There is a message here, as I've already indicated, that doesn't really contain any rebuke as such. You remember that when the Lord spoke to Ephesus, he said, nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee that has left thy first love. So there's something that the Lord pointed to that was a great fault in that church. We have noticed, again, in the church at Sardis, that the Lord talked about them having a reputation without the reality. They had a name that they were alive, but they were dead. And isn't that how it often is with individuals? If you ask them, are you saved? Are you a believer? Are you a Christian? They'll answer in the affirmative, oh yes, I'm saved, I'm a Christian. But yet the reality could be very much different. They could be what we often refer to as a false professor. the church at Sardis, therefore the Lord Jesus found fault with that church. And of course, as I've pointed out, if the Lord really spoke about each of the churches as they actually were in every aspect, he would have been able to find fault with them all, because there's none of us that is sinless. But yet, isn't it a wonderful thing when the Lord comes to a congregation like that in Philadelphia, and he's able to say of them, Thou hast kept the word of my patience, verse 10, and I will also keep thee from the hour of temptation. He goes on to encourage them, because he's coming quickly, verse 11, therefore hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Don't backslide, don't let down the guard, don't dip the flag, don't lower the standard, because I'm coming again. and him that overcometh the Lord gives a promise too, that he would bless such a person. The church in Philadelphia had a name, which we've already pointed out means in the Greek, phileo and adelphos, brotherly love. The apostle Paul, in Hebrews chapter 13, encouraged the Lord's people that he exhorted them, let brotherly love continue. Of course, there's the thought there that if we do have brotherly love, that can actually change. We can cease to love our brethren. We might say, well, we've plenty of cause for that. Well, maybe they would say there's plenty of cause not to love us as well. But let brotherly love continue. Now, just because someone is my brother doesn't mean that I will always agree with him. Just because someone is my brother does not mean that I will always be able to worship with him. You say, how so? Because we have instances in the Scripture where men are to be put from your company even though they are believers. We're not to reject certain people, as if they were worldlings, as if they were ungodly, but we are to treat them as brothers. Let brotherly love continue. But even though they're brothers, there still has to be the exercise of biblical discipline, true discipline, which involves withdrawing sometimes from them. That's the reason why the Free Presbyterian Church in Ulster got started. Sometimes I've spoken to people and they've wrongly thought that the Irish Presbyterian Church in 1951 was entirely apostate. It was not. It was not. Far from it. In fact, many of those who were involved in refusing the pulpit in Crossgar to the Reverend Paisley at the time were actually believers. They were professing Christians. But there came about the necessity to separate from them. There are some people who seem to have the notion, and I've heard ministers speak this way, that separation is only to be from apostates. That separation is only to be from those who are not saved. But that's not scriptural. It's not scriptural. There are instances when we must withdraw ourselves, for example, from a brother that walketh disorderly. Read what it says in 2 Thessalonians about that. The church in Philadelphia was a faithful church. The name of the church, the name of the city, brotherly love, I do believe that they were known for that characteristic. But when the Lord spoke to that church, he began by introducing himself in a certain way. He did that with each of the churches. These things saith he that, and then he gave the description of himself in every case. In Ephesus and so on, each of the messages is slightly different in the sense that he begins the same way every time. These things saith he, but then the description of himself is different. And he will say in every case, I know thy works. Every single church, the Lord says that to them. I know thy works. Whether they're good or whether they're bad, the Lord knows what their works are. But when he spoke to the church in Philadelphia, he introduced himself in this way. Verse seven. 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. Now, as you read this particular message, you see that at least three things are mentioned that are closely linked. In verse 7, he speaks about a key. He that hath the key of David. But he also speaks about a door in verse 8. Behold, I have set before thee an open door. And then he speaks in verse 12 about a pillar. He that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God. A key, a door, and a pillar. Now these are symbolical descriptions, as you often find in the book of Revelation. You'll read of Lucas and you'll read of men with long hair and different things like that. They're symbolical descriptions. I believe that these symbolical descriptions refer to Christ, who possesses the key, to Christ's church, which has the door open before it, and then the third one to the conqueror, or the Christian, or the church itself, the individual Christian within the church, who is to be made a pillar in the house. of God. Now there's a relationship, there's a genuine relationship that exists between Christ's master key, the church's open door, and the pillar in heaven. Now last time we were looking at the open door. I don't want to repeat all of that today. But when you think about a door, it suggests opportunity. an open door, not a door that's closed, an open door. That suggests a door that you can go through. It is a door of opportunity set before you. Whereas a door that is closed brings before us the idea of a lost opportunity or an opportunity that has passed by, never to return. The open door, the closed door. The door is a metaphor that's used in two particular ways, two chief ways in the Scripture. There's the door of salvation, and that's a door that is entered and must be entered while you are in time and not in eternity. I quoted in one of the messages recently, the little children's chorus that I used to sing in Sunday school. One door and only one, and yet its sides are two. The inside, the outside, on which side are you? One door and only one, and yet its sides are two. I'm on the inside, on which side are you? Great challenge there in that little chorus. The door of salvation. You have to enter that door. while the opportunity is there. And then there's the door of service. I have set before thee an open door. This is something that God has done. God himself has opened the door. The door hasn't been pushed open or forced open by the believer or by the church. I recall when I was praying about entering the ministry, And my dear mother, who's a really wise woman, she used to say to me after I'd told her that I believed the Lord had called me into the ministry, she said, son, let the Lord open the doors for you as you move forward. Don't try to force open any doors. Don't think to yourself, now there's a place I'd really like to minister there and I'll do whatever I can do to get there. And that may not be the will of God. That may not be where God wants you. When I was a student in the theological hall, there were about, oh, I guess seven, eight, maybe nine vacant churches. And the students often were the first ones I would call upon to preach in those churches. Sometimes they'd have lay preachers like my father. but they wanted to have the students to get opportunities to preach, but also because it was not always easy to get ministers who were already in churches to agree to go and preach there. Because sometimes if you went from your own church to preach in another place, the people would get the idea, oh, he wants out of his own church, he wants to get a call to this church. And the minister may not want that at all, so therefore he will kindly decline, say, thank you, but I don't feel led to come at this time. My mother used to say to me, listen son, the Bible says that the Lord opens doors. He sets doors before you. And when it comes to preaching, you have to remember this, that the Lord gifts men and your gift will go before you. And that gift itself will be what God uses to open the door. I never forgot that. An open door, it's a door of opportunity, but it's a door that is set before the believer and before the church. The Lord says, I have set before thee an open door. This is a door that God has opened. And he went on to explain that if it's a door that God has opened, nobody will be able to shut it. The devil will not shut it. There've been many times through the years in my ministry when I've thought maybe the work would decline to such a degree that it would shut. Even right here in Lehigh Valley. One time we had one of our many departures. That's something that tends to follow me around. Don't ask me why. There must be something about my aftershave or something, but people come for a good length of time and then they're gone. They're away. And you don't always know the reason, but there it is. And if the Lord leads people to another place where they're happy and where they're blessed, praise God. But I remember one particular departure, series of departures that we had here, it was way back, I think it was 2005. And there was a big crowd that Sunday morning. We were in the Christian school over there on Green Street. Arrived in on Sunday night. It was me, June, Rachel, Rebecca, and four others. I remember saying to the folks, the whole bunch that had been there in the morning, they had told me they were leaving. And they did leave. And I stood up, I remember it well, and I said, folks, this is a Bible. I have a call from God, and that call is to here, not somewhere else. As long as God has called me here, and he doesn't tell me that I'm going somewhere else, I'll be here. So if you show up, I'll be here with my Bible to preach. And I can tell you, the church has never been without people since that. There's always been some, sometimes few, sometimes more. But you see, when God opens a door, no man can shut it. One time I got to the point where the finances were such that I was going to have to think about secular employment. I remember talking to my wife about it, and without going into all the details surrounding that, I was looking for part-time employment. I remember going down to a motel. June sat in the car and prayed, and I went into the motel foyer, and I was going to go up to the desk and ask for a form to work as a desk clerk, because I saw the times and it would allow me to be there at nights and so on and still have ministry. But as I was standing there about third in line, I remember it was almost like this voice came from heaven. It wasn't a voice from heaven because I don't believe in that. But I remember thinking, it was like the Lord saying to me, did I not call you to the ministry? Yes. Have you ever had to go into secular employment since you were called to the ministry and ordained? Nope. It had been many, many years at that point. When the disciples were called, Peter and Andrew and James and John, what did they do? They left their employment, they left their boats and their nets, and they followed after Jesus. And then we're thinking, that's what I've done. I left secular employment. I had several jobs. I left those jobs, and one in particular when I knew God was calling me to the ministry. So you're gonna turn back and go back on that and go back to secular employment? Can I not meet your need? These thoughts were going through my mind. I remember turning on my heel out of that motel and back out to the car, and I said to my wife, I can't do it. I can't do this. This is not God's will. We're gonna have to trust the Lord to meet the need. And I think it was a day or two later, I got a call from someone who wasn't even in the free church, telling me that God had put me and my wife on his heart and his wife's heart, and they wanted to support us, not the church, not the work, they wanted to support us, personally, financially. And the amount that he was going to support me was the exact amount that I realized I'd had to cut my salary in order to Let the church make it. See, God's faithful. And when God opens a door, no man can shut it. It's a door of opportunity, and it's a door that the Lord will give us opportunities to serve Him over and over again. The Philadelphian Christians had a unique opportunity to serve the Lord in their day and generation. And this morning, there are open doors that are set before you and set before our church. unique opportunities to serve the Lord Jesus Christ in our day and generation. There are, of course, open doors in many parts of the world. Some doors are not open, some doors are closed. Some doors have been foolishly closed, but actually they haven't been closed, because the Lord's keeping them open. and the Lord will bless them as they move forward. I believe that with all my heart. There are opportunities, of course, that cannot be maximized because of the lack of manpower. You listen to preachers and even missionaries. They'll always tell you there's a need for servants. There's a need for laborers. The church urgently needs Christians. with zeal who will count all things lost for Christ and will be willing to hazard their life and their reputation for Christ. There are open doors today, many of them. Sometimes there are folks that are not willing to go through those doors. But God often sets before his people what I would call a personal door. We talked about that last time. It's a personal door. It's a door for you to go through. There's a work for Jesus only you can do. You're not responsible for somebody else's work. They're not responsible for yours. The Lord has given you a work to do. And it's a particular door. It's a door of gospel opportunity. One man of God said that if someone is not interested in bringing others to heaven with him, then that man has a great question mark over his own testimony. Is he going to heaven himself? if he doesn't have any desire for others to go. And then, as a powerful door, God made sure that there was a hearing for the gospel everywhere that his people were sent to proclaim it. And that encourages me. The Lord will make our witness effective by the power of his Holy Spirit. Of course, the door of service can often be a problematic door. The Lord confessed here to them their lack of power. He said, thou hast a little strength. I'm not sure what he means by that in verse number eight. Does he mean that they don't have many numbers? It's a small congregation, thou hast a little strength. Did he mean that they didn't have much strength financially? They weren't very well off, is that what he meant? Or was it just that they didn't have a lot of spiritual power? or they had few resources in terms of talents or ability. And yet, despite the problems, God can make any door of service to be a great and effectual door. You see, the increase comes from the Lord. Didn't Paul talk about that in 1 Corinthians 3? He talked about his own ministry, the ministry of Apollos. And there were people there in Corinth who were just like people in every generation. Oh, I like his preaching. Nah, I'm not so fond of his preaching. I like his preaching better. And so these people had their favorites. And some of them said, well, I'm of Paul. And others said, well, I'm of Apollos. And others, well, I'm of Cephas, or Peter. He's my favorite. And Paul said, well, who are these men? Who is Paul? Who is Apollos? Who is Peter? but ministers by whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to every man. These are men called of God, and they've only been gifted because the Lord has gifted them. So you may have your favorites if you like, but the fact of the matter is, the increase comes from God. Nobody gets saved because it's Paul preaching. Nobody comes to follow after the Lord because it's Peter preaching, or because it's this one or that one preaching. Sometimes churches are tempted by the thought, well, this man is well known as an evangelist. He's well known as a mighty preacher of the gospel, so we'll bring him to our church for a gospel mission. As if bringing him is gonna guarantee success. Well, it's not. It's not. You think of how the rain falls in certain places, and on the same day, in other places, there's a drought. God moves as he wills. And it's not because of the messenger, it's because of the one who empowers the messenger. We need the Holy Ghost. Maybe the church there in Philadelphia didn't have a whole lot in terms of talents and ability, but yet the Lord set the door before them. But I want to move on from talking about the door to talking about the key. See, the letter begins in verse 7 in this introduction. "'To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, "'These things saith he that's 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.'" He has the key. And it's because he has the key that he can open the door and he can lock the door. This is referring to Christ himself, the key. The thing that's emphasized first of all about Christ here is his purity, his holiness. Just like it is in each letter, the speaker introduces himself in a certain way. The one who holds the key to the door in Philadelphia is the Christ of God. And he is seen here as the divine Savior. He that is holy. Literally, it could be translated, the Holy One. Christ, the Holy One. Remember that description in Isaiah chapter 40? in verse 25, Isaiah 40, 25. That's who Christ is. Christ is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity, Habakkuk chapter one, verse 13 tells us. He's the Holy One. This title is one which Jehovah God gave Himself in the Old Testament. And Jesus here assumes this title to Himself. And why not? Because that's who He is. He is God manifest in the flesh. He is Jehovah Jesus. Boy, how the Watchtower Society hate that description. That's why I always use it when I'm talking to them. Jesus is Jehovah. You read in the book of Isaiah, Seth the Lord, and it'll be in capital letters, L-O-R-D. Sometimes it's God in capital letters. Every time, and I mean every time, in your authorized version, when it uses God in capital letters or Lord in capital letters, the translation every single time is Jehovah. Now, some people say Yahweh. I don't use that. It's not Yahweh. It's Jehovah. And there are reasons for that. Jehovah God. Now, when you go to the book of Revelation, the Lord Jesus introduces himself in this way, I am the first and the last. And if you look at the scripture where that comes from, back in the Old Testament, it's spoken by Jehovah. Because Jesus is Jehovah. He is the sovereign God of heaven. He's not the father, he's the son. He's not the Spirit, He's the Son. But nevertheless, He is God, Jehovah. God manifest in flesh, 1 Timothy tells us. Jehovah Jesus. And He is holy. Remember the Old Testament Scripture was repeated by the Apostle Peter in his epistle. Remember where he said, be ye holy for I am holy. Our God is a holy God. Our Savior is a holy Savior. Infinitely so. There's nobody else in Scripture that has ever been described as, He did no sin, He had no sin, and He knew no sin. You find those Scriptures in 1 John, for example. You find them in 2 Corinthians 5 and 21. The Lord Jesus did no sin. He had no sin. He knew no sin. John 14, 30 describes the Lord Jesus in this way. He's speaking about himself and the devil, and he says, the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me. What does that mean? There was nothing in Christ to which the temptations of the devil could appeal. Some people think, oh, you know, the Lord Jesus was so strong, he had such willpower, he was able to turn back the temptations of the devil. Nonsense. Not only did the Lord Jesus not sin, he could not sin. Non passe pacari. And the other alternate phrase, they both refer to the fact that he not only did not sin, he could not sin. He was without sin. That's the kind of Savior I want, because if the Savior had sinned, He wouldn't be the Savior. He couldn't save Himself, and He couldn't save you, because the one who comes to save must be without sin. Must be. And He is infinitely so. Hebrews 7, 26. He is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. You cannot exalt Christ too much. The old preacher, one of the Alexanders of Princeton fame, I believe it was J.A. Alexander, he used to bring the students in one by one when they were graduating, going into the ministry. He would speak to them this way when they came into the room, encouraging them about ministry and so on, and he would end up by saying, young man, always make much of the Lord Jesus Christ in your ministry. What a word. Always make much of Jesus Christ. That's the kind of preaching that God will bless. We're not here to be pulpit ornaments. We're not here to display our gifts. We're not here to show people what great eloquence we have. We're here to preach Christ, crucified and risen and coming again. That's our job. It's not to point to me and say, look at me. It is, look at Christ. John the Baptist came, he was a mighty preacher. There was none greater than him, Jesus said, none greater than John the Baptist. He was the best preacher that ever lived, apart from Christ himself. But what did John say? Behold me? No, behold the Lamb of God. John also said of Christ, he must increase, I must decrease. In other words, more of him and less of me. Oh, that it were like that in every pulpit, where men cease to show off their own talents. It's almost like they don't say it in those words, but it comes across in the body language, look at me. Look at me. No, it's not look at me, it's look at Christ. We must always point men away from ourselves to Christ. And that was the feature of the ministry that I grew up under. In those days, there was no man who could preach Christ like that man. I was listening to a sermon recently that was directed to my attention. What a powerful word it was. It stirred me all over again. And I got to thinking, when I saw the date on the sermon, it was in the month of August, 1969. I got to thinking, I was 10 years old. And I was in that service. I remember, even as a kid, being so affected by that preaching. What a privilege it was to be under it. A man who preached Christ and not himself. He was a famous man. He was very well known for different things. But for me, he was an outstanding preacher of Christ. That's what I want to be. Think of this Christ of God. He's so pure. And yet what infinite grace that this one who calls himself the Holy One became sin for us who knew no sin. One of the Puritans said, for Christ to become a man was like a greater step of condescension than for an angel to become a worm. I'll say that again. It was a greater step of condescension for Christ to be made a man than for an angel to become a worm. What grace that this Holy One was made sin for us. And it's beyond our comprehension what the Saviour suffered when He bore our sins upon His holy person. What agony of soul that would have produced in Him to have our filthy sins laid on Him. See, that's part of the suffering of the cross that's not often emphasized in preaching. Ministers want to talk about the nails in his hands and the crown of thorns hammered into his head and the beard plucked from his face and all the physical sufferings of Christ, all of which were real. But I want to tell you that when the Lord Jesus said, let this cup pass from me, He was referring to the wrath of God being poured out upon our sins on His person. That's what His holy soul shrunk from. Here He is in perfect fellowship with the Father from all eternity, perfect fellowship. And the first time ever, the Father turns His face away from Him. He's out of communion with His Father now. And he cries out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The answer is given in the next verse after Psalm 22 verse one. It's in the next verse, or the verse after that, but thou art holy. That's the reason why he was forsaken, because of the holiness of God. So this Holy One was made sin for us, the purity of Christ. Let me move on quickly to the perfection of Christ that's emphasized here. He that is holy, He that is true. I am the way, the truth, and the life. Christ is the personification of truth. Not only does the Lord hate all evil, He hates all error as well. The Lord is all about truth. Let's remember that. He's all about truth. He hates lying, and He hates deceitful lips. Sometimes people can give an impression without actually coming out with the lie. They'll tell you something and leave out certain details, and that's just as bad as a lie, because it's creating an impression that something is true when it's not. That's a lie. And God hates it. He hates all error. He hates all evil. We're living in a time when there are many false Christs, many anti-Christs, but He is true. And that's something that's emphasized all the way through the Scriptures. Christ is the perfection of righteousness and is the fulfillment of all prophecy. He speaks the truth. Remember where He was talking about His second coming? First of all, about going to the cross to prepare a place for them, and then he would come again. What did he say there? If it were not so, I would have told you. He speaks the truth. You can depend upon the word of Christ. But I want to emphasize further in this scripture the power of Christ. He that hath the key of David. We talked about the open door, but now we're thinking about the key that opened that door. The door stood open before the Philadelphian church precisely because the key to that door was in the hand of Christ. In the Old Testament, there's a character called Eliakim. He's spoken of there in 2 Kings 18. There's also mention in Isaiah 22 of this, the key in the hand. This Eliakim was one of three delegates that was chosen to negotiate for the kingdom of Judah with Rabshakeh the Assyrian. Eliakim was the steward of King Hezekiah's house, had a great position of honor in the palace, and we learn from 2 Kings 18 from verse 17 that God gave him this authority. Robert McShane observed about him, Eliakim is typical of him who was indeed to be as a nail in a sure place, on whom everything was to hang, and on whose shoulder was to be put the key of David, even Jesus. Christ is the head of God's household, the church. God has not given to any man, he's given to Christ. He's given to Christ all power or authority in heaven and in earth. Notice in Revelation 118, he has the keys, not only of death and hell, but of salvation and of service. This key, by the way, the original one, was a large key made of wood, and it was carried on the man's shoulder. And all the bolts and the bars of the door were on the inside, and it opened the door from the inside, this key. And when we think about that, we think about the hand of Christ having in it the key of government and sovereignty. Here he is as a sovereign with power or authority to open and close doors. In general, we could say that the Lord holds the key to every situation that the church faces even today. He has the key. He has the key to every problem and every difficulty. He rules in absolute power. He's working out His purpose. He's the God of providence, and He's going to open and shut doors as He sees fit, even for this congregation. The key that He holds is also one of grace and salvation. I can emphasize this in terms of Revelation 3, 20. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him, will sup with him, and he with me. McShane, who was a solid Calvinist, but preached the free offer of the gospel, said this, Christ comes and stands at the door of the heart and opens the bars. Now, how often, how long has he stood at your hearts? There are some of you whose hearts are all bolts and bars, and you're determined not to let Christ in. There's the bar of the love of sin. There's the bar of pride. There's the bar of vanity. There's the bar of the love of the world. There's the bar of the fear of man. There's the bar of the fear of your companions. But if Christ were only to use the key of grace, all the bolts and bars would fly open. He's mighty to save. And let me tell you, no man can enter the door of salvation until Christ opens that door with the key. Does that hinder my preaching? Does that stop me from recommending Christ to people because they're not able to come? No, not at all. This is an encouragement, not a hindrance to gospel work. Because as I'm preaching the word, I know that Christ holds the key. He holds the key to the door of your heart. He can save to the uttermost. Paul went to a prayer meeting. It was a bunch of women there praying in Acts 16. And as he preached, Guess what happened? There was a woman there visiting who was a businesswoman, selling purple in that place. And she gathered with the women at the prayer meeting. And the Bible says, of Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And she was soundly converted, baptized, and her whole household. That's what God is able to do. Do you know that the King's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water, and He turneth it withersoever He will? The Lord's got the key to the heart. And I tell you, when God's key opens the door of a sinner's heart, no man can shut it. We need to pray earnestly that right here in this place, the Lord will open the door of faith to sinners, including our own family members, our own loved ones, our own relatives. The Lord would just put the key into the door of their hearts and open it and bring them to himself. He's able. He is able. That key is in the hand of Christ. It's not in the hand of Peter or those who pretend to be his successors. As I was looking at this message, I was checking again just to be sure. I want to say something that's not correct. So I googled, good old Google. the papal flag. It's yellow and it's white. And on that flag, I think it's on the white side, you have keys that are crossed. One is gold and one is silver. And according to those that were writing this, whether it's Wikipedia or whoever it was, those keys represent the Pope's authority over all spiritual things on earth. Did you get that? Those keys represent the Pope's authority over all spiritual things on earth. Well, I reject that utterly, totally. He's an imposter, he's a liar. And so were all those that came before him and any that will come after him. Just like the old kings, they used to say when they died, the king is dead, long live the king. That's what happens when the Pope dies. The Pope is dead. Let's have wall-to-wall coverage on Fox News, included among all the other networks, filled with potpourri, the anchors dressed in black, correspondents on the scene. It's all they talk about for days while the Pope's body is laying in state. Why do you think that is? Because the Church of Rome has power that we know nothing of. Why would you do that for just one religious leader? Because that's the world we're living in. And the papacy claims all manner of things to itself. One of the titles taken by the Pope is Lord God the Pope. Do you know that? The Supreme Pontiff. Even the name Pope is from Papa. It means Father. When people refer to him, they refer to him as Holy Father. That's a blasphemy. There's only one mention of Holy Father in all the Bible. It's in John chapter 17, when Jesus was praying to his Father, he said, Holy Father, keep through thine own name, them which thou hast given me. The system of Romanism is a system of absolute blasphemy. Peter doesn't hold the keys in the sense in which they're telling us. He did proclaim the gospel, and the first Jews were converted on the day of Pentecost, and in that sense, the kingdom was opened to them through the keys of the gospel. But the keys are in the hand of Christ, and He uses those keys. The key of salvation is in the hand of Christ. He has opened the gate of heaven to all of us that are true believers. He opened it long ago, and thank God it still stands open today. As we preach the gospel, Christ is still working "'I have set before thee an open door.'" You know that's in the perfect tense in the Greek? It means He has opened the door, and it is still standing open. Hallelujah. The door is still open. This is the day of grace. Sinners may enter in. One man said this, "'How is this so? "'I have set before thee an open door, and it's still standing open. How is this so? Because at the threshold of the narrow door there stands a cross. On that cross there hung many centuries past our Saviour. He died for us. He went there for us. He had no sins of his own. He bore our sins in his own body. He didn't deserve to die. He took our desserts. He gladly accepted in His own sacred person the judgment that our sins had most richly and righteously deserved. That's why the gate is open. That's why the door is open. Any sinner may enter the inner sanctuary of God's presence now, and that with confidence, because he can come by the blood of Jesus, by the new and the living way. There's a way back to God from the dark paths of sin. There's a door that stands open that all may go in. At Calvary's cross is where you begin when you come as a sinner to Jesus. Have you come in through the open door? Have you? One of our hymns says, step out on the promise. Get under the blood. If you're not saved today, maybe you're listening on the internet. If you're not saved, may God enable you today to enter in through that door. Jesus holds the key. He's opened the door. No man can shut it. And may you enter in through that door of salvation today. And then, of course, you will enter through, by God's grace, the door of service. The Lord will use you even to bring others to him.