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See now let us run, and never turn thy present.
Shall comfort thee thyself are over all desire.
Our presence save your own or turn, nor sin can go.
It's not like noon or present day. Your wildlife here nor sin can come if thou art in my love. For this we know I'll start by night our sun, by day our spring of love.
Grandparents friend drowned are wanting to cheer our breath.
Good day.
Our strength, our show, our strength of all, our roam before.
The throne of God for strangers shield ourselves.
Most of us know we were reading in Revelation chapter 3.
And, uh, we didn't quite finish the address to Philadelphia.
Uh, perhaps we could read verse 11, although we did talk about it a little, but if we could, could we go on and read the address to Laodicea with an hour's time? I don't know how much we can get into it, but might be possible to get into it a little. So would that be all right?
OK.
Reading in Revelation chapter 3, umm, starting at verse 11 and reading to the end of the chapter. 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.
Even half an ear let him hear what the Spirit says under the churches.
And under the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans, right these things saith thee, Amen. The faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy words, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou art cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth, because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knows not that thou art wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked.
I constantly to buy of me gold, pride 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 sat, that thou mayest see as many as I love. I rebuke and chasten. He zealoth therefore, and repent he hold. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him, and will Sup with him.
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And he with me, to him that overcometh.
Well, I grad to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and have sat down with my Father in his throne. He the half an ear let him hear what the Spirit sat on the church.
But we did remark on verse 11 already.
But just to note again that in the better translation, the word, behold, it's not here because in Scripture it has the sense of calling our attention to it. But if we're really walking in a Philadelphian way, there isn't the need for that. The Lord simply makes the statement, I come quickly.
But of course, with every privilege comes responsibility.
And so there's the added injunction.
All that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
And I suppose that's very necessary perhaps for some of us who live here in North America where we have been on the receiving end of the precious truth of God for some, uh, so long, generation after generation has been able to enjoy it. And we are very thankful for that. But we know all too well how that.
It's easy to take it lightly and to give it up, but God will have that which answers to Philadelphia until He comes. I believe each goes on to the end, and what we are seeing today is that God is working in places where, as far as we know, that precious truth has not been preached and made available.
When I was.
Growing up, I don't recall that there were assemblies and gathered to the Lord's name in Brazil or Argentina or Chile or Ecuador, just to name a few places.
Uh, not even in Peru. As far as I knew, there were no assemblies in India or Bhutan or in parts of Africa.
And Australia and many other places, South Korea. And yet today the Lord is working in all those places, sometimes in a remarkable way.
And it's wonderful to see how some of those dear souls, the truth, gets a real grip on their soul, and they value it.
But we need to each one ask ourselves our.
Those dear brethren going to take our crown, I say our in the sense of being in the place of privilege, and not that it has to be that.
Just because God is working in other places, there needs to be a giving up among some but.
God will have that Philadelphian character right to the end, won't he? And if those who have the opportunity don't take it up, God will raise up others.
Is divorced by grace as a man faithful and no one cannot lose eternal life. But can we lose our reward?
We uh, give up the cruise or uh.
Start from the class of the convenience to the Word of God community.
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Well, I think this first proves it, doesn't it?
Scripture speaks of different kinds of rewards. Some will be.
Uh, as we saw earlier, uh, very tangible, outwardly public rewards such as having authority over 10 cities or five cities crowns will no doubt be able to be seen by others. Some rewards, like the Whitestone spoken of in Revelation 2, will be a private thing between US and the Lord. But there will be different kinds of rewards. And you can enlarge on it, John, but I'm sure we can lose our reward.
And have a sense of loss as a result, can't we?
In the First Corinthians chapter 3.
Where it speaks of a saved soul and a lost life at the judgment seat of Christ, verse 13. Every man's work shall be made manifest, and the days shall declare it. That day is the judgment seat of Christ, because it shall be revealed by fire.
In the fires, that's right, everyone's work of what sort of it is, umm, there's 15. But if any man's work shall be burned.
He shall suffer loss, but He Himself will be saved yet so as by fire. When the soul is saved here, that's eternally secure. But the work was not according to the word of God, is not according to the man.
Instructions of the Lord and therefore there's not a reward for the work. It's it doesn't divide, it doesn't have the Lord's approval, though it might appear great in the eyes of men, it is not according to the blueprints or the the plan that the Lord has put them in his word. So there's a loss there almost difficult to understand how there could be lost in heaven, but.
I mean, the Lord is a prime example of.
There he was, uh, living for present advantage, uh, caught up in the world of system and its politics and everything. And, uh, lost his testimony, nearly lost his wife, but he was a saved soul Will mean Lord in heaven, but his words would work out, will be burnt out. And, uh, that's a very sad endpoint for a believer.
Call.
So I think we can say that it's lost in the sense of something that we could have had, we were that we could have had.
But we don't, uh, we lose it. Something that we could have had because we weren't watching, as John said, passing the Lord would have.
Our rewards are in connection with position in the Kingdom. Is that not true?
As opposed to any special position in the father's house. Rewards does not apply there. Don't believe.
That's an encouragement that references made to chapter three of first Corinthians chapter 4.
It speaks here about the judgment seat and in verse.
Five, which is therefore.
Judge nothing before the time until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of their hearts. Now notice this, and then shall every man have praise of God.
You know, we think about, uh.
How, when we get to glory, we're going to be praising God.
But is this marvelous to consider that he's going to be praising us?
Every man will have praise of God. There will be something that God values. I believe in every life.
And that's gonna be manifest.
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I believe there's a special crown, isn't there for this kind of faithfulness mentioned in connection with Philadelphia and.
And it's not directly connected with crowns that are mentioned elsewhere. We have various crowns mentioned in the Word of God. We have a crown of life in the previous chapter. We, uh, have a crown of righteousness and a crown of glory and so on, all of which are rewards for a slightly different things. But this is a crown in a general way, which will be for faithfulness according to what God has delivered to us.
And in that way there is responsibility, isn't there? As we were mentioning yesterday, if God has made something clear to us and revealed His mind, we have a responsibility to walk in it someone else who perhaps has not had it made to them. Clearly they may do something different. And as John was pointing out in First Corinthians 4, the motive is in question there in First Corinthians 4.
Or or I'm sorry, John Walley, I meant Wally was just pointing out to us in First Corinthians 4. They're the motive is more in question and God can reward a what a right motive. Whereas if the motive is wrong, everything is wrong. And so that's an important point. I can do something in the right way, but with a wrong motive and that destroys its value, doesn't it? But here in the address to Philadelphia.
I believe the sense is that you and I have a responsibility to walk in what God has made clear to us and what He has given us. And if we decide not to?
Someone else may take our crown in that sense. As we said earlier, God will raise up others who will walk in that path and value that. And it will be a sense of loss to us in that day if we see them receiving a crown, as Brother Robert Muir was mentioning that we could have had, but because of carelessness and not valuing the truth, we didn't walk in it.
Call.
So the overcoming here is.
A little different to some of the other assemblies addressed.
Uh, for example, in Smyrna, the overcoming had to do with that which was outside the assembly. There was persecution and the overcomers were those who were faithful unto death. But here the overcomer is the one who is having that Philadelphian character and who only by God's grace, of course, is.
Holding that fast which he or she has, Satan is working strenuously to take it away. He is making every possible effort to destroy that which honors the name of Christ in this world in the fullest way. Oh, you would say, how could any true believer deny His name? How could any believer not fail to keep His word? Well, we can, and sad to say, there are.
Believers today and we have to watch our own hearts.
If we rationalize our way around the Word of God and don't want to walk in it, or we connect the name of the Lord Jesus with that which is not according to the Word of God, we too can dishonor His name.
But.
Here the Lord is talking about those who overcome by holding on to what they have, and there's a tremendous reward here. Some of the greatest encouragement, we might say, in the whole Bible is given to the assembly in Philadelphia and ultimately in our day to those who are willing to walk in it because God values.
Very specially.
That which is done under difficult circumstances, and we don't want to in any way belittle or make light of what went on in the days of the early church. It was a wonderful time, but it was relatively easy in that day to keep His word and not deny His name. There was power, there was.
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A growing testimony there was that.
Which, uh, was gradually increasing and although there was definitely persecution yet at the same time.
It was something that was a work that God was doing. All believers were one together. But as it was at the end of Israel's history, so it is at the end of the church's history. There hasn't been serious failure and God doesn't restore things to the way they were at the beginning.
But he brings a small number, relatively small, to the knowledge of what he did give at the beginning as a testimony. And that's the way it is in your day and my day. And so it becomes more and more difficult because there isn't the outward encouragement that there might have been at one time. There isn't the encouragement today that there was will say, 150 years ago.
Among those gathered to the Lord's name, but.
The Lord is the same, and the encouragement here, as we say again, is some of the most remarkable encouragement in the whole body.
The first expression here.
Says I will make a pillar him that overcometh. I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out.
Pillar speaks of that which is stable, doesn't it? That would sit in one place that would support that which is there Speaking of stability.
There will be no literal temple in heaven. There will be an earthly temple, but God uses it as a figurative term, whether in judgment or in reward. And so the temple of God is spoken of here in revelation in heaven.
Smoke coming out of it and so on because of judgment coming on this world and here it's spoken about in blessing.
Down here, as we had in the previous meeting, there sometimes has to be a going out, doesn't there? There has to be a separation from what is not according to the mind of God. And it's not easy. It's difficult, very, very difficult. And sometimes that becomes even harder than bearing the persecution of a hostile world. Very, very difficult. But there will come a day when.
The Philadelphia would go no more, no more out to be in the father's house there.
To have that sense of being a pillar and to go no more wonderful prospect to which to look forward, isn't it?
I suppose if we take the promises as, uh, they're given, umm, and, uh, live in them, back in them, then we're acting already like a killer in favor of, uh, what, uh.
And then, and that is the idea of supporting it too. Umm, if the support.
Brother Bill, it might be nice to just notice in uh, first Kings Chapter 7 in connection with the pillar.
It says there in First King 7 verse 21 and this has to do with the temple. He set up the pillars in the porch of the temple and he set up the right pillar and called the name thereof Jacob.
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And he set up the left filler and called the name Boaz. And I think it's interesting that Jake, and if you look in your margin, uh, means he shall establish and Boaz of course, means in it is French. So it sort of corroborates what you're bringing out, uh, brother Bill in connection with the pillar, uh, Speaking of that, which is.
Uh, stable and strengthening and so on, I guess to point that out.
Yes.
And it's beautiful to see too that despite those pillars being established in that way, when Nebuchadnezzar finally took Judah captive and the temple was destroyed, it specifically mentions that those pillars were removed and taken to babbling. Sad to see those pillars didn't last because a man's unfaithfulness. But there's a day coming when you and I will be pillars.
And we'll go no more out. And, uh, as our brother was, uh, was just saying our brother Lauren Perry, we should in one sense be pillars right now. The assembly is to be the pillar and ground of the truth and.
We ought to be able to look on one another as pillars. Of course, we can only take that place in dependence on the Lord and in communion with Him. But we should be acting like that now. We should be supporting the truth. But because of that there may be.
A necessity for going out, but there will come a day when that will never have to happen again.
Just, uh, on a side, I want to be careful that in acting like a pillar in these days in the assembly that we don't want to make the claim high and the filler.
No, that's good.
Will this be a public acknowledgement of uh?
Faithfulness. Connect.
You believe her? Is it not a public acknowledgement here? I know there's some rewards that are individual and individual, but, uh, more of a secret nature, but it's just not a public, uh.
Approval of the Lord.
Those who might grace are taking business positioning them.
I believe all these rewards are public, yes, uh, in the same way as we mentioned, uh, back there in verse uh, nine, where the Lord says I will make them of the synagogue of Satan to come and worship before thy feet and to know that I have loved thee. Yes, there will be a public acknowledgement of those that have been faithful and rewards, I believe here will be public.
And so all of these things are God's answer to faithfulness, aren't they?
So we need to remember that, and God wants us to take an eternal view of things. All too often I speak to my own heart. It's easy to take a temporal view. And how are things going to go with me in this world if I do this or if I do that? Well, God wants me to take an eternal view. What would it look like before the Lord in that day? What I am doing now in the way that I am going?
And so it goes on to say, And I will write upon him the name of my God, the name of my God.
The Lord Jesus.
Often referred to God as his Father, but he refers to him here as God. And the Spirit of God in that sense brings before us God in his nature and His power.
How are you and I in this world? If we really walk a Philadelphian pathway, these scriptures say we have a little strength. We don't have anything to boast of in this world, but just imagine having, just imagine having the name of God written upon us. When we get farther, it's more a thought of relationship, but when we get God, it's more the thought of nature and power. And of course, we never.
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In that sense, will be deity will never have the nature of God in that way. Sad to say, many false religions bring that in that man can become God. Uh, there's no truth whatever in that, but we will be associated with the name of the one who is God, My God, What a wonderful thing that will be.
Administrative position in the capacity of the latter part of the book, the place that the Church will have in that coming Kingdom. We're not.
Unearthly people, but uh, it's, uh, described in their, uh, very fully in the 21St chapter of Revelation carries everything carried me away in the spiritual breaking high mountains and going to be that great city and falling Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God and her life was delightful to, uh, the stone most precious.
Even like a Jasper stone, Ferris, crystal and as you can go on through that chapter.
Uh, it brings before us the Church, but not as so much as the bride of Christ, but in its administrative character, when the Lord will be reigning as Lord, King of kings and Lord of war, and the Church will be associated with him in his reign, no doubt as the bride of Christ, but.
The thought is the administration of that.
New heavens and new earth or something eternal sake. It's, it's the Millennium, uh, because there will not be any administration in the throne of state, but in the Millennium, the war to be raised, but we will be reigning with them. Now is not the time for reigning. That's where the Corinthians made a mistake. They were reigning now as teams. And uh, the apostle says, I would to God that you were reigning, that we might reign with you.
But this isn't This is man's day. This is not the time for rain.
The time for suffering with Christ. But here it is also the, uh, the Church of Philadelphia is looking on to that time when we will arrange with Christ. And as Brother Raleigh mentioned, our position in the Kingdom will be according to our walk down here. Our position, uh, or reward in the Kingdom will be according as we have, uh, walked in this scene.
OK.
Yes, the New Jerusalem is the church in millennial glory, isn't it? And it'll be viewed by this world. It'll be in full view of this world. The communication, you might say, between heaven and earth will be restored in that day. And the new Jerusalem comes down out of heaven from God. But yes, that's very beautiful to see in the Millennium.
The bride is viewed as a city in the eternal state. The city is viewed as a bride. And so if you read the 1St 8 verses of Revelation 21, the city is viewed as a bride in the eternal state. But then when we go on from the ninth verse to the end of the chapter, the bride is viewed as a city. And that's because his brother John was bringing out. There is administration there.
The administration of things down here.
Will be through the church. And so you and I will reign, live and reign with Christ 1000 years. Now will will not every true believer have a place in that city? Indeed they will. But there will be, I believe rewards and we got that yesterday in Matthew 25 or I should say in Luke 19 in the parable of the pounds.
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Where there was authority given depending on faithfulness and use of what's been given to us. And so there will be degrees of reward there, especially in that Kingdom. And again, it's God's answer to the reproach that is connected with the Philadelphia state.
And God is going to write the name of that city on us. It comes down out of heaven from God. Well, isn't it worth it to wait for that day? Those who are seeking honors in this world, those who are trying to straighten out this world, they perhaps get a measure of honor today. And the world honors those who are out there seeking to make it a better place. Now, of course, the believer ought to do good wherever he has the opportunity.
That's not in one sense trying to improve the world. It's rather seeking to do good unto all men. And we're to do that. But to work with the world to improve the world is to come down to the world's level. And then I must operate on the world's principles and on its level, and I lose my heavenly calling. So here, that's the New Jerusalem, that name, that's where.
God is intending the church to be, it's the display really of first or Ephesians one and verse 10, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him. And so Christ will rule over all things in heaven and on earth.
He'll be head of all things.
And this is the display of it in that day.
Not losing the crown. It's got a fair bit of it that in chapter 4.
The end of chapter 4 of Revelation we read and we spend more than 20 elders fell down before he said I was home and worshiped in.
Uh, forever and ever fantastic there.
Grounds before the throne, saying, Our worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
And would that be what we?
As members of that party, as this party has brought about what we are going to.
Want to do when we're there? In other words, even though the word is going to reward those who are faithful.
We are going to give him what gives him all the credit. I we won't be occupied with how much of A reward or a crown or whatever position I got. It'll all be.
His doing and we will want him to have all the honor award.
Absolutely, And we'll realize that it's all been of grace, won't we? Any good that was produced in us, It was all the grace of God.
OK, Crowns usually have precious jewels in them and it's, uh, something that is true that, uh, if you don't have light, then, uh, precious jewel is just a piece of rock. You can't tell the difference if I feel. And uh, and the other factor is that for it to be reflective and shine and be brilliant, it has to be faceted, which means carving off excess to produce light reflecting angles.
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And that is, uh, illustrates.
What the Lord Jesus is doing with each one of us, He calls us his precious jewels and and he is fashioning us by faceting, by cutting off that which is of no value to Him progressively in our lives and our spiritual lives and so that we will shine brightly for Him. What we do. Where does the light come from? Well, obviously it comes from him. It's His glory that's reflected back to Him.
And so when we, this is, uh, extended in the, in the point of casting our crowns reform that Robert was bringing out that, uh, where did the ground come from? Well, they came from him in the 1St place. And he fashioned the shape of what is reflective of his beauty, his glory for that crown. So it's a, it's a circle of blessings that, and it's in our hearts to one at that time.
To want to give those backgrounds to him.
What is the picture we have in Leo this year? Is this the last condition of the professing church? Is it the day in which we are now or late of the scene condition or state itself?
Really grab the picture of the departure from the Lord in the indifference to His honor and glory. Now I've always had a problem with him. I guess it's.
Because I haven't given enough attention to it. Let's say I know that Sardis is progressing is there in the Nokia tyrant symbol of Catholicism. That's very clear. But until Philadelphia, a picture of those who by grace have been brought into the past of God's mind and truth. But I've had a problem just understanding what how we would identify way of this year.
At the present time, what is very intangible, we can we can look at each state this is later received. Or is it just a general condition of the Church?
How's the testimony in India or testimony?
I think the uh was brought out yesterday and then mentioned beginning I believe at the beginning of this meeting probably.
I think my brother, our brother Bill, is that.
Is that those Philadelphia this message to Philadelphia that we have just looked at and the and then went to Landers here.
Is the Spirit our spiritual states that we can be in as members of the body of Christ?
And I.
I don't wanna be.
Uh, comic or or, uh.
Kind in any way, but I believe if I want to see what.
What way to see us as white? Perhaps I could look in the mirror.
Because I believe, brethren, and I speak for myself, I believe we.
Are often individually and collectively.
We wanna be honest with ourselves.
It's what we would see play to see. It is what we would see in ourselves.
That's not. Let's not claim to.
To be in the spirit of Philadelphia, we should desire to be.
But if we're honest with ourselves.
I believe we a lot of work is said to play this year is true of ourselves.
We're going to point the finger to myself first.
Perhaps, uh, Second Timothy 3 would be uh.
A comparison to, uh, Laodicea.
Second Timothy 3 is speaking about the last days of dangerous times. I don't think the.
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A dangerous time to Speaking of, there is what we see in the world around us with wars and rumors and wars and all that that's going on.
Speaks Here are the dangerous times that the professing uh church.
Uh, the face of the character of the people that's living in the Last days in Second Timothy 3.
Gives a description there of what the world is like.
In that time.
Of the people and what they, their actions. And I believe that corresponds with William Lucia. It's that a difference.
To the things of God is going on.
Uh, according to its uh.
Its own way, you might say, leaving God out of things.
Because I have nee, I am rich and increased with goods of need of nothing.
That's a pretty good description, perhaps, of the world in which we live professing Christianity.
We know that when man has everything.
Umm, there's a tendency to set God aside. He doesn't need God. He doesn't need anything. That's man's estimation of things today in the world. He's quite comfortable with his surroundings and everything he has. And so there's too much complacency for us. We know when Israel.
God bought Israel into the land.
They uh, God drove out.
The nations that were there.
Before he brought his own people in, giants and so on, drove them out and he gave them, you know, that land. They didn't have to fight for it, he said. They had balls, cities with walls given to them. They had vineyards that were already planted given to them. Everything that they had God provided before the evil went into the land.
And oftentimes when we receive things.
Easy we don't really in the world today, everything that seems to be easy come easy go. Like the world says, have so much of everything. It's not appreciated and God is certainly not appreciated in the day in which we live. Man has so much of this world's goods. He doesn't want any interference from from from God. He wants to carry on doing what he wants to do.
Without any responsibility.
And uh, I've never seen a A the world so bad in which people would just deny God altogether.
There is, there isn't any guide, no God for me because they're having so much fun and pleasure. There's so much to distract. They really don't care about anything spiritual. And, uh, it's an awful state. And I think that that that is what describes later to see it here. It's at end times just before the next chapter.
It's uh, looked at as the Church is, is uh, raised up with Christ and glory the latest. He is just before I believe that the Rapture takes place.
It's a condition of the picture of the condition of the world in the last, very last day. We see the declension in the Church, don't we, as we consider the.
The account here from Ephesus all the way to Laodicea, and somebody has said that in Ephesus you have the church in the world.
But when you come down to pergamos.
Now you've got the world in the church.
Worldliness coming in, but when you get to Laodicea, there's no distinction between the world and the church.
And so you have that which appeals to the first man you know, the flesh and buildings and and music performances and that which is truly entertaining and really can dazzle.
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You know the flash, but where's Christ in all of this? What we're seeing here is God has a different perspective on what the church ought to be and the world looks upon this condition at Laodicea. You know I'm a rich increase with goods have need of nothing.
I want to see the Lord have to say now, no, it's not that thou art wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. It's a absolutely terrible state.
The council they to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich, white rain that thou mayest be flowing.
And so on.
You can find it. The Lord is outside. He's knocking, wanting to come in.
This 1St 17 cares. It's a description of of one who's so full of themselves and they have absolutely no regard for anyone of anyone else, not even the lost and perishing. So there probably is very little if any God's blood reaches well.
Because they've lost sight of their heavenly calling. And it's, it's a grad. You don't suddenly become late and see, it's a very gradual, uh, a very gradual thing falling into that state.
And so there is not a discrete place I believe that we can, to answer the question you raised, John, I don't believe in either Philadelphia or Laodicea. There's a discrete place, a discrete group that we can point to and say that's Laodicea. But the essential character of Laodicea is spiritual pride in having a certain level of knowledge, but without a walk that corresponds to it.
And so it's really a phosphate Christendom. And as brother Enos was pointing out, that's what's described in Second Timothy 3.
It eventually ends up being composed of nothing but unbelievers. And of course we know that in the coming day God will allow that false church to be destroyed. We've already had that in these meetings. Probably happens about the middle of the week when the woman riding the beast is.
Totally overthrown and burned with fire and so on. And that's the end of that false church as far as the system is concerned. But.
It's not just unbelievers, it's not just the world out there, it's any state of soul which has a certain level of knowledge, takes pride in it, and yet does not have a walk that corresponds to it. And so I think our brother Roberts.
Uh, point about looking in the mirror is very well taken. Uh, we can look out at that, which, uh, has pride in all kinds of things and no question about it, it's Laodicea, but any amount of pride in what the Lord has given us.
Is wrong as a brother again quoting a brother from the 1800s, he said. How unseemly it is for us to be saying we have done great things at a time when God has given us light that shows us how little we really have done.
And the result of the light that God gives, you might say to Philadelphia sometimes, if it's not lived and walked in, in humility and in the recognition of the failure of the church.
Results in laodicea and so.
That's a very important point to remember. Yes, it does refer to unbelievers. It does refer to.
That which bears the name of Christ, but which for all practical purposes denies him. He's outside. But in one sense Christ can be disregarded even among those that have the light of Philadelphia and yet don't walk in the good of it.
That's driven by the fact that, uh, that this, uh, Laodicean, uh, assembly with a real assembly gun to the Lord's name by the Spirit of God. And they had, uh, drifted into, uh, if not marched headlong into this character, this state of soul, uh, to a large degree. And, uh, and, uh, de Robert's point, there's a, there's a considerable trend.
00:55:21
Uh, amongst those who are given the Lord's name to subtly, slowly and by degree move in this direction. And, and it's, uh, and I, I believe the lifestyle that is around us in which we largely conf to, uh, too much debris, uh, conform to is, uh, is re is largely responsible. Satan worked very subtly and, and with in many cases.
We work slowly over time.
To wean us away from what we have earlier enjoyed fully in the Lord.
Come to the to the state of things today and and meet Chris and them.
It's nice, as we mentioned, it's nice to have that spirit that EMI had, isn't it, by just looking at it there in, uh, EMI Chapter one?
How Israel?
Went away from God and.
And and got so low and and things and into the world, taking captive and everything and, uh.
Nehemiah he says in verse five, he said, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God that keepeth covenant mercy for them, that love him, and observe his commandments, Let thy 9 here now be attentive in thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant.
Which I pray before thee now day and night for the children of Israel, thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee quote by and my Father's House of sin. We have to own part of it, don't we? That's the spirit that that we should have owning what has declined Christianity. Oh, how sad it is.
Day which we live but we're responsible to.
You want to characterize it will be fatigued to be because we're true leaders will be taken to absolutely for the tribulation. So does the character of the church Plato see it inside. Does that characterize the state of professing the Christian Church that will continue on through the first part of the week. Yes, I believe so it will still have that character because as we know that huge system that is described as the great horror of of of a few chapters further on.
Is really the, uh, result of what is left after every true believer has been called home. But there will still be a huge religious system that will have a great deal, obviously, of influence in the earth. And when she's destroyed, when religious Babylon is destroyed, we find that.
Seriously affects the business and commerce of the world. So I believe that's right, that this state here in Laodicea will find its full blown manifestation after we're called home.
But the character is is here now, and it can be in any one of our hearts.
And in that sense we know that the Lord says here.
In verse 16 I will spew thee out of my mouth. That is that whole system seeking to have a religious character to it and even perhaps attaching the name of Christ will be so nauseous to God.
That he will spew it out of his mouth, but at the same time, let not you and uh, and I take comfort in that and say, well, thank God I'm a true believer. You'll never spew me out of his mouth. That is blessedly true. But at the same time, that character of being neither cold nor hot is nauseous to God, isn't it? We all know what it's like to have a good cold drink on a hot day, And we all know what it's like to have a good.
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Warm cup of coffee.
Before us. But we don't like a drink that's halfway in between. We don't like Luke warm water to drink, at least I don't. And we don't like lukewarm coffee or tea or whatever it might be. And I believe the thought is here that we are to be cold toward evil and hot toward the Lord Jesus and toward what is good, but that lukewarm lackadaisical character that we see developing in the world today.
It can overtake us as believers too, can it?
That's the case that in in Christendom we have so many.
Social ordinance. Nutrition and mental crisis attached to a great deal of diversity. Social Work.
We have to be comfortable with the bottom line. There's, there's nothing really of price in it. It's, uh, philanthropic and so on. And even under a banter of Christianity like that, but there's nothing really on the Lord's interest in you in the whole world enterprise.
MMM.
I'd just like to apply in one way that I've experienced in a way, because inverse umm, as we apply to ourselves in verse 17, it says, I'll say I am rich. The end of verse 17 says when you are four. And then verse 18I counsel these Tobiah being gold tried in the fire. So one of the ways that I've experienced this, and maybe we often experience this is so we get a little bit of knowledge.
The truth and having knowledge of the truth. I don't believe it's the same exact thing as having the truth.
And so we can have a little bit of knowledge of knowledge of the truth and say, I know that this is right and that this is wrong, and therefore I am rich because I know this fact and yet not indeed really have paid a price for it, instead only having knowledge of it. And so the exhortation is to buy the goal, which is trying to inspire. And so I think that is one application of this verse. It's important not to just have knowledge of the truth.
But you also buy the truth to apply it to our lives.
Yes, that's very, very good, Alex. And I believe that's at least for the believer, the thought here that I can have something and we touched on it yesterday, we can have something in our heads, but without the practice of it in our lives and without it being in our hearts. And in that sense we are going to be lifted up in pride because of what we know. The apostle Paul warned about that when he said of any man think that he know of anything.
You know, if nothing yet is, he ought to know. Why? Because true understanding of the truth will humble me, not lift me up in pride. Why? Because the truth.
Ultimately connects me with Christ himself and I can never be proud in the Lord's presence, can I? Paul didn't need a thorn in the flesh when he was up in the 3rd heaven, but when he came back down to earth, he needed it because there was a danger of pride. And so if I'm in the Lord's presence, I don't need anything to keep me humble. I will be humble. And the truth of God properly understood and walked in.
Always has that effect on me, doesn't it?
But the wonderful thing is here, just because our time is nearly gone, there is a remedy for the Laodicean state, isn't there? If we detect that in our souls there is a remedy, the Lord is there knocking at the door. He wants to come in. He wants our company, and he will come in. And it says Sup with.
We will suck with him and he with me.
The Lord wants to be part of our lives down here. He wants to enjoy our company and we can overcome. He says I have overcome.
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We don't have time to develop it but.
When the Lord says I have overcome.
It can scarcely be in the sense of overcoming within the church, because the church had not even been formed when the Lord Jesus was here on earth. All the overcoming in the previous churches is connected with an existing condition, but here the overcoming is connected with the Lord Himself.
And you can look the verses up but.
Two times in the Gospels, the Lord is spoken about as having been an overcomer.
Once when He started on His earthly ministry in the temptations in the wilderness, and there we find that.
The the devil comes, the strongman comes, and the Lord overcomes him.
He he overcame the devil in the temptations in the wilderness.
Then it's mentioned again at the end of his pathway, when he says at the end of the 16th of John in the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world that happened at the cross. And so the overcoming in the lay of the sea and state, if we could put it this way, takes us right back to basics. It takes us right back to the Lord himself, to the basic things of our lives.
He overcame the temptations. How? Simply by quoting Scripture.
He overcame at the cross by going through all that you and I could never go through so that the victory is now won. So I just point that out as perhaps being an encouragement to us because he talks about himself overcoming here and it's in a slightly different way than in the other churches. It's rather very, very basic as to walking before him down here. Independence.
Is that overcoming mistaken the confidence and the yes.
Drop into the world. Yes, Satan tempted the Lord in.
Every way that we are tempted, didn't he? The lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye and the pride of life.
Every temptation the Lord answered with Scripture.
And the tribulation in the world. The Lord has overcome the world.
As we say #4 in the attendance is the decision who fought the fight alone, triumphant, sinks no fire, and was their own #4 in the back of the book.
Tennessee it towards me.
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For 168.
168.
The night is far spent and the day is left hand.
You'll die to heal or the stars in the sky.
Rejoice learning pranksters. Your Lords don't come.
Rejoice, Lord, God's reign of Jesus.
Christ night for the day will life be when the Savior appears.
A welcome pillow to have ever give you a strong.
A crowded for us devils, devils, devil that will be there.
There's so much our affection to the Lord. Our cold are your slides now when we had questions?
So much today of course all the way to.
The heart.
OK, no worries.
Our Holy Lady's eyes like that.
RER Square on Mars holiday good.