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And to chapter 2 and chapter
3, we're looking at the church at Philadelphia. The church at
Philadelphia. And so you'll have one more Sunday's
message that's on the church of Thyatira. And we have covered
the church at Sardis. and we have covered the church
at Pergamos, and now we come to Philadelphia. The only one
that I haven't covered in these weeks, between Sundays and Tuesdays,
will be Laodicea. And I am reminded of a little
historic fact. When I drive up to Locke and
I see the water pipe that's along the road line, And I was surprised
to see it above ground. Most pipes that I've ever noticed
would be underground. But I imagine that there are
reasons to just to keep the levels right and so on, that these pipes
are above ground. And I thought, you know, they
must warm up, must warm up the water. And the sun beating down
on the metal pipe, surely the water would get warmed up to
some degree. Well, in Roman times, The Romans
built aqueducts to carry water into cities. There would have
been bridges like an archway, and they would be carrying a
stream of water, but they were open channels. They weren't pipelines. They were open channels. And
the sun would warm up the water traveling whatever distance into
the city. And it is likely that from there,
that the Lord used the analogy that the church at Laodicea was
lukewarm, neither hot nor cold. And of course, water that's lukewarm
is never very pleasing. We like it cold, we like it hot.
But lukewarm, and that was the state of the church at Laodicea. But that's just a little tidbit
of information on that one. Tonight we're looking at Philadelphia.
And that's chapter 3, verse 7. Chapter 3, verse 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 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. Amen. We'll end our reading just there.
We'll come back to the hymnal now to six. Philadelphia, we
are looking for things for prayer. Things that we can bring to the
Lord tonight in our prayers and ask with confidence that these
things are the will of God. The Church of Philadelphia is,
well, there's one of them in the USA, near New York. There is the city of Philadelphia. I don't know how that place got
its name, but it is a truth that this Philadelphia at Asia Minor,
it got its name not from Christianity, but from a Greek king. He gave this city, Philadelphia,
to his brother as a gift. Therefore, that was the extension
of brotherly love. The city got named Philadelphia,
which in the Greek language means City of Brotherly Love. I wish I had a brother like that.
I'm sure you may too, but that's how this name originated. Now, there's absolutely no reference
to brotherly love in the letter. This is a reference, of course,
to the Lord's love. to his church. You'll notice
at the end of verse nine, and to know that I have loved thee. So I'll take that as a good basis
to refer to this as the Lord's love letter to the people in
this city whom the Lord loves. Isn't that precious? Isn't that
blessed to our own souls this evening, that the Lord loves
his own people, he loves his own church, In all her needs
and all her warts and wrinkles and problems and cares, the Lord
loves His own people. He loved them from all eternity. And when we gather together,
the Lord has an interest in our hearts. Now, there's no rebuke
to this church at Philadelphia. This was certainly a model church
and a very good church to emulate. If we wanted to be a pleasing
church that honored the Lord, we could certainly take our cue
from this church in Philadelphia. Now, again, we ask, does it matter? Does it really matter what a
church is like? and how they worship and how they behave and
what they do. Well, it does because this was
the church that the Lord promised he would give them an open door. And I take that to mean that
the Lord will use this church. The Lord will make this church
effective to reach men and to preach the gospel to men. It
is the church of the open door. In chapter three, verse 10, you
will see that it is a church that is kept. Because you've
kept the word of my patience, he goes on to say, I also will
keep thee. And that's something we want
to see and want to experience. We want the Lord to do that here
in Locke. to keep this church, and to watch over it at all times,
and to care for it. In verse 11, this church would
receive a crown. That is God's favor. That's God's
reward for faithfulness, and what a blessing this will be.
Now, the point of the church that God will use, you'll see
that in verse 9, and this is a big one. Surprisingly, 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."
Now, that is absolutely fantastic. Just think about it. These ugly
Jews, anti-Christian, they were persecutors of the church of
Christ and there was no love lost. And yet the Lord says,
I will bring those hostile people to join you and be teachable
in your ministry. Now that is something only the
Lord could do. But here is this church in Philadelphia,
and it is a church that God is going to use to reach men with
the gospel. And I know that's your burden.
I know that you care for souls all around in this community,
in the Ayer Peninsula, and to reach men and women with the
gospel. And so here's a church that we can learn from and take
note. Lord, make this church to be
useful and to see men come and be saved. So this is about conversions,
people who are obstinate to the gospel. They come and sit at
the feet of the ministry of the church. That's powerful. And
the only way to see a church grow, of course, is conversions. And so we need to pray about
that tonight. We need to pray that the Lord will give conversions
in the ministry of the church. Now that can be within the walls
of the church, or it can be further afield. It could be you bringing
people in, inviting them to the Sunday service and telling them,
come and hear the gospel and praying for the Reverend Graham,
that the Lord will give him gospel messages that will speak to the
hearts of the unconverted and bring them to the Lord Jesus. Now, this bringing men to the
feet of the ministry of the church at Philadelphia It's not by tyranny. It's not by fear. It is really
the power of the gospel. And it's what Christ does, because
one of his offices is that he is king. And our shorter catechism,
question 26, says, how does Christ execute the office of a king?
And the answer is, he executed the office of a king by subduing
us to himself. So he did that for us. He did
in us what is spoken of here, of bringing unconverted, un-Christian,
anti-Christian people to the feet of the gospel, and he has
done it for us. And he will do it for others. He subdues us unto himself and
to subdue all his enemies and our enemies. And that's the work
of grace. That's the work of the gospel.
And brothers and sisters, pray for this. Ask God tonight. to do this in your ministry and
in your church, that you will see conversions. Now, that happened
mightily in the first century church. We know how many were
converted, how those, even Paul the apostle himself, hardened,
bitter, persecuting. He was guilty of the blood of
Christians, and yet he, the chief of sinners, was marvelously converted
and cast to the ground and saying, Lord, what wilt thou have me
to do? And that's the power and the
grace of the gospel. Now, I've always had a bit of
an interest in the gospel ministry of George G. Patton. He was a
Scottish missionary to the New Hebrides. Now, the New Hebrides
is down in this part of the world. If you draw a line from Auckland,
New Zealand, straight north, and then you draw another line
on the map from Cairns in Queensland, and you go eastward and where
that intersects, that's the New Hebride Islands. They're quite
small, but they've been populated for a long time. And they were
a native people living on an island called Tannin Island.
And there, George Patton arrived as a missionary to preach to
cannibals. They were a very hostile people.
Indeed, it took years to reach them. And when his first wife
died, he buried her on the island with their little child. And
because they were cannibals, he slept on top of the grave
so that they would not use her body for cannibalism. And yet
over time, he saw those people converted and they formed a gospel
church. And it is reported that when
those people became Christians, there was no better model of
Christian people at communion than the people of Tannin, ministered
to by George, not Patton. Where am I at here? Yeah, it is Patton, but it's
John Patton. I'm getting mixed up here. It's
John Patton, John G. Patton. That's his name. It was
a marvel of power in the gospel. And we must not stop remembering
that the Lord has power to convert people and to save, just as he
did with Lydia. And it simply says, the Lord
opened her heart. Now, this is the church of the
open door. And for a church to have an open door, the Lord has
the key to hearts. Let's remember that. The Lord
has the key to the hearts of men and women, boys and girls,
and to neighbors and in this community. And let's pray that
the Lord in his grace will turn the hearts of men and women to
himself. Now, what else do we pray for
here? Well, this church had a testimony that the Lord loved them. And
we saw that in the Verse nine, right down at the end, but do
lie, behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy
feet and to know that I have loved thee. That will become
their testimony. There'll be people driving by
and they will say, God loves that people. They're God's people. They're a special people to God.
And that becomes a marvelous testimony, and God brought the
people in Philadelphia to appreciate that the Lord loved these Christians
in this church, and God used that. That became a tremendous
witness to the community all around them, and that has to
be our power of evangelism too. That's why the testimony of the
church is so important. It's a place of truth. It's a
place of righteousness. It's a place where the Lord blesses
and the Lord works by his grace. That's the testimony that we
need in the church. It said in the book of Acts chapter
4, 13, that all men knew that we had been with Jesus. Oh, that's a powerful testimony
to have, and we need that. And we need to be a gracious
people. In our radio ministry in Canada,
there's a station a way out in the East Coast, and it was called
Harvesters FM. And we were on that station for
a number of years. And the owner operator of that
radio station was a Christian. He started the station to reach
Eastern Canada with the gospel. And he was doing a great work. And then he died very suddenly. His family tried to pick up the
pieces and keep it going. it was really too much for them,
and then they ended up hiring a man who had some experience
in that kind of media, and he is doing a very good job. When
I talked to him on the phone about programming and times and
so on, he said there's three things that we look for when
we take on a radio broadcast. One, that it is excellent. The audio needs to be good. The
sound quality needs to be clear. And of course, it needs to be
a content that's interesting. So it needs to be excellent.
It needs to be evangelical, was the other one. It needs to be
about the gospel, not about weird things, but focusing on the gospel. And he was thankful that that
was our focus and glad to have our broadcast on there. Then
the third thing he mentioned, it needs to be winsome. You want
a ministry that wins people over. It's not always negative. It's
not always banging, battering against things, but it is sweetly,
graciously presenting the gospel of the Lord Jesus in all its
fullness. to the hurts and the broken hearts
of men and women, a word of encouragement, a word of grace, a word that
will give them hope, and it will win people. And that's what we
all need in our churches. And you need to pray for that
here in Locke, that this ministry is winsome. that your minister
will come on Sundays with messages that are filled with grace and
filled with comfort to the hearts of men and women. And wherever
the recordings go, I don't know, do you end up on sermon audio
or go out on CD or however it goes out, that others will learn. there is a ministry in luck that
is presenting the deep, deep love of the Lord Jesus on a regular
basis. And let's pray for that. So pray
for conversions, pray for a ministry that is winsome, and pray for
no compromise. If you look at verse 10 and 11,
it says, 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." Now, notice that the Lord warned us that
there will be great testing and trial, trouble and temptation
against the church. It's going to come upon the whole
world. We'll not escape it no matter where we live, but the
Lord will keep us. And because thou hast kept the
word of my patience, my endurance, my trials, because you've kept
the word, I'll keep you. That's how it works. That's how the Bible presents
it over and over. You have God's sovereignty, human
responsibility. The Lord says in Jude unto him
that is able to keep us from falling, but just a verse before
it, keep yourselves from falling. And so we are to keep ourselves
and the Lord keeps us. So as you keep the word of God
and keep true to that word, The Lord will bless you. The Lord
will bless your ministry, and it will be a holding fast, and
you'll see that in verse 11. Behold, I come quickly. Hold
that fast which thou hast, and there is the call to keep on
keeping on. Don't give up. Don't water it
down. Don't change the message. Don't
cease to be a witness, but hold that fast which thou hast. And thank God tonight you have
the gospel. You have the word of God. You've
had what, 30, how many years now since you formed this church? 35, is it? What year was it you start opened
this building? 86. So you're coming up to 40 years,
right? You're coming up to 40 years
since the beginning of this ministry. And you've had the gospel all
of these years. Oh, don't give up now. Hold fast. There's another generation that
needs this gospel. There's a young element right
here tonight and in the community that needs the gospel. And what
the Lord did 40 years ago, he needs to continue and maintain
that work and keep it firm and true. And God will use you. And
to do that, no compromise. It says in verse 12, him that
overcometh will I make a pillar in the church, a pillar in the
temple of my God. Now, that's a great picture,
isn't it? The pillar. The pillar is holding
up the structure. And that's what ministers do.
That's what elders do. That's what office bearers in
the church do. They are to be pillars holding
up the structure and all the other parts of the building are
weaker. But the pillar is to be the strong
structure of the building. And Christian, you are to be
the pillar bearing the weakness of other believers, bearing the
offense of the cross and holding up the truth as pillars in the
church and being instant and overcoming for God. Now, if you
do this, it says, and I will write him upon him the name of
my God. and the name of the city of my
God, which is the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven
from my God, and I will write upon him my new name. And right down there you have
that wonderful communion that is between the Lord and his people. What a wonderful communion. This
Jerusalem is heaven, heaven comes down, and the blessing is upon
the people of God. Let's pray for that blessing
tonight, that we will have the Lord in the midst, the Lord speaking,
the Lord ministering to every one of our hearts. So we have
a lot of things to pray for here, haven't we? And when you start
looking in the Bible for things for prayer, and I would advise
that you keep a little notebook And as you do your daily reading
in the Bible, look for things for prayer. And as you jot those
down, you'll never be short of something to be praying about,
whether in private or in the church. you will be fortified
or you will be furnished with things to pray for. And I know
sometimes you get down to pray and you wonder, well, what are
we going to pray about? And you kind of draw a blank. And to
have a little list would be very helpful. Now, the list that comes
to us tonight from this church in Philadelphia is to pray for
conversions, that sinners will be brought to the foot of the
cross. Pray that the Lord will make
the church to be winsome, and then the church will be a pillar,
and God's people will be strong, enjoying the power of the Lord
in our souls. So let's do that tonight. We
would value your prayers, of course, for our travel tomorrow.
The Lord's love letter
| Sermon ID | 63251145177722 |
| Duration | 26:49 |
| Date | |
| Category | Prayer Meeting |
| Bible Text | Revelation 3:7-13 |
| Language | English |
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