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Yeah. Way up in the mountains of eastern
Kentucky, farther than where you live, there was a preacher. And one of the Flatland preachers
down where I live, or do live, got to know him. And he said,
I'm going to have you come down and preach a Sunday for me if
you'll do that. He said, I will. And so he came down on the appointed
time and preached on Sunday morning. And the pastor said, now, before
you drive back to the mountains, You're going to be coming over
to our house and fellowshipping and eating lunch with us. So
that went well, and they was at the table, of course. His
wife was serving table, and she asked the mountain preacher,
said, would you like to have some corn? He said, oh my, yes,
just about a half a glassful. It's water. But it is good being with you.
And Brother Mark, he don't think that them and I are as old as
we are. He was saying in the 80s. Now, I'm going to tell you
just how old we are. And I can look out, and I can
remind you just how old we are. There are some people here today,
grandmothers and grandfathers, that were just little kids when
we were here. So you know how old. How long it's been? It was, I think, 74 when I came. Does that sound about right? When Brother McGarry had the
heart attack. And I served as his interim,
I think, what, two and a half years, maybe, while he was recovering
from his heart surgery and everything. So we have wonderful memories.
And as we were coming up, From West Liberty, we were reminiscing
this family lived here and this family lived there. And it was
saddened to us to pass by where the Allens lived and the houses
all closed up. And none of them are here now,
are they? None of the Allens? And a lot of people are gone.
And we did not know that Gene had passed away. That was new
to us. But you know, time goes by. And
so we were really blessed. The Lord blessed us to be here.
Had a wonderful, wonderful ministry. It was a good experience for
me, having never pastored before. And we just had good times. And Tammy never sings our favorite
song, do you, Tammy? Heard Tammy say it. Sometimes I really do want her
to sing our favorite song. As far as any of you that was
here at the time, Dale and some of the others, they were all
teenagers and they sung the McDonald's mess. I'm not going to tell you
the words to that song because we need to get into the scriptures
and preach our message. Revelations chapter 3, we're
going to entitle our message A Call to Courage. a call to courage. Today we need
to realize that we need resolve. We need to do things just God's
way and with the thought in mind that we want to say, our Lord
is saying to us one day, well done thou good and faithful servant. I've been studying the seven
churches of Asia Minor, my morning devotions every morning. And
you know, all these churches, if you notice, the Lord said,
I have somewhat against you. And they had different problems
and the Lord commended them for some good things, but then he
would have somewhat against you. And so you come to this church
that we're going to be reading about and preaching about And
the awful times that they were living in, they were a courageous
church. They had the courage to do and
act and react to the Lord of glory. And we live in an age
when it's not as bad as it's ever been. It's not worse than
it's ever been. It's not as bad as it's going
to be. It's not worse now than what it's going to be. because
terrible times are coming upon this earth. At the time of this
writing, untold thousands were being killed, persecuted, defamed,
denied, and it was a terrible time. And so we come down to
the Middle Ages and we don't realize 50 million people died
for their courage, their resolve, their love of the Lord, love
of His truth. And so we as God's church today,
we need courage. We need some holy boldness about
us. And it will cost us. But the blessing of God far outweighs
anything that I've ever gone through. I've never suffered
very much in my ministry. I've been cussed out, blessed
out, threatened, and everything else. but not like the Lord Jesus. But anyway, read with me verses
7 through 13, here in chapter 3. And to the angel of the church
in Philadelphia write, These things saith he that is holy,
he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth
and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth. I know thy
works. Behold, I have set before thee
an open door, and no man can shut it. For thou hast a little
strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.
Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say
they are Jews and are not, but do lie. Behold, I will make them
to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have
loved thee. Because thou hast kept the word
of my patience, I also will keep thee from thou of temptation,
which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell
upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly. Hold
thou fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make
a pillar in the temple of my God, 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. And God gives us ears to hear. He that hath an ear to
hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. As a church this morning, what
does it take for us, who've been born again, bought by the blood
of the Lord Jesus, sanctified through the Holy Spirit, set
apart for his glory, what does it take to please him that saved
us? You know, we concern ourselves
with so many things, and we want to get along with the world,
and get along with the Lord. We want to get along with society
and then we want to get along with God's people. So there's
that thing that we see over in Romans chapter 7, the things
I want to do, I can't do, and the things I can't do, I want
to do. Oh, wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me? What did Paul say? I thank Jesus
that this world is gonna help me out. Is that what he said?
No. Ungodliness, worldliness is the
enemy of Christ. He said, I thank God through
Jesus Christ, my Lord. What does it take? Well, we see
here in this reading that the church at Philadelphia He never
said I have somewhat against they, did he? This church was
called the Church of Philadelphia. You know what Philadelphia means?
It means brotherly love. Now, when I finish with this
message and you go home, you can go over and read the 13th
chapter, 1 Corinthians, and think about this message and compare
that. See, to please God, first and
foremost, above everything else, is a completely sold-out relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ and with His New Testament Baptist
Church, as is this Church of Philadelphia. You know, that
takes courage. That takes off on their part
to say, this will I do with no other thing. I went to a church one time.
I was visiting there. And the preacher was preaching
real hard, and I agreed with him. He said, I want to say that
I want this church that I'm pastor of to be just as close as a church
possibly could be. According to the pattern of the
New Testament, I had to say amen to that. Ain't that great? Ain't that wonderful? Now what
do you think about a church like that? I don't think much of it. Because he's fixing the clothes
out in prayer. It's a Sunday morning service.
And he said this. He said, now everybody come back
tonight and bring your friends. We don't believe in close communion
now. We believe anybody can take the Lord's Supper. Nobody but
the church. It's a church ordinance. We see that in churches. That's
what the Lord, you look through these churches and the Lord couldn't
commend them. It takes courage to stand up with your pastor
and say, Pastor, we stand with you. We believe what you preach
us. We accept what you're preaching
to us as it is in truth the Word of God that works in us. We need this relationship that's
first and foremost, and able to please the Lord. See, God gave this church in
our reading words of appreciation. The Lord is honored and happy
with his church that he can command. He gives them word of commendation. You know, when we do the Word
of God as a church, that's commendable. And words of encouragement. We need encourage. I don't like
it when every time you hear a preacher, I have all these experiences.
I travel around. I have untold experiences, and
some of them you couldn't even believe. But I have these preachers. I'll meet them and maybe preach
for them. And they'll say, I don't believe
this. I don't believe this. We don't
practice this. And we don't practice that. And
we don't do this. And we don't do this. And we
don't do the other. And I'll say, brother, hold on. Why don't you forget all that
stuff? and just preach to your church what you believe and what
the Lord says and don't be so negative. See, there's a lot
of good stuff in the Word of God. There's a lot of encouraging
words in the Word of God. It's encouraging to see among
the seven churches that there was a church that I can preach
to you about this morning that will encourage you that God never
said I have something I can't say. Oh, I can go preach all
those things, But what about the good things?
See, we need courage and boldness. We need the Holy Spirit of God
to work in us. And he encourages this church. Our message has, by the wonderful
grace of God, the same intentions today, this church being an example
to us as it was to them when the Lord wrote this letter to
them. First of all, there's opportunity
for ministry. Opportunity for ministry. What
did he say? I've set before thee an open
door. See, God opens the door of ministry
to his churches. I've placed before you He's given
this church something. He's given Emmanuel Baptist Church
something wonderful and good. You know what that is? It's a
gracious gift for spiritual usefulness. He's given them a port of entry
into ministering. There's nothing like ministering.
I looked out this morning and I see people here. I don't know
everyone here. I only know those blessed old
people like myself that was hanging around. But you know what? I can go through
this congregation and talk to the people. And I can talk to
people and listen to who they are. And I look back in the 70s,
and it's children and grandchildren of people that this church was
ministering to. way back in the day. I was telling
Brother Mark when we came back to Lewis County where we now
live four years ago. I was talking to this young couple
and I told them where it was from. They said, oh yes, we know
that church. Said, we used to go there when
Brother Grigsby used to pick us up and take us to Sunday school
and take us to camp and all that. I said, really? I said, that
was good. You need to come back to church.
Encouraged them to come back to church I got there talking
with him. I said, whatever happened to
Brother Griggs? He said, oh, he moved away years ago. We don't
know where he's at now. I said, you don't? I said, but
you know him. If you saw him, oh, yes, we'd
never forget him. I said, it's him that's talking
to you. See what I'm saying? Opportunity
to minister. One day we went into a, this
is right here. When I was a little girl, her
last name was Tracey when we were here. We used to pick her
up for church, Sunday school. She was about six or seven years
old. Not too many years ago, we went in the dentist's office,
and we was waiting for Thelma's appointment. And this young lady
come in. She was 28 years old at the time.
That's how many years it had been. She came in. She started
to sign the registry. And she looked around and looked
back at the registry and went back out, come back in. looked around, and she come over
and said to Selma, would you all happen to be the Grigsby's?
Selma said, we are. She said, oh my, I saw that on
the registry. She said, you won't know me,
and I'm going to tell you who I am and where I'm at now. And
she told us that we used to be grandmother of the Grigsby's. And she said, you know what,
I'm saved now. And she said, I've been in church for years,
I've got a little girl and I'm raising her in church and teaching
her just like you taught me. Ministry. We don't know what
God can do but be faithful in ministering. He opens the doors
of precious gift, a blessing that God gives to us as he opens
that door to minister. to minister the gospel, and once
people are saved, to minister them baptism, and teach them
to observe all things, and teach your children's children, as
the Bible says, and leave behind an inheritance. But when she come back, and I'll
tell you the rest of that story, she pulled a picture out of a
manila envelope, five or seven pictures, she said, look at that.
I looked at that, and then Thelma looked at that picture, You know
what we were looking at? We were looking at a little girl
that looked just like she did when she was six or seven years
old. That was her little girl. Now she's taking her to church.
See, heaven will reveal the blessing that God gives when one ministers,
one sows the seed, another waters, and God gives the increase. Spiritual
usefulness, an open door. In 1 Corinthians 16, 8, 9, Paul
said this, Oh yes, there's adversaries. Those people will say all manner
of things. They will try to discourage you
in every way that they can. But you know what? Just keep
on keeping on. Have the courage to be like this
church And see this church as an example. A great door means
a point of entry, a place. And you know, let's go back to
what I said. We need to go back and look at
first things first. See the door of Christ's blood-sanctified
church is open to every child of God. Let me ask you this morning. Are you a member faithful and
in good standing with Emmanuel Baptist Church? You know you're
saved and you're a member of this church. You need to be taking
advantage of ministering. All of us. Every day there's
that opportunity. I never go out without meeting
people. We don't live on an island. There's
people that we can minister to. Give them a track. Love them. You can't always witness to people,
but you can always love them. I don't knock on the door of
houses because they don't welcome me the way I think they should.
No, I find opportunity to love them. You know, friends win friends. And we have to be a friend that
sticks closer than a brother, as the Bible says, and love people
in spite of themselves. I think last week. I was trying to witness to this
man. Oh, he was an atheist. What's that mean? Don't believe
in God. So Brother Tim kept talking to
him about this and that, asking who his family was, and he finally
found a point where they could agree on something, and he was
talking to them, maybe it was hunting or fishing or whatever,
and they got talking about that, and Brother Tim says, I've got
this tracker. I think you ought to read this
to see what you think about it. He said, maybe it's not just
the way you think it is. You say you're an atheist. Let
me just give this to you, and you read it. He said, OK. And then he said this. He said,
you read that, and you think about it, and let me come back
and talk to you about atheism as compared to Christianity.
He said, OK. You know, the better way of handling
that is if you said, I'm an atheist,
would have been to say, why, you're one of them ignorant,
no good, foolish. I mean, you put a lot of other
negatives in that. How in the world can you live in my world
and not believe what I believe? No. It takes time. It takes love. It takes caring. God opens the doors to his gospel
as we're going to see. Because in Acts 2 it says this,
I think verse 41, And they that gladly received his word were
baptized, and there were added unto them about three thousand
souls. Do you have scriptural baptism?
Are you a member knowing that you're saved and in good standing
with the Lord's church? And then it goes on and talks
about the door that was opened to them that were saved. They
continue to say the Apostles' Doctrine, breaking the bread
and prayers. See, they minister. They minister
to one another. They worship God in the church
and they took the message out to others outside the church.
He says it's an effectual door that's open. See, our Lord provides
for us. He always has provided. I look out and I thank the Lord.
the way the Lord blessed this church to see all you in here
this morning. It's a far cry from the day I
hear this story. Sixty-one years ago, I don't
know what day it was. I don't know what one hour of
the day it was, but this fellow came. He was a stranger in the
community. He ended up down here in Bloomington, a little old
grocery store, and walked up on the porch, and this man was
sitting there. He said, you're a stranger. He said, I'm a preacher. I'm looking for a place to start
a church here. The Lord's laid upon my heart
to start a church here. Does this sound like something
you know? He said, oh, my wife Esther needs a church. I don't
go to church, but Esther needs a Baptist church. He said, you
come back next Saturday and talk to me. Meet me right here. And
you come back the next Saturday, and there was the old school
bell and ready for them to start having service. Wasn't that right?
It was her grandfather. Grandfather,
OK. Anyway, I thought it was beat. But anyway, what's happening
with that? Ministry. Look at this. Look
at all the people's been saved, and lives have been touched,
and the blessing has been. You shall receive power after
the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And you'll be witnesses
unto me. I'm going to open the door for
you, he said to his church. And you're going to be witnesses.
You're going to start Jerusalem and Judea, Samaria, and go to
the uttermost part of the earth. And here we are this morning,
because they had that holy boldness. They had the courage to go out
and do it. And you know, it went here, and
it went there, and finally it went to Europe. And then from
Europe, it came to the United States of America. Then it came
to Saintsville, Kentucky 61 years ago through the preacher. And
then what's happened? Just taking the time to minister.
The courage. God wants us to be courageous. He wants us to be a blessing.
He fills us with his love, and we're to share that love, and
that love is through the gospel. See, he's the one that prepares
hearts to receive the gospel. In John 6, 44, no man can come
unto me except the Father, which hath sent me draw him, and I
will raise him up at the last day. You know how the Lord draws
sinners to him? How did he draw you? I don't
know how he drew you, but I'll tell you how he drew me. He drew
me through the cords of love. Yeah. He drew me through the
cords of grace and mercy. And a three-fold cord is not
easily broken. And so he ministered unto me
through grace, mercy, and love. And that person that gave me
the gospel and prayed for me, He made that effectual. He brought
me to repentance and faith and to salvation 48 years ago. And then he prospers the work
of the word, causing it to flourish and be fruitful. Our problem
is we get discouraged. Why should we get discouraged?
Well, I witnessed the 20 people. I thought at least 19 and a half
of them would get saved. and the other half is on the
way. It's not the way it works. See, our blessing is in the fact
that the Lord gives us opportunity and blessing to take his gospel
and give it to people, and the Holy Spirit uses it. I look at my father and my mother
and my brothers and my sisters. You ever notice it's not an easy
thing to witness to your family? But you know, years, down through
the years of my life, I saw my mom and dad saved. I saw Thelma's
dad saved, sisters. I saw her dad, her brother pass
away six months ago. He told me the day he died, he
said, I'm just tired. I just want to go home and be
with my Lord. You know, he was just a little
boy, but he got saved about, what, two years ago, a year and
a half, two years ago? See, it's not left to us to dictate
to God. Lord, I witnessed to 30 people
this month. You save all 30 of them. Well,
we can witness to them as if we think they're going to be
saved and know they're going to be saved, but we leave that effectual
work to God. He prospers His work. He causes
his word to flourish in 1 Thessalonians 1.13, that wonderful church that
Paul established in Thessalonica. For this cause, thank we God
without ceasing. Because when you receive the
word of God which you heard of us, you received it not as the
word of man, but as it is in truth the word of God. Look here,
which effectually worketh in you also that believe. God makes his word effective.
We have to have the courage and the fortitude and go out daily
as we go. You know the best way to see
people saved in the church? You're going to live in this
world and you're going to go into this world, and I say it
like this, go into this world and then go share the gospel. That's the most effective way
to see a church prosper in the spiritual things of God as you
go Give out the gospel. What about the commendation?
Remember what he said here. Thou hast a little strength. Thou hast a little strength. This is a word of commendation. It's by no means a complaint. In other words, you know what
you need to do, you're doing it, and you need to be commending
that your obedience is commanded, and that you're being obedient,
that you are loving other people. Their name is brotherly love,
and you're loving people, you're loving one another. You know,
that's where everything starts right there. God loves us, shed
abroad his love in their hearts. And what do we do? We pass on
that love. God didn't ask us just to love
one another if we could. He said love one another. Love one another. You know the
best illustration I can give of that? Thelma and I will be
married 52 years pretty soon. Has it been all easy? Has there ever been a time when
I didn't love Thelma and she didn't love me? No. If you're
married, you know what I'm saying. Sometimes I don't want to do
everything she says, and that causes me problems. It's funny,
about a year and a half back, I said, 51 years, how in the
world did it work? I said, just do what she says. That's the
way it works. But what am I saying? The Lord
saved us, and we've been in this church all the years that we've
been saved, 48, over 48 years, almost 49 years we've been in
the Lord's church. And we still have this wonderful
relationship. You think about that all those
years. You know, when God saves us,
he sends the love of God brought in our hearts. And you're here
this morning, you might have fought against someone right
here in this body of believers. And you know what? That person
you have fought against may not even know it. You know what we
need to do in a situation like that? We need to go to that person
and express our love to them, sisters and brothers in Christ.
He said in John 13, 34, a new commandment I give unto you that
you love one another even as I have loved you. See, that's
commanded of God. We are to love one another. And
then he says we're to love all men. It's not easy. I'm not saying
it's easy to love people, but we're to love people. We're to
find ways in which to love people. A commendation, now that's a
little strange. They depended on the Lord. Their
daily occupation was to work for the Lord. in obedience and
in love. Hebrews 10, 24, it commands love,
that we're to love one another. We're to provoke unto love in
the good works. How do I provoke someone to love? It's to love
them. Find ways to express that love.
Love is expressive. We don't just run around saying,
Brother Mark, I love you and I love you and I love you and
I love this other person. No. We don't have to always say
we love somebody. Find a way to express that love,
that merciful kindness that we can expand to them. They were
a working church. He said, I know thy works. This
was their daily occupation. There's a work. We'll work. We'll
work till Jesus come. Then we'll all be gathered up.
Let's just keep on working. Let's have the courage and the
fortitude. How did they work? They kept the Word of God. It says that. To them it was
a trust to be guarded over and watched over, which requires
great effort and due diligence. God entrusted us with this Word.
Remember Jude verse 2, when I thought to write unto you the comment
Salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and to exhort
you that you would earnestly contend for the faith which was
delivered to you. It was given into this church
as a trust, into this church as a trust, and we're to keep
that trust. We're to do the work of God.
Paul, at the end of his life, out of all the things that happened
to him, negative things, positive things, he said, I followed a
good path. See, everything wasn't positive. There was some negatives. I thought
a good five. I finished my course. I have
kept the faith. See, they received the Word,
and they hid in their hearts, and they faithfully acted upon
it. And they did the work of God
in their daily lives. What was it James said? We're
to be doers of the word and not yours only, not like the natural
man that looks in the glass and goes away and forgets what person
he was. I started to use that verse of
scripture one time and I looked over and this person was sitting
there. I said, you have a big smudge right there under your
eye. They started going like this and I started laughing. I said, you shaved this morning,
didn't you? Yeah, I shaved this morning. I said, ain't nothing
on your face. I said, you forgot. You know
what I'm saying? Is that the way we are with the
word of God? Do we read it? It goes in one ear and out the
other? No, we're going to hide his word in our heart. And we're
going to act upon that. That's the work. They were consistent in something
here. What did he say? Thou hast not
denied my name. See that was a great problem
in his time, in the time when this was written to this church. Then as now, there's always that
controversy. See the great inspired prophetic
utterance in Isaiah 9, 6. Unto us a child is born, unto
us a son is given, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor,
the Everlasting God, Father, and all that. And then in 7.14,
they said give us a sign. What was that sign? Behold a
virgin shall come save him, bearing her womb, and she shall bring
forth a son, and call his name Emmanuel. Well, you go on and
look in Matthew chapter one, verse 22 and 23. What was it
that the Lord told Joseph? He said, this child that's gonna
be born to Mary is a son of the highest. His name shall be called
Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. See, God came
down and tabernacled among men. and you go through the gospels
and you look and you see everything that he did, prove it, he was
God. He healed the sick, he raised the dead, he made the deaf to
hear, he spoke to the storm and said, peace be still, it was
quiet and he changed the water to wine, on and on and on. See, to us, that's a reason for
praise. The song that Tammy sang, that
wonderful. He's in the midst. There he is
in the midst. Not only all those illustrations
in that song, but today as we worship God, as I preach to you
the word of God, as I proclaim and exclaim and exhort you to
faithfulness to the Lord Jesus and courage, guess where the
Lord is today? He's in the midst. He's in the midst of Emmanuel
Baptist Church this morning. Praise be unto God that he is. And then, look in verse 10. This
is our closing statement. Verse 10. 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 See, this is right before the great tribulation,
the seven years of tribulation. You notice something there. I'll keep thee from the hour
of temptation. He didn't say, I'll keep you
through the great tribulation, this hour of temptation. In 1
Thessalonians 5, 9, God has not appointed us to wrath. but to
obtain salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. See, that's
in the end of 1 Thessalonians. If you read that and study it,
I'm sure your pastor's preaching this to you. 1 Thessalonians
talks about Jesus coming for his saints. It tells us in chapter
four of that great coming, when the trumpet will sound and the
dead will be resurrected, then we which are alive and remain
be called up to be with the Lord. And then in chapter five, He's
keeping us from the hour of trial, not through it. We're not going
through the tribulation. He delivers us from the wrath
to come. We're delivering in salvation. So since we know we're
gonna be delivering, let's be faithful. And listen, we believe
in the imminent return of Christ. You know what that means? While
I'm preaching to you this morning, Lord can come back. Lord can come back just now.
The trumpet could sound and the dead would be raised incorruptible
according to 1 Corinthians 15 and will be changed in a moment
in the twinkling of an eye at the sound of the trumpet. And
this man just the other day, he was talking about the secret
turn of Christ. I don't believe in the secret
return of Christ. The trumpet's gonna sound. There's a sound
of the trumpet, and there's the voice of the archangel, come
up hither. I'm gonna show you great things
you can never imagine. And then the dead raises incorruptible,
and we're gonna be changed at that moment. It's wonderful,
isn't it? Let's be filled with the Spirit
of God. Let's be occupied. In verse 11 and 12 as we come
to a close. He that hath an ear to hear,
let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches. He that
overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. And to the
angel of the church, well, I'm going beyond. Let's go back to
verse 10. Let me read the end of that. You shall have tribulation
ten days. Be thou faithful unto death.
and I will give thee a crown of life. He that hath neared
a year, let him hear what the Spirit saith of the churches.
He that overcometh shall not be hurt on the second day of. Occupy. God gave us a place of
occupancy. You know what that is? His church. We're to occupy and serve him
and minister So he comes back. You know, New Jerusalem is a
rejoicing to the faithful saints of God. I don't have time to read all
this and preach it to you, but in 2 Corinthians chapter 11,
Paul said, I'm jealous over you with a godly jealousy. For I
have espoused you to one husband, even Christ. that I may present
you as a chaste virgin to him. And then in Revelation 19, he
talks about our faithfulness, our working, our laboring. And
he talks about robes. And those robes are the righteousness
of the saints of God, the righteous act of saints, those that have
been courageous in the ministry. courageous enough to get the
gospel out, waiting until he comes and looking for his coming
and praying for his coming. In 2 Timothy chapter 4, we'll
read this one scripture and then I'll be finished. 2 Timothy chapter
4. And let's see if it's in verse 8. Well, look in verse seven, I
fought a good fight, I finished my course, I've kept the faith.
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that
day, and not to me only, but unto all them that love his appearing. That's a crown of faithfulness.
You know, there's five crowns recorded in the Bible. You know
what those crowns, what's gonna happen to those crowns? It's
not something that would glorify us. It's something that we can lay
at the feet of our Savior and worship Him there in Revelation
chapter 4, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and
strength and honor. See, that's the end of it all.
And New Jerusalem rejoiced of the faithful. He's writing to
this faithful church. You know what he says? And you'll
go no more out. New Jerusalem is the bride's
home of the bride. You'll go no more out. But what
does that mean? If you just read on after that,
you know what you'll find? and the nations of them that
are saved shall dwell in the last pit. And they'll go in and
out of the city, for the gates will never be shut. They go visit.
But who are those that never go out? That's the bride. That's
the faithful ones. That's the ones that kept the
faith. That's the courageous ones that go day by day and week
by week and month by month and year by year. doing the will
of God, going through that door and serving him faithfully and
joyfully as a church at Philadelphia was filled with the love of Christ.
Father, we thank you this morning for the message that you help
us to deliver. Lord, I know that it should mean
so much to us that you've honored us, that you've blessed us, that
you've saved us. and given us the privilege and
opportunity to be a part of your church and to minister through
this church. And Lord, there may be some here
this morning, they don't have scriptural baptism. They don't
have a saving relationship with you even, so they can't receive
baptism until they're saved. May you speak to their heart
and show them what they're missing and bring conviction upon their
soul and repentance and faith and salvation. And to those that
need to be united with this church, Lord, may you bring them forth
this morning. Show them the great blessing and the great need of
that wonderful relationship that this church has. Bless now we
pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
A Call to Courage
| Sermon ID | 4121931214656 |
| Duration | 46:41 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Revelation 3:7-13 |
| Language | English |
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