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Yeah.
Lord, that our love, thy name is so famous, with so much our affections to move.
And all this might kill us with grief, with shame so much.
And so little so.
Forward, my Lord.
Our practices to grow all of your wool grushes for my feelings for God. We have great grounds when I understand.
2nd Book of Samuel.
And the.
16th chapter.
Second Samuel 16.
And verse 5.
When King David came to the Hiram, behold thence came out a man of the family of the House of Saul, whose name was Shimiyai, the son of Gira. He came forth and cursed still as he came, and he cast stones at David.
And at all the servants of King David.
And all the people and all the mighty men on his right hand.
And on his left, now down in verse.
13.
And as David and his men went by the way shimmy, I went along on the hillside over against him, and cursed as he went, and threw stones at him and cast dust.
And the king and all the people that were with him came weary and refreshed themselves there now a little further in Second Samuel.
And the 17th chapter.
And we'll look at.
27.
And it came to pass, when David was come to Manhattan, that Shelby, the son of Nehash of Rabba, of the children of Ammon, and Maker, the son of Amiel of Lotibar in Brazil. AI, the Gileadite of Rogelium, brought beds and basins and earthen vessels and wheat and barley and flour and parched corn and beans and lentils, and parched pulse and honey and butter and sheep and cheese of kind.
For David.
And for the people that were with him to eat. For they said the people is hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness.
One last passage well known Luke 24.
Luke 24.
Just reading one verse. Luke 24 verse 32.
And they said, one to another, did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us, by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? Let's pray, brother, our blessed God and our loving Father. We have been reminded even this morning of this beautiful day and this happy occasion.
That we surely are in a wilderness.
A wilderness of suffering and difficulty and trial.
A wilderness Lord Jesus, where thou art his be the Lord's mind that we consider the last two assemblies. Revelation 3.
Of Philadelphia and Laodicea have those two assemblies before us with the.
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Saw in my heart that.
They may not be identified outwardly, at least with.
What? The Spirit of God.
Depicts in Philadelphia but.
Thinking of the last assembly, Laodicea is that which.
In a certain way, overcomes and marks the Saints at the close, so that.
The exercises of what's found in Laodicea might be identified by each one of us, that there might be repentance and.
Restoration where it's needed to a condition that seemed to have the spirit of God's approval in Philadelphia.
But I I just in fear, even suggest that possibility.
What we first start with verse 6, verse seven, chapter 3.
Revelation Chapter 3.
Verse six. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches to the Angel of the church in Philadelphia. Right. These things say, if he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openness, and no man shut it, and shut us, and no man open it. I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. So thou has the little strength, and has not, and has kept my word, and has not denied my name.
Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not. But do I. Behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee, because thou has kept the word of my patience. I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly. Hold that fast. 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 out no more. And I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God. And I will write upon him my new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches, and unto the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans. Right these things say at the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.
I know thy works, that thou art neither hot or not, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would if 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 I'll say, as I'm rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and know it's not that thou art wretched and miserable, and poor and blind and naked, I counsel thee 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 did not appear, and anoint thine eyes with thyself, that thou mayest see as many as I love, I refuse to chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock. If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come into him, and will suck with him, and be with me To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne.
Even as I also overcame and have sat down with my father in his throne, either half an ear, let him hear what the Spirit say it onto the churches.
On the introduction of this portion dealing with the seven churches.
The spirit of God through John speaks about the mystery of the seven stars and the seven candlesticks and says that it's a mystery. And so that shows us that there.
There's something before the Lord other than the actual existence of seven churches in Asia at that time.
And I would like it if we could consider them not so much as something positional that you could point to and stand in this or that, but rather the state of soul that they depict. So once we do that and look at them at as states of soul, I I think we would all acknowledge that.
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There's plenty to exercise our hearts as to.
That which would be pleasing to the Lord in each one of us.
There are only two of the seven churches that the Lord finds no fault with, and they are the second from the beginning and the second from the end. Smyrna and Philadelphia.
It's interesting that in both of those churches, there's a group that's mentioned, those that say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. They're mentioned in both of those assemblies as being the work of the enemy to nullify and take away the distinctive truth that at the beginning, Smyrna at the beginning was to take away.
The.
Truth at the beginning of the history of the church in Philadelphia. To take away the recovered truth. Actually, I'm speaking to a company of people here that no more truth than the church has ever known, ever known, including the 1St century. Not more than the Apostle Paul knew. No, but the church.
Has never known the extent, the fullness of the recovered truth from the last century that you and I are the spirit you and I are the spiritual heirs of. So he has committed to us the the highest and the most blessed truth. Philadelphia represents a remnant in the midst of.
Of the church, which is represented by Thyatira, the Romi system and Sardis, the Protestant system. And Philadelphia is something that is really a spiritual and a moral state of things that you have in Philadelphia. And the same thing is true of Laodicea. You can't point to a section of crystal and say that's that's what answers to Laodicea.
There's.
There's the laodicean tendency in each one of us, and there's a trust, the Philadelphian tendency, in each one of us. And what we want to do, I think. I think that's the burden of your heart, Henry, is that we want to see is what are the moral characteristics of Philadelphia? And what are the moral characteristics of Laodicea. We want to emulate the moral characteristics of Philadelphia, and we want to judge.
The moral characteristics of Laodicea? They are hateful to Christ. Laodicea. He has nothing good to say about Laodicea. He has nothing bad to say about Philadelphia.
You're calling our attention to the Synagogue of Satan.
Could that suggest to us turning?
The work of the Spirit of God.
In reality, into an outward form that takes then the character of Judaism, which dealt with simply outward forms and.
I think that that it could suggest that that would be the threat of this.
Turning the truth we have into just an outward form and not and it just becomes a lifeless thing rather than a living reality.
Is it true that Philadelphia?
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Brings before us the thought of brotherly love.
The name.
The reason I asked that is the departure of the assembly. It we can go around and even talk with people in the world or with Christians. And when you bring up the name of God, often you get accepted and people will go along with you. It's you'll see that you'll hear that Christians even use that. Well, I think that's the God's will. And you know that the Muslim will go along with you. They won't say anything. Now bring up the name of Christ. Bring up the name and be able to dare and say.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, and I'm sure you'll find reproach when you bring the name of Jesus here. Then you'll have the purpose in this heart. What do we have to do? We have to the purpose in our heart when God has given us provisions for that. I like to just.
Liberty to go a little bit further into the second chapter of Daniel.
Daniel was asked to interpret the dream. We won't have time to go through this and I'm sure we all know the story well. Look at what Daniel did. He didn't went to the king and was able to interpret or told the king that he could interpret the dream. Let's go down to second chapter, verse 16. Then Daniel went in the desire of the king that he would give him time and that he would show the king the interpretation. He asked for time. Why does he need time? Let's look at the next verse, see if we can get an answer there. Then Daniel went to his house.
And made the saying known to Ananiah, Michelle and Azariah, his companions, that they would desire mercies of the God of Heaven concerning this secret, that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise man of Babylon.
Why He needed his brethren, didn't he? He went to his brethren. And he knows you that he needed support from them, but above all they needed wisdom from the God of heaven, the God that he trusted, the God that he knows that they will be delivered from all this. So look at Daniel circumstances when you whenever you are in difficulties and think the Lord did not put us here, Try to separate us from the rest of the world. Try to isolate us from the rest of the world.
We need to separate ourselves. The purpose of heart, then you couldn't get out of that. And I'd like to turn to one more passage from Jeremiah, the book of Jeremiah This is after.
The 29th chapter.
This is after Daniel already gone captive. Jeremiah is still on the land. This is around 600 BC. Daniel was gone up from six to seven years before that. This is what Jeremiah would have to tell the people that are still remaining in the land.
This is just before the 2nd captivity, Jeremiah, chapter 29. Jeremiah been telling them submit to Nebuchadnezzar. Well, what a terrible thing to think that this barbaric king would come in and they have to submit to him. Not only that, in verse four says thus saith the Lord opposed the God of Israel unto all that I carry away captives who might have carried, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem until Babylon.
Notice here the Lord is the one that put up those circumstances, even though it looks terrible. And we'll read to you. When you read through Jeremiah, you'll hear them crying to the Lord about their circumstances. But these are the circumstances that the Lord allowed to teach them lessons. And here's what Jeremiah from the word of God wanted them to do in the land of Babylon, verse 5. Build ye houses and dwell in them, and plant gardens and eat fruit of them.
Taking your wives, and begets sons and daughters, And take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may hear, that they may bear sons and daughters, that ye may be increased there and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city. Whether I have caused you to be carry away captives, and pray unto the Lord, for in the peace thereof shall he have peace. What a great advice, but how difficult it is to take.
To be subjecting to this barbaric thing and Nebuchadnezzar.
And yet in that land, if they're going to carry on with life, to build houses, to go on, but be a part, to be not part of that land will be apart from it. And the secret here is to them that that they be praying unto the Lord forward. And the Lord has given us a lot of provisions today. He has given us His word, He has given us his spirit. He had to help us. We don't need to worry, in a sense, about what's around us. We need to look forward as the verse we had before us this morning.
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Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, think of that proof of the joy that was set before him and due of the grass, despising the shame. And we have him today to help him guide us along.
Most experiences of Daniel, it's parallel to what we have in verse eight of our portion. I have set before the an open door. The word point was made before, I think by our brother Henry that the Lord never gives us something to do unless it is achievable by us. He doesn't give us ideals that are beyond our powers or beyond his powers.
And so here it's indicated by the 1St or by the saying. I've said before thee an open door, and Daniel made use of that open door, didn't he?
The downfall and failure of the Protestant Reformation was for the leaders to seek protection from the tyranny of Rome, Thyatira, by going to the civil leaders of the countries in which they lived. And those, those civil leaders, they were pretty much fed up with the oppression of Rome, so some of them gave them protection.
But the Philadelphia doesn't do that.
The Lord presents himself to Philadelphia, he that hath the key of David.
He that openeth, and no man shutteth and shutteth, and no man openeth Philadelphia, and relies upon the Lord.
To open the door and to close when he sees fit, but not going to the arm of the flesh to protect them. Philadelphia is one that was like his master, like his Lord, holy and true. And he also relied upon the Lord himself to open the door for the precious truths that were to be brought out. The key of David, David had amassed a great wealth for the building of the temple. He wasn't allowed to build the temple, but he.
He prepared for it.
And.
The time came in the history of the Church when the the key was to be used to open the door, to bring out those precious truths. And that was in the last century, and we're the spiritual heirs of this.
But it was the Lord that did it.
It wasn't Darby or Kelly or Macintosh or any of these earthly names. It was the Spirit of God using them, yes, but it was the Spirit of God that did it. It's a movement of the Spirit of God, and the Lord was the one that brought these truths out.
And the Philadelphia is the one that relies on him instead of going to man for protection against the enemy. That's quite a lesson to learn, isn't it, For all of us.
Part of verse 7, which really relates to what you say, Chuck.
He that is holy, we commented on. He that is true, we have.
An absolute standard of truth. And today in the world we are passing through and brethren, I think we need to admit that we are affected by it, not try to deny that we're not, but to recognize it so that we can judge ourselves. But truth and what is false is mixed together constantly, so much so. And I see OFT times younger ones, sometimes older ones too.
That don't seem to distinguish any longer between what's true and what's false, and when you let go of an absolute standard in relativism that infects our society that we're living in today.
It's the result that we don't distinguish. And if somebody says, well, what about this scripture is, oh, that's just your idea. That's not really what I think at all.
But, brethren, there is an absolute standard. How wonderful. How settling to the soul to realize that we do have a standard, and we as brethren, are not the standard.
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Were exercised to be looking to the standard. The Lord Jesus is the one who is the truth. His precious word is the truth. The assembly is to be the pillar and ground of the truth. That is what upholds it. That's what God's thought is for the assembly. But the truth is not the assembly. The truth is the glorious person of the Lord Jesus.
And oh, to have him livingly before the soul. You won't get truth in its absolute sense in any other sector, but there in his glorious person, he that is true. Isn't that wonderful to have before our souls? And even though in schools you're going to have people teach you relativism and that one person's idea is the same as another, remember?
There is a an absolute standard and you can count on God to be true. Completely true.
Scriptures about the key of David in Isaiah. I'd like to just read them and comment briefly on them. I I believe it connects beautifully with our chapter where it's quoted in Isaiah 22.
Let's just read those verses.
Verse 20.
And it shall come to pass in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle. And I will commit thy government into his hand, and he shall be a father.
To the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the House of Judah, and the key of the House of David will I lay upon his shoulder.
So he shall open and none shall shut. He shall shut and none shall open.
And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place, and he shall be for a glorious throne to his Father's house.
Wonderful to think about this key of David. David was the one who had the desire.
To prepare for the temple. To bring the ark of the Lord up to Jerusalem and have a center where God could be with his people there. But he didn't do that. He only prepared. He was told he couldn't build the house. His son was to do it. Well, Solomon did it in picture, but only in picture. The Lord is the real true son who was going to build. He's the one that has the key that's going to do it.
And so this promise here in Isaiah is given as a prophecy of a future time after the captivity, after the time of breaking up of Israel. And this promise is given the the key of the House of David. And I believe that relates then to our New Testament equally that after the failure of Christendom came in and it's all broken up just like the same history of Israel.
The key of David is promised. What is that? It's the fact that the Lord is over all and will and can is able to gather a people to himself according to his mind. If we give him his place, he will do that. He will direct, He will open, He will direct as to that, and he's also will close. He will tell who not to receive and so on. It's the Lord's authority that's owned here.
That the Lord gives as a recognition of what He approves of, instead of thinking about ourselves like Laodicea, where they talk about what their their state of condition is, whether they're rich, and so on.
Philadelphia owns the Lord and his authority. The key there is with the Lord. And so the saying that go to the Church of your choice is a direct denial of this, the principle of this he of David.
He is the one that has the key, the right, and is able and kin open and close.
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I would like to build on that to grow the Doug in connection with what our brother Chuck has brought before us. Because prior to those verses that we've had brought before us in Isaiah, it speaks about Israel or Judah, particularly their effort to preserve that. We can call it because Scripture calls it that.
The gathering center Jerusalem.
By their own wisdom and in verse 8 of Isaiah 22.
He discovered the covering of Judah, and without its looking that day to the armor of the House of the forest, you have seen also the breaches of the city of David, that they are many. And he gathered together the waters of the lower pool. And then we see an account of their activity to preserve Jerusalem, and it all came to nod, and it was carried away. Later we meet.
But then if we connect out with what our brother Chuck brought about the activity and Sardis, the truth of the church was never recovered. And what I would like us to learn from this is that we may see breaches today in the gathering and we look to our own wisdom. How are we going to preserve the assembly? We're not going to preserve the assembly. We need to look as Brother Dog brought before us.
To he who is in the midst because it is He who has the keys of David and oh, just to turn to him and count upon him. And it would connect itself with keeping His word and looking to the word of God for direction from Himself that this privilege place that we've been brought into, it's an administrative place that most believers do not enjoy.
That it might be preserved to us. It's not going to be preserved to us.
In our wisdom.
#22 in the appendix.
Thank you.