Tonight we're going to preach on the devoted church, Revelation chapter 3 beginning in verse 7. This is the church of Philadelphia. Revelation chapter 3 will begin in verse number 7. 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 has kept my word, and has 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 hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Let's have a word of prayer and get into the message. May I ask Brother Joe if he'll pray for us, please. Now we come in our study of the churches in the book of Revelation to the church of Philadelphia, the next to the last church that John writes to. And we notice in the passage here that before we get into what the church is and how we can get some practical help from it, I want us to notice some prophecy points. I've been giving you some points each time regarding Bible prophecy because I believe that there are specific prophecy details regarding some of these churches that will be out in the tribulation. Almost every time he mentions something to do with the Jews, These apostates that are claiming to be Jews, you've got to realize, during the Tribulation, God will primarily be dealing with the Jewish nation, specifically. The Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven that was preached during the earthly ministry of Christ will be the same Gospel that will be preached during the Tribulation. It's called the Gospel of the Kingdom. and the Gospel message is the news that Jesus Christ is coming back to set up His Kingdom on the earth. We don't preach that Gospel. We preach the Gospel of the grace of God that a person is saved by grace through faith in the finished work of Christ. We're not preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven, which was preached during the earthly ministry of Christ. There are several differences and I want you to notice some of these points here if you will. Notice first of all in verse number 7 he mentions the key of David. Now take your Bible if you will and go to two places. First of all Isaiah 22 and then Luke chapter number 1. Isaiah chapter 22 in the Old Testament and Luke chapter 1 in the New Testament. The key of David relates specifically to the house of Israel. to the nation of Israel. You know, of course, David was the second king of Israel, the king that God chose after His own heart. And David was God's chosen king, the great king of Israel, reigned 40 years before he died and passed on the throne to Solomon. And God gave special promises to David. And He gave him what's called the sure mercies of David, and He promised that He was going to give him a son to reign on His throne forever and ever and ever. Of course, we know that's not Solomon, we know it's not Rehoboam, it's not Abijah, it's not Abijah, not Joash, Josiah, none of those guys. We know that has reference to Jesus. Jesus was in the lineage of King David, which we'll study when we get around Christmas time. And in Luke chapter one, we'll see that as well. Look in Isaiah 22 and notice this thing about the key of David. If you'll come down to verse number 22, Isaiah 22, 22. And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder, so he shall open and none shall shut, and he shall shut and none shall open. And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place, and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house. It's all Jewish. It's all speaking of the nation of Israel in restoration. Come over, if you will, to Luke chapter number one. And notice the prophecy that's given before the Lord Jesus Christ is born. Luke chapter number one. Luke chapter number one, come down, if you will, to verse 30. 30, I guess. Luke chapter one, verse number 30. Luke 1.30, And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God shall give unto him, look at it, the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for two years. He shall reign over the house of Jacob for a spiritual period of time that you spiritualize and devotionalize. No. He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end. This points to the same thing that we read about in the book of Daniel when this stone comes down cut without hands and it smites the ten-toed kingdom that we see in the book of Revelation and it busts it up and then that kingdom spreads and takes over everything. Jesus Christ is the promised King, so this reference here in Revelation has to do with Jesus Christ as the King, the Messiah on the throne of David. Now come back to, if you will, Isaiah chapter 49. I want you to notice the Jewish context of everything that you're reading over there in Revelation. If you get the Jew in the right place in the context of what you read, you'll pretty much be right doctrinally and prophetically. Isaiah chapter 49. And I want you to make sure you keep your hand over there in Revelation. We've got to look in verse number 9, Isaiah 49, and make sure Revelation 3. Let's look in verse number 9. Notice what he says in Revelation 3 about this church. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not, but do lie. He's talking about these apostates that are claiming apostolic authority. He says, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet and to know that I have loved thee. Look at Isaiah 49. Come down, if you will, to 22. Isaiah 49, 22, Thus saith the Lord God, behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles and set up my standard to the people. And they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders, and kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers. They shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth and lick up the dust of thy feet. And thou shalt know that I am the Lord, for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty or the lawful captive delivered? But thus saith the Lord, even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered for I will contend with him that contended with thee and I will save thy children. And when you look at those passages, you see a direct correlation between what he's saying to the church of Philadelphia. You have these apostate Jews that say they're Jews and are not. And the Lord says, I'm going to bring them and show them who's my people. Also, there's another prophecy in the Minor Prophets that says there will be a pure language on the earth and people will try to speak the language of the Jews. Do you realize they're speaking Biblical Hebrew today over in Israel? No language has ever survived that far. None. It's an amazing fact. So as far as prophecy is concerned, this has to do with the dominance of the Jews over the Gentiles. And look in verse number 10 of Revelation chapter 3, notice works are mentioned. He says, because thou hast kept the word of my patient, I will also keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them that are upon the earth. You see, the hour of temptation could be nothing more than the tribulation time. There's nothing that I've ever come across in my life and God says, this is the hour, the hour of power. What does that have to do with us? Just like I haven't went out and tried to find manna this morning so I can have something to eat. So we see that this obviously has a reference in prophecy to a future time. If they keep something, if they endure to the end, which we've already studied Matthew 10, 32, Matthew 24, 13, Hebrews chapter 6, Hebrews chapter 10, and some other passages. If they endure, they hold out, they don't take the mark of the beast, they keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus Christ. He'll keep them during this time. God keeping them is based on them keeping what God said. It's not that way with us. We study that in 2 Timothy chapter number 2. If we deny Him, what happens? He deny us? Send us to hell? No. He can't deny Himself. The Bible says, 2 Timothy chapter 2. So obviously this is prophecy relating to the tribulation time. Also notice if you will, verse number 11. Behold, I come quickly. Hold that fast which thou hast. You'll see the same thing toward the end of the book. Look in Revelation 22. Revelation chapter 22, come down to verse number 20, the next to the last verse of the Bible. Revelation 22, 20. He which testifies these things saith, surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus, the last prayer in the Bible. So we're dealing with a prophecy that's right on the edge of the coming of Christ to this earth. And that's where we're dealing in Bible prophecy. So these Jews, they're in the tribulation. They know he's coming quick. They better be real careful. They better watch for their souls because if they fall in temptation and they take that mark, they're finished. Very, very dangerous time. You see, the best thing to do is to go ahead and get saved now to avoid going into that thing. The best thing to do is try to get as many people saved before that thing takes place because when that happens, all chaos will ensue. And most people, the Bible says, will be deceived. Notice one more thing here, a couple more things. Verse number 12 of Revelation chapter three, the reference to overcoming, which we've covered before, so we won't go over that. And then in verse number 12, notice there's a name that is written on their forehead. Notice he writes a name, he writes upon him the name of his God. And I say forehead because look at Revelation 14 one. Look in Revelation chapter 14, 1 here. In Revelation 14, it's the same group you find in Revelation 7. Revelation 7, you find 144,000 Jewish virgin men that are on the earth. Revelation 14, the same 144,000 Jewish virgin men have been raptured to heaven, which will take place right toward the end of the tribulation. Notice Revelation chapter 14, Revelation 14, 1. And I looked, and lo, a lamb stood on the Mount Sinai. And with him, that's not Mount Zion on the earth, it's Mount Zion up there, Psalm 48, 1. On the Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 having his father's name written in their foreheads. They're redeemed from the earth, it says, they're in heaven. So this has reference specifically with someone, the devil's gonna be giving his mark, he's gonna be giving out his name, God says, you're gonna give out your name, I'll give out my name. I'll know who are mine and you know who yours. And God marks them. So that's obviously a reference to the tribulation time. Now let's go back here and it says to the angel of the church of Philadelphia. Where was Philadelphia back in this time? Of course, you get your maps out, you can look, it's real close to the other churches, about 100 miles east of Smyrna, 20 miles southeast of Sardis. It was founded in 150 BC. by King Attalus, I don't know if I'm pronouncing his name right, of Pergamon, and his nickname was Philadelphus because he was very fond of his brother, I can't pronounce his name either, Eumenus, Eumenus I think, and Philadelphia means a lover of his brother. City of brotherly love, they call it, and I think they still call it that today. And Philadelphia is, of course, a city that's, in the scriptures, in this point in time, a city in which John the Apostle is writing to, so you have some historical references to these people that are trying to serve God and trying to do what God wants them to do, but also we have a picture, as we've said before, of a parallel age. And when you begin to look at it, and the amazing thing about this is, the Lord says nothing negative to this church at all. Unless you want to say, He says you have a little strength, that that's negative. I don't really think that's negative though, we'll talk about that in a second. But as far as parallel goes in history, you're looking at the 18th and 19th century, after you get past Sardis, which is the dead era of the Reformation when everything You know, it goes back into formalism and so forth. Now you're dealing with the Revival Age. You're dealing with when you begin to see mission work explode in church history. And you go back and you'll find those German Moravians begin to have prayer meetings, and you'll find over in Germany and England, you'll find the Puritan movement. John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim's Progress, the best-selling book ever outside of the Bible. You'll find people like John Newton, who was a Puritan. The Great Awakening comes with the Wesleyan Revivals with George Whitefield and John Wesley over in England and over here in America. You begin to see this. And it's amazing what takes place. I'm talking about literally cities being converted. And when you had a place in this country when the awakening was taking place over here, it got to where if somebody said a curse word on the street, I mean, they were just looked down upon. Anything ungodly and immoral was viewed negatively, and people had a high Bible literacy knowledge. Even people that ran for public office, they would quote the scriptures in great detail, even if they weren't converted. They knew the Bible and they were so much of a spiritual emphasis in society, unlike you've never seen in the history of mankind. Jonathan Edwards here in this country, the Great Awakening, the old-time Methodist circuit riders who went in the rural areas. William Carey in England got a vision of India and eventually went there. Robert Moffat and his son-in-law, David Livingston, whom you heard about, went to Africa and did great exploits for the Lord. American missionary Adiram Judson went to Burma, and he was a pioneer in mission work. Hudson Taylor went to China. And you begin to see how God uses a handful of people, and that mission effort just explodes. The door is opened wide, all over the globe. You begin to see it cut down, like in China, they begin closing the door, and God says, okay, close the door on me, I'll close the door on you. And you begin to see some of that stuff. Japan and some other places. But it's unparalleled in history, the mission work that took place and the revivals that took place in this world, as far as church history is concerned, in this period. I mean, you can go back to apostolic age, you won't even find anything like it. I'm talking about thousands and hundreds of thousands being converted. It began to die out in the 1900s, you get around 1930, the thing fizzles out. Billy Sunday's the last of the great revival preachers, and the thing begins to just fizzle out and it's done, it's gone, it's over. There's nothing like it never has been. The next age coming is Laodicea, which we're currently in, unfortunately. Now, I want us to look and see what made Philadelphia great. Are we living in the Philadelphia church age period? No, we're not. Does that mean we just say, oh, none of that's going to apply to us, you know, we're gloom and doom and everything's going to be bad and we're going to get eggs thrown at us and everything? No. That's not how we should look at it. We need to look at it as our church. Do we want to be a Laodicean church or do we want to be a Philadelphia church? As a Christian, do I want to be a Laodicean Christian, or do I want to be a Philadelphia Christian? Or do I want to be a Sardis Christian? Lord help us. So when we look at this, what made them great? Now I know that it's the hand of God, and that's the first thing I want to mention, point number one, is the providence of Almighty God. You see, I believe God interjects himself in history. I know it's not all man, and we know it's not all God. We know man's got to be willing, but we've got to give credit where credit's due. We've got to give glory where glory's due, and glory goes to God. God opened the door, and God did something very special right here. And to deny that is to deny the truth of the gospel. And you see it right here in the passage, he opened the door, the providence of Almighty God. I believe some of these missions fields today, you take Israel, that's a hard place. Syria, I got a letter from the Faglies, one of our missionaries, they've closed 14 of their churches in Syria, 14, just shut them down. What are you gonna do with a country like that? How do you think God feels about a country like that? What do you think of these countries that just take a Christian and will kill him? Do you think God is going to send him the gospel? Or do you think God is going to shut the door? He did it to China. It looks like he did it to England because England is turning to Moslem. And he may be doing it here. Some of you, you really don't realize where you live at. You really don't get it. We have got the gospel over here like nobody else has ever gotten. Ever in the history of the world. It's the providence of Almighty God. And you've got to view it as that, we've got to view it as such, and we're blessed, and thank God, I'm so glad I was born here and had an opportunity to hear the gospel, and to be raised around where I could get some good Bible teaching and get the gospel. I know we're living in apostasy days, I understand that, but there's still enough of it that trickled down that old, that well that, or spring of water, you know, that everybody's throwing the dirt in and all, it's still trickling off down there a little bit. I'm still getting a taste of it that way down the stream. We're still living off a little bit of those blessings. But you gotta look back to the providence of God, and as we think about Thanksgiving, all the pilgrims, they all use the term providence all the time, referring to God Almighty. Bradford, in all of his letters, he'd keep referring to that. They come, you know, they don't land where they want to land. They land at Plymouth Rock, and here they are, not knowing what's gonna happen, and here's this Indian comes walking up, Squanto, I think's his name, and he comes up and, hello, old chap, how you doing today? He speaks English. Now, how did that thing work out? Squanto, about 14 years earlier, I think, or served 14 years in slavery over in London, in England over there, and he served as a slave and learned the English language. He comes back to America, and his tribe has been wiped out by a plague. And here he finds the pilgrims, and he's able to communicate and able to teach them about planting and taking care of some things so they survive through the first winter, and that's part of our heritage right there. What did the pilgrims call it? God's providence, sending that man. He may have been the first convert. When he died, he said, I want to go to the white man's heaven. He may have been the first convert on this soil. The providence of God. Now look at the passage here in verse number seven. He says, these things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David. Notice the integrity of the one whom this message comes from. We're not dealing with a message that's just coming from John. He says, you know, I think I'll write to these churches You know, see if they'll send me an offering. That's not what John's doing. John's writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, and God is dictating, God is sending something to these churches. He that is holy, he that is true. So when we talk about the providence of God leaving things into God's hands, you're not leaving your life in the hands of a man. You're not saying, okay, you know, I'm just gonna leave my life in the hands of the government. Times get hard, you know, they'll just take all your money from you. They're not out to help you, they're out to take from you. They suck the society is what they do. They suck all the resources out of it. But it's the integrity of the one whom the message comes from, he that is holy, he that is true. We're dealing with God himself and God's the one, we talk about the providence, we're talking about God leading things and moving circumstances in our life. If we're going to be the Philadelphia type of church and a Philadelphia type of Christian, we've got to trust in God. And when you sit around in your rocking chair and you go back and forth worrying, what are you telling, what kind of message are you sending God? You're saying, God, I really don't think you can handle this. I really don't know what you're going to do. Do you realize who you're talking to? He that is holy. He that is true. He doesn't make mistakes. Let's look at these open doors. It says, He that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth. Take your Bible and let's look at a few of these passages. Go to Acts chapter 14 and then we'll go over to the Corinthians here. Acts chapter 14. Come down to verse number 27. What are these open doors? I've already kind of spilled the beans about mission work, but I want you to see this. Acts chapter 14. Acts chapter 14, verse 26. Acts chapter 14, 26, And thence sailed to Antioch, from whence they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled. And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how He had, look at it, opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles. They said, you won't believe this. The Gentiles listened. God gave us an opportunity. He opened the door. We preached the gospel. They heard and they believed. God opened a door, is what they said. Flip over to 1 Corinthians 16. 1 Corinthians chapter 16. It's not all up to your intellect. It's not all up to your preaching. It's not all up to your methods. It's not all up to your money and financing great mission projects. It's up to God Himself. You've got to realize a lot of these missionaries we read about during the Philadelphia age, they didn't have the financial resources to do anything. Very meager financial resources, yet God still... Isn't it funny how we don't think God can get by without our dollar? But He can get by fine without it. He's done it throughout all the years. God will get His work done when He wants it done. Look in 1 Corinthians chapter number 16, come down if you will to verse 9. 1 Corinthians 16, 9. For a great door and effectual is open unto me, and there are many adversaries." There's a great door for Paul to preach the gospel. Look over in 2 Corinthians 2. 2 Corinthians 2, a couple pages over. 2 Corinthians 2, verse number 12. 2 Corinthians 2, 12, furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, so on and so forth. Colossians chapter four, a few books over, Colossians four. Colossians chapter number four. And verse three. Colossians four, verse number three. Colossians 4.3, 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. So he says you're praying for us and I appreciate those prayers that God would open a door. A door is an opportunity. An opportunity for us to share and to preach the gospel is what he mentions. Thomas Edison said opportunity is missed by most people because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work. Are we going to be the Philadelphia type of Christians who see the door open and go through it, or are we going to be like the Laodicean Christians who see the door open and say, somebody ought to go through that open door. Yep, there's an open door. There it is. Right over yonder. The Philadelphia church, they went through the opportunity, the open door. It's kind of like this, when you go to those stores, you ever go to Winn-Dixie and you grab up all your bags, you know, because who wants to use the cart, you know? Just go ahead and get them all. I love these bags. In the old days, they had all them paper bags. You can't carry a whole bunch of them. These little bags they got now, you can put one on each finger. These are little bags, and you can carry them, you know? And you don't even have to open the door. You get close enough to it, and they have these amazing devices, and you step on them, and the doors open right up, and you walk right through them. That's a neat thing. But you know what, if you stand there about 10 feet from it and you don't get across to where the censer is, it's not going to open. And you can stand there holding your groceries all day long and say, yeah, I sure wish that door would open. I sure wish that door would open. I sure wish that door would open. And then you drop the eggs. You've got to walk toward the door. What we read about in Joshua this morning, if you go back one chapter there, well, they come to the River Jordan The Bible says the priest, he told the priest, you get your feet out in that water first, and then once the priest's feet get out into the water, I'll open it for you. But he didn't tell him, okay, I'm going to open it up real nice and clean, and then you walk. He said, you walk in it first. You see, we want the door to open up from a mile away and see it nice and clear and plain and, you know, get on our Cadillac and just kind of scoot over there and go right through that. God says, you're going to have to walk up to the door. The Philadelphia church, they were not scared and timid and shy to progress forward to see if God was going to open the door. It takes a little guts and it takes a little courage sometimes to see if God's going to open that door. You've got to go out there. He says, I'm going to open the door. There were two shoe salesmen and they were sent across to this region in a third world type of country. They didn't know both of them were there. They didn't see each other, they were in a big enough area, but it was a place where people didn't have shoes. Well, there were two letters that came back, back in the old shoe salesman days. Came back to the company, one of them from a guy he wrote and he said, you don't need to send me any shoes down here, they don't wear any. Well, the next guy wrote a letter to the company, he says, send me as many shoes as you can, they don't have any shoes down here. See the difference? Some of you look at it and say, that door ain't ever gonna open. Well, maybe you're not close enough yet. God opens the door, it's our responsibility to be ready and willing to go through the door when he opens the door. We sit on our blessed assurance and wonder why the door never opens. That's what happens. Closed doors, you say, what does that mean? Well, when God closes the door, he closes it. Notice what he says, he shutteth and no man openeth. You ever try to get into a door when the thing's locked? It's a hard thing to do. And you can't break it free. God shuts the door, no man can open. I think about Noah. The Bible told Noah, God told Noah, he says, I want you to get on the boat. And Noah's like, well, when I get in, how am I going to close the door? You know, ain't nobody on the outside. I can't get a ladder and kind of hang. You just get on there. I'll take care of things. The Bible says the Lord shut him in. I said, why do you think it happened that way? I think the Lord had to shut him in because Noah would have probably risked the lives of all the humans and all the animals on that thing once he heard people screaming and scraping and clawing to try to get in that thing. There wasn't any way for Noah to open the door. God shut it. He said, what about those babies? God let them die. I mean, Noah's flood, they're holding the babies above their head as the water gets higher and higher and higher, and they're trying to get on that boat, and God won't let them on. I said, why? You see, when somebody dies and goes to hell, they can try to get out all they want. They're not going to get out. When he shuts the door, the door is shut. People think, well, I'm going to die and have a second chance. I'm going to get up there and I'm going to make my case before God. I'm going to tell... You're not going to do anything. He's going to slam the door and you're not going to open it. Once he shuts the door, you can't open the thing. It's the same thing as far as opportunities goes. God gives you an opportunity. Sometimes he opens another door. He gives you another opportunity because we're so wicked and we're so lazy and we're so sinful that we don't take the opportunity. Sometimes he'll give you another opportunity. But when he closes the door, he closes the thing. There's nothing you're going to do to get in it. So what's the lesson learned? The lesson is you better go through the door when he opens it. You better learn how to recognize the opportunities. Alexander Graham Bell said, when one door closes, another door opens. But we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, we do not see the ones which open for us. Looking at past regrets, looking at all the, look at that door that got closed, look at that door that got closed, look at that door. Well, what about the one he's opened for you? What about the opportunity he has given you? What about how God has blessed you? What about what he's opened up for you? Maybe the plan that he's got for you all along. Don't view the closed doors as God's anger or wrath. Sometimes it's because of your sin, but most of the time it's to protect us. Paul wanted to go from where he was in Antioch, and he wanted to go east, and God never would let him go east. You'll notice that in the book of Acts. He always made him go from east to west. The Holy Spirit always moves in that direction. Even over here in this country, when revival came, when you study church history, it always goes east to west, just like that. And he tried to go and God closed the door and closed the door and closed the door. When God closes the door, you can't go through it. What do you do then? Sit there and sulk? No, you look for other opportunities. Don't try to beat down the door. We need to get to the place where we trust the providence of God more than we do. He's the one who shuts the doors. He's the one who opens the doors. We have to see that. Because if you get to a place to where you think it's all left up to you and it's all man, look, I know that there's a balance here. I'm not taking responsibility off of you. But you got to understand that some things are completely in God's control. And there's nothing you can do about it. No matter how much you pray, look, you can pray and be praying against God's will. Our job in prayer is to pray according to the will of God. The reason sometimes we don't get our prayer answers is because we're not praying according to the will of God. Amen. Come on now, how's your prayer life going here? Prayer is not so much trying to get God to do what we want Him to do, it's trying to get us on the right page. So we're praying according to God's will. And if you pray according to God's will, He hears you. Going, trying to go through these closed doors and beat down a wall and trying to go in the back way, that's not going to get you anywhere. The thing to do is to trust the providence of God. It takes patience. What about David? You know, he loved God. I know he got messed up, but he loved God. He wanted to build that temple so bad he could taste it. He had the means. He had the plan. God gave him the map. He had the means. He had the map. He had all this. He had the money. Went out and got all the stuff. What did God tell him? You can't build it. Closing the door, son. I was like, why, Lord? Well, he didn't really ask why, he just accepted it, but God told him, you can't build it because you've shed too much blood. I'm going to make your son build it. David said, you know what? If I can't build it, I'm going to do as much as I can for my son. I'm going to build up everything I can. I'm going to do as much as I can to help him. I'm going to step back and be number two. Let Him be number one. I don't have to get all the glory. The door's closed for me, but it's not closed for Him. You know, I might not be able to go on the mission field. I might be at a time where I can just put a few dollars on the plate to help somebody else. But I might be number two, but I'm gonna help somebody else go through the door. The door's been closed for me, but somebody else is going through it, and I'm gonna pray for them and help them and push them through the door. That should be our attitude. Hey, there's not one missionary on the field today or one preacher preaching the gospel today that could do it without people like you sitting in the pews. Nobody. You say, well, the door's closed for this, door's closed for that. A door may open somewhere else or God may have you help somebody else get through a door. The providence of God. Notice also in verse number eight the powerlessness of this church. It's kind of a contradiction of terms. He says in verse eight, I know thy works behold, I've set before thee an open door and no man can shut it, but thou hast a little strength. They had a little strength. Well, they have some, they had something, but it was small. We sing the song little as much when God is in it. Of course, a lot of times we sing it at the wrong times. We sing it right when we're going to take up the offering. That's not good. People don't put much in then. But the message is true nonetheless. Little is much when God's in it, as long as God's in it. David goes against Goliath, he's a little nothing. There's this big giant, but God was with David. So you see in the passage here that they had just a little strength. You can't focus on how little you are. You gotta focus on how big God is. See, it's not about your strength. Paul the Apostle, you think, oh man, he's a great intellectual man, he's a man that surely he had all these things. Paul didn't have anything. If you were to see Paul today, you would think, you know, he probably smelled. I mean really, he didn't get to take frequent baths, you know, he had to sleep where he could. And Paul the Apostle was closer to God and did more, wrote three quarters of the New Testament. Some of them, the letters that we read, he wrote them from prison. But God was with him. And God used him. He took that man. Paul says, you know, my speech, my bodily presence is weak and my speech is contemptible. But God used him. There are people like that all through the scriptures. They had little, but God used them. Think about the little woman, little maid that told, the king of Syria told him about the prophet in Israel, Elisha, when Naaman was sick with leprosy. Her name's not even given. The widow in Zarephath, her name's not even given. All through the scriptures you find people just like that, who were kind of insignificant, but God used them in a great and mighty way. The Philadelphia church, that's what they are. You say, well, I don't have a whole lot. Well, praise the Lord, you're a candidate. You say, well, I'm kind of weak, and I'm like Moses, my speech is not very good, or I don't have much money, or I don't have much talent, or I don't have this. Praise the Lord, that's who the Lord's looking for. Not many wise men after the flesh are called, not many mighty are called, not many noble are called, it says in 1 Corinthians. God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty. And the base things of the world hath God chosen. The things which are not to bring to naught the things that are. Why? Why does he say it in 1 Corinthians? That no flesh should glory in his presence. You see, when God takes somebody that's just a little one, just a nobody, and He uses them, that person says, you know what, I know it wasn't me, because there ain't no way I could have done anything. It had to be God. Because I don't have enough talent, I don't have enough authority, I don't have enough of what it takes. It had to be God to use me. That's why God will take a little church like this right here, a handful of people, and God will do something with us if we want to be a Philadelphia Christian. He's not looking to say, well, let me go find a church that's got a $2 million budget that I can use. No, he's saying, let me find a little church with a handful of people. I think I'll use them to send some missionaries. I think I'll use them to get some people saved and to bring some revival in that community. They had a little strength, but they were a great candidate. The Bible talks about the resurrection. The body, when it goes down in the tomb, I don't want to be gross, but if you go and you were to go to the graveyard and dig up those graves and open them up, that's pretty weak looking. If you were to look at those bones and say, get up! You'd just see a bunch of long fingernails and hair, bones laying there, they wouldn't do anything. Clothes. It's sown in weakness. You ever see a person right before they pass from this life, Their breath, I've seen it where people, they get to where their voice does not project very loud anymore. And it gets lower and lower and lower. And finally, when they're on their deathbed, it's just a whisper. You can barely hear it. And even their breath is just so very weak. You put a mirror right in front just to see if they're alive. It's weak. God says, it's sown in weakness, but it's raised in power. God's gonna take that body that we think, oh, there's no way this bag of bones could rise from the dead and be glorious. God says, I'm gonna take that bag of bones, I'm gonna take those dry, dead bones, and I'm gonna raise them up in power. I'm gonna clothe them with sinews and flesh, and I'm gonna put my spirit in them, and they're gonna have a resurrected, glorified body, raised in power that'll never die again, that'll live for eternity. Paul said about himself, he said, I had this thorn in the flesh. And he went to the Lord three times and said, Lord, I'm weak, I can't handle this, I got this thorn. And he besought the Lord three times, Lord, take it away, Lord, take it away, Lord, take it away, remove it. The Lord said, I'm not gonna take it away. My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. If you were to see Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, you'd say, what a poor soul. Here's a man on his hands and knees in the winter time, the cold time, sweating profusely, in agony. What a poor soul. He wasn't a poor soul. In his weakness, he had his greatest triumph. You were to go to the cross when he's hanging there completely naked and brutally beaten within an inch of his life, hanging there with the blood streaming down and the gory picture that it is, you'd think all hope's gone for that man. No, all hope has been given because of that man hanging on the cross. See, God sees it a little differently. We see this little Philadelphia jerk. Well, God can't ever do nothing with them. You know, God will never do nothing when, you know, this tinkerer, John Bunyan, you know, walks around here fixing people's pots and pans, wrote the greatest book ever in the history of man, The Pilgrim's Progress. Unbelievable what we see when we just step back and view the power of God. Well, what do they have? They were powerless, but thank God, verses 8, 10, and 12, notice they were persistent. Verse number 8, he says, thou hast kept my word. He says it again in verse number 10. Thou hast kept the word of my patience. What does that mean? Well, they were true to God's word. They kept it. God said something, they believed it, they didn't go against it, they kept it. They didn't lie about what God said, they didn't try to change what God said, they didn't try to corrupt what God said, they simply kept what God said. I think if we're gonna be like a Philadelphia church, we're gonna have to be persistent about some things. We're gonna have to be persistent about the Bible. I'm just as strong on this than I ever have been. As we come on the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, I'm stronger than I've ever been on this. I hope the rapture's next year. Maybe we'll go to heaven in 2011. 400 years between Malachi and Matthew. Maybe there's 400 years between the Bible and the English language and the rapture. I hope so. I hope so. We need to be persistent about keeping God's word. Don't change it. Don't try to water it down. We need to keep it. We need to do what it says. You say, well, I believe the King James Bible. Okay, do you practice and do you live the King James Bible? A lot of people believe it. A lot of people, that's what they quote, but are they living it? That's the thing. They kept the word of his patience. That's what they did. Notice what they didn't do, verse eight. They didn't deny his name. Now back there with the church of Sardis, he said, there are some people that are defiled. Then he said, if you confess my name, I'll confess your name before my father. So there were some people that were denying his name. They were saying, oh, I don't want nothing to do with, I'm not a Christian. They were ashamed and they just kind of stood back in the shadows and they didn't want to be counted with the Christians. I told you that story about the Viet Cong, when they came in to get that one guy, they were knocking, they heard he was leaving and they said, they said, are you planning to leave the country, you know? And finally, when they came back the second time, he said yes, you know, because he was going to be honest and so forth. He had made a vow to God. They said, well, good, we want to go too. It's like in one of those communist countries, they came in the church and they came in with guns and they said, everybody who's not a true Christian, get out of here. And of course, several people left and they threw the guns down. They said, OK, let's have church. And then they had church. You see, you really find out when it comes to your pocketbook and it comes to your family and it comes to whether you're going to keep the lights on, whether you're going to really be true to Christ or not. Now, folks, you think all this is fiction and it sounds like something that's foreign because we haven't had to deal with it. This stuff is going on as we speak in some parts of the world. And it's just the flip of a switch. It'll be taking place right here. Just a few legislative moves, and no more Christian schools. No more homeschool education. And see, and I fear that when it begins to touch our children, that's when people are gonna say, enough is enough. There's still enough individualism in Americans to say, we're not gonna deal with this. That's when you're gonna have bloodshed. It's happened in every other age, why are we exempt? So what didn't they do? Well, they didn't deny His name. When it came down to it, they said, you know what? I'm going to be named with Christ. When it came down to it, they said, I'm not going to give, I'm not going to sway, I'm not going to deny Him. He's been faithful to me all these years, why should I deny Him? That's what they didn't do. And notice what He told them to keep doing, verses 11 and 12. He said, Behold, I come quickly, hold that fast which thou hast. He tells them to hold on. to persevere, to be persistent. 1 Thessalonians 5, 21, prove all things, hold fast. I like that word, it's kind of like steadfast. In other words, there's movement involved. I think of fast, I think about running. I think about electricity or something fast or the wind blowing, something fast, but he says hold fast. There's something that doesn't move, just hold it. There's movement, in other words, there's growth, but yet it's holding. He says, hold fast that which is good. He's telling the church, look, you've done some things right, and you didn't do some things that were wrong, but here's some things you need to keep doing. You need to keep holding on. Persevere. Not in order to get saved, not in this age. But you need to persevere. Plug on through. Don't give an inch. Don't back up. The Bible says, having done all to stand. Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, having on the blessed plate of righteousness and shield of faith and helm of salvation. So we are to stand fast. We are to hold on to what God's told us. You say, why? Because if you're not careful, you can lose some of those things. Now, not to get in great detail, but as far as the judgment seat of Christ is concerned, 2 John verse 8, this passage, some others, it seems to imply you can lose some of your reward at the judgment seat. He says, don't let anybody take your crown from you. Don't do some things to where you lose ground. I think the church today, we've lost ground from where we were. We can look back and say, man, we were much closer to God, much straighter as far as our doctrine and preaching and Christian living is concerned then, then what means we've gone back? If you look back in your life and say, man, I sure was closer to God then, that means you've lost ground. You should be able to say, you know, I'm up further than I used to be. You know, my want with God is better than it used to be, than it was back then. In other words, I'm holding my ground. He says, be persistent. The Bible says, hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. He said, who's going to try to get you to waver? The world. The world will try to get you to waver. They'll come up with all kinds of things to try to get you to doubt. These young kids in college and high school, they're throwing all this stuff at you. All this supposed scientific evidence to disprove the Bible. We spend billions a year on NASA programs and all these other programs for one reason, to try to prove there's no God. I mean, really, that's the bottom line. We spend billions of dollars on these, I don't know what they call these, these disks out there that are trying to find signals from Martian life out there. Intelligent people spending money on stuff like that. Say why? To try to disprove Genesis 1-1. So the world is going to try to get you to waver, people that you live around, even family sometimes. Well, why you got to go to church on Wednesday night? You know, well, you're always at that church. Can't you come to the family reunion? Why do they always want to have them on Sunday anyway? What's wrong with Saturday? Well, it's been Sunday for 55 years. Look, I know people, if you're always here and you miss a Sunday here and there, you know I'm not going, where were you at? I'm not going to jump all over you. I understand that. I even missed church when I went on vacation. You didn't call me and ask me where I was at, did you? Thank you. OK. But the idea is that people are going to try to get you to waver somewhere down the line. And then your flesh will get you to waver. Your flesh will start talking to you. I mean, you don't need to read the Bible today. You read it yesterday. Come on now. Your show's coming on. Don't worry about that. You can sleep in, you don't have to get up and pray. You ever wake up in the middle of the night and you feel an urge to pray? Best thing to do is pray. Instead of trying to go back to sleep. They'll try to get you to waver. He says in Hebrews, hold fast to the profession of our faith without wavering. The devil will try to get you to waver. You know what he'll do? He'll come at you like he did Job. He'll persecute you and he'll touch you where it hurts. It's easy right now, when things are going good, to say, oh, I'd be like the Philadelphia Christian. I'd stand the test. But boy, when he starts touching those places where it hurts, that's when you find out whether you really love the Lord. That's when you find out whether you're gonna stand amidst all the trouble around you. Well, it tells him to hold fast, and then finally, verse number 12, it tells him to overcome. Him that overcometh will I make. You know, one day our trials will be done. One day our troubles will all be passed. We'll be able to look back on everything and it'll seem just like a moment. I know for some of us it seems like eternity. Here when you go through a trial or tribulation you never think you're going to get through it, but it'll pass. This too shall pass. One day we'll be standing on that bright and heavenly shore and we'll be looking back on all this. The Bible says, he'll create a new heavens and new earth. The former shall not be remembered nor come into mind. Rejoice forever in that which I create. Behold, I create Jerusalem rejoicing in joy of her people, Isaiah 66. So when we think about these things, Philadelphia, they had a mindset of persistence. They were gonna overcome, I believe, because they had the view of eternity instead of the view of just down here. While we look not at things which are seen, but the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, the things which are not seen are eternal. I think we need to turn our eyes toward him. Let me ask you this in closing. Will you be a Sardis Christian? You have a name, but you're dead. Will you be a Laodicean Christian, which we'll talk about Wednesday night? A church that has all these things. and is prosperous but deep down they're miserable and poor and blind. Or will you be a Philadelphia Christian that says, you know what, God's opened me a door. I'm gonna go through that door. I'm gonna take the opportunity God has given me to live the Christian life God wants me to live because there's a better day coming and I wanna get a reward for my Savior. I want to do something that's gonna endure for eternity. Heavenly minded instead of earthly minded. Let's all stand with our heads bowed and be dismissed in a word of prayer.