Open—T. Porter, P. Daplyn
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284.
#284.
Our hidden source of calm repose Thou all sufficient love divine our health and refuge from our foes. Secure we are, we are thine #284.
And our handy I am good horse and I have to wear a lot of things in love.
00:05:54
Father, we thank You for this time that we've had so far together here, with Thy Word open before us and minister to us, we feel it reaching into our hearts.
We just ask now.
That whatever is needed, what is yet needed, what is not yet been said, which is needed for our heart, and we would have it here ministered by two or three.
That we would be directed in the way that we should go.
That there might be fruit in our life for Christ.
You asked me things for His most precious names and for His honor and glory. Look forward to his, to His soon return. Amen.
I'd like you to turn with me to Revelation Chapter 3.
Stop.
Yesterday when we were reading and Haggai chapter one.
Our brother.
Tim Stewart related some of what we read there to.
What we have here to the letter to Laodicea in Revelation chapter 3, and rightly so, I believe the times and the conditions were similar.
It's a heavy burden upon the speaker's heart and fear because the scripture says he who speaks from himself it should say.
He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory.
And I don't believe anyone whoever has presumed to speak for the Lord has been fully confident that what they had was from him. And so Ioffer it to the judgment of my brethren.
But this is a heavy burden on my heart and.
I trust in the Lord that it was put there by Him.
So this is familiar, I believe, to all of us. But let's read this letter to Laodicea.
Starting in verse 14.
And unto the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans, right.
These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness.
The beginning of the creation of God.
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot.
I would that thou Wert cold or hot.
So then, because thou art Luke warm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.
Because I'll say as I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.
And no, it's not.
That thou art wretched and miserable, and poor and blind and naked.
I counsel you to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with I self that thou mayest see.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
00:10:02
If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will commence to him, and will Sup with him, and he with me.
To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my father in his throne.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches.
Notice that in the other letters.
He says.
Such as Tophia Tyra in the previous chapter, verse 18 to the Angel of the church in Thyatira.
Chapter 3. Verse One unto the Angel of the Church in Sardis.
Verse 7 to the Angel of the Church in Philadelphia.
When you get to verse 14.
To the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans.
It's not wrong, you know to.
Say the Church of the Ephesians or the Church of the.
Colossians and so on. But isn't it interesting here?
He says to the Angel of the Church of any names of location.
And I believe he does that with all the churches.
So you get here to the lay of the sands, and he says to the Church of the Laodiceans, almost as if they own it.
But the burden has to do with verse 20.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
What's wrong? What's wrong with this picture?
What's wrong with this picture? What door is he knocking on?
I know this is used in the gospel a lot, but and they say it's the door of your heart, but that's not that's not really what this is.
He's knocking on the door.
Of his own house.
Does that seem right to you?
If it's his house, why didn't he just open the door and come in?
He's knocking on the door of his own house.
How did that get to be?
First of all, how did it get to be that he's outside?
And then again, why is he knocking instead of justice coming in?
And I've been searching for some scriptures, but I know I know they're there and I can think of some in the Old Testament.
Where things were brought into the temple that shouldn't have been there and people were brought into the temple that shouldn't have been there.
And little by little, the Lord was being marginalized.
Do you know what marginalized means? Some of your younger ones, you know he's little by little. He's kind of being edged out.
And in the so-called church age.
If we take as we do these letters to the seven churches to be an outline of church history when you get to the end.
The Lord has been displaced in His own house.
How did that happen?
I think most of us know, you know, you read the third epistle of John and you find this one and this is probably the most obvious example. And very early on you have this, this man Diotrephes and look at that third John.
You have this man Diotrephes, and he says he loves to have the preeminence among them.
00:15:03
I think we read a verse, uh, in this.
In this conference where we said that the Lord should have the preeminence in everything.
And surely he should have the preeminence in his own house.
But here we find the Apostle John still referring to it as the assembly.
The Lord has not disowned it as His assembly yet.
But there's a man here who's taken over.
And he's so powerful that he decides who can be there and who can't be.
And he's so bold that he even rejects the apostles of the Lord.
And rejects them.
Have you ever wondered how it got to be this way?
I was talking with Brother Wally a few weeks ago when he was in Palmyra.
And, uh, he reminded me that years ago, apparently. I don't remember saying it, but I think he attributed it to me that a lot of times you get some who rise up in the assembly and they just kind of do everything and everybody else just sit around and enjoys what they do.
And, uh, apparently at some time in the past.
One said, uh, what formed the clergy was the lazity.
Little play on words.
The laity, the lazy, those who just were happy to sit back and let others do things.
That does not please the Lord.
And not only does it not please the Lord, but eventually that contributes to him being displaced in his own house.
But the burden here is not to go into all the reasons why the Lord gets displaced. And I think.
I think.
All of the Saints have enough spiritual intelligence to understand how those things happen.
But do you do anything about it?
It was mentioned in the reading yesterday, you know. Hey, yeah, I didn't just point out what was wrong.
He offered to help correct it.
But what the burden is is this.
And this is what I want you to get, especially you younger brothers.
You will not find, I believe, anywhere in Scripture and I welcome my brethren to correct me on this.
I don't think you'll find anywhere in scripture where the Lord fights for his place in his own house.
He will fight for his people.
And he may fight for his place for their benefit, but I don't think you find anywhere where the Lord fights for his place in his house.
Uh, turn for a minute to, uh, Second Chronicles.
Chapter 33.
It was a really bad king named Manasseh.
He did some really, really, really bad things.
But when it was brought before him, he repented. And that's a wonderful thing. You know, it doesn't matter how bad we get.
You can always repent and the Lord is a merciful God.
But the point here is if you look in Second Chronicles chapter 33 when Manasseh attends and he begins to undo some of the evil.
In verse 15 he says he took away the strange gods and the idol out of the House of the Lord.
What was it doing there?
And I don't know if you've ever wondered, you know, when the Lord first established a Tabernacle and the sons of Aaron Nahab and a Bayou brought strange fire in the Lord, just he came out and and consumed them.
And then it's a principle with God that when he's establishing anything, it has to be kept pure.
00:20:03
And I I've always taken as a New Testament corollary, the time that there was hypocrisy came in early on in the Church Age.
And if you read about the Lord Jesus as when he was here on the earth, if there's one thing that he very clearly detested, it was hip hop.
And he hammered that again and again and again.
And so it makes sense that that the establishment of New Testament assembly, when hypocrisy raised its ugly head, he dealt with it just like he dealt with Nadab in a bike. There was no tolerance. But what if he was to deal with hypocrisy like that today?
I wonder how many of us would be here?
Don't you?
But it is at the beginning that he will. He will be this way. But you know when they brought the idol and strange gods into the temple?
He he could have just, he could have dealt with that.
You know when they put the ark in with the God of the Philistines, Dagon, he knocked it down.
He could have dealt with this himself, but it's just an example. He he's not fighting, he's not gonna fight for his place.
And this is the burden.
Here the Lord is knocking on the door of his own house.
Because he is not going to force his way in and he is not going to fight for his place. And I'll bring it right down to us now. He's not going to fight for his place among us.
If we don't give the Lord his place.
Then he won't have it amongst us.
Is that not a sobering thought?
You know the most frightening thing about the state of Laodicea is.
The very definition of that state is that they don't know they're in it.
That's a bit disconcerting.
Isn't it?
That means, you know, if we right now here, we're in that state, we would not be aware of it.
And.
Thank God for the scripture that says the entrance of His Word gives light.
And that really is the only salvation.
When you're in that state.
But when you read in the Old Testament about when prophets arose to speak to the situation, particularly to kings and rulers.
Often times those prophets.
Were met not only with opposition, but prison and with death.
We don't wanna hear what he has to say.
And you can find examples of rulers and prophets where this occurred, where the rulers were not walking according to God's mind, to put it mildly, and the prophets came to speak to them.
And rather than take the correction, they dealt with the prophets.
I'll leave the application of that.
The Holy Spirit to bring that home to your own hearts. But this can happen, you know, in the third epistle of John.
I believe that it was still called an assembly because.
The apostle points Gaius to another brother there named Demetrius.
And says that he's got good testimony. And I believe that the situation was so bad in this assembly that Gaius may have very well felt like, you know, I, I do receive the apostles and I do, you know, I could be in big trouble. And maybe he was feeling very alone. And so I believe that the apostle John points him to another brother that maybe he can tag up with and they can encourage one another. But I think from this we know.
00:25:01
You know there were at least two that were gathered to the Lord's name there.
And so that's all it takes, right? That's an assembly.
But this, this leader, this ruler in this assembly, you have to wonder if the man was even saved. And if he was saved, he must have been like a a spiritual infant.
Who? Who would it be? Who would love the Lord and would want to have preeminence among his people?
Who would want to even eclipse the Lord?
If you love him.
Some of us who uh.
Who would stand up and speak like this?
And I believe you would find this out among many.
Sometimes we have this wish that we were invisible.
Because we just want the Saints to get the word.
But that's not possible.
But who would want to have preeminence in the Lord's house? Kind of a person is this. But you know, this is the flesh, did my flesh, and it's your flesh.
And it would be silly to think that this couldn't happen in our day.
Because it could happen any in any day.
Because the flesh hasn't changed, and men haven't changed. And seeking vain glory as a part of our flesh, it's it's all there. So what do you do? How can you avoid the Lord being marginalized?
Well, first of all.
You need to judge your own heart.
And you have to.
You have to, uh, admit to yourself, because it is there that in your flesh you you'd like to have.
Some, uh, admiration. At least some recognition.
So that's one thing is to be careful about.
That in your own flesh, judge that first. The other thing is.
Don't give people a place.
That they shouldn't have.
In your heart.
I'm not saying we shouldn't appreciate those who minister the word of God. The apostle Paul, I believe the right translation is, I think it was, uh, the Philippians that he said, you know, I, I trust that the good work that the Lord started with you, he's going to finish because you have me in your heart.
Well, that seems like he's trying to be something. No, he knew that he had the Word of God. He knew who he was, he knew what his mission was, and he knew that the fact that they had a care for him and an appreciation for him in their heart was a good thing. And it was a sign that the Lord would complete the good work in them. There's nothing wrong with having an appreciation for those who minister to us, but don't give them a place they shouldn't have. That won't help them, it won't help you, and it's going to hurt the Lord.
But again.
The burden is to to recognize and to understand that this can happen, that the Lord can get marginalized in his own house.
Pushed out, replaced.
And that it can happen without you even knowing it, without you even realizing it's happening.
And I think that that all of us who love the Lord, we hate when that happens. We hate to see that.
And it's kind of hard because we also sometimes hate to see people get recognition because of our own flesh, because we want it.
But, uh, but I think it's also a holy jealousy that we have in our own spirit when we see someone getting a place that they shouldn't have, that the Lord only should occupy in the hearts of the Saints.
I think my burden has.
00:30:01
Pretty much been discharged but I want to say this too.
In referring to these 7 letters to the churches, which we say refer to periods of church history, there is one thing we need to keep in mind.
When you go from Ephesus.
Just to, uh, Smyrna, there's, there's a definite period of, of church history there and then from there to Pergamos with another period of church history and then you get to Thyatira.
Which we believe was the full apostasy of what we call now. The Roman Catholic Church is just full of idolatry.
Whether there was literally a woman named Jezebel there at that time, I don't know. I kind of doubt it. Even though there was a literal church in Laodicea, I mean in, uh, Thyatira, and that condition existed there. I do believe the Spirit of God is pointing to a spirit of things, to the spirit, and it's a spirit we should not tolerate.
But when you get to fire Tyra, you've moved along. You've got a section of history, a period of time Ephesus. You've got a period of time Smyrna, then you've got a period of time Pergamos, and then you've got a period of time Thyatira. But then something different begins to happen.
Thyatira goes on right till the end of Church history.
But you might think of it as dropping out of Thyatira. Some came out and you get Sardis.
And then Sardis also continues on to the end.
In fact, that principle goes on. Today. There are still people who leave the systems that they're in only to form another system.
That's Sardis. That's still happening.
And then out of Sardis, you got Philadelphia.
In Philadelphia continues on to the end, commensurate with Thyatira.
And with Sardis.
But then you get Laodicea.
Which drops out of Philadelphia.
Because Philadelphia was faithful.
The Lord opened the door that no man could shut, and the blessings included the recovery of knowledge of the truth that was unprecedented.
And there were great riches in that regard dispensed in Philadelphia.
But you know what the Apostle Paul said? Knowledge puffeth up.
Do you think you can escape that?
Even the Apostle Paul couldn't escape it.
It doesn't matter where the knowledge comes from. Paul's knowledge came directly from God, and yet it still had the effect of puffing him up.
And he had to get a messenger of Satan, a thorn in the flesh, to help keep him down.
And so some have said that the blessings that came upon Philadelphia resulted in great pride.
And the result of that was a state of things that we call Laodicea.
And I believe it's true that you cannot get to that state without passing through Philadelphia.
We hear of Laodicea being referred to as all of Christendom.
But it can't be.
There's Thyatira, there is Sardis, there is Philadelphia and there is Laodicea off and.
So I just leave that with you, just as a warning to us all.
That if we don't give the Lord his place among us.
He's not gonna. Don't expect him to do something about it. He will knock.
But he's not going to force his way in.
If we don't give the Lord His place, he will not have it among us.
00:35:10
Well, I trust I have the Lord's mind and speaking on.
On this, I'm going to start with the same verse that our brother Ted read in Revelation chapter 3. Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
You know the Lord, if, if God forbid, we ever get into a situation where we're we're that lukewarm, I'm sure the Lord would exercise this of that condition.
And and not and that's her brother, Ted said He and not force himself in, but he I'm sure.
He would exercise us about our condition if that was the case, and I just want to.
Relate an experience very early on.
Umm in my Christian pathway I was saved in umm 1977 and by the grace of God I was brought to the place.
Where he had placed his name six weeks later. Praise God for that. But in the meantime, during those six weeks, I was encouraged by other believers to go to their places of worship and I ended up going to the Pentecostal church, or I should say.
A place for those called themselves Pentecostals assemble themselves and I don't need to go and get into the air. They're going goes on there. But and the Lord's great graciousness he he soon, uh, even though I was a babe in Christ.
He soon pointed out the error that was there and I left and one of the last things that happened that convinced me that I was in the wrong place.
Was when?
There was umm, Speaking of tongues, and I won't go into umm, I it's not my purpose to talk about what they do is as far as that is concerned, the error of that. But the thing that really struck me being a babe in Christ.
This person that got up, umm, who actually was a woman, uh, spoke in some strange language. I don't know if it was Hebrew or Arabic or whatever it was, but anyway.
The the thing that really.
Uh, struck me was the so-called interpretation and it basically was the 1St that our brother read Behold, I stand the door and knock.
That was, well, there was a little more to it. I can't remember all of it now, but that was basically the interpretation. The Lord was standing outside of that place and I'm sure there were true believers in that place, and He's standing out.
Saying, Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
And they wouldn't let him in.
And I hope we never get into such a state of of lukewarmness that we don't give Lord His rightful place, that He has the preeminence, that we continue to, that we stop holding Him as the head.
And another thing I just wanted to bring up, uh, I know what time time is running out. Umm, another situation while I was still there.
Uh, again, this is the spirit of lukewarmness and it had to do with, with giving umm, you know, umm, and I remember a situation where the, umm, the plate was handed around.
Uh, and then it was, it was counted and afterwards the, uh, I don't, I forget what they call them a reverend or what they call them. He almost scolded the almost scolded the congregation. It was a fair size congregation that the, the amount on the plate was only about $60.
I hope, God forbid, that we never get so lukewarm that we give that sparingly to those that labor and love for the Lord, whether it be the gospel or whatever it is. I trust we never.
Determine how much to give to those who labor for the Lord based on the fruit that we can see. I hope we never ever do that. That's just.
00:40:08
Been my burden too, and I trust I've had the Lord of mind and presenting that to you.