Revelation chapter 3, we are
considering now our third observation of the Church of Philadelphia.
And if you will, you can follow me in your pastor's commentary.
However, it will also be up on our board here. The Lord is speaking
to His church, a church which is precious in His sight. And
His words are largely to her at this time words of encouragement. because of what he sees in her
life. Last week we talked about God
opening the door. And I hope you are persuaded
that only God can open the door. That whatever door is opened
by way of God's purpose in your life, it's a door that he himself
opens. And so we were told in Revelation
chapter 3 verse 7 these words And to the angel of the church
in Philadelphia, write, these things saith he that is holy
and he that is true, he that hath the key of David and he
that openeth and no man shut. He that openeth and no man shutteth
and shutteth and no man opens. And then he says in verse eight,
I know your works. And behold, I have set before
you an open door and no man can shed it. Now I told you last
week you and I are in on a conversation as a third party listening to
a dialogue between two other persons. And what that means
is there are things that are said between those two persons
that are not necessarily directly given to that third party listener. But we can derive from that conversation
applicable principles that would benefit us. And that's why we
read the Bible, to hear the narratives and to hear the stories and to
raise the question, Lord, is this true of me? Is it true of
me individually? Is it true of us collectively?
Is it true of us as the body of Christ? And is it true of
us as this local church here at Hayward? Has God opened a
door for me? Has God opened a door for us? It is not true that all of God's
promises, our propositions, our purposes are the same with everyone.
It's not true that just because God opens the door to this person
over here, that he opens the door to you. It's not true that
all open doors are unconditionally open doors. In our present generation,
we love to use the word unconditional, but I would beg to differ with
you on that term. As nice as it sounds, most of
God's promises are conditional. As nice as it sounds, I'd love
to think that God can trust us to do whatever he wants us to
do. Unfortunately, he can't. So a lot of times he places conditions
on us, conditions of which when we meet them by his grace, he
then advances us into other more responsible areas. We're going
to see that today. We're going to see that with
the Church of Philadelphia, they are radically different than
the church at Sardis, as well as the church at Pergamos. And
so when he says to them, I have opened a door for you, you and
I understand that the person doing this is God. That the church
at Philadelphia didn't open the door for themselves. They didn't
kick the door open. They didn't manipulate the door
open. They didn't bargain the door open. God opened the door.
And let me say as we rehearse some of those principles around
an open door, the context is very, very, very powerful. The master said to the church
in Philadelphia, I have set before you an open door. And what that
means is this. I have placed before you in your
presence, right in front of your face, an opportunity. I've placed
before you a ministry. I've placed before you an assignment.
You didn't have to go looking for it. I was the one that put
that assignment right in front of you. In fact, it's in front
of you now. And the nature of the language there is this. God
placed it there. It is there indefinitely. That means he's never going to
remove it from this church. It's a powerful, powerful tense. The infinitive tense. It's a
door that's perfectly open. It doesn't have to be opened.
It's already open. And it's a door that remains
open so long as Philadelphia wants to enter into it. What
a blessing. Think about that for a moment
now. God sets a door before you. He tells you the door is already
open. It's not opening. It's already wide open. You don't
have to wait for me to open the door. It's open already enter
into the door He's letting the church at Philadelphia know that
he's behind everything that they're doing What a great encouragement
to know that when you are doing the will of God That God would
endorse what you are doing by affirming to you that he has
already established Everything necessary for you to do what
you're doing. What a great privilege particularly when in the process
of doing the will of God, the outward circumstances look so
averse to what you're actually doing. What a privilege for a
child of God to receive from God a personal letter that says
to you, listen, I opened this door for you and this door is
wide open and it's going to stay open indefinitely. I love it. It makes me covet wanting to
be a Philadelphian, but I'm an Oaklander and a Haywinder. And
I want to have the blessings of Philadelphia here, right here
with me. I want God to set before me an open door. I want it to
stay open indefinitely, but I have to meet certain criteria. So
we all do. And so the church at Philadelphia
is highly blessed with this door open. Now you and I also talked
about the concept of the door. It means access into. It means
an opportunity to enter into a dimension, or a purpose, or
an objective, or a goal on the part of those for whom the door
is open. And we talked about several doors
being open. Last week we talked about this
actually being the door of what? Evangelism. Again, sterile term,
I don't want to spend a long time revisiting the concept of
evangelism, but it fundamentally means growing up as a Christian
and doing the business of God. To be an evangelist simply means
to be a grown-up Christian. Did you get that? Evangelism
is a gift from God as are the offices in the church prophetic
offices preaching offices apostolic offices The evangelist is also
an office, but in general evangelism is what God has called all of
us to do. Is that true in the most normative Sense of the word
every believer is an evangelical tool in the hand of God you and
I ought to want to be able to live and die in Having been a
vehicle by which people come to a saving knowledge of Christ
Yesterday I buried a young man 22 years old go. Oh, let me hear
you. Oh Why because he died way too
soon for us I Mean, you know, we would have buried we if I
would have said yesterday I buried a 92 year old man. You guys would
have said oh, okay He lived a long life bless the Lord. He enjoyed
life 92 years out of here. I Y'all would have felt good
for him because of pains and aches and all of that diseases
and sickness You know all the stuff we anticipate but when
I say a 22 year old I am talking about God abruptly Ending his
life on this earth as he does for lots of 22 year olds And
it alarms us when we look at the number 22 I simply I'm calling
your attention to this that he was an object of evangelism God
saved him But he saved him in his mess and he still was in
his mess while saved, so that when God took him home, people
had to struggle with the scandal of the gospel, saving a sinner
who is still in his mess. My joy was this, that in God's
mercy, that young man had been gotten a hold of by the grace
of God, and God was powerfully working in his life before he
took him out by his own indiscretion. So I was able to say, Lord, thank
you, that in the preaching of the gospel, you reach people
in every kind of pit there is in the world. Thank you for that. If I have not been the instrument
by which one person is saved, I can thank God that heaven rejoiced
over that one sinner that was saved. This is how important
these things are to me. That a soul was redeemed and
reaped into the harvest of God before he died a tragic death. so that he was a story, a tale
of two stories, as we all are. Might as well be honest, I had
a chance to preach to a whole bunch of folks yesterday that
vast majority of them didn't know God, didn't want to know
God, but they got to know God yesterday. And the reality is
that saved sinners, saved people are the tale of two stories.
And it's up to you to determine which story you want to believe.
He had a bad story and he had a good story. And I'm so glad
I was part of the good story. And see, even with the Philadelphians,
while you don't know it, they are dealing with the tale of
two stories, too. And we will enter into that. The tale of
two stories is that on the one hand, God in his mercy established
a gospel church in Philadelphia, right up the road from Sardis.
We learned that right. Twenty five miles north of south
of Sardis. He started a gospel church. What
is the context in which that church was started? Well, that's
the other story. See, because sometimes we tell
people about how good God has been to us and how wonderful
life is and how blessed I am and how I'm on top of the world,
but that's only one part of the story. You're not telling the
whole story, sinner. Tell the truth. And so there is always two sides
to the story, which is designed to keep you and me humble. Keep
us walking very humbly. The church at Sardis, Philadelphia,
needs the commendation and comfort and affirmation of Christ at
this time. They need this. Because in their
own eyes, they don't see themselves as all that effective. In their
own personal being, they struggle with whether or not they're even
being effective in their ministry. From their standpoint, they're
struggling with whether or not the call was authentic, whether
it was genuine or not, because of all the hell breaking loose
against them. They're struggling with whether
or not they missed God's calling, were we to be in Philadelphia
or somewhere down the road, because all the stuff that's coming at
us right now, I really wonder, is it the will of God? And here
comes Christ saying, listen, I am the one who set this door
in front of you. And it's wide open. and go into
it. And so we saw last week several
things about an open door. One is that it is largely for
the church a door of evangelism. Secondly, we saw the door to
the kingdom of God open. It was advanced by Jesus Christ
when he came into the world. Him and his cousin John were
always preaching the kingdom of God. Is that him? That's matthews
3 and 4 repent for the kingdom of god is what at hand. It's
not coming. It's here It was here in christ's
day was here in john's day. We know that how because christ
Performed the kind of miracles that only messiah could perform
and in matthews 12. He told the people who were being
duped by the rulers listen If I am casting out demons by the
power of god The kingdom of god is here And it was. And he was calling them to the
kingdom. He was calling them to repentance and faith in Christ.
And people were what? They were coming, were they not?
And so there was not only the door of the kingdom open to sinners,
there was the proclamation, the door of proclamation. Remember,
faith comes by what? In hearing by what? But how can
they hear unless someone what preach so a door of proclamation
was open as Paul said pray for us Colossians 4 that a door of
utterance might be open that we might proclaim the gospel
with boldness as we ought to preach. I love it. You know what
he said pray for us that God opens our mouth so that what's
in our heart can come out of our mouth for out of the abundance
of the heart that the mouth what So what's coming out of your
heart is going to determine whether or not you are an emissary of
the devil or an emissary of God But then Paul went on to say
this pray for us that God would give us boldness in preaching
now In our present context where we are today in the Bay Area
in a country that is largely Open to Christianity. We don't
need that much boldness See boldness is necessary in the face of adversity
Today, I mean, we have manipulated the gospel in so many ways because
we're not thinking about being bold for Christ today. We're
thinking about how we can manipulate people and bring them into the
church. What Paul was saying is I need boldness to tell sinners
the truth. And I told you that one of the
critical evidences of the presence of the Spirit of God is boldness
to tell people the truth at a time when it's going to cost you.
So do you need boldness when you're standing before 200, 300
people who are rank sinners, whose lives largely are hostile
to God, who do all they can to avoid biblical preaching, but
on this day, because one of their partners has been taken out,
they got to listen to a gospel preacher? Does it take boldness
in the life of that preacher not to somehow skirt the issue
that the people that are standing before them are hell-bound sinners? and that they need to know that
their problem is sin. It's not the police, it's sin.
It's not the government, it's sin. It's not social conditions,
it's sin. And that the remedy is a remedy
of the heart, not policy and legislation. You and I need a
new heart. It takes boldness to say that
to people. That's what Paul was talking about. And so one of
the evidences that the Spirit of God is working in you is when
he gives you boldness at the right time to say the right thing
that might get you in trouble for Christ's sake. So I want
you to check that out next time, okay? What does boldness mean?
It's boldness, confidence, the assertiveness to go head on and
say it, even if you're going to take the hit for Jesus. That's
how you know a person's filled with the Holy Ghost. To be filled
with the Holy Ghost is not to shout and jump and holler and
all that mess we do. That's okay. You can bubble over
listen to me to be filled with the Spirit of God is to be ready
to do the will of God at a cost Are you guys hearing me? Okay,
so so so so the Church of Philadelphia was encouraged by Christ in this
regard and we saw that the door to the kingdom was open the door
to proclamation was open go ye to all the world and do what
preach the gospel and And we saw in the book of Acts chapter
16 and in the book of Acts chapter 13 that the door of faith was
open to the Gentiles and that God had opened Lydia's heart
to hear the gospel. Is that true? Do you know God
has to open your heart to hear the truth? That you can't hear
the truth unless God opens your heart? Your heart and mine is
sealed against biblical truth. We stand hostile to God's word.
Now we'll do religion all day long, but we won't do Christ,
not as Lord, unless God changes our heart and gives us a complicity
to the will of God and a desire to do his will because we see
something lovely in him. That requires a radical, radical
intervention into our lives. And so Lydia's heart was opened. Her heart was open to attend
unto the things that the apostles had said to them. So a door of
faith was open. We also saw, didn't we see gloriously
at the end of the message last week, how that God opened a door
to glory for Stephan when he was about to be killed by that
bloodthirsty band of religious hypocrites, and that that door
into glory offset the persecution that he endured so that he could
still pray for them while they were killing him. Lord, do not
hold this against their charge, but as for me, I'm out of here. God has set before me a door
into the glorious presence of God Almighty. Christ is standing
there waiting for me. Don't you want that kind of door
to open up for you when you die? Absolutely! And so this door
thing is a critical, critical component. Now I want to move
you into what I had stated earlier, is that primarily, not exclusively,
but primarily, the promises that God gives us after having established
us in His covenant, which is an unconditional covenant, after
having brought us into the kingdom, He engages you and me definitely
on the principle of obedience and reward, obedience and benefit,
obedience and blessing. And we'll see that here in our
next verse. Revelation chapter three, verse eight says, I know
your works. Behold, I have set before you
an open door and no man can shut it. Do you guys see that? And
here's the next little word that I want you to see. See the word
for, for. It can be easily and probably
more exegetically sound to be translated because. Because now
whenever you see the word because it's responding to some preconditions,
right? Because because why did you do
this? Because why are you opening the door? Because he didn't open
the door unconditionally He opened the door on the premise of them
doing something on the premise of them Believing something on
the premise of the church at Philadelphia in a certain state
and I want you to see how tender and how gracious and how concerned
The master is for his church. Behold, remember that word I
said, pay attention now, I've set before you an open door,
no man can shut it. Watch this, for you have a little
strength. Do you see that? And it's really
because it's our little Greek word, ladies and gentlemen in
Greek class, athi, and it means before or because. Therefore,
on this ground, with this purpose in view, am I doing what I'm
doing because you have a little what? Yes. That's our next point. In fact, it's the opening point
in your outline. You have a little strength. Interesting
concept there. Christ says to the Church of
Philadelphia, the door is open for you to do ministry because
you have a little strength. Last week, I made that point
out to be understood this way. And you can embrace this. This
is true. When it comes to God all you and I get is a little
strength Behold with me this is the Sun all you get is a little
strength But with God all you need is a little strength So
so see what we're gonna do now is massage just for a moment
that statement Because you have a little strength I have opened
a door wide open for you because you have a little strength. You don't have great strength,
you have a little strength. Now this is the observation of
the present Lord of the church. He's the one in the church, right?
He knows all of our condition, right? He knows the state of
every church, right? The church in Philadelphia is a church that
apparently didn't have much going by way of prominence, by way
of power, by way of influence in the larger culture of Philadelphia,
but they had a little bit going. And that's all God needs to work
with, just a little bit. So now the term, a little strength
is a very, very advised term. The word little is the word from
which we get the term micro, micro. And when we go into micro,
we talking small, like microscope. Microscopic as opposed to macro
micro and that's what our Lord means little Little now there
are other words in the Greek for little this word is micro
You got microscopic strength. I don't sound all I doesn't sound
all encouraging But I'm glad that my sister put the strength
in the color red, because so long as that strength comes from
God, I don't care how small it is, it's strength enough to do
what God has called me to do. So Father, give me micro strength. Now there's a number of lessons
that come out of little strength. The first is I want you to contemplate
is this, that strength in itself is a what? Do you believe that?
Strengthens again. So by nature you and I are not
strong in the Lord nor in the power of his might Do you know
that? How many times a day or a week does a God have to show
you that if he takes his hand off of you? You have no strength
at all So our father through his gracious son gives us just
enough strength To know it's him doing the work and not us.
I So theologically we understand this to be true. David said in
Psalm 18 verse 32, watch this, because strength comes from you,
I'm going to wait on you for it. He said, because strength
comes from God, I'm going to wait on God to give me strength.
Now, is that good? Watch this now. It is God that
girdeth me with what? And make it my way perfect. See,
David understood that God was the one that gives strength.
And I think it's the third verse or the 33rd verse that would
underscore that David therefore waited on the Lord. I wait on
the Lord because my strength comes from Him. He's the one
that makes my way. He's the one that sets me up.
He's the one that leads my path. And I want you to understand,
therefore, that even the saints of old understood strength coming
from God, not from themselves. Strength comes from God. You
and I are powerless in our own selves. We are weak in our own
selves. Strength comes from God. And
therefore, in many cases, we do have to wait on God, don't
we? We have to wait on God to empower
us to do His will. Isn't that what the church was
told in Acts chapter 1, verse 8? Tear ye here until you be
endued from on high with power, right? So that means that the
church in its native state did not have power intrinsically.
They had to do what? Wait on it. They had to wait
on it. That's humbling, isn't it? But if you're going to do
the will of God a right, you need to wait on his strength.
So strength comes from God. You and I have to wait on it.
And the word strength there is our Greek term dunamis. It's
our Greek term dunamis. And there are several words in
the New Testament for strength. And I am not sure why we translated
it here. Dunamis, it really should be
translated power. Because we do have Kratos strength. We do
have exousia. We do have different words for
strength in the scriptures, but they mean different things. Like
Kratos strength, be strong in the Lord and in the power of
his might. I hope to actually develop that in the conference.
Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might is a different
term than power with regards to what God is talking about
here. Kratos means the the ability from within as a gifting of God
to hold your place, to hold your place. That's what Kratos means.
Exousia is another word that we often translate power, but
really it's merely the authority that God gives you to walk in
the identity for which he called you. As many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the what? It's not an energy
or a dynamic by which you somehow become a son of God. Exousia
simply means the right, or the privilege, or the position, or
the status, or the office. For those of us who are children
of God, we are children of God by right, by status, by position. It's conferred on us as children
of God through Jesus Christ, but we didn't obtain it by some
power we exercise. Am I making some sense? I am
not a child of God because somehow I am exercising a vigorous power
to sustain my identity. No, I'm a child of God because
God has conferred upon me the right and privilege and status
of sonship. It does come with it, the availability
of power to actually demonstrate my sonship. But when we come
to the word dunamis, it is the word that we frequently hear
the apostles speak about In Romans 1, in 1 Corinthians 1, I am not
ashamed of the gospel for it is the what? Power of God. It
is the power of God unto what? Salvation. Which means this.
Power in the biblical sense. In this sense, the dunamis from
which we get the English word what? Dynamite? Is targeted power. Controlled power. With the objective
of accomplishing a specific goal. It's not just random power. It's
not just chaotic power. It's targeted power. What that
means, ladies and gentlemen, is that when God saves us, He
saves us for a targeted purpose. And He graces us with power for
a targeted purpose, not to just be powerful. I'm powerful. No, you're not. No, you're not. You're not powerful at all. You're
weak in yourself. The power comes from God. And
the power is with a particular objective, and that is to first
save you and then to use you as a vehicle for the salvation
of others. And so when you and I talk about the power or the
dunamis of God, we have to evaluate ourselves and ask the question,
is it authentically true of me? Am I the object of that power? Has God saved me? Have I experienced
the dynamite, the targeted objective of God bringing me out of darkness
into his marvelous light? That is powerful. And then, if
I possess that power as Christ is saying the church at Philadelphia
possesses that power, do I exercise the gift of power in my life
in a fashion that fulfills God's will? Am I a vehicle by which
the dynamite in me is able to target a lost sinner? and blow
up the strongholds around him so that he or she is set free
from the darkness that has them entrenched or held in captivity. Am I making some sense? What
I'm saying is this is a targeted thing. This is an intelligent
thing. This is a purpose thing. This is just, I'm sorry, this
is not a Clint Eastwood lighting dynamite sticks and throwing
things and just blowing things up. God ain't just blowing things
up. Are you hearing me? He's destroying
strongholds through biblical truth by which human beings can
be brought into a saving knowledge of him. It's a targeted, targeted
power. Here's what he says to the church
of Philadelphia. You have a little power. And what that means is
your influence is seen in heaven. Your influence is seen in heaven. This is why I was so jazzed about
the funeral yesterday. First of all, I was jazzed about
it because it was so scandalous. I loved it. It was so scandalous.
Bikers and dope fiends and alcoholics and crazy people was in there.
All kind of folk cussing and tearing up the place. I just
knew my religious brothers and sisters that was there, they
was having a tizzy trying to hold on for life. Lord, where
we at? Where we at? We were in the midst
of hell. where one of God's objects had
been saved but hadn't climbed all the way out of the pit. And
because I had to go in there being the man that God used to
save him and have to testify to his salvation, some of y'all
had to climb into the pit with me. And y'all didn't know y'all
was into a pit until some of those hellish people started
talking. I was like, Lord, thank you, thank you, thank you. About time my church folk ran
into some real bona fide sinners. Because see, here's what happens.
Here's what happens. You get all cleaned up and you
forget the hole from which you were dug and the pit from which
you were hewn. And then lost sinners are a strange thing to
you because you're too holy for them. His auntie up at the mic cussing
like a sailor. I'm like, go ahead on, Lord.
See, because I knew I was going to preach anyway. See, I knew
I was going to clean that stuff up anyway. So get it all good
and dirty. Get it all good and dirty. So power is the gift that God
gives us with the one targeted objective of potentially seeing
a soul saved. And the content of that power
is one thing, preaching Christ. That's all. That's the content
of those dynamite sticks that we throw at targeted traps, is
the preaching of Christ. And some of y'all were there.
Did Christ get preached? In the midst of that hell. In
the midst of that hell. So that's what our job is. And
our master said to the church at Philadelphia, this is why
I'm opening the door for you. Because you have retained the
gospel. I want you to hear how this works.
This is very interesting. Let me bother your time for half
an hour and we'll be done. Mark this. The door is open. It will never be shut. It's an
infinitive perfect verb form because you have a little power
and you have kept my word and you have not denied my name.
Do you see that? Behold with me, all you get is a little strength.
Strength is a gift from God. Are you persuaded of that? Strength,
however, also is a collective project. That's our second point
under that particular heading, right? Strength is collective.
It's not just you, it's you and the what. Do you believe that? Strength is collective. Now,
now, now, Mark this. Now, when he says you, he's speaking in
the larger plural form of the church. You have a little strength.
He wasn't talking about one member in the church. He was talking
about the whole church. So now, Mark the saints, when we think
about grace and the doors that God has opened for grace and
the ministry that we're doing at grace, when you think about
the teaching ministry here and the outreach ministry here and
the radio ministry here and all the other ministries we are doing
here at grace, You must think of them as one unit, that we
are all together involved in that one objective. From the
eldership, the teachers on down, we are all involved in the one
targeted objective of the salvation of sinners from little children
to old people in prison, in old folks home, convalescent homes,
in the dope house, and in the halfway homes, wherever we are
preaching this gospel, we're all doing it together. Two are
better than one. And a threefold cord is not easily
broken. When one falls, the other can
pick him up. And God sent them out two by
two. Am I making some sense? And then
more than that, he went with them. He never left them one
alone. I'll go with you when you go.
I'll be with you when you do my will. I'll let you know that
I am working in you, the willing to do of my good pleasure. Are
you hearing what I'm saying? So now, follow this now, divest
yourself of the notion of this narcissistic idea that it's you
and Jesus alone. Because while it's you and Jesus
alone, I promise you, not only do you not have a little strength,
you don't have any strength at all. Help me, preacher. While it's just you, me, myself,
and I, you didn't even cut Jesus off. You're all by yourself. And that's why you're not seeing
deliverance in your own life, deliverance in your family life,
deliverance in your children's life, deliverance in the sphere
of influence that you're in. Cause it's all about you. So
long as it's just about you, you have denied the faith. Are
you guys hearing me? And so it's critical for you
to know that our Lord, when he says you have a little strength,
he's talking to the church collectively. And here's one of the evidences
that they have a little strength, a little power. You have kept
my what? Yeah, I love it. You have kept
my word. That's the next thing that I
want us to consider. And I suppose that's under the second point
in our outline. You have kept my word. You have
kept my word. Now I want you to mark what's
being said here, because again, the technical aspect of the language
is critical. He says you have, it's a past
tense idea, kept my word. And what that means is there
was a point in time where there was an event or a circumstance
or an era in the which the church at Philadelphia was tested. with
whether or not they would keep the faith. And they kept it. So stay with me now for a moment.
When he says, you guys have kept my word, he is marking an event,
an era in their life. We call this an aspect verb.
It's an aristist. And what that means is it's a
fact that there was a time in history when the church at Philadelphia
was tried and they kept God's word. Do you know there were
times when you were tried and you didn't keep God's word? Tell
the truth. You failed so miserably. And in God's mercy, he lifted
you up, washed you off and said, try it again. Am I telling the
truth? But see, for the church of Philadelphia
on this occasion, what the master is saying to them, the reason
this door is open to you is because when you were tried and everyone
who has the true gospel will be tried. When you were tried,
you kept my word. The word kept means to guard.
It means to preserve. It means to watch over. It means
to keep intact. In other words, the Church of
Philadelphia, when they were challenged, they didn't find themselves distorting
biblical truth to accommodate their own situation. They didn't
start dissembling essential doctrinal truths by which they could accommodate
the challenges that were before them. They held the whole package
together and told the culture that was coming against them,
this is the truth. And whatever consequences are
going to come from this truth, they will. But we're not compromising.
See, the church at Sardis had compromised the truth, hadn't
it? How do we know that? Jesus says, you have a name that
you're alive, but you're dead. which means they were accommodating
the culture because they didn't want to be persecuted for the
gospel. The church at Pergamos had compromised the gospel. How
do we know this? Because in Pergamos, dignitaries and rulers were prominent,
and what they didn't want to have to do was suffer for Christ's
sake, and so they burnt the incense and they called Kyrios Lord.
The church at Thyatira compromised the gospel. Why? Because their
churches had been penetrated by humanism, secularism, and
all of the cultural idolatries at that time. So they fully abandoned
the gospel and the church at Pergamos too. All churches of
which I am saying our Lord admonished and warned that he would destroy
them. Remember? The church here at Philadelphia,
there's no such warning. So now mark this, saints. They
are a small church in a very prominent society Philadelphia
was very known in the Roman Empire culture, very prominent. They
were a small church and they appeared to not have much going
by way of resources. And yet they were doing the work
that God had called them to do. You know what they were not doing?
They were not saying, because we don't have 5,000 members,
we can't get the work done. Because we don't have 10,000
members, we are not that influential in the Bay Area. Because we don't
have this, that, or the other. See, you can make a thousand
excuses for not doing the will of God. And people do. You can make so many excuses
for not doing the will of God. But with God, there are no legitimate
excuses. If you know God, you have everything
necessary to do what God has called you to do in your own
little sphere. And until you and I are happy,
with serving God in the small things, you probably won't ever
see the bigger things. Just call it a wrap. Oh, yeah,
you'll be in the kingdom, way in the back, cleaning the back
room in the closets because you was content not doing the will
of God in a humble way down here. And I've said it before, didn't
own this. This is not with me. This is not original with me.
But in heaven, the angels, they don't care whether they're sweeping
the streets of gold and glory. are the ghettos of West Oakland,
so long as they're doing it for God. Are you hearing what I'm
saying? See, this is a critical truth
to get a hold of. This is why it's important to see our Lord
is not only telling them the door is open, immutably, because
you have just a little strength, but that strength was enough
for you to do what? Keep my word. Under that two
points, the reward of his mediation. Do you know Christ prayed that
we would keep his word? John chapter 17 verse 6. Father,
I have kept them in thy truth. Now they're going to be left
in the world. Keep them in thy own name. He said in John 17
verse 17, sanctify them in thy truth. Thy word is what? For
this cause have I sanctified myself that they might be sanctified
in thee. And therefore, when you and I are found keeping God's
word on any level, do you know what it is? It's God keeping
us that we might keep his word. God was keeping the Philadelphians
that they might keep his word. I really am enjoying God's commendation
and tender care of the church at Philadelphia. Let's keep going.
You have kept my word. That's the consequence and reward
of his mediation. It's also the evidence of our
election. Let me dig in here just a little bit. All kinds
of people talk about being Christians. But Jesus made it very clear
in John chapter 10 verse 27, my sheep hear my voice and they
follow me. And another, they will not follow. I give unto
them eternal life and they shall never what? Perish. Now the reason
why they follow him is because they are his what? That's right.
Now mark this, to follow Christ means to obey his word. John
chapter 8 verse 31 if you continue in my word Then you are my disciples
indeed and you shall know the truth and the truth shall what
continue to liberate you stay with me Saints The vast majority
of Christians are me Say one thing and do another We have
this gargantuan Presumption that we are locked sure Christians
and we're not doing the will of God That hurts but it's true
When we think about what Christ called the church to do, we take
up that imperative, that command seriously. You have to admit,
by and large, it's not getting done. We have been swept away
by the culture. We're not doing the will of God.
So pray for me. I'm praying for you. Because
when I read the scriptures, are you ready? We jacked up. See, because the job of the Christian
should be 24 seven looking for opportunities to advance the
cause of the gospel in our local sphere and then our larger sphere.
See, my eyes are not closed. I'm not under the delusion of
religion. I love the word. I thank God for using me. I want
him to use me more and more and more and more. I want him to
use you more and more and more. Listen, but we're not doing the
will of God. I'm just telling you the truth. We're wasting our time. Is that
true? I told you, an honest person
ain't going to hell. Are most of us wasting our time? We spend
a whole lot of time doing nothing but foolishness. So see, God's
not going to bless you just because you're hearing the truth of the
gospel. You and I have to confess our sins. God, we are not right. And so you don't even get to
experience the little strength, the little strength. The evidence
of our election is that when God calls, we hear. And when
God calls, we come. And when God calls, we believe.
And when God calls, we obey. That's verse 31 and 32 of John
chapter 8. Second Thessalonians 2, 13, pull
that up on the screen. We believe in the doctrine of
election because we know that God is the one who chooses us.
We didn't choose God. God chose us. You did not choose
God. Don't even twist your lips and
say it. Before he cut the lights on you
were living like hell they loved that and then God came in his
omnipotent power and in his gracious strength Start bringing you to
a knowledge of himself and change your heart and warmly melted
your heart, opened your mind to your sin. You didn't even
know you were a hell bound sinner until the word of God came in
power. You were just doing church. You thought you were all right.
You thought you were righteous. You were hellish until you saw
the glory of God in Christ and he convinced you that you were
the only sinner in the world. And then you were ready for his
righteousness. which is a free gift given to all who believe
on his name. And faith is a gift of God. Don't ever think that you have
faith intrinsically. And for those of you who are
actually saved, understand this, faith is a gift. Because it ain't
even operating on all eight cylinders in our life after salvation.
I'm so glad I can tell y'all the truth. You ain't got to show
up next week, but I got you today. I got you today. See, because you know what's
going to send you to hell? False churches. False churches
are going to send you to hell, making you feel all right when
you're not all right at all. The one institution that should
not steal God's glory in the matter of salvation is the church.
And the church is always stealing God's glory. It's making God
the one who needs us when we need God. It's making God the
one who appeals to us when we should be appealing to God. God
ain't doing no negotiating. He's actually rescuing sinners.
You better work with that. He ain't negotiating with you. Either you're His or you're not. He's not negotiating. He's saving
His elect. And the evidence that you're
His is when the Gospel comes, it makes sense. It becomes the
most logical thing in the world. And it's the thing that you want.
That's exactly right. And so when we say that they
had a little power, they had the power that was necessary
for them to be able to receive Christ as Lord and hold on to
his truth. Look at verse 13. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you. Brethren, what? Beloved of the
Lord. Because, there's our word again,
God has from the beginning, what? Chosen you. Park it right there.
That's our word election. That's our word, election. Election
and chosen are the same words in the Greek language. Just changed
over because of the smoothness of the sentences. Because God
elected you to what? Salvation. So now watch this
now. Election is not salvation. Election is unto salvation. The
only reason I'm saved is because God elected me. Oh, you better
get that. I'm saved. If you are, it's because
God chose you. He chose us under salvation,
and he would infallibly bring us to the point where we came
into a saving knowledge of God. Again, Petey is the young man
that we're talking about. I heard the program back when
he was 17, 18 years old, listening, just living a toe-up life, came
to the church. We called him Nicodemus in our
sermon yesterday. You know how Nicodemus came to
Jesus by night? I don't care how you come, you better get
there. You better get there in the middle of the night. I don't
care how dark it is, you better get there. Nicodemus snuck to
Jesus at night because Nicodemus had a checkered life. He hung
out with bloodthirsty criminals who were religionists. And he
knew had he openly identified with Jesus, his life would have
been done with. Sneaking around. Jesus, can I get a minute with
you, man? I don't care how you get the minute with him, get
the minute with him. And see, he died, Petey died
before he could come to the light. You don't know, but this is often
the way God works. Because see, when you get brought
to a place of maturity, you've been a Christian for 10, 20,
30 years. Some of us have been Christians
for 700, 800 years. Yeah, we walk around with stripes
on and stars and all studded and everything. I've been a Christian
for a long time. Don't have no fruit behind us.
Been a Christian for a long time. No fruit. No fruit. Been a Christian. Your suit's so heavy with stars.
I've been a Christian a long time. No evidence of it. No children. No fruit. Been a Christian a long time.
What you been doing all that time? And we got a chance to
see sinners come to the mic. Unpretentious sinners come to
the mic and talk about how Petey used to share the Word of God
with them, feed them, clothe them, give them cigarettes. Yeah,
give them cigarettes. See, when you're on the street
late at night, a cigarette gives you a little comfort. That's
so funny. The dope feeder comes up and
says, I remember Petey, man, he would come over. You need
a cigarette, man? Oh, I needed a cigarette so bad. See, that
was his door into sharing the gospel with him. You can hate
Petey's method, but I'm just telling you that's the scandal
of the gospel. Oh, yeah. Because if a brother
trembling and shaking, he ain't hearing you until he can calm
down. Let him calm down. Let him calm
down. Let him calm down. It's 30 degrees
in Richmond under one of those underpasses. He's freezing to
death. And Petey, the only one there, hollering at him. He do
other stuff too, but I know you ain't going to handle that. You're
going to flip over your seat if I tell you the other stuff he
did. Bless Petey. Bless his heart.
He just didn't make it out. He didn't make it to the light
like the rest of us are. But he was doing authentic, raw,
uncut evangelism. They came to his funeral. I asked
some of the folks there, when you die, how many folks are going
to come to your funeral and talk about what you did for them in
the name of God? Are you hearing me? How many
people are going to come to your funeral and talk about what you
did for them in the name of God? Well, I think I know. I think
she used to show up at the church, you know, once in a while. Are
you hearing me? Am I resonating with you? This
is so important. It's so important because we
largely will talk about religion in terms of folks out there.
But I'm here to tell you, you can be trapped by religion. You
can be trapped by religion. Listen to what he says. God has
chosen you from the beginning to salvation through what? Sanctification
of the spirit. See, the third person is working
on behalf of the first person to bring you into salvation through
the instrumental means of what? Believing the truth. Do you see
it? Stay with me now. So God long
ago saw you, even before you had a being. And he had marked
out a place where he would meet you in a crisis. And in that
crisis, he would claim you as his own. You would hear the gospel
that day and your life would be forever changed. The spirit
of God would seal you as his and then begin to deposit biblical
truth into your life. Are you hearing me? So way down
on the inside, deep down in the soul, in the core of your essence,
in the core of your reality, God entered in and cut the lights
on. And from there, he began to instruct you and tell you
who he is and what he did and why he did it. And on the inside,
the light was on, but on the outside, it was still pretty
dark. This little light of mine, I'm
going to let it shine. Right? But it takes a while before
you start doing that. Because people look and they
say, I don't quite see nothing. What light? It takes a while
for the truth of the gospel on the inside to manifest itself
in your sacrificial service to others for Christ's sake. And
that's because by and large, we're selfish. So see, mostly
the song goes like this. This little light of mine, I'm
gonna keep it here. Oh, this little light of mine,
I'm gonna keep it here. This little light of mine, I'm
gonna keep it here. So no one in the world knows
but me. We go to your funeral. We go
to your funeral. We go to your funeral and say,
was he saved? What was he saying? They went
to church. All right, I'm almost done. I said I was going to get done
at 1245 today. I'm going to get done at 1245. You have kept my
word. It's the reward of his mediation.
He prayed for us. The only way we can keep God's
word is to have a great high priest who intercedes for us
to keep us, that we might keep the instrumental means by which
we came to know him. It's the evidence of our election.
And then you have not denied my name. Powerful. You have not
denied my name. Go back to our PowerPoint. We're
there. See there. Bottom line. No other
name. Do you see that? So I'm not going
to stay long on this because we are also in a country where
this is not too big of an issue yet. In the first century, the
name of Christ was a big issue. The book of Acts is clear. The
rulers who are the main protagonists with which we have to deal with
here now, they told Jesus' disciples Don't you preach in that name. You die for preaching in that
name. Are you hearing me? But see,
Christ had already told them, listen, if you're gonna be my
disciple, you're gonna have to take up your cross, you're gonna
have to deny yourself, and you're gonna have to follow me, and
you're gonna suffer for my namesake. You're gonna be hated by all
men for my namesake. They're gonna persecute you for
my namesake, and they're gonna kill you for my name's sake. Are you hearing me now? See,
most people would not sign up for salvation if we made it that
explicit today, they wouldn't sign up. They would suck because
you understand what you're signing up for is to suffer for his name. Are you guys following me? But
can you see the master coming to the church of Philadelphia
saying I love you? I love you. I love you because
you are demonstrating your love for me. I'm leaving this door
wide open. You can share the gospel with
anyone you want to. In fact, you can share the gospel
as long as you want to. And let me say this before I
get to my last point. The door was open to the Philadelphians
all the way up to the ninth century AD. What you mean preacher? Can you imagine a church surviving
for almost a thousand years? That's how wide the door was
open. Bishops in the 1st century, bishops in the 2nd century, bishops
in the 3rd century, bishops in the 4th century, bishops in the
5th century, bishops in the 6th century. The 8th century Nicene
Council had bishops from Philadelphia there. That's a wide open door.
You know what that means? The gospel stayed in Philadelphia
almost a thousand years because of a little strength. See, for
us today, churches end in about three generations. They end in
three generations. The first generation, they're
solid. The second generation, they're moderate. The third generation,
they're superficial. The fourth generation, they're
dead. Are you hearing me? God says this door will be open
for a thousand years for you. Ah, but don't think they didn't
suffer. They suffered. So when our master
said you did not deny my name, you kept my word. Guess what
the cost was. martyrdom. History has it that
in the second century, the church at Philadelphia in one season
had 12 bishops to be killed at one time in the era of Polycarp. So listen to what I'm saying.
As Christ is comforting and encouraging the church there to continue
preaching the gospel, you know what he was not saying? You're
not going to suffer. They were going to suffer. They
did suffer, but the door stayed open. Are you guys hearing me?
Now, I want to go to our next verse and just introduce it and
we will fully develop it next week. Verse 9, are you there? 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 your feet and to know that I have loved
you. Again, you are third party listeners
to a conversation between two individuals in the first century.
Its application is to us, but you must learn what's taking
place. This is a direct commendation from Christ, letting the church
know that I'm going to make it publicly known that I love you. Now watch this. This is a husband
talking to his wife. I'm going to let everybody in
the world know that I love you. I'm going to let all the folks
that's telling you that you're not loved of me, that I love
you. In fact, I'm going to let the
very folks who say that they love God and God loves them when
they're lying, know that I have loved you. The phrase I have
loved you is an old Hebrew term that identifies with the covenant
people of God who were the Hebrews. I have loved you with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with loving kindness,
have I drawn you to myself. You only out of all the nations
of the earth have I known in an intimate conjugal way, God
says of Israel. But he's not applying that to
Israel now. He's applying it to his elect in Philadelphia. which was a congregation of Jews
and Gentiles who believed on Jesus Christ. You know what Christ
was doing? He was throwing down the gauntlet
in the midst of Philadelphia, letting them know, I want you
to hear me now. You are the true Jews. You are the true people of God,
not those liars in the synagogues of Satan who are blood descendants
of Abraham. who can send their pedigree all
the way back to the 12 tribes, they are not the people of God.
You are the people of God. You who believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, you are Abraham's seed. You are the true Jews. Are you
hearing me? You are the true Jews, not folks who are circumcised
in the flesh, whose praise is of men, but those who are circumcised
in the spirit, whose praise is of God. You are the true Jews. We are the circumcision, Paul
said in Philippians 3, that worship God. We rejoice in Christ Jesus
and we have no confidence in ethnicity. He said it in Galatians
6. That's why I gave you the root
text of Galatians 6. And peace be upon the Israel
of God. Such as are not taking confidence
in their circumcision. Because circumcision is nothing.
And uncircumcision is nothing but a new creature. See, unless
you are a new creature, you are neither Christ nor Abraham's
seed. But if you've been born again,
if you trust Christ your Savior, if He's Lord of your life, He
then has brought you into the family and you are just as much
an inheritor of the Abrahamic promise as Jesus Christ is. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? Now, we'll work this through more fully, but I just
want you to see what He says. Can you imagine, child of God,
a letter coming to you? You've been beat down by life.
They then killed your cousin, killed your uncle, killed your
loved ones, killed your pastor. They're threatening to take away
your income. They're threatening to ostracize
you because that's what happened to the believer. And all of these
providential reverses begin to beat on your conscience and make
you think maybe the Lord didn't left you. Maybe I'm not in the
will of God. Come on now, tell the truth.
Isn't it true that difficulties make us question the favor of
God? Is it true? Yes, it does. Unless
you're strong, unless your eyes are fixed on Him, unless the
promises of God are so rooted in you that when the winds of
adversity blow, all you know to do is hang on Jesus. But there
are sometimes when Christ must show up in extra special measures
to reaffirm again and again and again that you are my child.
You are my son. You are my daughter. You are
my bride. You are my wife. You are bone of my bone, flesh
of my flesh. When they persecute you, they
persecute me. And they've got an answer to
me. Don't you move. Hold your ground. Let them know
that the church of the living God is the bride of Christ. And he that touches you touches
the apple of my eye. And they've got the answer for
that. Alright, I'm done.