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188.
The last two verses.
Oh Lord, how precious is my power? Oh 100,000.
521.
Right. Hurry. No, no, no, no, no.
Yeah.
We invade the our pregnant now across the land.
Lord, let us pray. Oh Lord, in the evening, in my own, bring me.
Oh wow, that's come. I'm pushing it every day.
Grateful hearts reading heaven to bring it to me.
Could we also sing the last three verses of one 68168 beginning with verse three? What is lost in this world when compared to that day?
What is was in this world?
00:05:10
Oh yeah.
And it's got the address of Philadelphia. Would that be all right?
We did talk a little bit about it, but not the whole verse.
From 10 the 15th yesterday.
Reading from Revelation chapter 3 verse.
First is 10 to 13.
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 up 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 has passed in years. Let him hear what the Spirit said under the Church.
As we were saying in the last reading meeting yesterday.
Keeping the word of his patients.
I believe.
Has the significance of going on faithfully for the Lord, even though it may seem a long and difficult pathway. We find earlier in the address to Philadelphia that what the Lord values is those who keep His word and do not deny His name.
And yet, as we find the days growing more difficult, it really becomes a matter of keeping the word of his patience, doesn't it? Because we see the tide of evil, as we mentioned before, getting greater and greater in this world. And perhaps what is equally distressing, if not more so, the weakness and perhaps unfaithfulness among the Church of God. And we realize that we're part of it.
And sometimes.
We lose our patients, at least I do, and we want to have something happen right away, and that can have two effects, I would suggest on our hearts. On the one hand, it can result in our trying to, if I could use the expression, whip up some enthusiasm and whip up some kind of energy for the Lord with human energy, and that won't work. It'll only last for a little while. Human energy can't do what the Spirit of God.
Wants to do.
The other effect of losing patients can be that we start trying to.
Or rather, we start.
Losing heart, losing confidence in the Lord and just kind of, if I again, could use a common expression, just hunker down and say, well, I'm just going to crawl into a hole and wait until the Lord comes. And neither one is right. We can't do with human energy what can only be done by the Spirit of God, but neither is it a day to be discouraged.
I've often thought that in Second Timothy where the apostle Paul after he says all day which are in age of return, there isn't one hint in the whole book of discouragement. Tears being burdened, concerned, yes, very definitely, but not even the slightest hint of discouragement. And so it ought to be today. And so there's a value in keeping the word of his patience. And God would call on every one of us to do that.
00:10:07
How long the Lord will leave us here, we don't know. It's hard to imagine things going on too much longer. But we know that our dear brethren of past generations said that 40 years ago, 50 years ago, when events in the world at that time seemed to point to the very near return of the Lord Jesus. But whatever time He chooses to leave us here, we can have the assurance that He'll give the strength to keep the word of His patience.
The encouragement is because.
Because thou has kept the word of my patients, I also will keep thee from or out of the hour of temptation. We have no doubt that that refers to the tribulation. And you and I know that there are many dear children of God today, even those who are, uh, safe children of God in the sense that they're real, who are persuaded that they will have to go through the Tribulation. Some are even making preparations for it, laying aside.
All kinds of provisions in order to survive that awful time.
I say it very kindly. Many are going to get a certain amount of surprise when they're caught up when the Lord comes. And in no way does this scripture imply that only those who have kept the word of His patience will be caught up when the Lord comes. Afterward, they that are Christ that is coming, every believer will be caught up when the Lord comes to take us home. For those who have kept the word of his patience, I believe will have the sense of it in their souls ahead of time.
And that is why they are allowed to keep or not allowed, but that is why they keep the word of his patience.
Because hope is dependent on faith, and if I have real faith that the Lord is going to come and Take Me Home, then that hope will sustain me. And in that way, I will have the strength and what it takes to go on for Him. Whatever time He chooses to leave us here. I won't get discouraged on the one hand, nor will I feel that I have to jump in and, as it were, uh, get things going with human energy.
But we can have the absolute assurance that the Lord is going to keep us out of that hour of temptation, though we see that brother Bill in connection with some Old Taste Testament things, Noah, uh, knew ahead of time what was going to happen, didn't he? And he was preserved from that hour of temptation. And then Enoch was, uh, taken away before the judgment and Rahab and even a lot, although he was a worldly Christian.
Uh, he was preserved from that terrible judgment that fell on Sodom too. So it's nice to see that in the Old Testament, uh, those who had life or faith, umm, although how weak it was some, in some cases still, uh, they were preserved from the judgment, weren't they?
And I suppose that there will be some when the Lord comes, who will doubtless be saved, as it says in First Corinthians 3, Yet so as by fire that is just pulled away before the judgment comes. Poor lot so immersed in the affairs of Sodom, that it was only with great difficulty that the Angel persuaded them to leave. And of course his dear wife.
She was so reluctant to leave that she disobeyed the command and looked behind her. And we know what happened to her turned into a filler of salt.
And of course, some of, uh, Lot's family left behind too. Very, very sad. Well, we thank God for the lots of this world that will be saved yet so is by fire. But isn't it wonderful to keep the word of his patience as Abraham did? He didn't have to go through all that being.
I know it's sort of helpful sometimes to see other scriptures that give that same thought about the church not going through the tribulation, but I've been held by an expression in Second Thessalonians chapter 2.
The Second Thessalonians chapter.
00:15:03
I'm sorry, uh, fir First Thessalonians chapter 5.
And verse 9.
It says for God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. And as I understand it, their wrath is referring really to the tribulation, isn't it? And salvation would probably be going beyond the salvation of the soul. That would include the salvation of the body, Yes, and also a similar verse in Romans chapter 5.
Romans chapter 5 and umm.
Uh, verse 9. Much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. I think it's a similar thought, isn't it? Hmm.
OK, And uh, if you were about to mention Second Thessalonians 2 also brings that before us because we don't need to go do it in detail, but they're the dear Thessalonians. Saints were persuaded that the tribulation had come upon them. And Paul has to point out that that day shall not come, can come except there be a falling away 1St and that man of sin be revealed and so on.
And of course, the same thought as you brought out Standard in the 13th verse.
We are bound to give thanks all the way to God for you, brethren, beloved the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, and so on. So the Church will definitely not go to the tribulation.
Will be an awful time, as it says here. And it's very significant, the wording. It says it shall come upon all the world to try them to dwell upon the earth. And there's a difference, a slight difference between those two expressions. The world refers to the whole world, the earth, I believe more to the prophetic earth, that is that part of the world which has known the truth of the Gospel and we know that.
The most severe judgments, the most severe time, will fall not only on a phosphate Israel, but ultimately on that part of the world which has had a Christian testimony. God is going to bring together that Roman Empire again and put it together in a different form, but largely the same peoples that were there when the Lord was crucified.
And they are largely those who have known the gospel.
And had an open Bible and the testimony of the word of God and they'll be tried very, very severely. But again, we say, of course that apostate Israel will will fall upon it more than any other. But that isn't particularly the subject of revelation. And so here it talks about those that dwell on the earth, earth dwellers, and it's those who have set out to make this earth.
The object and the horizon of all of their thoughts and have forgotten God. And so that awful time will envelope the whole world, but it will fall particularly on that part of the world that is known, the gospel.
They that dwell upon the earth is uh, an expression peculiar to revelation, isn't it? You get it quite a few times. And I was thinking that, umm, uh, Mark was speaking this morning about the importance of walking with the Lord and these earth dwellers. Their characteristic is found there in Philippians chapter 3 and verse 18. I just read it for many walks of whom I have told you often and now tell you, even weeping, that they are the enemies.
Of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, whose glory is in their shame, whose mind earthly things. It seems to me that sort of defines who these earthwellers really are.
I was wondering if umm, versatile Matthew.
Matthew 3.
There's seven.
00:20:04
The way you saw many of the paracetamol baptism.
Regeneration of Viceroy who have warned you to please.
Begin the Tribulation.
I guess I would take that as a general term, uh.
Because we know when the Lord Jesus came initially he preached the same message that John the Baptist had preached, namely the Gospel of the Kingdom. And of course the Lord was there.
To set up that Kingdom had Israel accepted him. But I believe brother, in the sense that you put it, put it out, it is true because.
When the Lord does come to set up His Kingdom, He will in fact, as we know, purge out from it all. Things that do offend and everything that is not according to His mind will be taken away. And only those who are looking for the rightful King and who have real faith will survive that tribulation and go into the Millennium. Now we know many of them, of course, will suffer larger than along the way, but God is going to.
Purge out of this Kingdom all things that do offend, and so the Lord here is warning the scribes and Pharisees.
Of course, this is John the Baptist's words, not the Lord, but I believe in that sense it was the judgment that would attend the coming of the rightful king. So in the broad sense of the of the word, I feel that yes, it would be.
Because that time had been prophesied in the Old Testament, the Day of the Lord. And we know that of course, the day of the Lord does not merely include the tribulation, but ultimately the whole of the millennial period plus the judgment at the end of the Millennium, so that I believe it would include it. Would others see it that way?
The old saying goes silence and flies consent.
I.
I was just thinking of the.
2nd Thessalonians in chapter 2 There umm, I always understand that the general lab and uh, but umm, it's all intrinsically connected, umm, for sure umm.
And I know the uh in second.
2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 doesn't include the Jew, umm speaking about the profession, Christians and.
We don't know for umm, but anyway, umm.
Verse five, uh, remembering not that when I, I was yet with you, I told you these things and now you know, uh, what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. Umm, for the mystery of iniquity does already work. Only he now left the left until he be taken out of the way. And of course we know that that is the Spirit of God until he meet the Spirit of God, be taken out of the way, God the Holy Spirit.
And he's going to be working.
No longer on the earth, you're going to be working from heaven like.
Before the day of Pentecost.
And then that shall be revealed when the Lord shall consume that the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. And then you can read on and it's just terrible how those that seem to well, perhaps just to keep on reading and.
Even him who's coming is after Satan, the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceitableness of righteousness in them that perish because they receive not the love of the truth that they might just say. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they might believe alive. And of course.
00:25:11
This is a terrible verse to even contemplate after the rapture that they all might be damned.
We believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Oh, what a terrible day it's going to be. Uh.
I guess you could say that those in Revelations, uh, they're the same as those ones that dwell on the earth, Uh.
The earth Earth flowers are all through the scripture, aren't they?
From Genesis to Revelation.
And it's significant in that passage that brother Stan read in Philippians 3.
It doesn't say that those individuals are the enemies of Christ.
Ultimately they are, but what was the crux of their problem? They were enemies of the cross of Christ. I'm sad to say there are many today that are deterred from really becoming true believers in the Lord Jesus because it means following a rejected Christ. The cross has been a hindrance to many and I suggest for our own exercise that that's why it's put there in Philippians Written.
Written to an assembly of believers.
Because even a true believer can hesitate to take up the cross and follow him even to a believer can mind earthly things even a true believer can have.
His belly as his God, that is being self-centered and thinking only of his own ease and comfort. And so is the voice to all of us. Are you and I taking up the attitude and spirit of the world around us?
But here evidently.
Or, or in Philippians 3. Evidently there were those who hesitated to accept Christ, who hesitated to come to the Lord because of the cross of Christ. And so it is. Well, if you and I are heavenly citizens, then that's where our thoughts should be, That's where our affections are, where your treasure is there with your heart.
One would think that, uh, when the rapture takes place.
There's gonna be.
Several. Many. Maybe even ones we know. Maybe some from our own families. Who?
Who had heard the gospel and didn't receive it?
And you would think that, uh, when the rapture occurs, they'll go, oh, they grew up.
I mean, you think that, wouldn't you? And, uh, and maybe they regret that they didn't.
Save the gospel.
Umm, I believe Brother Barry Norm Berry process. It commended itself to me.
That isn't gonna be the case. That's what the passage that was read in Second Thessalonians of speaking about.
That you can't believe because of sight, that's not safe. And uh, so what's gonna happen? You, you think it'd be impossible, that they wouldn't think that, but that's what the strong delusion is for.
God is, in a sense, going to prevent them from believing. Because they saw the rapture, they're going to be sent a strong delusion that they might believe a lie. Why? Because they did not receive the love of the truth. They heard the gospel.
But they didn't, uh, receive them and they're not going to get the chance to believe it because of what they see with their eyes. So I, I just put that out. It means itself to me that that's what there's going to be this strong delusion that they should believe a lie that is to prevent them from entering in because they saw their eyes.
I understand the original, it's not a lie, but the lie, is that right?
There is no A in greed. There is no indefinite article.
00:30:06
I think the Lord Jesus in the sense.
Spoke of this kind of roundabout way in the in the John 17.
Where he speaks of.
John 17, verse 14.
And we spoke about in in Thessalonians where it mentioned until the man as soon as revealed and the church will be taken away. There's a natural law that says 2 objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. And the Lord, I believe in his wonderful wisdom, is very careful that those who are in the church and those who are not.
At a certain period in time, will not occupy the same space because it's impossible for them to do so.
And this is, I think is what he speaks of in verse 14. He says, I have given them my word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, because I am not of the world. I pray not that thou should take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil. And some have even said that it says from the evil 1.
So it's sort of a a prophecy of in light of what we've been talking about in Thessalonians of the Lord himself in the sense of saying that yes, we're not of the world and we should not take the instantly out of the world. But there will come a time when that evil one appears that those who are not of the world and those who are true believers will have to be taken out of the world. So that he and all his, if I can use the term fullness, can be revealed to the world in who he really is.
And, uh, the Church in no way shall impede that, uh.
His umm, total revelation according to the will of God in any sense. So the wonderful thing to know that the the Lord doesn't want us to have any part in the world that would umm succumb to the total evil that it goes to come to in those days.
Another thought that I've had about the church not going through the stipulations is that this is the the church.
Is the bright?
And, uh, as we read in in season 5.
That, uh, Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it.
And, uh, I don't think any of us who are husbands would wanna have our.
Our bride going through.
That kind of.
Any kind of judgment or you know, even even witnessing it.
Umm, And so I don't know if that's the right thought or not, but it, it just seemed to me that it seemed to me that the worst would not put his bride through witnessing the fibrillation that's going to go on in this world after the reference.
I I was just thinking, I read a little article before I come up, umm, about a interface, uh, uh, service, umm.
And the man that's sponsoring this? Umm.
Umm, just after I was saved, uh, he was very active in the denomination I, I attended and umm.
He, umm, he was real positive because I would look at him and I wonder.
Everything said and it was revealed by the things that he was talking about that this man really doesn't know the world at all. And uh, when I was talking to his wife and she was the same friend of mine as him, umm.
She said, oh look, my husband, he used to believe that at one time he was uh, brought up, uh, you know, brethren so-called, so-called brethren church in umm.
Australia and I said, oh, and he doesn't believe that now. And it was just like, oh, it was such a shock to the system. I can weaken my knees because I but I'll just read a little bit here about this interface.
Service the faith traditions that we have identified are those as those would like to include in the service, uh, our aboriginal, big mob, Baha'i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islam, Jain. I don't even know if that one is Jewish, Native American, Shinsuke, I don't know about that. I don't know what that one is. So Rascal.
00:35:06
So after asteroidism, whatever that is, but you know, they're all going to have light candles and some beautiful music and play beautiful music and.
But.
That's what's happening today. It's all coming together. And, uh, Satan is a great unifier and, uh.
And they're working for a World Peace, umm, and uh.
So that there will be peace all over the world and all people will be one.
Instead of theme is one world, one people, one religion. It's almost hard to believe you're at that point in time where.
All the Christmas just falling away.
Well, they want that because they're earthquakes. That that's why they want that. That's the whole point.
And if we see the heavenly calling of the Church as uh.
Robert was bringing out. It solves all of those problems for us because prophecy relates to the earth and to God's dealings with the earth. We are a heavenly people. The tribulation is the time of Jacob's trouble. As we get in the Old Testament, it's not the time of the church's trouble. The Lord may allow you and me to go through difficulties down here, and He has allowed His Saints to suffer many difficulties, even to the point of martyrdom, all down through the ages.
But He will not deliberately allow His people to go through that which is meant to try them, that dwell upon the earth. That is not the horizon of our thoughts. That is not where we belong. We belong to heaven. And so when God begins to deal with this world as this world, He takes His bride away as we had before He takes them. And that perhaps brings us to the next verse.
Verse 11. Behold, I come quickly.
If you notice the Darvey translation though, and it's very beautiful, the word behold is not there. It's.
Simply, I come quickly. If we were to go on to Revelation 22, there we get it. Put in that way, Behold. And the word Behold, I believe, is meant to call attention to the fact that here is one who has something to say. We get it in the address to Laodicea. Behold, I stand at the door and knock, and so on.
But to Philadelphia, there is no need for that to behold.
You and I can understand that in natural terms.
If our spouse or one of our children or a good friend were at some distance from and perhaps had their mind occupied with something else, we might call out some kind of word, even their name, in order to get their attention and then give the message. But if they were right next to us?
And we were in intimate and enjoyable fellowship with one another. There wouldn't be the need for that, would there? There wouldn't be any need to call out something to get their attention or to call out their name. Why? Because they're right there. They're enjoying our fellowship. And we would be able simply to turn to them and say, I'm coming quickly. And that's the sense I believe in which we get it. Here I come quickly.
On the one hand, there is the word of his patients.
But on the other hand, there is the encouragement. I come quickly.
That shows us that the Lord isn't going to delay one moment. He's not going to stay His coming one moment longer than His necessary. Now we know that time has gone on. I can still remember my late father-in-law, Albert Hagel, some of whom will remember him here. And I will remember when he wrote down January the 1St, 1970.
And he shook his head. I was there. We were at a New Year's meeting together. And he shook his head. He said, I can't believe this. I never in my wildest imagination thought that I would ever write that date.
00:40:07
I remember well his giving and address to young people 30 years ago, young people in their teens and early 20s, and he told them.
Quite automatically too. I was there.
He said. Young people, you have already lived more than half your lives.
But he was wrong.
That was 30 years ago. Those young people are some some cases pretty close to being grandparents now.
Some of them are, at least in my case anyway. And the Lord still hasn't come.
What do we make of that?
He still says, I come quickly. And as the Lord has prolonged the day of grace, what is the reason? Oh, we are to account the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation. He will shorten the tribulation so that man would annihilate himself. Can he lengthen the day of grace so that more will be saved? I'd love to think that he does.
You and I may look at the magical year of 2000 and say, well, what's happening? The Lord ought to be coming, and now it's 2013.
Ah, the Lord is long-suffering and not willing that any should perish. And so I say again, whatever time He leaves us here, He will give us all the grace and whatever is needed to follow Him with a full heart until He comes. But the message is still, especially to the one who.
Wants to have that Philadelphian character. I come quickly.
This was said almost 2000 years ago, yes, when he said I come quickly. But really the Lord's coming has always been a present hope, hasn't it? And it just seems like, as you say, it was a word of encouragement, because he goes on and says, hold that fast which thou hast. So even for dear brethren that lived 1000 years ago or even more, the Lord would say, I come quickly, hold that fast which thou hast. Well then on the other hand, I suppose there are some will say, well, maybe the Lord won't come for another thousand years, but.
I think, uh, if we look at the way things are in the world today, we know it can't go on much longer. The Lord has given us a sense that we're right at the end because what follows and we don't have time to look at it, but the, the, uh, Church of Laodicea is certainly the condition of things that we see around us now. And at the very beginning of the next chapter, it says, uh, the Lord says to umm, John, he says, come up, hit her.
And that's what the Lord is going to say to us very shortly. Shortly, isn't it?
And then I know the, umm, the word umm, uh.
I come quickly. Umm.
Well, the translation would say I'm coming soon, which, uh.
Completely loses the sense of it because like.
Still mention there, umm, he's gonna, he's gonna come, uh, exactly when the last one is saved, when that last one comes in the door and that last one might be saved this afternoon and umm, and then he's gonna, he's gonna give a shout because there's no longer any rest to be in this world and he wants us to be with him, you know, more than we want to be with him. He has that desire that.
That eternal love.
And so it's going to happen.
As soon as the last one comes in the door. Didn't you say so? Yes, very definitely. I don't believe the Lord will delay one moment longer after the last one is safe.
I was thinking with respect to your comment that Brother Robert gave about the bride, and if we, uh, were to, won't need to turn to it, but uh, in Revelation 19, we read about the marriage supper of the lamb following, uh, following, uh, that is the appearance of the Lord Jesus coming out of heaven. So it's obvious that as a, uh, bride has, uh, already been taken up.
And umm, I was thinking too in John 14 verse 16.
He was about to go away to his father. He says, I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever. Even the spirit of truth. So it identifies there that that's the Spirit of God. And that's peculiar to the day of grace, isn't it, that the believers indwell by the Spirit of God. It wasn't true in the Old Testament. The Spirit of God came and it went, uh, and I believe, uh, can be corrected if I'm wrong, but it seems to me in that tribulation period, it'll be similar.
00:45:29
Similar way that the Spirit of God will act, but we were talking about, uh, Second Thessalonians chapter 2.
About the one that restrains until he be taken out of the way, well, uh, and then the wicket one will be revealed and so on. And so comes the tribulation period. Well, if he's taken out of the way and we are still here and then he's left us behind. But uh, that would be in contradiction to what we have in John 14.
He said there, uh, the Spirit of God will abide with you for sure.
And so I suppose we could say it this way, that when the church is taken home, that's when the Spirit of God will go and that restraining power, that holding back a measure of the evil in this world, uh, will be taken out of the way. And then it will come in like a flood and that restrain will be removed. So I think these are.
Are wonderful because, umm, we do not look for tribulation. We don't look for that time of Jacob's Provost and said, uh, it's primarily, umm, for the Jewish people and so on. It will be taken away before that. And that's why I believe it says for those, uh, in Tesla Andica who were going through tribulations and so on, Paul brings before them in first Thessalonians for the coming of the Lord Jesus.
And he says, So shall you ever be with the Lord? Wherefore comfort one another with these words. So we look forward to that event, which are our comfort, not to trouble, but the event of the return for what she's expected. Next thing we can say that we look for as though to make up the body of Christ, and then it's good.
Well, there's responsibility connected with that privilege, isn't there? If the Lord says I come quickly, then there's the responsibility to hold that fast, which we have that no man take our crown.
And it simply says, hold that fast which thou hast.
That is, I believe the Lord is saying, you and I are responsible for whatever He has revealed to us.
Some may have more than others. God holds us responsible for what He has given us. And so you may see and I may see another believer who is going on with something which I feel to be contrary to the word of God. And yet the Lord might seem to be blessing him or her in their Christian lives and in their service for him. Well, they may not know what you know. And on my part.
I may go on with something in my life that some others could not go on with because they may have more light than I do. Well in one sense it's God saying I hold you responsible for what you have. It's something of the same thought in Second Timothy 2 where it says.
Follow righteous faith, charity, peace with them to call on the Lord out of a pure heart. One who calls on the Lord out of a pure heart doesn't necessarily know everything.
He may not even have the full sense of the whole truth of God, but he hasn't turned his back, willfully turned his back and resisted that which the Spirit of God is seeking to bring reported. And so we're responsible to hold fast what we have and how important that is. God will hold you and me responsible for what He has revealed to us. Someone else.
May not have as much though or to hold them responsible for what he has given, but there will be a crown and God I believe will have a Philadelphia right to the end.
00:50:01
We just trust that you and I will be part of it, because if you and I fail in holding what we have, the Lord is able to raise up others. The Lord is able to raise up others who will take that crown. And it would be very sad if there were those who had had so much of the mind of God, so much of the truth of God revealed to them, who lose that crown because of unfaithfulness and a desire to be.
Earth dwellers. And then we see others whom the Lord is raising up. Well, it's a very searching thought to each one of us in this.
I'm just thinking we get that brother Bill and Ezra 7, We don't have time to look at it, but, uh, when Ezra and those who are going with them to Jerusalem, they were weighed out so much gold and silver and so on. But then when they got to Jerusalem, there was the weighing in of the gold and the silver. So the Lord is way to us those precious things that he has given, but there's a day coming when we'll have to give an account of what he's given us. Yeah.
And we don't really have truth until we walk in and do we?
We have that expression again in Second Timothy, chapter 3, the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of. I may learn something if I listen to it being ministered, or read it in God's Word, or perhaps in some good written ministry, but I'm not really assured of it until I walk in it. And I don't believe that God will allow me indefinitely if I could use the expression to carry the theory of the truth of God in my head.
Without the practice of it in my walk.
Uh, in that connection, maybe turn to averse. This is only one verse that is very similar, uh, Luke chapter 8. But this verse with variations is repeated, uh, five times in the gospel.
But this one will do for our purposes.
Luke 8 and verse 18.
Take heed therefore, how ye here.
For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have. I would suggest that that's a universal principle in the things of God.
We are among those who have. If we have learned something of what God gives us in His Word, do we walk in it? Then we'll get more, and that hath shall be given. But whosoever hath not, that is, if I refuse to walk in it, if I think I can carry it as a theory in my head, we'll find that what I seem to have will be taken away from you.
And that's a very, very solemn thought. I believe sometimes we can value the things of the Lord in a certain sense, and we can admire the truth of them and others, and we can see someone else enjoying them, and in a certain sense we can enjoy hearing them. But if I fail to walk in the good of them, I'm going to find that I'll eventually lose it. And so it's a very, very solemn thought, because the loss is not merely a loss for time, but a loss for all eternity.
And we need to bear that in mind. And so going back to Revelation 3, hold that fast, which thou hast. The Lord wouldn't tell us to hold something fast if there weren't the danger of it being taken from us. And we say again, the devil is working overtime today because I would suggest, among other things, that he hates the truth of the one body almost more than anything else. It would almost seem as if Satan will not that he in any way likes to see blessing in the gospel.
But it almost seems as if you'll even tolerate blessing in the gospel if he can take a good shot at the truth of the one body. And so we need to hold fast not only the truth of the one body, but everything that God has given to us, because there is every attempt being made today to take it away.
It brings, uh, Satan hates everything, and that brings any glory and honor to the Lord. Hmm.
00:55:21
Well, verse 12 brings us to.
The Overcomer.
And it was mentioned over lunch the other day, but it might be good to mention it again just so that we see it in the first three of the.
Addresses for these seven assemblies.
We find it, said, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches, addressed to the entire assembly, And then there's a word for the overcoming.
But in these last four, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, the Word, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches, is at the end only to the overcomer. And I believe there's a reason for that. When the church had gotten as far as the state of things in Thyatira, the Lord, as it were, said, there's no hope of restoring things.
In the first three the Lord was calling.
And exposing the state of things with a few to expecting restoration.
But Thyatira has children and Perpe perpetuates itself, and God doesn't look for recovery. And so the condition of things in all of those last four go on to the end. There will be a thyroid when the Lord comes. There will be a a Sardis respectively Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Thank God There will be a Philadelphia when the Lord comes, and there will also be a letter to see it.
But the Lord speaks to the overcomer because it is possible to be an overcomer. And let's never lose heart in the difficult days in which we're living. God would not tell us to be overcomers if it were impossible to do so. And I would suggest that the encouragement given here in this 12Th verse is perhaps some of the greatest encouragement.
In the whole Bible.
Quite a few years ago now.
A brother in an assembly, a local assembly, was making a remark relative to the fact that wouldn't it have been nice to have lived in the early days of the church? Wouldn't have been It had been nice to have lived when all believers everywhere were one. Wouldn't have it have been nice to see the wonderful power of the Spirit of God demonstrated, the large numbers that were being saved, the relatively rapid expanse of the Church of God.
And an older brother sat there, and after the first brother was finished, he quietly said with a smile on his face.
I wouldn't trade. I wouldn't trade. Why'd you say that? Oh, he went on to say. He said the light shines brighter as the day grows darker. And while it would certainly have been wonderful to have lived in Pentecostal and Apostolic days, yet there is a very special privilege according to those who are in the last date. And he said, if you and I are willing to follow the Lord with a full heart to keep his word and not deny his name.
The word to the overcomer is some of the most wonderful encouragement, and you see it in the Old Testament, don't you? When Josiah kept the Passover right at the end of Israel's history, just before they went into captivity, says there was no Passover like that since the days of Samuel. Marvelous. But then things got even, shall we say, further back in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah.
There they kept the Feast of Tabernacles, and they read in the Law that they were to dwell in temporary dwellings called booths.
And they did so, and it's recorded that they have not done so since the days of Joshua. And so very often there is something about that character of things amid the opposition and the darkness and the difficulties that stand out in the mind of God and have a very, very special quality that was not there right even at the beginning of things. And so.
01:00:15
There's a wonderful encouragement that God gives us.
I was just thinking of John on the Allopathmos when you were speaking.
The airless anger and the It's in the first John chapter 2.
I just think of the Spirit of God, be his and him, you know, and.
Umm, so many, uh, people that don't know what they're saying.
But anyway, verse 27 but the anointing which you have received with him abide within you. And you mean not that any man should teach you, but as the same anointing teaches you of all things and his truth and there's no lie and even as it has taught you.
Or you shall abide in him. And now, little children.
I don't know if we're literally supposed to be there or not, but and now little children abide in him, that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. Here's my comments.
Especially the last month you've seen before him as it was coming.
You know, but let me change.
Revolver, you're going to change something like this with his glorious body, and that's what we wait for.
Would you think that that means?
There could be some Christians who are going to be more counties. They're going to be doing things.
Go ahead, Dave, you've got something on that. Oh, no, I don't read. Go ahead, do I?
I was just having another problem in connection with the overcomer. Go ahead. Well, I believe you're right, Bill. I believe there will be a sense of loss and a sense of shame. Every dear believer, no doubt, will rejoice when he hears that shout. But as we mentioned earlier, it may well be those who are earth dwellers and as such are not really looking for to come and to be snatched out of the fire, so to speak, the way Locke was taken out of Sodom.
Was a blessed thing, But what a sense of loss, what a sense of shame to be so admired, perhaps in the things of this world that I'm not waiting for or looking for the Lord. And then suddenly I have, as it were, to be yanked right out of it, away from something that was so absorbing my mind and my heart that I had lost the sense and the expectation of the Lord's coming. I believe I'm sorry I had digressed it.
On that part you had. Oh, go ahead, Dave. Wait a minute. I just couldn't find the verse. No, no, no, no. Let's just appreciating, uh, what The overcomers here.
That, umm, often the overcomer in, in these various churches, uh, what, uh, what is promised to them is in contrast that often the difficulty where you have, you know, umm, the loss of first love. Well, the overcomer there and he gets an appreciation for the, the greatest display that there ever was of love that as seen in the tree of tree of life. I've just thought of it here in connection with the overcomer. It says that the, in the overcomer who I make a pillar.
You know what that's in contrast to? A little strength. You don't think of a little strength being a pillar. You know, I have something interesting in my work. I have some men that work for me.
And, umm.
I have one that, uh, I'm very, very nervous when he's working on a table saw. I have a three horse table saw. It's a piece of wood gets jammed and a three horse table saw, it'll fire that piece of wood right through the wall. And I'm always worried about the men. Sometimes when they're behind the table soft, they're running something through it. I'm really worried about this one person. He's very careful, but I'm, I'm always a little bit worried about him waiting on the table saw. Now there's another man.
I don't worry about him at all, people thought.
You know the reason why he's cut his finger off.
01:05:01
I don't worry about him at all. You know, it's just exactly what the table saw can do, and he's very, very careful with it. Well, I just thought of here, the overcomer.
Who appreciates a little strength and deals with that? What what happens to him? Oh, he's made a pillar. He's made a pillar in the temple. I just really appreciate that in connection with the overcoming.
Very lovely. Keep on going to date because.
It says and he shall go no more out.
The two Philadelphians today.
He may have to go out and it's not easy.
He's called upon, and we get it in Second Timothy, to purge himself from vessels to dishonor. He's called upon to separate from that which does not honor the Lord. Sometimes it's not easy because in separating from evil, it may end up separating.
In some cases from believers that we hold dear and love as true members of the body of Christ, the emphasis is never and we emphasize that on separating from another believer. It's rather that he, that him that name, the name of the Lord, depart from iniquity. But if I as a believer associate myself with iniquity.
Another believer in separating from inequity may end up having to be aloof from me too. And so it's very difficult sometimes. Won't be wonderful in that day to go no more out. And so I like that comment, Brother Dave, that the reward is commensurate with what the faithful one has had to go through down here.
The martyrs crown in Smyrna. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life. There's a contrast there. And so on. And so in every case it's relative to what the believer in that particular situation has had to deal with in this world. The reward is a contrast to it. And so it is all the way through here.
There's such a steadfastness in the Lord Jesus.
That's unexplainable to us in our normal state of mind and and the sense of way that we do things. I think it comes quite evident in these two verses, both 11 and 12. And once again, he gives himself as the source of all things. It's not dependent upon us, but yet it reads that way, like hold fast, hold that fast which thou hast the bottom line of what we hold fast. Is it not Christ himself, no matter what doctrines may this may ask or confuse us or whatever.
The bottom line is we have one who holds up.
In hands that cannot be shaken or moved.
And So what do we fear of these things?
We know him, He holds us in his hands and He'll never let us go.
And that's why it's just him that overcomes. Will I make a pillar in the sample because something you have to work for nothing that we can do. He does that for us. He gives us that same steadfastness that the character of himself. And I was just thinking what Bill read there a while ago. You think of man and and in the world and how that you try to unify themselves. And perhaps they can get together in the same room and they can light their candles and they can do their dances and all that. But the bottom line is they still come as whatever doctrine they hold.
Gather together for that one moment. When that moment's over, they all go back to what they had and what they helped, and they still can't see eye to eye unless they come together for these little gatherings. But He had an dimension of the one body. What keeps us together is not what I hold, not what you hold, but what Christ holds, who He is, and what He holds for us. That's what unifies us. It's the secret of God that brings us together. It's nothing that each of us brings into that lake. This is what He brings to us.
It's a wonderful thing to think about that when he says that it's the person, the Lord Jesus Christ himself that tells us that him had overcometh. I will make another in the temple of my God and he shall not so no, no or no no more out what confidence we have in him. What a joy it should bring to our hearts to realize that he's the one that says these things, the one that holds us in his hands and will never let us go. That's very that's very important Brian the power to for us to overcome.
By the Spirit of God dwelling in us, not by our own power or determination or.
Resolve or whatever you want to call it, the power of the server.
Our time is pretty well gone, but just a comment or two on the last part of the verse. I will write upon him the name of my God. Beautiful. There are many names in this world that are excellent in Christianity.
01:10:08
The name of my God will be written on you and me up there in the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God. The New Jerusalem is a picture of the church, isn't it? In that day every will believe, every true believer, a part of that church will be seen in glory there. And we see that very clearly brought out in the vision John had of the New Jerusalem and Revelation 21.
And then finally, I will write upon him my new name.
We don't know what that new name is, but some have postulated that it's Son of Man. I don't know, it could very well be. But at any rate, you and I will bear that new name. Why? Because the Bride of Christ is so clearly and definitely associated with him in that day that they are one, just as you find in the book of Genesis when God brought Eve to Adam and says.
And he called their name Adam.
So we'll be in that day when you and I are so closely associated with Christ that we will bear the same names He has.
We've seen 224.
So that we never might forget what Christ has suffered for our sake. To save our soul and make us eat of all His glory to our faith. Keeping this in mind, press on to glory in the pictures Crown.
324.
So that we know I forget.
That.
From her heart say we do anything good and that may not come.
To me, oh, come on. And the floor in the middle of the earth and anything, but I can't say anything.
And someone else management changes.
Blood range by a pleasure.
But I have some of my activities with me so.
Work on Friday afternoon. We're ready to start today. So I don't know the administration.
'S now I'm saying it's raining for every day. I won't go wherever we're going to spend.
I don't know what I can see.
And.
What I am?
Uh.