the graves will be opened and hear the voice of
the Son of God. The graves, even the dead in
the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God. Even you who
are dead, if it comes to that hour and He says, now's the time
to open, you will hear and hearing, you'll open the door because
He's changed the heart. He's made you who were so unwilling,
willing. He stands at the door and knocks,
he does. But you by nature won't open.
But he won't wait for you. He will change you, if you're
his. When it's his time, if he chooses,
he'll cause the door to open. And nothing you can do will prevent
it. When he enters, he enters. John
goes on in chapter 4, after this I looked and behold a door was
opened in heaven and the first voice which I heard was as it
were of a trumpet talking with me which said come up hither
and I will show thee things which must be hereafter here he is
he'd spoken of the open door that no man can shut he's spoken
of Christ standing at the door and knocking and here he looks
up and sees a door opened in heaven a door opened in heaven
when God opens a door he will lead you and guide you and put
faith in your heart in such a way that you will look up and you'll
stop looking at your own heart you'll stop looking within you'll
stop looking to what you are and what you think and what you
can do and you'll look out from yourself and up from yourself
and up into glory by faith and you will see a door opened in
heaven and you'll behold that door and you'll see it's an open
door and you'll see that no man can shut that door and you'll
see that the door is Christ I am the door and you'll see that
there are those who enter in by him who will never leave Oh how is the door of your heart
The apostles prayed that God would open the door unto them.
That a great door and an effectual door would be opened. That the
gospel would go forth in power. That those doors of men's hearts
would be broken down. And their prayer was answered. Their prayer was answered. God
opened the door. And God made their word effectual. He made it as an earthquake. Such was its power. And they
could write later in Acts 14, when they would come and had
gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had
done with them and how he had opened the door of faith unto
the Gentiles. When God opens a door, no man
can shut it. The Jews shut the door. They
shut him out. They received him not. And God
sent forth that message. His Son. His Gospel. Through another door. Unto the
Gentiles. Now you and I today are Gentiles. He has sent his word to the Jews
and to the Gentiles. Has he opened the door of faith
unto you? Or is your hard heart shut fast? What will it take to open the
door? Will it take an earthquake? Or
will it take a still small voice? Whatever it requires, the gospel
has the power to open the door. And if it's open, No man, not
you, not I, not any other can shut it. Oh may God give us that faith
to look up into heaven and to behold a door opened in heaven
to see the Saviour. enthroned on high, to see the
one who said, I am the door, stood on high at the right hand
of his father, to see him in glory with four wounds, two in
his hands and two in his feet and a fifth in his side, which
speak of his death. The wounds in his hands and his
feet wrought upon the cross before he died. the fifth wound pierced
in his side when he was dead, out of which flowed blood and
water, out of which flowed the cleansing of the nations, out
of which came their salvation, out of which poured forth life
through an open door. O God, give us faith to look
and to behold Him who is the Saviour of sinners. and to see
that there is no other hope, no other way, no other journey,
no other door which can bring us any good, any life, any salvation,
but this door. I am the door. Behold, I have
set before thee an open door and no man can shut it.